Month: June 2006

What’s Jeb Raising $1.9 Million For?

Trish

Jeb Bush isn’t saying what he plans to use the $1.9 million he’s amassed in a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization. The Foundation for Florida’s Future web site is decorated with apples and glowing headlines about how great the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Acheivement Test) is, so we would assume it has something to do with education. Not necessarily. The Palm Beach Post says the fund it can be whatever Jeb wants it to be.

Despite its vague goals, Bush faithful — those who have been well rewarded for loyalty by various Bush family members — continue to give generously

Bush has since been coy about what the foundation will fund.

“No plans yet,” he said last week.

Despite its vague goals, Bush faithful — those who have been well rewarded for loyalty by various Bush family members — continue to give generously to the fund.

…donors, including a host of developers and construction industry-related magnates from around the state, say they don’t care how he spends it.

…Jacksonville engineer Richard Blankenship, who served Bush’s brother, President George W. Bush, as ambassador to the Bahamas for two years, said he has given the foundation at least $185,000 over its lifetime.

… The top donation, $500,000, was given by Tampa-based Cast-Crete Corp., which makes building materials and is headed by conservative activist Ralph Hughes.

The Geo Group, a Boca Raton-based company that runs private prisons, donated $100,000. Its major shareholder is George Zoley, a Florida Atlantic University graduate Bush appointed to the university’s board of trustees.

Of all the headlines on the FFF web site about the FCAT, there were no links to the most recent story, about how the people employed by a private company to grade the test are not educators but instead, pizza delivery drivers and movie theater popcorn technicians. Read on for more.

Privatization: Florida Tests Graded by Pizza Delivery Drivers

Trish

The Florida test that determines whether students graduate, how much schools are funded, and even property values are being graded by pizza delivery drivers.

Democratic state senators are calling for state government to take over grading of the all-powerful Florida Comprehensive Acheivement Test. Until recent revelations that the people hired by CTB/McGraw-Hill under a three-year, $86.5 million contract were unqualified, most Floridians assumed the test was already in state hands.

…their only other work experience was in non-education jobs including hair styling, pizza delivery, store clerk, janitor and popping corn at a movie theater

A review of 2,947 employment files showed 1,845, or 64 percent, lacked degrees or teaching experience in subjects they were grading on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as required by the contract, said Sens. Les Miller and Walter “Skip” Campbell.

For some of the FCAT graders, their only other work experience was in non-education jobs including hair styling, pizza delivery, store clerk, janitor and popping corn at a movie theater.

The two are also calling for the resignation of the current Education Commissioner, John Winn. The last education head was forced to resign after news that many of the private schools receiving vouchers under Jeb’s pet plan — later ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court — were actually storefronts and post office boxes, or in at least one case, terrorist-affiliated.

Winn said he would resign only if the State Board of Education asks him to. The board, appointed by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, hired Winn, a former Bush staffer.

Winn himself is unconcerned about the graders’ diverse backgrounds.

Winn acknowledged some graders failed to meet the specialization criteria to score written responses to reading, writing and math questions. All have at least a bachelor’s degree as required but no checks are made to verify those credentials, he said…

“It’s not the work experience that matters,” he said. “There’s no data that shows us that teachers perform any better than people with other backgrounds.”

And if there were, you’d just ignore it anyway.

Snow Report: Tony Confuses African American Congresswomen, Calls Iraq Death Toll Just ‘a Number’

Jon Ponder

While I was off the grid traveling on the East Coast last week, the White House Press Secretary Tony Snow made (at least) two gaffes:

1. They all look alike:

It turns out Capitol police officers aren’t the only ones who need a face book to recognize members of Congress. White House press secretary Tony Snow last week apologized from the lectern for misidentifying Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) as Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.).

McKinney, of course, is the legislator accused of accosting a Capitol police officer after he stopped her when she tried to bypass a security checkpoint. The officer said he didn’t recognize her as a member and that she was not wearing her member’s pin. Jackson Lee, however, was the congresswoman at a meeting with the president talking about Iraq on June 7, not McKinney as Snow said the next day.

2. From Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: Snow says military death toll is just a number:

In the Senate yesterday, we had a moment of silence because we lost our 2,500th troop in Iraq. It was a solemn milestone which we observed in this Chamber.

Over at the White House, I guess they have a different feeling. In all the news around the country today, there’s a quote from Tony Snow, the President’s Press Secretary, who said in response to the news, “it’s a number.”

“It’s a number.”

I say to the White House, it’s more than a number. It’s somebody’s son or daughter, someone’s father or mother, a neighbor, an uncle, or an aunt.

Kos Vs. MoDo: She’s ‘an Insecure, Catty Bitch’

Jon Ponder
Moulitsas forgot rule number one of PR 101: Never complain about your coverage.

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos, seems like a savvy fellow, so it is surprising he lost his cool last week after Maureen Dowd was a bit snarky in her column about the first-ever YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas, which she attended.

About being interviewed by Dowd, Moulitsas said to another blogger, “Maureen Dowd is an insecure, catty bitch.”

Waiting at Dulles yesterday for my flight back to Los Angeles after 10 days of fun and business on the East Coast, I heard Moulitsas tell Howie Kurtz on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” that he regretted the “bitch” part.

But what exactly was it that MoDo wrote that Kos didn’t like?

You’ll find the full text of the column here, and a representative excerpt here:

[…]

First Katherine Harris Bumpersticker Sighting: Repent, the End Must Be Near

Trish

Slowed down and rode alongside, trying to see what a genuine Katherine Harris supporter looks like. She was driving a new, foreign minivan. She was a slim 54 or so but she didn’t look like she’d had, or was currently having, much fun in her life. Straight blond bowl cut, no makeup, Sally Jesse Raphael glasses. Looked like a nurse or maybe a nun out of uniform because her top resembled a hospital scrub. Older man was in the passenger seat, but beyond the fact that he was bald and white, I couldn’t really see him.

I need to find a Bill Nelson bumpersticker to paste on my PT Cruiser. Too bad I traded the Volvo…

Berg: Revenge Breeds Revenge

Buck Banks

Good question: Remember Nicholas Berg? He was the American contractor kidnapped and beheaded on camera, ostensibly by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien interviewed his father after Zarqawi was assassinated. It’s an interesting interview:

O’BRIEN: There’s a theory that as they try to form some kind of government, that it’s going to be brutal, it’s going to be bloody, there’s going to be loss, and that’s the history of many countries — and that’s just what a lot of people pay for what they believe will be better than what they had under Saddam Hussein.

BERG: Well, you know, I’m not saying Saddam Hussein was a good man, but he’s no worse than George Bush. Saddam Hussein didn’t pull the trigger, didn’t commit the rapes. Neither did George Bush. But both men are responsible for them under their reigns of terror.

I don’t buy that. Iraq did not have al Qaeda in it. Al Qaeda supposedly killed my son.

Under Saddam Hussein, no al Qaeda. Under George Bush, al Qaeda.

Under Saddam Hussein, relative stability. Under George Bush, instability.

Under Saddam Hussein, about 30,000 deaths a year. Under George Bush, about 60,000 deaths a year. I don’t get it. Why is it better to have George Bush the king of Iraq rather than Saddam Hussein?

Read the whole interview here.

Thanks to AK for the tip.

J’Ville Church ‘Outs’ Gay-Marriage Haters

Buck Banks

Naming names: Christ Church of Peace, a nondenominational church in Jacksonville, Fla., has published on the Internet the names of 400,000 Floridians in 60 counties who signed a petition supporting a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. While publishing the names violates no privacy law, wingnut supporters of the amendment are predictably crying foul, according to the Miami Herald.

”It’s a gross invasion of people’s privacy,” said John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, an offshoot of James Dobson’s national Christian conservative group Focus on the Family.

‘It’s time for another voice that is Christian to be heard.’
– Gary Debusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace

Stemberger argued that, if Christian conservatives published the names and addresses of gay-rights activists, they would likely be condemned as hatemongers. ”A lot of people would be outraged and say it’s a hateful, un-Christian gesture,” he said.

Yes, John, it would be a hateful, un-Christian thing to do, much like the hateful, un-Christian act of signing a petition in support of a repressive, discriminatory constitutional amendment.

Gary Debusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace, said the church began the ”Know Thy Neighbor” effort Monday to encourage dialogue and prevent voter-signature fraud. As the head of a congregation that supports same-sex marriage, Debusk said he also wanted to add a new perspective to a debate that he said has been dominated largely by religious conservatives. ”It’s time for another voice that is Christian to be heard,” he said.

The website, knowthy neighbor.org/florida, is linked to the church’s home page and contains a searchable database of names. The names on such petitions are part of the public record, according to the Florida Department of State.

I went on the site and searched for my last name, and out of four pages of names found that neither my mother nor my siblings had signed up. Checking under my mother’s maiden name, however, revealed an aunt in the town where I was born who did sign the petition. A page of folks with the same last name as Editor Trish who might or might not be related to her also signed up.

Are you a Floridian? Have relatives who live in Florida? Want to find out if they are intolerant, would-be discriminators and hatemongers? Go to the site at http://www.knowthyneighbor.org/florida/ and look them up. And then let us know what you discover.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of today.

— Party declaration of the Progressive Party of America, 1924

We’re Banning Books in Miami

Buck Banks

Bonfire of the inanities: Vamos a Cuba and its English-language counterpart, Visit to Cuba, have been ripped from the shelves of 33 Miami-Dade County schools following a bitter and seemingly endless and really stupid debate. Oh, and the other 24 books in the same series, which deal with different countries, have also been slated for the bonfire.

Cuba is an island with many beachs and a despotic, tyrannical madman running a repressive military dictatorship.

As a reasonable person, you are probably asking why a seemingly inocuous book aimed at teaching kindergartners to read would engender the kind of rhetorical firestorm that has engulfed Miami lo, these past several months. Because it said things like, “Cuba is an island with many beaches. Cuba also has tall mountains.” Instead, opponents of the books maintain they should have said, “Cuba is an island with many beachs and a despotic, tyrannical madman running a repressive military dictatorship. Cuba also has tall mountains and a despotic, tyrannical madman running a repressive military dictatorship.”

Screw the First Amendment that guarantees that whether a book is accurate or not, it still should be allowed to be on library shelves. (Even James Frey’s fake autobio, A Million Little Pieces, should be available for fools to buy and read.) Screw the fact that these books are not intended to be as comprehensive as the CIA Worldbook, providing 5-year-olds with a comprehensive perspective on a nation’s socio-poltical-economic profile.

In the end, frustrated school board members who opposed removing the books voted for the ban just to get it off the docket and into the hands of the ACLU, which has promised a vigorous — and expensive — lawsuit over this clear violation of the Constitution.

Miami is a city with many beaches and a despotic, tyrannical citizenry running a repressive society where dissent and alternate opinions are not tolerated.