THE DEAN OF RACE-BAITING: “Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic National Committee, says Republicans are race-baiting when they bring up Sen. Barack Obama’s long-time pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.” - CNS News, 5/5/08
“The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library will not make available to the public the documents that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger illegally took from the National Archives in 2003. The library said the documents contain ‘confidential communications requesting or submitting advice between the president and his advisors…’”
- CNS News, 5/5/08
BUNGLED AND DISTASTEFUL
“(O)ver the course of Bill Clinton’s (bungled, distasteful) presidency and Hillary Clinton’s (bungled, distasteful) campaign for the presidency, the couple have separately and together become incarnations of the most unattractive attributes of their generation’s elite — blind ambition cloaked in do-good self-righteousness, a sense of entitlement, high-handed snobbiness, hedonism, narcissism. As a poster couple for people of a certain age and demographic, they have become a bit of an embarrassment.”
- Novelist Kurt Andersen in the current issue of New York magazine (Hat tip to Political Diary)
HOW WONDERFUL
“Federal, state and local governments are hiring new workers at the fastest pace in six years, helping offset job losses in the private sector. Governments added 76,800 jobs in the first three months of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. That’s the biggest jump in first-quarter hiring since a boom in 2002 that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. By contrast, private companies collectively shed 286,000 workers in the first three months of 2008.”
- USA Today, 4/30/08
HERE’S A SHOCKER
“The Education Department says (President Bush’s $6 billion Reading First program) doesn’t work any better than approaches already in place. . . . The program is at the heart of Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind…”
- Associated Press, 5/2/08
AS TOUGH AS JELLYFISH
“Operating outside public view, the House Democratic majority is taking extraordinary steps to maintain spending as usual while awaiting a Democrat as president. Remarkably, the supine House Republican minority hardly resists and even collaborates with its supposed adversaries. Pelosi in 16 months has established herself as one of the most powerful speakers ever. The stunning aspect of Czar Nancy’s rule is the degree of Republican acquiescence. Neither losing their House majority in 2006 after 12 years nor facing more serious losses in 2008 has toughened the Republicans.”
- Columnist Robert Novak
CPS OUT OF CONTROL
“Christopher Ratte, professor in the department of classics at the University of Michigan, was recently turned into a jailbird and had his son taken away from him, all in the name of protecting the child from the father. He had taken his 7-year-old son to a baseball game in Detroit and ordered him lemonade. What was served up was a ‘Mike’s Hard Lemonade,’ which his son prepared to drink. Suddenly security arrived.
” ‘You know this is an alcoholic beverage?’ the security guard asked. ‘You have got to be kidding,’ responded the professor. And before the professor could examine the bottle, the guard snatched it away, and the boy was taken to the hospital where no traces of alcohol were found in him. The boy was then promptly put in foster care. It was two days before the mother, a professor of architecture, was allowed to take him home, and a full week before the father was allowed to come back into the home again.
“The case provides a remarkable look at the workings of bureaucracy. The Detroit Free Press interviewed all the people involved. It turns out that no one was happy about what happened, but the gears of the bureaucracy ground away, ruining peoples’ lives for no good reason.
“The cop on duty thought it was a mistake, but his supervisor was insisting that he act. When Child Protective Services came to take the child away into their cruel foster care, the police objected. But CPS was just doing its duty. It had no choice but to take the child since the police had requested a court order – also triggered by events – to remove the child.
“Observers who know the system say that the only surprising aspect to this case is that child was returned so quickly. Had the couple been poor, uneducated, and unconnected, the case might still be tied up in the courts.
“The lesson many people draw from this is that social workers are being given too much authority, that governments need to be reformed so that they do not take extreme measures too hastily, that cops need to use good sense before busting up families, etc. The problem is that all of these reforms ultimately depend on the state to use its discretionary power judiciously.”
- Columnist Lew Rockwell
POLYGA-KIDS WELFARE
This situation with the kids being ripped from their mothers at that polygamist compound in Texas is a touchy issue. Naturally, nobody wants to see children hurt. However, after the decision to take the kids away from their mothers and turn them over to child welfare agents, many folks wondered why they were taking the boys if it was the girls who allegedly were in danger of being forced into underaged sex.
Suddenly, after several days of this question being put forth in the court of public opinion, lo and behold, the child welfare authorities announced yesterday that young boys may have been sexually abused, as well. Do you believe in coincidences?
As someone who has had a dust-up with child welfare agents and the bureaucracy, call me skeptical. No way I’d ever accept as gospel any word coming from a CPS official’s mouth on anything. This smells awful fishy.
THE UNION LABEL
Accusations are flying thick as bats in the night sky between the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and their affiliated union, the United HealthCare Workers-West (UHW-W-W), over claims made by the SEIU that the UHW-W misappropriated $6 million in member’s dues money. Read all about it HERE on The Union Label.
And or another perfect example of why teachers unions are antithetical to the welfare of the kids AND the budget of the state, we have a union which has forced the state of New York to spend $81 million dollars to pay teachers NOT to teach! Read all about it HERE on The Union Label.
Posted on May 5th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
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