I wonder if it is Dean or the Obamadhi? As weird as Hillary is, she is too normal to be in this news event.

Purported UFO video to be shown Friday

A video that purportedly shows a living, breathing space alien will be shown to the news media Friday in Denver. [snip]

In a statement, Peckman said “other related credible evidence” proving aliens exist will be shown at Friday’s news conference, too.

In 2003, Peckman authored an off-beat ballot initiative that would have required the city to implement stress-reduction techniques. The “Safety Through Peace” initiative failed, but garnered 32 percent of the vote.

Then there is this in the news:

Feds bust owners of Calif. medical marijuana shops

[snip]
Virgil Grant III, 41, and his wife, Psytra Grant, 33, were arrested Tuesday and appeared in court but neither entered pleas, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office. [snip]

There probably is a connection and none to subtle either.

Code Pink casts spells. That’s “spells”, not “smells”.

Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up (sic?) the number of its supporters protesting a controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, California.

The women’s anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for “witches, crones and sirens” day, the last of the group’s weeklong homage to Mothers Day.

Sirens? You mean like “temptingly beautiful woman”, “insidiously seductive woman”, “a woman who sings with bewitching sweetness”? Driven by hormonal curiosity, I went back to THIS, and found nary a siren in the bunch. No eyes of newt, toe of badger, or fuming cauldrons either, but lots of unused potential.

The White House has revealed that North Korea was assisting the Syrians with their (now) destroyed nuclear reactor.  Details on this story are available anywhere you look.

We now have some information about the American agent in Syria who discovered the program.  She posed as a Syrian crone on this dangerous intelligence-gathering mission to one of the world’s hot spots. 

Her name can’t be revealed, but we’re told she’s from California.  Thanks from a grateful nation to this lady. 

Has it occurred to you that any American citizen wishing employment needs to produce more paper than can be culled from a hectare of Canadian woods. That’s for cleaning toilets to working in a bank. Speaking of banks, try opening an account with just your Social Security card, not going to happen. You need to prove beyond unreasonable doubt of your bona fides.

If arrested for a criminal act or even a DUI, you’ll be questioned and charged with no delay. Bring money, you’ll need an armored car full.

However, to avoid these roadblocks, merely claim you are an illegal.

Do you have a criminal background? Not a problem, since the Liberals won’t ask and forbid local powers from inquiring. Consider driver’s licenses an inconvenience, since purchasing insurance isn’t on the vehicle operating agenda. Taxes are impedimenta to our appreciating our beer. Illegals treasure their Corona with abandon then motor off to relish a night on the town. Don’t worry about that DUI, CA wants to make it illegal to notify ICE if they believe deportation would occur.

Some of the more adventurous may even engage in a spot of rape. Oh to live la dolce vita with such lack of inhibition.

We know where Clinton and Obama stand on this problem, offer amnesty. McCain has been quiet, he does have an ardent open border believer running his candidacy, Juan Hernandez. Where does this bring us to in November?

Mr. Lopez is the male, California version of an “override” mom. They can never get enough of your money to provide subsidized private school quality educations for their children. And when the hard times come for everyone, they’re quick to explain why that’s your problem and not theirs.

However, there are a few interesting things to note here:

I was sitting with Jeff Kelly, who moved into a costly fixer-upper last year just to be in the Ivanhoe neighborhood so he could avoid the cost of private school. He said he’ll pony up too, although on principle he’s conflicted.

Bet your last dollar that Jeff wouldn’t be “conflicted” about passing those costs onto his neighbors. “Override” moms myopically focus on their needs and never consider that other people are struggling to make ends meet too.

At nearby Micheltorena Street School, where more than 90% of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, the principal told me that of course she can’t match that kind of parental support. She’s hoping that given the greater needs of her students, she’ll be spared harsh cuts. But like other principals, she doesn’t yet know how bad the news will be.

If we replaced the teachers at Micheltorena with PhD educated, highly committed faculty, do you think the educational outcomes would skyrocket? I’d argue no. They’re missing a key element that’s staring Mr. Lopez in the face—parental involvement. You can have the best teachers, facilities, athletics, etc, but it’ll go for not if parents abdicate their educational responsibilities.

Mr. Lopez’s active engagement is a huge difference maker in the quality of his child’s education. It isn’t strictly about squeezing more nickels out of his neighbors.

From under rocks and the backs of dank caves comes this crowd, like the living dead, all moaning:

Don’t settle for chump change: vote socialist!

Don’t be seduced by the hype. You can proudly resist the manipulations of the fat cats by voting for a bonafide socialist candidate. This beats voting for the lesser of two evils or “none of the above,” because you choose a real alternative. [snip]

The candidates of socialist parties call for ending the war now, full reproductive rights for women, pensions and healthcare for all, rights for peoples of color and immigrants and shifting the economic burden to the rich. [snip]

The only intricacy with this scenario is getting the rich to go along.
The amputation of the opulence from prior owners produces this quandary, who holds the appropriated hoard for the people? How does beneficent leaders solve this problem? Perhaps they become the rich.
Talk about permanent revolution; the peasants can perpetually rise up to remove the assets from the rich.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), running Gloria La Riva, is advancing some especially worthy demands, including a $15 minimum wage and an end to police brutality. If only PSL, which leads the anti-war group ANSWER, collaborated with others in the movements!

What, where are the free condoms, rubber tire sandals or shovels? How does $15/hour gibe with reducing the holdings of the despised rich? I suspect this needs more thought.
Does the end of police brutality cover those holding opposing views?

The Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) in California also has an anti-capitalist program, although not all of its candidates do. PFP will choose this time’s candidates in August.
Casting a vote for a candidate who is truly independent from the system will let you brag that you took a step fixing this murderous system we live under. Vote socialist in 2008!

Would not living under such a murderous system as ours, cause all the oppressed socialists to flee to a haven such as Cuba or Venezuela? We have no barriers to emigration. There they can live in idyllic life of shared poverty and ownership of a shovel.

California Communists

With businesses and individuals fleeing California for states with lower tax burdens, the senate in Sacramento is taking up a pressing issue: allowing the Communist Party access to the state’s public schools. Sure enough, a Democratic state Senator from Long Beach, Alan Lowenthal, who is a longtime professor of “community psychology” at Cal State Long Beach, has introduced a bill to allow Communist groups to use space in the schools and to allow Communists to teach in the schools.

As originally framed, the bill would have even removed the section of the California Education Code that states, “No teacher giving instruction in any school, or on any property belonging to any agencies included in the public school system, shall advocate or teach communism with the intent to indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism.” [snip]

The land of Nuts and Fruits upholds it’s name. Where is that big quake that will make Nevada a coastal state?

I wonder if Vermont teachers went to NY to help? The scores look like they did. After one gets by the dazzling footwork in Vermont, the scores are very close to one another.

Understand, the teachers of today went through the same educational system. This goes far to explain the problems in and with our schools.

Writing Mastery Eludes Majority In Eighth Grade

Three-quarters of eighth-graders in New York City’s public schools cannot write proficiently, a problem demonstrated by more than two-thirds of students statewide, according to results from a federally administered test released yesterday.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, found that 55% of city eighth-graders scored at the basic level, meaning they had a partial mastery of skills, and 20% scored below basic. The national average was 57% scoring at basic and 13% scoring below. The New York State scores represent no significant progress since the last time the test was administered, in 2002. Nationally, eighth-graders made modest but significant gains, with the average score rising three points since 2002, though the percentage of students scoring proficient, 33%, did not change significantly.

There is no way to record change over time for New York City, because 2007 was the first year the test results were separated out from state scores.

The city’s scores can be compared with other large central cities. By that metric, New York City’s scores were statistically neither better nor worse than the average; they were lower than three cities that topped the average: Charlotte, N.C.; San Diego, Calif., and Austin, Texas.

The director of research at the Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability, Jason Brooks, released a statement comparing the NAEP results to results produced by New York State tests, which last year showed eighth-graders posting large improvements on a reading test, with 42% meeting state standards versus 37% the year before.

Mr. Brooks said the discrepancies prove state exams are “dumbed-down.”

A spokesman for the city Department of Education, David Cantor, pointed out that the writing scores are higher than the levels the city’s eighth-graders posted on national reading and math tests last year. On the 2007 reading exam, 19% of eighth-graders scored proficient, and 16% did so on the math. [snip]

I need an explanation. 42% score proficient in writing; 19% score proficient in reading. How can some one score higher on a writing test that the reading test? How would they know what they wrote?

On the writing test, 19% of New York City eighth-graders were tested with accommodations, the highest percentage of any city included in the study and above the national average, 9%.

Meanwhile, 2% of eighth-graders were excluded from the test, a lower number than several cities, such as Cleveland, where 11% were excluded.

Sample questions from the writing test can be viewed at http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/. One question asked students to write a letter describing what a backpack is.

The education historian Diane Ravitch, who has served on the governing board of NAEP, said, “The conclusion we draw is we have some serious issues having to do with reading, writing, and math by the time kids are in eighth grade.” [snip]

School vouchers are the only answer.

911 motto: When every second count, we’re only minutes away.

Victim Shot While Calling 911″

A California woman was shot to death as she pleaded with emergency dispatchers to come and help her. Her death will not make the network news programs this evening, but this is the latest reminder that we must take responsibility for our own safety and not rely on the police.

Bill Masters, a libertarian and sheriff of a Colorado county tells the residents of his county, “It is your responsibility to protect yourself and your family from criminals. If you rely on the government for protection, you are going to be at least disappointed and at worst injured or killed.”

Gun control puts honest citizens in the position of having to choose between protecting their lives or respecting the law. What kind of government would do such a thing?
More on gun control here and here.

The Second Amendment says the people have the right “to keep and bear arms.” Government officials, however, insist that they can make it a crime to keep and bear arms.
Open the newspaper, turn on the television, or surf the net, and you’ll find people saying the government can solve our problems and make life better.

This is the happy face of government:

Behind the happy face is an institution that is willing to strip of us of our right to self-defense, and, worse, deprive dying patients of life-saving drugs. Who do these politicians and bureaucrats think they are?

For more on the right to life, go here, here, and here (pdf).

Really, is there much more you need from these “conservative” republicans?

Grover Norquist, the California Republican Party, and an open-borders debacle continued

Last June, I noted the mortifying open-borders debacle in the California Republican Party. Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party’s chief operating officer, resigned last summer after the SFChron reported that he had been “ordered deported in 2001,…[snip]

A former California Republican Party official who resigned last year in a controversy over his immigration status had no valid visa or work permit during his high-profile career as a Washington lobbyist for conservative icon Grover Norquist, newly filed court records show.

Is it any wonder conservatives are fed up with party leadership? These people are incompetent, sloppy, arrogant–and they couldn’t care less about following immigration laws.

And this is no coincidence: Republican Party registration is down in California. The party is in turmoil and in debt as it heads into its annual spring convention. Via the SacBee, the California GOP will decide whether to hold to a conservative agenda or turn into a California Democrat Party-lite: [snip]…Records show Republican registration in the state has dropped from 35.6 percent to 33.3 percent since 2004 as more voters seek independent status unaffiliated with any party. Democrats suffered only a 0.2 percent decline over the same period.

Move to the center? Become more like Democrats? Join the global warming fear-mongering crowd? Adopt “centrist” social positions? Marginalize conservatism as “divisive” and “strident?”
Yeah, that’ll boost GOP donations and registrations!

We need to form the Libertarian/Conservative party and pull the plug on the RINO’s and moderates. Start the ball rolling with a (W)right in Romney campaign in the general election.

This will provide one with a positive vote.

Bill would require California’s science curriculum to cover climate change

SOME THINK SCIENCE ISN’T DEFINITIVE ENOUGH TO TEACH

Reading, writing and . . . global warming?

A Silicon Valley lawmaker is gaining momentum with a bill that would require “climate change” to be among the science topics that all California public school students are taught. [snip]

“This is a great idea. I don’t think there’s any reason to talk about politics,” said Christine Bertrand, the group’s executive director. “There’s no argument that there is climate change. The argument is how much is caused by the activities of mankind.”

Bertrand said teachers would have plenty to discuss: rising levels of carbon dioxide, how temperatures are measured globally, and what is known and not known about global warming. [snip]

Not too much to worry about here, schools have a hard time teaching kids to read, much less giving them required science opinion.

Commentary - Melanie Scarborough: Stop throwing tax dollars at well-funded colleges

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - When a friend’s daughter was in town a couple of years ago visiting American University, where she had been accepted as a freshman, I showed the girl — a California native — the sights of Washington, D.C.

As we crossed the National Mall, she asked me what that big building was at the end. I told her it was the Capitol, and she asked, “What’s that?” I explained that was where Congress meets, and she asked, “What’s that?”

The girl was weeks away from graduating from a swank high school, had been accepted into a supposedly competitive university, is the daughter of parents with post-graduate degrees … and she’d never heard of Congress.

I would have assumed she was an anomaly or blamed the California school system if I hadn’t heard similar comments from other young people who attend top-rated high schools in Virginia, such as the daughter of a co-worker who mentioned a classmate visiting Europe — “one of those places that starts with an A.” Amsterdam? Austria? Antwerp? “No,” she said. “I think it was Alcatraz.”
[snip]

So you wonder why they put pictographs on the Mickey D’s cash registers?

When Bush said the illegals were doing jobs Americans won’t do, I thought he meant won’t. He didn’t, he meant CAN’T. There is a large group of Illexicans working fast food. I guess they’re smarter, they know what the pictures mean.

The failure of secondary education means that a college degree is roughly the equivalent of what a high school diploma was a generation ago. Consequently, college instruction is not necessarily higher education; in many cases, it’s remedial, with universities having to teach freshmen basics they should have learned in ninth grade. Employers know that, which is why even the most menial of jobs now requires a college degree — spawning lower-tier state universities that are essentially seat-selling operations.

For example, at Radford University in southwest Virginia, the average SAT score for incoming freshmen is a meager 990. Only 6 percent of students graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class; 28 percent finished in the bottom half.

Yet Virginia taxpayers send about the same amount of money to Radford ($58 million in fiscal 2009) as they send to the College of William and Mary, where the average SAT score is 1350, and 85 percent of students were in the top 10 percent of their class in high school.

The demand for more college seats creates a demand for more financial aid, and Congress blithely complies. Last week, the House passed a measure to spend an additional $20 billion on financial aid to students — the biggest boost since the G.I. bill of 1944. It did so not only without asking whether all the students eligible for financial aid need to be in college, but whether the colleges they will be attending need the additional money. [snip]

This is why we are heading for a recession? When this great waste arrives at the end of the tracks, you will see a train wreck bigger and longer than the Great Depression.

I hope we can hang those responsible.

Need a raise?

The fastest way to increase your income is…work for the government. One may increase their hourly wage on average from $26.00 to $39.50 by this method. Explaining this gap simply requires noting that private employers need to be fiscally honest and keep certifiable books and MUST produce something, anything but mainly a profit. The difference of course is benefits, health care, a great pension and retirement medical programs, all unfunded liabilities, of more than $1 trillion to cover state and local government toilers. More here: Employee Benefit | BLS

From this stalwart student of Marxist economics:

“If there’s a benefit gap, it’s because the private sector is going the wrong way by cutting benefits,” says Paul McKenna, research director of the Oregon Public Employees Union.

… its probably because you are not a government employee. It seems the gap between private and public sector jobs is increasing. According to US Today, the gap is, “rising by an average $1.02 an hour last year and $2.45 an hour over the past three years

Widening Gap:Average hourly wages:

Year Public Private

2007 $39.50 $26.09

2004 $34.72 $23.76

State and local government workers are enjoying major gains in compensation, pushing the value of their average wages and benefits far ahead of private workers, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows. [snip]

A few governments are discussing how to cut costs:

• Rhode Island. Gov. Donald Carcieri, a Republican, wants to limit benefits and increase hours for state workers.
• Ohio. Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, plans to sign legislation next week that will reduce the value of retiree medical benefits for newly hired school employees, excluding teachers. The law would push back early retirement ages for bus drivers, custodians and other school workers.
• California. The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to sue to repeal pension increases granted earlier to sheriff’s deputies.

Vermont. You are confused. The only growth industry in Vermont is local and state government.

TOT–Time On Target, all you arty men know what this is. One massive dust raiser in a small area.

Brady Rankings: More Gun Laws, More Violent Crime

Friday, February 01, 2008

In January, the Brady Campaign released its annual “State Report Cards,” scoring the states according to their gun laws.

Once again, the Brady rankings clearly demonstrate that states that have the most gun control tend to have the most violent crime.

Brady says that a state could get a perfect “100″ if it would: limit the frequency of gun purchases; prohibit private transfers of firearms; require gun show attendees to sign a ledger to be provided to the police; prohibit the sale of firearms that do not engrave a serial number on fired ammunition and require registration such firearms’ purchasers; license and regulate firearm dealers at the state level; prohibit handguns that do not have “smart” gun features; prohibit detachable-magazine semi-automatics and some pump-action rifles and shotguns; allow the arbitrary rejection of Right-to-Carry permit applications; allow local jurisdictions to impose gun control laws more restrictive than the state legislature; and allow the criminal prosecution of people who use firearms in legitimate self-defense. (emphasis mine)

Since most states do not have these kinds of laws — gun control having been rolled back and rejected at the federal, state, and local levels in the last 15-20 years — Brady gave most states “failing” scores. Forty-two states received 28 points or fewer, and only one state received a score higher than 63–California.

But, as usual, Brady’s scores correlate inversely with states’ crime rates. Using crime data published by the FBI for 2006, the most recent year available:

* California, the state that has the most gun control and received Brady’s highest score (79), has violent crime and murder rates that are 14% and 23% higher, respectively, compared to the rest of the country.

* Brady didn’t bother giving a score to Washington, D.C., which has more gun control than California and even higher crime rates.

* Most of the 38 states that Brady gave 20 or fewer points to, have total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates that are below the national rates.

* For states that have total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates that are below the national rates, Brady gave average scores of 19, 19, and 14, respectively.

* For the 10 states with the lowest total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates, Brady gave average scores of 12, 12, and 9, respectively.

Being wrong once is understandable. Being wrong constantly like the Brady Campaign, points to a serious shortage of brain wattage.

Guns on campus?

Published on Saturday, February 02, 2008

A bill passed this week by a House committee would guarantee people the right to carry or possess firearms on the campuses of South Dakota’s public universities.
HB1261 would also prevent schools from expelling students or firing employees for having a gun on campus.

If this saves just one child’s life, it will be worth it.

The Problem With Boys

By Marty Nemko

What changes would you recommend if I told you that African-American children were:

four to eight times as likely to be drugged with Ritalin and other stimulants, which pediatrician Leonard Sax, calls “academic steroids.”

reading much more poorly than are other students.

five times more likely to commit suicide.

two and a half times as likely to drop out of high school.

severely underrepresented in college and even more so among college graduates, thereby locking them out of today’s, let alone tomorrow’s, knowledge economy.

You’d likely invoke such words as “institutional racism” to justify major efforts to improve African-Americans’ numbers.

All of the above statements are true except for one thing: I’m not talking about African-American children. I’m talking about children of all races, indeed half of all children, half of our next generation: boys. [snip]

See if this article gives you the warm fuzzies.
It should make you put a Katuscha right into an editor’s bunghole and teachers’ lounge.

Nemko is co-president of the National Organization for Men: www.orgformen.org. He holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of California, Berkeley and subsquently taught in Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He is also a Contributing Editor at U.S. News & World Report.