The war is on.  Attention U.S. Congressmen/women.  Your days in power are numbered.  Obama and Pelosi may have promised you their blessings, and promised to send some of the Blackmail Monies in the guise of Stimulus Spending to your districts, but when your districts Vote You Out of Office, which is what is going to happen, those same stimulus monies and pork will be rescinded when we elect fiscal conservatives.

Bankrupting the United States simply to Gain Political Power and to use the Treasury as your Personal Slush Fund is treason, and your treason will not be forgotten.

Evidently, you liberal clowns who support this, are in the deadbeat category and could care less what something costs because you do not work and pay for anything to begin with and have no concept of economics. That is the Welfare and Entitlement mentality that has been nurtured and instilled since the days of LBJ.

But, for those of you who actually work, pay taxes and pay your own way, do you want to continue to see your taxes raised by Liberal Democrats Who Raise Your Taxes in order to Buy More Voting Blocs of Deadbeats.  The National Welfare State system does not work.  Have you all forgotten that the Soviet Union had This Exact Same Model, and they finally Collapsed under the Strain of Financial Ruination.

Utopia only exists in the Minds of Delusional Fools.  Obama, Pelosi, Reid and these other Limo Liberals are nothing more than power hungry fascists who will do and say anything to gain personal power. Well, their personal power from this day forward will be Rapidly Declining. This Death Care Bill is the Final Act of Traitors. And, True Patriots do not take Treason Lightly.  Every Liberal Politician of either party, be on notice. You will be Voted Out Of Power in Every Upcoming Election, except maybe in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York City, and other Hotbeds of Socialism and Corruption, but the Vast Majority of America is not confined to these Urban Dens of Thieves, Subversives and Perverts.

I agree with you Paleocon, but it should go further. First of all, the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. This department was created by Jimmy Carter as a Payback and Gift to the National Teacher Unions who were primarily responsible for the election of this incompetent socialist.

Under the Obama administration, the U.S. Department now has an annual budge of over 200 billion dollars, and not one cent of that goes to pay a teacher salary.  Under the Obama Education Plan, which was crafted by Bill Ayers, his old communist terrorist buddy back in Chicago, the local and state governments are stripped of their last vestiges of autonomy and local control.  Under the Obama Education Plan, they plan to have Mandatory Attendance Laws passed that start at age 2.  Yes, you heard that right.  Obama wants to implement policy that will Make It Mandatory that Parents Relinquish and Turn Over Their children as early as age 2 to Government Day Care Centers, euphemistically called Early Childhood Learning Centers.  Their aim is to insure that not Even One Child Is Left Behind, who might on the off chance go un-brainwashed, and dumbed down by a public, government run school system.

I have long advocated for the abolishment of the U.S. Department of Education, which would end the Teacher Union's stranglehold on Public Schools.  But, in the interim, I have encouraged parents at every local level in the country, to march on their schools and school boards and Tell Them That They, the Citizens, are taking Charge of their Local Schools, and then the schools would be run in a way that Reflect Local Traditions, Customs, Values, Language, Ethics, Civic Responsibility, etc.

The California Leftists and other Anti-American, Anti-Family communists and assorted perverts have all but destroyed the public education system, and it has a direct correlation to the U.S. Dept. of Education and Teacher Union controls.  If we are to save our nation, we have to take Back Our Children and our Schools and put them under Local Control where they belong.

In this Tuscaloosa News Article, they were speaking of Dropout Rates and the Consequences.  The following were my comments:

"Quote from this article:

"Among the solutions recommended by the guidebook are smaller schools, school choice, and more flexibility in curriculum based more on real-world themes. Greater community and parental involvement in schools is important. So too is stronger discipline in student attendance, behavior and effort."  Right On, this would be a Great First Start.

These are the solutions that need to be addressed.  For about 200 years, public schools were under the domain and control of the communities in which the schools were located, and up until this state and local control was subverted by the U.S. government, the U.S. public education system was in the top 2 or 3 in the world for academic outcomes.

Beginning in the 1960's, the federal government began to intervene in Locally Controlled Schools and it has all been downhill ever since.

Children were ripped from their local communities and transported here and yond in an effort to Create Sameness and supposedly, equality. All suffered from these failed policies and decisions.

By the mid-1970's, after only about 10 years of Federal Intervention (Socialistic Policies), academic outcomes were declining at a rapid pace as the Social Engineers continued to Experiment with our children and the school system that had served this nation so well for over 200 years.  In the 1976 presidential election, the National and State Teacher Unions got out a great deal of support for Jimmy Carter, who in return, started the U.S. Department of Education as a Gift and Payback to the Teacher Unions, and the Decline in Educational Outcomes that was already in rapid decline, thanks to Federal Interventions, declined at an even more rapid pace.  There is a direct correlation between federal interventions and declines in outcomes.

Today, after 40 plus years of Federal Intervention Into State and Local Authority over public education, we have gone from #3 in the world for educational outcomes in public school to #28 in the world, trailing many third world countries, while spending more per capita than any other nation. The spending is not the problem. What the money is being spent on is the problem: too much bureaucracy and bureucrats, standardized tests, regulations, technologies, etc. and not enough spent on smaller schools and more competent teachers.  In some areas, over 60 percent of school employees are non-teachers. Duh????

The current problem in Tuscaloosa Schools is not confined to Tuscaloosa. This is a national problem and it is the most serious National Security Issue we have, and threatens the very existence of this nation. What has occurred in Tuscaloosa is not confined to Tuscaloosa.

The current public school system is the Best Definition that I can find for Failed Socialism and Failed Social Engineering.

Not only are the schools being hampered from teaching basic academic subjects, citizenship, responsibility and respect, and community standards, they are also being mandated to Brainwash our children with National Socialistic Agendas, and many of these National Agendas and Teachings go against Local Community Standards and Beliefs of the Citizens in the communities. The Social Engineering, Brainwashing, and Dumbing Down of America is a Direct Result of Federal Intervention and Socialism gone awry.

It is time that parents, teachers, and community leaders Just Say No to Federal Rules, Laws, and Mandates when these Rules, Laws, and Mandates are clearly Destroying Our Children, Communities and Nation.

So, of course, smaller community schools located in the communities where the children live is one step that should be implemented as soon as is possible.  No elementary or middle school should be any larger than 300 to 400 students with teacher-pupil ratios of 1 to 20, and that school should be required to teach basic academic subjects the old fashioned way by Having Children Do Academic Work with paper and pencils, and get computers and other gadgets out of the classrooms until about grade 8 competencies are achieved. After they achieve 8th grade competencies, then introduce computers and other Tools. Computers and Calculators are Tools, and should not be substituted as Teachers. These Tools Do Not Help The Child's Mind Develop, and in fact, do much more harm than good. Children already are exposed to too much TV, Computers, and Other Electronic Gadgets away from school.  We have so many computers and other gadgets in the schools now, that incompetent and illiterate teachers are able to mask their own incompetencies, because they let the children teach or babysit themselves on computers.  This kind of teaching and learning does not develop the mind, especially the part of the brain that deals with Reason and Logic. This part of the brain is developed by Doing, with Paper and Pencil operations such as Arithmetic, and also our children are losing or not learning basic skills such as writing, especially, cursive writing.  And, with Spell Check, and other Computer Tools, these same children are becoming Poor Spellers, and Also are not learning proper English and appropriate grammer, etc.

In short, we need to return to basics, and we also need to get All Standardized Testing Out of Our Schools. The only tests that need to be used are basic screening devices such as the Brigance Readiness screens to see what the student needs are. Standardized Testing always Lowers Standards, and we have been so busy Standardized Testing for the past 40 years, that now the Standard is so low that some High School Graduation Tests are based on 6th grade skills.  So many students were failing the tests that started out with only 8th grade skills (In Georgia, one of the first states to start Basic Skills Testing for High School Graduation in the 1990's, the test started out at 8th grade level, and so many students in high school were failing, that they re-wrote the test to 7th grade level, with almost as bad results, and finally, they lowered the Standard to 6th grade level as a way of making it look like schools were improving in graduation rates and student learning.) This has been a trend all over the country, and what Tuscaloosa faces today is being faced all over the country, and it is all a Direct Result of the Social Engineering and Directives from the U.S. Department of Education, which is the Enforcement Arm for National Teacher Unions and the government's Socialist Agenda.

The U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. Then that departments 200 billion dollar annual budget this year alone, could be put back where it belongs in the hands of Local Communities to Build Small Community Schools, and More Teachers, and Less Standardized Tests, Fewer Computers for elementary and middle schoolers, and Fewer Administrators and other Educational Bureaucrats.  The U.S. Department of Education is nothing more than an example of another Federal Agency or Department That was instituted ostensibly to Deal with a "perceived" social problem, and like all Agencies or Departments started to deal with "perceived" social problems, the Problems Grew worse in a direct correlation with Size, Expenditures, and Power of the Department.  This has also happened with the other so-called "Great Society" programs that started in the 1960's by Lyndon B. Johnson.  These So Called Great Society Programs have now squandered tens of trillions of dollars on The War on Poverty, and like all other problems that Federal Agencies and Departments are started to deal with, the problem grew much worse. And, besides the fact that the War On Poverty did not Decrease or End Poverty, it also destroyed family values, work ethics, and dignity and self respect, respect for others and respect for resources in those who became dependent of government and thus lost their own independence and ability to take care of one's self. This is a travesty and a great example ow how socialism works. This is what happens when you create a Government Agency or Department to deal with a "perceived" social problem, the problem not only does not improve or go away, the problem always grows worse, as the agency or department becomes it's own Empire, and like all Empires, these agencies and departments seek growth in size, expenditures and power, and in order to justify their Growth, Power, and Expenditures, They Have to Have More "perceived" victims to Serve, to justify their own existence. The U.S. Department of Education and their Mandates are the very reason that Tuscaloosa and every other community in America have the dismal public schools that they now have. And, what do their "experts" suggest?  "Doing More of The Same Things that Do Not Work, For Longer Periods of Time??  They suggest Longer School days, Longer School Weeks, Longer School Years. This is all complete nonsense.  Children already spend too much time away from home in public schools. It is not the time spent in schools that is causing the problems. It is the Agenda and Curriculum that they are being exposed to that is the problem.  More time needs to be spent in Actual Academic Instruction By Teachers who Also Have the Requisite Skills themselves to teach what it is that they should be teaching. Things like Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, Civic Responsibility and Respect for self, others and resources.  We now have public School Teachers who cannot teach elementary arithmetic because, they themselves, cannot do elementary arithmetic. This shows you how far down that We have Been Standardized By Socialism.

To take this country back on the road to prosperity, we have to take our children and schools back, and it needs to Start Now. Tell the Local, State, and Federal Bureaucrats NO, and tell them that You, the Community Are Taking Your children, your schools and your communities back. And, teachers who refuse to Teach according to Community Standards and refuse to teach Old Fashioned Academics, let them go. If their unions threaten law suits, tell them to SUE On Their Own Time, but in the meantime, hire Competent Teachers Who Can Actually Perform the Tasks that they are supposedly teaching. Get all the Political Correctness and other nonsense out of the schools completely. Teachers should be teaching Civic Responsibility and Not Their Own Political Leanings. Children's minds are impressionable, and they should not be brainwashed and propagandized to by Teachers promoting their Own Social or Political Agendas, which is what a vast majority of teachers are doing today. When teachers chastise children because of their parents political beliefs or moral beliefs, they are abusing your children. Emotional, intellectual and psycholgical abuse takes place in schools all over the country everyday by teachers who have an agenda and by teachers promoting the Social Agenda of the U.S. Department of Education and Teacher Unions.  This abuse is worse than physical abuse, because it is creating a nation of dumbed down and brainwashed citizens who grow up without the emotional, psychological and intellectual ability to compete, and these, my friends are the hopeless students who drop out, and even for the ones who do not drop out, they are not getting their educational, academic, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs met by these Federally Run and Mandated Schools.

Even if many students graduate, that does not mean that they have learned very much, it only means that they suffered through 12 plus years of psychological, emotional, and intellectual neglect and abuse. And, what is the new plan coming out of the U.S. Department of Education that has now eliminated every vestige of local and state control in public education? The Obama Dept. of Education is in the process of Mandating Pre-Schools down to age 4 and eventually down to age 2.  Do you really want the Federal Government to Yank your toddlers away from home and send them to Government Run Dumbing Down and Brainwashing Institutions in the guise of early childhood education.  No, the real aim is that the Federal Government does not want to Leave Even One Child Behind that is Not Brainwashed and Dumbed Down to grow up to be a good little Socialist Citizen.

This has been the Aim of Socialists for decades, and it all started in earnest with Lydon B. Johnson in the 1960', and has been expanding since.  Jimmy Carter and the U.S. Department of Education? And, now with Obama, this socialist plan to Completely Eradicate All Local and State Control is complete. And the next step in that is the Pre-School Movement to Force Parents to put their toddlers into the arms of the Nanny State.

If you love your children, your community, your liberty, freedom, rights and country, you need to Tell The Government NO, and Take Your Children, Schools, Communities, and Country Back.  It all starts in your own Home Town. All politics is local, and if you cannot take charge of your own town, how in the world do you think that you can influence the Federal Politicians and Bureaucrats who are being Bought and Paid for By Professional Lobbyists, and other Special Interest Groups who could care less what is happening to you, your community and your children?

m. jerome ennis, MAed

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Most people today just take it as a given that this mess is unsolvable, short of homeschooling, which I am A Great Proponent for, for those who can do it, and have the requisite knowledge and skills to do so.  Unfortunately, there are too many who do not possess these abilities and qualities nor can afford to stay home.

In lieu of that, Parents and Citizens, generally, should Demand An End and Total Dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education, a huge Wasteful Bureaucracy from which Spills This Liberal Agenda and Dumbing Down System to begin with.  Then, Abolish State Departments of Education.  Then, reduce the sized and waste of Your Local School Boards of Education.  Then, Build your Elementary and Middle Schools in the neighborhoods and communities where the children live and play, not to exceed 400 students in each school and no classroom sizes more than 20 students per 1 teacher.  This is the start and this can all be done with the existing monies after you abolish the Bureaucracy which is where most of Education Dollars are now spent, along with Contracts to Buy Useless Computers and other Media in Elementary and Middle Schools.  Computers are tools, not teaching aids.  Kids learn best and learn things that last, such as Math Skills by Doing Math.  Learn Writing by Writing.  Learn Reading By Reading.  Get Back To Basics.  Get back To Rational Thinking.

Without the Destruction Of the Bureaucracy that now Mandates all The Attrocities that are taking place, and being backed by Liberal Legislators, and the NEA, we will never turn this country around.  End of Conversation.  It is simply cut and dry.

Ready this writer's Town Hall Blogs:

Greyhawk in Al----Take Our Schools Back

                  Take Our Communities Back

M. Jerome Ennis, MAed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

To AudiR10 and to Kepha:  These two had commented on a piece by Ms. Crouse who was promoting family values at a forum dealing with teen pregnancies, drug use and other deviance by adolescents, and of course, whe got a lot of Nay Sayers from the Deviant Radical Left who believe such nonsense as two gay parents can do as good a job as a stable heterosexual couple, etc.  First, of course, I suppose that these same sex marriage advocates must be products of the public school system since they obviously do not unerstand the concept of reproduction.  Under normal and natural conditions, it requires a Male And Femal to procreate.  No matter how normal these gay couples appear, and as they assume to be parents, no matter how Butch a woman, she is still a woman.  No matter how feminine a man behaves, he is still a He.  This type of Identity Crisis cannot be healthy.  This especially cannot be a healthy environment to raise children.  Anyway, read Ms. Crouses Article on Townhall.  It is good and the comments are out there in support and some opposed.  Happy Trails to you.

AudiR10 in Alabama.  You hit it on the head about the word No.  Fairness and consistency is essential in raising a child, running a school, a business or anything else.  Children, especially need to learn boundaries, and in fact, secretly want Mom and Dad to be in charge when they reach adolescence and their peers are pressuring them into all sorts of deviance such as alcohol and drug experimentation, sex, thievery, joining negative peer groups such as gangs, etc.  When a kid can say, 'yeah, I think you guys are  cool, but my mom and dad would never go along with this, I have to go home.'  Kids with well developed emotional growth, which is fostered in conventional households that have a positive male and female adult role model in them, aka--parents, are able to say No to Peer Presssure.  In the home, the school, workplace or anywhere else, if you have a set of rules, values, and standards, and they are fairly and consistently enforced, you have stability.  Children are exposed to faulty and negative inputs everyday of their lives on TV, movies, Video Games, The Internet, Peers at school, and The Public Schools themselves.  It takes a strong family with values and traditons and consistency to raise a child and prepare them for what they will begin to face and have to experience in the Public School Setting of Today.  The majority of the emotional growth problems begin when they enter public mandated schools.  This is especially true for boys, who do not possess the intellectual and emotional maturity, to be placed in a structured environment that goes totally at odds with natural and normal developmental abilities for males.  Males trail their female counterparts by as much as 3 years in emotional and intellectual developmental areas.  This is not opinion.  This is fact.  So, these little boys are mandated by The Government To Attend Schools at certain ages, with no concern for the need or the appropriateness of doing so. 

This writer will continue this piece in another comment as am limited to 2000 words.  To Kapha, you are right about God as well.
M. Jerome Ennis, MAed
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
jeromeennis@aol.com

Obviously, we must have a third party that is truly a third party, since, actually, we have truly only been a one-party country now for the past 3 or 4 decades.  As the late George C. Wallace of Alabama stated in the late 1960's when he ran as a third party candidate, (paraphrased) "We currently have two parties that we could call tweedle dee or tweedle dumb, because, as per their agendas and policies, their is not a dime's worth of difference between them."  That was true then, and it is more true today than ever before.  The Democrats bash Republican policies and when elected they change nothing, except to make more bureaucracy and more spending of money we don't have.  The Republicans bash the Democrat policies, and when elected, do nothing to change anything.  Tax, Tax, and the average American Citizen gets nothing for his or her money, except more and more dictatorial laws being enforced by Dictatorial Bureaucracies and more and more personal freedoms being stripped from us.  Yes, we need and I support a real alternative to this.  A party whose mission is to disband the local, state, and federal bureaucracies, and get a representative form of government that represents my interest and the interest of every other working, tax paying American, and not the Interests of The Highest Bidders who buy power by putting up money to the candidates who get elected and funnel money back to it's contributors with favored status legislation and laws, and for those who get elected by appealing to Welfare Bums who contribute nothing and vote for their candidates, such as Obama and Clinton, because they promise to give them something more for nothing.

Jerome Ennis--Alabama

Hi, everyone that receives this already knows me and my passion as a patriot who loves this country, and is sickened at how our country has been turned upside down.  Our schools do not educate, but they do indoctrinate.  The schools that don't and won't teach our children anything of real value are being mandated to do the agenda that is dictated by the U.S. Dept. of Education.  They blackmail states and local governments by stating, "do this or do that, but this is only a suggestion, BUT, IF YOU DO NOT IMPLEMENT WHAT WE ADVISE AND SUGGEST, WE, THE GOVERNMENT WITHHOLD FEDERAL FUNDING TO YOUR STATE AND SCHOOLS.  Is this blackmail or what.  So, the gutless local and state governments never challenge this and just cow tow for the all mighty dollars, WHICH BY THE WAY IS MY MONEY AND YOUR MONEY WHICH WE PAY IN TAXES.   It is not the Government's money.  It is not Congresses money.  It is not the U.S. Dept. of Education's money. No, it is Our Money.  We need to disband this Socialist government beginning at the local level, state level and federal level.  We need to find candidates who will not and do not affiliate with Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dumb, as George C. Wallace so adeptly called them back in 1968 when he ran as an Independent, and likely would have won if a Cowardly Scumbag Assassin had not shot him in the back, and by the way, that scumbag was recently released from a Maryland prison where he should have remained for the rest of his natural life.  But, that is another topic.  Criminals go free, while children are spirited away from parents by Fascist Family and Children's Services Gestapo everyday in this country.  Fascist, because they go unchallenged.  Anyway, hope you read this and will at least give some thought to helping turn the country around.  Love you all--Jerome

Subject: Debating With Sociopaths?

George Bush is taking heat because he says that he will not sit down and have a conversation or debate with a know Terrorist Supporter or Terrorists, generally. He is right on. Does anybody believe that you could sit down with a known serial killer, who is usually a Sociopath, and believe him when he tells you all the earnestness in the world, that "if you release me, I promise and give you my word, I will not return to serial killing." Of course not. You would not do this with a rapist or child molestor either. And basically, when you speak of the midget from Iran, whose name I will not even begin to spell or pronounce, but we all know of whom I speak, that is what you are dealing with. The little man is a Fascist and a Sociopath, much the same Hitler was. The Russians sat down with Hitler in 1939 and signed the Warsaw Pact, which basically, Stalin and Hitler agreed to leave each other alone as they both marched toward world dominance. Of course, Stalin was smart and knew that he could not believe Hitler, and went immediately preparing to fight the Nazis, and of course, eventually, Hitler broke his word and agreements. Well, that is what would happen if you actually you could believe anything the midget of Iran says. Hooray for Bush for telling it like it is, and I hope and pray, he never apologizes for saying it. I just wish we had somebody in this country running for President now who has integrity and courage and substance about them. The media has reduced the presidential race down to a farce with folks running for cover to apologize or to accept or denounce this or that endorsement. It is just entertainment.

Mandated Ignorance

This is a very interesting article and factually right on. Public school history texts are basically fairy tales. As for the youth of today voting, armed with ignorance, and political correctness is truly a dangerous thing. The media, of course, gives them nothing of substance to understand either, especially television programming, all of it. They weave Political Correctness into everything you watch these days. Sally Fields little Liberal Democrat program for example. The public school system creates and fosters ignorance and worse yet, is emotionally damaging to anybody subjected to it. The U.S. Department of Education is the reason for this. This giant bureaucracy that squanders billions of dollars per year needs to be the first such agency or department to be disbanded, if we ever get a Congress, Executive Branch, and Judicial Branch that becomes responsive to the people they presumably serve. I say, presumably, because, unless you have not been paying attention, none of these folks has done anything for the average American citizen who Works For A Living lately. They are too busy paying off their Contributors with favored status legislation, and on the other extreme giving more welfare and other give away programs to people who do not work and will not work, but yet get to vote for those who promise to give them something else for nothing. We better wake up and realize that this country is TEN TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT, AND THE RENT COMES DUE. Nobody of the Three Stooges We Have had shoved down our throats will even touch this subject as they talk about creating New Bureaucracies, and give away programs, domestically, and internationally. God Please Bless America, and Please Hurry. Jerome Ennis in Alabama

Subject: Debating With Sociopaths?

George Bush is taking heat because he says that he will not sit down and have a conversation or debate with a know Terrorist Supporter or Terrorists, generally. He is right on. Does anybody believe that you could sit down with a known serial killer, who is usually a Sociopath, and believe him when he tells you all the earnestness in the world, that "if you release me, I promise and give you my word, I will not return to serial killing." Of course not. You would not do this with a rapist or child molestor either. And basically, when you speak of the midget from Iran, whose name I will not even begin to spell or pronounce, but we all know of whom I speak, that is what you are dealing with. The little man is a Fascist and a Sociopath, much the same Hitler was. The Russians sat down with Hitler in 1939 and signed the Warsaw Pact, which basically, Stalin and Hitler agreed to leave each other alone as they both marched toward world dominance. Of course, Stalin was smart and knew that he could not believe Hitler, and went immediately preparing to fight the Nazis, and of course, eventually, Hitler broke his word and agreements. Well, that is what would happen if you actually you could believe anything the midget of Iran says. Hooray for Bush for telling it like it is, and I hope and pray, he never apologizes for saying it. I just wish we had somebody in this country running for President now who has integrity and courage and substance about them. The media has reduced the presidential race down to a farce with folks running for cover to apologize or to accept or denounce this or that endorsement. It is just entertainment.