"Make a hole, make it wide"
Big Poppa's got his head in the peanut bowl today folks, March Madness is here and I ain't talking the NCAA tourney. That's right
Washington's got their own tourney going on this week: House Health care vote, No Child Left Behind Part Duex and the love affair of Republicans / Eric Massa
Healthcare/Medicare reform voting
Ok, so under the darkness of night, while much of America is tuned into the NCAA tourney and watching their brackets, Nancy Pelosi is trying to coach her team to victory and reach the magical number 216. 216 votes is needed to pass the Senate's Healthcare bill which was passed in the Senate back in December, almost 90 days ago. Talk about a time out! Then it goes to President Obama to be signed, then another measure to add alternative admendments to the bill to be voted on, and then another (possible) signing by the President. Pelosi's gonna need a bigger dry erase board for this.
Big Poppa needs a frosty cold injection after that whirlwind.
Now, I am not a fan of the Speaker of the House, never was never will be. Maybe it's because I never have seen the woman blink! Can she or has she gotten one to many Botox shots? Like any good coach and what seems like a losing situation, she's talking game, telling all she's got what it takes to win this game, but does she have game? I don't think so and there's no Cinderella story ending.
Not to mention, all these Democrats that are "unsure" of how they'll vote. If I understand this, these guys are holding town hall meetings with the Tea Party members in their district, plus their normal constituents. Is this like speed dating? Seriously, I mean you go out with the Tea Party members, listen to them quip, rant, berate you because, well, they don't like you because you are a Democrat. You be polite, answer some questions, give that ackward handshake afterwards, slip them the wrong phone number on purpose and then move on to the next table. At that table, you listen to their quips, get berated again because you are not listening to them, but they like you because you represent them and they know where you live. Wait, this could make for a great C-SPAN surreal life reality show. Can't be worse then what's normal boring programming there.
Affordable health care is a great wonderful prospect, but it ain't gonna happen, especially at this pace. Plus, everyone is still talking about things that aren't in the Senate bill.
There is no federal money for abortion. There is no government take over of health insurance simple because there is No Public Option. And besides there has been government health insurance since 1965, it's called Medicare. And beleive this, the Republicans now are still using the same gameplan they did then, except instead of using Ronald Reagan as the point guard, they inserted Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, and other Conservative talkers to run the "picket fence." Mind you, the people that are truly fighting Health care/Medicare reform are the very same people that were against in 1965 that are using Medicare now! Hmmm how's that working for ya' guys? How's that entitlement program?
The Democrat you want to burn at the stake is Barry Stupak. This guy had the "sack" to hold up legislation over abortion and then just when he had his way, he blew it. No federal funding for abortion makes sense, but then this whackjob decided that even if you have your own health insurance that you pay for, he wanted a clause that said your health insurance wouldn't cover one! I'm sure there's a Supreme Court ruling there, what was it called again? Something about invasion of privacy?
If the Democrats were smart, they should've pushed this through on Saturday March 13th. Why? Simply because the majority of America was celebrating St Patty's day with parades and a weekend of drinking. None of the 6p-10p nightly talkers were working. No one would've known, there wasn't anything on television to be pre-empted for the news. If they do it this week and one of the many NCAA games is pre-empted, there will be a swarm of Pitchforks in Washington.
It's time for the Democrats to "nut-up" and do something. You have the majority.
No Child Left Behind Part Deux
So President Obama now wants to rewrite NCLB so that teachers are held accountable for poor performance. What a novel idea, yet in Big Poppa's mind there's an issue, that issue is the parents. This is gonna give parents more reason to blame the schools for their childrens poor performances.
Parents will now be given a "not my fault" card for their child's poor grades and a megaphone to yell loudly about how bad the school is and why do they pay such high school taxes.
Yes, teachers have a large responsibility to teach our children, strengthen their minds, broaden their intelligence, but that ends at 230-300 in the afternoon. What happens afterwards is the parents responsibilty. "Tommy did you do you homework?" and with the typical response of "yes mom/dad." And that's where the conversation ends, parent off the hook and the child returns to one hand on the remote control and the other on the S'Mores poptart (yummy! and damn peanut bowl is empty).
Many parents are happy that they can drop their kids off and blame the school for all their child's misfortunes in education and behavior.
To quote Hillary Clinton (my head hurts saying that), "It takes a village to raise a child." It's true, unless your household is lucky enough to have a stay at home parent, parents today depend on others to help them and schools are one. But when the kids are home, it's time to be a parent. Don't go saying "Big Poppa you ain't a parent, what do you know?" Well folks, I am a parent, I have a wife, we have a child and we (as most) have a village of people that help us and we couldn't be more thankful for their help and support.
When I was a kid, I didn't like homework, but my parents made sure I did it or I couldn't play in the sports I wanted to. I had to pay (grades) to play, that simple. One of the coolest things happened over the weekend, I helped my young nephew on a Social Studies project. He needed help and he asked for help, so his grandmother and I jumped in to help. Project: Campaign for a former President to your classmates. He got Lyndon Johnson. Sure Gramma and I kinda hijacked half the project, but the delight in his eyes to get help was like winning the lottery. It took a village to help him get this far and dammit, the village succeeded.
But the criteria from the teacher was rather a blank sheet of a paper. Simple bullet points, but no real instruction given. Did the teacher want references? No clue. How many pages does the research need to be? Just shrug your shoulders and wing it I guess. No there's some blame on the teacher.
Teachers get enough abuse from the poorest to richest school district to which the work, but laying the blame of failure souly on the teacher is wrong President Obama. Giving a "not my fault" card to some parents is going to move education eight steps backwards when our educational system needs a kick forward the most.
Or was President just trying to look like a capitalist and help make a sale for the after school Sylvan Learning Centers or any tutoring corporation?
Eric Massa
This guy has become the pimple on the ass of the Democrats and they can't pop him.
First off, talkers like Limbaugh and Beck acted like sugar filled children when this guy started talking. Giddy as they were (and not by Massa tickling them) they both got punked within 48 hours by him. I watched the Glenn Beck interview and within the first 30 seconds Beck (and I) saw the sinking of his show. Beck's game of "12 degrees of Socialism thru Bigfoot and Census building" is getting old and he hoped Massa would revive it. What a beuatiful train wreck it was to see.
Beck is so eager to get conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory out there, that he is turning FOX News into the tabloid National Enquirer. Hey I heard Bigfoot smuggled in radiation filled peanut butter cups while doing the Macerana. Better jump on that one Beck, you might be able to link it to Dora the Explorer by indoctrinating our kids into harboring illegal communist monkeys. Sounds stupid but I give credit that Beck could do it and still cry about how much he loves the USA.
Anyway, so now Massa is gone, but dang it, he keeps rearing his head up without trying, now the Republicans want to re-open the investigation. Why? Let it die, no one cares. Everyone has seen him as a whackjob.
Will re-opening his inquiry let us know who pathetic Washington really is? Well maybe..
Will re-opening Massa's inquiry give the Tea Party some much needed oxygen? Well maybe..
But it will show all of us watching how wasteful Washington is wasting our time with pathetic little crying fits to fill air time on CNN, MSNBC, or even (tabloid) FOX between 6p-10p. It's all for show, no substance. Congress has turned into "Dancing with the whackjobs" for the amount of TV each member is seeking. No offense but I didn't like Keith Olberman when he was doing sports at ESPN and people forget Bill O'Rielly's claim to fame before FOX News was doing tabloid reporting for Inside Edition.
Hey wait, FOX News-- Inside News-- Tabloids.... Quick of 12 degrees of bullsh*t reporting... I did it I did it (damn you Dora the Explorer).
Republicans run to the cameras for a conspiracy faster than a run away Toyota Prius, seriously who knew a Prius could go 92 mph.
The Massa issue is simple filling a void until the next debacle. Hey I heard someone stole Minority leader John Boehner's tanning booth? Seriously if someone did, the electric bill in Washington would drop a few hundred dollars. Now that's a federal budget savings. Or maybe someone saw Nancy Pelosi blink? Quick call Beck it could a be conspiracy that aliens really do live in her head.
So let's sum up the Washington tourney...
Bracket #1 -Nancy Pelosi vs. the House... House wins (people lose)
Bracket #2 - NCLB vs. Teachers... Sorry teachers if it passes, NCLB wins it and your flipping burgers
Bracket #3 - Beck vs. Socialist Bigfoot.... Bigfoot will always win as long as Beck has a TV show. Buy stock in Kleenex because we'll cry more then Beck.
Bracket #4 - undeclared because the Peanut bowl is empty
Turn over the Peanut bowl and help pay the tab. Please click the advertising tab or I'll send Glenn Beck and Socialist Bigfoot with John Boehner's tanning booth to your house to rape your electric bill
Thumbs up, you finally said something nice about Hilary. But please get off of Beck's butt- he did make a mistake with Massa. Makes you wonder about the people who voted for him (Massa)... of course they kept voting for Murtha even when he insulted his constituents.
ReplyDeleteMurtha as well as Massa are history. There have been worse and still are worse, example Minnesota's Michelle Bachmann, now calling for people not to pay their taxes if Health Care Reform passes, she will not stand beside you if you don't pay your taxes.
ReplyDeleteNCLB was a joke when they passed the ridiculous legislation in the first place. It DOES already hold the teachers accountable. And that has led to teaching to the test. Children now spend more time learning the nationwide test than they do anything else. It's no wonder our students rank so far behind those of other countries. There is no diversity because there are so many new burdens placed on the schools it's impossible to do anything other than teach basic skills to pass a damn test that does nothing more than test basic skills. We're rewarding schools who spend more time with rhote memorization skills and punishing schools who don't have the money in the first place to pay more teachers to teach the same skills. It's a joke, a farce, and should never have been allowed to pass in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAs far as putting the burden on the teachers and taking it off of the school district as a whole....that's an even more ridiculous plan than the original. I'm sure the Democratic loving teachers union will just LOVE that. Tenure is a bitch to get past and if they're going to start holding individual teachers responsible, they'll first have to get past their union reps. Good luck with that one.
I agree that it's the parents responsibility to parent. School is a few hours a day designed to EDUCATE children not RAISE them. That's the job of the parents themselves. If you don't want to raise your kids then don't have them!!
An example of what teaching to the test produces....I worked as a peer tutor a few years back for a history professor. I had a kid come in who hadn't taken any test the professor offered and was relying on the final for his entire course grade because of it.(generous on the part of the professor) He had no idea who won the Civil War, when told it was the last major battle fought on American soil he asked me "well, that can't be true....what about Vietnam?" He had no idea who wrote the Declaration of Independence or for that matter what the "big deal was anyway." History isn't measured on state wide assessment tests so there is very little time spent on that subject as a whole. Math and English as well as reading comprehension round out most of the test. So, the result....a bunch of students who can repeat information that has been drilled into their heads for 12 yrs. and they haven't really LEARNED a damn thing other than the art of memorizing! Ahhh, the American Education system at its finest.