Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine What Will Conservatives Do?

Sorry, but in south carolina, it wasn't limited to a "few poor performing" teachers. It was rampant and widespread. so much so that now when one school is doing well, it gets raided by the poor performing schools and decimated, with any decent teacher being farmed out to another school. If not, every student with parents that give a damn tries to get their kid into that one school.

Its not limited to an isolated few. It just isn't. Now, having said that, the biggest part of the problem is "district edicts", poor parents, and kids that don't care, that don't understand that an education is a way out, or that have to do other things to help the family survive.

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If you have evidence that Lindorff called for the wholesale destruction of GM and Chrysler --or for their employees to be thrown on the street to subsist on trash--, produce it.

Otherwise, this is nothing but a straw man argument. One can believe that the big automakers are dinosaurs that have long relied on public handouts while they extol the virtues of bootstrapping and "free enterprise" without actually hating American workers or organized labor.

If Obama's people wanted to find a way to support unemployed auto workers during the current economic crisis, they could have. Perhaps their plan would still have been rejected, but at least it would have been an attempt to produce something new.

Too often, the retort to criticisms like Lindorff's from Obama's defenders is some variation of, "Oh, yeah? Do you think YOU could do better?" But you know what? That's a worthless retort and not even worth dignifying with a reply.

If I hire somebody to fix something for me because they've marketed themselves as an educated professional, and they eff it up, the correct response to my complaint is not "Oh, yeah? Do you think YOU could do better?" The point is not my ability in their field or lack of same. The point is that people "hired" or elected them to do a job because (they thought) no better choice was available. And now the "repair" guy has fallen down on the job and resorted to cheap insults and pathetic excuses.

And that stinks.

And I've made it clear repeatedly why I think "healthcare reform" is a farce and a scam. I'm living through that farce every day already and I see nothing in Obama's plan that will correct it in my favor. So I'll take a pass on rehashing that all over again, thanks.

My response is based solely on the blog posting by Lindorff that you linked to. He discusses his reaction to Rahm Emanuel's outbursts when he was "warned that the General Motors bailout plan would hurt United Autoworkers members." This is in the context of the article in which Lindorff states that on election day he found himself agreeing much more with the ardent Tea Party supporter than the ardent Democratic supporter.

The automobile industry bailout was passed in the House by a vote of 237 to 170. 205 of the yes votes were cast by Democrats. 32 by Republicans. 150 of the no votes were cast by Republicans. 20 were cast by Democrats. Tea Party and Republican candidates campaigned vigorously on calls for "no more bailouts" and sending a message to those who supported the bailout. Yes, I guess the Democrats could have stood on some other principle in an effort to produce something new. Instead they voted for a plan that saved the jobs of many UAW members.

They caved to blackmail, IOW.

Standard operating for Democrats, at all levels. You see similar when some super-rich owner of a sports team whines that s/he'll take his/her ball and leave town unless he gets a new stadium, and the like.

"Too big to fail" has become a catchphrase in some circles for a reason. But I don't expect Democrats to learn what they should from it. After all, to paraphrase a famous commentator (now deceased) their livelihood depends upon them not learning anything. Their real income comes from putting the grimmest of smiley faces on while corporations loot and pillage whatever's left of our social safety net at this point. And Obama and his wife are classic finger-waggers and passive-aggressive scolds, living privileged lives while patronizingly telling everyone outside their own class sphere that we'd better just keep ponying up or else.

(But I guess if they do it in a "nice" way, that makes them better than their equally well-heeled buddies across the aisle. Please. All of them are complicit in the shakedown. Surface mannerisms are just that. At the end of the day, we still bleed and they still get whatever the hell they want.)

But really, the dude went on record lauding the [bleep] out of Ronald Reagan while he was on the damn campaign trail. Anyone who seriously paid attention should have known all along what he was.

You can argue, as many do, that "REPUBLICANS ARE WORSE!" But that to me is like saying that ten punches in the face are worse than five. It would work for me as an argument for not voting at all, but not as an argument for voting Democrat.

On a related note:

HOPE AND CHANGE!! HOPE AND CHAAAANGE!!

[snerk]

It really does make me sad some days that I don't believe in Hell.

On a semi-related note, it's been interesting to watch excerpts of George W. Bush's interviews while he is promoting his book. Bush justifies his earlier comments ("Bring 'em on!") by saying he was trying to inspire the troops by saying they're the best and can handle anything. He also makes no apologies for two wars, etc., maintaining that what he did was right.

A president with Obama's intellect and Bush's backbone would be just about perfect.