I'm a Conservative...

As a Conservative, I'm voting for...

... the one man who has the necessary character to do the job, to take on the responsibilities of the office of the 44th President of the United States. As an American citizen, I would like to say that voters should pay less attention to a candidate's party and more to what they are saying and doing. Our first president, George Washington, warned against political parties and I see a lot of people strictly voting a certain way like lemmings, because that is the way their party chooses.

I'm a Conservative...

I'm a veteran, and having served proudly as a US Marine in the service of my country, I'm voting for the man who has a record of standing up for veterans and their rights, and a man who makes no excuses about where he stands on those issues. I'm voting for the man who will restore our nation's sacred trust with my fellow veterans, who is committed to creating a 21st Century Department of Veterans' Affairs that provides the care and benefits my fellow veterans and I deserve. I'm voting for the man who will help returning service members, who will will improve the quality of health care for veterans, rebuild the VA's broken benefits system, and combat homelessness among veterans.

I'm a Conservative...

I'm voting for the man who will protect the openness of the 'Net, and understands its power as a medium of free speech. I'm voting for the man who strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.

I'm a Conservative...

I'm voting for the man who understands real family values, who will restore work-family balance to our nation, who will double funding for after-school programs. I'm voting for the man who will expand the Family Medical Leave Act, and will encourage flexible work schedules.

I'm a Conservative...

As a Conservative, I defend your right to get out and vote on November 4th. It doesn't matter whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent, you owe it to yourself, your family and your country to vote your conscience. Whether your leanings are Liberal, Conservative or towards Libertarian, don't allow your judgment to be clouded by ideology or partisanship. Instead, make the choice that is right for your country.

Despite all of its its problems and crises, the United States of America is the most powerful and best country in the world. America has always been a beacon of hope and opportunity, but for some time now, its light has been dimmed somewhat. It's up to you, my fellow American voters, to make the right choice on November 4th. Get out and vote: vote for change, vote for hope, vote for a better America and vote for a better world for all of us and for our children.

I'm a Conservative...

As a true Conservative, I have one clear choice, and that choice is Barack Obama.

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind, heart or soul that in Barack Obama, there's a real opportunity to turn the best country in the world into an even better country. Opportunities like these don't come around every four or eight years; they present themselves once every several hundred years.

I respect the opinions of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, political satirist and author Christopher Buckley ( son of the late William F. Buckley Jr.) and Alison Goldwater Ross (the granddaughter of the late Senator Barry Goldwater). All of these people are Republicans and true Conservatives, and each of them has endorsed Barack Obama and not John McCain.

Candidly speaking, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has real experience that's applicable to being President of the United States, with the exception that both of them have run large, multimillion-dollar political campaigns. The main difference is that John McCain's has been disorganized, quite confused and quite ineffective. On the other hand, Barack Obama has run a smooth operation, and done it with little of the commotion and mindless cacophony that so often shows in these campaigns. And Obama looked directly at McCain during the debates, though that simple mark of respect was rarely returned.

In Barack Obama, we will have a president that is as normal, ordinary and human as all of us. He won't forget about what real life is like for all of us as individuals and as a nation.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Election 2008, President, John McCain, Conservative, Lexidiem, JargonTalk

Bush Administration: an 'F' for Reading Program

OIG Review Questions Ethics in Reading First Program

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a scathing audit, an internal review of the Bush administration's billion-dollar-a-year Reading First program. The report says that the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.

State educational agencies have received over $4.8 billion in Reading First grants, helping about 5,600 schools. The program is reported to have served more than 1.7 million students in kindergarten through third grade.

Recently U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced awards of $101,687,216 in grants to 32 recipients in 25 states, the objective being to improve the language and early literacy skills of young children.

The OIG audit doesn't hold back in its view that the Reading First program is riddled with mismanagement and has more that its share of conflicts of interest. It also suggested that laws may have been broken in that the department dictated to schools which curriculum they must use.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its audit on September 22, 2006, and it's listed as ED-OIG/I13-F0017. You can read the entire document here in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format or as a Microsoft Word .doc file.

When one read's the audit report, a particular individual is noted repeatedly (over 100 times), but not by name, but the title of Reading First Director. The person holding that title within the Department of Education was Chris Doherty.

The audit report says that program review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views and that only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money.

In one e-mail, Director Doherty told a staff member to come down hard on a company he didn't support. The report states that Doherty wrote, "They are trying to crash our party, and we need to beat the [expletive deleted] out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags."

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said that the Department will adopt all the audit's recommendations quickly. She also pledged a review of every single Reading First grant her agency has approved.

Reading first is crown jewel of No Child Left Behind, President Bush's education law. Its goal is to help young children read through scientifically proven programs. A separate review recently found that the effort is helping schools raise achievement.

From the start, the program has been hit by a number of accusations of impropriety, which lead to several ongoing audits. The new audit from the OIG raised serious questions with the program's credibility.

Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, was angry and blunt in expressing his feelings about the report, stating, "Everyone at the Department of Education who was involved in perpetrating this fraud on school districts should be fired – not suspended, not reassigned, not admonished, but fired. This was not an accident. This was a concerted effort to corrupt the process on behalf of partisan supporters, and taxpayers and schoolchildren are the ones who got harmed by it."

Secretary Spellings stated that the problems unearthed in the report occurred in the early days of the program, which began in 2002, before she was secretary. She also noted that those responsible have already left the agency or been reassigned.

The OIG's audit found that the department:

• Botched the way it picked a panel to review grant applications, raising questions over whether grants were approved as the law requires.
• Screened grant reviewers for conflicts of interest, but then failed to identify six who had a clear conflict based on their industry connections.
• Did not let states see the comments of experts who reviewed their applications.
• Required states to meet conditions that weren't part of the law.
• Tried to downplay elements of the law it didn't like when working with states.

As noted earlier, the audit doesn't name Doherty, referring to him as the Reading First Director. It says he repeatedly used his influence to steer money toward states that used a reading approach he favored called Direct Instruction (DI).

The OIG investigation found that four states (New York, Nevada, Virginia, and Connecticut) and one territory (Puerto Rico) were awarded grants, even though their final applications on record show a Chair Panel Summary rating of "Disapproval."

The audit also faults other officials who had a big hand in Reading First, including Susan B. Neuman, the former assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education.

Spellings, who became secretary in 2005, said she is not aware of any effort to favor certain reading programs. "I'm doing everything I can at this point," she said. "I can't undo what's been done."

This isn't the first time that questions have been raised about this issue. Robert Slavin, a Johns Hopkins University education professor who co-founded the Success for All Foundation and spent years researching effective reading programs, said he watched in disbelief as the nonprofit lost business because states chose to adopt other programs favored by U.S. officials.

Slavin is said to have prompted the federal investigation by going to the inspector general in May last year and telling authorities what he thought was going on. "There is nothing in the report that we haven't been saying for two years," Slavin said yesterday. "It is a vindication of sorts."

Mr. Doherty recently resigned from the department to “return to the private sector,” Katherine McLane, a department spokeswoman said. Doherty has declined to comment.

Expect to hear more on this topic over the coming weeks and months, for this just may be the tip of a very large iceberg, so to speak.

Additional Resources:

• U.S. Department of Education
• Office of Inspector General (ED/OIG) - What's New
• Schools Matter - blog with timely educational info
• NCLB Outrages (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out)
• Top 101 Web Sites for Teachers

tags: George Bush, Education, OIG, lexidiem, jargontalk, Chris Doherty, Reading First, Margaret Spellings, Robert Slavin, No Child Left Behind

Barbaro Burgers? Not this week!

Those hungry for horsemeat won't get their wish this week

On Thursday the House of Representatives passed H.R. 503, the bill that bans horse slaughter in the United State. The bill passed by a vote of 263 to 146, despite amendments submitted by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte to weaken the measure.

The issue was simple: about 90,000 horses are sent each year to three plants in this country (two in Texas and one in Illinois, all foreign owned), where they're slaughtered and the meat is shipped to restaurants in Europe and Asia.

Though some complained about the priority of this legislation, 263 lawmakers voted for the horse bill in the final tally, with only 146 daring to say "nay."

The administration has stated that they opposed the bill in a letter sent to the House of Representatives' Committee on Agriculture. This may be an issue that will have to be dealt with when the bill goes before the U.S. Senate as S.1915.

The Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) also opposes the horse slaughter ban. LMA Director of Information John McBride said he's concerned Congress won’t stop at banning horse slaughter, and said opponents of the ban will work to keep it off the Senate's agenda.

So congratulations go out to all those who contacted their respective Representatives and let their thoughts be known. And thanks go out to all of those 263 members of our Congress who thought about the issue and listened to their constituents.

And a special thanks goes to FlyingFilly.com and all the resources they put together to help all of us better understand the issues and the actions that can be taken.

You have all proven that our system works!

Our lexidiem is Congress.

Technorati tags: HR 503, Barbaro, Barbaro Burger, fast food, AHSPA, SAPL, basashi, lexidiem, jargontalk, FlyingFilly, Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman, Bo Derek, Dallas Crown, John Sweeney, John Spratt, Ed Whitfield, John Ensign, Mary Landrieu, Bob Goodlatte, S.1915, horsemeat, LMA, John McBride

Barbaro Burgers Legal after Thursday?

Those hungry for horsemeat may get their wish this week

Just check out these 9/7/2006 headlines, and read this in the text:

One fast food franchise has already applied for the name "Barbaro Burgers" as a trademark, and expects to be selling horse burgers before November 1st.

Horrifying, isn't it? OK, this is a fictitious copy of a fictitious newspaper. 2006 Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro is not going to be slaughtered because of his injuries. You're not going to be finding "Barbaro Burgers" on the menu of your local fast-food restaurant this weekend.

But could it happen? Yes, and here's why.

Up before the U.S. House of Representatives this week is a bill known as H.R. 503, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, a bill to to "prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes."

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA) is scheduled to go before the House on September 7, 2006. Simply put, its a bill to end the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the United States and the export of live horses for the same purpose.

The bill has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives by Congressional Horse Caucus Co- Chair John Sweeney (R-NY), Representative John Spratt (D-SC) and Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY). Senator and veterinarian John Ensign (R-NV) and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have reintroduced an identical measure in the Senate.

This sounds fine, except that there are currently no guarantees that this bill is going to pass. The Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL) has been involved, and has sent out an urgent alert letting people know that this potential legislation needs the support of people like all of us. SAPL is the oldest non-profit organization in the United States specifically dedicated to the passage and promotion of federal, international and local legislation to ensure and protect animal welfare.

Paula Bacon, the Mayor of the small town of Kaufman, Texas, has been fighting to get the nearby Dallas Crown Inc. slaughter mill to close. Some families in the area say that odors from Dallas Crown keep them indoors. The plant and its Belgian owners have survived numerous attempts to close it in recent years. Bill H.R.503 would shutter Dallas Crown and other slaughter plants in Fort Worth, TX and DeKalb, Il. Horse meat is not marketed as table fare in the US, but the slaughter plants process hundreds of horses each week and ship the meat overseas. Horse meat (pictured here) is considered a delicacy in some European countries, Japan and other places.

Noted Texans, such as oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and country singer Willie Nelson and gubernatorial hopeful Kinky Freidman have been activists on this issue for some time, accusing the slaughter plants of cruelly killing even young horses and call the processing operations an un-American slaughter of a cultural symbol. Nelson sat down recently with Bo Derek, Morgan Fairchild and Jennifer Lee Pryor and openly discussed this brutal practice which must be ended. There are many others who have come out in support of ending this often brutal slaughter.

So what can be done about it, and when?

FlyingFilly.com has put together a marvelous set of resources and facts to help you better understand the issues at hand and the actions that can be taken. Take a moment and see exactly where your representative stands on this, then contact your representatives directly and let them know how you feel. Read what Equine Advocates has to say about this issue and what you can do.

But whatever you decide, do it before September 7th, or you might be explaining fast-food signs like this to your kids in the near future.

It's in your hands - there's still time for you to act.

Our lexidiem is horsemeat.

tags: HR 503, Barbaro, Barbaro Burger, fast food, Congress, AHSPA, SAPL, basashi, lexidiem, jargontalk, Kentucky Derby, FlyingFilly, Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman, Bo Derek, Dallas Crown, John Sweeney, John Spratt, Ed Whitfield, John Ensign, Mary Landrieu