Apparently Bill O’Reilly took quite a lot of heat from the Right over his article in Parade Magazine last month entitled What President Obama Can Teach America’s Kids. In fact, he dedicated a segment of one of his shows to discuss the article and defend what he had said.
O’Reilly speaks to the humble beginnings of President Obama and the adversity he faced. He outlines this adversity in Lessons 1-5 and uses the theme of forgiveness, respect,persistance, hard work and possibilty. The respect O’Reilly shows for Obama is apparent. He rises above the usual claptrap and emphases that children growing up today face many thingsmost kids 50 years ago didn’t have to deal with.
It is a very worthwhile read, especially after hearing so much negativity.
The ACLU is now fighting 7 loitering charges stemming from arrests made near Coverstone. The names of 3 more Latinos have been added to the already existing request for charges to be dropped.
“We have two problems here,” said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia. “One is that there appears to be a pattern of using this ordinance to target the Latino community, and two, the loitering ordinance [overall] is unconstitutional.”
It was the second time in four weeks the ACLU has acted on behalf of Latinos in the county. A similar motion to dismiss loitering charges filed last month on behalf of four men stated that the county’s loitering ordinance is unconstitutional. Both motions are set to go before a Prince William General District Court judge Oct. 27.
This appears to be a wait and see situation. The 3 men live in Coverstone Apartments. Their attorney, Daniel Voss, reported that the men were doing nothing wrong and were standing outside the complex on a grassy area. However, something seems odd:
All the men were released after the incidents. If, however, they had been detained in the jail, they would have been questioned about their immigration status under Prince William’s agreement with federal immigration authorities, said Voss, who would not comment on whether the men are in the United States legally.
Is that how the Resolution works? Isn’t a person’s status checked post arrest? Does a person have to be jailed to have status checked? I must not have understood the Resolution after all–or are the men arrested legal residents?
Candidate McDonnell would like for nothing better than for his thesis issue to go away. Anti will just do its small part to see that that doesn’t happen. Some 18 year old posting his world view in a college essay might be forgiven. A 34 year old father who is a vet, not so easily overlooked. McDonnell shows us that as a younger man, he was an anachronism. 20 years later, things haven’t gotten a bit better, despite the attempt at the make-over.
See Bob’s Blueprint. This new ad takes a close, interactive look at some of the political implications of McDonnell’s world view.
Earlier in the week, the damage control went pretty much like so:
According to the Washington Post, former state GOP chairman Patrick M. McSweeney has stated that there are three ways to lose an election:
Prince William County Public Schools Position on the President’s Speech to Students on September 8
Thursday, September 3, 2009
As you may be aware from news media reports, the President has scheduled a Webcast message to students for noon on Tuesday, September 8. Many are asking about what will be happening in PWCS classrooms. There is no mandate or direction to principals or teachers from the PWCS administration to participate in this address from the President. Like many other similar information items we receive from the U.S. Department of Education, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), or other education-related organizations, they are passed along FYI as a potential instructional resource that teachers may choose to use if it is appropriate for their instruction and fits their lesson plans.
This position is consistent with the guidance of the VDOE. Schools that may have classes which choose to participate in the Webcast are encouraged to make reasonable accommodations for students whose parents may object to the viewing of the speech by their children during the school day. It is expected that the text of the speech will be posted on the White House Web site before it is given for parents and educators to review beforehand.
Nice job, Dr. Walts, nice job. NOT! He certainly squirmed out of that one. Instead of explaining what was going on, and that the canned robo plans were not counter-revolutionary materials, he dumped the entire ball of wax squarely on the building principals and the teachers. Welcome back teachers, and bend over…we are going to get this over with first thing.
Dr. Walts should have made every attempt to assuage people’s fears. He could have reassured parents that any materials used would not be politically objectionable. He has that opportunity as superintendent of Prince William County Schools. Anyone who makes a quarter of a million a year could have done a lot better than this. Instead, the teachers and principals will be down in the trenches on the first day of school, when they should be setting the stage for the new year, putting out forest fires that should have been put out by the Instructor in Chief, Dr. Walts.
Having backbone should not be this painful. We are speaking of the President of the United States telling kids to do their homework, listen to their parents, teachers, bus drivers, and to be all they can be in the classroom and on the playground. Good grief.
This gem was located on the Huffington Post. It has to be a joke. There are not this many nut burgers in the world.
My favorite character:
Right here. I got a book here called the U.S.S. Constitution. I’m sure everybody’s seen this before. And you know what? I’ve read this book three times now, and I’ve referenced it dozens of times and I can’t find one little paragraph in here that says the government has the right to take over our health care
.
Do we assume this is because people don’t like Obama? What makes people act like this?
And people wonder why congressmen are now meeting in small groups rather than large circuses?
Where is Frank Wolf’s town hall meeting? Frankly Frank, I don’t blame you for not having one.
Where are the voices of reason? Liberal, conservative, or anywhere in between, where are the normal people who just want to solve problems?
What a great idea! President Obama will be addressing the nation’s kids at noon on September 8, which is when most schools start back up for the 2009-2010 school year. He will be telling them to study hard, set goals, and all those other inspirational things that we adults say to kids to try to get them motivated for the next 180 plus school days.
The radical right and its best pot stirrer, Fox News, are all wrought up now over President Obama’s plans. This will be the first time a sitting president has addressed the nation’s school children, so apparently change is a very difficult thing for many folks. What seems to be adding fuel to this new fire is some accompanying optional lesson plans prepared by the DOE. There is an elementary set and a secondary set. They look like any standard set of DOE lesson plans to me. No new news here.
There are even people on a particular (choke-ahem) news show suggesting that parents might want to keep their kids home so they don’t become indoctrinated. WHAT? There is some serious paranoia floating around out there. Was President Bush endoctrinating kids on 9-11 when he was reading the goat book to a classroom of school children? How would that excuse read: Der Scule, My little johnny did not go to this here scule becuz the prezident wanted to git in his brain?
Snide remarks like Superintendent in Chief are being hurled about also. Well yea, What a great mission–give every kid a good talking to about how to succeed in school. Radical thought there. Hopefully, President Obama will be a good role model as an instructional leader. Hopefully he will set the stage for a successful school year. Maybe some kids who would otherwise be tuned out and turned off might, just might listen, and be inspired. And if 1 kid changes who might otherwise be a drop out, mission accomplished.
This newest Radical Right drum beating is enraging because it hurts the kids of America.
So, here is what I know. Corey gave an interview, early this morning, on WMAL. The focus was on the 1.5 million dollar grant to create affordable housing. So Corey, maybe thinking this was Obama stimulus money, spoke, clearly, before he truly understood the question, therefore prohibiting a thoughtful and knowledgeable answer.
Back in the Bush era, Housing and Urban Development was handing out money to blighted neighborhoods, i.e., The Neighborhood Stabilizaton Fund. Prince William County recieved approximately 5 million dollars to help infuse some new life into some communities that were in dire need. Fast forward to today, apparently there was still some money left in this fund. The federal govt. hands over money to States, the State of VA gets 1.5 million.
This is where Corey loses his fact compass because during this interview on WMAL, he keeps talking about how government shouldn’t be in ” the business of being a landlord.” First of all, the Prince William County government wrote a letter supporting/endorsing that this grant money be given to Catholics for Housing, a nonprofit organization, NOT a government entity, who have an excellent track record of fiscal responsiblity and success in putting public servants into affordable housing. Second, this government is absolutely in the business of being landlords, go to any base and you will find a myriad of government housing that our soldiers live and raise their families in.
4 former Republicans weigh in on the McDonnell question, which boils down to whether or not he is the same Bob McDonnell of 1989 who wrote an academic paper that was very socially outdated at the time, not to mention today. McDonnell has tried to tell us he is a different Bob now and that his voting record speaks for itself. Former colleagues seem to be telling us something different.
Speakers: Sen. Marty Williams (R – Newport News), Del. Jim Dillard (R – Fairfax), Katherine Waddell (actually a former “R” and current “I”) and Sen. Russ Potts (R – Winchester) held a conference call with reporters to comment on Bob McDonnell’s newly discovered thesis and his record as a legislator.
