Is money the root of all evil in politics?

MoonHowler

Politico.com:

President Jimmy Carter blasted the role money has played in worsening the tone in Washington, and said the Supreme Court ruling last week has “exacerbated” the problems.

In a wide-ranging interview, Carter said Washington had experienced a “sea change” since when he was in office.

“There was a spirit of harmony there, friendship. … All of these things are gone, primarily due to a stupid decision that the Supreme Court made on Citizens United and that they exacerbated this past week with another ruling,” Carter said Friday. “And this massive infusion of almost unrestricted money going into the political campaign, a lot of it is spent just on negative commercials to tear down the reputation of your opponent and that polarization that occurs, that didn’t exist when I ran for office.”

Do we want rich people deciding the outcome of our elections?  Is this latest Supreme Court decision the ultimate in “money talks and bull sh!t walks?”  I have only seen politics become more rancorous and vicious since Citizens United was decided.  The acrimony is seen in local politics, state politics and nationally.

Jimmy Carter is right.  The comradery that used to exist when he was in office is no more.

 

POW flag made of bedsheets finally unfurled after 69 years

MoonHowler

Richmond times Dispatch:

The makeshift American flag, made 69 years ago from bedsheets, was a symbol of defiance, perseverance and patriotism to the American prisoners of war who were beaten, tortured and starved by their Japanese captors at the Omori POW Camp during World War II.

Richmond native James “Denny” Landrum, an electrician’s mate first class who had just turned 20 when captured, was among them.

He and his fellow submariners of the USS Grenadier were taken prisoner after their ship was attacked and eventually scuttled on April 22, 1943, off Penang, Malaysia.

Landrum eventually made it home. But the flag he helped to secretly create and later waved in an iconic photograph taken as he and his fellow POWs were liberated on Aug. 29, 1945, vanished over time.

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A brief look at PTSD

MoonHowler

PTSD seems to have a lot of rumors flying around about it. This mini video sheds a little light on the topic. It obviously isn’t just a military “disease.”

Do you know anyone with PTSD? How do you relate to them differently or do you?

Some supervisors have a hell of a nerve….

MoonHowler

lucy math

It appears that several of the BOCS took out after the Prince William County School Board with a vengeance. Jim Livingston, PWEA president, said it best when he  “suggested that supervisors are more concerned with political posturing than about the needs of the school system.”

From insidenova.com:

Yet those stark numbers didn’t keep some supervisors from grilling Johns and David Cline, associate superintendent for finance and support services, about why the school system isn’t doing more to lower class sizes – a topic both boards discussed during three joint board meetings held over the summer and fall.

During those meetings, supervisors asked Superintendent Steve Walts to come up with a plan to begin lowering class sizes. Walts presented a $3.5 million plan to lower class numbers in kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades, but said the school system would need extra money from the county to fund the changes.

But when supervisors failed to offer any extra funds, the school board scaled back their plans to only sixth-grade. Supervisors offered no sign Tuesday that any extra money would be coming from the county to lower class sizes next year – but that didn’t keep them from hammering school board members for not doing more.

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Jim Livingston addresses the BOCS: No more operating on the cheap

MoonHowler

Get Microsoft Silverlight

Listen to Jim Livingston, president of the Prince William Education Association.  Jim knows that Prince William County has been operating on the cheap for years. He knows that he and his colleagues have not received competitive compensation for years.   Jim also knows that class size counts.   These issues must be addressed this year.   Will the advertised tax rate suffice in fixing PWCS’s operating on the cheap problem?  No.  Not even close but it is a start.

Prince William Education Association has been sounding the alarm about salaries and class size for quite some time.  This is not a new phenomena and the local association has been vigilant about asking for these measures to be corrected.    Yet, if one glances about the blogosphere, one would think that a certain blog from Gainesville discovered the problem, all by their lonesome.  Teachers have been insulted and accused of being led around by the school board.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

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More killing at Fort Hood

MoonHowler

This video was recorded fairly soon after the incident. Much has been learned since then.

Washingtonpost.com:

A shooting at the Fort Hood military installation in Texas has left at least four people dead, including the gunman, and more than a dozen were injured, according to authorities.

The gunman, identified by multiple government sources as Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, took his own life, officials said.

Lopez, 33, of Kileen, Tex., was wearing an Army uniform at the time of the shooting, Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told reporters.

Four people were taken to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Tex., and another two are being brought there, said Glen Couchman, the facility’s chief medical officer. Their injuries that “range from stable to quite critical,” he said.

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