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Washington Post
October 31, 2005
Amy Joyce

Wal-Mart gets sweetheart deal from US Feds

Family trying to remake US public education guilty of violating child labor laws

"The Bush Labor Department chose to do an unprecedented favor for Wal-Mart, despite the fact it is well known for violating labor laws, including child labor laws," Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the lawmaker who requested an investigation, said in a statement. He also said such an arrangement could allow the nation's largest employer to cover up evidence of a violation and would discourage employees who might fear retribution from filing a complaint.

Also see:

Walton Family Foundation

Philanthropy the Wal-Mart way

[ link ] Read the story >

Slate.com
October 25, 2005
Meghan O'Rourke

Theories of the Erotic

Male traditionalists wring their hands at the "grim" lives of young women.

The need to tell young women how to behave often comes over middle-aged men—it's an itch right up there with buying a flashy new car. And [Harvey] Mansfield's case for modesty is merely a new version of, say, Leon Kass' argument in "The End of Courtship"...

Also see:

Harvey Mansfield

[ link ] Read the story >

Mpls Star-Trib, Op-ed
October 23, 2005
Rob Levine

'Case' for vouchers ignores many facts

John Brandl (Opinion Exchange, Oct. 17) is wrong when he states that there are few "principled objections" remaining to giving poor kids the choice to attend private schools. Here are a few "principled" objections:

1 New studies, including ones from the federal government, have shown that students at charter and voucher schools do worse on standardized tests and have smaller academic gains than students who attend regular public schools.

2 Private and charter schools are much less accountable and reliable than public schools. In Milwaukee, which has the nation's largest voucher program, there has been no ongoing monitoring of private schools since 1995, though they got more than $83 million in public subsidy this year alone. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel series detailed the woes of voucher schools: "Based on firsthand observations ... at least 10 of the 106 schools ... appeared to lack the ability, resources, knowledge or will to offer children even a mediocre education. ... Nine other schools would not allow reporters to observe their work ... . " In Minnesota two charter school operators have been convicted of fraud. In California last year an operator of 60 schools also went out of business just as the academic year was set to begin.

Also see:

Public School Privatization and Commercialization

[ link ] Read the story >

ThinkProgress.org
October 22, 2005

Yes, Mr. Kristol, That’s A Crime

Bill Kristol has run out of spin for Bush administration officials involved in the leak scandal. Today on Fox News Sunday:

" Scooter Libby or Karl Rove are going to be judged criminals for perhaps acknowledging her name, perhaps knowing, though there’s no evidence they did, that she was a covert operative…That’s a crime?"

Yes, outing a covert CIA operative is a crime. So is obstruction of justice and perjury.

Also see:

William Kristol

[ link ] Read the story >

News for Real
October 21, 2005
Stephen Pizzo

Welcome to Faith-Based America

Why not just streamline hiring at federally funded faith-based organizations by requiring that everyone's religious affiliation be tattooed on their arms?

As part of President Bush's "faith-based initiative," US taxpayers gave the Salvation Army's children services division $47 million this year -- 95% of its total budget. Several Salvation Army employees refused to take the Salvation Army's pledge "proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," reveal which church they belong to or identify gay co-workers -- and were summarily fired.

Let's parse this event out. The money came from American taxpayers, many of whom are not Christians. Nevertheless the workers were fired for refusing to pledge allegiance to the Christian prophet. They were also fired for failing to disclose their own religious affiliations, if any. And finally, they were fired for refusing to rat out their co-workers.

Also see:

Faith-based Watch

[ link ] Read the story >

ConWebWatch
October 10, 2005
Terry Krepel

Supreme Confusion

Accuracy in Media attacks WorldNetDaily! The Media Research Center bashes NBC for not reporting criticism of President Bush! NewsMax accuses Robert Bork of borking! The Harriet Miers nomination is turning the ConWeb topsy-turvy.

[ link ] Read the story >

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
October 16, 2005
Alan J. Borsuk

Scrutiny heightens in voucher program

State kicks out school, probes 3 others in new show of enforcement

State Department of Public Instruction officials are questioning whether academic programs at three schools in Milwaukee's groundbreaking voucher program meet minimum standards set by state law to be considered schools.

Two of the schools have been notified they will be dropped from the program, although officials of the two say they expect to reverse that decision. The third has been formally asked to document aspects of its program, but no decision has been made on action.

Also see:

Public School Privatization and Commercialization

[ link ] Read the story >

New York Times
October 17, 2005
Richard W. Stevenson

National Center for Policy Analysis fires Bruce Bartlett for taking on Bush

In Sign of Conservative Split, a Commentator Is Dismissed

In the latest sign of the deepening split among conservatives over how far to go in challenging President Bush, Bruce Bartlett, a Republican commentator who has been increasingly critical of the White House, was dismissed on Monday as a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research group based in Dallas.

In a statement, the organization said the decision was made after Mr. Bartlett supplied its president, John C. Goodman, with the manuscript of his forthcoming book, "The Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."

Also see:

Natonal Center for Policy Analysis

Natonal Center for Policy Analysis

[ link ] Read the story >

New York Obsever
October 15, 2005
Ben Smith and Lizzy Ratner

The Trouble With Harriet

Revolting Right Wing Recalls Manhattan 12; Intellectuals in Snit Resent Bush's Lawyer; Bork: ‘Slap in Face to Conservative Movement’

Conservative intellectuals have made a virtue of loyalty, and their rebellions are like plagues of locusts: rare and intense.

Before the uproar over President George W. Bush’s latest Supreme Court pick, Harriet Miers, the conservative elite’s most memorable recent breach came when Mr. Bush’s father broke his 1988 campaign pledge to oppose any new taxes. But the Miers rebellion reminded some older conservatives of another moment: July 26, 1971, when a dozen leaders of the small, marginal conservative movement met in William F. Buckley’s East Side apartment (where else?) to craft a public response to President Richard Nixon’s trip to Communist China.

Also see:

Also from the Observer: Federalists See in Miers a Missed Opportunity; Not From Their Garden

Federalist Society

Conservative Legal Movement

[ link ] Read the story >

Washington Post
October 15, 2005
Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi

Norquist, Sheldon, Reed caught up in another Abramoff scandal

How a lobbyist stacked the deck

...In May, eLottery hired Abramoff's firm, Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, for $100,000 a month, according to lobbying reports. In the following months, Abramoff directed the company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations, faxes, e-mails and court records show. The groups included Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform; Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition; companies affiliated with [Ralph] Reed; and a Seattle Orthodox Jewish foundation, Toward Tradition.

...Abramoff asked eLottery to write a check in June 2000 to Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC). He also routed eLottery money to a Reed company, using two intermediaries, which had the effect of obscuring the source.

The eLottery money went first to Norquist's foundation, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and then through a second group in Virginia Beach called the Faith and Family Alliance, before it reached Reed's company, Century Strategies. Norquist's group retained a share of the money as it passed through.

"I have 3 checks from elot: (1) 2 checks for $80K payable to ATR and (2) 1 check to TVC for $25K," Abramoff's assistant Susan Ralston e-mailed him on June 22, 2000. "Let me know exactly what to do next. Send to Grover? Send to Rev. Lou?"

Minutes later Abramoff responded, saying that the check for Sheldon's group should be sent directly to Sheldon, but that the checks for Norquist required special instructions: "Call Grover, tell him I am in Michigan and that I have two checks for him totaling 160 and need a check back for Faith and Family for $150K."

...Another check issued in 2000 by eLottery at Abramoff's direction wound up helping to fund the Scotland golfing trip attended by Rudy and DeLay. On May 25, 2000, as the trip got underway, the company sent $25,000 to the National Center for Public Policy Research, where Abramoff was a board member at the time. Along with money from another Abramoff client, that payment covered most of the Scotland travel costs, according to records and interviews.

Also see:

Grover Norquist

Americans for Tax Reform

Toward Tradition

National Center for Public Policy Research

National Center for Public Policy Research: Tom DeLay's Right Arm

[ link ] Read the story >

CampusProgress.org
October 11, 2005
Jacob Fawcett

When Campus Cops Attack

Student and Air Force veteran Tariq Khan got beaten down. So did the Bill of Rights.

When military recruiters set up a kiosk at George Mason University on September 29th, Tariq Khan, a Pakistani American and Air Force veteran, assumed that he was allowed to protest. After all, GMU is a public university and the Johnson Center, where he stood, is a public facility. Even more notably, the school itself is named after George Mason, the father of the Bill of Rights who wrote that freedom of speech “is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”

Only an hour later, Tariq sat in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center with an untreated head wound on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. What went wrong?

Also see:

George Mason University

Aggregated grants to George Mason University

[ link ] Read the story >

Black Commentator
October 5, 2005
Margaret Kimberley

Bill Bennett's Fantasy: Freak in Life; Demon in Imagination

Comedian Richard Pryor posed a question about how and whether America saw black people in its future. He noted that futuristic science fiction films rarely if ever had black characters. Was this absence a creative oversight or were we being given a hint?

...If Bennett really feels that aborting all black fetuses is immoral and reprehensible, the words would never have entered his mind. The comments were William Bennett’s own Freudian slip that gave us a frightening peek at the secret desires of many white Americans.

Also see:

William J. Bennett

Roger Ailes: Star Parker Does the Freak

[ link ] Read the story >

LA Times
October 10, 2005
Mark Mazzetti

Air Force Chaplain Policy Cited in Faith Bias Case

Guidelines that may have encouraged Christian evangelizing were rescinded in August, according to a lawyer for the service.

The Air Force until August provided guidelines to chaplains that officials believe may have encouraged them to aggressively advocate Christianity throughout the ranks, according to a letter written by a top military lawyer in a lawsuit over religious discrimination.

The Air Force for years has struggled to defend itself against charges of religious hostility and accusations that chaplains at the service's academy regularly proselytized non-Christian cadets.

Also see:

Faith-based Watch

[ link ] Read the story >

The Daily Howler
October 9, 2005

On PBS, Hedrick Smith gets an F

...we’re working on last week’s two-hour PBS special, Making Schools Work, about public schools which have success while serving low-income minority kids. According to moderator Hedrick Smith, one such school is Charlotte’s Spaugh Middle School. But uh-oh! This past spring, only 57.7 percent of Spaugh’s black eighth graders passed North Carolina’s end-of-grade reading test; statewide, 80.5 percent of black eighth graders passed! Nor were things better on the seventh grade level. At Spaugh, 58.2 percent of black seventh graders passed, compared to 76.2 percent of black kids statewide. Statewide, 92.3 of white seventh graders passed (94.3 percent of white eighth graders). Needless to say, these facts weren’t mentioned in Making Schools Work. To check data using the official North Carolina state report, you know what to do—just click here.

Without criticizing the staff at Spaugh, why would a school with these results be singled out as a “school that works?” With a whole nation of schools to choose from, why on earth were we asked to ponder the great reforms which Spaugh hath wrought? We’re not sure, but the press has played schoolboy games for decades when it ponders the schools of minority kids. Smith’s report made viewers feel good—and that often seemed to be its chief purpose.

Also see:

Public School Privatization and Commercialization

[ link ] Read the story >

AmericaBlog
October 7, 2005

Bork Borks Harriet

Well, well, well. Look who's doing the borking now:

Robert Bork - whose nomination to the high court was rejected by the Senate in 1987 - called the choice of Miers "a disaster on every level."

"It's a little late to develop a constitutional philosophy or begin to work it out when you're on the court already," Bork said Friday on MSNBC's "The Situation with Tucker Carlson." "It's kind of a slap in the face to the conservatives who've been building up a conservative legal movement for the last 20 years."

Also see:

Grants to "Bork" (contains one to Ellen)

[ link ] Read the story >

Salon.com
October 6, 2005
Gary Kamiya

The road to hell

In the definitive book about the Iraq war, liberal hawk George Packer tells the whole story of America's worst foreign-policy debacle -- and reveals how good intentions can go terribly wrong

...In effect, the far-right AEI was running the White House's Iraq policy -- and the AEI's war-at-all-costs imperatives drove the Pentagon, too.

Also see:

American Enterprise Institute

American Enterprise Institute

[ link ] Read the story >

Washington Post
October 5, 2005
David Broder

Executive VP for Federalist Society "on leave" to lobby for SC Miers confirmation

It's too soon to judge this nomination. But my guess is that in the end it is the liberals who will have the most misgivings about Miers.

I came to that conclusion after a breakfast interview -- by coincidence the morning of the president's announcement -- with Leonard Leo, who is on leave as executive vice president of the Federalist Society to work with the White House on judicial confirmation issues.

The Federalist Society, an organization of conservative lawyers, has been influential in staffing the Bush administration and recommending candidates for the federal bench. Leo came late to the breakfast from a conference call, in which he was attempting to quash the arguments other conservative leaders were making against Miers.

Also see:

Federalist Society

Federalist Society

[ link ] Read the story >

MediaMatters.org
October 5, 2005

Media overlooked Dobson's "confidential" information on Miers

In reporting Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson's announced support for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, various media outlets -- including the Associated Press and The Washington Post -- overlooked Dobson's October 5 statement that his support for the nomination was due, at least in part, to "confidential" information that he had been "privy to." The reports omitted Dobson's comments despite mentioning concerns from many other prominent conservatives that they don't know enough about Miers's views on social issues such as abortion. Dobson's purported inside information would be significant, because both Republican and Democratic critics of Miers have noted that she has a thin track record, having never served as a judge, and have expressed concern that she will follow the lead of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and refuse during her nomination hearing to shed light on her views on such hot-button issues as abortion rights. Even President Bush has dodged questions about whether he has asked Miers about her position on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision protecting the right to abortion.

Also see:

Focus on the Family

[ link ] Read the story >

NY Times
October 4, 2005
Michael Winerip

One Secret to Better Test Scores: Make State Reading Tests Easier

PARENTS are delighted when state test scores go up...Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has repeatedly cited the rise in the city's 2005 fourth-grade test results as proof that his school programs are a success...

However, those in the trenches...tend to view the scores differently...

Take Frances Rosenstein, a respected veteran principal of Public School 159 in the Bronx. Ms. Rosenstein has every right to brag about her school's 2005 test scores. The percentage of her fourth graders who were at grade level in English was 40 points higher than in 2004.

How did she do it? ..."The state test was easier," she said. Ms. Rosenstein, who has been principal 13 years and began teaching in 1974, says the 2005 state English test was unusually easy and the 2004 test unusually hard. "I knew it the minute I opened the test booklets," she said.

Also see:

Public School Privatization and Commercialization

[ link ] Read the story >

NCRP
October 3, 2005

Waltons’ and Wal-Mart’s Charitable Giving Acts as Facade for Conservative Political Agenda & Personal Financial Gain

NCRP report profiles Walton family and Wal-Mart corporate philanthropy that furthers personal and corporate bottom lines

A new NCRP report reveals more than just charitable intentions in Wal-Mart’s seemingly generous, but systematically self-interested philanthropy. The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy chronicles the philanthropic and political activities of the Walton family through their family foundation and through their Wal-Mart corporate empire, painting a picture of a family and corporation with increasing financial and political prowess.

Also see:

Walton Family Foundation

Walton Family Foundation grant recipients

[ link ] Read the story >

St. Paul Pioneer Press
October 3, 2005
Beth Silver

Charter school owners found guilty of fraud

Minneapolis couple diverted money from Right Step Academy

A federal grand jury Monday convicted the onetime owners of a former St. Paul charter school on charges they defrauded the school to pay for vacations, luxury cars and private homes.

After a three-week trial and nine hours of deliberation, the jury convicted William and Shirley Pierce of Minneapolis on all 13 counts, including conspiracy, filing false tax returns, and mail and wire fraud.

According to evidence presented at the trial in Minneapolis, the Pierces diverted money from the now-defunct Right Step Academy, using it for Caribbean cruises, clothes, and furniture. The Pierces, both 46, also used academy funds to buy charter schools in North Carolina and Arizona, and to buy houses in both states, prosecutors said.

Also see:

Public School Privatization and Commercialization

[ link ] Read the story >

Wall Street Journal
October 3, 2005
June Kronholz

Congress Wades Into Campus Politics

Republicans Push for Academic Bill of Rights To Ensure 'Dissenting Viewpoints' in Class

College campuses can be political hotbeds. And that has some members of Congress thinking they should get involved.

Some Republicans are pushing a measure through the House of Representatives meant to ensure that students hear "dissenting viewpoints" in class and are protected from retaliation because of their politics or religion. Colleges say the measure isn't needed, but with Congress providing billions of dollars to higher education, they are worried.

The measure's chief promoter, Marxist-turned-conservative activist David Horowitz, says an academic bill of rights will protect students from possible political "hectoring" and discrimination by their professors. "We have enough institutions in America that are political. Let's keep [universities] above that fray," he adds

Also see:

[ link ] Read the story >

MSN Money
October 2, 2005
Bill Fleckenstein

Faith-based charity fuels housing bubble

Empty houses, falling prices: A boom dies

"Homebuilders across the country, including Dominion Homes, have found a way around a Federal law barring [home] sellers from giving money directly to buyers for a down payment. They route the money through charities such as the Nehemiah Corp. of America, a faith-based group in California. Nehemiah provides down payments for both existing and new homes, and its relationship with Dominion is the largest of its kind in central Ohio between a builder and charity.

Also see:

Faith-based watch

Seeing the Forest: A heck of a lot of money has been slathered on politicians in Ohio from individuals associated with Dominion Homes

[ link ] Read the story >

Washington Monthly
October 2, 2005
Paul Glastris

Bad Gamble

The fallout continues from William Bennett's on-air speculation about the crime-reducing potential of aborting African-American fetuses. Today, the virtuecrat-turned-radio-host resigned as chairman of the online education firm K-12, saying the move was necessary because "I am in the midst of a political battle based on a coordinated campaign willfully distorting my views, my record, and my statements."

Also see:

William J. Bennett

[ link ] Read the story >

National Journal
October 2, 2005
Peter H. Stone

Grover and Jack's Long Adventure

About once a month since 2001, Grover Norquist has invited a top Bush administration official or a Republican congressional leader to dine with him and some 20 or 30 corporate lobbyists who help subsidize Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group that Norquist heads.

The dinners at Norquist's Washington, D.C., home aren't cheap: The lobbyists pay ATR between $10,000 and $25,000 a year for the privilege of attending several of the intimate get-togethers, which have featured the likes of White House political guru Karl Rove and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, according to several lobbyists who have attended.

From time to time over the years, the K Street crowd has been joined at the dinners by other ATR supporters, including the leaders of some casino-owning Indian tribes who were top clients of one of Norquist's oldest friends, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Also see:

Grover Norquist

[ link ] Read the story >

TPM Cafe
September 30, 2005
Reed Hundt

A true story about Bill Bennett

When I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country.

...since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education.

Also see:

William J. Bennett

[ link ] Read the story >

Tapped
September 28, 2005
Ezra Klein

Charles Murray: Katrina Victims "Inert Women Doing Nothing For Their Children"

. . . I've no idea where Murray got the idea that the New Orleans evacuees lacked jobs rather than cars and social skills rather than transportation -- from deep within his own prejudices, I'd guess.

Also see:

[ link ] Read the story >

MediaMatters.org
September 27, 2005

Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

Also see:

William J. Bennett

Grants to "William J. Bennett"

[ link ] Read the story >

Boston Globe
September 24, 2005
Rick Klein

Rebuilding plan paving way for conservative goals

Republican lawmakers in Congress have tried repeatedly in recent years to allow children to use federally funded vouchers to attend private schools. They have been defeated seven times since 1998.

...President Bush's reconstruction package for the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina includes nearly $500 million for vouchers that children can use at private schools anywhere in the nation.

Also see:

Public School Privatization and Commercialization

[ link ] Read the story >

CBS
September 21, 2005
Public Eye

The Bias Debate: Evening News Exec Producer Defends Piece To Conservative Critics

"My problem with many of the MRC's [Media Research Center] complaints is that it regularly exaggerates the impact of whatever it disagrees with. If a President Clinton or a President Carter were in the exact same situation as this President, the MRC wouldn't peep about this script. It is a much more biased organization than any institution in the MSM."

Also see:

Media Research Center

Media Research Center

L. Brent Bozell III

[ link ] Read the story >

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