Bush reading program gets failing gradeBEN FELLERAssociated PressWASHINGTON – A scorching internal review of the Bush administration’s billion-dollar-a-year reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.

The government audit is unsparing in its view that the Reading First program has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.

It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director’s views, and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money.

In one e-mail, the director told a staff member to come down hard on a company he didn’t support, according to the report released Friday by the department’s inspector general.

“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,” the program director wrote, the report says.

That official, Chris Doherty, is resigning in the coming days, department spokeswoman Katherine McLane said Friday. Asked if his quitting was in response to the report, she said only that Doherty is returning to the private sector after five years at the agency. Doherty declined to comment.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pledged to swiftly adopt all the audit’s recommendations. She also pledged a review of every Reading First grant her agency has approved.

“When something undermines the credibility of this department, or the standing of any program, I’m going to spring into action,” Spellings told The Associated Press.

Reading First aims to help young children read through scientifically proven programs, and the department considers it a jewel of No Child Left Behind, Bush’s education law. Just this week, a separate review found the effort is helping schools raise achievement.

But from the start, the program has been dogged by accusations of impropriety, leading to several ongoing audits. The new report from the Office of Inspector General – an independent arm of the Education Department – calls into question the program’s credibility.

The ranking Democrat on the House education committee was furious.

“They should fire everyone who was involved in this,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. “This was not an accident, this was not an oversight. This was an intentional effort to corrupt the process.”

Spellings said the problems happened in the early days of the program, which began in 2002, before she was secretary. She said those responsible have left the agency or been reassigned.

About 1,500 school districts have received $4.8 billion in Reading First grants.

The audit found 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.

The report does not 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, or DI. In one case, the report says, he was told a review panel was stacked with people who backed that program.

“That’s the funniest part – yes!” he responded in e-mail dating to 2002. “You know the line from Casablanca, ‘I am SHOCKED that there is gambling going on in this establishment!’ Well, ‘I am SHOCKED that there are pro-DI people on this panel!’”

Spellings took issue with the use of such e-mails in the audit. She said they could be used to draw unfair conclusions about a person’s intentions.

The inspector general rejected that. It said the e-mails were written by Doherty in his role as director, and there is no evidence they were inaccurate or pulled out of context.

The audit also faults other officials who had a big hand in Reading First, including Susan 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. That, however, is just what the audit says has happened.

“I’m doing everything I can at this point,” she said. “I can’t undo what’s been done.”

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/breaking_news/15584592.htm

I’ll leave it at that. For now.

You are pretty god damned judgemental for such a devout christian.

Hospitals are required to provide emergency stabilization care ONLY. They DO NOT treat chronic conditions.

You indirectly imply that I lead an “unhealthy lifestyle”. You earlier on this forum posted an outright lie as to my lifestyle.

If you can prove I lead an “unhealthy lifestyle” do it. Otherwise I invite you to keep your baseless judgements to yourself.

Employment? I work for myself thank you very much. I don’t yet make enough to afford health insurance. See? It’s a lot harder and more expensive for a person on their own to get insurance. This is particularly true if you have pre existing or chronic health issues.

Despite your assertion, I am not and have not been on any sort of public assistance. Thanks to the “welfare reform” that people like you screamed for, it is virtually impossible to get on disability. I have not so far even tried.If you wanna further play character assassination, I WILL accomodate you.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/breaking_news/15585135.htm

Children who lived in car also were given crack, police sayBY TIM POTTERThe Wichita EagleThe two children had already endured enough — living out of a car with their mother. Now, their situation has gotten more disturbing, Wichita police say.

Police suspect that the same children living out of the car later received crack cocaine from their mother and her boyfriend, Lt. T.K. Bridges said today.

Police have yet to arrest anyone, Bridges said.

The mother is about 32. The boyfriend, who is about 41, had been in the custody of immigration agents, Bridges said.

Investigators were awaiting the results of hospital drug testing on the two siblings, a 9 year-old and a 10-year-old, Bridges said.

A little over a week ago, police disclosed that they took some children into protective custody after they had been living out a car — moving from park to park — when not living in a motel. They hadn’t had a good bath, and they were often eating instant noodles, police said.

Earlier, police had said there were three children living in the car. On Friday, Bridges said he knew about only two children.

The two children Bridges knew about — who have been put in the custody of their father and stepmother after initially being taken to the Wichita Children’s Home — allegedly received the drug while visiting their mother at a motel where she was staying with her boyfriend, Bridges said.

A custody agreement allowed the children to visit their mother under their father’s supervision, Bridges said.

It’s uncommon for children so young to be given illegal drugs, Bridges said.

Asked what could motivate an adult to give crack cocaine to children, Bridges said: “I don’t think that anybody can figure that out… because it certainly doesn’t make sense to any reasonable person.”

Police said a school social worker at Linwood Elementary contacted them about the drug suspicion.

Earlier, staff at Jefferson Elementary had reported to police that they suspected the children were living out of a car.

Anyone who has information that they think might help investigators should call 911, Bridges said.

——————————————————————————–

You’re saying that all medical conditions of those who can’t afford health care are caused by unhealthy lifestyles?

If so, does that mean that those who are insured have healthy lifestyles?

As Hank (poorly) pointed out, anyone can receive emergency medical treatment, but as Capn pointed out, that doesn’t cover conditions and diseases. And most people are billed for that medical treatment eventually.

What makes so-called “socialized” medicine better than what we have in the U.S. is that those countries rate high on preventative medicine. An even better term is “wellness.” People are checked and treated early-on, which keeps them from major treatment later.

The really ironic thing is that we have those like Hank who don’t want a national health care plan because they don’t want to pay for someone else’s healthcare, then they cry now because they’re already paying for it. No matter what happens, everyone pays for it, through taxes, health insurance, doctor and hospital visits or medicine.

Isn’t better care important?

If this statemet is true gentle people, where does the responsibility lie?

Where does it say I should have to pay for someone’s unhealthy lifestyle?

Hank

The focus is only on money – not quality care. Otherwise, why would so many people die from medical errors every year?

1. Most people that are on welfare work harder to stay on it than they would if they had a job.

Unknown “fact.”

This is impossible to quantify. It’s like saying how many raindrops fell in the last shower over your yard. Hank has no idea “how hard” someone works either on their job or trying to stay on welfare. In fact it would be very difficult to ascertain even under the rigorous conditions imposed by a research study.

2. It’s easier to live off the state in this country than in any other country in the world.

Inconsistency.

In previous posts, Hank and others like him are always talking about “socialist” Europe. Well, if Europe is so socialist, wouldn’t it be easier to live off the state there?

3. Now then, if for some reason you should be involved in an automobile accident that results in injuries serious enough to seek medical attention, You’re covered.

Card stacking (”cherry picking”)

If you get cancer, an emergency room isn’t going to give you chemotherapy. Lupus, arthritis, MS, alzheimer’s, down’s syndrome, parkinson’s . . . ditto.

4. You are living in the greatest country in the world.

Overall, not provable, pure speculation.

In terms of wealth and standard of living, this statement is patently false.

From Wikipedia: “On comprehensive measures such as the UN Human Development Index the United States is always in the top ten, currently ranking number ten, though generally ranked lower than the Scandinavian countries, Ireland, Belgium, Canada, Australia, and (until recently) Japan; Canada and Norway have alternately held the top spot for some time. On the Human Poverty Index the US is ranked worst among the selection of 17 wealthiest countries, scoring badly on all counts escept long term unemployment.”

5. We have the greatest health care delivery system in the world.

Factually untrue.

What good is great medical providers if you can’t pay for them? According to Joan Retsinas “America’s Dwindling Middle Class,” “families earning 50 – 75 thousand a year think of themselves as middle class . . . yet one-third reported trouble paying medical bills. For families earning more than 75,000, 21 percent reported trouble.” One of the leading causes of bankrupcy in this country is a medical crisis.

Jim Hightower, “Health Care Morality”: “We the People pay 1.2 trillion a year to a corporate health-care complex (more than any other people pay) and rank only 37th in the world in the quality of health care we receive.”

But I missed your Hank-isms there for awhile.

Come back again when you want your ass kicked . . .

Yeah, and your point is? So what else do you think needs to be included?

Here’s the first paragraph:” The U.S. health-care system is doing poorly by virtually every measure. That’s the conclusion of a national report card on the U.S. health-care system, released Sept. 20. Although there are pockets of excellence, the report, commissioned by the non-profit and non-partisan Commonwealth Fund, gave the U.S. system low grades on outcomes, quality of care, access to care, and efficiency, compared to other industrialized nations or generally accepted standards of care. Bottom line: U.S. health care barely passes with an overall grade of 66 out of 100.”

What about this?”

“The report found that quality of care and access to care varied widely across the country, and it noted substantial gaps between national averages and pockets of excellence. The authors concluded that, if the U.S. improved and standardized health-care performance and access, approximately 100,000 to 150,000 lives could be saved annually, along with $50 billion to $100 billion a year.”

And here’s the finish of it:”Among the reports’ findings:

–Only 49% of U.S. adults receive the recommended preventive and screening tests for their age and sex.

–Only half of patients with congestive heart failure receive written discharge instructions regarding care following hospitalization.

–Nationwide, preventable hospital admissions for patients with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and asthma were twice as high as the level achieved by the best performing states.

–Hospital 30-day re-admission rates for Medicare patients ranged from 14% to 22% across regions.

–One-third of all adults under 65 have problems paying their medical bills or have medical debt they are paying over time.

–Only 17% of U.S. doctors use electronic medical records, compared with 80% in the top three countries.

–On multiple measures across quality of care and access to care, there is a wide gap between low income and the uninsured, and those with higher incomes and insurance. On average, measures for low income and uninsured people in these areas would have to improve by one-third to close the gap.

–As a share of total health expenditures, insurance administrative costs in the U.S. were more than three times the rate in countries with integrated payment systems.”

I agree that it is difficult to live on welfare. Most people that are on it work harder to stay on it than they would if they had a job.

It’s easier to live off the state in this country than in any other country in the world.

If I had a dependent child I would do every thing I could to get a job with benefits.

Hank

Check into the Medicaid guidelines. Not all who receive some sort of assistance qualify for Medicaid. Children are those most often covered.

Also, it’s difficult for someone to live on welfare. You might check that out, too.

Bullshit JR. Federal law mandates that any emergency room evaluate and treat you for any health care emergency that you might have.

I pay for it with my taxes.

Now then, if for some reason you should be involved in an automobile accident that results in injuries serious enough to seek medical attention, You’re covered. If, that is you have your car insured. If not, then I pay for it again with my taxes.

If you have an accident that is work related then you are covered by worker’s compensation that your employer is mandated to pay for by the federal and state government. If you are unemployed then you don’t have to worry about it.

If you are unemployed and living off welfare and generally being a cancerous, festering cyst on the butt of society then of course you are covered by Medicade. Again, my taxes help pay for it.

Now, all in all, I believe that one’s health care is his personal responsibility. I have no qualms about being taxed to help the people that for one reason or another are temporarily in need of assistance. You on the other hand, have a dependent child. You are directly responsible for his health care.

You are living in the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest healt care delivery system in the world. We have one of the best systems for taking care of the poor and the indigent in the world.

And you say “I have no health care at all.”

Bullshit.

Get a job. Be responsible. Take care of yourself.

And for heaven’s sake, be well. I’m paying for it if you don’t!

Hank

We do have great health care in the US.

That study was one on things like efficiency, access, quality… etc… across the board.

Those of us who say we have great health care never claimed we were the best in every category.

U.S. Health-Care System Gets a “D”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20060921/bs_bw/tc20060921053503

I only wish that some of my fellow Americans were made of such stern stuff. Sadly, most of us are only concerned with watching our favorite, would be criminal, pet negro afleets run with or bounce a damned ball!’

The violence came after a mainly peaceful protest outside parliament attended by several thousand people began late Sunday, when a recording made in May was leaked to local media in which Gyurcsany admitted to repeatedly having lied to the country about the true state of the Hungarian economy to win April’s elections.

Gyurcsany’s comments — made to the Socialists’ group of parliamentary deputies — were full of crude remarks and called into doubt the abilities of some of Hungary’s most respected economic experts.

“We screwed up. Not a little, a lot,” Gyurcsany was heard saying. “No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have. … I almost died when for a year and a half we had to pretend we were governing. Instead, we lied morning, evening and night.”

He said the economy had been kept afloat through “divine providence, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks.”

By Monday night, the crowd demanding Gyurcsany’s resignation outside parliament grew as it was joined by people getting off work and coming to the capital from surrounding areas.

Late Monday, several hundred protesters broke away from the larger group outside parliament and marched over to the nearby headquarters of state television, wanting to be allowed to proclaim their demands on a live broadcast.

While most of the crowd watched from a safe distance, a few dozen protesters tried to break through police lines and into the TV headquarters, but police drove them back with water cannons and tear gas.

Police also tried to disperse the larger protest with water cannon fire but the truck was quickly disabled by the rioters, some of whom escorted the police officers operating the vehicle to safety. Several cars near the TV building were set on fire, their flames scorching the building and damaging furniture inside.

Rioters also vandalized a large obelisk commemorating Soviet soldiers who were killed driving Nazi forces from Hungary at the end of World War II. Some of the protesters chanted nationalist slogans and waved flags with the red and white “Arpad stripes,” a centuries-old Hungarian symbol named for the founder of the country’s first royal dynasty.

The origin of the leak remains murky — and some have speculated that it may even have come from Gyurcsany’s own office, although the prime minister denies that.

Confronted with initial excerpts of the 25-minute recording which Hungarian state radio put up on its Web site Sunday afternoon, Gyurcsany not only acknowledged their authenticity but seemed relieved they had been made public — fueling the rumors that he was involved in the leak.

Analysts say the prime minister may have hoped that the scandal would work in his favor — exposing the full extent of the nation’s economic problems and casting him in the role of the country’s savior.

“In the long term, I think Gyurcsany’s words will have a stabilizing, cathartic effect, both politically and economically,” said political commentator Laszlo Seres. “At least to his own voters, Gyurcsany can argue that he shouldn’t be punished for his sincerity — that he said these things to stop the lies.”

But for now, Gyurcsany is the object of the nation’s scorn.

Several thousand police reinforcements were called to the capital from across the country. Police succeeded in retaking the TV building and driving out protesters only after 3 a.m. (0100 GMT), more than five hours after the incidents started.

The policeman with head injuries was described on state television as being in satisfactory condition after undergoing an operation to remove a bone splinter from his skull.

Police were controlling access to the area around the TV building on Tuesday morning, which also includes the National Bank of Hungary and the U.S. Embassy.

Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei, who also oversees the police force, submitted his resignation because of the outbreak of violence, but his offer was rejected by Gyurcsany.

On Monday, members of Gyurcsany’s Socialist party in parliament voted unanimously in support of the prime minister. The government called for an emergency session of the National Security Cabinet for Tuesday morning.

In Brussels, Hungary’s European Union Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said the unrest in Budapest put the “stability and future of the country” at risk.http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214406,00.html

Viva La Revolucion Blanco!!

But I really believe if we had leadership in the White House that really meant it when he said that we need to find alternative fuel – then someone, somewhere would have the gumption to do it.

I just don’t believe the Bush administration really wants the US free from the foreign oil.

Didn’t I read somewhere where Brazil has an alternative fuel that is working for them? Why can’t we do something like that?

sounds good to me….any ideas?j4j

It it goes to a jury trial, then the truth will come out and probably so much more crap than anybody would ever want to know.

Is anybody going to demand any of it back?