Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments so far related to his U.S. visit require the suspension of disbelief. Examples:
“Our people are the freest people in the world, the most aware people in the world, the most enlightened.”
“The freest women in the world are women in Iran.”
“We want nothing but goodness and progress for the Iraqi nation.”
Iran’s nuclear efforts are “legal and for peaceful purposes.”
“In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s beginning to sound like something out of George Orwell: The U.S. government is keeping far more extensive records than previously thought on millions of Americans who travel abroad, including where they stay and what personal items they’re carrying, according to the Washington Post.
John Gilmore, a civil liberties activist who found that his own file contained notes about books he was carrying, argues that the government’s effort to build a “surveillance society” is happening “largely without our awareness and without our consent.”
It’s not just the government that should concern us. Google and many other online companies monitor the e-mail in-boxes of users to target ads to them, and a new Internet phone company service plans to listen in on the calls of its users to pitch ads to them.
Where does the creeping intrusion into the private lives of Americans end? It’s time for Congress to ask some questions.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Support is growing in Congress and some cities for giving outstanding teachers in high-poverty schools incentive bonuses and performance pay, the Washington Post reported.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., has proposed a bill that would provide up to $12,000 in annual bonuses for teachers in some low-income schools, based on test scores and professional evaluations.
National teacher unions have long fought the idea of “merit pay,” raising valid concerns that it would put too narrow an emphasis on test scores, which can reflect many factors other than a teacher’s skill. Moreover, critics say how bonuses are doled out could be skewed by favoritism and other subjective criteria.
But with teacher retention a critical problem in our schools, surely there is some fair way to evaluate outstanding teachers and reward them the way our society routinely recognizes excellence — with extra pay.
Most schools know who their best teachers are. It’s not fair to treat them the same as those who are dead weight.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
A former Reagan voter in New Hampshire ticks off why he’s voting Democratic in 2008 in a commentary that ought to give the GOP something to talk about: His blistering reasons start with “for the first time in 80 years, mine disasters have increased” and include the Bush administration’s incompetence in general, “contempt for the Constitution” and suppression of government scientists. He concludes: “Republicans need to be kicked out this year, like the Democrats in 1980, and forced to earn their way back.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“We need a comprehensive federal policy. We can’t solve it a state at a time, and that’s what it’s been left to.” — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, president of the Democratic Governors Association, speaking to reporters last week at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
