RRC Archives

Andrew wrote:Oh yea, our last president didn't really believe in funding science, and education.

No, he didn't believe in science or education- period.

Are you two kidding me? Ever heard of the bi-partisan No Child Left Behind Act?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_child_l ... te_note-44

http://www.heartland.org/policybot/resu ... ebate.html

Most all agree it was a failure. Conservatives like myself feel that it grew the federal government beyond its constitutional authority (amonst other things).

And the left turned out to hate it because despite all the extra funding the crap the schools need to go through to get the money consumed it!

So there you have it - Bush and Congress made a huge federal go at education - and failed!!!! Like everything else big government tries do - it never works. You want the feds running healthcare too?

And as a conservative, I'll admit Bush made a lot of mistakes. And Obama came to power promoting "Change you can believe in". Lets see...

1) Keeping all troops in Iraq through 8/2010, then still leaving 50,000 troops. That was the Bush plan!

2) Spending money we don't have. If that was the recipe to prosperity Bush would be economic icon!

3) Bailouts, bailouts, bailouts! More from the W playbook (although he hasn't mailed everybody checks yet, I'm sure thats coming).

I don't want "more of the same".....come protest with me!!!!

michaelarmand wrote:And as a conservative, I'll admit Bush made a lot of mistakes. And Obama came to power promoting "Change you can believe in".

Being a Project Manager in a fairly sizable corporation I deal with many different types of people and teams, all with their own standards of operation. In my experience, people have a tendency to work in one of two ways.........

Ideologically
--we do it this way as that's the way the theory/best practice says we should
--that's not my job or in my department's mission
--that's out of our scope, they should be doing it not us

Or pragmatically
--I like the theory, but it doesn't really fit our business model, lets aim for implementing some of these processes but only the ones that stand a good chance of paying off here
--Technically we shouldn't worry about that, but it needs to be done and we stand as good a chance pulling it off as anyone
--Not in scope, but cost and risk are minimal when compared to the rewards

michaelarmand wrote:1) Keeping all troops in Iraq through 8/2010, then still leaving 50,000 troops. That was the Bush plan!

So, don't confuse the first 5 years of mostly Ideological Bush terms to the last few years of the mostly pragmatic Gates direction in Iraq......

michaelarmand wrote:2) Spending money we don't have. If that was the recipe to prosperity Bush would be economic icon!

All things being equal, I doubt anyone wants to be dropping all this cash on anything, but the costs of not acting are far greater than the costs of acting. Don't spend 100 bucks over 5 years to save 10 bucks this year....

michaelarmand wrote:3) Bailouts, bailouts, bailouts! More from the W playbook (although he hasn't mailed everybody checks yet, I'm sure thats coming).

See above. Bailout I don't believe is an appropriate term but even if there are certain entities to blame, all of us are suffering the consequences. It's more a matter of mitigating the pain for us than punishing the offenders for their sins, especially when there's plenty of blame to go around.......

michaelarmand wrote:I don't want "more of the same".....come protest with me!!!!

What are we protesting again? What do we hope to gain from said protest? What actions are we presenting as solutions to the things we're protesting?

I don't think anybody disagrees with funding education. What we disagree with is funding education under the guise of stimulus. What we disagree with is the education pork that was pushed through. $88.6 million for new construction for the Milwaukee Public Schools. Sounds great, but their student population is shrinking and they have 15 VACANT schools. We all agree funding education is crucially important and I'm sure a lot of the education money is needed and will be spent wisely. However, this stimulus pushed through so much pork, you'd think you were at a bbq cook-off and that is what the protests are about.

I'm running a little short on rent this month. I think I'll put it on a credit card. Since I'm already pulling out the credit card, I might as well buy a new rope, tent, and a PS3. Surely buying that extra stuff will help me financially. I should definitely have my rent for next month after such wise spending this month.

That's the stimulus package at one billionth scale. Sounds smart, to me.

"costs of not acting are greater than the costs of acting"...

I'll call BS on that one. That is just the current lie that Obama is feeding us to get his oversized plans passed. Fear works wonders on the psyche....

funding of education has been an utter failure..utter failure. getting rid of tenure (in college) and stupid , unmotivated teachers (in high schools and below) is the answer. not more money. more money will NEVER make an average teacher a great teacher. ever.

it's funny how anti-Bush people loved Iraq war protesters, but now get smug when their man is showing how much out of touch he is....

Piggie is right, more money will never make an average teacher a great teacher, but our education system needs significantly more funding.

We need a complete overhaul of our educational system and with that we will need to invest much more money. Our schools are still using a curriculum from the 1950's and a school schedule from when you needed school to start around the time you needed to milk the cows.

When business fail to change they fail, but when schools fail to change with the times, we keep pushing the same crap and blame it on everything but the real reason.

andrew, what is your take on year-round school? that thought always made me shudder as a kid, but maybe it has merit...whadya think?

I would like year around school. I think it has significant merit.

charlie wrote: What are we protesting again? What do we hope to gain from said protest? What actions are we presenting as solutions to the things we're protesting?

I like you charlie. You are correct, the net effect of this "protest" is little. It is really the start of the dialog to oppose big government and the liberal agenda. Since you have called me out, I will admit that if the weather is good (like 60 with sun) I very well may be at the red instead.