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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (266285)	6/24/2002 1:39:18 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

flapjack, if polls were the sole criteria used to understand and debate a policy prescription, you might have a point. The truth is, the only time you support polls is when it's convenient to do so. Pointing to polls, in order to justify not having an open mind to consider vouchers, is a pathetic anti-intellectual path only a coward would take. Vouchers are a revolutionary out-of-the-box solution to our education problem. It's so revolutionary, the NEA and it's union thugs are shaking in their boots unable to debate the merits of the case. Instead, they quiver in the corner and cry "don't pick on me, look at the polls, the polls, the polls!". You want more out of the box solutions to our government education problem? Simple, force the Teachers, Principals, Administrators and every government official involved with a failing inner city school system to send their own kids to those public schools. Perhaps then, we wouldn't have so many phony politicians like Bill and Hillary Clinton doing everything they can to prevent the adoption of vouchers, while hypocritically keeping their own children as far away from those government schools as possible. Recently, I read a report that 40-50% of public school teachers and 60-70% of congress send their own children to private schools. Imagine going to a restaurant where the same percentage of cooks, waiters and waitresses refused to eat there? Would you believe the place is serving healthy food if that were the case? The desire to fix a system you're completely divorced from ever needing is severely diminished if you're a Kennedy, a Rockefeller, or wealthy enough to afford a private education for your own children. The battle cry of Democrats is "the hell with those other kids, let them rot in ignorance and poverty as long as we can keep our union NEA power". Vouchers are not a fix all snap your finger solution. But they are one tool, in a series of tools, we shouldn't unilaterally throw aside and toss a "Republican feel good" platitude at simply because it threatens the NEA power structure. Lastly, the tired old playbook of "more money, more money, more money" is not the answer either. Money may help in some local jurisdictions, but overral, we are spending far more today per-pupil (adjusting for inflation), then we were 40 years ago, yet we're getting far worse results. The problems is structural. And one effective way to attack it is through vouchers. I would never be so dogmatic in my views to completely close my eyes to a possible solution the way you're doing. Unfortunately, this open minded attitude is not shared by many liberal Democrats, or leftists union workers in the NEA.

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (266285)	6/24/2002 5:16:34 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

SENATOR KERRY BLASTS BUSH ON WAR AND MIDEAST msnbc.com Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, let loose a blistering critique of President Bush’s Middle East policy Sunday, saying the president had made “a catastrophic mistake” by not building on President Clinton’s Camp David negotiations and by sending confusing signals to Israeli and Palestinian leaders. “THERE’S NO CONTINUITY,” Kerry complained to NBC’s Tim Russert on “Meet the Press.” “There is no fundamental plan, and they have restrained the State Department and Colin Powell from effectively being the State Department and being the Secretary of State. I think they’ve got to announce a vision. They’ve got to put something on the table and take advantage of this new dynamic that exists in the Arab world.” WHAT BUSH SHOULD DO Kerry said Arab leaders are now willing to negotiate a settlement of Israeli-Palestinian disputes because they are under pressure from their own people. He said Bush should open intensive negotiations with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Abdullah floated a proposal that would ensure normal relations between Israel and Arab states in return for the acceptance of a Palestinian state. “There is a completely different dynamic in the Arab world ... because of what happened here on Sept. 11,” Kerry said. “They suddenly have a new urgency about making peace because they need to cope with their own set of problems. If you had an election tomorrow in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, Osama bin Laden would win. They know it. ... Therefore, they are prepared to be a different kind of partner in the peace process.” Kerry dismissed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat: “Arafat is not a partner in this process. He cannot be a partner.” He also criticized the Bush administration’s military operations in Afghanistan, implying that if he had been president, he would not have allowed al-Qaida forces to escape. ALLOWING AL-QAIDA TO FLEE “The prime target, al-Qaida, has dispersed and in many ways is more dangerous than it was when it was in the mountains of Tora Bora,” Kerry said. “The strategy failed at Tora Bora and (in Operation) Anaconda. I believe we didn’t complete the task of killing those 1,000 people or capturing them in that mountain. We didn’t shut off the back door.” <Continues at MSNBC........>