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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (16523)	11/17/2003 1:49:25 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793624

I guess even fools can learn Back in my Libertarian/Anarchy days, immigration was always a tough one. With total private property, it is easy to handle, but we will never get there, IMO. The biggest problem rearing it's head with the Muslims is that they don't assimilate the same way as the Christian/Jewish/Asians do. Maybe someday, but not in the next 100 years, IMO. The rest of our present problem is a welfare one. Otherwise, immigrants are an asset. I always found the toughest sell on total private property is Monopoly. People just cannot accept that a natural Monopoly is fine. I used to use the "What would would you do if one guy owned all the water in your town and raised the prices of his water company to a point where you couldn't afford to pay it," illustration, but even when they understood that concept a lot still would not accept the idea.

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (16523)	11/17/2003 2:50:47 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793624

InstaPundit: Tamsin Smith BBC reporter in Rome A group of Italian anti-war militants is raising funds to support the armed Iraqi resistance, the BBC has learned. The discovery comes as Italy mourns 19 men killed in a suicide attack in Iraq last week. The "Antiimperialista" organisation's internet campaign asks people to send "10 Euros to the Iraqi resistance". Absolutely shameful. I love this: "They are currently organising an anti-war demonstration in Italy next month, and it remains to be seen whether news of the fund-raising activities will deter more moderate anti-war activists from attending." Any bets? You know, someone will probably accuse me of "blurring the line" between anti-war protesters and, well, traitors. But it's the BBC that's doing the blurring here. If they called them "terrorist sympathizers" or "Italians who support those who are killing their countrymen" that would be different. But they're not willing to do that. Why not? instapundit.com

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (16523)	11/17/2003 3:01:07 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793624

Good Riddance California's better off without teachers' union man on transition team. — Matt Cox is a public-policy fellow in education studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute. National Review James Hein of the California Teachers Association resigned from Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team when the governor appointed Richard Riordan as education secretary. The resignation should not trouble the governor because the CTA is at odds with both his education reform and fiscal policy. As he made clear during the campaign, the governor wants no new taxes. But the CTA is pushing a $4.5 billion annual tax increase for education, which already gobbles up about 40 percent of California's general fund. The new tax would raise business property taxes by 55 percent to pay for universal preschool, class-size reduction, and increased teacher pay. But the union's tax push lays bare its real agenda, which is less about education than it is about empire building. Universal preschool would be prohibitively expensive, requiring new facilities and staff, and has not been proven to increase student achievement. Neither has the $1.6 billion categorical program for class-size reduction. Students from the smaller classes don't outperform their big-class brethren, according to the legislatively mandated evaluation of the costly plan. California's teacher pay is already the highest in the country at more than $54,000 a year. The looming teacher shortage here, long a lever for pay increases, never did more than loom. California now has a teacher surplus; it isn't a shortage driving up wages. Californians don't need to solve the imaginary problems of the CTA. What they need is tax relief. A recent study by the D.C. think tank the Tax Foundation ranked California 49th out of the 50 states in small business tax climate. And a Milken Institute study pegged the general tax burden 24-percent higher than the national average. Californians also need more control over their children's education. Parents have already benefited from expanded educational choices, with more than 170,000 kids at charter schools that are outperforming their traditional counterparts. But lower taxes and school choice are anathema to the CTA, whose October newsletter was a shot across the bow of the state's growing charter school movement. The same organization that once wanted to limit the number of charter schools to 50, in a state with more than 1,000 school districts, rejects Riordan because of his strong record of reform and passionate advocacy for children, which included unwavering support of Los Angeles charter schools. Riordan's groundwork paved the way for L.A.'s dramatic improvement in student performance, now in its fifth year. Riordan, an appointee, will not be at all beholden to the CTA. Displaying a heretofore-unknown passion for lean government, Hein and the CTA objected not to Riordan himself, but to the very existence of the office of education secretary, saying its functions overlapped with the elected state superintendent of public instruction. This newfound austerity is commendable, but it is at least a little unseemly to be grandstanding about the evils of big government on the heels of a massive tax push. California's public-education Leviathan is bloated and spends, literally, billions of dollars with no idea how it affects students or even if the money goes where it should. A recent state audit of our categorical education spending identified $1.8 billion spent with absolutely zero oversight. Another educrat described the airtight accountability in his $11 million program by saying "We don't know how the money is being used. We wish we did." The state should welcome legitimate efforts and ideas to trim the fat, but canning Richard Riordan isn't one of them. Schwarzenegger comes to Sacramento with a mandate to cut taxes and improve education, both through greater accountability and choice. It remains to be seen if he can do both, or either. But with Riordan hopping on and Hein hopping off, it looks as though Schwarzenegger's train is on the right track. nationalreview.com