Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (755129)	11/28/2006 10:56:46 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush edumacation values and Neil Bush's cash COW. Two years ago, when Neil Bush and his mother, the former first lady Barbara Bush, were featured guests at a $1,000-a-table fundraiser for the Western Heights School District in Oklahoma City, proceeds from the event were specifically earmarked for the purchase of products from Neil's company, Ignite! Learning. Late last year, when Neil's mom agreed to make a contribution to a Hurricane Katrina relief foundation for those victims that had relocated to Texas, she stipulated that her donation had to be used by local schools to acquire Ignite products. It must have been a long time ago that Neil Bush, the son of Bush 41 and the younger brother of Bush 43, discovered that the key to unlocking the entrepreneurial vault was to take full advantage of the Family. While entrepreneurial nepotism is as American as apple pie and Thomas Kinkade paintings, the Bush Family has made it a science. Over the past two decades, while Neil Bush has made impressive amounts of money in all sorts of interesting business deals, he has always seemed like the kid who was caught red-handed throwing chalk at the teacher, got sent to the principal and yet returned to the classroom unscathed. These days, with the help of the Saudi Royal Family, a former junk bond dealer, a Russian mobster, the Rev. Sum Myung Moon, and mom and dad, family string-pulling is again paying off. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Ignite! Learning, headed by Neil Bush "and partly owned by his parents, is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act." The company has managed to "place its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally," the Times reported. "Interviews and a review of school district documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act," by the Los Angeles Times, "found that educators and legal experts were sharply divided over whether Ignite's products were worth their cost or qualified under the No Child law." According to the Times, "Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product." A story about these developments also appeared in a mid-October issue of BusinessWeek. Headlined "No Bush Left Behind," the magazine reported that "after five years of development and backing by investors like Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and onetime junk-bond king Michael R. Milken, Neil Bush aims to roll his high-tech teacher's helpers into classrooms nationwide. He calls them 'curriculum on wheels,' or COWs. The $3,800 purple plug-and-play computer/projectors display lively videos and cartoons: the XYZ Affair of the late 1790s as operetta, the 1828 Tariff of Abominations as horror flick. The device plays songs that are supposed to aid the memorization of the 22 rivers of Texas or other facts that might crop up in state tests of 'essential knowledge.' "Bush's Ignite! Inc. has sold 1,700 COWs since 2005, mainly in Texas, where Bush lives and his brother was once governor. In August, Houston's school board authorized expenditures of up to $200,000 for COWs. The company expects 2006 revenue of $5 million. Says Bush about the impact of his name: 'I'm not saying it hasn't opened any doors. It may have helped with some sales.' (In September, the U.S. Education Dept.'s inspector general accused the agency of improperly favoring at least five publishers, including The McGraw-Hill Companies, which owns BusinessWeek. A company spokesman says: 'Our reading programs have been successful in advancing student achievement for decades; that's why educators hold them in such high regard.')"

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (755129)	11/28/2006 4:41:37 PM
From: BEEF JERKEY	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

"The highest incomes also have the highest tax burden... I don't see why I should have to give away my own hard earned money to someone who frittered away all his time when he also could have taken advantage of the same free education I had..." Try making money in any other country than a member of the first world and you will likely come up empty no matter how hard you try. You have succeeded basically because of where you were born not because you are particularly special. Taxes don't go directly from your hand to some poor person - thats ridiculous. Taxes pay for your hero's folly in Iraq for instance and thats a pretty penny. Those who do survive on welfare make precious little and are usually the weak, unfortunate or mentally ill who cannot hold down a job. I know this for a fact because my wife works with people with mental health issues. Count yourself as one of the fortunates who takes a larger proportion of the nations wealth for yourself despite the taxes you pay to help support the great society in which you have thrived.