The left-wing understanding of Government....

Is that compared to Bush, Robert Mugabe, (you know the guy that grabbed the wife of an opposition party member, had her feet hacked off, and then set her on fire) is not so bad.

http://tinyurl.com/46fou5

Aw, shucks, going after the wife of the opposition sure sounds more like a right-wing political technique.

You know, like revealing she's a undercover CIA operative (treason?), just because her husband had the nerve to question your highly questionable "evidence" for war. Just so you could invade another country and give your buddies lots of money to "rebuild" it...

It's that he's terrified of the "left-wing". And the terrorists. And the progressives. And all the others that are different from his way of thinking. He's closed to new ideas and ridicules, or tries to, that which hasn't been sanctioned by his preferred authority figures. In all his time commenting here, I have yet to read one comment where he says something to the effect of "hey, good point". Some people really don't deal with change and uncertainty and the result is anxiety and reflexive attacks against any challenge to the authority that is supposed to protect them.

Ignorant? Sure. Stupid? Might seem like it, but I doubt it. Scared? Always.

As far as I understand it, NCLB institutes standards in English, Math, and Science. There are no Federal standards for Social Studies (history, civics, government, etc.).

This is a common misconception. There are no Federal standards for any subject. Each state sets its own standards, many based on standards developed by national subject-area groups, several of which were funded by the government in the late 80s-early 90s.

NCLB requires that all states have standards in reading, math & science and test students in those subjects. It doesn't require that state have social studies standards, but all states do now have them. The problem is that because states have to devote the majority of their resources to those three subjects in order to receive federal funding, other subjects take a back seat. That's the biggest problem with this unfunded mandate and I don't expect it to last much longer in its current form.

That is the BIG difference between a Neo-Republican and a Democratic President.

Neo-Republicans believe that a Republican President IS the State. They believe that a Democratic President is a sans culottes who will have the tumbrils rolling and Versailles sacked.

Democrats believe that the President is a proportionately-representative-elected head of the Executive Branch of the government. Any power of the President should be balanced and checked by the other two branches.

These Neo-Republicans believe that the State is one man. Democrats believe that the State is a document.

He generally seems to want to come off a little smarter than this and in the mold of Olberman--I mean, I really doubt that he thinks that the Justice Department should function as the White House's law firm. Chris Matthews, I wouldn't be surpised

This is the central argument for keeping the government as small and transparent as possible. Oversight is wonderful and necessary, but it fails. At least a smaller government can do less damage and is more likely to be observed and contained.

How would you go about solving global problems with smaller, less powerful governments? It is necessary to find a way to have good governments, ones that have power but do not abuse it.

Since taking office, Bush has basically confronted Congress with the following ultimatum regarding Congressional oversight:

"Impeach me or go fuck yourselves."

Congress has disgracefully taken the second option -- with disastrous consequences for our Constitution and our country.

With the "unitary executive" theory of executive power the Bush regime has been allowed to invoke, Congress can only exercize oversight of the Executive Branch when and if the Executive Branch allows it to do so -- which is to say, not at all.

That low-hanging fruit like Gonzales and Mukasey have not been impeached for perjury and dereliction will indelibly stain this Congress for its historic misfeasance.

Meanwhile, the corporate media continues to play dumb and portray this state of affairs as "business as usual," proving that American "journalism" is broken beyond repair -- another American institution corrupted by big money and self interest over the best interests of our country.

The left-wing understanding of Government....

Is that compared to Bush, Robert Mugabe, (you know the guy that grabbed the wife of an opposition party member, had her feet hacked off, and then set her on fire) is not so bad.

Back in the 80s, when Hoboken NJ still had a mobsters running the city government, the mayor defended the fact that the city's school scores were ranked the 3rd worst in the state. How did he defend it? "We're better than Newark and Paterson!" said the mayor, to cheers from his thuggish mob friends. "We're not the worst! We're only the 3rd worst! And that's better than worst!"

I kid you you not.

Shooter seems to have absorbed the mobster's mind set when he moved to the Garden State.

Bush -- Better than Mugabe! USA! USA! USA!

"the Beatles were the single worst thing to befall America."

Well, if you play there records backwards...

I hadn't heard the incredible news that Blakeman had stepped down either. And I was in-country the whole time.

I've tried to remedy this by scanning their website, and was amazed to see that only one press release was issued by the organization in March, and this said absolutely nothing about Mr. Blakeman's rapid (and apparently very quiet) removal from "Freedom's Watch". Similarly, there was only one press release issued in Februrary, and that was done by Mr. Blakeman itself, so apparently everything was tidy and ship-shape at that time.

The single March communication from "Freedom's Watch" discusses the hiring of a Mr. Forti, who had enjoyed an impressive but failed career as a minor operative in Mr. Romney's ill-fated campaign for president. Prior to that, Mr. Forti ran expenditures for the Republican National Congressional Committee, it seems.

http://www.freedomswatch.org/Edit/PressReleases/tabid/45/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/170/Default.aspx

I seem to have read something about the NRCC about this same time:

F.B.I. Investigates Missing G.O.P. Money

By PHILIP SHENON

Published: March 6, 2008

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and presumed stolen from the chief fund-raising arm of House Republicans, according to party officials who described the findings of emergency internal audits.

The financial records of the group, the National Republican Congressional Committee, may also have been falsified for several years, Republican officials said. The campaign committees of several Republican lawmakers may also have been victims of a scam that is now under criminal investigation by the F.B.I.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/washington/06gop.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

As can be seen, there is no mention of Mr. Blakeman in any of this, either. But it seems Mr. Forti may have left the NRCC "Expenditures" gig during some very exciting and challenging times there.