Daily Archives: February 22, 2007

An Orwellian solution to kids skipping school

Atlanta Journal Constitution | Feb 20, 2007 

As I have pointed out before, the power elite (Rockefellers, et al)  seek any excuse to track and trace people, group by group. They electronically tag pedophiles, and everybody sends up a big cheer, but these fools do not realize that they and their own children are being targeted for tracking as well, group by group. As soon as you cheer on the globalists, you have set your own trap. When you work for Homeland Security or some other organ of Orwellian control, you are simply helping to build your own prison cell, and ultimately dig your own grave. Only now, prison doesn’t need to have physical bars to control you. Oh no, the global elite want to control you from wherever you sit, at home, at work, in your car, on the streets, in the mall, in the bar or even in parks and other open spaces. Their goal is zero unmonitored space and total control over every function, every action, and every thought in your head. The goal of the elite is nothing less than to create a race of domesticated cyborgs who have little or no free will. Is this what you want? I certainly hope not, but we will get what we deserve depending on our own exercise of free will now, today. So there is a choice. The only question is, are you willing to do your part for freedom? Would you die for freedom so that others might have a better chance at happiness? Just me, but I would give my life for this ideal of freedom. I would never endure an electronic tag of any kind including a microchip implant. They have to take me out first. But that’s just me. You do whatever your conscience guides you to do.

PW
 
Let’s say your teenager is a habitual truant and there is nothing you can do about it. A Washington area politician thinks he might have the solution: Fit the child with a Global Positioning System chip, then have police track him down.

“It allows them to get caught easier,” said Maryland Delegate Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George’s), who recently co-sponsored legislation in the House that would use electronic surveillance as part of a broader truancy reduction plan. “It’s going to be done unobtrusively. The chips are tiny and can be put into a hospital ID band or a necklace.”

Excuse me. But that is obscene. Electronic monitoring is used by criminal court judges to keep track of felons. Researchers use them to track the movements of wild animals. Let parents use such devices if they must. But that’s no way for government to treat a child.

Niemann’s legislation mirrors a bill sponsored by state Sen. Gwendolyn Britt (D-Prince George’s). Both would provide truants and their parents with better access to social services, such as mental health evaluations and help with schoolwork. Electronic monitoring would be a last resort. Still, the prospect of tagging children and using them in some “catch and release” hunt by police casts a pall over everything that’s good about the plan.

All of this is because about 6,800 students in suburban Prince George’s County (out of a total 134,000) missed 20 to 35 days of school in 2005, and an additional 5,800 missed 36 days or more. A problem? Yes. Bad enough to use an Orwellian quick fix? No way. Besides, is there no end to this fiddling with mere symptoms?

Stephanie Joseph, a member of the board of ACLU of Maryland who testified against the bill at a recent Senate committee hearing, correctly observed that “it really doesn’t address truancy and its root causes.” Even as Niemann and other lawmakers seek to rustle up students and herd them back to school, school officials are kicking them out by the score. More than 4,300 county students were suspended at least twice during the 2005-06 school year; 480 of them, five or more times. You can imagine what all of that confusion might look like on a GPS monitor: satellite images of dots streaming in one school door and back out through another.

Perhaps most distressing is the number of students who stay in school only until age 16, when they can legally drop out. Enrollment figures show that, during any given year, roughly 14,000 students are in ninth grade. By 12th grade, the number drops to 8,000.

“We need to take a look at the whole system,” Niemann said. “We want to know why students drop out and if we are preparing them for the world they live in. But there is a limit to what you can do.”

Odd how billions and billions of dollars keep going to a war that almost nobody wants but there’s never enough to fund the educational programs that nearly everybody says are needed. Aimed solely at students in Prince George’s — the only predominantly black county in the Washington area — the truancy effort is called a “pilot program,” a first-of-its-kind experiment. It would cost $400,000 to keep track of about 660 students a year.

Surely that money could be better spent. Take one example: In nearby Montgomery County, kindergarten teacher Kathleen Cohan noticed that 5-year-old children of affluent parents were entering her school knowing about 13,000 English words, while children from poor and immigrant families knew as few as 500. So she and other teachers came up with a plan to close the gap. And it worked. Between 2002 and 2005, the percentage of low-income kindergartners reaching first grade soared from 44 percent in 2002 to 70 percent in 2005.

Now that’s a pilot program. Invest in something like that and you might find more students becoming eager to attend school.

Niemann notes that the law requires students to attend school — period. “Where do you lodge responsibility for school attendance: with the parent and child, or society?” he asked. “If you say that the school system has to do blank this and blank that before holding parents and students accountable, that’s a dead end. That’s just making excuses for unacceptable behavior.”

But maintaining a school system that is among the worst in the state ought to be unacceptable, too. Maybe county officials should be monitored to see why they aren’t showing up for work.

Oregon Senate Introduces Anti-NAU Resolution

Prison Planet | Feb 20, 2007 

Opposition to the North American Union continues to grow in state legislatures. Oregon is the newest state to introduce legislation that would urge the United States Congress to withdraw from the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the further development of the North American Union. The resolution, Senate Joint Memorial 5, was introduced by Senator Gary George and is cosponsored by 2 other state Senators and 4 Representatives. In part, the resolution reads:

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the members of the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly, respectfully request that the Congress of the United States withdraw the United States from further participation in the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and other activities that advance, authorize, fund or promote the creation of a North American Union.

Schools to bring in ‘airport screening’ – teachers pat down kids without parents’ consent

Telegraph | Feb 22, 2007 

Many innocent children are likely to be caught up in spot-checks

Teachers can pat down children and “use reasonable force”

Teachers are being told to search children suspected of carrying knives and guns in a new move against teenage violence.

Staff will be trained in how to “pat down” pupils’ clothing and check the pockets of those suspected of smuggling weapons. Teachers will also be able to use “reasonable force” to search uncooperative individuals. Schools are also advised to randomly screen entire classes or year groups using airport-style security scanners.

From May, head teachers in England will be able to search pupils without parents’ consent under the Violent Crime Reduction Act.

Draft guidance, published yesterday by the Department for Education, reveals how the powers should be exercised.

Teachers will be able to search any pupil merely on the suspicion that they are armed. Many innocent children are likely to be caught up in spot-checks which may prompt legal challenges from civil liberty groups.

Ministers recommend that two members of staff – the same sex as the child – are present and that searches take place away from other pupils. Teachers can “pat down a person’s clothing without directly touching the body” and can search pockets if pupils refuse to hand over suspected weapons. If the pupil refuses to remove a coat, teachers can “use reasonable force”, although they cannot ask pupils to remove trousers, skirts, shirts or blouses.

Staff should be given training, costing around £50 per teacher, on how to search and use techniques to calm pupils and reduce the risk of violence escalating.

Head teachers are also given advice on how to use walk-through or hand-held metal detectors, which can be bought for as little as £30.

Tony Snow and White House Reporters Slam The ‘Hateful,’ ‘Polarized’ Blogosphere

Think Progress | Feb 20, 2007  

 tony_snow_show
I really hope the Fox News’ Propaganda Minister Herr Snow will read my blog occasionally because I am holding up a mirror to his ugly face. Maybe he will see just how evil he has become since he sold his soul to the Devil. But probably not. Oh, so sorry for the hate speech Herr Snow, but you deserve it for supporting treason, endless war, torture and dictatorship in America. As with Joseph Goebbels, history will record your own treason and it will be remembered for all time until everything goes to dust.

PW

In a press roundtable at the National Press Club tonight, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow led a discussion with White House correspondents about the impact of the internet on their respective jobs. Their conclusion? They don’t like being challenged by blogs.

NBC News’ David Gregory bemoaned how political coverage has “become so polarized in this country…because it’s the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views.” Tony Snow admitted he sometimes reads blogs (”I’ll occasionally punch it up”) only to find “wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out.”

Newsweek’s White House correspondent Richard Wolffe added, “[Bloggers] want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information. … It’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender.”

Zogby Poll: Most Say Bloggers, Citizen Reporters to Play Vital Role in Journalism’s Future

Zogby | Feb 13, 2007 

Online survey finds general public, media conference attendees agree that traditional news outlets could do a better job

A majority of Americans (55%) in an online survey said bloggers are important to the future of American journalism and 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role, a new WE Media/Zogby Interactive poll shows.

Most respondents (53%) also said the rise of free Internet-based media pose the greatest opportunity to the future of professional journalism and three in four (76%) said the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism

The survey results were released by Pollster John Zogby as part of a conference of media industry insiders hosted by the University of Miami. In the national survey of adults, 72% said they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism today. A majority of conference–goers who were polled on the subject agreed – 55% said they were dissatisfied, and 61% said they believed traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.

Nearly nine out of 10 media insiders (86%) said they believe bloggers will play an important part in journalism’s future.