Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has come up with a sure-fire way to improving the performance of students in the low-ranked state: lower the academic standards so more students can pass.
Jindal has signed a law that creates a new and easier public school curriculum despite the fact that educators have objected that it will result in high school graduates with poor understanding of basic mathematics and written English.
Under the new law, eighth-grade students who are 15 years old and fail the mathematics and English sections of the LEAP (Louisiana Educational Assessment Program) test while to move on to the ninth grade. This reverses the prior state law that insists, quite reasonably, that you pass the eighth grade to get into the ninth grade.
This is called the “alternative diploma” program and passed the Louisiana Senate unanimously.
This is a brilliant idea. Consider all of the problems that we could solve by simply creating an “alternative” system — previously known as flunking. We could have zero drunk drivers, completely clean air, and no rickets. World hunger can be a thing of the past if Jindal simply defines a full nutritional diet as 200 calories a day.
It is all a matter of definition. No child will be left behind because no child can fail in Louisiana. Under the Jindal educational system, kids will soon be counting by thumping their feet on the ground. One does not have to know one’s ABCs — A and B will be sufficient (Cs are overblown anyway).
Of course, Jindal may be taking a lesson from Washington where failure is often redefined as success. The Bush administration repeatedly tried (and in some cases succeeded) in lowering environmental standards to show success, here and here and here.
For the full story, click here.
Another unsupported false internet birther charge that should be cleared up for the record.
One posting above on this thread said: “The rumor mill was rampant that he has spent over a million dollars in legal fees and we now no it’s true.” Another posting, verbatim:
“perez, mario 200.00
Perkins Coie 688,316.42 Look em up
Peter Slutsky 33.79
This combined with approx. $400k spent between Oct-Dec 2008 plus”
[???, sic]
The rumor that Obama has spent a million in legal fees is another false internet rumor spread by the unthinking birthers and their incoherent supporters. Once again, Jim at Irregular Times has done the heavy lifting: “You can find these sorts of claims all over the internet going on and on about Barack Obama spending so much money on legal fees to hide a birth certificate! But the funny thing is, I can’t find a single verifiable piece of documentation to show me any monetary amount spent by Barack Obama or his presidential campaign on legal fees for the purpose of suppressing the release of any birth certificate of his.”
So Jim challenged his readers to come up with verifiable information.
Well, the birthers came up dry. See for yourselves: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2009/05/06/challenge-barack-obama-birth-certificate-legal-expenses/
Yet another loose end:
bdaman posted a long essay at the thread “Obama adopts Cheney” on June 24, 2009 at 11:05 am. Most of it was actually cut from Leo Donofrio’s Natural Born Citizen site (where bdaman has also posted) and pasted up verbataim without attribution:
http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/why-do-both-obamas-state-department-and-the-senate-require-two-us-citizen-parents-for-those-born-abroad-to-attain-natural-born-citizen-status/#comments [I do not post with Leo because, unlike JT, he censors and snips replies].
The entire long and repetitive essay is Leo’s answer to the question “Why do both Obama’s State Department and the Senate require two US citizen parents for those born abroad to attain natural born citizen status?” Or, as Leo asked repetitively, “The magic question is: Why was it important to all who co-sponsored Senate Resolution 511 that both parents be citizens?
The answer is straightforward. The resolution addressed the facts at hand. McCain was born outside the 48 States to two American citizen parents. That was the issue that the non-binding resolution addressed.
The State Department is bound by the federal immigration laws. Those laws provide that certain persons born outside the United States are citizens by birth rather than naturalization. These statutes have changed from time to time over the years. The rules differ, depending on whether the person born overseas had two citizen parents or just one citizen parent. A person born overseas who had one US citizen parent may be a citizen by birth, depending on that parent’s later residence in the US. The State Department has explained all of this.
The Senate has a right to express its views on the Constitution. The final interpretation of the Constitution is committed to the Supreme Court, and ultimately to the people by the Amendment process, but each branch, including Congress and the President, has the right and duty to determine any and all constitutional questions presented to it in the first instance. So the resolution addressed the question before it, and did provide a treatise on citizenship.
Leo knows where we are and can post here anytime he wants to.
Vince,
I value your clear, stong voice. Will you please speak to Obama’s decision to imprison the innocent? If you agree with him, I’d like to know why. If you do not, I think every added voice matters.
To wrap up loose ends for readers:
At Dr. Conspiracy’s site, richCares has noted, for those unfamiliar with Hawaii, that Honolulu has two hospitals, both founded by Queens: a Maternity Hospital started by Queen Kapiolani, and a Medical Center started by Queen Emma; both hospitals are often called “Queen’s Hospital.” “If it’s Maternity, it’s probably Queen Kapiolani Maternity Home, the name it went by in the 60’s (now Queen Kapiolani Medical Center).” Rich said “these two Hospitals are often confused. If looking for Queens Hospital either may come up, so some made a mistake. However Obama and his family never varied in stating where he was born, Queen Kapiolani. Birthers trying to use a simple mistake to bolster their ignorant story, that’s normal for idiots grasping at straws. Yes, the birth certificate issue is over.”
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2009/07/hawaii-homelands-declares-short-form-good-enough/comment-page-9/#comment-13285
PS, The facility was originally opened by Queen Kapi’olani as the Kapi’olani Maternity Home in 1890[wiki]. Concerned about the welfare of Hawaii’s mothers and their babies, Queen Kapi’olani opened the Kapi’olani Maternity Home in 1890. From its inception, the hospital has played a vital role in the health of Hawaii’s women and children [official website]. There is a upi.com story out there that made thIS mistake.
Jim at Irregular Times beat me to the lie about Maya. He deserves all the credit in the world:
QUOTE ONHigh School Newspaper reports Different Hospital of Obama’s Birth. Schoolkid Typo or… CONSPIRACY???
Jim
Actual excerpt from a lawsuit filed by “Obama is a foreigner” conspiracy theorist Philip J. Berg:
The Rainbow Edition News Letter, November 2004 Edition, published by the Education Laboratory School, attached as EXHIBIT “3”, did a several page article of an interview with Obama and his half-sister, Maya. The Rainbow Edition News Letter reports Obama was born August 4, 1961 at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The “several pages” of the Rainbow Edition News Letter are two pages, and the claim that Obama was born at Queens is not part of any interview. The Education Laboratory School is a… high school. That makes the Rainbow Edition News Letter a… high school newspaper.
Is this a high school kid’s typo, or… is this a vast international conspiracy to cover up Barack Obama’s foreign birth?
http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/tag/kapiolani-medical-center/
QUOTE OFF
The article was not a forgery. It just didn’t say what the birthers said it said. Enough said.
Anatomy of a false rumor.
Funny thing. Dr. Jerome Corsi wrote: “In a November 2004 interview with the Rainbow Newsletter, Maya told reporters her half-brother Sen. Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu; then in February 2008, Maya told reporters for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.”
Well, the newsletter is not the Rainbow. It is “The Rainbow Edition,” published by he students at Education Laboratory School in Hawaii. Attorney Phil Berg posted it online as part of his frivolous lawsuit. Please read pages 2 and 15: http://www.radiodujour.com/people/berg_philip/pdf/057_2%20Exhibit%20Charter%20Schools%20Rainbow%20Edition%20Newsletter.pdf
The article did not say that Maya Soetoro said that Obama was born at Queens. It is the writer of the article who began by saying that Obama was born at Queens Medical Center. The quotations by Maya Soetoro say nothing of the sort in the article. So there is no first hand evidence of the persistent internet rumor.
The hospital of birth issue is not heating up. It is getting colder by the minute.
http://www.theobamafile.com/_images/ObamaBornQueensMedical.jpg
here it is Vince, your turn to say it’s a forgery. Plus all of the news articles. It’s a matter of being open and transparent, just another speech, words just words. See the latest post http://jonathanturley.org/2009/07/08/12598/ and comments. The word Liar is starting to get used alot.
The hospital birth issue is heating up only at World Nut Daily. As an example of their credibility, note that the Nut reported in May that Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate was up for sale on eBay (the article included a plea for money):
The long Nut article on July 7, by swift boater Joe Corsi, also ends with a shout out for funds. These birthers are truly as despicable as the folks who used to send form letters to senior citizens telling them their Social Security was at risk, and then soliciting funds from them. They are trying to separate a lot of honest Americans from their money with lies and falsehoods.
Getting down to the hospital issue, Dr. Conspiracy has written at the Obama Conspiracy site that “the persistent Internet rumor that Barack Obama’s half sister Maya claimed that he was born at Queens Hospital, is not true.” [Dr. Conspiracy refuses outright to accept any money at all.]
Joe Corsi floated the Queens Hospital rumor at the Nut in November, 2008. This was his sentence: “In a November 2004 interview with the Rainbow. Maya told reporters her half-brother Sen. Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu; then in February 2008, Maya told reporters for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.”
The so-called Rainbow Newsletter is nowhere to be found. The link in Joe’s article does not go there. A search of the web shows that the birthers have been repeating Joe’s sentence over and over again until they believe it.
Other news sources have said that Obama said he was born at Queens, but without any links or first-hand sources. But Obama wrote and signed a letter himself on White House stationary that he was born at Kapi’olani Medical Center in Honolulu. So he does know where he was born.
The gullibility of the birthers is awesome. They rely on news accounts that repeat each other to infinity, yet never link or print an actual first person statement by Obama or his sister. All the sources say that someone said this. Hearsay. Where are the first person tapes or transcripts of Obama or his sister saying he was born at Queens Hospital. The news sources may have made mistakes. So what? There is an express disclaimer at one of the sites: “Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.”
What does it matter, anyway? Both hospitals are in the United States. Birth in either hospital made him a natural born citizen.
The hospital birth issue is heating up only at World Nut Daily. As an example of their credibility, note that the Nut reported in May that Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate was up for sale on eBay (the article included a plea for money): http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102271
The Nut article on July 7, by swift boater Joe Corsi, also ends with a shout out for funds. These birthers are truly as despicable as the folks who used to send form letters to senior citizens telling them their Social Security was at risk, and then soliciting funds from them. They are trying to separate a lot of honest Americans from their money with lies and falsehoods.
Getting down to the hospital issue, Dr. Conspiracy has written at the Obama Conspiracy site that “the persistent Internet rumor that Barack Obama’s half sister Maya claimed that he was born at Queens Hospital, is not true.” [Dr. Conspiracy refuses outright to accept any money at all.]
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2009/05/where-obama-was-born/
Joe Corsi floated the Queens Hospital rumor at the Nut in November, 2008. This was his sentence: “In a November 2004 interview with the Rainbow. Maya told reporters her half-brother Sen. Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu; then in February 2008, Maya told reporters for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.” http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=79900
The so-called Rainbow Newsletter is nowhere to be found. The link in Joe’s article does not go there. A search of the web shows that the birthers have been repeating Joe’s sentence over and over again until they believe it.
Other news sources have said that Obama said he was born at Queens, but without any links or first-hand sources. But Obama wrote and signed a letter himself on White House stationary that he was born at Kapi’olani Medical Center in Honolulu. So he does know where he was born.
The gullibility of the birthers is awesome. They rely on news accounts that repeat each other to infinity, yet never link or print an actual first person statement by Obama or his sister. All the sources say that someone said this. Hearsay. Where are the first person tapes or transcripts of Obama or his sister saying he was born at Queens Hospital. The news sources may have made mistakes. So what? There is an express disclaimer at one of the sites: “Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.”
What does it matter, anyway? Both hospitals are in the United States. Birth in either hospital made him a natural born citizen.
The Snopes entries can be accessed for all to read at these links::
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
It just hit me, he’s reading from the teleprompter again instead of speaking from the heart.