South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is being ridiculed for a recent speech where he appears to compare poor people to stray cats and connect having “ample food supply” to increasing welfare demand.
Here is the key quote:
“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”
Perhaps his grandma should have also told him not to quote her on this one.
Almost sixty percent of kids in South Carolina participate in free or reduced cost lunches. Bauer insists that those free lunches appear to be driving down test scores:
“I can show you a bar graph where free and reduced lunch has the worst test scores in the state of South Carolina,” adding, “You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I’ll show you the worst test scores, folks. It’s there, period.” … “You go to a school where there’s an active participation of parents, and guess what? They have the highest test scores. So what do you do? You say, ‘Look folks, if you receive goods or services from the government and you don’t attend a parent-teacher conference, bam, you lose your benefits.’”
I just hope that he does not read this blog and see the availability of haggis in a can for lunchroom cafeterias, here.
By the way, have you noticed that the number of truly moronic statements goes up dramatically with the free availability of microphones. I can show you a bar graph where politicians near free mics have the worst ideas in any state.
Byron: “Isnt there a difference? The FED is a small group of people basically with no external controls, they are pretty much the lord, judge, jury and executioner.”
Which FED? The Federal Reserve or the Federal government? Either way; it bears no relevance here since the topic is political speech.
Byron: ““Legal Fiction” was brought into vogue in the 30’s by the writings of Adolf Berle and Gardner Means. I believe it was then taken into the law. If that is correct it would make “legal fiction” a modern invention.”
Uh, no. Legal fictions go WAY back in common law (1600’s and up) and were put in use to avoid things like wager of battel and assisting in bypassing the laws of parliament prohibiting MP’s to resign.
Byron: “I believe an individual can create limited liability for himself so why should it be unavailable to individuals who want to set up a corporation?”
What gives you the idea I’m arguing against corporations in themselves?
Byron: “At this point it doesnt make sense to me. An individual can create limited liability for himself but a corporation is a “legal fiction”. I am confused.”
Byron, a corporation by definition is NOT an individual or group of individuals. It is an entity existing solely on paper. For example, let’s say you set up an company called Byron, Inc. and one of your clients sued both you and your company for negligence. The case would be captioned ‘PLAINTIFF v. Byron, Inc. & Byron individually’ Assuming you followed all corporate formalities, Byron, Inc. would have its own insurance policy which would defend the lawsuit against it. You, on the other hand, would remain out of the picture, but, to be on the safe side, would retain separate counsel to ensure that Plaintiff does not pierce the corporate veil; i.e. show that the corporation was just a sham, piercing the veil of protection the corporation provided and leaving Plaintiff capable of seeking remedy against you individually.
The legal fiction at work above is that the corporation, the entity existing solely on paper, is equal to a person in that it can be sued for damages in a court of law; thus making it capable of providing limited liability.
As Rehnquist and White in “Bellotti” were discussing, (see my posts to Mespo before he walked away from the argument), this legal fiction is NECESSARILY INCIDENTAL TO THE EXISTENCE OF THE CORPORATION.
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rules-5-4-against-campaign-limitations-in-the-hillary-the-movie-case/#comment-106589
While First Amendment speech protection may be necessarily incidental to the existence of a newspaper corporation, the Bellotti court held, for good reason, that “our consideration of a corporation’s right to speak on issues of general public interest implies no comparable right in the quite different context of participation in a political campaign for election to public office. Congress might well be able to demonstrate the existence of a danger of real or apparent corruption in independent expenditures by corporations to influence candidate elections.” (Bellotti, 435 U. S. 765, 787, n26 (1978)
IOW a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”
And as I explained in my post to J.T. ‘the Ninth Amendment, as a rule of construction, is proof positive that corporations have no inherent right of political speech.’
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rules-5-4-against-campaign-limitations-in-the-hillary-the-movie-case/#comment-106763
When speaking of the Ninth Amendment, it always helps to look back to the Federalist paper addressing certain problems that may arise in the future that convinced Madison to draft the amendment in the first place.
In Federalist 84 Hamilton argued:
“I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power. They might urge with a semblance of reason, that the Constitution ought not to be charged with the absurdity of providing against the abuse of an authority which was not given, and that the provision against restraining the liberty of the press afforded a clear implication, that a power to prescribe proper regulations concerning it was intended to be vested in the national government. This may serve as a specimen of the numerous handles which would be given to the doctrine of constructive powers, by the indulgence of an injudicious zeal for bills of rights.”
If Hamilton were alive today he’d ask one simple question: Where and how was the federal government, much less the Supreme Court, empowered to bestow an unfettered right of ‘political speech’ upon a creature of statute?
ANSWER: There is no such power; thus ending the argument entirely.
Particularly amusing is watching Scalia & cadre employ an extremely fast & loose liberal reading of the constitution to get their way.
The case is wrong Byron; so wrong.
Wisconsin,
You never mentioned the dad or dads. Would I be correct to assume that the father(s) not in the picture?
I know good people can get into an undesirable situation. I also know that whenever people paint with a broad brush, they will go outside the lines.
Thanks for sharing with us.
I am very offended by your statements made!!!!!
My daughter is on BadgerCare, has always worked fulltime, has 4 kids the oldest 15, the youngest 6. All the kids never miss school, their Mom always sees that their homework is a priority and gets done. They are all involved: 2 are in Basketball, 2 are in Baseball, 1 in Volleyball, 2 in Wrestling and 1 in Track and 3 in CCD at the Catholic Church.
She has NEVER missed a parent-teacher conference and never missed a sporting event for one of her kids, unless there is a conflict, then she goes to the oldest ones event and of course if one of the kids are sick.
Maybe you should hit on the parents that sit in the bar and don’t know where their kids are, let alone if their homework is done. Oh yeah, then there are the rich kids that have money to be on drugs – how about them????
I hope you stay in South Carolina!!!!!!
I have been an employee at a Human Services Department for 33 years and THERE ARE A LOT of conscientous people who are receiving BadgerCare benefits or other State or Fed benefits and when it comes to their children and homework — THEIR HOMEWORK IS DONE AND THEY ATTEND PARENT TEACHERS CONFERENCES TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I don’t like that label you put on people that are on BadgerCare OR ANY OTHER PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!
By the way, my daugher was eligible for free or reduced lunches for many years and opted not to use the program just for this reason – BEING LABELED!!!!!! Finally this year she chose to use the program because her work hours were cut!!!!
VERY ANNOYED!!!!!!
“In his most famous essay, Federalist 10, Madison declared that the most “common and durable” reason that society will ever be segmented is economic—“the various and unequal distribution of property.” People’s interests vary depending on whether they are debtors or creditors; farmers, manufacturers, and bankers, affected differently by various tax and trade policies, will always be at odds over the proper path for the government to follow.
But in his discussion of the causes of factions, Madison explored many aspects of the human condition apart from the merely financial. In fact, he began his analysis with the simple observation that mortal man is “fallible.” Since fallible people will inevitably make errors, he said, subsequent disagreements as to wisdom and truth are equally inevitable.”
Taken from an excellent essay entitled “Disrespecting the Federalist Papers”.
http://hnn.us/articles/49975.html
Most everyone here has a different opinion. Who is right and who is wrong is a matter of opinion. To offer your opinion is a gift. When reading the opinion of others, remember, it is their gift to you.
I believe that you have been around for a while posting under numerous names. That is my suspicion.
AY, again please contact the professor and tell him what names you think that I am doing this as. Have him compare it to my ISP address. Again, I’m all for it. I have been around for a while and I’ve been around the block a few times as well. In the past you and others have called me a paid troll among other things. You and others have suggested I am a paid propagandist. I have simply played along with your delusions admitting to anything you or others have suggested. It’s called agreeing to stop an argument. It has led to a wild fascination that I’m ten people carrying on posts between myself. There is nothing I can do to convince you otherwise, except to continually ask you, to ask the professor so you can be proven wrong.
Now, when you start, yes I did or use different names, however I let you know that that was me, like Jacker of Threads. I post under Bdaman AY, whether you ar anybody else believes that or not I have no control of.
The ball is back in your court. Write down, keep track of who ever you think I am, not posting using Bdaman and contact the professor upon your completion of your investigation. I look forward to being exonerated.
Byron: “So I think you are pretty much wrong on all counts”
Right back at you, Byron.
Byron: “And intelligence is a good predictor of success in life, it is not everything but it goes a long way.”
You cannot measure the “innate intelligence” of a baby. By time time IQ can be measured a childe has already gone through the most crucial years for mental and physical stimulation. Lack of adequate nutrition, medical care, or a stable environment all negatively effect both mental and physical characteristics. There is no way to separate environment from some objective intelligence measure.
Byron: “there are so many government programs that are designed to help the poor, whether it be WIC or welfare or housing subsidies or medicaid that there is no reason for someone going without food or housing or medical care. And education is available through student loans and Pell grants and through scholarships.”
You have clearly never experienced and of these programs for yourself, nor known anyone who has. Each of the programs you listed suffer from gross mismanagement; and, throwing money at the problem isn’t always the solution. Affordable housing, passable public education, and true public medical care would go further in helping poor families.
If you think “there is no reason for someone going without food or housing or medical care,” I really don’t know where to even start; but I suggest you take a tour of your nearest downtown or rural area and ask some people whether they agree with you on that.
Byron: “And a final question, why do you think this was about blacks and not about poor whites as well? Hmmm?”
Because, more often than not, “poor” is a socially-acceptable fill-in for “minority.” You’ll also find that most people who are against subsidies for “the poor” are of the opinion that “the poor” all live in the inner-city and are African-American. The sad truth is, anyone can be poor. And most middle-class Americans are only a couple of paychecks away from depending on the same social services they are so quick to denigrate.
Byron It is common knowledge that the SEC failed in their regulatory capacity and allowed over leveraging which resulted in the crash.
AY:
I know you will understand where I am coming from in regards to that post about “Black Wall Street”.I have worked with people of all different countrys of origin.
And what has impressed me the most is no matter who they are from they know their “HISTORY” as a people and the country that they come from.
That is most laking thing in the black community, that is so key in knowing from wence you came.
If you have no knowledge of self and from where you have come from,to me you are lost.
Case in point if this knowledge had been able to have been passed on from Oklahoma to Nebraska to New York City etc,we would not have the situation that we have today,with communitys of haves and have not.and that is this.
“The dollar circulated 36 to 100 times, sometimes taking a year for currency to leave the community.”
Not just the black community but all communitys for there would be trade and commerce between them all.
Maybe I am a dreamer,but what a dream that would be.
To Byron,
Reagan ushered in the age of “private sector beneficence,” that continued unabated through Clinton and is in no way diminished now.
If the private sector were the solution you assert, why are we having this discussion?
bOBEsq:
Isnt there a difference? The FED is a small group of people basically with no external controls, they are pretty much the lord, judge, jury and executioner.
“Legal Fiction” was brought into vogue in the 30’s by the writings of Adolf Berle and Gardner Means. I believe it was then taken into the law.
If that is correct it would make “legal fiction” a modern invention.
I believe an individual can create limited liability for himself so why should it be unavailable to individuals who want to set up a corporation? At this point it doesnt make sense to me. An individual can create limited liability for himself but a corporation is a “legal fiction”. I am confused.
eniobob,
Here is the link to the story.
http://www.daveyd.com/blackwallpolitic.html
What should be remembered is that OK was not officially stolen again from the Indian until 1907.
But on Aug 6th, 1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
It was stolen from Texas before that and before that it was stolen Mexico and before that it was stolen from the Spanish and before that the Indians didn’t think you could own land……..
eniobob,
Thank you. WOW is all I can muster at this time.
Byron: “One thing is for sure though, a small group of individuals has way too much power over our economy and it must end sooner rather than later.”
Yet you buy into the specious argument that corporations and trade unions are equivalent to ‘groups of individuals’ and have no problem with giving such legal fiction entities the unfettered right of political speech. Where were these legal fictions mentioned in the Declaration of Independence?
A history lesson:
“Black Wall Street: The True Story
If anyone truly believes that the last April attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was the most tragic bombing ever to take place on United States soil, as the media has been widely reporting, they’re wrong — plain and simple. That’s because an even deadlier bomb occurred in that same state nearly 75 years ago. Many people in high places would like to forget that it ever happened.
Searching under the heading of “riots,” “Oklahoma” and “Tulsa” in current editions of the World Book Encyclopedia, there is conspicuously no mention whatsoever of the Tulsa race riot of 1921, and this omission is by no means a surprise, or a rare case. The fact is, one would also be hard-pressed to find documentation of the incident, let alone and accurate accounting of it, in any other “scholarly” reference or American history book.
That’s precisely the point that noted author, publisher and orator Ron Wallace, a Tulsa native, sought to make nearly five years ago when he began researching this riot, one of the worst incidents of violence ever visited upon people of African descent. Ultimately joined on the project by colleague Jay Wilson of Los Angeles, the duo found and compiled indisputable evidence of what they now describe as “a Black holocaust in America.”
The date was June 1, 1921, when “Black Wall Street,” the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-Black communities in America, was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving 36-Black business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering–a model community destroyed, and a major African-American economic movement resoundingly defused.
The night’s carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead, and over 600 successful businesses lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. As could have been expected the impetus behind it all was the infamous Ku Klux Klan, working in consort with ranking city officials, and many other sympathizers.
In their self-published book, Black Wallstreet: A Lost Dream, and its companion video documentary, Black Wallstreet: A Black Holocaust in America!, the authors have chronicled for the very first time in the words of area historians and elderly survivors what really happened there on that fateful summer day in 1921 and why it happened. Wallace similarly explained to me why this bloody event from the turn of the century seems to have had a recurring effect that is being felt in predominately Black neighborhoods even to this day.
The best description of Black Wallstreet, or Little Africa as it was also known, would be liken it to a mini-Beverly Hills. It was the golden door of the Black community during the early 1900s, and it proved that African Americans had successful infrastructure. That’s what Black Wallstreet was all about.
The dollar circulated 36 to 100 times, sometimes taking a year for currency to leave the community. Now in 1995, a dollar leaves the Black community in 15-minutes. As far as resources, there were Ph.D.’s residing in Little Africa, Black attorneys and doctors. One doctor was Dr. Berry who owned the bus system. His average income was $500 a day, a hefty pocket change in 1910.
During that era, physicians owned medical schools. There were also pawn shops everywhere, brothels, jewelry stores, 21 churches, 21 restaurants and two movie theaters. It was a time when the entire state of Oklahoma had only two airports, yet six Blacks owned their own planes. It was a very fascinating community.
The area encompassed over 600 businesses and 36 square blocks with a population of 15,000 African Americans. And when the lower-economic Europeans looked over and saw what the Black community created, many of them were jealous. When the average student went to school on Black Wallstreet, he wore a suit and tie because of the morals and respect they were taught at a young age.
The mainstay of the community was to educate every child. Nepotism was the one word they believed in. And that’s what we need to get back to in 1995. The main thoroughfare was Greenwood Avenue, and it was intersected by Archer and Pine Streets. From the first letters in each of those three names, you get G.A.P., and that’s where the renowned R and B music group the Gap Band got its name. They’re from Tulsa.
Black Wallstreet was a prime example of the typical Black community in America that did businesses, but it was in an unusual location. You see, at the time, Oklahoma was set aside to be a Black and Indian state. There were over 28 Black townships there. One third of the people who traveled in the terrifying “Trail of Tears” along side the Indians between 1830 to 1842 were Black people.
The citizens of this proposed Indian and Black state chose a Black governor, a treasurer from Kansas named McDade. But the Ku Klux Klan said that if he assumed office that they would kill him within 48 hours. A lot of Blacks owned farmland, and many of them had gone into the oil business. The community was so tight and wealthy because they traded dollars hand-to-hand, and because they were dependent upon one another as a result of the Jim Crow laws.
It was not unusual that if a resident’s home accidentally burned down, it could be rebuilt within a few weeks by neighbors. This was the type of scenario that was going on day- to-day on Black Wallstreet. When Blacks intermarried into the Indian culture, some of them received their promised ’40 acres and a mule’ and with that came whatever oil was later found on the properties.
Just to show you how wealthy a lot of Black people were, there was a banker in the neighboring town who had a wife named California Taylor. Her father owned the largest cotton gin west of the Mississippi [River]. When California shopped, she would take a cruise to Paris every three months to have her clothes made.
There was also a man named Mason in nearby Wagner County who had the largest potato farm west of the Mississippi. When he harvested, he would fill 100 boxcars a day. Another brother not far away had the same thing with a spinach farm. The typical family then was five children or more, though the typical farm family would have 10 kids or more who made up the nucleus of the labor.
On Black Wallstreet, a lot of global business was conducted. The community flourished from the early 1900s until June 1, 1921. That’s when the largest massacre of non-military Americans in the history of this country took place, and it was lead by the Ku Klux Klan. Imagine walking out of your front door and seeing 1,500 homes being burned. It must have been amazing.
Survivors we interviewed think that the whole thing was planned because during the time that all of this was going on, white families with their children stood around the borders of their community and watched the massacre, the looting and everything–much in the same manner they would watch a lynching.
In my lectures I ask people if they understand where the word “picnic” comes from. It was typical to have a picnic on a Friday evening in Oklahoma. The word was short for “pick a nigger” to lynch. They would lynch a Black male and cut off body parts as souvenirs. This went on every weekend in this country, and it was all across the county. That’s where the term really came from.”
Mike S:
“For instance we both dislike the Fed, but you made no comment to dispute the fact that it operates to create a certain level of joblessness and therefore makes it impossible for a chunk of the population to find work.”
I assumed that to be inherent in the problems created by the FED. The constant boom and bust causes jobs to be shed and recreated.
Although I am not sure you would ever have full employment even in a purely free market system. You would probably always have some industry turning down while others are running full steam or are picking up. However I think the jobless picture would be better because the entire economy would not be down all at the same time.
I also want to state that I am for paying a worker whatever the market rate is at that point in time and that they have the right to get as much as they are able. I do agree that the FED probably does deflate wages in regards to the whole economy. I don’t know if it is for some grand cabal of fascist industrialists or just the way it works out.
One thing is for sure though, a small group of individuals has way too much power over our economy and it must end sooner rather than later.
Bdaman,
If you’d post under one name and stay on the topic or focus if you will, I don’t think that most would give you caca. However, you have brought most of the doubting upon yourself by your inflammatory and derogatory statements to a lot of folks on here. Me, for the most part when you personally attack me under whatever screen name de jour, I find it funny.
I believe that you have been around for a while posting under numerous names. That is my suspicion. What you do not have the right to do if personally attack anyone. Especially using numerous screen names and then back slapping each one for supporting your point if view.
I have stated that I believe that you are intelligent, but intellectually dishonest. But then a psychopath or psychopath either cannot tell the difference or cares once it is aware of its destructive nature. All’s I know is what I have read and you fit the classic format as far as I am concerned.
You have no remorse for some of the things that you state or you would not regurgitate the same in a different manner of saying the same thing.
Good luck in your endeavor and ask around some that are back here have been banned by the professor. Keep it up and I am most certain that the Professor can do the same to you. Although there are ways around the ISP there is no way around some of the built in security features.
Take for instance the Federal Government sites. The cookies even after you think you have cleared the system of all tracking. They hold on for up to a year. In some cases longer. Its just a matter of the professor being proactive in his bans. Good luck with you and may you find peace in your soul.
Can the scope of a person’s intelligence, talents, and innate abilities truly be determined by an IQ test? I think not. I was a teacher for more than three decades. I believe there are too many different aspects of human intelligence and potential that can’t be measured by tests. To be sure, children born to well-educated parents who have the financial means to send their offspring to the best public/private schools, travel with them, get them tutoring when they need it, pay for SAT test prep classes, etc., are much more likely to do well on intelligence/standardized tests and to get into elite colleges.
A lot of taxpayers grouse about poor people who suck off the system…about affirmative action for the children of minorities—but few speak out about the affirmative action that’s in place for the children of people of means…for the children of people who have political connections.
How many young people get into schools like Harvard and Yale and other elite institutions because they are “legacies” whose parents have contributed to their alma maters? How many graduates of the elite colleges and universities and children of the wealthy and politically connected have doors opened to them that would never be opened to working class and poorer people…or to those of us who didn’t attend the “best” schools?
We have welfare programs for the rich and connected and not just for the poor in this country.
************
I thought the following Boston Globe article was interesting reading.
The College Admissions Scam
by Neal Gabler
(Boston Globe, 1/10/ 2010)
NOW IS the winter of high school seniors’ discontent. But then every winter is one of discontent as seniors file their college applications with a mix of dread and hope – mainly dread. Those applying to the most selective schools have the odds stacked against them no matter how sterling their high school records, though college admissions officers typically offer the cold comfort that rejection is not equivalent to failure and that, as one Yale admissions officer put it, “It matters far less which strong college admits you than it matters what you do with your opportunities once you are there.’’ To which most high school seniors would say, “Hogwash.’’
They know that it does matter where you go to college, if not educationally then in terms of social recognition and opportunity. They know that America, for all its professions of meritocracy, is a virtual oligarchy where the graduates of the Ivies and the other best schools enjoy tremendous advantages in the job market. They know that Harvard or Stanford or MIT is a label in our “designer education’’ not unlike Chanel or Prada in clothes.
So here is another, more realistic comfort to those anxious seniors who will soon be flagellating themselves as unworthy: The admissions system of the so-called “best’’ schools is rigged against you. If you are a middle-class youth or minority from poor circumstances, you have little chance of getting in to one of those schools. Indeed, the system exists not to provide social mobility but to prevent it and to perpetuate the prevailing social order.
Of course, colleges loudly deny this since it undermines their exceptionality. Instead, universities will protest that the system is meritocratic; that they consider every applicant objectively; that the admissions process is “need blind,’’ which means that financial support plays no role in whether an applicant is admitted or not.
Most of these assertions, however, are nonsense. Of course the odds are stacked against every applicant since the best schools admit only a fraction of them (less than 10 percent for most of the Ivies and just above 25 percent for selective schools like Northwestern and Emory), but as Daniel Golden demonstrated in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series for the Wall Street Journal and then in his book, “The Price of Admission,’’ the so-called “best’’ schools give heavy preferences to the wealthy; as many as one-third of admissions, he writes, are flagged for special treatment at the elite universities, one-half at the elite liberal arts colleges, and the number of open spaces for the non-privileged is reduced accordingly. As Golden puts it, the privileged take so many spots that the “admissions odds against middle-class and working-class students with outstanding records are even longer than the colleges acknowledge.”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/10/the_college_admissions_scam/
As far as stray cats, I do feed them but I also capture them and have them neutured.
The best choice of words but he is right. I know many families that continue to have babies just to secure more welfare benefits, a fact they don’t hide. They are not at all interested in how their kids do in school. As soon as their kids are of reproductive age, they continue the cycle.
Puma, my bad