They Did What !

Great blog, Trish!

I have felt for some time now that there is more going on than simple incompetence. Take the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as "No Child Left Behind." This is just one in a long line of programs given a catchy name which is in direct contrast to its result. It was largely supported by people and organizations that have been advocating for extensive school choice, vouchers for private schools (including religious ones), and even the abolishment of the Department of Education and the privatization of public schools. And what's happening under this law is that children, teachers, and even schools are being thrown to the wolves with sanctions and impossible mandates while major publishers and the muckety-mucks in the Reading First program have gotten rich. And richer.

For those who would argue that Ted Kennedy helped write this legislation, I would say that Ted Kennedy doesn't have any better grasp about what happens in public schools, how teachers teach, how hard most teachers work, or how this law has impacted the classroom and dumbed down the education of children.

I can only hope that more people can wake up and start looking at what is going on in our country, and make choices that support what our country is supposed to stand for.

Thanks Renee. That is an excellent example of what I was talking about. There are so many things going on that at first glance look to be what they are said to be, but have results that seem to reveal a much more devious purpose.

The idea of privatization has not been kept secret but it has been presented under the guise of being more efficient, more economical and generally better than any government run operation. And as the public’s opinion of government has gone downhill, people have become more open to the idea that the government cannot run anything well and therefore more accepting of the idea of privatizing everything.

What is lost in this picture is that once a business is privatized (be it education or any government run enterprise), profit becomes its goal and any altruistic purpose it may have originally had takes a back seat and in some cases simply becomes irrelevant. If public education becomes privatized, how long you think it will take before our society becomes one that consists of the very wealthy who are well educated and the worker bees who are educated just well enough to do what the wealthy need done. Look around the world at how many societies are like that.

Globalization, you may have noticed, is not bringing other populations up to the U.S. level as it is touted to do. Rather, it is bringing the U.S. population down toward the level of the other countries. There needs to be some leveling because we have so much excess and many other countries have bare subsistence. But the leveling needs to be done in a way that does not produce a society with only two classes, the very wealthy and the poor.

There are too many people in our country who think it can’t happen here. It can...it is.

It ticked me anew to hear a few Oil Company CEOs blathering before Congress last week to justify their windfall profits of the last several fiscal quarters with the usual "supply and demand" BS. The fact came out, that the demand for oil has actually decreased in the USA in the last several years.

And I get very tired of those in Congress politely thanking these slimeballs for coming in to testify. I wouldn't be so nice.

Trish I too begin to suspect that there is more hidden agenda and less incompetence in the overall picture, though I do think incompetence is part of the equation as well. If it were not, these people would not so readily and consistently expose themselves for what they are, more interested in self-profit/aggrandizement/empowerment instead of the welfare of the nation and its people. It's becoming blatantly apparent that these people are not patriots, though they love to talk about their patriotism all the time. Their only real loyalties are to money and their own monumental egos.

Never before have so many sold themselves so cheaply for the "love of money." I'm so glad they are all good religious people, or at least tell us so. They most likely go to church each sunday to get some sleep, so that they can be "bright eyed and bushy-tailed" on Monday morning to continue the task of rapine and pillage against the people they "represent."

The time is coming for a lot of people to start waking up! And of course that will not occur until they realize there is something to wake up from.

My reaction to the Big Oil testimony was the same as yours, Stephen. The only improvement from previous testimony was that they were under oath. I will never forget Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) deciding that they did not need to be sworn in when they testified some time ago. He, of “Bridge to Nowhere” fame, is one of the perfect examples of what is wrong with our government.

I didn’t mean to sound like I think there is no incompetence. As a matter of fact I think there is a whole lot of incompetence in our government. However, I think in more cases than not, it is deliberate because this incompetence feeds the advancement of the hidden agenda. To accidentally have so many people put into positions they are totally unqualified for stretches credibility. Surely this administration knows a few capable people. But if we had competent or even… just imagine it… talented and skilled… leaders in leadership positions it would have an adverse effect on the efforts toward privatization and it would interfere with the money grabbers’ ability to drain money from the government coffers.

One thing we have learned (those of us who are paying attention) is that the plan of the neo-cons has been long in the making. These things did not just happened since Bush took office though his administration represents the most rapid progress of the plan.

There have been gradual changes and “conditioning” of the public going on for years. There has been a subtle redefining of words: Some to create barriers in the public’s mind that result in automatic rejection of an idea such as “conspiracy” which is now a synonym for “nut case;” Some, like “patriotism” “loyalty” and even “Christianity” (the faux version that does not reflect Christ-like behavior), to be triggers for emotional rants that distract and deflect.

Those who are unwilling to take the time to look more deeply into what has happened and continues to happen in our country, will wake up one day to find their lives drastically changed and wonder how it happened. Complacency and the self-inflicted busyness of today’s lifestyles continue to make a fertile field for those with nefarious designs.