The Obamanation

[TheMercenary]

PROMISES, PROMISES: Jobs bill won't add many jobs

WASHINGTON – It's a bipartisan jobs bill that would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory and placate Republicans with tax cuts at the same time. But it has a problem: It won't create many jobs.

Even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation's centerpiece — a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers — would work only on the margins.

As for the bill's effectiveness, tax experts and business leaders said companies are unlikely to hire workers just to receive a tax break. Before businesses start hiring, they need increased demand for their products, more work for their employees and more revenue to pay those workers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100210/...s_what_jobs_11

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Hey Now Here is Job Creation For Ya! [/taxpayersdollarswasted]

Because NO ONE would have predicted this would happen in isolated instances!!!

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

PROMISES, PROMISES: Jobs bill won't add many jobs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100210/...s_what_jobs_11

I agree. This bi-partisan compromise bill dilutes the potential positive impact of a real jobs bill and is far from the best solution.

So Merc, what do you stand for? I mean something other than a "good outrage and removing Nazis from Congress"

Just wondering if you have anything positive to contribute?

[TheMercenary]

Can I get an I-Pod?

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Can I get an I-Pod?

Made in China.

[TheMercenary]

Why of course, along with everything else in this nation.

[Clodfobble]

Can I play Devil's Advocate for a minute and suggest that actually, if a small bribe is what it takes to get parents involved with their kids' school, then it very well may be worth it? Parents are far more important than teachers when it comes to churning out educated and well-adjusted citizens, and no amount of school funding is going to be able to counteract a poor district full of bad parents. But bad parents also tend to be shallow and bribe-able, and if you can convince the parents that the schools are on their side, that could maybe change a lot of the underlying attitude.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Damn straight.

[classicman]

The Polk County School District on Thursday rescinded its plan to give away free iPod Nanos worth $150 each to parents of children with disabilities after being told by the state Department of Education that funds set aside for the plan cannot be used in that manner.

The district had set aside up to $350,000 of federal money to give iPods to parents of the district's 10,500 students with disabilities. To receive the iPod, parents would have to complete a 10-minute state survey online.

"The Florida Department of Education instructed district staff yesterday that the funds are to directly flow to students and not indirectly through parents," the district said in a news release. "The funds previously flagged to purchase the iPods will now be used to support classroom instruction and curriculum."

Link
Well so much for that idea.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Can I play Devil's Advocate for a minute and suggest that actually, if a small bribe is what it takes to get parents involved with their kids' school, then it very well may be worth it? Parents are far more important than teachers when it comes to churning out educated and well-adjusted citizens, and no amount of school funding is going to be able to counteract a poor district full of bad parents. But bad parents also tend to be shallow and bribe-able, and if you can convince the parents that the schools are on their side, that could maybe change a lot of the underlying attitude.

It would only work to an extent and then they would be looking for the next handout to do what they have a responsiblity to do all along. It is the nature of creating a welfare state. It only breeds more dependency.

[Clodfobble]

Sure, it's not a magic fix. But from the school's perspective, they're only dealing with these students (and by extension, their parents) for twelve years. It's already too late to fix the parents, to be perfectly honest.* But there's still a chance that if you can finagle good behavior out of the parents for even a short time, it might coincide with that window of time when you still have a chance to help the kid.


*It's important to realize that in low-income areas, many of the kids in the special ed programs are there specifically because their parents used drugs/alcohol while pregnant, and/or emotionally abuse them. Certainly not all of the kids with disabilities fit this bill, but as a general rule, the worst of the worst parents are going to end up with kids in the program.

[TheMercenary]

I don't disagree with anything you have said. I just don't think free I-pods are the fix. It is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. I would rather see them give the kids money for good grades.

[TheMercenary]

Feds push for tracking cell phones

the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Feds push for tracking cell phones



http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html

As long as they're not tracking calls to foreign terrorists, I guess it's OK.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, where is the liberal outcry? I thought this was a big deal.