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V: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Welcome Back The Spotlight 'O Terror
Green - Low: This setting is here just as a reference point. DHS will never use it because it would mean we didn’t need them anymore.
Blue - Guarded: This rarely used setting on the Stoplight ‘O Terror could indicate things like an undocumented worker within 3 square miles of the president.
Yellow - Elevated: This is the standard level of fear. Don’t expect to see anything lower than this as long as the Regressives are in office. Be scared, but not too scared to vote Republican.
Orange - High: Chertoff heard that someone in the CIA’s brother’s boss’ nephew’s sister-in-law heard about a plan to blow up Amish Country Popcorn Factory in Berne Indiana. It’s ok to pee your pants at this level.
Red - Severe: A terror attack was recently narrowly averted. We can’t release any details but just be thankful we saved your asses. Used frequently before midterm elections. See October Surprise. (Oh My God, Take Away My Freedoms and Protect Me From Them There Terrorists, Like Osama Hussein!!!)
Welcome to my Blog, enjoy your stay!
Congressman Ron Paul, MD - We've Been NeoConned
1984 radio broadcast:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: BOB EKSTROM
AUGUST 20, 2007 FORMER CPO CHAIR (503) 317-8274
Dont Be Fooled By GOP Compassion
Grants Pass, OR - THE CONSTITUTION PARTY OF OREGON (CPO) advises voters to be wary of Republican politicians who claim to want to spread compassionate conservatism, when their only true goal is to win elections - even if that means spreading what would be more appropriately called compassionate fascism.
A collection of some well-known Bush administration apologists will be holding a People of Faith symposium in Portland on August 23rd, to meet and speak with brilliant thinkers
To revolutionize the future
and energize our present.
Three of the speakers scheduled have gone to enormous lengths in order to deceive Gods people into believing that George W. Bush is a conservative, born-again Christian, whose compassion for unborn babies would help end abortion, whose moral standards would restore our culture to a truly God blessed country, and that he would pursue a humble foreign policy. Their propaganda tricked millions of voters to elect this wolf in sheeps clothes as President of the United States.
One of the speakers, radio talk show host Michael Medved, regularly speaks against The Constitution Party because we do not support meddling in the affairs of other countries, including Israel. Medved, an anti-Palestinian zealot, supports the U.S. occupation of Iraq and is a pro-war instigator. See how he differentiates this war with the Vietnam War. Promoting unprovoked wars is not exactly showing compassionate conservatism.
Another intended speaker at the symposium will be Dr. Marvin Olasky, (editor of World Magazine), also a supporter of the war in Iraq. He admits that it took an avalanche of lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, but he refuses to admit the war is wrong. Regarding what the Bible says about pacifism, and how he believes it does not apply to the war in Iraq, Olasky said: What we know in general is that Cold War pacifism would have allowed Soviet dictators control of the world, and absolute pacifism now would do the same for Muslim autocrats.
And here, Olasky defends Rumsfeld and the abuses at Gharib: "Rumsfeld is not responsible for the perverse acts of a few: Given man's sinfulness multiplied by wartime pressures, every war brings out evil conduct.
The third man who was very influential in deluding Christians about Bush and who will be a speaker at this Portland symposium is Stephen Mansfield, the author of "The Faith of George Bush.
Jack Alan Brown, Jr., Chairman of the CPO said, The faith of George Bush has not prevented the shedding of innocent blood, which is the first duty of government. This charge is proven by the 8 million unborn babies murdered on his watch; and the nearly 4,000 American soldiers and 100,000 or so Iraqi civilians who have paid the ultimate price for Bushs nation-building calamity. George Bush has built his foreign policy on lies, and we know who is the father of lies. The results of Bushs policy are war crimes - as we have violated all the principles of a just war. To tout him as a man of faith, for political gain, shows just how morally bankrupt the Republican Party has become. Ron Paul is their only hope to redeem themselves. Anything we can do to help wayward Republicans see the error of their ways will become our mission over the next 18 months.
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CONSTITUTION PARTY OF OREGON
560-A NE 'F' Street, Box 201, Grants Pass OR 97526
541-659-4313, 503-307-3851; www.constitutionpartyoregon.net
un confiscation is exactly what 
lergy response teams would walk a 
he right of the people to keep and bear Arms, 
e that hath 
That means at least two
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: DAVE BROWNLOW
AUGUST 21, 2007 (503) 307-3851
Clackamas, OR Lots of smoke and mirrors, and POOF! you are a compassionate conservative. The Republicans used lies and deceit to fool Gods people into electing George Bush in 2000 and again in 2004. Now that the failure of 12 years of Republican rule is so well documented, they are trying to sell the message that we should re-elect the same gang of criminals who orchestrated the total collapse of this nation's moral values - in some naive hope they will improve the moral values of our nation if we will give them just one more chance to get it right.
In an attempt to sell a message that would be more appropriately called compassionate imperialism, the Republicans are hosting a propaganda-fest August 23rd that is being billed as the People of Faith Veritas Symposium. This event will highlight numerous apologists of the Bush war machine, offering anyone willing to fork over $25 the chance, to meet and speak with brilliant thinkers
To revolutionize the future
and energize our present. But their fraud has been exposed, and BELIEVERS AGAINST THE WAR is encouraging all Christians to boycott the symposium.
Speakers at the event will include the following Betrayers of the Faith:
Michael Medved, a pro-war, anti-Arab, Bush apologist, national radio host.
Dr. Marvin Olasky, author and editor of World magazine, whom The Oregonian refers to as the intellectual architect of Bushs compassionate conservatism initiative, will presumably be speaking about the many ways he uses his Christian magazine to deceive Gods people into embracing evil.
Steven Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George Bush, a book that claims Bush is still a Christian - even though he deceived our country into a war against a nation that posed no threat to America - and even though 8 million American unborn babies have been murdered on his watch.
Mary Starrett, Field Director for BATW and former TV and radio show host, said, Michael Medved referred to Jesus as delusional because He claimed to be God. Yet, Medved doesn't mind making his living off the people who follow that "delusional" leader.
David Brownlow, Ex. Director said, The Republicans will have squandered over a trillion dollars raining carnage down on the Iraqi people before we finally loosen our grip on that forsaken country. Instead of hanging their heads in shame, the Republicans respond by promoting an author who thinks these war crimes make George Bush a good Christian man. The only possible upside of this is that the moral depravity of the Republican Party has become so shockingly obvious, with the Democrats being every bit as decadent, that people of faith may finally realize there is no solution to be found within the two party charade.
BELIEVERS AGAINST THE WAR suggests that Christians examine every law, policy, candidate, political party, war, etc. in the light of the Bible (All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13), and the law of our land, the U.S. Constitution.
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P.O. Box 2965, Clackamas, OR 97015
(503) 307-3851 - www.BelieversAgainstTheWar.org
Deborah Kuhn On Being Arrested & Assaulted For Upside Down U.S. Flag
(audio)
A North Carolina couple who were terrorized by a police officer who had recently returned from Iraq are now fighting back, after sheriff's deputy Brian Scarborough broke into their house, assaulted them and then arrested the Kuhns for the crime of flying an upside down U.S. flag.
GM and WS-Please readers spread this far and wide-post it, blog it, hand out CD's and tapes of this broadcast.
It turns out that fancy lunch date Sean Hannity had with Rudy Giuliani last week was a closed-door fundraiser where the "real journalism" FOX News host was an active participant. According to the NY Daily News , Hannity was there to introduce Giuliani. To borrow a favorite FOX News phrase, "some are saying" that Hannity crossed an improper line separating journalism from advocacy. To add to Hannity's woes over that fundraiser, it was also alleged that he used public funds, via a chauffeured ride from the local sheriff, to get there.
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The Daily News stated:
In so doing, some believe that Hannity - while clearly a commentator paid to express his opinions - crossed the line from punditry into financial rainmaking for a presidential candidate whose bottom line is now better for it."Fox's in-kind contribution to Republican politicians in the form of softball coverage is one thing," said Steve Rendall, senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog group. "But this is the first time they have crossed this line into fund-raising."
..."It signals within that brand of conservatism that they ought to vote for the guy," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communications.
Hannity declined to comment, but his bosses at Fox News Channel and WABC, flagship station for his national radio show, defended their marquee star by arguing that he's not a journalist and shouldn't be judged as one.
The 40 story Deutsche Bank building next to the ground zero site in New York, where the world trade center once stood, caught fire yesterday and burned intensely for seven hours without collapsing
This represents another modern day miracle in light of the commonly accepted premise that since 9/11, all steel buildings that suffer limited fire damage implode within two hours. This building had even suffered structural damage on 9/11 and had been partially dismantled.
The raging fire, which killed two firefighters, was finally declared under control late saturday afternoon, a full seven hours after it had begun to burn.
On 9/11 the south tower of the WTC burned for just 56 minutes before collapsing, while the north tower lasted around an hour and 45 minutes. According to the official transcripts of the firefighter tapes , fires in both towers were almost out immediately before the collapses.
The saving grace that could have prevented Deutsche Bank from imploding may have been the fact that it was not hit by a plane, as the twin towers were on 9/11.
However, the absence of a jet strike wasn't enough to prevent WTC 7 from crumbling into its own footprint within 7 seconds later that fateful afternoon.
Hundreds of buildings worldwide suffered major fires that gutted the entire facade of their structure before 9/11 and did not collapse, but since the twin towers behaved differently, rather than consider an alternative explanation for the collapse of the towers, experts simply decided to reverse the fundamental precepts of all known physics to make it easier for everyone to understand.
Since that time, it has been commonly accepted that limited fires in tall buildings are 99% certain to cause an almost instantaneous collapse.
More pictures and an AP report on the latest blaze follow.
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Firefighters Die in Blaze by Ground Zero
AP August 19, 2007
VERENA DOBNIK
NEW YORK - A seven-alarm fire ripped through an abandoned skyscraper next to ground zero in Lower Manhattan Saturday, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze.
Officers at the scene were preventing nearby residents from returning to their homes, telling them that authorities were concerned the former Deutsche Bank office building, vacant since the 2001 terrorist attacks turned it into a toxic nightmare, could fall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that fear turned out to be unfounded.
The plume of gray smoke that trailed above the site of the World Trade Center raised concerns that toxic substances in the building could be spreading.
Bloomberg sought to reassure residents that the chemicals in the building likely did not present a significant health risk, saying air-quality tests so far showed no danger.
"Having said that, we are extremely careful. We don't want to prejudge anything," the mayor added. Tests were to continue overnight, he said.
One of the firefighters killed was identified as Joseph Graffagnino, 34, of Brooklyn. He was a member of Ladder 5, which lost 11 members on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Today's events really are another cruel blow to our city and to our fire department," Bloomberg said. He said the fire had "expanded our loss."
Also killed was Robert Beddia, 53, of Staten Island. Bloomberg said both firefighters had become trapped, inhaled a great deal of smoke and gone into cardiac arrest.
Five or six other firefighters were taken to a hospital but were expected to be released, Bloomberg said. No civilians were hurt.
Construction crews had already dismantled 14 of the building's 40 stories -- reaching the 26th floor on Tuesday. Some firefighters used stairs to reach the burning upper floors of the building, just steps from where 343 firefighters lost their lives in the 2001 terror attacks.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Smoke pouring from the burning building was visible from midtown Manhattan and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Fire officials declared the blaze under control late Saturday.
The acrid smell of smoke, which hung over the neighborhood for days after Sept. 11, returned to lower Manhattan along with the wail of emergency vehicles. More than five dozen fire vehicles, with more than 270 firefighters, responded to the blaze as pieces of burning debris fell from the building to the streets.
Residents said they weren't allowed home even to rescue their pets.
"We heard this crackling," said Elizabeth Hughes, who saw the fire start from her rooftop deck across from the tower. "And then a huge fire that went up three floors fast. It was massive. ... Oh my God! I can't even go in and get my cats."
By late Saturday evening, nearby residents who had been evacuated were told they could return.
The 1.4-million square foot office tower was contaminated with toxic dust and debris after the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed into it. Bloomberg said the chemicals in the building did not present a significant health risk.
Efforts to dismantle it were halted by a labor dispute last year, along with the ongoing search for the remains of attack victims.
City officials announced in June they had completed recovery efforts at the structure. More than 700 human remains were found at the site.
Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for the Empire State Development Corp., which is overseeing redevelopment at ground zero, said authorities were investigating whether the smoke at the scene could pose any environmental danger.
Infowars.net August 14 , 2007
Steve Watson
A host of curious events at the Iowa Straw Poll at the weekend has raised questions as to whether there was some kind of tampering with the final vote count, with evidence to suggest Ron Paul may have been wrongly placed in fifth position behind Mitt Romney and three second tier candidates.
It was reported by local TV news stations before the event that upwards of 45,000 Republicans would arrive to meet candidates and cast their votes, however this number was dwindled down to between 30,000 and 33,000 according to the Iowa GOP's projected figures.
The number of voters then decreased by another sizable margin to around 26,000 the next day, only for the final figure to drop EVEN FURTHER to 14,302 actual votes cast.
Even if the immediate figures of 45,000 and 33,000 were wrong and the Iowa GOP grossly overestimated the figures, with only 26,000 tickets being sold, this still does not account for the other 12, 000 tickets that suddenly disappeared. One has to ask the question why did 12,000 people buy tickets at $35 each and not vote?
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In 1999 the Straw Poll, which was won by George W Bush, attracted 23,685 voters , an incredibly similar figure to the 26,000 tickets sold this year.
As we reported yesterday , it has come to light that the voting procedure was overseen the Story County Auditor's Office, the head of whom happens to also be a member of Mitt Romney's " Leadership Team ".
When the electronic voting machines inevitably malfunctioned, many immediately became wary.
According to some reports 4500 ballots had to be re-run and the announcement of the poll results was delayed by over an hour.
Earlier in the week a group of Ron Paul supporters had attempted to block the vote based on concerns over insecurities in the Diebold machines , yet the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to join an injunction against the vote.
It hasn't helped Romney's case that swirling around the blogosphere are rumours that previous to the straw poll he was "joking" out loud that his team were going to " stuff the ballot box ".
The plot thickens with further analysis of the figures. A reader to popular website Whatreallyhappened.com writes:
FUZZY MATH #1Though it was reported that "there were nothing but Ron Paul signs in the crowd" and that his campaign signs lined the highways and streets leading into Ames, Iowa, Paul came in fifth place behind Romney, Huckabee, Brownback and Tancredo.
Some exit polls also suggested that Ron Paul had actually WON the poll outright, before the final result was announced.
The Ames Straw Poll's results are non-binding and have no official effect on the presidential primaries. However, the straw poll is frequently seen as a first test of organizational strength in Iowa by the news media and party insiders. At the very least an investigation should be conducted to determine how significant an effect on the vote the Diebold machine malfunctions had and also why 12,000 tickets were not translated into votes.
London Observer August 20, 2007
Jamie Doward
A new law swept through Congress by the US government before the summer recess is to give American security agencies unprecedented powers to spy on British citizens without a warrant.
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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was approved by Congress earlier this month to help the National Security Agency in the fight against terrorism. But it has now emerged that the bill gives the security services powers to intercept all telephone calls, internet traffic and emails made by British citizens across US-based networks.
As much of the world's telecoms networks and internet infrastructure runs through the US, the new act will give the security services huge scope for monitoring and intercepting Britons' private communications, as well as those of other foreign citizens. The new act has led to fears it will see a huge increase in the number of British citizens being extradited to the US.
'Just because it happens to pass through the US they claim they can do whatever they want,' said Tony Bunyan, director of Statewatch, the civil rights group that campaigns against state surveillance. 'Where is the EU saying, "What's going on here, we've got to protect the rights of our citizens?"'
The Dutch Liberal Democrat MEP Sophie in 't Veld has tabled a series of questions demanding answers from the EU parliament. In a statement to European politicians, In 't Veld warns the US law will 'directly apply to EU citizens and constitutes a major violation of privacy and civil liberties'.
The law has prompted a furore in the US, where it was opposed by Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But other countries seem ignorant of its consequences. 'There's been a lot of upheaval in Congress about this new act over fears Bush will use it to eavesdrop on US citizens,' In 't Veld said. 'But it can and will be used for the communications of Europeans.'
She pointed out many companies and organisations are based in the US and that the new law will give the US powers to monitor their communications. 'For example, I would like to know what sort of communications go via the UN,' In 't Veld said.
Concern over US powers to monitor foreign citizens is growing. European privacy watchdogs have expressed fears that the US authorities are to be handed powers to check the personal details of travellers entering America and store them on databases alongside details such as their sexuality and religious beliefs for up to 15 years. The watchdogs, including the Information Commissioner of England and Wales, Richard Thomas, have been scathing in their criticism of the European Commission for granting the US its demand for the new powers.
In a coded statement the Information Commissioner's office yesterday acknowledged concerns that the privacy of some four million Britons who travel to the US each year is at risk because of the new powers.
'We will continue to work alongside our European data protection colleagues to try to ensure that airline passengers' details are protected by the appropriate data protection safeguards,' a spokeswoman told The Observer.
| Thomas Windsor |
| REMNANT COLUMNIST, London |
This year in England we gained another liberal law protecting the ‘rights’ of the few over the many. Once again our schools will take this up, adding to the many difficulties that beset the English education system. The infamous Sexual Orientation regulations 2007 (SOR) "make discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation unlawful..."  This applies to any organization, company, or individual and relates to job applications and services provided. It continued, "[This] Discrimination is unlawful in civil law rather than being a criminal offence. A person who believes that he or she has been discriminated against unlawfully may bring a case to a county court, which can award damages, including compensation for injury to feelings." So our courts will decide what constitutes discrimination. While most of our courts are quite conservative, the liberal influences grow by the year. It will be interesting to see what they make of this latest law. Perhaps in answer to the many uncertainties, the department of education guidelines suggests that the teaching of the Faith will not be prevented... "However, the concerns expressed are that faith schools will no longer be able to teach according to an aspect of their belief or faith — which is the importance of traditional family values and that single-sex relationships are sinful. (...) The regulations will not prevent any of this. So for example, if a faith school (or indeed any school) teaches that the Christian and Muslim faiths decree that same-sex sexual activity is a sin then the school will not be acting unlawfully. Similarly, if a pupil asks a teacher his views on homosexuality and the teacher gives his view, then again, that teacher will not be acting unlawfully" . It remains to be seen if the courts could be used to rule if a certain religious course is discriminatory. Although this may be unlikely as most schools already refuse to teach Christian morality. Priority is instead being given to the teaching of the liberal religion, which is not too surprising as our education system has been run by liberals for the last few decades. The first major attack on our educational standards occurred in the 1950's with the creation of the comprehensive school  . Being yet another attempt to produce the ‘equality’ promised by the French revolution. ‘A school for everyone’ is what we were supposed to think, but all we had was another modern institution that would fail to live up to its name. After the attempts in the 50’s and 60’s to pervert our education system in the name of equality, our liberal governments have continued to tinker with the education system. Ever more liberal ideas were pushed through under the pretence of improving the standard of ability of all children. These attacks on traditional education have only made it more difficult for children to meet higher standards in further education. At best the policies allowed things to stay the same, but most have made it worse. While our politicians can't add two and two (another problem caused by the education policies of the 1960’s?), they have managed to pervert the education system and have allowed the ignorant to teach. When the blind lead the blind they both fall into the pit. Now the average person in the street cannot tell that half the laws the politicians now make are rubbish or in fact dangerous for our liberty. Looking back one wonders whether they did it all deliberately? To solve the problem of so much under achievement the Blair Government in their wisdom came up with the idea of targets to show how well they were doing. At the time it was suggested that these targets were rather simple and easy to achieve, but it later spectacularly backfired with a long list of failure. The targets in English and Mathematics were eventually achieved five years too late. It shows real incompetence to miss your own targets! Our new Brown Government recently talked about doing away with most of the targets, they claim it is a waste of money. The embarrassment at the continued failure to meet the targets may be the real reason. One of the few areas of success for our education system has been IT classes. Certain children using there new found knowledge to set up web sites to organize various criminal activities. “Gang members are using IT skills they learn in school to set up web sites where they arrange fights for sport”,  was one of a number of reports of the misuse of IT by school children in our newspapers. One target has been rolled out repeatedly, “50% of the population to go to university”. This is regardless of ability, as shown in the increasing drop out rates in our second and third-rate universities  . The stream of complaints about the drop in the standard of degrees only seems to become more frequent, and the dream of half the population with a university degree seems ever more distant. Another problem we have is the blunt social engineering being attempted by our government; university application forms will, from 2008, include questions asking whether applicants' parents have a university degree. What possible relevance is this to an application? Also, details of parental occupation, ethnic background and whether or not applicants have been in care will be shown to admission tutors ahead of the selection process, in an attempt to make our student population representative of society at large  . If this continues one day soon it will be illegal to give student’s grades for their work. The continued failure of previous policies has led to an increasing desperation in government, leading to ever more extreme ideas. One policy we have not heard too much about of late is the ‘respect camps’. The closest we have so far, is a few holiday activities in some of our schools over the summer. These are run by community groups and volunteers, a far cry from the idea proposed a couple of years ago. The Government is a lot of talk and little action, the nearest we will get is “all schools by 2010 to offer activities during holidays and throughout the year”,  so no camps anytime soon. The previous record of our government makes it unlikely that they will keep to this, even without the problems that plague this idea; while we have plenty of schools empty and unused over the summer, using them is not easy. They will have great difficulty trying to find ‘teachers’ (Zookeeper, entertainer, social worker, and volunteer police officer would be more accurate job descriptions). It will also take a lot of extra wages for the staff of certain schools to come in for another six weeks of abuse a year. Insurance, security and the long-term contracts, with the private company's who run some schools all make it rather difficult. Add in Government incompetence and red tape, these camps become almost impossible. That is without the problem of getting the children to go in the first place. In April an attempt to solve the problems with discipline in our schools brought the headline... "NEW DISCIPLINARY POWERS LAY DOWN THE LAW FOR SCHOOL TROUBLE MAKERS", which must have caused all the troublemakers to quake in their boots! " hey give teachers a clear statutory right to restrain, detain and remove unruly pupils, confiscate mobile phones that are being used in a malicious or disruptive way and punish pupils for poor behavior not just in school, but also on the way to and from school."  This government document tells us the problems that many teachers face, but to give teachers similar powers as police officers, without the training seems madness. The teaching unions were not impressed and warned their members to be careful in using the new powers. The last thing we need is more teachers off sick after suffering injuries at the hands of pupils, or more legal problems caused by children suing their schoolteachers. If that wasn’t enough, a month later the government gave teachers the power to search pupils [10]. Not that we will see any change, the teaching unions complained that their members had enough to worry about without the added confrontation. Most teachers certainly would not want to search children, even if you survived stopping and asking to search them, what would you do with all the knives, drugs and guns? The worst schools already have metal detectors, security guards, and police on site all day, so the children hide their knives and guns off site to pick up later. Why any parent would send their child to such a school is anyone's guess. Another announcement told us Saturday school is the latest idea [11], but this has been quite common in the private schools for many years. Most of these schools have some lessons on Saturday mornings. To balance this a couple of afternoons a week are given off (mainly for sports) and they have longer Holidays. The state school I taught in opened on Saturday mornings to detain the worst miscreants! But the older pupils did not turn up, the only time we would ever detain them was on Friday afternoon, the school hall was packed for an hour at the end of school time. After an attempt to bribe 16-19 year olds with 30 pounds a week, did not go to plan. [12] Besides the longer days, and "summer camps" we are now told we need an extra two years to educate our children. “Plans to force teenagers to stay in education or training after 16 could lead to mass truancy and needless criminalisation of thousands of young people, a teachers' leader warned yesterday. Raising the school leaving age to 18 might mean already disaffected pupils felt their "agony" was only being prolonged, warned Geraldine Everett, chairman of the Professional Association of Teachers. (...) Schools minister Jim Knight said: "It is only right that we are looking at all options to keep young people engaged in education or training up until 18 - whether at school, training or in a job. We must not allow young people to be left behind.”[13] Sadly the schools minister could not see that the real reasons for young people being left behind are the disjointed government education policy, political correctness, poor teaching, poor facilities, and a limited curriculum that is irrelevant to most inner city children. Anyway if the ‘teachers’ can't do the job over 5 days, how does an extra day help? Will children be more or less engaged during their lessons for an extra 4 -6 weeks over the summer? I think we know the answers, but our politicians seem to think that the longer the horse is at the trough the more it will drink. Expecting teachers to work 6 days a week, let alone losing the perk of the job, the summer holidays with more work, will make the job even more unpleasant. As the workload has increased over the last few years the amount of teachers taking on exam marking during the summer has fallen. To solve this problem the exam boards started to use computers to mark exams, with rather poor results! We should also see the amount of time taken off sick rising from its already high level. They tried to ban early retirement but that has not stopped the flow of experienced teachers leaving. These new ideas only cause more problems, and are unlikely to solve the ones we have at the moment. The attempts by our politicians over the last few years to ‘improve’ our education system have been the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Our politicians change the color and position of the deck chairs, always gaining good publicity! While no attempt is made to change direction, we are told there is only one course and it can’t be changed. The work of the few good teachers we have has only slowed this progress. As our education system goes ‘full steam ahead’ towards the approaching iceberg, increasing numbers of parents hasten for the ‘lifeboat’ of home schooling [14]. This causes great worry among the teaching unions and some members of the government. Consultations were held last year, with tough talking from politicians, but for now their attempts to limit home schooling have failed. Their latest plans have been watered down, no new inspectors, no new law, no more money. In practice it is very difficult for the inspectors that there are at the moment to do anything. Even the most ignorant parent can do better with a couple of children, than an ignorant teacher can with 30! Adding all the time wasted during the school day changing rooms, etc., gives home schoolers quite an advantage. The education authorities have a limited database, so the inspectors only know about the children removed from school, or children reported out of school, the rest they know nothing about. An attempt was made to register all children on a central database, but the funding was used up on consultancy fees. Some of the home school children I teach have been removed from school and are inspected, this involves receiving a few threatening letters, but once the inspector visits and sees the work, they go all quiet. Some are very helpful, in one area of London we get the use of state buildings for home school groups free of charge, and they are not interested in what we are teaching! Home schoolers don’t have too much to fear at the moment, there is no room in the schools for all the home schooled children anyway! NOTES: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/equality/sexualorientation/regulations2007/ guidanceforschools/ ibid ibid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_school www.tes.co.uk/2412217 http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2802629.ece http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6923772.stm http://www.tes.co.uk/2412244 http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0061 [10] http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/healthandsafety/schoolsecurity [11] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/17/nedu117.xml and http://hiddenireland.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/poor-children-do-not-deserve-saturdays-according-to-liberals/ [12] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6926017.stm and the government site; http://ema.direct.gov.uk/ema.html [13] James Meikle, education correspondent, Tuesday July 31, 2007, The Guardian [14] http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2020083,00.html |
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