Private vs. public schools in D.C.: a draw
by David Safier Here's the money quote from a N.Y. Times article about the Democratic push to limit or end vouchers in D.C. Last year, a Congressionally mandated review of the program by Department of Education researchers concluded that there were no significant differences between the test scores of students who received a voucher and … Read more
Summing up the Safier vs. Ladner comments smackdown
by David Safier
Over the past few weeks, Dr. Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute and I have engaged in a spirited back-and-forth in the comments sections of two posts: An interesting number and More Fool's Gold: Ed tax credits save us money. For my money, I won both arguments. I'm sure Ladner disagrees and, of course, he's welcome to put his opinions in the comments. As always, he'll get all the unedited space he wants.
The reason I picked a fight with G.I. in the first place is because I want to make it clear they have a purely political agenda. Their "research" is given far more credibility than it deserves, both by themselves and by the press who treats G.I. as a reasonable source of information. What they call "research" is often a travesty, a cynical misuse of scholarship to help conservatives get elected, then help them pass conservative legislation. Most of the rest is just smoke and mirrors.
Follow the link below to read my discussion of the two comment threads.
How is this different from getting a loan on tobacco money?
By David Safier I'm honestly confused. I hope someone can explain this to me. Our Accidental Gov is talking about a plan to raise some money to lessen the budget cuts in 2010. She wants to sell some state buildings. If it were a straight sale, at least I'd understand it. Then the question would … Read more
AZ AG Terry Goddard Ready for Debate on Legal Pot
by Michael Bryan Terry Goddard's measure of political courage just went up slightly in my estimation: he went on national TV and suggested that this country should look seriously at the merits of legalizing marijuana to cut off the flow of money to drug cartels fueling violence along the Mexican border and throughout Mexico. He … Read more
Congress should investigate Wall Street as it did after 1929
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Chris in Paris at Americablog raises the question Should Congress investigate Wall Street as they did after '29? Hell yes! And start sending these corrupt "masters of the universe" to jail. Chris provides the historical context: Most relevant to today, Congress has investigated the causes behind economic downturns, using the power of … Read more
The party of Beavis and Butthead
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: From a recent Paul Krugman blog post What should government do? A Jindal meditation: So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course. And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t … Read more
Another one bites the dust
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: After the Alaska Disasta, Sarah Palin, imploded in a super nova as John McCain's running mate, Republicans started looking around and asked "who else do we have?" Many of them, including the drug-addled mind of gas bag bloviator Rush Limbaugh, settled on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. So Jindal was primped and prodded into the … Read more
