Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Obama promises student loan forgiveness after 10 years to public servants

Obama promises student loan relief, but to the wrong group of people.  Public servants, not entrepreneurs.

"In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education," Obama said in his first State of the Union speech. "No one should go broke because they chose to go to college."

In his budget request for fiscal 2011 next week, Obama plans to introduce a $10,000 tax credit for families paying for four years of college, and more money for Pell Grants that help low-income students afford college. He also called for growth in an income-based student-loan repayment program the Education Department started in July.

"Let's tell another 1 million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years -- and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service," Obama said.

One can not blame the Obama administration for beginning Federal education programs.  One can blame them for expanding the programs which clearly are unconstitutional. While student loans may benefit students in the short term, in the long term they become a burden.  A wise person would do everything possible to fund education without loans. Forgiving student loans may be noble, but not prudent. It increases federal government expenditures.

It is strange that Obama would propose forgiving student debt after 10 years if the graduate goes into public service. This means teachers, fire fighters,and police.  But it also means state and federal government bureaucrats will receive government forgiveness after 10 years.  Such a measure expands government rather than decreasing its size.  Government is already too big and its expenditures are crippling taxpayers. The falling U.S. dollar caused by funding government from deficits should be a concern for all of us.

One of Obama's promises is more jobs.  New jobs are best created by small business. Not by government.  It's surprising that government servants would get their student loans forgiven after 10 years, but not entrepreneurs.  No promises for doctors, dentists, or business people.

  

// posted by John Fisher @ 11:42 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Monday, January 25, 2010

Statement of Congressman Ron Paul in Opposition to H Res 1021, Condolences to Haiti

 January 21, 2010

 I rise in reluctant opposition to this resolution. Certainly I am moved
by the horrific destruction in Haiti and would without hesitation
express condolences to those who have suffered and continue to suffer.
As a medical doctor, I have through my career worked to alleviate the
pain and suffering of others. Unfortunately, however, this resolution
does not simply express our condolences, but rather it commits the US
government "to begin the reconstruction of Haiti" and affirms that "the
recovery and long-term needs of Haiti will require a sustained
commitment by the United States...." I do not believe that a resolution
expressing our deep regret and sorrow over this tragedy should be used
to commit the United States to a "long-term" occupation of Haiti during
which time the US government will provide for the reconstruction of that
country.
I am concerned over the possibility of an open-ended US military
occupation of Haiti and this legislation does nothing to alleviate my
concerns. On the contrary, when this resolution refers to the need for a
long term US plan for Haiti, I see a return to the failed attempts by
the Clinton and Bush Administrations to establish Haiti as an American
protectorate. Already we are seeing many argue that this kind of
humanitarian mission is a perfect fit for the US military. I do not
agree.
Certainly I would support and encourage the efforts of the American
people to help the people of Haiti at this tragic time. I believe that
the American people are very generous on their own and fear that a US
government commitment to reconstruct Haiti may actually discourage
private contributions. Mr. Speaker, already we see private US citizens
and corporations raising millions of dollars for relief and
reconstruction of Haiti. I do not believe the US government should get
in the way of these laudable efforts. I do express my condolences but I
unfortunately must urge my colleagues to vote against this resolution
committing the United States government to rebuild Haiti.


// posted by John Fisher @ 10:41 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Race for the Top, a different name but the same tired practices

When states sell their souls to the federal government for grants,
they do it in exchange for giving up freedom to control their programs
and the strings attached almost always cost more than the benefits to
the states.

The federal government dictates how programs are run and usually
requires states use their own funds to top up federal grants. States
end up spending their own money on federally-mandated programs.

This week was the deadline for applications for federal grants related
to the Race to the Top program, Obama's version of No Child Left
Behind. The U.S. Department of Education has $4.3 billion to hand out,
but states have to qualify to get the grants, which often requires
changing their programs.

Obama is convinced the grant will entice "cash-starved" states to
adopt his program.

To qualify states must shut down failing schools, opting for privately
run charter schools, develop tougher tests tied to higher academic
standards, and collect better data to track student progress and make
teacher training more rigorous. Teachers will be evaluated on their
students' performance on tests.

"If it sounds prescriptive, that's because it is," North Carolina Gov.
Bev Perdue told NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122727330

While Perdue was critical of the "cookie-cutter" approach mandated by
the feds, her state still applied for the grants.  At least twelve
states have changed their laws to fit federal guidelines.

Despite opposition from its teachers, the largest teacher's union, the
American Federation of Teachers, says it supports the Obama plan.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122518878&ps=rs

Tom Dooher, president of the Minnesota teacher's union, calls the
program "coercive."  Superintendents are telling teachers this may be
the only money they see for many years.

States have invested time and resources in the application process so
they can figure out what to do to get the largest grants possible. The
rules for applying for the grant run over 100 pages. The Gates
Foundation is giving grants to states to help them apply for the
federal grants.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan told NPR in November that Race to the
Top give states flexibility instead of telling them what to do. The
grant will be "based upon their history of accomplishments and their
capacity to deliver on a courageous plan that they themselves design,"
Duncan told NPR.

However, John Ashley, executive director of the Wisconsin Association
of School Boards, said: "We now see states scrambling to read the
minds of the Department of Education as to what would make their state
eligible for the funds."

Anthony Cody, who coaches science teachers in Oakland Public Schools,
is using his Facebook to fight against Race to the Top.

"People with large amounts of money are using that money to leverage
change that they want," said Cody to NPR.

According to Cody, President Obama in his campaign said he would move
away from punishing schools for low test scores.  The Bush
administration's No Child Left Behind increased testing and punished
teachers if scores didn't improve.

However, Cody says these practices continue under Obama's Race for the
Top.  He is concerned that Race for the Top increases the reliance on
testing and teachers teaching for standardized tests.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120340616&ps=rs

Federal funding to states for education is unconstitutional.  In
addition, it makes states and school districts dependent on big
government, encouraging them to give up program freedom for dollars
that have too many strings attached.


// posted by John Fisher @ 8:44 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Obama makes fun of pickup owners

President Obama made fun of Senator-elect Scott Brown because he
drives a pickup truck and used it in his campaign. Obama was
suggesting that Brown is a Pickup Poser. "Forget the truck," Obama
said during a Sunday rally for Democratic Senate candidate Martha
Coakley in Boston. "Everybody can buy a truck." Brown, the president
said, has "decided to park his truck on Wall Street."

Brown's campaign jabbed back in a statement on Monday. "Mr. President,
unfortunately in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck."

Brown has over 200,000 miles on his pickup. Whether he posed with the
truck or not doesn't matter. What Obama forgets is that many
Americans have a love affair with their pickups - me included. I
drive it because I like to drive it - not because its practical.


// posted by John Fisher @ 6:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

House prepared to pass Senate health care bill

Now that Scott Brown has won the Senate seat in Massachusetts, the House of Representatives is considering passing the Senate health care bill unamended. 

 

Brown's victory means that Republicans in Senate have enough votes to deny Democrats their 60-seat Senate supermajority. The GOP will be able to block future Senate votes on health care and other Democratic priorities. 

 

Since the Senate has already passed a version of the health care bill, Democrats in the House are considering passing the Senate bill without alterations.    

 

As reported by CNN, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that the Senate health care bill is "better than nothing."

 

If the House passes the Senate bill as currently written, however, the measure could proceed straight to President Obama to be signed into law.

 

Before Christmas, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea of passing an unamended version of the Senate bill. At the time, she pointed to a number of key differences between the Senate and House bills.

 

However, it appears she has changed her mind.  Pelosi said, "Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we will have quality, affordable health care for all Americans, and it will be soon."

 

Several Democratic congressional sources told CNN that the White House had laid groundwork for the idea of House approval the Senate bill.  This would be the best of a series of bad options, according to Democrats.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/19/health.care/


// posted by John Fisher @ 10:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, January 08, 2010

Deal Challenges Obama’s Eligibility

The Post & Email indicated that on December 1, 2009 U.S. Congressman Nathan Deal (GA-R) sent a letter to the White House requesting that President Obama confirm his eligibility to hold the office of the U.S. presidency.

Todd Smith, Chief of Staff for Representative Nathan Deal of the United States House of Representatives serving Georgia's 9th district, told the Post & Email on January 5, 2010 that Deal has sent a letter to Barack Hussein Obama requesting him to prove his eligibility for the office of President of the United States of America. The letter was sent electronically the first of December 2009 in pdf format, and Mr. Smith said that Representative Deal has confirmation from Obama's staff that it has been received. The letter did not have additional signatories. It originated solely from Representative Deal.

I didn't find any mention of the request on Deal's website. http://www.house.gov/deal/index.shtml

See the Post and Email article at:
http://www.thepostemail.com/2010/01/05/deal-challenges-obamas-eligibility/comment-page-1/

// posted by John Fisher @ 9:59 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

TSA response reactive rather than pro-active

A bomb-attempt Christmas day was successfully thwarted by passengers on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight. The explosive concealed in the underwear of a Nigerian traveler reportedly was powerful enough to put a hole in the side of an airliner.

According to federal investigators, the bomb packet contained 80 grams of the explosive chemical PETN, sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Shoe bomber Richard C. Reid had carried 50 grams of the material in his failed bomb attempt on an airplane in December 2001.

Officials said that the detonator used by Abdulmutallab, a syringe filled with acid, failed to work, preventing an explosion. He attempted to blow up the bomb from under an airline blanket. Passengers and crew subdued the bomber and held him under arrest until landing at the Detroit airport. 

In the meantime, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a part of Homeland Security, is being criticized for its failure to act on the ground to prevent Al Qaeda trained Abdulmutallab from getting on the flight in Amsterdam. 

The  bomber was traveling on a visa issued by the State Department on June 16, 2008 and valid until June 12, 2010. Abdulmutallab  was on a "terror watch list" but not on the "no fly" list, which would have prevented him from boarding the flight.

Reports from Nigeria said Abdulmutallab's father had contacted the U.S. embassy six months ago about concerns his son had become radicalized and could pose a threat to the U.S. One report said the father could not understand why his son was allowed to board a flight to the U.S. given his warning.

The TSA's reaction to the bombing attempt was to impose new security restrictions on passengers.  Some of the restrictions have raised concerns about passenger privacy. 

"The Department of Homeland Security immediately put additional screening measures into place- for all domestic and international flights- to ensure the continued safety of the traveling public," said Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano.

"Passengers flying from international locations to U.S. destinations may notice additional security measures in place," said Napolitano. "These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same thing everywhere."

According to CBS travel correspondent Peter Greenberg, "The TSA has been extraordinarily quiet about announcing its new security rules, other than to say there would be different rules for different airports and that they would not be announcing them."

Greenberg predicts that passengers will see "bomb sniffing dogs and an increase in "secondary" inspections -- pat downs and, where available, a greater use of sniffer machines." Some airlines may be restricting people to only one carry-on.

On flights originating overseas, Greenberg wrote passengers will not be able to leave their seats for one hour before arrival and for one hour prior to arrival there will be no public announcements or online flight information about the location of the plane or its arrival time. All onboard entertainment systems will be turned off and all reading materials and blankets will be taken away an hour before landing.  Passengers will not have access to their belongings in overhead storage bins. 

Greenberg claims the restrictions are "pathetic" and "misdirected."  As a result of Reid's failed bomb attempt in 2001, passengers in the U.S. have been required to remove their shoes when going through security.  The scanning equipment has no ability to detect explosives. 

"There is no standard, unilateral application of security for airline passengers worldwide.
Equipment is either not working, or not effective in combating chemical explosives. And the governing agencies -- in this case the TSA, are, sadly, and historically, reactive at best," wrote Greenberg.

The TSA is reacting to the recent bombing attempt, according to Greenberg, "by prohibiting us from having a blanket, book or pillow during the last hour of our flight -- all because one person tried -- unsuccessfully -- to blow up a plane and he used a blanket during the last hour of HIS flight to try to conceal his poor attempt at detonating a chemical device?"

One of the major privacy concerns is full body scanners that do a "digital strip search."  Congress delayed use of these earlier in the year, but 150 of the scanners are now on the way to airports and may be installed as early as January. 

The U.S. Constitution protects citizens against "unreasonable searches." But experts are predicting that citizens will give up this right for security.

One of the concerns about the full body scanners is that they show a person completely naked during the scan process.  Not only is there concern about a person's immediate privacy, but also critics worry about what happens to the scans -- how the scans will be stored and their potential future use and abuse. 

"[The attack] is certainly not something we want to have happen again," Napolitano told "Good Morning America."

"That's why we're looking at that technology, why we're employing new technology. ... This is an ever-changing environment we're dealing with. We can't be static."

The TSA also is adopting a behavior monitoring system that the Israelis use successfully at Ben Gurion airport.  Security at Ben Gurion single out suspicious people in airport crowds based on specific facial expressions, body language, behavior, speech and even attire. The people are then questioned.

To identify potentially dangerous individuals, the TSA has stationed specially trained behavior-detection officers at U.S. airports. The officers may be positioned anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, trying to spot passengers who show an unusual level of nervousness or stress.

Under the behavior monitoring system, a suspicious passenger might be given a secondary security screening or questioned by police or U.S. air marshals. The TSA has established specific guidelines for normal behavior "in an airport environment." If passengers don't fit the guidelines, then they are subject to secondary screening or questioning.

In 2008, the TSA nationwide required 98,805 passengers to undergo additional screenings. Police questioned 9,854 of them and arrested 813.

The TSA indicated that the Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs)  do not have a background in behavior analysis, but are chosen based on their intelligence, maturity and ability to work with people. Officers undergo only four days of behavior training, which includes learning to spot suicide terrorists, and then receive 24 hours of on-the-job preparation. 

Former Georgia Congressman and Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr wrote an op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution expressing concern about the "significant expansion of TSA's jurisdiction." In addition to the deployment of Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs), Barr expressed concerns about TSA's "fixation with technology." Besides the full-body x-ray machines at airports,  the Department of Homeland Security is spending millions on developing  "technology that would remotely monitor certain bodily functions and alert TSA employees whenever someone is exuding signs of nervousness."

Barr was referring to potential behavior detection-related technologies that are being studied at DHS's science and technology directorate that could detect suspicious behavior. It's known as the Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST, program. Similar initiatives are underway in Israel.

The TSA also is taking its mandate outside airports. A recent article in The New American describes how the TSA is recruiting truck and bus drivers in a program called First Observers to watch for suspicious activities on the nation's highways. 

Security expert Bruce Schneier has questioned the "social costs, including loss of liberty, restriction of fundamental freedoms, and the creation of a thought crime."

"Is this the sort of power we want to give a police force in a constitutional democracy, or does it feel more like a police-state sort of thing?"  he asks.

Meanwhile, Napolitano says, "The American people should continue their planned holiday travel and, as always, be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior or activity to law enforcement officials." Also, "allot extra-time for check-in."

// posted by John Fisher @ 9:57 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

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