Wonkitorial: Lights Out

In yet another sign that our country is in serious trouble, some municipalities are turning-off street lights while others are allowing paved roads to revert to gravel:

The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.

Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.

And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.

We’re told that we have no choice, that basic government functions — essential services that have been provided for generations — are no longer affordable. And it’s true that state and local governments, hit hard by the recession, are cash-strapped. But they wouldn’t be quite as cash-strapped if their politicians were willing to consider at least some tax increases.

Read the whole sorry thing over there.

I believe that this is just more anecdotal evidence that supports the idea that the nation is on the decline.

Whatever happened to "morning in America?"

And why don't we make things any more???

Just go into any Sears store and see where many Craftsman tools are nowadays being made. I can remember not too long ago when even the TV commercials used to emphasize that they were all made in America.

No longer. Like seemingly everything else, many of those Craftsman tools now sport the all-to-familiar label "Made in China."

Sad.

Wonkitorial: Cutting To The Front Of The Lunch Line

All of her adult life, Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy emphatically stated that she wanted to be a "private" person, and therefore completely out of the public's eye but free to attend countless social events with her pals from New York City's Social Register.

But now, JFK's deep-blue-blooded daughter has changed her mind and wants to claim what some would believe to be her rightful inheritance by being appointed United States Senator.

And, like any Kennedy, what Caroline wants, Caroline will be given. This in spite of the fact that Schlossberg Kennedy has held no elected office whatsoever.

Cutting to the front of the line; isn't that just like a Kennedy?

Given the nature of senatorial incumbency nowadays, if Schlossberg Kennedy is appointed to the Senate by New York's governor David Paterson, she's practically guaranteed to be a Senator-for-life.

Take a look at this article, (don't miss its attached video) and judge for yourself this socialite's qualifications for membership in the world's most powerful (and exclusive) legislative body.

We think that before Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy asks (and gets) what amounts to a lifetime appointment to the United States Senate, she ought to pay a few political dues first. She might start by actually winning a contested election to an entry-level elected office.

Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy claims to be highly interested in public education.

Maybe she should try getting elected to New York City's school board. She might actually do some good there.

Of course there wouldn't be much of a limelight of publicity to immerse herself in.

And with the Kennedys, isn't it always about the limelight?

Wonkitorial: The Latest From Babylon, D.C.

Looks like another of the Washington Crowd has been caught with his pants down hands in the hypocrisy jar:(emphasis added)

"Miz Julia" doled out a steady stream of advice, both practical and philosophical.

From her California home, she e-mailed tips to the 132 women who worked across the Washington area for the firm Pamela Martin & Associates. Her newsletters, now excerpted in court records, were a virtual how-to manual for avoiding all kinds of trouble in a business said to specialize in erotic fantasies.

"One never quite knows where evil, i.e., the vice squad is lurking in this business," read one arch entry from 1995. "The misogynists get a real kick out of surprising (shocking) you girls, when you give them the opportunity!!! . . . Therefore, you are to lock, double lock, triple lock all doors!!! . . . Figure it out, before they 'get cha'!!!"

Miz Julia was the pseudonym for Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the woman at the center of a sex scandal that has caused a deputy secretary of state to resign and has lawyers calling around town trying to keep their clients' names out of public view. A one-time law student, Palfrey ran for 13 years what she insists was a legal escort service. Federal prosecutors allege she was providing $300-an-hour prostitutes, and a grand jury indicted her in February on federal racketeering charges.

Palfrey piqued fascination -- and anxiety -- by first threatening to sell phone records that could unveil thousands of clients, and then handing them over, apparently for free, to ABC News. She is scheduled to appear tomorrow in U.S. District Court in the District.

On Friday, Randall L. Tobias resigned as deputy secretary of state one day after confirming to Brian Ross of ABC that he had patronized the Pamela Martin firm. Speaking yesterday on "Good Morning America," Ross said Tobias told him Tobias's number was on Palfrey's phone records because he had called "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." There had been "no sex," Ross quoted Tobias as saying, and that recently he has used another service, "with Central American gals," for massages.

Tobias, who is 65 and married, was director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He previously held a top job in the Bush administration overseeing AIDS relief, in which he promoted abstinence and a policy requiring grant recipients to swear they oppose prostitution.

Palfrey's flamboyant attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said Friday that he has been contacted by five lawyers recently, asking whether their clients' names are on Palfrey's list of 10,000 to 15,000 phone numbers. Some, Sibley said, have inquired about whether accommodations could be made to keep their identities private. ABC is expected to air a report on Palfrey and her clients on "20/20" on May 4, during sweeps.

More revelations are in the offing. Ross said the list includes the names of some "very prominent people," as well as a number of women with "important and serious jobs" who had worked as escorts for the firm.

Read the backstory about this whole sorry episode right here.

This is just another incident that seems to support the idea that over the past few decades, Washington Babylon-on-the-Potomac has become little more than a cesspool of non-stop depravity, cronyism, reckless spending of the public's money, and gross administrative incompetence.

While our nation is in the middle of a supposed "war" on terror in which thousands of our nation's young people are getting killed and maimed due to a lack of proper equipment, (such as up-armored combat-ready vehicles) the Washington Crowd New Babylonians seemingly do little else besides party, travel on taxpayer-financed sightseeing junkets, and play endless rounds of employer-employee grab-ass while marking time in their plushly-appointed (again, at taxpayer expense) office suites.

In his first inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan said, "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Mr. Regan went on to say:

"We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick--professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, "we the people," this breed called Americans.

So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government--not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government..."

During the 1992 Presidential campaign, which ended-up being won by Bill Clinton, (who just may be the most morally bankrupt man to ever hold the office) then-candidate Ross Perot spoke about the need for someone to go to Washington Babylon-on-the-Potomac and, in his words, "clean-out the barn."

President Reagan's call to reign-in an arrogant and increasingly overbearing federal government continues to resonate today while that barn of which Mr. Perot spoke about is still in need of a thorough cleaning.

We hope that any and all of those who are involved (be they Democrats or Republicans) in this latest scandal among the nation's ruling so-called "elite" are exposed and held up to the public ridicule that they so richly deserve at the hands of the hard-working, over-taxed, and over-regulated folks who live out here in what these Washingtonians New Babylonians sneeringly refer to (while in attendance at any one of their numberless pickup-parties-in-the-guise-of-office-cocktail-mixers) as "fly-over country."

Stay tuned. -----------------------------See our latest posts.

Wonkitorial Comment: The Unkindest Cuts Of All

A good school custodian is a jewel that is beyond price:

Maintaining a safe school takes many vigilant actions. Not only do teachers and principals have to be ever watchful, an important ingredient in school safety is school custodial and maintenance staff.

These vital workers protect the schools in many ways.

By ensuring a clean environment, they help stop the spread of disease and help maintain a safe place for children.

By being another pair of eyes in hallways and in the classroom, they can help monitor school visitors, children's activities and other actions.

Clean, safe and accessible schools are a key to a good learning environment for children. School custodial and maintenance staff are a critical part of that effort.

The above missive was written by Illinois labor activist David Penn, who was writing to his local newspaper in order to express his concern over a local school board's proposal to lay-off school custodians (who are members of his union) in his school district.

The funny thing is, a large number of school districts often appear all-too-eager to get rid of relatively low-paid school support staff who actually work with and around students while those same districts seem to go out of their way to protect hordes of relatively higher-paid administrators (who rarely leave their office suites, much less deign to interact with actual students) in their positions sinecures.

A sad commentary on our EduTimes.. --------------------------------See our latest EduPosts.

Wonkitorial Comment: New York's Santa Spitzer

New York's governor Eliot Spitzer is promising some $1.5 billion in additional funding for that state's troubled school system.

Actually, the $1.5 is the first installment of a projected increase of $7.0 billion over the next four years.

It's just too bad that Santa Governor Spitzer doesn't also address a basic, more fundamental problem that needs to be solved before New York's schools can make the sort of progress that is mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act: the problem of millions that are already being wasted on out-of-control schools which are all-too-often filled with disruptive and defiant students who not only refuse to even attempt to make an effort to learn but do their level best to deny other children their right to a free and appropriate public education.

Not only do such ineffective schools hurt our children, they're a shameful waste of the taxpayers' money. ----------------------------See our latest EduPosts.