The Source

Another Brick in the Wall

As the state of Missouri fails to meet the stringent requirements of No Child Left Behind, the entire state will opt out of the system instead of continuing to fail as a part of it.

From the Springfield News-Leader:

Missouri will seek a waiver from the testing requirements -- and controversial sanctions -- of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Margie Vandeven, assistant commissioner of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the state was hoping for a major rewrite of the law.

Of course the expectations of what states and their schools must accomplish under the NCLB requirements are more-than-somewhat unattainable. As the article notes, the plan “centers on the expectation that every school have 100 percent of its students scoring proficient or above in math and communication arts by 2014.” And that is simply something that will not happen, and may never happen, in the state of Missouri… Or America for that matter.

But exempting ourselves from the program entirely takes away the accountability, even if it is only the pretense of accountability. The statistics are already troubling, as “only 25.4 percent of Missouri's 2,187 schools made Adequate Yearly Progress.” Opting out of NCLB will only make things worse as the students, teachers, and school districts will have fewer stipulations demanding that they improve.

At least it’s not the whole country…

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Monday that President Barack Obama was authorizing him to grant waivers because Congress had failed to act on a comprehensive overhaul of the law.

The option would be available to all 50 states.

Nevermind, Missouri is apparently just another brick in the wall.

And we don’t need no education.

- B.H.

Republic Sending Vonnegut to the Slaughterhouse

The Republic, Missouri school district is getting into the business of banning books after a parental complaint. Specifically, Kurt Vonnegut’s modern American classic Slaughterhouse Five is being sent to, well... the slaughterhouse.

…the school district in Republic announced that it would pull Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five from the high-school library because language and depictions in the novel on World War II were viewed as too graphic for teens.

The complaint was essentially that the book is un-Christian, and is even more ridiculous considering it comes from a parent whose children are home-schooled in the first place.

Wesley Scroggins, a Missouri State University professor who home-schools his children, petitioned successfully to ban the books. Scroggins said previously that the books’ content is profane and violates teachings of the Bible.

[Note: the other banned book is Sarah Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer.]

Today's American teenager is faced with problems much more troubling than Kurt Vonnegut’s affinity for swear words, and there is no book in any school library in America (large town or small) that contains language any worse than what they hear in that school’s hallways at any given moment. “Protecting” them from something as mundane as foul-mouthed characters in a book only serves to coddle them.

To wit:

Julia Whitehead, director of the Vonnegut library, tells the Associated Press that she believes students who are almost old enough to vote and fight in wars are responsible enough to handle Vonnegut's classic novel about war.

As every high school student is regularly reminded, they are being prepared for the next step in their lives. And part of their next step, be it college or the “real world”, is being exposed to a wide range of ideas.

What they are learning instead is that if you complain loud enough, even if you have no right to complain in the first place, you can upend the system and manipulate the political powers-that-be to do whatever you want them to do.

In short, they’re being taught about the New American Dream: whining louder than the other guy to get your way.

And isn’t that just a little sad?

- B.H.

FEMA Shamefully Disregards Joplin

As if the people of Joplin haven’t been through enough, now the feds are putting them through the ringer as FEMA is stepping in it again.

[T]he Federal Emergency Management Agency [denied] Missouri’s request to extend the expedited debris removal program established after the May 22 tornado.

The program, which allows the federal government to pay for 90 percent of the cost of expedited debris removal in certain areas hit hardest by the storm, is set to expire this weekend. After that, the federal government will only pay 75 percent of the cost, leaving the rest to state and local governments.

But it’s not for lack of effort that it’s taken this long to clean up the rubble. If you saw the pictures, and everyone did, then you know the absolute devastation that was left in the aftermath of the massive tornado. And they’ve cleaned tons of it up. Literally:

Since the tornado hit, more than 1.1 million cubic yards of debris have been removed under the expedited program…

The city of Joplin released a statement Thursday morning saying leaders were confident debris removal of private residential areas will be completed by the Sunday deadline.

That is wishful thinking, considering the state is already planning on covering any additional cost to the city.

But the real story here is that FEMA has no shame and continues to be a thorn in the side of those who experience natural disasters when they should be the helping hand they so desperately need. They would be a punchline if the circumstances they deal with weren’t so dire.

It was the deadliest storm, and one of the most destructive, in American history. The federal government should be sympathetic to that.

Instead they’re aiming for pathetic.

- B.H.

Rest Stop Debacle: Even Fuzzy Math Doesn't Cover This

Missouri unveiled a bold plan to reduce the number of rest stops in order to cut the annual operating costs of maintaining them, and has announced that they are already halfway done with the massive undertaking.

The only catch is that the project was unveiled in 2000, and eleven years into the initiative they have spent $36 million and have shaved less than a million dollars a year from the yearly operating costs.

The Associated Press (via Joplin Globe) reports:

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission heard an update Wednesday on the rest-stop renovation plan, which was developed in 2000 as a way to reduce annual operating costs, spruce up the facilities for tourists and expand the number of parking spots available to commercial truck drivers.  

At the time, Missouri had 34 rest stops at 19 sites and was spending $4.6 million a year to maintain them. The Department of Transportation set a goal of reducing that to 24 facilities…

As of Wednesday, the state had reduced its rest stops to 27 facilities at 17 sites with an annual operating cost of $3.8 million…

But why has it cost so much just to get to the halfway point when this is only work on rest stops? After all, they’re small structures with a few toilets and a vending machine. What has that $36 million gotten Missouri taxpayers?

Many new rest stops — now called welcome centers — have playgrounds and artwork reflecting regional themes. For example, an Interstate 44 facility near Joplin has a mural made of old license plates and the I-44 rest stop near Conway has a theme highlighting its heritage along old Route U.S. 66. An Interstate 35 facility near Eagleville has statues of buffalo on a plain.

A plaque or small representation reflecting Route 66? Maybe. But license plate artwork and statues of buffalo? Completely unnecessary for restrooms. And that just reflects three of the rest stops they have renovated or rebuilt so far. You can start to see how easily money is being wasted.

Considering the exorbitant price tag on the first half of the project, what does the second half look like?

…it would cost $96 million to complete 13 facilities at nine sites still remaining on the 2000 renovation plan.

Holy hell! The article notes that the remaining 13 facilities are not in the budget as of now, but how could they be in our current economic climate? That’s over $7 million per rest stop.

Now for the fun (but scary) part:

The plan was to reduce the number of facilities in order to bring down the annual operating budget for maintaining the sites. They have spent $36 million to date and have reduced the costs by $800,000 a year so far, from $4.6 to $3.8 million.

An additional 13 facilities need to be refurbished or rebuilt to finish out the plan, which will cost a further $96 million. Assuming they are completed, and assuming an identical reduction of $800,000 a year on the latter half of the project, they will reduce the annual operating cost of all Missouri rest stops by $1.6 million a year, a generous estimate.

And to get this $1.6 million a year reduction they will have spent a grand total of $132 million.

Assuming no more rest stop repairs, replacements, additions or reductions (and no inflation) until the turn of the next century the project would start paying for itself in roughly 83 years.

So, if you’re still hanging around in the year 2095, be sure to celebrate this resounding success.

- B.H.

St. Joseph Media: No Integrity, No Standards

As Buchanan County inched closer to the vote on taxes Tuesday night, a surprise upset where the regularly renewed Capital Improvements Tax was defeated, the St. Joseph media did their best to hide from the voters that the sunset clause had been removed and the tax was soon to become yet another “Forever Tax”.

The most obvious participants in the media cover-up were local radio station KFEQ and the St. Joseph News Press.

As KFEQ’s Barry Birr gave countless hours over several weeks to the pro-tax politicians and advocates like R.T. Turner, rarely if ever discussing the removal of the sunset clause from the tax, it was only with four days left that the organized opposition was allowed air time on the show… and only a half hour at that.

(A half hour with a few extra commercials thrown in, as well as a “call-in” from Commissioner Turner himself for Burr to burn up a little more time.)

The St. Joseph News Press did their best to cover up any story about opposition to the tax, as well as failing to mention, discuss, or debate the issues around the removal of the sunset clause and how that would impact the readers of their paper, all the while attacking the opposition in an attempt to delegitimize any detractors. They even stooped so low as to write a hit piece masquerading as an editorial the morning of the election instead of reporting on the story or acknowledging any issues at all that had been raised about the tax.

In fact, the News Press had ample opportunity to ask questions at Monday’s Freedom PAC press conference (and do real reporting) but did not ask a single one. They instead chose to sit down after the fact and write flat-out lies and slanderous tripe that wouldn’t pass for journalism by even the weakest standards.

The media is failing the citizens and voters in St. Joseph, but thankfully those citizens and voters in St. Joseph, and Buchanan County as a whole, have seen through the charade and stood united against an unjust tax despite the best efforts of the elitists in radio and print.

Battle lines have been drawn. Now the media in St. Joseph needs to decide if it will be with or against the people.

- B.H.

Obama / Nixon: Kindred Spirits

Jay Nixon, as the state he pretends to govern falls farther into disrepair, has created a new position in his administration… and it comes with a generous salary from, well, you.

Gov. Jay Nixon may have opened up a new political and re-election controversy with his announcement last week that Mike Nietzel would be “joining the Governor’s staff on a full-time basis as a senior policy advisor.”

But the biggest part of the controversy may be Nietzel’s $100,000 salary — a number reported in The Associated Press story about the appointment, but that was not included in the news release.

“While I am sure that Mr. Nietzel’s credentials are excellent, paying $100,000+ for this job seems excessive,” [State Sen. Mike] Kehoe wrote in an e-mailed response, “I know many former Senior Policy Advisors to governors, and to my knowledge, none have been paid this much money.”

The position apparently is new.

When he held his double-press-conference two weeks ago he mentioned creating new jobs in Missouri several times… we just didn’t realize that meant HE would be creating jobs and that it would put the state a hundred thousand bucks farther from beating back our debt.

This is the typical liberal mindset when it comes to jobs, that somehow the best way to create one is for the government to continue to promote blowhard leftist professors and their ilk to the government payroll as opposed to following the proven free market ideals we once practiced in America. Kehoe added:

Kehoe said: “I continue to hear, as I am out and about at events, ‘Governor Nixon’s staff is the highest paid staff ever.’”

The Missouri Republican Party was quick to note, in its own news release, that Nietzel “becomes the 6th Governor’s Office staffer with a six-figure salary.”

In similar fashion, as the national debt has become a circus side-show, Obama has given his staffers exorbitant raises:

The top 20 White House employees received increases, on average, of nearly 50 percent. Some nearly doubled their salaries…

How lucrative is working for Obama? Consider that “the most recent report (which goes back to July 2010) features some eye-opening raises, such as special assistant to the president for economic policy Matthew Vogel's $59,000, 82% raise to an annual salary of $130,500, or director of African American media Kevin Lewis' $36,000, 86% pay hike.”

As New American rightly points out, Obama had plainly stated that government salaries already over the $100,000 threshold would not receive raises during these tough economic times. And as the chart shows, he has failed the taxpayers that voted for him on yet another promise, doling out raises to several staffers who already received salaries over a hundred thousand dollars a year.

(Somewhere in a dark Congressional office Joe Wilson is shouting “You Lie!” into a pillow.)

At the end of the day - whether it is on a local, state, or federal level - the taxpayers must begin to hold their elected officials responsible for paying outrageous sums of money to staffers… and both Jay Nixon and Obama should be held accountable for their recent actions.

- B.H.

Dems Eat "Sugarcoated Satan Sandwich"

If you had to guess what a “Sugarcoated Satan Sandwich” was, would you assume:

A. New show on Comedy Central
B. Something you would find in Nancy Pelosi’s lunchbox.
C. Friday Night at Barney Frank's Apartment.

The answer is, surprisingly, “None of the Above”.

As the debt deal went through over the weekend, many Republicans felt beleaguered that they were forced to give so much to get a deal accomplished. But you wouldn’t know that by the reaction from the Democrats, who acted as if they had just been violated by the GOP.

Case in point: Kansas City Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, whose reaction boarded on fanatical:

Kansas City Congressman and Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, does not like the proposed debt ceiling deal.

Sunday night on MSNBC, Cleaver called it “a Sugarcoated Satan Sandwich”.

Tell us how you really feel. I’d hate to see what he orders at the deli.

- B.H.