The Republican Thread

[Texsox]

...But taking them away from those parents can still make things worse.

 

I use to believe that, and I still believe that is true for 98+% of them. But after being a little more involved and hearing some stories, the list of kids whose lives could be improved by being away from their parents grows. In many cases just being left to raise themselves would be an improvement. But I am not making excuses for them. There are plenty of great kids who overcome their environment and thrive. They may not go to college and work professional jobs, but they graduate, work hard, and raise a family.

[Balta1701]

I use to believe that, and I still believe that is true for 98+% of them. But after being a little more involved and hearing some stories, the list of kids whose lives could be improved by being away from their parents grows. In many cases just being left to raise themselves would be an improvement. But I am not making excuses for them. There are plenty of great kids who overcome their environment and thrive. They may not go to college and work professional jobs, but they graduate, work hard, and raise a family.

Again...the plural of anecdote is not data. The best data out there is quite conclusive, and it says that kids in a broken home are much better than in foster care in the long term, by a lot.

[Texsox]

Again...the plural of anecdote is not data. The best data out there is quite conclusive, and it says that kids in a broken home are much better than in foster care in the long term, by a lot.

 

Balta when the dad is in prison and mom is working for the Zetas, the stats go out the window. Remember my population and situation. I'm looking at the exceptions.

[Balta1701]

Balta when the dad is in prison and mom is working for the Zetas, the stats go out the window. Remember my population and situation. I'm looking at the exceptions.

And on average...removing a young child from the parent(s) is an emotional trauma that does long term damage, at least equal to the psychological damage of a broken home. Maybe this would be different if we had a stronger foster care system or more interest in adoption, but we don't. Everyone will make exceptions...particularly if the child's life is in danger...but aside from that level...well, there you go.

[Texsox]

And on average...removing a young child from the parent(s) is an emotional trauma that does long term damage, at least equal to the psychological damage of a broken home. Maybe this would be different if we had a stronger foster care system or more interest in adoption, but we don't. Everyone will make exceptions...particularly if the child's life is in danger...but aside from that level...well, there you go.

 

I guess it is how you want to define their life is in danger.

[southsider2k5]

...But taking them away from those parents can still make things worse.

 

Worse than drug addicts and prison for gang shootings? Somehow I doubt that.

[southsider2k5]

Again...the plural of anecdote is not data. The best data out there is quite conclusive, and it says that kids in a broken home are much better than in foster care in the long term, by a lot.

 

Don't turn individual kids into data points. You miss real people that way.

[Texsox]

here is one I am thinking of. Dad is nowhere to be found, he's been missing for several years now and presumed to be in Mexico. The student I have is the youngest of five. Three of the other four dropped out as soon as they turned 16, the fourth is still in school, but in and out of the alternative school and expected to drop out at 16 as well. When mom gets arrested, which is a fairly regular occurrence, they go to live with their tia who occasionally will get them to school. The older ones, before dropping out, were regularly busted with drugs. This girl is below grade level for every statistical yardstick we have.

 

Could a foster situation be worse? Sure. Is this girl going to graduate high school in the present situation? No way. Will she wind up in and out of jail like the rest of the family, I'd say yes. Toss out all the stats you like, but in this case, I'd go with my judgement and take a chance on new surroundings.

[Jenksismyhero]

here is one I am thinking of. Dad is nowhere to be found, he's been missing for several years now and presumed to be in Mexico. The student I have is the youngest of five. Three of the other four dropped out as soon as they turned 16, the fourth is still in school, but in and out of the alternative school and expected to drop out at 16 as well. When mom gets arrested, which is a fairly regular occurrence, they go to live with their tia who occasionally will get them to school. The older ones, before dropping out, were regularly busted with drugs. This girl is below grade level for every statistical yardstick we have.

 

Could a foster situation be worse? Sure. Is this girl going to graduate high school in the present situation? No way. Will she wind up in and out of jail like the rest of the family, I'd say yes. Toss out all the stats you like, but in this case, I'd go with my judgement and take a chance on new surroundings.

 

I'd like to know why these people have 4 kids. What possible incentive is there to keep having children when all you want to do is get high?

[farmteam]

This article is five months old, and although the slant is further right than mine, I thought the stuff about the "presumption of constitutionality" was interesting.

[Texsox]

I'd like to know why these people have 4 kids. What possible incentive is there to keep having children when all you want to do is get high?

 

It's cheap entertainment, the sex that is.

[EvilMonkey]

It's cheap entertainment, the sex that is.

Kids are not cheap. You would think that even the dumbest excuse of a human would learn that after the first one or three.

[Harry Chappas]

Kids are not cheap. You would think that even the dumbest excuse of a human would learn that after the first one or three.

 

If the government is supporting you for having them they appear to be. yes they get a s*** life but mama gets a nice check each month to "support" them

[Texsox]

Kids are not cheap. You would think that even the dumbest excuse of a human would learn that after the first one or three.

 

 

I thought I was clear, the sex is cheap, the kids are expensive.

[Jenksismyhero]

I thought I was clear, the sex is cheap, the kids are expensive.

 

But how do people not realize how much more it's going to cost them by having a kid. Go buy a f***ing condom. Use the pull out method. It's not rocket science.

[Texsox]

Yeah, some people are stupid.

[EvilMonkey]

My first thought after reading this part of the story was "Hey pot, meet kettle!". Some people are just so clueless.

 

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view...ticleid=1374637

 

Demonstrator Andrew Warner, 36, said homeless people are hijacking tents, getting drunk, “passing out” and stealing.

 

“It’s turning into us against them,” Warner said. “They come in here and they’re looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they don’t bring anything to the table at all. It gets really frustrating

 

Welcome to reality, dumba$$.

[southsider2k5]

My first thought after reading this part of the story was "Hey pot, meet kettle!". Some people are just so clueless.

 

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view...ticleid=1374637

 

 

 

Welcome to reality, dumba$$.

 

I guess the 99% don't owe anyone anything for free?

[mr_genius]

My first thought after reading this part of the story was "Hey pot, meet kettle!". Some people are just so clueless.

 

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view...ticleid=1374637

 

 

 

Welcome to reality, dumba$$.

 

 

haha. excellent.

[EvilMonkey]

Damn racist Teabaggers OWS people are also violent!

 

http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocal...played.html.csp

 

Police arrest man in dispute at protest

 

By Nigel Duara

 

The Associated press

 

Published: (Friday, Oct 21, 2011 10:45AM) Today

 

PORTLAND — A man who displayed a handgun at Occupy Portland’s downtown encampment after a dispute with protesters has been arrested, police said in a statement Thursday.

 

The argument took place Wednesday afternoon when 32-year-old Jason C. Parker was challenged verbally by protesters after filming tents, police said. One of the protesters used a racial epithet against Parker, who is black, police said.

 

A witness said Parker was filming inside tents without permission and displayed the gun more than once after protesters at the camp displayed knives.

 

“He pulled his shirt halfway up and showed me he had a piece,” said Jason Kersten, who works in the camp’s security group. “This is a peaceful protest. You don’t bring a gun.”

 

Kersten acknowledged that someone used a racial epithet.

 

“The N-word was used by some people in the camp,” he said.

 

Parker had a license to carry the concealed handgun. He was charged with second-degree disorderly conduct.

 

Protesters have occupied two square blocks in the city’s downtown business district for several weeks.

 

Down twinkles for this Occupy group.

[southsider2k5]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/steve-j...-144644675.html

 

Steve Jobs, known for his aggressive and sometimes prickly personality, didn't hold back when he met President Obama in 2010: The Apple CEO warned Obama he wasn't going to win re-election.

 

"You're headed for a one-term presidency," Jobs said during a meeting with the president that took place a year prior to Jobs' death related to pancreatic cancer, according to his upcoming biography as reported by the Huffington Post.

 

Walter Isaacson, who wrote the forthcoming Jobs bio, reportedly reveals that Jobs argued that Obama was jeopardizing his re-election prospects because of what Jobs took to be a pervasive anti-business climate in his administration. Jobs cited excessive federal regulations and operating costs for businesses as harmful legacies of the Obama White House.

 

Also, Jobs nearly missed the meeting in the first place.

 

From the Huffington Post:

 

Though his wife told him that Obama "was really psyched to meet with you," Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, Jobs was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative.

 

After laying into the White House's purported anti-business outlook, Jobs offered to help Obama repair the rift by arranging meeting between the president and a group of CEOs. When the guest list began to grow, Jobs reportedly resolved to back out of the gathering. Instead, he attended, though he poo-pooed the fancy menu. "But he was overruled by the White House, which cited the president's fondness for cream pie," Huffington Post writes.

 

Jobs also offered to to help create political ads for the president in 2012. Jobs had scotched a similar effort to craft Obama ads in 2008, when Isaacson claims that Jobs was unhappy that Obama strategist David Axelrod showed insufficient deference to the Apple honcho.

 

This and other political news is just the latest information to leak from the hotly anticipated book.

 

Another revelation that Isaacson has teed up for a "60 Minutes" interview featuring the biography this Sunday is that Jobs wished he had chosen sooner to undergo cancer surgery.

[Balta1701]

Cream Pie = fancy menu?

[southsider2k5]

Amazing this keeps going and it always seems to come back to Madigan. More at link

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10...-public-pension

 

2 teachers union lobbyists teach for a day to qualify for hefty pensions

State legislature opened a small window that they climbed through in 2007

October 22, 2011|By Ray Long and Jason Grotto, Tribune Reporters

 

SPRINGFIELD — — Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in 2007, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found.

 

Steven Preckwinkle, the political director for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and fellow union lobbyist David Piccioli were the only people who took advantage of a small window opened by lawmakers a few months earlier.

 

The legislation enabled union officials to get into the state teachers pension fund and count their previous years as union employees after quickly obtaining teaching certificates and working in a classroom. They just had to do it before the bill was signed into law.

 

Preckwinkle's one day of subbing qualified him to become a participant in the state teachers pension fund, allowing him to pick up 16 years of previous union work and nearly five more years since he joined. He's 59, and at age 60 he'll be eligible for a state pension based on the four-highest consecutive years of his last 10 years of work.

 

His paycheck fluctuates as a union lobbyist, but pension records show his earnings in the last school year were at least $245,000. Based on his salary history so far, he could earn a pension of about $108,000 a year, more than double what the average teacher receives.

 

His pay for one day as a substitute was $93, according to records of the Illinois Teachers Retirement System.

 

Over the course of their lifetimes, both men stand to receive more than a million dollars each from a state pension fund that has less than half of the assets it needs to cover promises made to tens of thousands of public school teachers. With billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, which serves public school teachers outside of Chicago, is one of several pension plans that are in debt as state government reels in a fiscal crisis.

 

A spokesman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers emphasized that the lobbyists' actions were legal and that they made "individual decisions."

 

Even so, union President Dan Montgomery said the deal Preckwinkle and Piccioli landed "should never be allowed again." But the union, which provides its employees with a private 401(k)-type plan, is standing by the lobbyists' right to have access to the public pension.

 

"They entered TRS under the law and are participating members of TRS. As a TRS employer, the IFT is required to make the payments to TRS," the union said in a statement.

 

How did Preckwinkle and Piccioli become the only ones to take advantage of the change in law? Neither one consented to an interview.

 

Records, however, show that Preckwinkle applied for his first substitute teaching certificate four weeks before the legislation passed, then subbed at a Springfield school six weeks before the window to become eligible closed.

 

Preckwinkle even signed a witness slip in support of the legislation during a House committee meeting, although the teachers union says he lobbied for a different provision in the same bill, not the perk for union officials such as himself.

 

The revelation that one day of substitute teaching allowed officials from a state teachers union to tap into an ailing public pension fund is yet another example of how the Illinois pension system has been manipulated for political purposes and personal gain. A series of reports by the Tribune and WGN-TV have documented these pension games and how insiders have benefited.

 

Although the bill received bipartisan support, the benefit to union officials was sponsored by Springfield Democrats showered by IFT campaign contributions during the 2006 elections.

 

"The people that are on the inside and understand the process are going to be able to make the system work for their advantage," said Kent Redfield, who teaches political science at the University of Illinois Springfield. "That this legislation got a hearing and got considered and passed is a reflection of that close relationship between the IFT and the Democratic leadership.

 

"It feeds into the cynicism about all the deals, that it's an insider's game and that the system is rigged."

 

J. Fred Giertz, a University of Illinois economics professor and a trustee of the State Universities Retirement System, said teachers pensions for Preckwinkle and Piccioli undermine already meager public confidence in the state's retirement systems.

 

"It's outrageous," Giertz said. "The pension system was designed for schoolteachers and not for union employees to piggyback on at the end of their years."

 

Both lobbyists must make payments to the pension plan to purchase credit for their past union years, and they are required to pay compounded interest. Over the last five years, after the lobbyists joined the plan, the two men and their union have made standard payments into the fund.

[StrangeSox]

f*** those guys for ripping off the system and hurting actual teachers.

[Jenksismyhero]

reason #1,349 why I can't wait to leave this s*** hole of a state.