If Barack Obama Should Wear a USA Flag Lapel

Which one should he wear?

Impeachment at Kennebunkport!

Congressman Virgil Goode is not Good for America

Rep. Virgil Goode, a Republican who represents the 5th District, triggered angry responses from an Islamic civil rights group and some of his colleagues by his letter to constituents who e-mailed him about a new Minnesota congressman's decision to use the Quran at his private swearing-in ceremony.

I will not be putting my hand on the Quran,"

The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.

He is talking about Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who ruffled feathers when he decided to swear his oath on the Koran during a private swearing-in ceremony. Ellison said Thursday that Goode and others had nothing to fear about Muslims.

They are our nurses, doctors, husbands, wives, kids, who just want to live and prosper in the American way.
All of us are steadfastly opposed to the same people he's opposed to, which is terrorists, and so there's nothing for him to be afraid of.

Goode is not up on the Constitution which he will have to swear to defend. Article 6 Clause 3 states:

The Senators and Representatives…, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

An Israeli-American posted this greeting on Goode's website:

As an Israeli-American, who grew up in Israel I’ve seen my share of what hostilities between Islam and the West consist of. In fact, I’ve had a cousin severely wounded by Hezbollah Militants. However, I am greatly disconcerted by your desire to discriminate against another Congressman because he doesn’t share the same beliefs you do. You cannot take all the world’s Muslims (about 1/6 of the planet mind you) and roll them up with a handful of extremists. It would be similar to making the assumption that all Christians are bigots because one idiotic Congressman from the 5th District of Virginia professes to be both.

I am personally in favor of greater controls on immigration, but raising the educational standards for Congressfolk appears to be a more urgent matter.

Bush's Family Profits From 'No Child' Act

Ignite! Learning

A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.

With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush's company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally.

At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available through the president's signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite's portable learning centers at $3,800 apiece.

The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in reading and math.

But Ignite does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available until next year.

The federal Department of Education does not monitor individual school district expenditures under the No Child program, but sets guidelines that the states are expected to enforce, spokesman Chad Colby said.

Ignite executive Tom Deliganis said that "some districts seem to feel OK" about using No Child money for the Ignite purchases, "and others do not."

Interviews and a review of school district documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found that educators and legal experts were sharply divided over whether Ignite's products were worth their cost or qualified under the No Child law.

The federal law requires schools to show they are meeting educational standards, or risk losing critical funding. If students fail to meet annual performance goals in reading and math tests, schools must supplement their educational offerings with tutoring and other special programs.

Leigh Manasevit, a Washington attorney who specializes in federal education funding, said that districts using the No Child funds to buy products like Ignite's would have to meet "very strict" student eligibility requirements and ensure that the Ignite services were supplemental to existing programs.

Known as COW, for Curriculum on Wheels (the portable learning centers resemble cows on wheels), Ignite's product line is geared toward middle school social studies, history and science. The company says it has developed a social studies program that meets curriculum requirements in seven states. Its science program meets requirements in six states.

Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product.

In addition to federal or state funds, foundations and corporations have helped buy Ignite products. The Washington Times Foundation, backed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the South Korea-based Unification Church, has peppered classrooms throughout Virginia with Ignite's COWs under a $1-million grant.

Oil companies and Middle East interests with long political ties to the Bush family have made similar bequests. Aramco Services Co., an arm of the Saudi-owned oil company, has donated COWs to schools, as have Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.

Neil Bush said he is a businessman who does not attempt to exert political influence, and he called The Times' inquiries about his venture — made just before the election — "entirely political."

Bush's parents joined Neil as Ignite investors in 1999, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents. By 2003, the records show, Neil Bush had raised about $23 million from more than a dozen outside investors, including Mohammed Al Saddah, the head of a Kuwaiti company, and Winston Wong, the head of a Chinese computer firm.

Los Angeles Times

Getting My Christmas List Together

Reading list, anyways...

What's With This?

The O'Reilly Factor ran Mark Foley as a Democrat in not one, but two segments and posted it three times.

Rupert's Passing Is More Than Just a Sad Swan Song

Rupert, how we loved ye.....
Rupert the Black Swan, Newport Harbor's most beloved resident, will get a fitting send-off.

By Mike Anton, L.A. Times (Staff Writer)
September 20, 2006

It has been a week since the untimely death of Newport Harbor's most beloved resident, and people there remain shaken. Not due to the particularly gruesome end — mowed down by a fast-moving sheriff's patrol boat — but because Rupert's many friends simply aren't ready to let go.

Said Jim Mahoney, owner of a gondola cruise company. "He was a celebrity in this harbor. Next to John Wayne, he was the most famous creature who ever lived in Newport Beach."

Indeed, Rupert the Black Swan was no ordinary fowl.

An Australian swan, he ruled the roost in Newport Harbor since he mysteriously arrived in the early 1990s, endearing himself to locals, enchanting tourists, charging yachts and going after swimmers who made the mistake of wearing red bathing suits.

Rupert hated the color red. He also was Newport's unofficial mascot, looked after by everyone, including the same Harbor Patrol deputies who accidentally killed him Sept. 13 while responding — in their red boat — to a report of a dead body.

Rupert was about 16 and left no survivors that anyone is aware of.

In death, he remains as large as he did in life.

A planned "paddle out" memorial service tentatively scheduled for Sept. 30 is expected to draw dozens of boaters, kayakers and canoeists who will escort Rupert's cremated remains to a burial at sea.

"I knew people loved him, but I had no idea how many," said Gay Wassall-Kelly, a 66-year-old bay-front homeowner who fed and looked after Rupert for most of the swan's time in Newport Beach. "People knew Rupert from one end of the harbor to the other."

Wassall-Kelly chronicled Rupert's activities in the weekly Balboa Beacon newspaper, which she publishes.

A final sighting dispatch appeared on Page 2 recently: Balboa Peninsula, 4 p.m. on Thursday here comes Rupert the Royal strutting up on the beach at 10th & Bay looking around, sticks his beak up in the air and takes (off) swimming again.

"In the latest issue, he's the whole front page," Wassall-Kelly said. "I'm putting it together now, and I can't stop crying."

In the past week, Wassall-Kelly has received scores of phone calls, cards and e-mails expressing condolences; one woman called from Utah, where she was on vacation. People left flowers on her doorstep.

Pamela Goode, who runs a harbor cruise company, left red carnations.

"Rupert was a regular with me," Goode said, noting customers were amazed at how he responded when called and ate wheat grass seed and drank bottled water out of her hand. "It was like, 'Is he on the payroll?' "

Rupert's outgoing personality won people over. His fearlessness got him into trouble. On several occasions, the 15-pound bird with the 5-foot wingspan was rescued after being entangled in fishing line or impaled by fish hooks.

In 2000, he nearly died after being exposed to diesel fuel. Two years later, his mate, Pearl, died after being similarly exposed.

"After she died, he was going around the harbor calling for her," said Debbie McGuire, wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, who treated both of them.

Eventually, Rupert was brought in to see Pearl. McGuire said it offered him closure. "He was kind of mopey after that," she said. "They were inseparable."

McGuire is helping coordinate Rupert's memorial service, at which Newport's Imua Outrigger Canoe Club plans to conduct a traditional Polynesian burial service, which will include prayers and dropping leis into the sea.

About two dozen other boat owners have expressed interest in joining the procession, a number McGuire predicts will grow.

"I'm afraid it might get quite large," she said. "He's going to get a bigger memorial service than I will ever have."