Mav,

With apologies to Spaw for parsing :-)

Head Start is a failure, they could be teaching learning skills but are basically a Federal babysitting agency. The main beneficiaries are the unskilled "workers".

Interesting. Most of the statistics I've seen indicate the Head Start is an effective program. Locally a study demonstrated that children who went through the Head Start program did significantly better in elementary school than similar socio-economic group kids who didn't. A local "Blip"? Maybe but my understanding is that the statistics are fairly consistent nationally. That in mind, I would have to add that the benefit to "unskilled workers" would count as an added, not a main, benefit. If you have contrary statistics, I?d like to look at them. BTW, I don?t think Head Start is the best way to go, just one that works. How much nicer if the wages paid by business had kept pace with the cost of living.

The Post Office is a failure (just got a rate hike, wants to cut services),

Hardly. They move more mail a day than the rest of the world combined. Cheaper. De-regulate postal rates and prices will go up. So will the howls from the biggest users (who pay the least per piece ? bulk mailers. FedEx, lets remember, charges a premium and demands standardized packaging. And they don?t ?do? bulk mail, magazines or a lot of other services we and businesses take fro granted. Or are necessary. . Granted the Post Office needs improvement. Calling it a ?failure? seems to define ?failure? in a way that

AMTRAC is a failure

Yes. As it was designed to be by the government (at the request of the Railroads, aka ?big business?) by relieving them of the responsibility of carrying passengers and denying AMTRAK the right to carry freight, which has traditionally subsidized passenger traffic, failure was guaranteed, even before AMTRAK got outdated equipment dumped on it by these same big businesses (who demanded and got premium prices for what was essentially junk.

,the IRS is a failure (should be audited for fraud themselves)

Oh, the IRS is sadly very successful at what it does. Fraud? I disagree. Criminal in that it tries to operate outside of and above the law, yes.

HUD is a failure

Why? I can make a good argument that the Federal DOT freeway system contributed fairly directly to the decline in community and family life. But HUD? Which programs? The subsidize housing models of the 60?s and 70?s was certainly a failure. Section 8? Fair Housing? Community Development Block Grants?

the Dept of Education (lost $450M to fraud) is a failure

We?ve done the education argument I think. If not, I will agree that the Dept of Education is an almost archetypical bureaucracy that hides behind unproven and unprovable claims of ?expertise. (But then, the same is true of the home school crowd. It?s just that the Dept of Education?s anecdotal evidence is presented with all the trappings of real science. Pseudoscince at its ?best?)

Basing evaluation of failure on losing large amounts of money to fraud also means that Medicare and especially the Military are even bigger failures.

All entitlement programs by virtue of their eternal need for higher funding having failed to accomplish their individual mission are failures.(Except of course for their actual purpose, which is to create jobs for unionized bureaucrats wherein they are great successes).

Such as Social Security? The last time I looked, the estimate was that private pension funds where so grossly under-funded and the outright fraud practiced by big business so blatant that it has the potential to make the Savings and Loan bailout look like chump change. Big business at it?s best.

Medicare? Pushed by big business to relieve them of the responsibility of continued funding of retireee?s health insurance. A perfect out. For them.

No, their favorite "special interest group" is......Republican voters. W ran on the slogan "no child should be left behind" and I believe he will make good on that.

W ran on a lot of slogans. Made a lot of promises. Did the same in Texas. Hopely his national record will be better than his State record.

You, and other Republicans may think that W (not the republican party, but W) cares. If so, it is a secondary consequence.

?leave no child behind?? After discounting monies already budgeted to education by Clinton and company (2.l billion), W?s ?generosity amounts to a 4% increase. Slightly less than inflation. Or consider the Salmonella fiasco? Or look at the state of education in Texas.

I said Small businesses tend to be what they should be: local employers, involved in the community and responses to community needs. Concerned with profit, true. But not obsessed by it. These are the "Chamber of Commerce" types. There concerns are community oriented.

you replied

Yes, and what makes this economy tick are those small businesses, not the major corporations

We agree. Please demonstrate where W?s programs help this group directly. What I see is a focused concern for Big Business and a propaganda job to convince small business that they will benefit. Except the trend is for big business to gobble up small business. Starbucks being a current example.

Who do you suppose those "tax cuts for the 'rich'" were for? Those business owners who do all of the above, usually work long hours and their efforts and investment which result in community development and employment should be rewarded, not punished.

Since I think that we need to pay off the debt before we reduce taxes, I tend to think that the ?tax cuts for the rich? fall under the penumbra of ?voodoo economics? And, as I said, how the same tax package can be an appropriate answer to an expanding economy and the solution to a recession is a mystery. Or BS.

Actually, most wealth is inherited. Which was the argument against cutting the estate tax. Bill Gates earned his billions. His children didn?t. And it was Bill?s wife, not Bill, who got him started in the philanthropy business. Big business, and those who run it, are far removed from their communities needs. Their focus is on increasing the size of the business and their share of the profits. At the expense of small businesses.

As Gates did. With questionable tactics. Read the transcript of his testimony during the trail. You think Clinton argued over the meaning of ?is?. Gates elevated sophistry to a level of cynicism that is truly awe-inspiring. Normally the kind of ethical and moral indifference he demonstrated is reserved to petty dictators and sociopaths. Up to then, I was almost willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I said Their focus is on big business whose focus is obsessively and solely with profits. Support for community values starts and stops with a ROI analysis

and you replied

Community/Faith Based Organizations?

Of course, W is only talking about the faiths he likes.. However, one program for faith based initiatives and a hundred or so pay backs to big business doesn?t seem to invalidate my contention.

t's a BIG IF. The premise has not yet been proven. Volcanos and forest fires have not been included in the equation which contribute far more CO2 and actual pollutants than auto exhaust.

Yes, they have. As they have always been a factor, they become part of the base-line level. (The ?normal level?) The issue is how much the system can tolerate above that level. And that excess is man-made.

fact that sea level has actually fallen in the last 100 years really blows that theory anyway.

Based on the opinion on one scientist, I seem to recall. Odd that of the 3000 or so prominent climatologists, less than a handful argues against the fact of global warning. That these few get many more column inches than the overwhelming majority doesn?t mean much. That a few journalists latch onto the opinions of the few to prove that there is no such thing as global warming is not a validation.

You gave the answer yourself..."people don't want to be counted"

And yet the Constitution requires that they be counted.

Thanks for responding. I?m off for a long weekend with family. ?See you all Monday?

Regards

John