Did you know the White House is now vetting prayers?
Though invocations have long been commonplace at presidential inaugurations and certain events like graduations or religious services at which presidents are guests, the practice of commissioning and vetting prayers for presidential rallies is unprecedented in modern history, according to religion and politics experts…
“If a similar thing had been done by President Bush’s White House, I guarantee you there would have been a lot of people crying foul,” says Bill Wichterman, deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison under President George W. Bush. “Democrats can do this with immunity, but when Republicans do it, it becomes controversial.”…
[M]any church/state experts are unfamiliar with the program. “The only thing worse than having these prayers in the first place is to have them vetted, because it entangles the White House in core theological matters,” Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said upon learning of the Obama invocations…
James Bing, the pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., said he chose to self-censor his prayer. “For some strange reason, the word Jesus is like pouring gasoline on fire for some people in this country,” he said. “You learn how to work around that.
The media, meanwhile, seems to think there is nothing wrong with this…..but would have ripped President Bush a new one had he even mentioned trying to do something similar.
How about this one where Congress is now rejecting your emails if you try to send one to a representative NOT from your district!
I don’t recall being sent through this sort of filter a year or two ago. Anyone know when this triaging of communications showed up?
From a (R)’s web site:
I am very interested in hearing your views on issues of importance to you. Due to the large volume of US Mail, email and faxes I receive, I am only able to accept messages from residents of the 10th Congressional District of Illinois…
From a (D)’s web site:
I am very interested in hearing your views on issues of importance to you. Due to the large volume of US Mail, email and faxes I receive, I am only able to accept messages from residents of the 19th Congressional District of Florida…
Notice the substantially similar identical wording from the example (R) and (D) congressional web sites…so substantially similar identical one might even suspect there was some sort of coordination on the exclusionary language.
So….where’s the transparency? Where’s the openness? Aren’t we paying the salaries for all theses MFCSPOS SOBs?
You’ll love this one where a school is California is using $10,000 to teach Spanish……to MEXICANS WHO ALREADY SPEAK IT!!!!!
A middle school in Southern California is spending $10,000 a year to teach Advanced Placement Spanish to 35 of its 650 students — and all but one of them are already fluent in Spanish.
Thirty-four of the kids in the AP class are from Mexico or are the children of Mexican immigrants. They all grew up speaking Spanish at home.
The program — the only one of its kind in California — has outraged some critics who say they are concerned that the AP course wastes public resources – including taxpayer dollars – to teach native Spanish speakers how to speak their native language in an American public school.
“In public schools, Spanish speakers should put their focus on making sure that they are fluent in English and equipped to speak the kind of English that will open the doors of opportunity to them in this country,” says K.C. McAlpin, executive director of Pro English, a non-profit organization promoting English as the official language of the United States.
“I think this school is kind of playing games with educational resources, that you know, I think any taxpayers, especially local taxpayers, would object to,” McAlpin told FOXnews.com.
But administrators at Lemon Grove Middle School, located eight miles outside San Diego, are enthusiastic about the program, which they say will help prepare the 6th- through 8th-graders for college.“Our goal is basically to provide kids with an opportunity to excel and to feel really satisfied about doing the higher level work,” Lemon Grove School District Superintendent Ernie Anastos told FOXNews.com.
If I were to read that last paragraph correctly the only conclusion I can come to is that the school is offering a class to students who already know the material in order to get better grades and boost thier GPAs. But that’s the cynic realist in me speaking.
Prayers? At least they weren’t from the Koran!
Teaching Spanish: When I took spanish in high school, there were several mexican kids who could speak quite well—BUT they didn’t know how to read or
write in spanish and struggled in the class.
I noticed the email thing when I wrote my representative and senator. I had to put my zip code in to ensure I was from his district.
OCM, they’re not from the Koran, yet.
Perhaps students who speak English should not be allowed to take AP English
There’s a flaw in your premise – erroneous syllogism. There is no problem with anybody taking AP English who qualifies for AP English placement since English is the primary language of the land. Since this is still America (for now) one shouldn’t have to be fluent in Spanish to take AP English, but one should be fluent in English to take AP “any other foreign language.” If this is extra tax money paying for students to take AP Spanish and they are not fluent in English first, then we have a problem, don’t we, smart boy? I’m willing to bet these kids are not yet fluent in English – and certainly not at an AP English level. Unfortunately, there is not enough information given to determine the validity of that hypothesis.
Also, you’ll notice that this is being offered in middle school – not high school – where AP classes are usually offered, primarily to seniors who have excelled in lower level classes already and who thus qualify – based on demonstrated performance – to take these classes. I know because I took a few myself. I agree with the critics.
This is nothing more than some feel-good bullshit.