Friday, October 3, 2008

Get To Know Andrew Clements

Here is a tip for parents.  Get your kids to read ANYTHING by Andrew Clements.  As an educator with over 32 years of experience, I honestly believe that you and your children will not only enjoy his books, but you will appreciate the lessons learned.

Favorites:

No Talking
The Landry News
Frindle
The Report Card

Clements is able to not only convey a message of understanding to children, but also for adults to remember what it is like to be a child.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

The "Bailout" should rightly be called "The Robbery."

From the New York Times:
** "Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout 
of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to 
profit from it.
**"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled 
investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.
**"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all 
the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial 
institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of 
dollars a year in fees.
**"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad 
assets of financial institutions."
Treasury Secretary Paulson has admitted that the $700 billion figure was pulled out of his head!
Congressmen and Senators admit they don't know how the $700 billion amount was determined.
During TV interviews, which were seen by millions of Americans, Congressmen of BOTH PARTIES admitted that they thought the bill would pass and if they had known it would NOT then they would have voted for it.In other words, they voted against it merely to go on record that they voted NO!! These people are swine and should be removed from office.
We have been told that failed mortgages are at the core of the bailout. The problem is that the number one issue with American families is NOT their mortgage payments. Underlying the the inability to maintain mortgage payments is the inability to maintain health care costs. That is the REAL reason we Americans are in such a financial bind.
This bailout will NOT help even one American pay for health coverage.
This bailout will NOT help Americans pay for gas ot to heat their homes.
This bailout will help the robber barons who control Wall Street.  
The same scare tactics that put us in Iraq are being used to scare us into thinking the sky will fall if we don't buy the bailout.  
Giving $700 billion of American taxpayers money to the same people who caused this mess in the first place is a financial disaster that our children will be stuck with for years to come.  What will they do when the money dries up? 
This is an attempt by the outgoing administration to grab as much from the US Treasury as they can before next January.  Lies and deception have been their main weapon for the last eight years. I don't know about you, but I've had quite enough of the Republicans and the Democrats who have stolen our country.  But since the Republicans have had the White House for 8 years, it's time for a change.