Hepkitty's Litter Box

Sorry-took the weekend off to read. highly recommend "bushwhacked", by molly ivins and lou dubose. i've been reading everything lately, and this one actually told me some stuff i didn't know, or at least didn't know the full extent of. two things i'm going to harp on in the future, the undeniable need for campaign finance reform, and the "no child left behind" bill which is leaving scores of children behind as we speak. campaign finance should be obvious. our current government is being run by big buisness. i hesitate to use that term as it has a blanket "boogie man" connotation, but there's no other way to put it. you couldn't even boycott the companies that are helping screw us over right now. even the toilet paper you use to wipe your ass is somehow tied to a lumber company that's ruining the environment thanx to the "healthy forests" initiative. the only way to cut off corporate control of our government at the knees is major canpaign finance reform. the system now is tantemount to legalized bribery and needs serious scrutiny if we ever want to accomplish any other reforms. as for no child left behind, all one needs to do is listen in on some pta or school board meetings to see how miserable this policy is. remember in school you had your favorite teacher who made a difference in your life? now imagine that everything that they did to inspire critical thinking and challenge you was preempted by a rabid need to prime and pump you to take a crappy biased government mandated standardized test. school becomes a factory assembly line pumping out passing grades for funding, much like the school in pump up the volume. and why? back to the campaign finance thing. who makes the texts that teach to the test? which learning centers helps kids prime for the test? who gets the greatest benefit from this underfunded mandate? (not the kids, that's for sure) finally ,who's donated a shitload to the gop? but the main problem i have with the program is the sneaking suspicion that all of this is being done for one sinister purpose-to piss people off. if people become dissillusioned with the public school system then they send their kids to private schools paving the way for vouchers and widespread privitization of schools. again, listen to or read the transcripts from any school board meeting to see the pattern of discord emerging at a frightening pace. as for who benefits from privitization, i'll be looking into any campaign contributions certain private education firms have been making in recent years...