A father/son moment

This afternoon, I ran alongside my 4 year-old son as he excitedly rode his bicycle without training wheels for the first time.

Watching him pedal as I pounded the pavement beside him was one of the greatest moments in my 36 years.

The best part is that I get to experience this feeling again in 2 or 3 years when my 2 year-old daughter does the same thing!

Good Day to You, Sir

Another fun-filled inservice day is in the books

Today was that time again - where the teachers of my district filed into the gymnasium of one of our high schools and were told what a piss-poor job we are doing with our minority students.

This time, our superintendent had two community "activists" appear to give us pointers in how to deal with "my people" as they both called it. One man represented the Pacific Islander community, and the other represented the Hispanic/Chicano/Latino/Mexican-American/Aztlan community. Yes, he used all those terms.

The Pacific Islander guy was nice enough. He explained to us the difference between Micronesian, Melanesian, and Polynesian, and the cultural peculiarities of each group. When referencing our Fijian students, he did add that many of them and their families are "undocumented," and so they may not want to field many questions from teachers about what they do for a living and how long they have been here. Ah, yes... undocumented.

Then there was the Hispanic/Chicano/Latino/Mexican-American/Aztlan guy. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a sport coat, and under his sport coat was a t-shirt with the word "Aztlan" and a big eagle emblazoned across the front. He also had an Obama button pinned to his lapel... naturally. We teachers sat in the bleachers on sore and tired posteriors as Mr. Gutierrez droned on about how we should understand why our Hispanic/Chicano/Latino/Mexican-American/Aztlan students should be a little misbehaved, because after all, we took their land. He further explained this concept by uttering the time-honored line: "We didn't cross the border; the border crossed us." He then explained to us that it is our job as teachers to learn to speak Spanish in order to be able to better deal with the parents of our Hispanic/Chicano/Latino/Mexican-American/Aztlan students. To quote Mr. Gutierrez: "That's your job." Isn't it the job of the parents to learn to speak English so they can communicate with their child's teachers? If they are "undocumented," isn't it their job to go back to where they came from and deal with the schools from their native country? Ooops, can't say that. I'm a xenophobe if I say that. Mr. Gutierrez did lose many of his supporters when he began talking about how we teachers need to stay after school late into the afternoon to provide extra help to Hispanic/Chicano/Latino/Mexican-American/Aztlan students who need it. What got heads shaking and chuckles murmuring was when he said that the teacher parking lots need to stop being empty by 3:15. I don't know what school he is talking about, but my parking lot is still pretty full at 4pm and beyond. I usually leave around 3:30 to 3:45 to go pick up my kids, and I am usually one of the first teachers to leave. Excuse my horrible Espanol, but Mr. Gutierrez can go chinga himself.

After Mr. Gutierrez was finished he sat down and it was time for a "State of the District" speech by our spineless, uninspiring superintendent. His presentation was a data-filled Power Point presentation. My favorite part is when he showed a visual representation of the racial/ethnic percentage breakdown of our student population (approximately 75% minority), and then juxtaposed that with a visual representation of the racial/ethnic percentage breakdown of our teacher population (about 75% white). There were knowing gasps of horror and indignation both from the superintendent and many of the teachers in the audience. My first thought was that it's not like these white teachers just tripped into a classroom and began teaching; the district had to hire them first! If we have "too many" white teachers, isn't the district to blame for this horrible travesty? Meanwhile, while the superintendent was speaking, the Hispanic/Chicano/Latino/Mexican-American/Aztlan activist was giving an extra Obama button he had on him to the Pacific Islander activist sitting next to him. The PI guy then pinned his Obama button to his shirt pocket. When I went to the parking lot where all these teachers' cars were, I found myself in a sea of Obama '08 bumper stickers. Teachers tend to be such a leftist lot.

After the verbal whipping in the gym, the teachers of my school then went to our library on campus to find out how to get out of the NCLB-mandated Program Improvement in which we now find ourselves. It seems our African-American students and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged students have not performed up to par on our state testing the last two years, so now we get flailed until we shape up. Never mind that we teachers have little to no control over the performance of these students. We can't follow them home and make sure they do their homework; we can't make them come to tutoring that we offer; we can't make them try their best on a state test for which they are not held accountable for the results; we can't threaten to hold the students back to repeat the same grade next year if they fail to perform.

The real tragedy is that all this anxiety is placed upon us because a couple of years ago, our principal basically unilaterally decided that our school would accept Title I money. She might as well have gotten a loan from the mafia for 5 above the vig. As the state education office presenter told us today, "When you take the feds' money, you have to play their game, and I'm here to teach you the rules." Yes, he actually said that. I don't disagree with the aims of No Child Left Behind, but I am very concerned with the incompetence in which it has been written and implemented.

You know how much Title I money our school gets every year? We are going into Program Improvement and can possibly all lose our jobs in couple years for a measly $60,000 in federal funding. That is the salary (not even with benefits) of one teacher on our campus.

Let the bloodletting begin!

Good Day to You, Sir

Those "racist" Republicans are at it again

And this time, I'm not talking about the presidential race! Right here in good ol' Sacramento, there is a tight race for mayor between the incumbent, leftist Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, Heather Fargo, and the challenger, Democrat and Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson. Johnson grew up in south Sacramento and had a successful career in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns. He returned to Sacramento to revitalize Oak Park, a run-down and crime-ridden district in the south part of the city. As part of that revitalization, Johnson used his non-profit organization, St. HOPE, to reopen the horribly failing Sacramento High School as a charter school.

The race between Fargo and Johnson has gotten rather nasty at times, and with both being Democrats - the suburbs of Sacto are rather conservative, the city itself is not - Republicans in the city don't have a dog in this hunt. However, they have to vote for someone, and according to a poll commissioned by the Sacramento Bee, Johnson is who Republicans favor. According to the poll, 62% of Sacramento's Republicans say they are voting for Kevin Johnson. But how can that be? Kevin Johnson is black! As the Barack Obama cult continues to try to spread the meme that a vote against Obama is a racist act, it is nice to see an example of how politics really work: most people vote according to policies of the candidate, not the race of the candidate. Although he is a Democrat and an Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson's politics are not nearly as loony left as those of Heather Fargo.

Of course, since only 23% of Sacramento Republicans support Heather Fargo for mayor, I guess you could make the argument that they are sexist instead!

Good Day to You, Sir

The Democrats are getting ballsy

The following is some of the candid crap uttered by Democrats just in the last couple days. Here are words from some of the Jokers that way too many of the American people want minding the store:

From Joe Biden:

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America," Biden was quoted telling a fundraiser in Seattle on Sunday. "Remember I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

From Barack Obama (in response to Biden's idiotic statement):

"I think Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes … A period of transition in a new administration is always one where we have to be vigilant, we have to be careful … We have to be mindful that as we pass the baton in this democracy that others don’t take advantage of it — that’s true whether it’s myself or Senator McCain.”

From Representative Barney Frank (D-Taxachusetts):

I think at this point, there needs to be an immediate increase in spending, and I think this is a time when deficit fear has to take a second, uh, a second seat. I do think this is the time for a very important kind of dose of [unintelligible]. Yes, I think later on, there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think there are a lot of rich people out there who we can tax at a point down the road to recover some of this money.

From Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico)

JIM VILLANUCCI, KOB radio host: Talk radio listeners are concerned about the Fairness Doctrine. Do you think there will be a push to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine?

Sen. JEFF BINGAMAN (D-N.M.): I don’t know, I certainly hope so. My own view is—

VILLANUCCI: You support it?

BINGAMAN: I do.

VILLANUCCI: You would want this radio station to have to change?

BINGAMAN: I would. I would want this station and all stations to have to present a balanced perspective and different points of view instead of hammering on one side of the political—

VILLANUCCI: In this market for instance you have KKOB. If you want liberal talk you have Air America in this market in this market. You’ve got NPR. If you have satellite radio there’s a lefty talk station and a righty talk station. Do you think there are people who aren’t able to find a viewpoint that is in sync with what they believe.

BINGAMAN: Well, I guess my thought is that radio and media generally should have a higher calling than just to reflect a particular point of view. I think they should use their authority and their broadcast power to present an informed discussion of public issues. KKOB used to live under the Fairness Doctrine—

VILLANUCCI: Yeah, we played music.

BINGAMAN: There was a lot of talk also, at least it seemed to me. And there were a lot of talk stations that seemed to do fine. The airwaves are owned by private companies at this point, there is a license to given to private companies to operate broadcast stations and that’s the way it should be. All I’m saying is for many, many years were operated under a Fairness Doctrine in this country. I think the country was well-served. I think the public discussion was at a higher level and more intelligent in those days that it has become since.

My favorite line in that interview was from Villanucci: "Yeah, we played music."

Good Day to You, Sir

Here's a good reason to vote against Obama

Just 1 percent of French want McCain to win vote: poll

...When asked which man they wanted to see elected, 78 percent of respondents in France backed Obama, compared with just one percent for McCain and five percent who said they wanted neither to win, the poll for television news channel France 24 found.

The rest were undecided.

In Germany, where Obama held his rally, five percent of people supported McCain while 72 percent backed Obama.

"The five largest European countries are unanimous in their desire to see Barack Obama elected whilst John McCain's rating is extremely low," the pollsters said in a note summarizing their survey of 6,276 adults in Spain, Italy, Britain, France and Germany, as well as the United States.

Talk show host Neal Boortz often speaks of a poll that showed most Europeans want the United States to be "weaker economically and militarily worldwide." I would say this goes hand in hand with the desire of most Europeans to see Barack Obama be our next President.

Good Day to You, Sir

If it's true, it's horrible

The big story this evening is that a 20 year-old volunteer for the McCain/Palin campaign was beaten and robbed by a 6' 4" black Obama supporter. He then carved a "B" into her cheek with a knife.

The only thing that keeps me from being fully outraged about this is the fact that the "B" is carved into her cheek backwards. Either the attacker is illiterate, or the victim did this herself in the mirror and didn't pay attention to what she was doing. Then again, did she punch herself too? Bottom line is that I will withhold final judgment until more about this incident can be verified.

Good Day to You, Sir

You cannot walk on the moon unless you have a slight Indian accent

My regards to Joe Biden. With China and India heating up the space race, do you feel a little left behind, or do you think the United States has done enough already?

Good Day to You, Sir

Mind the barbs ol' chap

More insanity from our friends across the pond. A man in Great Britain put barbed wire on top of the fence that surrounds his garden, because of repeated visits by thieves. The local government then ordered the man to remove the barbed wire. Reason: the thieves might hurt themselves on the barbed wire.

Wow!

Good Day to You, Sir

Left-wing election shenanigans

Michelle Malkin has been doing an outstanding job of detailing the dirty tricks and outright violence and crime that the lefties are willing to employ in order to get their guy elected.

Check out this rogue's gallery of present and past leftist troublemakers and criminals who have no problem with lashing out at those evil conservatives by any means necessary.

After looking at all that, if you can find me a comparable list of right-wing shenanigans, then I am all eyes and ears.

And in the latest development, now the lefties are going after Joe the Plumber.

Good Day to You, Sir

Stay classy, Congressman Murtha

Yesterday, Representative John Murtha (Dumbass-PA) took a break from slandering our U.S. Marines - whom he called cold-blooded killers - and instead insulted his own western Pennsylvania constituents:

Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist and that could reduce Barack Obama's victory margin in the state by 4 percentage points.

The 17-term Democratic congressman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site: "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area."

Chew on that last quote a second, and then behold Murtha's district map:

Let's say Murtha is right, and the voters of western Pennsylvania are as racist as he says they are. What does that say about John Murtha, seeing as how it was these "racist" voters who elected him? And if Murtha is wrong in his assessment of his constitutency (which I am sure he is), then all I can do is to wish you best of luck with your reelection campaign Congressman Murtha!

Good Day to You, Sir

What some students will do for extra credit

Since 2004, I have amassed a small collection of political paraphernalia on one section of my classroom wall. I have a Kerry/Edwards and Bush/Cheney '04 yard sign from the last election, along with a Join Arnold sign from the 2003 California governor's race. Add in some bumper stickers and buttons featuring Clinton/Gore '96, Ross Perot, and Harry Browne, and my collection is a pretty impressive one.

When this current election cycle began to get hot and heavy, I offered an extra credit assignment to my 8th graders: 30 extra credit points to anyone who could bring in either a McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden yard sign. I stressed that I would need one of each for balance, and I also stressed that they must get the sign legitimately, such as going to a party headquarters and buying one. I specifically said, "Do NOT pull one off of someone's lawn."

Not surprisingly, I had to go to the Republican HQ near my home and get a McCain/Palin sign myself, because none of my students even considered getting one of those; they are totally in the tank for Obama. Not long after, a student (we will call him Juan) brought in an Obama/Biden sign (many students had brought in signs with just Obama's name, but I wanted a sign with both candidate and running mate).

I gratefully accepted the Obama/Biden sign from Juan and hung up both signs on my classroom wall. Over the next few days, Juan kept badgering me to put his extra credit points in the gradebook, but some weird feeling kept stopping me from doing so; I don't know what it was.

Late last week, I got an email from my VP in which she asked me to come to her office, because she had a funny story to tell me about how I obtained my Obama/Biden sign. I went to her office, and discovered that my weird feeling about not giving Juan the extra credit was justified. It turns out that the same day that I reminded the class that I was still after an Obama/Biden sign, Juan proceeded to ride the bus home, got off the bus, and pulled up from a lawn the first Obama/Biden sign he spotted. Not only that, but he apparently damaged a sprinkler head on that lawn while pulling up the sign and stealing it. When the VP brought Juan to her office, he of course claimed he had no idea that what he had done was at all wrong.

But the story doesn't end there. Today, another student walked into my classroom at the end of the day and said, "Mr. Chanman, I'm here to get my mom's Obama/Biden sign. Juan pulled it off her lawn the other day." A minute later, the student walked out of my room with the sign, and there was McCain/Palin hanging up there all alone. So here I was, three weeks before the election, and I didn't have both signs anymore, and I didn't have time to hope that a student could come through with one in a hurry. There was only one thing to do. I didn't want to do it, but I saw little other choice. I went online and found the nearest Democratic Party HQ, which was located in downtown Sacramento on P Street. My school isn't too far from there, so I left work immediately, and drove into the belly of the beast. As I turned from 28th Street onto P, I saw it: one of those former bungalows that has been turned into a lawyer's office. Decorating this house were numerous Democrat Party and Obama signs, which left no doubt that this was my destination. This conservative's Conservative walked into that HQ and I instantly felt like Dorothy in the Land of Oz; I was definitely no longer in Kansas. There on a shelf were two reverently framed photos of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. On another shelf were framed photos of John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. Covering almost every square inch of the walls were signs trumpeting candidates in national, state, and local races for various political offices. Milling about the place were assorted "eclectic" residents of downtown Sacramento who you couldn't imagine being anything else but members of the Democrat party. The most painful aspect of this whole affair was the $10 that I handed over to one of the HQ's lackeys so I could walk out with my sign. For a bunch of socialists, capitalism was alive and well in that place!

So now, that Obama/Biden sign is sitting in the back of my car, waiting to be stapled into the empty space on my wall that sits adjacent to my McCain/Palin sign. At least I can rest assured that neither sign was stolen from anyone. Next election, I will require my students to provide some sort of written proof from the HQ in which they received the yard sign. Lesson learned!

Good Day to You, Sir

He said it folks, not me!

The best time to get the truth from Barack Obama is to catch him in an unguarded moment, when he either thinks he is among like-minded people ("cling to guns" statement in San Francisco), or when he doesn't have time to put a good spin on what he has to say.

During a press-the-flesh event yesterday, Obama was asked by a plumber in the crowd, a very poignant question about raising taxes. I will print a transcript of what was said, and then you can view actual footage if you like:

Plumber (to Obama): “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more. Isn’t it?”

Obama: “It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Ah, Marx would be so proud. "It's not that I want to punish your success," but that's exactly what the Obamessiah plans on doing. He is an out and out socialist. And what does he mean by "everybody that is behind you"? This is a simple matter of Obama wanting to pick winners and losers; he knows what is best for you. Bow to Obama!

Good Day to You, Sir

Attack of the Obamabots

A couple weeks ago, I put a McCain/Palin sign on my lawn. Any regular reader of this blog knows what I think of that squid-spine McCain, but my wife is very excited about Sarah Palin, and my neighbor directly across the street has an Obama/Biden sign that I must look at every time I step out my front door, so I thought I would put out my sign more as a "vote against Obama" statement rather than saying to vote for McCain. My other across-the-street neighbors who live one door down from the Obama folks also got a McCain/Palin sign for their lawn at the same time we put one on ours.

Well, it took longer than I thought it would, but it happened nonetheless: I walked out this morning, and my sign was gone. The metal frame was still sticking halfway out of the lawn, but the sign itself was nowhere to be found. I looked across the street, and my pro-McCain neighbors were missing their sign as well, with the metal frame still sticking out of their lawn. A third McCain/Palin sign that was on the lawn of a house about three doors down was also torn down and missing. The five or so Obama/Biden signs that are scattered along my street were of course standing proudly and unmolested.

I am so not surprised that I and my fellow McCain/Palin sign owners were paid a visit by some of the Obamessiah's minions, and I couldn't help but chuckle when I realized that what I had been expecting had finally happened. At the same time however, I find the implications of these sign thefts to be rather chilling. Can you imagine the mind set of these fascistic fools that would motivate them to do what they did? What else are they willing to do in their support of their Messiah?

And to cut some of you off at the pass, don't even try with this "they right wingers do the same thing" garbage. I am quite sure there are isolated incidents of Obama signs being messed with or destroyed, but I defy anyone to assert that the number of incidents from both sides are even close to being equal.

UPDATE: 4:17pm - I just got back from a Republican HQ office with three new signs. I already replaced the one in my front yard, and I will walk down the street to see if the other two sign-holders want a new one.

When you leave the news to the "professionals"

Newsweek magazine has a new issue out. Sarah Palin is on the cover. Does Newsweek have a photo of her giving a speech? Meeting with world leaders maybe? How about shaking hands with the common folk? Nah. Instead, Newsweek shows Palin as they see her:

They think she is some ditzy hick who just likes to go huntin' and stuff, so that's what they show. Of course on the other hand, I think this is wonderful photo of Sarah Palin, and it endears me to her all the more, as I'm sure it does many voters in "Flyover Country."

The funny thing is watching the left-wing media try to wrap their minds around a woman like Sarah Palin. For a really good laugh, read what this L.A. Times blogger had to say about Palin and her "rifle."

Suffice it to say, she ended her piece with this flash of brilliance:

Hey, is that even the right way to hold a rifle? Can't you shoot your foot off like that?

First of all, genius, that isn't a rifle; it's a shotgun. Second of all, that is a very common way of carrying an unloaded shotgun, so that way you CAN'T shoot off your foot. It is called carrying it in the broken position. A gigantic number of commentors wrote in and told this blogger what an idiot she was. So not to fear! The same blogger wrote a follow-up post in which she castigated the commentors for calling her on her ignorance, trying to pass it all off as a big joke she was trying to make. That didn't fly, and many of the same commentors wrote back in. This was my favorite comment to this clueless blogger:

Oh, I see... You MEANT to look like an idiot. ...and the gun-clingers are hot-headed morons for pointing out the obvious. Ok.

How do you even have a job?

It's the leftist elitism like that of Newsweek and the L.A. Times that makes me so irritated about the prospects of Obama winning in the first place.

Good Day to You, Sir

The Cult of Obama takes a decidedly creepy turn

I have previously posted about the halos around Barack Obama's head that were included by adoring photographers, and let us not forget about the communist-chic campaign posters such as the one seen on the right. Oh, and then there is Big-Brutha Obama in one of his campaign offices. All of that is bad enough, but we are now taking a turn into the land of Absolutely Creepy. The following are two videos made by followers of Obama that truly disturb me; especially the first one. This first video is right out of the North Korea school of filmmaking that shows naive and manipulated children singing the praises of their Dear Leader, Barack Obama. This video was apparently posted at Obama's website, but when the Yuck-factor quickly became apparent, the video was taken down. In fact, it was even hard to find on YouTube. The one I found was posted by an Obama detractor who added in a bit of his own silent commentary to the otherwise original video. Check this out and try not to gag:



And then we have some older Obamabots who in a militaristic fashion, let us know how their lives would not be what they are without their Dear Leader, Barack Obama. I swear to God folks, in my 36 years, I have never seen anything like this in the United States like what I am seeing with this very unhealthy attachment to Barack Obama.



Because of Obama, you are all a bunch of brainwashed loons. Did this take place in a school? If so, public or private? Did it take place in some kind of youth or community center? If so, does it accept public money? And what is with this "Alpha Omega" crap? Didn't GOD say he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end? Is Obama now a living God? This is scary stuff, folks.

I'm sorry to say, that as things look now, Barack Obama may well be our next president. Judging by the slavish following of this man by his supporters, it frightens me to think of the freedom-squashing legislation he could get bullied through with the full support of minions like what you see above.

Good Day to You, Sir

Great Britain is digging its own grave

Funny how world history works. A few thousand years ago, the Egyptian Empire conquered Kush, its neighbor to the south, and then ruled Kush until about 1100 B.C. After that, Egypt began to weaken, and by approximately 450 B.C., the tables had turned. Kush had grown in strength, and they proceeded to conquer Egypt.

A similar situation appears to be happening in the late, great country of Great Britain. The once proud British Empire counted numerous Muslim countries among its possessions. In these countries, the native culture continued to flourish, but British law prevailed. In Britain today, the ancient laws of the Angles and Saxons and Normans are now officially being joined with the Sharia law of Islam - a law that comes from the Quran and the words and deeds of Muhammad himself, and one in which violations include those of a religious nature, punishments for lesser crimes can be draconian, and where women are treated as second-class citizens.

Britain has dallied with Sharia courts before, but the decisions of the courts were not binding, and adherence to those decisions by the parties involved were purely voluntary. Now, Sharia law has been given the full backing of the British government, and the decisions will be enforced by British law.

My God, what have they done?

Good Day to You, Sir

Bill O'Reilly lives out one of my fantasies

Who has ever wanted to grab by the proverbial lapels one of these slimy, crooked, lying, obnoxious, hateful politicians in Congress and scream at him from the top of your lungs about what a no-good scoundrel he is.

Bill O'Reilly has lived that dream ladies and gentlemen. The object of his ire? None other than that useless waste of space, leftist-socialist Barney Frank of the Peoples' Republic of Massachusetts. Relish in the satisfactory experience:



There are times I also want to scream at Bill O'Reilly when he is being obtuse about something, but kudos to him for standing up to that POS Barney Frank.

Good Day to You, Sir