The fact that girls between the ages of 14-17 have admitted to being raped is very troubling.

And what do they all have in common? They go to school.

Clearly, the education system is somehow to blame. My daugher’s school, Abu Graib Elementary, will receive much greater scrutiny from me.

But aren’t there other things these girls have in common that might explain the spike in rapes? Using Catherine’s data, the spike in rapes during the 1990s seems suspiciously parallel to the rise of the popular television series, Seinfeld.

Is it such a stretch to ask if the Jews could somehow be in on this? Think about it.

Sorry to report, but I am now seeing “Vote Kerry” signs everywhere.

Check out the Richard Avedon photo of Kerry in this week’s issue of NEW YORKER.

He looks great.

I need Richard Avedon to take my picture right away.

I read the same report, and didn’t make the connection—–yikes.

I’ve only skimmed the comments (MUST get to work) so I apologize if this is a repeat. Yesterday’s WSJ had the best explanation I’ve seen of what’s happened (don’t know if the link is subscription only):

Written by Richard Clarke for the NSC, the key document [taken by Mr. Berger] was called the Millennium After-Action Review because it dealt with al Qaeda attacks timed for the eve of the Millennium celebrations. In his own 9/11 testimony, Mr. Berger described these al Qaeda plans as “the most serious threat spike of our time in government.” He went on to say that they provoked “sustained attention and rigorous actions” from the Administration that ended up saving lives.

But Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has the advantage of having read the document in question, had a different take. In his own 9/11 testimony in April, Mr. Ashcroft recommended that the Commission “study carefully” the after-action memo. He described it as laying out vulnerabilities and calling for aggressive remedies of the type he and the Bush Administration have been criticized for. Mr. Ashcroft further noted that when he took office, this “highly classified review” was “not among” the items he was briefed on during the transition.

Maybe that is because of the potential for embarrassment at the mentality the memo reveals. Mr. Ashcroft testified that the Justice Department’s “surveillance and FISA operations were specifically criticized for their glaring weaknesses.” The most glaring, of course, were the restrictions on the sharing of critical information between intelligence and law enforcement — even within the FBI itself. This was the infamous “wall of separation” that Clinton Deputy AG Jamie Gorelick instructed the FBI director should “go beyond what is legally required.”

Berger on the ‘Wall’

There are two things going on here. The first is obvious: protecting the Clinton administration from accusations of having allowed the threat from Al Qaeda to grow.

But I think the second is more interesting at this point: protecting the Dems’ ability to demonize John Ashcroft. Assuming the memo did indeed recommend taking the steps Ashcroft has taken–and given that it was written by Clarke I’m sure it did–that cuts a great big patch of ground out from underneath Kerry?s attacks.

Years ago a fundraising consultant told me something I’ve never forgotten:

Sometimes it’s better just to go ahead and do what you need to do, and apologize later.

That’s what this looks like to me.

off-topic

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’m now full-throttle in the ?Math Wars, so I wanted to share this link for those of you who are also dealing with this issue.

Yes, the Education President

The more I learn about the No Child Left Behind Act, the more committed I am to President Bush.

NCLB requires that schools use empirically-validated techniques to teach their students.

More importantly, NCLB requires that failing schools either improve, or allow & enable their students to leave.

Finally NCLB requires that schools keep data on the physical safety of their children.

Failing urban schools are prisons for minority children:

14 percent of District high school boys don’t go to school because they feel unsafe either in class or on their way to or from school — and that’s what the survey showed — our city is in a class by itself. And . . . 14 percent of District high school girls say they were physically forced to have sexual intercourse — which ties them for the lead with girls in Philadelphia –

‘Safety and Happiness’ for D.C. Kids

Minority children are legally required to attend these schools. They can’t stay home; staying home is not a legal option unless they have parents who can qualify to homeschool them.

Think about it.

We require these children to attend schools where they are not physically safe.

That is a prison.

When you read the literature, it’s horrifying. You can see black children’s math scores rising steadily in the 1980s, under Reagan; then you see the scores fall back down in the 1990s, under Clinton.

This is no spurious correlation. Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institute directly attributes black children’s loss of gains to the introduction of “fuzzy math” (also called “constructivist math” or “standards math”), which was spearheaded by Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Education in defiance of professional mathematicians and parents.

Computation Skills, Calculators, and Achievement Gaps: An Analysis of NAEP Items

Why is this loss important? Check this out:

Basic skills predict adult earnings. In recent years, a growing body of research has documented that the skills and knowledge students learn in school is correlated with success later in life. In their landmark study showing the impact of basic skills on adult earnings, Richard Murnane and Frank Levy conclude, “mastery of skills taught in American schools no later than the eighth grade is an increasingly important determinant of subsequent wages.”

Trends in Math Achievement: The Importance of Basic Skills

Here is Rod Paige:

Education is truly the civil-rights issue of the 21st century.

Naked Partisans

He’s right.

I’m having my own set of issues with my children’s schools.

But if I were a black mother living in Washington D.C. I couldn’t be confident that my child would get through the school day without being raped or worse.

Education is a civil rights issue, and NCLB is civil rights legislation.

I’m sorry to get so far off topic, but I’ve had a few emails from commenters here who’ve spent years dealing with all of this.

Moreover, I think it would be good for the public to realize that President Bush is not just a war president.

He is an education president.

And he is a civil rights president.

Verrrry interesting. Keeping Kerry in the dark allows Berger to take the hit for Clinton’s NSA failings, and any fallout attaches not to Bill but to Kerry. Kerry’s national security credentials are diminished, leaving standing only three nationally-prominent national security Democrats: Biden, Lieberman, and the junior senator from New York. Biden’s not a candidate; Lieberman’s a failed candidate. Edwards has n o standing to speak of on natl security. Only Hillary could reasonably cover the Dems’ flank on national security if Kerry were to suddenly be viewed as, shall we say, not having a clue (see http://hughhewitt.com/#postid693) about Berger’s grave offense.

Cherchez La Hillary.

How can the motives be a combination of #3 and #4 when #4 is: “A combination of #3 and #4.”

It is exactly this kind of sloppiness that has led this country into grave danger.

1. To aid the enemy and make money. (That one’s absurd).

2. To help Kerry beat Bush (Maybe).

3. To expunge from the historical record material unflattering, in the light of 9-11, to Clinton and himself. (Unquestionably).

4. A combination of #3 and #4 (Maybe).

My view is #3 would be more important to Berger and his handler than abetting Kerry. Curious that the first call from the National Archives went to Bruce Lindsay, isn’t it?

It’s the association of a code word with a topic that makes something super-secret — as with the use of CARDINAL in Tom Clancy’s book Cardinal of the Kremlin. The use of “cardinal” was fine — the association of CARDINAL with a suborned member of the Politburo was something else.

Some of these code words are, comparatively, about as exclusive as a rainstorm, and I’ve certainly had the unpleasant surprise of seeing something mentioned in Newsweek by codeword. Other codewords are extremely closely held, with documents under that classification being one of, say, three copies and the association of codeword and topic being exceedingly confidential.

Nobody cares for Kerry. If they did, they would have bumper stickers which read “Vote for Kerry” rather than “Somebody Else for President”. It’s Bush who’s the cynosure of all eyes here. Kerry’s baseline strategy is therefore to fade into the background as much as possible. Kerry is truly one of the worst candidates the Democrats have yet to disgorge but the focus is all on Bush-hatred, which is rampant throughout the country.