Day: August 28, 2008

Prep School For Dropouts

The U.S. Army, eager to fill its ranks amid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn’t see them as dropouts. They are recruits who only need a GED before they’re ready to begin basic training.

And so, the Army formally opens its first prep school Wednesday.

That includes turning six World War II-era buildings at the base into a mini-campus of spartan classrooms and barracks. Under the yearlong pilot project, classes of about 60 soldiers will enter the monthlong program every week.

Their day begins in uniform at 5 a.m. with physical training. Then they attend about eight hours of academic review classes, followed by homework each evening. An hour of marching drills and military discipline is thrown in for good measure.

The soldiers work in small classrooms outfitted with simple desks, chairs, and dry-erase boards. In-desk computers are used for test-taking. Grouped three to four to a class, the students hunch over special GED preparation books, working on basic math, social studies and reading selections.

Recruits must score in the top half of the Army’s aptitude test to qualify for the prep school and get two tries at a General Educational Development certificate. If they still can’t pass, the Army will release them from their contract, Sanderson said

A study issued by the National Priorities Project released in January found that while the Army has a goal that 90 percent of recruits be high school graduates, it hadn’t met that percentage since 2004. In the 2007 budget year, the Project found that only 71 percent of soldiers entering the service had graduated.

2008 Anal-Ocity

The hits just keep coming.  It is just amazing what people will say and say with conviction.  This anal-ocity comes from ex-presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Former governor Mitt Romney, perhaps continuing his audition to be John McCain’s running mate, attacked Barack Obama today for making an issue out of McCain’s many homes.Speaking to reporters at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Romney said that while McCain deserved his houses because of the “hard work” of himself and his family,

As for Romney’s assertion that McCain “deserved his houses because of the ‘hard work’ of himself and his family,” he does know that McCain’s second wife is an heiress to a lucrative beer distributorship, right?

The G.O.P. Is Just Plain Scary!

Senator Ted Stevens’s easy victory in Alaska’s Republican primary on Tuesday sets him up for two more fights this fall that are likely to be much tougher: one in the general election and the other in the courtroom.

The senator received 63 percent of the primary vote against six challengers, even as he faces a trial in September on charges that he concealed $250,000 in home renovations and gifts provided by an oil services company, VECO.

Why would the people want a crook to represent them?  It is just scary how the voter is duped time and time again.

Dems In Denver–Day 3

First, Obama wins the nomination in a roll call, where Clinton’s name was placed into the process also.  All that is left now is his acceptance speech.

The night was full of speeches by first Bill Clinton and then Joe Biden.

Mr. Clinton proceeded to do precisely what Mr. Obama’s campaign was looking for him to do: attest to Mr. Obama’s readiness to be president, after a campaign largely based on Mrs. Clinton’s contention that he was not.

“I say to you: Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world,” Mr. Clinton said. “Barack Obama is ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.”

Next was Biden.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. Obama’s choice for vice president, accepted the nomination with a speech in which he spoke frequently, and earnestly, of his blue-collar background, in effect offering himself as a validator for Mr. Obama among some voters who have been reluctant to embrace the Democratic presidential nominee.

He then turned to Senator John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, signaling how he would go after him in the campaign ahead. He referred to Mr. McCain as a friend — “I know you hear that phrase a lot in politics; I mean it,” he said — and then proceeded to offer a long and systematic case about why Mr. McCain should not be president.

All in all good speeches and I believe that the Dems have finally set their tone for the upcoming election.  But my problem is that the media has been creating drama where there is no drama and have yet to mention the issues and the platform of the Democratic Party.