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Michelle Malkin’s Cousin Marizela is still missing, please read the below and get acquainted with Marizela … if you have any information that can help return Marizela to her loving family please call the SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582
Crossposted from Michelle Malkin.com
Searching for Marizela: New videos, message from her parents & an army of volunteers
We spent the weekend on the ground in Seattle, looking for any signs of our missing 18-year-old University of Washington student Marizela Perez.
Family, friends, supporters, student and church volunteers, Facebook users, blog readers, and kind strangers met us on Saturday in the parking lot at the Safeway in the University District where Marizela was last seen. Family members continued the search on Sunday. We spread out and canvassed Ravenna Park, Cowen Park, the Arboretum, the University District, Chinatown, Green Lake, Rainier Beach/Rainier Valley, and the UW Bothell campus.
Nothing.
Family members were on the ground again today in the city. We continue to ask for the public’s help in providing any information possible about Marizela’s whereabouts. The Seattle Police Department continues to investigate. The King County Search and Rescue division has been alerted, but cannot launch an official search mission until law enforcement receives more information and leads on where Marizela went after she left the Safeway.
If any public transportation workers or cab drivers came into contact with Marizela on the afternoon of Sat. March 5, we need you to contact SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582.
If any Seattle-area hikers or joggers recognize her face, we need you to contact SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582.
If anyone noticed her after she walked north out of the Safeway on Brooklyn Avenue carrying a green Starbucks mug, a Safeway shopping bag, and a denim drawstring bag on her back, we need you to contact SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582.
Last week, the family released screen caps from Safeway surveillance video showing Marizela. Today, the family is releasing video clips of her exiting the check stand and store in hopes of jogging someone’s memory and gathering more clues about her location.
The videos are on YouTube and can be embedded and shared. Please watch and distribute widely:
In this clip, she appears at :18 exiting the store, walking north:
In this clip, she appears at :52 exiting the store, walking north.
Marizela’s parents are also issuing a public statement along with the videos:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STATEMENT FROM EDGAR AND JASMIN PEREZ
PARENTS OF MISSING UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON STUDENT
MARIZELA PEREZ
Seattle, Wash.
March 12, 2011
Contact: Edgar Perez, 609 – 646 – 0905
First, we would like to extend our deepest thanks to all of the citizens in Seattle and across the country who have spread the word about our daughter’s disappearance on Saturday, March 5, in the University District.
We would like to thank Seattle law enforcement and the University of Washington staff, students, administration, and campus police for their ongoing support and assistance at this difficult time.
And we would like to thank all the local media outlets that have covered Marizela’s case with vigilance, compassion and sensitivity.
We remain hopeful and we will not rest until we find Marizela.
As the police investigation continues, we are releasing today video clips of surveillance video from the University District Safeway on 4732 Brooklyn Ave NE Seattle where Marizela was last seen on Saturday, March 5.
She was wearing a dark jacket with hood over a light-colored sweater with hood, denim jeans, light brown suede laced boots, possibly wearing green eye contacts, carrying a denim drawstring backpack with rainbow butterfly screen print.
We are asking for anyone who may have seen Marizela after she exited the Safeway sometime in the 2pm hour on Saturday, March 5, to please contact SPD immediately.
As our family has mentioned in flyers all week, Marizela is taking anti-depressants. We are concerned about Marizela’s safety, health, and well-being. She is in a vulnerable state of mind and it is urgent that we find her and bring her home safely as soon as possible.
This has been a heart-wrenching time for us and for all of Marizela’s friends, family, and supporters. We appreciate the public’s continued thoughts, prayers, and help in locating Marizela.
– Edgar and Jasmin Perez
Missing UW student Marizela Perez with her parents, Egg Harbor Township (EHT) High School (NJ) graduation 2010
***
Every set of eyes and ears, every pair of boots in the ground in Seattle, is a huge help for the family.
With Marizela’s Army of volunteers watching out for her, we hold on to hope and faith that she will be found and brought home soon.
Please email me at [email protected] to be put onto my mailing list.
Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com![]()
Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com
We spent the weekend on the ground in Seattle, looking for any signs of our missing 18-year-old University of Washington student Marizela Perez.
Family, friends, supporters, student and church volunteers, Facebook users, blog readers, and kind strangers met us on Saturday in the parking lot at the Safeway in the University District where Marizela was last seen. Family members continued the search on Sunday. We spread out and canvassed Ravenna Park, Cowen Park, the Arboretum, the University District, Chinatown, Green Lake, Rainier Beach/Rainier Valley, and the UW Bothell campus.
Nothing.
We continue to ask for the public’s help in providing any information possible about Marizela’s whereabouts. The Seattle Police Department continues to investigate. The King County Search and Rescue division has been alerted, but cannot launch an official search mission until law enforcement receives more information and leads on where Marizela went after she left the Safeway.
If any public transportation workers or cab drivers came into contact with Marizela on the afternoon of Sat. March 5, we need you to contact SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582.
If any Seattle-area hikers or joggers recognize her face, we need you to contact SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582.
If anyone noticed her after she walked north out of the Safeway on Brooklyn Avenue carrying a green Starbucks mug, a Safeway shopping bag, and a denim drawstring bag on her bag, we need you to contact SPD Missing Persons Bureau ASAP. The number there is 206-684-5582.
Last week, the family released screen caps from Safeway surveillance video showing Marizela. Today, the family is releasing video clips of her exiting the check stand and store in hopes of jogging someone’s memory and gathering more clues about her location.
The videos are on YouTube and can be embedded and shared. Please watch and distribute widely:
In this clip, she appears at :18 exiting the store, walking north:
In this clip, she appears at :52 exiting the store, walking north.
Marizela’s parents are also issuing a public statement along with the videos:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STATEMENT FROM EDGAR AND JASMIN PEREZ
PARENTS OF MISSING UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON STUDENT
MARIZELA PEREZ
Seattle, Wash.
March 12, 2011
Contact: Edgar Perez, 609 – 646 – 0905
First, we would like to extend our deepest thanks to all of the citizens in Seattle and across the country who have spread the word about our daughter’s disappearance on Saturday, March 5, in the University District.
We would like to thank Seattle law enforcement and the University of Washington staff, students, administration, and campus police for their ongoing support and assistance at this difficult time.
And we would like to thank all the local media outlets that have covered Marizela’s case with vigilance, compassion and sensitivity.
We remain hopeful and we will not rest until we find Marizela.
As the police investigation continues, we are releasing today video clips of surveillance video from the University District Safeway on 4732 Brooklyn Ave NE Seattle where Marizela was last seen on Saturday, March 5.
She was wearing a dark jacket with hood over a light-colored sweater with hood, denim jeans, light brown suede laced boots, possibly wearing green eye contacts, carrying a denim drawstring backpack with rainbow butterfly screen print.
We are asking for anyone who may have seen Marizela after she exited the Safeway sometime in the 2pm hour on Saturday, March 5, to please contact SPD immediately.
As our family has mentioned in flyers all week, Marizela is taking anti-depressants. We are concerned about Marizela’s safety, health, and well-being. She is in a vulnerable state of mind and it is urgent that we find her and bring her home safely as soon as possible.
This has been a heart-wrenching time for us and for all of Marizela’s friends, family, and supporters. We appreciate the public’s continued thoughts, prayers, and help in locating Marizela.
- Edgar and Jasmin Perez
Missing UW student Marizela Perez with her parents, Egg Harbor Township (EHT) High School (NJ) graduation 2010
***
Every set of eyes and ears, every pair of boots in the ground in Seattle, is a huge help for the family.
With Marizela’s Army of volunteers watching out for her, we hold on to hope and faith that she will be found and brought home soon.
During a speech at an Arlington middle school earlier today, President Obama pushed for a reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the federal government’s largest involvement in K-12 education. According to the Associated Press:
President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to rewrite the nation’s governing education law in time for a new school year next fall. It’s an ambitious timeline but one administration official says is necessary to start closing the achievement gap between American students and their counterparts in China and elsewhere.
White House officials say Obama will lay out the goal in a speech Monday at a middle school in Arlington, Va., where communications and technology are a focus—areas Obama views as critical in a global economy.
Over at Politico, conservatives have responded to the President’s push for bipartisanship through a reauthorization of NCLB, which is despised equally on both sides of the political aisle:
A HOUSE GOP AIDE RESPONDS: If the President and his Administration are truly serious about working together on education reform with Congress, a good place to start would be saving the D.C. opportunity scholarship program that helps poor underprivileged children in the nation’s capital. The bipartisan bill introduced by Speaker Boehner and Sen. Lieberman puts the interests of children first. If the Administration can’t stand up to the unions on the Left who are opposing the easiest and most common-sense education reforms, there is no way we’re going to get anything done on an issue as difficult as fixing No Child Left Behind.
It should be simple: Stand with the children and families of D.C. who have benefited so greatly by receiving scholarships to attend private school in D.C., whose lives have been transformed by the chance to receive a quality education, evidenced by their academic achievement advances and significantly higher graduation rates. Stand with the children who are safer and the parents who are more satisfied with their children’s educational experiences. Stand with the seven out of 10 D.C. residents who want to see the program continued and expanded, and stand with the D.C. city council—a majority of which want to see the program remain a thriving part of the District’s educational options.
To do otherwise is to side with those last vestiges of opposition—special interest education unions—working against the best interests of low-income children in D.C. If bipartisan agreement can’t be found in the clear case of D.C. Opportunity Scholarships, it’s all uphill from here. The far more difficult work does indeed lie ahead in reauthorization of NCLB.
The Obama Administration and conservatives may both agree that NCLB is broken, but the Administration does not believe that the federal role in education is fundamentally flawed. This disagreement will be the crux of the debate over NCLB—whether the Administration wants to recognize it or not—and will prove to be anything but a lay-up for those interested in reauthorizing the broken law.
The conservative alternative to NCLB—allowing states to opt out of the many cumbersome and bureaucratic programs that make up NCLB—would ensure that state leaders have more control over their dollars and decision-making. It’s built on the philosophy that those closest to the child should have the most control over his or her education.
The Obama Administration should come to terms with the federal government’s incapacity to improve educational outcomes. Washington’s failure for the past 45 years to improve education will not be fixed by continuing policies of the past and reauthorizing a broken law. States need options and children need choices. That’s a proposal that deserves bipartisan approval.
Jessie Bender was about to be taken on a two-month trip to Pakistan. Why didn’t her mother and stepfather just claim to investigators that their daughter was jumping to conclusions and overreacting?
The parents’ elaborate lies suggest they had something to hide. Britain’s forced-marriage investigators have seen many a case that started with the ruse of an extended “family vacation” overseas.
Child marriage persists in the Muslim world because Muhammad married a nine-year-old himself (in human years, not Galapagos turtle-years as desperate apologists are bound to claim some time), and Qur’an 33:21 upholds him as a “beautiful pattern of conduct” without exception. Jessie Bender’s story shows that “pattern of conduct” can and does endanger girls in America. “Parents of Jessie Bender, 13, lied about daughter, cops say; Was trying to escape arranged marriage,” from the New York Daily News, March 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):
A 13-year-old girl reported missing by her parents was really trying to escape an arranged marriage in Pakistan, police said Wednesday.
Jessie Bender’s folks told authorities last month their daughter ran off because she didn’t want to go on a two-month family trip to her step-father’s native country. They then falsely claimed she was abducted by someone she met on Facebook, officials said.
However, after weeks of investigating leads that wrangled the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Office and police departments nationwide, authorities say it was all a lie.
“Bender family members misled detectives and withheld critical information,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Roxanne Walker said in a news release.
Police soon discovered that another family member had helped the young teen hide out in Apple Valley, about 30 miles from her hometown of Hesperia in Southern California, to avoid becoming a Pakistani man’s bride.
Bender, as well as her three siblings, were taken into child protective custody while authorities decide whether to recommend filing charges against her family, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.
“All of the information that was obtained by investigators will be sent to the district attorney’s office for review,” she said.
They were willing to frame a man to save face:
The parents’ claim that she had been kidnapped sparked a nationwide investigation, involving both local and federal agencies. At one point, a person in Chicago was considered a suspect in her disappearance because the girl’s mother, Melissa, believed she had been communicating with him via Facebook.
“He was the last person she spoke to at 1:47 in the morning,” she told KTLA last month, speaking with her husband, Mohammad Khan. “I don’t know who he is … He claims that he doesn’t have her, but I don’t believe it.”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Texas has a parental notification law for abortions. Underage teens are not supposed to be allowed to have the procedure until her parents are made aware of the crisis. Unfortunately, it has been discovered that many abortion mills in Texas are breaking the law and killing the babies of under aged girls without informing parents.
But there are more violations than just that. A three-month-long investigation by a pro-life group has also found that medical records are routinely and illegally destroyed and hazardous medical waste is commonly disposed of illegally.
LifeNews.com reports that Operation Rescue has announced that it has identified several abortion clinics that have violated regulations imposed by the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Operation Rescue finds these violations to be a “widespread crisis of epidemic proportions.”
“The evidence we uncovered of illegal activity reveals a systemic problem throughout Texas that is not confined to one particular clinic or group of clinics,” he explained. “These violations endanger the heath of women, violate the rights of women to be informed and have their medical records protected, and present health hazards to the general public.”
Operation Rescue charges that these violations of parental notification laws tend to hide child molestation.
“We also found disturbing evidence of attempts to evade parental consent laws and child sex abuse reporting laws. This illegal activity endangers the safety and welfare of children throughout Texas,” Newman said.
The investigation also found that many of these abortion clinics are run down and in disrepair and also found half used drugs and human waste illegally thrown away in dumpsters behind many of the clinics.
LifeNews.com has the transcripts of a call to an abortion provider that reveals several violations of the law that is a must see.
 USA Today |
Blake Griffin to tick off parents everywhere
ESPN Blake Griffin won the NBA All-Star Dunk contest by jumping over a new car. Every dad out there with both a new car and a teenage son wants to thank Blake — for nothing! "Hey, where's my new car?" asks Dad all across America. … Blake Griffin leaps car to win dunk contest JaVale McGee never had a shot against Blake Griffin, but still put on a show Top 5 Highlights From the 2011 NBA Dunk Contest |
Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit models with clothes on make an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange. (Joe Corrigan/Getty Images) Attention, people going gaga over Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue: Have you seen Playboy? Any issue of Playboy, I’m talking. Same goes…
Pastor Donald Spitz of the Christian terrorist organization Army Of God is back with another message of Christian charity, this time saying that any gay person that has children should be imprisoned for life. Spitz was kicked out of Operation Rescue for publicly defending the murderers of abortion doctors, so we must be his new gig.
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In a piece in today’s JACKSON (MS) CLARION-LEDGER by Kyle Veazey, Houston Nutt drove any credibility he had left in how he recruits and subsequently treats players off a cliff.
(Ask Bailey’s cash-strapped parents about Nutt’s “PEEPA HEPPEN BIDNEZ“)
Nutt, who was recently seen joking about the practice of oversigning in an ESPN expose on the subject - which University of Florida President Berne Machen recently called “despicable” and immoral - defended himself to Veazey thusly:
“I’ve never ran anyone off in my career unless they broke multiple team rules or just committed a serious crime or something like that. That’s never happened.”
Thursday I noted an earlier piece by Veazey that documented seven Ole Miss players who had vanished from the team’s roster since signing day despite those players retaining eligibility.
Of those seven players, Nutt claimed in Sunday’s Clarion-Ledger article that all had left the program voluntarily, with the coaching going so far as to encourage Veazey to contact them to confirm the coach’s claim.
But Veazey reported today that he was unable to reach six of the seven players for comment. The player Veazey did reach, Lekenwic Haynes, refused to talkj about his departure from Ole Miss.
And as I noted two days ago, it doesn’t appear the roster purge is over. From his piece today, Veazey wrote:
Just who will be members of the 25 new enrollees this fall remains in flux. Six mid-year transfers are already in school, leaving 19 spots for 22 players that UM signed on Feb. 2. Two players - Madison, Ala., wide receiver Collins Moore and Itawamba AHS quarterback Maikhail Miller - are grayshirt candidates. Eligibility casualties could also make the numbers work.
If you happen to know any of the incoming Ole Miss players, I suggest you point them to this DALLAS MORNING NEWS story about Nutt reneging on a scholarship offer to Dan Bailey in 2006.
Dan Bailey, who recently concluded a stellar four-year career as Oklahoma State’s kicker, was offered a full athletic scholarship in 2006 by Ohio University out of high school. But instead of taking a full ride at Ohio U., Bailey opted to walk-on to Arkansas because then-Coach Nutt promised him an initial academic scholarship that would cover tuition.
Bad move.
The DMN takes it from there: (more…)
When Congress began phasing-out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2009, some parents were forced to send their kids to public schools that are failing and often unsafe. When asked by these parents about what options exist for them, I was at a complete loss as to how to advise them.
It troubles me greatly that parents are made to feel hopeless and helpless when faced with failing neighborhood schools that their children must attend because they don’t have the resources to either move to a neighborhood with better schools or to pay private school tuition.
But nothing has touched and angered me so much as the story of Ohio mother Kelley Williams-Bolar, who was charged with a felony and went to jail for taking her kids out of her failing school to a better public school in an area where her father lives. The Ohio courts ruled that Williams-Bolar had been untruthful in saying that her children lived with her father. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and community service for falsifying records so that her children could attend the high-achieving suburban district rather than Akron public schools.
Of course, parents should never engage in fraud or the falsification of public records, but I was outraged that Williams-Bolar’s behavior in this case led to both a felony charge and jail time. To me, that is excessive, and she never should have been put in such a situation. The judge in the case was very clear in her decision that the verdict in this case needed to be an example for all parents who might be thinking of sending their children to schools outside their school districts. In my mind, however, the same lesson could have been taught through the use of civil penalties rather than criminal punishment.
Because of her criminal conviction, Williams-Bolar, who said she was trying to keep her daughters safe, now runs the risk of being disqualified as a school teacher. She is currently an aide for special education classes and is near completion of a college degree that would allow her to become a teacher. Felons in Ohio can be disqualified from working as teachers. So now her future livelihood is jeopardized.
This whole situation is an example of why we need school choice. If Williams-Bolar had seen another option to keep her children safe and highly educated in their school, I’m sure she would have taken it. With so many urban schools failing our students, many parents are desperate to get their children into better educational environments. It is sad that she was forced to take a position that got her into trouble when all she wanted to do was protect her daughters and give them a chance for a quality education.
I pray that this mother is able to move forward successfully and that her daughters receive the education they deserve. We must continue fighting for school choice programs across our great nation.
A recent WSJ piece titled Why Rich Parents Don’t Matter is interesting if misnamed.
How much do the decisions of parents matter? Most parents believe that even the most mundane acts of parenting—from their choice of day care to their policy on videogames—can profoundly influence the success of their children. Kids are like wet clay, in this view, and we are the sculptors.
Yet in tests measuring many traits, from intelligence to self-control, the power of the home environment pales in comparison to the power of genes and peer groups. We may think we’re sculptors, but the clay is mostly set.
[...]
When it came to the mental ability of 10-month-olds, the home environment was the key variable, across every socioeconomic class. But results for the 2-year-olds were dramatically different. In children from poorer households, the choices of parents still mattered. In fact, the researchers estimated that the home environment accounted for approximately 80% of the individual variance in mental ability among poor 2-year-olds. The effect of genetics was negligible.
The opposite pattern appeared in 2-year-olds from wealthy households. For these kids, genetics primarily determined performance, accounting for nearly 50% of all variation in mental ability. (The scientists made this conclusion based on the fact that identical twins performed much more similarly than fraternal twins.) The home environment was a distant second. For parents, the correlation appears to be clear: As wealth increases, the choices of adults play a much smaller role in determining the mental ability of their children.
Children from wealthy households get all the advantages that money can buy, from music lessons to SAT tutors. Although parents might fret over the details of such advantages—is it better to play the piano or the violin?—these details are mostly insignificant, subject to the law of diminishing returns. As the science blogger Razib Kahn notes, “When you remove the environmental variance, the genetic variance remains.”
These results capture the stunning developmental inequalities that set in almost immediately, so that even the mental ability of 2-year-olds can be profoundly affected by the socio-economic status of their parents. As a result, their genetic potential is held back.
So, in fact, rich parents are incredibly important! It’s just that parenting doesn’t matter as much in households with enormous resources.
But even that’s not quite right. It’s just that rich parents are more homogeneous:
Though this latest study doesn’t speculate about the causes of these class differences, previous research has focused on a panoply of factors, such as the variety of words directed toward the child (more variety leads to higher test scores), the number of books in the home and even the ratio of encouraging remarks to discouraging warnings. By the age of 3, children from wealthier households hear, on average, about 500,000 encouragements and 80,000 discouragements. The ratio is reversed in households on welfare.
The journal is only available to APS members, so I don’t have ready access to the paper. I don’t know, for example, what the threshold is for “rich.” But this accords with my own anecdotal experience with upper middle class parents. But it’s likely that something other than money is at issue; that is, wealth is a proxy for other things. Affluent parents tend to be better educated, have children later in life, put more nutritious food on the table, and so forth. And, because money gives them more choices, they tend to obsess over all manner of things related to their kids.
Ironically, though, policy fixes to eliminate parental wealth as a barrier to early childhood development raise other issues:
Economists such as James Heckman, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, have long advocated for increased investments in preschool education, but this latest study suggests that interventions need to begin even earlier. One possible model is the “Baby College” administered by the Harlem Children’s Zone, which seeks to equip brand-new parents with better parenting skills.
Eliminating such inequalities in the early years of life would simply create a new kind of inequality, driven by genetics. But such a world would at least let more children come closer to their mental potential, unconstrained by the mistakes or impoverishment of their parents. The greatest luxury we can give our children, it turns out, is the luxury of being the type of parent that doesn’t matter at all.
Or, as the comedian Louis CK might put it, reduce the issues to White People Problems.
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| Uncensored - Louis C.K. - White People Problems | ||||
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Are all Yale Law School professors insane parents? Any Chua’s wackiness is well documented, of course. Now it turns out that Ian Ayres made his kid “publish an article in an academic peer-reviewed journal” before he’d let her get a dog. Apparently, it became a family project and all turned out okay, but still….
On top of which, what remotely normal person worries about whether his kids have the correct “intertemporal marginal rate of substitution”?
I wonder what discount rate he’d apply to the therapy bills his and Chua’s kids likely will have to pay as adults.
Onw final note. Calvin Trillin once said of his daughters:
I stopped writing about them during their teenage years because I think the last thing teenagers need is their daddy making supposedly wry remarks about their life.
It’s advice Chua and Ayres might take to heart.
Today marks the beginning of National School Choice Week, a time when school choice advocates across the nation will hold events to highlight effective educational options for every child.
Less than ten years ago there were only a few school choice programs serving the needs of US families. But by 2006, eight states had enacted new school choice programs or expanded existing options. These options include taxpayer-funded scholarships to help students attend private elementary or secondary schools of choice, as well as tax credits or deductions for educational expenses.
In each of the fights to bring school choice to the states and the District of Columbia there have been strong parent voices. We have seen many parents, for the first time, become partners of change; excited about how their children are learning and what lies ahead for them in obtaining the American dream of getting the quality education they deserve.
My personal experience with school choice has sent me on an incredible journey. In February 2003, legislation that would provide 2000 scholarships for low income children to attend the school of their choice was introduced to Congress. With an outcry of support from D.C. parents and with the support of key members of Congress, we began a long journey that would be made stronger when D.C. elected officials stood up and voiced their support for school choice.
After 11 months of fighting the opposition, the D.C. Choice Bill was passed on January 22, 2004 and signed into law by President Bush. More than 3000 children have received scholarships to attend 66 private schools since D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was implemented. D.C. parents played an important role in this effort to bring about change in education in the District and continue to be advocates for their children.
We have seen that when children are placed in educational environments of their parents’ choice, they succeed and their parents become active and involved. It changes their lives so much when their children are doing well in educational environments. It is with such joy that because of expanded educational options for the families who have had no choice, we see happy endings… not only for the children, but also their families and their communities.
We must not lose focus as we continue to work diligently to improve education for all children. We know that the opposition will work hard to undermine any steps we have taken. We have to continue to work hard in our advocacy and not take for granted that we are done. We must not stop fighting until every child is in an environment where they are receiving the best education possible. We must again hit the road to help empower parents in our cities to raise their voices for their children to receive the quality education they deserve.
Virginia Walden Ford is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
Wow. Just wow.
Palm Beach Post columnist Jose Lambiet is using the Tucson massacre to attack the parents of one of Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ surgeons because they happen to be GOP donors and Tea Party supporters.
Never mind the inanity of holding a son responsible for his mother and father’s ideological views and campaign contributions.
The idea of attacking the parents’ wealth and political activism to mock the doctor and ply the Blame Righty line is just…gross:
The name of Michael Lemole, the University of Arizona neurosurgeon who’s been treating U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ brain injuries since the Jan. 8 shooting, may sound familiar to Palm Beachers.
That’s because Lemole’s mom and pop, heart surgeon Gerald Lemole and his wife, Emily, live in a $ 7.1 million house on The Island. They also own a more modest $ 3.5 million house, also in Palm Beach.
And while Michael is saving the life of the moderate Democratic congresswoman, Gerald and Emily are more into the far, far Right — including Tea Party goofball Christine O’Donnell!
According to campaign filings, Lemole’s parents have showered with thousands in contributions — $ 15,700 in 2010 alone — Tea Party candidates vying for national offices.
Ironically: Among their favorites are some of the very people whose controversial rhetoric and campaigns are said to provide a fertile ground for the likes of Jared Loughner, who allegedly injured Giffords and killed six others in Tucson. (emphasis added)
Gotta love that passive voice to try and escape accountability for trafficking a baseless smear: “Are said to provide.”
But remember…being a Tea Party-bashing liberal means never having to say you’re sorry.
Hat tip: PJ Gladnick
Michael Lemole is a neurosurgeon who has been treating Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. However, that noble work wasn't enough to keep Palm Beach Post Page 2 Live columnist Jose Lambiet (photo) from dragging his parents through the mud for the "high crime" of supporting Tea Party candidates. Somehow Lambiet thinks it ironic that while the son has worked to save the life of Giffords, his parents are associated with a group that Lambiet absurdly claims provided "fertile ground" for the likes of Jared Loughner. Lambiet kicks off his odious column by snarking about how wealthy Lemole's parents appear to be:
The name of Michael Lemole, the University of Arizona neurosurgeon who’s been treating U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ brain injuries since the Jan. 8 shooting, may sound familiar to Palm Beachers.
That’s because Lemole’s mom and pop, heart surgeon Gerald Lemole and his wife, Emily, live in a $ 7.1 million house on The Island. They also own a more modest $ 3.5 million house, also in Palm Beach.
Apparently, there is a greater "crime" in the mind of Lambiet than being wealth. And that is the political crime of being a conservative:
And while Michael is saving the life of the moderate Democratic congresswoman, Gerald and Emily are more into the far, far Right — including Tea Party goofball Christine O’Donnell!
According to campaign filings, Lemole’s parents have showered with thousands in contributions — $ 15,700 in 2010 alone — Tea Party candidates vying for national offices.
GASP! The parents of Michael Lemole are conservatives and to make matters "worse" they have contributed to such candidates. Send in the Thought Police!
And now the very strong suggestion from Lambiet that it was Tea Party conservatives who influenced crazed shooter Jared Loughner:
Ironically: Among their favorites are some of the very people whose controversial rhetoric and campaigns are said to provide a fertile ground for the likes of Jared Loughner, who allegedly injured Giffords and killed six others in Tucson.
Not satisfied with just sliming the parents of Michael Lemole, Lambiet concludes his swim in the mud with a parting shot at the neurosurgeon himself for what he must consider the "Thought Crime" of supporting Republicans:
Michael Lemole, by the way, last year gave $ 1,000 to a political action committee that contributes only to Republicans.
As would be expected, there was quite a furious reaction from the readers to this sick hit piece on the Lemole family:
Jose- You are an idiot. You are still marching to the beat of the left wing media. The template is that the tea party caused the shootings in Tucson so you write garbage that fits your agenda and the agenda of the left who gives you your marching orders. Who cares what this Doctor’s parents do? Jose, can your article be classified as “controversial rhetoric” and a “fertile ground”…? When will you give it up? What a bunch of liars and hypocrites you in the “media” are. The PBP is a disgrace.
You have spent time going out of your way to track down this information that is not only irrelevant but also dangerous. It has been proven over and over and over and over that this was not a politically motivated shooting, or at a minimum had nothing to do with the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh or anyone else on the right. However for some reason you go out of your way to find this garbage to do your best to try to make it so. You are no journalist and should be fired from your position immediately.
What does anyone’s political affiliation/contribution have to do with the price of eggs? The MD’s contributions are none of your business, much less his parents. Ask the Giffords if they care. You are guilty of journalistic fraud!
WHAT? Are you kidding me? Are you serious? You are desperately looking for a connection to the right and the Tea Party so bad that you are trying to imply that there is something wrong because the PARENTS OF A DOCTOR attending Senator Gifford gave a political contribution to the Tea Party? Are you really this ignorant or is the left so out of their mind that they think people are so stupid that they can’t see this as a desperate attempt in making a connection? Jose I don’t even understand why this newspaper even pay you for writing crap like this.
It will be interesting to see how long, if ever, it takes for at least the Palm Beach Post to apologize for running Jose Lambiet's odious column.
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