CALIFORNIA CLOUT: Democratic House members from outside the Golden State are increasingly griping that, as in the heyday of late, far-left House Democratic Conference Chairman Phil Burton (D.-Calif.), liberal members from California are getting a little too much clout. At the insistence of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (who has the San Francisco seat long held by Burton), Rep. Robert Matsui was named to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Jane Harman got a coveted spot on the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Hilda Solis a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. All three are California Democrats. Solis was picked in spite of the Hispanic Caucus blessing bestowed on another of its members, Rep. Charles Gonzalez of Texas. And Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Elijah Cummings (Md.) said that his group was "disappointed" in her choice of Matsui instead of a black because "[w]e were hoping that a message would be sent to African-Americans, who consistently are the most loyal constituency in the Democratic Party."
REMEMBER CHINA: As attention is focused on the evils of Iraq and North Korea, House Policy Committee Chairman Chris Cox (R.-Calif.) met with Chinese dissident Xu Wenli, who was recently exiled from his Communist homeland after spending 16 of the last 21 years in prison. "Xu Wenli is a leader and an inspiration for freedom in China," Cox said. "Unfortunately, he has paid a horrible personal price for expressing his beliefs in democracy and freedom. . . . Beijing has frequently employed a cruel and inhuman policy of banishment as its way of continuing the punishment of freedom-loving Chinese people, even after claiming international credit for their release." Cox has recently also assumed the chairmanship of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
GUN RIGHTS VICTORY: A Florida judge shot down an attempt to sue a gun distributor because its product was used in a classroom murder. Judge Jorge Labarga-who played a minor role in the "hanging chad" controversy of the 2000 election-overturned a $1.2-million jury verdict against the company, which had been awarded based on the product's allegedly being defective-i.e., not rendered useless by a trigger lock.
SAY NO: The Coalition for Adolescent Sexual Health last week released a new Zogby poll that shows that American parents want their children to be taught to avoid sexual activity instead of practice so-called "safe sex." The poll found that "73.5% of parents approve or strongly approve of abstinence-centered sex education" and "61.1% of parents disapprove or strongly disapprove of 'comprehensive' or 'safe sex' education." "When parents are told what 'comprehensive' means, they reject the condom-based curricula," said Genevieve Wood, vice president of communications for the Family Research Council. "This means that parents have soundly rejected the taxpayer-funded programs promoted by the CDC that clearly seek to sexualize their children."
HIGH STAKES OK: Those opposed to "high-stakes testing" in order to grade schools' educational progress argue that teachers end up teaching the test to their students instead of real knowledge. Though some might say that teaching the test would be an improvement over the status quo, researchers at the Manhattan Institute have concluded that it doesn't matter if tests are high stakes or low. "This report tackles that important policy issue by comparing schools' results on high-stakes tests with their results on other standardized tests that are not used for accountability purposes, and thus are 'low-stakes' tests," they said. "Schools have no incentive to manipulate scores on these nationally respected tests, which are administered around the same time as the high-stakes tests. If high-stakes tests and low-stakes tests produce similar results, we can have confidence that the stakes attached to high stakes tests are not distorting test outcomes, and that high-stakes test results accurately reflect student achievement. The report finds that score levels on high-stakes tests closely track score levels on other tests."
VERY ACTIVIST: Though the courts have not become so activist as to be likely to issue an injunction against President Bush's war plans, a group of six congressmen, along with some American military personnel and their parents, have filed a lawsuit against the President. Since Congress has not formally declared a war against Iraq but only authorized the use of force against Saddam's domain, Bush has no right under the Constitution to pursue war, they argue. Democratic Representatives John Conyers (Mich.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.), Jim McDermott (Wash.), Jose Serrano (N.Y.), and Sheila Jackson-Lee (Tex.) joined the lawsuit.
