Teacher Unions Launch Partisan Political Agenda Teacher unions are advancing political agendas on the national, state and local levels by donating large amounts to partisan organizations and lobbying for bills that would violate schools' political neutrality, says Robert Holland of the Lexington Institute. Consider for example:
The powerful California teachers' unions are supporting Assembly Bill 503, which would allow teacher unions to use public schools' facilities and supplies for political campaigning directed at school personnel. Source: Robert Holland (Lexington Institute), "Teacher Unions Promote a Political Agenda," School Reform News, July 2003, Heartland Institute. For more information, visit the Heartland Institute website: www.heartland.org. Restoration Weekend 2003 The Breakers, Palm Beach This is a reminder and update on our plans for the Restoration Weekend 2003. The "Weekend" will take place November 13-16 in Palm Beach, Fl., at the first-rate "Breakers" resort. It is sponsored by David Horowitz and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. The annual conference brings together policy makers, elected officials, writers, activists and analysts from across the country for this 4-day event. Confirmed speakers to date for the 2003 Weekend include: Colorado Governor Bill Owens, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, III, CNN's Lou Dobbs, former CIA Director James Woolsey, retired Four Star U.S. Army Gen. Monty Meigs, MSNBC military analyst Colonel Jack Jacobs (Ret.), radio talk show host Armstrong Williams, Fox Scarborough Country TV host Joe Scarborough, writer and political analyst Michael Barone, Fox political analyst and commentator Fred Barnes, Senators Jeff Sessions, Lindsey Graham, Zell Miller, Representatives J.D. Hayworth, Tom Feeney, Mike Pence, Jack Kingston, Roger Wicker, and Katherine Harris, CEO of American Defense International Van Hipp, Editor of HUMAN EVENTS Terry Jeffrey, former head of Walter Reed Army Hospital Dr. Harold Timboe, President and CEO of Citizens for a Sound Economy Paul Beckner, author and former Washington Post Correspondent Tom Lippman, Center of Security Policy Frank Gafney, Salon Magazine's Michelle Goldberg, and Hudson Institute writer and speaker John Fonte. Also speaking again this year will be Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre, Chairman of the American Conservative Union David Keene, President of Club for Growth Stephen Moore, President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist, President of Young America's Foundation Ron Robinson, and former (acting) Chairman of the Republican National Committee and political analyst Charlie Black. Other invited guests include writer and former pollster Pat Caddell and Vanity Fair writer and author Christopher Hitchens among others. For further registration information about sponsorships or general attendance call (919) 870-5677 or email Restoration Weekend: [email protected]. Democrats Emit Hot Air On Bush's Environmental Record In a refrain as predictable as the rising sun, says Mike Catanzaro, Communications Director of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, environmental groups and their allies in the Democratic Party say President Bush has amassed the "worst environmental record in history" (worse than, presumably, Hitler and Stalin). No press release or fundraising event is complete without the epithet. The proof of this statement is obvious, they say, because President Bush is "gutting" clean-air protections and "rolling back" clean air laws (one Democratic notable even complained of the President's refusal to regulate CO2, saying that emissions of the life-sustaining gas are "killing people" and "causing asthma" in children). Things are getting worse for everybody, but most especially for the elderly, children, the poor, the downtrodden…etc. Air pollution, according to their most objective assessments, is spewing out of smokestacks (as one green group put it) at "runaway levels," all because of President Bush's policies, including reform of New Source Review. But Catanzaro, points out they overlook some important information. FACT: The fatuousness of these claims is obvious to the sober minded, including award-winning environmental journalist Gregg Easterbrook, a senior editor of the New Republic, a contributing editor of the Washington Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly, former contributing editor of Newsweek, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution—five institutions, incidentally, quite well-known for their moderate to liberal views on public policy issues. Easterbrook's comments, from his piece in the September 22 issue of Time, are worth quoting in full: "[N]othing you hear about worsening air quality is true. Air pollution is declining under President Bush, just as it declined under President Clinton . . . . Aggregate emissions, the sum of air pollution categories, have fallen 48% since 1970, even though the U.S. population rose 39% during that period . . . . In 2001, there were fewer than half as many air-quality warning days across the country as in 1988 . . . . And the Midwestern power plant emissions that Northeastern commentators constantly depict as horror? Such emissions are a problem—but a declining problem. Levels of sulfur dioxide from Midwestern power plants have dropped 40% in the past two decades, even as electricity production keeps rising."
