http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/greatsociety/ en-us Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:30:56 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109135/posts BookTV/C-Span2 HEADSUP!!! Tune in at 11:15 PM EASTERN or set your TIVO/DVD Recorder. FR's own "LS" and his latest work-product (book) will be the topic of a segment on BookTV (45 min. in duration). IF you miss this first broadcast, please go to the BookTV/C-Span2 page linked for future date/time of rebroadcasts. BookTV/C-Span2 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109135/posts#comment Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:30:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2100890/posts While the state has seen demographic shifts in suburban school districts, the isolation and intense concentration of minority students in the 31 Abbott school districts is worse today than it was 20 years ago.  That's the basis for a "friend of the court" brief filed jointly by the New Jersey Black Issues Convention and the Hispanic Directors Association, two influential umbrella organizations. They are among nine groups challenging the state's overhaul of the school funding formula that guaranteed additional aid to the state's neediest districts. Locally, Paterson, Passaic and Garfield are classified as Abbott districts.   The court is scheduled... northjersey.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2100890/posts#comment Wed, 8 Oct 2008 23:42:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055556/posts SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders. The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all. "I have said in the past - and I'll repeat again - that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed," the Illinois Democrat said recently. Some two... My Way http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055556/posts#comment Sun, 3 Aug 2008 00:00:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2047489/posts Like most white, middle-class Americans, I was astounded, shocked and disgusted by the comments and beliefs of Reverend Wright, and, given the applause and cheers, he mirrored the beliefs of most in his congregation. I thought, “well, maybe the people in this church hate America this much, but this has to be a tiny sample of what black people think”. Then, for weeks afterward, I watched black talking head after black talking head appear on various cable news channels – some disagreeing with the Obamas and Wright, but many agreeing with them – that America is a terrible country, for... From Sea to Shining Sea http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2047489/posts#comment Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:18:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2036306/posts As a retired college professor I may live in a bubble of comfort, but I realize full well that millions of Americans live in poverty and hopelessness. It is truly unfortunate that every scheme advanced by liberals over the years aimed at helping people out of poverty has failed so miserably. AFDC Welfare has created millions of fatherless children to their detriment and to the great detriment of society as a whole. AFDC should be converted into a temporary emergency program for new recipients. In my last column I discussed the total failure of the Section 8 Housing program, and... From Sea to Shining Sea http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2036306/posts#comment Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:41:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2035568/posts We could write columns for the rest of our lives just enumerating the failures of programs inspired by liberals and liberal philosophy – the Great Society, the destruction of families by Welfare, affirmative action, the destruction of our public education system, forced busing, shutdown of drilling for oil and stopping the building of more nuclear plants, dealing with Islamic terrorists in the criminal justice system, etc., etc. Today I want to focus on liberal programs in the area of housing. From Sea to Shining Sea http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2035568/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:19:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1971052/posts Hunger pains — Wapello County leads the state in food assistance By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer OTTUMWA — Numbers rarely tell the whole story. But when it comes to the well-being of children, decision makers need something to go on. The Child and Family Policy Center, a not-for-profit agency based in Des Moines, recently issued its “Iowa Kids Count” report — information collected from every county in Iowa to show the trends affecting children, from infant deaths to high school graduation rates . “Currently, one in seven children in Iowa lives in poverty and one in three is eligible... Ottumwa Courier http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1971052/posts#comment Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:39:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1952062/posts The number of Washington residents living in poverty is up sharply since 2001, with increases in every county except Garfield, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The agency reported this week that 12 percent of the people in the state were living in poverty in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. In 2001, just 9.9 percent of the state's population was in poverty.~snip~ The largest county, King, had the largest number of poor people at 167,720 in 2005. That amounted to 9.6 percent of the population, up from 7.5 percent in 2001. KOMOTV.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1952062/posts#comment Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:27:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1942369/posts On a rainy afternoon two days before Thanksgiving, Dawn Haynes was driving when she spotted the family of five sitting on the steps of Gospel Baptist Church. Three adults and two children were huddled under an awning, clutching luggage and looking lost. Mystified, she stopped her car. They told her they were former New Orleanians and that the family had been evicted from its northwest Houston apartment after losing federal housing assistance. Haynes was shocked. ''I haven't thought about the people from Hurricane Katrina being homeless before, until I came across this family," said Haynes, who lives in Acres Homes... Houston Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1942369/posts#comment Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:19:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1930814/posts Older Americans tend to think of Social Security as something we ought to be able to afford. Indeed, many seniors tell themselves that when Washington pours extra cash into the New Deal pension program, the action is something like investing in a new Volvo. The purchase may look extravagant but is, in reality, deliciously necessary. This attitude is also held by some of our most respected pension officials. The longtime Social Security Administration commissioner Robert M. Ball wrote on this page recently that "it's the essence of responsibility, in my view, to insist on no benefit cuts" ["A Social... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1930814/posts#comment Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:00:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890204/posts THE ARGUMENT Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics. By Matt Bai. 316 pp. The Penguin Press. $25.95. With the possible exception of the Republicans, is there a major political party more stupefyingly brain-dead than the Democrats? That’s the ultimate takeaway from “The Argument,” Matt Bai’s sharply written, exhaustively reported and thoroughly depressing account of “billionaires, bloggers, and the battle to remake Democratic politics” along unabashedly “progressive” (read: New Deal and Great Society) lines. Well-financed and influential groups ranging from the Democracy Alliance to the New Democrat Network to MoveOn.org may be taking over the Democratic Party,... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890204/posts#comment Sun, 2 Sep 2007 16:34:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805863/posts WASHINGTON ? Its front entrance now touts President Bush's education policy, but the Education Department headquarters will one day honor Lyndon Baines Johnson and his work to improve U.S. schools. Bush signed legislation Friday naming the agency's offices after the follow Texan, with 17 members of the Johnson family looking on. Johnson's children, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and their spouses, their children and grandchildren gathered at the Oval Office for the signing that was not open to reporters. First lady Laura Bush also attended. Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, was unable to attend but... Houston Chronicle/AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805863/posts#comment Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:55:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1716194/posts <p>A woman used her 4-week-old baby as a weapon in a domestic dispute, swinging the infant through the air and striking her boyfriend with the child, authorities said.</p> <p>The baby was critically injured in the attack early Sunday, said District Attorney Bradley Foulk.</p> Post Gazette.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1716194/posts#comment Mon, 9 Oct 2006 13:19:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1695873/posts Family photos line the walls of Raynard Brown's tidy Orange home. A good home, his mother calls it, with two working parents who believed in the value of education and the power of after-school activities to keep kids from hunting down trouble. But Cynthia Brown found she couldn't compete with another, more seductive influence in her son's life, not when it grabbed him up so young, molding his behavior since the age of 11. That's when Raynard Brown first came home wearing the signature colors of the Bloods street gang. Over the next eight years, Brown rose to the rank... Star Ledger http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1695873/posts#comment Tue, 5 Sep 2006 18:22:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663630/posts Why is the father of The Great Society ignored? Sure, he messed up with Viet Nam, but that's blamed on W anyway, but he made sure to transfer zillions of dollar$$$ from your back pockets to the back pockets of other people. What's up with that? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663630/posts#comment Tue, 11 Jul 2006 13:14:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661877/posts A recent article about John Edwards made me think of that movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's about a man who goes through a painful break-up with his girlfriend. Rather than deal with the pain of losing the love of his life, he has a doctor erase all memories of her. I suspect the last 40 years have been so traumatic for John Edwards that he has decided to go to the same doctor. Amarxica http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1661877/posts#comment Fri, 7 Jul 2006 16:07:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597594/posts Sounding like a born-again social conservative, president Lyndon B. Johnson stepped to the podium and made this stirring pronouncement: “When the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale, the community itself is crippled.” And with his usual modesty, LBJ later hailed that 1965 Howard University commencement address as his “greatest civil rights speech.” A few months later the Moynihan Report came out. Despite its commonsense focus on strengthening the Black family, civil rights leaders raised a stink that Mr. Moynihan was trying to “blame the victim.” Floyd McKissick, director of... The Reality Check http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597594/posts#comment Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:12:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597378/posts A toppled candle destroyed the home and belongings of an out-of-work nurse and her 10 children During the late-afternoon confusion, a candle flame grew Monday into a potentially deadly blaze in the home where Kerren Laitaille had been raising her 10 children. In a matter of minutes, the fire destroyed family pictures, most of their clothes, beds, just about everything they owned. Everything, that is, except their faith. “It’s shown me I’m blessed with my kids and shown me people do care and are there for you,” Laitaille said Wednesday morning in her all-too-temporary home: a room at Hawthorn Suites... Naples Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597378/posts#comment Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:36:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580871/posts On Feb. 13, the federal government stopped paying hotel bills for roughly 12,000 families nationwide who lost their homes to damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Once as high as 85,000, the number of hotel rooms being paid for by FEMA is down to 8,000. By March 6, FEMA says the hotel subsidies will be completely cut off. At the Country Hearth Inn & Suites near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, people carted their belongings through the lobby and into the cars of family members and friends. Some were headed to new FEMA-subsidized apartments or trailers. But a few lagged behind,... Creative Loafing (Atlanta) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580871/posts#comment Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:11:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536524/posts In his Inaugural Address in 1965, Lyndon Johnson, coming off one of the great landslides, spread out the plans for his Great Society. It was the heyday of liberalism, and those were days of hope. After civil rights, education topped the agenda. On April 11, at the grammar school he attended, LBJ signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the first federal education law in U.S. history, focused on disadvantaged children. And after 40 years and trillions of tax dollars plunged into public education at all levels, how stands public education? Well, it depends. Sam Dillon reports in Sunday's New... WorldNetDaily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536524/posts#comment Thu, 8 Dec 2005 18:28:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1526996/posts Leftists have devised a simple yet amazingly effective formula to engender social discord: break up the family, marginalize fathers, and then blame the whole mess on men. The pattern can be traced back to LBJ’s Great Society which spawned welfare programs that withheld benefits as long as dad was around. Then came Roe v. Wade, which disenfranchised fathers from the most fundamental decisions involving their unborn young. Next, no-fault divorce laws set the stage for widescale child custody awards to moms. And finally draconian child support programs sent low-income dads shuffling off to debtor’s prison. Judging by Census Bureau reports,... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1526996/posts#comment Tue, 22 Nov 2005 23:11:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509591/posts Probably the single greatest problem between blacks and whites in America is that we are forever witness to each other's great shames. This occurred to me in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, when so many black people were plunged into misery that it seemed the hurricane itself had held a racial animus. I felt a consuming empathy but also another, more atavistic impulse. I did not like my people being seen this way. Beyond the human mess one expects to see after a storm like this, another kind of human wretchedness was on display. In the people traversing waist-deep water... Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509591/posts#comment Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:20:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1494884/posts Slavery has been a part of man’s history since the beginning of recorded time. The pharaohs of Egypt used hundreds of thousands of African slaves to build the pyramids. The Romans used slaves from all over their empire to build their magnificent structures. The ancient Greeks used slaves to build the Parthenon and other palaces and temples. The Great Wall of China was built by Chinese slaves. When the Americas were discovered, slavery migrated with the people to the new world and was accepted like all the rest of the “old” world traditions. This acceptance lasted even through the drafting... Gulf1 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1494884/posts#comment Sat, 1 Oct 2005 19:07:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1494553/posts Failure of an Idea—And a People In his 1935 State of the Union Address, FDR spoke to a nation mired in the Depression, but still marinated in conservative values: “Continued dependence upon welfare,” said FDR, “induces a spiritual disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole our relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Behind FDR’s statement was the conviction that, while the government must step in in an emergency, in normal times, men provide the food, clothing and shelter for their families. And we did, until the war pulled... Private email http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1494553/posts#comment Sat, 1 Oct 2005 00:46:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1492068/posts What is it that bends and twists the soul of man in New Orleans such that he shoots at his rescuers, steals televisions while others drown, and then blames all and sundry for not helping enough? Biloxi and the rural areas of costal Louisiana and Mississippi have similar ethnic makeup and are equally hard-hit; yet they were not witness to the self-imposed parts of New Orleans’ devastation. The answer lies in the peculiar political economy of dependency in New Orleans, home to some of America’s last remaining old-style housing "projects," home to legions of life-long welfare recipients and home to... Sierra Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1492068/posts#comment Tue, 27 Sep 2005 13:18:50 GMT