Religions > Atheism > Voucher Venom: Utah Voters Feel The Byrne, As Bitter Fat Cat Moves On To South Carolina
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"buckeye" |
| Date: |
05 Feb 2008 08:51:17 AM |
| Object: |
Voucher Venom: Utah Voters Feel The Byrne, As Bitter Fat Cat Moves On To South Carolina |
Voucher Venom: Utah Voters Feel The Byrne, As Bitter Fat Cat Moves On To
South Carolina
http://blog.au.org/2007/11/08/voucher-venom-utah-voters-feel-the-byrne-as-bitter-fat-cat-moves-on-to-south-carolina/
November 8th 2007
For eight months, mega-bucks businessman Patrick Byrne spent millions of
dollars and lots of energy trying to convince Utahns that they should
support a private school voucher scheme.
And when Utah residents overwhelmingly rejected the so-called “Parents for
Choice in Education Act,” Byrne got rankled and blasted Utahns as uncaring
dupes. The head of the Internet retail seller Overstock.com also took cheap
shots at his own allies.
Byrne, who according to Utah press accounts dumped more than $3 million of
his fortune into the pro-voucher push, complained to The Salt Lake Tribune
and the Deseret Morning News following the 62 percent to 38 percent
smack-down that the state’s residents had failed a “statewide IQ test” and
that they don’t care about their children’s education.
“They don’t care enough about their kids,” Byrne told The Tribune. “They
care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don’t care
enough about their kids to think outside the box.”
Byrne, who has repeatedly derided public schools as “broken,” elaborated on
his disgust with voters, telling the Deseret Morning News that he was
“ashamed” of Utah.
“This is parents looking at their kids getting a third-rate education and
other kids getting basically a death sentence and saying, ‘That’s OK by
me.’”
Even Gov. John Huntsman Jr., who signed the voucher bill into law, drew
some of Byrne’s bile.
“When he asked for my support [for governor],” Byrne told The Tribune, “he
told me he is going to be the voucher governor. Not only was it his No. 1
priority, it was what he was going to be all about. He did, I think, a very
tepid job, and then when the polls came out on the referendum, he was
pretty much missing in action.”
The retail mogul is all of sudden all about burning bridges. The
pro-voucher group, Parents for Choice in Education (PCE), which was largely
bankrolled by Byrne, also couldn’t escape being knocked.
The PCE chairman, while expressing disappointment in the outcome of the
voucher referendum, told the Deseret Morning News that “We have moved from
a small tight group to a big coalition that is looking for changes and
reform and we are going to keep pushing … and that is very positive.”
Byrne would have none of it, telling the newspaper that “When you run the
ball down to the 2-yard line you don’t get four points for it – (the loss)
is shameful.”
Bryne may be finished with Utah, but it appears he has his sights set on
other states. He told The Tribune that there are so-called
“freedom-oriented groups” in South Carolina that are interested in private
school vouchers. Byrne singled out African Americans as eager for vouchers.
He’s obviously bitter, but apparently Byrne is a slow learner as well.
Voucher schemes have routinely fared poorly at the voting booths in a
number of states. Voters in California, Michigan, Colorado, Oregon and
Washington have turned away initiatives to implement vouchers, usually as
decisively as Uthans.
And if you can’t convince voters in what right-wing pundit George Will
dubbed “among the reddest of states,” what makes one believe that South
Carolinians will finally be the place to revive the voucher movement?
Before he decides to dump tons of money into trying to shape South Carolina
public policy and drag his bad attitude into the state, Bryne should do his
homework.
In September, the Myrtle Beach Sun News reported on a poll showing that 48
percent of African Americans in South Carolina oppose private school
vouchers. Only 18 percent of those polled backed vouchers.
South Carolinians should be alert to Byrne’s agenda. He has lots of money
and is willing to blow it on pushing poor public policy, but he’s also a
sore loser who doesn’t take kindly to citizens who defy his voucher
demands.
By Jeremy Leaming
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation
of Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is
why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.
Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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