Flap’s Links and Comments for August 18th through August 19th

These are my links for August 18th through August 19th:

• A Textbook Case of Government Waste and Stupidity – With a finite – and as far as most Democrats are concerned, insufficient – supply of taxpayer funds out there, its always interesting to see the choices that politicians with the power to spend the money make.
  Take Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, for example. Yes, that Jack Conway, of ‘Aqua Budda’ fame. Conway has been on the warpath against for-profit colleges, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds to mount an investigation against seven academic institutions in the state.

  Conway’s investigation recently got a big break. The smoking gun?  Owensboro-based Daymar College seems to have overcharged students for textbooks. That’s right; apparently Daymar encouraged students to purchase textbooks in the college bookstore even though they were available more cheaply through other retailers.
  For anyone who has been to college this quarter-century, the textbook charges are laughable. Every school, from community colleges all the way up to the ritziest private universities, tries to snooker students into buying their textbooks at the bookstore then they could easily get them for less on Amazon.com.
  The real issue is that state officials like Conway are conducting a witch-hunt against for-profit colleges when they should be focusing time and money on rampant fraud within taxpayer-funded public schools.
  For-profit colleges are private institutions that students can choose to attend or not to attend. The same cannot be said for public schools, which are racking up institutionalized cheating scandals faster than investigators can keep up with them.
  A few examples: Edison College, a public college in Florida, was recently caught forging transcripts en masse to inflate graduation rates. In Atlanta Public Schools, a massive fraud operation was uncovered that implicated hundreds of teachers in over 40 schools and went right on up to the Superintendent. Atlanta is by no means alone; an increasing number of teachers and administrators across the country have been discovered inflating grades and forging test answers in order to keep bad teachers on the rolls until they could collect their pensions.

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• Oversight Committee responds to NLRB’s refusal to comply with subpoena – The National Labor Relations Board’s refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena could lead to the disbarment of the NLRB attorneys working on the case against the Boeing Co., House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa wrote in a letter to the labor agency.

  “I trust you stand ready to accept the severe consequences of your decision to avoid compliance with the subpoena,” Issa, R-Calif., wrote.

  Issa and NLRB have been haggling over the committee’s requests for documentation in the board’s case against the Boeing Co. over its final assembly and delivery plant in North Charleston. The NLRB issued the complaint against Boeing in April, accusing the aerospace giant of opening the S.C. plant to retaliate for worker strikes at its Puget Sound plant in Everett, Wash.

  Acting general counsel Lafe Solomon has argued that releasing the requested documents could affect the ongoing hearings in Seattle. He’s also cited attorney-client privilege and a ruling by an NLRB administrative court judge to deny the release of similar documents to Boeing earlier in the case.

  Issa wrote that privileged matters disclosed to a congressional committee are not assumed to be public and that if they are public, the disclosure might not affect the outcome of the case. He also said attorney-client privilege does not apply to Congress, citing a federal court ruling.

  Issa also calls the argument based on the judge’s ruling “absurd.”

  “Quite simply, the idea that the investigative powers of Congress are bound by nonconstitutional, common-law rules of the judiciary conflicts with the separation of powers doctrine as well as the constitutional authority granted to each house of Congress to determine its own rules,” Issa wrote. “As I have previously articulated, the NLRB has no valid basis for continuing to withhold the documents the committee has requested.”

• @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-19 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-19 #tcot #catcot
• Lawsuit Alleges Rick Santorum’s Website Built With ‘Counterfeit’ Font | techPresident – President 2012: Lawsuit Alleges Rick Santorum's Website Built With 'Counterfeit' Font
• Flap’s Links and Comments for August 18th on 14:07 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for August 18th on 14:07 #tcot #catcot
• President 2012: Obama Fan Sending Flap GOP Obama Getaway Postcards | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Obama Fan Sending Flap GOP Obama Getaway Postcards #tcot #catcot