Praise e-mails

I've removed the names here to protect folks from a torrent of e-mails. I've done the same thing on the FAQ page.

Re: NY Times ad: Great! To paraphrase Geo. M. Cohan: My mother thanks you. my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, my wife and kids thank you, and, I, certainly thank you!!

Mr. Kirsch. You miss Bush's strength entirely, even though you point to it in your criticism of Shrub's education statistics. (See: "Texas, Bush and Fuzzy Math, the new Political Calculus," Political Science Today, Sept. 12, 2000.) Bush sees only what he wants to see.

Who does that remind you of? Yep. Ronald Reagan, the most wildly popular president since Millard Filmore did recitations of Shakespeare for White House visitors yea those many years back.

The American people don't want to share the vision with anyone. They want to share the illusion. Bush will give them that illusion. And when presented with the facts I predict he will use the old Reagan mantra: "Doesn't matter."

We all know what that does. If you need a refresher, please read: "When Matter and Doesn't Matter Collide," Journal of Physical Political Science, Jan 3, 1988.

Whatever Al Gore does, he cannot succeed because many of his solutions are reality-based. And you know that reality is severely limited, while Bush's unreality provides limitless possibilities

THANK YOU!!!! I used to teach in Texas (1983-1986 school years). I taught at a school that was one of the few pilot schools for the "reform." I could not believe what was going on then and got out as soon as I could. No one I speak with will believe what was going on then and is still going.

I would hope that everyone would see your message, but even then they probably wouldn't believe.

I am so glad that someone is exposing the Texas education myth! You really could have no idea how much this means to me!

I just hope Bush loses the election (and not just for this issue although it is a big one for me).

I just read the comments on the pro Gore section of your Bush education myth. I agree totally with all the comments. I cannot believe people would buy into his programmed sentences. He is like a computer chip with the commercial words "Plug him in, plug him in." He is totally incompetent to be president. I am a native Texan and proud to be, but I do not get angry when some of the education, environmental, and other issues of Texas are citied. It is Bush's record that is being bashed, not Texas. And believe me, I haven't seen any improvement since he has been Governor. He swore into office and immediately began to run for President. And this latest information about his DUI. He has not been truthful about several things in his past. He's the one that's made it an issue by always spouting about honesty, etc. And his statement about it being mistakes as a youth. Youthful mistakes are when you are 13-14 to mid twenties - not your 30's & 40's! And the remark made to a reporter when he was reporting for jury duty in Austin was hypocritical at best. When asked "Would you like to go home?" Bush replied, No, I'd probably like to hang the guy first, then go home." This was for a DUI trial ! Gore is the most knowledgeable and caring. There is no comparison! bjparker, Austin, Texas

On the eve of the American Presidential election, I felt compelled to respond to your internet posting ³Texas Miracle or Myth². I am a Canadian citizen, born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. Your northern neighbours including myself are completely dumbfounded at the amount of support George W. Bush is receiving. It is so obvious to all of us that he is nothing more than a liar who tries to turn every major campaign issue into his own private giggle. What is even more amazing is how the American public has eaten this up, every last bite. I do not have a single friend, family member or acquaintance who would even dream of voting for such a ridicluous candidate. Unfortunately, if this man is elected (which seems inevitable based on the polls), he is going to make a mockery of the U.S. in the eyes of people around the world. At best, he is a joke. At worst, he will ruin a strong U.S. economy, harm education and health care systems (which are already tenuous) and God only knows what his foreign policy (or lack thereof) will create or destroy. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to express our opinion on this issue. We are tied very closely to what happens in the south - especially economically.

So much for the first amendment and an inquiring press. I applaud your efforts to inform the public about the issues, but no one is listening. I spent the morning at the gym talking to Republicans. The reasons they were voting for Bush were dated and nonsensical. None raised abortion or gun control. Education and health, along with taxes were the main concerns. Facts did not matter. Though educated and successful, none could discuss for more than a line or two what positions either of the two had. What stood out was their feeling that Bush had delivered in Texas. How? Killing people. Cleaning the air. Education reform. Putting people to work. Please. He'll kill social security. He'll destroy the courts (look carefully at his appointments in Texas). Can't picture him sitting down with Arafat; George Will said he could talk to the baseball owners and that shows what a great negotiator and mediator he would be. Some endorsement.

The campaign went on for too long. Too much money was spent to buy uniformed voters. Too many appearances on late night television. Not enough civics lessons. Keep the rock stars at home. Have more political meetings and fewer prayer meetings.And while we are at it, do you seriously believe that people who would ordinarily vote for a democrat, won't because the VP candidate is Jewish?

Check out my state. The republican candidate for Governor is incompetent and mean. She opposes civil unions. She could win!

Thank you for bringing forth the Thruth about Bush's claims on education. I too would buy full ads like the one you posted if I had the money because I have plenty to say about the Bush's family lies and deceit.

I do not understand how Gov. Bush calls himself a Prolife supporter when he favors the death penalty.

Steve-I commend you on today's NY Times ad exposing the Bush record on educational progress in Texas. It is encouraging to see well a documented fact based analysis in the face of today's political spin doctoring and hyperbolic media posturing. Your ad is an important public service.

You probably don't remember me but we had a short phone conversation some months ago regarding my close friend, Beth ...., who used me as a reference in her discussions with you.

I was thrilled to see your ad in today's New York Times. Let's keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow.

I appreciate you taking out this add with (ostensibly) your own money. It is high time the public is informed.

Thank you for the information on the bush education farce. Unfortunatly, i am a member of the Gore chior. Hopefully, some of the independents will read and heed. Margaret, NH

As an underpaid educator, I cannot afford to buy ads in the NY Times, so I am especially grateful that you are using some of your ill gotten gains to save the republic from the disaster of Bush. The other important message to get out is "It's the Supreme Court. stupid!" See Anna Quinlan's column in Newsweek recently. Dick

From the perspective of the organization coordinating opposition to TAAS-like education "reform" plans based on high-stakes tests, your summary of the arguments debunking George W. Bush's claims is excellent. After the election, you might want to turn your attention to the many other states pursuing similarly fraudulent paths and the damage they are doing to educational quality and equity. Feel free to check out our website or contact me directly for details.

Bob Schaeffer, MIT '69 Public Education Director FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing http://www.fairtest.org

Thank you for your exposition of the truth regarding Fuzzy GW Bush. Alas, I fear that those misguided morons who have already decided to vote for this amiable ignoramus will be unmoved by your information. Their motto is: "Don't confuse me with facts." How could any thinking person choose Bush to face up to the tough and intelligent and wily professional politicians who lead influential countries such as Germany, France, the UK, and slippery customers such as Arafat? I fear for our future! Keep up the good work (though I fear it may be a lost cause). -- Lindsay Lafford

Steve, whatever happens tomorrow, I want to thank you for your message. Many people in your position would focus on the tax implications of the election; you are focusing instead on the educational implications, which are also extremely important. Even though the president does not have a lot of direct authority over education in this country, he can exercise a lot of indirect leadership at all levels and can affect higher education directly and substantially. Thank you for asking questions about educational leadership. Tomorrow will be an interesting day!

You have really stirred the pot! The office is abuzz with political chatter and a lot of references to your site. Below please find the URL to the New York Times editorial that I mentioned yesterday on the phone. If you have a moment, please check it out. While it does not contain the detail that you go into, it really helped paint the big picture for me. good luck tomorrow -

Thank you for the brilliant banner that took me to your website. This might just be the reason Gore wins. It's straightforward, easy to read, impactful, honest, and I only stopped reading to send you this note. And a link to this knowledge - it's brilliant.

PS - Old habits die hard - I still type "i-n-f-o" and let my browser take it from there when I know I can now get there by simply typing "g-o" - I've used Infoseek for years, has always been my preferred search engine.

Thank you for the ad on Excite today. I wish I could say you had converted an undecided but George Bush has scared me silly since the first time I heard him try to speak. The image of this man trying to hold an intelligent conversation with England's Tony Blair makes me cringe. And the thoughts of what he will do to this country if elected make me want to cry. Thank you again.

Bush needs to include some financing for speaking and math in his education budget. He has a hard enough time communicating and reading "fuzzy" numbers. I am curious if he really knows how to read.

How can we expect him as the President to participate in peace negotiations? With his lack of ability to communicate, he could unknowingly cause new problems. I can only hope he has some serious interpreters that can filter out his gobbledygook!

This is really scary to me. This guy comes off as an idiot! We really don't need an idiot running our country!

I have had an incredibly hard time figuring out why the polls are so close! We must really have an education problem in this country!

Bush isn't smart enough to run a country . He wants to let people make their own choices except for women. It is scary to think he has a chance to win this election.

I am deeply involved in a nearly decade-long war over mathematics education reform. There is no doubt that should Bush, a complete idiot on anything of importance, win this election, the education of America's children will be in the hands of Lynn Cheney, a reactionary of the first order. She is deified by the very people I've been struggling with, some of who are self-proclaimed 'liberal Democrats' who openly support Bush. I'm not happy with some of the stupid things Mr. Gore prattles about regarding education (he just doesn't get that "high-stakes" testing is an empty sound-bite of the worst kind and which brutalizes and penalizes the underclasses completely unfairly), but he's got my vote on overall intelligence. He's far more likely to bring in a Secretary of Education with some understanding of what is needed and he's less likely to sell publication out. If Bush wins, the oil companies could be running the schools by the end of his term. ;^)

I am so glad you are doing this. First, at the beginning of October I moved away from Houston, my #1 reason, the pollution. I too can attest to the fact that the kids (I have a 3^rd grader and a 5^th grader) are extensively coached for MONTHS before the TAAS test. As far as I can tell everything that Bush is taking credit for in Texas was done by the Democratic controlled legislature in SPITE of him, not because of him!

He’s a liar and a fraud. As far as I can tell his qualification for being governor are that his daddy was president. Also, as far as I have heard, every business that he “ran” he ran into the ground.

I am extremely upset that I will not be able to vote in this election. We moved at the beginning of October and were in corporate housing for a couple of weeks. Evidently even to vote absentee you have to have a permanent address for 30 days before the election. I’d probably vote for Nader anyway. ;)

I think the strongest arguments are other than education: - The guy has almost no political experience. Only four years as governor in a strong legislature state where he was forced to work with legislature to get anything done. - He has no foreign relations experience and his policy will likely be "Ask Dick Cheney" - Bush's environmental record is atrocious. Strong financial backing and big oil backgrounds of both Bush and Cheney makes limited campaign promises hard to believe

if only there were more people like you, who would help open voter's eyes to these important issues !

I am a recently naturalized American Citizen and I look forward to being able to vote for the first time tomorrow. This race is incredibly close and I hope that my vote of confidence for Al Gore will help him be elected.

I appreciate your involvement and commitment to the political campaign. Your insight and critical thinking is commendable. If only more Americans would take the time to consider some of the questions you ask, we would have a landslide victory for Gore.

Today somebody said to me "there are ways to make you richer, and then there are ways to enrich your life." Your generous philanthropic activity suggests you might be looking to enrich your life. Hopefully we will see a government in place for the next four years that will help all of us do that.

Your ad in Yahoo! is a great thing! I live in Tx - and it is far worse than you described. I don't have your accomplishments or fortune, but thank you for being so responsible and charitable. By the way - your technical paper on distributed searches was great!

This is so true! I have read several articles similar to this one. Our own personal experience is even worse though. Our kids spent every single day doing TAAS practice tests starting on the very first day of school through April when the test was actually administered. There is such a focus on it that it is taking away from any real learning in the classroom. All our elementary kids are doing is learning to pass the TAAS - which is a very low-level minimum competency test that the majority would ace if they were allowed to take it on the first day of school and get it over with!!! (But that is not an option). Hence the reason we are paying $12K a year to send our non-catholic children to catholic school... NO TAAS there! Actual learning taking place! George Bush is such a buffoon (sp?) that if he is elected I may have to consider renouncing my citizenship! Can you tell I feel strongly about this?

Your information on Bush's education plan was well laid out and easy to comprehend. Thank you! It amazes me that the American public is so uneducated and undiscerning that they do not seem to recognize that G.W. Bush is not intelligent enough to be President of the United States. The man has proved for months that he is a man with not great intellect but just a very pushy and desperate Republican Party behind him. They wanted young and attractive with a name that was known. They got that, they just didn't get anything worth having for their money.

Tomorrow is the day I hope all Americans get out and vote. I have to believe that most Americans have seen through the G.W. B.S. and will vote for the man most qualified to lead this great country - Al Gore! Thanks for the opportunity to share with someone of like mind. Renee

Thank you for your intelligence and honesty... sharing the truth about Bush is refreshing to read AT LAST.

To be honest I cannot believe that any thinking person would vote for W, he is just not smart enough, experienced enough or diplomatic enough for the job of President of the United States of America. I will vote for Gore tomorrow and I dearly hope he wins.

Let's hope your campaign works! I taught with an organization called Teach For America and was assigned to a middle school classroom in Houston. Texas was an ungodly place to teach-the TAAS relegated learning to skills instead of knowledge and the results were atrocious. The gentleman W. mentioned in his first debate, Mike Feinberg, was a TFA corps member in Houston and I knew him well. Feinberg was not successful because of TAAS, Bush, or the state of Texas. Feinberg was successful because he could pick his kids. I'm not trying to detract from the fact that he's a great educator, but Feinberg's school is not held to the same restrictions as non-charter public schools. Anyway, it's nice to see somebody making sense, and let's hope the American public isn't easily duped. Thanks and well done.

Your presentation is exactly correct: Bush, in short, is a phony. But what did you expect?

Unfortuntately, however, your treatise may have arrived too late to change many minds or actions.

Thank you for your informative communication. Although I have been pro-Gore for several weeks, I will e mail this info along to those I know that are still undecided. I watched Saturday night live's Presidential Bash 2000 on Sunday evening, and I must say they captured exactly my opinion of Bush, a blathering idiot, totally disconnected in his thinking, somehow coasting along on his "smirk." It was supposed to be a spoof, but it was painfully accurate. Lelia Morgan

You can't get into the Navy with a DUI---an I think it might hold true for other branches of the service---but that doesn't hold true for the commander in chief ---why-------kas

Thanks for the informative article. It appears that half the population of the U.S. has been fooled by GWB's empty rhetoric! He has such a vacuous intellect. It is scary that people can think he can actually govern this country. As a speech language pathologist, I have been observing GWB's communication skills, and have come to the conclusion that due to his extensive alcohol and drug use, he has suffered lesions in the brain in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. I'll explain why. GWB can't remember names, places, etc... this is called "Anomia". This happens when the pathways to the lexis in the brain have been disturbed due to some damage. It also appears he makes phonemic approximations to the words he wants to use, and has difficulty coming up with the right ones! He also appears to have problems in the temporal lobe because he has difficulty understanding spoken language. When asked specific questions by reporters and others, he always looks rather confused, and his answers usually are not relevant to the questions. He has difficulties problem solving as seen by the fact he can't add any numbers...this is due to problems in the frontal lobe. I also am an educator in the public school sytem, and am not fooled by GWB's claims to a great Texas record. The ex-superintendent of the school district I work for, came from Texas and claimed to be an educational consultant to GWB! Well, he got booted out due to his unpopular policies, and lack of character and integrity. It is said a man shall be known by the company he keeps!

Here we have a guy who by his own admission made "youthful mistakes" well into his thirties, including drunk driving and drug use; who has used family connections and other peoples' money to buy into several businesses, usually with disastrous results; who lies about his accomplishments; who seems to take pride in executing more people than any other state; who uses an oxymoron like "compassionate conservative". He is an empty suit, a frat boy who never grew up. And he's stupid to boot.

Worst of all, he loves to rattle his military saber while he chose to hide in the National Guard when his own turn came. He even skipped drills when it suited him, and Cheney hid behind his student deferment when he wasn't driving drunk too. These guys are classic "chicken hawks', supporting a strong military as long as other people are the ones dying.

It is unimaginable to me that this guy could get elected President of the US. I have long pondered the psychological mechanisms that impel ordinary people to support an inexperienced, rather dim, upper-class boy for leader of this country. Are we longing for a return to the ways of the Mother Country? Do we long for Lords and Ladies to govern us? Why would anyone want to go back to the Bush years? Here in Kentucky a coal dam has recently burst, sending tons of sludge down beautiful creeks to despoil more land. The greed of the few for whom there is never enough will be the end of us all. A KENTUCKY WOMAN FOR GORE-LIEBERMAN

What scares me the most is that Mr. Bush does not believe that we know what causes Global Warming and therefore seems to believe that we should do nothing until further study determines the cause. Of course it may be too late for the earth by the time Mr. Bush is convinced that action is needed. He also believes that industry should voluntarily stop pollution. As much as I am pro business, I do not believe industry leaders will voluntarily do what is right when it comes to cleaning up the environment, BECAUSE it will COST THEM MONEY!

If I understand Mr. Bush's Social Security plan, the 2% set aside would not be managed by the government. People, then could and I'm sure will spend the money on more immediate matters. Then my children and grandchildren will be supporting the people who chose to spend their 2% on new cars, drinking etc.

Dear Mr. Kirsch, Nice work on all that you have done to reveal Bush for who he really is, an unqualified presidential candidate. You have certainly put your money to good use in reaching many people.

When I hear how close this race is,I am simply dumbfounded. When I have talked to people that intend to vote for Bush they keep saying "He may not be that great but it's not the man I am voting for, but his Team of advisors," which is really frightening. How strong of a chain would you be building if the lead link is not even qualified for the job?

There are only a few hours left to change some of those small minds out there, and I intend to still try. But you have certainly helped to reach many for us and I thank you.

ps. I would have probably been a Nader voter, had this race not been so close. I could not understand your page's link for "how to safely vote for Nader"? The ivote2.com page doesn't have clear paths to get anywhere to support Nader. I keep wishing I could register a vote for Gore on the ballot yet show the Green party my support

May God have mercy on our country if Bush pulls this off. I'm not saying I'm a huge Gore fan but he's by far, the lesser of the two evils!

I trust Bush ... just about as far as I trust any "dry-drunk" ... which is to say, "Not at all." He's devious, he's manipulative, and he's vindictive ... no to mention that he's a terrible controller. It's unfortunate that more people don't understand the disease of alcoholism. Alcoholics are among the most charming people in the world ... but they are dangerous when they obtain power against others.

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