No Crony Left Behind

New Rule: In the next fifteen months, President Bush has to perform at least one act that doesn't make money for someone he knows.

Take "No Child Left Behind." At first it just looked like gentle empty bullshit, a way to neutralize the Democrats edge with voters on education issues. What did it even mean? And how could you be against it? Education. It was a perfect cause that would honor the legacy of any president...'s wife. Which made it even more perfect for pre-9/11 Bush. And who could it hurt? No one. It made Lady Bird Johnson's wild-flowers-by-the-highways project look like the fucking Marshall Plan.

Except, like all Bush ideas, there was more to it. To meet the requirements of "No Child Left Behind" America's public schools have ordered more than eleven million standardized tests in the last two years. (New York State alone ordered 1.7 million.) The cost of the tests -- and the testing industry, including test prep -- now exceeds two billion dollars a year. And 90% of the industry is controlled by five corporations. And the largest of them is McGraw-Hill. And the McGraw family just happens to go back 80 years with the Bushes.

Another beneficiary of No Child Left Behind? Neil Bush's educational software company. The one funded by the United Arab Emirates. The one Barbara Bush said the Katrina victims had to spend her donation on.

Which is, of course, all blood under the bridge. But when Bush does anything, there's always some profit motive behind it. Nothing is free but the hookers. So it wasn't surprising that he announced his post war plans were to replenish the coffers with speeches. But before that, he has to do one purely altruistic thing. Just one.

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" which airs every Friday at 11PM.

Comments

[stevejbons]

How lousy is our 'asleep at the wheel' media? You know, the 'infotainment' pap that we're spoon-fed by the souless corporate interests that control vitually all of the public airwaves that we used to be told the public owned? Here's a sad indication:
It was revealed today that the inspector general of the Education Department might, just might, investigate Neil Bush, chimpboy's brother, for ripping off taxpayers with his bogus 'educational software' company located in Cowchip, Texas. So, go ahead, enter his name and the name of his useless company (Ignite!) into a search engine and see how many of our fearless journalists and news outlets are simply jumping all over this story.
Well, you'll get a link to The Guardian in the UK, the NY Times (thank God for them), the Wall Street Journal (for now - wait until Murdoch is done with it), and oh, yes, this page on HuffPost. But don't worry, both Retard Nation (I mean Fox News) and CNN will be pounding on this story daily for weeks to come, I'm sure. Right, and one fine day there will be an investigation into voter caging and Karl Rove will go to jail for hacking the vote with Diebold Corp. We'll see. . .

[ReHoover51]

Did anyone listen to Keith Olbermann's special comment on the admins lie of Torture?
He lays it out so blunty and it seems that no one cares to even stop this admin!

[tennisball]

hey bill have you seen the end of the movie 5 easy pieces when jack leaves his girl in the gas station bathroom, bails on his car and jumps into some dudes big rig and rolls out ? sweeeet

[KYZipster]

..and one more thing, amazingly, the only guest who has ever called you out on it was Al Sharpton, the look on your face was very amusing. Thank you Al Sharpton.

[Michmod]

I knew about Neal profitteering but McGraw Hill and Bush....why am I hearing about that from a Comedian? Why do I get a lot of my news from Bill Maher and Jon Stewart??

I just received a letter from my daughter's school. Seems the "security" on the standardized test was "breached" so they need to redo it. Waste precious days they should be learning something because now there is this threat that schools will cheat...

[Wilburrr]

Bush might commit one altruistic act as President and that would be leaving the White House when his term is up. He just might do that... we can only hope.

[speak2ar]

It's no secret there's a master plan in the works (not Bush's idea of course)...and it all
fits together..­.including the "ownership society" who has begun to steer the teaching. Teachers complain they cannot truly teach, except "teach for the test."

[drblack]

Repubs are terrible for the most part and The Bush Administration will go down in history as one of the worst governing bodies of all time.
let us not forget that many democrats are just as corrupt and sold out. Bill and Hillary are sold out....Reid ,pelosi, Hoyer ,Shumer and #1 is Diane Feinstein.Her husband makes millions(and so does she) by selling weapons...she profits from death and misery as much as Cheney.
These people have all enriched themselves and enabled Bush to destroy American Freedom and Prosperity.

[Blenner]

Or what, Mr. Maher?

We won't let him leave the White House?

Are you sure you thought that through?

Bush will fail to do as asked, and we will let him wander off to Prairie Chapel and his bribe collection system which he calls a "Freedom Foundation".

If, indeed, he agrees to go.

[lastams]

Well, there’s another way to look at it Bill; Were it not for the shear incompetence of the Bush cronies,
the Pat Robertson true believers, sons and daughters and whitehouse staffers, collage kids, and horseshow operators, the Neocon plan that envisions a fascist state would already be in place.
Leave us thank God that we HAVE the idiots running the show; if they were as able as they are evil, we’d already be filling the camps.

[Jesusinasidecar]

Bill, you and your friend Ann Coulter have at least one thing in common and that is you are both growing more irrelevant by day. In the (near, hopefully) future, Real Time will be regarded as a mere stepping stone to truly edgy political original programming, sans "humor". Lately you've certainly shown the humor is unnecessary. Perhaps you can use the writer's strike to come up with some of your own stuff, show us that you're "real". Or is that what we've been seeing?

[MaxundMoritz]

you know,folks,I keep wondering why Y'all are armed to the teeth and stockpiled millions of rounds of ammo.
What in the hell are you waiting for??

[YA]

Well, he does not have to do anything actually. And if we're going to force him to do something altruistic (oxymoron) then why stop at one thing?
Yes, he's here to send public money his cronies' way. But (except in scale) that's not different from almost all presidents before him. That's the reason they get sent to the White House in the first place. Robbing banks (or gas stations) is for pussies. The money is in politics; the prize is public money. Why do you think private businesses spend money bankrolling aspiring politicians' campaigns? Why do media corporations push some candidates and unfairly target others (why do they let 30 mins go by before they ask Kucinich any question? Why do they replay the Dean's scream over and over again?) So why should you be surprised when the president does what he was "elected" to do, i.e. transfer public money into his friends' bank accounts? Can you be that naive about the system?

[tangerinesong]

Good Gawd Maher,

If "no child left behind" is nutting you up just wait until Hillary's "Health Care program".

Hillary is going to make Bushie look like a tea party.

[Yukon Jack]

Bill Maher, you wonder what "no child left behind" means. Ask you buddy and idol, Ted Kennedy. He wrote it.

As far as "no crony left behind" is it something like no crony like Marc Rich is left behind by your other idol and buddy, Bill Clinton?