No Child Left Unrecruited

As a class assignment, a couple of high-school kids in Lawrence, Kansas made a 5 minute video about advertising in public schools. In the process, they stumbled onto a little known part of Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education act. This provision requires school districts to turn over personal information on high school students to the military recruiters. The schools can loose federal funding if they refuse to comply.

The project morphed into a 25 minute documentary that premiered at a arts center in Lawrence Kansas. Later the documentary was screened at the capitol in Washington hosted by Rep. Mike Honda.

Read the whole story here and view the trailer below.

Same Story, Second Try

This morning I got an email accusing Senators Clinton, Kennedy, and Obama, of voting to give Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants. A simple search of Google or Snopes shows the allegation to be misleading at best and false at worse. See for yourself here and here.

Then there's a piece in the McCarville Report today, spouting the same thing without any attribution to the source.

FactCheck.org says:

"Republicans are tagging Democratic opponents across the country for wanting to "give Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants." But nobody's proposing paying benefits to illegals, not until and unless they become US citizens or are granted legal status.

The charge is a mis-characterization of an amendment offered during debate of the immigration bill that passed the Senate last May (06) with a healthy bi-partisan majority, 62-36. The amendment would change current law to prevent immigrants from getting credit toward future Social Security benefits from taxes paid before they have legal permission to work.

The measure has become a popular campaign issue for Republicans, particularly incumbent House members who raise it against their Democratic challengers. We have counted 29 GOP ads attacking Democrats with various versions of this misleading claim. Similar misconceptions about the measure were spread as part of a chain e-mail last spring and summer. "

Could there be a new campaign to spread this diatribe that was debunked last year?