News

A record number of people--20 million--collected unemployment checks in 2009.

While jobless claims are going down, there are few jobs being created, therefore the unemployment rate is still very high.
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The Forgotten Man who squatted in the White House for eight years is making a trip to Reno on January 20. He will be the keynote "speaker" for the Safari Club International.

Don't bother to register for this event, for it is already sold out.
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The Education Wars IV: Obama's Race to the Top

is nothing but bottom-of-the-barrel politics based on a faulty premise, which is that public schools can be run on the same "competition" model as businesses.

It's classic neoliberalism, and it will fail. The idea, though, is to destroy public education.

The Education Wars III: Protests Against For-Profit Schools

A few people are just starting to wake up about what is really happening in education:

Dozens of teachers and parents braved frigid temperatures to voice their outrage about the fiscal irresponsibility they say is taking place at a Jamaica charter school during a rally on Dec. 22.
The protesters are furious that Merrick Academy is spending $1.3 million in management fees on Victory Schools, a for-profit management company — that’s 25 percent of the school’s total annual budget, while they claim teachers and students are suffering.

“We’re here to be treated fairly,” said Margorie Berry, a Pre-K teacher at Merrick. “We don’t feel like we’re getting the respect we deserve. Our salaries have been frozen for a year and a half now. We just want the best for our kids and we want our teachers to stay, but the way we are being treated, teachers are going to be leaving.”

But according to James Stovall, chief administrative officer for Victory, the teachers have received their full salaries plus an annual 3 to 5 percent raise for the last seven years. It was only when they decided to join the United Federation of Teachers that their pay became stagnant, which he said the law allows while union members are in the process of negotiating a contract. Once the negotiations are completed, raises can resume and may even be retroactive.

link

Why is It

John Ensign looks like he's had a facelift? He was questioned about his ethics problems, and of course he's spinning like a top:




He needs to get out of the Senate.

The Education Wars II: Regimented Kindergarten

This post over at Susan Ohanian's site just says it all. Kids can't be kids anymore and even be allowed to have recess:

We even had a meeting one day to plan our math for the rest of the year and we got into this heated discussion about our kids having recess. The instructional coach stated that instead of taking a recess we could have the kids count and do 10 jumping jacks or hop 10 times while counting so that we continue the academics. We agreed to disagree when the AP walked in and we asked her if we could take a recess. She went and spoke with the principal, returned, and informed us that we could take a recess but only 10 minutes. That 10 minutes is to include lining up to go out and returning to the classroom and should any of us abuse it, even by a minute, we would lose the privilege of recess. Ridiculous. Please know that I am certainly going to print the report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School [pdf file], and give it to both my principal and my assistant.

I read somewhere that research showed that when we push kids to read too early they lose their enthusiasm and interest in reading in their later years of school (4th grade or so). I have such a great group of kinder kids and I love them but I can't help but wonder if I am hurting them. We test continuously. We have DRA'ed them twice already, DIBELed them twice, and given them 3 math assessments. We analyze the results to improve instruction. OMG, I am sickened by all of this. My principal insisted that I give them a grade in each subject area every week. I informed him that I do not test my kids (paper and pencil) every week and he asked, "Why not?"

I could go on and on but I won't. Thanks for acknowledging my anger, my fear and my disgust with education today. I would be honored if you shared this info.

Disgust doesn't even begin to describe it.

The Education Wars: Lousy Administrators

From the NY State Teachers' Net page:

My administrators tell so many lies. They lie about
anything. I respect the job that they should be doing, but
I do not respect them as individuals for not doing it. I
see the older teachers in my building get harassed and it
makes me loose sight of my goal. I always ask myself, "Why
stay in a profession that is going to kick you out when you
reach top salary?" As a newer teacher, I don't see a
future in teaching past 45. What are your stories. Please
feel free to vent and shed some light on your experiences
working for DOE.

P.S. Almost everyone seems to be related/connected in this
profession (sister,brother,daughter, friend of a family
member etc) These people seem to get the better end of the
stick with connections to the principal or LIS or Sup.
This appears to be citywide.

Concerned Teacher
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What kills me is the more these assholes screw up, the better they do. My POS principal, the one who committed perjury, the one who fired me not knowing what in the hell she was doing despite state law, federal FMLA law, due process violations, and the union contract, bragged on Facebook she was going to Hawaii for winter break. The idiot forgot to put on her privacy settings, so I was able to access her "wall." I took a screenshot of her wall and saved it to my hard drive, just for future reference. This sack of shit is taking expensive trips on the back of my career.

I am having to hock my mother's ring today in order to pay my auto insurance since state employment hasn't yet put through my EUI claim. I will be glad to go on Tier III federal and once again be able to put my claim through online in a couple of weeks. Then there is no delay of days to get money. I have to scrape by while this piece of human shit is allowed to keep her job, and she kept it through the district's criminal acts.

There aren't words vulgar enough to describe what she is. There is NO conscience on her part. If she had one, she'd have resigned the school district. The district, supposedly being held accountable to taxpayers, covers up for its administrators no matter how corrupt, crooked, negligent, or malicious they are.

The Education Wars II: Michigan Education "Reform"

More bullshit being instituted by "Democrats" who are no doubt in bed with the privatizers:

Sweeping changes in Michigan education policy will be signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday.

The legislation recently passed by the Legislature will allow the state to take over districts that are performing poorly in academics. Charter school operators with good track records will be able to open new locations and the state's dropout age will rise from 16 to 18.

The bills were passed as part of an effort to win up to $400 million for schools through the Obama administration's Race to the Top competition. But supporters of the changes say they are worth making even if the state doesn't get any extra money as a result.

This is in response to Obama's RTTT bribery scheme.

The Education Wars: About Charter Schools

This person wrote a post to the late Gerald Bracey's education chatboard about charter schools. This was written in September:

The fundamental issue is not charter schools and it is not corporations or capitalism (which I also support), it is clearly a class of people who believe that money defines everything. They see nations and citizens as archaic. I call them The New Aryans because they have the same philosophical conception of themselves being supra-national superior beings and everyone else being expendable.

We are sitting on the verge of an incredible moment in history when the ideals behind America and American public education are poised to sweep the world. For many years we lived by the credo inscribed on the Statue of Liberty that what were considered "refuse" in other lands could come to America and transcend class. Public education was specifically developed to turn the children of refuse into people free to transform the world. Today we are seeing children around the world given the opportunity to go to school and transform themselves and their world. In China and India more and more children of virtual serfs are given the opportunity of an education and the eventual opportunity to create a society that transcends class.

But today we also see the multinational upper class reacting to these opportunities by creating initiatives in each country through their economic power to ensure that education creates only a worker class. Their vision of the world is a global class of leaders dominating their "workers" as if they were little more than beasts of burden and the workers have no unions, no rights, no opportunity to transcend class. Doesn't it occur to anyone here that the ultimate goal of these New Aryans is to create a sweatshop America? If you look closely at the Abramoff scandal of corrupting Congress a few years ago it was founded on the political machinations of maintaining sweatshops in American Guam.

It really is all about class and the desire of those at the very top to keep their privileges.

Misc

This list features misspellings that have always been a pet peeve of mine.

"To" and "too" are also widely misspelled. So is "separate."
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Jimbo Eruptions

The governor's political future hinges on women voters.

He isn't even going to survive the primary.
_____

By the way, the governor has apologized for his campaign manager's heartless comments about "window dressing."

He later fired the offender.

Why I Hate PETA, Reason 1,955

Another PETA nutjob gets in trouble for neglecting animals, this time it is snakes, according to a lawyer:

Attorneys for an exotic animal dealer have accused an employee of intentionally neglecting animals to further his work as an undercover investigator for an animal rights group.

Howard Goldman could have done more to provide food, water and care for the animals that he said were being mistreated, said Lance Evans, an attorney for Jasen and Vanessa Shaw, the owners of U.S. Global Exotics.

Instead, Goldman secretly took photos and made daily reports to send to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Evans said.

"He was more concerned about helping PETA achieve its goal of putting U.S. Global out of business than actually aiding any animals that he felt were in distress," Evans said. Goldman worked at the Arlington facility for seven months.

Of course Ingrid Newkook makes apologies for the person who neglected the animals.

What I Would Like to Know

is why the purchase of the old Susan B. Anthony house in Massachusetts by an anti-abortion whackjob believing the lie the suffragist was anti-abortion was allowed to happen.

Why wasn't this thing more publicized? The Feminists for Life outfit has long pushed the lies the 19th suffragists like Anthony and Stanton were anti-abortion, and never mind the very different environment in those days. Concerns over abortion had nothing to do with the rights of the fetus and "exploitation" of women but had to do with medical concerns and even xenophobic concerns about immigration.

Now the house has been converted into a museum designed for anti-abortion propaganda.

Anthony must be spinning in her grave to see her memory be smeared in this fashion:

With the grand opening of the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace & Museum approaching in February 2010, the historic building on East Road will have a new executive director.

The birthplace board of directors announced recently that it has hired Sally Winn to take over for interim director Martha Dailey in running the 191-year-old home of Adams’ most famous daughter.

Winn has been an advocate for women and children for the last 15 years, having been the vice-president of the Washington D.C.-based Feminists for Life and most recently the operations director of the Florence Crittenton Center for Pregnant and Parenting Teens in Montana.

Winn said she was drawn to the job in Adams for the opportunity to connect with the works of Susan B. Anthony.

"This woman has been such a huge part of everything that I, my daughters and every other woman has been able to achieve in life," Winn said from her Montana home. "To be able to come out there and help spread her legacy and inform more people about the wonderful things she did was a great opportunity. Most people know about the 19th Amendment, but so many people don’t realize the work she did with the abolitionist movement and even the Quaker background she was raised in. I can’t imagine not being thrilled with this opportunity."

According to Anthony scholars and biographers like journalist Lynn Sherr, there is no evidence at all of Anthony being anti-abortion.

The Education Wars III: Neoliberalism and the Attack on Public Education

This attorney makes many excellent points about the relentless neoliberal assault on public education, which tells me neoliberalism isn't remotely connected with real liberalism but is nothing more than Friedmanism, a completely discredited economic philosophy:

With all due respect, lawsuits simply are not enough. They can act as platforms for forthright organizing and education but what is needed now is bold direct action on behalf of teachers, students, citizens and communities looking to safeguard their neighborhoods and public institutions from the locusts of privatization. If we are to secure the educational commons and seal if off from the crass entrepreneurs and privatizers that seek to parcel it out based on race, gender and social class for profit; if we are to protect our children from a loss of childhood under siege by ‘measureable outcomes’ and ‘efficiency targets’ begot by standardized tests linked to bankrupt federal policy; if we are to shed any attempts at merit pay and assure decent wages and working conditions for teachers, along with real and secure pensions and adequate and affordable health care; if we are to put forth an educational reform plan based on what we know works (lower class size, teacher collaboration, participatory democracy, preparation time for teachers to develop creative lesson plans, pre-schooling, etc.); if we are to educate the public about the urgency and exigency of public education with an emphasis on learning to think critically and developing the values and dispositions necessary for citizenship education to advance participatory democracy so we might confront the daily horrors of inequality, a lower standard of living, lack of participation in power, and divisiveness honed by racism, sexism, class, gender discrimination and gender inequality, then we must seek active coalitions for social change. These coalitions must grow and they must involve more and more public and private workers who see nothing in the future but growing inequality, tightening economic hardship, and the further destruction of childhood, promoted and fostered by the neo-liberal politics of late stage capitalism.

Jimbo Eruptions

More fallout from the "window dressing" remarks about former Nevada First Lady Dawn Gibbons by her ex's campaign manager:

An advocacy group for autistic children and their families criticized Gov. Jim Gibbons’ campaign adviser on Tuesday for referring to first ladies as “window dressing.”

The founder of the Autism Coalition of Nevada issued a statement, calling comments made to a newspaper by campaign adviser Robert Olmer “demeaning” and “sexist.”

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Political Gossip

Karl Rove, the ol' devil political fixer himself, was granted a divorce in Texas. He and his long-suffering wife Darby were married nearly 24 years.

The Education Wars: More and More Paperwork

Teachers in Baltimore County are now being inundated with even more paperwork to "prove" their students are learning "skills" as a new grading system has been implemented:

Baltimore County school administrators have ordered all teachers to begin using a grading system next month that will require them to judge whether each of their students has mastered more than 100 specific skills.

The decision, which was made by top administrators last week and communicated to teachers by their principals last Thursday and Friday, is opposed by the teachers union and dozens of teachers who say it is cumbersome and time-consuming and will not be a useful tool.

The system, known as Articulated Instruction Module or AIM, was designed by a longtime school system employee and had been implemented sporadically in the past several months, although it was supposed to be mandatory throughout the county. Barbara Dezmon, assistant to the superintendent for equity and assurance and AIM's inventor, said top administrators decided to require each teacher to comply with using the system by the end of the second marking period in late January.

The itinerant teachers like music and band teachers will be especially screwed over since they don't see their students every single day.

An example of the "AIM" system can be found here.

The Education Wars: Arne's Assholery

As bad as Bill Bennett, Margaret Spellings, and Rod Paige were as secretaries of education, they have nothing on Arne Duncan. He's a walking, talking disaster.

It's inexcusable a "Democratic" administration behaves even worse than a Republican one.

Yet questions have arisen this year about the magnitude of Duncan's accomplishments. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which represents business, professional, education and cultural leaders, concluded in June that gains on state test scores were inflated when Illinois relaxed passing standards and that too many students still drop out of high school or graduate unprepared for college. The Consortium on Chicago School Research, a nonpartisan group at the University of Chicago, reported in October that Duncan's closure of low-performing schools often shuffled students into comparable schools, yielding little or no academic benefit.

"Obviously, you always want to get better faster," Duncan said in an interview when asked about the federal math scores. "I was focused on outcomes -- improving graduation rates, making sure that students who graduated had a chance to pursue higher ed. You can have the best test scores in the world, but if kids aren't going that next step, you're not changing their lives."

Duncan also said he had adjusted his school closure policy a few years ago to ensure better opportunities for students. He said that he was unhappy that the state had relaxed passing standards and that graduation rates remain unacceptable. About half of Chicago students fail to graduate on time with their peers.

In January, Duncan said at his Senate confirmation hearing: "We're proud to have made significant progress . . . and to really be a model of national reform. But again, hard work is going to continue there and is far from done.

Why wasn't Arne's record closely scrutinized over a year ago when he was first being looked at as secretary of education? This man has been a total disaster.

Jimbo Eruptions [Updated]

Minutes before the Gibbons divorce trial is set to begin, there is still no settlement resolving the dispute.

I am too lazy to go to the few blocks to the courthouse to watch the circus.

Update: It's just as well I stayed home: A tentative settlement has been reached in the case.

Details:

Update at 9:47 a.m.: Gov. Jim Gibbons and first lady Dawn Gibbons reached an 11th hour settlement agreement Monday morning, bringing an end to their 18-month battle to end their marriage and avoiding a potentially ugly public divorce trial as the governor embarks on a difficult re-election bid.

In reaching the agreement, Jim Gibbons agreed to sell the couple’s 40-acre property in Lamoille and split the proceeds with his ex-wife.

Settlement negotiations stretched late into the night Sunday, but the couple arrived at Washoe Family Court without an agreement. After about 30 minutes of continued negotiations, the couple entered the courtroom to announce they had resolved their disputes.

About a dozen onlookers sat in the gallery, along with local and national press.

More

Although the governor's approval ratings have skyrocketed from 14 to 19 percent, it appears Nevadans will be spared the embarrassment of a circus trial.



In this picture, Jimbo appears to be quite happy with the settlement. He doesn't have to worry about Dawn screwing up his chances for re-election; he can now do that all by himself.

Here's the breakdown of the division of property.

Dawn will no longer be First Lady of Nevada, and she is moving out of the Governor's Mansion:

Dawn Gibbons said she will move out of the Governor's mansion "as soon as possible," saying when the divorce decree is signed she will be "just a private citizen."

Neither had lengthy comments after spending about 45 minutes in open court formally agreeing to the settlement.

"I wish Jim the very best," Dawn Gibbons said. "I was honored to be the first lady for three years. I did not want to do anything to dishonor my state and this agreement reflects that."

Despite Dawn's gracious comments, Jimbo's campaign manager proves he has no class at all when he characterized the First Lady job as mere "window dressing."

News Briefs

A freudian would have a field day explaining this attempt to build a mile-high tower in the middle of the desert.
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Another JFK scandal bites the dust.
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The Education Wars IV: Charter Schools

They aren't what they are cracked up to be, despite Arne's and Barack's statements to the contrary.

“I don’t have anything against charter schools as such,’’ said Barrett. “It’s the funding of them, that’s the biggest problems mayors have. They were intended for cities, not for rural areas like Berkshire County.’’ He supports the education reform bill, but advocates much stricter accountability standards.

One flaw in the Housatonic charter application is that the four public school districts in South Berkshire are among the highest-performing in the county, and students have ample school-choice opportunities in neighboring districts, all of which welcome transfers.

Basan Nembirkow, former school superintendent in Brockton and Chicopee and now interim superintendent in Lenox, helped block a Brockton charter school application. “Brockton is one of the top-performing schools in the state,’’ Nembirkow said. “The charter school would have cost the district up to $15 million.’’

Like Barrett, Nembirkow insisted he’s not against charter schools, but is critical of the funding formula and the “lack of transparency.’’

That's the problem with them, transparency. There's no school board accountable to the public overseeing these schools, so they basically do whatever the hell they want with taxpayer money.

Granted, public school boards are often cesspools of corruption as well, but at least there is at least the semblance of accountability when it comes to elections.

The Education Wars III: More About RTTT

Don't think for a minute this "Democratic" administration gives a shit about public education:

If a public school struggles year after year, is the solution to shut it down? Fire everyone and start over? Hand the reins to a contractor? Or help teachers and principals raise their game?

As the federal government offers school systems an unprecedented $3.5 billion to revive schools, a huge increase for a reform program launched with $125 million in 2007, policymakers increasingly are prescribing stronger medicine for the lowest performers.

In years past, educators generally opted for the least invasive remedies. Most shied from state takeovers, shutdowns, conversion to a charter school and the like.

Instead, they favored measures such as teaming a principal with a "turnaround specialist," who would offer coaching and encouragement. The 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law, enacted under President George W. Bush, allowed the less-aggressive approaches.

It's total violation of taecher protections in exchange for blackmail money.

Miscellaneous Commentary

The WSWS has quite a nice retrospective of Jennifer Jones' film career:

As talented and honest a performer as Jones was, one often feels there was something incomplete about her. As good as she may have been, she was probably never a truly great actress, but then her career took shape under less than favorable circumstances. The Hollywood she began working in was passing through the anticommunist witch hunts of HUAC and Joseph McCarthy. A broad effort was under way, with the direct consent and cooperation of many studio bosses and moguls, to implement the blacklist and to purge Hollywood of left-wing elements. What one could say, openly, after the witch hunts became limited.

The postwar period saw an economic boom and the US emerged as a superpower. New social moods were prevailing. An artist like Jones did not develop in a culture enriched by socialist or even a great deal of critical thought. And while she made a number of interesting films in the 1940s, Selznick kept a tight reign on Jones’s career. She worked with talented and important filmmakers like Lubitsch and Minnelli, but was never really afforded the opportunity to work in many films that challenged or explored the nature of the new postwar order with the depth that artists like Orson Welles or Fritz Lang were able to achieve. And by the late 1950s and the 1960s, it was certainly the case that talented performers would only find less and less meaningful works in which to practice their art. Jennifer Jones may never have developed as complete an artistic personality as she might have, but there were fewer opportunities open to her to do so than in a previous period.

Even as one considers the personal limitations of Jones and the limitations she had thrust on her by the conditions under which she worked, she nevertheless stands out as a talented and sincere performer. Her best work deserves to be remembered and revisited.

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The Education Wars II: Eli Broad Blathers Again

about things he knows nothing about. This is from two years ago, but it is still apt:

Few professions in this country strike as deep a chord as teaching. Everyone has a warm memory that they can attribute to a teacher who made an impression on their youth. So it was no surprise that Jason Kamras and Andrew Rotherham held up the responsibility and credit for public education's future to the need to attract the right teachers with the right talents, pay them competitively, and equip them with the necessary tools to do their jobs [ America's Teaching Crisis, Issue #5]. Few people will argue with the importance of having the right people in the teaching profession. When they're successful, they're enormously successful. And when you've got a dud in the classroom, you have pretty much guaranteed that you will handicap about 30 kids for a year.

But Kamras and Rotherham miss a critical point in their argument, and that is the system in which teachers work. To use a business analogy, this would be akin to saying that regardless of the top management at a company and the systems and tools in place in that organization, the line workers are the determining factor in whether the company turns a profit. Are they important to the bottom line? Absolutely. But without the right systems--the leadership at the top and critical systems in place throughout the organization–success is, at best, left to chance. That's why shareholders demand good governance and operational systems from public corporations. When it comes to American public education, every citizen is a shareholder in how successfully schools educate our children–and we must demand more in how our schools are governed and run.

Improving the quality of teaching, as Kamras and Rotherham argue, is important. But how do you ensure that you have the right teacher in the right classroom? How do you give them the tools–like curriculum, benchmark assessments, and pacing guides–that, across the board, will move an entire grade level, school, or school district in the same direction at the same time? How do you measure their success? These are the underlying problems facing American public education. The real issue in today's public schools is the utter failure, at a systemic level, to create high-performing, well-functioning organizations, without which even the best teachers cannot do their best.

What a crock of shit.

The Education Wars

Remember the good old days when teachers and even administrators acted like and were treated like professionals?

Now with all of this emphasis on "reform," those days are gone forever.
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Just What Our "Leaders" Want, and That's

a horribly weak rebound in terms of jobs.

It's a deliberate decline, for the problem is very easy to solve, but thanks to our corrupt Washington officials, there is no political will to fix it.

The Education Wars III: Private School Decline

With all of the false blather about the "superiority" of private schools (never mind the fact they weed out students, unlike public schools), they are facing decline.

Why is that?

Faced with the recession and rising tuition, are more parents at area private schools and their diocesan counterparts transferring their children to public schools to ease the strain on their pocketbooks?

Maybe.

School officials say it is difficult to measure the effect of the economy on enrollment because other factors are involved, including a declining number of school-age children and a long-term drop in the number of children in nonpublic schools.

But for Jacqui Coughlin and John Dewees, the answer is yes.

The couple's two daughters attended St. Laurence School in Upper Darby until this year. Coughlin lost her job at a car-rental company and is still looking; "pickings are slim," she said. The family moved to Morton and this fall sent both girls to Springfield district schools.

Jimbo Eruptions

The divorce trial of the century gets underway tomorrow, as Jimbo and soon-to-be-ex-wife Dawn haggle it out in court:

Some political observers say the proceedings will only cause more damage to a re-election bid that already is being condemned by some as a lost cause.


"This is not the publicity anybody wants," said Eric Herzik, political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "Nobody looks good coming out of a bitter, public divorce."


Even in Nevada, where divorce is etched in the state's history, "he's going to be hurt by it," said Fred Lokken, another political scientist at Truckee Meadows Community College.


The public trial, set to begin Monday and run through New Year's Eve day, is expected to be featured on the television show, "Inside Edition." If the first-term Republican governor is worried about the publicity, he's not showing it.

So this circus will get national attention. I may swing by there tomorrow, provided I can get up early.

So far, negotiations this weekend have been fruitless. The trial starts tomorrow at 9 a.m., probably too early for me, and is expected to last four days.

Obituaries--Connie Hines

Actress Connie Hines, best known for co-starring with Alan Young in the 1960s sitcom Mister Ed, has died. She was 78 years old.

She was featured, along with her co-star, on the new first season set of Mister Ed. She and Young looked really good. They were friends for many years.

Hines died of complications from heart problems.

The Los Angeles Times has a more complete obituary here.

Doesn't President Obama Understand

that the most important issue facing this country is jobs? You would think as an African American he would at least sympathize with the plight of many of the people who voted for him, but it appears he cares more about taking care of those who channeled major bucks into his successful election campaign, i.e., Wall Street.

A generation ago, such reactionary nonsense would have been met with wholesale denunciation in Black political circles. But as we begin the second decade of the 21st century, a Black Democrat in the White House can get away with speaking like Ronald Reagan, while Black members of Congress are compelled to present moral justification for seeking redress of economic injustices.

Forty years ago, a Republican president, Richard Nixon, would have felt quite comfortable agreeing with the Black Caucus' concerns about economic fairness. Yet today, the nation's first Black president bristles at every suggestion that gross racial inequalities call for executive and legislative action.

Richard Nixon, for all of his flaws, would be seen as a liberal today or even as a progressive. That's how far to the right public discourse has gotten over the past forty years.

Robert Reich Says Goodbye and Good Riddance

to 2009, a year where Wall Street returned from the brink of the hell where it belongs and all literally at the expense of Main Street:

In September 2008, as the worst of the financial crisis engulfed Wall Street, George W. Bush issued a warning: "This sucker could go down." Around the same time, as Congress hashed out a bailout bill, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, the leading Republican negotiator of the bill, warned that "if we do not do this, the trauma, the chaos and the disruption to everyday Americans' lives will be overwhelming, and that's a price we can't afford to risk paying."

In less than a year, Wall Street was back. The five largest remaining banks are today larger, their executives and traders richer, their strategies of placing large bets with other people's money no less bold than before the meltdown. The possibility of new regulations emanating from Congress has barely inhibited the Street's exuberance.

But if Wall Street is back on top, the everyday lives of large numbers of Americans continue to be subject to overwhelming trauma, chaos and disruption.

There seems to be no end in sight, however.

The Education Wars II: Teachers' Unions

Teachers' unions are under relentless attack with one state union now under receivership. This article is from June:

The once mighty, 50,000 member strong, Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) has been brought to itsknees, seemingly humbled not by “criminal” activity but by the avarice and incompetence of its officers and
“wildly speculative” investments by the directors of the ISTA Insurance Trust.

ISTA’s parent union, the National Education Association (NEA), placed the local in trusteeship less than a month ago and trustee Ed Sullivan is now running the show, replacing ISTA president Nate Schnellenberger after he had notified the NEA that the ISTA insurance trust had liabilities of $86 million and assets of only
$19 million. The trust had provided disability payments to 650 disabled Indiana Teachers and provided health care coverage for half the states teachers.

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Probationary teachers in New York City are treated as though they are disposable, which in fact they are.
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The Education Wars: The Media

The spin on Michelle Rhee's reign of terror in D.C.'s public schools is sickening to say the least:

When it comes to writing about D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and reforming D.C. public education, major newspapers appear only willing to focus on advancing Chancellor Rhee as an innovator who can by herself save public education for District of Columbia students. Ms. Lauren Smith, writing an article for the U.S. News & World Report, "D.C. Schools Chief Michelle Rhee Fights Union Over Teacher Pay" shows how the national media has become a part of a national effort to push education reform with biased reporting. The national media has taken not only to ignoring the people of the District of Columbia; it has seemingly decided to ignore contrary data.

It is amazing that editorial writers and reporters find it difficult to talk with District community education advocates about District public education. Ms. Smith's article fails to present a fair and balanced report by not quoting any official of the Washington Teachers Union or any local representative from any District of Columbia ward councils on education. Instead, Ms. Smith cites Mr. Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow, Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) Manhattan Institute as her source of expertise on District public education. Mr. Greene is also the endowed chair and head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas.

CCI, based in New York City, reportedly supports charter schools and private school vouchers, something Ms. Smith conveniently omitted from her article. Ms. Smith's article was clearly biased to support Chancellor Rhee and equally wrong on her facts. Chancellor Rhee can hire "gifted teachers without having to fire teachers." Chancellor Rhee can and has fired "tenured" teachers. Clearly, Ms. Smith writing was to misrepresent facts and to continue burnishing a negative perception and inaccurate impression of District public school teachers.

Demonizing teachers while letting administrators off the hook is SOP with the media.

Obituaries

Knut Haugland, the last survivor of the Kon Tiki voyage in the South Pacific, has died at the age of 92. He died Friday.

More about the famous Kon Tiki expedition:

Thor Heyerdahl was so convinced that the Polynesian Islands were settled by people from Peru, South America, that he needed to prove his theory. He organized an expedition of six men, built a primitive raft of balsa wood and bamboo that had a small shelter, named it Kontiki and on April 28, 1947, left Peru on a voyage full of adventure, hoping the prevailing wind and ocean current would bring them to Polynesia.


To prove his theory, Heyerdahl decided to build a replica of the Indian balsa wood rafts. In 1947 he set off on the 1st KonTiki expedition, finally making a landfall just as the raft was sinking - it had become waterlogged. He thus successfully proved that Indian balsa wood rafts were able to cross the Pacific Ocean. Later in 1961 another raft was constructed and the KonTiki legend continued for others to enjoin.


For communications the two radio operators Kurt Haugland and Forstein Raaby used a National NC-173 amateur radio receiver. This was powered by batteries and a hand cranked generator that the crew continuously cranked when on the air. Their call letters, LI2B were familiar to many who daily kept in touch by amateur radio. (KH and FR had been in the Norwegian underground and had used a small radio set in sabotage work against the Germans in World War II)


Tuna, bonito, shark and dolphins were in abundance and provided their steady diet. Sailing 50 to 60 miles a day in the Humboldt Current and prevailing easterly wind, the raft could only go forward, towards Polynesia. A heavy storm sent 15-foot waves over their raft, severely damaging the cabin and the large steering oar. A cry of "man overboard" had all hands struggling to rescue radio operator Forstein, who narrowly escaped death.

link

News Briefs

More snow shit is expected in the Reno area this week. I can hardly stand it now with this cabin fever.
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The Holocaust-denying P.E. teacher in Vegas was suspended for her stupid remarks, yet somebody like me is canned for no real reason.

She must have relatives in the district.

It's always possible, of course, she is innocent. From the comments following the article:

As a student of the NWCTA, I'd like to point out that Mrs. Sublette isn't exactly the most loved teacher; in fact, she falls low on the list. This could easily be a ploy by a student who holds a great deal of animosity toward her and reported a slightly improper statement. Whereas I am sure that something to the effect of what was reported was said, I don't believe that it happened as expressed. If she truly said what you all believe, I agree that she should be relieved of her position, but I also think that the great deal of you are only looking from the surface and have as little information as the reporting station who went both ways with their story and left you without any true answer to the issue, proving that none of you are any smarter than the supposed "moron" of a teacher you insult so and are only following the media machine that leads you to an empty story lacking fact. I implore you to find fact before passing judgment and hope that all of you would seek justice instead of the quick demise of a teacher that possibly did nothing wrong. Regardless of what we know, let alone can prove, any statements against any group of people are improper and unjust. I would hope that none have to deal with the insult that has been brought up by both sides of people with this issue, the insulted and the supposed insulter.

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The Education Wars: Lawsuits

The teachers' union at L.A. Unified has filed a lawsuit over the planned takeover of schools to make way for charter schools.

The Education Wars: More Mess in NY

It appears another Democrat in name only is shitting all over teachers' unions:

Gov. David Paterson is heading into the new year taking on Albany's most powerful special interest on two fronts that will test the influence of the teachers' union and put $700 million in federal funding on the line.

Paterson is fighting a lawsuit and biting rhetoric from the New York State United Teachers union, two school administrators' groups and the state School Boards Association. They sued to keep the state from delaying 10 percent of aid payments due in December that Paterson had ordered as part of wide-ranging cost-control measures to keep the state out of fiscal crisis.

"It's almost like children who start screaming and pulling the covers over their head to make the monsters go away,'' Paterson told The Associated Press.

"Well, they can scream all they want and pull the wool over their eyes, but the public sees the monsters of the lack of cash and the monsters of unavailability of credit are here, and someone is going to have to be the adult force that comes into the room and gets rid of the monsters,'' he said. "And the only way to do that is to practice a new culture of governance called discipline financing.''

2009 Was the Year of the Obituary

It ranked with 1977 as one of the all-time banner years for deaths of prominent people.

The Los Angeles Times has a look back at deaths of prominent people.

I have tried to note most of the most prominent on this blog, but of course I didn't get every single famous person although I got the vast majority of them.

The New York Times, always the source to go to for the best in obituaries, has its annual death roll issue.

News Briefs

I have no television access apart from web streams, but I know enough that the big story of the past couple of days was that failed Christmas attack aboard an airplane headed to Detroit.

Multiple law enforcement officials said the suspected attacker — identified as a Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab — claimed to have acted on instructions from al-Qaida to detonate the explosive device over U.S. soil. The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

The law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently — inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.

One law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the case, said Mutallab's name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but not to the extent that he was placed on a watch list or a no-fly list.

As investigators try to determine the veracity of his claims, they also want to figure out exactly how the explosive device was made — and how much of a broader threat it may pose to air security.

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I really hate to see cursive writing go the way of the dodo bird; there is a lot of be said about developing fine motor skills.

There are a lot of teachers out there who don't know how to teach cursive, let alone write it.

Family Video Clips

My brother recorded a couple of video clips of this year's Christmas celebration in White City, Oregon. I didn't come up this year.


Bethany, Madison, and Brayden:




Baby Bethany:

The Health Care Mess: "Expanding" Medicaid

Over at DU an attorney with some experience with Medicaid explains what it is really about, which really means this stupid health care "reform" bill expanding the number of people going on Medicaid merely expands the numbers of people who have their current and future estates seized:

This post is not intended to argue one way or the other on the Senate HCR bill, just to try to clear up some of I what I think are misunderstandings by many concerning the nature of Medicaid.

First of all, Medicaid is not "insurance". You cannot buy it, pay premiums for it or contract for it. It is medical care established by the federal government and optional for the states (though all states now have it) and is need based, though need, no matter how poor someone may be, is not the sole criteria to be eligible for it. Not all poor people are eligible for it unless they fall into one of the areas specifically covered by Medicaid (treatment for HIV, nursing home care, etc.).

Second, it is not "free". Though you receive medical care if eligible, you by law must promise to repay for Medicaid when and if you are able to do so. You might think those were empty words, because after all, how could poor people repay for costly medical care? Well, I have seen on many occasions people who were in fact forced to repay Medicaid. They list your treatment, render a "bill" at some point (which is really just notification of the amount owed) and file it as a lien against you. Then, if you inherit Mom or Pop's home, or if you win the lottery or if you have an accident and sue and recover damages you find out a lien has been filed against you and you cannot sell the property, collect the judgment or cash the lottery check without paying back Medicaid. This happens quite often with elderly people in nursing homes after they have exhausted their savings and become eligible for Medicaid when $8.000 or more is added to the lien each month. Except in the case of a surviving spouse (or dependent child) in NJ all of that money must be paid back from, for example, the sale of a home.

But it not only negatively impacts those who have been on Medicaid who want to sell or dispose of property. It also prevents them from buying property. Let's say a person is poor but then obtains an education or job training and a few years down the road is in the position to actually buy a home. Well, no, because before buying most lenders require a lien search be done on the buyer and if a Medicaid lien turns up they will reject the buyer for bad credit.

I hope this post doesn't sound patronizing and I realize that most probably know the difference, but Medicare and Medicaid are so different they probably should not be discussed in the same sentence.

And here some Democrats are praising this shit "reform." Extending MEDICARE to those age 55 and older is real health insurance reform; expanding MEDICAID does nothing of the kind but ruin even MORE people financially.

Screw it.

Obituaries

Musician James Gurley, 69, of a heart attack. He is best known as a guitarist for Big Brother and the Holding Company, which had backed Janis Joplin.

Gurley died just two days before his 70th birthday.
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Character actor Arnold Stang, 91, of pneumonia.

He was featured in numerous television shows and movies.
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Sportscaster George Michael, 70, of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to his wife.
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This death happened back in June, but I want to note the passing of author Helen B. Andelin, 89, who was best known for her book idolizing the patriarchy, Fascinating Womanhood. It's a silly book, but a lot of desperate women out there wanted to shore up their marriages. Andelin built a successful empire out of women's insecurities.

She also wrote a book for single women, referred to as "girls," called The Fascinating Girl.

link

Andelin and her husband, who died in 1999, were Mormons. Helen was survived by eight children, 61 grandchildren, and an impressive 101 great-grandchildren.
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Singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt, 45, following an overdose of muscle relaxants.

Mr. Chesnutt had a cracked, small voice but sang with disarming candor about a struggle for peace in a life filled with pain. A car crash at age 18 left him partly paralyzed, and he performed in a wheelchair.

The accident, he has said, focused him as a songwriter, and it became the subject of some of his earliest recordings. “I’m not a victim/Oh, I am an atheist,” Mr. Chesnutt sang in “Speed Racer,” from his first album, “Little,” produced by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and released in 1990.

In a recent interview on the public radio show “Fresh Air,” he told Terry Gross: “It was only after I broke my neck and even like maybe a year later that I really started realizing that I had something to say.”

The Health Care Mess

The toughest job for Democrats now that the legislation has passed the Senate and will eventually be law in some form is trying to persuade a skeptical public this reform is any good.

News and Other

I decided to stay here in Reno this year for Christmas, probably for the last time before I get out of here--once I get my act together and actually move. Apparently the family in Oregon is having a great time.

I wish somebody would have brought a video camera to record it. There are two little kids and an infant there this year, and it would have been nice to watch the proceedings.

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Mills Lane's sons carry on their dad's boxing legacy. They are boxing promoters.
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Misc

A great takeoff of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas is right here.

It is dead accurate.

Jimbo Eruptions

It just keeps getting better:

In her statement, Dawn Gibbons said the governor’s “secret plans to end the marriage in favor of making a life with another woman” left her publicly humiliated, financially insecure and in “extreme emotional distress,” her lawyer, Cal Dunlap, said in the document.


The first lady should be fairly compensated for supporting Jim Gibbons through his legal and political career, Dunlap said.

Read the pleading wherein Jimbo is described as being known as a "mediocre lawyer."

link

The Education Wars II: Some Interesting Information

about termination of teachers, and my response to this post on Teachers.net:

On 12/24/09, 2 cents wrote:
> It is true that NYS teachers enjoy more protection than teachers in any
> other state, NYC teachers has a water-down version of 3020a than
> teachers in the rest of the state due to our 2005 contract. Teachers in
> most state have tenure or unlimited contract, in all but 7 states a
> termination decision/disciplinary actions on a tenured teacher is voted
> by the school board. Only in 7 states, the termination of a tenured
> teacher is decided through arbitration, 5 of which are paid exclusively
> by their school boards. Only in 2 of 7 states, NY and Washington State,
> the costs of the arbitration are shared or split between its school
> boards and its unions, NYS is the only state in which the school board
> and/or union can reject an arbitrator for his or her supposed bias
> toward labor or management.

That's why the situation in NYC is so serious for teachers nationwide.
If teachers there have their rights subverted, NO teacher anywhere is
safe.

At my old school district in Nevada, I believe the arbitrators or hearing
officers are picked by both the union and the district for "objectivity,"
and they are assigned to a teacher's case "at random." Of course the
reality is the union and the district are one and the same, so the
arbitrators will ALWAYS rule in favor of the district, no matter how
badly they screw up, as in my case. I still have to sue them.
Arbitration is a joke in Nevada and probably everywhere else.

The Education Wars: Obama's Education Policies

Of course the WSWS wouldn't support anything the federal government does being what it is, but Obama's education policies are ruinous for public education regardless of what a person's political stand is:

The Obama administration is spearheading an unprecedented assault on public education in the United States. While providing trillions of dollars to Wall Street, Obama has starved states and local governments of funding and pressed them to address their soaring budget deficits by closing public schools and opening semi-private charter schools.


In Michigan and other states, school districts are slashing jobs and eliminating essential services such as student transportation. The school week in Hawaii has been reduced to four days due to teacher furloughs. The cutbacks have been extended to higher education as well, with California leading the way by imposing a 32 percent tuition increase.

What little federal funding the Obama administration has made available—a meager $4 billion in its “Race to the Top” program—is contingent on school districts dropping restrictions on the expansion of charter schools and tying school funding and teachers’ pay to standardized test scores.

More Silly Nonsense

about what workers should do for "job security," which no longer exists.

As more than a few people commenting on the article note, don't be over 50. None of the advice is worth a crap. You can't reasonably go back to school when you're just a few years from retirement. About all one can do is set up a business, in my case, if I can work at home.

More Health Care Reform Mess Regarding Obama

The video rather spells it out, and it's small wonder "progressives" and liberals are fed up with the president:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obama deserves all the criticism he is getting on this. I mean his words on the campaign trail belie what he is saying now.

Jimbo Eruptions

I only hope this happens:

Nevada first lady Dawn Gibbons plans to use next week's divorce trial as a forum to sabotage Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons' re-election bid next year, his lawyer contended in court documents.




"Ms. Gibbons' motives are simply to use this court and legal process to inflict pain on her husband because she mistakenly says (he) jilted her for another woman," Gary Silverman said in a statement filed Friday.

He also said that if the governor is not re-elected, any alimony the court orders should end when his term expires at midnight Dec. 31, 2010.

Dawn Gibbons' lawyer, Cal Dunlap, could not be reached for comment. He has not filed a trial statement but said last week that he expects the trial to go forward because the two sides are far apart on many issues.

The Health Care Mess: Obama's Own Words

He was on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer talking about the health care bill:

So when you look at the criteria that I've set forth, this is a good deal. Now, are there provisions here, provisions there, that I would love to have in the bill? Of course. But overall, I think that I've seen 95 percent of what will work for the American people, for small businesses and for the government budget that I was seeking from the beginning.

JIM LEHRER: Ninety-five percent of what you wanted?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Absolutely.

JIM LEHRER: Now, do you feel the same way about the House version that passed a few weeks ago?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, what's interesting is, the House version and the Senate version are almost identical. There are some differences in terms of how they pay for particular provisions. But the same principles about setting up an exchange where small businesses and individuals can buy in, pool their purchasing power to get a better deal from insurance companies, that's in both bills. The insurance reforms are both in the House and the Senate versions.

Naturally the nutroots are all upset about Obama being a sellout. He's actually the same person he always was.

The Health Care Mess

Hell, let's just kill off those useless eaters who are just going to die anyway.

This is a good way to incur the wrath of the disability rights community. First it will be the "terminally" ill who will be killed off, then the profoundly disabled.

This is a bad road to go.

News

The top two horses of this year made the list of top female athletes in this AP year.

Of course the horses are Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra.
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Richard Heene gets 90 days for perpetrating his balloon hoax.
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John Ensign makes number one in the scandal ratings.
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Obituaries

The original "Rain Man," Kim Peek, 58, has died of a heart attack.

His story was truly remarkable:

Kim Peek, the real Rain Man whose almost unimaginable powers of memory were coupled with severe disabilities and who inspired the Oscar-winning film role played by Dustin Hoffman, has died of a heart attack in his home town of Salt Lake City, aged 58.

Peek has been called a "mega-savant" for his ability to memorise to the word up to 12,000 books, including the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He could read two pages in about 10 seconds – the right page with his right eye and the left simultaneously with his left eye.

He knew phone books by heart, and could tell you what day of the week a particular date fell upon going back decades. One of his party tricks was to tell strangers the names of the people who used to live next door to them years ago.

At the same time, though, he had deep disabilities and relied on his father Fran for help dressing, brushing his hair and other simple motor skills.

More from the Salt Lake Tribune:

An MRI later showed that his brain lacked a corpus callosum -- the connecting tissue between the left and right hemispheres. Peek said his son's brain lacked the normal filtering system for receiving information. The condition
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left him able to retain nearly 98 percent of everything he read, heard or watched on television. The average person only retains about 45 percent.


As both a child and adult, Peek's favorite place was the library, where he devoured books at a confounding rate. At the time of his death, Peek is believed to have committed at least 9,000 books to memory. He could recite so many gigabytes of facts that people often called him Kim-puter. NASA made him the subject of MRI-based research.

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Actress Brittany Murphy, 32, of an apparent heart attack.
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Oh, My God

This snow is coming down like gangbusters again. At least I went hiking around the area because of wind chill was something like 22 degrees outside and too cold to run. But now the snow shit has hit.

I hope I can get out of Reno Thursday for the holidays, but right now it ain't looking too good.






Update 5:30 PST: The snow has let up.

News Briefs

Somebody should superglue the asshole who did this to a cat:

Motorists passing by the stricken cat, named Timothy, did not bother to stop, thinking it had been injured.

But one couple driving along the busy road in Minnesota decided to investigate and pulled over.

It was only then they realised its paws had been cruelly glued to the tarmac.

Rosey Quinn, from Second Chance Rescue, told KSFY.com: "It's a mouth dropper because you are just like are you kidding me? But they did it."

She added rhe rescue service had never seen anything like it before.

Timothy is now recovering from injuries he suffered when he was removed from the road.

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This attempted rescue of a dog which fell into ice turned into a tragedy for two of the three brothers.

The dog, however, survived.

Jimbo Eruptions

Next week is Reno's Trial of the Century when Jim and Dawn Gibbons bring out their dirty laundry in public. But this is good:

Recently filed documents in the divorce case of Gov. Jim Gibbons and the first lady go into further detail about his contention that he shouldn't have to pay alimony past 2011 because he might not be re-elected.

As the Reno Gazette-Journal first reported Oct. 15, Gibbons' lawyer has argued that the governor should be able to stop paying Dawn Gibbons alimony after Jan. 1, 2011 because he could be unemployed after the next election.

The Education Wars II: NYC Schools

Some people who know the horrid situation in NYC schools have put together a book which can either be ordered on demand through Lulu or else one can read the entire book in a free download here.

A snip from one of the essays:

The administration’s insistence on ignoring the views of parents and community
members has gone hand-in-hand with an accelerating attack on the whole notion of
the neighborhood public school—which often anchors communities, particularly in
low-income neighborhoods. The DOE’s much-vaunted small-school initiative,
subsidized by private money, flooded comprehensive neighborhood high schools
with the high-needs students that the small schools had been allowed to
exclude—including high percentages of English Language Learners and students
with disabilities. In the few new high schools built, the administration refused
to allow preference for admissions to neighborhood children.40 When the DOE
centralized admissions for elementary schools, which had previously been controlled
by the individual districts, families of pre-Kindergarten students were obliged
to re-apply to Kindergarten at their schools.41 In the spring of 2009, the
administration put hundreds of Kindergarten students on waiting lists for their
zoned neighborhood schools.42 These policies appeared designed to undermine
the support of neighborhood residents—and their elected officials—for their
local public schools, further easing the administration’s plans to charterize and
privatize the system.

The chancellor continually promoted the success of charter schools, which were
given space in public school buildings, causing a loss of classrooms for the
traditional public schools that were forced to share their space. Yet these charter
schools were provided with the ability to cap enrollment and class size at low
levels—a privilege not accorded traditional public schools, who were essentially
denied this opportunity by the administration’s refusal to use the state funds that
had been allocated for class size reduction according to their intended function.43
The chancellor’s unrestrained praise for charter schools and his comparative
contempt for traditional public schools was bizarre in light of the fact that he
had been put in charge of improving the public schools; if charter schools were
indeed more successful, that surely resulted from his own failure of leadership.

These policies, and the widening inequities that have resulted, have led to profound
dissatisfaction among many parents and educators alike. A 2008 survey by the
United Federation of Teachers revealed that 85 percent of New York City public
school teachers believe that Chancellor Klein and the Department of Education
had failed to provide them with the resources and supports they need to succeed.
Similarly, 85 percent said that the chancellor’s emphasis on testing had failed to
improve education in their schools.44 In a Quinnipiac poll taken in March 2009,
New York City public school parents disapproved of Mayor Bloomberg’s
handling of education by 54 to 41 percent.45 The year before, in another poll,
over 70 percent of parents identified class size reduction as the most important
reform, and over 80 percent said that problems of overcrowding and/or excessive
class sizes had remained the same or worsened over the last few years.46 A majority
of parents felt that the overwhelming emphasis on standardized testing had
caused too much stress for their children, and many said that the school system
was being run like a business rather than an educational enterprise. They also
believed that the DOE had mismanaged finances and had embarked on too
many confusing reorganizations.

The Education Wars: D.C.

Teachers in D.C. who were sacked unfairly because of tyrannical chancellor Michelle Rhee's "budget cutting" layoffs are trying to fight back.

Lots of luck because they are going to need it.

As Everybody Knows, Outgoing Virginia

governor Tim Kaine received a phone call from a certain "Barry":



link


It was funny anyway that he called.

The WSWS Naturally Doesn't Have Much Good to Say

about the forthcoming health care "reform" legislation:

In the early morning hours on Monday, the US Senate approved a procedural motion to move its version of health care legislation to final passage later this week. The bill proposes deep cuts in Medicare, ensures the profits of the giant insurers and pharmaceuticals, and will result in reductions in care for millions of ordinary Americans.


The Senate voted 60-40—the exact majority needed to avoid a Republican filibuster—with all members of the Democratic caucus voting for the legislation and all Republican senators opposing it. The final form of the bill was the product of joint manoeuvres by White House officials and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to secure the votes of key Democratic holdouts.


The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, hailed by President Obama as a “big victory for American people,” is in reality a thoroughly reactionary piece of legislation. The central focus of the $871 billion bill is to slash government health care spending. It includes more than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare, the government-run program for the elderly and disabled.

Some State Governors

are whining that because their states are in the financial crapper, they want to shaft the unemployed by cutting their already meager benefits.

Of course people can't move to another state to get bigger benefits; the UI law doesn't work that way. If I were to move to Oregon, for example, I still would draw from Nevada's UI because I worked in Nevada, not in Oregon. Oregon's UI benefits are more generous than Nevada's, but it doesn't matter when an unemployed out-of-stater like me moves there.

The Nutroots Chronicles: Chapter 64,000

The blogosphere and the so-called progressives are madder than hell blogger Jane Hamsher went on Fox News today condemning the Senate's version of health care reform:





In light of how "successful" her and her blog's efforts were to get justice for Valerie Plame and to get Ned Lamont elected to the United States Senate, I strongly suspect her petition drive will see similar success.

First Obama Was Getting Criticized from the Left,

especially concerning health care reform, but now he is getting it from what used to be his most reliable constituency: African Americans:

But the president acknowledged there are limits to what a president can do for any class of people.

"The only thing I cannot do is, by law, I cannot pass laws that say 'I'm just helping black folks.'I'm the president of the entire United States," Obama said, giving his standard answer to questions about the economic and other disparities facing blacks.

"What I can do is make sure that I am passing laws that help all people, particularly those who are most vulnerable and most in need," he said. "That in turn is going to help lift up the African-American community."

Black members of Congress have begun pressing their demands that the first African-American president do more for minorities hard hit by the recession, noting the billions of dollars spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to prop up big banks and large corporations.

Nationally, unemployment stands at 10 per cent while 15.6 per cent of blacks are jobless.

When a key constituency is upset, Obama had better be worried.

The Education Wars: More Bad News About RTTT

Tennessee is about to join far too many states in gutting teacher protections in order to receive Arne Duncan's blackmail money:

Bredesen’s high-pressure gambit — giving lawmakers one week to act, with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line — puts the statewide teachers’ union, the Tennessee Education Association, in a nearly impossible position. Either the TEA caves and accepts legislation that’s anathema to much of its membership, or the union could look like the villain in the loss of federal aid.

Teachers are complaining about strong-arm tactics from the White House all the way down to the governor’s office. On its Web site, the TEA is asking its members to complain to their state legislators. Lawmakers are themselves grousing over the speed of the special session.

The crux of the controversy is how much weight should be given to student test scores in evaluating the performance of teachers.

Bredesen touts the state’s 17 years of student testing as the richest data in the country on whether teachers are doing their jobs well. He says the so-called value-added tests, intended to measure the gain in knowledge over a year, show that a “startling” two-thirds of the difference in student performance is explained by teacher quality.

What a crock of shit.

As Someone Who Saw Through Barack Obama

almost from the beginning, being tipped off by the way the media were pushing him yet not looking closely at what he stood for, it doesn't please me to say "I told you so," though some of the more ardent Clinton supporters are all but gloating over Obama's problems.

It has nothing to do with supporting Hillary Clinton or anybody else who ran for president last year; instead, it is all about Obama's record and what he stands for. He didn't do a "bait-and-switch" on people; people simply refused to delve deeper into the man's neoliberal tendencies. The media didn't help matters by refusing to look into his positions on issues.

It remains to be seen what happens with the HCR legislation. The U.S. Senate is just as culpable as Obama in this regard thanks to the stupid cloture/filibuster rules and all of the deals that are cut with individual senators.

Paul Krugman

believes the health care "reform" bill is a significant achievement although terribly flawed, but the most notable thing about it is it passed at all, given the fact the U.S. Senate has some stupid rules that make significant change almost impossible.

This goes to the filibuster/cloture bullshit where a minority can sandbag almost all legislation because there isn't sixty votes to cut off any threat of a filibuster.

Krugman:

Back in the mid-1990s two senators — Tom Harkin and, believe it or not, Joe Lieberman — introduced a bill to reform Senate procedures. (Management wants me to make it clear that in my last column I wasn’t endorsing inappropriate threats against Mr. Lieberman.) Sixty votes would still be needed to end a filibuster at the beginning of debate, but if that vote failed, another vote could be held a couple of days later requiring only 57 senators, then another, and eventually a simple majority could end debate. Mr. Harkin says that he’s considering reintroducing that proposal, and he should.

But if such legislation is itself blocked by a filibuster — which it almost surely would be — reformers should turn to other options. Remember, the Constitution sets up the Senate as a body with majority — not supermajority — rule. So the rule of 60 can be changed. A Congressional Research Service report from 2005, when a Republican majority was threatening to abolish the filibuster so it could push through Bush judicial nominees, suggests several ways this could happen — for example, through a majority vote changing Senate rules on the first day of a new session.

Nobody should meddle lightly with long-established parliamentary procedure. But our current situation is unprecedented: America is caught between severe problems that must be addressed and a minority party determined to block action on every front. Doing nothing is not an option — not unless you want the nation to sit motionless, with an effectively paralyzed government, waiting for financial, environmental and fiscal crises to strike.

This is one of Krugman's best editorials. The Senate, along with the utter corruption of politicians because of no public financing of elections, is why our government is in such a hell of a fix and our country's problems are not being fixed.

The President is Certainly a Quick Learner

He has followed his predecessor in having the reverse Midas touch: Everything he touches turns into a bigger mess.

It isn't just limited to those three things Naomi Klein mentions. He's screwed up health care, and he's screwed up education perhaps the most outrageous of all.

News

Roman Polanski has lost an appeal, but that doesn't mean his argument about judicial and prosecutorial misconduct in his original case is not valid:

But referring to Polanski's claims of backroom dealings and other improprieties by the original trial judge, now deceased, and a prosecutor, she added, "We do not disregard the extremely serious allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct that have been brought forward, but urge the parties to take steps to investigate and to respond to the claims."

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Brooke Astor's son, only 85, has been sentenced to three years in prison, which at his age might just as well be life.

This devoted son was convicted of stealing from his mother to the tune of millions of dollars:

Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. said Mr. Marshall, who is 85, must report to prison on Jan. 19.

The sentence was for the most serious of 14 counts on which Mr. Marshall was convicted: first-degree grand larceny, for giving himself a retroactive lump-sum raise of about $1 million for managing his mother’s finances. Justice Bartley also sentenced Mr. Marshall to one year on each of the 13 other charges he was convicted of, to run at the same time as the longer sentence.

If Mr. Marshall has a good record in prison, he is likely to serve roughly eight months behind bars. He showed no response as Justice Bartley read the sentence, although his wife, Charlene, was heard to sob from her seat in the courtroom.

“It is a paradox to me that such abundance has led to such incredible sadness,” Justice Bartley said. “Your acts notwithstanding, I do believe you did love your mother. The question of what you did was settled by the jury’s verdict.”

The rich really ARE different.
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This 91-year-old man should get life in prison for trying to kill his 78-year-old wife, but he won't:

Claude Montgomery, the 91-year-old Roseville man who was arrested in October for allegedly trying to kill his wife, has pleaded guilty to charges of assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting corporal injury to a spouse and making criminal threats.

Montgomery entered the pleas Friday before Placer County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Penney and will receive six months in jail and will be placed on formal probation for four years when he returns for sentencing on February 3.

In an arrangement made with the Placer County District Attorney's Office, Montgomery is expected to serve all 180 days in custody and then move to the Bay Area with relatives, and away from the victim in Roseville.

Prosecutor Jim Deslaurier said the investigation into the case and its unique circumstances factored into the agreement that allowed Montgomery to plead to the charge of felony assault likely to produce great bodily injury, but the offense will not count as a strike on his criminal record. A charge of attempted murder was dismissed.

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Something was wrong with Congress to have a passed a bill which included extending UI for two more months and have done it with lightning speed.

They must have received a ton of complaints about the holdup from last time.
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How in the Hell Did the Senate Get So Screwed Up

and fail to pass anything of substance?

Blame the silly rules regarding cloture and filibustering.

Now NOTHING gets passed in Congress unless 3/5 of a majority in the Senate approves it instead of a simple majority, the way it is supposed to be. The GOP can literally hijack any kind of bill while not being in the majority.

From Fallows:

Again, this is a very well-explored issue in the academic literature and much of the blog world. For blog and magazine discussions, see here, here, here, here, and here. An authoritative academic treatment came from David Mayhew, of Yale, in his 2002 James Madison lecture for the American Political Science Association. It is available here in PDF and very much worth reading. Sample passage:
"That topic is supermajority rule in the U.S. Senate-- that is, the need to win more than a simple majority of senators to pass laws. Great checker and balancer though Madison was, this feature of American institutional life would probably have surprised him and might have distressed him....

"Automatic failure for bills not reaching the 60 mark. That is the current Senate practice, and in my view it has aroused surprisingly little interest or concern among the public or even in political science. It is treated as matter- of-fact. One might ask: What ever happened to the value of majority rule?

Everything I have mentioned here is familiar, including the fact that this newly-invented "check" was not part of the original check-and-balance constitutional design. But somehow it isn't familiar, in the sense of being part of general understanding and mainstream coverage of issues like the health reform bill. Talk shows analyze exactly how the Administration can get to 60 votes; they don't discuss where the 60-vote practice came from and what it has done to public life. I have a gigantic article coming out soon in the Atlantic -- long even by our standards! but interesting! -- which concerns America's ability to address big public problems, compared in particular with China's. The increasing dysfunction of public institutions, notably the Senate, is a big part of this story.

The Health Care Mess

So why IS there a mandate to buy insurance, as if the question really needs to be asked?

It's because the health insurance industry wants to continue with its obscene profits, and more people in the pool means more money.

The Education Wars: Some Good News for a Change

This is a nice thing for this school for the severely disabled; I wonder why it took so long.

I believe, however, eventually this school will be phased out and the kids in these schools put into regular public schools in "life skills" classes. Upon reflection, perhaps the reason it isn't being done now is because these teachers have to be specially trained to deal with students with severe disabilities. The typical life skills class in Washoe County and in other school districts around the country have cross-category special education students (i.e., students who are moderately cognitively disabled mixed with students who are behind several grade levels in reading and math--"learning disabled"--but who are otherwise "normal" intelligence).

I know that principal over there; he is one of the good principals which are fewer and fewer in that district and in districts all over the United States.

News Briefs

It isn't just Wal-Mart that treats its workers poorly:

David Lawrinowicz of Lancaster had worked at Target for nearly eight years before the company fired him Wednesday — for buying two Zhu Zhu Pets.

Not stealing them, buying them. Lawrinowicz, who worked the overnight at the Cheektowaga location on Walden Avenue, helped unload a shipment of the hot holiday toy at the start of his shift around 11 p.m. Before leaving for the day at 5 a.m. the next morning, he and six other employees lined up to buy a few of the plush hamsters each. Overnight employees are allowed to make purchases during the company’s off hours.

None of the workers bought more than the limit of four Zhu Zhu Pets per customer. In fact, Lawrinowicz bought just two of them for his daughter Jessica. There were more hanging on the store’s racks when the employees cashed out.

Update: The fired workers were reinstated, with back pay.

USCC=Radical Right or

USCC=Radical Right=No Shit, Sherlock:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is often seen as an extension of the local Chambers of Commerce with which many of us grew up -- the staid, nonpartisan organizations that not only advocated for local businesses, but were also a part of the broader fabric of communities across America. They lobbied local governments, but they also promoted small towns' business districts, sponsored local parades and outfitted Little League teams.

But that image couldn't be further out of date. The organization was formed some 90 years ago to represent an umbrella group of American businesses' diverse interests. But under the leadership of Thomas J. Donahue, it has become increasingly partisan, even reactionary, in its steadfast opposition to even modestly progressive proposals in Congress, including those that are in the apparent interests of some of its member firms.

Matt Stoller noted in 2006, "the national Chamber of Commerce isn't pro-business … it's just a fully captured right-wing organization that has been taken over by the Republican Party."

It notably put a political hit on John Edwards shortly before Lisa Jo Druck or blackmailers put a hit on him.

Ouch!

Cornel West doesn't think much of Obama's policies, especially where he gives massive handouts to Wall Street and little to everybody else:



link

The Education Wars V: More About the Corrupt NYC School District

Naturally it is older, more experienced teachers who are being targeted for elimination and sacked because of money, to the detriment of children.

But public education is no longer about the children. It's about data, money, and perks for those crooks at the top.

The Education Wars IV: The Assholes at the L.A. Times

go on their anti-teacher, anti-tenure filth with this article saying it is so easy to give shitty teachers "lifetime" jobs, because, after all, that's what "tenure" is.

What fucking shit.

Cluephone for the clueless "reporters" at the paper: Teachers are sacked for all kinds of reasons, and once they are sacked, they can NEVER, EVER again work in public schools nationwide because of disclosure questions such as the following:

"Have you ever failed to be rehired, been asked to resign a position, resigned to avoid termination, or terminated from
employment?"

You MUST answer truthfully or risk having your license suspended. Of course if you check off "yes," you never even get asked to an interview.

Public education is the ONLY field where there is systemwide blackballing of workers, and it doesn't have to have anything to do with "misconduct."

If these privatizing assholes want to get rid of "tenure," and ALL teachers are "at-will" employees, then the disclosure questions need to be outlawed. Only criminal background checks would be allowed.