News, Etc.

Another incumbent Republican bites the dust as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska goes down to defeat.

Naturally she lost to an absolute nutjob.

I suppose there isn't any Democrat worth a shit running in the fall.

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The NYT notes the "value added" horseshit being proposed for teachers.

Naturally, administrators will be even worse than they are now.
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One Can Ridicule the Beck Rally

with videos like this one:



but the rally really isn't a laughing matter given the fact the billionaire and shadowy Koch brothers, who really are anti-American in their crackpot "libertarian" beliefs, are bankrolling these and similar efforts in getting Democrats out of Congress and further destroying the country.

At Least One Person

is trying to make headway by letting Washington know it is forgetting the long-term unemployed.

More Ignorance

by trying to extend the school day to make it like business hours. Kids can hardly cope right now with school schedules, and now moronic administrators want to make it WORSE?

And of course teachers will spend even MORE time in lesson planning, etc., which are off the clock.

link

Obituaries

Two-time Tour de France champion, Laurent Fignon, 50, has died of cancer.

He is best remembered for his battles with fellow champion Greg LeMond.

Case in point:


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Speaking of Obama,

he came out "swinging" against the GOP in his usual milquetoast fashion, telling the Party of No it isn't doing anything about the jobs crisis.

And the GOP isn't, but the Democrats aren't doing much, either. It's more important to take an obscene amount of vacation time throughout August and part of September, "work" two or three weeks, then take off almost the entire month of October in time for the election than it is to do the people's business.

I hear very little talk about adding "Tier V" UI from anyplace now. That may be as a result of Congress's "vacation," but it may be that many people see the handwriting on the wall that our elected officials do not give a shit whether we who are unemployed live or die.

These Abnormal Times

In normal times, nobody would give any time to a raving, intellectually challenged blowhard like Glenn Beck. Nobody would even tune this guy in on the idiot box, and he would have to go out and earn an honest living or go back into rehab. The fact anybody like this gets any kind of ink at all not only shows how far political discourse has fallen, but it also points to the glaring fact there is a complete absence of leadership in Washington.

Mr. "Hope and Change" turned out to be Mr. "Same Shit, Different Day." What "reforms" he has helped enact have been nothing more than windowdressing. They don't do anything to rock the boat against the health insurance industry or Wall Street; hell, the guy is nothing but a tool for those corporate interests anyway. We needed RADICAL surgery in this country by rejecting the special interests and financial elites, but instead we get the same damned thing.

The fact is Obama is little more than a Republican of the Friedmanite type than a real Democrat. The neoliberal poison has infected the Democratic Party and promises to destroy it from within.

News, Etc.

If the financial elite doesn't get you sooner or later, the bedbugs will.

It is a real crisis, and a sign of the times.

This is a handy site to find out where these critters from hell are staying.

If Obama Wasn't Onboard With Gutting Social Security,

he wouldn't have set up the catfood commission in the first place.

There is no point trying to keep Obama separate from this. He's supported by the banksters on Wall Street, and because the banks are basically broke, they want to get their hands on any money left in order to prop themselves up.

All I can say is if Obama tries to do anything to privatize it--and judging from his disastrous public education policies he wants to--it's all over for him.

Obama is NOT to run for re-election if he pulls this crap.

A Pair of Ignorant Politicians

think they can talk intelligently about education by spewing anti-teacher talking points. It's obvious they know nothing about the field and what REALLY goes on in public education.

The problem is with administrators, who are not held accountable for their actions.

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On the Road Again

Actually, dipshit Duncan should be roadkill for his stupid education policies which will drive the public education system into the ditch. He is gallivanting around on the taxpayer dime, trying to peddle his failed Chicago Public Schools ideas on the rest of the country.

This is cute:

Still, some teachers wonder whether a president who supports performance pay and staff shake-ups in long-struggling schools is really on their side. So Duncan is cruising eight states - first in the South, then the Northeast beginning Monday - with a message: Yes, we are.

On teachers' backsides, as it were.

Maybe it's just as well I am not in education now, at least in the short term. I can't stand this demonization of a once-honored profession. And by frauds who claim to be "Democrats."

I Didn't Bother to Watch

the crapola "march" on Washington this weekend, but a few people had the stomach to sit through it on television and write about what this "Beckola" event was all about.

When one cuts through all of the layers of piety and bullshit, what one realizes is Beck is just another con man trying to flim-flam the masses into accepting their inferior status to the elite class, of which Beck is now a member. We peons must accept crumbs so these crooks and con artists can have even more:

With 26 million American workers on the unemployment lines or unable to find a full-time job, millions more having lost their homes, and working people faced with relentless wage-cutting while Wall Street reels in record profits, such complacent clap trap will find no support from the vast majority of the population. If Beck were to advance an explicit political program based on the interests and aims of the financial aristocracy for whom he speaks, the hostility and opposition would be overwhelming.

Behind Beck’s fuzzy rhetoric about individualism and patriotism there does lie a program which these wealthy, right-wing layers support. It includes the systematic dismantling of all forms of social spending that constitute a drain on profit, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It envisions the reduction of wages in the US to a level that would be competitive with those in China. And it seeks the even greater strengthening of the police-military powers of the government to suppress all opposition from the working class at home and to escalate militarist interventions abroad.

I couldn't have said it better.

Here is a link I came across through a discussion board about the real problem in this country, and that is the overconcentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands. When this happens, economic ruin and depression invariably results.

So a Few "Brilliant" Executives

and corporate owners have finally realized what Henry Ford knew over a 100 years ago that in order to make money, you have to pay the people who make the products enough money to buy what you make.

Or make for some other businesses. Perhaps the Chinese, with more of them voicing objections to being exploited, are just a little bit too "insubordinate" for their own good.

"A lot of businesses are trapped in the allure of offshoring, but my experience has been that there are more to the costs than what you are quoted," said Kevin Bailey, one of Bailey International's owners. "I think so often we are quoted cheap prices overseas and we don't realize there are hidden costs."

The cost savings in countries like India and China have been shrinking because labor and transportation expenses there are on the increase. But there are other costs as well, Bailey said.

"There is a totally different set of laws, different culture, a different work ethic and even a moral culture that is different," he said.

There aren't enough companies doing this; therefore, the trade agreements need to be torn up and redone, and high taxes and tariffs against companies which "offshore" implemented.

Nothing else will do. Drastic measures are needed. The United States is dying economically because of these destructive trade and economic policies put forward by Washington officials.

Personal Crap

I am gradually coming out of my grief over Tony's death last Monday. I finally went out hiking today, the first time I have worked out since he died, although I messed my knee up twice coming down off the trail. I am going to have to get a better knee brace so I can hike better. Still, my grief at times can be overwhelming if I focus on my loss.

On Friday I picked up Tony's ashes from the vet and just about lost it coming back to Rob's place. Tony was my first ever pet as an adult, so he was and is particularly special to me.

I also want to note something else. I am not a good salesperson or shill, and I have very, very rarely ever mentioned money for the site. After all, it's a free site. I do get a tiny check from BlogHer quarterly, which is better than nothing. I just want to note since I opened up a checking account recently, I changed PayPal over so that the donation button works. That's just for people to know just in case the mood strikes them to donate.

That's all I wanted to say tonight.

The Teacher-Trashing Los Angeles Times

admits there are some good teachers in the LAUSD, but they remain hidden. Generally those are the older, more experienced types, you know, the ones who have "tenure," which the paper despises. After all, its reporters don't even know what public school "tenure" is, as it bears little resemblance to college and university "tenure."

(These teachers have only the "right" to a rigged hearing. That's it for "tenure." Since the "due process" hearings in California are similar to Nevada's, fraud and flouting administrative law are rampant by school districts.)

Naturally the principals often don't know who these "effective" teachers are because most of them don't know their ass from a hole in the ground about teaching. Most of them were failed teachers, to say nothing of being failed human beings, but thanks to some kind of family or political connections, they got promoted to supervisory positions. As I have said repeatedly, these principal jobs are not ordinary supervisor jobs. Principals possess unbelievable amounts of power to ruin teachers.

Don't expect the "reporters" at the Los Angeles Times to tell the truth about public education, that the real problem is with administrators who aren't held accountable for their actions. After all, the paper is peddling the same horseshit the vulture philanthropists are pushing.

link

News, Etc.

Longtime Rogue Valley resident Kim Novak, retired from films since 1966, reflects on her career.

A new boxed set of her films is now available on DVD.
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A freelance writer on disability faces homelessness thanks to the economy tanking.

Most of the comments following the article are unbelievably cruel.
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Once Again, the Economy

is headed for the ditch, or, more accurately, sinking even further in quicksand, and naturally our policymakers and politicians are unwilling to do a damned thing about it.

Of course there are a LOT of things they can do, but these people are unwilling to reverse thirty years of disastrous Friedmanomics. After all, most of them are in the top 1 percent of income "earners," and bought off by the same elites, so why would they want to rock the Titanic?

I Am Really Surprised

entire communities can discriminate against children, but I suppose if mobile home parks can have age restrictions on residents, typically those 55 and older, then this is legal.

Obituaries

Another figure from television from my childhood (and before), Gloria Winters, in her late seventies, has died. She was best known for playing "Penny" in the classic children's television series Sky King, starring Kirby Grant.

The cause of death was complications from pneumonia.
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Former attorney general William Saxbe, 94. He was AG during the Nixon presidency.
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Baseball great Bobby Thomson, 86, of poor health following a fall.
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Diet promoter Michel Montignac, 66, creator of the so-called "South Beach Diet," of malnutrition.

I made that last thing up. The cause of his death wasn't disclosed.
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Lawrence Welk Show performer Natalie Nevins, 85, of complications from hip surgery.
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Obama May Be a Disaster as President,

but the Republicans are much, much worse; after all, they are the ones who created this financial mess in the first place.

The main problem with Obama, aside from the fact he is inexperienced, dishonest, and completely incompetent, is that he is bought by the same people who have bought off the GOP lock, stock, and barrel.

I am really hoping and praying Obama steps down in 2012 so that a REAL Democrat can be nominated.

More commentary is here about the president's disastrous presidency.

Bob Herbert is Right About Glenn Beck,

saying America is too good for this schmuck, but Herbert needs to realize Beck, the economic elite, and his corporate masters believe THEY are too good for America, or at least Americans. If the peons were smart, THEY would be rich. After all, if you are rich, that means you are more worthy, are better, than everybody else. Never mind HOW you got the money, and even if you "worked" to get rich, you didn't get there by yourself. The peons helped you get rich, either by working for you or by buying your products. The rest of the rich, the parasite class I call them, got there through marriage, inheritance, or through criminal or semi-criminal shenanigans (i.e., the Wall Street banksters). About the only way the peon class can ever get rich is by winning the Powerball or MegaMillions lotteries.

Never mind that the rich eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom like everybody else, to paraphrase Clark Gable. They also die like everybody else, but if the rich could buy immortality, they would do it.

Getting back to Bob Herbert. He is correct about worrying of the consequences to all of this "bombast," as he calls it. The "tea party" people would not be above committing widespread violence if they are incited enough.

But it isn't just the right-wing followers of bloviators like Beck who are about fed up. A LOT of people are.

Despite 24/7 Bashing of Public Education

by vulture philanthropists, politicians, and the media, Americans, in this case parents, give high marks to their local schools. The propaganda has had an effect, however, on the public at large.

Keep telling a lie and people will soon believe it. The Nazis were masters of propaganda, and the privatization mob is working overtime to make sure they extract and extort every bit of public money that is left by undercutting support of ALL public institutions by claiming they are "failing."

The poll is here.

News, Etc.

I thought Paris Hilton was going to walk the straight and narrow, but evidently she threw caution to the wind and found herself arrested in Las Vegas on drug charges.

The AP mentions how contrite she was after her 2007 arrest and incarceration over alcohol-related reckless driving. But that was then, and this is now.
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If teachers' "unions," read "associations," are praising ruinous privatization policies put forward by the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates, then there really IS no hope for this country.

Selling teachers down the river has always been the way of life of the so-called unions, but now it's teachers as a professional group that are being sold down the river.
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I Have a Scheme

World-class dipshit Glenn Beck bastardized an iconic event today and turned it into a bash of self-promotion.

This twerp makes somewhere in the $30 million range, some $30 million more than he's worth, and wants to further toot his ignorant horn.

Religion, like patriotism, is a last refuge of a scoundrel, and Beck provided proof of that with his blathering about how the United States needs to return to God. No doubt his corporate masters are using him to help divert people's attention to the fact they are being robbed blind by the same jerks who are peddling "social" issues.

You'd think people would finally wake up and realize there has been a class war going on for thirty years by the few against everybody else; our elected officials don't even HIDE their contempt for the masses anymore since both parties have been bought off by the same elite interests.

The ONLY thing people have right now is the right to vote, and even here it has been compromised (examples include the presidential elections of 2000, of 2004, and the rigging of the Democratic primaries in 2008 so that Democrats would "choose" a right-wing, Chicago School-type politician over better candidates).

More stuff about the Beck nonsense are here and here.

The Economy is Bad Overall,

but it is especially acute for the millions of people who are unemployed, and most acute for those of us who have NO money coming in at all and are forced to pawn off any possessions we have, if we are lucky to have any possessions to pawn.

The suffering is being made worse because Congress refuses to do one goddamned thing about it.

I am a regular poster over at Unemployed Friends, by the way. The website is very informative and very eye-opening.

Before LAUSD Decides to Threaten Teachers to Get

their houses in order or face termination, the district administrators had better be getting THEIR act together.

This Isenberg case is a classic case of a teacher who tried to be ethical and now faces career ruin because he did his job.

This was from last May, but I thought I'd share this story with readers.

I LOVE this snip, which can be applied to Washoe County School District and almost every school district in the United States:

Over all, the impression I got was one of administrators running LAUSD schools like totalitarian regimes with the indiscriminant ability to discipline, uproot, or suspend teachers, a wanton disregard for the laws, policies, rules, and regulations -- not to mention civil rights -- that should govern their behavior, and no consequences for breaching their responsibilities.

Teachers, in turn, are little more than indentured servants with little recourse to act against this administrative fascism, despite a union that is supposed to defend them. In fact, the UTLA is, in the words of one teacher, "in the pocket of LAUSD. Their participation in this charade gives the appearance of due process when none exists." It seems like anyone with any power is in cahoots with everyone else. When due process does occur, it is usually months or years delayed, there are conflicts of interest galore, and teachers must find their way through a bureaucratic labyrinth of epic proportion.

I don't know if all this administrative malfeasance is truly rampant throughout the LAUSD system, just among schools that serve disadvantaged students (which is where the teachers to whom I spoke taught), or are simply isolated cases of a few bad apples. Or, more disturbing, whether the LAUSD is indicative of similar school districts around the U.S. But there is enough evidence to suggest that there is a real problem that is begging for attention.

It is rampant all over the country, and it is getting worse. As long as naive people go into this shithole of an occupation, school districts will continue to treat teachers like garbage.

Apeaking of LAUSD, here is a 2008 YouTube of a teacher who was forced out of teaching early thanks to getting into trouble for reporting a female administrator going into a boys' locker room--a HUGE no-no in education and grounds for license revocation. The assistant principal he reported of course wasn't fired but moved up the career ladder. The worse these assholes are, the better they do.

No matter; this guy ultimately lost his case against LAUSD.

Stating the Obvious

Of course the fastest growing and most numerous jobs are invariably lousy paid.

Thanks to the exportation of millions of good jobs overseas, what are left are crap jobs.

Yeah,

let's skirt the issue of administrator incompetence and let's go after the teachers, giving these morons even MORE power over teachers' livelihoods than they already have.

My comment at the end of this story:

By God, let's give these moronic or crazy principals even MORE power than they already have against teachers, and, if the principals screw up, well, that's okay, because the district will rig the "hearings" without ANY legal consequences to the school district. Bribery, perjury, and other criminal acts are allowed in these so-called legal proceedings, as long as the school districts commit them. The most punishment these idiot principals get is to get moved to other schools, like the Catholic Church would do with pedophile priests. Lengthening the "probationary" period for teachers isn't the solution to the "problem." Making it easier to FIRE principals (NOT demote or move them around) and stripping them of their licenses for misconduct or incompetence would go a long way in solving the problem. But then again WCSD, for example, would have few principals left if that happened.

A Corrupt School Superintendent

takes his cues from a bunch of dipshit "journalists" who have no concept of libel law and will impose a "value-added" approach to teacher "evaluations" in LAUSD. This means more cheating will take place in addition to a newspaper trying to shame teachers by publishing their names along with the test scores because test scores are an accurate measure of teacher "competence." Which is a total crock of shit to anybody who is remotely knowledgeable about education.

There had better be some kind of class-action lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Times.

Cheapo Teachers

It isn't enough for schools districts, charter schools, and private schools to treat American-born teachers like shit; they go even further and import teachers in order to continue the exploitation.

No Matter How Much This Administration

wants to spin it otherwise, we are NOT in a "recovery," and there is NO recovery until the jobs crisis is reversed.

Of course the ONLY way the jobs crisis will be reversed is to reverse 30 years of ruinous trade and economic policies which have moved this country towards third world status.

Paul Krugman has his own ideas on what needs to be done.

All for naught.

News

New claims for UI have gone down for the first time in four weeks.

Of course there are few jobs out there, so this statistic doesn't mean squat.
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I Came Across This Link

about coping with pet loss that I thought I'd share it.

I am still numb over losing Tony, and I doubt it will ever completely go away. If I had been in Reno, this would have killed me, especially after losing my neighbors with whom I was close.

Some Good News for a Change

as fewer and fewer people are supporting Obama's plans to destroy public education in this country.

His policies aren't based on any research, just a bunch of neoliberal talking points put forward by the World Bank and its ilk. It's all ideology based on the goal to limit higher education and even high school for the masses of people.

As I Have Written Many Times,

Arne Duncan is a complete disaster on education, an incompetent, who is in love with the concept of "market-based reforms" which are destined to fail, and have failed in Chicago.

The reason is simple: It's because education is not a business and cannot be run on business models. Teachers can not be put on "merit pay" models given the extremely political and often poisonous work environment which they are subjected. Teachers are supposed to collaborate with each, not be "competitive" with other teachers. Students are not all alike, and there are so many variables at work regarding their "performance" that are out of the schools' hands. Family environment and poverty or the lack of it are key.

That doesn't stop idiots like Duncan, Gates, Broad, and all of the rest from shoving a bunch of shit down the throats of educators and taxpayers in general.

A brief snip to illustrate my point:

This question is at the heart of a longstanding battle between business-oriented educators, who want to churn out a ready workforce, and progressive educators, acting in the tradition of John Dewey, who believe schools should nurture well-rounded, independent-minded citizens.

Unfortunately, most Republicans and many Democrats, including some progressives, believe that the problems with American schools can be solved with more market-style policies, competition, financial incentives, charter schools, privatization, standardized testing and weakened teachers’ unions.

But the theory that supports treating education as a marketplace is flawed, as is the practice. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute and others point out that few professionals in the private sector are paid for performance (except in finance, and that should be a cautionary example). And when faced with performance incentives, people typically end up gaming the system. In a 2003 study, economists Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago and Brian Jacob of Harvard found that as high-stakes testing increased, teachers were more likely to cheat, for example, changing student answers, giving students correct answers and teaching from illicitly obtained advance test copies.

The educational systems in the rest of the developed world, which famously outperform U.S. schools, are overwhelmingly public, highly unionized and protected from market-style funding. Even though American suburban schools vary dramatically, many of these schools—with unions and teacher tenure—perform so well that affluent families pick their homes partly on the basis of school quality.

Who needs facts when you have a neoliberal agenda that states public schools are bad because they are public?

Home Sales

are now shot to shit as fewer people can afford even the fire-sale prices of real estate.

All of it is by design, of course.

Since Obama is a Secret Republican Anyway,

it shouldn't shock the world he entertains the thought of stealing from millions of people their Social Security benefits and would appoint a wingnut to head the "catfood commission."

Alan Simpson SHOULD go, but then again Obama should also step down.

Update: Now Simpson says he is sorry, but naturally Obama won't force him to step down.

For Obvious Reasons,

I am not going to be blogging much over the next few days.

I am just about drained with grief.

More Tony

Tony 1996-2010

My best friend ever passed away tonight. He was very ill, probably with cancer. He was fine this morning, but then he had a seizure this afternoon, and then later, he couldn't keep any food down.

I didn't want him to suffer, and he did not. But there is a giant hole in my heart that will never be filled.

Medical Care Gets Put on the Back Burner

by millions of people for the simple reason they have to be able to eat and put roofs over their heads:

The economic crisis has adversely affected access to medical care for millions of Americans, according to a recent study. Cutbacks in obtaining routine medical care have been particularly sharp, and have been much deeper in the US than in countries with government-run health care systems.

The study, “The Economic Crisis and Medical Care Usage,” co-authored by Annamaria Lusardi, Daniel Schneider, and Peter Tufano and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, analyzed data from surveys conducted in the US, Britain, Canada, France and Germany.

The report is right here.

National Laughingstock Department

Once again Nevada politicians don't have to try very hard to put themselves up to national ridicule. This time it isn't Gibbons or Ensign or Angle, but a Democrat who is so concerned about the pronunciation of the state he wants to put forward a resolution which would declare the incorrect pronunciation often used by easterners as "acceptable."

Meanwhile, the state is dying economically, with unemployment continuing to go through the roof.

The Nutroots Chronicles

This time it isn't the bloggers who have gone off the deep end; in this case it is a local government which is trying extort money out of bloggers, even if they make little or nothing on their blogs.

Unbelievable:

The city disagrees. Even though small-time bloggers aren't exactly raking in the dough, the city requires privilege licenses for any business engaged in any "activity for profit," says tax attorney Michael Mandale of Center City law firm Mandale Kaufmann. This applies "whether or not they earned a profit during the preceding year," he adds.

So even if your blog collects a handful of hits a day, as long as there's the potential for it to be lucrative — and, as Mandale points out, most hosting sites set aside space for bloggers to sell advertising — the city thinks you should cut it a check. According to Andrea Mannino of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue, in fact, simply choosing the option to make money from ads — regardless of how much or little money is actually generated — qualifies a blog as a business. The same rules apply to freelance writers. As former City Paper news editor Doron Taussig once lamented [Slant, "Taxed Out," April 28, 2005], the city considers freelancers — which both Bess and Barry are, in addition to their blog work — "businesses," and requires them to pay for a license and pay taxes on their profits, on top of their state and federal taxes.

Batshit crazy.

It's Time for a Primer

on the American Class System which does exist. The wealthiest class is as far removed from the political class as the political class is from everybody else.

And therein lies the core problem with this country, and what is going to kill it.

I like this:

Moneywise, Washington's political class is richer than the working class by the same orders of magnitude as the ruling class is richer than the political class. This gives the political class something to aim for. To that end, they have adopted the ruling elite's behaviors, tastes and lifestyles, with an eye on becoming members. Moreover, it is a molting process that begins with the right university and connections, and culminates in flying off to Washington with the rest of your generation's most privileged and ambitious young moths.

They make enough dough to at least fake it until they make it. Fifty-one of the 100 members of the US Senate are at the very least millionaires -- probably more than that, since multi-million million dollar residences and estates are exempt from the official tally. For instance in the House, Nancy Pelosi's net worth is either $13 million, or $92 million, depending upon who is counting. Why they bother to shave such large numbers is a mystery. Thirteen million, ninety two million, the difference is not gonna change our opinion of Nancy. Our opinion being that the broad is loaded. More than loaded. The comparatively poor members of Congress, like Barney Frank, are near millionaires. His publicly declared net worth is $976,000. For the life of me, I cannot see how they get by.

Good piece, and it nails it on the head.

The LAUSD Teacher's "Union"

appears to be willing to sell its teachers down the river and thus dig its own grave by "agreeing" to "reopen" talks about evaluations.

If these "unions" are teachers' friends, I hate to think what their enemies are.

Obituaries

How sad: CBS newsman Harold Dow, who I enjoyed watching on 48 Hours, has died at the age of 62.

Dow died suddenly. He had been with CBS News for 40 years and with 48 Hours since it began in 1988.

He will be missed.

link

Why Not Compare Obama's Presidency With Reagan's?

After all, Obama went out of his way to admire Reagan, claiming he was a "transformative" president the way Obama believed himself to be during his "Obama is God" campaign. Furthermore, despite a few crumbs thrown to traditional Democratic constituencies, his policies mimic Bush II and Reagan's and peddle the same neoliberal garbage that has been discredited and debunked.

Balz:

Throughout this long year, President Obama's advisers have sometimes looked to Ronald Reagan for comparison and inspiration. If the Gipper could survive a deep recession, low approval ratings and an adverse midterm election in his first two years and win reelection handily two years later, then Obama could easily do the same, they reason.

Obama's presidency has looked like Reagan's in some broad ways. Both men succeeded unpopular presidents of the opposite party. Both offered big and bold plans -- Reagan with massive tax cuts, Obama with a massive stimulus package and national health care -- that set the country in a new direction. Reagan's goal was to shrink government. Obama's efforts have enlarged government.

Both presidents were forced by events that preceded their elections to contend with economies in serious trouble. Both saw the unemployment rate rise sharply during their first two years in office -- under Reagan, the rate hit 10.8 percent by November 1982 -- and both saw their approval ratings decline as the numbers of jobless grew.

For much of this year, Obama and his team have taken some solace from the fact that Reagan's approval ratings were even lower at comparable points in his presidency. That is no longer the case. In the past week, Obama has hit a new low in his approval rating, according to Gallup's daily tracking. It now stands at 42 percent, virtually identical to Reagan's in August 1982. (Both Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter dipped below 40 percent during their second year in office.)

The problem with Obama isn't his poll numbers--it is the fact he isn't a Democrat, just another Chicago Boys dipshit peddling Friedmanism.

Celente Says We're Headed

for the "Greatest Depression." The treatment of workers and the unemployment rate going through the roof are key:

Gerald Celente

Also scroll down to the part where he compares the U.S. with the U.S.S.R., with the possibility of the country splitting up.


He's correct, of course.

Is Obama a Con Man Putting Forward a Con Game

that we are on the right track economically, that if we just get people's confidence up, the economy will perk up?

Too bad he is as big a con man and as bad as any Republican.

This link is an interview with trend watcher Gerald Celente.

I Don't Give Voters as Much Credit as Biden Does,

since I don't think most of them have woke up to what is really happening to them in the relentless push to turn this country into a third world nation.

It doesn't help Obama subscribes to the same thing. Still, having Democrats control Congress, IF they really did it instead of letting the minority Republicans get away with murder, is better than the alternative.

Way down at the bottom of the article, it says there have been changes in the primary system so that both parties' primary/caucus schedules will be pretty close.

Furthermore, there will be NO more January primaries and caucuses; the four early states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina) will hold their contests in February.

The Charlatans at the L.A. Times

continue to practice education research without a license and don't know squat about anything. Home factors including poverty, transience, and language barriers are far more valid indicators of whether the students learn than who they have for teachers.

Not to mention teachers may have more second-language and special education students, whose "gains" will be less than those teachers who have "highly-motivated" students.

And to say nothing of the fact kids don't take standardized tests seriously.

News

Labor expert Rush Limbaugh, who makes tens of millions a year spewing nonsense, says auto workers should take a 50-percent cut in pay.

One has to realize, though, Limbaugh is a mouthpiece or a mouth of sorts for the elite, whose intentions are becoming more and more obvious by the day.

Auto workers at one plant have awful working conditions.
_____

Since the country is sliding into third world status as sure as shooting, the only things that will find the country hospitable are bedbugs.

Why the proliferation of bedbugs after they were almost completely eradicated in this country, at least in the urban areas?

...Bedbugs, once nearly eradicated, have spread across New York City, in part because of the decline in the use of DDT. According to the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation, the number of bedbug violations has gone up 67 percent in the last two years. In the most recent fiscal year, which ended on June 30, the city’s 311 help line recorded 12,768 bedbug complaints, 16 percent more than the previous year and 39 percent above the year before. A New York City community health survey showed that in 2009, 1 in 15 New Yorkers had bedbugs in their homes, a number that is probably higher now.

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Next stop, the Twilight Zone, as the dipshits at Washoe County School District try yet another "reorganization" scheme passing the trash around in order to "improve" student "performance," in this highly transient school district.
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While Lance Armstrong may have done a lot of good for cancer awareness and philanthropy, it is all about to go down the drain because of allegations of cheating through doping.

If he cheated, it's over, despite all of the ink spilled in this article about his cancer activism.
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Luckily for Sharron Angle,

"scheduling conflicts" make it impossible for her to debate incumbent Nevada senator Harry Reid.

Fewer lines for comedians to seize upon, surely.

Obama

is definitely a sign of the times, just a "Democratic" version of the usual corporate sellout, even more of a sellout than Bill Clinton ever was.

And Obama doesn't have the charisma and talent the Big Dog had and has, either. Clinton, though, made the mistake of embracing neoliberal-style economic policies peddled by the likes of Robert Rubin.

This is a pretty good article.

News

The Nevada unemployment rate ticked up to 14.3 percent.

That's what happens when shortsighted politicians thought gaming, warehousing, and mining would pave the golden brick road forever.

No hope for that state in the foreseeable future.
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When somebody writes about how "wonderful" Obama's horrible education policy is, and it is so "wonderful" Jeb Bush likes it, it's time to be looking for another Democratic presidential nominee in 2012.
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This article is an interesting piece about somebody who REALLY got up close and personal with the "Holy Grail Bird," also known as the ivory-billed woodpecker.

Of course the photo was taken back in the 1930s.
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Obituaries

Goodbye and good riddance to that eyesore of the landscape, the "McMansion."

I also like the other terms for those monstrosities, which include "Garage Mahals" and "Faux Chateaus."

The billionaire shitpiles on the infamous Lakeshore Drive at Incline Village, Nevada, aren't considered in the same league.

Don't Expect Congress

to do one thing about the jobless crisis as long as they believe in neoliberal economics.

Both parties are in the tank of Wall Street banksters, the ones responsible for the current mess.

I Know, I Know

I should "move on" and "quit beating a dead horse," but it really isn't that simple when you are forced having to pay for somebody else's fuck-up, but here is my (final) letter to my former principal, the principal who should have lost her fucking job and her administrative license:

Dear *:

Another school year is about to commence, and it will be another great year for you to pull down over $100,000 a year in salary plus perks, with something like $131,000 made in 2009 alone according to Transparent Nevada. You will continue the privilege of taking nice little vacations all over the world and bragging about it, if not on Facebook any longer, certainly to your dubious "friends," including those that you had over at your former school, some of whom were willing to lie for you under oath in order to cover up your neglect and incompetence. What a cushy deal you've got, when in fact you should have not only lost your job with Washoe County School District, but you should have lost your administrative license since you so flagrantly violated federal and state administrative law, in addition to the union contract, when you threw me out two years ago on fake charges. My only sin was standing in the way of your dubious career. So you LIED about me on the recommendation for dismissal that you were NEVER supposed to write but never bothered to read the * letter which you received a copy of and it had implicitly stated I could NOT be FIRED over an FMLA-covered illness and I had NOT abandoned my job so it could not be termed a resignation. In your recommendation, you accused me of "dishonesty," "negligence of duty," "inefficiency," and every other libelous, career-ruining thing you could think of, things for which YOU were guilty. What in the FUCK possessed you to do it? Did you even have any idea what you DID and the consequences to my life of what you did? Or are you just basically an idiot or a sociopath? What kind of person plays nasty-nice in the days running up to the "firing"; does a half-assed job of doing an observation and doesn't stay for the entire hour as required; goes out of her way to ask about how I like the ESL inservice days before I was sacked; requires I and my lousy, perjuring, mentally ill "mentor" get all of the IEP forms in order with the knowledge I was going to be fired? What kind of person smears me and goes off on me in an "investigatory interview" when I had done nothing wrong, drags me into the office under false pretenses of talking about my evaluation and without witnesses present, FIRES me because I "had trouble" at [different school] while NEVER implementing a (retaliatory) admonition required by LAW (progressive discipline) and district policy? Of course you didn't know what happened over at * until I told you on Facebook what the principal had done, and I was not going to follow an illegal directive for which he later retaliated with his petty complaints on the admonition. What kind of person doesn't even mention in this "dismissal" meeting the form which was merely submitted early before the undisputed illness ran its course and was the pretense for * trying to commit age discrimination and cheat me out of my full retirement benefits when ordering an "investigation"? What kind of person acts nonchalant about ruining somebody's life and flippantly says, "I know you have friends at this school. You can say 'goodbye' to them; I don't care what you tell them"? What kind of person doesn't even explain to the kids, who had already lost a previous teacher suddenly, what happened? But of course you weren't and aren't a principal for the sake of the kids, only for the power, perks, and pay, so who cares what they thought, and they loved me. What kind of person commits perjury four times in a legal proceeding, and gets away with it? What kind of person even DOES such a reprehensible, illegal thing? I haven't made up my mind which you are, an idiot or a sociopath, but in any case, you have NO business whatsoever working as a school "leader." Your "punishment" of being moved to another school is NOT appropriate with your misconduct, and it was YOU, NOT me, who committed misconduct (to say nothing of the actions of *). You know that, I know that, the school administration knows that, including *, who with * I had written back in May as to why I wasn't helping the district in the Sanchez lawsuit filed in federal court two years ago. The biased hearing officer, *, didn't know that, but he is known to disregard administrative law, as I was told by other attorneys after he upheld your flagrantly illegal dismissal which he cruelly "awarded" right before Christmas of 2008. Who knows what deals were cut with him, in addition to the deals cut with * of * and certainly with *, who took a bribe to work for WCSD so as to not be a witness for me at my sham hearing and to help you and * cover for your illegal actions (by the way, her name, position, and salary/benefits are not listed on any database available to the public--the district website directory is not a database--she is perhaps the ONLY person currently working in the school district not listed on any publicly-available database, "coincidentally")?

Oh, sure, I should "move on," after you STOLE my career, a career for which I had prepared for 15 long years, paid my way through undergraduate and graduate school while working full-time in different lines of work, including teaching-related work. But since you have never worked anywhere else but WCSD, probably got your initial job and promotions to AP and principal because of some kind of family or friend connections, you wouldn't have a clue what it is like to be in my shoes. Well, I will TELL you what it is like, just as I described to a reporter from the New York Times who had interviewed me a couple of weeks ago. I filed for unemployment insurance the day of my kangaroo hearing and was able to get it, contrary to *'s LIES about my eligibility. Before that, I was on food stamps and energy assistance. I also lost my car when it had to be junked, so I was without a car for eight months, which made it virtually impossible to find any kind of work in Reno. Thanks to family, I was able to get another car, some 22 years old, but with low mileage and in great condition. However, to date I have not been able to get any kind of work, especially now with the economy tanking all over the United States, including and especially Nevada. I am 55 years old and have lost EVERYTHING. I am deemed too old to work, and I am too young to collect Social Security, which the district robbed me of during my four years there and must have THAT monthly benefit reduced because of collecting PERS. Now that I could no longer pay the rent, I have been forced to move in with family back in Oregon. My "home" is a couch in the living room of my brother's mobile home; otherwise, I would be homeless. I had to stop paying utilities on the apartment, so those were shut off. I have now run out of all unemployment insurance, so I have no income whatsoever. I have no savings at all and my credit is ruined. I have no access to health insurance. I have no dental insurance, which I desperately need. I owe the IRS over a thousand dollars in back taxes since I couldn't afford to have federal taxes withheld on UI. I also put my student loans on forbearance; I had student loans from the time I student taught back in 1999--this was the only time I didn't pay for my education out of my own pocket. I am being forced to pawn off some possessions in order to have money coming in, but uncertain as to whether I will ever be able to get money to get the items out. Last winter, while you were out gallivanting around Hawaii getting your one-of-a-kind tattoo, scuba diving, belly-bumping with the giant manta rays while they were feeding, and boasting about how good life is, I was forced to pawn off my mother's 1 1/2-carat diamond solitaire ring in order to pay for my auto insurance and registration. Fortunately, I was able to get it out of the pawn shop. However, I am being forced to pawn other items now. In addition, I have signed for "retraining" programs for people over 55, since I am essentially blackballed from the teaching profession because of what YOU did, and of course you and the district must keep up your deceptions so you would LIE to a prospective school district if it ever gave me a chance to even make the cut for an interview. The way school district job applications in Oregon, California, Washington, and many other states are written, I have to REVEAL what YOU and the district did to me under threat of losing any license I would be able to get in these states. So I am automatically screened out as a "bad" teacher, lumped in with the child molesters and DUIs, even though my work performance had NOTHING to do with why you threw me out on my ass. I don't even get a chance to explain anything.

Worse and most tragic of all, I have a dog I dearly love and who has been such a comfort for me during all of my hard times, and I will likely lose him. He either has a tumor on his rear end, or, most likely, a hernia, and I can in no way afford the surgery to correct it. I will most likely have to put him down. If I had a job, I would move heaven and earth to pay for his operation despite his age, but I can do nothing. Isn't that lovely, *? I went to making close to 50 grand a year at WCSD, to 21K a year on UI, and now nothing. And because of you and your district's wrongful actions and my inability to secure any kind of employment, I will most likely have to have my dog put down.

But hey, what's that to you? You will continue to play big shot, appoint your cronies like * over to your new school when vacancies become available and thus continue all of the staff problems that plagued * for so many years, pull down your fat salary, and maybe one day become Principal of the Year and get your name in the paper. There is no sense of right or wrong, no inkling of a conscience. After all, you got away with ruining one teacher's life and were protected by the district, so you can go on and pretend nothing ever happened. I could call you every filthy name in the book, but there aren't enough obscenities to describe what you really are. Nothing you do in this life will ever change what you did to me, nothing you do will ever erase the fact you have kept your career through deception and have done it on the back of my career since April 21, 2008, and nothing will ever change the fact you are a perjuring, devious, incompetent, lousy excuse for a principal and a human being.

At least I can look in the mirror. I don't know how you even do it.

By the way, you won't ever hear from me again, so there is no point responding to this email, and any response will be deleted. Copies of this letter are being sent to * and *, but predictably, they will just blow them off and go about their business. After all, you administrators stick together. No administrator is held accountable for anything in this district; the worse they are, the better they do.

Sincerely,

It sure felt good to write it, regardless of whether these assholes read it or not.

Naturally the Idiot Duncan

thinks the public shaming and libeling of teachers by the Los Angeles Times is simply hunky-dory.

Teachers should be encouraged to sue the paper for libel.

Unemployment Continues at High Levels,

and we should know by now there is a deliberate attempt by our Washington officials to not do one damned thing about it so that wages are at third world levels.

Unfortunately for them, the people don't feel the same way. They don't think Friedmanomics is the way to go; that it is a disaster for everybody not in the top one-percent of the economic heap.

Revolution is born when there are masses of people out of work and become desperate.

Link to this week's jobless report

News

As people probably have noticed, I seldom post pictures on this site anymore unless they are my own (copyright issues, laziness, etc.), but I will say that if you are going to jail, especially for sex crimes, you should NOT be smiling when there can be photographers present.

By the way, one shouldn't pin the Kennedy or Bouvier or Auchincloss families on this. At least we know Jackie O. had NOTHING to do with her half-brother, especially after she learned he was a source for Kitty Kelley's "tell-all" book about her.

Local report:


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The Crackpot Chronicles

Naturally, this post refers to the latest, or actually the past, of Nevada Senate GOP candidate Sharron Angle. I never knew players who wore black football jerseys were wearing something that was "thoroughly evil."

It boggles the mind, but when it comes to Angle anything is possible.

Bad Moon Rising

My old school district has unveiled a "strategic plan," which means it is bad news for anybody who is currently employed at this shithole.

Naturally they sugarcoat it.

It sounds even worse from the official webpage:

During today's news conference, Morrison talked with a sense of urgency about the 'status quo' being no longer acceptable. Morrison commented, "During conversations with parents, staff, and members of the community, four key directives emerged -- the Four A's: Alignment, Accountability, Accessibility, and Achievement. We have used these principles as the basis for a new direction for the district that has very specific goals and strategies. These strategies and goals include metrics that measure progress, provide greater accountability and also provide the necessary support that fully commits us to our vision of 'every child, by name and face, to graduation.'"

Morrison then introduced Deputy Superintendent Pedro Martinez, who explained that the district was refocusing efforts to support the schools and student achievement. He went on to announce details of recently released state testing results. Martinez explained that in grades three through eight, the district demonstrated significant improvement over its 2009 performance in the percentage of students scoring proficient in reading. Performance gains in the area of mathematics were equally as strong. Overall, the district outperformed the state as a whole at every grade level, and it demonstrated marked improvement over its 2009 student proficiency rate.

Martinez commented, "This has been an amazing year. Our proficiency levels are at record rates. We raised expectations and provided supports. Our schools and their staffs embraced the challenge."

All of it is Broad- and Gates-sounding shit. The Board of Trustees has no clue what it got when they got Morrison and Martinez.

I Think If You are Going to Comment on Education Issues,

and if you want to sound intelligent, you better have some background in education other than having been a student or a parent.

LAUSD has problems like any urban school district, but the Los Angeles Times, in its stupid quest to "rate" teachers in this district, is asking for a major libel suit by trying to tie student test scores, which really aren't reliable indicators of anything, to teacher "performance."

It couldn't come soon enough. The paper is virulently anti-public education.

News

The infamous WorldNetDaily has decided to drop pundit Ann Coulter from an upcoming conference since she was scheduled to speak at a gay Republican event next month.

The "right-wing Judy Garland" remark made by the gay group is pretty funny.
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James Auchincloss, related to the Kennedy family by osmosis, will spend 30 days in jail for sex crimes.
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The weather was something else in the Rogue Valley yesterday.
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The Housing Crisis,

like the jobs crisis, continues to get worse, but naturally our elected officials will do little about it.

Here is the Famous Graphic

of how much unemployment has spread over the past three years. The country is now largely a sea of black and purple except for the midwestern region, with its farming and ranching:



You Tube link:

link

I am Glad I Stayed Indoors Today

The hailstones were mighty wicked:

A Boil on the Asshole of America

is the perfect description one commenter has on dim bulb Glenn Beck.

Usually I don't give this intellectually-challenged individual much attention, but he started yammering about the so-called 99ers, this time saying people should be "ashamed" to call these people "Americans."

I will tell you something, Glenn, and that is people not helping others or government policies designed to help rich bastards like you at everybody else's expense is what is anti-American.

It's unconscionable.

I know it is an election year, and it is time to play the old GOP standby of divide-and-conquer, but you will realize, Glenn, many of the long-term unemployed are Republicans, or were, until your ilk started trashing them.

Misc

If you're a qualified school administrator, you aren't welcome, at least in Chicago.
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"Reform" comes to my old school district, which means it is the first step to completely dismantling the system, as is being done in larger school districts throughout the United States.
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Since Congress doesn't give a shit about the unemployed, many of them, seeing there is no hope, decide to end it all.

This is good news for Congress, for that is fewer people they have to pay Social Security, Medicare, and other government benefits.

Education Follies Number MMXXX

Not only are Obama's education policies like Bush's, but they are actually far, far worse. Bush merely laid out the groundwork, but Obama, a "Democrat," using a dipshit whose only qualification is he played basketball with him, has gone places no Republican would dare go.

Obama continues to piss off groups which had supported him earlier, including civil rights groups and teachers' "unions":

Stunned, Obama's erstwhile allies have begun to push back. On July 26, a coalition of civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the National Urban League, called for an end to "federally prescribed methodologies that have little or no evidentiary support" and that use minority communities as "testing grounds."

The next day, the American Federation of Teachers issued a statement saying the administration was encouraging "bad teacher evaluation systems." And the day after that, a coalition of community organizing groups scolded the administration for continuing "rigid, top-down solutions that are not supported by research."

Privately, Obama's one-time friends are far more caustic. They talk of an "elitist" and "arrogant" administration embracing an education policy produced by the Center for American Progress with too little regard for what happens in practice.

Obama thinks Ivy League types who have no concept of anything and who have never worked as teachers know more than those who actually deal with education on a day-to-day basis.

Obituaries

Pundit and writer James J. Kilpatrick, 89, has died of congestive heart failure. He was known as a conservative columnist but who publicly chastised Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Kilpatrick also appeared on 60 Minutes' "Point-Counterpoint" segment opposite Nicholas von Hoffman and later Shana Alexander.

Kilpatrick was known as a good guy regardless of politics. I didn't know he was married to former columnist Marianne Means, who I remember was a liberal columnist.

link

Means was his second wife. His first wife died in 1997.

I love the "correction" at the end of the Times article.


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Not Only Should Teachers

boycott the teacher-hating L.A. Times, but those who were publicly libeled for being "ineffective" should be hiring attorneys to sue the paper.

News

How this many people survived a plane breaking in half while landing is amazing.

Only one person died in the crash, while 130 survived.
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Tom DeLay gets away with it.

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Another Bullshit "Reform" Peddled by Arne and His Ilk,

"value-added analysis," is the subject of the teacher-hating Los Angeles Times.

Of course tests don't measure "effectiveness" of teachers and teachers can be loaded up with scads of special education and second-language students and be considered "below par." Kids can "Christmas tree" the tests because they don't take them seriously. The student body can be transient, so the teacher may have high turnover in his or her class. And so on.

"Tenure" is not a teaching position for "life." It isn't the same thing as college and university tenure, only the right to a kangaroo hearing. The reporters are liars.


Schools are't businesses, and any scheme which tries to cram a business model on schools is bound to fail.

Not to mention publicly libeling specific teachers to make a dubious point isn't very smart journalistic practice.

I Have Always Felt

the Ivy League schools were always overrated in terms of academic quality; what people are paying for is access to connections, as these schools are traditionally the schools of the rich and powerful.

That's not anything to sneer at, for connections are what get people ahead in the world, like it or not.

Anyway, the site mentioned in the story is worth looking at. It's better than U.S. News & World Report's annual list of colleges.

Probably more accurate, too, since the magazine tends to overrate the Ivy League and other "selective" schools.

Tell Me Why, You Lousy Shitbags from WCSD,

a teacher's career should be in the hands of ONE person, typically a person who was a lousy teacher or a worse human being, and who can destroy his or her career? Why should the process of being "post-probationary," which, by the way, is TWO years, not one, in Nevada, be lengthened so that more people's lives can be ruined?

The guy proposing these changes is from Carson City, evidently, and has no understanding of school district politics, but you can expect the district to go along with whatever proposal is being planned by the state.

I wrote in the comments:

Yeah, let's make it easier for your lousy principals to destroy teachers' careers, especially those of who are over 50. Meanwhile, rig the hearings so that these principals are kept no matter what.

Why should someone's livelihood, for which they have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars preparing for, be in the hands of one idiot who was most likely a failed teacher himself or herself?

And this:

And "gross misconduct"? What a joke. The state administrative law isn't worth the paper it is written on. Principals can merely fabricate a "case" against a teacher or be forced by human resources to destroy a teacher on the most flimsy of allegations, knowing full well the district will rig these phony hearings. Their witnesses will lie, and union "executive directors" will take bribes in the form of jobs working for school districts so as not to be able to help the affected teacher. I know this from personal experience. The district is confident they will "win" because a teacher cannot afford to appeal these phony decisions.

Nevada needs to do what Oregon does, and that is REMOVE the hearing process from a school district administrative office to the state capital and have a PANEL of people instead of one on-on-take "arbitrator" who more often than not violates state administrative law. Make it REAL due process and not these rigged kangaroo courts that current exist.

I don't expect a response.

While Our Congresspeople Enjoy

their five-week vacation, when they return for two or three weeks before going on ANOTHER month-long vacation to get re-elected or whatever, more and more people are falling into the economic abysss.

And our fucking Congress, which created the mess in the first place, doesn't even care if people are thrown out into the streets.

Snip:

It is a moniker that no one wants. It refers to the 99 weeks of benefits that the jobless can qualify for in America. Government cash helps those laid off keep a tenuous grip on a normal life. It keeps a roof over their heads, pays a phone bill, puts food on a table and petrol in a car. But once the 99 weeks are up the payments stop – as is happening now for millions of people – and they are 99ers.

For many, that moment, which America's politicians have refused to extend, represents the moment of destitution; a sort of modern American version of the old Victorian trip to the workhouse. There are now more than a million 99ers and the number gets bigger each week.

News

Craigslist killer suspect Philip Markoff was found dead in his cell, apparently a suicide. He was 24 and was awaiting trial. He pleaded "not guilty" to the charges.
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Zsa Zsa Gabor, hospitalized in "extremely serious condition," has asked for last rites.
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Fuck This "New Normal" Bullshit

of high unemployment. I hate to tell these asshole elitists, but a revolution is going to happen in this country if millions upon millions of people's needs are not met.

You had better rethink the exportation of millions of jobs. Nobody is going to be able to buy those products made in China or Vietnam or whatever the new popular slave-wage country is. We are just about at the breaking point.

You had better rethink the idea of letting the rich get out of paying what they should be paying in taxes. Why should Gates and the rest of them be donating billions to charity? They should be TAXED on that shit and help pay off the debt.

Retraining for jobs that don't exist isn't the answer. Forcing people to retire at 70 while stripping them of their livelihoods in the meantime isn't the answer.

It's coming, people. These elites are the enemies of everybody else in this society. They have screwed up and overreached. The rest of us are about to fight back.

The article was from last week, but I don't think I saw it. If I did and linked it, well, I will simply link it again.

News, Etc.

One of the world's most beautiful cars is up for auction today in California. It was once owned by the late British actress Diana Dors.

More about this stunning car is here.
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Is a White House appointment in Vicki Kennedy's future?

While Obama Is Right to Criticize the GOP

and its attitude towards Social Security, what is HIS excuse for appointing a "commission" full of privatizers and avowed enemies of Social Security?

We know the answer. Both parties are being bought off by the same elites who are destroying the country.

PBS

has more about the long-term unemployed and features a letter about somebody who is at his wit's end.

But who cares, right? The only people worth worrying about are the top 1 percent.

Time for Yet Another History Lesson

from Rachel Maddow:

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

There was a reason for Social Security and unemployment insurance. Social programs were and are needed in order to prevent social unrest, and yes, save capitalism.

Don't expect the Friedmanite cultists in the GOP (and not a few Democrats including Obama) to understand this simple fact.

The Malignancy Known as Friedmanism

must be excised from the body of American political life or the country will die economically. It's that simple.

Friedmanism does NOT work, it was tried before, hence the Great Depression. All of the regulations necessary to help capitalism survive were tried, and the country thrived. A safety net was put into place to make sure millions would never fall through the cracks. The rich were in the 90-percent bracket by the 1950s although their actual tax liability was much lower. Still, when the wealth was redistributed downward, as it was most of the 20th century, this country had the greatest prosperity it had ever known. Now that the economic boom has been reversed because of an insane ideology, our country (indeed the world) is on the verge of total ruin.

The last thirty years of economic policies MUST be reversed for this country to survive, but the neolibs have bought off BOTH political parties. Our elected officials who created the mess to begin with seem hostile to reverse course.

If they don't do it, well, millions of Americans may end up forcing the issue.

News and More Angle Stupidity

James Auchincloss took a plea deal in the sex abuse case to which he previously pleaded not guilty.
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Sharron Angle thinks we should look to a third world country, Chile, which instituted under dictator Pinochet a privatized retirement system, as something the United States should copy. Never mind Chile's system is a disaster.

Nevada deserves to go under if this blithering moron is elected.
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A former student of mine from Brookfield School (2000-2001) looks to a pro career as a barrel racer.
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The Situation With the Section 8

housing applications in Georgia demonstrates just how bad the economic crisis is in this country, but our politicians seem hellbent on forcing people to sacrifice even more.

The More Dire the Economic Situation,

the more disgraced and disgraceful politicians like Newt Gingrich go around and play the "divide-and-conquer" card. He is following the path blazed by fools like Angle, Heller, and others by trying to paint the unemployed as bums.

At least one such "bum" decided to get on Keith Olbermann's program and rebut this idiot:

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

These politicians don't even hide their contempt for the people on Main Street. They WANT a third world country here.



Speaking of Newt, ex-wife Marianne spills her guts out to Esquire.

It's worth reading.

Hot August Nights Photos 2010

When I was in Reno last week, I took in only a day of HAN (and wanted to do more), but it was pure murder to try and get everything boxed. I am still not done, but I am going to wait two or three weeks before going back.

Anyway, I did go to the Grand Sierra and photographed pictures of cars and so forth last Wednesday:




I did manage to "catch" Peter Noone performing at the Grand Sierra Resort.