Obituaries

JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen, 82. He also helped write the future president's Profiles in Courage, which some cynics claimed he actually ghost wrote the book for the then-ailing senator.

Whatever. Sorensen was hospitalized recently following a stroke.
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Actress Denise Borino-Quinn, only 46, of liver cancer.
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Captain Kangaroo actor James E. "Jimmy" Wall, 92, after a short illness.
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Actress Lisa Blount, 53, of a longterm illness similar to MS.
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Hawaii Five-O actor James MacArthur, 72, of natural causes. He was the adopted son of noted performer Helen Hayes and screenwriter Charles MacArthur.
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Stupid Is as Stupid Does

if Nevada voters are insane enough to vote Sharron Angle for the United States Senate over incumbent Harry Reid.

I agree with the editor of the Las Vegas Sun and don't think voters there are that dumb despite a rather vocal wingnut contingent.

From the editorial:

The good news for voters is that they don’t need reporters’ questions answered to make an intelligent decision Tuesday. All we need do is pay attention to what Angle has said for years, meant for decades and believed forever. She has answered all the unanswered questions. The reason she has refused to tell voters what she thinks now is because she can’t think of a responsible way to tell people that she is nuts! At least nuts in the extreme sort of way that will move this country backward.

Angle would dismantle Social Security and Medicare, calling them biblical sins; do away with Veterans Affairs; not require insurance companies to pay for mammograms, and screenings for prostate and other cancers that we know can save lives with early detection; or refuse to require background checks for sex offenders. These are all norms of American daily living that people take for granted and expect that those who we elect won’t take them away. Angle would.

In a state that has been devastated by the economic meltdown and that needs jobs, jobs, jobs, Angle has been abundantly clear that it is not the job of Nevada’s U.S. senator to help create jobs for Nevadans! Even worse, she has stated publicly how she really feels about Nevadans crushed by this meltdown. She believes people who need unemployment benefits to keep their homes and food on their tables, until there are jobs to be had, are just spoiled! Give me a break.

"Nuts" doesn't even begin to describe Angle.

The paper's Jon Ralston also believes Harry Reid will win re-election.

Election Roundup

If this holds true, Harry Reid should be re-elected Tuesday night.

One has to add that many Republicans are as disgusted with the choice of Angle as anybody else.
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Petite Oregon gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley, a former NBA player, has a good shot of winning the election over former governor John Kitzhaber.
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I Wonder If Sometimes

Frank Rich actually makes sense. You don't have to look any further than Sharron Angle to know the GOP isn't all that enamored with the idea these Tea Party types may get elected to the Senate. The challenge for the establishment types like the despicable Mitch McConnell is to try and "neutralize" these nutjobs before they torpedo the GOP's chances in 2012.

The Democrats have a problem, but it is relatively simple to diagnose. The Democrats' main problem is Obama and his willingness to cooperate with people who believe in scorched earth politics. He has been a freaking disappointment if not a disaster. The only hope the Democrats have in retaining the White House is to dump him for somebody who really is a Democrat. However, I think the Democrats have a far less chance of ditching him in 2012 than the GOP has of neutering the nutballs like Angle (should she be elected).

The sad and tragic thing is the Tea Party types think that by belonging to the very political party that has created the absolute destruction of the economy in this country they will have a place at the table. But people like Rove despise these people, hold them in contempt, find them stupid, and are only useful during election time. The Tea Party types haven't figured it out yet they are being played by the very people who are picking their pockets. Look at the damned Koch brothers. Does anybody really think they give a flying shit about the peons who support Angle, Miller, Paul, etc.? All they care about is creating a feudal society because they really do believe they are better than the rest of us.

So-called "Turnaround" Models

peddled by the likes of Duncan and Obama never were designed to be effective anyway; all this "reform" is is an excuse for school districts to cut expenses by getting rid of their most senior, most experienced teachers, the teachers students REALLY need, favoring instead Barbie doll bimbos who work cheaply and don't ask questions of their asshole administrators.

link

Facts aren't important to this administration, and nothing will change its neoliberal bent. It is probably getting its marching orders from the World Bank or the WTO.

"Turnaround" would work ONLY if students in a low performing school were replaced by students from a wealthier area. Getting rid of staff and replacing them doesn't solve the "problem" of academic "achievement."

It's all about the kids.

Sign of the Times

Nevadans have a momentous decision to make by Tuesday night in the United States Senate race: Will voters re-elect an unpopular but greatly experienced politician who, as this article notes, looks like an undertaker in a funeral parlor rather than a politician who sometimes undertakes unpopular programs, or will voters continue the recent Nevada tradition of electing laughingstocks and continue being sources of material for standup comics?

If the option of "none of the above" actually held weight, it would win in a landslide.

News, Etc.

A guy who claimed to have a one-night stand with Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell manages instead to make her look sympathetic.
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No Wonder I Can't Stand Obama

when he waxes eloquent over somebody like Reagan yet thinks FDR was "irresponsible."

No wonder the Democratic Party is on the ropes with such a "leader."

The GDP Report is Good News

only if you are a bankster or other elite or crook; for everybody else, it is the same old, same old.

For the most part, the profit surge and accompanying stock market boom have been achieved by downsizing and cost-cutting. With the help of the Obama administration, corporations have turned the economic crisis to their advantage, using mass unemployment as a bludgeon to drive down wages and impose speedup.

Now, as Obama prepares to push through new windfalls for big business after Tuesday’s vote, he is sending signals that his administration, in the name of fiscal “responsibility” and bipartisanship, will drop any proposals for infrastructure spending to create jobs or even the most minimal measures to provide relief for the unemployed.

These people won't be happy until we are making two or three dollars a day.

Par for the Course

When teachers want to relocate, they have to pay for their expenses out of pocket, unlike other professionals, but if you are an administrator, especially a superintendent, you get all kinds of fancy perks in addition to your six-figure salary.

In the case of incoming CCSD superintendent Dwight Jones, he gets moving expenses paid for by taxpayers and a "charitable foundation" that is more than what many people make in a year. Clark County School District is the fifth largest in the country, and Jones's compensation package is a mere $358,000 including the following:

His annual salary will be $270,000, and other benefits include $15,000 for moving expenses; $4,000 a year for professional development; $700 a month car allowance; 31 days of vacation; a $150,000 life insurance policy, and $660 a month to defray expenses for being “visible in the schools” and participating in community events, it was reported.

Under the four-year contract, he can be dismissed at any time with 90 days notice. His buyout would be a year's salary and benefits.

He also gets an additional $35,000 from a "charitable" foundation for additional expenses.

Jones doesn't appear to have had much teaching experience. From the CCSD webpage:

Mr. Jones is the Commissioner of Education for Colorado. Colorado has a combined enrollment of 860,000 students in 178 public school P-12 districts. During his tenure he has helped rewrite the state’s content standards and is revising the state assessment; his administration has created a replicable longitudinal student growth model and streamlined the state’s accountability system. He also initiated the Schools of Innovation status, allowing schools to seek waivers from certain district requirements for greater autonomy. Mr. Jones began his career as elementary school principal in Junction City, Kansas, before rising through the ranks as assistant principal, principal, and superintendent. He previously served as a superintendent and assistant superintendent for the Fountain-Fort Carson School District in Colorado, as operational vice president of Edison Schools in Maryland, Kansas, and Missouri; and as assistant superintendent of Wichita Public School in Kansas. Under his leadership the Fountain-Fort Carson School District was recognized as the number one district in the state for narrowing the achievement gap for low socioeconomic status and minority students. As the operational vice president for Edison Schools, he opened three reconstituted, 100-percent minority schools in Baltimore City, Maryland. Mr. Jones is active with the Council for Chief State School Officers, the Southwest Comprehensive Center at WestEd, and several charities. He has pursued coursework at Colorado Technical University toward a doctor of management degree, and holds a master of arts degree in administration and supervision from Kansas State University, as well as a bachelor of science degree from Fort Hays State University.

Jones did start his career as a teacher. There is much more information in this article.

Outrageous, considering how lousy most of these people are.

Jimbo Eruptions

A judge has said former cocktail waitress Chrissy Mazzeo can proceed with her battery suit against soon-to-be former Nevada governor Jim Gibbons.

Election Roundup

Apparently former president Clinton didn't meddle in the United States Senate race in Florida, at least insofar as pressuring the Democratic candidate Meeks to withdraw in favor of independent candidate Charlie Crist.
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One thing is for certain: After the elections Tuesday night, the working people of this country are going to be shafted even more, thanks to an even greater lurch to the right.

This despite the fact right-wing policies are destructive.

Asshole McConnell:

The two big business parties have already begun preparing for the post-election period. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, in an interview with the National Journal magazine, said the Republicans would not repeat their mistake after 1994, attempting to override administration policies even if that meant shutting down the government. Instead, he said, they would seek to “finish the job,” adding, “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

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Sharron Angle continues to do what she does best, and that's avoid questions.
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Personal Stuff

I will be returning to regular blogging in a day or two. It was an extremely sad time for me to return to Reno. Everything is so different now that I have no job, Tony has died, and my neighbors, two of the best friends I ever had, are either dead or in a nursing home.

I cried my eyes out. It was just so hard, in addition to it being very difficult to move my things after 26 years there.

Blogger's Note

Since I have to move the rest of my things out of my old apartment in Reno, I will either not be posting for the next couple of days or else I will just briefly post from the university computer.

I am wanting to get down there and get back as soon as possible.

Diane Ravitch

joins the chorus in condemning the latest scheme by the NYC DOE which is issuing "value-added grades" for teacher "performance."

It's too bad educators have been very slow on the uptake on what is really happening.

60 Minutes

had a good segment tonight about the longterm unemployed; to be specific, those who have exhausted all benefits:

link

It is a depressing segment. I am going through much the same thing.

I am "working," if you can call it that, substituting as an teacher's aide for a piddling $11.58 an hour but of course it isn't reliable work. When I substitute taught in Nevada, I never even cleared a thousand dollars a month. Even if I had a "full-time" job doing this stuff, which I wouldn't do, it would pay only about 15k a YEAR. Not enough to even rent a place, so I would not do it. Not for a job requiring heavy lifting, tube feeding, toileting, and even inserting catheters.

I am also looking at working a temporary clerical position for the Christmas season. At least it pays once a week, unlike the SOESD position, which pays only once a month.

I can hardly stand it anymore.

Election Roundup

It appears Brown and Boxer are in good shape out in California.
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More About

Public Citizen's Global and Trade Watch is here.

People should hear more from experts like Lori Wallach (see below post). It is just horrifying that an organization can supercede laws in all countries and demand they conform.

No wonder this country is one fucked up mess.

The WTO MUST, along with those trade agreements, be abolished. The neoliberal philosophy underlying its policies can't be fixed.

"Globalization" and Trade

If I hear that word again, I will scream because all it is is an excuse for corporations and the financial elite to screw over the masses all over the world.

This lecture, from 2008, is absolutely brilliant in outlining what the WTO and its ilk are ALL about.

This person says this in plain English.

This lecture is VERY important to hear.

News, Etc.

There are lots of problems with "value-added" teacher "evaluations."
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The elimination of foot-binding in China is a good example as to how to affect social change.
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Food stasmp usage is soraing among working families, thanks to laws which now base eligibility on income rather than on assets.
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Election Roundup

It seems Senator Harry Reid is really a living example of bipartisanship at work:  Never have so many entities and individuals from both political parties lined up to support one candidate, even if this candidate isn't someone they agree with most of the time.

This time we find both the Sierra Club and the mining industry coming out for Reid.
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Rancid Rand Paul is upset over an ad attacking him.



The infamous ad is accurate, by the way, and Paul's reaction to it is far more devastating than the ad itself.
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Obituaries

Alexander Anderson, creator of cartoon characters Rocky and Bullwinkle, has died at the age of 90.
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Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, of pancreatic cancer.  He was only 48 years old.
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Something Drastic Needs to Be Done

regarding the housing/foreclosure crisis, but naturally Obama, being the neoliberal shill he is, doesn't plan to do anything constructive about it.

The problem of course is some years ago the banksters and their ilk began peddling the propaganda of buying houses as  "investments," instead of as  places to live, and therefore if one could buy at the "right time," the "owner" could sell it at some outrageously inflated price later on and thus pay for his or her retirement.  The trouble is it didn't take long for housing prices to become completely out of whack of what wages and salaries were.  It got to the point where even having two adults working fulltime would not pay the mortgage.

And why in the hell are people stuck with 30-year mortgages and in most cases never actually own their own houses?  In my parents' day, they saved until they could afford not just a down payment on a house, but they could be able to pay cash for a house outright.  We need to go back to those days where one average wage earner could save enough money to own a house free and clear.  Mobile homes don't count because most of the time one has to pay space rent.

Houses for $150,000 or more are way out of line for what jobs are paying for a single wage earner.  No house in the country, save for a tiny number of communities and those grotesque mansions or houses with significant acreage, should sell for more than $50,000 or $60,000 tops, including the lot.

Once the Elections are Over, You Can Count on Obama

going in directions no real Democrat would ever go, such as destroying Social Security and Medicare.  How this guy ever got the nomination is a mystery given his neoliberal tendencies.

The best thing that could happen is he be forced to step down or if the GOP impeaches him.

Obama Has Been Going Around the Country

trying to help various Democratic candidates in trouble, and the way he is doing it is promoting a fake populism which is totally at odds with what he really believes.

Public discourse has been so radically shifted to the right, real liberalism doesn't even have a place at the table.

Furthermore, Obama still believes this shit that he can "reach across the aisle" with cretins who would just as well impeach him.

Impeachment may actually be on the table should the GOP get control of the House.

"Data"

When any school superintendent starts yammering about "data," you'd better the hell watch out.

Kids are now reduced to being called "data." It's disgusting, but recall what the ultimate goal of the privatizers is: The goal is to deprofessionalize teaching so that any idiot off the street can read a script, or that students will take "classes" by internet and be "taught" by a pennies-a-day "teacher" in India or China, and then be tracked out of school by middle school at the latest. The ultimate goal is to limit upward mobility--even high school would be off-limits for most--and the filthy rich will continue to be an exclusive club.

You have to understand the mentality of these assholes. They really DO believe they are better than you or me. If WE were really that talented or smart, why aren't WE rich?

An astute comment at the Ohanian link:

One of the corporate wrecking balls brought down recently on America’s public schools is “data driven” education. The charade is a creation of the Business Roundtable and other forces that dream of a privatized school system that serves only their global profit making schemes.

Because their sinister intentions must be kept on the down low, data driven education is packaged and sold as economical but revolutionary pedagogy come to the classroom. Absurdity is the inevitable result. And so it is that our system of universal public education is now trapped in a scene from Woody Allen’s farce Bananas. The new leader has decreed that, “From this day on the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16-years-old are now…16-years-old!”

Promoting insanity in the classroom has proven to be quite an effective weapon of public school destruction. Teachers are being broken down and driven away at an unprecedented rate. One in five new teachers will not make it through their first year. Half of them will be gone inside of five years.

Revolving door teachers.  Once fired or "dismissed" or non-renewed, it is difficult if not impossible to find another teaching job anywhere  in the United States.  State licensing boards are slow to recognize the current abuses going on in public school systems where teachers are thrown out for the stupidest of reasons or no reason at all.  These licensing boards, as well as other school districts, will assume every time the teacher who is let go or denied "tenure"  has done something wrong.  After all, it's "impossible" for a teacher to get fired unless he or she  committed "misconduct" or he or she is "lousy."

News, Etc.

Naturally the public releasing of information purporting to show how well NYC teaches "perform" is a bunch of public relations bullshit, but it may serve its purpose to further undermine public education by throwing out more expensive teachers.
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Clarence Thomas' wife "Ginny" should have kept her yap shut.
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O.J. Simpson is shit out of luck--again.
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The Georgia firefighter who had nothing better to do than take a personal video of a hideous and fatal car crash and later sharing it with others has been suspended.

He should have been fired as soon as it was known what he did.
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I'd go further than these writers:  I'd like to see those banksters go to prison and have all of their assets seized.
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Diane Ravitch,

writing for the New York Review of Books, one of the best places to read social criticism or essays, levels much criticism over the overhyped charter schools and the movies like The Cartel and Waiting for Superman, which promote them by lying about charters and about public education.

As an aside, I am now seeing propaganda being spread about Albert Shanker, the late head of the AFT, who was the one who came up with the idea of charters. The newest lie is since he came up with the idea, that this means unions weren't initially hostile to them. However, Shanker repudiated charters later on when he found out corporations and privatizers were exploiting the notion of charters in order to gut public schools and funnel public money into what are really private schools. Instead of peddling vouchers for private and religious schools, the new scheme was to funnel public money into what are really private schools and thus do an end run around court decisions and elections outlawing vouchers. You very seldom hear about vouchers anymore.

Diane Ravitch:

The propagandistic nature of Waiting for “Superman” is revealed by Guggenheim’s complete indifference to the wide variation among charter schools. There are excellent charter schools, just as there are excellent public schools. Why did he not also inquire into the charter chains that are mired in unsavory real estate deals, or take his camera to the charters where most students are getting lower scores than those in the neighborhood public schools? Why did he not report on the charter principals who have been indicted for embezzlement, or the charters that blur the line between church and state? Why did he not look into the charter schools whose leaders are paid $300,000–$400,000 a year to oversee small numbers of schools and students?

Guggenheim seems to believe that teachers alone can overcome the effects of student poverty, even though there are countless studies that demonstrate the link between income and test scores. He shows us footage of the pilot Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, to the amazement of people who said it couldn’t be done. Since Yeager broke the sound barrier, we should be prepared to believe that able teachers are all it takes to overcome the disadvantages of poverty, homelessness, joblessness, poor nutrition, absent parents, etc.

Why do you need the right when you have so-called "Democrats" promoting right-wing, anti-democratic notions such as destroying public education?

Big Time Politics

Sharron Angle can rest assured she has made the big time when the New York Times of all things runs an editorial about her and the "politics of fear."

Because of his high profile, Harry Reid is a lightning rod in the state and is widely disliked. That is understandable. However, what is being proposed as an alternative is truly scary. Whether voters are that stupid to throw out somebody who has served the state many years and is the most powerful person in Washington outside of Obama in favor of a race-baiting idiot who makes Chic Hecht look like Einstein is the pressing and depressing question.

Nevadans have fucked up before with Hecht, Gibbons, and Ensign, to name just a few examples of wingnuttery gone apeshit. Are they willing to continue this shameful tradition with the election of Angle? If they are, this country has indeed hit rock-bottom.

The Times:

Ms. Angle said last week that every state should have a sheriff like Mr. Arpaio, and he returned the compliment, in his own particular, chilling way. “You guys have got a desert here,” he told the cheering, foot-stomping crowd. “Why don’t you put up some tents?” The laughter of his audience of about 2,000 people, most wearing free Angle T-shirts or buttons, practically shook the walls of Stoney’s Rockin’ Country nightclub, where hand-held signs proclaimed Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader, a traitor, a socialist and garbage.

Mr. Reid’s campaign had once looked forward to running against Ms. Angle, figuring that her extreme positions would quickly marginalize her in the minds of voters. But he somehow failed to recognize just how attractive those positions would be in a state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate and highest rates of foreclosure and bankruptcy. And he was lifeless in last week’s debate instead of making the forceful, animated challenge to Ms. Angle’s radicalism that might have motivated his supporters.

Nevada has had a long tradition of libertarian idiocy, which Sharron Angle is peddling and pandering. It infected the GOP in all kinds of ways. When I moved there 26 years ago, it was like being on another planet, and I came from--and returned to--a part of Oregon which is largely red. Over the years this right-wing idiocy was increasingly marginalized as more people from other states migrated to the Silver State. Despite Nevada going into the gutter economically and despite many people having left the state, including yours truly, political attitudes aren't as stupid as they were when Reagan was president (and almost deified there).

This commenter has it right and knows what he is talking about:

Nevada has been a libertarian anti-tax structure state for many years. The majority of the country changed with this past Presidential election, the most pivotal change since 1980. Education is now a must.
Regional transportation infrastructure is now a must. Healthcare reform became a must. Financial regulations for Wall Street and mortgage lending became a must. It wasn't socialism, Senator Reid or the Obama Administration which built all those vacant homes in Southern Nevada during 20 years of supply side frenzy. It was all the customers-partners of gaming who too the appreciation and flips to the tables, where the gaming gated communities gladly took it. When the bubble busted in September 2007 and the party ended, all the money fled, with losses protected by the words LLC in other places. The big losers were Clark County residents with homes still remaining 40-60 percent underwater 2004-2007 prices. Ironically, the gated community now needs Senator Reid's seniority in Washington to bring home the bacon for economic and energy diversity. In a strange twist of fate, not assigning the proper amount of funding for two decades into quality of life and education has left the gated communities surrounded by retired people who do not want to pay any taxes and many of those who work lacking the education to make an educated choice for Senator. They are simply mad and looking to assign blame to an elected official. Meanwhile, the energy sector of the US economy fears cap and trade legislation, and through Karl Rove is funding candidates such as Angle to purchase the kind of opposition they are buying to block legislation that reaches too far. Republicans want power back, and oppostion to cap and trade is their issue. Uninformated or undereducated Nevadans thinkg they are voting Angle for jobs, in fact they are voting Angle for no new job diversity.

link

I still expect Harry Reid to eke out a victory, even if it ends up being a few hundred votes.

Senator Harry Reid

told Ed Schultz the truth about challenger Sharron Angle, but will Nevada voters wake the hell up and realize they are about to turn the state into a further laughingstock should they elect her?

Could It Be Democrats

are finally waking the hell up and are actually going out to vote for Democratic candidates? Let's hope so, for so many of what the Republicans, or rather, the Koch brothers, are pushing are so goddamned stupid they have NO business being elected.

I mean, I could do a better job than the likes of Christine O'Donnell, who hasn't a clue about which Democrats she could work with in the Senate if elected, even if one is another senator from Delaware, to say nothing of that blithering idiot Sharron Angle.

To say nothing of Rand Paul, who is trying to run on his daddy's coattails despite the fact he has some serious problems in his past in addition to his goddamned stupid political beliefs.

As much as I can't stand so many of Obama's policies as being sellouts to neoliberalism, we KNOW the country will be in the ditch if the GOP gets back in power. Not that they aren't in charge anyway, thanks to the Senate's idiotic parliamentary rules.

News, Etc.

Is the UFT serious about going after NYC's DOE over those "value-added" appraisals of teachers? I for one will believe it when I see it.

And guess whose side the Obama administration is on?
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The Koch brothers seem to have their filthy tentacles in everything these midterm elections.
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Obituaries

Sleaze promoter Bob Guccione, 78, founder of Penthouse magazine, a rival of sorts to Playboy, of lung cancer. He had the disease for several years.

Guccione once made the Forbes 400 list of richest people. His biggest claim to fame was the publication of the Vanessa Williams pictures, which ended up costing her the Miss America title, but ultimately didn't hurt her career ambitions at all.

The magazine also published a story of the prostitute who "serviced" evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, thus helping to bring about his downfall.

Another Prominent Person in the GOP,

this time former GOP chairman Frank Fahrenkopf, has endorsed Senator Harry Reid for re-election rather than that kook Angle.

At least Newt likes her.

If she wins, I guess Nevadans don't give a shit about looking stupid.

Speaking of Reid and Nevada, Vice President Biden was in Reno stumping for the senator.

If I were still living in the state, I would have attended the rally.

News, Etc.

One of the good things about Washoe County in Nevada is its animal control department. Now it is virtually a "no-kill" shelter.

It also helps Reno and the surrounding areas are pet-friendly, unlike Oregon. Many, many places in Reno will accept pets or will charge pet rent. Oregon is way behind the times in that regard.
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Why is It People Who Know Next to Nothing About Education

think they are qualified to tell educators how to do their jobs, especially billionaires, whose only talent is they know how to game the economic system for their benefit?

They put through all kinds of pet projects that have no research basis and have not been proven to be effective at all.

This superintendent, however, nails it:

As Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent James A. Williams said in an interview: "They should come out and tell the truth. If they want to privatize public education, they should say so.”

It's more money for them, and it's a way to make sure the masses never achieve upward mobility.

NYC's DOE is Doing

what the Los Angeles Times has been doing to teachers at the LAUSD: DOE plans to release teacher "ratings," which are worthless given the highly unreliable data and the retaliatory methods of the principals there, but the UFT has filed an injunction with the NY Supreme Court.

I hope the union is successful; otherwise, we will have more suicides and other horrible consequences because of blacklisting teachers.

Gossip, Etc.

Almost twenty years have gone by since her harassing, unqualified husband got appointed to the USSC, yet Virginia "Ginny" Thomas is still unhappy at Anita Hill for telling the truth and risking her reputation in the process.

This is downright nuts. I've had anger over the way I was treated by my school district, but it was justified, although I certainly wouldn't give a shit about these people twenty years out and I don't now. But this is just nuts. I certainly wouldn't extend an "olive branch" to someone I thought was slandering my spouse.

On the other hand, it could be simple political posturing, as "Ginny" is a noted member of the Tea Party bunch.

"Passing the Trash"

Washington, D.C.'s gain could well be New Jersey's loss if dipshit extraordinaire Michelle Rhee ends up ruining the already troubled state.

However, New Jersey could be spared such a horrible fate:

Washington, D.C.’s former schools chancellor is seriously considering an offer from Gov. Chris Christie to become the state’s next education commissioner, but family concerns may prove an insurmountable stumbling block for her, two people familiar with the negotiations said.

The offer is tempting, of course, but let's hope she's sent packing elsewhere.

A comment:

She would be the biggest mistake ever, if made commissioner of education. It is time to stop the privatization of our schools. Her record is to ignore community input and fire teachers. She closes schools to have charters replace them. She was a polarizing figure with the people who she was supposedly trying to help, unhappy enough to fire the man who appointed her by voting him out of office. Any teacher who taped mouths shut and laughed about drawing blood when it was ripped off their mouths should be investigated, not employed. She does not have a degree in education and she was a teach for America teacher for a couple of years. Go to California and fix them. We have the best schools in the nation.

Why was her license not stripped when she assaulted a student? Teachers have licenses YANKED for behavior like that, and this person ran a SCHOOL DISTRICT?

She actually bragged about it.

If Only Americans

weren't so goddamned apathetic. At least the French care about whether their pensions get cut or their age of retirement raised to go as far as take to the streets.

Obituaries

Anti-abortion activist and physician Mildred Jefferson, 84. She was once president of the National Right to Life Committee.
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Actor Tom Bosley, 83, best known for his role on the 1970's sitcom Happy Days. He had been battling a staph infection although no cause of death was given.
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Supercentenarian Elsie Steele, 111 years and 246 days, the oldest person in the UK, died Monday. She was 80 days short of her 112th birthday.
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One-time child actor Johnny Sheffield, best remembered as playing "Boy" in several of the Tarzan films of the 1930s and 1940s, of a heart attack following a fall when he was pruning a tree. He was 79.

Considering the late Nevada governor Kenny Guinn died in similar circumstances, it behooves older people not to attempt to do hard physical labor, especially from high places. I wish my former landlord would heed my advice.

News, Etc.

The WSWS has a nice piece about soul great Solomon Burke, who died October 10 of natural causes. As usual the WSWS looks at his life in the context of greater social forces at work.
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It's nice to know that when you graduate from college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, you have a job waiting for you paying little more than minimum wage.

If the "reformers" have their way, people like this guy won't even have access to a higher education. They'll be screened out in middle school.
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There are some truly sick fuckers in the world. I hope the people involved lose their jobs and get their asses sued.
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News, Etc.

A descendant of Secretariat is saved from the slaughterhouse.
_____

A grand jury has indicted the Sparks, Nevada, elementary school teacher accused of placing a video camera inside a staff restroom.
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Unless People Realize What is Happening

and are willing to push back against the tide, this country will go from a democracy or representative democracy, to a plutocracy. I totally agree with Robert Reich:

Who are these people? With the exception of a few entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, they’re top executives of big corporations and Wall Street, hedge-fund managers, and private equity managers. They include the Koch brothers, whose wealth increased by billions last year, and who are now funding tea party candidates across the nation.

Which gets us to the second part of the perfect storm. A relatively few Americans are buying our democracy as never before. And they’re doing it completely in secret.

I'll tell you what: This is a country on its last legs, I'm afraid.

All Asians and Latinos Look Alike and They Look

like each other, according to Sharron Angle:



Nevadans are batshit insane to vote her in. I can't believe the whole thing is even possible.

It's Probably Pissing in the Wind,

but at least 200 Democratic candidates insist on being Democrats and have gone on record as opposing ANY cuts to Social Security.

Figuring They are Going to Lose the House,

instead of embracing Democratic principles, these so-called Democratic politicians instead try to ape Republicans in their contempt for the masses. They don't seem to get it that voters aren't approving the GOP's anti-worker policies, but that many Democrats simply aren't going to bother going to the polls because of disgust over the way Obama especially is handling the country, especially the economy.

Reid-Angle Debate for Those Lucky Enough to Miss It

Part One:



Part Two:



Part Three:



Link to the YouTube channel nice enough to put this excrement on the internet:

link

Sharron Angle Reallly Isn't a Racist

no matter what ads people have seen or what the media reports.  Her campaign's maligned "immigration" ad doesn't target Hispancs, she insists.

Does Harry Reid Deserve Nevadans?

We will find out November 2 if voters in the Silver State are stupid enough to elect a bona fide idiot to the United States Senate and thus lose a lot of power in the process.

As the editorial notes, Reid is the most powerful person in Congress, or at least the top figurehead in the legislative body.  Angle is nothing but a laughingstock.

If she actually gets elected, nobody will be laughing, except people like the Koch brothers who hold the average person in contempt.

Ward and June Are Together Again

Yet another cultural icon has died:  Barbara Billingsley, who is best remembered as playing June Cleaver in the 1950s-early '60s television classic, Leave It to Beaver, died today of rheumatoid disorder polymyalgia, according to her publicist.  She was 94 years old.

The role of June Cleaver was seen as an unrealistic ideal, the perfect housewife who dressed up in pearls, even when cooking or cleaning the living room.  However, there was a practical reason why Billingsley always wore pearls:  It was because she didn't like the way her neck looked without them.

From the Los Angeles Times obituary:

Born Barbara Combes in Los Angeles on Dec. 22, 1915, she and her sister grew up in a single-parent household after her parents divorced when she was an infant.

She always wanted to be an actress. She was attending Los Angeles City College when she joined the cast of "Straw Hat," a comedy that went to Broadway in late 1937. The show closed after four performances, but she "decided New York was more fun than college" and found work as a $60-a-week fashion model. She later toured with Billie Burke in a production of "Accidentally Yours."

Her marriage in the early 1940s to restaurant operator Glenn Billingsley, nephew of Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley, produced two sons and prompted her move back to Los Angeles, where her husband managed the Mocambo nightclub.

When the marriage ended in divorce in the late '40s, Barbara Billingsley already had begun playing uncredited bit parts and small roles in a string of B movies. That continued into the '50s, when she also began landing roles on "Four Star Playhouse" and other television anthology programs.

Interesting her own childhood was hardly the "ideal."

Know Your Enemies

Case in point: Thomas Donohue of the United States Chamber of Commerce, who is spewing garbage about how great "outsourcing" is while at the same time claiming Democrats are the ones who are "killing" jobs:

I Think Paul Krugman

is slowly waking up to the fact Obama really doesn't give a shit about helping people and is more concerned for the banksters and others who are stealing the people blind.

We ain't seen anything yet when it comes to the foreclosure fraud.

Krugman:

True to form, the Obama administration’s response has been to oppose any action that might upset the banks, like a temporary moratorium on foreclosures while some of the issues are resolved. Instead, it is asking the banks, very nicely, to behave better and clean up their act. I mean, that’s worked so well in the past, right?

The response from the right is, however, even worse. Republicans in Congress are lying low, but conservative commentators like those at The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page have come out dismissing the lack of proper documents as a triviality. In effect, they’re saying that if a bank says it owns your house, we should just take its word. To me, this evokes the days when noblemen felt free to take whatever they wanted, knowing that peasants had no standing in the courts. But then, I suspect that some people regard those as the good old days.

Only If You've Been Through These Shams

called "due process" hearings and teacher "investigations" can you really appreciate how easy it is to destroy teachers on false charges merely because a principal determines you are in his or her way.

This teacher is luckier than most.

News, Etc.

The Elko Daily Free Press, which endorsed John McCain for president two years ago, has decided to endorse Senator Harry Reid for re-election.

As if there were really a choice.

____

Obama has probably signed his political death warrant by refusing to put a moratorium on foreclosures.

If there had ever been any doubt whose side he is really on, there shouldn't be now.
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Gossip, Etc.

Rumor has it freed miner Yonni Barrios has a second mistress.

And so it goes...

Reid-Angle Debate

In case you are bored, here is the "debate" of the year, whereby the moron Angle doesn't even bother to answer the questions:

link

Nevadans deserve what they get if they put this moron in there.

Lest We Forget,

the Chilean miner rescue was indeed a miracle of science and technology, but the fact the mine collapsed at all shows the complete failure of businesses to do what is necessary for worker safety.

Workers at the San Jose mine had long complained about the unsafe working conditions.

For Chilean Miner Yonni Barrios,

his life above ground became more interesting than the weeks he spent underground, and he probably wishes he could crawl under a rock now.

His private life has now become public fodder all over the world:

But very soon the 50-year-old miner became even better known for something rather less noble. His wife and another woman were both holding a vigil for him in Camp Hope.

Marta Salinas, 58, whom he married 28 years ago, reportedly almost came to blows with Susana Valenzuela, 50, when they faced off in the mine’s dining area. The pair had to be pulled apart.

According to Miss Salinas, Barrios had been dividing his time between the two women for the last couple of years. And it was Miss Valenzuela who broke the news to her that there had been an accident at the mine.

As his wife began to get involved in his affairs on Camp Hope, he instructed teams on the surface to deal with his lover instead.

Chilean Miner Rescue

Live stream:



This is the longest underground entrapment in all of human history.

In at least one of miner's cases, the wife boycotted her husband's rescue when she found out his mistress was already at the site keeping vigil.

Over a month ago, the WSWS commented about the disaster, reminding us the trapped miners were and are victims of the ruthless drive for profit. Safety is secondary, if it is considered at all.

Update: All 33 miners are now out of the mine. There are about six rescuers left down there, and they will be up shortly.

Update II: Everyone is out of the mine now. This is the roster of those miners rescued today.

News, Etc.

So far 15 of the 33 Chilean miners have been rescued after being entombed in the mine for something like 69 days.

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At least one school superintendent found herself fired after misusing school district credit cards.

If you or I did that, we'd probably be in jail, not just fired.
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While Our Congress and Other Officials

in Washington can't seem to grasp the sheer horror of massive unemployment, underemployment, and general poverty since they are so stupid and they have jobs. They are also so dimwitted they can't understand the problem in the economy is lack of demand, which is a result of not having jobs or having jobs paying too little to buy goods and services.

But there is no such problem with Wall Street's executives. These crooks and parasites are doing better than ever.

Good Riddance to Fucking Bad Rubbish

Unfortunately, some other unsuspecting district will hire this piece of human shit who isn't qualified to run a hot dog stand, let alone a huge school district.

Snip:

But Rhee will leave with considerable unfinished business in her quest to improve teaching, close the worst schools and infuse a culture of excellence in a system that has been one of the nation's least effective at educating students.

I thought reporters were supposed to write articles, not oped writers.

Any Time There is Privatization of a Public Good,

you KNOW the results are rotten. There is a reason why there is a private sector and why there is a public sector. A mixed economy is always the best.

Still, the privatizers push on with their schemes, facts be damned.

News, Etc.

With "Democrats" like this administration who seem to be hellbent on propping up the banksters no matter what, it's little wonder the party in general is vulnerable in next month's elections.

While senior Congressional Democrats join the calls for a national moratorium on foreclosures, the White House once again is arguing against punishing the industry, just as it did in 2009 amid the outcry over the unbreakable habit of paying large bonuses.

“Irresponsible banks need to be held accountable, but if we have not found a problem with a bank’s process we do not believe that we should impose a moratorium where that can hurt the market and hurt individual buyers,” said Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

This is nothing but putting off the inevitable.

It's certainly gratifying to note the administration wants to cover for the greatest swindle in world history:

Watch live streaming video from ceplive at livestream.com

link
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Sharron Angle decides to rewrite her positions on a variety of issues long after she has been exposed as a dipshit extremist. Not to mention she is completely untrustworthy.
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Obituaries: Champion racehorse Pleasant Tap, 23, was euthanized October 8 because of laminitis.
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The dog that wouldn't die:

If You Want Evidence of a Class War Waged by Washington,

look no further than the way the elderly are treated. They have to make sacrifices while the crooks on Wall Street continue being pandered.

It makes me so sick.

More Secretariat

Good piece telling why no horse dominated the way Big Red II did:

toledoblade.com -- The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio


This piece tells why he was bigger than any movie.


I hate to break it to you, Andy, but you don't have to be Rush Limbaugh to think your review of the film was the stupidest goddamned review ever for a motion picture. At least Roger Ebert tore in a few more assholes into this idiot:

Penny Chenery arouses O'Hehir's ire by being wealthy and living with her family in Colorado "in a resplendent collection of period knitwear and steel-magnolia 'tude." In other words, period clothing. But she cannot be held guilty of having money honestly earned. That money was secondary in her mind is demonstrated when she prevents both sides of her family from selling the farm, and refuses $7 million for Secretariat. O'Hehir admits that he loves the film's "wonderfully varied and dazzling approaches to Secretariat's four big races." Chenery obviously loved those races too, and literally bet the farm in order to see them.

Wait. There is yet another sinister subtext to be exposed in the film. O'Hehir mentions that Randall Wallace, who directed the film, "is one of mainstream Hollywood's few prominent Christians, and has spoken openly about his faith and his desire to make movies that appeal to 'people with middle-American values'." To which I respond: I am a person with middle-American values, and the film appealed to me. This news just in: There are probably more liberals with middle-American values than conservatives, especially if your idea of middle-American values overlaps with the Beatitudes, as mine does.

I suspect the reason O'Hehir (what the hell kind of name is THAT--"Hehir"--it's as confusing as his stupid review) wrote such a piece was to draw attention to himself by trying to paint a racehorse as some kind of Aryan symbol. He sure as hell did draw attention, and not in a good way.

Penny Chenery's son John Tweedy responded in Salon's letters:

"Secretariat" and Race

I hesitate to wade back into this conversation, but I do need to add a few comments about "Secretariat's" portrayal of Eddie Sweat, his groom. I actually found Nelsan Ellis's portrayal of Eddie's expressions, the cadence of his speech, and his deep professional skill and connection with horses one of the most accurate and moving parts of the film. I just watched an interview with Eddie, filmed just before Secretariat's last race, and the resemblance is remarkable. On the other hand, I agree that the scene of Eddie, Miss Ham, and Penny all boogieing to Motown were, shall we say, not historically accurate. But this is not for the reason Mr. O'Hehir identifies. Rather, it is anachronistic to think that my grandfather's secretary would have boogied to anything more recent than Scott Joplin, or that Penny would have gooten loose to music fresher than Sinatra. It is also not accurate to think that any of the three characters would have danced with each other at all in 1973. This is one of the movie's "feel good" moments, and O'Hehir is certainly within his rights to criticize it. But it is worth clarifying that the moment's real mischaracterization is of the white people, not the black.

O'Hehir also castigates the portrayal of Pancho Martin as "swarthy" and "vaguely terrorist." In real life, Martin was Cuban, and in real life, he did engage in some trash talk before the Derby. Bill Nack, Secretariat's biographer, recorded some of these comments at the time, and he has shared his evidence among the comments on Roger Ebert's blog. This kind of trash talking was not uncommon in sports journalism of that era, and it is more common now. The movie hams it up, but does not invent it from whole cloth. Mr. O'Hehir's choice to call a Latino actor playing a Latino character "swarthy" makes me more uncomfortable for Mr. O'Hehir than for the producers of the film.

Perhaps the broadest "stereotype" (if you want to call it that) in the movie is John Malkovich's wonderfully comedic portrayal of Lucien Laurin, who in real life was a courtly, private man not at all prone to the kind of bluster Malkovich lets loose on screen. Nevertheless I enjoy the movie portrayal of him, and I think it works well as cinema. I am not aware that Malkovich's performance was rooted in any prejudice against French Canadians. But perhaps Mr. O'Hehir could help me perceive a darker agenda.
—John Tweedy

He also wrote a great response here.

So did Bill Nack.

It's Worse Than We Thought

The unemployment situation is far, far worse than some would have you believe.  We are 11.5 million jobs short.  This is according to the Economic Policy Institute.

link

But remember, we who are jobless or underemployed aren't trying hard enough to find jobs.  In reality, the jobless are like Ahab trying to find Moby Dick.

The report:

link

News, Etc.

Usually when school districts are sued by parents, they will typically drag the cases out for years until a settlement is reached.  Rare is the school district that, after discouraged parents drop their complaint, decides to sue them for damages.

This is such an outrageous waste of taxpayer money.  The voters should recall the school board and the current superintendent should be fired for malfeseance.

Video report:


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More public schools in Boston are threatened with closure.
_____

News, Etc.

The shit is gonna hit the fan over this foreclosure mess.
_____

I am shocked, SHOCKED over the possibility NYC schools were gaming the system when it came to standardized tests.
_____

"Secretariat"

If one can suspend belief long enough to accept Keeneland Racecourse as Belmont Park and that the actor playing trainer Lucien Laurin is about twice as tall as the real one was, and if one can accept some creative license, the film based on the racing great's story (and actually more of owner Penny Chenery's life than the champ) is quite enjoyable.

I don't have a whole lot to say about it except Diane Lane basically carried the movie, and she was very good playing the well-to-do-housewife forced by circumstance to take over her ailing father's thoroughbred farm and ultimately to find tremendous success despite her initial inexperience. It would have been nice had her first big winner after she took over the Meadow, Riva Ridge, the winner of the 1972 Derby and Belmont, been mentioned, as I think Chenery always had a soft spot for this horse, but I guess when one makes a film, one has to cut some of the story out. Chenery herself has a cameo appearance in the final scene at "Belmont Park." So do writer Bill Nack and former Churchill Downs announcer Mike Battaglia earlier in the picture. Even Secretariat himself made an appearance, through a clever use of the kinescope of his 1973 Preakness race, thus saving the filmmakers money not having to film a reenactment at Pimlico or a similar track.

I wondered how the filmmakers would handle the Belmont, since reenacting it is basically unfilmable without using the original CBS footage, but they succeeded through tight editing and creative camera angles.

Of course there were many inaccuracies and omissions in the film. The ones that most jumped out at me had to do with Lucien Laurin and how he came be hired by the Meadow. I don't believe Bull Hancock had anything to do with it; instead, Lucien was recommended by his son Roger Laurin, when the younger Laurin decided to leave the Meadow. Bull Hancock actually had recommended Roger as trainer for the Meadow after the previous trainer had retired--not been fired, as was depicted in the movie. I also don't believe Chenery had that much trouble at all syndicating Secretariat, contrary to the film (of course, Riva Ridge was syndicated at the same time). By the end of Secretariat's two-year-old career--hell, by the time he won the Hopeful in the summer of 1972--he was already being hailed as the second coming of Man O'War. He was already seen as a shoo-in for the 1973 Triple Crown. It's possible it was in the Nack book, but since I haven't read it in years, I am not sure if Chenery had that much difficulty.

As for the 1973 Wood Memorial, Secretariat's most infamous defeat, the winner Angle Light was also trained by Lucien Laurin, but I don't think the film noted that. It should have been noted, and it also should have been noted people congratulated Laurin for having won the race--with the wrong horse. It would have made a good comic touch.

More inaccuracies are noted here.

If the film gets more people interested in horse racing and Secretariat, then it will have fulfilled its purpose.

As for the Belmont, you can see the entire CBS original footage on YouTube. This link is to part four of the broadcast. The Preakness and Derby races have also been uploaded. For the record, I have this DVD of it, probably a bootleg, as CBS has NEVER officially released any of the original broadcasts on either VHS or DVD. It should.

Miscellaneous links: Jockey Ron Turcotte gave his seal of approval of the movie.

A roundup of reviews is here. The Salon review was about the stupidest review I have ever read in my life, and I decided a few days ago not to put a link here.

Not every goddamned thing is a political statement, especially a movie about a racehorse and his owner.

Meanwhile, Andrew Beyer of "speed figure" fame remembers the champion:

At each stage of his career, Secretariat's winning times and speed figures provided objective evidence that he was an extraordinary runner. His greatest performance, of course, was the Belmont Stakes, where he dueled with Sham at a seemingly suicidal pace for three-quarters of a mile and proceeded to draw away to a 31-length victory. The prevailing track record, Gallant Man's 2:263/5, was considered almost unassailable; only one other winner in the Belmont's history had run faster than 2:28. When Secretariat crossed the finish line in 2:24 flat, he had raced into a new dimension.

Years later, when my speed-figure methods had matured, I revisited the data from the day of the 1973 Belmont and tried to produce a figure that would relate to my present-day numbers. I calculated that Secretariat had earned a 139, a figure that no horse after him has ever approached. (The best Beyer Speed Figure in the last two decades was Ghostzapper's 128 in 2004.)

Just a Few Months Ago, Rolling Stone

did a piece on Solomon Burke, noting he was one of the last of the great soul singers. This article could also serve as his obituary:

One night, someone contemptuously threw a quarter into the street for Burke outside of a bar. He went to pick it up and recalls distinctly hearing a disembodied voice say, “If you pick up that quarter, you’ll be doing that for the rest of your life.” He stood up – and got hit by a car driven by the wife of a dentist who took him home and nursed him back to health. He ended up marrying her niece Delores and got over the shame of his wrecked singing career, taking a job as an apprentice mortician at his uncle’s funeral home. “I loved the work,” says Burke. “At a moment when there is no hope for a family, a mortician can give them hope. My daughter Victoria is in the funeral business now, and she’s brilliant at it.”

Burke did everything from embalming to comforting the bereaved, and his family started to grow. By 1961, he had “three kids on the outside, and about four at home.” When a local manager offered him a Lincoln Continental if he’d resume his singing career, it seemed a good way to make money. Soon he was signed to Atlantic Records, which was looking for church-trained singers who had the chops to cross over.

Lots more at the link.

Obituaries

Soul singer, composer, and one of the all-time greats, Solomon Burke, 70, died after collapsing at an Amsterdam airport.

Burke won a Grammy award and was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

From 2003:



Burke had 21 children (by four women), which must be some kind of record in popular music, 90 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren. He had been a preacher prior to his career, and, interestingly enough, was a mortician at one point.
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Director Arthur Penn of Bonnie and Clyde fame, 88.

News, Etc.

Democratic Underground and Field & Stream, to name just a couple of defendants, are striking back against the shyster Righthaven law firm. I also learned of a new legal word to me, barratry, which summarizes exactly what this gang of shysters are doing:

"The plaintiff's claim is barred by its unclean hands, in that the plaintiff is engaged in barratry."

(Barratry is defined as the excessive incitement of litigation. Righthaven defendants say the company's typical procedure of suing without trying to resolve copyright infringements out of court backs up this claim. Righthaven says it's not practical for newspapers to contact alleged infringers to request they stop infringing.)

It appears Sherm whatshisname from the LVRJ will have to give a deposition later this month.

There is this other legal concept new to me, called champerty:

The questioning of Frederick may involve issues including the allegation of champerty, which is defined as an improper relationship between a party funding a lawsuit and the party actually filing the suit.

In other words, you need really good lawyers who know the ins and outs of the law to be able to fight these scumbags. I don't see how Righthaven can prevail. I just wish outfits didn't settle with them because that is the whole point of the lawsuits to begin with. It's a shakedown operation.
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The rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped since August 5, if successful, must rank among the greatest rescue stories of all time:

A drill digging a rescue shaft has reached the underground chamber where 33 Chilean miners have been trapped since August 5.

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane, outside the mine in Chile, reported sirens and horns blaring this morning at about 8 a.m. ET, announcing the long-awaited breakthrough.

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If he were alive today, music great John Lennon would be 70.

A statue dedicated to his memory was unveiled in Liverpool. It was designed by a 19-year-old American, Lauren Volers.
_____

Yep.

Once this foreclosure mess is finally shaken out, it will be the biggest scandal not just of capital markets, but the biggest scandal ever to hit the United States and threatens to completely ruin the economy.

link

Meanwhile, the latest job report was just more bad news, with 95,000 more jobs shed last month and the "official" unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent.

NYC's Joel Klein

put forward his notion of a "manifesto" to destroy public education, which promotes the same privatization nonsense peddled by Duncan, Obama, and their ilk. Naturally, there is no evidence to support his ideas. Klein also isn't an educator in any sense of the word; he's an attorney who received a political appointment by a billionaire.

link

It is signed by a host of the country's worst superintendents and big shots, including Huberman of Chicago, Rhee of D.C., Ackerman of Philadelphia*, and Vallas of New Orleans. A virtual "who's who" of scoundrels.

*--Edit: Arlene Ackerman, to her credit, repudiated this manifesto. Her name should not have been on it.

Education is the Only Field

where people think, just because they have been a student or have kids in school, they are experts. And if they are actors or other non-educators who just happen to be well-known, we are supposed to take their ill-informed or outright ignorant opinions as gospel.

Someday people will understand public school "tenure" isn't in any way similar or identical to college and university tenure; the latter is an arduous process with a guaranteed lifetime job at the end of seven years of service, and many people don't receive it. University tenure is decided by a panel, not by one individual as in public education (the principal), and, if a college instructor is denied it, it doesn't kill his or her career, unlike teaching in a public school. Public school "tenure" is merely the right to have a rigged hearing if a vindictive or unscrupulous principal or other administrator wants to get rid of you. If the principal screws up, as mine did, the district will rig the proceedings--supposedly legal proceedings which in theory the "award" can be appealed to a higher court--by committing criminal acts in order to protect the negligent, vindictive, or incompetent principal. Principals, on the other hand, are almost never gotten rid of unless they are caught committing crimes. Then it makes the news. Remember, principals also have unions.

"I'm Sharron Angle, and I Approve This Message."

Sharron Angle strikes (out) again, and this ad is low--even for her:




If Nevadans vote her in, they get exactly what they deserve.

Some People Have Absolutely NO Business Having Kids

if they can't  understand the importance of picture books for young children.  My God, what  is the matter with people?

Stuart Little is TOTALLY inappropriate for four-year-olds.  What in the HELL is wrong with people?

This is nothing but a form of child abuse:

Some parents say they just want to advance their children’s skills. Amanda Gignac, a stay-at-home mother in San Antonio who writes The Zen Leaf, a book blog, said her youngest son, Laurence, started reading chapter books when he was 4.

Now Laurence is 6 ½, and while he regularly tackles 80-page chapter books, he is still a “reluctant reader,” Ms. Gignac said.

Sometimes, she said, he tries to go back to picture books.

“He would still read picture books now if we let him, because he doesn’t want to work to read,” she said, adding that she and her husband have kept him reading chapter books.

I cannot fucking believe it.

News, Etc.

Nevada woman Nancy Dunsavage Fiedler, 57, claimed the reason she abducted her daughter 26 years ago was to get away from an abusive situation with her ex-husband.
_____

The Hits Keep Coming at Sharron Angle,

and this one really hurts.  Raggio is Mr. Republican in Nevada, a classic "conservative," and he has bailed on Angle:

Raggio, Nevada’s longest serving state senator, said he could put past differences between him and Angle behind him but her record in the Legislature as an assemblywoman from Reno and some of her opinions tilted his support toward Reid.


“What is difficult to overlook is her record of being totally ineffective as a four-term assemblywomen, her inability or unwillingness to work with others, even within her own party, and her extreme positions on issues such as Medicare, social security, education, veterans affairs and many others,” Raggio said.

The Wholesale Bribery of Our Congress

is why this country is in such a mess.

What makes it so bad is people have been asleep at the switch, and they have largely been propagandized by the media owned by the very same class of people doing the bribing, but they are slowly waking up to the scam.

Whether it is too little, too late remains to be seen.

Corporate Greed,

aided and abetted by our elected officials, is the reason for the outrageously high unemployment in this country.  The problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the "mismatch" of "skills."  In the search for ever increasing profits, corporations ditched high-paying jobs here in favor of near slave wages in countries like China, and never mind the disastrous consequences for the United States when people could no longer purchase the products which are made elsewhere (and products THOSE workers cannot afford).

Manufacturing MUST come back here in order for this economy to survive; people are tapped out to the gills on credit, so things can no longer be "purchased" that way.

link

News, Etc.

If somebody broke into my place and stole my paycheck, he or she would be doing jail time.  So should this charter school, which docked money this teacher had already EARNED through the year.  As one commenter said, it is "deferred compensation."  Teachers are typically paid year round while working ten months so as to be able to have steady income during the ten weeks they are off during the summer (or during track breaks).

You BET that school should have its ass sued.

Two days pay docked may be reasonable, but two months is outright theft.
_____

Daisy the dog has been finally freed from death row.

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Coincidentally, Congress passed without a peep a bill that would actually justify or condone the current megascandal of forged foreclosure documents.  Obama will "pocket veto" this two-page bill, since Congress will be going on yet another vacation, no doubt the reason representatives and senators couldn't be bothered to slog through a two-page piece of legislation.

This isn't the first time Congress has passed legislation they never bothered to read.
_____

Sharron Angle's pastor is working overtime to make sure she never gets elected to the United States Senate.
_____


Roger Ebert likes  Secretariat.  He informs us he has been a longtime friend of author and Secretariat's biographer Bill Nack for many years.
_____

The "Documentary" Waiting for Superman

might just as well been funded by the Tea Party people or the Koch brothers given its completely anti-public education stance.

What is shocking is the filmmaker obviously doesn't understand what the purpose of public education is all about, and that is it is a foundation of a democracy and an educated citizenry necessary to have that democracy.

Instead, this film repeats right-wing horse manure peddled by the Republican Party for years, only this time we have so-called "Democrats" and "liberals" spewing this garbage.

It's Good

teachers win a victory once in a while, especially when Arne Duncan was the target.

The Giant Foreclosure Scandal

is explained in plain English in this article from Alternet.

A snip:

Banks intentionally skimped on their mortgage paperwork during the housing bubble—it cut their costs and made the sale of mortgage-backed securities more profitable. A basic, standardized part of the mortgage process at many banks included forging or destroying key documents, or never bothering to write them up in the first place. Those reckless procedures have been applied to millions of mortgages issued over the past decade, and allowed inflated bonus checks to be written for years. But things are about to get very ugly for the banks.

Mortgage documentation has been so shoddy that banks can’t actually prove that they own the mortgages they want to foreclose on. This isn’t a small scandal, it isn’t a minor clerical issue, and it isn’t a problem that banks deserve help from taxpayers to solve. Wall Street has simply not performed the basic tasks necessary to track ownership of its assets. Imagine a car manufacturer being unable to document the sale of automobiles. The basic business has broken.
 

As the writer says, these people who perpetrated this theft, this fraud, should be going to prison.  It's that serious.

Ten Cents Says Congress Won't Do One Thing

about "extending" jobless benefits--this is about creating an "austerity" program whereby all of the peons have to pay for the banksters' and other rich elites' screwups.

I didn't hold my breath about a Tier 5, and I sure won't be holding my breath for ANY further help for those still on extended unemployment benefits.

The L.A. Times

is clearly in no position to cast stones when it comes to labeling and libeling teachers.

Not that it will stop them, however.

News, Etc.

Naturally the reason for the layoffs and wage concessions  is to increase corporate profits.

There is no shame with these greedheads.
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Nevada is dying on the vine thanks to this lousy economy, and Reno promises to be another Detroit.

More About the Outrageous Attempt in LA Unified

to fuck over teachers, especially the more "expensive" teachers, thanks to an idiot judge's ruling.

Anybody who thinks this is a good thing should have his or her head examined for holes.  This is all about instituting age discrimination in order to hire the cheap little shits who aren't better than experienced teachers.

By the way, this was done behind the UTLA's back, but if they want to survive, they had better carry out their threat of suing.

News, Etc.

The foreclosure scandal promises to get bigger now that Nancy Pelosi has stepped up to the plate.
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Veteran, older teachers (read MORE expensive) are about to get fucked over by L.A. Unified.
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Too little, too late,  Barry.

Diane Ravitch

says she is "furious" over the L.A. Times' dishonest use of "value-added" scores to measure teacher "effectiveness," when in fact this notion is inherently flawed.

And so I concluded that value-added assessment should not be used at all. Never. It has a wide margin of error. It is unstable. A teacher who is highly effective one year may get a different rating the next year depending on which students are assigned to his or her class. Ratings may differ if the tests differ. To the extent it is used, it will narrow the curriculum and promote teaching to tests. Teachers will be mislabeled and stigmatized. Many factors that influence student scores will not be counted at all.

It's all about the kids, who are not "data" to be manipulated.