It Figures

the White House would dodge questions about unemployment among people over 48; actually, people over 50 or 55 have born the brunt of joblessness and have great difficulty finding work of any kind.

link

It Certainly Makes Sense

Obama would put in a wage freeze for federal workers and help make the economy worse when these people would have even less money to spend.

Meanwhile, our Congress is all concerned whether the filthy rich will get their tax cuts.

Howard Dean Interview

It's time for the GOP to put its money where its big mouth is:

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

News, Etc.

If only Americans were as astute as Irish workers to know they are going to be repeatedly screwed over until they have NOTHING left.

At least the European workers and students aren't going down without a fight.
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Meanwhile, Obama is hellbent on screwing over federal workers, as long as they aren't his buddies.
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This is a good example of "it takes one to know one":

link
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Despite all of the hoopla surrounding the Wikileaks story from both journalists and bloggers, the plain fact is few Americans even give a shit about foreign policy, state secrets, or even Iraq and Afghanistan, with only family and friends of people fighting in those two countries being concerned.

After all, when your house is being foreclosed or you have no job or not enough food to eat, what is happening with Wikileaks is simply irrelevant.
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Valerie, you can't be serious and expect a gigolo who calls himself a "journalist" to have a clue about public education.
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And Of Course Both Parties are on the Same Team

when it comes to "extending" unemployment benefits, which in reality haven't been extended in over a year. Now Congress doesn't even want to push back filing dates for the various tiers, lest anyone think the UI rate is higher than is being claimed by the government.

And for those of us who have exhausted all benefits, well, it's too bad, so sad.

WSWS:

Thus, it would actually be highly popular for Obama to take up the cudgel for extended unemployment benefits. His refusal to do so demonstrates the actual class forces that the Obama administration and both the Democratic and Republican parties represent. The entire official political structure defends the interests of “the corporate chiefs and titans of Wall Street who are at the heart of the American aristocracy,” to use Herbert’s language.

Far from taking measures to alleviate the impact of mass unemployment, let alone provide jobs for those who desperately want them, the Obama administration and the American corporate elite as a whole are using mass unemployment to impoverish the working class and drive down wages throughout the country.

One Must Understand

that when it comes to education and a host of other issues, there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the Republican and Democratic parties anymore.

Bush after all laid the groundwork for all of this dubious "reform"; it has accelerated under Obama.

In any case, this country is screwed in a million different ways. Children, parents, and teachers don't have a chance against these billionaires and crooks.

It's all about limiting upward mobility for the masses.

Obituaries

Actor Leslie Nielsen, 84, best known for his Naked Gun films, of pneumonia.
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At This Point,

I think any Republican could beat Obama in 2012, even the much-maligned Sarah Palin.

Just about the only way the GOP could lose the White House at this point is if they nominated Obama. After all, he really is one of them.

Obama needs to refuse to run for re-election. He's done enough damage to the Democratic Party.

News, Etc.

Speaking of parasites, it didn't take long for lawyers to feed off the legal system in pursuit of bedbug lawsuits.

The claims, ranging from $100,000 to $3.55 million, are mostly against apartment building owners and managers who the victims say were negligent in dealing with infestations.

The lawsuits have made Whitney the object of scorn, with some people suggesting that he's, well . . . something of a human parasite himself.

Lawyers have always been a bit irony impaired.
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Teachers who refuse to follow principals' illegal directives usually suffer harassment or worse. Inflating or changing grades is common in both public and private schools, and teachers who refuse to do so generally have their careers destroyed by vindictive administrators.
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The NYT Has a Pretty Good Editorial

about how Congress couldn't care less about "extending" unemployment benefits (which isn't "extending" them at all, of course, as the exhaustees are now thrown out on the street) unless somehow there is some kind of deal cut to allow the parasitical class to keep their outrageous tax cuts.

But the paper shouldn't be shocked. Congress doesn't represent the people any longer.

Is It Any Wonder the Elites

are partying like it's New Year's Day every day? After all, they are doing better than ever leeching off the backs of everybody else and then sneering at their inferiors for swallowing the propaganda that giving them everything will make THEM rich.

Don't count on economic recovery--ever--if the demand side isn't allowed to have more money to spend.

Of course this is all deliberate. These fuckers WANT a third world country here.

Herbert:

A stark example of the potential for real conflict is being played out in New York City, where the multibillionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has selected a glittering example of the American aristocracy to be the city’s schools chancellor. Cathleen Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, has a reputation as a crackerjack corporate executive but absolutely no background in education.

Ms. Black travels in the rarefied environs of the very rich. Her own children went to private boarding schools. She owns a penthouse on Park Avenue and a $4 million home in Southampton. She was able to loan a $47,600 Bulgari bracelet to a museum for an exhibit showing off the baubles of the city’s most successful women.

Ms. Black will be peering across an almost unbridgeable gap between her and the largely poor and working-class parents and students she will be expected to serve. Worse, Mr. Bloomberg, heralding Ms. Black as a “superstar manager,” has made it clear that because of budget shortfalls she will be focused on managing cutbacks to the school system.

So here we have the billionaire and the millionaire telling the poor and the struggling — the little people — that they will just have to make do with less. You can almost feel the bitterness rising.

These people keep pushing it, it will be off with their heads--literally.

Don't Count on Tom DeLay

spending much time in prison if any time, thanks to the USSC already legalizing bribery.

As If We Need MORE of Obama's Meddling

in matters he is completely unqualified to take on. He says he is going to focus more on destroying public education these next couple of years than he already has.

The sooner he's forced down from the presidency by being primaried or defeated in 2012, the better off we will be.

News, Etc.

Losing a pet is about the hardest thing to go through, and it is certainly harder than any divorce.

In the World of Bill, Arne, and Barry,

education for teachers is considered a liability, especially when it costs to pay teachers more money.

While Those of Us Who are Jobless or Underemployed

try to make do with what little we have, but Congressional millionaires are doing better than ever.

No wonder they hate us.

News, Etc.

It was a year ago as we were recovering from our turkey dinners Tiger Woods was involved in a car accident that ended up ruining his reputation and almost his career.
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I am sure the SF taxpayers are just thrilled with this proposal given the state of the California economy.
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The Bottom Line

is, school personnel CANNOT put duct tape over a student's mouth. It is considered assault and is a firing offense.

If the incident is true, the secretary, regardless of her conflict-of-interest, should also be fired.

Obviously there is more to the situation politically than meets the eye, but if the duct tape incident is true, then this is really a no-brainer.

Teachers have been fired for far less serious, even petty, offenses.

link

U.S. Corporations Have a Lot to Be Thankful

While unemployment, foreclosures, and general economic misery remain at record levels, it's comforting to know corporations are doing better than ever.

In Some Good Thanksgiving News About Political Turkeys,

the Hammer finally got nailed by a Texas jury.

I never thought I'd see the day it would happen.

Just wait for Obama to pardon him.

Once in a While

school district superintendents become embarrassed enough when scandals are made public to decide to pack it in and quit.

In reality, superintendents have far less job security than senior administrators who are NOT held accountable to the school board or voters. Beginning at the principal level, it is almost impossible to remove them unless they are caught committing crimes.

A snip about Beverly Hall:

Hall is the latest in a string of high-profile urban superintendents to leave their posts.


Earlier this month, New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Chicago schools chief Ron Huberman announced they would step down. The controversial reformer of the Washington, D.C., public school system, Michelle Rhee, resigned in October.


What set Hall apart from most big-city school chiefs was her 11-year tenure — the average urban superintendent lasts less than half that time — and recognition that has made her one of the nation’s most in-demand education speakers.


Atlanta hired Hall in 1999 after she rose through the ranks in the public schools of Newark, N.J., and New York City. When she arrived, 90 percent of the system’s kindergarten teachers said they did not believe their pupils would graduate.

Quite a career obituary, if you ask me.

News, Comments, and So Forth

Michael Moore tells us what we already know, and that's how corporations are shoving us down a rathole that's almost impossible to get out.
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Obama hailed the auto industry's ability once again to make a profit.
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If you want to know why an ignorant individual was appointed to replace Joel Klein in NYC's public schools, this provides an answer.
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More proof for-profit colleges are nothing but a ripoff of taxpayers and students.
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Welcome to the full blown assault on teacher professionalism. Now these idiots without a clue tell us master's degrees shouldn't matter, and they are worthless anyway.

After all, when you are of a philosophical bent which believes education is a waste of money for almost all workers, then why should teachers even be educated much more than the students?

News, Etc.

The only thing that would have been more "shocking" than Sharron Angle's loss against Senator Harry Reid is if she would have won.
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Ben Bernanke is put on the defensive regarding fed policy.
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It seems yet another Obama crony is in trouble, this one over an alleged kickback scheme.

The Chicago school of politics went national with the inauguration of Barack Obama.
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Ralph Nader uses his creativity--or maybe not--by imagining our previous squatter in the White House writing a letter to Barry.
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Unbelievable if you're old enough, but it has been fifty years since JFK was elected president over Richard Nixon. It's also unbelievable that lofty ideas Kennedy espoused were buried and forgotten almost as soon as he died.

JFK might as well have been living on another planet. We are now so far from any kind of sense of justice, equality, and decency we might just as well be living in the medieval times of feudalism.
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Republicans Like the Despicable Alan Simpson

absolutely WANT confrontation, and they will use the debt limit to absolutely fuck people over even more. They will threaten to close down the government if they don't get what they want.

You can bet your ass Obama will cave. You can't make nice with fascists, but Obama has been more than eager to join them.

Simpson may want a "bloodbath," but he may actually get far more than he bargained for in REAL bloodletting. Especially in the instance of millions upon millions of people being jobless.

Obituaries

The sixth and final wife of novelist/writer/whatever Norman Mailer, Norris Church, has died of cancer at the age of 61.
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The Billionaires or Gigolos of Billionaires

claim they know what's best for teachers and schools when it is startlingly obvious they know NOTHING, and that teachers fare much worse as it is on pay and benefits than many in the private sector.

And yes these idiots also forget that in 14 or 15 states, teachers and other public employees don't pay into Social Security. That means if they start and end their teaching careers in the public schools, they won't be eligible for Social Security. If they worked part of their careers in education or other public jobs in these states, their SS benefits are reduced thanks to the "windfall elimination provision" unless they have paid into the system for at least 30 years.

News, Etc.

Nevada has something to cheer about as the statewide unemployment rate "fell" to a mere 14.2 percent in October.

The state had nowhere to go but down.
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Fat chance we will hear a public apology from the likes of Nancy Grace for character assassinating former representative Gary Condit in connection with the Chandra Levy murder case. A guilty verdict was reached today in the case. Ingmar Guandique was found guilty of the 2001 killing.
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Naturally the unemployed continue to get the shaft from Congress.

It doesn't promise to get any better.
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Obituaries

Noted former Playboy bunny, police officer, convicted killer, and fugitive Laurie "Bambi" Bembenek has died at the age of only 52. She became a folk hero of sorts during her fugitive days and always maintained her innocence in the 1981 killing of Christine Schultz. She died at a Portland, Oregon, hospice center of liver failure.

A good article about her fight to clear her name is here. There was certainly some reasonable doubt in her case.

The Crime Library has more about Bembenek's life, which was the subject of books and movies.

The REAL Obama

Those of us who followed Obama very closely during the 2008 campaign KNEW he was far more supportive of Ronald Reagan and his "transformative" policies than he was of FDR. As Krugman points out in his blog post for today, Obama wasn't above peddling the right-wing smears of FDR.

link

It was there for all too see, but too many bought into the media hype this guy was the "change" candidate when in fact he was just as bad as any neolib Republican.

(H/T to commenter Mary Louise. That was an excellent catch.)

If Mitt Romney Runs for President,

I expect him to beat Obama if the latter is actually stupid enough to seek re-election. Despite his somewhat wooden demeanor, Romney isn't as stupid as he looks.

I find him a real threat because I believe he could win in 2012. I don't think his religion, Mormonism, would be a problem at all.

News, Etc.

It's always a shock when a rich community like Beverly Hills is hit with a high-profile murder case.

After all, murder is for lowlifes from the wrong side of the tracks killing lowlifes from the wrong side of the tracks, and never mind shows like the late Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice or 48 Hours mostly focus on crimes involving the prominent.

Just wait until our country's public institutions are completely dismantled. Those gated communities won't be able to keep out the tens of millions of "riffraff" from invading them.
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Zillionaire Warren Buffett states the obvious regarding "trickle on" economics.
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Gutting SS

The ONLY reason companies want to get rid of SS has to do with simple economics: Companies pay half for Social Security while employees pay the other half. Companies want to ditch everything for employees in order to increase their profit margin.

That's the real reason companies largely abolished their pensions, thanks to a loophole in ERISA, in favor of the worthless 401(k)s. It was a cost shift for companies to put all of the risk of having pensions on the employees. Employees were conned into believing they would take "control" of their retirement when in fact mostly of what they were offered in these "plans" were utter junk, and they would have to be very affluent to begin with to even put away enough money for retirement.

So now companies want to get out of paying into a social insurance program designed to prevent people spending their final years in complete destitution. We have politicians who are hellbent on ruining it because they haven't a clue why the programs were there to begin with.

News, Etc.

Who knows how William and Kate will end up, in case anybody cares?
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The Down syndrome student kicked out of Southern Oregon University because of some administrative ignorance has a website on her behalf.

There is a petition demanding the university allow her to finish a ceramics class she was auditing.
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Paul Krugman

has an interesting take on the opposition of Ben Bernanke to try and spearhead job creation. China and Germany want those our trade deficits, while the GOP is bitching simply because they don't want the Democrats to succeed.

Which may be true, but it's getting more and more difficult to figure out who our enemies are and who are friends are.

Congress Really IS the Problem

and at the heart of the obscene wealth transfer from the many to the very few, and it continues unabated. Congress continues to destroy the country because its members still accept bribes from entities wanting even more handouts at everybody else's expense.

Barlett and Steele wrote about this dire situation twenty years ago, and it still continues because most people are still ignorant of it or else they are at a loss what to do about it.

"Bipartisanship"

It's now a big tent for Democrats to join Republicans in screwing over everybody else.

This time it's good ole Arne speaking at an education "summit" of know-nothings and sponsored by Jeb Bush.

News, Etc.

If you don't feel like jumping off a bridge or slashing your wrists, this article will certainly help steer you in that direction.

I am not quite that pessimistic. The mess can be undone, but people have to recognize what the problem is first, and they have to recognize it before it is too late.
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The government employee who put down the canine Afghan hero Target has been fired.
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John Ensign dodges a bullet.
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Congress is Not Your Friend

Not only did the House refuse to extend UI yesterday using procedural schemes, but the Senate hasn't even scheduled a vote on the legislation.

Both parties are in cahoots to destroy this country in order to enrich a few.

Lotsa luck trying to get anywhere with protests.

News, Etc.

The House decided to ape the Senate for its worthlessness and shot down extending the filing dates for federal UI benefits thanks to procedural nonsense.
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Brian Sandoval might ditch the Nevada governorship and challenge incumbent senator John Ensign, who has indicated he will run for re-election despite investigations and scandal.

Or maybe Sharron Angle can offer a challenge.
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Apparently some college administrators never heard of IDEA or ADA.

Disgusting.
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This is so tragic I can't believe it:

By the time he arrived at the pound on Monday, the shelter employee in charge of euthanizing animals that day had apparently picked the wrong dog out of the pen and administered a lethal injection, performing what the shelter referred to as “P.T.S.,” or put to sleep.

“I am heartsick over this,” Ruth Stalter, the county’s animal care and control director, said in a statement. “I had to personally deliver the news to the dog’s owner, and he and his family are understandably distraught.”

Barraged with criticism, the county ordered an investigation and placed the unidentified woman who euthanized Target on administrative leave. “This is unacceptable,” Ms. Stalter said, “and no family should be deprived of their companion because procedures were not followed.”

With a Couple of Losses Under Its Belt,

copyright troll Righthaven is going to stop filing frivolous lawsuits against those of us out here who may excerpt small portions of the LVRJ and other papers in the Stephens Media group, which employed the law firm.

One should always be wary of quoting too much from copyrighted works, and always, always attribute the quotes, whether by naming the person who wrote the piece and/or linking the posts.

It's a big victory out here for us peons.

At Least One Former TFA "Teacher"

voices opposition to Seattle trying to save tons of money and hire inexperienced TFAs for its lower income schools.

It's NEVER the wealthier schools in these districts that get saddled with inexperienced or flat-out underqualified or unqualified teachers; only the kids who need experienced, dedicated, and veteran teachers are the ones who get stuck with temps.

TFA is being presented as a solution to the problems in our public schools. But the reality is, in this era of cash-strapped school districts, officials are lured not by the quality of TFA-ers but by the fact that young teachers who leave the district and make room for more young teachers provide an inexpensive alternative to investing in more experienced teachers who will earn a higher salary.

It's all about money. Ask me about it, for I know when I was tossed out illegally by a moron.

Another ""Bipartisan" Commission

proposes more schemes to screw over the American people besides cuts to Social Security and Medicare. This one wants a national sales tax, which of course screws over the middle class and poor.

Clueless Duncan

I utterly despise this administration, and the sooner it goes, the better. Duncan thinks there should be larger class sizes, as if teachers aren't already overburdened, and he thinks school districts should implement wholesale age discrimination, already rampant in public education (as I know from personal experience), in the guise of revamping the salary structure.

He and his boss are absolutely stupid, clueless fucks. I hate them both.

Snip:

The dismal economic climate may well be represent "new normal" for schools, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said today at a forum sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank.

That means schools are going to have to make hard choices, Duncan said. And he's hoping they'll use the opportunity fundamentally rethink long-held ideas, such as the need for students to have a certain amount of "seat time" in each particular class, class size, and teacher pay scales that reward educators for getting advanced degrees.

Duncan is hoping that school administrators won't cut areas that directly impact the classroom, such as trimming instructional time, and scrapping art and music classes. And he doesn't want districts laying off "talented young teachers."I utterly despise this administration, and the sooner it goes, the better. Duncan thinks there should be larger class sizes, as if teachers aren't already overburdened, and he thinks school districts should implement wholesale age discrimination, already rampant in public education (as I know from personal experience), in the guise of revamping the salary structure.

How appropriate Duncan talks at a forum sponsored by a right-wing think tank. He spews rhetoric more at home with these "free market" con men than traditional Democratic Party constituencies.

Obituaries

It's time to take a look at some of the notable people who have died in the past couple of weeks and who I feel like listing here:

Baby Marie Osborne, a silent film child star whose own life was perhaps more interesting than her career, died at a mere 99 years of age.
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Spanish filmmaker Luis García Berlanga, 89, suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
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Film producer Dino De Laurentiis, 91. He produced some of the more notable films of the latter 20th century as well as one of the worst, the 1976 remake of King Kong.
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The end of racehorse Zenyatta's career. She has been retired from racing after winning 19 of 20 starts.
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News, Etc.

Instead of throwing away a half-billion dollars on a paternalistic program, why not push to pay poor people better wages in poor countries and therefore they can start their own savings plans?

But this is the Gates couple, so ignorance is their forte.
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A Wisconsin man took one look at Bristol Palin on television and decided to channel Elvis. Unfortunately, he got himself into big-time trouble.

Besides, none of the Palins are in the same league with Robert Goulet or Mel Torme.
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George Soros, like many of us, is ready to throw Obama under the cliched bus.

The Ultimate Goal in "Reforming" Teacher Education Programs

is to do away with them altogether and basically deskill teaching to where it is nothing but a shit pay job paying minimum wage and not requiring any education beyond high school. Kids would be screened out of higher education and even high school by seventh or eighth grade. This is what Lois Weiner has said in her articles about the World Bank's pressure on countries to dismantle public education and deprofessionalize teaching.

After all, these billionaire assholes like Eli Broad and Mike Bloomberg think teaching is SO easy, any idiot should be able to read from a script and do it. Moreover, these assholes have such a low opinion of the workforce they don't believe they should be educated AT ALL beyond basic literacy and math because the vast majority of jobs require little education beyond middle and high school.

This is all about limiting upward mobility. Nothing more and nothing less.

More about this scheme here.

It's Pretty Obvious

why so-called liberal commentators don't "get it" when it comes to Obama: They are from the same social class and have no concept of what it is like in the real world. Obama is cut from the same corrupt cloth as the GOP. It's so obvious, and people were warned about him. The commentators keep trying to come up with excuses for his lousy policies or inaction, but they are running out of them.

The people out here are about done with this doubletalk and inaction or policies which are designed to create even more social unrest.

Starving People into Economic Submission

may not be so wise after all, for eventually people will get angry and look to violence as a solution, as both our political parties are whores to the elites. These parties think that because Americans tend to be apathetic about their own self-interest, that they will always be that way.

Currently, some 15 percent of households are considered too poor to buy adequate food, yet Congress wants to slash food stamps and other programs to help those of us survive.

Can You Imagine

anybody operating on you who has never had training in medicine? Can you imagine anybody piloting a plane you are riding who has never flown in his life (Colton Harris-Moore doesn't count)? But apparently in education, if you don't have any goddamned background at all as a teacher--and I mean a REAL one, not one of these TFA phonies--that's considered suitable for being a superintendent because, after all, teaching is SO fucking easy and schools are businesses.

No wonder our country is going down the fucking tubes. This school privatization crap is being noted overseas:

In the US, achievement gaps and failure in state schools reflect larger inequalities in society, as well as dysfunction in corporate, consumer culture. The schools did not cause those gaps or failures – although it is true that, far too often, they perpetuate the social stratification. And the evidence shows that schools alone will never be able to overcome powerful social forces.

The real failure, which is the message being ignored here, is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world refuses to face the inequities of its economic system, a system that permits more than 20% of its children to live in poverty and to languish in schools that America has clearly decided to abandon, along with its democratic principles.

News, Etc.

Queen Elizabeth may have to live another 50 or 60 years given the UK's opinion of Prince William's new or rather old fiancee Kate Middleton. The public doesn't accept Camilla, so Prince Charles is out of the running to be king, and it appears "Wills" may meet a similar fate.

Of course there is always the chance Prince Harry could pick somebody suitable, but he has a long way to go to look respectable himself.

link

Press conference:

link

In all seriousness, this arrangement might actually work out considering the two have known each other for eight or nine years. It was rather poignant the reason why the prince gave Kate his mother's engagement ring.
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This is the latest dope on the Armstrong investigation.

And If the Below Post Didn't Warm Your Heart,

don't expect this dead duck Congress to do one goddamned thing for the currently unemployed.

While the continuation of the tax cuts for the rich appears to be a near-certainty, the extension of special funding for approximately 2 million long-term unemployed American workers is unlikely to be met by the November 30 deadline. This means that benefits will immediately dry up for 800,000 workers, followed by another 1.2 million by the end of December.

According to most media accounts, there is virtually no chance the jobless benefits extension will be acted on by November 30. After that, liberal Democrats may barter away tax cuts for the rich for an agreement on the extension of the long-term benefits until next year, when the program is almost certain to be scrapped. But other Democrats have indicated they might propose a bill that would gradually draw down the benefits. “There is a desire to see that any reduction in weeks be connected to the state of the economy,” a Democratic congressional aide told the Wall Street Journal.

The tale of the two extensions—jobless benefits for the unemployed and tax cuts for the rich—exposes the blatant hypocrisy of the supposed “concern” in ruling circles over deficit spending. The long-term unemployed benefits would likely cost about $35 billion for six months, the same price tag, on an annualized basis, as the cost of the extension of the tax cuts for the rich.

Naturally UI benefits the economy, while the rich just sit on their stupid asses and hoard the money.

The economy dies as a result.

Anybody Who Has Paid Close Attention

to the past thirty years KNOWS there has been a class war going on, and it is by the economic elites versus everybody else. The reasons for the elites' success are twofold: One, a propaganda network of media and so-called think tanks designed to brainwash the masses into thinking that their handing over all of their hard-earned money to these leeches is to their benefit (while at the same time conning them into taking out their frustation against hated groups like immigrants, welfare "bums," and so on), and two, buying off both political parties.

But if you dare point out the obvious, the elites squeal like stuck pigs that YOU are creating "class warfare."

Here is an article laying out the thirty-year attack on everybody not filthy rich.

Not satisfied with the staggering wealth they have already siphoned away, the ultra-rich are now using Barack Obama’s National Deficit Commission to propose even more brazen plunder. And the looting is no longer taking place behind closed doors or under the cover of arcane public policies.

The commission proposes to cut the federal government’s budget deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. But 75% of the “savings” will come from gutting programs that help stabilize the middle class and their communities. None of it comes from policies that would harm the rich.

For example, the commission proposes cutting the tax deduction for mortgage payments. Not only will this render housing much less affordable for millions of prospective home buyers, it will reduce housing prices, perhaps substantially, for without the tax writeoff, buyers will be able to afford much less house. This will decimate the sole source of wealth of tens of millions of Americans.

Revolution is at hand in the United States, and it will not be a picnic.

Job Search Blues

What I want to know is why the person profiled in this piece never bothered to do the research on Nevada in the first place. Nevada is the LAST place anybody should relocate to find work, and that is work of any kind.

The Legacy of Sharron Angle

Good grief.

It takes a nutter legislator to not even detect a bit of irony in his anti-government or "limited government" nonsense.

Nevada once again becomes a national laughingstock.

News, Etc.

Next thing you know, we will be back to putting special education students, at least those most in need of services, back in institutions at the rate things are going.
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The NYT continues to peddle lies about its school district.
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Teachers in Florida are headed for extremely rough times now that they have a new governor who is openly hostile to education.

Once nobody in college majors in education and refuses to work in public schools, there will be no problem at all. States will merely lower the standards for certification or even abolish it so that any idiot off the street will be able to "teach" kids to a sixth- or seventh-grade level. After all, third world countries do this, and the World Bank wants it this way because its members believe education is a waste of money.
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Another idiot teacher pisses his career away.

News, Etc.

People are leaving Nevada in droves, as if that is any surprise.

_____

I predict Congress won't do shit about extending UI, including moving back the date.

Congress doesn't even hide its utter contempt for the American people.
_____

Isn't That Rich?

It takes somebody named Rich to write a piece about the superrich and how they were the biggest winners in the midterm elections.

But it has been this way for a long, long time, ever since Reagan swept into office and with him the screwball idea that if you give the rich all kinds of handouts and tax cuts, the money will somehow flow to the peons below. The big scandal, of course, is both political parties have been bought off by the same interests.

And if somehow a real Democrat ever gets elected, that won't be a problem as long as there is the World Trade Organization around to circumvent a country's laws and regulations.

One Can Only Hope

Obama doesn't seek another term. So far he has been a disaster for Democrats since he is willing to sell traditional Democratic principles in order to appeal to independents or some damned thing.

Obama's complete lack of focus on the economy, his mishandling of priorities (health care "reform" instead of the economy), and his promoting neoliberal ideas that will not work (education reform, for example) have doomed him.

Time for Democrats to start with a clean slate and purge the party of the neolibs. Only next time, they had better ignore the media's promotion of a particular candidate.

Thanks to a "Democratic" President

who is willing to work with the right-wingers in order for them to make their utopian delusion of a "free market" world come true, this country is headed towards fascism.

Maybe not even that. It may be we are headed towards feudalism and where few if any people will be able to own private property and will instead end up being servants or serfs to their "betters."

Hedges concludes:

We believe, like the Spaniards in the 16th century who pillaged Latin America for gold and silver, that money, usually the product of making and trading goods, is real. The Spanish empire, once the money ran out and it no longer produced anything worth buying, went up in smoke. Today’s use in the United States of some $12 trillion in government funds to refinance our class of speculators is a similar form of self-deception. Money markets are still treated, despite the collapse of the global economy, as a legitimate source of trade and wealth creation. The destructive power of financial bubbles, as well as the danger of an unchecked elite, was discovered in ancient Athens and detailed more than a century ago in Emile Zola’s novel “Money.” But we seem determined to find out this self-destructive force for ourselves. And when the second collapse comes, as come it must, we will revisit wrenching economic and political tragedies forgotten in the mists of history.

News, Etc.

Crooked administrators at the SFUSD are accused of committing fraud. I wrote the previous sentence the way I did because these crooks in school districts around the country usually aren't caught. They are usually promoted along with the incompetents and vindictive types polluting our school districts.

Because they have been caught, it probably won't end well for them, even if the alleged ringleader has conveniently "retired."

In an interview, Mr. Carranza said the district opened the investigation in June after a community organization raised questions to him about irregular accounting practices. The San Francisco district attorney’s office is conducting a separate investigation, according to Mr. Carranza and others familiar with the inquiry. A spokesman for that office declined to comment.

The district’s investigation is focused on Associate Superintendent Trish Bascom, who is the former head of Student Support Services, and four of her co-workers. For years, until she retired in June, Ms. Bascom had primary control over money distributed to community organizations that were hired to provide services for the district. The department’s annual budget is nearly $20 million.

Related article is here.
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Mia the "euthanized" dog is enjoying life again:

Olivarez says that having Mia euthanized once was hard enough. He just didn’t have the heart to do it again. He is struggling financially, facing foreclosure, and needing to move to a small Detroit apartment. Expensive treatments were not possible. But the donations made them possible. And with some help from a veterinarian (not the one who botched the euthanasia), it’s clear that Mia has got some good wag left in her stumpy tail.

She’ll soon be moving to a farm about 90 minutes away from Detroit, with friends of Olivarez’s family who wish to remain anonymous. Mia obviously did not have to die to find heaven.

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The federal government is not doing its fair share in contributing to the education of special education students, and cash-strapped school districts are paying the price.

The Catfood Commission

Even Paul Krugman doesn't care for the makeup of Obama's "deficit commission" which has as its goal to destroy Social Security (and Medicare), given the fact the panel was stacked with Pete Petersen clones who don't believe in the system as a matter of ideology.

You can bet the WTO, World Bank, and IMF are really behind the push to destroy SS; after all, they are pushing "austerity" measures in Europe. As we know or should know, "austerity measures" are simply schemes to get the masses to pay for the fuck-ups of the economic elite. The elites must be propped up at all costs for after all they are better than you and me.

QE2 for Dummies

Excellent video translating in plain English the entire economic mess, especially Bernanke's latest scheme to print more money or "quantitative easing":



Apart from this and whatever economic philosophy Bernanke believes, when the world's economy finally crashes, that should be the end of the cult of the Chicago School of Friedmanomics. This cancer needs to be excised instead of being continued.

Bush III

Since Obama goes out of his way to pander to the right being a right-winger himself, and because he has deluded himself as some kind of "transformative" leader, he is going to go along with those Bush tax cuts.

Keep it up, Barry, and you may end up being the worst president in American history or at least the worst since James Buchanan.

It Just Goes to Show School "Reformers"

really are no better than the traditionally-run school districts when it comes to questionable relationships.

Let me tell you one thing: If I had a background similar to Black's which was remotely sex-related, I couldn't get hired as a custodian in a public school district, let alone be a "chancellor." Of course Black has many other problems, not least that she is completely unqualified for the job.

News, Etc.

It appears there was some fallout from the Nevada election: The publisher and the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal were basically fired or reassigned from their positions and given other duties with the paper. Both went way, way, way over the top in their hatred for Senator Harry Reid. Ultimately, it was all for naught.

Either the election played a part or there was fallout from the frivolous Righthaven copyright lawsuits, as some commenters following this article noted.
_____

Florida's in bad shape as it is without the stench of Michelle Rhee further polluting it.
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Hands Off Social Security

If Obama does one thing to destroy this program, he's toast. He's toast anyway in my book, but he's a goner if he dares pull the Bill Clinton act of "triangulation."

More people in Congress need to speak out.

A Right-Wing Stacked "Panel"

decides to wage an all-out war against the masses by targeting social programs instead of raising taxes on the filthy rich. After all, these leeches in very top of the income heap are better and more deserving of handouts from the government than you or me.

At Least There Were Some on the Catfood Commission

who acted like Democrats instead of a bunch of fucking neoliberal sellouts and general wingnut liars who have despised Social Security as a matter of philosophy.

Mark my words: People in this country may seem to be apathetic right now, but the Tea Party movement will be nothing compared with the massive outrage that will occur if these sons of bitches, including the president, even attempt to destroy Social Security and Medicare in the name of "reform."

After all, there isn't any real problem with Social Security; the "crisis" was a fraud created nearly 30 years ago by the Cato Institute to deliberately undermine public support for the program.

The Foreclosure Crisis

just goes to show just how full of rot this country is, and it will be a miracle if it ever is righted again.

Bernanke and our elected officials, including and especially Obama, are trying to plug leaks into a dam that is about to burst. It is going to fail, of course, and heads should roll, or rather, should be in prison for fraud, when the dam finally bursts and sends our economy and the world's into a death spiral.

Taibbi's article is long but worth the read.

These snips lay it all out there:

The foreclosure lawyers down in Jacksonville had warned me, but I was skeptical. They told me the state of Florida had created a special super-high-speed housing court with a specific mandate to rubber-stamp the legally dicey foreclosures by corporate mortgage pushers like Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase. This "rocket docket," as it is called in town, is presided over by retired judges who seem to have no clue about the insanely complex financial instruments they are ruling on — securitized mortgages and labyrinthine derivative deals of a type that didn't even exist when most of them were active members of the bench. Their stated mission isn't to decide right and wrong, but to clear cases and blast human beings out of their homes with ultimate velocity. They certainly have no incentive to penetrate the profound criminal mysteries of the great American mortgage bubble of the 2000s, perhaps the most complex Ponzi scheme in human history — an epic mountain range of corporate fraud in which Wall Street megabanks conspired first to collect huge numbers of subprime mortgages, then to unload them on unsuspecting third parties like pensions, trade unions and insurance companies (and, ultimately, you and me, as taxpayers) in the guise of AAA-rated investments. Selling lead as gold, shit as Chanel No. 5, was the essence of the booming international fraud scheme that created most all of these now-failing home mortgages.

...

For most people, the former bit about homeowners not paying their damn bills is the important part, while the latter, about the sudden and strange inability of the world's biggest and wealthiest banks to keep proper records, is incidental. Just a little office sloppiness, and who cares? Those deadbeat homeowners still owe the money, right? "They had it coming to them," is how a bartender at the Jacksonville airport put it to me.

But in reality, it's the unpaid bills that are incidental and the lost paperwork that matters. It turns out that underneath that little iceberg tip of exposed evidence lies a fraud so gigantic that it literally cannot be contemplated by our leaders, for fear of admitting that our entire financial system is corrupted to its core — with our great banks and even our government coffers backed not by real wealth but by vast landfills of deceptively generated and essentially worthless mortgage-backed assets.

You've heard of Too Big to Fail — the foreclosure crisis is Too Big for Fraud. Think of the Bernie Madoff scam, only replicated tens of thousands of times over, infecting every corner of the financial universe. The underlying crime is so pervasive, we simply can't admit to it — and so we are working feverishly to rubber-stamp the problem away, in sordid little backrooms in cities like Jacksonville, behind doors that shouldn't be, but often are, closed.

There is a reason why there were all of those regulations, but these goddamned morons in Congress and the Friedmanites who peddled this deregulation crap were incapable of asking the obvious. They were too enthralled with a cult that has no basis in reality.

Meanwhile, the crooks on Wall Street belong in prison with all of their assets seized or shot and their bodies dragged through the streets of New York.

News, Etc.

It appears Bank of America is in deep, deep trouble.
_____

There is No Doubt

that the more unqualified and stupid one is, the further he or she moves up into the world, as long as he or she has the connections. Case in point is the successor to the despicable former "chancellor" of the NYC school district. Cathie Black has even fewer qualifications than Joel Klein had.

Snip:

To a degree unusual even for an administration that relishes keeping its deliberations as private as possible, hardly anyone knew of Mr. Klein’s departure or Ms. Black's arrival until minutes before the official announcement. While such posts are typically filled after highly publicized national searches that can last months or even a year, there is little evidence that anyone else was seriously vetted or considered -- and few of the usual suspects, including members of the mayor's inner circle, were even consulted.

Charter Schools

When people in support of charter schools talk, one of the biggest lies they tell about them is they are "public" schools.

They are NOT. The only thing "public" about them is they receive taxpayer money to operate. They are private schools receiving public money, and the move towards charters is actually a way to funnel public money into private schools (without, of course, any kind of accountability to the public) when the movement towards vouchers failed.

Albert Shanker, a real liberal and the late head of the AFT, came up with the idea of charter schools in the 1980s, but it had little to do with the bastardized version which the privatizers came up with later. He believed teachers and parents could take more control of the schools if they were allowed more freedom from the restrictions of traditional public schools, but he later ditched the concept as pushed by cretins who despise public education simply because it is public.

Well, the Goal of the Neoliberals

is apparently to ration medical services such as lung cancer tests, and never mind many people who get this horrible disease never smoked.

Well, they are looking at gutting Social Security to the point of it being "means tested," which isn't based on reality at all but on ideology promoted like liars such as the Cato Institute and the Concord Coalition. Why not medical care? People are living too damned long as it is.

It's coming very close to the time this country will experience massive social unrest. It can't happen soon enough for me.

Obama, in the meantime, needs to be shown the door. If people don't realize he's a faker, I don't know what can be done otherwise to prove it.

I Am Sure

this post represents the feelings of many Democrats in his expression of disappointment in Obama although he seems to have bought into the hype, as many people did.

Obama is on the ropes, and the next two years are going to be horrible for this country.

By Definition, "For-Profit" Schools are Scams

designed solely to rip off taxpayers of billions of dollars in Pell Grants and student loans while overcharging students outrageous tuition and providing no guarantee of any kind of jobs at the end. Frontline had an excellent episode about the for-profit scam.

These students get shortchanged on their education and then are stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt which they cannot repay yet cannot discharge in bankruptcy.

It's a scam, yet people like Arne Duncan think these "schools" are such great ideas.

The most important lesson to be learned from this is a college degree is not a union card, and that few jobs even require any education beyond high school.

Tales from the Booming Economy

Because Nevada politicians refused, despite all of the talk to the contrary, to actually diversify the state, there is no end anytime soon to the high unemployment in the state.

I was in the state long enough to know what a boom state it was in the 1980s and 1990s. But all of that is gone, perhaps forever.

link

Right now I am going through "training" for seasonal work at Harry & David, a place I worked at thirty years ago. If I "pass" their "assessments," by no means assured, I will work about a month before being laid off again. I still have that sub aide job, which is just about impossible to make enough to survive.

Fat Chance Congress

will do one thing about the extended unemployment benefits; they are taking their cue from the WTO, etc., members of whom want Chinese wages in this country. The more people who are unemployed and underemployed, the more wages and salaries are pushed downward.

It's Almost Too Late

to save what is left of the "middle class" in this country no matter how hard Elizabeth Warren tries to reverse the trend:

News, Etc.

Reading about what the bigshots at the World Bank have to say just sticks in my craw since they and their ilk at the WTO and IMF and the trade agreements have been the ruination of the world economy.

Neoliberalism is a poison that must be eliminated, and that means the abolition of those above organizations.
_____

Since I can hardly stand Obama, especially now, I made sure I missed his 60 Minutes interview.

There is no doubt he is a corporate tool.
_____

Thank God there are some generous people out there willing to help a homeless man, his wife, and their dog.
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About 200 people marched in remembrance of the L.A. teacher who committed suicide a couple of weeks ago. The report is in Spanish.
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Good riddance to that pile of rubbish, but it appears Klein's successor is even more unqualified to run a school system.
_____

News, Etc.

If America goes down the tubes, the world will likely follow.
_____

Keith Olbermann came back on the air and says he was sorry, but he should apologize for his despicable remarks about Hillary Clinton two years ago.

I am not forgetting what he did then; it was totally inexcusable.
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Is There Any Doubt At All

Barack Obama is a closet Republican who will probably go further than even the GOP would do if they were in full power?

Obama MUST be defeated in 2012, preferably in the primaries.

News, Etc.

Harry Reid's re-election campaign should be the gold standard for other campaigns to emulate.
_____

Pompeii's "House of the Gladiators" has collapsed thanks to governmental neglect.
_____

Obama is Part of the Problem

rather than being "used"; after all, the media pushed him to be the nominee regardless of the facts he was unvetted and there were more qualified people for the Democratic nomination.

To say he was "used" is trying to give him too much credit. He is what he is and always was; it was just that his supporters were too far gone in the Kool Aid to see it.

The link is still a damned good article and pulls no punches.

Obama cut a deal with the same elites that backed our beloved Bush, and then he decided not to bother with the economy and went for this idiotic health care reform, which was no reform at all. As a result this country is spiraling out of control to the point of ruination. Worse, he seems to be a puppet for the despicable Robert Rubin, a man who really belongs in jail, and put in people who would protect the banksters at all costs.

Now that these elites and crooks got what they wanted, they don't need Obama anymore. They are a bunch of parasites who are eating away at the country while it is dying.

For a guy who's billed as a "Great Communicator" he has utterly failed to articulate any narrative whatsoever of national transformation or renewal, of rescuing the nation from the precipitous downward spiral begun under Bush, his predecessor. He couldn't even manage to pin ownership of the failed economy on Bush, even though the Great Recession started in December 2007, more than a year before Obama took office.

And finally, with legislative gridlock the only certainty for the next two years, the Federal Reserve has taken control of the nation's economic policy. Its new policy of "quantitative easing" (printing money) is not only despicable in its own right, the recourse of scoundrels and national failures (think Weimar Germany in the 1920s), it is completely undemocratic, carried out in secret by the most notoriously elitist, private institution in America. It is a capitulation to a self-anointed feudal-like autocracy without modern equal, an undisguised admission that it is the banks and their owners that run the country. And it is the inescapable result of Obama's policies.

It's hard to feel sorry for Barack Obama. When all the politics, posturing, posing and pontification are over, his party lost because he betrayed his base and they could not stomach voting for his people or his party again. He's proven himself a duplicitous executive and a feckless "leader" who has "led" the Republicans to their biggest pick-up in the House in decades. Now he has to live with it. But the damage is incalculable. It will last for generations. It will be an embarrassment to watch him try to pretend to be effective the next two years, with everyone - himself included - knowing that he is used up. But he is. Good riddance.

Every goddamned word of this is true. I never, ever thought I'd be nostalgic for Bush and Cheney. Only a "Democrat" would pull the shit he is pulling and ruin the country in the process.

Breeders' Cup 2010--Day Two

Race videos from the YouTube channel from the BC World Championships:

Breeders' Cup Classic: The great ones eventually get beat. Zenyatta had a great career, and she lost her final race in style to a horse named Blame, who in turn was co-owned and bred by the historic Claiborne Farm, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year:







Breeders' Cup Turf: Dangerous Midge







Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile: Dakota Phone by a nose




Breeders' Cup Mile: Goldikova made history today when she became the first three-time consecutive winner of a BC race:






Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint: Chamberlain Bridge





Breeders' Cup Juvenile: Uncle Mo, a strong contender for next year's Triple Crown






Breeders' Cup Sprint: Big Drama:




Juvenile Turf: Pluck. Unfortunately and tragically, a horse named Rough Sailing fell on the first turn and fractured his shoulder. It was later reported he had to be put down:

I Think It is Pretty Damned Obvious

who and what Obama really is. He certainly isn't a liberal, progressive, or even a Democrat as most of us know it to be. He is, however, a shill for the Wall Street and banking interests, and his appointment of a team willing to kowtow to those interests is a dead giveaway.

Don't count on Obama changing his tune anytime soon, despite the departure of any of the current team.

And the country will continue going down the crapper.

News, Etc.

I wrote about the 100th anniversary of the historic Virginia Street Bridge in Reno, but now plans are going forward to tear down this local icon.
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Despite a rise in payrolls last month, unemployment remains stuck at just under 10 percent.

Thanks to Obama and Congress, matters will NOT get better. After all, why should we offend their rich contributors? Furthermore, what difference is it going to make which political party is in control?

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This is one of the most outrageous cases in recent memory. The message being sent is if you are filthy rich, or serve the filthy rich, the laws don't apply to you, even if you seriously injure somebody with your actions:

A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, faces two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a July 3 incident when he allegedly hit bicyclist Dr. Steven Milo from behind then sped away, according to court documents.

Milo and his attorney, Harold Haddon, are livid about the prosecution's decision to drop the felony charge. They filed their objection Wednesday afternoon, the day after prosecutors notified Haddon's office by fax of their decision.

Obituaries

Actress Jill Clayburgh, 66, who had her greatest success in a string of films in the 1970s and early 1980s playing independent women, of chronic leukemia. She had the illness for 21 years.

Breeders' Cup 2010 Day One

Videos from the NTRA. Races are at Churchill Downs this year.

Ladies Classic: Unrivaled Belle




Juvenile Fillies: Awesome Feather



Filly and Mare Sprint: Dubai Majesty



Filly and Mare Turf: Shared Account




Marathon: What happened after the race was more colorful than what happened during it, with jockey Calvin Borel getting into fisticuffs with another jockey.

Winner: Eldaafer



Here's the brawl:



It's a miracle there were no accidents in that race.

News

A plane crash in Cuba kills all 68 aboard.

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After his filthy anti-Hillary Clinton rant of a couple of years ago, I seldom bother with Keith Olbermann. I suspended him from my "must see" list.

It appears MSNBC wasn't happy with him having donated to three Democratic candidates, and so now he is being suspended without pay "indefinitely."

That'll be a boon to Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.

I Totally Agree

with this blog post saying Harry Reid's campaign should be a model for not just Obama but for every Democratic candidate.

Reid may look like a wimp and be overly obsessed with the arcane and obsolete Senate rules, but he KNOWS how to run a campaign. Reid fired up his base and didn't try to kowtow to the elites just because they have money to contribute.

It also didn't hurt that Reid no doubt had many Republicans cross over and vote for him, horrified as they were at the prospect of a Senator Angle.

President Doormat

Obama was yammering in response to the drubbing Democrats got Tuesday night he was going to "work" with the GOP. Of course chief asshole Mitch McConnell flat-out says his goal is to defeat Obama.



Obama has his Ivy League head so far up his ass he's pathetic. You cannot compromise with fascists, and almost all of these Republicans are.

Fall Pictures

Pictures from the Bear Creek Greenway and Railroad Park:

I Can't Say

Dick Cheney shouldn't be channeled once in a while even though he is still alive, and certainly he comes to mind following this absolutely inexcusable defeat of the Democrats in the House and almost the Senate.

In 2008 Democrats had a mandate for action, and what do they do? They piss it away. But then again who is leading them? A president who holds Reagan in high regard as some kind of "transformative" figure. We have a president who holds ideas more closely with the country club Republicans than he does with Democrats.

The whole thing just makes me sick, but it does prove there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two parties anymore now that they've been bought off by the same elites wanting to turn this country into a third world paradise.

Myself, I think the country is just about done for.

News, Etc.

I am glad to hear WCSD FINALLY got around to firing the family-connected former teacher caught in a spycam scandal. He still has the unmitigated gall to plead "not guilty," however.

Get a load of this:

Grand jury transcripts show that when Rauh realized his recorder was missing, he confronted the principal and told her “...if someone else finds it, it is going to be very bad.”


“He said ‘I can’t tell you. It’s too bad. You will never trust me again. This is going to be the end of my career. It is going to end everything. I can’t tell you what I was taping,’” now retired principal Jeanne Ohl testified.

You KNEW you weren't supposed to do it, Rauh, yet you went ahead and did it anyway.

No sympathy for you.

link

A week ago, the grand jury transcripts were publicly released:

Later that night, the teacher who found the device called Ohl at home and described the images on the recorder. The teacher testified when she first found it, she saw Rauh’s face on the footage. She reviewed it more carefully hours later, and found the explicit images.


“He covered his face a number of times,” Ohl recalled of Rauh telling her the Ipod was lost. “He didn’t want to look at me in the eye. His sentences were short and choppy and his voice broke a couple of times. You know, he was very emotional, unlike any interaction I ever had with him.”

I'll bet he was emotional. Not even his sister-in-law Lynn could bail him out of this one.

Oh, Man

Teachers at my old school district had better be prepared to lose their jobs. Note this job has a federal grant attached to it:

TEACHER INCENTIVE FUND PROJECT COORDINATOR

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Under the general direction of the Chief of Human Resources and Coordinator of Human Resources, assists in the planning, developing, organizing, and implementation of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) federal grant. Performs related work as required.

EXEMPLARY DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

Working within the parameters of the TIF, works with all necessary stakeholders to assist WCSD in increasing the number of highly effective, diverse and competent certified teachers and principals who reflect the District's mission, vision, and core beliefs, through the implementation of an effective and comprehensive performance growth system. Targeting nine (9) of WCSD's highest need schools, plans, develops, organizes, and implements all identified TIF Grant Absolute Priorities, competitive preferences, and core elements that encompass a systemic reform initiative for Human Resources, including the following: 1) working collaboratively with WCSD collective bargaining units to develop, pilot, modify and communicate consistent, reliable, and fair evaluation rubrics and policies to measure principal, teacher and other personnel performance growth; 2) training administrators, principals and Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) teams so they can conduct consistent, reliable, and fair teacher and principal performance evaluations and communicate evaluation findings to evaluatees; 3) developing ongoing, embedded professional learning and support focused on individual performance growth for teacher retention in hard-to-fill schools; 4) developing different levels of compensation and career ladders for effective teachers and principals based on set criteria at participating schools; and, 5) sustaining the system by leveraging district resources, federal, state, and private funds.

Plans, organizes and supervises the implementation of a performance growth system; works collaboratively with WCSD collective bargaining units (WEA, WSPA, WESP) to establish consistent, reliable and fair principal and teacher performance evaluation policies; determines student achievement growth goals in participating schools that align with WCSD Pathway key targets including formative and summative assessments; works with stakeholders to establish a performance-based compensation (PBCS) data management system including programming, warehouses and data analysts to link student achievement data to WCSD teacher and principal Human Resources systems; works with Office of Staff Development to train administrators, principals and PAR teams so they can conduct consistent, reliable, and fair teacher and principal performance evaluations and communicate evaluation findings to evaluatees; develops, pilots and modifies consistent, reliable, and fair evaluation rubrics to measure teacher and principal performance growth using standards such as the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards, National Board certification, National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) and others; develops a plan to ensure teachers and principals understand the specific measures of teacher and principal effectiveness in the PBCS; develops different levels of compensation for effective teachers, principals and educational support personnel based on set criteria at participating schools; develops a teacher and principal career ladder for incentive pay, including an Individualized Performance Growth Plan (IPGP) employee development plan to help educators identify a set of goals or actions to help enhance knowledge, skills and abilities based on performance; works with Human Resources Coordinator to attract, and retain highly effective teachers and principals; and develops fiscal sustainability for the Principal and Teacher Performance Growth System by leveraging district resources, federal state and private funds; works with grant evaluators and HR consultant and provides any necessary data or information, follows all grant guidelines and restrictions and works with district's State and Federal Programs for grant compliance and fiscal management.

Remember, the superintendent, Heath Morrison, is Eli Broad through and through.

How the FUCK can you put teachers and principals on "incentive" pay when kids aren't fucking widgets? My God, what the hell is happening to our schools?

Since Obama Intends to Work

with the very people hellbent on ruining the country, expect NO help from Washington if you work for a living or if you have been laid off from your job.

The assault on workers is pretty flagrant now, and expect it to become even more so.

Obama has GOT to be denied a second term and somebody else be the standardbearer. Unfortunately, there is the likelihood it may not even matter because both parties have been bought off by the same elites.

News, Etc.

I think exhaustees of unemployment can just about forget ANY help from Congress at all. Isn't that lovely? Our politicians are so bought off they don't care about the people they supposedly represent.

Meanwhile, jobless claims have risen sharply--again.

Actually, Senate Democrats

should pick somebody other than my former senator Harry Reid for the majority job; some of the reason he was in trouble this last election cycle was because he was a lightning rod as majority leader. I'd prefer somebody else, but apparently nobody wants it.

As Long as the Gane is Rigged

in favor of the tiny elite, elections are a farce, with both political parties on the take from these very elites bent on destroying the country and turning it into a third world "paradise."

This is the tragedy of Americans. They seem not to be able to understand they have been conned and their anger be channeled against "minorities" and other despised groups when in fact it is the very rich who have waged class warfare upon them and continue to leech off of the masses until they suck the last dollar dry.

I don't see any way out of it short of revolution. I really don't.

link

The Oregonian Predicts

John Kitzhaber will become the next governor of Oregon. The paper projects he will win by something like 10,000 votes when all of the remaining 75,000 ballots from Lane and Multnomah counties are counted.

As of now, Republican Chris Dudley is 5,000 votes ahead, but his lead has been gradually dwindling. His lead is roughly half what it was just a few hours ago.

It's the Corruption, Stupid

Expresses my views exactly.

Arne

is peddling his bullshit ideas for "reform" in Europe, so now you know the fix is in, at least if the WTO, World Bank, and their ilk have their way.

Elections...

Although the Oregon gubernatorial race is deemed too close to call, with Republican Chris Dudley just 13,000 votes ahead of former governor John Kitzhaber, it's believed the latter will actually win by a margin of around 1 percent. That's because the uncounted votes are from two counties, Deschutes and Multnomah, with the latter being heavily, heavily Democratic.

After all, most of the population in Oregon lives in the Willamette Valley from Eugene clear into Portland. The rest of the state tends to be red, but that doesn't mean much when most people live in a narrow corridor of the state.

Update: Latest is the uncounted ballots are in Lane and Multnomah counties, with Multnomah having some 91,000 arrive at the last minute yesterday.

Right now Dudley is ahead by 15,000 votes, but that'll change.

Even Though the Economy Should Have Been the Primary Focus

from Day One of this administration, as I have said time and time again, instead the Democrats wasted a whole goddamned year on stupid health care "reform," which is no reform at all.

I can't believe the whole fucking thing, and that unsophisticated voters cannot see the GOP will do absolutely nothing to rectify it; if anything, it will try to destroy the economy further. But then we have a president who is so bent on kissing the GOP's ass that things are going to continue to look bleak from here on out.

Elections, Etc.

As people know, the Republicans will likely take the House but not the Senate and there will be stalemate galore, if not investigations of Obama.

People are so goddamned stupid.

Ralph Nader, one of my least favorite people out there, does explain what in the hell is wrong with the Democratic Party and our sham election system.

Probably the big story of the night is Kentucky replaced one batshit crazy senator with another, this one being known as Aqua Buddha.

His victory speech was something else. We can only hope Kentucky's senior senator puts this dipshit in his place.



Update: Harry Reid has been re-elected to the Senate. It was a foregone conclusion once he carried Washoe County. There simply aren't enough votes in the "cow counties" to counteract it.

It appears the Dems will have perhaps as many as 53 or 54 Senate seats once all of the returns are in.

Reid's son Rory didn't fare as well, losing to Republican job hopper Brian Sandoval in the Nevada governor's race.