Why Are Things As They Are?

We Say Fight Back!

IVAW Convention, August 2011: www.ustream.tv/channel/ivaw-national-convention-2011

Real, as Distinct from Farcical, Save Our Schools Actions:

students have organized rallies drawing up to 100,000 people, taken control of dozens of schools around the country, and forced hundreds more to stop holding classes. Their protests, and the issues driving them, have helped to sink the popularity of the president to its lowest level since he took office last year….The protests leaders are also pushing for constitutional change to guarantee free, quality education from preschool through high school and a state-financed university system that ensures quality and equal access.
Where students have taken control of public schools, they have organized security details and held out cans on streets asking for change to pay for food and supplies.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/world/americas/05chile.html?scp=1&sq=chile%20students&st=cse

An Online University of the Left? ouleft.org/

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Schooling Gutted by Class War, Empire’s Wars: Last year, K-12 budgets were cut $1.8 billion nationwide. According to estimates by the National Assn. of State Budget Officers, cuts to K-12 for the new fiscal year may reach $2.5 billion.
A year ago, higher-education budgets across the nation were trimmed $1.2 billion. The expected cuts this year: $5 billion. www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-education-budget-cuts-20110731,0,609384.story

More Test Cheating in PA. Are Teachers Victims or Perps? The Pennsylvania investigation is only a few weeks old, far too early to judge. But the first step is not encouraging: State officials have directed school districts and charter schools with suspicious results to investigate themselves.
For places that are serious about exposing cheating, there is a new gold standard: Atlanta. In the bad old days, Atlanta school officials repeatedly investigated themselves and found they had done nothing wrong. Then, last August, the governor decided that, once and for all, he was going to get to the bottom of things, and appointed two former prosecutors to oversee an inquiry.
Sixty of Georgia’s finest criminal investigators spent 10 months on it, and in the end turned up a major cheating scandal involving 178 teachers and principals — 82 of whom confessed — at 44 Atlanta schools, nearly half the district.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/education/01winerip.html?ref=education

Detroit School Board Prez Quits. Who Ran for the last Vacancy? Nobody. Detroit Board of Education president Anthony Adams resigned Tuesday from the 11-member school board, citing the need to focus on his private business interests in the city.  http://www.detnews.com/article/20110802/SCHOOLS/108020412/1026/Detroit-Board-of-Education-president-Anthony-Adams-resigns

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Hillbillary’s Reformer Attacks Syrian Cities: After months of deadlock, the U.N. Security Council finally responded
to the escalating violence in Syria on Wednesday, condemning President Bashar Assad’s forces for attacking civilians and committing human rights violations.
The trigger for the council to act was the military assault launched by the Syrian government over the weekend against the city of Hama, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of the capital Damascus, which has a history of defiance. The offensive by Syrian forces, backed by tanks and snipers, was continuing Wednesday with reports of at least 100 dead in four day

Hillbillary on Assad: BS newsman Bob Schieffer, the interviewer, noted that the president’s father, Hafez Assad, had “killed 25,000 people at a lick” – a reference to the crushing of an Islamist revolt in the town of Hama in 1982 – and said the regime now was firing at civilians with live ammunition.
“Why is that different from Libya?” he asked.
“There’s a different leader in Syria now,” Clinton said. “Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.”   www.cnsnews.com/news/article/syrian-president-assad-regarded-reformer

War On Afghanistan Winding Down, down, down, down (but for those 650 airstrikes): it’s a whole new — and much more ferocious — air war. Allied jets and bombers are unloading their weapons on more than 20 sorties a day, according to U.S. military statistics, for a total of 652 attack runs.
It’s part of a war effort that has grown more aggressive in nearly every way. Special operations forces now launch a dozen “kill/capture” raids a night, and have taken 3,775 insurgents off the battlefield in the last year. Massive surface-to-surface missiles have been used to clear the Taliban out of Kandahar; tanks have been sent to Helmand province to help crush opponents; civilian homes taken over by insurgents have been leveled without apology.  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/afghan-air-war-doubles/

Still Sorry About those Collateral Damage Types

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5c7jtvHNxk

Obama Helps Revolve the door. Appoints War Profiteer: Lynn III as deputy defense secretary early in his administration, critics railed that the move clashed with Mr. Obama’s campaign pledge to close the revolving door between government and the defense industry.
Now that Mr. Lynn is leaving, Mr. Obama wants to promote the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Ashton Carter, to the job. But ethics forms show that despite his reputation as an academic, Mr. Carter earned significant income in recent years from the defense industry while teaching at Harvard University. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/4/obama-opens-revolving-door-for-defense-nominee/

What did the Steering Committee of the Historians Against the War Have to Say, Six Months into Obamagogue’s war on Libya? Not a thing. Silence. Closed lips.

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Old Glory’s Sky Falling! S and P Downgrades USA (from the same people who brought you 2008 collapse, Fannie Mae fraud) Standard & Poor’s on Friday downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating for the first time in the nation’s history, lowering it from the highest level because the firm said the spending cuts in the recent deal to raise the federal debt ceiling “falls short” of what’s needed to stabilize the government’s longer-term finances.
U.S. debt now will carry a AA-plus rating instead of the coveted AAA, meaning borrowing costs could rise. The higher interest rates the U.S. Treasury would need to charge for its bonds could spill over into other areas, such as mortgages and credit cards.
S&P, one of the top three credit rating firms, also placed the nation’s long-term rating on negative watch, meaning it could be downgraded further to AA in the next two years (i.e., removing the “plus”) if there are fewer spending cuts than agreed to in the debt deal or if there are other economic changes that increase the nation’s debt. latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/08/us-credit-rating-downgraded-by-standard-poors.html

Ted Rall on the S and P Downgrade: Those corrupt corporate-backed pigs just aren’t that into us.
So boycott the pigs. It is time for Real Liberals to kick Team Democrats to the curb. It isn’t hard. Next November all you have to do is…
Nothing.
Just.
Don’t.
Vote.
In other countries voter boycotts have a long and proud tradition as a way to effect pressure on a non-responsive political system. Think the politicians won’t care if you don’t vote? History proves you wrong. Even in dictatorships where only one candidate appears on the ballot, regimes go to desperate lengths to get people to turn out to vote. Why? It proves the government’s legitimacy.
Samuel Huntington cites the example of apartheid-era South Africa in his book “The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century”: “In the 1988 municipal elections, the [pro-apartheid] South African government…clamped down on pro-boycott opposition groups and made it unlawful for individuals to urge a boycott.” The African National Congress then upped the ante, declaring its intent to “use revolutionary violence to prevent blacks from collaborating [by casting a vote].”  http://www.rall.com/rallblog/tag/standard-poors

Investment Advice from the Motley Ghoul Himself:

Freeze dried food, semi-auto weapons, ammo, discrete nuclear secrets, water, precious metals (collect depleted uranium), and lots and lots of good trustworthy pals.

Stock markets plunge in worst day since depths of financial crisis: The Dow Jones industrial average closed the day down 512 points, its worst performance since December 2008, as concerns about a double-dip recession caught fire among investors. The Dow finished the day down 512.76 points, or 4.3%, at 11,383.68, erasing all of the gains it had made since the beginning of the year and bringing the blue-chip average into an official “correction,” a drop of more than 10% from the high reached in April.

Broader indexes were down even more sharply, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index plummeting 5.1%.

The sharp drop in the U.S. came after a one-day respite Wednesday from nearly two weeks of declines. The last two weeks have seen the sharpest fall in stock prices since 2009 during the depths of the financial crisis.
Most stock markets in Europe ended the day down at least 3% after prices declined steadily during the day. Investors there are worried about increasing debt problems in Italy and Spain.
Before trading opened on Wall Street, the Labor Department announced that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits last week fell slightly from the week before. But the report, following a raft of disappointing economic data in recent days, was taken by many gloomy investors to indicate only that the stalled job market was not improving. latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/08/stock-markets-plunge-in-worst-day-since-depths-of-financial-crisis-.html

Professor Wordsworth Describes Banksters’ Next Move:

Who lost the Dow, SandP, Treasury, Jobs, Sales, Deals? A sell-off erased this year’s gains in the stock market Tuesday as investors grew increasingly concerned about the economy.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 — the benchmark for most U.S. mutual funds — lost 2.6 percent and fell to its lowest point of the year. It is down 0.3 percent for the year and is off nearly 8 percent since reaching a high for the year of 1,363 on April 29.
A series of weak economic reports and poor earnings reports from several big companies spurred the decline.
The Commerce Department reported that consumers cut their spending in June for the first time in nearly two years. Analysts had predicted a slight increase. Incomes also rose by the smallest amount since September, reflecting a weak job market. The report came one day after a weak manufacturing report. And on Friday, the government said in the first half of the year, the economy grew at its slowest pace since the recession ended in June 2009.

“The market is starting to wonder where the growth is going to come from,” said Nick Kalivas, a vice president of financial research at MF Global. “It hasn’t hit the panic button yet, but that’s where we’re drifting.” www.detnews.com/article/20110802/BIZ/108020413/Weak-economic-indicators-drive-stocks-down

Bloomberg Shudders. Can’t the Ruling Class Produce Leaders?

Global markets have issued a vote of no confidence in the management of the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and the euro area. To regain credibility, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic need to recognize the magnitude of the crisis they face.
The outlook reflected by the market rout is not encouraging, coming as it does after European and U.S. officials thought they were doing enough to fix their similar — and overlapping — fiscal problems. The U.S. is growing at a rate too slow to withstand a serious shock, and that shock could easily come from Europe’s resurgent financial crisis. So far, politicians’ efforts have been far too timid to convince the world that they have the situation under control. www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-05/world-market-rout-is-a-loud-no-confidence-vote-in-leaders-view.html

Who Lost India? India’s main stock index has fallen more than 15 percent this year, making it one of the worst-performing markets in the world. A further slide in global markets would only accentuate that trend, making it harder for companies to raise the capital they need for investment.
Falling global demand could also depress foreign direct investment and dampen a recent boom in Indian exports. www.washingtonpost.com/business/india-fears-impact-of-global-economic-crisis/2011/08/05/gIQAF8XRwI_story.html?hpid=z2

Solidarity Forever

The Counterfeit Save “Our” Schools Action: The recent Save “Our” Schools maneuvers did precisely what the organizers hoped: about 5,000 people showed up, exactly the figure leaders predicted, and had a chat, plus a rally–against Big Tests.

Education elites, the High-Priests and Mother Superiors (Diane Ravitch of the Social Democrats USA and the Shanker Institute, liberal Democrat Jonathon Kozol, Linda Darling-Hammond, early educational adviser to the Obama campaign, Lily Eskelsen, boss at the National Education Association which helped create the Race to the Top, the Democratic Socialists of America’s Deb Meier, and others noted below) of the missions for capitalism that are US schools spoke.
Absent colorful robes and funny hats, it may have been hard to recognize the Priests and Superiors real roles as imitation interpreters of reality from on high. True dress-up, as we shall see, was left to others a week earlier, but the crux of things was the same—more efforts to deflect, dis-organized, demolish, a real social movement for equality and justice, ram people conned by false hope and sham analysis into voting booths.
To be sure, many honest rank and filers attended the SOS rally. At issue now is whether or not SOS upends itself, develops a to-the-root analysis of why things are as they are (class war and imperialist war would be a good start), and begins to organize direct action that can be sustained, real empowerment in theory and practice. That remains to be seen. However, the tilt to the disingenuous right is dominant now.  http://richgibson.com/SOS.htm (below, Snow White Relaxes at Comic Con which drew 140,000)

Photo by Chris Neal

NEA Touts Micro-Analysis and Mini-Action at SOS: It was a powerful thing to see thousands of us on the Ellipse of the Mall with the White House in the background and the Capitol down the road.
It was powerful for the very fact that it started as the idea of a group of education bloggers who have for so many years called for a return to sanity – the radically sane idea of using test scores to measure no more than what they were designed to measure.  (author Lily Eskelsen is the VP of NEA and signed the paycheck of former NEA Prez Reg Weaver for $686,949 for one year’s work) lilysblackboard.org/2011/07/the-good-fight/

NEA Boss Backs Obamagogue’s Farcical Deficit Scam as Better than a Catastrophe, demonstrating how Liberals ratify escalating forms of lesser evils as they help usher in Fascism: Van Roekel added that it was “hard to stomach” that issues surrounding tax fairness were passed along to the committee instead of being addressed in the debt deal, but said that America’s students and middle class families were counting on Congress to address a ”fundamental economic imbalance that puts the interests of Wall Street over Main Street.” neatoday.org/2011/08/02/nea-president-debt-deal-flawed-but-default-would-be-catastrophic/

AFT Sought to Deny, Divert, then Claim Credit for SOS: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150258015634160.334536.215968684159

D.C. Teacher Union Suspends VP Leading Fightback vs Firings: The Washington Teachers’ Union suspended an official who is handling the bulk of the work from the recent mass firing of D.C. Public Schools teachers.  http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/07/teachers-union-suspends-vp-handling-fired-teachers

SOS as a $125 (or was it $150?) Thousand Charade: The group had raised about $125,000 to host the conference and march, including about $50,000 from teachers’ unions, but all of that money has been spent.  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/07/march_leaders_craft_next_steps.html

Ohanian on SOS: Confrontation will be difficult. Teachers are by their nature people pleasers. We don’t like to say “No.” We like to cooperate. But to save the profession, teachers will have to be willing to ramp up the rhetoric a thousandfold from what they heard at the SOS. Ramp up the rhetoric and the collective action, too. Teachers must be willing to strike; they must refuse to give the tests. I’m not talking individual heroic acts here. I’m talking mass action, hundreds of thousands of teachers standing up and shouting that they’re mad as hell and not going to take it any more.  http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=958

Why Was Diane Ravitch Honored by the CIA-sponsored Solidarity Movement in Poland? In 1989, she advised Teachers Solidarity and the Ministry of Education in Poland. In 1991, the Polish Government awarded her a medal for her work on behalf of Solidarity  http://www.dianeravitch.com/vita.html

UAW’s Bob King, Sharing Corporate Jet, Declares “Us vs Them” is kaput: On Friday afternoon, United Auto Workers President Bob King sat across from Ford Motor Co.’s chief as contract talks opened in Dearborn, Mich.
Hours earlier, the union boss and Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally were sharing a chartered jet to Washington for an announcement on new fuel-economy targets.
Mr. King says the shared flight and costs were simply the “most expeditious way” to get the two men to the same destination.
But the excursion—unthinkable just a few years ago—is emblematic of the new, cooperative relationship Mr. King said he hopes to forge between his battered union and the Detroit auto makers.  The “old ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality” is a relic, Mr. King said Wednesday. The UAW “learned the hard way” through the General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC bankruptcies that the union has to help keep the auto makers profitable.
“Rather than vilify the other side, we have to try to understand the other side,” Mr. King, the 64-year-old son of a former Ford labor-relations executive, told reporters at an auto-industry conference here. …Mr. King grew up with a close-up picture of management’s view of the UAW. His father was director of industrial relations at Ford.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903885604576486442508858566.html

Spy Versus Spy

The Emergence of Fascism as a Mass Popular Movement:

In the video (caution: contains strong language), Thomas can be heard screaming over the clicking sounds of the Taser. Bystanders also offer a commentary of the scene unfolding before their eyes.
“They’ve Tased him five times already,” a woman says. “That’s enough!”
“They’re freaking ruthless,” another man says.
Moments later: “I don’t know why they don’t just put cuffs on him and call it a night, instead of hitting him.”
Thomas sustained serious injuries, and was taken by ambulance first to St. Jude Medical Center, then to UCI Medical Center. He died five days later after being removed from life support.  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/fatal-fullerton-police-beating-of-homeless-man-sparks-outcry.html

Six Years to Convict New Orleans Killer Coppers:

they poured out of the truck and opened fire on members of the Bartholomew family, who were walking to a grocery store in the largely abandoned city. James Brisette, 17, a friend of the family, was killed, and four others were gravely wounded.
Several of the officers then chased Ronald and Lance Madison, two brothers stranded in the city, to the other side of the bridge, where Mr. Faulcon shot Ronald, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, in the back. Sgt. Bowen then stomped Mr. Madison on the back as he lay dying.
No guns were recovered at the scene and witnesses — both police officers and citizens — testified during the trial that the victims were unarmed.
The cover-up began immediately, prosecutors said, and the jury found all of the officers, as well as retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, guilty on charges of obstructing justice, fabricating witnesses, lying to federal investigators and planting a firearm at the scene to bolster a made-up story.
While the jury convicted on all counts, they stopped short of considering the killing of Mr. Madison to be murder in connection with a firearms charge. Such a finding would have affected the sentencing range, though four of the defendants are nevertheless faced with potential life sentences. Mr. Kaufman is facing up to 120 years in prison.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 14. …While there were citizens who turned to crime and violence, it has become apparent that some of the bloodshed and chaos after the hurricane was brought about by certain members of the city’s long and deeply troubled police department. www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/us/06danziger.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Magical Mystery Tour

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT-gPCOnQ5I

87 Year old Priest/Masseur Charged with Molesting Girl: “I was horrified that he would do this,” said Chad Smith, 9, who attends the church’s school. “He taught us a lot about God, but he didn’t trust in God himself.”  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/08/04/2011-08-04_bronx_priest_87_arrested_for_sexually_abusing_16yearold_girl_who_worked_in_churc.html

Worst thing in the History of the World

What could be Worse than the Detroit Teacher Contract that Was full of Concessions and Ratified on the grounds that These Would be the Last Concessions and they Would Save Jobs? The New Deal in Detroit, outlined here:

Above, DFT’s Keith Johnson (right) and Bob Bobb, DPS Boss, smile after mutually bargaining what was the worst contract in teacher history, until the below.

FAQs About Emergency Manager’s July 29 Order [8.2.11]
On Friday, July 29, 2011, Emergency Manager Roy Roberts signed an “Order Relating to Wage, Compensation and Benefits Structure for District Employees.” In an effort to respond quickly to the many phone calls we are receiving, here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. (Click on the heading above to read the full text of the order.)
1. Q: What is the union doing to fight these outrageous cuts?
A: We are taking aggressive legal action. We will post more details as the legal process unfolds.
2. Q: The order refers to wage concessions. Why did the union agree to these concessions?
A: We did not agree to any of this. In fact, we proposed reasonable alternatives. The wording on the order is incorrect. These are not concessions, they are unilaterally imposed cuts.
3. Q: Does the pay cut apply to August checks for members on 26 pays?
A: No. It applies to wages earned after Aug. 1, with the exception of pay for sick days.
4. Q.: Does the pay cut apply to unpaid workshops or summer school pay?
A: No. It applies to wages earned after Aug. 1, with the exception of sick days.
5. Q: We made our health insurance decisions based on costs for calendar year 2011. The order says costs will increase Sept. 1. With the new cost-sharing amounts, we might want to elect different coverage. Will we be given a chance to make new elections before the new costs take effect?
A: No.
6. Q: The order says payment for sick days at retirement is suspended. Does this mean that employees who worked for 30 years, scheduled elective surgeries in the summer, never abused their sick days, and now are finally ready to retire will suddenly not get paid for these days that were literally in their bank?
A: Yes.
7. Q: Doesn’t this effectively reward members who abused their sick days and punish those who diligently came to work?
A: Yes.
8. Q: The order freezes salary steps and imposes a 10 percent cut. I am at Masters step 9. This will cost me $15,566 every year until the emergency ends. It will cost people at step 10 $7,252 per year. Isn’t this grossly unfair?
A: Yes.
9. Q: With newer employees pay frozen at 90 percent of last year’s level, won’t this encourage younger teachers to leave the district?
A: Yes.
10. Q: The order says that payment for sick days is suspended. Does that mean that it will be resumed when the financial emergency is over? If so, won’t that encourage people who were ready to retire to stay until pay for sick days is resumed?
A: It is unclear how long the suspension will remain in effect. This lack of clarity will most likely cause teachers to delay their retirements in hopes that the payment will be restored.
11. Q: We made significant concessions in December 2010, and now district officials are unilaterally changing parts of the contract they don’t like. How do we know they won’t make more changes and how can we trust them to keep their word in the future?
A: This question should be directed to the district.
12. Q: Why hasn’t the union announced a rally to protest this?
A: We will. Watch our web site for details.
-Mark O’Keefe, Executive Vice President mi.aft.org/dft231/

KKKwame Kilpatrick, the racists’ fave Mayor, is Out of Jail: The former Detroit mayor, released today from a Jackson prison after serving 14 months for probation violations, has been very active updating his fans on Twitter and Facebook today as he reunites with friends and family.  http://www.freep.com/article/20110802/NEWS09/110802057/A-free-man-Kilpatrick-reaches-out-supporters-social-media?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE (below, Thief from the poor KKKwame and Paramour Beatty)

Best or Worst Thing in the History of the World

Who Lost all those Guns? Twenty-six AK-74 assault rifles and one Dragunov sniper rifle were stolen from a supply warehouse at Fort Irwin in San Bernardino County on July 15, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says in a statement.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/27-rifles-stolen-from-southern-california-military-base-feds-offer-reward-for-more-arrests/2011/07/29/gIQAbxWGiI_story.html

Up Fatman! Up LittleBoy!

Ted Nugent, Motor City Madman, on Education’s ImportanceInstead of having our tax dollars confiscated and funneled to a union-controlled system that produces unclean, slovenly, fat dunces and dropouts, educating our children should be left up to the free market. Parents could then decide which school their child would attend. Bad schools would close, and good ones would prosper. Perfect.
Under the current system, bad teachers, bad administrators and bad schools continue producing children who are largely illiterate and unable to compete in an ever-changing, technical and global marketplace. Something must change, and it must change now.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/28/nea-master-of-disaster/

So Long, Bubba, Kenny, and Eugene (and good luck to our side).