Why Are Things As They Are?

=We Say Fight Back!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGqncu3wlEI

UCSD Students Occupy Library Closed by Cuts while U Prezzie lives Like Royalty Students forced open the doors of a shuttered University of California San Diego library Monday and rushed inside, vowing to stay around the clock until the end of final exams Friday.
University police, who were on hand when students arrived at the library before 7 a.m., were pulled out of the area by administrators keen to avoid the kind of campus confrontations that have occurred recently, including the one at UC Davis last month when campus police sprayed nonviolent demonstrators with pepper spray.
And administrators said they will not seek to punish anyone for the break-in.   www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/05/students-reclaim-ucsd-library/

LA Coppers Personal Info Posted for All to See Personal information about more than two dozen members of the Los Angeles Police Department’scommand staff has been anonymously posted on an Internet website, officials said Wednesday.
Police are investigating who may be behind the site, which listed officers’ property records, campaign contributions, biographical information and, in a few cases, the names of family members, including children.
The information was mostly about LAPD captains, but also contained information about higher-ranking staff officers.   latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/lapd-command-staff-personal-information-posted-on-website.html

Occupy Detroit Moves to actually Occupy Something: No Foreclosures Allowed! The occupy movement has declared Tuesday a “National Day of Action” to curb the foreclosure on American families. Occupy Detroit will also occupy a Detroit home at 5 p.m. on Hibbard Street, whose tenant has received an eviction notice, along with the group Moratorium NOW!   www.detnews.com/article/20111206/METRO01/112060386/Occupy-Detroit-protests-Southgate-couple’s-eviction

Occupy DC Unoccupied by Cops U.S. Park Police arrested members of the Occupy D.C. demonstration on Sunday as police and protesters clashed over a wood building the group began constructing at McPherson Square.    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post_now/post/occupy-washington-demonstrators-arrested-by-us-park-police/2011/12/04/gIQA3RSiSO_blog.html

December 17 is Private Bradley Manning’s 24th Birthday!

Ghost Dancers of Occupy Boston “Peacefully” Evicted

Congratulations to Grenadian Chris Derigs on the Publication of

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Teacher Alert: Upcoming Anniversary of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion PROFILE OF THE REBELLION
Rare testimonies and reports on the ’67 Detroit Rebellion
This week, The Michigan Citizen concludes “Profiles of Disorder,” the mostly balanced account of the July 23-27, 1967, Detroit Rebellion, prepared by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission after its chairman, Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner, Jr.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the 11-member commission on July 28, 1967, and charged it to investigate the causes of the urban uprisings, which had become annual “long, hot summers,” and make recommendations “to prevent or contain such disasters in the future,” as he put it.
The Detroit profile was published, in slightly different form, in the “Report of The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders” (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, March 1, 1968, also published by Bantam Books), but the text below is from the commission’s records in the Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Tex.
The only changes we have made are to add subheadings and silently correct obvious misspellings. Historical corrections or additions are enclosed in [square brackets].
Our series will continue with rare, mostly candid interviews with a diverse cross-section of local officials, observers and participants and reports by the commission’s sometimes keen field investigators in 1967 and 1968, when the memories of the Rebellion, its causes and consequences were still fresh.     michigancitizen.com/uprising-part-p4812-106.htm

How Penn State Sucks Up Public Money but Hides Its Many Secrets A scandal the magnitude of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case has a way of shifting legal talking points, perhaps even changing state code. Let’s hope it does. Because if all the nastiness about Sandusky is true, one of the main reasons for the protracted time-span of the abuse is Penn State’s ability to hide behind toothless open records laws, all while hoovering up taxpayer money. The university’s 2011-12 budget includes $279 million in state appropriations. Yet the only information about Penn State available to the taxpayer is some salary data and an IRS 990 report. For lack of a better word, that’s bullshit.   deadspin.com/5857531/how-penn-state-sucks-up-taxpayer-money-and-hides-its-ugly-behavior-from-taxpayers

Penn State Spending Millions on PR (but hush, it’s a secret) One of the first things Penn State University did after learning that former football coach Jerry Sandusky and two university administrators had been charged in a sex abuse scandal was to hire a public relations firm.
It quickly added a second PR firm and two law firms to its payroll.
Despite requests from McClatchy, the university so far hasn’t released information about how much it could end up paying those firms for their work, whether there are any specific agreements in place regarding those costs, what such agreements cover or how long they would remain in effect.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows the lawyers’ fees could run into millions of dollars.   www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/04/132047/penn-states-legal-pr-bills-could.html

While PSU’s PR Firm Beats the Fundraising Drum, Venerated Jerry Sandusky Jailed Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been taken to a Pennsylvania county jail after he was unable to post $250,000 bail.    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/12/jerry-sandusky-jail.html

*An Exercise on Why Have School?
*What are the Key Things Happening in Schools Today?
*What are the Key Things Happening in Society?
*From This Analysis, What Shall We Do and Think?     richgibson.com/whyhaveschool.htm

Failed KC School Boss, Now Michigan Ed Czar (and millionaire) Sez he Loves Kiddies and Schools But Don’t Intermingle with those Detroit Kids: The head of the new statewide school reform system assured local superintendents and educators today that he’s not out to take over their schools, but to work hand in hand with them to help improve achievement.
“I do want to work with you as equal partners so we can change the system so it can serve as a model for the rest of Michigan and the rest of the country,” said John Covington, the chancellor of the new Education Achievement Authority, the statewide system created this summer to take on the worst-performing schools in the state…State Superintendent Mike Flanagan has the authority to determine which schools outside DPS go in the EAA and he told the Free Press last month that he will not place schools in the statewide system if they are showng improvement. Flanagan said at the time there are likely only a few schools that could go in the EAA.   www.freep.com/article/20111209/NEWS06/111209041/School-reform-czar-preaches-group-effort-improve-worst-performing-schools?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Detroit Schools Retain Record as Worst in the USA (within the most exploited city) Detroit Public School students made gains on a national test measuring math and reading proficiency but scored the worst in the nation again among large urban school districts tested, according to results released Wednesday.
The district’s fourth- and eighth-graders trailed 21 other large cities that participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial Urban Assessment.
The Nation’s Report Card 2011 found that 71 percent of eighth-grade students in Detroit scored below basic proficiency in math, which means they lack fundamental skills in math, while 66 percent of fourth-graders did the same.    http://www.detnews.com/article/20111207/SCHOOLS/112070384/DPS-gains-but-still-last-in-math–reading-scores-for-urban-districts

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing Offer Breakfast to Encourage Wreckage of whatever is left of DPS Several hundred parents and education advocates gathered at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel Saturday to ask questions of educational leaders as part of a panel discussion during Detroit Parent Network’s 2011 Annual Breakfast.
Among the topics were choosing a quality school, classroom sizes and school safety.

“One of the things we do every year is make sure parents have lots of opportunities to be a part of the discussion,” said Sharlonda Buckman, executive director of the nonprofit group. “Their children will bear the brunt of the decisions the decision makers make.”
During the panel discussion led by Deborah Ball, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan, leaders in the education field gave their input on a number of educational issues, including teacher certification and student discipline.
The panel included Ralph Bland, superintendent of Detroit Edison Public School Academy, John Covington, chancellor of Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, Clark Durant, president of the New Common School Foundation, Karen Ridgeway, assistant superintendent of the Office of Research, Evaluation, Assessment and Accountability for Detroit Public Schools and Dan Varner, executive director of Excellent Schools Detroit.    http://www.detnews.com/article/20111210/SCHOOLS/112100378/Hundreds-of-parents–educators-gather-for-Detroit-Parent-Network-breakfast

How Long Before San Diego City Schools Go Bankrupt? The public proclamations that the San Diego Unified School District faces a state takeover dropped like a bombshell, but our story revealed that district leaders have had serious discussions about insolvency both publicly and privately for years.   www.voiceofsandiego.org/clipboard/article_4dc9461e-207c-11e1-b368-0019bb2963f4.html

Ohanian Censored (and Later Uncensored After Protest) NOTE: I am one of six “experts” invited to comment on the Common Core, the only one criticizing the document, at the Learning Matters blog.
Of note is the Learning Matters subtitle: Reporting You Can Trust.
Well, you decide. You might find it interesting to note that the only changes the editors made in my text was criticism of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2 times) and of Achieve (1 time). I have indicated the cuts in red below.
Of course it is coincidental that Learning Matters, Inc. has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, most recently:
2009: $325,000
2007: $308,000
In my final paragraph they substituted “among others” for my “acting in concert with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”    http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1143

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-WdnqvAaNs

Cold War Two: Michael Klare When it comes to China policy, is the Obama administration leaping from the frying pan directly into the fire? In an attempt to turn the page on two disastrous wars in the Greater Middle East, it may have just launched a new Cold War in Asia — once again, viewing oil as the key to global supremacy.

The new policy was signaled by President Obama himself on November 17th in an address to the Australian Parliament in which he laid out an audacious — and extremely dangerous — geopolitical vision. Instead of focusing on the Greater Middle East, as has been the case for the last decade, the United States will now concentrate its power in Asia and the Pacific. “My guidance is clear,” he declared in Canberra. “As we plan and budget for the future, we will allocate the resources necessary to maintain our strong military presence in this region.” While administration officials insist that this new policy is not aimed specifically at China, the implication is clear enough: from now on, the primary focus of American military strategy will not be counterterrorism, but the containment of that economically booming land — at whatever risk or cost.   www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175476/

Militarists Take a Look At China’s Water Forces

China: Diesel Attack Subs: (2005 vs. 2009): 51 vs. 54 (+3)
USA: Diesel Attack Subs: (2005 vs. 2009): 0 vs. 0 (+0)

Note: Japan commissioned 4 Oyashio-class, 2 Soryu-class SSKs; South Korea commissioned 3 Type 214s from 2005-2010.

China: Nuclear Subs (SSN only, 2005 vs. 2009): 6 vs. 6 (+0)
USA: Nuclear Subs (SSN/SSGN only 2005 vs. 2009): 58 vs. 56/57 (-2/-1)

China: Destroyers (2005 vs. 2009): 21 vs. 27 (+7)
USA: Destroyers (2005 vs. 2009/10): 46 vs. 54/57 (+8/+11)

Note: Japan brought into service 2 Atago-class destroyers, 2 Takanami-class destroyers, and a Hyuga-class “carrier” destroyer; Taiwan put 4 ex-Kidd-class vessels into service; South Korea put 4 KDX-2-class destroyers into service over the past 5 years.

China: Frigates (2005 vs. 2009): 43 vs. 48 (+5)
USA: Frigates (2005 vs. 2009/10): 30 vs. 30/31 (+0/+1)

Note: Regional Frigate-building programs are proceeding apace.

China: Coastal Missile ships: (2005 vs. 2009): 51 vs 70+ (+19 at least)
USA: Nada. Zip.

Interesting. China’s small missile ships are allowing China’s larger vessels to engage in “blue water” activities, so, while these vessels expand China’s “reach”, a dependence on small ships may prove a vulnerability. The region needs to know more about the small ship programs hosted by Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. What, by way of smaller vessels, can these navies offer? How good are the region’s Air Forces in hunting and destroying smaller craft?     blog.usni.org/2010/03/16/chinas-navy-hey-lets-not-panic/

Sy Hersh: No Evidence of Iran’s Abomb The new report, therefore, leaves us where we’ve been since 2002, when George Bush declared Iran to be a member of the Axis of Evil—with lots of belligerent talk but no definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons program.    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2011/11/iran-and-the-iaea.html#ixzz1eq5uafN5

Shias Targeted In Afghan Bombings Two bomb blasts apparently targeting Shia Muslim shrines as hundreds of people gathered to mark the day of Ashoura have killed at least 60 people and injured scores more.
At least 56 people were killed by a suicide bomber who detonated explosives at the gate of the Abu-Ul Fazil shrine in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, many of them children, Afghan officials said.
Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, reporting from the blast site in Kabul, said police had confirmed the death toll. The ministry of health said that more than 100 people were injured in the attack.    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2011/12/201112674650869183.html

Is Eric Holder Arming Zetas to Invade Iran? Who Lost all those Good Guns?

For nearly a year Holder has been avoiding accountability for Operation Fast and Furious, a secret ATF program that allowed guns to “walk” into Mexico and right into the arsenals of Mexican drug cartels. Nevertheless, he still looked shocked when a congressman insinuated he might be impeached.   www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2011/12/09/fast-and-furious-stonewallings-call-for-eric-holders-impeachment/

Putin: Hillbillary Provked Unrest (save the dress, Vlad) Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin accused Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday of inciting unrest in Russia, as he grappled with the prospect of large-scale political protest for the first time in his more than decade-long rule.   www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/world/europe/putin-accuses-clinton-of-instigating-russian-protests.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK1x92ybibc

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

Italian Fascistas Use Nationalism as Mask for Full Scale Assault on Working Class and Poor Telling Italians that the fate of their country and the euro was at stake, Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled a radical and ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases on Sunday, including deeply unpopular moves like raising the country’s retirement age.   www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/world/europe/mario-monti-of-italy-calls-cabinet-to-consider-austerity-measures.html?_r=4&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Es-Senator and Millionaire John Corzine: “What Me Worry? $1.2 billion Missing? How the hell do I know Where it went. Not my Job! “I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date,” Corzine said. “I apologize, both personally and on behalf of the company, to our customers, our employees and our investors. I truly know that they are bearing the brunt” of the collapse.   www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-09/bid-rigging-mf-global-insider-trading-cordray-compliance.html

Merry Christmas Wells Fargo, Another Slap on the Wrist Wells Fargo & Co. and regulators announced Thursday a $148 million settlement to resolve accusations that Wachovia, which was purchased by Wells, participated in a bid-rigging scheme that hurt state and local governments.
It’s the fourth major bank to settle with the consortium of federal agencies and state attorneys general. Bank of America Corp. settled for $137 million last December.
The settlement is also the second Wells Fargo has made on the issue in as many months.
“We’re really pleased to resolve the issue,” Wells Fargo spokeswoman Dana Obrist said, noting that it involved activity that predated the company’s 2008 acquisition of Wachovia.   www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/08/132578/wells-fargo-settles-bid-rigging.html

The Plan For Collapsed Detroit: Restore it to A Plantation: In the last 60 years, Detroit has lost more than half of its population. This is a common scene in once-comfortable middle-class neighborhoods like Yorkshire Woods: abandoned homes being leveled by city wrecking crews.
More than 3,000 structures have come down since Mayor Bing took office two years ago. Bing wants to take down 6,000 more by the time his term ends in 2013. These demolitions are a key component of Bing’s plan to turn Detroit around.  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec11/detroit_12-06.html

Texas Woman Denied Food Stamps Shoots Kids and Self in Welfare (sic) Office A woman who barricaded herself in a Texas welfare office before shooting her two children and killing herself had been denied food stamps months earlier, state officials said Tuesday.   latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/texas-woman-denied-food-stamps-shoots-children-kills-self.html

Obamagogue Deports with the Best of Em New federal guidelines designed to focus deportations on those with criminal histories doesn’t seem to have slowed the tide of illegal immigrants sent back to their home countries, local leaders said.
The Obama administration issued new regulations this year to prioritize deportations among undocumented immigrants after the U.S. sent a record number of them back to their home countries.
The directives allow prosecutors to take a person’s criminal history, community ties and length of time in the country into account, immigration experts said.    http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-04/news/30473051_1_deportation-new-york-immigration-coalition-home-countries

Argentine Fascism Rises with 25 Percent Inflation Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner starts her second term with the challenge of extending nine years of economic growth while tackling one of the world’s highest inflation rates.    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-10/fernandez-begins-second-term-facing-argentina-s-25-inflation.html

Spy Versus Spy

Above, FBI Agent on the Russian Desk, and Russian Spy, who served in the same Opus Dei Cult as the Head of the FBI, Louis Freeh. Freeh is now investingating the Penn State Child Rape Cases.

San Diego Spy Company Planned to Import Ghadaffi’s Boy to Mexico? Mexican authorities on Wednesday said they thwarted an attempt to smuggle a son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi into a resort near Puerto Vallarta, a conspiracy they say involves two associates of a San Diego-based security company
The associates of Veritas Worldwide Security are being detained in Mexico, along with two others who have been arrested, after an investigation dubbed by authorities as “Operation Guest,” according to Mexican authorities and an employee of the company. www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/07/sd-firm-linked-mexican-plot-smuggle-gadhafis-son/

Solidarity Fornever

Cuban Socialism Fast Becomes What it Set out to Oppose The day after Havana is invaded by the living dead, Juan and Sara emerge from their dilapidated apartment building to find the streets filled with people roving aimlessly, their wide eyes blank.  “It all looks the same to me,” Sara shrugs.
The suggestion that 52 years of socialist rule have turned Cuba into a zombie state, a central conceit of the new Cuban horror spoof “Juan of the Dead,” is daringly irreverent satire in a country that takes its revolution with deadly seriousness….The shifts in Cuba’s film industry mirror the broader reality on the island, where President Raúl Castro has gradually reduced the role of the state, cutting subsidies and public-sector jobs and opening space for private enterprise in a bid to salvage the economy.    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/world/americas/zombies-in-juan-of-the-dead-chomp-on-cubas-sacred-cows.html?hp

UAW Concedes (as always) that the Fake Union Can’t Organize “Foreign” Auto Plants–complete Failure Again The UAW decided today not to pick a so-called target foreign automaker to organize – a significant change in its strategy for growing its membership.
UAW President Bob King had set a goal to organize at least one foreign automaker’s U.S. workers this year, but said today that the goal has changed.
“We are shifting our strategy htta little bit. We are not going to pick or announce a target at all,” King said in an interview.   www.freep.com/article/20111207/BUSINESS01/111207030/UAW-switches-strategy-won-t-single-out-foreign-automaker-union-organization

4 for 9 isn’t Bad unless that’s The Average of Illinois Governors in Jail: “I’m Innocent!!!” Blago Slime to the Hoosegow Blagojevich, who turns 55 Saturday, was ordered to begin serving his sentence on Feb. 16. In white-collar cases, convicted felons are usually given at least a few weeks to report to prison while federal authorities select a suitable facility. Blagojevich is expected to appeal his conviction, but it is unlikely to affect when he reports to prison.
Most of the prisons where Blagojevich could end up are outside Illinois. One is in Terre Haute, Ind., where Ryan is serving his own sentence. In prison, Blagojevich will largely be cut off from the outside world. Visits by family are strictly limited, Blagojevich will have to share a cell with other inmates and he must work an eight-hour-a-day menial job — possibly scrubbing toilets or mopping floors — at just 12 cents an hour.
According to federal rules, felons must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence a judge imposes — m eaning that Blagojevich wouldn’t be eligible for early release until he serves nearly 12 years….    Blagojevich also explained that the family dog Skittles was bought after his arrest in to help his school-age daughters cope with the stress of his legal troubles. He said he joked with them , “If the worst happens (and I go to prison), you can get another dog and call him ‘Daddy.’”

Magical Mystery Tour

Irish Archbishop and Child Abuser The former archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, widely regarded as the most powerful Catholic prelate in modern Irish history, stands accused of serial child sexual abuse,    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/world/europe/former-irish-archbishop-tied-to-sexual-abuse.html?_r=2&hp

Obamagogue Dumps Science, Cuts off Morning After Pill for Youth President Obama said Thursday that he supported the Department of Health and Human Services overruling an FDA decision to allow an emergency morning-after contraceptive pill to be sold to girls younger than 17 without a prescription.     yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2011-12-08/Obama-Morning-after-pill-decision-common-sense/51745132/1

Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

Murder of Mumia Called Off Prosecutors in Philadelphia announced Wednesday that they had halted the state’s effort to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal, the death row inmate convicted of killing a police officer 30 ago, whose subsequent legal case based on claims of innocence has received international attention.

Which Way is the Shining Path? One of two remaining leaders of the Shining Path guerrilla group in Peru said his troops will cease attacks and is calling for a truce to start peace negotiations with the government.  ,,,Flores, however, couldn’t speak for another Shining Path leader, known only as Comrade Jose, who has not declared a truce.    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/07/world/americas/AP-LT-Peru-Shining-Path.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

NYC Coppers on FB Call West Indians Animals, Urge they Be Bombed During City Parade some of the people who posted comments seemed emboldened by Facebook’s freewheeling atmosphere. “Let them kill each other,” wrote one of the Facebook members who posted comments under a name that matched that of a police officer.
“Filth,” wrote a commenter who identified himself as Nick Virgilio, another partcipant whose name matched that of a police officer. “It’s not racist if it’s true,” yet another wrote.    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/nyregion/on-facebook-nypd-officers-malign-west-indian-paradegoers.html?_r=2

Is Joe Paterno the Real Underwear Bomber???

8 and 10 year olds to Face Armed Robbery Charges A pair of elementary school students could be facing charges on claims they threatened a group of classmates with a toy gun to snag some candy and chips.
Warren Police Lt. Dan Beck said the boys, ages 8 and 10, approached a group of Lincoln Elementary School classmates around 4 p.m. Tuesday as the group was walking home. One of the boys allegedly pointed the fake black gun with an orange tip at the children and demanded money. The suspects then went through the victims’ backpacks and took some candy and a bag of chips.    http://www.detnews.com/article/20111209/METRO03/112090430/Kids–8-&-10–could-face-armed-robbery-charges-for-snack-theft-with-toy-gun

So Long Hubert

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OweEOTY4B4