Rouge Forum Update: Censored News From NEA and AFT Assembies
Little Red Schoolhouse:
Report from NEA Rep Assembly: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda:
richgibson.com/NEA-RA2010.html
NEA RA Photos: richgibson.shutterfly.com/71
(All banned on the Rethinking Schools and other Liberal listserves).
The NEA 2010 Rep Assembly: The Longer Version:
richgibson.com/NEA-RA2010LongerView.html
George Schmidt on the Totalitarian Welcome to Bill Gates at AFT Convention:
www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1529§ion=Article
Bill Gates Speaks to AFT while Some Walkout and Most Cheer the Convicted Monopolist:
Ohanian on Broad Foundation Impact on Schools and the Demagogue, Obama:
susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=704
1/3 of Detroit Principals are New Hires: More than a third of Detroit Public Schools will have new principals when school begins in September after a wave of retirements and reassignments.
www.detnews.com/article/20100707/SCHOOLS/7070374/1026/schools/DPS-hires-52-new-principals#ixzz0t2ZlTchl
Touchy-Feely DPS Boss Arraigned: Former Detroit School Board President Otis Mathis III stood mute Tuesday at his 36th District Court arraignment on charges of misconduct in office and obscene conduct. www.detnews.com/article/20100706/SCHOOLS/7060373/1026/schools/Ex-DPS-board-president-Mathis-arraigned-on-obscenity-charge#ixzz0t2adJw2u
Who’s Running For Detroit School Board? Nobody: Nobody wants to run for two available seats on the Detroit Public Schools board. The deadline to get on the Aug. 3 primary ballot passed May 11 without anyone filing, meaning only a write-in candidate can be elected this fall.
www.detnews.com/article/20100710/SCHOOLS/7100346/Detroit-Public-Schools-board-gets-no-candidates#ixzz0tFxHKtcx
Detroit Boss Bobb Already Reneges on Vile DFT Contract: In his outline for the 2010-11 budget, Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb stated that he will raise class size for grades 4-12 beyond the negotiated limits in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the School District and the DFT. The EFM has stated that the contract allows for teachers to receive compensation for oversized classes. mi.aft.org/dft231/
Detroit Snooze Editorializes vs Tenure and Seniority: “ Spurred by a growing body of research that shows teacher quality is the No. 1 in-school predictor of student achievement, states and cities from New York City to Colorado are moving to ensure school districts consider other factors — such as performance and attendance — when staffing the nation’s classrooms, despite enormous political hurdles and risks. From The Detroit News: www.detnews.com/article/20100708/OPINION01/7080329/1008/Good-teachers-for-all#ixzz0t7nzmUUJ
Another Look at the AFT Convention (alt site): www.aftconvention2010.8k.com/
Perpetual War Front:
McChrystal: Goon: Given McChrystal’s alleged involvement in the torture of detainees at Camp Nama in Iraq, his primary role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s death and other dark acts involving his time commanding the Joint Special Operations Command under the Bush-Cheney administration, McChrystal should have never been named commander in Afghanistan. When he was appointed, Obama sent a message about the kind of policy he wanted in Afghanistan–one which favored unaccountable, unattributable direct action forces accustomed to operating in secret and away from effective oversight. Indeed, in the Rolling Stone article, McChrystal appeared to admit his famous commitment to decreasing civilian deaths was a sham operation. According to Rolling Stone: “‘You better be out there hitting four or five targets tonight,’ McChrystal will tell a Navy Seal he sees in the hallway at headquarters. Then he’ll add, ‘I’m going to have to scold you in the morning for it, though.'” www.thenation.com/blog/36599/gen-stanley-mcchrystal-and-blackwater-updated
Most Soldiers Have Nothing to Gain From this War. Poor and working people are sent to kill other poor and working people to make the rich richer…
Soldier Charged For Wiki Leaks (with video): The US military has pressed criminal charges against a soldier suspected of leaking video of a US helicopter attack in Iraq to the website, WikiLeaks. Army Spc Bradley Manning is accused of transferring classified data on to his personal computer and transmitting it to an unauthorised third party.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10529110.stm
There Goes the Economy Front:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoptH8TqasE
Millions Fall off The Unemployment Lists as Bennies Expire: With the U.S. Senate’s failure to extend unemployment benefits that expired in June, things have gone from bad to worse for unemployed workers.
www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/07/consider_rebudgeting_as_unempl.html
Obamagogue Health Care by Chris Hedges: “at least $447 billion in taxpayer subsidies will now be handed to insurance firms. We will be forced by law to buy their defective products. There is no check in the new legislation to halt rising health care costs. The elderly can be charged three times the rates provided to the young. Companies with predominantly female work forces can be charged higher gender-based rates…” www.truthdig.com/report/item/obamas_health_care_bill_is_enough_to_make_you_sick_20100712/
Banks Say No but Taxpayers Cannot: From the earliest days of the credit crisis, the nation’s big financial institutions have been less than forthcoming about ballooning loan losses buried inside their books. To some degree this is understandable: denial is a powerful thing, after all, and writing off troubled loans during a period of severe stress is, for bankers, the equivalent of getting a root canal.
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/morgenson-banks-say-no-too-bad-taxpayers-cant/?scp=1&sq=banks%20say%20no%20too%20bad%20taxpayers&st=cse
Salon Review on movie, Inside Job, about the Criminal Bankster Industry: Charles Ferguson is here to tell the world that the crisis that wiped out trillions of dollars in wealth, threw millions of people out of their homes and out of work, and further widened the gulf between rich and poor was no accident. It was a crime.
www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/05/19/cannes_ferguson
Will Banks Pay Their Debts, and Go Under? The sovereign debt crisis would seem to create worry enough for European banks, but there is another gathering threat that has not garnered as much notice: the trillions of dollars in short-term borrowing that institutions around the world must repay or roll over in the next two years. www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/business/global/12refinance.html?_r=1&hpw
Magical Mystery Tour Front:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXc-IHGzpEE
Voice of God Cuts Back Staff: Founded in 1872, The Michigan Catholic was previously a weekly newspaper that served the region’s 1.3 million Catholics. Today, the staff learned that it would decrease publication to every two weeks and that five of its 12 employees were laid off. The next issue is to come out July 16 followed by July 30.
www.freep.com/article/20100707/NEWS06/100707063/1320/Catholic-newspaper-cuts-back-on-publishing
Worst Thing in History of World Front:
LL has Nasty Manicure (the number one read article at the Detroit Free Press on July 7th):
The 24-year-old actress sported a colorful manicure in court Tuesday that included obscene messages on each of her middle fingers. Close-up photos taken by a courtroom photographer revealed the tiny letters, which made worldwide news today on entertainment websites.
www.freep.com/article/20100707/ENT07/100707057/
Best Thing in the History of the World:
The Racists’ Favorite Mayor, Kilpatrick of Detroit, Pleads Not Guilty to 19 New Charges, Pleads Broke, and Sits in Jail:
Emerging Fascism Front:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty4sVI-R8Vo
Oakland Cops Beat Up and Arrested Our Friend Susan Harman:
oaklandlocal.com/blogs/2010/07/69-year-old-retired-school-principal-beaten-school-board-director-arrested-last-night-
Riot Fraud at G20 in Toronto–Cops pose as Rioters:
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19928
Spy vs Spy
I Spy, You Spy, We Spy, They All Spy: Ten convicted Russian sleeper agents were whisked out of the United States on a plane headed over the Atlantic Ocean late Thursday as part of a deal with Moscow to put a quick end to an episode that threatened to disrupt relations between the two countries. www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/world/europe/10russia.html?hp
Stratfor on the Ruskie Spies:…there are two things we know about the Russians: They are not stupid, and they are extremely patient. If we were to guess — and we are guessing — this was a team of talent scouts. They were not going to meetings at the think tanks because they were interested in listening to the papers; rather, they were searching for recruits. These were people between the ages of 22 and 30, doing internships or entry level jobs, with family and academic backgrounds that would make employment in classified areas of the U.S. government easy — and who in 20 to 30 years would provide intelligence and control to Moscow.
Who Snatched Whose Spy? In the latest twist in a murky tale, Pakistan said Tuesday that an Iranian nuclear scientist who Tehran maintains was kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency had taken refuge in a section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington that deals with Iranian interests. www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/middleeast/14iran.html?hp
Solidarity Forever?
Labor Backer Harry Kelber: Nice to be a Labor Boss, Sorry It Sucks for You (800,000 left AFL in 2008): Reading a long July 4 panegyric extolling the values and virtues of the labor movement, I was struck by one sentence that, in the midst of heavy platitudes, expressed a glittering truth. The sentence read: “People who work directly for unions get good wages and benefits.” (You betcha!) Starting at the top, the three AFL-CIO executive officers each earn about $250.000 a year with a guaranteed 60 percent of their salary for each year after they retire. All of the 51 members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council get salaries in the 6-figure range, And don’t forget the pensions and the perks! And none of them has ever been fired from their or suffered a wage cut!
www.laboreducator.org/
Heavens Weep Front:
BP Partner Refuses Share in Oil Gusher: One of BP’s partners in the deepwater well which exploded in April – leading to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – has refused to pay its share of the costs so far. Houston-based Anadarko, which owns 25% of the Macondo well, was asked to pay $272m (£180m) by BP. But an Anadarko spokesman said it was going to withhold payment.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10581968.stm
We Say Fightback Front:
General Strike Paralyzes Greece: Another 24-hour general strike, the sixth this year to date, brought Greece to a standstill Thursday, in protest of the austerity plan adopted by the Giorgos Papandreou government. (July 8) http
So Long, Tuli:
He exorcised the Pentagon
Tuli Kupferberg, a poet and singer who went from being a noted Beat to becoming, in his words, “the world’s oldest rock star” when he helped found the Fugs, the bawdy and politically pugnacious rock group, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 86 and lived in Manhattan. www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/music/13kupferberg.html?_r=2&hpw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2AGqlf8J9g
Thanks to Susan and Susan, Marilyn, Amber, Gina and Adam, Doug S, Connie, Betty and Don, Barb and Ken (yes), Terry Stern, Tony, Andy, Candace, Larry, Bob, Dan H, Lisa, Bill and Greg, Mr J, Mr Z, Lloyd, Barry, Ernst, Ira, John T, Isadora, VS, Paul and Mary, Donna S, Kathy K, Michael, Shirley, Perry, Kay, George, Sharon, and Matt and Kimmie.
Good luck to us, every one.
r