Rouge Forum Dispatch: Om Wisconsin and Much More!
Saturday, March 12th, 2011We Say Fightback:
Bet those Coppers are Union Members?
Professor Vivek on Obamagogue, Empire, and Domestic Policy
Sorry about the ad but worth the candle (video)
From Substance News, San Diego, Detroit, and on Wisconsin! San Diego and Detroit have a lot in common. The former an NEA local, the latter AFT, but both played the dead man’s hand, the electoral cards, and both are about to lose. The union leaders are Quislings at heart and in daily life.
The teaching force, in both instances, trusted the political system and their union bosses. The school workers ran on the NCLB and RaTT treadmill, alienating themselves from the kids and population–and proved their allegiance with tax schemes, development plots, that only benefit the rich, hurt the working class. They abandoned the struggle for control of the products and processes of their work. The more they did that, the more powerful they made an economy that can now only be called “Their economy,” and the under-bosses who run it. The more the school workers followed this path, the less humane and connected they became, the more they became instruments of their own oppression…richgibson.com/DetroitSanDiego.htm
The Little Red Schoolhouse
The children walking along the road of truth and reason carry love to all; and they clothe everything in new skies; they illumine everything with an incorruptible fire issuing from the depths of the soul. Thus a new life comes into being, born of the childrens’ love for the entire world; and who will extinguish this love–who? What power is higher than this? Who will subdue it? The earth has brought it forth; and all life desires its victory–all life. Shed rivers of blood, nay seas of blood, you’ll never extinguish it. Maxim Gorky, Mother, p486
Test! Test! Test! Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!
“An individual student can exceed beyond their wildest dreams in any given year, but when a whole group shifts its position dramatically, you have to worry,” says John Fremer, president of Caveon Test Security, a Utah company hired by states and school districts to investigate test irregularities.
Thomas Haladyna, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University, says test gains of 3 standard deviations or more for an entire grade are “so incredible that you have to ask yourself, ‘How can this be real?’ ” Haladyna says such a spike in scores would be like finding “a weight-loss clinic where you lose 100 pounds a day.”http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-06-school-testing_N.htm
Obama=Bush=Capitalist Education: Although he has sharply distanced himself from his predecessor on most issues, Obama is promoting an agenda on education very similar to that of former President George W. Bush.
The centerpiece of No Child Left Behind, annual testing of students in reading and math, is backed by the Obama administration, even though many teachers and parents have complained about the testing component since the law’s creation in 2002.
Other Bush policies now in Obama’s education blueprint are strict accountability for schools, including replacing principals and staff if their students consistently perform poorly on standardized tests; strong support for charter schools; and greater efforts to closely evaluate teachers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/08/AR2011030802147.html
When 4/5ths of the kids Flunk, Who Failed? More than 80,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools could be labeled as failing under No Child Left Behind, the main federal law on public education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Congress on Wednesday.
Duncan said the estimate, based on an analysis of testing trends and the workings of the law’s pass-fail school rating system, was the latest evidence of the law’s shortcomings and the need to overhaul it. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110310/NATION/103100389/1026/schools/Many-schools-will-miss-testing-targets–official-says
Obamagogue Signs off on Defunding Literacy: Federal support for literacy was dealt a heavy blow today. This afternoon, President Barack Obama signed into law a stopgap spending bill that ends federal funding for several literacy programs at the U.S. Department of Education, part of a planned government-wide reduction of $4 billion. The measure also eliminated or trimmed spending for a variety of other education programs
blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/03/house-approved_spending_bill_a.html
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDENaum0Vbo
Karzai to US Puppeteers: “You Suck! Now Send Me More Money!”
“The people of Afghanistan are tired of these incidents and excuses, and condemnations can not relieve their pain,” said Mr. Karzai, according to the statement. “I am asking you on behalf of the people of Afghanistan that there be no repetition of this incident,” the statement said.
Civilian casualties caused by NATO troops are one of the most corrosive factors in the relationship between the West and the Afghans and reinforce the Taliban’s propaganda that NATO troops do not care about the Afghan people. www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/world/asia/07afghanistan.html?hp
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor:
We are Being Gassed–Second biggest Cost jump ever: The gross price increase was the biggest since the 38.44 cent-rise that occurred in the Aug. 26-to-Sept. 9, 2005, period following Hurricane Katrina, according to survey editor Trilby Lundberg. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41938193/ns/business-oil_and_energy/
Out-Voted, Out-Witted, Wisconsin Dems and Unionites Lose: The Wisconsin State Assembly approved a bill Thursday that would slash union rights for public workers. The vote comes a day after the state Senate used a legislative maneuver to pass the bill without the 14 Democratic senators who fled the state in an effort to block it www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031002020.html
Ford (where UAW members work for peanuts) Boss to Collect Highest pay Package Ever: Last week, the company’s president and CEO realized after-tax gains of $33.4 million on incentive stock awards granted as part of his 2008 pay package. And that’s just a part of what he has earned for leading Ford’s historic recovery since 2006.
Ford will report Mulally’s 2010 compensation in the coming weeks, and there’s a strong chance it will be the largest pay package the auto industry has ever seen. Last week, the company’s president and CEO realized after-tax gains of $33.4 million on incentive stock awards granted as part of his 2008 pay package. And that’s just a part of what he has earned for leading Ford’s historic recovery since 2006.
Ford will report Mulally’s 2010 compensation in the coming weeks, and there’s a strong chance it will be the largest pay package the auto industry has ever seen. www.freep.com/article/20110310/BUSINESS01/103100537/Ford-chief-Alan-Mulally-s-compensation-record-an-auto-CEO?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
The Emergence of Fascism as a Mass Mutlitentacled Force:
“Bourgeoisie democracy BREEDS fascism…The more workers place their trust in legalism, in constitutionalism, in bourgeois democracy, the more they make sacrifices to save the existing regime, as the “lesser evil’ against the “menace” of fascism, the heavier become the fascist attacks and the more rapid the advance to capitalism. To preach confidence in legalism, in constitutionalism, in the capitalist state, means to invite and guarantee the victory of fascism.” R. Palme Dutt, Fascism and Social Revolution, 1935.p49
Obamagogue: “That Gitmo Promise? Psych on You! The announcements, coming more than two years after Obama vowed in another executive order to close the detention center, all but cements Guantanamo Bay’s continuing role in U.S. counterterrorism policy www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR2011030704871.html?hpid=topnews
Were the Sacrifices in Egypt for deadly mysticism + Militarism?
Egyptians confront the worst outbreak of religious violence since Hosni Mubarak was swept out of power Feb. 11. The deaths of 13 people in clashes in Cairo between Muslims and Christians late Tuesday have prompted calls for religious tolerance and raised the prospect of a deepening sectarian divide after a post-revolution honeymoon period.
Street battles broke out after Coptic Christians set up roadblocks in major arteries to protest the destruction of one of their churches. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030904546.html?hpid=topnews
China’s Social Fascists Clamp Down More: The intensified scrutiny came as China released budget figures showing that for the first time annual spending on law enforcement and public security would outstrip the military budget. The government said it planned to spend $95 billion on the police, state security, armed civil militia and jails, 13.8 percent more than last year. Military spending rose 12.7 percent to $91.5 billion.www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/world/asia/07china.html?hp
Mexico Bans Movie About Farcical Judicial System:
When the documentary “Presumed Guilty” opened in theaters here, many Mexicans saw for the first time the inside of one of their own courtrooms – and they watched the brutal, terrible grinding of the wheels of justice in stunned silence.
And now, the story gets even stranger: The movie about the Mexican judicial system is being ordered shut down by the Mexican judicial system.
Two weeks after the film opened to widespread acclaim, a federal judge ruled last Wednesday that it should be pulled from theaters because of a complaint from a witness who appears in the film as he testifies in a courtroom. The film portrays the murder trial of an innocent man who is found guilty not once, but twice; the witness says he was filmed without his consent and, because of the movie, is taunted and threatened in the streets.
The judge’s order to pull the film from theaters is being challenged in court this week. It was still in theaters Monday, but government officials said they would tell the distributor to stop screening the film on Tuesday. Long lines were reported over the weekend as people rushed while they can to see the film, whose subject matter has left reviewers reaching for Franz Kafka….
Zuniga was found guilty despite the fact that he did not know the victim; a dozen witnesses saw him working at his market stall at the time of the murder; tests showed he had not fired a weapon; and the one and only witness against him was first a suspect in the killing and then told police that three gang members had shot his cousin, the victim, over a small drug debt.
Zuniga won a rare retrial with the help of Hernandez and his wife, producer Layda Negrete, who discovered that Zuniga had been represented in his first trial by a defense attorney with a phony diploma.
The filmmakers got permission to film the retrial. In Mexico, criminal cases are not presented to juries but to a judge, who does not hear oral testimony but reads through reams of affidavits. More than 90 percent of defendants never actually see a judge, never see an arrest warrant and are convicted without any physical evidence.
In the documentary, Zuniga is shown at his retrial sitting in the corner of the courtroom, behind bars, while the judge and lawyers discuss the case. When one of the police detectives is asked what evidence there is against the defendant, the cop says, “He must have done something,” because he is in prison. When the prosecutor is later asked why she was pursuing an innocent man, she replies, “I’m not the judge; it’s my job.”…In the climactic scene, Zuniga is allowed to confront his accuser, the eyewitness, who confesses that he never saw who shot his cousin. The judge finds him guilty anyway. Zuniga was only freed after the filmmakers showed the scenes of the retrial to a higher court.
Hernandez says it is wrong to simply condemn the lazy or corrupt cops and judge in this typical case. “It is a problem with the whole system, it is not a problem of a few individuals,” Hernandez said. “The system is rotten.” www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR2011030704103.html?hpid=artslot
US Diplomat Removed for Foot in Okinawan Mouth: American diplomat about Okinawa that were denounced by Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government, and relieved him of his position.
Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said he expressed “deep regret” in meetings today with Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. He spoke to reporters at the American embassy in Tokyo, which was cordoned off by police as right-wing activists drove by in trucks with loudspeakers, denouncing the U.S.
Kyodo News reported on March 6 that Kevin Maher, head of the State Department’s office of Japan affairs, called Okinawans “masters of manipulation and extortion” in a speech at an American university late last year, based on written notes from some of the students. Maher told Kyodo the account was “neither accurate nor complete.”
Okinawa houses more than 75 percent of the U.S. military bases in Japan, which has caused tensions with local residents who complain of noise, pollution and crime. Okinawans oppose a U.S.-Japan agreement to relocate a Marine air facility from one part of the island to another, and in December re-elected a governor who promised to move it elsewhere. www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/u-s-apologizes-for-okinawa-comments-fires-japan-desk-head.html
Is Agism always Entirely Wrong? Entirely? A public backlash has followed the comments of a 91-year-old freshman state representative who said Thursday that funding for the mentally ill should be cut because he doesn’t support state funding for “the crazy people” who should be sent to “Siberia.”
State Rep. Martin Harty, R-Barrington, told Sharon Omand, a program manager at Community Partners, which provides behavioral health and developmental services for Strafford County, that he believed in eugenics and disagreed with her about the need for funds for mental health services.
“The world population has gotten too big and the world is being inherited by too many defective people,” he told her.
Omand said she asked him to clarify if he meant mentally ill and developmentally disabled and he responded, “I mean all the defective people, the drug addicts, mentally ill, the retarded — all of them.”
“I asked what we should do with them,” Omand said, and Harty said, “I believe if we had a Siberia we should send them to this and they would all freeze and die and we will be rid of them.” http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110312/GJNEWS_01/703129906/-1/fosnews
Solidarity Forever!
Unionite School Board Member Says, “I am About to Betray You”
(if voting mattered, they wouldn’t let us do it) Barrera himself told the crowd of teachers, counselors, nurses and other workers who packed the auditorium: “I am going to violate your trust in me tonight. I’m going to vote for the superintendent’s recommendations. Doing so goes against everything that I believe in.” Teachers shouted, “So don’t do it!” www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/schooled/article_c686ec8a-4c3f-11e0-a9b6-001cc4c002e0.html
Spy vs Spy
Above: Question–Why did mention of Botched CIA work in Libya nearly Vanish from the US Press?
MI6 Mission Turns to Farce: Defeated by Farmhands in Libya:
A joint SAS-MI6 team was kicked out of Libya last night after their mission to link up with rebels fighting Colonel Gaddafi turned to farce. The eight-man unit was sent to have secret talks with opposition leaders but humiliatingly the team was detained and held by a group of farmhands.
The crack troops, armed with guns, ammunition, explosives and false
passports, were mistaken for enemy spies, detained and stripped of their mobile phones and satellite communications devices. Britain faced further diplomatic humiliation as telephone calls in which officials in London begged opposition figures in Libya for their release were intercepted by Colonel Gaddafi’s security forces and broadcast on Libyan state television…
Last night the Special Forces were being debriefed on the frigate HMS Cumberland en route to Malta about how their efforts had left the UK a laughing stock. The team of eight, described by officials as a ‘diplomatic mission’, was actually made up of a mid-ranking officer from the Secret Intelligence Service and seven SAS.
Really USAID, who are You and Who is Alan Gross? Mr. Gross, 61, was detained in December 2009 while on a U.S.A.I.D. mission in Cuba designed to weaken the government. Cuban authorities said that Mr. Gross was distributing satellite telephone equipment, which could be sued to access the Internet, to Jewish groups in Cuba. Those groups have denied having anything to do with him.
The prosecution was seeking a 20-year sentence.
A panel of judges found that the evidence “demonstrated the participation of the North American contractor in a subversive project of the U.S. government that aimed to destroy the Revolution through the use of communications systems out of the control of authorities,” the Associated Press reported Saturday. www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/americas/13cuba.html?hp
Honest! He’s an Ally! Pakistani Spy Chief Still a US Buddy: Pakistan’s perceived differing strategic interests with America, especially over the future of Afghanistan, cause frequent tensions between the two spy agencies. Many analysts believe some in the agency want to ensure its one-time allies, the Taliban, wield influence in Afghanistan once foreign troops withdraw.
Ties have hit a low since the arrest of a CIA contractor in eastern Pakistan in January after he shot and killed two Pakistanis. The contractor remains in jail despite Washington’s insistence he must be freed. The ISI has criticized alleged CIA covert operations in the country. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/12/AR2011031201593.html?hpid=moreheadlines
The Heavens Weep:
Multiple Tragedy in Japan: Japanese authorities began evacuating more than 200,000 people Saturday from areas around two nuclear power plants after an explosion at one of them damaged a building housing an aging U.S.-supplied reactor. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031103673.html?hpid=topnews
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHfR_wybvw0
Magical Mystery Tour
Abusive Priests Still Roam Free and Church Covers Up: Plaintiffs want the files — which could include internal correspondence, previous complaints and therapy records — released, saying it’s a matter of public safety. The church is pushing for a more limited release of information.
The list of addresses, obtained by The Associated Press, contains nearly 50 former priests and religious brothers from the LA archdiocese who live and work in 37 towns and cities across California, unsupervised by law enforcement or the church.
Another 15 are scattered in cities and towns from Montana to New York, while 80 more cannot be located despite an exhaustive search by attorneys representing those who have sued them for abuse. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41954425/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
Phillies! Keep Hiding the Kids! Priests Still on the Loose! The archdiocese’s action follows a damning grand jury report issued Feb. 10 that accused the archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of predatory priests, stretching over decades, and said that as many as 37 priests remained active in the ministry despite credible accusations against them.
Of those 37 priests, 21 were suspended; three others already had been placed on administrative leave after the grand jury detailed accusations against them. Five others would have been suspended, the church said in a statement, but three are no longer active and two are no longer active in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. The church said that in eight cases, no further investigation was warranted. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/us/09priests.html?_r=1&hp
The Best Thing in the History of the World
National Corporate Radio Scammed Again–Eats its Own Twice!
Winning Joke so Far: A CEO, a union member, and a tea bagger are in a room together.
A table stands in the center of the room.
On it are 10 chocolate chip cookies. The CEO takes 9 of them and looks at the tea bagger and says:
“Watch it. That union guy wants your cookie”.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a lot of frozen chickens — even 80,000 tons of chicken. It’s just that Lockheed Martin wanted a more transferable currency for its F-16 fighter jets:
www.realthinktank.com/2011/03/thailand-tried-to-barter-chickens-for.html
WorldRecord20ParrotTricksin2Minutes-.wmv
Parrot Smarter than Some We Know (above).
We Remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 1911:
NEAR CLOSING TIME ON MARCH 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Factory. Within 18 minutes, 146 people were dead as a result of the fire.
The ILR School Kheel Center is honoring the 100 year anniversary of the fire with a redesign of this well-known resource, including many new and updated materials. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MemUQ1hM0Ps
So Long Johnny