{"id":9574,"date":"2013-02-09T23:45:51","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T07:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=9574"},"modified":"2013-02-09T23:50:24","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T07:50:24","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: So Long, Empire!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 10, 1954 \u2013 President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>williamblum.org\/books\/americas-deadliest-export<\/a><\/p>\n

Portland Student Test Boycott <\/strong>A group of Portland students is urging classmates to boycott state benchmark tests, calling them a waste of resources and inaccurate measures of student achievement and teacher effectiveness.
\nLeaders of the Portland Public Schools student union and a broader group called the Portland Student Union say students should opt out of the annual Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams, which are used in state and federal school ratings. Passing several of the tests is a graduation requirement, though students can demonstrate proficiency in alternate ways. \u00a0http:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/portland\/index.ssf\/2013\/02\/portland_public_schools_studen_1.html<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Detroit: Civil Rights Hearing on School Closing (what about the dismissal of ALL the teachers?) <\/strong>U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller will meet today with Detroit Public Schools officials to investigate allegations of civil rights violations stemming from massive school closures in the district.
\nThe U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into three Title VI complaints against the state’s largest school district, which has seen a dramatic decline in its student population the past decade, from 157,003 in 2003 to 51,000 today.
\nDistrict officials have shuttered more than 100 school buildings in an attempt to right size the district as it fell deeper into a financial crisis. \u00a0 www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20130207\/SCHOOLS\/302070391#ixzz2KFyrUQOC<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f5BS5R_Xjio<\/a><\/p>\n

When Mr. Brennan resumed his testimony,<\/strong> the top Republican on the committee, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, pressed him on his knowledge of the C.I.A.’s use of brutal interrogation methods under President George W. Bush. Mr. Brennan was deputy to the agency\u2019s No. 3 officials when the coercive interrogations were first used but said he had no involvement in the program.
\nMr. Chambliss sounded skeptical, saying records showed Mr. Brennan had received 50 e-mails about the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, a terrorist facilitator caught in Pakistan in 2002 and subjected to waterboarding, the near drowning technique used by C.I.A. interrogators.
\nPressed on conflicting accounts of the interrogation program, Mr. Brennan declared, \u201cAt this point, Senator, I do not know what the truth is.\u201d
\nMr. Brennan on several occasions declined to describe waterboarding interrogations as \u201ctorture.\u201d He instead called them \u201creprehensible\u201d and \u201csomething that should not be done.\u201d Leon E. Panetta, who served as President Obama\u2019s first C.I.A. director, was unequivocal during his confirmation hearing in referring to waterboarding as torture. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/08\/us\/politics\/senate-panel-will-question-brennan-on-targeted-killings.html?ref=global-home&_r=0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sanity within the Ghost Dance that is the Arab Spring <\/strong> In a show of anger at Tunisia\u2019s Islamist-led government, tens of thousands of people filled a hilly cemetery in the capital on Friday to bury Chokri Belaid, an opposition politician whose assassination this week stirred fears here and throughout the Arab world that political violence could subvert the uprisings born in Tunisia two years ago. \u00a0In bracing scenes that recalled the 2011 revolution against Tunisia\u2019s autocratic leader \u2014 and in numbers not seen since \u2014 mourners marched for miles through a city quieted by the largest labor strike in decades, which was called in Mr. Belaid\u2019s honor. Clashes outside the cemetery interrupted the proceedings for a time, sending tear gas and black smoke from a torched car wafting among the mourners. But the funeral remained overwhelmingly peaceful.
\nMr. Belaid, a lawyer, a human-rights activist and the leader of a leftist opposition coalition, was killed by gunmen on Wednesday as he sat in his car. His fierce criticisms of Tunisia\u2019s largest Islamist group, Ennahda \u2014 along with death threats he received from religious hard-liners known as Salafis \u2014 led his supporters and relatives to blame Islamists for his death. \u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/09\/world\/africa\/tunisia-strike-chokri-belaid-burial.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Corruption is systematic within Capital and its Schools <\/strong>The San Diego Unified School District is accused of improperly diverting nearly $4.5 million in cafeteria funds to cover custodial and utility expenses, landing it on a shortlist of districts the state has ordered to repay $170 million to student meal programs. \u00a0 www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2013\/feb\/06\/senate-report-san-diego-unified-lunch-money\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Censored by the Common Core, Holden can’t say, “All morons hate it when you call them a moron.” <\/strong>Catcher in the Rye dropped from US school curriculum \u00a0http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/books\/booknews\/9729383\/Catcher-in-the-Rye-dropped-from-US-school-curriculum.html<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Who Accredits the Community College Accreditors? …<\/strong> the ACCJC is \u201cauthorized to operate by the US Department of Education (US DOE).\u201d13
\nAccrediting agencies must be re-recognized by the US Department of Education\u2019s National Advisory
\nCommittee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (pronounced \u2018Nasicky\u2019), every 5 years.14 NACIQI in
\nturn makes recommendations on re-recognition to the US Department of Education.15 16 NACIQI has 18
\nseats, six appointed by the US Senate, six by the US House, and six by the administration.
\nThe NACIQI vice chair, Arthur Rothkopf, is often identified as an emeritus university president.
\nHowever additionally from 2005-2010, he was a senior vice president at the US Chamber of Commerce,<\/em>
\nthe premier lobbying arm of the Fortune 500 corporations.17 He now works for the standardized testing
\nindustry as a board member of the Educational Testing Service, Inc.<\/em>
\nHaving such a lobbyist co-chair the panel on the integrity of accrediting agencies would be like having a
\nChevron vice president co-chair the government panel on carbon emissions and public health. The
\nNACIQI panel also includes the president of the University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college in
\nthe US.<\/p>\n

So Long Detroit , “Turnaround” Boss Flees Town (as with most students) <\/strong> Doug Ross, hired by Detroit Public Schools to lead its school turnaround program, has left the district after 18 months.
\nDPS Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts made the announcement Tuesday, saying Ross left the district to focus exclusively on the turnaround of urban high schools outside DPS.
\nFrom The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20130205\/SCHOOLS\/302050439#ixzz2KG3VasBh<\/a><\/p>\n

Germany’s Top Plagiarist Forced out <\/strong>The academic work was a time bomb, however, and it exploded last year when an anonymous blogger published a catalog of passages suspected of having been lifted from other publications without proper attribution.
\nThe university revoked the doctorate of the minister, Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan, on Tuesday (she retains the title pending appeal), and on Saturday she was forced to resign her cabinet post. It was the second time a minister had quit the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel over plagiarism in less than two years. \u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/10\/world\/europe\/german-education-chief-quits-in-scandal-reflecting-fascination-with-titles.html?ref=global-home<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Superpower \u2013 the film<\/strong>
\nStarring Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Michel Chossudovksy, Karen Kwiatowski (Pentagon \u201cdefector\u201d), William Blum, Sergei Khrushchev (son of Nikita), Kathy Kelly, and many others: vimeo.com\/55141496<\/a> (enter password when prompted: barbarasteegmuller) \u2013 2 hours long.<\/p>\n

Rosa Speaks <\/strong> In detail, capital in its struggle against societies with a natural economy pursues the following ends:
\n1. To gain immediate possession of important sources of productive forces such as land, game in primeval forests, minerals, precious stones and ores, products of exotic flora such as rubber, etc.
\n2. To \u2018liberate\u2019 labour power and to coerce it into service.
\n3. To introduce a commodity economy.
\n4. To separate trade and agriculture. \u00a0 richgibson.com\/twinbirths.html<\/a><\/p>\n