tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35490142736737579002024-03-14T00:44:23.442-04:00Putrid PunditsWatching and reporting on C-SPAN so you don't have to.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-42852185458186544072016-03-31T16:56:00.003-04:002016-03-31T16:56:20.701-04:00PrimariesI'm a Democrat. In every election, and by that I mean literally every November since I turned 18 not just every four years, I have voted along the Democratic party line with a few exceptions where the Democrat was challenged from the left. I am a Democrat not because I embrace their corporate kowtowing, or their cynical election strategies, but because we live in a two party political system and the party whose candidates come closest to my political views is the Democratic Party. I have spent a lot of energy arguing with friends and acquaintances about the merits of Democrats over Republicans and challenging the myth that both parties are essentially the same. And while I concede that if your only concept of elections is November every four years, you're more right than you are wrong. Which is why primaries are so important and everyone who complains about the status quo should take steps to vote in primaries every single year.<br />
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During the primaries, voters have the opportunity to select a candidate whose views approximate their own. For years my response to those who claim that Democrats and Republicans are all the same has been to ask if they participated in a primary contest. And that is the reason for the similarities between the general election candidates. The primary is where voters have the ability to move what their party stands for. It is only during the primaries that Democrats, or like-minded independents, can push the party away from the policies that have hollowed out the middle class, incarcerated millions of black and brown bodies, and result in deadly and destructive military actions overseas. </div>
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By watching the Cables, reading the news, or speaking with people about politics, it would seem that nearly everyone is angry about the status quo, which begs the question: why doesn't shit change? I think the simple and obvious answer is the anemic turnout that is typical of a primary election. We've all heard how low voter turnout is for general elections with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012">just shy of 55% of voting age Americans participating in the 2012 general election</a>. If that number sounds low, it is miles above a typical mid-term election <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/11/10/voter-turnout-in-2014-was-the-lowest-since-wwii/">with 2014 seeing lowest turnout since World War II</a> (33.9%). Even lower than mid-term election turnout is the number of electors who show up for primaries. With so few people deciding the names that appear on the November ballots, it's no surprise that both parties tend to nominate people with similar backgrounds, world views, and policy ideas. Sure, each party has its own issues that differentiate them for the voting public such as the Democrats' beliefs that LGBT Americans should be treated as people or the Republicans' insistence that a 2% increase in the top marginal tax rate is Hitler, but on the major issues over which elected officials will actually make decisions, top ticket candidates from both parties have been very similar.<br />
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Democrats were angry at President George W. Bush (R) for the war in Iraq, but President Obama (D) toppled the government in Libya and has, intentionally or unintentionally, provided weapons and resources to ISIS aligned groups in Syria's bloody civil war. When it comes to targeted assassinations, many of which have killed civilians and some of which have killed American citizens, the Democrat leads by a mile in terms of body count.<br />
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During the 2008 primaries there was a candidate, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who had he won the nomination and the White House, would likely not have authorized Hillary Clinton's Libya strategy or increased the use of extra-judicial drone killing overseas. That is a real world example of how the primaries, not the general elections, determine the policies of America. <br />
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So if you sit on the sidelines and ignore the primaries, don't be surprised when, come November, the choices all look like dog shit. If you cede the selection of the candidates to people who love dog shit, that's what you end up with. Furthermore, democracy requires a more substantial commitment than once every four years. As Samantha Bee so magnificently illustrated, the 2010 election was more important than 2008 and yet the turnout was less than 38%. You know what, just listen to her:<br />
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<br />Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-23520618786989298042013-06-11T11:43:00.002-04:002013-06-11T11:43:45.239-04:00New Blog: News RecapStarted up another branch of the PutridPundits domain. This is called "News Recap" and will basically just be links to the news stories I'm reading plus some commentary if I feel like it.<br />
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<a href="http://news.putridpundits.com/">Putrid Pundits News Recap</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-74815477689395712762013-05-31T12:35:00.001-04:002013-05-31T12:35:21.721-04:00Mother Jones: Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is WrongA great article about the damaging effects of No Child Left Behind.<br />
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<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/print/188516">Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong</a><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Using test scores to evaluate teachers—the main issue in the Chicago strike—is deeply problematic, as I found out in a year of immersion in an inner-city high school.</span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-32740765023083371122013-05-16T16:39:00.000-04:002013-05-16T16:39:11.227-04:00Made a new blogI haven't been doing anything on this blog in a long long time. I've also just created a new one called "User Fail." Guess what it's about.<br />
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<a href="http://userfail.blogspot.com/">User Fail: the blog</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-21845413437839729002012-04-29T14:58:00.002-04:002012-04-29T14:58:55.401-04:00Bill Maher's reasons for not giving to Cornell.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/36mhb2zCoFw" width="560"></iframe>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-71977377519003583142012-03-07T12:59:00.000-05:002012-03-07T12:59:13.367-05:00Gov. Jindal's Race to the BottomDiane Ravitch recently wrote about the state of Louisiana public education and the threats it is facing from Governor Jindal's policies. <br />
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<a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2012/03/bobby_jindal_vs_public_educati.html">http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2012/03/bobby_jindal_vs_public_educati.html</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-45273130842070942662012-03-04T22:58:00.000-05:002012-03-04T22:58:51.951-05:00TV Post - The Walking Dead: It's not Carl's faultOk, maybe it is Carl's fault for being a complete and utter moron. If he hadn't stolen Daryl's gun, and wandered off into the woods and woken a walker that followed him back and killed a cow and then killed Dale, then maybe Dale would still be alive...but come on, who's fault is it really? Lori and Rick should be responsible for their idiot child who wanders off in a zombie infested world on his own with no repercussions. At the very least someone should have said "Carl, where the hell have you been? Why are your pants so muddy? Don't you know it's dangerous out there?" but no, everyone acts like it's totally normal for the small child to be unaccounted for hours at a time. I don't know if it's shitty parenting/survival tactics, or just lazy writing (leaning on the latter) but this has got to stop.<br />
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The only person responsible for Dale's death is Dale for wandering off on a dark and misty night through the fields. That's a nono. If you want to patrol the grounds, do it in a group. If you want to get away from the group to blow off some steam...don't. There are ZOMBIES out there! Frankly, I'm glad to see Dale get killed because this episode he was really getting on my nerves. Yes, it would be great to latch onto our humanity and have a fully functioning judicial code in a post-apocalyptic-zombie world...but it's a god damn post-apocalyptic-zombie world! The important thing is to survive. Everything else comes second.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-32058658017367640492012-03-01T10:11:00.000-05:002012-03-01T10:11:28.548-05:00Racist Judge apologizes for people finding out he is a racist<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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</tbody></table>As reported in the <a href="http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120301/NEWS01/203010302" target="_blank">Great Falls Tribune</a>, Federal judge Richard Cebull recently forwarded a blatantly racist email and got caught. What's his defense? He said "It was not intended by me in any way to become public," and that he's sorry if anyone was offended. It seems to me that not intending for something to become public, and being a racist are not mutually exclusive. In fact, his racism, and specifically keeping that racism a secret, would be very strong motivators to not have this go public. <br />
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Bottom line: U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull is a racist.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-77327429674799978822012-02-29T21:49:00.000-05:002012-02-29T21:49:56.139-05:00Education InequalityToday I was helping a friend out with a math problem, some algebra, and I hit a thick patch of rust in my brain. After scratching my head a bit and then working through the problem, I decided to consult with my personal math expert, my dad. Despite having been taught most of the math he ever learned before 1964, my father has amazingly retained all of that knowledge and is happy to share it with anyone who bothers to ask for help. So after a quick call home, some description of the exponents in the equations and a little jotting down in my notebook, he had explained everything I in turn hoped to explain to my friend. <br />
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After hanging up the phone, I realized that this is one of the big inequalities that exist in our current educational system. It doesn't matter how much value-added-effectiveness my teachers in school were shown to have by complex and inaccurate algorithms. It's irrelevant how much test-prep a teacher might have run us through before an important exam. I and many others, who are fortunate enough to have a parent who can teach and explain the things that are taught in school, learned the concepts we did, and got the grades we did because of the knowledge that our parents were able to share with us.<br />
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I had great teachers growing up. Most of them would probably score very well on the myriad teacher evaluation schemes springing up around America. Most of them taught a lot of students who, like me, had parents with significant education, and would end up doing well on tests. But it doesn't matter how great those teachers were because however much time I spent sitting in my 9th grade math class with Mr. Bell, I spent a lot more time learning from my dad. I learned what math I know from sitting at the kitchen table doing homework with my dad within shouting distance if I got stuck on a problem I didn't understand. <br />
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Obviously, there will always be disparities in how much every child's parents know about a particular subject, and that will always be an advantage that the children of educated parents, who take the time to help them, will have over their peers. That's fine, there's nothing (sensible) that can be done about that, but it is quite another thing to ignore that fact and judge teachers solely on the successes, or failures, of their students.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-56992676755543829022012-02-17T11:07:00.000-05:002012-02-17T11:07:31.479-05:00The ReturnThings have been really quiet over here at Putrid Pundits...too quiet really. Now that the primary campaigns are firing on all cylinders it seems like a good time to get back into the swing of things. Check back soon for some political commentaries on the ugliness that is today's politics.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-34255076357380073782011-07-05T17:56:00.000-04:002011-07-05T17:56:18.680-04:00If we can understand this slide...we can win in Afghanistan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKIa8l_o-_KrdquZxga7XOqkqyjqPvaTfSwrdYJVNj_TeYtjKZGQd__f7SnSBo2DW7PsiiXI26clwRGz4DaxH9FcPQEtj-Jyv93J1LBiN9AciEvp6r1QjMyU_PvDo3PHMNl_-e79VqU6c/s1600/COIN-Afghan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKIa8l_o-_KrdquZxga7XOqkqyjqPvaTfSwrdYJVNj_TeYtjKZGQd__f7SnSBo2DW7PsiiXI26clwRGz4DaxH9FcPQEtj-Jyv93J1LBiN9AciEvp6r1QjMyU_PvDo3PHMNl_-e79VqU6c/s320/COIN-Afghan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Unfortunately, no one understands this slide.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-24256007226087397052011-06-07T16:49:00.000-04:002011-06-07T16:49:03.218-04:00How Weinergate differs from GOP Sex ScandalsSince Anthony Weiner's televised confession yesterday that he had in fact tweeted a picture of his "member of congress" and that his account was not hacked, as he had first alleged, many have called on the New York congressman to resign for the impropriety. Cable news pundits have been referencing the likes of Larry Craig, John Ensign, and the previous represenative of New York's 26th district, Chris Lee as they denounce Anthony Weiner and demand his resignation, but he is none of those people.<br />
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Larry Craig's political career came to a screeching halt when he was caught, by an undercover police officer, soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. Prior to his arrest, Larry Craig was known as a socially conservative member of the Senate who supported legislation designed to oppress homosexuals. Therefore it is not the fact that he was soliciting sex from men in a public bathroom that inspired people to call for his resignation, but the hypocrisy of making life harder for homosexuals while simultaneously engaging in the aforementioned activity. <br />
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Nevada's John Ensign was in similar hot water after it was revealed that he had carried on an affair with the wife of one of his closest staffers. Beyond the simple "you're having an affair with the wife of a very close friend/colleague" Senator Ensign had been an outspoken critic of President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky fiasco. In calling for the President Clinton to resign, he said the behavior was an embarrassment to the country.<br />
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The key difference here, besides the lack of extramarital sex on Congressman Weiner's part, is that Anthony Weiner has not built his career by attacking adulterers or as some self-righteous social conservative. Unlike Eliot Spitzer who was cracking down on prostitution rings while sleeping with prostitutes, Anthony Weiner doesn't have any public history of targeting lewd tweeters. <br />
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That being said it is extraordinarily upsetting, as a progressive, to see yet another politician on the left, who was fighting the good fight, allow his selfishness and his hubris to distract him from the job he was sent to Washington to do. I don't care what anyone tweets, emails, writes on facebook, or sends through ICQ (remember ICQ?) but politicians need to realize that this kind of crap will become public, and it will derail the important work they are doing.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-24046171184417905562011-04-29T12:28:00.000-04:002011-04-29T12:28:27.182-04:00More Proof that Democrats have no Political "Strategery"After weeks of howling from not-yet-a-republican-presidential-candidate Donald "The Donald" Trump, President Obama made the incomprehensibly idiotic move of releasing his long form birth certificate. I'm not sure how old Jim Messina (Obama's 2012 Campaign Manager) is, but someone should check his birth certificate to make sure he wasn't born yesterday. At the very least, they should take a lesson from Leslie Knope and make a "pros" and "cons" list the next time they make a big campaign decision. Here's what one might have looked like if they had.<br />
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Releasing President Obama's Birth Certificate<br />
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<i><b>Pros:</b></i><br />
<i>uhm...we'll come back to this one</i><br />
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<i>Oh, I know, it will put the issue to rest once and for all (how did that go dummy?)</i><br />
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<i><b>Cons:</b></i><br />
<i>It's not going to change anyone's mind</i><br />
<i>-Birthers will be birthers. A PDF of a birth certificate is only going to give them more things to talk about</i><br />
<i>-People who claim Obama is an illegitimate president aren't going to vote for him even if a video is released showing the live birth taking place on the steps of the Hawaii State Capitol</i><br />
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<i>It gives new life to the story</i><br />
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<i>It shows Obama gave in to Trump's public pressure which</i><br />
<i>a) Makes Obama look weak</i><br />
<i>b) Gives Trump's demands appear legitimate</i><br />
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<i>It opens the Administration up to criticism for spending money to fly someone to and from Hawaii to get the document</i><br />
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<i>The GOP look like a bunch of lunatics calling for his birth certificate...any of them that are serious rivals for the general election will suffer in the primaries if they denounce the birthers.</i><br />
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Had his advisors taken a few moments to look at the pros and cons, I don't understand how they could possibly have agreed to do this. It simply shows, once again, that Democrats have the worst strategists. It's a really good thing that the GOP field is so full of unelectable candidates or the White House would probably go back to them in 2012.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-78376875918485267452011-04-28T11:26:00.000-04:002011-04-28T11:26:52.387-04:00Don't Make Us Work 'Til We Die<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://strengthensocialsecurity.org/dont-make-us-work-til-we-die" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6405/images/logo5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-35972207445425297982011-04-21T12:09:00.000-04:002011-04-21T12:09:44.651-04:00From The Answer Sheet<div style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 1.2em; font: normal normal normal 14px/18px arial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: auto;">By Kathie Marshall</div><div style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 1.2em; font: normal normal normal 14px/18px arial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: auto;">In May 2005, I wrote an op-ed for one of our Los Angeles newspapers, in which I vented my frustrations about the state of education in my community. Here’s some of what I said:</div><div style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 1.2em; font: normal normal normal 14px/18px arial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: auto;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 1.2em; font: normal normal normal 14px/18px arial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: auto;"><i>“I’ve been an educator in the Los Angeles area for more than 30 years in grades two through eight, including general education, second-language learner, gifted, special-education and intervention students. I’ve taught some of the wealthiest families to some of the poorest, in both private and public schools. For the past four years I have been a literacy coach at a middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, working with teachers and students to improve instruction and learning. And I have to tell you, many things that have taken place in education over the last decade have me mad!”</i></div><div style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 1.2em; font: normal normal normal 14px/18px arial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: auto;">Read the rest at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/public-school-teacher-13-reasons-im-outraged/2011/04/20/AF6BLMFE_blog.html">The Answer Sheet.</a></div>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-78963533558659510072011-04-20T14:00:00.000-04:002013-05-12T18:34:51.940-04:00Why are Democrats so stupid?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Put another mark in the "no shit Sherlock" column as the Washington Post reveals the results of yet another poll that shows a majority of Americans would like to see taxes on the very richest Americans go up, while keeping benefits like Medicare in their current form. (http://wapo.st/g4bGH5)<br />
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To progressive Americans, this comes as no surprise as we have been yelling as loud and as often as we could for the past 10 years. Americans are sick and tired of seeing massive tax cuts benefiting the likes of Warren Buffet, Steve Forbes, and the Walton Family, while the middle class sees its wages frozen and its benefits being chipped away.<br />
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As much as it pains me to borrow from the GOP talking points, this really does highlight a massive failure of leadership from President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and the previous Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. All three of them had the means to cut out the tax cuts for the richest 1% at any point in time between January 2009 and December 2010. This could have been their big election issue going into last Fall. They could have forced Republicans to vote NO on tax cuts for the middle class and held their feet to the fire...but instead they blinked as they always do. <br />
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The excuses that have come out of the Democratic party since the Fall elections have been that they had to act to save tax relief for the middle class. But that's only because they failed to act on it sooner. The first day back after the summer recess Democrats should have been hammering away at the GOP to pass tax relief for the middle class and the middle class only. Leave out the estate tax breaks that will save the Walton family over $34 billion. Forget about the keeping the marginal tax rates for the richest 1% lower than it's ever been since the creation of the income tax (it's not like any of them pay that rate anyway http://bit.ly/dL6mer).<br />
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But no, that's not what they did. Instead, Obama, Reid and Pelosi tried to hang on by moving to the center. And we saw how well that worked out for the Donkey. One would think after the "shellacking" Obama and the Dems took in 2010 they would find some new vocabulary and really hammer home to people the importance of getting tax rates back to at least where they were under Clinton, if not pushing them back to where they were under the great Conservative himself, Ronald Reagan. As Anthony Weiner said to Mike Huckabee "why should the guy working 70 hours a week on a construction job pay a bigger percentage in taxes than the do-nothing child of a millionaire who inherits a massive fortune?" (It's a really great clip: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKv7ZcMjxNc">Anthony Weiner vs Mike Huckabee</a>)Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-58765787177785610172011-04-18T17:52:00.000-04:002011-04-18T17:52:58.493-04:00Look who's begging for a Federal handout now<div>Almost two years to the day since Governor Rick Perry of Texas pandered to an anti-tax Tea Party rally, by suggesting that Texas might need to seceded from the Union due to Federal spending, he is now begging the Obama administration for that same Federal spending to fight the wild fires raging across his state. Like Bobby Jindal before him, Governor Perry is against a strong Federal government and spending...until his state is facing an emergency and suddenly needs a bailout. Like Jindal in Louisiana, this makes Rick Perry a hypocrite.</div><div><br /></div><div>April 2009 - Texas could secede</div><div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/gov-rick-perry-texas-coul_n_187490.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/gov-rick-perry-texas-coul_n_187490.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div>April 2011 - Mr. President help!</div><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0418/Can-US-handle-historic-Texas-wildfires">Can US handle historic Texas wildfires? - CSMonitor.com</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-54382870197605650842011-04-16T23:09:00.000-04:002011-04-16T23:09:31.067-04:00Expatriate restrictions: Let all Canadians vote - thestar.com<a href="http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/975072?sms_ss=blogger&at_xt=4daa59dbf63d3123%2C0#article">Expatriate restrictions: Let all Canadians vote - thestar.com</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-89485817272211385782011-04-06T22:49:00.000-04:002011-04-06T22:49:55.068-04:00Michelle Rhee: Education reform huckster - Education - Salon.com<a href="http://www.salon.com/life/education/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/04/06/michelle_rhee_lyons">Michelle Rhee: Education reform huckster - Education - Salon.com</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-25339292547139029672011-04-04T23:12:00.000-04:002011-04-04T23:12:28.967-04:00There's Gold in them thar hills!<div>As the rhetoric in support of Charter Schools and Vouchers continues to grow louder, more and more MBA graduates are seeking out education. The business community is already sensing that a big faucet of public money is about to get turned on so these educational entrepreneurs are jockeying for position to rake in those tax dollars.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can't wait for the business school crowd to join the fight against all those "selfish and greedy" teachers. </div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2011/bs2011041_412443.htm">B-School Grads Snap Up Education Jobs - BusinessWeek</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-50091981417113152872011-03-31T14:44:00.000-04:002011-03-31T14:44:15.803-04:00The KIPP "miracle"With the chorus for Charter Schools like KIPP growing louder and louder each day, I'm glad to see some researchers dig into what makes KIPP successful and how to replicate that across other schools. Unfortunately, the answer to KIPP's great success could stem from the fact that it's not actually as successful as has been claimed. On top of that, they have much more money per student than other Charters or traditional public schools.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/education/31kipp.html">KIPP Charter Network Enjoys Financial Advantages, Study Says - NYTimes.com</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>They also have rules that could certainly make many public much more successful but would result in millions of children without any school to go to. These include requirements from parents to check students' homework, make sure they get to school on time, and other "commitments." I'm sure that public school teachers and principals would love to have this apply to their students' parents as well but when those parents fail to comply, what then?</div><div><br /></div><div>As it turns out, another secret to KIPP's success might be its high attrition rates. The Western Michigan study found that "on average about 15 percent of students drop from KIPP cohorts every year, compared to 3 percent in public schools."</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/31/135014989/kipp-charter-schools-have-funding-edge-study-says">http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/31/135014989/kipp-charter-schools-have-funding-edge-study-says</a></div><div><br /></div><div>If we want to see the types of results from our traditional public schools that KIPP has achieved we will need to invest more into our teachers and schools (as opposed to the budget slashing frenzy that is currently taking place) and someone will have to come up with a method to help parents be accountable for their children. </div><div><br /></div><div>What continues to be absent from the national debate is the demonstrably negative effect poverty has on children and their ability to learn. While it's much easier for politicians to play "blame the greedy teachers" game all the time, it isn't going to fix education.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/31/135014989/kipp-charter-schools-have-funding-edge-study-says"></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/education/31kipp.html"></a><div><br /></div></div></div>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-60512685674089449502011-03-31T09:02:00.000-04:002011-03-31T09:02:12.341-04:00Finish your Broccoli before you start demanding Ice Cream Sundaes for Dessert<div>According to The Guardian, the Libyan revolutionary council in Benghazi is already making demands for Gaddafi's (going with the spelling from the article) former Foreign Minister to be sent back to Libya on charges of crimes against humanity once they have completely vanquished Gaddafi's forces.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rebels, you need to take a moment and reflect. You aren't making nearly as much progress as you were supposed to by this point. Quite frankly, you're making NATO look worse and worse the longer you drag this out. So don't start making demands about what you want to do once you have 100% control of Libya. Work on achieving that first.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/31/moussa-koussa-foreign-minister-trial">Libya foreign minister Moussa Koussa must face atrocities trial, rebels declare | World news | guardian.co.uk</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-26962637679036197562011-03-30T12:47:00.000-04:002011-03-30T12:47:11.761-04:00Surprise, Surprise, it's happening else where too<a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/03/30/testing-anomalies-found-in-many-states">Testing Anomalies Found in Many States - High School Notes (usnews.com)</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-845588693406197892011-03-29T20:00:00.000-04:002011-03-29T20:00:06.014-04:00Give all Canadians the right to vote | views from away<div>A nice blog post about the unfair restrictions on voting for Canadians who live abroad.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://viewsfromaway.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/give-all-canadians-the-right-to-vote/">Give all Canadians the right to vote | views from away</a>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549014273673757900.post-85600671685256782352011-03-29T10:33:00.002-04:002011-03-29T10:33:44.009-04:00If it swims, quacks and walks like a duck...USA Today just blew the lid off a systemic irregularity in DC public schools standardized test results. Their <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm">article </a>about the testing irregularities require us to ask, once again, why is everyone in love with Michelle Rhee? Now that her so called "turnarounds" are becoming more and more questionable, why do policy makers continue to turn to her for ideas? We don't see Fidelity or JP Morgan Chase asking Bernie Madoff for investing advice.<br />
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Thankfully, Diane Ravitch just posted a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-29/michelle-rhees-cheating-scandal-diane-ravitch-blasts-education-reform-star/">blog entry</a> on The Daily Beast, that continues to question Rhee's "education celebrity" status. Let's just hope that more people wise up and realize that evaluating teachers based on which bubbles their students fill in will encourage them to get the right bubbles dark, even if it means doing some erasing.Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852957599195434721noreply@blogger.com0