…so they’re going to make sure that if you get $1 over your allotted meager unemployment check, they’re going to freeze your bank account. Holy crap, I think Walker is the anti-Christ….by that I mean doing the opposite of what Christ would do…you know, Loaves and fishes….Walker would tell them to get a freaking job and stop expecting free handouts.
In keeping up with all the dirty little deeds the Gates Foundation promotes….here is an article on the link between Gates, Monsanto, and Blackwater. Really disturbing.
The article mentions The Nation with Jeremy Scahill—while looking for the Scahill article, I happened upon this with a scathing reply by the authors:
We agree that it will ultimately be up to farmers to decide what is best for them. Our concern continues, however, to be that the choices farmers face is systematically skewed, with some ideas being amplified over others. Any policies that involve redistribution–such as land reform–are off the Gates agenda, despite being a live concern to many African farmers’ movements. This demonstrates our broader point. Despite the foundation’s best efforts to be accountable once the policy has been laid down, the Gates Foundation’s interventions reflect, at heart, the undemocratic vision of a single very powerful and ultimately unaccountable organization.
Sincerely,
RAJ PATEL
ERIC HOLT-GIMENEZ
ANNIE SHATTUCK
www.foodfirst.org
Michael Levi was on CSPAN this morning…he was vague in his assertions, but reading between the lines, I saw “fracking toadie”.
He has written a book on energy that they were highlighting on CSPAN. It has the words “battle for America’s future” ….words that are emotional and raise an immediate red flag.
Brookings Institute fellow—another huge red flag.
From the wiki page on it:
Funders
At the end of 2004 the Brookings Institution had assets of $258 million and spent $39.7 million, while its budget has grown to more than $80 million in 2009.[64] Its largest contributors include the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband Richard C. Blum, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the governments of the United States, Japan, Qatar, the Republic of China, the District of Columbia, and the United Kingdom.
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The Gates Foundation. ExxonMobil. Republic of China. Bank of America. All giving money…for what payback…because these folks play to win and they don’t throw their money after something without expecting something in return.
And why is our government contributing to a think tank??
Here’s another piece I found on the Brookings Institute and their treatment of Diane Ravitch. Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? I don’t know why they are considered liberal?
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And the fact that Levi is a doctor doesn’t necessarily impress me–Mengele and Freud were also doctors who skewed things towards their point of view. It’s especially troubling that his doctorate is in War Studies.
He was advocating “clean energy” another industry catch phrase that actually means “keep on doing what we’ve always been doing, but keeping our dirty business out of the public eye as much as we can…” (as seen by the non-coverage of the Arkansas oil spill.)
He was also stating that fracking should be done, and concern for the environment should be a priority. Sounds good, eh? But then….he states further in the interview that the *only* problem was what to do with the contaminated water once they had extracted the natural gas…um, yeah, he totally ignores that there is a HUGE problem with the chemicals traveling through the earth to people’s wells, contaminating them. My blog on that here. And here. And here.
There was a male caller making outrageous statements about green energy and allowing even more leasing to oil/gas companies…and he was not characterized as emotional…
…but when a woman caller called in and raised the earthquake question and the contamination from the chemicals…whoa…she was *cough* “emotional”. (I can’t remember if that was Levi’s exact wording, but the meaning was the same.) In other words, even though she brought up facts, she was discredited as being emotional. ::don’t worry your pretty little head, darling, we men folk will take care of this important stuff:: Grrrr.
So, my conclusion from the above is the Michael Levi is an energy industry toadie. He’s dirty.
(**edited to fix links. Oops.)
Diane Ravitch has a link up to this piece on the dirty little secrets of charter schools. Everything that parents want in education is not in these schools. They’re all fluff and no substance. They’re not there to educate, but to collect funds. (it is so arrogant to think that you don’t have to be audited…you’re using the public funds for your endeavor–you better have your books open to the public. Gah…where have we heard this before? IRS, anyone?)
They dump the learning disabled and behavioral cases.
I also clicked on the link to the “Ten Things Your School District Won’t Tell You” and have a few quibbles with the writer. One is the licensing thing–Indiana has required licenses from teachers and not only that, but that they further their education into Master’s degrees–at least they used to. I can’t say whether that is still true–I haven’t checked it lately…and with Governor Daniels’ assault on the public education in Indiana, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that standard has lapsed. )
Another thing I have a quibble with is the student-teacher ratio. People want to have smaller class size? Then you better be prepared to spend more in tax dollars towards the amount of teachers in the school. But no…we can’t spend tax money on schools…we need to spend it on the military industrial complex because of a boogey-man enemy….meanwhile, our society crumbles all around…
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Ravitch also has another blog up with this link to the continuing meanness of the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley,. whom uttered the line: “Only the little people pay taxes….”
(gotta love the snarky style of the writer…heh.)
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…something tells me that you won’t see this with Charter school teachers. Nope. Nor would I think they would lay down their lives for their students, as we saw with the Oklahoma tornado. I’m sure there will be exceptions to the rule, but as a general application…I just don’t see that kind of caring about the kids. It’s hard to care about something when you’re looking at it with $$ in your eyes….
Incredible. Just incredible. The game is on, folks. Be aware of anything that plays on your emotions…as these opportunists are doing…look how they have tried to using anger, outrage, and the ever effective “don’t be a dummy and let them get away with whatever it is WE say they’re doing” and the “us versus them” divisional tactics.
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And now we have the modern day “witch hunt” where it only takes a few disgruntled people to start a whispering campaign, or in this case, a petition drive, to disparage and ultimately permanently damage someone. (from Ravitch’s blog here.) (and the fact that it is once again a woman who is the target speaks volumes.)
I can’t get past this:
Parent leader Llury Garcia said that although her second-grade daughter has done fairly well at Weigand, Cobian was inaccessible and rude. She and other petition backers were assisted by Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles nonprofit that lobbied for the parent trigger law and is aiding overhaul efforts at several other Los Angeles campuses.
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…although her second-grade daughter has done fairly well at Weigard….mindboggling—just mindboggling….that this parent would start a drive to oust her because she wasn’t “accessible” and perhaps was curt with her. No telling what Garcia did that would warrant a crisp reply. It says more about Garcia than about Cobian, as you read that Cobian was very accessible to the kids and frequently popped into the classrooms. And the parent whose child had academic and behavioral issues…well, I don’t know the parent or the child personally, but what I do know is that the parent has to take responsibility towards the child’s education and is perhaps responsible for the behavioral issues (not always, as there are other factors in behavior, but the ultimate responsibility is the parents’. ) I mean, I have seen children come to school without breakfast! And the parent expects the child to learn on an empty stomach? Or worse, blame the teacher because the child can’t concentrate because they’re hungry…?!! (Or perhaps with this economy, the parent is poor and not able to provide a good nutritious breakfast…)
I have seen parents who don’t want to take responsibility…and expect the schools to be miracle workers. They won’t put out the effort towards their own kids…
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…and then there is the subtext–I can’t help but wonder if Cobian is a liberal/progressive and Garcia is a conservative….just throwing that out there…
I missed this from Glenn Greenwald. It’s more in-depth on the specifics…and what it means to investigative journalists. In essence, it is criminalizing the act of journalism.
From the article:
Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ – that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information – is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.
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Our democracy depends on being able to inform the citizens of their government’s actions, so that they can make informed decisions towards that government. As Greenwald points out—the media was silent with Julian Assange…and only now are they starting to squawk now that AP has been caught up in the assault on the freedom of speech and the press…
Dave Zirin has this to say about Rahm Emanuel’s priorities…which apparently gravitate towards sports and away from educating Chicago’s kids.
Why are you building yet another sports arena, Rahm???
There’s a worldwide protest against Monsanto this Saturday. Info here. You’ll need to scroll down to find your spot in the U.S.
(hat tip to commondreams.org)
This is so inspiring….people are waking up to the monster of genetically modified organisms.
Really, the repub party should go from the “party of NO’ to the “party of whine”. Good God, can they play the victim…
They were seeking approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This would require them to be “social welfare,” not political, operations. There are significant advantages to being a 501(c)(4). These groups don’t pay taxes; they don’t have to disclose their donors—unlike traditional political organizations, such as political-action committees. In return for the tax advantage and the secrecy, the 501(c)(4) organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity, like endorsing candidates.
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Since when is asking questions “singling-out” someone? Asking questions is the IRS’s job. And the last line of the above quote is enough to revoke their tax exempt status.
George Will is trying to compare this to Watergate. Seriously?? How lame.
If Republicans had controlled both houses of Congress in 1973, Nixon would have completed his term. If Democrats controlled both today, the Obama administration’s lawlessness would go uninvestigated.
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Committee members of Watergate- Senate: three repubs on it.
A brief on the Watergate affair.
On CSPAN this morning, they had Jenny Martin, the CEO of Tea Party Patriots. She was playing the victim well–without really offering any hard evidence of the accusations of the IRS…even when asked for specifics by a caller. I listened carefully to her mini-speeches, and once when she began to divulge what actually occurred, she caught herself and went back to “safe mode” without giving the details. Hmmm….
Meanwhile, when the point was made that the IRS has been inundated by groups applying for tax exempt status, so there was possibly a backlog AND good reason to scrutinize these groups that don’t want to pay taxes. (The irony here is that the Tea Party is all about reducing government workers, but it would appear that the backlog is created because of a lack of skilled workers to process them…)
It is clear that Tea Party Patriots is a political group and they promote their political causes aggressively…so why shouldn’t the IRS ask them pointed questions about their fundraising and their activities?? If you want to avoid taxes, you’d better be prepared to answer some questions.
(Gah, I never in a million years thought I’d be sticking up for the IRS. Lord knows they’ve used their strong arm tactics on me–when I lost my house, they actually wanted to charge me for taking a profit(!!) and then when I owed a measily $200 (and didn’t have the money to pay them) they threatened to take what was left after the crash and burn. I did eventually pay it off in installments. but it was difficult at that point in time. )
…even if your voice shakes.” (quote by Maggie Kuhn.) ( Oh, those uppity Presbyterian women… :p –I was raised Presbyterian.)
The story isn’t clear on what exactly was happening, other than the teacher handed him a packet as educational instruction. I’ll presume, then, it is the brainless edumucation of No Child Left A Mind that he is actually protesting….a mindless program that takes away the teacher’s creativity and ability to teach intuitively…rather, she/he must teach to the test. If they don’t…the child doesn’t do well on the test…their school loses funding…and the teacher loses his/her job. The child, though, is the one that loses the most–their most creative years for exploring their world are lost—all based on a false premise that the testing is a true assessment of the child’s aptitude and abilities.
I can’t wrap my brain around this.
I’m just stunned at the thought that someone could try to label organic food as “junk food”. As the article points out, this would eliminate the right to choose organic, free range eggs, or gluten-free bread for Celiacs…it’s just mindboggling the ignorance and outright endangerment. So…I suppose if someone is Celiac and buys food they are not supposed to have in order to have something to eat…if their gut disintegrates from inflammation and they either end up in the hospital for surgically fixing the problem, or dead from a ruptured abdomen.
I really love the fact that the Tea Party members conveniently ignore that people on food stamps and other welfare were once taxpayers that paid into the system. Same with Social Security and Medicare.
Eagle 
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