Category Archives: big box stores

A post script

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A post script to this blog…what I meant when I referred to Katrina is that I told them I thought the George W. Bush administrations’ slow response to the emergency was racist.  It was September, 2005, so it was only a month after the storm hit, but it was apparent to me.  What really shocked me was how only the one black woman agreed with me, again, subtly, but she saw it, too.    This why I probably began to think that Daniels was dismantling or weakening the Civil Rights Commission and blurted that out.

When I think about that interview and how I missed such a fabulous opportunity–a  life changer- because it would have been a career I would have enjoyed with its daily change, using the creative along with the analytical, and fighting for the underdog—and all the misery that mercury has caused me, I want to cry in despair.   This poison has taken so much more than can be neasured…

I give myself 24 hours to feel sorry for myself, and then move on…

Obama and the Education Fiasco?

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One of the commenters on Diane Ravitch’s site has this link up .  An excellent timeline on what has been going on behind the scenes with *cough* education reform.

I really, really, hope that Barack Obama has changed his mind regarding this–as Diane Ravitch did when she came to realize that education reform was actually turning schools into for-profit centers.

From the link:

“When teachers are given powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional growth and recognition for outstanding achievement, we see increased student achievement in TAP schools,” Lowell Milken said in a December 2008 press release. “Chicago TAP schools are off to a strong start in continuing efforts to achieve these goals.”

Milken, unmentioned in most accounts, has a vested financial interest in school reform efforts and “fixing failing schools.”

That’s because Milken is a major investor in K12 Inc., a corporation traded on Wall Street that sells online schooling and curriculum to state and local governments. Milken invested $10 million in K12 Inc. in 2000, a stake that is now worth over $125 million, according to a July 2008 article in Forbes.

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Milken is full of it, to put it bluntly.  Nobody who knows anything about teachers and education would ever make such an idiotic statement.  Most teachers are in the profession because they want to see children learn, NOT because they want “career advancement”.  Their professional growth comes with experience….there is no substitute for that and no amount of money can magically *poof* experience.

Truly, to say that a student’s achievement is the teacher’s achievement is, in my view, taking away from the student’s hard work.  A good teacher is only part of the student-parent-teacher equation.  ALL of them play an important role in how well the student does.

When I first went to college, I wanted to be a teacher.  When I discussed this with my college advisor, she discouraged me from going that route–she said the jobs wouldn’t be there.  I wonder what she knew and when she knew it??  Anyway, I decided to go into Communications so that I could make documentaries and still somewhat “teach”.

However, when I was on what was supposed to be a progressive jobs website, there was Teach for America.  I applied, writing in my application how I had helped my daughter overcome dyslexia and learn to read.  I wanted to teach in inner city schools, I told them, so I could help the little ones with such learning hurdles.

I was turned down flat.  Not even an interview.

Knowing what I know now, it is obvious they were never interested in educating kids.  They didn’t want folks who were passionate and truly wanted to help kids learn.

When you couple this with the military in schools, it’s truly scary, indeed, on what is happening to our schools.  God help us.

House repubs omit food stamps from bill

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Report here.

Republican leaders said food stamps, traditionally part of the farm bill, would be handled later and that, for now, they needed a way to start negotiations with the Senate over a compromise bill.

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If you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Indiana I want to sell you….

No doubt these members of Congress will go to church Sunday and puff their chests out at what good Christians they are…

I’m not going to comment any further because I’m too upset and I’ll say something I’ll regret later.

Walmart: Always low wages…Always

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…was on a sign protesting their continued more-for-us-less-for-you campaign.  Thankfully, they were unsuccessful in their bullying tactics.

From the first link:

“From day one, we have said this legislation is arbitrary, discriminatory, and discourages investment in D.C.,” Alex Barron, a general manager for Wal-Mart whose region includes D.C., writes in a company statement. “It means most shopping dollars will stay in the suburbs, unemployment will remain in the double-digits in some neighborhoods and underserved communities will continue to have disproportionate access to affordable groceries.”

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I followed the last link to this:

The company’s hardball tactics come out of a well-worn playbook that involves successfully using Wal-Mart’s leverage in the form of jobs and low-priced goods to fend off legislation and regulation that could cut into its profits and set precedent in other potential markets. In the Wilson Building, elected officials have found their reliable liberal, pro-union political sentiments in conflict with their desire to bring amenities to underserved neighborhoods.

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I just can’t understand the thinking that losing Wal-Mart is a bad thing?  Good Riddance to a big box store that pays poor wages, encourages employees to apply for food stamps, guts entire towns that were once full of independent small business owners, and imports cheap plastic crap from China, where again, people are paid low wages (which I know are beginning to rise, but still…).

 

$382 million withheld from affordable housing funds

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A lawsuit has been filed alleging that millions of dollars have been withheld from affordable housing funds.

More from Housing Authorities around the country:

New York.  Okay, I’m a little confused, because the folks in Fort Wayne were having budget cuts even before sequestration….some forty percent was reported.  It was supposed to be nationwide, so I’m wondering why NY wasn’t cut previously?

Seattle, Washington.  This report is more in line with what Fort Wayne is going through–they have had to close the Section 8 (Voucher) program many times because they are just flooded every time they open it up.  They have had as many as 4,000 people on the waiting list (If I recall correctly, that was for both  Voucher and Public Housing).

From the report:

At the same time, the waiting list for Housing Choice Vouchers remains closed, and the agency is unable to issue new vouchers at all. Nearly all vouchers are in use (99.6 percent), and the 1,552 households still on the waiting list remain stuck there. Total waiting lists exceed 25,000, and 884 new households were added in January alone. At a time when need is growing dramatically, the Seattle Housing Authority is unable to expand to meet that need.

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Here’s a good article from The Nation on the stupidity and callousness of cutting a housing budget when there is so much need.

From the article:

Although housing assistance takes only one penny of every federal budget dollar, right-wing ideologues since at least the Reagan years have long used “deficit reduction” as a pretext for achieving their dream of eliminating government housing aid. Reagan infamously slashed the housing budget at a time of recession and the emergence of modern homelessness, while the deficit exploded. There’s no question that when it comes to housing assistance, the Reagan legacy lives on. This year the Cato Institute outlined a plan to tackle the budget deficit that would, among other things, “terminate” the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And Reagan’s Tea Party descendants in Congress promise further chops of the budget ax for housing and other safety net programs.

If you read on down, it mentions the Trust Fund created in 2008….but yeah, no funding.  Cruelty by dangling a carrot to the caged rabbit.
3.5 million homeless Americans….

Mold

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…grows in the dark….is what passed in my head while reading this.

I just can’t wrap my brain around this.  The hubris is just beyond me.  What gives us the right?

 

 

Bradley Foundation

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PRWatch has this up on the behind-the-scenes work of the Bradley Foundation.

From the article:

In advance of the 2012 elections, Bradley was revealed as the secret funder that had bankrolled giant billboard ads, exclusively in neighborhoods of color, stating “Voter Fraud is a Felony” during a period when voter ID was on hold in Wisconsin and many were confused as to its status. It funded groups that employed James O’Keefe, whose heavily-edited undercover videos hyped voter fraud allegations and helped take down ACORN, which had helped millions of low-income people register to vote. It also funded the legal advocacy group that represented O’Keefe.

Both Bradley and Searle have funded the American Legislative Exchange Council, which promoted voter ID laws in states across the country. And in the wake of Shelby County, ALEC-inspired voter ID bills and other restrictions will likely take effect across the South. As many as eleven percent of registered voters don’t have government-issued photo ID and would be unable to vote under the laws, with those percentages even higher among communities of color and students.

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(In case you missed it, James O’Keefe has crawled out from the rock he was under (after pleading guilty to misrepresenting himself as a telephone employee at Mary Landrieu’s office)  and is now proclaiming to be a journalist who was victimized. Bwahahahahahahaha….seriously….bwahahahahaha.   Let’s hope that his *cough* journalism efforts land him in jail for a looong time this go around…)

Be sure to click on the link explaining the Bradley foundation and its links to none other than….the Kochs and the John Birch Society.  Also, the link for  “group that brought both challenges”  is very informative.  Truly, their motives are to go back to “separate but equal” status of education.   Yeah, we all know how that worked out.   And the Searle connection…you know, one has to consider all the possibilities of drug companies that are behind racist overtures.  Kind of scary, isn’t it?

Good God,  these people  are control freaks.  And evil.

The dirty nine

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Nine state legislators were flown on a chartered flight and…well, you can read the rest here.

From the article:

The tar sands of Alberta are estimated to be the third largest reserve of crude oil on the planet. But the process of turning the tar-like bitumen into a refined product that can be used as fuel is extremely energy intensive and highly polluting. The former NASA scientist James Hansen, warned that the extraction and use of Canadian tar sands would mean “game over” for the climate. TransCanada is the operator of the proposed KXL pipeline, which would carry the tar sands to Texas for processing and likely for exports to markets abroad.

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I think it’s really important to highlight NASA scientist James Hansen’s statement on this because most folk think that folks who believe in climate change are “fringe” liberals, when they’re not.  Dr. Hansen is a prime example of that.

More:

TransCanada, which is a member of ALEC, sponsored ALEC’s Spring Task Force Summit in Oklahoma City in May 2013, alongside other corporations with tar sands interests including BP, Devon Energy and Koch Industries. TransCanada’s Vice President Corey Goulet presented to legislators at the conference during a session called “Embracing American Energy Opportunities.“

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Dimon stayed in touch with Adams’ office over the proceeding months, providing his staff with further materials about Keystone XL, including a set of talking points stamped with the TransCanada logo.

By February 14, Adams had an updated draft that had been reviewed by the Ohio legislative service commission, the non-partisan body that assists legislators with drafting legislation. Adams staffer Ryan Crawford sent this language to Rob Eshenbaugh, a lobbyist with Ohio Petroleum Council, the state affiliate of the American Petroleum Institute. “Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,” Crawford wrote to the lobbyist. Eshenbaugh responded with some requested changes, which Crawford then incorporated into the bill.

 

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So…yeah….pretty glaring examples of not so subtle bribery.  Unethical. Unethical. Unethical.

I have something of a quibble with the story saying that the XL has become a national issue….where were you when Enbridge was getting the northwest Indiana pipeline approved even though it runs near Lake Michigan and other sources of water?  Does anyone know why Indiana is ignored?    I’d like to know why we don’t matter….somebody tell me, please.

 

 

 

 

Burr on your being paranoid

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Thomas Burr, a *cough* reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune,  was on CSPAN this morning telling everyone what paranoids they are…the NSA is not spying on you, they are just gathering data.

And that 1 million square foot facility in Utah?  Pshaw…it’s only got a tiny, tiny bit of space devoted to that data.

And they *only* have 200 employees for that giant space (well…as far as we know….the exact number is…you guessed it…secret.)

And they’re not analyzing the data collected.  Really.  Would he lie to you?  Why are you so paranoid?  You probably need to take something for that.   /extra snarky

And when a  caller point blank said this was illegal and needs to be stopped, Burr spent the next few minutes speaking in double speak evading the question she asked about the legality of it.

 

 

Cultural Revolution of the United States – a la destroying public schools

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Diane Ravitch has this up on the lack of accountability and oversight of a voucher program.  Children watching DVD’s in a gymnasium…seriously??

I found the comments particularly poignant–that what is happening to public schools is akin to the Chinese Cultural Revolution.   Can you imagine how the American public would react if these were called Communist Revolution programs?  The * fit * would hit the * shan *….

And I like the idea of some of these folks bankrupting school systems to be brought up on criminal charges and serve some jail time for fraud.

Why aren’t they?