Category Archives: public protests

Why won’t public schools just go away already?

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(said very snarkily)

Jan Ressenger has this up on the recent nominee to the Dept of Education.  Yeah, if you were hoping that President Obama had somehow seen the light about the U.S. education fiasco, well, you (and I) were sadly mistaken, because he’ s nominated another corporate takeover twerp.

Be sure to click on the link to the Nation’s report:

In addition, [Ted]  Mitchell serves as an adviser to Salmon River Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in education companies. Mitchell sits on the board of Parchment, an academic transcript start-up that is among Salmon River Capital’s portfolio. Salmon River Capital helped create one of the biggest names in for-profit secondary education, Capella University.

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Italics mine.

That, my friends, should read as a rap sheet.

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In other Education News, School Matters has this blog on the lack of transparency for the State of Indiana….so what else is new?

I agree that individuals should probably not be named, but there absolutely needs to be an accounting of how many students went to school B, and how much money was diverted from School A.

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School Finance 101 has a good report on the lies and statistics of mis-edumucation.  One can make statistics say anything you want, if you know how to skew the data…or leave out the data that doesn’t agree with your goals.

We will not obey TPP

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Wisconsin, bless their little hearts, have drafted a resolution that they are a “TPP-free” zone.  The negotiations have been shielded from public scrutiny but the article states that bits have leaked out and…it’s scary as hell–a Monsanto lobbyist is leading the negotiations.

From the article:

Countries, including those in the European Union, could also find it increasingly difficult to ban, or even require the labeling of, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) if biotech companies determine that those countries’ strict policies restrict fair trade and infringe on the companies’ “rights” to profit.

To top it off, corporations would be allowed to resolve trade disputes in special international tribunals, effectively wiping out hundreds of domestic and international food sovereignty laws. Products labeled fair trade, organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, or GMO-free, could all be challenged as “barriers to trade.”

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It’s an attack on local autonomy….the right to decide what is best for your community.Good Grief, these corporations can.not.get.enough.profits.  Greed, greed, greed.

 

Larry Lujack

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Those of you not from the Midwest won’t get this post, but an icon of the 70s has passed–Larry Lujack who dominated the radio during the 70s, has passed.   We lived three hours away from Chicago, but the powerful WLS reached our little town and much of northern Indiana. (There is a great youtube of Lujack broadcasting in May 1971.  I don’t think it’s “official” , though, so I can’t link to it.  But just listening to it is a great toss back to those days–the fun we had (describing oil cans as “beautiful” *snort* ) and the times–Vietnam updates /protestors are featured on the news and I’m not sure, but I think they are announcing officers being investigated for shooting Vietnamese, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the My Lai massacre.)

We loved listening to Lujack on our school bus as we made the trip into school, laughing at programs like the “Tooth Fairy”…complete with background noise like doors opening/closing, footsteps, and all that made radio great.  I feel sorry for my kids’ generation, because they never got to experience that part of our culture.

I had the name “boogiecheck” for awhile as a log on name.  People thought it was something dirty–it wasn’t.  It was in reference to a program on WLS with John Records Landecker, where he made short bits of callers’ conversations into a hilarious soundbyte.   The program was so popular that when Landecker went to a local high school to speak at a convocation, he was greeted with the crowd chanting:  “Boogie Check, Boogie Check, ooh aah!  Boogie Check, Boogie Check, ooh aah!”   This was the intro to the program from that moment on.

Landecker once told a story of one Friday, a payday, in the olden days where they actually handed out paper checks that one took to the bank to deposit.  He said he picked up his check, and started to walk towards the bank, and with each step, he felt more tired.  His arm hurt.  By the time he got to the bank, he could barely put one foot in front of another.  When he got to the bank teller, he found the reason why:  he was carrying Larry Lujack’s paycheck instead of his own.  Haha.  Must have been soooome big ole’ paycheck. 🙂

Peace and comfort to Larry’s family on his passing…

Framing the news

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Look at this segment on ABC News on the ruling that what the NSA is doing is Unconstitutional.

Just the wording alone is alarmist:

CIA Spy Ruling Could Be a Major Setback for the War on Terror

(sorry for the large type)

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The segment states that this is a victory for Edward Snowden. (!)

Wow.  Just wow.  Journalists…er, um, people who get a paycheck pretending to be journalists…who didn’t do their job in the first place, making it imperative for someone else–in this case Edward Snowden–to do what they should have been doing are putting this as a victory for him.

Instead, they should be saying this is a victory for our democracy.

This is a victory for upholding our Constitution.

They frame it as a blow to the war on terror when, as the judge states, there is no evidence that this has saved lives.

And eavesdropping on friendly countries…? How is that helping the war on terror?  Is Angela Merkel a terrorist?

 

Boiling the frog…

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Idle No More has a virtual “teach-in” up on the web (scroll down) by Sharon Venne.   It’s a really interesting piece on the historical treatment of the indigenous and how s-l-o-w-l-y their culture and their land has been “disappeared”.

As she says in her talk, it goes on over such a slow period of time, that one doesn’t realize what is happening until it’s almost too late….like the frog put in a pan of water that the heat is turned up so slowly that the frog doesn’t realize it’s being boiled to death.

It’s really worth watching it all the way through–she has such a good story to tell of her own struggle to get an education.  She tells the story of not being able to read until going to university.  (By the way, Literacy Volunteers are out there to help folks learn to read–check with your local library). She was continually kept in stress mode by them not sending her monthly stipends on time so she could pay her rent.  God Bless the administrator who helped her.

She makes an important point at about 29:00 minutes in– of what sounds like the precursor to “corporations are people, too”.  If anything, we need to pay better attention to what is going on in other countries…especially to the poor and minorities…because it seems to be a worldwide power grab–given that there have been austerity measures all over the globe and attacks on teacher’s unions and such.  More here.

And here.

Rick Berman: gun for hire

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Deutsch29 has an excellent blog up on the *cough* Center for Union Facts (CUF) running a full page ad in the NY Times. Upon closer examination, our old friend, Rick Berman, gun for hire, is behind CUF, among other organizations.   Note the letter from his son, David.  Pretty sad, eh?

AFT has a short video up on the 5 myths about school performance.

 

Oklahoma earthquakes and fossil fuel wastewater

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I suspected this all along.

Also–someone posted this link in the comments section on the Top 10 ingredients used in fracking.  You might recall that Nurse Cathy Behr was made ill when coming in contact with these toxins!

Another state joins in GMO food labeling

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….but there’s one little issue–getting four other states to also require GMO labeling.  Nice way to get the GMO labeling crowd off your back while appearing to actually do something. 

Allen Dulles and his brother

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Elliott at firedoglake has this preview of a book salon today at 5:00 p.m. EST.  Wow.  Just listening to the short video just sends the mind reeling….if there were any reason for limiting the power of the defense dept, and especially defense contractors, this is IT.  Dulles had entirely too much power to manipulate situations towards his own personal goals instead of what was best.  And his warped view of what freedom means is just stunning….it’s all about the money.

A wiki entry on JFK and Allen Dulles here.

I’ve read a couple of blogs on JFK and the CIA theories, and Huffpost mentions Senator Hart, who was on the Church Committee to investigate. He put it on the press’ failure to follow up on the witnesses being shot and other leads.  He also states that nobody wants to put this out there because whomever did it is still “out there”.  Well, I don’t know about that particular person or persons, since it was 50 years ago….but yeah, there are still mercenaries born every minute who would just as soon shoot you as look at you.  It’s called courage, Gary, when you speak out even though you’re scared.

Another Presbyterian, Maggie Kuhn, spoke the phrase:  “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”

Funny that she and Allen Dulles could be of the same faith with such opposing views…

Mother Jones: Hypocrisy of Bill and Melinda Gates

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Diane Ravitch has a blog up with a link to Mother Jones article on the hypocrisy of Bill (and Melinda) Gates.   It’s a really great read on how slick Billy operates.