Rick Berman: gun for hire

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

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

….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

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…

Choice-i-fication

Edushyster has another amusing blog up on the fiasco of schools-as-profit-driven-edumucation-centers for Choice-i-fication. (hat tip Diane Ravitch)

From the Reuters link:

Ahead of elections next year, politicians of all stripes are questioning the role of such firms, accused of putting profits first with practices like letting students decide when they have learned enough and keeping no record of their grades.

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Letting students decide when they’ve learned enough??  Seriously??   They should be hanging their heads in shame for their irresponsibility.   I would have quit my sophomore year in high school if it would have been allowed…things were not going well and it would have been easier to give in.  This is especially true for the young–who don’t have enough experience to determine what is best for them.  For me, I will always regret that I didn’t take the college prep courses in high school.  I could not see that my circumstances might change in the future and I would be able to go to college.  Allowing these young folks to decide when they’ve learned enough is criminal, in my view.

And then there’s the unintended consequence:

Sweden replaced one of the world’s most tightly regulated school systems with one of the most deregulated, leading to scandals like the 2011 case of the convicted paedophile who set up several schools quite legally.

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I have no words.

What I don’t understand is near the end of the article, they say they don’t want to go back to the old way, which left parents with no choice.  WTH?  Given the choice between the new way and the old….I personally would take the old.  For-profit schools are not schools…they are centers for making kids look busy with a poor imitation of knowledge.

Mother Jones: Hypocrisy of Bill and Melinda Gates

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.

I heart Valerie Plame

Valerie Plame was on CNN talking with Wolf Blitzer a little while ago.  I tried to locate her interview on their site…but it’s nowhere on there and I’m too tired to look deeper for it.

She talked about the newest revelation of the CIA operative in Iran…who disappeared while on assignment.  She said the analyst who sent him there had no business doing so.  A further explanation on CBS stated that three analysts were fired after his disappearance.

Plame stated that since 9/11, the defense dept has been overtaken by defense contractors.  She named the amount, but I forget how much– a large amount, though.  She is all for cutting the amount of defense contractors to shrink the dept back to manageable size. (paraphrasing)

Watch your back, Valerie.  John F. Kennedy had the same thoughts….

 

Washington State Judge rules against Charters

Well, this is welcome news–a judge has ruled that public funds cannot be used for charters under private management.  Yes!!  A win for public schools!