Links

Public Pensions Do Not Threaten State or Local Budgets - See here
Recall Rick Snyder for Michigan - See here
Recall Governor Rick Snyder - See here
Michigan Rally Information - See here
Michael Moore on Twitter - See here
6,000 people at the anti-Snyder rally March 16, 2011 - See here
We have seen what opponents of public education have been doing. - See here
The plan to privatize education in Wisconsin is coming to Michigan. - See here

We're Getting Organized

We're Getting Organized by Jason Roseboom.

A World Without Unions - LINK

So sad, so true.

Un-American Extremists

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Corporate Control

Our corporate masters have done well.

They provide only the most nutritious and ecologically sound food at low cost, they maintain the air and water without supervision from pesky government bureaucrats, they make their money the old fashioned way, they earn it by crashing the economy and foreclosing on the suckers who used to have jobs, they run the coal mines with a safety record second to none, their honor and valor exceeds that of the troops they work beside overseas, they promote the finest American ideas of democracy and individual rights unlike those evil communists we defeated who thought power should be concentrated in the hands of a few and everyone else must be poor to be equal. We are the shining light of freedom, democracy, peace, brotherly love and ecologically friendly light bulbs made in China. What we have here folks is a corporate utopia. In Michigan they are about to get the authority to take power from elected officials and rule at the pleasure of the governor.

Benjamin Barber, "Privatization is not about limiting government; it is about terminating democracy."

Brit theToady

On O'Rielly tonight Brit Hume said that if the Republicans back down and compromise on the budget bill in Wisconsin that this will give a black eye to the cause. He did not say, the Republican cause, but the cause. Can you imagine Huntley, Brinkley, Cronkite, Jennings, Brokaw, Chancellor, Rather or any of the broadcasters who took journalism seriously, so closely identifying themselves with this kind of political issue.

Their biggest mistake, in my opinion, is their conceit. They are so sure they are right and that their opponents are weak and powerless that they are going to do and say the most outrageous things. Our country will continue to be tortured, but they will continue to go too far due to their hubris and this will be their undoing.

Causes and Culprits

From Common Dreams...

Energized by the images of Wisconsinites night after winter night —and filling the state Capitol with chants of “What’s disgusting? Union busting!”—unions across the country are beginning to outline clear and uncompromising agendas for defending public services and the rights of public workers.

One of the strongest statements has come from Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, who explained “what all working families should know:”

1. Who caused the economic crisis? Banks, Wall Street speculators, mortgage lenders, global corporations shifting jobs from the U.S. overseas.
2. Who is profiting in the recession? Corporate profits, 3rd quarter of 2010, were $1.6 trillion, 28 percent higher than the year before, the biggest one-year jump in history. Meanwhile, average wages and total wages have fallen for all incomes, except the wealthiest Americans whose income grew five-fold.
3. Who is not paying their fair share? In U.S. states facing a budget shortfall, revenues from corporate taxes have declined $2.5 billion in the last year. In Wisconsin, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes, and the share of state revenue from corporate taxes has fallen by half since 1981. Nationally, according to a General Accountability Study out today, 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
4. Are public employees overpaid? State workers typically earn 11 percent less, local public workers 12 percent less than private employees with comparable education and experience. Nationally, cutting the federal payroll in half would reduce spending by less than 3 percent.
5. Would pay and benefit concessions by public employees stop the demands?The right has made it clear it wants A- cuts in public pay, pensions, and health benefits, followed by B- restricting collective bargaining for public sector workers, followed by C- prohibiting public sector unions.
6. Will the right be troubled if cuts in working standards make it harder to recruit teachers and other public servants? No. Take public teachers, many of whom have accepted wage freezes and other cuts in recent years. Many in the right have a fairly open goal of privatizing education, and destabilizing public schools serves this purpose. The right also salutes the shredding of government workforce, part of its overall goal to gut all government service and make it harder to crack down on corporate abuses or implement other public protections and services.
7. Will the right stop at curbing public workers rights? Employers across the U.S. are demanding major concessions from private sector workers, and breaking unions. Rightwing governors and state legislators are seeking new laws to restrict union rights for all private and public employees.
8. Does everyone have a stake in this fight? Yes. It’s an old axiom that the rise in living standards for the middle class in the 1950s was the direct result of a record rate of unionization in America. It is of course unions that won the eight-hour day, weekends off, and many other standards all Americans take for granted that are now often threatened with the three-decade-long attack on unions spurred by that rightwing icon Ronald Reagan. The corollary is that increased wages and guaranteed pensions put money into the economy, with a ripple effect that creates jobs and spurs the economy for all.

Mr. Rogers

The Courage to Teach a Senator.
This reminds me of Frank McCourt in Teacher Man.

100,000 Rally in Wisconsin...

...and thousands in state capitols across the country.

Shame

The Republicans are wrong on so many levels it staggers the imagination. Public employees making on average ~$50,000 a year are accused of being fat cats. Wall Street drove the economy into the ground and not a single person has been prosecuted. The Bush tax cuts have been in effect for over ten years and deregulation is the Republican gospel. If this is such powerful medicine for the economy, where are the jobs? Robert Reich is right; tax the rich. The more you make the higher your tax rate should be. The rich will still be rich and everyone will benefit.

The moves in several states to eliminate collective bargaining rights have nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics and 2012. They want to eliminate the political clout of unions and take the Senate and the country.

Scott Walker in the fake call with "David Koch" said that he would agree to meet with the Democratic Senators who left the state to prevent a vote on the union-busting bill. Talking implies good faith communication. In this unguarded conversation he said the only purpose for the meeting would be to get the Senators to come back from Illinois so the state senate could vote and pass his bill unchanged. No negotiation, no compromise, no real talk, just the power of the majority to have its way.

Early in the wee hours of this morning the Wisconsin state house Republicans called a vote and passed the legislation without even enough time for all the Democrats to vote and then left the chamber.

What Do Teachers Make

Tell Us What You Really Think

This is a Wisconsin Badger!

Running the Show

• Corporations are sitting on 2 trillion dollars and not hiring.
• Our leaders cut taxes for the rich by 800 billion.

The pump seems to be primed (according to Republican economic philosophy).

• Cut funding for home heating oil for the poor and make seniors pay taxes on their pensions.
• Eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Who is running this show?

Legitimacy?

Wisconsin voters protesting the effort to abolish their collective bargaining rights.







The Brooks Brothers riot in 2000.

Republican congressional operatives flown in from Washington D.C. to thwart Florida state law and stop the recount of votes in the presidential election.

Norma Rae

A point is reached from which there is no going back.

Solidarity Forever

We praise it in Poland, Egypt and elsewhere.

There is Power in a Union

Obama says Wisconsin proposal unduly harsh. Unduly harsh? Unduly harsh! Harsh this.

The governor spent over a hundred million dollars in order to intentionally create this crisis and crush the union movement in Wisconsin. Just how harsh should he be? Snark.

Can You Spell A-g-e-n-d-a

Rahm Emanuel is ignorant or a liar. Watch. Vote.

Education Reform For Real

1 The children can't learn if they don't play.
2 Balanced curriculum
3 Professionalization
4 Very limited testing
5 Arts and crafts
6 More learning by doing
7 Rigorous standards for teacher certification
8 Higher teacher pay
9 Attractive working conditions
10 No outsourcing of school management to for-profit or non-profit organizations
11 Did not implement merit pay
12 Did not rank teachers and schools according to test results
13 All principals, superintendents, and policymakers from inside the education world
14 Classes in art, music, cooking, carpentry, metalwork, and textiles
15 Small class sizes

There is more...read the article.
Look at Finland.

Dasterdly

The year is 1847. Imagine a situation where a company from the North moved its manufacturing facility to the South. The new employees were slaves or poor whites who would work for next to nothing. One requirement of the southern state was partial ownership of the company and transfer of the technologies and techniques used by the company. If the company decided later to leave, their facility and knowledge and expertise would remain. The profits of the company soared while the former employees in the North were unemployed. Who would have stood for it?

The year is 2011. Corporate profits are through the roof. Our president says we have to out educate and out innovate our competition as we hand over our hard earned knowledge to the Chinese as they undercut wages, benefits and the social safety net. The Republicans argue that insuring the risks of health and old age makes it too difficult to compete and these risks must be shifted to the individual. The Chinese are eating our lunch because we are giving it to them.

Finally

I have been reading blogs and newspapers and watching and listening to the news for a long time. It seems that there has been barely a glimmer of what I would hope to hear if our society were functioning well. This report sounds like the truth and someone is saying it, finally.

The War on Christmas Continues...

to be waged against Christians by their "friends." Just a few thoughts.

What kind of weak God needs to be defended against liberals? The Soviet Union aka the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or U.S.S.R. outlawed religion for 80 or so years and yet it survived.

As much as it might upset some of my religious brothers and sisters to hold these two thoughts at the same time I must put it out there. There are many who are both Christian and liberal. Gasp.

Martin Luther King was a liberal. Robert Kennedy was a liberal. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a liberal. Paul Wellstone was a liberal. Liberal is not a dirty word. Only those with small ideas about God and their fellow man would fear for Christmas.

The War on Christmas (TM) is a phony issue trotted out each year to offend the sensibilities of the devout. God bless and peace be with you. Do not fear for I am with you always.

I Am The Ruling Class, Who'd A Thought

From John Foster's blog.

Mortimer Zuckerman says,

Forget the corporate rich, forget Wall Street, forget the bank bailouts, corporate bonuses and high-income tax breaks, forget the private jets and mansions. It is the millions of “public servants” with their outrageous five-digit salaries and their galling health insurance and retirement pensions, Zuckerman insisted, who have now become “the public’s masters,” seizing a disproportionate share of society’s rewards and bringing on the failures of the U.S. economy.

Whoo Hoo!!!!! I AM THE RULING CLASS! Ok then, everyone listen to me. Urumph. (About to speak...)

Cue the crickets.

John Foster goes on...

What we are witnessing is a concerted attack on government at all levels, extending to public sector workers and their unions. It is out of control government spending, we are told, that is at the root of all our economic woes. Public sector workers, it is claimed, enjoy higher salaries, greater job security, and more ample benefits than their private sector counterparts, while continually demanding and getting more. It is time that they shared in the crisis of the rest of the society.

What? Doesn't it make sense to want to enact policies and take actions which result in higher salaries, greater job security and good benefits for all? Why would anyone insist that all should suffer? Especially a billionaire.

Just sayin' to myself.

Edit:
Five figure salary? I suppose his ilk will be happy when we are all earning a four figure salary compared to his ten figure net worth.

Simple Sense

Banks should be in the business of banking. Lending money at a profit so others can build, buy, create, develop, whatever. Banks should be a service to the economy and the people. What sense does it make that top hedge fund managers make 900,000 dollars..........an hour?

Whose interests are they serving?
What are they doing to maintain their way of life?
At whose expense?

Drowning in the Bathtub

I am sure it was Grover Nordquist that said the Republicans wanted to get government down to the size where they could drown it in the bathtub. With states in trouble it looks like that is about to happen.

"When you've got an unemployment rate at 10 percent, I don't think that's a good time for us to tell Georgians that we need more of their money," Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said. "I'm going to resist that again this year."

So let's see. Unemployed people needing government services more than ever are going to face even fewer services from the state and more hurdles getting those that do exist because those of us with jobs are not going to be asked to help maintain these services.

Also, public employees who earn less compared to private sector workers by education level are greedy bastards because they want a decent wage and a secure retirement. Basically it is the fault of public employees that the states are in financial trouble. Pay no attention to the ________ behind the curtain. Fill in your choice, Wall Street, the rich and super rich, banks, healthcare industry, etc.

Look at the price we just paid for one year of unemployment benefits. 800 billion dollars over the next 10 years, borrowed from China, going to those who don't need it, as ransom to pay benefits to some of the unemployed in 2011. Meanwhile Rome burns or drowns in the bathtub or whatever.

To Teach or Not To Teach

Two years ago when my son was in second grade we had an interesting experience. He was having difficulty learning to read fluently and to write more than a minimal amount. When meeting with the teacher she said all the "right" things. I recognized the lingo and could tell that she had been schooled in all of the current techniques. Many of the students in the class were doing fine. Being a teacher myself I was worried that my bright, creative boy might be doomed to hate school and continue to have real difficulty. My wife on the other hand surmised quickly and accurately that his teacher was not motivating him. The teacher even suggested retention. We were stunned.

We asked that he be moved into the classroom of a much more experienced teacher. It was as if the clouds parted, the sun shone and the mind blossomed. Two years later he reads and writes fluently at grade level. Education is about much more than transmitting knowledge and requiring more of students. Knowledge and wisdom combined with high expectations are sent and received between teachers and students through their relationship with each other.

If you want to evaluate teachers, evaluate them on that. If you can.

Saul Is Crying

In college I read Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. Simply put the powerless can leverage their numbers and their ideas through direct action to create enough pressure to cause those in power to listen and even negotiate with them. The powerless can attain a little power.

Those in power are still the enemy because they think they know better, they don't have to listen to anyone else, they have the power and their self-interest is all that matters. Saul Alinsky must be crying in heaven to see one of his disciples having gone over to the dark side.

Dr. King went to Memphis to help sanitation workers. Arne Duncan goes to Chicago to meet with anti-teacher profiteers. As my daughter used to say, "How that can be?"

In the midst of an economic crisis without debate or amendment 4.5 billion dollars for education and authority for Race to the Top was put into the stimulus bill. Saul would be in awe of the audacity and application of the technique. 50 state legislatures, in control of an $800 billion public service, changed their laws and opened themselves to privatization to chase $4.5 billion or .56 percent which only a handful of them will get. The money itself is the small collective power, but it is not in the hands of powerless people. At best it in the hands of well intentioned but misguided politicians and education reformers, aka the powerful running amok. At worst this money and the reforms that go along with it is in the employ of ruthless politicians and their corporate paymasters, aka the powerful using the system to attain even more power and wealth. The human shields in this drama are the children.

Real Education Reform

If you want real education reform eliminate poverty.

Otherwise, Congresswoman Judy Chu from California has a grasp on what it will take to make American education more effective. Starting on page 4 of this proposal she outlines what is needed. Namely, flexibility and support.

I have seen many of these elements at work in my own district. It would be wonderful if the national focus through No Child Left Behind became one of opportunities for success instead of carrots and sticks. Effective strategies instead of rewards and punishments.

Imagine a battle where soldiers had to implement a military strategy regardless of what they found when they engaged in the battle. Then, when they are defeated, another group of soldiers is thrown into the battle following the same strategy. Race to the Top has been called NCLB on steroids. Implementing the same strategy more vigorously will only waste more time and money. It will also damage or destroy the institutions we are trying to improve.

You might argue that things would be different in education with full implementation of Race to the Top because the unions would be gone and teachers would have greater financial incentives through merit pay and fears of being fired. Without flexibility and support these changes are all window dressing. Teachers are much more likely to enter into survival mode when they can be fired arbitrarily and in fact these conditions lead to high teacher turnover and much less collaboration between staff members. A culture of learning, collaboration and success cannot grow. Student outcomes will not change and may even get worse. Many charter schools, promoted by Race to the Top, perform worse than comparable public schools, some perform as well and a few, 17% perform better. Amazingly and alarmingly these results are true even though charters routinely engage in selective admission and return students with academic and behavioral problems to their public schools. Something public schools cannot do.

Race to the Top, Waiting for Superman, No Child Left Behind, expansion of charter schools are misleading and failed ideas. Education is a messy and imperfect process, but it is important enough that our efforts need to be based on an approach that builds capacity to meet students' needs. Real education reform is not to be found in an effective political strategy wrapped around failed education policies.

Corporate Gangland

How does it work? Work hard, follow the rules, pay your dues, contribute to society and the system works for you too. Right?

In a gang members do what is necessary to be a member, obey the gangs rules, prove themselves, support the gang above all else and the gang supports the member. Right?

Is it possible that the powerful institutions of our country are

• working harder than ever,
• playing by their own rules due to wealth, monopoly, deregulation or sweetheart deals in legislation,
• proving themselves to their organization without regard to society,
• exploiting and taking advantage of society?

Think health care, pharmaceuticals, defense, communications, banking and finance, politicians...

Who would you add to the list?

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporatio­ns which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

- Thomas Jefferson

Anecdotal

My daughter and I just went to Kroger for ice cream and pop. Friday night fun. Out of curiosity I asked her how many of her teachers were really bad. She is in 8th grade and has had 25 teachers. She said, one.

When I told her about the teacher and union bashing she said, "That's bullcrap! The teachers are the good guys. The students are the ones doing bad and not paying attention. Teachers are awesome."

Anecdotal, I know, but most parents and students give their own schools high marks. Think about it.

VAM or Value Added Mumbo-Jumbo

In particular, these models indicate large “effects” of fifth grade teachers on fourth grade test score gains.

Read that again.

Wafting Flatulence

Corporations and Wall Street feed at the trough of government protection and subsidy, then blame public employees for the state of the economy. Newt Gingrich says that public employees are "the privileged class." Compared to who? Fostering a little intra-class warfare are we? The new Republican House wants to repeal RomneyCare increasing the deficit (CBO) and rob the insurance companies of 40 million new customers just to score political points with their base.

Why does anyone even listen to these people?

To Promote the General Welfare

Do you think George Bush ever really understood economics? I don't think so. What he understood was the Republican economic/political ideology. That was enough.

So, what are the economic/political priorities of DoubleDDemocrats?

Any policy that reinforces:
work - Civilian Conservation Corp,
dignity - unions,
lessening/elimination of poverty - an economy that works for all,
elimination of hunger - availability and affordability of good food,
health - universal healthcare,
freedom from tyranny - rules that are enforced and work for everyone.

That would be nice.

Pay The Pensions

Public sector workers are about to get the shaft. Up until the recession (not caused by public sector workers) according to Robert Reich "public pension funds had an average of 86 percent of all the assets they needed to pay future benefits." Many of these pension funds were sold overrated mortgage backed securities that have been at the heart of the recession.

Now major corporations, the banks and Wall Street are experiencing record profits and record compensation, yet they are not hiring. The richest in the country are getting tax breaks worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Their friends in government are saying state budget problems are caused by state employees, their wages and benefits. This is the victory of greed and ideological purity run amok.

Liberal... Yea!

Michael Dukakis made one huge mistake in 1988. He ran away from being a liberal. When challenged he should have pulled out his wallet, grabbed any business card, waved it around and said, "Yes! I am a liberal. A card carrying liberal. Here it is and this is what it means."

Everyone would have been listening to hear his definition of the word liberal. Instead he ran and the Republicans have been able to define it and Democrats are left moving to the right so as not to appear too liberal.

Third-Second Party

The idea of a third party is always interesting because it is rebellious and says things the major parties will not. Instead of a third party we need to take back the one that has gone astray. To do so our candidates should be Democrats, but identify themselves as more than that. We could call ourselves DoubleDDemocrats. The media would probably gladly identify us as such...

Mike Ombry (DD)

Depression

One of my goals with this blog is to write briefly yet accurately and truthfully. There are many others who write at length in exquisite detail, yet society remains unmoved.

Social Security has assets worth 2,000,000,000,000 dollars (that's trillions). Why is it that while we are in a recession we cannot afford Social Security, yet we were able to create it during THE GREAT DEPRESSION from scratch?

Union

Out of many, one.

This is the foundation of our country. Unions bring many together to act as one. They act as a balancing force against the raw power of capitalism. They are needed now more than ever. The Union is in peril from the forces of extremism be they economic, religious or political.

Those who will stand together against extremism in any form are today's patriots. Together we can resist tyranny.