"An old soul...

Friday Fave: Wicked in LA

2007-08-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

Still flying high after seeing Wicked here in LA at the Pantages.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the musical has much more humor than I expected, all the more better since we saw a very polished LA production filled with great dancing and singing amongst amazingly fantastic sets. Wicked , as the backstory to the Wizard of Oz, is the clever but simplified psychological take to the characters, highlighting the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda. Even better, to me, was the well-disguised subversive political commentary about fear-mongering regimes needing enemies in order to control the masses.

Unfortunately, my very favorite tune, 'I'm Not That Girl', is turning into the maudlin anthem for heart-broken teens everywhere on YouTube so I won't post that one, and the Wicked trademark police appears to be out erasing YouTube clips from the show but below is one that hasn't been pulled yet. It's a horrible public locale but you can imagine how great Eden Espinoza as Elphaba is on stage. Here she is singing 'The Wizard and I'. Update: she is accompanied on the the piano by Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist of Wicked.

Again, LA Times Fails the Public in Their Report about Dubya's Speech to ALEC

2007-07-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

Once again, the LA Times fails the public by not providing the big picture context of Bush's rah rah talk in front of ALEC this month, by playing down the very very right-wing agenda of the organization Dubya spoke to this month, and by using language developed by the right-wing for propaganda.

ALEC is the Grover Norquist spawned group organized to put Norquist's anti-tax agenda in every state in the nation. ALEC turns out to be one of the back door ways corporate money gets their (bought and paid for) legislators to carry their legislation and agenda back to the states. How it all works is very clever. Here is Mother Jones on ALEC.

Instead, take a look at the type of language we see here in Los Angeles in the subject heading: "Speaking to state legislators, he uses blunt language in referring to Democratic opposition to extending his cuts" and "Before budget fight, Bush puts up his fists on taxes".

Getting suspicious, I kept reading. Paragraph 1 is notable for the use of language developed by the right-wing: see "Republicans seeking to protect Americans' wallet". I note pathetically more info in paragraph 2: the LA Times reveals it to be an "organization of conservative state legislators", a statement I suspect will be completely underwhelming. I go all the way to paragraph four to find out that Dubya was indeed giving a speech to ALEC.

There is no mention of the history of ALEC nor is there any mention of Norquist, his agenda, and how it's done. Pathetic and scary. No wonder we have a poorly educated voting public.

Friday Fave: "For Good" from Wicked

2007-07-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Wandering though postings on YouTube for songs from my current musical fave, Wicked, I was struck by this rendition of "For Good".
May Manny Garcia land a recording contract and have a wonderful and productive career. For the record, I am not related in any way to Mr. Garcia nor have I had any contact with him.

His YouTube Link

Friday Fave: Aragonaise from the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

2007-07-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm posting one more of the awesome Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, this time playing Aragonaise from the Carmen Suite.
Here's the YouTube link so you can give them five stars.
Their website.

Dark Chocolate Blogging: (Minuscule Quantities of ) Dark Chocolate Good For Your Health

2007-07-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

I don't need studies like this to give me another reason to consume chocolate. We get news of a recent study published in JAMA indicating positive results in individuals consuming a minuscule amount, 30 calories worth, of dark chocolate. Couple caveats: this was a very small sample size (44 individuals) which renders results, in my opinion, to be a bit dicey, and the positive result was a fairly small reduction in high blood pressure. Still, I'll take it as good news overall. My major issue: I just find it a bit difficult to consume such a tiny amount. How does one do that?

Action Alert: Keep Organic Food Organic

2007-07-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

There's still time to get your response in. The Organic Consumers Association has written a petition to send to the USDA to keep organic food organic. The most recent change initiated by the USDA loosens standards so much that labelled organic food may not necessarily be organic.

YOUR HELP IS STILL NEEDED The USDA has responded to OCA's demands to repoen re-open the public comment period on this issue. Industry was given two years, and the public was initially only given 7 days. But the USDA has agreed to accept public comments for 60 additional days while giving interim approval to the proposal. It's important that consumers, farmers and organic producers use this period to share their opinions.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll be able to send a letter to the USDA.

LATimes: A Bit of Hope

2007-07-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

I can count on our once local paper, the LATimes, to be a source of disappointment. With the last change in ownership, it was clear I'd wake up every morning to an even skinnier paper when it was already looking close to being diagnosed anorexic. With that, it was obvious there would be more bleeding of staff positions.

One very public cut was my favorite curmudgeon who writes eloquently from Topanga Canyon, Al Martinez. I have always thought of him as an essential local voice, one of us, and if he got cut from the LATimes, I would consider the newspaper lost, completely gone soulless and corporate. Yup, completely soulless, as you can see here:

The editor of the section of which my column is a small and barely visible part telephoned on an otherwise uneventful afternoon to say that my column, in its present form, is ending and that I am being given a buyout.

No one asked if I wanted it. I would have said no. I would have said I'm not ready yet. My prose is strong and my mind is clear. I'm still climbing upward. There is still a summit I haven't reached, a sunrise I haven't seen.

But they didn't ask.

Today, however, I see Al Martinez is back writing for the LATimes, Inc. Glad to see him back.

Friday Fun: LAGQ and Pachelbel's 'Loose' Canon

2007-06-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my favorite guitar groups, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, with their irreverent and amazing take on Pachelbel's Canon in D. Enjoy!

Youtube link
Their website
From the DVD, LAGQ Live!

Happy Feet under attack

2006-11-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

Hah. It didn't take long, did it. The movie Happy Feet is being grinched by the conservative propaganda machine as being, in a classic case of psychological projection, propaganda. From Mediamatters.

These charismatic penguins are waaaay too threatening especially when the movie's message is waaaay too subversive. I think it's not going to work this time. Cute penguins will win, flippers down.

It was a good Thanksgiving this year

2006-11-25T17:11:00.000-08:00

Every year, I link to this hopeful piece on messed up family dynamics and Thanksgiving, with the quiet hope that my experience with the extended family will be better.

Since last year was my worst ever, we went the road less traveled this time.

We ditched the yearly family drama over at the in-laws. We have been in San Diego, in the middle of a quiet and peaceful vacation.

Not only did we ditch the in-laws, we also didn't do the standard turista madness of trying to catch the many amusement attractions in the area.

Instead, we spent lots of time at the pool, and we saw the movie Happy Feet, which contains a bunch of delightfully subversive messages. Way to go and what a great way of seeding America's youth with messages about ecology, acknowledgement of the food chain, the consequence of overfishing the oceans, and tolerance of differences.

Delighted to know that American youth everywhere will get exposed to these so-called liberal ideas as they take in the cutest singing and dancing penguins ever seen.

LA Weekly: taking a turn to the right?

2006-11-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

LA Weekly was, at one point, our reliably lefty alternative weekly here in southern California. It hasn't been for awhile. In this last election, I looked for an endorsement page but I didn't even see it. Here is the pathetic thing they offered instead, something called 'A Voter's Guide'.

So what's the deal? Here's something Gregory Rodriguez wrote in last Sunday's LA Times (note, I am not a Rodriguez fan by far, and know that I have numerous quibbles with his piece). But this is new to me.

The next year, the New Times Media chain of weekly papers, based in Phoenix, merged with Village Voice Media, which owned the L.A. Weekly, and began to remake the paper in its image. Known for its anti-PC irreverence and old-fashioned muckraking, the editorial leadership of New Times is now pushing the Weekly toward hard news and away from liberal advocacy. Two weeks ago, Stewart was hired to supervise local news coverage.

Jill Stewart has been the one I turn to get reliably strident conservative thinktank talking points in LA. I know she wrote for the Daily News, the great conservative paper in the Valley. Here's an archive of her columns in the SF Chronicle where you can quickly get a flavor of her views, union bashing and all.

Any truth creates a scandal

2006-11-18T19:11:00.000-08:00

"...any truth creates a scandal".
from a letter written by Hadrian, a Roman emperor.

This quote is from the fictional account, Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. Oh, what a difficult book to read but only because I'm finding myself taking time to reread paragraphs, sentences, phrases.

I've come to a personal conclusion that the greater the resistance to birthing a truth, the more painful are the emotions attached to it. This also happens to be a comment about my life these days.

But don't you think this works at the national level as well, that the entrenched forces in power, Republican, Democratic, the media as well, will necessarily find that truth creates scandal, as it does in dysfunctional family and community systems.

Turning to the impeachment dialogue which I hope doesn't die an early death, I mirror what seems to make the most sense to me: we must honor the process of uncovering the truth. This process will create a scandal, an absolutely expected outcome, as reflected by Hadrian.

Norquist reminds his constituency to continue "district by district"

2006-11-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, I caught the very conservative Investor's Business Daily (November 13, 2006) offering a strategy comment from Grover Norquist in their front page story titled: Conservatives Spar Over Iraq, Values After Stinging Loss. Sorry, no link.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said social issues can be local concerns for Republicans, but don't have to go national.

"It's not reasonable to suggest that the pro-life issue in toto hurts Republicans. That's not true. It actually helps them," Norquist said. "you have to look at it district by district. You don't run an anti-stem cell candidate in downtown New York, but you want to have a right-to-life in a Catholic neighborhood or the South".

This is nothing new.

Funny how this mirrors, probably not coincidentally, the Dominionist strategy for takeover, one school board at a time.

I think Norquist's remarks affirms the foresight and wisdom of Dean's 50 state strategy as the way to go, namely, local.

CA: Bersin leaves his education post in Sacramento

2006-11-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

I read this morning that Alan Bersin, appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger to be his Secretary of Education, is leaving to go back to San Diego, accepting a position on an airport authority board.

I've written about Alan Bersin, namely his support of Prop. 76, the proposition which would have really hurt CA public schools if passed last year. Previous to that, he had been a contentious superintendent of San Diego schools, being the type of 'reformer' that both the DLC and the Republicans seem to be appreciate well.

I'd love to know why he's leaving Sacramento and education. UPDATE: The LATimes spins this as a resignation related to a postelection revamp.

Two of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's prominent aides are leaving the administration, the first in what is expected to be a string of departures as the governor, following his reelection victory last week, retools his staff.

Schwarzenegger aides confirmed Wednesday that Alan D. Bersin, the governor's education advisor, is stepping down, as is Richard Costigan, a senior aide in charge of pushing the governor's agenda through the Legislature.

Projection, again, naturally

2006-11-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Nothing new but I've got to point out this very clear and classic use of projection to avoid responsibility, in this video of Poppa Bush blaming bloggers for, gasp, the adversarial political climate.

I'm sure you know I'm not breaking new ground by saying that having a clear object to blame is a really old but effective tactic.

I think it works well, unfortunately, because this is a type of emotional manipulation that is very familiar and comforting, especially to those who grew up in families where this is normal. Stuff like this usually would go under the radar, which is probably why we (bloggers) are naturally to blame since we like to bring things out into awareness. Ah, sunlight.

God bless bloggers.

Deep gratitude

2006-11-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

I'm very sorry I dropped out of sight but I have been busy and could not blog.

Today, post-election day, I couldn't help but cry. Whether they were tears of relief, tears of joy, tears of whatever, I'm not really going to try to figure out. I'm thrilled, happy, and most of all, relieved as must be all of you who support progressive politics. Just don't talk to me about California's governor. Don't know why but Californians still need some help.

I turn to UK's The Guardian for their great commentary from across the sea, ending with this.

...it has been the American voters who have at last made this possible. For that alone the entire world owes them its deep gratitude today.

They must think we've been nuts these last years but at least they have enough presence to say "Thank you, America".

CA: What's wrong with Prop. 88

2006-08-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

This is a link over to Education Justice on why we should vote No on Prop. 88 on the upcoming monster November ballot in CA.

Prop. 88 is a flat tax of $50 per parcel with an incredibly laser-focused approach to funding education. It only funds class-size reduction, textbooks, safety, facilities, and a teacher-focused achievement tracking system. Note this important catch. From CSBA:

However, the initiative would impose severe penalties for “misuse” of funds—a term not defined to distinguish between inadvertent errors and intentional illegal behavior; place new constraints on the use of the class-size reduction funds; and expand the role of the state Board of Education in “approving” textbooks.

Prop. 88 was placed on the ballot by EdVoice, a suspiciously mixed coalition including major Chamber of Commerce types (yo! there's Eli Broad again), charter school advocates, and politicos (egads, I spy Alan Bersin on their advisory board).

My chickenhawk story

2006-07-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

Out of the blue, my kid asked me this: "Mom, what is a chickenhawk?".

I was momentarily taken aback. My kid--already political at 8? OMG, was I ranting too much again when I should really have been blogging about it (yes, I know I've been silent but in the summer the days are full when school is out).

So when I asked why, the kid shrugged, saying "Oh, I just heard the word the other day". Oh dear, I thought, it was true. I was ranting again in the presence of kids, something I try to avoid. I was still a bit puzzled. I generally rant about other things, oh, like the DLC or Governor Schwarzenegger, but I can't remember the last time I even thought about chickenhawks. We don't watch TV. Where did it come from?

Since I was also distracted as well, I started rattling off the 'oh it's a person who wants war but doesn't want to fight in it' definition. At which point, the kid stops me right away.

"No, mom, I was reading about a chickenhawk which swooped up and took a mouse away". Oh, yes, I forgot about that type of chickenhawk. Hah. Mild relief.

CA: Check out Schwarzenegger's 'Education Coalition'

2006-06-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

Since we already have a bona fide Education Coalition in CA, key players in protecting education funding in California, it seems fitting Team Schwarzenegger came up with their own coalition to shore up their own ed credentials. Thanks to Randy Bayne who catches the sleazy Schwarzenegger attempt at mimicry and deception.

I think it's notable to point out that the Schwarzenegger 'Education Coalition' includes a who's who list of extreme right winger all-stars.

First off, Ron Nehring, the Grover Norquist dude with a long history of Norquista based activism, including heading a national campaign to destroy unions in the US. He is also a school board member in San Diego who has tried to convert all the schools in his school district to charter schools.

Lance Izumi hails from a state-based thinktank aligned with the national coalition, State Policy Network, which coordinates pushing right-winger policy in every state. More info on that coalition here (pdf), especially on how it's done locally in San Diego, and here (pdf). Izumi is the frequent op-ed writer who appears to be the go-to person penning the right winger education talking points in the local newspapers.

Peter Mehas, superintendent of Fresno Schools, was chairman of the CA Republican party for two years and served as Gov. Deukmejian's Secretary of Education.

Kirk Clark is the California Business Roundtable representative. The Business Roundtable has consistently been leaders in supporting NCLB.

Many representatives from charter schools in CA.

For more evidence this is a group of ed supporters live in Schwarzenegger's alternate fantasy world of education, here's the press release from this 'coalition'

"Under Governor Schwarzenegger's leadership, California is investing in education at the highest level in our state's history," said Sandra McBrayer, United States teacher of the year*. "Over the past two and a half years, funding for education has increased by $8.1 billion – to more than $11,000 per student.

$11,000 per student. Wow. I so wish this was true, it hurts.

I think the pathetic thing is that there are people who actually believe these numbers, including (ahem) family, friends, and many well-meaning parents I've encountered. They are flabbergasted and confused when I tell them current CA state funding for schools from the state falls short of providing a quality education. False information like the above fuels this problem.

Amplifying Randy Bayne's points, I'll end with Phil Angelides, the Democratic nominee running against Schwarzenegger for the governorship. Unlike Schwarzenegger, who abandoned education funding at a drop of hat despite his many campaign promises, Angelides has made education a priority. No wonder he's got the backing of the real ed groups in CA.

CA: More reaction to Villaraigosa's school deal

2006-06-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

Insane teacher catches this illuminating little detail:

Here's the key provision: the school board loses its power to make decisions that cost LAUSD more than $25,000. I had to read that twice. I thought it might have said less than, but I teach first grade, so I know the difference. Why the heck would we want the power to spend so much money to go from a small group to a single person (the Superintendent, the choice of whom the mayor will now have veto-power)?

Oh, and this little detail as well, related to NCLB.

There's some provisions in it that are sneaky (The Mayor's council is in charge of the 36 failing schools. Are they in charge of just those 36 schools or any school that's failing? I don't know, but I'd bet the latter. But, if you know anything about NCLB, you know that number is just going to grow exponentially, so Villaraigosa secretly did get complete control like he wanted, he just has to wait...), but there is one way to know what this compromise is really about...Follow the money.

Insane teacher's blog looks new. Certainly this is another edublog to keep your eyes on.

Marc Cooper of the LA Weekly discusses his take on what drove Villaraigosa to push this deal: the CA governorship in 2010.

Better for Antonio that Phil loses in November and goes back into business with Angelo spreading around more suburban sprawl. Arnold also likes that plan.

Maybe that’s our real choice in November. Either we get another four years of Arnold, a reformed school district and Antonio as governor in 2010. Or we get eight years of Phil and the same brain-dead school system. Who says we don’t have clear-cut choices?

This whole thing makes me think twice about the very charismatic Villaraigosa. He'll sacrifice kids, although not his, for his career.

It seems LATimes has a new blog covering blog reactions, and, hey look, my last post is linked. More reaction, mostly from the other side of the blogosphere here and here.

CA: Villaraigosa gets his deal

2006-06-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Mayor of LA, Villaraigosa, in his quest to take over control of the LAUSD, didn't quite get what he wanted when he ran to his pals in the State Legislature but he surely got something. And right now, the only thing clear to me is that he's getting a truckload of good publicity out of this whole thing.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stepped confidently into a crowded press conference in the Capitol Wednesday to announce a landmark agreement giving him broad authority over the management of the state's largest school district.

The LA Times has a chart (on this refreshing new edblog by LA Time's Bob Sipchen) which gives a few details on what he wanted and what he got instead.

I've been dismayed by his quest to be emperor of the schools. A teacher friend of mine in the LAUSD says there are many other ways of improving LAUSD than Antonio's way, which is by fiat and is all about castrating the elected school board and superintendent. I've had objections as well: a strong mayor system is a key right-wing goal. What the hell is going on with Villaraigosa? Who got to him? My teacher friend also points out this problem when a mayor is emperor: what happens to the school district when Antonio leaves? What if we get someone who is a true Norquist Republican and wants to give it away to the highest bidder?

Now that some of the dust has settled, I think we've got a ton of compromises, guarenteeed to generate tons of feel-good PR for all. You can read some of it in the LAT article if you dare.

My take: I don't like it, and I suspect it'll be worse for the kids in the long run. I think increased diffusion of responsibility, especially with new governing parties introduced into the pot, will make it more difficult to get anything done, this in a system when it already is just about impossible to get things done. The superintendent and the school board, traditionally the two in charge in most school districts, have quite a bit less power and responsibility. In the traditional system, this is where the parents exert pressure.

Having a strong mayor at the top, who has a number of other responsibilities, makes a school district vulnerable to whoever lobbies the mayor, hardly a democratic process. Corporate interests is likely to have more sway while parents will lose out even more.

The deal's done. It looks like to me that this is the first step, there is more dealing in the works, especially if results aren't good. What a winning deal for Villaraigosa.

More here.

CA: I'm disagreeing with Dan Walters again on education

2006-06-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

Not surprisingly, I find myself once again disagreeing with Cato friendly Dan Walter's latest op-ed although this time I think it's more like a nuanced disagreement.

While I do agree with his contention that there are largely two ideological groups in conflict over education policy, I don't quite 'get' the political triangle Walters talks about in his piece, mostly because this triangle, whatever it is, isn't really an issue.

What Walters really wants to do is talk about Villaraigosa, the LA mayor who is trying to get Sacramento to hand him control over the schools in LA.

It is, to some extent, an ideological conflict, liberals tending toward the not-enough-money attitude and conservatives toward the weak-leadership contention, but those lines are being blurred as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's visit to the Capitol on Monday underscores.

Villaraigosa is a Democrat, a former Assembly speaker and a former union official, but he's made taking over management of the huge and hugely troubled Los Angeles Unified School District a cornerstone of his mayoralty -- and perhaps of his hopes of becoming governor.

What Walters leaves out is the little-discussed backdrop of influential Dems actually working very closely and quietly with the ideologically rightwing in education policy. Those are our corporate Dems, the DLC, the ones who like to call themselves 'centrist', whatever that means. I've written about this alliance time and time again, especially in regard to the bipartisan piece of trouble, NCLB.

What has been surprising and disheartening to me was seeing Villaraigosa, who has had a past as a union organizer, now pursuing the mayoral takeover route, a tactic straight from the right-wing playbook regarding education in the big cities.

I'd love to know more about Villaraigosa's political evolutionary process, chiefly how he came to this right-wing friendly stance, but certainly his actions should be taken seriously and signals a real break from a progressive agenda.

My interest in Villaraigosa has been piqued despite my disappointment. I suspect his alliance with Gov Schwarzenegger on mayoral control speaks volumes. Clearly more shall be revealed in this story.

Connections that bind us together

2006-06-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

For my bookgroup, we're reading Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. It's an absolutely luminous and emotionally resonant book, a communication from the heart between the author, Nafisi, and you, the reader.

As a blogger, the political resonance of her book hit home. It's not hard to see similar undercurrents here in the US in the Dominionist movement. How ironic that religious fundamentalism anywhere attempts to strangle the spirit. What is it about human sexuality, especially that of females, that scares the bejebus out of authority figures? I wish I understood this dynamic better.

Nafisi, I found, has written an essay for NPR's This I Believe. In a nutshell, she explains why literature and fiction are essential to the human spirit. She ends with this.

I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news. And it is at times like this when I ask myself, am I prepared -- like Huck Finn -- to give up Sunday school heaven for the kind of hell that Huck chose?

CA: AP gets it right about Gov. Schwarzenegger

2006-06-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

Nice job of fact-checking by the AP re: the latest Schwarzenegger ad, here:

In a new television ad, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says his Democratic rival, Phil Angelides, will take the state backward "to a time we never want to see again," which the ad says was "when soaring taxes forced jobs and businesses to flee our state."

The problem is, there is no such time.

Campaign officials acknowledged Friday that the ad refers to the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis, who presided over the stock market bust and the recession and state budget crisis that followed.

But Davis did not raise taxes, except for suspending a few small credits, such as one for teachers - which Schwarzenegger also suspended. Davis allowed the vehicle license fee to go up at the very end of his tenure, but Schwarzenegger rescinded it and refunded the money as soon as he took office.

The idea that the California has lost a significant number of jobs from businesses leaving the state was also debunked in a recent study by the California Public Policy Institute.

What's really hilarious is the explanation by the Schwarzenegger camp:

Schwarzenegger strategist Steve Schmidt said the ad referred to a general perception among Californians that high taxes are hurting the state's business climate.

So if there is already a 'general perception' out there, it's okay to put out lies to support that 'general perception'. The strategist's statement is also debunked by the AP.

But, if they are too high, it is not because Davis raised them. In fact, the last California governor to significantly raise taxes was a Republican, Pete Wilson.

Davis actually cut some small taxes when the economy was booming. At the peak of the recession, Davis eliminated some tax credits, including the one for teachers.

Bonus points for the AP but I remember they aren't always so perceptive. I'm thinking of the job they did recently for Margaret Spellings and the Department of Education, an effort worthy of an Armstrong Williams award for best propaganda.

Moyers: "Reciprocity sustains us"

2006-06-11T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning inspiration from Bill Moyers. From his baccalaureate address to Hamilton College graduates.

This reciprocity sustains us. If you doubt it, look around you. Hamilton College was raised here by people before your time, people you'll never know, who were nonetheless thinking of you before you were born. You have received what they built and bequeathed, and in your time you will give something back. That's the deal. On and on it goes, from generation to generation.

Civilization sustains and supports us. The core of its value is bread. But bread is its great metaphor. All my life I've prayed the Lord's Prayer, and I've never prayed, "Give me this day my daily bread." It is always, "Give us this day our daily bread." Bread and life are shared realities. They do not happen in isolation. Civilization is an unnatural act. We have to make it happen, you and I, together with all the other strangers. And because we and strangers have to agree on the difference between a horse thief and a horse trader, the distinction is ethical. Without it, a society becomes a war against all, and a market for the wolves becomes a slaughter for the lambs.

Moyers writes about my core values so beautifully and simply. These values have a lot to do with why I'm a progressive and why I'm so concerned about public education.

The 'me first why should I care about other people' theme runs strong among many of the parents I know. They are all good people who want the best for their kids. Fine, but I end up feeling inordinately sad and angry because in the big picture, we are all connected. This interconnection sustains us, as written by Moyers, and without this awareness, we will collectively make our lives and the lives of our kids worse in the long run.

CA: Schwarzenegger is back pushing his conservative agenda again

2006-06-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Now that we're done with the primary election, I'd like to point out Governor Schwarzenegger is back to his extreme right wing Norquist conservative talking points. I think it's important to notice how his people are trying to spin this agenda as 'centrist'.

From here:

"I don't think we should raise taxes,' Schwarzenegger said. 'We don't need to punish people for the shortcomings of Sacramento'.

These are two classic Norquist talking points: 1) absolutely no taxes, and 2) blame the legislature. I'd like to remind y'all that the CA legislature is hamstrung precisely because of changes pushed by Norquist and his tribe: term limits, the need for a supermajority vote to pass taxes, and Prop. 13.

The extreme right-wing meme of 'no taxes' crops up here as well:

"They want to raise taxes. They want to go and send us back to the time of more spending and more taxing and punishing you,'' the governor said after hopping on a chair to speak to patrons of the Market Cafe. ``We don't want to do that. We want to move the state forward. This is what this campaign is all about."

I think it's equally important to note what his strategist is spewing.

His swing to the center, said GOP strategist Karen Hanretty, is precisely what he needed to do to regain the trust of moderates and ``decline to state'' voters.

I'm not buying this at all because this is about moving the 'centrist' goalposts further right.

I'm sorry to find our media has been gullible and buying into this reframe. I recommend a review course on critical thinking and analysis. At the very least, I highly recommend reading about the Overton Window. Here's a dkos analysis.

Systematically, piece by piece, the GOP takes what had been considered impossibly radical positions and makes them worthy of consideration just by talking about them--and then makes what had been considered outside possibilities truly possible.

I think it's pathetic how the media buys into this whole thing. Just because the Governor's strategist tells you Schwarzenegger is going centrist doesn't necessarily mean he is.

CA: Fewer females in politics

2006-06-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

This week's Los Angeles City Beat, our alternative press, features a piece on the disturbing trend of seeing fewer female legislators getting elected to office in California.

Why?

“Term limits have been a disaster for women, because women were termed out too, but the recruitment process stayed the same,” says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “By and large, it’s still men who are getting groomed and encouraged to run for office.”

One reason why this is an issue:

What sort of goals do women typically have? “Women have a sense that government should operate out in the open and be available to constituents,” Walsh says. “Women tend to be more inclusive in the way they operate and take a more progressive stand on certain issues, like civil unions, than men do. Women see themselves as the voice of the voiceless.”

Just to remind y'all, term limits is a Grover Norquist legacy item.

California Primary Election

2006-06-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Live election results here.
Returns for the gubernatorial race, statewide: here.
Really cool map by county: here.
Returns for Propositions 81 and 82: here.
For the election geeks out there, and you know I'm one, there's a neat scrolling election results viewer with automatic updates. Available here.

CA: Governor's race and public education

2006-06-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

The November election for the CA governorship is a ways off but the primaries are on Tuesday. And, if you didn't know, this is when Californians in the Democratic party decide between Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. Needless to say, I've been inundated with phone blasts and campaign literature, feeling underwhelmed and confused. Not a good combination.

What do they say on the education issues I'm concerned about? Here's my quick look at what I could find.

On NCLB
Angelides. Nada.
Westly. Nada.
Schwarzenegger. Nada.
Clearly NCLB is not a concern. I'm not impressed.

On Charter Schools
Angelides. Angelides does not highlight his support of charter schools on his website. Instead, this is what I found, buried in one of the last paragraphs.

Angelides also spearheaded the effort to dedicate $400 million for public charter school expansion and construction as part of the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Acts of 2002 and 2004.

I did find this on one of the articles posted on his site.

As proof of his independence, Angelides said he had broken ranks with the CTA by supporting charter schools. Democratic candidates commonly support charter schools, although the CTA dislikes them in part because it's harder for the unions to organize the teachers who work there.

Westly. Westly supports charter schools as well but, funny, it's not on his website at all.
Schwarzenegger. He openly supports charter schools.

I'm not sure what to say but it's interesting how the charter school issue is dealt on both Angelides' and Westly's website.

On having their kids attend public schools
Angelides. His children attend parochial school.

Westly. His children attend public school though I don't know what sort, charter or otherwise. I find this in a media article:

According to the campaign, Westly's 4 1/2-year-old son will go to kindergarten next fall and his 6-year-old daughter is currently in elementary school near the Westly's home in Atherton in the Bay Area, where, according to Census estimates, the median income is $236,517.

"You might as well be saying 'I have my child in public school in Beverly Hills,'" Waste said.

"Obviously in Atherton, where the Westlys live, you're going to find very fine public schools," Swatt said.

I'm a bit offended by this. He should know better. Public schools in California, due to the dismally low state funding levels, rely on local parent power to supplement public education funds, such as via the local PTA and local funding. I don't hear anything from him about this very dark secret of California public education funding.

Schwarzenegger. Not surprisingly, his children attend one of the most expensive private schools in the area.

Advantage: Extremely weak advantage to Westly. I'm concerned because he doesn't acknowledge the tenuous dynamics of education funding in California, despite having his children in public school.

On Public Education Funding
Angelides. From a media article on his site:

Rather than focusing on creating more educational opportunity for all Californians, Angelides said, state leaders are squandering precious time by fretting over issues such as whether grade school teachers should be given tenure.

As a result, California now ranks 48th in the nation in terms of educational achievement, he said.

More quotes:

Angelides was firmly on message Tuesday about improving schools, noting California schools rank 43rd of 50 states in per-pupil spending and 40th out of 50 in the number of students who go directly from high school to college. The rankings come from a 2006 Education Week report, which uses data from 2003.

The treasurer spoke first to students, asking them about their career goals and encouraging them to read.

He said he wanted to bring down college costs, roll tuition back to pre-Schwarzenegger levels and increase financial aid.

He also said he would tax large corporations and individuals making more than $500,000 a year in order to increase funding for schools. ...
Angelides said the funding formula is a problem, but his priority is restoring overall funding first.

“As long as there's not enough money for teachers and small class sizes, the problem's going to be acute for all schools,” he said. “So the first commitment I have is to fully fund schools. Once we do that, we can start to talk reasonably about how we cushion the blow.”

Westly. From the LA Weekly endorsement.

Westly also hopes to pour more money into K–12 classrooms and higher education. He has offered a somewhat more pragmatic strategy for achieving his goals, by getting $3.25 billion — half the amount going unpaid to California — from tax scofflaws and giving 42 percent of the total to education. Westly proposes $150 million in free tuition for community-college students, primarily those who are committed to higher education.

A couple red flags: Westly doesn't plan to increase taxes. He also pushes bipartisanship. These are soundbites straight from the infamous Third way DLC approach. Also, the amount of money won't address funding woes, 42% of 3. 25 billion.

Schwarzenegger. From his campaign website:

For the second year in a row, Governor Schwarzenegger's budget recommends spending more money per pupil than the state has ever granted. His plan calls for more than $54.3 billion for education, with total per student spending of $10,996 - $660 more per pupil than this past year

I'm offended by how he implies we're spending a ton of money on education. And there's no acknowledgement of how poor the schools are doing.

Advantage: Angelides. I think he demonstrates a better understanding of public education funding, both in terms of the big picture and with the little wonky details.

Overall advantage: Angelides.

I'm sorely disappointed with all of the candidates on their stance regarding NCLB, NCLB related issues such as standardized testing, and the push for charter schools, also a NCLB related process advocated by the DLC.

However, Angelides seems to understand the big picture problems as well as the details and dynamics of public education funding better than Westly. As a mom with a kid in public school, I was offended by Westly's complete lack of acknowledgement of how local school funding works in wealthy areas. I'm also concerned by his reliance on DLC talking points, red flags for me.

Come November, I will vote for the Democratic nominee, be it Angelides or Westly. On Tuesday, I will vote for Angelides.

Phil Angelides' website
Steve Westly's site

New Oregon state blog

2006-05-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

For all interested in Oregon state politics, please check out the new progressive group blog called Wagon Tongues . It's helmed by Kevin, chief dude over at American Street.

Speaking of brand new (though this gets me way OT), I have to link to this quite non-related YouTube video.

CA: Grab your LA Weekly to get your weekly political gossip

2006-05-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

While taking the kids to the local pizza parlor for playdate snacks, I grabbed this week's LA Weekly to read while waiting for my eggplant parmagiana. For those who aren't local, the LA Weekly is one of our alternative rags.

I was dismayed to see backstabbing gossip, of the ugly and nasty flavor, related to our gubernatorial race and to the local 41st assembly race. My sense is that these articles were meant to persuade undecideds, like me, to vote a certain way.

One was a Westly hit piece. While I'm certainly not a Westly fan (and I'll quickly add I'm not an Angelides fan either), this piece just seemed too too cruel, below the belt, and unfair.

This second piece bashes two candidates in the 41st assemblyperson race and turns one into a saint. Geeez, I wonder who's behind this article. (For the record, I haven't yet decided on anyone yet).

Sorry, folks, this is terrible stuff passing as journalism. It feels like being in high school again.

Send a message to the NCLB Commission: Erase NCLB

2006-05-18T00:27:00.000-07:00

via
Time for a simple and direct message: erase NCLB. From author Debra Craig:

So Debra is asking that teachers, parents, or anyone who feels that No Child Left Behind is a mistake which needs to be erased from our public schools, to please send any kind of eraser to Governor Tommy Thompson. “It can be the standard pink eraser, pencils with erasers, pencil cap erasers, or chalkboard/white board erasers. My goal is that the commission receives one million erasers before they meet in front of Congress in early 2007.” Erasers should be sent to:

Governor Tommy Thompson
Commission on No Child Left Behind
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20036

Debra is requesting that people who do email Governor Thompson erasers email Debra and tell her how many they sent. She wants to keep track of the total to see how close she comes to her goal of one million erasers.

Her website and her email is:
Debracraig ( at ) STOPNCLB (dot) org

Why Tommy Thompson? Because he said this:

Debra read an article online in the Hartford Courant which quoted one of the chairman, Governor Tommy Thompson as saying “Very few people say let’s scrap the law altogether. That’s a good sign.”

My biased opinion: a very good sign would be one million pink erasers in his mailbox.

Silly Sunday Link for Mother's Day

2006-05-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

posting this in advance
Believe me, I know for some it can be hard to tell your mom or anyone dear to your heart that you love em, so I thought maybe you might be inspired by this wee dog Odie on the Letterman show. Anyway, it's really cute.

Oh, and happy mom's day to all the online moms out there.

The next product in the education growth industry: formative assessment

2006-05-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Say this isn't true. Jo Scott-Coe explains formative assessment, the next education market product.

As articulated by CEOs at the 2005 Association of Test Publishers "Innovations in Testing" Conference, what test publishers mean by "formative assessment" is literally constant assessment. Via tools such as remote control, internet question banks and automated, instant online grading software programs, the formative assessment agenda seeks to break down barriers between "testing" and "curriculum" so that they literally mean the same thing. The buzzphrase for this is "integrated" testing.

Scary stuff. I can already hear the battle cry from the devoted army of testing minions: we must bridge that horrible achievement gap! We must continuously monitor achievement!

I wonder what's next. Microchips? How about a big huzzah for continuous electronic surveillance (though I already know of a few parents who wouldn't mind this of their wayward teen).

CA: Gov. Schwarzenegger will repay the schools back

2006-05-11T18:42:00.000-07:00

More recent updates at Educational Justice, now a group blog with the addition of Duane Campbell and others.

Press release from Jack O'Connell, Superintendent of Public Instruction, stating the lawsuit against the state regarding the money is settled.

The agreement restores funding Proposition 98 funding that was due, but not provided in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 fiscal years. The Governor’s May Budget Revision will include $2 billion and language that provides an additional $3 billion to be paid in installments between fiscal year 2006-07 and fiscal year 2013-14, or until paid in full.

One detail to note: the money will be paid back in installments ending 2013-14, not in one lump sum which was the way it was taken out of the schools budget.

CA: Will Gov. Schwarzenegger really pay back the schools the right way?

2006-05-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

My second grader plays this game called Fortunately/Unfortunately. So, er, unfortunately, I seem to think of this game whenevever I see a blockbustery statement emanating from Governor Schwarzenegger.

Fortunately: Gov. Schwarzenegger has recovered from his memory lapse and now says he wants to pay back the money he borrowed from the schools when times were bad. Remember he tried to wriggle out of this by saying he never promised to pay this back. Details in the fine print, I think it was.

Unfortunately: it's the details or lack of. Where are they? Not in the LA Times. Ummmm, ya think there might be strings or restrictions? Will it be the full amount and will it go to where it was supposed to go in the first place?

Fortunately: I think it'll be harder for him to back out of this deal.

Unfortunately: this sure might make him look better to the average voter. Think this is about trying to get re-elected in November?

Let's hope that CA voters in November will remember how we can't trust this guy.

CA: May 1 boycott in the classroom

2006-05-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Thoughtful approach inside the classroom over at the TFA Trenches.

Wish I had a teacher like Mr. AB when I was in school.

SF Chronicle: Education's sinking ship as teachers bail

2006-05-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

From the SF Chronicle:

Deanna Hamilton-Meyer had an announcement for the fourth- and fifth-graders in her special-education class last Wednesday. She was leaving.

"Some of them started crying,'' she says. "They said, 'We can get together and loan you money.' ''

That would be nice, but won't work. In fact, like teachers in schools all over California and around the country, Hamilton-Meyer is leaving Cambridge Elementary in Concord at the end of the school year because she can't make it financially.

This isn't the story of a single teacher who needs some help. This is the beginning of a tsunami of a teacher crisis. With a huge chunk of teachers who went into the profession in the idealistic '60s about to retire, and the financial demands -- particularly the Bay Area's high cost of housing -- those in the business fear that Hamilton-Meyer is the face of the future.

It is a double whammy. The teacher shortage is coming, and schools are losing their top professionals.

The public needs to hear more stories like this.

Here's my little on the ground story. Currently I'm at odds with a parent in my child's class who tells me our teacher provides snacks and school supplies to the class out of the goodness of her heart. She insists that if we help the teacher out, it would be a huge insult to the teacher. And besides, teachers get paid too much money anyway. Hmmm. Wonder where the parent gets her (mis)information from. No wonder as each education bond and initiative gets voted down here in CA.

Sunday read

2006-05-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

via the ever valuable How to Save the World

I'm not a cow person but I'd love to meet Elvis, the world's most sociable cow. Of course it would be a Jon Katz piece. I've enjoyed his soulful books on his bonding experiences with his problem-child dogs.

A Dog Year
The New Work of Dogs

HorseSense and Nonsense

2006-05-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

I'm linking to this teacher blog led by Andy Hilbert. His post on musical cues caught my attention.

Freedom = Corporate domination

2006-05-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

Since I've always wondered what W really means when he talks about spreading freedom, I was struck by this clarification over at Alternet.

When George W. Bush says that he wants to spread freedom to every corner of the earth, he means it.

But of course the president that turned Soviet-era gulags into secret CIA prisons in order to do God-knows-what to God-knows-whom isn't talking about individual freedom. He means corporate freedom -- freedom for the great multinationals to extract everything they can from the world's resources and labor without the hindrance of public interest laws, environmental regulations or worker protections.

Alternet interviews author Juhasz who has written a nifty book called The Bush Agenda. I must get this book.

Antonia Juhasz: The Bush administration has implemented a particularly radical model of corporate globalization by which it has teamed overt military might -- full-scale invasion -- with the advancement of its corporate globalization agenda. And this model is particularly imperial -- that's one of the things that makes it different from, for example, the Reagan or Bush Sr. regimes. As opposed to simply replacing the head of a regime that is no longer serving the interests of the administration, the Bush team has gone further -- using a military invasion to fundamentally transform a country's political and economic structure.

And this is true regarding every single US domestic policy as well, except we didn't need a military invasion to pull this off. We've been invaded in different ways. I'll bring up public education.

In every state, the bulk of our tax money goes to fund public education though in most states, especially California, it's not sufficient to do a good enough job. NCLB, a federal legislation, will help divert a chunk of previously untapped state tax money into corporate hands. No wonder the WSJ is so pleased with this new industry sector. And I guess one could view this is as a bipartisan effort as well if you consider the Koch-funded DLC's cheerleading efforts regarding NCLB.

CA: PPIC education survey leaves out asking about NCLB

2006-05-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Stayed up late last night to go through the pdf of the latest PPIC education poll. Why? Cuz I don't always trust the report summaries nor the media articles.

Couple things pop out at me:
1. Californians aren't happy with the quality of public education in CA, more so in the last few years. Interesting but no direct mentions of NCLB, that revolutionary legislation designed to permanently alter public education. So it's really hard to say why Californians are unhappy with public ed because the way PPIC wrote the questions, you can't tell whether NCLB is a factor. Note: there are indirect mentions of NCLB policy, which is not quite the same thing.

Another interesting result: Californians don't believe the quality of education has improved in the last few years. Again, no mention of NCLB in the PPIC report or in the questions. It's almost as if PPIC has a blind spot when it comes to NCLB.

2. Californians believe more money will help the schools but don't want to spend more of their own money on public education, at least from property taxes and sales taxes (though there is more willingness to tax the wealthiest Californians).

I think this reveals a really interesting disconnect. I think it partially stems from a very basic lack of information. Most parents I meet don't know much about how public education is financed, where the money comes from (we have quite a bit of funding coming to us locally), which programs are financed by the schools (we have many financed by the PTA). This is not surprising and understandable: it's not that easy to access this info and, besides, no one puts out this info with clarity. In the meantime, it seems the conservative propaganda machine does put their message out with clarity (as well as being not easily identifiable as a conservative agenda meme): teachers make too much money, we need better quality teachers, charter schools are better, schools are inefficient with their money, teachers' unions are bad. End result: in general, there is a lack of trust when it comes to funding and public schools.

3. Californians think art and music is an important as part of the public school curriculum. Again, here's where NCLB is making an impact but no questions asked.

Summary of results over at the PPIC site and by the Los Angeles Times.

How to read a survey

2006-05-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the things I look for when I look at a survey/study/poll:

*I read the wording of the questions: are they leading questions?
*I look at the answer stems: are they adequate and cover most possibilities?
*I look for gaps: what helpful topics and questions were omitted?
*I look for an analysis of study limitations. I'm always astonished to find that many times, a public survey report does not include the limitations of the study, a requirement in academia.
*How was the polling conducted? Does it seem reasonably fair? What was the sample size? What were the demographics? Did they look at ethnicity/party affiliation/socio-economic status? Did they offer non English versions?
*Finally, does the report summary/press release match with my sense of the report findings? Any significant or interesting findings omitted?

May 1 Boycotts

2006-04-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

A compilation at Politics in the Zeros.

Check this site for events in your general area.

True honor, indeed

2006-04-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

He's one fearless dude.

Here's Steven Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Wonder whether the AP guy who invited him is in trouble.

Transcript from a dkos diarist.

UPDATE: the videos are no longer on Youtube.

You can see it on CSPAN, search for White House Correspondents Dinner.

And ditto for education

2006-04-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

I like this quote by Avedon Carol, at her site the Sideshow:

Government is a means by which our money is collected and handed over to corporations and cronies.

She's discussing a Broder article but her quote applies well to what's going on with public education.

And as you all know, Wall Street has been really excited about this new growth opportunity gifted to them via NCLB. Contractors profit, even though in many school districts, there's not enough funding for basic education. Of course, you all know W's family and friends have got a nice in to this boondoggle.

An aside, I know people wouldn't agree with me but I'm beginning to think this channelling of our tax money into corporate coffers is the true agenda behind the Norquist 'shrink the government' soundbite. I'm not sure he truly wants to shrink it, as long as the money flows into the 'right' places.

But it does sound good to those who are uninformed and angry. He gets to blame the government as the bad guy, since it's always good policy to have a villain to blame. In the meantime, the government doesn't really seem to shrink, does it, under the Norquist Republicans.

Save the internet

2006-04-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

Amplifying the online chorus to keep internet access free and unfettered.

Please check this map of the House Energy and Commerce committee to find out where your representative stands.

Phone numbers via this site. Call before the Wednesday vote.

Net neutrality online video
Taylor Marsh
Matt Stoller
FAQ, Save the Internet
dkos diary, Internet Freedom Can Be Saved
Sign the Petition and then pass it on

From Save the Internet

Congress is now considering a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act. The primary bill in the House is called the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006" and is sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), Rep Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Rep. Charles Pickering (R-Miss.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.).

The current version of the COPE Act includes watered-down net neutrality provisions that are essentially meaningless. An amendment offered in a key subcommittee by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which would have instituted real net neutrality requirements, was defeated after intense industry lobbying against it.

Projections: they work cuz they feel good

2006-04-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've written about projections in more detail here but one quick definition is this: when the kettle calls the pot black.

Why I think projections are effective:
1) at it's simplest, a projection is the act of blaming, which works for people who generally trust the authority figure who is doing the blaming. It works because that authority figure is being idealized. Who wants to mess with one's idealization no matter how irrational it is?

2) if you generally accept the ideology of the authority figure, criticism is just too painful of a thing to do to your favorite authority figure. This would be the equivalent of questioning and criticizing your own self, which is something most people would rather not do. I bet most people would rather drink, eat, or indulge in some other favorite obsession, anything, rather than question or criticize one's own beliefs.

3) Even more important, I think it makes people feel good to see the projection externalized in an object, especially when this object is painted as a bad no-good varmint.

Recent examples of projection:
Hewitt on the democratic party's black soul (per digby):

Here we have alleged liberal Joe Klein being confronted by alleged human Hugh Hewitt with a comment that the Democratic Party's [black]"soul" was on display when it argued that illegal ballots cast after election day shouldn't be counted (for good reason, as it turned out.) Does Joe Klein argue that the the Republicans staged fake uprisings and attempted to get the Cuban community to rise up (among many other things) thus showing that using the Florida debacle as an illustration of the "soul" of a party wasn't really a smart thing to do? No. Does he point out that the Republican party has a funny way of showing its "soul" when it supports torture? No. Does he laugh in Hugh Hewitt's supercilious face? Of course not.

Hitchens describing Joe Wilson as clueless ( as translated by Larry Johnson over at Booman):

In his latest diatribe, Christopher Hitchens declares Joe Wilson clueless and then proceeds to demonstrate that he is the one floundering in fantasy land and devoid of clear reason. Maybe this is a consequence of sleep deprivation (lack of sleep can have deleterious effects on one's mental acuity). I cannot explain his addled ways, but look at what Hitchens writes and you will agree, the man is clueless.

(via Karena) A Rumsfeld/Limbaugh duet with the talking point that the media is terrorist-influenced, as analyzed by ThinkProgress:

So, according to Rumsfeld, the media isn’t just failing to report the “good news” from Iraq, it is being actively manipulated by terrorists. Those that are critical of the war are simply buying into the propaganda.

The only way to circumvent the terrorist-influenced U.S. media, apparently, is to listen to Rush Limbaugh.

I'm not sure what would be the best antidote against projection. I'm glad bloggers are filling a media vacuum by pointing out projections, and say, look, here are the facts. When you shine a strong light on a thug, you know it's not a pretty sight.

AP channelling Armstrong Williams this week

2006-04-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

My title but a more complete story is pulled together over at Schools Matter.

FYI: This week, we had a barrage of NCLB talking points coming out of AP. (I've caught several: this, this, and this). Unfortunately, ya gotta read these journalistissimmo education pieces with great caution, perhaps preferably with a glass of vino, especially the ones coughed up by the AP education covey led by Ben Feller. Remember not to bang the keyboards too hard with your head.

NCLB =Contractors profit

2006-04-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

So here's still another article on how NCLB diverts the previously untapped public education money flow into the hands of contractors. This one contains a few fun quotes.

Meantime, education companies say there is nothing wrong with being opportunistic.

"The belief around the whole industry is, yes, we know we want to make money," Subrizi said. "But we believe we're in a worthy cause."

Here's another fantastic quote from a contractor, warning that you better get it quick before the gravy train runs out:

"We know that George W. has only got a couple of years left," Stimolo said. "Then what happens? Is that the end of No Child Left Behind? Did we spend all that money for nothing? That's the uncertainty we're dealing with."

Dang, I do feel sorry for this poor Stimolo guy, worrying about W leaving office and wondering about uncertainty over the future. What will happen to all that money if NCLB ends?

I remember one memorable moment watching the former Governor Jesse Ventura lecturing to his audience what to do if you don't understand what's going on: Follow the money. I don't usually watch TV and I'm not a Ventura fan but his message really stuck in my brain. I think he's right in this case.

Follow the money, folks.

AP sets it up for Spellings to come in and save the day

2006-04-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

The AP 'loophole' article, which I wrote about yesterday, played in the hands of Spellings comes out looking like this today:

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is pledging to scrutinize a loophole that allows states to exclude nearly 2 million student test scores under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Oh boy. More heroic Spellings here.

"Do we need to move forward to include more and more children all the time? Yes, we do. I think you'll see we're going to continue to look at that issue," she said.

I have a question. Does anyone remember Armstrong Williams?

And more weirdness in the AP article.

_The law has been a boon for educational consultants, teachers and service companies. One estimate puts the burgeoning industry's revenues as high as $22 billion annually.

I don't know why I keep imagining obediant dogs with wildly wagging tails, asking Spellings "Did we do good?".

On NCLB: AP outraged in all the wrong places

2006-04-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

AP sure knows how to tap into NCLB outrage alright but it's outrage in all the wrong places.

I think this is a seriously covert article pushing an agenda, and, hint, it's not the progressive one, folks. If you don't question their premise, boy, it's easy to fall for their propaganda.

And, look, even Alternet takes the bait, hook, line and sinker.

o AP is just plain twisted to call this a 'loophole'.

What they are describing is not a loophole. The hinted AP solution, to count all the scores in a subgroup regardless of subgroup size, would sink public school education even faster than before.

Scores of kids are placed into subgroups at a school, subgroups such as ethnicity, social-economic class (SES), English as a second language (ELL). If the subgroup size is less than a certain number of kids (this depends on what the state decides and varies from too extreme at both ends), then the scores for that subgroup are not counted. This is actually quite important statistically and for meeting the bar for AYP. If you don't have enough kids in the subgroup, then the subgroup scores are not used in figuring AYP.

The consequences are huge. If your school collectively doesn't meet AYP, then your school is placed on the 'to-be dismantled' list. If you change the law and count all the kids within the subgroup regardless of how few kids there are in that subgroup, it's likely you'll accelerate the dismantling process.

o AP blames the states and educators for this 'problem'.

NCLB is the problem, not the states. Is this part of the latest Department of Education attempt to change NCLB so that it sinks public schools faster than before?

"Is it too many? You bet," Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in an interview. "Are there things we need to do to look at that, batten down the hatches, make sure those kids are part of the system? You bet."

o AP needs to question the validity of the basic tools used in NCLB: testing and 'standards'. Why are the kids being tested up the wazoo? Is all this testing really giving us better education? Are the 'high' standards truly indicative of good education?

o AP uses race to distort. There's something really wrong with what AP does here:

"It's terrible," said Michael Oshinaya, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in New York City who was among a group of black students whose scores weren't broken out as a racial category. "We're part of America. We make up America, too. We should be counted as part of America."

No, Michael! Your test scores actually are being counted, dear. It's just that you might not want to be part of the NCLB borg machinery.

The test scores of the little girl, Laquanya, in the AP article are also getting counted, along with the scores of her white classmate who sits next to her.

My sense is that people are genuinely outraged about NCLB but I don't like the way AP is messing with our outrage. Maybe that's the point. I don't know.

I'd love to see genuinely honest education articles. But since NCLB contains such an amazing corporate agenda, I'm thinking it's difficult for anyone in the mainstream press to write about the truth of NCLB. This means we're on our own when it comes to education articles.

I want to see our progressive groups and thinktanks to take on public education and NCLB. We need to aggressively counter things such as these AP talking points, obviously coming from the Department of Education. Else, we see things such as the Alternet blogger, who I'm sure means well, but ends up unknowingly pushing an agenda and talking points bound to hurt us.

My Koufax nomination for next year

2006-04-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Came back from Yosemite to find my next year's Koufax nomination for Most Humorous post. Oh, I could relate to the piles of laundry since I have a few piles sitting here at home. Here in this household, that's the surefire sign that gives me away.

NCLB: Increased segregation?

2006-04-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

AP does a better job in this piece on NCLB.

Another unintended solution, experts say, is for schools to become less diverse.

"The really rich and ritzy suburbs that don't participate in any form of integration, that turn their backs on all efforts to admit minority kids or low-income kids into their first-rate public schools, those districts aren't going to suffer at all," said Jonathan Kozol, an educator and author of several acclaimed books on race and education.

"They're going to be rewarded for their selfishness. They're going to be rewarded for their racial insularity because they're not admitting any kids who are at any academic risk. They're not admitting any kids who had been previously studying, for perhaps the first six years of school, in a rotten, overcrowded school."

My opinion, as I've written before: NCLB is revolutionary piece of structural legislation, designed to (very) quietly install a form of corporate 'school choice', which will, yes, quite likely result in increased segregation.

NCLB is a whole bunch of other stuff as well. But the gist of it is that it's designed to satisfy a bipartisan corporate agenda, which is all about diverting a huge flow of public money into corporate coffers. This is about corporate interest trumping public interest. And once again, a reminder that this comes from the corporate side of the Democratic party as well. Not surprisingly, the DLC is a major cheerleader in support of NCLB, as I've written before.

On the other hand, I'm not happy with this misleading AP hit piece which highlights outrage at NCLB in all the wrong places. Hope to write about it later.

Back

2006-04-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

Spring break isn't a real spring break without a trip out of town. This year, it was a brief weekend trek to Yosemite. Yes, I did drag my faithful laptop with me though it never got any use since I could get wireless only in odd locations here and there on the valley floor. I had no desire to tromp around in freezing rain at night with my laptop to find those locations.

Didn't miss my cell phone much either which had absolutely no reception anywhere. That was fine with me as well.

I did discover, to my dismay, that the hiking/camping gene, both present in me and the husband, skipped a generation with our child. After one moment at the majestic Ahwahnee Hotel, the kid wouldn't go anywhere else. No hiking, no strolls, nothing. It was too cold and too wet and boring. No need to venture out of the room except to run around with the other kids on the Easter egg hunt on the Ahwahnee lawns and to eat in the magnificent dining room.

For me, when I'm in Yosemite, I feel I'm home. And as soon as I leave the valley, I begin missing Yosemite with a strange twisted feeling in my heart. It's a feeling of loss, that it'll be too long before I can come home again.

This year, there was still snow on the sides of the valley walls, highlighting the wet black walls of stone rising around us. Wisps of clouds were trapped in the trees and crevasses of the rocks up above. The waterfalls were full. Since it rained every day, we missed seeing the valley lit silver by the full moon at night. That's okay. There were plenty of other vistas to fill up on.

Map of the corporate 'centrists'

2006-04-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

I was taken with this graph mapping power, influence, and consumption, posted at Dave Pollard's consistently thought-provoking site, How To Save the World.

Note where Pollard has placed the corporatists, the political and business elite. Hah. Very illuminating. Perhaps that's why this interest group, in both parties, would like us to misidentify them as 'centrists'. After all, they are smack dab in the center of that big circle. Unfortunately, I think it's true they do occupy the center, in terms of power and influence, but let's be clear their policies and agenda are far from centrist.

Btw, Pollard's post takes on a deeper agenda than mine so be sure to read it.

Lately I've been loathe to use terms such as conservative, right-wing and Republican. I'm beginning to think these are immeasurably inadequate labels when identifying the pernicious corporate interests currently in power. I've tried to come up with something in the past: corporate tribal clan, the corpora-Republican tribe, as well as other permutations. I haven't quite figured out just what would be a better name for this extremely powerful interest group.

This powerful set of corporate special interests are also deeply embedded within the Democratic party as well, another reason why the terms conservative and Republican don't quite work for me. In particular, you know I'm singling out the DLC.

The DLC was founded with Koch money, the same money funding the Cato and Reason Foundation type thinktanks of the world. Not surprisingly to me, the DLC still represents those interest groups. Despite kos' assertions recently that the DLC influence is on the decline, I think it's important to point out once more that their education policies are doing quite nicely, thank you, in the program that we all know as NCLB.

Visit:
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=250623&kaid=103&subid=110
and
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=110&subid=136&contentid=252307

Chris Clarke on education

2006-04-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

via Roxanne

If you don't already, then now is certainly a good moment to begin visiting Chris Clarke, one of our most eloquent writers on the internets, my opinion. This time, he writes about his wife, a public school teacher, and her angst over how NCLB affects day to day moments in teaching.

Geezer blogging

2006-04-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

My geezer life. I miss salt, and I miss coffee. I miss coffee most of all. I miss the smell of it brewing. I miss the quiet way it seeps into my brain and somehow whacks it awake. I miss staying up late at night. I've been a night owl my whole life, and aided with (my 10 cups daily of) coffee, I used to get a lot of things done, especially at night.

Blogging has suffered because I can't seem to write while it's light outside. Odd to have a hangup revealed: this feeling of sinfulness and sloathfulness about being on the computer blogging when I could be running around getting something else done.

Now that I'm sans coffee and taking two blood pressure meds, I simply cannot stay awake any more at night. Yes, it's nice my blood pressure has dropped, finally, from 230/130 to a reasonable 120/70. But this sleeping thing is newly weird. I'm in bed snoring by 9:30 PM. I realize my night life has fled with my youth.

Over at Juanita's

2006-04-04T19:24:00.000-07:00

She hails from Sugarland with just about the best if not the most irreverent observations on DeLay. So I had to check out what Juanita had to say about the most recent developments.

My prediction is that Tom will continue in his present life-calling and become a teevee evangelist. It's just like being a Congressman: the hours are good, you can have girlfriends on the side as long as you don't get caught, you can get stoopid people to give you lotsa money, it helps if your wife cries a lot and can make "Jesus" a three-syllable word, and you get to wear fancy clothes. He'll hardly know the difference.

Hope she never closes her beauty shop.

PS Don't miss one of the highlights of her site, her email.

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times

2006-04-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

For putting the horrific consequences of war, meaning heart-rending graphic photos of injured American soldiers, on the front page. Happened Sunday and Monday, and it might even happen one more time tomorrow.

I'm not a LAT fan, I'm not always happy with their work, but they deserve notice for posting the photos on the front page. The odd thing is that those photos aren't even displayed on their online site.

Here's the story:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three will be available online Tuesday

School choice = Increased segregation?

2006-04-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

Getting back to this Guardian piece on the relationship between social class and how kids do in school (blogged here), I was struck by this warning regarding the connection between school choice and segregation.

Webber and Butler warn that introducing further freedoms for schools, as the government is, may allow middle-class parents and schools to choose each other, leaving those from poorer backgrounds stranded in an increasingly segregated system.

Here lies still another reason why I haven't been a fan of charter schools nor of the whole school choice concept, a standard wishlist mantra of the corporate tribal clan now in power.

Check out these anecdotal experiences by this teacher at The Trenches of how a KIPP school (a charter school system) affects the other schools. Very simply, the top kids get skimmed off to KIPP, leaving the rest behind. What a concept.

NCLB quietly institutionalizes school choice, using testing and 'standards' as tools to instigate change. In Maryland, we're now starting to see the very first schools going through the process ending in takeover.

Apparently this isn't enough to satisfy the tribal clan in power. To get the full flavor, you can visit this page at Townhall.

The demand is to make school choice the centerpiece of NCLB. My take: it is already the centerpiece, just cleverly hidden.

Solutions? I'd like to see our progressive people and thinktanks take a much stronger stance on NCLB: major legislative change, education/advocacy so that people know what NCLB is really about, and, most of all, leadership. At the very least, it's time to dump the tired and weak mantra of 'full funding', really the equivalent of feeding the beast.

Psychological projection as propaganda: another example by the media

2006-04-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Now that I've written about the use of projection as a propaganda tool, I'm trying to bookmark any good examples I stumble across.

Here's a good one found by Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher, who points out the hypocrisy of Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. It's not just hypocrisy; what Mitchell points out is a nice example of this type of projection:

it is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings—basically parts of oneself—onto someone else (usually another person, but psychological projection onto animals and inanimate objects also occurs). The principle of projection is well-established in psychology.

As I've written earlier, I think that in politics, this is a deliberate act, to point the attention away from self, one more manifestation of the big lie (as pointed out by Shaula and eRobin in the comments).

In this case, Mitchell wants to know why Cohen finds it so easy to declare how wrong the current Administration was about the whole Iraq war when once upon a time, Cohen parroted the talking points of the current Administration about going into war. Mitchell believes an apology or acknowledgement would be appropriate.

One more thing: Cohen not only uses projection here but he's also flipflopping. Let's hope Cohen was not one of the many who accused Kerry of flipflopping. Of course, if that were true (I did a quick Google but nothing), it would be another post and another example of projection.

Poverty, trauma, and stress, oh my

2006-04-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

SEED Magazine

In 1989, no one would have dared to imagine that the environment we live in can profoundly influence the actual structure of our brain, or that childhood stress might have permanent neurological effects.

So what about chronic stress, poverty, trauma? How do these factors affect your child's developing brain?

These questions and more are explored in a fascinating magazine article I've read a few weeks ago. Though it's mostly about the pioneering work of Elizabeth Gould, a Princeton scientist illuminating the intricacies of neurogenesis in marmosets, it was the elusive implications of her work and others in her field which fired up my brain cells.

For instance, political implications. No doubt poverty is hugely stressful: how does the chronic stress of living in poverty affect a child's developing brain, even your adult brain?

Could this be why some people are so much more vulnerable to PTSD, especially if they had been exposed to trauma and/or stress in childhood?

Adding a few of my own editorial comments, what about the stressors of this new NCLB world on our kids, for instance, of chronic testing, and of the gradual march to a more impoverished curriculum due to NCLB edupolicy pressures, as noted in the recent Center for Education Policy report.

If NCLB provides a more stressful (and thus a more brain toxic) environment for our kids, does the NCLB eduworld really help our kids in school overall? If we see improvements in test scores, at what cost are we getting these so-called improvements? I'm keeping my eye out for solutions beyond the usual 'let's fully fund NCLB' mantra though there's been none I've seen on the horizon. (However, btw, I must add Chuck Pennachio running for Senate in PA is one of the few who really gets NCLB and isn't afraid to talk about his stance).

Back to the article: lots of new stuff, at least for me. For instance: intrigued about the Prozac and trophic factor connection. Certainly a minor paradigmatic change in thinking about Prozac: it somehow increase productions of trophic factors, which in turn increases in neurogenesis. Whoa. Now that's something but please don't let a policy wonk suggest we give Prozac to help kids increase the brain cells destroyed by the stress of chronic testing.

Blood pressure ballet blogging

2006-03-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

Last December, during the routine gyno visit, I found I had the blood pressure of someone on the verge of keeling over and dying dramatically from a heart attack or stroke. My wakeup call.

Since that time, I've been busy. I follow a low-salt diet, choke down buckets of horsepill sized vitamins, record my BP(blood pressure) compulsively, and religiously take my BP meds. I even gave up my daily (10 cups of) coffee. However, since I've complained so bitterly to my MD about the med side-effects, I have a sneaking suspicion he made sure to stop the whining, at least to him, since he asked me to call him back in six months. No sooner. Ouch. So I whine to friends though I'll really be hurt if they ask me to call back in six months too.

Since I was initially told not to locomote faster than a slow walk, I was more than eager to leave behind my exercise-free life all in my quest to lower to my BP meds. Paradoxical intervention or not, I've gotten off my butt.

And so what did I do with myself? I followed this inexplicable urge to propel my BP challenged body into ballet classes, mind you, with no previous ballet experiences whatsoever. Don't know where the urge comes from but at times it feels as though it's been a case of following my bliss off that cliff.

Intimidated at first but I found that the instructor traditionally ignores the brand new ones. I tell myself it must be out of courtesy as we, the naive novices, courageously flail away self-consciously out of control. Ballet, at my level, is all about control over body parts after having been out of conscious mind for a long time: suck that belly in, tuck that butt in like you're getting a shot, and, dammit, relax those shoulders, all the while trying to keep up with the rest of the class doing whatever en croix.

I know I've finally progressed when the teacher no longer averts her eyes as she passes by. I now get whispered comments such as "ummm, darling, you're on the wrong foot", or "dear, you've got to elevate a bit more". Normally, this would make my cheeks turn red with embarrassment but I've observed attention is a compliment in ballet class, or so I mutter to myself.

Progress has come with drawbacks. The other day, a teacher grabbed my knee while I was in a hugely painful stretch, pushing the stretch even more. Except I'm far from limber unlike the others in the class who make it look so easy, and I do believe I heard my knee scream an obscenity.

Next class, I felt something tear in the back of the very same knee while doing my nonlimber version of the splits. The most recent insult: while doing jumps, the entire back of the leg with the messed up knee completely seized. I limped away, off the floor, defeated by the geriatric march of time on my body. At this point, everyone politely averted their eyes.

One class, taught by an incredible instructor 80 plus years in age, left me wilted for days. As my husband observed, this 80 plus year old woman kicked my butt.

Even though I'm sans turnout, sans flexibility, and sans sound knee, I'm still dragging my body to class. Perhaps this is a second chance or even more likely, my midlife crisis. Who cares. I just pray each time my bod would keep it together a little bit longer.

Breathtaking

2006-03-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

At the very least, 500,000 marching in LA.

Best blog roundup so far: at Calitics. Calitics is a daily must-read for me now that it features CA blog roundups.

I also recommend this post at Educational Justice, which features the work of the Immigration Solidarity Network.

CA: When Schwarzenegger focuses on education, read the fine print

2006-03-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

Just like BushCo, whenever our Governor focuses on something, there's a catch. Now that Schwarzenegger has decided to be public education's best friend, I don't buy it.

LATimes

For the governor, who has no major opponent in the Republican primary, the turn to education appears aimed partly at minimizing his eventual challenger's presumed edge on an issue that typically favors Democrats.

"If you assume that the public employee unions are going to come after him this year as hard as they went after him last year, it's going to be very tough for Schwarzenegger to win on the education issue," said Republican strategist Dan Schnur, who does not work for the governor. "But by spending time and energy talking about education, he can turn it into something more neutral."

It can be neutralizing, especially when the photo-ops and headlines make it seem he's truly and sincerely interested in public education.

However, I've noticed when Schwarzenegger focuses on education, there's usually a careful focus on (charter) school achievement (they are so wonderful) and the need to build more (charter) schools. Of course, this detail doesn't get into the headlines of the major articles.

Let me dream and suggest the media provide some real balanced reporting: show his real education record. From a local editorialist (mind you, I haven't always agreed with this guy):

What, actually, has Arnold done over the last two years? First, he presided over adoption of a budget that deliberately deprived public schools of money they were entitled to, promising to repay it the next year.
...snip...
Second, he used bonds to balance the state budget with borrowed money. And third, he ran four hugely unsuccessful ballot initiative campaigns aiming to reduce the influence of labor unions, make life more difficult for young schoolteachers and halt automatic increases in most state spending. At the same time, his current budget calls for automatic hikes in funding for his own office staff, now almost near $20 million.

I think the Governor has a sorry education record to stand on. Maybe he's hoping we'd forget and forgive but I'm not going to, especially when he's now quietly pushing (charter) schools.

Still another study: class matters

2006-03-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

From the Guardian:

A study by academics at University College London (UCL) and Kings College London has given statistical backbone to the view that the overwhelming factor in how well children do is not what type of school they attend- but social class.

Pray they don't get duped into the BushCo/DLC solution: NCLB.

If poverty is a major reason why kids do poorly in school (really a duh moment), then it seems a policy based on testing and high expectations is startlingly disconnected from reality. How does testing and expectations help kids in poverty excel in school? Living wages seem to be a more direct solution.

Getting back to disconnects, I think that strange startling disconnects are a signatory hallmark of not only BushCo policy but also of their secret corporate political stepchild, the DLC.

More on poverty and kids in schools in this piece by David Berliner.

Why were so many of us so easily fooled?

2006-03-21T23:46:00.000-08:00

Here I'm echoing Cyndy at mousemusings who points out this gem of an article penned by Howard Zinn titled "America's Blinders".

I always find asking "why" a horribly difficult question with no easy answers especially when it comes to explaining human behavior. So I appreciate that Zinn pinpoints these two dynamics inherent to our current collective American psyche: 1) the lack of historical perspective and 2) a stark moral superiority.

This is required reading, my opinion. The solution? Historian Zinn wants us all to know our history.

One vital point: he reminds us to view how conflicts in American history are based on class issues. This perspective is illuminating, especially in understanding why the American public easily gets duped into doing things not in our best interest. This is about getting fooled by our collective lack of awareness and pride.

We're not going to get any support from the powers-that-be nor from our established institutions to get this information out to the public. I'd love to see progressive organizations put an exerted effort into awareness of American history, from the lens given to us by Zinn. More education and advocacy, please!

Once upon a projection

2006-03-18T16:21:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking how much the corporate-Republican tribe uses projection as a key attack strategy.

But first, to clarify, I'm referring to projection as the psychological defense mechanism, as defined below.

Check it out at wikipedia:

it is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings—basically parts of oneself—onto someone else (usually another person, but psychological projection onto animals and inanimate objects also occurs). The principle of projection is well-established in psychology.

As used by the corporo-Republican tribe, this has morphed into a deliberately nasty switch-and-bait process to screw with your mind. Not surprising. I think projection is just one of many mindbending ruses common in families unable to cope with secrets such as untreated alcoholism. In many ways, I'm struck by how much the Republican tribe is like a such a family but here I'm getting off the topic.

Back to projection: I know you all know it, and we all could dig up truckloads of egregious examples. But here's a few recent ones rolling around in the media:

o O'Reilly uses projection like candy, scroll down to the paragraph on cowards here on Mediamatters.

o Here, Limbaugh questions the patriotism of the left, from Mediamatters.

o Gingrich projecting onto the Dems what the Repubs do (that would be: putting politics first).

o An older example: O'Reilly's coward list from Mediamatters.

Why does projection work? To be sure, a lot more can be said on this but it works well because we have unfortunately become a nation of nice passive sheep, untrained in the ability to critically analyze and think. Most Americans are simply not in the habit of questioning process , the understanding and analysis of meta. I know the bloggers who rock are the ones who routinely identify the process, the larger picture of what's going on, not just the content. But two whom I consider exceptional, however, are Digby and paperwight.

But more to the point of why projection works: one singular problem has been our lack of response when the target, that'll be our side, is attacked.

Today I'm happy to see this good response by Barbara Ehrenreich , of the Nickle and Dimed fame, now under attack by Dobson et al,labelled as a "homewrecker".

Barbara doesn't miss a beat. She niftily pinpoints the projection and blasts back, countering that the real homewreckers are corporations whose policies don't provide adequate wages, requiring workers to work long hours and/or work two jobs or more.

What she does works well. My hope: let there be tons more responses like Barbara's out there.

CA: Remember, nastiness and partisanship is a Norquist goal

2006-03-18T03:51:00.000-08:00

Another key Norquist quote to keep in mind when viewing Sacramento politics:

"We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship," said Grover Norquist, a leading Republican strategist, who heads a group called Americans for Tax Reform.

Denver Post

Indeed, this is where we are at in Sacramento, as the Cato-influenced Dan Walters of the SacBee noted recently in his column, echoing the "broken" meme heard over and over again.

But of course Walters wouldn't probably point out that making life difficult in the state capitol is actually a Norquist goal. The corporate Norquist agenda has, in fact, laid the groundwork for this dynamic, as I have written before.

To simplify, I'm noting these contributing Norquist goals we have in CA:
o Term limits
o Supermajority vote for tax increases
o The No-Taxes Norquist Pledge in Republican legislators

We can't afford to buy into the blaming I hear from corporatist voices such as Dan Walters. The reality is that this type of blaming inevitably obscures some of the structural reasons for our state legislative mess.

The unfortunate thing is that the public loses out, which is the whole point of the corporate Norquist agenda.

CA: Bersin confirmation hits a snag

2006-03-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

Alan Bersin is a Schwarzenegger appointee, replacing former LA mayor, Richard Riordan, as CA's Education Secretary, whatever that position is since CA already has an elected CA state Superintendent position. Remember Riordan went down in flames after making an inappropriate comment to a little girl.

I've written about Bersin before. Formerly the San Diego superintendent, he came to Sacramento trailing clouds of controversy. More recently, he addressed the state Republican convention for Schwarzenegger AND came out in support of the infamous Proposition 76, the one which would have seriously hurt public school funding.

Now that he's up for a formal confirmation (what took so long?), it's not surprising some of the San Diego dirt has followed him.

SacBee (sorry, registration req'd) has the article. The issue in question is how he spent money from a foundation associated with the school district. Most interesting is where the money comes from and what he used it on:

The foundation collected money for the fund through private donations from groups such as the Walton Family Foundation, Wells Fargo and the J. Dallas & Mary H. Clark Fund.
Bersin often used the fund to reimburse his travel and entertainment expenses so the district wouldn't have to. The San Diego school board was not involved in the fund's creation and did not have oversight over its spending. That led school board members to question the foundation's activities.
Bersin spent $574,733 through the fund during his tenure, according to the report. The report calls into question about $44,871 of that, including: $471 to attend President Bush's inauguration; $160 for the Union of Pan Asian Communities annual fundraiser dinner; and $500 to Nice Guys Inc. of San Diego for an advertisement in a program booklet at an awards ceremony.

Legally, I suppose he's clear to do what he wants to with the money since the school board had no jurisdiction over it. Still, I think Bersin's activities suggest he could easily be beholden to corporate special interests.

I don't think we need another corporate special interest guy in Sacramento, especially one involved with our public schools.

Which is the truer measure of progress?

2006-03-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here's an insightful piece about Joe Thomas' class. Joe blogs at Shut Up and Teach.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” That line from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” could have been a description for Joe Thomas’ sophomore class at Mesa Vista High School last week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, his students labored through AIMS testing. “A lot of my students won’t do well on it,” Thomas acknowledges.

On Thursday, his students went to Whitman Elementary School to read to kids as part of the “Read Across America” program conducted in elementary schools all across the nation.

Which is the truer measure of progress?

Good question.

Joe's post

Source: East Valley Tribune

Friday chocolate blogging

2006-03-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

Here I was lusting for chocolate from afar because of my high blood pressure.

From Yahoo news:

Chocolate Linked to Low Blood Pressure...A study of older men in The Netherlands, known for its luscious chocolate, indicated those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death.

A quick look at the abstract popped my little chocolate covered bubble. While those who consume chocolate have lower BPs, the numbers aren't that much lower: 3.7 mm diastolic and 2.1 mm systolic. Oh darn, I was hoping for a medicinal effect.

It looks as though participants were screened to include only those who don't take blood pressure meds. Even worse, these men consumed the equivalent of a 1/3 of a bar of chocolate. Jeez, who eats only 1/3 of a bar by the way? Not only that, the researchers decline to generalize these findings towards women. Which leads me to wonder: when will women be studied? There's a somewhat equivalent question to that one in the blogosphere, btw.

Still, I'm happy to see a study showing (that in elderly men who don't take blood pressure medication) chocolate (and only 1/3 of a bar of chocolate at that) consumption is linked to lower blood pressure (by a few mm, diastolic and systolic).

This blog supports Chuck Pennacchio for Senate

2006-03-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

It's time for this blog to make a push for Chuck Pennacchio for US Senate in Pennsylvania.

Why? Just read Natalie Davis' fantastic interview with Chuck Pennacchio. He's a real-live Wellstone progressive, and he's intelligent, articulate, and well-grounded.

Here, I highlight the bit that made my heart race.

ND: Another issue - education: As you know, many, many children have been left behind in the past six years. What is your plan for dealing with education in the state of Pennsylvania?

CP: From the federal-level perspective, I would seek to overturn the No Child Left Behind legislation. Here, we should give kudos to Paul Wellstone for being the first to call the Bush Administration on using it as a ruse for dismantling public education. To this day, I see it as their intent. So, at the federal level, I would seek to overturn No Child Left Behind, an underfunded mandate that forces educators - and I'm an educator - to teach children nothing more than how to take standardized tests. It really is a sham. It's a cruel attempt to destroy our public education system, which needs more support, not legislation that enacts retribution measures against schools that don't pass or don't have enough students who pass arbitrary exams.

He's one of the few who gets NCLB.

I'm appalled he's being ignored by the dailykos pack, who are Casey people, something which baffles me to no end.

eRobin, who's probably given up on me by now, has for some time been valiantly pushing Chuck Pennacchio on her site, Factesque. Be sure to check her site daily for updates and news.

ActBlue site for Chuck Pennacchio.

Send this to your school board

2006-02-24T14:22:00.000-08:00

Peter Campbell's piece: Education companies don't share your interest

Private, for-profit companies that run public schools have a different mission from their public counterparts. The mission of public schools is to serve students, while the mission of private educational companies is to make a profit. Public schools must answer to the public. Private companies must answer to their investors.

In the middle, Campbell warns about how Wall Street has become quite interested in the 'growth opportunities' in the education sector. Chilling.

Ends with this reminder:

Schools should not be trying to reduce inefficiencies, cut costs, and maximize profits. They should be trying to educate children.

Simple and short. It's good piece to send to your school board, every single member.

Blood pressure chocolate blogging

2006-02-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

Shhh. This is a secret.

Last week, I was literally surrounded by chocolate kisses. They were everywhere: on the floor, on the couch, on the tables, on the hearth. The kid wanted to make Valentine baggies for the classmates. I happily obliged though well aware chocolate is now prohibited from my diet, least I incur wrath from the blood pressure gods. Will I succomb to temptation? No, not I. Besides, I was sick, ill with a cold. Chocolate and a bad post-nasal drip make for nasty choking coughs. Besides, the Hershey chocolate kisses aren't the best chocolate in the world.

A week later, I'm still sick, and, oooo, I see I'm just about finished with the kisses. They came from a humongo bag from Costco. Interesting enough, a couple of days ago, I found myself googling a brand new word for my ever increasing blood pressure vocabulary: tachycardia. Something about a rapid heartbeat over 100.

I think the kisses will last a few more days. At which point, I'm positive the rapid heartbeat will go away.

CA: Team Schwarzenegger and the WH connection

2006-02-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

Interesting piece on the revamped Team Schwarzenegger re-election squad. That distinctive aroma I smell comes from key staff hires who seem to be arriving directly from the White House.

My concern is this response by the Democrats, or at least by Andrew Acosta.

Democrats seem unimpressed, or at least unfazed, with the new team "It's more about what the response is, not about how fast he can get it out," says Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta, whose firm is doing some work for Westly's campaign. "The governor has been on a road tour, and PPIC shows his numbers are going down. I don't care if you hire Machiavelli or Karl Rove, at the end of the day, it's Schwarzenegger's name on the ballot."

Is this posturing? I dunno. But I think once the CA Republican posturing over putative Democrat Susan Kennedy blows over, we'll see a party unified behind their guy, the faux Republican action hero.

How charter schools destabilize the public school system

2006-02-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'm pushing this essay by Craig Gordon, posted at Peter Campbell's edublog, Transform Education.

What caught my eye: Gordon describes the dynamics involved in how charter schools impacts a public school system, something Gordon is witnessing as a teacher in Oakland.

One aspect of what I mean is that schools like Edison are technically public, yet they transfer public dollars into the hands of private investors. But the privatization effect of charters goes much further: for-profit and not-for-profit charters alike conform schools to principles of privately run enterprises, especially competition and exclusion. Charters must compete for markets (students). Charters pick and choose who attends them (and who doesn't). Competition is touted as the high virtue that makes charters "superior" (despite much evidence to the contrary), and exclusivity is a major attraction for individual parents and students. The ability to exclude is an important factor in the success of those charters that are, in fact, successful.

The need to exclude scares me, especially as a parent. It doesn't surprise me that exclusion naturally leads to inequity, the opposite of what a democratic system requires in order to thrive.

But I think it has a lot to do with eliminating the expectation of quality public education as a civil right. True, that expectation has never been fulfilled, but the process we're witnessing right now is eroding the ground beneath movements fighting to make it a reality. It destabilizes and disorients communities, it continues to reshuffle the deck, and makes the prospect of educational equality appear impractical, just as equality seems an impossible dream in every other sphere that's thoroughly privatized (e.g., health care, housing, food), just as capitalism itself makes economic equality appear unattainable.

I'm just touching on just one aspect in this post but the balance of the essay includes vital information on a new form of funding, called Reality Based Budgeting, something that seems very close to school-based social darwinism in action.

Last comment: the frame within which charter schools are sold, as providing choice, is clearly a diabolical trap desparately needing redefinition by us. I'm not sure what our response should be but pointing out the inevitable erosion of education equity might be one approach.

I know I'm short on answers and solutions, something which annoys me to no end. What I would give to see more think tank funding on real progressive education policy. Lakoff and all, where are you on this?

Teaching to the test? Please. Let's not.

2006-02-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

Once again, the whacky Washington Post education guy comes out with another amazing piece called Let's Teach to the Test (registration required).

I have said this before: test results can be quite useful when used with big ifs, meaning let's be sure to interpret test results with the proper boundaries. One difference between the whacky guy and me is that I'm aware tests are fallible and imperfect instruments of measurement.

A few very minor things to consider: Sources of error. Test validity. (does it measure what it's supposed to measure?) Test construction. Test item construction. I rarely see these considered. I can't assume tests are perfect (they never are), to be worshipped as goddess-like, meting out fair and wise assessments of education.

At the very least, I would hope the whacky Washington Post guy takes a college level test in Tests and Measurements before he goes off again on another assignment to shill for standardized testing and standards.

Mathews, the WaPo education dude, inadvertently exemplifies why we need Fairtest.

Testing watchdog to face extinction

2006-02-22T16:58:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately some really bad news for those of us who oppose the standardized testing educational-industrial-complex. Only from Winerip of the NYT:

Watchdog of Test Industry Faces Economic Extinction

For more than 20 years, FairTest, a small nonprofit group headquartered on the second floor of an old house here, has been the No. 1 critic of America's big testing companies and their standardized tests.

...snip...

A generation of education journalists, like Thomas Toch, who reported for Education Week and U.S. News & World Report, were schooled on the complexities and limitations of standardized testing by FairTest.

"They've helped me a lot," said Mr. Toch, who is now a director of Education Sector, a nonpartisan Washington policy research group.

On a slow day, like last Friday, Robert Schaeffer of FairTest handled calls from The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Lakeland Ledger, Associated Press and Hartford Courant and Bloomberg News.

So they provide a resource for education journalists for those who might want to provide a little bit of fair and balanced reportage. More reason why I'll miss Fair Test if they go under.

FairTest has a knack for catching the testing companies at their worst, sometimes by using the companies' own research.

In a recent newsletter, FairTest printed an analysis of SAT results, using, and crediting, College Board research showing the direct correlation between family income and SAT scores. For every extra $10,000 a family earns, children's combined math and verbal scores go up 12 to 31 points. So children whose parents earn $50,000 score better on average (a combined 996 SAT) than students from families who earn $40,000 (967) but worse than students from families who earn $60,000 (1014).

For politicians and testing executives bragging about how No Child's testing emphasis is closing the achievement gap, these are not promising numbers.

Not surprisingly, check out where the money is. Just alarming and sad.

FairTest has always been a David versus the testing industry. At its high point in the mid-1990's, FairTest had seven staff members and a budget of half a million dollars. Today it is down to one full-time worker, Mr. Neill; one half-time employee, Mr. Schaeffer; two phone lines; a one-room office; and a $168,000 budget.

That has not quieted them. Mr. Schaeffer pointed out after examining Educational Testing Service's most recent public disclosure forms that at least 21 E.T.S. executives make salaries larger than FairTest's entire budget, starting with Mr. Landgraf, who earned $1.07 million in 2004, and three vice presidents, who each earned over half a million.
"Those are outrageous salaries for a nonprofit," Mr. Schaeffer said.

Let's give it go. Help support Fair Test here.

Blood pressure blogging

2006-02-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

Have been ill with a cold, just a cold, something which normally doesn't wreak havoc with my life, online and elsewhere, but this one kicked my you-know-what. Haven't gone hiking. Put on hold my adult beginner ballet classes I started since I got permission to exercise. That one's okay. I'm the stiff flailing mom in the back of the room who doesn't quite fit in with the class of elegant obviously former professional dancers. (Tell me, why are they taking adult beginner ballet? Or am I missing something? Is 'adult beginner' code for 'used-to-be-pro ballet dancer alumni'?)

Back to cold blogging. Is this case of extreme fatigue related to my brand new life on blood pressure meds? Dunno. I've been frantically googling, only to find blood pressure raising evidence I'll probably be on them for-evah. Does anyone ever get off blood pressure meds? Uh. Hardly ever. The stark realization of what it means to be dependent on meds hits home for this blogger.

And I'm now on TWO meds, for at least SIX months before I can even ask my MD about tapering off them. I'm thinking he's probably postponing having to say NO to me.

My friend helpfully points out: well, he didn't say you'll be on them until you're 90. Very helpful. I'm clinging to those words.

Remember the narrative

2006-02-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

I've been following Daou recently, and, man, he has been on fire, thank goodness. Next, Daou challenges right wing blogs to 'prove it', it meaning show us examples of how our media is left-biased (specifically to this VP mess but is applicable for everything else). The myth of the left-wing biased mediahas been seeded well.

A Challenge to Rightwing Bloggers Who Blame the Media for the Cheney Mess: Prove it. One of the great absurdities of our time is the persistent notion that the traditional media skews left. Reporters buy into it, Democratic strategists and leaders buy into it, and rank and file rightwingers live by it. As I've written previously, the right controls all branches of government, talk radio is dominated by rightwing voices, there's a cable channel devoted to the rightwing perspective (and two others racing to do the same), there's a herd of rightwing pundits spewing anti-left venom across editorial pages, radio, television, the internet, etc., Bush's press conferences are cloying jokefests, and "neutral" journalists echo deep-seated pro-GOP myths.

Key, however, is how he pulls out the narrative. Examples:

Bush strong, Dems weak
Dems are "angry"
Dems policitize

Our challenge: what are our narratives? Clarity and simplicity works best.

New Advocate Weekly

2006-02-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

Time to run over to Joe's site, Shut Up and Teach, to read the latest education roundup.

This applies to our country as well

2006-02-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

If you want to know if you're making progress on the so-called spiritual path, see if you're kinder to people, see if you're a little easier on yourself. See if you obsess about all the stuff in your life a little bit less. See if you're happier in a simple way, more content. And see if you're treating people more as you would like to be treated. That means it's working.

You can't have secrets. It doesn't work. You can't have places you don't want to look at. You can't hide your shame and fear and guilt and anger. Where are you going to hide it? It's with you wherever you are. And if you don't look at it, that shadow covers you and keeps you in darkness. Even though you might feel you're not. If you're honest with yourself you'd have to say, well, there's stuff I'm not dealing with. And if you want your heart to be available--which is what we want our hearts to be--for people for relationships and for our own selves, you have to be whole

Krishna Das, from February 2006, Whole Life Times

My loopy idea: what applies to us individually applies to our nation as a whole. I came across this piece written by Krishna Das, who is an American dude who sings kirtan, very popular in some circles out here in California. I've kept distance from this phenom but what he writes really speaks to my personal growth. But it also speaks volumes about the state of our nation, if you take the bold leap of envisioning our country as a singular entity.

Sunday hike

2006-02-05T17:39:00.000-08:00

So it was a very slow hike up to a waterfall in the Santa Monica Mountains today after breakfast. Slow is the operative word because I'm way outta shape, and I'm sure everyone passed me by, even the moms trucking along with their toddler in the backpack. That's okay. I thought my hike as being more meditative, California style.

Can you tell it's been too long since I've gone hiking? I can't get over how fragrant it was out in the chaparral and in the canyon. I think it was the smells that made me smile: I remembered how a friend advised how one can find mushrooms with certainty around the California bay tree, as he started sniffing in hungry whiffs like a bloodhound. To this day, I always find bay trees by their aroma as I pass by them, and I take a big sniff of the air, in remembrance.

I also forgot how much I missed the smell of sage.

Ceanothus, the one with the blue flowers, was still in bloom but fading. Instead, I noticed Rhus ovata just beginning to exuberantly celebrate spring with fleur laden branches. Since my pace was leisurely, I'm sure I spotted more lizards than usual on the wayside, frantically doing pushups as people passed by.

Funny how lots of women were out hiking today. Oh, yes. Forgot about the football game. A little blessing, I think. The trails were simply not so crowded today.

Something new: multitasking hikers with a cellphone strapped to one ear. Oh, well. To each his own experience. Mine was fine at my new geezer speed.

Brilliant! Here's where we can funding for public schools

2006-02-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

In These Times

If the United States can find $250 billion for a failed war in Iraq and give American millionaires an average tax break of $41,574 apiece in 2006, then the most affluent country in the world can find the funds to improve its schools and workplaces.

Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, 13th district

Btw, Stark is a co-sponsor of HR 551, the "Student Privacy Protection Bill".

CA: Schwarzenegger appoints Bush loyalist to a position

2006-02-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

The centrist Dems who write the charming but non permalinked Roundup (February 1, 2006 version), the must-read politico news from Sacramento, spins it this way:

Gov. Schwarzenegger has tapped another moderate for his cabinet. The governor appointed former U.S. Senate candidate Rosario Marin to replace Fred Aguiar as Secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency.

Rosario Marin as moderate? Pah. Are these guys smokin' again?
See the New Yorker, from this piece on Rove:

Rosario Morin, who is the Treasurer of the United States, had been a loyal warrior for Bush.”

SFChron

The pro-choice moderate has already met with White House political strategist Karl Rove about a campaign against Boxer and has been talking to key Republicans about gathering support. The possibility of Marin's candidacy has excited some high-ranking GOP officials who believe she could boost President Bush's efforts to attract Latino voters.

Ooooooh, I get. She's a pro-choice Republican moderate, whatever that means in these post-Alito days, who also happens to have access to Rove. Anyways, this may keep the Republican wolves baying at Schwarzenegger's door happier for the moment.

Save the integrity of our vote

2006-01-31T06:49:00.000-08:00

From eRobin about an important amendment re: voting reform

Tomorrow, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08) will be introducing legislation initiated by the Coaltion for Voting Integrity to push back the HAVA deadline past the 2006 primary season. This is legislation that counties all over the country have been begging for. This is legislation that helps the cases of Connecticut and New York, both of which have announced that they will not be HAVA-compliant anywhere near the deadline of the 2006 primaries.

During the meetings with Fitzpatrick and his staff one thing became abundantly clear to me: if this bill is going to pass in time to make a difference, it will only be because enough citizens from around the country call their Congressional reps in the Senate and the House to say that they want it to be law. We need you to pick up the phone again today and call your Senators and your Reps and tell them that Fitzpatrick's bill to extend the HAVA deadline past the primary must pass immediately. I don't have a number for it yet, but when I do, I'll post it. It's possible that the aide won't know what you're talking about. That's okay. This is all happening very fast. If you mention HAVA and Fitzpatrick, they'll get the message.

Donate here.

The Coalition for Voting Integrity needs funds to keep doing the phenomenal work that is has been doing over the last eight months. In addition to the Fitzpatrick bill and some other legislation that is still under consideration, we have also sued the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania over inconsistent certification standards. This is a groundbreaking lawsuit that will have national implications - none other than defender of the vote, Ion Sancho, supports it. But we need funds to keep it going.

Please call your Senators today

2006-01-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

Via Booman Tribune
If you haven't already, today is the last day to call your Senators. The following filibuster link from the Million Phone March has more information:

Dear Friends and Activists

Over the weekend you generated a tsunami of phone calls supporting a filibuster of Alito. Today at 4:30 PM EST is the cloture vote on the Alito filibuster, and with your dedication we will generate two tsunamis...

...Very simply, in your calls today ask for a commitment that they will either vote against cloture OR abstain (either is acceptable). If not tell them you will encourage a challenger to run in their own state and support them any way you can. Use the details below (like cutoff date for primary candidate filing) to let them know how very serious you are.

Tell them what state you are actually calling from if they ask. Please concentrate on your own senators and the ones listed below as the key ones to sway. All the toll free numbers to the Washington offices we have are 888-355-3588, 888-818-6641, 800-426-8073, 877-851-6427, 866-340-9279 and 866-340-9281. The master list of all direct dial phone and fax numbers for all senators state by state including all district offices is here:

Phone numbers here.

CA: Norquist guy proposes to convert SD schools into charter schools

2006-01-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

Via Schools Matter (scroll to January 26, 2006).
Raw Story:

Ron Nehring, protege of conservative strategist Grover Norquist, Vice-Chairman of the California Republican Party and former colleague of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has introduced a proposal to convert all east San Diego County schools in the Grossmont Union High School District into charter schools, RAW STORY has learned.

At a hearing Jan. 19, the Grossmont school board -- of which Nehring is a member -- voted 5-0 to begin preparing a district-wide charter petition. If approved, Nehring's proposal would make Grossmont the largest charter district in California.

Some educators believe Grossmont is being used as a petri dish to test privatization of public education as part of a national GOP strategy.

Recently, I wrote about Ron Nehring, a nationally known Norquist activist who was a key figure in disseminating state-level policy designed to thwart union influence. Today, among many other things, he's also a Schwarzenegger appointee to a CA board position. I see Nehring stays true to form as he continues his Norquist agenda, this time attacking public education from his post as a school board member.

I once wrote a post about the Dominionist strategy to use school boards to change public education, found in this excellent series researched by Frederick Clarkson.

Among the top Reconstructionists in education politics is Robert Thoburn of Fairfax Christian School in Fairfax, Virginia. Thoburn advocates that Christians run for school board, while keeping their own children out of public schools. "Your goal" (once on the board), he declares, "must be to sink the ship." While not every conservative Christian who runs for school board shares this goal, those who do will, as Thoburn advises, probably keep it to themselves. Thoburn's book, The Children Trap, is a widely used sourcebook for Christian Right attacks on public education.

San Diego appears to be another Norquist testing ground, as detailed in this important must-read (pdf!) by the Center on Policy Initiatives.

This report specifically outlines how a whole confluence of organizations such as ALEC, the State Policy Network which is the interconnected set of state level think tanks disseminating conservative policy, ATR, Norquist and local politics work in coordination. It's a glimpse at how the radical right-wing excels at getting their policy out into our lives at the local level.

Spend some time reading up on the slimy dark side of conservative policy making. We don't have a chance unless we can shine some light on these matters. And at the local level, I think it's time to pay more attention to who is getting elected to local school boards since the right-wingers have figured out this is a great avenue for making a difference via huge policy shifts.

One mystery solved

2006-01-28T20:56:00.000-08:00

If you want progressive education policy leadership, the Center for American Progress has been disappointing. CAP has consistently followed the Beltway status quo tepid and timid 'let's fully fund NCLB' meme. Bleah. I haven't been able to count on CAP to be the go-to source of education leadership. Pity, because I do appreciate their leadership in other policy areas.

So why oh why has CAP's education policy leadership been so uninspiring? I've been wondering about their weak jabs at the most heinous education bills ever to come our way, the infamous NCLB.

Recently, I noticed one of the CAP education writers, Robert Gordon, just finished a subbing stint on the smug pro-charter anti-union DLC education policy site.

http://eduwonk.com
(scroll to January 25, 2006 for the announcement)

Let me remind you of these two things. 1) DLC has taken the lead in charter school development across the nation, holding sweaty hands with Republicans and conservative thinktank wonks all over the nation. I was just reminded how much the Norquist people loooove charter schools. 2). Not coincidentally, the DLC happens to be the source of the strongest support of NCLB, anywhere.

If you want an opposition party, I wouldn't count on anything coming from the DLC, especially their education policy wankery.

So why oh why is CAP such good blog friends with the DLC? In my mind, the new question is then: what is the connection between the DLC and CAP?

New education blog

2006-01-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Adding Peter Campbell's new blog to my education blogroll.

Transform Education

Text of Gore Speech

2006-01-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

At Raw Story.

It was an awesomely sobering speech, one I didn't want to hear about the Great Power Grab threatening our country's democracy. LA Times, our sorta local paper, carried a decent Ron Brownstein summary on page 8. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed the piece didn't get a bold headline on the front page.

One theme I'd like to point out was this. The biggest irony of the Great Power Grab is that in the name of safety and security, we are losing our real source of safety and security: our freedom, our civil liberties, our democracy.

Vigilant adherence to the rule of law strengthens our democracy and strengthens America. It ensures that those who govern us operate within our constitutional structure, which means that our democratic institutions play their indispensable role in shaping policy and determining the direction of our nation. It means that the people of this nation ultimately determine its course and not executive officials operating in secret without constraint.

...

Where we disagree is that we have to break the law or sacrifice our system of government to protect Americans from terrorism. In fact, doing so makes us weaker and more vulnerable.

...

Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: "Men feared witches and burnt women."

We lose our true source of safety when we give into fear and pursue security at all costs.

Gore offers steps. I'm taking this summary from a dkos diary

1. A special counsel should immediately be appointed by the Attorney General.

2. Second, new whistleblower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrongdoing.

3. Third, both Houses of Congress should hold comprehensive hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior.

4. Fourth, the extensive new powers requested by the Executive Branch in its proposal to extend and enlarge the Patriot Act should, under no circumstances be granted.

5. Fifth, any telecommunications company that has provided the government with access without a warrant...should immediately cease and desist.

I'm relieved to see Gore offered a few concrete steps, something to hold onto in these times. I'm hoping this will be enough to get us back onto the proper course.

What I'm doing Monday

2006-01-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

MLK, Jr. day and the kid is home. Activist blogger super mom eRobin plans to be out doing this. Go, girl!

I bow down to eRobin because this is the most I can do for now: I plan to watch Gore's address on Monday . The kid will see a historic moment in civil rights.

Al Gore "is expected to argue that the Bush administration has created a 'Constitutional crisis' by acting without the authorization of the Congress and the courts to spy on Americans and otherwise abuse basic liberties," adds Nichols. "His aides and allies are framing it as a 'call to arms' in defense of the Bill of Rights and the rule of law in a time of executive excess."

The vice president will, according to the groups that have arranged for his appearance -- the bipartisan Liberty Coalition and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy -- address "the threat posed by policies of the Bush Administration to the Constitution and the checks and balances it created. The speech will specifically point to domestic wiretapping and torture as examples of the administration's efforts to extend executive power beyond Congressional direction and judicial review."

on CSPAN. 9AM Pacific time, 1PM ET.

Merlin on war

2006-01-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

My kid keeps stealing my book I'm reading for my bookclub. Title: The Once and Future King by T. H. White. This is about King Arthur, a classic book, I'm told. I'm going to have to buy another copy because I need to finish reading for our meeting next week.

So far, Merlin is my favorite character of all. When I read Merlin's thoughts on war, the words seemed so apropros to this time. These came from Merlin's counseling session with a young naive King Arthur:

"...There is no excuse for war, none whatever, and whatever the wrong which your nation might be doing to mine---short of war---my nation would be in the wrong if it started a war so as to redress it...

...Any reasoning man...who keeps a steady mind, can tell which side is the aggressor in ninety wars out of a hundred. He can see which side is likely to benefit by going to war in the first place, and that is a strong reason for suspicion. He can see which side began to make the threat of force or was the first to arm itself. And finally he can often put his finger on the one who struck the first blow.

...Unless you can make the world wag better than it does at present, King, your reign will be an endless series of petty battles, in which the aggressions will either be from spiteful reasons or from sporting ones, and in which the poor man will be the only one who dies...."

Chapter IV, from "The Queen of Air and Darkness". Merlin the wizard as pacifist: Gee, I wonder what the author, T. H. White, was thinking. I need to look up his bio. The book was published in 1939. Anybody know? Anyways, too bad we don't have a Merlin advising our king and too bad our king is far from being a King Arthur.

Class bias in NCLB testing

2006-01-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Eric Olson of Deep Blade Journal for pointing this essay and test question out to me.

Greg Palast highlights an excellent example of a socioeconomic class bias in a test question. Take a peek:

"The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year."

The story says that in 1999, the sisters could not seem to lose at doubles tennis. This probably means when they played

A two matches in one day
B against each other
C with two balls at once
D as partners

Most young tennis stars learn the game from coaches at private clubs. In this sentence, a club is probably a

F baseball bat
G tennis racquet
H tennis court
J country club

The larger issue: fairness. When the questions are inherently biased, how fair is it to mandate testing when the consequences to the school are huge?

Again, I'm not so sure what the clearest solution should be. For now, bringing light on to this subject is the short term solution.

My sentiments, exactly

2006-01-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

Via Susan Ohanian

Time to point out this essay written with fire by Anne E. Levin Garrison on how one school raised their test scores.

The tests ARE the educational program. And if you DON'T understand the route by which you take the children there, I suggest you drive your hybrid car over to ANY public elementary school in America today and get permission to observe a third grade class at work. Doesn't matter where or who or when you show up, they are ALL on the same page at any given time, in any given school. And if you believe for one precious moment that the propoganda about "specific outcomes" means that they are learning, lemme apologize for your obvious adversion to the details and specifics about the results of the NCLB on our classrooms these last devastating years...they are LEARNING to take TESTS. So, call that learning if you will and we will agree from this moment on to avoid each other in a debate about learning.

This is my child's education, even as the teacher valiantly tries to squeeze in the 'real' stuff.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Grassroots organizations need to educate parents as well, many I know who believe test scores provide a sense of concreteness which feels reassuring. Anyone else on this?

Time for Bracey's Rotten Apple Awards

2006-01-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Via Susan Ohanian

Time to direct you to Gerald Bracey's annual event, the Rotten Apples in Education Awards.

I'm not buying it, Governor Schwarzenegger

2006-01-03T22:35:00.000-08:00

The headlines are deceiving because it looks like Governor Schwarzenegger is really trying to make nice: 4.3 billion dollars for public education.

But I think I see a problem already:

"The governor is committed to putting resources where they are needed the most," Bersin said.

He said the governor would designate money for specific needs, such as arts and physical education, low performing schools and helping students pass the high school exit exam.

This is the new trend: money only goes toward pet projects. Correction: 'only' is incorrect. 2.7 billion will go supposedly be 'discretionary', whatever that means.

Gee. I wonder if there's more money for charter schools as well. We'll find out next week.

Sigh. Re-election ploy, obviously. This may work with voters who don't read beyond the headlines.

Update: More details on this development over at journalist John Myers' blog. He highlights this quote:

"How are these new programs, however desirable, going to help me keep my schools open?", said Brian Lewis, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials. Lewis says with many schools already shortchanged on the basics, it's a bad idea to start earmarking money for new programs.

Memed!

2006-01-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

I caught the Seven Things meme from Cmdr Sue.

Seven Books (or Series) That I Love
Wah! How do I choose? Here are a few of my faves.

Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate di Camillo
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The BFG, Roald Dahl
West With the Night, Beryl Markham
A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean
The Master Butchers Singing Club, Louise Erdrich
A Dog Year, Jon Katz

Seven of My Favorite Movies (or Series)
Oh, dear. Now you can tell I spend quite a bit of time in the children's movie/literature world.

Babe
Singing in the Rain
(I'm sneaking this one in) Moyers interviews Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
American in Paris
Tremors
Groundhog Day
Wings of Desire

Seven Things I Cannot Do (or jus' don' wanna!)
I'm not sure I understand this one.

Seven Things To Do Before I Die
My list is actually longer.

Write and publish a book
Retire comfortably
Build our own home
Get much better at classical guitar (You see, I'm a beginner, self-taught)
Learn how to tap dance
Become a Master Gardener
Visit the Canadian Rockies

Seven Things That Attract Me To... Blogging!

Intellectual stimulation or "Hey, I'm a full-time mom, blogging somehow makes me feel hopeful my brain cells are not atrophying"
Ooooo, I get to rant
Chance to do occasional research and analysis
Fills my 'I need I need I need to know' political news junkie addiction
Other bloggers! Guess what? I spend more time reading what you write than I do writing
Being part of the progressive blogging community

Seven Things I Say Most Often

Uh hunh (response to the kid when I'm on the computer)
Yup (second most common response to the kid when I'm on the computer)
Tell me about it
Oh dear
You don't say
No sh*t

Seven Impractical Things I Think Would Be Really Cool Anyway

Living in a fair world (sigh)
Some of those Wonka candies in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (chocolate river, anyone?)
Do you remember how Mary Poppins picked up the room by a mere snap of her fingers? That'll be very nice...
No gridlock in Los Angeles
Ecologically self-sustaining communities
Excellent public education for all the kids

Tagging....
Anjali at los anjalis
Joe Thomas at Shut Up and Teach
Ms. Cornelius at A Shrewdness of Apes
Wild William at The Endless Faculty Meeting
coco at Lluvia de Estrellas
Jonathan at mesoj
Joel at Pax Nortona
Randy at The Bayne of Blog