My Beauty Best Teacher

From the Pittsburgh Tribune Times comes this story:

They're convicted streetwalkers, escorts and brothel babes collared in 2000 and from 2003-2006, uncovered by the Trib. Based on the prostitutes' voter registration cards, they're destined to become Obama girls in November. That's because 78 percent of them registered as Democrats. The Illinois senator also has the advantage with local "johns" -- 72 percent go Democratic. And convicted pimps: Four out of every five register Democratic.

I'm telling you- Obama is assembling a wide ranging coalition of voters, including terrorists, pimps, prostitutes, America-hating professors, and foreigners. That's a winning formula apparently in America!

Newton Aduaka at TED, discusses clips from his film-Ezra:

Censure - an official reprimand by a legislative body of one of its members; strong or vehement expression of disapproval.

WTU Executive Board members in a statement of disapproval passed a motion to censure the Washington Teachers' Union President George Parker yesterday. The motion passed overwhelmingly 9 to 4. Board members expressed their disapproval of President Parker's failure to adhere to regularly scheduled board and delegate assembly meetings, fails to hold membership meetings, fails to adhere to motions passed by the board, and does not respond to members request for information. Although as a Board of Trustee member I have been denied the right to vote as an ex-officio member of the Board ( as per Robert Rules of Order) - I spoke in support of this motion. The motion to censure President Parker is as follows:

Motion to Censure WTU President George Parker
Whereas President Parker was elected to uphold the constitution of the Washington Teachers' Union which includes requirements for delegate assembly and general membership meetings to provide union democracy and participation in the direction of the union.

Whereas the Executive Board was elected to address executive policy matters between delegate assembly meetings and serve as a check and balance function for the membership.

Whereas President Parker has cancelled meetings and not responded timely to executive board members' request for information or executive board motion directives such as reporting and documentation of activities including but not limited to the WTU contract negotiations, teacher placement, seniority and tenure information. The resulting state of the WTU is one of membership confusion on contract negotiations, contract compliance and job security.

Therefore be it resolved, that the Executive Board express its disappointment at, and censure of, President George Parker for ignoring the democratic principles of the WTU and his responsibility to comply with the executive policy as stated herein as established by the Executive Board of the Washington Teachers' Union.

Be it further resolved, that the Executive Board will direct its attorney to take the strongest legal action again President George Parker if the same behavior continues.

Tally of Executive Board Members votes

Yeahs
Nathan Saunders
Sallie Littlejohn
Robert Willis
Willie Brewer
Agnes Dyson
Pablo Giro'n
Diane Terrell
Sheila Gill
Tenia Pritchard

Nays
Joyce Armoo
Milton Williams
Gloria Everett
Erich Martel

Absent: Maria Angala, Deborah Hines ,Camille Locke, Lorraine Smith, Andre' Taylor, Rashida Young

Non voting/ex-officio members: Jacqueline Hines, Candi Peterson (Posted by The Washington Teacher).

Okay, so I edited the title of the blog somewhat from the real event, but seriously, how can a judge determine that someone who is homeless in fact is a registered voter? The definition of homeless is someone who has no home, right? Or maybe I'm missing something- the definition of homelss may mean a Democrat who has no current address in that location, but should be given a ballot anyways. Here is the actual ruling, from this source:

A federal judge in Ohio has ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other locations that aren't buildings as their addresses.

The judge's name is U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus. A quick search of him revealed that he was a judge that allowed recounts to be conducted in the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio (even though recounts were not called for by law), made a ruling that forced NCAA basketball teams to let anyone play in their tournaments, required a Columbus-based company to reduce chemical emissions that he said caused acid rain, he also ruled against a utility company in a federal Clean Air Act case, and in the late 90's made a ruling that cities could prevent religious people from going door-to-door.

Okay, so to be honest, I didn't watch the infomercial last night. But I read all about it and heard about it, and my post is actually going to not even be about what was said in it- I want to talk about how much it cost to put this thing together, and if any campaign finance laws were broken.

There are estimates that he spent somewhere around 4 million dollars for this infomercial... but how is that number arrived at? At NBC, he will pay $891,250 for the privilege, and at CBS he will spend $961,000. His program also aired on FOX, BET, Univision, MSNBC and TV One. I'm guessing he charged similar prices for those venues. That's the 4 million "cost."

But like any good liberal production, that's not the end of the story. First off, does it really only cost 4 million to get 30 minutes of prime-time coverage on TV? Consider this- NBC will charge advertisers $3 million per 30 seconds during the Super Bowl next year. Obama will only bring in 1/3 the audience of the Super Bowl, to be fair, so let's say it only costs him $1 million for 30 seconds of ad time. Feel free to double check my math, but that is about $60 million dollars (30 minutes X 60 second / 30 seconds). Let's say there is a discount for bulk ad buys like this- we'll give him 1/3 discount. That's $20 million dollars for NBC alone, not $900K. Huh. Must be something going on here.

Turns out there is. Under federal law, television networks charge political campaigns a different rate called "lowest unit cost"- which I'm honestly struggling to find information on. What I could come up with though is that I think there are two components to the "lowest unit cost" deal. The first is that they are not charging for 30 minutes as if it were 60 30 second commercials, but rather as if it were however many 30 second commercials normally are allotted for 30 minutes of prime time (16 per 30 minute show?) The second component is the commercial time which is being billed has to be at the lowest unit cost: what the highest volume year-round advertisers would be charged. Or, put a different way by this site "The lowest unit charge is the rate the station charges its most favored commercial advertiser for the same class and amount of time during the same time period or program."

Interestingly enough on this website is this blurb:

Political File.
Stations must keep a file containing records of all requests for broadcast time made by or for a candidate for public office. The file must identify how the station responded to such requests and (if the request was granted) the charges made, a schedule of the time purchased, the times the spots actually aired, the rates charged, and the classes of time purchased. The file must also reflect any free time provided to a candidate. The station must keep the political records for two years after the spot airs. You can find the political broadcasting rules elsewhere in this manual.

If you're a lawyer reading this blog right now, please email me on how we can do a freedom of information request on these ad buys, and find out the details on all of them, and then evaluate whether they complied with campaign finance laws.

Another important point to make- the "cost" of the ad is the cost of the spot buy on these networks, and does not include the cost to produce the film, which apparently was very slick. How much did that cost?

It apparently was filmed by Davis Guggenheim. As a renowned filmmaker, how much did he charge for his services? Or were they donated? Is that covered under campaign finance laws? Guggenheim has done a lot of work for Democrats over the years- His credits as a producer and director include Training Day, ER, Deadwood, and Party of Five. He directed and produced An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. He also directed Obama's biographical film, which aired during the Democratic Convention.

How much did the set cost? Apparently there was a copy of the Oval Office, and other fancy sets- what was the price tag for those?

I don't have a lot of these answers, but that "$4 million" price tag probably underestimates considerably the cost of this infomercial.

Adam Habib thinks that Universities must earn their funding.
Emerging Markets Decoupled,Not Really-Mootbox
Knight Fellow Kimani Chege, seeks to blaze a path in developing world technology reporting.
Kwadwo Osseo-Asare launches AqueouSolutions a blog about materials, minerals and solutions; science, technology and sustainable development in Africa.
Kofi Annan interviewed on the failure of African Leadership.-via Chris Blattman

In this one, listen to Obama apologize for being late to Senate hearings... over and over again as he is late over and over again... I guess it's better than voting present...

As I tell my students, pay attention to the last line in this clip- it's the full clip from the meeting of Obama and Joe the Plumber where Obama lets slip his guard and states his idea that spreading the wealth around is good for all....

In this one, Joe Biden tells a guy in wheelchair to stand up and be recognized... poor Joe, so unaware of what he is saying...

Don't know if you ever caught this, but according to Joe Biden, you can't go into a 7-11 without an Indian accent... some may find that offensive...

Here is a cute clip of our next Attorny General, the great John Edwards, man of the people, servent of the poor, representative of the common man, and endorsed by the labor unions and toughest of guys... combing his hair for several minutes to music....

Ahh, John Kerry, you could have been President if you'd just kept your foot from flying in your mouth- here is the flip-flop and here is him calling our troops in Iraq stupid.

And other good ones- the Howard Dean scream, Hillary Clinton adopting a southern accent when she talks to black voters in the south, Republican George Allen's macaca moment, John McCain singing bomb bomb Iran- all of these are good examples of what I call this youtube election.

Oh, last one- check out this funny one- it is a banned commercial in the US, but is Bill Clinton as a voodoo doll.

Today in the Detroit News there was an interesting article. Here is some of it:

(A Clawson mother) refuses to allow her 13-year-old daughter to read an assigned book she considers pornographic. She is even considering pulling the girl out of Clawson Middle School if she cannot reach an agreement with the district.

Her daughter was assigned to read "My Sister's Keeper" by New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult, in an eighth-grade girls literature class.

It is a novel, available in the adult fiction section of libraries, about a young girl who sues her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned to potentially save her older sister. The book includes some descriptions of sexual activity.

Reading the Amazon.com reviews, I gathered several impressions. First, this book is about female empowerment, and many reviewers said that girls would particularly like it. Several times it was mentioned that this book would be great for a Lifetime movie- that's programming for women. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad book to read, just because it is targeted for girls and female empowerment- but it does mean that it should likely be balanced out with a male-targeted book about war or fishing or hunting or something, that teaches values about being a strong male. I highly doubt the district balances this book in its curriculum.

The other thing I gather about this book is that there are several graphic scenes depicting underage sex. The mother objects to having her child read these as part of a state-endorsed curriculum for 8th graders, and who could blame her. The question you have to ask yourself is do you really know what you son/daughter is reading in school right now? Do you know if there are sexual situations presented, and if so, how are they handled? Gone is the days of reading Shakespeare, Beowulf, or Greek playwrights- in today's educational environment, students read contemporary novels depicting underage sex, and that's education.

Lastly, after reading the reviews, I walk away unimpressed with this particular book. Most reviewers commented that out of all of this authors books, this one was one of the less good ones- that the characters weren't fully developed, the ending was bad, etc. It leads me to question why this particular book was chosen to be required reading in this district. If it was the author and her style, there are other better books by this author. If it was the topic, I would question why an English class is focused on this particular topic. If was just a general 'controversial' book, there are other, better, more famous examples out there. Why was this book chosen?

These are relevant questions to ask, because they deal with key issues in public education- who is choosing the curriculum and why are they choosing that curriculum to teach all students using public tax money? Now, as a teacher, I can tell you why- one of the teachers liked the book and liked the message in the book, and wants her students to read it so she can talk about it with them and have them learn the message of the book. In a world of self-constructed knowledge and collective ignorance, Clawson school district fits in by rejecting the notion that students should read the classics and become educated in the great works of our age- instead, Clawson has bought into the here and now notion of radical revolutionary change by smashing the past and rising up a new world, one in which children are liberated by having a lawyer at age 13 and sex at age 14.

To be fair, the district did make accommodations for the student that objected, putting her a a windowless room away from other students and having her read a 5th grade level book, or as Clawson Schools Superintendent Cheryl Rogers said:

this is the first time in the past two years that a book has been challenged. She said the student was given an alternative book and allowed to read in a quiet place where she would not hear discussions about "My Sister's Keeper."

Contact Clawson Public Schools at 248-655-4400 or email Clawson Superintendent Cheryl Rogers at crogers@clawson.k12.mi.us to let her know your thoughts about this issue.

UPDATE: Anyone who called or emailed- thank you. Your actions directly made the world a better place. In late December, Clawson pulled the book from the curriculum, agreeing that it was too racy to read. Victory!

Jen Brea at Global Voices reports on a "new provision that would reduce taxes for French companies that invest in developing countries, “especially in Africa.”..." not so says "...Musengeshi Katata, who blogs at Le Pangolin, is skeptical. He calls the new measure “an open door” for French companies and African governments to defraud the public..."

If McCain loses this election, it is his fault. I was watching another one of his recent campaign commercials (see my earlier blog on this here), and it pissed me off. In this commercial, McCain launches into an attack on Bush, claiming that under Bush our country has gotten worse, and he goes into detail on how he isn't Bush.

It's nice that McCain thinks that Bush is the root of all evil in this world- but isn't that the Democrat line? Why is McCain parroting ideas and policies that have led the Democrats in Congress to an approval rating of 16%, and running as far as possible from approval ratings of 26%? Now, I know 26% isn't great, but it is higher than 16, right? Check out the approval ratings yourself- wouldn't you follow the ideas of the more popular party out there?

Why is McCain fleeing as fast as possible from being associated from a two-term President? No offense to McCain, but Bush was able to defeat two opponents, both of who admittedly weren't top-level, but I consider them higher quality than Obama.

On the radio today, they were talking about messages that work and ideas that seem to be working for McCain. Everything that is working for him is Bush ideas, Bush policies, Bush thoughts. Being tough on defense, being solid on the War on Terror, cutting taxes for everyone, reforming education, expanding energy production, etc- those are the winning messages of this campaign. McCain's ideas- fighting earmarks, believing in global warming, tax breaks for poor people- these ideas gain no traction, and if you like them, there is a real communist out there promoting these anyways to vote for.

Via Dirty Harry's Place comes this little note about the misuse of government power for the purposes of harming anyone who speaks a conservative voice- Joe the Plumber has been illegally investigated by Ohio authorities:

Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.” Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

She denies that there were political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System, and Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland is satisfied with that explanation.

The use of a state computer system to search for information on Wurzelbacher is the fourth uncovered by The Dispatch.

This is what happens when you ask the wrong questions in this country. And Helen Jones-Kelly? She is both appointed by a Democrat and a maxed out Obama donor. Interesting. I guess the ACLU and other civil liberties groups would have been outraged if Joe the Plumber were a foreign terrorist plotting to destroy America- then they would have called for an investigation into this abuse of power. But since he is just a regular American who recognizes that Obama's tax plan would hurt him, I guess he has no rights.

In spite of the depressing line of my latest posts, I don't want to convey the impression that now is the time to give up. In fact, now is the time to keep fighting harder- after all, there are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo.

I'm on my soap box right now, getting the good word out- you can too, especially if you link to my blog. Next week is your chance to use the ballot box, and hopefully you make the correct choice there. After that, you can always hope that a jury of your peers will defend you when they come for you in your home and try to take away your property and liberty. And if that doesn't work, gun sales are actually up 8 to 10% this year, and it doesn't take a genius to know why.

And even though a democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner, liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

The good news is that if we can trust Obama to keep his word, no one making under $250,000 will have their taxes raised, period. That is what Obama said today, re-iterating his speech from the convention. Anyone making under 250K will not get any tax increases, period, according to Obama- not in any way, shape, or form. That's a good thing.

Now, he is a lawyer by training, so maybe there is something in that statement I am not understanding- maybe the definition of the word "period" means to him "just kidding, you will get your taxes raised." Also, Obama is not really a man of his word- compare his campaign statements to his record, and look at his long history of going back on campaign promises, starting with his declaration to abide by public campaign finance laws. Also, Obama does have a history of association with some shady people- that kind of stuff does wear off on people, so Obama might go back on that promise. But if he keeps it, it is a good thing.

The bad thing is that he is openly preaching wealth redistribution and socialism. He is openly saying that anyone who makes over $250,000 will have their taxes raised. Why? Because they have money, and he wants it. Because he thinks they make too much money, and others not enough. Because he can. The ideas that he is preaching run counter to everything our country is founded on- a belief in hard work, private property, and limited government. Although anyone making under $250K are will be spared by Senator Government, he has decided in his infinite wisdom that anyone who is successful enough to make over the magic number of $250K deserves to have their earnings confiscated, and he makes no attempt to hide it.

All democracies fail once the poor decide they can vote away the money of the rich. America had a good run- I think it is nearing the end though.

Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh writes about the arrest of Jonathan Elendu in Nigeria:

Mr. Jonathan Elendu, one must remember is a Nigerian-American online journalist and internet blogger. With his website Elendureports.com, this guy was among the pioneers who took it up themselves to liberate Nigerians from the massive dosage of falsehoods that our governments and men of power dish out on Nigerians on a daily basis. These online frontiersmen took their passion for their country seriously. The ferreted information that asked hard questions about the outright lies that the Nigerian government have been feeding Nigerians. That was his only crime...[continue reading]

Update: Read related Global Voices report.

Today in one of my classes a student came up to me and told me that he had seen "the coolest shirt" at the latest Obama rally that he went to. He wanted to know how he could go about getting the shirt, because he wanted to fit in with other people at this rally. What did the shirt say? My student said that the shirt that people were wearing at the Obama rally say "Sarah Palin is a Dumb MILF."

Now, before I explain why I get upset when I hear stuff like this, read this post from Right Wing Nation:

I cannot predict who will win the presidential campaign, but I already know who will lose big: all women. I realized this when I saw a 20-something male student who attends a class in the community college where I teach, wearing a T-shirt that read, “Sarah Palin is a C-.” He wore it in public, in broad daylight, and without shame or even consciousness of what he was doing.

This student of mine had an ugly laugh as he bragged about fitting in with other Obama supporters who view Sarah Palin as unintelligent and suggest improper and vulgar things about her (I'm not explaining what a MILF is here). But I got the distinct impression that he thought it was okay to put women in their 'place' and that at Obama rally's, it was good to disrespect someone like Palin in that manner. I got the impression that once Obama is elected President, there will be a decided lack of respect for mothers, wives, and intelligent or attractive women in this country. Women will suffer a real loss, and that's sad.

Via the Volokh Conspiracy, there is this note from Stephen Henderson, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of the Detroit Free Press, who wrote in to note that Barack Obama gave a fairly detailed answer a few weeks ago to the Free Press editorial team on the question of what kind of Supreme Court Justice he would want to appoint. Here is the passage I want to focus on:

...the roles of the courts is to protect people who don't have a voice. That's the special role of that institution. The vulnerable, the minority, the outcast, the person with the unpopular idea, the journalist who is shaking things up. That's inherently the role of the court...

So, in Barry's opinion, and mind you, this is the opinion of a trained constitutional scholar (in his words) and possible future President of the United States, the inherent role of the court in our political system is not to be above the law, not to be fair and honest, not to rule based on the Constitution and the law, and not to blindly protect the justice of the United States- no, Barry thinks the role of the court is to protect minorities, unpopular people (liberals), poor people, and journalists. I may lack a degree from an Ivy League school, but I disagree with that statement and feel he is wrong.

Via the Vox Popoli blog comes this story, from this source:

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's qualifications to be president.... Surrick ruled that Berg lacked standing to bring the case, saying any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters."

First off, personally I find the statement "its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters" to be a little vague- couldn't the judge just outright state that it doesn't matter if Obama doesn't met the Constitutional qualifications to be President- he is a citizen of the world, and that's all that matters.

Second, why didn't the judge just say that Obama is qualified? How come he had to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that an American citizen who is registered to vote doesn't have standing to call a candidate's eligibility into question? That's an odd response. Makes me suspect that maybe there is some truth to that rumor that Obama can't produce a birth certificate proving he is natural born.

This is kind of pissing me off- I don't like to be all paranoid and believing in conspiracy theories, and have laughed off the 'no birth certificate' one in the past- but then you get a ruling like this? Wow. Make your own inferences on it.

Bright B. Simons writes:

...one thread runs through the post-colonial experience of African industrialization. Upon attaining independence, most African states rushed to implement industrial policies that vastly overstated the capacity of existing infrastructure, market development, and sometimes even managerial and technical resources...Frequently the drive towards installing manufacturing capacity was fuelled by the grandiosity of political dreams and the strategies themselves were usually left to the smothering care of hand-wringing bureaucrats.

He hopes that the enhancement of 'Suame Magazine' an informal industrial cluster covered earlier initiates the process of reversing the failed top-down philosophy:

Suame is a major suburb in Kumasi. "Suame Magazine" (SM) is a huge sprawl somewhat plastered centrally across a huge swathe of Kumasi's middle. As far as most folks can remember, SM has been an amazing labyrinth of garages, workshops, tool shacks, machine mini-marts, outdoor laboratories, greasy foundries, and assorted furnaces-on-wheels. It is a place awash with urban myth, and steeped in a changeless flux of activity. What that means is that the hum may never stop, yet regardless how long one stays away, on return SM always feels and looks the same...The long-term strategy of SMIDO is to turn Suame Magazine into an industrial village befitting the 21st century...[continue reading]

photo courtesy of travelwebshots

Several months ago I wrote about how sometimes when people want change, it isn't for the better. Especially when the change that these people are preaching is the kind of change that we know is not solid and isn't based on time-tested ideals. Being a resident of the state of Michigan, I've seen many people come in and preach change at me, only to see the things in our state change to the worse. Well, in my post two months ago, I predicted that the change that several teams in our state were preaching would be bad, and I was wrong- it was worse than bad.

The University of Michigan football team has for years had solid teams, with a steady and solid philosophy of hard work and solid results. In many ways, it was like an economy that hummed along with low unemployment and steady growth. But people wanted more- they wanted change. So they took the biggest gamble in UofM history and hired Rich Rod. I thought it was a bad hire- I thought he'd turn a 9-3 team into a 7-5 team. I was wrong. Michigan will be lucky now to go 5-7. That's the change that a liberal university like UofM can believe in.

The Detroit Lions during the 90's had solid teams- not awful teams, but every other year they were in the playoffs. But, Ford Senior got tired of this, cleaned house, and hired a flashy new inexerienced GM who talked a great game and looked different than all other GM's. Every year, the Lions got worse, and every year, it was blamed on George Bush- opps, I mean it was blamed on the players. Every year Matt Millon preached change and hope and bipartisanship and higher taxes on the rich guy, and every year, the Lions got worse, until 8 years later, he was fired. At the start of the year, contrary to many people who picked them as a playoff team, running the team that Millon put together, I thought the Lions would be bad- I called 5-11 in my post here- but again I was wrong- it was worse. They'll be lucky to go 2-13 this year. That's the change that America can expect if it takes a flyer on an inexperienced fast talking change guy like Obama.

The title of the post says it all- when we woke up this morning, every McCain sign in the neighborhood had been removed. Neither of my dogs had heard it, and it must have been done very late at night. Authorities were contacted, but have no suspects, although some of the signs were replaced by an Obama sign, so it was probably a giant right-wing conspiracy to frame the black man, and now anyone making over 250K needs to pay more in taxes. I'm just glad that my Ford truck was not also taken- but once the respect for property rights is totally eroded in this country, it probably will be someday.

Religion can truly be an opiate for the masses,John Lloyd at the FT writes:

Again, as soon as the service ended, Kayanja strode off. I had seen people give what seemed like substantial sums to a church whose leader flaunted his wealth, and who promised they could be rich like him – richer, even, the more they gave. They had responded as if they were uplifted; saved. As people in Britain who were Nonconformists did decades ago, and as tens of millions of Americans, Latin Americans and Koreans do now, they had given money to a church that gave them in return the belief that they would go to heaven: more, that they would achieve earthly health and wealth...[continue reading]

Barack Obama has created the biggest money-machine of any politician in American history- that's how he has been able to raise so much money. But it is becoming increasingly evident that Obama's money-machine is largely fraudulent and therefore criminal. His campaign has made conscious decisions to accept online contributions in a way that no business or legitimate enterprise would do so- the only group that I can imagine taking money from anyone without asking any questions at all about the money is the mob. What we have here is a concentrated effort to buy the American Presidency, by violating every law in American politics regarding campaign finance. Obama is accepting more than the limit for campaign finances, accepting money from criminals, accepting money from foreigners, and accepting money from fictional TV characters, all with a smile on his face. This should be news.

It is news here and here and here. Check it out.

Apparently there is some major situation going on about Sarah Palin saying that if McCain was elected than there would be a major crisis and he would handle it poorly- opps, scratch that, it wasn't that, that was Biden about Obama- for her, it was something about her buying clothes. The media is now all over this scandal- here is another story they found... the full story of this breaking news event can be found here.

Sarah Palin Supersizes Fries
...Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has come under fire in recent days after it was revealed that earlier this year, a drive-through meal purchased by the Alaskan Governor contained more than the usual number of french fries...

My sources have told me that on the next Saturday Night Live (SNL), they will mock Michelle Obama. For the last couple months, every SNL show has had an enjoyable impersonation of Governor Sarah Palin by Tina Fey, where the joke is that Sarah Palin is dumb. Tiny Fey uses an exaggerated accent combined with her likeness of the candidate to imply that Palin isn't intelligent because of her time in beauty contests and living in Alaska. In the spirit of fairness and justice and equality, SNL has decided to now impersonate Michelle Obama.

SNL will make fun of Michelle Obama's past statements about how she thinks Americans are bitter and mean and about how she isn't proud of America by hiring a stereotypical militant black women, speaking in an exaggerated black accent, and then talking about gangs, drugs, and communism. This SNL parody will capture the essence of Michelle Obama by projecting stereotypes of militant inner city black women to the American public, and mocking her over and over for the next several weeks in this manner.

The liberals have been laughing with joy at the exaggerated stereotypical version of Palin being a dumb women from a hick state, so it is anticipated that they will also laugh with joy at the exaggerated stereotypical version of Obama being a militant black women engaged in crime and drugs.

Conservatives, having no sense of humor, are expected to protest and boycott this upcoming SNL sketch, claiming that it is racist and encourages hate and stereotypes. They'll still watch though, being the hypocrites that they are.

For more information, check out this website on upcoming show times, or click here to see the first time I heard about Michelle Obama being on SNL.

Here is an excellent post from Belmont Club, with some edits:

Intensity of commitment has long been a decisive component of historical military strategy. It is possible to defeat a superior enemy if you can ‘outcommit’ him: take things to a level where he is afraid to follow. Napoleon did not anticipate that the Russians would burn Moscow rather than let him have it. Napoleon was defeated. Late in the Second World War the Japanese adopted the method of suicide attack, which became famous as the kamikaze (the Japanese still lost, but only because the US was many times more powerful and had the Atomic Bomb to boot). If the match were nearly equal things would have been much harder. Clausewitz observed that war is an act of force to compel the enemy to do its opponent’s will. In that equation, it is not just the quality of the force, but the quality of the will that matters. In politics, to a lesser extent, things are much the same.

If conservatives now realize that their political enemies are not simply out to win an election cycle but to effectively destroy them, the only surprising thing is that they were surprised.

Civility in political life can only be sustained when everyone owes their basic allegiance to the larger nation and subordinates their partisan identity to it. Whether that cornerstone still stands or has been replaced by other and more fundamental loyalties — to ideology, race or class — is something to be discovered. While there may be some doubt about what Barack Obama’s intentions may be, should he win the Presidency, there’s little doubt that for people like Ayers, Dohrn, Wright and Farrakhan, a victory in 2008 won’t be seen as “their turn”, but as their Destiny.

The Washington Post article by Bill Turque, titled "Staff No Shows Decried as Rhee Aide Testifies" on October 20th has generated numerous emails sent to me by DC educators during this past week. Many of my teacher/provider colleagues were outraged about Richard Nyankori's comments in which he indicated that we do not attend mandatory meetings and are 'willfully indifferent.' My position is "it's a lie for lack of a better word" still stands. Unfortunately, Chancellor Michelle Rhee's comments in this article are devoid of the facts and suggest a draconian approach to dealing with the multi-faceted problems in special education versus utilizing many of the recommendations of such long term studies as the Appleseed Study. This article should have been more aptly titled "Rhee Swings The Axe- Part Two." Here are several poignant emails which I have received lately that are worth sharing on this hot topic.

Email # 1

Candi
"Thank you for your bravery and commitment to the teachers, counselors and staff who on a daily basis try to help the students in special education or in need of special education. They didn't even begin to touch on bilingual special education in the recent Post article . No one has really ever exposed what the psychologists, social workers, special ed. coordinators, et. al have to go through to help our children. The chancellor's office is irresponsible in making comments such as these. Thanks for all you do! Anonymous DC Teacher

Email # 2 (Copied to me)

Dr. Nyankori:
"I was utterly appalled at the inflammatory comments that you have made towards the providers that have serviced DCPS. Collectively we have generated millions for this school system and many of us have defended this school system in court with excellence. I am seething with utter contempt at the day-to-day disrespect to those who have dedicated their professional careers to a system that has seen the changing of the administrative guard many times over. How dare you sir! How dare you blame the providers when the main problem with meetings being conducted are: a) parents who have transient living conditions, b) parents who have disconnected phone numbers, c) parental neglect issues, d) lawyers that cancel meetings ( certified letters that are returned to the school countless times), f) your contracted employees for example; the Columbus Group has called the DCPS staff to use our equipment to their incompetence, g) reports that have not been turned in by your contractors that your administration gave millions too. These are just some of the reasons that these meetings are not conducted.

I have been in this system since the 90's and I have seen many educators and providers go to parents homes who are just out right oppositional and defiant. We have gone to these parents homes to complete IEP's the day before Christmas. Many of our parents live less then a block away from the school. These are physically healthy functional adults that can only find the time to come to school when they want the staff to fill out forms for SSI . Now do not get me wrong, we have parents who have excellent parenting skills but those parents are not the problem. It is the parents that your administration refuses to hold accountable. You want everyone in the school to be responsible for these children except the one that God gave these babies to. Tell me, when you are dropping the hammer on the provider, the special education teachers, the principals at the special education schools and the behavioral staff, where are the parents in this equation ? These children sir are not being rehabilitated. Their minds, souls and spirits were damaged in the home not in the school system. Whether you realize it our not, you are placing the rearing of these children on the educational staff. That is why you are not getting the results you want. This decision making in a bottle with people who will tell you what you want to hear because they are more concerned about their car note is the reason why you have the problems that you have.

If you want change then do not be afraid to listen to those who are in the trenches. Many of us are more highly qualified then the people that you have put in place to develop these special education programs. Do you know how humiliating it is to work with people who get a six figure salary and talk to you like a dog on the job site and then come to you when their proverbial buttock is in a sling and need your expertise because they are too arrogant to listen to wisdom. This is why many things are happening now in the system because there is change with no experience or wisdom compounded by the flagrant disrespect from those that we are suppose to be lead by.

I love these children Dr. Nyankori. Do you hear me? I love these children. I have used my own money to finance my therapeutic center for four years prior to your commencement. Come to the providers and talk to us, not about us or at us. Your office has been extremely adversarial to the providers. Now if you have someone who needs to be held accountable and you have documentation to prove that then you do your job but, to flagrantly accuse us in a judicial setting in what appears to be a convenient scapegoat is in poor taste. Now when we as providers are in meetings with attorneys, your comments have opened the door for more critical analysis and disrespect for the very people that you need to provide services for the children you were hired to serve. " Anonymous DC Provider. Posted by The Washington Teacher.

"Like all rites of passage, the death of a father tests our strength. In the worst of circumstances- the loss can propel some to become despondent or to self-destruct. In the best it can inspire a new appreciation for life and move us with a sense of urgency to make the most out of our lives." Neil Chetick

Here's to S.A. whose Dad died early today. I admire you because you came to school anyway. I can't imagine dealing with such a heavy blow. Life- what a bummer it can be at times. I hope you liked the wall mural the class created to lift your spirits. You and 'your Dad in heaven' are in our prayers ! Posted by The Washington Teacher.

Powerlineblog today had several outstanding posts that are worth checking out.

The first one that I want to point out is an update on Obama's associations with the New Party, which was a socialist third party popular in Chicago in the 90's. Apparently there is more evidence that Obama was indeed a card-carrying socialist (to be fair, I don't know if he carried his socialist party membership card around in his pocket). I wrote about this here.

The next post I want to point to is a report on the attitude of Obama's campaign towards illegal campaign contributions. Apparently, on Obama's website, it is very easy to submit information that is false and give money to Obama, in clear violation of campaign finance laws- as long as you give Obama money, he is willing to overlook that you are not who you say you are. For comparison, McCain's website does not accept campaign donations from false or fictional people. Now, I know that McCain's campaign probably has accepted illegal contributions- every campaign has, both Republicans and Democrats, throughout our history. What is shocking is the openness of Obama's campaign, and the extent of it. We're looking at an increasingly orchestrated effort to buy and steal an election. I posted my thoughts on this before here and here.

Next, here is information from a Pew Research study finds that of 2,412 stories on John McCain that appeared in newspapers and cable news channels between the Republican convention and the last Presidential debate, only 14 percent were positive, while 60 percent were negative. That was the worst ratio of any of the four national-ticket candidates. Wow. Good thing you are reading my blog- my ratio is much more fair and balanced!

Here is another good post. One area of the media that is not fair and balanced is the View. This popular show is increasingly hostile to most Americans, pushing liberal and left-wing viewpoints. I wonder how it is doing in ratings? Anyways, apparently yesterday Rush Limbaugh was described on the View as a "terrorist." A terrorist. A radio-show host, using his power of free speech to voice another viewpoint shared by a large number of people in our country. And he is called a terrorist. The good thing is that liberals believe terrorists should never been punished. And all Rush has to do is blow up a couple buildings and kill some people and he will be upgraded from 'terrorist' to 'education reformer.'

Lastly, one person who will not be intimidated is Governor Sarah Palin. This great patriot is filling in the blanks of Joe Biden's recent speech. If you haven't heard, on Sunday of this week Joe Biden issued warning to Democratic fundraisers- he said that within six months of his inauguration, new President Barack Obama will face an "international crisis" brought on by our enemies to "test [his] mettle." Biden said he could foresee "four or five scenarios" for such a crisis. Biden then went on to forecast that Obama's response to such a crisis will seem wrong to most Americans, so donors were encouraged to stay tough and see it through. That's right boys and girls, if you elect Obama President, you are inviting an international crisis that will be handled badly. Biden didn't specify what "four or five [crisis] scenarios" he had in mind and no reporter went any further into these statements, and mainstream coverage of this has been non-existent. But, the Governor of Alaska filled in the blanks. Watch it here.

"That nothing is ever solved, or created, by standing still. Movement is the process of the Universe. So move. Do something. Anything. But do not stand still. Do not remain"on the horns of a dilemma." Do not fence sit. Put your foot down on one side or the other, swing the opposite leg over and start walking. You'll know before you take ten steps if you're going in the right direction. Not to decide is to decide. Try to not make choices by default." Neale Donald Walsch

The WTU Executive Board meeting has been cancelled today by WTU President Mr. Parker. This is the third board meeting which has been canceled by our union president without input from WTU Executive Board members. I have posted a copy of the email that I sent to Mr. Parker, Mr. Bordenave, AFT National Representative and all members of the WTU Executive Board and Board of Trustees about my concerns about cancelling our meetings.

October 23, 2008

Dear Mr. Parker (Copied to WTU Executive Board members/Board of Trustees)

I am writing to express my concern that the WTU Board meeting has been canceled again at your sole direction without input from WTU Executive Board members. This is the 3rd Executive Board meeting that has been cancelled by you this year. I am also concerned that we have not yet held a WTU Representative Assembly meeting in either September or October. By continuing to cancel regularly scheduled business meetings signals to our union members that the business of the Washington Teachers' Union is unimportant. Too often, your plans to reschedule meetings never come to fruition.

I would like to suggest that our WTU Executive Board members rather than wait for your direction- in a show of leadership reschedule the WTU Executive Board meeting next week . Given that Attorney Lee Jackson was suppose to present at Thursday's WTU Board meeting, arrangements should be made to have him attend the rescheduled board meeting to discuss the WTU next steps as it relates to our pending tentative agreement.

Our members are quite concerned that we still do not have any more information about the status of our tentative agreement. Certainly our complicity with this type of inaction suggests that our WTU Executive Board members are part of the problem versus actively involved in developing solutions. I await to hear from my WTU Executive Board members who have been elected to represent us as union members.

As an advocate for teachers and providers- I intend to make our union members aware of this ongoing lack of action. Thanks for your attention and I await the prompt response of the WTU Executive Board as well as our AFT National Representative, Mr. Bordenave. I remain

Sincerely,

Candi Peterson
WTU Board of Trustee member/WTU Building Representative (Posted by The Washington Teacher).

In my friends classes, they learn about the effect that the mass media has on elections. One major aspect of the media that relates to presidential campaigns in particular are campaign commercials. To explore campaign commercials they use a website called Living Room Candidate.

Living Room Candidate has compiled all of the campaign commercials from every election from 1952 to today. It organized them by type (children, fear, biography, backfire, etc), by issue, and by year- the year is the year of the Presidential election. Each commercial has a name, and you can see the name when you move your cursor over the particular commercials. Each one is about 30 seconds to a minute, and loads after 10-15 seconds of clicking on it. In my class, we go through some of the more famous commercials, and analyze what makes good ones, what makes them effective, and the role that they played in the election.

Why am I telling you this? Well, there has been a lot of talk on radio channels and in articles about how Barack Obama is like Clinton. Or JFK. I think there is a little revisionist history going on here. For a trip down memory lane, watch Clinton's 1992 commercials- it was in these commercials that he established what kind of a candidate he was. Watch "Leaders 2," "Second," and "We Can Do It." In these commercials, Clinton brags about cutting taxes, making government more efficient, cutting welfare, and being tough on crime. Now, he might not have done these things as President, but the image he projected was none-the-less one of being a tax cutting moderate Democrat.

Or watch JFK's commercials from 1960- in them, he talks about how America is great, but he can make it greater- how America is strong, but how he can make it stronger, and about how America is a productive country, but he can help it produce more.

Obama is not Clinton or JFK. Obama talks about raising taxes, expanding government, increasing welfare, and being nicer to terrorists. He talks about how America is worse than it used to be, is no longer great, and in general how it is a bad country. In these respects, he sounds more more Gore and Carter.

Watch Gore's 2000 commercials. He ran on a platform of helping various victims of our system- the environment ("Matters"), healthcare ("Ian"), or education ("Accountability"). Gore opposed tax cuts ("down"). Or watch Carter's 1976 commercials- in "South" he talks about how workers have been cheated by government, and in "Reality" he talks about how America in reality sucks. These messages are closer to Obama's message.

What does this ultimately mean? What it means is that we can reasonably expect that an Obama Presidency will look closer to a Carter Presidency than a Clinton Presidency. The question you have to ask yourself and your fellow citizens is why would they want to return to the years of Carter- years when we were tested overseas and found wanting (which Biden already says will happen), years when our economy crashed (as it is doing now on anticipation of an Obama Presidency), and years when there were horrible energy shortages (Obama opposes almost all real energy creation in favor of unproven dreams).

For a happy skip down memory lane, watch some of these ads- 2008 McCain ads "Service to America" and "Original Mavericks," 2004 Bush ad "Whatever it Takes," 2000 Bush ads "Successful Leader" and "Priorities," 1988 H.W. Bush ad "Family/Children," or 1984 Reagan ads "Prouder, Stronger, Better" or "Peace." These messages are the messages that echo in good Americans hearts, and it is my hope that McCain will echo them as well in the final days of this race and somehow pull out a victory.

Over at the Corner at National Review Online, Andy McCarthy writes an interesting piece commenting on Obama's surprising connection with Kenyan strongman Raila Odinga. Mark Levin also wrote about this (link here), and McCarthy draws heavily on a post from Mark Hyman of the Washington Times (link here).

The connection is very troubling between these two people. Once again, Obama has a connection to an anti-American thug willing to do violence, much like Ayers. Obama again has questions raised about his views on religion, as he supported for President in Kenya a Muslim whose followers slaughtered many Christians. Again, Obama has questions raised about his 'citizen of the world status'- why would he support the enemy of a government friendly to the US? Again we see Obama willing to associate himself willingly with socialists. And again Obama connects himself to someone pushing policies of division.

Here is how Odinga is linked to Obama:

Odinga evidently has a very close relationship with Obama. He is native of Kenya's Luo tribe, the same one to which Obama's father belonged. In fact, in early 2008, Odinga told the BBC he is Obama's cousin (i.e., that Obama's father was Odinga's "maternal uncle").

Odinga sought the presidency in Kenya's December 2007 election. In 2006, Obama came to Kenya and campaigned for him, simultaneously voicing sharp criticism of the pro-American government. His comments will sound familiar to Americans. As Hyman writes, Obama declared, "The [Kenyan] people have to suffer over corruption perpetrated by government officials[.]... Kenyans are now yearning for change." Obama's visit, the culmination of consultations with Odinga that had gone on for years, vaulted Odinga's candidacy.(ACM — the outraged Kenyan government issued a rebuttal, greatly disturbed that Obama had represented that he was coming to Kenya to nurture Kenya/U.S. relations but, in fact, had used the trip as a platform to lecture to Kenya about social justice. Obama's interference in a foreign election, transparently designed to topple a government cooperative with the United States, comes close, to say the least, to violating the Logan Act, 18 U.S.C. 953.)

Linking Obama to Odinga is not 'racist' (in reality, I have no idea what race Odigna is), it is not trying to district people from the 'real issues,' and it isn't 'pushing McCain propaganda.' I'm mentioned Obama's troubling links to Odinga to point out that the man who wants to be our next President has a pattern of associating and supporting people who hate America. I'm point out the connection between a socialist strongman in Kenya and Obama because Obama wants to be a socialist strongman in the US. I'm posting about how Obama supports Odinga because Obama supports Odinga's policies of violence, division, socialism, and change.

Read for yourself this information- hopefully it isn't an indication of the scary stuff to come in the US once this guy gets in power.

Via the Volokh Conspiracy comes this good post by University of Chicago law Professor Richard Epstein, who knows Obama personally from long association. Here is what he wrote:

At this point, my fear is that the change in office will not lead to a change in his liberal voting record, as reinforced by a hyperactive Democratic platform. My great fear is that a landslide victory will give him solid majorities in both Houses of Congress, so that no stalling tactics by Republicans can slow down his legislative victory procession. At that point his innate pragmatism will line up with his strong left-of-center beliefs on issues that have thus far been muted during the campaign.

Put otherwise, Obama's vague calls for change that "you can believe in" are, to my thinking, wholly retrograde in their implications. At heart, he is an unreconstructed New Dealer who can see, and articulate, both sides on every question--but only as a prelude to championing the old corporatist agenda with a vengeance.

So, to sum up, an Obama Presidency, combined with liberal Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, would provide no check on his tendency for liberal beliefs, and he would champion a "corporatist agenda." Is "corporatist" anything like economic syndicalism or economic nationalism, as I talked about in my post here?

In a Washington Post article, titled: No-Shows Decried as Rhee Aide Testifies, October 21st, Page B-5/Metro, reporter Bill Turque reported on a hearing held on Monday before Judge Paul Friedman in the Blackman Jones case in which he stated " Richard Nyankori, acting deputy chancellor for special education, said the backlog of DC children awaiting special education services is lengthy in part because school staff don't show up for meetings leaving cases unresolved and parents in the lurch." I was grateful that Bill Turque contacted me for a comment on an issue which I am all too familiar particularly since I represent itinerant related service providers city wide and have worked in special education for 16 years. This is my response: "Candi Peterson ... disputed Nyankori's claims. "That happens to be a lie, for lack of a better word, said Peterson who has worked in DC Schools for 16 years, said no-shows are rare."From my experience, providers are pretty conscientious about showing up. I hate to say this, but I think they're looking for some justification for their lack of compliance."

This article could have been aptly titled: "Rhee swings the axe again" particularly since Rhee's comments indicate that "termination will be swift." Here we go again with the blame game and finger pointing devoid of 'the facts' and lacking accountability for management's responsibility for special education compliance. Special education providers have been accused of other things but not showing up at their MDT meetings is not one of them. I know first hand that while juggling multiple schools, we attend meetings even in the summer ( when we are on leave), conference call in when we are sick, switch days at our other schools to accommodate a parent's schedule just to name a few. Liar, Liar- Pants on Fire !

Rather than belabor the issue, I decided to post comments that I have received on this subject via email as well as comments posted on The Washington Post's website. Feel free to add your own two cents worth on this hot topic.

"Thank you Candi. I am in complete agreement with you and applaud you response. What Nyankori said was a lie ... that can not be excused due to his lack of experience or lack of time with us. One of the things I learned when I was a child was that a liar is one one the most dangerous kinds of people. I still believe that's true."

"How sad can it get? I think this is just horrible, what a perfect way to destroy morale."

"This is shameful; I'm definitely going to make the time to write the court monitors."