My Beauty Best Teacher

In response to the WaPo Saturday story "DC Schools Chief Makes Times Magazine Cover" it is interesting to note that most readers do not favor Rhee's education reform strategies and recent appearance on the cover of Time. Twelve on line posters gave Rhee a thumbs down. This seems to be dramatic shift in public opinion against Rhee as evidenced by not only these posts but other on line comments as well. I have posted a number of the noteworthy ones.(Posted by The Washington Teacher).

Ethan discusses the piracy problem.
The BBC finally "gets it" they report on Aid addiction, its been a long time coming.
Despite its history South Africa continues to get into bed with vile regimes.
Mmegi reports on an initiative to bring small traders into the picture.

A video profile on mobile activism methodologies courtesy of MobileActive.

In college, one of the classes that I didn't like was a class called "Political Economy." The class was an attempt to indoctrinate students with the ideas that the market economy could be controlled, and teach us political science students the phony tools for 'controlling' the market and taming it to the whims of politicians. Class after class I got into an argument with my professor, claiming that the class was a sham, that you can't 'tame' or 'control' the market, only distort it for gain by favored classes. I argued over and over that a political economy was an un-American economy, and was a nice way of saying 'a socialist economy.'

The last day of class, my professor's true colors did come out- our final exam question was "Describe the one form of government that can solve all the worlds economic, environmental, and social class problems." Since I wanted to pass the class (my professor disagreed with me all year so gave me a failing grade on every paper), I wrote a brilliant glowing essay on the joys of communism- good old fashioned Lenin communism- and got an "A" (4.0). I hated that class, and everything it represented.

Today from Charles Krauthammer, who writes for the Washington Post, comes this article called "Come to grips with politicized economy." Here is what he wrote:

In the old days -- from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue -- if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance sheets. Today you learn to read political tea leaves. You don't anticipate Intel's third-quarter earnings; instead, you guess what side of the bed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will wake up on tomorrow.

Today's extreme stock market volatility is not just a symptom of fear -- fear cannot account for days of wild market swings upward -- but a reaction to meta-economic events: political decisions that have vast economic effects.

As economist Irwin Stelzer argues, we have gone from a market economy to a political economy.

We may one day go back to a market economy. Meanwhile, we need to face the two most important implications of our newly politicized economy: the vastly increased importance of lobbying and the massive market inefficiencies that political directives will introduce.

Lobbying used to be about advantages at the margin -- a regulatory break here, a subsidy there. Now lobbying is about life and death. Your lending institution or industry gets a bailout -- or it dies.

You used to go to New York for capital. Now Wall Street, broke, is coming to Washington. With unimaginably large sums of money being given out by Washington,
the Obama administration, through no fault of its own, will be subject to the most intense, most frenzied lobbying in American history. That will introduce one kind of economic distortion. The other kind will come from the political directives issued by newly empowered politicians.

First, bank presidents are gravely warned by one senator after another about "hoarding" their bailout money. But hoarding is another word for recapitalizing to shore up your balance sheet to ensure solvency. Is that not the fiduciary responsibility of bank directors? And isn't pushing money out the window with too little capital precisely the lending laxity that produced this crisis in the first place? Never mind. The banks will knuckle under to the commissars of Capitol Hill. They control the purse. Prudence will yield to politics.

Even more egregious will be the directives to a nationalized Detroit. Sen. Charles Schumer, the noted automotive engineer, declared "unacceptable" last week "a business model based on gas." Instead, "We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car."

The Chevy Volt, for example? It has huge remaining technological hurdles, gets 40 miles on a charge and will sell for about $40,000, necessitating a $7,500 outright government subsidy. Who but the rich and politically correct will choose that over a $12,000 gas-powered Hyundai? The new Detroit churning out Schumer-mobiles will make the steel mills of the Soviet Union look the model of efficiency.

The ruling Democrats have a choice: Rescue this economy to return it to market control. Or use this crisis to seize the commanding heights of the economy for the greater social good. Note: The latter has already been tried. The results are filed under "History, ash heap of."

My prediction- the ruling Democrats, who control us slaves of the state, will distort the market in the name of the 'social good' and create a country that is inefficient, where houses are more expensive and yet worse less, where companies do poorly and their stocks suffer, where banks go under with political pressure, where services suffer, and goods are more expensive and lower quality. In the name of the greater social good, Democrats will take away our liberty and make our nation a poorer place in which to live- in every meaningful way.

Image via WikipediaEthan Zuckerman writes about the Global version of the Afropolitan-Xenophiles:

Xenophiles are people who are fascinated by the whole world, by things other than their ordinary experience. They’re people who want to connect with people who see the world very differently. Some of these people are born this way, lots more are made - a good recipe for xenophilia is to raise a child in a culture deeply different from that of her parents - people call these kids “third culture kids”. Third culture kids have one foot in each of two cultures - the culture of the country they grew up and the culture of their parents, and as a result they don’t really live in either, but a little bit in both. Some kids hate this - many love it, and they end up bridge figures, natural xenophiles who can help translate cultures for other people. Barack Obama’s one of them...[continue reading]

DC Schools Chancellor Rhee (AKA The Broom Lady) gets the cover story in the soon to be released Decmber 8th issue of Time titled "How To Fix America's Schools". In the cover picture, Rhee appears with a broom. Sound eerily familiar to a former DC mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly who vowed to clean house with her infamous broom ? Some would argue that Rhee is on a singular mission to get rid of teachers (good and bad) and that she suffers from tunnel vision because she lacks multifaceted solutions to complex problems that plague public education and fails to include all of the stakeholders. Are you 'Yeah' or 'Nay' on Rhee's vision to save DC Public Schools ?

From PrairiePundit comes this post commenting on the recent poor performance on a civics and history test by US public officials:

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including "self-identified elected officials," was one which asked respondents to "name two countries that were our enemies during World War II."Sixty-nine percent of respondents correctly identified Germany and Japan. Among the incorrect answers were Britain, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Spain.Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to "supervise the first televised presidential debates."In fact, the system of choosing the US president via an indirect electoral college vote dates back some 220 years, to the US Constitution.

The question that received the fewest correct responses, just 16 percent, tested respondents' basic understanding of economic principles, asking why "free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government's centralized planning?"

There seems to be the idea that all the affirmative-action history we're feeding kids (black studies, women's studies, black women's studies, etc.) is a supplement to learning the basics, which they'll somehow absorb no matter what. Instead, the ISI civic literacy test suggests that such instruction is actually crowding out the fundmentals of history and civics. Other than the Declaration's reference to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the two highest scores — i.e., the ones the largest number of people got right — relate to Susan B. Anthony and to MLK's "I have a dream" speech. The 80 percent who got those right compares to fully one-third who didn't know that Germany and Japan were our enemies in WWII, half who didn't know the three branches of government, and nearly 80 percent who didn't know that "government of the people, by the people, for the people" came from the Gettysburg Address. And elected officials scorced even lower than the general public. OK, I shouldn't be surprised, but it seems to me that students shouldn't even hear the words "Susan B. Anthony" until after they've recited the Gettysburg Address from memory and after they've proven they know who was on the losing side of the greatest war in human history.

From the African Executive:

In search of development, African states have adopted all language requirements such as good governance, human rights and so on, to be able to access aid from the West. While many of the values of human rights, good governance and rule of law are fundamental and appropriate democratic norms in Africa and elsewhere, the parroting of these terms without critical analysis and contextual application of same is quite concerning...[continue reading]

G. Pascal Zachary writes in FP:

Obamania in Kenya has gone on for years now, but the hype isn’t just about the president-elect’s roots. Rather, Kenya’s Obama fixation seems to represent a kind of escapist fantasy for an African country beset by political dysfunctionality. Still raw with the memory of the electoral violence that left hundreds dead last spring, Kenya is thirsty for exactly the sort of change Obama represents. Indeed, the Illinois senator seems to possess everything that Kenya’s political leaders lack: youthfulness, a conciliatory image, and the hope of transcending narrow ethnic identities in favor of a common national interest...[continue reading]

From the WSJ comes this impressive and timely post about how we USED to deal with the pirate issue compared to how we deal with it now, and it once again shows that as we try to be more politically correct and more fair, we create a world that is both more unfair and less right. With some editing, here is the article (try this link too), by Bret Stephens:

Year-to-date, Somalia-based pirates have attacked more than 90 ships, seized more than 35, and currently hold 17. Some 280 crew members are being held hostage, and two have been killed. Billions of dollars worth of cargo have been seized; millions have been paid in ransom. A multinational naval force has attempted to secure a corridor in the Gulf of Aden, through which 12% of the total volume of seaborne oil passes, and U.S., British and Indian naval ships have engaged the pirates by force. Yet the number of attacks keeps rising. Why?

The view of senior U.S. military officials seems to be, in effect, that there is no controlling legal authority. Title 18, Chapter 81 of the United States Code establishes a sentence of life in prison for foreigners captured in the act of piracy. But, crucially, the law is only enforceable against pirates who attack U.S.-flagged vessels, of which today there are few.

What about international law? Article 110 of the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Convention -- ratified by most nations, but not by the U.S. -- enjoins naval ships from simply firing on suspected pirates. Instead, they are required first to send over a boarding party to inquire of the pirates whether they are, in fact, pirates. A recent U.N. Security Council resolution allows foreign navies to pursue pirates into Somali waters -- provided Somalia's tottering government agrees -- but the resolution expires next week.

As for the idea of laying waste, Stephen Decatur-like, to the pirate's prospering capital port city of Eyl, this too would require U.N. authorization. Yesterday, a shippers' organization asked NATO to blockade the Somali coast. NATO promptly declined.

Then there is the problem of what to do with captured pirates. No international body similar to the old Admiralty Courts is currently empowered to try pirates and imprison them. The British foreign office recently produced a legal opinion warning Royal Navy ships not to take pirates captive, lest they seek asylum in the U.K. or otherwise face repatriation in jurisdictions where they might be dealt with harshly, in violation of the British Human Rights Act.

In March 2006, the U.S. Navy took 11 pirates prisoner, six of whom were injured. Not wanting to set a precedent for trying pirates in U.S. courts, the State Department turned to Kenya to do the job. The injured spent weeks aboard the USS Nassau, enjoying First World medical care.

All this legal exquisiteness stands in contrast to what was once a more robust attitude. Pirates, said Cicero, were hostis humani generis -- enemies of the human race -- to be dealt with accordingly by their captors. Tellingly, Cicero's notion of piracy vanished in the Middle Ages; its recovery traces the recovery of the West itself.

By the 18th century, pirates knew exactly where they stood in relation to the law. A legal dictionary of the day spelled it out: "A piracy attempted on the Ocean, if the Pirates are overcome, the Takers may immediately inflict a Punishment by hanging them up at the Main-yard End; though this is understood where no legal judgment may be obtained." Severe as the penalty may now seem (albeit necessary, since captured pirates were too dangerous to keep aboard on lengthy sea voyages), it succeeded in mostly eliminating piracy by the late 19th century -- a civilizational achievement no less great than the elimination of smallpox a century later.

Today, by contrast, a Navy captain who takes captured pirates aboard his state-of-the-art warship will have a brig in which to keep them securely detained, and instantaneous communications through which he can obtain higher guidance and observe the rule of law.

Yet what ought to be a triumph for both justice and security has turned out closer to the opposite. Instead of greater security, we get the deteriorating situation described above. And in pursuit of a better form of justice -- chiefly defined nowadays as keeping a clear conscience -- we get (at best) a Kenyan jail. "We're humane warriors," says one U.S. Navy officer. "When the pirates put down their RPGs and raise their hands, we take them alive. And that's a lot tougher than taking bodies."

Piracy, of course, is hardly the only form of barbarism at work today: There are the suicide bombers on Israeli buses, the stonings of Iranian women, and so on. But piracy is certainly the most primordial of them, and our collective inability to deal with it says much about how far we've regressed in the pursuit of what is mistakenly thought of as a more humane policy. A society that erases the memory of how it overcame barbarism in the past inevitably loses sight of the meaning of civilization, and the means of sustaining it.

Unfortunately our WTU Representative Assembly November 25th meeting was cancelled once again by President George Parker due to the holidays. As a result the WTU has failed to hold a representative assembly meeting in September, October or November.

WTU Executive Board members have been notified that a special meeting of the executive board will be held Thursday, December 4, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at the WTU office. Ms. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has been invited to the meeting to discuss critical issues affecting the WTU. I am sure that issues related to our tentative agreement (teacher contract) and recent discussions with Chancellor Rhee will be among the hot topics to be discussed.

This meeting will be held at the WTU office located at 490 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Suite 7200, telephone : 202-293-8600. Union members interested in attending should email WTU President George Parker @ gparker@wtulocal6.org to let him know that you will be attending. (Posted by The Washington Teacher).

Warren Consolidated Schools is launching a renewable energy boondoggle that includes the placement of a wind-powered turbine at the Macomb Mathematics Science Technology Center, which is the district's math and science magnet school. The turbine will generate almost no power and will become the focus of a new curriculum that teaches that jobs and energy come from government handouts, and that the market does not direct profitable endeavours, but government does.

Bob Freehan, a district spokesman, said "We want to be aggressively involved in the type of manufacturing that's going to be part of our future"- ie, after the government kills all other industry in Michigan with high taxes (to provide money for things like wind-powered turbines), then the government can now dictate that public schools (funded with taxpayer dollars) shove environmental mythology down students minds.

The district plans to develop a curriculum on renewable energy for all grade levels starting next school year. To make room for this curriculum, something has to be cut- in my mind, they'll cut history and literature to make room for more 'renewable energy' curriculum.

This is the future of the United States, my friends- the government raising taxes and sucking the money out of the economy in order to build expensive, non-efficient, non-profitable 'environmental' ventures, that suck more money out of the economy, and the whole enterprise is backed up by an environmental mythology forced on students in public schools.

Here is the story in the AP Press.

Yesterday I wrote about how the good guys are winning in Afghanistan- via The CR Voice comes this video about how the good guys have almost won in Iraq.



When the US gets a chance to do good in the world, good things happen. Our country is not perfect, but given the chance, our troops can make the world a better place. That idea alone scares both liberals and libertarians alike- that our military can be a force of good in the world, that our troops can make an ugly and brutal world into a world of shops and people. It is tough to do that without crossing the line into imperialism and tyranny- but the US is an exceptional country able to do tough things.

Nubian Cheetah highlights a TV series about African technology, innovation and ingenuity:

Gautam Bandyopadhyay writes in the African Executive:

An exciting landscape is emerging in the banking arena, one where there is a billion-strong market actively seeking financial services but remains largely unattended to. These globally distributed prospective customers represent enormous earning potential for banks, but constitute the unbanked...[continue reading]

Via Powerlineblog comes this stirring account of Marines fighting in Afghanistan by Michael Ledeen.

FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.

Shewan has historically been a safe haven for insurgents, who used to plan and stage attacks against Coalition Forces in the Bala Baluk district. The city is home to several major insurgent leaders. Reports indicate that more than 250 full time fighters reside in the city and in the surrounding villages.

Shewan had been a thorn in the side of Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Afghanistan throughout the Marines' deployment here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, because it controls an important supply route into the Bala Baluk district. Opening the route was key to continuing combat operations in the area.

"The day started out with a 10-kilometer patrol with elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to Shewan, we were pretty beat," said a designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified. "Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our 'humvees' was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast."

The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.

"The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they're given the opportunity to fight," the sniper said. "A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The
insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong."

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn't miss any shots, despite the enemies' rounds impacting within a foot
of his fighting position.

"I was in my own little world," the young corporal said. "I wasn't even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target."

After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies' spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more.

"I didn't realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies' lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us," the corporal said. "It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured."

In 1919, the United States had an opportunity to stop communism before it ever took root in this world. Imagine a world where the Soviet Union would have never existed- a world where millions would not have been wiped out by the brutal dictator Stalin, where Stalin would not have encouraged Hitler, where the Soviet Union would not have aided Red China, where the Soviet Union would not have engaged in a long and expensive Cold War.

At various times in history, there is the possibility to do real change- real change for the better. All you need is good leadership and the strong will to do what is right. The US had that chance back in 1919, but sadly, we had weak leadership and a man in charge of our nation who did not do what was right.

At the close of WWI, the US landed forces at two points in Russia. The Polar Bear Expedition landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia (north Russia near Finland) with 5,000 combat troops. The AEF Siberia landed 8,000 men in Vladivostok, Russia (east Russian Siberia). Together, these two units could have helped the White Army fight the Red Army. Together, they may have played a role in weakening the Red Army, taking away popular support from it, or fighting it until the opponents of communists could regain their footing and support. If these troops were reinforced, strengthened, or helped out, just maybe the world would have been a different place years later.

Instead, US President Wilson limited the participation and scope of US involvement in Russia, and after one year, withdrew the troops. A moment passed, and without Western support, the Red Army soon defeated the White Army, and eventually time forgot that we had a chance, even if it was a long shot chance, of changing the world for the better.

Right now we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are turning the tide, winning against all odds, fighting bad guys, and doing great things. Will they be given a chance to win, or will their mission be limited, and eventually withdrawn, and 50 years from now, we'll look back and think what might have been.

UPDATE: Check out this story by Has Von Spakovsky over at the Wall Street Journal Online. It's an amazing story about his father, who was a White Army officer serving near Arkhangelsk, who fled to Finland after the US troops pulled out. The best part is when he and his companions stop and celebrate Christmas, freezing and starving and dodging Red patrols.

On last Thursday evening , DC Jobs with Justice hosted a Workers' Rights Board hearing at the DC City Council. I was happy to be an invited guest to speak at this event. The purpose of this event was to allow city workers to discuss their concerns about what is happening across the board to city government workers and public services under the Fenty administration. Panelists of city workers testified before the Workers' Rights Board. This board plans to develop an action plan to address concerns from city workers in DC Public Schools, Child and Family Services Administration, and Department of Mental Health. Amongst the recommendations are upcoming meetings with the DC City Council.

"Catastrophe, intimidation, terror. These were common words used to describe DC Mayor Adrian Fenty’s two years in office by over a dozen speakers at Thursday’s Workers’ Rights Board (WRB) hearing. The hearing – which took place at the John A. Wilson Building to a standing-room only crowd of hundreds of residents, workers and activists – was held to examine Mayor Fenty’s assault on DC public sector workers and proposals to cut public services. “I see what is happening right now as a major catastrophe,” said Roger Newell, chair of DC Jobs with Justice. “We need to speak loudly and strongly that working people made this city and stuck with this city through times of crisis. Workers should be respected not attacked and politicians who attack workers should be held accountable.”

Metro Council President Jos Williams said that Mayor Fenty has created an “environment based on intimidation” of workers through the gutting of the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) , abolishment of the Labor-Management Partnership Program and the appointment of School Chancellor Michelle Rhee who “has made it her mission to make every employee at-will.” “The door was closed to labor immediately by the Mayor after taking office,” said Dwight Bowman, AFGE National Vice President for District 14. “The Mayor chose to ignore our efforts to reach out.” Bowman also compared Mayor Fenty’s refusal to address the crisis with the PERB to similar moves by the Bush Administration to destroy the federal grievance process.

Other panelists discussed Mayor Fenty’s assault on DC public sector workers in specific agencies, including the DC Public Schools, the Child and Family Services Agency and the Department of Mental Health (DMH), and its impact on education and public and mental health services. “I have never seen a climate like what is occurring now,” said Jeff Canady, a 17-year teacher in the DC Public Schools (DCPS). “Everyday I run into workers and teachers who have horror stories about intimidation on the job…It is an absolute climate of intimidation and terror that teachers are facing.” Canady argued the problem is not bad teachers but a lack of resources, supplies and support for teachers as well as Chancellor Rhee’s “complete lack of understanding about what needs to be done.”

Candi Peterson, a 16-year veteran of DCPS and active member of WTU Local 6, criticized Fenty and Rhee for the firings of hundreds of DCPS workers which, she argued, created overcrowded classrooms and forced teachers to work in areas outside their certification. “Rhee regularly blames teachers and argues that union contracts and teachers' seniority rights stand in the way of the best education for our children.” But the reality is that her “anti-union tactics support more privatization and outsourcing of public education, the creation of more unchecked charter schools, unsound educational practices, gutting hard-earned job protections and union busting”."

Maria Jones , a parent active in school issues and a 26-year resident of DC, called Rhee’s school reform plan a redistribution of wealth and “children are being exploited and denied a quality education” as a result.

Marketta McCoy – a recently fired investigator at the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) and member of AFSCME Council 20 – said workers are being scapegoated for the recent high-profile failures at the CFSA . McCoy added that the real issue is Mayor Fenty and CFSA management’s refusal to help provide workers with desperately needed resources and a reduction in caseloads. “Management should treat workers with dignity and respect,” said McCoy.

Roy Rogers – an employee of the DC DMH Community Services Agency (CSA) and 1199SEIU member – and Dr. Ray Brown – President of the DC Doctors Council/AFSCME – also discussed the Fenty Administration’s plans to privatize mental health services . “Closing DC CSA will leave the most vulnerable, victimized, voiceless, neediest and exploited citizens of the District without a safety net,” said Rogers. “Why eliminate these jobs now with the current economic crisis which is bound to cause more need for mental health services?” Brown said the privatization plan could affect 4,000 patients and put communities into crisis. “This is a catastrophe,” said Brown adding that the DC City Council must act to pass emergency legislation to stop the contracting out (click here to take action on this issue).

DC City Councilmembers Phil Mendelson and Harry Thomas Jr. briefly sat in with the Workers’ Rights Board to listen to panelists’ testimony. Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Yvette Alexander also made appearances. Mayor Fenty, Chancellor Rhee and other Councilmembers were invited to attend but did not show, says DC Jobs with Justice Organizer Ruth Castel-Branco. “The response to this event was overwhelming,” said Castel-Branco. “We received more requests for people to testify than we could fit into the short time frame we had. It shows that workers and DC residents are fed up with Mayor Fenty’s anti-worker, anti-democractic agenda.” An action plan, based on the testimony and recommendations of panelists, from Workers’ Rights Board members is expected in the coming months. Courtesy of DC Metro Labor-AFL-CIO. "(Posted by The Washington Teacher).

In the summer of 2007, Michigan replaced its Single Business Tax with a new tax- the Michigan Business Tax. Under the leadership of Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm and a Democratic state Congress, this new tax was passed over the objections of many businesses and groups in Michigan.

According to proponents of the new tax plan, 75% of businesses in Michigan would get a tax cut, primarily industrial and telecommunications firms. But the overall amount of money that the state would bring in would grow, so that means that under the new tax plan the remaining 25% would pay more in taxes. These groups would be the financial section and real estate sectors.

One year later, I have a question for you- what two industries are destroying our economy? Banks and real estate! Bingo! The very industries that the state raised taxes on went into recession, driving the rest of the economy for our state down, and ironically, because the auto industries in Michigan ran out of credit, destroying the very firms they were supposed to be helping.

Anyone who wants the state to do more in our economy, to bail out industries, to change taxes around to benefit one group over the other, or who want to give tax breaks to favored industries and punish others, better think about this example- the state doesn't have a freaking clue what it is doing. The law of unintended consequences takes over after the state makes changes- in this case, the state of Michigan may have actually helped to collapse our national economy by attacking banks and real estate with higher taxes right when these industries needed the most help.

Information for this post came from this source.

Koinonia founded Benjamin Ogunyo is getting Kenya’s street children back into their homes by empowering their families to become economically independent, socially responsible, and emotionally accessible for their estranged children. By alleviating the severe pressures impoverished families face, he is helping build healthier communities capable of taking responsibility for solving problems together and overcoming poverty, crime, disease and hopelessness-Ashoka
Watch interview with Benjamin:


via Mootbox

Since Obama has already done so much for our country and is already a great President- no, perhaps the greatest President that we've ever had- a school has been named in his honor. Last week, the town of Hempstead, New York, became the first to name one of its schools after our next president. Getting an early jump on things, Ludlum Elementary will become Barack Obama Elementary School.

Apparently the children of the school, unprompted by administration, spontaneously and unanimously voted to change the name of the school, and there was joyous celebration.

This is the second school named after the One. In Kogelo, Kenya, there is the the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School- in 2006, then-Senator Obama was visiting his father’s ancestral home in Kogelo when it was announced that a school was being renamed for him. He was honored to accept this, and pledged that he would help raise money to support the school. He never did, probably because of something Republicans did.

(FYI- There was a lot of sarcasm here!)

Believe it or not, this is actually a Chinese curse, and not something that people actually want. And yet, reading what some are writing about Obama, and listening to what they say about Obama, you would think that people actually do want to live in interesting times- they want to live in a time of great upheaval and great change.

Many want Obama to be Lincoln, who, even though he was a great President, was head of a country that descended into a Civil War that was incredibly bloody and socially destructive. They want Obama to be FDR, who was the head of a nation that went into its longest and deepest recession ever and engaged in another bloody and destructive war. Or they want Obama to be JFK or LBJ, both of whom ran a country that was in the midst of some interesting times- riots, strikes, Vietnam, etc.

How come liberals and the media don't want to live in the 1980's, that was a long boring time of economic growth and rebuilding of strength. Or the 1950's, when our country returned to white picket fences and normal times (admittedly, I'm too young for this, but I always loved that show Wonder Years). Because those were the boring times under Republican Presidents, and were not times when liberals grew in power.

Via Ed Driscroll, here is what Jonah Goldberg wrote:

Listening to liberals gush over a "new New Deal" and Obama's call for us to emulate the "Greatest Generation," you'd think they want another Great Depression and World War.

Indeed, liberals have long idolized the 1930s as a decade of great unity. It wasn't. The 1930s was a miserable decade of poverty, domestic unrest, labor strife, violations of civil liberties and widespread fear. If liberals really loved peace, prosperity and national cohesion, they'd remember the 1920s or 1950s more fondly. And yet they don't. Why? Because liberals didn't get to impose their schemes and dreams on the country in those decades. Behind all the talk of unity and bipartisanship and shared sacrifice lies an uglier ambition: power. The audacity of hope behind all this Lincoln-FDR-Obama blather is the dream of riding roughshod over the opposition, of having their way, of total victory.

The Chinese curse and cliche "may you live in interesting times" is on point. Liberals (and a few conservatives as well, alas) seem desperate to live in interesting times. Not me.

Echoing my post from yesterday comes the following article by the Wall Street Journal. As I put it in my post, the ouster of Dingell in favor of Waxman was "another great day for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party of America, but probably another bad day for America," and the WSJ also has picked up that the Waxman election shows that the Democratic Party is now thoroughly a tool of the far left environmentalists. Traditional liberals (Dingell), traditional Democrats (Lieberman), moderates (increasingly marginalized), and conservatives (long gone) no longer have a home in the new Democratic Party.

Quoting from the Wall Street Journal article:

John Dingell's fall from power yesterday is an important inflection point in the history of the modern Democratic Party. The House purge marks the final triumph of the Congressional generation that came of political age during the 1970s over the last lion of New Deal liberalism, and it is symbolic of the party's change in culture and policy priorities in the Barack Obama era.

That fissure neatly separates the Waxman Democrats from the old vanguard that Mr. Dingell represents. He was first elected in 1955 and has always tried to protect his hometown Detroit auto makers from the eco-mandates that ultimately helped to land them in their present predicament. Mr. Dingell's rough-hewn candor about the realities of "doing something" about climate change also helped to make him a green pariah. He knows that carbon regulation and taxes will fall most heavily on domestic manufacturing and Midwest states that rely on coal-fired power. His sympathies lie with the people who work near (or in) factories and drive Fords or Chevys.

Mr. Waxman, speaking for the upscale precincts of Beverly Hills, wants to phase out coal and cars that use gasoline. The coastal elites who now dominate Democratic politics will happily trade the blue collar for the green collar.

The irony is that Democrats have found, in Mr. Waxman, an even more extreme antibusiness tribune, who will no doubt use his new powers to go after any concern that turns a profit but refuses to pay his party the obeisance of campaign cash and regulatory submission.

This Thursday, House Democrats voted by secret ballot to oust long time U.S. Rep. John Dingell as chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell was a longtime Congressman who was a solid liberal and an ally of the Big Three domestic automakers and was noted for his practical approach to governmental issues. The Michigan lawmaker lost to far left wing Democratic rival, Henry Waxman, a liberal icon from California, who is noted for his unblinking support for environmental lobbying groups.

Dingell had chaired or been the ranking Democrat on the committee since 1981, but the new Democrats felt he wasn't anti-growth, pro-taxes, and communist enough in his approach, so replaced him with Waxman, who will focus on overhauling the nation's energy policy by ending all domestic energy production, will fight to curbing any gases produced by production or people, and will expand health care coverage to more illegal immigrants and politically well-connected groups.

In a DC Wire article yesterday written by Bill Turque, it is reported that under Rhee's helm (17 months and counting ) , one third of the DC principal corps have either been fired, resigned or retired. Three principals have been replaced already this school year by Rhee. The Wire reports that Rhee's draft "action plan, which will be presented before the city council today, "says that while there has been improvement, "DCPS still lacks a critical mass of leaders with instructional expertise and/or a proven track record of success in turning around low-performing schools."

"The plan calls for intensifying what had already been touted by Rhee as a vigorous national recruiting effort. The goal is to provide seven "high-quality principal candidates" for every future vacancy and three qualified prospects "pre-approved by the Chancellor before they even meet with the school community panels that screen potential principals. Rhee also wants to open a "School Leadership Academy" that will nurture new principals and develop administrators with the potential to become school leaders."

It seems that many who have posted comments on the DC Wire question Rhee's management acumen (or lack thereof) . Here's what they are saying:

"Rhee is quite delusional if she thinks she's going to attract "top-shelf" principal candidates to the current low-morale school system. A coach is only as good as his/her team. She has to build from the bottom up (i.e., support for teachers, training, etc.). It doesn't help that she espouses a leadership style where "collaboration and cooperation" are overrated."

"If only such rigorous rules were in place before Mayor Fenty basically appointed Rhee as Chancellor. Has any team or organization ever done markedly better after a midstream firing? So far, that is about all Rhee seems to be able to do. Can someone tell me what she and Fenty do between the end of June and early September? Do they actually vet their administrative hires? So far the strategy it seems to be "Fire, ready...set...aim!" And one more point. Fenty is trying to get Obama to take a look at DC Public Schools. Did you know that Fenty sends his kids to a private school? I did not vote for Obama to Chair the DC School Board. Fenty should have to fix this mess himself."

"Finally - someone is taking action to bring the District teaching corp into the 21st century! People defending the current system should be ashamed of themselves; every day they spend arguing that we need to protect the rights of the people who aren't qualified to educate our children is another day that those children are falling behind the rest of the country and the world. If people want to protect the good teachers (which they should), they need to come up with a radical idea to get rid of the bad ones...now."

"If there were any doubts before, there should be great clarity that DCPS is "stuck on stupid" Principals whose school were making AYP were not re-appointed. Now the new army of believers that were hired are getting fired by the month. The best in terms of experience were let go and the new inexperienced NLNS are getting fired. Who is left? Who wants to re-locate to DC? Seven candidates for every one vacancy? Who are we kidding? This is coming from a person who is clueless when it comes to knowing what administrators do on a daily basis. She taught for three years, has never been a school administrator and was a poor manager when she was at ST. Hope. Read the articles on the turn-over. Principals and teachers left due to the bullying tactics of Rhee and Kevin Johnson. She just doesn't have the skills needed to run a school system."

"I hope the new principals get a big fat signing bonus like Rhee got before they commit to working in a DC school. A housing allowance might be nice too. Unless they come from Manhattan, San Francisco or Boston, they might be discouraged by the high housing prices, knowing they could get fired at the drop of a hat - especially if one of their disgruntled teachers goes to the press with a problem principals are afraid to report because it might make them look as if they can't control an uncontrollable school. I hope the prospective principals do a little googling and read some recent Washington Post articles to get a real feel for the problems here. If they just listen to Rhee and the national press, they'll erroneously think they're walking into a grand educational opportunity - A chance to shine and make their reputation. I hope they talk to some current principals who are candid enough to acknowledge their regret for falling that false promise."

"To be perfectly blunt Rhee must really be possessed by the desire to fire people because that's all she seems to do. It is a shame!!"

"No one really knows how hard it is for DCPS but the people who work in the schools. Rhee has done nothing but destroy our schools with her poor management skills. DC council members were right when they questioned her a few weeks ago and told her how non effective she is at running our school system. Well what do we expect since she got her "power" from our mayor. (who by the way has too much power). The city council better step up and oversee what is going on. What we do today is effecting our youth tomorrow. Rhee and Fenty's goals are to rid our city of public schools and increase charter schools. Wake up DC residents. Rhee did an awful job in NY and now she's doing the same here in DC. These new teachers don't plan to stay and have no vested interest in our children and their future. HUMMM, I wonder if Rhee has a vested interest?"

"At Shepherd, we had a panel of principal candidates presented last spring. One parent rep on the panel described the candidate pool as "shallow." A major problem with the process at Shepherd occurred because we had been repeatedly told by several DCPS officials that every panel received its first or second choice candidate, and the schools were always very happy. In this case, because the candidate pool was so shallow, the same candidates were sent to multiple schools. Two of the current DCPS employees were ranked first and second by our panel. These same individuals were each ranked high by at least one other school. Rhee then gave the panelists the choice of which school assignment they preferred (a logical way to resolve the assignment). She told Shepherd this in October, after she had appointed a lower ranked candidate. No one knew why when the appointment was made in June. So, if last year's candidates are any measure of who Rhee is able to attract, she attracts about 1.25 candidates for each open position (4 of the 5 panelists received appointments), all candidates live locally, most are internal to DCPS, and few if any have prior experience at the job they are applying for.

By the way, in October, the next principal that Rhee appointed to Shepherd after firing the one that she had just appointed in July, also does not have prior experience as an elementary school principal. And this newest principal announced at last night's PTA meeting that she'll be out for 3 to 4 weeks in March/April on maternity leave. So for Shepherd, the final count is 4 principals and interims in the 2007-08 school year, and at least 2 principals and 1 interim in 2008-09 (it's still early in the year for us). I think the mainstream press that believes Rhee when she says folks are coming from all over the country to work for her needs to do a little more fact checking." Posted by The Washington Teacher.

Today was the Oakland County Republican Convention. As an elected official, it is my duty to attend and be active, and I was. I chatted with several people about the auto loan, voted on procedural stuff, and listened to the speeches. It was a good time. If you're not an elected official or precinct delegate, I encourage you to do so and become active in the party- the only way to truly effect change is by using the tools that are out there, which include the Republican Party.

For those who were not there or who wonder what really occurs at these events, it is an attempt to meet people and get hear some good speeches. The speeches that were at the convention all had pretty much the same themes, and I write about them now to give you a window into what the Republican Party in Oakland County, Michigan, is thinking.

Ronald Reagan featured prominently in every speech. In fact, the keynote speech (found here) by Oakland County Executive L Brooks Patterson was basically just a series of quotes from Reagan. Apparently when Republicans talk about getting back to the basics and being a party of ideas and solutions, what they mean is going back to Reagan and the points he talked about- and that's not a bad thing, because the more I learn about Reagan, the more I think he got it. For example, see my earlier post about his "A Time for Choosing" speech.

Patterson drew heavily on Reagan's 1975 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). You will immediately see its relevance to today as I quote from it:

Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted...

...Now, it is possible we have been persuasive to a greater degree than we had ever realized. Few, if any, Democratic party candidates in the last election ran as liberals. Listening to them I had the eerie feeling we were hearing reruns of Goldwater speeches....

...But let’s not be so naive as to think we are witnessing a mass conversion to the principles of conservatism. Once sworn into office, the victors reverted to type. In their view, apparently, the ends justified the means....

...Our task is to make them see that what we represent is identical to their own hopes and dreams of what America can and should be. If there are questions as to whether the principles of conservatism hold up in practice, we have the answers to them. Where conservative principles have been tried, they have worked....

Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness. I don ‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party”—when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls.... Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.

Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.

Let our banner proclaim a genuine tax reform that will begin by simplifying the income tax so that workers can compute their obligation without having to employ legal help.

Let our banner proclaim our belief in a free market as the greatest provider for the people.

Let us also call for an end to the nit-picking, the harassment and over-regulation of business and industry which restricts expansion and our ability to compete in world markets.

Let us explore ways to ward off socialism, not by increasing government’s coercive power, but by increasing participation by the people in the ownership of our industrial machine.

Our banner must recognize the responsibility of government to protect the law-abiding, holding those who commit misdeeds personally accountable.

We will maintain whatever level of strength is necessary to preserve our free way of life.

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers. I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.

Through the wonders of wikipedia, I'm able to learn all sorts of neat facts. File this post under "Fun Facts", since this is only marginally relevant information today, but fun to know anyways.

The first thing I discovered in my wanderings around wikipedia was that the Iraqi Intelligence service, specifically Directorate 14. Special Operations, created insurgency plan called The Challenge Project. The Challenge Project was Saddam Hussein's pre-US invasion (see Iraq War) backup plan for establishing a long-term insurgency designed to inhibit the American occupation of Iraq. The idea was that before the US invaded, Directorate 14 was instructed to establish a network of intelligence agents throughout Iraq who would wait until the American military was fully entrenched in the occupation of Iraq, and then begin engaging in insurgent guerrilla warfare. This would eventually drive the US out of Iraq.

What is shocking about discovering the Challenge Project is that this plan is that it almost worked, and would have worked if the Democrats would have won the Presidency in 2004 or been more forceful after their wins in 2006. It is also shocking that no one has done further research into this (that I can find out), because it makes it clear that we are fighting a war against a bad enemy in Iraq, and not creating the war ourselves.

Over the weekend there was a good article in the Detroit News by Daniel Howes- check it out here. This article talks about many of the same things I wrote about in my post here, but I want to come back to them again, because this battle about giving a loan to auto companies is not so much about the loan as it is about political power in our country- it is a battle about political parties, unions, businesses, and the future role of government in the economy.

Picking up with that thought, here is what Howes wrote:

There's an internecine fight between opposing wings of the Democratic Party. On one side stand more liberal coastal lawmakers with close ties to a well-heeled environmental lobby, a documented antipathy for the Detroit auto industry and even less understanding of it. On the other are more conservative Rust Belt Democrats allied with the traditional constituencies of Big Labor, Detroit's Big Three automakers and middle class voters who, as President Clinton often put it, work hard and play by the rules.

The smart, if predictable, money is on the coastal-environmental wing because that's where the leadership, the political power, the media influence and the stated predilections of the president-elect reside. The winner would be able to dictate the terms for an industry bailout and, further down the road, a new environmental regime.

There's the building clash between two of the biggest egos in the House. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, is campaigning to oust Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, from his chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce committee, a move that would dramatically tilt policy making toward environmental interest groups determined to reshape the auto industry by legislative fiat -- not the pull of the market or the prodding of energy prices.

Dingell, a practiced infighter who came to Congress when Eisenhower was president, is calling in political chits to defeat Waxman's bid. But the implication for Detroit is clear: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Californian to Waxman, wants congressional oversight of the auto industry to shift from parochial concerns to a national priority she can try to control and the Big Three cannot.

Detroit's most potent bargaining chips this week are the millions of American jobs it supports, not insignificant as the nation slides deeper into recession, job losses mount and the Democrats cement their control of Washington.

Here in Detroit, a recent audit by the Detroit News turned up more evidence that we are descending into a police state- in this case, the News found out that police are being forced to write tickets in order to fund their operations. This could be a good thing- self-sufficient government and all that libertarian stuff- but I think it is a bad thing- there is more and more pressure on officials to enforce every law without regard to fairness and justice, just to make a buck.

This line in the article in particular bothers me:

The attempt to have Shelby (Township Police) officers write more tickets is likely tied to a proposed $23 million police and court complex.

Many spectators are conducting an American Federation of Teachers' watch now that AFT President Randi Weingarten recently retracted her original position to stay out of local union matters and has now become involved in DC teacher contract talks. A meeting has recently been scheduled with Chancellor Rhee in order to forge discussions ahead according to today's WA PO articled titled: "Union Chiefs and Rhee Will Meet- Talks Will Involve DC National Teachers' Group" by Bill Turque. Weingarten made it clear that she "disagrees" with Fenty and Rhee's recent proposal to possibly seek federal legislation declaring the DC school system in a "state of emergency".

In today's article , Randi Weingarten stated , "I've reached out to the chancellor. In an interview later, she said she and WTU President George Parker "are anxious to meet with the chancellor. . . . There's been a lot of buzzing back and forth trying to find a date." ....

Weingarten appeared before an audience of union leaders including Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller (D- Calif), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. In her speech she indicated that -- "no issue should be off the table, provided it is good for children and fair for teachers. She also cautioned school administrators and policymakers to reconsider their demonization of teachers unions as the main impediment to school reform. Think of a teacher who is staying up past midnight to prepare her lesson plan . . . a teacher who is paying for equipment out of his own pocket so his students can conduct science experiments. . . . These are the people the AFT represents. Make no mistake about it -- when you attack us, you attack them."

The Post reported that, "Weingarten did not mention Rhee by name in her prepared comments. But during a brief interview after her speech, she criticized Rhee's consideration of measures that would release the District from its legal obligation to bargain with the Washington Teachers' Union. These include seeking revival of the city's ability to open nonunion charter schools, and legislation that would declare a post-Katrina-style "state of emergency" that would effectively allow Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to create a new, union-free school system."

Education notes on line blogger from New York had this to say about AFT President Weingarten's involvement in DC contract talks: " Mayor Mike is showing his appreciation by introducing Randi Weingarten at a big shindig in DC. Randi watchers are sitting back to see how Randi, with her speak-out-of-5-sides-of-her-mouth tendencies," handles the Rhee situation."

Given the fact that the AFT has historically chosen to not become involved in local union issues even while the WTU, local 6 was swindled out of millions of dollars by former WTU President Barbara Bullock it will be interesting to watch the outcome of these discussion with Rhee. Feel free to weigh in on this latest development. (posted by The Washington Teacher).

Link to today's article in its entirety :http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111701581.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Via the Belmont Club, where the post was on Obama's proposed Brownshirts force, I came upon this little tidbit about the new proposed Department of Peace and Nonviolence:

GovTrack has this entry for H.R. 808, “A bill to establish a Department of Peace and Nonviolence,” sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D-OH]. The bill was introduced February, 2007. It aims to establish a new Department of Peace and Nonviolence with the following offices:

Office of Peace Education and Training, Office of Domestic Peace Activities, Office of International Peace Activities, Office of Technology for Peace, Office of Arms Control and Disarmament, Office of Peaceful Coexistence and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution, Office of Human Rights and Economic Rights, and the Intergovernmental Advisory Council on Peace and Nonviolence. According to the bill’s text, a representative of the Department of Peace and Nonviolence will sit on the National Security Council, recommend policy to the Attorney General and advise the Secretary of Defense and State on all matters concerning national security.