yurbud
yurbud's JournalPHOTOSHOP: Abe Lincoln robbed me of my freedom
This raises a good question about what the limits of economic freedom should be when they interfere with someone else's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Should one person's right to unlimited profit trump (no pun intended) other people's rights of all kinds?
PS: I don't think Lincoln was Muslim, but Marx did write him a fan letter. http://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm
PPS: in case it isn't clear, I am anti-slavery, anti-unregulated business rights, and don't think being called a Muslim or a marxist is an insult (though I'd like to talk to the latter and figure out where they went off the rails).
Democrats appear to take Senate; Walker plans bipartisan summit
Source: Journal Sentinel of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel Updated: 12:10 p.m.
Madison - A triumphant Gov. Scott Walker will meet with his cabinet Wednesday on jobs and start planning a Wisconsin-style bipartisan summit with lawmakers over brats and beer.
But for at least six months, it appears that he could have to accommodate a newly Democratic Senate. Republicans needed to win all four state Senate recall races Tuesday to hold onto that house but were declared winners in only three of those contests.
According to the unofficial tally by The Associated Press, GOP Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine trailed by 779 votes to Democratic challenger and former Sen. John Lehman. The race has not been called by The Associated Press nor conceded by Wanggaard, though Democrats have declared victory.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-to-meet-with-cabinet-on-jobs-8i5mapa-157488605.html
If the Democrats do their job this will be almost as good as removing Walker.
But will they have the balls to be as obstructionist as the GOP can be?
PIC: GOP 7 step program of governance
The only "problem" with this analysis is it leaves out the right's definition of problem: anything that impedes the free flow of all cash and property into the hands of the very few.
GREAT PHOTOSHOP: Obama is not the foreign born socialist giving away free healthcare...
Has Obama or Congressional Dems ever used lefty web sources to do an end run around MSM?
Someone said in another thread that Eric Holder might be doing the right thing on voter suppression, but the media isn't covering it.
In the early 1990's and before, that excuse was probably legitimate, and even in the run up to the Iraq War, I wondered why so few in Congress asked the right questions, only to find out after much digging that they DID, and with only one or two exceptions, those words fell down the memory hole without leaving the slightest ripple.
Dennis Kucinich, Alan Grayson, and a handful of others seemed to know how to be heard in the lefty web even when the MSM wasn't interested in what they have to say.
Are the others just clueless, or do they figure that those with money and power don't look any further than a handful of papers and cable news for their info, so there's no point in spreading the word through sources that only reach actual people?
I guess this is a web variation on the "bully pulpit and why it remains empty" question.
Why is it largely not done?
Two major Florida newspapers highly critical of high stakes state test, the FCAT.
This is just one piece of the education "reform" pie, but the whole thing is rotten, designed to drain money out of public schools and into the pockets of test companies, and then when the test results show any shortcoming of schools, it is used as an excuse to divert funds to for profit charter schools and education management companies.
Part of why this problem has persisted so long is teachers unions have not been forceful enough in opposing it and calling a spade a spade: these reforms are about politicians who have been bribed or coerced to steal from our children's education.
If politicians really cared about public schools, they would require lower student teacher ratios, tutors for struggling kids, and school based social services for dysfunctional families that make it tough for think straight in school--not more testing, teacher firing, and turning over the schools to well connected political cronies.
There is a contribution the private sector can make: politicians could look at what works in the private schools THEIR children attend and see if those practices can be adapted to the public school setting.
You can be damn sure those schools they send their kids to aren't doing high stakes testing every other month and stripping their curriculum down to how to fill in the bubbles on those tests.
Teachers need to figure out exactly which companies are paying for this political agenda and every time they are on a purchasing committee, insist that their district choose another product. In the case of testing, I'm not sure why states can't use teachers to produce and grade their own tests rather than use private companies, or teachers in several states couldn't develop the tests cooperatively.
In any case, it's time to put educators back in charge of education instead of hedge fund managers who want to sell our kids' futures like so many pork bellies or sides of beef.
The Orlando Sentinel pointed out just how high stakes this test has become.
Too much is riding on testing data that cannot be trusted
The Sentinel points out that student promotion, graduation, the evaluation of teachers and administrators, the letter grade assigned to schools--are all dependent on this test.
The company, NCS Pearson, that develops the test is able to do so secretly and without much oversight. Many honors students in advanced classes have been assigned to remedial reading classes if they failed it. That's a lot of power for one company to have.
THE FULL STORY AT DAILYKOS
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/19/1093143/-Two-major-Florida-newspapers-highly-critical-of-high-stakes-state-test-the-FCAT
PIC: Photoshop fun with Mitt's pro-war protest
I know this is a little late in the game for this one, but this should be a gift that keeps on giving.
[font size=5]For those who would like to do their own:[/font]
TOON: THIS MODERN WORLD: The Austerions from outer space are here to serve man
The only problem with this is Grover Norquist and Paul Ryan should be green too.
See more of THIS MODERN WORLD at DailyKos.
In honor of the return of polls: which will win 21st century:one person one vote or...
one dollar one vote?
Right now it seems like the dollar model is so successful, they barely see the need to keep up the pretense of democracy.
But too many people are seeing that our votes are too often taken for granted by our representatives, and the major parties agree on too many of the ideas that hurt our middle and working class most, and even hurt other countries and the world as a whole.
So maybe the Occupy Movement, Arab Spring and the like are the beginning of the push back.
But who will win?
DERF TOON: 20 years from now...
The link will only work until he changes his toon, so go to Derfcity to see this and others.
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Member since: Sun Jul 11, 2004, 07:58 PMNumber of posts: 39,405
