September 19, 2012

Romney Campaign $11 million in debt.

Before the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee in all but name. By law, however, he could only spend primary donations until he officially became nominee. To increase cash flow during the interregnum, the Romney campaign borrowed $20 million.

“We realized that we could collateralize this debt with $20 million of general-election funds that were already sitting in our bank account,” a senior Romney aide says, speaking exclusively with National Review Online.

“This is permitted by Federal Election Commission rules,” the aide explains. “In the past, the FEC has specifically contemplated candidates putting up their public financing payments as collateral.” Since Romney is not taking public funds, his finance team found another option.

In order to compete with President Obama, the senior aide continues, Romney’s advisers could not sit on their hands until they were able to use general-election funds.


http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/327793/romney-campaign-borrowed-20-million-robert-costa#

September 19, 2012

Mary Matalin: Thanks To Romney, We Can Single Out ‘Parasites’

Conservative commentator Mary Matalin hailed Mitt Romney's "47 percent" line on CNN as good news for Republicans.

"There are makers and takers, there are producers and there are parasites," she said. "Americans can distinguish between those who have produced and paid in through no fault of their own and because of Obama's horrible polcies who cannot get a job or are underemployed. That's what the campaign is about."


http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mary-matalin-thanks-to-romney-we-can-single

September 18, 2012

Poll: Romney has support from 47%

Mitt Romney has said that “47 percent” of Americans “are dependent upon government” and will vote for President Barack Obama “no matter what,” but a new poll suggests many of those people support the GOP nominee instead.

Among registered voters who earn less than $24,000 annually, 34 percent support Romney, versus 58 percent for Obama, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.

The numbers improve for Romney with voters earning between $24,000 and $36,000 annually: 41 percent for Romney, 53 percent for Obama.

In a leaked recording from a May fundraiser in Florida, Romney said that “47 percent” of President Barack Obama’s supporters “pay no income tax.”


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81366.html#ixzz26rLXRalS

September 18, 2012

Salon: Teaching ate me alive.

It wasn’t one single incident that made me quit teaching in a public middle school. It was the steady, moldy accumulation of dehumanizing, lifeless, squalid misadventures of which I was a part. Like that time with “Carlos,” to pick an incident more or less at random.

I can’t even remember what it was that happened between Carlos and me. Anger, impatience, frustration, stupidity — and that was just me. Probably just another student who categorically refused to do as he was perfectly reasonably asked — open a book, pick up a pencil, hand in homework — or a teacher’s ineffectual attempts to come up with any good reason at all to learn the Pythagorean Theorem, or some such timeless knowledge. OK! Let’s say you have a ladder leaning against a wall. Suffice to say, our “conversation” ended without closure. But, evidently I said something that upset Carlos.

The next day I saw my friend the Dean of Students. He told me that he ran into Carlos’ father and a couple of his uncles; they were looking for my classroom. They had baseball bats. I am not the coach of the baseball team. There is no baseball team. In fact, there are no teams at all.

My friend the Dean of Students had diplomatically suggested that Carlos’ father and a couple of his uncles accompany him to his office, where the matter could be discussed at leisure. My friend the Dean assured me that the bats were for dramatic effect only; that they did not intend to use them and that they only wanted to put the whammy on my head in a metaphorical sense.



http://www.salon.com/2012/09/15/teaching_ate_me_alive/

September 18, 2012

Nice. Someone tries to sell me weed next to my kid's school.

It sure takes a lot of gall or just plain ignorance to try and sell me marijuana right at the MUNI stop next to my son's elementary school and an SFUSD middle school. He looked like a transient so I doubt he will be back. I know pot is no big deal in San Francisco, but I thought dealers would have a little consideration for where they play their trade.

September 18, 2012

Tape: Romney afraid voters will get tired of his wife.

At the dinner, Romney also said that the campaign purposefully was using Ann Romney "sparingly…so that people don't get tired of her." And he noted that he had turned down an invitation from Saturday Night Live because such an appearance "has the potential of looking slapstick and not presidential."


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser

September 18, 2012

I hate to admit it, but I am enjoying Sons of Anarchy.

Ok, let the flame begin, but I quite enjoyed the first season. SOA is portrayed as they really are: Gun running, right wing, white trash thugs. Nothing very flattering, but the acting is very gritty and lets everyone see another side of California.

September 15, 2012

Mitt Romney Talks About Bain Profitting From Chinese Slave Labor (VIDEO)

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September 15, 2012

I'm through with True Blood.

After finishing the worst season yeat of True Blood, I'm calling it quits. What started off as an interesting story about a world in which vampires are real and trying to fit into regular society started getting silly with the introduction of faeries, shifters, werewolves, fire demons and witches. This past season was way over the top with Lilith, the Authority and Sookie's faerie family. It's too much as they've even ruined my favorite characters, Tara and Lafayette.

September 14, 2012

SF school principal punishes teachers concerned about safety.

NOTE: It was not this bad at my sno's old school, but the conditions were similar: Unruly kids, frustrated parents and an indifferent principal.


While every school has its problems, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School in San Francisco stands out.

Former school security guard Tobias Cain said he underwent surgeries for a knee injury and a hernia that he blamed on trying to physically restrain a student last year. Then there was the student who “threw a phone at my head and got a two-day suspension. He came back and resumed his normal tactics and nothing else happened.”

“Fights, play fights, threatening behaviors are daily occurrences,” Cain said. “We call the police about two or three times a week.”

That description reflects a pattern of violence and disarray at the school, which has seen skyrocketing student suspension rates and several staff injuries, including two security guards who wound up on extended medical leave, according to teachers and other employees.

Amid the chaos, school administrators have faced allegations from teachers union officials that the school targeted its members by unfairly downgrading performance reviews and dismissing more than a dozen employees – about a third of its staff.

Principal Natalie Eberhard declined to comment on the personnel moves. About the school’s violent history, she said she was working to transform Martin Luther King so that it is “safe for everyone.”


http://www.baycitizen.org/education/story/suspensions-skyrocket-sf-school-violence/