New Rule: Let's not fire the teachers when students don't learn - let's fire the parents. Last week President Obama defended the firing of every single teacher in a struggling high school in a poor Rhode Island neighborhood. And the kids were outraged. They said, "Why blame our teachers?" and "Who's President Obama?" I think it was Whitney Houston who said, "I believe that children are our future - teach them well and let them lead the way." And that's the last sound piece of educational advice this country has gotten - from a crack head in the '80's.
Yes, America has found its new boogeyman to blame for our crumbling educational system. It's just too easy to blame the teachers, what with their cushy teachers' lounges, their fat-cat salaries, and their absolute authority in deciding who gets a hall pass. We all remember high school - canning the entire faculty is a nationwide revenge fantasy. Take that, Mrs. Crabtree! And guess what? We're chewing gum and no, we didn't bring enough for everybody.
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March 13, 2010
March 12, 2010
Education Reform: Accent on the Wrong Syllable
What is President Obama thinking? The administration's recently announced
This get-tough plan will damage and isolate schools that need federal support, not punishment. Indeed, the President's approach lacks any hint of the important systemic change concepts he politically espouses, like vision, clarity, leadership, and collaboration.
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School Turnaround Grantsrequire school districts to take at least one of three drastic steps: firing the principal and at least half the staff of a troubled school; reopening it as a charter school; or closing the school altogether and transferring students to better schools in the district.
This get-tough plan will damage and isolate schools that need federal support, not punishment. Indeed, the President's approach lacks any hint of the important systemic change concepts he politically espouses, like vision, clarity, leadership, and collaboration.
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Education and the End of ‘Why’
A liberal by any definition, Carol Smaldino takes on President Obama's proposed educational reforms with the concern that they equate to "the murder of diversity at home."
Regarding our children's educational needs, I propose the following: They have different educational needs and styles, which is part of diversity at its core. As such, our key mission should include creating opportunities for "hope," "change," and confidence for them all. Of course, to do this, we would need to make space for their sparks of inspiration, curiosity, critical thinking and collaboration.
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Regarding our children's educational needs, I propose the following: They have different educational needs and styles, which is part of diversity at its core. As such, our key mission should include creating opportunities for "hope," "change," and confidence for them all. Of course, to do this, we would need to make space for their sparks of inspiration, curiosity, critical thinking and collaboration.
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Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: A Story Highlighting the Anguish Faced By Soldiers with Indispensable Skills
Beirut -- On Sergeant Jed Anderson's back is tattooed "I give life and death." As a US Army Arabic linguist in Iraq he did just that -- process intelligence that saved or ended lives. He performed this crucial role in the war effort until becoming the 64th Arabic linguist discharged under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
President Obama, Secretary of Defense Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen support overturning "don't ask don't tell" -- signaling the possible demise of the controversial sixteen year-old policy. Although it humiliated and ruined the careers of many soldiers, Arabic linguists suffered disproportionately at a time when their skills were indispensable. By adhering to the policy -- especially during wartime -- three Presidential administrations handicapped American military capability and demonstrated the policy not only inhumane but self-defeating.
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President Obama, Secretary of Defense Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen support overturning "don't ask don't tell" -- signaling the possible demise of the controversial sixteen year-old policy. Although it humiliated and ruined the careers of many soldiers, Arabic linguists suffered disproportionately at a time when their skills were indispensable. By adhering to the policy -- especially during wartime -- three Presidential administrations handicapped American military capability and demonstrated the policy not only inhumane but self-defeating.
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Arianna: If Obama Supports Public Option, It Could Pass Senate
Arianna appeared on "The Ed Show" Thursday to talk about health care reform and the growing possibility that a public option could be approved in the Senate.
Arianna told Ed Schultz that she's convinced that if President Obama comes out and supports the public option, the Senate will support it. "It's clear that we can easily have 50 [votes], or even 53 [votes] provided the White House makes it clear that they want the public option."
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Arianna told Ed Schultz that she's convinced that if President Obama comes out and supports the public option, the Senate will support it. "It's clear that we can easily have 50 [votes], or even 53 [votes] provided the White House makes it clear that they want the public option."
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March 11, 2010
President Obama’s Yellowstone Trip Footage Released (VIDEO)
The White House released never-before-seen footage of President Obama's family trip to Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2009, continuing a long-standing tradition of presidents visiting the park. Chester A. Arthur was the first president to visit it in 1883, and the last one before Obama was Bill Clinton in 1995.
"The notion that collectively we come together and we say, we're gonna preserve some things that last beyond our individual lives, that we're gonna pass that on ... that's part of hopefully what is best about our government," Obama said.
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"The notion that collectively we come together and we say, we're gonna preserve some things that last beyond our individual lives, that we're gonna pass that on ... that's part of hopefully what is best about our government," Obama said.
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‘The Road From Ruin’: Wake Up: You Can Fix This Financial Mess
President Obama hit the nail on the head when he called the economic crisis "a great opportunity," yet so far it is one that America is wasting. Eighteen months ago, Lehman Brothers went bust and trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money was used to save the banking system. It seemed obvious then that a massive overhaul of the economy and the capitalist system that drove it was needed to get us out of the worst mess since the 1930s. We wrote "The Road From Ruin" because we had long believed that although capitalism was the best tool we had to build a prosperous world, it had serious flaws - and we wanted to be part of the debate about how not just to rebuild the system but to build it back better. Today, we are shocked by how little real debate there has been, and even less real change.
True, the President pledged support for the Volcker Plan to separate everyday banking from risky investment banking - although we doubt that alone would prevent another financial collapse, and anyway it is not likely to be passed by this bipartisan, infighting Congress. Obama called for innovation and that's what it will take to fix this broken system, so where are the big new ideas about building a financial sector that can support real job and wealth creation rather than the phantom growth, inflated stock prices and real estate bubbles of the last decade? Even after a systemic meltdown of the financial system, we still have the Fed, the Treasury, the SEC and the CFTC all supposedly watching over the system, but none of them really seeing the full picture or feeling fully responsible. We need regulation that is both more muscular and smarter than the feeble oversight of the past 25 years. Where is the political courage to take on the vested interests in Congress (i.e., campaign dollars) that preserve this fragmented mess?
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True, the President pledged support for the Volcker Plan to separate everyday banking from risky investment banking - although we doubt that alone would prevent another financial collapse, and anyway it is not likely to be passed by this bipartisan, infighting Congress. Obama called for innovation and that's what it will take to fix this broken system, so where are the big new ideas about building a financial sector that can support real job and wealth creation rather than the phantom growth, inflated stock prices and real estate bubbles of the last decade? Even after a systemic meltdown of the financial system, we still have the Fed, the Treasury, the SEC and the CFTC all supposedly watching over the system, but none of them really seeing the full picture or feeling fully responsible. We need regulation that is both more muscular and smarter than the feeble oversight of the past 25 years. Where is the political courage to take on the vested interests in Congress (i.e., campaign dollars) that preserve this fragmented mess?
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March 10, 2010
Moral Cowardice and the Third Reich: The Legacy of Pius XII
Of late it's been a tough time for those working to prevent genocide. Darfur has been off the world's radar screen for months. Then there's the poor Armenians. It wasn't enough that 1.5 million were murdered in a genocide perpetrated by the Ottomon Turks during the First World War. Turns out that for the sake of appeasing Turkey and its increasingly militant Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Obama is prepared to allow others to rewrite history and deny there was ever a genocide in the first place.
Breaking his campaign promise of January, 2008, where he said that he "stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide" and that "as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide [which is] not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence," President Obama changed his tune last week. After the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution that declares the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, the Obama Administration urged the committee not to pass the measure. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has vowed to stop the resolution where it stands for fear of angering Turkey.
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Breaking his campaign promise of January, 2008, where he said that he "stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide" and that "as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide [which is] not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence," President Obama changed his tune last week. After the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution that declares the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, the Obama Administration urged the committee not to pass the measure. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has vowed to stop the resolution where it stands for fear of angering Turkey.
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March 9, 2010
Rahm Emanuel And David Axelrod Have Become The Sum Of All Media Crapulence
Remember way back when President Obama told people that it was maybe a good idea for them to turn off the teevees and disconnect themselves from the idiot ramblings of the political press, a rough beast with a bottomless hunger for antic narratives and useless gossip?
Maybe Obama should have asked his two top advisers to stop feeding the beast themselves, to spare all of us some grief.
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Maybe Obama should have asked his two top advisers to stop feeding the beast themselves, to spare all of us some grief.
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It’s Twenty Ten, Everybody!
OK, it's now February, 2010. As spoken words, how should we refer to this year? For example, the nightly news anchors say "Twenty Ten." President Obama, in his recent State of the Union, referred to "Two Thousand Ten." Other notables are similarly split.
So is it "Two Thousand Ten," or is it "Twenty Ten?" You've all heard both versions.
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So is it "Two Thousand Ten," or is it "Twenty Ten?" You've all heard both versions.
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