Let's hope Sirota's right and Happy New Year!

December 31, 2007 7:38 AM
Gauging the Fear Inside the Palace Walls by David Sirota
A pretty reliable gauge of Establishment fear is how far away from factual reality its chief spokesmen stray at election time. With economic populism now driving both the Democratic and Republican presidential contests, professional political pontificators in Washington are attacking candidates for being crazed and angry - when in fact their own rhetoric shows it is the pundits who are the angriest of all. An uprising is on - one against the hostile takeover of our government by Big Money interests. And inside the walls of the Washington palace, the elite are freaking out.
Here's Time Magazine's Joe Klein, claiming that presidential candidates who attack NAFTA are "wildly irresponsible on trade":
"NAFTA has been a wash, creating as many jobs as have been lost."
According to government data, NAFTA has cost America at least 1 million jobs. This is not new information - nor is it even much debated among economists on either side of the trade debate. But because it offends the Washington Consensus in support of lobbyist-written trade policies and because the realities of trade are finally taking center stage in the presidential primaries, Klein - a loyal Establishment soldier - has taken to the ramparts to lie.
Klein's silliness is eclipsed only by Stu Rothenberg - who reliably hands us the old adage that any candidates challenging the status quo will destroy America. Here's his take today:
"[John Edwards] is also portraying himself as fighting for the middle class and able to appeal to swing voters and even Republicans in a general election...His approach to problems is likely to frighten many voters, including most middle class Americans and virtually all Republicans...Given the North Carolina Democrat's rhetoric and agenda, an Edwards Presidency would likely rip the nation apart - even further apart than Bush has torn it."
Rothenberg's entire career is predicated on his supposed ability to analyze polling data - which is stunning in juxtaposition to his statements today. After all, polls show Edwards performing the best of any Democrat against any Republican presidential candidate. More importantly, polls also show the vast majority of the country - including Republicans - behind his populist economic positions.
For instance, Edwards has staked his candidacy on guaranteeing health care to every American and on raising the minimum wage - two positions the majority of Americans - and a huge chunk of Republicans - strong support. As I noted in a 2005 Washington Post article, a 2005 public opinion survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center showed that about half the GOP's core voters support the "government guaranteeing health insurance for all citizens, even if it means raising taxes" and an astounding three-quarters support an increase in the minimum wage. Pew recently updated these numbers to show that 4 in 10 Republican voters nationally "favor universal health coverage, even if it means higher taxes."
Trade? Same thing. Edwards has been demanding an end to Washington's lobbyist-written, job-killing trade agenda - a demand that the majority of Americans (and Republicans) support. The Wall Street Journal was only the most recent publication to note this fact. "By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy," the Journal noted, adding that voters in both parties want our trade policies reformed.
Knowing these number, it is difficult to understand how a professional poll-watcher like Rothenberg could say that an economic populist platform "is likely to frighten many voters, including most middle class Americans and virtually all Republicans." It is even more difficult to understand when you consider that the leading Republican candidate right now is Mike Huckabee - a guy being grossly outspent but who is nonetheless surging among Republican voters on the strength of his campaign's economic populist themes. In short, all of the actual facts point to exactly the opposite of Rothenberg's conclusions: That power-challenging economic populism is exciting most voters, including most middle class Americans and many Republicans.
But, then, the rhetoric from the Kleins and Rothenbergs is less surprising when you consider how the rise of economic populism fundamentally indicts both the system they have long defended and, more personally, their individual relevance as supposed political oracles.
Most Washington pundits have reached their positions by defending the system they cover as fundamentally good. Doing that, in their minds, validates their own value and worth - because if they acknowledge that the system is corrupt, it means they are admitting that their work bolstering that system is corrupt, too (which, of course, it is).
And so elite reaction to the populist uprising is swift. As respected pollsters tell us that "if Americans have ever been angrier with the state of the country, we have not witnessed it," Washington pundits tell us candidates representing that anger are doomed. These pundits desperately claim that candidates' support for majority positions will somehow "rip the nation apart," and that such candidates who take up the populist mantle are "wildly irresponsible" for doing so.
Sadly, the caucuses and primaries look like only the opening act of a more full-scale Establishment backlash against America's populist tide. A group of has-been politicians are pushing Wall Street billionaire Mike Bloomberg to run as an independent if these has-been politicians do not approve of the nominees of both parties. We are told that Bloomberg is the one who can restore "unity" and "bipartisanship" in the face of the uprising. That the populism represented in both parties' primaries right now is supported by both Republican and Democratic voters has somehow escaped these supposed crusaders for "bipartisanship."
The fledgling Bloomberg candidacy says all you need to know about the difference between actual bipartisanship in America, and Washington bipartisanship. A cursory glance at the New York mayor's positions show an egomaniac wholly out of touch with the country on issues from the Iraq War, to civil liberties to economic policies. But because he is a Wall Street billionaire with the corresponding respect and love of Big Money, he is promoted as a deity by Washington."[A Bloomberg candidacy would] be intended as punishment meted out by the Establishment," writes Salon's Glenn Greenwald. "That, more than anything, seems to be the oh-so-noble and trans-partisan purpose...To find a way to stifle the populist anger at our political establishment after 8 years of unrestrained Bush-Cheney devastation."
Still, on this New Years Eve, I remain an eternal optimist. A few weeks ago I finished up my new book, entitled "The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington" (due out in the Spring of 2008). I spent a year reporting firsthand from the trenches of the populist movement that I have been a part of for the last decade - an uprising against the hostile takeover of our government that I documented in my first book.
In my reporting over the last year I learned that things are - finally - starting to change. The Joe Kleins, Stu Rothenbergs and Mike Bloombergs still have influence, because they have lots of money behind them. But an uprising is on - one that has already impacted the 2008 presidential race, and one that will continue to seethe well past the upcoming caucuses and primaries. It is that simple fact that truly frightens the defenders of the status quo who have gotten used to the good life inside the palace walls.

Peace on earth

Bernie hugs Larry in Brooklyn, New York

Cousin Cassie in Wheeling, Illinois being her Greta Garbo self

WE WANT HEARINGS

GO TO THIS WEBSITE AND TELL THE HOUSE YOU WANT CHENEY TO START ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS AS PART OF HIS IMPEACHMENT PROCESS



http://wexlerwantshearings.com/

Schools Klein gives an A do poorly with State, meanwhile those that get a D, do fine....

NEW YORK POSTCITY SCHOOLS FAILING
33% FALL SHORT OF FEDERAL STANDARD
By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter
December 21, 2007 -- One in three city public elementary and middle schools are in need of improvement - a significant increase since last year, state education officials announced yesterday. The percentage of city schools failing to meet federal academic benchmarks climbed from 29 percent to 33 percent, while the statewide total climbed from 14 to 16 percent. Sixty-four city schools were added to the state's list of so-called "failing schools" this year, including one charter school, Harriet Tubman in The Bronx. Eighteen city schools were removed from the list, bringing the city's total to 318. Education officials were quick to point out that the jump in schools unable to meet student-progress goals stemmed from the larger pool of youngsters, from grades three to eight, now tested by the state. Until 2005, only fourth-graders and eighth-graders were tested annually in English and math. Schools make the state's naughty list by missing targets for particular groups of 30 or more students - such as special education, English-language learners, or racial/ethnic minorities - two years running. They get off the list by making targets for two years. Coming six weeks after the city released its own grading system for schools, the state's assessment pointed to many instances where schools were given conflicting feedback. At least two schools that the city Education Department will close for poor grades after this year - PS 79 in The Bronx and PS 183 in Brooklyn - actually met the state's standards and were considered "in good standing." "This discrepancy serves as a big red flag showing that there is something wrong here and that these schools should get another look before they are closed," said United Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten. And an additional 66 schools that got D's or F's from the city are in good standing with the state, while 170 A or B schools failed to make enough progress by state measures, according to the city Education Department. "A mixed message? It's outrageous!" said the principal of a D school in Queens that fared just fine with the state. "We're still trying to reconcile [the grade] with the fact that we did so well with the state." A spokesman for the city Department of Education acknowledged there were discrepancies between the two systems, but said there was also a significant correlation. "As a school's grade gets higher, it's much more likely to be in good standing with the state," he said. http://us.f620.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=yoav.gonen%40nypost.com

If he walked into my life...

There's a song which opens, "If he walked into my life, would I feel this way again" which thinks through what a person would do if someone they love just walked out on them and then later walked back in. On various days of foolish and unfathomable feelings, I've played it and sung it. Tonight, however, I wonder it about good ol' Roger Clemens of whom it is suggested that his steroid use parallels that of Barry Bonds'.

As a Yankees fan over the last three years, its been impossible for me to not fall for "The Rocket" legend, even as I joked that if we bought him and David Wells then we could be assured that the game would be fully pitched through since what I remembered of both of their last visits was that they mostly couldn't make it past four innings. As I recall they were about even, Wells without steroids, apparently. But in his last return, there was something of the "Cowboy Up" appeal -- which should have told us all we were in trouble as this was a Red Sox gimmick. I did look forward to him going out there and grinding out innings with spit and forethought. Well, that's what I thought, anyway.

Somewhere in the song, the question is asked that if the object of affection returned, "would I look the other way?" Or, in this case, would I just plain, "look the other way" and still see Roger Clemens. Another question is also asked: "Will I feel the same again?"

Let's see where and when he walks in. I don't want to see him as a Yankee, but I don't think anyone did even before this scandal.

But, I mind my feelings, whatever are left of them. I'll let you know what they tell me.

My little prince

Karen B. Hunter

Nov. 23. 1951 - Sept. 2. 2005

I will always remember how beautiful the world looked when I was looking at it with you.

John Edwards On The Hostile Takeover of Our Government

Election '08 Meets The Great Education Myth
By David Sirota on November 15, 2007 - 3:53pm.
Regular readers know my frustration with what I previously deemed The Great Education Myth in an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle. This myth, omnipresent in our media and political debate, states that America's problem with stagnating wages, job loss and benefits cuts is a problem of education. If only workers were better educated, the myth goes, their economic problems would be over.
This myth, which is a lobbyist creation designed to divert political pressure away from reforming labor, trade and economic policies, was most recently vomited up by a top editor and "expert" at one of the largest magazines in America - and then obliterated by government data and at least one leading presidential candidate.
That's right, the latest regurgitation of the myth comes from none other than U.S. News & World Report's chief financial reporter, James Pethokoukis. In the midst of an article asserting that "income inequality may actually be a good sign," this brave defender of royalism flippantly claimed "It really is all about education." He went on to state:
"Advanced economies, whether America's or Denmark's, are knowledge economies. And knowledge economies reward education. Get a degree, expand your skills, and you will do just fine."
Pethokoukis, in a non-sequitur, cites one macro unemployment stat, but offers up no actual data to support his central claim that if you just "get a degree and expand your skills you will do just fine." This is one of the top editors of one of the supposedly most Serious magazines in America regurgitating lobbyists' Great Education Myth without even bothering to check the most easy-to-find data - data reported in publications that are not exactly bastions of anti-capitalist sentiment.
Fortune magazine, for instance, recently reported that economic data proves that "the skill premium, the extra value of higher education, must have declined after three decades of growing." Specifically, "the real annual earnings of college graduates actually declined 5.2 percent, while those of high school graduates, strangely enough, rose 1.6 percent." Similarly, Businessweek has reported that "real wages for young Americans with a bachelor's degree have declined by almost 8% over the past three years" and "economists suspect that global competition has something to do with it."
That's an understatement, as shown in a stunning new report out today from the good folks at the Economic Policy Institute. Using government data, the think tank finds that "the educational group most vulnerable to offshoring are those with at least a four-year college degree." That vulnerability helps drive down wages for better-educated workers because they know that if they try to demand good pay, their employer could simply pick up and leave.
Obviously, this has everything to do with America's corrupt NAFTA-style trade policy - a policy that the U.S. House ratified last week in its vote for the Peru Free Trade Agreement, and that now awaits Senate ratification. This trade policy without enforceable labor, wage, environmental, human rights or product safety standards encourages large corporations to manufacture a race to the bottom in which workers have to keep accepting lower and lower wages (or other standards) in hopes of keeping their employer in their country.
This ain't rocket science to understand. Sure, we should all support improving our education system, because better education is just a good thing. However, it is not a cure-all to our economic challenges - not even close. No amount of education and retraining can overcome the effects of unfair trade agreements. And no amount of "customizing", to use Clinton administration jargon, by an American worker can beat an equally "customized" Chinese or Indian worker, particularly when such workers earn pennies, rather than dollars, per hour.
As I said to start, the Great Education Myth is a corporate creation. It exists to distract the public from demands to change our trade and economic policies so as to raise up all workers. If Big Business can get us all to be mad at the education system alone, then theoretically we won't demand serious populist reforms of an underlying economic system that is currently benefiting the Big Money players in Washington, while crushing the rest of us.
Now, the whole Great Education Myth is hitting the presidential campaign trail. Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have announced their support for the NAFTA-expanding Peru trade deal all while - rather shockingly - engaging in a true Theater of the Absurd by continuing to tell union audiences that they oppose the NAFTA trade model. John Edwards, by contrast, has come out strongly against the Peru deal, and yesterday issued a statement tying the upcoming Senate vote on that trade deal to the Great Education Myth and the Economic Policy Institute's report. Here are some excerpts:
"Today, the Economic Policy Institute issued a report that should come as a clarion call to everyone concerned about the impact of unfair trade agreements and practices on America's working families. In their report, the EPI concludes that between 25 to 30 million American jobs -- about one in five American jobs -- in states all across the nation, are at risk for being offshored over the next decade. And it's not just manufacturing jobs - the report shows those jobs that require at least a four-year college degree are actually the most at risk. This report makes clear what the labor community has known for far too long: bad trade deals, cheap foreign labor, illegal foreign subsidies and foreign currency manipulation are having a devastating effect on American workers...Given this reality, I find it alarming that Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have chosen to support a flawed Peru Trade deal that will only further expand the NAFTA-model that has already cost us well over a million jobs."
How this plays out on the campaign trail is anyone's guess. As we see from Pethokoukis's piece and from many other political pundits like him, the Great Education Myth is such unquestioned orthodoxy among our elite media and politicians that it has become an assumption that is flippantly forwarded without even a flinch toward basic factual substantiation.
That means candidates like Edwards (or anyone other such populist) who dares to challenge the Great Education Myth and the Washington Consensus in support of NAFTA-style trade policies face not only hostility from other candidates chasing down Wall Street cash, but hostility from what is supposed to be an objective political press corps.

Still hope for Edwards!

John Edwards and Mike Huckabee are both doing well in Iowa. Edwards is my candidate of choice. Why is Edwards doing well. David Sirota writes in this week's column "It's the populism, stupid." Read the whole column at http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-huey-longs-of-iowa.html

My second choice is now Joe Biden, the only candidate who knows anything about the issues and what he's talking about. Sure, Herculean ego. But he has plans for what he would do right now. Check out his most recent interview with Bob Schiefer -- I am going to see if it is posted anywhere.

Not so spooky

Bernie likes to sleep on my laundrybag which is nestled in the hallway. It's full of clean clothes I just pull out as I go. Where the bag is, is close to where Henry used to sit on similarly poorly placed blankets and empty boxes. Like Henry, Bernie likes to tear up paper and he likes to get my attention mostly to himself. Food is also his favorite topic of discussion and he has a broad palate, including broccoli -- a favorite of Queequeg's.

Larry sits on one of Karen's chairs, waiting for me to come over and snuggle, very contented and at ease. He climbed that chair in her apartment and it's an old friend with good memories. Like Queequeg, he is very self-contained, except for those moments he spreads out flat on the chair with his paw hanging over, as if reaching for me. Queequeg did something similar, but it was to prepare to scratch me when I wasn't looking for something I had done (such as crossed over him or in his path without proper acknowledgement or permission). Larry monitors my movement throughout the house like Fred, did. He worries about me, though he pretends to be nonchalant. Fred covered his worries with a big appetite.

So, this Halloween is filled with good and many spirits. We three, Larry, Bernie and I, carry many good memories.

Swimming to my MP3 player

For two days straight, at lunch with colleagues whose political knowledge far surpassed mine, I gave up my usual attempt to learn on the fly. I listened to my MP3 player through the whole meal. At one moment, one of my colleagues leaned next to me and said, "Irish music?" "Karen liked it." He nodded. There, I got a lot done:
Avoided showing my ignorance about several politicians I looked up when I got home.
Held my ground on sentiment, romance and bagpipes. Karen usually liked the more adventurous and vocal, but the tone was right. She would understand.

It was a musical pause at lunch with homage to a close friend.

I couldn't take the picture fast enough

Larry and Bernie stood on a piece of furniture. Together. No negative energy. Just sharing the view. And tonight they returned to sharing my bed, sleeping a few feet apart.

BUY NOTHING ON NOVEMBER 6, 2007

It's the national strike against fascism. You can do it. Just buy nothing that day.

Fifteen year old African American girl sentenced to seven years in prison for pushing a hall monitor in Texas

By Tracy Stokes, BET.com News Staff & Wire Services Posted March 28, 2007 -
In Paris, Texas, last year, a 14-year-old White girl burns down her family's home. Her punishment? Probation. In the same town three months later, a 15-year-old Black girl, Shaquanda Cotton, is sentenced to seven years in prison for pushing a hall monitor at her high school. Shaquanda had no prior arrests, and the monitor, a 58-year-old teacher's aide, was not hurt, according to Black leaders in the northeast Texas town of about 26,000 residents. But in March 2006, the same judge, Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, who let the White teenage girl go on probation, convicted Shaquanda of "assault on a public servant" and sent her to prison at least until she turns 21. Officials at the Texas Youth Commission declined to discuss the case with BET.com, citing Texas law. "State law forbids us from acknowledging whether we have any youths are in our system, despite the 50 million issues of print that's been run," said Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the Texas Youth Commission. "We'd have to break the law to talk about it."

Civil Rights Uproar

While the U.S. Department of Education is investigating the incident, the case has civil rights groups in an uproar. "I don't understand the judge's rationale for his decision," Dr. Howard Anderson, president of the San Antonio Branch of the NAACP, told BET.com. In highlighting what he called an egregious miscarriage of justice in a town with a long history of civil rights abuses, Anderson pointed to the case of the 14-year-old convicted arson (whose name was not released because of her age), who was slapped with probation, and the case of a 19-year-old White man in Paris, convicted of killing a 54-year-old Black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck. The latter, he said, was also sentenced to probation and told to send the family a Christmas card every year. "Then you have Shaquanda's case," Anderson said. "She pushed a hall monitor, and she gets seven years confinement? If I look at all three of these sentences, and I'm not a lawyer, I have to wonder what the judicial system is doing. In this particular case, what is this judge doing?" Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who heads the state NAACP branch, told BET.com that Shaquanda was merely trying to defend herself. "All she (Shaquanda) did was grab the aide to prevent a strike," Bledsoe said. "It's like they are sending a signal to Black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated."
Sad History

And keeping Blacks in their place is nothing new in Paris, say leaders, who remind that it's the site of the first highly publicized lynching of a Black by a large White mob. In 1893, fugitive Henry White was captured in Arkansas and brought to Paris, where he was tortured and burned alive on a train bed as more than 10,000 angry townsfolk cheered and jeered. Activists say that the Shaquanda sentence is nothing more than a modern-day lynching. Cotton has been incarcerated at a youth prison in Brownwood, Texas, for the last year on a sentence that could run until her 21st birthday. But like many of the other youths in the system, she is eligible to earn early release if she achieves certain social, behavioral and educational milestones while in prison. But according to The Chicago Tribune, officials at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex repeatedly have extended Shaquanda's sentence because she refuses to admit guilt and because she reportedly was found with contraband in her cell - an extra pair of socks. "She's not admitting any guilt, because she doesn't feel that she did anything," Anderson told BET.com. "Not to mention, who saw the pushing, if it did occur?" Cotton's mother, Creola, who Anderson describes as "strong-willed," said her daughter was singled out because she accused the school district of racism on several occasions. In fact, 12 discrimination complaints have been filed against the Paris Independent School District in recent years. District officials dispute the charges, but the U.S. Department of Education, which is still investigating the case, has reportedly asked the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved.

In 1998, Paris, Texas, was named the "Best Small Town in Texas" by Kevin Heubusch in his book The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities.

*****FORWARD THIS ON TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE!!! WE NEED TO BRING THESE INJUSTICES TO LIGHT***** Are you interested in reaching out to Shaquanda? You can write a Letter directly to her at the address below: She also receive mail here:Ron Jackson Correctional Complex,Unit 2, Dorm 4P.O. Box 872Brownwood, Texas 768041125308

The Campaign Subway Ride #1

Most teachers ride the subways to get to work in NYC. Trains go on "rides" as if they were for amusement. I'm not distant enough -- yet -- from believing in the importance of the election to not put my messy shoeprints into this subway car. Overworked metaphors aside, calling anything a "trail" feels fuzzy to me. People are traveling by trains, busses, cars. It's more like an "expedition". Since that is even less visceral to me, I'll stick with "virtual subway ride through the nation." Very New York, but since I can't have the "Have mores" group that George Bush does as his base, I'll stick with the "Have New York" group as my base.

The UFT and the AFT -- our local and national teachers unions came out in support of Hillary this week. Since our unions have proven themselves to be more allies of corporations than the corporeal bodies in their classrooms, this adds to my skepticism of Mrs. Clinton.

Also this week, no viable Democratic candidate -- Hillary, Barack or John E. could promise the troops would be out of Iraq by 2013.

Essentially, on the larger issues, the more visible candidates grow more similar and more disappointing.

I'm sure they will say the requisite things about results, results and a little bit about class size when the time to talk Education comes.

So, I am now opting to look at candidates for "the little things". Who is polite, who is concrete and pragmatic and who seems to run a good campaign.

So far, my vote is for ...Barack Obama. I wouldn't have thought this months ago when I was a staunch Edwards supporter. People have pointed out how Obama makes slightly better linguistic choices in his speeches and seems to connect a bit better than Edwards. I am most convinced by his ability...for what reason I do not know...to understand the "on the ground" pragmatics of the campaign. His grassroots background has made him and his campaign very good and bringing in local support along his virtual subway ride. He has his methods down to personally pointing out where you can sign up to volunteer. See this cleverly written piece by Roger Simon for more details http://www.creators.com/opinion/roger-simon.html

Sounds of a room full of teachers

"Middle school kids will really get you. They'll come right up to you."

"She would dance to teach them conjunctions and they listened. I liked her. She was different."

"Not in my class."

"You have to be patient with kids."

"You can't let them walk all over you."

"In my class, that doesn't happen."

"And the Principal walked in and they pushed him and I didn't like that and I told him so and he laughed it off. I would never allow that."

Everything is an axiom. We're not just defensive. We're downright prophetic. Perhaps we've been so pushed to the wall that we ARE the aged prophets, near blind, coming out of our caves to warn the city of storms ahead.
Or, we've just been banished and are continually hollering from over the city walls.
Or, we feel as if we are about to be.

Where is everybody?

Over the past two years or so, I've gained friends, lost friends, gained friends...

I picked up the phone tonight and thought of a few people I could dial, but the list dwindled rapidly. One I had just spoken to yesterday, one I had seen this afternoon. One's phone was not working.
And there was my mother whom I called and the conversation was brief because we disagree on a great deal.

Five minutes later there was just one friend I have technically borrowed from another friend because he is the roommate of that friend. I mean, he is my friend....

He was at a friend's.

My cat's are sleeping off a round of playing.

I've sent out two cover letters and resumes and am listening to Mike Malloy. The radio will get me through the night and the cats will wake up in an hour.

When did the bus leave?

Frightened, as usual.

Photo by Karen Beth Hunter

Ocean up close

Photo by Karen Beth Hunter

Photo of the Ocean by Karen B. Hunter

She took a series of shots of directly of the water which we were to place up on the walls of her apartment. I still have to blow them up properly but it's hard for me to finish projects, but I promise to do so. I hang onto the promises because they delay the sense of real time passage.

Karen B. Hunter. Nov. 23, 1951 - Sept 2. 2005.

Bernie contemplates on his new pillow

Larry's notes on life with Bernie

1. Always let him wear himself out with a toy if that's what he wants to do.
2. Teach him that there is more fun to playing than just grabbing a toy and chewing it. Last night he learned to WAIT and WATCH and then CATCH the TOY as it goes by.
3. In general, I WATCH HIM while he plays and I hold my toy. If I don't hold my toy, he takes it. Mommy and I play later or as he gets tired.
4. He does get tired.
5. I really love him, but I miss Henry so much.
6. He's very sweet and he just wants love. He's pretty easy to love. I love to watch him play, eat and sleep. He's so cute. And he always wants to be with me. Always.
7. He's fun to run with. He's a great snooping partner, too. We spent an hour snooping on a couple of aunts on the windowsill and decided they were fun to watch and we'd just keep doing it till dinner.
8. He needs a lot of love. We want to give it to him.
9. He's getting fat.

The family that acts together

Well, folks, I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it...

At about 5:45, Bernie and Larry staged a fight to wake me up.

I was starting to wake up and I caught the two walking quietly out of the corner of my eye toward my bed. I was really sick so I had managed to get them to stop fighting over who would stay in bed with me by simply banishing all the healthy from my presence.

The two looked at each other. Larry took a step back. Bernie nodded. Larry made his usual, "Ack" = you've pissed me off noise, Bernie made his usual "Mrrreeoww"= I'm just a kitten who's going to sneak attack you in a minute. I woke up.

They got quiet WAY too quickly.

I looked at the clock. Indeed. 5:50. Close enough to 6:00am breakfast time.

I went to get their plates.

They followed me, POLITELY and IN TANDEM.

Oh yeah, they were just fighting...

Well, they get points for cleverness. Henry used to just paw my mouth or cuddle me, which Larry has done recently as well. Henry never needed to be clever because there were no games going on between him and me or anyone.
Directness takes time, however.

God, I miss you, Henry. So does Larry. So does Bernie. He can't find the ball after he kicks it so he can't practice for soccer by himself. And you know Larry can't. I practice with him and he is learning to kick the ball BACK TO ME and about TURNS and I know you are secretly helping him because he's not completely getting it with me. Keep working with him on your visits from cat heaven, man. And I am trying to remember how much Larry was like this when he was little like you said I should...

Meet cousin Bernie

Well, we heard the awful news about Henry and the family over on the other side of the borough sent me with my suitcases to bring condolences and, um, they said, "a cheerful distraction" to the Kay household. I was roaming around for a while until this nice Veterninary technician found me and thankfully she just happened to be Henry's old technician! So, she cleaned me up (I did a LOT of roaming...I'm only 8 months old so I can't read) had me "fixed" (all I know is when I clean up things don't look the same) took all sorts of care of me then called up Henry and Larry's mommy and she came and got me. I'm moving in with them! What do you know? That's good because we don't have a roof over our heads on our side of town, just the suitcases, which I lost while roaming.

Larry is a great cousin and I want to be exactly like him--but I don't want to take all of his things--well maybe this blanket and that toy...he lets me have a lot of stuff and he never does more than swipe the air around me and mildly hiss at me. We spend a lot of time playing together and he sat with me on the big windowsill in the kitchen for hours yesterday talking to me about Henry. He misses him so much but he says I am very much of a distraction. In fact, he called me a "tornado" -- "in a good way" he said.

My new mommy says I'm a "little wizard" and also a "trickster". She likes to pet me and Larry at the same time to teach us not to be jealous of each other.

By the way, I'm named Bernie after the great actor Tony Curtis -- who was born Bernie Schwartz.

I'm home!

Some recent Henry and Larry

Henry will always be with us

We lost Henry

Henry fell to hypertopiccardiomyopathy on Monday morning. July 16, 2007. I will put pictures up of our beautiful angel later. For now we are shaken.

Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano celebrating the Yankees' win of the AL East. Just wanted to remember happier times.

Larry the cat gets washed

from The Nation magazine: the NYC public school crisis

School's Outby LYNNELL HANCOCK[from the July 9, 2007 issue]

A knot of parents and teachers--some clutching children, others clutchingprotest fliers--huddled outside Hostos Community College one frosty eveninglast February. The forty or so Bronx residents had crisscrossed the boroughfor the rare chance to mix it up with the New York City schools chancellorin a public forum. A guard met them at the door. No more room, he said, leaving the agitatedparents, quite literally, out in the cold. They had hoped to hear Joel Kleinexplain why he was scrambling the school system's signals for the secondtime in five years. Inside the Grand Concourse annex, Klein was winding downhis pitch to the hundred or so in the audience who had made the cut. "We areenacting these reforms so we can make sure whatever your skin color,wherever you live, your kid will get the education he needs and deserves,"Klein shouted into the microphone. Klein may have appeared an awkward headmaster in his Wall Street suit, buthe was on familiar terrain, wrapping his arguments for corporate-styleschool overhaul in the ethos of civil rights. He is driven by the noblepledge to "finish the job that Brown v. Board of Education began." His pathto racial equity, however, employs the efficient tools of business--top- downdecisions, marketplace incentives and a belief in private sector solutionsto public school problems. Instruction is "data driven." Academic resultsare "granular." It is a technocratic vision of education, in sync withbig-moneyed foundations, at odds with most classroom teachers and manyparents. In the calculus of the moment, each of the city's 1,450 schools isconsidered an independent franchise. Like a bank outlet or a RadioShackstore, any given school is a "key unit" in Klein's new Department ofEducation. Schools are headed by branch managers, or principals, whose jobshave been reconfigured as CEOs rather than as educators. Principals areexpected to contract out for nearly every core service, from testing toprofessional development to their own support team. Quarterly returns flowout in the form of tests four times a year. Schools must compete with oneanother, at their peril. The lowest performers on the bell curve may besanctioned or shut down. Thomas Sobol, the former New York State education commissioner, believes thebattle lines have been drawn between democracy and corporatization. "Thearrogance, my God, of saying because we know how to run Kmart, we know howto educate children," said Sobol, professor emeritus at ColumbiaUniversity's Teachers College. "It represents a giant defeat of democracy." In Klein's view, "corporatization" and "privatization" are meaninglessphrases used to detract from the real revolution underfoot. "There isnothing less public about public schools," he insisted during a recentinterview at Department of Education headquarters. His reforms are aboutstrengthening the top in order to bring equity to the bottom. A lone publicemployee, Klein has nearly unfettered control of 1.1 million schoolchildrenand a $15.4 billion budget. "In the end it is my responsibility to say, Ithink this is the right policy," Klein said. "I need to be prepared to makethe tough service delivery decision. The mayor holds me accountable, and thecity holds the mayor accountable. We should not have 'shareddecision-making. ' That's what marks all unsuccessful school reforms." A lot is riding on Klein's record--including the political future of MayorMichael Bloomberg, which may include an independent run for President. Hewas the first mayor in thirty-three years to be authorized by the StateLegislature to directly pick his own chancellor and who has wagered hismayoralty on the fortunes of the city's schools. Urban school systems acrossthe nation are watching the radical overhaul in New York City. If the plansucceeds, it will mean a triumph for advocates of mayoral school takeoversand a boon for the new breed of CEO superintendents committed to businesssolutions for public schools. Mayoral control has already taken hold inChicago, Boston, Cleveland and, most recently, Washington-- whose mayorreplaced the school superintendent, at Klein's recommendation, with37-year-old education entrepreneur Michelle Rhee. If Klein's plan falters in New York, many will argue that the demise wasmade inevitable by keeping teachers, parents and communities at ayardstick's distance. No matter how competent and committed the players atthe top, public-sector reforms on this imposing scale may be doomed if thepeople most affected are left outside. It certainly felt that way at the Hostos forum, where a faint chant filteredthrough the closed windows into the room: "Let the parents in!" As ironywould have it, Klein's Bronx appearance was part of a five-borough missionto persuade the masses that the mayor's latest structural overhaul was thebest thing for every child. The Bronx parents inside weren't buying it. "Noscience. No history. Only tests," one mother bellowed, shaking her finger atthe chancellor. Applause thundered across the linoleum. "Welcome to theboogie-down, " another mother said, followed by more hoots and hollers."We're real here." She then criticized a recent citywide busing fiasco thatleft one of the chancellor's corporate consultants $16 million richer andscores of children wondering how they would get to school. Finally, a statuesque woman from the South Bronx took the microphone,choking back nerves. "I saw a guidance counselor pulling a kindergartenchild across the floor like an animal," began Rosa Villafane tentatively."The principal won't do anything. She's an empowerment principal," Villafanesaid, referring to one of the chancellor's key reforms that offers thecity's principals greater authority to make decisions in exchange for moreaccountability. "If she won't listen, where do I go?" The chancellor had a standard reply for her, the one he employed afternearly every appeal that night: "E-mail me," he said. "I'm accountable. " Hedid not follow up the offer with his e-mail address. He then slumped intohis chair, chin in hand, looking as if he wanted very much to be somewhereelse. A Harvard-trained litigator and former deputy White House counsel toPresident Clinton, Klein is many things, but he is not a man to boogie-downin the Bronx. Raised in a working-class family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,Klein graduated from William Bryant High School in Queens, class of '63.That's where his connections to most children in New York's schools end.After graduating from law school in 1971 and launching his own DC law firm,he served as an assistant attorney general with the Justice Department,where he prosecuted the government's antitrust case against Microsoft. Hismost recent job was as CEO of the German-owned global media giantBertelsmann. It's an unlikely résumé for the head of the nation's largest public schoolsystem, but one with obvious appeal to the then- Republican mayor. Bloomberghad begun the systemwide makeover before Klein arrived by putting up a ForSale sign on the Soviet-style Board of Education headquarters at 110Livingston Street in Brooklyn, an address synonymous with bloatedbureaucracy. Redubbed the Department of Education, it moved its offices intothe elegantly appointed Tweed Courthouse in the shadow of City Hall. Oldfaces were replaced, while old ways of doing business were rapidly broughtunder tight, centralized control. As soon as Klein took over, he hired private consultants and installed acabinet of mostly noneducators making six-figure salaries. Fresh youngprincipals with minimal experience were brought in from outside New York toreplace the large number of those who left or were forced out. Thethirty-two old school districts were scrapped and refitted into ten regions.New Yorkers tend to love rat-a-tat changes. Few mourned the loss of abureaucracy everyone had derided. "I thought mayoral control was a good ideaat first," said Noreen Connell, head of Education Priorities Panel, aresearch and advocacy group. "It was good when they broke through thefacilities funding logjam." Klein and Bloomberg worked in tandem to cash in their corporate andcelebrity connections, hauling in piles of money and a star-studded cast.Caroline Kennedy was hired at a dollar a year to attract philanthropy moneyinto the administration. Former General Electric chair Jack Welch wasbrought onto the advisory board of the $70 million principal's academy totrain the new managers. Klein's former adversary Bill Gates ponied up $51million in 2003 to help create small schools. Gates's foundation would laterincrease its investment to more than $100 million. Next came "managedinstruction, " as Klein would call it, with standardized math and readingcurriculum, and the promise to create fifty charters and 150 small schools. But it became painfully clear early on that the public would have little tono role in the rapid changes in the classroom. Bloomberg entered there-election season in 2004 taking on the politically irresistible problem of"social promotion"-- the practice of moving kids up through the gradeswhether or not they had learned much. He tested third graders (later addingfourth and seventh graders) and held them back if they didn't make thegrade. The approach went before the new Panel for Educational Policy, athirteen-member appointed board that had replaced the old seven-member Boardof Education. Two Bloomberg appointees and a Staten Island borough presidentappointee were set to join the five parent members to vote against themeasure. The mayor swept in and replaced all three renegades on the eve ofthe vote, a move the tabloids dubbed the "Monday Night Massacre." Kleinstill counts "ending social promotion" as one of his administration' saccomplishments, citing increased numbers of score-based promotions asevidence. Contracting Out New Yorkers still seeking solutions to the woes of public schools weresorely tested on a bitter cold day in midwinter. On January 29 yellow schoolbuses barreled out of their garages onto new, reconfigured routes. No trialruns. Within hours, hollers could be heard from eastern Queens to the NorthBronx. Children as young as 5 were cut off from their usual bus routes andissued subway MetroCards. Others were left waiting on cold street cornersfor an hour or more, arriving late to school. Some children were sent acrosshectic Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens to catch their bus. "No New York adult would cross Francis Lewis Boulevard," said Betsy Gotbaum,the city's public advocate. "They certainly wouldn't send their childrenacross it." The chaos was caused in large part by the financial consulting firm Alvarez& Marsal, an outfit the department hired without competitive bidding at $16million to find $200 million from the department's budget to divert directlyinto the schools. Its first order of business was to streamline the city'sschool bus routes. The net savings for all this grief: $5 million, far lessthan what was originally estimated. The head of an independent citywide parent group said the parents had warnedofficials about the impending debacle two months earlier. "They ignored us,as usual," said Tim Johnson, chair of the Chancellor's Parent AdvisoryCouncil. That debacle spotlighted a flurry of outside contracts signed by thisadministration, many of them without competitive bids. City comptrollerWilliam Thompson Jr. was alarmed to find that the Alvarez & Marsal contractallowed one consultant to charge the city as much as $450 an hour. Asubsequent investigation found that Klein's office had signed an estimated$270 million in outside no-bid contracts after Klein took the reins; severalcontracts had serious problems. Platform Learning, for example, was hiredfor $7.6 million to tutor city school kids over a five-year period. Afterthree years, Platform had earned more than $62 million, nine times itscontracted amount, with two years remaining. "There is no accountability, no oversight, no transparency in thisadministration, " Gotbaum said. "New Yorkers deserve better." The chancellorclaimed that $250 million had been redirected into the classroom. Thompson'soffice could find only $140 million in savings, and no evidence that any ofit had ended up in schools. "At a time when Tweed is demanding moreaccountability from our superintendents, our principals and our teachers,"Thompson said, "we are demanding accountability from them." The chancellor disputes his critics, saying his administration provides moreinformation and transparency than any in the past. Still, the busing crisiscrystallized into public disenchantment with many of the vaunted reforms. Size Matters One of the most promising reforms was the creation of new, small highschools. New York already was home to one of the first small-schoolmovements in the nation, promising democratic, grassroots antidotes tolarge, factory-size institutions. So it was fitting, even thrilling, whenthe new chancellor embraced small schools as a linchpin of hisrevitalization plans. Variety and innovation were encouraged. But in a short time, critics say, the Department of Education turned themission on its head. An astonishing 200 schools were launched in five years,with more than $100 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation. Some of them are, without question, excellent environments.Overall, however, the movement has become a mass production of top-down,privately subsidized schools, said Michelle Fine, a City University of NewYork education professor, that have little to do with their socialjustice-minded ancestors. Quality has been sacrificed for speed. To counter these charges, the administration cites comparisons between thesmall schools and the large ones they replaced. For example, the large SouthBronx High School had a 48 percent graduation rate in 2001; five yearslater, three small schools that replaced it averaged an 83 percentgraduation rate. Evander Childs High School in the Bronx graduated just 31percent of its students in 2002, compared with 93 percent in 2006 for BronxAerospace, a small Junior ROTC replacement school. But these small schools were admitting students who were more likely tosucceed, according to a survey of the first fifteen small schools conductedby the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Their entering ninth graders hadhigher state test scores than those at large schools. The schools also hadfar fewer special-education students and non-English speakers and in somecases more money per student. The union found that Bronx Aerospace had halfthe number of special-education kids, nearly four times fewerEnglish-language learners and spent about $5,000 more per pupil than itshost school, Evander Childs. Moreover, a recent study by the New York Immigration Coalition and Advocatesfor Children found that non-English speakers are not given "full andequitable access" to the small schools. Small schools were allowed to exemptspecial-education and English-language learners from their first twostart-up years. New incentives are in place to help the small schools servea fraction of these high-needs kids. But large concentrations of these twopopulations have been shuffled into the remaining large, ill-equipped highschools. The Citywide Council on High Schools has filed a discriminationcase with the US Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. In the end, the small-school initiative exhibited the contradictions of thisadministration. "They are mass-producing unique schools," said Leo Casey, atop UFT official, "and destroying them in the bargain." Totalitarian Testing Nothing has more impact on education than attempts to measure it. Generally,educators believe teacher-generated assessments work best as an organic partof classroom curriculum. CEOs believe company-produced tests administered ona centralized schedule create a more equitable education. "Data collectionis part of instruction, " Klein told the City Council education committeelast January, when questioned on the hours of instruction time lost to testpreparation and paperwork (up to two days a week, according to a 2005 UFTteacher survey). Klein's metaphors tell their own story. The chancellor sometimes refers tochildren as cars in a shop, a collection of malfunctions to be adjusted.Teachers need to "look under the hood," he says, to figure out the originsof the pings. The diagnostic information is then made available in piecharts and color bar graphs, child by child, as the year rolls along. "You get granular information this way about a child's strengths andweaknesses," said James Liebman, Klein's chief accountability officer and aColumbia University civil rights law professor. "And you get instant returnon the data. We are providing a lot more tools to give teachers the capacityto look at a child and see what they are doing." The 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes state standardizedtests to measure each child's level of proficiency. The city's systemratchets up that process, measuring each child's growth from one year to thenext rather than his or her ability to hit or miss a single standardstarget. In may be fairer to use multiple instruments, but it requiresmillions of dollars and an army of additional tests. Liebman has designed "progress reports," issuing a grade of A through F foreach school in areas of environment, performance and progress--with 85percent of this information deriving from state standardized tests. "Qualityreviews" are conducted yearly by a team of evaluators hired by a Britishcompany, Cambridge Education, which charges $16 million a year. The teamvisits schools to see how well they are using all the data to improvelearning. A new "robust" IBM data-management system called ARIS will keeptrack of every grain of information collected on each child. Cost: $80million. The most controversial policy is something called periodic assessments,popular with business models. These are standardized tests, on top of theonce-a-year state tests, given to kids every few weeks for additionalfeedback. The administration had already signed up Princeton Review (ownedby Bertelsmann) as part of its $21 million contract to administer math andreading tests for grades three through eight, three times a year. Thatcommitment was scrapped. CTB/McGraw-Hill was hired as a replacement, for $80million over five years. Starting this fall, the tests will be ramped up tofive times a year. High school students will be added to the cycle fourtimes a year. In June Klein appointed Harvard economist Roland Fryer as thedepartment's "chief equality officer." Fryer's main proposal offers cashpayouts to students for perfect scores on the McGraw-Hill tests--$25 tofourth graders and $50 to seventh graders. Principals who agree to thisexperiment will receive $5,000 for their schools. Statistical disputes aside, the basic disagreement is over what constitutesan educated child. Is it someone who can demonstrate "grains" of isolatedskills or someone who has the capacity to think and explore with a sense ofwonder and depth? So far, the grains have the upper hand. "Thisadministration is preparing children to do these small tasks, strippingeducation down to its parched bones," said Tom Sobol. "The soul of educationis left at the door." The public is losing faith in the New York schools revolution. In March aQuinnipiac University opinion poll found that 58 percent of those surveyedlonged for an independent elected board at the helm rather than the mayor.Klein's surprise announcement of a new overhaul last winter--a sort ofdecentralization in drag, with tighter control at the top over moreempowered principals at the bottom--triggered even more outrage. "There isno evidence that your first reforms improved kids' learning," chided avisibly peeved City Council education chair Robert Jackson in January. The truth is, the evidence is mixed at best. Klein points to improvedacademic achievement, higher graduation rates and a greater number ofhigh-quality school choices since the mayor took over in 2002. He claimsthat 60 percent of ninth graders graduated four years later in 2006, an 18percent hike. During the same period, math scores rose 20 percentage points,meaning that 57 percent of students in third through eighth grades met orexceeded standards. Reading scores rose 10 percent, to 51 percent. Thisspring an eight-point hike in math scores across the grades, to 65 percent,meeting standards, and a 5 point rise in reading scores, to 42 percent foreighth graders, was cause for celebration- -even though reading scores forthird and fourth graders dropped an average of four points. But the numbers are hotly contested. Diane Ravitch, a former educationofficial in the George Bush Sr. White House, questions why the chancellorcounts 2002 as his starting point, when the initiatives did not kick inuntil January 2003. Test scores can be volatile instruments. The recenteighth-grade reading scores were up all across New York State this year byeight points, from 49 to 57 percent, an indication that the test itself waslikely easier. The graduation rate is another bugaboo: The state calculatesa 50 percent graduation rate for the city (not 60 percent), because itfigures GEDs, English-language learners and special-education diplomasdifferently from the city. Overall, the radical overhaul seems to haveproduced modest improvement rather than landmark progress. "Their gains arerespectable, not historic," Ravitch told a packed crowd at St. John'sUniversity last March. Perhaps the most notable development has been the mobilization of opponentsfrom among disparate city groups. An overflow crowd of 1,000 angry NewYorkers descended on Manhattan's St. Vartan's Cathedral in late February toprotest the latest round of changes. It was a rare coalition of forces,angry enough to set aside their individual agendas to unite against theDepartment of Education. Here were City Council members, elected officials,activist groups like ACORN, the Working Families Party, labor unions, animmigrant coalition and citywide parent groups. The most powerful group, and the one that gave this assembly itsinstitutional clout, was the UFT, which has more than 100,000 members. Itslegendary statewide political power was forged in the 1960s by black andLatino community groups battling for control of the schools. In recent yearsthe union had made peace with its past, creating real ties to parent groups.In many ways Klein and Bloomberg helped create this assembly by cutting offchannels once used routinely by the too-powerful union to influence policy.The effect was to alienate both teachers and parents, pushing them together."No administration has been as hostile to the union as this one," said theUFT's Casey. The mayor's response to this historic show of unity has been to dismiss itas a small collection of parents influenced by powerful self-interestedgroups. But he may be ignoring this group of pols and parents at his peril.Rumblings that February night at Hostos called for an end to mayoralcontrol. The measure is up for renewal by the New York State Legislature in2009. Few New Yorkers have any appetite for returning to the old school boarddays. But most would like to see some democratic checks and balances builtinto what has become a two-man show. An independent elected board couldoversee budget, contracts and policy decisions, and the selection of futurechancellors. The input of seasoned educators is needed again at the highestdecision-making levels. Regional boards could help return a sense ofcommunity to the city's schools. At the classroom level, school-based teamsof teachers and parents should be given some real clout. As for testing,department officials would do well to emulate the Republican state ofNebraska, which has invested in teacher-created assessments (now threatenedby new legislation) that do not choke curriculums. Americans tend to hold only a few big ideas sacred. One of them is thepromise that its unique public school system can offer every child a crackat the American dream. Ironically, the top-down corporate solutions popularwith CEO superintendents like Klein wrest control from the people they claimto serve. "Public schools are the cornerstone of our democracy," said IrvingHamer Jr., Manhattan representative on the last Board of Education. "If welet them quietly slip through the public's hands, we are breaking thecovenant of civic participation in this country."

Why not Bloomberg?

In times of frustration, novelty is tempting. That is no reason for our country to grasp at a third party candidate like an attractive, non-fat chocolate. In other words, I am begging my fellow Americans not to fall for the potential third party candidacy of Mike Bloomberg.

First, he is in the process of disposing of New York City's public schools. We are testing and failing more tests than ever. Our class sizes remain the same or bigger, our services are outsourced to various for-profit companies. We may not succeed at educating our students, but we will make some publishers of standardized tests richer than ever. Meanwhile, we have turned our curricula into test prep.

Ask any teacher or student at a private school how much they prepare for a test or if an exam dictates what they would learn and they will be horrified by the question. I know because I asked a friend who teaches as at a prestigious school and she reprimanded me. Of course, I know better than to teach to a test. But, I don't work in a system which does. I work for a system which is attempting to pretend it gets results, as if student success can be measured in the same way as profit. Even profit doesn't tell a whole story. It tells you what you have, but not necessarily what you need and how equipped you are for future changes in a market. So too, student success on simple exam tasks doesn't predict their ability to apply what they have learned in a complex world. Of course, our students are not succeeding on these tests, so this is a moot point.

Yes, Mike Bloomberg rides the subways. Fortunately for him, he doesn't ride one of the many lines which has had service reduced like mine has because he doesn't live out in the outer boroughs of New York. Just as with schools, he has a simplistic solution to a problem whose depth he doesn't begin to understand.

In New York City, Mike Bloomberg has proven that he may say the right things, but provides perfunctory, superficial solutions to problems. On a national scale, this behavior might be devastating.

Where has all the corn gone?

In a conversation this afternoon, my therapist remarked that the price of corn is going up because we are not producing enough to use as fuel and food. I couldn't believe it. Coincidentally, this evening I read the speech below on truthout.com. Get this: we're subsidizing the exportation of corn to Mexico, killing their farms and raising domestic prices at the same time!


Unauthorized Immigration By Doris "Granny D" Haddock t r u t h o u t Remarks
Wednesday 13 June 2007
Remarks in New Hampshire over the weekend at the "Democracy Fest," sponsored by Democracy for America.
Thank you.
It is normally expected that, when given an opportunity to speak, I will talk about campaign finance reform and, more specifically, about how the public financing of campaigns can cut the threads of the big-money puppet show.
But today I would like to talk about unauthorized immigration, which has nothing to do with the big-money corruption of our political system, except for everything.
Unauthorized immigration seems to be a big issue right now with our Republican candidates, as they are well-known to be the "law and order party." That, after all, is why they are insisting that Scooter Libby pay the full price for his perjuries and obstructions of justice. They are for law and order, with the normal exceptions of the Geneva Conventions and the US Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights. But we know what they mean: When they say they are for law and order, they are talking mostly about keeping down the uppity poor folk. They are certainly not talking about the big corporations, hotel companies, agribusiness giants and retailers who employ millions of unauthorized immigrants but who make up for that sin many times over with their large campaign donations.
But I do not come here to talk about corrupting campaign donations and the need for public campaign financing. I come to talk of unauthorized immigration and a little about corn and something about tortillas. I call it unauthorized immigration, not illegal, because I don't want to use words that confuse my Republican friends.
By the way, in saying that Republicans are very interested in the immigration issue, I do not mean to imply that it is less important for any of us.
If you will look around the grocery store check-out lines and notice the widening measurements of our fellow citizens, we can certainly see for ourselves the problem of having too much cheap labor around to do all our yardwork and housework for us. By my calculations, the roughly three billion pounds of extra weight now being carried on the hips of working-age American citizens is roughly equivalent to the combined weight of the unauthorized immigrants now in our communities. The math is clear and persuasive. Cheap labor is bad for everybody.
But why are so many people risking their lives to come into our country now? When did this big rush begin?
It began when Mr. Clinton approved NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement - and when he militarized our southern border at the same time. Prior to these combined actions, families crossed the border very commonly and casually, especially during harvest seasons. After harvest, they would go home to Mexico or Central America because that's where they lived with their families in quite happy communities.
When the border was militarized, it became too risky to go back and forth. So they stayed.
Why did Mr. Clinton militarize the border? He did so because NAFTA was about to pull the rug out from under Mexico's small family farms. We flooded Mexico with cheap corn - exports that we now subsidize to the tune of some $25 billion a year. Congress gives that money of ours to a handful of agribusiness giants. Of course, I am not here to tell you why Congress does that, and what might be done to stop it, such as with the public financing of campaigns. But they do it, and Mexican family farmers cannot compete.
In the years since NAFTA was signed, half of Mexico's small farms have failed. The only kind of farming that can now compete in Mexico is big agribusiness, which does not employ as many people. Tortillas in Mexico now contain two-thirds imported corn, and they are three times as expensive at retail level than before NAFTA. The people have less money, and the cost of food is rising. We have done that. Our precious senators and congressmen and their corporate cronies have enforced that raw and cruel exploitation in our names.
The result of undermining Mexican farms, as Clinton expected, was a rising flood of poor people moving from rural areas into Mexico's big cities, which have become so poor and overcrowded that all one can do is dream of going north across the border.
Now, if any Democratic candidates for president would like to show a little courage and intelligence, let them address the real cause of our flood of unauthorized immigrants. Will Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama or Mr. Edwards or any of the other candidates face down the agri-gangsters who are behind this problem? Probably they will not, so long as Iowa has a major primary.
Let me say that I am not ranting and raving in the least about these new Americans. When Mexico owned Texas and everything west of Texas, and when Mexico cut off migration across its borders into Texas, our people kept coming anyway - crossing illegally in search of opportunities for their families. When Mexico got upset by this, we trumped up false reasons for a war, and we illegally took those lands. If that wasn't enough law and order for you, we also conducted unfettered genocide against the region's native people. So let's not stand on any moral high ground regarding that southern border.
The people coming across the border today, with the usual exceptions, are family people with an incredible work ethic. Personally, I welcome them. I congratulate them for their courage and their dedication to their families. I want them to stay and become citizens, or, if some prefer, to return to their homeland at a time when there is international justice and a decent chance for prosperity at home.
I regret what the political corruption of our system has done to their farms and their communities back home. It is not the people's fault - it is the fault of corrupt leaders of both parties and both nations. We must speak this truth to these powerful people, even to those presidential candidates whom we otherwise admire.
So, candidates Clinton, Edwards, Obama and the rest: Do you understand the reasons why immigration numbers are growing? Are you smart enough to understand the situation? Are you brave enough to do something - to even say something - about it? Or is the truth too big for you?
All of us in this room have a duty to be good citizens and good Democrats. And that means we must ask the toughest questions, so that the interests of the people - the people of our nation and of the world - will be served. Isn't that what we're here for?
And do you see why I do not need to harp on campaign finance reform, to cut the puppet strings that allow these cruelties to continue? I didn't have to say a word about that, because you understand it. You understand what must be done in regard to the public financing of federal and state campaigns. And that only begins the reforms we require in this challenging new age.
Thank you.
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Michael Moore's SiCKO (official trailer)

Of large, gruff men with big frames and bad habits

I don't remember a time in my life when I was not in love with some very large man. Somehow, no matter where I was, I found him. When I was about five, it was Jack Klugman on THE ODD COUPLE. When I was seven, Klugman was rivaled by Dave Madden as Reuben Kincaid on THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY. When I was 11, it was the baritone Sherrill Milnes. Although I caught him at the end of his career, there was still enough color and sensitivity in his voice mixed with the football player's frame to get my undivided attention.

The objects of my affection weren't always far away. I'll spare those close to me who have been subject to my affection the embarassment of being named, but they are well aware of who they are.

It's an odd love. At once, I want to be the large man and to be all over him. People have seen me mimic all kinds of tics -- Sherrill Milnes has a lot of them. The romantic poses, the effusive face and that insuperable chest that comes in the room minutes before he does. He also still has a flat Midwestern "A" and he's been married several times. Sometimes I feign the accent.

I grew up without a father, so the obvious rationale for why this happened to me was "looking-for-daddy-itis." Plus, my mother was eternally looking for a stand-in for the man who was supposed to tell her how wonderful she looked and to hold the doors for her. So, there I was, the kid who wanted to be and be taken by Sherrill Milnes escorting the woman who wanted to be every character played by Gwen Verdon. We were a funny pair, especially because I am, to this day, nearly a half foot shorter than she is, and a good foot wider both because of weight and a relatively large frame.

What I wanted, and still want, was much more than a father. I wanted the security that these men had in their largeness. I wanted the big hands, the shoulders -- the wide face.

And I have no idea what I would do without these shadows to follow, to this day.

Morir Tremenda Cosa...Urna Fatale - Sherrill Milnes 1983

I was 15 and he was god to me then.

Shameful mix of politics and sports

Politics and sports are always blended, but it's shameful, to me anyway, when promos go to the wrong people.

Apparently, Rudy Giuliani and George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees are good friends. And apparently, either to be jocular, or to seem straight, on 3/20/2007 Suzyn Waldman offered Giuliani an open opportunity to get on mic on Yankees broadcasts whenever he is on the campaign trail in a city in which the team is visiting. You can read about this on http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/?p=9539

In the reign of foolishness of Mike Bloomberg, even I sometimes hark back to the days of Giuliani, who was not as effective at destroying the schools -- though he started the ball rolling. But, Giuliani was a tyrant, nonetheless, who did nothing to make this city a better place. It may not seem that way from a closet in Westchester where some anonymous person/partner can watch one's dogs, but for those of us not hiding in a forest, the devastation is immediately palpable. And how dare anyone basically give a national microphone to a presidential candidate so easily -- she not only virtually endorsed Giuliani, but she gave him a free platform on which to campaign!

I am still grateful for the precision of the descriptions of the game that Waldman and her radio partner Sterling usually provide. I will hope that Giuliani doesn't take Waldman up on her offer. I've sent the broadcasters an email, for whatever that's worth. For now, I'll be listening to the opposing team's radio teams -- until there is an explanation or an apology. No one should just gladhand Yankee air time to a presidential candidate.

I'm disappointed. As you know from my previous posts, I found the the radio broadcasts on WCBS fun.

In Case of Emergency, DON'T BREAK THE JAR...

Now, thanks to NSPD 51, in case of an emergency which can be any incident the president deems one, "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government".
Oh yeah. And I'd leave Cookie Monster in charge of the Cookie Jar.

If you don't know about NSPD 51, go here to read it and you MUST read it

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

Don't bomb Iran

A four thousand five hundred pound bunker buster would lead the attack on Iran, according to Randi Rhodes' show of June 12 -- she has all the documentation to back the information on her website.

I don't think half the people in this country know what Iran looks like, and that the same amount of people would know what that initial bomb would look like. In other words, about as many people as think through the phrase "Rockets Red Glare" when singing the Star Spangled Banner. Or as many people who think through the logic of still calling Roger Clemens "The Rocket" when he hasn't been a fastball pitcher for nearly a decade.

Roger Clemens is still a great pitcher, but he does so by "hitting spots" -- placing the ball in key locations that are hard to hit. In other words, he knows precisely what he is doing with the ball.

As a citizen, I would like as precise knowledge of what, why and how we risk anyone's life before we do so. But, I am well aware that more people are worried about the Yankees future than are necessarily aware of or immediately concerned about the state of our country.

I don't think people are stupid. I think people are paralyzed by a loss of connection between their actions and their respective results. We vote, we get a different president than the one for whom we voted, not because few of us chose him, but because the Supreme Court said that our choice wasn't important enough to discern. We go to vote, and someone asks us to prove our identity in ways that no one asks us to when we use our credit cards. Even those who got who they voted for did so, probably, expecting honest information and actions.

None of us got that.

Henry gets chin rub on bed and Larry gets a chin rub while sitting on Mommy's lap

Lost Art

Sunday, I was listening to a podcast of Treehugger radio (you can find them on itunes) and they mentioned the Burning Man Festival which is the biggest arts festival in the US. It's held in the Nevada desert and you can drive or fly there. People do art all day, there are no vendors and the goal is to explore and share art. Karen would've loved it. And of course, I didn't find it when she was alive. You sleep under the stars in the desert. Anyway, let's just call it lost art...

www.burningman.com Check it out....

Watching with my ears

Over the past two years, I've developed the peculiar habit of watching baseball games with my ears. No, I don't go to the ballpark with some sort of strange contraption on my head. When I go to the park, I use my eyes. When I am not at the park, however, I use my ears. I listen to the games on the radio, even on those rare occasions when the games are not on cable television. (I don't have cable.)

For a Yankees fan, that means listening to the games on WCBS-AM through the voices of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. If you've never heard them, then I should tell you that they sound, basically, like what your grandparents might sound like if they were both avid baseball fans. They finish each others' sentences, repeat rules about baseball as if they were rules to live by and switch from extreme disappointment to praise like...grandparents working with their grandchild on developing good manners. And underneath their overall affection for each other, there is an undercurrent of competition for who knows best. What this does for me is give me a feeling of intimate knowledge of the particular games because I am hearing them told to me like very exciting stories. Plus, that need to one-up each other means he and she repeat themselves a lot so that, if nothing else, he or she can add his or her own twist on the story which, of course, makes it entirely different to them, and just a little more scary or funny than the first time I heard it. Finally, they describe every move on the field in almost minute detail, like a Grimm's fairy tale and they add emotional responses to underscore each one.

Some rules to live by that they say, at least ten times in every four hour broadcast:
"Tssk. Those lead off walks will come back to bite you."
"You can throw as fast as you want, but if the ball is straight and flat, it's going to be hit."
"I don't understand why __________ doesn't come in and challenge the hitter. You have to throw strikes. You can't keep walking people."
"If you miss opportunities to score, you only have yourselves to blame."
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I can't believe ____________ struck out so many times tonight. He has to do better than that if we are going to win ballgames."
"_________ contributes in many ways. His defense is terrific and he'll get his hits, too."
"___________ is as good as anyone in his position." (This one, my friend Sharon Pearce at www.outofthebullpen.mlblogs.com says is not really a complement because its not really saying he's better and it's not clear how good everyone else is in that position. Kind of like when you're grandparents say, "That's very nice.")

Things they repeat:
Suzyn Waldman tells us how fast the pitchers we are seeing throw, and Sterling repeats this about every hour when he is talking about the pitchers.
Waldman tells us what kind of balls the pitchers throw -- fastballs, curveballs, etc. and Sterling repeats it, as if she never said it and it's news about once an inning.

Things they try to one-up each other on:
What he or she thought of an umpire's call
Predictions for what the managers will do next
Gossip. Yesterday, after asking a reporter who was their guest on the broadcast what he thought of why Jason Giambi had come to watch the game in the clubhouse even though he is injured, Sterling revealed that HE had talked to Giambi separately and HE knew something we didn't that HE would tell us later.
Information on new players. Invariably, Waldman finds out info from coaches and scouts on new players which Sterling then claims he has heard, too.

They don't argue. They just disagree and get silent about it, under the guise of "agreeing to disagree" when it sounds like "and no dessert for you tonight." Then, Sterling changes the subject.

Things they describe in great detail
How the pitcher moves
How the batter moves
Where the players are in the field at almost every moment
How far a ball was hit
How close a foul ball was to being in-play
How each pitch, especially the ones that were hit, moved. This is especially grand because it is so precise. Typically, Waldman will say something like, "that ball broke, but it broke chest-high right over the plate" or "that sinker fell just before it hit the plate so that when ___ swung it was already too low for him to hit." Or, "Oh god, that was a mistake. He threw that ball up and it stayed up and didn't break like he was hoping it would so ________ just pulled back on his heels and wacked it." Sterling will usually concur like he thought that too, of course.

All of this is why I have listen to games. I guess, I feel like I'll have something to tell my grand-cats (the closest thing I'll come to grandchildren) about.

Some Nice News

from Poynteronline

By Al Tompkins (more by author)

Many times in my years as a street reporter, I saw firefighters rescue pets. If you have spent any time on the street, I am sure you have seen firefighters hold oxygen masks up to cats or dogs or birds that have inhaled a lot of smoke. Human masks don't fit very well, but until recently, that was all emergency workers had.
But now, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reports, there are special pet masks available that firefighters are packing on their firetrucks. Firefighter Web sites include conversations about these life-saving contraptions. Charitable groups raised money to get these masks into every firehouse in the state of Delaware.
The story included this passage:
"It's an oxygen mask just like the ones used on a person, but they're differently shaped," [Brewer fire Capt. Gary] Parent said. "They're longer and have a rubber membrane" to hold them in place.
Brewer [Maine] Fire Department purchased the pet oxygen mask kit about a month ago for $75.

The Endless Six Day War

The original linkhttp://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/03/1630/


Published on Sunday, June 3, 2007 by The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Israel Won A Victory Studded With Thorns
by Elizabeth Sullivan
The survival of their nation was on the line as Israeli war jets took off to bomb Egypt’s air force on the ground.
The pre-emptive strikes worked.
Arab states — Egypt, Syria, Jordan — were threatening a war of annihilation 40 years ago this week.
What they got instead was a war of humiliation.
The lightning-fast Six Day War, fought from June 5 to June 10 in 1967, proved both Israel’s military pre-eminence and its durability as a nation. Arab dreams of being able to lead displaced Palestinians back to homes lost during the 1948 Israeli war of independence were at an end.
Israel was able for the first time to consider its longer-term future — with immense swaths of seized land in the Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that it could trade for peace.
In America, the spectacle of a plucky underdog cornering Soviet- armed adversaries stirred popular admiration, leading to an enduring U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership and the beginning of U.S. engagement in the search for a Middle East peace.
“As evidence of the continuing progress is the fact that I, as a [former] American official, can say Palestine’ almost without wincing,” says retired U.S. Ambassador Charlie Dunbar, referring to the name of a future Palestinian state. In a diplomatic career spanning four decades, Dunbar was one of the State Department’s most accomplished Arabic speakers.
Yet neither Israel nor the Arab states quite got what they expected from the Six Day War.
And its legacies — in occupied land, assertive Palestinian national ism and the expanded use of asymmetric terrorist warfare — remain with us today.
“Rarely in modern times has so short and localized a conflict had such prolonged, global consequences,” writes historian Michael Oren in the 2002 introduction to “Six Days of War,” his book on the conflict.
Israel quelled doubts about its ability to survive and it reunited Jerusalem, an important goal. But it couldn’t control the war’s aftermath, when instead of suing for peace, Arab states redoubled preparations for war.
As a young U.S. diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Wat Cluverius watched Saudis try to mend their bruised sense of honor by pretending it was U.S. military jets that had bombed the Arabs into submission.
“They fooled themselves as much as anybody else,” says Cluverius, immediate past president and ambassador-in-residence for the Cleveland Council on World Affairs.
Photographs of Israeli women sol diers guarding captured Egyptian soldiers encapsulated the humiliation for many Arabs.
Israel’s legendary defense minister, Ezer Weisman, architect of the pre-emptive air strikes that won the war, was even prompted to ask, “What were you people thinking?” says outgoing law Professor Amos Guiora of Case Western Reserve University.
Guiora, who studied the war as an Israeli army officer in the 1980s and early 1990s, now has a 19-year-old daughter in the Israeli military. He leaves Case at month’s end to take a teaching position at the University of Utah.
“The Arabs were so ashamed by their defeat at the hands of this little state that was supposed to be inferior to the forces of Allah” that they decided they couldn’t negotiate until their honor was restored, says Mitchell Bard, author of the forthcoming “Will Israel Survive?” and director of the online Jewish Virtual Library.
Yet the war also “laid the predicate for a diplomatic process,” says Aaron David Miller, formerly of Cleveland, who advised six secretaries of state on Arab- Israeli negotiations. In 1973, the Yom Kippur War gave Arab nations what they considered a victory, so they did begin to sit down to talk about peace, says Miller, now a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
The Six Day War also created a new predicate for hostilities.
“Palestinians became heroes,” says Miller, “. . . and emerged as bona fide sources of hope for hundreds of millions of humiliated Arabs.”
The result has transformed the threat into a conflict between Israel and radical Islam, “and that’s very different, and very difficult to fight, because you can’t fight with conventional armies,” says Bard.
And today, what with Iranian nuclear ambitions, a destabilized Lebanon and an Iraq tipping into civil war, the Middle East has become vastly more complicated and resistant to easy solutions, the experts agree.
Yet the key in the door remains the Palestinians’ plight and what Israel proposes to do about occupied lands that no longer reside in a peace bank, but instead have become part of its political and strategic landscape.
“That is the key to unlocking doors on these other fronts” — Iraq and Lebanon — says retired diplomat Henry Precht, who served on the State Department’s Iran desk during the Iranian revolution.
Re-engaging evenhandedly in an Israeli-Palestinian peace process “empowers our friends, helps us to marginalize our enemies and more importantly, takes away an issue that is used to stir up tremendous anger at the United States,” says Miller.
“In my view, it is very irresponsible for anyone who pretends to be a steward of American security not to do everything they can in managing it.”
“Never before has the security of the continental United States been more vulnerable to what happens in the Arab or Muslim East,” Miller adds. “Anybody who argues the contrary does not understand the generational character of the threat we face.”
Sullivan is The Plain Dealer’s foreign-affairs columnist and an associate editor of the editorial pages.