Sunday, September 15, 2013

Compare and Contrast Reactions to Teacher Evaluation: In Mexico 10,000 Teachers Protest, In NYC Union Leaders Defend the Undermining of the Profession

The education issues in Mexico and in this country and in other parts of the world are the same. That should tell you something. That the union misleaders who are wearing buttons that say Dec. 31, 2013 to mark the end of the Bloomberg era are not telling the members the truth about the neo-liberal assault on education, teachers and their unions.

Reports about how teachers have taken over Mexico City have been so biased in the NY Times. As if they are doing this so they can sell their jobs or protect corrupt union practices. In fact I believe they are teachers with similar attitudes to the anti-Unity folks here in NYC and to the Chicago Teachers and the over 100 union activists who attended the conference we held in Chicago last month.

MORE Steering Committee member Gloria Brandman was on the scene in Mexico last month as was Class Struggle's Marjorie Stamberg. Both are helping host an event on Sept. 24 to discuss the Mexico story.

Before I get to the Mexico stuff, here are links to reports from James Eterno and Arthur Goldstein on Mulgrew's performance at the chapter leader meeting this past Thursday.
This would be a good common core standard question: Compare and contrast the teachers in Mexico with those in the USA.

Here is the announcement, followed by 3 reports from Marjorie. I have to find Gloria's emails and pics for posting in the future. 


PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
REPORT BACK
From Mexico City to New York City

Teacher Insurgency
in Mexico
Tuesday, September 24, 6 p.m.
CUNY Graduate Center

365 5th Ave. at 34th St. Room 5414
B, D, F train to 34th St.; 6 train to 33rd St. (photo identification needed

Since mid-August, teachers in Mexico have electrified the country, striking against unionbusting educational “reform” laws that threaten to throw tens of thousands out of their jobs while privatizing and potentially eliminating schools in impoverished and indigenous areas.
This is not your usual protest: the teachers drove the Mexican Congress out of the capital, and twice blocked Mexico City’s airport. Up to 40,000 strikers are camped out in the capital’s main square, the Zócalo, in front of the National Palace, refusing to accept the anti-teacher laws.
Their example is an inspiration to us in New York and elsewhere as we face a global offensive against public education.
Come to a reportback and discussion with NYC educators who were
present in Mexico City and Oaxaca during this struggle.

*Gloria Brandman, NYC teacher, UFT Chapter Leader, MORE (Movement of  Rank and File Educators)
   *Tami Gold, professor and filmmaker - PSC Hunter College Chapter
        *Marjorie Stamberg, NYC teacher, UFT delegate, CSEW (Class Struggle  Education Workers)
             Video Reports from Oaxaca and Mexico City   
                      Light refreshments
                                       For more information, call (212) 460-0983

Here are a few of Marjorie's reports in chronological order:

Oaxaca, August 27--

The "Dialogue Round Table" that the government agreed to August 23 as teachers blockaded the airport, began yesterday. Over the weekend, government secretary Osorio Chung declared that, first, nothing would stop the educational reform, and second, if the "dialogue" didn´t produce results acceptable to the government, it would proceed with repression.

A columnist in yesterday´s paper, La Jornada (August 26th) put it this way:

"One of the first sessions between the leaders of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate which will take place today will determine the course to be taken both by a movement determined not to let itself be swindled and by the "reformist" powers who are preparing an iron fist underneath the silken glove of dialogue".

Meanwhile the teachers say they are still "on battle footing." Yesterday they surrounded the embassies of the United States, Spain, and Britain. And another ten thousand teachers are arriving in Mexico City today to join the massive tent city that is stretched out across the main plaza and several blocks into side streets of the Centro Historico. (Tourists stepping out of the Holiday Inn on Cinco de Mayo street have to wend their way through the maze of tents.)

The main negotiator for the dissident teachers of the CNTE warned the government, "You think we´re going to swallow this bait, but we are prepared for anything,¨ adding that the teachers had categorically no confidence that this was leading to a solution. In fact, the dialogue is a trap.

New York Times echoes Mexican Union Bashers

The view of business sectors, right-wing politcians and television monopolies who have demonized teachers was synthecized in a particularly ignorant and snooty article in Sunday´s New York Times by Karla Zabludovsky. As she portrayed it, the problems of Mexican education consists of nepotism, "poorly performing teachers," unions, and the "radical teachers group," the CNTE. In fact, Mexican public schools have been systematically starved of funds for several decades, teachers in rural and impoverished urban areas go through hell to bring education to their students, often without blackboards, let alone computers. The so-called reforms are an attempt to eliminate any form of job security for teachers, and to step-by-step privatize as much as possible.

Two of the three implementation laws were passed last week, which laid the basis for the introduction of school fees and tuition that would gut the constitutional guarantee of free public secular education for all.

But in face of the teachers´ protests, the government has not yet been able to ram through the third law, including the punitive teacher evaluations, which is called "Professional Teaching Service." This would effectively eliminate all job security for teachers. They would have to take a multiple choice test every four years, in which failing scores would lead to removal from the classroom for tenured teachers, and firing for teaches under a new probation law.

Teachers I have talked with at the sit-in and blockades have been struck by the parallels to our fight in the U.S. and theirs. And no accident. These reforms come straight from the OECD and other think-tanks of global capital. Obviously this has nothing to do with improving education and everything to do with union-bashing, profit for venders, and producing a "disciplined" work force of low -level technicians to meet the needs of the big multi-.nationals. The upper and middle classes will send their offspring to private. schools.

With the supposed "dialogue" which is actually the doorway to the massive repression, the government is trying to portray teachers as only out for themselves. But the teachers have responded, as one newspaper put it that they would "take whatever action they considered necessary in defense of free, quality education and the rights of the teachers."

Faced with the government´s treacherous maneuvers, the key now is to extend the strike and make it national. Teachers in Michoacan and here in Oaxaca are still out on indefinite strike; they´ve been out for 6 days in Tabasco; they´re walking out tomorrow in Chiapas. They may go out in Veracruz. The government is particularly worried that the strikes could continue into September when the so-called energy reform calling for the introduction of private capital into the state-owned Pemex oil monopoly is coming to a vote. Massive protests by teachers and other workers blocking Pemex installations in the oil states of Veracruz and Tabasco would have a major effect on the Mexican economy.

One final note-- La Bestia

On Sunday, the notorious train, called La Bestia (the beast) which carries hundreds of Central American immigrants on freight-car roofs, in the scorching heat, beset by violent gangs and corrupt police, through Southern Mexico derailed and overturned, killing at least 6 and injuring many more. There is an excellent documentary by the same name, (La Bestia) which shows the harrowing experience many of our students go through before they get to the U.S., It is available on Netflix



Report-back Day 15--

This will be my last post, as I head back to school. I want to see if we can put together a forum-discussion on the Mexican teachers strike, in New York. I'll let you know the date, and hope everyone can come, as we are facing the same urgent issues.

Things here came to a head over the weekend as Mexico president Peña Nieto delivered his first annual "State of the Union" report to Congress. But nobody paid much attention, as the real action was pushing through the teacher evaluations.

While up to 50,000 teachers, youth and other supporters were in the streets facing an army of riot police, the three major parties in Congress met behind a wall of 9 foot-high steel plates where they voted for the punitive teacher evaluations. This was even as the supposed "dialogue" with the leaders of the dissident teachers CNTE union was taking place in a downtown hotel.

But today in the planton (tent city) in the main plaza, teachers were not cowed. Wednesday there is a nationwide "mega-march" to kick off what they are calling a "teacher insurrection."

The PRD Mexico City government has been under fire from the right-wing for not cracking down on the teachers. New York's own former mayor Rudy Guiliani who was an advisor to the Mexico City mayor on security matters got into the act, calling to jail demonstrators.

But yesterday there were reportedly 6,000 city riot police, 2,000 federal police, 3,000 bank police, 2,000 state police from outside Mexico City, an anti-riot squad, a battalion of grenadiers, a regiment of mounted police, a helicopter and two armored water cannon vehicles to keep the demonstrators at bay. There were two dozen arrests -- many of them when police stopped a metro train and arrested every university student in the car!

The evals are very punitive. A leading Mexican political scientist,John Ackerman, denounced the law as one that would "literally throw out on the street a multitude of highly trained teachers dedicated to their students, with the excuse that they had 'failed' slanted tests designed for that purpose." "It's a classic three strikes and they're out," he remarked.

He said the real danger is that the classrooms will be staffed by people who would be disposed to be slavishly obedient to supervisors who could fire them at the least excuse. Or the classrooms would be left empty as teachers are forced to abandon school books and go drive a taxi, become a dishwasher in the United States, or.... (you can fill in the blank).

Going along with the anti-teacher "reform", the government of the Pact for Mexico plans to introduce sales tax (a whopping 16%) on food and medicine. This will literally deprive people of life, as one legislator said

The teachers here are incredibly dedicated. Particularly in the south of Mexico, in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan and other centers of the resistance, they travel to small rural villages everyday to teach in schools that often have no electricity or running water. Forget about computers or smart boards, many of them don't have blackboards. There are no school lunches or breakfasts. Under the reform they are talking about introducing 8-hour a day schools and they will have lunches -- to be paid for by the parents.

The condition of the computers in the urban schools is notorious. Yesterday we were walking past a school in Oaxaca City (shut down because of the strike) and noticed that they had used the carcasses of old monitors as planters, with very pretty plants growing out of them!

What is going to happen next? It's hard to say at this point. There is a growing cleavage between union leaders (some of whom have tried to soften the blow by saying they won the right to appeal the evals-- where have we heard that before, UFT? There has also been a lot of talk that in Oaxaca, the returning teachers of Section 22 may fight to declare the state in rebellion and refuse to carry out the national law. Not impossible, they've done it before.


http://fotos.eluniversal.com.mx/web_img/fotogaleria/policias_maestros_df_4.jpg
 
Urgent: Repression Underway Against Teachers in Mexico City
 
UPDATE,  11: 15 p.m. (New York time)  – Striking teachers have largely dispersed to campuses of the National University (UNAM), Mexico City University (UACM) and other schools around Mexico City, while several hundred remain at the Monumento a la Revolucion. The Mexican Red Cross is reporting 29 injured during the eviction.
UPDATE, 7:15 p.m. (New York time) – At exactly 4:45 p.m. (5:45 p.m. New York time), the federal police launched their attack on the teachers camped out in Mexico City’s Zócalo. The paramilitary police force entered from the side of the National Palace and the Cathedral, with two tanquetas in the lead. Teachers retreated into side streets while throwing rocks and sticks at the advancing federales. Videos show residents denouncing the police and supporting the teachers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSkdrpBbcIg).
Some 3,600 federal police reportedly took part in the eviction of the teachers. The assault was coordinated by Rear Admiral Manuel Mondragón y Kalb, now assistant secretary of public security for the federal government, who was slated to be chief of public security in a government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the populist-nationalist opposition candidate who ran against Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The teachers have withdrawn to the Monumento a la Revolución, some blocks to the east of the Zócalo, where at present several thousand are awaiting a decision from the leadership as to the next step. The CNTE leadership is still hoping to negotiate with the federal government, while many in the ranks are in favor of falling back to the UNAM campus (Ciudad Universitaria) where it would be difficult for police to dislodge them.
Students at the National School of Anthropology and History (ENA) have declared an indefinite strike in support of the teachers and there have been clashes between police and several hundred ENAH students who shut down Periférico Sur and UNAM students who blocked  traffic on Insurgentes Avenue.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER  13, 5:15 p.m. (New York time) – Today the federal government of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has unleashed a massive repressive operation against the tens of thousands of teachers of the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), who have been camped out since August 19 in the capital’s main square, the Zócalo. The teachers are protesting an anti-teacher “education reform” which aims at firing tens of thousands of teachers annually and to increasingly privatize public education 
 
Alleging that it needed to clear the vast square in front of the National Palace in order to hold the independence day celebration (the Grito de la independencia) on September 16, and for a march by the Mexican military, the federal government gave the teachers until 4 p.m. (15 minutes ago) to clear out. Thousands of riot police lined up next to the Bellas Artes Palace a few blocks away while police helicopters circled over the Zócalo. Armored personnel carriers known as tanquetas are positioned on at least two sides of the square.  
At present there are reportedly about 1,500 teachers left in the square vowing to resist with sticks against the heavily armed granaderos (Mexico City riot cops). Earlier they seized a back-hoe to block one of the streets. Tents are burning in order to create a smoke screen to make it harder for the helicopter spotters to direct the repression. At the same time, thousands of teachers, workers and students are streaming into nearby streets of Tacuba and 5 de Septiembre+.
At the corner of Madero and the Eje Central, demonstrators are chanting, “Los policías no son trabajadores, son el brazo armado de los explotadores” (the police are not workers, they are the armed fist of the exploiters).
Some comrades of the Grupo Internacionalista, including a teacher from Oaxaca, are with the teachers in the Zócalo at this point, while others are meeting those arriving outside the police perimeter. At Ciudad Unviersitaria in the south of Mexico City, comrades are at a rally called by the National University faculty and staff union, STUNAM, to bring masses to the center in support of the teachers.
Recently the teachers union of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the SEPE-RJ, passed a motion of solidarity with the Mexican teachers at the initiative of our comrades of the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil. In Mexico City, at the initiative of the Grupo Internacionalista, the CNTE reciprocated with a motion of solidarity with the SEPE, on strike since August 14 

Protest outside Mexican consulate in New York City against repression against teachers.

Today Mexican teachers are leading resistance to corporate education “reform” and the capitalist assault on public education and teachers unions everywhere. We must show active solidarity with our sisters and brothers at this crucial moment.
Note: A reportback by NYC teachers who have been present at the struggle in Mexico will be held on Tuesday, September 24, 6 p.m., at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), Room 5414.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

News From Susan Ohanian Plus Brief Commentary for a Sat Nite

I broke the fast
But I did not eat the humitz
(to the tune of "I Shot the Sheriff).

Well, I'm as full as a bull after 24 hours of fasting. We had 6 people at the break the fast and me and the guys went down to my recently refurbished room which I'm trying to brand my new "man cave." Now pre-Sandy I wouldn't be found dead down there -- though I could have been found dead down there (like my neighbor was in his basement) when my wife sent me down in the flood -- twice. Was she trying to tell me something?

Today I managed to get some yard construction work done, digging post holes for some new structures to cover up areas damaged by Sandy. Work goes slowly because I spend most of the time staring at the problem or reading and smoking my pipe while listening to NPR or sports radio. It's nice outside, won't be fairly soon, so let's take advantage of it.

So you can see I have nothing of note to write - though I did want to point out that the reason Bloomberg is not endorsing anyone is because his endorsement is the kiss of death (like he claimed the UFT endorsement would be). I have an idea. He should endorse de Blasio and claim Bill is really a closet Bloomberg guy and just hiding it.

So let's end this with a great pile of suggested readings from Susan Ohanian's last update. I have barely scratched the surface reading it all but don't want to lose track of these articles in a sea of email so I am archiving it here. It's all Susan from now on.

Sept. 11
You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been hard at work on this piece for VT Digger. I hope you will go to their website and commend it to Twitter and Facebook. And leave a comment.Although I wrote the piece to stir the pot in Vermont, the issues affect us all.

http://vtdigger.org/2013/09/10/ohanian-begging-the-question/

New cartoons:

This kid had the goods on tests in 2nd grade
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=822
Message Ignored & Obliterated by the Common Core State (sic) Standards
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=819

People Who Care About Food
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=818

'The Administration and the Department of Education are continuing to support education reform and success for all students'--Arne Duncan
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=817

Assessments 2.0
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=955

New Infographic: Welcome to Charterland
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=954

Arne Duncan Likes Change
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=953

NM State Parent Exemption Form 2013-2014--Albuquerque
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=952

Whew! I think that cartoons often get at the heart of the matter, but on with the matter.

And if you're the praying sort, please pray for a hard freeze in Vermont. My doctor says that this is what I need for asthma relief.
Susan

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How one great teacher was wronged by flawed evaluation system
Valerie Strauss and Carol Burris
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2013-09-08
http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=515

There is only one answer to the systematic drive to destroy teaching as a profession: Refuse to cooperate. Mass refusal. Start by refusing to give the tests--en masse.

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David Coleman Chosen to Write English Language Arts Common Core Standards Because Standardisto Triumverate Liked his Math Paper
Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-09-06
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=570

Just when you think you can't be surprised by anything Standardistos do. . . .

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Common Core Assessment Myths and Realities: Moratorium Needed From More Tests, Costs, Stress
Staff
Fairtest Fact Sheet
2013-09-04
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=569

FairTest explains that rather than ending 'No Child Left Behind' testing overkill, the Common Core will flood classrooms with even more standardized exams. Read their factsheet and donate to help support their research.

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Lieutenant Governor Releases DPI's Response to Common Core
Office of the Lt. Governor
Press Release
2013-08-22
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=568

NC Governor gets answers to his 67 questions & finds it baffling why 'a Department that is supposed to promote the Common Core Standards is hiding behind mountains of information and not offering clear, concise, common sense responses to very reasonable questions.'

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Guggenheim's 'Teach,' another Bill and Melinda Gates Project
Robert L. Arnold

2013-09-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1128

A long-time educator reviews the new Guggenheim film 'Teach.'

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Baby Branding Nurseries
Susan Ohanian

2013-08-30
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1127

Ok, so I got really ticked by a Wall Street Journal exhibition of conspicuous display of wealth-- in babies' nurseries.

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To the editor
Walt Gardner, Lawrence Harrison, & Mariga Temple-W
New York Times
2013-09-06
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1602

I just sat in disgust as I looked at the way the New York Times featured Amanda Ripley's book. Fortunately, these letter writers did something. Kudos.

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Mayor Emanuel,
Stephanie Jemilo
Mayor's office
2013-09-02
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1601

This letter needs absolutely no comment

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To the editor
P. L. Thomas
Post and Courier
2013-09-02
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1600

It seems especially egregious that on Labor Day the Post Courier sees fit to pronounce what 'good teachers' should be able to do

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Schools Put Security Lessons to Test After Newtown Shooting, Many Districts Place Renewed Emphasis on Safety
Joseph De Avila
Wall Street Journal
2013-09-09
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1692

One more step in making public schools as ugly and uncomfortable as possible: In the name of keeping children safe, make them more like prisons.

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How Much We Have Backslid
Richard Rothstein
Economic Policy Institute blog
2013-09-06
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1691

 Richard Rothstein calls out  Arne Duncan for his  statement on NPR show about school integration in particular and about his ed policy in general.

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Cuomo floats 'death penalty' for failing schools
Jon Campbell
Poughkeepsie Journal
2013-08-30
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1690

New Yorkers and everybody else should pounce on Cuomo's outrageous remarks. You can comment at the newspaper site.

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Restore teaching as a respected profession
Lynn Stoddard
Standard-Examiner
2013-08-31
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1689

Stoddard notes 'Clearly, something is terribly wrong with a teaching profession that meekly submits to non-educator politicians telling them what and how to teach.' And then proposes a controversial solution.

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In the Name of Ann Richards
Richard Whittaker
Austin Chronicle
2013-08-30
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1688

AISD's School for Young Women Leaders is a district showcase -- does its glittering reputation hide a darker side for teachers and students?
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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

Al Qaeda Plan to Drain US Economy - Did Fall of Soviet Union Result From Similar US Policy?

In an audio speech a day after the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda, called on Muslims to carry out a “a few disparate attacks” on American soil and to “bleed America economically,”.. NY Times, Attack U.S., Qaeda Chief Tells Muslims in a Speech
For those of us in the 70s and 80s calling for a shift in US defense spending into social services like education, the "iron curtain" scare tactics were wearing thin. It was so obvious that the Soviet Union had major weaknesses that made it much less of a threat than the military-industrial complex was pushing.

Of course, our maximum union leader, Al Shanker, was totally invested in pushing the "military first" line even of schools were being starved for funds. When he endorsed war-hawk Scoop Jackson for President I made what I consider my best speech at the Delegate Assembly in opposition where I pointed that we cannot have guns and butter and Shanker was choosing guns over the UFT membership's best interests.

Then came the Afghanistan invasion by the Soviets in 1979, a 10-year disaster that sapped their economy and was the final nail in their coffin. American strategy at the time was to help drain the well by supporting insurgent elements, notably a guy named Osama and his pal Zawahri.
“We should bleed America economically by provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to the military and security expenditure,” Mr. Zawahri said, according to the SITE translation quoted in news reports.


They learned their lessons from the successful US strategy in undermining and draining the Soviet Union. The Al Qaeda terrorist strategy aimed at the US was to do exactly as we did to the Soviets. Starve the economy. Though the US economy is/was so much stronger than the Soviets were in 1979 when the Afghan war began, we have seen some serious erosion. Money to defense and security (just look at TSA) has skyrocketed while school systems all over the nation are starved, as one example.
Echoing some of his past themes, Mr. Zawahri laid out a strategy involving economic pressures and terrorist attacks to wage “war on its own land” against the United States and to force Washington to maintain high levels of military spending to weaken its economy.
“And keeping America in tension and anticipation only costs a few disparate attacks here and there, meaning as we defeated it in the gang warfare in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, so we should follow it with that war on its own land,” he added, referring to places where Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been active.
He said such strikes could be carried out “by one brother or a few of the brothers” in anticipation of a bigger attack, apparently an acknowledgment that a diminished Al Qaeda no longer feels able to carry out major attacks itself in the short term.
“With these strikes, we must monitor and lie in wait and seize any opportunity to land a large strike on it, even if it takes years of patience for this,” he said, citing April’s attack at the Boston Marathon.
“The Boston incident confirms to the Americans the extent of their lying and tricking of themselves and their arrogance from accepting the truth that is as bright as the sun, which is that they are not facing individuals, organizations or groups, but they are facing an uprising” by a Muslim world “that rose in jihad to defend its soul, dignity and capabilities.”
Mr. Zawahri also referred to the civil war in Syria, urging jihadists fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to withhold cooperation from secular foes of the Damascus authorities, apparently underlining a strategy to turn Syria into a bastion of Islamic militancy at the strategic heart of the Middle East.
I find it hard to believe there are ways to stop this movement. As we saw in Boston this can happen anytime, anywhere and costs enormous amounts of money that drain the nation from funding basic services.  Every secret and not so secret war the US gets involved in spurs more jihadists, as chronicled in such a disturbing way in Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars."
Thus we get isolationism from both the right and left, which has the view that if we weren't there we wouldn't be such a target.
I guess a lot of this shapes my dystopian view of the world which includes climate change and locusts and the parting of the waters. I can honestly say I am very glad not to have kids who will have to face this future but I worry about those who do - though I don't say this out loud to them. And to be old enough that I may not be around to face it either -
If I sound grouchy it may be due to not having eaten in 16 hours, with another 8 to go. My stomach is feeling pretty dystopian itself.

Elfrank-Dana: Advance will fail because of its hopeless departure from sound construction

John Elfrank-Dana is chapter leader of Murry Bergtraum HS, a school squarely in the target zone of the Bloomberg/Tweed mantra of  "Let's do what it takes to make the school fail so we can close it and give the building to Eva Moskowitz."

John, who created the short film, Advance - sent this to his principal:


The faculty votes DEFAULT (growth).

We know it's no fault of your own, but this choice between the lesser of evils has been a needlessly convoluted process. This pseudo choice, between Pepsi or Coke, attempts, but fails, to create the illusion of freedom, of empowerment. Advance will fail because of its hopeless departure from sound construction and its underlying faulty premise; that test scores can measure true student achievement and quality teaching.

Speaking for the faculty,

--
John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
www.elfrank.org
MOSL Tov, John.

SUPE Opens National Campaign: Students Resisting Teach for America

Davids battling the multimillion dollar TFA Goliath. Support them here: Donation Page: http://www.gofundme.com/4ar298

Dear SUPE Supporter,

Tonight, thousands and thousands of soon-to-be college graduates will be submitting their applications to apply to be future Teach for America corp members.
With that being said, we couldn't think of a better night to make our first official announcement of our upcoming national campaign.

We, Students United for Public Education, are excited to announce that this October, we will be launching the first national student-led campaign against TFA: Students Resisting Teach for America.

Yet, as many of you know, SUPE is very limited in funds. Which is why we are looking to all of you for your support and help. We have just set up our fundraising page that gives a more detailed outline of our campaign, as well as what exactly your donations will be used for.

We thank you in advance for your support, and hope you stay tuned for our official launch in October.



In Solidarity,

Students United for Public Education (SUPE)
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter: @SUPEnational

Friday, September 13, 2013

John Merrow Goes Through Rhee Withdrawal; Ravitch Disagrees

I am done reporting about Michelle Rhee. For one thing, there are many education stories of greater national significance to cover. ... John Merrow
John, the story remains. It is not finished... Diane Ravitch
[Why doesn't John Merrow get it? That the Rhee story with all its extensions IS the story of ed deform --  in spades.] 

Merrow wrote about the refusal of the mainstream press to pursue the Rhee cheating scandal - A Story About Michelle Rhee That No One Will Print.

Now he seems to have given up the ghost.
Merrow sent this out.

No More Rhee

Friends,
I am moving on to cover more important national stories. Here's why: http://bit.ly/19Ln6Ow
John 
I met Merrow for the first time at Diane Ravitch's Sept. 3 book party at the 42nd St. library and congratulated him for sticking to the Rhee story. Oh well. Here is the rest of the Merrow post, followed by Diane Ravitch.
 I have also been advised by trusted friends to get off the Rhee story because, as one said, “It’s beginning to look like a vendetta, and some people say you are ‘picking on poor Michelle.’”
[Poor Woodward and Bernstein wasting their time with a vendetta regarding Watergate.]
Another friend believes I’ve become obsessed. That stopped me in my tracks. Was I like Carrie, the heroine of “Homeland”? Think of the opening sequence of the series, where she (Claire Danes) is obsessing over having missed warning signs before 9/11. Her supervisor, Saul (Mandy Patinkin), attempts to reassure her by saying “We all missed something,” and she blurts out, “I’m not everyone.”
[With friends like this.....]
I guess I do feel a bit like Carrie. I had unprecedented access to Rhee during her Chancellorship, and I missed some warning signs that all was not legitimate. I was not skeptical enough back then, and my failure then partially explains my desire to get it right this time.
But there’s more to my ‘obsession.’ Once producer Mike Joseloff, researcher Catherine Rentz and I began tugging on threads during our Frontline investigation, the enterprise took on a life of its own. Learning that “the truth is out there” fueled my determination to uncover it. In the Cub Scouts we were taught that “cheaters never win, and winners never cheat,” and I’ve never completely lost that naive optimism, despite lots of evidence to the contrary.
If you have followed the story, you know that we did not get Dr. Sandy Sanford’s confidential memo in time to include it in the Frontline program. The memo (.pdf) showed up on my desk in a plain white envelope a few weeks later and proved to be ‘the smoking gun’ that showed just how much Rhee knew about the erasures–and made her failure to investigate all the more revealing about her educational priorities.
We reported on Frontline about the inadequacy of the DC Inspector General’s investigation into the widespread erasures–but not on the other investigations that Rhee and her successor, Kaya Henderson, regularly cite as ‘proof’ that they have been exonerated. So of course I then looked into those and discovered that they were superficial in nature and/or largely controlled by Rhee.
The Atlanta scandal was running on a parallel track, and so contrasting the two newspapers’ treatment was a natural story to follow. It was sad and disappointing to see how the Washington Post’s editorial pages have functioned as a cheerleader for Rhee, but facts are facts.
The refusal of Washington DC’s Mayor and the City Council to dig into this story also fueled my determination to get it out, particularly because the schools in DC are worse today by almost every conceivable measure. The leader of this ‘see no evil’ crowd has been Councilmember David Catania, who, as head of the education subcommittee, has made it clear that he has no interest in ‘digging up the past.’
Another factor in my obsession with getting at the truth was an “off the record” conversation with a top leader in DC who was in a position to intervene early but apparently lacked the courage. That same person had similar “off the record” conversations with at least two other reporters, giving them damning information that they were unable to use publicly. I can’t and won’t identify that individual, although I wish I could.
Our Frontline program introduced a whistle-blower, principal Adell Cothorne, to a national audience. I wrote about her in my blog, feeling that readers ought to know more about her courageous stand. As I reported, she gave up her DCPS principalship and opened a bakery, a loss to public education (and a huge salary cut for her). Well, I am happy to tell you that Adell Cothorne is back where she belongs, in education. She’s working with the great Catherine Snow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in a project called SERP for “Strategic Education Research Partnership.” This work keeps her in schools, working with teachers, principals, district staff and students, as she helps implement a vocabulary building program for kids in 4th-8th grade. She is also a member of the Leadership Faculty for ASCD, providing professional development for current and aspiring administrators. Her new beginning is a well-deserved happy ending.
People often asked me how I feel about Michelle Rhee. She was great fun to cover, because she’s bright and confident and tireless. She was a great interview, candid and forthright (at least until she hired a slick PR person, Anita Dunn, to shape her image and teach her political tricks of the trade). As Rhee’s biographer, Richard Whitmire, told Frontline, Rhee is “a zealot.” As she told me, she does not look back and reflect; she does not have any regrets because she’s too busy moving forward. She lives in a black-and-white world. I don’t think she’s a cheater, but it’s clear that she failed a fundamental test of leadership when confronted with strong evidence that adults on her watch cheated.”
But Michelle Rhee is not the point of all this. What matters much more is what she failed to accomplish in Washington. She espoused a certain approach to reforming failing schools, a path that she and her successor have followed for six years, and that approach has not worked. That’s the central point: Rhee’s “scorched earth” approach of fear, intimidation and reliance on standardized tests scores to judge (and fire) teachers and principals does not lead to improved schools, educational opportunities, graduation rates or any of the other goals that she presumably embraces.
Full disclosure: I am still trying to get copies of the emails between Sandy Sanford and his immediate supervisor, Erin McGoldrick, using the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For over a year now, DCPS has managed to avoid finding any electronic communication between them, except for his invoices. It has been a comedy of errors: DCPS has entered incorrect search terms and even a wrong email address–and then reported (surprise!) that it could not find any communications. We’ve appealed each time, and each time the Mayor’s General Counsel has told DCPS to search again. If the Mayor’s General Counsel were to do more than chide DCPS, perhaps we would get their emails, and that might shed more light on the situation. If that happens, I will be back on the story.
And if another insider were to come forward with more information about the cover-up, I would return to the story.
But as of now, I’m back on the education beat where I belong.
John Merrow of PBS helped to make Michelle Rhee the national face of the privatization movement (often mistakenly called the “reform” movement). Merrow featured her on national television a dozen times, often adoringly. Like many others, he was impressed by her tough talk.
But he came to realize that nothing she promised was happening. And he looked closer and found that the DC cheating scandal had been pushed under the rug. He probed more and ran into a stonewall. He has written powerful pieces on his blog, but when he tried to find a national publication to print what he wrote, no one was interested.
He reveals that Rhee has engaged Anita Dunn as her public relations advisor. Dunn was White House director of communications in 2009 and now appears on NBC and MSNBC (the “Education Nation” network).
He decided to drop the Rhee story because his friends told him he was obsessed. So he is moving on.
He writes:
“But Michelle Rhee is not the point of all this. What matters much more is what she failed to accomplish in Washington. She espoused a certain approach to reforming failing schools, a path that she and her successor have followed for six years, and that approach has not worked. That’s the central point: Rhee’s “scorched earth” approach of fear, intimidation and reliance on standardized tests scores to judge (and fire) teachers and principals does not lead to improved schools, educational opportunities, graduation rates or any of the other goals that she presumably embraces.”
Sorry, John, you can’t drop the central narrative of the “reform” movement. Nor can you forget that you, more than anyone else but Adrian Fenty, made Rhee. You owe it to the public to follow the story you made important. Without the national spotlight you shone on her, she would be just another tyro superintendent who tried her way, failed, and landed a job in quiet obscurity.
Instead, she just collected $8 million from the Walton Family Foundation. She is pouring millions of dollars collected from people who hate unions and public education and then making big contributions to rightwing Republicans and a few Democrats who support vouchers.
John, the story remains. It is not finished.

Portelos Hearing: NY Post Reporter Reuven Fenton Commits Journalistic Malpractice

Yes, Reuven, the staff of IS 49 was so intimidated, threatened, manipulated, demoralized, and polarized that they elected Portelos chapter leader. Twice. While he was in the rubber room.
Re-Edited

NY Post hack reporter Reuven Frank, right, with NY Post Photog
I know some people are anxious to find out about Day 1 of the Portelos 3020 hearing yesterday.

But you won't find anything accurate in Reuven Fenton's laugh out loud hack job in today's NY Post.

When I arrived at the hearing around 10:45 I noticed a photographer, whose name I didn't get, lurking outside the building and heard the security guards talking about him. I knew immediately from his demeanor he was connected to the NY Post. I got the pic above during the lunch hour. Do you know why the Post is going broke? They send a photog to spend hours outside a hearing waiting to get a picture that would make their victim look menacing. (I bet a smiling Portelos would never appear in The Post.)

If you want to see the real Portelos, watch this video I shot of him speaking to and charming a packed room of a 100 people at a MORE event last February (his segment starts at 21:35 but you would do well to watch Harris Lirtzman's opening segment too).

https://vimeo.com/60555824



Exactly what hearing did Reuven Fenton attend? It wasn't the same one I and at least 2 other MOREista retirees attended. (I will get statements from them for our future reporting which will expose Fenton for his biased "reporting".) There also was a reporter for the morning session from I think Gotham who has not reported yet. (I also had to leave after the morning session but David Dobosz came back to cover the afternoon session.)

I want to point out that all parties had agreed not to publish any of the details of the hearing and we are going to adhere to that agreement so as not to throw any monkey wrenches into the work of Chris Callagy, Portelos' NYSUT appointed lawyer, who I've seen in action in the David Pakter and the Pat Dawson cases. There is no one I have more confidence in as a lawyer, so despite the vendetta against Portelos he has a puncher's chance with Chris Callagy in his corner.

The hearing officer will be the key of course. She seemed very pleasant - on the surface - but that makes no difference. I am convinced that no matter what the evidence presented on both sides, hearing officers often base their judgement on the believability and likeability of the accused.

Let me get to the crux of Reuven Fenton's journalistic malpractice (and I would warn any teachers out there who he seeks info from to boycott him).

I know reporters don't write headlines so let's put the blame on Post editorial for this one: More mischief from ‘rubber room’ teacher.

I actually did not hear one word of "mischief" and neither did my MORE colleagues. But we'll expose this in the future.

Someone tell me this is journalism where I highlighted hackisms in pink:
A Staten Island teacher who taunted the Department of Education by live-streaming video of his time in a “rubber room” continued to hog the spotlight at his termination hearing Thursday by inviting the media to watch. Francesco Portelos, accused of rampant insubordination at IS 49, opened the normally closed disciplinary procedure in hopes of extending his 15 minutes of fame. But the move blew up in his face, when he was not allowed to speak because it was the department’s turn to present its case.
I loved this line:
Unlike a normal trial, Portelos’ side will make its case at a later hearing.
What Fenton, (did he graduate from the 5-week training course offered by Reporters for America?)  doesn't  get it that in normal trials and in 3020 hearings, the prosecution goes first and cross-examination follows. And then the defenses presents. And this case is 3 days of hearings, which Fenton doesn't seem to realize. DOUBLE DUHHHH!.  Fenton won't be assigned soon to cover the courts.

Yesterday was about the presentation of the DOE chief witness, the principal of the school. She testified in the morning session for about an hour and a half and about 2 hours in the afternoons session.

So what exactly blew up in his face? And as for the "rampant insubordination" I had to hold myself back from laughing out loud at what was presented as "rampant insubordination."

As for "hogging the spotlight" Portelos sat quietly next to his attorney for the entire hearing.

There's even more hilarity in Fenton's report:
“[Portelos] used intimidation, threats, manipulation and false allegations to scare people into getting his way,” DOE attorney Jordana Schenkman said. Portelos, 34, allegedly made life hell for colleagues at the Staten Island middle school by slapping papers out of people’s hands, mass-e-mailing complaints and making false theft claims. “I was watching my staff become demoralized, polarized, intimidated,” Principal Linda Hill testified at the hearing.
Yes, Reuven, the staff of IS 49 was so intimidated, threatened, manipulated, demoralized, and polarized that they elected Portelos chapter leader.

Twice.

Elected while in the rubber room (the first time in history) -- meaning he was not allowed into the school  to campaign.

When principal Linda Hill tried to strong arm people into recalling and running against Portlelos this past spring she failed in her attempt miserably. No one ran against Portelos. I've been around schools for 45 years and know full well that even semi-competent principals can get someone to run for chapter leader -- her failure to do so is indicative of .... well, you'll hear all about it after the hearings conclude.

You see Reuven, this is what is known as REAL REPORTING. I hope they give you an extra week of training in the future --- at your next job.
 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Heading to Portelos Hearing (Sept 12) This Morning at 10

A modern day Frank Serpico, only this one, Portelos, banished in often solitary confinement to the rubber rooms that the master of disinformation UFT president Mulgrew said were closed three years ago. Yes, public, know a teller of disinformation (Mulgrew) by the company he keeps (candidate Thompson) -read here and here, here, here, here.  ..... New York City Eye
I may do some tweeting from there even though I am bad at it -- too slow. But check me out at normscott1. And it is an open hearing (at the option of the accused) so if you are around Chambers Street, come on down.

By the way, some inside info came to me that high officials of the UFT despise Portelos (for exposing them?) as much as do Tweedies.

Sing, all together now: Which side are you on boy, which side are you on?

I do want to take credit for calling "Kathleen Grimm the Grimm Reaper of Closing Schools.' Along with my coining the phrase "ed deform" those are the 2 things I want on my tomb stone.

Rather than rehash -- check out Portelos' blog on my blogroll - here is a great piece from blogger NYC Eye which I'm cross posting. Note how many emails went back and forth from so many re: Portelos. If they actually fire him they are in for one hell of a battle in the courts. And the UFT may fall under the ax too for publicly claiming there are no rubber rooms while clearly there are. How about their sitting by while he was moved to Ozone Park from Staten Island? And what about all those crappy expensive networks and barely a mention of them by the UFT?

Training a glance on schools, politics, transit, and engaging in the war of position to fight back against the war on educators and quality education One city-state, under the Sun-Prince

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

What the Portelos case means for all NYC teachers

                   *Relevance for Danielson observations under "Advance"
This week has some matters of importance to New York City teachers. Besides the Democratic primary for mayor, it has the termination hearing of Francesco Portelos. The matter of the Portelos case is an instance of reality being more cinematic than fiction.

For those that do not know the Francesco Portelos case: he was the model recruit, coming from a successful engineering career--taking a $20,000 salary reduction in the move to public school teaching, and wanting to share his knowledge and enthusiasm with students. As a teacher he set up a special STEM lab and had glowing reviews from his supervisors.


Flash forward to his time teaching science in a middle school. All that he did was ask an innocuous question in the School Leadership Team (one positive structure in the current Bloomberg --when it is handled by administrators with scruples) meeting about the school budget. From there he was able to find more and more complicating, suspicious details about how the principal was running the school. For deeper details read Educator Fights Back (his blog) and NYC Rubber Room Reporter and ATR CONNECT.

Almost immediately, Portelos was subject to all kinds of actions by school administration, actions that evinced general paranoia, over-reaction and flagrant abuse of power. He was denied all kinds of due process, such as habeas corpus (granted, he wasn't jailed).

Merely asking a question, a responsible got Portelos into a deep process of institutional retribution.

This case has significant ramifications for New York City teachers for the following reasons:


1) If the city prevails it will further indicate that this is a vindictive system, even towards an employee acting merely with the actions of good citizenship.
Moreover, a termination decision, sustaining the city's position, will have a far deeper chilling effect on the likelihood that teachers will feel free to speak, it will sustain the climate of repression, reinforcing the feeling among many teachers that this is an authoritarian regime. Not everything changes 1/1/14. The mayor changes, but your principal remains the same.


2) The general abandonment of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) regarding helping Portelos in a serious manner demonstrates that the UFT is far too often just interested in going along with the city Department of Education (DOE) to get along. This case makes very clear that contrary to the media hoopla in 2010, the rubber rooms did not disappear. Merely, the large ones disappeared (an honest account of the closure of the large rooms can be found here), and they became very small, like solitary confinement.


3) Of prime relevance to teachers in the Danielson era: it shows that when administrators want to target you, they will do so, and do so with exacting impunity. Danielson exploitative will happen in the following manner: administrators will fly in, expect compliance along 22 domain components, including observers' assessments of  students' body language. Aside from the veneer of fairness, the system is riddled with openings for administrators to practice bias. The Framework makes assumptions about the teacher's impact on the class that ignore other factors that could contribute to student engagement, cooperation and learning.
Refer back to 2)-- the UFT left Portelos to hang on his own. Again this was a star teacher with no disciplinary letters prior to the witch-hunt treatment. If the UFT abandons a stellar teacher thrown into the new solitary confinement rubber room on trumped up charges, you can bet that it will abandon thousands more in the 3020(a) hearings from the Advance evaluation system (analyzed here and here).

Portelos' 3020 hearings are on September 12, 23, 30 at 49 Chambers Street, Manhattan.




UPDATE: Portelos has reported his receipt of damning 3,000 pages of secret DOE emails.

Porteles Monday received a CD of over 3,000 NYC Department of Education emails on him. The abuse of his dignity and the flagrant denial of his constitutional rights of due process are one thing. Yet, as he notes, the neurotic obsession by the DOE about him constitutes a blatant exploiting of taxpayer dollars. Read this beginning excerpt of his blogpost:

Anyway, my attorney gave me this CD he received from the NYC attorney defending the city in my Federal case. We opened it, made copies and saved them (on servers around the world.) It contains approximately 3,088 pages of emails to and from Principal Linda Hill and Superintendent Erminia Claudio’s DOE accounts with the word “Portelos” in it from January 2012 to June 2013 plus other items. That includes when they were just copied.

Let me just start with Wow! You thought the Cathy Black emails were interesting? I started backwards and only got through 1/5th and am absolutely floored. I’m not sharing any just yet, but let me make some quick points that should make taxpayers and parents upset as well as the students who lost out.

- The amount of man-hours and resources that went into trying to “get me” is ridiculous and appalling.

- Deputy Chancellor of Operations Kathleen Grimm is copied a lot and weighs in. To help alleviate the situation? No. The first time I heard of her was at a Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) school closure meeting and some audience member yelled out “Boooh.. Grimm Reaper!” That’s not polite I thought. I was then informed that she closes down schools.

- Deputy Chancellor Shael Suransky is in the emails as well.

- There are times when “they” got wind that I would be present at a public event, speaking out and actually upped security. What? Harmon Unger, Frank Jordan and the Office of Safety and Youth Development was on the case. I thought it was odd to see the guys in suits with wires in their ears. Now it makes sense that they kept an eye on me while I sat in the back of the Petrides auditorium.

-The words “he’ll stop at nothing” and “he is relentless” were used by many. It’s funny, because I was talking to a teacher at my school and said “Remember when I first came to IS 49 from the environmental field? I was this scrawny guy running around helping out with tech issues and staying late and weekends?” She replied “I was thinking that. Look what they have created, but what choice did you have? You’re up against an army and they don’t know what to do. It’s ridiculous! ”

-David Brodsky of Labor and Relations, Kelly Doyle of ATU, Karen Solimando.

- Several UFT members, within the building, helped with the demise of the great atmosphere we once had. We knew this, but the amount of teachers and paras who were emailing the principal my chapter leader notices is crazy. Some were not involved in my case at all, but I guess they wanted to ensure a Satisfactory rating. Another reason the teacher evaluation is going to be subjective. “Keep giving me info and you’ll get rated Highly Effective.

- I’m under even MORE investigations than I thought. Have lost count, but somewhere around 34. Lol. Great job SCI and OSI…ignore my evidence backed complaints and investigate magazine subscriptions. Yes apparently my principal was getting Playboy subscriptions and she reported that I subscribed her. You can’t make this stuff up.
. . .
Update: With less than 24 hrs before my termination hearing, SCI investigators visit my mother in law & play with my kids. Desperate? I believe so.
[Emphasis, added.] And that is just the beginning of the vindictive madness, all at the expense of you New York City taxpayers. Accountability, my foot.

Go to Porteles' blogsite for the full post on this wild trove of Kafkaesque bureaucracy run-amok: "3,000 Pages of Secret DOE Emails. [Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm Enters Stage Left]"

 
A modern day Frank Serpico, only this one, Portelos, banished in often solitary confinement to the rubber rooms that the master of disinformation UFT president Mulgrew said were closed three years ago. Yes, public, know a teller of disinformation (Mulgrew) by the company he keeps (candidate Thompson) -read here and here, here, here, here.
Portelos' hearings are public: on September 12, 23, 30 at 49 Chambers Street, Manhattan. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Everything you ever wanted to know about the 9/11 conspiracy theory in under 5 minutes

This is almost funny. Almost. Or very scary.

Posted at http://www.corbettreport.com/911-a-conspiracy-theory/


11
Sep
2011
PlayPlay

Everything you ever wanted to know about the 9/11 conspiracy theory in under 5 minutes.
(Watch French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew or Portuguese translations of this video.)

TRANSCRIPT: On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 men armed with boxcutters directed by a man on dialysis in a cave fortress halfway around the world using a satellite phone and a laptop directed the most sophisticated penetration of the most heavily-defended airspace in the world, overpowering the passengers and the military combat-trained pilots on 4 commercial aircraft before flying those planes wildly off course for over an hour without being molested by a single fighter interceptor.
These 19 hijackers, devout religious fundamentalists who liked to drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and live with pink-haired strippers, managed to knock down 3 buildings with 2 planes in New York, while in Washington a pilot who couldn’t handle a single engine Cessna was able to fly a 757 in an 8,000 foot descending 270 degree corskscrew turn to come exactly level with the ground, hitting the Pentagon in the budget analyst office where DoD staffers were working on the mystery of the 2.3 trillion dollars that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had announced “missing” from the Pentagon’s coffers in a press conference the day before, on September 10, 2001.
Luckily, the news anchors knew who did it within minutes, the pundits knew within hours, the Administration knew within the day, and the evidence literally fell into the FBI’s lap. But for some reason a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists demanded an investigation into the greatest attack on American soil in history.
The investigation was delayed, underfunded, set up to fail, a conflict of interest and a cover up from start to finish. It was based on testimony extracted through torture, the records of which were destroyed. It failed to mention the existence of WTC7, Able Danger, Ptech, Sibel Edmonds, OBL and the CIA, and the drills of hijacked aircraft being flown into buildings that were being simulated at the precise same time that those events were actually happening. It was lied to by the Pentagon, the CIA, the Bush Administration and as for Bush and Cheney…well, no one knows what they told it because they testified in secret, off the record, not under oath and behind closed doors. It didn’t bother to look at who funded the attacks because that question is of “little practical significance“. Still, the 9/11 Commission did brilliantly, answering all of the questions the public had (except most of the victims’ family members’ questions) and pinned blame on all the people responsible (although no one so much as lost their job), determining the attacks were “a failure of imagination” because “I don’t think anyone could envision flying airplanes into buildings ” except the Pentagon and FEMA and NORAD and the NRO.
The DIA destroyed 2.5 TB of data on Able Danger, but that’s OK because it probably wasn’t important.
The SEC destroyed their records on the investigation into the insider trading before the attacks, but that’s OK because destroying the records of the largest investigation in SEC history is just part of routine record keeping.
NIST has classified the data that they used for their model of WTC7′s collapse, but that’s OK because knowing how they made their model of that collapse would “jeopardize public safety“.
The FBI has argued that all material related to their investigation of 9/11 should be kept secret from the public, but that’s OK because the FBI probably has nothing to hide.
This man never existed, nor is anything he had to say worthy of your attention, and if you say otherwise you are a paranoid conspiracy theorist and deserve to be shunned by all of humanity. Likewise him, him, him, and her. (and her and her and him).
Osama Bin Laden lived in a cave fortress in the hills of Afghanistan, but somehow got away. Then he was hiding out in Tora Bora but somehow got away. Then he lived in Abottabad for years, taunting the most comprehensive intelligence dragnet employing the most sophisticated technology in the history of the world for 10 years, releasing video after video with complete impunity (and getting younger and younger as he did so), before finally being found in a daring SEAL team raid which wasn’t recorded on video, in which he didn’t resist or use his wife as a human shield, and in which these crack special forces operatives panicked and killed this unarmed man, supposedly the best source of intelligence about those dastardly terrorists on the planet. Then they dumped his body in the ocean before telling anyone about it. Then a couple dozen of that team’s members died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
This is the story of 9/11, brought to you by the media which told you the hard truths about JFK and incubator babies and mobile production facilities and the rescue of Jessica Lynch.
If you have any questions about this story…you are a batshit, paranoid, tinfoil, dog-abusing baby-hater and will be reviled by everyone. If you love your country and/or freedom, happiness, rainbows, rock and roll, puppy dogs, apple pie and your grandma, you will never ever express doubts about any part of this story to anyone. Ever.
This has been a public service announcement by: the Friends of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, SEC, MSM, White House, NIST, and the 9/11 Commission. Because Ignorance is Strength.

Can UFT Close Achievment Gap Betweem Thompson and di Blasio?

14% pts bigger gap than Weiner had in 05-dropped out for unity. Thompson should DOASWEINERDID.

But the elites, including the UFT, fearing di Blasio won't let him do it. They want to squeeze very ounce out of this race.

So if we don't see 40% watch them all jump on board for Thompson. Bloomberg (behind the scenes) etc plus the UFT.

So tell me my friends, which side are they on?

Here is a comment on my previous post by Ira Goldfine:

Ira Goldfine has left a new comment on your post "Once Again Randi and Mulgrew May Give Us a Bloombe...":

Its amazing that I have yet to see one article in the NY Times pointing out that Meryl Tisch was the chair of Thompson's campaign while her husband James was finance chair of the Lhota campaign. Need more be said.

Remember that Lhota will not agree to public financing of his campaign which means he will have no limit on his fund raising abilities while Di Blasio being the good liberal will surely stay inside the limits of public financing. So those that think Thompson was the only weak candidate I believe Di Blasio will be torn to shreds as a "leftist" and weak on crime by the "elite" as the NY Times called them this morning. They will spend unlimited amounts of money to get the white working class along with many of the private industry unions to go with Lhota. This has been the scenario for Giuliani and Bloomberg and it will be repeated again.
 And the UFT and Randi (see her insipid grin last night on the stage with Thompson) will be right there with the ed deformers.