A Fight Over Fairness

post from The American Prospect on 27 April 2012 10:43:31 AM. © The American Prospect

A few weeks ago, Amanda Marcotte described the Romney team as running an ?I?m rubber, you?re glue? campaign, where?instead of addressing the claims against him?the former Massachusetts governor turns them around on his opponents. It?s a brilliant formulation that neatly captures a dynamic that?if Romney?s riff on ?fairness? is any indication?will become a defining feature of his presidential campaign:

?We will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the very taxpayers they serve,? the former Massachusetts governor said. ?And we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.?
It is all part of a concerted strategy to try to reverse perceived campaign weaknesses for Republicans as the general election campaign launches.

I doubt this will convince anyone other than true believers, but that?s not the point; the idea is to muddy the waters when it comes to coverage of Romney?s message. By attacking Obama on ?fairness,? Romney can force the press to bring a horse race dynamic to the opposing claims??Mr. Obama says that it?s unfair for multi-millionaires to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families, but Mr. Romney says that what?s really unfair is the burden of debt.? The issues aren?t actually sorted out, and Romney walks away with minimal scrutiny.

As an aside, I will say that there is some truth to Romney?s claim. Tax cuts for the wealthy are a major driver of short-term debt, and if we keep rates low on high-income earners?as Romney proposes?we will pass a tremendous amount of debt to future taxpayers. Rather than use federal dollars for education, infrastructure, or research, we will give it to the wealthiest Americans, and leave the next generation to deal with the consequences of high debt and a deteriorating society. That?s unfair.

Read The Full Article:
http://prospect.org/article/fight-over-fairness

Digg this

He's always saying goodbye, but he never
leaves...

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 27 April 2012 10:24:10 AM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @BGinKC

I could write a post and beat up on Newticles one more time, mocking his ridiculous refusal to just leave already, but why bother? Instead, I will take the opportunity to dedicate a song to him and his campaign to nowhere that was really just a book tour waged at taxpayer expense. This one goes out to you, Newt. And Callista, too. Write when you get there.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheyGaveUsARepublic-FrontPage/~3/eIpC44vYU4o/hes-a
lways-saying-goodbye-but-he-never-leaves

Digg this

The Trouble With Philosophy

post from The American Prospect on 27 April 2012 10:13:40 AM. © The American Prospect

For the last couple of years, Paul Ryan has been touted by everyone in the Republican party as a star, a smart, telegenic up-and-comer who represents the future of the party. Worship of Ryan probably reached its apogee last May, when Newt Gingrich began his presidential campaign by calling Ryan's budget "right-wing social engineering" (among other things, Ryan's budget slashed benefits for the poor, cut taxes for the rich, and privatized Medicare). The condemnation of Gingrich's words from conservatives was so immediate and so furious that you would have thought Gingrich had spat on a picture of Jesus or insulted Ronald Reagan Himself.

Ryan is, among other things, a longtime fan of Ayn Rand, the philosopher/novelist/quasi-cult leader whose philosophy of radical selfishness and vision of heroic capitalists being held down by the parasitic masses is, one can argue, well reflected in Ryan's work. It wasn't some kind of secret?Ryan has said, "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand." He has recorded videos praising Rand?here's one where he says, "Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism." In 2003 he told the Weekly Standard, "I give out Atlas Shrugged as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it."

Ever since Ryan came to national attention, liberals have been trying to get people to notice Ryan's appreciation for Rand, with only marginal success. But some kind of switch has obviously gone off for Ryan because he's now claiming that his appreciation for Rand is nothing but an "urban legend":

"I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand's novels when I was young. I enjoyed them," Ryan says. "They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman," a subject he eventually studied as an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio. "But it's a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist."
"I reject her philosophy," Ryan says firmly. "It's an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas," who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. "Don't give me Ayn Rand," he says.

Well then. Looks like someone is beginning to think about how the words "Vice President Ryan" sound. Maybe Ryan is showing Mitt Romney that he can flip-flop with the best of them. The natural question to ask is, if you were such a huge fan of Rand's that nine years ago you said you were making all your interns read Atlas Shrugged, at what point did you have your change of heart about her, and why?

One of the difficulties of being a politician is that the higher up you go, the more responsibility you're given for the ideas and people you surround yourself with. Some associations are easier to minimize than others; when somebody who works for you or someone you took money from does something wrong, you can say you had no idea and hope to put it behind you. But philosophy is different. It isn't as though scholars just recently unearthed a new Ayn Rand text that reveals her to be a purveyor of a radical and despicable worldview. That worldview was always clear. It's the thing that has drawn generations of lunkheaded frat boys to her books. And it's the very thing Paul Ryan has been lauding all these years. He can't claim he had no idea what she stood for.

Ryan obviously wants to keep going higher; he's only 42, and it would be a real surprise if he didn't eventually run for president. Distancing himself from Rand may be the first step in a long-term moderating of his image. But he's going to have an awfully hard time convincing people that he never considered Rand anything more than an amusing novelist.

Read The Full Article:
http://prospect.org/article/trouble-philosophy

Digg this

House Republicans voting to trade student loan
interest rates for children's immunizations

post from Daily Kos on 27 April 2012 10:06:51 AM. © Daily Kos

This is a fight Nancy Pelosi's willing to have. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)House Republicans are moving forward on their plan to keep student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent by taking funds from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, effectively emptying it. Nancy Pelosi accurately sums up Republican priorities on this one:

For House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the emphasis was the GOP's cuts in the preventive health program, whose initiatives she said include breast cancer screening and children's immunizations. She contrasted that with a Democratic bill extending the low student rates by cutting subsidies to oil and natural gas companies, which is opposed by the GOP.
Pelosi characterized the Republican view as, "'We prefer tax subsidies for big oil rather than the health of America's women.'"

If you drop the false balance of a traditional media that reports both lies and truth as simply partisan statements, that's what we're dealing with here. Republicans will allow funding for a range of preventive care that will, in the long term, save the health care system money or they will allow students to pay low interest rates. But it's students vs. patients. Republicans will not allow rich people and oil companies into these equations?they're sacrosanct while everyone else exists to be cut.

This vote is a political ploy for Republicans to be able to say "we voted to lower student loan interest rates, but Democrats weren't on board," but House Democrats are sticking with the push for a better bill, one that pays for student loans by taxing businesses that aren't paying their fair share:

House Democrats are being instructed to vote en masse against the Republican plan, because they note that the health fund, formally called the Prevention and Public Health Fund, provides money to city and state governments to help prevent obesity, the spread of HIV/AIDS, to reduce tobacco use, train public health workers and modernize vaccines.

Interest rates don't rise until July 1, so there's time after this vote for Democrats to continue making the case that this should be paid for by closing a business tax loophole and for Republicans to continue making the case that it should be paid for by cutting HIV/AIDS prevention and breast cancer screening.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/AcF6oWCDveo/-House-Republicans-vot
ing-to-trade-student-loan-interest-rates-for-children-s-immunizations

Digg this

Going Once, Twice ... Sold!

post from Talking Points Memo on 27 April 2012 10:01:01 AM. © Talking Points Memo

How Joe Francis of "Girls Gone Wild" infamy bought a Senate internship. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/6HjHMv2gswo/going_once_twic
e_sold.php

Digg this

Clinton Brings The Heavy Lumber

post from Talking Points Memo on 27 April 2012 10:01:01 AM. © Talking Points Memo

Bill Clinton steps up to the plate for President Obama and plays serious hardball against Mitt Romney, using Osama bin Laden, in this new campaign video. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/1NeL2o9nxxo/whoa_1.php

Digg this

Why Is DOJ Wasting Money on John Edwards Soap
Opera

post from TaylorMarsh.com on 27 April 2012 10:00:51 AM. © TaylorMarsh.com

Guilt and innocence turn on one question: Was the money that Edwards used to keep Rielle Hunter in quiet comfort a campaign contribution? Edwards says no; the cash came as gifts from rich friends who wanted to help him deal with a private indiscretion. The feds say yes; the money was intended to cover up an affair that would have sunk Edwards? campaign for the White House, thus making it a campaign donation. – Los Angeles Times

I still can’t figure it out. What he’s done is absolutely despicable and criminally stupid, but I cannot find the actual crime.

If you want to know the absurdity of our criminal justice system, the John Edwards trial gives the bookend example to the prejudice faced by the poor and people of color. A potential 30-year sentence is obscene, not to mention never been given for what Edwards is accuse of doing, as far as I can tell from the commentary available.

Speaking of absurd, Rielle Hunter is still begging for secrecy. The judge told her she’s nuts.

The Department of Justice should be pulled on the carpet for the waste of what will be millions of dollars on this “Days of Our Lives” political soap opera.

The idiot pretty boy deserves scorn, which he’s gotten by the Google page, but this is 2012 and the “crime” dates back years and the case will likely go on for years, through appeals, if the jury goes against Edwards.

As for Andrew Young, I wouldn’t trust that schmuck, who wrote one thing in his tell all book, having to also sign off that everything in it was the truth, but is now turning his prior statements into confetti.

Campaign finance laws from 2008 have also been turned upside down at this point.

More from the Los Angeles Times, which matches much of the commentary around the sphere:

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, corporations are now ?people? and they are free to donate unlimited amounts of money to “super PACs” that ?independently? promote candidates for president.
A corporate super PAC would have come in handy in 2008 when Edwards was trying to hide his girlfriend from his dying wife.

As for John Edwards allegedly calling Rielle Hunter “a crazy slut,” he should look in the mirror, something Edwards used to be very fond of doing.

Another part of the story that’s slowly being revealed is what Elizabeth Edwards knew and when she knew it, though only snippets of that have made it in the news. Suffice it to say that she knew more earlier than was previously believed.

Read The Full Article:
http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/04/why-is-doj-wasting-money-on-john-edwards-soap
-opera/

Digg this

In Which I Bomb

Reblogged from Harley May:

I did standup again and friends, it wasn’t pretty. It stunk. Bottom line – I just didn’t prepare enough. Got through my first little joke just fine, then I fumbled over a few words, and couldn’t remember what came next right away. Doing that in front of a full room scared me and knocked me back. I stood there a good ten seconds.

Philadelphia Blows Up Its School District, And No
One In The Complicit National Media Even Cares

The elites' plans are in place to close 40 schools, break the teacher and janitorial unions, and put the education of the City of Philadelphia's children up for bid. It just makes me sick.

I knew it was coming (when you see the Democratic city councilman expected to be the next mayor praising Michelle Rhee and philanthro-capitalists like the Gates Foundation, it's only a matter of time), but I never expected it to happen this fast. It feels like a kick to the gut.

Our schools were taken over by the state in 2001 (you can read the gruesome history here) and instead we're run by a five-person School Reform Commission. (The governor gets to appoint three members, the mayor gets to appoint two.) And even though the reason for declining results may have more to so with the fact that the state contribution to public education has dropped from 55 percent in 1975 to 36 percent in 2001, the hillbilly politicians in the Pennsyltucky parts of the state have done a fine job convincing voters outside the more educated areas that funding schools in Philadelphia is throwing money down a "black hole." (Emphasis on the word "black," since color plays a very large part in these funding decisions.)

But don't worry, the charter schools-privatization crowd has bought off some prominent black politicians, too, so at least the payoffs are color-blind.

Here's the thing: It's not the school district's fault that Pennsylvania funds its schools through an inequitable system of property taxes, nor that the state voters rejected attempts to fix that. It's not the district's fault that Gov. Tom Corbett (PA's own Scott Walker) has once again drastically cut education funding (especially reimbursement toward the same charter schools that were pushed on districts) ? even though the same old divisive voices convince voters it is.

The Philadelphia schools pay an average of $7,000 per pupil. The suburban districts? Almost double. We could probably do better if we had that kind of money. (And that "average figure" is misleading, anyway. It includes special education funding. If you separate it from the total money spent - which you should, because it's a dedicated funding stream that can't be spent on anything else ? you'll find that the number spent per average student is far lower. Urban districts include far more at-risk students, who usually require more special ed money.)

The charter schools that were going to save our poorest students? One scandal after another. What else would you expect when politicians are doing favors for their friends? Have you ever noticed that only poor people get charter schools? It's easier to steal from poor people. And it's such an uplifting way to bring back segregation!

And don't even get me started on mandates. That's where the bulk of school spending goes, not teacher salaries or benefits. You know where the mandates come from? Special interest groups. I remember one school solicitor explaining to me how the construction industry lobbied to get a certain amount of fresh air required for special ed classrooms. No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top each added more layers, more costs and limited funding.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing about mandates. Usually, they're only funded long enough to get the politicians through the next election cycle, and then the school districts are left holding the bag. Oy.

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook asked former Bush education official Diane Ravitch to look at the reorganization plan:

If Philadelphia is looking to New York City as the exemplar of "best practices" for improving schools by organizing them into support networks, it is looking in the wrong place, according to historian and education analyst Diane Ravitch.
"New York City has not had any great success," said Ravitch, in town Wednesday for the conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "New York used to boast of dramatic test score gains, but they disappeared in 2010."
In that year, the state's Department of Education acknowledged that the cut scores had been dropping on the standardized tests. "All the gains disappeared," she said.
[...] She also pointed out that during this period New York City doubled its spending on education ? something that clearly isn't happening in Philadelphia. What improvements there may have been therefore cannot be isolated as the result of the networks as opposed to more resources, she said.
Beyond that, Ravitch said, there is scant evidence in general that school privatization is successful.
Ravitch, who served in the U.S. Department of Education under both President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, was a big booster of No Child Left Behind and standardized testing and a proponent of market-based reforms including charter schools.
But she did an about-face several years ago when she determined that high-stakes testing has led to gaming the system and a narrowing of education to test prep. She now says that charters and privatization only lead to more social and educational stratification and allow those she termed "right wingers" to avoid paying for strategies and programs that address poverty.
Plus, she said, education should not be privatized; she calls it an "abdication of public responsibility."
Philadelphia's leaders have taken pains to say that they are about creating a system of public schools, District-run and charter, designed to better serve all children and give parents choices. Ravitch said that doesn't work because charters serve a sorting function and often improve scores by shedding the most troublesome students.
Some Philadelphia charter schools ? former District schools given to charters for "turnaround" ? are required to serve the neighborhood.
Ravitch, who lives in New York and has written extensively about its schools, reviewed Philadelphia's sweeping reorganization plan that calls for the creation of "achievement networks" and continued growth in charter schools ? all in the atmosphere of bare-bones resources and relentless budget cuts.
She was not impressed, saying that it largely follows a blueprint of school privatization that she said has little evidence behind it.

I'm still so angry, I can't see straight. This is wrong. This is evil. And it's un-American. Bruce Dixon of the Black Agenda Report puts it this way:

The fix has been in for a long time, and not just in Philadelphia. Philly's school problems are anything but unique. The city has a lot of poor and black children. Our ruling classes don't want to invest in educating these young people, preferring instead to track into lifetimes of insecure, low-wage labor and/or prison. Our elites don't need a populace educated in critical thinking. So low-cost holding tanks that deliver standardized lessons and tests, via computer if possible, operated by profit-making ?educational entrepreneurs? are the way to go. The business class can pocket the money which used to pay for teachers' and custodians' retirement and health benefits, for music and literature and gym classes, for sports and science labs and theater and all that other stuff that used to be wasted on public school children.
The national vision of ruling Democrats and Republicans and the elites who fund them is to starve, discredit, denounce and strangle public education. Philly and its children, parents, communities and teachers are only the latest victims of business-class school reform. And they won't be the last.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/philadelphia-blows-its-school-distric

Digg this

PA Blows Up Its School District, And No One In
The Complicit National Media Even Cares

The elites' plans are in place to close 40 schools, break the teacher and janitorial unions, and put the education of the City of Philadelphia's children up for bid. It just makes me sick.

Our schools were taken over by the state in 2001 (you can read the gruesome history here) and instead we're run by a five-person School Reform Commission. (The governor gets to appoint three members, the mayor gets to appoint two.) And even the reason for declining results may have more to so with the fact that the state contribution to public education has dropped from 55 percent in 1975 to 36 percent in 2001, the hillbilly politicians in the Pennsyltucky parts of the state have done a fine job convincing voters outside the more educated areas that funding schools in Philadelphia is throwing money down a "black hole." (Emphasis on the word "black," since color plays a very large part in these funding decisions.)

But don't worry, the charter schools-privatization crowd has bought off some prominent black politicians, too, so at least the payoffs are color-blind.

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook asked former Bush education official Diane Ravitch to look at the reorganization plan:

If Philadelphia is looking to New York City as the exemplar of "best practices" for improving schools by organizing them into support networks, it is looking in the wrong place, according to historian and education analyst Diane Ravitch.
"New York City has not had any great success," said Ravitch, in town Wednesday for the conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "New York used to boast of dramatic test score gains, but they disappeared in 2010."
In that year, the state's Department of Education acknowledged that the cut scores had been dropping on the standardized tests. "All the gains disappeared," she said.
[...] She also pointed out that during this period New York City doubled its spending on education ? something that clearly isn't happening in Philadelphia. What improvements there may have been therefore cannot be isolated as the result of the networks as opposed to more resources, she said.
Beyond that, Ravitch said, there is scant evidence in general that school privatization is successful.
Ravitch, who served in the U.S. Department of Education under both President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, was a big booster of No Child Left Behind and standardized testing and a proponent of market-based reforms including charter schools.
But she did an about-face several years ago when she determined that high-stakes testing has led to gaming the system and a narrowing of education to test prep. She now says that charters and privatization only lead to more social and educational stratification and allow those she termed "right wingers" to avoid paying for strategies and programs that address poverty.
Plus, she said, education should not be privatized; she calls it an "abdication of public responsibility."
Philadelphia's leaders have taken pains to say that they are about creating a system of public schools, District-run and charter, designed to better serve all children and give parents choices. Ravitch said that doesn't work because charters serve a sorting function and often improve scores by shedding the most troublesome students.
Some Philadelphia charter schools ? former District schools given to charters for "turnaround" ? are required to serve the neighborhood.
Ravitch, who lives in New York and has written extensively about its schools, reviewed Philadelphia's sweeping reorganization plan that calls for the creation of "achievement networks" and continued growth in charter schools ? all in the atmosphere of bare-bones resources and relentless budget cuts.
She was not impressed, saying that it largely follows a blueprint of school privatization that she said has little evidence behind it.

I'm still so angry, I can't see straight. This is wrong. This is evil. And it's un-American. Bruce Dixon of the Black Agenda Report puts it this way:

The fix has been in for a long time, and not just in Philadelphia. Philly's school problems are anything but unique. The city has a lot of poor and black children. Our ruling classes don't want to invest in educating these young people, preferring instead to track into lifetimes of insecure, low-wage labor and/or prison. Our elites don't need a populace educated in critical thinking. So low-cost holding tanks that deliver standardized lessons and tests, via computer if possible, operated by profit-making ?educational entrepreneurs? are the way to go. The business class can pocket the money which used to pay for teachers' and custodians' retirement and health benefits, for music and literature and gym classes, for sports and science labs and theater and all that other stuff that used to be wasted on public school children.
The national vision of ruling Democrats and Republicans and the elites who fund them is to starve, discredit, denounce and strangle public education. Philly and its children, parents, communities and teachers are only the latest victims of business-class school reform. And they won't be the last.