I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
So do we.
Brooks is a Douche
DAMN
SECOND BITCHES!!!
Brooks=High Colonic Outfall
As I posted on another thread, I would like to suggest that people email David Brooks and request that he tell us how and when he found out he was in error and make this public. I also recommend sending an email to the public editor at the NY Times requesting a news investigation. Doesn't the Times have a policy concerning TIMELY apologies for factual inaccuracies in op-ed pieces?
That and a dollar fifty will get you a cup of coffee, David.
Cheney taken to hospital. Shortness of breath. Cables got on the story. Developing...
Too bad you had to read all the way through Brooks' exceptionally loathesome editorial before you got to it.
(I was puzzled though- why'd he even bother? What's that about?)
Sweet Jesus, I loathe David Brooks.
You think it's too early to invite Lynne out to a lesbian bar?
Well, he could have issued a correction before the election, but that might have influenced the election. Can't have that.
WHo will tell Bush what to do if Cheney's incapacitated? Oh, I forgot: Jesus.
I wish I had a NYT column. Me and Krugman could swap cucumbers.
Well, he could have issued a correction before the election, but that might have influenced the election. Can't have that.
In his dreams.....
I regret to say that I owe John Kerry another apology. During the campaign I reported that all of the people who voted for George Bush eat meatloaf with melted Velveeta on top, drink Cherry Coke, watch NASCAR every weeknd and have the first paragraph of the Book of Genesis tattooed on their foreheads.
I also reported that all of the people who voted for John Kerry drive Citroens, eat quiche lorraine, watch Eric Rohmer movies without the subtitles and have a tattoo of Barbra Streisand on one arm and a tattoo of Michael Moore on the other arm.
I regret the error.
Funniest line I've seen today re: cheney, dark lord himself taken to the hospital...(I'm praying for ya, Dick. Honest)
"Cheney taken to hospital due to shortness of breath. George Bush held an impromptu press conference declaring he was in control of the White House."
Bobo's just in a pissy mood because he's not spending the weekend with mAnn and Michelle at the Restoration weekend.
The worst part of reading that drivel was everything that came before the apology, which was lame.
"The answer is to define carefully what the president expects from the intelligence community: information. Policy making is not the C.I.A.'s concern. It is time to reassert some harsh authority so C.I.A. employees know they must defer to the people who win elections, so they do not feel free at meetings to spout off about their contempt of the White House, so they do not go around to their counterparts from other nations and tell them to ignore American policy."
The CIA must never tell the truth. Ever. Their only job is to give information to the president. When he ignores their info and turns around and blames the CIA when things don't work out, the CIA is supposed to take it on the chin and say "thank you sir, may I have another?"
Why is Brooks in print? Why is he even employed? Burger flipper is too good for him.
Tow
Goddamn it, now they're interrupting the game to tell me that Cheney is in the hospital with shortness of breath. He's gotta learn not to devour those infants so messily, or he'll choke to death.
Brooks wrote a real stinker this week.
"It is time to reassert some harsh authority so C.I.A. employees know they must defer to the people who win elections, so they do not feel free at meetings to spout off about their contempt of the White House, so they do not go around to their counterparts from other nations and tell them to ignore American policy..."
Fair and balanced my fanny
It is time to reassert some harsh authority so C.I.A. employees know they must defer to the people who win elections, so they do not feel free at meetings to spout off about their contempt of the White House, so they do not go around to their counterparts from other nations and tell them to ignore American policy.
Translation: I support the White House packing Langley's management with pliable political hacks who will never dare question President Cheney's pre-conceived conclusions about foreign threats, such as Porter Goss and his partisan Republican lackeys.
Honestly, how can smart people read this tripe and not understand what Brooks is getting at? He wants to restore Gilded Age patronage in the bureaucracy.
God, I want to piss in his Wheaties.
i actually wrote a letter to the editor/brooks/public editor at the times the day of brook's column chastising him for misrepresenting three kerry positions/quotes in that one column. i pointed out the problem with the Larry King quote specifically. i hope that others did too, and that he was forced to offer the correction because of our efforts.
Anyone know the process of replacing the Veep? Same as for President or does the president get to appoint?
I wonder if CBS will go through with its plan to put the CIA guy who wrote "Imperial Hubris" on tomorrow night. The guy just quit because his head nearly exploded from frustration at dealing with these morons. Of course, now he'll be painted as a whacko or a liberal or a disgruntled employee. Never mind his 22-year career.
now that the missouri mistake of an a.g. has declared american safe from terror dick's location no longer has to go undisclosed.
we be all safe & stuff now, praise buddha!
-J.T.
Warlord of Silver Sping
IT'S NOT OVER YET!
>>>READ IT AT DAILYBLURB.TBLOG.COM
Anyone know the process of replacing the Veep? Same as for President or does the president get to appoint?
Like any cabinet appointment, if I'm not mistaken. Confirmation hearings, etc.
Sidebar thought to share - from Indiatimes
Election campaign got Laura Bush smoking!
NEW YORK: George Bush' election campaign got his wife Laura so stressed out that she, who had quit smoking, went back to her chain-smoking ways.
"Absolutely no one was allowed to see her smoking. At events where she appeared, there had to be a room off to the side where she could close the door and chain-smoke before and after she spoke," New York Daily News quoted an insider as saying.
However, a spokesperson for the First Lady's office insisted that Mrs. Bush did not use a smoking room at appearances.
This sure is petty to pick up on this. And I hate myself. But not enough not to add - I'll bet she's a Marlboro Lights kind of girl.
Apparently the human heart has a hate-limit . Click my link to see more on Darth Cheney and The End of the Sith ...
Let him pass not so that we may dance , nor glee nor revell his famili-s pain, let him pass that we might dare see the sky without dread .
They didn't learn when god trashed florida with high winds, nor did they learn when St. Helens Swelled and accus-ed ; why should they learn when the reaper walks among them ...?
VLWC, hasn't changed since spiro.
-J.T.
Warlord of Silver Spring
Hecate, the Berbers of the Middle Atlas region call themselve "The Free People." It is widely believed they were the first people to practice democracy. Furthermore, their greatest warrior was a woman called Kahena, Queen of the Berbers. The kicker is she was Jewish.
Die, Cheney, and take the rest with you. Can't be too soon.
We all know georgie's best expression - deer in the headlights. Can you imagine the look on his face if ol' Dickie bites the big one?
my letter from 10/30 -- it was the first time i ever felt compelled to write to a newspaper but this was so outrageous:
Mr. Brooks -
Surely you don't even believe the scripts you are reciting at this point. Your October 30th column reads like a last-ditch effort to swing thoughts about the election away from actual issues and to questions of image and perception.
How many quotations can you willfully misinterpret in 750 words? We both know that when John Kerry was saying he hoped that terrorism could be reduced to a nuisance he was merely acknowledging that terrorism will never be completely eradicated.
You quote Kerry's statements on Larry King in December 2001 but you fail to mention that he was responding to a direct question from a caller about whether our soldiers should try using napalm or flamethrowers in Afghanistan -- not a question about the administration's strategy in the region.
According to the Times, your quote from Kerry on Friday comes before Kerry had even seen the videotape. The quote does not differ at all in substance from the statements Kerry has been making for months. Would you prefer that Kerry alter his fundamental positions according to the wishes and statements of Bin Laden? I fail to see how this would make our democracy stronger.
When John Kerry addressed the airing of the videotape, his response was clear and simple enough that even skilled spin-mongers like yourself will have trouble misrepresenting it to your readers: "As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists. They are barbarians. And I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes. Period."
"I wonder if CBS will go through with its plan to put the CIA guy who wrote "Imperial Hubris" on tomorrow night."
They better! All the Bush voters need to see what they're getting for their support.
...and let me add that I have been scared skinless for years by Darth Cheney and many abroad have dies in screams and pain and horror from his psycotic policies and atrophied soul . Let him pass that we might again see the sky and hope . Let him pass as any dark cloud .
I hope Cheney dies and is reincarnated immediately into the body of a baby who is being born in Fallujah.
I'll take any other part of Iraq, too.
Anyone know the process of replacing the Veep? Same as for President or does the president get to appoint?
Like any cabinet appointment, if I'm not mistaken. Confirmation hearings, etc.
Ahhh... but Chimpy and Cheney haven't technically been re-elected yet. That doesn't happen until the electoral college meets. Can they just substitute someone else on the ticket? (My guess is 'The Boy In Bush's Armpit', McCain.)
Damn! All these months I've been fiendishly sticking pins in my Darth Cheney voodoo doll, and now I find myself feeling really guilty. I mean, for neglecting my Chimpy doll the way I have and all...
..
Bush will soon be in the position Nixon was, of choosing his own successor.
The boy looks like hell, and what with the skipped physical, his youthful excesses catching up with him, and whatever medical apparatus they have strapped on him, I figure he'll resign 'for reasons of health' as soon as he is inaugurated and a successor can be named, plus a decent interval for appearence's sake.
Jeb? James Baker? C. Boyden Gray? Poppy?
Cops tazered a 6 year old black kid in Miami. It's on CNN now.
Fucking bastards.
Karen Hughes, principle (can you believe it) "If kids aren't going to follow the rules, you have to do what you have to do."
I'll have her email address soon. We need to write this Nazi.
I hope Cheney dies and is reincarnated immediately into the body of a baby who is being born in Fallujah.
Make it with Saddam still in power and I second that.
I don't think Cheney's going to die. I think this was planned all along. He'll simply have to resign so he can spend more time with his family and Geogie can pick someone else for VP. He'll keep telling Lame Duckie what to do, too, just as Auntie Karen kept advising him after she went back to Texas.
I wrote to the NYT's Public Editor. Maybe if enough of us email him, Brooks will get a nice public flogging.
patriotboy,
I thought that tazering happend a few days ago. Cuz the principal couldn't control a six-year old. Of course he was black; you don't think they'd tazer a white six-year old do you?
My halloween pumpkin was a Cheney-o-lantern. It is now nicely decomposing and looks more and more like him every minute. If only his demise was imminent--but wait without him we are in danger of a terrorist attack. eek!
nattering nabob : I know it is frustrating ...you find out the wax and hair dolls DO work , the guy goes into the hospital and the reward is finding too late your were working the whole time on the wrong guy Just to see if the damn things work ...Imagine , I spent all this time using hot pins on my Rumsfeld effigy, so I am casting it directly into the flames and getting out my Planet of the Apes in Flight Suit action figure . I shall concentrate my energy on the small of the back as soon as I see Bush live on the air and we'll see if you and I can make him jump periodicly . Any and all readers with vodoo dolls, and you know who you are , join us , it IS working .
Anyone got any good Haitian-translation software...what is Island French for " idiot Chimp " ?
And my Doug Henning Majic Man has No Hair left at all ...he he he ...
it is with great regret we report the death of irony
Tena, I get your sentiments but I doubt Cheney will come back as a homo sapien, probably not even as a mammal. Maybe a worm in Fallujah.
. Cuz the principal couldn't control a six-year old. Of course he was black; you don't think they'd tazer a white six-year old do you?
Hecate
I also remember some garbage about the six year old representing some kind of threat to the principle...Re: Karen Hughes: didn't she claim that she took a hiatus from DC in order to be a full-time parent to her son? Guess she didn't want to miss out on all that good ole fashioned "you have to do what you have to do" discipline. Fucking lunatic.
I was thinking about W's health myself, reading about Cheney. The lack of a physical, and that bulge on his back, together with the other weird stuff we've seen in the last 8 months or so. I can see him appointing someone to replace Cheney, though it's scary to think of who it might be, but then if something happens to W, his hand picked successor would pick up the reins. Scary thought -- new term, president not chosen even remotely by the American people.
Except that I don't believe Bush has the mental capacity of Warren G. Harding, I've been thinking about how Harding, when he began to discover what was going on in his White House, was literally sick about it, and there's some question whether that horror might have led to his premature death.
Not that I'm wishing anything like that on GWB; I still live to see that man facing earthly justice for his crimes.
Oh, and Brooks clearly has not paid any attention to anything the 9/11 Commission said, or anything that has come to light about the Bush Administration's attitude towards "intelligence" leading up to the Iraq war. The man is so irrelevant it would be funny if it weren't sick.
Hecate - yeah, it looks like it happened a couple of days ago. This just makes me sick. What kind of society do we live in where principals defend the tasering of first graders and the White House counsel looks for justification to use torture.
"I hope Cheney dies and is reincarnated immediately into the body of a baby who is being born in Fallujah."
Now that, my friends, is a payback.
Terrible thought........
Lynne Cheney as vice president...
Or can you imagine...their gay daughter!!!! The fundie's would explode with rage.
I mourn for my country and curse the fucking right for bringing us to this
I think the six-year old broke a picture frame and was holding onto a piece of glass. If the principal and the janitor couldn't have gotten the glass away from a six-year old they ought to be fired. Who calls the police over a six-year old? They weigh about 20 pounds for gosh sake.
I don't know why Brooks even bothered.
Apparently, there were two incidents with young children, police and tasers. The six year old was apparently a "danger to himself," not the principal; the twelve year old was "drunk." What kind of grown ass adults cannot control a six and twelve year old children without the use of tasers?
MIAMI - Police have acknowledged using a stun gun to immobilize a 12-year-old girl just weeks after an officer jolted a first-grader with 50,000 volts.
Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to use a Taser on the 6-year-old boy last month because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass. But Parker said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who was skipping school and apparently drunk.
According to the incident report, officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars on the morning of Nov. 5.
Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and was walking her to his car to take her back to school when she ran away through a parking lot.
Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop before firing the Taser when she began to run into traffic. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her.
Nelson said he fired "for my safety along with (the girl's) safety." Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.
My grandson is five ans a half. I could disarm him bt saying "the last one to drop a piece of glass is a rotten egg."
AnneW - yeah, I know. And this administration has fucked up my karma, too, because I just hate these people and that isn't good.
But I swear I would willingly damn my own self to everlasting torment if I could stop them. They are committing genocide in Iraq.
I don't know why Brooks even bothered.
To rub it in? Because he's a fuckhead?
Bobo the Clown isn't funny.
patriotboy,
Me, too. It's the culture of life, dontcha know? As long as they're fetuses, we love all babies. Once they're here, we ignore them like hell so they grow up screwed up (because I'm imagining this kid has some problems) and then we tazer em, throw em in jail, and execute them even if they're juveniles. Cuz ours is a culture of life since 9/11 -- just ask Auntie Karen.
I hope Cheney dies and is reincarnated immediately into the body of a baby who is being born in Fallujah.
-I prefer he be reincarnated back into the same body, die again, be reincarnated back, etc.
Cheney croaked.
And today in the Washington Post
more CIA resignations
But according to Brooks, it the CIA who's bringing politics into the agency, not the political hacks who've recently been appointed. Sure. Why don't we start calling him David Orwell Brooks? Seems to fit.
Tow
Hecate, I agree with every word.
patriotboy,
For real. When my son was six, I could get him to do anything by telling him that SpiderMan would do it. SpiderMan always makes his bed. SpiderMan always eats his peas. What is wrong with these people?
The Seattle PI recently did a study where they found that blacks distrust cops mor than whites do. I wonder why? It couldn't be because cops are tasering their children, could it?
So who would they pick to replace Cheney? I have been running names through my head but all seem to have critical faults for party powerbrokers.
I've got to go for a walk before I give myself a heart attack. Tasering children. I hate these bastards.
Cuz ours is a culture of life since 9/11 -- just ask Auntie Karen.
Hecate
I think we need to call it the "culture of punishment," since that's what links all these disparate GOP policies...they want punishments for sex, for poverty, for intelligence...you name it.
They're cowardly sadists, if that's not too redundant a phrase.
So who would they pick to replace Cheney?
Sean Hannity.
I'd bet preznit jaw twitch is blinking pretty hard.
U.S. Constitution: Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/da...on/amendment25/
after a year and a half in Washington, Hughes described her family as "a little homesick." She said she and her husband decided they wanted their son, who is about to enter high school, "to feel rooted in Texas," where her daughter and granddaughter also live.
"The president always says if you're a mom or a dad, your most important responsibility in life is to be a good mom or dad, and I believe that," she said.
How come people who supposedly take their parenting responsibilities and "family values" so seriously always have such devil children?
I thought you said you were going to bed, Philathes.
Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop before firing the Taser when she began to run into traffic. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her.
Let's see, tazer the girl, or let her run into traffic and get hit by a car.
Nasty choice to have to make. I think Nelson made the right one.
The smug son - of - a - WHAT reminds me of Stephanie on the Newhart show. You know, the real ditzy blonde princess who was supposed to be the maid... "Oooh! Sorry, sorry, sorry. "
He sure sounds sincere to me. Yeah, right.
just me,
Have to tazer the girl to save her. Funny how the police are always doing these things to people just about to put themselves in danger. Course, the police would never lie about anything like that either. Lots of their victims just happen to shoot themselves, have drugs on them when they get shot, and be about to run into traffic. Especially the black ones. Weird, isn't it?
Phila - I think Hannity has about as much chance as Oxy gas bag, but the base would love it.
Seriously, Gulliani(?), no way with his pro-choice and soft on the gay issues. Frist, he has failed to live up to expectations. Who is the rising star that would not upstage Bush?
I think the six-year old broke a picture frame and was holding onto a piece of glass.
While I agree with the setiment you have expressed -- most people do not have a clue that our schools (and education system) are full of people that are scared of African Americans and those that come from different backgrounds. If you look at the background of a typical teacher (and especially administrators), they are so different from the lives of most of their students that it is a wonder that any of them can work together in the first place. I am not saying the situation was handled properly; I am just saying that education is full of people that feel "entitled" to their job and believe that if they could only get rid of the bad students, schools would be perfect -- just like when they were kids. It is simply not a rational system -- never has been, and never will be until this country starts discussing what the OUTCOMES of a good education should be. Until then, discussions about schools are all based on lies.
Sen. Patrick Leahy sends a 'get well' card to Cheney and the card sez...
Let's see, tazer the girl, or let her run into traffic and get hit by a car.
Nasty choice to have to make. I think Nelson made the right one.
just me
You're kidding, right? Again, what kind of grown adult cannot control a twelve year old child? I've been around plenty of rambunctious twelve year olds and have never had to resort to a physical altercation to keep them from running into traffic. Usually when children are out of control, it is because the so-called in charge adults are out of control. Even the Police Director "couldn't defend" the decision to shock this child in the neck.
Any thoughts on this:
Do you think David Brooks actually believes the stuff he writes?
Or do you think he writes his crap knowing full well it is not true, but, because he has made a living as a right wing shill, he knows where his bread is buttered?
chris/tx
Sam Brownback?
Fark headline on cheney being taken to hospital:
"VP Cheney rushed to hospital. Bush notified, ready to assume power if necessary"
Funneh
Sorry Hecate, but all police are not evil.
You might want to do something about the social conditions that caused a 12 year old black girl to be drunk and not in school before you condemn a policeman for maybe doing something wrong.
You are condemning the wrong people for this.
Brooks has a deep seated fear of something. Probably a sad childhood. He projects himself on others. Sees evil or whatever negative thing that drives him in others.
Ohhhh, following these evil fucktards on the blogs this past couple of years has made me good 'n' paranoid.
You guys have missed one of the Big Names now suddenly available if Cheney kacks:
Ashcroft.
most people do not have a clue that our schools (and education system) are full of people that are scared of African Americans and those that come from different backgrounds.
Really great point; but we're not talking about high school aged children here, where I think your point would be more relevant. We're talking about a six year old, barely out of diapers, child. Seems to me like the adults around this child were the ones completely out of control and should not be around children of any race.
Cheney in hospital, mommy who's running the store?
just me,
I don't believe that all police are evil. But the evidence that many of them are racist and not above covering up when they go beyond the guidelines is too great to ignore.
As for the conditions that allowed that girl to be drunk and out of school, regardless of her race, heck I was a kid once and I did some dumb things that I shouldn't have done. No one tazered me. But I was a white kid.
Well thanks Dave, that's a day late and a dollar short.
Had to google Brownback, never heard of him.
Ashcroft - Freepers had a thread discussing him for SCOTUS. Him as VP, what a nightmare.
Guess I'll go surf FR and see what names they are floating.
filkertom,
Bush and Ashcroft hate each other. I don't think it will be Crisco Johnnie. I'm betting on McCain or, if my tinfoil is really tight, Jeb.
Suddenly Bush declares the next week a holiday, jumps the first plane to hid in Texas, and hopes Cheney gets well.
It'll be called "National rest your fat ass before you have a heat-attack week"
oops heat=heart
You are condemning the wrong people for this.
just me
That's bullshit. Hecate has a point, as well as Anonymous, that race played a major factor in the decision to stun a child in the neck. Certainly, there are clearly other issues at play whenever there is a drunk twelve year old. But that does not negate the fact that the decision, by a grown man, to stun a child. This officer was totally out of control and unconscionably escalated and worsened an already problematic situation. Pointing out social ills and passing the buck of responsibility doesn't diminish the fact that the police officer was dead wrong.
Tena, I get your sentiments but I doubt Cheney will come back as a homo sapien, probably not even as a mammal. Maybe a worm in Fallujah.
AnneW
i don't think he's coming back, dead is dead. oh, wait...
dick cheney is an ugly toad, with a venomous snake for a tongue.
it doesn't matter now, all the damage has been done. dems. are screaming, "how do we reach the value voter" meanwhile, the apparent values are, cut dying kids off their medicaid, if they act up taser their little asses. this country has been fucked and fucked good. and i can only wish that every right wing nut job that has contributed to its decline since reagan would die an agonizing death but that's not going to happen, reality is a bitch.
Really great point; but we're not talking about high school aged children here, where I think your point would be more relevant.
Believe it or not, elementary schools are some of the most stressed work environments I have ever seen. Everyone is responsible for controlling groups of kids and not creating any trouble for the administration. In many ways, I have seen worse things in elementary schools than I have seen in high schools because most would not even believe that this kind of stuff was going on. Your point is well taken -- but my point is the whole system is irrational. This story doesn't surprise me and I bet the responsible parties (not kids) are all convinced that they did what they had to do and that their school is a DANGEROUS place. For crying out loud, I know of one school district where people worry about the gangs in the 2nd grade! This is actually a small-town school and there certainly are not gangs in the elementary school (nor are they actually visible in the middle schools or high schools), but some parents, administrators, and teachers act like there are!
Regarding the taser story - I am sure they would tell you it was a really BIG 6th grader. What were they suppose to do?
OOPS -- I meant 6 year old -- some 6th graders are actually pretty big, but most are not.
"and quell doubts about the legitimacy of the Ohio election being raised on the Internet."
Concerns about how valid are everywhere not just on the "Internet." Is the point here that those of us on the "Internet" are crazy and the people watching tv are sane?
"and quell doubts about the legitimacy of the Ohio election being raised on the Internet."
Concerns about how valid the election was are everywhere not just on the "Internet." Is the point here that those of us on the "Internet" are crazy and the people watching tv are sane?
Brooks is an opportunistic weenie. He's a "moderate" Republican who doesn't want to pay his dues (i.e., taxes), pimps the free market lie, and celebrates the "authenticity" of exurbian "culture." I think that Brooks is chronically insecure, worried that somewhere else, people are having all the fun. He wants desperately to be one of the cool kids. He uses this dopey "cafeteria" metaphor where he talks about how Americans want to sit at the table where they are most comfortable and its most convivial. Before the election my sense is that while he wanted to rape the financial landscape like most Rethugs, he thought liberals were the ones having all the fun. Since the election, he thinks Rethugs are the cool kids. That's why he's been such a "sore winner" since the election. It's like the geek who finally gets some power and is now screeching into the void, "I'll show you! I'll show all of you!"
anonymous at 3:29 (you need to take a name, bud): what kind of place is it where people worry about gangs of second grade kids? We're talking about 7 and 8 year old children, for heaven's sake!
Is this district in a Bush supporting area? The irrationality of the level of fear seems to fit.
Interesting thing I read at FR was that if anything happens to Cheney before the electors meet, then the electors select the VP.
it's the job of divots such as brooks to keep the discourse wound to a certain pitch to keep us busy reacting to nonsense...this slows the flow of real news...the moronic editors of the main San Francisco paper ran a large photo of people cheering the peterson verdict on the front page...news has become diversion and delay...we need new editors, new reporters and new papers to reclaim the attention of the public away from the NY post style of garbage...brooks is only a monor dipshit with his predisposed and well known slant...expect no logic from such a fool...
well the freepers are all saying their prayers for Cheney's speedy recovery. clearly they dread Bush becoming president as much as we do.
Republican cool kids? Oxymoron if there ever was...
dirtgirl - I scanned the thread, and yeah, some serious praying going on over there plus a lot of dissing DU for not exactly praying for Cheney's good health.
my point is the whole system is irrational. This story doesn't surprise me and I bet the responsible parties (not kids) are all convinced that they did what they had to do and that their school is a DANGEROUS place. For crying out loud, I know of one school district where people worry about the gangs in the 2nd grade!
That is so freaking insane. You're right; our school system is highly dysfunctional.
In Bridgeport, CT a teacher is under endictment for having sex with an 8 year old. Apparently, he told her to dump her boyfriend and go off birth control. The kid was in the third grade.
For crying out loud, I know of one school district where people worry about the gangs in the 2nd grade!
This is some more of that *they fear what they don't understand*.
Such bullshit.
Is this district in a Bush supporting area? The irrationality of the level of fear seems to fit.
In Bridgeport, CT a teacher is under endictment for having sex with an 8 year old.
You get what you pay for and we pay teachers shit.
Hecate -- I sure hope you're right. 'Cause this line of thought has suggested a whole bunch of other names, starting with Santorum and Giuliani....
Brooks is doing the classic right-wing thing. Shout what you want and then, in a rare bout of remorse, whisper a regret. Its the yin to the other yang tactic. When you accuse them of something -like say W's AWOL status - they say it isn't true. And when more evidence arises, they say it's all the same stuff that was raised before. Effin' Creepublicans.
That's the other thing: "a rising star that won't upstage Bush" is a real factor here. He doesn't like feeling like anyone is breathing down his neck.
So if Cheney goes, it will have to be someone who has no personal ambitions. Cheney himself made that clear during the debate. He mouthed off quite a bit about the fact that he isn't ambitious and that makes Bush comfortable.
Funny over at Kos:
GWB is now a heartbeat away from the presidency.
i once knew a police officer in md. who threw a black kid through a plate glass window for stealing a bike.
i have also worked in the schools in miami. most enlightening experience was a teacher, 40 something, female. came out onto the loading dock to smoke a cig. as she had just been involved in a physical altercation with a hi school student. she just acted like it was another day in the war zone. frankly in the worst ones i never saw a lot of oppurtunity for education to occur. lot of big ass security dudes tho. still, i'm against tasers, 50,000 volts is a lot of electricity.
as for brooks no comment, can't, won't read him. waste of ink, waste of eye power.
i think america is in a more serious plight than many are willing to realize. too many bobos perhaps.
Interesting thing I read at FR was that if anything happens to Cheney before the electors meet, then the electors select the VP.
Yeppy. Though one assumes that the GOP slate wouldn't wobble. It'd be amusing if, say, 30 GOP electors broke ranks, and Edwards won.
I wonder whether there's state law covering what happens if one name on the presidential slate changes...
As for the conditions that allowed that girl to be drunk and out of school, regardless of her race, heck I was a kid once and I did some dumb things that I shouldn't have done. No one tazered me. But I was a white kid.
Hecate
Kids like Noelle Bush don't get tasered, no matter how intoxicated they get or if they break the law. Period.
Is this district in a Bush supporting area? The irrationality of the level of fear seems to fit.
Crap! HelloScan cut off my post. It was in a barely blue state, but probably in a red town. This community still had a manufacturing base and an urban center that is largely African Amercian was less than 1 hour away -- yet you did not really see any African Americans. When I asked about this, I was told that the blacks were run out of town.
Honest to god truth -- that semester, there were 2 teacher suicides; another was arrested in her classroom, supposidly for teaching her spanish class to roll joints; and a High School teacher was charged with rape during that semester. I was told that the community was near a riot when the Hmongs moved in and started attending the public schools.
In Bridgeport, CT a teacher is under endictment for having sex with an 8 year old.
No one told Google this doozie.
sorry, I prefer to be anon when talking about schools -- people are very "ticklish" and might taser you.
GWB is now a heartbeat away from the presidency.
chris/tx
Every time the Cheney "heart attack" is mentioned, I want someone to add "this is the big one, I'm coming for you Elizabeth." Bush & posse are such shameless hustlers.
Stinky is right and that whole incident is outrageous and I don't even have words for the six year old boy being tasered.
Someone should sue the cops.
anon in nc - It would only take 18 electors to break ranks from the GOP side to put Edwards as VP (if something happens to Cheney).
Think Hecate is right, McCain. The other name I see in surfing is Condi. That one would have the bigoted freepers heads exploding.
Maybe Cheney's problem is that his pants are too tight?
A little Saturday research at the library here brought forth this lovely photo of "Dick". It's a scan from the paper since it's been removed from the Journal-Sentinal website. It has not been "retouched".
Here's the original article from Milwaukee Magazine about the picture.
"The normally serious Cheney flashed a winning smile for Borkin, and Guldan snapped an attention-grabbing photo that would later be chosen for the front page of the paper’s September 11 Metro section.
Guldan got a call from a reader the next day. Did you notice anything unusual about that picture?” the reader asked. Upon closer inspection, it seems the vice president’s smile was not his biggest, ahem, asset. Is that what we think it is? You’re not imagining it, Guldan says of the unintentionally revealing photo. Let’s just say the snugness of Cheney’s pants left little to the imagination, and we’re not talking about his waistline."
After reading about the article I wanted to see the picture since my daughter works at that restaurant. All I know is that if that was my little girl by Cheney, I would have gotten her away from him pretty damn quick.
I was told that the community was near a riot when the Hmongs moved in and started attending the public schools.
JC
Damn, in Seattle, the Hmong are known for growing gorgeous flowers and making beautiful bouquets they sell at farmer's markets. Where is this at, anyway, and why are people so freaked out over a bunch of flower farmers?
Thanks, Hecate. All our teaching salary increase steps were frozen last year(usually each step gets a percentage of our base), but this year we received a flat $1,200. The money for grants is gone, the money for workshops is gone, and it's only November. I wait until the custodian is gone to steal pencils and paper out of his room.
GN - Great visual, LOL. 
JC, I'm fairly new here, and I was posting under the same tag (JC) here last night. I apologize for any confusion this might have caused. I'll find a different tag.
Pie,
Check out the Connecticut Post.
the police have been a source unto themselves for too long...lying to cover illegal acts is common and the
internal affairs division of any dept
is hated by the rank and file for going against the grain of silence...
that a grown man could not control a 12 year old girl is telling...any cop woth a shit would never let anyone escape from hand to hand control...any threat real or contrived is used to show us how much we need these bullies and how much safer we are too have these protectors...if there is to be a draft let it be for the police...have citizens make up a percentage of the force and keep the bad apples from staying on the force after any fuckup that now gets swept under the rug...
answers are available but the status quo has the power...
Woman accused of sex with 8-year-old
By The Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- The mother of an 8-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually abused by a woman who considered him her boyfriend said she knew something was wrong when the boy began to act out at school and even threw a chair at another student.
"He tried to jump out the window at school," the woman said Monday. "He was acting out last year -- all kind of stuff."
was told that the community was near a riot when the Hmongs moved in and started attending the public schools.
JC
It's the same up in Green Bay, WI and surrounding areas.
The Vithe Prethident wath enjoying a really fabulouth dith of frozen cuthtard when a mattthive amount of blood ruthhed into hith overly large engorging penith putting a therious thtrain on the loose collection of jury-rigged pig valveth that functionth ath hith heart.
Well, on the one hand, Brooks admits that he screwed up, which is laudable. On the other hand, maybe he's just trying to clear what remains of his conscience.
I think the day will soon come when Mr. Brooks realizes that people who truly love America should not have voted for Bush.
My father-in-law, eighty, WWII vet, says in a year you'll be hard pressed to find someone who will admit voting for Bush-Cheney. Smart man.
Damn, in Seattle, the Hmong are known for growing gorgeous flowers and making beautiful bouquets they sell at farmer's markets.
I agree -- the hmongs I have worked with are the nicest people you would ever want to reach. They also are some of the highest achieving kids I have ever worked with. Of course, this just pisses off the prominent mom and dads of affluent slackers, because these poor children are challenging the communities hierarchy, at least in terms of class rankings. I was told there was a gang problem (at some level, I am sure there was, just not in the elementary schools), but people would say, "but even the hmong gang members say 'please and thank you.'" It was funny to see the more affluent High School end up on a NCLB watch list -- I am sure they are blaming the hmongs, but that is definitely not true.
thanks for the link Guy.
well, Hail to Chief, I guess....it really IS big
Well, Sue, nothing came up, but that, but I did see these two stories, which I imagine are being repeated in every state:
Doctor is accused of flu-shot gouging
HARTFORD State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal accused a Fairfield County physician, one of his employees and a drug wholesaler Friday of charging patients up to five times the going price for flu shots at a Greenwich walk-in medical clinic....More
Flu shot supply's shot; don't call
TRUMBULL The Trumbull-Monroe Health District is no longer taking appointments for flu vaccinations. Director of Health Judy Wrenn said Friday that all of the vaccine now has been allocated....More
A little Saturday research at the library here brought forth this lovely photo of "Dick". It's a scan from the paper since it's been removed from the Journal-Sentinal website. It has not been "retouched".
LOL -- the Milwaukee Urinal/Sentinel will not release that picture. It is my understandign that he had jsut got off a bus. Do you think Monica L was along on that ride or did he just forget to deflate the implant?
Ben,
Excellent letter to David Brooks! The problem with Brooks is that he has spent numerous columns presenting himself as a fairminded person who is interested in civil discourse and who wants to end the extreme polarization of the two parties. One week he writes a column to that effect, and then the next week he writes an exceptionally partison column like the one lambasting Kerry that he then (after the election) apologized for.
Hardball talking about rumors of Arafat being assasinated, poisoned, whatever.
Anyone think he was poisoned?
Woman accused of sex with 8-year-old
Where does it say she's a teacher?
OT - just some Christian "family values" for ya...
Couple Accused in Plot to Sacrifice Kids
November 13, 2004 01:15 PM EST
ROCHESTER, N.H. - A woman and her boyfriend are accused of plotting to sacrifice the woman's three children on a church altar.
Nicole Mancini, 29, and John Thurber, 35, were arrested at St. Mary's Church on Wednesday after workers said they heard the woman say she wanted to sacrifice the boys.
"We could tell this woman was not right," said church secretary Donna Landolfi. "She said, 'Let's go make the sacrifice.'"
Mancini and Thurber were in jail Saturday on more than $25,000 bail. They were arraigned Friday on three counts each of misdemeanor child endangerment. Thurber was also charged with marijuana possession.
The children, ages 9, 7 and 2, were not harmed and were placed in state custody. Police said Thurber is the father of the youngest boy.
Police said Mancini told them that Jesus sacrificed himself for her, so she was going to sacrifice the boys to free her soul.
"Eighteen years I've been doing this and I've never come across anything like it," police Lt. Paul Callaghan said.
Any school in which there is legitimate concern about gangs in 2nd grade likely is serving a severely marginalized, poverty-stricken population...
Here is the picture of Cheney with his "scud missile" (from Kos in comments).
the police have been a source unto themselves for too long...lying to cover illegal acts is common and the
internal affairs division of any dept
is hated by the rank and file for going against the grain of silence...
that a grown man could not control a 12 year old girl is telling...any cop woth a shit would never let anyone escape from hand to hand control...any threat real or contrived is used to show us how much we need these bullies and how much safer we are too have these protectors...if there is to be a draft let it be for the police...have citizens make up a percentage of the force and keep the bad apples from staying on the force after any fuckup that now gets swept under the rug...
answers are available but the status quo has the power...
Thanks, Hecate. All our teaching salary increase steps were frozen last year(usually each step gets a percentage of our base), but this year we received a flat $1,200. The money for grants is gone, the money for workshops is gone, and it's only November. I wait until the custodian is gone to steal pencils and paper out of his room.
Sorry, but in many communities -- teachers are some of the highest paid people in town. It is just no true that they are grossly underpaid -- if they think so, they can certainly feel free to take that higher paying job. The point is they can't find one for 9 months of work. Please, I am an educator, but I have never felt grossly overpaid when I looked at the average incomes the community. Giving assholes that work in dysfunctional educational systems a raise is not going to improve quality!
The point is they can't find one for 9 months of work.
Oy.
And you say you're a teacher? Sure.
Stinky -
Maybe the couple was sacrificing their children because they were going to be homosexuals.
One of the big problems with teaching (beyond the obvious things, like the role of property taxes in funding school boards) is that it's hard for teachers to move to another state, because their retirement funds aren't transferable.
JC, I'm fairly new here, and I was posting under the same tag (JC) here last night. I apologize for any confusion this might have caused. I'll find a different tag.
If you are being sarcastic -- point is will taken. If you are serious, Please use whatever identity you are comfortable with. I only stuck that handle (JC) on those posts because it seemed that some commenters wanted to address these issues and I wanted to be more easily identifiable, so I quickly thought to use JC. You can use it -- I would prefer to have a handle that was more unique, just haven't applied myself yet.. IMHO identities around here are taken WAY too seriously, but then I respect that we are talking about serious issues, so I try to be understanding -- sometimes I get it wrong, however.
My e-mail to Brooks.
You wrote:
"Not that it will do him much good at this point, but I owe John Kerry an apology. I recently mischaracterized some comments he made to Larry King in December 2001. I said he had embraced the decision to use Afghans to hunt down Al Qaeda at Tora Bora. He did not. I regret the error."
Wow, thanks for supper-dee-dupper, hacktackularly, timely correction. I'm sure it would have taken you about 5 minutes to figure this out on a Nexis search had you really cared about the truth at the time.
In the immoral words of John Stewart, "You're hurting America".
Guy's link adds some credibility to Cathy O'Brien's claim about Cheney's penis.
Giving assholes that work in dysfunctional educational systems a raise is not going to improve quality!
Anonymous
I guess the same logic can be used for CEOs, too. Obviously, the unprecedented level of compensation of today's CEO hasn't attracted anything but low-lifes, crooks, scum, criminals, adulterors and charlatans to run America's companies.
Pelosi and demos are on cspan talking sense.
And you say you're a teacher? Sure.
Most teachers I know do not actually do classes and things over the summer -- at least not after they have their 20 years or whatever in. maybe just out of college with no experience the salary is too low, but with 15+ years experience and at least a masters degree -- typical teachers are doing much better than "lunchbox" joe or many that have also earned college degrees. Don't take my word for it -- start posting some salaries at the top of your local district's scale and lets see what percentage of Americans actually earn more.
JC, I was being serious. As a newbie, I don't want to step on the toes of established commenters. I'll find another, no problem.
I guess the same logic can be used for CEOs, too. Obviously, the unprecedented level of compensation of today's CEO hasn't attracted anything but low-lifes, crooks, scum, criminals, adulterors and charlatans to run America's companies.
Exactly -- in fact it only attracts more of the same!
Bosco Belle -au contraire. Further in your linked article, Cheney indicates he is a micro-dick.
Chris/tx, I knew I shouldn't have clicked on that link. Knew it, knew it, knew it.
Any school in which there is legitimate concern about gangs in 2nd grade likely is serving a severely marginalized, poverty-stricken population...
You would think so, but that was not the case in the example I cited here -- it is just the way people chose to view the world. I am sure this was a BIG BUSH town, fortunately, were are in a "union" state, not "slave" state, and our electoral votes went to Kerry.
Average teaching salaries
Then add this bit of info:
Washington, D.C. – Teachers’ salaries have stayed relatively stagnant while teachers’ health care costs have jumped to all-time rates, making it difficult to attract and keep good teachers at a time when they are increasingly needed, according to the American Federation of Teachers’ annual state-by-state teachers salary released Thursday.
The 2002-03 average teacher salary was $45,771, up 3.3 percent from the previous year, according to the report. The 2002-03 average beginning teacher salary was $29,564, up 3.2 percent from the year before. The AFT estimates that the average beginning salary for the most recent school year, 2003-04, was $30,496. But while teacher salaries rose an average 3.3 percent, health insurance benefits spiked an average 13 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The same can be said of almost ALL working Americans -- unless you are a politician or a CEO. Your numbers don't address my point at all -- in fact, for many recent grads right now, $30,000+ with 2-3 months vacation would sound GREAT! Come on now, I thought this was a "reality-based" community. The only point I am trying to make is that most students come from families that earn CONSIDERABLY LESS than teachers. I am not saying they are overpaid - but proclaiming that we should accept the status quo or improve it by raising saleries is not a logical argument either.
Let's talk dysfunctional. At a meeting last week, 5th grade ### sleeps with his mother. DCF was there. But he's so cuddly, and she's no femme fatille! He's been suspended for 3 days for sexually harassing girls in his class. Another 5th grader, ***, doesn't bring in his homework and is alone all day. His mother, a nursing home aide can't change her hours from 3:00 - 11:00 because, quote, "I'm not a morning person". A second grader, held back for two years doesn't get special ed because step-dad says, "It's God's will that she experience this. We can't intervene."
Between this, we have kids out of mental hospitals with no follow-up, kids with social workers/surrogate parents who don't know what the kids look like and and an overworked, overwhelmed staff who are trying their hardest. By the way, we are a failing school up for reconstitution thanks to NCLB . Let's not talk dysfunctional teachers.
my freinds mother is a teacher, seminole co. fl. she makes 55,000. it's enough. hell of a lot more than i make.
everyone wants more. according to social scientists precisley 25 percent more. nothing wrong with that, but as repukes like to point out (that is before the new, strange, creepy breed) throwing money at a problem will not necessarily fix it.
jeebus christ, now they are talking about caveating the science of evolution with "it's just a theory" and teaching creationism, or as they euphamistically describe it, intelligent design. 70 million americans don't believe in evolution. any wonder we have a smirking chimp for a president?
Pie-Thanks for the link! Most of the bottom 25 states in the salary distribution are -- of course -- red. The state numbers are an odd mix of mmeans, medians, plus some with benefits, some without. So it's a little hard to know what one is looking at.
That wasn't "an error." It was deliberate. Of course you can apologize for lying once it doesn't matter.
in fact, for many recent grads right now, $30,000+ with 2-3 months vacation would sound GREAT!
You're smoking something, right?
And new teachers have to return to school to get permanent certification, paying big bucks each year to a college for an advanced degree.
bebe:
I guess it's possible that Cathy is nuts and that it's perhaps Cheney's colostomy bag strapped to his inner thigh in the Custard Shop Photo.
Brooks is a little bitch; but Mickey is an ugly mother.
Here is the picture of Cheney with his "scud missile" (from Kos in comments).
chris/tx
I guess we know why his friends call him "Dick".
And another huge issue is our Social Security. We can't collect on our retirement fund if we have had another job with S.S. We're not talking alot of money, but it would be nice if you have had jobs where you have paid into the system and can assume that your S.S./retirement would be seen in your Golden Years. This is an issue I am bringing up with my Congressman/Senator. It has been labeled 'windfall', I think it should be referred to as 'survival'.
The thing to remember about teachers only working 9 months is that, in most states, teachers have two options. They can get paid only for the nine months they work, meaning no pay during the summer months, or they can have it spread out over the 12 months. So, something like $35,000 isn't a whole lot. Plus, teachers don't get overtime and, in a distressingly common trend, they have to provide the bulk of their classroom materials. The latter is especially true in grammar schools.
Then you have the environment teachers work in. Class sizes are outrageous these days and from what I've been told, parenting skills are at an all-time low. School administrators and superintendents suffer a kind of forced cowardnice, that makes them sacrifice a teacher to placate angry parties, mainly to avoid lawsuits or bad press.
Then, of course, you have the massive racial divides in the country, the whole issue of gender roles and sexuality reaching kids at an increasingly younger age, and the fact that every wingding in the country feels the need to force the entire world to conform to his/her viewpoint and his/her little darlin's school is the first to bow down. Teachers have to deal with all this shit, plus their own personal lives, and somehow manage to educate your children in a society that looks at "intellect" as less important than "hairstyle" when judging people. And let's not forget our greed-driven society that howls for tax cuts, and the first place they always seem to cut is education. Figure that out.
So...anyone who says teachers are "grossly overpaid" is completely full of shit.
I'm 49 years old, and have had a summer job for 21 years.
Well, the administrators and educators involved with that taser incident (which started this all) do not sound like underpaid professionals to me and giving them raises would not solve the problem. I am not trying to bash teachers -- I know firsthand that it is difficult, challenging work. All I am trying to say that the answer to better schools is not to talk about raises and money -- thought these issues are important. First, we need to talk about what should the OUTCOMES be and what opportunties should students that successfully complete school reasonably expect. From there, we could have an intellegent discussion about curriculum and structuing schools to actually work. That has never happened in this county and talking about "outcome based" education is considered a "no-no" in many communities. The current "standards and benchmarks" movement is actually a move away from norm referencing kids to an outcome based approach. Most educators I know cannot accept the fact that simplying proclaiming that this student gets an A and this one gets a C or D does not actually mean that we have taught a meaningful skill to ALL students. It isn't the educators fault -- but we need to talk about what schools are actually doing before we can talk about how to make them better. I do not know many 20+ year people that are firmly entrenched in these systems that will even consider change and lets be clear -- the new teacher that probably leaves the profession within 5 years did not create our dysfunctional schools.
So...anyone who says teachers are "grossly overpaid" is completely full of shit.
Yep. And how many of those recent grads are looking at thousands of dollars in student loans that have to be repaid for the privilege of becoming a teacher?
anyone who says teachers are "grossly overpaid" is completely full of shit.
No one here has said they are "grossly overpaid," but when you start looking at incomes of Americans in terms of percentiles, it is difficult to say that they are "grossly underpaid." The only point I am trying to make is that we need to start talking about what schools should be DOING before we decide how to do it.
This thread is too depressing. Can't we have another poetry thread like last week, or the even more fun: whats not in the Bible. "This ain't no disco".
Talking about "caveating the science of evolution with "it's just a theory" "? It's -done-. The textbooks Texas has forced on the rest of the country, our friends in Kansas (oh, that's right, that was repealed), all tell us that it's just a theory.
I await an explanation for the quantum theory, the charm theory, the theory of relativity and most of all those darn geometry theorems. All just a theory after all, just something some wiseass cooked up. Entropy isn't what it used to be either.
-- the new teacher that probably leaves the profession within 5 years did not create our dysfunctional schools.
You make it sound as if all schools are dysfuntional. Perhaps, you don't mean to generalize.
And how many of those recent grads are looking at thousands of dollars in student loans that have to be repaid for the privilege of becoming a teacher?
You mean like every other college grad? You are right -- but is that really the issue here. Amazing, however, how a discussion about a 6 eyar old being tasered at school can result in cries for increasing teacher's salaries!
oh my -- if you want to see the prototypical freeper (perhaps our earlier friend, trevor...), check out david neiwert. there's an anti-sorryeverybody website and he's exhibit a.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/
The only point I am trying to make is that we need to start talking about what schools should be DOING before we decide how to do it.
Throw out NCLB, for starters, and I don't think that's the only point you're trying to make.
all schools are dysfuntional
I do not beleive you can tell me what schools serve diverse populations and are fully function across that diversity. It certainly is not happening in urban areas. A school can be fully functional for the needs of 1 group of students and be fully dysfunctional for another group. But that is why we need to discuss outcomes first -- something that no one in this thread has even bothered to pick up on, too many "knee jerk" reactions about the usual BS.
Now the NY Times has a story up about shake-ups in the CIA. When the CIA turned against Nixon it was all over but the shouting. Could we be so lucky?
JC - you do realise that you have just now, by precisely presenting the last thirty years of 'educational theory' and 'metrics' pretty much delimited exactly what is wrong with what is laughingly referred to as the 'education profession'?
I mean, you are aware that what you've just recited is pretty much twaddle when it comes to actually educating anybody at all in anything other than accepted education theory and metrics?
JC,
You make a very good point. Paying assholes more will not make them less assholeish. However, I really don't think "changing the schools" in anyway - and I don't know how - would fix things at all. Society's fucked up, pure and simple, and that affects everything in society. Teachers are great; school systems suck. They don't encourage learning so much as they encourage conformity, in both action and thought. That's what society wants, but the people in society are still individuals at heart, so there's gonna be friction. The schools won't get better until society gets better...or, frankly, gets worse. There's a reason rock & roll was so scary to the adults and authority figures back in the '50s.
I know a lot of folks who went into teaching and last a year, maybe two. Complete and total burnout like I've never seen before, and very rarely does it have anything to do with the actual education part. Politics, pissy parents, craven officials and dingbats with agendas that have fuck-all to do with learning.
I keep struggling with the idea of going back to school to get a teacher's certificate - and my mother, a teacher of 25 years, offered to pay for it if I did - but I always back out. I know I wouldn't last long and would probably get lynched before I got a chance to burn out.
And new teachers have to return to school to get permanent certification, paying big bucks each year to a college for an advanced degree.
Many have to maintain certification and continue their education besides teachers. Hey, I am not the one trying to defend the system -- but the problem is not all about teachers being underpaid! Especially when we are talking about using tasers on children!
Cheney left the hospital.
how a discussion about a 6 eyar old being tasered at school can result in cries for increasing teacher's salaries!
WTF are you talking about? Who has said any such thing?
What we're saying is that teachers are not overpaid.
If you're really a teacher, you have an *unusual* point-of-view.
One that I no longer care to hear.
Bye.
I mean, you are aware that what you've just recited is pretty much twaddle when it comes to actually educating anybody at all in anything other than accepted education theory and metrics?
All I have actually tried to do is see if anyone would discuss what schools SHOULD be doing with kids and what families should expect as a result of "successfully" completing their compulsionary education. There are actually many socio-economic themes here but they seem to go over most people's heads and now we are doing the "teacher salaries are the problem" thing. This all started with a discussion about tasering children -- certainly not a desireable "outcome." That is not at all theory.
Sadism and cowardice aren't identical, but they are synergistic.
50,000 volts isn't current. I'd guess very low amperes (current) and watts (power). That said, if this were a last resort to stop a drunk kid from running into traffic, it's both necessary and an indictment of conduct allowing the incident to reach that point.
Meanwhile, these 'non-lethal' weapons don't seem universally so. A woman died in Boston recently after being shot with a pepper-spray bullet. People have died of cardiac arrest after being tazered. I'd wonder if the firing officer knew that.
What we're saying is that teachers are not overpaid.
You have not read this whole thread or you are just blowing smoke. I don't need to pass judgement here and I don't think there are any posts here that advocate for paying teachers less or that they are actually overpaid. Just amazing...
JC,
I see you're point. Teachers are basically lower-middle income, which is fucked up on oh so many levels. But, like I said, there's more factors than just punching a clock everyday or even drawing a salary like most folks. But it's not really germaine when you consider a decision was made to, yes, pump 50,000 volts Reddy Kilowatt into Little Johnny.
But I guess it's understandable the train of thought made it's way into the money station, as Mammon is the true religion of America. One of the silliest fantasies of the libertarian-minded conservative is the idea that "charter schools" will magically fix all the problems schools face. Schools will still be a tool of Society and enforces what Society wants. It's those pesky individuals that fuck it all up.
Here is the picture of Cheney with his "scud missile" (from Kos in comments).
chris/tx
I really like frozen custard, but this is just ridiculous.
-
Very few new teachers stay in urban teaching situations. Graduates from schools which do not educate them to the urban student are faced with young personalities and a culture they have never experienced or been taught to deal with. To survive, they have to know what works, and of course they don't. Humor, combined with strictness and a personality which radiates superiority, love, tolerance but yet fairness to the differences the students have, along with knowledge and organizational skills is something that comes with years of experience. And this has to shine from Day One. Unfortunately if the teacher has one failing or weakness the urban students will smell it and overwhelm the teacher (just to prove they can), and this 'out of control class' often takes months and much support personnel to overcome. Young teachers are eaten alive, big time.
Throw out NCLB, for starters, and I don't think that's the only point you're trying to make.
I am not saying NCLB is good -- but remove accoutability from the system and many of us will not believe the number of students that graduate frmo HS and cannot continue there education because they did not learn the algebra and language skills that are necessary at the next level. This is exactly my point -- what should we be able to assume a kid can do after they graduate from school? Why don't we begin ALL discussion about improving schools by starting with the desireable outcomes and then trying to engineer a system that can do it. It has never happened in this country and it doesn't look like anyone in this thread is ready to talk about it either.
re Cheney---maybe it was the tight pants he wore to the custard shop.
re Brooks---who cares what he says about anything? He's a shallow thinker who, like Safire, somehow managed to get a gig at the NYT.
I went through the Meat Grinder in South Central LA. I taught 8th Grade English for a year. Total chaos. I would often weep in my car on the way home, completely exhausted.
Can't we talk about Cheney's penis instead?
My Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is starting to kick in.
"schools SHOULD be doing with kids and what families should expect as a result of "successfully" completing their compulsionary education."
How about educating children? That has a clear definition by the way. It has something to do with increasing information and knowledge, doesn't it? It presumes that the 'teacher' actually has information and knowledge.
Oh, that's right. We just execute an outcomes assessment and analysis first. That way we'll really know if we've achieved the goal. Of course that might be just a tad redundant, since it effectively eliminates any responsibility by the teacher to teach other than to the test which will be used to create the assessment. Kind of leaves learning behind.
This is nothing new tho JC, and no, there isn't anything particularly magical about 'outcomes assessments' and longterm metrics, and hasn't been since the first time the scores on the GRE and GRE equivalents were assessed nationally. The problem you have right now is that teachers are among the worst-trained, worst-educated and lowest ranked academically of any other profession - and they're in a classroom, facing children which they have been theorised into believing are metrics waiting to be assessed.
Modern 'education' in this country sucks and has done since the 1960s.
Just my opinion however; just a theory....
Children should be at least 7 years old before they are tasered. With 6 year olds you need to stick with riot batons.
Every school has levels of achievement for the students. This is followed by the state mandated test scores. However, if you have been reading my posts, there is a big difference between Greenwich, Ct students and Oakland, CA students. We are a society broken up by urban/suburban families, and NCLB expects all of the to succeed at the same level. My school as been trained in so many expensive programs I forget their names, but it doesn't change the fact that MY KIDS ARE POOR AND COME FROM BROKEN HOMES WITH UNEDUCATED, DISFUNCTIONAL PARENTS WHO CAN BARELY COPE WITH LIFE, AND IF THEY CAN, HAVE 1,000,000 EXCUSES! Get it?
Quote from Susan Mulinari (repub strategist):
"Who holds the bloggers accountable!!!"
Her attempt to squash voting irregularities.
Young teachers are eaten alive, big time.
Exactly -- but it is not just the kids, its the people that are entrenched in the system too. Rather than deal with issues, they blame the new teachers. In urban schools, the most difficult classes to work with go to the new teachers -- its an entitlement thing. I remember hearing a union leader telling another senior faculty member about the "scam" they pulled over the new teachers by negotionating a contract that took the money that should have been applied to EACH step and lane in the salary schedule and using it to create a new step. I am sorry, if I am making more than $55,000 a year with a full benefit package and state retirement pension for 9 months work (as many senior teachers with Masters degrees are paid) and I think I am grossly underpaid, I have obviously not looked at the incomes of the typical family that has kids in a public school. I AM NOT SAYING THAT $55,000 with a full benefit package that most in the private sector cannot get is overpaid, but I am saying that we should look at other issues BEFORE we start talking about whether teacher salaries are a problem.
Atrios neglects to mention Brooks'
obnoxious column on CIA dissent.
From Taser International
Specifications:
M26 (Law Enforcement)Model # 44000
50,000 volts
26 watts
162 milliamps
1.76 joules per pulse energy
JC,
Like I said, society's fucked up. If there's a way of completely fixing schools that won't be eventually corrupted by the fucked-up society, I sure don't know what it is.
I turned to Mr. Tena the other night and asked: "I wonder who poisoned Arafat?"
so yeah, I have wondered if he wasn't assassinated.
go over to www.larepubblica.com and click on LE IMMAGINE under the photo of fallujah rubble.
There's a slideshow with images on the Abu Ghraib scale.
i don't know how best to reform education, which clearly needs reforming, i am amazed at my own ignorance, but those schools in miami, they really are war zones.
i have worked with juvies. i wouldn't want to have to "control" them and teach them at the same time. some big gaps in this soc. one way or another there is a price to be paid for that.
did i mention too many bobos'
Drove home from work past GW hospital and didn't see the press that has accompanied previous scares w/ Cheney; they could have been on the other side of the new building, though.
Reuters reports 22 minutes ago Cheney walked out of the hospital saying "I feel fine."
Not up to the requisite snarky comment which should follow here...
MY KIDS ARE POOR AND COME FROM BROKEN HOMES WITH UNEDUCATED, DISFUNCTIONAL PARENTS WHO CAN BARELY COPE WITH LIFE, AND IF THEY CAN, HAVE 1,000,000 EXCUSES
All true -- and all I am trying to say is that until we have meaningful dialog about this -- everything else is BS. Oh, and kids will get tasered in school too! I am pretty sure that is where this whole discussion about schools came from.
Oh -- 1 of the JC posts is not mine. I do not know if it is a name-steal or not and I couldn't care less. Sometimes, discussions are more interesting when we set aside our notions about who we agree with and who we disagree with and just talk.
Hecate - in the Landstuhl thread someone reported that Cheney walked out of the hospital earlier, said he felt fine.
Oops - sorry, someone else already had posted that Cheney was ok.
Told you - he's never going to die. He scares death to death.
I do think we should pay teachers much more than we pay them. And tax sports figures to do it. And we should give them the tools they need (you know, books, chalk, safe buildings) to teach. Won't solve all the problems, but we should still do it.
The fact that someone may wish to hold bloggers accountable tell you they recognize an information source that so far has not been controlled. Is a blog right or wrong, who knows, the readership and commenters make their own assessment. But like an underground resistance, they have become critical to many of us in learning, filling in the blanks and catching a pulse. You can't do that on CNN.
I am not sure what she was talking about, a link would be good, but maybe we should be hearing someone turn the question around and ask who holds the media and press accountable?
Who holds Hannity, Rush or OReilly accountable? Who is ready to ask formally and with Transparency why CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and all the others provide at best watered down pablum and at worst compromised talking points from the people they should be drilling into the ground.
I suggest they take on the real news services and manure spreaders before they attempt to knock on the door of Freedom of Speech.
Oh geez, which thread am I in now?
He scares death to death.
LOL. I think he IS death.
There's a movie in there somewhere...
FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- As many as 1,000 insurgents have been killed in the six-day battle for Falluja, an operation that is "almost finished," Iraqi national security adviser Kasim Dawood said Saturday.
But terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a lieutenant, Abdullah Junabi, both escaped, he said.
It's like the world's largest snipe hunt.
That or the A-Team, always one step ahead of Colonel Decker.
That's not Cheney's penis.
That's the emergency battery pack for his sick, evil heart.
They just strap it there out of view.
Like the one Bush wore because his evil heart has such a low resting rate.
Or maybe he just wanted to be more like Dick.
In any case, no, that's not Dick's dick.
Otherwise Lynne wouldn't spend her time writing lesbian love novels.
David Brooks is a curmudgeon. But pay careful attention to this quote:
"Here was an official on the president's payroll publicly campaigning against his boss. "
Translation: the CIA shouldnt be independent, it should suck up to the president. This is the first wave of disinformation as a very critical 9/11 CIA report finally makes it to the public.
Inspired by Mr. Brooks' example, I'd like to apologize to Michael Dukakis for asking him that question about his wife getting raped and murdered. Sorry to have cost you the election like that, Mike.
EkCenTrik - the right thread. It just went off in another direction.
But you're right - who indeed holds Rush or Hannity or Coulter accountable?
They are largely responsible for ruining this country, when it comes right down to it. Especially Rush. I want to Sinclair him.
This is the first wave of disinformation as a very critical 9/11 CIA report finally makes it to the public.
Oh, yeah. Where is that thing?
Tena, I am thinking of changing my handle to Sam and thinking of this as Quantum Blogging.
bink, I am smacking myself on the head for not having seen that myself! Yes, of course, this is the first wave, the undermining that the pundits have to do before the CIA report comes out, so that they can have the groundwork ready for dismissing or denigrating it.
They are so damn predictable, aren't they?
Why do I think that when she says hold accountable she actually means control? Didn't hear this talk after blogs decided w/in minutes that CBS had forged docs
But you're right - who indeed holds Rush or Hannity or Coulter accountable?
I do.
No one listened to me 10 years ago when I said that these people were dangerous. My well-off middle-class educated intelligent friends just laughed at me. They thought Rush was 'amusing'.
Some of them aren't laughing any more, but too many of them are oblivious to what's right under their noses.
Sad.
I'm going to keep the Bush spooge in my mouth, though.
It tastes good.
EkCenTrik - LOL. It would fit.
tax sports figures to do it.
Interesting comments, especially when you consider that the pampering of sports stars begins in primary and secondary education -- the "sports mentality" is deeply rooted in our schools. Perhaps that is part of the problem and turning to those that reaped huge financial gains because they were "sports heros" might be a good choice -- but how many "super-stars" in other walks of life are really any different. The mentality that we should worship sports heros is currently one of the "outcomes" of our schools that might be appropriate to discuss. If you think the sports heros at the professional level, that are really the best at what they can do, are assholes now -- I am sure they were not more "mature" when they were kids. The creation of this monster started in the public schools.
RE: education. One subject that never comes up in these types of discussions is: what are the teacher's colleges teaching the teachers? Thats where you really need to start before you can even think about making any real changes. Anyone out there went to teacher's colleges. What did they teach that was in any way relevant to your job? Thats right: wait for it: zero!
Yeah I agree, it's code for control. Basically she is saying what Ari said,"You citizen better watch what you say, or you might just pay for it"
context: She was opposite of Joe Trippi on Hardball talking about voting problems
Cops tazered a 6 year old black kid in Miami. It's on CNN now.
Fucking bastards.
Karen Hughes, principle (can you believe it) "If kids aren't going to follow the rules, you have to do what you have to do."
I'll have her email address soon. We need to write this Nazi.
went back to the begining of thread which was considerably more interesting. above by patriot boy. was that really karens response? a firing squad would be too good for these mother fuckers, i do like the voodoo ideas. maybe i need to go back to miami and investigate some of those schools i was talking about. they know about the voodoo in those parts.
What did they teach that was in any way relevant to your job? Thats right: wait for it: zero!
I went to a private university and majored in English. But senior year we took a course which included the teaching of transformational grammar. Can you guess what was being taught in the junior high that hired me? Having the background was huge.
You know what annoys me most about
Brooks? The bastard's one of my
people.....
But terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a lieutenant, Abdullah Junabi, both escaped, he said.
oh yeah? well god DAMN.
we should just have just sent the Marines right in there and kicked ass, just like we did at Tora Bora.
screw the correction at the end of the column; brooks' article itself is beyond belief! (well, i guess consistency is a virtue). does the nyt have a policy against maintaining other employ or not? can mr. brooks be a journalist (my fingers are melting!!) while also working as a pr hack for busholini? calling the cia traitors after 4 years of this admin inventing its own intel and then blaming the intel agencies for every f'up (and there's been nothing but f'ups). i hereby offer my services to the times; on my worst day i could serve up better crap than the steaming pile of words oozing from brooks' laptop. if i could just get over this caps phobia!!!
just me - well, I do too, but I will admit that it has taken me a damned long time to take Rush seriously. I just couldn't fathom that he could really control so much of what passes for information these days.
My fault.
Now I know. I want to Sinclair him once and for all. I want the hate speech stopped.
But terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a lieutenant, Abdullah Junabi, both escaped, he said.
You know, some people around here are absolutely psychic.
Frankly I was blown away by Brooks comments about the CIA. Really amazingly nasty recommendations and twisted analysis.
/blogwhoring on
I wrote a long post about the problems in my blog. Spocko's Brain.
/Blogwhoring off.
From his column
It is time to reassert some harsh authority so C.I.A. employees know they must defer to the people who win elections, so they do not feel free at meetings to spout off about their contempt of the White House, so they do not go around to their counterparts from other nations and tell them to ignore American policy.
(David is pleading with the WH to show they have the phallus. “Come on Bushies, rub their noses in it! Make an example out of them! Obviously the CRIMINAL ACT of ratting out the identity of Valerie Plame and setting her up for possible murder wasn’t enough to punish these people for disagreeing with the President. Now is the time for the night of long knives. Better do it quick before some other uppity agency gets it in their head that they serve the American people first and have to answer to the constitution rather than who they really serve, King George the Liarhearted.)
I went to law school and didn't learn much that was relevant to my day to day existence on my job either. Just sayin
Lovely that it happened to be retracted AFTER the election.
I don't think it's too tin-foil-hatty to think there's a coincidence there.
What did they teach that was in any way relevant to your job? Thats right: wait for it: zero!
Exactly my point -- there is a serious disjoint between those that are "old-school" and those that are working with diverse populations and diverse needs. Teachers prep can be bad -- insanely so at times, but it is not because colleges are evil. This country has not had an honest discussion about education and the current expectations that each state can set their own standards (a previous post was wrong, there are no federal standards) that will meet the needs of diverse learners is insanity if we don't also discuss socio-economic issues affecting families and recent graduates. We also cannot have a meaningful dialog about any one part of our educational system(primary, secondary, and post-secondary) without including a the rest of the system and the economic opportunities that graduates of all levels will experience. THIS IS WHAT I MEAN BY OUTCOMES!
So, Bush mischaracterizing CIA intelligence in public draws no rebuke from Brooks. How, dysinteric.
which included the teaching of transformational grammar. Can you guess what was being taught in the junior high that hired me?
Why, that's an outrage. I'm appalled that our schools are teaching that secular humanist grammar.
I think all God's people should be contacting their governmental officials to express their outrage at this Godless teaching of the English language and demand that the true Christ-centered English language be taught, the way God intended.
It goes to show the neo-con influence of politicising intelligence
1) Chris/tx MY EYES! MY EYES!!!!
Now I'll have to find me some soap to wash them out with. Dick Cheney gets excited at the prospect of 4 more years of power. Blood moves to his penis, has heart attack. Details at 11.
2) charley See the thing with Vodoo was that people were thinking, "I Hope the president gets sick!" but they didn't specify the NAME! If they wanted George Bush to get sick they should have been specific. The Univerise heard, "Get President Sick." So it did. The Universe knows who the president really is.
3)Cheney out Rudy in. Bush out sick. Rudy number 1? If Bush is impeached Cheney will be the Boss. We need to impeach both of them at the same time!
Who would be in charge them? John Dennis Hastert? Euuuu!
I remember Molly Ivans saying, "If you get rid of Bush and Cheney in an election, you also get ride of their people."
Come on Black Box.org! Expose the Vodoo that you do because of those do dos at diebold.
So, Bush mischaracterizing CIA intelligence in public draws no rebuke from Brooks. How, dysinteric.
No, you see, it was the CIA that mischaracterized its intelligence. They should be more supportive of the President of the United States.
We need to teach children VALUES! Like no abortion and that Wal-Mart is good. Oh, we also need to teach more about Supply and Demand and economics so that people will grow up appreciating everything that our chimporer has accomplished. Most importantly, schools are here to PRESERVE the status quo and not accomodate changes in our culture -- especially as they relate to ethnic and socio-economic things. After all -- who do you think is really suppose to be served by a "public school?" The damn students, or the "public" as a whole. Is this the outcome that JC is talking about? He is right!
Quote from Susan Mulinari (repub strategist):
"Who holds the bloggers accountable!!!"
I don't hear Susan Molinari complaining about radio talk shows where there is ALSO no accountability--anyone can say whatever they want with no consequences.
Is it me or has Brooks just called everyone at the CIA traitors?
Seems to me that the CIA is working through road blocks to do what they are really there to do, protect the American Populace.
What is the option say if the Department of Defense or CIA or the State Department decides the president is a threat to the nation?
It's totally irrelevant that Chomsky is a linguist! I don't even want to hear about his perverted sexual practices!
I'm appalled that our schools are teaching that secular humanist grammar.
Well, that was a *few* years ago when it was considered important that grammar be taught.
Not so much now.
My take is that Brooks is simply another political "asset" who writes what he's told to write. If he actually believed what he wrote he'd be too stupid to write what he wrote.
"I do think we should pay teachers much more than we pay them. And tax sports figures to do it."
When I began my career as a teacher in the early '60s, I used to compain that big league baseball players actually made more than teachers. At least in those days the salaries were comparable.
I'm waiting for a defense of school vouchers.
No, you see, it was the CIA that mischaracterized its intelligence. They should be more supportive of the President of the United States.
I bet that, behind closed doors, the CIA didn't mischaracterize georgie's intelligence.
What is the option say if the Department of Defense or CIA or the State Department decides the president is a threat to the nation?
25th Amendment, section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
"Who holds the bloggers accountable!!!"
Here's something that you don't hear about much. Now that blogging has gotten so many comments in the press, they PR people in the corporations have said, "Hmmm, how can we turn this tool into a way to shill our companies? There are no editors, there is no oversight, anyone can create one. Why don't we just pay a bunch of people to create false blogs who say swell stuff about our products? These blogs don't have to run "letters to the editors" they don't have to be fair or balanced, they don't have to have any training, they just have to have an audience.
They can be easily and cheaply subverted. Expect to see more subtle and ham-handed attempts to use the blogs to "create buzz" and to "solidify the brand".
I've already caught some of them trying to create a fake buzz about some TV movie of the week.
I went to a session on blogs in corporate America. The guy up their talking about blogs and how they work brought to mind the image of a locksmith come in and telling burglers how to pick the locks to get access to the house easily.
My take is that Brooks is simply another political "asset" who writes what he's told to write. If he actually believed what he wrote he'd be too stupid to write what he wrote.
I never really said all those things I said.
I'm waiting for a defense of school vouchers.
Won't get one from me -- but some public school in some communities just don't work either. I am not saying I have the answer -- but I do think I know where the discussion needs to start.
If this "school voucher" thing ever actually takes off, we will see a total transformation of education. First, Edison (with its Enron style accounting and virtually no "accountability" or "documented student achievemetn") will take over more and moer schools.
Then McDonalds will exorcize the ultimate in "forward and backward vertical integration" and buy up Edison. Can you image a society when the schools are all owned by soft-drink companies and fast-food chains. It sounds silly, but just look at what Pepsi, Coke, McD's and Pizza Hut (among others) are willing to do to get their brands in schools now. Ultimately, that is where the movement towards "private schools" is headed. Talk about a "seamless transition" from school to work. Does this scare anyone else?
pie,
I don't have a defense, but they would have got my late mother over to their side with this. Seven kids x 12 years of Catholic education = ugly.
It is true that, at least in Catholic education, the schools choose to meet state academic standards, and they often exceed them. I don't know if that's true for other parochial schools. In that sense, some parents feel they should receive a per-student fee comparable to the public schools. Given the fact that the Bushies are already funnelling money to the churches through faith-based initiatives, *not* sending money to the schools is sort of silly. I don't agree with this myself, but then I don't agree with the faith-based stuff generally. I'm just saying how folks in the system sometimes see it.
strange times, amongst liberals defending the CIA. people are suck'n it up too. big argument with boss about CIA being responsible. of course he went directly to the CIA being emasculated (Church commitee?)
it's very clear the administration gamed the intelligence, no matter what you say about the CIA.
interesting to me, was who ever posted the notion that brooks was running interference for the admin. via the 9/11 report that is due to come out, after the election, with bushs' right hand man at the helm.
what time does the revolution start?
A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistable when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose...
But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now. Thoreau
of course he went directly to the CIA being emasculated (Church commitee?)
damn, that must have been one severe nutting, if an ex-DCI couldn't fix it in four years in the White House and eight years as Vice-President. (Although we should probably observe that he was a post-Church DCI, and isn't exactly world-famous for his cojones).
it looks to me like the CIA's batting average, both pre- and post- Church committee, fell considerably below 1.000.
I'll bet if you posted the following prayer over at FR it would get you banned:
"Lord, You are a God of Justice. I trust You to know what to do with Dick Cheney."
Kinda like those folks who got arrested at a Bush campaign love fest for wearing T-shirts that simply said:
"Protect Our Civil Rights."
I love this NYTimes policy of internal review where, after a damaging and clear lack of diligence they come out with a faux tail-between-the-legs, faux self-reflexive explanation of amatuer reporting that isn't even worthy of my local rag, circulation 3,000. "Sorry about that whole Iraq war thing we let you believe was necessary." "Sorry about that whole prescription drug bill thing we let you believe was going to reduice costs." "Sorry about that whole Kerry is a flip-flopper thing we perpetrated endlessly."
Re Brooks specifically: Do you think this is the only hackery committed by Brooks during his endless campaigning against Kerry? Absolutely not. Is this the only one he will apologize for? Yes, until someone successfully reveals Brooks gets his "scoops" and "analysis" from partisan hack websites, not actual reportage. WHERE WERE THE EVER-PROUD BLOGS DURING THE CAMPAIGN? Never too shy to pat themselves loudly on the back for being the last vestages of truth in the media, WHERE WERE INSTAPUNDIT OR INDC WHEN BROOKS WAS COMMITING BOLD FACE LIES TO THE NYTIMES EDITORIAL COLUMN?
Time to re-assess the blog revolution? I don't know. Pages like atrios are truly useful in
re-informing those of us that are away form our computers all day, stuck catching headlines on CNN or (god forbid) Fox'News'. God bless pages like this. But when Instapunidt and INDC have equally high readerships, something is really wrong. AND, you only hear about the successes- the Dan Rather/blog relationships- not the horrible failures, like the David Brooks'/blog relationships. I argue it's the David Brooks-misinformation-slipping-through-daily situation that is a hell of a lot more important and relevant to the state of our democracy.
I prefer to spend all my time inside haloscan, tucked safely away from reality. Bush has destroyed my world and this is my only refuge.
I am old and bitter.
Del Miller.
Again miserable failure doesn't want to appoint someone who could block Jeb in 08.
What's big-time dick's hospital room, I wanna send him a Big Mac and fries, super-sized.
Teachers overpaid?
Give me a fucking break!!
When beginning lawyers in the top firms are STARTING OUT at $120,000 a year, and most teachers START OUT in the high Twenties or low Thirties, teachers ARE NOT overpaid.
Which function is more valuable to society? Which function forms more of the backbone of society, and lays a foundation for the future?
(And don't anyone give me any shit about the "free market" justifying such differentials. In this situation, fuck the free market! Quality education is essential to the functioning of a prosperous and democratic society. Such goals are priceless )
On top of it, most public school teachers (as opposed to private school teachers) are given the toughest kids to deal with from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Thus, thus they have to deal with all kinds of socio-economic-emotional-familial problems, which kids bring to school with them, that have little to do with teaching, and, in fact, interfere with the process of learning.
And, to top it all off, they are hardly ever backed up by the kiss-ass administrations when they try to impose discipline upon unruly and/or incorrigable kids.
JC, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about. I am a former public school teacher and I've seen how it all works first hand.
If you want to change the system, here is what you do:
1. Attract the BRIGHTEST AND THE BEST as your teachers. Start teachers off in the mid-forties and make it so that they can make up to eighty or ninety thousand or even more a year as they progress in their careers.
2. Impose zero tolerance policies in which those children who consistently interfere with an orderly and safe learning environment will be put out of school and not allowed to come back. This way, for those kids who CAN adopt to a school environment, they will be free of threats to their safety and distractions to their ability to learn.
3. For those incorrigable children who, for whatever reason, cannot function in a "normal" learning environment due to behavior problems or fucked up home lives or whatever, develop and institute alternative schooling institutions that are specially designed to address children with such problems.
4. At elementary school levels, spend the money to decrease the size of classes to no more than 25 pupils.
Trust me, if society is willing to spend the money to implement such changes, you'll see our public schools' performances improving extremely quickly.
But here's the rub. Our society would rather spend $400 billion per year on a military budget.
The fact is, politicians constantly give lip service to improving education. Very few of them, however, are committed to doing what is necessary to see it through.
He doesn't owe an apology: he should make truthful statements or not be a writer. Apology doesn't enter into it. This is like some asshole spreading libel about you, then trying to look like a nice guy after it has cost you business--all about Brooks and not at all about his target, which is not how a human apology works.
Vice-President Karl Rove
JC, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about. I am a former public school teacher and I've seen how it all works first hand.
So have I -- and you have just verified to me everything I have said.
I am not sure -- but earning more than 90,000 in this country puts in a pretty elite situation. Giving this to the people that are already screwing up the system is not going to make them more understanding of the needs of the "typcial" family and the needs of their children as learners. You are comparing apples to oranges to compare the salary of a graduate with an ADVANCED degree from an exclusive law school with the starting salary of someone that just earned a 4 year degree. I can tell you have been in the system, however, you repeat the same lies and avoid talking about the same issues. My kids are suppose to learn "critical thinking" from you? It is a fact that teachers score lower on IQ tests than the typical American. Of course, when we are talking about the smirking chimp, we point to that as being "proof" that the red states are stupid and inferior. Let's apply that same logic to education please.
Hot Damn; I cannot wait for Junior to decide to punish these CIA guys.
Hell, I'll even pop the corn for that one.
Last two administrations who messed with the CIA did not end all that happily; Kennedy and Nixon.
Can't wait to see what they do to this idiot!
Whole freakin' countries have been brought down for less than what he has done, already.
The twenty-fifth amendment does give one pause, but as I read it, if the Vice President doesn't transmit the message to Congress that the President is incapable of performing his duties, then a group of other officials, either the majority of the principal departments (appointed by the President) or a group designated by Congress, has to do the notification.
I'm not sure that would even be possible in a system where one party -- and a party that places its highest value on following in lockstep with the President -- controls both houses of Congress, but it's still interesting.
Hey Brooks...
FUCK YOU and the horse you rode in on. Your bullshit was timed as it meant to be timed. Your apology is too little, too late and is nothing more than an attempt at salvaging whatever credibility you still have, which is really a miniscule amount. You chose your side, so deal with it.
Brooks, thy name is whore.
FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP!
FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP!
FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP!
FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP!
FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP!
FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP!
Idiot Son used the same deception as Brooks and Kaus and Sully in the last weeks of the campaign. Lying scumbags all.
Oh My God! The evangelical vermin are infesting New York City!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/
1...vangelical.html
Oh My God! The evangelical vermin are infesting New York City!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/
1...vangelical.html
Anyone know the process of replacing the Veep? Same as for President or does the president get to appoint?
(Sorry if someone already answered this. I just jumped ahead.)
Actually, I think there is a succession, much as there is if anything happens to the President. And, I think that the next in line is either the majority leader or the speaker. I can't remember which, but I'm fairly sure it is constitutionally mandated (there's that word again).
Anyone know the process of replacing the Veep? Same as for President or does the president get to appoint?
(Sorry if someone already answered this. I just jumped ahead.)
Actually, I think there is a succession, much as there is if anything happens to the President. And, I think that the next in line is either the majority leader or the speaker. I can't remember which, but I'm fairly sure it is constitutionally mandated (there's that word again).
my letter to
dabrooks@nytimes.com, public@nytimes.com, nytnews@nytimes.com, letters@nytimes.com
Subject: David Brooks, ethics, treason
When exactly did David Brooks learn about this?
"Not that it will do him much good at this point, but I owe John Kerry an apology. I recently mischaracterized some comments he made to Larry King in December 2001. I said he had embraced the decision to use Afghans to hunt down Al Qaeda at Tora Bora. He did not. I regret the error."
Anyone could have figured this out at the time with 30 seconds of fact-checking effort (I did). Why did David Brooks publish this in the first plase, and why did he wait until now to make a correction? Aren't there minimal ethical standards for your columnists? This reflects very poorly on the Times.
ML
PS -- The CIA's duty of loyalty is first and foremost to the Constitution, the county and the people, and only after that to whatever Administration happens to be in power. If the Administration lies to the people to further its political goals in a way that endangers the country's security, it would be treasonous for the CIA to remain loyal. David Brooks essentially argues that the CIA should be treasonous to the Constitution. If I were to use David Brooks' and the right-wing's style of argument, I would say that David Brooks is a traitor.
my letter to
dabrooks@nytimes.com, public@nytimes.com, nytnews@nytimes.com, letters@nytimes.com
Subject: David Brooks, ethics, treason
When exactly did David Brooks learn about this?
"Not that it will do him much good at this point, but I owe John Kerry an apology. I recently mischaracterized some comments he made to Larry King in December 2001. I said he had embraced the decision to use Afghans to hunt down Al Qaeda at Tora Bora. He did not. I regret the error."
Anyone could have figured this out at the time with 30 seconds of fact-checking effort (I did). Why did David Brooks publish this in the first plase, and why did he wait until now to make a correction? Aren't there minimal ethical standards for your columnists? This reflects very poorly on the Times.
ML
PS -- The CIA's duty of loyalty is first and foremost to the Constitution, the county and the people, and only after that to whatever Administration happens to be in power. If the Administration lies to the people to further its political goals in a way that endangers the country's security, it would be treasonous for the CIA to remain loyal. David Brooks essentially argues that the CIA should be treasonous to the Constitution. If I were to use David Brooks' and the right-wing's style of argument, I would say that David Brooks is a traitor.
makes me glad i stopped reading that idiot after his first times column.
makes me glad i stopped reading that idiot after his first times column.
I don't think that teachers are overpaid, but I don't see how it follows that the quality of education would improve if we paid teachers more.
I can only see 2 arguments to support this
1. Current teachers are dogging it and won't put out an honest effort unless we pay them more.
Or
2. Teacher salaries are currently so low that the teacher pool is defintely the shallow end, so we have to raise salaries to get better people into the pool.
Both of these are pretty insulting to teachers and not true from my experience [admitedly limited to children's comfortable middle class schools.]
Both of these arguments aboiut the impact of higher salaries -- either to improve effort or to attract better candidates -- are market-based solutions to what is a significant policy concern. So would it follow that other elements of a marker-based system like merit pay and competition (e.g., vouchers) would also be appropriate?
I don't think that teachers are overpaid, but I don't see how it follows that the quality of education would improve if we paid teachers more.
I can only see 2 arguments to support this
1. Current teachers are dogging it and won't put out an honest effort unless we pay them more.
Or
2. Teacher salaries are currently so low that the teacher pool is defintely the shallow end, so we have to raise salaries to get better people into the pool.
Both of these are pretty insulting to teachers and not true from my experience [admitedly limited to children's comfortable middle class schools.]
Both of these arguments aboiut the impact of higher salaries -- either to improve effort or to attract better candidates -- are market-based solutions to what is a significant policy concern. So would it follow that other elements of a marker-based system like merit pay and competition (e.g., vouchers) would also be appropriate?
Bobo's just in a pissy mood because he's not spending the weekend with mAnn and Michelle at the Restoration weekend.
Biblio | Email | Homepage | 11.13.04 - 2:35 pm | #
Wouldya look at all them honkies playing golf and tennis when they aren't basking in their own well-heeled conservativeness? I can see now how they really connect with those folks out in the red states.
*vomits in her liberal elitist ramen noodles*
Bobo's just in a pissy mood because he's not spending the weekend with mAnn and Michelle at the Restoration weekend.
Biblio | Email | Homepage | 11.13.04 - 2:35 pm | #
Wouldya look at all them honkies playing golf and tennis when they aren't basking in their own well-heeled conservativeness? I can see now how they really connect with those folks out in the red states.
*vomits in her liberal elitist ramen noodles*
are market-based solutions to what is a significant policy concern. So would it follow that other elements of a marker-based system like merit pay and competition
Most of what the politicians and John Q Public states about economic theory is based on oversimplifications and lies that deviate far from the work of Adam Smith. Excellent point about 'market based" solitions -- if they are so great, let's do 'em all, not just the ones that suit our fancy.
If one takes the perspective that it "takes a village to raise a child" and that the problems in our dysfunctional urban schools are largely the result of socio-economic problems -- then one has to accept that "market" is actually part of the problem too. Sure -- it is easy to talk about "economic efficiencies," but there are also "diseconomies or scale." I, for one, do not believe taht market solutions will play any constructive role in improving schools. Maybe if McDonalds did buy up all the the schools -- I could get better service at fast-food restaurants, however.
are market-based solutions to what is a significant policy concern. So would it follow that other elements of a marker-based system like merit pay and competition
Most of what the politicians and John Q Public states about economic theory is based on oversimplifications and lies that deviate far from the work of Adam Smith. Excellent point about 'market based" solitions -- if they are so great, let's do 'em all, not just the ones that suit our fancy.
If one takes the perspective that it "takes a village to raise a child" and that the problems in our dysfunctional urban schools are largely the result of socio-economic problems -- then one has to accept that "market" is actually part of the problem too. Sure -- it is easy to talk about "economic efficiencies," but there are also "diseconomies or scale." I, for one, do not believe taht market solutions will play any constructive role in improving schools. Maybe if McDonalds did buy up all the the schools -- I could get better service at fast-food restaurants, however.
Fuck Kaus, Sullivan, and Brooks.
Fuck Kaus, Sullivan, and Brooks.
In the Sac Bee 12-1 issue is David Brooks column on missing intelligent voices of faith. This is the best commentary on Christianity by a secular writer that I can ever remember reading and by a Jew no less.. I have been an evangelical minister for 57 years. As a Baptist I have always resented the pontifications of Jerry Falwell. A few years ago, he, pat Robertson, and Gary Bauer were asked on different programs what their # 1 agenda was. They all, replied, "Cutting taxes". The Bible has not one bad word in it concerning taxes. Their politics drives their religion.
In the Sac Bee 12-1 issue is David Brooks column on missing intelligent voices of faith. This is the best commentary on Christianity by a secular writer that I can ever remember reading and by a Jew no less.. I have been an evangelical minister for 57 years. As a Baptist I have always resented the pontifications of Jerry Falwell. A few years ago, he, pat Robertson, and Gary Bauer were asked on different programs what their # 1 agenda was. They all, replied, "Cutting taxes". The Bible has not one bad word in it concerning taxes. Their politics drives their religion.
In the Sac Bee 12-1 issue is David Brooks column on missing intelligent voices of faith. This is the best commentary on Christianity by a secular writer that I can ever remember reading and by a Jew no less.. I have been an evangelical minister for 57 years. As a Baptist I have always resented the pontifications of Jerry Falwell. A few years ago, he, Pat Robertson, and Gary Bauer were asked on different programs what their # 1 agenda was. They all, replied, "Cutting taxes". The Bible has not one bad word in it concerning taxes. Their politics drives their religion.
In the Sac Bee 12-1 issue is David Brooks column on missing intelligent voices of faith. This is the best commentary on Christianity by a secular writer that I can ever remember reading and by a Jew no less.. I have been an evangelical minister for 57 years. As a Baptist I have always resented the pontifications of Jerry Falwell. A few years ago, he, Pat Robertson, and Gary Bauer were asked on different programs what their # 1 agenda was. They all, replied, "Cutting taxes". The Bible has not one bad word in it concerning taxes. Their politics drives their religion.
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