America's Education Meltdown

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" -- former president George Bush

You can get all A's and still flunk life. -- Walker Percy

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Now that Wisconsin has moved ahead with the elimination of collective bargaining practices for teachers as a new state policy and not as a means of cutting spending, WI Republicans also admit their motivation is a nationwide political tactic against Democrats -- and the pawns in their game are your schools.

Tennessee - "We will bend public education to our awe, or break it all to pieces."


Indiana - "The fight over these bills is why House Democrats are, in essence, on strike. They remain in an Urbana, Ill., hotel, refusing to give Republicans the quorum they need."

Idaho - “Good teachers do not need tenure.”

Michigan - "Gov. Snyder's budget plan amounts to a $470-per-pupil cut in state aid that will cause financial upheaval in some school districts."

Florida - "The proposal would scrap the traditional model that bases teacher salaries and firing decisions on seniority. At least half of teachers’ pay would be tied to student performance, and all teachers would receive annual instead of continuing contracts.

Worth noting too -- the constant push for schools to achieve high scores on standardized tests in order to receive funding and evaluate students and teachers has created a system where the test scorers are told to make sure and give schools higher scores:

"The legitimacy of testing is being taken for granted," he says. "It's a farce."

"Though the efficacy of standardized testing has been hotly debated for decades, one thing has become crystal clear: It's big business. ... In 2009, K-12 testing was estimated to be a $2.7 billion industry."

See Also: A look at states and their current legislative agendas on Education policies.

Stacked Against The American Worker

The current trend of targeting large reductions in employee benefits for health care and retirement should be yet another sharp signal to the American workforce, along with the targeted elimination of employee unions and retirement systems in general (see previous post here).

And the signal continues to be: workers should not have rights. An insistence on living wages and benefits are hurtful to companies, cuts into shareholder profits, and even the phrase "workers rights" invokes that stench of Socialism and Communism.

And despite a near-steady unemployment rate nationwide of 9% or higher, overall productivity has been rising in the last few years at a steady clip. Workers who want to keep their jobs must produce more and keep longer hours. And company owners surely are reluctant to increase their payrolls and hire workers when - hey! Productivity, earnings and output are on the rise!

"American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms. Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history..." (via Digby)

The company mind-set continues to hem in workers at every turn: if you expect companies to pay a greater share of the tax base, then all products will cost consumers more and will compel companies to send more jobs overseas to locations that don't require living wages, benefits, or a work week of 40 hours.

In Congress, leaders say they have a "mandate" from the public to gut federal spending ... but ...

"The Bloomberg poll finds most Americans more concerned with job creation than deficit reduction -- imagine that -- but when it comes to ideas to actually reduce the budget shortfall, the only popular ideas are cutting foreign aid, withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, and raising taxes on households earning more than $250,000 a year.

What's unpopular? The entire GOP agenda: 66% of Americans don't want cuts to community renewal programs, 72% don't want cuts to medical and scientific research, 77% don't want cuts to education programs ..."


This recent narrative that teachers, unions, the elderly, the sick, the educated, and the poor are the ones destroying the economic status holds no water. Also in doubt - that the Federal government is broke:

"The U.S. government is not broke,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. “There’s no evidence that the market is treating the U.S. government like it’s broke.”

The U.S. today is able to borrow at historically low interest rates, paying 0.68 percent on a two-year note that it had to offer at 5.1 percent before the financial crisis began in 2007. Financial products that pay off if Uncle Sam defaults aren’t attracting unusual investor demand. And tax revenue as a percentage of the economy is at a 60-year low, meaning if the government needs to raise cash and can summon the political will, it could do so." (also via Digby)

Business is seeing record-level profits, record low taxation - about the only remaining place they can go is after worker pay and benefits. What is becoming very clear - there is less of a Right and Left political battle and more of battle between ultra-rich and a diminished middle class.

What's the American worker to do?

In Tennessee, state legislators like Sen. Bill Ketron are pushing bills (and really pushing panic) supporting the development of a state currency to replace the dollar.

And there's the fact that Wisconsin is claiming a "budget crisis" as a reason to remove collective bargaining for teacher pay and Tennessee is pushing the exact same removal of teacher bargaining but instead of "budget crisis" the cause is labeled "education reform".

The fact is, the goal here is to eliminate influence from organized workers while giving a greater voice to owners, and as noted last year, workers and voters might best be served if their elected officials simply wore the corporate logos of the businesses they represent.

Rep. Roe Embraces Big Oil, Derides Current Technology, As An "Energy Policy"

As mentioned here last week, Congressman Phil Roe voted to keep over $40 billion in tax subsidies for giant oil companies and just days later he issues a "press release" on U.S. energy policy which can be boiled down to three words: Drill, baby, drill.

In his ongoing slavish devotion to oil and fossil fuels, he dismisses other energy sources:

"Over the long run, I believe alternative energy sources, like wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectric and agricultural products and technologies are part of the solution. However, it’s important that we recognize that many of these technologies are, at best, years from being widely available and not yet commercially viable, which means that we will continue relying on more traditional energy sources for quite some time."

Someone forgot to inform him of his own state's innovative steps in solar power alone, which has brought over $2 billion in investments and thousands of jobs at one new project alone from Hemlock:

"This is a “watershed of economic development in Tennessee,” said Matt Kessner of the Economic Development Council. “New jobs in the development of sustainable energy.”

After a two-year global site search, Dow Corning and the Hemlock group opted to make an initial $1.2 billion initial investment in the construction of a new polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) manufacturing and development facility. Polysilicon is key to the development of solar industry. Groundbreaking on the new plant is expect early in 2009, creating up to 1,000 jobs in construction and related crafts during the building phase; the facility is earmarked to open in 2012.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen joined Hemlock’s CEO and President Rick Doornbos in making the announcement. “It’s the right company in the right community at the right time,” Bredesen said of what will ultimately be a $2 billion investment. “What they make is what has to happen to make solar energy. The numbers are staggering.” Bredensen noted that t is not simply the immediate creation of new job but the ability to also attract related industries and suppliers to the state and the region."

There's also.the $200 million solar energy plant in Clinton, TN.

And Sharp Electronics new solar plant in Memphis.

As for providing anywhere near the massive $40 billion in tax subsidies of big oil for new technology and development of solar and wind power - the federal programs are paltry.

No, Rep. Roe just wants more coal and oil, with less and less regulation for safety, bemoaning the reality that fossil fuel companies don't want to pay for cleaner and safer operations out of their own deep and rich profits.

Reading his press release, it sounds like he's really ready now to take on the old ideas of the 1970s, like Jimmy Carter's bold plan of turning down the thermostat:

"Energy independence is one of the greatest goals we can achieve as a nation. The solution to reduce rising energy costs involves looking forward, not backward. Bringing down the cost of energy will not happen overnight, but is essential to consider ways we can all make our own use of energy more efficient."

Someone needs to inform him the actual date is 2011 in America.

Philip K. Dick's Dystopian World Taking Over?

"Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups...So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind."


It should not be surprising - but it is - that we seem to be truly inhabiting the dystopian world envisioned by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. His works explored perception, reality, paranoia, corporate worship, identity, computer technologies, constant surveillance, the mass marketing of tragedy, an emerging global polyglot society and so much more which seems to resonate so strongly with generation after generation. And today his ideas serve as a rich and fertile field for cultural exploration.

Reports are flying today of the rights being secured to create sequels and prequels a TV series and maybe a remake of the movie "Blade Runner" - which already exists as a 5-disc movie collection on DVD with all variant versions and documentaries. Producers seem to be aiming at creating movies within the world created in Ridley Scott's movie -- and already there are 3 novels based in the BR world from writer K.W. Jeter. And the Total Recall 2010 TV series also blended that movie and Total Recall (based on another PKD story) into a short-lived and rather awful TV show.

Really what they are aiming at is franchising writer Philip K Dick, whose works constitute nearly an industry unto themselves - witness this weekend's arrival of "The Adjustment Bureau" based on PKD's short story. an independent film of his novel "Radio Free Albemuth" is seeking a distributor, Disney has an animated feature in production based on "The King of the Elves", and apparently two films called "The Owl In Daylight", one a documentary, are being created as well. A look at 9 of the movies made based on his work so far is here.

Largely regarded as one of his best works, the alternate history of the world wherein the Allies lost World War 2, "The Man In The High Castle", is in production as a mini-series on BBC, spearheaded by Ridley Scott.

The number of new books, festivals, new films, music, and new collections of his work is so large it's more than impossible to list.

I've always enjoyed reading his work (and some of the movies) but I was always left with the great hope that little of his perceived futures would come to pass. He wrote of society endlessly deceived and deluded and controlled by great wealth and nefarious leaders, a hopeless and helpless humanity, yet one in which he searched for hope.

Some years back, a project was launched to create a functioning android with artificial intelligence was created using a model of Dick's face and speech patterns. It was beyond spooky and got stranger still when the head of this android was accidentally lost and went traveling via airplane to California.

The creators were adamant however and now are presenting their creation again, though work is still to be completed for creating an artificial intelligence for the android. A video sample of the PKD2 is quite surreal.

"Dick's fiction calls up our basic cultural assumptions, requires us to reexamine them, and points out the destructive destinations to which they are carrying us. The American Dream may have succeeded as a means of survival in the wilderness of early America; it allowed us to subdue that wilderness and build our holy cities of materialism. But now, the images in Dick's fiction declare, we live in a new kind of wilderness, a wasteland wilderness, because those cities and the culture that built them are in decay. We need a new American dream to overcome this wasteland."

• Patricia S. Warrick, Mind in Motion: The Fiction of Philip K. Dick (1987)
  

Cutting $40 Billion in Tax Subsidies Gets a Big No From Rep. Roe

My Congressman, Republican Phil Roe, wants to cut spending - just not when it comes to tax subsidies to giant oil companies. He's marching in step with every Republican in Washington who just voted against a measure to end those subsidies.

He'll support cuts in education, job training, community block grants, health care -- but giant oil companies will continue to get our tax dollars.

So while Rep. Roe echoes the claims that the U.S. government is "broke" - we're giving away billions.

"Also note, ending the subsidies would save the federal government tens of billions of dollars, making a significant dent in the deficit-reduction campaign that Republicans pretend to care about. It's a reminder that the GOP's commitment to fiscal responsibility is shaped in large part by who'll suffer as a result of the cuts -- working families can feel the brunt of the budget ax, under the GOP vision, but ExxonMobil can't." (via Steve Benen)

Cutting $40 billion in tax subsidies gets a big No from Rep. Roe - even though the biggest 5 oil companies made $1 trillion in profits over the last decade.

Just last week, Rep. Roe said:

"Now as part of our focus on job growth, committees in the House are working to remove unnecessary regulations, and we’re aggressively looking at new ways to cut spending."

I guess education, job training, the elderly, the sick, and those most in need must be sacrificed to insure the profits of giant corporations.

"Phil Roe has not created even one job in this state though he’s now in his second term as TN-1 Rep. Not one job. I challenge anyone to prove otherwise including Roe himself." (via Ablogination)

SEE UPDATE HERE.

City Fires All 1,926 Teachers In Budget Battle

Is it education reform or is it just a slash and burn policy aimed at cutting teacher pay and union representation?

The school board in Providence, Rhode Island voted 4-3 last week that to reduce a budget shortfall, all 1,926 teachers would be fired ... and then re-hired later this year. Or at least, some would be re-hired. However, termination instead of layoffs means an end to seniority and an end to benefits. In essence, rehires would all be starting at the base rate of pay.

"Given where we are in the budget process, we needed to retain the maximum flexibility we could to manage what inevitably will be significant cuts to the school budget,’’ said Melissa Withers, a spokeswoman for Mayor Angel Taveras. ‘We could not afford any situation where we would have more teachers on the payroll than we could pay.’’
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"When you terminate someone, your financial obligations to them end. With a layoff, depending on the kind of layoff, there are all kinds of provisions that you still may have financial obligations to that teacher.’’

More here.

The Week In Review, Feb. 20-27 2001

Tenacious protests challenging Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's plan to eliminate collective bargaining by teachers continued to grow and to spread across the nation as other states, like Tennessee, ponder similar plans. Despite Gov. Walker's claims, the teachers benefit package is actually the result of deferred compensation rather than extra taxpayer burdens.

The AP reported WI state workers have not had a pay increase in 2 years, and under Gov Walker's predecessor, Gov. Doyle, state workers were forced to take furlough days that amounted to a 3% pay cut; also, despite claims of excess earnings and benefits for state workers, studies show that nationwide they earned 11 percent less and local workers earned 12 percent less than private workers with comparable education levels.

Republican legislators in Tennessee continue their efforts to eliminate collective bargaining for teachers as protesters statewide begin their efforts to halt such legislation, from Nashville to Johnson City. One Tea Party protester in Johnson City says "We don’t need intellectual freedom in public schools.

Protests turned violent in Libya as failing dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi sent privately funded mercenaries to attack rebels, though cities and government officials continue to abandon the dictator in the face of mass killings. and a video mash-up of Gaddafi and dancing girls storms the internet. The NYTimes reports that the widespread failures of Arab dictators has been fueled by popular protests and the violent terrorists of Al Qaeda have played no role whatsoever.

Carl Gibson, of Kentucky, successfully mounts nationwide protests through a group called US Uncut to challenge US tax policies which offer immense rewards to corporations. He tells In These Tiimes that "I have one dollar in my wallet. That's more than the combined income tax liability of GE, Exxon Mobil, Citibank and the Bank of America. That means somebody's gaming the system."

US Army officers in Afghanistan reportedly used "Jedi mind tricks" to convince visiting Senators to increase and continue funding of the war effort.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld releases his book "Known and Unknown" about his career and his role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming on CSPAN that the run-up to the war was really Secretary of State Colin Powell's idea and he is questioned on radio as to whether or not he is a "flesh-eating space lizard".

Tennessee legislators Ketron and Womick introduced a bill demanding all presidential candidates prove they are US citizens. Sen. Ketron says he does not think President Obama is a US citizen.

Also introduced, a bill from Sen. Ketron to criminalize following "sharia law", though some doubt he understands what that law is and how US courts already supersede it:

"Other than the fact that such bans are unconstitutional -- a federal court recently held that a ban would likely violate the Supremacy Clause and the First Amendment -- they are a monumental waste of time. Our judges are equipped with the constitutional framework to refuse to recognize a foreign law. In the end, our Constitution is the law of the land."

Republican Knoxville legislator Bill Dunn filed a bill identifying scientific topics such as evolution, cloning, and global warming as controversial therefore must be presented as such by public school teachers.

Rep. Dunn also filed a lengthy bill describing how sex education should be defined and taught, relying on "abstinence" and warnings of "gateway sexual activity".

Actor Charlie Sheen claimed in a radio interview that he was a "Vatican assassin warlock" and that he has "fire-breathing fists", and CBS promptly shut down production of his TV show.

Suze Rotolo died at age 67. She was an artist and most famously appeared arm-in-arm with singer Bob Dylan on the cover of his first album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and was the inspiration for his songs "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", "Boots of Spanish Leather" and others.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK:

(Libyan protesters take a tank, via The Big Picture)

The city of Christchurch, New Zealand just after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck; click to enlarge (via The Telegraph)

Camera Obscura: Oscar Snark-Fest; HBO's 'Mildred Pierce'; Peace, Love and Bieber

Live-streaming from backstage at Sunday's Oscar awards, red carpet cams, and endless online access are all set via the Academy's main Oscars page here. With two young hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco pumping the show with snarky oh-so-hip-n-funny ad campaigns, this year's show certainly is opening up to younger viewers and all manner of online social networks, which will allow trolls and hecklers around the world to slop snark bait in real time in virtual arenas.

As a movie-holic, I almost always watch the show, which is sometimes worth watching and sometimes not. While this year's online acts seem interesting, it will be tough to top Ricky Gervais' savage satire on Hollywood at the recent Golden Globes.

One aspect of this year's nominees worth noting - there's plenty of class and economic warfare in the featured films. Odds are favoring "The King's Speech" but I find it nearly impossible to relate to the troubles and triumphs of monarchs. This weekend I'm really hoping that Greta Gerwig lands the Best Actress award at Saturday's Spirit Awards for her work in "Greenberg". Her performance was the best of the year.

On a more technical side - a recent short film exploring the low-tech but vital work of the Foley artist featuring Gary Hecker is a must see. As high-tech as movies have become, the art of creating the sounds that fill every scene and every movement is fascinating. Hecker's work in over 234 films - and in video games too - is profiled in the following video.

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The film noir classic "Mildred Pierce" by novelist James M. Cain lands on HBO in late March as a 5-episode series starring Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood as her daughter Veda. Directed by Todd Haynes, the new preview looks like 1930s technicolor and still keeps the grim and graphic tone of Cain's book. Cain, who also wrote "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice", expertly captured a visceral time in America, as social and personal roles were radically changing.

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America's pop culture machine went into high gear this week reporting that singer Justin Beiber got a haircut. Teen pop stars have been making news for decades in America, but they seem to keep replaying the same things - for example, as noted at the always fascinating blog Cinebeats, at one time it was singer Bobby Sherman who was all the rage, and they include a hilarious peek at one of Bobby's comic book series, well worth a look.

Their post includes the following video of Sherman's first hit single, "Little Woman", and looking at it, I realized Bieber had the same haircut ... before his new adult look anyway. And dig those love beads. Groovy.

What Will The American Worker Do?

Tennessee - like Wisconsin and Indiana - is joining the battle against collective bargaining by unions, claiming it is a measure to reduce government spending. The state's teachers, already over-burdened with Federal demands and decreasing state revenues, certainly appear to be the first to find how bad of shape the American economy really is in.

And Tennessee, as in many other states, is pondering dropping guaranteed retirement benefits for those fortunate enough to have joined the program and instead switch to a 401(k) plan.

A recent Wall Street Journal reports, however, that those 401(k) plans won't really provide for much, while the program was worth trillions of dollars to money managers and financial planners:

"Initially envisioned as a way for management-level people to put aside extra retirement money, the 401(k) was embraced by big companies in the 1980s as a replacement for costly pension funds. Suddenly, they were able to transfer the burden of funding employees' retirement to the employees themselves. Employees had control over their savings, and were able carry them to new jobs.

They were a gold mine for money-management firms. In 30 years, the 401(k) went from a small program to a multi-trillion-dollar industry supporting thousands of financial planners and money managers.

But a 401(k) also requires steady, significant savings. And unlike corporate pension plans, which are guaranteed by the U.S. government, 401(k) plans have no such backstop.

The government and employers aren't going to pay more for people's retirements. Unless people begin saving earlier and contributing more to their 401(k) plans, advisers say, they are destined to hit retirement age with too little money."

It's clear that for decades now, an individual's salary and benefits have been on dead end roads - salaries remain flat, health care costs exploded, and retirement funds shriveled in the economic collapse.

I understand the anger of many in Wisconsin and Tennessee, who see enormous gaps between what an individual can create financially with income and benefits and what state-backed employees can create. But rather than wanting everyone to pay more - why aren't they demanding that private sectors offer the same advantages? Do government plans get a massive break because companies then seek some returns through legislation, which is the one thing a private sector company cannot do - make laws?

Southern Beale has been quite eloquent on this topic lately:

"It doesn't make sense unless your entire worldview is based on the idea that everything is peachy when workers are slaves to their employers, that all of the power should be handed up to big business and workers should be silent and take what lumps of coal they are given. You know, I get why billionaire corporate elites think this way, but I don't get why anyone else does."

The job market is a bloody mess, salaries for the middle class aren't middle class salaries, retirement is becoming more and more elusive, hacking away at how much government spends will surely make millions realize that government spending has been the one thing keeping personal and state finances stay afloat, and negotiations between workers and owners has stalled. And those who are seeking jobs - no one wants to hire the unemployed.

I'm beginning to think that I better drop all my current plans and get licensed as a government lobbyist, as that's the one job safe from cutbacks and since everyone is arguing louder and longer about every aspect of private and public life. Oops, wait, their spending is winding down, to only about 3 and a half billion a year. Seems the one hope for lobbyists and government is to continue arguing so they can all keep their jobs.

What will the American worker do?

BONUS: Graphs depict depressing state of American jobs and income, such as the following depiction of what people think about wealth, where the money actually is, and what some would like income levels to be:

Rep. Don Miller's Legislation Lacks Jobs Plan, Attacks Unions Instead

Elected to the Tennessee General Assembly last fall, State Rep. Don Miller of Morristown has not been front and center in the news. So finding out what he's been working on, what bills he has submitted and supported -- you'll have to dig that out on your own.

Fortunately, the state's General Assembly website offers a brief peek at his proposals.

Removing the rights of union members is a priority for Rep. Miller.

For instance, his bill, HB1833, would make it a crime for any state employee to engage in a strike or "work stoppage". As of this date, there is not a summary of the bill introduced other than a one-line summation. But have strikes crippled Morristown, Hamblen County or Tennessee in recent years? Why make a legitimate form of free speech a crime?

He's a co-sponsor of HB0130, which "abolishes teachers' unions ability to negotiate terms and conditions of professional service with local boards of education." As with the legislation creating chaos in Wisconsin, the proposal is aimed at outlawing collective bargaining. But unlike Wisconsin, this isn't meant to curb collective bargaining on insurance premiums or pensions, but all negotiations.

I fail to see how deconstructing labor unions will create jobs in this community -- and creating jobs was supposed to be a priority, according to what remains of his political campaign online.

Another bill he's introduced, HB1837, would change the law to allow for the Morristown Utility Commission to sell cable and internet service 10 miles outside of their service area ... I suppose that might mean a few extra jobs for the utility company.

Mostly all I'm seeing from Rep. Miller is that he is working for the national Republican party, as they create ways to remove rights from labor unions and workers, and attempt to stall the Health Care Reform Act. I suppose, as a newcomer to the political landscape, he has to, as they say "dance with the one that brought him to the dance".

State Senator Steve Southerland, meanwhile, has introduced legislation to redefine the legal definition of "rickshaw" in Tennessee. A long list of all legislation he has introduced is here.

The Week In Review - Feb 12-19, 2011

- Singer Billy Ray Cyrus tells GQ magazine that the Hannah Montana Show "destroyed his family". Yet another case of how television, music, fame, wealth, dual and triple identities, divorce, success, and friends will eat your goodness.

- Espranza Spalding wins the Best New Artist Grammy award, proving that jazz is way cooler than pop music. New fans rush to listen to her music for free on the internet since radio only plays uncool things.

- South Dakota politician Phil Jensen introduces and then withdraws legislation to legalize the murder of doctors.

- Tennessee state Senator Stacey Campfield introduces legislation to outlaw the presence of dogs in cars unless they wear seat belts, have insurance, can pass a driver's license test (in English) and do not say the word "gay" out loud. As a commenter at Sen. Campfield's blog says "Now if you can just get them to stop talking/texting on their phones."

- Republicans in Washington sharpened their cutting knives on the current budget year to slash funding for education, job training, food safety, community development and health center funds -- but decided to approve $7 million dollars for the military to advertise on decals for NASCAR. (Congressman John Boehner continues to claim "We're broke!!") A member of Congress who opposed the funding received death threats for her opposition.

- We learned this week that breastfeeding is a Socialist plot to destroy America, according to presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann, who also admitted she did breastfeed all her children, but now is against it because a mother might get a tax break if they breastfeed. Since the government already is the world's largest buyer of infant formula (to replace breastfeeding) then opposing the tax savings idea will insure the government spends more money ... wait, what?? Is Bachmann fighting big government or supporting it??

- In Pennsylvania, a former juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups.

- An "end-times prophet" joins Glenn Beck to warn Fox News viewers that the protests over collective bargaining in Wisconsin really mean President Obama is the Antichrist. Also, it turns out that Abraham Lincoln was really a vampire hunter. Whoops, sorry, that's just a new movie in production now.

- A man in Buffalo, N.Y. was acquitted of charges that he was marinating his cat so he could eat it. Turns out the cat got into some garbage and the owner was taking the cat to be washed and groomed.

- Sales of soup are down, while sales of mac and cheese and pizza are on the rise.

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK - A celebration of the birthday of Korea's Kim Jong-il with synchronized swimmers (via Time).

Baby Trashes A Bar In Las Palmas

I've lately received links to numerous short films, but the following excerpt from a new 13 minute short from Swedish filmmaker and artist Johannes Nyholm was too funny and had to be shared. Watch the video first, and I'll include some details after.



Nyholm describes the project "A middle-aged lady on a holiday in the sun tries to make new friends and have a good time."


More on the movie from Nyholm's website is here --

The filmmaker has been earning high praise and numerous awards for his work, which has been best described as:

"With his music videos, the films about the Puppetboy and the paper doll animations in Dreams from the Woods, all characterized by versatility, unpredictability, humour and boldness, Johannes Nyholm has achieved world reputation and proved that the one who chooses to go his own way can reach further than the others.

One Corporate Earmark For John Boehner Could Fund Public Broadcasting For A Year

I hope you'll take one moment to actually contact 1st District Congressman Phil Roe and tell him NOT to vote for eliminating all the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Some facts -

This move is not geared for significant savings in Federal spending. The $445 million in funds for the CPB represents 0.0001% of the Federal budget.

The majority of those funds go to local radio stations which use them as they see fit - for creating jobs, creating local news stories and programs, and other local decisions. Some 9,000 local boards determine the activities of the stations in question. Loss of those funds will mean that rural areas will lose their one, and only, free outlet for literacy programs, child education programs, and arts programs.

Yes, there are many options available today which weren't available when the CPB was first formed, via cable, satellite and internet sources. But those must all be paid for by those who use them. All one needs to access CPB programs are a television or a radio.

The money spent for CPB is likely one of the most cost-effective programs in government - for every dollar a station receives, they are able to raise six more from donations at the local level for their operations.

The Republican plan to eliminate these funds is rooted in a weird notion that CPB is a heavily-biased program promoting ... well, the only argument I've found from the Republicans is that they think an NPR contributor named Juan Williams was inappropriately fired from NPR, so now they want to stomp on every CPB station in the nation with their Federal powers.

House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, has demanded every taxpayer in the country fund his one earmark for his home district in Ohio to benefit corporate military contractors at a cost of $456 million (more than the entire CPB budget). He thinks General Electric and the Rolls Royce company deserve tax subsidies while thousands of local jobs and local news outlets are gutted.

Taxing Tennessee has the details of Speaker Boehner's selfish desire to attract votes with corporate pork.



You can contact Rep. Phil Roe in several ways, but email is the quickest:
Email -
rep.roe@mail.house.gov

Morristown Office:
1609 College Park Drive, Suite 4
Morristown, TN 37813
423-254-1400
fax: 423-254-1403


You can also contact Congress via 170 Million Americans For Public Radio.

Using Stupid to Cut Federal Budgets

On Feb. 9th, Kentucky Republican Hal Rogers, who chairs the Appropriations Committee for the House of Representatives claimed he was gonna cut $74 billion dollars in the 2011 budget ... event though the spending of that budget's allotment began in October of 2010. So he plans to cut $74 billion in spending from the last 4 or 5 months of the fiscal year?

That's not very smart financial advice:

"With many of the 93 freshmen members of the House still asking rudimentary budget questions such as: ‘what is the difference between an authorization and an appropriation?’ or ‘how do outlays differ from budget authority?’ the time frame that Rep. Rogers and his leadership are committed to means that not only will those voting on the proposal have little opportunity to understand it but the authors themselves will not have fully vetted or completely understood what they are proposing. There have been no hearings, no requests for testimony, and no opportunity even for staff charged with proposing the cuts to do agency-by-agency analysis of the possible negative consequences. Members will vote next week on the package without fundamental knowledge of how major budget changes in literally thousands of federal programs will impact the country in general or their own constituents in particular.

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"The point is not that there are no government programs worthy of cutting, but rather that this is a really stupid way to do it. The vast bulk of government spending, which goes to mandatory programs such as Social Security and Medicare, is completely exempted. And Republicans have effectively exempted the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs from cuts. This leaves only 16 percent of the budget from which they will extract their pound of flesh to satisfy voters who demand huge budget cuts but also oppose cutting just about any program except foreign aid."

The goal is a sort of sleazy campaigning trick - Rep. Rogers and other Republicans could say in 2012 as they run for office "I tried to cut spending in Washington and those evil Democrats and evil media types tried to stop me!!" More accurate to say "My stupid budget ideas were called out as stupid and that's not fair."

Or, as today's column by Paul Krugman says:

"Republicans don’t have a mandate to cut spending; they have a mandate to repeal the laws of arithmetic."

Giving Dictators The Boot - I Mean, Shoe

From Cairo, February 2011. It worked - Mubarak resigns presidency.

The shoe?? Oh, right, the shoe ... Some "notable shoe incidents". Wait, the shoe is a sign??

Meanwhile, the story in America ... cut off assistance for the poor, for innovation, and aim for a government shutdown.

(NOTE: this is not related to the previous post -- just synchronicity I suppose.)

Rotten Foot; or My Own Health Care Meltdown

I have a good excuse for not having created new posts at my normal rate.

I have what could best be termed a metabolic derangement.

I've altered and adjusted my dietary intake to affect some change - with little success. One doctor tells me I have a hereditary predisposition for the condition, so I'm stuck with the problem. The problem - a fiercely painful problem called gout - was long referred to as a "rich man's disease" or a "king's disease" or the product of "indolence" - none of which apply to me (okay, maybe I am a little bit indolent, as I most often spend my hours at a desk and keyboard). Historians tell me that such luminaries as Alexander the Great and Isaac Newton suffered this problem.

It first dug into my hide last February, I woke up thinking I had broken my ankle during my sleep or something. (A true sign of aging, indeed - waking up having injured myself in my sleep.) I actually had to get a dang cane and hobble into the doctor, who promptly said "Oh, it's gout" and gave me a few prescriptions, which did scale it back to a more normal Joe kind of day pretty quickly. But it keeps coming back. It sort of feels like someone is pounding on my feet with a ball-peen hammer repeatedly.

History, again, reveals that it was Ben Franklin who, suffering the condition, obtained a a medicine made from the autumn crocus, aka, meadow saffron, called Colchicine. The same medicine was prescribed for me. However, the medicine was banned last fall by the FDA, as it had never undergone the standard testing procedures modern medicines must undergo. It was also only 6 dollars a for a month's supply.

A new drug, Uloric, is being promoted instead, and it costs about 200 dollars for a month's supply.

Thanks. Like I can afford that.

Now let's get even more confused.

One doctor claims that the FDA only banned the sale of injectable Colchicine. An article in the Oak Ridger by Dr. William Culbert Jr says the drug has been approved by the FDA, but fails to note the massive change in prices, up to $5 per pill.

What I have learned is that since Colchicine was "grandfathered" by the FDA since it had been used for centuries before there was an FDA, that allowed for a company called URL Pharma to step up in 2009 and pay for the FDA testing and for a new patent on Colchicine, now called Colcrys. The result of their actions forced all other makers of generic Colchicine to halt all sales. It's buy their product or nothing. Their product also costs about $300 for a month's supply.

URL Pharma was quick to eliminate even a discussion by doctors about the change from generic to a very expensive medication. "Shake-down letters" - that's what some physicians called the communications from URL Pharma. "Liability" replied URL Pharma.

Which all leaves me without medicine, as that price tag is too large. I'll have to try and get on a "patient assistance program". Which I am loathe to do.

And, frustrated, in pain, and more than a little confused, it's been tough to sit down and write something for my blog. And so here I am, offering instead far more personal information than I really wanted to provide. Who wants to read about my health problems? (And I am most grateful this is the only medical woe I have, as millions of others have far more horrifying conditions and limited treatment tales.)

Like millions and millions of Americans, I am left with a simple conclusion - doctors don't operate our health care system, but pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies run it instead.

I suppose I should be happy I don't need a prescription to use a cane ..... yet.

Camera Obscura: Goodbye Tura Satana

I'd have to turn in all my cult movie fan credentials if I failed to mourn the passing of cult cinema superstar Tura Satana, who fled this mortal plane on Feb. 4th.

With one single movie, "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!", made in 1965, Tura created a performance which earned her a much deserved legendary status. The NYTimes blog notes that it was another legend of cinema, comedian Harold Lloyd, who urged her to go for a career in movies.

Goodbye and thanks, Tura.



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A 2011 Super Bowl commercial submitted without comment.



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Behold, the Actor With A Thousand Careers, William Shatner is prepping a full-on heavy metal album, with performances from:

"Peter Frampton and Mike Inez (who will be playing "Iron Man" with fellow Ozzy alum, Zakk Wylde) are definitely participating and our source claims artists slated to perform (but who haven't done their parts yet) include Steve Howe of Yes, Ian Paice of Deep Purple and the god among men, Brian May of Queen."

And since I've made reference to Star Trek, then you should also know the sci-fi franchise that will not die has now been immortalized in a potato format.

Are We Further Away or Getting Closer to Figuring Out Health Care in America?

It appears that after many decades debating health care, insurance, and all the costs involved with medicine and doctoring and all the legislation to subsidize drug-making and drug-dispensing, we are inching closer and closer to the basics behind all these issues. Or are we?

Getting medical care when needed and paying for insurance, in America, can be a mammoth undertaking.

And it's pretty sad and utterly short-sighted to hear Tennessee's new governor, Bill Haslam, offer this comment regarding the current health care law approved by Congress:

"Our goal should be advocating for an approach that embraces healthy choices and personal responsibility and accountability for a healthy lifestyle."

So ... if he is right, then why do we even allow doctors and hospitals to operate?

We're all on our own, and if we make a decision or take an action, or by inaction allow for some illness or sickness to take hold of us, then each of us should just find some way to cope with it. After all, being in a human and an inherently decaying and injury-prone body, we must expect it to fall apart eventually. So, don't expect me to help you out since I'm planning on being self-sufficient.

If you seek zero government involvement in health care, then eliminate medical licenses and prescriptions and drug-testing, and we'll each just do our best, on our own to figure out why we are ill and how we can get better.

That's certainly an option and a direction our society could take.

Or maybe, using the idea of group involvement through insurance to help cover the costs, one could find a group to be a part of which will provide medical insurance at a lower cost. How about a group made of people who are your age, weight, height and eye color who also work at the same type of job? Or why not make the group really, really large - say, everyone who has a birth certificate in America?

Regardless of age or job or any "lifestyle choice", everyone would be in one group - would that make insurance premiums available at a low cost? Or will insurance companies and health care providers raise their prices so they don't have to alter their income levels?

It appears there are some mighty complex basic issues left to resolve. And we, in America, still have a long way to go before such resolution is to be found.

SEE ALSO:
A discussion of Governor Haslam's ideas at KnoxViews.

Some ideas from Dr. Paul Hochfield

What Was Not Spoken In the 2011 State of the Union Speech But Probably Should Have Been Said

The real fight over tax breaks debated last fall in Congress was centered on folks who make $250,000 or above. So that's really who they are developing policy for. The rest of us are pretty much on our own it seems ... and here are a few other ideas which were not expressed by anyone in defining the state of our Union in 2011.

"Millions of people face severe financial hardship, if not ruin, due to the obscene and irresponsible greed of a very small number of folks. Because the Congress is captive to anybody with large sums of money to spend, nothing particularly effective will be done to prevent things like this from happening again.

There are about 25 professional registered lobbyists for every member of Congress."

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"The country goes deeper and deeper into debt on a daily basis. The greatest financial threat the nation faces is the cost of health care, and nobody in a position to actually make or enforce policy has any freaking clue how to manage or control that."

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"We have very low inflation, unless you include food and energy. So if you don't eat, heat your home, or drive, the dollar you make today will we be worth about what it is today for quite a while."

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"Over the last 30 years, the American middle class has been gutted by the loss of jobs to offshoring and automation. We continue to have a strongly entrepreneurial and innovative economy, but when it's time for bright new ideas to scale up to an industrial level of production, much if not most of that happens overseas. So, wealth, but jobs, not so much."

Also - America's Current Queen of Comedy Sarah Palin says that President Obama's call for a Sputnik moment to promote innovation should have been a call for a "Spudnut moment" ... and no I am not making that up ... no one can invent stupid crap like Palin can all on her own:

"You know what we need is 'a spudnut moment.' And here's where I'm going with this, Greta.... Well, the spudnut shop in Richland, Washington -- it's a bakery, it's a little coffee shop that's so successful, 60-some years, generation to generation, a family-owned business not looking for government to bail them out and to make their decisions for them. It's just hard-working, patriotic Americans in this shop.

"We need more spudnut moments in America. And I wish that President Obama would understand, in that heartland of America, what it is that really results in the solutions that we need to get this economy back on the right track. It's a shop like that.

Ah, America, 2011 will be tougher than you know.

Except for comedy and self-parody. We're pretty much overflowing there.

Tennessee Teachers Battle Bargaining Ban

The Tennessee Teachers Association may lose their right to collective bargaining under legislation just introduced in the state legislature, legislation drafted by those who normally are on the other side of the bargaining table from the teachers union - the state's school board association.

Union reps warn that the proposal is a step backward -

"We had more than 100 years in Tennessee without collective bargaining to see how that works," said Al Mance, executive director for the Tennessee Education Association, which represents some 52,000 teachers and administrators in the state.

"Ninety percent of teachers in Tennessee are covered by collective bargaining," Mance added. "Without it, we'll go back to the previous way of doing business, when male teachers were paid more than female teachers; when African-Americans were paid less than Caucasians; when there was no voice for the teachers in the process."

Today, Governor Haslam met with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission today, and said he does not think the new Republican-led legislature is "anti-teacher", but the does think the state is ripe for education reforms, adding:

"The newly elected governor did say he opposed collective bargaining for police and firefighters during his tenure as mayor of Knoxville.

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“You realize, Tennessee is hot right now,” he said. “You realize, Tennessee is the place people are talking about when it comes to innovations in higher education.”

If you also consider proposed legislation to make it a crime for any union group in the state to contribute to a political campaign, it could be said the state is looking for ways to decrease employee-organized groups from having a voice in the state. Or, as No Silence Here puts it - "Some Lawmakers Stomping On Free Speech".