#NPR : For Profit School Abuses ? Sen. #Harkin interview 7/31/2012

Senate Panel Gives For-Profit Colleges An 'F'

83% money from taxpayers ... poor performance



WI 1848 Forward: #NPR : For Profit #School Abuses ? Sen. #Harkin interview 7/31/2012 #PellGrants #EDU

WI 1848 Forward: #NPR :For Profit #School Abuses? Sen. #Harkin interview 7/31/2012 #PellGrants #EDU #Walker #Vouchers

#Russia #Dissent #Putin Punk Rock and Orthodoxy - #NPR

2013/12/23 ... Pardoned ... so why, really?

Punk Band's Case Tests Putin's Tolerance For Dissent

Renee Montagne and Corey Flintoff

Story summary

July 31, 2012
Three women charged with blasphemy went on trial Monday in Russia in a case that's being seen as a major test of President Vladimir Putin's tolerance for dissent. The women are members of the band Pussy Riot. They were arrested after staging a punk rock protest at the altar of a Moscow cathedral.

Verdict today? 08/16/2012

#Russia #Dissent #Putin Punk Rock and Orthodoxy -WI 1848 Forward:  #NPR #Pardon #Olympics ? #HumanRights ?

#TRUTHOUT - The Other #ALEC s' K-12 #Education Agenda Exposed

This is the fourth and last article in Sarah Blaskey's and Steven Horn's series, "The Other ALECs Exposed."

For over 30 years, corporate America and its allies on both sides of the political aisle have carried out an assault on US workers, pushing down wages, slashing benefits and busting unions.

But after decades of repeated and near-fatal assaults, the US labor movement has waged a fight back, with teachers in the forefront of the battle. Public schools have become the centerpiece of the struggle. Through an array of recent policy initiatives, influential policy wonks are attempting to restructure education fundamentally. According to Jesse Hagopian, a teacher and union activist in Seattle, part of this restructuring process is happening through model bills being enacted systematically in statehouses nationwide.

 ___________________
Meanwhile ...whether passed or not it indicates an active agenda that will keep coming around

Walker's War on Education: AB 51 giving away public goods 8/3/2011

Committee: Joint Committee on Finance
  AB-51 was referred to joint committee on Finance in the Assembly on August 2, 2011
      Bill History: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2011/data/AB51hst.html
      Relating to: creating a Charter School Authorizing Board, providing additional charter school author...

WI 1848 Forward: #TRUTHOUT - The Other #ALEC s' K-12 #Education Agenda Exposed : #47% #edu #99% vs #1% #elites

WI Budget $137M Unforeseen Irony: Deficits vs Elections 2011-2012

Walker's idea of bringing economic development to Wisconsin .... $76M from out of state for the elections ?!

In February 2011, WRN reported ...

Wisconsin’s current deficit at $137M

February 8, 2011 By Jackie Johnson

Itemizing the shortfall in the current budget.
The deficit for the state of Wisconsin is $136.7 million for the current biennial budget, according to new figures from the State Budget Office. River Hills Republican Senator Alberta Darling co-chairs the Legislature’s budget committee. “We are looking at a real challenge and the governor has been very clear … we are not going to raise taxes, so this leaves making some really tough decisions based on some really difficult priorities.”

Governor Scott Walker released a breakdown of the numbers, which includes $58.7 million that’s owed to Minnesota for the terminated tax reciprocity agreement, a $153.2 million deficit in Medical Assistance Programs, and $21.7 million deficit in the Department of Corrections.

Today, WSJ, July 26th, 2012

More than $137 million spent in recalls, nearly $81M in Walker race

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_4c105824-d65e-11e1-9515-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz21m688gY6

Candidates, special interest groups and political committees spent more than $137 million on the historic wave of 15 recalls over the last two years, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said Wednesday.

Of that amount, nearly $81 million targeted the failed attempt to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. It more than doubled the record-setting $37.4 million spent for a statewide office in the 2010 governor's race. And Walker more than tripled his previous spending record, doling out about $36 million leading up to his June 5 recall victory. ...

For all 15 of the recalls in 2011 and 2012, Republican candidates, groups and committees outspent their Democratic opponents $84.5 million to $52.6 million, according to WDC.
And outside special interest groups spent nearly $76 million in the 15 recalls, including $39.8 million by groups that supported the GOP and $36 million by those that backed Democrats.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_4c105824-d65e-11e1-9515-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz21m6eK39D

WI 1848 Forward: #WI Budget $137M Unforeseen Irony: #Deficits vs #Elections 2011-2012 : #wiVote #WiUnion #47%

DARPA -Slashdot: Correcting the Record: the Government's Role In the Internet

Anyone know what DARPA stands for .... was the Wall Street Journal just pursuing "the government" is bad and only private enterprise does "good" things.  If you dig a little bit you might not like this aspect of government funding/subsidizing large corporations.

TwobyTwo writes

"Yesterday, Slashdot posted a piece titled Who Really Invented the Internet?. It quoted a Wall Street Journal article with the same title by Gordon Crovitz. Crovitz makes the claim that government research did not play a key role in driving the invention of the Internet, giving credit instead to Xerox PARC. Unfortunately, Crovitz' article is wrong on many specific points, and he's also wrong in his key conclusion about the government's role. In a wonderful piece in the LA Times Michael Hiltzik corrects the record. Hiltzik, who is the author of an excellent book about PARC called Dealers of Lightning, makes clear that government funded research was indeed the foundation for the Internet's success."

WI 1848 Forward: #DARPA #Slashdot: Correcting the Record: the Government's Role In the #Internet : #subsidy ? #47%

Burma Campaign - Democracy ? Burma's Lost Boys - FP

'Little Daughter' is the extraordinary autobiography of Zoya Phan, who was forced to flee Burma and is now a high profile activist campaigning for freedom for her homeland.

'Little Daughter' is the extraordinary autobiography of Zoya Phan, who was forced to flee Burma and is now a high profile activist campaigning for freedom for her homeland.



Burma Campaign on FB

From May 2011

In Milwaukee - Seeking a new life, Burmese refugees find roaches and blight

The context of understanding - what do Burma, the Karen people, Milwaukee, Grothman and Walker, human rights, collective bargaining, unions and recall elections have in common.  You will need to examine both links!

_________NEW________FP

Burma’s Lost Boys

The government in Burma is promising to clean up its act. But the army is still recruiting child soldiers.

#MSNBC ... show us your "tax" records ... I mean "guest booking" policies: #Russert #Jansing

7/25/2012 Gov. Scott Walker on "Morning Joe" ... so is ex-Gov (PA) Ed Rendell ... still softball and spin ... at times I think Joe is nothing but spin ...

7/19/2012 ... Is COMCAST control already having an impact ... hard to imagine it was better before

After watching Luke Russert get walked all over by a Romney spokesperson and then hear Bay Buchanan spin all over Chris Jansing I need a shower.

Now I am not saying there was not some attempt to deal with the spin but it was just lame.  These "entertainment producers" need some new ideas or new rules about how these "interviews" are conducted.

Yuck ...

MSNBC usually has a "school bus crash" or some other tragedy in about an hour - 10am-10:30am central - let's get back in the real news business. No bus crash so far ...

#TED: Millimeter #GPS ... pay attention or what? Todd #Humphreys ? #Privacy

Todd Humphreys: How to fool a GPS

 Is this what we want ... what kind of protections ... what kind of privacy ...?  We are almost blindly reliant on GPS now ... issues - wave bubbles and spoofing ...

Humphreys says ... "promise and peril"

Carrier Phase -

... From the Introduction text - the near-future of geolocation when millimeter-accurate GPS "dots" will enable you to find pin-point locations, index-search your physical possessions ... or to track people without their knowledge. And the response to the sinister side of this technology may have unintended consequences of its own.

#FAIR - #SmallBusiness #Tax - Huge #GOP Baloney - #Dems response ?

FAIR - Small Business BaloneyGOP tax claims should be factchecked

7/12/12
Barack Obama's July 9 announcement that he would extend the Bush tax cuts for income below $250,000 prompted the expected response from Republican politicians and presidential candidate Mitt Romney: This is a tax increase on "small businesses."

That is false. But most news reports won't say so. ...

.... Then, as now, the argument is almost entirely bogus. The share of filers who could qualify as small business owners is tiny--about 2 percent of small business owners, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The increase would affect, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, about 3 percent of filers who claim any business income (Think Progress, 7/9/12).

So why don't reporters just say that? Some who try to put the numbers in context seem afraid to call out one side for being deceptive. On CBS Evening News (7/9/12), Norah O'Donnell reported the story this way:

Mitt Romney said today that the president's proposal would mean a massive tax increase on job-creators and small businesses. Many of those small businesses pay at an individual tax rate. But the president said it would affect just 3 percent of small businesses. Still, Scott, that would affect about 250,000 small businesses.

Turning the tiny percentage into a number that sounds impressive seems a pretty clear attempt to make viewers think the Romney campaign had a point.

Russ #Feingold speaks at Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of So Central Wis #ICWJ

Lot's of "progressive" energy and a big turn out.  Look to WORT 89.9 for upcoming coverage -IOBY 7/12 around 6:30-7pm (In Our Back Yard).  You can also explore their archives.

ICWJ

#TED 4,222,462 views - the best stats you've ever seen - Hans #Rosling

Do it yourself GapMinder.org - download data/tools

7/10/2012

At least use data before you think you know what really is going on.  You may get that wrong too but test your "thoughts and opinions."

From the video -

I have shown that Swedish top students know statistically significantly less about the world than the chimpanzees.” (Hans Rosling)

The #BAIN of #Romney - In 1965, Mitt Hazed - #Assault -ed a Person, Forcibly Cutting His Hair

Romney - Future business boy at work ...

Washington Post 5/10/2012

... “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenage son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors. 

Bane of my existence - Ref via Google Answers

To say that something or someone is "the bane of my existence" means
that the person or thing is a constant irritant or source of misery.
As a cliché, "bane of my existence" has lost its edge to a large
degree over the years, and today is most often applied to something
that may profoundly annoy us but is certainly bearable... "Bane of my
existence" is now almost always used in a semi-jocular, "what are you
gonna do?" sense.

But "bane" was once a very serious word. The Old English "bana" meant
literally "slayer" in the sense we now use "killer" or "murderer."
Early on, the English "bane" was also used in the more general sense
of "cause of death," and by the 14th century "bane" was used in the
specialized sense of "poison," a sense which lives on in the names of
various poisonous plants such as "henbane" and "wolfbane."

From this very literal "something that kills you" usage, "bane" by the
16th century had broadened into its modern meaning of "something that
makes life unpleasant, a curse."

http://www.word-detective.com/052003.html

You may have to watch an ad first ...

WI 1848 Forward: The #BAIN of #Romney - In 1965, Mitt Hazed - #Assault -ed a Person, Forcibly Cutting His Hair

#PBS #Moyers Full Show: Confronting the Contradictions of America’s Past 6/29/12

From the programs introduction script -

Bill opens this weekend’s Moyers & Company with a reminder that behind this Fourth of July holiday are human beings, like Thomas Jefferson, who were as flawed and conflicted as they were inspired, who espoused great humanistic ideals while behaving with reprehensible racial discrimination. That conflict – between what we know and how we live – is still a struggle in contemporary politics and society.

No stranger to the contradictions of history and their racial touchpoints is Bill’s studio guest Khalil Gibran Muhammad, head of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and author of The Condemnation of Blackness. Muhammad and Moyers discuss the importance of confronting the contradictions of America’s past to better understand present issues of race and equality.

WI 1848 Forward: #PBS #Moyers Full Show: Confronting the Contradictions of America’s Past : #Racism #Inequality 6/29/12

7/2012 FoxNews - Boehner , Ryan vow GOP House ... ObamaCare repeal effort

Some of my thoughts first!

Bottom line:

• We all want healthcare when we need it.
• We all want healthcare to be efficiently delivered.
• I think we would like see people with TB and other communicable diseases under treatment.
• I think we would like to know that people handling our food from slaughterhouses to restaurants to be healthy.

That's just a few thoughts about why I think Paul Ryan and the ideology that leads the GOP is way too Ayn Rand for me.  I know I may not personally be worse off being forced to make a thousand decisions about healthcare, but I don't see the need and I don't see spending all kinds of dollars on marketing and advertising by insurance providers as providing us all with better healthcare.

I do know it is priceless to have a healthy family and friends.


From the story ...

GOP House leaders said Sunday they will forge ahead with efforts to repeal President Obama’s health care law, drawing criticism from Democratic lawmakers who said Americans want them to instead go forward with efforts to improve the economy.

...

GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Sunday that chamber Republicans will repeal the entire law.

“The stakes could not be higher,” Ryan, R-Wis., said on ABC’s “This Week.”
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has vowed that if elected he would repeal the legislation on his first day in the White House.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that congressional Republicans have an “unrealistic” chance of passing repeal legislation and suggested they have become a “mouthpiece” for the health insurance industry.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/01/boehner-ryan-vow-gop-house-will-press-ahead-with-obamacare-repeal-effort/#ixzz1zP2qdjny

This is the real Rep. Paul Ryan ...

WI 1848 Forward: 7/2012 #FoxNews #Boehner , #Ryan vow #GOP House ... #ObamaCare repeal effort #AARP #47% vs #elites

#99% Video: The Power and Potential of #Nonviolent #Struggle by Gene #Sharp

PBS : Video: Need to Know, 6/22/12: Solving #poverty in America - #Inequality

From story header: 

Need to Know examines a successful experimental program in Oakland, Calif., designed to help the working poor emerge from poverty. Anchor Maria Hinojosa interviews Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Monsignor Kevin Sullivan discusses society's duty to the poor.

Watch Need to Know, Fri., June 22, 2012: Poverty in America on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

WI 1848 Forward: #PBS : Video: Need to Know, 6/22/12: Solving #poverty in America - #Inequality #47% #99% vs #1%