A drive for data is killing schools

An article from yesterday's NYT detailing the plight of the new Principals within the NYC school system, and how well or not so well new Principals are doing.

As a teacher, I have argued that this drive for data and showing progress via data is counter-productive. A percentage from a standardized test means jack to me, I'm sorry.

Just today with the announcement of Sotomayor from the Obama Administration (boy was I wrong eh?!?! - DOH!) for the next Supreme Court Justice, we heard about this famous case ruling concerning firefighters. At issue was whether a government could take a standardized test that no African-American passed and use that to justify promotions.

Inherent bias has been known to happen in such "standardized" tests, and to judge a student's career on such tests is inherently unfair, unethical, unwise, and asinine.

As a Special Educator who does the initial testing to determine whether a student qualifies for Special Education services, I take my job extremely seriously and I take great pains to asses the child fairly, properly, and with the utmost care. This is because the minute I determine that X student needs Special Education services, that student is needing those services: a virtual label is slapped on their forehead for life. The fact that they were a Special Education student will be in their school record for life, and it will likely be in their medical records for life as most parents consult with their family pediatrician about such needs.

To say I take my responsibility serious, is an understatement of epic proportions. Some in my field, including some administrators do not get it, and they take the tests I do as gospel, and they rely far too easily and quickly on the numbers instead of looking INTO the data. And, quite honestly, I have been encouraged/told/forced to use the numbers to justify or make my case on some occasions.

A graft from the article: "Peter McNally, executive vice president of the principals’ union — which has generally supported the mayor’s reforms — said the biggest complaint from members was “that they spend more time looking at the data than in classrooms observing and supporting instruction.” Indeed, many had deep reservations about a system in which, as one principal put it, “my report card is my boss.”"

Principals here complaining about looking at data...well, yeah, that blows. Imagine being the poor bastard who had to subject his/her students to all that data gathering...it's not a lot of fun gathering the data and it's a ton of hard work for what tantamounts to what may be a marginally good, broad view of a student's ability in a given subject area or topic.

Transgendered law takes a hit

The Calif. State Supreme Court = douchebags.

The California voters said they didn't want gay marriage, so you went with it eh? If they voted to re-enslave all African Americans, would that be okay too? This ruling is sloppy, lazy, and bad law that will likely be used as precedent in some other ruling.

This totally lame ruling has set back transgendered rights in this country...

Mueller embraces the "sticky icky"

Within the past week FBI director Robert Mueller admitted in sworn testimony to the United States Congress that marijuana has never killed anyone.

Calling the SC Sweepstakes

If you're paying attention to political events as I do, you are probably aware of the impending Supreme Court vacancy, and thus, nominee from President Obama.

The six names/people being considered are well known to political junkies: U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.

The buzz in Washington is that Obama will announce his choice by Tuesday. Therefore, I feel it is my duty the blogosphere *chokes on his own self-importance* that I make my call for who I think Obama will take.

First, I hope it is NOT Napolitano. She hasn't much impressed me much, but even more so...Obama doesn't need the hassle of filling yet another Cabinet position. For that reason alone, I doubt she'll be picked.

My choice is simple: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Why?

1. She's Canadian born, which means there is no chance for this terrific woman to be elected into the Presidency.

2. Her second term as Governor is almost up, and she is term-limited, as decided by Michigan voters in a 1992 referendum.

3. She's a consensus builder, and I think that is a trait important to have when deciding on a Supreme Court candidate. I firmly believe Chief Justice Roberts will do a ton of damage during his likely long tenure because he is known as a consensus builder who and an affable fellow. This is how you get your policy/worldview to be more accepted by others, not by being a Scalia/Thomas firebrand.

4. She's only 50. Chief Justice John Roberts is 54, and it behooves Obama to pick someone young who can hang in there year after year with Roberts and at least try to give some balance.

5. She's got the street cred: Harvard Law School (J.D.) & University of California, Berkeley (B.A.).

6. Finally, since her term is essentially over, she has nowhere to go. She's not going to run for the US House of Representatives, as that would be a step down from being Governor. She can't run for Senate. Both Democratic Michigan Senators are entrenched in their seats (even with old Carl Levin being re-elected just this past fall).

Gov. Granholm is a bright star in the Democratic party and it's going to be a damn shame to lose her when her term is up. Let's put her to good use and make her a star in a more subtle way.

Cheney can suck on it

There 33 international terrorists currently held in supermax prisons on US soil; no one's ever escaped from a supermax prison...

I hate to admit, however, that yesterday's speech duel between Obama and Darth Cheney...the heart attack waiting to happen won.

Only because he has the ease to speak his mind, and be was able to be very direct about his views while mixing in some dubious lies, false choices, and whopper beliefs/delusions.

Dick was also blunt about supposed CIA documents he can claim back up his position, while not having the ability to access them....err...wait, he does have people around who would gladly get them to him to leak or leak them for him...turns out he must be lying because if he wasn't those documents would be splattered all over FoxSnooze by now.

No terrorist attacks since 9/11 eh Dick? Well, thanks for not paying attention so there actually WAS a 9/11.

Moreover, as statistical analysts know, correlation does not mean causation.

Still, Obama better hope NOTHING squeaks through...

An Obama Disappointment?

I was wondering why the auto industry seemingly caved so quickly to the announced new fuel standards they must reach by the year 2016. I sort of assumed that the Administration was able to pin their collective arms behind their back and push them into it, but apparently...as things go in Washington...looks can be deceiving.

According to this car expert?...there are some devilish details in the bill just signed into law that makes me much less enthused about the passage of the law. It seemingly has no serious impact due to some loopholes...hate loopholes.

I admittedly do not understand the technical mumbo-jombo jargon, but it sounds like car manufacturers can simply improve the efficiency of air conditioning units in automobiles, and not have to improve the fuel-efficiency.

Although, as the MythBusters have shown, just running the AC in a car does impact how fast said car burns through a tank of fuel. So, I would take this finding as gospel, but it does make one think about things.

Were calling this "sexting?"...seriously???

This phenomenon is terrific...I'm sorry, but it is.

This week there has been the story about this girl from a high school who was happy, popular, and all that crap (I'd find the link to story, but it's 3am and I'm busy eating Cheetos with a damn fork!)...well...she texted a nude picture of herself to her high school boy-toy and what do you know...the whole entire school ended up seeing her nude self.

She's distraught and she ends up whacking herself. Call me callous, as I can be, but this chick should get a nomination for the end of year Darwin Award. This is because one has to be INCREDIBLY daft to think that a high school boy, upon getting a nude pic of a hot girl texted to him, wouldn't send it along to his best buds...who would proceed to forward that son-bitch to the entire freaking state.

Well, now state governments and the federal government is looking at laws surrounding the "sexting."

For the record: I do not think "sexting" should be illegal in any way whatsoever.

For the record: I do not think the original recipient of the text of the nude young lady from the same lady should be prosecuted for child porn charges. That is unless, he does forward the pic onward to his friends. Then I'd be okay with some type of arrest record created, so he now has a file, be booked, and then given a fixed amount of community service upon his first offense (this goes for anyone else who forwards the picture on).

For the record: I support and endorse all students from grade 6 (maybe even earlier) to have yearly sexual education classes...no I mean real sexual education classes. The sex-ed classes we went to were such a joke it was ridiculous. And we were given some sex-ed in health class in high school, but it really should be it's own separate class with separate professional (I do NOT mean porn stars) teachers, and taught in sex-segregated rooms, with perhaps some activities that bring the two sexes together.

This includes frank discussion about masturbation, condom use, oral sex, anal sex, other ways to be intimate, the potential drawbacks to having sex (infections, diseases, a unit on babies), and the dangers of having ANY picture/video of you running around with your birthday suit on taken and how that could be disseminated to people you don't want to see it.

I continue to be tired of these parents not doing their bleeping job. But, perhaps we as a country should help them:

For the record: I am also for the establishment of night/weekend classes for parental units so they know how teens are able to communicate in the newly-wired world. Give parents at least some clue as to how quickly teens can find themselves in trouble, and give parents real, pro-active, and practical tools to help them help their children.

On the news a few nights ago, some expert said parents should monitor their text messages. Okay, the only way to do that really is see the itemized bill you may or may not get from the cell phone company and see what numbers texts were sent to and maybe the size of the text. There's really NO way to monitor text messages, like there was with e-mail where you could simply disconnect the internet connection when you went to sleep, or set up some kind of filter that sent a copy of all e-mails to you or something.

Alright...look...it's a damn shame this young woman had to off herself because some jackass sent the picture only meant for him to a few of his buds and it ended up going through the entire school. But, this is exactly what stupid teens who don't tend to think rationally need to hear...and by getting the message out there TRUTHFULLY about sex and the choices therein...we can mostly curtail this type of thing from happening.

Education, honest education (not right-wing religious psycho-babble about how if you touch your genitalia you're going to burn in hell for eternity), is the key here...not child-porn laws and laws about "sexting."

I think our law enforcement professionals have enough shit to worry about at this juncture.

Proof positive Obama IS keeping us safe

SUCK IT REPUBLICANS...and especially you...DICK!

Per the Talking Points Memo blog from Mr. Marshall: "four African-American Muslims were arrested this evening in New York City and charged with a plot to bomb a series of sites in city, including several synagogues."

Here's link to updated NY Times story.

The Cheney confessions

It's annoying, and frankly, disappointing that this fat lard ass feels the need to blab his mouth all over the television.

However, the scary part is that I don't think he's doing this for kicks, for the hell of it, or just to throw dirt in the eyes of the Obama Administration, I think he is yapping his fat trap because he honestly and truly believes what he he has cooking in the pot of crap he is stirring.

This is the scariest aspect of this display by the former Vice President.

Finally, FoxSnooze made a big deal about taking on the criticism he's gotten by liberals and Gore specifically by highlighting how Gore came out against the Dubya's policies in late 2002.

Fine, Gore may have been overstating by a bit when he said he didn't criticize the new Dubya Administration publicly for two years...he was a few months off (Jan 2001 to late 2002 is damn near 2 years tho).

But, that is certainly much longer than 100 freaking days into the new administration.

My goodness this man is psychotic and perhaps clinically delusional!

Newt the nominee?

Quietly, ever so quietly, Newt Gringrich has positioned himself as perhaps the leader of the Republican party when that fat fuck Limberger shuts his hole and lets the party move on closer to the 2012 Presidential election cycle.

Don't look now, but 365 days from now, the 2012 Republican race for the nominee will have started.

Likely players at this juncture include: Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul (their version of Ralph Nader), and I'd even say...Haley Barbour.

The only one of those who has been keeping his name in the papers/news, but doing so quietly is Newt. Newt came to popularity in 1994 with his "Contract with America," sweeping the Democrats out of the Congress after they rammed the gay/lesbian issues down Clinton's throat (sound familiar lefty loonies?).

He fell out of favour when he couldn't control his party and he was exposed for being a tremendous schmuck of a husband.

But look out for him making his triumphant return tour. He is constantly on FoxSnooze (I know because I see him every time I fly by that shithole) making what is most likely a sound, rational, reasonable argument for policy X, Y, and/or Z. He is a clever guy, do not discount him or demean him. He's crafty.

I don't think he'd be crafty enough to make it to the nominee status because of his past history. That is probably remembered by most American voters who were around back in the late 90s, but when the glare of the Presidential Campaign hits his dirty, ugly spots...he will hopefully be pushed aside by the Christian people in middle America who found his behavior towards both of his first two wives to be unforgivable.

No matter, however, as he can still prove to be dangerous. He may not be the nominee, but he could be a solid VP pick, and if not that, he can shape the debate in a clever way that can catch people's attention and cause them to vote Republican come 2012.

I'm just sayin'...

The Pelosi-Panetta Problem

The Repos are seemingly thinking that they are smelling blood in the water. I think it's possible there may be blood shed in this little dust-up, but I still think the Repos better be careful for they may reap what they sow. A few thoughts on this development:

1. Pelosi had better be telling the truth. I initially thought she was caught lying like a sailor, but after former Sen. Bob Graham came out and backed up her assertion that they were not told about water-boarding during the first briefing from the CIA, I tend to give her more credibility. However, if she's lying, she's toast, and she'll deserve to be toast.

2. New CIA Chief Leon Panetta says that the CIA did not mislead Pelosi and others during that initial briefing back in 2002. Okay, what else would he say...really?! He just got into the job, he has to back up his men publicly even if he believes they screwed the pooch here. Moreover, this is the case because Cheney still has some people who he has influence with in the inner-workings of that agency, and Panetta needs to win them over. Bashing the former administration and stabbing your people in the back isn't a way for a new Director to win friends, and curry favor for things he may need later down the line. So, what Panetta says is no surprise to me.

3. According to the documents I've seen/heard about, the CIA put out the notes they had from the briefing. A couple easy points here to combat these notes which seem to damn Pelosi:

a. There is that possibility that the CIA has falsified these "notes." I find it particularly appalling and pathetic that Repos are going around saying the CIA would NEVER lie to them during a briefing, or even mislead them. Hello! They are the C-I-fucking-A...that's what they do! They are in the business of lies and deception. Goodness, how obtuse!

b. From what I recall, the documents say something fairly vague about the mention of enhanced interrogation techniques being used and the mention of that during the briefing. Okay, this could be anything, and the CIA briefers could have just not mentioned water-boarding as one of those "techniques." There was nothing in those documents that specifically stated that water-boarding was discussed, so to assume that it was discussed is patently unfair to Pelosi and those who were given the briefing.

I wonder if it's possible that a CIA puppet briefing controlled largely by the strings attached in the then Vice President's office could have been essentially a sham....hmmmmmm...tough call there. NOT!

We know the country was lied into a war against Saddam and Iraq, centering on WMD. If they would lie their way into an unjust, unfounded war for kicks, what would stop the Dubya administration from either lying/misleading during a CIA briefing and/or falsifying documents/notes from said briefing?

Pelosi is now calling for a clearing of the air, and I hope she gets the Repos to bite. If they bite, this will get ugly, but not for Dems...it will get ugly for the Repos and it will cause the Cheney story to dominate the political landscape for months, if not years. This would be helpful to an Obama re-election, but also to the President getting his agenda passed through without much fuss.

More on Cheney in a moment.

Here comes the Loony Left!

One could predict this occurrence like one could predict the rising sun in the morn: The loony left has finally begun to squawk.

As they did to Bill Clinton, the loony left is making a big stink about an issue that most of America is not ready for...Transgenders, especially those in the military.

Clinton made a foolish, foolish mistake early on in his Presidency by giving these loony lefties the time of day and throwing them a bone, which turned out to be a colossal failure and was supported by no one: Don't ask, don't tell.

Whatever these loony lefties want, Obama will do wise to ignore them and use intermediaries to tell them to shut the fuck up.

I am a left leaning liberal myself, as I have often noted on these digital pages, and I completely support the rights of transgenders to marry, adopt, have coitus on the White House lawn, and generally exist without being harassed by the lesser of our beings. However, Obama has a historic chance here to ram home some serious democrat policy that has the potential to shape America for decades to come.

Policy that will show why Democrats should be in charge, and policy that shows that regulation is not a dirty word and it can often be a great thing for the Average Joe American.

Once we get these basics passed through the Congress, and once the economy turns completely around and Obama appears for an easy landslide re-election, THEN we can attack the soft underbelly of the social conservatives by putting forth policy that would give sweeping rights and privileges to our Transgendered friends and enacting other liberal social policies (legalizing marijuana, etc).

So, please loony left...tone down your pressure on Obama. He is but one man. A man who has a ton of shit to clean up after, and you giving him crap is NOT going to help him be as successful as he can be as our President.

A government employee to be proud of!

The next time you find yourself in a hellish argument with some right-wing whacko who is droning on and on about how government employees are the laziest and worst kind of employees, feel free to trot out the example of one former FDA Commissioner David Kessler.

While Commissioner, this man dumpster dived to find the ugly truth behind the food industries products when they were unwilling to hand over the goods on how they made their products.

Yes, a government employee, a high-level one at that, dumpster dived...willingly...now THAT'S going beyond the call of duty folks!!!! Bravo David!