Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
It's Only A "Culture War" When They Lose
Steve, with respect to a bunch of social reactionaries being shocked, shocked that Obama would follow through on his explicit campaign promises regarding the abortion gag rule and stem cell research, asks:
Obama has weighed in on some culture-war issues, lifting the global gag-rule, beginning the process to scrap "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and yesterday ending Bush-era restrictions on stem-cell research. All of these steps, to my mind, were encouraging.
But they were also entirely predictable. Candidate Obama said he would take these steps, and sure enough, President Obama is doing just that. It makes sense for conservatives to voice their disapproval, but why are they shocked?
The answer, of course, is that Tony Perkins et al. aren't surprised at all. Rather, they understand that the Politico is a sucker for stories about how liberals are "inflaming the culture wars." Apparently, there was no culture war inflammation when George Bush enacted his silly (and ludicrously incoherent) stem cell policy, but for Obama to reverse this policy certainly does. It doesn't make any sense, but that's not the point; these cultural reactionaries understand their media audience.
And this is yet another reminder about why talk about ending the culture wars doesn't make much sense. People disagree about issues; that's what politics as about, and glossing over this fact has the distinct tendency to perpetuate existing injustices.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
The Washington Generals scored occasionally, too
Anyone notice Putz's absolute boner for Chris Dodd (try a ctrl-f search for "Dodd" on his front page)? Yes, Dodd is in trouble. Yes, the GOP might actually pick up a Democratic-held seat in 2010. Way to go, guys! One pickup in three Senate elections is great! Read that last sentence in the condescending tone usually reserved for people who finish out of the medals at the Special Olympics.
But seriously, GOP, way to go! Too bad Dodd only holds one seat, or his potential defeat could make up for the fact that you can jam a fork in Specter, kiss Martinez's open Florida seat goodbye, and, well, if there's anything important Richard Burr (NC) wants to get done he might want to do it soon.
Democratic Pickups, 2006/2008: MT, MO, RI, OH, PA, VA (x 2), OR, AK, MN, CO, NM, NC, NH
Republican Pickups, 2006/2008: *crickets*....but Chris Dodd might have a challenger soon!
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Ask Me To Do...Well, Nothing, But Still
Via Hilzoy and Somerby, I'm afraid that this is not from The Onion:
My taste for luxury has evolved somewhat—I'm not nearly as taken with the M&Ms in the mini bar—but on entering a hotel room, I still immediately review the room-service menu, bask in the prospect of fresh, silky sheets, and inspect the bathroom to ensure I have fluffy, clean towels for every possible need. Then I spy one of those little placards, nestled among the tiny soaps or hanging from the towel rack, asking me to reuse my linens: "Save Our Planet … Every day millions of gallons of water are used to wash towels that have only been used once … Please decide for yourself." And, like that, my hotel buzz fizzles.Well, it's bad enough that hotels provide the option of not having their sheets and towels washed daily for people who don't want the service. But to note (truthfully) that their interests happen to provide environmental benefits -- I think we can all agree that the managers of luxury hotels are history's greatest monsters.I'll admit that I sometimes choose not to participate in this program and request fresh towels and sheets every day. Before you write in scolding me for being a wasteful person, let me qualify that by saying it's not the program, in theory, I'm against. I'm all for saving the environment. But I don't want to be guilt-tripped into going green. It's the two-facedness of it that gets me—save our planet! Conserve our resources! It's up to you, hotel guest. Forsake that washcloth (or two!), or those crisp sheets that are your right when you pay for the room, and to what end—so the hotel can save money on laundry? How many natural resources are wasted printing all of these little signs? [Now that's a rigorous and highly plausible cost-benefit analysis! --ed.] Here's an idea: Instead of printing out a placard for every room in the hotel, wash my towel.
I was going to ask why on earth Slate would publish such a thing, but, I dunno, it's kind of nice to have a definitive example of "I wish the world was a better place as long as it doesn't affect me in any way and I don't have to do anything or even have my pristine mind troubled by any negative facts" fake-progressivism readily at hand.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Finally, something more ridicluous than wingnut tea parties
So there's a gathering of climate change skeptics taking place in NY. Since there isn't a plushie convention rivaling for the public's attention, the Times finds the International Conference on Climate Change to be newsworthy. There's almost too much to mock, but this seems to capture the essential foolery of the event:
Many participants said that . . . the global recession and a series of years with cooler temperatures [ahem] would help them in combating changes in energy policy in Washington.Because really -- few attributes establish one's real world bonafides than the qualifying credentials, "spokesman on environmental issues for Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma."
“The only place where this alleged climate catastrophe is happening is in the virtual world of computer models, not in the real world,” said Marc Morano, a speaker at the meeting and a spokesman on environmental issues for Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.
Looking further at the list of conference sponsors, bemusement is the appropriate response. Aside from the a roster of lobbying groups that corporate media continue to forgivingly describe as "think tanks," we're reminded once more of how pathetic the Congress of Racial Equality has become since Roy Innis decided that ExxonMobil was the greatest corporate friend that people of African descent have ever known. I've been thinking about the history of US social movements, and I can't find a similar example of an organization that descended as far down the well as CORE has over the past 40 years. I realize that it's a stretch to describe CORE any longer as an organization -- unless we define "organization" as "Roy Innis and the crazy people with whom he shares his skull" -- but still.....
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
For donviti and other Americans in hard times: because good writing is good writing wherever you find it....
I don't think we're going into the Second Great Depression, but I know that times are tough for a lot of my fellow citizens, and a lot of them are really scared we'll end up in the crapper.
But even if this is the prelude to a Second Great Crash, it's sort of a three-D technicolor crash, with the same happy plastic people on the TV advertisements offering much the same crap that nobody wants or can afford any more. And the story the other night on NBC News about tent cities springing up across the nation was somehow viscerally less convincing because it was in digitally enhanced color rather than the sepia tones of the faded old photos of the Hoovervilles. I don't say that to be insensitive, but I have come to realize the most people think that history before, say, the 1960s, occurred in black-and-white.
And we've also cheapened the written word, primarily because any yo-yo like me can access the internet and achieve an audience. So it is important, from time to time, to remember what really first-rate writers can do to evoke the feeling of quiet desperation of tough economic times.
Here's Arthur Schlesinger Jr. from The Crisis of the Old Order:
Across the country the dismal process was beginning, ushering in a new life for millions of Americans. In the twenties wage earners in general had found ample employment, satifaction in life, hope for the future. Now came the slowdown--only three days of work a week, then perhaps two, then the layoff. and then the search for a new job--at first vigorous and hopeful; then sober; then desperate; the long lines before the employment offices, the eyes straining for words of hope on the chalked boards, the unending walk from one plant to the next, the all-night wait to be first for possible work in the morning. And the inexorable news, brusque impersonality concealing fear: "No help wanted here" ... "We don't need nobody" ... "Move along, Mac, move along."
And so the search continued, as clothes began to wear out and shoes to fall to pieces. Newspapers under the shirt would temper the winter cold, pasteboard would provide new inner soles, cotton in the heels of the shoe would absorb the pounding on the pavement, gunny sacks wrapped around the feet would mitigate the long hours in the frozen fields outside the factory gates. And in the meantime savings were trickling away. By now the terror began to infect the family. Father, no longer cheery, now at home for long hours, irritable, guilty, a little frightened. Sometimes the mother looked for work as domestic, chambermaid or charwoman; or the children worked for pennies after school, not understanding the fear that was touching them, knowing that they must do what they could to help buy bread and coffee.
As savings end, borrowing begins. If there is life insurance, borrowing on that, until it lapses; then loans from relatives and from friends; then the life of credit, from the landlord, from the corner grocer, until the lines of friendship and compassion are snapped. Meat vanishes from the table; lard replaces butter; father goes out less often, is terribly quiet; the children begin to lack shoes, their clothes are ragged, their mothers are ashamed to send them to school. Wedding rings are pawned, the furniture is sold, the family moves into ever cheaper, damper, dirtier rooms. In a Philadelphia settlement house a little boy of three cried constantly in the spring of 1930; the doctor examined him and found that he was slowly starving. One woman complained that when she had food her two small children could barely eat; they had become accustomed to so little, she said, that their stomachs had shrunk. In November the apple peddlers began to appear on cold street corners, their threadbare clothes brushed and neat, their forlorn pluckiness emphasizing the anguish of being out of work. And every night that fall hundreds of men gathered on the lower level of Wacker Drive in Chicago, feeding fires with stray pieces of wood, their coat collars turned up against the cold, their caps pulled down over their ears, staring without expression at the black river, while above the automobiles sped comfortably along, bearing well-fed men to warm and well-lit homes. In the mining areas families lived on beans, without salt or fat. And every week, every day, more workers joined the procession of despair, The shadows deepened in the cark cold rooms, with father angry and helpless and ashamed, the distraught children too often hungry or sick, and the mother, so resolute by day, so often, when the room was finally still, lying awake in bed at night, softly crying.
That is what a master does with words, and why some sets of words are worth far more than a thousand pictures.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
OK, now somebody explain this one to me....
.... the greed of the wealthy is cited as having caused the Great Meltdown, and the best that the Obama administration can come up with is subsidizing the risks of hedge-fund investors to underwrite the recovery (while continuing to demonize them publicly for making too much money):
From WaPo:
The government is seeking to resuscitate the nation's crippled financial system by forging an alliance with the very outfits that most benefited from the bonanza preceding the collapse of the credit markets: hedge funds and private-equity firms.
The initiative to revive the consumer lending business, outlined by officials this week, offers these wealthy investors a new chance to make sizable profits -- but, thanks to the government, without the risk of massive losses.
The idea is to entice them to put their huge cash piles to work to stimulate the financial system. They would be invited to buy up recently issued, highly rated securities. These securities finance consumer lending, such as credit cards and student and auto loans.
The program, which could involve the government lending nearly $1 trillion to these investors, exceeds the size of every other federal effort to address the crisis so far. The initiative's approach could be the model for future federal efforts to aid the credit markets, sources familiar with government planning said. Officials call this strategy a "public-private partnership," but in essence the government is offering good deals to private investors to draw them into its rescue efforts.
I can't wait to see Paul Krugman, Mark Zandi, or Robert Reich explaining this one.
But I'm not holding my breath to see my liberal and progressive friends in the Delaware blogosphere dealing with this one.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
New Majority vs. Glenn Reynolds
Compare:
PSJust sitting here watching a tape of Cantor on CNN this a.m. w/ John King, I have to say, I think the GOP is being foolish in using the stock market woes to hammer Obama.
Sure, his policies or lack thereof are part of it. But there are numerous other factors too (one being the tidal wave of redemptions hitting hedge funds which the media is either unaware of or loathe to mention).
But here's the thing. Putting aside the fact that the 21% decline in the S&P-500 since Obama's Inauguration isn't that much bigger than the 18% or so back in 2001 from Bush's Inauguration to this same point in time, what is the GOP gonna say when the market inevitably bottoms, turns and rallies with a vengeance (even if it's only a counter-trend move of several months)? Are they then gonna say, well ok, it looks like the market is showing that Obama's policies are the right ones and are instilling confidence?
Guess who looks like a putz today?
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Republican Congressman Ron Paul on CNN with D.L. Hughley
Overall, Ron Paul is a consistent well-reasoned voice in the Republican Party today.
You don't have to agree with everything to understand his overall message on most key issues is right-on.
We should listen to him and take up his cause.
(h/t Shirley from Delaware Curmudgeon, who says she laughed that he said Cong. Paul "is too human to be Republican." Stick around, D.L., there are more of us on the way.)
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Not the Rules
Aye. Not the rules, but rather the policies that the rules enabled. Important distinction.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Democrats don't have votes for budget
The Hill:
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Tuesday that President Obama's budget plan doesn't have enough support from lawmakers right now to win approval.Cap and trade will be a political disaster for Democrats if it does pass. There are other issues with this budget. They will have to take out the Cuba trade provision to get at least two votes. Then there are all the earmarks that opponents are hitting.
Conrad said that he has spoken to enough colleagues with reservations about several different provisions in the budget that he thinks Congress won't pass it, at least in its present form.
Conrad urged White House budget director Peter Orszag not to "draw lines in the sand" with lawmakers, most notably on Obama's plan for a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions.
"Anybody who thinks it will be easy to get the votes on the budget in the conditions that we face is smoking something," Conrad said Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee.
...
Update: The Washington Post reports that the budget has been passed by the Senate.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Posturing
Yeah, I think it's safe to say that Wells Fargo will be giving back their bailout money on the same day that Mr. and Dr. Instapundit "go Galt." Coincidentally. this will be the same day that I win "America's Next Top Model."
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Alex Harrowell has a couple of interesting posts on the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, one at Fistful of Euros and the other at Yorkshire Ranter. The point is essentially this; the Soviets executed the withdrawal more competently that just about any other aspect of the war, and it worked out really well for them. The government that they left in place survived for another three years, and only collapsed when Soviet support ended in 1992.
In fact, the withdrawal was about the best idea the Soviets had in Afghanistan. Having decided to go, they pursued a policy of building up the Afghan government, changing the military strategy to one based on defending the bulk of the population and leaving the mountain wilds to the enemy, pouring in aid of all kinds, negotiation with those who were willing, and leaving a strong advisory mission in place.
I recall at the time that predictions of the survival of the Soviet-sponsored Afghan government were measured in weeks or in months, but it turned out that the opposition split, foreign support for the rebels vanished, and the regime was able to win several crucial military victories. Nobody talked much about this after 1989, because nobody really cared much about Afghanistan. I'm thinking that the United States and Europe could do much, much worse than what the Soviets managed; Harrowell thinks (perhaps only half-jokingly) that the Soviet general who managed the post-withdrawal advisory mission should be tracked down and consulted on the future of the NATO mission. A Soviet style operation would concede certain facts about Afghanistan; the central government will never have much control over the hinterland, and a liberal democratic regime is unlikely to exist in any thing but name, but it may be past time to think about such concessions.
Cross-posted to TAPPED.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
"The Anti-Bono" (from The New York Times)
A well-educated native of Zambia, Dambisa Moyo, claims that much of the aid to Africa is counterproductive. While counter-intuitive, this is correct. One does not solve systemic economic problems by throwing money at them (as liberals typically do). One must understand the underlying cultural and historical forces that shape economies (an essentially conservative insight). P.T. Bauer argued years ago that state to state foreign aid seldom accomplishes its goals and often establishes the opposite of its its goals, since money ends up in the wrong hands for the wrong purposes.
None of this is reason to ceasing caring about the millions of refugees, hungry, and oppressed in Africa (and elsewhere). Rather, one should give (and loan) wisely. The more personal and relational the ministry is, the more is demands responsibility, the better it can serve the world's poor and marginalized. In fact, we serve Jesus Christ himself as we serve "the least of these" (Matthew 25).
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Voter ID battle heats up in Texas
Houston Chronicle:
One of the most politically divisive fights the Legislature will confront this year gets its first full-fledged airing today as state senators have it out over whether voters should be required to show photo identification or other documentation every time they cast a ballot.I don't buy the Democrat argument. When I go in to vote I carry my voter registration card in the same wallet I carry my drivers' license and other ID. If only Democrats don't have valid ID, their organizers can get them valid IDs when they are registering them. The only real reason to oppose this bill is to facilitate vote fraud.On one side are Republicans who contend the change would protect the integrity of Texas elections and abate any possibility of voter impersonation and fraud. Democrats proffer a different view: The move is nothing more than an attempt to suppress votes by minorities, the elderly and disabled.
Texas Democratic senators successfully blocked a voter photo identification bill in 2007. This year, Republicans made it a priority; it’s among the first bills they’ve decided to debate.
Seven states already have laws requiring voter photo identification, though none have experienced widespread voter disenfranchisement or exposed significant voter fraud.
“This is about Republicans scaring off just enough eligible elderly, disabled, blacks and Hispanics to stay in power four more years, plain and simple,” said Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, of the Republican proposal.
Republican Caucus Chairman Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, said the bill is simply about ending voter fraud.
“We know voter impersonation is taking place. It’s been well documented. It’s going to come out in the hearings,” he said.
...
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
AFL-CIO Union Execs Hold Winter Meeting at Luxury Miami Resort
I've never "believed" in unions, but aren't people at various jobs forced to join unions and pay dues?
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Political Analysis with Statistics and R Code?
I couldn't believe. Nate Silver's blog is pure awesome when it comes to showing off math. Looks like the image is hosted on www.stat.columbia.edu, also.
From:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/03/how-went-2008-election-looking-only-at.html
Interesting graphs:
Code and methodology are sourced from here.
Proof that voters in CA and NY have generally lost their minds across all incomes. (I'm making the assumption that limited-government types vote republican, even though the republicans are responsible for this massive big government monstrosity we have today.)
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Interesting article on the economic situation
There is an interesting article as a guest post on Hopi Sen's site on the economy. It makes the sensible point that the consumer-debt-fulled spending of 2000-7 can not continue and that, as such, there may well be a significant shrinkage in the economy. The role of the government is to alleviate that by spending money on poverty relief and on more capital spending.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Selangor Water Restructuring Briefing
The State Assemblyman for Kg Tunku, Lau Weng San will be organizing a Public Briefing on:
"The Restructuring Process of Selangor Water Industry"The briefing is to provide detailed explanations to the public about the restructuring effort of the water services industry in Selangor. Of late, four major water concessionaires, namely Syabas, Slash, Puncak Niaga and Abass have decided to turn to the Federal Government to negotiate for a better deal which could result in higher water tariff (as high as 37% according to agreement) for the people of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
Date: 4th March 2009 (Wed)
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya.
The public briefing will be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia and English. Please forward this notice to other interested parties. Our panelists from the Water Review Panel appointed by the Selangor State Government will be present to brief the public. Speakers will include Tony Pua and Charles Santiago, MPs for Petaling Jaya Utara and Klang.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Click Yer Links, Putz.
On the surface, there's not much surprising about this:
MICHAEL YON: Victory in Iraq: Next Stop, Afghanistan.
Yeah, I know. What's funny is that Yon's own words inadvertently belie Putz's rah rah spurt! jingoistic tendencies.
Please keep in mind that whenever I publish in a magazine or newspaper, the editors chose the title and blurb.
Duh.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
The Rocky Mountain News: RIP
I was surprised to learn today from my good friend Tony Weedor that The Rocky Mountain News published its last newspaper today, February 27, 2009. Newspapers are in deep decline around the country, and the paper had been for sale for several months; but I did not know its demise was imminent.
The Rocky was the more conservative of the two local papers, and sported a fine editorial page editor (Vincent Carroll) and religion reporter (Jean Torkelson). I know both of them. Mr. Carroll published many of my editorials over the years (and rejected some as well) and Ms. Torkelson often called me for comments on religion-oriented stories. Unlike too many journalists, they were fair-minded and enjoyable to work with. I also wrote a number of book reviews for the paper since moving to Denver in 1993. (But more recently, I have been reviewing more books for The Denver Post.)
This paper was nearly 150 years old. It's passing marks a sad stage in American journalism. Periodical print media simply cannot compete with the Internet. We will likely see papers go under around the country in the next few years. Most news on line is free and more up to date than a paper can be. And yet, and yet... Having a paper, an object, with heft and smell and feel is something irreplaceable. Moreover, while the Internet opens up a myriad of perspectives (including my own in new ways), few of these organs have the sense of authority that the better newspapers carried with them as longstanding institutions.
So, goodbye to The Rocky Mountain News. I wish the best for Jean Torkelson and Vincent Carroll, wherever they end up.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Now for Something Completely Different...
Singer, songwriter, Suzanne Vega reflects on the meaning of melody. She says little about jazz, but some of the most beautiful are Coltrane's performance of "I Want to Talk about You" (the cadenza of live versions is breath-taking) and Monk's, "Round Midnight."
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Not here. There.
I'm re-running a long-cherished argument that I've tried out a few times here - but doing it over at Common Endeavour.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Policeman murdered in Craigavon
It's not all over yet then....
Update: apparently all political parties were straight on TV, united in condemning it.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Reynolds vs. Frum
Compare:
SO I’M AT CPAC, helping with the PJTV coverage. The atmosphere here is surprisingly cheerful — people don’t look defeated, but engaged and much happier-seeming than when I was here in 2006 for a book-signing.And contrast:
We are gradually shrinking from our former ambition—to govern—and taking our pleasure instead in alienation and complaint. Those journalists who cover the conservative world are surprised by how relieved and happy conservatives seem to be about having lost the 2008 election. No more irritating compromises, no more boring policy debates! We can recline into the pure assertion of conservative dogma, a job nobody does better than Rush Limbaugh himself. As Limbaugh told the CPAC crowd: We need no new policy ideas.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Clearly, I'm not paying enough attention to NewsBusters.
Snark goldmine, that place.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Ben Goldacre v LBC
Too busy to say anything other than this: Ben deserves your support.
Read the whole thing.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Dreher, cont.
In the post Scott mentioned earlier, Dreher insists that the jarring juxtaposition that occasioned many readers to question his values and priorities, has been the subject of a significant misinterpretation. It's the surprisingness of the "bisexuality is cool" claim that motivated his post, not it's relative wrongness.
Many commenters remain, understandably, unpersuaded by his effort to explain his bizarre post. But it's necessary to take Dreher at his word to fully grasp the depravity of his position. So let's grant him: a) that a remark by one (horribly traumatized) parent is sufficient evidence to to grant that bisexuality is indeed "cool" in the high school culture of one East Texas town, and b) that while this doesn't rise to the level of parricide in an index of moral wrongs, it is a disturbing and troubling trend that suggests something that was once right with the world has gone wrong.
The nature of the typical experience of non-heterosexual adolescents in our schools and our society is hardly a secret. The ostracization and bullying of those suspected to be non-heterosexual takes an enormous pyschological toll, and has life and death consequences, as evidenced higher rates of depression and suicide amongst non-heterosexual youth. They typically live in fear: fear that something is horribly wrong with them, fear of being rejected by their friends and family, and fear of violence. But: in one small town, at least for some non-heterosexual youth, there's a chance this status quo might be changing. For anyone whose moral worldview contains any compassion, changes to this horrific status quo are a sign of hope. For Dreher, it's the precise opposite.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Megan McCain, guilty godless traitor.
The circular firing squad gets bigger.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Candid Conservatism
February 27, 2009, 8:10 a.m.
(brought to you by FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com*)
How did half of our nation’s population – the half that defines itself as conservative or moderate with conservative leanings – come to believe that it was ok to lie on a mortgage application? To put together thousands of loans into securities that were so complex that the printed documentation spanned thousands of pages? To sell a mortgage to a consumer knowing full well they could not pay? To sell a security out the front door to a customer, while shorting it in the next room?-- Karl Denninger, "Remarks of Ticker Guy," Market Ticker, February 26, 2009.
How is it that our government has become so corrupt that Stanford Financial, now accused of a massive fraud spanning more than a decade, gave $250,000 to the Republican Senatorial Campaign – and nearly a million to the Democrats? Their lobbying successfully killed a bill that might have uncovered their alleged fraud years ago – in a Senate Committee. Partly as a consequence, over $8 billion in uninsured CDs held by Americans appears to have disappeared. Someone clearly got the best government money can buy, but it certainly wasn’t us.
How did Congress look the other way while our nation’s leaders – allegedly conservatives themselves – locked senators and representatives in a room one dark September night and predicted the end of the world unless Henry Paulson was given a blank check for $700 billion dollars that this nation did not have and would have to borrow?
We have descended the economic slope to where we are today because we, as Americans and conservatives, were willing to tolerate “just one little lie” in the pursuit of profit. As we have now seen, one little lie, repeated often enough, becomes one gigantic mess.
Who is this guy? Some Republican-bashing lefty?
Not at all.
Karl Denninger, with his "The Market Ticker: Commentary on the Capital Markets" blog, is a knowledgeable market analyst and self-professed conservative. He won an award last evening from "Accuracy in Media," AIM, which I knew of years ago when involved with media reform because AIM was then taking aim at what its leader, Reed Irvine, characterized as "the liberal media." The excerpts quoted above are from Denninger's speech to AIM last evening.
Like Denninger, I too think of myself as far more pragmatist than ideologue. There are plenty of directions in which to point fingers, and I -- and apparently Denninger as well -- think it's long past time politicians get beyond the very generous campaign contributions from their "friends" in the financial community and start doing more of that finger pointing. The diversion of focusing on the millions CEOs are spending on parties and planes is only blinding us to the trillions the politicians are continuing to give them. See, Nicholas Johnson, "Why We Should 'Point Fingers' and 'Look Backwards,'" January 13, 2009.
_______________
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source -- even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Monday, March 9, 2009
Your Voice of the Year 2008 goes to ...
... Malaysian Bloggers! Readers of the Malay Mail, the country's oldest English-language daily, see fit to give the award to practitioners of the new media! The award was presented to Dr M @ chedet. Read Voices that Count and here.
And RTM has decided to appoint this blogger as its new Director-General!
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Like getting lectured on parenting by Chris Benoit
Sure, Benoit is an outdated reference at this point. But it's the first thing that comes to mind when I hear Jim Cramer lecturing us (and the President) on solving the economic crisis. Keep the hits coming, Jim. We await your wisdom with bated breath.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Rethink Obama's Claim
From Obama's speech Tuesday night:
"As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by Presidents Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets, not because I believe in bigger government -- I don't..." (italics added).
Given his voting record, given his campaign promises, there is no reason to believe this claim that he does not believe in bigger government. He just authorized the largest outlay of federal funds in history; he wants to socialize medicine. Please do not be deceived by his image. Consider his actions and his principles. They all point in the direction a massive increase in the federal government and a diminishing of individual liberties.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Our biggest creditor once again tells us what not to do....
... or at least that's the conclusion you might draw after this warning from the wizened old men in Bejing has received international coverage without a single statement in response from our State Department:
BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) - China's foreign minister, speaking ahead of two sensitive anniversaries next week, warned other countries on Saturday not to let the Dalai Lama use their territory to try to sever Tibet from Chinese control.
Beijing abruptly cancelled a China-EU summit last year, angry over French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader whom Beijing condemns as a separatist.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in March 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, says he only wants greater autonomy for the remote region in China's far west rather than outright independence.
"In developing relations with China, other countries should not allow the Dalai Lama to visit their countries and should not allow their territories to be used for the Dalai Lama to engage in separatist activities for Tibet's independence," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.
"I think this is an integral part of the norms governing international relations," he told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament.
Oh, wait, I did find a statement from Hillary Clinton about Tibet:
I am deeply concerned about the violent clashes that have erupted in Lhasa, Tibet. Based on the limited information available, there is an urgent need for all parties, and in particular the Chinese security forces, to exercise restraint, to demonstrate respect for human rights and to protect civilians from danger. I call on the Chinese government to prevent further escalation of this conflict and to urgently pursue resolution through peaceful means.
Oops, sorry, never mind.
That statement was made by Senator Clinton, not Secretary Clinton, in March 2008, not 2009.
I will repeat my observation: China is now the only lender capable of helping us keep our economy afloat (which is what Paul Krugman and Robert Reich have been saying for months), and you do not get to criticize your largest creditor.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Email Investigation -- Obama Administration Wants it Dismissed
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/22/1254248
More proof that he's working for the same people the last guy was.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Reforming Rockefeller
This kind of reform of draconian drug laws is, admittedly, a second best option. lower maximum sentences along with the treatment option would be preferable. Just increasing judicial discretion doesn't always mean less draconian penalties and also makes the process more arbitrary (a particular danger where the War on (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs is concerned.) Still, if it passes it's certainly better than the status quo.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Offer to Water Concessionaires Sabotaged
As highlighted in the earlier blog post, the Selangor Government's offer to acquire the assets and concessions from the privatised water companies in the state was sabotaged by the Federal Government in a most shocking manner, and it certainly reeks of another mega bailout for failed privatisation projects.
The Selangor Members of Parliaments involved in the above acquisition exercise issued another statement yesterday to the above effect, as follows:
Federal Government Sabotaged Offer by Selangor Government to Acquire Water Assets and Concession in the State
The Selangor state government made an offer to 4 privatised water service providers – Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), SYABAS, SPLASH and ABASS to acquire their water assets and concessions on the 13th February 2009.
The combined RM5.71 billion offered was made with the objective to deliver the lowest possible water tarriffs for the residents of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. At the same time, the offer was consistent with, and guided by the terms and conditions specified in the concession agreements signed willingly by all parties involved. It was a comprehensive offer because it encompasses the audited asset value of all water-related assets as well as a very fair and reasonable return to the capital invested by the respective concessionaires.
However, before the concessionaires are able to respond to the state government's offer by the 20th February, we are shocked that the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications, via Dato Teo Yen Hua, CEO of National Water Services Commission (SPAN) announced on the 18th February that the Federal Government will proceed to negotiate directly with the water concessionaires.
Instead of supporting the state's offer, SPAN intentionally threw a spanner in the works to sabotage the Selangor state's attempt at delivering the lowest possible water tarriffs to her people.
For with an alternative competing offer which will not only encompass higher cash valuation but also more lucrative terms and conditions from the Federal Government, SPAN has single-handedly destroyed any likelihood of a positive response from the concessionaires to the state government.
Therefore with SPAN's interference, it was not surprising that the concessionaires rejected the state government's offer on 20th February, last Friday. We will like to call upon the Minister to explain the actions of his Ministry for sabotaging the efforts of the Selangor State Government.
We will like to reiterate our position that if the offer from the Federal Government to acquire these assets and concessions at the same or lower price than what the Selangor state government has offered, we will not only agree to letting the Federal Government lead the negotiations, but also provide the Ministry with our full support and co-operation.
If however, the Ministry offers the concessionaires a much higher cash value for its assets as well as lucrative license terms for them to continue as the water operators in the state, the Minister must explain why he is forsaking the rights and interest of 7.3 million population of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
We will also like to emphasize to the Minister that under the law, particularly the Water Services Industry Act 2006, as well as the terms of the current concession contracts, the Selangor state is a counter-party to all previous and future agreements. Hence the attempt by the Federal Government to unilaterally negotiate with the concessionaires is illegal and will be subjected to future dispute and complications.
Therefore, we call upon the Federal Government to respect the rights of the State and let the Selangor Government proceed with the negotiations with the concessionaires in the interest of the people of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Where the $200,000+ Crowd Lives
http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/106659/Where-the-200K-Crowd-Lives
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Heckuva job, Heath.
Now that we've clobbered the GOP, we need to focus on Democrats like Shuler.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
LGM Tourney Challenge
I have created an ESPN Tournament Challenge group; winner receives an LGM related prize. Speaking of which, the owner of the Knows Pickers, victor of LGM Bowl Mania, has yet to contact me with his/her address info. If you're out there...
Group Name: Lawyers, Guns and Money
Password: zevon
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
At Least Noon Was Only Joking...
David Weigel uncovers some entertaining new information about internets legend Donald Luskin:
Luskin, who named his daughter Roark after the hero of Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead,” sees basic economic concepts explained through the novelist’s work. “One of the reasons that the Laffer Curve works [sic] is because of the John Galt effect of creative people finding ways to cut back on their output if they know they’re going to be taxed, and demonized, for their success,” he said.Looks like young John Galt Dagny Roark Rearden Noon will have an instant playmate if Dave decides to take the family to New York!
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Pakistan's casual killers
Sunday Times:
What it really shows is that Pakistan has been far to casual in dealing with these casual killers. They have looked the other way for too long at the groups of mass murderers for Allah because they thought they were more a threat to external enemies than to themselves. I don't think it is too late for Pakistan to get serious about the threat of the Islamic religious bigots, but deals like the one in Swat suggest they have not made that commitment yet.THE grainy CCTV footage showing the escape of the Lahore killers has none of the drama of an action movie getaway, yet all the atmosphere of a Hitchcock film. Less than four minutes after blasting a tour by the Sri Lanka cricket team into carnage, the perpetrators are seen strolling calmly through the narrow back streets of Liberty market.
It is their nonchalance that is most chilling. One sequence shows a man arriving on a motorbike in a deserted street. Two others with guns slung over their shoulders mount the bike, which drives off. They look like men confident of not being caught.
Minutes earlier, at 8.40am on Tuesday, they had shocked the nation and the world by ambushing the Sri Lankan team bus, dealing a lethal blow to Pakistan’s national sport. Coming soon after a deal with militants that handed control of the one-time tourist haven of the Swat valley to the Taliban, the attack set off alarm bells from London to Washington about the potential collapse of the nuclear-armed country.
...
The Independent on Sunday also discusses the dangers of Pakistan.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
The Moral Low Ground
When your moral principles dictate that state coercion be used to force a 9-year old girl to seriously risk her life by giving birth to her rapist's child, you really need to get new moral principles.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Worry about Mexico's criminal insurgency teaming with terrorist
The Hill:
Members of Congress are raising the alarm that war-like conditions on the Mexican border could lead to Mexican drug cartels helping terrorists attack the U.S.The Mexican criminal insurgency has very few inhibitions. It has copied some of its terrorist tactics from the Islamic terrorist of the Middle East such as head chopping. While they have done some operations in the US such as the story below from Houston, I do think they would think twice about bringing the full power of the US down on their heads like al Qaeda did.
“When you have…gangs and they have loose ties with al Qaeda and then you have Iran not too far away from building a nuclear capability, nuclear terrorism may not be far off,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R- Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services committee.
The Mexican drug cartels’ violence accounted for more than 6,000 deaths last year, and in recent months it has begun spilling over into the districts of lawmakers from the southwest region, even as far north as Phoenix, Ariz. -- which has become, Franks noted, the “kidnap capital of the U.S.”
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), whose district borders Mexico, said that while the situation is bad, it could easily get worse.
“The goal of the cartels is to make money,” said Cuellar, who sits on the House Homeland Security committee. “If they can smuggle in drugs and human cargo, then certainly they can smuggle other things in, other devices to cause us harm.”
...
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Actually....
Steve Benen wonders if Roger Ailes is picking the wrong analogy by comparing Fox News -- and Glenn Beck's program more specifically -- to the Alamo. Aside from all the general silliness of the comparison, Ailes and Beck nevertheless represent the exact variety of pathetic, martyr-driven nationalism that has enshrined the battle of the Alamo as the first skirmish in a crusade for yeoman liberty. Indeed, early historians of the battle liked to compare it to the Battle of Thermopylae, which -- short of a few yawps of "Sparta!" -- would distinguish them as wingnuts avant le lettre. I suppose if Ayn Rand had written her tedious novels in the early 19th century, the Americans in Texas would have been vowing to "go John Galt" rather than submit to the Mexican government's taxation and anti-slavery policies.
Roger Ailes and Glenn Beck are no more committed to "liberty" than the hundreds of Texans who died, stupidly holed up in a decaying old mission building,
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Obama DOJ: torture memos apparently protected under sovereign immunity...
... which means if the government decides it's OK to torture you, only the government has to power to decide it's OK for you to sue in response ...
From SFGate:
(03-06) 18:08 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- President Obama's Justice Department defended former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo in a San Francisco federal court Friday, arguing that a prisoner formerly held as an enemy combatant had no right to sue Yoo for writing legal memos that allegedly led to his detention and torture.
"We're not saying we condone torture," department attorney Mary Mason said at a hearing on the government's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Jose Padilla. But any recourse against a government lawyer "is for the executive to decide, in the first instance, and for Congress to decide," not the courts, she said.
"You're not saying that if high public officials commit clearly illegal acts, a citizen subject to those acts has no remedy in this court?" asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
Not unless Congress has expressly authorized a lawsuit, Mason replied. She cited the argument the Justice Department made in Yoo's case last year, with President George W. Bush still in office, that courts should not interfere in executive decision-making, especially in wartime.
At issues, Yoo's various memos on torture:
The best-known memo, written to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales in 2002, said rough treatment of captives amounted to torture only if it caused the same level of pain as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." It also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.
Yoo also advised the Bush administration that the Geneva Conventions on humane treatment of captives did not apply to terrorist suspects classified as enemy combatants.
A 2001 Yoo memo, made public recently by the Obama administration, said U.S. military forces could use "any means necessary" to seize and hold terror suspects in the United States, without constitutional restrictions.
Stem-cell research, medical marijuana, human rights for LBGT--all of these are good things the Obama administration is doing.
Yet the simple ugly fact of the matter is that President Barack Obama has demonstrated with great consistency through his first six weeks in office that he plans to keep all the State powers he inherited from the Bush administration.
That, regardless of whether or not the economy recovers, whether or not my liberal/progressive friends get universal health care, or whether or not Michelle gives something better than a toy helicopter as White House gifts, represents a major betrayal of campaign promises, the US Constitution, and the American people.
And, yes, it really is that simple.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry....
The other day, I was talking to a communications manager of an NGO.
"We have a blog now. Our CEO writes it."
That's what he said. He could have been a politician, or a civil servant, a trades union official, a council officer or a corporate PR - the same tune would have sprung to mind.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Saturday, March 7, 2009
lol at the Stock Market
Buy-and-hold is for slow people. I've been saying this forever and stopped using buy-and-hold as a strategy. I've said this at the meetings only to be confronted with non-sense about average returns from indexes. Yeah, how's that average return treating the suckers who wanted to retire within the next 3-5 years? These people will have no retirement and won't even be able to get jobs as Wal-Mart greeters. They all would have been better off if they hadn't listened to fraudulent sales agents known as "financial advisors."
Buy-and-hold worked when we had reasonable expectation that there was an underlying drift in asset prices. Diversification made sense, and minimum-variance portfolios designed to capture profits and minimize risk seemed like good ideas. What the stock market is telling us is that the "real" growth justifying the upward drift in our country is over. The press today was fawning over Wal-mart's sales increase, but clearly the Wal-mart shift is a sign of the consumer making trade-offs for inferior goods. Technology saved us for the last 20-30 years, but I doubt we will be so lucky this time around.
We will not recover quickly this time. My prediction: we hit 5500, flat line for a while, then hit 3500 or so. We won't recover for 10 years. After 10 years, the demographic shifts will be so dramatic and so heavily weighted in favor of the poor. The US will be gutted and its population will be enslaved in a form of neo-feudalism.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Atheist Examiner
There is an on line newspaper of sorts call The Examiner, which solicits views from people in Denver. One such writer is the Atheist Examiner. I posted a response to her comments about inane atheist billboards.
Denver Seminary graduate, Daniel Seatvet has a column called "Christianity and Culture Examiner."
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
The Moderates Re-Emerge...to Finally Hit the Brakes
It is about time the not-so-ultra-leftist elements of the Democrat party start flexing their muscle against the out-of-control tax-borrow-and-spend Obamaganza underway.
John McCain should not be the only "moderate" with the guts to call all this pork barrel excess what it is...and fight it.
Hopefully he (and we) will begin seeing a dose of reality and measure brought to bear on the fantasy-world federal utopianism with which Obama-Biden-Reid-Pelosi are snowjobbing us all.
Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) broke ranks with Obama today in a Wall Street Journal editorial urging opposition to the latest omnibus spending spree.
"But the bloated omnibus requires sacrifice from no one, least of all the government. It only exacerbates the problem and hastens the day of reckoning. Voters rightly demanded change in November's election, but this approach to spending represents business as usual in Washington, not the voters' mandate.
Now is the time to win back the confidence and trust of the American people. Congress should vote "no" on this omnibus and show working families across the country that we are as committed to living within our means as they are."
Moderate and conservative Democrats in the Senate are starting to choke over the massive spending and tax increases in President Barack Obama’s budget plans and have begun plotting to increase their influence over the agenda of a president who is turning out to be much more liberal than they are.
A group of 14 Senate Democrats and one independent huddled behind closed doors on Tuesday, discussing how centrists in that chamber can assert more leverage on the major policy debates that will dominate this Congress.
Afterward, some in attendance made plain that they are getting jitters over the cost and expansive reach of Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget proposal.
Asked when he’d reach his breaking point, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, said: “Right now. I’m concerned about the amount that’s being offered in [Obama’s] budget.”
Another attendee, Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.), said she expected the newly formed caucus to shape Obama’s budget proposal as it moves through Congress.
“We want to give the president a chance, but our concern is going to be on the budget, looking forward,” Landrieu said. She added that she agrees with Obama that there needs to be “fundamental change” in fiscal policy, but she said “we do have to keep our eye on the long term, on intermediate and long-term fiscal responsibility.”
Read the rest here.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Devolution
I have to agree that it's not accurate to say that John McCain is as bad as Herbert Hoover. He's much worse. And while the Obama administration is certainly infinitely preferable to this kind of cretin, it sure would be nice if their plan to deal with the banking system wasn't to hope that people will start buying shit sandwiches if you can think of enough half-clever ways to call them ice cream.
Of course, it's great to see that in these trying economic times the Washington Post is educating its readers by turning to the sage wisdom of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Inflation to Inflate Your Stomach!
Ah inflation, the best medicine for the economy - according to this 1933 propaganda film. I wonder if they just sit around at the Fed all day and watch videos like this:
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Can an organisation act irrationally while the bulk of the individuals in it are rational?
Chris Dillow considers the question above and says the answer could be yes . Our thinking patterns as human beings can be influenced by groupthink, by the 'halo effect' and by the fear of articulating our disagreements/misgivings with the views of others.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Rethinking the DSTP: putting the cart back behind the horse
My daughter calls it the Delaware Student Torture Program.
I had to admit to her last year that between 1992-1995 I co-chaired the Social Studies Frameworks Commission and then in 1998 served on the Performance Indicators Committee that went into the design of the Social Studies component of the DSTP. She didn't actually care that I have spent multiple years criticizing the DSTP as essentially worthless in its current form: she just holds me responsible.
Now the state is seriously reconsidering the DSTP--finally.
Lieutenant Governor Denn and Education Secretary Lowery are in the initial stages of suggesting the replacement of the DSTP with a summative test at grade-level and benchmark adaptive tests during the year. That summative test is unfortunately still necessary, at least until the worst provisions of No Child Left Behind are repealed.
The benchmark idea, which has been in play in several Delaware school districts for a couple years now, is tremendously important:
The second is a benchmark test that would be administered at the beginning, middle and end of the year for immediate feedback on how a student is doing in a particular subject. The benchmark test would adjust to a student's ability, so when a child is struggling, the difficulty of the questions decreases and when the student is excelling, the computer program switches to harder questions.
This is critically important. Why?
The mantra of the early 1990s was that assessment drives instruction--not standards. Essentially, this is the idea that the only thing that will force teachers to force students to learn specific material that is valued by the educational bureaucracy (both State and Federal as well as education interest groups) is high-stakes testing.
It is a coercive model in which standards are used as a restraint rather than a support, and in which students are treated like industrial products to be quality tested rather than human beings to be nurtured and educated.
The benchmark idea allows districts to test students on an ongoing basis during the year, so that teachers receive virtually real-time feedback on student performance while they can still do something about it.
That's good, but incomplete.
Unfortunately (and what follows is so wonkish that probably nobody but kilroy or pandora is going to enjoy it), the Delaware content standards in the core academic subjects contain too much material.
When we wrote these standards in the early 1990s, the latest education fad insisted that content standards should more or less cover virtually everything to be taught in a given course.
Problem: educational research now substantiates the fact that this was a huge mistake. Content standards should cover no more than 35-40% of the core material for any subject at any grade level. Again, why?
Because a 35-40% core forces the designers to make tough decisions about what is essential for students to know and be able to do; allows teachers to engage in actual teaching, rather than merely parroting a curriculum; and--most importantly--allows time to re-teach content and skills that benchmark tests show students have not learned.
This is absolutely critical and generally completely ignored in course planning. We pretty much give students one chance to get the material, test them on it, and then penalize them for what they don't know, while moving on to material they won't understand because they didn't ever master the previous unit.
Benchmarking gives teachers a tool to use in planning, to place re-teaching time formally on the schedule.
Students who master the material the first time, can be provided enrichment assignments, designed to give them more insight into the subject, while students who didn't receive supplemental instruction to bring them up to standard.
Unfortunately, our education programs at universities, and our professional development programs in the school districts rarely provide teachers the skills to do appropriate planning for this kind of instruction. They don't teach them to plan time for re-teaching in a differentiated classroom as part of the regular planning process. They don't provide teachers with the skills necessary to re-teach effectively rather than to simply repeat the lessons that children didn't understand the first time Re-teaching is a sophisticated skill, and cannot effectively be done on the fly; it has to be planned from the start.
There is potential here, in the Denn-Lowery initiative to reform the DSTP, for significant changes in public education in Delaware that do not require the expenditure of bazillions of dollars like Vision 2015, but leadership and modest investments in professional development to equip our teachers with a few new skills.
This--unlike the Rodel Foundation's big spending fantasia--has a realistic chance of being transformative even in an era of tight budgets.
[By the way, ask yourself about the Delaware Way and the DSTP sometime. Only in Delaware would we have turned over the development of the DSTP to an educrat--in this case, John Tanner--who negotiated the contract for scoring the tests as a DOE employee and then went to work for vendor with whom he negotiated the contract, and nobody found anything wrong with this picture. We got the DSTP as it stands today because of a sweetheart deal between DOE and Harcourt Brace, despite the fact that for multiple years the scoring of the DSTP was hopelessly bungled. Maybe Lillian Lowery, the woman who cleaned up the financial mess in Christina, will be the person to clean up a lot of the darkers corners of DOE. We can only hope.]
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Friday, March 6, 2009
Obama announces $15B to states for Medicaid plans
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-announces-15B-to-states-apf-14439519.html
Look at that photo of Rendell and his wife. Disgusting bureaucrats dressed nicely while they fleece me. These people should be tarred and feathered and put in the town square (or Times Square) for the public to gawk at.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
The Dow penny stock market
NY Times:
The banking giant Citigroup commanded a stock price of $55 just two years ago. But at one point Thursday, as markets hurtled to their lowest close in 12 years, the shares were worth less than an item at the Dollar Store.The Washington Post also looks at the fall of the giants and reports:After months of breathtaking declines, this is what Wall Street has come to: Blue-chip companies, once considered safe investments and cornerstones of the economy, are akin to penny stocks.
The bear market is tightening its grip, despite efforts by the government to support the economy and some of its biggest companies. Fears about the depth and breadth of the recession drove the Dow Jones industrial average down another 4 percent on Thursday, bringing its losses so far this year to 25 percent — just shy of the 33 percent decline recorded for all of 2008.
...The number of companies trading at $10 or less on the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has increased tenfold since the market reached a peak in October 2007. And with no end in sight to the downward spiral, the New York Stock Exchange has temporarily suspended its $1 minimum share-price requirements to prevent a wave of delistings.
A share of General Motors stock, which fell below $2 on Thursday as it warned of possible bankruptcy, is now not even enough to buy a gallon of gasoline for your Chevy.
A share of General Electric, battered this week to little more than $6, would not be sufficient to buy two of the company’s compact fluorescent light bulbs. And at its current price of 73 cents, it would take several shares of Office Depot stock to buy a box of paper clips.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 6,594.44, down 281.40 points, or 4.09 percent — its lowest close since April 15, 1997. The broader S.& P. 500 fell 30.32 points, or 4.25 percent, to 682.55, its lowest close since September 1996. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4 percent, or 54.15 points, to 1,299.59.
The rout highlighted the apathy and pessimism that have seeped into all corners of the market as the global economic downturn deepens.
...
...Analysts point to two key reasons why some of the nation's largest companies have unraveled in the current downturn. One is that they had come to rely on providing financing to their customers, lending money for sales of their own products. When the credit markets ground to a halt in mid-September, it set off chain reaction of pain, hurting consumers and manufacturers alike.
The second is their exposure to global markets. Once regarded as a way to spread risks, the diversification exacerbated a drop in sales as foreign countries grapple with more severe downturns.
...
The risk with the Citibank stock is that it value will be diluted with further government investments. The risk with the GM stock is that it will be wiped out in a bankruptcy. In fact it seems overvalued at this point compared to Citibank. It appears that GE's credit arm is the cause for concern with its stock, but I don't like its networks either. It does have some good core businesses which enhance its prospects if the credit arm does not take it below zero.
I think what has really spooked the market is that Obama's economic plan looks too much like that of the mortgage borrowers who bought too much house and started this mess to begin with. His prospects of paying off this borrowing with a shrinking tax base and an asset base that has shrunk by over three trillion since he was elected and shows no prospect of expanding anytime soon does not look good at this point.
technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)