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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
April 3, 2012
Economics Professor Richard Wolff details the problems of capitalism and urges our recognizing its obsolescence and replacing it with institutions that truly serve the people.
The Costs of Capitalism's Crisis: Who Will Pay?
Economics Professor Richard Wolff details the problems of capitalism and urges our recognizing its obsolescence and replacing it with institutions that truly serve the people.
April 3, 2012
Chris Hedges calls us to action, to create a new political movement to replace our corrupt government and obsolete economic institutions, building on what's begun by Occupy Wall Street. Talk at Church of All Souls in New York City February 7, 2012.
Chris Hedges: A Call to Action to Create a New Political Movement
Chris Hedges calls us to action, to create a new political movement to replace our corrupt government and obsolete economic institutions, building on what's begun by Occupy Wall Street. Talk at Church of All Souls in New York City February 7, 2012.
April 3, 2012
(RT) We had reported on the show that a group of political activists and journalists testified in a New York Court about why they're suing the Obama administration over the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. Chris Hedges, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter is also one of the plaintiffs; he joins the show to discuss.
Chris Hedges: "No Outcry Within Media" on NDAA
(RT) We had reported on the show that a group of political activists and journalists testified in a New York Court about why they're suing the Obama administration over the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. Chris Hedges, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter is also one of the plaintiffs; he joins the show to discuss.
April 3, 2012
from Dissent magazine:
Hired Guns on Astroturf:
How to Buy and Sell School Reform
By Joanne Barkan
If you want to change government policy, change the politicians who make it. The implications of this truism have now taken hold in the market-modeled “education reform movement.” As a result, the private funders and nonprofit groups that run the movement have overhauled their strategy. They’ve gone political as never before—like the National Rifle Association or Big Pharma or (ed reformers emphasize) the teachers’ unions.
Devolution of a Movement
For the last decade or so, this generation of ed reformers has been setting up programs to show the power of competition and market-style accountability to transform inner-city public schools: establishing nonprofit and for-profit charter schools, hiring business executives to run school districts, and calculating a teacher’s worth based on student test scores. Along the way, the reformers recognized the value of public promotion and persuasion (called “advocacy”) for their agenda, and they started pouring more money into media outlets, friendly think tanks, and the work of well-disposed researchers. By 2010 critics of the movement saw “reform-think” dominating national discourse about education, but key reform players judged the pace of change too slow.
Ed reformers spend at least a half-billion dollars a year in private money, whereas government expenditures on K-12 schooling are about $525 billion a year. Nevertheless, a half-billion dollars in discretionary money yields great leverage when budgets are consumed by ordinary expenses. But the reformers—even titanic Bill and Melinda Gates—see themselves as competing with too little against existing government policies. Hence, to revolutionize public education, which is largely under state and local jurisdiction, reformers must get state and local governments to adopt their agenda as basic policy; they must counter the teachers’ unions’ political clout. To this end, ed reformers are shifting major resources—staff and money—into state and local campaigns for candidates and legislation. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=4240
Hired Guns on Astroturf: How to Buy and Sell School Reform
from Dissent magazine:
Hired Guns on Astroturf:
How to Buy and Sell School Reform
By Joanne Barkan
If you want to change government policy, change the politicians who make it. The implications of this truism have now taken hold in the market-modeled “education reform movement.” As a result, the private funders and nonprofit groups that run the movement have overhauled their strategy. They’ve gone political as never before—like the National Rifle Association or Big Pharma or (ed reformers emphasize) the teachers’ unions.
Devolution of a Movement
For the last decade or so, this generation of ed reformers has been setting up programs to show the power of competition and market-style accountability to transform inner-city public schools: establishing nonprofit and for-profit charter schools, hiring business executives to run school districts, and calculating a teacher’s worth based on student test scores. Along the way, the reformers recognized the value of public promotion and persuasion (called “advocacy”) for their agenda, and they started pouring more money into media outlets, friendly think tanks, and the work of well-disposed researchers. By 2010 critics of the movement saw “reform-think” dominating national discourse about education, but key reform players judged the pace of change too slow.
Ed reformers spend at least a half-billion dollars a year in private money, whereas government expenditures on K-12 schooling are about $525 billion a year. Nevertheless, a half-billion dollars in discretionary money yields great leverage when budgets are consumed by ordinary expenses. But the reformers—even titanic Bill and Melinda Gates—see themselves as competing with too little against existing government policies. Hence, to revolutionize public education, which is largely under state and local jurisdiction, reformers must get state and local governments to adopt their agenda as basic policy; they must counter the teachers’ unions’ political clout. To this end, ed reformers are shifting major resources—staff and money—into state and local campaigns for candidates and legislation. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=4240
April 3, 2012
The past few months, we’ve seen the nation wake up to many anti-choice assaults on women’s basic right to control their fertility, especially with regards to imposing forced ultrasounds and numerous attacks on access to basic contraception. But one of the other favorite anti-choice approaches to maximizing the pain and suffering of women as punishment for sex has largely gone unnoticed by many outside of the pro-choice activist community: bans on abortions after 20 weeks. It’s understandable that it’s hard to whip people up about this particular situation. After all, abortions after 20 weeks are relatively rare. Only 1.5% of abortions occur after the 20th week, and the vast majority of those that do occur are done for medical reasons, or because legal and financial obstacles--like those put in place by lawmakers--caused a delay. While, if they knew their personal stories, most people would certainly sympathize with women in need of post-20 week abortions, a certain amount of reproductive rights fatigue is setting in. There’s only so many hours in the day, and anti-choicers know if they just keep throwing restrictions on access at us, some will slip through the cracks.
But, as exhausting as it is, we need to pay attention to and resist post-20 week bans on abortion. That’s because it’s cruel on its surface, but also because legislators are using 20 week bans in order to smuggle in other items of more importance to them than simply making it harder for a slim minority of women seeking abortions to get them. The most obvious thing they’re trying to do is set anti-science precedent. Since these bans are based on the false, unscientific claim that fetuses at 20 weeks can feel pain, if they’re allowed to stand, it opens the door for more laws based on straight-up lies to be passed. These laws are also being used to challenge the requirement set out in Roe v Wade that a woman’s health and life should trump that of the misogynist desire to keep her pregnant at all costs.
Legislators have had so much success smuggling in ulterior motives with 20-week bans that they’re now looking for ways to expand the amount of hard right anti-choice nonsense they can attach to those bills. The most recent---and extreme---example is Arizona. There, lawmakers are writing a 20-week abortion ban that starts counting off at the first day of a woman’s period. Yes, they’re arguing that you’re “pregnant” while you’re actually getting your period. In fact, as Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones explains, they’re really trying to steal as many weeks as possible away from women seeking abortion:
That’s bad in and of itself, but taking a step back and looking at the big picture makes this law look even more sinister. Medically speaking, pregnancy starts when a fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining. Anti-choicers have attempted to define it earlier with their failed attempts to pass “personhood” law that would define not just pregnancy, but “personhood” as beginning at conception. Now in Arizona, they’re trying to argue that you’re pregnant a couple of weeks before you even had the sex that resulted in your pregnancy. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/875981/arizona_legislators_trying_to_declare_pregnancy_two_weeks_prior_to_conception/
Arizona Legislators Trying To Declare Pregnancy Two Weeks Prior To Conception
Arizona Legislators Trying To Declare Pregnancy Two Weeks Prior To ConceptionThe past few months, we’ve seen the nation wake up to many anti-choice assaults on women’s basic right to control their fertility, especially with regards to imposing forced ultrasounds and numerous attacks on access to basic contraception. But one of the other favorite anti-choice approaches to maximizing the pain and suffering of women as punishment for sex has largely gone unnoticed by many outside of the pro-choice activist community: bans on abortions after 20 weeks. It’s understandable that it’s hard to whip people up about this particular situation. After all, abortions after 20 weeks are relatively rare. Only 1.5% of abortions occur after the 20th week, and the vast majority of those that do occur are done for medical reasons, or because legal and financial obstacles--like those put in place by lawmakers--caused a delay. While, if they knew their personal stories, most people would certainly sympathize with women in need of post-20 week abortions, a certain amount of reproductive rights fatigue is setting in. There’s only so many hours in the day, and anti-choicers know if they just keep throwing restrictions on access at us, some will slip through the cracks.
But, as exhausting as it is, we need to pay attention to and resist post-20 week bans on abortion. That’s because it’s cruel on its surface, but also because legislators are using 20 week bans in order to smuggle in other items of more importance to them than simply making it harder for a slim minority of women seeking abortions to get them. The most obvious thing they’re trying to do is set anti-science precedent. Since these bans are based on the false, unscientific claim that fetuses at 20 weeks can feel pain, if they’re allowed to stand, it opens the door for more laws based on straight-up lies to be passed. These laws are also being used to challenge the requirement set out in Roe v Wade that a woman’s health and life should trump that of the misogynist desire to keep her pregnant at all costs.
Legislators have had so much success smuggling in ulterior motives with 20-week bans that they’re now looking for ways to expand the amount of hard right anti-choice nonsense they can attach to those bills. The most recent---and extreme---example is Arizona. There, lawmakers are writing a 20-week abortion ban that starts counting off at the first day of a woman’s period. Yes, they’re arguing that you’re “pregnant” while you’re actually getting your period. In fact, as Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones explains, they’re really trying to steal as many weeks as possible away from women seeking abortion:
Most women ovulate about 14 or 15 days after their period starts, and women can usually get pregnant from sexual intercourse that occured anywhere between five days before ovulation and a day after it. Arizona's law would start the clock at a woman's last period—which means, in practice, that the law prohibits abortion later than 18 weeks after a woman actually becomes pregnant.
That’s bad in and of itself, but taking a step back and looking at the big picture makes this law look even more sinister. Medically speaking, pregnancy starts when a fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining. Anti-choicers have attempted to define it earlier with their failed attempts to pass “personhood” law that would define not just pregnancy, but “personhood” as beginning at conception. Now in Arizona, they’re trying to argue that you’re pregnant a couple of weeks before you even had the sex that resulted in your pregnancy. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/875981/arizona_legislators_trying_to_declare_pregnancy_two_weeks_prior_to_conception/
April 2, 2012
AP, via the Detroit Free Press:
The National Weather Service says last month was the warmest March on record across Michigan.
Records go back to different years in places, but weather service offices in Grand Rapids, Gaylord, Marquette and the Detroit area all report a record-breaking March. Highs got in the 70s and 80s in places.
In Grand Rapids, the average temperature of 50.7 degrees topped the previous record set in 1945 of 45.9 degrees. In suburban Detroit, the average of 50.7 degrees broke the 1945 mark of 47.9 degrees. In Traverse City, the average of 46.8 degrees surpassed the 1946 record of 41.5 degrees.
The record also was broken in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where an average temperature of 39.7 degrees topped the March 2010 record of 34.7 degrees. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20120402/NEWS06/120402013/March-weather-history-warmest-ever-in-Michigan?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
March goes into weather history books as warmest ever in Michigan
AP, via the Detroit Free Press:
The National Weather Service says last month was the warmest March on record across Michigan.
Records go back to different years in places, but weather service offices in Grand Rapids, Gaylord, Marquette and the Detroit area all report a record-breaking March. Highs got in the 70s and 80s in places.
In Grand Rapids, the average temperature of 50.7 degrees topped the previous record set in 1945 of 45.9 degrees. In suburban Detroit, the average of 50.7 degrees broke the 1945 mark of 47.9 degrees. In Traverse City, the average of 46.8 degrees surpassed the 1946 record of 41.5 degrees.
The record also was broken in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where an average temperature of 39.7 degrees topped the March 2010 record of 34.7 degrees. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20120402/NEWS06/120402013/March-weather-history-warmest-ever-in-Michigan?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
April 2, 2012
Feds raid three Oakland medical marijuana sites
By Paul Thissen and Harry Harris Oakland Tribune
Posted: 04/02/2012 07:52:39 AM PDT
OAKLAND -- Federal agents converged on Oaksterdam University and two other medical marijuana sites in downtown Oakland Monday morning, but officials are releasing few details about the raid or any warrants served.
Outside the cannabis college at 1600 Broadway, U.S. Marshals were blocking the entrance Monday morning to prevent anyone from getting in, as agents with the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency searched the building.
Two other buildings in Oaksterdam, the city's cannabis district, were also searched at 19th and Broadway and on the 400 block 15th Street.
Multiple documents were removed from the building. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oakland-tribune/ci_20307177/feds-raid-oakland-cannabis-college
Protecting us from dangerous criminal elements.......
Feds raid three Oakland medical marijuana sites
By Paul Thissen and Harry Harris Oakland Tribune
Posted: 04/02/2012 07:52:39 AM PDT
OAKLAND -- Federal agents converged on Oaksterdam University and two other medical marijuana sites in downtown Oakland Monday morning, but officials are releasing few details about the raid or any warrants served.
Outside the cannabis college at 1600 Broadway, U.S. Marshals were blocking the entrance Monday morning to prevent anyone from getting in, as agents with the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency searched the building.
Two other buildings in Oaksterdam, the city's cannabis district, were also searched at 19th and Broadway and on the 400 block 15th Street.
Multiple documents were removed from the building. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oakland-tribune/ci_20307177/feds-raid-oakland-cannabis-college
April 2, 2012
Whew. I feel safer now. :sarcasm icon not necessary:
(04-02) 10:41 PDT Oakland -- Federal agents swooped in Monday morning to search Oaksterdam University in Oakland, the state's first cannabis industry training school.
Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division are searching the school at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway, in the heart of the city's widely recognized downtown cannabis-oriented district, authorities said.
Federal investigators were seen entering the school with power saws and a sledgehammer. The school has been cordoned off by yellow caution tape.
Arlette Lee, an IRS spokeswoman, said she could not say why the agents were there other than to confirm that they were serving a federal search warrant. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BABJ1NTK9T.DTL#ixzz1qufYfiiw
Feds raid Oakland pot university
Whew. I feel safer now. :sarcasm icon not necessary:
(04-02) 10:41 PDT Oakland -- Federal agents swooped in Monday morning to search Oaksterdam University in Oakland, the state's first cannabis industry training school.
Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division are searching the school at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway, in the heart of the city's widely recognized downtown cannabis-oriented district, authorities said.
Federal investigators were seen entering the school with power saws and a sledgehammer. The school has been cordoned off by yellow caution tape.
Arlette Lee, an IRS spokeswoman, said she could not say why the agents were there other than to confirm that they were serving a federal search warrant. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BABJ1NTK9T.DTL#ixzz1qufYfiiw
April 2, 2012
from the SF Chronicle:
Several people were shot and apparently some were killed when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom at an East Oakland private university, authorities said.
The shooting happened at Oikos University at 7850 Edgewater Road about 10:40 a.m. Four bodies outside the school were covered by tarps, and rescue workers removed at least four bodies on stretchers.
Highland Hospital reported that it was treating four victims from the shooting. Students continued evacuating the building more than an hour after the shooting. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BABJ1NTM3Q.DTL
Gunman opens fire at East Oakland (CA) college, many shot, some fatally
from the SF Chronicle:
Several people were shot and apparently some were killed when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom at an East Oakland private university, authorities said.
The shooting happened at Oikos University at 7850 Edgewater Road about 10:40 a.m. Four bodies outside the school were covered by tarps, and rescue workers removed at least four bodies on stretchers.
Highland Hospital reported that it was treating four victims from the shooting. Students continued evacuating the building more than an hour after the shooting. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BABJ1NTM3Q.DTL
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,067
