Month: January 2013

The corrupt privatization of our public schools

by David Atkins

For all the progressivism of President Obama’s 2nd Inaugural speech, there were still a number of elements of “New Democrat” dreck. Among them was this:

We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, reach higher.

Sounds great in theory, right? Well, here’s what that “school reform” looks like in practice, courtesy of some fantastic investigative reporting by Greg Hinz who does the sort of real journalism the Villagers long since stopped doing:

Here’s a story only a Chicagoan could really appreciate, a story about how one chain of privately operated charter schools recently almost got a whopping $35 million grant — as much as Chicago Public Schools were to get for the entire city — thanks to a well-placed pol or two.

I love Springfield.

I first heard about the story from Parents United for Responsible Education, a hard-scrabble civic group that ordinarily targets Chicago Public Schools management and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In this case, though, the group was squawking about money destined for schools operated by the United Neighborhood Organization.

The group, generally known as UNO, is one of the better-connected groups in town. With deep roots in Chicago’s growing Latino community, it was tight as could be with former Mayor Richard M. Daley and has maintained warm ties with his successor.

Anyhow, UNO a few years ago got what amounted to a $98 million earmark out of Springfield to build news schools for its operation. And then PURE found out that UNO was pushing to get another $35 million in a measure that was pending in the General Assembly’s veto session early in January.

PURE was right. Click here, and you’ll see a proposed amendment to Senate Bill 24 that was introduced on Jan. 2 by North Side state Sen. Heather Steans.

And then go all the way to page 52 of the 89-page amendment, to Sec. 110, and you’ll see a proposed appropriation “of $35,200,000, or so much thereof . . . to the United Neighborhood Organization” for capital work on one or more green-certified “facilities.”

That’s a lot of money anytime — particularly at a time when Chicago Public Schools is warning of a $1 billion deficit, and in a week when Gov. Pat Quinn said the state might soon have to cut state school aid by $400 million. So I called Ms. Steans, whose district is entirely in the city, to ask what was up.

Ms. Steans says she found out about the amendment she was introducing “that day, from staff.” In other words, she was handling it at the request of somebody upstairs.

There’s much more via the link. I encourage you to read the whole thing.

The charter school privatization game is a racket no different from the social security privatization game. The big money boys aren’t content with having just 90% of the money. They want it all, and they’re happy to ravage what little is left of the commons to get it.

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Balance in 10 years

by digby

So as was speculated yesterday, the Republicans (with the help of a bunch of Democrats) have kicked the debt ceiling down the road for three months, but they’ve also moved the goalposts.

John Boehner today:

“Chairman Ryan is going to be working with all of us to draft a budget by the April 15 deadline. With the right reforms in place, Paul’s goal is to advance a budget that balances within a decade. I applaud that goal, and share it.”

In the meantime he says the sequester:

“will be in place until we get spending cuts and reforms to replace it, and that start us down a path to balance within the decade.”

So, a tactical retreat until their budget guru can come up with some kind of plan that will appease the nutballs. Not an easy task, to be sure. But if anyone can come up with a cockamamie fix, it’s him. The question is whether or not they’re willing to close down the government over it — or hold up the debt ceiling in three months.

It’s not over. Still, after thinking about it, I can understand why the Democrats would want to take a victory lap. When the other side is retreating, it’s natural to press your advantage and demoralize the other sides’ troops. But I hope they aren’t believing too much of the hype. The GOP still has plenty of leverage and they are a very good opposition party. I wouldn’t underestimate their ability to well and truly screw everything up.

Also too, speaking of the Very Serious Paul Ryan, beltway leader of wonkinsh integrity, it would seem he’s quite the slippery fellow after all:

When guest host Raymond Arroyo played a tape of one of Ryan’s “makers and takers” comments and asked Ryan about Obama “implicitly” attacking him, Ryan responded that Obama had set up a “straw man.” He insisted that he believes Social Security and Medicare are “not taker programs.”

One problem: These assertions contradict what Ryan has said in the past about “makers” and “takers.” When my colleague Brett Brownell and I reported on Ryan’s “makers and takers” comments in October, we reviewed multiple examples of Ryan’s use of the phrase. Here’s how he used it in a 2011 interview with conservative Star Parker [emphasis added]:

Right now, according to the Tax Foundation, between 60 and 70 percent of Americans get more benefits from the government than they pay back in taxes. So, we’re getting towards a society where we have a net majority of takers versus makers

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The Tax Foundation study that Ryan is referring to includes government benefits “from all sources,” including Medicare, Social Security, and even national defense. This covers many benefits that go beyond actual checks—the Tax Foundation study derives its “60 to 70 percent” figure in part by assigning Pentagon spending as a “benefit” to each American family proportional to that family’s income.

It’s good to know he doesn’t think SS and Medicare are “taker” programs. I guess he realizes that attacking his base is probably bad politics. But it’s interesting that he thinks the defense department is. Maybe we’ve got some common ground after all.

Give until it hurts (at least a little)

by digby

Atrios is holding a Winter Extravaganza fundraiser and I urge you to contribute. There aren’t very many of us independents left, and we’re dependent on our readership to keep us going.

I think a few of us dinosaurs ought to remain around, don’t you? We tend to remember things a little bit differently than others do …

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Excuse me Senator, but go Cheney yourself

by digby

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

They keep trying to turn this into 9/11 but I don’t think it’s working:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on Wednesday, saying that her planned departure indicates that she accepts “culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11.”

That comparison drew rebuke from Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Clinton testified Wednesday morning. She is scheduled to give testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee later in the day.

“I think if some people on this committee want to call the tragedy in Benghazi the worst since 9/11, it misunderstands the nature of 4,000 Americans plus lost over ten years of war in Iraq fought under false pretenses,” newly elected Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in response

Even some Republicans are obviously feeling a little bit funny about the scope of their outrage:

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), on the other hand, used a different metaphor to describe the scale of the attack: the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.

“I’ve kind of looked at it like the Challenger explosion where we lost those seven astronauts because of an O-ring and problems there. We didn’t see it coming but we could have seen it coming and should have seen it coming,” he said.

I don’t recall Ronald Reagan himself being roasted over the coals for that but perhaps I’m mistaken. Anyway, it’s reaching, to say the least.

So much of our politics is each party trying to fight the last war and mirroring each other’s outrage to even things up. It gets really tiring after a while. If you want to see a bunch of shrieking banshees working themselves up into a complete frenzy, watch FOX today. If they really believe half of what they are saying, they are even nuttier than we knew. Oh, and once again here’s a little friendly reminder: Seven U.S. Embassies And Consulates Were Attacked Under George W. Bush And this too:

1983: Bomb Blast At U.S. Embassy In Beirut Killed More Than 60, Including 17 Americans. From an ABC News article on the 25th anniversary of the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon:

Beirut was arguably the most dangerous city in the world. Car bombs inside the city were common, and extremist elements plotted in the nearby Bekaa Valley. It was exactly 25 years ago today that a bomber detonated 2,000 lbs. of explosives in front of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and killed more than 60 people, including 17 Americans. Forty-four people inside the embassy survived. Among them was the man who leads the U.S. Embassy in what is now considered the most dangerous place for American diplomats: Baghdad. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was serving as a political officer in Beirut and survived the blast. It was at the time the deadliest terror attack on Americans abroad; six months later another bomber killed 241 in an attack on the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut airport. [ABC News, 4/18/07]

And then President Perfect withdrew altogether, a little piece of history the macho right wingers always choose to overlook. This Benghazi attack was a terrible thing and there are many real questions to be asked about our involvement in Libya in general. But to behave as if this particular event is something unusual or particularly significant is ridiculous. Embassies in hot spots are always in danger, as the history clearly shows, and diplomats who serve there know it. The Republicans are trying desperately to create some 9/11 equivalence with this thing and I have to say that it’s one of the most absurd gambits I’ve seen them try in a long, long time.

But I will never say that it won’t work. They impeached a president for unauthorized fellatio. Anything can happen.

Update: Listening to Rand Paul talk about what he would do if he were president makes my skin crawl.  For so many reasons …

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Econ 4 on Regulation

by tristero

Here is the latest video – on regulation this time -from Econ4, a marvelous group of economists committed to developing new, liberal, ideas for economic issues.

Enjoy!

Cheating for America

by digby

You have undoubtedly already heard about the Virginia legislature’s off year redistricting scheme which they waited to pass until one of the State Senators was attending the inaugural. Yes, they actually did that. They have taken a tied legislature and gerrymandered a new one with potentially a seven vote GOP majority. They’re not even pretending to follow the rules anymore.

And why is this legal? Thank the Hammer:

In 2003, a new Republican majority in the Texas legislature attacked the congressional map developed by both parties in 2001. They forced through a gerrymander that ousted most of the state’s white Democrats; Democrats, in a vain attempt to stop this, had fled the state to deny a quorum. In 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the mid-decade redistricting. Curiously, only Republican legislatures have taken advantage of this.

Yes, very curious, isn’t it? In fact, Democratic states are going the other way and forming non-partisan redistricting schemes, which is really awesome except for the losing thing.

This sort of thing is hardly new. But as I wrote before, I don’t think it’s ever been a systematic national scheme before. As David said below, this shows the Republicans know they are on the losing side of history so they have to cheat to compete. The big question for me is whether the people will stand for it. And, so far, it’s not looking good. They stood for a bogus impeachment. They had no problem with the Supreme Court deciding an election. Scott Walker survived. These gerrymandering schemes are happening in plain sight. It seems absurd, but I honestly don’t know that anyone would care if Reince Priebus succeeded in his plan to game the electoral college. The Republicans would say that it’s perfectly legal — and strictly speaking it probably would be.They’d have a hissy fit if anyone tried to stop them and the Supreme Court would probably uphold because rules.

But as I think about it, this isn’t really a political problem, it’s a cultural problem. From Wall Street to sports to politics to …. everything, cheating is rewarded so hugely — and the punishments are so meaningless — that it’s now the norm. We just had a presidential campaign in which one of the major candidates refused to reveal his tax returns almost certainly because he … cheated. It didn’t matter. For a lot of people, you’re a chump if you don’t do it. Sure we have Lance Armstrong doing his ritual humiliation tour, but he’s still fabulously wealthy and will very likely end up being one of those guys who wins again through the repentance game. And anyway, we throw someone on to the pyre once in a while just so that we can ostentatiously preen and rend our garments over the horror of it all, even as we cheer on all the others. Makes us feel good about ourselves anyway.

It’s Elmer Gantry’s America. We just live in it.

“He had, in fact, got everything from the church and Sunday School, except, perhaps, any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.”

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If it’s a center-right country, why cheat?

by David Atkins

Mitch McConnell on President Obama’s second inaugural address:

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, called the address “basically a liberal agenda directed at an America that we still believe is center-right.”

Sure. Here’s what Republicans are actually doing to reinforce this belief:

Virginia Republicans Ram Through Redistricting Plan While Black Civil Rights Veteran Senator is Out of Town

And this:

Specifically, Priebus is urging Republican governors and legislators to take up what was once a fringe scheme to change the rule for distribution of Electoral College votes. Under the Priebus plan, electoral votes from battleground states such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and other states that now regularly back Democrats for president would be allocated not to the statewide winner but to the winners of individual congressional districts.

Because of gerrymandering by Republican governors and legislators, and the concentration of Democratic votes in urban areas and college towns, divvying up Electoral College votes based on congressional district wins would yield significantly better results for the GOP. In Wisconsin, where Democrat Barack Obama won in 2012 by a wider margin than he did nationally, the president would only have gotten half the electoral votes. In Pennsylvania, where Obama won easily, he would not have gotten the twenty electoral votes that he did; instead, under the Priebus plan, it would have been eight for Republican Mitt Romney, twelve for Barack Obama.

Not even Republicans believe that this is a center-right country anymore (if it ever was.) They know better. That’s why they have to cheat to stand a chance.

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Stepping Aside

by tristero

What is most striking about this article is not that Republicans have finally understood that possibly, maybe, Obama actually won. It’s their lack of self-examination.

While I’ve certainly met Republicans who deplore the clownish antics of the leaders, I see no indication that, as a party, they recognize how essential it is for them to re-examine their commitment to deep economic inequality, the promiscuous spread of assault weapons, forced birth, denial of basic science, deportation, trash-talking minorities, and the rape of the environment.

These are really awful ideas, and even now, Republican leaders can’t bring themselves to drop them. Assuming the article is accurate, they’re simply planning to get the hell out of the way.

Well, I can live with that.

Women are the real fascists, don’t you know

by digby

You really need to read this petulant  piece at National Review to understand the misanthropic right wing view of American progress, as seen through the eyes of a critic of Obama’s Second Inaugural.  There are numerous points with which to argue, but I’m just going to pick this one since it’s the Roe anniversary and all:

And as we grew to understand the virtues of such common efforts of containment and direction of the modern economy, we also advanced the struggle against those vestiges of backwardness that have raised obstacles to inclusion, scoring victories for justice in “Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.” Never mind the 50 million human beings deemed insignificant because they were unwanted and snuffed out over the last four decades in the cause of choice. Indeed, the freedom to remorselessly exterminate these innocents, rather than the struggle to protect the life and dignity of the weak who dared by their existence and their neediness to disrupt the plans of the strong, is somehow given a place of honor in the register of social progress.

I don’t suppose these people ever consider just how insulting that is to the very real, fully formed, sentient human beings to whom they are comparing a fetus, which is nothing more than a potential human life at best. After all, if a “holocaust” of this magnitude is taking place, you’ll have to blame nature or God for most of it:

Determining the prevalence of spontaneous abortions is difficult. Many happen very early in the pregnancy, before a woman may know she is pregnant. Treatment of women without hospitalization means medical statistics misses many cases. Prospective studies using very sensitive early pregnancy tests have found that 25% of pregnancies abort by the sixth week LMP (since the woman’s last menstrual period), however, other reports suggest higher rates. One fact sheet from the University of Ottawa states, “The incidence of spontaneous abortion is estimated to be 50% of all pregnancies, based on the assumption that many pregnancies abort spontaneously with no clinical recognition.” The NIH reports, “It is estimated that up to half of all fertilized eggs die and are lost (aborted) spontaneously, usually before the woman knows she is pregnant. Among those women who know they are pregnant, the miscarriage rate is about 15–20%.” Clinical abortions (those occurring after the sixth week LMP) occur in 8% of pregnancies.

Of course, these folks won’t blame nature or God. They’ll blame the woman. They always have.

The idea that fetuses are fully human and should have all the same rights as those who actually are is completely ridiculous in light of those statistics. Obviously, the fetus is a very tenuous stage of human development subject to spontaneous abortion for any number of reasons. To confer it with personhood can only lead to the absurd conclusion that all pregnant women are potentially guilty of manslaughter by the very nature of the condition of pregnancy. That is insane.

And to compare a stage of human biological development to fully formed human beings who have been denied their ability to live as equals among other fully formed human beings is as fatuous as it gets. Indeed, it’s beyond fatuous.  It’s sick.

Here are some good pieces on the Roe vs Wade anniversary that ought to wake up the American media if they care to read them:

The People’s Choice

Roe and the law

Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions About Backlash

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The unholy alliance of religion and state in Russia and beyond

by David Atkins

Even as the United States is turning a major corner on LGBT rights, things don’t look so good in Russia right now:

A public kiss between two men could be defined as illegal ‘homosexual propaganda’ and bring a fine of up to £10,000 if a bill that comes up for a first vote this month becomes law in Russia.

The legislation being pushed by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church would make it illegal to tell minors information that is defined as ‘propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism.’

It includes a ban on holding public events that promote gay rights.

The bill is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values as opposed to Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and church see as corrupting Russian youth and contributing to a wave of protest against President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

It’s the usual unholy alliance of religion and state–all of it a backlash against every piece of social progress since the Renaissance began to displace the chokehold of religious feudalism in the West and theocracy in the Middle East.

From Putin’s unholy alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church, to the unholy alliance of Middle Eastern petro states with Islamist butchers, to African kleptocrats’ unholy alliance with evangelicals, to Confederate Ayn Rand worshippers’ unholy alliance with right-wing churches, it’s all the same illiberal vicious disease. Nation-state boundaries are as irrelevant to it as they are to the plague. The disease is widespread, communicable and variegated. But it always has the same symptoms: militarism, theocracy, violence, paranoia, nationalism and an obsession with “local control.”

One day the world will be free of such villainy. But sadly, it will probably not be in my lifetime.

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