Tag Archives: Obama

Labor Beat: Chicago Press Conference Protests Obama’s FBI Raids

FBI Raids Activists’ Homes in Sinister COINTELPRO Replay

In a replay of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s infamous COINTELPRO operations targeting the left during the 1960s and ’70s, America’s political police launched raids on the homes of antiwar and solidarity activists.

Heavily-armed SWAT teams smashed down doors and agents armed with search warrants carried out simultaneous raids in Minneapolis and Chicago early morning on September 24.

Rummaging through personal belongings, agents carted off boxes of files, documents, books, letters, photographs, computers and cell phones from Minneapolis antiwar activists Mick Kelly, Jessica Sundin, Meredith Aby, two others, as well as the office of that city’s Anti-War Committee.

Meanwhile, as federal snoops seized personal property in Minneapolis, FBI agents raided the Chicago homes of activists Stephanie Weiner and Joseph Iosbaker. According to the Chicago Tribune, “neighbors saw FBI agents carrying boxes from the apartment of community activist Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network.”

“In addition,” the Tribune reported, “Chicago activist Thomas Burke said he was served a grand jury subpoena that requested records of any payments to Abudayyeh or his group.”

Amongst those targeted by the FBI were individuals who organized peaceful protests against the imperialist invasion and occupation of Iraq and 2008 protests at the far-right Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

As Antifascist Calling reported in 2008 and 2009, citing documents published by the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks, state and local police, the FBI and agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon’s Northern Command (NORTHCOM), the United States Secret Service, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency implemented an action plan designed to monitor and squelch dissent during the convention.

As part of that plan’s execution, activists and journalists were preemptively arrested, and cameras, recording equipment, computers and reporters’ confidential notes were seized. Demonstrations were broken up by riot cops who wielded batons, pepper spray and tasers and attacked peaceful protesters who had gathered to denounce the war criminals’ conclave in St. Paul.

With Friday’s raids, the federal government under “change” huckster Barack Obama, has taken their repressive program to a whole new level, threatening activists with the specter of being charged with providing “material support of terrorism.” A felony conviction under this draconian federal law (Title 18, Part I, Chapter 113B, § 2339B) carries a 15 year prison term… continue reading

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On Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010 a press conference was held to protest the FBI raids the day before on Chicago-area anti-war activists. In an attempt to intimidate and silence activists critical of U.S. foreign policy and militarism. Joe Iosbaker and his activist wife Stephanie Weiner had their home invaded by the FBI and searched for 12 hours. They even put in “evidence” bags drawings that their children made. Includes comments by their attorney Melinda Power. The space at the West Town Community Law Office was packed with about 75 supporters from numerous community and anti-war groups who made enthusiastic chants of solidarity at the end of the press conference. Iosbaker vowed that this McCarthy era-type government intimidation will not deter the anti-war movement from building an upcoming Midwest regional march on Oct. 16. Length – 9:28. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search “Labor Beat”.

Obama’s FBI raids anti-war activists homes in Minneapolis:

Activist Alert on the FBI Raids: The homes of five Twin Cities activists, including three prominent leaders of the Twin Cities antiwar movement, were raided Friday by the FBI in what an agency spokesman described as an “investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism.” The office of an antiwar organization also was reportedly raided.

Links to Recent Articles of Interest—Historians Against the War

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“The Tragedy of Obama’s Middle East Policy”
By Ussama Makdisi, Informed Comment blog, posted September 22
The author teaches history at Rice University

“One and a Half Cheers for American Decline”
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted September 21

“Bradley Manning: An American Hero”
By Marjorie Cohn, CommonDreams.org, posted September 20
Makes comparison with the Pentagon Papers release

“Historian: U.S. Islamophobia Worse Now”
CNN video interview with Simon Schama, posted on History News Network September 14
Simon Schama teaches history at Columbia University.

“Here Come the True Believers: The Great Muslim Scare”
By Lawrence Davidson, CounterPunch, posted September 16
The author teaches history at West Chester University

“Why Peaceniks Should Care About the Afghanistan Study Group Report”
By Robert Weissman, Z-Net, posted September 11

“Hillary Clinton’s ‘American Moment’ Was Nothing But American Blather”
By Andrew Bacevich, The New Republic, posted September 13
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University.

“The Great Pakistani Deluge Never Happened: Don’t Tune In, It’s Not Important”
By Juan Cole, TomDispatch.com, posted September 9
The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.

“The Ghost of Munich: America’s Appeasement Complex”
By Fredrik Logevall and Kenneth Osgood, World Affairs Journal, posted September 9

“They used to Burn Catholic Churches, now they Burn Mosques”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted September 9

Rouge Forum Update: October Special!

Rouge Forum Update: October Special!

Starters–a poem

REAL ESTATE RULES

(Scott Stringer, Manhattan borough president: “The entrance fee to live here is a million-dollar condo.” — The New York Times, July 4)

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,”
Said Emma Lazarus — but time passes,
And the poor go back to being wretched refuse
For which the condo captains have no use.
And so the needy are forced again to disperse,
To search for ill-lit tenements, or worse,
From which their outcast children may behold
The soaring towers built of glass and gold.
—Leon Freilich

Little Red Schoolhouse

An Interchange: Why are Today’s Students Apathetic? Young people also know almost nothing about the history of American imperialism, nor do they know about the rich (and bipartisan!) antimilitarist tradition in America. Years of government school has only served to leave Uncle Sam looking strapping in his camouflage. This is probably why inanities like “they hate us for our freedom” have such currency in America…. Finally, most young people are more interested in remaining in the good graces of those around them than learning about the world.

The Idiosyncratic Nature of Teaching and Learning: “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded. Ditto for teaching styles, researchers say. Some excellent instructors caper in front of the blackboard like summer-theater Falstaffs; others are reserved to the point of shyness. “We have yet to identify the common threads between teachers who create a constructive learning atmosphere,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and author of the book “Why Don’t Students Like School?”But individual learning is another matter, and psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong.

More of Detroit’s School Thieves to the Hoosegow: Detroit — A former payroll manager for Detroit Public Schools was sentenced Thursday to 24 months in prison for defrauding the district of hundreds of thousands of dollars by writing payroll checks to dead employees and another who was receiving disability payments. Toni D. Gilbert, 46, of Detroit was also ordered to pay $672,762 in restitution, according to United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

Can Anything Halt the Tragic Collapse of Detroit and its University? He described as disappointing the university’s low ranking in the latest U.S. News and World Reports annual listing of colleges in the U.S., saying “the view from the basement isn’t good.” He also addressed the university’s low graduation rates, saying the good news is that “the problem was recognized some time ago, and we have a number of creative programs that are working to alleviate this problem.”

Why Have School? We’re teaching kids what it means to be a citizen in our country. And what I fear we’re doing is teaching them that what it means to be an American is that you accept authority without question and that you have absolutely no rights to question punishment. It’s very Big Brother-ish in a way. Kids are being taught that you should expect to be drug tested if you want to participate in an organization, that walking past a police officer every day and being constantly under the gaze of a security camera is normal. And my concern is that these children are going to grow up and be less critical and thoughtful of these sorts of mechanisms. And so the types of political discussions we have now, like for example, whether or not wiretapping is OK, these might not happen in 10 years.

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Michigan and the RaTT Shell Game Saps (wither the vaunted lobbying power of the MEA? You Got the Law, and Zero Dough) Pay for performance as a part of teacher compensation is coming soon to your school district as part of a series of new laws enacted in Michigan’s failed bid to win federal Race to the Top funds.
The new laws were enacted prior to Michigan’s first application for Race to the Top funds. The laws are expected to remain, even though the state did not receive money in the first or second rounds of federal funding.

Time Mag Shills for Comerica Bank’s “Partnership” with Detroit Public Schools (Not a privatization, but a near seamless merger of the corporate world and the government schools) Some background: At Detroit Cristo Rey, the student body is 85 percent Black and 35 percent Hispanic. (sic…Time is numerically challenged). T he training was held as part of the school’s corporate work study program, in which students maintain jobs at local Detroit organizations. The students work to contribute funds to pay for their education, while also gaining valuable experience….

Dueling Documentaries–Against Waiting for Superman

Plus Susan Ohanian on the Six Degrees from Obamagogue to Superman Film: … Davis Guggenheim, who wrote and directed “Waiting for Superman, made a bio of Barack Obama’s mother, which premiered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention before Barack Obama’s speech accepting his party’s nomination. He also directed an Obama infomercial which aired in 2008. Guggenheim is best known as director of the blockbuster “Inconvenient Truth.” (2006)

San Diego State Adds to the Proud Casino Gambling Program, The Sports Management Program, and the Homeland Security Program–Troops to Teachers (will they get attacked like Teach for America?) The California branch of the federal Troops to Teachers program formally opened its new headquarters Thursday on the San Diego State University campus. Jointly funded by the Department of Education and the Department of Defense, the program is designed to recruit veterans into teaching programs and provide them with academic advising, counseling and financial services.

SDSU Profs Resort to FlashMobs To Do Research: … to fill a void that has disadvantaged research on campus through a lack of advocacy and perpetual misunderstanding/misrepresentation of researcher needs…Among possible upcoming efforts planned by the group, a ten-minute “flash mob” demonstration by the professors in front of Manchester Hall, where the administration is housed, and multiple Public Records Act requests to the university regarding its grant-funding practices.

Japan In Crisis–Adds Lots of Pages!

Recent articles recommended by Historians Against the War

“Diary”
By Jonathan Steele, London Review of Books, September 9 issue
On the past and present of the Taliban, by a veteran journalist

“Will Our Generals Ever Shut Up? The Military’s Media Megaphone and the U.S. Global Military Presence”
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted September 7
On the erosion of civilian control of foreign policy

“Turning Iraq into a ‘Good War’: How the Obama Administration Adopted the Bush/Petraeus Story Line”
By Gareth Porter, CounterPunch.org, posted September 7

“Our ‘Dumb Wars’ Will Go On”
By Stanley Kutler, TruthDig.com, posted September 6
The author is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin

“History Repeats Itself in Anti-Islamic Mood”
By Jonathan Zimmerman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, posted September 2
Makes historical parallel with anti-Catholicism

“The Speech President Obama Should Give about the Iraq War (But Won’t)
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment, posted August 31
The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan

“The Unmaking of a Company Man: An Education Begun in the Shadow of the Brandenburg Gate”
By Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted August 26
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University

“General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion”
By Michael H. Hunt, History News Network, posted August 23
The author is a professor of history emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Spinning the U.S. Failure in Iraq”
By Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com, posted August 20

“Presidents Flying Blind”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, History News Network, posted August 20 (from Los Angeles Times, August 19)

Rouge Forum Update: Happy Labor Day and Back to School Edition

Rouge Forum Update: Happy Labor Day and Back to School Edition

Reminder: Nominations for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee go to Community Coordinator Adam Renner at by September 15th.

Mayday Is the Real Labor Day! Here’s a Fine Poem Anyway:

Workers of the world, awaken!
Rise in all your splendid might
Take the wealth that you are making,
It belongs to you by right.
No one will for bread be crying
We’ll have freedom, love and health,
When the grand red flag is flying
In the Workers’ Commonwealth

ABC News “Crisis in the Classroom” with Arne, Michell Rhee, and AFT’s Weingarten Sucking up

Let’s Leash Arne and Barack

Putting a Noose on the Core (Regimented/Nationalist) Curriculum–States Take Bribe to Push More Tests: The Department of Education on Thursday awarded $330 million to two groups of states to design new standardized tests to replace the end-of-year reading and math exams used over the past decade to measure achievement under the federal No Child Left Behind law. The new tests, which are to be aligned with the common academic standards that nearly 40 states have adopted in recent months, are to be ready for the 2014-15 school year, the department said.

In Detroit, School Will Open but Where are the Teachers to Be? Hundreds of teachers without job assignments for the fall converged at a Detroit hotel Monday seeking a classroom spot before students return to school next week.Detroit Public Schools issued layoff notices to about 2,000 teachers earlier this year as it grapples with a $363 million budget deficit and declining enrollment. While some teachers had already been brought back, hundreds without assignments were asked to report to the Hotel St. Regis on Monday, the first day of school for teachers.

But Who Gets Laid off And How if, predictably, The Kids Don’t Show Up for the DPS Mess? The “Special Authority” provision of the contract allows the district to protect itself from incurring a deficit in the event student enrollment drops significantly, resulting in the district having more teachers than it needs to staff classrooms.

More Corruption in Detroit Schools–a Principal, an Accountant, and a Cop: A former principal, former school accountant and a former police officer will face felony charges in connection with embezzling nearly $150,000 from the Detroit Public Schools, officials announced today.

Connecting the War/Education Lies: As schools began to open for the 2010-11 year, two lies that need to be connected were kept apart in the for-profit media. On August 30, 2010, ABC News “This week,” chaired by Christiane Amanpour offered the usual tripe about educational reform, virtually praising the White House Race to the Top (RaTT) project. Washington D.C.’s school tyrant, Michelle Rhee, joined Obama errand-boy Arne Duncan and the American Federation of Teacher’s boss Randi Weingarten in a celebration of reform under the guise that “We are all in this together for the children.”

Read full update here.

Rouge Forum Update: Joy vs Organized Decay!

Check out the full Rouge Forum update here.

Reminder: Nominations for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee go to Community Coordinator

Little Red Schoolhouse:

Alfie on Assessments, Goals, and Big Tests: What is its basic conception of assessment? To get a sense of how well things are going and where help is needed, we ought to focus on the actual learning that students do over a period of time—ideally, deep learning that consists of more than practicing skills and memorizing facts. If you agree, then you’d be very skeptical about a program that relies on discrete, contrived, testlike assessments. You’d object to any procedure that seems mechanical, in which standardized protocols like rubrics supplant teachers’ professional judgments based on personal interaction with their students. And the only thing worse than “benchmark” tests (tests in between the tests) would be computerized monitoring tools, which the reading expert Richard Allington has succinctly characterized as “idiotic.”

The Bottomless Pit of Evidence vs High-Stakes Tests (does evidence matter?): Children perform best in exams when teachers are not overly concerned about their test results, according to research published today. Pupils show greater motivation, are better behaved and are more likely to be independent and strategic thinkers when teachers are not obsessed by grades, the study by the Institute of Education found.

Krashen on VAT: Value-added evaluations of teachers assume that higher test scores are always the result of teaching. Not so. Test scores are influenced by other factors. We can generate higher scores by teaching “test preparation” strategies for getting higher scores without students learning anything. We can generate higher scores by testing selectively, making sure that low scorers are not in school the day of the test. And of course we can generate higher scores by direct cheating, sharing information about specific test questions with students. Teachers who prepare students for higher scores on tests of specific procedures and facts are not teaching; they are simply drilling students with information that is often soon forgotten. Moreover, research shows that value-added evaluations are not stable year to year for individual teachers, and that different reading tests will give you different value-added scores for the same teacher. If The Times is serious about helping children, don’t bash teachers, address poverty. American children from high-income families do very well on international tests, but our children of poverty do much worse.

The One-Sided Truth About Value Added Teaching: From the LA Times owner’s perspective, they tell the truth on behalf of important sections of the ruling class, and occasionally those sections fight it out both on the editorial pages and in the rest of the paper too. Within that context of what is really their truth, the value added research “works,” in that it sees school workers (who have always been workers and have been professionals almost only when bosses want educators to make sacrifices) as people whose minds must be stripped; their minds and creativity replaced with the minds of managers as in the common (bourgeoisie) core standards, in other regulated curricula, in high-stakes exams (production quotas), and who must be won to this alienation as a necessity for, on one hand, the chance to keep a job, and on the other hand, for the good of the nation’s kids (future workers and warriors)…

The Lines of Influence in Education Reform (check the link to the draft/chart): Another example is the AFT, the American Federation of Teachers, where Bill Gates gave AFT $3.4M for “teacher quality initiatives” and $217, 200 for AFT conference expenses. See: Did Bill Gates Buy His Podium at the AFT Convention? Sometimes a breakdown of the numbers provides a more clear picture of the power and influence of money. Then there is money “with stipulations” that the Gates Foundation provided to NPR. The purpose of that money is “to support coverage of education issues on NPR programs, including the Morning Edition and All Things Considered”. The amount provided was $750,000. I don’t feel comfortable with that on many levels.

UC Boss Lives Like Czar (Flees Lease): Mr. Yudof, 65, moved with his wife into a 10,000-square-foot, four-story house with 16 rooms, 8 bathrooms and panoramic views. He said he needed the house, which rented for $13,365 a month by the end of the lease and was paid for by U.C., to fulfill his obligation to host functions for staff members, donors and visiting dignitaries.

Mr. Yudof held 23 such functions over a two-year period, according to the university. He also ordered a list of improvements and repairs — including air conditioning and 12 phones — that drove up costs and, according to staff members, tied up university officials in meetings and lengthy negotiations on issues ranging from water bills to gopher eradication.

After the Yudofs vacated the property at the end of June, Brennan Mulligan, the landlord, informed university officials that he intended to keep the U.C.’s $32,100 security deposit. Mr. Mulligan requested an additional $45,000 to cover the repairs for hundreds of holes left from hanging art, a scratched marble bathtub, a broken $2,000 Sivoia window shade and other claims.

WSU’s Tragic Detroit Trajectory–Falls to 4th Tier, then This: Wayne State University is failing its African-American students, graduating fewer than one in 10 while success for their white counterparts is four times higher, according to a report issued this month. The graduation gap between white and black students at WSU is the worst in the nation among public universities, according to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based Education Trust.

After Painting School Doors Blue (closing 40, laying off hundreds of teachers) Detroit PS sends 62 page Homework Packages to Students 2 Weeks Before School Opens but 2000 teachers and Dozens of Principals Have No Assignments: Detroit elementary and middle-school students don’t resume classes for two weeks, but they already have homework. Detroit Public Schools announced Monday it will mail 62-page packets of homework this week to 28,650 students in grades three through eight. The packets, which must be finished and turned in the first day of classes, focus on areas in which DPS students have tested poorly.
The initiative is the first time DPS students have been given homework before the start of school, said DPS spokeswoman Kisha Verdusco.

Detroit Foundations Release List of Worst Schools in Detroit (August 25): The first-ever ranking of the city’s public, charter and private schools is being released today in an effort to help parents choose good schools and pressure failing schools to shut down…
listing of schools in the city is produced by Excellent Schools Detroit, a broad coalition that includes Detroit Public Schools, charter school leaders and several foundations. The list is divided in three categories — elementary, middle and high schools — and the schools are ranked based on test scores and other data averaged over a three-year period.

What if There Was a Parade for Schools and Only Fools and Crooks Came? (Cosby pops up waiving his bogus doctorate): Waving from the final float were Mayor Dave Bing, activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, comedian and activist Bill Cosby, and Robert Bobb, the district’s emergency financial manager under whose watch the parade was launched last year…The crowd was fairly thin.

California–No School Funds for September: California will delay paying $2.9 billion of subsidies to schools and counties in September, a month earlier than projected, to save cash amid an impasse that has left the state without a budget for 54 days.

RaTT Saps: The department chose nine states – Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island – and the District of Columbia for the grants (which means that teachers in the “winner states” will suffer, but so will education workers in the “sucker states” which entered the shell game, and lost–States that did not apply are: Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. Delaware and Tennessee, as Round 1 winners, were not eligible to apply). USE RATT MAP

Obamagogue’s Errand Boy, Duncan, Wants More Data For Merit Pay and Firings: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will call for all states and school districts to make public whether their instructors are doing enough to raise students’ test scores and to share other school-level information with parents, according to a text of a speech he is scheduled to make Wednesday.

SoCal Bans Literature With Help of Teachers and Profs: “The Old Man and the Sea,” “The House on Mango Street,” and “The Great Gatsby” are so last century when it comes to high school English classes in Chula Vista and National City. Once literature-based, English classes throughout the Sweetwater Union High School District — and elsewhere in California — have been revamped in an attempt to better prepare students for college and the real world.

That means reading lists once dominated by the classics now consist of newspaper editorials, historic documents, advertisements and some nonfiction. Assignments no longer dwell on the symbolism in a poem or focus on an entire novel. Instead, they emphasize expository, analytical and argumentative writing.

Developed by professors from the California State University system with help from high school teachers, the new “rhetorical approach” to English was designed to curb the growing number of high school graduates who need remedial instruction in college…the district saw a jump in scores on statewide English tests.
Vita For Professor McClish

Secrets of the Wag-the-Dog CSU Foundations Begin to Leak: California State University officials are concerned that they have erroneously mixed public and private funds in accounting for the foundations that support the system’s 23 campuses, according to a report the California Faculty Association is releasing today.

Latest from Historians Against the War

To members and friends of Historians Against the War,

Here are some notes, followed by our latest more-or-less biweekly listing of recent articles of interest.

1. Two authors who have frequently been featured in our listings of “articles of interest” have come out with new books this summer. Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich’s latest book is Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War (Metropolitan Books), and Tom Engelhardt’s new book, based on his “TomDispatch” e-mailings (see two articles cited below) is The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s (Haymarket Books).

2. Tom Hayden has initiated an online petition supporting WikiLeaks at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38165.html. The preamble says, “We believe that WikiLeaks and those whistleblowers who declassify documents in a time of secret war should be welcomed as defenders of democracy, not demonized as criminals. We support their First Amendment rights and welcome their continued disobedience in response to a long train of official deception.”

Recent Articles of Interest

“The Guns of August: Lowering the Flag on the American Century”
By Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.com, posted August 17

“WikiLeaks and War Crimes”
By Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, posted August 12

“‘Blood on Our Hands’”
By Dahr Jamail, Truth-Out.org, posted August 11
On the US invasion of Iraq

“Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Political Legacy to the United States”
By Herbert P. Bix, Z-Net, posted August 6
The author won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

“Confronting a Mindset”
By Susan Galleymore, CounterPunch.org, posted August 5
On the Hiroshima bombing and the continued testing of nuclear weapons

“65 Years after Hiroshima: Truman’s Choices”
By Stanley Kutler, Truthdig.com, posted August 6
The author is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin

“Whose Blood, Whose Hands: Killing Civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq”
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted August 5
On the Wikileaks revelations

“What’s the War About?”
By William Blum, CounterPunch.org, posted August 5
On September 11 and Afghanistan

“Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah ‘Worse than Hiroshima’”
By Patrick Cockburn, Z-Net, posted August 5 (from The Independent)

“Why the Feds Fear Thinkers Like Howard Zinn”
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com, posted August 1
On Zinn’s FBI file

Rouge Forum Update: All out October 7th!

Up the Rebels on October 7th! The Rouge Forum Flyer

Sixty Five Years Ago Fat Man and Little Boy Fell on Japan

Opposing Views on The Bombings:

Richard Frank in the Weekly Standard

Gar Alperovitz on Hnet

Little Red Schoolhouse:

Obamagogue Defends Education Agenda As Class War Agenda:
Saying that reforming education is perhaps “the economic issue of our time,” President Obama went before a major civil rights organization on Thursday to defend his main education program against criticisms from some minority and teachers groups.

KIPP and Teach For America Boost Duncan Grants–$50 million plus for Toadies.

Civil Rights Groups Hide Their Own Report On Obamagogue’s RaTT:
Seven civil rights groups have written a “Framework for Education Reform” that while not a trouncing of the Obama and Duncan education agenda definitely is critical of it and offers up a remedy for the nation’s education ills. That document was supposed to be released on July 26, 2010, but the press conference scheduled was cancelled. A spokesperson quoted in the Washington Post said it was due to scheduling conflicts by leaders of the groups.

Jesse Hagopian: What I learned from Teaching in DC Schools:
The problem with Rhee’s thinking is that our goal should not be to discover “success stories” of kids who were able to transcend the deplorable conditions of life that make it so hard for so many to succeed, but rather to change those conditions in the first place.

Detroit Bamn Loses Lawsuit vs Bobb’s Private Funding:
Foundations that help pay the salary of Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb do not harm the public good by making the contributions, a Wayne County Circuit Court judge ruled Thursday.

GAO: 15 For-Profit Colleges Frauding: Many of the largest for-profit entities were named among the 15 sites targeted by GAO investigators:
University of Phoenix, with more than 400,000 students; Argosy University, part of the 136,000-student Education Management Corp.; Kaplan College, part of the 119,000-student Kaplan Higher Education operation owned by The Washington Post Co.; and Everest College, part of the 110,000-student Corinthian Colleges.

Read the full Rouge Forum Update here.

Rouge Forum Update: Firings in DC–Build October 7th!

Don’t forget Rouge Forum 2010 next week! More info here.

Little Red Schoolhouse:

Michelle Rhee of DC Fires 241 Teachers After Hugging AFT’s Weingarten for Helping Out on Sellout Contract. The AFT Does–Nothing Much and More Educators are on Firing Line: D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system that for the first time holds some educators accountable for student improvement in standardized test scores….Last month, union members and the D.C. Council approved a contract that raises educators’ salaries by 21.6 percent but diminishes traditional seniority protections in favor of personnel decisions based on results in the classroom. The accord also provides for a “performance pay” system with bonuses of $20,000 to $30,000 annually for teachers who meet certain benchmarks, including growth in test scores

States RaTT Each Other Out: Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards, 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks.

Their support has surprised many in education circles, given states’ long tradition of insisting on retaining local control over curriculum. The quick adoption of common standards for what students should learn in English and math each year from kindergarten through high school is attributable in part to the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition. States that adopt the standards by Aug. 2 win points in the competition for a share of the $3.4 billion to be awarded in September. “I’m ecstatic,” said Arne Duncan, (Obamagogue’s Boy Toy)

Stimulus Bait and Switch: The San Dieguito high school district must return $2.8 million of already-spent stimulus funds to the state. The district has to give back the money because it automatically converted to a different category of school system that is entitled to drastically less stimulus funds. The expense comes at a rough time for the district. It’s also facing a $2.78 million reduction in property-tax revenue calculated since June. To deal with the loss of funds, the San Dieguito Union High School District board Tuesday approved laying off 15 nonteaching workers and reducing several school services as steps toward adjusting future budgets.

Read the full RF Update here.

Rouge Forum Update: Rouge Forum Update: Censored News From NEA and AFT Assemblies

Rouge Forum Update: Censored News From NEA and AFT Assemblies

Report from NEA Rep Assembly: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda

NEA RA Photos (All banned on the Rethinking Schools and other Liberal listserves).

The NEA 2010 Rep Assembly: The Longer Version

George Schmidt on the Totalitarian Welcome to Bill Gates at AFT Convention

Bill Gates Speaks to AFT while Some Walkout and Most Cheer the Convicted Monopolist:
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Ohanian on Broad Foundation Impact on Schools and the Demagogue, Obama

1/3 of Detroit Principals are New Hires: More than a third of Detroit Public Schools will have new principals when school begins in September after a wave of retirements and reassignments.

Touchy-Feely DPS Boss Arraigned: Former Detroit School Board President Otis Mathis III stood mute Tuesday at his 36th District Court arraignment on charges of misconduct in office and obscene conduct.

Who’s Running For Detroit School Board? Nobody: Nobody wants to run for two available seats on the Detroit Public Schools board. The deadline to get on the Aug. 3 primary ballot passed May 11 without anyone filing, meaning only a write-in candidate can be elected this fall.

Detroit Boss Bobb Already Reneges on Vile DFT Contract: In his outline for the 2010-11 budget, Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb stated that he will raise class size for grades 4-12 beyond the negotiated limits in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the School District and the DFT. The EFM has stated that the contract allows for teachers to receive compensation for oversized classes.

Detroit Snooze Editorializes vs Tenure and Seniority: “ Spurred by a growing body of research that shows teacher quality is the No. 1 in-school predictor of student achievement, states and cities from New York City to Colorado are moving to ensure school districts consider other factors — such as performance and attendance — when staffing the nation’s classrooms, despite enormous political hurdles and risks.

Another Look at the AFT Convention (alt site)