Rebranding Jesus as a Capitalist

With a fake rant and an attempted hijacking of Jesus, here's a look at the Radical Right's cheesy attempt to "rebrand" Jesus in their golden idol image.

Americans' Misinformation Level Threatens Democracy

Polls reveal  the propaganda of misinformation about the Affordable Care Act has worked.  Ignorance threatens democracy and progress in the U.S.

Read Justin Doolittle's story in truthout. 

Nothing New about U.S. Thought Police Dogging Us

Living the Orwellian Life

Dorothy Comingore, who played the role of Kane's mistress in the 1948 movie Citizen Kane, would never have dreamed how the U.S. government would smear her after her portrayal angered publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Meanwhile, about the time Citizen Kane was released, George Orwell was finishing up his prescient novel, 1984.

While spying on and smearing innocent American citizens who have "the wrong kind" of political beliefs is nothing new, we have taken it to a new level that would have stunned Orwell himself.

Read Kathleen Sharp's story on truthout.  "Living the Orwellian Life." 

Military State in U.S. is Marching Onward

By Chris Hedges
I and my fellow plaintiffs have begun the third and final round of our battle to get the courts to strike down a section of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that permits the military to seize U.S. citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military facilities. Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran, the lawyers who with me in January 2012 brought a lawsuit against President Barack Obama (Hedges v. Obama), are about to file papers asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear our appeal of a 2013 ruling on the act’s Section 1021.

“First the terrorism-industrial complex assured Americans that they were only spying on foreigners, not U.S. citizens,” Mayer said to me recently. “Then they assured us that they were only spying on phone calls, not electronic communications. Then they assured us that they were not spying on American journalists.

And now both [major political] parties and the Obama administration have assured us that they will not detain journalists, citizens and activists. Well, they detained journalist Chris Hedges without a lawyer, they detained journalist Laura Poitras without due process and if allowed to stand this law will permit the military to target activists, journalists and citizens in an unprecedented assault on freedom in America.”

'Get Mad and Take Action' Needed to Improve Health Care Costs and Outcomes

By. Dr. Phillip Caper

For the next few months we’ll be bombarded by messages from the Obama administration urging people, especially young, healthy people, to sign up for insurance provided under the Affordable Care Act. Without them, premiums for that insurance will soon climb to unaffordable levels.

We’ll also hear plenty of noise from the ACA’s opponents. It will be hard to get any other health policy messages across during the upcoming PR blitz.

But there are some other important and noteworthy things going on in the policy world. Perhaps the most important is the growing interest in the origins of the high costs of medical care in the U.S., now about double that of other wealthy countries.

Read more of "Where is the Outrage over our Failed Health Care System" at:

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/18291-wheres-the-outrage-over-our-failed-health-care-system

More Whites Enter Poverty Class

Poor Prospects in a "Middle Class" Society Sunday, 18 August 2013 11:10 By Gary Lapon, Socialist Worker | News Analysis  

(Image: Open hands via Shutterstock)Gary Lapon sets out the facts about a country where 'have-nots' outnumber 'haves'.

One of the biggest myths about the United States is that it's a mostly "middle class" society, with poverty confined to a minority of the population.

The reality is exactly the opposite: The vast majority of people in the United States will experience poverty and economic insecurity for a significant portion of their lives.

Read more at Truthout:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18255-poor-prospects-in-a-middle-class-society
 

America's Most Serious Threat to Freedom and Democracy

By Ray Pensador

 

From Daily Kos.  Click photo of puppet strings to go to Daily Kos site and this article. 

I stopped watching all broadcast TV news (CBS, NBC, ABC), as well as cable TV news channels like CNN, and MSNBC, except in very rare occasions... Long ago I realized how extremely toxic and manipulative to the mind being exposed to programming by these media outfits is. 

 And as I detoxed my mind from exposure to that type of blatant corporate propaganda, I am now realizing that NPR programming, although of much higher quality, in the final analysis, it has similar effects if one is exposed to it throughout the day.
Here's what I've been able to notice (on my own, just by simple observation) when it comes to the effects of being exposed to the American mass media: There is a very serious and marked disconnect between the messaging and narrative being broadcast, and reality.

The programming's subliminal message is:

"Everything is fine; people are working, and happy, and going on vacation, saving money to send their kids to college, or buy a house, going to baseball, and hockey, and football games, or to a concert."

And of course, there is the messaging related to fear (crime, terrorism, etc.).

There is other type of narratives and messaging, but it all seems carefully calibrated to manipulate and to control, for the benefit of the ruling class.

Expanding Medicaid is to Choose Life

  

By Roy Herron
Special to The Commercial Appeal

 

At 13, I found my father on the floor. He’d had a heart attack.

 

What passed for an ambulance back then in rural Tennessee rushed him to the hospital.

 

The doctor told Mother if Dad had gotten to the hospital 10 minutes later, the doctor could not

have saved him.

 

If the hospital had not been there, the doctor could not have saved him.

 

Now that hospital — like many others — is at risk. More than 50 hospitals in Tennessee are struggling financially, and we are told that some will close.

 

And when hospitals close, other children’s fathers and other loved ones will die.

 

Why is this happening? Because the Republican officeholders controlling this state have refused to cash a federal check.

 

Tennessee could extend health insurance coverage to as many as 330,000 people in working families, if state officials accept the federal funds that would pay 100 percent of the costs of expanding the state’s Medicaid program for the first three years.

 

And if, but only if, we wanted to continue the expansion beyond three years, Tennessee would not have to pay more than 10 cents on the dollar. Hospitals providing millions of dollars in uncompensated care to uninsured patients could be paid for their services, and stay open.

 

But so far, Tennessee’s Republican governor and Republican legislators have refused to accept $1 billion a year of federal funding to cover 330,000 working poor. This is money that hospitals, doctors and nurses need to serve patients in rural areas and even in urban centers such as Nashville, where at least one major hospital is now releasing hundreds of employees.

 

The New England Journal of Medicine last year published research dealing with “Mortality and Access to Care” that documents how access to health care saves lives. The study, conducted by researchers from Harvard’s School of Public Health, analyzed data from states that did and states that did not expand their Medicaid programs to cover low-income adults without children or disabilities.

 

The researchers found that when more people have access to health care, more people live — “particularly those between the ages of 35 and 64 years, minorities, and those living in poorer

areas.”

 

In fact, they found that for every 500,000 adults included in state Medicaid programs, deaths declined by 6.1 percent. In other words, Medicaid expansion for 500,000 saved about 2,840 lives per year.

 

In the words of the study: “This finding suggests that 176 additional adults would need to be covered by Medicaid in order to prevent one death per year.”

 

Officials say 180,000 more Tennesseans could receive Medicaid coverage next year if the state accepts the federal funding. If they are not served, according to the Harvard study, more than 1,000 could die.

 

Deuteronomy 30:19 recounts Moses proclaiming God’s Word: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life that you and your children may live.”

 

None of our neighbors and loved ones should have to die because politicians rejected Deuteronomy 30 and the Golden Rule.

 

Any Republicans denying Tennesseans lifesaving health care ought never again call themselves “pro-life,” not if they condemn thousands of uninsured Tennesseans to die.

 

Fortunately, there is still time to choose life. Pray that they will.

Irresponsible GOP Lets Working Tennesseans Fall Through the Cracks of Health Care

It does not make moral sense, or even economic sense if you have a heart of stone, to turn away millions of federal dollars coming into Tennessee to serve our people who have fallen through the health-care cracks.

Former Tennessee Senator Roy Herron, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, lays it out.

Expand Medicaid for Working Tennesseans

If the politicians and the prisoners, the lawmakers and the lawbreakers, have health care, what’s wrong with working women and working men having health care?

That’s the question Chairman Roy Herron sought to answer in a column that ran in Sunday’s Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

Sunday, August 4, 2013

 

Working people need state to accept federal funds, expand Medicaid

 

Brain cancer attacked Virginia’s husband. At the end, when he couldn’t take any more, the 33-year-old took his own life. As did her son at 19.

 

For 31 years, she’s worked at the same Knoxville restaurant.

 

No benefits.

 

No health insurance.

 

In Nashville, near the Capitol, in a small, inexpensive restaurant, one extremely nice and polite waiter always hustles to serve us all. No matter when I go, he is there. I finally asked how.

Tim explained he works from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m., 13 hours a day, seven days a week. That comes to 91 hours a week.

 

On a good day, he makes $100. There aren’t enough good days.

 

No benefits.

 

No health insurance.

 

Then there’s Linda. Once or twice a week, she serves me breakfast at the family-owned restaurant in Nashville where she’s worked 19 years, 10 hours a day, six days a week, from open to close.

 

Ten years ago, within sight of her home, her son was killed in a car wreck. Five years ago, cancer killed her husband. And took her health insurance.

 

The cheapest health insurance Linda could find was $2,000 a month. Her paycheck barely covers her mortgage; tips sometimes cover everything else. There’s sure not $24,000 a year for health insurance.

 

Restaurant servers are only one group of working people needing health care security. Others include the self-employed, many construction workers, temporary staff, clerks, workers in small businesses and even employees of the world’s largest, most profitable retailer.

 

Which Tennesseans need expanded Medicaid for health insurance?

 

Not unemployed single mothers and their young children — they have TennCare health insurance.

 

Not retired senior citizens — they have Medicare health insurance.

 

Not convicted felons in prison or murderers on death row — we already pay for their health care.

 

Not the politicians — the governor and his family, the commissioners and their families, the legislators and their families, members of Congress and their families. All these politicians have access to government health insurance.

 

But what about working people? The Tennesseans without health insurance are working people.

 

So, if the politicians and the prisoners, the lawmakers and the lawbreakers, have government-provided health care, what’s wrong with working women and working men having health care?

 

Folks like the Nashville waiter and the Nashville and Knoxville waitresses.

 

Many states are accepting federal funds to provide health care for working citizens near the poverty line. Tennessee has not.

 

Turning down 100 percent federal funding for three years to expand Medicaid means our federal tax dollars will be sent as far as California and New York and as close as Kentucky and Arkansas. We will fund all the states choosing to enable health care for working citizens.

 

Some 330,000 Tennesseans in working families — including 80,000 children — could qualify for the federal government paying the full cost of their health care for three years. After the three years, we could opt out if we didn’t want to pay, at most, 10 percent.

 

Will Tennessee accept the federal funding to expand Medicaid coverage to include working people?

 

Unless our Republican governor — like nine other Republican governors — and Republicans in the Legislature act, Tennesseans will pay taxes for other states to get health care, but our working women and men will do without.

 

No benefits.

 

No health insurance.

 

The public servers are depending on the public servants. The waitresses and the waiters and many other workers are waiting to see.

 

May they wait no more.

The Burgeoning State of the Military Police State

Humanity is Drowning in Washington's Criminality

Op-ed news lays it out:  The military police state is in charge and getting worse.  Click to read the story.

Trans-Pac 'Trade Deal' Is Globalized Takeover of America

...and very few Americans have even heard of it....

Link to Hightower: http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/3402

If U.S. takes this deal, foreign corporations who set up shop in America would not have to live by our laws.

TN Republicans Will Need Chiropractor to Put Them Back in Line After These Political Contortions

Hypocrite? Who, me?  Republicans take Opposite Side of Their Usual Table-Pounding Points for Larger Agenda

 

Once this session of the Tennessee legislature is over, many Republicans will need to see a chiropractor. 

The state's majority party members will need to be re-aligned, because they are turning into hypocrite pretzels as they twist and contort their usual talking points into legislation that fits a larger agenda.

Causing these awkward positions are the new charter schools panel bill and the vouchers-for-private school bill, which are moving right along through House and Senate committees.

Obama's "Disappearing Act"

Illustration by Mr. Fish

"If we lose in Hedges v. Obama—and it seems certain that no matter the outcome of the appeal this case will reach the Supreme Court—electoral politics and our rights as citizens will be as empty as those of Nero’s Rome. If we lose, the power of the military to detain citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military prisons will become a terrifying reality. Democrat or Republican. Occupy activist or libertarian. Socialist or tea party stalwart. It does not matter. This is not a partisan fight. Once the state seizes this unchecked power, it will inevitably create a secret, lawless world of indiscriminate violence, terror and gulags. I lived under several military dictatorships during the two decades I was a foreign correspondent. I know the beast." ---Chris Hedges

Since President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year's Eve, 2011---did they think people might be partying too much to notice?---and drone strikes have accelerated, Attorney General Eric Holder has said the commander in chief is on sound legal ground if he chooses to use drones to kill American citizens in the U.S.

Hedges v. Obama is a lawsuit to overturn the unconstitutional NDAA, which would allow the military to pick up and detain "indefinitely" any American citizens whom they believed "substantially support" al-Quaida, the Taliban or their "associated forces" without due process, without being charged and without a trial.  Those vague terms could include journalists or basically anyone who, upon the military's or a President's whim, could be "disappeared."

As a former copy editor, I cringe at the use of "disappear" as a transitive verb.  But, if language follows popular usage, it is fitting to say, as does Nashville city council member Fabian Bedne, that the government "disappeared my brother" in Argentina before he left his native country for the United States.

So, basically, anyone who speaks out against the current regime or military in the U.S., could be "disappeared."

Reporter Chris Hedges along with Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsburg and other patriots sued Obama and the secretary of defense.  A federal court judge agreed with them that the law is unconstitutional.  Pentagon lawyers broke their necks to get in court and "stay" the law---leave it in place until the next level of appeal could be heard.  The appeal was argued last month in a federal appeals court, but a ruling has not come down yet.  This will go to the Supreme Court, eventually.

Click for the story in which  Hedges updates things after the appeals court hearing.

Williamson County Home Values Would Drop if Charter and Voucher Schools are Voted In, Says School Superintendent

This is just one potential negative side effect to opening the state of Tennessee up to the "education reform" carpetbaggers, who have spent about $2 million to influence state legislators.  Williamson County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney lays it out in this video.

Instead of investing in improving our existing public schools, which stabilize neighborhoods and give us community, this radical agenda would take taxpayers' money away from public schools and give it to unproven charter and voucher schools---the voucher schools will be private, independent schools, and in other states where this is allowed, more than 80% of those publicly funded schools are backed by one religion or another, and the rest of them are simply independent, which includes corporate, for-profit schools.  The charters and vouchers can operate almost in Wild West fashion with extremely little oversight and accountability when compared to public school standards.

Taxes will have to go up, and education will be more expensive with the education task splintered among many diverse entities, which will be duplicating services across the board. 

Tennessee's first mad rush to privatize education was to hustle in place a Virginia-based corporation, K12Inc., to provide an online school known as Tennessee Virtual Academy, which siphons about $16 million a year out of Tennessee.  That money will not pay Tennessee teachers, bus drivers, janitors and other supporting services.  However, K12Inc.'s CEO made $3.94 million last year.  We could have bought a lot of laptops, books, all kinds of stuff if we had that and not them. K12's education quality record,  however, is among the worst if not the worst in the state.  Somehow, that has not slowed down the big money movement that has compromised TN legislators who are willing to carry the ball for them.

How Many Jobs Will Tennessee Lose because of Bills that Would Outsource Education?

I thought this was a legitimate question as many bills that are being steamrolled ahead in the Tennessee legislature would take education delivery away from Tennessee, resulting in Tennessee jobs being lost as we seem to be intoxicated with outscourcing.

 I sent a short piece to Tennessean opinion page, and below is what I wrote...and a couple of posts down is an expanded version of this question that we put to the governor, house speaker and house and senate education commuttees. click here for a link to the short piece in The Tennessean.

 

What is TN's Economic Loss from Outsourcing Education?

How much money will Tennessee lose to further education outsourcing if voucher school bills are made law?

Local CEO Bob Higgins made a good point in a recent Tennessee Op-Ed when he asked for impact studies to "better inform legislators about how changes in state law might affect Tennessee’s economy."

While some of our legislators seem to be in a great hurry to run off the voucher cliff without due diligence, our state is already paying an estimated $16 million a year to a Virginia corporation, K12Inc., for its poorly performing online school. What about the effects of even more out-of-state, for-profit corporations, which would be allowed via the vouchers? How many administrators, teachers, support staff and allied services would be taken out of Tennessee, and what would be the economic impact of those lost jobs?

Add to that charter management corporations and charter schools based out of state. Great Hearts Academy, which includes Tennessee in its national expansion plans, is based in Arizona. For each charter school they might place in Tennessee, how many Tennessee jobs would be lost, and what would be the economic impact on our state?

What would it hurt for our legislators to be more deliberative and look before they leap?

Democrats to Stew on Education at Potluck when Williamson Schools Director Speaks Thursday March 7

"No man's life, liberty and property is safe when the legislature is in session." ---Mark Twain, 1866

 

What he said.  Mark Twain.  It's too true.  Dr. Mike Looney will speak Thursday night in Franklin about bills in the legislature which Williamson County Schools opposes and supports.  Two of these bills have gotten lots of attention.  Two of them you have never heard of, I bet.

 

Dr. Looney tells us he has only one hobby---jumping out of airplanes.  We have just one question:  Which is more dangerous, sky-diving or school board meetings?

 

 

 PHOTO: Dr. Mike Looney

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    

 Dr. Mike Looney, superintendent of Williamson County Schools, will speak about controversial education bills in the Tennessee legislature when he is the guest of the Williamson County Democratic Party on Thursday March 7.

Looney will be joined as a guest speaker by Anne-Marie Farmer, an attorney and mother of a child in a Metro Nashville public school.  Farmer has been at the forefront of Standing Together for Strong Community Schools (http://www.facebook.com/StrongCommunitySchools), a grassroots parents organization that has protested the charter authorizer and voucher bills which are currently being moved through Tennessee House and Senate education committees.
 

We Ask Ed Committees: Where's Your Economic Impact Statement from Outsourcing Education?

What is TN's Economic Loss from Outsourcing Education?

This seems like a legit question, yes not one member of either House or Senate education committees, nor Gov. Haslam nor Speaker Harwell have substantially replied yet.  Well, we are waiting.  Below is the full message we sent to one and all yesterday:

Dear Rep. XXX,

Since the founding of our country, No Tax for Religion has been our principle.  I cannot see how we explain to Tennesseans that legislators would spend their tax money on someone else's religion---or an out-of-state corporation's profits.   But, the voucher bill would serve only those narrow niches, which add no nourishment to the education smorgasbord we already offer.

What's the hurry?   Has the education committee made a study of the economic impact of further outsourcing education delivery?   We already have K12Inc., a Virginia corporation whose CEO made $3.94 million last year, although they recently were caught cheating on their test reports to the state, and their education results scrape bottom.  How much money do Tennessee and our counties hand over to this outfit?  Is $16 million a year accurate?  Their sales, marketing and administrative costs are 29.8% of their revenues, so of our $16 million, $4.768 million of that includes recruiting new students to replace K12's dropouts.

Voucher Bill Moved Ahead, Charter Bill on Deck

Updating on these bills we are tracking---this coming from the Facebook page of Standing Together for Strong Community Schools.  http://www.facebook.com/StrongCommunitySchools

"A group of our members attended yesterday's House Education Committee meeting during which they rolled the State Authorizer Bill to next week's meeting. Some of our members also attended the House Education Subcommittee meeting yesterday afternoon. Despite some serious concerns raised by Rep. Pitts and Rep. Forgety, legislators pushed forward with their agenda and passed the voucher bill out of the subcommittee with a 6-2 vote. Rep. Pitts and Rep. Forgety were the "no" votes and we cannot thank them enough for their tireless efforts to ensure that all children receive a free and appropriate public education."

State Takeover of Charter School Process Is Delayed

NASHVILLE---Did public sound and fury give pause to the Republicans' bill to knock Davidson and Shelby Counties out of the way in deciding which charter schools would be allowed to set up here?

House Bill 702 was put off today in the Education Committee's weekly meeting with Committee Chairman Harry Brooks saying there was not enough time to get into the subject and that it would be deferred until later.  The meeting room audience was dominated by opponents of the bill.

On behalf of a parents group, Standing Together 4 Strong Community Schools, parents Anne-Marie Farmer and Chelle Baldwin made statements to the committee.  The group had rallied support from the community, had put up an informational web site, created a Facebook page and had gotten others to contact members of the education committee. 

The bill also had been ardently opposed by Metro Nashville city council members and Democratic legislators from Nashville.  Nashville Mayor Karl Dean surprisingly supported the state charter authorizer plan over local decision-making by the Metro Nashville school board. 

Afterward, bill sponsor Rep. Mark White (R--Germantown) told reporters that he would reconsider changing the bill to apply to all Tennessee counties, rather than singling out Davidson and Shelby Counties. 

The bill originated with House Speaker Beth Harwell, and the intent of the bill was viewed as revenge for Metro Nashville's school board rejecting a charter school application from Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy last year.  Great Hearts appealed to the state, which then overrode the Nashville board's decision and demanded that the school board welcome Great Hearts.  The Nashville board refused, and in retaliation, the state withheld $3.4 million in state funds due to the Metro Nashville school system.

Although under present law charter schools apply through the local county school boards, there is a process to appeal to the state if a charter's application is denied.  Bill 702 would have given charter schools an option to apply directly to the state and thus jump over local input and decision-making, but only in Davidson and Shelby Counties, the state's two largest.  The bill allowed for no appeal, making the state's decision singular and final.

"You have said this bill removes politics from the process, but actually it removes democracy from the process," Farmer told the committee.  "This puts decision-making in the hands of a board of people who do not live here or pay taxes here, and they will not be affected by their decisions.

"This cuts the public out of the process," Farmer said. "I do not believe that once this door is open it will stop; this will come to affect all counties."

Referring to the Great Hearts decision, Baldwin noted to the committee that "Great Hearts does not serve those at the bottom of the achievement gap....by all measures, the Metro school board is doing everything right."  The Metro board had said Great Hearts wanted to locate in an area where the existing public schools were performing well, and the board noted that Great Hearts did not have a plan for diversity of students.

"Rep. White said this is about competition.  Rep. Glen Casada says we will experiment on Davidson and Shelby Counties," Baldwin said.

"This is not corporate America," she said.  "You cannot treat them like a business.  These children are our future.  The school board members are doing their job very well.  Let them continue."

Little Learning, Cooking the Books, Big Profits: Is This What Privatized Education Looks Like?

Core principles were on display in the Tennessee state house this week.  More fireworks coming Tuesday Feb. 19 when education committee hears from a parents group, which is rallying its supporters, while charter and privatization lobbyists work to get out on their own visibility at high noon.

It also was a week for irony...or, is it just that we have misguided legislators? 

Irony one: Charter School Caught Cheating on Tests 

Irony Two: This is Just Like Renting Chairs---Let's Double Down on Charters

Irony Three: To Help Schools, Let's Take Away their Money

1---TV reporter Phil Williams put a local angle on K12Inc.'s nationally known misdeeds, reporting that the for-profit charter school which operates as Tennessee Virtual Academy, the state's online school alternative, was caught cheating on test scores. 

You read that right; this is not a story about students cheating.  It's cheating by the for-profit corporation so they can pull as much Tennessee taxpayer money as possible across the state line to Virginia.  K12Inc. gets paid per head, so they make money when they keep enrollment high and when it appears students are succeeding. Link to story: http://www.newschannel5.com/story/21129693/email-directs-teachers-to-delete-bad-grades

Moreover, this story was nothing new about K12Inc. (LRN-NYSE), which Republicans hustled across our borders in 2011.  K12Inc. not only has a bottom-scraping rank with the education results of its students, this is far from the first time K12Inc. has made headlines for manipulating its students' grades and other information.  Because K12Inc. gets paid per head, it has an incentive to keep as many students enrolled as possible, and if the students are not logging in (attending) or if they quit or move or get scratched for poor results or whatever reason, K12Inc. revenues drop---if they report it to the states where they operate. K12Inc. shareholders have filed a class-action suit which claims the company misled investors about such matters.  The New York Times did an investigative story in 2011 and interviewed Tennessee families who had just gotten started with K12Inc.

By the way, Rep. Mike Stewart proposed to cut off K12Inc. and repeal the bill that let them in; would you believe the education subcommittee cut off Stewart's bill rather than K12?

Link to NYT story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/online-schools-score-better-on-wall-street-than-in-classrooms.html?pagewanted=all

None of this bad news seems to rattle K12's bottom line as they recently reported quarterly profits per share rose 118 per cent from the prior year's corresponding quarter.  K12 CEO Ron Packard got paid $3.94 million in 2012.  Quarterly revenues were $206 million, up about 23.7 per cent over the prior year's quarter. 

To further geek out on K12Inc.'s recent quarterly report:  http://investors.k12.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=214389&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1781315

2---Let's Double Down on Charters.  Amid this news about online charter K12Inc. and with some legislators and the state education commissioner complaining about bottom-ranking results from K12, Republicans were busy fast-tracking another Go-Charter bill at an education sub-commitee meeting on Tuesday Feb. 12.

Rep. Mark White of Germantown, on behalf of house speaker Beth Harwell, introduced House Bill 702, which would set up a state "chartering authority" with the power to override the wishes of locally elected school boards in Nashville and Memphis.  

AKA Harwell's Revenge, the bill only targets Shelby and Davidson Counties as it retaliates against Metro Nashville for defying the state's demand that Nashville welcome Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy as a charter school. Memphis, with its school systems merging and dealing with issues on many fronts, gets thrown in the mix additionally---Republican legislators east of the Tennessee River think Memphis should not be part of Tennessee, anyway. 

Oh, and Shelby and Davidson are the only counties who vote in the majority for Democrats for President.  To punish Nashville, middle-school style only with money, the state withheld about $4 million in funds Nashville was due from the state.  That's about the annual pay of K12's CEO. 

White's lengthy metaphor of public education as renting chairs rated high on the jaw-drop meter.  It seemed incredible that this man was leading the state of Tennessee into radical, education legislation while stating that schools must compete like the chair rental business he operates with his brother.  White said competition must be brought into the equation, and schools thus will get better or get crushed.  Public schools are not a business---education objectives should be for the good of the community---and should not have private profit as their driving force; further, narrow tests to a wide range  of students from different types of families in different neighborhoods should not be a matter of a school's life or death.  

Presiding over the education sub-committee meeting, White hustled along his bill to the full committee, which will consider it at noon Tuesday Feb. 19 in room HHR16. 

The sub-committee rejected a plea to make the bill apply to all Tennessee counties.  As a political maneuver, the Republicans are counting on legislators from rural counties going along with party leaders and not giving a crap about a law that will not afffect them.  However, once this law and this state mechanism get set up, its next move will be into the county where you live.

Metro Nashville school board member Amy Frogge said the new law will force "shotgun weddings" by consummating marriages between Metro schools and charter schools that circumvented Metro to get approved. 

The bill is so bad that even Republican vice-chair John Forgety expressed disbelief that Republicans were going against the principle that local control is best. 

We are talking about these same Republicans who holler about states' rights and stomp their boots in defiance of anything from the federal guvmit!  Yes, the same Republicans who repeat this frame: "Don't spend money growing big government bureaucracy."  Won't this new state body have to be staffed and resourced?

By the way, even though this bill will take local matters out of the hands of two counties, Shelby and Davidson will still be expected to pay for the charter schools that slip in through this back door.

Arizona-based charter school Great Hearts Academy seems poised for national expansion, much like the growth pattern of a fast food franchise.  Former Vice-President Dan Quayle's son recently donated $1 million to Great Hearts, which is a non-profit that enjoys favored tax treatment, for a multi-million-dollar Great Hearts construction project in Arizona.  That sounds like---Wall Street, here we come!

Williamson County legislators who are not worried about this bill because they think Williamson County has good schools and, therefore, charters will never come calling, got surprised this week as an agrarian-themed charter school application announced its intentions.  So rattled was Williamson Superintendent Mike Looney that he said he would hire lobbyists to pitch the TN General Assembly.

The companion bill in the Senate is SB 830, sponsored by Dolores Gresham of Somerville.

Link to Tennessean story: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013302130130

3---Let's Take Money Away from Public Schools and Privatize It or 'Theocracize' It.  Republicans are also barrelling ahead with an unconstitutional voucher bill, which would take public school money and put it into the hands of religious schools and for-profit corporations. 

The charters are run by non-profits and, so far, no religious-oriented charters have been allowed.  The voucher schools will have even less oversight than the charters as they will be independent of the local school boards.  The voucher scheme positions its schools as "private," whether they are religious or for-profit. Thus, taxpayer money would be supporting religious teachings in an affront to the First Amendment, which requires freedom of and freedom from religion.  Thomas Jefferson's "letter to the Danbury Baptists" in 1802 about a "wall of separation between church and state" is a much better metaphor than the one about renting chairs.  Link: http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html

The vouchers sprang from American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model legislation which has taken hold in 15 states and which is called (ironically, again) the "opportunity scholarship" program.  

Not surprisingly, we see K12Inc. surfacing in various locations as voucher programs expand nationwide.  In Washington DC, K12 has applied to have a 550-pupil school as an online-bricks and mortar hybrid for profit.  Growth potential in the U.S. education industry is putting the Wall Street wind in K12's sails.  Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-debates-growth-of-charter-schools/2013/02/10/31344456-6b42-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has a story on the voucher scheme at http://inphasemag.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/school-vouchers-making-your-tax-dollars-pay-for-the-religious-indoctrination-of-children/  The organization's web site is http://www.nashville-au.org/  The voucher bill in the house is HB 190 (sponsored by Gerald McCormick of Chattanooga), and the companion bill in the Senate is SB 196 (Mark Norris of Collierville).

The parents group, Standing Together 4 Strong Community Schools, has good info posted at www.StrongCommunitySchools.com    or Facebook: Standing Together 4.
 
The parents urge people, regardless of your district, to voice opposition to the charter authorizer and voucher bills.  Charter bill is led by House speaker Beth Harwell, with Rep. White carrying water for her.  Harwell's phone number is 615-741-0709 and her email is: Speaker.Beth.Harwell@capitol.tn.gov

House education committee main number 615-741-6879.  Tara is executive asst.; Rep. Harry Brooks is chairman.  Rep. John Forgety is vice-chair.

An excellent resource for legislators' contacts and for tracking bills, even for watching video of committee meetings, is the state general assembly web site: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/

House education committee members' email addresses:

Rep.Harry.Brooks@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.John.DeBerry@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.Joe.Pitts@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.Harold.Love@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.John.Forgety@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.Roger.Kane@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.Debra.Moody@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.Dawn.White@capitol.tn.gov, Rep.Mark.White@capitol.tn.gov, rep.kevin.brooks@capitol.tn.gov, rep.jim.coley@capitol.tn.gov, rep.lois.deberry@capitol.tn.gov, rep.bill.dunn@capitol.tn.gov, rep.ron.lollar@capitol.tn.gov, rep.ryan.williams@capitol.tn.gov, speaker.beth.harwell@capitol.tn.gov

 

Senate Education Committee members:

Sen.Charlotte.Burks@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Dolores.Gresham@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Joey.Hensley@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Steven.Dickerson@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Stacey.Campfield@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Reginald.Tate@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Brian.Kelsey@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Rusty.Crowe@capitol.tn.gov

Sen.Todd.Gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov

Last word: All of that said, what affects education results and test scores most is demographics---how much money a student's parents have and where they live.  That applies across the board, regardless of whether the school is public, private, charter, etc.  It appears we are headed back to "separate but equal," which was litigated by the Supreme Court in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education.

Just as free public education lifted America over the last 100 years with an equalizing of opportunity, which led to broad prosperity and an expansion of civil and human rights, the dismantling of free public education will accelerate the dumbing down of America, will expand poverty, will weaken our economy and will leave us with a feudal system of lords and serfs.

Bring on the Jobs and Demand Side of Economy...as Best Remedy for Deficit

While Congress is generally spinning its wheels and talking about everything except reality, just for fun, let's look at something that would actually strengthen America and its workers.  Talking 'bout investing in education and solar energy development---no, wait.  That sounds too lofty.  How about a plan already in place in the U.S. House to goose job growth as a way to bolster the economy and increase revenues (decrease deficit)?

From my larger-picture view, we are a declining power, and education is being busted up and privatized---we must assure everyone a good, free education to compete globally.  When Microsoft imports 4,700 workers from foreign countries (as it did in 2011) because it says there are not enough qualified U.S. workers (Link to story: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019758596_microsoftvisa25m.html), it's a wake-up call for the future of U.S. innovation and technological leadership. 

When we have an immense defense department budget because we have about 1,000 foreign military bases in order to protect the oil for Exxon-Mobil and BP, acting as their U.S. taxpayer-funded security guard service, it's time to drop oil subsidies and incentivize solar energy innovation.  We would be able to draw down military involvement abroad and grow sustainable energy if we took that approach---one that happily scores on several levels with job growth, a cleaner planet, less military and a safer planet as we would be pissing off fewer people by closing some U.S. bases in oil lands.

Meanwhile, this "Memo to Congress" in Washington Post lays out some good sense that we have in the pipeline of Congress now:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/02/05/memo-to-congress-to-bring-down-the-deficit-focus-on-jobs/?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=71043cfe5a-DD_2_6_132_6_2013&utm_medium=email

Of course, those in Congress who want to cut spending for everyone except their corporate constituents and who bemoan the deficit as our greatest problem---when it may or may not actually crack the top 10---never complained about the deficit during the Bush presidency, when they ran up the deficit by voting, as did Marsha Blackburn, for instance, for two unfunded wars, unfunded Medicare Part D, unfunded No Child Left Behind, and unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy. 

Chris Hedges: This Is What a Patriot Looks Like

Hedges Traces History of Corporate Takeover of Democracy to Peace and Justice Group, while Awaiting His Day in Court vs. President Obama Over Unconstitutional "Disappearing Act"

Only days before his suit of President Obama and the U.S. Department of Defense is heard in federal appeals court, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges spoke at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center banquet held Jan. 19, 2013, in Memphis. 

Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and others have sued to squash the unconstitutional National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which permits the government to pick up anybody they wish at any time and hold him however long they want---without charging the alleged offender with a crime and without notifying family members of his or her whereabouts. 

I simply call it the "Disappearing Act" or the "National Disappearing of Anyone Act."  The federal court agreed the law was unconstitutional, which threw Pentagon attorneys into a panic, and they got an emergency hearing before the appellate court.  The appeals court stayed the law (left it in force) and set a Feb. 6 hearing date. 

In his remarks, Hedges retraced the history of the corporate takeover of democracy and the U.S. government, and he said the only remedy is massive civil disobedience.  Hedges' latest book is Days of Destruction; Days of Revolt.

Let's Accurately Define Who Wants these Breaks for the Super-Rich

This quote (below) from Richard Rockefeller (yes, of THE Rockefellers) in the Citizens for Tax Justice web site punctures the idea that the most wealthy Americans all support a fascist political agenda:

"If the world I leave behind is one of gated communities, growing inequality and misery among the have-nots, downward mobility for the middle class, a degraded environment and a rotting social and physical infrastructure -- then [my children's] inheritance will be a shabby one -- no matter how much money they get.” –Richard Rockefeller

We hear that the bought-and-paid-for politicians are serving the best interets of the super-rich, who (so the story goes) naturally put their personal greed above everything else.  They want low to no taxes at all costs, want to play by no rules that apply to the little people, want to crush workers and de-fund education and the arts, want to contribute nothing to the larger society, and have a morality of "It's all about me and my wealth."

While that generalization drives the narrative, I personally do not believe that characterization applies to most of the top 1% or the top .01%.   

Here is how I define this composite super-rich man whom politicians worship along with his campaign donations:  He does not have any family, or if he does, he does not care what future awaits his children, grandchildren, generations of ancestors, etc.  He does not care about the crime and social unrest that these Far Right policies will bring, because he can hire guards to protect him from the riff-raff.  He does not care if we  have arts and access to literature, parks, libraries, museums, music, reading and any of the higher pursuits of life, because they will just suck tax money for the sake of the larger good of the community and the world.  He can buy all the art and music he wants.  But the result will be life of a wealthy person living in a terrible, frightened, hostile, crime-ridden, impoverished world. 

Want to live like that, or would you rather simply have a home, family, job, education for kids, comfortable retirement and live in a more enriching, nourishing, peaceful world?   You know, that American Dream thing you heard about? 

See where I am going with this?  I have heard it said, "Watch out what you wish for; you might just get it."  If this describes the world we are racing toward, where we have very wealthy and very poor and no middle, we will all be worse off---no matter how much money we have. 

How Many Slaves Work for You?

Today, Jan. 1, 2013, is the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, do we still support a slave system? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/opinion/how-many-slaves-work-for-you.html