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

'There Is No American Left'

We are privatizing our public institutions into morally corrupt profit engines, while ramping up to imprison dissent, and any semblance of a liberal alternative is no more than a hopeless vision---the rich and powerful and political bosses are putting their foot down---on the necks of Americans who used to have a fair chance at dignity and a living wage.  While the Democrats are less extreme than the Republicans in this bull rush to the Far Right, they are equally guilty for their enabling lack of resistance.

Here's what we are talking about in this story from an Australian magazine:

   'There Is No American Left'

Politicians Fight Hard for New Law to Take Away Your Civil Rights

Speak No Evil....or Else     The National Defense Authorization Act
gives the government the leeway to imprison any of us for any amount of time in a secret military facility without any civil rights, including a trial or the light of day.  Sen. John McCain, heading a committee, just removed an amendment which would have blunted some of the government's authority to detain American citizens, which harks back to the days of World War II when the U.S. imprisoned 110,000 Japanese without due process.  This is the story of the next chapter in America's destruction of democracy and acceptance of fascism. Under the Department of Homeland Security, military police will be sent by  Corporate-Government Powers to control the angry masses of citizens who have been shoved out of a rigged system.   Click to Read about this from Chris Hedges.

 

 

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13524-chris-hedges-%7C-the-final-battle

The Wal-Mart Way: Bribing Their Way Around the World

'Save Money Live Bitter' twists the company's slogan
at a check-out counter in Bartlett, Tennessee. 
--Photo by Citizens Media Resource

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it illegal for U.S. corporations to bribe foreign officials to get the favors, the special treatment, the suppression of competition---whatever it wants---to give it a strategical edge.  Has that stopped Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart's alleged bribes of officials in Brazil, China, Mexico and India have begun getting attention in the press.  This NYT investigative story exposes the anatomy of corruption as Wal-Mart was doing whatever it took to get its way at the expense of ancient pyramids and modern-day residents in a Mexican tourist town.  Click to read.

"Geeking Out:" National Economic Council Report Lays Out How President's Tax-Cut Plan Would Affect Tennesseans

To go directly to the report:

http://tndp.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Middle-Class-Reports-Tennessee-FINAL.pdf

This report, the President's Plan to Extend the Middle-Class Tax Cuts Impact on Tennessee, from the National Economic Council, lays out what the President is proposing and gives scenarios for Tennessee families.

On another note, as much as I hate the dramatically termed "fiscal cliff," my accuracy button also is pushed when I hear it said that President Obama's proposal cuts taxes for 98 per cent, period. Even the President refers to it as the "middle-class tax cuts," since the majority of working Americans would be the most affected. For example, per the attached report, a working family of four in Tennessee making a median income of $63,700 would pay $2,200 more in taxes from a combination of the 10% bracket being eliminated and loss of the expanded child credit and marriage penalty relief.

 

While it is the case that those who have the least money are most likely to spend it out of necessity, thus most stimulating our consumer-driven economy, the truth is that the President's proposal is an "everybody" tax cut down to the first dollar of income---even for the wealthiest Americans---which makes it apply to 100% of taxpayers, not 98%. This is not to mention other changes which lie outside the income bracket portion and which variously could affect all income levels.

This Is the Mother of All Screw Jobs, and Americans Don't Even Know About It

Here's a story that will make your blood boil...two of them, actually, must-reads to get a handle on this colossal rip-off and what it means.  The first story will warm you up, and the second story below explains how 'free trade' means freedom for the transnational corporations to monopolize, pollute, ignore rules, etc. at the expense of the people of all these countries, who are being cut down to a powerless slave class...Is the Obama administration about to sell us down the river?

Why So Secretive? The Trans-Pacific
Partnership as Global Coup 

From truth-out.org
By Andrew Gavin Marshall, Occupy.com
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the most secretive and “least transparent” trade negotiations in history.  Click to read more at truth-out.org

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: What "Free Trade" Actually Means

From truth-out.org
By Andrew Gavin Marshall, Occupy.com

To discuss “free trade agreements” or the “free market,” we must first identify the theoretical versus the functional definitions of these terms – because theoretical definitions look at what those terms should mean, whereas functional definitions look at what the terms mean actually.

The theoretical definition of a “free market” is one in which every individual actor in the realm of exchange exists in a state of equality of opportunity; where all compete with one another to produce the best products at the cheapest prices for consumers, thus the most innovative and efficient producers succeed while others fail, unregulated - and unhelped - by the state. Within “free markets,” what we call “free trade agreements” are meant to reduce barriers such as tariffs, subsidies and regulations so that market "competitors" can freely move products and goods across borders and compete in an ever-expanding global “free market."

The functional, or technical, definition of a “free market” is one in which the state regulates the market – the realm of economic exchange and activity – for the benefit of large transnational corporations and banks.

Click to Continue reading at truth-out.org

These anti-Americans Should Take their Own Advice

From Op-Ed News/Click below for full story

 

Truckin' to Treason: The Hot Air of Secession

By Walter Brasch

They call themselves "rebels." The say they want to secede from the union. But they are, in truth, a segment of the mainstream establishment--and they're more than a century late with their desire to dissolve the union.

Employees Have Had Enough of the Wal-Mart Way

"Save Money; Live Bitter" photographed recently at an area Wal-Mart

 

Workers who are unable to earn a living wage at Scrooge-Mart, the nation's largest employer, walked out on Black Friday.

 

Some reporting from truth-out.org

 

...and an earlier op-ed from truthout

 

 

 

 



"Play Nice on Election Day:" The Tennessean

Tennessean ran my op-ed about being a Democrat on Election Day in Williamson County.  Click to read.

Below is the uncut version.  See if you can guess who is the "famous country music singer" or the "widely known basketball coach," whom I allowed to remain nameless.

Spirit of Democracy Requires Election Day Etiquette

Let's play nice on election day.  We can be cordial even if we disagree.

For instance, don't flip off anyone who holds a sign you don't like.  Don't roll your window down and cuss someone who is not feelin' it for your candidate. 

In years past, some of my friends and family members have stood outside the 100-foot boundary at polling locations in Williamson County.  We smile, greet people, thank everyone for voting regardless of perceived party affiliation and encourage the support of our candidates.  We approach it like a tail-gating atmosphere, and we enjoy meeting new people and seeing neighbors and friends. 

When people make nasty remarks, we do not reply in kind.  We must all get along---we live and work together.  We have more in common than differences. 

Nonetheless, it is hard not to be stunned when things like these are said and done:

"You should be ashamed of yourselves," one man said to Obama supporters on election day 2008.  While we were trying to figure out what we were supposed to be ashamed of, his wife said, "You are not an American," to my wife, who was born in Alabama.

Flailing her arms and poncho, another woman started yelling at us as soon as she got out of her car and hit the sidewalk, angrily clip-clopping her boots toward us.

"Obama's going to run this country into the ground," she finished as she turned to walk inside.

I bit my tongue to keep from saying, "It's too late; Bush already did."

A little girl, whose mother had brought her to learn about voting, was frightened by the woman's outburst.  I had taken her picture as she held an Obama sign.  The mother said, "Please do not use her picture anywhere that the public can see her."

A widely known basketball coach, who shall remain nameless, stalled in his tracks, a sneer-smile crossing his lips, when I asked him to vote for my candidates.  To his credit, he did not say anything nasty.

A famous country singer, who shall remain nameless, got carried away with the moment and about fell off her stilettos while walking one way and leering back at us over her shoulder.  To her credit, she did not launch a diatribe.

Poll workers on the inside must put duty over party.  A poll worker during the 2008 primary put his arm around my wife and said, "I'm going to help you vote," when he acted as if the voting machine would only display Republican candidates.

Even Ashley Judd has felt this in Williamson County.  "You just voted for the wrong one," a poll worker once told her.  "Unacceptable," Judd recently told a gathering of Tennessee Democrats.  "That is inappropriate."

A school crossing guard got fired in 2008 after a Republican voter complained to the Franklin police that she was talking to a woman with an Obama sign.  She was later reinstated after someone came to his senses.

The press does not report on these uncomfortable things, the sign-stealing and this underbelly of politics at the person-to-person level.  If you want a he-said, she-said to this story, a counterpart that says there are over-the-top Democrats who try to intimidate Republicans in Williamson County, it simply does not exist. 

Williamson County is the sixth largest Democratic voting bloc in the state.  Still, there are those in Williamson County who would like to deny the existence of Democrats there, just as they are in denial about there being  hungry children in Williamson County or that Obama was born in Hawaii or that Democrats are entitled to breathe the same air. I think those do not represent the GOP mainstream in Williamson County and Middle Tennessee, although they have grabbed the microphone locally and nationally. 

Elections heighten emotions.  There's a lot at stake.  For me it's a matter of whose side are you on:  People and democracy or the big-money players who are taking over our government? 

That's what pushed our Founders over the edge: the teaming up of a giant transnational corporation (British East India Company) and the government (King George III), who handed the faltering monopoly a bailout which involved taxing American colonists. 

Does any of this sound familiar?

Thomas Jefferson must be rolling over in his grave at our dying democracy.  If you would not cuss out or flip off Thomas Jefferson, don't flip off my friends and family for exercising the rights which protect you as well.

'I Don't Want Everybody to Vote!'

This is where it came out in the open, the Republican agenda for holding down the vote.

"I don't want everybody to vote," the late Paul Weyrich tells an evangelical summit in this 1980 video. 

Weyrich is considered the Mac Daddy of the Religious Right, having founded the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and other Radical Right groups.

Spirit of Democracy Requires Election-Day Etiquette

Let's play nice on election day.  We can be cordial even if we disagree.

For instance, don't flip off anyone who holds a sign you don't like.  Don't roll your window down and cuss someone who is not feelin' it for your candidate. 

Ashley Judd Fires Up Tennessee Democrats as Election Nears

Ashley Judd: Politics Is Personal

 

Pants on Fire

Romney and Ryan are campaiging as an example of "post-truth politics."  Their lies are obvious and flagrant, but the press is merely copying and passing on their lies with little challenge or correction.  From Daily Kos...

 

One of the overarching questions of this campaign is how our nation's national political press, not exactly known for in-depth explorations of actual national issues, and certainly not known for their skills at reporting the actual facts of those issues, as opposed to which politicians are making which claims on which days about those issues, would react to it. This may be the first modern campaign to be premised quite so explicitly on truthiness, the Colbertian notion that what sounds true is an absolutely more valid political sentiment than what actually is true; that, in turn, would seem to render the entire point of the national press obsolete.

 

Why bother reporting at all, if each person can simply make up their own reality at will, assert it to be true, believe it to be true, and act upon it as if it were true? If the entire premise of informed democracy be separated from reality and rendered into a contest of pure propaganda, it seems a thin democracy indeed; if the point of the press is not to prevent such an outcome, but assist it, then they are not much more than an outlet for free-of-charge campaign advertisement.

 

The superlative example (at least so far: God help us, I am certain there will be more) would be the entire premise of the Republican National Convention: We built that. That this soundbite is manufactured from a doctored quote is not in dispute. The same doctored quote—a ragged, James O'Keefe style editing of a presidential speech crafted explicitly to mislead listeners into thinking something was said that was not actually said—was played multiple times during the convention itself. It was known to be false; the origins of the edits were known as well; the media had already pointed out, albeit to little effect, that the quote was doctored; it was made the central talking point of a national political convention anyway, and with staff assertions that the campaign was not going to be "dictated to" by fact-checkers, ergo, by the actual facts.

GOP's Grand Strategy Summed Up in Short Order

This 4-minute video nicely lays out the GOP Playbook for stealing the presidential election and ravaging democracy.  Watch it, get mad, pass it on.

Speak Up With Your Moral Values and These Words

America's extreme divide is laid bare---as only George Lakoff can.

"The Public: Obama’s and Romney’s Opposed Visions for a Free America"

Park Overall Tells it Like it Is July 4 in Franklin TN

Treason in High Places Has Mugged Democracy

If it walks like a traitor, quacks like a traitor, lines its pockets like a traitor....

Benedict Arnold has nothing on these saboteurs and criminals aptly described by OpEd News.

'Become a Citizen Now' Workshop in Nashville

While too many Americans do not vote or educate themselves on the issues, these aspiring citizens in the Nashville area are seeking to get involved in democracy and help shape America's future.  The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition has been putting on 'Become a Citizen Now' workshops as part of a national campaign.  The non-profit's web site:  www.TnImmigrant.org


Watch the video:

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlykkG7UDiY

Yes, there are hungry and homeless people in Tennessee's wealthiest county

GraceWorks Director Pulls No Punches, Will Speak in Franklin Thursday June 7

Tina Edwards

Just because Williamson County is the wealthiest county in Tennessee does not mean it is without poverty or families who have to scramble for their next meal.  Perhaps no one is more aware of those needs than GraceWorks Ministries Executive Director Tina Edwards, who will be the guest speaker at the Williamson County Democratic Party's monthly Potluck Dinner Thursday June 7 at WCDP headquarters in downtown Franklin.  

The Potluck is open to the public and will begin at 6:30 at WCDP headquarters, 112 East Fowlkes Street, off Columbia Avenue and five blocks south of Five Points.  Guests are invited to bring a dish, but it is not necessary.  Children are welcome.

GraceWorks is a Christian non-profit 501(c)(3) which helps supply the residents of Williamson County with basic needs of life.  GraceWorks operates a food pantry, a thrift store and served more than 5,000 families in 2011.  Of its annual budget of about $2,000,000, approximately 89% goes directly to client services, according to GraceWorks officials.

The True Job Creators Are Consumers Who Drive Demand Side

A Millionaire Capitalist Skewers 'The Super-Rich are the Job Creators' Fairy Tale

This 5-minute Ted Talk sets it all straight, and not from the mouth of some Commie, pinko, hippie type!

Activists Ashley Judd, Vilma Cueva Put National Political Spotlight on Williamson County, TN

"It is my desire that this will be an inspiration for our Latina women in Tennessee, in the whole country and the world.  Yes, we count!" ---Vilma Cueva

Photo: Vilma Cueva and Chip Forrester, chairman of Tennessee Democratic Party, after she was chosen to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention beginning Sept. 3 in Charlotte, NC

"Para leer en espanol"

Williamson County is in the spotlight this presidential election year as social justice activist Ashley Judd of Franklin and Hispanic activist Vilma Cueva of Spring Hill have been selected to represent Tennessee at the Democratic National Convention. 

While Ashley, more widely known as an actor than activist, will be a delegate for the first time, she has been a long-time worker for human rights.  Ashley recently has been speaking out for American women, who are under siege from extremist Republicans who seem to long for the days before women could vote or own property.

Vilma has worked as an activist for Hispanic families.  She has registered numerous Latino Americans to vote, and she conducts workshops on citizenship.  Vilma is involved in issues that affect women, children's health, poverty and educational opportunities and fair treatment for disabled persons. 

The Democratic National Convention begins Sept. 3 in Charlotte, NC.

Vilma's rallying cry to Latinos in Tennessee is this:  "If you are a resident, become a citizen. If you are a citizen, register to vote.  If you are registered to vote, vote Democratic."

Attorney Gerard Stranch of Franklin and Franklin's Elisa Parker, who is vice chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, are other Williamson Countians who will be convention delegates.

"For me this is historic," said Cueva, the day after she was chosen and after she wrapped up a Sunday afternoon workshop she conducted on citizenship at a local church. "This is huge as a woman and a Hispanic. I am vibrating from the experience. I am doing this for thousands of women in Tennessee.

"Hispanic women need to understand there is a purpose for being in this country besides our regular duties at home," Cueva said. "We need to wake up and be involved and take action.

"We have a great value as mothers. We count," said Cueva. "We are raising the next generation of Americans. In our hands is the future of our children and our world. Hispanic mothers need to be active in their community and vote and participate in politics so people can respect you for who you are and what you do.

"For the entire Hispanic community, this message needs to be heard loud and clear: We need to participate in democracy and vote and get involved. The Democratic Party is willing to embrace us so that we can participate in politics and shape the future of this country."

Cueva, who was born in Peru, has been an American citizen 14 years.  She moved in 2003 to Spring Hill, where she lives with her husband Victor and two American-born sons.  Cueva is a member of the Thompson Station Baptist Church, and she works as a bilingual specialist for an insurance company. 

Right:  Ashley Judd with "Irene," whom Ashley met while on a humanitarian mission in Rwanda.