Thursday, April 30, 2015

Texas Tea Party Rails Against 'Godless' and 'Socialistic' Preschool Funding

April 27, 2015 8:05 pm by: John Prager
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The Tea Party brain trust deficit is at it again, in Texas. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has broken GOP tradition and has proposed spending more money for existing half-day pre-schools to serve kids who come from poor and military households, and children who are learning English.
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"We must improve early education." Abbott said in a February speech to both chambers of the state legislature. However, some of Abbott's fellow Republican, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's advisors say that the socialist pre-K program creates a "Godless" environment for children.
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Patrick's Grassroots Advisory Board, which consists of "18 hand-picked Tea party consultants," slammed the House Bill that would enact the funding in a letter on Tuesday. The advisors said that children would be placed in a "godless environment" through the program. The eighteen Tea Partiers compared the program to something "historically promoted in socialistic [sic] countries."
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"We are experimenting at great cost to taxpayers with a program that removes our young children from homes and half-day religious preschools and mothers' day out programs to a Godless environment with only evidence showing absolutely NO LONG-TERM BENEFITS beyond the 1st grade," the letter read, in part. "This interference by the state tramples upon our parental rights. The early removal of children from parents' care is historically promoted in socialistic countries, not free societies which respect parental rights."
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Patrick says that he did not read the letter until after it had been distributed, and that he did not authorize its release. "The letter in question was unsolicited and expresses the individual viewpoints of Texas citizens," spokesman Alejandro Garcia said on behalf of the governor.
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The Tea Party is not the only group that opposes aspects of the legislation. As Texas currently offers half-day pre-K to low income households, military families, and those learning English, the bill would do nothing to expand pre-K eligibility. Instead, it would provide money to improve the programs - something education groups and Democrats have called a half-measure.
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In response to the letter, Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chasse issued a statement saying the plan is "a conservative antidote to ineffective pre-K programs" that adds accountability and implements higher standards, rather than the godless and 'socialistic" indoctrination scheme the Tea Party claims it is.
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Source

Orioles COO John Angelos offers eye-opening perspective on Baltimore protests

By Ted Berg
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After protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray turned violent on Saturday, Baltimore sports-radio broadcaster Brett Hollander took to Twitter to argue that demonstrations that negatively impact the daily lives of fellow citizens are counter-productive. Orioles COO John Angelos, son of owner Peter Angelos, seized the opportunity to respond with a qualified and brilliant defense of those protesting.
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You can read the whole thing in Angelos' Twitter replies, but it's transcribed here for clarity. It's all here because it's all so good. Read the whole thing:
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    Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.
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    That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night's property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American's civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.
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    The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids' game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don't have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.
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Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore resident, suffered a spinal injury while in police custody after his arrest on April 12 and died seven days later. Six city police officers have been suspended pending an investigation into Gray's death.
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Source

Here are 5 ways it's become a crime to be poor in America - punishable by further impoverishment

Terrell Jermaine Starr, AlterNet
26 Apr 2015 at 23:07 ET                  
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The criminalization of America's poor has been quietly gaining steam for years, but a recent study, "The Poor Get Prison," co-authored by Karen Dolan and Jodi L. Carr, reveals the startling extent to which American municipalities are fining and jailing the country's most vulnerable people, not just punishing them for being poor, but driving them deeper into poverty.
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"In the last ten years," Barbara Ehrenreich writes in the introduction, "it has become apparent that being poor is in itself a crime in many cities and counties, and that it is a crime punished by further impoverishment."
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A few months ago, the Department of Justice's Ferguson report revealed how that city has disproportionately targeted its majority minority population with traffic and other minor infractions that heavily support the municipality's coffers. But Ferguson is far from alone. Municipalities like New York City have greatly increased the number of minor offenses that are considered criminal (like putting your feet up in the subway) or sitting on the sidewalk. Wealthy white people in business attire are rarely targeted for such summonses, and if they are, they can quickly pay the fine or hire counsel to get out of it. The over-punishment of minor offenses is just another way the rich get richer, and as the report says, the "poor get prison." They also get poorer and more numerous. In one striking statistic, the Southern Educational Foundation reports that 51 percent of America's public schoolchildren are living in poverty.
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Perversely, it is the poor who, according to Dolan and Carr, are subsidizing municipalities' budgets and becoming reliable sources of enrichment for the private companies contracted by local governments to carry out what used to be government duties.
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Here are five troubling trends from the report that show us how the government is financially abusing poor people.
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1. Jailing probationers who can't pay fees and fines. More than four million people are sentenced to probation in America, according to the report. Because state funding for probation services is on the decline, more private companies are talking over the responsibility of managing them. Private probation companies don't charge local governments for their services, so there is no fee to the taxpayer. Probationers, however, are charged a supervision fee, and if they can't afford to pay, they face jail time. Despite the fact that it is unconstitutional to jail people because they can't pay fines, the reality is that many probationers are poor and unaware of their rights and they end up in modern-day debtors' prisons.
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2. Taking poor people's property through asset forfeit seizures. More than $3 billion in cash and property has been seized by local and state police agencies through a Department of Justice asset seizure program. Eighty percent of the assets collected through this program stay with the law enforcement agencies that collect them, the Washington Post reported. Under asset forfeit seizure programs, cops can take someone's property simply under "reasonable suspicion" it was used to commit a crime; the burden of proof is on the property owner that the seizure was unjustified.
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3. School-to-prison pipeline. Black students make up just 16 percent of the population but represent 32-42 percent of students who are suspended or expelled, according to the "The Poor Get Prison" report. Many school districts around the country use local police to provide security, which further increases these students' chances of arrest.
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4. Hyper criminalization of petty infractions. The New York City Council is considering proposals to make petty crimes like peeing in public and drinking from an open container civil instead of criminal offenses. This follows years of hyper-policing and criminalizing an increasing list of tiny infractions.
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5. Fining the homeless for being homeless. If you are homeless in America and have nowhere to go and are down on your luck, it is increasingly difficult to find a safe space in which to exist without being fined for loitering. According to the report, an estimated 600,000 people are homeless on any given night. Though nearly 13 percent of the nation's low-income housing has been lost since 2001, and many people simply cannot afford housing, 34 percent of cities ban public camping, 18 percent prohibit sleeping in public and 43 percent prevent people from sleeping in vehicles, according to a study the report cited.
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Read more...

Re-post of an OBG (Immunization)


Re-post of an OBG (The power to control)


Re-post of an OBG (Message for Republican youth)


An invisible power that actually works


The Bible - it's not REALLY a nice story. Read it instead of just thumping it.


God needs to do a better job of prioritizing.


Keeping religion alive


Religion - it can make you stupid.


Gun control - because there are too many senseless shootings.






Gun control - because Ronald Reagan


Accidental shootings - a fact of life in a nation full of guns.






Standing up for my rights as an American


One small step for education


Robert Reich on fixing the economy.


The truth about the spoils of war.


Business - cheating the worker for a good long time.


John Oliver - if you're not watching, you should be.


Because GOP logic is never more than one-step deep.


Three posters relevant to the Supreme Court's hearing on same-sex marriage two days ago.




Seven posters inspired by the protests in Baltimore, Maryland








Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Education officials to review state exams after error discovery: Fariña

[Privatizing education is going to result in mistake, after mistake and provide all most no recourse for the voters because it is out of hands of the state. ---Bozo]
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BY Ben Chapman
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, April 24, 2015, 6:50 AM
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City schools boss Carmen Fariña said Thursday Education Department officials will review state math and reading exams after two glaring errors were found in tests in the past two weeks.
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State education officials have admitted the problems with the 2015 exams, which are used in decisions to promote students, evaluate schools and rate teachers.
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And passages from the fourth-grade reading test were posted on Facebook Wednesday, adding to the fuss over the optional exams, which are supposed to remain secret.
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Fariña altered the school system's policy for promoting students to reduce the importance of the exams last year, but still says she supports the tests.
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"We always review and we always respond, and in some cases we make recommendations, as to what should happen next year," Fariña said when asked about the quality of the tests.
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One of the reading exams administered last week misstated the name of a character in a text students were asked about, state Education Department officials said.
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And a Russian-language version of the state math exam administered this week incorrectly contained passages in Korean.
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About 200 students who were affected by the translation mistake will be given an error-free, makeup version of the test.
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Critics of the exams object to their prominent place in school lesson plans, their level of difficulty and their use in decisions to promote students and evaluate teachers.
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A statewide opt-out count for the standardized reading exams administered last week exceeded 190,000, according to the anti-testing group United to Counter the Core.
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The group says 62,173 students have skipped out on state math tests given this week. Its unofficial tally is based on media reports and information provided by educators and parents.
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And more than 3,100 city students at 93 public schools skipped their state reading exams last week, according to a tally by the anti-testing group Change the Stakes.
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Education Department officials say it could be weeks before a complete tally of who took the tests is compiled.
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Photos and source...

Re-post of an OBG (Dissenting)


Re-post of an OBG (Setting war as a priority)


Re-post of an OBG (Republican enemies list)


God peeking down at earth.


Religion viewed by some as a great tragedy


Feeding the soul


WWJD?


There is little good in religion


Shooting report - to call attention to the need for better gun control laws.






Gun control - to save our children's lives.