December 20, 2013

Terry McAuliffe chose McDonnell's Dr. Bill Hazel for HHS...bodes ill for women.

Why would he do this? He ran on a platform of womens' choice, and now he appoints one of the major advocates of the Transvaginal Ultrasound Before An Abortion



From ABC7 yesterday:

McAuliffe to retain Hazel as HHR secretary

HE’S A KEEPER: Another holdover for Terry, per the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe today will retain Dr. William A. Hazel Jr. as Virginia’s Secretary of Health and Human Resources, according to sources close to the decision. Hazel, an orthopedic surgeon from Northern Virginia, has served as health secretary during the administration of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell and become a crucial player in the debate over whether to expand Virginia’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.

His reappointment, to be announced today in Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine, reaffirms McAuliffe’s commitment to expand Medicaid to serve as many as 400,000 uninsured Virginians. Hazel enjoys bipartisan support in the General Assembly, and is seen as the incoming administration’s best chance of selling Medicaid expansion to reluctant conservative Republicans, especially in the House of Delegates.” http://bit.ly/1czXWSv

More about Bill Hazel:

Virginia Gov.-elect McAuliffe reappoints anti-choice health director

Hazel, an orthopedic surgeon, is a documented opponent of women’s rights. Just a couple of examples should suffice:

* Hazel helped shepard of a law through the Virginia legislature that mandates an ultrasound be done on each and every pregnant woman seeking an abortion. And get this: The ultrasound would be done regardless of medical necessity, and the woman must pay for it.

* And, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch has reported, Hazel was the guiding light in ramming through the Virginia health and human resources department's draconian new abortion clinic restrictions and regulations.

One more for good measure:

* Hazel also spoke at uber-conservative Liberty University in opposition to the Affordable Care Act. That's the former Lynchburg Baptist College and now “university” that was founded by the late Jerry Falwell in 1971. Liberty U features a code of conduct which levies a $500 fine and 30 hours of disciplinary community service for any student who has an abortion – for any reason.

Why, Terry? Women are fighting for their rights everywhere, so you need a good explanation for this.

December 20, 2013

Bloomberg on poverty. "Sometimes some of us are lucky and some of us are not"

Actually he said worse than that. His full quote was in defense of his homeless policies. He said it was just the way God works.

Dear Mr. Bloomberg: I hate to tell you, but that kind of poverty is caused by man. It is caused by policies in countries where the very rich are so greedy that they try to get richer by taking from the needy. It is going on right now in our country, and it sounds like you are complicit.

“This kid was dealt a bad hand. I don’t know quite why. That’s just the way God works. Sometimes some of us are lucky and some of us are not,” he said.

That is pure arrogance, hubris.

More on this from the link:

Bloomberg Defends Homeless Policies While Calling Dasani Story ‘Extremely Atypical’

After the New York Times published an emotional, five-part series on a homeless 11-year-old girl named Dasani growing up in the city’s shelters, many New Yorkers reacted passionately. Among them was Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who called the status quo unacceptable and vowed last week to change the city’s approach when he takes office next year.

Asked today if he was similarly moved by the story, current Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Politicker he’d had a different reaction.

While calling her life story “really quite extraordinary,” Mr. Bloomberg insisted Dasani’s situation was not representative of the city’s broader homeless population.

.....Addressing Politicker directly, Mr. Bloomberg also took a direct shot at the media: “I think one of the problems is a lot of journalists have never looked around the world–your smirk shows you haven’t been outside the country and don’t know what poverty means elsewheres.”

December 19, 2013

Chicago closed 50 public schools. Cost to empty them out now up to 30.9 million.

This is a deal voted on hurriedly and without proper discussion. In fact the vote was rushed through in a questionable way.

"In less time than it takes to boil an egg" Chicago closes 50 schools.

History was made in Chicago Wednesday in about 90 seconds, but most of the folks who witnessed firsthand the death of a record 50 Chicago Public Schools didn’t even realize it.

Rather than list the names of the doomed elementary schools, the Board of Education took a single group vote on most of the closings that will affect some 27,000 children. The board secretary read out the numbers assigned to each resolution and asked for the vote.

But onlookers didn’t even get that, as the board president resorted to parliamentary maneuver to speed the process along.

“Madam Secretary, if there are no objections from my fellow board members, please apply the last favorable roll call,” Board President David Vitale said, referring to the previous vote of six ayes and 0 nays. And with that, the bulk of the history — 49 of the 50 schools closed — was made in a unanimous sweep.

Now the cost has more than tripled to clear out the schools that were closed. The cost is not being discussed in a public way, so people are likely not aware.

Now what I want to know is what kind of city will sign a contract with a company to empty out the school buildings before the vote is even taken.

More overruns: Cost to empty out closed Chicago schools now set to triple

Back in April—even before the vote to close 50 schools—the district signed a contract with logistics firm Global Workplace Solutions to move all the things out of schools. Price tag: $8.9 million.

GWS worked throughout the summer to inventory and move computers, books, furniture and other supplies from closed schools into so-called Welcoming Schools.

In September, the district quietly doubled the amount of the contract, to $18.9 million. Chicago Public Schools’ closing czar said the reason for the overrun had to do with the volume of stuff movers found in the 43 shuttered buildings they are emptying out.

Now, the agenda for Wednesday’s school board meeting shows the board will vote on another increase, this time to $30.9 million, more than tripling the amount of the original contract with GWS.

As they voted in April to close the schools, most people there were not even aware they had done it because of the way they maneuvered the vote.

From the 1st link:

Columnist Mark Brown

In the end, the board was so tone deaf to its audience that on the crucial vote that closed most of the schools, they used the parliamentary maneuver of adopting the previous favorable roll call — instead of taking the extra 30 seconds to each say “yes” once more. The average person in attendance didn’t even know the closings had been approved until it was over. -- "CPS closings vote shows it’s time for an elected school board"

And now 30.9 million of the taxpayers' money is going to be used to move stuff from the schools that most did not want closed in the first place.

December 16, 2013

Bob Graham speaking out about 9/11 again. Also 2 archived articles Saudi flights after 9/11

Bob Graham has been one of the most trusted sources not just about about the Iraq War, but about his knowledge surrounding the events of 9/11. He is out and about again on this topic. I was watching this long interview at Huffpost live with Bob Graham today, December 16, 2013.

Senator Bob Graham On Bush-Saudi-9/11 Coverup

He mentions that members of some Saudi families were able to fly when other flights were grounded. I think he has been quite upset over having so much knowledge of what really happened back then....and his inability to talk about it because he is sworn to secrecy. He refers to the families trying to get answers in court and otherwise, and he has empathy with them. That part starts about 5 minutes into the video.

I saved two articles about these flights. The oldest one is from 2001 from the Tampa Tribune.

Phantom Flight From Florida

TAMPA - The twin-engine Lear jet streaked into the afternoon sky, leaving Tampa behind but revealing a glimpse of international intrigue in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on America.
The federal government says the flight never took place.

But the two armed bodyguards hired to chaperon their clients out of the state recall the 100-minute trip Sept. 13 quite vividly.

In the end, the son of a Saudi Arabian prince who is the nation's defense minister and the son of a Saudi army commander made it to Kentucky for a waiting 747 and a trip to their homeland.

The hastily arranged flight out of Raytheon Airport Services, a private hangar on the outskirts of Tampa International Airport, was anything but ordinary. It lifted off the tarmac at a time when every private plane in the nation was grounded due to safety concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A spokesman for the FAA said "It's not in our logs ... it didn't occur."

There was another from the St.Pete Times (Now the Tampa Bay Times) in June 2004.

TIA now verifies flight of Saudis

TAMPA - Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left.

The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky.

The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to TIA a few hours later on the same plane.

For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose.

But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.

Bob Graham is one of my favorite persons, one who has gained my respect in so many ways. I will never forget that in 2002 he told his fellow senators that if they did not read the entire NIE, not just the sanitized version....that blood would be on their hands.

2002 Senator Bob Graham D-FL about Iraq vote. "the blood's going to be on your hands"

The Palm Beach Post link is no longer available, but I saved the text and the article.

..."On Oct. 9, 2002, Graham — the guy everyone thought of as quiet, mild-mannered, deliberate, conflict-averse — let loose on his Senate colleagues for going along with President Bush's war against Iraq.

"We are locking down on the principle that we have one evil, Saddam Hussein. He is an enormous, gargantuan force, and that's who we're going to go after," Graham said on the floor. "That, frankly, is an erroneous reading of the world. There are many evils out there, a number of which are substantially more competent, particularly in their ability to attack Americans here at home, than Iraq is likely to be in the foreseeable future."

He told his fellow senators that if they didn't recognize that going to war with Iraq without first taking out the actual terrorists would endanger Americans, "then, frankly, my friends — to use a blunt term — the blood's going to be on your hands."

It was a watershed moment. Gone was the meticulous thinker who would talk completely around and through a problem before answering a question about it...

At that same link are the words of Bill and Hillary Clinton fully supporting the Iraq invasion. Stands in contrast to Graham's blunt honesty.

December 15, 2013

Charter School Managers Pocketed Millions in Scam: DC files lawsuit. More oversight needed, please.

From the Findlaw website in October.

Charter School Managers Pocketed Millions in Scam: Lawsuit

Please note these are government funds that are being used fraudently. Arne Duncan has the power to step into the fray and get some badly needed oversight. He seems unaware of all the fraud going on. Inexcusable.

Managers for the Options Public Charter School are accused of diverting millions of dollars in government funds toward their own businesses, and the District of Columbia is suing them for it.

According to The Washington Post, the Options school was intended to serve "the District's most troubled teens and students with disabilities," but at least $3 million earmarked for the school were allegedly siphoned away by sophisticated contracting scam....One of the people named in the lawsuit, the Post reports, is local D.C. news fixture J.C. Hayward, who has been accused of helping the three ex-Option managers to incorporate one of the private contracting companies through which federal money was diverted away from the school. Hayward has since been suspended from WUSA Channel 9 pending further investigation.

...Aside from just the general crumminess of misusing money meant for children with disabilities, the complaint alleges that the Options funds were also used to rent and furnish offices for these colluding corporations.

A US attorney says no charges have been filed but they are aware of the issue. Well, it's good they are at least aware.

Mother Jones had some coverage in 2011 of more charter school outrages. There has been plenty of time for those in authority to take action to stop the flow of public taxpayer money to such charter schools.

Schools for Scoundrels

The founder of what had been California's largest charter school chain, the California Charter Academy, has been charged with many counts of grand theft after a state audit (PDF) accused the school's operators of misappropriating at least $23 million. (The case is headed to trial next year.) The audit found that Steven Cox and another employee used school funds for personal benefit, including $18,000 for Jet Skis, $11,000 for Disney-related merchandise, $9,000 at the Disneyland Health Spa, and $42,000 to pay personal income taxes. Cox allegedly diverted more than $500,000 into other ventures, including a company called Xtreme Motor Sports; he spent more than $ 1 million hiring family members and giving them retroactive raises.

More from Mother Jones:

Last year, the principal of Chicago's Triumphant Charter School, Helen Hawkins, was sentenced to three years' probation for using the school's credit card to buy Louis Vuitton bags, hair care products, diet pills, and other items. Her daughter used the frequent-flier miles Hawkins had racked up for trips to Europe.

....Philadelphia, where 19 of the city's 84 charters are under investigation by federal authorities, is a particular hotbed of charter school fraud. In April, federal prosecutors indicted the CEO and board president of the New Media Technology Charter School, alleging the pair had stolen more than $500,000 in school funds and used the money on other business ventures, including a private school, a health food store, and a web design firm. At one point, according to prosecutors, they installed a marketing consultant for their health food store in a charter school office and paid him with school funds. Then there's the Philadelphia Academy Charter School, where founders solicited bribes and kickbacks from school vendors and submitted fake invoices to get reimbursed for meals, entertainment, and other personal bills. They proceeded to hire a contractor to help destroy computer records that might implicate them. The former CEO admitted to stealing roughly a half-million dollars from the school—in part by raiding school vending machines.

All of these events are in the public venue. How long can those in control of our nation's public schools allow this to go without stepping in?

December 15, 2013

LA Gulen charter school raided Wed. by FBI renewed days before in spite of troubled past.

It amazes me how schools like this with a background of lawsuits and accusations of mistreatment of teachers and students can get their charter renewed for 5 years. And renewed only 6 days before the FBI raid.

Someone in authority was not paying attention.

Last Wednesday the FBI raided Kenilworth Charter School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They took boxes away. Their only comment was that it was not for security reasons. There is a news video at this link.

BATON ROUGE - FBI agents raided a charter school today in East Baton Rouge Parish.

An FBI spokesperson could only confirm that agents were at the Kenilworth Science and Technology School on Boone Avenue for a matter not related to public safety. News 2 crews saw FBI agents taking boxes of items out of the school on dollies and loading them into vans.

The charter school is operated by the Pelican Educational Foundation, which in 2011 lost its charter to operate the Abramson Science and Technology Center in New Orleans after allegations of rape and sexual incidents between students.

The school would not comment on today's raid.

Here is an article from 2011 revealing more about the school's past problems.

News 2 Investigation uncovers lawsuits involving Kenilworth Charter School

At the end of the 2009-2010 school year, three teachers told a court they were wrongfully terminated from Kenilworth Charter School. They say they were discriminated against because of their gender and their religion and they were harassed until they were fired.

This month, a mother filed a lawsuit detailing, what she calls, neglect and mistreatment of her Kenilworth student. The neglect included one teacher ignoring the child's weak bladder condition, forcing her to urinate on herself, and sit in the urine until class was over.

The person in charge of Baton Rouge charter schools at the time tried to help, tried to call attention to these problems.

"In talking with my colleagues, who had similar positions as I did in New Orleans, we agreed almost to the individual comments about what was happening at Abramson, that we saw happening here at Kenilworth, maybe a little lesser level," said Gilbert.

But what he got wasn't expected.

"They were told, yea, they ought to work on stuff," said Gilbert, "And the superintendent certainly indicated to me that he wanted me not to be as heavy handed as they perceived I was being

Here a video that goes with the article above.



Remember when schools like this are investigated or closed there is public taxpayer money involved. When a school fails the money is seldom recovered, and the public school system pays the price in decreased resources.

December 14, 2013

Charles Canady got an Olive Garden waitress fired for standing up for Clinton.

From 1998

http://cjonline.com/stories/122798/gov_waitress.shtml

A Florida waitress says she was fired for serving Republican U.S. Rep. Charles T. Canady a heaping portion of criticism about the impeachment of President Clinton.

Carolee Westcott says she was canned from the Olive Garden restaurant after calling Canady, a former Democrat, a "turncoat or traitor" for his recent vote to impeach the president.

She said managers told her that her interaction with the congressman "wasn't exactly 'hospitaliano,"' using the Italian restaurant chain's word for warmth to customers.

...Unbeknownst to her, Westcott said, Canady overheard her and asked for a manager. Westcott was called to the table and when Canady asked her if she had something to say to him, she offered her opinion.

"I made one statement and that's it," Westcott, 38, said Saturday. "I told him, 'I think you are a Democratic turncoat or traitor who stabbed my president in the back.' ''

She was talkinig to someone else, he overheard. He had to know she would be fired if he called the manager.

December 14, 2013

More about Charles Canady. led Clinton impeachment, led anti-abortion legislation.

Used to be a Democrat.

Florida's new Supreme Court justice....led Clinton impeachment, led anti-abortion legislation.

Note in the article that he says he answers only to God.

In today's print edition of the paper these words were proudly posted above the article about him.
Forgive the jpeg format, but I had to scan it. They changed the word Lord to Law in the online edition. The print edition also carried the above paragraph at the end.

"For those of you who pray I ask that you pray that I will always judge with wisdom and integrity as a faithful servant of the Lord," he said.

He is about as right wing as they come. One of Crist's worst appointments, sort of his tip of the hat to the tea party bunch.

December 13, 2013

Before going after Howard Dean, Elizabeth Warren, Dem think tanks threatened Bill Clinton.

It was in the mid 90s. They warned him they would withdraw their support if he did not mend his "liberal" ways.

Maybe that is why he told Robert Reich he couldn't be taking sides against corporations. From Reich's book, Locked in the Cabinet:

Bill's Labor Secretary Tells All

Picture this. Reich and his wife Clare, and Bill and Hillary go to Kinkaid's, an elegant restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. It's a good-bye dinner for Clare, who is going back to Cambridge with their two sons. Over dessert, Reich can't help himself.

'After all, we're balancing the budget and sacrificing public investment so that corporations have more money to invest. At the least, we should expect them to invest with their employees and communities in mind.'

There's an awkward pause. Have I overstepped the line?

'It seems to me,' says Clare, weighing her words carefully, 'that corporations are downsizing not only themselves but also a big part of the middle class.'

She's bailed me out. I want to kiss her on the spot. I throw caution to the winds and ask B, 'Would you be comfortable saying what Clare just said?'

'I have to keep myself from saying it everyday,' he says softly. 'I shouldn't be out in front on these issues. I can't be criticizing.'

Here is more about the warnings from the DLC and the Progressive Policy Institute, which really wasn't progressive at all.

The DLC warned him in 1994 and in 1995 to follow their goals...or they would withdraw support.

(2nd edit: The link below leads to several various articles at different sites. The ones linking to the DLC website must be found at the Wayback Machine if at all. )

Party centrists issue stern warning to White House

The DLC's blunt warning was delivered in November in response to the Democrats' midterm election debacle, which shrank the party's congressional membership and shook whatever remaining confidence they had in Clinton's political viability. The DLC's criticism followed some bitter remarks by its chairman, Rep. Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma, who, after losing his Senate bid, complained that his defeat was due to "a visceral anti-Clintonism" among the voters.

..."I think for President Clinton there is a pretty blunt message in this poll," DLC President Al From told reporters this week. "It's `Get with the program or you'll have to pay the consequences.'"

Will Marshall, who heads the group's Progressive Policy Institute, said the poll showed that swing voters who helped elect Clinton were sending the president and the Democrats this message: "We are disappointed in what you've done, but we haven't given up on you. You have one last chance. You govern as a New Democrat, unequivocally as a New Democrat, and you can win us back, and you can win back the vital center of the electorate. But if you don't, you're in big trouble."

Al From, the group's leader, made their threats even clearer.

Al From himself embodies John Maynard Keynes' warning that the real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping from old ones. "The problem for us and him," says From, "is that Clinton promised to be different. He's been that a bit, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts. The fundamental change he pledged hasn't come. We've been consistent in articulating the ideas he won on, but he hasn't been consistent in advancing them. We were at this before Clinton, and we'll be at it after he's gone, because a long-term majority will never be created around the interests represented by Jesse and the labor unions. Most people are politically homeless now. They're our target. We'll work to get Clinton to pursue us, but we're damn sure going to make it hard for him to catch us."

Did you get that about the labor unions?

These groups have been issuing threats long enough. Tired of hearing them.

On edit to clarify:

Yes, I know Bill Clinton was in on the founding of the DLC, and that he also helped found The Third Way with Tony Blair. I found it odd then that the DLC had to lecture him and warn him about doing things their way. I should have made it more clear that I knew that. It's like they were keeping a tight rein on him. I have written many posts about the DLC/Third Way hijacking of our party through the years.

December 12, 2013

Third Way VP indicates they fear Elizabeth Warren's influence on the party.

It seems they feel they have the right to determine who speaks for the party. Their now defunct partner, the DLC, felt the same way. They also used their power and influence to denigrate those on the left as fringe.

I don't think they worry about the possibility of her running for president as much as they worry about her outspoken economic populist tendencies.

From Truthdig:

How Elizabeth Warren Is Scaring the Crap Out of Think Tanks and Banks

The Massachusetts senator caused a stir this week after the Third Way think tank wrote an op-ed Monday warning Democrats not to follow Warren “over the populist cliff.”

....But what’s truly behind all this resentment toward Warren? Fear, of course. Just read what Kessler, Third Way’s senior vice president, had to say about the Massachusetts Democrat, according to the Daily Kos:

...“The impetus was really—we saw after the most recently, this push that okay, it’s time to really move the national Democratic party to a much more liberal agenda, in this case, Senator Warren was the standard bearer—she’s on the cover of a lot of magazines,” he said in an interview on Sirius XM with Ari Rabin-Havt. “We were a bit alarmed by that.”

....“She is a very compelling elected official and national figure,” he said. “Her involvement in that particular bill, we just looked at it and said ‘okay, this seems to be starting to get out of hand.’”

They are afraid others might notice her popularity and start speaking out as well. They can't let that happen.

From Salon:

The point of economic populism and pushing Democrats to the left is to push them to the left, not to beat Hillary

They’re not afraid that Warren will run for president, they’re afraid that she’ll be so popular that other senators will start acting like her. They’re worried that she’ll have money to direct to candidates who share her views. They’re worried that Warren might embarrass Democrats into passing stricter bank regulations. They’re worried that finance’s iron grip on the Democratic Party might weaken. The impetus for writing the editorial was Third Way’s realization that Warren was sabotaging the decades-long project that turned cutting Social Security into a bipartisan goal. A lot of money and time was spent encouraging elite consensus around “entitlement reform,” and suddenly a bunch of senators are talking about making the program more generous. That, of course, is a wildly popular idea, judging by all polling conducted on the subject, but the anti-populism backlash relies on reinforcing the common Washington idea that it is brave to oppose policies most people want and would benefit from. The bankers and CEOs who back Third Way understand that their policy preferences have won out in the Democratic Party in spite of popular opinion.

I doubt those with the corporatist Third Way mindset will let up on the left. After all look what they did in 2003. The DLC which was still active then, and they actually called a press conference to declare that Howard Dean was not the man to be president.

The D in DLC doesn't stand for Dean

The 'D' in DLC Doesn't Stand for Dean (David Von Drehle, May 15, 2003, Washington Post)

More than 50 centrist Democrats, including Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, met here yesterday to plot strategy for the "New Democrat" movement. To help get the ball rolling they read a memo by Al From and Bruce Reed, the chairman and president of the Democratic Leadership Council. The memo dismissed Dean as an elitist liberal from the "McGovern-Mondale wing" of the party -- "the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one."

"It is a shame that the DLC is trying to divide the party along these lines," said Dean spokesman Joe Trippi. "Governor Dean's record as a centrist on health care and balancing the budget speaks for itself."

As founder of the DLC, From has been pushing the Democratic Party to the right for nearly 20 years. He was in tall cotton, philosophically speaking, when an early leader of the DLC, Bill Clinton, was elected president in 1992. As Clinton's domestic policy guru, Reed pushed New Democrat ideas -- such as welfare reform -- that were often unpopular with party liberals.

"We are increasingly confident that President Bush can be beaten next year, but Dean is not the man to do it," Reed and From wrote. "Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else."

They will keep trying to undermine Warren's efforts, but I think she is strong enough not to cave to them. Good for her.