December 18, 2012

Guess what? Chained CPI is the bright idea of Third Way, the Dem "policy shop".

The DLC once claimed to be the "policy shop" for Democrats. In 2011 Fox Democrat Kirsten Powers posted that DLC had shut down, and the Third Way had taken their place.

The policies recommended by these Democratic "think tanks" have controlled our party for years.

Here are the details of their Social Security plan posted 2011 at the website of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Third Way Introduces New Social Security Reform Plan

Yesterday, the organization Third Way released a plan outlining several Social Security reform proposals meant to ensure the program's solvency over the next 75 years. The plan, called Saving Social Security, makes several fundamental changes to the program and cuts $2 in benefits for every $1 it increases taxes. The authors of the plan describe it as "savings-led" and say that by approaching Social Security reform in a progressive way, it's possible to come up with "a solvency plan that would make Franklin Roosevelt proud". The major points of the plan are summarized in the tables below:


Proposal Savings Through 2040 Portion of 75 year Budget Gap Closed

make benefits formula more progressive neutral no effect

index retirement age to longevity, reaching 70 by 2077 $1 trillion >one-third

cut payroll taxes in half for older workers unspecified modest cost

switch to chained CPI for COLAs $2 trillion ~one-third

increase payroll tax for high-income workers (with or without a FICA "donut hole" payment)

$1.2 trillion ~one-third

fully tax benefits for high-income seniors $500 billion modest improvement

means test benefits

immigration reforms (including surcharges on immigrant visas) $115 billion modest improvement
TOTAL <$5 trillion >100%

Here is more about the Third Way plan which includes private accounts.

Third Way's new Social Security Plan

The plan also calls for creating optional private retirement accounts for those in the workforce and under 30; it dedicates $8 billion per year to these accounts, with funds being raised by an increase in the Estate Tax.

....In an op-ed in Politico, the authors of the plan - Jim Kessler and David Kendall - explain the reasoning behind some of their proposals and offer very interesting insight, particularly in regards to the widely-held view that any Social Security reform that touches benefits is completely unacceptable. They also make several interesting observations about the idea of Social Security reform that is solely revenue-based. If you look at Social Security in isolation, maintaining its solvency through only increased revenue is theoretically possible. However, that view is unrealistic; Social Security needs to be viewed in the context of all federal government priorities. Viewed in this light, is maintaining the current level of promised Social Security benefits the very best use of increased taxes? You can only raise so much additional revenue, and funneling all of it into Social Security hinders the government’s ability to adequately fund other important priorities. This is why the authors maintain that Social Security reform must alter the trajectory of the program’s growth rather than simply financing it, and why the plan makes $2 in benefit cuts for every $1 it raises in revenue. As Mr. Kessler and Mr. Kendall state in their op-ed:

"It would be reckless to allow Social Security to take up the entire pool of what is potentially available to deal with the retirement of the baby boom generation...Social Security is one of the greatest liberal achievements. But many groups on the left have drawn a line in the sand that could doom it or set the nation on a course to fiscal ruins. Putting the weight of his Nobel Prize in economics behind this anti-reform coalition, New York Times columnist and Princeton professor Paul Krugman calls the Social Security crisis "invented" by "Social Security attackers" using "bad-faith accounting". Americans can be thankful that progressives such as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Robert Greenstein of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities have weighed in behind other serious approaches that include benefit cuts."

I HAVE drawn that line in the sand.

December 17, 2012

"a greater danger of swimming accidents" Quote from gun lobby HQed in Newtown.

Wonder what this guy is thinking right now?

That quote is from a meeting held in Newtown, CT in August. There had been complaints of loud gunshots near residences.

But in the last couple of years, residents began noticing loud, repeated gunfire, and even explosions, coming from new places. Near a trailer park. By a boat launch. Next to well-appointed houses. At 2:20 p.m. on one Wednesday last spring, multiple shots were reported in a wooded area on Cold Spring Road near South Main Street, right across the road from an elementary school.

Yet recent efforts by the police chief and other town leaders to gain some control over the shooting and the weaponry turned into a tumultuous civic fight, with traditional hunters and discreet gun owners opposed by assault weapon enthusiasts, and a modest tolerance for bearing arms competing with the staunch views of a gun industry trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which has made Newtown its home.

....“We’re growing,” Ms. Jacob said in an interview on Saturday, describing a town where hikers and mountain bikers now compete with gun owners for use of the many trails and wooded areas. “The police chief is not looking to change behavior or go after a group of people, but rather he’s trying to give his officers the ability, if an incident occurs, to react appropriately. Right now, if you’re standing on your property and my house is 20 feet away, you can shoot.”

The first meeting took place on Aug. 2, with about 60 people crowding into the room. Some spoke in favor of the new rules, the meeting minutes show. But many voiced their opposition, citing the waiting lists at established gun ranges. Among the speakers was a representative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who was described as saying he believed there was a greater danger of swimming accidents. “No privileges should be taken away from another generation,” he said.

In Town at Ease With Its Firearms, Tightening Gun Rules Was Resisted

That gun lobby is located across the highway from Sandy Hook School.

From The New Republic:

The Second Most Powerful Gun Lobby Is in Newtown, Connecticut

Just across the highway from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in a stately white building with an American flag flying out front, is the headquarters of the United States’ premiere industry association for gun retailers.

It’s not the consumer-focused National Rifle Association. The National Shooting Sports Foundation has kept a lower profile over the years, but is likely the second-most-powerful force for firearms use in the country.

Take its lobbying activities. While the gun lobby in general has spent less in 2012 than it has in recent years, the NSSF’s spending has exploded, spiking from about $100,000 in 2008 to $500,000 so far this year (in comparison to the NRA’s $2.2 million). The lion’s share of that went to Patrick Rothwell, the group’s director of government relations, who served for three years as chief of staff to the House Republican Policy Committee. He spent a lot of time this year working on legislation that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating chemicals in gun ammunition and fishing equipment, and the organization has backed a slew of concealed-carry bills.

The NSSF was also active this election cycle, rallying members under the hashtag #gunvote, though its campaign contributions only came to about $26,000. Its general counsel, Larry Keane, is widely quoted in the media making the case for gun ownership.

December 17, 2012

Michelle Rhee had nerve to say Newtown schools needed her and her group to become better.

She is absolutely one of the most tasteless, clueless people I have ever heard about. Makes me wonder how she got so much power over our public schools. I guess she was allowed to do so because no one took a stand against her bullying of teachers and everyone else.

How dare she say such a thing and exploit that tragedy like that. Here is the paragraph that is just unfeeling and rude.

But events like these also strengthen our resolve to do exactly that -- improve schools for children and thereby improve entire communities. The entire StudentsFirst organization -- including the members of our team in Connecticut -- recommit ourselves to that mission today, as we pause to send our thoughts and prayers to those affected in Newtown. Statement by Michelle Rhee on Sandy Hook

proud2BlibKansan posted about it earlier, but it got very little attention. It needs more attention since this Rhee lady has spent most of the last four years ridiculing teachers. No one has told her to stop. In fact Arne Duncan has praised her.

Michelle Rhee's statement on tragedy at Sandy Hook

Notice how she not only fails to mention the teachers, several of whom DIED while protecting their children, and she adds a plug for her organization?

Think I am kidding about the ridicule directed by her and her group, Students First, toward public schools and teachers? Here is the video that group put out to defend their offensive ad during the Olympics. The original ad and the 2nd insulting ad are shown in the link below the video.



Michelle Rhee's group defends offensive ad that targets schools and overweight people.

Cross-posted at Twitter

December 15, 2012

Seems this nation has had a meanness to it since Bush catered to extremists to win.

In my opinion the election of 2000 raised up a new brand of American, the kind who disrupted loudly, the kind who did not hesitate to politically treat others with contempt.

Today 20 young children were shot close up with powerful guns in the hands of a man who should never have had them at all. That brought out a lot of emotion in everyone. For decades I taught students barely older than that, and I kept seeing their faces as we had our lock-downs or crises happen. My daughter called tonight knowing I would be having some kind of reaction. I appreciated that so much.

That is a very short time frame for a nation to change so drastically. I live in a conservative area of Florida, and I could see how suddenly George Bush started using right wing extremists to get himself elected.

I wrote some words a few years ago about how difficult it was to understand and adapt to this new nation with people yelling at others. I learned that even those who came to our home would explode with anger over any kind of criticism of Bush or the Iraq War. One neighbor screamed at me that the bible said we were not to criticize our country's leaders, that God was leading them.

I asked her what she thought about the fact that we were invading Iraq though they had not attacked us. She screamed in anger, and we finally had to ask her to leave our home.

I still have a nice email from a then manager of WFLA in Tampa. I had asked him why they did not write the truth as they knew it. I knew a reporter there then, and I knew they had access to the truth about the war. He was very nice when he wrote. He said quite frankly that if they printed any criticism of Bush, they were attacked viciously for days. He said it bothered him, but there was nothing he could do.

A few thoughts of mine from several years ago....they show deep frustration.

There has been a movement by our party to continue the education policies of George Bush which amount to turning our schools over to private companies...while giving them our taxpayer money to make them richer. Teachers have spoken out, but they are not being heard, not even being listened to by this administration.

I used to feel safe and secure that Americans would fight back when certain things like Social Security and Medicare were threatened. I always felt comfortable that things would not get too bad here, that our leaders would step in and stop things from going too far in any directions.

I never thought our nation would get to the point that teachers were made to feel ashamed, that seniors would be called "the greediest generation" by a man appointed by our Democratic president. Or worse, that not a single Democratic leader would speak up for them and point out how they had paid into the system during their lifetimes. I never thought that two men who had such contempt for seniors would be put in charge of a commission to "fix" Social Security.

I always felt that our senior safety nets were untouchable. Now I realize they are not. I always felt our country would have the public school system that helped make it great...but we won't. It never occurred to me that the unions who helped build the middle class in this country would be treated badly by a Democratic administration.

..."It just shows how what was once the right, a normal fairly moderate right....has kept moving to the extremes. And our party, instead of standing with its so-called liberals...has denounced them and moved right as well. They have twisted meanings and words until there is no longer any understanding of them.

I think the congressional losses by our party in 2010 should have been a wake-up call for our Democrats to act like Democrats again.

The part about education hasn't changed. We are still installing Bush's policies. I write about the new reforms as do many other bloggers, and we are mostly ignored or even told to back off the criticism.

I am seeing signs of people having less fear of speaking out. Today the voices have been loud and clear when those precious children were murdered close up in cold blood.

I think Obama is ready to fight on this, it sounded that way. I hope other Democrats will join. If they push hard, the extremists on the right will have to come around....or simply look petty and foolish.

December 14, 2012

Quick reply to Jay Carney. Yes, today IS the day to talk about it.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/white-house-press-secretary-jay-carney-today-is-not-that-day-to-discuss-gun-laws/

In response to the tragic elementary school shootings in Connecticut this morning, White House Press Secretary expressed his deepest sympathies with the affected families and said that “today is not that day” to discuss gun laws.

Carney was asked during a White House press conference whether today’s violent incident raises “limiting gun violence” on President Obama‘s priority list for the second term.

“We are still waiting for more information about the incident in Connecticut,” Carney replied. “As we do, I think it’s important, on a day like today, to view this as I know the president, as a father, does, and others who are parents certainly do: which is to feel enormous sympathy for those families affected and to do everything that we can to support state and local law enforcement and to support those who are enduring what appears to be a very tragic event.”

He concluded: “There is, I am sure, will be, rather, a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates, but I do not think today is that day.”

Crossposted at Twitter

December 13, 2012

Stuff happens when you follow the false centrism of Third Way.

This is just my opinion, but I believe the Tea Party extremists gained power because our side was too busy listening to the calls for "bipartisanship" coming from the policy think tanks.

After every success we have as Democrats all kind of op eds appear, saying that we need to be careful as a majority not to leave the other side out of discussions. That's fine and good, but not practical when the other side are extremists.

It used to be the Democratic Leadership Council guiding the steps of our party, but last year Fox Democrat Kirsten Powers let us know that Third Way was taking their place.

From her column at the Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/02/09/dlc-shutting-down-third-way-is-the-democrats-true-centrist-powerhouse.html
DLC Shut Down: The Democrats’ New Power Base

Reports of the death of centrism in the Democratic Party have been greatly exaggerated.

Monday’s news that the Democratic Leadership Council is folding after three decades was greeted with glee by those on the left who see it as evidence that centrism has gasped its last breath.

.."The truth is, the DLC’s position as the leading centrist Democratic think tank was long ago overtaken by a group called Third Way, which has been growing more influential by the day.

Before joining the White House, Bill Daley, President Obama’s new chief of staff, was a board member of Third Way.

I found an opinion piece written in 1995 by the present head of the Third Way. He was calling on Democrats to privatize Social Security for everyone but the very needy.

Pure gold from 1995. Op ed from Third Way prez Cowan calling to privatize Social Security.

The time has come to reinvent Social Security based on a "cut and privatize" approach that will be fair to all age groups. This reinvention should be based on three principles:

Start immediately to lower boomers' expectations of the returns they will get and encourage them to increase private savings.

Separate out the welfare portion of Social Security and pay out poverty benefits to today's--and tomorrow's--needy seniors from general government revenues.

Idea #3 is to lower the Social Security payroll to 10% (where the heck was it in 1995...isn't it 6.2 now?) and "give workers the option of putting their money into private pension programs that offer far higher returns and sounder prospects than today's Social Security system."

Some quotes from those who have warned the party to include the left and behave like Democrats.

False centrism and the rush to "bipartisanship". They are failing our party. Some quotes.

I still quote Howard Dean now and then. I stopped for a while because I believe he stepped back a while from telling things straight and clear. Hopefully he will again.

From June 2010:

"You did your job," Dean added. "You elected Barack Obama. You elected a Democratic Congress. You elected a Democratic Senate. And now it's time for them to behave like Democrats if they want to get reelected. They have forgotten where they came from -- and they haven't been here that long."

Dean echoed other progressive leaders who opened the conference Monday, expressing dismay, even anger, at the White House and Congress, saying they have been too timid and compromising on issues such as health care, the economy, climate change and banking reform.

Dean said the progressive base is critical to Democrats' electoral successes this fall and beyond. "If Washington understands that they can't do things that demoralize their base," Dean said, "then we'll have a permanent (Democratic) majority."

It proved to be true about needing the progressive base in 2010.

R. J. Eskow's masterpiece just after the 2010 midterms was clear.

After last night's rout, what are these experts advising? You guessed it: more of the same so-called "Centrism." That's an odd word to use for policies that most Americans oppose, like cutting Social Security or allowing bankers to enrich themselves by endangering the economy, but theirs is an Alice-in-Wonderland world.

Real centrists would defend Social Security and do more to rein in Wall Street, since those positions are popular across the political spectrum. It's a good thing the president said today that he wants to spend more time with the American people. Bankers and the Deficit Commission aren't "centrists" where most Americans live.

Robert Reich has a frank and open interview with Speigel Online.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: When you served in the White House, President Bill Clinton began on the left but drifted to the middle after the Democrats lost significant ground in the mid-term elections. Do you see that happening again?

Reich: I was there with Bill Clinton when he tried to so called "triangulate" and please the voters in the middle. But the middle is a fiction. The middle is simply where most voters who respond to surveys say they are. What Clinton did and what Obama may be forced to do is to give up leadership; that is, to simply respond to polls. I think it would be a shame if Obama moved from leadership to opinion polls, but his advisors may feel that that's the only way to guarantee him a re-election.

There are good ideas there at the Third Way in some cases. They are usually geared to the business community. That group often speaks of the left in not so friendly terms.

Simon Rosenberg, a co-founder of the DLC gave away their game and left no doubt. He spoke of why the DLC was founded. The article was in The American Prospect, and the actual link is hard to keep up with. Here is his quote:

"freed... from positions making it difficult for us to win. "...Simon Rosenberg.

"Simon Rosenberg, the former field director for the DLC who directs the New Democrat Network, a spin-off political action committee, says, "We're trying to raise money to help them lessen their reliance on traditional interest groups in the Democratic Party. In that way," he adds, "they are ideologically freed, frankly, from taking positions that make it difficult for Democrats to win."

December 12, 2012

Ousted Ind. school chief new Florida commissioner

Source: Houston Chronicle

Indiana's recently ousted state school superintendent was named to a new job Wednesday as Florida's education commissioner, a choice that drew applause from Gov. Rick Scott and criticism from the leader of Florida's statewide teachers union.

The State Board of Education unanimously selected Tony Bennett, a Republican who lost a bid for re-election in Indiana last month, from a slate of three finalists at its regular meeting in Tampa.

The commissioner is hired by the board, whose members are appointees of Scott and prior GOP governors. After Scott was elected governor in 2010, he pressured Eric Smith, who had strong support in the Republican-controlled Legislature, to resign as commissioner. Scott was a proponent of Smith's successor, Gerard Robinson, who resigned in August after about a year on the job.

In Indiana, Bennett led efforts to adopt accountability changes, including letter grades for schools, pioneered by Florida and former Gov. Jeb Bush, who has close ties to several board members.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Ousted-Ind-school-chief-new-Florida-commissioner-4112305.php

---

Indiana called in Jeb Bush early on to help with their education system.



Indiana leaders call in Jeb Bush to reform their schools.

This week, Jeb headed to Indianapolis, where he spoke to state leaders about school grading, charter schools, third-grade promotion requirements and several other things he brought to Florida's public schools.

They ate it up.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels "would like to adopt everything Bush described — and more." State superintendent of public instruction Tony Bennett was equally enthusiastic, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

"There is nothing off the table in the areas of freedom, competition and accountability," Bennett told the Courier-Journal.

December 12, 2012

Arne's Dept of Ed says these privatization plans are top Race to Top MI finalists.

I guess that says all there is to say about the state of education with Arne Duncan in charge. We as taxpayers could be giving millions to a group that can do whatever it wants to public schools in MI.

http://www.michiganradio.org/post/education-achievement-authority-selected-finalist-race-top-competition

"The Education Achievement Authority (EAA), Michigan’s new reform school district, has been selected as the state’s only finalist in the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top-District competition.

The EAA is one of 61 finalists nationwide, competing for close to $400 million in federal funds.

Tyrone Winfrey is the Chief of Staff for the EAA. He says he's optimistic about snagging the funds.

"I think we were chosen because it's not a one-size-fits-all model," he said, "and it's basically educating students where they are, individually, within those classrooms."

December 12, 2012

Rick Snyder's school privatization plans may get Race To The Top money from Arne. Really?

I can't believe the man actually has a Twitter handle called One Tough Nerd. But here is a link.

https://twitter.com/onetoughnerd

One of the methods he is using is called the Education Achievement Authority. Here is more about that group from Brainwrap's post at Daily Kos

Apparently the EAA is a finalist in the current so-called "Race to the Top" competition. The Ann Arbor Public School district (as part of the Washtenaw Alliance for Education) and many other organizations and individuals have signed on to a letter sent to President Obama and Sec. Ed. Duncan objecting to the EAA's candidacy, and urging its rejection.

This is the key passage:

The EAA, a “state reform” district modeled after the problematic New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD), was established through an August 2011 interlocal agreement between then-Emergency Manager of Detroit Public Schools Roy Roberts and Eastern Michigan University under the former Public Act 4 of 2011 (“The Emergency Manager Law”), an act that was repealed by the Michigan electorate in the November 6 election. Shortly thereafter, the Detroit Board of Education voted to disband the EAA and to sever ties with Eastern Michigan University. Despite the voice of the electorate, our Michigan state legislature is pressing forward with bills during the lame duck session that would codify the EAA into state law.

We oppose the establishment of the EAA and ask that you stand in support of Michigan voters who are deeply concerned with its impact on our children’s education and on our rights as citizens to advocate for them.

The rejected Emergency Manager Law under another name?

Truth Out hit the nail on the head in a November article.

Education for Profit in Detroit

It seemed like a scene from an auction block. This past Tuesday at the House of Representatives in Lansing, MI, the education committee held a hearing on a bill (HB 6004) that would help drive a deeper stake into the heart of public education in Detroit, transferring absolute power to the Education Achievement Authority (EAA), a "public body corporate," as its chancellor, John Covington, defined during his testimony, which currently occupies more than 15 (nine elementary/middle, six high) Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and serves 10,000 students. It is a bill aimed, in plain terms, at shipping off larger swaths of Detroit's kids (each worth $7,000 per year, roughly $42 per day) into a private system.

The Electablog calls what Snyder is doing a "Big Government takeover, Republican style."

Michigan Republicans move to privatize public education under the guise of reform

Although many of us here in Michigan have been fearful regarding what the Republicans in our state legislature would do during the lame duck session which lasts for the next three weeks, few of us envisioned the draconian steps they would take to hand over the education of our kids to private, for-profit corporations and destroy our public school system once and for all. That is, however, exactly what they plan to do.

I don't know which if any have passed so far.

The Electablog includes explanations made by a very fearful and upset school superintendent.

House Bill 6004 and Senate Bill 1358: Would expand a separate and statewide school district (the EAA) overseen by a governor-appointed chancellor and functioning outside the authority of the State Board of Education or state school superintendent. These schools are exempt from the same laws and quality measures of community-governed public schools. The EAA can seize unused school buildings (built and financed by local taxpayers) and force sale or lease to charter, non-public or EAA schools.

House Bill 5923: Creates several new forms of charter and online schools with no limit on the number. Bundled with HB 6004/SB1358, many of these schools could be created by the EAA. Public schools are not allowed to create these new schools unless they charter them. Selective enrollment/dis-enrollment policies will likely lead to greater segregation in our public schools. This bill creates new schools without changing the overall funding available, further diluting resources for community-governed public schools.

Senate Bill 620: Known as the ‘Parent Trigger’ bill, this would allow the lowest achieving 5% of schools to be converted to a charter school while allowing parents or teachers to petition for the desired reform model. This bill will not directly affect our district, but disenfranchises voters, ends their local control, and unconstitutionally hands taxpayer-owned property over to for-profit companies. Characterized as parent-empowerment, this bill does little to develop deep, community-wide parent engagement and organization.

You need to read @onetoughnerd to keep up with what Michigan is doing through Rick Snyder.

Crossposted at Twitter

December 11, 2012

Dec. 7 update on Prep Academy from WTSP. Video includes attack on photographer.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/286071/250/Is-Bradentons-The-Prep-Academy-Closing-

"Bradenton, Florida - The Prep Academy is a private Bradenton school that continues to find itself in financial and legal trouble. It may be shutting its doors - or is it?

Clayton Houston says a school official says they are open. "They said they're not closing."

In an email to parents, school officials say the 6-12th grade program will close December 21st, but parents have reportedly been told the entire school will be closing then."