Turning the tide on corporate education - corps seek to profit at taxpayer expense have armies of lobbyists and politicians in Congress ready and waiting to do their bidding

Michelle Rhee (Hyungwon Kang/Reuters)

If there's a dollar to be made by taking a public service provided by the government, privatizing it and inserting an unnecessary middleman to suck up profits at taxpayer expense, there will always be a corporation for that. The fact that these corporations who seek to profit at taxpayer expense have armies of lobbyists and politicians in Congress ready and waiting to do their bidding is bad enough, even when there is a progressive movement there to fight against it. But when this conservative shift toward private profit in any service is viewed by the public and the media as the progressive alternative to the status quo, that service may not be long for this world.

That is exactly the concern with the fate of public education. It goes without saying that the conservative movement seeks to eviscerate funding for public education, for the sake of both profit and theocracy. But the bigger danger is the fact that the trend toward corporate, for-profit education is frequently seen as the progressive alternative to the current education system. Groups such as Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst and others that seek to "reform" education by introducing for-profit charters and weakening teachers' unions are often supported by popular Democratic politicians and philanthropists, such as Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, a rising star in Democratic political circles and a current director on the board of Democrats for Education Reform, another group dedicated to the agenda of weakening unions and privatizing education. This popular support, combined with major support from the financial sector, has allowed the for-profit education agenda to spread like wildfire across the country, with unions and progressives who support public education a step behind in fighting back.

Fortunately, the tide may be turning in a significant way. The popular petition site Change.org, commonly seen as a site dedicated to building popular support for progressive causes, was recently pressured into allowing their promotional contracts with both StudentsFirst and another group with a similar agenda, Stand For Children, to expire. While the promotion of petitions by these two groups had rankled public education advocates for some time, a line in the sand was crossed when the site promoted a petition by StudentsFirst targeting Chicago's public school teachers, who had just voted to authorize a strike. This petition galvanized the progressive community, which responded—how else?—with a petition of its own asking Change.org to, at the very least, not interfere in ongoing labor disputes. The heap of progressive pressure ended up forcing Change.org to publicly announce that they would not be renewing their contracts with StudentsFirst and Stand For Children.

rest at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/01/1103066/-Turning-the-tide-on-corporate-education?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Stupid Republican Ideas on Fox News: Repeal Pre-Existing Conditions Using Reconciliation Rules! #p2 #tcot @foxnews

Click here to view this media

(h/t Heather at VideoCafe)

Brit Hume, that expert on the rules of the Senate, is absolutely certain that the consumer protection provisions of the Affordable Care Act can be repealed by using the Senate reconciliation rules, bypassing the filibuster and repealing it with a simple majority of Senators.

Aside from the cruelty these Republicans flash at us over and over again, Hume is dreaming.

Let's review the rules. Reconciliation may be used only for those provisions which directly affect the budget. So while it is true that the Personal Responsibility Donation (PRD) might be repealed via budget reconciliation, that would be irresponsible, because in fact, the consumer protections may not be repealed via budget reconciliation.

As you may recall, the Senate passed the Affordable Care Act on December 23, 2009 and returned it to the House for ratification. They bypassed the conference committee and cut a deal with the House. That deal was to approve the Senate bill as passed but attach amendments to it to cut the banks out of student loan funding and other tweaks. Those tweaks were passed via the reconciliation process.

If Brit is so certain they can use reconciliation to repeal the pre-existing conditions clause, he ought to go back to the history of the public option, which House Democrats tried to attach to the amendments submitted via reconciliation only to be refused, because the public option had no direct budgetary impact.

These guys know they're done. What they're doing now is just feeding the base some red meat. It's pretty shameful to see someone who calls himself a journalist actually trying to figure out a way to deny health care access to people who need it, but I think Paul Krugman sums up the attitude of conservatives, and Hume just illustrates it:

rest at http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/stupid-republican-ideas-repeal-pre-existing

Obama campaign call affirms money anxiety #p2 #tcot

Leaked details of a plaintive phone call from President Obama to some of his biggest donors this weekend offered a rare and revealing look into the typically private rituals of big-dollar campaign fundraising.

The pitch also affirmed the campaign's anxiety about lagging behind in the money race.

In the conference call made late Friday from a special campaign phone on Air Force One, a recording of which was obtained by the Daily Beast, Obama bemoaned the anonymous super PAC donations flowing to his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.

"If things continue as they have so far, I'll be the first sitting president in modern history to be outspent in his reelection campaign," he said, according to the report.

If Democrats didn't write checks, Obama warned, such Republican PACs could permanently alter the political landscape. "The special interests that are financing my opponent's campaign are just going to consolidate themselves," he said. "They're gonna run Congress and the White House."

Obama was candid and contemplative in the 18-minute call with donors who had given him the maximum allowable amount in his last campaign, addressing concerns that some supporters might be less enthusiastic — and generous — than they were four years ago.

rest at http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-campaign-call-affirms-money-anxiety/2012/07/01/gJQAqjIpGW_story.html?wprss=rss_courts_law

Norah O'Donnell Allows John @speakerBoehner to Lie About Obama Being Responsible for the Deficit #p2 #tcot

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From this Sunday's Face the Nation, Speaker of the House John Boehner repeatedly refused to specify which programs Republicans would be willing to cut in order to get out deficit under control despite being continually pressed about it by Norah O'Donnell. O'Donnell also allowed Boehner to get away with one of the lies they tell repeatedly, which is that it's President Obama who ran up the deficit.

As we've pointed out here already, it is George W. Bush's policies that are primarily responsible for the deficit Boehner is fearmongering over here. And par for the course, O'Donnell let him get away with it with no push back.

O'DONNELL: Let's turn now to another issue in this campaign and that is of course government spending. You have attacked Obamacare as something that this government can't afford. Are you willing to go forward to the American people and say, you're not going to be able to enjoy the same kind of services you have in the past, we've got to cut those services as part of shrinking the government?

BOEHNER: We clearly have a problem. This President's driven the debt up $5 trillion in less than four years. We've got a $16 trillion national debt now, a $1.3 trillion budget deficit this year. You can't continue to spend money that you don't have.

And I do believe that it's time to deal with this. I tried everything I could last year to work with the President to try to come to some agreement to begin the process of getting our debt under control.

O'DONNELL: So can you look people in the eye and say you are not going to enjoy the same services you have before?

BOEHNER: We've got to make changes to all of our programs, because if we don't, they will, not, exist.

O'DONNELL: So people won't have the same kind of services?

BOEHNER: We've got to make adjustments to them. How we do it, that's going to be the subject of a great debate as we get into this election cycle and as we get into the post-election cycle.

O'Donnell didn't ask him which programs he was talking about, but who wants to take dibs he would have lumped Social Security in with Medicare and Medicaid if she had?

rest at http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/norah-odonnell-allows-john-boehner-lie-abo

Customs agent gets 2.5 years in prison for aiding drug cartel

Jovana Deas was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. She looked up unauthorized information in ICE databases for a sister who had drug cartel ties who then passed some of it on to her husband.

Later, Brazilian police found the same information that Deas printed out on the laptop of [her sister's] ex-husband, Mendoza-Estrada, who was living in Brazil. Later yet, on Aug. 26, 2010, Chavez-Sagredo was killed execution style by men who burst into a restaurant in Ciudad Juárez

Deas was a huge success story. She learned English at college, graduated with honors, and became a ICE agent. But then she began funneling information to her crime-linked family. Illegally accessing databases as she did is indeed a criminal offense and not just in ICE but in most of the government as well. The government never claimed that her leaking information led directly to the murder.

ICE press release. Feb. 7 2012

At the hearing, Deas admitted that she illegally accessed, stole and transferred sensitive U.S. government documents to unauthorized individuals and obstructed HSI investigations. She admitted to abusing her position as a special agent to illegally obtain and disseminate government documents classified as "For Official Use Only."

rest at http://polizeros.com/2012/07/01/customs-agent-gets-2-5-years-in-prison-for-aiding-drug-cartel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PoliticsInTheZeros+%28Politics+in+the+Zeros%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Women Behind Breastfeeding Military Moms Photograph Fired, Reprimanded #p2 #tcot

The woman who orchestrated a series of photographs featuring mothers who served in the military breastfeeding their children has been fired from her job.

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/06/15/500237/women-behind-breastfeeding-military-moms-photograph-fired-reprimanded/

Republican Miami Mayor Opposes Voter Purge, Says It Is ‘Scaring People’ Away From Voting #p2 #tcot

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado (R)

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado (R) became the latest Florida Republican to buck Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) yesterday, attacking his error-riddled and likely illegal attempt to purge people his administration said were non-citizen voters from the voter rolls.

In an interview with NPR's Michel Martin, Regaldo dismissed Scott's notion that Florida is any kind of haven for wide-spread voter fraud:

REGALADO: I think that in Florida – and especially here in South Florida – we walk a very thin line in terms of communities. I mean, we are a real melting pot. And I think it's not fair just to use one brush and paint everybody, because the perception that we're getting throughout the country is that a bunch of Latino people just go out and vote right after getting off the plane or the raft when they come here. And that's not the case. Problem are, the laws. I mean, you can go and get your voter ID with your driver's license, and no questions asked. Well, the law has to be changed. But, you know, I doubt that we have a massive fraud going on here in Florida…

MARTIN: Have you expressed that to the governor, who shares your political party?

REGALADO: I have not spoken to the governor. And, you know, and I understand the governor is trying to cater to the conservatives, but that's not the way to do it. I mean, I don't see thousands of people not citizens voting here in South Florida. I mean, throughout the years, we have seen in the United States – remember Chicago many years ago – people that were dead voting and all that.But other than that, those are unique cases. I don't think that there is, like, this massive fraud. What we should do is encourage people to register and vote if you are citizens, because the problem is that all these controversies about voters and investigators and Justice Department and police after the voters is scaring people to vote. The people are going to say, well, it's too much trouble. So I might as well don't even bother to vote. And that's wrong because…

rest at 

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/06/15/500242/republican-miami-mayor-opposes-voter-purge-says-it-is-scaring-people-away-from-voting/

Oakland parents and teachers staging sit-in today to fight public school closings #p2 #tcot

With the school year coming to an end, now comes the all-too-familiar moment when certain public school doors are shuttered. This is the case in Oakland where five public schools are being closed, with children being sent to charter schools (some as far as 10 miles away) with no guarantee of transportation. Parents and teachers, however, are fighting back with a sit-in today.

rest at http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/184669/oakland-parents-and-teachers-staging-sit-in-today-to-fight-public-school-closings/

Romney’s entire campaign rests on a foundation of short, utterly false sound bites

from  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/15/1100255/-This-isn-t-a-matter-of-opinion?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

"Dear media:

This paragraph from today's New York Times editorial isn't opinion, it's fact...

Mr. Romney's entire campaign rests on a foundation of short, utterly false sound bites. The stimulus failed. (Three million employed people beg to differ.) The auto bailout was a mistake. (Another million jobs.) Spending is out of control. (Spending growth is actually lower than under all modern Republican presidents.) He says these kinds of things so often that millions of Americans believe them to be the truth.

...and it's okay for journalists to report on Romney's lies as if they were news.

Because they are."

Romney Gets a Hold of Ron Paul's Email List

here  http://www.activistpost.com/2012/06/romney-gets-hold-of-ron-pauls-email.html

brutal: Chinese Government Forces Feng Jianmei to Have Seven-Month Abortion

"In China, Feng Jianmei says that she was forcibly injected with a chemical to induce an abortion, even though she was seven months pregnant. The abortion resulted in a stillborn child.

Pictures of the young woman and her dead baby, who was covered in blood have caused outrage and shock within the country and beyond its borders.

Because she already had a child, local birth-control authorities ordered her to pay a fine equal to about $5000.

However, Jianmei couldn't pay the fine because her mother-in-law needed the cash for a cancer treatment. 

So 20 members of the local family planning authority placed her under arrest and forcibly took her to a hospital where the abortion was performed against her will.

Chai Ling of the activist group 'All Girls Allowed' said this grisly incident proves how the country's 'One-Child Policy' continues today.

Li Yuongjou, deputy chief of the local  family planning department, denied there was any forced abortion: "A lot of us tried for days to educate her. She agreed to the (seven month) abortion herself.""

rest at http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/abortion/chinese-government-forces-feng-jianmei-have-seven-month-abortion?utm_source=OV+Newsletter+List+2&utm_campaign=b517cf28ae-OV_Newsletter_June_146_14_2012&utm_medium=email

U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team Snubs American Troops #p2 #tcot

The U.S. Men's National Soccer Team (USMNT) wasn't exactly the country's sports darling heading into this week, and it most definitely didn't endear itself to anyone with this latest dumb move.

As team members stepped off their plane in Guatemala this past Monday, they were greeted by droves of soldiers who cheered them on as they walked towards the bus. Instead of stopping to chat with the troops and/or to thank them for their support, the players walked past them like they weren't even there.

Understandably, the folks who put their lives on the line so that USMNT players can continue to safely embarrass themselves at every international tournament weren't too happy with that reception.

Per TMZ:

The soldiers' friends and family took to Facebook to express their disgust -- writing messages like, "What a disgrace that a team that wears our American colors can't take 5 minutes to acknowledge the soldiers that fight for what those colors represent."

rest at http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sports/soccer/us-men-s-national-soccer-team-snubs-american-troops?utm_source=OV+Newsletter+List+2&utm_campaign=b517cf28ae-OV_Newsletter_June_146_14_2012&utm_medium=email

Grieving Father Struggles to Pay Dead Son’s Student Loans #p2 #tcot

A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting

notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling.

"They would say, 'We don't care what happened with your son, you have

to pay us,'" recalled Reynoso, a gardener from Palmdale, Calif.

Reynoso's son, Freddy, had been the pride of his family and the first to go to college. In 2005, after Freddy was

accepted to Boston's Berklee College of Music, his father co-signed on his hefty private student loans, making him

fully liable should Freddy be unwilling or unable to repay them. It was no small decision for a man who made just

over $21,000 in 2011, according to his tax returns.

"As a father, you'll do anything for your child," Reynoso, an American citizen originally from Mexico, said through a

translator.

Now, he's suffering a Kafkaesque ordeal in which he's hounded to repay loans that funded an education his son will

never get to use — loans that he has little hope of ever paying off. While Reynoso's wife, Sylvia, is studying to be a

beautician, his gardening is currently the sole source of income for the family, which includes his 18-year-old

daughter Evelyn.

And the loans are maddeningly opaque. Despite the help of a lawyer, Reynoso has not been able to determine

exactly how much he owes, or even what company holds his loans. Just as happened with home mortgages in the

boom years before the 2008 financial crash, his son's student loans have been sold and resold, and at least one was

likely bundled into a complex Wall Street security. But the trail of those transactions ends at a wall of corporate

silence from companies that include two household names: banking giant UBS and Xerox, which owns the loan

servicer handling the bulk of his loans. Left without answers is a bereaved father.

The risk of cosigning on Freddy's loans seemed to have been worth it when he graduated in May 2008 and began

looking for a job in the music industry. He was on the way back from a job interview on the evening of Sept. 4 when

he lost control of his car and it rolled over. Freddy's family learned of his death the next morning.

rest at http://www.propublica.org/article/grieving-father-struggles-to-pay-dead-sons-student-loans

Public Understanding Of Climate Science Rebounds, 72% of Independents Say There Is ‘Solid Evidence’ Of Global Warming #p2 #tcot

Brookings has released a new survey that confirms other recent polls: Public understanding of climate science is rebounding, and the recent record-smashing extreme weather events are playing a key role.

As you can see, the biggest jump is from independents, demonstrating once again that global warming has become a major wedge issue. Many other recent polls have made that clear (see "Gallup poll: Public understanding of global warming gains" and "Independents, Other Republicans Split With Tea-Party Extremists on Global Warming"). Now if progressive politicians would only seize on this winning issue.

Perhaps even more remarkable than this rebound in understanding is the record rise in the public's confidence in their accurate understanding of climate science that the National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change [NSAPOCC] found:

Just under two thirds of those who believe global warming is occurring stated that they were very confident of this position. This 63 percent confidence level is 14 percentage points higher than in the fall of 2011 and marks the highest level since the NSAPOCC began in 2008.

Why would confidence be growing, especially when the media and key opinion-makers have all but stoppedtalking about climate change?

Brookings had previously found that Americans' Understanding of Climate Change Is Increasing With More Extreme Weather, Warmer Temperatures. Certainly the American public is seeing for themselves the off-the-chart heat waves and other extreme weather that climate scientists have long said would become more common as we pour more heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (see NOAA Chief: U.S. Record of a Dozen Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters in One Year Is "a Harbinger of Things to Come"). That was especially true in March (see "March Came In Like A Lamb, Went Out Like A Globally Warmed Lion On Steroids Who Smashed 15,000 Heat Records").

The new survey added further evidence that "the growth in the percentage of Americans who see evidence of global warming appears to be related to individual perceptions of weather conditions and events.":

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/13/498892/public-understanding-of-climate-science-rebounds-72-of-independents-say-there-is-solid-evidence-of-global-warming/

@barackobama Earth to the President: Voters and Donors You Need Are Checking Out of the Process #p2 #tcot

Disillusioned voters are checking out on Obama

Wake the F up, people. Do you really want Romney as President?! Obama won North Carolina by a sliver in 2008 (with a kick-@ss ground game and record turnout). And now Mittens for the first time holds a lead here.

"The presidential race in NC continues to be very close," Public Policy Polling Director Tom Jensen says. "This month we find Mitt Romney leading Obama 48-46. It's a small lead but it's still significant because it's the first we've found Romney leading Barrack Obama in our monthly polling since October.

Romney's gained seven points on Obama over the past two months alone. Jensen says Romney's small lead is probably heavily influenced by independent voters. "Romney's up to 20 percent of the democratic vote after being at 15 percent a few months ago," he says. "For a republican to win in North Carolina really requires winning over a lot of conservative democrats and that 20 percent of the democratic vote suggests Romney's doing a little bit better on that front."

Americans have such a short attention span; yeah, this President didn't give us all of the hopey-changey goodness he promised on the campaign trail, and I've been highly critical of his foot-dragging leadership on several fronts (yes, people, read my back catalog), but really — do people want Romney and his adviser Robert Bork packing the U.S. Supreme Court?

Considering the economic mess/slow recovery, the President has finally decided to cry uncle and declare the obvious — he needs more time, and the Romney alternative would be worse.

rest at http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/06/13/earth-to-the-president-voters-and-donors-you-need-are-checking-out-of-the-process/