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August 25, 2011 03:45 PM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 72 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.”

–John Russell

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72 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

  1. Having always wondered this, I thought I’d get your thoughts.

    Time is of the essence today, so one of my Education Policy Center friends will simply take a quick moment and point you to a very insightful blog passage about the dynamics of education reform. Take it away, Dr. Rick Hess:

    …it strikes me as ludicrous for the unions to sit quietly by and share the blame for timid, tepid leadership, or when unions passively take the blame for weak teachers when teacher preparation programs produce graduates of dubious merit. In doing so, teachers and unions become complicit. The problem, I think, is a variation on Ted Sizer’s famed “Horace’s Compromise.” Teacher unions, superintendent and principal associations, schools of education, and school boards avoid calling each other out on such things, while focusing their energies on presenting a united front demanding more money and deference from taxpayers and policymakers. By the way, this phenomenon is part of what drives “reformers” to distraction. They can’t understand why so many supes and school boards seem to placidly accept onerous collective bargaining requirements, or why quality-conscious teachers don’t do more to call out feckless leadership.

    Read it once, let it sink in, and then go back and read it again. Hess’s observations touch on some of the larger, more intractable problems in K-12 education reform and explain the behavior of key interest groups. Why don’t teachers unions strongly support more effective school-level leadership? Why don’t they make calls to reform the nation’s inefficient teacher preparation system? On one hand it is ludicrous, but on the other hand they obviously don’t see a compelling reason to call out their allies. Union leaders must believe they can continue to take most of the lumps.

    http://www.peoplespresscollective.org

  2. Easy to play.  Come on down.

    I used to think a lot of problems were because people weren’t just stupid, but willingly jamming up the process.  Now, I tend to think of many problems arising from the Peter Principal.

        1. Go ask the wildebeest mother what it tells her calf about how to survive among the lions on the savanna . . . “stay with the herd, little one, or you too will be invited to brunch.”

          1. So the strategy here is to do what …. hunker down with the herd while over 54% of students at DPS fail to graduate from a FREE EDUCATION?

            Again, you’re kicking the can down the road as you prepare to educate the the 5th and 6th generations of modern public school entrants.

            If the CEA actually believed in educating our youth, they’d form a series of charter schools in Denver with the goal of effectively taking over DPS.

            However, that would divert forced union dues from lining the pockets of Democratic politicians who set up faux accountability schemes or outright vote against any progress to move public education forward. Second, that would mean competition … the dirty 11 letter word Not allowed to be uttered in the back room of the union hall.

            The DPS graduation rate is 43.5%, yet the Union Bosses encourage members to “stay with the program” of failure.

                1. Libertad is superimposing his own agenda on DPS.

                  If the CEA actually believed in educating our youth, they’d form a series of charter schools in Denver with the goal of effectively taking over DPS.

                  However, that would divert forced union dues from lining the pockets of Democratic politicians who set up faux accountability schemes or outright vote against any progress to move public education forward. Second, that would mean competition … the dirty 11 letter word Not allowed to be uttered in the back room of the union hall.

                  The DPS graduation rate is 43.5%, yet the Union Bosses encourage members to “stay with the program” of failure.

                  I think when someone presumes that DPS is his own personal litterbox, it is fair to ask if he is supporting it with his taxes and his vote.  If not, I think it is unfair and presumptuous; and done because people of this ilk believe that DPS has a majority of poor kids and thus can be exploited by anyone.

                  1. Directly that is. Unlike those poor fools in Broomfield, Mesa, Arapahoe, Douglas counties who’s taxes paid to the state are diverted to backfil Denver’s coffers due to our low property taxes and excessive spending.

  3. Speculation is rampant on the net about the status of Bank of America. Stock has dropped to under $7 giving it an equity value of only $65 billion.

    One scenario, reportedly being brokered by Treasury Secretary Geithner, would have JP Morgan Chase acquire B of A, with the government propping up the deal with a $ 100 billion investment in preferred shares. An alternative option would be a total takeover by the government in effect nationalizing B of A, but politically not likely to happen.

    The WSJ has reported B of A needs to raise $200 billion (would be in preferred shares), so this would wipe out common shareholders.

    B of A keeps denying its in dire straits, but the incompetence of these banksters doesn’t leave much room for credibility anymore.

      2. From this morning’s Housing Wire


        The Omaha-based firm, run by investment legend Warren Buffett, will purchase 50,000 shares in preferred stock at $100,000 per share. Berkshire will also receive warrants to purchase 700 million shares of BofA common stock at an exercise price of $7.14 per share.

        BofA said Berkshire can elect to purchase all of the shares at once or in part at any time over the next 10 years. The preferred stock and warrants will total $5 billion in capital to the bank.

        So only $5 billion when they need at least $100 billion?  Buffett gets preferred stock now (so it doesn’t get wiped out in a bailout) and after the merger/bailout with JP Morgan, he exercises the warrants when the stock goes up.

        Sounds to me like he’s anticipating a bailout and wants to profit from it. But what do i know, I can’t balance my checkbook.  

  4. When you’ve lost Kinky Friedman….

    These days, of course, I would support Charlie Sheen over Obama. Obama has done for the economy what pantyhose did for foreplay. Obama has been perpetually behind the curve. If the issue of the day is jobs and the economy, Rick Perry is certainly the nuts-and-bolts kind of guy you want in there. Even though my pal and fellow Texan Paul Begala has pointed out that no self-respecting Mexican would sneak across the border for one of Rick Perry’s low-level jobs, the stats don’t entirely lie. Compared with the rest of the country, Texas is kicking major ass in terms of jobs and the economy, and Rick should get credit for that, just as Obama should get credit for saying “No comment” to the young people of the Iranian revolution.

    2. no self-respecting Mexican would sneak across the border for one of Rick Perry’s low-level jobs… Texas is kicking major ass in terms of jobs and the economy, and Rick should get credit for that

      The immense logic and policy savvy of this statement explains why Kinky Friedman has done so well as an elected politician. He makes Rick Perry look like the top Harvard grad that Obama actually is.  

            1. You’d know that at the end of the day, there’s nothing that feels quite as delicious as yanking them the hell off you and scratching the red marks that the garters left on your thighs.  Not particularly romantic or effective as a foreplay technique in my experience, but YMMV.  (Garter belts and stockings are among the many things that work better in photos than in real life.)

  5. Hurricane Irene is headed for NYC this Sunday.  There seems to be a high potential for a huge storm surge that would innundate lower Manhattan with up to 30 feet of water.  Beyond the obvious above ground damage, including broken windows falling from skyscrapers, the underground damage could be far worse.  Subways and communications systems would be submerged in corrosive salt water that would take years and billions to repair.  

    Why isn’t anyone talking about this?

    4. an earthquake preceded a tsunami and we saw what happened with nuclear power plants.

      Cong. from Mass. has warned for years about nuc plants outside NYC and I don’t recall him ever talking about earthquake followed by a hurricane.

      that nuc plant ouside NYC did shut itself down during earthquake. hope all is well

  6. @TheBillWalton: Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple should be no surprise to anyone. It’s been listed on page 46 of iTunes terms & conditions for weeks.

    @FakeSarahPalin: See, I told you Obama is killing Jobs.

    @harrymccracken Harry McCracken, founder and editor of Technologizer blog: Still unimaginable: that Jobs was the most important person in personal technology both in 1978 and in 2011.

  9. Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae, taken over by the government in 2008, are expected to cost the taxpayers at least $51 billion between 2012 and 2021, according to a study just released by the CBO. That number is revised upwards by $9 billion from June.

    So far the GSE’s have cost the taxpayers a total of $142.1 billion since the housing meltdown.  

  10. by the decision to release from the national oil reserve; I thought this was a particularly specious action in the first place.

    How to make it worse?  Jobs, jobs, . . . WTF?

    Oil Reserves Sidestep U.S. Vessels

    Even as unemployment hovered over 9 percent, the administration approved dozens of applications to transport nearly 30 million barrels of domestic crude oil within the borders of the United States on tankers employing foreign crews and flying the flags of the Marshall Islands, Panama and other countries.

    The move, which saved time and money for the oil companies that bought the oil, took potential work from more than 30 American cargo vessels and as many as 400 sailors, American ship owners said in recent days.

    “This has literally flabbergasted the American maritime industry,” said Christopher Coakley, vice president for legislative affairs at the American Waterways Operators, an association of domestic ship and barge operators. “The idea was to create American jobs and help the economy. But all the profit from the sale of the oil has gone to traders and oil companies and all the profit from movement of the oil has gone to foreign shippers and crewmen, and that’s galling.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08…

    I not entirely sure, but I’m pretty sure . . . “that’s me in the corner . . . losing my religion.”

    1. I would not be surprised if we didn’t have enough crews or vessels available for a job like this.  The major shipping lines are Danish (Maersk), Swiss based (MSC) and then from Japan/China (NYK, Mitsui, P&O, COSCO).

      We just don’t have a big share of this industry. I think someone may be trying to distort this issue for political gain (gasp).

      1. But, since the whole program was nothing but an empty political gesture anyway — and it didn’t matter a single whitlet to the world or the U.S. pump price whether any of that oil actually got to this country — why give your opponents the opportunity to pummel you about the head and shoulders with your own limp club?

        ” . . . oh no, I’ve said too much . . . I think I thought I saw you try . . . but, that was just a dream . . . “

  12. What a prince this guy is:

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…

    “We aren’t going to speculate on damage before it happens, period,” his spokesperson Laena Fallon emails. “But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.”

    Even if he reneges on it, this is just a stupid example of ideology trumping what’s best for the American people. Brinkmanship is not leadership.

    3. White House spokesmen insist that President Obama is firm in his opposition to “almost 2%” of the spending cuts that Cantor will likely propose . . .

      One would hope that any of the Cantor-required federal spending cuts would come entirely out of the federal spending currently in Cantor’s home district.  I hope for whirled peas . . .

  13. Researchers from the Guttmacher Institute found the unintended pregnancy rate among women with incomes below the federal poverty line jumped by 50 percent between 1994 and 2006, the latest date available, from 88 per 1,000 to 132.

    Meanwhile, the unplanned pregnancy rate among women with incomes at least 200 percent above the poverty line fell 29 percent from 34 per 1,000 to 24, the researchers found, using data from the federal National Survey of Family Growth.

    http://www.reuters.com/article…

    Anyone see a problem here?

  14. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

    According to the notes, which were authenticated by a meeting participant, the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation.

    All they had to do was convince retirees to let UBS buy life insurance policies on them. When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing.

          1. please help us understand.

            Are you saying that firing 49,000 teachers is a good idea?  Or that it never happened?

            Sometimes your thought process can be a little, shall we say, obscure.

            Please explain.

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