KOCH BREAK News | www.kochwatch.org

News | www.kochwatch.org

Think Progress: Walker And Prosser Crushed Regulations On Koch Industries' Phosphorus Pollution In Wisconsin *April 13, 2011-* Shortly after helping to elect Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), Koch Industries opened a new lobbying office in Madison near the state capitol. However, little has been disclosed about the Koch lobbying agenda in Madison. The New York ...

Rep. Bruce Braley questions Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Think Progress: Progressive Lawmakers Warn A "Significant Portion" Of Gas Prices Is Due To Speculation, Call For Crack Down *April 16, 2011-* Rising oil prices have pushed gas prices above $4 per gallon in many places, inflating prices on everything from food to airfare, imperiling the fragile economic recovery. Experts have been a bit befuddled by the steep rise in gas ...

Think Progress: The Contango Game: How Koch Industries Manipulates The Oil Market For Profit *April 13, 2011-* In recent weeks, gas prices around the country have surged to levels unseen since the 2008 oil spike. However, market fundamentals are not driving the nearly $4.00/gallon gas prices. In fact, under the Obama administration, oil ...

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Admits It WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Channell 3000: Palin Coming To Madison Tea Party Rally Former Vice Presidential Candidate Will Be Keynote Speaker At Rally *April 15, 2011-* Sarah Palin is set to attend a tea party rally in Madison this weekend. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is set to speak at the ...

The Power of “Not This.” « Student Activism

The Power of “Not This.” « Student Activism

The Power of “Not This.”

by Angus Johnston

Often student activists are criticized for not proposing concrete solutions to the problems that others have identified. “Sure, you’re against our plan,” administrators and politicians ask, “but what alternative can you offer?”

Sometimes the “problem” is invented, of course, and sometimes students have detailed proposals at the ready, but not always. When the problem is real and students are offering no solution of their own, “what do you suggest we do?” is a legitimate question.

It’s a legitimate question. But “not this” is a legitimate answer.

Consider Mario Savio’s speech to the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964 — probably the most famous speech ever given by an American student activist:

There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you so sick at heart —

Democurmudgeon: Todays Tea Party Protest in Pictures....

Democurmudgeon: Todays Tea Party Protest in Pictures....

Todays Tea Party Protest in Pictures.... This is about the size of the Palin rally, give or take a few anti-Walker protesters shuffling back and forth from their rally on the other side of the Capitol. This is an early picture of the anti-Walker rally, and I should know, I video taped it. ...

The Tea Party Movements "narrow" Definition of Racism.... Crooks & Liars reported this racist gem from the right wing tea party movement: *Republicans seem to have a really, really narrow idea of what constitutes racism -- which is how they're able to claim that the Tea Parties aren't riddled with racism ...

Breitbart: "Go to Hell." The "Paid" Palin Protest for America's Freedom? That's the Price of Freedom? The class warfare hypocrites turned up on buses this morning to attend the paid appearance protest of the tea party, proudly sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers corporate front group. Hell, the speakers appeared at a podium that ...

Are You Ready? | Dailycensored.com

Are You Ready? | Dailycensored.com

Are You Ready?

Written by Ken_SayersDaily Journal (Opinion)Apr 16, 2011

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Remember when we used to say, “Don’t trust anyone over thirty?” Well, I have a new mantra. Like Mulder said, “Trust no one.”

I was really excited to hear about “Coffee Party USA.” I signed up. And then, I went to their site. It is really polished. It talks about lots of action and it speaks to education. There I found a “disconnect.”

Their model indicates the military is 27.3% of the budget and that medical is 21.5%. I pose the same questions to them that I did to the White House. I could not see, in their description, anything attributable to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the “action” in Libya. When those costs are added, the military portion becomes much larger, indeed.

When I look at the actual funding for the wars and their accounting, I see “nothing” under veterans. I can only then assume that “veterans health” is covered somewhere else. Stop. The cost of repairing lost limbs, PTSD

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: RIOT POLICE (Press release from Sac State protesters after their riot police ended their vigil)

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: RIOT POLICE (Press release from Sac State protesters after their riot police ended their vigil)

Sac State Student protest ends in the early morning BRYAN PATRICK / BPATRICK@SACBEE.COM The sit-in that brought dozens of students to a Sacramento State administration building, continuing through Friday, ended at about 3:30 this morning. By Rick Daysog rdaysog@sacbee.com Saturday, Apr. 16, 2011 - 10:52 ...

RIOT POLICE (Press release from Sac State protesters after their riot police ended their vigil) The following is a short press that was released to a local news channel about the events that occured early this morning: This morning on the fourth day, April 16 at 3:24 A.M. we were met with the administration’s opposition expressed ...

Jersey Jazzman: Why Christie's Words Matter

Jersey Jazzman: Why Christie's Words Matter

Happy Retirement, Joe! Joe D. had a retirement party! Funny stuff, but I want to be clear about this: Joe's problem is not that he's collecting a salary as Executive *and* a pension from working at *other * previous public jobs. It is perfectly appropriate and acceptable ...

Why Christie's Words Matter Catherine Lugg sums it up nicely: I’m in the midst of reading Hannah Arendt’s works—all of them–for a major multi-year project. While I’ve not been a fan of my governor, to say the least, I’ve tended to see him as fairly smart conservative pol who ...

NYC Public School Parents: Final results for our poll, do we live in an age of insanity or stupidity, and was that the right question?

NYC Public School Parents: Final results for our poll, do we live in an age of insanity or stupidity, and was that the right question?

Final results for our poll, do we live in an age of insanity or stupidity, and was that the right question?

by Leonie Haimson

Not long ago, we featured a poll on this blog, the idea for which originally came from a speech by Diane Ravitch. We asked readers, "Do we live in an age of insanity or stupidity?" when it comes to education policy.

Here are the results: 33% for insanity; 59% for stupidity; 6% for neither.

But was this really the right question?

We live in an age when education policy is being made by non-educators like Bill Gates, who calls for class

Diane Ravitch Speaks Out

Diane Ravitch Speaks Out

“It was not local teachers and principals and school board members who decided

that states should increase the number of privately managed charter schools. The big

foundations made that decision. It was not teachers and administrators who demanded

merit pay, but business leaders. It was not educators who demanded that

Why the US Is Destroying Its Education System

Why the US Is Destroying Its Education System: “Imagine going to work each day knowing a great...

Schools Matter: Big Three Edu-Spending

Schools Matter: Big Three Edu-Spending

Big Three Edu-Spending

by Kenneth Libby

The folks at EdSector received a $2.22 million, 3-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "to explore and highlight policies at the state level that prevent greater use of innovation, technology, and competency-based education". CMOs, a main component of the second wave of B&MGF reforms (the first being their botched small schools movement), were clearly not sustainable even before the financial calamity, and they're facing even more challenges now that state budgets are being slashed. "Hybrid learning" both appeals to the new philanthropists (many with a background in tech), and can save money by limiting labor costs.

In case you haven't followed some of the controversy around the NJ/Newark reforms, it recently came to light thatthe Broad Foundation is paying for a consultant to help Cerf with whatever Cerf is doing these days:

4 decades after a college president's death, have we learned anything? | OregonLive.com

4 decades after a college president's death, have we learned anything? | OregonLive.com

4 decades after a college president's death, have we learned anything?

Published: Saturday, April 16, 2011, 9:30 AM

By Steve Duin, The Oregonian

On a humid June afternoon 42 years ago, Charles E. Johnson, utterly exhausted after a year as the acting president at the University of Oregon, rose to tell the Class of '69: "It is your generation that has forcibly reminded us that society is valuable not only in terms of its ability to attain some technological utopia, but in terms of the caliber of its people, their sense of justice and honesty, and their appreciation of duty, their self-restraint, and the excellence of their discourse and thought."

The speech drew no applause. Two days later, Johnson -- determined or distracted -- drove his cream-colored Volkswagen bug straight into the path of a Mack B-61 diesel log truck hauling 16 tons of Douglas fir down the McKenzie Highway.

I was reminded of Johnson, and what has and hasn't changed since his death, by the passing last week of UO journalism professor Ken Metzler.

Metzler wrote an exhaustive history of Johnson's tenure, "Confrontation: The Destruction of a College President." His admiration for his protagonist owes largely -- as he notes in the preface to a 2001 edition of the book -- to Johnson's "belief that reason and logic would prevail over the

NYC Public School Parents: Powerful play blasting DOE's school closure policies

NYC Public School Parents: Powerful play blasting DOE's school closure policies

Powerful play blasting DOE's school closure policies

by Leonie Haimson

Check out the performance of the play "Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together)" at the off-Broadway Abingdon Theater in NYC. The play was written and performed by students at Queens Collegiate and Jamaica High Schools, directed by Brian Pickett of Queensborough Community College.

Jamaica is now slated for closure by the NYC Department of Education, while Queens Collegiate is a newer, better-funded small school with a more selective admissions process, that offers more opportunities for students and has taken space in the Jamaica building.

The play, initially banned by the schools' principals because it was too critical of the DOE's decision to close Jamaica, is a powerful critique of the current direction of education reform in NYC and the nation as a whole, in which those making policies for our schools have decided that the best way to improve them is to close them down.

Pissed Off: Stop Blaming Unions

Pissed Off: Stop Blaming Unions

Stop Blaming Unions

by Pissed Off



In my over 35 years of teaching, I can remember three really bad teachers. Were there more? Of course, but isn't it true that every profession has its share of bad workers. The union's job is to make sure every members gets due process, but if a member commits something really egregious, no union should be able to save that person's job. Here is the story of one.

XXX was a wild woman who marched to her own beat. In the 70's, she was featured on the front page of a major

Cops Break Up Sac State Occupation « Student Activism

Cops Break Up Sac State Occupation « Student Activism

Cops Break Up Sac State Occupation

by Angus Johnston

Students occupying the administrations building at Sacramento State were rousted by police at three o’clock this morning, halfway through the third night of their action.

Activists staged sit-ins on eleven CSU campuses on Wednesday (and attempted a twelfth, though Long Beach officials closed the administration building before they arrived). Though most of those occupations ended voluntarily within a few hours, the Sac State students decided to stay put.

Relations between students and administrators at the Sac State occupation were mostly amicable until Friday evening, when police arrived to lock down the building. Activists who were already inside were permitted to stay,

Saturday coffee + Old school. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

Technically, Dan Kotowski is not my State Senator. I don’t live in his senate district. I teach there. And I’m the political go-to guy in our local. So Senator Kotowski and I have spoken a few times over the years.

Dan was the first Democrat elected in Park Ridge since before color TV. Maybe ever. I don’t know. But the town has changed in the quarter century I have taught there. Once it was old-time conservative Republican. Now it swings. It went for Obama in 2008.

Last week, when the Senate voted 58 to 0 on the ed reform bill that took away tenure and seniority from

Old school.

by Fred Klonsky

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Democrats Highlight Importance of Balanced Budget Approach to Protect Jobs, Schools, & Safety | California Progress Report

Democrats Highlight Importance of Balanced Budget Approach to Protect Jobs, Schools, & Safety | California Progress Report

Democrats Highlight Importance of Balanced Budget Approach to Protect Jobs, Schools, & Safety

by megan

By Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield

SACRAMENTO – In this Democratic Weekly Radio Address, Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D-San Fernando Valley) Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, discusses legislative Democrats’ leadership in taking actions to solve the state’s budget deficit. Assembly Democrats will meet with educators, business leaders, and public safety officials in an effort to promote a balanced budget approach, which protects jobs, schools, public safety, and local governments. Blumenfield urges Republicans to work with Democrats on a sensible budget solution. Blumenfield concludes stating that “Our people and businesses are counting on us to work together for the greater good.”

Click onto the following link for the English language MP3 file. The running time is 2:32.

read more

7-minute video: redefining “public apathy” to poised but blocked public power | Dailycensored.com

7-minute video: redefining “public apathy” to poised but blocked public power | Dailycensored.com

7-minute video: redefining “public apathy” to poised but blocked public power

Written by Carl_HermanPolitics, War and PeaceApr 16, 2011

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source: Carl Herman, Examiner.com

The 7-minute video on the left by Dave Meslin is a useful reframe for a common complaint that people are somehow too selfish, stupid, and/or lazy to engage in our most important political and economic issues. You and I observe that ~95% of human beings are generally cooperative, intelligent when given opportunity to understand the issues, and engaging in the issues closest to their unique interests.

As a professional educator of Advanced Placement US Government and Macroeconomics, as well as having 18 years experience working with US