State of the Superpower

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has ordered the city’s public schools to use student testing results in evaluating teachers who are up for tenure. Mr. Bloomberg also wants teacher layoffs based on performance, instead of the seniority system currently in use.

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New York City already uses test scores to measure a wide array of school success rates, including teacher and principal bonus pay

Again, more education reform window dressing. Mr. Bloomberg has a point in that cutting “poor” teachers will improve student performance, but he fails to address the issue of attracting quality teachers. Most teachers leave education because they are saddled with incompetent administrators and an inefficient bureaucracy, yet both these reasons are left out of the debate.

The sad truth is, most school principals are former teachers escaping the classroom because they either can’t hack teaching or want more money. Now these substandard teachers turned administrators are actually running the schools.

I’m all for reform, but spread it around evenly. And this means starting at the top.

On 20 November, Fox News issued a memo to employees announcing a new “zero tolerance” policy for on-screen errors.

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The new policy is in response to a pattern of FOX using misleading footage, the majority of which paint a negative portrait of the Democratic Party.

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Maybe the White House wasn’t wrong to disregard Fox News as a legitimate news organization.

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme,  lead member of the Manson Family and would-be presidential assassin, was released from federal custody today.

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Mrs. Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then President Gerald Ford. Although the pistol was loaded, there wasn’t a round in the chamber.

Sara Jane Moore tried to kill Mr. Ford seventeen days after Fromme’s failed attempt. Mrs. Moore was released from prison earlier this year.

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Charles Manson and four members of his “family” remain incarcerated.

Today Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia responded to the idea of a government death panel being the end result of health care reform, calling it “nuts.”

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In a Washington Post interview, Mr. Isakson said he was “puzzled” by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s claim that a provision in the U.S. House health care bill created an end-of-life “death panel” charged with making end-of-life decisions.

Mr. Isakson is a co-sponsor of 2007’s Medicare End-of-Life Planning Act, and supports a public health care option.

A provision in President Obama’s health care bill provides an end-of-life consultation every five years, and more frequent sessions for persons suffering a life-threatening disease.

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Despite Medicare expanding end-of-life services such as palliative care and hospice under the Bush administration, reform opponents are now painting the provision as a backdoor euthanasia clause.

“This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich. said in a statement last month.

Notice the twisting of the word “may.” Eating pastries may lead to obesity, and drinking beer may lead to heroin use, but there are hundreds of other steps along the way. Still, according to Mr. Boehner and McCotter’s logic, Budweiser and Twinkies should be illegal.

In any case, when conservative talk radio hosts repeat Mr. Boehner and Mr. McCotter’s words, the “may” is dropped and now Mr. Obama and the Democrats are Nazis advocating state sponsored euthanasia. In fact, the Nazi hyperbole has reached such a pitch that conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s comments even drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League.

And like mushrooms, the American people are left in the dark to feed on………………..

The popular “Cash for Clunkers” program, which provides cash rebates up to $4,500 when consumers turn in older, gas-guzzling vehicles for newer fuel-efficient ones, received a $2 billion infusion today.

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Industry experts are estimating that 750,000 older automobiles will be scrapped, which should in turn result in the sale of 750,000 new cars. In addition, program participants may save up to $1,000 annually on fuel costs.

Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled that the Senate will vote on whether to extend the Cash for Clunkers program before the summer recess this Friday. Cash for Clunkers pays up to $4,500 to Americans who trade in old cars and trucks for new ones with better gas mileage.

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The popular program may end Friday if Congress fails to provide an additional $2 billion. The original program was funded at $1 billion, but ran out because an estimated 250,000 vehicles were already traded in under the original program.

Congressional Republicans, who originally promised to block extending the program, had a change of heart after hearing from both constituents and auto dealers.

People are trading in inefficient cars for vehicles with better gas mileage, and jump starting the stagnant auto industry, yet Conservatives hate it. They may hate government programs that don’t work, but they truly despise government programs that do.

Today former White House advisor Karl Rove completed two days of closed-door testimony to Congress regarding the contreversal firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

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Special prosecutor Nora Dannehy is investigating to see if what laws, if any, were violated relating to the firings.

As President Obama’s agenda moves along, the extreme right is now playing the race card.

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And as the far-right struggles for traction, it will only get worse.

Yesterday Hawaii Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s resolution honoring the Island’s 50th anniversary of statehood passed with a House Vote of 378-0. What makes this rather mundane piece of legislation noteworthy is it contains a passage affirming President Barack Obama’s citizenship.

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Depite overwhelming proof, a ring of hardcore right-wing zealots still dispute President Obama’s status as a legal American citizen. In a recent article, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin writes “birth certificate hunters have lurched into rabid Truther territory”.

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Despite rejection by mainstream conservatives, some Conservatives in Congress refuse to acknowledge Mr. Obama’s citizenship.

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In any case, the line in Mr. Abercrombie’s resolution stating, “Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961;” has maneuvered 378 Congress members into a position where they have now acknowledged President Obama’s U.S. citizenship.

It won’t shut down the whack jobs on the street, but hopefully it will shut up the whack jobs on Capitol Hill.