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Teachers' jobs, paid for by cuts to food stamps - a victory?
| Lois Weiner | August 10, 2010 |
The House of Representatives has passed a $26 billion jobs bill, engineered by Democrats, that is aimed to save jobs of public employees, mainly teachers and help states pay for Medicaid health insurance. Funding will come from taxes on multinational corporations– and from slashing money for food stamps. Congressional Republicans lament that this is a “giveaway” to teachers unions.
Obama's speech to the Urban League: Selling a toxic remedy
| Lois Weiner | August 1, 2010 |
President Obama’s speech to the Urban League about education July 29 didn’t cover any new ground, but there were some shifts worth noting. He tweaked his administration’s rhetorical stance towards teachers and teacher unions, adopting a less combative stance than his and Arne Duncan’s support for firing teachers in a “failing” Rhode Island school.
The Gaza Flotilla
| Steve Shalom | June 12, 2010 |
Alan Dershowitz has suggested that to be effective Israeli propaganda should support 80 percent of what Israel does, and be critical of the other 20 percent. So I expected that Dershowitz would only approve 80% of the Israeli killings on the Gaza flotilla, while expressing some mild criticism regarding the IDF's other victims. Silly me.
Open Letter of Solidarity with Egyptian Workers from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, April 30, 2020
| Joanne Landy | May 13, 2010 |
We are writing to extend our heartfelt solidarity and support to you, Egyptian workers, who in recent months have been courageously demanding that your government address your desperate economic conditions. The American press has been shamefully muted about the grim economic and political realities of life for people in Egypt, a key strategic U.S. ally in the Middle East.
A Rejoinder to the Monthly Review-Keynesian Debate
| Barry Finger | May 3, 2010 |
Monthly Review magazine, which long continues to have cache on the left—especially with regard to economic analysis—is currently hosting a debate on the so-called “Minksy moment.” MR, of course, long defends the view advanced in the 1960s by Paul Sweezy’s and Paul Baran’s book Monopoly Capital. In brief, that book advanced the thesis that the method of accumulation in modern capitalism differs significantly from its more competitive past due to significant changes in the level of concentration and centralization, that is because of the monopolization process itself.
Sounding the alarm on "Race to the Top"
| Lois Weiner | April 25, 2010 |
How can we make neoliberalism’s project to destroy public education, captured in the Obama/Duncan “Race to the Top” proposal, more understandable? The subject is complex, but bloggers in the US are taking up the challenge, as we see in Susan Ohanian's excellent report on my work. (Thanks to all who have picked up the debate with Ravitch.)
Phil Ochs - The Struggle Continues
| Steve Shalom | April 12, 2010 |
Phil Ochs was, until his untimely death in 1976, one of the great American folksingers and songwriters, whose powerful lyrics -- political and poetic -- helped to inspire a generation. His sister Sonny Ochs has worked to keep Phil's memory and his message alive by organizing concerts bringing together current-day folk singers, offering a mix of their own material and Phil's.
What's right - and wrong - in Diane Ravitch's new take on school reform
| Lois Weiner | April 11, 2010 |
Five friends, none of them teachers, have called to tell me they heard about Diane Ravitch's new book and her change of heart about the school reforms she advocated for a decade. "Lo! She's saying what you've been telling us!"
The publicity for Ravitch's book has certainly put her incisive critique of the reforms (privatizing education; using standardized tests to measure everything; looking to "choice" and charter schools drive improvement) in the news.
Hic Jacet Humptus - with a bow to the late William Buckley
| Marvin Mandell | April 4, 2010 |
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses
And all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again
How much can a citizen expect of his state?
Before we rush into the breach with solutions that only create more problems, solutions like more welfare, more job-retraining programs, more touchy-feely therapy, in short, more middle class boondoggling in a mind-boggling bureaucracy, let us try to find out what caused the problem.
Obama's War/Obama's Atrocities
| Steve Shalom | March 27, 2010 |
Since George Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001 -- the unjust, illegal, and unnecessary attack on Afghanistan -- there have been constant US and NATO strikes on Afghan civilians, along with constant denials that such strikes have taken place.