Coming Soon: The Inscrutable Michelle Rhee

The Dear Leader of the Washington, D.C. "School System".

More as this story develops....

Meet Mayor Mike

Meet NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was given control of the NYC Department of Education. This was like burning the village in Vietnam to save it. He put Joel Klein in charge of the schools and together, they have been squeezing the soul and passion out of the profession. Teachers and administrators have been beaten into a pulp like a washed-up boxer. Teaching is both an art and a science; they have extracted the art and left only the science. This has turned teachers and students into robots who go to school each day defeated and spiritless. They are now "accountable". What does that mean? Well, if you are the Principal of a school that has a population of children who live in poverty and can't speak English and whose parents work all day and night just to rise up to the poverty level, your students are expected to perform as well as students who come from affluent homes where both parents are college graduates. That is a noble idea, and of course all students should show progress as they move through each grade, but it is folly to suggest they are all the same. They are not. They come to school with lots of baggage. The people at the top during the past eight years of radical right rule have set the tone - teachers need to work harder; it is their fault students are not succeeding. Leaders like Joel Klein of New York and Michelle Rhee of Washington D. C. contend that pointing out that many students come from disadvantaged backgrounds (poverty, drug abuse, violence, non-English speaking, etc) is merely an excuse uttered by by those who are lazy and do not want to work hard. But they are wrong. All of the research shows that poverty, violence and unstable home lives all do indeed conspire to impede student achievement in school. But what did you expect? None of these people know anything about educating children. Most of them never taught at all, or they taught for 2 or 3 years. Then they went to law school or business school, and then they were put in charge of a school system. Those of us who have devoted our lives to educating children will be here doing the hard work long after these charlatans move on to the next rung in their career ladder.
Back to Mayor Mike. This guy is a riot. The City Council circumvented the will of the people, who had already twice voted for term limits, and voted to give Mayor Mike the right to run for a third term. Many stated that due to the harsh economic climate, we need a business genius like Mayor Mike to guide us through these rough times. So, what will the genius do? He will raise taxes and cut spending. Wow. Hell, I could've done that! Mainly though, he will use a third term to raise his public profile and run for higher office. Then he will go back to being a billionaire. Oh, he will also raise all the tolls and charge congestion pricing to get into the city and tax consumers for things like plastic bags. Now, I am actually in favor of some of those things, but did we need this guy to do these things? I mean, all he's doing is charging citizens more for everything. There isn't one other person in this city who could do this? Enough already with this guy.....

First Up: NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein

NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, pictured here both in his 1922 starring role in "Nosferatu" and in his role as NYC Schools Chancellor. In both roles, he sucked the life out of those around him. In the 1922 film, he nourished himself on the lifeblood of others. In his role as NYC Schools Chancellor, Herr Klein sustains himself by crushing the creative spirits of children and teachers alike. He lives through the crushing of spirits and souls. And if you are a parent attempting to question him at a "Town Hall" meeting, he tries to hypnotize you by going silent, staring at you, and then slinking out the back door without answering the charges of the angry mob. In coming blogs, we will give you his resume and career accomplishments, talk about the destruction he hath wrought, and introduce you to some of his underworld colleagues, such as Mayor Mike Bloomberg ("Little Fidel") and NYC Schools Chief Accountability Czar/Destroyer of Public Education/Hater of Teachers, James Liebman. The ironic thing is, although none of these guys were ever near a public school classroom in their professional lives, they feel qualified to tell parents, teachers and students how to run their collective business. Coming soon...an introduction to NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg ("Little Fidel"). In future blogs, the only pictures of these two you will see will be Bloomberg in his Cuban General's uniform and Klein as Nosferatu. This is a kindly as I can reasonably represent them.

A Shift in Focus

Now that the election is over and the radical right has gone down in flames, I turn my attention to some new assholes. Get a load of these two. Guess what we're gonna talk about?

President Barack Obama

Obama wins in a landslide! 365 to 173 Electoral Votes! 52.7% to 46 % (of the popular vote) ! 66,760,924 popular votes to 58,279,894 ! Largest margin of victory in 20 years !

The nation rejects Neocon/Republican/Bush/McCain/Palin/Religious zealots and returns to the issues. Obama ran a methodical campaign and one would hope that he runs his administration in the same way over the next four years. Now, he's got to do the job. If he doesn't, he'll be out on his butt 4 years from now. He could get off to a good start by including some Republicans in his administration.

Like many Americans, I've never been prouder to cast a vote in an election. This election demonstrates how great this country is. It is living up to it's promises. It has restored my faith in the electorate and the nation. Older people I know, even if they didn't vote for Obama, tell me they are very happy he won and are proud of their country. They also tell me they haven't felt this positive about their country since Kennedy was President.
For my Conservative friends, especially the ones who seem to be very angry right now, judge President Obama on his actions, not your feelings. (President Obama!!! I can't believe I just wrote that!)

Election Prediction

Who will win the election, McCain or Obama ?

Here's what my brain tells me:

(Here are my totally unscientific predicions) -

Obama over McCain by 53% to 45%

Between 1% and 2% to the various 3rd party candidates

Electoral Vote: A (kind of) landslide for Obama - 333 to 205

Obama wins Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, McCain wins Florida and Indiana.

Democrats fall short of 60 seats in the Senate, wind up with 59.

Over 125 million people will vote.

The win is decisive - no lawsuits or dragged out results.

But my emotions are quite diferent. I'm not counting my chickens just yet...I'm nervous as hell that McCain and Bible Spice could win.