Friday, March 28, 2008

Potomac Watch - WSJ.com

Potomac Watch - WSJ.com: "Her Bosnia misspeak is now serving as proxy for all the truths about the Clintons' non-truths, allowing even liberals to break free from their Clinton dependence."

Hillary's Last Hope - WSJ.com

Hillary's Last Hope - WSJ.com: "In other words, Florida Democrats acted as if their primary mattered just as much as other Democrats. By contrast, turnout in Michigan was only 23.7% of Kerry's 2004 vote, and it is an open primary. Michigan Democrats did not act like their primary mattered."

The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid#3380340530600110005

The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid#3380340530600110005: "the Democrats appear to be a party of lawyers. Only lawyers could have invented delegate selection rules as complicated and opaque as the ones the Democrats are struggling under. It also looks like only lawyers have a chance at the Democratic nomination. Harvard Law (Obama) and Yale Law (Clinton) candidates have survived, while University of North Carolina Law (Edwards), Syracuse Law (Biden), and the University of Louisville Law (Dodd) have been eliminated. And lawyers at the DNC Rules Committee will decide what happens next."

Foul Balls: Subway, Eat Fresh

Foul Balls: Subway, Eat Fresh

Limbaugh safe from voter-fraud charges

Thank God!

This could have been the end of Operation Chaos!


Limbaugh safe from voter-fraud charges: "Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has been telling his audience for days now that he could be indicted for encouraging Ohio Republicans to take a Democratic ballot in the March 4 primary in what he calls 'Operation Chaos.'
Could that actually happen?
Not likely, Ohio officials say."

SCORCHED EARTH

SCORCHED EARTH Charlie Sykes: "If you had a shred of doubt that Hillary wouldn't wage a dead-ender campaign to derail Obama... watch this: questioning Obama's electability; his 'legitimacy' as nominee; and talking about a convention floor fight over delegates."

click link to see the video

Monday forum to focus on $25 million school bond election - mlive.com

Monday forum to focus on $25 million school bond election - mlive.com: "If voters approve it in the May 6 election, the school district's taxpayers, who are currently paying off a 2001 bond issue, would continue to pay the current tax rate of 7.27 mills until 2037, 17 years later than the expiration of the current tax.
The additional money generated by the tax extension would pay for improvements to the district's facilities, alleviating some of the strain on the district's finances.
Among the items included in the proposed project are construction of a 48,450-square-foot early childhood center and a new transportation building, renovations to the three school buildings and installation of synthetic turf and additional bleachers at the football stadium"

NAA Reveals Biggest Ad Revenue Plunge in More Than 50 Years

NAA Reveals Biggest Ad Revenue Plunge in More Than 50 Years: "The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years."

Michael Calderone's Blog - Politico.com

Michael Calderone's Blog - Politico.com: "While I'm all for transparency on blogs, and have made mistakes corrected by readers, it's remarkable that Think Progress would allege that the Republican nominee for president plagiarized a speech without putting the two speeches before the campaign for comment. Or, apparently, checking the candidate's website first"

Personal income rises, inflation moderates

Personal income rises, inflation moderates
"U.S. personal income rose more than expected in February as the economy teetered on the brink of a recession, while both personal spending and a key price measure increased only slightly, a government report showed on Friday."

Death Penalty


Troubled neighborhood store to change hands

Troubled neighborhood store to change hands
"The market at 1149 Wood was the scene of 106 police calls during 2007, Kleibecker said, and if allowed to remain open, 'will only continue to drain police resources.'"

Poll: Nearly half of Detroiters say mayor should resign

Poll: Nearly half of Detroiters say mayor should resign: "A new poll shows nearly half of Detroit residents surveyed say Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should resign because of perjury and other charges he faces after the release of sexually charged text messages between Kilpatrick and a top aide."

Census report: Motown lost more people than any city

Census report: Motown lost more people than any city: "Detroit lost more than three times as many people as any other metro area -- its population declined more than 27,300"

Granholm signs levy zoo tax bill

Granholm signs levy zoo tax bill: "Gov. Jennifer Granholm has signed legislation allowing voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to decide whether to use a property tax to help fund the Detroit Zoo.
The measure gives counties the power to form zoological authorities that will seek voter approval of a tax to support local zoos."

Gore's Message To Climate Change Skeptics, Tells 60 Minutes That Doubting Global Warming Is Man-Made Is Akin To Believing Earth Is Flat

Gore's Message To Climate Change Skeptics, Tells 60 Minutes That Doubting Global Warming Is Man-Made Is Akin To Believing Earth Is Flat
"Al Gore says those who still doubt that global warming is caused by man - among them, Vice President Dick Cheney - are acting like the fringe groups who think the 1969 moon landing never really happened, or who once believed the world is flat."

Tri-Valley's leaders lash out


I'm a fan of charter schools but these MEAP scores tell a pretty sad story.


Grade 7


Reading 60% have not met standards

Writing 86.7% have not met standards

Math 86.7% have not met standards


There doesn't seem to much educating going on at Tri-Valley




Too bad the Chronicle chose to keep these scores out of the article.


Tri-Valley's leaders lash out
"Tri-Valley board President Nelson Miller said GVSU's actions amounted to lack of support for Tri-Valley's low-income and minority children. Miller said he plans to report GVSU's charter schools office to the university's vice president for inclusion and equity.
'GVSU has not lived up to its commitment to diversity,' Miller said. 'My concern is that the charter schools office shows a correlation between poverty and student achievement, and it has chosen not to serve children on that basis.
'We have done what is appropriate to educate the children, and I think we should have a conversation on that.'"

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Hillary's Minister Problem


"If you've never heard of The Fellowship (also known as The Family), it will sound like some shadowy organization in a John Grisham novel. (Indeed, as a Google search will demonstrate, critics consider it a cult.) The group was formed in the 1930s to minister to political and business leaders throughout the world, modeling itself as a kind of Christian Trilateral Commission."

YouTube - Hillary WASN'T LYING! Bosnia gunfire footage discovered...

YouTube - Hillary WASN'T LYING! Bosnia gunfire footage discovered...

NM school leaders get praises, raises - Muskegon Chronicle - MLive.com

NM school leaders get praises, raises - Muskegon Chronicle - MLive.com: "Weaver's evaluation was completed last week during a closed meeting of the board of education. Using a scale of 'commendable,' 'meets expectations,' and 'requires improvement,' he received 'commendable' ratings in the areas of relationships with the board, community relations and personal and job performance qualities. He received 'meets expectations' in the categories of business and finances, and superintendent-staff relations."

New Montague superintendent gets high marks

What a wonderful "rainbow" of specific areas!

I was kinda lookin' for another "specific area".....

..... like, maybe......

......"kids gettin' edjukated".....

Like an adult analysis of how the Superintendent is delivering his most important product.

An educated child!

I guess not too important when the, obviously, real goal is to impress his employees, the teacher union members.

Imagine a company that employed this same analysis...... oh, the Big 3 auto unions of so many years ago......

... and how well that worked!



New Montague superintendent gets high marks
"Based on a written evaluation submitted by the school board as a whole, high marks were issued in the six specific areas of his job --

board and superintendent relationships,

superintendent/staff relationships,

community relations,

business and finance,

educational leadership

and long-range planning.

The board approved the evaluation Monday."

Muskegon Film Festival declines because of global cooling?


Muskegon had an event in the winter and the apologists at The Chronicle blame the lousy attendance on inept publicity and one day of Michigan winter?

How 'bout the idiotic lack of convenient parking and the Chernobyl-like atmosphere of the few parking areas available?

Film Festival on track?

"Plenty of time to get film fest on track.

The numbers are in for the Muskegon Film Festival, which has become a hallmark winter attraction. The numbers weren't good, but the good news is, there's plenty of time to get things back on track for the next fest.
For the second year in a row, attendance has dropped for the independent film exhibit, which takes place at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Muskegon. The 2,000 in attendance this year was not an improvement over the approximately same number who attended in 2007. Those figures represent a big drop-off from the film fest's best year in 2006 and 2005 when the numbers were almost double.
It seemed then as if the festival was about to take off, but the attendance falloff has dashed such hopes. Nonetheless, the show will go on, according to organizers: 'Our plan is to keep going. We're already jumping on it. Our intention is to have one,' Mat Moore, the fest's president, told The Chronicle.
Part of the problem may be that the festival committee was hampered by a lack of publicity compelling enough to convince fans to come out in what was, at least for one of the dates, really rotten winter weather better for staying home and popping in a DVD. Organizers are looking at moving the festival to a nicer season, perhaps in June. Whatever works, we say."

Obama to double capital gains tax?


Ben Smith's Blog: "“Right now, as you know, the cap gains tax is at 15 percent. He has yet to give us a specific number. How high he wants that number to go? He has said, and he told me today, that he won't go above 28 percent. So we are talking about the possibility of a doubling in the capital gains tax. He was averaging at about 25 percent.”"

The Truth About the Tuskegee Study


If we're going to have a discussion on "race in America" maybe we ought to get the accurate facts.
The Truth About Tuskegee: "Anthropologist Richard Shweder of the University of Chicago has just published a detailed analysis of the Tuskegee study in which he shows that virtually every popular assumption about it is false. (Tuskegee re-examined, January 8, 2004)"

the original article is here:
http://www.amren.com/news/news04/01/22/tuskegee.html

funnies from Lucianne

Lucianne.com News Forum:
"Clinton Insists Dems Race Is a ‘Long Way’
From Over, Looks Toward Convention
We can't wait for her arrival in Denver. Talk about a corkscrew landing under sniper fire!!"



Schultz response.
GOP Looks to ‘McCain Democrats'
Number crunchers show there are more McCainocrats than Obamacans.

American Axle chief: Jobs can be moved


Are Michigan's Big Union bosses going to bring us back to our own permanent depression?

'We are fighting for the absolute survival of AAM in America,' Dauch said in an interview one month after a walkout by 3,600 hourly workers at AAM plants in Michigan and New York.
'We have the flexibility to source all of our business to other locations around the world, and we have the right to do so,' Dauch said, in a not-so-veiled threat. AAM has plants in Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia.
'We will not be forced into bankruptcy in order to reach a market-competitive cost structure in the United States. If we cannot compete for new contracts in the U.S., there will be no work in the original plants,' Dauch said, referring to operations in Detroit, Three Rivers and in the New York towns of Tonawanda and Cheektowaga."

Investigation at MSU exonerates 2 student groups

Investigation at MSU exonerates 2 student groups: "But a 126-page report from the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, which was released to accused and accusers alike last week and obtained Tuesday by the Lansing State Journal with student names redacted, said the alleged conduct, 'even if true, does not meet the level of actionable harassment or discrimination contemplated by the courts.'"

A victory against voter fraud?


The way I read this is that voters in Michigan primary elections will have total secrecy.

No party or other entity will have the list of primary voters.

No one will have a list of voters to give to phony "No ID required" scab-voters.

Michigan primary voter info law struck down:
"A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a Michigan law that allowed only the Republican and Democratic parties access to voter information from the state's Jan. 15 presidential primary."

Obama-The impotence of Power

The impotence of Power: "I think you'll find it to be most illuminating. I think that Power's answers serve as a window into far more than just the foreign policy positions of the Obama campaign. The listener should come away with a clear view of the mindset which seems to be present in many of the people that surround the candidate.
This is a good description of the program. I would add only that the final 15 minutes of the program, when Morris corners Power, really provide the payoff. Audio of the show is accessible here."

http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40174&Itemid=99999999

"Diamond water paradox"


The Volokh Conspiracy - -:
"Oddly enough, the objectively reasonable price is always above what the buyers paid for it, after commissions.
The Abbotts paid $583,425 for their house last April. The market in Las Vegas has tanked since then, with prices down 20% from January 2007 to January 2008, according to the Case-Schiller index. I don't think it's the buyers who aren't being realistic. More generally, as famously explained via the solution to the 'diamond water paradox,' the value an item has in the marketplace is solely what the highest bidder is willing to pay, based on subjective valuation"