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Sunday, April 30, 2006 - 17:27:35
Three years ago tomorrow
Frank Rich is back in the NY Times, thank goodness, though available only to subscribers. He notes tomorrow's anniversary of Bush's flight suit prance and the laundry list of Bush failures since. He notes Bush's remarks on the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
"We're helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools," Mr. Bush said on that glorious day. Three years later we know, courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers, that our corrupt, Enron-like Iraq reconstruction effort has yielded at most 20 of those 142 promised hospitals. But we did build a palace for ourselves. The only building project on time and on budget, USA Today reported, is a $592 million embassy complex in the Green Zone on acreage the size of 80 football fields. Symbolically enough, it will have its own water-treatment plant and power generator to provide the basic services that we still have not restored to pre-invasion levels for the poor unwashed Iraqis beyond the American bunker.
Rich, like Colbert last night, recalls, too, the press's complicity in cheerleading for Bush in the runup to and early days of the war.
At the time, "Mission Accomplished" was cheered by the Beltway establishment. "This fellow's won a war," the dean of the capital's press corps, David Broder, announced on "Meet the Press" after complimenting the president on the "great sense of authority and command" he exhibited in a flight suit. By contrast, the Washington grandees mostly ignored the Downing Street memo when it was first published in Britain, much as they initially underestimated the import of the Valerie Wilson leak investigation.
The Colbert Report
We just watched a CSPAN tape of Stephen Colbert's appearance before the White House correspondents dinner. Yuks were few. Too many people got lanced, both in the administration and the press corps. Here's a link that can take you to the video. His form of commentary could prove all too legitimate to our governor if Colbert has sufficient prep time for the Huckster's scheduled appearance next week. We'll have to set the Tivo.Fayetteville growth: How high?
The NW D-G website offers more reporting on the pressure to build high-rise buildings in downtown Fayetteville and opposition to same.Rogers is right
It's only fair to say Rogers Mayor Steve Womack, stymied in a plan to expropriate school taxes for city infrastructure work, is now heading the right way. He's proposing to use city property tax revenue to back bonds for major street and overpass work. Exactly right. So simple. So straightforward. Story in NW D-G.Who needs science
From the LA Times, on the Food and Drug Administration and the Bush administration, this stunning sentence:
At the heart of the continuing stalemate over Senate confirmation of a permanent FDA commissioner is the unresolved question of what role religion and ideology should play in making science policy.
You'd think the answer would be simple, wouldn't you?
A teacher speaks
The Saturday Democrat-Gazette reported on a Little Rock School Board work session where board members made it clear that changes, perhaps seismic ones, were coming in its relationship with the Little Rock Classroom Teachers Association. There may even be sufficient sentiment to end recognition of the CTA as a bargaining agent for teachers. One board member figures this could prompt a short strike and then a court order forcing teachers back to work. All happy as clams, you may be sure.
A negotiated contract is undoubtedly an occasional hindrance to school officials like the autocratic Superintendent Roy Brooks. It insures due process in disciplining of staff. It gives a voice to employees who otherwise risk their livelihoods by speech. The dispute, sadly, reinforces the erroneous belief that the teachers union is solely responsible when students fail to achieve as we wish. Little Rock performs better than many districts, particularly when you consider the economic and other demographic circumstances that reliably predict school outcomes. It performs worse than some others. Its situation is little different than that of hundreds of school districts nationwide, some with professional contracts negotiated by unions, some without. LR needs some peace-making, not union busting. Some open government would be good, too. It is, for example, a good time for the board to disclose who paid for the force-fed PR campaign that took time out of teachers' work days to lobby them to vote for a misbegotten "merit pay" experiment. The nominally nonpolitical Arkansas Community Foundation was used as a cutout to hide the identity of the manipulator, but we suspect Superintendent Brooks knows or could readily find out who's trying to run the School District from the shadows.
All this is prompted by a letter we received from a teacher overnight, excerpted here:
The school board's position on the current teacher contract has me experiencing a myriad of emotions. The media, board and certain administrators as well as business men who have no children in our district have made a point of villifying the CTA and classroom teachers .
The latest diatribe on the need for negotiations and contracts fails to raise 2 questions. What was the original need for this process and how does the board's attack on the process promote student learning? In the world of education, administrators come and go, but teachers remain. This is why a contract is in place. So that a teacher's livelihood cannot be treated frivilously based upon the current principal or administration's moods, whims or personal view of an educator's role. So that teacher's are not given "duties" that intefere with the preparation and execution of quality instruction. So that teachers are duly compensated. We don't have a contract to hide behind to break rules, to be subversive or to keep from working. What is most amazing, with the current shortage of quality teachers, is why the board insists on focusing on portraying teachers in a bad light, using disrespect
and threats to administrate change.Implementing policy that will create a hostile work environment for teachers
is not the answer. Change will only come when the majority of the responsibility for educating students is placed back on the student and the parent. Legislation needs to be enacted for parent's who send children to school with the idea its okay to disrespect teachers, classmates and administrators; send them with no supplies, no discipline and unprepared; who think school is a free babysitter and lunch provider!The board, and administration need to sit down with teachers and come up with a mutual vision for our school and a workable plan for success.
I love children, I love my job and I'm tired of being portrayed as the bad guy in education in Little Rock.
The ultimate question is -- How does the superintendent and the school board's current conversation DRIVE STUDENT LEARNING??????
Anonymously signed for obvious reasons
Saturday, April 29, 2006 - 20:35:16
Gas prices
NY Times Sunday article looks at impact of $3 gas on average folks to whom a tank of gas is a big part of their weekly expenditures. We've had the same thought. Arkansas is a state with a high per capita use of gasoline - we're a rural state, etc. We have it easy. We live two miles from work. We no longer have kids young enough to ferry to soccer, school, etc. But what about, say, the state employees, who bought a Suburban and lve in Cabot, Lonoke, Sheridan, etc. How are you coping with $3 gas?
Open line
More from deer camp
At Alltel
Another success story
The last refuge
Weekend retreat
Dope head
On the radio
Huckabee goes on Comedy Central
Ugandan war protest tomorrow
Hurry January
A new scandal
BREAKING: Hostage situation at courthouse
Tonight on AETN
Politics of gas prices
Bar owners fight back
His petulancy
Brewer opts for pros
Hathorn v. Halter
National eyes on Huck's action against us
Asa floats a school agenda
And you think LR is dangerous?
Air America arrives in Arkansas
The governor's office goes silent
Silence of the senators
The Duggar plan
Arkansas newspaper magnates
Rove returns to grand jury
Hear the news
The day in campaigns
Heckuva job Asa!
Timing
Mike Ross and 'net neutrality' (UPDATE)
State tax sale voided
Dillard's race-based pricing
Peace now
Lagrone blames Daniels for failed machines
Who pays the estate tax anyway?
Following up from yesterday
Uninsured rate high in Arkansas
Snow shoveler
Hathorn questions Halter's finance reports (UPDATE)
Bush approval lowest ever
Bush forced to act on gas prices
Voting machine trouble looms
Standing room only ... on planes?
Arkansas-Texas football returns
Beebe raises cash in Beverly Hills
Beebe on abortion
'Kenny Boy': Buck stops there
Stem cell research divides GOP
Afterthought goes smoke-free
Noble out at KTHV?
Sucked in by Hoover
Young officers join war critics
National Dems' six-point plan
Slacker Saturday
Fuel worries
Let the sun shine in
Slow Friday open line
Legislature overrides veto
Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Arkansans support environmental action
Stephens may bid for California papers
Literary Festival weekend is here
Do as we say, not as we do
Killer bees coming to Arkansas
Legislators return for veto vote
NYTimes visits Fayetteville
Huckabee goes to GITMO
Hiring undocumented workers: 'organized crime'
Ark Dems make case for early primary
UALR looks forward
The tax charge cometh
Trouble in the woods for Dubya
Payola again?
Ding dong the TIF is dead
Poultry postal
It's a party
Wal-Mart's new tone
Caution: legislators at work
Primary pitch day
UAMS move?
Bush: The worst
More than karaoke
Disturbing the peace at Greers Ferry
Bikers, start your pedals
About that veto
When Democrats karaoke
White House spokesman resigns (UPDATE)
Huck's slush fund -- UPDATED
More chicken****
Polluters: I'll do better for you
Wal-Mart schmoozing -- UPDATE
Renaud bros. win award
Pritt to challenge Halter -- UPDATE
Condemnation controversy eminent
Telephone TV
CEO's health, wealth insured
A.G. opinions
Beebe's response on tax votes
DOA
Jonesboro: Developer friendly
American Idol: Southern-fried
Money talks
The good news: daycare
No clowning around
State GOP hits Beebe on taxes
Ryan convicted for corruption
Suskie pledges Entergy challenge
Dems call one-night karaoke truce
The Fayetteville shale
Sunday in the park
Pryor an 'up-and-comer'
A Bush blowback?
A good day for Fred Phelps
Camp Walton
Humane death
The latest on the race for governor
And speaking of blight
Blight fighting
Speaking of immigration
Shamateur athletics
Asa! bobs and weaves
$30 million for what?
The road to the Derby
And speaking of loose lips
Open line Saturday
Miss Manners sez: You're under arrest
Toyota eyes Arkansas
The check cashers' bill
Huckabee: The end of history
The trooper shooting
Save our inadequate schools
Veto override
An early Democratic presidential primary in '08?
A tortured defense
What would Ol' Roy say?
'Impeach the president'
Cheney directed leak
Huckabee's stock drops
Free speech at UA
The one-party system
Peep peep
And if they're not lying, they're screwing up
The lying liars
Lt. gov. anyone? (UPDATE)
Rumsfeld under fire
Big brother
Arkansas Derby: Kingmaker
Gloves come off in Dem. a.g. race (UPDATED)
The Democratic message
State trooper indicted
Debt just got more expensive
Suskie bets on vets
Where's Lee?
Mission Accomplished
That dog don't hunt
Why does Joe Klein hate liberals?
Golfers' alert
Is baptism on the wane?
Air America landing in Arkansas
We miss Bill
The Wal-Mart Effect
Fighting the censors
Will a toll road pay for itself?
Jesus as politician
'I'm no liberal'
Coming to ASU Thursday ...
The income gap
Rutherford named Clinton School dean
First transplant
Jimmie Lou hospitalized
AEA endorsements
Tiger is coming
A good morning on KUAR
Welcome to our new location
New Clinton School Dean?
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