On 12/8/10, I wrote: "Sorry, I’m not yet convinced that “The Great Sell-Out” is the route to our salvation (although I might feel differently were I unemployed), but I could possibly swallow it if they add Zadroga, DADT, Dream Act and START"
Well, we got three out of four, and no one sane really believes we would have gotten even one without the sellout (which, I note, Kucinich voted for because his constituents need the unemployment benefits)
What makes the “Black Plague” such an awful moment for the Bloomberg administration is how badly the Mayor blew it among New Yorkers like myself who are inclined to take his side in his war with the educational unions over issues like tenure.
What Bloomie didn’t get is that Upper Middle Class professionals with advanced degrees deeply resent the appointment of someone who didn’t earn her credentials precisely because they themselves worked so hard to earn their own.
The latest supporters of the type of educational reform embrace by Bloomie to diss him on the matter of Black is The New Republic, Unfortunately, unless you subscribe you only get a piece of their assessment of Bloomie , but believe me, it's worth it;
Behold:
"The education reform movement has taken some heavy blows recently. Washington, D.C. lost its excellent schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, the reform movement’s poster child….
…The most recent blow, however, was different: It was self…-inflicted, avoidable, and embarrassing. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a reform advocate, an announced in early November that he was appointing publishing executive Cathleen Black to head the city’s schools. The media and education establishment were shocked: Bloomberg hadn’t announced he was looking for a new schools chief—and, worse, Black had virtually no prior experience in education… around the time of her appointment, city officials had to spend several hours briefing Black on education issues…"
and not in the link:
"Finding a schools chief shouldn't mean making a choice between educational experience…and leadership experience…The person selected to lead the nation's largest school system should have both….
…Many observers have… decried the mayor's decision as smacking of elitism. Actually…Black's appointment smacks eerily of …the anti-elitism championed by Sarah Palin…the belief that intellectual and even policy knowledge matters little in government…It is anti-elitist in the worst way: It is contemptuous of knowledge.” Michael Bloomberg, Cathleen Black, And Real Education Reform | The New Republic www.tnr.com
Kinsley on Kissinger: At a time when Soviet Jews were subject to official discrimination in jobs, long prison sentences on trumped-up charges, overt anti-Semitism in the state-controlled press and lots more of the same, Kissinger advised a president who had just finished revealing his contempt and dislike for Jews that none of this needed to be an American concern at all. Even gas chambers — another Holocaust — would be of no concern. Oh, maybe — maybe! — “a humanitarian concern.” And we all know what Kissinger — Dr. Realist — thinks about humanitarian concerns. One’s probably better off being no concern at all……I don’t claim to know Henry Kissinger at all, but I have been in the same room with him many times and have never taken the occasion to so much as poke him in the eye. In fact, as I recall, I was embarrassingly deferential each time. Opinion: Where is umbrage when you need it? – Michael Kinsley www.politico.com
It took him fifty years, but Haley Barbour finally learns the white Citizens Councils are bad; maybe in another fifty years he'll figure out they were the Klan in business attire. Barbour: Citizens Councils 'Indefensible' – Garance Franke-Ruta – Politics – The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com
Barbour's best defense would be to claim he suffers from Alzheimer's, though even that appears to be selective War Room: What Haley Barbour's amnesia tells us www.salon.com
Coates: Even at this late hour, the work of the Citizens Council is easily understood–standing athwart the most honorable strain of American History and yelling, "Do you want them marrying your daughters?" No Excuses – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com
For once, Michael Moore decides to stop being a dick; jury still out on Naomi Wolf, but things do not look hopeful. The women accusing Julian Assange of sexual assault deserve to be taken seriously. www.slate.com
Chait makes a cogent point which I made four years ago War On Christmas: Thesis, Synthesis, Antithesis | The New Republic www.tnr.com
Espada puts in for his 9K pension. I would have been glad to double the money if he had been willing to retire two years ago. Espada Puts In For His Pension | Politics on the Hudson polhudson.lohudblogs.com
His name may be Golden, but his balls are brass:
Marty Golden is correct that the Sen Dems spent like drunken sailors, but he forgets to mention that most of the cost was paying the ransom after the Senate Republicans, including Golden himself, helped Pedro Espada take the state government hostage. State Senate Democrats are $7M in debt after spending like 'drunken sailors' www.nydailynews.com
There was nothing like doing a campaign at the old Taminent club in the old days. Neighborhood full of great Greek food, though it was hard to beat the Italian delicacies coming out of the club kitchen. Will also never forget the flocks of pigeon hanging out under the tracks where the club was located.
Always will wonder what Queens would be like today if Taminent’s District Leader, Gloria D’Amico, had been elected to Congress instead of Tom Manton. Gloria D'Amico obituary www.scribd.com
Given the news about the illness of Nydia Velazquez’s mom just reported on Maddow (in connection with the vote on Zadroga being held open so Velazquez could rush back to vote still wearing her sweat pants), I apologize to her for the bad timing of my piece earlier this week.
Nydia, may you and yours go from strength to strength at this difficult time in your lives.