What’s The Filibuster Frequency, Kenneth?

A visual reminder for our friends on the other side, exactly why this privilege is being lifted. To the uninitiated, a filibuster is defined as “the stoppage of the accomplishment of something”. If you’ve wondered why Congress is doing nothing, this chart clearly explains why. This afternoon, listen to Rick Jensen cry great big crocodile tears (boo,hoo,hoo) from 1:00 to 3:00 this afternoon (11/21/13) on WDEL. Then if you’re listening Kenneth, stay tune to that frequency of 1150am….. for beer.

About The Teacher’s Survey

i wrote a piece not too long ago about taking the Delaware Department of Educations teacher’s survey. In it, I said that having an overwhelming response from Delaware’s teachers, one that could be corroborated by sending the same response also to he DSEA, would be the best policy.

I said it would do these things.

It would stop the current corporate trends that are harmful to our children.
It would create dialogue which could point the corporate resources ($$$) towards actually improving education.
It would stop the notion that “teaching to the test” was real educational improvement.
It could create the winning combination of being pro teacher and pro corporate which would make Delaware pro student.

(Disclaimer: Some may think I was the author because of this idea way back here.)

John Young countered with another opinion. Being part of corporate America myself, that criticism struck home….
As a corporation, we rely on surveys. Just as polls are used in campaigns to determine whether or not to throw money into a state’s campaign, or not, in the corporate world where everyone also has an opinion related to their paycheck, getting the correct read is vital. Surveys widen the market place. Which is why every cashier is “forced” to entreat you to fill out a survey for your visit… The more information, the better the decision.

That goes for employee’s surveys as well. In the corporate world there are good and bad corporate captains. The good ones want clear data and work hard to make sure the data they have coming in is real. They bad ones, are looking for snakes. Their intent is to find out who is their enemy, without even wondering what they are doing so wrong that they would be in that position. There are good firms out there who comprise these surveys, and their prime selling point is their confidentiality. They do not identify their callers because if they did, they would not be hired by other companies… Gallup is a trustworthy polling outfit for this reason.

Now in today’s age, when one takes a survey, one’s phone number, one’s computer ID, and all of one’s cookies are recorded at the time of the survey. It is possible for someone to determine the location, the time, and perhaps get an idea of whom is making the survey. They then can set them up to be fired.

That is the warning John was making, and it would be worth taking that into consideration.

it is probably best that you get both sides. It is as if two people at work gave you both sides, and you then have to choose which you want.

Considering both options I would argue continuing with the high turnout on the survey for this reason…. Your lives as a teacher are hell right now. For any change to ever occur, it will have to come from an overwhelming response to this survey. If there is no forceful push on this survey to explain the frustration being felt by every teacher in these trying times, things will continue as they are. If things continue as they have, you will probably quit in four years anyway out of sheer personal frustration. If the place is going to hell in a bucket, you are better off getting fired. So take the survey. Likewise if the place is seriously going to get better at some future point, it can only happen if you take the survey… So my advice is…. take the survey.

it will probably be the bravest act you could do. It will probably be one of the most selfless acts you could do. It could, be one of the most beneficial acts you could do… if the results are read, tabulated, analyzed and if it becomes apparent to those running the Race to The Top, that those who will actually be doing the running, need to be a big part of the program.

Which means, constant measuring has to go out the window. Keep the best parts and throw the rest away.

Which means firing teachers by test results has to go out the window. keep the best parts, and throw the rest away.

Which means that Common Core has to go out the window. keep what works, and throw the rest out the window.

Remember, it would be just as bad to lose the good aspects of these programs the corporatizing of America’s education has given us, as it would to lose the good aspects the teaching profession has given over the past centuries of public education.

Only a union of the best of both, can move us forward. And the only conceivable way I can see this happening, begins with step one: which is having an overwhelming response to the survey….

Republicans Just Cost Me $1000 A Year!

They cost you too…

The drop in payroll tax from 6.2% to 4.2% results in a savings of about $1000 a year to every wage earner.

(If truth were widely known, that tax cut is actually a bad idea. It hemorrhages a dying social security fund, requiring the eventual death of the program or an expensive emergency last ditch surgery in the future.)

But it is hard not to give a $1000 present to every voter. Even if it only comes out as $19 dollars and change each week… But, still again, if your electric bill is $198 and you only have $189 in your account, that additional amount is, well, a lifesaver…..

But, Republicans in the House, even after Republicans in the Senate voted passage, overwhelmingly voted….. not to vote on the measure…

They didn’t vote against it… THEY VOTED NOT TO VOTE ON IT……
(speculation is that they lacked the votes to keep it from passing)..

So, how does that relate to you?

House Republicans (read Tea Party) just voted NOT TO VOTE on whether or not you will be losing an extra $20 a month out of your next paycheck.

Imagine what this is doing to payroll clerks around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to family budgets around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to businesses who rely on consumer spending around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to businesses heavily involved in the financial sector, around this country?

So what would normally happen?

Normally a group that can’t find agreement, acknowledges the sad fact, and long before the deadline, announces that they failed to reach agreement and that things would continue as they were on a temporary basis, to unfortunately allow for more time to solve differences.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOO, …. WE ARE STUCK WITH A TEA PARTY THAT FUCKS THINGS UP.

Instead, we have a vote not-to-vote, then get all sorts of very lame excuses from those who are delaying, none of which apply to the real problem that Social Security is doomed unless drastic action gets taken (higher rates, not lower), and we get nothing….

The tax cut will expire…

It is like sequestering a jury in a room, where everyone after much fact-covering argument has agreed to a judgment, except for one person who’s been bought off. And nothing, nothing, logic, emotional appeal, bullying, snuggling up to, befriending, produces any change. And you go years, every working day, to the same court house, the same jury room, they same chair at the same table, hear the same arguments, hoping against all odds, that today, he will see the light and switch. You go the next day.

That is today’s Congress. Held hostage by Tea Party Republicans who live in a dream world untouched by the reality of living under $185,000 a year. Like that bought-out juror, every day, they hold up progress with the unjustified belief that, if they wait long enough, the other 11 jurors will give up and sway over to the sole juror’s way….

Two things can happen… 1) return to the public and announce a hung jury, and do a complete retrial.. or 2) sneak up to that one juror, put a gun to his head, say nothing, pull the trigger, clean up the mess, dispose of the body, then go out to the public and announce what the 11 of you have decided…..

One is the nice way, sanctioned to due process of law. The other is the American Way.

It’s time to initiate the kavipsian policy of expression or what is otherwise known as “Show Us How You Really Feel”… Who knows? It could become the next great movement? The next time someone you know (or don’t), says anything about how millionaires should keep their tax cuts and the poor should pay, nod your head in agreement, smile a little bit, then hit them as hard as you can in their mouth, I mean as hard as you can! Put them flat on the ground holding their jaw… Then loudly say, “Don’t every talk that stupid way to me again!” Who knows, if 99% or all 303,930,000 would respond that way to our fellow congressional delegates, and the other 3.9 million of their like who advocate such madness, we might actually get the very progress we need, not because of intimidation, but because such policy is right….

For those who argue expression of violence is un-American, I’ll remind them that tonight, is John Wayne Night on AMC: view it!… I argue that such action is VERY American and perhaps it has been the lack of such spontaneous expressions of frustration from working American people, that has caused the logjam where nothing gets done because of one holdout, who thinks he can sway the world to his opinion and face no consequences… ….

Practice now, by punching brick walls.

kavips (And Every Other Method Of Free Expression) Is In Moral Danger

Call every Congressional person and tell them this is preposterous.

Remember the baby video maker who was sued because of the pop music playing in the background?

This is foolishness, and every Delawarean, yea, even every national, Congressperson needs to know it…

Perhaps, perhaps, if it is passed, Hollywood can sell a couple of more movies…. But if it is passed, it will be the death of the first amendment… you and me, are gone….. morte…

There can be never be censorship of the Internet… Never. and period….

Moving Away From Conservatism….

Briefly put, after yesterday’s debate, Mitt Romney is all but assured of being the Republican nominee…

Out of nineteen conservatives who started out in the race for President, the one who is the most liberal, is the one who seems best to represent that party….

What does that say about conservatism?

It says, that even conservatives think the liberal approach makes more sense than what Conservatives have been advocating over the past 30 years?

Just sayin’.

Siesta is Over: “Bull” fight Begins

Thoughts:

Can Bullock beat Castle? Or is he destined to go the way of Miller in 00 an 04? A really nice guy, but…..

What needs to happen for the future good of Delaware is for John Carney to switch races and apply his millions towards regaining the House Seat for the Democrats.

Many of us feel John is too good of a guy to be squandered this season.  Minner will do for Carney, what Clinton did for Gore. For his own growth and development, most of us feel he needs some distance from Minner before taking over the Governors mansion.

A powerful switch like this needs to happen. If Carney runs, Jason and I will get him in.

NH is Diebold Country….In Part….At Least Where Hillary Won

Courtesy of Bradblog.com

There was shock and awe when Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire. Jaded as I am, anytime I hear of votes being different from the polls before and after the voting, I have to remember the election of 2004. And again of 2006. So of course when I heard that Hillary’s win came out of nowhere, I said “Hmmm. We haven’t heard from Karl Rove lately.”

Now I know most of you would never expect someone capable of manipulating votes in an election. Unfortunately I have seen it done in small down-to-earth local elections, and in other countries where winning takes precedence over playing fair.

So I was not very surprised when I saw this work come out, instead quietly muttered “right on time.” I was planning on spending my night tracking it down, but now……I don’t have to.

Once again it was the bloggers who intercepted this story. I listened on mass media for it all day, and instead heard media pundits trying to explain options that could have occurred that just might make sense of something that was an unexplainable anomaly.

Bottom line, in areas where the ballots were hand counted, Obama’s and Clinton’s results match the data from all the polls. It is only in those precincts where Diebold machines were used, does Hillary have votes that seem to come from nowhere, when compared to the polling data.

Odd. Where have we seen this before. Strange fluctuations where Diebold counts the ballots. Predictable results where people count the ballots.

Can it be possible that someone could throw a world-watched primary, electrically?

It can if you are Silvestro, president of LHS Associates. (Note to law enforcement officials, please check out the malicious code emanating from that sight. Careful, it’s powerful. For the rest of you, I dismantled that link.)

You will certainly believe so if you watch this part of the documentary Hacking Democracy. Earlier this fall, a court case to abolish the Diebolds before the New Hampshire primary, failed in that endeavor. Being a small state, all of the voting machines in New Hampshire, are in the hand of one man.

Again all the polling was dead on for every candidate but two. Hillary Clinton and Obama. They changed not statewide, but ONLY in those precincts where Diebolds were used.

The Ron Paul campaign is crying fowl as well. With New Hampshire being small enough, one can backtrack and determine whether the votes listed are accurate or not. In one precent, 0 Ron Paul ballots were logged and the author of this statement knows how he voted. He also knows others who voted the same way.

So we have an actual account of a machine not counting votes correctly. Furthermore we have video proof that the machine does not total votes using principals of mathematics, ie adding. Additionally we have the website of the company that services the Diebolds, giving out malicious code if one clicks on. Finally we have the owner of the same corporation, showing his contempt for the court, and presumably for the law which it is attempting to uphold…….

So putting all those together, with a win that really shouldn’t have happened based on all data accumulated beforehand, similar to the 2004 Presidential Election, you have a good reason never to trust the totals of a Diebold reader, again.

Which proves what I said last summer. All those corporate interests that supported Bush, long ago cast their lot with Ms Clinton. It’s a shame that New Hampshire does not border Illinois, otherwise an additional 120,000 votes could have helped Obama.

WTF

photo by SUCHAT PEDERSON, News Journal

6th Floor Please……..

Whether coincidental or happenstance, the local blog scene has become mysteriously quiet since the signing of the wiretap law just before last weekend. Only Jason has defied the danger, and out of professional courtesy, I do not think he should face MR. CHENEY alone.

In one of my comments on another forum, I was (politely) told that I did not know what I was talking about when I was discussing wiretapping. Although I knew a lot from sources close to the business, after my weekend research on today’s methods (post internet), I came to the conclusion that they were right. I really did not know what was going on………..

No one is talking facts, making it doubly hard to investigate. Based on information culled strictly from the public domain, here is what I could find so far.

Granted the old wiretapping descriptions were out of date. As fiber optics invaded America, switches were placed at all network hubs, allowing for the passing of all information through the government’s hands during it’s journey en route from sender to recipient. These hubs were all on American soil, and therefore, under the old laws, required some type of oversight by FISA or another court, to issue a “wiretap” or other intelligence gathering device.

Had we suspected that a Saudi Arabian national, withdrawing money from an ATM in South Portland, Maine, just up the street from the Mobil station right there at the exit off 95, was about to commit a dastardly act that would change the future of this country forever, getting court approval in real time, would be difficult, if not impossible.

As Bonner “leaked” on national television, (where’s the outrage? Oh, he’s republican) a federal judge had declared such practices illegal. Why? Was he too, one of “them” liberals? No he just decided that the propensity for the system’s misuse, far outweighed it’s gain to society.

What could be more important than saving American lives?

That is a good question and needs a lengthy answer…. American lives are important…..In fact, the primary reason that most Americans are against Cheney’s Trillion $ war going on today, is that they feel it is squandering lives……American lives. But whenever lives are being sacrificed for a real purpose, Americans feel much differently, as polls taken during the Afghanistan campaign readily show…….

So there must be something hidden that is so controversial or so big, that Americans place a higher value on it, than they do saving lives. One questions, what could that be?

William Wallace says it best in “Braveheart“: Freedom!

I can see everyones eyebrows raise. Are we jumping the gun here? What reasonable person could expect an elected official of the United States government to spy on, control, and imprison their own citizens?

Apparently that is the fear that most Americans share. It is for that reason alone why everything must be kept secret and hidden from public scrutiny. For within this administration, everyone is scared to death that the public will someday find out……..

If you are hearing this for the first time, as I did last Saturday, it shows that their clamp on this intelligence and information about this story is working. But across the web and in various newspapers, are enough leads that put this picture in perspective.

Here is what we know. The technology out there is equal to what is available on most PC’s today. It is just the size and scale that blows everyone’s mind. Apparently everything that is ever said, written, posted, e-mailed, filmed, in the entire world, is being saved. Most of this will never be touched. We know this capacity exists: for how often has a commercial enterprise solicited us due to a pattern detected based on our personal trends? And how often have we football watchers been correctly told, based on probability, just where the quarterback is going to throw the ball, and guess where he then throws it to?

This coupling of voice recognition, the entire library of data, and a massive scale of sorting computer software all together under one roof, leads to a profile on every single American citizen at the touch of a button.

If we elected saints as our political saviors, we wouldn’t care. Sure, find the bad guys; just leave the good guys alone. But unfortunately instead of saints, we chose to elect republicans who we have found can be trusted far less than God, as our coins and old bank building in Millsboro, so declare is our intention. Our founding fathers were quite lividly adamant that any government should NOT have unlimited powers of search and seizure. So with today’s technology, our family jewels are safe within our home, but our private thoughts and conversations are not……..

So what is wrong with listening in on private conversations…….I do nothing wrong……and I’ve got nothing to hide……listen all you want, damn it….. That is the defense we hear from right wing nuts whenever they defend this invasion of anyone’s privacy. To stupid people that may make sense. But it only takes a small amount of intelligence to realize how readily that ability can be abused.

Tom Carper, along with many democrats voted for the unlimited use of this technology, done legally at the discretion of the Executive branch itself with no one watching…..This is the same guy who once took great effort to dress up as Commodore McDonough and speak to little school kids about the greatness of this country……Can anyone reasonably expect that such a cognitive switch which jumps away from America’s true ideals to those of a totalitarian state, was NOT coerced by some type of blackmail?

What dirt do they know on Tom Carper? He should count his blessings…..for he is one of the lucky ones. Were he squeaky clean, he could have shared the same fate as Tim Johnson…..or Jon Corzine…..or Paul Wellstone. Speculation to be sure, but it goes to show to those who implicitly trust their leaders, just what can happen when government is given the free hand to spy on their citizens.

But let’s take a more realistic example. One that occurs worldwide today. Over at Delaware Liberal there is a lot of anger focused on the current administration. That blog has become a better source of news than delawareonline, or its printed companion, the News Journal. Of course if you want obituaries, you should still buy the paper. But major news stories are broken day’s ahead of the controlled media, and create firestorms of public opinion that are detrimental to the establishment of the Cheney ideals, which are even occasionally sponsored in part by the republican party.

So how to stop it? This might work. An anon post describing some to the conversations that took place last February could just be enough. It would take a strong Hillary at one’s side to say that did not create any problems. And where would those conversations come from? Apparently they are stored, right now, along with those of every reader, pulled at will with a couple of keystrokes next to your name………..

Yes this technology can corral terrorists…..but it can also be used to know what Biden will say in the next debate, who sold Obama his cocaine when he was young, and whether Hillary is or is not returning the favor her husband gave her during the previous scandal. It can be used to silence witnesses: find and expose whistle blowers, thereby killing them. It can be used to publicize a politician’s health problems, say erectile dysfunction, or blackmail those who don’t ask, and don’t tell.

It can be used to find which of an opponents supporters are “still on the fence” and get to them first. Why do you think Karl Rove resigned the first business day just after the law was passed? Being good for six months, this ability to eavesdrop on each and every Democratic or republican candidate will, unlike Watergate, be legal to well after all the big primaries have all been settled.

Lawsuits against reporters who won’t reveal their sources? A thing of the past, for this law now makes all those irrelevant. There are going to be a lot of dead people turning up soon.

This power can be used in political appointments to insure that only a “yes sir…as you wish sir”…mentality becomes firmly entrenched within the decision making process of our executive branch, and all previously conflicting conversations that have so far kept our country from driving over a cliff, become no more…..

It can also make average citizen afraid to write criticisms such as this…..never to be heard again. Based on what I have seen so far, Jason turned out to be the only one with a “Bravehart” enough to continue….. (my apologies if I missed someone). Yeah…..it affected me. (Call me Robert Bruce.) But like Nathan Hale, before me, I too now decide to walk up to the gallows, put the noose around my neck, and plainly speak my words of wisdom, which hopefully will far outweigh anything I could have done to help this nation, had I cowered and remained silent…………………..

Response: You Hate, We all hate Dem. CONGRESS

Many of you who read this blog have already left your comments on FSP ‘s coverage of this topic several days ago.

Tempted as I was to add my two cents worth, doing so would not really accomplish anything except to say “I told you so.”

I don’t know about you, but I always tend to put “I told you so” type people in boxes shaped like Robertson, Nostradamus, Rasputin, and Falwell. These characters come from the same mold as the girl on every American’s playground who shows up when we are around the age of 2nd grade, and makes many wild predictions to any gullible listener. When one of them at last comes true, she does not let a single soul forget it: “See….I told you so….”

So I didn’t comment. I went to the original source instead.

The headline says that Americans have a low opinion of Congress. Of course we are supposed to believe that it is because it is being led by a women for the first time, or a Democrat, or both………

What it doesn’t tell you is that along with Congress, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, Big Business, the Criminal Justice System, Organized Labor all took hits as well. Percentage wise, Congress’s drop was small, 4% when compared to a drop of confidence in the presidency, 59% from his height. What could cause Americans of all persuasions to become disillusioned simultaneously with all three branches of American government? The answer can be explained in one word……..

Republicans

Singlehandedly this group has cause Americans more problems than any other group in America’s history. Americans are more disillusioned now than any time since the Great Depression. The “malaise” that Reagan tried to pin on Carter, today looks like a flower garden to most Americans who compare it to what we have now. We had the nerve to complain that gas was 86 cents a gallon. Today every American is not only paying more for gas, but is paying far more for insurance, far more for out of pocket expenses (no longer covered by insurance for profitability reasons), far more for pharmaceuticals, a whopping 60% more for electricity. One remembers the good old days: gasoline was 99 cents a gallon throughout most of the Clinton years. In just a few short years under Republicans, this administration has taken a hopeful American society and run it through the gutter.

It should be no surprise to anyone that a pollster calling one of our citizens out of the blue, will get a negative response.

But the “malaise”being generated by the Republican Party throughout their leadership in both houses of Congress , the Executive Branch, and now the Judicial Branch as well, has affected all areas measured by the Gallop Poll data. Dropping in confidence down from last year, are also the military, the police, television stations, newspapers, banks, churches and organized religions.

Churches and religions! For heavens sakes! The Republicans have even destroyed America’s respect and confidence in their own churches. Far more sinful in most citizens eyes , is the malpractice that Republicans have shown towards the American Military. Their failure to put enough troops in Iraq, their failure to fund enough body armor, their failure to armor plate the Humvee being driven all around Iraq, their failure to assist returning veterans, is extremely outrageous. And now, even the military has had to suffer a setback in their reputation among American citizens. Unbelievable.

Do you know who improved their confidence levels over this time. In this years poll, no one group showed any improvement.

FSP tries to blame this malaise on Biden. Perhaps five people will believe that. The “malaise” comes from the war that is going poorly, the deficit that is growing exponentially, the inability of Americans to pay for what they need to light their homes and stay warm through winter, the increased cost of travel, all the while we see Exxon Mobile with record breaking quarters of 36 billion.

Perhaps this “malaise” is aggravated by the Republican’s poor choice of those they hire who then can’t perform the duties required of their position. We all remember the woe that one FEMA appointment brought. Not to mention all those political appointees who destroyed Iraq under Jerry Bremmer, during the early years when with the right leadership, we could have won the battle and have been home now.

So it is with great thanks that I want to commend Dave and FSP for publishing this poll. If it weren’t for his site and the silly comments posted by those who did not take the time to research and read the actual poll, I would have said “Ho hum” and let it pass by.

The Poll proves but one thing. There is a general “Malaise” pervading the entire American nation. It is much worse than the last one we experienced during the late Bush ’41 years. It is even worse than those years that Carter was hostage to the Ayatollah of Iran. It is that bad……….

This malaise is solely one of the Republican’s making. They own this one. They were in charge of the Executive, they were in charge of the Legislative, and they controlled the Judicial Branch during the last six years. Democrats have only the tiniest majority in just one of the branches. They have only had it for six months, just 1/12th the time Republicans have had control. However, …….despite such a short time, more good has come out of this Congress in the first hundred days, than any other Congress of recent memory.

America needs to remember who brought this on.

Republicans, if they are to survive, needs to find a leader who repudiates everything the current crop of Republicans ever did. It is no coincidence that those candidates who are chasing the deep pockets within the Republican party with hand extended out, are falling further and further behind in the national polls.