Can Someone Help Me Out? What’s A “Doight”?

Still don’t know, but dirty deeds are done doight cheap.  As in “Dirty deeds and they’re done doight cheap.”

DCAS is rotten to the (Common) Core

DCAS is rotten to the (Common) Core.

“I called over another adult in the room. That adult who specializes in math thought the question was just as inappropriate. Sharing the question details would be a violation of the rules, so you won’t be seeing the question here. All I will say is this test is bad. Very bad. And our students and teachers are being judged on it.”

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This folks is too close to home…  these our our kids.  Delawareans….

We have see reports across our country of how bad this test is.  Now we have our first example on the home front.  Here I believe is what is now required.

The test needs to be vetted by General Assembly.  We are being asked to spend one third of our state budget on education.  If we are getting bunk for our $1.3 billion of money given to the state by residents and businesses,  we all have a stake in this too.  A very big stake…

Dave Sokola and  Catherine Cloutier, Bethany A. Hall-Long, Margaret Rose Henry, Ernesto B. Lopez,  Nicole Poore and Bryan Townsend, members of  Delaware’s senate education committee, need to vet the test.

Of course, tests need to be kept secret to cut out cheating. We know that.  However this secrecy appears to be such that no one, except I believe Pearson, the educational company that is in charge of producing, distributing and grading these tests, knows both the questions and the answers…..

What if Pearson is wrong?  Someone has to vet the test.

It would be a good piece of publicity as well as serve parent’s peace of mind, if the entire Senate Educational Committee in a public session, were given the 5th grade test as if they too were in elementary school, and then, and only then, would we be able to discuss whether or not it is more appropriate  for a New York firm trying to manage its bottom line, or a teacher who knows every student personally, to make up the questions and grade the test…..

Perhaps we could raise the stakes at little by putting some accountability into this exercise and say… oh btw,… if the legislators didn’t pass the 5th Grade test, and weren’t deemed “smarter than a 5th Grader”,  they’d be tossed off the committee…… and publicly embarrassed….

If the House wishes to compete with the Senate on this issue,  here are their names as well ….

Chairman:  Darryl M. Scott
Vice-Chairman: Kimberly Williams
Members: Michael A. Barbieri
Donald A. Blakey
Stephanie T. Bolden
Timothy D. Dukes
Debra J. Heffernan
Earl G. Jaques Jr
Harvey R. Kenton
John A. Kowalko Jr.
Joseph E. Miro
Edward S. Osienski
Charles Potter Jr.
Jeffrey N. Spiegelman

Republicans FAIL As A Delaware Third Party

With Sandy’s approach, words of warning went out to all campaigns.. Get your big signs down for the storm.  Feel free to put them up after the storm blows by.  Everyone got an email.

Democrats were in full force, and in New Castle County, not one Democratic sign was left standing…  By noon all  were stored for safe keeping…

There were no libertarian candidate’s signs.  As dedicated citizens, the libertarian team scoured the county and by noon, their signs were all stored for save keeping.

The one Jill Stein sign I’d seen, was gone.  Secured by the Green Party….

In fact the only signs up as darkness approached,  were those of Alex Pires, which is understandable,  it being a one man operation, and those of the Republican line up, which apparently has even fewer supporters.

It looks like Kansas,  at intersections now, with only Republicans contesting a one man operation….

If the Green Party and Libertarian party can mobilize faster than the Republican, it is time to stop calling the Republican Party a “major” party.

Even the Wizard of Oz had more going for it than today’s Delaware Republicans, who with their daily bumbles are rapidly creating a new definition of the English word pathetic.

2000

This is post number 2000.

The only real significance is it is 150 posts more than where Tommywonk stopped exactly one year and fifteen days ago…

If some future historian looks back, I can only guess they may kindly make some note of the quality of thought that underlies these efforts, but my guess, is no one will ever notice…

Irregardless, as long as the urge to put thoughts down for others continues, we will go on. As usual, with no goal, no direction, and no ulterior motive. Probably upon reflection, my biggest surprise, right here, right now … is that I still enjoy it so much, and can’t wait to jot my thoughts down, click the button, and send them off to where ever cyberspace and the vast internet ocean, lets them drift….

For each of you who have become regular over the years, … thank you friend…

Quick Question: Can Republicans Do Anything Right?

(This is not an attack piece on Republicans; just a warning that time is running out and they’d better get it together.)

It’s halftime Republicans…. What are you going to do?

Here is what you did?

You said bailing out Detroit was wrong; yet GM is alive and recorded their highest profit ever; one incidentally shared by all of its union employees.

You said contraception was wrong, and should not be used.

You said that we need less revenue coming into the Treasury, yet the treasury is 1.3 Trillion in deficit each year.

You said you would cut expenses. You spent more instead.

You said you’d balance the budget. Instead you dropped our AAA rating to just above junk…..

You said religion’s rights were abused. Yet if you turned Herman Cains tax plan upside down, it was the mark of the devil.

You said all gays suck… Yet one of your best heroes, was gay all the time…

You complained we were leaving Iraq… It is costing us a lot less now, isn’t, and we have the same results…

You said women had a place in the Republican Party. Yet you put not one woman on a panel discussing every women’s reproductive rights.

You said you were for protecting the internet. Yet all your SOPA supporters dropped from supporting that very bad bill.

You said you were for low taxes. Yet you fought tooth and nail so the payroll tax cut could not be passed….

You said that you would create jobs… Yet only Democratic policies have created jobs… Republican and Tea Partiers have lost them.

You said government intervention cost jobs… yet in Detroit it saved them…

You said Democrats couldn’t grow jobs? They almost reversed all those that Republicans lost….

You said Obamacare was a disgrace? Working pretty well these days, isn’t it? Well care visits. Free contraception for your daughters, Free screening for cancer. Lower premiums. Better coverage…. Maybe now is a good time to get that prostate checked out, huh?….

You said using government money to save jobs was unconstitutional. Turns out it wasn’t.

You said you were for racial equality. Even had a party chairman to prove it… (What was the name of your Texas governor’s camp, again?)

You said we couldn’t leave Afghanistan; but as soon as word got out we were, then Karzai and the Taliban stepped up talks, seriously…..

You said the 1% created all jobs… ha, ha, ha… You were wrong.

You said you were for “family values…” You didn’t say it meant trying to start multiple families with multiple women while still married…

You said millionaires couldn’t afford to pay taxes. The middle class would have to pick up the slack…

Just saying, that as you scramble and fight among yourselves. the rest of us see a party in disarray that has no clue who they are or what they stand for. We see jokers who should not be in Congress, we see platitudes that were dis proven ages ago….

Just sayin’ Republicans… You’ve had two years… It looks from here like you can’t do anything right….

it’s halftime Republicans… What are you going to do?…..

Why Nothing Ever Gets Done In Congress….

It is a simple vote…

Should we or should we not put this man in an administrative function.

Please vote yes…. or no…..

(It should be open cut because a majority have already said they would support Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Agency.) Just get it done…

But, it never goes to vote. In a motion to stop debate requiring 60 votes, 53 are found….

There is nothing more to debate. Vote yes or no… The argument has been on the table for months… But no… it cannot go forward because the Republican Party (all of it) had 45 members who voted against it…

The agency still has no one at the top to get it rolling. There is no one regulating Wall Street as we speak, simply because the entire block of Republicans, who voters put into minority receivership based on their previous track record, voted NOT to stop debate.

There will be no government until there are no Republicans.
There will be no Congress, until there are no Republicans.
There will be no Democracy. until there are no Republicans.
There will be no United States of America, until there are no Republicans.

(Sad thing this is not hyperbole. This is not campaign rhetoric. This is not hateful bantering. This is what is really happening. Makes a veteran want to cry)

Who YOU Beating Up Now? Huh?

Here is the blog that has been quoted recently by the mainstream press, especially after the video went viral, and they had to scramble to cover up the fact they originally tried to whitewash the incident.

“DUMB COLLEGE KIDS”, the right wing pundits squeal…

Not so…

Try an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, who organized the peaceful demonstration.

Or try an Associate Professor of English, who was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground.

Or try Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien who was injured by baton blows.

or try Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, who was also struck with a baton.

I wonder how this child’s mom feels right now: One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

Or the dad who was there, bedside, to welcome this bundle of joy into the world.

Or the Grandparents of these children… When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats.

What’s the point? What were you trying to prove, Mr Rogue Policeman? Ohhhhh, that you were sooooooooo tough… I bet all the women flock to you now, don’t they?

What were you trying to prove, Chancellor Katehi? That you have an iron will? Or that you didn’t care? You had to appease the wealthy donors. The tents were such an eyesore and had to be removed, even with the potential for a loss of life?

What were you trying to prove, Republicans? Cutting taxes. Underfunding institutions of learning. Trimming school budgets so the wealthy wouldn’t have to pay their fair share of the cost of living in American society…

Go ahead. Save them a couple of pennies…. Beat the student’s senseless.. Fill their lungs with pepper spray… Ram their lower abdomens with your batons. Make them unable to ever bear children…. Do it for your wealthy master. All so millionaires can save one more penny on the dollar they’ve already taken from us…

Oh, no… Wait… Why didn’t we think of that before… If you kill us all off now, you won’t get back your student loans we borrowed from you at those exorbitant amounts of interest you so graciously parted your money for….

Of Course Mother Nature Hates Republicans!

Many of the areas hit by the storm had also been hit by Irene. In New Jersey’s Hamilton Township, Tom Jacobsen also recalled heavy spring flooding and a particularly heavy winter before that.

“I’m starting to think we really ticked off Mother Nature somehow, because we’ve been getting spanked by her for about a year now,” he said while grabbing some coffee at a convenience store…..

OF COURSE YOU DID, DUMMY. YOU VOTED FOR REPUBLICANS!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!!!!!!! It’s Almost 2012!!!!!!!

And what happens in 2012? No, not the end of the world…. but the end of the world as we know it…..

For in 2012, pieces of the Affordable Care act begin to go into effect….. How awesome is that? And in our own lifetimes too?

What to expect…..

In 2012, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, additional benefits for the 150,000 Medicare enrollees in Delaware include lower prescription drug costs through a 50 percent discount on covered brand name drugs in the coverage gap – or “doughnut hole” – as well as wellness checkups and access to certain preventive care with no copayments, a benefit that all Medicare Advantage plans will offer starting in 2012. As a result, Medicare beneficiaries will be able to get free preventive screenings for heart disease, blood pressure, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic conditions. In 2011 alone, over 20 million Medicare beneficiaries received an annual wellness checkup or received other preventive services with no deductible or cost sharing.

Thank you President Obama. Thank you Democratic Party of the USA…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How bad would we have been for us if Republicans had stopped this as they tried soooo hard to do?

It’s going to be a great year!!!!!

We All Have Roles To Play

We are approaching the 45 anniversary of one of the foundations of our development. Even if we weren’t followers, quite often our bosses, mentors, or best friends were, so we had to deal with the consequences and irregardless, were shaped in some ways by this event…..

This past September the Eighth, marked the 45th birthday of the series Star Trek. Who would have guessed it would have spawned 5 more series for a total of 6, 11 full length movies, dozens of games, hundreds of novels (all read by Hube of course), and a Las Vegas theme park?…..

It took me a while to “get it”… As a science fiction buff, I was into the special effects, the glory of something new every week, and believe or not, we discussed the concepts found in Star Trek in our higher math classes….

But coming back to it later… (it was cheesy seeing the special effects of the 60s with bulbous Christmas lights representing massive computers)..I see a fundamental truth illustrated that pretty well defines all mankind throughout our species’ existence…..

When confronted with a crises, the decider(Kirk)listens to reason (Spock) and emotions (Bones) and then determines a best guess, and luckily each week it was the right one….

The interaction is hyped between the characters so one can plainly see that at times listening only to emotions will get one in trouble; at other times, listening only to reason will get one in trouble, so neither approach to such an argument is sacrosanct…….

Interestingly, reason or pure logic gets portrayed by an outside influence, a Vulcan in this case, someone not human…. At first glance this person representing “reason and logic” appears weird, possibly untrustworthy…..

But usually he is right.

The lesson carries today. Our conservative friends may quaff at the reason being given by one who is on the surface, different in appearance.

They, like Bones, are governed by emotions: fear, loathing, and hatred and sometimes, yes, love….. (seems to happen a lot in airport bathroom stalls)….

It will be a combination of both, that pulls us out of this weeks crises. Next week, stay tuned… same time; same channel…