Political Roundtable - Part V

[dobrojim]

I plan on reading her book. We can revisit this down the road...

She is an interesting person - my wife knows her well from education politics in CA... it will be interesting to get you view on her.

I placed a hold on the book from the library. No guess on how long it may take before
I get the call to pick it up. Then there is the time it takes to actually read it.

[DCZards]

Regarding unions: I always get a laugh out of hearing people bash teacher unions for failing schools. What those people fail to realize (or admit) is that most of the nation's best public schools are in highly-unionized places like the New England states and Maryland, while some of our worst schools are in states with little or no union presence, such as Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Fact is, few instituions "lifts all boats" like unions have historically done. And, as the number of Americans belonging to unions has declined, so has the number of middle-class American families.There's a connection there folks.

[dckingsfan]

hey DCZards, if you are referring to my post about unions, it was only in the context of those who would and do oppose charters - and unions do oppose them for their self interests and not the interests of the students.

And yes, Montgomery Schools are among the best in the country - and they outspend those Mississippi schools by a whopping margin. Probably a bit of a relationship there? You might also consider the demographics?

And I think there are times when unions get to strong and get to weak. We have a bit of both in this country now... Public unions are too strong - bankrupt municipalities would be my evidence. And private unions are too weak - you would think that migrant farm workers would have a better union by now, hell they are so weak that we can't even harvest the crops we have.

[dckingsfan]

Looks like the Ds at the state level bucked the new mayor...

http://www.13wham.com/news/features/top ... 0723.shtml

[dckingsfan]

Another perspective...

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 2956947604

[dckingsfan]

the reason it is better to have the states run these things... they experiment and then switch to the best system... in this case Connecticut's system.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/obamac ... are-n68106

[popper]

How most Democrat politicians, and some Republicans as well, corruptly suck the govt. tit to enrich themselves. You can't make this stuff up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/3 ... _hp_ref=tw

[dckingsfan]

Popper, did you read the last part of the article?

It is striking that in a story that levels so many wild accusations, there is not one expert cited to substantiate them and that out of the literally thousands of board members, employees, contractors, interns, volunteers, university staff, NGO staffs, State Department employees, auditors, and foundation reviewers, Grim could not find one to go on the record to substantiate any of these claims save for a disgruntled former employee.

[popper]

Popper, did you read the last part of the article?

It is striking that in a story that levels so many wild accusations, there is not one expert cited to substantiate them and that out of the literally thousands of board members, employees, contractors, interns, volunteers, university staff, NGO staffs, State Department employees, auditors, and foundation reviewers, Grim could not find one to go on the record to substantiate any of these claims save for a disgruntled former employee.

Thanks for setting the record straight. As you suggest, she's entitled to a presumption of innocence until such time as the allegations are either substantiated or discredited. It's good you and others keep me honest.

[montestewart]

How most Democrat politicians, and some Republicans as well, corruptly suck the govt. tit to enrich themselves. You can't make this stuff up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/3 ... _hp_ref=tw

I read an article once that said all Republicans do it. Can't find a link, but it sounded pretty credible.

[popper]

How most Democrat politicians, and some Republicans as well, corruptly suck the govt. tit to enrich themselves. You can't make this stuff up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/3 ... _hp_ref=tw

I read an article once that said all Republicans do it. Can't find a link, but it sounded pretty credible.

Our political system is largely corrupt where honest reps are the exception. You don't need to read my posts to come to the same conclusion. I think many Americans are numb to it and have grown comfortable just accepting the status quo and that apathy presents a grave danger to our future. Evidence and examples of corruption should be highlighted whenever possible so that the electorate can hold accountable those who are responsible. I do understand though that it's depressing and people get tired of hearing about it (especially from me) so I'll find something else to do.

[dckingsfan]

Popper, did you read the last part of the article?

It is striking that in a story that levels so many wild accusations, there is not one expert cited to substantiate them and that out of the literally thousands of board members, employees, contractors, interns, volunteers, university staff, NGO staffs, State Department employees, auditors, and foundation reviewers, Grim could not find one to go on the record to substantiate any of these claims save for a disgruntled former employee.

Thanks for setting the record straight. As you suggest, she's entitled to a presumption of innocence until such time as the allegations are either substantiated or discredited. It's good you and others keep me honest.

My pleasure - Although it smells like fishy stinkwater, so don't stop posting.

[popper]

Now we know one reason that it's so hard to uncover the truth in govt. operations. The new method of obscuring the truth is to require Inspector Generals to obtain permission from those they want to investigate. The American public has no idea the lengths to which the govt. will go to deceive them.

Congress, watchdogs stonewalled in probes of administration
By Kelly Riddell
-
The Washington Times
Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Obama administration has made it increasingly difficult for Congress and inspectors general to uncover government misdeeds and access information in various agencies, according to recent congressional testimony and reports.

On Thursday, Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz testified before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that Attorney General Eric Holder stonewalled his investigation of the “Operation Fast and Furious” gunwalking scandal.

Mr. Horowitz also said his office has been stymied in other investigations of the Justice Department because of the Obama administration’s interpretation of access laws, which essentially requires investigators to ask department heads for permission to investigate them….......

Read more:http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/3/congress-and-igs-stonewalled-probing-government-wr/#ixzz2xqp52va0

[Zonkerbl]

Ugh. That looks bad.

[dobrojim]

so does this

maybe in some strange way the 2 stories are related
(edit to add) They are about the breakdown of any semblance of giving
someone the benefit of the doubt that they are operating in good faith.

http://tinyurl.com/pjzp2u5

Perhaps the chief remaining mystery about Benghazi is why Republicans are still harping on it 19 months after the attack — and why they have been so willing to attack career diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials in their jihad against the Obama administration.

[popper]

It’s heartening to see that two prominent Democrats have had enough and are outraged at the unconstitutional behavior of this government.

NSA Pawed Through Americans' Communications Without Warrants, Say Senators

………… "It is now clear to the public that the list of ongoing intrusive surveillance practices by the NSA includes not only bulk collection of Americans' phone records, but also warrantless searches of the content of Americans' personal communications," Wyden and Udall respond……..

http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/01/nsa-s ... l-communic

[Induveca]

What the NSA is doing/has done doesn't shock me in the least as someone with an extensive background in technology. It's the DURATION of the operations.

The initial backdoor in RSA encryption, which has a backdoor inserted in it via a $10 million dollar NSA payment to RSA (now owned by EMC) was in 2004! If anyone works in secure environments, where a SecurID is required, also certain bank accounts require SecurID access. This tech is RSA based. The unique encryption key embedded on the client hardware is essentially rendered useless. Just the equivalent of a unique hardware ID/MAC attached back to a client is all that is needed to track you.

HTTPS is obviously another, ya know....the thing that supposedly keeps your credit card info secure over HTTP transfers. Also satellite broadcasts are typically protected with RSA.

Pretty frightening the NSA has had full access to this for an entire decade. Any truly secure account is typically secured with a SecurID device. Even pass codes to secure facilities. I suspect the last two applications I mentioned are the true reason so many foreign leaders are outraged they were targeted, you can be guaranteed their assets were monitored heavily by the NSA...and any RSA pass codes for secure facilities were compromised through extremely simple social engineering techniques.

[Zonkerbl]

This is one of those things that are going to happen regardless who is President. Someone has to keep an eye on it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[Induveca]

This is one of those things that are going to happen regardless who is President. Someone has to keep an eye on it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Agreed, different times though. Hacking RSA in 1986 would have not surfaced methods to track the entire population. No internet etc.

The sad thing is, the methods use to analyze all the metadata from the tens of millions daily financial transactions do indeed mean EVERY person in the US who makes a cc transaction is indeed analyzed daily.

The main issue with comparing such metadata via cc and/or ssn is the risk it creates for honest citizens via common human code flaws. If you buy three of four things on a "high risk" list and have travelled to certain locations, welcome to an "auto" watch list. I'd love to see the amount of Dearborn Michigan Muslim landscapers/handymen in these lists. Would prove the point......

[noworriesinmd]

Regarding unions: I always get a laugh out of hearing people bash teacher unions for failing schools. What those people fail to realize (or admit) is that most of the nation's best public schools are in highly-unionized places like the New England states and Maryland, while some of our worst schools are in states with little or no union presence, such as Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Fact is, few instituions "lifts all boats" like unions have historically done. And, as the number of Americans belonging to unions has declined, so has the number of middle-class American families.There's a connection there folks.

School Unions have very little to do with the success or failure of a student.

I believe parent involvement and income are highly linked to student success.
A student from MoCo that can read, write, and do very basic math by kindergarten has a HUGE advantage over a student who can't do the same from Mississippi.

Teachers Unions were created to shield a profession that was historically staffed by women...who didn't have a lot of rights.
Some Teacher's Unions have morphed into entities that sometimes block progress to protect the interest of their members to the detriment of our kids.