by David Safier First off, this post is about Imagine charter schools, the country's largest charter school chain, and among the worst. It's not about Imagine Learning whose connections with Al Melvin I've been writing about lately. Imagine Schools has been losing schools by the handful over the past few years, some because the local … Read more
by David Safier Steve Gall once again assembled a group of sponsors for a bill to create daily, organized physical activity in Arizona schools, and once again, it went down, this time without even getting a hearing. He's especially upset with the Arizona School Board Association that expressed objections to the bill but didn't respond … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The "very serious people" (VSP) in the Beltway media have long been enamored with the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (aka the Catfood Commission) — Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who utterly failed in their assigned task. (h/t Graphic by Twolf).
The Catfood Commission never issued a single recommendation to Congress, because the Catfood Commission failed to muster the requisite 14 votes to adopt a single proposal. As a result, the Catfood Commission failed to issue a final report to Congress. Because there were no recommendations from the Catfood Commission, Congress never voted on a single recommendation of the failed Catfood Commission.
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson did, however, prepare what is known as a "chairmen's mark" for the Catfood Commission, but that document is only the chairmen's recommendations. Since the Catfood Commission failed to adopt the "chairmen's mark," it is immaterial and irrelevant. . . to everyone except the VSP's in the Beltway media, who elevated Bowles and Simpson to almost demigod status on Capitol Hill.
The VSP's goal was to convince the public that the Bowles-Simpson "chairmen's mark"
is oh so serious by oh so serious people and should be taken oh so
seriously because the Beltway media villagers' conventional wisdom deemed it oh
so serious.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: There was media speculation earlier this year that Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) was under consideration for Secretary of Interior in President Obama's second term cabinet. As usual, media speculation was wrong. President Obama nominated the CEO of REI, Sally Jewell, to replace departing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. So with that word of caution, … Read more
Posted by AzblueMeanie:
Time once again for The Farley Report from Sen. Steve Farley (D-LD 9):
This week's theme is a Tale of Two Legislatures: One wildly partisan, driven by ideological conspiracies from the far right, and the other bipartisan, driven by good ideas that eschew ideology and bring people together. I saw plenty of both in the last two days.
Starting with the bad news, we were treated to three hours of testimony in the Government and Environment committee last night about Judy Burges' (R-Skull Valley) SB1403, that would prohibit the state and all the cities and counties therein from "adopting or implementing the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development."
In case you hadn't heard about the Rio Declaration, also known as "Agenda 21", you haven't been reading enough of the far-right conspiracy websites lately. Folks more extreme than Glenn Beck are convinced that the U.N. is using this 1992 document to force us all to give up our private land and move into tiny boxes so that the vast majority of America will be reserved for the use of non-human animals. We were told by the sponsor that the idea was "Communist" in nature.
Calling the Rio Principles "seductive evils", Sen. Burges declared, "The truth contained within this United Nations program is something sinister and dark. The plan calls for government to take control of all land use and not leave any of the decisions in the hands of private property owners." She asked the committee audience of around 60-70 supporters (some from as far away as Montana), "Are you ready to be forced to give up your private land?" to which they responded in a loud "NO!"