Drinking Liberally Welcomes Laughing Liberally to Tucson
March 2, 2012
By Michael Bryan
Drinking Liberally in Tucson is looking to make some changes. This week one topic of discussion will certainly be moving the meeting night of Drinking Liberally from the current night, Sunday's at the Shanty on 4th Ave, to another evening (we're considering Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings). Currently, we are not considering changing the venue. If you have thoughts or imput, please leave a comment.
Watch Phil intorduce the new chapter and tell some pretty wicked-funny jokes along the way, after the click…
In the Interest of Facilitating Inter-Partisan Communication
March 2, 2012
Posted by Michael Bryan Hat tip to AZSpot.
Arizona Democratic Party Dessert in The Desert Reception
March 2, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Event announcement from the Arizona Democratic Party:
Babeu boarding school story in the Republic
March 2, 2012
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by David Safier It looks like the story about Paul Babeu's tenure as headmaster of DeSisto School in Stockbridge, Mass., finally broke into print in the MSM. Today's Republic has a long investigative article. The story bends over backwards to be fair, showing both sides of every issue whenever possible — maybe Babeu knew about … Read more
Craig Barrett’s K12 Inc. has high student “churn” rate
March 2, 2012
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by David Safier
NOTE: Craig Barrett, who is chairman of Governor Brewer's Arizona Ready Education Council (AREC), is one of the eight members of the Board of Directors of K12 Inc., a for profit, publicly traded online education corporation. K12 Inc.'s Arizona Virtual Academy is currently on academic probation with the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools.
A market analysis and investment site, Seeking Alpha, has a long, devastating article about K12 Inc: K12 Manifesting Its Corporate Destiny. A short summary of the very long article: online schools are only valuable for a minority of students, but continued growth is essential for corporate profits. So K12 Inc. uses the hard sell to get more customers/students, knowing many of them will be poorly served and will soon return to a brick-and-mortar school.
The article spends a great deal of time on the "churn rate" at the online schools: the number of students who withdraw each year. The average seems to be about 33%, meaning one third of the students leave the school each year. At Ohio Virtual Academy, the churn rate is 51.1%. (The article did not give figures for Arizona Virtual Academy)
This means two things. First, a number of students and their families are getting themselves into a bad education situation, with the probable result that the students are losing one or more years of education. Second, K12 Inc. schools have to continually recruit new students just to fill the holes left by those who withdraw, knowing many of the news students will be ill-suited for online education.
Celebrating Women’s History Month: The GOP’s war on women shifts into high gear
March 2, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Did you know that March is Women's History Month?
The GOP decided to celebrate Women's History Month by shifting its war on women into high gear this week, and take women back to the dark ages when women were chattel property of their husbands or families, second class citizens who do not possess full constitutional rights and liberties, and their uterus is the property of the state — their sex lives and reproductive health subject to stringent government regulation by men in government and religious institutions. We have moved one step closer to the dystopian world of The Handmaid's Tale. (h/t graphic Daily Kos).
Earlier this week the main anti-abortion bill of the Christian Taliban aka Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), which did not have enough votes to get out of the committee to which it was assigned in the House, was pasted into an unrelated bill on the Attorney Gneneral's Office in a "strike everything amendment" by CAP's point man woman Rep. Kimberly Yee (R-Phoenix) in the Senate Judiciary Committee and — surprise! — the bill passed the committee and moves to the full Senate. Sweeping abortion bill advancing in Senate – Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required):
So Why Is Sheriff Arpaio Alleging Obama’s Birth Certificate Is A Forgery?
March 1, 2012
By Michael Bryan
I'm not going to nitpick at the latest buffoonery from Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Plenty of folks are already doing that… and totally missing the point of Arpaio's actions. I'm going to explain the very rational motivations behind Arpaio's showmanship.
Arpaio clearly has two major motivations in this latest move:
1) to bolster his allegation that the DOJ is investigating his department as an act of political retaliation, i.e. "I exposed Obama's forgery, so he's out to get me before I can unmask his conspiracy." There was no truly compelling motive for the Obama Administration to go after Arpaio, so by making this sensationalistic charge, Arpaio creates a compelling story for anyone who is already inclined to dislike Obama, and isn't really paying attention beyond the latest headlines.
2) to bilk the idiots in the Tea Party and Birther camps (not that those are mutually exclusive…) out of money and gather a national data base of potential donors to his campaign and causes.
I'll explain all after the link…
The new kid in town
March 1, 2012
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by David Safier We got a new blog in town by some guy who calls himself Fitz. He ends most posts with the warning/disclaimer, "This is satire." I'll bet his lawyers made him do that. Pretty funny stuff. This guy could go somewhere.
