Andy Rotherham is just so full of crap. Does he think a defense lawyer who defends their client believes there are no criminals in the world? Are there lousy tenured teachers? Of course. Although one might wonder what the principal was doing while the alleged lousy teacher was non-tenured. In our state, that’s four years. But if administration wants to fire a teacher without regard for due process or the teacher’s contract rights, the teacher’s union better be there to stop it. Or what’s a union for?
Apace of Change gets a phone call from Texas. It’s a new teacher asking for advise. A of C sees it as an example of the internet building a network of change. So do I.
Gerald Bracey asks some tough questions of Robot Arne.
It’s a fascinating poll by the NY Times on the health care issues. Overwhelmingly, Americans want a public option and are willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans are covered by good health insurance. They worry about quality, choice of doctors and access to care. I think the first responses are based on what we actually know and experience. The second are based on fears spread by the insurance companies and their political lackys.
In 1966 (!) I graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. I didn’t know a single openly Gay student at the time, although I have come to know of several who came out since. Fairfax has gained a certain national fame since Sergio Garcia ran and won for prom queen this year. Starting out as a stunt, the issue became an entry point for students to talk about gender roles. “It just shows how open-minded our class is,” said Vanessa Lo, 18, the school’s senior class president. But not everyone is happy. Not the crazy homophobes.
23 reporters and bloggers have been arrested in Iran.
What we are now seeing is a regime which is far more worried than the Supreme Leader suggested when he threatened the opposition so baldly on Friday. Having refused any serious political dialogue with Mousavi and his opposition comrades – a few district recounts will produce no real change in the result – the Iranian regime, led by a Supreme Leader who is frightened and a president who speaks like a child, is now involved in the battle for control of the streets of Iran. It is a conflict which will need the kind of miracle in which Khamenei and Ahmadinejad both believe to avoid violence. Robert Fisk
Fred Klonsky 