Jesse Turner, The Walking Man, wants me to join his cause: Saving the Native American burial site near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
A reminder that John Dillon, Glen Brown, and I will be speaking at Plymouth Place, LaGrange Park (315 N. LaGrange Rd.) on Wednesday (October 24) at 7pm. Topics will include the constitutionality of pension “reform,” HJRCA 49, revenue and pension debt reform… This is also an opportunity for you to engage in a conversation with us. We hope to see you there.
Another humanitarian peace mission to break the blockade of Gaza is stopped by an armed Israeli military operation.
A Protestant religious community opposes the Illinois Constitutional Amendment.
Richard Rothstein on the lies Joel Klein tells.
Mitten’s Google search records are leaked. Man, you can’t make this shit up. Oh wait. They did.
From Letters to Obama.
President Obama,
I support and respect you. I stood through the cold to see your Inaugural Parade. I will vote for you, but I am a teacher, and I deeply disagree with the direction your Race is taking our society.
I was a top student, attended Brandeis as a minority as they sought diversity, and graduated with honors.
I teach the top students, those identified as having high IQ’s and the potential to be our next leaders. I am told I may not deviate from the College Board’s predetermined curriculum. I am not allowed creativity, or teachable moments. I am not allowed to veer off into discussions that do not directly match up with the curriculum every other average student is doing. It is NOT working for us.
I used to enjoy my job, and felt I was becoming good at it. Now it is a stress that I would not recommend to any highly functioning young career seeker.
Please change course.
Fred Klonsky 
Let Me get this straight. His policies are ruining the opportunity for your students, and you are so frustrated you would not encourage other people to go into teaching? Your still going to vote for him? Perhaps you are teaching the wrong students. The gifted need teachers who can think for themselves, and let them learn without restrictions. Go ahead vote for this guy I HOPE that he will CHANGE later. Perhaps some of your student who are not allowed to think will end up with me.
“I will vote for you, but….”
If I were Obama’s mail reader, that’s all I’d need to know.
400 letters were written to President Obama on October 17th. Good job at missing the forest for the trees. Did you guys write one?
Yes, I did. Made it clear to Obama what he needs to do to earn my vote. If you tell him you’re going to vote for him anyway, what incentive does have have to reconsider his educational policies? His decency? This is a man who rains death by drone strike on civilians and even 16 year old American citizens. The man has no decency.
By the way, try this on for size: “Dear Mayor Emanuel, I plan to vote for you, but I deeply disagree with….”
Do you think that would work with Rahmbo? Do you imagine gales of laughter at the mere thought? Then why do you think such an approach has a chance of working with Obama?
Just to be clear, I did not vote for Rahm. And I would not vote for him. I worked for and voted for Miguel Del Valle.
But your dismissal of Mrs Jones and her letter, a progressive educator who plans to vote for Obama, makes no sense to me.
Why would a decision to vote for Obama mean she could make no demands upon him? In fact, that was just the problem on 2008. Some voted for Obama and then made no demands upon him.
You can check. Obama’s election didn’t shut me up four years ago. If he’s elected again, it won’t shut me up this time.
First, I’m not the one dismissing Mrs. Jones letter – Obama is. Second, you have the cart and the horse backward. The only way that Obama will respond to your demands is if you threaten to withhold your vote from him. After he’s elected (assuming he is), you can write to him, march on Washington, shout it from the hilltops, he’s simply not going to listen to you. The next two weeks are the last chance we have to get through to him. And starting by saying, I’m going to vote for you but… is the quickest way to not be listened to.
Obama knows perfectly well what education should look like – that’s why he sends his own kids to Sidwell Friends, not KIPP. The simple and obvious fact is that he DOESN’T CARE about other people’s kids (at least not half as much as he cares about his buddies in the billionaire hedge fund boys’ club). The only chance we have to change that is to connect our votes to his starting to care about other people’s kids.
Last chance? Okay. We just disagree about politics, elections and movement building. Your conclusions fly in the face of everything I know from my experiences in political activity. I think the election will settle very little, regardless of who wins.