The nation’s largest teachers union on Tuesday urged U.S. senators to oppose an appropriations amendment that would grant money to educators who perform well, a stance that confused the amendment’s author, who was among the recipients of the letter.
“I am astonished,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on the Senate floor Tuesday about a letter from the National Education Association urging him to vote against his own amendment to the FY2007 Continuing Resolution.
Alexander said he wasn’t surprised to have received the letter—“any of our offices can make a mistake,” he said—but was surprised at NEA’s position on the amendment, which would have provided $99 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF). Senate Democrats didn’t allow consideration of the measure.
The Department of Education says on its website the TIF “supports efforts to develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools” through student academic achievement and regular in-class evaluations of the teachers.
How dare the government attempt to reward quality teachers! These socialist wankers at the NEA make me sick. The do not give a rat’s ass about the students - it’s all about “reducing class size” to them. In other words more teachers that will be union members to increase their revenue stream in order to be a more powerful lobby in DC and state capitals.
We just mailed in my final Jeep payment today.
(WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
It’s been a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong four years and 4 months.
Next up:
The mortgage.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII...............
Is his hand fricken GLUED there?
DougM
NATALIE MAINES:
The thing is, it wasn’t even a political statement. It was a joke made to get cheers and applause and to entertain, and it did. But it didn’t entertain America.
What’s REALLY funny is how the left claims we Conservatives have no sense of humor.
I just don’t get it.
Let me let everyone in on a little known secret: The troops expect Congress and the President to squabble. It is part of this wonderful construct that we like to call “Democracy.” If there were no opposing viewpoint, we wouldn’t have a democracy, we would have something resembling a totalitarian state. Now don’t get me wrong, I sit firmly right of center on most issues, and there are times when I feel extremeley flabbergasted by the bozos on the left side of the aisle. But having said that, I fully recognize their importance to this construct of democracy, and most of my fellow soldiers do as well. It is the job of Congress to debate issues, just like it is my job to take the fight to the enemy.
In her article, Rosa Brooks makes some very good points, and at other times she strikes me as another elitist mainstream media jackal(I refuse to use the Acronym because an MSM to me is a Meritorious Service Medal). I would LOVE to hear what my fellow Freepers think about this article.
[ Treat servicemembers like people, not pawns. ]
(of course non FreePers can comment here)
This caught me because I’ve been meaning to toss out the alternative part to my query about abortion protesters using violent images to get out their message no matter who they assault...particularly children.
So what about anti-war protesters using graphic images of wounded and dead soldiers to further their agenda?
Workshops include:
• Become an Expert in the Bush Regime’s Crimes
• Strategies & Grounds for Impeachment
• Legal Action Against Bush and Cheney
• Make Hip-Hop, Not War
• Why the U.S. has Iran in its sights: How do we Stop an Attack on Iran?
Co-sponsors include: AfterDowningStreet.org; Progressive Democrats of America; Green Party of the United States; Democrats.com; Grandmothers Against the War; Granny Peace Brigade; Code Pink, Hip Hop Caucus ; ImpeachBush.org; Not In Our Name; Brooklyn Greens; NY Greens; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, NYC Chapter; Gold Star Families for Peace, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Cynthia McKinney.
Hey, I’m having an I have about 5 loads of laundry built up and another 4 baskets of folded to put away-work-spring clean the hen house-spread compost in the gardens-make chicken and dumplings-hang out with my family-____-______-________-____________-___ summit this week end.
Workshops include: LIFE. How to have one.
From the trailer for “The Searchers”
John Ford Point
The North Window
East Mitten and West Mitten Buttes
SF is so blue as to be a shade of cobalt so dark as to be indistinguishable from the black of deep space...
SF’s new schoolbook—it’s ‘anti-militaristic…
“This is the best thing I’ve ever read,” the Air Force veteran told the Guardian. “I’ve got a whole library of US foreign policy, but this puts it all together in such an easy format. Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti — they’re all [authors of] great books, but they aren’t easy reads.”
02/15 at 09:38 PM •
(2) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
Crew neck, V neck or wife beater? Or don’t wear one (wild and crazy guy!)
I love the racerback ones for me but I don’t think they make that style for gUys.
And there’s a rule for boyz in my house…
WHITE underwear only and only as underwear when out in public. Colored Ts are ok as OUTerwear.
Dubya—speak up, here, fella
The Mexican Consulate played a previously undisclosed role in the events leading to U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton’s high-profile prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who are serving 11 and 12 year sentences for their role in the shooting of a drug smuggler, according to documents obtained by WND.
And Mexican consular officials also demanded the prosecution of Texas Sheriff’s Deputy Guillermo “Gilmer” Hernandez, who subsequently was brought to trial by Sutton, the documents reveal.
..."We have it in writing,” he told WND, “a letter from the Mexican Consulate in the case of the deputy sheriff from Edwards County and verbal confirmation of the Mexican Consulate’s complaint in the case of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.”
Culberson told WND it is “outrageous and unacceptable that our government is prosecuting U.S. law enforcement officials at the request of the Mexican government.”
Stoo
02/15 at 08:27 PM •
(14) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
~twice~
More amusing timewasters here courtesy of Southwest. Most of them are downright awful, excepting maybe these..three..videos
Okay, and this one too.
But hey, I thought this was funny, so perhaps I’m not the best judge when it comes to comedy material.
CALLER: I was thinking, we really need to send children over to fight terrorism. It’s our only option.
RUSH: We need to send children over to fight terrorism? How do you figure?
CALLER: Well, according to Hollywood, children are not influenced by sex and violence—in movies, on TV, in rap music. They’re not influenced by any of that. However, our 20- and 30-year-olds in the military are. So, we bring them back; we send children over there, and they won’t be influenced by “24” and any other kind of programming!
Parts of Venice Beach and Dockweiler Beach were closed Wednesday following a sewage spill, county public health officials announced, the second time in two weeks the beaches have been closed.
The beaches are closed one mile north and south of Ballona Creek, and will remain off-limits until at least Friday afternoon.
“Due to this sewage discharge, Los Angeles County residents and visitors to the area should avoid contact with the ocean water near the point of discharge until these portions of the beach have been deemed safe to reopen,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, public health director.
“We will be conducting water quality assessments to test the level of bacteria in the water. The beach will remain closed until test results indicate that bacteria levels meet health safety standards.”
These are the same beach areas that were closed Feb. 6 following a reported sewage spill. They were reopened Friday.
Will Rogers Beach was also closed Feb. 6, and has remained closed because of high levels of bacteria.
Beaches you can’t swim in (thanks multi-million dollar celebrity estates!), dried-up forests (thanks environmentalists!), illegal messican gangs on the rise again (thanks VillaMEChA!), illegals illegals illegals and more illegals (thanks Bush!), $900-per-month studio apartments & 98% occupancy rates (thanks illegals!), state legislators who care more about light bulbs than stemming the tide of illegal immigration…
Now why izzit I live here again?
Cross in a Chapel – absolutely not
Sex Worker Art Show – sure why not.
W&M President Gene Nichol
On Cross Displayed in Wren Chapel:* unacceptably created “insiders/outsiders” at W&M
* obstacle to goal of chapel being “welcoming to all”
* obstacle to goal of “recognition of the full dignity of each member of [W&M’s] diverse community”
Topless women weren’t the only thing keeping students at the College of William & Mary focused Monday night at the Sex Workers Art Show.
Sparkling nipple adornments, feather boas, bare bottoms, erotic dances, striptease music and sex toys entertained a crowd of more than 400 who were packed into the auditorium of the University Center. Another 300 were turned away. The show attempted to empower the actors by portraying the realities of their careers.
Jo Weldon shared her story of how a stripper job helped pay her way through college and graduate school. She regaled the audience by doing a skit that revealed the questions strippers commonly face. She used a male student to ask the questions.
“Are they real?” he asked.
“Real expensive,” she answered.
Other performances were more risque.
A woman named Dirty Martini did a striptease. Weighing in at well over 200 pounds, she finished her routine wearing only a G-string and pasties.
Cono Snatch Zubobinskaya, clad initially in military fatigues, gave a theatrical performance that included a dildo shaped like a gun. Her anti-war message was that sexual favors would be given if “doing so can end the war. Just don’t force me.”
“It’s just so out there and expressive,” said Josh Campbell, a member of Lamba Alliance, one of six student groups to sponsor the event. “It’s hip, it’s in your face, and it’s exciting.”
PeterR
~*~
from the horse’s mouth…
