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JULY 7,  2011

YOUR EDUCATION DOLLARS AT WORK – AT 11:20 P.M. ET:  Another outrageous example of what is happening to American education, despite vast expenditures.  Illinois says it wanted to save money.  How does it save it?  You won't believe this:

CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois will assess only reading and arithmetic now that high school juniors will no longer be tested on their writing skills during standardized exams every spring, according to a published report.

Cutting the writing exams will save about $2.4 million amid the state's budgetary shortfalls. Writing tests for elementary and middle school students were dropped last year.

"We're trying to minimize the damage" of the cuts, Schools Superintendent Christopher Koch told the Chicago Tribune for a story published Wednesday. "Writing is one of the most expensive things to assess."

Oh please.  They're cutting writing tests because the kids do so poorly.  Why advertise falure?  I've seen some writing samples of high-school juniors from our local community here in New York, and I was appalled.

Federal law doesn't require or fund writing tests. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, public schools are evaluated based on their reading and math test results.

Illinois isn't alone in struggling with how to offer an effective education for less money. Oregon and Missouri also recently made money-saving cuts to their writing exams.

Illinois education officials expect to restore the writing assessments in 2014 when a new state testing plan will require students to periodically take online tests, Koch said.

And the end of the writing section on state standardized exams for now doesn't mean students won't be tested on their writing at all. Many Advanced Placement exams given in May require writing, and the SAT college entrance exam has a writing requirement. 

COMMENT:  One of the problems is that a number of teachers can't write properly, to put it mildly.  When I was a young student in the New York City public school system we had Irish teachers who could diagram an English sentence.  Today kids are lucky to have teachers who can write an English sentence.  Unless that changes, and kids figure out that writing is more important than playing video games, the writing problems in schools will not be solved.

July 7, 2011       Permalink

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:57 P.M. ET:  I've wanted to try this, and let's see how it works out.  More than 80% of the time devoted to building Urgent Agenda each day goes into research, and most of that research is never used.   But it provides great background, and gives me a sense of trends.  So, I thought we'd start a new feature - "Short Takes on the Passing Wreckage" –  which will give you some idea of what I'm seeing.  These will be short posts, maybe bunched together, without long quotes from articles.  To begin:

GOP SWEATS THE DEBT TALKS – There is apprehension in conservative circles that GOP Congressional leaders will be taken for a ride by President Obama in the current debt talks.  That would not be shocking, as GOP negotiators are always taken for a ride.  There are reports of huge defense cuts and even some tax increases, on the table.  Charles Krauthammer commented on TV that whatever is agreed to by the GOP negotiating team might very well fail to be supported by the Republican-controlled House.

BACHMANN IN THE SPOTLIGHT – No doubt about it, she's rising in the polls, even in New Hampshire, which is Romney country.  But some conservative-leaning analysts, like Brit Hume, are worrying out loud that Bachmann could never win the general election because she has so little appeal to independents.  I'm inclined to agree, though cautiously.  She's an inside-the-party favorite, but her views are too far right to bring in the vital middle.  On the other hand, and importantly, we recall that Ronald Reagan was liked, and supported, by many voters because they liked his style and character, even if they didn't agree with him on everything.

PLEASE NOTICE THE WORLD – We don't praise the administration very often, but it has been strong in nailing Iran this week for its supply of weapons to Iraqi and Afghan jihadists.  Some of those weapons are being used to kill American troops.  The latest charge comes from Joint Chiefs Chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen.  But is anyone listening?  With the exception of John McCain and Lindsey Graham, the Republican Party seems to have taken a vacation from foreign policy.  Anyone interested?  The GOP cannot revert to being only a party of green eyeshades.

CNN SHAKEUP – CNN, which has the internal stability of a South American government, is shaking up its primetime schedule, canceling Eliot Spitzer's 8 p.m. talk show and giving more display to Anderson Cooper.  Only Larry King successor Piers Morgan keeps his time slot.  Even Wolf Blitzer, who covered the Lincoln administration for CNN, is being moved.  Frankly, I thought Spitzer did a good, intelligent job, despite his liberal tilt, but he never attracted an audience.  Reporting on CNN has been sharper in the last year, possibly owing to the departure of hyper-biased Christiane Amanpour, who now is depressing ratings at ABC.  I have no idea whether the shakeup will bring more viewers to CNN, but the head honcho is new, and I guess he had to do something.

More short takes coming.  The wreckage grows.

July 7, 2011      Permalink

NOW WE KNOW! – AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT – AT 9:38 A.M ET:  Forget the fact that the state is essentially bankrupt.  Forget the fact that it is overrun by illegal immigrants.  Forget the fact that its universities have become hotbeds of kookism and screwball politics.  California legislators know what's important, and they act on it.  This is what made California great:

It may be obvious to most people, but California State legislators are ploughing ahead with a new food safety bill - to define what constitutes a hot dog.

The bill passed the State Assembly Health Committee yesterday and now awaits approval from the Appropriations Committee before a final floor vote.

The bizarre legislation is buried in bill S.B. 946 - which also deals with Medicare consultations, access to health care and HIV reporting.

A tiny paragraph in the bill reads: "A 'hot dog' means a whole, cured, cooked sausage that is skinless or stuffed in a casing, may be served on a bun or roll."

Let the word go forth, from this time and place, that never again will we doubt what constitutes a hot dog. 

To those enemies who seek to change the ingredients, we say that California has spoken. 

Now what is needed is the money to publish the definition.  Contributions may be sent.

July 7, 2011       Permalink

CALL PERRY MASON! – AT 9:02 A.M. ET:  You know, I don't know if I can stand the excitement.  With the Anthony trial finished in Florida, with the case against Dominque Strauss-Kahn collapsing in New York, can our delicate systems stand one more legal spectacular?  Brace yourselves:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran announced on Wednesday that it plans to try 26 US officials in absentia and file lawsuits against them at international bodies.

"Iran will certainly put the 26 US officials on trial in absentia and will pursue their cases at international circles," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Ali Aqazadeh told FNA.

"The Islamic Republic has earlier lodged complaints with international circles against the crimes committed by certain US officials in different countries, but today it has compiled a plan for sanctioning 26 US officials and will try these 26 criminals based on the plan," he added.

Aqazadeh lamented that while the 26 American officials have played direct roles in the US crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, they still continue their activities in different posts in the US very freely today.

Yeah, I'm sure it'll be a regular Nuremberg Tribunal.

Some of the 26 aren't all that well known to the public.  But the stars of the group are the usual suspects – Gen. David Petraeus, Gen. Stan McChrystal (name spelled wrong in the story), former FBI Director Louis Freeh (name spelled wrong, job listed wrongly as former CIA director), FBI Director Robert Mueller (name spelled wrong, incorrectly listed as former CIA director), General Tommy Franks, former Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (incorrectly named as former secretary of defense), former Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey (dates of his chief of staff position are incorrectly stated)...well, you get the picture.

We don't know when the trial of these officials will begin.

As to the person who researched and wrote the story, his trial should begin sometime later today, and we recommend the death sentence.

July 7, 2011       Permalink

JOBS ANYONE?  – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  The numbers go up a little, down a little, but they're still grim.  Anything over 400,000 is grim.   From Bloomberg:

Initial jobless claims in the U.S. fell to a level that shows the labor market will take time to heal.

Jobless claims fell by 14,000 to 418,000 in the week ended July 2, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 420,000. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls and those getting extended payments also declined.

Supply-chain disruptions from Japan’s March earthquake, European default concerns and gasoline prices that neared $4 a gallon prompted some companies in recent weeks to fire workers, further weighing on the consumer spending that makes up two thirds of the economy. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the Labor Department will report tomorrow that the unemployment rate in June held unchanged at 9.1 percent.

COMMENT:  Daniel Patrick Moynihan once penned an article in a scholarly magazine called "Defining Deviancy Down."  In it he argued that, after a time, people get used to low standards and deviant behavior.  A fear that we hear expressed in a number of places is that Americans will get used to this economy – high unemployment, declining manufacturing, other nations forging ahead.  A program to fight back starts at the top, and you see the kind of top we have in the White House right now.

July 7, 2011       Permalink

BRITS TAKE IT SERIOUSLY – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  A day after we learn of warnings that Al Qaeda may start surgically implanting bombs in its terrorist brigades, we hear of a new British device that may become critical in turning back the terror menace.  From Fox:

A sensor that can scan huge crowds and pick out a lone suicide bomber by homing in on hidden explosives has undergone official tests, The Sun reported Thursday.

The revolutionary gadget -- similar to airport scanners but top secret -- is believed to silently analyze materials using the unique "terahertz" waves emitted by different substances.

British government scientists began testing it a year ago on mock crowds where one person in every 75 carried a "Person-Borne Improvised Explosive Device."

Heavily-censored reports obtained by the newspaper in a freedom of information request reveal other trials saw the guinea pigs armed with "handguns and knives."

Real terrorists would have no idea they had been scanned from a distance -- and could be intercepted before causing mayhem.

The futuristic device -- officially known as a "stand-off imaging system" -- could be used to protect Al Qaeda targets such as rail stations, shopping malls and sporting events.

COMMENT:  Sounds great, if it works out.  And notice that the only information that a British newspaper could get on the gadget was "heavily censored."  Here, The New York Times revealed details of a secret, and effective, counterintelligence program, and nothing happened to The Times.  One thing about the Brits – most of them take security seriously, despite the presence of a large, left-wing fringe that doesn't. 

Now, of course, the self-appointed protectors of our privacy will have a fit over this technology, but, really, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place.  And carrying a bomb is not a private affair.

I hope the thing works, and that we use it.

July 7, 2011     Permalink

JULY 6,  2011

THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED – AT 9:52 P.M. ET:  If this story revolts you, it should.  Apparently our good buddy Moammar Khadafy was writing some checks sometime back, and letting a U.S. firm handle the details on how the money was spent.  This is not a pretty picture.  From the Boston Globe.  The "Cambridge" referred to is Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

WASHINGTON - Monitor Group, a Cambridge-based consulting firm, released new details yesterday of its payments to a raft of intellectuals and public figures who visited Libya between 2006 and 2008 during a stealth public-relations campaign to bolster the image of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy.

The documents, filed yesterday at the Foreign Agents Registration Unit, show that Harvard professor Joseph Nye, who took a four-day visit to Libya in 2007, was paid $27,500, while Francis Fukuyama, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, was paid $80,000 for two visits he took in 2006 and 2007.

A lot of cash just for saying hello.

Others were paid far more. British journalist David Frost, best known for his interviews of Richard Nixon, was paid $91,429 in connection with what appears to be a single visit to Libya. Benjamin Barber, who wrote a landmark book, “Strong Democracy,’’ and who served on the board of a nonprofit run by Khadafy’s son Saif, received just over $100,000 during those years. British sociologist Anthony Giddens, director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, was paid more than $67,000.

Many of the payments appear to relate to a highly-publicized debate on democracy between Giddens, Barber, and Khadafy hosted by Frost in Libya in 2007.

The documents, which represent the culmination of a three-month internal investigation by Monitor into its own activities in Libya, were filed retroactively to comply with a federal law that requires firms that lobby or do public-relations work on behalf of a foreign government to submit public disclosures. The firm, which ended its work in Libya in 2008, had said it will no longer take on public-relations work, which is outside of its core area of expertise.

I'm sure they were shocked, shocked, at what they found.  I love these organizations that investigate themselves, then go into high self-righteous mode.

Of course, the excuses are now being peddled:

Yesterday, Nye said he had no problem with the public disclosure that Monitor paid him his usual business consulting fee of $25,000 - plus $2,500 for late payment - but that he felt misled by the firm about its secret public-relations agenda.

“I was told my visit was to help promote reform,’’ Nye wrote in an e-mail to the Globe yesterday. “The documents I was shown in preparation for my trip were plans to reform the Libyan economic and political system.’’

That may well be true.  But common sense should have told any knowledgeable person what kind of government was operating in Libya.  A lot of bigwigs visited Nazi Germany in the 1930s and assured us they were there just to marvel at the technological development.

Monitor’s work in Libya has sparked soul-searching at Harvard about what standards its professors should meet in their outside work. The firm was founded by a group of people linked to Harvard, including Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter and Mark Fuller, who earned three degrees at Harvard and served as an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School and on Harvard’s major gifts steering committee.

There's a lot of soul-searching that should be going on in many universities about many things.  The list is too long for this entry.

July 6, 2011      Permalink

ON GUARD – AT 9:41 P.M. ET:   Of course, we must understand and respect their cultural traditions, like sewing bombs into themselves.  I mean, who are we to judge?  Why, it's the same as a tatoo, right?  From Fox:

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government has warned domestic and international airlines that some terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into humans to carry out attacks, The Associated Press has learned.
There is no intelligence pointing to a specific plot, but the U.S. shared its concerns last week with executives at domestic and international carriers.

People traveling to the U.S. from overseas may experience additional screening at airports because of the threat, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

"These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same activity at every international airport," TSA spokesman Nick Kimball said. "Measures may include interaction with passengers, in addition to the use of other screening methods such as pat-downs and the use of enhanced tools and technologies."

Placing explosives and explosive components inside humans to hide bombs and evade security measures is not a new idea. But there is new intelligence pointing to a fresh interest in using this tactic, a U.S. security official told the AP. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security information.

COMMENT:  What's also interesting here is the continued obsession of terrorist groups with airlines and transportation systems.  We should be concerned in this country, not only with airports, but with trains, buses and ferries.  We have been lucky so far.  Luck can never be 100%.

July 6, 2011       Permalink

ADMINISTRATION GENIUSES AT WORK – AT 10:59 A.M. ET:  From the Omaha World-Herald: 

WASHINGTON — A new, higher-ethanol blend of gasoline could be available soon at a gas station near you.

Before you hit that new E15 pump, consider this: Using the Midlands-made fuel could void your vehicle's warranty, according to letters from a dozen automakers that a Wisconsin congressman released Tuesday.

Ford, Toyota, Chrysler and others criticized the federal government's moves to allow the sale of the 15 percent ethanol blend and said warranties on the cars and trucks they produce might be voided if owners use it.

The administration might have checked on this before acting.  But who in Washington knows from this private-industry stuff?

Their letters came in response to inquiries from Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who is seeking to block the introduction of E15, which contains 50 percent more ethanol than the common E10 blend that consumers know.

The Environmental Protection Agency, under Clean Air Act waivers, has studied and approved E15 to be sold for use in cars and light trucks as old as model year 2001. The agency last week announced an orange and black label to be used at pumps that sell the 15 percent blends.

Probably took a year, and a team of outside consultants, to develop the orange and black label.

The automakers said the EPA proposal to allow the sale of E15 fuel could damage engines and fuel-supply systems in vehicles made to run on gasoline with a lower ethanol content.

Correct.  A Honda service expert told me that ethanol, even at the current level, is bad for cars.

“While Chrysler has been a strong advocate of renewable fuels, we have concerns about the potential harmful effects of E15 in engines and fuel systems that were not designed for use of that fuel,” Jody Trapasso, Chrysler's senior vice president of external affairs, wrote in a June 23 letter to Sensenbrenner, the vice chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Corn belt lawmakers have been key proponents in recent years of higher ethanol blends to help meet ambitious national targets for growth in use of the alternative fuels. Iowa and Nebraska are the country's two largest ethanol-producing states. 

COMMENT:  It's about money and politics.  Always is.  When the repair bills start coming in, Washington might condescend to notice.

July 6, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:37 A.M. ET: 

CHETUMAL, Mexico (AP) — Police say a woman was caught trying to sneak her common-law-husband out of a Mexican prison in a suitcase following a conjugal visit.  A spokesman for police in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo says staff at the prison in Chetumal noticed that the woman seemed nervous and was pulling a black, wheeled suitcase that looked bulky.  Spokesman Gerardo Campos said Monday that prison guards checked the bag of 19-year-old Maria del Mar Arjona and found inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina curled up inside in the fetal position.

Foolish move.  Didn't she realize the airlines charge extra when there's a husband in the bag? 

YOUR EDUCATION DOLLARS AT WORK – AT 9:45 A.M. ET:  As the cliché goes, you can't make this stuff up.  From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes.

Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.

Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.

Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.

Yeah, the agenda at work.  Ridicule anyone who asks questions.

For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim to Hall and the district, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal.

In the report, the governor’s special investigators describe an enterprise where unethical — and potentially illegal — behavior pierced every level of the bureaucracy, allowing district staff to reap praise and sometimes bonuses by misleading the children, parents and community they served.

The report accuses top district officials of wrongdoing that could lead to criminal charges in some cases.

The decision whether to prosecute lies with three district attorneys — in Fulton, DeKalb and Douglas counties — who will consider potential offenses in their jurisdictions.

Unleash the D.A.'s.

For teachers, a culture of fear ensured the deception would continue.

“APS is run like the mob,” one teacher told investigators, saying she cheated because she feared retaliation if she didn’t.

The voluminous report names 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating. More than 80 confessed. The investigators said they confirmed cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined.

COMMENT:  My gut feeling, based on other stories, is that this is far more widespread nationally than we'd like to believe. 

Question:  How angry will the public be?  Or will some parents stay silent, satisified that their own kids' scores were raised by compliant, corrupt "educators"?  I'm not at all confident of the answers.

July 6, 2011       Permalink

WASHINGTON'S ILLUSIONS – AT 8:54 A.M. ET:  Normally, when discussing our defense needs, we'd assume that those living in a world of illusions are on the leftist fringe of the Democratic Party.  Sadly, some Republicans have begun to drink the Kool-Aid.   We not only are fighting a war against terror, we're facing a rising, and disciplined military force in China.  Have a nice day.  From The Wall Street Journal:

In Washington the season of budget cuts is in full blossom. Unfortunately, leaders of both political parties may soon agree to further slash the defense budget. Yet this comes as the military is fighting an ongoing war against jihadi terrorists while also confronting a China that is using its growing military power more aggressively. The prescription should be more, not less, U.S. military power. It is easy to see how cuts will save today, but difficult to assess how much cuts will cost tomorrow. In Asia, the price will be unacceptably high.

China's military rise is changing the balance of power in its neighborhood. While Washington debates how to cut America's military, China continues to spend generously on defense. Last year, the Obama administration took the first steps in a $400 billion defense spending cut, ending several crucial programs. The White House has now asked for another $400 billion in cuts. China, meanwhile, has averaged 10% annual spending increases for more than 20 years. As former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown once said of the Soviets, "When we build, they build; when we cut, they build."

Beijing has the most ambitious missile program in the world—including an anti-ship ballistic missile that threatens U.S. aircraft carriers. China is also investing heavily in submarines and surface ships; stealthy fighter aircraft; and space and cyber-warfare capabilities. The equation budget cutters should ponder is that China's aggressive build-up plus American defense cuts equals Asian instability.

That instability could have far-reaching consequences. America's military has ensured peace and stability in the region, made the seas safe for trade and transit, provided Asians with the political space to prosper, and guaranteed that no hostile power would again use the Pacific as an avenue of approach for an attack on American soil.

COMMENT:  Well written and well argued.  It's been pointed out that America has cut its defense after every war in the 20th century, and in each case later regretted it.

One of the sillier arguments for cutting defense is that we can no longer "afford" our current level of defense spending.  That is nonsense.  It's like saying we can't afford a life-saving operation.  We find a way.  And, in fact, defense spending is one of the most effective economic stimulants that we have.  Had Obama devoted more of the so-called "stimulus" to defense spending, rather than to pet projects of well-connected Democrats, we could have created thousands of factory jobs, as assembly lines would start to hum, building equipment that the military needs. 

This country, above all others, learned the lesson of the 1930s.  Once the immediate demand for disarmament after World War II was out of our system, we started building again, formed NATO, and resisted Communist aggression in Korea.  Indeed, at one time the Democratic Party accused Republicans of not being zealous enough about defense...which tells you how far down the Democrats have come. 

But we're now forgetting those lessons, in part because they're no longer taught.  We won't pay the price, but our children will.

July 6, 2011       Permalink

DISSENT IN THE RANKS – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  We're hearing more and more rumblings from professional military people who are dismayed by President Obama's Afghanistan strategy.  Can this come back to haunt the president during the 2012 election campaign?  From the Washington Times:

Former battlefield commanders are warning that President Obama’s accelerated troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in time for the 2012 presidential election risks reversing major gains made against the Taliban.

“It is not only too fast a withdrawal, but too large,” said retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, who was a top adviser to Afghanistan commander Gen. David H. Petraeus and an architect of the successful 2007 troop-reinforcement in Iraq.

Keane is a solid guy, and should be heard.

“Fundamentally, we will be asking the troops to do more with less, which, unfortunately, means an increase in casualties,” he told The Washington Times.

Mr. Obama last month ordered the Pentagon to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and an additional 23,000 by next summer. That will leave about 70,000 U.S. troops in the country.

The president ordered a surge of about 30,000 troops in December 2009 to increase the fight against a resurgent Taliban force.

Rep. Allen B. West, Florida Republican and a retired Army combat officer, complained that Mr. Obama has ordered the troop withdrawal without linking it to conditions on the ground.

“The president just put some type of timeline on there that was not conditions-based,” said Mr. West, who held the rank of lieutenant colonel and served in Iraq.

“You have to have conditions-based operations, which dictate how you transition from phase to phase. There is no strategy which the president brought forth.”

Obama has never had a strategy for victory in Afghanistan.  He's never even used the word.

He added that the Taliban, which imposed a brutal Islamist rule on Afghanistan and sheltered Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, already is trying to take political advantage of Mr. Obama’s withdrawal schedule. He said some tribal leaders in areas threatened by the Taliban are beginning to worry that the United States will abandon them.

Why shouldn't they worry?  There's a big chunk of elite opinion in America that doesn't care about abandoning friends and allies.  We abandoned the Vietnamese in 1975 by cutting off aid to the very people who'd been fighting with us, side by side.  President Ford called it an act of dishonor, and it was. 

There were plenty of people in Washington who wanted to abandon the Iraqis, but President Bush, a better man than Obama, made a politically courageous decision to enact the surge, which worked.  There are no guarantees in Iraq, but at least Bush's policy avoided a catastrophe.

I claim no expertise about Afghanistan.  There are readers who know far more than I do.  I am concerned, though, about a consistent image of weakness and retreat created by this administration.  Put yourself in the position of an enemy looking at this.  What would you do to take advantage of it?  I'm afraid we'll find out in Afghanistan.

July 6, 2011     Permalink