The Democrat Thread

[southsider2k5]

So they finally replaced Jesse Jr.

 

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/illinoi...d324bc854f.html

 

According to WBBM, she took part in two votes, though afterwards she couldn't remember what they were about, or how she voted.

[StrangeSox]

BENGHAZI

 

A WORSE COVER UP THAN WATERGATE?

 

NAVY SEALS LEFT TO DIE?!

 

DID OBAMA ABANDON AMERICANS IN BENGHAZI?

 

lol at these ads

 

 

[StrangeSox]

Tried making the same point about the guy who stabbed all those kids in China on the same day of the Sandy Hook tragedy. None of those kids died and all of them made full recovery. They'll hear what they want to hear though. If I never hear another stupid gun rant on Facebook it'll be too soon. You can't talk to these people - "I know banning guns is unconstitutional, but we need to expand background checks and look into straw purchase reform because the laws aren't working and easy to circumvent" reads to them as "I want Obama to confiscate everyone's guns, and use those guns to force people to allow atheists to teach kids how to have gay sex in public schools, and teach girls how to perform do-it-yourself abortions at home."

I advocate the latter policy though

[mr_genius]

So they finally replaced Jesse Jr.

 

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/illinoi...d324bc854f.html

 

According to WBBM, she took part in two votes, though afterwards she couldn't remember what they were about, or how she voted.

 

sounds like the perfect replacement for jr

[bmags]

Great piece on WBEZ today on Emmanuel's proposed "mandatory minimums" for carrying an unauthorized weapon. Rec to listen:

http://www.wbez.org/news/emanuel-pushes-ma...ffective-106621

[StrangeSox]

Agreed, good listen. Thanks for the recommendation.

[StrangeSox]

Memo warns of rampant cheating in D.C. Public Schools

 

If it wasn't already clear that Rhee and the whole "school privatization reform" movement behind her were frauds, here's some more evidence. Their means and methods don't actually improve education, don't make for better teachers, and don't make for better schools, but they make for great profits!

[StrangeSox]

This is not a joke, this is a legitimate Republican politician's campaign sticker:

 

[southsider2k5]

Memo warns of rampant cheating in D.C. Public Schools

 

If it wasn't already clear that Rhee and the whole "school privatization reform" movement behind her were frauds, here's some more evidence. Their means and methods don't actually improve education, don't make for better teachers, and don't make for better schools, but they make for great profits!

 

If cheating signifies that a system isn't working, you have a ton of articles on cheating by regular schools to improve scores on standardized testing articles to post.

[lostfan]

Great! Let's s***can this standardized testing system garbage we've been using for 12 years and start actually teaching them, not trying to make them into mindless hive drones.

[StrangeSox]

If cheating signifies that a system isn't working, you have a ton of articles on cheating by regular schools to improve scores on standardized testing articles to post.

Absolutely. But that's part of the same privatization push and overall terrible School Reform movement. The testing data is used to push for more privatization and to weaken public schools, plus the tests are usually developed and sold by private companies.

[StrangeSox]

republican texas railroad commissions tweeted this lovely image:

 

 

Just the idea that we would even allow our legislative bodies to debate any form of gun control legislation is now TREASON

[Jenksismyhero]

republican texas railroad commissions tweeted this lovely image:

 

 

Just the idea that we would even allow our legislative bodies to debate any form of gun control legislation is now TREASON

 

I like it. Straight and to the point.

[lostfan]

Please show me where the "no background checks" clause is in the Constitution? Someone? Anyone?

 

I wish stupidity was physically painful.

[StrangeSox]

They didn't even vote in favor of a bill, they were just voting to stop someone from invoking an arcane parliamentary procedural roadblock to allow debate on a bill. legislative debate is TREASON!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Also another good time to say "f*** you, Harry Reid" for not actually doing something to reform the filibuster.

 

 

 

 

[StrangeSox]

Please show me where the "no background checks" clause is in the Constitution? Someone? Anyone?

 

I wish stupidity was physically painful.

 

But it could conceivably lead to a national registry some day maybe! And those would be clearly unconstitutional, just like we don't have voter registries for an even more important right!

[lostfan]

This is not a joke, this is a legitimate Republican politician's campaign sticker:

 

This is the kind of thing you say when you troll conservative Facebook pages to see what kind of stupid people are going to agree with you and see how far you can go with it before they realize you're mocking them.

[StrangeSox]

This is the kind of thing you say when you troll conservative Facebook pages to see what kind of stupid people are going to agree with you and see how far you can go with it before they realize you're mocking them.

Seriously couldn't believe it was legit, had to make sure it wasn't that fake Rep. account.

[lostfan]

But it could conceivably lead to a national registry some day maybe! And those would be clearly unconstitutional, just like we don't have voter registries for an even more important right!

The government doesn't need a f***ing database to do that, Mr. NRA Lifetime Member Bumper Sticker Guy and Mr. Amazon Purchase History Full of Gun Books Person or Mr. Buys a Metric f***ton of Gun Accessories on eBay Dude. It's 2013, do they really think they are that hard to identify?

[StrangeSox]

NHL, players join with You Can Play to fight homophobia in hockey

[southsider2k5]

Absolutely. But that's part of the same privatization push and overall terrible School Reform movement. The testing data is used to push for more privatization and to weaken public schools, plus the tests are usually developed and sold by private companies.

 

And it is a way of totally avoiding any sort of responsibility and/or reform of the public schools.

[StrangeSox]

And it is a way of totally avoiding any sort of responsibility and/or reform of the public schools.

The privatization testing regime? Or the rejection of it? I'm not sure what you're referring to here.

[lostfan]

The privatization testing regime? Or the rejection of it? I'm not sure what you're referring to here.

Me either, the context of that could either be agreeing or disagreeing

[StrangeSox]

Some follow-up thoughts on the cheating/reform scandals:

 

Yglesias:

 

But while I have no problem with the idea that there should be consequences for Beverly Hall or Michelle Rhee or any other school chancellor who presides over cheating, I’m genuinely puzzled by what anti-reform people think these cheating scandals prove.

 

Well, first of all, the Rhee scandal seems directly relevant to the claims of the “reform” movement given that the alleged gains in student achievement under her tenure were often cited in defense of “reform,” and Rhee herself remains a highly influential figure in “reform” circles. The fact that the alleged gains in achievement under her tenure were almost certainly the product of cheating seems highly relevant to whether her “reforms” are effective to me.

 

This also seems like missing the point:

 

Now if you wanted to say that these cheating scandals prove that we’re never going to come up with a workable control system for organizations as large as big city public school systems and so we need to move to an all-charter system, I’d say that’s an idea I’m sympathetic to.

 

Although perhaps some people have made this argument, I don’t think it’s the central issue. Since it’s possible for national tests to have high degree of integrity, I’m not sure why it’s impossible for local ones to. The point of the Rhee scandal is that the lack of testing oversight wasn’t just incidental incompetence. Rhee 1)used high-stakes tests as the sole criteria for bonuses for ongoing employment for many teachers and administrators, and perhaps even more importantly 2)rather than using high-stakes testing to measure progress towards incremental improvements over time used them to demand ludicrously implausible immediate improvements in student performance. So of course there was going to be widespread cheating. Not only did educators and administrators need it to save their jobs, Rhee needed the cheating because without it she couldn’t have claimed the phony massive immediate improvements that made her a star.

 

There’s no reason that it’s impossible to have fair, well-monitored testing in a large school system. There is good reason to doubt whether extremely high-stakes tests will be applied with integrity, but since Rheeism is largely based on extremely high-stakes tests meant to show flashy immediate gains in some cases and results that can justify mass firings in other cases, this seems relevant to whether Rheeism is a good idea.

 

And finally, a classic fallacy of the excluded middle:

 

What about the fact that some people respond to performance-based systems by cheating should make me think that pure seniority systems are good?

 

I concede the point: the Rhee cheating scandal cannot prove that there should be no attempt at all to evaluate the performance of teachers beyond showing that they’re competent enough to get tenure. What I do certainly dispute is whether the only alternatives are “evaluating teachers using high-stakes testing as the sole criterion” or using a “pure seniority system.” Using standardized testing as part of a fair, well-constructed comprehensive system of evaluating teachers is a perfectly good idea. But that’s not what Rhee-style “reform” generally consists of.

 

This is pretty much where I stand as well.

[Jake]

I don't love standardized testing, but I absolutely desire some uniform measures to evaluate schools. We can't decide whether a school is in need of reform, attention, whatever, when we're just going by feel or extremely subjective and variable grades. I'm always sympathetic to the idea that we could end or reduce the power given to standardized testing, but I've never heard of a good alternative with which we can evaluate schools.

 

EDIT: SS's quoted post seems fairly reasonable.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Jake