Sabinal Blue

Visiting The Thoughts Of Yet One More Person

Meanderings of an introverted dancer - a public school teacher with thoughts on music, politics, and life in the hills.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Still Proud

I'm still proud of congress. I checked & my local congressman (Ciro Rodriguez) voted against the bail-out, so I'm happy with him to.

But there's lots of pressure on him to turn away from the wishes of his constituents. The newest game in town is to go the other way - through the richer Senators first, and then try to shove it down the throats of the congressfolks. Lets hope the pressure stays hot from the people. After all, there's an election in a few weeks.

The newest gambit: "One of those new clauses will raise the government's guarantee on savings from $100,000 to $250,000. "

LOL!!! If the government cannot afford to pay out the $100,000 guarantees on all the banks that close down, what makes them think we believe they can pay out $250,000 in the same situation. They really do think we are stupid.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Okay, I apologize. Just heard some speeches by Republicans. Apparently they are not against the bill. In fact, they are all for it. They simply voted no because of something Nancy Pelosi, who was for it, said. I dunno what she said to anger so many people, but whatever. Cool with me as long as people continue to keep their hands outta my pocket to make the fat cats even fatter.

The system works

Alright! I know it wasn't my letter, but I'm glad to know that congress was thinking along the same lines as me. Congress votes down bail-out plan. It's both surprising and gratifying that 65% of Republicans, usually known as the big business party, voted against it. Boo boo boo!!! To democrats who voted for the lobbyists over the American people. We often hear the democrats are for us and the Republicans for Big Business. Todays vote proved just the opposite. Weird, but true.

I'm really proud that my congress is awake, and I'm really sad that the two presidential hopefuls were asleep on this one. Does not bode well for the next 8 years to know that people as dumb as Bush are running. Except for the fact that checks and balances WORKS!!! I'm excited.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

110 pages - I read them, did you?

The most important question is - is my family a financial institution? We do, after all, sell our services for cash and use that cash to make investments in food, gas and housing. Occasionally a pair of shoes are nice too, and some clothing so we can continue to appear in public so we can continue to sell our services. Anyway, the food sometimes can't be bought because we have to purchase enough gasoline to make it to the e=areas where our services are needed. I think that qualifies my family as a financial institution. Therefore, I want my portion of the TARP funds. I'm not greedy, either. I simply want the portion you expect my family to pay for. As I read this you are asking my family to pay for approx $350,000 of this bail-out for the rich. That's way more than the retirement plan that Nancy Pelosi said she's protecting. Oh yes, I know - you're not asking me to pay off the debt you are placing my family into right away - you plan for us to pay it all back, with interest, so our total payment in 30 years will actually amount to $2,346,786.37. Yeas, I got it, I understand. Interest. Of course. Of course, we should pay the interest, not the rich people you're giving my money to this year. Gotcha. I still think if you simply give us the $350,000 that we can figure out how to survive when those rich folks go bankrupt. You know they'll survive with the funds they have socked away off-shore. Plus, as I understand the bail-out plan, the bail out is not restricted to US companies. You're more than happy to bail out foreign-based companies also. Fine. Do what you want. Just give me my share first and let me decide which one I think needs to be bailed out. I'm sure these guys have no intention of giving it back to us anyway. Be serious - when is the last time a company allowed a worker to stay around in the company long enough to actually retire. Hasn't happened in many years - so you can't fool me by saying you're protecting my pension plan. You know and I know everyone gets downsized at least a year or two before retirement. Yeah, yeah. Give me my family's share and I won't tell anyone else to look at the fine print. I want my TARP. Give me my TARP. I know you want me to stop saying TARP. If I say TARP enough this will pop up on the top of the search engines. In the next few days even though no one will read your 110 pages, the newscasters will say the word TARP, and people will be googling TARP. I hope members of congress will google TARP and read this, because I know they won't have time to read 110 pages before you force them to vote on this TARP stuff. HA! I just figured out why you used a common word like TARP. You think we'll all think we're some sorta ground cover that we can use as a TARP when we lose our houses and have to sleep under the stars. Well, last I thought, which musta been a few years ago, I realized you couldn't legislate away our stars. I know you guys in "elected" government all have great plans to not lose your homes - but I've also seen how many of you have gone to jail the past few years. Lets hope there's at least one honest FBI gent who reads section 127. Much as I think most of our government is corrupt, I still have faith that there's a few good guys out there willing to put you all in jail for pocketing TARP funds, or making sure your relatives and college roommates all get TARP funds. Gotta good feeling my family won't be considered a financial institution, even though we'll be the ones paying for your bailout plan. We're already paying your salary, and your staff's salary. Oh, yeah, you forgot that, didn't you? Those guys in the corporations you're helping buy you fancy things and give you rides in their fancy jets, but they do not pay your salary, your health care, your staff, your secret service agents, all of their dental and eye care plans. I pay that for you. Yep. Regular citizens like me pay for all the necessities, plus a few goodies. All the things the corporations give you, well, that's called personal greed. You don't need it, you just crave it because it's "free". Well, someday we might decide to stop paying your salary. I'm sure you'll survive. You can become a consultant at $10,000 per speech. You can talk about how the citizens finally got angry because you stole their future in order to make some rich people even richer. TARP TARP TARP. I know some of you think this is going on way too long. My point exactly. If you can't bear to read this little bit, do you think you're going to give honest thought to 110 pages? Vote no! I wonder how many of you will take the time to even click on the link to learn more about TARP?

Koreans

During the Presidential debate one of the freaks said that the North Koreans were shorter than the South Koreans. They made it sound like that was a bad thing. Is it really? If anyone knows, please let me know.

Also, since I'm shorter than the North Koreans, does that inherently make me bad, too?

Full text of debate

Meanderings

It's a weird race. This time we do not have the "lesser of two evils". Both guys seem like decent folks, still married to the elite cause; but that's nothing new.

As usual, I'm voting a 3rd party. In our country if no one votes for them then they will not be included on the next ballot.

I listened to the debate twice. Note I said "listened". I did not see it. Both men said that they wanted to end the war in Iraq. Both men said they wanted to expand the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both men said Russia was horrible for protecting their allies against Georgian aggression. Both men said it was wrong of Iran to desire clean, cheap nuclear in it's country.

Both men said they supported the bail out of corporations by the corporations. They both have no problem making the rich richer. Both claim they will not rise taxes on the middle class.

That's the only difference I heard. Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich, and McCain doesn't. Obama forgets the simple fact that the rich live off the slave labor of the citizens that will be voting for him. When he raises their taxes, they simply raise their prices and citizens, instead of paying higher taxes, pay higher prices for goods sold. And since everyone gets a cut up and down the system, the prices go higher faster than the taxes would have. No matter. The rich will stay rich no matter what. If they make a mistake and lose some money, both candidates are willing to bail them out.

I do not think either of these men believe they are corrupt. They are both spouting exactly the same rhetoric. They probably aren't any more corrupt than the system is, and the system is totally corrupt. I see it in my little corner of the world because, like it or not, being a teacher means I am working for the government. I see the corruption, even at my level. No teacher would say that testing kids 3 1/2 months a year is good education policy. Yet we do it "for the funding." No one wants to buck the "system". Everyone I talk to agrees it is corrupt, yet we're all at a loss at what to do because even the candidates have exactly the same platform to keep the corruption going forward into the future.

But we survive. And even smile a few times a day. I did like the line that McCain threw out. "We went to Washington to change the system, and it changed us." At least he recognizes the problem. But there's no answer to how to solve it. Once people are being paid to look past their morals, there's no looking back.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Just Peek and Think It Over

Cynthia McKinney's blog for today (Green Party Candidate)

Also, in the spirit of democracy, we should see all these folks at tomorrow's debate:

Green Party/Cynthia McKinney
Republican Party/John McCain
Democratic Party/Barack Obama
Socialist/Brian Moore
Independent/Ralph Nader
Libertarian/Bob Barr
Prohibition/Gene Amondson
Independent/Alan Keyes
Constitution/Chuck Baldwin
Socialist /RĂ³ger Calero
Boston Tea/Charles Jay
Socialism Liberation/Gloria La Riva
New American Ind/Frank McEnulty
LA Taxpayers Party/Ron Paul
Reform Party/Ted Weill

I never heard of the Boston Tea Party as a political party before, but it's got a groove to it's name. I'm also going to look up the Prohibition Party - have no idea what they want to prohibit. Hopefully politicians. Actually, I plan on looking them all up. I did like Cynthia's essay today. Not real clear on whether or not she wants to join the rest of Washington DC and bail out the rich, but at least she'd make demands on them and jail the criminals who are running those companies before giving the bail-out.

The Rich Are Richer, And We Owe More Taxes

Well, since the prez & both candidates are saying that we are no longer a capitalist society, but an elitist state-run beaurocracy that has its eyes only on the rich there's no more choices for citizens except third parties.

I am really sad that neither candidate is stepping forward to say NO, THIS IS WRONG. In a capitalist society the rich people who make mistakes go down. That's it, life happens. But, we are proving once again that this is not truly a capitalist society, just like it is not truly a democracy.

And life goes on. It does make it hard to face the little children who already owe the government $100,000 when they're in second grade just so people who are already rich can stay rich. And who knows how much each and every citizen will owe the government by the time they graduate high school? I know that they are being set up by our government to forever be enslaved to the rich, and I am being forced to teach them every single day that there is "liberty and justice for all." Yeah, right.

The sad thing is I still want to believe in the dream, even though it's becoming abundantly obvious that it was always simply a dream. I will die knowing that I could do nothing as a fellow citizen of this country to stop the constant sucking of the blood of my grandchildren by the corporations who truly own Obama, McCain, Bush, and the rest of the wimpy politicians who refuse to simply allow the deadbeat rich to go ahead and fold up.

What is the worst that could happen? The rich would stop raping us for mortgages and insurance that they have no intention of honoring. The huge Time-Life-Warner-AOL-Walmart collective would die out and mom & pop stores could return. Small business would flourish again. And that's exactly what the rich fear - the middle class. They don't fear workers. But they have extreme fears of people who can make daily decisions on how to run their own business. The scary folk whom they have systematically made disappear.

Life will go on. And someday one child will become man enough to stand up and JUST SAY NO to the rich. And then we'll have another martyr to celebrate every year in school.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Kinks

Doesn't matter who you are
You're there and there you are
Everything is in its place
Authority must be maintained
And then we know exactly where we are
Let them feel that they're important to the cause
But let them know that they are fighting for their homes
Just be sure that they're contributing their all
Give the scum a gun and make the bugger fight
And be sure to have deserters shot on sight
If he dies we'll send a medal to his wife

Ray Davies

Pete

"I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it. But if by some freak of history communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail." -Pete Seeger

Nobel Prize For Pete Seeger Petition

Friday, September 12, 2008

I threw my ticket in the trash

I thought I had a great ticket in Palin-Obama. But, as always I've learned politicians sound better when they don't say anything.

Today I heard her praising a bunch of 18 year old National Guardsmaen, who are sworn to protect our country, for choosing to go to Iraq to kill "the enemy that killed our citizens". I hate when politicians play this mind-game. It's long been proven the Iraquis had nothing to do with 9-11 (she gave the speech yesterday, on the anniversary of 9-11). It was, in fact, allies of ours that planned and carried out the attack (Saudi Arabia).

If we assume she's innocent of knowing these truths, which could very well be; that simply means she is not ready to lead. If, in fact, she simply lied, then again, she is not fit to lead. So, feel free to laugh at my earlier naivete - I feel foolish.

The funniest part is she was talking to a bunch of young men, including apparently her son, who were 11 years old when the attack took place. She has no qualms of sending them, including her son, to death - not to protect our country; but the 'interests' of a few rich people in our country. Shallow.

I heard one commenter suggest that perhaps she wasn't talking about the 9-11 attacks. Perhaps she was talking abut the Iraqui "insurgents" who have killed our troops since we invaded their country. No matter. I only need remind those 'give her a chance' folks that the British called the American revolutionary army "insurgents". On our side of history we call them Patriots. And you and I both know that once the Iraquis finally get us off their soil, they will be holding up their patriots as brave fighters who dies for their country and beat the oil-seeking Americans off their homeland. We all know that no matter how this war "ends", that we will always be seen by the world community as the invaders of a country who had not done one thing to the Sovereign nation of America except refuse to allow our spies in their land. That was the only thing they did against "US".

Sounds like several other countries who are expelling the CIA from their soil in recent days don't believe we'll attack them. Time will tell. We need the CIA to protect the profits of the few - if they're not allowed, then watch the military take the next step. Fascinating how this keeps on happening over and over. "Where have all the flowers gone?"

Bye Ms Palin - it was nice thinking that you had some independence from the machine there for awhile. But I'm learning that I haven't learned either. Truth is no one can get where you are now without being an integral part of the machine. I was just hoping that "A change was (finally) gonna come." I know, the answer is always the same. "There'll be pie in the sky when we die." I can dream, can't I?

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Goin' Green

I'm siding with my daughter this year. Green party all the way. Unless Palin goes independent and takes Obama as a running mate in the next few weeks, I am definitely in the Green camp.

Glad that decision is made. On to getting back in the trenches and having a great school year.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Teacher Talk

This is a private conversation, but it was real and so vividly represents the state of education today - test dependence.

Somehow or another a teacher managed to get a day ahead in her lessons. The kids are actually great - doing excellent, and trying their best to please. Monday is the first day of TPRI, a federally mandated test. It goes on all week, and sets the bar for what the kids are learning this year. Supposedly. If that were true, of course, then it wouldn't be controversial.

She said, "maybe I should give the test Friday, since I'm a day ahead. Then next week one day would could do something fun." As soon as she said it she realized and verbalized the fact that someone would get "in trouble" because every child has to take the test on Monday. Federal policy. Gotta do it their way or risk being fired.

So, I suggested, in passing, why not play some spelling games with the words they learned last year. We know the 20 words we cannot use (they're the test words); but it wouldn't hurt to remind them of similar words they learned last year.

She said, without skipping a beat, "Richard, we do not want the kids to do well on this test. We want them to do well on the test at the end of the year. We need to show growth or we will not have jobs." And, of course, she's 100% correct. that's the way the NCLB is written. We are not supposed to teach the children and push them to their best, we are to purposely dumb down our curriculum so we can continue to show growth.

Now, this is not a slumming teacher. She is a great teacher, a 20 year veteran, but one who knows the political realities we have to face to keep our jobs. I have high respect for her skills, and would be extra pleased to have my children attend her class if they were that age. Even though she will keep them from passing this test on Monday to make her score appear "super" at the end of the year, that does not make her a bad teacher or a bad person. Just a politically savvy one. She will teach the kids many many other things, none of which will ever be tested, simply because she's that kind of teacher.

But my heart makes me ponder - what if there were no politics in our schools? What if we simply let all children pass that silly test simply by reminding them of what they already know? How much further can we take them than the state wants? Our kids would be able to reach for the stars! Think for themselves. Read, write, and do arithmetic like children always have.

Oops sorry, another mandated test is coming up. A full week at the beginning of the year. A full week with no teaching, just testing. A full week that we purposely want the children to not do well at so we can show "growth". Oh, me of my, the realities of this profession could lead one to deep depression, except for the fact that kids are resilient and will grow despite our governments best efforts to keep them from reaching their highest potential. The children wil learn despite us, and that's why I love working with them.

The Good News Is Bad

The bad news is all my gushing yesterday about a stray report in an educational magazine was for naught. Apparently the pressures on real fast to get both parties in line with those making lots of $$$ from NCLB:

GOP Moderate Expects McCain to Back NCLB
castle.jpg

Rep. Michael N. Castle, a key moderate member of the House education committee, says that President Bush dropped the ball on education policy after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. But he expects that either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama will support retaining the federal law's commitment to accountability if elected president.

"I believe very strongly we need a president of the United States who is focused on education," Rep. Castle, a Delaware Republican, said Tuesday at an education forum in Minneapolis. "I do not believe we've had that president of late."


So, again, it doesn't matter which party. They're both in it for the rich to get richer. Anyone want to guess why the two largest textbook companies merged into a super-mega text book company? (Houghton Miflin & Harcourt). Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Reading first flat out told school districts to use them or not accept federal money? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the guy in charge of Reading first worked for these textbook companies? No one of either party would listen when we were screaming out against monopolizing our children's by a single entity? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the children we taught to think in the 70's and 80's were refusing to join the military because they were able to analyze for themselves that the military was no longer protecting our country but a few key American corporations? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the military needs to dumb down our citizenry so they will join whatever war machine necessary to protect the financial interests of the few?

I had the privilege of hearing the speeches from the democratic convention all via podcast & was uplifted by the rhetoric - they truly pretend very well to be concerned about the interests of common people. Hillary's speech was especially stirring, though Barack got a few good ones in about his grandmother, etc. In the end it rings empty because their speeches are not reinforced by the platform they adopted. The platform is easily available as a pdf file from the dnc website.

anyway, I had one good day of gushing - I shoulda known better, but it felt good to feel good for awhile.

The website for the complete text of the quote I borrowed is: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2008/09/gop_moderate.html - There's a picture of Michael N. Castle smiling as he says the things he says in honor of the people finacing his speech. As always - follow the money. Sad.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

An interesting day.

Won't take long for people to now me before they think I'm a die-hard social democrat. And, for the most part that's true.

One of my main button issues is education, mostly because of my job and my care for the kids I teach. So I was very disappointed to read in the democratic platform that they plan not only to keep NCLB, but to "completely fund it" (which is impossible). There's only one good thing in the entire NCLB act, and that's the requirement for teachers to know the subject they're teaching. That only makes sense. Although, I have to admit that one of my favorite teaching positions was one year when I was required to teach math and science (6th grade), and I knew next to nothing about either. I worked my butt off that year, staying excited every day because everything I was learning was new to me, thus fresh for the kids. But it's not something that I'd recommend. When I protested the priciple simply said "you're a great teacher, and I know you'll be great at this." That's called faith. It worked, but I can see why it's important for teachers to know their subject, so that's the only part of NCLB act that makes sense. The downfall to that, however, is that people who major in science and math are NOT going to be teachers - teaching pays approx 1/4 of what they will get in what we call "real life", so it's tough to find people willing to sacrifice their future for the future of children. Not impossible, just tough. As usual, I've igressed.

Okay, back to where I was. The democratic position bothered me. Then, today, in an education on-line magazine they announced the republicans are thinking of scrapping NCLB altogether! Wow! Someone is actually listening to all the teachers and parents in our country??? And it's the republicans??? Is that weird or what??? I'm still high on McCain's choice for VP, and this news makes me think even more about voting for a party that truly cares about what real people are saying. You can't find very many parents or teachers supporting NCLB - mostly because of it's emphasis on a single test. And, say what they want, I know for a fact we are being told to teach to the test. Teachers are forced to pour over "released tests" and word their tests exactly like the state tests, etc etc etc. We are told which topics are most likely to come up, and we have to teach those topics over and over. The "released tests" over the past few years give everyone a good idea of what will be on next years test. Which explains why test scores are rising back to where they were before NCLB went into effect.

Enough enough enough. I know I sound like a broken record. I'm simply surprised because of all the money being made from the testing that the Republicans would be the party that scraps it. I'm in shock & awe right now. Of course, the article did say they were considering it. I'll make a stand and say if they promise to do that that I will be happy to switch parties. I'll place my loyalty to any party wiling to listen to the majority of Americans, and not the minority of moneyed people.

The articles against the new VP are popping out:

_With the convention still abuzz, the list of potentially embarrassing details grew Tuesday

LOL!!! Did we expect anything less than negative from the press?

_Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

LOL!!! Get this straight - she was hired as mayor of a city by citizens who wanted her to bring $$$ to her district, and by the people of the state to do the same thing. We don't elect Governors who say "no more job growth for our state!" So, she's being criticized for doing her job well. Well, that's normal, I guess. No one gets criticized for starting illegal wars anymore.

_Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting secession from the United States.

LOL!!! I support succession from the United States myself. It's legal for Texas to do that, by the way. They're just too stupid to actually do it. It seems smarter to them to send money to Washington and then beg to get it back. The real point is - who cares what her husband wanted to do? He's no going to be VP, she is.

_A private attorney has been authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.

LOL!!! Having been falsely accused of stuff myself, that only makes sense. Lawyers, for whatever reason, do not come cheap. And you KNOW someone is going to accuse her of something. Life is funny that way when you're in the public eye. So, she's being ridiculed for being smart.

_She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.

LOL!!! Catch 22. She's being ridiculed for telling the truth! If she had of said she never smoked, everyone would know she was a liar. She's 44. Of course she has. Anyone who says they haven't over the age of 16 is a liar. That's a given. She knows we know that, so she told the truth. Caught either way. Sad. Let the past lie in the past. It's good to know she's human.

I decided I know why I like her. She reminds me of some of my very opinionated neighbors. I always wish they would run, but here in Texas it's not normal for women in the country to run for office. Some big cities are more liberal in that regard, but let's face it folks, they don't even sell beer to women in this part of Texas, so things are moving real slow up here. The only thing that's changed in the past 50 years is the gas prices and property taxes.