Undernews For July 11, 2010

Undernews For July 11, 2010

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THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACCOUNTING SCAM

BOOKSHELF: MARK TWAIN IS BACK

ISRAELI ACADEMICS IN BOYCOTT ROW

JUDGE SLAMS RIAA, REDUCING DOWNLOADING FINE BY 90%

AMERICA 2.0: LEAVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT ALONE

RACE TO THE BOTTOM: AMERICA'S GREAT UNDERACHIEVERS

MCCRYSTAL’S DIRTY PAST

THE IDEA MILL: COMMUNITY ENDOWMENTS

TONY BLAIR'S OWN CABINET WARNED HIM ABOUT IRAQ

LAST DAYS OF JAZZ?

PLANNED NEW NUCLEAR PLANTS WOULD BE BUILT WITH FOREIGN WORKERS

AMERICA 2.0: INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING & PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACCOUNTING SCAM

Allen W. Smith, News Chief, FL - In December, the Obama deficit-reduction commission will make recommendations for budget cuts that will then be voted on, with an up or down vote, by the lame-duck Congress.

Already, there is much speculation that Social Security will be one of the big targets. The rationale for cutting Social Security seems to be that, during such difficult economic times, everything should be a candidate for the chopping block, and that the public should support such cuts out of a sense of patriotism.

The flaw in this argument is that Social Security has not contributed a dime to the budget deficits or the soaring national debt. Social Security is funded exclusively by payroll taxes (also known as FICA taxes), paid into the fund by working Americans. . .

During the past 25 years, five presidents, and the members of Congress, have participated in the great Social Security scam. All Social Security contributions made by working Americans, except the amount which was needed to pay current retirement benefits, has been funneled into the general fund and used for non-Social Security purposes.

Some like to say that the government just "borrowed" the money during the time period when it was not needed to pay benefits. But borrowing implies repayment, and no provisions for repayment have been made.

The government did not enact future tax increases that would automatically kick in when the Social Security money was needed. Neither did they enact legislation that would end other spending programs once the Social Security money was needed so the money could be transferred to the trust fund.

The government spent the Social Security money, pure and simple, without making any provisions for future repayments. The IOUs in the trust fund are not marketable, and they could not be sold to anyone even for a penny on the dollar. . . . MORE

BOOKSHELF: MARK TWAIN IS BACK

Larry Rochter, NY Times - Wry and cranky, droll and cantankerous - that's the Mark Twain we think we know, thanks to reading "Huck Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" in high school. But in his unexpurgated autobiography, whose first volume is about to be published a century after his death, a very different Twain emerges, more pointedly political and willing to play the role of the angry prophet. . .

Some of Twain's most critical remarks about individuals are directed at names that have faded from history. He complains about his lawyer, his publisher, the inventor of a failed typesetting machine who he feels fleeced him, and is especially hard on a countess who owns the villa in which he lived with his family in Florence, Italy, in 1904. He describes her as "excitable, malicious, malignant, vengeful, unforgiving, selfish, stingy, avaricious, coarse, vulgar, profane, obscene, a furious blusterer on the outside and at heart a coward."

About literary figures of his time, however, Twain has relatively little to say. He dislikes Bret Harte, whom he dismisses as "always bright but never brilliant"; offers a sad portrait of an aged and infirm Harriet Beecher Stowe; and lavishly praises his friend William Dean Howells. He reserved criticism of novelists whose work he disliked (Henry James, George Eliot) for his letters.

Critics, though, are another story. "I believe that the trade of critic, in literature, music, and the drama, is the most degraded of all trades, and that it has no real value," Twain writes. "However, let it go," he adds. "It is the will of God that we must have critics, and missionaries, and Congressmen, and humorists, and we must bear the burden."

As aggrieved as he sometimes appears in the autobiography, the reliable funnyman is in evidence too. Twain recalls being invited to an official White House dinner and being warned by his wife, Olivia, who stayed at home, not to wear his winter galoshes. At the White House, he sought out the first lady, Frances Cleveland, and got her to sign a card on which was written "He didn't."

Mr. Hirst said: "I've read this manuscript a million times, and it still makes me laugh. This is a guy who made literature out of talk, and the autobiography is the culmination, the pinnacle of that impulse."

ISRAELI ACADEMICS IN BOYCOTT ROW

Guardian, UK - An academic backlash has erupted in Israel over proposed new laws, backed by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, to criminalise a handful of Israeli professors who openly support a campaign against the continuing occupation of the West Bank.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel has gained rapid international support since Israeli troops stormed a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships in May, killing nine activists. Israeli attention has focused on the small number of activists, particularly in the country's universities, who have openly supported an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.

A protest petition has been signed by 500 academics, including two former education ministers, following recent comments by Israel's education minister, Gideon Saar, that the government intends to take action against the boycott's supporters. A proposed bill introduced into the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – would outlaw boycotts and penalize their supporters. Individuals who initiated, encouraged or provided support or information for any boycott or divestment action would be made to pay damages to the companies affected. Foreign nationals involved in boycott activity would be banned from entering Israel for 10 years, and any 'foreign state entity' engaged in such activity would be liable to pay damages.

Saar last week described the petition as hysterical and an attempt to silence contrary opinions. While the vast majority of the signatories do not support an academic boycott of Israel, they have joined forces over what they regard as the latest assault on freedom of expression in Israel. The petition states: 'We have different and varied opinions about solving the difficult problems facing Israel, but there is one thing we are agreed on – freedom of expression and academic freedom are the very lifeblood of the academic system.'
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JUDGE SLAMS RIAA, REDUCING DOWNLOADING FINE BY 90%

Torrent Freak - Another break happened today in the RIAA’s case against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum, as the $675k fine was reduced by 90%. The judge in the case criticised the RIAA and held that the jury’s damages were unconstitutional. Even the reduced fine is described as “severe, even harsh” by the District Judge.

In the US there have been two major file-sharing cases against individuals that have gone to trial. In both cases the RIAA was initially awarded hundreds and thousands of dollars in damages, but in both cases these were slashed on appeal.

In the RIAA’s case against Jamie Thomas, the jury-awarded damages were reduced significantly as the excessive damages were ruled to be unconstitutional. Today, the same thing has happened with the case against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum.

The ruling issued by District Judge Nancy Gertner states that the constitutional issues are clear, and that attempting to avoid the constitutional challenges (that the damages are excessive in proportion to the crime) by reducing the damages would be the best way to handle these.

The verdict comes as no surprise to many, and may even come as a relief to the RIAA, who have faced some negative publicity over the damages awarded. It’s unclear, though, if this modification will stand, as the RIAA will have to accept it. If they don’t, a retrial will be called.

Judge Gertner finds a retrial likely, stating in the judgment: “The plaintiffs in this case, however, made it abundantly clear that they were, to put it mildly, going for broke. They stated in open court that they likely would not accept a remitted award.”

“The Constitution protects not only criminal defendants from the imposition of ‘cruel and unusual punishments’, but also civil defendants facing arbitrarily high punitive awards”

AMERICA 2.0: LEAVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT ALONE

Steps towards a better land

One of the politically dumbest and most pointless pursuits of liberals in recent years has been their efforts against the Second Amendment's protection of gun ownership.

One need only look at the failure of alcohol or drug prohibition to see how futile such efforts are.

Further, in the case of guns, the only people effectively limited in gun ownership are the good guys.

Meanwhile, the liberal obsession with this issue has been a political disaster, helping substantially to build the new right.

The Washington Times recently reported how the effort has also done nothing to change people's minds. In fact, "The public's taste for stricter gun-control laws is fading. In 1998, about seven out of 10 Americans - 69 percent - favored more stringent control. The number now stands at 45 percent, according to a new Harris Poll . . . There's a partisan divide, of course. Currently, 22 percent of Republicans favor stricter laws, compared with 70 percent of Democrats.

"'Large majorities' of the public overall have little problem with gun ownership: 80 percent say Americans should be able to own rifles or shotguns, 74 percent approved of handgun ownership. Half approve "open carry" weapons, 46 percent gave the nod to concealed weapons . . . "

The moral: leave the Second Amendment alone and get this majority of voters on the right side of other issues instead of being angry at liberals for wanting to take away their guns.

Wild Shots: Real facts about guns and violence

RACE TO THE BOTTOM: AMERICA'S GREAT UNDERACHIEVERS

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's latest thoughts: , "We cannot afford all this illegal immigration and everything that comes with it, everything from the crime and to the drugs and the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings. Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded." According to the Arizona Guardian, there have been no beheadings in the state.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered hundreds of thousands of military officers to funnel media requests through the Pentagon's PR flacks. Not even during World War II was there this level of military censorship.

The Army has renamed its psy ops branch at Military Information Support operations. Said an official, "One of the catalysts for the transition is foreign and domestic sensitivities to the term 'psychological operations' that often lead to a misunderstanding of the mission." So just change the name. That will fool 'em.

House Republican Leader John Boehner: "Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the [Afghan] war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement"

Anna Davlante on Fox Chicago News asks the key question: "Are libraries necessary, or a waste of tax money?" Davlante points out, "In Chicago, the city pumps $120 million a year into them. In fact, a full 2.5 percent of our yearly property taxes go to fund them. That's money that could go elsewhere--like for schools, the CTA, police or pensions" And, of course, you always have Fox News to fill the gap.

AMERICA 2.0: INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING & PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

VIDEO EXPLAINING INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

Fair Vote - IRV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference (i.e. first, second, third, fourth and so on). Voters have the option to rank as many or as few candidates as they wish, but can vote without fear that ranking less favored candidates will harm the chances of their most preferred candidates. First choices are then tabulated, and if a candidate receives a majority of first choices, he or she is elected. If nobody has a clear majority of votes on the first count, a series of runoffs are simulated, using each voter’s preferences indicated on the ballot.

The candidate who received the fewest first place choices is eliminated. All ballots are then retabulated, with each ballot counting as one vote for each voter's highest ranked candidate who has not been eliminated.

Specifically, voters who chose the now-eliminated candidate will now have their ballots counted for their second ranked candidate -- just as if they were voting in a traditional two-round runoff election -- but all other voters get to continue supporting their top candidate. The weakest candidates are successively eliminated and their voters' ballots are redistributed to next choices until a candidate earns a majority of votes.

Instant runoff voting allows for better voter choice and wider voter participation by accommodating multiple candidates in single seat races and alleviating the "spoiler effect," which can result in undemocratic outcomes. IRV allows all voters to vote for their favorite candidate, while avoiding the fear of helping elect their least favorite candidate. It ensures that the winner enjoys support from a majority, using the same basic logic as traditional runoff elections. Plurality voting, as used in most American elections, does not meet these basic requirements for a fair election system that promotes cost-saving elections.

Rob Richie & Steven Hill, Nation - Voting for your favorite candidate can lead to the election of your least favorite candidate. Providing the means to express one's real views and insuring majority rule are basic requirements of democracy. But our current system badly fails these tests.

Fortunately, the British, Australians and Irish have a simple solution: instant runoff voting. They share our tradition of electing candidates by plurality--a system whereby voters have one vote, and the top vote-getter wins -- but they now also use IRV for most important elections. Mary Robinson was elected President of Ireland by IRV. Labor Party maverick Ken Livingstone was elected mayor of London. The Australian legislature has been elected by IRV for decades. States could implement IRV right now for all federal elections, including the presidential race, without changing federal law or the Constitution.

JOHN CLEESE EXPLAINS PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

THE IDEA MILL: COMMUNITY ENDOWMENTS

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has signed a bill creating the Endow Kentucky program. The measure was designed to promote the ability of local communities to grow their own philanthropies.

"Community-based philanthropy is a critical piece of community and economic development," said Gov. Beshear. "Under the current economic conditions, government has a decreasing ability to meet the demand for all services required by the people of Kentucky. We need communities to find ways to be more responsive to Kentucky families for the greater good of the Commonwealth."

When funded, the Endow Kentucky program, through capacity grants, challenge grants and tax credits, sets up the ability for every county in Kentucky to have a permanent endowment for local philanthropic dollars.

"Most large foundation funds go to urban areas," said Mike Hammons, executive director of the Kentucky Philanthropy Initiative, Inc. "By encouraging the establishment and capacity of local endowments, this is an important measure for the future of rural Kentucky and the vitality of communities across the state."

ELITE ETHNOGRAPHY: AUSTERITY CHIC

Paul Krugman, NY Times - When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

For the last few months, I and others have watched, with amazement and horror, the emergence of a consensus in policy circles in favor of immediate fiscal austerity. That is, somehow it has become conventional wisdom that now is the time to slash spending, despite the fact that the world’s major economies remain deeply depressed.

This conventional wisdom isn’t based on either evidence or careful analysis. Instead, it rests on what we might charitably call sheer speculation, and less charitably call figments of the policy elite’s imagination ¬ specifically, on belief in what I’ve come to think of as the invisible bond vigilante and the confidence fairy.

Bond vigilantes are investors who pull the plug on governments they perceive as unable or unwilling to pay their debts. Now there’s no question that countries can suffer crises of confidence (see Greece, debt of). But what the advocates of austerity claim is that (a) the bond vigilantes are about to attack America, and (b) spending anything more on stimulus will set them off.

What reason do we have to believe that any of this is true? Yes, America has long-run budget problems, but what we do on stimulus over the next couple of years has almost no bearing on our ability to deal with these long-run problems. As Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, recently put it, “There is no intrinsic contradiction between providing additional fiscal stimulus today, while the unemployment rate is high and many factories and offices are underused, and imposing fiscal restraint several years from now, when output and employment will probably be close to their potential.”. . .

But don’t worry: spending cuts may hurt, but the confidence fairy will take away the pain. “The idea that austerity measures could trigger stagnation is incorrect,” declared Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, in a recent interview. Why? Because “confidence-inspiring policies will foster and not hamper economic recovery.”

What’s the evidence for the belief that fiscal contraction is actually expansionary, because it improves confidence? (By the way, this is precisely the doctrine expounded by Herbert Hoover in 1932.) Well, there have been historical cases of spending cuts and tax increases followed by economic growth. But as far as I can tell, every one of those examples proves, on closer examination, to be a case in which the negative effects of austerity were offset by other factors, factors not likely to be relevant today. For example, Ireland’s era of austerity-with-growth in the 1980s depended on a drastic move from trade deficit to trade surplus, which isn’t a strategy everyone can pursue at the same time.

And current examples of austerity are anything but encouraging. Ireland has been a good soldier in this crisis, grimly implementing savage spending cuts. Its reward has been a Depression-level slump ¬ and financial markets continue to treat it as a serious default risk. Other good soldiers, like Latvia and Estonia, have done even worse ¬ and all three nations have, believe it or not, had worse slumps in output and employment than Iceland, which was forced by the sheer scale of its financial crisis to adopt less orthodox policies.

So the next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you’ll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we’re bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we’re good. And real-world policy ¬ policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families ¬ is being built on that foundation.

PLANNED NEW NUCLEAR PLANTS WOULD BE BUILT WITH FOREIGN WORKERS

Christian Science Monitor - While activists have long claimed Congress and the White House would be fiscally irresponsible to grant loan guarantees for new nuclear power reactor construction due to projected high default rates, the groups for the first time released a report citing the loan guarantees' bolstering of foreign jobs and overseas ownership.

As it turns out, all 18 corporate applicants seeking permits for new US nuclear power reactors – and lining up for tens of billions in federal loan guarantees – plan to use foreign manufacturers and labor to build major parts of those reactors.

That's according to a new report by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, based in Takoma Park, Md., citing data gleaned from filings with the Nuclear Regulator Commission. The service, with the Association of Concerned Taxpayers and the Alliance for Generational Equity, said a few utilities now seeking US loan guarantees for nuclear projects were also largely foreign-owned.

“Nuclear power is US-made power only in the same way that a shirt made in China is ‘American’ because you buy it at a Wal-Mart in this country," said NIRS executive director Michael Mariotte in a teleconference. "If American taxpayers were upset about bailing out US banks and car companies, they should be furious about being put at risk in order to fatten the bottom line of overseas nuclear companies.”

TONY BLAIR'S OWN CABINET WARNED HIM ABOUT IRAQ

Press Association, UK - Tony Blair was warned there could be "long-term damage" to the armed forces unless Britain slashed its commitment to the Iraq War, a previously secret document revealed

On the eve of the March 2003 invasion, foreign secretary Jack Straw and defence secretary Geoff Hoon told the then prime minister the UK had to cut its force levels by two-thirds by the autumn.

Mr Straw and Mr Hoon said keeping more troops in Iraq would be outside the Ministry of Defence's planning assumptions and would have an impact on other operations.

Mr Straw and Mr Hoon wrote: "It will be necessary to draw down our current commitment to nearer a third by no later than autumn in order to avoid long-term damage to the armed forces.”

MCCRYSTAL’S DIRTY PAST

Jeremy Scahill, Nation - While President Obama sacked McChrystal after comments attributed to him and his inner circle were published in a now infamous Rolling Stone article, Blackwater is being rewarded with new contracts despite its track record of scores of acts of misconduct, including allegations of murdering and manslaughtering civilians, weapons charges, conspiracy and obstruction of justice to name a few.

Given McChrystal's alleged involvement in the torture of detainees at Camp Nama in Iraq, his primary role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman's death and other dark acts involving his time commanding the Joint Special Operations Command under the Bush-Cheney administration, McChrystal should have never been named commander in Afghanistan. When he was appointed, Obama sent a message about the kind of policy he wanted in Afghanistan--one which favored unaccountable, unattributable direct action forces accustomed to operating in secret and away from effective oversight. Indeed, in the Rolling Stone article, McChrystal appeared to admit his famous commitment to decreasing civilian deaths was a sham operation. According to Rolling Stone: "'You better be out there hitting four or five targets tonight,' McChrystal will tell a Navy Seal he sees in the hallway at headquarters. Then he'll add, 'I'm going to have to scold you in the morning for it, though.'"

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THE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE WASHINGTON POST

Dean Baker, CEPR - The huge baby boom cohort is just approaching retirement. Workers in their 50s and 60s have just seen much of the wealth that they were able to accumulate destroyed with the collapse of the housing bubble and the resulting plunge in the stock market. As a result of this loss of wealth the overwhelming majority of baby boomers will be relying on Social Security for the overwhelming majority of their retirement income.

Thankfully the Washington Post has the perfect remedy. It proposes to immediately start to raise the normal retirement age to 67 (from 66) for those just about to retire and to continue raising it until it hits 70 for workers born in 1971. This increase in retirement age would be equivalent to roughly a 5 percent cut in benefits for those just now reaching retirement age and a 15 percent cut in benefits for those retiring in 25 years.

HOMELAND INSECURITIES: SIX YEAR OLD PLACED ON TERRORIST WATCH LIST

A SHORT HISTORY OF WHAT WE REALLY KNEW ABOUT POT

Paul Armentano, Alternet - Speaking privately with Richard Nixon in 1971, the late Art Linkletter offered this view on the use of marijuana versus alcohol. "When people smoke marijuana, they smoke it to get high. In every case, when most people drink, they drink to be sociable."

"That's right, that's right," Nixon agreed. "A person does not drink to get drunk. A person drinks to have fun."

The following year Linkletter announced that he had reversed his position on pot, concluding instead that the drug's social harms were not significant enough to warrant its criminal prohibition. Nixon, however, stayed the course -- launching the so-called "war" on drugs, a social policy that now results in the arrest of more than 800,000 Americans each year for violating marijuana laws.

In the mid-1990s, the World Health Organization commissioned a team of experts to compare the health and societal consequences of marijuana use compared to other drugs, including alcohol, nicotine, and opiates. After quantifying the harms associated with both drugs, the researchers concluded: "Overall, most of these risks (associated with marijuana) are small to moderate in size. In aggregate they are unlikely to produce public health problems comparable in scale to those currently produced by alcohol and tobacco On existing patterns of use, cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies."

French scientists at the state medical research institute INSERM published a similar review in 1998. Researchers categorized legal and illegal drugs into three distinct categories: Those that pose the greatest threat to public health, those that pose moderate harms to the public, and those substances that pose little-to-no danger. Alcohol, heroin, and cocaine were placed in the most dangerous category, while investigators determined that cannabis posed the least danger to public health.

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THE REAL PARTY

Bill Fletcher, Jr, Black Commentator - It was unlike any political experience I have had. The extent of the racial/ethnic diversity; the preponderance of people under 35; the gender balance; the international guests; the broad range of progressive social and political organizations; this and much more were in evidence for all to see at the phenomenal US Social Forum. The gathering, from June 22 - 26 in Detroit was the second such gathering in the USA, inspired by the World Social Forum movement that commenced in Brazil in 2001 (the first US Social Forum was held in Atlanta in June 20070. There were somewhere between 15,000 - 20,000 attendees!

Iin walking through the conference - which in many ways was multiple conferences, given the hundreds of workshops and plenaries - what struck me the most was that this was the antithesis of the Tea Party movement. Instead of the fear, ignorance and hatred emanating from the Tea Party crowd, there was a sense of optimism - yes, optimism - from the gathering, mixed with an urgency to defend and change planet Earth before it is too late.

This was remarkable given that the gathering was, as mentioned, so diverse and there was no consensus as to what is the specific, progressive alternative to the madness of global capitalism. That said, the slogan of the conference, "Another World is Possible," truly defined the nature of this assembly. It did so in some very fundamental ways, most especially, the recognition that actually existing capitalism is in the process of destroying the planet, what with environmental degradation and the exploitation of working people in order to achieve grand profits. It was also an accurate slogan in that there are social movements and some countries around the world that are taking the lead in experimenting with everything from alternative economies to revolutionary approaches toward the environment. Actually existing capitalism, then, is not the only possible reality; it is the reality to which most of us have become accustomed.

Though the USSF, and its multiple constituencies, represent a clear alternative to the evil represented by the Tea Party movement, what it does not contain is a coherent direction in order to contest for power. This is where the Tea Party movement has an advantage. More than anything else, the core of the Tea Party movement appreciates the necessity to gain the reins of power. Though they are themselves quite diverse, they have a set of principles, myths and fears that unite them, along with an unquenchable thirst to gain political power in order to implement their twisted dreams.

The USSF represents a wonderful safe space for exchanges. It was something of an oasis in a political desert. But as with many an oasis, the caravans arriving and sharing the space are not necessarily going in the same direction when they depart. In that sense, the USSF does not replace the need for an alternative political project that can advance many of the visions that were proposed in Detroit, but advance them with the intent that they become the guiding views of a truly civilized, post-capitalist society.

The organizers of the USSF are to be congratulated for their work and the thousands of participants are to be applauded for their constructive interactions. Let us hope that the USSF becomes more than a gathering transpiring every 3+ years. Let us hope that it becomes a process through which new and progressive ideas can be generated and that those who wish to move in the same direction join the same caravan as they depart the oasis.

TEACHER & STUDENT TORTURE IN THE NAME OF REFORM

Gary A. Groth, Mariposa Elementary School, Port St. Lucie, FL - As a classroom teacher with 30+ years experience, I just completed the absolute worst year in the classroom I have ever endured (and it was not the fault of my students--they were great).

This year I was told what to teach, when to teach, how to teach, how long to teach, who to teach, who not to teach, and how often to test. My students were assessed with easily more than 120 tests of one shape or another within the first 6 months of the school year.

My ability to make decisions about what is best for my students was taken away by an overzealous attempt to impose 'consistency' within my grade group. My school hired an outside consultant who threatened us with our jobs, demanded that everyone comply, and required us to submit data on test results on a weekly basis. If your class didn’t do well, you were certainly going to be in trouble.

In addition, my class was visited at least twice a month by the consultant, two superintendents, principal, assistant principal, reading coach, math coach, and sometimes even more people. If I was not teaching exactly what they wanted to see, I was in trouble.

My ability to have any academic freedom was completely taken away and my students were denied the best education I could provide for them. Please understand, my credentials are impeccable. I am board certified, have a masters degree in educational leadership, have been documented with the highest scores on my team, and absolutely love what I do. I want to be a teacher, but just can not continue within this toxic educational environment.

This year I have tried to speak out against these many disgusting practices of testing, teaching to the test, or 'institutionalized cheating.' I have felt like a voice in the wilderness. The response has been, 'Get used to it. It is what is coming down the pike.'

DEPRESSING CHART OF THE DAY

THINGS THEY FORGOT TO TELL US: HEALTH PLAN MAY TURN AWAY SICK

The Hill - The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by the new healthcare law to provide coverage for the uninsured.

Critics of the $5 billion high-risk pool program insist it will run out of money before Jan. 1, 2014. That’s when the program sunsets and health plans can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

Administration officials insist they can make changes to the program to ensure it lasts until 2014, and that it may not have to turn away sick people. Officials said the administration could also consider reducing benefits under the program, or redistributing funds between state pools. But they acknowledged turning some people away was also a possibility.

“There’s a certain amount of money authorized in the statute, and we will do our best to make sure that that amount of money insures as many people as possible and does as much good as possible,” said Jay Angoff, director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “I think it’s premature to say [what happens] when it’s gone.”

The administration has not discussed asking Congress for more money down the line if the $5 billion runs out before Jan. 1, 2014. Uninsured sick people could start applying for participation in the high-risk insurance pools on Thursday.

Healthcare experts of all stripes warned during the healthcare debate that $5 billion would likely not last until 2014. Millions of Americans cannot find affordable healthcare because of their pre-existing conditions, and that amount would only cover a couple hundred thousand people, according to a recent study by the chief Medicare actuary.

PARKS TIRED OF ALL THAT SHIT

Bruce Finley, Denver Post - Public-land managers worldwide increasingly seek "exit strategies" for dealing with human waste as more people venture into the wild.

The managers will brainstorm at an international conference on the subject - held at the end of July in Golden by the American Alpine Club - with participants from a dozen countries, including Argentina, China, Kenya and New Zealand.

"This is a growing concern," said Denali National Park ranger Roger Robinson, coordinator for the conference, who has introduced a packable "clean mountain can" and led high-altitude cleanups.

"It all boils down to contamination of watersheds," he said. "When you have a lot of use, you just can't go under a rock anymore."

Rocky Mountain National Park rangers issue about 2,000 sacks each year to hikers headed up Longs Peak and to rock climbers going to Lumpy Ridge, asking them to pack out their biological waste. It's not required but is recommended.

"People are using them and then taking them out and disposing of them properly, which is great," park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.

But even the most conscientious campers can be grossed out by carrying a bag of their own waste.

"There's still still the ick factor," said Brenda Land, a U.S. Forest Service expert on remote toilet systems.

The problem worsens when wildlife, such as coyotes, spread the contents from hikers' poorly constructed holes, said Greg Sievers, an Estes Park climber who favors a silver-colored disposal bag filled with a deodorizing powder.

"Seeing wads of toilet paper 10 or 15 feet off the trail is pretty gross," Sievers said.

"We're trying to head it off. It takes years," he said, to instill the habit of hauling out waste.

Colorado's peaks with summits topping 14,000 feet in elevation draw an estimated 500,000 climbers a year, said Lloyd Athearn, executive director of the Fourteeners Initiative to protect peaks.

"You have very thin soils. You have toilet paper, which does not readily biodegrade at high altitudes," Athearn said. "If you have all these people congregating in areas where natural processes don't break down human waste, you will start having significant problems."

AMERICA 2.0: URBAN STATEHOOD

Steps towards a better land

What does New York City have more of than Rhode Island, Montana, South Dakota, Delaware, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, all put together?
People.

What do Rhode Island, Montana, South Dakota, Delaware, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming have that New York City doesn't have?

Sixteen US Senators.

New York City gets to share two senators with the residue of New York state, which is also larger than all these other states put together. In fact, there are 18 states with a combined population less than New York in its entirety.

This discrimination is, of course, not unique to New York. The larger states of California and Texas have it worse. And the capital colony of Washington DC lacks even partial representation in the Senate.

The results of this constitutional but crazy apportionment of America's upper house means, among other things, that ethnic minorities are underrepresented in a manner officially permitted hardly anywhere else in American culture. If the Senate had been a school district it would have been under court-ordered bussing for the past few decades. If it were a private club, you'd want to resign from it before running for public office.

In fact, the malapportionment of the Senate is perhaps the most important, undiscussed issue in the country today for there is hardly a matter of political importance that would not be affected if that body were to reflect 21st century rather than 19th century demographics.

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LAST DAYS OF JAZZ?

Stacey Anderson, Village Voice - "If God plays the baddest saxophone solo ever played in the woods, and nobody hears it, did He make a sound?" asks Jazz at Lincoln Center curator Phil Schaap, Charlie Parker audible in the background. . .

"There's no audience development-none-in the jazz-education system, yet they're turning out would-be professionals in the low four figures annually, and it can't work," says Schaap, 59. "It's a train wreck. The jazz community is a shrinking one, and part of this that is most glaring is with the young. If something isn't done, then the music will be further marginalized to the point where I'm not quite sure how it will survive."

Indeed, jazz audiences are skewing much older and scarcer than before. A National Endowment for the Arts survey showed that the median age for American adults who attended a jazz concert in 1982 was 29. In 2008, that median age had risen to 46. More alarmingly, the Recording Industry Association of America reported jazz sales to make up just 1.1 percent of all music sales in 2008 (the most current available stats), a precipitous drop from the decade high of 3.4 percent in 2001.

The overarching implication: Jazz is showing a dangerous lack of renewability with future generations, and what is not heard is not preserved. New York, while still a slightly stronger jazz microcosm than the country at large, exhibits the same warning signs: a shrinking number of venues, a lack of mainstream exposure to entice new audiences, and a splintered community of performers fighting stylistically among themselves. . . .

"I think jazz in general is about to die off," says Spike Wilner, owner of Small's jazz club in the West Village and himself a traditional-leaning stride pianist. "The most important thing is: You don't have, at all, the venues you used to have. . . . Young audiences aren't exposed to jazz early on anymore when there's no place for them to discover it. Where are they gonna discover jazz? It's not taught in their schools; you're not able to find it on the radio. They're not gonna stumble upon it."

In the 1930s, 52nd Street in Midtown was dubbed "Swing Street USA" for all the jazz clubs within its radius, including legendary halls such as Club Carousel and Eddie Condon's, along with the first incarnation of the Blue Note. But today, among the low-double-digit number of jazz clubs remaining, most are concentrated in the West Village and Harlem, with a more scattered scene in Brooklyn. (Larger, uptown institutions, such as Carnegie Hall and the Wynton Marsalis-led Jazz at Lincoln Center, are often criticized for institutionalizing jazz, but remain active in educational programs.) Trad-leaning clubs have fared especially poorly; Eddy Davis has wanted to open a club for years, but finds the finances too daunting. And while contemporary and brass-band jazz have enjoyed a modest resurgence lately, thanks to mass-media outlets such as the HBO show Treme, this hasn't affected traditional New Orleans jazz at all.

"Overall, the traditional jazz outcropping in New York is down well over 95 percent from my high school years," says Schaap, recalling his '60s upbringing. "However, jazz is down 95 percent from my high school years, so it's a lock-step diminishment."

Lorraine Gordon, owner of the Village Vanguard, the most venerated jazz hall in the world, recently feted her club's 75th anniversary; for more than a decade, she booked Dr. Michael White's traditional New Orleans band for New Year's Eve, but has since stopped. "There is no audience, quite honestly, to sustain traditional jazz constantly," she explains. . . .

And if jazz isn't as inviting as it might be for the young, some blame the music and its practitioners. "One of the things with jazz now is that it's just not fun-people hear it, and it's either aggressive or very in-your-face, or very obscure harmonically or melodically," says Wilner. "It's so splintered, the factions. Extremely avant-garde improvising musicians play in a style that has nothing to do with traditional jazz, and they're basically hostile to anyone who plays traditional. And subsequently, you have traditionalists becoming more and more wrapped up in the bubble of what they wanted to play and not allowing any modern influences to come in. It's lent itself to a very divided art."

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