UP-FRONT LOCAL FIASCOS NUGGETS [yes, plural]
1. Allegheny County Reassessment Favors Properties with Higher Prices, Review Finds; Low-end Properties Assessed at Twice Value from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The reassessment of Pittsburgh treated expensive land and buildings gently, while overestimating the values of low-priced properties. The Allegheny County-run reassessment fell far short of the goal of
distributing the tax burden fairly among owners of high-dollar properties and residents of modest homes. Those are the findings of a Post-Gazette review of new assessments on 130,977 taxable properties in the city and Mount Oliver."
2. Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 School Regroups After Single-gender Plan is Scrapped; Insufficient Planning, Discipline Problems Negate Changes Sought from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The image of the first day of school at the new Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 in Homewood still sticks in one teacher's mind. "I think the first day in August was so beautiful. They came in their uniforms. You could see the expectations that things were going to be different. We're really going to focus on our learning," she said. But on Aug. 22 -- opening day of the new offerings of single-gender classes -- the school wasn't ready"
What the hell is going on with the Pittsburgh public schools!? Seemingly, every year now the district rolls out a new BIG "reform" [sometimes overlapping, and even contradicting "reforms"] and, after disrupting the routines of everyone involved, toss in a boatload of incomprehensible faculty and staff relocations and dismissals, and, what do we have at the end of the day? Not just a failed experiment -- but a fiasco!! Most people realize that the city schools are in critical condition and have been for years -- but, in my view, there are way too many doctors in this emergency room right now!
Unanswered Questions on Afghanistan (Christopher A. Preble) from the National Interest
"Though vague, the Afghanistan-withdrawal announcement is good news—and a brilliant political move."
Heartless Sino-Russian UN move is a massive realpolitik win for West (Jonathan Kay) from the National Post [of Canada]
"On a realpolitik level, this is a massive win for the West: The Western powers enjoy the moral advantage ... China and Russia, on the other hand, will now be implicated in every protestor death in ever Syrian city on every day until Assad falls from power."
The Privatization Trap (Mike Konczal) from Salon
"From schools to prisons, outsourcing government's works typically ends with cronyism, waste and unaccountability"
Karen Handel, Susan G. Komen's Anti-Abortion VP, Drove Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood from the Huffington Post
"Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation's leading anti-breast-cancer charity, has insisted that its since-reversed decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood arose from a routine change in criteria for grant eligibility that had nothing to do with abortion politics. But a Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen's staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical."
Why Obama? An Argument to Reluctant Progressives for Supporting the President's Reelection (Armando) from the Daily Kos
"What I suggest then is an appraisal of the upcoming election from the perspective of what is at stake, in the short and medium term, for the issues progressives care about. I'll engage in this exercise below the fold."
Now. let me say I strongly disagree with this author's analysis of Obama's "opportunities" as they existed in 2009 or 2010 -- but the view looking forward is interesting.
Obama’s Magic Number? 150,000 Jobs Per Month (Nate Silver) from the New York Times
"Here’s a spoiler: reports that say more than 150,000 jobs have been created can generally be interpreted as good news for Mr. Obama. Reports that come in at under 150,000 jobs could put him on a trajectory toward defeat. However, the matter is worth examining in more depth."
A Good Week for Planned Parenthood (Joanna Weiss) from the Boston Globe
"...in those three days of fury, Planned Parenthood got precisely the publicity it needs. Indeed, even in the midst of the crisis, some Planned Parenthood officials could see the silver lining. ”It’s creating an opportunity for us to really educate the public,” Tricia Wajda, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, told me on Thursday. ”We haven’t been able to effectively communicate our preventative services before.”"
The Media’s Abortion Blinders (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"In the most recent Gallup poll on abortion, as many Americans described themselves as pro-life as called themselves pro-choice. A combined 58 percent of Americans stated that abortion should either be “illegal in all circumstances” or “legal in only a few circumstances.”
Let me say up front I'm skeptical of these numbers -- but if they are even close to true, pro-choice advocates have reason to be very concerned. Roe v. Wade CANNOT hold up if this trend is real -- especially when combined with the low priority Democratic lawmakers have given to judicial
appointments both under Clinton and now under Obama. While the GOP fights to the last ditch to get the most conservative judges confirmed, the Democrats (neither their lawmakers nor their voters for the most part) don't. But there is more to this than simple inertia on the part of Democrats. NOW, Planned Parenthood and other supporters of a woman's right to choose have for decades not been attentive enough to on-goingly making the public case for Roe. Much as the scientists who accept global warming, pro-choice advocates have been largely absent from the public debate between the pro- and anti-choice positions. The pro-life message is pervasive; the pro-choice message is not. The fact that the message is more complicated and nuanced then the pro-life message (as usually communicated) makes no difference. I have not heard any widely distributed message in decades that actually attempted to convince voters that women have a right to privacy and that women required the final say over their own bodies. If you question this statement, ask a young person between the ages of 18 and 25 (1) if they support Roe v. Wade and (2) if so, why? I've been asking this off-and-on for several months and what I get back is, first, genuine ambivalence. What is more disturbing are the answers to "why?" I have YET to hear someone respond with a clearly stated privacy or women's right-to-choose argument. It is my observation that, at some point in the 1980s, pro-choice advocates seemed to assume that they had made their case, enough said. My fear is that Roe and its protections (already under assault everywhere) will ultimately completely fall away -- simply because supporters on the left can't muster enough enthusiasm among themselves and enough support from ill-informed younger generations. Even as some herald the Komen about-face (if that is what it is), I fear for Roe today.
Romney Cuts Loose O'Donnell, Perhaps Out of Ego (Michelle Cottle) from the Daily Beast
"The GOP frontrunner apparently cut loose the man who whipped his debate skills into shape out of fear that he was being overshadowed. Michelle Cottle on how ego trumped strategy."
Romney's Gaffe Problem (Jacob Heilbrunn) from the National Interest
"Romney might make a good or even great president. But he is a terrible politician."
In Nevada, Economic Woes, Anti-Obama Sentiment Fail to Draw Large Turnout from the Las Vegas Sun
"Mitt Romney’s easy victory in Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses might, in the long run, be less important than the fact that a surprising number of Republicans who could have participated Saturday chose to stay home. Republicans’ disappointing turnout foreshadows difficulty energizing GOP voters in Nevada, a key swing state in November’s general election."
'She's a spy!': Reporter Banned from Nevada Caucus from the Los Angeles Times
"“You’re a bunch of liars!” someone shouted. “Spy! She’s a spy!” someone else said. A woman waved a button at me, which said: DON’T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA. Tough crowd, I thought. Then a man walked over to me and said if I didn’t leave, he’d call security. So I left the room while voters cast their ballots. A short time later, a male party volunteer tried to tell precinct 1721’s leaders that they were wrong, but at that point I was persona non grata. When I tried to reenter the room, an elderly man said people were still voting, grabbed my arm, pushed me away and shut the door in my face."
THIS is what happens to a free media when one party demagogues and demonizes the press for forty years. The GOP has little to fear from a free and independent media when voters themselves actually attack that self-same media.
Gingrich Down and Finally Out of the Running (Jennifer Rubin) from the Washington Post
"Gingrich’s presidential campaign is caput, whether he knows it or not. Before Saturday’s humiliating loss, many conservatives were already signaling to Gingrich that they’d had quite enough of him."
The Great Man’s Wife (Maureen Dowd) from the New York Times
"“She’s a transformational wife,” Alex Castellanos, the Republican strategist, told me. “She’s the wife who makes the candidate think he is destiny’s gift to mankind, born to greater things.”"
Michelle Obama’s Charm Offensive (Margaret Carlson) from the Daily Beast
"She’s cooking with Leno and doing push-ups with Ellen. Margaret Carlson on how the first lady helped defuse a juicy White House tell-all—and why her husband’s campaign should take note."
MILITARY BOOK NUGGET!!
New Biography of General Petraeus Misses the Man (John Barry) from the Daily Beast
The review title aside, this is a really interesting article about what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"By force of will, Petraeus was beginning to turn things around, at least tactically. But he arrived too late, and he knew it. Obama’s decisions recognized the political reality that, as in Vietnam, patience back home had run out. Perhaps the glitter of Petraeus’s career masks a tragic irony: he educated the U.S. Army to fight a kind of war for which there will never be enduring domestic support."
CRIME NUGGET!!
Killers’ Families Left to Confront Fear and Shame from the New York Times
Normally, stories involving mass murder receive little attention on this blog. This is one of the few areas where cable stations keep the public well-informed!! But this story is different. It discusses how the families of some of these mass killers try to pull their lives back together after arrest and conviction. Very interesting.
"Like relatives of other violent criminals, she has found herself ill prepared to deal with the complex set of emotions and circumstances that further unhinged her life after her brother’s crimes. "
GERMAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
Long-lost Thomas Edison Recordings Give Voice to Otto von Bismarck for the First Time from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"For the first time, 21st-century audiences are able to hear the voice of Otto von Bismarck, one of the 19th century's most important figures."
No comments:
Post a Comment