Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street

Back in the day, when I was still teaching American history, I tried to be sure my seventh grade students learned to look for all sides in complex arguments. There are times when I wonder if the Tea Party guys aren't partly right and the Occupy Wall Street folks too.

Colonists protest:
Hanging a dummy
of a British tax collector.

In fact, if you tune in cable news today, the coverage is so biased and ridiculous, it's almost pointless to listen.

I'm a liberal, for example. I'm a union guy, too. So I loathe Fox News, which has been chastizing unions for months.

Now I see a story in the New York Times today about the Long Island Railroad and the corruption of their union. I know Fox will cover this story in great detail and vilify unions in general, as if all are corrupt.

In fact, Gretchen Carlson is going to be so upset she'll probably wet her pants.

So here's the basic story: eleven people have been arrested, including a former union president and two doctors, and a variety of people who are receiving pension and disability benefits. Gregory Noone, 62, for instance, collects $105,000 in retirement and disability payments every year after doctors "found" he suffered from severe pain when bending, crouching or gripping objects.

You have to feel for the guy: especially when he's playing golf or tennis, which is often since his tragic retirement. Investigators have evidence that he plays tennis several times a week and "suffered" through 140 rounds of golf during one recent nine-month period.

You have to admire that man's courage in gripping the golf club, despite the pain.

Total losses to the pension and disability funds are expected to run more than $121 million, possibly much higher.

Can big public sector workers unions be a problem, in other words? Of course, they can. And here we want the government--that is the FBI--to step in and arrest the crooks.

But how does anyone imagine that means we can run to the arms of Big Business for safety? This week the New York Times also reported on drug-maker Amgen's agreement to pay $780 million to settle a variety of state and federal lawsuits, accusing it of illegal sales and marketing tactics.

According to one whistle-blower the company overfilled bottles of Aranesp, an anemia drug. This allowed doctors to use the excess dosage to treat patients, charge Medicare and Medicaid extra, and pump up the bottom line. And it certainly helped convince doctors they should be prescribing Aranesp and not some cheaper generic drug.

Meanwhile, over at Clear Channel News, the very soul of conservative talk radio, the company is  making deep cuts in local programming and going with more nationally syndicated shows, which are cheaper to produce. Several hundred employees, including local DJ's like Tony Lynn and Myles Copeland at KBQI in Albuquerque, are out on their fannies and probably wishing they had union protection or even government-backed health insurance.

Robert W. Pittman, just named this month as Clear Channel's chief executive, insists the move is necessary, for the company to run it's business "like it's 2011, not 1970." 

This will allow Clear Channel talk radio hosts to offer a more coordinated message: bashing unions and blaming them for killing jobs and ruining the economy. On WLW in Cincinnati, for example, I recently heard Doc Thompson going on and on about the filthy Occupy Wall Street protestors, "mutants" as he called them again and again.

It reminded me of a Nazi officer who referred to the Jews as "vermin." There was a time when I wouldn't have let one of my seventh graders get by using such language. Nor would I have allowed them to employ such simplistic logic without challenge.

After all, Bernie Madoff and Ken Lay and all the crooks at Lehman Brothers showered regularly and wore $2,000 suits.

This morning, you wonder if a few of those new unemployed DJ's might not be waking up and thinking about joining the Occupy Wall Street protestors.

Its a complex world and we Americans, liberal, conservative and in the middle, are going to have to think seriously about what we really need to do.

Governor Kasich puts the Bible (and Koran) Back in Ohio Schools

SOMETIMES IT JUST DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER when talking about Governor Kasich and his plan to remake Ohio schools. He’s a good Christian. Everyone knows that. 

He’s the jobs governor too. 

His plan—and the plan of Republicans in the legislature—is to increase the number of vouchers available to parents and let more and more parents “escape” failing public schools. Praise the Lord Let children go to religious schools!

Did someone say: “Praise Allah?” 

I’ve been thinking about this for some time. But a story in The New York Times makes me feel prescient. That is: if you give parents vouchers to send children to Christian schools, where do you draw the line? 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a life-long fan of the First Amendment.  

I just can’t wait to see some of our political weasels try to chew their way out of the sack they’re currently sewing. I want to see what happens when someone wants to create a Muslim school in Dayton or Cleveland and get their hands on state money?

Put the Bible back in schools? What about the Koran? This is going to be a hell of a mess for conservatives to sort out.  

Bill Cunningham, the voice of WLW radio in Cincinnati, who delights in calling the president “Barack HUSSEIN Obama” may have to re-calibrate his message. And do we know Kasich’s middle name? John R. Kasich? Does that “R” stand for “Rashid?” 

Of course, it would be stupid to mix education, politics and religion, but Kasich and his boys do.  

Giving state money to private schools, an idea popular with the Holy Trinity of right-wing education reform, (Kasich, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Chris Christie in New Jersey) carries risks they blithely ignore.

Pick up the February 2010 issue of National Geographic, for starters. Read about the Jessop family. They’re good religious folk, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. With communities spread across the Southwest and north to Canada, the church has thousands of children who could benefit from a voucher program. 

Of course there are flaws in this picture. The church practices polygamy and Joe Jessop leads the show. The man has multiple wives, 46 children, and 239 grandchildren. He could have an elementary school all his own.

Two wives and maybe nine future vouchers for state-funded education.

I remember reading an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer some years back, about a goofy church over in Adams County. The “minister” was shown in a photograph at the pulpit wearing a Nazi uniform. The story went on to highlight his Jew-baiting sermons. Today, he’d be eligible for state money if he set up his own school. 

Now, for the love of God, or Allah, or The Great Whomever, a shady Muslim organization is moving in on voucher programs. (A shady Muslim organization would be the same as a shady Christian or shady sectarian organization; the word “shady,” not “Muslim” is key.) Want to know where we’re headed? Think:  Harmony School of Innovation, run by the Cosmos Foundation, a charter school operator down in Texas, with offshoots in Ohio. A company called TDM recently won a contract for $8.2 million to build that school. And so you have everything Governor Kasich could possibly desire! Voucher money for kids. Religion back in school. More jobs for Texans—and Ohioans, when we bring this model north!

What could go wrong? 

First, the Cosmos Foundation (which runs 33 Texas charter schools and gets $100 million in taxpayer funding), is a business run by Turkish immigrants. Secondly, many of the founders and operators are followers of Fethulan Gulen, a charismatic preacher of a moderate brand of Islam. If that doesn’t make Kasich choke on his conservative Wheaties, nothing will. 

Remember how law-makers insisted that private enterprise would only increase efficiency in Ohio education? Down in Texas, there have been complaints from numerous local construction companies. Even when they bid lower, TDM and Turkish-owned firms win almost every contract. Out of 35 jobs worth $82 million, since January 2009, Turkish-controlled entities won all but three, worth only $1.5 million. 

Well, what did you expect? If you’re going to insist that business and education are Siamese twins, you want to make a profit, right?

You’re not going into the education game to lose money! 

I’m a liberal. And I absolutely support equality for members of all religions, not to mention members of none. I think you’re an idiot if you don’t know that most Muslims are just as firmly opposed to terrorism as most Christians are.

Still, if you think Kasich is the worst governor west of New Jersey, this story gets better: At one San Antonio school run by Cosmos the entryway features a turquoise arch and the ceiling lobby shows a sun, a star, and crescent moon, clearly Islamic decorative devices. At least some of the female students wear head scarves and all but a few of the 33 principals in the system are Turkish men. Of 1,500 employees at Harmony schools, 292 are on special “H-1B” visas meant to allow skilled foreign workers to fill needs unmet by U. S. workers. 

A professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, Dr. Ronil Hira, explains the Harmony schools’ preference for hiring immigrants as a matter of economics. They can pay them less; and for the immigrant teacher it’s a step toward a green card. 

If I’m a crazy right-wing person what does all this prove? Tune in to Fox News at 5 p.m. and watch as the King of Blackboards, Glenn Beck, reveals the truth.  

Governor Kasich is in favor of madrassas in Ohio!!!!