Undernews for December 29
Undernews for December 29Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it
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Morning line: Why the infatuation with high
speed rail?
Sam
SmithFor some time I've been trying to figure
out why the Obama admnistration has placed so much emphasis
on high speed rail and so little on the ordinary kind, which
would serve a far broader and less wealthy segment of the
country. Was it just another example of class theft? Was it
the companies behind the contracts?
There is absolutely no transportation or
environmental reason not to improve conventional frieght and
rail service but if you can find an alternative that makes
the yuppies and the truckers happy at the same time, why
bother?
Local heroes: Judge bans police GPS tracking
wihtout warrant
Delaware Online -
In what may set a Delaware precedent, a Superior
Court judge has gutted a criminal case against a Newark man
who was pulled over with 10 pounds of marijuana because
police used a GPS tracking device without a warrant to
follow him for nearly a month...
While police have long been allowed -- without a warrant -- to follow suspects as they drive from place to place, Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden wrote earlier this month that using a GPS device is different.
"The advance of technology will continue ad
infinitum," she wrote. "An Orwellian state is now
technologically feasible. Without adequate judicial
preservation of privacy, there is nothing to protect our
citizens from being tracked 24/7."
Israeli government to hire internet
trolls
Ynet News, Israel -
The Foreign Ministry unveiled a new plan this week:
Paying talkbackers to post pro-Israel responses on websites
worldwide. A total of NIS 600,000 (roughly $150,000) will be
earmarked to the establishment of an “Internet warfare”
squad.
The Foreign Ministry intends to hire young people who speak at least one language and who study communication, political science, or law – or alternately, Israelis with military experience gained at units dealing with information analysis.
Beyond the fact that these job requirements reveal a basic lack of understanding in respect to the dynamics of the online discourse – the project’s manager argued that “adults don’t know how to blog” – they are not too relevant either. An effective talkbacker does not need a law degree or military experience. He merely needs to care about the subject he writes about.
The sad
truth is that had Israeli citizens believed that their State
is doing the right thing, they would have made sure to
explain it out of their own accord. Without being paid.
How Israel abuses Palestinians
Irish Times - Israel is
discriminating against Palestinians living in the occupied
territories by depriving them of water, electricity and
roads while providing a luxurious lifestyle for Israelis
living in illegal settlements in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, according to a report by Human Rights
Watch...
Between 2000-2007, 94 per cent of Palestinian
requests for building permits there were rejected.
Consequently, when Palestinians constructed, repaired or
renovated homes, mosques, clinics, schools, animal pens,
wells, cisterns, water pipes and electricity poles, the
Israelis often issued stop work or demolition orders....
Getting tired of the shouting?
Politicus USA - Fox News
declined 5% in 2010 ... MSNBC was down 9% ... CNN suffered a
stunning 36% drop in total viewers ...
Keith Olbermann’s total drop in viewership was 2% higher than MSNBC’s network average, (11% vs 9%). In contrast, Rachel Maddow lost less of her audience than MSNBC as a whole. Maddow only declined by 6% compared to the network’s 11%. ...
Olberman is still MSNBC’s most watched host.
Overall, he is the 11th most watched cable news program, but
Rachel Maddow was right behind him at 13th, and Lawrence
O’Donnell was 14th.
The real question behind Obama's birth
certificate
We can't find any
evidence that Obama wasn't born in the U.S. Not
only has a short form birth certificate been released but
there were two Hawaiian newspaper announcements at the time.
And, in truth, we don't give a damn.
The real question should be: why not release the long form? To be sure, Hawaii law says it is not a public record, but that wouldn't prevent Obama from getting hold of it and releasing it.
Here's our best guess: either it's modern government bureaucracy gone a bit mad or there is something on that long form Obama didn't want released. Not his birthplace but something else. Maybe not even important, but - like Hillary Clinton's college thesis - the urge for secrecy may well have overwhelmed the matter itself.
Oh what tangled
webs we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
Student play cancelled by principal for fear
of annoying Mayor Bloomberg and his school chancellor
Valerie Strauss, Washington Post
- Fourteen students from two New York City schools
-- Jamaica High and Queens Collegiate -- wrote an impressive
play about school reform under Chancellor Joel Klein and
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, based on the classic play
"Antigone." They were rehearsing to perform the play --
complete with music, visual projections and lights -- when
they were told that their principals had decided not to
allow them stage it. The play, titled "Declassified:
Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together," was
banned.
According to a teacher who was working on the project with the students, the principals sent word that they were uncomfortable with criticism of Klein and Bloomberg, and they would not allow the Dec. 17 scheduled performance to go on in the Jamaica High auditorium.
Eight years of business-driven reform under Klein were centered around standardized tests used to grade schools, and many of the troubled ones were either broken up into smaller schools or closed. Klein repeatedly pointed to rising test scores as evidence of his achievement, but recent revelations that the scores rose because the tests got increasingly easy to pass burst that success bubble. . .
Excerpt from the play:Tireseus enters.
Chancellor: Tireseus, what are you doing here?
Tireseus: I had some time off from teaching and thought I'd check in on my old friend. You don't look so good brother.
Chancellor: It's all these letters I'm getting. Listen to this....
Reading
"Dear Chancellor Klein. We the undersigned students, parents, staff members and friends of the Jamaica High School Community urge you not to phase out or turnaround this 118 year old historical institution. Jamaica High School has been treated very unfairly by the Department of Education and deserves support rather than phase out."
Holding up the letter.
Chancellor: Do you really think I've been unfair?
Tireseus: Sounds like your conscience is what's doing the disturbing.
Chancellor: Don't talk in codes.
Tireseus: You took away 30% of the school's teaching staff which increased class sizes, and you gave half the space in the building away to new smaller schools. Would you call that fair treatment?
Chancellor: We can't continue to invest in failing schools.
Tireseus: Do you really think closing schools is the answer?
Chancellor: The school is failing.
Tireseus: Or maybe you are failing the school. Why not give them what they need to succeed?
Chancellor: But schools must be held accountable.
Tireseus: And what about you, Chancellor? Who's holding you accountable? The gods have given us the use of reason, but do we use it right? Do I? Do you?
Chancellor: Why am I standing out here like a target? Why is every arrow aimed at me?
Tireseus: Isn't it your policy that is upsetting so many students and teachers?
Chancellor: Who's got you in their pocket? Are you working for the teachers union now?
Tireseus: Honest advice is not a thing you buy.
Chancellor: All of you so-called seers: you have your price.
Tireseus: Rulers too have a name for being corrupt.
Chancellor: The decisions I take are not up for sale.
Tireseus: Are you so sure about that?
Chancellor: Get out of my office.
Tireseus: Fine, but know this: where you are standing now is a cliff edge, and there's a cold wind blowing.
Tireseus exits.
Why Maine didn't grow faster
Al Diamon, Down East Magazine -
Last winter, a U.S. Census worker showed up in my
isolated neighborhood with plastic bags full of fun facts
and even funner forms. I had just finished shoveling my
front porch, so I walked down to meet her.
“Are there more houses up there?” she asked, pointing toward the part of our road that doesn’t get plowed. “My map shows two more places.”
“Yes,” I said, “but there’s nobody there in the winter.”
She eyed the six-foot snowdrifts blocking the way. “I still have to leave these packages for them,” she said. “It’s a rule.”
I’m big on following the rules. Well, some rules. Although none that come readily to mind.
“There won’t be anybody there until summer,” I said. “How about you give that stuff to me, and I’ll pass it on to them then?”
Of course, by summer, the population counting would be long over. But I could tell by the way the census worker looked at those deep drifts covering the road – not to mention a couple of trees that had fallen, partially blocking access – that giving me the forms was an appealing option, rules or no rules.
After a brief tussle with her conscience, she
handed the packages over and departed. I took them inside
and threw them in the wood stove.
What non-partisan snow snow removal looks
like
We are
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in
the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely
put them aside to do what’s best for America. - Michael
Bloomberg's new group No Labels
• Bloomberg mad about how someone handled snow
removal
• Sanitation workers deny
slowdown
• New born baby dies
• Woman waits 30 hours for
ambulance
• At one point fire department had 1400 call
backlog. Said Bloomberg at the time: "This city
is going on. It's a day like every other day," Bloomberg
said, suggesting people go out and shop or take in a
Broadway show. "There's no reason [for] everybody to panic."
• Lower priority emergency calls put on 12
hour hold
European Commission can't tell art from a
light fixture
The Art Newspaper
- In an astonishing move, the European Commission
has reversed a decision made in a UK tax tribunal, and
refused to classify works by Dan Flavin and Bill Viola as
“art”. This means that UK galleries and auction houses
will have to pay full value added tax, which goes up to 20%
next year and customs dues on video and light works, when
they are imported from outside the EU. The decision is
binding on all member states. . .
In its ruling a Flavin work is described as having “the characteristics of lighting fittings. . . and is therefore to be classified. . . as wall lighting fittings”. As for Viola, the video-sound installation, says the document, cannot be classified as a sculpture “as it is not the installation that constitutes a ‘work of art’ but the result of the operations (the light effect) carried out by it”.
Art
lawyer Pierre Valentin commented: “To suggest, for
example, that a work by Dan Flavin is a work of art only
when it is switched on, is comical. The national courts of
two member states (the UK and the Netherlands) have
considered the classification of video and light
installations and both have concurred that they should be
classified as art under Chapter 97 of the Common Customs
Tariff."
The rise of fuck
Change in the frequency the word
fuck in books from 1800 to the present
according
to Google's Ngram. Current rise began around 1960
Nancy Pelosi thinks Democrats don't need new
policy, just a different sales pitch
Washington Post - Midway
through Philip Rucker and Paul Kane's story about Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi's transition to minority leader comes
an interesting bit of news. The California Democrat,
vilified by Republicans in the last election, has turned to
director Steven Spielberg for help rebranding House
Democrats:
"Lawmakers say she is consulting marketing
experts about building a stronger brand. The most prominent
of her new whisperers is Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood
director whose films have been works of branding genius.
Lawmakers said Spielberg has not reported to Pelosi with a
recommendation.
Meanwhile. . .
NYC
lesson plan
Student play cancelled by principal
for fear of annoying Mayor Bloomberg and his
school chancellor
Police
blotter
A West Gardiner man, who is
identified by state prosecutors as being a Bath Iron Works
employee, will spend 21 days in jail after allegedly
claiming he didn't have to pay income taxes because he's the
governor of Maine. - Brunswick Times Record
Books
The Modern Utopian: Alternative
Communes of the '60s and '70s, by Richard Fairfield
The real GOP platform
GOP Representative Bill
Flores: "Republicans in the House as a whole want
to get rid of the EPA."
Republicans in Arizona have gotten a bill passed that bans the teaching of ethnic studies in the state
Two sentence summary of bank
bailout Here's proof that Washington A reader writes:
An engineer
explains holiday shopping hassles And why a single line is bestPersonal
to Bob Woodward et al All you folks who won Pulitzers
Worst journalism of the week the Wikileaks story. Fortunately Glenn Greenwald is there to straighten her out
In a follow up article, Greenwald asks: "Bob Woodward has become a very rich man by writing book after book filled with classified information about America's wars which his sources were not authorized to give him. Would Yellin ever in a million years dare lash out at Bob Woodward the way she did Assange?"
Furthermore. . . Democratic Congress approves largest
military budget since World War II NY Times publishes secret material- just
like Wikileaks. You gonna prosecute it, too, Mr.
President? Army discriminating against aetheists
First hand report on Private Manning's
condition
22 stats illustrating the collapse of the
middle class
Is it just us, or are kids getting really
stupid?
ENDS