It’s well established that things are looking pretty good for David Cicilline, and now Cicilline is predicting good things for Democrats prospects of retaking control of the House of Representatives. The incumbent congressman told RIPR’s Ian Donnis, “The reality is we need 24 seats to take control away from the Republican Tea Party caucus that is now leading the House . I think it’s absolutely possible for Democrats to take back the House.”

Cicilline might be right. Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comments have completely rejiggered congressional contests all over the country, and strategists think it could cost the GOP the Senate.

Speaking of the 47 percent, here’s how the 53 percent benefit from government subsidies.

Dan Yorke had a great and informative conversation with Dem spokesman Bill Fischer yesterday afternoon about polls … if you want to know more about the difference between polls and push polls, listen to the segment. There’s been a lot of misinformation going around about the difference.

This should be a huge concern for Rhode Island: “More than a fifth of children in Rhode Island are living in poverty, and over 10 percent are in extreme poverty.”

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera had a great piece on the Chicago teachers’ strike and the so-called education reform movement. He writes, “teachers are fighting for the things industrial unions have always fought for: seniority, favorable work rules and fierce resistance to performance measures. City Hall is fighting to institute reforms no top-performing country has ever seen fit to use, and which probably won’t make much difference if they are instituted.”

Aaron Regunberg also wrote about the Chicago teachers’ strike for GoLocal.

Bob Kerr on the father-daughter dance controversy in Cranston: “This is nonsense. There is legal cover for it, but it is nonsense. It sounds like a spoof on political correctness, but it is far too real.”

Rest in peace, Mary Carpenter … Rhode Island owes the entire Carpenter family a debt of gratitude for helping to make Matunuck the community it is today.

Today in 1938, a hurricane hits Rhode Island.

“Chicago isn’t seeing its teachers as greedy. They’re seeing them as a vanguard in the struggle against what might happen to the rest of the middle class next if they don’t speak up,” according to Alternet.

Since Rahm Emanuel’s election in the spring of 2011, Chicago’s teachers have been marginalized  by a mayor obsessed with displaying to the universe his “toughness” — toughness with the working-class people that make the city tick; toughness with the protesters standing up to say “no”; but never, ever toughness with the vested interests, including anti-union charter school advocates, who poured $12 million into his coffers to elect him mayor (his closet competitor raised $2.5 million)–Rick Perlstein

The Chicago teacher union took a bold step. It was not an easy thing to do, but a necessary move to preserve public schools in Chicago. The cry of the opposition is “It hurts the children.”

Analyze that statement truthfully. Who is really hurting and who really stands to gain in this conflict? Rahm Emanuel is the mayor and he, of course stands to gain in this. He wants to tear down the public school system. Why? It can be all summed up with one word: PROFIT.

The propaganda that schools are failing is put out by the reformers like Gates, Walton, Michelle Rhee, Klein, Eli Broad and billionaire Bloomberg. What do they all have in common? Big money and no education credentials. Tell me what teaching experience and degrees do they have to push their free enterprise school agenda? None.

Their credentials seems to be the big money earned from their free enterprise, big business ways and they want to institute this way of thinking into public education. They have bamboozled the public into thinking education has gone by the wayside. And how did they do this? By investing their money into programs like using high stakes testing tied to Race to Top and by buying politicians into this way of thinking so they can pass their agenda of vouchers, charters, (investors make profits as they dig into public education city budgets that taxpayers pay into) online schools, and privatization. Why not use that money and invest into the poverty of children instead?

This fight in Chicago is a fight to keep the children stabilized in their public schools. Under Emanuel, crime rates have soared among the young people. So rather than work with the teachers and parents with good sound effective and tested programs Rahm Emanuel sees $$$ signs with vouchers, charters and for profit schools vwith no proven studies showing they work… no evidence or research to prove they are better…

Mayor Emanuel, with his rich friends, talk about return on investment as the billionaires (Gates particularly) pull the strings. They focus on “school choice” over civil rights and fighting poverty one of the major causes of poor school achievement. They insist on closing schools rather than improving them. (One doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel..too costly, just improve the spokes…
but new schools mean more profits for these so called “reformers”)

Don’t think for a moment this politician actually is thinking of the children. This Democrat could have prevented this situation but instead he joined with teacher vilifying Republicans like Chris Christie, Rep Gov Walker of Wisconsin, Republican Bloomberg, and others in bullying the work of teachers.
This blog by Jonathan Pelto is one I recommend. Put away your biases and prejudices for a while and see the propaganda and lies for what they really are…
Thank you.

Conservatives and Education Reformers: When in doubt, make sh*t up

The verbal assault on teachers has reached a fevered pitch as conservatives and “education reformers push to make it look like the Chicago Teacher Strike is about money and the demands of greedy teachers and their greedy unions, rather than the fact that Chicago teachers are actually standing up to the “education reform” industry and the politicians that support it.

Yesterday, Leonie Haimson, a leader of Parents Across America, the country’s primary public education parent group, was on CNBC.

In typical fashion, as Haimson laid out the facts about what is going on in Chicago, Larry Kudlow, the commentator asking the questions, was literally left screaming that they only fact that mattered was that “only 15 percent of fourth graders” in the Chicago public schools can read.

Of course, such a claim is completely false, but facts never seem of importance to the right-wing or those who claim to be dedicated to “reforming” education.

Yesterday also saw a Heritage Foundation talking head telling the media that the Chicago Teachers Union was demanding a “30 percent pay increase,” even though only 15 percent of the children in Chicago’s public schools can read and only 56 percent of the students graduate.

Again, the statement is completely false. Salary is not an issue- both sides agree that raises are warranted – someone needs to tell the Heritage Foundation fool the truth!!!

It turns out the right-wing talking points are coming from the right-wing Heartland Foundation and the right-wing National Review.

For what it is worth, Illinois’ state standardized test scores show that 62 percent of Chicago’s fourth graders meet or exceed the goal in reading and the number of students, at or above goal, in math, science and reading has been increasing.

For the full post go to: http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/09/12/conservatives-and-education-reformers-when-in-doubt-make-sht-up/

Add it all together and it seems like conventional wisdom predicts a big day for progressives. Congressman David Cicilline will prevail over Anthony Gemma and in State House contests progressives are likely to pick up at least a few seats.

Another important aspect to today’s primary: “This will be the biggest test yet of voter ID,” Chris Barnett of the Secretary of State’s office told the Associated Press.

Big time congrats to Chris Young and Kara Russo … nothing better than when two people find their soul mates in each other. I have to guess this is the case with these two!

The Chicago teachers’ strike, as reviewed by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.

There is no industry more important to Rhode Island’s overall economy than commercial fishing, and it’s quickly going the way of the yellowtail flounder, which is to say extinct.

Pay attention to this trial … it just might get politically interesting.

On this day in 2001, we learned just how vulnerable Americans are in a world that is increasingly moving away from the traditional ground rules of geopolitics. It’s the unfortunate and inevitable result of the United States’ global dominance. But that doesn’t mean the 9-11 attacks were inevitable.