Rant

Chew on This #2: Bloomberg Rallies Support for President O.

Posted 13 months ago|2 comments|484 views

TAGS

Anti-Union , President Obama , Oil and Gas Subsidies , Oil Speculation

Written by

Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

Title: Boehner Opens Door to Cutting Big Oil Subsidies, Tax Breaks
author: fOXNews.com | link

Comment:
This just in according to FOXNews, Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) indicates willingness to consider ending tax breaks for Big Oil!?!?!? (source) This is a stunning admission from a party that has long denied that Big Oil was getting any subsidies or tax breaks and / or if they were, they were necessary to ensure the competitive oil industry in the United States. Now if he would just realize that the oil speculators are the real force behind the price of oil and gas in the USA, he could receive his honorary doctorate from the University of Isn't It Obvious.

Title: Ohio State Sen. Tim Grendell says parent questionnaires will have a role in setting teacher pay
author: Joe Guillen | link

Comment:
What's known in Ohio as Senate Bill 5 and is now law (though not yet enacted) as signed by Ohio's Governor, John Kasich – the bill gained national notoriety on the tail of Wisconsin's anti-collective bargaining legislation, will in fact allow for job performance to impact Ohio public school teacher salaries. It is fascinating to see this idea play out. For every person who thinks it's a fine idea to allow parents to evaluate teachers and vote on pay, put yourself in an analogous situation. It may not be as simple as it seems. It's like putting the parents of customers in charge of your paycheck. The customer didn't mind the hamburger he just ate, but his mother decided it was too undercooked, so she tells your boss and you drop from $8 / hour to $7.75 / hour. Maybe this is as it should be. It would be interesting to hear the thoughts of others on this one. I'm torn as a long-time teacher. I believe I would have received good evaluations despite being tough, but I know a lot of teachers weren't strong enough. They would have just given everyone As and had no standards to make everyone happy. Kids would learn nothing, have no homework, and make straight As, is that what we should be spending tax dollars on?

Title: Bloomberg Calls for Republicans to Stand Behind Obama
author: David Seifman, New York Post | link

Comment: In the same day that the New York Post published a big poll stating that the Donald has no prayer of defeating President Obama (source) , NYC Mayor Bloomberg was quoted as saying, "We should be behind this president even if you're a candiate [sic] who's going to run against him – which I am not." This speaks to something that those of us who've been Americans for longer than 2-3 decades can say with some authenticity, there used to be a time when our nation was not as overly pre-occupied with the political party of the president. It has been an ironic shift of events, especially in a representative democracy. As one of the few nations on earth that gets to choose by general election it's president (and technically we don't really get to due to the whole electoral college mess, but it's pretty close), we elect our leader. If you don't like him or her or his or her politics shouldn't really matter. If you believe in the selection process, then you should accept the outcome. Isn't it the American way to rally behind our president? For me personally, I rallied behind George W. Bush despite feeling he was not the legitimately-elected president of our country (which always cast doubt over the first term of his presidency if not his second) because he was the President. What has happened in our nation is tantamount to joining a basketball team, voting on team captain, and when your choice loses, shooting the ball in the opposing basket every game to get even. Yes, everyone should be rallying around our president. If you don't like him, and so far I've never heard a good true reason not to like him – I've heard a lot of untrue things spread by people who really don't like him for whatever reason but certainly not because they are just racist because they didn't even know his father was African – then fine, don't like him, but don't work against him. Don't shoot baskets into the other team's hoop! So, I rave about Mayor Bloomberg's message to us all.

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Altruist
Eugene, OR

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Altruist
Eugene, OR

13 months ago: Good Post but you could have done three separate posts instead.

#1 Boehner as Speaker of the House is realizing that he actually has to do something so he is beginning to deal with the real world instead of the looking glass world the rest of the party is stuck in.

He is hampered by the Tea Partiers that think that the budget can be balanced by eliminating all social programs even though that is just 12% of the budget. They haven't figured out that if we are borrowing 40% of the budget, even if we eliminated all social programs we would still be borrowing 28%.

He is also hampered by something like 90% of the Republicans that have pledged never to raise any taxes for any reason. That is what created the deficit and these Republicans created 90% of the National Debt because they just refused to pay for their military buildup, their wars, the Medicare drug program, and all of their tax cuts to the rich.

We need to realize that most of the cuts will have to come from the military and that we need to raise revenue by forcing the corporations and the rich to pay their fair share.

# 2 When teacher pay is determined by testing, the teachers will just teach to the test and the general knowledge and higher levels of cognitive thought will be dismissed, making it even harder to compete on the world stage. Rhee changed the DC school system so merit pay was determined by testing and now it turns out everyone cheated. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2...

# 3 In the past Republicans and Democrats worked together and cooperated for the good of the country. In recent years the competition became so great that Republicans especially have determined that politics is war and that lying, cheating, and making up their own facts, are acceptable as long as they win.

Republicans consider any cooperation with Democrats an impeachable offense and they are drummed out of the party if they do. Policy becomes the opposite of what the Democrats propose even if what the Democrats propose is best for the country.

Today the Republicans pursue harmful policies that actually harm the nation and the world for political reasons and because their loyalty is prostituted to the highest bidder.

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Dwayne Johnson

13 months ago: Don't give John Boehner credit for folding yet. There is always a method behind the madness. My guess is that after the true cost of the Gulf fiasco keeps increasing with each new revelation, he is trying to appear responsible.

As for Ohio's senate bill 5 I would advice caution. Parents aren't always the best gauge for their own children's performance let alone the instructors of those said children. Under the bill how difficult or easy would it be to tell which parents judged with bias based on personal grudges? I think a better idea to judge performance among teachers is an independently run panel of peer reviewed professionals selected at random to judge a random selected group of teachers anonymously and periodically.

I agree that Bloomberg's comment is reminiscent of more honorable times even if it is just in nostalgic folklore or wishful thinking because as far as I can recall political ramblings have always been vicious and ruthless. I believe that what Bloomberg said comes from the experience he has garnered in the time he has had running the megalopolis that NYC is. It doesn't do any good to behead the chickens that are incubating the eggs before they hatch, or in plain English Obama being a middle of the road Democrat may still prove useful to Republicans who may need the support of like minded Democrats to further middle to right leaning agendas.

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