You guys prove that you've been brainwashed by the billionaires. You think it's OK and HEALTHY to have to look over your shoulder everyday to make sure you don't lose your job? You seriously think that is a good way to run a country that depends on people having some kind of peace of mind so they have enough confidence to get a mortgage, buy a car, or raise children, and, God forbid, maintain a career that won't bounce them out on their a** tomorrow?

It's funny how often I hear Republicans trash other countries, especially in Europe, yet you use statistics from those same countries to prove that our students are being left behind. It's those "socialist" programs you like to denigrate that keeps foreign teachers in their jobs, allows them more time for maternity leave, provides good health benefits, and gives them a good retirement. Why should we expect good teachers here when you give them no respect, you want them to have the same job insecurity that you have, and you want them to adhere to your job performance standards by giving all of students a test that would be designed by the same government that you have such disdain for?

And I've never claimed that unions were perfect. Just like the private sector, there are union members and union leaders who are lazy, corrupt, and greedy. But I'll take a greedy union boss whose looking out for me over a greedy billionaire looking out for the bottom line any day. And I know about Richard Trumpka, especially how he won a humanitarian award for helping black workers in South Africa under apartheid. I also have found nothing remotely resembling your claim that he doesn't care about workers, but I have no problem with him working for social justice. Care to actually find a source for your claim?

You should try looking over your shoulder as a life long self-employed person like I have for 22 years. PAYING PAYING PAYING. If I go out of business I cannot get unemployment even though I pay it on my wages and for ME and all of my employees. WHERE OH WHERE IS YOUR VAUNTED SAFETY NET FOR THE RISK TAKERS? Oh noooooo, there is none because in the workers utopia we PUNISH capital and risk...Every service I pay more for from phone bill to utilities than "civilians." My property taxes are about half of my take home earnings, and when I factor in what I pay for the privlidge of being in the most-taxes state I find that my total tax burden to local, state, federal and sales tax is more than my gross earnings! I employ people, pay all of my taxes and get to drive a 15 year old truck with 183,000 miles. My wife has twice the education of a school teacher, pays twice what they pay in health insurance, funds her own retirement (as I do mine) and when all is said and done works far in excess the hours of a public school teacher. Oh yeah, she is a teacher too by the way. Try the public sector....

...nah, I didn't think so.

As to foreign countries, Europe...oh Europe. Their motto should be "Only 100 million dead in the past century!" what GREAT STATS AND TRACK RECORD THEY HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need never raise the specter of Europe as any kind of role model for civilization, that is until the educational-government complex rewrites history to portray the USA as the wellspring of all the world's problems! Ohhhh shucks they already are! And you drank the koolaid!


...how do you think it is that we have made most all the world's innovations and discoveries, have the greatest wealth and have fought and funded all of the wars that have saved humanity from the brilliant minds of Europe whose violence and tyranny have put us on the brink of extinction as a species?  Because we embrace CAPITALISM AND ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL FREEDOM, NOT GOVERNMENT CONTROL AND TYRANNY LIKE YOUR SOCIALIST MENTORS do and disguise it as "progress." I would rather die than give up my freedom, making me uniquely American, making those who trade freedom for socialistic "security" as not.

Really, I don't need the government to protect ME against billionaires or any one else. The only entity that can truly destroy an individual is THE GOVERNMENT...I just want them OFF MY BACK and OUT OF MY WAY so I can prosper, let others prosper and take care of myself!

Quoted from 1226

You guys prove that you've been brainwashed by the billionaires. You think it's OK and HEALTHY to have to look over your shoulder everyday to make sure you don't lose your job? You seriously think that is a good way to run a country that depends on people having some kind of peace of mind so they have enough confidence to get a mortgage, buy a car, or raise children, and, God forbid, maintain a career that won't bounce them out on their a** tomorrow?

Yes, COMPETITION IS HEALTHY!  You shouldn't maintain your career IF YOU SUCK AT IT - FIND A NEW CAREER.  

A surgeon with shaky hands shouldn't keep his/her job just because he/she made it through medical school.  Are you are willing to put your kid under the knife of a doctor with 10 malpractice lawsuits?  Sending our kids into some of these schools is like giving our kids a lobotomy.  And even if the teachers in the schools have the equivalent of educational malpractice, as a consumer, I don't have the ability to pull my money out of the system and send my child to a better school.

WP, do you continue to patronize a restaurant with bad food and bad service?  I hope you do, since the waiters and waitresses depend on your money to maintain their careers.

Why Do Progressives Defend Communists And Terrorists?
by Cliff Kincaid


As incredible as it may seem, the giant labor federation, the AFL-CIO, used to be run by a staunch anti-communist. George Meany had his disagreements with conservatives on domestic issues but he mostly agreed with them on foreign policy. Indeed, Meany was so anti-communist that he was dubbed a "right-winger" by liberals in the media. He criticized détente with the Soviet Union. He didn't like communists and refused to allow them into his coalitions.

All of this changed over time. When the AFL-CIO staged a "Solidarity Day" rally in 1981, in order to protest President Ronald Reagan's domestic policies, then-AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland refused to tell communists they were not welcome.

When John Sweeney, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, became president of the AFL-CIO, the communists and their fellow travelers were officially welcomed in. He hired veterans of the Venceremos Brigades such as Karen Nussbaum and Karen Ackerman. These were the groups of radical young people who had gone to Communist Cuba for indoctrination sessions back in the 1970s.  Some went for training in guerrilla warfare. The trips were arranged by Bernardine Dohrn of the terrorist Weather Underground.

As we noted in a recent column,  Nussbaum, executive director of Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is in charge of getting the unemployed to the ballot box on November 2 in order to prevent a conservative takeover of the U.S. Congress. Nussbaum, who served under Sweeney at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has refused to talk about her time in Cuba and the media won't ask her any questions about it.

Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director since 2003, is also close-mouthed about her Cuba trip.

In this day and age, with the liberal media so willing to act as megaphones for the Obama Administration and left-wing labor leaders, it is not "news" that Ackerman, in charge of overall strategy and the spending of millions of dollars on behalf of liberal candidates, once went to Cuba for indoctrination. Nor is it "news" that the AFL-CIO, now under President Richard Trumpka, has joined a "One  Nation Working Together" coalition staging a Saturday rally with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and other openly communist and socialist groups.Consider the recent Washington Post story about the "liberal" and "left-leaning" groups planning the October 2 march in Washington, D.C. Reporter Krissah Thompson says the coalition includes "environmentalists, antiwar activists, church and civil rights groups, union organizers and gay rights coalitions..." Nothing is said about the fact that the "One Nation Working Together" official list of "endorsing organizations"  includes the CPUSA, best known for receiving Soviet funding and direction during the Cold War. But the CPUSA is not the only far-left group on the list. All that a reporter has to do is read it. But to report the facts would mean that organizers of the rally, led by a veteran Democratic Party operative, might have to be asked embarrassing questions. So the facts are ignored.

The liberal media bias and dishonesty aside, the change reflects how the progressive movement has capitulated to the forces of the anti-American left, in order to swell their ranks. It is a terrible development that is ominous for the future of the United States because of the hold that the progressives now have on the White House and Congress. It makes sensational reports of a few extremists in the conservative-oriented Tea Party movement look silly by comparison.

We noted in our recent column  that the "peace director" of the "One Nation Working Together" rally ran an organization that defends accused Army traitor Bradley Manning. He talks openly about inviting communists to the rally. It doesn't bother him in the least.  

@Graham

Wouldn't it be easier to run your business if you didn't have to worry about having to close it down due to expenses for medical, etc. for your employees? Isn't that what the universal health care debate was all about? It would be easier for Americans to start new businesses and pay their employees decent wages if they didn't have to pay part of the medical, which would be covered by a single-payer plan. THAT would be one of the safety nets you're looking for, but it's not part of the billionaire agenda since they're not making huge profits from it.

Next, you say that your wife pays more into retirement than a teacher, works longer hours than a teacher... then you say she IS a teacher? I don't understand.

Also, I wasn't the one who was praising the European education system, I was merely pointing out to the other posters here that they continually bash European countries for their supposedly socialist policies, yet they use European education statistics to claim that American students are doing terribly. Seems to me they shouldn't care at all about Europe if it's so terrible over there.

Finally, you really have to back off the extremism. Just because I don't totally believe in the free market and billionaires to provide for everybody doesn't I'm some communist sympathizer. While you can brag about American accomplishments over the past century, you completely ignore the fact that the U.S. has not created a single net job over the past decade. We have lost jobs nearly every year since 2001. And that is a result of deregulation, unfunded wars, tax dodging corporations who send jobs overseas, and tax cuts for millionaires who don't need it. The Republican grand experiment failed miserably, yet we're still being told that giving tax cuts to the rich is more important than funding education. The Republicans had complete control of the government for six years, they claimed that government doesn't work, and they proved it.


@Shadow

Cliff Kincaid of "Accuracy in Media". Here is a list of companies that fund AIM:

    * Bethlehem Steel
    * Carthage Foundation; see Scaife Foundations
    * Chevron
    * Ciba-Geigy
    * Coors Foundation
    * Dressor Industries
    * Exxon
    * Lawrence Fertig Foundation
    * Getty Oil
    * Horizon Oil and Gas
    * IBM
    * Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical
    * F.M. Kirby Foundation
    * Mobil Foundation
    * Pepsico
    * Phillips Petroleum Company
    * Smith Richardson Charitable Trust; also see Smith Richardson Foundation
    * Texaco Philanthropic Foundation
    * Union Carbide

But I'm sure Mr. Kincaid is completely non-biased in his editorials.

I was a union steward for 25 years in the AFL-CIO but it's not the same union it was when it was formed to help the workers improve their working conditions, wages, benefits, and pensions. It was hijacked in the late 90's by a faction not friendly to our republic and the new goals of some of these unions aren't any values I would ever support. Inform yourself about the unions you're raving about they may not be what you think they are. The Internet is full of statements made by Trumpka and he admits he wants social justice and has made alliances with many socialist/communist organizations to achieve his agenda. I'm not against all unions they have their place in the labor market. The local unions try to do what's best for their workers but the International Unions have a different plan and all they want is your union dues in order to buy politicians who believe as they do in social justice. In the end we all lose because the model that they are proposing has never worked anywhere in the world and there are a few countries that have collapsed following their plan.  

@Shadow, can you please provide a quote or source with Trumka's statement about social justice. I can't seem to find anything said by him related to that. Thanks.

I have no interest in the government getting involved in the slightest with my health care. None. They can't run anything well, or correctly, efficiently or timely. And if you think you will get "fairness" from the people who brought you the IRS, then lots of luck. How do I know how bad they are? My father was a 39 year federal worker. Non-unionized of course by the way, Mr. Obama. When he died, his privately funded life insurance paid in about 3 weeks. His fed pension check for the month he died in was electronically swept back by the feds (so they could take the 6 days he was dead in that month back) within a few days after they were notified. eleven months later after I filled out 3 pages of forms they sent the 24 days worth that he was alive for and was owed. Thirteen months later the federal worker life insurance check he had paid for out of his earnings for 39 years came through. I was SO impressed by the federal government's ability to handle it FAIRLY and in a TIMELY MANNER.

I am sure you won't be happy until you get total federal health care. I can see it now- They will approve your abortion no faster than 10 months, and your cancer operations...???? OK then, we know how this works. Of course they don't need "death panels!" How crazy! At their speed and efficiency we will all be dead by the time they authorize anything!

WHO WILL PROTECT ME FROM THE US GOVERNMENT? THEY ARE THE SINGLE LARGEST CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE IN THE WORLD! THEY MAKE ALL THOSE RICH CORPORATION AND THE MAFIA LOOK LIKE PIKERS!

@Graham, I really can't respond to your anecdotes, as I have no proof that what you're saying is true and I can't research your problem. That being said, it seems perfectly reasonable for the gov't to recalculate your father's pension check due to his death; that's exactly what a private corporation would have done too.

Speaking of private corporations, I hate to tell you that we already have "death panels" -- they are the boards of directors of the private health insurance companies who deny coverage to their dying customers. On top of that, those same board members make millions of dollars a year off of your premiums. But you go right on claiming the U.S. government (the employer of your father) is a criminal enterprise the likes of the Mafia.

Quoted from 1226

@Graham, I really can't respond to your anecdotes, as I have no proof that what you're saying is true and I can't research your problem. That being said, it seems perfectly reasonable for the gov't to recalculate your father's pension check due to his death; that's exactly what a private corporation would have done too.

Speaking of private corporations, I hate to tell you that we already have "death panels" -- they are the boards of directors of the private health insurance companies who deny coverage to their dying customers. On top of that, those same board members make millions of dollars a year off of your premiums. But you go right on claiming the U.S. government (the employer of your father) is a criminal enterprise the likes of the Mafia.

Unions were fine decades ago when this country was industrialized. Although I don't see unions going away any time too soon. What people are up in arm about is their political posturing to the government. The 'nod for a vote' at the taxpayer's expense. How many UNION'S got a pass allowing them to NOT have to join obamacare?

Funny, but how can anyone who doesn't 'trust' the private sector business leaders actually trust the government who is looking out for their bottom line in the form of campaign contributions?

Quoted from 1226

Tenure exists because teachers are constantly at the mercy of budgets and politics. Without tenure, it would ALWAYS be more beneficial for a school district to fire a more experienced, higher-paid teacher to be replaced by an entry-level college grad who would make a fraction of the salary. What incentive is left for a person who has not only a BS, but in NYS is required to have a Master's degree within five years of starting a teaching career?

Now Cuomo is pushing to end the "last in, first out" rule when cutting teachers and teachers would be kept based on performance. This is another tactic for school districts to focus on higher paid teachers to be fired. Who determines the quality of a teacher? Is it simple test scores or is it actual knowledge gained by students? In subjective courses like art, how is it determined if the teacher is doing a good job? The fact is that statistics can be massaged to focus on firing older, higher-paid teachers to save money.

If you did any research on the "white" building in NYC, you'd find that a lot of those teachers were pushed into that building over petty grievances by administrators or false accusations by students. One male teacher was in there for months because a student heard him say "sh*t" in the hallway. If you asked many of those teachers what they'd rather be doing, they would say "teaching".

no different in healthcare.....you get fired and you move on......or you quit and move on.....our society is having a very difficult time
holding itself together....the 'systems' are doing the thinking for us,,,,that is the paradox we are stuck in.....we have allowed
other people to speak for us too much....and speak for us when we let our irrational feelings get in the way of logic.....

unions,,,as good as they are need to evolve
public school system,,,,as much as it is a cornerstone of our society needs to evolve

WE HAVE NO CHOICE......THINGS ARE CHANGING AND CHANGING FAST........dont worry about the greenbacks,,,this conversation
could be over buttons.....

the fact remains that the systems currently set up(that we have fed over the past 40-50years) are archaic and removed the publics
ability to think and especially to think outside the box......

those who control the knowledge control the masses

Quoted from 1226

@Graham, I really can't respond to your anecdotes, as I have no proof that what you're saying is true and I can't research your problem. That being said, it seems perfectly reasonable for the gov't to recalculate your father's pension check due to his death; that's exactly what a private corporation would have done too.

Speaking of private corporations, I hate to tell you that we already have "death panels" -- they are the boards of directors of the private health insurance companies who deny coverage to their dying customers. On top of that, those same board members make millions of dollars a year off of your premiums. But you go right on claiming the U.S. government (the employer of your father) is a criminal enterprise the likes of the Mafia.

and the unions are invested into them.....so it's a circle jerk of sorts......we want it all until the toilet starts flushing and reverses
the flow....