Posts from — June 2009

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the latest failure of privatizing public services: Florida’s charter school students perform “significantly worse” than peers in traditional schools, new report says

Students in Florida’s charter schools, on average, maker fewer academic gains than kids in traditional public schools, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers released today.

The study found that Florida is one of six states where “on average the student in a charter school learns statistically and significantly less than they would have in a traditional public school,” said Margaret Raymond, the study’s lead author.

The study used eight years worth of math and reading test data and compared charter school students to their “virtual twins” in regular schools — that is students with similar demographics and starting test scores.
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Charter schools — public schools run by private groups and freed from some public school bureaucracy — need more “quality control” so that the good ones can be replicated and the bad ones weeded out, Raymond added.

So, you give public money to private groups who have no accountability and you are surprised when they provide less than the public employees they “replaced”. This is not unusual, this is the norm. This is how the privatization scam always works.

Greed has never produced quality. That is why privatization doesn’t work. The incentive is to maximize profit, not provide a better product or service. We don’t live in a world dominated by self-serve gas stations and Wal-Mart because business is trying to please its customers. Does anyone honestly believe that customer call centers in Asia was a response to people desperately wanting to talk to someone they can’t understand?

It is now the lead story with a double-wide graphic and explains some of the media silence:

Iranian media mostly ignored the protests and international journalists were prevented from covering the demonstrations.

Iranian authorities closed Al-Arabiya’s Tehran bureau for a week without explanation, the Arabic network said on Sunday. Two reporters were attacked outside Moussavi’s headquarters on Friday, according to Reporters Without Borders, the France-based media rights group.

The group said it had confirmed the arrest of four reporters by Iranian authorities, including one who won the organization’s press freedom prize in 2001.

Reporters for an Italian station, RAI, and for Reuters were beaten by police in the capital, Tehran, the group said, and a CNN producer was hit with a police baton.

The Web sites of pro-opposition supporters were inaccessible, and the government also had periodically shut down access to social-networking sites, making it difficult for information to reach the outside world.

“An election won by means of censorship and arrests of journalists is not democratic,” the reporters group said.

Nice start, but you have the best reporter on Iranian affairs in the western media, someone who knows all the players: where’s Christiane Amanpour, CBE? She probably wouldn’t be allowed in by the authorities, but she certainly could explain what she thinks is occurring in her parents’ birthplace.

Update: Finally, Christiane appears and she was in Iran for the election. Apparently there is a problem getting anything out as she was using Getty images in her video report.

The CBC is reporting that Iran orders election probe

Iran’s supreme leader ordered Monday an investigation into allegations of fraud in the presidential election, and urged calm as tens of thousands defied a government-banned rally in Tehran and gathered downtown.
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on state television Monday that Iran’s Guardian Council will examine the allegations.

Mousavi wrote an appeal Sunday to the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member body that’s a pillar of Iran’s theocracy. Mousavi also met Sunday with Khamenei.

“Issues must be pursued through a legal channel,” said Khamenei, insisting “that the Guardian Council carefully probe this letter.”
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John Simpson, BBC News Foreign Affairs editor, Tehran: Difficult moment for Iran – and world

The aftermath of the election has shown one important difference from the past: it is harder than ever for the authorities in a relatively sophisticated country like Iran to clamp down on dissent.

Reports here say that the bureau of the respected Al-Arabiya 24-hour news station has been closed.

Action has been taken against other foreign journalists. BBC Online has been blocked from time to time, and so have mobile phone services.

Yet people right across the country have been kept fully informed of what is going on – there are so many ways people can get the news nowadays.

Realising this, even Iran’s own state broadcaster (IRIB) has been showing pictures of the worst of Saturday’s rioting in Tehran, a decision that may well have been taken at a very high level.

The Islamic republic has reached a difficult moment in its history.

Everything now depends on whether Mr Ahmadinejad can quieten things down without creating more anger on the streets.

If the people in Washington know enough to keep their mouths shut over this situation, the Iranians may be able to work this out. One thing is for sure – if the US government gets involved in any way, Ahmadinejad wins.

The ABC reports on more double-talk from the Middle East: Netanyahu sets conditions for Palestinian state

“If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarisation, and if the Palestinians recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarised Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state,” Mr Netanyahu said.

But he has failed to make any concessions on the US President’s demands to freeze all expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Yes, once again, before talks can take place the Palestinians must give up everything, and bow to the wishes of the newest theocracy in the Middle East. The new Israeli government wants the Palestinians to agree to apartheid for themselves and all of the non-Jewish citizens of Israel, while they promise nothing but a possible, future series of talks that may lead to something… or not.

More Israeli agitprop for the consumption of their US supporters, who will now claim that Israel has made a serious move towards peace. When Israel starts stating what it will do for peace, it might be worth listening, but real peace would be end of the Likud and they know it.

[“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.” – Groucho Marx]

This evening I will be upgrading to the latest version of WordPerfect WordPress, so everything could go away.

I have back-ups, but the only way you can be sure they are good is to use them.

Hopefully you won’t even notice, but I thought I’d mention it.

In the event of failure I will have updates on the progress at the Why Now annex.

Update: I’m not having a day that lends itself to concentration.

Update 2: Apparently it worked after mucking about with one file that I hack to use different features in comments than the guys who wrote the code.

The Local Puppy Trainer noticed that the Senate is trying to put oil rigs off our coast: Nelson, Miller denounce oil-drilling amendment

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is leading the fight against the amendment, which he claims would allow drilling within 10 miles of the coast and inside the area known as the Destin Dome.

It also would make the Air Force a “third priority” party in discussion of where oil platforms could be built in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, said Nelson spokeswoman Susie Perez-Quinn.

“The bottom line is they (military officials) would be notified after the fact,” Perez-Quinn said. “They’d find out after the (drilling) management areas had been opened up and the Department of the Interior had given their approval.”

The military long has opposed drilling anywhere east of an imaginary boundary known as the military mission line, which runs from approximately Hurlburt Field south into the gulf.

This time, because the Dems are in charge, local Congresscritter Jefferson B. Miller (R-Chumuckla), has decided it’s a bad idea. Of course, when the Repugs were in charge in 2006, he voted to lift the ban.

Adopted as the flag of the United States of America by the Flag Resolution of 1777 enacted on 14 June, 1777.

The flag was first flown from Fort Stanwix, on the site of the present city of Rome, New York, on August 3, 1777. It was first under fire three days later in the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777.

An official flag has a rise to run ratio of 1 to 1.9 [the flag should be 1.9 times as long as it is high] with the canton [the dark blue part] that rises over the top seven stripes with a run of 40% of the flag’s run.

The only time you will see a “correct” US Flag is if you see the official colors of a military unit. Most flags are 3’X5′ or 4’X6′ instead of 3’X5.7′ or 4’X7.6′.

Frances Bellamy, the Baptist minister and socialist who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance was from Rome, New York.

Ahmadinejad and company can’t even steal an election in a convincing fashion, and the ayatollahs have just let the US off the hook for the 1953 coup that put the Shah in power.

The BBC is reporting from Iran, Numerian at the Agonist isn’t buying it, nor is Gary Sick.

Update via Badtux in comments: Juan Cole has his reasons for not buying it.

OK, here’s why I don’t believe it without even getting to the details:

– this was the largest turn-out that they had had in years
– they had to extend voting hours and round up extra ballots
– they use hand-marked paper ballots that are folded and then stuffed in a box
– the results were reported in record time, and the winning percentage never changed

That does not happen in hand-counted elections that are even close to honest.

They said they had a 70-75% turn-out, but Khamenei said 85% when he congratulated Ahmadinejad before the dust even settled. They are saying there was 90% turn out in the rural areas where Ahmadinejad was expected to win, but a turn out like that should have slowed the system down.

The problem with the clerics who engineered this coup is that they didn’t know or care enough about democracy to even bother to make it look plausible. A 51% win based on fiddling the numbers in the rural areas and inner cities would have probably been accepted, but this is an obvious fraud.

The government is blocking most forms of communication, but there are demonstrations in the cities. People are angry. The clerics have seriously damaged their credibility with the people.

The CBC reports that the UN Security Council toughens sanctions against North Korea:

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Friday that imposes new sanctions on North Korea for its recent missile tests and an underground test of a nuclear device.

The resolution urges countries to reduce financial ties with North Korea, and extends a ban on exports of tanks, artillery and other large arms that represent a significant source of revenue for that country.

All 192 UN member nations are also authorized to inspect cargo vessels at sea or airports if they believe the contents may be used to advance Pyongyang’s nuclear or ballistic programs.

We can probably expect another nuclear test from North Korea in reaction, which is good in a way, as they have a limited supply of weapons-grade material and everything they use in testing is unavailable for an actual weapon.

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The BBC has an update on the Iranian election.

The Iranian government officials who work for Ahmadinejad say that he is the sure winner, but the BBC reporter on the scene says they are reporting the rural districts, which favor him in the early returns, not the urban centers that favor the opposition.

The turn out was much heavier than expected [70-75%] and the polling hours were extended to handle the crowds. Both sides claim victory, and both claim fraud – a standard election.

Me and My Shadow

I can’t be evil.

[Editor: Blaze would want you to believe that just because he can tolerate sunlight and casts a shadow, he can’t be evil. It just proves he’s not a vampire. He’s not in Ted’s class, but he’s working in it.]

Friday Ark

The BBC reports Iran goes to polls to elect new president

Iranians have begun to cast their votes in the country’s closely fought presidential election.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is battling to retain his job in the face of a spirited challenge from former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mohsen Razai and Mehdi Karroubi have also fought in the campaign, dominated by the economy.

If one candidate fails to win a 50% majority, there will be a run-off between the two front-runners.

It is already Friday in Iran and they will probably close the polls before the call to evening prayers. The initial reporting won’t include much of Ahmadinejad’s base in the rural districts, so no one should start celebrating an early lead. Mousavi, an ethnic Azeri like Ayatollah Khamenei, has been looking good in the campaign, but his label as a moderate is generally by comparison to Ahmadinejad.

The real issues are internal, like the economy, and the President doesn’t actually have much real power to make changes. At this point Ahmadinejad might be better off losing, given the number of enemies he has made in the real power centers by his comments during the campaign. Apparently before making sweeping statements about leading the first corruption free government he forgot who some of the earlier leaders of the government were, and what positions they currently hold.