Hamas is a terrorist organization

Just in case you missed my intent, Hamas are terrorists.  May Israel destroy them, and live a long life.  

For those of you who think the Palestinians are oppressed, maybe you should ask why they continue to act like barbarians in a civilized world.  If your point is to show you aren't a bunch of whack jobs who want to destroy a democratic nation, maybe you should stop acting like monsters.  Stop the bombs, stop hiding behind women and children, and join the modern world.

Too much to ask, I am sure.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

If you get the chance, go see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  They are a jazz big brass group who are just a hoot to listen to.

Take the Obama Test!

Are you qualified to be on Obama's team? Take this test to find out!  Post your score in the comments!

Mayor Nickels begs for frivolous things

And so it begins.

The Democrats got their president elected, and now they come with their hands out. Mayor Nickels is leading the parade of beggers, with a grandiose plan to install $7 million of solar panels. Why not? It is Christmas, and Santa Obama is trying to figure out how to spend $700 billion! I am sure that this project in Seattle will generate many, many new jobs and make the world a happier place.

By the way, if this project makes economic sense, and will save lots of money on future energy bills, why not do it with Seattle money? I'm betting it is just a big boondoggle that will work about as well as the toilets.

peer review of teacher pay

I also have a question about merit pay based on peer review, although from a different angle.

I'm trying to figure out why there is such an adherence to basing teacher evaluations on other teachers opinions. I don't know of any business where one's peers are the source of one's pay raises. In the real world, how a job is done is measured by how well the employee meets objective standards. In sales, it is a quota. In accounting, it is getting statements out on time and accurately. In engineering, it is producing robust designs that stand up in practice.

So why isn't teaching subject to the same critique? There are measures that can be objectively set. There are customers who can be asked for their satisfaction for the product being produced. Supervisors (otherwise known as administrators) are well schooled in observing teaching, and providing feedback.

So why does this proposal reject all these, and instead rely on the subjective opinions of other teachers? I agree with the commenter above: for a teacher to do this effectively, he must leave his classroom to observe a selection of teachers. Otherwise, the evaluation is based on hearsay and popularity. I could tell you right now which teachers would get the biggest pay raises, based on their peers. I don't think they would be the same teachers getting high marks from parents, students, and administrators.

I would suspect that peer review would be preferred by the teacher's union. It would maintain the illusion that the union is about professional standards, when in fact it is about getting the most pay for the least amount of work.

What I want to say to the PTA ladies

I realize we are supposed to be "education-centric". But I have to ask - if education is completely spared, where are the cuts to be made? Rather than just harp on what you don't want, why not suggest who can sacrifice in order to preserve class size? Even if class size has never been documented to correlate with better education? And of course we can't cut teacher pay. All those highly qualified teachers will go elsewhere, even if there is 15% unemployment, and California is laying off 20% of their public work force.

Heck, cut out out those social service workers. It's not like the lives of foster kids are at risk if they don't have good supervision. Or maybe reduce the size of our prison population. A few extra drug dealers or gang members won't hurt anyone if they are back on the street.

Maybe we can cut the hot meals out at the prisons. No, wait, we can't do that. It would violate their civil rights. Or maybe we can stop the money sink of mass transit that no one will ride anyway. Shucks, can't do that either. Aren't we all green now? Maybe we could privatize the liquor stores. Nah, that would lead to excessive drinking and private profits, which we all know are evil.

I got it. Let's implement an income tax.

Yes. People aren't paying enough of their fair share, anyway.

Olympia Budget Crisis

Unfortunately, the silly show that is happening in the Capitol Rotunda over Christmas has put the very real budget crisis in the background.  Gregoire and the Legislature have to come up with $6 billion in savings.  Where will they find it?

One place, of course, is the biggest pool of funds - education.  So the question becomes, Jobs or Pay?  Do the teachers believe in what they've been saying for years, that smaller class sizes are the solution to our education woes?  If so, and if they truly have the welfare of children in the forefront of their beliefs, they will vote to cut their pay in order to save the jobs of all the teachers who have been added in recent years.  In other words, keep I-728, get rid of the COLA's and other pay increases received in the last five years.

Who am I kidding?  This is the comedy at its best!  New teachers overboard!  Or is it last in, first under the bus?

Auto Bailout

So it looks like the impossible is happening - the big three, and the union power behind them, won't get to raid the US treasury.  

Bush betrayed the conservative movement by starting this stupid bailout in the first place.  Adding liquidity is one thing, deciding winners and losers is far different, and a dangerous game to start playing.  

I'm glad to see that Reichert voted against this bill, even if he was on the losing side.  Of course, he voted against the original plan as well, but only because he hadn't really read it.  Once he figured out what it said, he indicated he didn't have a problem with it.  Oh well.  Right for the wrong reasons.

Gas Prices

The price of gasoline keeps dropping.  Like a rock.

This is bad news for the global warming believers.  If gas is cheap, people will drive more.  They won't care about alternative energy sources.  They might even want more domestic drilling, so we can separate ourselves from the barbarians in the Middle East.  Who needs biofuel when regular old oil costs less than $2 per gallon?

But the faithful to global warming won't give up.  In fact, they want quicker action from the UN.  Quick!  Before the world finds out our theory is a fraud!  

I'd believe the greenies, except that when you want to build power lines connecting their newfangled wind farms to the electric grid, they lobby to block the lines.  Nuclear energy is our best bet to be independent, but the thought is absolute taboo to the faithful.  No matter that Europe has used it for years, safely.  No, the greenies don't want energy independence.  They want us to live in the dark ages.  Literally.

Cao beats Jefferson

Nice to know that the voters in New Orleans have some common sense.   The ballot box really is the most effective way to deal with the hopelessly corrupt.

Do we really need another big use of taxpayer dollars?  Patty Murray and Christine Gregoire are now begging for federal dollars from the new piggy bank, President-elect Obama.  Where do they think these dollars come from?  The tooth fairy?

No more bailouts.  The car companies can recreate themselves as something much smaller, and the unions can pitch in to cut their lucrative contracts.  Maybe they can start by not requiring the car companies to pay those who have been laid off.  What a scam.

This spending has to stop.  It isn't stimulus if we borrow trillions or print dollars.  Why not propose a tax cut on businesses, so they can keep the money they earn?  How about Gregoire rolls back part of the $8 billion she added to the state budget over the last four years?

I don't expect common sense to prevail.  The Democrats are in power.

Harry Reid thinks we all stink

I'm really not surprised by the elitist attitude of the Democrat Senate majority leader.   Harry Reid is sure of his superiority over the little people in this country.  He has made millions off corrupt land deals, gotten his children high paying jobs from contributors, and made special deals for his friends. 

Harry Reid isn't like us.

He is a corrupt politician.  And his constituents just keep re-electing him.  

Is it the rain?  Maybe there is something in the water.  It just seems like we have more than our fair share of nut cases around here than elsewhere.  An "artist" decides that an ornament with Jim McDermott's likeness is appropriate for the White House.  

Just recently our Supreme Court Justice felt it was appropriate to shout out "tyrant" at a dinner, to the US Attorney General.  Nice to know we have judges who have no control over their impulses.

Who are these people?  And why do they all live in the Pacific Northwest?

Congrats to Saxby Chambliss! May it keep us from the coming unpleasantness of an all-powerful Senate!

I have to wonder if Sarah Palin had any influence on the vote margin?

Gun control laws

So is it time to rethink bans on guns?  

Had Indians been armed, would the terrorists have felt free to walk through public areas and mow down the innocents?  

The police hesitated, didn't fire at them, let them walk on to kill, torture, destroy.

The populace was unable to react on their own.  The ultimate freedom of self-defense denied.  At what cost?

Obama's ego trip, or "I'm better than you"

Remind me.  Who earns the money in the Obama household?  Barack has to rent a place in DC, and support himself on his measly $200K salary.  Michelle lives in luxury in Chicago, brings in $400K, but has to pay expensive private school tuition for two, along with piano lessons that run $10K per year.  (Of course, that assumes they actually pay tuition, the rent, the piano lessons.)

So, now, how do they afford the bling that rock stars buy?  

"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1090653/Barack-Obama-buy-rare-20-000-gold-ring-wife-say-thanks-support.html">

Of course, they aren't wasting their hard earned dollars on charity. No, siree! Giving money to the needy is for chumps and republicans. Democrats just take tax dollars. Isn't that what being a community organizer was all about? Teach the street urchins to beg from the government agencies doling out largesse, and Voila! A new toilet! Or maybe a park! (Oh, wait, that money disappeared, sorry, no park.)

Whatever, the money came from somewhere. Probably from Michelle's paycheck. But that's okay. What is important is that the white trash look rich, and impress all their friends.

Islamic Terrorists

The terrorists who rampaged through Mumbai are barbarians.  They and their leaders and their fellow terrorists have no place in the civilized world.  They have no claim to grievances, either present or past.  The United States is not the cause of their inhumanity.  They are to blame for their actions.  

The leaders and fellow planners of this barbarians do not deserve life.  Whether they are motivated by a hateful belief, or are evil masterminds using the dupes they find in an ignorant theocracy, they neither deserve a voice or a seat at any table of discussion.

Pakistanis who are sympathetic should be considered the enemy.  American Muslims who think the US and Western way of life are to blame should be expelled from the west, and forced to live in the ratholes.  Deepak Chopra should be exiled to Iran, forever to live in an oppressed country where he has no rights and is denied all his worldly wealth.  

In other words, Islamist fascists have no right to life.  We are justified to eliminate them all.

State Budget

The state budget is in a mess, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008451090_budgetcuts30m.html.  

What amazes me is that the voters in the state are surprised.  Where was the Seattle Times during the election, when Rossi was bringing up this subject?  They were arguing about whether Rossi was fudging by saying there was a deficit, when the state isn't allowed to have a deficit.  They willfully misconstrued his statement, wanting it to look at the current budget, when it was obvious that he was looking at the future.  

This should have all been discussed during the election, not the week after.  

Gregoire has no real ideas.  She never did.  She just had invective.  Now we all have to live with her pathetic leadership abilities, and her payoffs to the unions and tribes.  They got everything they wanted - $8 million in the last four years.  

But the voters sit around wondering how it all happened.  

Must be George Bush's fault.

Christmas season

It is now the season that will make or break many businesses.  Everyone expected an awful Friday after Thanksgiving, but it turned out okay.  Unemployment will probably be bad, but for now it is not a problem.  People are making what they made last year.  So has Obama saved the world?

I am doubtful.

The Democrats want so badly to solve the world's problems through government edict and state ownership that they will probably take steps that will have the same results that FDR had.  They will continue to dole out the cash to the auto makers, who will be forced to produce cars that make no sense with $2 gas, and will require huge amounts of subsidies.  People won't want them, but will have no choices.

So glad we voted for change.

Obama will probably move forward with his plan for civil service and universal health care.  Both are threats to our freedom.  But never mind, they are for the greater good.  We can all be comrades, waiting in line for our doctor visit, and working for free to provide services that were once paid for by free people.

But never mind, spend like crazy - it is Christmas!

GO HUSKIES!

Finally saw a winning Husky game!  Too bad it wasn't football.  But the basketball game against U of  Pacific was great fun.  And I really don't get basketball!  www. gohuskies.cstv.co/sports/mbaskbl/wash-m-baskbl-body.html

Newport HS Ski Swap

Thanks to all who came to our little ski swap! You not only got a great deal, but you are helping us support a fabulous education for our students!  www.skiswap.info

Search for the new Bellevue Superintendent

I attended the recent presentation by the search consultants to the Bellevue School Board, summarizing the results of their study so far. They interviewed all stakeholders, and came up with a set of criteria needed for a new superintendent.  www.bsd405.org

It was a search for a leader by brainstorming.

That isn't a compliment.

Leaders are supposed to have a vision of what they want. They don't need to hire someone to tell them what they want. They should be tuned in enough to their stakeholders to know what they want. They shouldn't have to pay consultants to tell them the answer.

But they did. And what they want is what Mike Riley was slightly short on - a grand collaborator.

The Board concedes that they want all the other good things that Mike was - a visionary, a tireless worker, a crusader for excellence, a believer that all students could succeed. But that's not what everyone asked for. They wanted someone who would listen to them.

Because Mike didn't always listen to everyone. Well, he listened, he just didn't agree, and so he disregarded.

So now the board wants a visionary, but they don't say what that vision is. They want someone to will lead, but don't say exactly what direction they want to be led. This is a group that lucked out HUGELY with Mike Riley. In him they stumbled on the one person who would reformulate the elitist liberal no-decision school district with no real direction into one of the strongest academic models in the nation. Students feel pressure from all sides to exceed, to take the challenging classes, to go beyond the comfortable. Teachers are challenged to teach a common curriculum, but bring their personal touch to it to make it relevant. Administrators compete for the best school, with the highest test scores and the most signed up for AP tests.

As a parent, I agree with the World According to Mike Riley. It is very unfortunate that he has passed, and that vision will no longer be out there to lead other districts.

But what the school board wants now is someone who will listen to all those teachers who whine about having to teach to the plan, to stick with the curriculum, and cover the whole of what is supposed to be taught in a year. The board wants to have someone who will accommodate parents who want their non-English speaking child to be exempt from such rigor, or don't want the district to demand that their little darling actually show up for class, and be ready to learn. In short, they want someone who will be sensitive and listen.

Sorry, what we need is someone who wants to teach Math, and teach object Science. And demand a coherent essay. And maybe require that someone know who Abraham Lincoln is, and why the Boston Tea Party was meaningful.

Visions are great, unless you haven't quite figured out where you want to go. Then any vision will get you there, to coin a phrase.

Let's play 20 questions:

1. How did Obama pay for law school at Harvard?
He was working as a "community organizer" after graduating from Columbia. But he didn't seem to have taken out loans, unlike Michelle.
2. Why would a high profile non-profit hire a completely unknown law school graduate to chair their organization?
No foundation I know of relies on a lunch by one of the trustees to decide who will sit at the head.
3. Was money laundered through the CAC to Bill Ayers' other projects? Doesn't it indicate a conflict for the head of one organization to give money to himself at another organization?
4. Why did Michelle get a 400% raise after Obama was elected to the Senate?
5. How many earmarks have gone to Michelle's employer, or related entities?
6. Will Obama ever hold a hearing on Afghanistan?
7. How does one raise $450 million from donors giving less than $200 each?
8. Why won't Obama give access to his donor database, so we can find out who all these little people are?
9. Why won't Obama release his Columbia or Occidental transcripts?
10. Why won't Obama release his health records?
11. Why won't Obama release his client list from his short stint at a law firm?
12. Why won't Obama release his papers from his time in the Illinois Legislature?
13. Why won't Obama release the CAC papers, or call for them to be made public?
14. When did Obama first meet Bill Ayers?
15. When did Obama first meet Khalidi?
16. Why was Obama number 2 on the list of Fannie Mae money-getters, after only 3 years in the Senate?
17. How did Obama afford a million dollar home, with really no income?
18. Who would publish two memoirs from a complete unknown? How many copies were sold? To who?
19. What did Obama do to benefit ACORN while a "community organizer"?
20. Who paid his salary while he was a Community Organizer, how much was it, and what fund did it come from?

Obama and Ayers

The NYT article dismissing the relationship between Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers is itself easily refuted. It is as if it was written by the Obama campaign. Too bad the writer didn't think to question any of the statements made.

1. "Their paths crossed sporadically." This would be a lot easier to prove or disprove if an Obama operative wasn't actively blocking access to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge documents. Why is Obama hiding what happened in this organization that was founded by Ayers and chaired by Obama? The organization funded millions to Ayers' favorite projects on education. It isn't credible that the two men didn't discuss it.

2. Why is there such an effort to show that Ayers has been rehabbed? Just because he is now accepted in Chicago society circles does not mean he has apologized for his terrorist activities.
In fact, he admits that his current acts are just a new way to achieve the same goals from his younger years. He believes that through indoctrination in the school system, students can be made to believe that America is racist and oppressive, and should be made to turn against their parents. Does Obama share this same radical goal? The NYT article goes to great length to not comment.

3. Why has Obama repeatedly lied about his relationship to Ayers? In several media interviews, he says that Ayers was someone who lived in his neighborhood, or that their children went to school together. The last statement is patently false - their children are too different in ages to have attended any school together. Ayers was the founder of an organization that Obama claims as one of his major accomplishments, and qualifications to be president. He spent six years as the chair. Why is he so coy about what their relationship was or is?

The media is working actively to keep this story under wraps. It is really much more important to know what Palin's parents think of their daughter running for VP. Who is Obama, and what in the heck did he do all those years in that bastion of ethics, Chicago?

BEA Website Back up

Looks like the Bellevue Education Association's website is back online.  

Warning to anyone reading this - the union can tell you anything.  They are under no obligation to fairly represent what the district is offering.

And the district cannot say what they are offering, under penalty of labor law.

Too bad the union doesn't take the law to heart, in a similar fashion.

Bellevue Schools

So will they strike or will they return to the classrooms?  

Bellevue students, for the most part, have no idea that their school year is about to be upset.  The smart bet is on teachers to vote for a strike on September 1, keeping schools from opening on September 2.  Strikes are illegal, but it is more important to make a point.  

But that point will be limited since the state of Washington is in a severe budget shortage.  Money isn't there to keep paying the higher and higher extortion that the WEA is demanding.  In Bellevue, the union is asking for an 11% raise.  Ridiculous?  Of course.  Too bad the teachers aren't smart enough to see what nonsense their union is handing them.

So be prepared to have your student be at home on September 2.

FARC and Nancy Pelosi

When trying to figure out motives, the classic clue is: follow the money.  I wonder if Nancy Pelosi is receiving some kind of financial deal from FARC?  Does her husband or family have some arrangement with Hugo Chavez, so that the fall of the Colombian government would bring money to their already fabulous wealth?  

No other answer really seems plausible for why she would go out of her way to undermine a freely elected government.  She has agreed to send messages to cold blooded murderers.  Why has she sold her soul?

And why does Barack Obama go along with this?  He has a price, and now we are finding it.  They are both in the pocket of Chavez.

If a reporter was really on it, they would ask to see a full and open disclosure of the small donations coming into Obama's campaign.  How many are from out of the country?  How many are laundered through fake US citizens?  There surely aren't that many Americans out there donating small amounts.  

But no one will ask.

It is time that the press start asking hard questions, and doing some investigating.  Why did Nancy Pelosi kill a trade agreement with Colombia?  Why did she work in the background with FARC, who has the goal of destabilizing the elected government of Colombia?  Why isn't Jim McGovern (D-MA) arrested on charges of working with terrorists for his work with FARC?  And why is Barack Obama openly against a free democratic ally in South America?

I don't expect a reporter to go after this, not in an election year.  It would call into question the judgement of the Democratic leadership.  It would undermine the fable that Obama has spun that he is an expert on foreign relations.  And that wouldn't be consistent with the major media's adulation of their chosen candidate.

The Colombians pulle of an amazing rescue of 15 hostages.  There was no negotiating, there was no exchange of terrorists for innocents.  What is sad is that there are still hundreds of hostages still imprisoned by the terrorist FARC.  When will Nancy Pelosi start working to support a freely elected government to wipe out those who seek to destroy their country?

It is truly shameful, and Obama needs to answer why he is playing along.  This demonstrates why he is not ready to lead the free world.

Rescued Hostages

Congratulations to the Colombian Army, President Uribe, and the US forces who assisted!  This is truly a celebration of Independence Day!

May Nancy Pelosi stop the politics for a day or two, and acknowledge that the people of Colombia are our friends and allies!

Call for Drilling for Oil

Write your Senators and Representatives and tell them to lift the ban on drilling for oil.  They are driving us into a depression, and ruining the future of America.

Congress unserious

From Maria Cantwell's website:

"American consumers, businesses, and farmers demand leadership and vision for our nation's energy future.  We must develop an aggressive, innovative strategy to lead the way toward energy independence."  Her most recent efforts to reach these goals include "incentives for investments in renewable energy,"

If the market thought this was a good deal, the money would be there today.  Incentives mean subsidies, which means a lobbyist at the trough of pork spending.

"ban gas price gouging, "

Never been proven.  Allocating a scarce resource requires prices to float to what people will pay.  Otherwise we run out.  Did Maria ever take Economics?

"boost fuel economy standards,"

And build a bunch of cars that no one wants to buy, further harming the auto industry.

"increase transparency in oil and gas markets,"

Because Maria is smarter than all the investment managers out there.  That's why the Senate wants to now bail out a corrupt corporation, Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to their buddies Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd.  Remember: for every contract betting on oil increasing, someone is betting on the other side, for it to go down.  And if they are speculating on increases, it is because that is what the market is telling them given the nonsense that Dems are spouting.  Just like Maria.

"make more cars biofuels compatible,"

Why are we growing corn just to burn it in our engines?  Giving subsidies to huge farmers for this is just more evidence of corruption of earmark spending.  Our friends make money, everyone else stands in a food line.

"and invest in Northwest alternative fuel infrastructure."

No idea what this means, except more money for Maria's buddies.

None of this will solve the problem, which is why gas keeps going up.  They are fools, and the market knows it. 

Wesley Clark

Some questions:

Did Obama know what Clark was going to say on Sunday?  Did he approve, and then, when he saw the reaction, throw Clark under the bus?

Do the Senators from the State of Washington believe that McCain's experience is of no value?  After all, they are superdelegates.  If they think it is of value, what do they claim is Obama's experience?  

What exactly is Obama's stand on hand guns?  Yes, it is a right, but just don't exercise it?  Yes, but don't ever have one in a crime-infested area like Chicago?  

Huge Bailout Bill

Please contact your House and Senate representatives about the huge bailout bill whizzing its way through toward passage.  Ask them if they have received any favorable treatment from any of the companies receiving huge amounts of taxpayer dollars.  Two Senate Chairmen have.  They are on the VIP list at Countrywide, and have received favorable loan terms at the direction of the chairman.

This is corruption.  And it is working.  

Experiment

So this is an experiment.  I often have lots to say that I think is really important, but not sure if it anyone else will share my enthusiasm.  This will prove something.  Or Nothing.  We shall see.