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.