Sisyphus

When testing surpasses teaching as a priority education reform is on the wrong path

Published on 2011-03-05 10:59:00

The Daily ShowTags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on FacebookDiane Ravitch, an education historian and member of the first Bush and Clinton administrations’ Education Department, was an early supporter of No Child Left Behind and the promotion of testing and charter schools. However, after reviewing the evidence following the enactment of the legislation became very disillusioned with what she calls the myth of charter schools. She now argues again

Democracy advocates in Burma set up Facebook page to organize against dictatorship

Published on 2011-03-03 08:51:00

While it is easy to over-estimate the role of electronic social media in the recent wave of revolutions challenging and sometimes toppling authoritarian leaders, Facebook and other such sites still can be useful organizing tools of varying importance from country to country. Democracy advocates in Burma have now set up their own Facebook page to emulate what happened in Egypt. This from The Irrawaddy:In an attempt to emulate the democratic revolution in Egypt that was sparked by a Facebook ca

Right-to-work -- a semantic flim-flam

Published on 2011-03-01 23:41:00

The latest assault on working people in this country has been a revival of advocacy for so-called “right-to-work” legislation. In most other countries, right-to-work usually suggests something positive as in a guarantee for safe and meaningful employment with fair compensation for that employment. In the United States it means something different – a semantic flim-flam.Since the enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 right-to-work laws are used to weaken labor unions that represent wo

Why unions have a crucial role to play in the United States

Published on 2011-03-01 08:20:00

Americans have mixed feelings when it comes to organized labor. According to the New York Times while a third of Americans surveyed view unions favorably and a quarter view unions unfavorably (the remainder undecided) U.S. citizens “oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent.”Labor history has certainly been messy giving many people pause but unions also represent a threat to the powerful both financial and poli

Reading the Constitution aloud and the preconceptions of what it says

Published on 2011-01-05 11:57:00

This week the United States Constitution will be read aloud in its entirety in the U.S. House of Representatives compliments of the new Republican majority leadership. This, of course, is pandering to the so-called “tea party” movement whose members claim the nation has drifted away from the rule of law established by the founding fathers during some mythical golden era. Despite all that, the reading is probably a good idea. Not only would conservative Republicans and tea-partyers learn t

Threat on debt ceiling to attack Social Security

Published on 2011-01-04 21:57:00

William K. Black explains the motives of certain congressional Republicans in threatening to refuse to approve raising the government debt ceiling in coming weeks. A significant factor in this bluff is an effort to destroy the American Social Security system.

Don't raise the age for Social Security retirement, lower it

Published on 2011-01-03 11:42:00

Demographic shifts over the decades have raised concerns about the future viability of the Social Security system in this country. Those who oppose any public retirement insurance program are not bold enough to publicly come out for its outright abolition. Rather, using the cloak of concern about the viability of the program (even when their math doesn’t add up) they argue the retirement age should simply be raised. In other words, put retirement out of reach for many people dependent upon S

The future of Israel and the West Bank: Jewish state or democratic state?

Published on 2011-01-01 11:40:00

Jeffrey Goldberg, on his blog for The Atlantic, raises a question about the future of Israel:…. there's very little Israel's right-wing government has done in the past year or so to suggest that it is willing to wean itself from its addiction to West Bank settlements, and the expansion of settlements bodes ill for the creation of a Palestinian state -- and the absence of Palestinian statehood means that Israel will one day soon confront this crucial question concerning its democratic nature: W

Drawn into two unending wars on Muslim soil we cannot afford a third with Iran

Published on 2010-12-06 09:31:00

The prospects of a nuclear armed Iran are frightening. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are the type of political leaders for whom possession of nuclear weapons is a tool to create instability and danger for immediate neighbors and, because of oil resources in the region, the world.Yet a full scale war in the region is out of the question. Talks of “surgical strikes” against Iran suggest the Iranian government would do nothing in reaction. But with major oil f

Are we following Japan’s path to inconsistent and unstable leadership?

Published on 2010-11-04 09:28:00

What do this week’s mid-term elections say about governing stability in this country and our ability to govern ourselves? This nation is fighting two different wars, is struggling with the worse economic downturn since the 1930’s, has an aging population, and is experiencing a crumbling infrastructure. Yet, the outcome of the congressional races this week means legislative gridlock for at least two years.There is no question the poor economy was a major factor in the election outcome. It