Help Send Two Kids to Uganda to Build a School

Schools around the country are competing to send two of their students to Uganda to help build a school for the "Invisible Children" of Uganda. These "Invisible Children" are children who are at risk of being abducted by rebels there and forced to work as soldiers. With your help, though, these children might be able to go to school instead.

You can also help give two Long Island students a life changing experience. Two students at Calhoun High School could win a trip to Africa if the school raises the most money in the country and I hear they are close. The contest ends at midnight tonight. (Sorry for the short notice, I should have let you know sooner). View the video about "Invisible Children," then if you are moved click here to donate and select "Sanford H. Calhoun" as the school that motivated you to donate. The students there have worked really hard all year to help the "Invisible Children," and they want to win the contest, so they can continue to help by building a school in Uganda.

Watch an intro to the "Invisible Children" video.

The "Invisible Children" campaign really shows the power of the internet. Three young men from California travel to Africa on a shoe string budget with modest cameras and come back to the U.S. and raise awareness of the issue of child soldiers and enough money to build a few schools in Africa.

Whether you decide to make this your cause or not, you should be inspired by what everyday kids can do with energy, cameras, the internet, some imagination, and good hearts.

Rethinking Hillary

Editor' s Note: This is an excerpt of a longer article about Hillary Clinton's circle of advisers, which will appear May 16 in the print version of The Nation.

As Hillary Clinton charges toward the Democratic nomination for President, her campaign has a coterie of influential advisers. There's her husband, of course, widely regarded as one of the sharpest political strategists in the business. There's über-Washington insider and former head of the Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe. There are A-list policy wonks like former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin. But perhaps the most important figure in the campaign is her pollster and chief strategist, Mark Penn, a combative workaholic. Penn is not yet a household name, but perhaps he should be. Inside Hillaryland, he has elaborately managed the centrist image Hillary has cultivated in the Senate. The campaign is polling constantly, and Penn's interpretation of the numbers will in large part decide her political direction.

Yet Penn is no ordinary pollster. Beyond his connections to the Clintons, he not only polls for America's biggest companies but also runs one of the world's premier PR agencies. This creates a dilemma for Hillary: Penn represents many of the interests whose influence candidate Clinton--in an attempt to appeal to an increasingly populist Democratic electorate--has vowed to curtail. Is what's good for Penn and his business good for Hillary's political career? And furthermore, can she convincingly claim to fight for the average American with Penn guiding strategy in her corner?

...Penn, who had previously worked in the business world for companies like Texaco and Eli Lilly, brought his corporate ideology to the White House. After moving to Washington he aggressively expanded his polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland (PSB). It was said that Penn was the only person who could get Bill Clinton and Bill Gates on the same phone line. Penn's largest client was Microsoft, and he saw no contradiction between working for both the plaintiff and the defense in what was at the time the country's largest antitrust case. ...

A host of prominent Republicans fall under Penn's purview. B-M's Washington lobbying arm, BKSH & Associates, is run by Charlie Black, a leading GOP operative who maintains close ties to the White House, including Karl Rove, and was former partners with Lee Atwater, the political consultant who crafted the Willie Horton smear campaign used by George H.W. Bush against Michael Dukakis in 1988. Black regularly disparages the Clintons; he has called Hillary a "martyr figure" and said Bill "tearfully embraced...government preferences for [a] homosexual lifestyle." In recent years Black's clients have included the likes of Iraq's Ahmad Chalabi, the darling of the neocon right in the run-up to the war; Lockheed Martin; and Occidental Petroleum. In the summer of 2005 he landed a contract with the Lincoln Group, the disgraced PR firm that covertly placed US military propaganda in Iraqi news outlets. The agreement, according to Intelligence Online, allowed the Lincoln Group to "tap into BKSH's extensive contacts in the Republican administration."

...Yet despite occupying such a divisive place in the Democratic Party and outsized role in the corporate world--and despite his company's close ties to Republican political operatives and the Bush White House--Penn remains a leading figure in Hillary's campaign, pitching the inevitability of her nomination to donors and party bigwigs. According to the New York Times, "[Hillary] Clinton responds to Penn's points with exclamations like, Oh, Mark, what a smart thing to say!" Politically, his presence means that triangulation is alive and well inside the campaign and that despite her populist forays, Hillary won't stray too far from the center. "Penn has a lot of influence on her, no doubt about it," says New York political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who worked with Penn in '96

Read the complete article...

Help the Early Childhood Workforce!

From Winning Beginning, NY, an early childhood education advocacy group:

Early childhood advocates from across the state met recently with legislators in Albany for Early Childhood Workforce Development Day to urge passage of important loan forgiveness legislation.

Assembly bill 6759 and Senate bill 4378 would enable the early childhood workforce to pursue more education and credentials and improve the quality of the education our youngest learners receive.

Unfortunately, this legislation is currently stalled in the Codes and Higher Education Committees – and WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MOVE THESE BILLS TO THE FLOOR FOR A VOTE!

Here's what YOU can do:

1. Simply call your Senator Dean Skelos at (518) 455-3171 and your Assembly Member Harvey Weisenberg at (518) 455-3028.

2. Tell them:



To support Assembly bill 6759/ Senate bill 4378, loan forgiveness legislation for the early childhood workforce.


That quality child care requires qualified professionals working with our children.


This legislation would allow the early childhood workforce to continue their education and become better educators - and benefit children in their programs.
3. After you've made your calls, click here and report back to us!

These two bills would make awards of up to a total of $25,000 available for professionals who have engaged in 12 months of service as a child care professional in a licensed day care facility and who have an outstanding loan. Math, science and special education teachers have loan forgiveness programs—why not those who teach our youngest learners?

Every call makes a difference. Alert parents in your programs, friends, colleagues and neighbors to join the Call-in for Loan Forgiveness TODAY! Direct them to the Winning Beginning NY website for call-in instructions so they too can have a voice!


Sincerely,

Jenn O’Connor, Winning Beginning NY

Stop CBS's Anti-War Censorship

This is the ad that got General Batiste fired. Worth a look!

From MoveOn.org:

It took CBS two weeks to fire Don Imus for calling a college women's basketball team "nappy headed hos," but it only took them two days to fire respected retired Major General John Batiste for speaking out against the president on the war.

Batiste, a Republican, commanded troops in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He left the Army so that he could speak out against the president's reckless policy in Iraq, and CBS hired him as a part-time consultant to comment about it.1 Last week, he appeared in a VoteVets.org TV ad speaking out against the president on Iraq. Just two days later, CBS fired him.2

It's censorship, pure and simple. We're aiming to get over 100,000 messages demanding that CBS re-hire Major General John Batiste by the end of the week. Can you take a moment to add your name? Add your name to the petition.


CBS says they fired Major General Batiste because he engaged in advocacy—but they're holding him to a different standard than their other consultants.

For example, former White House communications director Nicolle Wallace is a consultant to CBS and consistently uses her position to push White House talking points.3 It was even reported that she was advising the McCain campaign, yet CBS did nothing when she appeared as a consultant on their network to promote his candidacy.4

Plus, the Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon also appeared on CBS as a consultant while advocating in favor of President Bush's escalation plan.5

CBS is sending a message that you can't be a consultant to their network if you're critical of President Bush and the Iraq war. That's political censorship and CBS needs to hear groundswell of outrage from concerned viewers right away.

Can you sign the petition demanding that CBS re-hire Major General Batiste?

Major General John Batiste is not the first general to speak out against the president on Iraq. Recently a number of generals and military leaders have spoken out against President Bush's failed policy—including Reagan's former NSA director, General William Odom, Vietnam veteran Major General Mel Montano and another former general from Iraq—retired Major General Paul Eaton.6

These generals must be heard, not censored for speaking the truth.

Thanks for all you do,

–Nita, Noah, Karin, Jennifer and the Moveon.org Political Action Team
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

Don Cheadle States "Not on Our Watch!" in His New Book

Click here to listen to Don Cheadle's NPR interview about his new book "Not on Our Watch," about how to stop the genocide in Darfur.

The Hillary We Don't Know

Wow! I got this pretty powerful video on Hillary from Bill Clinton today. It really shows how Hillary has spent her lifetime working to help the poor and children in need. In addition to having a good heart, she is such a brilliant politican, which I know turns some people off, but I think she'd be a really effective president. She sure knows how to play the game and get things done.

Peaceful Nations Begin at Home: Happy Mothers' Day

My pastor today gave an incredible sermon about the history of Mothers' Day. I never knew that Mothers' Day originated in a mother's desire for peace after seeing the carnage of the U.S. Civil War. The story is an inspiring reminder of the power of a mother's love! So I did a little research to share the history of Mothers' Day with you and in the process found out that a group of U.S. mothers are working together to help bring Iraqi children, now victims of war to the U.S. for medical treatment. The group they created is called, "No More Victims." If you'd like to help with that or donate, click here for the link.

In the United States, Mother's Day was originally suggested by poet and social activist Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, after witnessing the carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the Franco-Prussian War, she wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. This "Mother's Day Proclamation" would plant the seed for what would eventually become a national holiday.

After writing the proclamation, Howe had it translated into many languages and spent the next two years of her life distributing it and speaking to women leaders all over the world. In her book Reminiscences, Howe wrote, "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" She devoted much of the next two years to this cause, and began holding annual "Mother's Day" gatherings in Boston, Massachusetts and elsewhere.

In 1907, thirty-seven years after the proclamation was written, women's rights activist Anna Jarvis began campaigning for the establishment of a nationally observed Mother¹s Day holiday. And in 1914, four years after Howe's death, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day as a national holiday.

Julia Ward Howe was a poet, writer and activist who fought vigilantly for peace, the abolition of slavery, and women's rights.

In the years leading up to the Civil War, she co-published The Commonwealth, an abolitionist newspaper, with her husband Samuel Gridley Howe. In 1860, she penned the Battle Hymn of The Republic to inspire Union soldiers fighting in the war. The song became a rallying cry for the Union throughout the war, and remains her most famous work.

The horrors of the war moved her to campaign tirelessly for peace. She served as president of the American branch of the Women's International Peace Association, and in 1870 she wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation. Julia Ward Howe was also instrumental in the women's suffrage movement. She was a co-founder of the American Woman Suffrage Association and served as
editor of Woman's Journal. Her influence on the movement ranks her alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody Stanton as one of the most important voices of the period.

In recognition of her tremendous effect on American culture and history, Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to the American Association of Arts and Letters in 1908. A true American pioneer, Julia Ward Howe remains one of the most influential figures in the history of both the civil and women's rights movements.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,

Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Source: http://mothersdayforpeace.com/history.php

Desert Soldier

I received this video today via youtube. I think it's from Australia. It's an admirable musical statement against the war in Iraq. Worth a listen.

Change No Child Left Behind and Improve Education

From www.ucctakeaction.org/

The federal education law, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is scheduled for its five-year reauthorization in 2007, and this month the Senate and House committees responsible for education policy are starting to craft the structure and language for the reauthorization. While the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries and many of our ecumenical partners have affirmed the law’s stated goals of holding high expectations for all children and closing achievement gaps, we believe the law should not be reauthorized unless Congress addresses serious questions about how NCLB’s specific programs have been affecting public schools:

• While the law should set ambitious expectations for all children, the reauthorized NCLB should measure and honor growth in each child’s learning, not just average group scores.
• The reauthorized NCLB should reduce reliance on standardized testing and consider additional ways students can demonstrate learning.
• The reauthorized NCLB should shift the focus from punishing public schools and blaming teachers to strengthening school communities and supporting teachers.
• In the reauthorized NCLB, Congress should fully fund all the programs the law mandates.

NCLB should set ambitious and yet reachable goals, end labeling of children, blaming of teachers and stigmas for schools, take steps to develop programs that will improve the capacity of every school to serve children, and be fully funded by the federal government. To write to your senators and congressional representatives to tell them that NCLB needs to be fixed, click www.ucctakeaction.org/NCLB .

For more talking points on this issue, please refer to the following faith-based resources:

Ten Moral Concerns in the Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act

FIXING No Child Left Behind Talking Points

Despite insults, we will not sell off our schools, Mr. Boortz

FOX WAR ON AMERICA


I fear that Neal Boortz’s comments are part of an active campaign to discredit public schools and public school teachers, so that a small group of businessmen have an excuse to privatize our public schools, turn them into charter schools, and profit off them.

I became increasingly concerned about this after my trip to New Orleans last summer.

In “Privatizing New Orleans’ Schools: Coming to a City Near You,” Leigh Davis writes:

Within days of Katrina, Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) convened a special meeting of the state legislature to talk about a takeover of the Orleans Parish Public School District, a district with a half-billion dollar budget serving New Orleans,…(according to), Nat LaCour, secretary treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers…

A few months later, the state legislature passed legislation giving the state control of 107 of New Orleans' 128 public schools, by placing them under the authority of the Recovery School District (RSD).

Orleans Parish's public schools have now been divided into three categories: public, charter, and the Recovery School District. A school receives the RSD designation if it is categorized as "failing," in some cases receiving the label only after a change in criteria since the hurricane. RSD schools are then managed by the state, not the local school board, and may be turned over to private foundations or other groups to be run as charter schools. Of the 57 public schools set to operate in New Orleans this school year, more than 30 are charter schools

.

In the Texas Legislature, a bill, H.R. 2, is still in the Senate Finance Committee, but passed overwhelmingly last month in the Texas House of Representatives. This bill “includes a provision that would allow the state education commissioner to turn over to private education companies schools that have performed in the bottom 5 percent of all Texas public schools for two years in a row – even if those lowest performing schools actually were rated by the state as academically acceptable.” (Texas Freedom Network website).

Perhaps it is not surprising that Neal Boortz and his circle would put profits before students.

According to mediamatters.org:

On the October 14 broadcast of his daily radio show, Neal Boortz stated that if the country is faced with an impending national disaster, it should make it a higher priority to save rich Americans rather than poor Americans. "We should save the rich people first," Boortz declared. "You know, they're the ones that are responsible for this prosperity."

Boortz certainly doesn’t seem to care about working folk.

On his August 3rd radio show Boortz described adult minimum-wage earners as "incompetent," "ignorant," "stupid," "worthless," and "pathetic," Neal Boortz again smeared them, calling adult minimum-wage earners "100 percent pure unadulterated loser[s]." (mediamatters.org).

He had no sympathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

On his radio show, Neal Boortz stated that "[s]o many" of the victims of Hurricane Katrina "have turned out to be complete bums, just debris," and called "thousands" "deadbeat[s]." (mediamatters.org)

He would have denied help to the survivors of the Columbine shooting.

From the August 4 edition of Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal Boortz Show:
Nationally syndicated radio host Neal Boortz said schools should never provide psychological counseling for students, even after a traumatic incident such as the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, because providing counseling "is just all part of an effort to ... engrain in the American people this idea that the government is responsible for everything." (mediamatters.org).

And while it may be completely unreliable, a wikipedia entry about Boortz claims that

Boortz believes that ADD and ADHD are "medical frauds" and a scam that teachers, parents, and drug companies use.[14][15] …Boortz controversially refers to public education as "tax payer funded child abuse" and accuses parents of child abuse for sending their children off to government schools.[19” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Boortz)

If you are not convinced that charter schools are more about profits than education just check out the press releases announcing the recent hires at Edison Schools, the leading Charter School Company.

Terry Stecz, President, CEO, Edison Schools

From Edison Schools Press Release:

“Before joining Edison, Stecz served as President Consumer Healthcare,Americas, for Pharmacia, a $14B healthcare company with products that included Celebrex and Nicorette. During his tenure at Pharmacia, Terry played a key role in establishing the division as one of the fastest growing in operating profits and revenue in its industry. Prior to Pharmacia, Stecz spent more than 19 years at American Home Products, a $16B pharmaceutical enterprise where he rose rapidly through the ranks. By 1990, Stecz was President of A.H.Robins and by 1994, President of Whitehall Robins, a $1.4B division of AHP that produces market leaders Advil and Centrum. Stecz also served as President of Alberto Culver USA, Inc. (consumer products).

Edison Founder and CEO Chris Whittle commented on Stecz's appointment, "We are extremely pleased to have someone with Terry's strong, proven business background join Edison's senior management team. As we continue to grow, his operational expertise and business building experiences will further strengthen Edison's ability to deliver high quality schools, services and products to schools and districts across the country."

Edison Schools President Chris Cerf added, "Terry is a superb addition to Edison. His track record as an accomplished business executive is extraordinary, and I am equally impressed by his passion for and commitment to our educational mission."

Stecz is no doubt an “accomplished business executive,” but has he ever even taken an education course? He might even have “passion” about good education, but he clearly has no experience in the field. It seems obvious that Edison’s priority is profits, not learning.

J. Roberto Gutierrez, Senior Vice President For Public Affairs and Communication


NEW YORK, Feb 13, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- New York-based Edison Schools, the largest private manager of U.S. and U.K. public schools, today announced the appointment of J. Roberto Gutierrez, 49, as Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Communication, effective February 12, 2007.

In this newly created post, Mr. Gutierrez will direct all of Edison Schools' corporate communications and public affairs, encompassing media relations, marketing communications, community development and policy strategy. …

Gutierrez joins Edison Schools from The Dilenschneider Group, where he was a Principal of the firm, counseling several global corporations and organizations on issues of policy, corporate branding, community outreach and Hispanic marketing. Prior to that, from 2002 to 2005, he was Vice President for Public Affairs and Communication for the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, where he directed the university's communications and public affairs initiatives.

Before joining Notre Dame, Gutierrez co-founded, in 1982, and served as CEO and President of HTN, Inc., Hispanic Telecommunications Network, located in San Antonio, Texas, a national media and production agency that broadcast weekly public interest television programs. In 1999, Gutierrez was awarded a prestigious honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Notre Dame for his body of work in broadcast media. (prnewswire).

Gutierrez appears to be an accomplished businessman with a talent for creating good PR. It would appear that Edison’s goal is to brand and sell “its product” to the Latino community.

Unfortunately, Boortz is just one of a strongly organized and well-funded group looking to bash public education for the financial gain of a few. Teachers unions are one of the few groups willing and able to speak out against this and to put up a credible fight against the privatization of our public school system. This is exactly why our teachers unions are being demonized by the likes of Mr. Boortz.