In Defense Of Juan Williams

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Thursday October 21, 2010 · 12:07 PM PDT

2010/10/21 · 12:07

Juan Williams was clearly trying to defend Muslims on the O'Rielly show. For that reason his firing was poorly timed, if not a bad idea all together. As one of the token liberals on Fox, he has provided more than the minimal of balance to the Obama slander fest. He has defended Obama against many absurd attacks on that network. In the wake of the Gates incident and Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist, he was a voice of reason. A rare ethnic minority moderate liberal voice amongst majority middle America conservatives. I appreciate his role on that network even if he is not as progressive as the rest of us. For the most part I am shocked Fox even lets him speak, since he is more willing to confront them than most other token liberals, who seem too shy away from conflict at nearly every opportunity.

On O'Rielly he was doing just that. Talking down the crazies from their extreme positions and trying to get them to moderate their views. Williams was doing his best to bring people over to our point of view. We should defend him, as should Muslims Americans for whom he lost his job in the defense of.

Poll

211 votes Show Results

Does Juan Williams deserve to be fired for this particular offense?

211 votes Vote Now!

Does Juan Williams deserve to be fired for this particular offense?

Yes

66 votes

107 votes

Yes for previous statements but this is good enough reason as any of those

38 votes

"Reality check: Iran is not a nuclear threat" Christian Science Monitor

edtastic

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Saturday September 18, 2010 · 2:01 PM PDT

2010/09/18 · 14:01

This honest peace in the Christian Science Monitor attempts to expose the media's "Bomb Iran Campaign" reminiscent of the WMD scare leading up to the Iraq War. We should not be complacent about war mongering because we all know the consequences by now. In Iraq hundreds of thousands of people have died by conservative estimates and 2.4 million were made into refugees. We don't spend much time recollecting the consequences in our short attention span news cycle but we should not be so complacent as to let the march to war happen all over again. I can clearly recall George W. Bush advocating removing Sadam during the 2000 presidential campaign and little did I know he was actually going to make it happen. Back then it seemed like idle crazy talk from macho posturing conservative, when in reality it was far more than mere threat.

Politicians, lobbyists, and propagandists have spent nearly two decades pushing the lie that Iran poses a nuclear weapons threat to the United States and Israel. After a brief respite in the intensity of the wolf cries over the past two years, the neoconservative movement has decided to relaunch the “Must Bomb Iran” brand.

edtastic

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Friday July 23, 2010 · 5:33 PM PDT

2010/07/23 · 17:33

After decades of excuses we are finally seeing leaders put the interest of children ahead of the staff paid to teach them. We don't need to keep employees with poor performance in the public or private sector when there are those who can do the job better left unemployed. If we have to layoff teachers, then let us keep the best and not just those who had the job longer.

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system that, for the first time, holds some educators accountable for student growth on standardized test scores.

I think it was a good move for many reasons. First the teachers were fired based on performance including student improvement. Second seniority was not the main factor, they simply did not fire the newest hires like New York City and other school systems who had layoffs. This has the added benefit of reducing the total number of teachers being dismissed because of the salary difference between senior teachers and new hires.

Poll

245 votes Show Results

Do you agree with Michelle Rhee's firing of under performing teachers?

245 votes Vote Now!

Do you agree with Michelle Rhee's firing of under performing teachers?

Yes

100 votes

101 votes

Maybe

44 votes

Discussing Merit Pay for Teachers Part 2 with, Links, Quotes, and Sources

edtastic

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Friday May 28, 2010 · 2:51 PM PDT

2010/05/28 · 14:51

I recently wrote a diary titled "The hypocrisy of "Teachers Against Merit Pay". I must admit that title is inflammatory, but that is what I set out to demonstrate using some simple comparisons between teacher evaluation , student's test driven academic careers along side the wider world of performance incentives in the private sector. Teachers have strong feelings about the matter, but that did not excuse the unrelenting personal attacks from teachers and their supporters.

I debate issues because I have a point of view and a seek to learn more about it from those who support and oppose those views. In between the accusations of bias due to bad school experiences and the pretentious dismissal of my opinions as a result of my minimal time in front of a classroom, there was some actual debate.

Poll

59 votes Show Results

What version of Merit Pay would you like to see?

59 votes Vote Now!

What version of Merit Pay would you like to see?

Pay incentives exclusively to the Teacher of the student

6 votes

Pay incentives for the Teacher with smaller portions going to previous Teachers of the student.

2 votes

Pay incentives shared between the Teacher and all the other Teachers in the school.

1 vote

Pay incentives targeted at Parents and Teachers

0 votes

Pay Incentives for Teachers and Administrators

5 votes

Pay Students for Performance

3 votes

On the Fence

5 votes

NO MERIT PAY

37 votes

The hypocrisy of "Teachers Against Merit Pay"

edtastic

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Wednesday May 26, 2010 · 8:22 PM PDT

2010/05/26 · 20:22

Students and their parents are accustomed merit based rewards. They and their children live in a world where increased performance at a given task delivers corresponding greater rewards. This could be at work, or at school. These systems are there to incentivise high performance in order to increase overall performance. It assumed these systems are fair albiet imperfect. A students may have a lousy teacher, and a parent might have a incompetent boss or employer. This does not remove the burden of performance from the individual. It is assumed regardless of the circumstances they must prevail. We laud the dedication of such acheivers who overcome adversity in order to achieve.

Poll

157 votes Show Results

Do you support test based Merit Pay?

157 votes Vote Now!

Do you support test based Merit Pay?

Yes

25 votes

117 votes

On the Fence

15 votes

Roger Cohen "past persecution of the Jews cannot be a license to subjugate another people"

edtastic

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Friday February 12, 2010 · 9:23 PM PST

2010/02/12 · 21:23

Roger Cohen has been creeping toward openly stating a objective view of the situation in Israel. Recently he has made a major step in declaring the obvious. To be objective in viewing the situation one only need to remove the ethnic labels and distorted histories and only look at the relationship between two groups of human beings. Everyday a child is born in Gaza,the West Bank, and Israel. These children are born with no animus toward the other. The adults in these places teach them ethnicity, religion, some distorted history, and finally hate for the other whom they blame for past wrongs. This cycle is not new, and it is not inevitable.

Link to the article

Poll

168 votes Show Results

Do you support a Jewish state even if it means apartheid for Palestinians?

168 votes Vote Now!

Do you support a Jewish state even if it means apartheid for Palestinians?

Yes

26 votes

142 votes

Iran: Morning Joe Manufacturing Consent

edtastic

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Friday September 25, 2009 · 6:25 AM PDT

2009/09/25 · 06:25

They are trying to turn Iran into the greatest threat on earth, just like Iraq, oh yeah and Afghanistan, and Vietnam, and Korea... Who else do we need to bomb again? Why are we always being baited into battle by our media regardless of the reality of the threat. How ridiculous is it to be threatened by Iran after staring down the USSR for 50 years with thousands of ICBM's pointed at each other on a hair trigger replete with fleets of bombers and submarines just in case the missiles did not get the job done. After that we suppose to be afraid of a nation so backwards it can't even manage to produce it's own gasoline? A nation that they say is 15 years away from even producing an ICBM.

Meanwhile the supposedly threatened nation of Israel has a loads of nuclear weapons that can hit Europe, but pay no mind to their internal political instability caused by a large oppressed population waiting for a chance to take back their land.

Poll

60 votes Show Results

Should we oppose all talk of War with Iran?

60 votes Vote Now!

Should we oppose all talk of War with Iran?

Yes, because we can crush them with ease thus they are not a serious threat

12 votes

Yes , because of the human impact

23 votes

No, Israel needs the right to bomb it's neighbors at will

4 votes

No, America needs to bomb people thousands of miles away at will

0 votes

No, The world is dangerous as George Bush said it was so let us "Preemptive Strike" or "Regime Change" whenever we get nervous

2 votes

No, Obama says all options still on the table

19 votes

Lieberman: U.S. to accept any Israeli policy decision

edtastic

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Wednesday April 22, 2009 · 9:11 PM PDT

2009/04/22 · 21:11

I have not been in the habbit of writing diaries, but it seems like too much of the bad news about Israel slips through the cracks. On a site devoted to electing democrats and the discussion of things related to politics I think it is appropriate to remain informed about these things.

I don't think there is any political advantage to be gained by not being extremly pro Israel other than appearing to be more courageous and independent than other politicians on the national stage. Nonetheless I feel holding true to progressive humanistic thinkinging is virtuous and will lead America and humanity in a better direction. We should learn the good the bad and the ugly about our influential ally. Undoubtedly, I will focus on the bad and the ugly with the exception of protest for peace in Israel which also fail to get coverage.

Now for the meat I will start you off with a link to the article in Haaretz the liberal Israeli Newspaper which is bolder than anything mainstream in America when it comes to discussing these issues. Haaretz (Lieberman: U.S. to accept any Israeli policy decision )

Poll

186 votes Show Results

Does Israel have too much influence in America

186 votes Vote Now!

Does Israel have too much influence in America

Yes

155 votes

24 votes

Their influence is irrelavent to ask is Anti Semetic

7 votes

Huffington Post Censors Provocative Discussion

edtastic

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Wednesday August 13, 2008 · 8:44 AM PDT

2008/08/13 · 08:44

I will first reveal my bias, I do not like censorship. I am a fervent believer in free speech, the freedom to offend, and the freedom to provoke. If you can't survive an open debate then I don't think your arguments are up to snuff. Those who need to hide behind a wall of officialdom for credibility should stay in print media, and avoid giving out there email address.

Huffington Post is a moderated blog, also known as a censorship by rules. Censorship itself is not always an impediment to the free exchange of ideas. By removing foul language a person should be able to make more or less the same point they would have otherwise, while enhancing the argument past the realm of the emotional response. By removing spam and repeated postings, and keeping users on topic you insure the people are not forced to read pages of unrelated useless material or a single persons opinion blanketing a site.

The problem comes when you start to censor thoughts and attitudes regardless of the language or relevance to the topic.

Poll

80 votes Show Results

Should Huffington Post be User Moderated like DailyKos?

80 votes Vote Now!

Should Huffington Post be User Moderated like DailyKos?

Absolutlely

37 votes

You can't trust the general public

9 votes

I prefer a hybrid system with user and central moderation

23 votes

It would hurt the standing of Huffington Post to let the unwashed masses speak freely

11 votes

Bill Moyer going to have Pastor Wright next week

edtastic

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Friday April 18, 2008 · 7:09 PM PDT

2008/04/18 · 19:09

Bill Moyers at the end of his show today announced he would be interviewing Pastor Wright. This would be the first interview with Pastor Wright since the scandal broke. We can all rest easy, he is in good hands.

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