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Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mentally ill roundup plan after train pushes
[NYPOST] The city is making a major push to sweep the streets of dangerous, mentally ill New Yorkers -- and has even compiled a most-wanted list, The Post has learned.
The city's most visible lunatics will now be locked away until the ACLU gets writs of habeas corpus. Less visible mentally ill will continue walking the city streets, speaking with invisible companions and shrieking at people who don't live in their world, which is most of us.
The measure follows a pair of high-profile subway-shove fatalities from December allegedly involving mentally ill individuals.
And attention span's stretched all the way from December to February? There can't be much more left remaining.
The city has already drawn up a list of 25 targets, sources said.
"Alright, McGonigle! Tell me why this particular 25 are the worst?"
"Well, chief, you see this guy, number 11? We had him, but he gnawed through the bars and flew away."

"After the Queens subway attack [of immigrant Sunando Sen], the [city] decided to take a proactive approach
Ahah. Yes. Proactive is good.
to track down the most dangerous mental-health patients that currently have mental-hygiene warrants" out for them, a law-enforcement source said.
"Mental hygiene warrants" are served by men in white coats driving around the city with butterfly nets close at hand.
Those warrants mean that the patients are not wanted for a crime but instead are being sought because they are not getting their court-ordered treatment.
"What kinda 'court-ordered treatment,' McGruder?"
"Y'see this guy, chief? They prescribed a nice canvas jacket with very long sleeves for him, along with some nice rubber padding for the walls of his room!"

There are a handful of cops assigned to the detail,
They're known as "the guys that drew the short straws"...
which began working in the past few weeks, the source said.
"Alright, team! Let's go catch loons!"
"You go first!"
"No, you go first!"

Cops in the NYPD's Real Time Crime Center are using high-tech methods to first track down the individuals,
"What kinda 'high-tech methods?'"
"We got this computer program that tracks paths of destruction, chief. All we gotta do is fire it up and it'll tell us which way the target's moving!"
"You can't call 'em 'targets,' McGregor! That implies yer gonna shoot 'em!"
"We are, chief! See, we got these dart guns with hypodermics in 'em. All we gotta do is pull the trigger [pffft!]... Oops. Sorry, chief."
[Swoon!]

and detectives on the street have been assigned to then go after them and take them to hospitals, law-enforcement sources said.
"'Scuse us, sir! We're from the NYPD... Grab him, McMurphy!"
"Aaaiiieee!"
"McMurphy! My Gawd! Look out for his... whatever those are!"

In the past, the city Department of Health would ask cops for help finding mentally ill people who aren't taking their court-mandated meds so they could be taken to clinics. But that only applied to those who had known addresses -- and patients who went off the grid were rarely pursued, the sources said.
Because once they're off the grid they're not dangerous anymore.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like "Men in Black 4".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 1:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like a government failing at the basics.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/19/2013 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  The city's most visible lunatics will now be locked away

Will Bloomberg be considered?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/19/2013 8:39 Comments || Top||

#4  If they can find doctors for a Death Panel, they certainly can find shrinks for the Imminent Danger Panel to provide the fig leaf piece of paper to ward off the ACLU.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/19/2013 8:58 Comments || Top||

#5  I have a mental picture of keystone cops meets wile e. coyote meets The RAB before this ends.
Posted by: USN,ret || 02/19/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Mentally ill --- somebody incapable of grasping the true glory of the glorious leader?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/19/2013 9:25 Comments || Top||

#7  This won't cause any paranoia, of course.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/19/2013 14:23 Comments || Top||

#8  Sez the Bloomin' idiot hisself: "everybody in dis burg is nutz 'cept me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee".
Posted by: Rivrdog || 02/19/2013 14:44 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Alec Baldwin’s Capital One Percenter RaceCard Commercial!!
Posted by: Beavis || 02/19/2013 10:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Today's Idiot (with Down Under Language Alert)
Posted by: Grunter || 02/19/2013 09:38 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, if he's that stupid, he should just take a meat tenderizer to his privates to ensure he doesn't breed.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 02/19/2013 9:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Beauty mate!
Posted by: SAM at work. || 02/19/2013 11:02 Comments || Top||

#3  That is amazing!
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/19/2013 11:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Suffering from that well known Down under syndrome, usually caused by overindulgence in Fosters.
Posted by: tipper || 02/19/2013 11:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Had the good sense to at least protect his neck and face, for what thats worth.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/19/2013 12:02 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
South Sudan President Retires over 100 Army Generals
[An Nahar] South Sudan has retired over 100 generals as part of a sweeping restructuring of the former rebel force, in a move partly aimed at demilitarizing the fledgling nation's government, officials said Monday.

The presidential decree to retire 117 generals follows similar orders last month for 35 other generals and all six deputy army chiefs of staff.

"They all finished their time in the military service so they are retired but are paid...There must be new blood to come up for a change, because we are a new nation at last," army front man Kella Kueth told Agence La Belle France Presse.

South Sudan won independence from former civil war foe Sudan in July 2011, facing a raft of challenges to rebuild the conflict-ravaged nation, including turning a bloated guerrilla army of some 200,000 troops into a regular force.

The army absorbed several former rival rebel factions -- some once acting as proxy forces for Sudan -- as part of peace building efforts, swallowing up large chunks of the impoverished nation's budget.

Several of the generals now hold government positions, too.

"It is a way of separating the military and civilians, which the army has not been very good at for years. So it's a positive change", said one Western diplomat on condition of anonymity.

But with rebel militia forces still operating and a pension system not yet implemented, stripping army commanders of both title and salary would be a dangerous move.

"This is about cleaning up the administration and professionalizing the army, but it is a delicate process and has to be done slowly," Matthew LeRiche, an academic and expert on the former South Sudanese rebel force said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now here, I wouldn't have though South Sudan had over a 100 army generals.
I wonder how many sergeants they have...
Posted by: ed in texas || 02/19/2013 6:52 Comments || Top||

#2  None. They had all been promoted to 'general'...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/19/2013 9:52 Comments || Top||

#3  US Generals according to Wiki:

The total number of active duty general officers is capped at 230 for the Army, 208 for the Air Force, 60 for the Marine Corps.

General inflation has hit South Sudan, it appears....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/19/2013 17:12 Comments || Top||

#4  When Harry Flashman served in the army of Queen Ranavalona the First of Madagascar she appointed him Sergeant-General, and to his knowledge he was the only person to have ever held that rank.
Posted by: Grunter || 02/19/2013 23:33 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Chokri Belaid statue destroyed by vandals
[MAGHAREBIA] Vandals destroyed a statue erected in honour of slain Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid, Tunisie Numerique reported on Monday (February 18th). The Sunday night incident came just hours after Tunisian artists installed the memorial in El Menzah, the site of Belaid's killing.

"This is a criminal act. Those who did this are inhuman, they have exceeded all limits," AFP quoted Belaid's widow Besma Khalfaoui as saying.

Belaid, a fierce critic of the Ennahda-led government, was bumped off in broad daylight on February 6th. His murder sparked a public outcry in Tunisia, plunging the country into its worst political crisis since the revolution.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  I'd check the Islamic, sounds like them.
"No graven Images," Remember.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 12:32 Comments || Top||


Tunisia PM Says Plan for New Government Has failed
[An Nahar] Tunisia's Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced late on Monday that his plan for a new government of technocrats has failed, but he left the door open for compromise and did not say he would stand down.

"I say in all clarity that the initiative I presented -- that is to say, a government composed of members not belonging to any political parties -- failed to reach a consensus," Jebali said after talks with party leaders.

"Another form of government" was still a possibility, he added.

The prime minister had vowed to step down if his controversial proposal to form a non-partisan administration, designed to avert political turmoil in Tunisia but opposed by his Islamist party Ennahda, was thwarted.

"I will go tomorrow (Tuesday) to the president to discuss the next stages, but I noted progress during the political discussions in terms of seeking a consensus around another solution," Jebali said.

He said this new formula should emerge "in the coming days," adding further delays to the search for a solution to a political crisis triggered by the liquidation of a leftwing politician.

Jebali insisted that despite its failure, his initiative had at least succeeded in "getting everyone around a table" and in preventing Tunisia "from falling into the unknown."

Rached Ghannouchi, the veteran leader of Jebali's Ennahda party, said the representatives of some 15 parties had agreed at Monday's meeting on the need for a government with "political competences" and tasked with holding elections as soon as possible.

"We in Ennahda want to ensure that Jebali continues to chair (the cabinet), and so do all those who took part in this meeting," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Aziz Kirchen, representing President Moncef Marzouki's Congress for the Republic, said an agreement had been reached for "the formation of a mixed government" of politicians and technocrats, but without giving details.

Jebali first proposed his initiative in the wake of public outrage over the the murder in broad daylight of Chokri Belaid, a leftist opposition leader and fierce critic of the ruling Islamists.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  "I say in all clarity that the initiative I presented -- that is to say, a government composed of members not belonging to any political parties -- failed to reach a consensus,"

There, that ought to fool anybody.
It's screwed up enough to fool the proles.
And the Intelligent don't vote.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 1:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Boy howdy!! Nothing gets by ole Jebali does it?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/19/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez home from Cuba
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela early Monday after more than two months of treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery, his government said, triggering street celebrations by supporters who welcomed him home while he remained out of sight at Caracas' military hospital.
... in the hospice wing.
Chavez's return was announced in a series of three messages on his Twitter account, the first of them reading: "We've arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!! Thank you, beloved nation!! We will continue our treatment here."
"... until pain meds are no longer necessary."
They were the first messages to appear on Chavez's Twitter account since Nov. 1.
"Nurse! He moved!"
"Well, twitter something, man!"

"And then snow him!"
"I'm clinging to Christ and trusting in my doctors and nurses," another tweet on Chavez's account said. "Onward toward victory always!! We will live and we will triumph!!"
"We will live until we don't anymore."
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can he move yet?
Didn't think so.

Yup the operation was a success, then he died.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 1:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Commies for Christ?
Posted by: imoyaro || 02/19/2013 6:35 Comments || Top||

#3  The German word for this is "austherapiert".

This is when you send a terminally ill patient home because you can't do anything more for him. And I guess Cuba doesn't want Chávez to die in one of their splendid hospitals.
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/19/2013 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  It would be bad publicity, can't have that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 12:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Fresh coat of varnish? He's starting to smell.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/19/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#6  A preacher told us one time what the problem is with death bed conversions: He might recover.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/19/2013 17:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Lenin still looks pretty waxed fresh
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/19/2013 18:10 Comments || Top||

#8  I'd like to see the bill from Madame Tussauds.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/19/2013 20:20 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China's miltary Unit 61398 behind major hacking in the world - stealing 100sTB of data.
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/19/2013 09:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apparently, someone has a good handle on what's being stolen from where.

100 TBs? That sounds like a lot but not so much when one considers many individual users have hard drives with that much storage. It all depends on how critical the info is and what it affects?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/19/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  167 attacks on DOD networks in 7 years.
Posted by: lotp || 02/19/2013 10:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Surprise meter is stuck on zero.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/19/2013 11:26 Comments || Top||

#4  The Obumble admin has said it voice strong concern with the chicom government and will continue to do so. Peals of derisive laughter in Peking (they hate that version western name, hence it's use) ensued.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/19/2013 12:31 Comments || Top||

#5  [hackers] stayed inside hacked networks for an average of 356 days, with the longest lasting 1,764 days

Sticking around for a year is more worrying than the hack itself.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/19/2013 12:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Funny how they have no problems going outbound through the Great Firewall, huh?
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/19/2013 14:20 Comments || Top||

#7  OTOH see NEWSMAX > OBAMA TO STRIKE BACK AT CHINA FOR CYBER-ESPIONAGE | OBAMA READY TO SANCTION CHINA FOR CYBER-ATTACKS.

Iff true, I have to wonder how this will affect any US response vee ongoing China-vs-Japan islands dispute in NE Asia.

AGain, THE WORSE THE CHAOS OR ANARCHIES FOR THE USA, THE BETTER FOR ANTI-NATIONALIST, ANTI-SOVEREIGN, + ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL ANTI-US GLOBALISTS + ALIGNED AS PER OWG + NAU 2015, I.E. JUSTIFYING A US SUBORNED UNDER SAME.

E.G. WORLD NET DAILY > OBAMA ADVANCES GLOBALIST TWO-OCEAN PLAN.

Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] = US, Asia Trans-Pacific Union?; + Trans-Atlantic Trade + Investment Partnership = US, EU Trans-Atlantic Union???

Again, ideally or conceptually the OWG + NAU will have the Power-n-Authority, + $$$, not Washington DC any longer or in altern only in part. WHATEVER THE COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE "PECKING ORDER" FOR SCARCE $$$ IN 2013 + PREVIOUSLY WILL BE WORSE COME FEBRUARY 2015 OR ASAP THEREAFTER.

My belief remains steadfast that US Politicos covertly know that US-specific sovereign power-n-authority will be transferred to the OWG + NAU + any Trans/Interim in 2015 or ASAP after - THE PROB IS THEY DON'T KNOW JUST HOW MUCH, BUT THEY'RE STILL GOING TO COMMIT/BIND THE US TO SUCH ANYWAY.

By extension, ABOVE > USA = POTUS BAMMER MUST DE FACTO "LOSE" AMAP OR IN WHOLE AGZ CHINA IN NE ASIA OR EAST ASIA [ECS + SCS] EVEN IFF THE US = OBAMA SEEMINGLY "WINS".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/19/2013 23:43 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Jihad not related to terrorism, Turkish FM Davutoglu says
The taqiyya, it is thick in the air today.
[Hurriyet Daily News] There is no connection between jihad and terrorism, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said yesterday, adding that suggestions to the contrary come from American neo-cons
That is to say, Jews...
and Israelis.

"Jihad is the name of fighting for our honor if required but firstly it means fighting against our own self's limits, according to us," Davutoğlu said yesterday in Istanbul at the headquarters of the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD), where he attended the conference "Turkey in the light of international developments, 2013."

"For us, jihad is a sacred notion; let us not taint this notion by using it like neo-cons and pro-Israelis in America," Davutoğlu said while condemning an opposition party deputy who asked the Turkish government on its policy regarding the jihadist movement in Syria at a Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission meeting on Feb. 15.

Davutoğlu also criticized the particular deputy for asking question in English instead of Turkish since the session was held in the Turkish Assembly, albeit with EU officials.

"A mentality has appeared now that is tainting these notions [of jihad]; they have introduced [this usage] into our culture, and they even use it in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, which was founded with help that came from a jihad fatwa [during Turkey's Liberation War]," Davutoğlu said.

Davutoğlu also told an anecdote about a Turkish diplomat named Cihad Erginay -- who is Turkey's envoy to the Czech Republic -- in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

"His name is also jihad; the ones who greeted him in the airport were walking behind and yelled at him 'Cihat,' then everybody hits the deck," Davutoğlu said, adding that this was part of the outcome of the misunderstanding of the word jihad.

Question over al-Nusra Front

Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, Cynthia backed into the galley, the barbecue fork held in front of her. Jack! she called. Where the hell are you?...
Aykan Erdemir, a main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy told the Daily News on the phone yesterday that he was the one to ask Davutoğlu if Turkey considered the al-Nusra Front in Syria, which identifies itself a jihadist movement, as a terrorist organization like the U.S. and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
do.

"It was a yes or no question; in not answering it, he called me an Orientalist, which is total defamation. Does he also blame al-Nusra for Orientalism? Do you count this organization as a terrorist organization or not, that was the question. The Turkish public must be informed about Turkey's position," Erdemir said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "You're an Idiot" Says Redneck Jim.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Now that is some mental gymnastics that even Jilani would admire.

Does this kind of thinking cause brain damage or is it the result of brain damage?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/19/2013 10:36 Comments || Top||

#3  In other news, water is no longer considered to be 'wet'.

Film at 11 (10PM CST)
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/19/2013 12:07 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Police told to stop harassing family of accused
[Pak Daily Times] Justice Abdul Sami Khan of the Lahore High Court on Monday restrained the police from harassing the family members of an accused wanted in a number of cases.

The judge remarked that police could not harass family members of any accused, and restrained the police officials from raiding the petitioner's house in order to arrest the accused. The judge issued the direction on a petition filed by Muhammad Fiyaz of Garhi Shahu.

Counsel for the petitioner Ishtiaq Ahmad submitted that Muhammad Awais was involved in criminal activities and cases had been lodged against him in various cop shoppes. He said that due to his criminal activities, the petitioner had disinherited Awais and turned him out of his house.

He alleged that Garhi Shahu SHO Shahid Ali Gujjar and investigation head of Racecourse Police Station Ashfaq Butt were continuously raiding the petitioner's house and humiliating his daughters, wife and other family members. He submitted that the petitioner had even informed the police about Awais not living there anymore, but in vain.

The counsel alleged that police officials were demanding bribe for stopping the illegal raids on his house and threatening the family with dire consequences. He said that the petitioner had even moved applications before the police high-ups against the raids, but no one was paying heed to his problems. He requested the court to restrain the police from raiding his house and threatening his family members. He also requested the court to restrain police from humiliating women of his family members.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Science & Technology
Boeing Phamtom Eye - 10 Day Drone Endurance Using Ford Ranger Truck Engines
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/19/2013 11:32 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My FF ad-blocker Ghostery blocked this as being Brightcove.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/19/2013 11:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Worked for me, a bit heavy on hype, and damn few details, I'd class it as a second rate commercial.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 12:39 Comments || Top||

#3  well it's just for recon

so far

Posted by: lord garth || 02/19/2013 14:58 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm glad they didn't use a Chevy engine in it.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/19/2013 16:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Ranger is a recce. I would guess the weaponized version would use a F-150 engine.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/19/2013 17:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Ford's engine is a small (2 liter) 4 cylinder without much power.

They use two.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 17:38 Comments || Top||

#7  We are on our second Ford Ranger and they have hauled us all over New York City, the US and Canada for ten years now without missing a beat, so- go you good thing!
Posted by: Grunter || 02/19/2013 17:51 Comments || Top||

#8  drink up!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/19/2013 20:22 Comments || Top||

#9  sounds like the 2.0 liter originally in the Mustang II and Pinto. Good basic engines.

(must resist relating another Boeing automotive parts use, the Volt battery in the DreamFryer)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/19/2013 22:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Parliament Apologizes to Khamenei over Infighting
[An Nahar] Iran's parliament has apologized to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a heated row during an impeachment session, joining the president, speaker and chief justice in pledging obedience to the supreme leader.

Khamenei at the weekend had rebuked the deputies for their role in the squabbling that broke out in the February 3 impeachment session, during which President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad and speaker Ali Larijani got into verbal fight.

"For our part, we apologize for what happened ... during the impeachment," of the labor minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslam, said a statement signed by 265 members of the 290-seat parliament, media reported on Monday.

The parliamentarians emphasized that obedience to the leader, who had dubbed the impeachment as a "bad decision", was a "religious and legal obligation".

Following Khamenei's criticism, Ahmadinejad, the speaker and the judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani expressed "obedience" to him in separate letters, media reported.

The parliamentary row, which was broadcast on radio, came as parliament proceeded to impeach Ahmadinejad's labor minister for refusing to sack Tehran's ex-prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi as head of a wealthy social welfare organization.

In that session, Ahmadinejad played a video recording which allegedly incriminates Fazel Larijani, a brother of both the parliament speaker and the judiciary chief, who is a direct appointee of Khamenei.

Fazel is shown in the clip as allegedly trying to bribe Mortazavi in exchange for political support from the parliament and the judiciary.

Larijani in response charged that Ahmadinejad was impeding justice by shielding his inner circle from judicial investigation.

Candidates seeking reelection and those who seek to become deputies, have to be vetted by the Guardians Council, whose members are appointed by Khamenei.

The rift between Ahmadinejad and the parliament and judiciary, two bodies which are dominated by conservatives critical of his administration, first surfaced in April 2011 when the president challenged a ruling by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Home Front: Culture Wars
Chicago Teachers Union demands end of standardized testing
[DAILYCALLER] The Chicago Teachers Union urged school administrators nationwide to discontinue the use of standardized tests, deriding them as corporate tools.
"Corporates are ucky, y'know."
Not to mention it was not long ago that the Freakonomics man demonstrated he could differentiate the test results of classes taught by good teachers from those who either fed their students the right answers or those who replaced wrong answers in Chicago city schools. If I recall correctly, some Chicago teachers lost jobs over it.
The CTU recently released a report arguing that standardized tests are a faulty measure of student achievement. They also advance a pro-corporate agenda, the report said.
"We wouldn't want our kiddies to grow up and work for soulless companies!"
"Corporate interests continue to push towards a test‐centered public education system that is clearly harmful to students," according to the report.
"Students never had to take tests in the past. Why should they now?"
The union's anti-testing push is part of a broader campaign by teachers unions nationwide. Teachers at one Seattle high school recently went on strike, refusing to administer a test that they feared would be used to hold them accountable.
"If youse guys don't pass the test, it'll look like we didn't teach you nothin'!"
"But Miz Bleps, you din't teach us nothin'!"

Anti-testing efforts have also appeared in Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Oregon.
So as you can see they've taken root even in highly conservative states...
With propositions to tie teacher pay to student achievement gaining popularity among education reformers, teachers unions have stepped up efforts to end standardized testing. Without tests, administrators will have no data upon which to base merit pay for teachers.
"But really, it's a matter of principle!"
Opposition to standardized tests put teachers unions at odds with reformers on the left. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost a merit pay battle with the CTU in September. And President Obama has supported policies that reward states for evaluating teachers based on students' test scores.
"But that's, like, outcome-based education! It's corporate!"
But teachers unions have found a key ally in their push to abolish tests: the students themselves.
"No tests? Kewl!"
Posted by: Fred || 02/19/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Why should WE work for our pay?"
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/19/2013 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Why am I not surprised?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/19/2013 5:02 Comments || Top||

#3  The answer is to get the government out of teaching!

It's a total failure.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/19/2013 5:48 Comments || Top||

#4  perhaps instead the students could be evaluated on the logic and spelling in their tweets and text messages
Posted by: lord garth || 02/19/2013 5:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Please add government "means testing" to the prohibition. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/19/2013 6:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Fire 'em all and replace them with the first x number of names in the phone book. Couldn't be worse and would likely be better.
Posted by: Spot || 02/19/2013 7:57 Comments || Top||

#7  No need for testing. No need for teaching. No need for anyone to hire the output of today's Chicago public school system.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/19/2013 8:10 Comments || Top||

#8  The only testing that should be done is the testing of the marketplace when the kiddies leave school.

You got a good job that you wanted? You pass.
You can't get hired for anything more complicated than asking "want fries with that"? You failed.

Posted by: Alanc || 02/19/2013 8:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Opposition to standardized tests put teachers unions at odds with reformers on the left. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost a merit pay battle with the CTU in September.

Irony at its finest. No wonder the home schooling movement keeps growing. One can't trust public education.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/19/2013 8:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Of course the military uses standardize tests in their school systems. They seem satisfied with the tool in accessing student progress. Of course, in their environment 'Go - No Go' training can have a terminal effect out in practice.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/19/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#11  No tests? That's like having a football or basketball game without a score. Why bother? For unions, teachers and students, the work is much easier by not bothering with testing. However, when the student gets out, someone is going to have to evaluate their capabilities/performance somewhere down the line. Imagine a pilot, brain surgeon, ship's captain, welder, construction worker, engineer, soldier, teacher, etc. not having any checks along the way in his/her education; CHAOS.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/19/2013 9:20 Comments || Top||

#12  Indoctrinating children with Marx just cannot be tested.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/19/2013 10:00 Comments || Top||

#13  Indoctrinating children with Marx just cannot be tested.

If only it were Marx.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/19/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Hmmm, teachers going on strike?

Reminds me of the philosophers' strike in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The only difference is the philosophers were actually doing something.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/19/2013 10:40 Comments || Top||

#15  No need for testing. No need for teaching. No need for anyone to hire the output of today's Chicago public school system.

Somehow I think the taxpayers will end up being the employer of choice.
Posted by: lotp || 02/19/2013 10:56 Comments || Top||

#16  "But here we are at a time in the world, the information age, the age of technology, and yet 30% of people who enter high school in this country do not graduate. 44% of people who start a four-year college program do not finish it in four years. What is that about? Think back to a darker time in this our history. Two hundred years ago when slavery was going on it was illegal to educate a slave, particularly to teach them to read. Why do you think that was? Because when you educate a man, you liberate a man." World Renowned African America Neurosurgeon Ben Carson - National Prayer Breakfast

Hussein and his Marxist comrades intends to enslave the people of America. No better place to start than to replace knowledge with socialist dogma in the minds of our children.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/19/2013 11:12 Comments || Top||

#17 
Posted by: Nero || 02/19/2013 14:52 Comments || Top||

#18  Nero, ya wanna put a warning on that, NSFV (not safe for viewing)?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/19/2013 15:20 Comments || Top||

#19  Ching batto unt mighty pension.

Uh uh uh uh uhhh.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/19/2013 16:14 Comments || Top||

#20  Nero---she has wintered well.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/19/2013 16:27 Comments || Top||

#21  nero - talking about busting Fred's bandwidth - you shattered it!
Posted by: illeagle || 02/19/2013 16:40 Comments || Top||

#22  LOL AP, never get in front of school teacher in a free buffet line. You may trust me completely in this matter.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/19/2013 16:42 Comments || Top||

#23  Shipman, the equivalent of getting between a camera and a politician?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/19/2013 17:02 Comments || Top||

#24  Fire 'em all and replace them with the first x number of names in the phone book.

Some teachers support these policies but make no mistake – many don’t. This about Unions NOT teachers.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/19/2013 19:47 Comments || Top||



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Tue 2013-02-19
  Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
Mon 2013-02-18
  Five killed in attack at government office in Peshawar
Sun 2013-02-17
  Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer
Sat 2013-02-16
  Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Fri 2013-02-15
  Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured
Thu 2013-02-14
  Pakistan asks Taliban to announce 30-day cease-fire for talks
Wed 2013-02-13
  Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo
Tue 2013-02-12
  KCNA confirms: Pudgy sets off a nuke
Mon 2013-02-11
  Seven killed, 11 injured in attacks across southern Thailand
Sun 2013-02-10
  Syrian troops, rebels clash over Damascus highway
Sat 2013-02-09
  India Executes Man Convicted in 2001 Attack on Parliament
Fri 2013-02-08
  Suicide bomber hits north Mali, troops clash in capital
Thu 2013-02-07
  Syrian Army Launches 'All-Out Attack' on Capital Region
Wed 2013-02-06
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Tue 2013-02-05
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