Tidbits and Announcements - March 20, 2012

 * Re: The Racist History of the Charter School Movement
   (Bruce Smith) 
 * re: Circle of Clowns (Marvin Man dell) 
 * Re: UN Asked to Investigate Voter Disfranchisement in US
   (Olivetti Anderson) 
 * Re: 'I Am Trayvon Martin' (Tim   Newman) 
 * Re: 'Red Deer Cave People' May Be New Species of Human 
   (Rebecca Gordon) 
 * Re: Wake Up Congress; Before the Next Collapse 
   (Richard Rosenthal) 
 * Re: Friday Mite Videos - March 16, 2012 - Faces of Change: A Skeptic's Story on
   Health Care Reform (David Ecklein and Marcos J Santiago) 
 * Join Us For a National Day of Action - March 22nd - Bay
   Area

 ==========

 * Re: The Racist History of the Charter School Movement

 Great story.  I'm old enough to remember "massive
 resistance" to desegregation in Virginia and the launching
 of the private "segregated" school movement in the 1950s,
 and I try to remind people here about the history of such
 schools as, at best, an escape for the economically and
 socially privileged from public schools which require them
 to "mix" with regular people.  Allowing such schools to
 receive public funds creates first and second class publicly
 funded schools and will subvert our attempt to create
 excellent public schools for all children in the US. Charter
 schools and other experimental approaches can work as long
 as they are part of the regular public school system,
 employees are all regarded and paid the same and testing
 requirements are the same.

 There is a huge, related problem with the standardized
 testing regime that we have been saddled with for the past
 10-12 years, and if you look at it closely, the massive
 testing requirement appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to
 subvert education.  In Virginia, whenever we are faced with
 a new attempt to provide public funding to private/charter
 schools, we just make sure they are required to take the
 same anti-educational test that all kids in public schools
 are subjected to.  At that point the private school
 advocates always say "No Thanks."  Is anyone doing any
 research into the damage that the standardized testing
 (accountability) movement is doing to our public schools?
 That would be interesting.

 Keep up the good work,

 Bruce Smith, Woodbridge, VA

 ==========

 * re: Circle of Clowns

 In 1936 at a public confrontation with the philosopher
 Miguel de Unman, the Fascist commander of the Spanish
 Legion, Jose Millán-Astray reportedly responded: "¡Mu era la
 intelligence! ¡Viva la Mere!("Death to intelligence! Long
 live death!"), provoking applause from the Collagists.

 Marvin Mandell

 ==========

 * Re: UN Asked to Investigate Voter Disfranchisement in US

 Racism made you rise, racism will make you fall, oh America.

 Olivetti 'the poet warrior' Anderson

 ==========

 * Re: 'I Am Trayvon Martin'

 Trayvon Martin's parents have also started a petition signed
 by almost half a million people here:
 http://www.change.org/trayvon

 Tim Newman
 Senior Campaigner, Economic Justice
 http://economicjustice.change.org

 ==========

 * Re: 'Red Deer Cave People' May Be New Species of Human

 This really is fascinating.

 Rebecca Gordon

 ==========

 * Re: Wake Up Congress; Before the Next Collapse

 Portside should do more articles of this calibre. No
 cliches, no ranting, just the facts -passionately but
 professionally presented,  letting them speak for
 themselves.. Your stuff on science and history are also
 worthy. But you still have an abundance of predictable,
 childishly presented stuff that doesn't inform or enlighten.

 Richard Rosenthal

 ==========

 * Re: Friday Mite Videos -- March 16, 2012 - Faces of
 Change: A Skeptic's Story on Health Care Reform

 Why run this administration propaganda anecdote?  PPACA is
 an insurance industry dictated pork barrel designed for
 forced selling of inadequate policies at public expense. You
 cannot support PPACA and advocate single-payer universal
 health care at the same time, but people are confused about
 this.  Such anecdotes do not help unravel the confusion.  We
 are the only country on earth where the insurance industry
 dominates health care issues, now with profits guaranteed by
 the government through PPACA.  We pay about twice as much
 per capita for our health care, inadequate and inequitable
 as it is.  We already have a small part of single-payer
 health care, under Medicare, which is under attack and
 erosion even while administration flacks dance around the
 PPACA maypole.  We must improve and expand Medicare to cover
 all citizens, all conditions, all ages, as outlined in
 HR-676.  PPACA was introduced to derail HR-676 and has
 complicated the struggle.  It does not solve the basic
 problems and personal uncertainties arising from a
 fragmented and profit-oriented health care system.

 David Ecklein

 Marcos J Santiago MD (Chair Emeritus, Granite State [NH]
Physicians for a National Health Program)

 ==========

 * Join Us For a National Day of Action - March 22nd - Bay
 Area


 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_wSXv80gyoealdFWHBfMERTN0d3
 bFFJeElSQWFXZw/edit?pli=1

 Fight for Good Jobs - Stand up to Corporate Greed

 FAIR UNION CONTRACTS FOR THE 99%

 Thurs., March 22nd 12 Noon to 1:30pm Meet 5th St. & Market
 San Francisco (in front of Westfield Mall, Powell BART)

 The march route will be

     Westfield Mall @ Market & 5th St., supporting janitors &
     retail workers, SEIU Lo. 87 & UFCW Lo. 5 Verizon
     Wireless, 768 Market betw. 3rd & 4th Sts in support of
     Verizon workers and CWA, IBEW Wells Fargo Bank, 1
     Montgomery @ Market to support public and non-profit
     workers and SEIU Lo. 1021

 All over the United States, workers are under attack! The 1%
 is fighting to destroy our collective bargaining rights,
 dump pensions, and boot workers out of the middle class. The
 99% is affected by the corporate assault on workers and
 unions.

 Join the fight for fair contracts and collective bargaining
 in the S.F. Bay Area where tens of thousands of workers are
 struggling to win fair contracts and fight back against
 Corporate Greed.

 Sponsored nationally by AFL-CIO. Bay Area sponsors (partial
 list):  San Francisco Labor Council, Jobs with Justice, CWA,
 SEIU Local 87, SEIU Local 1021, OPEIU Local 3, UNITE HERE
 Local 2, UFCW Local 5, ANSWER Coalition, Single Payer Now.

 For more info, call (415) 976-3710 or email
[log in to unmask]

 ==========

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