The Sassy Republican

Deceased Attorneys Come to Life in Allegheny County. Nice.

2012-01-27T04:13:00.000-05:00

To: webmaster.civil@county.allegheny.pa.us

Does an error in the docket reports accessed through https://dcr.alleghenycounty.us reflect an error in the Department of Court Records? More than once I have seen deceased attorneys listed as parties in proceedings in which they were never involved.

Please explain.

Thank you,

laurie kir

Payments to charter schools a burden, Woodland Hills says - BUT I SAY THIS ARTICLE IS UNINFORMATIVE BLATHER

2012-01-26T11:54:00.001-05:00

Oh, cry me a river. Public charter schools function under the same laws as non-charter public schools. Maybe the districts need to ask themselves why children and families are opting to exercise their rights as they are provided by law; why can't they improve conditions so as to regain enrollment numbers? Lobbying to take options away from children and families encourages more flight away from their schools. Obviously.

Payments to charter schools a burden, Woodland Hills says
Districts urge state to alter methods
Thursday, January 26, 2012
By Annie Siebert, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Woodland Hills school board, which pays more than $10 million a year to nearby charter schools, is one of at least two local boards joining in an effort to change the way charter schools are funded.
School districts have long complained that they lose money when a student chooses to attend a charter school. Public schools, out of the subsidies they receive from the state, must pay the tuition for those students.
District officials argue that although they are required to pay tuition to charter schools, the staff needed to educate the remaining students stays the same, creating a major financial burden.
"When you send the money out of the public school system, you've taken away from the subsidies that are going to the general public," Woodland Hills school board President Marilyn Messina said.
During the 2010-11 school year, Woodland Hills received a reimbursement of a little more than $1.8 million from the state for its tuition payments.
This school year, the district estimates it will pay more than $12 million to charter schools but won't receive money from the state because of education funding cuts. "This time we get no support," Ms. Messina said. "There's no added supplement from the state."
The Woodland Hills school board last week voted to urge legislators to reform the way charter schools are funded and hold the schools accountable for the academic performance of the students.
"A lot of school directors feel, 'Where's the monitoring?' It's not that we're against choice, we just wonder how this money is being spent," Ms. Messina said.
The resolution was authored by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in May. In addition to Woodland Hills, the East Allegheny school board passed its version of the resolution this month.
Woodland Hills' coffers have long suffered as a result of the number of students leaving the district to attend charter schools. As the number increases, state aid has steadily decreased until it was ultimately eliminated this year.
According to the resolution, Pennsylvania school districts' expenditures for students attending charter schools has increased by $332.5 million, or 112.6 percent, between the 2003-04 school year and the 2007-08 school year. In the 2010-11 school year, Pennsylvania school districts paid $795 million to charter schools.
East Allegheny estimated in the resolution that it will pay more than $1.2 million to charter schools this year.
"Our district is more than capable [of providing] a quality education to students ... and we encourage attendance to public schools" versus charter schools, said Toni Valicenti, East Allegheny's director of fiscal affairs.
Ms. Messina questioned the formulas for determining funding for charter schools. She noted that Woodland Hills pays charter schools $20,000 per special-needs child, but it doesn't distinguish between serious disabilities and mild impairments.
"It's under one umbrella, and it's not identified," she said.
"Choice is not the issue. It's how the money goes [to charter schools]," she said. "If you want choice, great, but don't take from our pot."

Annie Siebert: asiebert@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1613. Twitter: @AnnieSiebert.

First published on January 26, 2012 at 4:53 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12026/1206014-56-0.stm#ixzz1kaFEY47M

"Statewide, 94 percent of districts made AYP,..."
"In Allegheny County, Sto-Rox, McKeesport Area, Woodland Hills and Duquesne did not make AYP."

how endearing, dude's in contempt...again

2012-01-19T19:26:00.001-05:00

post removed due to expected increase in site traffic

thoughts on nature versus nurture

2011-08-05T19:55:00.001-04:00

If it can be argued that my weaknesses, illnesses of the body and mind, come from code inherent in my genetic make up; then, it can be argued that my strengths, fortunes of body and mind, come from that same code.

The well from which I draw my genetic code contains a vast undercurrent of ancient waters dating back to an era before measured time and spanning the continent of Europe, from Romania to Germany, to England, and to Ireland. With that in mind, each day, I look forward to what I'm capable of becoming.

snippet re: perception management

2011-08-04T02:48:00.000-04:00

You say Welfare Mom, I say Non-Wage Earning Household Worker

2011-07-30T19:39:00.000-04:00

I'd like to present two scenarios.

Scenario number one:

Single Mother Susie wakes up in the morning, gets dressed, makes breakfast for her children, and throws a load in the wash. She walks the older child to school and takes the younger to the playground.

They visit the library for story time, walk home and have lunch. After cleaning the kitchen, again, Single Mother Susie folds the clothes from the laundry she'd started earlier, does some light cleaning, and spends time teaching the younger child letter recognition.

Together they walk to get the older child at school, stop by the playground, then go home. While cooking dinner, Single Mother Susie supervises the older child's homework. The children set the table and get drinks while Single Mother Susie plates the food.

After dinner, the family shares in the chore of cleaning the kitchen, again. The children bathe and prepare for bed, then settle in for family reading time. The children go to bed. Single Mother Susie puts away stray crayons and toys, finishes her reading, then tucks in for the night.

Scenario number two:

Single Mother Susie wakes up in the morning, gets dressed, makes breakfast for her children, and throws a load in the wash. She walks the children to the neighborhood, state funded daycare.

Single Mother Susie then takes a bus to Bourgeois Betty's house. She makes breakfast for the children, and throws a load in the wash. She walks Bourgeois Betty's older child to school and takes the younger to the playground.

They visit the library for story time, walk back to Bourgeois Betty's house and have lunch. After cleaning the kitchen, again, Single Mother Susie folds the clothes from the laundry she'd started earlier, does some light cleaning, and spends time teaching the younger child letter recognition.

Together they walk to get the older child at school, stop by the playground, then go to Bourgeois Betty's. While cooking dinner, Single Mother Susie supervises the older child's homework. The children set the table and await the arrival of their mother.

After Single Mother Susie is dismissed by Bourgeois Betty, she takes the bus back to her neighborhood, walks to the state funded daycare, and picks up her children.

Once home, Single Mother Susie makes a late dinner. The children bathe and get ready for bed while she cleans the kitchen. Exhausted, the family tucks in for the night.

In which scenario is Single Mother Susie working?
In which scenario can we perceive a distorted version of a labor economy?
In which scenario do we have a social structure funded and designed to maintain a capitalist, classist state?

I think I've made my point.

What? Join the Industrial Workers of the World?

2011-07-29T20:59:00.001-04:00

Open letter to the Industrial Workers of the World:

So, I've been calling for a national movement to recognize all workers as valuable contributors to our economy. It sounds simple enough, but it is one of the most difficult things I've tried to achieve. Perhaps it sounds as though I think I'm doing something new, but common knowledge dictates that the struggle of working class citizens is centuries old.

What I want to change is the context in which people frame the idea of work and worker recognition. If a logical approach to the way we think about work, value, economy, and class can be established or infused in the contemporary mind set, then we can begin to construct benevolent labor situations that will flourish despite the state of capitalism and the far reaching implications of globalism.

For a moment, suspend reactionary thoughts and focus on the following: Working class women hold the balance in their hands. I know I'm not the only one who realizes that, and I'll say it again, working class women hold the balance in their hands. I'm quite serious. We are the demographic perfectly positioned to be mobilized to confront class structure transnationally. While that is a big picture view, it is also the heart of the workers' struggle.

Therefore, rational modes of thought toward domestic workers, household workers, unpaid elder-care workers and sex workers, for example, need to be cultivated and promoted. It's of critical importance to instill self worth, free from the binds of individualism, in the minds of the workers.

Understand, this movement has a better chance of succeeding if it is kept out of the confines of arguments pertaining to gender disparity. Were it to be perceived as a feminist movement, it would be squashed in its infancy. The working class must not be polarized by succumbing to the ubiquitous social pressure to identify with factions of gender politics.

At this time, I've yet to find an organizing body capable of supporting this call to action as I've no interest in subscribing to superfluous politics, nor will I engage in unintelligible power struggles. What I think I have found; however, is an opportunity to actualize my own need for worker recognition and fellowship within the construct of the IWW. This slight shift in my perception of my situation has benefited me tremendously. I look forward to applying for membership. Thanks, IWW, for being a light in the shadows.

Un Poquito de Tanto Verdad. Oaxaca. 2006.

2011-07-29T13:22:00.000-04:00

The struggle belongs to ~~all~~ most of us.

allAfrica.com: Kenya: State Plans Drive to Popularise GMOs Amid Raging Debate

2011-07-20T03:43:00.000-04:00

allAfrica.com: Kenya: State Plans Drive to Popularise GMOs Amid Raging Debate

Another fatal incident on the BART!

2011-07-11T22:17:00.000-04:00

World Briefing | Africa: Burkina Faso: Mutineers Disarmed

2011-06-04T02:35:00.001-04:00

World Briefing | Africa: Burkina Faso: Mutineers Disarmed: "The government said its troops had forcefully disarmed rampaging soldiers on Friday, after three days of looting and shooting in the air.

Witnesses said they heard heavy gunfire on Friday, but the government did not give a casualty toll. Soldiers had started a mutiny in April over low pay and unpaid housing allowances."

Counterinsurgency Field Manual, in olive green

2011-05-05T23:49:00.000-04:00

download available here
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf

EXCERPTS:
from the Forward

This manual is designed to fill a doctrinal gap. It has been 20 years since the Army published a field manual devoted exclusively to counterinsurgency operations. For the Marine Corps it has been 25 years. With our Soldiers and Marines fighting insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is essential that we give them a manual that provides principles and guidelines for counterinsurgency operations. Such guidance must be grounded in historical studies. However, it also must be informed by contemporary experiences.

from chapter 3

Beliefs

3-40. Beliefs are concepts and ideas accepted as true. Beliefs can be core, intermediate, or peripheral.

3-41. Core beliefs are those views that are part of a person’s deep identity. They are not easily changed. Examples include belief in the existence of God, the value of democratic government, the importance of individual and collective honor, and the role of the family. Core beliefs are unstated, taken for granted, resistant to change, and not consciously considered. Attempts to change the central beliefs of a culture may result in significant unintended second- and third- order consequences. Decisions to do so are made at the national-strategic level.

3-42. Intermediate beliefs are predicated on reference to authority figures or authoritative texts. Thus, intermediate beliefs can sometimes be influenced by co-opting opinion leaders.

3-43. From intermediate beliefs flow peripheral beliefs. These beliefs are open to debate, consciously considered, and easiest to change. For example, a belief about birth control may derive from an individual’s beliefs about the Roman Catholic Church. Beliefs about the theory of sexual repression may come from a person’s opinion of Sigmund Freud.

Values

3-44. A value is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence. Values include beliefs concerning such topics as toleration, stability, prosperity, social change, and self-determination. Each group to which a person belongs inculcates that person with its values and their ranking of importance. Individuals do not unquestioningly absorb all the values of the groups to which they belong; they accept some and reject others. Most individuals belong to more than one social group. The values of each group are often in conflict: religious values may conflict with generational values or gender values with organizational practices. Commanders should evaluate the values of each group in the AO. They should determine whether the values promoted by the insurgency correspond to the values of other social groups in the AO or to those of the HN government. Based on that assessment, commanders can determine whether counterinsurgents can exploit these differences in values.

What can I say? This is a great book to have around.

the weight of death: Osama bin Laden

2011-05-04T02:50:00.000-04:00

What does this news of his death mean? Am I to believe the US media which has countless reports of cheering in the streets? Of high fives? Of flag waving? Am I to believe what I see in my city? Because I see a confused and nearly broken people struggling to survive the looting of their country.

Heck, I'm confused. Any time I dare put on the news, I'm met with images so counter to what I see in my ordinary life. Granted, I live in a small city, but I'd think that as homogenized as Americans are, the news would reflect something similar to the view I have from here.

It's not like Americans to walk around with flags. Most people don't even own one. So, what's with the vast amount of flags shown in the pictures of these so called celebrations? It reminds me of the crowds at tee shirt give away nights at the baseball park. Are we so different from place to place? Are there regions of blood thirsty Americans? Were people really celebrating when they heard Obama's announcement?

It's not just that. Popular media in the US is pushing these images as though they are representative of the American reaction to the news of the death of bin Laden. Over and over the word celebrate is used, as well as words like joyous, triumphant and jubilant. Although this portrayal of the American people is reckless and irresponsible, it seems to be the media consensus of what we are. Is it true? Have we crossed the rubicon?

Certainly, it's possible. It's possible for a nation to embrace killing as a means to achieve stability and safety. It's possible for the media, the propagandists, to mislead a people, i.e., Germans and Rwandans. Our citizens are being led down a very slippery slope littered with the debris of lies, deceptions and perception manipulation. Perhaps we are broadcasting our demise for all to see, highlighting our human weaknesses, foreshadowing disruptions to come.

Southern Sudan Is Favored in Results - NYTimes.com

2011-01-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

Southern Sudan Is Favored in Results - NYTimes.com

Go read the propaganda at the source. I'll just sit here quietly dying as all the bad things that I predict will happen, keep happening.

IRIN Africa | ZIMBABWE: Upbeat about the 2011 harvest | Zimbabwe | Environment | Food Security | Health & Nutrition

2011-01-16T18:56:00.001-05:00

IRIN Africa | ZIMBABWE: Upbeat about the 2011 harvest | Zimbabwe | Environment | Food Security | Health & Nutrition

HARARE, 14 January 2011 (IRIN) - Timely access to fertilizers, seeds and good rains have set Zimbabwe on course for a good harvest, say agriculture officials.

The Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made, told journalists the area planted with cereals such as sorghum and maize had increased by thousands of hectares this season from 2009-2010.

However, he cautioned that a good crop was only expected if rains persisted during January. Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services has predicted heavy rains in the coming weeks.

The area planted with maize was up from 530,000ha in 2009-2010 to 660,000ha this season, said Made. Other grains had also seen their coverage increase from 110,000ha to 174,000ha.

In a decade marked by socio-economic instability, food production has begun to improve in Zimbabwe in the past two years.

A joint mission in 2010 by the UN World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that after the 2008 season, when less than 500,000 tons of maize was harvested, production more than doubled in 2009 and 2010, to 1.27 and 1.35 million tons respectively

Although expensive, maize seeds and fertilizers, unlike in previous years, have been available in the market.

The pro-ZANU-PF daily newspaper, The Herald, reported in December 2010 that the government had provided loans worth US$122.2 million to farmers for support during the 2010-2011 season, with banks providing $286 million to buy inputs.

More than 900,000 poor households have been given agricultural inputs, noted the FAO in its latest update.

read the rest at the source

IRIN Africa | SOUTH AFRICA: Too much maize | South Africa | Environment | Food Security | Health & Nutrition

2011-01-16T18:49:00.001-05:00

IRIN Africa | SOUTH AFRICA: Too much maize | South Africa | Environment | Food Security | Health & Nutrition

JOHANNESBURG, 13 January 2011 (IRIN) - After a record maize harvest, a bid by South African farmers to form a pool to export the surplus – enough to feed its food insecure neighbours, Swaziland and Lesotho, for several years – has raised questions about the future of the crop and the manufacture of biofuel.

The country’s Competition Commission rejected the bid on 11 January. "We wanted to start a debate in the country. Surpluses of this magnitude are unusual; food prices are going up globally. We have suggested the farmers consider storing the surplus,” the Commission's Oupa Bodipe told IRIN.

read the rest at the source

US withdraws Venezuela envoy's visa - Americas - Al Jazeera English

2010-12-30T03:16:00.000-05:00

US withdraws Venezuela envoy's visa - Americas - Al Jazeera English

The US has revoked the visa for Venezuela's ambassador to Washington in what it called a "reciprocal" action for Caracas turning down the US choice for its own representative in the Venezuelan capital.

Mark Toner, a US state department spokesman, confirmed on Wednesday that the visa of ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, who is reportedly not currently in the US, had been revoked.

Toner said: "We said there would be consequences when the Venezuelan government rescinded agreement regarding our nominee, Larry Palmer.

"We have taken appropriate, proportional and reciprocal action".

Speaking on state television on Tuesday, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan preisdent, had dared the US to cut off diplomatic relations.

"If the [US] government wants to expel our ambassador there, let them! If they cut off diplomatic relations, let them," he said.

Chavez had announced in August that he would not accept Palmer's appointment to be the next US ambassador to Venezuela because of comments Palmer made during his confirmation hearing in the senate.

Palmer said that he believed Venezuela was allowing leftists FARC fighters to find safe haven in the country and that Venezuela's military was under Cuban influence and suffering from low morale.

Relations between Washington and Caracas have been rocky since Chavez came to power in 1999.

Both sides withdrew their ambassadors between September 2008 and June 2009 after a spat over US military bases in Colombia.

Despite their political differences, the US continues to buy around one million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela every day.

African Farmers Losing Land to Investors - NYTimes.com

2010-12-24T19:57:00.001-05:00

African Farmers Losing Land to Investors - NYTimes.com

SOUMOUNI, Mali — The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and the farmers would all have to leave.

“They told us this would be the last rainy season for us to cultivate our fields; after that, they will level all the houses and take the land,” said Mama Keita, 73, the leader of this village veiled behind dense, thorny scrub-land. “We were told that Qaddafi owns this land.”

Across Africa and the developing world, a new global land rush is gobbling up large expanses of arable land. Despite their ageless traditions, stunned villagers are discovering that African governments typically own their land and have been leasing it, often at bargain prices, to private investors and foreign governments for decades to come.

Organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank say the practice, if done equitably, could help feed the growing global population by introducing large-scale commercial farming to places without it.

You do get this, don't you?

Read the rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/world/africa/22mali.html?_r=1

Saul Williams - "Sha-Clack-Clack"

2010-12-23T20:43:00.000-05:00

"Sha-Clack-Clack" by Ray aka Saul Williams in the film, Slam.

YouTube - Buckethead (feat. Saul Williams) - Three Fingers

2010-12-16T18:03:00.000-05:00

YouTube - Buckethead (feat. Saul Williams) - Three Fingers

Afghanistan: a people trapped between sides

2010-12-16T12:03:00.000-05:00

Afghanistan: a people trapped between sides

15-12-2010 News Release 10/225

Geneva/Kabul (ICRC) – The main conflict-related challenges faced by Afghans in 2010 will persist in 2011, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today.

According to the ICRC, those challenges are civilian casualties, internal displacement, and insufficient access to medical care, all of which are occurring against the background of a proliferation of armed groups.

Read the rest at http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2010/afghanistan-news-2010-12-15.htm

Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: “Repression Breeds Resistance”

2010-12-15T10:15:00.000-05:00

Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: “Repression Breeds Resistance”

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange | MichaelMoore.com

2010-12-14T13:45:00.000-05:00

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange | MichaelMoore.com

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

go to the source for the rest http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/why-im-posting-bail-money

Sudan - Vote Called Off on Fate of Town - NYTimes.com

2010-12-14T00:59:00.000-05:00

Sudan - Vote Called Off on Fate of Town - NYTimes.com

The Obama administration’s special envoy to Sudan said Monday that a referendum on the future of the oil-rich town of Abyei would not be held on Jan. 9 as scheduled. The envoy, J. Scott Gration, left, said that too many questions on this “difficult and emotional issue” remain to be resolved, but President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan and Vice President Salva Kiir from southern Sudan are trying to find a political solution over the disputed border town by that date.

Activists Submit 240,000 Petitions Demanding Action to Curb Food Monopolies

2010-12-13T19:06:00.000-05:00

concentration is the opposite of cooperation « the irresistible fleet of bicycles

Activists Submit 240,000 Petitions Demanding Action to Curb Food Monopolies

WASHINGTON – On the eve of the final Department of Justice/USDA public workshop examining the effects of corporate concentration in food and agriculture, a coalition of farm and food activists submitted almost a quarter of a million (nearly 240,000) petitions calling on both the Justice Department and USDA to take swift action to curb the abusive market power that a handful of corporations exert over farmers and consumers.

read the rest http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/concentration-is-the-opposite-of-cooperation/