Location

So you already have heard about the new survey, haven't you? Mayor Bloomberg and Joseph Klein, surrounded by a cornucopia of Department of Education status quoers, unveiled the City's first-ever Learning Environment Survey, a tool (as in not another instance of paper-pushing) that is meant to gather the opinions of principals, teachers, parents and students about how wonderful or terrible it is to be in a NYC middle and high school. Which is why they will ask about whether schools are:

1. setting high expectations
2. safe
3. creating effective environments for learning

The whole press release sounds like an unprecedented exercise in open government :

"Today, we are giving parents, students, and teachers an unprecedented opportunity: the chance to tell us if our schools are set up to help students learn and the chance to help us grade our schools," said Chancellor Klein. "Our ads say, 'When one parent speaks, schools listen; when one million parents speak, schools change,' and it's true. I'm looking forward to learning from our parents, teachers, and students."

Oh my blog! Klein and Bloomberg sooooooo want to know what I have to say. I am, like, so  impressed!

Then, I got to the bottom of the page :

Survey responses are being collected by an external vendor, assuring the confidentiality of answers.

And there is nary a peep about who this vendor is.

Don't you think that anybody espousing platitudes about transparency and open government would at least have the clarity of mind to say who is the external vendor we are to hold accountable for such work?

Don't you want to know how much are these "external vendors" are being paid? Because, you know, accountability and accounting have the same latin root.

Well, I do.  read more »

Al keeps his promise and begins his attack on the music industry for promoting negative content on the airwaves.

The National Action Network

Rev. Al Sharpton

&

Councilwoman Darlene Mealy

Invite You To Join Us As We

MARCH FOR DECENCY

Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 5:30 PM

Register Online:

Log on to www.nationalactionnetwork.net and register today!

Join Us As We Protest Sexism, Racism And Homophobia In Music

The March will begin at Sony Music, Madison Avenue at 55th Street - continue to Universal Music, Broadway between 56th and 57th Streets - and finally to Time Warner, located at Columbus Avenue and 58th Street

The man who went from great to merely a lap dog of George Bush's, will say goodbye on May 9th. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's departure announcement was met with little interest even on BBC news' front page, or even on Daily Kos where merely brief mention is made of it.

Tony Blair, a man who could have been great, is slinking away with his tail between his legs under suspicion of a Tom DeLay/Abramoff style favors-for-donations (or should that be "favours"-for-quids) scandal.

from the Sunday Mail:

The inquiry began after it emerged that secret loans had been made to Labour before the 2005 general election. Some lenders were subsequently nominated for peerages...

Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy, No.10 aide Ruth Turner and multimillionaire businessman Sir Christopher Evans remain on police bail.

So here in the US you get a no-bid contract instead of a title, but otherwise it sure looks like Republican-style corruption. May Bush have the same fate as his lap dog...  read more »

To the degree that election to the State Legislature is in effect a life-time ticket to serve the leadership, Albany and state politics in general is a tough nut to crack. Were legislative districts fairly drawn, were public funding of campaigns to replace moneyed interests in our elections, some things indeed would be different. Will any proposals for facilitating popular participation in politics have legs or will these issues be stalled again?

I’m not going, but perhaps you should think about it. Good government groups (“goo-goos," in somewhat pejorative political slang) are meeting in Albany Monday April 23, 2007. The general call by groups ranging from the Brennan Center to Common Cause and Demos is here . The schedule is here and the page for registration especially for free buses is here .

Knock ‘em dead!  read more »

Americans United for Change has been producing ads targeting some of the key supporters of the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escaltion.

Previous targets included Congressman Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator John Sunnunu (R-NH).

Here is their ad targeting Congressman Jim Walsh (R-NY):

You can help defeat Walsh, Kuhl and other NY State Republican supporters of the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation by donating here.