Entirely consistent with the Third Way agenda that is liberal on social issues unimportant to the One Percent, but in agreement with corporate Republicans on virtually everything else.

The Third Way is a deliberate, infiltrating, corporate-bankrolled infiltration, a cancer in our party. They lie about their true goals, and they move us relentlessly in the wrong direction.

Our schools are under assault, privacy and right to dissent are under assault, the free press that is our greatest defense against government abuse is under assault, public services are under assault, and our Constitution is under assault.

The country cannot survive four more years of Third Way or Republican rule. No more corporatists and warmongers, period.

We need non-corporate-purchased candidates who will represent rather than attempt to manipulate and market to us, and who will work tirelessly to reverse these devastating assaults on our country.

Third Way is the mechanism through which the Democratic Party will transform itself into the Republican Party of the late 1980s. This is one ugly situation.

feet. Is it because they find that he hasn't gotten far enough right to their satisfaction?

The GOP knows they are getting what they want from Obama (and that they'll get what they want from Hillary) but they still have to make it look good.

and humiliating insults Obama had to take over the years, and will continue to take in the future,
makes it hard to believe. Can you imagine Hillary taking all that crap? The RW will certainly have
a lot to say (and, of course, even more to invent) about Lewinsky alone!

Right-Wingers are certainly trying very hard to bring down the dignity of the office of the presidency
to their own level -- which is in the gutter!

They' re both intelligent folks, and they knew when they signed up to be occupants at the WH that this would come about.

And had Obama actually been who he campaigned on being, he probably wouldn't be experiencing quite as much of the abuse.

My concern is for the rapidly disappearing middle class, who were foreclosed upon in vast numbers, while their future monies have been diverted to Obama's Biggest and Best-est buddies on Wall Street. None of us have eight million dollars in book deals to temper the loss of our jobs, the loss of our credit ratings (which means we cannot get another job) etc.

We did not sign up for this. In fact, back in the days when I was a young school girl, I was specifically taught that America was a democracy and that the laws were a guarantee that fairness would be for all. As a young person, I realized that there were terrible inequities along the skin color lines, and I joined with others to try and change things.

Now in the 21st Century, it is all a game in which the rich have every advantage.

look at Bill Clinton: Banker Mellon-Scaife of PA paid money out of his own pocket
to send private investigators to Arkansas back in the mid-1990s to dig up anything
they could find on him (including details on his sex-life)........ If Elizabeth Warren
should run in 2016, don't you think they would invent lies about her, if they wouldn't
be able to find anything on her? They love to make mountains out of molehills. I
can already see their inventing stories on her statement of being part Native American.

As for "Now in the 21st Century, it is all a game in which the rich have every advantage."
This is the state the human race had been in since the beginning of civilization some 6
or 7 thousand years ago. The nobility owned their land and all the people in it, and
royalty owned the whole country. It (including the people) was their personal property.

We started coming out of this stage of development some 240 years ago, and the GOP
today is trying to get us back into that stage over which we had fought The Revolution to
get out of.

The human race has had far more experience with oligarchy -- some 7000 years of it --
as compared to democracy, only some 240+ years. (Earlier than that, most humans
were members of small tribes, consisting of a few families each, I suppose). It seems
so easy to fall backwards into oligarchy or plutocracy. After all, we've had far more
experience with that than with democracy.

the biggest issue in K-12 isnt the teachers abilities, it is the disruption and problems brought into the classroom by
troubled kids.
this is easily the biggest bag of manure ever brought to market.

relied heavily on Brown. Do you concur?

why is that?

I know we have a lot of teachers on the board, so what I experienced isn't going to surprise them by saying it up front on this or any other thread.. Red, you hit the nail with your comment that "the disruption and problems brought into the classroom by
troubled kids.. is..the biggest bag of manure ever brought to market."

The biggest problem is Poverty, and the symptoms include troubled kids, hungry kids, sick kids, angry children who watch TV, and know that they aren't living in the America that everyone believes it is. These children wake up in a living hell, each and every day, and few if any role models in their lives..

I walked into my classroom at the beginning of every school year and assess who my students are and what my students have to overcome to gain the most of what I could hope to offer. That is where we find ourselves, What we face and what we hope to offer. Most inner city schools have overwhelmingly underprivileged kids living in desperate conditions with a single parent that has resigned to desperation and hopelessness.

How long do you believe you can make a difference when the chips are stacked against you as a teacher, and the kids that wait to see how much you are willing to help them fight the odds.. Tenure is a bonus, but nowhere near a cure. A cure is a caring family, that has hope in the home and a prayer to advance above the apparent inevitability of more hopelessness..

Kids quit, and so do teachers. When the first does, we lose a kid, however when teachers do, we lose classes, schools, neighborhoods and cities. Give your teachers whatever it takes to keep their interest and intensives to fight, or else.. Don't take away perks, find more and better ones..

Amen.

practitioners refuse to see it, and deny it altogether.

who have dragged the only party we have, to the right relentlessly over the past nearly two decades now. I remember how puzzled I used to be when Dems would vote WITH Republicans on important issues, just enough of them to make sure the Corporations got what they wanted. It made no sense at the time to me. Then those same Dems, before we had time to kick them out in a primary, would turn around and vote for something we wanted them to vote for, further confusing the issue, while another group, again, just enough to get the Corporate agenda passed, would take their place.

After discovering the presence of the Third Way in this party, after reading their website, their history, it all began to make sense. It was a revelation but more than explained everything that had been so puzzling before.

Now we know, what are we going to do to keep at least ONE PARTY working for the people? With so many on our side refusing to acknowledge the problem, although I am happy to see more and more finally doing so, it makes it hard to return this party to people who actually put the people's interests first.

Ending tenure for teachers is a good thing.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5079833

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

YOUR COMMENTS

Anti-labor Third Way/Republican conservatism.

JURY RESULTS

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:25 PM, and voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT ALONE.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: It's an opinion about tenure for teachers. While I support tenure, I don't think it is a litmus test for being a Democrat.
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Isn't that from the racist joke by Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz some 40 years ago?

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=earl_butz_1

to don his comfortable shoes and march in support of labor.

During a 2007 campaign speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina, then-Senator Obama told supporters he would fight for collective bargaining rights if he was elected president.

“And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States.”

Maybe he doesn't have any?

you knew something was up. Since when do they care about the poor? Why are they complaining that the bad teachers are sent to poor districts? Why don't they offer to take them?

This entire attack on teachers and unions is abysmal. And the reasons given are ridiculous. How does tenure make them send bad teachers to poor districts" It doesn't. And who the hell is against last in first out? That is simply job protection for everyone. What else would they base it on? Oldest out? There is no easy way to judge a teachers performance so it can't be that. This is totally disgusting.

and it could mark the end of teaching as a career.

Florida lost tenure in 2011, there are no job securities at all.

And the reason people cheer this on is because they don't have job security and see no reason teachers should have it.

I say that now teachers will be at the mercy of students who lie to parents who then overact and go after the teacher. Principals now can fire at the least provocation.

You can not be a real teacher, you can not do what's best for the students while keeping the parents, the principals, and the district happy. You can not enter a staffing for a child who is having serious emotional problems with parents in denial....and come out alive now.

But Arne's happy, and his boss is likely happy....and that's all that counts.

The anti-union butt kissers are here and they agree with everything duncan does

to get rid of a teacher that is making too much, so they can hire a cheaper teacher,
and the unions will stand by and let it happen because the unions wil be powerless to stop it.

That's why millions of voters stayed home in 2010 and have given up on politics.

He appointed Duncan, summers, Geithner, wheeler, and others. No friend of the working people for sure.

blasting the country.

and many new voters, either by age or through sudden interest preceded by apathy, thought maybe a black man could march into the white billionaires house and kick ass.

so in 2010 the spoiled american brats and their lazy older versions and their uncompromised principles didn't vote and we've lost at least another 2 years on global warming.

fuck all the naive idiots who didn't vote in 2010.

Thats what the numbers show. Democrats showed up, even if they were disappointing in the performance of the president and the senate and the house. Moderates, people who were convinced to have new hope and to give Obama a try... they stayed home.

for their own apathy. Obama has really been an apocalyptic President with virtually no support from the GOP and little if any from support from his own side.

created by talk radio and absorbed into the mainstream media of 'analysts' and 'pundits' who live in a talk radio paradigm and don't know it.

soon as obama got in they kept up the talking points and memes that i even saw here and on HP and DK - that obama thought of himself as the 'messiah' (how many times was that repeated on talk radio), and that he was going to be the one to fix washington in his first year, etc. and then in time for 2010 they were saying- "see how useless obama is!" and the naive and apathetic (who often use their 'principles' as an excuse for not voting) believed that buzz.

and it points out once again the pure idiocy of giving talk radio a free speech free ride,which was also the main tool for the obstruction in the first place.

It was his 3rd Way leanings that did that

so many others. maybe obama didn't think he could get someone better through.

what about elizabeth warren for consumer?

the left allows 1200 radio stations to trash them (the public option and single payer before that)for as long as it takes for dems to determine the screaming hordes of talk radio idiots, and the MSM the left allows them to enable, are too much of a distraction and make it impossible.

i'm getting so sick of these excuses for the luxury of ignoring the giant pile of talk radio in the middle of the room because it hurts liberal ears to listen to it and it can't be read.

... that would inspire people to vote for them.

Threats and insults are so much more motivating.

like representatives that aren't certifiable loons? you mean reps not living in a limbaugh ayn randian free market wet dream? higher minimum wage? you mean reps who believe in global warming?

you mean like enticements like that?

ignoring rw radio means that's all democrats can hope for.

there will be no rational fact based national discussions on any major issue as long as democrats and liberals continue to give rw radio a free speech free ride. the recent bergdahl and benghazi distractions and the banishing of "moderate' loon cantor by the talk radio gods calling him establishment non conservative immigrant appeaser should have finally made that obvious.

in which the president is really and truly a liberal in his heart, and his aggressive, proactive, almost daily efforts on behalf of corporate interests didn't really happen or were magically caused by the mere presence of some Republicans nearby? Or racism?

And in which it is pretended that liberals were the ones who stayed home in 2010?

Argle blargle. Again.

until the left pulls it's ipods out of its ears and stops getting its internet ass kicked by right wing radio.

dems have to play the money game and losing in 2010 meant NO chance to get money out of it. the corporate interests play both sides and like the deregulators and tax haters in the GOP especially, but they and their think tanks push dems right (with the racist talk radio teabagger GOP base, etc) and the left enables a big part of it by ignoring rw radio.

obama (esp the black pres) still has to pretend to serve all of america and try to find middle ground so it makes absolutely no sense that liberals allow 1200 radio stations (licensed to operate in the public interest and often wearing our college sports mascots) to pound the country with lies and threats to our reps and enable and intimidate the MSM to move right ,with barely a whimper in response.

everything liberals and progressives and our orgs try to do to push our reps and our country left is considerably less effective because we allow 400 + think tank coordinated and scripted blowhards to dominate and distort all national discussion on every major issue those think tanks target.

IMO it's ridiculous and useless to expect much from democrats until liberals stop ignoring rw radio- the right's most effective weapon.

and evaluating and judging the liberality of dem performance without factoring in rw radio wastes time and allows the right to keep pushing our reps around.

That's a delightful sleight of hand. Third Way excuses about money in the system are sort of like a robber bemoaning the societal lack of ethics that forces him to rough you up at the ATM.

You wrote,

The record shows PROACTIVE, aggressive implementation of a corporate agenda
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3152360

CUT THE CRAP! Your Month in Review from the most "progressive" administration ever.
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10025006297

The Orwellian bids to deny reality - to pretend that there have been serious efforts to move leftward - don't work for the Third Way the way they work in 1984, because the Third Way doesn't yet have functioning memory holes to rewrite history. We WATCH the proactive choices, every single day. We live the consequences of them.

Pssst. By the way: You know that right-wing radio media empire you are so concerned about? This President just handed them corporate control over the internet, too.

elect enough sanders and warrens and wellstones you'll be waiting a long time.

you want the dem party to move left it won't happen waiting and wishing and 'analyzing' and blogging. and it sure as hell won't happen letting the republicans win elections because obama's not wellstone (they killed him, by the way).

if you want to let them win and wait until it gets so bad we end up killing each other you're a twit, especially while still ignoring their best weapon, talk radio, which means they control the real bully pulpit.

I am so sorry I ever voted for him and encouraged others to do so.

Democrats and midterms have always been disastrous. In 2010 the youngsters didn't vote and are now just learning about the importance of midterms.

Giving up punishes us all -

Did you vote in 2010

We have disastrous midterms because the Repukes give their voters what they want - obstruction, fear, hatred, and corporatism. This is also what their candidates promise them. OTOH, our "reps" promise things like public option for healthcare, support for teachers, support for unions, renegotiation of NAFTA, reversion to the old tax structure, change among the bankers, etc., then deliver on almost none of that. That's why hordes of voters in 2008 become disillusioned stay-at-homes in 2010.

Via an HRC turd way Presidential run.

and trying to destroy public education, increase tuition, and privatize it.

F@ck You Arne Duncan

Fire the Sec of Education or urge their membership to not vote in 2014
See if Congress will apply pressure

There are movements from students, parents, and teachers popping up across the country.

And in may ways better than FDR.

is part of this administration.

FDR hated the bankers (and they hated him, and he" welcomed their hate&quot while bankers dominate this administration.

Obama's done a lot of good things, but supporting Arne Duncan isn't one of them.

We could get a lot more done if the President had a Democratic Congress to work with, so let's get busy and win some elections in November.

As opposed to his continued attacks on Teacher's Unions being something he does naturally

FORCES the President to adopt an aggressive, pro-corporate agenda, appointing them all over his administration and pushing their policies.

It has something to do with the fumes from the hair gel, or something.

but that would do nothing to advance to progressive agenda so long as the Republicans, in alliance with breakaway Democrats as we saw on the Affordable Care Act, have a stranglehold on Congress.

Honestly, you'd think some people are more interested in venting their spleens than in getting important results - an attitude that is destructive and actively sabotages the very policies that you bray about so loudly.

Arne Duncan has shown himself to be anti-teacher union.
He supports non-union charters
He allies himself with Rhee and Bill Gates, both anti-union
The republicans and breakaway Democrats you bring up have nothing to do with what Duncan has said or done.
He does that on his own

Some of us support the Democrats when their right and criticize when they're wrong and that includes the administration

principles to argue that a property right is a more compelling right than equal protection of children.

What about the judge's ruling is incorrect???

I love how the Third Way simultaneously defends assaults on all of us *AND* makes a point of protesting that the President had nothing to do with them.

That's rich! (Heh, I made a pun. Get it?....Third Way? "Rich"?)

And let's again repost "The Big Enchilada."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4551447

See post 87. You're repeating yourself. Everybody knows what the appointment of Arne Duncan was all about. We are watching the policies unfold, and your repetition of talking points that used to be associated solely with corporate Republicans is just one more predictable Act in the now dog-eared Third Way Kabuki script.

Get it? "Dog"-eared?

What in the ruling itself do you find objectionable?

They're what's for dinner.

removing tenure, which means that teachers have to have due process before being fired, not a job for life, will make teaching a non viable career option and destroy education. Teachers will be fired for being old and thus expensive to keep, teachers will be fired for being the wrong religion or no religion at all, teachers will be fired for daring to advise a GSA in a school whose principal doesn't want one, teachers will be fired for giving too much homework, having too many students fail, having too many athletes lose eligability, and I could go on. No decent professional will work under those circumstances so all teachers will be either ones with no experience or who literally can't do any other kind of job. If you don't believe me ask a teacher who worked before tenure came in, there are still some of those around.

this ^^

I don't think that's a good thing, either...because I generally think worker protections are low compared to other market economies.

That being said, you have a competing rights issue that overrides the economic interest of the teachers.

You do realize that our working conditions are kids' learning conditions, right? You do realize that union schools and union states consistently score better than schools and states with no unions or few union protections, right?

This isn't about a competing rights issue unless you're talking about the GOP's right to poison the well.

claim needs to encompass more than memes or claims that the GOP is up to chicanery. The rightwing is finding this out as equal marriage proceeds through the states, and their reply briefs are thin on logic and fact, but long on rhetoric.

I have yet to read on this thread a cogent critique of the ruling. That's because I suspect I am the only person on this thread who has read it.

And that's a problem, particularly if teachers wish to counter this trend.

So...you will not be the only poster on this thread I ask, but I will ask: The judge relied heavily on Brown. Do you think he was wrong?

You could say that about any career to destroy the rights of all workers.

Using that logic, all civil service protections are anti-citizens and anti taxpayer.

All retail union jobs are anti consumer.

BS

or these appointments either:
[font size=5]
The DLC New Team
Progressives Need NOT Apply
[/font]
(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

Because nothing says liberal like
being anti-teacher union
deporting the most illegal immigrants of any administration
claiming that guest lists to White House functions are covered under executive privilege

Doesn't add up to very liberal in my estimation.

What about Carter?

Obama moves to the left of right when it is politically in his favor.

I volunteered during the primary and during his first election. Then I saw that he was a tool of the 1% and corporate interests and voted for him a second time as the lesser of two evils.

Sorry, but Obama is a big disappointment.

No. There are things to praise about Obama, and he's certainly better than Shrub on unions, but not FDR. Don't over-reach, sport.

...having a lot of Wall Street acquaintances. But they tried to overthrow him if you'll recall. Wall Street loves Obama which is why they've given him so much money. And why so few of their crooks and thieves have seen the inside of a jail cell.

But they couldn't sway FDR with cash because he was richer than most to them. So they couldn't buy him nor threaten him financially. Unlike Obama.

- But with Obama they just needed to rent for 8 years......

but they reversed course.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/06/investing/stocks-election-obama-romney/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/09/wall-street-showers-romney-campaign-with-donations-abandons-obama.html

He tried to pass comphrehensive civil rights legislation way before anyone on the national level, if I'm not mistaken LBJ voted against it. I'll have to recheck out that book but I'm about 55% sure JFK did too. Desegregated the Armed Forces. Like Obama made health care a priority to improving access to services & doctors for low income and tried to pass a national health plan.

The bomb thing wasn't very liberal but it was new and not a physicist probably didn't understood how destructive and toxic the fallout is. Stalin new the US had a bomb before Truman did.

jobs because of tenure - primarily in minority and low income urban communities.

i am very pro union - and yet, if you took the time to study the real issues in these communities you would be glad bad california teachers who abuse their positions and children will no longer be able to keep their jobs.

you have definitely twisted the issue. silicon valley may have funded this campaign - but it does work in favor for the students in these communities.

president barack obama and arne duncan were on the right track initially with improving schools in urban communities with the HOPE of innovative charter schools. but then the for profit private corporatists saw all that money in education and they have twisted it all into an all out campaign to destroy governments roll in education in favor of privatization/charter schools. so now, it is all about money. these private education corporations could care less about education and even less for kids - as long as they can line their pockets with billions of our dollars.

I bet you're pro-union

Duncan has been anti-teacher union since he was in Chicago

if it were not for unions my dad and i would have never been able to own a home, go to college, have great health insurance, have days off or sick days...etc., etc.

but in this case, the california teacher's union worked against the best interests of the students - are you aware of their stories and plight? and i don't care about nor for arne duncan, personally.

Your disturbing willingness to embrace the end of tenure for teachers in California says something else
As to the stories, yes I am aware. But I am also aware that some are not true and some are overstated

This ruling is garbage.
To let the Silicone exec include his child as one hurt in the lawsuit was ridiculous

Duncan should be fired and the judge run from office

I will inform my congressional rep in the morning that if she doesn't take a step in favor of unions I will not vote for her.
I vote in Illinois and do not teach, so I am unaffected.
But the administration needs to be put on notice that Duncan's anti-Union ways are at an end

You aren't pro union. Worker representation is at a crisis level in this country. We cannot afford to take one step backwards. Anyone that is pro union would certainly recognize this.

Teaching should remain a rewarding profession. Once it isn't, this nation will be in the toilet.

Swirling around the putrid abyss, trying to avoid the tea-party turds...

One lie about one teacher told by one student in this kind of privatization atmosphere where teachers are the enemy....can cost a good teacher her job.

When I taught the union gave us the option of carrying insurance of up to a million to fight back. I never had to use it, but I taught with one teacher who wished he bought it. I overheard 5 of his 5th grade students talking about how they lied to the principal about him. I made notes and told the appropriate people.

But because of the loud voices of the parents, the fear of bad public relations he never had a chance in hell.

Oh, trust me, this is not about "bad" teachers. It is about teachers who get high pay, teachers who are not willing to take cuts in pay to stay in a job that is becoming so lousy.

working to privatize our schools and pay low salaries to all teachers.

We did a great job.

But I noticed that those who had worked in that field for many, many years became discouraged. Some became a little crazy and overzealous; some became cynical.

I watched an award-winning teacher succumb to the pressures of teaching in the inner city schools. She was utterly dedicated and brilliant and won awards. A student attacked her. She eventually had to leave teaching on disability.

There are two sides to the poor education kids get in inner city schools. By the way, my oldest daughter went to a so-called bad school. She graduated from college Phi Beta Kappa.

All depends on the families of the children.

If the parents are educated and/or value education very highly, the child is more likely to do well in school. Teachers are not to blame.

On edit, I know two teachers who were physically assaulted in the classroom. Both great people.

I know a third who has been harassed incessantly by her principal. Teachers need tenure. I discouraged my children from going into teaching because teachers are not paid what they deserve and have to take so much criticism. It's a tough job.

A teacher I know on the weekend said she doesn't mind the first 8 hours of her workday. It's the additional hours she spends on preparation, grading papers, grading students, calling parents, etc. that sometimes gets her down. Teachers get tenure in lieu of fair pay. By fair pay, I mean the pay that other professionals with the education equivalent to teachers who usually get masters degrees in Los Angeles have.

in a hold behind her back. She sent a kid to my room to get help. We called the police, finally got it resolved. Her arm was damaged for months by a 3rd grader.

I taught one year after that. It just got to where it wasn't worth trying for year 34.

in a referendum election. Voters know that teacher tenure is saving the state money and that it is right.

Teachers are professionals who, unfortunately, cannot practice their profession without being part of an organization. If tenure goes out the window, I hope teachers start organizing their own charter schools. Could happen.

It was poor management. And "bad" is very subjective which is why teachers needed protections to begin with. Remember when they used to fire teachers for getting married or being pregnant? You are throwing all of the good teachers out because of your contempt for a few bad apples.

Pedophiles do gravitate to jobs that allow them access to children since that is what the feel comfortable with and want. And we should always be aware of that and try to find the best solutions to protect children. But the majority of people that take jobs involving children do so because they want to help them.

Do you really suppose taking away tenure and union benefits is going to result in better teachers? I don't.

Last edited Wed Jun 11, 2014, 05:17 PM - Edit history (1)

they can get teachers fired. Too many are too lazy to document bad teachers and get rid of them.