Lancaster, Pennsylvania, home of the oldest public market in the U.S., has double the state’s poverty rate, and according to an LA Times story, almost a thousand children who are homeless in its public schools—out of a total city population of 55,000. The city’s “solution”? Support an effort by a coalition of business owners and “civic boosters”—with mostly taxpayer money—to establish a privately-run network of closed-circuit surveillance cameras, peering into every nook and cranny in the city, at a cost of $3 million. The “coalition,” which has no public oversight or accountability, deploys camera operators who, based on whatever criteria they personally deem fit, “can pretty much tell right away if someone’s up to no-good” as one operator put it. If they see “suspicious” activity, the operators call 9-1-1. That this surveillance is ripe for abuse can be deduced by the fact that they can zero-in on a face or a license plate from a block away—or perhaps through the creases of someone’s window drapes unbeknownst to them. This is yet another example how the solution to poverty and homelessness is creating a police state to keep the impoverished and have-nots from being a problem for the well-off and haves.

Meanwhile, as politicians and xenophobes keep the public’s eye on Latino immigrants and the lower-rung jobs that they are allegedly preventing the “natives” from enjoying, the state of Washington recently approved something called the “Microsoft Subsidy Bill” which allows foreign students who are working for companies like Microsoft on work visas, and who have been in the country one year, to pay in-state tuition fees at state colleges. It is one thing that high-wage technical jobs in this country are being filled by importing workers, but it is quite another thing to require that they only pay much lower (relatively speaking) in-state tuition instead of even what out-of-state American students must pay. With economic hardships that so many people find themselves in, and less tax revenue to put into the education system, skyrocketing tuitions fees have put more and more people beyond the reach of a college education. And now the state gives special breaks to those—very likely from well-to-do and upper-rung families—who companies like Microsoft wants to employ. Rather than be so generous with taxpayers’ money, Microsoft should be paying difference itself.

To remain on a "foreign" track, it appears likely that Mexico’s president, Felipe Caulderon will sign a law decriminalizing the possession and use of small amounts of most presently illegal drugs, in order to “focus” on drug violence being perpetrated by the drug cartels. The Obama administration has kept quiet about this, unlike the previous efforts at decriminalization which ground to a halt after the hysterical reactions of the Bush administration. Whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen; since selling is still illegal, the problems associated with drug-trafficking will continue. But if in fact it can be shown that decriminalization has little effect on the level of use, or doesn’t lead to further social dislocation or criminal activity—even a lessening of it—then the U.S. might take note and begin to examine its own policies.

Thom,

1) I think it's interesting that the "Republics" are so outspoken regarding the "stolen" election in Iran. (I guess they know one when they see one!) Have they no shame?

2) There's a good article in the June 22 issue of Newsweek: "The Insurgents - The Secret Battle to Save Capitalism." It's very short and worth reading the entire thing:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/201936

Please ask Bernie about this group and whether he thinks they will be successful. Here are some excerpts:

"...in late March, Cantwell and her confederates—Carl Levin of Michigan, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Dianne Feinstein of California, Jim Webb of Virginia and Vermont's Bernard Sanders—met with Obama and members of his economic team in the White House. "I told the president I was concerned that the administration had people in charge who had missed all this before," she says. It was an awkward moment: two of the officials that Cantwell and her allies came to complain about—Obama's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner—were sitting right there.

...one by one, the other senators echoed Cantwell's concerns. Obama's appointed officials and nominees were products of the system that had brought us this economic grief; they would tinker but in the end leave Wall Street mostly intact. "Some of the people around the president needed to be given a push," says Levin.

For their part, administration officials reject this view.

(However) the Senate pressure seems to have paid off. (See the article for details.)

Much remains unaddressed, say Cantwell and other critics. Now that the financial markets are beginning to stabilize and the big Wall Street players pledge to pay back their bailout billions, they are digging in against fundamental change. Recently, a group of big banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs formed a new lobby to fight controls on over-the-counter derivatives. Cantwell is skeptical that the Obama team will hold the line against the Wall Street lobby. "Do I think they've become true believers? No, I don't." She says Gensler is already "whining" about how hard it is going to be to get new regulation past Wall Street. Gensler insists he and the Obama administration are determined to rein in the financial industry once and for all. "We need to regulate all derivatives, standard or customized, by regulating the dealers," he said. Gensler is clearly under a lot of pressure. The question is, who is he more worried about: Wall Street or fellow Democrats like Maria Cantwell?

Stevie Wonder - "The Secret Life of Plants"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiZy-z5FWZ8

Clip from the movie "The Secret Life of Plants:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVTF-1esL3M

University of Phoenix facilitators are at least taught peer reviewed learning and even to write papers on this to be included as faculty. It is a more egalitarian type of atmosphere which is rather than the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoon - pedagogic rather than andragogic.

Thom, would you propose having kids take a short class (say, 6 weeks) in each subject to "diagnose" which method of learning works for each child in that subject? Then--rather than making a child fail a year-long (36-week) class before he or she gets a useful, tailored form of education--they can be sorted properly by teaching method with dedicated teachers and classrooms for each, instead of being lumped into one "special needs" and one "ordinary" group. Sound good?

Richard Adlof,

The hardest thing (for me) about having children was dealing with education. He started with a "continuous progress" class, which is similar to what Thom was describing. That would have been perfect for him if the instructors weren't so dysfunctional.

My son was in a special ed. program in middle school, but that didn't help and only made him feel like an oddball. I pulled him out and home schooled him. After a year of that, I he entered an "alternative" school.

The school psychologist told us that he had the highest I.Q. of anyone in any population group (not just in the schools) she had worked with.

Through all this, he struggled with depression and the later discovery that he had ADD. The entire ordeal was such a nightmare. I wish I could have done better for him.

He's on Lexapro (and ritalin, when he remembers.)

He worked his way through undergraduate school and is trying to save money to go to medical school. (Right now, that seems like an illusive dream .)

B Roll,

'Sounds like you and your tangerine tree need a little "talk therapy." LOL

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