WOWwee! A new school superintendent. Rah, rah, rah.

There are “Ho-hum” times when events happen in your community and is recorded in the weekly journals parked in your driveway once a week, come rain or shine and there are “Yawn, ho-hum” times.

Last week reading in my journal I came upon a “Yawn, ho-hum” situation wherein we are scheduled our sixth school superintendents since 1991. His name is William R. Hite Jr. Our sixth school superintendent in eighteen years, mind you. The title of the March 12th article, “Hite is leading candidate for top schools job” and the article went into the usual “hum-drum, let’s get this show on the road” non-article and definitely minus any humanizing factors i.e., family, hobbies, educational background, favorite quotes or philosophies of education. I may have missed those articles. However, in this present article, there is not much about him save what others say about him and plan to do with his nomination.

Experience has shown me our journal does not de-humanize our school superintendents nor does it humanize them to the positive. They do not give them that “He’s a good guy and he’s competent” thing. Always the OJ treatment.

Our journal is a surrogate of the Washington Post and I got enough of the Washington Post when Mayor Berry was in office and I know they are giving School Superintendent Michelle Rhee in Washing D.C. a hard time. Her official title is Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
In my opinion and as in the past, after the swearing-in ceremony of our school superintendents, the chances of keeping him for any length of time is thirty five percent at best. Immediately after the swearing in ceremony would be the time the journal begin pulling out and polishing its templates, writing about everything our school superintendent does including but not limited to farting, blowing his nose, arguing with a principle, buying a new car and student scores GOING DOWN. When the editors are speaking of our superintendents it is always shrouded with negative council members and parental remarks including recounting the bills he wants to pass reporting them on the razor’s-edge of the negative etc., etc., etc.,

Irregardless the revolving door to our School’s Superintendent’s Office and the local journal’s perpetual influences with them, we citizens still manage to do a credible job of educating our youths. We have some strong communities and very active parents and PTA groups. For the most part, we have teachers who love our children and wish they well. That has to do with the recruiting and hiring teams in the system and as noted before, strong parental involvement.

Most of us parents resist the fact the editors of the paper appear to have dire resolves for us having the best School Superintendent there ever was; a Saint if you will and they will settle for nothing less for us cute, illiterate little adorable and helpless Black folks living in Prince George’s County, Md. BTW, there are some negroes in our county who also agree with the program of the journal and can not wait to strike up the band playing “When the Saints go marching in”.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB

The art of asking questions (And answering them)

Questions come in categories. I learned that in my senior year in college taking a “Test and Measurements” course preparing for a career in teaching.

Hated it! Did not get a good grade in it! I will hide behind what the teacher told us as to a belief why you should not fail a student who failed your tests: “You have not tested the student on what he has learned in your class” which implies you only wanted the student to learn what you wanted him to learn. Nifty, huh? I’ll say, but that is the way it was with me and perhaps a few other students in my class who had the additional labor of constructing and reading graphs, averaging numbers and a host of other things not directly related to our music major.

And adding pain and misery to our little Bach and Beethoven orientated heads, mind you, as a project we had to construct several test in our major and send that test through all sorts of changes for a grade! All of this just to be able to teach our students “This land is your land” and “Stout hearted men”.

It was rough but here I am a long way from the Spring of 1960 musing over things I was not tested on in my “Test and Measurements” class. By the time I reached my senior year in collage, I considered the grade of “C” a benevolent gesture from my teachers in the liberal arts college. There were these guys from Africa and the Caribbean, you see. Most all educated through the British educational system. I kid you not; those guys were 100% focused and sharp as hell! They dominated the honor societies of whatever school in which they were enrolled at the university but not the fraternities and sororities we were told via small and informal group conversations. (Smile)

So it is on C-Span I see the statement of the morning program, “Grading Obama administration on economy” which of course translates to “How would you grade the Obama administration of the economy”. There was this question asked by Sarah Palin, “Who is Barack Obama?” and this evening, “Do you think it’s time for Timothy Geithner to go?” from the Lou Dobbs show.

Here is what I did learn from my Test and Measurement’s course the professor did not test me on:
1. Creating a question is a science and an art and it is serious business
2. A dumb question does not a poll maketh
3. Questions should be of such a statue the answers should not diminish its integrity
4. The question (sugar) should be of the finest quality to attract the brightest and best answers (flies).
5. The questioner has a responsibility to stimulate meaningful mental growth.

Now then, had the professor made those statements into question I know for sure I would have aced her class. (Sniff) Yes, I would’ve! (Sniff) I know I would’ve! (Sob!)
As always,
BB
P.S. I never liked “Pictures at an exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky until today when I heard a recording with conductor Meisel and the Berlin symphony orchestra. WOW!
Reference:
Asking Effective Questions
Effective Questioning: The Art, Science and Practice
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/communication_questions.html

(And answering them)
I have noticed a lot of people feel a need to answer well constructed questions with an example as to how they perceived the question or they may even use a metaphor. I have no problems with using either methods of telling the questioner you understand the question.

However, there are some I have noticed who use the legitimate answering techniques to make efforts to obstruct the question and the questioner. In my opinion, that is the point the two people begin arguing the examples, the metaphor or both and lose sight of the original question. To that technique I am mindful of the Goethe poem “The Trout” to which the composer Franz Schubert set to music. It is a poem about a fisherman’s frustrations trying to catch a trout fish ending up violating good sportsmanship by muddying the waters in efforts to catch the fish.

At one point during the argument, we Blacks would say, “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout your Mama, I’m talkin’ ‘bout you!” and as whites would say, “What does that have to do with the question?”

America (Update)

Today is going to be a real fun day! A "Torch and pitchforks" day! The second coming of Christ would be an understatement.
Developing…….
(Update)
-Manny?
-Yes, Mr. President?
-I just had the news conference.
-I saw it, Sir. You’re flying to California now?
-Yes. Listen Many, I want to tell you something….
-No, Mr. President. Let me tell you something. You were right not to go public when you first heard about those AIG bonuses.
-Yeah! I knew I couldn’t handle the situation alone. Those guys play rough and there are so many of them. They control everything.
-That’s what I am talking about, Sir. You knew you could not stand up to those boys without the public’s help and now, (Ahem) with a little help from your friends, you’ve got it.
-I think I’m going to like being President.
-Yes Sir, Mr. President. Indeed.

Anatomy of an outrage

The outrage regarding American International Group (AIG) and the monetary bonuses awarded to some of its employees has really twisted a lot of britches and there is evidence of mis-placed anger. Not only are there a lot of people in Washington, D.C. walking funny these days, they are also actually talking funny. Some would call it “Talking crazy!”

Of late, in Washington, D.C. talking crazy has become no big deal. This is due to the fact Congress continues to express the same incompetence over and over looking for a different outcome; the Charlie Brown, Lucy syndrome if you will, and speaking of syndromes, there is also the one about the farmer bringing home the frozen snake he found.

In full defense of “talking crazy” I posit this is the unquestionable results of what I have always believed: If you start off wrong, you end up wrong. It is my opinion it never fails and little by little, drip by drip the word is coming out the whole process with the bail out money for AIG started off wrong. It started off with fallacious learned behavior. People not knowing what they were doing. People having poor planning processes. People with a lack of foresight. Incompetence, if you will. Total! You name it and it always ends with a battery of excuses. You would think the poor critters put more thought into their excuses then they do developing their plans.

The process of giving people money for whatever reasons, in my opinion, has inherit language associated with it and in many cases the language has to be explicit and written down. It is hard to imagine far back in the ecological chain my ancestors giving his neighbor the whole leg of a dinosaur without some conditions and I am assuming the leg of a dinosaur was just as precious a commodity and as relevant as giving billions of dollars to an insurance company to help it out of its financial miseries.

No strings attached! No “Devil in the details!” No nothing. “Here!” congress said, “take this money! It’s free and it’s all yours!” I understand Ms. Olympia Snow “tried” to insert some restraints on the bail out money for AIG but the restrictions were dropped when the bill was in conference. This is yet another “in your face” example of the total incompetence of some members of congress. I can not imagine any excuse more stupid when we are talking about billions of dollars, but that is what Sen. Snow said and I am sure she is standing by her word. I note she has given no further information. However, there are questions, yes?

I will conclude by saying once those opportunities pass and the whole process is on the wrong track, the energy it takes to put the process back on track is very difficult, to say the least, if not down right impossible. It’s that “moving finger” thing as Kenny Rogers so aptly sang about in his song, “The Gambler.”

America is still a young country. There are major mistakes yet to come. There are thousands of years ahead of us as is the backgrounds of many countries on the African continent. Let’s say three thousands years from now our future ancestors will have stories beginning with, “Once upon a time three thousand years ago in America…” I fear we will have to chalk this AIG one up due to the fact and above all, too many of us know the perils of biting the hand that feeds you either through vicarious or personal accounts.
As always,
BB
P.S. I know Dick Cheney had an interview on Sunday. I did not watch it for fear I would write about it. A writer, and I do consider myself one who writes. What else would you call a writer? Most people do not have the time to do what we do. As I was saying, a writer has to be careful writing about an evil person. It’s that personification thing you have to deal with and you can quickly find yourself in emotional quicksand that may take you days to get out of. Some writers are skillful in handling evil and thank God, I am not one of them. I am mindful I did write one account of Dick Cheney when he used the “So?” expression in an interview. That was during the time I first realized there are truly evil people in this world. It was a sobering experience for me. One I will never forget!
P.P.S. The hypocrisy of America talking about difficulties breaking AIG contracts with two illegal wars not sanctioned by Congress, illegal wiretapping and the list goes on and on.
P.P.P.S. Is there a template for writing
congressional bills?

Welcoming our new President to “Rock and Hard Place”

In my opinion, President Obama has to be ever mindful of the language of bitterness and hatred his supporters will encounter while canvassing for his re-elections. One flack the canvassers will surely get is, “Obama let AIG rob us blind and did absolutely nothing!” to which the canvasser should be able to sharply retort. “Aha, but that’s not true. He fired both Geithner and Summers as soon as he could, so there!”

Unfortunately, it appears President Obama is stuck with having one thief giving the impression he is trying to catch other thieves who happen to be his friends. Close friends. The world is waiting. Election canvassers are watching. What to do?? They are fraternal brothers, if you will. In relations to our President, these people truly believe “Blood is thicker than water”, country and everything else.

Comment:
“First step to a solution: Fire Summers and Geithner immediately... if Obama want to continue to have credibility then he made a bad and naive choice... it should have been completely evident that these two characters have no trustworthiness and have for decades been shills for Rubin and the like. Why Obama did not see this is a mystery to me.. but now there can be no doubt or hope that these two are who they have been, liars and cheats at best on the boarder of what is legal.
Obama, if he wants to reclaim credibility and confidence, needs to fire both this low life individuals immediately to protect the interests of the citizens who elected him, not the limited constituencies of Summers and Geithner... awful people.”
His Own Economic Team, Demands Move to Block AIG Bonuses
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/economic-credibility-gap_b_175391.html

And
Excerpt:
“Yet somehow we are being bamboozled into believing that President Obama's 'hands are tied'. President Obama calls this kind of 'bamboozling' the Old Okey Doke. Yeah, I get it now. Now I know exactly what that means.
I just don't believe President Obama's hands are tied, and I never will. But what bothers me most is not just the 'fake outrage' but the idea that this administration somehow has the nerve to insult our intelligence. Timothy Geithner is not demanding that these contracts be 'renegotiated.' That is a lie. Timothy Geithner is busy getting ready to double down through the back door to screw us yet again:”
Getting the Okey Dokey from President Obama
by Badabing
Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 12:17:36 AM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/17/709466/-Getting-the-Okey-Dokey-from-President-Obama
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB

Sec. Geithner donates borrowed money to AIG. LOL!

Donating money we have borrowed from China and who knows who else due to the fact, “…..we are a nation of laws and we have to honor contracts” but I promise you, yes Sir, I promise you the next time AIG ask for stimulus money, I guarantee you if will not be so easy to get. No Sireee, it won’t be so easy at all. Furthermore, this is money our grandchildren have to re-pay!
Yeah! Right!

So it is we are presently engaged in talks with financial world leaders and begging independent investors to invest in America in efforts to regain the trust of the world community and our financial institutions can tell us all to kiss their collective ass. If I were Sec. Geithner, I would seriously consider renting a flat in England until this performance of “But Our Hands Are Tied” folds. An awful production!
As always,
BB
* The Real Scandal of AIG
Excerpt:
The administration is said to have been outraged when it heard of the bonus plan last week. Apparently Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner told AIG's chairman, Edward Liddy (who was installed at the insistence of the Treasury, in the first place) that the bonuses should not be paid. But most will be paid anyway, because, according to AIG, the firm is legally obligated to do so.
(Author: The last two sentences in Mr. Rich’s post are real show stoppers!)
Robert Reich. Former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley
Posted March 15, 2009 | 03:33 PM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-real-scandal-of-aig_b_175105.html

G-20 Summit’s pre-summit meeting

Excerpt:

*But officials remained cool to a U.S. push for more coordinated government spending to stimulate economies.

In my opinion, this one sentence says a lot about how the world financial community is viewing America. I am sure America’s recently renewed sanctions on Iran have not endeared us with the summit attendees and neither has the controversy over the hiring of Charles Freeman.

Those two situations alone are examples of how America is not ready to play with the big boys by continually making immature decisions and making preparations to go to the April 2nd Summit with school yard bully demands and the additional baggage of not being prepared to fully participate in the summit. In other words, no meaningful homework. At this point, the other participants may chuckle to themselves attributing these unfortunate situations to the on-going border disputes between America and Israel. (Smile)

The excerpted sentence at the beginning of my post also reminds me of the conference a group of parole officers may have before the prisoner comes in begging for a parole or the huddle of a football team. In other words, the April 2nd G-20 Summit will provide a unique photo-op for America and President Obama. Nothing more.
As always,
BB
* G-20 Pledge "Sustained Effort" On Global Financial Crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/14/g-20-pledge-sustained-eff_n_174972.html