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Via TheoSpark

 

What's the difference between the Titanic and Obamacare? The Titanic at least had lifeboats.

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Feud between psychologist and Wisconsin lawmaker highlights growing tension surrounding Common Core http://eagnews.org/feud-between-anti-common-core-psychologist-and-wisconsin-lawmaker-highlights-growing-tension-surrounding-standards/

 

MADISON, Wis. – America’s ongoing fight over Common Core is being revealed as a David and Goliath-like struggle between concerned citizens who oppose the new, one-size-fits-all learning standards and the moneyed interests that stand to profit from a nationalized education system.

 

This was all made clear during a recent blowup between Dr. Gary Thompson, a Utah psychologist who opposes Common Core, and Wisconsin state Sen. John Lehman.

 

Thompson testified last month before a bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers that Common Core testing could have disastrous ramifications for many children, including extremely gifted students and those with learning disabilities. (His testimony can be viewed here: http://vimeo.com/77988848)

 

Most would have found Thompson’s testimony thought-provoking, but two politicians – state Sen. John Lehman and state Rep. Sondy Pope – weren’t interested in hearing his expertise on Common Core testing.

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Here’s an excerpt from Thompson’s no-holds-barred letter:

 

To The Honorable Senator John Lehman:

 

I am in receipt of your press release dated October 24, 2013 issued on official Wisconsin State Government letterhead. Let me get straight to the point: On behalf of every African American, Latino, Autistic, gifted, depressed, anxious and learning-disabled child in the state of Wisconsin, I demand your immediate resignation from public office.

 

Your manipulative, race/religion-baiting, sociopathic, misleading press release is a textbook example of what is wrong with American politics and is clearly a window into the mind of a warped individual who values the spotlight over serious discussions related to our nation’s children.

 

You were presented with clear, irrefutable, empirically based, credible evidence—from an impartial Doctor of Clinical Psychology who hates politics—that the testing practices you support under the Common Core Standards are experimental in nature, and that continuing down this path has a high statistical chance of screwing up the academic and emotional lives of African-American, Latino, autistic, gifted, anxious, depressed, and learning-disabled children in Wisconsin and beyond. I came to Wisconsin of my own free will—not a penny paid for actual time or testimony—specifically because I believed so strongly in the need to stand up on behalf of children.

 

Incredulously, what made the headlines all over the state of Wisconsin, instead, was your passionate concern over who paid my airfare (coach) and my hotel (two star) bill! So I have to ask with all sincerity, my brother, what the hell is wrong with you cognitively and emotionally?

 

I question those competencies …

 

After deliberately setting the tone of the hearing with an eye directed towards minimizing the scientifically irrelevant influences of politics and religion surrounding the issue at hand, I proceeded for the next 18 minutes to systematically, logically, and passionately dismantle SBAC/Common Core testing validation practices and procedures.

 

I then looked you right in the eye, and stated that the children of Wisconsin were being experimented on without the consent of their parents, and that such experimentation will more than likely result in serious emotional, academic and cognitive harm….

 

Given the seriousness of what was alleged during a Senate Hearing from an impartial Doctor of Psychology, the vast majority of Wisconsin and American citizens really do not give a damn about who paid for my costs. … [bold emphasis-mine]

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Comment from post above:

 

Bob Dohnal · Top Commenter · University of Wiscosnin

If you want Common children you wlil love Common core.

Reply · 3 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 6:27pm

 

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

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Feud between psychologist and Wisconsin lawmaker highlights growing tension surrounding Common Core http://eagnews.org/feud-between-anti-common-core-psychologist-and-wisconsin-lawmaker-highlights-growing-tension-surrounding-standards/

 

 

A. Thanks Good stuff

B. IMO the problem with Common Core is. The Federal Government. This has turned into a one size fits all program, and as such given your rapidly changing world (Hinge Of history) is can't adapt quickly enough to the changes coming.

C. Obviously something is really wrong with our educational system, and I give kudos to those involved in this for attempting to address the problem. But being (education) bureaucrats they only think in terms of a bureaucratic top down solution, I believe those days are going away.

 

 

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Biden congratulates the wrong Marty Walsh
On election night Joe Biden called to congratulate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh – but soon found out he had dialed the wrong Marty. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.

Just minutes after the election returns arrived in Boston Tuesday night, Martin Walsh’s cellphone rang. It was the vice president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, offering his congratulations.

“You son of a gun, Marty!” he thundered. “You did it!”

The only problem was, it was the wrong Marty Walsh.

Biden had called the cellphone of Marty Walsh, a former aide to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy who is now the president of Gateway Public Solutions, a government relations firm in Boston.

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Biden congratulates the wrong Marty Walsh

On election night Joe Biden called to congratulate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh – but soon found out he had dialed the wrong Marty. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.

 

 

Just minutes after the election returns arrived in Boston Tuesday night, Martin Walsh’s cellphone rang. It was the vice president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, offering his congratulations.

“You son of a gun, Marty!” he thundered. “You did it!”

The only problem was, it was the wrong Marty Walsh.

Biden had called the cellphone of Marty Walsh, a former aide to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy who is now the president of Gateway Public Solutions, a government relations firm in Boston.

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I've wondered where good old Joe has been, guess he'll go into hiding for another two months. The press just laughs him off as if it's nothing, but this man is a heartbeat away from being our President and he's as crazy as a loon.

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Background on Texas Pol, "Abortion Barbie"......diaper wearing Wendy Davis...

 

Wendy Davis sued her hometown newspaper (and Disney) for WHAT? http://therealwendy.com/wendy-davis-sued-hometown-newspaper/

 

 

Wendy Davis, a case study in excessive litigation...

 

Wendy Davis sued a newspaper because she didn’t like that they pointed out her negative campaign tactics.

 

The Texas Tribune recently noted that Wendy Davis sued the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1997 for publishing an editorial critical of Davis’ negative campaign tactics.

 

Wendy Davis’ libel lawsuit in the 116th District Court in Dallas (Case #DC-97-03532, Wendy Davis vs. Star-Telegram Operating, Inc., et al) could literally be used as a case study in over-litigation – the case was filed by a failed political candidate seeking damages for psychological pain caused by negative news coverage of her own campaign tactics and was thrown out in a summary judgment.

 

Thin skin much?

 

THE DETAILS

 

During her failed 1996 City Council campaign bid, Davis was the subject of negative news coverage in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, including an editorial which criticized her negative campaign tactics. Subsequent to her electoral loss, Davis filed a libel lawsuit against the paper, and parent companies The Walt Disney Co. and ABC Inc., to attempt to obtain an award for damages.

 

In her suit, Davis claimed that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s editorial had damaged her mental health and infringed upon her “right to pursue public office.”

 

So what exactly was so bad about the editorial? Read it for yourself:

 

One Last Thing

 

On the eve of a City Council runoff election, a campaign has turned dirty. That’s not something we see much of in these parts. It’s also not something we respect or cotton to.

 

Fort Worth is a city that works. Its government, its businesses and even the people who agree to disagree have a unique ability to pull together for the common good. And all who live here and use the city for its culture and entertainment benefit from this attitude. It is a frame of mind that places the welfare of the many above pettiness and above those things that benefit only the few.

 

That’s why we view with disappointment the last-minute mailing to residents of District 9 sent by the Wendy Davis campaign, apparently to impugn the integrity of Davis’s opponent, Cathy Hirt.

 

Hirt finished slightly ahead of Davis in the regular campaign to fill the seat vacated by newly elected Mayor Kenneth Barr. The runoff election is scheduled today.

 

It is a heated battle. Many feel that it is too close to call.

 

Perhaps the intensity of the fight has caused good people to act callously and recklessly and to abandon good manners.

 

Whatever, it seems tasteless for the Davis campaign to imply that Hirt – who has a doctorate and speaks three languages – is inferior because she, according to the flier, failed the Tennessee bar exam three times before passing it. Davis, it is pointed out, attended Harvard University. Both women are attorneys.

 

The brochure points out that Davis has lived here all her life and that Hirt has been here less than five years. Last time we checked, length of residency in Fort Worth is not a prerequisite for service. In fact, Hirt has been an active neighborhood and civic leader and volunteer almost from the day she arrived.

 

Davis’s campaign uses a quotation to imply that the “power and money” crowd does not want her elected because she is too independent. We are not certain who the “power and money” crowd is, but we can guess.

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Wendy Davis lost that race, and a few months later, she sued the Star-Telegram.

 

Just a few months after her suit was first filed, Davis’ libel claim against the newspaper was unceremoniously thrown out by the Court – as Judge Martin Richter granted a summary judgment against Davis without hearing any testimony. Rather than moving on, Wendy Davis appealed the case to a higher court.

 

In 2000, nearly four years after her loss, Texas’ 5th Court of Appeals rejected Davis’ claim that she was libeled by the Star-Telegram during her 1996 campaign for city council. Rubbing salt in the wound, the court wrote in its 3-0 decision that they “cannot conclude a person of ordinary intelligence would perceive the statements as defamatory.”

 

Wendy Davis pressed forward ever still with her libel case, appealing to the Texas Supreme Court, which declined to hear her case.

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Via WeaselZippers

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Ah, a penny for your thoughts?tongue.png

@Geee

 

I'm afraid that you'd get the short end of the stick on that one.

 

A penny for what's left rattling around in my head at the end of the week is a winning bid.

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Ah, a penny for your thoughts?tongue.png

@Geee

 

I'm afraid that you'd get the short end of the stick on that one.

 

A penny for what's left rattling around in my head at the end of the week is a winning bid.

 

 

The penny was for @Valin.I would gladly give you 2 cents worth wink.pngtongue.png

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