I thought Herman Cain said he didn't know Sharon Bialek?

Herman Cain backstage at the recent TeaCon with Amy Jacobson shortly after Cain’s alleged encounter with accuser Sharon Bialek.

H/T Curious Texan via GrannyStandingforTruth

Why did she give Mr. Cain a hug at a Tea Party event just a month ago (as witnessed by WIND radio's Amy Jacobson)?

Herman Cain is beginning to remind me more and more of his ahem mentor.

"You want a job, don't you"?

Compare

And contrast

Anyone but me notice the *ahem* similarities?

One blond, attractive, articulate, female accuses the black (yes, I'm playing the race card) republican Presidential candidate of making unwanted sexual advances towards her and the white, I mean right-wing attack dogs circle the wagons, play the race card, attack her attorney, call her a broke, desperate, liar, working undercover for Rick Perry/Rham Emmanuel/the media.

It has been interesting, if also predictable, to watch conservatives reacting to the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations discover the horrors of anti-black racism. After all, they’ve spent the past three years claiming that the real victims of racism in the United States are white.

The other blond, attractive, articulate female accuses the white (race card again) democratic Presidential candidate (yes, I'm bringing party into this) of being her lover for 12 years, complete with audiotapes and the white, I mean right-wing and the media goes wild.

After Bill Clinton denied having a relationship with Flowers on 60 Minutes, she held a press conference in which she played tape recordings she had secretly recorded of phone calls with Clinton.[2] Clinton subsequently apologized publicly to Mario Cuomo for remarks he made about the then-Governor of New York on the tapes. However, news reports at the time speculated that the taped phone conversations between Flowers and Clinton could have been doctored.[2][3] Clinton aides James Carville and George Stephanopoulos also backed this claim as well.[4] George Stephanopoulos later claimed in a 2000 interview with journalist Tim Russert that "Oh, it was absolutely his voice, but they were selectively edited in a way to - to create some - some impression." [5]

And Republicans say they have better blacks than democrats? Contrast the black republican Presidential front runner jobs plan snark,

“He suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg under my skirt and reached for my genitals,” said Bialek, a Chicago native who worked for the foundation for roughly six months in 1997, according to the Restaurant Association.“He also grabbed my head and pushed it toward his crotch.”

When she arrived in Washington to meet Cain, Bialek said she found he had upgraded her hotel suite. Cain took her to dinner at an Italian restaurant, then drove over to see the National Restaurant Association headquarters. But Cain stopped the car outside the group’s office and made an advance, she said.

Bialek says she told Cain at the time: “What are you doing, you know I have a boyfriend, this isn’t what I came here for.”

Bialek said Cain said, “You want a job, don’t you?”

Compared to the African American democratic Presidential front runner's American Jobs Act the GOP is blocking and obstructing because they think the majority of voters are suckers (pun intended).

The purpose of the American Jobs Act, which President Obama sent to Congress this week, is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. The President's plan will rebuild the economy the American way -- based on balance, fairness and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street.
The American Jobs Act reflects a commitment to strengthen the recovery and help increase access to jobs for all Americans.

republicans impeached President Clinton for trying to conceal a private, consensual, oral sex act from his wife, daughter, and the country. Remember?

President Bill Clinton's administration created 22 million new JOBS.

Compare and contrast that.

Monday Morning Talking Points

Considering the policies of the modern Republican Party, this is very true. Their main policy is to make the rich even richer at the expense of everyone else. Anyone who is not rich and still votes Republican is voting against their own interests -- and therefore is a sucker. H/T jobsanger

Speaking of Suckers, why is New Century Technology High School merging with Lee High School in the first darn place? It has come to my attention - the concept of a "technology" high school in Research Park was long before Edith Washington Humphrey got involved.

The original concept was that the technology high school would be open to any student in the city school system. Research Park businesses would provide mentoring and guidance. In addition, students from the neighborhood areas surrounding the school would also be allowed to attend but could opt for a regular high school curriculum. But several years passed and by the time the facility was constructed the surrounding area saw a substantial increase in residential development and the technology aspect was smothered (along with unnecessary attendance line rezoning out of Butler helped to put it out of kilter). Technology suffered in favor of residential developers. Now with it being relocated out of Research Park it is being pushed aside again in favor of residential developers. It appears that no one on the school board or city council has any knowledge of long term planning or the value of a stand alone technology education facility in a technology environment??? (But they are good with their rubber stamps!)

Which begs to question why the technology high school is being relocated from Research Park? If anyone should be marching, singing and protesting it should be the New Century Technology students/parents and community leaders. They were promised a school building. The school system told the DoJ they were going to have a school building located in research park and it would be a school of choice/magnet school. Why did they give the DoJ this *ahem* information you ask? Because the desegregation order says HCS can't build any new schools in majority white portions of the city.

"the path to less mo" (as in Mo Brooks) via caterwaul via Left in Alabama

-Identify a highly qualified candidate with education and experience that would qualify them for national office. Special attention paid to working well with others and the ability to compromise. Does not have to have political experience, in fact none might be preferable.

-Clean. No skeletons in the closet, no dirt to be smeared with.

-Centrist with a centrist record. In this political climate and this district a leftist cannot win.

-If such a person could be found and gave any encouragement at all to the possibility of serving, I would volunteer time and money to the effort. I also have access to marketing/communication, and fund raising expertise.


-I envision this to be an internet based effort which would require less money and in which my expert is well versed.

I have not been involved in politics for 20 years, therefore would appreciate any suggestions on possible candidates that meet my criteria, and also other websites that might be receptive to my proposal.

I cannot get a sense of dissatisfaction among the general electorate concerning Mo Brooks. Any suggestions?

Thank goodness I have my own blog since I'm banned from commenting at LiA so I can respond and offer suggestions.

First of all, I guess it depends on who your definition of the general electorate IS. Hang out at LiA, and RedEye's Front page and you'll get a sense of plenty dissatisfaction (for lack of a better word) with Mo. My sources tell me even the republicans are dissatisfied with Mo. As a matter of fact, the only ones not dissatisfied with Mo are the TeaBaggers.

Secondly, the centrist, compromising, candidate sounds a lot like republican lite, which is what got us in this mess in the first place. And there is no such thing as a "clean" candidate because candidates are human beings and they make mistakes. Ask Herman Cain. If a candidate has made a mistake come clean with the public and they will understand and forgive him/her. Ask David Vitter, Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich to name a few.

By your logic the majority of the voters, not to be confused with the majority of the people, in AL CD 05 are right wing, republican, suckers. Which may have been true in the past, but I think most are waking up and smelling the coffee.

It's not the path to less mo, it's the path to MO has got to GO!

Mack Lyons has arrived! Congratulations being named Blog I'm Feeling!

" Are you a voice or an echo?"

H/T al.com

Now that the proposed, and ill fated Lee High School name change has been tabled, can we focus on what's happening inside the building? Not just Lee, but ALL the schools in Huntsville? I look at the picture above and wonder how many of the students have passed all parts of the Alabama High School Exam? I wonder how many are reading below/at/above grade level? I wonder how many are National Merit Semi Finalist or Finalist? I wonder how many are prepared to enroll in college? I wonder if their parents approve of them marching out of school to protest in support of keeping the school named after Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee?

"There's been any number of councilman and officials call to inform me that I've made a gargantuan mistake," Wardynski said, to applause from the crowd that made him smile. "Thank you for acknowledging my mistake"

.

Why aren't any number of councilman and city officials calling to inform Wardynski he's making a gargantuan mistake bringing Teach for America to the poor/black/brown schools at twice the cost it was first reported?

H/T Geek Pavaler

On Thursday night, the Superintendent recommended that the board approve the contract with Teach for America. The board, in turn, approved this recommendation. Dr. Robinson, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Birney all voted in favor of the recommendation to hire Teach for America teachers. Mrs. Morrison voted against the recommendation. Although the Board President does not typically vote unless there is a tie, I believe that Mrs. McCaulley also said, “Nay” (although she said this somewhat under her breath).
So what exactly did the board vote to approve on Thursday night? The details of the contract have changed dramatically since the original Teach for America presentation on October 11th. That night, Mr. J. W. Carpenter of TFA presented a plan for the system to hire 110 TFA teachers over a period of three years. I reported, as did the Huntsville Times, that this contract would cost Huntsville City Schools $550,000 for three years, or $5,000 per TFAer.
The Plan Changes
Carpenter said in his presentation that in 2012-2013, the system would hire 30 TFAs, 40 in 2013-2014, and 50 in 2014-2015. I reported that the total cost of hiring these teachers was going to be $5,000 per teacher. The Huntsville Times has also reported this. We were mistaken on two counts.
For some reason, when the contract was presented to the board on November 3rd for the board approval, the superintendent didn’t recommend hiring TFA for just three years, but rather four. The hiring plan presented in the contract was as follows:
In 2012-2013, TFA will hire “30 or more” TFA teachers.
In 2013-2014, TFA will hire “40 or more” TFA teachers.
In 2014-2015, TFA will hire “50 or more” TFA teachers.
In 2015-2016, TFA will hire “50 or more” TFA teachers.
No one, not Dr. Wardynski nor any of the board members, bothered to mention that the contract had been altered from three years to four. So while I reported on October 18th that we were hiring 110 TFA teachers, we are in fact hiring 170 TFA teachers.

Teach for America is a gargantuan mistake. Knowing how Alabama values college football and football coaches, in the words of Larry Larry Lee writing for WaPo, If football coaches used Teach for America logic

Using the logic of the Huntsville City Board of Education, University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban should only use his youngest, most inexperienced players when his team plays a Top Ten opponent.

Anyone who pays attention to education knows that the most persistently poor-performing schools are those in impoverished neighborhoods. For example, there are nine schools in the Huntsville system where more than 90 percent of students receive free-reduced lunches. According to an analysis by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, none of these schools have reading and math scores where all grades (three through eight) are equal to or above state average.

By comparison, of the five schools where all grades are above state average, free-reduced lunches range from 4 to 25 percent.

But in spite of this, the Board of Education plans to hire 110 Teach for America teachers over the next three years and put them in schools in poor neighborhoods. These are recent college graduates, most of whom got degrees in something other than education and will receive a five-week crash course in how to teach before being sent off to work in the city’s most challenging schools.

I don’t believe this is the way Coach Saban thinks.

But this rather convoluted logic is not the only concern raised by hiring Teach for America teachers.
Earlier this year the Board of Education released a substantial number of employees, citing continuing budget concerns as the reason. Yet in addition to paying the salaries of the TFA teachers, the board will also pay an additional $5,000 per teacher to the TFA organization.

Teachers across the state have just had their pay reduced by the Legislature; Gov. Robert Bentley announced a few days ago that the state’s education budget will be $108 million less next year than in the current year, money for classroom supplies have been slashed to the bone and educators are being asked every day to do more with less.

Let's recap. The HCS board replaced a certified, experienced educator (Dr. Anne Roy Moore) with someone with no education experience or training (Col. Casey Wardynski) creating a double standard in hiring.

Back in June when the board announced that they had reached a decision and agreement with Dr. Wardynski concerning his contract, I asked two of the board members (two of the three who voted for him), how they could justify paying a man with 11 months experience a salary that was $55,000 over the minimum salary of $120,000 when teachers’ salaries were set at the state minimum. According to the 2010 Superintendent Salaries, Dr. Wardynski is the fourth highest paid superintendent in the state.
Both of these board members separately said the same thing to me: “He’s the best man for the job, and he wouldn’t come for anything less.”
When Dr. Wardynski offered a defense of Mr. Spinelli’s contract, he stated that it was a salary that was “competitive with what it would take to bring in an individual from out of state as well.” Again, when I asked board members about the salary afterwards, I was told, “He’s the best man for the job, and he wouldn’t come for anything less.”
This week when I contacted a board member about the extra $7,000 above the maximum salary being offered to Dr. Cooper, I was, once again, told “she is the best person for the job and she would not have come for less.”

In turn Wardynski is replacing certified trained educators with persons with no education experience or training.

And who wins in the end?

Not the faces in the picture at the top of the page, that's for sure.

Teach for America is not worth the expense nor the potential harm it will cause poor/black/brown students. Don't they deserve and need the best trained, certified, professional educators in the classroom that Alabama A&M University, Athens State University, Oakwood University and UAH can provide? What did they do to deserve teachers who entered into the profession because it is a way to pay off student loans from private institutions of higher learning then leave?

TFA teachers receive the same salary and the same benefits that a non-TFA teacher receives.
Additionally, TFA teachers also receive $5,350 per year for two years from AmeriCorps to pay off student loans.
TFA teachers can postpone the repayment of their student loans for the two years they are in the program, and AmeriCorps will repay the interest that is accrued during their service period.
TFA also pays for transitional expenses during the summer after they graduate.

Dr. Wardynski and the board are responsible for these decisions, but they’re not answering questions.

Now that's a real gargantuan mistake. It's not wise to lie to taxpayers. Nor is it wise to balance the budget on the backs of children.

Members of the HCS Board, elected officials, city leaders, HEA, AEA, and taxpayers and elected officials, are you a voice or an echo?

H/T Geek Pavaler for being a voice.

Saturday Quick Rant

Psst Lee High School Students in this picture! Occupy Huntsville could use your help and enthusiasm. How about protesting something that will have an effect on your future?

I feel sorry for taxpaying parents of black/brown/poor Huntsville City School students. The powers that be, enabled by the media, care more about a school name change than educating and molding young minds to become productive members of society. And we wonder why there is a school to prison pipeline, and why those who can flee the HCS as fast as they can to the detriment of the those who can't.

Poverty and Death for thee but not for me. Says United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a Catholic. For all of my friend who are planning not to vote in November, think about this. The only thing standing between us and more Antonin Scalia's, Clarence Thomas's, John Roberts' and Samuel Alito's is Barack Hussein Obama. It's the Supreme Court, I won't call you stupid because you're not. There is a difference in being mad and disappointed and being stupid. People who are stuck on stupid are those who hate President Obama/democrats/liberals/ more than they love themselves.

Let me see if I have this right (pun intended), the same party who impeached President Clinton for trying to conceal a private, consensual, sexual affair, and a Supreme Court who allowed Paula Jones to bring a sexual harassment lawsuit against a sitting President now has the attitude that sexually harassed women had it coming?

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.