Wednesday, August 18, 2010

More Administrators hired than faculty!

August 17, 2010, 03:10 PM ET  http://theissueslist.blogspot.com/

Growth in Administrators
Outstrips Growth in Faculty Members

A report issued today says that the number of administrators for every 100 college students increased by 39 percent from 1993 to 2007, while the number of professors and researchers rose by 18 percent during that period. The study of 198 public and private universities was released by the nonprofit Goldwater Insitute, and led by Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow at the institute who is also head of the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Officials at one university system, the University of Texas, objected to the study's methodology. They told The Dallas Morning News that the study included counselors, deans, and accountants in the administrative ranks, which artificially inflated those numbers. Mr. Greene said the point was to account for staff not directly involved in instruction or research. His report blames this "bloat" for the increase in college costs.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Is Government the solution or the problem?

Effective leaders in various governments have created productive jobs and steered economies from ruin to prosperity.  Freely established nations of good people have banded together to secure the peace, protect their freedom, and realize justice according to a foundation in the rule of law.

Recessions may come and go, but these are merely fluctuations in economic conditions which transcend governments, taxes, and the vicissitudes of nature. Government spending, when creatively administered, demonstrably raised all ships and move us from the great depression into a position of strength and security as the richest and most powerful nation in modern history.

Obama is creating great uncertainty by allowing the Bush tax's to continue.  His surrender to corporate insiders on health care has been a disaster, although what small steps forward which have been made are helpful. The decision by congress to consider heath insurance premiums as taxable income is insane. 
The astronomical debts run up by the Bush and Cheney administration have crippled this nation for the next half century.  If our current president would reject endless wars and occupations as a platform, we might be able to move forward. Businesses in American will hire when our government stops exporting jobs overseas in blatant surrender to transnational economic cartels who have bought this this nation. 

Personal incomes in America have been in decline for the past ten years.  Until we begin to invest in America, incomes will continue this downward spiral.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Bush's Third Term....

In his campaign stump speech, Obama said that he wanted to
restore the moral high ground he thought was lost under Bush:
"We are going to lead by example, by maintaining the highest
standards of civil liberties and human rights."
He explained ways this would be accomplished.
"Close down Guantanamo, restore habeas corpus (the right
to see the evidence against you), say no to renditions,
no to wireless wiretapping."  He also declared that single
payer was the only solution to our health care crisis. 
How did he do?
Obama has not closed Guantanamo -- and some Guantanamo
prisoners have reported harsher treatment under Obama. 
The Obama administration has argued against extending habeas
corpus to some prisoners, and it has continued rendition
and warrantless wiretapping. In fact, Obama went further:
secret sentences. Osama bin Laden's cook Ibrahim al-Qosi
was convicted, and his sentence will not be revealed until it's
been completed.

Obama criticized Bush for claiming that the U.S. president |
has the authority to detain U.S. citizens without charges.
Osama’s administration goes further and says that, without
charges or evidence, the president has the authority to kill
U.S. citizens and even maintains a list of citizens targeted for
assassination. Obama complained about the "revelation of
secret programs" under Bush; yet, as a Washington Post
headline said this summer, "U.S. 'secret war' expands globally."

The Bush administration was criticized for making backroom
deals where the participants weren't revealed. Obama promised
his administration would be transparent and that, for instance,
he would make every aspect of the health care reform debate
open to public view, even broadcasting all negotiations on C-Span.

In practice, Obama held back names of health industry
representatives meeting behind closed doors in the
White House until a lawsuit was filed and didn't
allow transparent health care negotiations or for
them to be broadcast. He has, however, been more
open than any other administration, according to the
Pulitzer-winning PolitiFact, and posts most visitors
online, with exceptions for "sensitive meetings."
Obama criticized Bush for being in bed with oil interests.
But Bush's people were left in place in the Minerals
Management Service, which approved without
inspection at the behest of oil interests the drilling
permit that led to the Gulf\of Mexico spill. Rolling
Stone reported that staffers throughout the Interior
Department refer to working there now as "Bush's
third term."

There are many more similarities, such as in the use of
military tribunals instead of traditional courts,
Middle Eastern strategy and lack of protection
for whistle-blowers.  And the Cheney-Bush policy
of endless war to enforce corporate occupations...
has only continued and expanded.

All that said, there are examples where Obama has gone against Bush policies: abortion, children's health insurance, tax cuts for the rich and the release of torture memos.

The verdict
So would a person have to be "crazy" to compare
George W. Bush's presidential policies with those
of Barack Obama's?

No. Bush and Obama have behaved similarly on
major issues, including energy policy, government
transparency, terrorism, civil liberties, health care,
war & peace.  Obama, like Bush and Cheney,
favor judicial homicide, even when compelling
evidence exists that such laws result in the deaths
of innocents and undermine the moral authority
of the law.

We deserve better.  All we can hope for now,
is that some more progressive candidate may emerge
so that Bush does not get a Fourth Term.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Hiroshima

"In visiting Hiroshima, Obama wouldn't question the service and sacrifice of American veterans. The purpose wouldn't be to make America or Americans feel guilty about the past. Rather, he could begin putting into action his talk of a world free of nuclear weapons. Hiroshima is a stark reminder of the incomparable destruction wrought by nuclear weapons. 

...Obama is ideally suited to alter the conversation on Hiroshima. He has changed America by reintroducing hope into the political and social conversation during a time of financial crisis and war. 
...By paying his respects to those who died in Hiroshima, Obama can show both Japan and the rest of the world that Americans take this history seriously, that we say in one voice "never again."
The U.S. president can also help inaugurate a new era in relations between Washington and Tokyo. The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, stood at the United Nations last month and invited leaders to understand the need for a world free of nuclear weapons from the perspective of those who were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Hatoyama did so not to blame Americans for this history, but rather to articulate Japan's responsibility as the only country to be devastated by such bombs: Others must never know such suffering. The new Japanese prime minister is also promising a forthright examination of Japan's role in World War II. It's time for President Obama to make this a joint endeavor.
As the president wrestles with the intricacies of Afghanistan's future, recognizing America's past history should be fairly straightforward by comparison. His visit would give him and the United States credibility to move forward in setting the tone for discussions of nuclear nonproliferation, weapons reduction, and, ultimately, their abolition. We can only focus on this future if we deal honestly with the past.
Put differently, if Mr. Obama cannot visit Hiroshima, why would the leader of any other country believe he or any American could turn words about a non-nuclear world into action?
John Feffer

On the "decline" of Europe...

Europe is moving forward: securing peace, embracing justice,
and enhancing freedom.  Many all over the world embrace these
articles of faith and have the courage to walk the talk.

Those who indulge in fear-mongering, war, aggression, occupation,
exploitation, and exclusion will not prevail.  Good people are building
bridges to a more abundant future. The cynics and those who do little
but whine and complain will be displaced and transcended by people
of vision with serenity in their hearts. Not to worry."

For the Tea Party Pretenders...

Tea Party pretenders claim government is always bad...

But reality intervenes:


Effective leaders in various governments have created productive jobs
and steered economies from ruin to prosperity.  Freely established
nations of good people have banded together to secure the peace,
protect their freedom, and realize justice according to a foundation 

in the rule of law and the good people among them.

Recessions may come and go, but these are merely fluctuations in
economic conditions which transcend governments, taxes, and the 

vicissitudes of nature. Government spending, when creatively 
administered, demonstrably has raised all ships.

 In America, government job creation moved us from the great depression
into a position of strength and security as the richest and most
powerful nation in modern history. 



Obama is creating great uncertainty by allowing the Bush taxs cuts to
continue.  His surrender to corporate insiders on health care has been a 

disaster, although what small steps forward which have been made are
helpful. The decision by congress to consider heath insurance premiums
as taxable income is insane.  The astronomical debts run up by the Bush and
Cheney administration have crippled this nation for the next half century. 

If our current president would reject endless wars and occupations

as a platform, we might be able to move forward. Businesses in American will
hire when our government stops exporting jobs overseas in blatant surrender to
transnational economic cartels who have bought (and stolen) this this nation. 

Personal incomes in America have been in decline for the past ten years.  
Until we begin to invest in America, incomes will continue this downward spiral.

We can do better.  And the government (which is us) can be part of the solution.
Tim