Failure of schools to meet arbitrary academic criteria leads to schools being labeled as “failing schools”. The closing of schools, turning them into charter schools and allowing parents to move their kids is lauded as “parental choice in public education” in California. How about actually investing in those communities and schools that are “failing”, since they are precisely the ones who need it. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-06-California-education_N.htm
2 months ago
Obama is poised to be the first internet savy president. How is he going to use his 10million database of supporters? read full article
Armed with millions of e-mail addresses and a political operation that harnessed the Internet like no campaign before it, Barack Obama will enter the White House with the opportunity to create the first truly “wired” presidency.
Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media.
After Obama declared victory, his campaign sent a text message announcing that his supporters hadn’t heard the last from the president-elect. Obama conveyed a similar message to his staff in a campaignwide conference call Wednesday, signaling that his election was the beginning, and not the culmination, of a political movement.
Accordingly, the president-elect’s http://www.change.gov transition Web site features a blog and a suggestion form, signaling the kinds of direct and instantaneous interaction that the Obama administration will encourage, perhaps with an eye toward turning its following into the biggest special-interest group in Washington
Under Obama, Web Would Be the Way - washingtonpost.com
1 year ago
Last week, the RTS stock exchange suffered its worst trading day on record, plunging 19 percent. The markets were hit after oil prices — the backbone of Russia’s economy — slid heavily amid mounting concerns over the global economic meltdown. But in Russia, it didn’t even make the evening news on the three state-controlled channels. Instead, they aired a meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev and one of the country’s richest billionaires, Mikhail Fridman, in which the two discussed the investment opportunities created by the global crisis. Vladimir Varfolomeyev, first deputy editor at Ekho Moskvy radio, wrote in his blog that the Kremlin recently sent an order to all broadcasters banning the words “collapse” and “crisis.” The word “fall,” the memo said, should be substituted with “decline.” His blog promptly went down. Meanwhile, a memo circulated at the state-run ITAR-Tass news agency reportedly advised reporters not to publish “provocative reports that can cause panic.” “We’re requesting you to STOP covering queues at banks and a shortage of banking funds,” said the memo, circulated by several respected bloggers. Many newspapers, which operate under more liberal constraints, have carried reports of depositors switching their savings from less-secure private to state-owned banks, while noting some smaller lenders have frozen early withdrawals of accounts.
- What Crisis? Kremlin downplays financial woes - Yahoo! News
1 year ago
