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Oct
24
Update: Superintendent’s letter to district in “Hit A Jew Day” incident
Filed Under Culture, Education, Jewish, Religion, Youth | 2 Comments
Superintendent Dr. Robert Malito of the Parkway School District outside St. Louis, MO posted the following letter on the district’s website today. Dr. Malito has been superintendent since 2004. You can read more about him here. The school board’s members are here.
An Open Letter to the Parkway Community from Superintendent Robert Malito
October 24, 2008
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARKWAY COMMUNITY FROM SUPERINTENDENT ROBERT MALITO
It is with both sadness and a sense of outrage that I share this letter with the Parkway community. Many of you may have heard about a distressing incident that occurred at Parkway West Middle School over the past week. I have heard from a number of you who are understandably angry and upset. I, too, am angry.
First and foremost, I want to publicly apologize for the actions of the students involved. I also want to share some of the facts surrounding the situation and let you know what we are doing about it. Additionally, I want to ask for your help as we work together carefully and constructively to move forward in a positive way for our students and community.
Last week, several sixth-graders at West Middle started their own unofficial “spirit-type” activities in the hallways. These activities occurred without the knowledge of teachers or administrators until Monday evening, October 20. What initially began as harmless fun including hugs and high-fives, somehow sadly turned into slaps or hits directed at Jewish students and tall students. Clearly this is unacceptable behavior that will not be tolerated in the Parkway School District. We pride ourselves on being a very diverse learning community that celebrates, respects and honors all voices. I am ashamed and disappointed that this has occurred in one of our schools.
After learning of the situation, the school principal immediately responded. On Tuesday morning she assembled the sixth-graders into the gym, during which time she expressed her outrage and sadness that not only did several students participate in these activities, but that others who knew about it did not immediately step in and stand up for their friends or tell an adult what had happened. She informed the students that anyone involved would be held accountable for their actions in accordance with Parkway’s discipline policy. After the assembly, she began her investigation and sent a letter home to all parents the following day to let them know what had happened and ask for their help in identifying those responsible.
While the investigation is still being conducted, it appears as though five students were directly involved. These students have been immediately suspended and will likely face additional consequences pending the final recommendations of the Discipline Review Committee, which reports to me.
It is hard to understand why these 11- and 12-year-olds acted in such a disrespectful manner. We work very hard in Parkway to teach students appropriate behavior and on any given day the majority of our 18,000 students do just that. But we cannot use this as an excuse to minimize the gravity of what these students have done. It is painful and hurtful and we are committed to doing whatever we can to ensure it does not happen again.
I ask for your support and involvement in this effort and hope by working together we can fulfill our obligation to educate our students and prepare them to be successful, contributing members of a democratic society.
Sincerely,
Robert Malito, Ph.D.
Superintendent
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:07 pm October 24th, 2008 in Culture, Education, Jewish, Religion, Youth | 2 Comments
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Oct
24
Christian values leader feels like he did when he buried head in hands in fear of atom bombs
Filed Under Barack Obama, Elections, John McCain, Ohio, Religion, Voting, WH2008 | 8 Comments
I really don’t know what he means by that, but it comes at the very end of this AP story about last day pushes by some members of the Christian right related to how fearful they believe the world will be if Barack Obama is elected president.
Here’s Burress:
Phil Burress, head of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, said the dynamics were quite different in 2004, when conservative Christians spent some energy calling Democrat John Kerry a flip-flopper but were mostly motivated by enthusiasm for George W. Bush.
Now, there is less excitement about [John] McCain than fear of an Obama presidency, Burress said.
“This reminds me of when I was a school kid, when I had to go out in the hall and bury my head in my hands because of the atom bomb,” he said.
Is he saying that he feels that the turmoil and fear of having to choose between McCain and Obama is like the atom bomb? Or, is he just burying his head in his hands from general strife? Honestly, I’m missing it.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:36 pm October 24th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Elections, John McCain, Ohio, Religion, Voting, WH2008 | 8 Comments
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Oct
24
[video] MN Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s newest ad
Filed Under Congress, michele bachmann | 11 Comments
You can have government or liberty? Is she an anarchist? Or a libertarian?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:20 pm October 24th, 2008 in Congress, michele bachmann | 11 Comments
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Oct
24
[updated] Ohio Highway Patrol makes arrest re: assasination threat of Secretary of State
Filed Under Crime, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio, Politics, WH2008 | 1 Comment
This day that started out with a fabricated story by a young John McCain campaign volunteer about a tall, black man who physically assaulted her has turned into a night when Ohio GOP Deputy Director Kevin DeWine’s accusation that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner fabricated a security breach turns out to be frighteningly misdirected: the Ohio Highway Patrol now have in custory Dana R. McArtor in connection with death threats made on Brunner’s life.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol arrested a 51-year-old Columbus man late today in connection with last week’s telephone death threat against, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s top election officer.
Dana McArtor of Riveria Court was charged with intimidation, a third-degree felony, according to Lt. Tony Bradshaw.
If convicted, McArtor faces five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, Bradshaw said.
The highway patrol investigation is continuing in cooperation with Franklin County Prosecutor Ron J. O’Brien.
McArtor was being held in Franklin County Jail tonight pending his court arraignment.
McArtor’s threat was among several received by Brunner, her family and various state employees last week. McArtor’s death threat was reportedly left at the Columbus office in a phone call received by one of Brunner’s employees. In a separate incident earlier this week, the Secretary of State’s internet web site was shut down temporarily due to a security breach.
According to Franklin County Board of Elections information, McArtor is a Republican. Read more
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:21 pm October 24th, 2008 in Crime, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio, Politics, WH2008 | 1 Comment
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Oct
24
[video] [updated] The fantasy of Palin’s plan for special needs children
Filed Under Education, Ohio, Politics, Sarah Palin, Vice President, WH2008, Youth | 9 Comments
There’s no way I can say this without sounding like a broken record, but Alaska Governor and GOP VP candidate, Sarah Palin, either has no idea what she is talking about or is purposely presenting false impressions about what the federal government currently does for special needs kids, who is responsible for taking care of special needs kids, and what impact she, as VP, could possibly have on any of that.
Remember how Hillary Clinton could not get health care reform accomplished by 1995? Okay, just remember that.
Now, there is no way that Palin, with Democrats in charge of both the House and Senate, and for a variety of other reasons, would be able to achieve the following plan she outlined today in Pennsylvania:
Palin, speaking at a hotel in Pittsburgh, unveiled a three-point plan that would expand educational choice for parents, increase funding for children with disabilities and improve services available to parents, medical professionals and schools.
Under the plan, federal money would be used to give parents the opportunity to send their children to a public, private or religious school of their choice.
…
She also proposed expanding funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was signed into law in 1975 but has never been fully funded. The McCain campaign estimates that fully funding the program will cost an additional $45 billion over five years, money that Palin said could be found by cutting federal pork barrel spending.
To restate, she wants to: Expand choice, increase funding and improve services.
Okay – now, anyone with kids who have special needs, who are in public, private or parochial school? You have real life experience with these things. What chance do you give Palin in achieving, from a political position in the federal government, any of those items on her list, given what you know about the system?
Well – let me give a hint: they all take money and they all hit on, directly or indirectly, education, especially in their overlap with the IDEA or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Now, if you watched or read the transcript of what John McCain, Palin’s running mate and potential boss, said about education in the last debate, you may recall that he repeatedly stated that he will not throw money at education. He had two or three lines about autism and finding the causes for autism, but it was very disconnected from the rest of what he said. When McCain talked about funding, he said he wanted to reform and fully fund No Child Left Behind, he wants to reward teachers and he wants to expand vouchers.
So – there is overlap between McCain’s thoughts on expanding vouchers and Palin’s idea of expanding parental choice for kids with special needs. And as she mentioned in the speech today, she references such examples (I’m in a state in which the governor has explicitly vetoed special needs vouchers).
However, as with nearly all education decisions, these choices, espeically the funding, are made at the state level, not the federal level. And to the extent that the federal government ever intercedes, it’s usually with unfunded mandates.
Thus, the likelihood that Palin could meet #1 in her plan? Next to nil. As VP, she simply would have next to no influence, if any.
This is a good time to point out, by the way, that, as it now stands, states and local governments fight constantly over how to meet the needs of special needs students with ever-shrinking resources. The idea that a Republican government would increase funding and intervene at the federal level on behalf of any educational need goes against the common knowledge that Republicans not only want to shrink government, but when they talk about doing so, abolishing the department of education is almost always one of the first actions that comes up.
Maybe it’s just Palin being all mavericky, but in reality? This expansion of choice and increase in funding is completely from another universe – it has no chance of achievement in the reality of our current federal government set up because 1. it requires further expansion of federal government in education and 2. it has to do with vouchers, something which many if not most Democrats are loathe to expand. While it’s true that Barack Obama does want to expand the experimentation of vouchers, there is no expectation that it would be in the way Palin suggests for just special needs kids, not the least of which is because the one area of education that the federal government does have to fund already is…special needs education (under IDEA).
So – what about “improve services”? Well – there’s just no way to do that without talking about funding and we get back to the points I’ve just made about why an increase in federal funding for special needs education is unlikely to happen even with Palin – and maybe especially with Palin – as vice president.
As those of us in Northern Ohio know, no case better exemplifies the fight for services than the Winkelman v. Parma City Schools case. It is a classic in terms of a school saying what they provide is adequate, the parents saying they know better and believe differently and the courts trying to sort out what the law requires/allows/demands. Unless Governor Palin is envisioning creating and funding an entire new division within the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Education, with satellites in all the states, I fail to see how it is that she believes she can impact, from the position of VP, the improvement of services.
If you watch this clip of her speech, she tries to suggest that Barack Obama’s tax plan is going to diminish the funds in people’s special needs trusts that they set up to take care of their kids’ needs.
That is utter silliness, as is pretty much all the other things she mentions. The Obama campaign has said as much.
UPDATE: Here’s a great article from the Wall Street Journal that explains special needs trusts, which Palin referenced a couple of times in her speech. Hattip to SpecialNeeds08 which posted about reaction to Palin’s speech – “pandering” comes up a couple of times there.
So, again, I’m left with feeling that either Palin truly doesn’t know what she is talking about, or she purposely seeks to mislead people. Either way, or both ways, nothing that she suggests as a promise for what she would do or be able to accomplish as VP is, in reality, achievable.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:48 pm October 24th, 2008 in Education, Ohio, Politics, Sarah Palin, Vice President, WH2008, Youth | 9 Comments
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Oct
24
E&P Newspaper Endorsements, 10/24/08: Obama 134, McCain 52
Filed Under Barack Obama, Endorsements, John Edwards, Media, WH2008 | Comments Off
With 28 flipping from Bush to Obama (four flipped from Kerry to McCain).
The Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for daily newspaper endorsements, by 134 to 52, an almost 3-1 margin and an even wider spread in the circulation of those papers (see full tally below). Obama, not surprisingly, gained the major nod from The New York Times (see separate story) plus The Philadelphia Daily News.
The two candidates have basically split the past 20 endorsements after Obama took a huge early lead.
Obama’s lopsided margin, including most of the major papers that have decided so far, is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205.
You can visit the article for the entire list. And, E&P also notes:
The Arizona Republic in McCain’s home state, a GOP-leaning paper, has not yet endorsed, which might be interesting.
I recently attended an event at which someone who has been following elections since the early 1970s said, if Obama was white, he’d be carrying at least 40 states. Not sure how many papers that translates into, but maybe for once the papers are showing the way.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:33 pm October 24th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Endorsements, John Edwards, Media, WH2008 | Comments Off
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Oct
24
Think Hit A Jew Day is aberration? Read about, watch Paper Clips
Filed Under Civil Rights, Culture, Education, Jewish, Judaism, Parenting, Social Issues, Youth | Comments Off
More on Hit A Jew Day here and here.
More importantly, learn about, read about and rent the documentary, Paper Clips:
Whitwell, TN is a small, rural community of less than two thousand people nestled in the mountains of Tennessee. Its citizens are almost exclusively white and Christian. In 1998, the children of Whitwell Middle School took on an inspiring project, launched out of their principal’s desire to help her students open their eyes to the diversity of the world beyond their insulated valley. What happened would change the students, their teachers, their families and the entire town forever… and eventually open hearts and minds around the world.
PAPER CLIPS is the moving and inspiring documentary film that captures how these students responded to lessons about the Holocaust-with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Despite the fact that they had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust) which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.
We watched it with our oldest a couple of years ago and the principal of the school spoke at my synagogue maybe three or four years ago as well. It is a “hand over mouth” moving kind of film.
Please. There really does not have to ever be a Hit A Jew Day that then gets tossed off as kids being kids who just don’t know.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:13 pm October 24th, 2008 in Civil Rights, Culture, Education, Jewish, Judaism, Parenting, Social Issues, Youth | Comments Off
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Oct
24
[video] CNN, principal on “Hit A Jew Day”
Filed Under Civil Rights, Crime, Culture, Education, Jewish, leadership, Parenting, Youth | 10 Comments
I believe that the principal feels badly, truly badly, but I’m not getting that she realizes how it is that an environment that is silent or dormant or dismissive of such behavior is also one in which such behavior can thrive. She needs to show the kids, the faculty, the staff, the parents and the community Paper Clips. That is an example of how to conduct teachable moments.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:16 pm October 24th, 2008 in Civil Rights, Crime, Culture, Education, Jewish, leadership, Parenting, Youth | 10 Comments
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Oct
24
McCain volunteer confesses: fabricated story of attack by tall, black male
Filed Under Crime, John McCain, Law, Politics, WH2008 | 3 Comments
UPDATE: Video from this afternoon’s CNN report on the hoax:
Original post:
There are a lot of ways to look at this one, but none of them are good. From KDKA:
Police tell KDKA that a campaign volunteer has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.
If you want to read the details of what she said happened, Michele Malkin’s post on the incident has good links. Malkin also included this in her original post:
I’ve reported on the great lengths that warped attention-seekers have gone to in perpetrating fake hate crimes, including beating themselves up, carving swastikas on their dorm room doors and walls, locking themselves in bathroom stalls, and burning down their own houses.
Which is why I’m not jumping up and down with outrage over Drudge-promoted story of a McCain volunteer claiming to have been attacked by a black man whom she accused of carving a “B” in her face after spotting her McCain bumper sticker.
She refused medical treatment after reporting the incident to police. Why on earth would she do that?
Skepticism is a tool of people who apply critical thinking and I’m very glad it was applied in this case.
So why is this so bad all around?
1. For McCain – who wants to be associated with supporters that do things like this? McCain and Palin both called the volunteer yesterday to wish her well.
2. For Obama and minorities – this young woman described the generic ooo scary scary black man as the person who allegedly victimized her. I was in fact mugged by not one but five black men. And I struggle against the paranoia I still have from that – which happened more than 20 years ago – when I’m in places I don’t know by myself because I know that there is no such thing as a generic ooo scary scary black man. Ugh (as in, I hate how people make up alleged perps to be black aka the scariest stereotype they can think of – I’ll keep my scariest stereotype to myself for now but it has nothing to do with race).
3. For real victims of violent crime – does she have any idea how much harder she makes it for other victims of violent crime to be taken seriously when she fakes stuff like this? Thanks.
4. For the law enforcement people – what a waste of their time and Pittsburgh’s resources. Does she forget we’re in a financial crisis and cities are crunched for services and money just like everyone else?
Supporters who go this fringe seriously need help. This volunteer is reportedly just 20 years old. She has a lot of time to live and get straight. I hope she does.
Talk about making sure you screen your campaign workers.
ALSO: Hattip to Mark McNally of the conservative blog, Paindealer. He posted about this early today, we had some comment and e-mail back and forth and he wrote this update on the situation. No one likes to be duped but this particular kind of thing is just so damaging. Honestly, I think the McCain campaign has dibs on being more pissed off.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:48 pm October 24th, 2008 in Crime, John McCain, Law, Politics, WH2008 | 3 Comments
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Oct
24
WLST at NPR on election night; a lesson on blogging & size
Filed Under Blogging, Media, Politics | 2 Comments
So here’s some fun news: I’m going to be in the NPR studios for election night (and you might be able to go too).
From the NPR blog, Vox Politics:
It’s hard to believe, but November 4 is now less than two weeks away. That night, NPR HQ will be sheer chaos — wonderful, wonkish chaos — as we reach the culmination of yet another four-year election cycle. It’s the perfect excuse for a blogger meetup.
On election night, NPR will convert its conference facility into a filing center for broadcasters from around the world, and we’re hoping to include around two dozen bloggers in the mix. We’d like to get bloggers from across the political spectrum to join us for the entire night (read: 6pm to as late as 4am). We’ll provide them with a workspace, wifi access, live news feeds and plenty of food and caffeine to keep them up all night. We’ll even give tours of the election studio throughout the evening.
Space is extremely limited, so we’re only able to accommodate bloggers in the DC area or who are able to get to DC on their own dime. If you’re interested in applying for the event, please fill out the election night blogger meetup form no later that 5pm ET this Friday, October 22, and we’ll get back to you before the end of next week.
I do think that’s supposed to be “October 24″ since the post went up on 10/22.
I actually didn’t apply, I got a personal invite because of my Media Bloggers Association – Newsweek’s The Ruckus work (those two badges in the upper-left corner of the blog have to do with both; my “wh2008″ posts are being fed up to Newsweek’s The Ruckus through the elections). I’ve got my plane tickets and hotel room lined up, but mostly, I’m doing strength-training and sleeping because at 46, I’m just not sure how well I’m going to do pulling an all-nighter.
Back here, just after I did a BBC interview, a commenter wrote:
You are funny. lol! But it doesn’t really answer my question. Who approached you, or did you approach them?
My thought is you are one of the “approved” bloggers, and that there just might be a list of that type.
By approved I mean, the party line, you are not straying in to any truly controversial areas on the Dem’s or Israel for example.
If you want to know the answer, start here. You can also see here for what I was doing before the CNN gig (which was in late February 2008). Someone at the BBC heard or saw me on CNN, they called me, and called me again, and again. A couple of other radio stations did the same, and so on.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted to do the Newsweek/The Ruckus feed, by the same guy who had asked me about it a year ago just about now, through the elections and I said yes.
Then, I got an e-mail earlier this week indicating that NPR was going to be doing the blogger outreach and did I want to be involved and I said yes.
However, as it turns out, someone from C-SPAN who knows me (I was on a call with C-Span on the air after one of the debates) and who is in new media, was asked for names of bloggers that NPR should consider and I was on her list, which she gave to NPR.
So – it seems as though, in addition to applying if I’d wanted to, my name was coming up in other ways.
And, again – it just shows to go – size isn’t everything.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:47 pm October 24th, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Politics | 2 Comments
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Oct
24
LA Times contends Palin promotes patronage in her administration
Filed Under Ethics, Government, Sarah Palin, Vice President, Voting, WH2008 | 1 Comment
This charge isn’t new, and it would seem logical to say, what about the senate offices of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and that would be and is fair. This Plain Dealer expose on patronage in a Cuyahoga County office is a good example of charting out the problem.
But, as we keep being told, Alaska Governor and GOP VP candidate, Sarah Palin, has executive experience unique to being a governor. And likewise, the Los Angeles Times reports today, she had the hiring responsibilities to go along with that. The article details its findings that Palin placed donors and friends in jobs throughout her administration.
Much like the issue of the RNC spending $150,000 on clothing for Palin and her family, which isn’t about the perception that optics matter (Palin’s optics wouldn’t matter so much if what she said was appealing) but about the hypocrisy of suggesting you are one thing and looking and behaving as though you are something else, this issue of patronage isn’t as much about the suggestion by the article that she favored people who gave her money or were her friends or are relatives.
Rather, the issue, as the Times article points out at the very outset, is that although Palin declares repeatedly that she’s shaken up government and taken on the “old politics,” that just does not appear to be the case when it’s come to hiring practices in her administration:
Most new governors install friends and supporters in state jobs. But Alaska historians say some of Palin’s appointees were less qualified than those of her Republican and Democratic predecessors.
University of Alaska historian Steve Haycox said Palin has been a reformer. But he said she has a penchant for placing supporters, many of them ill-prepared, in high posts. He called it “cronyism” far beyond what previous governors have done and a contradiction of her high-minded philosophy.
Terrence Cole, an Alaska political historian, said Palin had in some cases shown “a disrespect for experience.”
Further investigation of the examples the Times outlines is necessary. But the issue remains: if the other administrations did the same thing, then, rather than make her actions acceptable, it shows her to be a hypocrite for saying that she’d stop politics as usual.
Honestly, I still cannot fathom how it is that John McCain can imply with a straight face that Barack Obama flip flops or is hypocritical by repeating to crowds that Obama will say anything to win. Just cannot fathom. Unless McCain has that short a memory.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:02 pm October 24th, 2008 in Ethics, Government, Sarah Palin, Vice President, Voting, WH2008 | 1 Comment
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Oct
24
Palin will love this: Bush to open diplomatic post in Iran
Filed Under Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, George Bush, John McCain, Politics, Vice President, WH2008 | 2 Comments
The Bush administration will announce in mid-November, after the presidential election, that it intends to establish the first U.S. diplomatic presence in Iran since the 1979-81 hostage crisis, according to senior Bush administration officials.
The proposal for an “interests section,” which falls short of a full U.S. Embassy, has been conveyed in private diplomatic messages to Tehran, and a search is under way to choose the American diplomat who’d head the post, the officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because the step hasn’t been announced and discussions of it have been limited to a small circle of government officials.
The McCain-Palin campaign has voiced adamant opposition to talking with Iran and has criticized Obama as being “dangerous” and “naive” for suggesting that he might.
Meanwhile, remember, Henry Kissinger has suggested this action just last month.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:00 am October 24th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, George Bush, John McCain, Politics, Vice President, WH2008 | 2 Comments
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and after I said that size wasn’t everything, wrote: