So yesterday the "Bear Whisperer" Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos had her hearing share
her "credentials" on why she should be Secretary of Education. Naturally, there would be a lot of talk radio talk (On both the left and right) concerning this scary, scary woman.

On my way home I turned on SiriusXM channel 127 to listen to Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile on Twitter) . The timing could not have been better. He was talking about the DeVos nomination as well and that Randi Weingarten was to call in about 4:30. The moment was perfect for me to call in.

So about 4:15 PM I called and I got the screener. I told him that as a teacher in NYC I (And I am sure quite a few others!) feel that DeVos is going to be just a continuation of the eight dreadful years of Obama-Duncan-King and that this war on education had been aided, abetted, and enabled by the famed troika we have had to deal with all these many years. Screener said good points and told me to hold on.

At about 4:20 Signorile took my call and I basically said what I told the screener, but I added;

"Obama and Duncan have done much damage to education in this country."

At this point Signorile yelled;

"YOU'RE A FAKE CALLER!"

And he hung up on me. I listened to the rest of his tirade on the radio has he shouted;

"Obama and Duncan have done more for LGBQT students and opening access for all students in the country than any other have."

This is where his ignorance slip is showing.

By the way, I have always voted Democrat. Except in 2012 and 2014. Just couldn't bring myself to vote for Obama or Cuomo. My whole family, immediate and extended, are Democrats. My grandfather was part of the Tweed machine. So there!

Yes, DeVos is an abomination that will make life miserable for both LGBQT students and teachers, and even parents.  Yes, Obama has been wonderful for the LGBQT community. But that is not the point I was making and if any other teacher had called in I don't think that would be the point they would be making either.

Now one thing gets me wondering, Signorile's quote about opening access for all students. Because that sounds like code for "school choice." Which just happens to be something that Herr Trump and DeVos seem to want. And guess who else wanted it Michelangelo? Yeah, Arne and Barack did too!

Signorile needs to understand that thanks to Obama/Duncan that we are inundated with charter schools supported by the 1% so that the 1% can get their tax write-offs and photo ops or that are a cash cow for them and their buddies.

We have testing, testing, that has betrayed families and children across the country of being properly educated.

We have cuts in financial aid to school districts nation wide thanks to Obama/Duncan.

We have over crowded classrooms thanks to Obama/Duncan.

We have sham graduation rates thanks to Obama/Duncan.

We have the Common Core thanks to Obama/Duncan.

We have states being held hostage to federal monies and forced to implement inane, obtuse curricula thanks to Obama/Duncan.

We have a teacher shortage in New York State thanks to Obama/Duncan.

SUNY schools are experiencing a enrollment drop in education programs of up to 40% the last five years because of Obama/Duncan.

Teachers unions across the country are under attack thanks to Obama/Duncan.

Teachers are under attack across the country thanks to Obama/Duncan.

Parents are fighting back finally thanks to Obama/Duncan.

Corporations have profited quite handsomely on the backs of children thanks to Obama/Duncan.

Dang, I can go on and on and on and on. I know I am leaving a lot of things out. But suffice it to say, Obama/Duncan have destroyed public education in this country and they were enabled by DEMOCRATS. Yeah, starting with Ted Kennedy and chumming up to George W. back in 2001.

So maybe it is time that Mr Signorile speak and listen to teachers and find out what is really going on. Go and fight DeVos Mike but 95% of the policies that she will be advocating are basically just regurgitated from Obama/Duncan.

I guess I need to go back to listening to Francessa on the way home. 

I'm a schmuck. I voted for Obama in 2008 and felt good about it. I had had it of 8 years of George W. Bush incompetency and lies. I wasn't voting for change, I was voting for accountability and for having a voice in my government. I truly believed that under Obama, the voices of the people if not
100% heard, will be at the very least be taken into consideration.

Gone will be the dreams of kowtowing to big money. Gone will be wasting money in two wasteful wars. Gitmo would be closed. A sensible and straightforward manner in insuring those without healthcare would finally be solved. NCLB? It will be a thing of the past, in fact there would be less federal involvement in local education matters. Guess I, along with others, have been incorrect.

What steams me is that I have defended Obama from Right Wing nut jobs who claim he is a socialist. How can a socialist turn over education to private and corporate entities? Same with Obamacare. Who is making out? The insurance companies. The corporatists are benefiting from the extension of Gitmo and since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, into Pakistan.

But one of the stupidest things I have heard from this administration came out of the mouth of non-educator Arne Duncan bellowed to a  group of state superintendents on Friday;

“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,” Duncan said. “You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, ‘My child’s going to be prepared.’ That can be a punch in the gut.”

First off let me add that is not just white suburban moms that are displeased. I guess I can speak for white suburban dads and say we are displeased as well. But anyway (I will toot my horn again), as I predicted, it is now the time for the rollback or should I start saying the Revolution.

The undertones of what Arne is saying is fascinating yet revealing. I don't know if what he said comes from being racist as some have said, or just clueless as to what his policies have wrought or clueless as to the world around him.

First off, there has never been a crisis in education. In fact I'll go as far as saying Bush was much more benevolent than the Obama administration and truly wanted to help along those that truly needed the help. It has been under Obama that the push for privatization and federal intervention into education as truly accelerated and been encouraged. But I have digressed.

Arne needs to realize why there has been more silence coming from the urban core concerning education deform from the inner cities.

Parents are less informed, not only own their own volition, but more and more the urban governments of this country, and particularly in NYC, have been become more of a top down style of governance than in the suburbs. In the suburbs, in the small towns and villages, and even the cities, there is still a participatory style of government. Not only is speaking at council meetings easier, but better, still encouraged. One can still call their mayor, supervisor, trustee, or council member at home and discuss issues.What Arne is unaware of is this is democracy in action. Heck, I won't even get into New England town meetings.

The school boards are still elected by the people and for the people. More and more schools boards and school districts are being usurped and taken over my maniacal short little men with Freudian issues across the country. See the paragraph above for participatory democracy.

Many, not all, but a goodly amount of parents in the inner city are immigrants. They do not know or are afraid to speak out. There are also parents hat work multiple jobs and don't have time to complain or to be informed. There are parents that have been so beaten down by the system they can't or won't speak up. And worse, there are parents that just don't care.

But how can you as a parent, let's say in NYC, speak up for your child's education when a parent whose child goes to school in Brooklyn has a complaint and must traverse to the Bronx to deal with the school's network? How bus and/or subway lines must this parent transverse to advocate for their child's education? Even the parent that goes to each and every PEP (Panel for Eduction policy, NYC's answer to the board of ed.) is met with disdain from the panel time after time.

And let's not forget the suburbs seem to have an independent media. The Journal News in Westchester County is doing a wonderful job at exposing Common Core.

The parents in the suburbs still have and want to keep their voices in their district's decisions and their child's education. We will never abdicate that right. To have that right taken away from us, to have our local boards ability to know what is best for our children removed, is not the American way. Our schools, our communities, and our children are not part of a corporation.

But for Arne to say that, "isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were," speaks to a bigger issue of his ignorance.

Speaking only for me, I know what my son is capable of and what he can do. I do not need a test to tell me what my son does or doesn't know, what he is or isn't capable of. There is a difference between proficiency and ability. I'm tired of this proficient crud. It means NOTHING!

Thanks to Arne and Obama we are allowing our children to be mindless and clueless incapable of thinking for themselves. Oh, and please spare that we need to compete with other countries. India and China pay their employees squat. Is that what Arne wants, our children to make $5 an hour?

Arne, your time and your charade are over. The Education Revolution is just beginning.

I didn't watch President Obama's state of the union address this year. For several reasons. One, I think he is a dolt and I regret voting for him. Two, and most importantly, I had something to pick out of my toe that evening. And lastly, I didn't want to.

So that is why it did come as a surprise, just today, something Obama said in that speech. This comment made its way across the Twittersphere and plunked in my lap.

Apparently, fellow blogger and tweeter, The Frustrated Teacher, had a Twitter conversation some White House hack, Dan Pfeiffer (@pfeiffer44) earlier this month. In this said mentioned conversation, the hack, claimed that Obama sees education as a path out of poverty. OK, I'll take the bait.

Since I am educated, I graduated from one of Westchester County's finer high school, graduated from a fine SUNY, with a cross registration at a finer private college, and have a master's degree to boot, I will prove President Obama's point.

Starting today I will partake in ingesting copious amounts of marijuana and drink my self silly every day. I plan to spew junks at least several times a day, at least once on myself, and by evening will hopefully have the dry heaves.

I have sent in my resignation to the NYC DOE and have instructed my wife to immediately quit her job. In lieu of her not quitting her job, I will verbally and psychologically abuse her to the point of her leaving me. I will be able to partake in the mentioned activities because I will be ripped all day.

Since I am no longer working and will be in an altered state of mind this will give me the opportunity to sit on my couch watching bad talk shows. Not to fret, I will be quite comfortable sitting around in my underwear and bathrobe while scratching my hoozits, getting ripped, and yelling at the TV.

But you may ask, what shall I do for an income? How will I keep my home, provide for my son, transport myself, eat, get money for the mind altering products?

The money will just flow to me. I will be able to keep everything. I shan't want for a thing. Why? Because I have an education and that means that there is no way I can live in poverty. It is that simple.

My grandfather came to this country in 1903. He was quite the rebel. I don't know if it was here or in the old country but I was told that when he was younger he rounded up some pigs and had the pigs run through his shul.

During Prohibition he helped run booze down from Canada. He also sold slivowitz (Jewish schnapps) from the trunk of his car that was made by my dad and my dad's cousin smashing plums in the bathtub of my great-grandfather's apartment on 181st St in the Bronx.

My grandfather was a precinct captain for the Democrats in starting in the thirties. He was aligned with the last vestiges of Tammany Hall. He would go to the cemeteries to register voters. Every Thanksgiving he would leave turkeys the doorsteps of the destitute with regards from the Democrats. He would vote many times on election day. In fact when my parents got married in 1961 he used his juice to get them to the top of the list for Stuyvesant Town.

My great-aunt, my grandfather's sister, told me when I kiddingly said in 1996 I was planning on voting for Bob Dole, told me that she would kick the shit out of anyone in the family who voted Republican. This coming from a ninety-three year old woman.

In fact my father's Uncle Jack on his mother's side was an avowed Communist/Marxist. He had great admiration for Chairman Mao, and had worked in the State Department when the Alger Hiss thing went down. He moved to China, got kicked out by Mao and lived the rest of his life in Italy.

In fact Uncle Jack got turned on to Communism by his cousin, and I guess my cousin as well, Howard DaSilva. Yes, the actor. For those who don't know, he played Louis B Mayer in Mommie Dearest.

So you can see I come from a long line of Democrat/Liberal people.

The day I registered to vote I put my party affiliation as Democrat. The first presidential election I voted in I pulled the lever with pride for Walter Mondale. And then Mike Dukakis. But finally got a winner with Clinton. Twice. Even would have voted for him a third time as much as I was sickened by his humming sessions with Monica.

But since Bubba got elected the last time I became a bit more conservative. Children usually make you do that. I became more independent/libertarian, but I was still a Democrat. Like Chris Rock once said, "I am liberal in some ways, conservative in others." I could've voted for McCain but couldn't with that idiot as his running mate, but felt I made a good choice with Obama. The Cheney-Bush years were just to weird and scary.

I want my vote back. Now. When 2012 rolls around I have decided that I will not vote for President Obama.

I thought that with Obama in the White House, and the Democrats in control of both houses, that the grownups were back in charge. That decisions were made at what would be best, not what sounds the best. Obama elected with the help of unions, not just teacher's unions, vowed, or at least gave reason that NCLB would either not be renewed or at the worse, fixed. NCLB looks like a cakewalk compared to this RTtT shinola. What Obama has wrought is much more draconian, than NCLB.

What is worse, is the total immersion now of the federal government into a local matter. Education. Nowhere in the Constitution does it give the federal government authority to get involved in such matters. I tune out the tea baggers. They are, well, tea baggers. But someone, somewhere, needs to grow a set and bring this federal takeover of local education to the Supreme Court. I do not believe it can withstand a constitutional challenge.

So whom to vote for? Gus Hall is dead so I can't vote for him. Who are the frontrunners? Palin? Yeah, right! Would be like voting for Mulgrew. Though I think he is smarter. Mitt Romney at one time seemed good. But he has sold his soul to the Rightists of this country.

I could go, and probably will go third party. I have feeling Bloomberg will run. He has the money, and the ego. But the campaign slogan he will use, Tausendjährigen Reiches, has already been used.

I will probably go with the Libertarian Party candidate whoever that will be.

I need to vote my conscience.