3 From Truthout:
Henry A. Giroux | When Generosity Hurts: Bill Gates, Public School Teachers and the Politics of Humiliation
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Democratic goals and public values no longer have any merit in a reform movement in love with the logic of measurement, profit and privatization. This is not a reform movement, but an anti-reform movement, that can only imagine schooling within what my colleague David L. Clark calls 'an eternal present of consumption and subjection.' It is a movement that appears to kill critical thought, the ability to think imaginatively and any notion of pedagogy that takes matters of individual autonomy and social empowerment seriously. In the name of reform, we now face increasing numbers of schools that either bear a close resemblance to the old Ford factory production lines or are modeled after prisons."
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Paul Krugman | If the Choice Is a CEO, Obama Should Say No
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "There has been a great deal of speculation in the media lately about whether President Barack Obama will, or should, decide to appoint a former chief executive officer to take over for Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council. Mr. Summers announced in late September that he will be leaving at the end of the year. Now, obviously, Mr. Obama should simply choose someone who can do a good job as his top economic adviser. Forget about image, or the message the appointment would supposedly send - there are about 600 people in the United States who care, and most of them are paid to care about these sorts of things. Is having been a successful C.E.O. a good qualification for this job? The answer is no."
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William Rivers Pitt | Regarding the "Whiners"
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "I've been working in politics for a long time, and all of it from the left side of the dial. I am proud to be a member of the big tent that I believe is the majority of the country; from moderate to far left, our numbers are demographically superior to those on the right. The problem with that big tent is, well ... what do you find under a big tent? That's right, a circus. There is so much angst and strife and infighting on the liberal end of things in America that sometimes, every once in a while, it is actually refreshing to hear an Obama or a Gibbs or a Biden get exasperated and say something to the effect of, 'Oh, for the love of God, please just shut up! And vote! And shut up again!' I've had the urge to say those exact words many times, and have gone ahead and said them on more than a few occasions, because sometimes I just want to punch myself in the face listening to all the bellowing and bellyaching and backbiting that goes on between any of the ten million micro-factions that riddle the left in this country."
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Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Democratic goals and public values no longer have any merit in a reform movement in love with the logic of measurement, profit and privatization. This is not a reform movement, but an anti-reform movement, that can only imagine schooling within what my colleague David L. Clark calls 'an eternal present of consumption and subjection.' It is a movement that appears to kill critical thought, the ability to think imaginatively and any notion of pedagogy that takes matters of individual autonomy and social empowerment seriously. In the name of reform, we now face increasing numbers of schools that either bear a close resemblance to the old Ford factory production lines or are modeled after prisons."
Read Article
Paul Krugman | If the Choice Is a CEO, Obama Should Say No
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "There has been a great deal of speculation in the media lately about whether President Barack Obama will, or should, decide to appoint a former chief executive officer to take over for Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council. Mr. Summers announced in late September that he will be leaving at the end of the year. Now, obviously, Mr. Obama should simply choose someone who can do a good job as his top economic adviser. Forget about image, or the message the appointment would supposedly send - there are about 600 people in the United States who care, and most of them are paid to care about these sorts of things. Is having been a successful C.E.O. a good qualification for this job? The answer is no."
Read Article
William Rivers Pitt | Regarding the "Whiners"
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "I've been working in politics for a long time, and all of it from the left side of the dial. I am proud to be a member of the big tent that I believe is the majority of the country; from moderate to far left, our numbers are demographically superior to those on the right. The problem with that big tent is, well ... what do you find under a big tent? That's right, a circus. There is so much angst and strife and infighting on the liberal end of things in America that sometimes, every once in a while, it is actually refreshing to hear an Obama or a Gibbs or a Biden get exasperated and say something to the effect of, 'Oh, for the love of God, please just shut up! And vote! And shut up again!' I've had the urge to say those exact words many times, and have gone ahead and said them on more than a few occasions, because sometimes I just want to punch myself in the face listening to all the bellowing and bellyaching and backbiting that goes on between any of the ten million micro-factions that riddle the left in this country."
Read Article
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