Rahm Emanuel's Vulnerability

Karen Lewis says Rahm Emanuel isn't the "bad-ass" he pretends to be:

When Emanuel exited the Beltway in late 2010 to run for Chicago mayor, he had the tacit backing of a current president and the overt support of a former one. He won the race to succeed Richard M. Daley, and expectations ran high that Washington’s supreme enforcer was just the person to tame the Wild Midwest.

Now, just nine months out from the next election, Emanuel is unexpectedly vulnerable, with an approval rating that is perilously low. The comedown for the Illinois native, who terrified staffers and donors over more than a decade in Washington, has been striking. So has been the contrast between how he’s regarded in D.C., New York and Los Angeles — as opposed to some wards of Chicago.

A Chicago Sun-Times poll released last month showed that Emanuel would draw just 29 percent of the vote if the election were held then. His 8 percent showing in the survey among black voters, a crucial voting bloc for him last time, creates a truck-size hole for another candidate to drive through.

...

“I hope he loses, and I will work very hard to have somebody else [replace him],” said Karen Lewis, the African-American head of the Chicago Teachers Union. Emanuel was widely reported to have said “F—- you, Lewis” during a private meeting with her in 2012 about a new contract. (He did not deny it.)

“If you’ve seen any of the polling, he’s in serious trouble. No one seems to think that he’s doing a very good job. I think he is not suited to this kind of work,” said Lewis, who dubbed him “the murder mayor” last year after a big uptick in crime soon after he took office.

Some of the city’s problems are out of Emanuel’s control, and he’s tried hard to ease crime, with some success. He extended the school day for kindergartners, an achievement he frequently touts. But he’s had difficulty mastering the stagecraft needed to appease different constituencies in big-city politics.

Instead, Emanuel has approached the job like a latter-day Michael Bloomberg, a business-minded centrist without much interest in bending to opposition. Except unlike Bloomberg, he has no personal fortune with which to appease critics and enhance political friendships.

It’s a particularly difficult task at a time when income inequality has driven voters in Democratic-leaning cities further to the left. In Chicago, class politics fall along starkly racial lines.

Lewis recalled telling reporters that Emanuel had used the F-word with her, a move that fanned much of the initial anger among black voters against him. She noted that he demurred when asked by reporters whether he’d said it.

“And that’s where, if there were any stretch of the imagination of having any fear of Rahm Emanuel, it vanished at that moment,” she said. “Because I knew then he wasn’t the bad-ass he claimed to be.”

In Lewis, Rahmbo met his match, somebody he couldn't bully.

Wouldn't it be nice if Mike Mulgrew would show similar courage around Andrew Cuomo?

Don't Get Too Excited

So we have a new mayor, a so-called progressive mayor, who won yesterday's election by an overwhelming margin over his GOP challenger.

Exit polls showed 3 out of 4 New Yorkers want the city to go in a different direction from where Bloomberg took it in his 12 years.

And Bill de Blasio ran as just that candidate and was rewarded for it at the ballot box.

Yet, I feel a tinge of concern over this de Blasio fellow.

His friendship with corporatist Democrat Andrew Cuomo, his working for corporatist Democrat Bill Clinton, his running corporatist Democrat Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, his reaching out to Rahm Emanuel for transition advice, his calling Rahm Emanuel a "great mayor" who he looks forward to working with "very closely" - all are red flags that give me pause in my celebration of last night's de Blasio victory.

Especially the visit with Rahm Emanuel and the declaration of Rahmbo as a "great mayor."

The optimist in me tells me to ignore the red flags and just "believe" the progressive platform de Blasio ran on in the election will be the blueprint for his mayoral administration.

The cynic in me tells me the red flags are something to be concerned about, something to watch very, very closely as de Blasio now turns to his transition team and begins to choose members of his administration.

Right now, I'm leaning toward listening to the cynic inside telling me to watch this guy very, very closely.

Yeah, he talks a good game in his speeches.

But those meetings he has behind the scenes with pals like "great mayor" Rahm Emanuel have me wondering how much of that speech stuff is real.

Couple de Blasio's praise of Emanuel with Tish James's reaching out to DFER-favorite Reshman Saujani for her transition team and I can already see the signs of the two "progressives" who were elected last night turning rightward after the election.

By all means, let us celebrate the end of the Bloomberg Era.

But let's not get too excited about the de Blasio Era just yet.

Bill De Blasio Meets With Rahm Emanuel To Talk "Transition And Urban Affairs"

Sure Bill de Blasio had a union rally yesterday - but he also met with one of the more virulently anti-union Dems around:

Bill de Blasio met with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel this morning in New York City, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

Emanuel and de Blasio overlapped in the Clinton administration, where Emanuel served as a senior adviser to the president, while de Blasio served as a regional director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Emanuel went on to serve as a congressman, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, before leaving to run for mayor of his hometown in 2011.

A spokesman for Emanuel said that today's meeting ran for approximately an hour, and that the two men discussed "transition and urban affairs."

De Blasio ran Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in 2000, and then ran for City Council and public advocate, before emerging from a crowded field to win the Democratic primary for mayor in September.

Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States, and shares many of the same challenges as New York City.

Emanuel made national news when he took a tough tack with the city's teachers' union last year, rescinding a promised raise and lengthening the city's school day, reforms that drew praise from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

De Blasio hasn't said exactly how he'll deal with New York City's municipal unions, but has said that full retroactive raises for union employees aren't possible within the city's budget, and said he was "unburdened" when the local United Federation of Teachers opted to endorse a rival before the city's primary.

As I have said over and over, de Blasio was the least bad choice among a plethora of bad choices this election cycle.

I supported him because John Liu could not get elected and the alternatives to de Blasio - Quinn, Weiner and Thompson - all had larger downsides than de Blasio.

That doesn't mean I trust de Blasio and it doesn't mean I like him.

The meeting yesterday with Emanuel bears watching.

It's not a mistake that de Blasio met with Rahmbo to talk "transition and urban affairs."

He could have met with many a municipal politician to talk "transition and urban affairs."

He chose virulently anti-union, anti-teacher Rahm Emanuel.

Just something to think about before you go in and vote for the "progressive" candidate, Bill de Blasio.

Rahm Emanuel's School Closings Put Children's Lives At Risk

From the Associated Press:

CHICAGO — Chicago children displaced by public school closings may be forced to step into the line of fire between warring street gangs as they walk to their new schools each day, a gang expert told a U.S. judge who will rule on a request that he stop planned closings in the nation's third largest school district. 

Taking the stand for lawyers opposed to Chicago Public Schools' recent decision to shutter about 50 public elementary schools, John Hagedorn also testified that rival gangs already are posting warnings on Facebook for the incoming children from other neighborhoods to stay off their turf. 

"It's already aggravating gang conflicts," he said about the pending closings. And if the closings ahead, added the University of Illinois at Chicago professor, "It is likely a child will be shot and killed." 

Gangs often are blamed for Chicago's high murder rate, which topped 500 in 2012 — the first time since 2008 it hit that mark. The murder rate has declined in 2013, with about 200 murders as of early July. 

But recurring Chicago violence has made national news this year, especially after the shooting death of 15-year-old honor student Hadiya Pendleton about a mile from President Barack Obama's Chicago home. 

Gang violence is more chaotic than ever as their hierarchies crumbled over the past decade, breaking down top-down control of 20 or 30 years ago, splintering gangs and leading to infighting within gangs, Hagedorn testified Wednesday. 

"The old times where one gang controlled one neighborhood are gone," he said. "Those changes are what make it especially dangerous to children." 

Closing so many schools at once was a bid to rescue an academically and financially failing system. Officials say the schools were underused and that closing them will save millions, improving schools overall. 

But displaced students, Hagedorn said, will have difficulty grasping boundaries in an increasingly confusing patchwork of gang territories and will struggle to pick up on cues indicating gang violence might be imminent. 

"When children have to cross gang borders, you are putting them in a situation where they are in the line of fire," he testified. "It creates a severe risk for children (going into) unfamiliar neighborhoods."

Rahm Emanuel doesn't really care about any of this.

He simply cares about closing schools, firing teachers, busting the union and helping his edu-entrepreneur buddies make millions from the privatization of the school system.

He doesn't care if children have to die in order for him to accomplish these goals.

Quite literally, he will have blood on his hands when a child or children are killed as a result of this policy.

But hey, this is the guy who helped run the Drone Bomb Administration for four years, wherein they dropped bombs on brown people who they think are terrorists, kill innocent men, women and children in the bargain, then shrug and say that's the cost to fight the War on Terror.

The point is, Rahmbo already has blood drenched hands, so what's a little more in Chicago?

Chicago Teacher Strike Suspended

From the Sun-Times:

The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates voted Tuesday to end its strike after seven days, meaning classes will be in session Wednesday for 350,000 Chicago Public Schools students.

“Everybody is going back to school,” said Jay Rehak, a delegate from Whitney Young High School.

Delegate Mike Bochner said “an overwhelming majority” of delegates voted to suspend the strike on a voice vote.

“I’m really excited, I’m really relieved,” said Bochner, a teacher at Cesar Chavez elementary.

At a press conference a short time after the vote, CTU President Karen Lewis said the vote was approved by a margin of “like 98 percent to 2.”

“We said that it was time, that we couldn’t solve all the problems of the world with one contract. And it was time to suspend the strike.”

She said teachers were excited to return to work.

“I am so thrilled people are going back,” she said. “... Everybody is looking forward to seeing their kids tomorrow, I can guarantee you that.”

Nevertheless, there were some “die-hard hold-outs” in favor of continuing the walk-out, Lewis said.

“We cannot get a perfect contract,” Lewis said. “There is no such thing as a contract that is going to make all of us happy.”

While the strike is over, the entire 29,000-member union still has to approve the contract.

Sad sad Rahm didn't get his injunction against CTU.

CTU members talked this contract over for two days and decided it was time to go back to work and have an up or down vote in the near future.

Democracy in action.

Sad sad Rahm hates that.

I couldn't be prouder of my fellow teachers.

They stood up to the corporate reformers, they stood up to Rahm "F---ing" Emanuel, they put the Obama education agenda on trial, they got people talking about class size and liberal arts and humanities classes and the absurdity of VAM and the damage poverty does to children.

Then they showed how democracy works by taking the extra two days to read over the contract in detail, talk about this with their colleagues and families, then call for a suspension of the strike.

The concern trolls in the corporate media hated that last part.

How dare they show how a real democratic operation works rather than operate as some top-down organization wherein the members do what the leadership wants!

But that's because the corporate media, like many of our politicians and certainly like Arne Duncan, prefer authoritarianism to democracy.

One person pushes the agenda and everybody else falls in line.

That's what corporate reform is all about.

That's what mayoral control is all about.

That's what the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation and the USDOE and the Obama administration are all about.

It's nice to see a group of people show how good old fashioned democracy can work.

Now the rest of us have a model to use.

As CTU said in a statement:

“Our brothers and sisters throughout the country have been told that corporate ‘school reform’ was unstoppable, that merit pay had to be accepted and that the public would never support us if we decided to fight. Cities everywhere have been forced to accept performance pay,” the statement said.

“Not here in Chicago. Months ago, CTU members won a strike authorization, one that our enemies thought would be impossible. Now we have stopped the board are imposing merit pay! We preserved our lanes and steps when the politicians and press predicted they were history. We held the line on healthcare costs. We have tremendous victories in this contract; however, it is by no means perfect. While we did not win on every front and will need to continue our struggle into the future, we soundly defended our profession from an aggressive and dishonest attack. We owe our victories to each and every member of this rank and rile union. Our power comes from the bottom up.”

Are you listening, Randi?

How about you, Mike?

I know you are.

Because what happened in Chicago must scare the shit out of you guys...

Emanuel Takes CTU To Court, But The Judge Won't Hear The Case Until Wed

Rahm was enraged when CTU delegates voted to extend the Chicago teachers strike through at least Tuesday, giving them time to read over the details of the new contract and discuss the particulars with union members.

So he took the CTU to court to force them back to work tomorrow.

But a judge has put a wrinkle in Rahm's suit:

Chicago Public School students appeared less likely to be heading back to school Tuesday after a Cook County judge declined Monday morning to take up immediately a lawsuit by Chicago Public Schools asking the judge to end the teachers strike.

In a brief hearing, Cook County Judge Peter Flynn told a city attorney he preferred to schedule a hearing on the matter for Wednesday, a city law department spokesman said. The spokesman could not immediately provide a reason for the delay.

Wednesday is, for now, the earliest possible time students could return if the teachers union House of Delegates votes to approve the tentative deal at its meeting Tuesday.

Chicago Public Schools balked at that timeframe, wanting to sent students back on Tuesday. It filed a lawsuit in Cook County court Monday morning, asking a judge to end the teachers strike because it is illegal and presents a “clear and present danger to public health and safety.”

The complaint is asking for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to halt the strike.

“All of these students now face the all too real prospect of prolonged hunger, increased risk of violence and disruption of critical special education services, and all because of decisions not of their making, in which they did not have a voice or a vote,” the complaint alleges.

Leaving aside the hypocrisy of Rahmbo taking the CTU to court because he says the strike is withholding critical services from students when his budget cuts and deliberate starvation diet for schools has been doing just that, it seems Rahm's ploy isn't going to work if a judge won't hear the case until after the CTU have another delegates meeting scheduled to make a final decision on whether to end the strike or not.

Nice try, Rahm, but like much of the your other ploys in this fight - from rigging the strike vote to 75% to publicly hammering teachers for months in order to drive down public support for them to bragging behind the scenes about how you're going to fuck these teachers right after the election by closing 100 schools, this strategy seems to have backfired.

Chicago Tribune: Emanuel "Bumbled" His Way Through The Strike

Corporate shill James Warren called CTU President Karen Lewis a "bumbler" earlier this week at the Daily Beast, trying to put the blame on her for the first teachers strike in Chicago in 25 years.

But the Chicago Tribune reports today that it was Mayor Emanuel and his team who actually bumbled their way into and through the strike:

The measure of who won and lost in Mayor Rahm Emanuel's showdown with the Chicago Teachers Union won't be clear until the details of the new contract emerge, but last week's strike took some of the luster off the mayor's self-portrait as an innovative leader brimming with new ways to solve the city's most vexing challenges.

The long, stressful path to getting a contract in place offered a glimpse that Emanuel perhaps is not as multidimensional as he tries to appear. Repeatedly, the mayor turned to one tool: the attack.

That singular approach contributed to the first teachers strike in 25 years and served to heighten organized labor's suspicions of the new mayor, whose union bashing kept him from playing a hands-on role at the negotiating table.

On Friday, after spending more than a year attacking the teachers union, Emanuel sought to strike a conciliatory tone as word spread about the much-improved prospects for a deal.

...

The dialed-back rhetoric stands in contrast to what came before. Emanuel's argument for a longer school day and year started out as an accusation, not a conversation.

In building his case, the mayor said Chicago Public Schools teachers had regularly received pay raises, the city had labor peace and students got the shaft. Emanuel's contention, made last September shortly after his hand-picked school board took away half the teachers' previously negotiated raise, implied that educators were lazy, resistant to change and didn't have students' best interests in mind.

It's a classic Washington tactic: Define your opposition before they can themselves. It's the kind of approach Emanuel perfected during his political upbringing in the nation's capital as a congressman and veteran of two White Houses.

It also underscored the learning curve Emanuel has yet to master — an executive must have the ability to maneuver between dominance and persuasion.

"Well before the strike, there were a number of shots fired that were unwarranted, and it set the tone," said Ald. John Arena, 45th. "The mayor has tended to be very one-dimensional in his tactics. This isn't Congress anymore, or the backroom."

Emanuel treated the teachers negotiations as just another political campaign: Win the message of the week, then the month and ultimately the war. It's much the way Emanuel won other faceoffs with labor, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he passed for President Bill Clinton.

This battle was different. It was a collective bargaining agreement, not legislation. At some point, the two sides had to sign a deal.

As the threat of a strike grew, it became clear to labor leaders that Emanuel's closest advisers lacked significant experience in hashing out such a collective bargaining contract. Emanuel's political team contacted leaders of other unions across the city looking for insights on how best to talk to the teachers and to game-plan ideas, said a labor source who was approached and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"They wanted to know that if X happens, what would the teachers think and then how would labor in general react," the source said.

Some close to Emanuel said the mayor and his team experienced growing pains in the run-up to the strike. He desperately didn't want the teachers to walk out and hoped the nonstop public relations campaign would win him support.

"It's been a new world for all of them," said one longtime Democratic political strategist close to Emanuel.

Even in the midst of the strike, Emanuel couldn't resist his tendency to try to score political points in the rhetorical contest with the union.

Last week, he repeatedly compared Chicago's teacher union to its counterpart in Boston, which just resolved its own long-standing dispute. But Emanuel ran into a veracity problem.

The mayor said Boston teachers stayed in the classroom while negotiating. What Emanuel didn't mention: It's illegal for teachers to strike in Boston.

"If we had a right to strike and we had to deal with such an obstructionist mayor as Mayor Emanuel, then we probably would have gone out on strike as well," said Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, who describes himself as a friend of Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. "Fortunately in Boston, we have a more collegial atmosphere."

Emanuel also suggested that the district's proposal would give Chicago teachers more money than educators in Boston. The mayor said Boston teachers accepted a 12 percent increase over six years while Chicago teachers were seeking 16 percent over four years.

Emanuel's math didn't take into account that Boston's contract also includes increases for teacher experience and education beyond the 12 percent.

Ald. Daniel Solis, 25th, said the strike presents a growth opportunity for Emanuel.

"I think this has shown him the importance of broadening the base, that it's not all about sound bites or commercials," Solis said. "If I was the mayor, I would look at what happened and say, 'I need to learn from this.'"

It sounds from this Tribune article that the "bumbler" in this situation was Rahm - he misread the union, misread Lewis, misread the public and continued to double down on heated rhetoric and attacks that made the strike inevitable.

Will Rahm learn from this strike?

Doubtful - like most education deformers, Emanuel is an arrogant asshole convinced of his own righteousness.

He'll simply try and game the fight better next time.

Maybe he can get the crooks at the statehouse to change the percentage of union members voting for a strike to 100%?

Education Deformers Worry That Chicago Could Be The Beginning Of A Trend

Teachers in Chicago are striking over the teacher evaluation issue - and it's got education deformers worried.

This strike could be the beginning of the push back:

How teachers should be evaluated has become a contentious issue across the country, but Chicago is the first big city to see its teachers strike over it, experts said Wednesday.

“This is a first for a district,” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. “I don’t even know a small district to strike over teacher evaluation.”

Plus, a growing number of states and districts are in the process of implementing new teacher evaluation systems as part of an attempt to win federal Race To the Top funds or to win waivers from some of the more onerous provisions of the No Child Left Behind law.

As a result, “Chicago is all we’re talking about,” Walsh said. “The nation is watching Chicago because most districts in the country are trying to implement [a teacher evaluation system], so naturally it’s going to raise concerns when teachers go out on strike over it.’’

Here in NY State, the NYSUT and the UFT have already happily agreed to the very evaluation system CTU is striking over in Chicago.

In fact, they shared the stage with Tea Party Governor Cuomo, Unofficial Pearson Employee John King and K12 Inc. booster Merryl Tisch when the new evaluation system was announced.

Any time somebody pushed back against that system, the UFT sent Lyin' Leo Casey out to attack them or drown them in drivel.

Now had the CTU continued to be governed by the old guard, it would have remained a company union that would not have pushed back against Rahmbo and the Reformers.

But the CORE leaders - led by Karen Lewis - have done a masterful job of framing what this battle is about ("The soul of education"), getting parents, students and other Chicago citizens on board, and fighting back.

That same thing could happen here in NY State and NYC too, but we would need to either convince the current company leadership that it's actually in their interests to fight back against the deform movement rather than collaborating with it or we would need to dispense with them altogether and put some new leadership in place.

The political reality is, the leadership is not going anywhere for now, there is little support to get rid of Mulgrew and Unity, Ianuzzi and the NYSUT leadership, Weingarten and the other corporate hacks at the AFT.

But the way forward is clear - if teachers want a union led by teachers that actually stands up and protects teachers, CTU is the model.

The UFT and the NYSUT are not.

I wrote the following in a comment yesterday on Assailed Teacher's blog:

It IS time to push back – not only against Bloomberg, Cuomo, the DFER’s, Mistress Eva and the rest of the reformers, but against Ianuzzi and the NYSUT, against Mulgrew and the UFT and against Weingarten and the AFT.

Remember, Ianuzzi and Mulgrew were on that stage back in February holding hands with our reformer governor touting the new 40% eval law (BTW, AT, I would characterize the law as 40%, since that is the NYSED’s intention – to have 40% of an eval based upon test scores, whether city or state.)

Remember too how Leo Casey came out at Edwize to attack Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris and Gary Rubenstein and anybody else who pointed out how horrible the new agreement was.

The problem here in NY, indeed the problem nationally, is that we have union leaders who see themselves as part of the establishment and are willing to give the elites almost everything they want in policy.

The reason why we need this CTU fight to be successful is twofold: first, it puts the reformers on notice that teachers AND parents are fed up with the corporate reform crap pushed through legislature back room by rich mother^&****** like Jonah Edelman and are going to fight back.

It is also puts a spotlight on the issues – class size, resources, etc. (I sent an email to a vicious editor, James Warren, who called teachers whiners for crying about air conditioning and asked him how he’d like to teach all-year round school with 40 kids in a 100 degree classroom with his evaluation based upon their test scores?)

But as important, this fight puts the NEA, the AFT, the UFT and the NYSUT on NOTICE – they can send the Leo Casey’s of the world out to shill for their sell-outs, but there is a REAL union with actual members running it in Chicago who are pointing the way forward.

Make no mistake, Weingarten and Mulgrew want Lewis and the CTU to FAIL. It is in their interest to have Lewis flame out so that their brand of sell-out union leader doesn’t go out of style.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Randi puts a knife in Karen Lewis to help out Randi’s out Clinton buddy, Rahm (and herself in the bargain.)

So I really am hoping the CTU gets a win out of this – it is important to not only put the reformers on notice, to put the politicians on notice, to put Obama on notice.

It is important to put Weingarten, Mulgrew Ianuzzi, Van Roekel and the rest of the crooks running the teachers unions these days that their days could be numbered if they continue selling members down the river.

I reiterate those sentiments again today.

POSTSCRIPT: One final note. CTU may have gotten a very big concession in the evaluation fight overnight:

CTU President Karen Lewis said her message to parents was “for sure, plan for something for your children for [Thursday]. Let’s hope for Friday.’’

School Board President David Vitale agreed. He called the talks “very productive” and said “we’ll hope for Friday.”

After a long day of talks that ended around 11:30 p.m., Lewis said the system’s offer on teacher evaluations, a key stumbling block, had improved to the point that “I’m smiling. I’m very happy.’’

Although she was not ready to check it off her list, “it’s a lot better,’’ Lewis said.

Earlier, Chicago Public School officials Wednesday released what one expert called a “pretty generous concession” to the union on teacher evaluations.

The district’s proposal softens an evaluation system that the union said could have put nearly 30 percent of CPS teachers on the path to dismissal if they didn’t improve their performance within a year.

The proposal made public Wednesday would allow those teachers to stay at their jobs indefinitely, as long as their scores didn’t dramatically decline after the first poor score.

“I think it’s a pretty generous concession,” said Tim Daly, president of the Brooklyn-based New Teacher Project.

...

The change to the teacher evaluation system was included in a 19-page proposal released in an email from CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll Wednesday night.

“I would call it a significant step forward on one of the two thorniest issues,” she said of the change to the evaluation proposal.

The proposal also sweetens the name of the key rating category at issue: from “needs improvement” to “developing.” That would be the second from the bottom of four rating categories.

Daly noted the offer is a step backward from a growing national trend to get rid of teachers in the second-to-last category.

“You typically can’t stay there forever,” he said. “You typically stay there for one year and then you can’t repeat that rating. You’re dismissed or lose tenure.”

He says it’s the type of offer districts may have to make if they want to put kids back in school.

“It’s the kind of proposal that if you’re on the union side, you should be happy to come away with.”

Illinois law, as is now true in many states, mandates test scores as part of the evaluation process, so CTU can't gut that totally.

But if they can mitigate the worst parts of that process, while working with the community, parents and students to get the law changed, it goes a long way.

Hey, Rahm, Why Can't Chicago Kids Have The Kind Of Education Your Kids Get At The Lab School?

See here.

Rahm's kids go to a school without high stakes tests.

They go to a school with seven full time art teachers.

Their school has three different libraries.

In Chicago, kids take 18-25 days of standardized testing.

Many schools have no art or music teachers at all.

Many have no library.

Many have no air conditioning - not even the ones that are in session in July and August.

Why, Rahm, do your kids get the high quality education taught by teachers not under the VAM death watch while Chicago kids get the shaft?

The same, btw, can be asked of President Obama and his daughters.

Obama's kids get a high quality education at Sidwell Friends School while Obama promotes federal education policies that call for high stakes testing throughout the year in every grade in every subject so that many teachers can be fired.

Politicians of BOTH parties are dumbing down and narrowing down the educational opportunities for the vast majority of the children in this country while making sure their own kids get an elite education fit for the sons and daughters of kings.

Rahm says it's nobody's business where he sends his kids to school, that it's a private decision.

But that's jive.

When you enact policies meant to destroy the working and middle classes while ensuring your kids have every educational opportunity, it is no longer a private decision.

It is a political decision - one that must be pointed out.

Why do the Emanuel and Obama kids get the quality education while these two men enact policies that hurt the vast majority of American kids - but most especially those in the inner cities?

Ryan, Romney Stand With Emanuel Against CTU - Obama Remains Mum

Not a surprise, of course, but it's good to get this on record:

There may be no stranger bedfellows than Representative Paul D. Ryan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, the former White House chief of staff, but on Monday Mr. Ryan declared his support of Mr. Emanuel in the Chicago teachers’ strike.

“We know that Rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel,’’ Mr. Ryan said.

Mr. Emanuel and the teachers’ union are at loggerheads primarily over a new evaluation system tied to student test scores and whether laid-off teachers should have priority to fill future job openings.

...

“This does not have to divide the two parties,’’ Mr. Ryan said at a fund-raising event in Portland, Ore., according to a pool report. “And so we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former chief of staff, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union?’’

Mitt Romney also issued a statement condemning the Chicago Teachers Union and accusing the Obama administration of being beholden to unions at the expense of children.

It's nonsense that the Obama administration has been beholden to unions.

This is just another lie from a man who has made a living out of deception and double dealing.

In point of fact, Barack Obama has been as anti-union as many a good Republican, though perhaps not as virulent about it as, say, Scott Walker or Rick Scott.

Just ask the people at the UAW given a 50% pay cut.

Or the teachers Barack had whacked at Central Falls.

Nonetheless Paul Ryan does bring up a good point.

Where does Obama stand in this fight publicly?

Now you know and I know that behind the scenes, he sides with Rahm.

After all, the corporate education reform agenda that Rahm is trying to finish imposing on Chicago students and teachers is Barack Obama's official education policy - school closings, teacher firings, high stakes standardized tests all throughout the year and teacher evaluations tied to those scores.

Indeed, that was the agenda of Arne Duncan, Barack Obama's current Secretary of Education, when he ran Chicago schools back in the mid-2000's and it continues to be Duncan's agenda today.

Obama hired Duncan at USDOE and gave him wide powers to promote corporate education reform because that's the policy he wants promoted.

So it's no real secret where Obama stands on this.

But Obama can't come out and say that's where he stands on this because he needs the unions - particular the teachers unions - for November's GOTV effort as well as fundraising.

So instead the White House and the Obama campaign inhabit some jive ass middle ground that doesn't really exist.

Like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Barack Obama and Joe Biden stand with Rahm Emanuel against Chicago teachers and union members.

Is that a good enough reason to not vote for any of these people if you're a teacher?

I know it is for me.

Why help out in a campaign or vote for a guy who's just looking to use you until November, then do to you what his buddy Rahmbo wants to do now?

So Obama can remain mum on this strike all he wants - we know where he stands and it sure as hell ain't with the students, teachers and parents of the CPS.

Chicago Police Trump Up Bogus Charges To Arrest Three NATO Protesters Who Posted You Tube Video

Barack Obama's America:

Three Nato protesters, arrested in a late night raid on Wednesday, have been charged on terrorism-related offences.

Police claim the charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive or incendiary device, are the result of a month-long investigation into a group they believe was making Molotov cocktails. They had already been pulled over by police last week and asked about their protest plans in a stop they posted on YouTube.

Attorneys representing the men say the charges are fabricated and aimed at intimidating activists. "We cannot say enough that we believe that these charges are absolutely … very trumped up charges," said Sarah Gelsomino of the Peoples Law Office. "Clearly in an attempt to continue this intimidation campaign on activists. Charging these people who are here to peacefully protest against Nato for terrorism, when in reality the police have been terrorising activists in Chicago, is absolutely outrageous.

"All three of these guys, interestingly, were in the car about a week ago that was stopped and harassed by the Chicago police department," Gelsomino said. "They then posted that video online in an attempt to expose that police misconduct. Each of those three are now being charged with these crimes. That's as much as we know."

The three men are all in their twenties. Two come from Florida and one from New Hampshire. They were arrested in the Bridgeport area of the City after 11pm on Wednesday. Chicago police dressed in black and armed with battering rams broke down doors in an apartment building, searched the units and then arrested nine protesters for allegedly making or possessing Molotov cocktails. Lawyers say it was just beer-making equipment.

"The city has so far failed to produce any evidence or the search warrant affidavit used in the raid," said Kris Hermes of the National Lawyers Guild.

When police detained the people, they also seized parts of a beer-making kit, including bottles and caps, and a cellphone, Gelsomino said.

"This is the playbook," said Gelsomino. "Shoddy police work. It's a fear campaign."

Indeed it is.

One protester said he had been handcuffed for 18 hours in an "interrogation room" before being released. Others say they were held without being told what they were going to be charged with.

Those of you out there still unconvinced that Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the so-called Democrats are as dangerous to democracy and humanity as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, please take note of these arrests, along with all the drone killings across the world in the name of "freedom," the slaughtered Afghan children who show up in a little paragraph on A6 of the Times every week, the treatment of Bradley Manning, the harassment of whistleblowers by the feds, and all the spying and surveillance Obama is having his people do in order to keep us "safe from terrorism."

You could be the next one arrested for "terrorism" with your beer-making kit and your You Tube videos that expose the police for fascist goons.

Because we all just want to be safe, don't why?

Remember, the lesser of two evils is still evil.

Chicago Police Threaten To "Come Looking" For NATO Protesters Next Week (UPDATED)

Former Obama chief of staff and current mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel continues to make the city into his kind of town:

Chicago police accused of intimidation as Nato demonstrations planned

Video appears to show officers asking protesters about Nato summit plans, adding that they would 'come looking for' them.

Chicago police have been accused of intimidating protesters ahead of the Nato conference next week.

A video posted to YouTube appears to show officers saying they would "come looking for" protesters after a traffic stop in the city.

Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Chicago when the city hosts the Nato conference on 20-21 May. Police have been criticised for spending some $1m on riot gear ahead of the demonstrations.

YouTube user NewsPowerTV posted the three-minute video, which it said was "anonymously submitted" on Monday. It said the video showed officers "intimidating and threatening physical violence against protesters arriving in Chicago on May 9th, 2012". The user later posted a 30-minute, unedited, version of the encounter.

In the footage an officer is heard asking: "You guys got something planned for next week?" Before one of the protesters says they are heading to Occupy Chicago.

As the video continues, at the 12-minute mark a man's voice, apparently a police officer, says: "You like that, he knows, see these guys know, '68 … you guys all know '68", in an apparent reference to riots in Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention, which resulted in more than 500 arrests.

The same voice continues: "What did they say back in '68?"

"A billy club to the fucking skull," another voice responds.

One of the protesters contends that the riots were related to "a race issue", prompting a voice to respond: "Ok, now we'll beat your white ass."

Later in the video, at around the 27-minute mark, an officer says: "Wait for the protest day. Save it up for then."

"We'll see you on Nato," a protester says.

A police officer apparently responds: "We'll come looking for you. Each and every one of you."

Obama's America - same as Bush's.

UPDATE: The Guardian reports Rahmbo has gone on a Police State spending spree:

Police in Chicago have spent $1m on riot-control equipment in the last few months ahead of next month's Nato summit, which is expected to attract thousands of anti-war protesters.

Protesters from a coalition of organisations including unions, anti-war and Occupy groups are expected to descend on the city. National Nurses United, the largest nurses' union in the US, is providing free buses to Chicago for activists from across the country even as its own plans to demonstrate were vetoed by the city of Chicago on Tuesday.

While protesters insist demonstrations during the Nato conference – the main action is planned for Sunday 20 May – will be peaceful, police appear to be leaving nothing to chance. Records show that since it was announced the Nato conference would be held in Chicago, police have purchased improved riot gear for both officers and horses. Officers are also preparing to use the controversial long-range acoustic device, or LRAD, during the operation.

Chicago police confirmed to the Guardian that they will have a LRAD available at the 20 May protest, "as a means to ensure a consistent message is delivered to large crowds that can be heard over ambient noise".

"This is simply a risk management tool, as the public will receive clear information regarding public safety messages and any orders provided by police," said Chicago police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton.

However while the device can be used simply to transmit voice messages, it also has a "deterrent tone", emitted at a volume which is painful to the human ear and which can be used to disperse crowds.

LRADs have been purchased by the US army and navy, and have also been used in commercial shipping as an attempt to drive away pirates. The device was first used at a protest in the US at the G20 Pittsburgh summit in September 2009, however there are ongoing complaints that its use there caused some people to suffer permanent damage.

Karen Piper, a university lecturer, claims she suffered irreversible hearing damage that day, and is currently bringing a legal case against the city of Pittsburgh. "This is a device that has the capability to inflict permanent hearing loss on people," Piper's lawyer, Vic Walczak, told the Guardian, adding that the device is "more dangerous than a Taser".

"We don't believe it should be used against demonstrators. It should not be used outside the battlefield."

Rahmbo is planning on going to war.

Against Americans.

Here's video of the LRAD:

Obama Moves G-8 From Chicago To Camp David

Looks like the Obama Campaign, er, Obama White House wants to avoid ugly video of people protesting the G-8 in Chicago:

In a surprise turnaround, the White House announced Monday afternoon that Chicago won’t be hosting the controversial G-8 summit after all.

It will be held at Camp David instead of Chicago.

The NATO summit will proceed here May 20-21.

City Hall insisted that it was President Obama’s decision — that Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not ask the White House to take the more controversial of the two summits off Chicago’s hands.

One leading demonstrator pledged the protests “will go forward” despite the switch.

The White House issued a terse statement dropping the bombshell shortly before 3 p.m.

“In May, the United States looks forward to hosting the G-8 and NATO summits. To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

“The president will then welcome NATO allies and partners to his hometown of Chicago for the NATO summit on May 20-21, which will be the premier opportunity this year for the President to continue his efforts to strengthen NATO in order to ensure that the Atlantic Alliance remains the most successful alliance in history, while charting the way forward in Afghanistan.”

The Coalition Against the G-8 said the change won't make much difference - the protests will still go forward, albeit with minor changes:

Andy Thayer, a spokesman for the Coalition Against NATO-G-8, didn’t buy the City Hall spin. He believes that pressure from local business leaders concerned about an international onslaught of protesters convinced the mayor to cut the risk in half.

“There’s been a lot of grumbling from business leaders in the city about what a total pain in the neck this thing would be. [The White House] probably looked at what a mess they were gonna make of the city and decided to move part of it to Camp David,” Thayer said.

“I really think the business community began to lean on Emanuel and Emanuel probably realized he was in over his head.”

Although the economic summit will be held in the secluded environment around Camp David, Thayer stressed that the demonstrations in Chicago “will go forward, but maybe not on the 19th” of May.

“Our protest will go forward because NATO is the military arm of the G-8. NATO has bombed whole countries to smithereens and is currently engaged in the U.S.’s longest war in history,” Thayer said.

“I’d say plenty of people have got tons to be upset with NATO about. If anything, people understood much more readily what NATO was about than G-8, which is more of a shadowy institution in people’s minds.”

As for why the Obama Campaign, er, White House decided to change the venue:

Asked why the G-8 was moved from Chicago to Camp David, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said, “The President felt that Camp David would provide an informal and intimate setting to have a free-flowing discussion with his fellow leaders. He very much looks forward to coming to his hometown for a critically important NATO Summit, as planned.”

The Obama administration and the Emanuel administration apparently under-estimated the hometown opposition to the summit and the fears of rioting that accompanied it.

Yeah, video of riots and stuff burning in the streets doesn't look so good in a Presidential Election Year.

It's a shame both Mayor Emanuel and President Obama aren't more curious about WHY so many people want to come and protest the political face of oligarchy as it makes decisions that sell most of us down the river for the benefit of the few, the powerful and the privileged.

Corporate Fascist Control Comes To Michigan And New Jersey

Via Queens Teacher, here's the Rachel Maddow Show on what the future will look like when the autocratic corporate managers take over cities:



Maddow reports that the Michigan governor plans to have corporate managers take over 23 school districts in the state in addition to the one that has already been taken over.

Here's the rationale:

Mayor Virg Benero: "Billions of dollars at stake, billions of dollars being spent and Wall Street can't wait to sink their fangs into it. They couldn't get a hold of Social Security but by gosh they've got a way to get in. And even with a president and secretary of Education under the guise of "Waiting for Superman", they can come in and look like a savior but dig right into those piles of cash and at the same time help wipe out the public unions that are a part of the public school system."

Meanwhile Schools Matter points out that Governor Chris Christie plans to abolish school boards in New Jersey.

Another part of the corporatization plan for schools.

Take away any vestige of democratic control.

Give one man the power - whether it's the Mayor of Money in NYC or Christie in Jersey or a corporate manager in one of 24 school districts in Michigan.

One man, no democratic say from the community, no democratic say from voters.

This is fascism pure and simple.

Glad to see Maddow taking on this issue.

I WISH she had taken it on when it was Obama and Duncan laying the groundwork for this by demonizing teachers and schools and schools districts as "failing."

You think that the firing of all those teachers in Central Falls, Rhode Island and the codified teacher demonization that is the Obama Race to the Top policy (not to mention his No Child Left Behind blueprint) didn't lay the rationale for all this corporatization and privatization?

I think it absolutely did.

Unfortunately Maddow only seems to care when it's Repubs doing the privatizing.

Until "progressives" like Maddow become willing to take on corporate pols no matter the party, I am afraid the corporate fascism is going to continue.

Yes, Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, Michael Bloomberg and Chris Christie - Republicans all - are a big part of this problem.

But so are "Democrats" like Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, Rahm Emanuel, and Arne Duncan.

Take on THEM too, Rachel.

Rahmbo Looks To Solidify His Dictatorship By Canning Half Of Chicago City Council

The move toward authoritarian governance continues unabated:

Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel (D) "has broached a touchy subject during private meetings with aldermen to solicit their ideas on budget and ethics reform: cutting the nation's second-largest City Council in half," the Chicago Sun Times reports.

"Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were stunned when Emanuel opened the discussion by asking them point-blank, 'What do you think about going down to 25 aldermen?'"

"It was a bold opening line for a mayor-elect who will need every vote he can get to reorganize the Council, pass his programs and solve a budget and pension crisis that literally has Chicago on the brink of bankruptcy."

It was a bold move all right - Emanuel bought most of these crooks off before the election, now he's going to fuck them afterwards.

And of course he'll cite the need to move fast on pressing financial issues, fiscal crisis, blah, blah, blah as the rationale for getting rid of half the City Council.

Which is all jive, of course.

He just doesn't want to have to share power in any way, shape, or form.

The next gambit in the move toward fascism - abolish the city council.

That'll come next.

Call it Emanuel's Beer Hall Putsch.

Oh, the irony.

Mayor-Elect Emanuel Speaks

Via his Twitter account:

If you have a giant fucking pile of money and a bunch of dumb fucks running against you, DREAMS DO COME TRUE.

Indeed.

Especially that first part about a giant fucking pile of money.

Which of course you get by selling your soul to corporate interests.

Oh, well - Chicago has been run by arrogant crooks for the last 22 years at least.

Now another comes in to run the place.