(The title is inspired by Historiann's excellent post. Also a note: unlike most of the things I blog about, teaching is what I've done professionally for decades. I taught in universities, not schools, but the two aren't totally unrelated.)

Let's face it. The war on teachers is about money. People want to pay less and get more.

Sometimes you can do that. Solar power and energy efficiency instead of nukes and oil come to mind. In that case paying less and getting more is the sign of an intelligent choice. But when the low price comes from a flimflam artist selling cheap hope, falling for it is the mark of a fool. So, really, the first order of business is to see how low the price can go and still give you what you're paying for.

So what are we paying for? What is learning, really? And, for that matter, teaching?

That's just crazy.

Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" provides "progressives" with an opportunity to fancy themselves more reality-based than their tribal opposites.

It would be churlish on this day when "Obama inauguration gear made it back out of the closet" to expect Democrats to take note of the president's remarkable record of delivering on the red-state agenda.

To accentuate the positive, perhaps Republicans can take the day to count their blessings.

Here.

Well, maybe "teh stupid" is too harsh. Naïveté? Useful idiocy? Brad DeLong quotes Zach Carter's post on Treasury leaks to Politico about what color Elizabeth Warren's painting the walls of her new office with. The subject line: "Tim Geithner Needs to Gain Control Over His Building"

Just days before an election, it’s somewhat* astonishing that Treasury officials would be working the media to smear Warren instead of, say, talking about the economy. And it’s certainly counterproductive for Treasury to be creating these distractions for the new, can’t-be-independent-soon-enough agency...

What's "astonishing" about this?

STFU and send the Ds more money.

A propos the great work that the AGs at the state level are doing on the foreclosure mess, Yves asks:

I happened to chat with a staffer to a not-terribly-bank-friendly Senator about the foreclosure mess. He matter of factly said he though concerns were overblown (this was about a month ago, before additional shoes had dropped) but then volunteered that if anything serious were amiss, Congress would intercede, relying on pre-emption. Now does Congress have the nerve to trample on state law and run the risk of a Constitutional challenge?

Simple answers to simple questions:

Papaver oriental

Oriental poppy

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

The latest document dump from WikiLeaks would seem to be one of those massive, stop the presses, drop everything and throw all available resources at it stories that dominates news cycles for weeks on end. One of the first revelations was of Frago 242 (a Guardian story describes a frago as "a 'fragmentary order' which summarises a complex requirement"), which directed soldiers not to investigate war crimes that did not directly involve members of the coalition. There are reports that US soldiers may have engaged in war crimes themselves. There are hundreds of thousands of documents and they will take a long time to digest.

Via The Map Room, this image of the storm that just blew through the Midwest. (Click on the image to see a large version, which may take a minute to load.)

Says NASA:

(The title is inspired by Historiann's excellent post. Also a note: unlike most of the things I blog about, teaching is what I've done professionally for decades. I taught in universities, not schools, but the two aren't totally unrelated.) Fair warning: kind of longish....

Every time you turn around, there's a new front opened in the war on teachers. They don't work hard enough. They get paid too much They're not accountable. They can't be fired. Their unions protect dead wood.

If we could just find the right stick to smash the cabal, the teachers would have to be good workers. Then, like good workers, they'd produce what they're supposed to, which is good students.

So various fixes have been tried over the years.

(When I first published this one, it cause quite a wonderful shitstorm in the comments column when it was picked up by Stop Me Before I Vote Again.)

They range from borderline delusional to flat-out certifiable -- and they vote.

I’d been seriously wondering about the root causes of the quality of “leadership” in this country over the past twenty-odd years, beginning late in Reagan’s second term and continuing off and on during the Clinton and Bush years, but it didn’t really start banging the doors down in my head until the 2008 Presidential “election” cycle began. Things finally reached critical mass when I saw this article in Slate a couple of months or so ago. I didn’t quite agree with all of its points, but you can’t possibly imagine the thrill and relief when I finally realized that, yes, I’m not the only one thinking that the number one problem is, in fact, The People.

I think it is good for a liberal Democrat, like Joe Costello, to make this kind of critique.

“Make no mistake folks, there’s a criminal element atop our financial industry, who operate with both the complicity and culpability of much of our political class.”

I would just point out that it is incomplete. It is not “an element” that is criminally minded and acting. It is the whole shebang. Our financial industry is a criminal enterprise. But it is itself only part of the larger criminal enterprise that is kleptocracy and encompasses all of our elites: financial, political, industrial, governmental, legislative, judicial, academic, lobbyist, military, and media. It is a collaborative effort. All of the checks and balances have been removed or turned to kabuki.

If Corrente had "quick hits" or the equivalent I would post these items there rather than cluttering up the front page. I thought they'd be of interest, in any case.

1) I haven't seen anyone link to Chris Hedges demolition of a pair of neo-liberal and neo-con stooges on this superb broadcast from the CBC. Highly recommended-make sure to watch both segments:

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/hed...

2) In her widely circulated interview with Michael Moore, Rachel Maddow describes herself as "having a low tolerance for violence."

Oh yeah? Then why can Maddow always be counted on to prostrate herself before those whose job it is to kill people.

Fairvote.org has a blog feature they call the "Non-Majority Rule Desk". Apparently they have an issue with people who get less than 50% of the vote running our world, just as an issue in itself. YMMV.

Their feature is pretty comprehensive and they break down state by state the status of different races. What is interesting is four things. First,

Rasmussen:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters say if they had the option next week, they would vote to get rid of the entire Congress and start all over again. Only 20% would opt to keep the entire Congress instead. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Of course, the Political Class strongly disagrees. While 84% of Mainstream voters would opt to get rid of the entire Congress, 64% of the Political Class would vote instead to keep them all.

The Big Picture collects some examples to demolish "The Big Lie on Foreclosure" -- that nobody's been wrongly foreclosed on -- and points out:

We have no record of how many people have been erroneously foreclosed — the banks themselves are the only centralized source of that data, and they ain’t talking — but we have lots of anecdotal evidence.

The plural of anecdote is not data; what is needed is a central collection of all the anecdotal errors of false or erroneous foreclosure — someone with a national office, say a US Attorney’s or Congressman’s office.

When Tom Perriello replaced Virgil Goode as our representative in the Fifth District of Virginia, I was glad to see an outspoken bigot thrown out of office. Heck, I'm glad to see almost anyone thrown out of office. When one quarter of the races being in play makes for an extraordinary election year, something's wrong with the system.

As with religion and its adherents, facts that should disqualify the legitimacy (for a lefty) of Obama and the Democrats will always be compartmentalized, delegitimized, minimized, etc., at least to the point where the legitimacy stands.

The parallels between loyalty to Obama and the Democrats and loyalty to religion are striking.

Such loyalty comes in many flavors. One thing that makes religion so resilient and pernicious is that a great many people support it with seemingly soft — and yet unbreakable — bonds.

The wild-eyed zealots occupy the deep end of the pool, but one can drown in an inch of water. And one can certainly drown as easily in 8 feet of water as in 80.

Say, in a media-rich environment. Like Manhattan. What is it? A "flash mob" concept: Internet-driven bank runs could take down a bank. Say, one of the foreclosure fraudsters. (Heck, we own them anyhow after the bailouts, right?)

Joe Costello at Yves Place:

Make no mistake folks, there’s a criminal element atop our financial industry, who operate with both the complicity and culpability of much of our political class. Until we reform our politics and the financial industry, we will not have economic vitality. And we will not have reform, until it is demanded and undertaken by the American people. That is where we are.

It is. That's what the foreclosure crisis is all about, for example. Ritholz explained:

The process of purchasing a home in America culminates with an event called “the Closing.” It is an hour plus long contract signing that ensures the buyer is legitimately taking title, possession and legal ownership of a unique parcel of land and any structures upon it. The process gives any buyer specific rights to that property that cannot be abrogated under the laws of the United States.

At the closing, buyers sign and initial numerous documents. The goal is to accomplish the following:

1) Papers are signed that will be filed with the County Clerk (or appropriate officer) along with recording fees, for the official transfer of title from the prior owner to the new owner. The enabling purchase loan (i.e., mortgage note) is also filed with the Clerk.

2) The buyer receives title (ownership) of the land;

3) The mortgage lender establishes a new interest in that property contingent upon their mortgage note;

4) All other claims, liens, tax obligations and prior mortgages, home equity lines or second notes are satisfied and extinguished before title passes to the new owner.

5) Third party claims of any interest in that property superior to the buyer are eliminated;

6) Title Insurance is purchased and issued so the buyer has a recourse in case of defects in ownership occurs.

Every step of the process is designed to protect the property rights of all parties. The result is more than a mere transaction selling property from one party to another; rather, this has created a system where ownership interests are clearly defined; where title history can be reviewed going back decades and centuries. There is a certainty to the purchasers of this property against all future claims.

Everything about this process has been created to make sure the transfer goes off perfectly. In a nation of laws, contract and property rights, there is no room for errors. Indeed, even small technical flaws can be repaired via a process called “perfecting title.”

Well, the banks call the rule of law "paperwork" and say it's too expensive -- meaning they get smaller bonuses -- and they shouldn't have to do it.

Lambert's post about Avedon's post mentioning flyers has latched onto me and refused to let go. Corrente and the sites it links to are invaluable to me because they allow me to learn about the truth behind the confusion and the smokescreen put up by those who would seek our country's ruin; however, I'm painfully aware how few people are exposed to what I read every day. Many of them don't know this corner of the internet exists, and many others don't even use the internet as their major news source.