1972 Is Not the Time to Criticize Leadership, and It's Always 1972

At this time, we can't criticize leadership. For goodness sake, Donald Trump is President-elect, and is planning all kinds of bad stuff.

No, at this time, we can't be indulging in what Randi Weingarten and Leo Casey call a "circular firing squad." This is no time to be assigning blame. Now is the time for all good unionists to come together and do whatever the hell we are told. Because in a democratic union, everyone must learn the vital skill of sitting down, shutting up, and swallowing the Unity party line. In fact, UFT's "Team High School,"which includes absolutely no elected representation from high schools, is offering important courses taught by patronage employees who certainly know all the ins and outs of these important rules. I know this because I go to the DA and other patronage employees hand me flyers to distribute.

Because when we're facing an enemy like Donald Trump,  Who Shall Not Be Named, it's time for us to all stand together. We need to give up all those petty partisan battles and simply do whatever it is that leadership says. In these times, we cannot afford to show disunity. We need to get together and contribute to COPE, because if we don't, patronage employees like this one would have to scrap by on a miserable teacher salary. How can we expect her to do such a thing?

It's kind of like another time, when we were heavily involved in the Presidential election. Then it was time we all stood together, because we needed to elect Hillary Clinton President. Those of us who supported Bernie Sanders needed to come to our senses, because everyone remembered what happened when we ran McGovern in 1972. That was a Big Mistake, getting behind someone who opposed the Vietnam War. We learned from that mistakes and made sure to not get behind someone who wanted universal health care, a living wage, a college for all. Too bad no one noticed it wasn't 1972 anymore, but this is no time to criticize leadership.

In any case, when Hillary won the primary, it was time to give up all that divisive nonsense, jump on the bandwagon, and make phone calls. This was a time for us to stand together. After all, the AFT had done a scientific survey that said we liked Hillary better than Bernie anyway. Sure we never saw the survey, we never had a vote in it, we never had a vote in AFT, and we never knew who was surveyed, but it was best we stood together.

Before that, we faced Governor Cuomo, who was our sworn enemy. Of course we hadn't opposed him in the Working Families Primary, and we hadn't opposed him in the Democratic Primary. In fact, we didn't even oppose him in the general election. Nonetheless, when we face an enemy like that we need to stand together as one. We can't be bickering amongst ourselves. After all, he was going to pass an APPR law based on junk science. Of course UFT President Michael Mulgrew took part in writing it, so we stood together and supported it.

And then when Cuomo said the law wasn't strong enough, we needed to stand together in opposition. Except it turned out that, when it got passed anyway, Michael Mulgrew, for reasons that have always eluded me, thanked the Assembly for doing so. Of course, at that time, we had to come together and not criticize leadership.We can't afford disunity at times like these.

And before Cuomo, there was Bloomberg, who was very bad. We had to stand together against him, because with an adversary like that, we had to stand together with leadership. After we endorsed a number of Democratic primary candidates, Bloomberg won. We failed to oppose him when he ran again, and we failed to oppose him when he defied the twice-voiced will of the people for term limits. But we were under assault and this was no time to speak against union leadership.

And then there was Giuliani, who said teachers "stink" and didn't want to give teachers raises. I wasn't really active in union matters back then, but I assume that was also a bad time to criticize union leadership.

The only problem is, really, that union leadership locks itself up at 52 Broadway, hears nothing but the voices of loyalty oath signers, and sends them out to represent us no matter how outlandishly unqualified they may be.

Is it any wonder we find ourselves on the losing end of so many crucial elections?

Vicious Cycle of Teacher Recruitment

When I started teaching, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, NYC would hire anyone. I'm sure of this, because they hired me. I hadn't ever taught in my life, and I hadn't even taken an education course. But I had a college degree, I majored in English, and I passed a basic writing test over at Court Street. That was good enough for them to give me a job and pay me something like 14K per annum.

Years later, I watched Rudy Giuliani explain on TV that he didn't want to give teachers a raise because a lot of them "stink." He didn't cite any stats or figures, but in his mind, such as it was, that was good enough. Then we had Michael Bloomberg, who degraded us on a regular basis and sought to make us at will employees. After that, of course, came the new evaluation system. I can't think of a single working teacher (excepting the shills at E4E) who supports it.

Every day teachers wonder if there's gonna be a drive-by. Will the Boy Wonder come in with his little iPad and make up things that never happened? Will he tell you face to face the lesson was wonderful and then trash you in the actual evaluation? Worse, will he walk in while you're having a bad day? Will he make it a point to observe you on a half day when only eight students are present? This is what teachers walk around thinking about. I go on Facebook and read teachers say they will pay for the education of their children unless they pursue careers in education.

So, fewer people want to go into teaching. There appears to be a shortage in NY State. Perhaps we ought not to continue draconian "gotcha" plans to rate teachers, you conclude. Maybe Cuomo is coming to his senses. Well, you conclude wrong. Sure, there is some sort of temporary moratorium on rating teachers by VAM junk science. But it only applies to certain 3-8 teachers. We high school teachers are rated by the same nonsense we've suffered through for years.

Here's what NY Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has decided--she'll let teachers from out of state teach our children without meeting certification requirements. OK, now I'm not saying that meeting the requirements makes anyone a good teacher. Still, it's hard to see how failing to meet them makes anyone a good teacher either. It's certainly unfair that those of us who live here and know the area are held to a higher bar than those who don't.

But what's the inevitable outcome of a policy like this? Well, for one, it may keep them from having to  raise compensation to attract people. That's bad for those of us who have to work for a living, and despite the inane chatter about putting "students first," it doesn't benefit our kids to have lower-paying jobs either.

Another issue, though, is probably further opportunity to blame teachers for education failures. What if teachers from Utah are ill equipped to deal with kids from New York? Inevitably, this will lead to tinhorn politicians to keep up the chants about how public school teachers suck, how union sucks, and how taxes suck and therefore teachers shouldn't be paid. Then, instead of making the field more competitive, they can lower standards even further and hire people even less equipped to do the job.

Then the op-eds can cry for more charters, more TFA, and more McTeachers who get thrown in the trash after a single use. It's ridiculous.

We need a reasonable standard for teachers, reasonable working conditions for teachers, and reasonable compensation for teachers. If the reformies don't wish to be reasonable, this shell game will go on forever. That's no way to place children first, and in fact it's no way to treat them at all.

Saint Rudy Digs a Hole

Wouldn't you rather have a genius for President than a woman, asks Rudy Giuliani. This comes after a few days of outrageous statements, including an assertion that everybody cheats on their spouse. You see, to Rudy, it's no one's business what happens in your personal life. Unless, of course, it gets in the way of your personal convenience. That's why, back when he was NY Mayor, Rudy sued for the right to bring his mistress into the home he shared with his wife and young children.

Meanwhile, the man Rudy says all this crap for, Donald Trump, openly ridicules Hillary Clinton for staying with Bill after his various escapades. Not only that, but Trump speculates that Hillary wasn't faithful to Bill either. Why should she be, he asks. Now there's part of this that these guys aren't wrong about. Why should Hillary be faithful to Bill? I don't know. I don't much care either.

That's the point where Rudy is right. I sure don't want to know who or what he's having sex with. The notion of a loathsome creature like that reproducing, or even attempting to, is something I certainly don't wish to contemplate. His best buds Trump and Christie? Maybe I want to know even less.

Rudy used to have to pretend to be moderate on social issues, as did Trump. Or maybe they actually are moderate on social issues and are lying now. It's hard to say. But now Trump's all for allowing discrimination against the LGBT community because, I can only suppose, you don't land the GOP vote without it. It isn't enough to just vilify Mexicans and Muslims when you're aiming for that particular demographic.

Both of these guys paint a very different picture when they're looking for support outside of New York. I guess New York can take it as a point of pride that when people run here they behave differently than when they're trying to sell themselves to the country at large. Prejudice and hatred don't sell quite as effectively in our neck of the woods.

I've got a lot of reservations about Hillary, but at this point I will probably vote for her. For one thing, it's much different choosing her against Donald Trump than against Bernie Sanders. I was very proud to vote for Bernie, and quite disappointed that the media presented him as a loser even when he was winning.

But there are two reasons I'm choosing her now over Jill Stein, for whom I voted four years ago. For one thing, I gave Barack Obama a chance eight years ago. He kind of broke my heart by selecting slimy little worms like Arne Duncan and John King to run education, or do the bidding of Gates, Walton, and their merry band of billionaire hedge funders. In fact I voted for Hillary in the primary against Obama. I guess I have to give her a chance.

More persuasive, though, was a message from activist Fred Klonsky, Fred says even if you reside in a reliably blue state, like his Illinois or our New York, that it's important to send a strong message rejecting the likes of Trump and Giuliani. The hatred, misogyny and bigotry that they represent must be repudiated as strongly as possible. If I can contribute some small piece of rejection, I'm gonna do it.

Hillary will owe us big time as far as I'm concerned.

The Best Meeting Ever

I go to a lot of meetings. The whole chapter leader thing places you on all sorts of committees at the school and every time anything happens there's a meeting about it. And then there are UFT chapter leader meetings. I usually go to the borough high school meeting and the DA. But when the HS VP comes to Queens I try to see her too.

Last night I got to Queens UFT around 3:30. I walked into the meeting room and it was empty. I was a little early, but that never happened before. But lo and behold, there were all kinds of sandwiches and salads and drinks. I figured I'd eat all the sandwiches and then call for an adjournment. It would be the fastest meeting ever, depending on how the sandwiches were.

I gotta say, the turkey was very good, but the eggplant looked and tasted like a dishrag. Anyway, a little after four, people started coming in. Three of them. There went 75% of my sandwiches. Eventually ten or twelve people showed up. It was disappointing because I like when the VP comes to Queens. In my opinion, she should hold all of her meetings there. But how do we persuade her when only a dozen people show up?

Well it turned out that Randi Weingarten was downstairs giving pep talks about Hillary, for whom UFT is phonebanking. I voted for Randi once. It was some time in the 90s. I was not at all involved in union politics but I had some primal instinct that told me union was a good thing, so when our President showed up at the school library, I ventured upstairs to listen.

She called Rudy Giuliani a prick, which very much endeared her to me. After all, I read the papers, and it was absolutely clear to me that Rudy was a prick. But I'd never heard anyone just say it out loud before. How perceptive, I thought.

She was with the High School VP, who at that time, I think, was John Soldini. Soldini got up and made a stirring speech about how there was absolutely not truth the the rumor that the UFT was going to make anyone wait 25 years to hit maximum salary. Anyone who told you such a thing was a filthy liar. I raised my hand.

"How come, if UFT doesn't want it to take 25 years to reach maximum, did I receive something in the mail from Sandy Feldman urging me to vote for a contract that called for a 25-year maximum? Didn't she say I must be smoking something if I thought I could do better?"

Soldini, clearly, had not been expecting that particular question. He hemmed and hawed for a few moments. Randi walked in front of him and gave some kind of answer. I don't remember what it was, and I don't remember it being particularly persuasive, but at that moment I really respected her for getting up to answer the impossible question. I decided she was the smartest person in the room and I had to vote for her.

That year, I spent 45 minutes splitting my ballot. I voted Randi for President, and everyone I could find in New Action for everything else. Sadly, my enthusiasm for Randi's negotiating skill began to wane around 2002. I thought it was a very, very bad idea to barter time for money. I remembered the zeros we'd gotten from Rudy and thought such raises could easily be washed away in another tide of zeros.

2005 was the year I finally woke up. It took me twenty years of teaching, which makes me question how successful the loud and proud campaign is gonna be.

Last night I was talking to a union rep. We got out on the 4th floor and someone came out to hush us. Randi was talking. Should I go in and listen?

Nah.

The Police and the Teachers

I don't support NYPD's turning their backs to Mayor de Blasio. What de Blasio said to his son, in view of what was happening in NYC and around the country was perfectly reasonable. I'd have said the same if I were him, and the community who voted for him, perhaps largely because of a commercial in which his son was prominently featured, needed to know that the mayor saw that. He opposed stop and frisk, ran on a platform saying so, and moved to block it. He has never said a disparaging word about NYPD.

On the other hand, I've watched Rudy Giuliani say teachers don't deserve raises because they stink. This was Rudy's way of arguing for merit pay, which has been around for a hundred years and has never worked anywhere. This argument, of course, is not restricted to Giuliani, and is bandied about by politicians statewide and nationally. It's discussed in op-eds as though it's common sense. Of course, common sense is the least common of all the senses, and this sort of blather has pervaded all of MSM, up to and including the allegedly liberal New York Times.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg treated us like something he had to scrape off of his Florsheims. He gave the police an 8% two year raise, and he gave FDNY and virtually every other union the same during an economic downturn. In lieu of that, he gave us a middle finger, threatened to lay us off, tried very hard to destroy our seniority rights (thought not those of any other union), and said he'd like to fire half of us and double class sizes. I don't know about you, but I've had very tough classes of 34. It's idiotic, counter-productive, and incredibly thoughtless to contemplate classes of 68 kids at a time.

With the financial support of the extremely right-wing, extremely wealthy Koch Brothers, Scott Walker decimated union in Wisconsin. He eliminated collective bargaining, and made unions vote annually for dues checkoff. Of course he didn't do that for police. Michael Bloomberg famously referred to the police as his private army. And someone has to protect Walker from the crowds that surrounded his capital when they realize how badly they're being screwed. Pretty much all of the above is disparate treatment.

The press regularly vilifies us. I've seen Campbell Brown and her nonsensical arguments plastered everywhere. Judging from the extremely selective stories she tells, literally based on a handful of cases, you'd think teachers were sexual predators. You'd think people like Bloomberg and his pawns ought to be able to fire us at will, based on unsubstantiated or even rejected allegations. I've read stories in the Daily News and the Post that mirrored her blather. I'm familiar with precisely one of the cases she endlessly repeats and I happen to know the teacher in question deserved nothing more than a caution to be careful of how his words can be interpreted. This is a lesson that teacher, after unmerited years in the rubber room and thousands in unnecessary fines, probably knows better than any other teacher in the city.

The NYPD officer, on the other hand, was facing a man strangled to death, and on video. This was ruled a homicide. A grand jury, however, cleared the officer. I don't hear Campbell Brown loudly crying for this officer's job. I don't see articles about him in the tabloids demanding justice. And in case it isn't clear, this officer was not accused of making a distasteful statement. This officer killed someone, someone who said, "I can't breathe," eleven times, and the video is all over the internet.

I would understand the cops turning their backs to the mayor on the basis of the crap contract they're being offered. My very first act of unionism was marching with UFT at a Labor Day parade in which we planned to do that to David Dinkins. We were all wearing black t-shirts that said, "Shame on City Hall" on the back. But we weren't at a funeral, and we weren't making the preposterous claim that Bill de Blasio had blood on his hands. Because our plan was no secret at all, Dinkins ran off to a tennis match somewhere rather than face us. Apparently, we are supposed to respect the authority of the police, no one may ever question the actions of a single police officer, and no one may warn their children to be careful when dealing with the police, even after we watch a man killed by a police officer on video.

On the other hand it's perfectly fine to vilify teachers, to stereotype us based on shoddy evidence, and to deprive us of due process based on a handful of sensationalized cases. We should trust in the good graces of folks like Mike Bloomberg and Dennis Walcott, and we should disregard the fact that they are fanatical ideologues with no regard for evidence or truth.

Is this because teaching is a profession dominated by women? Is it because time and time again our union leadership has compromised with folks like Bloomberg, embracing mayoral control, charter schools, colocations, two-tier due process, and things that looked very much like merit pay? Is it because the job of educating our children must always take second place to the importance of enriching the likes of Pearson, Eva Moskowitz and Rupert Murdoch? All of the above?

No more multiple choice questions for today. Today's a day for reflection. Why is there one standard for police, and a very different one for teachers? Why is it so widely accepted by the media? Is it the job of our union leadership to let the public know this? Is it possible to even do that, and if so, how?

On Disrespect from Politicians

I'm a little flabbergasted by commentary I see everywhere not only about, but sometimes also by NYPD. They turned their backs on the mayor at a funeral. It's odd, because in fact the mayor has not said a disparaging word about them. However, this man, who was elected by 73% of New Yorkers, mustered the audacity to tell the city, after a man was killed on the street, that he told his son to be careful when he went out, that he was concerned for his safety.

For this, the NYPD turned their back on the mayor at a funeral where he was paying his respects to a murdered officer. What sort of a society is it where an elected politician may not tell a heartfelt truth? Would Pat Lynch like personal approval over every word said on mass media? Are we a society in which we are not only prohibited from criticizing police brutality, but also from expressing empathy with its victims? I'd hope that not even police would support police brutality.

I've heard de Blasio blamed for these murders, which is ridiculous. I've even seen the same people who say people kill people, guns don't, are blaming de Blasio for the actions of this deranged individual.

I understand police being proud of what they do. My daughter wants to be NYPD, and I've said nothing to dissuade her. If she actually follows through, I'll be proud of her too. I always respect people who do jobs I'd be no good at, and as such I respect the police.  I'm not NYPD, but rather UFT, and I'm proud to be a city teacher. I think there are few jobs as important as mine. I can certainly understand police feeling the same way.

Here's the thing, though. There is clearly a different standard for teachers. We are trashed regularly by pols, and often by NYC mayors. I've watched Rudy Giuliani say teachers stink and shouldn't get a raise. I've actually heard him blame teachers for the Eric Garner killing. Mike Bloomberg regularly made outrageous statements about us. He said he wanted to fire half of us and double class size. Joel Klein regularly trashed tenure and step pay. I still hear people, all of the above and more, demanding all sorts of reformy nonsense. Who cares if merit pay has been around for a hundred years and has never worked? I see so-called liberals like Bill Maher talking about how teachers need to be fired. Whoopi Goldberg says outrageous stereotypical nonsense about us without a second thought.

There was some big thing with Joel Klein and Condi Rice saying we were a threat to national security. Rod Paige, former US Education Secretary before he started buying off journalists to pimp out his programs, called us a terrorist organization. You'd think we were that, or public enemy number one, or a zombie plague ascending upon America.

Actually I don't think it's that bad to turn your back on the mayor--if you have a valid reason. My first act of union activism was marching in a UFT Labor Day Parade. We all wore black shirts that said, "Shame on City Hall," and planned to turn our backs on Dinkins for denying us a contract, if I recall correctly. There was a good reason. Anyway, Dinkins ran off to a tennis match before we got the chance, but I still have the shirt.

I don't feel much like wearing it today. I don't think Bill de Blasio deserves scorn for trying to calm down NYC after a man was killed on the street and a grand jury cleared the man who did it. We have seen a few peaceful protests. We have also seen some random acts of lunacy. I have seen people twist logic in bizarre ways trying to attribute this to Bill de Blasio. Rudy Giuliani spouts bile, saying it wouldn't happen under his watch. As a matter of fact, 9/11 happened under his watch, and he'd determined it was a good idea to place his emergency room on a high floor of a proven terror target.

It's lunacy to think that a democratically elected mayor has no right to try to calm down a troubled city. We'd be better off without the attacks on de Blasio. They are unwarranted, as are the perpetual and visceral attacks on teachers.

I see teachers who've done next to nothing repeatedly attacked in the tabloids, with their names and spurious charges that have been dismissed. Neither they nor police ought to be disrespected by politicians.

But honestly, Pat Lynch appears to have no idea what it means to be have voices of alleged authority spew condemnation. He could learn from us, and I certainly hope he never has to. But loving your children and trying to protect them is far from a crime. Trying to keep the city together during a time of crisis is the mayor's job.

There are certainly things UFT could do better. Still, I see absolutely nothing we could learn from the example of Pat Lynch right now.

The Eternal Quest

I was talking to a group of people yesterday about the agreement Governor One Percent made to reshape the tax system and bring 1.9 billion in revenue to NY State. That is indeed a positive step. However, the expiring millionaires' tax will cost us five billion, so we're left with a net loss of three billion. Overly optimistic UFT sources suggest that this is a victory.  It is indeed better than losing the entire five.

However, some have suggested to me that this will deter the mayor in his annual spring quest to kill LIFO and fire people like me just because he feels like it. This is a highly unrealistic expectation for a mayor who will sit on a surplus, as he did last year, and declare we were in such crisis we needed to lay off teachers. Undeterred, this person suggested we simply had to wait out Bloomberg for two years and things would be fine.

Let's ignore the fact that four years ago, UFT sources suggested precisely the same thing--we would wait out Bloomberg for two years and things would be fine. Let's ignore the contract promised us as our last with Bloomberg, even though it's likely true. Waiting out the mayor is an experiment we've been tinkering with for almost three decades. When I started teaching, Ed Koch was mayor, and teachers said once we get rid of that old skinflint everything would be fine.

Then came David Dinkins. At some point, he granted us a 5% raise (although everyone's favorite chapter leader, James Eterno of Jamaica High School, informs me we somehow financed it ourselves). The media was outraged. Marcia Kramer, who had just jumped ship from the striking Daily News to TV, announced we'd gotten a "grab bag of goodies," prompting me, in my very first move of union activism, to write her a very nasty letter. 

But Dinkins, when roundly criticized by the press, failed to stand up for teachers or education, opting rather for a "Homina-homina" moment, a la Ralph Kramden. Dinkins, cowed by the press, turned his back on us. In my second act of union activism, I marched in the Labor Day parade with the UFT. They gave me a black t-shirt that said UFT in front, and "SHAME ON CITY HALL" on the back. (It's still stylish and suitable for all occasions, if you ask me.)

The UFT declined to endorse Dinkins, and Rudy Giuliani beat him by the same miniscule margin to which he'd lost to him four years earlier. Man, did I hate Giuliani. He said the most vile and stereotypical things about teachers. He was always wanting to blow up Board of Ed. buildings, and demanding ridiculous fascistic levels of control. Fortunately he was always suing everyone and going to court to demand the right to bring his mistress to the home he shared with his wife and young children, and was generally such a son of a bitch that he accomplished very little. He was largely regarded as a bum before 9/11 elevated him to sainthood.

Then came Bloomberg, with the same crackpot ideas. But early in his tenure, he did not appear to be the frothing at the mouth lunatic who recently declared we needed to reduce the teacher force by 50% and up class sizes to 70. He managed to get pretty much everything Saint Rudy had wanted, and he's been systematically destroying and privatizing the entire city school system. I've never seen anything worse than Bloomberg.

Personally, I'm not inclined to wait out this mayor. I'm inclined to be active now, to be active tomorrow, and to keep being active as long as we, our students, and our children will have to work for a living. It's simply ridiculous to sit, wait and hope for the best. We, teachers, New Yorkers, Americans, simply cannot afford such folly.

The Sincerest Endorsement Money Can Buy

Rudy Giuliani is ready and willing to get out and campaign for GOP candidates---if they pay him.

Famous Last Words

CNN showed a few speeches from the candidates. The Democrats had little to say, McCain was gracious in victory, and Mitt Romney worried out loud about losing jobs to "countries like Asia and India."

Our beloved Saint Rudy pleaded for "less lawsuits." While the English teacher in me kept thinking "fewer lawsuits," the newspaper reader in me couldn't help but remember that before 9/11, Mayor Rudy was perpetually involved in lawsuits, suing everyone in sight.

And while he nickel and dimed the cops, the firefighters, and the teachers, I don't personally recall Rudy using 35-dollar-an-hour lawyers in any of his lawsuits.

You see, lawsuits are important when he starts them. They're just not important when you or I start them.

Farewell, Saint Rudy. Not everyone is bold enough to adopt a strategy of ignoring virtually every contest in order to win at the end, and it was tough to see how all those purposeful losses would snare the nomination. Historically, it's never worked, but not everyone is Saint Rudy, who sues for the right to bring his mistress into the home he shares with his wife and young children. Rules don't apply to Saint Rudy, who ignores term limits and doesn't want to be bothered standing for re-election.

Take a broad view, Rudy. Look on the bright side. Whoever wins in November, your loss is the American people's gain.

Ethics Are for the Little People

Saint Rudy and his people don't need to bother. Sure, Roosevelt and Lincoln had to stand for re-election, but Rudy felt he needed to defy term limits and stay on unelected. This was ostensibly to keep up the morale of FDNY and NYPD, to whom he'd been denying contracts for years (At that point, NYPD, originally an ardent supporter, had already begun demonstrating against Giuliani).

Then there was the lawsuit demanding the right to bring his mistress into the home he shared with his wife and two young children, and then there was Bernard Kerik (and we don't seem to have heard the last of him).

Now here's Fred Brown, a Giuliani delegate who lives in a Battery Park high-rise, but votes and holds office in the Bronx. Brown claims it's OK because he owns property in the Bronx. Never mind that it's not actually located in the district he votes in--he's a Rudy supporter, so it's OK.

There's been a lot of chatter in the comments section about the double-zero contract that we took (during one of the biggest economic booms in NYC history). The UFT was the first to vote on this contract. The UFT President wrote a letter to rank-and-file stating anyone who thought we could do better must be "smoking something," and that we'd better get used to double zeros and a 25-year maximum. Nonetheless, rank-and-file rejected this contract.

Immediately thereafter, DC37 voted it up, and many municipal unions followed. A modified version of the contract was presented to the UFT, raising maximum to 22 rather than 25 years, and a demoralized UFT voted for it. As someone who reached maximum salary last year, I can tell you that the UFT Prez was wrong, and that we certainly benefited from our initial rejection.

But later, it was discovered that DC37 leaders had falsified their union election, the one that passed double-zeros and set the precedent for other municipal unions. Several DC37 leaders were relocated up the river to do a stretch. The fact that the municipal contracts were all based on blatant fraud did not trouble Saint Rudy at all. The contracts all stood.

What's the moral here? Morality must be strictly adhered to by working people, while important folks like Saint Rudy can do whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want.

Best Bets

There's an interesting piece in Firedoglake about who can best carry the upcoming 2008 elections. For Republicans, it appears John McCain is their man, but only because FDL has written off Rudy Giuliani. Despite the polls, I wonder how many skeletons would crawl out of Rudy's closet in a major national race.

And though the entire country seems to have written off John Edwards, he looks to be the best chance for Democrats to take the White House, followed by Obama, with Hillary in dead last.

The upshot of all this: If Hillary's the Democratic nominee, we could very easily lose to any likely GOP nominee. If Obama's the nominee, he does OK so long as he doesn't face McCain. But if Edwards is the nominee, we're sitting pretty. Which, I suspect, is one reason why Big Media hates John Edwards so much and does everything it can to destroy him. (Speaking of which: KingOneEye at DailyKos pointed out this morning how the NYT is ignoring a key result of its own poll on the race -- namely, that as more people get to know him, Edwards' favorability rating keeps going up.)

Even though polls show a statistical dead heat in Nevada, Edwards is routinely ignored by mainstream media. Hopefully sometime between now and February 5th, Democrats will take a look at the big picture and vote with their eyes wide open.

Haga como digo, no como hago

Rudy Giuliani insists immigrants must read English, write English, and speak English to become citizens. Curiously, he neglects to mention these demands on his Spanish-language ad:



Hat tip to Crooks and Liars

Rudy's Claim to Fame

Rudy runs on 9/11. But despite his elevation to sainthood on that day, his judgment was questionable at best. I share the feelings of some of these interviewees, who wonder what he actually did beyond looking good on television.



More here.

Our Hero

The NY Post reports today that Saint Rudy Giuliani billed various city agencies $500,000 to repeatedly visit his girlfriend in the Hamptons, while his wife and children sat in Graycie Mansion.

No wonder he couldn't afford to give contracts to cops, firefighters, or teachers.

More detail here.

Saint Rudy Talks Numbers

Well, we all know Saint Rudy's favorite number--9/11. After all, on 9/10 he was a bum, about to slink away from NYC, and the next day he was America's sweetheart. That's pretty good for a guy most people would be afraid to invite to their houses for spaghetti.

And it's damn good for a guy who went to court to demand the right to bring his mistress to a home he shared with his wife and young children. No Bill Clinton there. More like, "Damn right I was with Ms. Lewinski, and I'm bringing her home to meet the wife and kids right now."

But now Rudy is on a mission to make sure health care doesn't get to the bootless and unhorsed. To that end, he put an ad on the radio:

In the radio ad, Giuliani, who has suffered prostate cancer, said the U.S. survival rate for the disease was 82 percent, but the survival rate in Britain was just 44 percent "under socialized medicine."

It appears, though, that Mr. Giuliani got his statistics from the same folks who said we needed to invade Iraq:

A health department spokesman said the latest figures from Britain's Office of National Statistics showed a five-year survival rate of 74.4 percent for prostate cancer.

That's a significant difference. And that's not all:

Even that difference, as experts explained, probably has nothing to do with the British National Health Service and much to do with the aggressive screening programs employed in this country. (And for the moment, let's merely mention another highly pertinent issue, namely that the great majority of prostate cancers occur in men over 65, which indicates that many if not most are treated successfully under Medicare -- our version of national health insurance for the elderly -- or by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which comes as close to truly socialist healthcare as any system in the world.)

But the supreme irony is this--Saint Rudy was actually treated under a government program--specifically GHI, then a non-profit health care network popular with New York City employees (like me). So I guess it's easy for him to say we don't need to help those who've got nothing. After all, that was his entire approach to the school system--My kids don't go there, so what the hell do I care? That's why he had no problem proposing welfare recipients be required to work in public schools. Why shouldn't people chronically unable to find jobs serve as role models for our kids? After all, they're not his kids.

Sadly, that approach is precisely the one taken by the current administration, which has no qualms about sending kids to toxic waste sites or fighting tooth and nail when people ask leased schools be inspected as thoroughly as city-owned schools. Note they don't build sports stadiums on toxic waste sites. The billionaires who own the teams would never put up with that.

I read somewhere, "If Rudy becomes president, every day will be 9/11"

Rudy Stands Up

Ex-education Mayor Rudy Giuliani has taken a strong stand for vouchers for private schools. Rudy, of course, has strong credentials in education. Under his tenure, every time the state raised aid to city schools, he reduced city aid by an equivalent amount (Mayor Mike was forced to abandon this practice in order to gain mayoral control).

It was also the reason a judge determined that the city could be compelled to pay a portion of the CFE lawsuit. Mayor Mike doggedly refused until the award was cut by 75%. He then declared the severely reduced award a great victory for the city since it entailed no mayoral oversight.

Rudy was also the architect of a plan to force welfare recipients to work in public schools. Rudy felt people chronically unable to find work were adequate adult role models for the city's 1.1 million schoolchildren. After all, his kids went to private school anyway, so what did he care?

Under Rudy's tenure, teachers were the lowest paid in the area, standards for hiring teachers were the lowest in the area, conditions were the worst in the area, and class sizes were the highest in the area. So Rudy knows a little about running public schools. He knows how to run them right into the ground.

When Rudy talks education, he hopes people think 9/11. Here in New York, everyone knew he was a bum on 9/10. Some of us have yet to change our opinions.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

Everyone from NYC knows the schools never close, no matter how much snow there is, or how many wicked witches or cows happen to be flying through the air.

I vividly remember driving up the Long Island Expressway one morning with cars crashing to the left and right of me. Then-Mayor Giuliani was on the radio saying, "It's awful out there. If you don't have to come to work, stay home."

The mayor, of course, was referring to people of significance---not teachers or students, who were required to come in.

A pair of creative students from Edgewood, Ohio have decided to forgo such nonsense altogether. They simply stole a password, went to the school website, and announced a snow day themselves.

Spitzer Spits on Mayor Moneybags

Looks like Eliot Spitzer is prepared to compel Mayor Mike to pay for the quality teachers, lower class sizes, and decent facilities he's claimed to want for NYC's 1.1 million schoolchildren.

It appears if Mayor Mike wants to retain control of the school system, paying a portion of the CFE suit will be required. And if not, he might have to pay anyway:

"The only thing I will add to it," he said, "is that ... the city is technically a subservient political entity to the state, and the state could just mandate that the city's contribution be X."

Speculation is the city will have to pay somewhere between 25% (CFE's recommendation) and 40% (Governor Pataki's suggestion) of the cost of the CFE suit. You may recall one of Bloomie's mouthpieces telling the NY Times the city would say, "No thank you," if compelled to pay dime one.

Mayor Giuliani had a standing practice of reducing city aid by precisely whatever the state raised it, a practice Mayor Bloomberg had to renounce in order to win control.

Thanks to reality-based educator