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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (736380)	9/1/2013 8:52:18 AM
From: Bonefish	1 Recommendation Recommended By Tenchusatsu Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1578303

When your response to a reply I made to someone else is F.U. then you get what you get. Apparently I struck a sensitive spot about your dad. Perhaps there is more you can do. Time to suck it up and get a real job. Hopefully dad can get a better one, too. With Mr. Obama in there it makes it that much harder. Believe me, I care about jobs and people but it's not all about putting 50% on the government check. Worst thing you can do. Look what Mr. Obama has done for the Black community. Set them back another 50 years. 16% unemployment. Yet they, like you still drink the kool aid.

To: SilentZ who wrote (736380)	9/1/2013 11:17:09 AM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1578303

>>fe is really, really difficult for many, many people in this country. Made more difficult by liberal policies like Obamamacare, the. Minimum wage, and the welfare state. All crap you support.

To: SilentZ who wrote (736380)	9/1/2013 12:02:06 PM
From: Machaon	6 Recommendations Recommended By Brumar89 jlallen Jorj X Mckie longnshort miraje and 1 more member Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1578303

Life is really, really difficult for many, many people in this country. Some people's culture is one of ignorance, violence and handouts. Until these families decide that reading, writing and arithmetic and technical skills are more important than having babies out of wedlock, they will remain poor. No one has ever gotten out of poverty by sitting on one's arse and begging. And you can snark all you want about Obama causing it, but you and I both know he didn't. Obama is responsible for the increase in poverty and misery, not just for the poor but also for the middle class. His policies of pushing thru a 2,500 page bureaucratic, confusing, unworkable health care nightmare has caused numerous job losses and higher costs. His anti-coal and anti-oil policies have resulted in the losses of many high paying, secure jobs! His numerous regulations on business have caused businesses to stop hiring, or to shut down, or to stop expanding, or to cut hours and pay.

To: SilentZ who wrote (736380)

9/1/2013 1:31:03 PM

From: tejek

Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1578303

Striking news: Seattle schools now booming

Unlike in other big-city school districts around the country, Seattle’s schools finally are booming. Nothing would turn that good news into bad like a teachers’ strike.

By Danny Westneat

Seattle Times staff columnist

Dear Seattle school teachers and administrators:

You should be celebrating right now. Not fighting.

You should be trumpeting the news of a remarkable turnaround in Seattle schools. Instead you are bickering on your way to a possible stri ke.

Please don’t derail what after decades of stagnation is really an amazing and mostly untold story of progress.

Such as this: If school is allowed to start this week, Seattle will top 50,000 students for the first time since the 1970s.

That date is significant. That was when a mass exodus from big-city school systems accelerated all over America. Yet now it’s estimated enrollment in Seattle could grow past 55,000 in a few years — a figure 40 percent higher than the dark years of the late 1980s and early ’90s, when Seattle schools were routinely labeled as “failing,” “blighted” or “circling the drain.”

But now thousands of local families have again voted with their feet, only this time toward Seattle’s public schools. Enrollment is up by 6,000 students, or 13 percent, in five years — even as enrollments in many big-city districts around the country plummeted.

Why? Some of it is Seattle’s natural growth. But the biggest part is this: The schools here have just gotten better.

Teachers, I know you don’t like standardized tests. But have you seen the scores released last week? Seattle continues to surge. Some of the scores are so good they suggest an educational breakthrough.

Take math. A decade ago when the testing mania began, Seattle’s students lagged the statewide averages in math at most grades. That was typical — even expected, sadly — for an urban district.

But now Seattle beats the statewide averages at every grade level, in some cases by double-digit margins.

Seattle’s eighth-graders used to routinely trail the state average in math by 3 to 4 points. This year they beat it by a whopping 16 points. You just don’t see 20-point turnarounds often in education.

These eighth-grade gains resonated across income and racial groups. Seattle’s black eighth-graders outscored black eighth-graders elsewhere by 10.6 points. Seattle’s low-income eighth-graders outpaced all low-income kids by an astonishing 17 points. Both groups scored better than their counterparts in some of the state’s top school districts, such as Bellevue.

Achievement gaps persist, and the results at some other grades were not as rosy for kids of color. This isn’t “mission accomplished.” But getting kids of all races and income levels to learn math is a Holy Grail quest in education. In Seattle, you are starting to succeed. Thank you for that.

But teachers, can you see how going on strike would set that story back?

The headlines out of Seattle wouldn’t be schools booming. It would be adults fighting. A strike here would make national news. The message: Seattle schools can’t get their act together. As usual.

I’m OK with civil disobedience if the cause is righteous. But the cause this time feels more pedestrian. You’re getting 5 percent more pay over two years — hardly rich, but still a bigger raise than, say, newspaper columnists are getting. You also want to scrap a teacher-evaluation system that you were praising as landmark only a few years ago.

These are not “to the ramparts” issues. Surely you can push them without walking off the job?

My plea is simple. Our schools spent decades in a slump of stagnant enrollment, marred by constant bureaucratic bungling. We have tons of work to do but are on the way to making news for an entirely different reason: for being the big-city schools turnaround-success story in America.

Please don’t mess that story up.

Signed, a dad of two Seattle Public Schools students (whom I would very much like to get out of the house).

Danny Westneat’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com

To: SilentZ who wrote (736380)	9/1/2013 9:46:13 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	4 Recommendations Recommended By Brumar89 FJB longnshort TopCat Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578303

Z, It's not so out of the blue... your ignorance about poverty hits really close to home. You have a lot of nerve telling someone he's ignorant about poverty when you and your dad don't seem to have your priorities straight. I mean, come on, countertops? Tenchusatsu

To: SilentZ who wrote (736380)	9/1/2013 10:08:27 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1578303

Egyptian Muslims attack a Coptic church and topple a cross as President Morsi's supporters blame Christians for his downfall New video shows attack on church in Sohag diocese, southern Egypt Muslim Brotherhood supporters blame Egypt's ten per cent Christian population for ousting of president Christians say violent attacks on Coptic churches commonplace since Morsi's downfall on July 3By ELLIE BUCHDAHL 31 August 2013 Fresh video has emerged from Egypt showing the storming of a Coptic church, apparently proving claims that supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi have been laying waste to Christian churches. The shocking footage shows a Muslim mob storming the church in the southern Egyptian city of Sohag, smashing furniture and walls and torching cars as they go. Finally a man scrambles up to the top of an archway and batters a cross down into the courtyard below. Torched: The attackers set fire to cars within the church compound More gang members then surround the fallen cross and pulverise it with sticks. The six-minute video, obtained by MidEast Christian news, was shot on August 14. On the same day in Cairo, pro-Morsi street camps erupted into protest and security forces shot dead more than 600 people, sparking yet more violence and bloodshed across Egypt. The news site claims that the crowd - apparently made up of men and some children - had become enraged by the eviction of pro-Morsi supporters from the Cairo camps. Mob break into door of Coptic Church of St. George in Sohag,... The video begins from a vantage point outside the church walls. Subtitles explain that the attackers entered the church and chanted 'We sacrifice our souls and blood to save Islam'. The view then moves inside the church, where, according to subtitles, 'One of the attackers ordered his partner to break the cross.' Muslim mob attacks Coptic church in Egyptian city of Sohag Amid billowing black smoke, one man helps another to climb to the cross at the top of an arch. 'They chant "God is great" as the cross is broken,' read the subtitles, as the man tears the cross down and throws it to the crowd below. Coptic Christians say dozens of their churches have been attacked by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood following the ousting of Morsi on July 3. Critics say the former president was aiming to turn Egypt into an Islamist state. More... [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2407630/Egypt-It-hot-humid-breathing-easy-Photographer-descends-tunnels-Egypt-hoping-destroy.html]'It was hot and humid, and breathing was not easy': Photographer descends into the tunnels that Egypt are hoping to destroy Putin urges U.S. to hold off on military action against Syria and says it would be 'utter nonsense' for Assad to use chemical weapons Christians make up about ten percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, but Morsi supporters have blamed them for his downfall, according to Coptic leaders. Bishop Makarios, a Coptic leader from Minya, accused Muslim Brotherhood leaders of planning attacks on Christian churches, homes and businesses in an effort to further divide the nation. Toppled: A man who has scaled an archway in the church breaks down the cross The man smashes the cross with a stick as he stands above the crowd The cross is pushed off the top of the arch into the courtyard below The waiting crowd surrounds the cross and breaks it into pieces with shouts of 'God is great' 'We were expecting this scenario weeks before sit-ins were broken up, as it was evident of the incitement being made by Brotherhood leaders against Copts,' Makarious told MidEast Christian News. 'We were then surprised by the systematic attacks on churches and Copts’ properties, many of them occurring at the same time in different places, in a series of attacks made under a plan they called "Plan B", which targeted all churches to be burned and destroyed.' Read more: dailymail.co.uk