Apparently the job pays $171,600 plus expenses and immunity

To some, the uproar over the $5000 desk that public School Superintendent Romain Dallemand bought for himself using school funds is much ado about nothing. But if squandering $5000 is “nothing” -- especially while our kids go without paper and pencils in the classroom (that’s what levy supporters tell us, anyway) -- then we have bigger problems.

Still, let’s be clear. This is not about a desk. Considering the Herculean effort it took on the part of vigilant taxpayers to get the district to even admit to this purchase, a reasonable person could only presume this is merely the tip of the iceberg and that the level of waste in the district is immense. But because it is the only charge of so many that will stick, the desk will be the undoing for Dallemand and his high-priced cabinet of friends/advisors; the district kids will suffer, as well, as area stakeholders withhold any additional funding.

But if it’s not the desk, what is it? For starters, it’s the fact that Dallemand “hid” the desk offsite once the public got wind of his ENRON-like expenditure. Then he shot the messenger who brought the act’s illegality to his attention (“Dallemand acknowledged that her termination was based in part on her reporting about the desk.” -- CORYEA v. ROCHESTER INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT #535). That whistleblower case is working its way through the courts and ultimately the taxpayers will pay the price for the board’s inability to nip this in the bud.

The real tragedy, however, is this: “Dallemand allegedly had instructed employees to delay hiring a wellness coordinator from a pool of qualified nonminority candidates in order to find and hire a minority candidate.” This egregious, albeit alleged, act of discrimination was thrown out because the claim was apparently filed too late. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

If it’s true -- and we ought to find out – then it’s unfortunate Dallemand preferred to hire someone based on the color of their skin. It was wrong when the board did it in 2007 and it's wrong now.

Read more here: http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=inmnco20100907225

It’s levy time again

It’s levy time again friends and you can catch a sneak-peek at the district’s new billboard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk2XVt_Acv0

But seriously, a lot of this sounds like what I hear children say at Toys R Us, "if you really love me, you'll spend money on me." Most of the studies show that more money does not translate to better graduation rates; especially that poor school performance generally parallels an unstable home. That can't be fixed with levy dollars. But, the district administrators may be right about one thing. It is fair that all of our kids get the same financial support. So one would have to concede that giving the highest levy districts a cut to match the lowest is just as equitable as giving the lowest levy districts a boost to match the highest; And, because kids are our future and this is all an "investment" in them, charter and private schools deserve equal funding, as well.

Oh, and hold-off on your, "you are obviously a racists, gadfly" retort. Consider this nugget from the Department of Education (ed.gov),

"More money is spent in districts with the highest percentages of minority students compared to districts with the lowest percentages of minority students. Although minority students in poverty are often viewed as those least served by current systems of public education funding, these findings suggest that while inequalities may remain for students in poverty, they do not appear to be driven by minority status."

Do you really want to help our kids? We need to bring more male teachers into the classroom. Right now, only 10% of grade school teachers are men. In fact, because the absence of a male role model is so often cited as a problem for at-risk children today, this disparity seems like a greater priority and one, when addressed, more likely to make a long-term difference in the student's life and tighten the opportunity gap.

Know your memorials

A little pet peeve of mine is that none of the Rochester “Know your new neighbors” or “Know your new neighborhood” orientations include a tour of the Soldier’s Field Memorial. The first time I saw this magnificent tribute was in the evening. Lit-up, it rivals anything I have seen. Indeed, it is a humbling space and standing in the circle’s center, one can’t help but feel unworthy of the sacrifices made by our military.

So, it is with that aforementioned awe that I report an unfortunate exchange with a Post-Bulletin blogger. (http://postbulletin.typepad.com/honk/2009/11/never-not-ever.html) There was reprinted a poem from the memorial. A very poignant one. And in agreement with its sentiment, I said:

“I am humbled and unworthy. We are so much more grateful for those who put their lives on the line than for those who put their trite words and rants in letters to the editors.”

… which the blog owner chided as a “pitiful and tasteless” comment. Quite honestly, I was thrown aback. Huh? So I read, and re-read my words. I still didn’t get the objection. Doesn’t everyone appreciate the sacrifices our soldiers have made? Did the blogger think I was referring to the poem? Who knows? So I clarified:

“Only a misunderstanding of what I was trying to say could be construed as ‘pitiful and tasteless.’ My point was that Belau's words remind *us* that what we do here in these spaces, our little rants and partisan squabbles, are insignificant compared to the efforts and sacrifices put forth by our troops.”

Maybe that’s the end of it as far as the blogger's concerned. I don’t know. But it’s not the end of it for me. I stand by that sentiment unapologetically and with infinite humbleness and appreciation.

Boo-Hoo! Swimmers can't afford expensive swim suits.

The Post-Bulletin came-out today in support of a ban on high-tech swimsuits. I don’t agree with that, but maybe there is some common ground. Ban the high-tech Speedo!

But seriously. The PB (and others) are complaining that these high-tech swimsuits give the wearer an unfair advantage against which economically-disadvantaged swimmers can’t compete.

Boo-hoo.

Private coaches offer an advantage. So do two-parent households where one is free to shuttle kids to practice. That’s life.

Hendrix couldn’t afford a proper left-handed guitar, he managed. My brother couldn't afford goalie equipment, he found something else he enjoyed: science. As a cross-country runner who couldn’t afford proper spikes, I couldn’t compete with those who did, but you know what? I completed against myself. If I bettered my previous time, then I won. Either way, life went on.

The playing field will never be level. Deal with it! But first deal with much larger issues like the fact that 20% of the world’s population doesn’t have potable water. Or, more than 40% of our urban high-schoolers are failing the classes they need to survive in our society.

Fix those inequities, *then* maybe we’ll find time to listen to the whines about proper swim attire.

If Healthcare is a right, why should we have to pay for it?

We don't pay a poll tax to exercise our right to vote and we don't pay for a license to exercise our right to free speech. So, if healthcare is a right, why should we have to pay anything at all for it? Shouldn't liposuction and hiatal hernia surgery be as cost-free as that “right” Minnesota guarantees in Doe v. Gomez?

Well, the answer is this: as it turns-out, we might *not* have to pay anything ... anything more than we do already. Here’s why. Most states already bridge insurance coverage to make it accessible and more affordable. In Minnesota, for example, this year’s budget for the “Health Care Access Fund” is $1.103 billion. With the federal government owning this responsibility, the state will need to collect less taxes, Significantly less. More than a billion less here in Minnesota.

Has anyone calculated this savings to state taxpayers? Probably not because most state legislators see this as a general fund windfall which they’re free to spend elsewhere. Let’s not let them.

No conversation on national healthcare should exclude a discussion on the state money that no longer needs to be collected for that same purpose.

Bush was better at "Creating or Saving" jobs

If President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders insist on their disingenuous “created or saved” jobs nomenclature, isn’t it only a matter of time until someone points out the obvious: more people were working under the previous administration, 3.7 million to be exact, then thus-far under the current. Wouldn't that mean President Bush was better at “Creating or Saving” jobs than President Obama?

Figures lie and liars figure.
Update. I was ranting about the Obama administration taking credit for jobs saved when all the while I should have carped about their misrepresenting the number of jobs created. Yesterday (10/29) the AP reported that the number of jobs “created” by the stimulus was overstated by as much as tenfold. “... the AP found ... jobs credited to the stimulus program that were counted two and sometimes more than four times...” They found more dubious things, as well, for example “the Child Care Association of Brevard County in Cocoa, Fla., reported that the $98,669 ... received in stimulus money saved 129 jobs ... though the cash was used to give ... 129 employees a ... raise.” And, “Officials at East Central Technical College in Douglas, Ga., said they now know they shouldn't have claimed 280 stimulus jobs linked to more than $200,000 to buy trucks and trailers for commercial driving instruction, and a modular classroom and bathroom for a health education program.”

Open mic night

Jesse Jackson said he wanted to cut President Obama’s you-know-whats off. President Obama called Kanye West a “jackass.” Courageously anonymous Democrat Senators and House Representatives booed President Bush during his State of the Union address. Former President Carter called Republican Joe Wilson a racist. Wilson said Obama lied. Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called the CIA liars.

Though they’ve all set bad examples, only one was *made* an example of: the Republican.

If there is a clearer example of Democratic partisanship, I haven’t seen it, but then again, I could be lying.

Welcome Guardian Angels, we’re thankful for community activism that goes beyond the collecting of signatures

Yesterday, we celebrated the inauguration of the local chapter of the Guardian Angels. Locally, there have been many detractors to this community patrol initiative -- one, for example, BLOGed from the safety of his ivory tower that a basketball court would do more to reduce crime in the area (talk about the subtle racism of low expectations).

The fact is, there are higher amounts of crime in parts of the SE and NW. The police know it. Apartment managers know it. Mike LaPlante’s neighborhood association knows it and so do the residents of these pockets of problems. If you’re not convinced, sign up for a police ride-along and stop pretending every block is as safe as yours.

We’re thankful for community activism that goes beyond the collecting of signatures.

Welcome Guardian Angels. God speed.

Some day we’ll also honor the first Pole at the pole: Stashu Praski

It seems like every progressive-thinking town has a Martin Luther King Boulevard. Rochester has chosen to make its obligatory token gesture in the form of Gibbs Elementary. George Gibbs, some of you may know, accompanied Admiral Byrd on one of Byrd’s later Antarctic expeditions becoming the first African-American to reach the South Pole.

The naming of the school, though, was not without controversy and one has to wonder how honored Gibbs would feel if he knew that white guilt and not community input was the deciding factor in the name choice.

Worse, the school’s name is merely a gesture that slights the bigger issue, as do the MLK Blvds across the nation. If we really wanted to honor Gibbs’ commitment and accomplishments, wouldn’t we want the person leading the school, i.e., its principal, to be a person of color? And wouldn’t we want more than just 10% of the teachers to be men, especially when the presence of a positive male role model in children’s lives keeps them from being “at risk?”

That would honor Gibbs’ legacy. That would be progressive.

Dallemand's protectors

Rochester school Superintendent Romain Dallemand, whose contract is currently up for renewal, has some powerful friends. Stories about him in the Post-Bulletin, for instance, routinely have their comments section disabled. Others use the Obama defense, “if you have anything against Dallemand,” they opine, “you are a racist.” One told critics to “take off their hoods.” Such drama is hardly helpful for the students.

Here’s the hard truth. Dallemand must go (and so should his unapologetic enablers). He’s surrounded himself with expensive (and controversial) cronies and squandered not just $5000 on a desk, but a great deal of his political capital, as well. When the next levy request comes down, taxpayers will remember how the last bag of loot intended “for the kids” was spent.

“Give him props,” the Post-Bulletin’s editor said on his BLOG, for answering critics’ salvo by “waiving” an $8,200 raise. In fact, this clever maneuver was not as much a measured response as it was a nose-thumbing. Dallemand only *symbolically* waived the raise. He was never actually offered one. His magnanimous gesture merely staved-off the (potentially scathing) performance review that was scheduled. Now it’s time for the board to make a clever maneuver of their own.

What does Dallemand know about closing the so-called “opportunity gap” that no one else seems to know? Probably nothing. But let’s find out by looking at other candidates. Candidates that are less divisive.

Oh! Stop breakin’ Walz!

8/13 update: Under pressure from critics of his healthcare reform plan, Democratic House Representative Tim Walz finally agreed to host a townhall meeting to hear from his constituents. Unfortunately, he’s holding it not in the district’s largest city (Rochester) but in Mankato, presumably so he and his handlers can blame GOP “mobs” “bussed-in” from Rochester for any opposition or outrage.

Give our Democratic House Representative Tim Walz a break. Of course, he doesn’t want to face opposing views from the golden age “mobs” on his health care plan. If you were a Democrat, would you? After all, the Left’s idea of “free speech” and “constructive public discourse” is the “RNC Welcoming Committee” so you can understand that they see as intimidating weapons of mass destruction: loose dentures (one sneeze and they’re deadly projectiles) and tennis ball-equipped walkers (very painful to the shins).

Fine to be irrationally afraid, Rep. Walz, but understand that what your octogenarian domestic terrorist constituents are hearing is, “shut up and go back to watching ‘Matlock,’ we know what we’re doing. And never you mind that pain-in-the-ass constitutional prerogative to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, either. This is too important for discussion and certainly too important for dissention.”

Indeed. And a settled matter, to boot!

Democrats already have the pre$cription for what ail$ you and have been over-prescribing it for years. Now bend over and drop your drawers.

The DNC mobs are calling the kettle black and all I can say is, “Don’t taz me, bro!”

“Free speech for me but not for thee.”

The latest whines coming from the left suggest that Democrats don’t find imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery – recent conservative “dissidence,” for instance, apparently knotting their shorts.

Perhaps all that medical marijuana has “cured” the left’s ability to remember last year’s RNC convention here in Minnesota. Recall how the radical Democrats, who were plotting a lot worse than the Republicans' shout-downs, found hoards of civil liberties groups to support their disruptive, violent, and in one case, anarchist plans.

Now that a few conservatives have learned the finer points of “organization” and “free speech” we're suddenly “a mob?”

Well, if that's the case, then all I can say is, “Don’t taz me, bro!”

Then they came for my potato chips

“First they came for the motorcyclers riding helmetless,

but I said nothing because I didn't ride.

Then they came for the smokers who smoked in public,

but I didn't say anything because I didn't smoke.

Then they came for my Ruffles.”

If health care is a right, then with it comes responsibility -- responsibility to not burden our communal health care resources. That means banning bungee-jumping, sunbathing, a sedentary lifestyle and other dangerous activities, as well as mandating exercise and a healthy diet.

What is it they say, “be careful what you wish for.”

The Minnesota DFL and Iran’s Guardian Council: “There was no fraud”

One has to wonder if the United States, Minnesota especially, has the moral authority to question the validity of Iran’s recent election.

Al Franken ballots turned-up in the trunk of one official’s car; a few DFL-leaning precincts reported more votes than there were voters; and, in one case, a Franken-favoring election night result was used over the Coleman-favoring recount total.

Franken supporters say the accusations are unfounded allegations. Ahmadinejad’s supporters are saying the same thing.

$65 Billion? Bernie “made-off” with much less

It is the nature of a Ponzi scheme that some people profit. Their testimonials, after all, are what attract the necessary new investors to perpetuate the scheme. Though his earliest investors lost their principal, they accrued significantly higher than legitimate returns for some time. That is to say, Madoff did not pocket every dollar entrusted to him. Many of his investors took home vast amounts, too, and it ought not be callous to say that those who lost their principal might have fared better had they invested in reasonable, lower-interest insured investments rather than chasing a higher yield.

Gordon Gekko said, “Greed is good.” P. T. Barnum said something, too, something about one being born every minute.

Professors behaving badly

The facts are not in dispute. A neighbor observed two men forcing their way into a home. The police arrived and ordered one of the suspects -- the one who claimed to be homeowner and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. -- to show i.d. Gates (initially) refused and grew belligerent. The situation quickly escalated and resulted in his arrest during which Gates ranted something like “you don’t know who you’re messing with.” But it was, in fact, Gates who didn’t know who he was messing with. Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer, is one of the most highly regarded men in the field of racial profiling and if anyone was likely to tread carefully, it was this officer.

Gates, and others with little sense of what the police deal with every day on our behalf, said the police overreacted. President Obama, admitting he did not know all of the facts, nonetheless chimed-in saying the police acted “stupidly” and insinuated they were racist.

In short, Gates created a situation that less highlighted the plight of African Americans than it did shine a spotlight on the quagmire police wade through every day.

Obama has already backed-off his initial comments and Gates will likely soften his criticism, perhaps blaming his incendiary comments and actions on jet lag. (He’s already admitted the neighbor did the right thing in calling the police.) But he’ll need to do more. Police are not doormats; a professor who commands respect ought not to have a problem giving it. “Your mama,” is not just an inappropriate response in a contentious situation, it is a devolution into precisely the stereotype he is employed to instruct that African Americans are above. Gates’ actions are a setback for the civil rights cause.

I think the GOP has it right: all it takes to be patriotic is a little lapel pin

2008 09 18:

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do ...

I think the GOP has it right: all it takes to be patriotic is a little lapel pin. :-)

When you vilify "big oil" you vilify Mrs. Farkel, my old arithmetic teach

Every time I hear people vilify the evil oil companies, I think of Mrs. Farkel, my old 5th-grade arithmetic teacher. She's retired now, living on a pension from the Minnesota Teacher's Union, and do you know what the pension fund's single largest holding is? It's Exxon Mobil. The plumber's pension fund owns it too. Many labor organizations and other institutional investors have stakes in the oil companies. Heck, I bet even Val Molin, the retired 4th grade teacher that Al Franken trots out in his campaign commercial, is a beneficiary of oil company profits.

So here's the deal. Stop complaining about oil company profits or you'll have to stand in the corner.

Can you still buy a dunce cap?

More here: geocities

Al Franken's not right for Minnesota

1. MN is about 50/50 DFL/GOP. We have one senator from each party now. Let's make sure everyone's represented.


2. If you agree that one's sense of humor is a harbinger of their character flaws (who would want to be associated with someone who tells racist or anti-Semitic jokes), then it's hard to overlook Franken's past writings.

More here: geocities

What good are campaign disclosures

You've heard a lot about the various candidates' supporters. Sometimes they're classified as "special interests" or "corporate lobbyists." Sometimes a campaign will herald its grass roots support, you know, the regular people. Much of this is based on the information the donor provides and/or the organization reports. But how easy is that information to spoof or merely (conveniently?) report incorrectly? For example, in April of 2007, Ann Lynch was a DFL State Senator yet she reported (or the DFL did) that she was a "homemaker." Certainly the DFL knew she was a Senator -- they campaigned vigorously on her behalf!

So then, what is the value of the disclosures if they are inaccurate?

More here: geocities