Obama Wants to Lengthen School Time

For the longest time now Barack Obama has been telling lies about American schools and youth. The holy grail of his stories is the extension of the school day and year.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," President Obama said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

School kids in Asian countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan spend less time in school each day than American children, but these Asian students constantly do better on math and science tests than American kids.

Furthermore, the US school system has a serious inequality problem. Schools in poor areas of the US do horribly, but schools in middle and upper class areas of the country do just as well as schools in other countries that supposedly have better teaching methods. This is because schools in the poor areas of the US aren't getting the proper funding, but middle and upper class schools are. Despite all of my disagreements with him, Fareed Zakaria (who hosts a show on CNN), basically said all of this himself on page 192 of his book "The Post-American World" (paperback).

So, as the previous two paragraphs have been trying to say, more time in school isn't going to make children get better scores on tests. It isn't going make kids smarter. Poor school districts need better funding. Wealth needs to be redistributed.

Students need to be given more of a say in the school system. Student governments just share opinions with the school authorities, but they have no power. Students would do much better in school if they felt like they belonged there and had some control, unlike now where they are alienated and treated like dogs.

A good leader, unlike anyone who ran in the recent Presidential Elections, would have gone to the students, parents, and teachers directly to get their opinions (especially the opinions of those in the underfunded areas). Barack Obama, however, didn't do this. He went to a bunch of impersonal statistics that only give a vague idea of the actual situation.

What I'm trying to say here is that the only way to improve any school system is to fund the underprivileged school districts better, give the students a real voice, and try to do what the masses of people directly involved with the actual situation suggest.

Sadly, this isn't going to happen. American liberals will sit there and let Obama exploit their children for the profit of his corporate masters, and the conservatives will complain a lot but fail to make a better plan.

Obama only serves the interests of the companies that profit from longer school days, such as textbook, computer, sports equipment, surveillance, and supply companies. His moderate and right-wing opponents serve the interests of companies that profit from the privatization of public schools and/or cuts in funding to public schools.

The only way to create a near-perfect school system is for the masses of people to break the chains of capitalism by supporting a revolutionary party and a revolution! With all of that being said, one thing is clear; it is right for students to rebel!

A Brief Statement

We live in a world plagued by profound inequality. In this modern phase of society, as in many past phases, the system puts the fruits of everyone's labor into the hands of a few undeserving individuals. This is a world in which many workers, especially people outside of the US, are forced to starve to death if the owners of a company decide those workers aren't good enough to have a job. We live in a society in which access to health-care is decided by the rich, and then deceivers peddling "change" come along and try to trick you into accepting a watered-down, and down-right awful, health-care substitute. Did you know that there have been better health-care plans throughout history than the plans being proposed by the Democratic and Republican clowns? Unfortunately, both parties are too busy trying to make money for themselves and their corporate masters to even consider giving us that kind of health-care, let alone helping the poor find work in an effective manner.

Here are a few quotes to help me make my point:

“…corporations have been enthroned [given high authority] and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864

“It doesn't matter what they are saying now, when they are preparing for the elections (in other words, to secure positions that will make them profits): they are not going to do anything for the good of the majority, nor are they going to listen to anything that isn't money.” - Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos of EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation)

“The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil.” - Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, May 1949

Do you feel the same way? Do you want to do something about it? Me too!
Contact me at: sendithere1917@yahoo.com

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The sources for the opening paragraph are Conditions of the Working Class in England by F. Engels and The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution by Mobo Gao.

Cities Hire Companies to Punish You

Constantly being able to turn 50 cents into $50 is a coveted ability for many in the private sector. It now seems that, with the help of city governments, this has become a frequent reality. Parking meter maids in many cities across the US are cracking down on supposed parking violations. This is because cash-strapped cities across the country are looking for ways to close budget gaps and cut costs. These cities often sell their parking systems and enforcement to the highest bidder, raise ticket prices, and hire more citation officers.

“Virtually every city has hired more ticket agents," said Glen Bolofsky, founder of parkingticket.com.

Governments and private companies, working in cahoots with each other, are profiting from the privatization of parking rule enforcement and raising ticket prices. This is made obvious by the marketing materials of private parking and ticket collection services.

"For nearly 30 years, we've been helping cities and towns make money," says Municipal Management Association Inc., which helps cities collect parking fines. The company’s slogan is, "Municipal Management Associates … Turning Parking Tickets Into Cash."

New York City has hired over 200 new collection agents this year, even though most city agencies are being cut. This year, Chicago leased its entire parking system to a private company lead (or at least closely working with) by Morgan Stanley. Chicago received a payment of $1 billion dollars from a Morgan Stanley investment group for doing this. Atlanta has sold off its parking operation to a private firm called Duncan Solutions Inc. Atlanta was collecting $2 million in fines each year, but now Duncan has promised to pay the city $5.5 million each year. The only way this can be done is by, you guessed it, the company writing more tickets and unfairly punishing more people.

"It’s an outrage when cities depend on parking summons for revenue. When they do, they are opening the doors for very serious abuses," said a New York-based citizens' advocate called “Jimmy Justice.” "When someone gets a bogus ticket, everybody knows this is just part of a giant racket. It's sanctioned mugging."

“The way traffic agents are enforcing the law is absolutely out of control," said NYC Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. Vallone said that parking ticket complaints outnumber all other complaints to his office.

You see, even if you “vote with your dollars,” you can’t vote away every injustice (since it’s the city, not individuals, that hire these companies). This petty problem, which is major to many, can only be swept away by destroying capitalism and all the conditions that lead to it.

Domestic Abuse in Nepal

Al-Jazeera has recently reported that high levels of domestic violence in Nepal have prompted the Nepali Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, to speak out and demand an end to violence against women.

A third of Nepali women have suffered violence in their own homes, Al-Jazeera reports, and many more women suffer psychological abuse. According to the Superintendent of Police, Navaraj Subedi, most cases of domestic abuse go unreported in Nepal. Even if women do complain to the police, justice is often not done.

"The challenge which we have been facing at the moment is the law is not clear whether it can create criminal action or civil action," Sapana Pradhan, a Nepali Parliament member and lawyer, said. She went on by saying that if a case is resisted, the police have no authority to arrest an abuser unless he violates a court order.

"For most women...justice is a battle. Even if she comes out and talks about it, nobody helps, neither the police nor the government system," said Anju Acharya, a woman who has felt the sting of domestic abuse in Nepal and is fighting for justice.

Sadly, Nepal isn't the only place in the world in which women must suffer. Women in India, a predominantly Hindu country like Nepal, aren't much better off than women who lived under the iron fist of the sexist Taliban. If you think the Western world, also called the first world, is much nicer to women then you need to do some research! Women are oppressed all over the world.

The only solution to this problem is for women to unite with all of the other oppressed people of this planet. Through this unity they can struggle and push forward to bring about change and equality for everyone, especially women. In the case of Nepal, the only group capable of doing this is the Maoists.

Under Mao Zedong, Chinese women were liberated from the abuse and sex-slavery of the feudal order. They were incorporated into the mainstream of society, educated, and made equal to men in all ways. As a matter of fact, it was the communists of China who ended the sexist practice of foot-binding and concubines. Had the Chinese Revolution not been betrayed by Deng Xiaoping and his capitalist roaders, women in China, and possibly the entire globe, would be treated as equals and free from domestic violence today.

Another world is possible. Women and workers of the world unite! Maoist revolution is the only solution to sexism.

We're All Chicks in a Meat-Grinder

I recently read an article, accompanied by a disturbing video, about how Hy-Line North America's Spencer Hatchery in Iowa disposed of its "worthless" male chicks. What they would do is have the workers sort through the chicks and separate all of the males from the females, and then put the male chicks, while they were still alive, into what looked to be an unforgiving steel grinder. Some people have compared it to a meat-grinder.

Grinding up adorable little chicks, sadly, is quite common in the egg industry. The live, male chicks are thrown into the murder-machine because there is no profitable market for them, and the companies can't afford to keep them around. Because of this widely-practiced and sadistic disposal method, as well as the mercilessness of the bourgeois market, at least 200 million male chicks are tossed into the grinder each year. United Egg Producers, an American trade group for egg farmers, has recently confirmed the 200 million statistic and the grinder method.

"There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens," said UEP spokesman Mitch Head. "If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we're happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need."

"[Using a grinder] is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks," continued Head.

Some chicks survive the grinder, obviously with nasty wounds, and they end up squirming around on the floor in unbelievable pain. They are just left there to die on the floor. Other male chicks that make it to the floor avoid the grinder and accidentally go through a scalding hot wash-cycle that was intended for trays. Grinder or scalding hot water, the unlucky survivors all meet the same fate, which is a hard crash to the dirty, concrete floor where they slowly die in pain.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell people to stop eating chicken. I believe that humans are better off as omnivores (meaning we should eat meat and plants). What I am going to do, however, is express my hatred for a system that treats animals in the same manner that the Nazis treated the Jews in the Concentration Camps. You see, the Nazis would immediately kill all of the Jews that were deemed either too old, too young, or too weak to work. This is what is being done to male chicks. The market has decided that they have no value and must be put to death, much like the Nazis decided about the Jews who couldn't work.

The fact that these chicks are being barbarically slaughtered and thrown in the trash (due to "uselessness") bothers me to no end. We need a society where this doesn't have to happen. This mass genocide, if I may use that term, of chicks would not happen in a Marxist society because Marxism seeks to rapidly expand the number of farms and factories in order to create enough jobs and goods for everybody. More farms obviously means that these male chicks will have a useful role in society that doesn't involve being killed when they are still only about a day old.

"And if there are more workers at hand than the bourgeoisie thinks well to employ -- if at the end of the battle of competition there yet remain workers who find nothing to do, they must simply starve; for the bourgeois will hardly give them work if he cannot sell the produce of their labour at a profit." - Condition of the Working Class in England, by F. Engels, 1845

Average people, much like the innocent male chicks, are sent to their own grinders under the capitalist system as well. Of course, it's a metaphorical grinder for humans. If a person doesn't have the necessary skills and intelligence to make them look good on the market, then they end up hungry, unemployed, and on the street. From there they are slowly "ground up" until they either die because they can't afford enough food or adequate medical treatment, or they give up on life and commit suicide. A Marxist society, again, with its rapid expansion of the means of production, can save these people too.

Workers and animal lovers of the world unite!

California’s Unemployment at 60 Year High, at Depression Levels

If there are any hints that the bottom of the U.S. economic decline is near, don't look for any signs in California where the state's unemployment rate is at the highest level since WWII, and thousands are losing their homes to foreclosures as California's economy continues to spiral in decline.

The news out of Washington is suggesting that the bottom of the economic decline is here, and last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke stated that the "economy is leveling out;" however, the people with the Peace and Freedom Party, based in California, is dismissing the Federal Reserve report as propaganda that will only benefit Wall Street.

The California jobless rate climbed to 11.9 percent for the month of July with the loss of 35,800 jobs. There are two Southern California counties, Riverside and San Bernardino, where unemployment is at depression levels; the unemployment in both counties is hovering at 14 percent. Other counties in Northern California, Fresno, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare, the unemployment rate has topped 15 percent. According to data collect by the California Employment Development Department, there are 2,187,000 Californians that are presently unemployed or more that 1 out of 10 of the state's labor pool. These numbers are an indication that the Golden State has not reached the bottom and is not "leveling out."

There were job losses in every sector, retail, services, manufacturing, construction and finance; and the downturn in the housing industry has hit the construction and finance sectors extremely hard. The decline in construction and finance jobs, due to the collapse of the housing bubble, created the loss of 100s of thousands of jobs throughout California. This has had a trickle down effect creating job losses in retail and service industries.

While campaigning for president, President Barack Obama promised that his administration would create "shovel ready jobs" to put millions back to work; however, in California, the only shovel ready jobs that have been created are low paying jobs and part-time employment for kids out of school. Unfortunately, the president's plan has not helped the millions of Californians that are struggling to pay their bills, trying to keep food on their tables and pay their mortgages.

Shortly after President Obama took office, Congress approved a $787 billion stimulus bill that has produced little results, and less than 14 percent of the funds have been allocated. This is creating public concern that the President Obama and the Democrats in Congress do not have a plan to rescue the U.S. economy. Without a plan to revive the economy and to put the millions that are unemployed back to work, the president and his party have taken on the daunting task of reforming the nation's healthcare system while the majority of Americans are presently concerned about their financial health and having good paying jobs.

As California approaches the 2010 election year, the rhetoric coming from Washington is offering little to confront the stark reality that California is still spiraling in an economic decline, and that decline is mostly due to the poor leadership of both the Democrats and Republicans in California government. Both the Democrats and Republicans, and the leaders representing both parties, have put the interest of the wealthy few before the public's interest, and both parties have done little to protect the interest of working class people.

The Peace and Freedom Party will have a full slate of candidates during the 2010 election year; however, the one disadvantage all third party candidates share in U.S. politics, with so many critical issues confronting California voters and working people, the corporate media will only cover the two big money parties and their candidates, a process that has already begun for 2010.

Originally Posted on The Socialist WebZine (click here)

Georgian Journalist Seeks Asylum in S. Ossetia

Georgian opposition journalist Levan Gudadze and his family have fled Georgia and are seeking political asylum in Tskhinval, the South Ossetian capital.

According to South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Dzhioev, Gudadze fled from Georgia on Thursday. The journalist fled Georgia because he had been receiving threats from Georgian authorities over his criticism of the Saakashvili Administration.

“Levan had three Tbilisi-based news websites, and they were shot down by the authorities one by one. He was called on the phone, sent threatening letters, so we decided to leave the country,” Roza Bichikashvili, Gudadze mother, said.

“Incidents like this have become more frequent lately,” South Ossetian human rights officer David Sanakoev said. “Many Georgian citizens are seeking ways to leave the country because of the tense situation in Georgia and the impossibility of continuing to live there.”

Naturally, the American media will ignore this because Saakashvili is a NATO puppet.

NATO Attack Leaves Around 100 Dead

Province of Kunduz, Afghanistan - The Taliban stole two fuel tankers today. NATO forces responded by launching an air strike on the fuel tankers, causing between 70 and 130 deaths, but not all of the dead were Taliban soldiers.

NATO has reported that "a large number of insurgents were killed," but the German Army gave an individual report saying that only 56 Taliban militants were killed.

After seizing the two tankers, the Taliban tried to drive them across a river, but they became stuck. The Taliban intimidated the locals into helping them free the tankers from the river, but the combined efforts weren't enough to get the tankers out. So the Taliban just decided to abandon the tankers and give the fuel to the civilians. Because the Taliban had forced people to help, civilians were injured when NATO forces arrived on the scene to carry out a careless attack. It's worth pointing out that NATO aircraft arrived on the scene when the fuel was being given out to the locals, not before. It really makes one wonder if this was done, either mainly or partly, to prevent people from getting free fuel.

"The Taliban were violent towards us, and so were the government," a civilian witness said about the incident.

Why would NATO bomb the fuel tankers? You'd think they would try to capture the tankers and either return them to the owner or keep them. Furthermore, I highly doubt the Taliban needs around 100 people just to carry out a grand-theft-tanker. Did it ever occur to the pilots that there were civilians down there? Or did they decide that people receiving free fuel should die? Exactly who planned this mission, the NATO short bus? You certainly can't create a stable, pro-Western puppet-government this way.

Nepali Maoists Take Steps To Form a New Government

The UCPN (Maoist) has formed 18 departments that resemble the government ministries.

A meeting of the party’s Joint National People’s Movement Committee on Sunday formed the departments. Many of the departments are coordinated by party leaders who were ministers in related ministries in the government when Prachanda was the Nepali Prime Minister.

Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who was the finance minister in the previous government, is the coordinator of the Planning and Finance Department.

Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, the former health minister, coordinates the health department. Former tourism minister Hisila Yami coordinates the tourism, physical infrastructure, and science departments.

Along with the central departments, the Maoists have also decided to form local bodies.

Maoist leaders say the departments and the local bodies will not function as a parallel government yet, but can be converted to one if such a situation comes.

“It will not be parallel as of now, but the people can form their own local bodies if need be,” said Lokendra Bista, coordinator of the newly formed agriculture and cooperatives department.

NPA Attacks Philippine Military

Maoist rebels from the 1st Pulang Bagani Company of the NPA (New People's Army) ambushed and attacked members of the 10th ID-AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) on August 30, 2009. The attack took place at 1:30 p.m. in Barangay Dalagdag, Calinan District, Davao City.

The havoc wreaked by the NPA in this battle left four ID-AFP soldiers dead and six more wounded. The NPA confiscated the capitalists' weapons at the end of the battle. A minimi machine gun with a scope was among the weapons taken by the NPA.

Despite increasing the number of its soldiers, the 10th ID-AFP has suffered heavy blows from the NPA. This shows the failure of the counter-revolutionary Oplan Bantay Laya II. The Philippine government and its armed forces have continuously failed to stop the growing revolutionary tide in the Philippines. It has failed to stop the NPA's tactical offensives in the Philippines.

"This recent NPA military offensive against the newly augmented 69th IB and the 10th ID-AFP fascists is a punitive action for the serious violations to human rights and international humanitarian law perpetrated by the AFP against civilians in Davao hinterlands and provinces in Southern Mindanao," a statement from the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines said.