Arizona: California

by David Safier

I thought I would never have to blog about this one charter school principal again. But a news story from KPHO Phoenix let me know the principal, who should never have been allowed to be around students after what she did in 2005, is back in the news doing more damage at another school. Worse, the same thing could happen all over again with the same principal because of what I have to call outrageous negligence on the part of the Arizona Charter School Board.

Here's a summary of the the original story, which I posted about at length in December, 2008.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

First, the American Medical Association (AMA), long the obstacle to health care reform for more than five decades, announced its support for the House Democrats health care reform bill. Now comes these equally eye opening new positions.

On Monday, the American Medical Association (AMA), in partnership with Servicemembers United, the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans and their allies, passed a resolution calling for full repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law. With overwhelming support from its membership and virtually no opposition, even from the uniformed services representatives in attendance, the call for full repeal became official AMA policy upon passage of the resolution.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

McClatchy News continues its investigative report on Goldman Sachs with part 3 of the series Goldman left foreign investors holding the subprime bag:

Inside the thick Goldman Sachs investment circular were the details of a secret, $2 billion deal channeled through a Caribbean tax haven.

The Sept. 26, 2006, document offered sophisticated U.S. and European investors an opportunity to buy into a pool of supposedly high-grade bonds backed by residential, commercial and student loans. The transaction was registered through a shell company in the Cayman Islands.

Few of the potential investors knew it, but the ratings of many of the mortgage securities hid their true risks and, in some cases, Goldman's descriptions exaggerated their quality.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

New York Times columnist Frank Rich has more on the GOP civil war in the NY-23 special election for Congress. There will be no "winner" in this race. The big loser, however, is the Republican Party. The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York:

[P]reposterous as it sounds, the real action migrated to New York’s 23rd, a rural Congressional district abutting Canada. That this pastoral setting could become a G.O.P. killing field, attracting an all-star cast of combatants led by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, William Kristol and Newt Gingrich, is a premise out of a Depression-era screwball comedy. But such farces have become the norm for the conservative movement — whether the participants are dressing up in full “tea party” drag or not.