This one isn’t so much a mistake as just part of the modern world. The media is incurious, generally unethical in its approach to reporting Iraq and far more skeptical of the US military than it is of the insurgents, the militias and even the Iranians. The media hardly ever reports on victories in Iraq because the kinds of things that demonstrate real success just aren’t sexy, and perhaps because at their core they don’t believe in victory. It’s sexy to talk about US troops engaging insurgents on Haifa Street and killing every last one of them, but that’s not a real victory in the terms that govern the Iraq conflict. Street fights and reports about them play into the enemy’s hands, in fact. The media poo-poos events like the re-opening of schools in Iraq because as defined on American terms, re-opening a school doesn’t mean much at all. But in Iraq, the re-opening of a school represents a community in the end state of achieving normalcy. A community that has a functioning school also has a liveable level of security, it has functioning services like power and water and has families that aren’t so worried about local violence that they won’t send their children outside their homes. It means there are probably jobs in the area, and it means that those jobs give families a level of economic security where they can think about their children’s future. Re-opening a school in Iraq means civil society itself has returned to that school’s community. It’s a big deal. But the media doesn’t understand that and doesn’t care to, preferring to focus on combat operations and sectarian killings while it farms its daily reporting duties out to very dubious agents and stringers. (Empahsis in original)While a lengthy read, it is fabulous in it is analysis.
2. Want some good, original coverage of Congress. Danny Glover (not the actor) has launched Aircongress.com. I like what I see so far.
3. Freaky weather all around, but here is something funny, if a little tragic. Personally, where I live, I was wearing shorts on Sunday and a heavy coat and gloves today while walking the dog. Go figure.
4. Most people don't know but this year is the 100th Anniversay of the Tilman Act, the first federal law that prohibited corporate contributions to federal candidates. The fellows at the Center for Competitive Politics have a lot to say and lost of links. Brad Smith has more on "Pitchfork" Ben Tilman. Paul Sherman points us to a Washington Post Graphic about corporate contributions. Finally, there is a post with lots of links to CCP work on the area of grassroots communications--a timely topic.
5. I love the idea of charter schools, as any casual reader of this blog can attest. But I also love high school sports as complement to the academic work. But in Indiana and in California, traditional public schools refuse to compete in interscholastic sports with charter schools.
Pacific Collegiate is a member of the seven-school Coastal Athletic League, which includes other small schools such as Georgiana Bruce Kirby and Cypress Charter. But since that league doesn't have swimming and track programs, Pacific Collegiate had to find another league to accept it.
Last year, the school's swimmers and track athletes competed in the SCCAL as a supplemental member, which means that other schools in the league must vote each year to accept it as a member for specific sports.
Last spring, representatives from Harbor, Santa Cruz and Soquel High schools voted to bar Pacific Collegiate, in part because they believe the public charter school has siphoned top students and state funding from traditional public schools.
They expressed concern that the school would use sports as a recruiting tool and argued that students who chose Pacific Collegiate for its academic programs shouldn't expect it to have a full-fledged sports program as well.
Hat Tip: Edspresso.
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