Is Admiral Brewer Another Big Empty Suit?

LA Weekly has written another great expose – this one about Admiral David Brewer’s inability to fix LAUSD. The crux of the article says it all:

... Brewer arrived at the meeting "eager to take on the challenge" of improving L.A. Unified and "very interested in the nature of the work." But Crew also noticed that he was "very much overwhelmed, in some ways, by the things going on around him." A newbie coping with the remnants of an unsuccessful mayoral takeover, Brewer was falling behind in important ways: He had failed to fill key positions on his senior management team, and to fully develop a coherent academic vision for a district with 878 schools and 694,288 students…

And after successful reformers told him how they turned things around in their districts, Brewer:

...went off in a completely different direction that left the übersupes uneasy: Working with politicians in Sacramento and Los Angeles, he told them, was his major focus.

As I feared, it looks like Brewer is LA’s newest Willie Williams –

The gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train ain’t comin’.

Five Worst CEOs of 2007

Tom Borelli, PhD names the five worst CEOs of 2007. The common thread – global warming hysteria and moonbats…

Straight No Chasers

Having sung in choruses, choirs, madrigals, and barbershop quartet since childhood, I’ve always been a huge fan of a capella groups like Chanticleer.

Straight No Chasers doesn’t have the name recognition it deserves, but they make up for it with their technical expertise and the fun they have performing it. I hope you enjoy this culturally ADD performance of the Twelve Days of Christmas as much as I did. A nice surprise!

Judicial Watch's Top Ten List

Although presidential candidates Huckabee and Giuliani are also named, Hillary Clinton tops Judicial Watch’s ten most corrupt politicians of 2007.

Another Chink in Global Warming Mythology

Either 400 of the planet’s prominent scientists and Nobel Prize laureates have been cloned by the flat-earth borgs, or the Global Warming mythology has suffered another chink:

France: Climatologist Dr. Marcel Leroux, former professor at Université Jean Moulin and director of the Laboratory of Climatology, Risks, and Environment in Lyon, is a climate skeptic. Leroux wrote a 2005 book titled Global Warming - Myth or Reality? - The Erring Ways of Climatology:

"Day after day, the same mantra - that ‘the Earth is warming up' - is churned out in all its forms. As ‘the ice melts' and ‘sea level rises,' the Apocalypse looms ever nearer! Without realizing it, or perhaps without wishing to, the average citizen in bamboozled, lobotomized, lulled into mindless ac­ceptance. ... Non-believers in the greenhouse scenario are in the position of those long ago who doubted the existence of God ... fortunately for them, the Inquisition is no longer with us!"

Full Report

You Can't Make Patriotic Movies in Hollywood

William Holden and Judy Holliday

I just watched Born Yesterday on Turner Movie Classics this evening. The movie IS one of the finest movies ever made. What made it a real classic this evening were Carrie Fisher’s comments to Robert Osborne during the introduction:

I always love the way they do in films… when they get somebody and want them to look smart they put glasses on them… so William Holden wears glasses and he plays a journalist who interviews Broderick Crawford and then, “You’re a smart guy…” and he hires (Holden) to be (Judy Holliday's) tutor and really also to train her just about politics and Washington and you could not make this film today… it’s so pro-American and it is the ideals of America and what our country was founded on and it celebrates all of that and, you know, it just would never – you just couldn’t do it.

Why not, Carrie? Why can't Hollywood’s non-stop freak show make a movie that celebrates the only country on the planet that gives bi-polar coke-addicted has-beens a second chance? And why couldn’t Robert Osborne defend the country where a kid from Colfax, Washington would find success watching movies and talking about them?

The movie was great because the actors, producers, and directors were proud to be American and proud to celebrate this great country. Those patriots would have burned the studios had they known what would infest this town 50 years later.

Then I read that Vanessa Redgrave posted bail for accused al Qaeda terrorist Jamil el-Banna, and understood why.

Emma 'Billie' Dawn turned out to be smarter than Hollywood is today.

Finally, an LA Jury gets it right

In a town where jurors will give the benefit of the doubt to people like OJ, Phil Spector, Robert Blake, Cardinal Mahoney and Warren Christopher, I was surprised to read that an LA jury cleared the LAPD of being mean to Mitch Grobeson.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Grobeson, who calls himself Sergeant Mitch, was so preoccupied with his homosexuality that he negated his responsibility as a police officer to promote his personal activist gay agenda. Several gay LAPD officers told me how sick they were about his latest lawsuit against the LAPD, and how he had hurt the reputation and mainstreaming of gay officers.

During his failed career, Grobeson’s gay peers have performed their duties with steadfastness and quiet heroism. Some have been promoted to command positions. They got there not because they were gay, but because they were good cops. Conversely, Grobeson thought he deserved his badge and promotions because he was gay. In the end, even the jury disbelieved him by a wide margin.

Grobeson says he’ll appeal, but overturning a jury verdict is almost impossible. And unless he starts filing age-discrimination lawsuits against future employers, it’s not likely that he’ll darken LA’s doorstep any longer. No longer the gay blade, we can only hope that Mitch will devolve into the bitchy old queen he always was.

Hospitals Profit by Injuring Patients

This week, the Associated Press reported that Americans are not being informed when they’re being treated by drug-addled physicians:

Despite some unsettling cases, these arrangements have largely escaped public scrutiny until this summer, when California's medical board outraged physicians across the country by abolishing its 27-year-old program allowing doctors to get help without telling their patients.

A review concluded that the state-run program failed to protect patients - or help addicted doctors get better. But the medical community fiercely defends confidential treatment, saying it keeps patients safer.

Although Congress passed the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) and National Practitioners Data Bank (NPDB) to provide for reporting and disclosure, both fail because they rely on corporate hospital executives to report errors and complications that executives profit from. Drug-addicted physicians are a tiny symptom of a much greater problem.

When airplanes crash, the FAA investigates. If necessary, the FAA grounds airplanes and airlines until the causes are identified and fixed. When restaurants kill or injure consumers, the Health Department investigates. If necessary, they close down the restaurant.

So why should we expect hospital executives will report employees who generate huge profits from unnecessary errors and complications?

In 2005, Harvard University’s Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Dr. Lucien L. Leape, MD wrote:

In most industries, defects cost money and generate warrantee claims. In health care, perversely… physicians and hospitals can bill for the additional services that are needed when patients are injured by their mistakes. (JAMA, 18 May 05)

America's healthcare facilities spend billions each year because federal law requires them to treat uninsured, indigent, and illegal alien patients. To compensate for those losses, providers routinely subject patients to unnecessary procedures and inflated prices. Unnecessary errors and complications generate even more revenue for cash-strapped facilities. And when insurers raise their rates, employees and employers are forced to pay more, or drop out. Neither socialized schemes nor free-market forces will fix this problem. Costs will not drop until America takes out the profit for errors and complications.

For example, two physicians in one facility generated $40 million in annual revenues from patients they subjected to unnecessary cardiac procedures. In another hospital, executives never informed physicians that their sterilization equipment was contaminating instruments that injured patients.

HCQIA fails because it relies on:

• Corporate hospital executives who profit financially from unnecessary procedures, errors and complications, and;
• The physicians who are responsible for such misconduct.

Failures to fulfill the HCQIA’s intent by corporate hospital executives were reported by 60 Minutes, The Street, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the AMA Voice.

Examples of failures to fulfill the HCQIA’s intent by physicians are found in Medical Economics, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Time, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

HCQIA’s flaws stem from the fundamental conflict of interest between the bill’s co-authors, corporate hospital attorneys Horty & Springer, and the patients they ostensibly protect. Predictably, Horty & Springer rendered HCQIA unenforceable by inserting the following subsection:

42 U.S.C. §11112(b) (3):

A professional review body's failure to meet the conditions described in this subsection shall not, in itself, constitute failure to meet the standards of subsection (a) (3) of this section. (bold added)

Although small businesses and entrepreneurs have been the driving force behind the growth of the US economy, the US healthcare system has regressed into one that does not permit competition.

In testimony before the Small Business Administration in 2007, Gil N. Mileikowsky, MD reported that prominent hospital law firms consider staff physicians who compete with hospitals, “problem physicians.”

Horty & Springer's hostility toward independent private physicians is demonstrated throughout their seminars, courses, and audiotapes for healthcare executives.

Corporate hospital attorneys have also developed a methodology and vernacular for controlling physicians, patients, and other advocates who report incidents to outside agencies or agree to testify on behalf of patients-victims of medical negligence.

Their preferred strategy is to discredit the individual as disruptive, crazy, impaired, incompetent, imminent danger, etc.

Horty & Springer also teaches healthcare executives:

• How to protect themselves from whistleblowers
• How to avoid reporting a physician to the NPDB
• How to regain control of the hearing process

To understand the scope of HCQIA’s failure to protect patients, consider these studies:

• After reviewing 37 million Medicare patients' medical records (e.g. patients over 65 years old), HealthGrades reported that medical errors in hospitals kill 200,000 patients each year.*
• Harvard economist Kip Viscusi estimates that the value of one human life is somewhere between $4 million and $9 million. Multiplied by HealthGrade’s 200,000 annual patient deaths, the loss to the US economy can be estimated at somewhere between $800 billion and $1.8 trillion, annually.
• Based on 152 published peer review articles, the Nutrition Institute of America concluded that medical mistakes kill 784,000 people annually.*
  

* They did not report what happened to millions of patients under 65.

In 2006, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) unanimously passed resolutions to correct the HCQIA, and the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) recently published Dr. Mileikowsky’s legal analysis (2) in which he insists that changes must go beyond the HCQIA.

Based upon Dr. Mileikowsky’s analysis and over 100 other reports and anecdotal data, it’s clear that neither market forces nor socialized healthcare schemes will repair the HCQIA’s systemic failures. The quality of care will not improve until errors and complications become unprofitable for healthcare executives and their shareholders.

Last month, the Alliance for Patient Safety issued this letter to US Senator Tom Coburn, MD. Although many issues compete for legislative attention, I can’t think of a more compelling reason than 750,000 unnecessary annual fatalities.

***

If you agree, contact Senator Coburn HERE or call his office at 202-224-5754.

Merry Christmas!

One year ago, my wife was lying in intensive care, dying from a post-operative spinal infection. They were the darkest days of our life together.

After many months, she has recovered fully and we’ve returned to our busy days of retirement. How we found the time for careers is beyond me.

After my father died last May, I took a break to wrap up the loose ends of my father’s life, to visit marines I served with years ago, and to give my daughter, Vanessa, away in marriage. My mom missed the wedding, resting her failing knees for surgery that will soon come.

We’ll celebrate Christmas with our daughter in Prague next week. For the first time in 20 years, our son will be away for Christmas – deployed on the amphibious assault ship, USS Essex.

After Christmas, Carol and Vanessa will do what girls do in Milan, while I visit the town of Battle-Sussex, where my great-great grandfather fled from poverty for Philadelphia in 1832.

Four years later, he started what became one of Ohio’s first pioneer families.

Carol and I will greet the New Year in Amsterdam for three days of food, wine, and friends before returning home.

Anyone who thinks opportunity does not exist in America is either ignorant or lying. As children, Carol and I had no idea that we could ever enjoy the incredible bounty of life, freedom, health, or happiness that we enjoy today. Out of the six billion world inhabitants, we count ourselves as part of the tiny minority that lives in the greatest country on the planet. We are very blessed.

To my readers, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukah, and a happy and prosperous New Year to all!

God Bless!

Humorist Evan Sayet on Liberals

Writer, author, humorist and dear friend Evan Sayet addresses America at Restoration Weekend.

- WARNING -

This video contains no sex, violence, or car chases (but it's really funny).

Click for Part II

Newt Gingrich is Deeply Worried

Great speech!

Random Thoughts for December

Hillary Clinton's main claim to the Democratic nomination is that she is invincible. But that claim cannot survive the first primary in which she gets vinced.

All of Thomas Sowell’s Random Thoughts this week are spot on.

Thought Police Attack School Children

Rebecca Segall-Wallace describes the frustration, mediocrity, and heartache of competition without winners or losers in this troubling WSJ commentary:

Monday: After a long day at his New York City private school, Ben, 16, heads to my creative writing lab to work on his heartfelt memoir about his parents' bitter divorce. Tuesday: Alison, 15, rushes from her elite private school in the Bronx to work on her short screenplay about a gifted, mean and eccentric boy. Lily, 13, pops in whenever she can to polish her hilarious short story narrated by an insomniac owl.

Ben, Alison and Lily, along with another few dozen who attend my afterschool writing program, also attend top-notch New York private schools that cost upwards of $25,000 a year. So why, one might wonder, do these kids need an extracurricular creative writing coach? The answer is simple, though twisted: Their schools -- while touting well-known athletic teams -- are offshoots of the "progressive education" movement and uphold a categorical belief that "thought competition" is treacherous…

For decades now, psychology and pedagogy researchers have been debating the impact of competition on young people's self-esteem, with those wary of thought competition taking the lead. Most New York parents of public or private school students have felt the awkward reverberations of this trend -- which avoids naming winners -- when Johnny takes home a certificate for "participation" in the school's science fair. (Do you hang that one up on the wall?)

But some, and ironically those who attend some of the most desirable schools in the region, feel the reverberations in deeper, more painful ways. "Two years after my son left a school that prohibited him from entering a national math competition," says one mother, "he still writes angry essays about why the jocks in his former school were allowed to compete throughout the city while he wasn't allowed to win the same honors for his gifts." Sam, her son, felt uncool in the eyes of his peers, and undervalued (and sometimes even resented) by the administration.

"We don't want kids to compete individually, put themselves in vulnerable positions as individuals," explains a leading administrator. "They can compete within teams," explains another. "So the focus is on community building rather than on personal value."

But what about Sam's sense of personal value? Aren't human beings fabulously varied in their gifts and sensibilities? Excellent teamwork can be important, but is it the only admirable achievement? Should any school in the United States prevent broader acknowledgment of a young, creative mathematician?

More here…

Union Teachers Draft NEW “Reform Plan”

The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) union teachers (UTLA) have drafted this new reform plan.

Presented by the UTLA’s High Priority Schools Work Group, the plan recommends that LAUSD provide for “grass roots control over schools” to give instructors “more breathing room to formulate curricula.”

Sounds great, right?

First of all, taxpayers should always be suspicious when organizations suddenly support ideas they have traditionally opposed. In this case, the “work group” poisons their plan by requiring UTLA involvement on many critical issues.

Real reform requires complete independence from the union that created most (if not all) of LAUSD’s problems. Union teachers oppose charters, vouchers, and private schools because they (unions) fear competition. UTLA’s retirees and short-timers fear reform because they rely on a continuous stream of new union employees to fund their promised, but unfunded, pensions and political ATM.

When parents have alternatives to the institutionalized retardation that characterizes LAUSD’s drug- and gang-infested asylums, LAUSD cannot compete.

Some work group recommendations:

• The length of the school day or year should be decided by the school site and negotiated with UTLA.
• The year-round schedules should be ended as soon as possible.

This should be left to the discretion of break-away teachers and parents.

• School services should not be privatized. Such practices are usually more expensive, yet provide lower quality, less accountable services.

Really? If this is true, why have LAUSD’s union-controlled dropout factories trailed so far behind California’s private and charter schools throughout the past 30 years?

UTLA does to the LAUSD what the United Auto Workers have done to America’s auto industry. The difference is that GM and Ford have closed their failing plants and exported jobs far from union influence, while LAUSD has more than doubled their budget demands and hiring to the further detriment of students, teachers, and taxpayers.

Other “work group” recommendations:

• Schools have the resources for full time security personnel, Intervention Counselors, Psychiatric Social Workers, more deans, gang/drug intervention and incentives for good behavior.
• Provide funding for personnel to coordinate Psychological Services.
• Provide the option for schools to have Mental Health Service Providers on site (outside agencies with multi-disciplinary team)
• Enforce the Williams Consent Decree

… E.G., more union employees, waste, and bureaucracy.

• The length of the school day or year should be decided by the school site and negotiated with UTLA.

Anything negotiated with UTLA will not help students, teachers, or parents.

To grasp the enormity of LAUSD waste, compare these numbers:

• The City of Los Angeles employs 40,000 to serve LA’s 4,300,000 residents with a $6.5 billion budget: 107-1 resident/employee ratio at $1,500 per resident.
• The County of Los Angeles employs 90,000 to serve 11,500,000 residents with a $15.4 billion budget: 127,000-1 resident/employee ratio at $1.33 per resident.
• LAUSD employs 80,000 union workers to serve 652,000 students with an operations and construction budget of over $32 billion: 9-1 student/employee ratio at (somewhere under) $49,000 per student.

And yet, many LA schools receive something closer to $6,000 per student classroom dollars. By comparison, LA's exclusive Harvard-Westlake School charges parents about $25,000/yr.

It's not that UTLA "doesn't get" the charter movement. UTLA hopes to slow or derail the charter movement by pretending to embrace it.

David J. Eagle, founder of New West Charter Schools, responded with this note:

It's funny to me that after opposing charter schools since their inception almost 15 years ago, and doing everything in their power to prevent the further growth of charters, now the teachers union wants reform that gives them "local, grass roots control of their schools," a say in curriculum, hiring and firing power of administrators and a disconnect from much of the authority from the district downtown... hmmm, sounds a lot like charter schools to me!

The teachers could have ALL of the things they want in their reform plan, and more by going charter. This is something I've advocated to teachers for years. Since it only takes 51% of the teachers in a school to authorize going charter, each school in the district could theoretically determine its own destiny with a vote of its current teachers. And with the help of the onsite staff and local parents and communities, they could write charters and achieve the very thing they strive for, including continuing to be unionized and reserve the right of collective bargaining, if that is what they choose, by the beginning of next school year.

Yes, this could be accomplished by any group that really wants to do it in less than a year. The guidelines, which include accountability for all parties, are already laid out in the Charter School Act and there are some 600+ proven, successful charter schools already in California from which models and inspiration can be drawn. There are also numerous organizations, companies and individuals that could help the effort.

But this won't happen because (teachers) don't see or understand how this could work – not only in their favor, but in favor of all concerned, particularly the students. The unions fear that teachers, who discover they can play a major roll in governing and running their schools and determine their own destinies, will also realize that they no longer need the UTLA.

Just ask the UTLA faculty at Palisades Charter High and Granada Hills Charter High – two terrific schools, filled with (former) UTLA members who decided to go charter a few years ago. I believe most of those teachers will tell you they are very happy they went charter and that they and their students have benefited from that decision. If the teachers union is truly concerned about quality education for students, respect for teachers and the profession, excellent salaries and benefits, then let them prove it by encouraging and assisting their members to start their own charter schools, or convert existing schools with the assistance of the parents and communities who will most be affected by their action (or inaction).

Regardless of their demographic, most parents want the best education available for their children. Charters consistently outperform union schools, and the waiting lists attest to their popularity.

If UTLA and LAUSD truly seek reform, they need only to get out of the way.

Aunt Lottie's in the News!

It’s not news to me, but the Western News featured her 50th anniversary of her arrival to the United States last August. She's my mother's stepsister from my grandfather's second marriage - my African-American cousin:

By age 6, Charlotte Woods could speak three languages.

Born to German parents in Angola, West Africa in the 1930s, Charlotte (Gretzschel) Woods grew up in the Belgian Congo, which is the present-day area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her father was a manufacturing representative, which sent the family to various exotic locales. In May 1940, Germany invaded Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Because Woods and her family were living in the Belgian Congo they were detained and sent to an internment camp when she was six years old.

"The camp was very primitive," she explained. "It was totally in the bush. We had no school or post office and food was delivered twice a week."Charlotte was together with her family the entire time they were detained. They were not abused in the camp and she saw the experience as an adventure, she added. However, all of their possessions were taken during their time in camp. Her father taught Charlotte and her siblings the basic subjects while they were in the camp and her mother taught the social subjects. It was March 1948 and Charlotte was 14 years old when she and her family were finally able to leave the camp and they traveled to Germany. The teachers at the school she attended were afraid she would be behind her peers due the experience she had in the detainment camp. However, because of her father and mother's teachings, Charlotte was academically equal to her fellow students...

Charlotte only stayed in Germany for one year and in April 1949, the family took a boat from Germany to Brazil. She turned 15 on the boat over the Atlantic Ocean. Her father continued working in the manufacturing industry in Brazil and the family lived there for seven years. Charlotte added Portuguese to her list of languages, which included German, French and Swahili.

In 1956, Charlotte's sister visited the United States and made the decision to move to the country (my mother). She wanted Charlotte and the rest of the family to also come to the U.S. However, before that occurred, proper procedure would have to be followed in order to be allowed into the country, Charlotte explained. Charlotte and her parents had to travel back to Germany and file the correct documents with the American Consulate in Germany. Because Charlotte was a German citizen she had to travel to Hamburg and go through an array of qualifications before she would be considered for passage to the U.S. She began her paperwork in May 1957. She was required to go through a physical exam, have a job or a sponsor in the U.S. and she had to have references, Charlotte explained. "I wanted to do it right," she said. "You should be able to become a productive member of society."Because Charlotte was unsure how long the procedure to get immigration papers would take she began working for the Lufthansa Offices in Hamburg.

In November 1957, Charlotte received her immigration papers and she traveled on the Holland American Line, a large ship, to Hoboken, N.J. One of the first American memories she has from that voyage was seeing the Statue of Liberty upon reaching the American shores...

"This is the greatest country in the world. I don't care what anybody says," Charlotte said.

"I've had the privilege to live in other countries and I know what it's like."Charlotte, Chuck and friends celebrated Charlotte's golden anniversary in the country with a red, white and blue-themed party. Charlotte and Chuck even have a replica of the Statue of Liberty in their yard.

Although Charlotte is definitely a well-traveled woman, she prefers to stick around home these days. "There are so many places to see here. I don't feel the need to travel out of the country. I've done it so much already," she explained. "I've been made very aware of how good America is."

(more here)

Utah Trooper Cleared in TASER Incident

The Utah Department of Safety has concluded that trooper Jon Gardner’s use of a TASER against a “speeding motorist” was reasonable and justified.

Motorist Jared Massey said, “I don't feel the use of the TASER was justified because I feel the police officer is the one who is the professional and escalated this situation to where he had to use it."



The TASER

When operated correctly, the TASER fires two small darts that hook into the clothing or skin of the suspect. Connected by thin wires, the darts close a 50,000 volt circuit through the suspect’s body. Like a baton, the TASER is a pain compliance device that renders suspects helpless during arrest without producing physical injuries the way batons, punches, and kicks do. But unlike those more primitive applications of force, the TASER works well on intoxicated violent suspects who often do not feel the pain that convinces suspects to comply with verbal commands.

Reasonable & Justified

After reviewing the video, I agree that Gardner’s actions were reasonable and justified.

Officer Gardner didn’t use the TASER against a “speeding motorist.” Officer Gardner used it against a speeding motorist who 1) argued with a lone officer, 2) on a remote stretch of interstate highway, 3) refused to sign the citation, and 4) and walked back toward his vehicle against the officer’s lawful commands. Taxpayers must decide whether their officers are employed to ignore suspects who resist arrest.

When back-up officers arrived later, Gardner said that Massey “took a ride with the TASER.” In the context of real cops asking other real cops questions at the scene, Gardner’s response was clear, concise, and appropriate. But to students of crime dramas like TJ Hooker and CSI, the comment may seem inappropriate.

Call My Lawyer!

Lawyers like Stephen Yagman make millions by bringing ridiculous cases like this into court. But when Yagman’s cases were jeopardized by his criminal clients, he often gave this kind of closing argument:

"We know my client is a low-life felon and doesn’t deserve a million dollars. We also know that excessive force is a serious problem with the police department. Therefore, I ask you to award my client one dollar – one dollar to send a message to the LAPD that excessive force will not be tolerated."

Sounds reasonable, right? What the jury doesn’t know (and what the court is prohibited from disclosing) is that a one dollar judgment requires the defendant to pay millions of dollars in Yagman’s legal fees.

Two of LA’s biggest shake-down lawyers are no longer in action. Johnny Cochran is vacationing in hell and Yagman begins his three year sentence for tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud next month.

If Massey sues, let’s hope that Utah jurors are smarter than their LA counterparts.