Thursday, December 28, 2006

Of the people, by the people and for the people?

Article taken from Guerilla Funk: Thought Box. http://www.guerillafunk.com



20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The United States
By Angry Girl and Bob Rowe
February 9, 2006

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the US voting machine industry.

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

5. 35% of ES&S is owned by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a long-time friend of the Bush family, was caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice- presidential candidates.

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the US and counts almost 60% of all US votes.

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

12. Diebold employs 5 convicted felons as developers. These are the people who write the voting machine computer code.

13. Diebold's Senior Vice-President, Jeff Dean, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.

14. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie at http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)

17. 30% of all US votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail. 18. Bush's Help America Vote Act of 2002 has as its goal to replace all machines with the new electronic touch screen systems with no paper trail.

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

20. Major statistical voting oddities (odds on the order of 250 million to 1!) -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated by experts.

Such amazing odds, the equivalent of statistical miracles these were. Was it God? Or was it Diebold...?

Here's just a few sources:

1.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16.
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Some good reads

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.

- Sam Keen, from To Love and Be Loved


A girl asked a boy if she was pretty.
He said no.
She asked him if he wanted to be with her forever.
He said no.
She then asked him if he would cry if she walked away.
He again said no.
She had heard too much.
She needed to leave.
As she walked away, he grabbed her arm and told her to stay, he said,
"You're not pretty, you're beautiful. I don't want to be with you forever, I need to be with you forever. I wouldn't cry if you walked away, I would die."


- Unknown

The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.

- Unknown

True Love Means...

A girl and a guy were speeding over 100mph on a deserted road on a motorcycle.

Girl: Slow down, we're going too fast. I'm scared! And I don't want anything to happen.

Guy: Come on, don't worry. I know what I'm doing. Your having fun right?

Girl: NO...please stop. I'm really scared

Guy: Then tell me you love me.

Girl: I LOVE YOU! Now please slow down.

Guy: Give me a hug.

*Girl hugs him*

Guy: Can you help me out here? Will you take me Helmet off of me and put it on you? It's bugging me.

In the paper the next day: A motorcycle has crashed into a building break failure. Two people found, but only one survived.

The Truth is: That halfway down the road the guy realized that his breaks broke, but he didn't want the girl to know. Instead, he had her say she loved him and felt her hug him for one last time. Then had her wear him helmet so she would live, even though it meant that he would die.


- Unknown

"The spaces between your fingers were created so that another's could fill them in."

- Unknown

A friend is someone who will bail you out of jail, but your best friend is the one sitting next to you saying "that was f***ing awesome"

- J-Dub

What do you do when the only one that can make you stop crying, is the person who made you cry?

- Unknown

It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone -- but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

- Unknown


Tuesday, December 05, 2006

"Spanish Flu" Man Made

"SPANISH FLU" MAN-MADE?
SIXTY MILLION DEAD

By: Henry Makow

In 1948 Heinrich Mueller, the former head of the Gestapo, told his CIA Interrogator that the most devastating plague in human history was man-made.

He was referring to the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 that infected 20% of the world's population and killed between 60 and 100 million people. This is roughly 3 times as many as were killed and wounded in World War One, and is comparable to WWII losses, yet this modern plague has slipped down the memory hole.

Mueller said the flu started as a US army bacteriological warfare weapon that somehow infected US army ranks at Camp Riley KS in March 1918, and spread around the world. He says that it "got out of control" but we cannot discount the horrible possibility that the "Spanish Flu" was a deliberate elite depopulation measure, and that it could be used again. Researchers have found connections between it and the current "Bird Flu."

There was nothing "Spanish" about this flu. According to Wikipedia: "In the U.S., about 28% of the population suffered, and 500,000 to 675,000 died. In Britain 200,000 died; in France more than 400,000. Entire villages perished in Alaska and southern Africa. In Australia an estimated 10,000 people died and in the Fiji Islands, 14% of the population died during only two weeks, and in Western Samoa 22%. An estimated 17 million died in India, about 5% of India's population at the time. In the Indian Army, almost 22% of troops who caught the disease died of it."

"Indeed, symptoms in 1918 were so unusual that initially influenza was misdiagnosed as dengue, cholera, or typhoid. One observer wrote, "One of the most striking of the complications was hemorrhage from mucous membranes, especially from the nose, stomach, and intestine. Bleeding from the ears and petechial hemorrhages in the skin also occurred. ...Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65 and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old. This is unusual since influenza is normally most deadly to the very young (under age 2) and the very old (over age 70). "

MUELLER'S SOURCE

At a 1944 Nazi bacteriological warfare conference in Berlin, General Walter Schreiber, Chief of the Medical Corps of the German Army told Mueller that he had spent two months in the US in 1927 conferring with his counterparts. They told him that the "so-called double blow virus" (i.e. Spanish Flu) was developed and used during the 1914 war.

"But," according to Mueller, "it got out of control and instead of killing the Germans who had surrendered by then, it turned back on you, and nearly everybody else." ("Gestapo Chief: The 1948 CIA Interrogation of Heinrich Mueller" Vol. 2 by Gregory Douglas, p. 106) Actually the Armistice took place Aug 11, 1918.

The interrogator, James Kronthal, the CIA Bern Station Chief asked Mueller to explain "double blow virus." It reminds me of AIDS.

Mueller: "I am not a doctor, you understand, but the 'double-blow' referred to a virus, or actually a pair of them that worked like a prize fighter. The first blow attacked the immune system and made the victim susceptible, fatally so, to the second blow which was a form of pneumonia...[Schreiber told me] a British scientist actually developed it...Now you see why such things are insanity. These things can alter themselves and what starts out as a limited thing can change into something really terrible."

The subject of the Spanish Flu arose in the context of a discussion of typhus. The Nazis deliberately introduced typhus into Russian POW camps and, along with starvation, killed about three million men. The typhus spread to Auschwitz and other concentration camps with Russian and Polish POWS.

In the context of the Cold War, Mueller says: "If Stalin invades Europe...a little disease here and there would wipe out Stalin's hoards and leave everything intact. Besides, a small bottle of germs is so much cheaper than an atom bomb, isn't it? Why you could hold more soldiers in your hand than Stalin could possibly command and you don’t have to feed them clothes them or supply them with munitions. On the other hand, the threat of war...does wonders... for the economy." (108)

Is Mueller credible? In my opinion he is. Gregory Douglas apparently is a pseudonym for his nephew with whom he left his papers. Normally a hoax would not run to thousands of pages. The Interrogation is 800 pages. The Memoirs are 250 pages. The microfilmed Archive apparently covers 850,000 pages. Finally, the material I have read is incredibly well informed, consistent and full of plausible revelations .

CONCLUSION

The "Elite" cult has made no secret of its desire to decrease the world population. (See Alan Stang, Population Extermination: How Will it be Done? )

It's possible that World War One was a disappointment to the Elite in terms of the numbers killed. Whether the "Spanish Flu" was deliberate or not, we cannot say. But apparently the US Army has a record of experimenting with drugs/chemicals/bacteria on unwary soldiers. Did such an experiment get "out of control" at Fort Riley?

So far the Bird Flu has only killed 160 people since 2003. Is it a harbinger of something more deadly? Hopefully it isn't but we should be mindful of the shocking precedent set by the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.




"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."

Mail this article to a friend(s) in two clicks!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, or does it?

2:27 PM - How can we get selfless humble people into parliament, and if we could..would they be corrupted
Current mood: ambivalent

--> List Question -->

How can we get selfless humble people into parliament, and if we could..would they be corrupted?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker


Its possible...I've been witness to it. (Well actually I'm from the US and what I witnessed is referring to over here)...
If someone is truly selfless and humble...they will not be corrupted..
Just b/c something hasn't happened...doesnt meant it won't.

Also...power will only corrupt the ones who at heart desire power. People do crazy things all the time to feel powerful...they do dumb things...mean things...and sometimes friendly...supportive things...

Someone who is selfless and humble and puts the interest of others before the interest of themselves truly...are often submissive...

Currently listening :
The Beatles (The White Album)
By The Beatles
Release date: By 25 October, 1990

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Raelene Serena Olivas

When I was younger I gave up on a lot of my interests because I was insecure. The talent I've wasted by not believing in myself is my biggest regret. The only way I've held onto any of those dreams is through writing, self expression. Even if what I wrote was only for myself, it was important to do. It helped me to always be myself, which gave me the self esteem to always be me. Anyhow, when I was 15 I started doing these name poems for those I've felt were the most beautiful in my heart's eyes. Here's one for you. You may not understand it now but you will in good time.

Rooted
Amidst
Enigmatic
Luminary
Empathetically
Naive
Eloquently

Orchestrated
Living
Instrument
Virtuous
Amorous
Strong

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

AidanNYC

Another big problem...I'm surrounded by memories of you...in my apartment, on the street, that little Moroccan restaurant we ran into when it started pouring rain on us and you kissed me over the cous cous. (Rookie tatical mistake not to have a memory-free environment. Why did we have to so many places?) Anyhow, I'm not holding out hope that you're going to change your mind about us. You probably have a new girlfriend now, or several new girlfriends, and I missed my window, and I'll just have to live with that. I'm sure you feel like you can't trust me with your heart. But please know that I never meant to hurt you, and I would never do it again, because I know now (too little too late, or better late than never?) that what we had was real and rare and special, and the way it felt to kiss you is the way I always want to feel.

I hope that you write me back, but if you don't, I understand. Just konw that I'm thinking about you, and I miss you and I'm still sleeping on your shoulder when I close my eyes at night.

-Carrie

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Beautiful last words

Sunday, October 29, 2006


6:01 PM - 9/11 this one makes me truly sad...
Current mood: ambivalent

What are some truly moving speeches that have been delivered in the past?

With the exclusion of those such as MLK's "I have a Dream." I'm thinking more along the lines of the somewhat obscure. Court statements welcome.

--> --> --> -->
Answers
somgrl8
About Me
Member since: July 06, 2006
Total points: 127 (Level 1)
Points earned this week:
Total answers:
Best answers:



In a radio address recorded in the waning moments of his presidency, Chilean President Salvador Allende remained defiant, refusing to surrender his power despite an onslaught of bombs and bullets that were ripping apart the presidential palace in Santiago.

///Nat SOUND Allende radio address 9/11/73 ///

"I will not resign," Allende vowed. "I will pay for the loyalty of the people with my life."



In a radio address recorded in the waning moments of his presidency, Chilean President Salvador Allende remained defiant, refusing to surrender his power despite an onslaught of bombs and bullets that were ripping apart the presidential palace in Santiago.

///Nat SOUND Allende radio address 9/11/73 ///

"I will not resign," Allende vowed. "I will pay for the loyalty of the people with my life."

It is reported that he took his own life before the soldiers could take him alive but one may also contemplate that it was not he who took his own life but perhaps they who never inteded on taking him alive especially when considering the following:

The bloody coup that ended the life of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973 put General Augusto Pinochet into power, opening a deadly and dark chapter in Chile's history. During Pinochet's reign, approximately 3000 people "disappeared" and thousands of others were tortured and exiled.

Another not neccessarily moving your heart to best of places speech moving you to the edge of your seat...

September 11, 1990 (11 years before 9/11) was when George Herbert Walker Bush gave his famous "New World Order" speech.

Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a New World Order — can emerge ... A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. Today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we've known. A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak.
- George H.W. Bush, 911/1990
Source(s):

VOA News Report
globalsecurity.org
http://www.oilempire.us

Sunday, October 22, 2006

What do you think happens to your soul when you die?

What do you think happens to your soul when you die?
Current mood: ambivalent
Category: ambivalent Religion and Philosophy

Yahoo! Answers posted the following and I answered.

..
Dr. Deepak Chopra

What do you think happens to your soul when you die?

I equate the soul to be the undeniable essence of ones character. The part of you that is responsible for your nature. Everything you do has an effect on someone else, no matter how small and insignificant the act. It doesn't matter what religion you practice or don't practice. It is as universal as the laws of physics and cannot be denied because it will exist no matter who believes in it.
Everyone has different opinions based on faith or lack there of about whether ones soul might or might not exist. In keeping with a perspective that can permeate all life, all faiths, all ideals, your soul is the impact you have left upon those you've encountered in your life. Your actions, your words, your love, your hate, your pain and happiness is passed on and impressed upon the links in the chains of life. Just as a parent raises a child and teaches them and then that child has a child and teaches them, a teacher may teach students and those students teach their children and so forth. There is a chain. But it doesn't matter how big or small your presence may be in an others life it can have profound effect on them and they will carry it in them and however they process that experience internally it will then be externalized in some way which will then effect someone else.


Currently reading :
Night
By Elie Wiesel
Release date: By 01 March, 1982

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Save Humanitas....Please...I never ask for anything!

It's been quite sometime since I've ventured over to this neck of the web...lately I've spent my time unraveling the universe within. As neurotic as I am about anything that comes out of my mouth or flows from my fingertips, I did't have to make a list or even think twice about this topic. I found it on the infamous pages of Myspace. Please read the below article. And help for pete's sake. Most of you out there have benefited from the these two phenomenal teacher. Please help out and trying to preserve as many good teachers as I can.Please help out and take a few minuts to save f asave this program...Please Please Please just take a moment to read it...then another to make a difference.

Dear Birmingham High School Parents, Parents of Humanitas Students, Students, Community Members, and Alumni that sucs..



We are writing to you to assist us in removing the principal of Birmingham High School. Marsha Coates has been the principal of this school for two years now and she has hurt thousands of students and faculty members with her callous and unprofessional behavior. Before coming to Birmingham High School she had never been a principal or assistant principal. Her inexperience and malicious behavior has created a soulless environment for our students. The school is in total chaos; students dislike what is happening to them; teachers are leaving in record numbers and a very special program, Humanitas, has been decimated. We need your help to end this terrible period.



In order to remove a principal, the community, in large numbers, must contact her immediate supervisor who is Jean Brown and our local school board member, who is Jon Lauritzen. Mr. Lauritzen is elected by us and will be very nervous about being kicked out of office by his constituency. Therefore, he needs to hear your displeasure with Marsha Coates.



Local District 1
6621 Balboa Blvd
Lake Balboa, Ca 91406
Superintendent Jean B. Brown
Phone: 818/654-3600
Fax: 818/881-6728





LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER

JON LAURITZEN
Dist. 3
jon.lauritzen@lausd.net
213-241-6386
Fax: 213-241-8979





What follows are the actions taken by Ms. Coates in chronological order directed against the Humanitas Honors Program. When you are done reading this inventory, you will begin to understand how her actions were malicious, spiteful, and unprofessional.



1.

In August, 2005, before the first day of school, Ms. Coates, in one of her first acts as a principal, told Dr. Liberman and Robert Leight that things were not going to be the same for Humanitas, and that the "perks" were over. When asked what "perks" she meant, she told them it meant common conference periods and anything else the "rest of the faculty perceived to be unfair." So at no time were her judgments based on what she experienced herself, but rather on the perceptions of others. This was a pattern to be repeated several times over the year. Had she explored this just a tad further, or even thought about it, she would understand that common conference is a necessity for Humanitas, the prototype of the much-touted smaller learning communities. At the time, Humanitas was the only interdisciplinary, project based, thematically taught program. In most ways, it still is the only one.



2.

Marsha Coates' next policy decision that affected the Humanitas honors program was to overturn a decision about the SAS(The other honors program at BHS) and Humanitas counselor being the same person. After much discussion, Dr. Lasiter, Mr. Krog (former head counselor), and the Humanitas department decided that the SAS and Humanitas counselor should be the same PERSON in order to best serve both sets of students. Students could then be counseled into the type of learning that best suited them. So after years of problems balancing the issues of the two programs, Dr. Lasiter, having written a dissertation on Humanitas, an experienced counselor and administrator, and two teachers who had worked in the program for years, had finally found a resolution. Ms. Coates' decision had no philosophical or practical basis. At the time it was thought the decision ignorant and impulsive; in light of so many other things that transpired, it was the beginning of many malicious acts.



3.

The Humanitas program brought biology into the program and Dr. Lasiter had assigned its teacher a biology room. It seemed ethical to give her the correct room and to have her Humanitas classes scheduled with Humanitas students only. Instead she was given a small math classroom without adequate tables and a math teacher was given her biology room. Her Humanitas classes had other students enrolled in them even though this precluded teaming adequately with the rest of the 9th grade team. It took a conscientious custodian to see that the room assignments were unsafe, and rectify at least that part of the situation.

When the semester finally began, the following events took place: School year 2005/2006



4.

Humanitas is honors because it is taught on an honors level, taking students of average ability, students new to English, and students with socio-economic depravations, and educating them so that they can compete with other college-bound students. These students obviously need help and encouragement and in years past, they have received this from their teachers, principals, and counselors. Counselors and administrators no longer provide this, especially under Ms. Coates' leadership. Instead, when some Humanitas students wanted to leave the program, unlike previous administrators who encouraged the students to stay, she told Ms. Long, the head counselor, to let them out without any type of discussion. This behavior runs counter to what one would think educators should do. Making matters worse, it became nearly impossible to recruit for Humanitas. The administration made it very difficult to get any kids into the program and the ones who wanted in were quite often programmed into different classes even though they wanted Humanitas.



5.

A few weeks before the winter recess, Ms. Coates, in passing comments to Ms. Burnett and Mr. Leight, said that the 12th grade Humanitas classes might be closed 2nd semester because the numbers were low, even though the size of the individual classes were equal to other honors and AP classes. Mr. Leight and Ms. Burnett wrote a letter before the winter break asking that if she were going to do this, could she please let the teachers know before the break so they could lesson plan for the new classes and restructure the senior Humanitas classes. They received no reply to this note until Robert Leight contacted Mr. Ruben at District I. A week before the new semester started, five weeks after the original note, Ms. Coates apologized disingenuously for not getting back to them, but said she had misplaced the note in her abundant paperwork. At this time she finally told them that she was collapsing the classes. What this suggests is that Ms. Coates doesn't care about teachers (lesson planning), or kids (teachers being prepared to teach them and damaging a teamed program).



6.

Ms. Coates lied to Mr. Ruben, at a parent/news/community meeting regarding the numbers of senior Humanitas students. She asserted repeatedly that there were only 18 students whereas there were 36.

i. Upon talking to Mr. Ruben in yet another conversation, it appears that Ms. Coates misled him in two areas. First, she told him there were only 18 senior Humanitas students, which was patently false. There were 36 and would have been more if the students who wanted to leave met a united front.

ii. Secondly she told Mr. Ruben that Humanitas students were kicked out once their grades went down. Once more, as Mr. Leight explained to Mr. Ruben, nothing could be further from the truth. We have many students who have failed many sections of Humanitas and are still with us. Failing a Humanitas class has never resulted in the removal of a student.

iii. She repeated this lie in the community meeting



7.

It became clear to the Humanitas teachers that Ms. Coates' actions were personal when Mr. Leight and Dr. Liberman met with then Assistant Principal, Mrs. CJ Foss, just prior to her leaving to accept a promotion. She explained to Dr. Liberman and Mr. Leight that the reason Ms. Coates was treating the Humanitas teachers this way was due to the fact that the previous year, when Dr. Lasiter was still principal and Ms. Coates was an AP, she felt that the Humanitas teachers undermined her authority by going to the principal regarding issues she didn't understand. The Humanitas teachers were quite dumbfounded that anyone would be that vindictive, especially in view of the harm this does to students. Mr. Leight and Dr. Liberman explained to Mrs. Foss that Ms. Coates had ideas that were not conducive to Humanitas, and that really, she was not familiar enough with the program to understand what her suggestions might do. Mrs. Foss said that, she wanted Mr. Leight and Dr. Liberman to try to understand Ms. Coates' motives for being malicious. Indeed, they had heard this from two other sources, but Mrs. Foss removed all doubt.



8.

Mr. Leight had taught Advance Placement Government for eight years at BHS with one of the highest pass rates in the city. After stopping it for one year Ms. Coates brought it back and did not let Mr. Leight teach the class even though he had seniority, had taught it successfully for eight years, has a masters in United States history, and had even told Ms. Coates that if she wanted he would lower his expectations if she just wanted high numbers. Ms. Coates would not have it.



9.

Now this brings us to the events which have taken place at BHS this school year 2006/2007. Ms. Coates decided to break up the school into smaller learning communities and move teachers into new classrooms. Many individuals told her it would not work and it hasn't. It has resulted in mass chaos. Kids have been misprogrammed by the hundreds. Teachers have left in droves because of the callous and unprofessionalism of this new principal.



10.

With respect to the Humanitas Program, the attacks continued even though it was the best small learning community at BHS. Upon coming back to school, Ms. Burnett, one of two longtime 12th grade Humanitas teachers was removed from this position. This was awful because it takes years of planning together to make a successful teaching partnership.



11.

Ms. Coates removed biology and the biology teacher from the Humanitas Program. Since then, the Humanitas Biology teacher has left the school along with many others.



12.

Ms. Coates collapsed the 11th grade Humanitas classes just as she did the 12th grade the year before. Now Dr. Liberman teaches the 11th graders periods 1 and 6 and the history teacher only has one class of Humanitas period 2. The whole idea of Humanitas is to have both teachers in the same room teaching the students for 2 hours together. Ms. Coates has totally destroyed all aspects of what made this program the greatest program in the world.



13.

After having a meeting with the Humanitas parents, a meeting it must be added where both the principal and assistant principal Fern Somoza spoke in a disrespectful and derogatory manner to the parents, Ms. Coates promised to once more help Humanitas. This was a common behavior by this principal. She says that she is trying to help Humanitas to her superiors and to the parents and yet when the pressure lessens she continues her attack. For those who attended the principal's meeting, that night assistant principal Fern Somoza said that the administration had nothing to do with Mr. Leight not attending the meeting and later we found out that it was assistant principal Fern Somoza who had suggested that he not attend.



14.

Within just a few days of having the meeting with the parents, Ms. Coates began her attack on the 9th grade Humanitas Program. Ms. Tingley, one of the 9th grade Humanitas English teachers, had twelve students in her English class. The head counselor Ms. Long decided this class was too small to be supported and must be closed, even though other English classes of that size remain untouched. Ms. Tingley's students were dispersed to the other teachers in the 9th grade team and Ms. Tingley was assigned her conference period during the time when the 9th grade Humanitas students receive instruction, thus breaking up the 9th grade team of teachers. Now when the students meet all together, they are missing a teacher's support which means that the students receive less individualized attention.



15.

Of course, there are so many more tragic blunders and malicious acts perpetrated by this Principal and two of her Assistant Principals Fern Somoza and Ms. Long, but this list would become a tragic novel.



I hope this shows the current situation in its proper light, as the latest in a series of actions meant to hurt Humanitas despite rhetoric to the contrary.



The students at Birmingham High School need your help desperately. Please contact the two main individuals listed above and have your voices heard.



Please E-mail this letter to all those who will be interested in solving this terrible situation.



Thank you for your time and consideration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, February 17, 2006

Walls of stone

 
Every day it becomes more and more apparent how crucial the study of world history is in all of our lives. Anthropologists study past civilizations to understand our present day society. We practice this same analysis in our personal lives. Although too often dwelling on our mistakes, displacing the blame on others. Never to realize the reasons for our dismal state of life. I try to discern if it is simply that man cannot learn the lesson without making the mistake or if stubborn ignorance is more to blame for this grave delay in humanitarian progress. Sometimes I wonder if possibly I hold our governing body in an esteem much too high. To me it just seems so obvious. Perhaps the allergies have migrated the congestion from my head to my nose because I've happened upon a new found land of clarity; really I can probably attribute my new state of concious to the love I found but I don't want to get all hippie on you and then you call me an anti-american; I figure if I relate to the pharmaceutical industry I'll appear more patriotic. But I am not quite the talented writer so I am best to just be upfront. Normally at the age of twenty-five the brain is fully developed. Adulthood begins to settle and natural instincts lead the way. Marraige, children, shelter and death. At twenty-five years and four months old I lag behind my female peers in the quest to procreate and settle. To my great fortune my lack for the life familiar has not prevented wonderous love to fill my world. I suppose I owe a debt of grattitude to the social retardation I suffer. For had I not lived alone in my tower of indecipherableness I would not have torn down my wall. Alone in my dark I found the way by observing the foot steps of those before me. Exploring all the paths but careful not to follow any one set too closely for I fear to meet their demise.
I know as usual I've wandered off my intended path...I hear footsteps so it must be time for me to dine. What set me off this time...Walls. No good has ever come from the building of walls. They only exist metaphorically and literally to as defenses to shield our insecurities. The Berlin wall has fallen and the not so Great Wall of China...haven't been exactly the best examples of efficiency but yet our most prolific administration yet feels like "He he...we should build wall...like the commies and the nazis...hehe I can't believe I just said that!"
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Manufactured Love Day Celebrations...and Correspondents

I am never MIA...I'm just in a parallel universe...following through worm holes...I've been great actually...Me and my guy are good good and getting better all the time...My heart has known the things it's always known...I was just trying to deny it...trying to conform to someone else's dreams...but never faltering our journey has revealed our reality to be exactly what we both need and believe in...I am always here...but not at that number...just had a bad power outage in my humble abode where we live like fools with only a cordless phone...so here I am now...no way to speak...no answering machine...just dial my number and you get ring ring...818 703 0703...

I'm gonna find a regular phone soon...somewhere in my mess.



----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: GUZZARD
Date: Feb 16, 2006 11:41 PM

I just wanted to say hi. I'm glad ur not MIA anymore. So how have u been? 4 real I missed u. R u still at the same num? I hope everything turns out alright for u. Even tho we dont talk as much as we used 2, I still think we have a strong bond. Happy belated Valentines Day! i hope ur heart finds what its looking for Leslie

From: Silly Face =p
Date: Feb 15, 2006 4:52 PM

hahhhaa im glad u had a great time les dogg.... i called my bro and told him to wish u a happy valentines day for me... =)

i was watching the clipper game at hotwings with a couple of my girlfriends... then we got drunk... lol... played pool... drank some more... then went over to a friends place and drank some more.... =p ooo yea =) hahha IM AN ALFARO damnit! lol....

i misssssssssssssss u lady!

love,

"bloo"


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: somgrl8
Date: Feb 15, 2006 4:44 PM

I had the best V-day!!!
1 1/2 lbs of Crab legs...lobster pizza...great dinner and then...a lovely game with my boys in blue in red...Clippers...
I got to see my two fave coaches...oh...my rough and tough Dunleavy and the heart of gold...Van Gundy...
I love Diego Ramon Alfaro...he makes me laugh...that's gold jerry! gold Jerry!

How'd everybody's day of consumer driven love go?

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Sunday, January 29, 2006

I've been gone

My seperation from those I hold so high in my heart is an unfortunate casualty of the battle within. An inner revolution set forth so long ago that it has become quite abysmal for me to deviate. Even in elementary school I was shamefully aware of the preternatural thought processes I had developed. I created different psychological games to help myself unlearn that negative behavior. The methods I've been practicing for the past 15 years have proven effective for me. All that I've accomplished, realized and continue to seek could not have been attained without intense personal reflect. The pseudo monk hood lasted about a year or so and though most may find such a great length of time devoted to oneself as an obscenely narcissistic endeavor. What I gained from that time has amounted to one of the greatest feelings I've ever experienced. All that I thought I once knew I now understand. I don't hesitate to say that 2005 was one of the greatest years of my life thus far. There is so much I have rediscovered within and without. So much in this world to suspend me in awe that I cannot be who I am not. I believe in everything and nothing and cherish my ambivalence. Despite all the judgements you have and will displace upon me I will not falter, I will be here. I will not judge you, I will be there. Maybe it is nothing more than a tumor grown too large and too deep that has consumed my will to live a life familiar. I believe in faith in humanity. Am I naive to believe that I can save the world one person at a time by letting you see yourself through my eyes? If fear can make anyone capable of the most inhumane acts then I have no choice.
No material item can give you what faith, love and awareness can. Believe in yourself and give someone else a better tomorrow.

See beyond yourself