NEA Con 2010

The Ant over at the EiA has some tidbits from the National Education Association's convention in New Orleans. Compared to the antics at Comic-cons and Sci-Fi-cons , the Cons-cons here really act like denizens from outer space.

Two of our favorites:

1.NBI91 submitted by the CTA:

“Move that NEA RA 2010 New Orleans Delegates stand up and leave the convention center to send a clear message to protest against Public Schools’ budget cuts on July 6th (last day RA) for ‘one’ hour during lunch time (discretion of NEA President for time of lunch). NEA staff will contact TV news to get media coverage and organize the exit of members in an organized manner.”

Nothing says more the modus operandi of the teacher unions from California than if you want something done for yourself, make someone else do it. Imagine the sight: the CTA at the podium speaking to the crowd "Now, all you from New Orleans, you get up and go outside now while we're all eating and we'll watch. And cheer. What? Sorry. You'll just have to make do with whatever is left over at the buffet when you get back." Very droll!

2. Good news for Chris Christie: Other than some Jerry Springer-style wailing by Van Roekel at him, it looks like he is small time now. Arne Duncan appears to be Enemy #1on the NEA Hit List. Also from Ant:

"While introducing New Business Item 42, which directed NEA to “call on the U.S. government to end the war in Afghanistan,” delegate Nancy Porter from the Iowa State Education Association said: 'Bring home the troops and send in the Peace Corps and Teachers for America (sic).'"

Wow.

No question the highlight was Bob Chanin packing it in. Quite a confession he makes here (you can stop after the 1:00 minute mark):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-piPkgAUo0w

"It is not because we care about children, and its not because we have a vision of a great public school or every child..."

Need we hear more?


Posted by Hound No. 4

New Page

With the new Page Designer tools, we have been able to give the ol' Doghouse a summer paint job.

We decided to take advantage of the change of appearance for two reasons. One, and the more obvious of the two, because the template looks nicer. Two, and probably the more important of the two, is because it is used as well by UIC pro-PC education blogger.

Still, myself and No. 1 are still not entirely sold on the color, and a couple of the fonts are not quite right. Also, we are still waiting for someone to invent a couple of gadgets we would like to utilize.

Posted by Alpha Hound

UI fires Catholic Prof for Teaching...Catholicism (Updated)

Professor Kenneth Howell was shown the back door last week for writing about...the back door. And worse, he was writing about Catholicism.

Prompted by an interesting complaint letter (more on this in a subsequent post) dated from early May, Howell was removed for "hate speech" by Robert McKim, chair of the Religious Department. McKim is conveniently out of the country at the moment.

No mention of the case yet by FIRE, but the Alliance Defense Fund and the AAUP have both offered legal and moral support, respectively, for Professor Howell.

Given the recently exposed developments of behind-the-scenes shenanigans by the U of ILL in recent months, the developments of this story will be fun to watch as the facts continue to come to light-a process that the UI always finds extremely deplorable.

The case recalls the time when Acton Gordon was fired for printing the Jylland-Posten Mohammad Cartoons.

Posted by Hound No. 9

(Update 7-10-10 23:00pm):

The UIUC Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers have posted that they too find the administrations actions wrong.

Buckey badgered and bucked under Clout

News has reached us that ILL is not the only state that has higher ed institutions which are sick at heart. Nor are the Hounds the only ones with a clout scandal in their midst. Now, the badgers do too.

A Wisconsin state senator is calling for an investigation by the attorney general for the political appointment of Jim Doyle's top aide by system president, Kevin Reilly, for the position of the UW system's chief operating officer. Michael Morgan will start with a approximately quarter-million dollar salary.

What Rep. Nass finds duplicitous was that Reilly never had a search committee, which Nass claims is required for any high level administrator for the UW. In addition to the suggestion that this was a political appointment, we gather by the implication in the AP story, that affirmative action laws were violated by circumventing a wider applicant pool in order to ensure an african american was hired.

We find the race issue unlikely (but certainly possible), and believe that if there was any hiring of Morgan done strictly on the basis of race, it was committed by Doyle when he had Morgan in his previous position. Rather this is more likely another example, as the Tribune puts it, clout going to colleges. Which is in of itself, quite scandalous, even minus the race matters.

Reilly has had damage control experience already. This was after it was revealed the UW Madison had hired 9/11 skeptic, and child-beater, Kevin Barrett.

Posted by Hound No. 6

One Ikenberry Enough for Now

Interim President of the U of ILL, Stan Ikenberry, personally scuttled an expensive project, that would put a large statue of himself in the renovated Ikenberry Commons (formerly the so-called “Six Pack” dormitory bloc). Ikenberry’s rationale for the move, said Tom Hardy, was "he didn't want to generate any ill will toward the university or put the university in an embarrassing situation."

We very much had to chuckle at the irony of this. From clout, to cover-up, to numerous free speech violations, to underhanded dealing, to discrimination, to insider advancement, etc. It would be awfully presumptious for any member or part of the university to believe the UI has any angstrom of ethics and credibility left to protect.

Nevertheless, Ikenberry should be applauded for his decision in this matter, and we wish that he and other would follow suit more often.

Posted by Alpha Hound

While checking on a statement that a poster left about the DI’s “Top Ten” issue, we came across something interesting: When we went to examine the DI's online version of the most viewed stories of the year, we found it had changed somewhat from th e printed one. Actually, it changed quite a bit since it’s original version. The last three most commented stories in the DI were changed, including Jason Ferbey’s attack on Sarah Palin.

What possible reason does the DI have for this discrepancy, we wonder?

Posted by Hound No. 9

Christmas in ALMOST July

Christmas came early today for all citizens of the state of ILL, when the trial of impeached and indicted Rod Blagojevich began today. The Tribune article (which we just linked <------ back that-a-way ) gives a good look at what the Blagojevich trial means to the much-anticipated electoral carnage of the midterm elections this year.



But we see that the BLAHgo blitzes going on right now will only be a partial stain to the democrat/Chicago/domination establishment, which the Tribune seems to think will act as a a scarlet letter on any





Madigan the vote to impeach BLAHgo is sort of a badge of honor, a reverse of the the possible backlash for the vote for ObamaCare. (though Madigan may wish to do that as well, and point to the unanimous ILL house opposition to Blago's health care bill, which ObamaCare in many ways resembles).



Rather, ties to Blagojevich, will be only half the equation, and in some cases, the better half.

Posted by Hound No. 6