Woodstock CT Café

The secondary question here is why does the average number of students at goal for the subjects tested drop from roughly 80% in 7th and 8th grades down to 54% in the second year of high school at the Academy?

The answer comes from ‘Sols’: “The standard for the CAPT is much different than the CMT, the levels are set higher.. and the whole state dropped.”

High Schools  
10th Grade Students School District ….Average at Goal & Average Proficient
(the % numbers are the averages of the math, reading, writing, and science test scores in percent of students at goal or at proficiency)

E. O. SMITH – Mansfield ….. 62.1% & 81.3%

TOLLAND ….. 61.4% & 92.6%

STAFFORD ….. 55.1% & 86.1%

WOODSTOCK ACADEMY ….. 54.7% & 89.1%

STATE ….. 48.4% & 81.3%

NORWICH FREE ACADEMY ….. 48.1% & 80.9%

THOMPSON ….. 42.4% & 83.0%

KILLINGLY ….. 33.5% & 74.2%

PUTNAM ….. 22.5% & 68.2%

 Changes in scores from 2008 to 2009 in Woodstock.

See the rest of the story at http://www.wfsb.com/money/20156246/detail.html

As Pratt & Whitney announced this week the potential for pink slips, another aerospace company in Connecticut announced it’s expanding.

“This is our 36,000-square-foot addition,” Whitcraft Group co-owner Jeff Paul said. “This addition was put on to accommodate our expansion of European sales.

Paul and co-owner Colin Cooper said Whitcraft is an aerospace manufacturing company in a close-knit community.

“Here we are, in the woods of Eastford, Conn., and we have the strongest, most capable sheet metal mechanics in the world,” Cooper said.

He said 250 technicians crank out pricey parts for commercial and military jet engines in the U.S. and abroad.

“So we have a collection here of different pieces of equipment put together in a way that maximizes our efficiency and ability to meet customer needs,” Paul said.

from Harry Stefan

Our telephone  has been ringing but there is no caller. The only sound is a sharp, pulsating tone. There have been multiple calls of this type. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to deal with the situation?  Thanks.

from Fireman

07/16/09. Police are dispatched to an address on Ware Street in Cambridge, two blocks from the Harvard Square Fire Station, for a possible burglary in process.

This is an area where at least nine burglaries have occurred in the last several weeks. This is also in an area that is patrolled by Cambridge Police as well as Harvard University Police.

Sgt Joe Crowley, Cambridge City Police, arrives on the scene first and finds an unidentified person inside the home. He asks for the person to identify himself and is indignantly told “No, I will not”

He then asks again and is once again scolded for asking for identification.

Put yourself in Sgt. Crowley’s place. Last week six New Jersey cops were shot, one of them later died, shot in the face, when they approached a man dressed like a monk. Read the rest of this entry »

 by Kevin Ford

And now for something completely different…

I was reading MSNBC this morning and came across this article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32116686/ns/politics-washington_post/

Some of you may have already heard this is in motion. The executive summary is that today President Obama will be announcing a $4.5 billion education program called “Race to the Top”. Part of the goal of the program is, “… to use funds to ease limits on charter schools, tie teacher pay to student achievement and move for the first time toward common academic standards.”

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice here in CT. I’ve spoken before about the CT state system of contract negotiation and how that can play out when the parties are not in agreement as to a contract provision. So what will the teacher’s union’s position on this be in regards to contract negotiations? What changes will happen in the state legislature to try and capture these funds? What will local school boards be incentivized to do by the presence of these funds and what will need to be done to capture them for local educational programs? Most importantly, what impact will they have on educational results? I want to see more implementation details but this is something to keep our collective eyes on.

Thanks,

Kevin

This post represents my personal opinions and in no way should be considered an official act of the BOE or that I am speaking on behalf of the BOE in any way.

by Con 

The latest post on woodstocktruth.com finally qualifies the site as a ‘Hate blog’ (however weak and lame) – and it’s standing and credibility in the community is permanently damaged by it’s highly offensive, loutish and immature little rant, in which the author says to John L. “…do me and everyone else a favor and go die…”

The comment is over the line, shameful and has no place in ‘the marketplace of ideas.’ They may believe that quoting Thomas Jefferson gives them class or credibility, but the dishonest site has neither and this latest post basically represents it’s metamorphosis into a forum for childish insults and ugly, personal commentary.

I think the sheer desperation of that little post represents a bitter and vindictive reaction to losing the Vote, losing the SEEC Complaint, losing the support of intelligent town citizens and losing, well, most every political stunt they’ve attempted. The language of the post is uncalled for and wholly out of line – it brings shame to the site and it’s supporters. Who could possibly still desire to be associated with wt.com? Who will publicly ‘stand’ with someone who writes that he literally wishes death on another human merely because of small town political differences? Small, angry children lash out like this – their sole desire is to hurt others, but they have no real idea of what they say.

Indeed, the post’s language (and it’s unoriginal, degrading picture) reminds us of a red-faced infant’s ‘hissy fit’ – the last resort of an immature and unimaginative lout overcome with this infantile rage and frustration wildly out of proportion to underlying town politics or personal differences. He lost it. Read the rest of this entry »

See Olivia Judson’s fascinating opinion article in the NYTimes today July 22nd ”Microbes ‘R’ Us.”

This interesting interactive graphic from USA Today plots the shifts in popularity of all Presidents since Truman. This helps to put in perspective the continuous news about Obama’s popularity.

by Taxpayer

This past Thursday Henry Paulson caught some fire during a congressional hearing where some members of congress accused the former Teasury Secretary of misleading them about how he planned on using the $700 billion TARP fund.

In the case of Lehman, Mr. Paulson said he could not find a buyer for the troubled institution in time to prevent it from collapsing and did not yet have access to the relief money.

The New York Times article covering this interrogation of sorts was rather weak and gave the reader little insight into the controversy surrounding Mr. Paulson which you so rightly bring up.

A much better commentary came in June from noted journalist/writer Matt Taibbi. Please allow me to quote for you some of Taibbi’s comments which are directed at Evan Newmark of the WSJ (formerly an employee of Goldman Sachs) who heralded Paulson as being a hero. They are priceless:

“Exactly what part of Paulson’s record is heroic, Evan? The part where he called up SEC director William Donaldson in 2004 and quietly arranged to get the state to drop capital requirements for the country’s top five investment banks? You remember that business, right, Evan? Your hero Paulson met with Donaldson and got the rules changed so that Goldman and four other banks no longer had to abide by the old restrictions that forced banks to actually have a dollar or two on hand for every ten or so they lent out. After that, it was party time! Bear Stearns in just a few years had a debt-to-equity ration of 33-1! Lehman’s went to 32-1. By an amazing coincidence, both of these companies exploded just a few years after that meeting, and all of the rest of us, Evan, ended up footing the bill, thanks to a state-sponsored rescue of Bear and a much larger massive bailout of Wall Street in general, necessitated in large part by the damage caused by the chaos surrounding Lehman’s collapse.” Read the rest of this entry »

In the document below, the SEEC said this (note the language):

and

dah…..

We will post the outcome of the complaint by Preston Shultz filed against John and Becki Leavitt (SEEC file # 2009-054) as soon as the SEEC posts it.

This is the outcome of the complaint to the SEEC filed against the Town of Woodstock by Mr. Powers because a news release endorsed by the BOE was posted at the Cafe on May 15th before the referendum on June 9th (see the referendum result here). Here, we have posted the sections that mention the Cafe or Becki. The full Findings and Conclusions can be found in File # 2009-050 at the SEEC website.

When I learned of McCain’s choice for a VP candidate, and the little that was known about her, I was stunned by McCain’s seeming ineptitude.

I first wrote about Palin and her leadership of a town called Wasilla, a town not much larger than Woodstock, on September 3rd 2008 (see article for source). The turnout that elected Palin to her second election as Mayor was about half of Woodstock’s turnout in 1999 and before her three terms as Mayor she was an activist on the P.T.A. Our towns are similar in this way also as we have an active PTO that is willing to step forward to defend our school system.

Palin won the mayorship of Wasilla using an anti-abortion platform which is almost unheard of in small town politics (perhaps Ms. Wholean should try this in plotting her campaign this fall). She won the mayorship by a majority but alienated many with “polarizing single-mindedness”. She ran a town that had an operating budget of $6 million in 2001-02 (I believe that the State of Alaska pays for all education). She had the practice both as mayor and as governor of firing government employees that had supported her opposition. I’m sure Alan Walker would never consider doing this (if he knew who they were), but Ms. Wholean made it clear that she would attack any who were not on her side (remember her edict in the Town Hall that required her approval of any out-going emails?). In Palin’s case she instituted an edict that no employee could talk to the media without her approval. She finished as a mayor in 2002.

To bring her career timeline up to date, Palin unsuccessfully ran for Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor in 2002 and she was elected Governor in 2006 and inaugurated on Dec. 6th, the youngest governor ever elected by a state at the age of 42. When McCain selected Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate, she had served less than two years (21 months) as Governor of Alaska. She had just had her 5th child in the spring of 2008, and her high school-age daughter was pregnant out of wedlock. 

Before he picked Palin as his running mate, other possible choices were Joe Lieberman (longtime Senator from CT, but a Democrat), Mitt Romney (former Governor of MA, 2008 Presidential candidate), Charlie Frist (Gov. of Florida, 2002 to the present), Rudy Giuliani (former Mayor of NY, 2008 presidential candidate), and several others with strong political track records.

Read the rest of this entry »

These do not include older articles and Smile Articles that are not directly linked on the front page.

You Can’t Fix Stupid, Part 1 … Woodstock’s version.

I find the broad brush maligning of the Democrats as “liberals” or “left-wing extremists” and Republicans as “right-wing extremists” tiresome, anti-intellectual rhetoric. As far as Rush Limbaugh goes, he’s just a blowhard that is in it only to feed his ego and his pocketbook. The only extremists I can think of are the almost extinct registered members of the KKK, American Nazi Party (do they still exist?), and ‘like-minded people’ (the people that Powers prefers). Some extremists acting alone, like Timothy McVey, were just warped. Maybe I’m naïve. Don’t hesitate to straighten me out on this point if I have missed something.

Certainly our current President and past Presidents, and all Vice Presidents, do not fit into any extremist category left-wing or right-wing. Since both Obama and Bush II were elected by close to 50% of the voters, doesn’t this fact validate them both as near the middle? Barry Goldwater, Republican Presidential candidate in 1964, got only a third of the vote so maybe he’s the most extreme presidential candidate we’ve had (remember he said “In your heart you know I’m right”), but I don’t think of George McGovern, Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972, as even close to being an extreme liberal even though the only state he won was Massachusetts. In many ways, if he had been elected McGovern would have faced similar problems that Obama is facing today – an unwanted war and an oil crisis. I often think of McGovern’s failed election because of a map of the states with one blue state that proudly stated “We Nixed Nixon!” next to the bar in an Irish Pub just off of Cambridge Square. I voted for McGovern and believe that if he had been elected, things would have gone much better for the country in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. I don’t think that extremists have played any significant role in our society in the last 40 years.

What has played a significant role in our society is stupidity – that is, the stupidity of the electorate and the people who don’t vote for no reason at all except apathy … although if people don’t vote because they are apathetic, I would just as soon leave them out of the decision making. It’s the stupid voters that are the problem. Some of these stupid people have normal or above average IQs but they are stupid because of their biases and prejudices that prevent them from assessing facts and evidence with sound reasoning and judgment.

The stupidity of the electorate is best demonstrated by their election of Nixon in 1968 and Bush II in 2002. Before these elections took place, I was in disbelief that either Nixon or Bush could get elected. In Nixon’s case his candidacy (and his nolo contendre VP) was bolstered by the grinding of the Vietnam War and the growing unpopularity of Johnson who showed his appendectomy scar to the nation.

“During a time of war in Southeast Asia when the stakes for this nation were great, Humphrey confronted an agonizing choice: whether to remain loyal to his president or to the dictates of his conscience. His failure to reconcile these powerful claims cost him the presidency. Yet few men, placed in his position, could have walked so agonizing a tightrope over so polarized a nation.

Near the end of his long career, an Associated Press poll of one thousand congressional administrative assistants cited Hubert Humphrey as the most effective senator of the preceding fifty years.” This comes from here.

But the nation went crazy in 1968 with the assassinations of Martin Luther King (April 4th) and Bobby Kennedy (June 5th/6th) which was followed by riots and the burning of several inner cities. At the Democratic Convention protesters of the Vietnam War and several notable newsmen were beaten up by the Chicago police and this was all viewed on nationwide TV (a scene not unlike Iran today). So Nixon was elected with 43.4% of the vote to a close 42.7% for Humphrey, while George Wallace garnered 13.5% of the vote (stupid people). Electoral vote-wise it wasn’t even close though (see the first map on the left).

Left to right electoral maps for the 68 election, 72 election, 76 election, and the 80 election, respectively (click on the maps to see them full size):

The travesty of Nixon’s first term is that even more stupid people elected him for a second term while he and Kissinger lengthened the Vietnam War by another 4 years using the absurd slogin “Peace with Honor.” Read the rest of this entry »

Historical Tables can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf

and a article in the Economist sent by Kevin here.
“…policymakers must learn from the errors that prolonged the Depression…”. Admin

by Gendarme

I will stick with my statement:

“Republicans support rampant spending, expansion of entitlement programs, and reduction of taxes on the wealthy, leaving an even greater burden on the backs of the truly hardworking taxpayers. Tax collections as a proportion of total from corporations have steadily declined for several decades, as have tax rates for the wealthy.”

Some facts:

1. Entitlement programs have grown steadily under both Republican and Democratic administrations for fifty years (Source U.S. Budget Historical Tables).

2. CBO 10-year budget projections always miss the mark broadly because they do not predict economic recessions/expansions; wars; or legislative changes to tax rates and entitlements. This is well understood by economists.

3. Corporate tax collections as % of total FEDERAL tax collections have steadily fallen for fifty years (Source is U.S. Budget Historical Tables).

4. Top marginal personal income tax rates have declined steadily for fifty years (Source U.S. Budget Historical Tables).

5. Corporate tax rates are just the starting point – your friends at the right wing Tax Foundation forgot to tell you that deductions reduce corporate tax rates to the lowest in the world (Source U.S. Budget Historical Tables).

6. The Obama deficit in response to the economic crisis is not a basis for criticism – it is the correct fiscal policy, despite Taxpayer’s lack of understanding of basic macroeconomic management. I bet before the election on a re-up of stimulus by YE 2010, coming under discussion now.

I have had reason to watch the California economy closely for twenty years and it has boomed/busted four times – 1983, 1991, 2001, 2008. California is the 10th largest, most entrepreneurial, highest technology, most diverse and best financed economy in the world. Taxpayer is clueless – don’t anyone panic.

That dispenses with that empty rhetorical broadside. Taxpayer really should get some handle on this information before he attempts to drown everyone out with his “Limbaugh schtick”.