EFF, Illegal Wiretapping, Google "docs" and you

As I finish my second cup of coffee, I begin to ruminate on yesterday's passel of "big news'. . .Lost in the shuffle of the "Potomac Primaries" and the seeming inevitability of a November race for President between Senators McCain and Obama, was the vote in the United States Senate to immunize telecoms from legal responsibility for the felonious activity they participated in during their felonious dalliance with the federal government's illegal wiretapping program (btw--started well before the attacks of 9/11). . .This troubling event sends a warning to every American concerned about electronic privacy. . .For those of you interested in this area, I recommend checking out the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org). . .Recently, EFF decided to participate in a very important lawsuit that has ramifications for all of us who have a laptop and travel with it. . .A man who was fed up with the invasive search of his laptop everytime he traveled by air filed a lawsuit alleging an ongoing breach of his 4th Amendment rights--btw, the phrase "probable cause" is still included in the text of the 4th Amendment to our U.S. Constitution. . .Now how does "Google docs" fit in. . .Well, the people at Google, who have laptops and travel with them, have produced something which allows one to avoid the aforementioned problem. . .With "Google docs" you don't need to travel with a laptop, you just store your work with "Google docs" and when you arrive at your appointed destination, find an internet connection (at your hotel, at the airport, etc, etc, etc.), login, and you're back to work (does Google protect the privacy of your stored work product?--we will see). . .Pretty neat, huh?. . .Well, Google thinks it's neat enough that this is a major part of its tactics to knock Microsoft off of the technology pinnacle. . .Now you understand why Microsoft is attempting to purchase Yahoo!. . .Stay tuned. . .drfaust

Declining Enrollment and Charter Schools

Just finished reading the superintendent's missive concerning the budget shortfall vis a vis declining enrollment. . .I've been in the district for fifteen years. . .During that period I've watched our district dance with the charter school movement. . .Now fifteen years later we are reaping the fruits of our missteps. . .If you are not aware of the following statistic, you should be: St. Paul, Minnesota has a higher percentage of students enrolled in charter schools (about 13-14%) than any other city in the United States. . .Of course, we have declining enrollment and a resulting multimillion dollar budget shortfall--add even 1/2 of those charter school students to the rolls of the St. Paul Public Schools, and our budget shortfall shrinks to a manageable number. . .Why the alleged leaders of St. Paul continue to offer support to a movement that continues to gut our school district remains a mystery to me--or does it?. . .Ask yourself this question: what has the Humphrey Institute, for example, done for you lately?. . .Is it truly an organization interested in the continued viability of the St. Paul Public Schools, or does it operate as a veritable "Trojan Horse" within our midst, with its real goal the continued support of alternative educational institutions to the point where our District is reduced in size to the point of irrelevance. . .Think of anti-government activist Grover Norquist's notorious quote: "We will shrink government to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub.". . .Naivete allowed the charter school movement to be viewed as a symbiotic partner with our district, when it fact it operates in a parasitic fashion sucking the very lifeblood (students) from the host until inevitable death occurs. . .To be continued. . .drfaust

Campaign Results

If you want an easy way to transmit tonight's to students tomorrow, go to Yahoo's excellent "Political Dashboard" site. . .At Political Dashboard you can show tonight's results for the Democratic and Republican primaries in the Chesapeake--Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. . .I've been using the site in my classes during the campaign and it is very easy for the students to see the results and basic demographic breakdown of the voting. . .The "Election 2008" site (CNN) is superior in that it os more detailed. . .For example, CNN breaks down the results by either county or Congressional Districts, but its graphic presentation is inferior. . .For a quick summary, I recommend "Political Dashboard"; for a more detailed look at the results use "Election 2008". . .For all you cheeseheads: Wisconsin decides next Tuesday--the land of the Progressive tradition (see: Fighting Bob LaFollette) and the birthplace of the GOP: Ripon, Wisconsin (1854). . .drfaust