TenuredVulture wrote:It's not so much a top quality superintendent isn't worth a 150k salary. It's the army of assistants superintendents, principals, vice principals, curriculum coordinators, and so on that also command big bucks. It's not quite fair to call this administrative bloat, but much of the work done by these people is simply compliance with other parts of the education bureaucracy. In my daughter's school, which is 1st-3rd grade with probably 600 kids there is a principal and two assistants.

Your district is much more heavily staffed with admins than ours.

allentown wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:It's not so much a top quality superintendent isn't worth a 150k salary. It's the army of assistants superintendents, principals, vice principals, curriculum coordinators, and so on that also command big bucks. It's not quite fair to call this administrative bloat, but much of the work done by these people is simply compliance with other parts of the education bureaucracy. In my daughter's school, which is 1st-3rd grade with probably 600 kids there is a principal and two assistants.

Your district is much more heavily staffed with admins than ours.

It's possible.

Here's the whole thing:

http://www.magnoliaschools.net/District ... ration.htm

I'm guessing this is for an enrollment of about 3500 students altogether. It don't know how relevant it is, but this is a very diverse district both ethnically and socio-economically, with a substantial number of very low income students but also a lot of well-off kids. The district has a lot of challenges.

Reached for comment, a spokesman for Johnson said the lawmaker had visited Guam, and his concern was that the influx of military personnel would overwhelm the island's infrastructure and ecosystem.

And make it capsize

Interesting Hank Johnson facts:

1. He's only 55 years old. I would have guessed about 80.
2. He is a Buddhist. Perhaps he was speaking in some sort of Zen sense.
3. He successfully primaried Cynthia McKinney in 2006.

Now we know where Palin gets her map ideas from...

there is no way she reads that website/magazine. girl dont even read the NYT or WSJ!

Surely Hank Johnson was just showing off his dry wit there, right? Right? RIGHT?

I know right

I don't know how this hasn't completely exploded yet. It needs to make Daily Show or Colbert tonight.

CalvinBall wrote:there is no way she reads that website/magazine. girl dont even read the NYT or WSJ!

She reads all of 'em.

Woody wrote:Surely Hank Johnson was just showing off his dry wit there, right? Right? RIGHT?

I was trying to see if the staffers behind the navy(?) guy giving testimony were a) cracking up b) peeing their pants c) pointing and howling

they did seem at one point to be exchanging written notes

navy guy earned some kind of star or something for not so much as cracking a big grin

Admiral so and so not only deserves a medal for maintaining his composure but for not saying anything to embarrass Johnson. That man has ice in his veins.

“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents – an additional 80,000 people during peak construction on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 – could be a tipping point which could adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and could overburden its stressed infrastructure. Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful – but vulnerable island – could easily become overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do permanent harm to Guam.”

Not dry wit. Metaphor.

Let's face it, dude had just finished off a bag or two of Phight On!'s Name Brand KB before testimony started. Johnson even tipped his body/hands when he uttered the word "capsize". Gotta hand it to him though, that statement of clarification is an A+ attempt to cover-up of his baffoonery.

traderdave wrote:Johnson even tipped his body/hands when he uttered the word "capsize".

Are we sure those are his actual hands? The whole thing kinda looks like one of those phantom hands comedy sketches...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43WZOTWgeKY[/youtube]

It took him like a half an hour to describe the size of the island, too. It was almost painful to watch, before the awesomeness set in

yeah, just going from the phrase "tip over" and the way the video started with him talking so slow, I thought I was waiting for him to tip over

Woody wrote:It took him like a half an hour to describe the size of the island, too. It was almost painful to watch, before the awesomeness set in

I don't know, I kind of thought that was the awesomeness at first. Maybe it's a Ricky Gervais sense of humor kind of thing...

We need to start a pool on how many school budgets are going to get voted down in NJ in three weeks? The sad thing is that people are going to vote them down purely because they are pissed off about what is going on in the State without giving any regard to the fact that their "Nay" vote will likely lead to more of the service cuts that they are pissed off about to begin with. I am seriously considering purchasing yard signs to pass out around my town that simply say "Vote YES for the School Budget on April 20th".

Climategategate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... e-sceptics

Sort of a tough spot for the GOP here with regards to bashing Obama for the drilling thing. "You now want to do that thing I wanted? Jerk!" So instead of just jumping straight into it like McCain wanted, his administration wanted to survey the landscape before they did anything. So they aren't going to do it in the Northeast, but have opened it up elsewhere. Sounds like a reasonable approach, though I disagree wtih doing it. Putting on my jerseyhoya hat, olitically I guess it makes sense as the GOP looks ridiculous right now and he once again incorporates one of their ideas while asking them to look at one of his (energy).

Still, I wonder if it's a great thing to keep 'giving in', because in a sense we are just shifting the debate further and further to the right because the GOP does not appear to want to come to the left at all. It also doesn't seem like the public notices or cares. Maybe he's doing things because he thinks it's good policy? Perish the thought.

Boehner's a joke, though:

Obama's decision "continues to defy the will of the American people," Boehner said in a statement, pointing to the president's decision to open Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, while leaving Pacific and many Alaskan waters largely closed to exploration.
"It's long past time for this Administration to stop delaying American energy production off all our shores and start listening to the American people who want an “all of the above” strategy to produce more American energy and create more jobs," the House GOP leader added. "Republicans are listening to the American people and have proposed a better solution – the American Energy Act – which will lower gas prices, increase American energy production, promote new clean and renewable sources of energy, and encourage greater efficiency and conservation."

He cannot be a serious grown up person. Tell the man the sky is blue and he's pissed it's not bluey enough.