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Veep Stakes

Published June 18th, 2008 in Obama and '08. 0 Comments

So I haven’t exactly kept my word about posting. I’ll save you the explanation, and just say that I’m going to try and do better starting… today? tomorrow? Who knows? Things are, as always, super busy around these parts, so if it isn’t part of my regular routine- which blogging hasn’t been for a while- I struggle getting around to it.

Anyway, back to politics. Since both the nominations are wrapped, the Veep stakes have begun. Whispers are abound as to whom McCain and Obama should select as their respective running mates. I haven’t quite settled on who I think Obama should pick, but here are some guiding principles to think about: *

Reinforcement of message - Chris Bowers has really affected my thinking on this point. Bowers argues that the Veep slot should go to someone who reinforces the candidate’s core message. This runs counter to what “balancing” school of thought, which holds that the veep choice should shore up perceived weaknesses at the top of ticket. Since Obama is running as a change candidate, his choice should be someone who also represents change. That leads to an argument against old Washington hands like Sam Nunn, who might work from the balancing perspective. According to the reinforcement argument Obama might choose a woman, a “Washington outsider”, or someone who is perhaps both, and definitely an opponent of the Iraq war.

Future of the Party- The Vice President has the potential to one day either run the presidency, or assume the office should something tragic happen. Therefore when picking VP not only do have to pick someone who can help you win in the short term, but also someone who can help the party in the long term. Obviously, this is not the logic that led Bush to pick Cheney(balancing reasons did) but I think it’s an important consideration.

Vicious, Ravenous Attack Dog- During the campaign the VP can be used to launch very aggressive attacks against your opponent. They should be a candidates best surrogate- consistently on message, while defending the campaigns flank.

There are, of course, more things to consider but for now let’s leave it at that. Meanwhile, Matt Stoller has made a pretty strong case for Gen. Wes Clark. Via Stoller here is video of Clark in vicious ravenous attack dog mode

The General

Published June 10th, 2008 in Uncategorized, Obama, '08 and McCain. 1 Comment

So here we are 5 months out from the general election. The choices for Americans are pretty clear: more war v. more peace, affordable health care for all Americans v. the status quo on health care, a return to fairness in our tax policies v. more ideological hackery in our tax policies.

I could go on, but you get the point- John McCain represents a dangerous and regressive future for America.

Yet despite how clear the choices in this election are, it appears that we are in for another close election. The Democrats have nominated a liberal, black man, with a funny name to boot. While these are the very reasons that make Barack Obama’s campaign so historic, they also represent a challenge to a country whose orginial sin is the enslavement of black men and women with funny sounding names. In the Obama campaign for the presidency, we are perhaps looking at a defining moment in American history. What is the arch of America’s story? Can a people go from slavery, to systematic disenfranchisement, to revolution, and then see one of its sons make it to the White House?

Meanwhile, the Republicans have wisely nominated the war hero, who has cultivated a cult like following amongst media elites. St. John McCain of Arizona, is lauded for his “maverick” spirit and willingness to buck not only his party, but his personal ambitions for the benefit of the country. Indeed McCain has often displayed political courage often unseen in Washington. At a time when it seemed as if the Washington establishment had realized the failure that is W’s war in Iraq, McCain called for more troops. Sadly, the media have chosen only to focus on the political “braveness” of this stance rather than the unsound nature of it as strategic policy in Iraq.

I’m glad the primary is over both as political junkie and liberal. Watching the two vastly popular figures in your party duke it out, while their opponent in waiting gets a relatively free ride sucks. Moreover, I can’t stress enough how stark the contrasts are between the vision that Democrats and Republicans have for the future. If we could not grasp and reject the radical and dangerous nature of the modern day Republican party in 2000 and 2004, it should now be clear what an agenda of tax cuts for rich, unchecked executive power, nationalist foreign policy, and vicious and divisive politics means for our country. Hopefully as a nation we will not make the same mistakes.

Return to Cookie Mountain

Published June 7th, 2008 in Blogging. 0 Comments

Greetings and Salutations. After many, many, many, moons welcome back to Lies Before Breakfast. It has been so long since I’ve written in this space. I’m not quite sure where to begin, so I’ll try to answer some questions that seem appropriate:

Why did you stop blogging?

As the post below details, I caught a pretty bad case of blogger burnout. I reached a point where I felt as if I had nothing to say. Better yet, I felt like I had nothing to say that wasn’t already being said about the campaign. The fire that originally pushed me to begin sharing my thoughts about politics with the world was diminishing. There are other reasons, some of which will come up later in this post.

So, what have you been up to?

As you know, I was in midst of opening up the school that some of my friends and I had been developing. By the time I stopped blogging we were in full swing, having hired staff, recruited teachers, all the while continuing to lay the ground work for the September opening. My main focus since then has been Lyons Community School. There are many stories I look forward to sharing here. Building a community from scratch has completely changed my life.

I also moved out of my folks crib. I now live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. I absolutely love my neighborhood and to a lesser extent my apartment. In between all of that, I’m still in school full time(although at a different institution).

Why are you coming back to blogging now?

Hhmm. That’s a good one. I figured out a lot of things about myself in the months that have passed. I really feel like I’ve discovered my techne in teaching. There is nothing I enjoy more than teaching and working with my students. After this coming school year I’ll be teaching U.S. History at my school.

It is through my practice that I’ve rediscovered my voice. While this blog will still focus on electoral politics, I will also talk a lot about urban education policy, the practice of teaching and working with kids.

What about politics?

What can I say? My boy did it! Obama is the nominee. That’s part of what kept me away too. I was ready to come back a few months ago, but I decided to wait until the primary was over. The level of anger I felt towards Hillary would have made my writing very hackish. The nomination had been over since March, and masquerading as if things were still in play was infuriating.

But now that Hillary is out of the race, we can all proceed to kick McCain’s ass until November.

I’m also getting involved in local grassroots politics. I’ll have more on that soon, with hopefully a couple of big announcements coming.

What can we expect from Lies Before Breakfast?

I’m going to try to write at least one thoughtful post a day. My guess is that I’ll continue to mostly focus on the election, but expect a lot of reflections on teaching in urban schools, as well commentary on music and culture.

Where is Tyron?

Tyron has started his own blog The Archives, do check it out.

I hope I bring a lot of you guys and gals back into the fold and make some new friends along the way.

testing

Published June 5th, 2008 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

testing

Blogger Burn Out and iPhones

Published July 11th, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

In case you’ve been wondering, and hopefully you have– I am still alive. To be honest I’ve been plagued with a bit of blogger burnout, similar to that of my dear friend Fields. I just haven’t had the fire that it takes to write for the past few weeks. Blogging is a really difficult medium to master. Although it seems easy, sustaining a blog that produces quality and original content, is very intensive. I’ve never been one to half ass anything, so if I don’t feel like what I’m about to write is the best thing since pants with pockets, I simply won’t write. I’m an all or nothing type of person(which I guess is why I’m still languishing as an undergrad).

Also, I finally started my new job. Things with the school are really getting off the ground. Over the next two weeks, the entire staff will be training as we prepare to welcome our first class of students. Every time I meet a teacher that we’ve hired, the school becomes more of reality. In only a few weeks, we will have the responsibility of preparing our students for the world that awaits them. It’s truly a humbling and inspiring task. And that’s where my focus has been of late.

So why am I still writing this blog? Politics and political activism is who I am. Sometimes you have to be reminded of why you started something to begin with. As I’ve been doing a whole bunch of reading and writing for the school, I’ve been reminded how connected education is to politics, and how teaching is a very political act. Not political in the partisan sense that we’ve come to know it as, but in its most basic sense. I touched on some of it in my latest MyDD post.

With that said, I’m back. I know I’ve said that before, and I don’t doubt that I’ll say it again. Starting tomorrow expect regular high quality blogging again.

As for the iphone stuff… If I wasn’t a Blackberry person, I’d get an iphone. In fact I’m even considering getting one. But I can’t because I have T-Mobile. There is a new Blackberry I’d like to get too, but I can’t because I’m on T-Mobile. Needless to say, I’m pissed. But not with T-Mobile, rather at this exceedingly silly system we have. Think about if a new TV came out, you couldn’t not get it because you have Time Warner cable, and yet that is the case for cell phones. Why? Who the hell knows… Well actually the guy in the video below knows, and he knows what you can do about it. Via Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller’s wonderful new blog Open Left, is this clip about some important decisions Congress is about to make about the iphone and other wireless related issues.

Live Blogging: Obama NYC Event

Published June 23rd, 2007 in Uncategorized, Obama and Blackberry Blogging. 1 Comment

7:05 PM: Apparently I’m really early. I’ve walked in on what appears to be the advance team meeting. There are well over 50 volunteers here, who just finished getting pep talk from a member the National campaign.

7:10: The crowd(at least the volunteers) has the “youngish professional look”, containing
about as many women as men. I’m a bit under dressed with jeans on. Oh well, it’s Friday night, my birthday, and I have plans after this. I wonder how long I can stay inside here before they notice that I’m not supposed to be inside yet. I’d take my chances but, Secret Service is in the building….

7:20: There is a line for press check-in. I wonder if I could have gotten press creds.? Aren’t bloggers part of the media? Guess that’s just for the big boys.

7:25: That Secret Service info has made me paranoid, as I’m off in a corner typing on my Blackberry. Very, very suspicious behavior, me thinks.

7:30: Ben Harper is performing, wtf? Although better him then our friend Beanie Sigel.

7:31: Group of political junkies talking about Cheney’s claim that he’s the fourth branch of government. Also there is a guy who looks like the guy from The Office.

7:35: I can confirm that the unofficial Obama merchandise is probably cooler than the offcial stuff. This lady has on an unoffcial Obama snap back that is pretty awesome.

7:40: Waiting on the line, has caused me to buy an unoffcial Obama American Apparrel t-shirt. Now unoffcial merchandise is really cool.

8:15: I’m inside the event hall now. I’m guessing this is where I should start “networking”. We’ll see how that one turns out.

9:40: Ben Harper is on stage, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he isn’t going to sing his song about smoking weed. I think it’s called “Burn it Down”.

10:20: It’s over. The TBA speech has turned into Obama’s new stump speech(which is good). On the rope line, the Secret Service made us show our hands before we could shake Obama’s. On my way to the LES, time for the fun to start.

After School Wages

Published June 22nd, 2007 in Education. 0 Comments

Via Ezra Klein, is this NY Times Magazine salary comparison tool. You can enter your income information, chart over a period of time, and compare it to people in yours and other demographics.

Shockingly, well actually not shockingly at all, my last few years working in after school programs have put me at a significant financial disadvantage, when compared to others in my peer group. Although I worked throughout high school, I consider 2004 the year I officially entered the work force. Comparing my salary to others who were 19 years old in 2004 and with some college experience, my earnings placed in the bottom 10%. I should also add that, I specified the group compared myself to lived in my region(New England) and worked in my field(education/childcare).

Clearly, if I wanted to make a lot of money I wouldn’t have labored in the after school business for so long, I did because I love the work and fit my school schedule. But this, in fact, relates to one of the biggest problems facing after school education. Without going into the importance of after school programing(see here and here), after school programs are a huge benefit to inner city children. If you think public school teachers get no respect, after school practitioners even less. Those who work in after school programs are often young people looking to get into education, who want hands on experience working with children. It’s also a good gig while your school too.

One of the markers of a good after school program, is the pay. Because most of the time it’s only part time work, with limited opportunities for extra hours(most people work between 10-15 hrs a week), the hourly wage means a lot. The kind of people that you want working in your after school program are those studying to be educators of some stripe, or people with at least a few prior experiences working in summer camps and other after school programs. In addition, the pool of potential workers tends to be young and in turn has less professional experience. Finding people who have both good professional skills(punctuality, communicates with supervisor, dresses appropriately) and good child care skills(isn’t afraid of kids, uses positive discipline, possesses classroom management skills) isn’t easy. Thus the demand for someone who meets that criteria is high. Yet the wages are relatively low ranging from as low as $7 and on the high $15. $15 an hour is considered really really good, but only goes to those with serious after school cred. Meanwhile most people teater in between the $7-$10 range– and there lies the problem. Low wages cause turnover during the school year, which is bad for the program and harmful to the kids. I’ve seen kids have their Group Leader(counselor) leave in the middle of the year, and the effect on their behavior and morale is troublesome. Aside from turnover during the year, there are also retention problem. Some of the best people I’ve seen in the game people, have left after school altogether because they couldn’t afford to stay in it. These are people who would have made excellent teachers. Moreover, programs that don’t pay enough can’t hire really experienced or quality after school practitioners.

It’s always sad to see someone with a gift for teaching kids, leave to work retail. The benefits to potential teachers is significant. I would argue that after school provides more direct and purposeful interactions with kids than being a say Teachers Assistant. Yet the financial incentive isn’t there, someone studying to be a teacher could earn $12 an hour as a TA and get close to full time hours, a after school program that pays, say $8, can’t compete.

As I leave the NYC after school circuit and transition into the NYC Department of Education, I’m glad I’ll be earning more money. But as the push to expand NYC’s after school programs continues, I hope more money gets put into hiring and retaining quality staff. I’ve seen too many people that “just need a job” in my time, and I’d hope to see more aspiring educators drawn into the field. The benefits of after school programs for both children and educators is one of the lesser appreciated aspects of our education system.

Return to Radio

Published June 20th, 2007 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Today I was a guest on the Brian Lehrer Show. Mike Pesca was the guest host for the interview. We were joined by Chris Rabb of Afro-Netizen(technically I joined the conversation). We talked about diversity in the progressive, political blogosphere, wheter its important for black people to engage in reading political blogs, and how white folk on the internets react to discussions of race. I really enjoyed being a guest, and in particular listening to some of the insightful things that Chris had to say. Listen for yourself: