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Recent Blog Posts |
By SETH LIPSKY The death of Marek Edelman, who led the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto and whose example towers over the generations, offers much to think about in the current crisis. By ANDREW WOLF No sooner did the Daily News lambast critics of Mayor Bloomberg’s educational program as “flat earth” adherents than the federal NAEP math test released its results, which undermine the mayor’s claims for academic improvements on his watch. Bloomberg’s Diversion Strategy By ANDREW WOLF The negative tone of Mayor Bloomberg’s reelection effort must signify that there is concern in the Bloomberg camp over Comptroller Thompson’s surprising strength with just over two weeks to go in the campaign. By ANDREW WOLF News is in from the front lines of the epidemic afflicting our nation. No, I’m not talking about Swine Flu, which seems to be well under control, but the raging “Childhood Obesity Epidemic,” against which Mayor Bloomberg has just banned the common practice of selling at school fund-raisers the dreaded cupcake. Apple pie, no matter how American, will, I predict, be next. New York’s Education Challenge By ANDREW WOLF David Steiner was sworn in as the new State Commissioner of Education Thursday, and was immediately greeted with a familiar song: Send More Money. These are the education “advocates” who have become the perpetual remains of the “Campaign for Fiscal Equity,” undeterred even in the face of evidence that huge increases in expenditures in New York City schools during the Bloomberg years — some 79% in just six years — has barely moved student performance. By SETH LIPSKY One way to reflect on the death of Corazon Aquino would be to go onto the Internet and bring up the address she gave to a joint meeting of the United States Congress. It took place nearly 23 years ago, on September 18, 1986—half a year after Aquino acceded to the presidency of the Philippines in a triumph over the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Even from this remove, the speech leaves one trembling with emotion, particularly when the universal hunger for democracy is being demonstrated yet again, this time in Iran. By SETH LIPSKY The curtain is about to go up on the confirmation hearings for President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. During the advance maneuvering, The New York Times reported that the campaign against Sotomayor has been drawing inspiration from the attacks that succeeded against President Clinton’s nomination of Lani Guinier for a Justice Department position. The JTA's Bizarro Attack on Neo-Cons By IRA STOLL The Washington bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ron Kampeas, has posted a screed against neoconservatives on that organization's Web site. "For eight years we in Washington lived in a bizarro world where the most obvious conclusions were not just ignored, but mocked, actively suppressed and made akin to treason," he said. Now, "neoconservatives are losing," because of "their failure, or their abject inability, to say 'I was wrong.'" He writes, "The Bush administration had not merely an aversion but a psychotic fear of saying 'We wuz wrong.'" By ALICIA COLON President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has unleashed, among other things, a cascade of emails into my computer from friends remarking on the similarities of our backgrounds. I, too, am a Newyorican who lived in a housing project. Mine was in Spanish Harlem, hers in the Bronx, and we both went to parochial schools. Our fathers passed away when we were young, and our mothers struggled to support our families. We also speak perfect unaccented English and are both Catholic.
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