End of Issue #74 |

Any Questions?
Editorial and Rants
More surveillance cameras for Eric Corley's New York City! Didn't John Brennan just say there were no Islamic terrorists out there? LOL!
Bloomberg Wants 'Big Brother Britain' For NYC
May 11, 2010 - From: www.wcbstv.com
By Charlie D'agata
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has his eye on more security against terror attacks. He went to London Tuesday to check out their surveillance camera system, one of the largest in the world.
Ever since the Times Square car bomb scare on May 1, the mayor's been looking to build up New York's camera network.
That means adding to the ring of steel in Times Square, similar to central London's. The mayor said more NYPD surveillance cameras may prevent another terror scare.
London has 500,000 surveillance cameras, more than any other city in the world.
Bloomberg visited London's mayor to see how these help Britain fight terror.
"We live in a world of suicide bombers. We live in a world of international terrorism," Bloomberg said.
And a world where both cities have been targets. Bloomberg came to take a closer look at the sprawling security network throughout London -- known as the "Ring of Steel." The mayor's hoping to beef up New York's own surveillance system in the wake of the failed car bomb attack in Times Square.
"It's not clear that they would have helped in Times Square. Other than if the perpetrator knew there were cameras, he might not have tried to come into Times Square," Bloomberg said.
London's about the same size as New York and its transit systems handle roughly the same number of people every day.
Nearly everywhere you look in London, there's someone or some "thing" looking right back at you. In fact, you could be caught on camera as many as 300 times in the course of one day.
Cameras record the license plate of every single car that enters the capital. Yet it didn't stop terrorists from planting a car bomb outside this downtown nightclub three years ago. It failed to go off.
"Nobody's going to make the world perfectly safe, but wouldn't you rather be somewhat safer?" Bloomberg said.
He's banking on it as he plans to take "Big Brother Britain" back to New York City.
London's "Ring of Steel" was the inspiration for the 3,000-camera network being installed in lower Manhattan and Midtown. The NYPD hopes all the cameras are installed by the end of 2011.

Eric Corley's New York City sure is ass-backwards! Your kid can't count? Don't worry! They'll work for Obama's census bureau or ACORN!
N.Y. Passes Students Who Get Wrong Answers on Tests
June 6, 2010 - From: www.nypost.com
By Carl Campanile & Susan Edelman
When does 2 + 2 = 5?
When you're taking the state math test.
Despite promises that the exams -- which determine whether students advance to the next grade -- would not be dumbed down this year, students got "partial credit" for wrong answers after failing to correctly add, subtract, multiply and divide. Some got credit for no answer at all.
"They were giving credit for blatantly wrong things," said an outraged Brooklyn teacher who was among those hired to score the fourth-grade test.
State education officials had vowed to "strengthen" and "increase the rigor" of both the questions and the scoring when about 1.2 million kids in grades 3 to 8 -- including 450,000 in New York City -- took English exams in April and math exams last month.
But scoring guides obtained by The Post reveal that kids get half-credit or more for showing fragments of work related to the problem -- even if they screw up the calculations or leave the answer blank.
Examples in the fourth-grade scoring guide include:
These questions ask students to show their work. The scoring guidelines, called "holistic rubrics," require that points be given if a kid's attempt at an answer reflects a "partial understanding" of the math concept, "addresses some element of the task correctly," or uses the "appropriate process" to arrive at a wrong solution. Despite flubbing the answer, students can get 1 point on a 2-point problem and 1 or 2 points on a 3-pointer.
The Brooklyn teacher said she and peers who had trained to score the tests were stunned at some instructions.
"Everybody in the room was upset," she said.
The teacher had scored tests with some "controversial questions" for several years, but "this time it was more outrageous," she said. "You feel like you're being forced to cheat."
Scorers joked about giving points to kids who wrote their names, brought a pencil or shared gum.
However, score inflation is not funny, the whistleblower said.
"The kids who really need the help are just being shuffled along to the next grade without the basic skills to have true success. They are given a hollow success -- that's the crime of it. The state DOE is doing a disservice to its children."
Some testing experts are also troubled.
Ray Domanico, a former head of data analysis for city schools, said kids deserve a little credit for partial knowledge but agreed the scoring system "raises some questions about whether it's to generous."
State Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn defended the scoring.
"All teachers who score exams receive clear training and rubrics that detail scoring criteria for every question on the tests," he said. "Students who show work and demonstrate a partial understanding of the mathematical concepts or procedures embodied in the question receive partial credit."
But a few extra points can let a failing kid squeak by.
A year ago, Chancellor Joel Klein boasted that the city was making "dramatic progress" when 82 percent of city students passed the state math test and 69 percent passed in English, up sharply from 2002. And fewer kids have been left back in recent years.
What officials didn't reveal was that the number of points needed to pass proficiency levels has, in most cases, steadily dropped.
The state Board of Regents, which oversees the tests, has postponed the release of results until late July, but let the city Department of Education set its own "promotional cut scores" to decide which kids may be held back. The DOE will release those scores in the next two weeks, a spokesman said.



LOL! Soccer!

Ohh... Look!
Muslim terrorist goatfuckers in the U.K are using wireless microphones during their little rallies.
I sure hope nobody finds that particular frequency and transmits any rude messages or squealing pig noises on it! That would be very bad and not "culturally" sensitive!



For just 75 cents a day, you too can sponsor this malnourished Kenyan Muslim!
Think about it. For only the price of a cup of coffee, you can clean him up, educate him, and get him a community organizer job...