Well, when no one’s talking about you anymore what do you do? You diss the competition with a heavy pumping bass rap song. Pump this in your ride G!
This is HTC’s version of the diss rap geared towards Apple and Samsung and it features Greg Carr (aka “Doc G”) of the musical group P.M. Dawn.
Here is a bit of news that is bound to piss Republicans off – Obamacare is costing much less than the CBO original predicted.
In January 2010, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the federal health spending would total a bit more than $11 trillion between 2011 and 2020.
Today, the Congressional Budget Office thinks it made a mistake. Costs are coming in lower-than-expected, and the CBO’s newest projections suggest the federal government will spend $600 billion less on health care than they predicted back in 2010.
So far, so good: projections are always wrong by at least a bit, and it’s nice to have the extra $600 billion in America’s pocket.
But here’s the incredible thing: as Paul Van de Water, a health care expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, points out, the January 2010 projection didn’t include any of the spending associated with Obamacare. The latest projections include all of the spending associated with Obamacare.
Scott Walker – the man who went on a mission to dismantle the unions in his state of Wisconsin, a state with a dismal economic outlook due to weak job growth since Walker became governor – now has his eyes set in the White House, and according to this new poll, Walker is leading all the potential Republican wannabes for the 2016 presidential election.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is surging, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is an also-ran and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is dominating in a new poll of Iowans likely to vote in the nation’s first presidential nominating contest.
The Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, taken Monday through Thursday, shows Walker leading a wide-open Republican race with 15 percent, up from just 4 percent in the same poll in October. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was at 14 percent and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, stood at 10 percent.
Bush trailed with 8 percent and increasingly is viewed negatively by likely Republican caucus-goers. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in even worse shape, with support from just 4 percent. More troubling for Christie: He’s viewed unfavorably by 54 percent, among the highest negative ratings in the potential field. At 9 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson pulls more support than either Bush or Christie.
While performing at the 2015 Jazz and Blues Festival on Friday, Mariah Carey cheated her fans when she did not even try to sing her own songs, but choose instead to lip sync… when she felt like it.
Who would have thought that a snowball fight by a bunch of young people would result in a police officer pointing his gun at them? The conclusion I came up with is that snowballs are apparently lethal weapons, and this police officer was apparently scared for his life. I guess he really wanted to go home to his family after witnessing this snowball fight by a group of teenagers.
When he pulled his gun, the officer is heard saying, “Don’t f*cking move, guys.”
“They were having a snowball fight,” said the woman who filmed the incident on her cellphone. “This group of guys was having a snowball fight and now a cop has a gun on them.”
The incident happened Westchester New York last week. The police department did not issue an official statement on the incident.
Another week, and more snow is expected in the northeast. There’s more over the PARCC testing storm as well, but this time, there is a ray of sane sunshine.
Here in New Jersey, State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, has introduced a bill that would detail a procedure for how parents could opt out of the tests. He’s working on another bill that would delay the use of the tests to evaluate students and teachers for up to three years. Not that using tests for such evaluation is ever a good idea, whether it’s now or in 2018, but a delay might give testing opponents, which include most educators who work in classrooms, an opportunity to put the movement out of our misery.
The other good news is that another bill sponsored by state Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth) would put limits on how student data is used and disseminated. The Christie administration has said that student privacy protections are in place, but that’s quickly becoming the most laughable line in any industry, much less in education. See Target, Home Depot, and anyone involved in The Interview. Plus, Christie can’t even keep his political operatives from talking about their political contretemps. How is he going to safeguard the privacy of all the schoolchildren in New Jersey?
New FAQs about the PARCC tests released by the state Department of Education do say that the tests are not mandatory even though many districts are sending the implicit message that they are. Other districts and organizations are sponsoring evenings where members of the community can come and take a sample test to see what their children will experience. These evenings are being presented as informational sessions, but clearly if parents don’t like what they see, they could take action.
Right now, the opt-out movement is small, but it is growing. As we get closer to the March administration, I would expect that more parents will take their children out of the tests. There might even be more opt-outs after the March tests once students go home and tell their parents/caregivers about their experiences. The final administration is in late April or early May.
For all the talk about the procedural aspects of PARCC, the real issue is what the tests actually measure and whether students are doing their best, either because they’ve decided that they don’t want to bother or are flummoxed by technology issues.
These are high stakes tests for only one group: teachers, because student scores can determine whether one is retained or fired. The ultimate irony is that the people who will be most affected will be the ones with the least amount of control on test day.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
A Sniper? Or maybe the toddler just figured out how to hit two birds with one stone. In any case, the single bullet fired by the toddler hit his father in the buttocks, then hit his mother in her shoulder.
Albuquerque police say the toddler apparently reached for an iPod but found the loaded weapon.
The bullet first struck his father in the buttock and then hit the shoulder of his mother, who is eight months pregnant. His 2-year-old sister was present but unhurt.
Local media reports say police believe Saturday’s shooting was accidental.
Police said in a statement that the father was treated and released, while the mother was hospitalized in stable condition. They will be investigated for possible negligence charges.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the family was living in the motel room where the shooting occurred.
Police say child care officials are taking care of the children.
