Tuesday Afternoon Thread: Get Over It McGrumpy

Good afternoon POU and Happy Birthday, sag!

U.S. officials tell state to use same standards to grade charter schools

Federal education officials have denied Pennsylvania’s request to evaluate charter school achievement using more lenient criteria, saying they must be assessed by the same standard as traditional schools.[....] Critics said the formula artificially inflated charter schools’ performance for political reasons.[....]

[....] Under Pennsylvania law, every charter school is considered its own district. So by using the grade span methodology, about 59 percent of charters made AYP — a figure that supporters touted, comparing it with the 50 percent of traditional schools that hit the target. Yet only 37 percent of charters would have made AYP under the individual school method. Delisle ordered Pennsylvania to re-evaluate charter schools’ AYP status using that standard by the end of the fall semester.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/us-officials-tell-state-to-use-same-standards-to-grade-charter-schools-663462/#ixzz2D9dLIGdb

H/T Kathy Matheson

France will back Palestinian state status at UN

France signaled Tuesday it would vote in favor of Palestine being recognized as a non-member state at the UN General Assembly this week. The upcoming vote will make the highly symbolic decision about whether to recognize Palestine as a “state,” albeit one without membership at the United Nations.

“This Thursday or Friday, when the question is asked, France will vote yes,” said Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister, according to Reuters. He added, the yes vote was “out of a concern for coherency.”[....]

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/france/121127/france-will-back-palestinian-statehood

H/T Daniel DeFraia

Hell’s yeah, X-Men movie geeks unite! in the new upcoming X-Men movie (which also heralds the return of Bryan Singer, the original director and best director of the whole franchise, IMHO), Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen return as Prof X and Magneto and Michael Fassbender as young Magneto and James McElvoy as young Xavier from First Class…where can I sign up

http://insidemovies.ew.com/201…..ture-past/

they also say that the First Class “Beast” and “Mystique” (Jennifer Lawrence) are also confirmed for the new movie…can Rebecca Romjin, Kelsey Grammer or Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine be far behind….!

Opportunities for Minority Students in the Solar Industry

Solar industry jobs are increasing along with the rapidly expanding solar industry. As reported this month by the Solar Foundation’s National Solar Jobs Census, jobs in the industry are increasing by 13.2 percent annually, six times faster than the overall job market. This equates about 1 of every 230 new jobs in the US economy was created by the solar industry this past year.

As the nation’s demographics are shifting and now most children under the age of one are minorities, it is critical that we close the gap in the number of minorities who seek solar career opportunities. Women and minorities make up 70 percent of college students, but only 45 percent of undergraduate STEM degree holders.

This large pool of untapped talent is a great potential source of STEM professionals. The Energy Department’s Minority University Research Associates (MURA) Program seeks to address the gap by encouraging minority students to pursue careers in science and technology.[....]

Read more: http://www.whatisworking.com/2012/11/opportunities-for-minority-students-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhatIsWorking+%28what+IS+working%29

H/T Linda H.

Professional Left Sets Hair on Fire About Fictional Entitlement “Cuts”

You have to give it to the ideologue Professional Left about one thing: they are incredibly good at synchronized whining. Apparently, they all had their Thanksgiving turkey, mixed some w(h)ine and politics, and decided, “OMG we haven’t bashed the President for almost two weeks!” And so it began with Cyber Monday, they began in earnest their scaremongering campaign about how the president is about to strike a grand bargain with Republicans that raids Medicare and Medicaid, and possibly Social Security. Based on what? Any specific proposal? Nah. Based on the need to set everyone’s hair on fire, of course.[....]

Again and again, it has been the ideologue Left that has abandoned the middle class and the poor when the president has fought for them. They abandoned – no, openly opposed – the fight to get health care reform done. They opposed Wall Street Reform, because it wasn’t “good enough.” At the end of 2010, when the president was busy crafting a deal to protect the middle class tax breaks, unemployment benefits and creating a new tax cut for the working poor (payroll tax cut), these same usual suspects insisted that the president abandon the middle class in order to prove some sort of a weird point.[....]

Read more: http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/11/right-on-queue-professional-left-sets.html

H/T Deaniac

totally psyched about Les Miz the movie:

miranda: – –A BLACK HISTORY -IN- THE- MAKING MOMENT – -

—- -Black stars nominated for 2013 Independent Spirit Awards (SLIDESHOW) –

– - -Several African-American actors and filmmakers have been nominated for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards.

The Spirit Awards are an annual event out of Santa Monica, that brings Hollywood and talented low-budget filmmakers together to honor the talents of the independent film community.
THERE IS MORE.

– - -CONGRATULATIONS 2 ALL! :>) – - -

miranda – — -BWAHAHAHA — – -A “BELOW-MARKET SALE” – - annnd GLOAT!! – –LOL – - – -[IN a -TRASH BIN -- Near U.] – -LOL – -

– –Trinkets From Romney’s Doomed Candidacy End Up in a Bargain Bin Near You

– — -Last week, the day after Thanksgiving ushered in the annual holiday shopping season. Many Americans partook of that bruising and borderline pathological retail ritual known as Black Friday, whereby millions of people invade chain stores at ungodly hours to grab discount stuff they probably don’t need. This was followed by the more civic-minded and measured Small Business Saturday, where consumers are encouraged to support local artisans, shops and outlets in order to buttress entrepreneurship in their local communities. And just yesterday, web surfers in offices all across America gave up their regular work tasks in search of the perfect Cyber Monday deal.

According to a report this morning from ABC News,retailers ranging from airport gift shops to online operations to Black Friday stalwart Wal-Mart are offering steep discounts on remnants of Mitt Romney’s doomed candidacy. Great bargains abound, per writer Sarah Parnass, such as “Romney magnets and buttons below a dollar and a ‘Repeal & Replace’ t-shirt, referencing the Republican plan to oust President Obama’s health care law, for less than five bucks.”
THERE IS MORE!! – –

– -COMIN’ 2 a – - TRASH BIN -Near U – - -BWAHAHA!! – - -

– - –COMMENT: – -
Reynardine Reply — – - – -God, this feels great! LOL

[Gotta "bounce" 2 chair a 1 hour meetin'. :>) - -Back soon. ♥]

lamh,

Downton Abbey ROCKS!!

I love it

My aunt just sent me bootleg copies of the 50 Shades of Gray series. Anyone here read it? Should I even waste my time?

miranda — —[Some people needta not talk so much durin' my 1 hour meetings. ** mumble, mumble***]

NOW: – - – –Heeeeere’s MR. Harry – –DEFENDIN’ DR. RICE – -AGAIN. :>)-

– - – Reid Defends Rice From Attacks ‘Unmoored From Facts And Reality’ – -:>) – -

– - -Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office issued a statement on Tuesday night defending U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice from GOP criticism for the explanations she gave on behalf of the Obama administration in the immediate aftermath of the attacks upon a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya earlier this year.

“The election is over. It is time to drop these partisan political games, and focus our attention on the real challenges facing us as a nation.”
THERE IS MORE

– - – -HE! – –HATH! – – - -SPOKEN! – – - ***slams desk*** :>)

miranda — {Ohh I hope this is NOT a dup – –I JUS” – -GOTTA

– — -GLOAT!! – - -LOL – –HE — FINALLY WON!! – -LOL- – -

– - -It Gets Worse for Mitt Romney as He is Named the Least Influential Person of 2012 – -

– - — –Apparently, Mitt Romney hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. Romney has gone from being one of only two men vying to be president to being named the least influential person of 2012 by GQ.

Not really. Mitt Romney spent six years of his life running for president. In those six years can you name one original idea or policy proposal that he came up with? Just one. You can’t, because Mitt Romney spent nearly a decade planning and running for president without adding a single new idea to our national discourse. Some people called Romney an empty suit, but his problem was an empty mind. — –
THERE Is MORE – - -

– –BRUTAL!! – - -LOL – - -THIS is BEYOND BA(I)ND –AIDS!! — -LOL – – – – -ENJOY!! – - – -LOL – - -