Here's one bullet point in Afghanizing things (a play on Vietnamization during the Nixon years); we've handed most of Bagram prison over to the Afghan government. The fine print has us keeping at least one wing, with some of the more problematic Taliban, under US control. The US is a bit leery of seeing the locals setting up a catch-and-release system, so they're slow in handing things over; it's a cheap shot, but they might be afraid that they'll treat the Taliban like an illegal immigrant stateside and want to get him out of the system ASAP.
_____________
Maybe I play too much Scrabble online (Facebook has a nice version), but I broke down Bagram into Bag Ram... as in Hizzonor Emanuel, (which means "Obama with us" in Chicagoese). The teachers are on strike despite having some of the best paychecks in the business.
Teachers also want to block changes to their health benefits and win concessions on classroom conditions.
Pay is also an issue. However, the union said the two sides are close to a pay agreement after school officials offered to increase salaries 16% over four years on average for most teachers. The average teacher salary in Chicago was $74,839 for the 2011-2012 school year, according to the district.
Shared sacrifice in tough economic times? Not here. Especially not when going up against them insures a very tough primary challenge in your next election.
The teachers conveniently waited until after the Democratic convention, so as to avoid having the issue play out where all the pundits could grill pols about it, but before the election, so that they can hold Democrats hostage, blaming the penny-pinching bosses for Johnny and Susie being home alone during the strike.
Would Hizzoner have the [insert PG chutzpah synonym] to fire the teachers and get replacements? Not too many Democrats would; Ed Koch might have tried that and Jerry Brown might, but Obama With Us is seemingly too much an operator to go that route.
Comments