The YearlyKos Convention

YearlyKos Convention - n. yier-lee-KOS k&n-'ven(t)-sh&n An annual convention gathering people from all walks of life who belong to the Netroots community, the US-based (but globally focused and inclusive) non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs as primary tools for: expressing viewpoints, building consensus, acting to change the status quo, mobilizing huge numbers of people and informing each other and the world about current events, grassroots actions, networks, meetings, policy and more. The YearlyKos Convention is a project of bloggerpower.org with the generous support of YearlyKos Inc.

The first YearlyKos convention occurred in June 2006, a time when a tremendous and growing number of citizens who gathered in the virtual world every day came together in person and raised their collective voice to try to proactively influence their government. That group is broadly called the Netroots, and according to Wikipedia, "focuses on political activism organized through blogs and other online media. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that set Netroots techniques apart from other forms of political participation." But we'd add to that summation the fact that the Netroots is made up of individuals—not corporations, not lobbyist groups, not any large money-infused machine that (currently) influences all that occurs inside the beltway. The most-visited blog of this movement is Daily Kos, founded in 2002 by MarKOS Moulitsas.

In June of 2006, "Kossacks" and bloggers from all over the world got together at the first annual YearlyKos Convention and actually met each other at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Approximately 1200 conventioneers, speakers, panelists and members of the media attended this debut event from June 8-11, and discussed everything from balancing family life, political discourse and a career to education in the United States to the future of energy resources and energy policy, and so much more. Speakers included General Wesley Clark, Senators Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid, DNC Chair Dr. Howard Dean, Ambassador Joe Wilson and former VA Governor, Mark Warner. The convention was covered by high-profile media sources including C-Span, CNN, the major television networks, the The New York Times, national radio outlets and of course, the blogosphere. In keeping with its Netroots origins, the first YearlyKos Convention was self-funded via sponsorships, donors and support from the Netroots community and was organized by volunteers.

Mahdi

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - The leader of a messianic Muslim cult was killed with 200 or more followers during a day-long onslaught by U.S. and Iraqi forces on their camp near the holy city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said on Monday.

They accused him of making a claiming to be the Mahdi...

Cult leader and 200 others killed: Iraqi officials

Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will arise at some point before the day of judgement, institute a kingdom of justice, and will in the last days fight alongside the returned Islamic prophet Jesus against the Dajjal, or Antichrist.

"Before the appearance of the one who will rise, peace be upon him, the people will be reprimanded for their acts of disobedience by a fire that will appear in the sky and a redness that will cover the sky. It will swallow up Baghdad, and will swallow up Kufa. Their blood will be shed and houses destroyed. Death will occur amid their people and a fear will come over the people of Iraq from which they shall have no rest."

Shi'a Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq

A very dangerous turn for the worse in Iraq. Cultist hell bent on ending the world are flocking to Iraq from around the Islamic world.

This nutter is the first and he will not be the last.

Open letter to Richard Scherza, superintendent of schools

From the Cranston Herald Letters to the Editor...

I read with dismay some of the comments in the Cranston Herald article about the State of the Schools address that you delivered last week.

First of all, as a concerned and involved parent, I surely would have attended such an important event had I known about it. I am sure that the "scant audience" that evening was due to scant publicity about it. Perhaps notices should be sent to the schools prior to these meetings. I am a member of the Woodridge Elementary School PTO Board, and I send out frequent e-mails to approximately 80 percent of our parents. I would gladly send such information if it were provided to me. I'm sure that would help to increase attendance at these meetings.

Had I been at the meeting, I would have disputed your comments about the class sizes. The article stated, "Although there were 2,020 kindergarten students in 2006 – a significant jump from 2005 numbers – Scherza dismissed it as an “anomaly” tied to changes in minimum age requirements. This year, he pointed out, only 1,681 kindergarteners enrolled – a figure that reflects the overall downward trend."

I respectfully beg to differ. My daughter is currently enrolled in the morning kindergarten class at Woodridge – along with 25 other students. The afternoon class has 25 students. Let's face it, these classes are simply too large for kindergarten, especially.

Kindergarten students come to public school from all sorts of backgrounds – some have had a number of years of pre-school, others have had none. How is it possible for a teacher to challenge those students who are already reading and to meet the needs of those who still need help identifying their letters? It is impossible without leaving some of your students bored and disengaged.

And as large as those numbers are, they don't even tell the whole picture. In fact, I'm told that there are FIVE additional kindergarten students who have been clustered to other schools. And that's kindergarten! What's to happen next year, when those families who send their children to private school so that they can have a full-day kindergarten program (something which is long overdue in the public school sector) want to send their children to their local elementary school?

I'll tell you what will happen, as we know of at least one family in this situation. They will be shut out. They will be offered the option of having their child clustered to another school. And if that child happens to have a sibling already at Woodridge, the parents will be faced with a decision – to have their children at two different schools or to permit out their older child, who has friends and a comfort level at his home school. Not a decision I would want to make. Quite frankly, not a decision that any parent should have to make.

And the situation is no better in some of the other grades in our school. For instance, my son is in a third grade class with 27 students. And, I believe there are 27 in the other third grade class, with an additional eight students being clustered out. Again, way too many. I'm fortunate – thankful, in fact – that he is very involved in the EPIC program. Otherwise, I fear he may not be challenged enough.

I do know why this problem is so acute. It was the wrongful closing of Horton. I was at a number of the School Committee meetings prior to the "decision" to close Horton. And quite frankly, I supported it. But that was based on erroneous information that was given to us. We were led to believe that the classroom numbers would not be so outrageous (promised, in fact, that a third classroom would open in the third grade if the class size exceeded 25 – this obviously never panned out) and that Woodridge's future was in jeopardy if Horton remained open.

At this point, I am becoming very disenchanted with the school system in Cranston. I would appreciate a response.

Thank you.



Amy Blustein

Cranston

Help End the War on Saturday, January 27th

Democratic Response to SOTU