eGovernment

HOW MUCH BLAME DO THE FOLLOWING DESERVE FOR THE PROBLEMS FACING THIS COUNTRY'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 12/12/2010 - 08:00.

With the deceptive headline "68% in poll say parents, not teachers, are to blame for students' poor performance" the Cleveland Plain Dealer published today results of a "poll", paid for by eugenics champions and world's richest "humans" Bill and Melinda Gates, which misrepresents poorly-surveyed, poorly-reported opinions of 1,001 Americans about public education in America as significant indicators regarding the failure of the American public schools system, and reports "68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what's wrong with the U.S. education system -- more than teachers, school administrators, the government or teachers unions."

In fact, "government" was not a category in this poll... and, statistically, these Americans placed the same level of blame on State Education Officials (65%, with +/-3.9% sampling errors) as on parents... and all these answers are irrelevant.

Science proves a primary cause of failure in education in America is lead poisoning and other toxins put in the environment by the industrialists partnered with the Gates to control the world.

My Message to Washington DC about Working Class Issues With CRA, CDCs and Urban Planning In real NEO

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 11:18.

My Message to Washington DC about Working Class Issues With CRA, CDCs and Urban Planning In real NEO

My posting on CRA - Expand the Community Reinvestment Act to Bring Trillions MORE Dollars in Safe and Sound Investments to America's Neighborhoods - has had enough time online to offer some important insight.

First of all, from comments, CRA is a confusing issue and even liberal community development advocates associate CRA with urban development ills - projecting frustrations with local political corruption and planning failure upon all Federal urban renewal efforts, lumping in CRA (and organizations like NCRC). In fact, these citizens do not understand where CRA fits in and are misplacing their anger - missing an opportunity to support what may help.

Those responsible for educating citizens about CRA and credit issues - the councilpeople and CDCs - are the ones causing the harm and frustration for working class citizens, who feel under-served and under-represented - and they are under-educated about Federal efforts to improve their lives, and the availability of basic help.

Expand the Community Reinvestment Act to Bring Trillions MORE Dollars in Safe and Sound Investments to America's Neighborhoods

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 12/07/2010 - 04:15.

I recently met with Marcia West, Regional Organizer for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), in Washington, DC, to explore how economically distressed communities should respond to the foreclosure and housing crises in America, to expand credit access for working-class residents - to learn what leaders of Northeast Ohio may do to improve access to loans for housing and community development for us common folk. The short answer is "Expand the Community Reinvestment Act to Bring Billions of Dollars in Safe and Sound Investments to America's Neighborhoods" - go to Expand CRA to learn more and contact your representatives... SPREAD THE WORD!

CRA encourages banks to respond to a variety of needs in low- and moderate-income communities, including the financing of affordable rental housing, sustainable homeownership, small business creation, and economic development projects.

Study Will Recommend Ways to Strengthen Sustainability at EPA - The Future of Sustainability is General Systems Theory

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 11:33.

Study Will Recommend Ways to Strengthen Sustainability at EPA

November 30, 2010 -- The National Research Council, at the request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has launched a study to strengthen the scientific basis for incorporating sustainability concepts into EPA’s decision-making. “Today I am formally requesting President Cicerone and the National Academies convene a committee of experts to provide to the U.S. EPA an operational framework for sustainability that applies across all of the agency’s programs, policies, and actions,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at an event held at the National Academy of Sciences’ Koshland Science Museum. NAS President Ralph Cicerone and Bernard Goldstein, chair of the committee that will conduct the study, made remarks as well.

Science Wednesday: The Future is Sustainability - Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 - By Paul Anastas

LPJ-at-NRC

Wow! November 30th was an amazing day for the EPA. Not only are we in the midst of commemorating four decades of accomplishments in protecting the health and the environment, but Administrator Jackson also made a landmark speech at the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Science on the future of the EPA. That future is sustainability. The Administrator laid out her vision to a packed house of luminaries from across the spectrum, from academia to industry, to environmental groups.

EPA Recognizes Sustainable Communities with Smart Growth Awards

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 11:25.

2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

2010 Awards cover

"Well-conceived, effectively implemented environmental protection is good for economic growth… A clean, green, healthy community is a better place to buy a home and raise a family; it’s more competitive in the race to attract new businesses; and it has the foundations it needs for prosperity." – EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, March 8, 2010

Was It Smart For Obama to Arrest 77 Year Old American Cultural Icon Willie Nelson for Medical Marijuana on His Bus?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 19:40.

Willie Nelson Arrested for Medical Marijuana at US Customs Imprisonment Compound on I-10 in Bumfuck, Texas, USA

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 15:17.

I was just commenting to a Facebook Friend that "I was driving on I-10 in Texas a few weeks ago and they have Border Patrol imprisonment centers ON THE FREEWAY IN AMERICA (I've seen them in New Mexico as well) where they stop every car and truck looking for illegals, I suppose. They searched my whole car - without ever asking my name... they obviously had the car in their system. 1984 but worse, as our society is a complete lie, claiming we are free."

So it is timely to read Willie Nelson Arrested After Pot Found on Tour Bus - traveling from California to Austin, Texas... detained as a US citizen on US soil and searched by US Customs Patrol, though he crossed no borders, just like me - in poor Willie's case to be arrested for what is legal in 15 states in America. From ABC News:

“That’s just where his head is right now,” Ms. Frutchy said.... it's about the pot!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 11/26/2010 - 00:37.

 

I missed an important and telling article in the New York Times, September 29, 2010, about Cleveland home-town billionaire Peter B. Lewis, Chairman of Progressive Insurance  - Many Big Donors to Democrats Cut Support - which analyzes why "Democratic donors like George Soros, the bête noire of the right, and his fellow billionaire Peter B. Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so far"... showing many of the world's most powerful people think, feel and act the same way I do about our failed leadership in America and their failure to address the failure of their racist, unethical, immoral "War On Drugs".

A Rare Example of the Unreal World Being Real: Michael Moore Confronts Industry Designed to Push Him Over Cliff

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 11/23/2010 - 18:00.

Watch this amazing video of award-winning filmmaker and intellectual activist Michael Moore nearly speechless as he comes to terms, on Countdown, with a Cigna Insurance industry executive, now retired from the industry, who has written a book about how the insurance industry conspired to attack Moore and his movie "Sicko", and deny Americans good healthcare, ultimately being about the failure and sorry state of corporate America, subverting and smearing the best interests of citizens... "which kills 45,000 people a year".

Sicko promotes the concept of universal healthcare, which renders the health insurance industry useless. In its current state, revealed here, the health insurance industry is far worse than useless than you may ever imagine... it is collusive, murderous, and evil, as confirmed by one of their top executives ever.

QOD: What would NEO be like if all lawyers here each did their 50 hours of pro bono work a year, and never sheltered corruption?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 23:59.
Rope.jpg

In 2007 there were 1,143,358  Lawyers in the United States, which had a population of 303 million people, representing 265 people per lawyer in America. That would indicate that the 16 counties of Northeast Ohio (Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Wayne counties), with a population of 4.5 million people, have approximately 17,000 lawyers.

Thus, Northeast Ohio's 17,000 lawyers should be providing at least 850,000 hours of pro bono work to this community... let's round that up to 1 million hours.

In 7th Year, REALNEO.US Surpasses 500K Annual Unique Visitor and 1 Million Annual Page Visit Levels

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 03:15.


Google Analytics Traffic Data for realNEO.us for October 19 - November 18, 2010 (31 days)

Based on Google Analytics of realneo.us traffic, we are now at a level that exceeds 500,000 unique visitors and 1,000,000 page visits per year, and both metrics have been growing steadily for as long as we have tracked our web traffic metrics... so expect realNEO.us to exceed 1 million hits per year forever hereafter. By how much we exceed these metrics, with what growth rate for the future, is up to our members and community who create the content here that now attracts over 1,000,000 reads a year.

Department of Homeland Security Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 11/16/2010 - 12:33.

November 14, 2010, AlterNet featured an important article by G.W. Schulz, Center for Investigative Reporting: Workers, Be Careful: Facebook Snoops Looking Over Your Shoulder - Corporations and government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, are increasingly using new communications tools for surveillance purposes. In this report, Schulz profiles "a new company called Social Intelligence billing itself as a social media private eye will observe your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online accounts on behalf of employers to make certain you’re not a liability."

    Background checks involving criminal records and credit histories are typical and even expected of many major employers responsible for children, nursing homes or public safety.

    But the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company takes this concept to a new level offering an automated tool that mines social media content for troubling signs. Search filters can be customized “to reflect corporate culture,” and additional manual reviews are conducted by “social media experts.”

    A display tells the human resources manager in your workplace how many “negative” hits are uncovered, placing the names of both job applicants and active employees next to red flags like “drugs/drug lingo,” “gangs,” “poor judgment” and “demonstrating potentially violent behavior.”

    Social Intelligence is the latest in an ever-expanding movement by both corporations and government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, to use new communications tools for surveillance purposes. Some of the most provocative examples yet emerged only in recent weeks.

The Origin of “BuildingWhat?”

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 11/16/2010 - 11:32.

The Origin of  “BuildingWhat?”

More than eight years after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, New York Supreme Court Justice Edward H. Lehner was hearing arguments in a courtroom less than a mile from Ground Zero about a ballot initiative to launch a new investigation of the 9/11 attacks. When the lawyer for the plaintiffs sponsoring the initiative explained that the 9/11 Commission report left many unanswered questions, including “Why did Building 7 come down,” the Judge replied quizzically, “Building what?”

Like Judge Lehner, millions of people do not know or remember only vaguely that a third tower called World Trade Center Building 7 also collapsed on September 11, 2001. In any other situation, the complete, free fall collapse of a 47-story skyscraper would be played over and over on the news. It would be discussed for years to come and building design codes would be completely rewritten. So, why does no one know about Building 7? And why did Building 7 come down?

The answers to these questions have far-reaching implications for our society. The goal of the “BuildingWhat?” campaign is to raise awareness of Building 7 so that together we can begin to address these questions.

Hi Norm, I think we should take down Cleveland Thermal. Thoughts?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 10/26/2010 - 01:11.

This week, I was thrilled to receive the following forward-thinking message from Nachy Kanfer, Campaign Representative, Midwest States, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign:

Hi Norm, I think we should take down Cleveland Thermal. Thoughts?

Cleveland Thermal is a major private out-of-state-investor-owned downtown Cleveland and regional air polluter that burns 10,000s tons of coal each year... emits 1,000s of tons of pollution on Clevelanders and the surrounding world each year... to benefit only large real estate investors and corporate, institutional and government customers - much like the private, out-of-license "district" coal-burning Medical Center Company (MCCO) plant polluting the community excessively a few miles away, in University Circle.

EPA Greenversations for National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week: “Preventing Lead Poisoning”

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 10/25/2010 - 10:46.

EPA Greenversations: “Preventing Lead Poisoning”

Posted on October 25th, 2010 - 10:30 AM

Picture this: You live in a gorgeous older row home in Washington D. C. Although it’s a “fixer upper”, you bought it for its unmatched Victorian charm and its unbeatable location (Who doesn’t want to live next to a cupcake shop?). You finally decide it’s time to remodel the kid’s room and update the kitchen, but your spidey-sense is going off because you know that renovating a pre-1978 homes with lead paint can have risks. What’s the next step?

  • Do a search on the internet about EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule
  • Look for a contractor, but make sure to ask them if they are EPA Lead-Safe Certified
  • Check with your pediatrician about testing your children for lead

STOCKYARD, CLARK-FULTON & BROOKLYN CENTRE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

Submitted by briancummins on Wed, 10/20/2010 - 16:31.

Stockyard, Clark-Fulton & Brooklyn Centre

Community Development Office

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Tema: Reunión de líderes hispanos residentes – vecindades de Stockyards, Clark-Fulton y Ward 14 así como Brooklyn Centre Tremon

Submitted by briancummins on Wed, 10/20/2010 - 16:24.
Los representantes del concilio Cummins, Zone y Westbrook le invitan a una reunión con el objetivo de explorar formas para fortalecer las comunicaciones y la participación de los hispanos que viven o trabajan en las comunidades de Clark-Fulton (incluidos Ohio City y Tremont), Stockyards y Brooklyn Centre. Así mismo, compartir el nuevo modelo que se ha venido desarrollando para ofrecer a la comunidad servicios de desarrollo en estas vecindades.
 
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Subject: Senate Approves Resolution Designating October 24-30 Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 10/03/2010 - 21:57.
10/24/2010 - 00:00
10/31/2010 - 00:00
Etc/GMT-4
LeadKidWarning.jpg

One of the greatest tricks about living in Northeast Ohio is preventing harmful lead poisoning exposure for children and adults living here - some neighborhoods of Cleveland still have around 30% of children showing harmful levels of lead in their blood, causing permanent physical and mental harm. So it is appropriate the United States Senate has declared the week before Halloween - October 24-30 - as National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which "calls upon the people of the United States to observe National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week with appropriate programs and activities."

In the spirit of the millions of Americans harmed by lead poisoning over the years, now dead and haunting those who cause such environmental harm on Earth today... may 2010 be the year when Northeast Ohio leaders get serious about protecting our children and adults from the trick of lead poisoning, as that is the greatest treat they may ever give to this community and themselves.

Was this reported in Cleveland?

Location

Lead Contaminated America
Every Lead Contaminated Street Lead Contaminated Northeast Ohio
Every Lead Contaminated City, OH
United States

"expectation of new record high temperatures in 2012 - frequency and magnitude of extreme events could reach a high level"

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 10/02/2010 - 22:41.


Figure 1. Seasonal-mean temperature anomalies relative to 1951-1980 mean for the
most recent two summers and winters.

Climate Progress has a link today to an excellent report by NASA's top climatologist, Dr. James Hansen - “How Warm Was This Summer?” (copied below), which confirms that 2010 is equal to the hottest year on record, resulting in more extreme natural disasters worldwide this year, and forecasts worse impacts of climate change several years into the future, predicting "it is likely that 2012 will reach a record high global temperature." Meaning:

Given the association of extreme weather and climate events with rising global temperature, the expectation of new record high temperatures in 2012 also suggests that the frequency and magnitude of extreme events could reach a high level in 2012. Extreme events include not only high temperatures, but also indirect effects of a warming atmosphere including the impact of higher temperature on extreme rainfall and droughts. The greater water vapor content of a warmer atmosphere allows larger rainfall anomalies and provides the fuel for stronger storms driven by latent heat.

Who will you Elect as your Cuyahoga County Executive on Nov 02, 2010 to lead the NEW CHARTER GOVERNMENT through reformation?

Submitted by ANGELnWard14 on Sat, 10/02/2010 - 01:00.
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Thank God - Good Reporting Scene: Sources: Bill Mason Expected to Resign Soon, Face Charges From Feds

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 11:45.

The following report from Scene sets the stage for more waves of resignations, arrests and firings in the ongoing purging of corruption from the region - THANK GOD!

With this passing of Bill Mason must come a fresh look at the processes and schemes behind the Great Lakes Wind Task Force he controlled... for now, look forward to this castle crumbliing... and thank Scene for this investigation, diving far deeper into the muck of local government corruption than the Plain Dealer seems to have access or has dared to go...

Sources: Bill Mason Expected to Resign Soon, Face Charges From Feds

Posted by Erich Burnett on Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM

bill-mason.jpg

Cuyahoga County’s corruption scandal has touched almost every corner of county service except the Prosecutor’s Office. That will change in the coming weeks, according to sources with close ties to county politics. Mason is expected to resign by the second week of October, the sources say. Federal charges against him are expected within the next two months.

realNEO Word of the Day: Scheme - [skeem] - Unfavorable overtones (selfish, devious) began to creep in early 18c.

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 10:28.

scheme
   [skeem] noun, verb, schemed, schem·ing.
–noun
1. a plan, design, or program of action to be followed; project.
2. an underhand plot; intrigue.
3. a visionary or impractical project.
4. a body or system of related doctrines, theories, etc.: a scheme of philosophy.
5. any system of correlated things, parts, etc., or the manner of its arrangement.
6. a plan, program, or policy officially adopted and followed, as by a government or business: The company's pension scheme is very successful.
7. an analytical or tabular statement.
8. a diagram, map, or the like.
9. an astrological diagram of the heavens.
–verb (used with object)
10. to devise as a scheme; plan; plot; contrive.
–verb (used without object)
11. to lay schemes; devise plans; plot.