As you’ve likely read in our recent alumni updates, the New York regional placement team is continuing to work tirelessly to place our 300+ incoming 2009 corps members. Although we continue to be optimistic about securing additional placements, we still have 118 corps members who have yet to be placed. Since the school year is now less than two weeks away, we believe it is very likely that we will have a substantial number of our corps members who do not receive their placements until after the first few weeks of school.

Bad news for TFA…

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Op-Ed Contributors – Smart Child Left Behind – NYTimes.com.

Good article.  My dad and I, prior to my joining TFA, debated whether an educational system should help high achievers reach their potential, or help those who struggle the most to gain the skills they need to be functional members of our society (which hopefully entails more than our work force).  I argue for the latter, and though issues of test validity and the induction of a test-oriented mentality lead me to be generally unsupportive of NCLB, I don’t think I buy the argument that our focus should be on students that are capable of helping themselves – that’s the American way.  And the new American way – to create educational equality, so that human potential is no longer stifled by systemic inequity.

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The Bush administration was forced to admit in the days after the 2004 alert that it was based on intelligence three or four years old.

via Tom Ridge: I Was Pressured To Raise Terror Alert To Help Bush Win.

Both facts are distrubing.

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Woman hides monkey under shirt during flight, convicted – USATODAY.com.

She was able to smuggle a drugged monkey in her shirt all the way to America, but then went running her mouth to the clothing store clrek and blew it!

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Man offers 40 goats, 20 cows for Chelsea Clinton – Your life – Belleville News-Democrat.

“Chepkurgor operates a small electronics and computer shop in Nakuru, a major city northwest of Nairobi. He may still be waiting for Chelsea, but he’s not exactly single. He married his wife Grace, a college classmate, in 2006.”

Do that’s not happening.  But Fareed Zakaria is pretty funny:

“CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the session’s moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor’s dowry was “not a bad offer.”

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Hulu – The Colbert Report: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 – Watch the full episode now..

birthers are idiots.  the first time I saw news on this, I told the friend with me at the time  something to the effect of “they are seeding this out, and it will grow.”  The truth matters, unless you just insist on being an ideologue.  Scary.  sad.

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Rights groups decry Gaza ‘honor killing’ – CNN.com.

wow, I’d hate to be one of the women in this picture, who have nothing to do with this story past “looking muslim.”

So, so sad. Ayo progressive Islam!

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