Shorter version of Christopher Hedges I particularly like his comments on Oprah

On Oprah's role in the cultural and religious pursuit of personal wealth:

HEDGES: Negative. Oprah peddles this fantasy that we can have everything we want if we just focus on happiness and grasp that we are truly exceptional and dig deep enough within ourselves and this is just magical thinking. It's not just peddled by Oprah. I don't want to pick on Oprah. The Christian right does it, Hollywood does it, corporatism does it. Tony Robbins, self-help guru and it's just a myth, and frankly it's a myth that's used to beat up on the poor.

So, there are no jobs in Camden. They used to make Campbells Soup in Camden. Even that's gone. Everything's gone. The schools are dysfunctional, there's a gigantic drop out rate, the streets are unsafe and to somehow tell a poor black child who's not getting a good education, not being raised in an environment that provides safety and security and nurturing and upon that being tossed out into a city where there is no work that they have to dig deep enough within themselves is really a way for us to turn our backs on the vulnerable and the poor.

And to say you are responsible, this is what's called cultural messages, you are responsible for your fate. And that's just the way the corporate state wants it as it sheds job after job after job. As large or as larger segments of American society are reduced to subsistence levels, without any kind of job security, without any kind of adequate health insurance, that it's sort of their fault because they haven't managed to tap into their inner strength, this is not only delusional, but in the end I think callous to the weak and the poor and to the working class.

The full text of this segment is here: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/chris-hedges-libertarianism-struggle-betwe

More from two days earlier. Michelle Rhee former superintendent of Washington School. I spell relieve in two words: fraud and jail

According to the New Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/education/22winerip.html?_r=1 Rhee insisted that the cameras come in while she fired some principles on camera. Here is a brief clip as it appeared on PBS. Of course Michelle Rhee was the darling of plenty of the money men, the educational experts who have never educated a child in their lifetime and appear to want to start educating them with teachers who have all the skills and expertise of a quicky mart employee. Rhee was also was one of the big stars in the educational propaganda film Waiting For Superman and she also got a big plug from the queen of education Oprah. Here she is on Oprah:

Oprah here: has spun her ability to get people to open up about their problems into a mega billion dollar empire and who's own foray into education comes down to being a distant executive at one elite boarding school, in South Africa, that has had a couple of major sex scandals since it opened in 2007. Oprah was apparently too busy supplementing her income when those incidents befell the children but like any good distant executive as Michell Rhee can respect she did clean house afterward. Full story here http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/03/30/2009-03-30_o_no_not_again_oprahs_school_rocked_by_s.html

What is interesting about Oprah's approach is that the panel is filled up with everyone that wants to buy country's curriculum and then fire all its teachers but she isn't talking about "all the good teachers", and you know who you are, only all the deadbeats I see around you as they blockbust one educational system after another. Apparently what Rhee the "warrior woman" didn't tell Oprah that the best way to achieve these results was with a batch of tests and a big eraser. Eventually Rhee's protector Mayor Fenty was fired, by the very people they were suppose to be standing up for, and Rhee had to go freelance finding different school systems to destroy. And was Fenty himself contrite after the voters so soundly rejected him. No he joined the National Cities Educational Campaign or Everfi, a group that is looking to profit on the gold rush of educational material as there is plenty of money in education for someone who doesn't go anywhere near a classroom. There product is to promote financial literacy through video games. and a former mayor might be able to help sell to the people they need to impress.

http://www.dcblack.com/the-news/339-everfi-announces-former-washington-dc-mayor-adrian-fenty-to-lead-national-cities-education-campaign.html

 http://cfed.org/newsroom/in_the_news/SEED/financial_literacy_through_video_games/