Back in March, USA Today broke the story about test score cheating in the Washington, DC school system under Michelle Rhee's watch. Since then, Rhee has been cozy with the DeVos family, Rick Scott, worked to undermine Tennessee schools, and continues her crusade with the assistance of former DNC official Hari Sevugan to bust unions in her quest "for the children."

Yet, she is curiously circumspect when it comes to answering allegations on the cheating scandals, particularly the Washington, DC cheating scandal. The New York Times reports:

These days, as director of an advocacy group she founded, StudentsFirst, she crisscrosses the country pushing her education politics: she’s for vouchers and charter schools, against tenure, for teachers, but against their unions.

Always, she preens for the cameras. Early in her chancellorship, she was trailed for a story by the education correspondent of PBS News Hour John Merrow.

At one point, Ms. Rhee asked if his crew wanted to watch her fire a principal. “We were totally stunned,” Mr. Merrow said.

She let them set up the camera behind the principal and videotape the entire firing. “The principal seemed dazed,” said Mr. Merrow. “I’ve been reporting 35 years and never seen anything like it.”

And yet, as voracious as she is for the media spotlight, Ms. Rhee will not talk to USA Today.

The video at the top of her firing the principal is one on Rhee's StudentsFirst website. She actually is proud of it, and perhaps it was justified. We really don't know one way or the other on that. But what we do know is that Beverly Hall may face criminal charges for the cheating in Atlanta on her watch. We know that Hall may go to jail over what appears to be the most egregious case of widespread cheating in U.S. history.

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Pruning Shears: The Pneumatics of Washington DC

Alternate Brain: A virtual movie of John Steinbeck discussing his reasons for writing The Grapes of Wrath. Timely...

The WAWG Blog: Where is the Right-wing Authoritarian Triad taking us?

Newshoggers: Majority want jobs, out of Afghanistan

First Draft: Malaka of the Week: Tom Benson

democracyarsenal: Is it time to give Obama a break?

Happy blogiversary to skippy the bush kangaroo!

Buried in the back page of the Washington Post Metro was this little item.

The three months that just ended have not been merely warm: they were the second warmest March, April and May in Washington's weather history.

The average temperature for the period from March 1 through May 31 was 60.5 degrees, the National Weather Service said.

In records that go back to 1872, there has been only one year in which the March through May period was warmer: That was 1977, when the figure was 60. 7 degrees.
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The high temperature Saturday at Reagan National Airport was 91 degrees. That temperature was 10 degrees above the average high for June 5 and is in the range that many people consider characteristic of summer.

The first four days of June also recorded high temperatures well above normal, although only Thursday hit the 90s, with a 92-degree high at National.

Wednesday and Friday fell short of the 90s, with high readings of 89 degrees.

So where are all those braying Republican politicians who were laughing about Gore and climate change when the blizzard hit Washington DC in January? Maybe they just run from the car in the garage to their air-conditioned offices and just don't notice?

Dear "Kelly at Fox News dot com":

Are you out of your mind talking to an ordained minister as if he's anti-religion? I'm all for confrontational journalism but you instigated a hostile debate with The Rev. (yes, that's Reverend, as in ordained minister) Barry Lynn on the issue of this stupid National Day of Prayer thing. Rev. Lynn is also Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Maybe it's because, in part, he doesn't like Congress telling him how to do the church thing? And you act like he's pooping on Baby Geebus or something. Get a grip.

A federal judge decides quite rightly that "National Day of Prayer" is unconstitutional. So you decide to show her face and name on the air more than once in this segment. What is up with that, Megyn? Psst, back in the day, it was us Christians who got fed to the lions. Shame on you.

The "National Day of Prayer" is a silly convention that Washington DC uses to suck up to the constituency that is comforted by such nonsense. For those of us who pray daily this kind of political pandering makes little difference, and for those who don't, the National Day of Prayer "reminder" is Christianist jingoism, pure and simple.

Americans United argues quite rightly that this "National Day of Prayer" has been completely hijacked by the Religious Right, which uses it to promote religious bigotry:

In recent years, most NDP activities have been coordinated by the “National Day of Prayer Task Force,” an organization based in Colorado Springs and run by Shirley Dobson, wife of Religious Right radio broadcaster James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family.

The efforts of Focus on the Family to fund-raise and organize based on congressional dictate is clearly unconstitutional. Of course, the religious right has more than Mrs. Dobson pushing this Christianist mumbo jumbo, Ms. Kelly. Now they've got you. Nice journalism, there.

Well worth the click: more from Americans United on this ruling.

Our own David Neiwert flew to DC to participate in the huge march on DC for immigration reform. He'll be filing in some reports as soon as he can.

America's Voice:

Today's the day. Tens of thousands of people are registered to come to the National Mall for today's immigration reform rally, called the March For America. Hundreds of buses are still pouring in from across the country, and several major progressive and pro-migrant bloggers will be reporting directly from the rally, which starts at 2pm. Expect coverage from Vivir Latino and Crooks and Liars, among others, as well as pictures and video from the National Mall. Look for a performance by Grammy award-winning talent, Los Lonely Boys! Live-streamed video should pop up at C-SPAN, Telemundo or Univision. On twitter, check out the #m4a hashtag. Follow @AmericasVoice and @RI4A.

I'm hearing that there are well over 200K people protesting at the March, but I expect the media to not care all that much about it.

The best laid plans...

Our newest contributer, Karoli, has audio from the teabaggers celebrating the RNC sign donations, which Heather reported on for VideoCafe yesterday:

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But even after all that official RNC support, okay, not official but still party-sanctioned, okay not party-sanctioned but still paid for by the RNC (or whatever their excuse is today), the tea-baggers seem to be petering out...

Pointing to preliminary turnout numbers at today's rally on Congress, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) argued that the momentum behind the Tea Party movement had waned as lawmakers approach a final, decisive vote on health reform.

The DNC said its own head count of today's rally estimated about 300 attendees, well below the 1-1.5 million a Tea Party organizing group, FreedomWorks, had estimated in attendance for its Sept. 12, 2009 rally on the Capitol. (Other media outlets had estimated between 60,000 to 75,000 in attendance for those rallies.)

For its part, FreedomWorks pegged today's attendance as closer to 1,000, a number which they said could be even higher since the rally was organized at the last minute, and because many people in town skipped the rally to go directly to lobby lawmakers.

Hold on there, FreedomWorks, facts are pesky things. I contacted a friend who is a Senate staffer to ask about the tea party protests from Capitol Hill and this is what he wrote back:

I didn't see anyone in the office buildings on the Senate side but walked out of the Russell Office Building to see a raucous crowd protesting loudly, a tight knot of maybe about 250-300. Only problem for the Tea Partiers: the protesters were a group calling for better public transportation in America.

The only Tea Party representation I saw was a single guy in yellow "smiley face" shorts, purple shirt, and blue wizard's cap holding a sign saying, "Nancy Pelosi Spits In The Face Of America." I know the action was planned to be on the House side, but there was nothing at all over on the North side of our august Capitol ...

Ooopsies! No fair taking credit for non-tea party protesters, FreedomWorks. In the interest of accuracy, a House staffer, with whom I confirmed this account, had this to say:

Smiley shorts guy has been there everyday for the last month.

In fact, Huffington Post has a picture of him, and it appears his shirt is green (resembling a character from Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc, and his hat is the same as Mickey's from Fantasia), so the Senate staffer may have some issues with color recognition or the tea-bagger may be conducting his own separate non-tea party protest against Disney.

Not to be deterred by the dismal turnout and weakening talking points, a spokesperson for FreedomWorks offers a rosy prediction for their continued relevance:

"For those who are dismissing, I would say the only date that matters is Nov. 2nd," said Rob Jordan, the vice president for federal and state campaigns at FreedomWorks. "You can count on people showing up for that day."

Whatever you say, buddy.

Work has been a little heavier than usual, perhaps as government agencies try to complete their projects before the Christmas holiday incapacitates Washington DC. So I'm glad that Spencer Ackerman is on the job, watching the congressional hearings on Afghanistan.

But both McChrystal and Eikenberry replied that the administration was ultimately providing a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, even if the U.S.-led combat phase would diminish over time. McChrystal said setting the date for beginning a “conditions-based” transition would help navigate Afghans’ complex feelings about the presence of foreign troops on their soil. “The guarantee that we, the coalition, will support them but not stay too long is actually a positive,” McChrystal testified. Eikenberry emphasized that the Obama administration envisioned a “long-term relationship with Afghanistan, a diplomatic relationship, a long-term economic assistance relationship” after the ultimate departure of U.S. troops.

The general said he expressed such confidence in his strategy because the Taliban was “not credible as a political entity,” earning acquiescence from Afghans only through the lack of a credible alternative from the Afghan government and its NATO allies. As the U.S. flows forces into southern and eastern Afghanistan to establish “contiguous security” for the population, “the next 18 months will likely be decisive,” McChrystal said. “Rolling back the Taliban is a prerequisite to the ultimate defeat of al-Qaeda.”
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In an attempt to quash media speculation about a chilly relationship between Eikenberry and McChrystal, the two men made a show of their professional partnership. Eikenberry saw his internal doubts about a U.S. troop increase leak to the media last month. But ambassador said that he firmly supported the administration’s strategy and was “exactly aligned with Gen. McChrystal.” The general returned the compliment by gesturing to Eikenberry and saying, “The person I listen to most is about three feet on my right.”

Ahhhhhh... harmony. Isn't it swell? Now if only the Republican politicians at the hearing would act as responsibly as those two, we might just get somewhere. But lost in this discussion, in the hearings and, who knows, perhaps even in the White House, is the damning fact that no number of additional troops in Afghanistan will fix the non-military factors that remain outstanding. Oh, yeah, and this guy is still running around free and easy after eight-plus years...

One of the reasons I was glad to leave journalism is that it's now run by media owners who are much more interested in profit margins than in any kind of public service. Newspapers, as far as I know, are still profitable. They simply don't make the kind of obscene profit margins demanded by Wall St. analysts and investors.

What this means, in real terms, is that far fewer reporters will be watching the Beltway store. That's good news - and bad news. Good news that fewer reporters will be tempted to write gossip-driven, negative stories based on their personal dislikes. The bad news is, there will be far fewer journalists watching the store. I predict that once Congress members figure out they're flying under the radar, bad behavior will escalate:

The year was 2000, and Cox Newspapers had about 30 people in Washington to cover the new Bush administration.

Eight years later, a similar transformation is under way, the stakes heightened by two foreign wars and the worst economic collapse in decades, but Cox will not be there to cover it. Cox, the publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Austin American-Statesman and 15 other papers, announced this month that its Washington bureau would simply close its doors on April 1.

Cox is not alone. Another major chain, Advance Publications, owner of The Star-Ledger of Newark, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland and other papers, just closed a Washington bureau that had more than 20 people.

Like a number of smaller papers, The San Diego Union-Tribune recently shuttered its bureau, which had four people at the end. Three years ago, the parent company, Copley Press, had an 11-person bureau in Washington, but it has since sold most of its papers.

Those that remain have cut back drastically on Washington coverage, eliminating hundreds of journalists’ jobs at a time when the federal government — and journalistic oversight of it — matters more than ever. Television and radio operations in Washington are shrinking, too, although not as sharply.

The times may be news-rich, but newspapers are cash-poor, facing their direst financial straits since the Depression. Racing to cut costs as they lose revenue, most have decided that their future lies in local news, not national or international events. That has put a bull’s-eye on expensive Washington bureaus.

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In response to a question from Brian Williams about "elitism", John McCain pinpoints D.C. and New York City as the bastions, or, as Politico puts it, "fake America." I suppose that's why bin Laden targeted lower Manhattan?

WILLIAMS: Who is a member of the elite?

MCCAIN: I -- I know where a lot of 'em live. (LAUGH)

WILLIAMS: Where's that?

MCCAIN: Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there. I know the town. I know -- I know what a lot of these elitists are. The ones that she never went to a cocktail party with in Georgetown. I'll be very frank with you. Who think that they can dictate what they believe to America rather than let Americans decide for themselves.

Barack Obama's Response to McCain's "Celeb" Ad - "Embrace"

And Washington DC spouses and VanityFair contributers Todd Purdum and Dee Dee Myers discuss whether John McCain's Celeb ad and campaign tactics would be better suited coming from a Democrat (WTF, is that some sort of backhanded compliment or what?) as well as Michelle Obama's style and the Clintons coming back to the campaign.

Open Thread below...