Good news in The Big Easy where over a year ago they broke the teachers union and basically started over with publicly financed but privately board run charter schools.  This year, testing of fourth and eighth graders have shown improvements by 12% and 4% respectively, in only a year.  They still have a long way to go, but this is real progress from a completely failed school system in a short turnaround time.  The major reason being given for this success is the quality of teachers they were able to attract.  I wonder if they would have been able to attract those teachers without being able to kick out the other ones that are often so protected by unions.  Just a thought.

Via Megan.

Update:  Some good extra analysis over at Boots and Sabers, especially in response to Jay's comment here.  Scott also asks in particular how New Orleans attracted these new wonderful teachers.  After the union was broken, many teaching service organizations like Teach for America came in to help support these schools.  The teachers are often times younger, very enthusiastic and very driven.  Just the sort of teacher that they need to fix these problems.

Can you believe that a court would have the audacity to strike down restrictions on marriage that a legislative body elected by a majority of people thought was a good idea?  If only they thought to pass a constitutional amendment back then!  The will of the people could have been duly upheld like all those preachers in church talked about.

</sarcasm>

So the Pennsylvania Primary is finally over, and exactly what did it accomplish?  It kept Hillary in the race.  Despite what you may be reading this morning, nothing else happened.  Prior to Pennsylvania, the arguments for Hillary vs. Obama shaped up like this this:

Obama:  He has the lead in pledged delegates, and the lead in the popular vote, and has a high likelihood of maintaining both leads going into the convention.  He is the candidate that the people chose.  Choosing Hillary over Obama would lead to a civil war in the party.

Hillary:  Obama's early victories were style over substance before people knew him, or his views.  Hillary was outspent 3:1 in Pennsylvania and still won by 10 points.  The vast majority of Obama's victories were in states were Democrats aren't competitive in the general election either.  The Super Delegates need to perform their designated role and pick the candidate who has the best chance to win in November.

What has changed now that Hillary has won in Pennsylvania?  Nothing.  The talking points are still the same, and will remain the same up until the convention as long as Hillary continues to win states.  The only thing that can happen between now and convention time is that Hillary can lose the nomination by losing states she is supposed to win.  This answers Megan's question as to why the super delegates haven't committed yet.  They're waiting for the decision to be made for them.  If Hillary loses some states she's supposed to win between now and the convention, then they need not commit unnecessarily.  Never make a decision today if you don't have to.

In other interesting primary news... Ron Paul received 16% of the vote in Pennsylvania.  That doesn't look good for John McCain who is supposed to now be the anointed candidate.  Shouldn't his victories be higher than that?  Also interesting is the news that Ron Paul supporting delegates are being seated by many state conventions, often to the dismay and anger of local party officials.  While they are often bound to vote for McCain by state law at the convention, they will have a very interesting impact on the party platform.  The large number of Paul supporters in this position shows a weakness in the McCain machinery.  Many people simply voted in the primaries, but didn't follow through with the delegate selection process which left him wide open.

As part of a large Earth Day push, the Milwaukee County Transit System scheduling information is now fully integrated with Google Transit.  For those that don't know, Google Transit is an interface into Google Maps that will provide you with routes and times for how to get to two points in a mass transit area.  For those who don't ride the bus very often and are confused by the myriad routes and schedules, this is a God send and makes trip planning a cinch.  Of course, for me it simply reinforces the reason why I drive my car to work every day.  The car trip that currently takes me less than 20 minutes would take about an hour according to Google Transit.  That's 40 minutes each way that I'd rather have for other purposes.

You can find out more from this article at OnMilwaukee.  This comes on the heels of the announcement that Google Street View is available in Milwaukee as well.  Via Dean.

Being a pretty standard libertarian, today is the ultimate day to complain about the ultimate excess of government.  Today is the ultimate day to complain about how much money is stolen from me every pay check.  Today is the ultimate day... or perhaps not.

Everyone complains about taxes on this day... even those people who demand more pork out of government and more hand outs for themselves.  I complain about these things every day... demanding that government give me less as long as it takes less.  I complain about these things every day when I see people who don't deserve a handout get one anyway, and then squander their gift.

And now that you have to pay for what you asked for... you're going to complain about it?  Wrong.  Shut up and write your check.  You asked for it... you got it.  Come back to me when you complain about getting something "for free" from the government on any other day of the year.

For a more profanity laced version of this rant, see Rachel Lucas.

For an interesting plan on how to reform the system, see Megan McArdle.

For a way to drown your sorrows after you've written your check, see Jack Daniels.

I can't believe that in Madison of all places, they'd be doing this:

Panhandlers still focus of Madison police

Madison police are seeking information from residents who were solicited for money or gave money to strangers on either the day before or the day of Brittany Sue Zimmermann's homicide.

Talk about insensitive.  They're not panhandlers... they're Freegans, who are committed to  voluntary joblessness, and engaging in waste reclamation... sheesh.  Via Casper.

You know, one of the guys who understood the difference between state and federal jurisdiction, and wasn't going to place undo burden on businesses?  Remember that?  Yeah, I forgot about it... and apparently so did he.

So I've looked over the results, and taken a first look at the blogosphere reaction, and so I think I'm ready to provide my own.

Wauwatosa Mayor:  As I said in my separate Wauwatosa Now post, I voted for Didier, but with reservations.  Given the fund raising 8-Ball that she was behind, I figured she was going to lose anyway.  Surprise, surprise.  Now don't make me look like an April Fool now that you've won Jill.

McGee Losing:  To be honest, I could give two figs if he won or lost, though I am a little surprised he lost.  But, I don't live in Milwaukee, and I don't live in his district.  He doesn't represent me.  If you think that this is a sign of major changes in that area of Milwaukee, then you are naive.

Walker Winning:  I figured it would be closer, but nice to see it wasn't.  I agree with some other commentators in that it surprises me that he got re-elected, but that people vote for the exact opposite type of candidate when it comes to the board itself.  I think there are two reasons for this.  First, how many of those positions go unopposed?  If you don't have someone running against a bad supervisor, how do you expect change?  And second, in contested races, I think people fall into the fallacy that even though the board is bad, somehow my supervisor isn't.

Frankenveto:  I'm both happy and sad that the referendum passed.  Happy for obvious reasons, and sad because I can't use the line "It's alive" today.

Gableman:  One of my favorite readers emailed me after Monday's post, and asked me some questions regarding my rationale for voting for Butler.  This person said that they understood why I couldn't vote for Gableman, but at the same time didn't understand why I couldn't leave that slot blank on the ballot.  It's a fair question.  This is how I answered in part:

What it would seem you're saying is that you approve of a philosophical stance to not vote for Gableman, but only so far as it doesn't hurt his chances at getting elected in the end using other people's votes.  I reject that idea.  If I thought he should be on the bench based on his behavior, then I'd vote for him.  Based on his actions, he should not be on the bench.  If you have a loser, then that means that someone else has to win, and that would be Butler in this case.  So I'm going to vote for him.

I understand that a lot of people like the idea of Gableman on the court from a philosophical standpoint... but look at what he did to get there.  To be honest, looking around the Conservative blogosphere, I don't understand the gloating.  I think it was a sour victory.

The Dept. of Justice has finally approved the Sirius/XM merger.  I couldn't be more happy about this since I have a Sirius subscriber.  That means that my programming options will increase greatly.  For instance, right now I can listen to any NFL game I want because Sirius has a contract with the NFL, but MLB games are not available since XM has that contract.  After the merger, the world will be my oyster.  Of course, that very idea scares the crap out of major terrestrial radio companies like Clear Channel, which want the FCC to force the new XM/Sirius brand to obey draconian federal regulations as a condition of the merger:

The nation's biggest radio station owner has asked the Federal Communications Commission to force a merged XM/Sirius satellite radio company to obey the agency's indecency laws as a condition for union. "One of the primary potential dangers to free, over-the-air radio posed by this merger is siphoning popular, including 'edgy' content, with consequent loss of advertising revenue," Clear Channel wrote to the FCC on March 11th. "That potential harm is mitigated if broadcast decency rules were to apply to the merged entity. There is no constitutional bar to such a condition."

Right, no constitution bar to such a condition... other than that pesky 1st Amendment thing.  What does the 1st Amendment say again?  I keep forgetting... oh wait... now I remember:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The whole argument is stupid because Sirius and XM are subscriber based services.  How Clear Channel thinks they can restrict those... while HBO has free reign is beyond me.  Besides, Sirius does an excellent job at self policing.  Some of their stations self censor, specifically for their subscribers.  For instance, they have stations that have adult stand up comedy, and also family oriented comedy.  Some of their music stations don't bleep out any nasty words in songs, while others do.  With hundreds of channels to choose from, you can literally pick the level of offensiveness you'd like to listen to.  And ultimately, isn't that the best way to do it?  But Clear Channel has said very clearly that what they're most afraid of is losing listenership to competition, but that shouldn't be a reason to regulate.  I hate to break it to you Clear Channel, but maybe the fact that people are willing to pay for radio, just to avoid your content ought to tell you something about your business.

Of course that's not all Clear Channel wants.  They want the FCC to allow for another license to the Satellite space... which actually is a fine idea.  I never understood why the FCC originally limited it to two in the first place.  If another company can come in and be profitable, than the more the merrier I say.  But ironically, Clear Channel also wants to restrict Sirius/XM from offering local content.  Right now, there are stations on Sirius which provide local traffic and weather for major markets.  How Clear Channel can claim that they want more competition, and then ask the FCC to restrict competition to Clear Channel is just downright amusing.  They also want to force Sirius to provide more "public interest" programming, but don't define what that means.  You'd think that traffic and weather reports would fit that bill... but that would be logical, and we can't have that now can we.

Of course, the very fact that there exists a government body which can hamstring how a company does business in return for allowing two companies to merge at all is just downright un-American.  But that's just the crazy Libertarian talking now.

One of the world's most talented science fiction writers and thinkers, Aurthur C. Clark, died today:

Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva told The Associated Press.

I've read many of his books, and he was an incredible talent, and inspired many to create some of the amazing things that we take for granted today.  This world would have been a poorer place without his influence, and I'm sure will be a poorer place now with his absence.  Rest in peace sir.

This story is extremely disturbing.  There was a time when I wouldn't believe that our government would do something like this, but nothing surprises me anymore:

House doors were locked Thursday night as lawmakers prepared for their first closed session in 25 years to debate surveillance legislation.

Republicans requested privacy for what they termed "an honest debate" on the new Democratic eavesdropping bill that is opposed by the White House and most Republicans in Congress.

The private session was scheduled for nighttime so the House chamber could be swept by security personnel to make sure there were no listening or recording devices.

The last such session in the House was in 1983 on U.S. support for paramilitary operations in Nicaragua. Only five closed sessions have taken place in the House since 1825.

"Honest debate".  In other words, the powers that be have decided that they want to pass legislation that they know the people will object to, and don't want to be held accountable for what they do or say.  This flies in the face of everything that democracy stands for, and every member of the House should be held accountable for this action.

The government serves at the will of the people, not the other way around.  This is an effort to subvert that will.  If you want surveillance, you need to make the case to the people... not hide it!

How much would she have cost if his name had been Gov. Swallows?

At least that's the only way I can explain this story:

Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.

The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."

Apparently the United States government has successfully eliminated all terrorists in the real world, and so has decided to dedicate funds to finding them in the virtual world.  Congratulations everyone... the War on Terror is officially over.

The arrogant former Attorney General of New York and now Governor (for now), Elliot Sptizer, is not just going down... he's going down hard:

The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.

It was only months later that the IRS and the FBI determined that Spitzer wasn't hiding bribes but payments to a company called QAT, what prosecutors say is a prostitution operation operating under the name of the Emperors Club.
...
Spitzer, who made his name by bringing high-profile cases against many of New York's financial giants, is likely to be prosecuted under a relatively obscure statute called "structuring," according to a Justice Department official.

Structuring involves creating a series of financial movements designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments.

This is phenomenal.  The fact that another politician will get hamstrung by a stupid law which shouldn't even exist in the first place... and that he was considered a tough law and order type to boot... wow... just fantastic.

As attorney general, [Spitzer] also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state's organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

"This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure," Mr. Spitzer said at the time. "It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring."

"By the by, this moment is so great, I'd cheat on that moment from before, marry this one, and raise an entire little family of moments." ~ Dr. Cox, Scrubs

What does it say about where we are, that when a bomb goes off outside a military facility, we find it more likely that the perpetrators are Americans, rather than terrorists?

* With my apologies to Elliot for stealing his schtick.