The repeal of DADT by the numbers.

I know its small but just give it a click to enlarge it.

I have to say that seeing it laid out like this makes me very proud of my country.  Very proud indeed.

Of course not EVERYBODY shares my pride.

Courtesy of Pink News:

A Catholic woman from Massachusetts says she is so disgusted by gay people that she fears leaving her house.

You know the TRULY sad thing is that this woman, Stacy Trasancos, has quite a lot in common with gay Americans. You see it is fear of running into homophobic people like her that makes many of our homosexual brothers and sisters too afraid to leave the closet.

President Obama's American Jobs Act will help modernize schools. Because to SOME people schools still matter.

I thought this might give you a lift this Sunday morning as well.

(Image courtesy of The Obama Diary.)

Some things I cannot do.

I always dread this day.

It is the day that I have to keep my television turned off, and avoid my favorite internet news sites.

It is the day that it seems EVERYBODY wants to talk about what I don't ever want to talk about again.

And why should I? Even ten years later I remember every single thing about that day.

The phone call from my daughter telling me to turn on the television. "Daddy they are attacking New York!"

The day spent watching something happen which my mind refused to accept was even possible.

The next days spent watching the disaster over, and over, and over again. Until I could close my eyes and see every detail play out like I was watching it happen right in front of me.

Weeks spent wondering why, who, and how.

And just when the images had faded into the darkness of my psyche it was the one year anniversary, the two year anniversary, the three year anniversary, and here they came again, playing in a loop on every station, on every television, every year. The attacks only happened once, but through the power of the recorded image they continue to attack us again, and again, and again.

The news stations say they do it so that we won't forget. Who could forget?

Like all Americans alive at that time, I will NEVER forget.

So today I thought I would pay my respects to those who lost their lives on that fateful day, by living mine.

I went up to my favorite place and spent the afternoon appreciating the vastness of the world around me.

Absorbing the beauty that surrounded me.

Listening to the music that nature played for me.

And marveling at the images which inspired me.

After I finished my hike I felt revitalized, and renewed, and not a drop of sadness remained.

Perhaps some will decide I am not a "good" American for not sharing in our national grief. But I have already shed so many tears, and feared so many faceless enemies, and yet it changed nothing.

So today I decided it was not just something that I cannot do, I decided it was something that I should not do. And I do not believe I could have made a better choice.

If every year on 9-11 our nation succumbs to an overwhelming sense of loss, and spends the day re-watching the handiwork of those who wanted to terrify us, who wins then?

Well today, for THIS American, the bad guys lost.

New hope for Sarah Palin.

Andrew Sullivan had a rather interesting epiphany about Palin based on her speech September 3rd:

She's positioning herself against the corruption of both parties, just as she positioned herself in Alaska as the hockey mom prepared to take on her own party elites' collusion with Big Oil. Alas, her efforts in Alaska soon unraveled, even after she was able to tax the oil companies and deliver the goodies directly to Alaska voters. Her gas pipeline is as distant a prospect as ever. And when one reviews her career, it's hard to resist noting that her populism (combined with extreme Christianism) was the only way she could see making it to the top - especially after the Murkowskis dissed her. Opportunism or principle? It could be both, but with Palin, one should never under-estimate the former. She's shrewder as a politician than some understand. 

I wonder if she's contemplating a populist third party campaign.

Now the idea of Palin running on a third party ticket is not something that I have seriously considered in quite some time, due to the waning influence of the Teabaggers and her erratic self destructive behaviors.  But I have to say that the idea DOES have merit.

As much as I personally dislike Palin, one does have to admit that she has a HUGE presence in this country.  And clearly that presence, simply cannot be contained by the Republican party.

The GOP might flirt with the Tea Party, and ply them with drinks until their slutty side comes out, but lets face it after the Republicans have had their way with the Constitutionally illiterate cuckoo-birds they will slip out under the cover of darkness, MAYBE leave a couple of bucks on the dresser for cab fare, and NEVER call them again.

Sarah knows what this behavior is like, she lives with Todd, so undoubtedly she does not expect much from the Republicans in the long run. So why not strike while the Grand Old Party is at its weakest, strip away their most ardent new freshmen Congress members (Who are all Constitution masturbating flag pin wearing Tea Party members anyhow), and start her own third party?

She could EASILY seduce inspire the tri-corner hat wearing fringe into supporting her.

Oh yeah! That's the stuff!

 And right now wherever they go a number of disillusioned Republicans are sure to follow.

Soon she could have a poorly organized bunch of horny, undereducated, politically inept, individuals ready and willing to start knocking on doors and putting up signs for this vibrant new party that could turn the world of American politics right on its....well...on its side anyhow. (Okay well maybe not ALL of the way on its side, but it certainly could tip it a bit.)

And how easy would it be to find just the right people to recruit for this new party? All Palin would have to do is kick out anybody who dared to use their Yale/Harvard/Driving School educated logic to solve problems or come up with policy decisions, and only keep those willing to rely solely on common sense and the fire in their bellies to clumsily attack the complex problems facing our country.

Palin could finally be Palin, with no more "advisers" telling her what to say or wear on her head, and she could even go back to writing her own Facebook posts and Tweets to get her message out to the people.

Remember what an effective communicator she was BEFORE they tried to changer her?

Wrapped up Anch Gov's Picnic, awesome. Now road trip to Fairbanks for farewell speech/changing of the guard. Camper full of kids & coffee... 

W/kids in camper;on World's Best Rd Trip!To soar by Mt.McKinley&rushing rivers,we remember all of AK is BIG/WILD/GOOD LIFE;feel freedom here

Pure magic!

I know I have not always been one to support Palin in her political aspirations, but I think that THIS idea of branching out on her own, and taking as many of the disgruntled Republicans with her as possible, is the right thing to do for this country. I mean it just feels right, don't you think?

And I have so much confidence in this idea of starting a third political party that I am willing to do MY part as well.  I pledge to attack and ridicule the idea as aggressively as possible, insuring that the Right Wing will take it seriously and flock over to help defend it against unscrupulous attacks from the Left Wing (that would be me), and aggressive questioning from the "Lamestream" media (That might be me sometimes as well).

Soon the money will start flowing in from Koch brothers grasroots fundraising and the "Mama Grizzly's Tea Party of Constitutional Freedom Loving Americans" will be ready to begin to let its high pitched voice be heard.

As much as I am positive that this will have a disastrous effect on the reelection of Barack Obama (Oh God! What am I doing?), I feel as a patriotic, though unfortunately liberal leaning, American that I MUST support the common sense idea of splitting an existing party in two in order to better defeat their common foe. After all when has that approach NOT worked?

So Ms. Palin as much as it hurts me to support such a danger to our Socialist agenda, I urge you for the sake of this great country to take on BOTH political parties and get this country back to the "time honored truths" that continue to elude you, and start that third political party.

God's speed Sarah Louise Heath Palin, and may you continue to have the same level of success with THIS project as you have enjoyed with every other project branded with the name Sarah Palin.

Game on!

President Obama's speech in Richmond, Virginia yesterday: "I'm an eternal optimist."

 (Here is the transcript.)

According The Atlantic this Jobs Bill might be the best possible legislation that the President can get passed right now.

President Obama's $450 billion stimulus revolves around a plan to extend and expand the payroll tax cut. It also includes incentives for businesses to hire workers -- with a separate tax credit for hiring long-term unemployed workers -- and it extends unemployment benefits for another year. And it's all offset with a plan to reduce our long-term deficit. 

This is a tax-side stimulus to encourage business to hire and put more money in the pockets of both the employed and the unemployed. 

Expanding immediate tax stimulus for an economy with struggling demand is smart. And $450 billion is a big number. And the ideas in the speech are boldly, even pugnaciously, presented. But the heart of this plan is an extension of current policies plus a moderate expansion of certain policies. For example, we already have a payroll tax stimulus. We already have unemployment benefits. Companies already have incentives to hire. Still, the economy is growing at less than one percent and job creation is, literally, zero. 

Extending and expanding current policies is a necessary thing with economic and labor growth falling to lows since the recession. In the current political climate, this is probably as bold as the president can go. But to borrow a metaphor from football (which followed minutes the president stopped talking), this is neither a 40-yard bomb nor a straight draw for the running back. It's a checkdown pass. Carefully diagrammed, measured to bypass the defense, and just enough to move the ball downfield. 

There is much more to this article, including the details that a certain Grizzled Mama claimed were not present in the plan, so go ahead and click the link to learn more.

However even during this time of strife, and as the President prepares to wade into the Republican lion's den again to push through this legislation, he still took time to demonstrate his humanity while visiting the Arlington Cemetery. (Photos courtesy of The Obama Diary.)

Map of Voter Suppression Legislation state by state.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

What the map doesn't show is that five states, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, and West Virginia, have actually curtailed early voting as well. As Ari Berman reported, some of these ban voting on "the Sunday before the election—a day when black churches historically mobilize their constituents." 

"Americans are killed by lightning more often than they are victimized by fraud that voter ID would do something to stop," said Justin Levitt, a professor of law at Loyola Law School. "We've amputated a foot to stop a potential hangnail." The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that nearly ten percent of eligible voters lack the kind of photo ID required by these voter ID laws. 

Republican defenders of voter ID laws claim that higher black turnout in Georgia during the 2006 and 2010 elections proves that voter ID laws don't suppress the minority vote—an argument repeated by minority witness Hans von Spakovsky in his Senate testimony Thursday. But in states without such restrictions, the increase in black turnout was actually much larger. Von Spakovsky's analyses would "fail statistics 101 at just about any college in the country," Levitt said.

Before we all get too cocky about the embarrassingly inept pack of Republican candidates fighting over who will suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of our President, don't forget that the Republicans are essentially cowards who are terrified of a fair fight.

They will pull every trick in the book to level the playing field, and WE have to remain vigilant to call them out on these tactics and hopefully find ways to render them ineffective.

And if any of you have doubts that the GOP can steal a national election, than either you must be new to this country, or you were born AFTER the election of 2000.

President Obama introduces "The American Jobs Act".

I thought the speech was very good, and I also thought the President demonstrated great passion as well as great exasperation that he has so little support to do the things for this country that MUST be done.

Here are the highlights courtesy of The Monitor:

Nearly $250 billion in tax relief for individuals and businesses through tax credits and a variety of tax cuts. 

140 billion to upgrade roads, bridges and schools. 

35 billion to help keep teachers, police and firefighters on the job. 

Extending and expanding a payroll tax cut that would save the typical American family $1,500 in taxes in 2012. 

A payroll tax "holiday" for employers on any new hires or wages. All companies would be eligible for the break, which would apply to up to $50 million in new payroll spending. 

Cut the payroll tax in half for businesses with payrolls of less than $5 million.

The President bent over backwards to find programs and tax cuts that the Republicans should NOT be able to vote against. But sadly for the American people that will only work if the Republicans are not actually willing to let this country crumble into disrepair for short term political gain. I have to say that I do not have much confidence that such an obvious act of treason is not exactly what the Republicans have decided to do.

Good news for the millions of disenfranchised Republicans, feeling trapped in their party. Apparently you can leave.

Courtesy of Truthout:

To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy. 

It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages. 

The debt ceiling extension is not the only example of this sort of political terrorism. Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel - how prudent is that? - in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization. 

Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care. This fact, which ought to be obvious, has nevertheless caused confusion among the professional pundit class, which is mostly still stuck in the Bob Dole era in terms of its orientation. For instance, Ezra Klein wrote of his puzzlement over the fact that while House Republicans essentially won the debt ceiling fight, enough of them were sufficiently dissatisfied that they might still scuttle the deal. Of course they might - the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was "bring it on!" 

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.

I imagine that for many old school Republicans they must feel as if the inmates have taken over the asylum, and are just hoping this is a passing fad, and that somebody will restore order.

Personally I have been watching things headed this direction for quite some time, though admittedly when I saw how horribly the Bush administration failed at running the country, I thought the GOP might be a little less cocky and more likely to work WITH Democrats in order to get our country back on track.

Why yes I DO still believe in the Tooth Fairy, why do you ask?

These days I can only predict that things are going to continue to erode until something really HUGE happens that will bring us all together. (And NO I am not suggesting that the Obama administration conduct a False Flag operation. Democrats don't do that.) Or the Teabaggers actually convince enough people to take up arms against the Federal government and we have our second Civil War.

That last option might seem a little crazy, and at one time it did to me as well.  At one time.

As if you needed ANOTHER reason to keep Michele Bachmann out of the White House!

Courtesy of CNN:

Painting herself as a "constitutional conservative" Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann told Sen. Jim DeMint's forum Monday that if elected president she would look to get rid of the Department of Education, among other things."Because the Constitution does not specifically enumerate nor does it give to the federal government the role and duty to superintend over education that historically has been held by the parents and by local communities and by state governments," she said, responding to a question by DeMint, a popular figure among the tea party movement.

So there you go voters, a vote for Michele Bachmann is a vote against providing your children with the same access to a free public education that you took for granted as citizens of the "greatest country on earth".  Try competing with China with a nation full of chronically undereducated video game addicts.

In a completely unrelated story, by no means connected to his candidate trotting out her bucket of batshit for all of America to see, Bachmann campaign manger Ed Rollins got a note from his doctor excusing him from having to work for her campaign: 

Ed Rollins is going to be stepping back from day-to-day management of the Michele Bachmann campaign, and moving into a senior advisory role, he said in an interview. 

Rollins said the reason for the change is personal — his health and the rigors of a campaign. 

“I wish I was 40 years old, but I’m not,” he told POLITICO. “I’m 68 years old, I had a stroke a year and a half ago. I’m worn out.”

Yeah I don't blame him.

I have only listened to her speak a handful of times and I am pretty "worn out" too.

Texas Christian Military organizations sue to make Christian prayer mandatory at funerals for ALL veterans. Even if the deceased were NOT Christians.

Courtesy of Atheism.com:

In Texas, three Christian military organizations -- Veterans of Foreign Wars District 4, the American Legion Post 586, and the National Memorial Ladies -- have filed suit against the VA because the Veterans' Administration doesn't include Christian prayers in vets' funerals unless the deceased and/or the family request it. They are claiming that Christianity and Christians are being discriminated against when Christianity isn't inserted into every funeral, whether the family wants it or not. 

"It makes my skin crawl that liberals are attempting to drive prayer out of a funeral ceremony for our heroes," Texas Rep. John Culbersontold Fox News, which has given significant airtime to the controversy. "We're going to fix this so that no Obama liberal bureaucrat will interfere with the funeral of a hero." 

In addition to supporting the lawsuit, Culberson has threatened to stop the salary of the cemetery director who enforced the no-consent-no-God rule and to hold hearings in the fall investigating the VA's anti-Christian stance. ... 

Marilyn Koepp, secretary of National Memorial Ladies, a volunteer group that attends veterans' funerals, shares her woes with Fox News: "It's very hard for me to be at the funeral of one of our veterans ... and we just make that decision that we will say God bless you, and how can someone tell us, no you can't." 

The VA's position is both clear and correct: 

"The idea that invoking the name of God or Jesus is banned at VA national cemeteries is blatantly false. The truth is VA's policy protects veterans' families' rights to pray however they choose at our national cemeteries. Put simply, VA policy puts the wishes of the veteran's family above all else on the day it matters most -- the day they pay their final respects to their loved one."

It does not take somebody who is an Atheist, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Hindu, or any other non-Christian religion to see how this is wrong.  All one has to do is imagine how a Christian family would feel they had no choice but to listen while prayers from the Koran were read over the body of their deceased loved one.

Could you imagine how Fox News would react in response to that kind of a story?

Isn't it in Matthew 7:12 of the King James Bible that reads: Therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Do these idiots not even read the words in the book that they fight so hard to thrust into the faces of the people around them?

Some people had to work this Labor Day weekend. Very important work.

The President visited New Jersey today, and spent time with Governor Christie surveying the damage wrought by Irene.

Courtesy of The Obama Diary:

“I know that there’s been some talk about whether there’s going to be a slowdown in getting funding out here, emergency relief. As President of the United States, I want to make it very clear that we are going to meet our federal obligations – because we’re one country, and when one part of the country gets affected, whether it’s a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, or a hurricane that affects the Eastern Seaboard, then we come together as one country and we make sure that everybody gets the help that they need. And the last thing that the residents here of Paterson or the residents of Vermont or the residents of upstate New York need is Washington politics getting in the way of us making sure that we are doing what we can to help communities that have been badly affected.”



This is what a President, a good President, does.

He goes to where people are hurting and comforts them, promises to help them, and then he does exactly that.

Could ANYBODY imagine this man worrying about what is said about him on a blog?

There are just too many more important things for him to do.

The most important editorial on NCLB that I have ever read. And I urge you to do the same.

Courtesy of AJC: 

By Jim Arnold 

We’ve done it now. Eleven years we had to educate the public, to register our protests and do everything in our power to warn people what was coming, and we blew it. We knew the moment would eventually come and we hem-hawed, looked at the ground, kicked at the dirt with our shoes and failed to look the opposition in the eye and face them down. All of us saw this coming, but very few took a stand and now we – and our students – are paying the price. We could have been prophets but failed the test. 

We allowed the proponents of NCLB to control the discussion from the beginning. They wrote the language, sent out the media notices and explanations, wrote the definitions of AYP, Highly Qualified and leaned heavily on the fact that none of us would dare protest anything to do with a name that implies we would be providing a high quality education for every single child in America. They were right. We chose not to speak out, not to fight against a system we knew from the beginning would set us all up for failure, and instead, in our best Dudley DoRight impersonations we set about to change the way we taught and measured and tested and graded and thought. 

We knew from the outset that NCLB and its goal of 100 percent – every child proficient in every area as determined by a single test on a single day each year – was patently, blatantly and insidiously absurd, but we took no concerted action. We knew Adequate Yearly Progress was a sham, and we literally and figuratively rolled over and tried our best to meet whatever impossible goals they set for us and our students. We knew that Federal law in NCLB was a violation of Federal law in IDEA but we went along with the insanity of testing Students with Disabilities based on chronological age rather than by IEP. 

We learned very quickly and much to our chagrin that some student scores – usually the lowest ones – were counted not once, not twice, but often as many as three times, but we went along to get along. All of us were aware that Highly Qualified, for all the high rhetoric that went along with it, only served to make certification as much of a barrier as humanly possible for Special Education teachers regardless of degree or experience. It seems the teachers we needed most were subjected to the greatest roadblocks to reaching the nirvana of HiQ certification.

We tried our best to play the game but the game was rigged from the start. When the AMO’s were low it was pretty easy for most schools. When the AMO’s went up and more and more schools were labeled “failing” we looked around in a panic for help. Surely nobody believed a school deserved the failing label because two or three kids in a subgroup didn’t pass a test? Yes they did. Yes they still do. We let them make the definitions and apply the labels, even when we realized the absurdity of it all. 

We actually pretended to believe that it was important for us to make sure that every child was tested on those all important test days so none could escape the trauma we inflicted upon them. We even learned in some places to game the system and hold back those kids we feared might not pass the test or might raise those student numbers to create a subgroup in areas we really didn’t want to see a subgroup or, God help us, to cheat or to make sure that we could hold out two or three or four of “those kids” on test days so their poor scores wouldn’t have a negative effect. 

Oh sure, some of you stuck your necks out and said something to the effect of “NCLB forced us to take a closer look at ourselves, and we are better off for that” in spite of the fact that it was our students that were suffering the consequences. What balderdash. What hubris. Our kids were the ones whose education was stilted by our submission to the belief that one test could effectively distill and determine the depth and extent of an entire year of a child’s education. They are the ones whose time was wasted by “academic pep rallies” and “test prep” and by the subtle and insidious ways we told them the test was “important” and put pressure on them to “do their best because our school is counting on you.”They were the ones that did without art and music and chorus and drama because we increased the amount of time they spent in ELA and Math. 

They were the ones that had time in their Social Studies and Science classes cut back more and more so schools could focus on the “really important areas” of ELA and Math. They were the ELL’s that couldn’t speak English but still had to take the test. Their teachers were the ones that were told “your grading of the children in your classes doesn’t count any more because standardization is more important to us that the individual grades you provide.” This told them in effect that their efforts at teaching were important but only if they taught using “this” methodology or “this” curriculum, then, when things started to go badly, they were the first to be blamed for the failure of public education. They were told to teach every child the same way with the same material but make sure to individualize while you’re at it. Hogwash. 

After a couple of years of this insanity, the “NI” status began to take its toll. Someone somewhere invented the term “failing schools” and, unsurprisingly, the label stuck. Students were given the opportunity to transfer to more test-successful schools, but at a price. Schools that did not meet AYP standards, oddly enough, were often those with high minority populations and high poverty. Nobody seemed to notice the zip code effect that left predominantly white schools meeting AYP standards and minority schools caught by the “failing” label. Oh surely, we reasoned, our government would not want to put public education in a situation it could not win………..or would they? 

I struggled with the rest of you as to why NCLB would go to such great lengths to make public education appear to be such a failure, to set up a system that would guarantee failure for practically every public school as we advanced toward that magical 100 percent level and provide no tangible rewards for success and such punitive actions for not meeting arbitrary goals. On top of all of that, I failed to recognize why our nation’s legislators so nimbly avoided even the discussion of reauthorization to change what everyone knew was a failed policy. One day it finally hit me. 

They didn’t want to change the policy, because the policy was designed in theory and in fact not to aid education but to create an image of a failed public school system in order to further the implementation of vouchers and the diversion of public education funds to private schools. 

I am not usually a conspiracy theory guy, but this was no theory. These were cold hard facts slapping me in the face. We failed in our obligations to protect our students from one of the most destructive educational policies since “separate but equal.” We did not educate the public on the myth and misdirection of Adequate Yearly Progress, and we allowed closet segregationists to direct the implementation of policies that we knew would result in our being the guys in the black hats responsible for “the failure of public education.” 

Now we are paying the price. AYP is here to stay in one form or another, and the vast majority of our parents and public really believe the propaganda that it actually measures a school’s educational progress. If we try to convince them otherwise we are “making excuses.” 

Vouchers – especially for private and charter schools exempt from the same restrictive, destructive policies we are forced to endure – are a part of every legislative session in almost every state. High stakes testing for all public education students is considered a necessary reality and teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Student test scores will soon determine teacher pay in some places even with no data to support the correlation. Students that do not graduate high school in four years are labeled as dropouts, even if they graduate in nine or 10 semesters. 

Only first-time test takers are considered in the grading system for schools regardless of how many students ultimately pass the test. It will take years to undo the damage done to science, social studies, fine arts, foreign languages and other academic electives. Generations will not be enough to rid ourselves and our students of the testing mania neuroses created by our attempts to quantify the unquantifiable. 

I hope the generation of teachers and administrators that follows has learned something from the failure of our generation to ward off those determined to destroy public education. We didn’t stand up to be counted, we didn’t stand in the schoolhouse door and tell them they couldn’t do that to our kids, and we didn’t educate the public about what a gigantic failure another one size fits all education policy would be. In the words of that great educator and philosopher Jimmy Buffet: “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” 

We have all been left behind. 

There is no more that I can add to this amazing, and extremely honest portrayal of what has happened to public education in this country.

However I urge you to spread far and wide these very important words from Mr. Jim Arnold, who served as both a Principal and Superintendent of schools in Georgia, and is sadly very well educated on the terrible damage that No Child Left Behind has inflicted on our country, our education system, and our children.

(H/T to Alaska Dispatch.)

Defining Dominionism.

Courtesy of AlterNet:

Dominionism is a broad political impulse within the Christian Right in the United States. It comes in a variety of forms that author Fred Clarkson and I call soft and hard. Fred and I probably coined the term “Dominionism” back in the 1990s, but in any case we certainly were the primary researchers who organized its use among journalists and scholars. 

Clarkson noted three characteristics that bridge both the hard and the soft kind of Dominionism. 

1. Dominionists celebrate Christian nationalism, in that they believe the United States once was, and should again be, a Christian nation. In this way, they deny the Enlightenment roots of American democracy. 
2. Dominionists promote religious supremacy, insofar as they generally do not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity. 
3. Dominionists endorse theocratic visions, believing that the Ten Commandments, or “biblical law,” should be the foundation of American law, and that the U.S. Constitution should be seen as a vehicle for implementing Biblical principles. 

At the apex of hard Dominionism is the religious dogma of Dominion Theology, with two major branches: Christian Reconstructionism and Kingdom Now theology. It is the latter’s influence on the theopolitical movement called the New Apostolic Reformation that has been linked in published reports to potential Republican presidential nominees Perry, Bachmann or Palin. All three of these right-wing political debutantes have flirted with Christian Right Dominionism, but how far they have danced toward the influence of hard-right Dominion Theology is in dispute. It would be nice if some “mainstream” journalists actually researched the question. 

“While differing from Reconstructionism in many ways, Kingdom Now shares the belief that Christians have a mandate to take dominion over every area of life,” explains religion scholar Bruce Barron. And it is just this tendency that has spread through evangelical Protestantism, resulting in the emergence of “various brands of ‘dominionist’ thinkers in contemporary American evangelicalism,” according to Barron. 

The most militant Dominion Theologists would silence dissenters and execute adulterers, homosexuals and recalcitrant children. No…seriously. OK, they would only be executed for repeated offenses, explain some defenders of Christian Reconstructionism. Even most Christian Right activists view the more militant Dominion Theologists as having really creepy ideas. 

Much of the controversy over the issue of Dominionism is caused by writers who use the term carelessly, often conflating the broad term Dominionism with the narrow term Dominion Theology. Some on the Left have implied that every conservative Christian evangelical is part of the Christian Right political movement; and that everyone in the Christian Right is an active Dominionist. This is false. Some critics even state that the Christian Right is neofascist. Few serious scholars of fascism agree with that assessment, although several admit that if triggered by a traumatic societal event, any contemporary right-wing populist movement could descend into neofascism.

There is more to this very informative article and I strongly urge you to read the entire thing.

And then when you are finished imagine what having a disciple of this particular militant brand of Christianity, such as Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, or Rick Perry, in the White House might mean for this country.

And you wonder why I never sleep.

Fifteen Differences Between Democrats and Republicans.

All credit goes to the Pragmatic Progressive:

1. Republicans fear that the government has too much control over corporations. Democrats fear that corporations have too much control over our government. 
2.  Democrats believe it benefits all of us to help the weakest and the poorest among us. Republicans believe it benefits all of us to help the wealthiest and most powerful among us. 
3.  Republicans believe large corporations will always do what is best for the American people if the government stays out of the way. Democrats believe large corporations would disembowel you and sell your organs to the highest bidder if the government didn’t stop them. 
4.  Democrats believe everyone is entitled to health care regardless of their ability to pay. Republicans believe everyone is entitled to jack squat if they can’t pay for health care. 
5.  Democrats believe too much of our money goes to crooked corporate executives who take government subsidies and pay themselves $80 million salaries. Republicans believe too much of our money goes to teachers who make $30,000 a year. 
6.  Democrats believe anything that helps the American people during a recession or a time of crisis is the true essence of patriotism. Republicans believe anything that helps the American people during a recession or a time of crisis is the true essence of communism. 
7.  Democrats believe that we need to set high standards for clean air and drinking water. Republicans believe that standards for clean air and water are burdensome over-regulation. 
8.  Democrats believe the President and Congress need to work together to create jobs during a weak economy. Republicans believe that Congress should do nothing to create jobs and then blame the President. 
9.  Democrats believe that corporate polluters should be made to pay for the cleanup of their pollution. Republicans believe that making corporations clean up their pollution is burdensome over-regulation.
10.  Democrats believe our health care system exists solely for the purpose of making people healthy. Republicans believe our health care system exists solely for the purpose of making a healthy profit.
11.  Democrats believe Congress should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Republicans believe corporations are the people. 
12.  Democrats believe that corporations have too much influence over Congress due to their lobbyists and huge campaign contributions. Republicans believe the middle class has too much influence over Congress due to their voting and paying taxes. 
13.  Democrats believe we need to protect victims of corporate negligence by allowing Americans to file lawsuits against corporations. Republicans believe we need to protect large corporations from lawsuits by Americans who’ve been victimized by them. 
14.  Democrats believe that the rich should be taxed more than the poor and middle class. Republicans believe that the rich should be allowed to keep all their wealth, except for the millions in campaign contributions they give to politicians. 
15.  Democrats believe that too much money in politics produces corruption and destroys the American way of life. Republicans believe that money and corruption in politics are the American way of life.

 I could not have said it better myself.

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose.” Says Professor with never fail formula for predicting the winners of Presidential elections.

Picture courtesy of the Obama Diary.

Courtesy of US News:

Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, has a belated birthday present for Barack Obama: Rest easy, your re-election is in the bag. 

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose,” says Lichtman. 

Working for the president are several of Lichtman’s keys, tops among them incumbency and the scandal-free nature of his administration.Undermining his re-election is a lack of charisma and leadership on key issues, says Lichtman, even including healthcare, Obama’s crowning achievement. 

Lichtman developed his 13 Keys in 1981. They test the performance of the party that holds the presidency. If six or more of the 13 keys go against the party in power, then the opposing party wins.“The keys have figured into popular politics a bit,” Lichtman says. “They’ve never missed. They’ve been right seven elections in a row. A number that goes way beyond statistical significance in a record no other system even comes close to.” 

Below are each of the keys and how it falls for Obama. 

1. Party mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than it did after the previous midterm elections. Says Lichtman, “Even back in January 2010 when I first released my predictions, I was already counting on a significant loss.” Obama loses this key. 
2. Contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination. Says Lichtman on Obama’s unchallenged status, “I never thought there would be any serious contest against Barack Obama in the Democratic primary.” Obama wins this key. 
3. Incumbency: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president. Easy win here for Obama. 
4. Third Party: There is no significant third party challenge. Obama wins this point. 
5. Short term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign. Here Lichtman declares an “undecided.” 
6. Long-term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms. Says Lichtman, “I discounted long term economy against Obama. Clearly we are in a recession.” Obama loses this key.
7. Policy change: The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy. “There have been major policy changes in this administration. We’ve seen the biggest stimulus in history and an complete overhaul of the healthcare system so I gave him policy change,” says the scholar. Another win for Obama. 
8. Social unrest: There is no sustained social unrest during the term. Says Lichtman, “There wasn’t any social unrest when I made my predictions for 2012 and there still isn’t.” Obama wins a fifth key here. 
9. Scandal: The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal. “This administration has been squeaky clean. There’s nothing on scandal,” says Lichtman. Another Obama win. 
10. Foreign/military failure: The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs. Says Lichtman, “We haven’t seen any major failure that resembles something like the Bay of Pigs and don’t foresee anything.” Obama wins again. 
11. Foreign/military success: The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs. “Since Osama bin Laden was found and killed, I think Obama has achieved military success.” Obama wins his eighth key. 
12. Incumbent charisma: The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero. Explains Lichtman, “I did not give President Obama the incumbent charisma key. I counted it against him. He’s really led from behind. He didn’t really take the lead in the healthcare debate, he didn’t use his speaking ability to move the American people during the recession. He’s lost his ability to connect since the 2008 election.” Obama loses this key. 
13. Challenger charisma: The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero. Says Lichtman, “We haven’t seen any candidate in the GOP who meets this criteria and probably won’t.” Obama wins, bringing his total to nine keys, three more than needed to win reelection. 

I might disagree with the professor on his assertion that Obama lacks charisma, but other than that I think the formula makes good sense.

Now while this is very good news for us in 2012, I by NO means believe we should rest on our laurels and just expect this to all play out in our favor.

In fact I believe that the Republican are well aware that they are in trouble in 2012 and are turning to dirty tricks in order to sabotage Obama's chances for reelection.

Case in point: 

The newest political strategy is to turn the African-American community against the first black president. The idea is to get black folks to scream at the President and to threaten to withhold our support come November 2012. Due to the very high unemployment rate in the black community, this could be an easy sell. The well-paid professional propagandists don’t ask African-Americans to lay the blame for the lack of employment at the feet of the business world (which is hoarding up a couple of trillions in their rainy-day fund), or to consider the fact that governors everywhere are cutting down on the public sector workforce (comprised of large numbers of black Americans per capita), or to holler at the Republican-dominated House, which has blocked most of the job-creating programs introduced by Democrats. Instead, they want us to aim our fire solely at our President and to blame him for 30 years of white men’s policies.

And the black community is not the ONLY voting block that the GOP is working to convince to stay home in 2012, we have also seen other groups like Environmentalists, Hispanics, LGBT members, and Union members targeted for disenfranchising by the Republicans.

The problem is that Obama is not a complainer.  He actually embraces the concept first put forward by President Truman that "The buck stops here." He simply accepts that he will receive the blame for problems left unsolved, the failure of policies aggressively blocked by the Republicans, and the fact that Americans are still dying on foreign soil.

If he were Sarah Palin he would go around blaming everybody else for every problem that came along, even those that WERE his fault.  But he is President Barack Obama, and he is somebody who buckles down and does the job to the best of his ability, hoping that the voters can peer through the fog of obfuscation and see the truth of what he has accomplished.

He has far more faith in the American people than I do. I think they are going to need somebody to grab them by the lapels and slap some sense into them before sending them off to the voting booth.

We are already seeing past supporters throwing up their hands in disgust "Hey, I thought he could walk on water. He can't? Fuck it I am not going vote then!"

To those people I would say that by staying home you are not just costing the President one more vote, you are handing your vote to the Republicans. That just means they need even fewer votes to grab hold of the nation's steering wheel and again start driving us off that cliff that the President worked so hard to steer us away from.

So yes the Professor's formula should give us all confidence that President Obama has a better than even chance of staying in the White House, but we still need to get active and do our part to get out the vote and educate our friends and family on the truth of what a Republican victory would mean for this country.

You know what I'm doing. What are you doing?

Update: I thought you all might like to see a few more pictures (Courtesy of the Obama Diary) of President Obama with his most loyal constituents.

This is how a leader handles a disaster and puts the minds of Americans at ease.

I swear it feels like President Obama is always prepared for just about ANYTHING that might come our way.

Of course there are some who are criticizing the response to this storm as "overkill."

But as we all know if the President had not been so completely on the ball he would have been slammed for leaving the country unprepared for the damage left in its wake.

Hell they are already giving him shit for not ending his vacation earlier, even though it is clear he was able to handle both it and spend time with his family at the same time without a hitch.

"Day of Destruction Decade of War." What will YOU be watching next Thursday?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 (If video does not play click here.)

I cannot think of anybody I would rather look into what has happened to this country since 9-11.

(H/T to Bruce for reminding me about this amazing upcoming program in an e-mail.)

While discussing the top GOP candidates, Jack Cafferty wants to know "Why does America seem allergic to brains?"

Okay I am having some real difficulty buying into Cafferty's assertion that Ron Paul is "talking sense," but other than that his assessment of the frontrunners is dead on.

(H/T to Mediaite.)

US teachers spend the most time in the classroom teaching. So much for the idea that American teachers are lazy.

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

Among 27 member nations tracked by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ), U.S. primary-school educators spent 1,097 hours a year teaching despite only spending 36 weeks a year in the classroom — among the lowest among the countries tracked. That was more than 100 hours more than New Zealand, in second place at 985 hours, despite students in that country going to school for 39 weeks. 

The OECD average is 786 hours.And that’s just the time teachers spend on instruction. Including hours teachers spend on work at home and outside the classroom, American primary-school educators spend 1,913 working in a year. According to data from the comparable year in a Labor Department survey, an average full-time employee works 1,932 hours a year spread out over 48 weeks (excluding two weeks vacation and federal holidays).

One of the things that can piss me off faster than just about anything else in the world is listening to people slam teachers. That absolutely makes my blood boil.

I have had the privilege of working with some of the finest educators in the country, and I can tell you from my own experiences with schools in the Anchorage area, that I have only rarely, and I mean RARELY, come across a teacher who I considered less than completely dedicated to the children they taught.

When I worked at the local elementary school for those four years, I would often receive calls from the teacher that I worked with, who was still at the school sometimes as late as seven o-clock in the evening inputting data on the computer or preparing her lessons.

Now this article goes on to say that despite these many hours of classroom instruction that America is still not doing as well as it could with educating our young people. But I would suggest that it has much more to do with the lack of parental involvement, the "dumbing" down of the textbooks around the country,  and the focus on "teaching to the test" that has been the focus of education in our public schools since the introduction of NCLB.

Nor does it help to provide a multifaceted educational experience with the dramatic increase in the banning of books from our school libraries:

On Monday at the Republic, MO school board meeting, four Republic School Board members reviewed a year-old complaint that three books are inappropriate reading material for high school children. In a 4-0 vote, the members decided to ax two of the three books from the high school curriculum and the library shelves: Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was spared. The resident who filed the original complaint targeted these three books because “they teach principles contrary to the Bible“ 

There have been 20 books banned in the last six months from school libraries. And instead of responding to complaints from a single parent, like in times past, these days the complaints are coming from organizations that seem determined to "clean up" the libraries in response to a religious or political agenda:

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says he believes the challenges are increasingly influenced by politics and the economy. 

" Districts are dependent on budgets, and politically motivated school boards try to determine what we read, what we think and what we teach," he says. 

Here is the list of banned books.

Cutting school funding at every opportunity, demanding high exam scores even in low income/high crime  areas, and removing intellectually stimulating reading material that does not comport with a right wing political agenda, and we want to blame TEACHERS for the lack of success in our classrooms?

Anti-immigration activist claims that President Obama is trying to end "White America" and suggests violence may be necessary to stop him.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Is President Obama allowing millions of Central Americans to live in the United States illegally as part of his secret plan to destroy "White America"? According to William Gheen of the group Americans For Legal Immigration, the answer is a resounding "yes." Gheen told a conservative talk radio show earlier this week that if things don't improve under "Dictator Obama," patriotic Americans may resort to possibly violent, "revolutionary means." (Gheen, as Media Matters pointed out, has been a frequent presence on Fox News and at tea party rallies). 

Here's what Gheen told talk show host Janet Mefferd: 

"What Janet Napolitano has spent most of her time doing in the last couple of months has been, one, preparing the new spy network that's available now, the new data-collecting, see everything you do online, beyond the normal terrorist list that they’re creating, they’re creating a much larger list now of people who might be troublesome here in the country. And putting out videos and propaganda telegraphing what I believe to be a conflict with White America they’re preparing for after they get another 10 or 15 million people in the country to back them up... "

"We're no longer referring to him as President Barack Obama, our national organization has made the decision and made the announcement we now refer to him as Dictator Barack Obama. That's what he is. And basically at this point, if you're looking for a peaceful, political recourse there really isn't one that we can think of, and I'm really not sure what to tell people out there than I guess they need to make decisions soon to just accept whatever comes next or some type of extra-political activities that I can't really talk about because they're all illegal and violent."

Gheen has since clarified (sort of) that he doesn't personally support violence as a political tool, but believes President Obama isn't leaving freedom-loving Americans with much a choice. 

As insane as this guy seems to be, we MUST pay attention to this kind of rhetoric. I really believe that once President Obama wins a second term that we are going to see a serious uptick in violence laden hyperbole, naked racism, and increased enlistment in militias and 2nd Amendment groups.

In other words, as bad as things are now, I really fear they could get much worse.