Stoopid Conservatives

Via Conservative Truths:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2006 the average rate of High School Graduates across the United States in 2004 was 85.2%. 12 out of 31 Conservative States had a lower than average rate of High School Graduates (39% of Conservative States) versus 2 out of 20 Liberal States that had a lower than average rate of High School Graduates (10% of Liberal States). The lowest rate of High School Graduates in the country is found in Texas with 78.3%. The highest rate of High School Graduates in the country is found in Minnesota with 92.3%.

Via Crooks & Liars.

The Leader Of The Free World

Well, the other day I mentioned outrage fatigue & Bu$hCo does his best, an oxymoron, I know, to outrage me one more time. What a buffoon, or something, maybe a maroon, or a cartoon. There, Les, I rhymed. & here is our President, speaking today at a press conference. Well, somebody's President.

A recent report on retail sales shows a strong beginning to the holiday shopping season across the country -- and I encourage you all to go shopping more.

Don't Cry For Me Argentina Or Something

clammyc says all the right things about the worthless Bu$hCo twins. Luckily, these Twins make up for it. Via BooMan.

And since I am being chartiable, I won’t even take the cheap shot of saying that they should enlist in the military, even though that would be the only moral thing for these two to do. But damn, they are in their mid-twenties already. A time that thousands of our own troops will either never get to see, or never get to enjoy – all because of the stubborn “oopsies” of President petulant poopie pants. While I don’t expect them to have one shred of decency since the apples don’t fall too far from the tree, there are some very basic questions and telling actions. Have they attended one military funeral? Have they spoken up once about the service that our troops are providing for this country? Do they even know that a “war” is going on at all – started by their own father? Do they even care?

Nothing Is Ever Learned

This is what makes me sick about America. & the 50 years? How about 500 years of racist activity? These bastard ReThugs think lower taxes are the only thing worth acting upon. Sick.

But Teddy Gordon, the attorney for a white woman whose 5-year-old son was assigned to a more distant Louisville school rather than his neighborhood school, said the district's program was "nothing more than a hard-core, mechanized quota.''

The Bush administration agrees. In papers filed with the court, Solicitor General Paul Clement outlined the administration's position: A district can assign students by race when necessary to make up for its own intentional discrimination, but not to integrate schools that were never deliberately segregated.

Let me see, a school in the south that was "never deliberately segregated."? Don't make me laugh. &, of course, Bu$hCo agrees.

Sad To Say

I'm an educator, but this is just about the stupidest thing I could imagine a group of teachers could do. Go read the whole thing, it will make you sick.

No, I'm talking about a development that is much more insidious and disturbing -- the Exxoning of America's Science Teachers....

Idiots

Just what we need. Some people are just too stupid to believe. & a president of a school board, an adoption lawyer, go figure, who hasn't read Angelou's book. Now there is a reason to recall the dimwit.

Some Fond du Lac parents have asked school officials to remove former U.S. poet laureate Maya Angelou's autobiography from the high school curriculum.

I wonder...

... if the MI Board of Education has at least one important thing to do, rather than this?

With this unanimous vote, the board sent the clearest message yet that Michigan is going to base its science curricula on scientific inquiry, not on the ideological beliefs of politicians.

Complete

Stupidity. This is exactly what a person ought to expect from a ReThug state representative. &, of course, this is in the wake of a principal's murder last week.

In the aftermath of recent school shootings, a state representative has proposed giving principals and teachers the right to arm themselves with handguns.

Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay) announced Wednesday that he plans to introduce legislation early next year that would give teachers and other school personnel the option of carrying concealed weapons. The action was largely prompted by the school shootings in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Weston Schools principal was killed last week.

Another face of evil in Wisco.

You can contact this moron here:

Madison Office
Room 105 West
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8952
Madison 53708

Telephone
(608) 266-9870

Fax
(608) 282-3602

Voting Address
2380 Bluestone Place
Green Bay 54311

District Telephone
(920) 406-9488

Jesus Was Never Naked

More idiocy from Texas & the right-wing ReThugs.

An award-winning Texas art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a trip to a museum has lost her job.

Via BooMan.

Another Chance

To do the right thing. I just received the following from a friend. Those of you from WISCO need to get this message out. We can show the rest of the country what it means to be an American, a free American. This sort of disgusting bullshit cannot be allowed to stand. Thanks in advance.

2006 is going to be different.

Click here to ContributeProgressive voices everywhere are speaking up and telling the extreme right we've had enough of their divisive politics. As I travel all over the country campaigning for progressive candidates I see that people are energized and standing up strong against the failure of Republican leadership.

This year, in my home state of Wisconsin, the right-wing has placed a proposed constitutional amendment banning civil unions and gay marriage on our ballot in November. Make no mistake, they placed this measure on the ballot in a brazen attempt to divide voters and push turnout for conservative candidates.

In just 60 days, we will make history and show them tactics like these won't work anymore.

Defeating this discriminatory amendment matters not just for Wisconsin but for our entire country. Conservative Republicans put similar measures like this one on the ballot in 20 states in 2004. Twenty states have now amended their constitutions in such a way that discriminates against thousands of gay families all across America.

This year it must and will be different.

I am proud to say that Fair Wisconsin has built a strong statewide grassroots campaign to educate Wisconsin voters and to once and for all defeat this divisive political tactic. I need you to stand with me today in support of their efforts by making a contribution of $250, $100 or $50 by going to Fair Wisconsin's website to donate. Your gift will instantly be used to mobilize and educate hundreds of thousands of voters on the real impacts of the proposed ban.

I am proud to stand with Fair Wisconsin and fight the proposed amendment in my home state. I believe we can win here in Wisconsin and make history by being the first state to defeat one of these hurtful amendments. I hope you will stand with us today. Not just because it's my home state but because it will demonstrate that the only way to beat the right wing isn't to compromise on our core values but to stand up and fight back.

Fight discrimination today by going to Fair Wisconsin's website to donate and help Wisconsin make history this November.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold

Russ Feingold
U.S. Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

This solicitation is asking for a donation of up to $2,100 per election from an individual's own funds and is not asking for contributions from corporations or labor organizations

How Tough?

Wolcott.

....
One of my favorite verbal showdowns occurred on 14th Street one rainy day when two non-pugilists kept up the trash talk until one of them said, "You're carrying an umbrella, motherfucker--how tough can you be?" Which I must say got quite a chortle from us idle bystanders.

Now what has this to do with the posings of our militaristic muscle mouths?

This: It is an index of the frustration and impotence they're experiencing at not getting their way. They're waging rhetorical escalation because de-escalation is the unacknowledged order of the day, and there's nothing they can do about it.

Steve Clemons published a dispatch from the Nelson Report indicating that despite all of the Cheneyesque bluster, the Bush administration is pursuing the diplomatic route with Iran. To the dismay of the hard nosers, Bush is also reeling back his use of "Islamic fascists", which will be interpreted as a capitulation to political correctness. You even have Rumself whining that his recent appeasement slur was taken "out of context," and calling for "constructive" dialogue regarding the situation in Iraq. And then there's the happy novelty of Rudy Giuliani blowing the whistle and calling a foul on "partisan bickering", which will not endear him to the more strident dickheads in his party.

There has been a major shift in the mood climate, one which the War Party and its bloggers are resisting at the top of their lungs. But resistance is futile. As John Robb writes in an important post at Global Guerrillas, "Playing at War", we're not going to the get the grand, conclusive World War III (or IV) that same neocon ideologues crave. Conflict is being ratcheted down, dispersed. Here's what's in the cards ahead:

"Operations of low lethality. Western militaries do not have the desire, nor the sanction, to conduct the high casualty operations typically associated with real wars. Technology has been leveraged to increase the precision of attacks to limit collateral damage and save the lives of soldiers. The corollary to this is that western militaries are also fiercely protective of the lives of their soldiers. Warfare, increasingly, is supposed to be costless. What this means is that we will not see Sherman's 'March to the Sea' or Hama in the near future - and - the loss of a hundred soldiers in southern Lebanon will be enough to stop the Israeli army."

[snip]

"Muddled objectives. Given the lack of the cohesive and singular reason for war -- the survival of the state and its people through the elimination of its enemies -- the reasons for warfare will drift. This translates into a constantly shifting landscape of military objectives, where current objectives recede in favor of replacements before they can be reached. The result is confusion, mission creep, and conflict escalation.

"The upshot of this diminishment of warfare is that wars will become increasingly difficult to win."

Therefore:

"Ultimately, western societies will need to learn to live within the limits of this new framework. It is not possible for us to reverse the clock on this trend. Any mass mobilization for war that lifts existing limitations will be severely punished by both global markets and opinion (both domestically and abroad) if it ever was attempted."

This understanding seems to be slowly filtering into the visors of those in Washington, but adjusting to this new reality will deprive the most stubborn members of the War Party with the dramatic satisfaction of the final reckoning--the High Noon showdown--the climactic clash of civilizations--that they crave.

Robb:

"Given an inability to resolve conflicts through nation-building and state collapse, western states should endeavor to deescalate conflicts rather than ignite them. Escalation is a false God that promises a return of the motivational clarity found in the wars of the 20th Century. It cannot deliver this."

What we're hearing from pundits, bloggers, and likeminded belligerents this August is a baying to a false God, a nostalgic need for motivational clarity and a macho yearning for deliverance that the facts on the ground will deny them. Their commando belts tied up in knots, their umbrellas unfolded, they can turn on Bush, or on Condi Rice (as Richard Perle has done), but who can they turn to? Nobody. That's why they're egging each other on, flexing their biceps, and clinging to Mark Steyn for warmth. It's the only way to hold on to their fading relevance.

Emphasis mine. Let's hope it's true.

Work Load

We had Tommy Thompson for 16 years. The ReThugs control both houses of the state legislature. Who are you going to hold accountable for this? Let's hope that not one child in Milwaukee asks a question that only a librarian can answer.

If your children are elementary school students in Milwaukee Public Schools, there's a strong chance that Lisa Chatman or Mildred McDowell will be their librarian this year.

Don't expect Chatman or McDowell to read stories to your kids. Don't expect them to check out books, keep the shelves orderly or choose new books or other materials to purchase. In fact, don't expect Chatman or McDowell to set foot in the building more than occasionally.

That's because Chatman and McDowell work in central administration. To meet state regulations, they are listed officially as the certified supervising librarians at more than 60 elementary schools this year. But the hands-on work in the libraries will be done by paraprofessionals, aides, teachers or volunteers, often with limited hours and limited background in library work.

Good News

& champagne.

Edvard Munch’s paintings “The Scream” and “Madonna,” which two armed robbers yanked from the wall of a museum here in August 2004, were recovered in relatively good condition in Norway on Thursday.

More on Edvard Munch here.

Just Stupid

& mean. How petty can Bu$hCo be, this petty:

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.
....
That the omission occurred at all is worrying scientists concerned about threats to the teaching of evolution.
....
“I am not at all certain that the omission of this particular major is unintentional,” he added. “But I have to take them at their word.”

I wouldn't trust them with an empty coffee cup.

Great Lesson...

...in the classroom, really bad lesson outside the classsroom.