Signs of the times.

Hat tip to The Stand.

Signs of the times.

OWS, via AFL-CIO Now...


Clear enough?

Signs of the times.

Via Gordon...

Don't know much biology...

Rick Perry fact of the day, via PZ Meyers...

Perry is the guy who has appointed three creationists in a row to head the Texas Board of Education.

Probably not coincidentally...

Good questions…

…abound. Here's a couple. Over at Crooks & Liars, Heather wonders...

How many teachers' salaries or years of funding NPR does launching a Tomahawk missle cost us?

Several, I'm sure, of each. Elsewhere, Republican consultant Pat Griffin answers a query with a question...

What can I say about Newt Gingrich today that his ex-wives have not already said?

Perhaps he'll think of something tomorrow.

Even on MLK Day…

…we should remember that as potent a symbol and as powerful a spokesman as he might have been for peace, civil rights and economic justice as Martin Luther King. Jr. may have been, he was a symbol and a spokesman for something larger than any individual.

In that spirit, my own personal State Senator, Maralyn Chase, has introduced Senate Bill 5174, under which…

...school districts are encouraged to prepare and conduct a program at least once a year to commemorate the history of civil rights in our nation, including providing an opportunity for students to learn about the personalities and convictions of heroes of the civil rights movement and the importance of the fundamental principle and promise of equality under our nation's Constitution.

People just a little younger than I am have no memory of the days when assassination and lynching, dogs and fire hoses, blazing crosses and terror were all commonplace aspects of race relations in America. Though we're not where we want to be or where we ought to be, we've come a long way from where we used to be in the realm of civil rights.

If future generations are allowed to forget where we've come from, and the sacrifices made to achieve the progress we've made, we not only dishonor those sacrifices and those who made them, but risk slipping backward and losing the precious gains we have made.

Thank you for SB 5174, Senator. You've made my MLK Day a bit more meaningful.

They've warned us…

…what they're going to do with a majority. The Republican Tea Party Contract On America...

1. Repeal the Affordable Care Act (Health Insurance Reform)

2. Privatize Social Security or phase it out altogether

3. End Medicare as it presently exists

4. Extend the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil

5. Repeal Wall Street Reform

6. Protect those responsible for the oil spill and future environmental catastrophes

7. Abolish the Department of Education

8. Abolish the Department of Energy

9. Abolish the Environmental Protection Agency

10. Repeal the 17th Amendment

Puts some of the frustration with our majority in context, doesn't it?

Well, yeah...

Democracy needs informed people, Obama tells grads

...but you kinda gotta hope that they'd already heard long before lining up for their degrees. Long before they took that first 101 course, in fact. Seems like pretty basic stuff for "informed people."

Obamanist indoctrination.

The President talks to school kids again...

Now, just from meeting the young people here today I can tell that there are so many bright, smart, promising students here. But, you know, there are a lot of distractions out there. A lot of you think, well, you know, I don't want to study -- I'm just going to play basketball. Or, I don't want to study, I'm going to be a rap star.

I want all of you to know that the most important thing you can do for yourselves and for your community and for your country is to work hard in school and to treat each other with respect -- and treat yourself with respect. Because I'm confident that if you all work very hard, then there's no reason why you can't be a doctor or a lawyer. There's no reason why you can't be the Secretary of Education or a principal of a school. There's no reason why you can't be a congressman or a senator -- maybe you can be the President of the United States.

The perennial bromide of "work hard, stay in school and you can do anything" has never had a more authoritative voice. Creating a platform for that voice is one of the important things we accomplished last year that we often forget to celebrate in the shadow of "big" issues.

Well said, Mr. President. Thank you.

From the "Civics 101" file.

Garrison Keillor, via Missouri Mule...

Conservatism is a powerful strain in American life that ordinarily passes as common sense. Save for a rainy day. Don't foul the nest. Don't burn your bridges. Don't sacrifice the future for short-term profit. But when it contradicts itself and becomes weighted down with bigotry and cynicism, then it doesn't hold water anymore.

Of course, the small 'c' conservatism that Keillor's talking about is more a matter of temperament than ideology. Prudence, modesty, restraint - these are all characteristics that are perfectly compatible with ideological liberalism, characteristics, in fact, displayed at some level by virtually everyone who hews to a liberal ideology. If fact, aggressiveness, bombast and short-sightedness, seemingly the antithesis of the temperamental conservatism, seem to be primary characteristics of contemporary ideological Conservatism.

That distinction, temperament vs. ideology, is a source of semantic confusion that. I believe underlies the reason so many Americans self-identify as conservative when polled, yet fundamentally liberal programs like Social Security or fundamentally liberal policies like a public health care option remain so popular. Similarly, many people will say they are conservatives because of their support for a free market, without understanding at all that a free market economy is an innovation of liberal government, and a far cry from the monopoly capitalism that lies at the end of the Conservative rainbow.

It's a semantic distinction, but it cannot be dismissed as "just semantics." In this case, semantics matter, and the confusion is emblematic of a failure of civic education in the United States. It's pretty hard for people to self-govern if they don't understand their government, where it came from and who the opposition to that government - our government - really is.

(The rest of the Keillor peice is well worth a look, too.)

You've got to be taught...

...to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be carefully taught

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein


Photo via Ron Chusid.

Chart of the day.

Via Nick Beaudrot at Donkeylicious...

If you click it big enough, you can just about see that blue line.

From the "…half of 'em are dumber than that" file.

Streak helps fill it up with some notes on a recent poll...

"Fifty-six percent of respondents said that they were not willing to pay more in taxes in order to reduce the deficit, and nearly as many said they were not willing for the government to provide fewer services in areas such as health care, education and defense spending."

Ok, then. 56% of 'em are dumber than that.

Duh headline of the day.

The Capitol Record…

Student lobby not in favor of 14 percent tuition hike

Duh.

It's time for...

I keep telling you…

…you should be listening to me. From Intercollegiate Studies Institute American Civic Literacy Test...

You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

Not perfect? Perhaps, but consider...

Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49%.

Liberals score 49%; conservatives score 48%. Republicans score 52%; Democrats score 45%.

Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America’s constitutional system.

I'm not sure if I should be proud of myself or shamed by my countrymen.

Vigilance.

We won some important battles Tuesday. A bunch of 'em. The war, however, drags on. Via Modern Science…

The Gov of Texas has just appointed a 6-person committee to revamp the state's K-12 science curriculum. One of these six individuals is a creationist. A second person on the committee is not just any ol' creationist, but the director of the US's biggest creationist organization: Stephen C. Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute. And the chair of the committee is Donald McLeroy, who has gone on record as saying that biology textbooks containing evolution are anti-Christian and anti-American.

They're not going to just give up and go away because we won a national election.

Celebrate, sure, but post sentries.

She has a point.

I think. All those words must mean something, right? So, if I understand Gov. Palin...

Education credit in American has been in some sense in some of our states just accepted to be a little bit lax and we have got to increase the standards.

...we need to raise standards in American education. It's a pretty unassailable concept, though implementation can be dicey.

We could start, I suppose, by revoking the degrees of journalism majors who can't construct a grammatical sentence.

Quote of the day.

My own personal former Congressman, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA)...

"It is going to be Democrats who someday restore New Orleans, who restore education, who get universal health care. I believe that is what we are going to do. I believe that is our destiny."

Hat tip to Bryan Bissell at PolitickerWA.

The facts…

…via The Gavel.

For the $339 million we spend in Iraq every day:

· 2,060 more Border Patrol agents could be hired to protect our borders for a year.

· 18,000 more students could receive Pell Grants to help them attend college for a year.

· 48,000 homeless veterans could be provided with a place to live for a year.

· 317,000 more kids could receive every recommended vaccination for a year.

· 955,000 families could get help with their energy bills through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for a year.

· Nearly 480,000 women, infants and children could receive nutritional help with the WIC program for a year.

· 2.6 million Americans without adequate health insurance could have access to medical and dental care at community health centers for a year.

· More than 100 local communities could make improvements to their drinking water with help from the Clean Water State
Revolving Fund for a year.

· 937 additional National Institutes of Health grants for research into diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes could be provided for a year.