School Of Life

Gawker's John Cook analyzes the Chicago Teachers Union strike and Rahm Emanuel's ongoing disaster as Mayor and has an interesting solution to the public education problem in America:  get rid of private schools and level the playing field for all kids.

This would of course be a radical and highly disruptive step. It would involve forcibly transferring ownership of all existing private schools to the school district in which they reside, and readjusting local tax schemes to capture the tuition parents currently pay (the nationwide average is $8,549 per year, which means a total of $47 billion is spent each year on opting out of the public education system). Then access to the newly "nationalized" schools would have to be distributed on some fair basis to local students, with the wealthy kids who don't make the cut into their old schools being sent to the regular ones, without air conditioning or libraries. And resources would have to be redistributed within the school districts so that the resources formerly lavished on private schools could be spent shoring up the failing public ones.

This is not an original idea. Billionaire wise hobbit Warren Buffet once told school reformer Michelle Rhee that the easiest way to fix schools was to "make private schools illegal and assign every child to a public school by random lottery." In England, the notion of banning private education—while highly unlikely—has long been a part of the political debate entertained by major-party candidates.

And while it would have the practical effect of forcing school boards and municipalities to be accountable to their privileged elite as well as their poor families, there's also a moral argument for banning private education. Put simply: Equality of opportunity demands that children should not be penalized—or advantaged—by the accident of their birth. Educational benefits, which are the most crucial resource when it comes to determining the life-outcomes for children of all backgrounds, shouldn't be distributed based on how rich your parents are. They should be distributed equally. Even if we stipulate that radical inequality is OK for adults—once you are out in the world, you rise or fall by the work of your own hands—when it comes to children, it's perverse to dole out educations based on arbitrary circumstances completely beyond their control.

In other words, if Mitt Romney's sons and Barack Obama's daughters had to attend public schools, I'm betting public schools would be remarkably better than they are.  Instead, America seems increasingly going the opposite direction:  privatization (and profitization) of public education.  We're already seeing the disastrous results of that in Florida and Louisiana.  When the point of public school become making a profit and not teaching kids, everybody loses in the end.

But of course, Cook's solution will never happen.  The rich will continue to stay rich through domination of national resources, and that includes education.  He who has the gold, makes the rules.  We've been Darwining off the lower class in this country for decades.  now with globalization, we're Darwining off the middle-class too.

The Full Bernanke

Helicopter Ben just pushed the Big Candy-like Red Button, kids.

The Federal Reserve launched another aggressive stimulus program on Thursday, saying it will buy $40 billion of mortgage debt per month and continue to purchase assets until the outlook for jobs improves substantially. 

In a significant shift in the direction of U.S. monetary policy, the Fed has tied its unconventional bond buying directly to economic conditions, a move that is likely to be controversial among central bank critics.

“If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the committee will continue its purchase of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability,” the Fed said in a statement.

In an additional step that reflects just how concerned Fed officials have become about the health of the economy, policymakers said they would not likely raise rates from current rock-bottom lows until at least mid-2015. Previously, it had set such guidance at late 2014.

Not only is it QE3, but it’s got no set expiration date, apparently.  You know, exactly the kind of sustained growth program that everyone’s been screaming for now for a couple of years.  That sound you hear is Austrian-school economists exploding like microwaved giant jawbreakers, not to mention the sound of Mitt Romney’s campaign guys going “Umm…we argued that something had to be done, but we refused to provide specifics…now what?”

I gotta fiver says House Republicans will try to impeach somebody before the week’s out.

Congressional Republicans, wary of the Fed’s recent efforts to stimulate the recovery, said Wednesday that the its political independence could be jeopardized if officials embark on another round of stimulus so close to Election Day.

“It really is interesting that it is happening right now before an election,” said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho). “It is going to sow some growth in the economy, and the Obama administration is going to claim credit.”

“I am shocked, just shocked, that politics are going on in this city!” Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said sarcastically.

Yeah, let's think about that.  For helping the economy and following its dual mandate of lowering  inflation and lowering unemployment,  the Fed must be punished.  The American people are being helped economically by the federal government, a crime that probably merits Bernanke's public flogging, right?

Expect to hear more of this utter nonsense from batshit crazy Republicans in the days ahead.

Show Me Screwed

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri senators have voted to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a bill expanding religious exceptions for insurance coverage of birth control.

The vote Wednesday sends the bill to the House, where a two-thirds vote also is needed for an override.

The legislation lets individuals, employers and insurers cite religious or moral exemptions from mandatory insurance coverage for abortion, contraception and sterilization.  It's intended as a rebuff of an Obama administration policy that requires insurers to cover birth control at no additional cost to women, including those employed by religious nonprofits such as hospitals, colleges or charities.

Jay Nixon vetoes the bill, which is a miracle in and of itself.  Now we find ourselves facing the same battle again.  And again.  And again.

Birth control is a medical need, and our employers should have no say whatsoever in how we use our insurance coverage.  This is ridiculous!  Every business who uses this to deny fair coverage to women employees should be ashamed.  And if I get half a chance I'll lead the shaming.

Under The Dome

     I have been a lifelong Stephen King fan.  As it happened, I was a kid and a teen when he went through his cocaine-fueled nuttiness.  I was the right age for haunted cars and impossible events.  But as I grew up, so did King.  His stories became more sophisticated, and his storytelling ability fine-tuned itself into one of the best to ever type Chapter One.
     I've fallen behind on my reading, and some slipped off my radar entirely.  I have been on a crime kick, and there are a thousand reasons why I haven't read Under The Dome.  Until my husband saw it, realized I had not read it, and checked it out from the library.  Well, library books must be read in a timely manner, not allowed to catch dust and wait for my convenience.  I dug right in to the 1,000 page monster, and felt right at home in a world he created that I know so well.  By the way, thanks to my husband for making me read again, I hadn't realized how much I missed it.
     Then I started to see patterns.  I shook my head.  No way did Stephen King just make a political metaphor.  Except he did.  And he kept doing it.  And over 600 pages in, he's still doing it and so well that it is another story inside of the one he's telling.  I will announce a sort of spoiler alert, though I am still reading and can't ruin too much.
     For reasons nobody knows yet, a dome covers a rural town in Maine.  If there is one thing King knows, it's rural folk.  The man in charge, something like a Yankee flavored Boss Hogg, is the perfect Republican prick.  He knows what is better for the town, and he is not afraid to take steps to force people's hands so that he gets his way.  If a few people get squashed... well, it's the price to pay for what is right for the town.  Of course, in a world created by King, people fall like flies.  But this time there's no monster.  There's a Boss Hogg with an agenda, a man who won't use a swear word but is pumping out crystal meth by the truckload.  He and the good men of the town have been up to some shenanigans, but as long as they keep control, what does it matter?  A few men broke a town's back to fund their dreams, and they feel completely justified.
     The military is useless to help our heroes.  They are outside, taking care of business out there.  However, military skills and survival knowledge help our main character stay on top.  People are afraid, and instead of helping the power hogs start slamming down control while trying to sell it as security.  Their own citizens are being beaten to death by law enforcement and nobody can see the obvious.  The town went from a handful of cops to a house full, and they are just now wondering why.  King also rips off the face of the racist hate that blinds the simple minded, and while I have never heard him to be racist in real life he portrays it in characters with utter detail and authenticity.  You can tell he flinched but didn't hold back, because the man saying it wouldn't have.
     Do I think King wrote a thousand page novel that was pure political commentary?  No.  But it made me realize he surely had something to say.  It is striking me so profoundly because I realize I am scared of my government.  There, I said it.  I am goddamned scared that the government that rules instead of serves will take away my medical, legal and ethically obligated rights as a citizen.  I am afraid that we could wake up in a police state where language, behavior and speech are controlled.  I'm reading about it happening on a small scale, but it's like connecting CS Lewis with biblical references, once you see them it all snaps into place and is so clear.
     The scary thing is, the stuff that is bothering me has already come to pass.  He hasn't touched on what happens when those in charge start making life decisions for the people they control.  He hasn't said how they free themselves after losing control over their freedom.  I have yet to see how the little man brings balance back.

This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang, but with a lying sack of shit who smiles and lies with great ability.

Or as it's known in our world, the RNC attendance sheet.

I'll save the rest of my rant for when I finish, because between starting this post and getting here, I have met the Homeland Safety guys.  This will be an awesome journey, I just wish it was more fiction so I could pretend this stuff isn't happening all around me.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

How much does FOX Nation hate President Obama?

 

This much.

"Obama Calls Libyan President to Thank Him After US Ambassador Is Murdered" is the headline.  

Drudge headline screaming that Rupert Murdoch's UK Independent has an "exclusive" that the US foreign service is fatally compromised by RANGHEAD SUNZABITCHES and that of course President Obama and Secretary Clinton did "nothing" and killed Chris Stewart themselves, all so very convincing they are.

And the winger blogs are screaming that President Obama and Eric Holder have revealed the true identity of "Sam Bacile" on purpose so that an unstoppable army of jihadi super criminals will teleport to California and kill everyone.

These guys are collapsing into sobbing piles of their own miserable stupidity.  It would be sad, except they fully plan to take the rest of us with them down to hell.

Re-Birther Of The Uncool, Part 8

The racist birther nonsense spreads to Kansas, where Romney surrogate and GOP Secretary of State Kris Kobach is considering removing President Obama from the ballot in November's election due to "questions about the President's birth certificate."  Raw Story reports:

The Kansas State Objections Board is considering removing President Barack Obama from the November ballot because of doubts over his place of birth, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

The panel of Republicans, which consists of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, received a complaint from a resident who claimed Obama was not a natural born citizen and therefore ineligible to be president.

Obama has been dogged by questions about his eligibility to serve as President of the United States since 2008. Some of the so-called “birthers” believe Obama is not a natural born citizen because his father was a British subject.

“As for Mr. Obama’s citizenship, there are many doubts,” said Joe Montgomery, who filed the ballot challenge. “Doing the right thing can be hard and unpopular.”

Doing the right thing would mean Kobach would take Montgomery's complaint, rip it up into tiny pieces on television, and tell clowns like Joe here to stop being such a fool.

There are no "legitimate questions" about the President's citizenship.  The birther attacks have been racist code-word garbage for five years now.  The birth certificate is real, and the only people trying to bring this up are lunatics suffering from such an advanced case of Obama Derangement Syndrome that I would feel sorry for them except for the obvious racist overtones.

If you believe the President is an illegal immigrant and not legally President, then stop being a coward.  Every court has laughed this stuff off, and yet these challenges still come not only from lunatics but now Republicans who are in positions of actual responsibility.  I say put your revolution where your mouth is, and go do something about it.

But instead, you'll hide behind your birth certificate polite racism like the fools you are.  Your refusal to call for Kobach's job over this tells me everything I need to know about Kansas Republicans.  You're racist assholes, cowards, and morons.

Don't like it?  Do something about it.  Demand Kobach's resignation.  Now.

StupidiNews!

• As US diplomatic compounds remain on high alert globally, Libyan officials have arrested four in connection with the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens.
• A new study in the British medical journal The Lancet finds jobs with stress are 23% more likely to produce a heart attack than a non-stressful job.
• Friends, family, and former astronauts gathered at the national memorial service for astronaut Neil Armstrong, who died last month at the age of 82.
• For the first time, Facebook has beaten Google in online ad revenue with its new Adroll browser ad system released in July.
• France has convicted the first violator under its controversial three-strikes anti-piracy law, being forced to pay a 150 euro fine for an unsecured Wi-Fi connection.

Last Call

As a Kentucky Democrat, I’d love nothing more than to see Mitch McConnell go down in flames in 2014 and booted out of the Senate.   But Old-Age Mutant Nimrod Turtle didn’t get to be the leader of the GOP Senate Filibuster All-Stars by being a political meathead.  He knows that with no challenger on the D side willing to even commit to a primary at this point, the only thing Mitch really has to worry about is a Tea Party retributive strike, especially if Romney crashes and burns (and this seems more and more likely).  Mitch can read the weather in Frankfort, and as such he’s loading up his campaign with Tea Party “revolutionaries”.

McConnell announced Thursday that he hired Jesse Benton — the tea party political operative who headed Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s presidential primary race — to oversee a campaign that’s still two years away and still lacking an opponent.

“We’re committed to running a presidential-level campaign in Kentucky, and that starts with a presidential campaign manager,” McConnell said in a statement. “Jesse is literally the best in the business at building and organizing conservative grassroots movements, and I’m thrilled he’s chosen to return to Kentucky to lead my campaign.”

Benton also headed the 2010 race of Paul’s son, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul. The Bowling Green eye surgeon rose from relative obscurity to win Kentucky’s other Senate seat over major candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

McConnell had said he was looking for a campaign manager with experience running and winning races in Kentucky and who had a reputation for unifying people. His choice of Benton drew immediate accolades.

Mitch isn’t stupid.  He figures that the only folks that can beat him in 2014 are the Rand Paul Irregulars, and he’s decided the easiest way to get rid of them is to co-opt the hell out of them, starting with Benton.

Now look, I’d love for the Dems to win here, but Mitch muddled through 2008′s challenge from Bruce Lunsford and still won by six points, and that was about the closest race he’s ever had with the most motivated KY Dem turnout in the state in a long, long time.  Jack Conway doesn’t want to get spanked again like he did in 2010, and nobody else has bothered to step up yet.

It’s possible he may lose.  He’s certainly vulnerable.  But what worries me is that the tea party might blow Mitch out of the water anyway and install somebody even worse than Rand Paul, and frankly as much as that might play into the hands of the Dems anywhere else, we don’t exactly have a track record on non-insane Republican senators here.

We’ll see how it shakes out.  A serious TP challenge might weaken Mitch enough to beat him, but who will answer the challenge?

Podcast Versus The Stupid!

Another weekday PVTS bonus show, It's A Foreign Concept To Mitt, as Bon and I cover Mitt's meltdown in the wake of the awful event in Libya and Egypt,  Helicopter Ben pushing the Big Red Button, and Missouri Republicans overriding Gov. Jay Nixon's veto stopping employers from stripping birth control from insurance plans for religious reasons.

Listen to internet radio with Zandar Versus The Stupid on Blog Talk Radio

As always, you can click on the iTunes button to get PVTS to go, or download the episode from our archive page.

Bad Advice Moose

Sarah Palin thinks Mittens just isn't mean enough to win.  The American people want mean, dammit!

Sarah Palin says Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign should be “severely aggressive” in attacking President Barack Obama as “incompetent” and a “socialist.”

Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly asked the former Alaska governor on Tuesday if Romney’s campaign — which has come under fire from Republicans — needs to go after Obama in a “more personal way” and use buzzwords like “incompetent, dangerous, socialist.”

“Those aren’t just buzzwords,” said Palin. “Those are accurate descriptions of the commander in chief.”

“He should be very aggressive, and he should be adamant in his attacks on Obama’s record, which is so dismal, his plan, or lack of a plan of Obama’s, to get his out of these woeful times,” Palin continued. “He needs to be severely aggressive.”

Because when I think of "advice from the most respected political strategist in the game right now", Sarah Palin immediately comes to mind.  Sure.  She's got a proven track record of winni...umm...actually....she's a half-term washout that couldn't handle Alaska with tons of free government welfare, then she cost the GOP the White House, then she fell apart everywhere else.

You know what, Mitt?  You should totally follow her advice.  Yes.  Immediately.  Run the most negative campaign ever devised, relentlessly, using your billionaire buddies and buy up every speck of ad time on TV to call Obama a socialist.  Do this now.

It'll be great.  Trust her!  When has Sarah Palin ever crashed and burned politically?

Honey Boo Boo... Enough Already!

I hadn't watched Toddlers and Tiaras, or any of the reality shows that involve kids.  I get too angry at what I see.  Except for the occasional guilty Bridezilla marathon, I really avoid that stuff in general.  So it took a while for me to see the horror that is Honey Boo Boo.

This little girl was raised to be deranged.  She has no more of an idea of how the world works than a potato.  And actually, I do believe people have tried harder to teach potatoes.  Her parents aren't living in our reality, and they are setting little precious up for a long and ugly fall in the years ahead.  This child actually thinks when she stamps her foot the world will stop and wait for her command.

Normally, I'd say to each their own, but in this case it would be great to see a complete refusal to cooperate and kill this show.  Viewers are adding to the train wreck that is a child's life.  She may not get better, ever, but she sure as hell won't while being encouraged to be as outrageous and obnoxious as possible.  Her parents are nuts, and they are bringing a perfect chip off the crazy old block into this world.  Goody for them.  Meanwhile, good parents aren't exciting enough to watch, and are eating cereal for dinner while Honey Boo Boo and company are at a steakhouse, getting paid to gorge and annoy.

Something is wrong with that formula.

Cowardly Council Faces Backlash

When Springfield City Council approved a bill two weeks ago limiting the penalties for marijuana possession, several members made clear that they did so only to repeal it at the first opportunity.

Monday, 18 speakers signed up to tell council members what they thought of that idea. By and large, it wasn’t complimentary.

“Such a tactic is showing the voting public your distrust in them and makes a mockery of the initiative process,” said Daryl Bertrand, who described himself as a “grateful former medical cannabis user.”

We don't need parents to think for us.  We don't need a city government that uses tricks to get past what it considers to be unworthy of our votes.  We don't need to be told that voting is too expensive, that they will just tell us what to do and we should be grateful for them.  

Maranda Reynolds, who spearheaded efforts to draft and circulate the petition, said the charter guarantees citizens the “power to propose any ordinance ... and to adopt or reject the same at the polls.”

“It does not say they’ll have that power only if council feels like granting it to them,” she said, adding that the more than 2,100 signatures gathered show “it’s clear this issue matters to the people of Springfield.”

It matters to us, and it matters that we are not shafted by the people set there to represent us and look out for our interests.  Our interests are in voting and making our own decisions. 

 

The Worst Campaign Ever

Expanding on today's earlier post that yes, Obama is vulnerable on the events in Bengazi, Charles Pierce makes the argument that Romney really should be cleaning Obama's clock regarding this week's events and has basically been handed the election on a silver platter, only to piss it all away because he's a gigantic moron.

In case you missed it, Barack Obama lost the election over the past few days. Lucky for him, however, he is running against Willard Romney, who is ham-handed, maladroit, and generally the biggest horse's ass of a professional politician this side of the Country of the Houyhnhnms. There is one principle of incumbency beyond the control of presidents, their spinmeisters, the punditocracy, and the voters. That is that Shit Happens. On the day of Jimmy Carter's inauguration, for example, who'd ever heard of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini? In August of 2001, not even anyone in the Bush administration apparently gave a damn about al Qaeda. Over the past few days, Shit has Happened in a such a way as to present the Republican challenger with a Republican's Comstock Lode of talking points, debating tricks, and attack advertisements.

He goes on to point out that the Chicago Teachers Union strike, Bibi's chest-thumping on Iran, Moody's making noises about another credit downgrade and the events in Cairo and Benghazi this week should, if operated by a competent campaign, be vaulting Romney ahead in the polls in what really should amount to the worst week President Obama has had all year.

Instead, Romney has imploded.

Let us be clear. On all four of these issues, the president is clearly vulnerable — most directly on No. 1, because of his close ties to Emanuel and the education "reform" community, and No. 3, because the administration did not make wrecking the lives of the thieves who wrecked the economy a priority upon taking office. He is confronted in this election by a man with a positive gift for spinning gold into straw. Romney was last heard reiterating the sentiments for which he was excoriated for the past 12 hours. Give this man a steak and he'll send it back for shoe leather.

I really can't argue with Pierce's logic, too.  The President really is vulnerable on all of these issues, and yet Mitt Romney still took a huge dump on America's front porch.
That's how awful Mitt Romney is.  We'll see how much the FOX media machine can do to save Mitt.  My guess is a lot.  They'll have to.

But The Mitt Came Back, The Very Next Day

Steve M. plays devil's advocate and counters my thoughts yesterday that Mitt has blown a hole in his own campaign, pointing out that in the end, our FOX-ified public may very well turn on Obama over this on second blush.

But I think we're really jumping to conclusions if we assume the public knows that politics should stop at the water's edge and one shouldn't politicize a tragedy until a decent interval has passed and all that. Also, I think we're giving the public too much credit if we expect them to have instantly absorbed the timeline. They don't necessarily know that the embassy statement came out before the Egypt protests started, or that Romney didn't realize people were dead in Benghazi when he went political.

On the latter, I don't think we should assume the public cares. These niceties make sense to Beltway insiders and politics junkies. I don't know if they make sense to ordinary voters.

That's a decent argument, going back to my 45-45% theory that 90% of America has already made up its mind, and that the last 10% won't care until November 1st.  FOX has already completely ignored the facts of the timeline, and we're already seeing the "Media in the tank for Obama" argument from the right again, bringing us to the second half of Steve's theory, that the only gaffe was lack of security that got our Ambassador killed.  Mitt did nothing wrong...

Americans were attacked in Libya and Egypt by members of a religious faith a lot of the U.S. public has grown to despise, or at least to be very wary of. There was inadequate security in the Benghazi attack, and (as anyone who watched Rachel Maddow's show tonight knows) there have been plenty of signs of a threat to U.S. interests in Libya since the drone killing of a top Al Qaeda figure, Abu Yahya al-Libi -- a Libyan -- in June. So I'm sorry, but the Obama administration has some vulnerabilities on the question of whether there was adequate vigilance.

I'm more inclined to believe that the FOX propaganda machine will simply scream ALL MUZZIES ARE EVIL OBAMA'S IN CAHOOTS HE LET THEM DIE and then the Village will be "forced" to retract its very correct statements on Romney's mendacity.

In the end, after a night's sleep to reflect, I can't discount that there's an decent chance that FOX and friends will be able to turn what should have been a fatal blow to Romney's campaign into a "both sides do it" moment, and in fact even "Obama's fall of the Shah" moment.  We're seeing that go into effect now.  How effective it will be, well gosh, how effective has FOX News been over the last 15 years?

Having said that, the non-FOX media is brutal in its frank assessment of Romney's suitability for President. Gail Collins chronicles "Mitt's Major Meltdown":

It didn’t seem to be a lot to ask, but when the crisis in the Middle East flared up, Romney turned out to have no restraining inner core. All the uneasy feelings you got when he went to London and dissed the Olympic organizers can now come into full bloom. Feel free to worry about anything. That he’d declare war on Malta. Lock himself in a nuclear missile silo and refuse to come out until there’s a tax cut. Hand the country over to space aliens. 

Here is the Republican candidate for president of the United States on Wednesday, explaining why he broke into a moment of rising international tension and denounced the White House as “disgraceful” for a mild statement made by the American Embassy in Cairo about the importance of respecting other people’s religions: 

“They clearly — they clearly sent mixed messages to the world. And — and the statement came from the administration — and the embassy is the administration — the statement that came from the administration was a — was a statement which is akin to apology and I think was a — a — a severe miscalculation.” 

Feel free to reread this when you’re staring at the ceiling at 4 a.m. 

So as with everything else, Mitt will survive this.  If he does lose however, this is the moment where the historians will say the turning point happened and Mitt lost the ball game.

StupidiNews!

• Additional protests outside US embassy compounds in Cairo, Egypt and Sana'a, Yemen continued on Thursday, with crowds chanting and facing riot police.
• A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against parts of the NDAA signed last year by President Obama, authorizing detention for "US supporters" of terror groups.
• Household incomes in 2011 dropped again and income inequality rose in the latest yearly Census survey of American incomes and poverty.
• The number of Americans without insurance declined for the first time since the Great Recession as 1.3 million Americans gained coverage last year.
• The House has reauthorized the FISA law allowing for revised warrantless wiretapping, but the bill now faces a tougher road in the Senate.