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December 29, 2005
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Saturday's Links
Activism
DEFCON America. America is under attack from religious extremists! Sorry, we didn't mean to alarm you, but we thought it was important that you knew. Oh, you already knew that? Well, we're probably not talking about the same religious extremists: We mean the religious right, which may not be as violent as Islamic terrorists (well, except for the random abortion clinic bombing), but has similar views and similar goals. Fortunately, DEFCON America is fighting back against those who would subvert the Constitution and cripple our freedoms. Take a trip over there and see what you can do to help. It's time we fought back!
News
Buying the Campus Mind. This is a pretty fascinating story. When we think of where the conservative agenda is trying to lead America, we don't often think about post-secondary schools. After all, wasn't there a study released last April that showed that the majority of professors in America were liberal? Putting aside the fact that where you apply to college is a choice, the study was conducted and paid for by conservatives. And that raises the bigger issue: How much of an impact are private donations to universities having on education? The top five conservative funders of colleges combined to give $37,487,843 dollars last year. That's ridiculous! And where is that money going? "...while the federal government pays for nearly two-thirds of all college-based research and development in the sciences, it pays for only 40 percent in the social sciences, education, and humanities." The problem is that most colleges are unable, or unwilling, to disclose these "donations." But with schools struggling for money, the debate as to how much they can take from whom is sometimes moot. And a lot of conservative donations given to fund studies at universities could be better spent at, say, think-tanks. So why go through the school? You can see the conservative agenda at work here.
An Army of Anyone. This is simply disgusting. We know that recruitment numbers are down, but to fake a high school diploma of a kid that hadn't been to school since the eighth grade just to allow him to enlist is not only pathetic, but it's illegal. And it gets worse. The writer, James McSwane, attempted to join the Army, and told the recruiter that he not only didn't have a high school diploma, but that he had huge problems with drugs and alcohol. The recruiter told him not to worry about it. After being sent home to lose 10 pounds and an inch off his waist, the recruiter called him back in a week to check on his progress. McSwane told the recruiter that he had changed his mind, that it was a waste of his time, and that he was still on drugs. The recruiter told him that "[h]e would take me to this 'place' to get this 'stuff' that would 'clean you out,' and offered to pay for half the cost. What was this 'stuff'? A type of detoxification drink that I could take the morning of the physical exam, he explained, and if I followed his instructions precisely, I would pass my urine test. It was no big deal, he said; he'd used it three or four times before." And the story just goes downhill from there. If recruiters are so desperate to get people like McSwane's artificial persona, it's no wonder we are doing so poorly in Iraq. When McSwane confronted the Army about what he went through, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Brodeur, the man in charge of recruiting for Colorado told him, "Let me sum up all of this in one word: unacceptable. Completely unacceptable." That trick only works the first time. When you get to the seventh, eighth, ninth time and more of hearing the same "bad apple recruiter" story, you start not to believe it. And when you couple this with stories like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, you see a pattern emerge that starts at the top.
Number of millionaires hits record. Well, hey, this is good news, right? If we have more and more millionaires, it must mean our economy is doing well, correct? Unfortunately, it's numbers like these that convince conservatives that Republicans are good for the economy. We have 8 percent more millionaires than we did last year, although the increase from 2003 to 2004 was a bit more astonishing: 33 percent! And while a million dollars may not go quite as far as it used to, it's still a lot of money, when the minimum wage is still stuck at $5.25. Surveys like this only serve to underscore that in our current economy, the gap between the rich and the poor is ever-widening: 35.9 million Americans are living in poverty, up 1.3 million from last year. If you're a Republican, it's the first survey that's important; if you're a thoughtful human, it's the second.
Editorials
Michael Brown as wake-up call to journalists. The story about Michael Brown is NOT that he blamed state and local governments for his failures; that was to be expected. No, the story about Brownie that the press needs to be covering is how he got there in the first place. Furthermore, it needs to investigate if there are more Brownies at other important positions, and what the effect of their incompetence will be. David E. Lewis, an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, dissects how Brown got his post in the first place, and how such appointments discourage more competent careerists from fulfilling important government roles.
Purging the Poor. It's often said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. This can even be the case in disasters such as Katrina. The sad fact is that New Orleans was a dysfunctional city before the hurricane hit, with a gigantic poverty problem. If our leaders cared enough, they could use the Katrina rebuilding process to re-engineer a city that benefitted all residents in a more equitable way. In fact, many of the areas that are now livable had a high vacancy rate to begin with, despite being upper- and middle-class areas. Why not house some of the displaced poor in those vacant locations? Because when you're obsessed with promoting "pro-free-market ideas" instead of helping people, poor people don't generate enough revenue to be worth the time.
Blogger Commentary
Karen Hughes and Our Godly Constitution. Karen Hughes was given the post of Undersecretary of State in an attempt to smooth out our image with, primarily, the Muslim world. As we've talked about before, she's not been exactly welcomed by anyone not considered a Bush ally. Now, we'll be the first to admit that we all make mistakes, but her most recent screw-up takes the cake. Apparently, in a briefing while on the way to Turkey earlier this week, Hughes was asked about Bush's support of a Palestinian State, and she responded with...well, let's let her tell you. "I had one person at one lunch raise the issue of the President mentioning God in his speeches. And I asked whether he was aware that previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our Constitution cites 'one nation under God.'" It does? Really? Because according to the good folks at "It Affects You", in the title link, it doesn't appear in the version at the National Archives, the Senate, the House or the official U.S. Government website. "One nation under God" appears in the Pledge of Allegience, but only since 1954. In fact, there is absolutely no mention of the word "God" in the Constitution at all! It appears once in the Declaration of Independence ("...the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."), but that's about it. How can we expect the Muslim community to take Hughes seriously when the American people can't?
110 Shiites Dead in 2 Days. Yup, it sure is getting uglier by the day over in Iraq. 110 Shiites dead in 2 days. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani has accused Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of turning his back on the Kurds. Shiites are calling on Sunnis to abandon al-Zarqawi, to no avail. Heck, the Center for American Progress has introduced a detailed plan for phasing out American troops from the country over the next two years. It's called "Strategic Redeployment," and it's pretty thorough in getting our troops home, but getting Iraq where it needs to be between now and then. Of course, the Center is very close with the Democrats, so the plan can't be put into effect until...oh, let's count on 2008, at the earliest. Hey, remember when we were looking for Osama bin Laden, dropping bombs on Tora Bora? Those were the days, weren't they? Whatever happened to that guy?
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December 29, 2005
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Saturday's Links
Activism
DEFCON America. America is under attack from religious extremists! Sorry, we didn't mean to alarm you, but we thought it was important that you knew. Oh, you already knew that? Well, we're probably not talking about the same religious extremists: We mean the religious right, which may not be as violent as Islamic terrorists (well, except for the random abortion clinic bombing), but has similar views and similar goals. Fortunately, DEFCON America is fighting back against those who would subvert the Constitution and cripple our freedoms. Take a trip over there and see what you can do to help. It's time we fought back!
News
Buying the Campus Mind. This is a pretty fascinating story. When we think of where the conservative agenda is trying to lead America, we don't often think about post-secondary schools. After all, wasn't there a study released last April that showed that the majority of professors in America were liberal? Putting aside the fact that where you apply to college is a choice, the study was conducted and paid for by conservatives. And that raises the bigger issue: How much of an impact are private donations to universities having on education? The top five conservative funders of colleges combined to give $37,487,843 dollars last year. That's ridiculous! And where is that money going? "...while the federal government pays for nearly two-thirds of all college-based research and development in the sciences, it pays for only 40 percent in the social sciences, education, and humanities." The problem is that most colleges are unable, or unwilling, to disclose these "donations." But with schools struggling for money, the debate as to how much they can take from whom is sometimes moot. And a lot of conservative donations given to fund studies at universities could be better spent at, say, think-tanks. So why go through the school? You can see the conservative agenda at work here.
An Army of Anyone. This is simply disgusting. We know that recruitment numbers are down, but to fake a high school diploma of a kid that hadn't been to school since the eighth grade just to allow him to enlist is not only pathetic, but it's illegal. And it gets worse. The writer, James McSwane, attempted to join the Army, and told the recruiter that he not only didn't have a high school diploma, but that he had huge problems with drugs and alcohol. The recruiter told him not to worry about it. After being sent home to lose 10 pounds and an inch off his waist, the recruiter called him back in a week to check on his progress. McSwane told the recruiter that he had changed his mind, that it was a waste of his time, and that he was still on drugs. The recruiter told him that "[h]e would take me to this 'place' to get this 'stuff' that would 'clean you out,' and offered to pay for half the cost. What was this 'stuff'? A type of detoxification drink that I could take the morning of the physical exam, he explained, and if I followed his instructions precisely, I would pass my urine test. It was no big deal, he said; he'd used it three or four times before." And the story just goes downhill from there. If recruiters are so desperate to get people like McSwane's artificial persona, it's no wonder we are doing so poorly in Iraq. When McSwane confronted the Army about what he went through, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Brodeur, the man in charge of recruiting for Colorado told him, "Let me sum up all of this in one word: unacceptable. Completely unacceptable." That trick only works the first time. When you get to the seventh, eighth, ninth time and more of hearing the same "bad apple recruiter" story, you start not to believe it. And when you couple this with stories like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, you see a pattern emerge that starts at the top.
Number of millionaires hits record. Well, hey, this is good news, right? If we have more and more millionaires, it must mean our economy is doing well, correct? Unfortunately, it's numbers like these that convince conservatives that Republicans are good for the economy. We have 8 percent more millionaires than we did last year, although the increase from 2003 to 2004 was a bit more astonishing: 33 percent! And while a million dollars may not go quite as far as it used to, it's still a lot of money, when the minimum wage is still stuck at $5.25. Surveys like this only serve to underscore that in our current economy, the gap between the rich and the poor is ever-widening: 35.9 million Americans are living in poverty, up 1.3 million from last year. If you're a Republican, it's the first survey that's important; if you're a thoughtful human, it's the second.
Editorials
Michael Brown as wake-up call to journalists. The story about Michael Brown is NOT that he blamed state and local governments for his failures; that was to be expected. No, the story about Brownie that the press needs to be covering is how he got there in the first place. Furthermore, it needs to investigate if there are more Brownies at other important positions, and what the effect of their incompetence will be. David E. Lewis, an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, dissects how Brown got his post in the first place, and how such appointments discourage more competent careerists from fulfilling important government roles.
Purging the Poor. It's often said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. This can even be the case in disasters such as Katrina. The sad fact is that New Orleans was a dysfunctional city before the hurricane hit, with a gigantic poverty problem. If our leaders cared enough, they could use the Katrina rebuilding process to re-engineer a city that benefitted all residents in a more equitable way. In fact, many of the areas that are now livable had a high vacancy rate to begin with, despite being upper- and middle-class areas. Why not house some of the displaced poor in those vacant locations? Because when you're obsessed with promoting "pro-free-market ideas" instead of helping people, poor people don't generate enough revenue to be worth the time.
Blogger Commentary
Karen Hughes and Our Godly Constitution. Karen Hughes was given the post of Undersecretary of State in an attempt to smooth out our image with, primarily, the Muslim world. As we've talked about before, she's not been exactly welcomed by anyone not considered a Bush ally. Now, we'll be the first to admit that we all make mistakes, but her most recent screw-up takes the cake. Apparently, in a briefing while on the way to Turkey earlier this week, Hughes was asked about Bush's support of a Palestinian State, and she responded with...well, let's let her tell you. "I had one person at one lunch raise the issue of the President mentioning God in his speeches. And I asked whether he was aware that previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our Constitution cites 'one nation under God.'" It does? Really? Because according to the good folks at "It Affects You", in the title link, it doesn't appear in the version at the National Archives, the Senate, the House or the official U.S. Government website. "One nation under God" appears in the Pledge of Allegience, but only since 1954. In fact, there is absolutely no mention of the word "God" in the Constitution at all! It appears once in the Declaration of Independence ("...the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."), but that's about it. How can we expect the Muslim community to take Hughes seriously when the American people can't?
110 Shiites Dead in 2 Days. Yup, it sure is getting uglier by the day over in Iraq. 110 Shiites dead in 2 days. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani has accused Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of turning his back on the Kurds. Shiites are calling on Sunnis to abandon al-Zarqawi, to no avail. Heck, the Center for American Progress has introduced a detailed plan for phasing out American troops from the country over the next two years. It's called "Strategic Redeployment," and it's pretty thorough in getting our troops home, but getting Iraq where it needs to be between now and then. Of course, the Center is very close with the Democrats, so the plan can't be put into effect until...oh, let's count on 2008, at the earliest. Hey, remember when we were looking for Osama bin Laden, dropping bombs on Tora Bora? Those were the days, weren't they? Whatever happened to that guy?
|
December 29, 2005
DEFCON America. America is under attack from religious extremists! Sorry, we didn't mean to alarm you, but we thought it was important that you knew. Oh, you already knew that? Well, we're probably not talking about the same religious extremists: We mean the religious right, which may not be as violent as Islamic terrorists (well, except for the random abortion clinic bombing), but has similar views and similar goals. Fortunately, DEFCON America is fighting back against those who would subvert the Constitution and cripple our freedoms. Take a trip over there and see what you can do to help. It's time we fought back!
News
Buying the Campus Mind. This is a pretty fascinating story. When we think of where the conservative agenda is trying to lead America, we don't often think about post-secondary schools. After all, wasn't there a study released last April that showed that the majority of professors in America were liberal? Putting aside the fact that where you apply to college is a choice, the study was conducted and paid for by conservatives. And that raises the bigger issue: How much of an impact are private donations to universities having on education? The top five conservative funders of colleges combined to give $37,487,843 dollars last year. That's ridiculous! And where is that money going? "...while the federal government pays for nearly two-thirds of all college-based research and development in the sciences, it pays for only 40 percent in the social sciences, education, and humanities." The problem is that most colleges are unable, or unwilling, to disclose these "donations." But with schools struggling for money, the debate as to how much they can take from whom is sometimes moot. And a lot of conservative donations given to fund studies at universities could be better spent at, say, think-tanks. So why go through the school? You can see the conservative agenda at work here.
An Army of Anyone. This is simply disgusting. We know that recruitment numbers are down, but to fake a high school diploma of a kid that hadn't been to school since the eighth grade just to allow him to enlist is not only pathetic, but it's illegal. And it gets worse. The writer, James McSwane, attempted to join the Army, and told the recruiter that he not only didn't have a high school diploma, but that he had huge problems with drugs and alcohol. The recruiter told him not to worry about it. After being sent home to lose 10 pounds and an inch off his waist, the recruiter called him back in a week to check on his progress. McSwane told the recruiter that he had changed his mind, that it was a waste of his time, and that he was still on drugs. The recruiter told him that "[h]e would take me to this 'place' to get this 'stuff' that would 'clean you out,' and offered to pay for half the cost. What was this 'stuff'? A type of detoxification drink that I could take the morning of the physical exam, he explained, and if I followed his instructions precisely, I would pass my urine test. It was no big deal, he said; he'd used it three or four times before." And the story just goes downhill from there. If recruiters are so desperate to get people like McSwane's artificial persona, it's no wonder we are doing so poorly in Iraq. When McSwane confronted the Army about what he went through, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Brodeur, the man in charge of recruiting for Colorado told him, "Let me sum up all of this in one word: unacceptable. Completely unacceptable." That trick only works the first time. When you get to the seventh, eighth, ninth time and more of hearing the same "bad apple recruiter" story, you start not to believe it. And when you couple this with stories like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, you see a pattern emerge that starts at the top.
Number of millionaires hits record. Well, hey, this is good news, right? If we have more and more millionaires, it must mean our economy is doing well, correct? Unfortunately, it's numbers like these that convince conservatives that Republicans are good for the economy. We have 8 percent more millionaires than we did last year, although the increase from 2003 to 2004 was a bit more astonishing: 33 percent! And while a million dollars may not go quite as far as it used to, it's still a lot of money, when the minimum wage is still stuck at $5.25. Surveys like this only serve to underscore that in our current economy, the gap between the rich and the poor is ever-widening: 35.9 million Americans are living in poverty, up 1.3 million from last year. If you're a Republican, it's the first survey that's important; if you're a thoughtful human, it's the second.
Editorials
Michael Brown as wake-up call to journalists. The story about Michael Brown is NOT that he blamed state and local governments for his failures; that was to be expected. No, the story about Brownie that the press needs to be covering is how he got there in the first place. Furthermore, it needs to investigate if there are more Brownies at other important positions, and what the effect of their incompetence will be. David E. Lewis, an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, dissects how Brown got his post in the first place, and how such appointments discourage more competent careerists from fulfilling important government roles.
Purging the Poor. It's often said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. This can even be the case in disasters such as Katrina. The sad fact is that New Orleans was a dysfunctional city before the hurricane hit, with a gigantic poverty problem. If our leaders cared enough, they could use the Katrina rebuilding process to re-engineer a city that benefitted all residents in a more equitable way. In fact, many of the areas that are now livable had a high vacancy rate to begin with, despite being upper- and middle-class areas. Why not house some of the displaced poor in those vacant locations? Because when you're obsessed with promoting "pro-free-market ideas" instead of helping people, poor people don't generate enough revenue to be worth the time.
Blogger Commentary
Karen Hughes and Our Godly Constitution. Karen Hughes was given the post of Undersecretary of State in an attempt to smooth out our image with, primarily, the Muslim world. As we've talked about before, she's not been exactly welcomed by anyone not considered a Bush ally. Now, we'll be the first to admit that we all make mistakes, but her most recent screw-up takes the cake. Apparently, in a briefing while on the way to Turkey earlier this week, Hughes was asked about Bush's support of a Palestinian State, and she responded with...well, let's let her tell you. "I had one person at one lunch raise the issue of the President mentioning God in his speeches. And I asked whether he was aware that previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our Constitution cites 'one nation under God.'" It does? Really? Because according to the good folks at "It Affects You", in the title link, it doesn't appear in the version at the National Archives, the Senate, the House or the official U.S. Government website. "One nation under God" appears in the Pledge of Allegience, but only since 1954. In fact, there is absolutely no mention of the word "God" in the Constitution at all! It appears once in the Declaration of Independence ("...the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."), but that's about it. How can we expect the Muslim community to take Hughes seriously when the American people can't?
110 Shiites Dead in 2 Days. Yup, it sure is getting uglier by the day over in Iraq. 110 Shiites dead in 2 days. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani has accused Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of turning his back on the Kurds. Shiites are calling on Sunnis to abandon al-Zarqawi, to no avail. Heck, the Center for American Progress has introduced a detailed plan for phasing out American troops from the country over the next two years. It's called "Strategic Redeployment," and it's pretty thorough in getting our troops home, but getting Iraq where it needs to be between now and then. Of course, the Center is very close with the Democrats, so the plan can't be put into effect until...oh, let's count on 2008, at the earliest. Hey, remember when we were looking for Osama bin Laden, dropping bombs on Tora Bora? Those were the days, weren't they? Whatever happened to that guy?
