Counting My Chickens

So, OK, 538 Dot Com has all but coronated President Obama for a 2^nd term.

With a post-convention bounce of 3 or 4 percent, with a reflective drop in the GOP, we now see a way to victory in the Executive Branch. Or at least a 79.8% chance at a victory.

Unless, of course, someone puts a funny helmet on Barack’s head and makes him look ridiculous like they did for Dukakis when they made him look like he was driving a tank.

The strategy of gathering voters in blocs of interest seems to be working. Republicans can’t compete on this level and the time is rapidly coming to a close for when they can define the debate.

Truth to tell, this 538.com call is a better projection than this time 4 years ago, and with the shenanigans in Ohio and Florida being called out onto the carpet by vigilant Democrats, it looks like the election squeaker that we were all expecting, with 5 percent of the votes stolen by the GOP in various states won’t happen.

And no, I’m not declaring victory and going on vacation. There is still work to do, especially in local elections.

In the Senate, as far as Texas goes, Paul Sadler is not  being given much of a chance against TEA Partier Ted Cruz. The TEA Party still runs strong here and has all but taken over the Republican Party of Texas. And my local congressional district has a beltway suit dweeve running against a tin-foil-hat so-called Democrat who is calling for Obama’s impeachment for being, well, for being a puppet of Queen Elizabeth.

So in congress I am basically sitting in the stands waiting to find out whether we will be able to do business in the next two years in DC, or  whether we can expect more of the same.

In the House, we need a net 25 seat gain to take back the majority and the Speakership. And with some of these old geezers stepping all over themselves recently making outrageous biological claims about women’s metabolic processes, it seems to me that this task is easier than it appeared to be even since July.

So I am cautiously optimistic that we can remove some TEA Partiers who drove Moodys to downgrade the good faith and credit of the United States, as well as a couple of others.

The Senate though is another thing. Apparently everyone seems to think that there are 7 toss-up seats in the Senate, and four of them are open. Only three are currently held by an incumbent.  60, however, is the magic number in the Senate so if there is a continued stalemate it will be in the Senate.

So in the most optimistic of terms, all we Democrats can expect is continued roadblocks in the Senate, perhaps moderated by the fact that Republican Senators will no longer have on their agenda the opposition to another term for President Obama.

Whatever that means. Truth to tell, it probably doesn’t mean all that much.

Need to Get Obamaed Up?

Now that the convention are behind us and we await the onset of the Presidential debates, we here in the non-swing state of Red Texas have little to do but watch how massive amounts of corporate cash fund ad buys in 8 or 9 states. We can but watch since we are clearly on the sidelines as the Democratic campaign again cedes Texas to the TEA Party (the former Republican Party of Texas), and the ignoble opposition panders to voters in states that still have people living in them who can change their minds.

 

If you can’t change your mind, my Chinese fortune cookie fortune told me last night, why have one?

So again, Texas is a backwater, and bereft of the things we need to display our allegiance to the only national presidential ticket that makes sense for America, Obama/Biden.

But like 4 years ago, there are local places you can go to get “Obamaed Up” if you will.

If you are local to the Rosenberg, Texas area, you might take a drive to the quaint older part of town in Rosenberg, Texas, and take a look at the stuff they are selling at the Obama Shop at the corner of 8^th Street and Highway 90A.

It’s a medium-sized building at the back of a really big parking lot. Word of warning: don’t enter the lot from 8^th St. There is a bottom-scraping ditch at that entrance. Better to enter from Highway 90.

There you will be greeted by cheerful volunteer staff who will guide you to the places where you can get all manner of things to decorate your house, car, office, and, of course, self.

I’ve got my Obama/Biden signs all dusted off from ’08 so I’m OK, but if you want to show your allegiance to the Truth Ticket, this is the place to go and get a lawn sign. I haven’t found anyone who is selling my Obama “bobble head” figurine yet, but if I find out where I’ll let you know.

Rep. John Lewis on Stealing Elections

I really liked Congressman John Lewis (D – GA) in his comments early this evening on his time riding with the Freedom Riders in 1961, and about how the overt oppression of white racists back then, in Charlotte, North Carolina, has once again reared its head in the South, and in other states.

 

Things were subtle back in the 80’s and 90’s when white racist pols would incite white fears over jobs and welfare. Things are not so subtle anymore. In states across America minorities are being singled out with voter suppression laws that Republicans hope to use to remain in power in the face of their dwindling numbers demographically.

This has got to be a big issue in this election, not jobs as Republicans would like to argue. Jobs are coming back. Not back fully yet, and no thanks to job cuts in the public sector (thanks to Republican budget cuts).  

And no thanks for Republican stonewalling of the Jobs Bill.

John Lewis makes the case that times indeed have changed, and we are heading  back down a short road to perdition once again.

John Lewis’ words are powerful because they are ones that come from someone who was there, and Lewis is in the best position to know the similarities between then and now.

Something this nation cannot afford to relive.

Pew Poll: Eastwood Ties With Nobody

The breaking news is that as far as a convention speaker goes, actor Clint Eastwood has no peer. As a matter of fact, Clint Eastwood remains peerless in this latest Pew Poll  in that Eastwood has no peer because he is tied with Nobody.

 

Now this is good news for Eastwood who stands as the only living human to outpoll Mitt Romney as the convention watchers’ highlight of the Republican convention.

The bad news is that he tied with No Highlight in Evidence.

The bad news for Mitt Romney is that, at 17%, he came in third (again) behind Eastwood and Nobody.

Poor Mitt. When will he get some respect?

Especially now that the Democrats have had Day 1 of their convention and people of both Democratic and Republican flavors are saying that First Lady Michelle Obama issued a slam dunk speech, followed closely behind by Mayor Julio Castro and Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick.

You know, it’s really too bad that they don’t run a poll for those who watch both conventions. I suspect that if the entire Republican crew were to be rated against just the first day of the Democrat’s speakers we would see even Clint Eastwood’s speech making skills fall short, and possibly become supplanted by someone who never actually addressed the Republicans at their convention, but who in his own terse way is far more eloquent than Clint, Mitt, Paul, or anyone else for that matter.

 

And who is this speaker that I refer to?

Anyone remember Clyde?  

Nose Bleeds and Crickets

What I am hearing from my friends and associates who are having a ball in Charlotte, NC this week at the Democratic National Convention is that the Texas Delegation has been relegated to the nosebleed seats at the convention center, and to the boonies in their accommodations.

 

The reason? Well for the past decade Texas Democrats haven’t had a majority in either legislative house, nor have they had a statewide office holder for over 10 years. This is reason enough to put Texas in the stratosphere let alone the nosebleed seats. The message is clear, deliver a majority or bring oxygen to the convention center.

And now I am reading it in the Austin American-Statesman.

Now when the Republican delegation was seated at the Republican convention they were also relegated to the nosebleed seats but for far different reasons. Texas delegates were, for the most part, too white, too overweight, and wore far too many white Stetson hats. And boy did they complain.

But in fairness, it didn’t help to see a speaker at the platform make some sort of comment and have the cameras pan over to the Texas seats only to see them milling around and not applauding. Maybe because they couldn’t hear the person at the stage.

So how did that happen? How did the steadfast Texas Republicans rate the cheap seats?

Texans, it seems, were removed to the upper tiers in favor of, wait for it, the Marianas Islands delegation and the Puerto Rico delegation.

Brown people in other words.

The RNC is chafing under the very correct claim that the Republican Party is being run by a bunch of old fluffy white men. They have their share of older women with big hair as well. So much so that they took the sure thing low-diversity delegations and placed them far away from the cameras’ telephoto lens. But judging from what I could see in the crowd pans, they didn’t do a very good job.

Either that or TV camera optics are getting better and better.

I think that’s a scream. Texas Republicans deliver a solid red state every two years to the Republicans and this is the thanks they get: seats where you can hear crickets. Texas Democrats get the same treatment, understandably, but respond with whooping and hollering, and are having a grand old time.

They even love their accommodations, some 20 miles from the convention center. 

Yes, that is a chandelier made out of deer antlers.

From the looks of it, it looks rough around the edges, but here it is. Would you trust some Yankee delegate to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge with its rustic look and feel, or would you want to assign it to a delegation that is likely to make the best of it?

I thought so.

 

It's Labor Day Again

Happy Labor Day.

 

Here in Texas they call themselves, as do several other states in the Union, a "Right to Work" state, which means, of course, that labor unions need not apply. It's a euphemism, you see, for being a "Right to Fire You" state. In fact, one of the reasons I am living here is due to the fact that my ex-company was lured to the state because of its "business friendly" laws where employees have fewer rights and less recourse when the time comes for them to fire you.

 

So when I am out and about on Labor Day, driving through my 70% Republican development and I see the massive throngs of American flags lining the streets I am understandably cynical. These people have no idea what Labor Day is about or what it is we are celebrating. To them it's a day off, and a National Holiday.

 

To me, Labor Day means having child labor laws, a 40 hour work week, healthcare benefits, a safe workplace, and an organization standing ready and waiting for the day when management decides to make a reduction in force. During the most recent RIF in my school district, not one Union member lost his or her job.

 

Not one.

 

So here is to the labor movement. And may Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, one day need the life or death services of a union member.

 

The Ubiquitous Obama

Thanks Clint Eastwood for the grand idea.

 

Clint Eastwood has given Democrats across the nation a grand idea, and here it is. President Obama is our standard bearer so when he shows up to one of our rallies it becomes a festival. But unfortunately, there is only one Barack Obama and despite the fact that he has a 747 and Marine helicopters at his beck and call, he cannot physically be everywhere all the time.

So this is where Clint Eastwood’s idea comes in.

Rather than have the big man here and there at some rallies and not at most of the others, all we Democrats need to do is to remember to bring an empty chair and place it on the dais along with all the speakers.

Every single ad or flyer for the event can then feature President Obama as one of the featured guests.

My guess, though, is that when President Obama attends our rallies in an empty chair, he will refrain from uttering the obscenities that he loosed at the Republican convention.

Now in all seriousness, I am still at a loss how or why Clint Eastwood's 11 minute spot happened on prime time at the end of the Republican convention. How did they possibly think that letting this guy on stage was a good idea. Was it his Chrysler ad for the Super Bowl? Is that it? Don't they ever watch SNL? Eastwood got reamed at SNL for that one. Just wait and see what they do to him this time.

 

 

Pre-Clearance is Unconstitutional Because…

We have continuing developments in the ongoing effort on the part of Texas Republicans to deny some of its voters of its constitutional right to vote. While we heard earlier this week that a 3-judge panel of federal appeals justices unanimously tossed out Texas’ voter ID law because it violated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, this has not affected a separate effort to get a part of the VRA declared unconstitutional: Section 5.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act singles out specific states which have been bad actors in the past in the effort to deny minorities of their right to vote. States that required voters to pay a poll tax, for instance, in order to vote. Or states that had a literacy requirement in order to grant a citizen access to a voting booth.

States that, for the most part, made up the former Confederate States of America and tried to split off from the rest of the United States so that its citizens could enjoy continued enslavement of descendants of Africans who were kidnapped from their homes in previous decades.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Still pending is Texas’ challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires pre-clearance. Texas claims the requirement adds an unfair burden that other states do not have to meet. Supporters of Section 5 say it is essential to maintaining the Voting Rights Act’s effectiveness in protecting civil rights advances.”

Opponents of Section 5 say that it places an undue burden on only select  states, allowing other states to make changes in their voting laws without having to undergo the indignity of having a federal agency review the law.

States like Indiana, which passed a voter photo ID law, did not have to undergo preclearance, and had the law upheld by the US Supreme Court.

To which I say, heck yeah. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We are now 157 years past the end of the Civil War, or as it is known here in Texas as the “War of Northern Aggression.” That being the case, if there are other states who are discriminating against minorities, states that once fought on the Union side of that war, they should also come under Section 5. Heck, yeah, it’s unconstitutional for only some states to have to undergo pre-clearance and not others, depending on which side they fought in some war over a century and a half ago.

ALL states should have to undergo pre-clearance, not just “civil rights states.”

Because, really, we are living in a new world where racial discrimination is no longer isolated in the South. Because even though racial discrimination is still a “thing” here in the South, in truth it is found everywhere.

Even Indiana.

So I welcome this court case, and the opportunity to mandate that Section 5 of the VRA apply to all fifty states.

Everyone needs to get in on the fun.

No Party for Old Men

Like all of we political wonks, I was watching the last night of the Republican convention taking in lie after lie in what has become a litany of lies directed at President Obama and anyone associated with him.
 

And then something very odd happened. Right around 9 PM local time, as they were gearing up to welcome the Mittster to the arena, the lights dimmed and out came a cultural icon from the 60’s and 70’s, none other than former Mayor of Carmel, California, Clint Eastwood.

He had to be there as a politician, right? Not there to shoot the breeze, not when the convention time was cut by an entire day with the passing of a category 2 hurricane.

And then to my shock and chagrin I realized that Eastwood was on stage to run a parody conversation with an empty chair, I guess the nearest thing they could come up with besides an empty suit, the empty chair being occupied by a sitting president: President Barack Hussein Obama.

Amazing, I said to myself. This is the first convention in history to parody the sitting president. The RNC has sunk to a new low and they’ve gotten a cultural icon, Clint Eastwood, to deliver it.

And then Eastwood proceeded not to deliver it. In actual fact it was hugely embarrassing. Not embarrassing for me mind you, I was embarrassed for Clint Eastwood, as probably were a lot of people out in the TV audience.

Not so much in the convention though. As Eastwood stumbled through his vague notion of a script, conventioneers were howling with delight. As I cringed, they crowed and cat-called. I began to really feel sorry for Eastwood, who was clearly fumbling his lines as he struggled to keep with a script that sounded like it was written on a lunch box napkin by a third grader.

I felt sorry for him.

But then I saw this, and I stopped feeling sorry for him.

This gesture, one of simulating a knife being drawn across the throat of a sitting president was met with wild applause, the loudest of the convention, giving Clint all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings.

Dirty Harry stepped over the line.

Here we have a sitting president, whose religion, patriotism,  and even his nationality have  been called into question, and now we have an aging actor mimicking a presidential assassination at the national convention of the opposing party to the wild approval of the assembled masses.

Then I started to wonder whether the party hacks really did want all of this to happen, and knew that Clint Eastwood would garner some sympathy from viewers due to his age. Now I believe it to be true. Proving to myself that the Republican Party is no party for old men.

A One-Two Punch for Texas

Boy the federal courts are having its way with Texas these past couple of days, with one right cross delivered by a three-judge panel of the US District Court for the District of Columbia yesterday, where they rejected redistricting maps drawn by the Republican-dominated Texas legislature, and then just a couple of hours ago, a haymaker landed by a federal appeals court in Washington that blocked Texas’ recently passed voter ID law.

 

In the redistricting case, the DC court ruled that the Republican-drawn district maps discriminated against Hispanic and African-American voters, something that Democrats have been saying since drafts of the maps were first unveiled in 2011.

In the Voter ID case, the Washington Court of Appeals ruled that the recently passed law would seriously curtail the ability of minorities to vote in elections. Among the arguments that backed up the ruling, the court wrote that those without documents (like birth certificates) to obtain a photo ID would have to purchase them, discouraging poor voters, indeed federal prosecutors argued that this law created an illegal poll tax that was eliminated by the Voting Rights Act.

Ouch and ouch. Texas Republican legislators were caught with their hands in the cookie jar of blatant racial discrimination, that is, if you make it hard for only minorities to vote, that makes you an unmistakable and blatant racist.

How embarrassing for Texas Republicans.

How embarrassing for them as they sit in the final evening of their Mittsterfest in Tampa, celebrating the nomination of a man whose own religious sect until just recently rejected the notion of having an African-American assume high places in the LDS hierarchy.

Next thing you know they are going to want to take another look at “separate but equal” in our public school system.

The Fat Man Sang

It’s all over, as they say, the fat lady is singing.

But in this case it was the fat man, New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Last night Chris Christie sang the death knell of the Republican presidential campaign in his keynote address to the assembled masses in Tampa, Florida, and sang it well.

What a fantastic blunder for the RNC, the committee that scheduled and orchestrated last night’s Republicanpalooza. What better way to throw the election than to put Chris Christie on stage right at this time and at this moment.

Mitt Romney is the nominee and Romney’s heavy-handed rules change that negates the efforts of grassroots activists has been presented and passed by most of the convention attendees. Now, one would think, would be the time to step away from singing to the choir, step away from appealing to the ultra rightwing base whose favor the RNC has curried for sickening months now. Time to step away from the crazies and extend a friendly hand toward the alienated moderates and Independents who have yet to be convinced that Mitt is It.

But to do that the RNC had to consider a moderate to be the keynote speaker. Someone who could lift the spirits of the whole assemblage and those at home.  Someone inspirational who could move people of a broad political spectrum to tell themselves that these Republicans really weren’t as crazy as the “lamestream media” has made them out to be.

But no, instead they put Chris Christie on the stage and he proceeded to spew his stream of vile hatred for what is arguably the heartland of America, workers and other “whiners.”

 

And all of the overweight and aging white men and women on the convention floor ate it up.

My guess is that Chris Christie’s speech sent all others off screaming into the night.

On a personal note, I find it incredible that a public school teacher could cast a vote for a Republican in this next election, not after hearing the utter disdain that Christie holds for people who ply that trade, or hearing the uproarious reaction in the convention to his belittling anti-teacher diatribe.

In short, Chris Christie did in his short few minutes at the podium, more damage to the Republican brand than any  major media market ad buy, and hopefully some of my teacher colleagues were watching. 

The RNC served up a disaster last night, but quite magically, these people don’t even realize it.

In their ignorance I find my bliss.

Cruisin’ With Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz, the Republican nominee for US Senate from Texas, is turning out to be an embarrassment on the order of his predecessor-newbie on the national scene, Rick Perry.

 

Looking for a laugh line at the Republican National Convention yesterday, Cruz remarked that one good thing, that that is, a blessing that has resulted from Hurricane Isaac is that it chased Joe Biden out of Florida.

Biden was expected to speak in Florida this week to balance the Republican convention, but cancelled when it looked like Isaac was going to hit Florida.

The last thing Floridians want to hear while being lambasted by a hurricane is a stump speech by a pol, no matter who it is. But Cruz thought it was funny and passed the laugh along.

And now, as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall just southeast of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, it seems clear that Cruz’ little joke was ill-conceived.

Hurricanes are a “blessing” to no one except for undertakers and home builders.

Ted Cruz is about as tasteless as unflavored gelatin. He and his spokesperson chortle at the umbrage we Democrats took to his tasteless remarks, proving even more to the point that this man is incapable of humanity.

Paulites Go Third Party

Surprise, surprise. The Ron Paul Republicans have been shunned by the mainstream Republican machine in Tampa, and have effectively been stripped of their delegate credentials.

 

Well, a lot of them, anyway.

And boy are they mad. So mad that they are not going to support Mitt Romney in the 2012 Election.

Again, surprise, surprise.

So they are going to go Third Party again and vote for one of their own, Gary Johnson, who is running for president on the Libertarian Party ticket.

And so here in 2012 we have a wonderful repetition of history. Remember back when Al Gore was running for president and he was opposed by not only Dubya but by Ralph Nader (of the Green Party), sealing the fate of the nation and thousands of US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans as Dubya became president because of a Green revolt?

Well what if Johnson gets 5% of the vote that would have gone to Mitt Romney had they treated these recalcitrant (but still Republican) delegates with the respect and inclusiveness that they deserve?

Can it, will it be that easy?

A Tale of Two Cities

It's Convention Season in the South. This week we will see Republicans whoop it up in Tampa, Florida, now more uproariously than ever as they celebrate the bullet that they just dodged when Hurricane Isaac jogged to the west, sparing Florida's west coast from the brunt of a potentially damaging storm.

 

Here are some TEA Partiers doing just that in a TEA Party party.

Oh my, what fun.

Contrast that to the party they are having right now in the Big Easy.

In New Orleans they are boarding up their shops and homes again on the eve of the day 7 years ago when Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of that city. A city that has yet to come back even after 7 years, made possible, some say, by a completely uncaring Republican administration that handed out congrats to all the players who did so little for that city in the aftermath of Katrina.

 

So today, as the GOP celebrates in Tampa, southern Louisianans are bracing for yet another assault on their city. 

 

What a contrast in stories that are unfolding along the same coast, at the same time.

Disrespecting “Yellow Hair”

Just as we see Todd Akin busily backpedaling from his “legitimately raped” remark, and the echoes have not yet subsided from that little jolt, along comes yet another bat guano-crazy remark  from a similar source, the Republican Party.
 

 This time it seems to be even crazier - even more “off the reservation,” to make an unfortunate metaphor.

Unfortunate in that this remark involves Native Americans.

Pat Rogers, a member of the Republican National Committee has condemned New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez for agreeing to attend the annual state-tribal leaders’ summit.

From TPM:

“‘The state is going to hell,’ Rogers, who is a member of the GOP executive committee and is currently in Tampa for the RNC convention, wrote in a June 8 email released by Progress Now New Mexico. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Col. Allen Weh ‘would not have dishonored Col Custer in this manner.’"

The Colonel Custer that Rogers is referring to is none other than General George Armstrong Custer who, along with 268 federal troops, was killed in the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 26^th 1876.

The huge losses are widely credited to Custer himself when he made incredibly poor strategic decisions that led to the splitting of his forces.

Nevertheless, Martinez, an Hispanic, is being criticized for consorting with the enemy of 136 years ago – even though the New Mexico tribes had nothing to do with that victory, thank you very much.

It’s like hating the Albanians because they lived near the Germans when they were kicking up a fuss in the first half of the 20^th century.

But OK, OK, give Rogers all of that. Martinez must be some sort of heartless Democratic boor to consort with descendants of distant relatives of those who cut down the “Boy General” in his prime.

How, then, does that mesh with Governor Mitt Romney’s own episode of consorting with the enemy in the case of his August 17^th fundraiser event with 12 Native American tribal leaders? The campaign did not divulge how many millions the governor raked in from that event, but however many millions there were, I cannot see how the governor, in good conscience, can hang onto those ill-gotten gains, not when General Custer’s blood is dripping from them.

Now Pat Rogers is as wrong as two right shoes that is a certainty. But if there be anyone out there in the radical fringe of the Grand Obsolete Party who disputes that, look no further than the atrocity of accepting blood-drenched lucre from the hands of the Red Menace.

Mitt Romney must return those campaign contributions.

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

 

Make Charter Schools Accountable?

Waitaminute. Today I am reading in the Austin American-Statesman that the people most concerned with the growth of charter schools at the expense of beleaguered public schools are now arguing for more accountability in charter schools.

 

You’ve got to be kidding.

One of the ways that charter schools have gotten where they are is through the fact that there is no accountability for them. Charter schools, you see, are exempted from any state-mandated high-stakes tests that are administered in a public schools. Tests that determine how you are placed in the 4-level school rating system that we have here in Texas

They don’t have to worry about them, prepare their students for them, or burn any of the 25 to 45 days of instruction for state-mandated testing administration.

All they have to do is teach their students (or should I say “clients”).

What luxury is that?

But now we are reading that this is not desired, no not at all. They want testing, and they want to be held accountable for what they are teaching their clients.

And I have to ask why, as one who is subjected to testing, and performance-rated by their results, why in all eternity do they want that?

Said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers:

“If our goal is to increase the number of great schools, you can't get there by approving bad schools and letting them stay open."

Well that makes sense. The greatest objection to the growth of charter schools is that they are not as effective as public schools. By some comparative measure, according to the article, 6% of public schools are rated “Unacceptable” in the state’s rating system compared to 11% of all charter schools.

I think that even this is a low figure, and in truth, there is no way to compare the two because as I wrote above, students at charter schools do not take the state tests. I prefer to point to the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University, whose 2009 study demonstrated that 37% of all charter schools underperformed compared to their public school equivalents.

Nevertheless, it is nice to see that charter school proponents want this in the face of the fact that, historically, charter schools do not perform as well as their public peers.

But then I have to stop myself and ask why. Why submit themselves to this abuse? Ever the pessimist, I have to suspect some sort of agenda, and I think I have happened on one.

In Texas we have a cap on the number of charter schools that may be authorized. That is, there are a bunch of low-performing schools that are taking up some of these spots. It does no one, who is a proponent of charter schools and vouchers, any good if some of these schools are stinkers. And wouldn’t it be better if the stinkers were shoved out in favor of high performers? High performers who are also known as “our friends?” Friends who can cherry pick and put together schools with motivated students?

And in doing so, by increasing the cherry picking, charter school proponents not only enrich their friends but also turn around the unfortunate statistics that seem to haunt them and give public school proponents such fodder for their cannons.

Because when you load up the charter schools with the state’s best students, the state’s least students concentrate in the public schools, and all of a sudden we have a taxpayer hue and cry over why we are throwing our tax money away at low-performing public schools, fueling movement to privatize the rest of the public schools.

And then everybody gets to cash in.

And then we have a world where public education as we know it disappears forever.

Also known as Republican Heaven.

Romney the Birther

Mitt Romney has shown how much he can stand up to verbal assault in the past, hasn’t he? When his religion becomes an issue, that issue is off limits. When his income taxes become an issue then his finances become off limits. When his business acumen becomes an issue – one that he has raised many times – then his time at Bain Capitol become off limits. When one of his own strays off the reservation and conjures up a magic shield to protect raped women from pregnancy, then that becomes an issue that is off limits.

 

In short, everything about Mitt Romney, including his dog, has become off limits.

And when he discusses it, he whines and complains about how dirty dealing the Democrats have become in their attacks on him.

So today, when Mitt was heard to say these words: “no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate” well that is not a dirty attack, is it?

Despite the fact that the birth certificate issue has been laid to rest time and time again, and should have never HAD to have been laid to rest in the first place, Mitt brought it up again just in time for the Republican convention.

A lie and a fabrication becomes an issue in the campaign, but we can’t discuss Romney’s role in sending American jobs overseas in the discussion of unemployment, what he has actually paid in income taxes in the discussion of revenues and public debt, or whether Romney’s worship of a God who lives on the planet Kolob is of a concern to his Christian base.

None of that is an issue, but all of a sudden it has again become an issue that no one has ever asked to see Mitt Romney’s birth certificate.

All of that aside, that statement is a patent lie. Someone has indeed asked to see Mitt Romney’s birth certificate. You cannot apply for a US Passport without submitting your birth certificate. Unless, of course, Romney has found some way to grease the wheels of the Department of State and has never produced a birth certificate, even though he has traveled overseas and been allowed to return to the US.

Doubt it.

At the Bottom of it All: Dr. Jack Willke, MD.

I have to admit that I am kicking up my heels with glee at the prospect of Republicans being newly embroiled in an internal struggle to silence the crazy rightwingers who have reared their head once again, this time a short week before they are to meet at their national convention.

 

It all started by a startling revelation from Congressman Todd Akin, running to take Senator Claire McCaskill’s seat, that women who are raped have a natural defense mechanism that prevents them from becoming pregnant.

The obvious inference is that pregnant women who say they were raped are either lying or grossly exaggerating the facts.

All of this led me to wonder who, or what is behind this pseudo-scientific conclusion. How is it that it has become such a widely-held belief among anti-abortion politicians.

Well as it turns out it seems to all come from one guy, Dr. Jack Willke, who is himself an anti-abortion activist. He has put out a couple of papers that have made this very case. Here is some of what he says and the mainstream support he has gotten.

From Wikipedia:

“Willke is a proponent of the concept that rape victims rarely get pregnant, stating in a 1999 article that ‘There's no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy’ and that by his calculations "assault" rape pregnancy is extremely rare and about four cases per state per year. In an interview on August 20, 2012, following the Todd Akin rape and pregnancy controversy, he said: ‘This is a traumatic thing — she’s, shall we say, she’s uptight. She is frightened, tight, and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic.’ These assertions were disputed by a number of gynecology professors. A study published in 1996 by the Medical University of South Carolina estimated that there are approximately 32,000 pregnancies from rape in the United States each year, a pregnancy rate of 5% per rape among victims of reproductive age.”

“Mitt Romney's 2007 campaign embraced Willke as “an important surrogate for Governor Romney's pro-life and pro-family agenda”, and Romney expressed is pride to "have the support of a man who has meant so much to the pro-life movement in our country.”

You know what this reminds me of? Lysenkoism. Trofim Lysenko was a Russian agronomist in the 20’s and 30’s who developed his own notions of botany and a process he called “vernalization” not from genetics but from questionnaires provided by peasant farmers. His notions were so politically correct at the time that they became strict doctrine in national agricultural planning, and served to produce disastrous crop failures year after year in Russia.

The result was that Russia, for many years, suffered from under production and many thousands of Russians died of starvation because of a reliance on this charlatan of science.

This is what we have here, in the new charlatan of science, Dr. Jack Willke. Only this time the result could have some very positive repercussions in this election in that Willke’s crackpot ideas are being identified as just that, and those that adhered to them are quickly running for cover. All of this just in time for the 2012 election.

In the Holy Bible we learn of Jesus and the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. In 2012 we have another miracle in the making, and we have none other than Dr. Jack Willke to claim the credit.