Really, the Texas Republicans yacht to be tossed out

May 4, 2011

Texas’s legislative follies win worldwide attention.  From deepest, darkest Minnesota:

I’m just amazed that Texas citizens will elect congresspeople who will do things like this:

In response to the worst state budget crisis since World War II, the Texas House has proposed slashing $27 billion from the budget, including huge cuts to education, nursing homes, and health care for the poor. Yet last Friday, the Texas House Ways and Means Committee approved a tax break for those who want to buy yachts costing $250,000 or more.

I think every unemployed worker, everyone struggling by on minimum wage, every waitress working for less than minimum wage, every teacher watching her support dwindle, every farmer, every working class person ought to be storming the capitol and lining up the fat cats against the wall…but barring that extreme reaction, shouldn’t we at the very least expect those same people to walk into their voting booths and throw the rascals out?

So, Texas parents, when your kid can’t get an AP class next year, when your kid gets stuck in a class with 37 rowdy kids who don’t care that your kid wants to learn enough to get into college, when your aged uncle gets tossed out of his nursing home because it has to close . . . will you vote these clowns out?

And a tip of the old scrub brush to Pharyngula for alerting us.

1 Comment | Rampant stupidity, Republican Party, Texas, Texas Lege, War on Education | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

NJ Gov. Christie applauds video/cyber assault on special education teacher

November 28, 2010

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Teachers, they hate you out there — some people do, at least.  Who?  Republicans.  The War on Education is getting pretty serious, now with Republican operatives using techniques of public shaming made famous in Moscow in the 1920s and in Mao’s China in the 1970s.  Consider this:

  1. Sleazeball political hack James O’Keefe, R-Sodom,  tried to get a New Jersey special education teacher drunk, to hit on her, to get her to dish on her colleagues.
  2. Not just any teacher — a special ed teacher commended by President Clinton for risking her life to save the lives of her students.
  3. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) then applauded the resulting video, saying it indicates a problem with teachers.  (Christie has his own anger management issues, it appears.)

Godwin’s law prevents us from making the obvious comparisons.

James O'Keefe, hired thug

James O'Keefe, undercover political hoaxster -- teachers, if you see this man and he asks you about education, call the police and your education association that provides your liability insurance, and do not talk to O'Keefe.

Details at The New Republic.

It’s Republicans Gone Wild, with all the depth of analysis and moral backbone such a title implies.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Ed Brayton at Dispatches on the Culture Wars.

7 Comments | Education, Hoaxes, Labor and unions, Political Smear, War on Education | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell