The Sarah Palin History Network explains the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Is any comment really necessary?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Joan Samuels Kaiser.
2 Comments | 
Bogus history, Humor, Politics, Voodoo history | Tagged: Bogus history, Conan O'Brien, Humor, Politics, Sarah Palin, Voodoo history | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
I get e-mail, even sometimes from the CATO Institute:
For your interest…
Cato has launched the Department of Labor portion of www.DownsizingGovernment.org
http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/labor
The site includes essays on unemployment insurance, job training programs, labor union laws, and trade adjustment assistance.
Please enjoy,
Chris Edwards
Editor, www.DownsizingGovernment.org
Cato Institute
Doesn’t that sound like a declaration of war on working people, to you? If not, why not?
16 Comments | Government, Labor and unions, Politics | Tagged: CATO Institute, Government, labor, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Yeah, this video was first created for the April 2 teacher demonstrations in Austin; but the Texas Lege got filibustered at the last minute. Now the Lege is in special, emergency session.
They still plan to begin the dismantling of Texas public education. After the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Texas did not follow the errors of Mississippi, Arkansas and Virginia, shutting down some or all of the state’s schools rather than education students of color. As a result, Texas students leapt ahead of their counterparts in those states.
But today, in 2011, the Texas Lege plans two years of budget cuts that will kill Texas education reform efforts and backtrack on 20 years of progress.
Teacher groups ask Texas teachers to go to Austin June 7 to protest budget cuts.
It may be like Canute speaking to the sea, the Texas Lege is that stone deaf (water deaf?) — but if Texas teachers don’t stand up for education and Texas kids, who is left to do it? Niemöller is dead. Who is left?
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education reform, Education spending, Teachers, Texas, Texas history, Texas Lege | Tagged: Education, Education spending, Politics, Texas, Texas Lege | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Generally, Texas school districts need to lock down their school year budgets by about the end of April.
Of course, that’s not possible this year. As of this morning, it looked as though the Texas Lege could not agree on school funding, and they will have to return for a special session to set education budgets in June or July.
Can you imagine being the budget officer for a Texas school district?
But, sorta good news in Dallas: Budget officers, making their best guesses on what will happen, created Budget 5.0 (the fifth iteration of this process — one is usually all a district gets, or needs).
Here’s the message from Downtown on the school’s internal communication system:
Budget Plan 5.0 presented to trustees
Budget Plan 5.0 was presented to trustees today during a budget workshop. The administration is optimistic that this particular scenario, which envisions a $90 million cut in state funding to the district, will be closest to the final budget presented to the board for approval in June.
Here are some of the highlights of Budget Plan 5.0:
- No additional layoffs at the campus level will be necessary.
- There will not be an additional loss in the number of teaching positions. The early resignation incentive offered earlier in the spring cut enough from the payroll to make any additional loss of positions unnecessary. It must be noted, however, that some reassignments will need to occur to level campuses depending upon staffing needs.
- Full day pre-kindergarten for eligible Title I students, which has been a priority of the Board of Trustees, will be funded.
- Certain teacher stipends will be eliminated.
- Secondary schools will be staffed at a 27-1 class-size ratio, an increase over the current level of 25-1. While this is not ideal, it is preferable to earlier budget versions that included a 35-1 ratio.
Texas lawmakers remain gridlocked on the funding mechanism for schools yet have indicated an agreement in principle on the amount that will be available. The latest funding scenarios from the state give the district confidence to move forward with Budget Plan 5.0, with the possibility of some modifications, prior to its approval by the Board of Trustees in June.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Politics, Texas, Texas Lege | Tagged: Dallas Independent School District, Education, Education spending, Politics, Texas, Texas Lege | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Which is worse: To be in the depths of a drought, or to deny drought where it exists?
I ask the question because, as one cannot tear one’s eyes away from a train wreck about to occur, I watch Steve Goddard’s blog. Occasionally Steve or one of his fellow travelers says something so contrary to reality or fact that I can’t resist pointing it out.
In some discussion over there, Goddard suggested that because there is above-average snowpack around Salt Lake City and in Northern Utah, Lake Powell’s decade-long struggle with extreme drought is over. Therefore, to Goddard, global warming does not exist.
(No, I’m not really exaggerating. Seriously. Go look. No one there seems to have ever had a course in logic, nor in English composition and essay writing. If Al Gore got svelte, one suspects half the commenters there would never be able to speak again.)
It is true that this year, contrary to the past decade, snowpack is high along the Wasatch Front and in the Uinta Mountains of Utah, and in Wyoming and Colorado areas that drain into the Green and Colorado Rivers. Consequently, forecasters say that Lake Powell may gain a few feet of depth this year. Powell is down about 50 feet, however, and even a record snowpack won’t erase the effects of drought on the lake. (Yeah, I know: The Wasatch doesn’t drain into the Colorado system — it drains to the Great Salt Lake, as indeed do many of the streams that have great snowpack in Utah — so a lot of the record snowpack won’t get within 400 miles of Lake Powell. That’s geography, and it would be one more area that commenters would embarrass themselves in. Don’t ask the pig to sing if you aren’t going to spend the time to teach it; if you need the aphorism on teaching pigs to sing, look it up yourself.)
Since Lake Powell won’t lose a lot of elevation this year, the Goddardites (Goddardians? Goddards? Goddardoons?) pronounce the U.S. free of drought.
Right.
Check it out for yourself, Dear Reader. Here’s an animation from the National Drought Center, showing drought measurements in the contiguous 48 states plus Alaska and Hawaii, over the past 12 weeks:
Drought in the U.S., 12 weeks ending May 17, 2011, National Drought Mitigation Center, U of Nebraska-Lincoln - click on map for a larger version at the Drought Monitor site.
Here’s the drought outlook map from the Climate Prediction Center at NOAA:
U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook Map, released May 19, 2011, NOAA and the Climate Prediction Center - click image for a larger version at NOAA's site.
It would be wonderful were these droughts to break soon. But that is very unlikely.
So, why would anyone deny it?
Then, just to indicate the bait-and-switch logic these guys use, Goddard came back with a claim that the 1956 drought in Texas was worse, as if that means the current drought doesn’t exist. Fore reasons apparent only to those whose heads get pinched by tinfoil hats, he also notes the CO2 levels for 1956. I think I know what point he’s trying to make, but someone should tell him that apples are not oranges, and comparing apples and oranges to pomegranates doesn’t increase the supply of tennis balls.
Let’s just stick to the facts. The experts who must operate the dams and lakes and get water to Mexico on schedule say the drought along the Colorado persists. Who are we to gainsay them?
Resources:
GEOSat photos of Lake Powell and drought, 2000 to 2004 - Dr. Paul R. Baumann, SUNY - Oneonta College
51 Comments | Climate change, climate_change, Colorado River, denialism, Environment, Environmental protection, Global warming, History, Politics, Rivers, Science, Utah, Water | Tagged: Climate change, Colorado River, denialism, drought, environment, Global warming, History, Lake Powell, Politics, Rivers, Science, Steven Goddard, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Utah, Water | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Republicans and Tea Partiers in Michigan can’t exactly be accused of throwing their grandmothers under the bus, but only because there was no bus coming at that moment.
U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Michigan, scheduled a meeting with Tea Party supporters last Saturday. When senior citizens showed up, apparently fearing they would raise some questions about the Republican budget plan with figuratively throws grandma under the bus with drastic cuts to Medicare, organizers called police, claiming the post-65 group had started physical violence.
You couldn’t make this stuff up, could you? If it were fiction, who would believe it?
Read the full story at DailyKos (with links to ThinkProgress):
One way Republicans have found of dealing with the bad press and hostility they’ve faced in public meetings over their highly unpopular budget plan has been what’s actually a pretty typical Republican response: censorship. They’ve clamped down on reporters and citizen journalists, barring them from recording the events.
In Michigan, they’ve taken it up a notch, courtesy of Tea Party control freaks who not only banned a group of senior citizens and reporters, but called security on them at an event with Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI).
Rep. Justin Amash held a townhall meeting sponsored by a Tea Party group on Saturday
sponsored by a Tea Party group, but a group of senior citizens and two reporters — including this one — were denied entry to the event.The traditional purpose of a townhall meeting is for an elected official to meet with his constituents in public, giving the people a chance to ask questions and engage in dialogue with their representatives. But neither the organizers nor Amash apparently wanted to hear from or speak to a group of concerned senior citizens — even at a time when the fate of Medicare is being debated in Congress.About eight senior citizens arrived at the Prince Conference Center on the Calvin College campus for a chance to question Amash concerning his voting record in regards to eliminating Medicare.
Once barred from attending the event, the seniors stood out in the parking lot where they were taking questions from this reporter and Tanya Somanader of Think Progress, the two members of the media who were denied access. Eventually, six security guards arrived on the scene and said that both the seniors and the reporters had to leave.
Amash, and the Michigan Republicans, appear to be too embarrassed to talk about the GOP budget approved by the House of Representatives. Those senior citizens kicked out of the meeting had been invited to attend by the Tea Party, apparently unaware that their ideas are unpopular among their own nominal supporters. Invited, then kicked out.
Amash and Republicans should be embarrassed.
At least the security guys who responded also saw the humor in the ridiculous situation
1 Comment | Humor, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party | Tagged: Budget, GOP, Humor, Medicare, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party, Tea Party, Teabaggers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I get e-mail from Nancy Pelosi from time to time, like tonight:
Ed —
It is my great pleasure to report that tonight, thanks to you, Democrat Kathy Hochul has won a triumphant grassroots victory in the special election in NY-26.
Victories like this are what happen when we fight together to protect our core Democratic values.
Congresswoman-elect Hochul’s victory in a staunchly-Republican district has shocked the political world and sent an unmistakable sign that the American people will not stand for the Republicans’ reckless and extreme agenda to end Medicare.
This is our third straight special election victory in New York — and it is truly one for the ages. All of the Republicans’ right-wing outside groups with their secret money and dishonest attacks were no match for the combined strength of grassroots Democrats.
Thank you again for fighting to protect and defend Medicare and bringing us one step closer to regaining our Democratic House Majority.
Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader
Is there a lesson in the election? Yes, there is: Republicans overreached when they started their march against Medicare.
See the story in the New York Times:
Two months ago, the Democrat, Kathy Hochul, was considered an all-but-certain loser in the race against the Republican, Jane Corwin. But Ms. Hochul seized on the Republican’s embrace of the proposal from Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, to overhaul Medicare, and she never let up.
On Tuesday, she captured 48 percent of the vote, to Ms. Corwin’s 42 percent, according to unofficial results. A Tea Party candidate, Jack Davis, had 8 percent.
Voters, who turned out in strikingly large numbers for a special election, said they trusted Ms. Hochul, the county clerk of Erie County, to protect Medicare.
Kathy Hochul claimed victory at an election party in Amherst, New York, on Tuesday night. Hochul won a seat in Congress in what has traditionally been a Republican district in New York. New York Times photo by Michael Appleton
3 Comments | Campaigns, Elections, Medicare, medicine, Politics, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged: Campaigns, Elections, New York, Politics, Rep. Kathy Hochul, Special Election, U.S. House of Representatives | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
BusinessWeek cover, April 18-24, 2011 - Don't play chicken with debt ceiling; chicken image by Jan Hamus/Alamy
Not every one of the Bloomberg Businessweek covers has been a hit, but a lot of them are — vastly more entertaining since Bloomberg took over the old workhorse magazine.
This one packs a political punch along with visual excitement.
And it’s right. Do any Republicans pay attention to the finance and business worlds anymore?
Articles inside are informative, too — see Peter Coy’s article, and did you see the article on the debt ceiling issue and the views of past Treasury secretaries?
Hey! Republicans! Stop playing chicken with the nation’s credit, will you?
Businessweek graphic from April 18-24, 2011 issue - click for larger view at Businessweek site; chicken image by Jan Hamus/Alamy
2 Comments | Art, Business, Economics, Journalism, News, Politics | Tagged: Art, Business, Debt Ceiling, Economics, Finance, Journalism, Magazines, News, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This was “Quote of the Day” for Jim Wallis’s group’s newsletter, Sojourner:
“I went in with the youthful vigor that I could single-handedly change the world. But you fast come to the realization that you’re 1/435th of one-half of one-third of the government.”
– Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) on first-year Republican members of Congress finding out how difficult it is to get things done in Washington.
(USA Today)
The math equation would be: 1 Congressman = 1/435 × 1/2 × 1/3.
The math might vary, depending on the Congressman.
Republican Texas Congressman Blake Farenthold, prior to election
As a freshman Congressman, among other things James Madison wrote the official Congressional response to George Washington’s inaugural address, and proposed and passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution, now known as the Bill of Rights, and the 27th Amendment (which was not ratified until 1992). We have no pictures of James Madison in rubber ducky pyjamas.
11 Comments | Politics, Quotes, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged: Congress, Politics, Quotes, Separation of Powers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I get e-mail that makes me smile on a dreary day (everything below quoted from the e-mail):
Ed —
Let me introduce you to Jerome Corsi.
This week he released a new book that the publisher says will be a bestseller “of historic proportions.”
The title is “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” — yes, really.
Corsi’s work is a greatest-hits reel of delusions, ranging from 9/11 conspiracies to claiming that there is an infinite supply of oil in the Earth’s core. In 2008, he published a book about Barack Obama claiming, among other things, that he (a) is a secret Muslim; (b) is secretly anti-military; (c) secretly dealt drugs; and (d) secretly supported terrorist actions when he was eight years old. So many secrets!
FactCheck.org called Corsi’s work “a mishmash of unsupported conjecture, half-truths, logical fallacies and outright falsehoods.”
There’s really no way to make this stuff completely go away. The only thing we can do is laugh at it — and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke.
So let’s just do this — get your Obama birth certificate mug here:
Last year, the President said, “I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”
This is about as close as we can get.
If the facts can’t make these ridiculous smears go away, we can at least have a little fun with it.
And then we’ll get back to the important work of supporting the President as he tackles real problems like high gas prices, the deficit, and unemployment.
Thanks,
Julianna
Julianna Smoot
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for AmericaP.S. — Mug not your thing? How about a T-shirt?
Contributions or gifts to Obama for America are not tax deductible.
Leave a Comment » | 2012 Campaigns, Barack Obama, Birth Certificate, Campaigns, History, Humor, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Barack Obama, Birth Certificate, Campaign 2012, History, Humor, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
2 Comments | Education, Education spending, Politics, Texas | Tagged: Education, education funding, Politics, RaiseYourHandTexas.org, Texas, Tommy Lee Jones | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas Liberal asks help for a friend doing research:
I’ve been requested to ask my readers to consider taking part in a survey of uses and users of online sources of political information being conducted by researcher Tom Johnson.
Image from Oklahoma State University
Mr. Johnson is a senior scholar at the University of Texas School of Journalism.
Mr. Johnson says that most of the people responding have been conservatives. This is fine as far as that goes, but they’d like to balance it out so the survey is more representative of the full electorate.
The survey should take between about 15 – 20 minutes to complete.
You might also wish to consider passing along the link to the survey on Facebook or Twitter.
Thank you.
Don’t hope that your assisting with Dr. Johnson’s research will improve the writing or accuracy of anything you get on line, though. It’s research, not miracle working.
4 Comments | Education, Journalism, News, Politics, Research | Tagged: Education, Journalism, News, Politics, Research | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The artist shows the voter aiming much lower than the real damage, even to the opposite end of the body.
7 Comments | Citizenship, Humor, Republican Party | Tagged: Citizenship, Class Warfare, Humor, Politics, Republican, voting | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Apologies in profusion to Shel Silverstein, wherever you are
Tip of the old scrub brush to New APPS: Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science. That site attributes the quote to John Rogers, via Andrew Sullivan. It may be so.
6 Comments | Humor, Politics | Tagged: Ayn Rand, Humor, Objectivism, Objectivist Tree, Politics, Shel Silverstein | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Good donkey quote of the day candidate:
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves
hobbitsorcs.
Attributed to John Rogers, whoever that is. (Got a better source? Let us know in comments.)
Tip of the old scrub brush to Kent commenting at PennLive.com.
Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien
34 Comments | Albert Einstein, Books, Literature, Politics, Quotes | Tagged: Ayn Rand, Books, J. R. R. Tolkien, Literature, Politics, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 