Hot Potato Mash

This Is Just Sick

John McCain takes credit for a new GI Bill that he opposed!

Technorati Tags: John McCain, GI Bill

PBS NOW: EDUCATION CITY

NOW on PBS explores how the oil rich nation of Qatar is importing top-notch American education at a cost of billions of dollars in a fascinating segment titled, “Education City”.

Part 1 (9:33)
 

Part 2 (9:48)
 

Part 3 (4:53)

DISCLOSURE: The producer of the segment is a relative.

Technorati Tags: Brenda Breslauer, David Brancaccio, Education, Georgetown, middle east, NOW, PBS, Mona Iskander

US Flunks Teacher Pay

From the Economic Policy Institute:

Recent research has highlighted the important role of teachers in fostering student achievement. However, the United States lags significantly behind other countries in teacher compensation, which adversely impacts efforts to recruit high-quality teachers.

A recent study by McKinsey and Co. argues that good starting salaries are an essential ingredient for getting the right people to become teachers.1 Though people who enter teaching often cite a number of reasons, surveys find that unless school systems offer salaries commensurate with that on offer in other career opportunities, the teaching profession will not attract equivalent candidates. The McKinsey study shows that starting salaries in the United States are much lower than in other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (see chart).

In other words, paying teachers more would attract better teachers which would result in better student performance! Who woulda coulda thunk it?

Technorati Tags: education

'Good Girl, You' - More Miss Teen South Carolina

 
On the Today Show

 
What's really going on up there

What the Buck?

There Are No Words...Literally

(h/t Arlen)

UPDATE: Check out these YouTube numbers after 3 days...

LESSON: HOW TO TREAT BUSH & WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS

The response that Andrew Card receives from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst is the response Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi and the rest of those responsible for the last six years of White House policy should be receiving daily.  Whether they are eating, playing golf or addressing a crowd, anytime Bush and his cronies venture out into the public, they should be met with anger, demonstrations and outrage.  And it is shameful and a reflection of a nation whose moral compass is severely out of whack that this is not the case.  To illustrate the point, i present the case of OJ Simpson who only a couple of weeks ago was refused service at a restaurant during the Kentucky Derby weekend -- an action that found much national support. What does this odd incongruity say about Americans?

Now O.J. is by most accounts not a great person and most definitely a murderer of two innocents.  But O.J.'s lists of wrongs committed against society do not register when compared to Bush's.  Bush knowingly and willfully continues a program which is supposed to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa but actually leads to the spread of the deadly virus because it relies on teaching abstinence, a method his own government has declared ineffective. Yet, the program, which has led to the meteoric rise in HIV infection throughout Africa after a decade of  declining numbers under the Clinton administration's proven safe-sex condom distribution approach, continues because it is a favorite of the religious right and thus politically expedient. 

Every day the program continues hundreds of Africans will unnecessarily be infected with HIV. This will lead to prolonged suffering and eventually a slow miserable and lonesome death as the infected are often shunned by families, friends and entire villages. Additionally, thousands of innocent babies will be born with the disease, though the majority will suffer far less than the adults because most will not even reach their first birthday. And all President Bush needs to do to put a stop to this despicable policy is sign his name to a Presidential Order. 

In light of the devastating effect that our abstinence policy is having in Africa it would take some imagination to think of a person more deserving of O.J. or Andrew Card treatment than the President. Yet, the vast majority of Americans would gladly accept a White House dinner invite or applaud a Bush speech.  To think that O.J. is a worse person or more deserving of bad treatment than Bush is utterly non-sensical and absurd. Yet, there is little question that would be the consensus view of the country. And that is reprehensible.

It is often said that we must show respect for the presidency if not the president. Albeit, the cliched line is often the work of paid pundits and republican diehards which is unsurprising considering the twisted bullshit that it is. Here we are a country founded on the most basic fundamental principle, "that all men are created equal", being told that it is necessary, even patriotic, to hold one position above all others, almost majestically.  How the hell Bill O'Reilly and others make such claims with a straight face boggles the mind.  The Founding Fathers had contempt for government which they distrusted to the core.  Thus, they would have been as likely to show respect for any government position, much less the one most similar a king, as they would have been to call for more taxation without representation. It is the "consent of the governed" who give government its power and it is the governed who ought to be respected.

Moreover, when a government moves towards "absolute Despotism" (cough), it is not only the right of the people to overthrow it, "it is their duty".  Thus, it should be self-evident that the response by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst was not only appropriate but necessary.  Further, it is the duty of all Americans to similarly voice our displeasure to Bush and the other architects of his policies whenever they venture out into the public. And if Congress and the administration continue to defy the will of the governed...

NO DOLLAR LEFT BEHIND

I'm not sure what the big deal is as we've known for some time that No Child Left Behind was terrible joke and horrible failure of a law despite being one of President Bush's favorite talking points. Granted, a success story for Bush is when a scandal revealing the cronyism, stealing (missing funds) and other illegal activity has not surfaced yet. There are not too many untainted areas left.  Here's the latest from the Washington Post:

The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.

The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.

"That sounds like a criminal enterprise to me," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, which held a five-hour investigative hearing. "You don't get to override the law," he angrily told a panel of Reading First officials. "But the fact of the matter is that you did."

Republicans across the country who heard Miller (one of the best Congressmen along with Henry Waxman) must have thought he was crazy. Law? What law? Dude, Congressman, Sir, laws are for Democrats. Duh.

The Michael "Brownie" Brown of Law Schools

I chose the wrong law school in 1995 but so did the entire country. I know this because Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law was not an accredited law school until 1996 and few would ever bother attending a non-accredited law school. Clearly even becoming accredited didn't do much to inspire applicants as three years later 60% of the graduating class failed the bar exam on the first attempt. Yikes! Guess there is a reason Regent is ranked a "tier four" (the worst possible) law school by US News & World Report.

All of which explains why more than 150 Regent University alumni have been hired by the Bush administration to fill those positions that used to go to Harvard, Yale and Stanford alumni. One such hire was the now infamous Monica Goodling, Regent class of 60% failure rate, who was apparently responsible for firing and appointing US attorneys. From the New Republic website:

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for the best of the legal profession. . . That a recent graduate of one of the very worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is something seriously wrong at the DOJ."

But it gets better. One 2004 graduate describes being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department (imagine Pat Robertson working in the Civil Rights Division). Certainly the recent Regent grad channeled Robertson when, during the interview, he answered that the worst Supreme Court decision in the last 20 years was the striking down of a law against sodomy because it violated gay people's civil rights. The Regent student goes on to explain in the school's newsletter, that he knew he answered correctly when one of the interviewees agreed with him calling the decision "maddening". Luckily he got the job since it was the only offer he received after graduation.

Of course, there is not so much something wrong at DOJ but with the Bush administration as a whole. And the hiring of 150 Regent University graduates with negligible experience is a symptom of the problem. As is the US attorney scandal. As is the funneling of hundreds of millions of dollars to the right kinds of faith based organizations. As is Tom Delay's redistricting of Texas. As is the vast election shenanigans that have sent tens of GOP faithful to prison despite the packing of the attorneys and the courts! As are the e-voting efforts that led to both Bush victories. As is the K-Street Project. As is getting rid of habeas corpus. As is the invasion of privacy to read the email and listen to phone calls of all Americans. And none of it is about al-Qaeda or terrorists. Instead it is about the realization of Karl Rove's dream - a one party state.

And at the rate Rove is succeeding in filling the ranks with loyal Bush supporters and simultaneously tearing down our Democracy, we may not need a 2008 presidential election. And impeachment remains "off the table."

Read the entire Boston Globe article on Regent University