A new gig for son's former science teacher and ...

I'm a little ways into Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design by Michael Shermer and so far so good. I recently got some attention back "home" from a post relating climate change and the Southern Baptist Convention. I added some dictum about a former "teacher" of my boy exposing, and at least for the time being winning him over I regret to admit, him to "young earth creationism" even though he's in a public school. I've found her a better way for her to walk her walk.

ABC's Brian Rooney and Melia Patria provide Because the Bible Tells Me So?: During Private Museum Tours, Denver Children Learn About Creationism. They don't link to BC Tours but I will. There is also a video clip from Nightline that runs about eight minutes. Seeing those children being led about that museum will likely haunt me for some time. "T-Rex was vegetarian because at the time of the Creation, there was no such thing as death, so a T-Rex could not have eaten meat." is just one example of what Bill Jack and Rusty Carter are telling these poor kids and their true believer parents. They seem like such normal, nice people and yet they are apparently bent.

My suggestion for this "teacher" back "home" and any others of her faithfulness, certainly those that are on the public teat, would be to start up something like this. Capitalism solves everything doesn't it? She can drive up to McWane in B'ham and do her thing there. Bill and Rusty are even prepared to teach her how their system works it would appear. John Gunn

Who you calling fundamentalist Bob?

There's S. Fred Singer over to the left. He was referenced as authority by Bob Norman, perhaps this one serving on Auburn's City Council and/or serving as an Elder with Covenant Presbyterian Church and/or selling real estate for First Realty and/or ... yet I'm hardly certain, who wrote a Letter to the Editor in the March 12, 2008 Opelika-Auburn News that was titled It’s fashionable to be skeptical of fundamentalists, isn’t it?

As a contrast with Al Gore and others' “Church of Man-Made Global Warming” he offers up Dr. Singer and points readers toward a Hillsdale College's Imprimis article for a "free exchange of ideas surrounding this issue". You'll have to work to find it but it's there where he uses "scaremongers" and "propaganda" and ... to describe what he claims are "irrational and scientifically baseless climate fears". I'm, however, still unable to find any "free exchange of ideas" Bob. This is Hillsdale College after all.

Hillsdale is consistently in YAF's Top Ten Conservative Colleges after all. I've posted on YAF before in case you need a reminder of that organization's bona fides. As to Hillsdale, among their graduates you'll find Blackwater's Eric Prince (here's another recent MoJo piece on the Prince) and former Indiana Representative Chris "Count" Chocola, one of the many Bu$h buddies we (and Dubyah!) helped retire in 2006.

I go to their Hillsdale's Center for Constructive Alternatives and I get to see a picture of Dan Quayle. Their National Leadership Seminars have involved a reliable list of right wingers with a few rare exceptions. Hillsdale's Charles R. and Kathleen K. Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence seems like another effort of foundation money to influence an agenda supportive of conservative views. Their recent free seminar in San Diego had Dr. John Eastman, Henry Salvatori Professorof Law and Community Service, Chapman University School of Law among its speakers. That's Chapman Law, home of the learned Hugh Hewitt.

Mr. Norman also mentions Dr. Singer's work with George Mason University, another favorite of those leaning right, especially of the Libertarian variety. You suggested we ought to be "following the money" didn't you? Looks like there's some sweet endowments and the like to be gathered from holding the right, as in right-wing, beliefs.

As for climate change, recent posts here, here, and here and ... can shed more light on what I'm thinking yet all pretty much deal with the push back from those on the right as they try to get regular folks thinking there is a uncertainty on climate change. Astroturfing is bad enough yet to use the academy is all the more bothersome. I'm worried about the lack of action on climate change and accept that the scientific community thinks we have a problem.

I'm willing to admit that I'm part of Al Gore's church I suppose. Who'd have thought I'd ever be a fundamentalist? If that means holding to "an intransigent set of beliefs" then I'll beg to differ. All I seek to do is keep an open mind and learn. I hold my beliefs tentatively as that's perhaps the mark of a liberal mind. Do you do the same Bob? John Gunn

B'ham News ~ Alabama needs DNA testing reform

The Birmingham News gets it right with Alabama is one of only a handful of states without a law to help wrongly convicted people get access to DNA testing. Our Legislature should change that. That they scolded Governor Riley is also noted. They've done this at least once before as to the case of Tommy Arthur so there's a trend here. In this latest, they wrote:

In the case of Death Row inmate Thomas Arthur, for instance, Riley has seemed to run through a series of excuses not to order DNA testing - none of which hold up to close scrutiny.

That's kind actually as merely routine scrutiny isn't required to see that our Governor is playing politics (I'm tough on crime!) with a man's life. What ought to be an easy decision as to Tommy Arthur is apparently too much to ask of Bob Riley. John Gunn

Anniston Star saves me a post on GA's Regents

To the left you'll see one of Georgia's most infamous Governors, namely Eugene Talmadge. He's barely mentioned in the editorial to follow yet my having taught Georgia History for so many years I can hardly avoid not noting him. This Time piece from way back in 1946 on the death of the "Wild Man from Sugar Creek" is a good read. Note the "God Bless America" in his hands. His battle with FDR over the New Deal was perhaps a vision of things to come in the South.

Today's Anniston Star editorial titled The two-year college showdown: Let's examine Georgia model possibly saves me from a post I'd promised in Are we meeting the needs of citizens or capital? where I questioned why ACHE was so determined to align our educational efforts with the needs of industry. I wrote:

... I'm also thinking ACHE ought to be replaced with something like a Board of Regents like Georgia uses. Decision and policy making is all the more difficult given Alabama's organizational structures. We also ought to give PK-12 to the Alabama Board of Education and take the JuCos away but that's another post for another day.

And what did The Star suggest?

In Georgia, the two-year colleges are treated like colleges — not as extensions of K-12. And in Georgia, instances of political interference in the activities of the Board of Regents are rare. And they usually fail.

There's plenty more they could have offered up but the point is well taken. In this battle between AEA and Chancellor Bradley Byrne, who let's recall was a rather big time player in the Alabama GOP, is simply smothered with politics. It's pretty much a battle of the Big Mules. Either way this all shakes out I fear the real losers will remain Alabama's young people and the state as a whole. John Gunn

John McCain's FCC Letter was a "Purple Cow"

Joshua Green's McCain's Purple Cow in The Atlantic is a solid examination of St. John's rather bold actions on behalf of Paxson Communications. I've posted before on his relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman and once again I'll state that I don't care if their contact had a sexual facet. Why Senator McCain wrote the FCC Commissioners for Bud Paxson might have been for rides on his jet or his generous contributions or ... rather than attentions from his lobbyist.

Here's a critical portion:

Most of the letters the FCC receives are not acted on. McCain’s letters were. So the first thing that should stand out about the Paxson case is not the FCC’s eventual ruling but the fact that McCain sent six letters and wrote to each of the commissioners individually (this is unusual) demanding immediate action.

The second thing that was unusual was the legal situation. Paxson was asking the FCC to allow an educational license to be purchased by a commercial interest. The FCC had never allowed such a deal.

The third thing that should stand out is the unusual breakdown of how the FCC voted. Susan Ness, a Democratic commissioner, took the rare step of breaking with her fellow Democrats and voting with the Republican commissioners to approve the Paxson deal.

Mr. Green ends with

The point is not that what McCain did in the Paxson case was scandalous or illegal. But he clearly intervened in the regulatory process by using the full weight of his political capital to take something that had been stuck at the bottom of the pile and move it to the top. In the same way, politicians use to earmarks to ensure that whatever bridge, road, study or other projects they favor get special treatment. At a fundamental philosophical level, McCain’s regulatory earmark does not differ meaningfully from the earmarking he has spent a career railing against. The Times did not sufficiently nail the sex angle to make it an issue in the presidential race. But in the long run, piercing McCain’s image as a principled reformer could wind up being more damaging.

Amen! Yet I'm figuring the free ride will continue for St. John. John Gunn

Tip of the Tam ~ AFL-CIO's John McCain Revealed

Very clever and well delivered, the AFL-CIO's John McCain Revealed is surely worth visiting. Their whole Working Families Vote 2008 is for that matter. I particularly like the Issues section. A vibrant labor movement can do much for our nation and this may be especially so in this election year. John Gunn

Here's a neat new tool ~ Poll Daddy

Poll Daddy might be useful though I seldom get enough traffic for results. The free version will work for this cheap Scot. John Gunn

Rep. Barney Frank will try to legalize marijuana

The Boston Globe reports Rep. Frank says he'll file bill to legalize marijuana. On the Bill Maher show this weekend, "Frank said he thinks 'its time for the politicians in this one to catch up to the public. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly.' He told Maher he'd call the bill the 'Make Room for Serious Criminals' bill. A tip of the tam to Barney Frank for consistently demonstrating personal and political courage. I've been slack on posting on our other "Forgotten War" - The War on Drugs - but I'll try to do better. John Gunn

Coverage of Cheryl Sabel's support of "A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq"

Jill Nolin of the Montgomery Advertiser dares to do some reporting and serves up Congressional hopeful backs end of Iraq war. The piece provides a link to http://www.responsibleplan.com/ and she gave Cheryl a chance to even talk about the plan. I've yet to see many of the other papers in South Alabama or the Wiregrass cover the plan so this is a positive. I did, however, note an Editorial in The Dothan Eagle this Friday that was titled Our view: No cause for celebration that might suggest the powers that be there would be sympathetic to Cheryl's responsible and Progressive campaign. Reckon what Bobby Bright thinks of the plan? John Gunn

UPDATE ~ I noticed Cheryl and Bobby have another Democratic candidate in the race and again it is Jill Nolin delivering. William Boyd "does not support abortion. 'If you're a Christian and you believe in the word, then the word pretty much speaks for itself,' he said." Huh? He's ran against Bobby Bright before. That Montgomery Mayor's race saw Bright get 22,932 votes to Boyd's 720.

The latest excuse for missing White House emails

I've previously posted here and here on the missing White House emails. Pete Yost of AP reports that Bu$hCo is now claiming various hard drives were tossed and that it would be too "costly and time-consuming" to try to recover them. Trying to claim this bunch didn't know how archive emails is audacious enough yet their thinking citizens and media might actually buy these lame excuses is even more bold. Then again, perhaps not? John Gunn

America public need scolding on the 5th anniversary of Iraq's invasion

I have long believed it is perfectly patriotic to weep and gnash teeth about what all is wrong with one's government and society. Barbara Ehrenreich, working off the wisdom of Brit Samuel Johnson, is said to have said, "No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots." If the above quote is so, and I think it is, then David Michael Green has surely done his duty. His Happy Anniversary, America! How Lethally Stupid Can One Country Be? is angry and accurate. Here's the money quote:

Without question, it helps an awful lot - if you're just Joe Sixpack, out there trying to figure out international politics in-between a long day's work, helping the kids with their algebra homework, and the Yankee game - to have a checking-and-balancing Congress, a responsible opposition party, and/or a critical media helping you to understand the issues accurately, rather than gleefully capitulating to executive power at every opportunity. But that by no means excuses a public who were fundamentally far more lazy than they were ignorant or confused.

Ouch! I recalled with my dearest recently how we watched that first debate between Al Gore and Dubyah way back in 2000. We remembered how we felt like Al Gore simply crushed Bu$h. She reminded me of her saying she sort of felt sorry for him as it was so apparent he was in way over his head. And yet the American public, with a little help from the Supreme Court and ..., managed to choose Bu$hCo twice. Selling war to a citizenry that had bought the Bu$hCo brand was just too easy.

Professor Green is right to suggest many in Congress, some in the Democratic Party, and much of the media shares the blame yet I can accept him putting a good portion of the responsibility squarely on the American citizenry. I doubt it will get much better unfortunately and yet I'll do my part to create positive change. That's what patriotism requires after all. John Gunn

Alabama's 5th CD may get another "Blue Dog"

I must 'fess up that I know little about Parker Griffith. Apparently he's rich as Roosevelt and a fast riser in Alabama politics. He's entering the 5th Congressional race (and Susan Parker isn't!) to replace the retiring Bud Cramer. Although recently elected to the Alabama Senate, he's hardly a career politician. Dr. Griffith's medical and education background are likely positives. His real estate development and business experiences may help as well. Reckon the Republicans will still try to paint him as a Communist?

However, Senator Griffith starting out telling us that he wants to join the Blue Dogs (here's another site they've apparently got up on the internets) isn't a positive to this Progressive. I'm all for the idea of a "big tent" yet I do think the best way to deal with the GOP's radicalism is head on with pretty much utter contempt for "conservatism". I'm somewhat sympathetic to "fiscal conservatism" yet "welfare reform" and "bankruptcy reform" was a damned poor way to demonstrate that construct.

I also worry that Senator Griffith might think he'll need to demonstrate his commitment to "family values" but I'll wait to see how that shakes out. He's supposedly Episcopalian so he's likely not a Bible thumping nutjob. Let's hope his Rector doesn't show up on YouTube!

I might ponder on this some and get a better post up later but for the time being I'll just hope Dr. Griffith will avoid being a Republican Lite candidate. John Gunn

Consequences of Bu$hCo's "cowboy diplomacy"

Colum Lynch of the WaPo reports on a new book by Heraldo Muñoz, Chile's Ambassador to the United States, that likely only confirms what we know about Bu$hCo's dreadful diplomatic record. Mr. Lynch's Book Details U.S. Pressure On Allies Before War motivates me to read A Solitary War: A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons yet I certainly hope those seeking the White House (or at least their handlers!) might also seek it out.

According to the piece, Mr. Muñoz claims "The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting "bitterness" and "deep mistrust" in Washington's relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere". You reckon? And that's diplomat talking! Imagine what they really think! The next President will have much to repair but let's hope restoring our standing in the world is high on that long, long list of stuff Bu$hCo broke.

The image is from Time's cover back in July of 2006. The article the cover references is here and it remains a solid view inside the White House. They've perhaps received a little boost from "the surge" and yet Condi and crew still can't get much right at State.

I expect my frustration with this administration will remain for the balance of my years. I believe there's really no "end to cowboy diplomacy" as even if there's a significant shift in style from the next President the failures of Bu$hCo will remain with our world for many years to follow. John Gunn

David Neiwert on "The Media's Race Problem"

The image to the left is from the New Back Panther Party. In case you don't care to go to their own website, I'll turn to World Nut Daily to let those reasonable souls educate you why that matters as to Senator Obama's Presidential Campaign. There's also Faux News and other far right wing blogs to turn to to learn how to decide. The Southern Poverty Law Center can actually educate you on the NBBP in case that actually interests you.

The Media’s Race Problem by David Neiwert appears at FireDogLake and his own Ornicus. David has long been a voice I've valued.

But who will educate the media? David writes:

Their entire preoccupation, indeed, was with how Wright's remarks might discomfit whites -- while never examining the deeper questions of whether white complacence about race might be something worth challenging, as well as their own roles in failing to make that challenge. ... These are uncomfortable truths, of course, but they are also truths. And the media have as much a role in the failure of white Americans to honestly and forthrightly confront them.

Amen! Certainly I'm no fan of groups like the NBPP. But neither is Senator Obama. John Gunn

Bu$hCo's DOE Secretary Spellings Heads North

Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings was in Alabama recently shilling for Bu$hCo and likely making sure the GOP was being well served. She's apparently going strong even way up north in Minnesota. Paul Kiel of TPM Muckraker reports Miss Margaret went all the way to Minnesota to announce a proposed pilot program for just ten states that will perhaps give them some relief from the dreadful No Child Left Behind mess her boss had saddled schools with.

Remarkably, Minnesota isn't even one of the ten states involved! It gets better. "None of Minnesota's Democratic lawmakers were invited to the event" yet Norm Coleman, right in the middle of a touch campaign to hold his Senate seat, was there on the dais with her. Miss Margaret was in the past willing to talk up Dubyah's, or actually movement conservatives', voucher foolishness even when her own DOE's research said it was of no real consequence so doing a little politics can't be too much to expect. (Margaret even had the DOE hide that same research that went against the voucher vouchers by the way!)

It would appear that the White House Office of Political Affairs (Can the acronym really be WHOPA?) is the only part of this administration that can do anything right. John Gunn

Cheryl Sabel for Congress website is up and ...

Cheryl Sabel has her campaign website up and running as she seeks the Democratic nomination for Alabama's 2nd Congressional District. She's clearly a solid Progressive and I'd like to to think she's got a decent chance of upsetting Bobby Bright. I've yet to find any campaign website for him yet considering he couldn't decide on running as a Democrat or Republican I expect little which might inspire me. Bright has openly declared he'll run as a Conservative so I hope Cheryl is willing and able to educate both Bright and any Republican Lite types that try to help him.

She's got to be assertive and take the fight to them. Some earned media and pressing the flesh will be required yet all that is for naught if she's not bold. Goldy at Horses Ass reports Cheryl has joined Darcy Burner and several other Progressive Democrats in pushing A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. dday at Digby's Hullabaloo takes us Inside The Plan.

While dealing head on with Iraq, not just where we are now but also how in the hell we got into this terrible situation, seems like a good place to start. However, I also appreciate that Cheryl is also considering wealth disparities, poverty, our prison-industrial state, universal health care, education, healthy foods, the environment, reproductive rights, economic uncertainty, the housing bubble, veterans/soldiers issues, torture/human rights, the rule of law, etc.

Please show Cheryl some love at Act Blue if so inclined. Thanks, John Gunn

Did St. John McCain get "quid pro quo" from Alabama Governor Bob Riley?

Sunday's Montgomery Independent had a piece from Bob Martin on The John McCain/Bob Riley two step that is worth visiting. He informs us of an email from Black Jack Abramoff to Michael Scanlon on Monday December 09, 2002 11:58 AM that is rather revealing. By the way, will we ever get those White House logs? I'm rather certain I've posted on this (or at least the connection before) yet I'm in a rush tonight. I'll move along and perhaps revisit the post later. The guts of Mr. Martin's piece are as follows:

The quote above is a part of a Jack Abramoff e-mail that was uncovered by a Freedom of Information request from news organizations after it was suppressed by Sen. John McCain from the report on Abramoff and Scanlon's scam called "GimmeFive" that was aimed at ripping off Indian tribes. Both are now serving time. McCain also subsequently refused to make the email public after the report was released. Scanlon was an aide to Gov. Riley when he was in Congress.

This seems to merit some further reporting and some hard questions for certainly St. John and also Bob Riley. I'll not hold my breath. If St. John in fact "lost" this email then I'd like to know the how and why. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ Evening of March 20, 2008 - This old post from Captain Bama might be what I was thinking of as far as early efforts on the Riley-McCain quid pro quo? There are links within to other posts that try to cover the issue. Again, some questions remain but I doubt they'll be asked of either Governor Riley or John "Free Ride" McCain.

The WaPo's E.J. Dionne Jr. opens a can of "Whoop Ass" on Wall Street and "movement conservatives"

The Street on Welfare from E.J. Dionne, Jr. in today's WaPo was outstanding. He leads with, "Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy." And he keeps right on rolling ...

My favorite was perhaps

It's just fine to make it harder for the average Joe to file for bankruptcy, as did that wretched bankruptcy bill passed by Congress in 2005 at the request of the credit card industry. But the big guys are "too big to fail," because they could bring us all down with them.

Ouch! Then again, the following 'aint bad.

As the economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted of the era leading up to the Depression, "The threat to men of great dignity, privilege and pretense is not from the radicals they revile; it is from accepting their own myth. Exposure to reality remains the nemesis of the great -- a little understood thing."

But in the enthusiasm for deregulation that took root in the late 1970s, flowered in the Reagan era and reached its apogee in the second Bush years, we forgot the lesson that government needs to keep a careful watch on what capitalists do. Of course, some deregulation can be salutary, and the market system is, on balance, a wondrous instrument -- when it works. But the free market is just that: an instrument, not a principle.

Another solid lick. But I expect Mr. Dionne knows we'll hear more of the same from the movement conservatives (he never uses that term yet I'm rather sure that's what he means) that control the GOP of today. After all, they've built their whole enterprise off myths like "free enterprise", "family values", "limited government" ... John Gunn

St. John needs Honest Joe's tip on Iran & al-Qaeda

Senator Obama's former pastor making some controversial remarks are I'm sure more important but Matthew Yglesais telling us that Senator McCain tried to connect Iran with al-Qaeda seems like it ought to get at least a little attention on the tee-vee. Matthew is building off A McCain Gaffe in Jordan from Cameron W. Barr and Michael D. Shear in the WaPo. Think Progress has more on the candidate that is pretty much running exclusively on his national security chops. Matthew's got him nailed with, "He's very sure that the surge is working, but doesn't understand the basic contours of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq?" Of course there's also some dispute about just how much Iran is actually helping but if they are then it's certainly not for a Sunni group. John Gunn

Dick Cheney still doesn't get it and never will

Hannah Allam and Laith Hammoudi of McClatchy report Cheney again links Iraq invasion to 9/11 attacks. Deep breaths ... he's out of DC next January, even if the damage he and his have done is ours to deal with for perhaps decades or longer. He'll likely never stop seeing the world in his own corporatist version of a neo-conservative frame of reference yet at least once he's back in Wyoming (and likely earning even more wealth on yet another trip through the revolving door back to various Big Oil and Mighty Militarism boards!) he'll merely be a private citizen.

Here's what Dead Eye Dick did and said this time:

Cheney, who spent the night at a sprawling U.S. base in the northern town of Balad, told soldiers they were defending future generations of Americans from a global terror threat.

"This long-term struggle became urgent on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. That day we clearly saw that dangers can gather far from our own shores and find us right there at home," said Cheney, who was accompanied by his wife, Lynne, and their daughter, Elizabeth.

"So the United States made a decision: to hunt down the evil of terrorism and kill it where it grows, to hold the supporters of terror to account and to confront regimes that harbor terrorists and threaten the peace," Cheney said. "Understanding all the dangers of this new era, we have no intention of abandoning our friends or allowing this country of 170,000 square miles to become a staging area for further attacks against Americans."

Certainly the "further attacks" portion of his statement seems clear enough. That he felt it necessary to tell the soldiers this fundamental lie is even more frustrating. I expect a good number were thinking WTF yet I'm only writing for myself and certainly for nobody else. That Saddam was contained and the UN inspections were working and Iraq had zilch to do with 9-11 is a given to pretty much the balance of humanity outside of the true believers. But Dick doesn't care. He's Dick.

From his "Energy Task Force" being made up of energy industry fatcats and then refusing to release the records of said group to the public to his Chief of Staff Scooter Libby leaking the name of a CIA agent to punish that agent's husband for exposing Bu$hCo's lies to dodging service in his generation's own war in Asia to shooting a man in the face to ... Dick Cheney has proven that he's without shame or decency. His record in Congress was one of extremism. His tenure at Halliburton and the like was one of questionable actions as well.

Deep breaths ... January can't get here too soon! John Gunn