I know that No Child Left Behind is not a hot topic right now, but I must share with you this wonderful snark that appeared in our Indiana State Teachers Association UniServ District 2F May 8 Newsletter (PDF).
It demonstrates the absurdity of a one-size-fits-all education policy inflicted on schools from the top down.
On March 28, over at Chris Weigant's blog, Chris asked his readers to place their bets (in quatloos) when Clinton would drop out of the Presidential race. Well, I've done pretty well so far. I predicted that Obama would surpass Clinton in Superdelegates before the West Virginia primary (got it right) and several of my delegate totals from the primaries were darn close (I didn't do so well on my original delegate estimate for Indiana). Also, I was only 1 day off for the John Edwards endorsement of Obama. My final prediction is Clinton drops out on June 16, just 31 days from now.
Requiring proof-of-citizenship in order to register to vote is the latest addition to voter suppression arsenal. Spurred by Arizona’s 2004 implementation of proof of citizenship requirements and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold Indiana's strict voter ID law, proof of citizenship bills - often coupled with voter ID - are gaining traction across the country. With more than 13 million Americans lacking ready access to citizenship documentation and scant evidence of voter registration fraud by non-citizens (or any voter for that matter) leading to illegal votes, proof of citizenship requirements could have a significant impact on the electorate. Wasting no time after the high court's decision, the neighboring states of Kansas and Missouri have swiftly moved forward with efforts to pass such legislation that could take effect in the November election.
Man, I tell ya, this Democratic primary season sure has been different. The long-running nature of the contest certainly has a lot to do with it, and I think that's a factor in seeing a side of the Democratic party and America in general that we don't usually get to see, since usually by now we're paying attention to all the tricks Karl Rove is pulling out of his Lee Atwater Do-It-Yourself Mudslinger's Manual.
Let's face it, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio all have something in common, more or less, and it isn't normally associated with the central tenets of the Democratic Party, unless you count the dwindling supply of reliable union voters, who've been reliable in a clinging to guns and God way since 1980, and voting Republican.
What this can't-quite-put-my-finger=on-it thing might be, why this looks like a big fat rhinocerous in the room, and why it really isn't, upon landing from the jump...
With the Obama Veepstakes poll now concluded and Gov. Bill Richardson as your chosen running mate (which was covered by the Santa Fe Reporter) it's time to take this a step further:
Who would you like to see in an Obama cabinet?
Today you can vote on the next Secretary of Commerce:
As promised, here are the maps from the Democratic primary. Like the commentary I did for the Republican race, this may be a little long and I apologize in advance for that. If you don't want to read everything, you can scroll through the maps and read the text near the ones you find interesting.
All the color maps here will follow this scale (with some caveats):
In the featured maps, red represents Clinton votes, green represents Edwards votes, and blue represents Obama votes. The caveat is that many counties are actually slightly darker than anything on this scale because of other votes (Biden, Richardson, Uncommitted, etc.).
To start, here's the map of the primaries so far, updated to include Indiana and North Carolina:
My sister's father-in-law is a born and bred Kentucky native who has lived and worked in Fayette County
for decades. He retired from Visteon-- had worked at the plant for decades as well. He's a dyed-in the
wool Republican, having even served as a Republican County Commissioner in the late 1980s. I know he's
what one might even call him a quintessential redneck, but I really like him.
We've all been hearing more and more and seeing it in the polls that Obama is having trouble winning the white working class vote lately. The latest salvo of states has been Indiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the next one will be in West Virginia.
These states are the most important because of their location and an even distribution of blacks and minorities in their states. But wait a minute. Didn't Obama win Idaho, an all white state full of white working class voters?
I decided to talk to my mom about Barack last night. I came on too strong; I wanted to get to the core of her reservations about voting for Barack and figured go deep early, heal long after. She's been cagey about him previously, stating that she "just doesn't like" him, an explanation I would accept for an ice cream flavor, but really not for a presidential candidate. She's been a big Clinton supporter, canvassing our hometown, attending rallies, working phones, and I've supported her excitement. But I wanted to find out why she dislikes him. What I learned is she's been getting information about Barack and the campaign from Wolf Blitzer and an 80-year-old Republican.
And the worst thing that I learned--the very worst thing influencing my mother--was racism.
I was shocked to just read that Obama lost Indiana by just over 11,000 votes. On election night I was reading posts on Daily Kos and recall seeing one that said inside sources of the Obama campaign indicated that Obama was about 10,000 votes short of winning Indiana. Now, three days later, we find out what the Obama campaign knew two or three hours after the polls closed. Clearly, these guys are winning because they know what they are doing. The win big in little states and lose small. They fight everywhere and continue to plod along. Ms. Clinton didn't lose this race so much as Mr. Obama won. To put it plainly, he ran a better campaign. That doesn't mean Ms. Clinton is a bad person or incompetent, nor does it mean Mr. Obama is a godsend. It is to say that Mr. Obama has orchestrated an outstanding campaign with a good message.
As a white-skinned "hard worker" without a college education, I think my opinion on the Democratic presidential primary should be a crucial determining factor in deciding the nominee of the (supposedly) more diverse and progressive of the two American political parties. The special abilities that allowed me to forgo college and lack excess pigment should ensure that my opinion eclipses all others when we choose our candidate for November. Really, without my support, there's no way anybody, let alone the first black presidential nominee, can get elected. Suffice to say, we white blue-collar types are a voice to be reckoned with. Don't tread on this portion of the electorate!
on this journey, i have met people of all races, ages, backgrounds, religions, sexual orientation, and life experience. in spite of all these differences, there is at least one common ground we all share, we love our country. we are americans. i have found this to be true in each city, county, and state my feet have stood. it has inspired me to seek out that love of country i knew i once had but have been steadily losing these past several years. it wasn’t all that long ago i referred to myself as an ex patriot. yes, i shared michelle obama’s sentiment. and i can agree now that this is the first time in a very long time i feel real pride to be an america.
Missouri lawmakers this week are working to rush legislation that would prevent up to 240,000 Missourians from voting. The proposed legislation would make Missouri one of the toughest states in the country for eligible citizens who want to vote by requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls. If passed, these changes could be in place by the November general election.
Joint Resolution 48 passed the Missouri House yesterday on a party-line 88-69 vote and now awaits action in the Senate. If passed, it would place a referendum before the voters in August which, if approved, would go into effect for the November 2008 election.
This resolution is superfluous for Missouri, where proponents have yet to show a single case of voter impersonation from recent elections, yet imposes high burdens on eligible voters to comply, as noted by Denise Lieberman, a lawyer and voter protection advocate with Advancement Project in Missouri.
The presumptive nominee of the Republican party, Senator John McCain, continues to celebrate Friday morning, several days after winning blowout victories in both Indiana and North Carolina. Though overshadowed by the hotly contested Democratic campaigns, McCain says his victories in the two states are a source of considerable pride.
John McCain, who secured the Republican nomination way the fuck back in the beginning of March, was able to win Indiana by a whopping 77.6% of the vote. In North Carolina, McCain was able to secure almost three-fourths of the Republicans in the state, with slightly more than 74% of the vote.
Today's Bateman animation over at Salon.com features actual audio from Hillary's victory speech in Indiana, with a special silent message from Bill and Chelsea:
Also, a special animation for New Yorkers, after the cut...
