Frank Rich notes the one thing that's absolutely deadly to right wing pundits: the slightest touch of civility.
SIX weeks after that horrific day in Tucson, America has half-forgotten its violent debate over the power of violent speech to incite violence. It’s Gabrielle Giffords’s own power of speech that rightly concerns us now. But all those arguments over political language did leave a discernible legacy. ... Glenn Beck’s ratings at Fox News continued their steady decline, falling to an all-time low last month.... Sarah Palin’s tailspin is also pronounced. It can be seen in polls, certainly: the ABC News-Washington Post survey found that 30 percent of Americans approved of her response to the Tucson massacre and 46 percent did not.
Gee, do you think that, in the wake of Tucson, the rhetoric thrown around by the likes of Beck and Palin just might not be all that funny? That's a high price to pay for a wake up call.
Maureen Dowd sifts through the Internets and is shocked to find that some people make nasty comments.
The NYT editorial page has a few suggestions for cuts in the GOP's favorite stimulus package -- the one they hand the Pentagon every year.
Bob Herbert points out something that's often left out of discussions about budget cuts to social programs. The programs were not created on a lark. There are are people who really, really need those funds.
We should keep in mind the current extent of economic suffering in the U.S. as we consider President Obama’s misguided plan to impose a crippling 50 percent reduction in the community service block grants that serve as the crucial foundation for community action agencies. The cuts will undoubtedly doom many of the programs. (The Republicans in the House would eliminate the block grants entirely.)
It’s a measure of where we are as a country that this has not been a bigger news story.
Chris Cillizza says... not much, but seems to believe that the fiscal commission headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson is dead.
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson say nuh uh.
Now, let's leave boring old New York City and Washington, D.C. and go where the action is.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writer Eugene Kane thinks that those making noise about kids being harmed from teacher outages are missing an important lesson.
Considering what is at stake, a lot of people felt showing up at the state Capitol was just as important as a day's worth of education. In fact, I think many older students could learn more about American democracy from the events of last week than from years of classroom study.
...
When they return, teachers should review for students the parts of the U.S. Constitution that give Americans the right to peaceably assemble and denounce any policies or laws they disagreed with without any fear of reprisal. Another good lesson for students would be to find out how many other people in other countries don't have the same rights.
Don Osborne, mayor of Oconto Falls, WI (pop. 2843) has something to say to Gov. Walker.
As a current mayor and school board member, I see firsthand the anxiety and pain this plan already is causing. Public employees didn't solely cause this budget mess, and common sense would dictate that they shouldn't be called on to solely fix it. There are, naturally, better and more effective ways.
As a disabled Vietnam combat veteran, I know a little about service to one's country. For the governor to call out the Wisconsin National Guard and the State Patrol to ensure his own safety would have been called, in Vietnam — and there is no other way to put it — cowardly.
Meanwhile, at Science News, a new study shows that babies exposed to multiple languages gain abilities that babies in monolingual households can't match.
Early perceptual strides taken by infants in bilingual homes may represent the beginnings of an increased ability, relative to one-language speakers, to focus attention and think in complex ways later in life, suggested psychologist Ellen Bialystock of York University in Toronto.
Watch out, GOP. They're not just anchor babies, they're anchor baby Einsteins!
