AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

I would go over the budget top to bottom, line by line. One example I cite is the Department of Education. We became the most educated and most industrialized country, the most powerful country on the face of the earth, without a federal Department of Education. I think its time we, the citizens, once again assume our responsibility of running our own public schools. We've done it before, and we can do it again.

For example, I came from an agricultural area with a high school of about 75 students 9 through 12. There were only about 20 students in my high school class, but I can tell you about doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals all very successful that came out of that school. When I played baseball on the team, we had chicken wire for a backstop, and you had to watch carefully for the ball to hit a clump of grass or stickers and bounce in your face. In basketball, I remember going to neighboring schools that had such low ceilings in their gyms that you had to be very careful about putting too much arch on your shots. I will have to tell you however that I have nothing but fond memories of my school days, and the teachers that we had. My first and second and 3rd and 4th grade teachers were like mothers to us. Our classmates were like brothers and sisters. As an aside, my mother still corresponded with classmates into her 80's, and those were classmates from a one room school that she attended.

The point of my post is that we've lost the quality of education that we once had, because of school sizes increasing, consolidation, and emphasis on all manner of other subject matter besides English, math, and science. Sports is important and good, I will confess to enjoying it, especially playing basketball on the team, but I think it has gotten out of hand. We are bussing kids all over the state to participate in so many games and matches that we can't keep track of it all.

Except it's NOT an example of simple supply and demand economics.
30 million people weren't added to the health care rolls. They already existed on those rolls. How they get health care may change but that is all. They were not prevented from accessing health care prior to the passage of the law. The author of those words doesn't know the first thing about economics, it appears. Anyone can demand health care in the US. The demand doesn't change at all.

If health care is simple supply and demand, increasing the number of Drs would drive costs down, not up. Are you disagreeing with what you posted earlier ci?

Lots of action this week on the Left Action front! Here's the highlights (and remember, you can check out all current Left Action actions at our "actions" page):

1) Tell Ann Coulter: "Go Fukushima Yourself"

Just when you thought Ann Coulter couldn't be a bigger idiot, she really takes it "to an 11" by writing a column about the Fukuskima nuclear disaster in which she touts the health benefits of radiation:

"With the terrible earthquake and resulting tsunami that have devastated Japan, the only good news is that anyone exposed to excess radiation from the nuclear power plants is now probably much less likely to get cancer."

In the middle of a rapidly escalating nuclear crisis, one with potentially catastrophic consequences, one where unbelievably brave workers are trying to prevent an even greater disaster...she is chirping happily (and completely incorrectly) about the sunny side of radiation exposure. And not just in this column, but yet again on Bill O'Reilly's show.

When even O'Reilly thinks you've gone off the deep end, you know you've really done a heck of a job.
Well, we were thinking it over, and since Coulter is such a fan of radiation, we'll make the following offer:

We will send her to Fukushima. We will pay for the ticket. For each supporter who sends a message to her, telling her to "Go Fukushima herself" we will donate one penny towards the flight.

Of course, the offer comes with conditions. She'll need to go into the reactor itself, help with the repair, and do it without radiation protection equipment. (If she refuses, we'll instead donate the money to relief efforts in Japan).

http://leftaction.com/action/ann-coulter-go-fukushima-yourself

2) Tell Donald Trump he's an idiot

Well, apparently beneath Donald's orange toupee there is no brain -- just a second toupee.

We learned that this week when Trump went on The View and started spouting birther nonsense about President Obama.

3) Tell the EPA to stop unlimited mercury and arsenic pollution

You like breathing mercury, arsenic, and other toxins? No? Well.... then speak your mind to the EPA.

A new rule reduces these toxins, but polluters are already trying to weaken it. The EPA is taking feedback as part of a "public comments" period.

4) Tell John Boehner: "Shut down government? Shut down your own pay first!")

Republicans are again threatening a government shutdown -- but one where Congress would still get paid.

Seriously? Send Boehner a letter, and tell him if he's foolish enough to push a government shutdown -- Congress should "shut down" its own pay first.

And a reminder, if you want to get even more involved with Left Action, here are other steps you can take:
Check out our full list of other actions, at http://leftaction.com/actions, and start taking them.

Become a fan of our Facebook page, at http://Facebook.com/LeftAction (this is where we brainstorm new actions before we launch them)

Follow us on Twitter, at http://Twitter.com/LeftAction

Ever wanted to try your hand at blogging? Check out our sister site, Left Take

Thanks again.
Sincerely,
John Hlinko and the Left Action team

parados, Do the math; with more doctors who make more than the average American, cost will increase. As it is today, many doctors are refusing to accept Medicare patients, because they pay too little.

On the other side of this issue, if government depresses pay to doctors (which is happening now), who would even bother going into the field at such a high tuition? If they think it's going to be difficult to impossible to recover their cost for education, how many will be willing to go into the field?

That goes against supply/demand.

Michelle Bachmann is thinking of running for president.

The problem with her candidacy is the same people who voted for Sanjay on American Idol will vote for her for the same reason.

The people that voted for Obama are the same people who voted for Sanjay on American Idiot.

This is the sort of oppression the right not only represents but promotes:

Maine Gov. Paul LePage's order to remove a labor history mural from his state's Department of Labor was allegedly because of multiple complaints, coming from "some business owners."

Under pressure, the LePage administration has released...one letter of complaint. And such a sane, reasonable one (not):
"In this mural I observed a figure which closely resembles the former commissioner of labor," the person wrote. "In studying the mural I also observed that this mural is nothing but propaganda to further the agenda of the Union movement. I felt for a moment that I was in communist North Korea * where they use these murals to brainwash the masses."

The letter is signed "A Secret Admirer"; nowhere in it is the Secret Admirer identified as a business owner. That's apparently the best LePage could do to justify removing a mural chosen by the Maine Arts Commission and representing Maine's rich labor history.

Based on the available evidence, it seems like even Scott Walker's got LePage beat when it comes to accurately representing what he's hearing from constituents.
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* plain old me's note: I suggest this is another rightie who reads on the middle school level and who has no idea what either Communism was or communism is.

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Here is the website of the artist who created the mural:

http://www.judytaylorstudio.com/mural1.html

And this is what she says about it:

The Maine Department of Labor Mural

In the summer of 2007, I responded to a Call to Artists sponsored by the Maine Arts Commission. The call was to
create an artwork depicting the " History of Labor in the State of Maine". After a reviewing process, I was selected to do
the commission. Along the way, I met some wonderful, and dedicated people. I also got an excellent education in
Maine History.*

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* plainoldme's comment: The most vocal right wing squawker about history here is okie, who never met a fact he liked and who has no idea what he did yesterday, let alone the significance of any act. This is the sort of person who wishes to destroy this work. An ignorant, uncultured belching boob.

Valuable information . . . for okie's eyes only!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-march-24-2011-bret-baier

It is amazing how people with a sense of humor are able to see the truth but what amazes me even more is when a preacher speaks the truth about religion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlXkjrluq_4

So its a fairy tale harming society to teach that we should love God, first and foremost, then to love others as ourselves? Those are the two basic foundational principles of Christianity, rl, and I fail to see anything harmful about that. In fact, I think that has been the primary reason why Western Civilization has been as successful as it has been, including America.

If there is a God, why does he/she allow a child on earth to starve every five seconds?

Because he gave man free will. And he gave responsibility to parents.

What if the parents were killed? I guess you feel that it is the child's fault; e. g., the child did something to deserve his or her fate.

If you are one of those people that refuse to believe in God because you believe a God would prevent all human suffering, I don't know how to help you, Advocate. It boils down to a matter of your own personal beliefs and persuasion. I happen to think that man is appointed once to die, and there is something called "Time and Chance," in which some things happen which are unexplainable, as they are simply a part of life, which includes death, as we are created as mortal men. There are natural disasters, such as what happened in Japan, and there is disease. The human body was not created to live forever, and it is imperfect. I feel that all of the things that happen are for our instruction and learning, and that what happens to us does not necessarily prove God's existence or non-existence. It is simply a matter of faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, not something that can be proven by scientific evidence. I think Jesus said the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation, but instead it is within you. Similar wisdom can be found in the Bible in Romans 17 that records Paul's oratory on Mars Hill.

Romans 17, by Paulus (Paul)? To my knowledge it ends with 16:27 : soli sapienti Deo per Iesum Christum cui honor in saecula saeculorum amen

Apologies, My mistake, Paul's Mars Hill sermon or oratory is in Acts 17.

More information about the activities of America's Brown SHirts, the Tea Totalitarians, Wisconsin Division:


I just bought two books by the University of Wisconsin historian William Cronon: "Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England" and "Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West."

A week ago, I had never heard of Cronon. This is embarrassing, since it doesn't take much digging around to discover that he is one of the most highly regarded historians in the United States (not to mention president-elect of the American Historical Association).

But that was before Cronon's fascinating opinion piece in Monday's New York Times detailing how Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's political agenda flies in the face of "civic traditions that for more than a century have been among the most celebrated achievements not just of their state, but of their own party as well." A devastating new broadside in the battle for Wisconsin, Cronon's Op-Ed deservedly went viral.

But in today's political climate, there are consequences for taking a stand. As surely nearly everyone who has been following developments in Wisconsin already knows, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed an open records request demanding access to any emails Cronon has sent or received since Jan. 1 containing the search terms "Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell."

The obvious goal is to find something damaging or embarrassing to Cronon -- although judging by Cronon's account, smoking guns seem unlikely to be lying around in plain sight. (Eight of the names referenced in the request belong to the eight Republican state senators targeted by Democrats for recall.)

I can't do a better, more eloquent or more profound job of summarizing the issues at stake than Cronon himself does in a lengthy blog post that the professor posted Thursday night. Everyone should read it. Nor do I want to get bogged down in a discussion of whether the Wisconsin GOP's tactics should be properly characterized as a McCarthyite attack on academic freedom. I believe they should be, but I want to make a larger point.

Despite following events in Wisconsin fairly closely, before Cronon's post about the open records request started rocketing around Twitter and Facebook late last night, I hadn't realized that Cronon had published another, even more interesting post two weeks earlier, "Who's Really Behind Recent Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and Elsewhere? (Hint: It Didn't Start Here)."

In that post, as part of his effort to understand the historical roots of the nationally coordinated state-level legislative attack on unions, Cronon focused his spotlight on a relatively under-the-radar group called the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The most important group, I'm pretty sure, is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and (surprise, surprise) Paul Weyrich. Its goal for the past forty years has been to draft "model bills" that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18 percent of these bills are enacted into law. (Among them was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)

Cronon surmises that his efforts to highlight the role of ALEC precipitated the Republican open records response. I have no way to judge whether that is true. But what I do know is that the Republican effort to gain access to Cronon's university emails has resulted in bringing far more attention to Cronon and to ALEC than would otherwise have been the case.

And that gives me hope. In an earlier post today, I quoted another blogger noting how humiliating it was that progressives didn't even realize that efforts to restrict striking workers from eligibility for food stamp programs dated all the way back to 1981. We've been asleep on the job. But if there's one good thing to come out of the aggressive ultra-conservative agenda so visible since the 2010 midterm elections -- with special attention to events in Wisconsin -- it is that we are all paying more attention than ever to what's been going on in this country for the last 30 years.

It's not just that issues like "collective bargaining" are suddenly part of mainstream debate. We are also looking harder at the laws that are getting passed and more closely examining the institutions -- like ALEC -- that have been so instrumental in moving reactionary agendas forward. By attacking William Cronon, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has insured that his every future utterance will command a mass audience -- not just of his fellow historians, who esteem him so highly -- but of everyone who cares about the future of this country.

If good ideas are ever to drive out bad, both need more exposure. And that's why I just bought two of Cronon's books. We can't shape the future without understanding the past. The potency of Cronon's current involvement in the hottest political struggle of the day is all the proof I need that my own understanding of how the world works will benefit from more exposure to his work -- whether manifested in a blog post, New York Times Op-Ed, or book. What better response could there be to an attack on academic freedom than to spread that academic's ideas as widely as possible?

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

Anyone who still thinks the Tea Totalitarians are a grass roots organization should get ask should make certain to only cross where there is a crossing guard. The fascists are rising.