Is Bush Using the Lower Classes As Cannon Fodder?

As I sit down to write, The Bush administration is planning to ask for at least $1 billion more this year to pay for its troop increase in Iraq. According to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, The administration wants the money to pay for 4,000 support personnel needed to back up the 21,500 additional combat troops being sent to Iraq.

When Bush and his staff say "Support the troops," their words ring hollow when one considers how our troops are being treated. The lack of body and vehicle armor that has led to such movements as Bake Sales for Body Armor is one heart wrenching scandal. Wives selling baked goods to bring their husbands home in one piece is not the image one associates with a super power.

The Walter Reed Scandal is just the tip of the ice berg for the poor treatment for veterans. If this is news to anyone, then there are people who haven't been paying attention. Plaster falling out of the ceilings, mold, brown water coming out of the sinks are conditions that are not unique to the Walter Reed facility. Fort Campbell, in Kentucky, is another current slum of a hospital. Manuel Mendoza, who lost both legs to a bomb blast, said he waited a month at Walter Reed for his wheelchair to be fixed. The repairmen don't work every day, so supposedly scheduling conflicts kept them from fixing his chair. His story is not an unusual one.

According the the United States Army, one of the most important benefits you can receive as a Soldier is money to further your education or pay off existing student loans. Since this is a dangerous job you would think potential students might rather just apply for financial aid. Since Bush needs a lot of soldiers right now, it's in his best interest to choke off the supply of financial aid. Only then will the Army (or the Reserves) look more attractive to potential recruitees.

This year, Congress cut Pell Grant funding from $13.6 billion to $12.7 billion. As a result, the average Pell Grant award fell from $2,474 to $2,354. These cuts occurred despite the fact that college costs have increased 35 percent over the last four years.

The average Pell Grant recipient has a family income of less than $20,000. With college tuitions rising dramatically, low-income high school graduates are increasingly likely to forego a college education. Last year, the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid assistance estimated that as many as 170,000 college-eligible high school graduates will not go on to college because of cost issues.

A college education is essential at a time when poverty is growing and the median household income has fallen for the last five years. A McClatchy Newspaper analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005 (the most recent figures available). Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind.

With a rough economy and the under-reporting of unemployment (once your unemployment insurance runs out, you're no longer a statistic) what job options do young people have? Should they take the dead end job with no benefits and hope for a miracle? Will those in urban areas get sucked into gang activity? Or will they go enlist, hoping to get the college education instead of becoming cannon fodder?

12 Most Dangerous States for Young Auto Passengers

The following states do not have provisions requiring the use of booster seats (or other appropriate restraint devices) for young children who cannot not be adequately protected with adult seat belt systems:

Alaska
Utah
Arizona
South Dakota
Minnesota
Texas
Michigan
Ohio
Kentucky
Mississippi
Florida
Massachusetts


www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Here is some child restraint law information, by state. I was saddened to see that most of the links at www.boosterseat.gov were dead links. Let's hope they update that website sometime in the near future.

This seems to be the best government link I could find, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Booster seats are used in the back seats, by children about age 4 to at least age 8, unless 4’9” tall.

Safety belts are not designed for children. Beginning at around age 4, many children are too large for toddler seats but too small for adult safety belts. A booster seat raises your child up so that the safety belt fits right – and can better protect your child. The shoulder belt should cross the child’s chest and rest snugly on the shoulder, and the lap belt should rest low across the pelvis or hip area – never across the stomach area. (NHTSA)

For more information parents can visit the NHTSA link or call 1-888-327-4236. Some communities offer free classes on how to properly install car seats and some programs even give a free seat after the class. Consumer Reports have some comparative reports on a limited number of models by safety and convenience features. One important tip is to never buy a second hand car or booster seat. Car seats that have been in a crash are not effective. Also older models may have been recalled. Recalls on car seats are a frequent occurrence, so it is best to buy a new seat and register it so that you can be informed if there are any problems.

Women's Suffrage: No Joke Obama

Thousands of eager UT students hung on every word of the senator today as they stood in a rainy Austin, Texas field. Many of these students were eighteen or nineteen. Some had never voted before. Some were just registering for the first time. They found the whole process very exciting. One of the guys nearby was yelling randomly in the crowd. Some found him amusing, others were getting annoyed as time wore on. Many students showed up around 10:30 or 11:00 to wait for the senator's 2:00 pm appearance, though there were plenty of students who pushed through to the front of the crowd at 2:00 for a prime viewing spot. One of these guys was affable enough but he really had no idea who Obama was and was hoping that he wasn't going to talk for too long. He certainly didn't know that the senator had sold out many venues where the guests were paying by the plate.

Senator Obama addressed all the key speaking points: health insurance, poverty, Darfur, Iraq, education, college tuition, New Orleans, equality, opportunity and hope. He projected sincerity and humility. He piqued my curiosity about his book The Audacity of Hope.

The point in the stump speech where I found myself distracted was when he joked about women's suffrage. He quipped that one evening a woman must have been sitting across the table from her husband and said, "I'm smarter than him. Why does he get to vote and I don't?"

It was a good political joke, however if you look at the real story of women's suffrage, it's quite shocking. In 2004, the true story was dramatized in HBO made for television movie, Iron Jawed Angels. The following is a synopsis from the History Department at the University at San Diego:



Synopsis from the official press release by HBO Katja von Garnier's "Iron Jawed Angels" tells the remarkable and little-known story of a group of passionate and dynamic young women, led by Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and her friend Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor), who put their lives on the line to fight for American women's right to vote. Swank and O'Connor head an outstanding female ensemble, with Julia Ormond, Molly Parker, Laura Fraser, Brooke Smith and Vera Farmiga as a rebel band of young women seeking their seat at the table; and such cinematic icons as Lois Smith, Margo Martindale, and Anjelica Huston as the steely older generation of suffragettes. This true story has startling parallels to today, as the young activists struggle with issues such as the challenges of protesting a popular President during wartime and the perennial balancing act between love and career. Utilizing a pulsing soundtrack, vivid colors, and a freewheeling camera, Katja von Garnier's ("bandits") driving filmmaking style shakes up the preconceptions of the period film and gives history a vibrant contemporary energy and relevance.

In 1912 Philadelphia, young suffragist activists Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) have a meeting with Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston) and Anna Howard Shaw (Lois Smith) of NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association, formed in 1890 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton). The breezy, rebellious spirit of the two younger activists is in stark contrast to the more conservative older women. Paul and Burns want to press for a constitutional amendment for women to have the right to vote, but the older women prefer a state-by-state approach. Still, Paul is permitted to take over NAWSA's Washington, D.C. committee, provided she and Burns raise their own funds. They begin planning their first big event, a parade to promote women's suffrage, and recruit a team of volunteers, including Alice's college friend Mabel Vernon (Brooke Smith), Polish factory worker Ruza Wenclawska (Vera Farmiga) and social worker Doris Stevens (Laura Fraser). While soliciting donations at an art gallery, Paul convinces labor lawyer Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond) to serve as a figurehead for the parade and meets a Washington newspaper political cartoonist, Ben Weissman (Patrick Dempsey), causing romantic sparks to fly. Returning to Washington, President Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton) finds himself ignored, while across town, the parade turns into a riot, with hecklers attacking the suffragettes. Paul and Burns are pleased with the resulting front page publicity, and over Catt's objections, seek to press their advantage by leading a delegation to see President Wilson. He puts them off with promises to study the issue, and the women lobby members of Congress to get the suffrage amendment to the floor for a vote, but it dies in committee. Paul and Burns further antagonize Catt when they raise funds outside of NAWSA to publish a newspaper calling for women to boycott Wilson in the next election. Paul presses Weissman to help the cause, and agrees to go on a date with him. She is taken aback when Weissman, a widower, brings his young son to dinner with them. Although attracted to Weissman, Paul chooses to forego a relationship with him in order to devote herself completely to the suffrage cause.

When Catt calls for an NAWSA board investigation into the expenditures of Paul and Burns, they leave the organization to form the National Woman's Party (NWP), which opposes any candidate against the proposed constitutional amendment. The NWP disrupts President Wilson's speech to Congress with a protest, and the influential Senator Leighton (Joseph Adams) cuts off his wife Emily's (Molly Parker) allowance after discovering she has made donations to the NWP. The women embark on a cross-country speaking tour for the cause, and an exhausted Mulholland asks to remain home, but Paul convinces her to come along. World War I begins, and President Wilson seems headed for victory in the reelection campaign. Feeling it's better to have a friend than a foe in the White House, Catt tries to convince Paul and Burns to withdraw from the campaign. In San Francisco, an ailing Mulholland collapses and dies. Feeling that she is responsible for Mulholland's death, Paul retreats to her Quaker family's farm, until Burns arrives and convinces her to continue the fight. They return to Washington, with a bold plan to picket the White House. Senator Leighton objects to his wife's increasing involvement with the NWP, and she walks out on him.

Wartime fervor turns public opinion against the suffragettes, who are arrested on the trumped-up charge of "obstructing traffic," even though their picket line is on the sidewalk. Refusing to pay a fine for a crime they didn't commit, the women are sentenced to sixty days in an Occoquan, Virginia women's prison. Insisting that they're political prisoners, Burns demands the warden respect their rights, only to be cuffed with her arms above her cell door. In solidarity and defiance, the other suffragettes assume Burns' painful posture. When Paul and Mrs. Leighton join the picket line, they are attacked by a mob, and subsequently imprisoned themselves. Thrown into solitary confinement for breaking a window for fresh air, Paul goes on a hunger strike. She is then denied counsel, placed in a straitjacket, and subjected to examination in the psychiatric ward. The doctor tells President Wilson that Paul shows no signs of mania or delusion, and she returns to the prison's general population, where she leads the suffragettes on a hunger strike. The warden begins force-feeding them, and a sympathetic guard sneaks Paul pen and paper.

Catt tries to get President Wilson to repay her years of loyalty by finally supporting the suffrage amendment, but he refuses. Senator Leighton visits his wife in prison, and is appalled by her condition. During their meeting, she slips him Paul's note, describing in detail their mistreatment. Word of the force-feeding leaks out, and public opinion shifts in favor of the suffragettes, now known as the "iron jawed angels." Catt seizes the moment to press President Wilson into supporting the suffrage amendment, and the women are released from prison as he comes out in its favor in a Congressional speech. By 1920, 35 states have ratified the amendment, but one more state is needed. Tennessee becomes that state when a recalcitrant legislator casts the deciding vote after receiving a telegram from his mother (a real life event). On Aug. 26, 1920, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment becomes law, and 20 million American women win the right to vote.

A New Southern Bobby Kennedy?

A young attractive humanitarian senator, does this sound familiar? John Edwards didn't get the nomination for president the first time around but he sure has faced adversity and has given back quite a bit to this world. He lost a 16 year-old son and stood by his wife through breast cancer. Since the Vice-presidential campaign he's been working as the director of the Center on Poverty, in North Carolina. He has helped push for minimum wage increases in six states. Edwards also traveled to Uganda recently with the International Rescue Committee, and is urging our current president to help end the killing in Darfur. Amidst all of this, he has authored an uplifting book titled Home, which shares the stories of 60 different homes.

Charter for Hope or Disaster?

The PBS program NOW [ transrcipt ] shows the reopening of Lafayette Academy in post Katrina New Orleans. It is one of the new charter schools that is comprising 60% of the schools reopening at this time. I was first excited to hear the news as I believe that charter schools are a possible hope for the future. So many districts suffer from bureaucratic waste these days and corruption.

After watching the show I was disheartened. They already have the challenge of students living in trailers and having missed so much schooling. Now they suffer from the same tragedy that took so many lives in the disaster-- poor planning. On the first day of school there were no books. In October, they were still waiting for books. Finally, in November, most of the books arrived. Is the federal government trying to set them up as an example of how charter schools will not work?

The site has two videos, the first is the program and the second is a supplemental experience of one student. What can we as a nation do to turn this experiment around? Perhaps we failed New Orleans in the disaster. Perhaps it is taking too long to rebuild the homes. But can we help rebuild the hope of these children?

Who Controls Education?

5 min. running time -- ** warning: uses the F word
George Carlin - Who Really Controls America

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This is a look at the glass half empty. Though it seems spot on and makes me wonder if there is a way to really control campaign contributions and lobbying. The First Amendment has been thrown out as a defense of these practices in former litigation.

Many of the teachers who have chosen to work in inner city schools have known Carlin's opinion about schools to be true. Public schools were formed on the industrial model of efficiency. They were never intended to graduate all students and certainly not make them all college ready. One incredibly uncomfortable moment I had in a grad school diversity class was when our guest speaker, who was an African American teacher, speculated that the system had an interest in under-educating some of its students because they made good drug dealers and prostitutes.

Those living in poverty have little chance of changing their lot in our current system. The only way to change it would be to give bonuses to teachers who chose to teach in schools with high levels of poverty. That might attract more experienced teachers, or it might be an incentive for teachers to stay longer and build experience. Right now these schools get the least experienced teachers who get burnt out and leave as soon as they can. The experienced teachers have no incentive to work there and if the state wants to pay them bonuses based on achievement they will definitely stay away from these schools.

One can say that money doesn't matter, but it is more work for a teacher to have 10-20 struggling learners instead of 2-5 in a more affluent school. The more affluent school usually comes with more parent volunteers and other support. The extra money might allow the teacher to pay for some house keeping services or other help so that she can spend those extra hours grading papers and planning intervention strategies for her students. Some young teachers, living in expensive cities, have had to take second jobs just to pay their rent. This leaves them with almost no time to plan for the next day's lessons.

The other possible hope for improving public education is to cut out the misappropriation of funds. If these schools could be turned into charter schools and the whole school community would be involved in overseeing the funds then they might have a better chance of getting the tools they need to get things accomplished. It takes commitment from a School Site Committee to oversee the school plan and spending but it's worth it for student success.

In general public education isn't very exciting for students. No Child Left Behind simply has to go. If we want time to develop critical thinking skills, we have to be freed of all that test prep time. I'm not saying get rid of all bench mark tests, but we don't need so many. Now we are testing children as young as kindergarten. Do they really need that pressure?

Also, how in the world are we going to get science and math teachers in our public schools? Are we going to start paying teachers more? Either our math and science literate students will only come from private schools or we are going to have re-haul the public school system. Giving teachers incentives, such as loan forgiveness for a few years and won't keep them teaching for very long. The difficult to live on salary and general lack or societal respect lures scientist and mathematicians to other fields. Garbage in, is garbage out.

President Bush Signs the Military Commissions Act of 2006 Today

Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 ~ President Bush signed legislation today that created new rules for prosecuting and interrogating terror suspects, a move that Mr. Bush said would enable the Central Intelligence Agency to resume a once-secret program to question the most dangerous terrorists.

The New York Times


Shall we say R.I.P. Habeas Corpus, or are we renewed in our efforts to fight this party of oppression? Get thee to the polls this November. Your freedom is in your hands. Don't waste a single vote-- send those Republicans home and any Democrats who signed the Act.

Democratic Political Ads-- Smartening Up This Campaign

The Democrats are getting savvier in their ad campaigns. These two ads are very slick with high production values. Hopefully they have learned from the tactical errors made in campaigns past against the Win At Any Cost Party. Perhaps it is possible to get down in the mud with the pigs and come out with ethics. I like to think some of the ads we are seeing are about true ethics. Don't tell me there's no difference between the two parties.




"Walsh Stem Cell" (2006)
Majority Action, a group formed to "promote and build a progressive majority agenda in the U.S. House of Representatives," has taken out some very aggressive ads against four Replubicans who voted against federal funding for stem cell research.


"Have You No Decency, Mr Sweeny?" (2006)
Candidate/Organization: Kirsten Gillibrand | Race: House, New York