Watch as Ken Kook-inelli is asked simple, direct questions, which he then completely fails to answer in a coherent manner. Can anyone explain what the heck Cooch is saying here? I can’t, except that he’s being extremely evasive about his McCarthyite, anti-science witch hunt.
Check out the Augusta Free Press to read Jim Webb’s “case for financial reform.” Here’s the intro:
In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy – that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. That focus has been lost, as many on Wall Street have accumulated vast wealth while the middle class falls steadily behind. When regions of Virginia are experiencing more than 21 percent unemployment and so many working Americans continue to struggle in this economy, it is only just that our leaders protect the interests of America’s working people.
The reckless practices on Wall Street that led to the financial meltdown were unfair to the average worker and risked the United States’ economic position in the world. The regulatory structure in place failed to protect both our financial system and the U.S. taxpayer. We must act to prevent another financial crisis and future bailouts. Americans need a reformed financial system that puts their homes and retirements before Wall Street bonuses.
The Senate is now considering a financial reform bill, which could be an important step forward in reining in some of the worst abuses of recent years and bringing enhanced oversight and transparency to our financial system. However, it could be improved in a number of areas.
Jim Webb, ever the Jacksonian economic populist. In fact, the first conversation I ever had with Webb was largely about Jacksonian Democracy. As a U.S. Senator, Webb doesn’t appear to have changed his belief that “we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base” one iota. I’m glad to see that.
Danielle Nierenberg is blogging everyday from across Africa for the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog. She is also writing with her partner Bernard Pollack at her personal blog: BorderJumpers.
The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as possible from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered travellers at the crossing and, having mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).
We started our first day in Zimbabwe with a meeting with Raol DuToit, who has spent twenty years with the World Wildlife Fund and now works directly for rhino conversation. Raoul is an encyclopaedia on every major conservation issue relating to Southern Africa.
Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo’s to break bread with a true hero of ours: Wellington Chibebe, Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Despite having been jailed numerous times, badly beaten, and under constant surveillance-this brilliant, mild-mannered man spent a few hours passionately telling us about the struggle to bring change to his country, the heroic role the labor movement plays in the movement for democracy, and the spirit of people to overcome fear.
Afterwards we visited the editor of The Worker, Ben Madzimure. This newspaper, sponsored by ZCTU and supported by the Solidarity Center, is one of the five independent print media sources not controlled by the government, and one of its most important watchdogs.
Additionally, we were given the opportunity to visit two community projects coordinated by the informal workers association with President Beauty Mugijima and program coordinator Elijah Mutemeri.
The first project was a village where the union is working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during “Operation Restore Order.” As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training.
At the second project we visited we were greeted by children singing, clapping, and rushing to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the union supported orphanage provides not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives the children a family.
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Over at Bacon’s Rebellion, veteran reporter (BusinessWeek, Virginia Business, Virginian-Pilot, Richmond Times-Dispatch) Peter Galuszka is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Virginia bloggers. For instance, check out his two latest columns, The “Cooch” and Academic Freedom and “Streamlining” State Government. Both of these are superb, and I strongly recommend that everyone read them.
The “Streamlining” article explains how Bob McDonnell “likes the idea of government streamlining because it fits his political philosophy of promoting limited government,” but also how there isn’t much room for efficiency gains in Virginia state government, as “previous Democratic Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine did a pretty good job running the state.”
Galuszka’s other recent article, The “Cooch” and Academic Freedom, argues that Ken Cuccinelli’s assault on academic freedom in Virginia “conjures up some very ugly moments in American history.” According to Galuszka, “[Cuccinelli’s] move is reminiscent of the church putting Galileo under house arrest for saying the planets move around the sun instead of the earth.” Given this situation, Galuszka asks, “Why would an honest researcher want to work with Virginia universities if his or her work is going to be challenged by the likes of Cuccinelli and he or she will have to pay all of those lawyers fees to fund the Grand Inquisitor’s witch hunts through their emails?” Good question, and great article, by Peter Galuszka!
(Congratulations to teacherken on this honor! – promoted by lowkell)
originally posted at Daily Kos on May 11
Tonight I was one of 21 teachers honored at the Washington Post for our winning Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards, one from each of the 19 public school districts, one for private and parochial schools, and one from DC Charter Schools. I was very much honored to be in the company of the 20 others, about whom I will offer more. Among the guests were people with whom I had prior contact, or with whom I share people in common. It was a remarkable evening.
It begins with the Washington Post Company. Donald Graham, chair of the board of the company, established these awards almost 3 decades ago, inspired by someone working for him who had previously been DC Superintendent, and in memory of his grandmother, for whom the awards are named. The level of commitment to this by the Post is commendable – besides a reception and dinner for each of the 21, up to 12 guests for each winner, and officials from the school districts, we teachers each received a crystal apple purchased from Tiffany and an award of $3,000. Graham was joined on the dais by his niece, Post publisher Katherine Weymouth, and Post company vice-chair Bo Jones.
Please join me as I tell a bit about the evening, starting with my fellow teachers.
We had a brochure that had our pictures (which – along with the outstanding principals – will be featured in the main window of the Post Building for the next year) and our basic biographical information. Don Graham read about 2-3 minutes of material about each of the teachers, going in alphabetical order. That material was gleaned from the letters forming part of the package of nomination materials. He tried to give a sense of each teacher.
Derek Anderson of Calvert County, who was selected to speak on behalf of all of us, is an award-winning drama teacher, whose students dominate Maryland theater competitions, who because he was a lackadaisical student saved by his passion for drama has opened his room to similar students at his school.
Erica Banks of DC will visit students in their homes to help them with their school work.
We heard of a teacher who bought a pair of gloves for every kid in her school. Another who left a job at the Post to teach students. A physical education teacher who had a letter of support from every other physical education teacher in her system.
We heard of teachers who arranged for their students to do cooperative work-travel in overseas universities.
I discovered I was far from alone in dressing up in costume to connect with the students.
Many teachers wear multiple hats: teaching perhaps four different preps, or serving as an assistant head of school and a 12th grade dean while teaching almost a full course load.
Our first honoree, alphabetically, was Rhonda Alley of Loudoun County. She volunteered for a special program, 9 for 9. 9th graders who had failed the first 3 quarters came to her school for intensive help. She had a remarkable success rate with them, and then volunteered to do it again.
We had an elementary teacher who makes sure to spend five minutes of one on one time with each student each day.
A middle school English teacher whose passion for Shakespeare so enthused her students that one parent wrote about driving four young boys around as they practiced their lines.
Math teachers. Science teachers. A woman born in Peru who heads the world languages program at her high school in which she has established and expanded the language offerings beyond AP.
I wish I could simply offer the texts Don Graham read about each person. Only that would just give you a small taste of what these teachers were like. I got to talk with many of my fellow honorees, I believe all except two. They are remarkable people.
One perhaps humorous thing. We were seated alphabetically from right to left, facing the platform. To our right in front of us was Bo Jones, and he had the envelopes with the checks to give us as we came off stage. Those up to me had to walk directly past him, so all again shook his hand and received their check. But beginning just to my left, almost every person started to leave the stage without collecting the checks. Perhaps it symbolically demonstrates how for so many of us money is not near the top of our priorities?
One of my guest, my first principal, was unable to get there, but she sent me a long congratulatory email, apologizing for her absence.
And various parts of my life reconnected with me. The principal from the school at which Howard County’s teacher taught started on the same team in the same middle school as I did in the 96-96 school year. We had not seen one another for 8 years, since the last group of kids we shared graduated from high school.
I talked with the principal from Blake High School in Montgomery County from which their winner came. She had been principal at Hoover Middle School when I did a week there as part of my MAT program, and the current principal at Hoover, who had been her assistant at Blake, was my supervising teacher when I student taught in Montgomery County in the Spring of 1995.
Talking with other teachers and their guests often revealed other connections among us: Arlington’s teacher, the former Post worker, taught at a school which had tried to hire me many years ago, and the current principal was very interested in a guy named Bernstein who had been sponsor of the Muslim Students Association – we had an interesting conversation, although I made it clear I am staying at Eleanor Roosevelt for the foreseeable future.
My superintendent had 3 other events today, but he came down to honor me, and took the time for what was a very pleasant conversation. He wants to come out and see me teach, but I pointed out that right now we are in prep for state tests next week, next week is a testing a week, and then it is basically winding down the school year. I suggested he come out early next year.
I am still digesting the evening. I am somewhat in awe of my fellow honorees. They are a remarkable group, ranging from one in her 5th year of teaching to people with more than 30 years. And yet some of them came up to me expressing a similar attitude towards me.
I don’t know if I am that good a teacher, but I do know this – I do feel obligated to live up to the high honor I have been given.
I have arranged to be in touch with several of the other teachers, because I want to share ideas, have us pick one another’s brains.
If I am not that coherent, I am still processing the evening. This community has been kind enough to tolerate my postings about education, school, students, and teaching. It seemed appropriate to share.
Thanks for putting up with me.
Peace.
This is cross-posted at Leaving My Marc.
Democrats helped Krystal Ball (D-Fredericksburg) shed the presumptive nominee label by selecting her to be the official democratic nominee from Virginia’s 1st Congressional District at a convention this past Saturday.
Ball wasted little time in drawing a sharp contrast between her and Congressman Rob Wittman (R-Montross).
When we passed Social Security they threatened to repeal it, when we passed Medicare they threatened to repeal it and now, now that we have passed health care reform they are threatening to repeal it. Well I have one message for Eric Cantor and John Boehner and to Rob Wittman. Let me say this clearly. I don’t care what your buddies in the health insurance lobby want we are not going backwards!
So what are Wittman’s legislative priorities? You’ll have to ask Eric Cantor (R-VA-7th).
As long as we have politicians like Rob Wittman, nothing is going to change. You know Rob Wittman. He has been our Congressman for three years now. And in that three years he’s basically learned one thing, which is how to vote the way Eric Cantor tells him to.
You see Wittman is nothing more than a lap dog for Cantor. As I’ve previously written, Wittman has done Cantor’s bidding 1657 times or 93 percent of time. Folks in Virginia’s 1st district deserve some real representation and not a lap dog!
Ball also notes that while folks in the 1st district are being left behind, Wittman is taking good care of his friends on Wall Street. While Wittman votes against extending unemployment insurance, he fights to preserve Wall Street executive bonuses. It’s called “No Banker Left Behind!”
Worse yet, while Wittman fights for Wall Street over Main Street, he also continues to pay lip service to our veterans and the environment. Priorities Rob, priorities!
Rob Wittman is the worst kind of politician. He is the kind of politician who talks about veterans and then votes against Sen. Webb’s 21st century GI bill. He is the type of politician, who talks about the [Chesapeake] Bay, and how important it is and how we have to clean it up, and then he turns around and votes against the Clean Estuaries Act. Rob Wittman takes his orders from credit cards companies, health insurance companies and banks. But you know what, those guys already have enough members of congress fighting for them. We need a fighter for the 1st district of Virginia!
Ball concluded things best by saying that voters have a clear choice come November.
They can choose between tax cuts for the few and balancing the budget for everyone, between preserving the middle class and preserving Wall Street executive bonuses, between leaders who are willing to stand up for what’s right and those who only stand for their own re-election.
It’s time to fire wrong way Rob and hire a full-time representative who stands up for Main Street over Wall Street, who does more than provide lip service to our veterans and environment and who doesn’t take orders from credit card companies, health insurance companies or banks, but the American people. That person is clearly Krystal Ball!
Jefferson insisted in the last year of his life that the university would be “now qualified to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other state; and this superiority will be greater than the free range of mind encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles of a domineering hierarchy and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits.”
– Willard Sterne Randall, Jefferson: A Life
Thomas Jefferson must be doing a Triple Lutz in his grave right now. The author of the Declaration of Independence spent the last decade of his life focused on a project that serves as a fitting epilogue to all that he had contributed to the world. If American democracy may be viewed as a vessel to channel the power of free thinking people to actively shape and improve society, the University of Virginia was Jefferson’s experiment in how to train people to become precisely the kind of citizens that democracy requires.
Just as one day Adolph Hitler would epitomize the opposite of free society through the hideous invention of the concentration camp, Jefferson capped off a lifetime of molding the concept of democracy by designing its model institution and incubator, the public university. So the University of Virginia is more than just one of the world’s great centers of learning, more than the campus that the American Institute of Architects proclaimed in 1976 as “the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years.” It is also a symbol of the freedom of thought, of democracy – and of the great man who planted those seeds in Virginia soil almost 200 years ago.
This is the institution now under attack by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
Jefferson had long been obsessed with the question of how to raise the educational level of his beloved Commonwealth. Upon retiring from the presidency, he came up with a grand scheme to divide each county into wards that would each support a primary school to teach basic literacy. Each county would then have its own secondary school for those who sought higher educational attainment, and finally the state would have one great public university to raise its best students to the highest levels of scholarship.
The Virginia legislature took a pass on the broader scheme but appointed a commission to choose the site of a state university. Jefferson recruited his great protégé, James Madison (recently retired from his own stint as president), to help him with planning this institution and set about putting all the pieces in place. That included designing the buildings, of course, as well as recruiting the faculty (which he drew from Europe).
Plus every other conceivable aspect of the university, including its curriculum. Considering all the fluff that conservatives like to throw out about how supposedly religious the Founders were, it’s worth considering the following passage from Joseph J. Ellis’s American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson:
Jefferson tended to associate restrictions on freedom of thought with religious creeds and doctrinal rules demanded by established churches. One of the most distinctive features of the University of Virginia was its disavowal of any religious affiliation – virtually all the major colleges in the nation up to this time had defined themselves as seminaries for particular denominations of religious sects – and Jefferson went so far as to prohibit the teaching of theology altogether. He was also extremely sensitive to the way boards of trustees at other American colleges, usually dominated by the clergy, imposed restrictions on what could be taught or what books could be read. He was absolutely insistent that his university not succumb to such forms of censorship.
There you have it – again, the whole purpose of the University of Virginia was and is the promotion of free, constructive thought. So as this university determines how to respond to Cuccinelli’s malignant attempt to investigate and potentially prosecute a professor for pursuing ideas that our Attorney General finds politically inconvenient, let’s be clear that there is only one viable option here – and that is to say NO. To capitulate in any way to this act of tyranny would be to deny the whole purpose of this university – indeed, of any university – by removing the protection that academia provides for professors and students to pursue the truth unfettered by government meddling.
A University of Virginia that surrenders to such a “civil investigative demand” would cease to be Jefferson’s University of Virginia. If the university goes that route, then it might as well just tear down the Rotunda and replace it with a big statue of the boot of government stomping on a human brain. Surrendering to Cuccinelli’s anti-democratic demand would mean giving in to “the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles of a domineering hierarchy and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits.” It would take us back 200 years. And no, Mr. Cuccinelli, we’re not going back there.
U-VA needs to resist, with our support, for lots of reasons. At the very least, we ought to give Jefferson’s corpse a little rest.
Tomorrow will be the unveiling of the long-awaited, Kerry-Lieberman clean energy/climate change bill (the “American Power Act”). Based on what I’m hearing, my understanding is that the Act will…
*…refund 2/3 of revenues raised not dedicated to reducing the deficit right back to consumers. Eventually, that will rise to 100% of revenues not dedicated to reducing the deficit going back to consumers.
*…invest in all domestic energy sources – renewables, coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear – while rebuilding our nation’s energy infrastructure.
*…aim to kick our foreign oil addiction.
*…use different approaches for different sectors (e.g., power plants, heavy industry, transportation).
*…set up a carbon market that is simple and secure, with no chance of being manipulated.
*…invest $2 billion per year for development of carbon capture and sequestration methods.
*…encourage the use of American natural gas.
*…exempt farmers from carbon pollution compliance provisions of the bill.
*…invest in clean energy R&D.
*…have industrial sources enter the program in 2016, at which point industries that are energy-intensive and trade-exposed will receive allowances to offset compliance costs.
*…improve transportation infrastructure and efficiency.
*…set a hard price collar to ensure price predictability.
*…lay out one set of national rules, as opposed to a patchwork of conflicting state and federal regulations.
*…forbid states from operating their own cap-and-trade programs.
*…allow states to opt out of drilling up to 75 miles from their coasts.
*…give states that pursue offshore oil drilling 37.5% of revenues, in part to help them protect their coastlines from environmental harm.
*…reduce CO2 emissions by 17% in 2020 and 80% in 2050.
At first glance, this looks promising to me, but as the saying goes, “the devil’s in the details” (and there are a LOT of details in this bill)! Still, we badly need to get clean energy and climate change legislation, including a meaningful price (one way or the other) on CO2, for powerful economic, environmental, and national security (e.g., stop funding countries and non-state actors that want to hurt us) reasons. The main reason why, despite its flaws, I supported the Waxman-Markey bill in the House of Representatives, is because it enshrined the principle that there has to be a price signal for CO2. Currently, this is a huge “externality” and also a huge market failure.
By putting a price on CO2, we can harness the power of the marketplace to jumpstart a clean energy, low-carbon revolution in this country, one that will pay huge dividends for years to come. That’s why I strongly urge the Congress to move forward on strong, serious clean energy and climate change legislation this year. We have no more time to waste.
UPDATE: The Washington Post now has a copy of the bill posted on its website.
Before he withdrew from the race on February 26, 2010, Dennis Findley was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District. I had a chance to meet Dennis and talk to him on several occasions, and there’s no doubt that he is a class act all the way. Today, unfortunately, we received very sad news about Dennis’ wife, Bonnie. I just wanted to convey my deepest condolences to Dennis and his family on this tragedy.
To Dear Friends of Bonnie Barit and Dennis Findley,
With great sadness we share with you that Bonnie Barit, wife of Dennis Findley, mother of Tillman and Stirling, and faithful Franciscan, died suddenly on Monday, May 10 at their home in McLean.
In accordance with ancient church tradition Bonnie’s casket will be brought to the church on Sunday evening, where the family will receive visitors from 6 to 8 pm. On Monday May 17 at 11 am we will celebrate a choral Requiem Eucharist, to be followed by a reception in Millen Hall. Interment will take place later in the day, attended by family and close friends.
Further details about memorial donations will follow. Please keep Dennis, Tillman, Stirling, and Bonnie’s mother Mickey in your prayers in this very difficult time.
If you can help with hospitality on Sunday evening or Monday please contact the parish office.fc[Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and let light light perpetual shine upon her.
Penny Bridges, Rector
St. Francis Episcopal Church
9220 Georgetown Pike
Great Falls, VA 22066
703-759-2082
The New York Times reports that the U.S. Senate, earlier today, “voted unanimously to require a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve’s emergency actions during and after the 2008 financial crisis as part of broad legislation overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system.” That vote was 96-0, with both Mark Warner and Jim Webb voting “yea.”
The Senate also voted on a broader, more open-ended Fed audit amendment by David Vitter, but rejected it 37-62. Mark Warner voted “nay” on the Vitter amendment, while Jim Webb voted “yea.”
Personally, I would have voted “yea” on the limited, one-time audit, but “nay” on the more open-ended one. I most certainly don’t want anything done that would interfere with the Federal Reserve’s independence, I don’t want any fishing expeditions, and I absolutely do NOT want Congress micromanaging U.S. monetary policy. What a nightmare that would be; shudddddddddder.
