I hereby condemn Ann Coulter for calling John Edwards a faggot and join man-of-reason Howard Dean in demanding universal public shaming. The transvestite Coulter insulted faggots everywhere by placing Edwards in their company, and there’s no excuse for that. Send her to Utah and let her be somebody’s fourth wife. And here’s a little classic … Continue reading “Takes one to know one”
I hereby condemn Ann Coulter for calling John Edwards a faggot and join man-of-reason Howard Dean in demanding universal public shaming. The transvestite Coulter insulted faggots everywhere by placing Edwards in their company, and there’s no excuse for that. Send her to Utah and let her be somebody’s fourth wife.
And here’s a little classic Edwards for your amusement.
The Manhattan Institute has written a report based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for teachers called How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?. Key findings: * The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker. … Continue reading “The myth of the underpaid teacher”
The Manhattan Institute has written a report based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for teachers called How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?. Key findings:
* The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker.
* Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working. By comparison, white-collar workers (excluding sales) work 39.4 hours, and professional specialty and technical workers work 39.0 hours per week. Private school teachers work 38.3 hours per week.
* Compared with public school teachers, editors and reporters earn 24% less; architects, 11% less; psychologists, 9% less; chemists, 5% less; mechanical engineers, 6% less; and economists, 1% less.
* Compared with public school teachers, airplane pilots earn 186% more; physicians, 80% more; lawyers, 49% more; nuclear engineers, 17% more; actuaries, 9% more; and physicists, 3% more.
* Public school teachers are paid 61% more per hour than private school teachers, on average nationwide.
Lefties will no doubt complain about the method, especially the use of per-hour wages, but it strikes me as legitimate. We all take work home, but we don’t all get summers off. An even more impressive case for the high pay of teachers would include the hourly value of pensions and other benefits, not to mention no-cut contracts. Face it, there are many reasons for poor education in the US, but low teacher pay isn’t one of them.
Link: Joanne Jacobs.
New York Magazine has an has an interesting little piece on Barack Obama: A woman stands up and tosses Obama what I assume she thinks is a bit of red meat. What, she asks, does the senator think of the pervasiveness of religion in public discourse these days? Obama doesn�t take the bait. �No one … Continue reading “Barack Obama”
New York Magazine has an has an interesting little piece on Barack Obama:
A woman stands up and tosses Obama what I assume she thinks is a bit of red meat. What, she asks, does the senator think of the pervasiveness of religion in public discourse these days? Obama doesn�t take the bait.
�No one would say that Dr. King should leave his moral vision at the door before getting involved in public-policy debate,� he answers. �He says, �All God�s children.� �Black man and white man, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic.� He was speaking religiously. So we have to remember that not every mention of God is automatically threatening a theocracy.
�On the other hand,� he continues, �religious folks need to understand that separation of church and state isn�t there just to protect the state from religion, but religion from the state.� He points out that, historically speaking, the most ardent American supporters of the separation between church and state were Evangelicals�and Jefferson and Franklin. �Who were Deists, by the way,� he adds, �but challenged all kinds of aspects of Christianity. They didn�t even necessarily believe in the divinity of Christ, which is not something that gets talked about a lot.�
That’s good, but it’s not the cool part; this is:
Obama�s first year in office, he voted for cloture on the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court (though not for the nomination itself), earning dozens of angry posts on Daily Kos, a hugely well-trafficked liberal blog. Obama responded with a polite but stern four-page note.
�One good test as to whether folks are doing interesting work is, Can they surprise me?� he tells me. �And increasingly, when I read Daily Kos, it doesn�t surprise me. It�s all just exactly what I would expect.�
Now that’s a Democrat who can see straight.
I have a hard time taking Nancy Pelosi seriously as a political leader. Granted, she’s the offspring of the powerful Maryland political machine headed by her former Congressman father, she’s connected to the Burton-Brown machine in Frisco, and a protege of the corrupt and influential Jack Murtha, but she’s dim. When the Democrats chose her … Continue reading “An Empty Skirt”
I have a hard time taking Nancy Pelosi seriously as a political leader. Granted, she’s the offspring of the powerful Maryland political machine headed by her former Congressman father, she’s connected to the Burton-Brown machine in Frisco, and a protege of the corrupt and influential Jack Murtha, but she’s dim. When the Democrats chose her to be Minority Leader it was more a marketing move than a political statement, as they are, after all, the women’s party. So it made sense to elect a female figurehead at a time that the party was powerless and she couldn’t do any harm. But now that Bush has handed the Congress back to the Dems, I fully expected her to be replaced by a speaker with skills. Perhaps because that would have been a public relations disaster, they’ve decided to allow her to be a figurehead speaker while the real reins of power are in the hands of political pro Steny Hoyer. This is the first bit of evidence that Pelosi�s not really in charge:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 � House Democrats chose Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland as their new majority leader today, rejecting the choice of incoming speaker Nancy J. Pelosi and straining the unity of the new majority party.
In an indication that rank-and-file members are be willing to break from Ms. Pelosi, Democrats chose Mr. Hoyer over Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania by a decisive 149-to-86 margin. Mr. Hoyer overcame a concerted push by Ms. Pelosi on behalf of Mr. Murtha, the combat veteran who became an influential Democratic spokesman against the Iraq war.
She publicly supported her puppet-master Murtha for the job, and the Caucus delivered a public slap to the face by rejecting him, something that would never have happened to a Tip O’Neill or a Newt Gingrich.
And no matter how hard some may try to turn this lemon into Kool-Aid, it’s a major loss of face for Pelosi that shows where she really stands in the Democratic pecking order: somewhere in the neighborhood of pages, approximately, fetching coffee and drinks for the boys.
UPDATE: Tim Noah, writing in Slate, argues Pelosi’s in deep trouble:
Here’s what I propose. Let Pelosi remain speaker for now. But let her know that, before the new Congress even begins, she has placed herself on probation. If she chooses Hastings to chair House intelligence, that’s two strikes. One more strike�even a minor misstep�and House Democrats will demonstrate that they, unlike Speaker-elect Pelosi and President Bush, know how to correct their mistakes. If this scenario strikes you as unrealistic, I will only say this: Remember Bob Livingston.
But the netroots say she’s been mistreated by the corporate liberal media
There are no honeymoons for Democrats. Remember that. And “moral authority” is about haircuts and Hollywood, not torture and illegal wars. It is not merely a fight against the Republicans or a fight over politics and policy. It is a non-stop battle with the press to cover events with seriousness and responsiblity. For some reason, when Democrats are in power the press corps immediately goes from being merely shallow to insufferable, sophomoric assholes.
Of course. Here’s an example of the insufferable, sophmoric assholishness, from the New York Times’ editorial staff:
Nancy Pelosi has managed to severely scar her leadership even before taking up the gavel as the new speaker of the House. First, she played politics with the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee to settle an old score and a new debt. And then she put herself in a lose-lose position by trying to force a badly tarnished ally, Representative John Murtha, on the incoming Democratic Congress as majority leader. The party caucus put a decisive end to that gambit yesterday, giving the No. 2 job to Steny Hoyer, a longtime Pelosi rival.
Incredible. Don’t they know that cat fights and corruption are insignificant things next to what Pelosi represents to second- and third-generation political offspring throughout the nation? Somewhere in America there’s a party boss’s son or daughter daring to dream of taking over the family’s political office, and his or her hopes are going to be dashed by the catty, bitchy, assholish criticism St. Pelosi has to face. Oh, the arrogance of the corporate liberal media! Oh, the humanity!
The more things change: House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of Rep. John Murtha for majority leader, the No. 2 position in the Democratic leaderhsip, has roiled her caucus. “She will ensure that they [Mr. Murtha and his allies] win. This is hardball politics,” Rep. Jim Moran, a top Murtha ally, told the Hill, a congressional … Continue reading “The New Culture of Corruption”
House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of Rep. John Murtha for majority leader, the No. 2 position in the Democratic leaderhsip, has roiled her caucus. “She will ensure that they [Mr. Murtha and his allies] win. This is hardball politics,” Rep. Jim Moran, a top Murtha ally, told the Hill, a congressional newspaper. “We are entering an era where when the speaker instructs you what to do, you do it.”
But several members are privately aghast that Mr. Murtha, a pork-barreling opponent of most House ethics reforms, could become the second most visible symbol of the new Democratic rule. “We are supposed to change business as usual, not put the fox in charge of the henhouse,” one Democratic member told me. “It’s not just the Abscam scandal of the 1980s that he barely dodged, he’s a disaster waiting to happen because of his current behavior,” another told me.
As for Abscam, a recent book by George Crile, a producer for CBS’s “60 Minutes,” provides damning evidence that Mr. Murtha escaped severe punishment for his role in the scandal only because then-Speaker Tip O’Neill arranged for the House Ethics Committee to drop the charges, over the objections of the committee’s outside prosecutor. The prosecutor quickly resigned in protest.
See what happens when you vote? You only encourage the bastards.
She’s not officially Speaker yet, but Nancy Pelosi has already screwed-up big time by supporting corrupt peacenik John Murtha for House majority leader: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in line to become Speaker in January, is throwing her support to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) in the race for Majority Leader, a move that will be an … Continue reading “Pelosi’s First Screw-up”
She’s not officially Speaker yet, but Nancy Pelosi has already screwed-up big time by supporting corrupt peacenik John Murtha for House majority leader:
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in line to become Speaker in January, is throwing her support to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) in the race for Majority Leader, a move that will be an early test of her influence and will weigh heavily on Murtha’s contest with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for the post.
And this is soon to be followed by her appointment of a former federal judge impeached for corruption, Alcee Hastings, to lead the Intelligence Committee over Jane Harman:
Pelosi has also all but decided she will not name the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) to chair that panel next year, a decision pregnant with personal animus.
Sheesh.
Anybody who was expecting Pelosi to govern from the center now has one very solid piece of evidence that the Frisco liberal hasn’t changed her spots.
If you don’t find that convincing, what do you make of the Democrats’ call for a tight withdrawal schedule?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats, who won control of the U.S. Congress, said on Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months, but the White House cautioned against fixing timetables.
Everybody wants out of Iraq, but publishing the train schedule is probably not the way to do it. If this keeps up, 2008 won’t be a happy year for Democrats.
Post-election blogging on the partisan political sites has been predictably loony today. It seems to me that the Republicans lost because the voters have lost patience with the corruption, incompetence, and pandering (especially to religious extremists.) But right wing bloggers such as Hugh Hewitt says the Reeps simply weren’t mean enough on illegal immigration (where … Continue reading “The Western Strategy”
Post-election blogging on the partisan political sites has been predictably loony today. It seems to me that the Republicans lost because the voters have lost patience with the corruption, incompetence, and pandering (especially to religious extremists.) But right wing bloggers such as Hugh Hewitt says the Reeps simply weren’t mean enough on illegal immigration (where did that come from?) and the Kossacks are smoking dope that makes them say all of America is just like Berkeley now. This is crazy talk.
Let me submit that the Democrats won with some fairly conservative candidates such as Jon Tester and Jim Webb, and that moderate Democrats like Joe Lieberman and Harold Ford did pretty darn well. The Republicans who lost were the ones who’ve associated most strongly with the Religious Right: Santorum, Allen, and Talent; those who may as well have been Democrats such as Chaffee and Johnson; and those tainted by Abramoff and the other scandals such as Burns. The Republicans haven’t been acting like Republicans for so long they’ve forgotten what they really are supposed to do when in power.
Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger cruised to re-election and dragged $37 Billion worth of infrastructure bonds along with him, as well as a Republican Insurance Commissioner. If Republicans want to win national elections they should drop the Southern Strategy that emphasizes guns, Bibles, and big spending, and adopt a Western Strategy that emphasizes small government, personal freedom, property rights, and the things that can only be done for us by government such as infrastructure, environmental protection, and (competent) national defense. This would be a return to Goldwater’s ideals, and a rejection of the Religious Right’s desire to use government to force a narrow set of social values on people. It’s perfectly OK for the religious people to be grossed out by gays and abortion, but it’s not OK to require everybody else to be grossed-out too.
The voters in Arizona rejected a ban on gay marriage yesterday, the first time such a ban has been defeated in a statewide election. They’re not a bunch of liberals, and they’re not going to kick out McCain and elect Ralph Nader in his place. They most likely don’t want their government to be in the business of picking and choosing the things that consenting adults can do to each other and themselves.
Although he hails from New York City, Rudy Giuliani is a perfect Western Strategy presidential candidate: pro-choice, multiply divorced, tough but smart on crime, a competent manager, a fiscal hawk, not beholden to the theocrats. If Arnie were eligible, he’d be one too, but at this point his only remaining move is into the Senate seat now occupied by the heinous Barbara Boxer.
If the Republicans don’t adopt the Western Strategy, we may as well all become Democrats and fight for personal and public freedom in the primaries.
What’s going to happen to Microsoft when Bill Gates takes over the Defense Department? I figure he’ll be passing out laptops to the Iraqis with Windows Vista pre-loaded, in hopes they’ll be more interested in downloading porn and stealing music than fighting each other, and he may be right. But Microsoft without Gates just won’t … Continue reading “Bye-bye Rummy”
What’s going to happen to Microsoft when Bill Gates takes over the Defense Department? I figure he’ll be passing out laptops to the Iraqis with Windows Vista pre-loaded, in hopes they’ll be more interested in downloading porn and stealing music than fighting each other, and he may be right. But Microsoft without Gates just won’t be the same.
The Democrats will be coming for our guns tomorrow, and they’ll leave the bills for the new entitlements for illegal immigrants. They’ll also collect the red meat from our freezers, confiscate SUVs, and take down info so they can start assigning us our new same-sex domestic partners. The tofu deliveries start Monday, along with mandatory recycling and abortions, and the Bible pickups will commence the following week. Your new copies of The Blind Watchmaker will arrive by union courier in December, and Christmas is canceled until further notice. The Battered Women’s Cultural Revision Commission is expected to cancel the NFL season before the Super Bowl and to instruct us on cooperative quilting. Net Neutrality begins in January, with all Internet searches directed to Google, and YouTube content will be managed by Daily Kos diarists. Glenn Reynolds will no longer be the Head Blogger In Charge after Jeralyn Merritt takes over, and George Lakoff and Geoff Nunberg will re-write all political speeches. This is progress, comrades, so embrace it.
UPDATE: Different Gates? Oh, never mind.
No big surprises so far: Lieberman beats the Kos Kids, DeWine and Santorum lose, and the other key Senate races are too close to call. The ones I’m watching are the toss-ups: Rhode Island, Virginia. Missouri, and Montana. It looks like CNN Elections 2006 has the best coverage. UPDATE: CNN calls RI for Dems, so … Continue reading “Election results”
No big surprises so far: Lieberman beats the Kos Kids, DeWine and Santorum lose, and the other key Senate races are too close to call. The ones I’m watching are the toss-ups: Rhode Island, Virginia. Missouri, and Montana. It looks like CNN Elections 2006 has the best coverage.
UPDATE: CNN calls RI for Dems, so they’re halfway there. Much celebration over that, I’d imagine. Virginia now looms large.
FINAL: It’s a wipeout, the Dems walk away with the whole pie. Now maybe we can get religion out of politics for good.
It looks to me like the Dems will pick up about 30 seats in the House, which means it changes hands. The Senate looks closer, and it will probably stay narrowly in Republican hands. The Senate doesn’t matter that much because you need 60 votes to do anything important, and neither party is close to … Continue reading “Election forecast”
It looks to me like the Dems will pick up about 30 seats in the House, which means it changes hands. The Senate looks closer, and it will probably stay narrowly in Republican hands. The Senate doesn’t matter that much because you need 60 votes to do anything important, and neither party is close to that mark.
Nationally, the Dems will pick up several governorships, but California will buck the trend. Not only will Arnie be re-elected, but we’re going to get one or two more Republican statewide office holders, probably Tom McClintock and either an insurance commissioner, a treasurer or a controller. Democrat Debbie Bowen will win the Sec. of State’s race, and that’s a good thing because she’s a real geek.
If the Repubs are paying attention, they’ll learn from California to shut up about the gays, the Christians, the guns, and the unborn babies, and worry more about stuff like the environment, infrastructure, low taxes, and health care.
Even though the Dems are going to pick up the House, I doubt Nancy Pelosi will be elected speaker. She’s a dimwit, and they can do a lot better. Steny Hoyer came second in their last contest, and he’s a much better man than Frisco loony Pelosi.
UPDATE: The Dems did even better than I thought, taking the Senate as well as the House, and it looks like they intend to give Pelosi a shot at speaker after all. Hopefully, her cat-fight with Jane Harman will stop. Sadly, Tom McClintock won’t get to entertain us from the ceremonial position of Lt. Governor, but the Republican Steve Poizner won Insurance Commissioner over the corrupt Cruz Bustamante. The only Congressional seat to change columns here was Pombo’s, which he lost because of his radical opposition to the Endangered Species Act.
