Meeting in the Middle

I had one of those European experiences this morning. There was no room to sit in the local bagel shop, where I'd come hoping to review some writing along with breakfast, so I ended up sharing a table with a total stranger. Turns out we had plenty in common, when we were discussing our kids, but somehow, we got onto politics. We were quite different. One would expect fireworks, and yet...

...we had an amazing discussion. It was easy to tell where she and I diverged, but there were plenty of areas where we agreed. We talked a little about nearly everything, from education policy to global warming to redistricting to health care and found we shared far more common ground than the current freaked-out political vibe would lead you to believe.

It makes you wonder what those idjits in Washington are really all about. Between the two of us, Ms. Stranger and I could have solved some hugely knotty national problems, and we did this over bagels in less than an hour. Neither of us had patience for people who don't think or appear to have the capacity (*cough* Sarah Palin *cough*), nor did we appreciate the all-out monetary grubfest indulged in by too many in Congress. We also bemoaned the lack of common sense and actual voices in the debates over serious problems--for example, why aren't they talking to teachers when making education policy instead of the people who publish textbooks and educational software, or union leaders who have never seen or worked inside a classroom? Why can't we all agree that a growing population has some effect on the world's environment? Why are the only voices we're hearing so far out on the fringes that the rest of us are annoyed and increasingly disconnected?

It was a quick hour and an interesting one. My new acquaintance and I ended up exchanging numbers, though I doubt we'll ever see each other again. Still, it gives you pause: if two strangers can meet, disagree cordially, and leave with respect, why can't the people we're paying to do that job manage the same?

Much Ado About Nothing: Presidential Speech Edition

Just in case you've been camping on the moon for the past couple of weeks, today President Obama delivered his socialist agenda brainwashing speech to innocent children, better known to those of us who actually use our brains to think as a Presidential Back-to-School address. Seems President Obama, who knows from both his and the First Lady's backgrounds that a solid education is the key to success, wanted to remind the kids that their futures were in their own hands, and their job is to work hard in school, persevere, and watch all that work bear fruit.

How very pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps of him. Just the kind of hard work, self-reliant, achieve your American Dream kind of thing the conservatives have been harping on for years. Unfortunately, there are some truly loose screws shouting from the right side of the aisle these days. Even more unfortunately, a sizable chunk of the populace is listening to them without thinking much about what they're actually saying.

These are the same folks who got all bent out of shape when people criticized President G.W. Bush. As in, "How dare you criticize the President? How un-Patriotic! How un-American!" Now that their guy's not in the Oval Office, it's open season on Obama--and that's being patriotic and American.

Look, folks. Dissent is an American value. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution don't guarantee that we're all going to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya." You don't have to agree with President Obama. You don't have to like him. But, to be fair, if you demand that the office of the President deserves respect (as I heard so many preaching during the W years), then put your money where your flappin' gums are and respect the man. It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable--and I'm not just talking about the conservatives. There are some lefties who've abandoned their good manners and foam at the mouth as rabidly and unattractively as the freaked-out tea party crowd. Extremism of any stripe is annoying and dangerous. And, most of the time, downright wrong.

Thinking Americans of all stripes can find much to praise in today's message. They can also find much to discuss. DISCUSS being the key word. Thou canst not discuss when thou art shouting.

I think President Obama's words were on the mark. He, at least, seems to understand that the work of education is spread among a large group of people. Today, he addressed the group that's often left out of the "let's improve our schools" debates--the ones actually doing the work in the desks. He tells the kids,

"By the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world — and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."

Preach on, Mr. President. If you're lucky, maybe some of their parents were paying attention.

The Bed List/The Dinner List

BED LIST: EDDIE CAHILL

We don't watch much TV at Chez mimi (not having cable will do that to you), but we're lined up and ready on Wednesday nights for CSI: NY. And let me just say it's no hardship whenever Det. Flack walks by, usually spouting some smart remark. The twinkly eyes and hard bod don't hurt, either. Yum.


DINNER LIST: SEN.-ELECT AL FRANKEN



Several years ago, I bought classroom subscriptions for The Nation and National Review to use so my students could identify political slant. Because of those, I receive lots of political mail--and one of those was a fundraising letter for Senate candidate Al Franken. The letter began, "Dear Person I'm Asking for Money." I laughed out loud. How many incumbents would be that straightforward? Now that Mr. Franken has been certified as Minnesota's Senator-elect after a loooooooooong process, it'll be interesting to see what happens when a very smart man with a very sharp sense of humor joins the stodgy house. I'd love a sneak preview of that!!

This Is Why Banks Are in Trouble

I'm currently at war with one of my credit card companies. A few months ago, they decided to jack up my interest rate from a reasonable 7.9% to a just-this-side-of-outrageous 19.9%. Since my payments are withdrawn automatically, I didn't know anything about the switch until I got a special note telling me my payment was late. Hmm. So I check the statement, and sure enough, I'm apparently "late" because my payment--which was safely larger than what the 7.9% rate required--wasn't quite enough to fit my more-than-doubled new rate.

Of course, now the bank decides that my payments--which are withdrawn early, mind you--are late because they don't meet the new minimum. So now I get whacked the $39 late charge. And since I have a couple of late charges, they jack my rate up again to 27.99%. Apparently no one in the banking business has a working definition of "usury," but there you have it.

I call them and ask for a rate reduction because of my solid payment record. No dice. Now I have to show financial hardship. Well, geniuses, I didn't have financial hardship until you decided to start charging me nearly four times my original interest rate!! So now you have less money coming in, I have more headaches, and now the bank's decided the way to ensure my customer loyalty is to turn over the late charges and such to a collection agency.

Way to install confidence there, American banking system. When I finish paying this card off (since I am honorable, even though late, and won't declare bankruptcy and stick it to you as you so richly deserve), it'll be a cold day in hell before any of my money works its way through your doors. Not that they'd be my bank of choice anyway, considering that a chunk of my tax dollars have paid for custom-loomed rugs and antique breakfronts and ginormous bonuses to a bunch of executives who have basically run the company into the ground and all. But there you have it. Tank the economy, get a bonus and a bailout. Teach kids in the inner city, try to pay your bills, and buy school supplies and Kleenex and whatnot out of pocket with the raise and step I didn't get, and worry about whether we'll be employed next year--since schoolkids don't fundraise or donate to political campaigns. Go figure.

Yep, that makes sense.

Stuck on Stupid

Is it a lack of home training, or just a dearth of common sense in the upper echelons these days? The more I read the paper, the more I realize how many people in our so-called "privileged class" is, to quote DH, "stuck on stupid."

Usually, the "stuck on stupid" label gets hurled toward dumb criminals in the news, or the clueless who drive for miles with turn signals on, or any manner of local idiocy. But lately, more and more folks on the national stage seem to be mired there. A few notable cases:

• John Thain, ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch. He engineered the sale of Merrill to Bank of America, gave the Merrill folks millions in bonuses even though their company's worth had tanked so badly it needed to be sold in order to be saved, came on board at Bank of America, then spent over a million bucks redecorating his office (including antique furniture and an $87,000 custom-loomed rug) with bailout funds courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.
• The U.S. banking and car industries. The bank people can't tell us where our money's gone (they are banks, in the business of safeguarding money, right?), and the car people fly private jets costing $11,000 an hour of flight time to Washington to beg for money to keep their industry afloat. The bank people need to fork over the ledgers to a couple of really pissy small-town accountants, and the car people need to do a cross-country goodwill tour, driving the smallest, most fuel-efficient car in their respective fleets. The banks might learn something about keeping track of their pennies, and the car folks might learn how to design something that's worth driving that happens to save gas.
  
• Tom Daschle, former nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Withdrew his name for the Cabinet post because A) he'd received a buttload of money from health care lobbyists and B) the tiny matter of forgetting to pay about $400 grand in taxes. How the hell do you forget to pay $400,000 in taxes?
  
• For that matter, the IRS. They'll swoop down like avenging angels (devils?) if some normal person like me comes up short paying my taxes, to the tune of years of years of agony, court dates, and penalties, but they somehow miss the fact that a former Senator owes them nearly half a million bucks? What's up with that?
• Nancy Killefer, hoping to be named the first Chief Performance Officer in charge of making sure government money is spent wisely, withdraws her name from consideration because she hasn't paid employment taxes on domestic help. Two words for you: Zoe Baird. Or Bernard Kerik; take your pick. Baird lost out on being Clinton's Attorney General, and Kerik wasn't named W's Homeland Security Secretary because they didn't pay social security taxes on their domestic workers (Baird's was an illegal immigrant!). Does the air in Washington strip common sense out of your brain?? Wait. Don't answer that.
• Rod Blagojovitch. Former Illinois governor tries to sell Obama's Senate seat, then goes on a talk-show tour proclaiming his innocence. They have you on tape doing it, moron!!
• Ray Sansom. Newly-elected speaker of the Florida House engineers payments to some tiny community college in the Panhandle, including an airplane hangar suspiciously like the one requested by a big campaign contributor, then accepts--on the day he's named House Speaker, now--a job from the same community college paying him $110,000 per year to swing by and lecture a couple of times a semester. Or a year. Or something. (This would be one of the same community colleges that are switching to nearly all-adjunct faculty so they won't have to pay anyone health benefits.) And he sees no ethical problems with that. Normally, that kind of thing would slide by unnoticed (you do read Carl Hiaasen, don't you?), but the cries finally got so loud he stepped down "temporarily" until he could clear his name. His fellow representatives, who have better public-opinion windsocks, voted his ass out of the office permanently. There is a ray of sunshine in the Sunshine State.
  

I'm not going to start on the parade of prominent figures who screw up their professional lives because they conduct affairs and somehow believe they're not going to get caught, or that it'll cost them their careers when public opinion savages them like a Rottweiler with PMS (Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, Kwame Fitzpatrick, yeah, I'm talkin' 'bout you). We'd be here until next week. You idjits just can't keep it in your pants, knowing that photographers and reporters are following you EVERYWHERE??

I'm beginning to think that anyone who runs for public office needs to undergo a battery of competence, common sense, and ethical tests before being allowed to file paperwork to run for anything. I'm tired of cleaning up after these jerkwads. I'm even more tired of paying for their shenanigans. As DH so eloquently put it, "They're cutting money from education and teachers are losing jobs, and this guy is redecorating his office with my f**king money??"

Okay, I have to quit. I'm a young woman, and I don't need any more blood pressure problems. President Obama, I have a suggestion for you. Go coast to coast and get some normal people who haven't been poisoned by politics of any sort--some rank and file teachers, small businesspeople, retail clerks, restaurant servers, cops, nurses, firemen, family farmers, accountants, contractors, etc.--and ask them what needs to be cleaned up in their particular industry. Just the folks who go to work, pay the bills, try to hold onto their houses, and raise decent kids. Ask them. Listen to them, untainted by lobbyist groups or PACs or people who need votes to keep their Washington jobs. Then, maybe, we can move off stupid and head toward actual progress.

Classy Dame: Jill Biden

Dr. Jill Biden, our new "Second Lady," really classes up the joint. Since her husband's election to the Vice Presidency, she could stop working and focus on hostessing or whatever the wives of the Vice Presidents do. Instead, she fought to keep working as a college professor of English. And not at Georgetown, or American University, or some other high-dollar campus. She took a position at Northern Virginia Community College, because she enjoys working with that group of students. That says a lot about her character.

Her story is well-known. She married Joe Biden when he was a widower with two small boys. Those boys, now grown men, call her "Mom." In fact, she married the whole family when she said yes to Joe and took the boys on their honeymoon. She's worked during practically their whole marriage, and she's a walking, talking, very fashionable example of how capable a smart woman can be. Yep, I love me some Jill Biden!

44

There's a much more official-looking portrait at the White House site, but this is how I like to think of our new president: sleeves rolled up, ready to go to work.

It's been a long, long journey to today--and I'm not just talking about the length of the campaign. How fitting that the first president of African descent has been sworn in the day after we celebrate the life of a man who embodied the struggle for equality among the races in this country. Today, we can claim, rightly, that Dr. Martin Luther King's dream has been fulfilled--partially.

But as President Obama (how fun to get used to saying that!) reminded us during his Inaugural Address, one man at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can't do all the work. All Americans now bear some responsibility for getting our country on track. For shouldering our mutual burden. For offering a helping hand up and a push from behind for those who are timid. For complaining less and working more, for shouting less and listening more, for doubting less and hoping more.

The thing that strikes me during a Presidential inauguration is the renewal of the promise of this country. It is a great country, stitched together with laughter and tears, blood and sorrow, joy and promise. We have fought common enemies and fought ourselves. For more than two hundred years, we have celebrated our triumphs and suffered our losses and kept striving toward the goal of freedom for all citizens.

How fitting, then, that our new president echoed the words of my favorite president, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence:

The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

Amen. God bless you, Mr. President. And God bless America.

Yes, We Did

They're calling the Presidental race for Barack Obama now that the West coast polling has ended. As a country, we haven't figured everything out, but this year (except for the robocalling and the mudslinging) did us proud. Clinton's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling--a great start--and now a biracial man in the Oval Office. Good for us.

The job ahead? Learning to get along and work together. The country belongs to all of us, red and blue states, and it's high time we learned to mix purple. I for one am looking forward to the challenge. Way to go, democracy.

Whassssssup!! 2008 Edition

No matter which way you plan to vote, you have to admit this is brills:

Gender Bending

This is why I love Jon Stewart today:



Can we just dispense with the hypocrisy, please? Some issues--real ones, like what to do with the economy, education, foreign policy, and the like--would be nice.

Where's the Moose?

Back in the eighties, Wendy's released a classic TV commercial. Octogenarian Clara Peller captivated the nation by demanding to know just one little thing about a Wendy's competitor's burger: "Where's the beef?"

Sarah-mania (Palin, that is) is now captivating the nation. Palin is, so the reports go, a maverick executive. She takes on corruption and wins. Her nickname in high school was "Barracuda." She's a take-no-prisoners, salmon-gutting, moose-huntin', rifle-totin' evangelical Christian force of nature. Oh, and she's a woman. Did you miss that part?

First, props to John McCain for having the cojones to name a woman to the Republican ticket. That one came out of the clear blue. But still, Sarah Palin? She's been the governor of Alaska for roughly two years, and that somehow qualifies her to stand second in line to the presidency?

I have no problem with Palin's gender. I'm all for smart women. I have nothing against ex-beauty queens. I have nothing against women who play ruthless politics, man-style. But seriously. What can this woman possibly offer the country as a whole that makes her objectively far more qualified than other Republican woman like Elizabeth Dole, Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, or Olympia Snowe? If the McCain party folks picked Palin because she's the best candidate, that's one thing. But if they picked her because she's good looking and happens to wear a skirt and they're trolling for that slippery soccer mom vote, then I'm insulted. Do those people seriously think I'd vote for McCain simply because he's got a girl on the ticket? If so, they've underestimated the intelligence of the female American voter. No way in Hades I'm voting for Palin until she can, unequivocally and thoroughly, answer this question:

Where's the moose?

Time for Some Campaignin'!

I love the folks at JibJab. They really can stick it to the man. In this case, they're stickin' it to two men, a couple of women, and a whole bunch of Washington types. Brilliant!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Still a Fangirl

Earlier this politicking season, I came out. I declared myself a fangirl for Elizabeth Edwards (read why here). Given her rant in the New York Times yesterday, I'm glad I'm a fangirl.

Her basic argument is that this presidential campaign has been determined by a narrative outline tacitly accepted by the press. The candidates are their image, and anything that strays outside the image doesn't get reported. That's the reason, EE claims, that some candidacies (Biden, Brownback, Dodd, Richardson) never got any traction, while others (Giuliani, Romney, Thompson, and yes, Edwards) died on the vine because the message was about style over substance.

The press, she claims, is falling down on the job. And all I can say to that is "Amen, sister!" They're all over the sound bites, the bowling scores, the shots of Crown Royal, the temper tantrums, but when was the last time you heard any substantive, analytical reporting about any of the three remaining candidates from the press? I know all about the Internet, and I know I can do research there, but when your candidates for President of the United States are given the Paris/Britney/MaryKateandAshley/Amy Winehouse treatment, how in the hell are you supposed to determine what they'll do about something important, like health care or education?

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I'd followed my original career plans and gone into journalism. Would I have a different perspective on journalism and integrity, or would I be taking really, really long showers, hoping to Lady Macbeth myself out of the slime?

Something tells me I'd probably be a human prune. Guess it's a good thing I'm a teacher.

Building the Perfect Beast

DH and I got into an interesting conversation on our way home from work yesterday. If you could build the perfect president by choosing one quality held by each of the presidents who have been in office since you've been alive, which qualities would you pick? I like the question because it takes real thought and discernment to answer. No vilifying of any of the presidents because you don't like them, even if they deserve it. Here's my list, starting with Eisenhower since DH was born in 1960.

Eisenhower: Military knowledge. Key info to have, given the state of things in Iraq and Afghanistan these days.

Kennedy: Charisma. Americans are a squirrelly bunch. The "it" factor goes a long way toward getting us moving in the same direction.

Johnson: Pragmatism. A good president has to make the decisions that need to made, even if the country balks at the idea in question. See: civil rights legislation.

Nixon: Willingness to be unpopular. We're not voting for Homecoming Queen, folks.

Ford: Integrity. We'll all feel better if we have a President we think is honest and forthright.

Carter: Diplomacy. Carter, more than any of the others, was good at and committed to bringing opposing sides together. We could use a bit more diplomacy and a tad less sabre-rattling.

Reagan: Communication skills. Reagan had a brilliant speechwriter in Peggy Noonan, but his ability to connect with everyone made her words sing and kept us all listening.

Bush I: Foreign policy knowledge. The man was the director of the CIA. Our new president will need to know how to gather and apply information if we're going to emerge from our current quagmire with our national dignity intact.

Clinton: The common touch. The race for the presidency has devolved into a contest where very wealthy people vie against other very wealthy people for the job, which leaves 98% of us out. Clinton grew up poor and remembered what it was like to buy socks at Wal-Mart. Given the state of the economy lately, that kind of budgetary knowledge would come in handy.

Bush II: Strength of will. Love him or hate him, you have to admit that W knows how to stick to his guns. Spineless weenies need not apply at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

So, military knowledge, charisma, pragmatism, willingness to be unpopular, integrity, diplomacy, communication skills, foreign policy knowledge, the common touch, and strength of will. Pretty tall order, and that's not including the historical seasoning of Washington's boldness, Jefferson's intelligence, Lincoln's compassion, TR's environmentalism, and FDR's economic savvy.

Are you listening, front-runners? Good. Let the best (wo)man win!

What Really Matters: Political Edition

Much is being made these days over trivial matters, at least when it comes to candidates for President: Clinton's "boys' club" remarks. Obama's flag pin, or lack thereof. Edwards's hair. Romney's flips (or flops). Thompson's energy level. Giuliani's wives, plural. Kucinich's UFOs. Nearly all the Republicans namechecking Ronald Reagan as if he were the second coming (yeah, right). Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever happened to issues? You know, information about how these candidates plan to govern, delivered in complete, adult, non-sound bite-sized sentences. Remember those?

Whether you support the candidacy of John Edwards or not, you have to love this gem, spawned from the YouTube debates. It makes a very valid point.

Playing Nice in the Political Sandbox

By now, the informed world is familiar with the Hardball smackdown/sandbagging (choose your term based upon which side of the political fence you graze) featuring conservative pundit Ann Coulter and Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards. Video clips abound in the blogosphere, in case you've been under a rock or, as we Florida teachers have been, waiting less and less patiently for Tallahassee to release those blasted school grades.

Lessons from the Coulter/Edwards encounter abound, and I wouldn't consider myself a very good teacher unless I pointed some of them out. First off, let's get one main definition out of the way:

de·bate [di-beyt] –noun

1.	a discussion, as of a public question in an assembly, involving opposing viewpoints: a debate in the Senate on farm price supports.

2.	a formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers.

3.	deliberation; consideration.

4.	Archaic. strife; contention.

Note that the archaic definition of the word seems lately to be the functioning definition of the word in the public arena. "Debate"--or what poses for it--in mass media mostly consists of talking heads screaming soundbites at each other, or in the case of the blogosphere, hurling value judgment grenades at the other side. Winner has the most volume or greatest lack of civility. I can't say the Coulter/Edwards exchange represents the nadir of current public discourse, but it's a good example to dissect. Here we go:

• Ann Coulter has the First Amendment right to say whatever she feels about Mr. Edwards unless it is slanderous or libelous. Tasteless speech is well within Constitutional bounds.
  
• Elizabeth Edwards has the right to make a phone call to a public newsmagazine and voice her opinion as well. The fact that she isn't John Edwards does not diminish her position.
• As well-informed as you may be, you cannot change the opinions of those who disagree with you by acting like a petulant teenager. Huffing and eye-rolling don't work for my students, so why, if you are a college-educated adult with a national platform, would you assume they work for you?
  
• Talking over your opponent speaks volumes about you, but nothing legitimate about your position (this would apply to Mr. Begala, Mr. Carlson, Mr. Colmes, Ms. Coulter, Mr. Hannity, Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Matthews, Mr. O'Reilly, and many others employed on the air).
• Bloggers, and the folks who leave comments at HuffPo, the NYT, WaPo, and the like, remember Godwin's Law: once you start tossing out "Nazi" and "Hitler" to describe your opponent, you lose the debate.
• Elizabeth Edwards is dead on: the personal attacks squelch meaningful discussion of the issues. I don't care whether you hate Bill/George/Hillary/Rudy/Mitt/John E./Barack/John McC. with an unmitigated fiery passion or not. The name calling isn't getting us anywhere but right back in the sandbox, throwing handfuls at the kid you think took your shovel.

Some real debate, if you would, peeps. What do you plan to do for the country? What ideas do you have to mend our torn social fabric? To improve access to quality education for all young people and develop a sane plan with which to do it? To create a health care system that truly improves the health of the nation? To reduce government waste by restricting senseless earmarks? To wrestle with knotty problems of race and class without resorting to tired rhetoric that says nothing new and gets nothing accomplished? To dignify the worth of all American voters during the next reapportionment by refusing to gerrymander district boundaries? To develop a sensible immigration policy that eliminates craziness (byzantine rules for legal immigrants that suck up tens of thousands of dollars in fees and months, if not years, in paperwork) and deals firmly and fairly with illegals (for one, no more wet foot/dry foot stupidity)? To honor our soldiers' sacrifices and bring them home safely, and soon?

Display some home training, please. Listen, think, and then speak. I'm anxious to hear your courteous, well-considered responses.

But I won't be holding my breath.

Miss Mimi Thinks About Washington

One of the great things about Netflix is their deep catalog. That, and being able to log on and add something to your queue every time a "Hey, that looks like a good movie" thought crosses your mind. Because of one of those random thoughts, the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington arrived in my mailbox this week.

I admit, I'm a sucker for "how to straighten out the country" kinds of movies like Dave and The American President, so it's amazing it's taken me this long to watch the acknowledged pinnacle of the genre (#99 on the IMDb Top 250). It's even more amazing how little has changed since Capra took up the lance in 1939 to tilt at the DC windmill. Some examples:

• Stewart's Jefferson Smith character is viewed as a malleable rube by the Washington establishment because he's new and not part of the club.
  
• Sitting Senators are portrayed as contemptuous of new ideas. (Don't you know how things have to get done around here?) Plus, they're rich. Senator Paine's daughter traipses around in mink while working girls like Saunders put in extra hours. When did a $1 million-plus bank account become an unwritten rule to run for elected office? Think there's any hope that a common man/woman, like a teacher or garbage collector with great ideas could be elected? I didn't think so.
  
• Background money men pull the strings of elected representatives. The slimy "Taylor machine" of the film has nothing on today's corporate interests--Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Sugar, Big Auto, etc. If the money men don't approve, progress is smashed under its profit-making boot.
• The quaint notion of "graft" seems to have vanished from our lexicon of outrage thanks to K Street's vampires. Anyone else notice a huge conflict of public interest when the only voices that get heard come from lobbyists?
• The Willett Creek Dam project's got nothing on Sen. Stevens' Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere. Doesn't someone recognize the difference between a useful project and a full-bore cash grab for pork? When you read the word "earmark," say "oink."
  
• Lawmakers groaning in disgust when Sen. Smith reads the Declaration of Independence and Constitution during his filibuster. Like they couldn't do with a refresher from time to time.
  

And now we find that the Supremes have struck down most of the soft money provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. It's enough to make you puke. Maybe each session of Congress should open with a Capra screening. Maybe some of the folks we send to Washington (and could we all start thinking before we vote, please??) would remember why they're there, and who they really should be representing.

Told Ya So.

HB 941 was withdrawn before introduction today. Its companion bill in the Florida Senate, SB 334 was tabled by the Education Pre-K-12 Committee with a tied vote (3 Yeas, 3 Nays).

Could they talk to some teachers before ruling by fiat? Or is that just too much to expect from our so-called "representatives"?

Bastards.

Not Something SENSIBLE

So I stumble across the text of a bill filed in the Florida House today, and discover that someone (namely, Rep. Heller) has finally seen the light. Or something.

It's the Public School Education bill, HB 941. This one, though, does away with the onerous and bass-ackwards A through F school grades and instead would group schools into performance categories: Improving, Maintaining, and Declining. And schools like mine with a huge number of poor kids starting behind--and staying behind--the educational 8-ball wouldn't maintain permanent residence in the "school grades" basement if they're showing improvement across the board, which our school has been doing consistently.

Common sense at last! Whatcha wanna bet some idiot kills it?

What I Saw at the Deployment

Early this morning--and I mean early: from one to three a.m.--mom, sis, and I went on base to see baby bro off to his third deployment to the mideast. Ft. Stewart, GA, is the home of the Third Infantry, so there's a lot of coming and going in the Hinesville area. When you add the quartermasters, MPs, artillery, etc. that accompany the "Rock of the Marne," that's a lot of soldiers.

It was cold and drizzling, so the group huddled together. A fenced area surrounded their personal rucks; the other duffels and packs had been loaded on separate trucks and already rested in the belly of the transport. I met more MPs from bro's squad. Met some of their families. One man is leaving a wife and seven kids stateside. Another has two small boys who were clinging to his hands nearly the whole time. Young men, probably not much older than my students, held onto girlfriends wrapped like Velcro on their ACUs. We laughed, we traded stories, we remembered what it was like to be family, and close.

And then the buses arrived. The soldiers lined up, put on helmets and body armor, fell into companies and squads. Mothers and wives cried. Fathers encircled daughters with comforting arms below steely-eyed glares. Sons matched the stoic expressions of their parents. Families stood more closely together, trading assurances and comfort.

They marched by in a column of digitized camo, men and women headed to the mountains of Afghanistan from the pinewood flats of south Georgia. They know their jobs. They nod as they pass, acknowledging the tears and blessings. They drive off for long flights, stops to pick up more men in green, and uncertainty.

What I didn't see: Representatives, Senators, or cabinet members. Not a damn one. Do you think if they were standing in the cold for their own family time, sending a son or daughter off to war, we'd have something else to do early in the morning on Valentine's Day besides weep and pray for those we love?