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The State School Board in Texas, the home of George W. Bush and Tom DeLay, has approved the most backward thinking, fundamentalist, right wing text book program ever seen in our country. The sad part of this story is that this ruling will affect students in many other parts of the country. You can read what the NY Times has to say about this by clicking here.
The conservative members maintain that they are trying to correct what they see as a liberal bias among the teachers who proposed the curriculum. To that end, they made dozens of minor changes aimed at calling into question, among other things, concepts like the separation of church and state and the secular nature of the American Revolution.
“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”
They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schalfly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
Dr. McLeroy pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent approach. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
“Republicans need a little credit for that,” he said. “I think it’s going to surprise some students.”
It even gets worse as these folks are also making an attempt to improve the image of one of the worst Senators our country ever saw... Joe McCarthy. I lived through that abysmal era that had McCarthy and others seeing communists under every rock. I still have friends whose lives and careers were destroyed because their names or similar names were on the "black list".
Other changes seem aimed at tamping down criticism of the right. Conservatives passed one amendment, for instance, requiring that the history of McCarthyism include “how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.” The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States.
In economics, the revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, among the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. They also replaced the word “capitalism” throughout their texts with the “free-enterprise system.” These “Let’s face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation,” said one conservative member, Teri Leo. “You know, ‘capitalist pig!’ ”
The next major fields of study to go in Texas will likely be real civics and real American History. There is a 30 day window for public comment with a final vote to take place in May. Chances are that nothing will change
A detailed study of the Texas School Board and standards particularly in regard to the church and state issue written by Russel Shorto back in February can be read by clicking here. It is a long article, but well worth your time.
The Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation (ALEF), a non-profit organization funded by foundations and companies, supports and enables young men and women from Appalachia to pursue higher education though scholarship and leadership curriculum. The program includes an emphasis toward the preparation required to be the leaders of the next decade. The concept of operations for ALEF is to partner with established academic institutions across Appalachia to provide the technical skills necessary as the basis for credible leadership.
Obama picked 10 charities in all to make donations to, with ALEF being one of six charities that helps prepare students for higher education. Those six are each receiving $125,000. The other five are: American Indian College Fund, College Summit, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Posse Foundation and the United Negro College Fund.
The Senate approved $140 billion in extended tax breaks and unemployment benefits on Wednesday in a largely partisan vote.
The bill was approved on a 62-36 vote, with six Republicans joining most Democrats in backing it.
Senate Democrats are calling the measure a jobs bill, though it includes tax breaks extended by Congress on a near-annual basis as well as a fix to Medicare payments for doctors that lawmakers also have previously extended.
It's the second package of legislation that Senate Democrats have labeled as a jobs bill this year, joining a $15 billion measure approved by the Senate last week.
GOP Sens. Kit Bond (Mo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), David Vitter (La.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) voted for the bill.
We're a long way off from an economic recovery that puts everyone back to work who wants to work.
Thank you for continuing to provide relief to those who need it in this time of great need.
CA_Berkeley_WV in the comments of One Citizen's post:
I watched the Senate Finance and Health Committee markups live blogging most of it before that big check for Soros arrived I bought new pajamas and a case of Cheetos.
I watched the voting patters of West Virginia native Sen. Tom Carper D-DE, MR Ducks Sen. Blanche Lincoln D-AR, very serious Sen. Jeff Bingaman D-NM and budget scold Sen. Kent Conrad D-ND.
Did you watch all the HELP and all the Finance markups to come to this conclusion? Do you know what amendments were defeated? Rockefeller offered his, made his pitch, and then acknowled that it would be defeated. So did Sen. Wyden D-OR. Sen. Schumer D-NY did not have much luck either, and he may end up the next majority leader.
Would the general public know as much as we do about rescission without the Commerce Committee hearing Sen. Rockefeller held that took testimony from Wendell Potter, whistleblower? Around midnight that last night another thought this was a great Rockefeller quote:
Children from CHIP shouldn't have to go to the exchange, where "insurance companies would...have them for lunch."
Statements in the press are often directed to other members and are the best window we have on consensus building. How a bill gets cobbled together is ugly. Sen. Wyden certainly was not happy with the concessions given between 11:30PM and midnight to Sen. Rockefeller the last night. I know Conrad's legislative director. He got the concessions he wanted. You can't manufacture votes.
Public Option cannot be introduced into the sidecar. It will not stand a Byrd Rule and a point of order. Parliamentarian Emeritus Robert Dove cannot remember being overruled by the chair alone on one of these. This whip got to 51 last fall, John Tester D-MT last one counted. Waiving the Byrd Rule is a 60 vote lift. CBO score on the sidecar today. House vote next week.
States can setup single payer under the Senate bill, so some focus should shift. Congress is not doing this this term, but the long term effort is worth it. Intimating that Rockefeller benefited from stock trades during the markup by linking to Page Not Found Error 404 as a bludgeon, unwisely wielded at this time.
reflecting subsidies provided through insurance exchanges, increased net outlays for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and tax credits for small employers
That is what Rockefeller traded. Add that to Sen. Sanders I-CT community health clinics and I am not ready to cut off my nose to spite my aching toe.
As of today, 40 Democratic senators have spoken in favor of establishing a public option through the reconciliation process - including Harry Reid.
For those of you keeping tabs, Senator Rockefeller is still uncommitted, even though eighty percent of his colleagues on the left side of the aisle are.
Golly, I seem to recall Senator Rockefeller being so strongly in favor of the public option that he publicly stated that he would vote against passing it out of his Finance Committee until he got enough on board to make it work. Then, just days later, he voted to pass it out of his committee without the public option as if he'd never said any such thing.
If your senator hasn't yet committed to voting "yes" for the public option in reconciliation, there's a website set up to help you express your concern at this link.
The website at the link above appears to be the most up-to-date source for the congressional whip count on this subject.
Or you might wish to write or call the WV Chamber of Commerce and the WV Coal Association to beg them to loosen Rockefeller's chain just for this one issue.
Here is your reminder to come to the PSC hearing Thursday evening.
The WV Public Service Commission will be holding a public hearing on the December 2009 blackout that struck southern and central West Virginia. The PSC is in the middle of studying the causes of the blackout.
The hearing will be held on Thursday, March 11 at 6:00 p.m. at he Harrison County Recreation Complex/4-H Center located on 23 Recreation Drive in Clarksburg. If you are an intervenor in the PATH case at the PSC, you will be allowed to testify at this hearing, because it is a different case.
A Morgantown friend has been looking at the WV Consumer Advocate's responses to Allegheny Energy's recent rate increase request at the PSC. It turns out that Allegheny's WV division has vastly underspent on vegetation control in the last three years. You might want to include some of this evidence in your testimony Thursday night.
Here is a direct quote from the CAD's response to Allegheny's most recent rate increase request available at http://www.psc.state.wv.us/scr...
The vegetation control expense for calendar years 2006, 2007 and 2008 have been $18.0 million, $15.0 million and $20.1 million, respectively. The annual vegetation control expense has been less than the $23.9 million that the Companies are seeking, and, except for 2008, the annual expense has been even less than the 2005 test year amounts. This hardly suggests an "increased pace" as anticipated by the Commission.
In an earlier rate case, the PSC had stated:
the Commission encourages an increased pace of right-of-way maintenance and, therefore, will carve out this proposed adjustment for special treatment in this case and in future cases. The Companies should clearly understand that the $4.3 million allowance is for additional regular maintenance necessitated by moving to a more aggressive four-year maintenance cycle, as compared to the approximately $19.6 million spent per year for normal right-of way vegetation control.
In other words, since the last rate increase Allegheny got, Allegheny has seriously under-spent on vegetation control. They collected the higher rates, but they didn't spend the money they saved on clearing rights-of-way. And my power was out for six days last December as a result.
Here is what the Consumer Advocate Division concluded about Allegheny's right-of-way maintenance:
Without prejudging the outcome of the Commission's General Investigation into the recent storm-related outages, it certainly is reasonable to suspect that the Companies' failure to accelerate their vegetation control program as envisioned by the Commission's Order in Case No. 06-0960-E-42T may have had a significant impact on the extent, severity, and duration of the outages experienced by the Companies' customers as a result of the December snow storm.
Gosh, do ya think?
Remember what Allegheny's CEO Evanson told investors in his last conference call:
And we'll be vigilant in our efforts to control costs and spending. Our plan is to keep [inaudible] O&M [Operations & Maintenance] flat marking the fifth consecutive year of no increase in costs, an accomplishment I think few can match.
During that same time period when Mr. Evanson managed this "accomplishment few can match," WV rate payers were paying for right-of-way maintenance they weren't getting. Also during that same time period, Mr. Evanson was the eighth highest paid CEO in the US. Now we know where our money went.
Also in their most recent rate increase request, Allegheny wants the WV PSC to stop monitoring the effectiveness of their right-of-way maintenance because that is an "administrative burden."
Here is what the CAD said about that:
Q. SHOULD THE COMMISSION ABOLISH THE MONITORING OF VEGETATION CONTROL EXPENSES AS REQUESTED BY THE COMPANIES?
A. No. Such a removal of oversight would be unwise in light of the Companies' failure to meet the spending targets they themselves proposed in the last rate case and which were approved by the Commission. Those amounts were included in the Companies' cost of service and reflected in rates charged to customers. Given the likelihood that the failure to spend the specified amounts on right-of-way maintenance exacerbated the impact of the December 2009 snow storm, it would seem inappropriate to reward the Company with continued higher levels of expense for this issue without ensuring that the amounts included in cost of service are indeed expended for their intended purpose. [emphasis added]
I tend to agree.
I have a question of my own for our PSC Commissioners -- Shouldn't you be more concerned about fixing the reliability of West Virginia's own distribution power grid, before you go approving monster transmission lines to New Jersey using our electric rate money?
Campaign finance activist Doris "Granny D" Haddock, who walked across the country pushing for reform at age 90, died last night surrounded by family in her Dublin home. She was 100.
[..]
"She always said she'd live to be 100, and she did," Jim Haddock, her son, said.
Born in Laconia in 1910, Haddock was drawn to politics in 1960, when she opposed a plan to test hydrogen bombs in Alaska. After retiring as an assistant at a shoe company, she again became involved in politics in the 1990s.
Ten years ago, she walked across the country in support of removing "soft" money from electoral politics, later writing a book about the experience. In 2004 she was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Republican Judd Gregg and garnering 34 percent of the vote. After the election, she continued her efforts by speaking at political rallies and continuing her daily walks.
Photo courtesy of OVEC
Mrs. Haddock was also a great friend of West Virginia, and walked through our state on her march to Washington. Over the last decade, she continued to work with local activists, such as Ken Hechler, Winnie Fox and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
- Her thoughts on coal and mountaintop removal, from a 2003 speech, can be found here.
She remained active beyond her 100th birthday and, last month, urged citizens to organize and fight against the Supreme Court's now infamous ruling allowing unlimited spending by corporations in political races:
The Supreme Court, representing a radical fringe that does not share the despair of the grand majority of Americans, has today made things considerably worse by undoing the modest reforms I walked for and went to jail for, and that tens of thousands of other Americans fought very hard to see enacted. So now, thanks to this Court, corporations can fund their candidates without limits and they can run mudslinging campaigns against everyone else, right up to and including election day.
[..]
And to the Supreme Court, you force us to defend our democracy--a democracy of people and not corporations--by going in breathtaking new directions. And so we shall.
SB614 passed the House Judiciary Committee on a voice vote this afternoon. The bill could get its first reading at this evening's House session. The bill could make it to a floor vote as early as tomorrow evening, if the House has two floor sessions again tomorrow.
The bill provides that land owners to be affected by high voltage power lines get individual notice at the beginning of PSC cases, as is done in PA and VA. The bill also provides that the PSC must consider the impacts of high voltage power lines on West Virginians, in addition to regional power companies and customers.
For the sake of consistency, will the yes votes for the intrusive and medically unnecessary ultrasound bill also require men to get ultrasounds before they have a vasectomy? Afterall, they've of the mind set that the government should intrude in the medical decisions of doctors. I thought conservatives opposed governnment intrusion. Yeah, I know, in reality they are for every form of intrusion into the privacy of someone's home, particularly the bedroom. But the Every Sperm Is Sacred believers should treat men equally. They won't of course because they don't think women are equal and capable of making decisions for themselves. That's why they want to throw up so many hurdles as a way to punish them for having the audacity for wanting to control their own bodies. Too bad so many women on that committee go along with that mindset.
UPDATE:
Great news! As the Legislative Action Alert requested, the second reference to Finance was dispensed with. HB4373 will be on 1st reading today (Thursday). It is expected to pass without much objection. Thanks to all who made calls and thanks to Sen. Helmick for waiving the reference to his committee.
CALL ALERT: Please call Sen. Walt Helmick and ask him to pass HB 4373.
Don't make WV children wait to get heath insurance.
HB 4373 would eliminate the 12-month prior insurance "look back" period, the period for which children in families over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level have to be uninsured before qualifying for CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program). Eliminating the "look back" period enables children to have quicker access to health insurance.
HB 4373 has passed the House of Delegates, but is double referenced in the State Senate. Action is particularly needed to ensure its passage in the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Walt Helmick.
Please contact Senator Helmick and ask him to waive the second reference of HB 4373 to the Senate Finance Committee. The Fiscal impact of HB 4373 is very modest, only $36,000, and CHIP can absorb this modest cost with their current appropriation. There is no increase appropriation needed.
Senator Walt Helmick responds better to phone calls than email. Please politely call Senator Helmick at 304-357-7980 and ask him to waive the second reference for HB 4373, so that WV children don't have to wait to get insurance coverage due to an arbitrary waiting period.
UPDATE: HB 4373 has now been passed by the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee. It's up to Sen. Helmick whether the bill will be able to pass.Thanks Sen. Helmick for waiving the second reference.
Someone emailed me this link to an excellent State Journal story about the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Romney.
Mary Ennis Kesler, 30, said she sometimes tries to explain to her students just how much cell phone text-messaging, the Internet and other technology have changed life for people with hearing impairments.
"We have access to the whole world now," said Kesler, a Lewis County native who enrolled at the Romney school in 1984 when she was 4. "Technology has made it so that not being able to hear doesn't keep a person from doing anything they want to do. There are all these ways to communicate, all these ways to learn. We're not isolated like before."
Situated on the same campus, the state's School for the Blind also is experiencing a revolution in technology with a plethora of devices such as Braille PDAs and laptops equipped with the latest in voice-recognition software.
Despite the tech revolution, the Romney school in many ways approaches its mission in the same way it did in its earliest days, said Patsy Shank, the school's superintendent.
"It's about our students and what they need as individuals," said Shank, a Keyser native who began teaching here in 1981 and became superintendent in mid-2007.
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