Republicans aim to bring Choose Life license plates to Minnesota

Pawlenty: Oh, youd better believe Id bring back DADT as president
Via Jonathan Capehart, who wonders why T-Paw supports a policy opposed by Gates, Mullen, and most of the voting public. One word: Iowa. Bryan Fischer: “One last question, we have about 45 seconds left, put you on the hot seat one more time. We just saw the ban on Homosexual service in the Military repealed, overturned. Conservatives will be working over the next couple of years to see that that ban is reinstated. If you become president in 2012, will you work to reinstate the prohibition...

KALW: S.F. schools to lend station up to $200,000
San Francisco's public schools will loan Public Radio's KALW up to $200,000 to keep the struggling station financially afloat even as the district faces its own financial woes and major cutbacks. The School Board voted unanimously this week to provide an unprecedented line of credit to the 70-year-old station, which operates independently, but is technically owned by the district. The station has been losing money for three years and now sits about $120,000 in the hole, said KALW general manag...

Billionaire Koch Brothers Fulfill Father's Campaign to Segregate Public Schools, End Successful Integration Program in NC
AlterNet Today in the Washington Post, reporter Stephanie McCrummen detailed how a right-wing campaign in the Wake County area of North Carolina has taken over the School Board with a pledge to end a very successful socio-economic integration plan. The integration plan, which created thriving schools in poor African-American parts of the School District along with achieving diversity in schools located in wealthy white enclaves, was a model for the nation. However, Americans for Prosperity (AF...

Three Reasons Republicans Can Cheer for T-Paw
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been doing the rounds lately, promoting his new book and signaling quite clearly that he is going to run for president. He's still pretty much an unknown quantity among the mass public, but I think there are a lot of reasons for Conservatives to take a close look at him. Here are three. (1) He's good on Budgets. This is a huge deal for the Republican Party. For the last ten years, the party...

Republicans aim to bring Choose Life license plates to Minnesota
There wasn’t a great deal of fanfare last week when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley released a three-year-long committee staff review of the financial activities of several media-based ministries and churches, but that is likely because the paper offers no concrete steps forward. In the wake of the shooting in Arizona this weekend that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and that killed and injured more than 20 people, many pundits and politicians are pointing fingers. Others are hoping th...

Michelle Rhee Popular with Republicans
The Washington Post reports: In her post-D.C. Public Schools career, former Chancellor Michelle Rhee has had no trouble whatsoever attracting attention to her new Education Reform ventures. And she’s been getting the most attention from prominent elected Republicans. Since leaving DCPS, Rhee has joined the transition team of new Florida Gov. Rick Scott (pictured) and has since agreed to continue on as an “informal adviser” to his administration. On Tuesday, she appeared atNew...

Chinese students' high scores in international tests come at a cost
Reporting from Shanghai — Chinese adolescence is known as a time of scant whimsy: Students rise at dawn, disappear into school until dinnertime and toil into the late night over homework in preparation for university entrance exams that can make or break their future. So it came as little surprise when international education assessors announced last month that students in Shanghai had outperformed the rest of the industrialized world in standardized exams in math, reading and science. ...

Presidential Primary Book Club
By Gail Collins NYT This is the time when Presidential Candidates start poking their little noses up through the snow, and making soft, trilling noises. I know you think it’s too soon, even though Mitt Romney made his intentions clear on the family Christmas Card. But as a public service, I am going to start providing summaries of the latest books from the potential Republican nominees so we’ll all be well educated by the time the debates begin. We need to get going because there’s no wa

Late Night Political Humor
“I wouldn’t blame our political Rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine. And that is coming from someone who truly hates our political environment.” - Jon Stewart “I do think that it’s a worthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with our enemies, if for no other reason than to draw a better distinction between the manifestos of paranoid Mad Men and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speak. It would be rea...

Students First: Michelle Rhee Releases Agenda for National Education Reform
Treating teachers like professionals, giving parents school choice, and using education dollars wisely: these three priorities frame the agenda of Students First, the newly established nonprofit headed by former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The plan, released Tuesday on StudentsFirst.org and outlined by Rhee in The Wall Street Journal and an on Fox News Wednesday, provides further detail regarding the agenda, which she calls “a comprehensive set of policies and Legislation that …...

A congressman shows no fear
(NOTE: LP was there. No Big Deal. Same as always. People showed up to deliver their personal messages and opinions. Tim — ever the high School Teacher — talked and talked and talked. We love him, but will he just shut up and listen?) Walz hosts public event in honor of Ariz. colleague by Rupa Shenoy, Minnesota Public Radio January 14, 2011 St. Paul, Minn. — U.S. Rep. Tim Walz says voters must continue to have access to their elected representatives as he held a "Congress on Your Corner"

My neighbor is kinda a bigot
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has written a book. That's the joke. Okay, not really. Presidential hopeful (also not the joke) Pawlenty was on right-wing [TW] Talk Radio to promote, well, Tim Pawlenty. It turns out he hates gay people. Still. "I have been a public and repeat supporter of maintaining Don't Ask, Don't Tell. There's a lot of reasons for that, but if you look at how the combat commanders and the combat units feel about it, the results of those kinds of surveys were different...

Pawlenty vague on immigration
Coral Gables, Fla. – Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty took a break from his national book tour Friday to address a conference of Hispanic Republicans, the only 2012 presidential hopeful making the trek to this Battleground state to woo this key electorate. But he gave a Speech that could have easily been delivered in Marquette, Ind., rather than Miami, a center of the American Hispanic community. It wasn’t until the very end of the Speech that Pawlenty even broached the topic of ...

For The Sake Of Our children
History is full of cowardly acts, atrocities, and horrific suffering of Children from all over the world. In practically every nation the youth are the ones that suffer the most due to man's callous and blatant disregard for their well being. It is no more apparent than what is happening today with the United States Public School Systems. The conditions within public schools has deteriorated to the point that the future of the United States is in very grave jeopardy. In each major city...

Report: Gov. Christie Wants Every N.J. County to Develop School for Autistic Children
Friday, January 14, 2011 By Susan Jones (CNSNews.com) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told a town hall meeting Thursday that if every county in the state had a school dedicated to teaching Children with Autism, it would be a cost-effective alternative to having each community try to create their own special education Curriculum for autistic Students. "I’ll be working with the new Commissioner of Education on that," the New Jersey Star-Ledger was quoted as saying. Christie has made educat...

William Galstons Advice to Obama: Articulate American Exceptionalism
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. William Galston, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institute, writer for the New Republic, and founding Board Member of the recently launched No Labels project, predicts, “the key to Democratic Party success over the next two years will be its strategic response to Obama.” Galston has been prolific of late in prescribing Obama’s policy in the coming year. With an eye toward the president’s ...

William Galstons Advice to Obama: Articulate American Exceptionalism
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. William Galston, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institute, writer for the New Republic, and founding Board Member of the recently launched No Labels project, predicts, “the key to Democratic Party success over the next two years will be its strategic response to Obama.” Galston has been prolific of late in prescribing Obama’s policy in the coming year. With an eye toward the president’s ...

Jon Stewart on the most absurd Tucson commentary
My favorite part of last night's Daily Show is when he points out to the Fox News correspondent that the Tucson Memorial service was "not a show." The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Veiled Criticism www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook ...

Jon Stewart - It's Mourning In America
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook ...

Daily Show on censoring Twain: Slave was just a job description
Daily Show on censoring Twain: ‘Slave was just a job description’"> Stumble This! Last night The Daily Show weighed in on a plan to sanitize Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. "Well, congratulations on the promotion, Jim," Comedy Central's "Senior Black Correspondent" Larry Wilmore said of Twain's fictional slave "Jim" character. "Wow, this is a huge upgrade, from nigger to slave. Yeah, that's like a show going from WB to UPN." After Wilmore tried to entice Jon Stewart into saying the w...

Jon Stewart On Verizon iPhone: Finally I Can Make Phone Calls! (VIDEO)
Jon Stewart last night celebrated the news that the iPhone will soon be available on Verizon's network, relieved that he'll finally be able to make actual calls with his cell phone. "For the past three or four years, those of us in the iPhone community have sacrificed one thing for the ability to carry around every photograph we've ever taken, or song we've ever listened to, or home video or compass: the ability to make phone calls," Stewart said. "For years, struggling with the world's most p...

Giving notes to mourners
Giving Notes To Mourners by digby Jon Stewart takes on the Memorial critics: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook We all remember the Wellstone hissy fit, but my personal favorite was the full blown meltdown over the behavior of the mourners at the Coretta Scott King Funeral. It's going to be hard for them to beat that one. . ...

Pawlenty: Reaction to Tucson shooting could 'chill' debate
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) warned that the reaction to the Tucson shooting could dampen free Speech.   "We got to be really careful here, because if you start saying: 'you can say this, you can't say that, you can use that tone, you can't use that tone.' Then pretty soon, you know, you start to discourage, maybe chill, intimidate," he said during an appearance on the "Daily Show" Wednesday. "I even caught myself today, I was talking a little bit about hockey fights and public p...

Jon Stewart tackles memorial service critics
Jon Stewart TACKLES MEMORIAL SERVICE CRITICS.... If you missed "The Daily Show" last night, there was a great segment on the media reactions to the memorial service in Tucson, and complaints about everything from the audience's reaction to the benediction to the seating arrangements. For example, Brian Kilmeade of "Fox & Friends" complained about the opening blessing, which Kilmeade found as a "very strange" way to "open the show." Stewart explained, "It's not a 'show.' He didn't 'open up a sh...

"Reince Priebus elected GOP chairman, replaces Michael Steele."
"Priebus won late Friday afternoon after seven rounds of balloting. He received 97 votes out 168 ballots cast." The Wisconsin guy with the strange name made it. ADDED: I guess ridicule on "The Daily Show" isn't so bad after all. January 4th: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook ...