Everything you need to know about the Teabaggers is represented by this pathetic excuse for a human being, Tony Katz. Update.

There was an exchange on MSNBC earlier today between this bloated piece of shit and Jamal Simmons in response to these statements by Teamster President James Hoffa directed toward the Tea Party:

“President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa concluded to applause, his voice raising to a shout. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” he said, stepping back from the lectern where President Obama would speak less than an hour later. 

“There’s a war on working Americans and we are getting sick and tired of it,” Hoffa told ABC News Tuesday morning. “It’s absolutely a war. They declared war on us. We didn’t declare war on them. They’re the ones that introduced right to work in 14 states, and went after public employee bargaining rights in both Wisconsin and Ohio. We’re fighting them across the board. They want to roll the clock back to about 1900.” 

Now this is video of what Katz said about Hoffa, the Democrats, and President Obama. I am going to warn you ahead of time that he is an especially nasty piece of work, and what he said literally had me shouting at the television and wanting DESPERATELY to be in the same room with him for just five uninterrupted minutes.

That, my friends, is the face of the Tea Party in this country. THAT is the kind of sloppy, porcine piece of human excrement that is given a platform on our airwaves to attack our President.

I mean for God's sake Gandhi himself would have punched that guy in the throat!

Update: Here is Hoffa's FULL quote:

President Obama this is your army. We are ready to march. And president Obama we want one thing: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That's what we’re going to tell him. He’s going to be - and when he sees what we’re doing here he will be inspired. But he needs help and you know what? Everybody here's got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these sons of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!

I am sorry, I thought everybody knew that Hoffa was talking about voting the Teabaggers out. I will make sure to be more clear in the future. 

The most important editorial on NCLB that I have ever read. And I urge you to do the same.

Courtesy of AJC: 

By Jim Arnold 

We’ve done it now. Eleven years we had to educate the public, to register our protests and do everything in our power to warn people what was coming, and we blew it. We knew the moment would eventually come and we hem-hawed, looked at the ground, kicked at the dirt with our shoes and failed to look the opposition in the eye and face them down. All of us saw this coming, but very few took a stand and now we – and our students – are paying the price. We could have been prophets but failed the test. 

We allowed the proponents of NCLB to control the discussion from the beginning. They wrote the language, sent out the media notices and explanations, wrote the definitions of AYP, Highly Qualified and leaned heavily on the fact that none of us would dare protest anything to do with a name that implies we would be providing a high quality education for every single child in America. They were right. We chose not to speak out, not to fight against a system we knew from the beginning would set us all up for failure, and instead, in our best Dudley DoRight impersonations we set about to change the way we taught and measured and tested and graded and thought. 

We knew from the outset that NCLB and its goal of 100 percent – every child proficient in every area as determined by a single test on a single day each year – was patently, blatantly and insidiously absurd, but we took no concerted action. We knew Adequate Yearly Progress was a sham, and we literally and figuratively rolled over and tried our best to meet whatever impossible goals they set for us and our students. We knew that Federal law in NCLB was a violation of Federal law in IDEA but we went along with the insanity of testing Students with Disabilities based on chronological age rather than by IEP. 

We learned very quickly and much to our chagrin that some student scores – usually the lowest ones – were counted not once, not twice, but often as many as three times, but we went along to get along. All of us were aware that Highly Qualified, for all the high rhetoric that went along with it, only served to make certification as much of a barrier as humanly possible for Special Education teachers regardless of degree or experience. It seems the teachers we needed most were subjected to the greatest roadblocks to reaching the nirvana of HiQ certification.

We tried our best to play the game but the game was rigged from the start. When the AMO’s were low it was pretty easy for most schools. When the AMO’s went up and more and more schools were labeled “failing” we looked around in a panic for help. Surely nobody believed a school deserved the failing label because two or three kids in a subgroup didn’t pass a test? Yes they did. Yes they still do. We let them make the definitions and apply the labels, even when we realized the absurdity of it all. 

We actually pretended to believe that it was important for us to make sure that every child was tested on those all important test days so none could escape the trauma we inflicted upon them. We even learned in some places to game the system and hold back those kids we feared might not pass the test or might raise those student numbers to create a subgroup in areas we really didn’t want to see a subgroup or, God help us, to cheat or to make sure that we could hold out two or three or four of “those kids” on test days so their poor scores wouldn’t have a negative effect. 

Oh sure, some of you stuck your necks out and said something to the effect of “NCLB forced us to take a closer look at ourselves, and we are better off for that” in spite of the fact that it was our students that were suffering the consequences. What balderdash. What hubris. Our kids were the ones whose education was stilted by our submission to the belief that one test could effectively distill and determine the depth and extent of an entire year of a child’s education. They are the ones whose time was wasted by “academic pep rallies” and “test prep” and by the subtle and insidious ways we told them the test was “important” and put pressure on them to “do their best because our school is counting on you.”They were the ones that did without art and music and chorus and drama because we increased the amount of time they spent in ELA and Math. 

They were the ones that had time in their Social Studies and Science classes cut back more and more so schools could focus on the “really important areas” of ELA and Math. They were the ELL’s that couldn’t speak English but still had to take the test. Their teachers were the ones that were told “your grading of the children in your classes doesn’t count any more because standardization is more important to us that the individual grades you provide.” This told them in effect that their efforts at teaching were important but only if they taught using “this” methodology or “this” curriculum, then, when things started to go badly, they were the first to be blamed for the failure of public education. They were told to teach every child the same way with the same material but make sure to individualize while you’re at it. Hogwash. 

After a couple of years of this insanity, the “NI” status began to take its toll. Someone somewhere invented the term “failing schools” and, unsurprisingly, the label stuck. Students were given the opportunity to transfer to more test-successful schools, but at a price. Schools that did not meet AYP standards, oddly enough, were often those with high minority populations and high poverty. Nobody seemed to notice the zip code effect that left predominantly white schools meeting AYP standards and minority schools caught by the “failing” label. Oh surely, we reasoned, our government would not want to put public education in a situation it could not win………..or would they? 

I struggled with the rest of you as to why NCLB would go to such great lengths to make public education appear to be such a failure, to set up a system that would guarantee failure for practically every public school as we advanced toward that magical 100 percent level and provide no tangible rewards for success and such punitive actions for not meeting arbitrary goals. On top of all of that, I failed to recognize why our nation’s legislators so nimbly avoided even the discussion of reauthorization to change what everyone knew was a failed policy. One day it finally hit me. 

They didn’t want to change the policy, because the policy was designed in theory and in fact not to aid education but to create an image of a failed public school system in order to further the implementation of vouchers and the diversion of public education funds to private schools. 

I am not usually a conspiracy theory guy, but this was no theory. These were cold hard facts slapping me in the face. We failed in our obligations to protect our students from one of the most destructive educational policies since “separate but equal.” We did not educate the public on the myth and misdirection of Adequate Yearly Progress, and we allowed closet segregationists to direct the implementation of policies that we knew would result in our being the guys in the black hats responsible for “the failure of public education.” 

Now we are paying the price. AYP is here to stay in one form or another, and the vast majority of our parents and public really believe the propaganda that it actually measures a school’s educational progress. If we try to convince them otherwise we are “making excuses.” 

Vouchers – especially for private and charter schools exempt from the same restrictive, destructive policies we are forced to endure – are a part of every legislative session in almost every state. High stakes testing for all public education students is considered a necessary reality and teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Student test scores will soon determine teacher pay in some places even with no data to support the correlation. Students that do not graduate high school in four years are labeled as dropouts, even if they graduate in nine or 10 semesters. 

Only first-time test takers are considered in the grading system for schools regardless of how many students ultimately pass the test. It will take years to undo the damage done to science, social studies, fine arts, foreign languages and other academic electives. Generations will not be enough to rid ourselves and our students of the testing mania neuroses created by our attempts to quantify the unquantifiable. 

I hope the generation of teachers and administrators that follows has learned something from the failure of our generation to ward off those determined to destroy public education. We didn’t stand up to be counted, we didn’t stand in the schoolhouse door and tell them they couldn’t do that to our kids, and we didn’t educate the public about what a gigantic failure another one size fits all education policy would be. In the words of that great educator and philosopher Jimmy Buffet: “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” 

We have all been left behind. 

There is no more that I can add to this amazing, and extremely honest portrayal of what has happened to public education in this country.

However I urge you to spread far and wide these very important words from Mr. Jim Arnold, who served as both a Principal and Superintendent of schools in Georgia, and is sadly very well educated on the terrible damage that No Child Left Behind has inflicted on our country, our education system, and our children.

(H/T to Alaska Dispatch.)

Rick Perry wants to shrink government until it is so small it can fit into a woman's uterus, and boss it around.

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Apparently in Rick Perry's America women would be relegated to the only job that God ever intended them have, breeding.

And folks, there is a VERY good chance that THIS is the guy that will be facing off against President Obama in 2012.  Still feel like sitting out this next election?

Jon Stewart points out that the Teabaggers are unhappy with the debt deal because "government still exists."

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Yeah I guess these so-called "patriots" simply will not be happy until there is nothing left of the country but a smoldering crater.

You know like the one that sits between their ears where their brains are supposed to be located.

Bill Maher dissects Marcus and Michele Bachmann's (The indoor Palins) hypocrisy.

"Marcus hates government employees because sailors are so rough."

I loved that line.

State of Alaska releases 54 more pages of Palin e-mails. Just like that!

Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee:

The state of Alaska has released 54 pages of emails from Sarah Palin's first month as governor.

Linda Perez, administrative director for the governor's office, said Wednesday that the emails were inadvertently omitted from a release of messages from Palin's first 21 months in office.

News organizations and individuals requested the emails from Palin's time as governor in September 2008, after she became the Republican vice presidential nominee. More than 24,000 pages were released last month, but only a few emails were from December 2006, her first month as governor.

Perez says the state is making sure that all emails that should have been released have been. If more are found, she says they'll be released with emails from the final 10 months of Palin's term. No timetable was given.

Wait! What do they mean they "released 54 pages of emails?" 

They just released them?

Nobody had to fly to Juneau?  Nobody had to lug boxes of printed pages to a scanner  to revert  them back into digital images? Nobody had to drag up camera crews to film the circus like atmosphere because they knew nobody would believe it otherwise?

WTF? Why the hell was this not done the FIRST time?

Time for a little TRUTH about government, jobs, and the Republican party's attempt to negatively impact both.

The GOP has been a cult for a while, and Grover Norquist is Jim Jones.

Republicans love to wrap themselves in the American flag, and profess their unending, deep love for their country, yet hate the US Government with every fiber of their being. That, in and of itself, is the ultimate CULT disconnect.

These people have drunk so much GOPKool-aid™ they think all science is a myth, and the world is only 6,000 years old. How on Earth do you have a rational conversation with people like that?

Perhaps we need to start with something they can wrap their heads around: JOBS.

Let me lay down some facts that EVERYONE needs to spread far and wide:

One of the biggest GOP lies going around is, “The Government doesn’t create jobs.” When, in fact, the US Government (Fed/State/Local) is the largest employer on PLANET EARTH, with more employees world-wide than any privately held company. Not only does “The Government” CREATE jobs, it does it in the most economical/cost-effective way possible, because it is NOT a private company who has $12 million (+ annual bonuses) CEOs to feed and care for (United Health Care), but doesn’t sell stock, and profit isn’t the bottom line, only the QUALITY of it’s services.

All the Republicans want to do is CUT GOVERNMENT. Think about that for a minute. Why would they want to do that? Because their donors KNOW that the USGov is the largest employer, and they want some of that action.

One of the main Republican mantras is “Leave it alone and the Free Market will take care of it.” The only thing is, the free market already has, which is why the USGov has all those jobs – they’re the ones who can do it the most cost effective way, and protect the people/give high quality service at the same time, because there is no PROFIT.

So the GOP wants to cut government spending so it CANNOT do it’s job, and it becomes ineffective at funding those jobs, so some private company can come in and take it over, and MAKE A PROFIT.  But then, that leads to shortcuts, outsourcing, DEREGULATION, and a lack of on the job safety in a race to the bottom. Fewer and fewer people doing the work of many, so that corners are cut, people are overworked, all for corporate profit – and the result can be deadly on a massive scale (please see 9/11 and 19 men boarding aircraft with box cutters when airport security was contracted with private companies.)

The GOP wants to privatize everything so they and their corporate masters can make more money. This is NOT about creating jobs. This is about CUTTING them, and shipping them to India, China, or anywhere where the pay is the lowest.

FACT: American infrastructure is crumbling. There are millions of people who could go to work tomorrow fixing all of that – and not just construction work, but the administrative workforce that goes along with those jobs locally. Those jobs are in the Government’s purview, but it needs funding.

FACT: We have a doctor shortage. There are millions of students who would go into the medical field if they could only afford it. The Government could easily fund these students if there was the tax money to do it. However, the GOP is all about privatizing our Universities, and that doesn’t bode well for students, since grants and scholarships are only available to students who can generate cash – mostly athletes.

FACT: We have fallen behind in the tech and science sectors because of lack of funding. Again, the private sector (PHARMA) has pulled ahead because of lack of funds to government funded programs. This has also resulted in placing money and profit over safety and human lives. It’s more cost-effective to make a drug that kills than test it properly, (made even easier by a Supreme Court that is ruling against being able to even file a class-action suit, and giving corporations more rights that human beings in who they can sue for damages and death.) Manufacture a tire that falls apart, and pay the fine. The profit is more, so where is the incentive to strive for better quality or save lives?

When profit wins over quality of the product or service, we all lose. But the GOP has been dismantling and underfunding our education system for decades to the point we have one of the highest illiteracy rates of any industrialized nation. Civics and government are no longer taught in schools, only a fraction of a watered-down history ever sees the light of day, and now school books are being printed that inserts Creationism, and Intelligent Design into the curriculum. Mythology taught as fact.

FACT: People need jobs. We need things fixed. The Government can hire people and put them to work. The more people who work, the more people are spending money thus stimulating the economy and paying taxes. The more tax revenues the Government collects the more money Government has to create programs and services we need to hire more people to run them, who then spend more money into the economy, creating more demand for goods and services – EVERYONE WINS, except the über-greedy who have sold their soul to the highest bidder. They won’t lose anything except perhaps their write-off on their second and third homes. They will however, stop being carried on the backs of the rest of us, and have to pull more of their own weight. Boo-frakkin-hoo.

If deregulation, tax cuts for the super-rich,tax loopholes, and corporate tax rebates created jobs, we’d have zero unemployment and the most vibrant economy on the planet by now because these policies have been in place for over a decade, yet anyone with a functioning brain stem can see that is not the case, and our folly has melted over into a global crisis. Still the Republicans makes an art form of denial and want to double down on all of it.

The GOP has no interest in people, or investing in in America’s future. It’s only interested in MONEY, and is not only trashing it’s own house, it’s hell-bent on burning down the entire neighborhood, and surrounding villages, all because of their blinding, personal greed and poisonous hatred for one man.

(Eloquently, and passionately written by Tally.)