SEEING THE END OF THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT: “The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.”
The idea that the U.S. won’t even properly develop the skills of young people who could perform at the highest intellectual levels is breathtaking — breathtakingly stupid, that is. The authors of the study, published in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, concluded that American culture does not value talent in math very highly. I suppose we’re busy with other things, like text-messaging while jay-walking. The math thing is seen as something for Asians and nerds.
Meanwhile, the country is going down the tubes. Felix Rohatyn, who helped lead New York City out of the dark days of the 1970s fiscal crisis, had an article in a recent issue of The New York Review of Books (with co-author Everett Ehrlich) lamenting the sad state of the U.S. infrastructure. Most Americans are oblivious on this issue. We’re like a family that won’t even think about fixing a sagging, leaky roof until it collapses on our heads.
New Orleans was nearly wiped from the map in the Hurricane Katrina nightmare, and 13 people were killed when a bridge in Minneapolis broke apart during rush hour, hurling helpless motorists 60 feet into the Mississippi River. Neither of those disasters was enough of a warning for us to think seriously about infrastructure maintenance, repair and construction. Could these types of disasters happen again? They’re going to happen again. Mr. Rohatyn reminds us that nearly 30 percent of the nation’s bridges are “structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.”
We haven’t even got sense enough to keep an eye on the water we drink. Citing a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Mr. Rohatyn and Mr. Ehrlich write: “Current funding for safe drinking water, amounts to ‘less than 10 percent of the total national requirement.’ ”
A country that refuses to properly educate its young people or to maintain its physical plant is one that has clearly lost its way. Add in the myriad problems associated with unnecessary warfare and a clueless central government that wastes taxpayer dollars by the trillions, and you’ve got a society in danger of becoming completely unhinged.
This is about more than the election of a president in a few weeks. The American people have to decide what kind of country they want.
Do they want one in which the top 1 percent hauled in more than 21 percent of all personal income in 2005? Do they want a country in which, as my former colleague at The Times, David Cay Johnston, has noted: the tax system “now levies the poor, the middle class and even the upper middle class to subsidize the rich”?
Do they want a country in which their democratic freedoms are eroded by a deliberate exploitation of their fear of terrorism, and their earning power is diminished by a crippling dependence on foreign oil?
These are exactly the kinds of issues that could be thoroughly explored, argued about, even obsessed over in a presidential campaign. Americans could drag their eyeballs away from their flat-screen TVs and give serious thoughts to important matters if they wanted to. Instead, we get silliness.
The news media, especially the talking heads on television, are addicted to the horse race, focusing around the clock on wildly proliferating polling data that tell us basically nothing. No one knows who is going to win this election. So why not spend a little quality time on where the next generation of jobs might be coming from, and why it’s critically important to ease the burden of health insurance coverage being shouldered by strapped families and businesses alike?
An article in Monday’s Times spotlighted some of the serious problems that have emerged in the No Child Left Behind law. Among the law’s unintended consequences, as Sam Dillon reported, has been its tendency to “punish” states that “have high academic standards and rigorous tests, which have contributed to an increasing pileup of failed schools.” --Bob Herbert, Oct. 14, '08

DESPERATE McPALIN UNLEASHES THE FASCIST MONSTER: At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option....The tone was set at the Republican convention, with Rudy Giuliani’s mocking dismissal of Obama as an “only in America” affirmative-action baby. We also learned then that the McCain campaign had recruited as a Palin handler none other than Tucker Eskew, the South Carolina consultant who had worked for George W. Bush in the notorious 2000 G.O.P. primary battle where the McCains and their adopted Bangladeshi daughter were slimed by vicious racist rumors.
No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess....Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan — or William Ayers — in Denver....
What has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops
By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. ....Last week...a Florida sheriff ranted about “Barack Hussein Obama” at a Palin rally while in full uniform. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.
That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8. We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands. --Frank Rich, Oct. 12, '08

Vote Rigging and Suppression!

Voters In 9 States Being Taken Off Rolls Illegally
by New York Times
8 Oct 2008
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times...for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records shows....because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year...any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately...The screening or trimming of voter registration lists...could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

Report: Voter Purging Process Is Shrouded in Secrecy, Prone to Error and Vuln...
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
9 Oct 2008 at 8:51am
A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice has found voters across the country are being purged through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation. The Brennan Center is calling on states to develop and publish uniform, non-discriminatory rules for purges; provide public notice of pending purges; make purge lists publicly available; and develop rules for individuals to challenge the purge list. [includes rush transcript]

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Voter Rights, Faulty Electronic V...
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
9 Oct 2008 at 8:35am
Ohio is a key swing state that ended up deciding the outcome of the 2004 election. But the state was riddled with voting problems, ranging from breakdowns in electronic voting machines to accusations of widespread voter disenfranchisement. We speak to Democrat Jennifer Brunner, who was elected Secretary of State of Ohio in November 2006. [includes rush transcript]

Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
9 Oct 2008 at 8:10am
BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast travels to New Mexico, Michigan and Colorado to investigate how both Democrats and Republicans are accusing each other of trying to steal the election. Palast also discusses his new comic book Steal Back Your Vote, co-written with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. [includes rush transcript]

McBUSH STUMPED ON THE STUMP: The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa. Thus the paradox of a “pro-life” administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year — along with more women dying in childbirth. The saga also spotlights a clear difference between Barack Obama and John McCain. Senator Obama supports U.N.-led efforts to promote family planning; Senator McCain stands with President Bush in opposing certain crucial efforts to help women reduce unwanted pregnancies in Africa and Asia.
There is something about reproductive health — maybe the sex part — that makes some Americans froth and go crazy. We see it in the opposition to condoms to curb AIDS in Africa and in the insistence on abstinence-only sex education in American classrooms (one reason American teenage pregnancy rates are more than double those in Canada). And we see it in the decision of some towns — like Wasilla, Alaska, when Sarah Palin was mayor there — to bill rape victims for the kits used to gather evidence of sex crimes. In most places, police departments pay for rape kits, which cost hundreds of dollars, but while Ms. Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the town decided to save money by billing rape victims.
...Mr. McCain seems to have supported Mr. Bush, mostly out of instinct, and when a reporter asked him this spring whether American aid should finance contraceptives to fight AIDS in Africa, he initially said, “I haven’t thought about it,” and later added, “You’ve stumped me.” --Nicholas Kristof, Oct. 9, '08

JOHN McPALIN STOOPS TO RACE-BAITING: Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember. They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia....Mr. McCain’s aides haven’t even tried to hide their cynical tactics, saying they were “going negative” in hopes of shifting attention away from the financial crisis — and by implication Mr. McCain’s stumbling response....He is unable or unwilling to admit that the Republican assault on regulation was to blame....
[Palin's] demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.... We certainly expected better from Mr. McCain, who once showed withering contempt for win-at-any-cost politics. He was driven out of the 2000 Republican primaries by this sort of smear, orchestrated by some of the same people who are now running his campaign....In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. --NYT Ed, Oct. 8, '08

McCAIN'S DESPICABLE VISION OF WOMEN: "Cindy McCain stood by her husband’s side, her eyes rendered invisible by sunglasses, her mouth a lipsticked slash across her face—a straight line, unsmiling. A woman in the audience, wearing tight chinos, T-shirt, tube socks, and tennis shoes, motioned toward the candidate’s wife with her chin and whispered to the man beside her, 'She doesn’t look like she’s having any fun at all.'” This closing paragraph of a NEW YORKER profile of Cindy McCain shows the results. Let's look at the cause, John McCain, as presented in THE NATION:
"At 42 McNasty, as he was called in high school, took up with 24-year-old Cindy, a former junior rodeo queen, and, having boosted his image and his net worth via a marriage vow, soon reverted to the pattern of insults and macho egotism that has typified most of his life. He denigrated her education at USC as a tour through "the University of Spoiled Children." For all but one of several miscarriages, he left her on her own. When she was popping ten to fifteen pills a day to mask her pain and "do everything he wanted," he never noticed.
In 1992, in a rage over her gentle teasing about his thinning hair, he exploded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt," a one-two punch hurled in front of three journalists and two aides but unreported until recently, by Cliff Schecter in The Real McCain. On the campaign trail in June he joked about "beating my wife" and took umbrage when others failed to grasp the simple good fun in the remark.
In early August he said he'd encouraged Cindy to enter the Miss Buffalo Chip beauty pageant at the high-revving, flesh-swinging biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. It might have been a fine quip except that up on the stage with her daughter Meghan, staring out toward the throng where a sign urged Show Ur Tits 4 McCain, Cindy had the thin, fixed smile of endurance, not joy. Just before the Palin pick, Mrs. McCain was so brittle that a supporter's energetic handshake put her in a cast. With the press and vast swaths of the country swooning over the Obama family, John needed a new queen."
After selecting former beauty queen Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain cast Cindy off his campaign platform as he had previously cast his first wife aside, and he began the final days of his campaign tour at Palin's side, twisting his wedding ring while standing in Cindy's previous position on the platform as Palin begin her 2012 presidential campaign. It appears that McCain needs an attractive, younger woman next to him during his campaign stops, as if to establish a continuing sexual attractiveness into his old age. McCain's nasty treatment of women as objects never ends. --Politex, Oct. 5, '08

PALINTOLOGY:
1. “With the impacts of climate change, what we can do about that, as governor, I was the first governor to form a climate change subcabinet to start dealing with the impacts.... You know, there are man’s activities that can be contributed to the issues that we’re dealing with now, with these impacts.” Dowd
2. “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet.” Dowd
3. “It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there.” Dowd
4. “Say it ain’t so, Joe! There you go pointing backwards again ... Now, doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?” Herbert
5. “Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president’s agenda in that position.” Collins

DRESS CODE FOR VOTERS: The Dems in Pa. have gone to court about it, and a number of other states appear to be on the verge. (NYT) In its continuing effort to keep the voters away from the polls, Repubs want to establish a dress code for voters: no t-shirts with campaign slogans. The Dems say "nonsense," and have taken those PA. counties with such rules to court. One Republican official says if there isn't a dress code, next, voters would come to the polls wearing musical hats. Since we failed to institute a voters' dress code in Iraq, the dress code terrorists are threatening us at home.
Of course, a white or black t-shirt would be seen as a racist slur, so t-shirts of that color would be out. And how about yellow t-shirts? The Repubs call Obama a coward for being against the war in Iraq. No go. And McCain's economic policies will keep us in the red. Obviously, the only t-shirt acceptable to both sides would be green, since both candidates are Irish. But that flies in the face of diversity, so the Dems wouldn't go for that. Clearly, our only rational option is to vote naked. See you at the polls. --Politex, Oct. 4, '08

FALTERING McBUSH; PREDICTING THE WINNER: Now that Mac's sinking in the polls while the economy is faltering and Michigan is out of reach Mac has decided to go negative, all the time. He has determined that folks will not vote for him on the basis of who he is and what his record represents. The NYT reports that he feels his only hope is to attack Obama, all the time. This means, of course, that the Macster's people will produce a barrage of anti-Obama lies, distortions, and sleeze-attacks, thinking that the voters are really dumb and would vote for someone who represents the lowest level of American politics.
Nevertheless, there's an easy, but not foolproof, way to predict who will win on election night. If McBush takes Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Hampshire, or Maine, Kerry states, while not losing more Bush states, he will win. If Obama takes Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, or Virginia Bush states, while not losing more Kerry states, he will win. --Politex, Oct. 4, '08

BIDEN WINS DEBATE BY NOT BEING PALIN: Senator Biden did well, avoiding one of his own infamous gaffes, while showing a clear grasp of the big picture and the details. He left Ms. Palin way behind on most issues, especially foreign policy and national security, where she just seemed lost. It was in those moments that her lack of experience — two terms as mayor of a tiny Anchorage suburb and less than two years as governor — was most painfully evident....Asked about the possible use of nuclear weapons, she declared “nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people and too many parts of our planet.” On Iraq, all she had to offer was the false accusation that Barack Obama wants to surrender....
She offered virtually no detail — beyond the Republican mantra of tax cuts — for how she and Mr. McCain would address the financial crisis or help Americans avoid foreclosure or what programs they would cut because of the country’s disastrous fiscal problems. Ms. Palin’s primary tactic was simply to repeat the same thing over and over: John McCain is a maverick. So is she. To stay on that course, she had to indulge in some wildly circular logic: America does not want another Washington insider. They want Mr. McCain (who has been in Congress for nearly 26 years). Ms. Palin condemned Wall Street greed and said she and Mr. McCain would “demand” strict oversight. In virtually the next breath, she said government should “get out of the way” of American business.
There were occasional, disturbing flashes of the old, pre-campaign Sarah Palin. Asked about the causes of global warming, Ms. Palin suggested that man had some role — but she wasn’t saying how much. In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment. --NYT Ed, Oct. 3, '08