Democratic State Representative Rebekah Warren, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Senator Liz Brater in the State Senate, recently was attacked in a mail piece by Betsy DeVos’ ultra-conservative “Great Lakes Education Project” – an extreme right-wing organization, aimed at destroying public schools in support of private charter/parochial schools.  Please read Rep. Warren’s response below:

Over the last three weeks, the district has been inundated with literature supporting my opponent that is paid for by the Great Lakes Education Project.  Who are these people?  You have heard some of their names before, like right-wing Republican billionaires Dick & Betsy DeVos, Dick Posthumus and Tim Walberg.  This week, they sent out the first attack ad against me that very well may be followed by others.  Of course if all they have to complain about handful of votes that I missed while I was on my honeymoon amongst the nearly 3,000 I’ve taken, maybe there’s nothing to worry about.

There’s no question, however, about their motivation: they’ve spent a generation and millions of dollars fighting against the things I have built a reputation defending. They are rabidly anti-choice, while I’ve spent a career standing up for women’s reproductive rights. They funded the “no” campaign against stem-cell research. The supported the ban on gay marriages that I actively campaigned against. The DeVos’s gave half a million dollars to launch GLEP with the intended mission of undermining our public school system. They believe we should have cash vouchers for private parochial schools, expand charter schools to religious institutions and allow untrained teachers into the classroom. My endorsements from the MEA and AFT and my record of defending public education in Michigan probably drives them crazy.

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It’s been a while since I’ve written this column, unfortunately. It’s been really easy to get swept up in all the domestic events in the news cycle and to forget the bigger picture. Anyway, I’ll try to be more regular in the future. Let me start with a round-up of sorts of fun South Asian links that popped into my Google Reader.

1) The $35 Tablet: Last Friday, the Indian government unveiled a prototype for a $35 tablet computer. As I have raved on my Twitter, this is enough to ensure I never purchase an over-priced iPad, ever. This Linux-based tablet will hopefully be launched in 2011, with expectations to eventually lower the price to a mere $10. Well, doesn’t that sound like a dream? I hope it isn’t too good to be true. If the cost can be brought down to that amount, even a less fortunate individual (with a little saving) can purchase it. And that’s what these information systems should really be about anyway — accessibility.

2) David Cameron Visits India: In his first visit to Asia since taking office, English Prime Minister David Cameron has gallivanted to India to “inject new energy into Anglo-Indian relations and help build trade links between the nations.” See, Europe’s financial security right now is a little strugs these days so fostering a connection with India is particularly important. Cameron will be urging India to lift some of its trade restrictions to make investments and exports to India easier. We’ll see how that goes — a particularly touchy subject for the countries is immigration. Cameron ran on the promise of instating a cap on the number of immigrants. It’s a contradictory his statement,  “I want to see more Indians setting up in Britain and more Brits setting up over here.” Indians can’t exactly set up in Britain if you have cap, and Indian officials have noted their concerns.

3) U.S. backs India on 11/26 Attacks: Days after whistleblower website Wikileaks released 92,000 pages of classified documents painting a grim picture of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. asked Pakistan to take action against the 11/26 perpetrators. (In 2008, Islamic terrorists attacked Mumbai, India’s largest city. Since the attacks, relations between New Delhi and Islamabad have been fairly frosty.)

Endorsing New Delhi’s insistence that full-scale dialogue with Pakistan won’t be possible till the latter changed its policy to crack down on terror groups menacing India, the US said, “If Pakistan wants to convince India that it has made this kind of fundamental change, bringing to justice those who are responsible for the Mumbai attack would be a very, very constructive and important step.”

This is in definite contradiction to Pakistan’s current sentiments — the country’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi state earlier this month “that India was unreasonably fixated on 26/11 and it was time the two countries moved on.” Firm American response can most likely be attributed to the Wikileaks release, which implicated Pakistan’s ISI in directly helping Taliban forces in Afghanistan. It’s an indication that the U.S. sees some truth in India’s accusations of ISI’s nexus with Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban, and Al Qaeda.

4) Indian University Creates Quota For Transgender Students: This heartening news comes from Bangalore University. The university’s academic council just voted to add a “third gender option to application forms and reserve one seat in each of the school’s 60 post-graduate courses for transgender students.” Moreover, the school is insistent it will implement culturally sensitive programming to make transgender students feel more comfortable — this means education for other students and even gender-neutral facilities. This particular story made me very happy. Culturally, Indians don’t like talking about LGBT issues (often stigmatizing them), but as you can see, that’s clearly changing. And here, in the U.S., our colleges and universities are still struggling with how to accommodate transgender students. Funny, isn’t that? There is such a tendency in this country to think we are the best at things (ignore this broad generalization) — I’d argue that on a lot of issues, particularly LGBT issues, other countries are definitely moving at a faster pace.

Mull about that for right now, guys. Until next time.

- Nina Bhattacharya

So much empathy in those eyes.

So remember when House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said three of his brothers lost jobs in the recession? At the time, Boehner noted, “I know that three of my brothers lost their jobs, I’m not sure whether they’ve found jobs, yet, so I’ve got a lot of empathy for those caught in this economic downturn.” Yes, so much empathy. They must be an incredibly close family — so close he doesn’t know if his siblings actually found jobs. Jabs at the Boehner clan aside, the House Minority Leader added that he agrees extending unemployment benefits must be offset with other spending cuts and, if Republicans take control of the House after the midterm elections, “he would do everything in his power to prevent unspent money from the $787 billion economic stimulus bill from being spent.”

In an interview yesterday, one of Boehner’s jobless brothers — 61-year-old Bob Boehner — said he isn’t “bitter” that his brother voted against the extension of unemployment benefits:

Bob says he doesn’t want his brother voting for government programs that aren’t paid for, even if that hurts him. He lost his job with the southwest Ohio city of Reading in February.

Let’s unpack this a little and establish that Bob Boehner isn’t representative of the average American. According to a recent Washington Post-ABC poll, 62% favored extending unemployment benefits even though “opponents say this adds too much to the federal budget deficit.” Another CBS poll — which asks people if they support extending benefits “even if it means increasing the deficit” — echoes similar results, with Americans supporting 52-39. Because of obstruction from Senate Republicans last month, nearly 100,000 jobless Ohioans (and about a million Americans nationally) saw their unemployment benefits expire.

Brian Beutler at TPM notes that Boehner also hopes to continue Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, which will cost $678 billion. While the Minority Leader and many of his Republican colleagues insist that the $33 billion for unemployment benefits must be paid for, they have no desire to pay to offset the Bush-era tax cuts. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) even told Fox News earlier this month that, “You should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.” The hypocrisy of such logic just baffles me. Although  the GOP says they represent Main Street, it’s very difficult to believe that claim when they obstruct the very legislation that can help their struggling constituents — not just once, but on every, single turn.

The bright side of this story, however, is the extension of unemployment benefits has passed both the House and Senate this week after weeks of Replican obfuscation and obstructionism.

This will be short:

From what I have picked up, this guy named Breitbart, better called Bart (as in our favorite prankster Simpson, though I doubt he deserves that much dignity), put out a video clip. Video clip has USDA official Shirley Sherrod saying things which assuming no other context, are pretty bad, socially wrong, racist, whatever. Within A DAY, Sherrod is kicked out (resigns on the side of the road, and watched her USDA career go by, paraphrasing Ernie Harwell). Bingo bango (Mickey Redmond), Goal for Bart, assist to media (specifically FOX and CNN I’ve read) which is frankly like kindling for campfire: flares up fast.

Whoever (one or group of people) within the administration asked her rather forcefully to resign needs to either resign  themselves (by forceful request) or be fired. You have basically granted the power, if well wielded, to conservative activists, to aim for a target, and get them out of the government at incredible efficiency. There is no need to explain why this is a dangerous setup. I expect (and have every right to expect) a government that can recognize this type of stuff and take it with a grain of salt, every time.

I’m done.

“These policies coming out of D.C. right now, this fundamental transformation of America — well a lot of women who are very concerned about their kids’ futures saying we don’t like this fundamental transformation and we’re going to do something about it.”

Browsing through Borders — it was going out of business, I couldn’t resist dropping by — last week, I became painfully aware of how segregated the genres were. In most chain bookstores, I feel there exists this separate space devoted solely to the African-American genre. Honestly, can I can even call it a genre? It’s not anything how science fiction or romance novels are separated from general fiction. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God couldn’t be any more different from Ben Carson’s Gifted Hands, in example.

Why does this section of the bookstore exist? That’s really the question that has been bothering me. Casually looking through the titles, I found the topics covered the same as quite a few chick lit standards and other general fiction found elsewhere in the store. I couldn’t find any real reason why any of these books could not be organized with relevant genres in the rest of the store. Sure, the culture is different — but is the culture depicted in these books so different that non-African-Americans can’t relate to it? Just thinking about these issues has helped me uncover my own pretensions; admittedly, I don’t bee-line to African-American literature when I walk into a bookstore. But if what is considered typical African-American literature was housed with the rest of general fiction would I — could I — be more likely to pick up one of these books? Do publishers think African-American literature needs to be separated to sell?

Perhaps. I really have no idea. I’d welcome any thoughts on the subject. Belleisa’s recent post at Post Bourgie dives into the subject of “seg-book-gation” in African-American literature in more depth.

So this has been something that has been weighing heavily on my mind for the past year or so. The way that teen pregnancy is being portrayed on TV could probably be equated to the way that Obama’s presidency has been portrayed on Fox news, totally one sided and totally unfair. With hit shows like MTV’s Teen Mom/16 and Pregnant and ABC’s  Secret life of the American Teenager it is no wonder that teenage pregnancy is on the rise. Both of these shows glamorize teenage pregnancy, and are feeding dangerously false images into the minds of young teenage girls everywhere.

 

I’m apprehensive about launching a full-scale war on Urban Outfitters for a number of reasons. My main concern is the fact that it’s a staple on campus at the University of Michigan, and it’s probably safe to bet that we’ve all shopped there. And with good reason: there are trendy clothes and a variety of novelty items. Who would turn down $3 clearance kitten tumblers?

But lately, the feminist community has expressed outrage toward some select items. We’ll begin with this men’s graphic t-shirt:

It’s hard to even begin describing the creep factor. Now, I enjoy mocking purity balls, and the traditional idea of fathers “owning” their daughters makes me gag a little. That said, I can see how they might defend this shirt as funny or satirical. But realistically speaking, who is going to wear this shirt? The message is too muddy to be amusing and too weird if you have any female acquaintances at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Rarely do we have a quote of the day from a Republican that actually I agree with. I think it goes to prove just how crazy Rand Paul is.

“Rand Paul’s philosophy got in the way of reality.”

– RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Source: Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire

Blah, blah, blah, DOUCHE.

The animals of allah (terrorists) for whom any day is a great day for a massacre are drooling over the positive response that they are getting from New York City officials over a proposal to build a 13 story monument to the 9/11 Muslim hijackers.

The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god (repeat: “the terrorists’ monkey-god.” if you feel that fits a description of Allah then that is your own deep-seated emotional baggage not mine, talk to the terrorists who use Allah as their excuse and the Muslims who apologize for and rationalize them) and a “cultural center” to propagandize for the extermination of all things not approved by their cult. – Mark Williams (via Daily Intel)

I think the quote speaks for itself, but let me break it down why Mark Williams, leader of the Tea Party Express and frequent contributor to CNN, is such a douche. (His website is a piece of work, too.)

As was later pointed out to Williams, there is a monkey-god in Hinduism. Hanuman is a pretty good guy and represents strength, perseverence, and loyalty. Sure, I usually understand how it can be easy to make fun of Hindu mythology’s colorful characters and misconstrue the complexities of Hindu spirituality. But I would only understand if he hadn’t confused Hinduism with Islam (and then trivialized a god I believe in). Really, Mark Williams?  I feel it is basic knowledge that Islam and Christianity have their roots in Judaism.  So many Tea Partiers laud their Christian values – Williams’ statement reflects a not even a basic understanding of the religion’s history.

Moreover, I would not describe Muslims as “animals of allah (terrorists).”   I’m positive I don’t have to explain why on this blog why this is offensive and demeaning. Mr. Williams, I’m sorry your narrow perception and knowledge of the world fails you so much that you have to cast unsubstantiated generalizations about an entire religion. Every religion has its extremists and it’s terribly unfortunate that the actions of a few Muslim extremists have ruined many people’s perception of Islam. My Muslim friends are good people,  just like any one else.

It’s especially painful for me to see how Williams desecrates a place of worship with his words.  It’s always been very difficult for me to fathom how poorly people react to things that are just different from them. Rather than get educated, people lash out in the worst ways possible. A basic tenet like “treat others the way you want to be treated” flies out the window. Each person is entitled to his or her own faith, why can’t people respect that? It’s disgusting.

I suppose most of my anger is reserved for the apology. He writes, “In the course of the article I described the “god” worshiped by terrorists as “a monkey god”.   I was wrong and that was offensive.   I owe an apology to millions of Hindus who worship Lord Hanuman, an actual Monkey God.” Yes, yes you do owe an apology to millions of Hindus. But you also owe an apology to the millions upon millions of Muslims whom you demeaned and hurt with your racist, ignorant, thick-headed, dumbass remarks (or word vomit).  Because they are good people, too. Was that apology in there? Nope. Naturally.

Maybe if I just ignore asshats like him, they just won’t exist anymore. There would a little less hate in the world, and we would be better for it.

First, for this and my previous post – Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein reflect only the views of the author and do not represent the opinions of the College Democrats at the University of Michigan (UMCD), the Michigan Federation of College Democrats (MFCD), the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP), or the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Second, if you do not feel like reading this entire article, all you need to know is this: if you are in an position of management that is fairly influential in the ways things work in the world, and how it ticks, #1.) Learn to have a greater sense of urgency about things, #2.) Learn to realize that while your neighbors can be a bit hostile at times, they are there to help in times of crisis/lots of work to be done, and #3.) If you frankly only care about how your little ship/company/corporation/enterprise/empire runs for profits, not the well being of those beneath it, those running the low level vitals and the planet they live on, please resign and leave important things in the hands of those that really care about what matters.

If you’re just an average Joe pretty much, follow me, and let’s talk over what has happened over the past month.

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+ Rand Paul opposes racism, limits to racism, forced segregation, forced integration, the Civil Rights Act, and repealing the Civil Rights Act.

+  A second-grade student asked Michelle Obama if her mother would be deported because she “doesn’t have any papers”. (Expect Miss Oklahoma to swoop in and deport them in 3…2…1.)

+  As Zach explained, Thomas Jefferson will not exist in Texas’s textbooks-to-be. God graciously granted us the Declaration of Independence and simply penned it under a pseudonym.

+ Sounds like it would make a fun sitcom: Obama chooses himself for the Supreme Court.

+ Your latest Gchat conversation: sponsored by cow manure.

+ Who else wants to adopt a sloth?

Discuss!

We’ve all known about the Texas plans to eliminate history from their textbooks and replace it with a fairy tale in which, to quote from Eric Foner’s appearance on the Colbert Report, America started out perfect and has been improving ever since. We know that when, on Friday, a board full of  lame-ducks voted out of office for being too nuts even for Texas, votes to rename the slave trade the “triangle trade” (which isn’t incorrect, but is an absurd trivialization of racism), to write out Thomas Jefferson from the founding because he wanted to separate church and state, and to vindicate Joseph McCarthy, it will affect what children learn in Michigan because textbook companies don’t want to make two copies of their books.  But when I came across a BBC report on former Bush Education Secretary Rod Paige’s criticism of the Texas School Board (“history is what it is”) I noted another reason that this is eating at me.  It’s far less important than the fact that we are raising a generation of children, in a democracy, on comfortable lies.  It’s far less important than the fact that we are feeding future voters the propaganda that “America is always right,” a propaganda that prevents the critical thinking and analysis of our country’s actions that is necessary to improve them.  It’s trivial and stupid but there’s something embarrassing about noticing this story in the leading press of Britain and the wider English-speaking world.  We’re the laughing stock of the West when we do things like this.  And anyone who thinks that Americans are ignorant, redneck cowboys is proven right.

NB: I’m interested in history, so this makes me especially angry.  Science has been similarly subjugated to politics.  Notably by evolution-deniers, and more recently by climate-change-deniers.

Attorney General Eric Holder, speakin’ truthz… somewhere.

Following Faisal Shahzad’s arrest for the attempted bombing of New York City’s Time Square, Democrats have been quick to promote their anti-terrorism credentials and compliment the reaction time of the law enforcement involved. On Sunday, Attorney General Eric Holder appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and ABC’s This Week to laud the FBI’s effective interrogation of Shahzad and more interestingly, to address the Miranda warning. Under the Miranda warning, the suspect is informed of their right to decline to make self-incriminatory statements and their right to legal counsel.  Incriminating evidence elicited without the reading of these rights and a intelligent, voluntary waiver on the part of the suspect is considered inadmissible in court. On Meet the Press, Holder explained, “that we have to think about perhaps modifying the rules that interrogators have and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face.”

Watch the interview:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The public safety exception Holder is referring to was established in the 1984 Quarles Supreme Court case. Unfortunately, the court did not specify the length of questioning allowed under the public safety exception. During the failed Christmas Day bombing, law enforcement officials questioned Umar Abdulmutallab for 50 minutes before Mirandizing him. Faisal Shahzad, arrested for the failed Times Square bombing, was questioned for several hours before given his Miranda warning.

It’s important to highlight  that issuing the Miranda warning has not interfered in Abdulmutallab and Shahzad’s interrogations. “One of the things that we have certainly seen is that the giving of Miranda warnings has not stopped these terror suspects from talking to us. They have continued to talk even though we have given them a Miranda warning,” Mr. Holder emphasized on Meet the Press. If giving the Miranda has not yet impeded investigations, is there truly a need to reexamine the Miranda warning?  Perhaps it is more relevant to address the public safety exception and establish is how long officials can – or should – question a suspect before reading the Miranda.  It’s a loophole where the Obama Department of Justice is “pushing the outer limits.”

In the last few weeks, we have seen a slew of anti-foreign sentiment, whether it is in the form of Arizona’s racist, radical bill SB-1070 or Sen. Joe Lieberman’s plans to revive legislation stripping away citizenship from Americans who fight for foreign militaries.  The efficacy of our current system is forgotten. Although the F.B.I. interrogated Faisal Shahzad efficiently and effectively even after he was Mirandized, conservatives still have been heavy with criticism. Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and failed Republican presidential candidate, said last Sunday he “would not have given him [Shahzad] Miranda warnings after just a couple of hours of questioning” and instead “would have instead declared him an enemy combatant … that would have given us the opportunity to question him for a much longer period of time.” Apparently in the minds of people like Giuliani, the F.B.I.’s successful interrogation methods and concrete results warrant a change.

Attorney General Holder made the strongest argument in response to critics who want terrorist suspects tried in military tribunals:

“We want to make sure that we use all the tools that we have available to us in trying to prosecute this war,” the Attorney General said, in defense of criminal proceedings. “If you were to take from us the ability to use the federal courts, you will weaken our ability to win this war. You will weaken the strength of this nation. We have to have the ability to use the Article 3 courts, the reformed military commissions, our military power, our diplomatic power. We need to have all these tools so that we are successful in this fight against al Qaeda and others who would do this nation harm.”

The Department of Justice, since 9/11, has successfully prosecuted and convicted 390 people on terror-related charges. The military commissions that many legislators laud as alternatives have only convicted three people since 9/11. See, the facts are there. The tools we have right now – civil courts and actual laws! – actually work.  As much as some legislators in D.C. say otherwise, the mechanisms we have right now to prosecute terrorist suspects strengthen our national security while protecting the constitutional rights of defendants. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.