Category: politics & causes

politics, both trans & otherwise

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The President & Children

Honestly, is it anything but racism that American parents don’t want their kids to listen to the president? Sorry, but I find it wholly idiotic. Here’s the full text of the speech, if you won’t be able to listen tomorrow. He says nutty, controversial things like this:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

This country is starting to get way too insane for me, with people objecting to the President telling kids to study hard.

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RIP Ted Kennedy

The Senate has to do the right thing to honor Ted Kennedy’s memory: pass health care. You know they have to, now, & so we have Ted Kennedy’s last gift to the working classes of the US.

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‘Merkins for Mediocrity

Can I just ask, how is it these people who are protesting the Cash for Clunkers program AND national health insurance have never cared about anything before? Is it just Fox News all of a sudden having an investment in getting these people out of their chairs? Maybe. I don’t know. I’d just like to say that I find it astounding that Americans can be so absurd as to be totally enraged by isses about health insurance but a fake war is no big deal.

Baffling.

If I see one more woman on TV who knows nothing about her family finances who has swallowed her husband’s dumbass politics hook line & sinker who doesn’t understand the first goddamn thing about how women and children would benefit the most from a national health insurance system I’m going to go find them & smack them.

They embarrass me, besides, going on television knowing nothing but the freaking republican talking points. I mean, shouldn’t they feel some shame in admitting they never gave a shit about politics before? Enough shame to keep them off TV?

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Dickens Suddenly Relevant Again

There’s a great piece today in the NYT by Barbara Ehrenreich about the criminalization of the poor.

But will it be enough — the collision of rising prison populations that we can’t afford and the criminalization of poverty — to force us to break the mad cycle of poverty and punishment? With the number of people in poverty increasing (some estimates suggest it’s up to 45 million to 50 million, from 37 million in 2007) several states are beginning to ease up on the criminalization of poverty — for example, by sending drug offenders to treatment rather than jail, shortening probation and reducing the number of people locked up for technical violations like missed court appointments. But others are tightening the screws: not only increasing the number of “crimes” but also charging prisoners for their room and board — assuring that they’ll be released with potentially criminalizing levels of debt.

As more Americans become this kind of poor, maybe we’ll finally pay attention.

(h/t to Kate Bornstein for tweeting it)