Out in California, Gov. Ahnold has signed a bill attempting to end the “pass the lemons” game that bad teachers play, by moving from school to school. In heavily union-controlled districts (like NYC), schools are forced to take these teachers. What should happen, clearly, is that these failures should be forced out of the system — where they can go work at the DMV or something, instead of ruining the education of the next generation.
Bravo, Ahnold. Now, will a governor Spitzer do low-income kids a similar courtesy in New York?
Focus on the Family Action President Jim Daly said it’s shocking the former congressman would attack millions of values voters who helped Armey and other social conservatives gain control of Congress.
“Values voters expect to hear such cruel insults from the Left,” he said, “but not from a champion of family values, as Mr. Armey once claimed to be.”
Daly said there is “absolutely no doubt” that Dr. Dobson will continue to defend the family.
“Perhaps Mr. Armey should spend less time with the ACLU, for whom he is now a paid consultant,” Daly said, “and more time apologizing to American families.”
They also got responses from some conservative congressmen, including Sen. Tom Coburn:
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who also served under Armey when he was a member of the House, said the former Texas congressman and fiscal conservative has no business making such comments.
“I don’t know why he’s mad now, but his characterization is totally inappropriate,” Coburn said. “I’m sorry Dick Armey feels that way.
“Dr. Dobson has done more to advance the cause of moral excellence than anybody I know in this country,” Coburn said.
Coburn took special exception to comments Armey made accusing Dobson of supposedly pressuring Congress in 2005 to pass legislation trying to protect Terri Schiavo from being starved and dehydrated to death.
Coburn, a strong conservative lawmaker as well as a licensed physician, rejected the charge.
“Dr. Dobson didn’t force anything to happen here,” he said. “The fact is, men of conscience and women of conscience in the Senate felt this was a situation that ought to be addressed — and they took action.”
Nope. That Terri Schiavo mess didn’t have a single thing to do with pandering to the Religious Right. No, sir.
Here’s an ad in support of Sen. Rick Santorum, put out by the group Softer Voices:
At YouTube, they offer the following description:
An ad launched by Softer Voices giving a compelling firsthand account of Bylly Jo Morton, a former welfare recipient whose life was transformed by receiving a job from Senator Rick Santorum, as he was authoring and championing welfare reform in the U.S. Senate.
Softer Voices is dedicated to promoting public policies that maintain and improve the lives of every American. SV is particularly concerned with national security issues, as well as issues which affect our economy and free markets, the success and viability of our nation’s families, and the culture necessary to a free and democratic society. For more information, please go to www.softervoices.org.
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza has some background on just what/who Softer Voices is.
If Newt Gingrich enters the ‘08 GOP primary, it’s looking like he’ll be running the most anti-Bush campaign of all the contenders. In this excerpt from The Elephant in the Room (the 2nd of 4 I’m running), he gives his frank assessment of the Bush years (he calls Bush an “expensive-government conservative”) and of John McCain (he compares McCain to Dole … ouch).
The full interview can be found in the Chapter 8 of the book.
Today, EItheR gets a mention in Amity Shlaes’ Bloomberg column, which is about religiosity in American politics and foreign policy:
Maybe Goldwaterism never stood a chance in Goldwater’s day. It stands even less of a chance now. In his new book on Republicans, “The Elephant in the Room” (Wiley, 256 pages, $25.95), syndicated columnist Ryan Sager says the political culture is shifting. In Western states, values such as freedom, independence and privacy used to dominate the Republican Party. But now Southern values — religion and tradition — are supplanting them. Indeed, the Republican libertarians of the Southwest or Montana are already feeling so isolated that Democrats are making a play for them.
Here’s George Allen denying that he’s ever used the N-word. Or, more precisely, denying that he remembers it being part of his vocabulary. Whatever, exactly, he thinks that means.
The weight of evidence at this point would seem to make it clear that this is an out-and-out lie.
Over at Slate, Seth Stevenson has a great piece up about those new, non-hysterical anti-pot ads that have been running recently. You know, the ones where kids acknowledge that pot’s not so bad — it won’t kill you, and it’s not a gateway drug — but that, really, there’s better stuff you could be doing with your life.
After years of campy “this is your brain on drugs” nonsense, finally we see a semi-reasonable message to kids about the realities of casual drug use. I’m not sure any type of advertising is likely to affect kids’ choices about drugs all that much, but this is certainly better than telling them blatant lies that ultimately just make them that much more suspicious of all authority.
Stevenson does get at the central dilemma of a drug-war-rhetoric climb-down, though:
Quick question, though, in light of this new marijuana glasnost: Will the ONDCP now retract its previous claims that pot is a dangerous gateway drug? And, logical next question (as others havenoted): If smoking pot is the safest thing in the world, does not lead to the use of harder drugs, and, worst case, causes you to veg out on a couch for several hours, why is it a criminal offense? I eagerly await the ads addressing this conundrum.
While no politician is ready to take the bold steps necessary to end the War on Drugs, I think this sort of message coming out of the federal government itself represents a major turning point, where most everyone can see the underlying reality of the drug war’s failure. The question is what comes next.
The evidence that Sen. George Allen commonly used the word “nigger” in the 1970s and early 1980s certainly seems to be stackingup.
It seems to me at this point that the question is shifting from whether this will be a political liability to whether he should simply resign his seat. If the story about the deer head stuffed into a black family’s mail box can be corroborated, I don’t see how he’d have much choice.
Longtime readers of M.O. know I believe quite the opposite: the less voters, the better. Watering down our democracy with the most ignorant, lazy voters who need to be coaxed to the polls is no victory. Still, the lame, fake-hip ad is worth a click.
On the other coast today, I have a column in the N.Y. Post about Wal-Mart’s plan to offer a month’s supply of some 300 generic prescription drugs for $4 a pop. While a small part of the story is Wal-Mart using its evil “monopsony” power to push down prices charged by drug makers, the real story is that Wal-Mart is simply cutting its profit margin on generic drugs for broader strategic reasons:
The company has simply decided to cut its profit margin on generic drugs for three basic reasons: 1) to get more people into the stores, 2) to get the people who already shop there to stop by more often, and 3) to get an advantage over its competitors, such as Walgreen, CVS and Target.
In fact, hours after Wal-Mart made its announcement, Target declared that it would match Wal-Mart’s program in the markets where Wal-Mart rolled it out. Shares of Walgreen Co. and CVS, meanwhile, immediately dipped 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
(Wal-Mart’s fourth reason for cutting drug prices - good publicity for a company embattled by unions attacking its health-care policies - is also not inconsiderable.)
Liberals’ views of markets are a funny thing. When Wal-Mart’s aggressive tactics put the squeeze on toy or underwear makers or “mom and pop” stores, we’re told the company is destroying the middle class and the American way of life. Yet when it’s making meds affordable to the poor and uninsured, the company’s seen as doing a selfless public service.
In truth, Wal-Mart isn’t doing a public service in either case - it’s acting as any capitalist corporation should, trying to maximize its profits. And in both cases, it’s offering a benefit to the public in terms of low prices. That’s what the free market is. That’s what the free market does.
The Left, including Wal-Mart critics, has mostly kept its powder dry on this one. It is, after all, hard to criticize a company for offering a steep discount on life-saving drugs. What I wish more Wal-Mart critics would recognize is that discounts on any product — drugs, underwear, food, etc. — are just as vital to the people who shop at Wal-Mart regularly.
The link’s from this Wall Street Journal article which asks (without coming close to answering, unfortunately) whether the iPod’s “Shuffle” function is really random. There’s some great background on randomness generally (it’s actually very complicated and hard to generate). And, hopefully, some people will actually perform the experiments outlined at the end of the article and actually answer the question someday. Being a devotee of the shuffle function, I’ve got my suspicions.
Careful observers will note that the perp in this case, Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, has been neck-deep in the cover-up of anti-Semitism at Columbia in the last few years.
Here’s George Allen in “The Situation Room,” discussing the apparently dark family secret of his Jewish blood:
The story really doesn’t add up. Why would this be the first time anyone in the younger generation of the Allen family has asked about this? The story is not new with the Jewish Forwardarticle that ran a few weeks ago, it’s been floating around for years.
The thread that runs through all of this is that everyone in the Allen family — and in the Allen campaign — seems to feel that being labeled a Jew is deeply shameful and possibly political poison in the South. I doubt very much personally whether it would have hurt him in the slightest — except for how it’s come out now, as if it were a scandal of some type. Allen’s obnoxious behavior toward the reporter who asked the question also can’t be helping people’s perceptions of him.
Above all, this guy seems completely unable to take the heat of national press attention. Put a fork in him, at least as far as ‘08. He’s done.
Today, let’s look at Sen. George Allen being asked a question about his Jewish ancestry:
I have to say I think Sen. Allen’s outrage is beyond ridiculous. The question had nothing to do with any idea that if he were Jewish it would be a negative thing. It’s based on the fact that he’s suspected of covering up (or at least downplaying) his Jewish heritage because it would conflict with the good-ol’-boy, hick persona he thinks he needs to win in Virginia and in a Republican primary in 2008.
The question is whether this man, with a history of racial insensitivity, is pandering to a base he thinks is moderately anti-Semitic. It’s a fair question, and it’s interesting that he’s gone so far to dodge it.
Finally, however, he has relented and issued a press release this afternoon:
Statement from Senator George Allen
ARLINGTON, VA – U.S. Senator George Allen released the following statement this afternoon:
“Yesterday, I found it especially reprehensible that a reporter would impugn the attitudes of my mother, as Ms. Peggy Fox did in her first question at the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce Senate debate. My mother and father both taught me to abhor bigotry, and Ms. Fox’s suggestion to the contrary was deeply offensive.
“The notion peddled by the Webb campaign that I am somehow embarrassed by my heritage is equally offensive, and also absurd.
“I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian. And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line’s Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed.
“On several occasions through the years, I have mentioned publicly that my mother’s father was incarcerated by the Nazis. I have never known whether he was persecuted by the Nazis because of his nationality, his religious faith, his role as a community leader, or his part in the anti-Nazi resistance.
“What I do know is that my grandfather’s imprisonment by the Nazis had a profound impact on my mother. It was a subject she found painful to discuss and so we almost never discussed it.
“Some may find it odd that I have not probed deeply into the details of my family history, but it’s a fact. We in the Allen household were simply taught that what matters is a person’s character, integrity, effort, and performance – not race, gender, ethnicity or religion. And so whenever we would ask my mother through the years about our family background on her side, the answer always was, ‘Who cares about that?’
“My mother has lived a long and full life, and I hope and pray she will enjoy many more years. She deserves respect and she also deserves privacy, especially where painful memories are concerned. I sincerely hope that simple decency will be respected.”
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan notes that Dean Barnett at Hugh Hewitt’s blog assumes that Jewish heritage would be a negative in the South and that the questioner was making an “attempt to ‘tar’ Allen as a Jew.” Interesting assumptions.
Every once in a while, somebody writes a book that makes you want to tie complete strangers to a chair and hold the pages in front of them until the writing burns into their eye sockets. “The Elephant in the Room,” written by journalist Ryan Sager, is that book.
For the record, I recommend no such thing. At the same time, I can’t be blamed for the actions of overzealous readers.
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