Bad Deeds for 10-2-2009

Glenn Beck Uses Vicks VapoRub to Cry on Cue – Notice that he says, after the Vick’s is applied and it’s not working as fast as he’d like, “My eyes are getting used to it,” which, to me, means he’s used this trick often.

Why Congress is Not as Serious About Health Care as the Average Citizen – While most Americans have to go with whatever their employer offers, members have a choice of 10 plans that offer access to a national network of doctors. “Lawmakers also get special treatment at Washington’s federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers.

And this fall, while members of Congress toil in the U.S. Capitol, working to decide how or even whether to reform the country’s health care system, one floor below them an elaborate Navy medical clinic — described by those who have seen it as something akin to a modern community hospital — will be standing by, on-call and ready to provide Congress with some of the country’s best and most efficient government-run health care.

Texas State Board of Education Ready to Distort Social Studies – The board has begun its revision to the social studies curriculum standards for grades K – 12, and the process has already veered into troubling territory:

• Far-right members of the board and the so-called “experts” they appointed have expressed their intention to distort American history, teaching students that the Founders intended our government to be based on a conservative, fundamentalist interpretation of the Christian Bible.
• Those same experts have questioned the the inclusion of prominent civil rights figures like Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in the standards.
• The latest draft standards include a mandate for students to study conservative activists and groups like Newt Gingrich and the Moral Majority.

What can you do?

The board is accepting public comments on a preliminary draft of the social studies standards until Friday, October 9. Conservative groups around the state have already rallied their members, issuing phony and hysterical warnings about “the pernicious influence of liberal ideologues.”

If you want the next generation of Texas students to have an accurate curriculum based on mainstream scholarship and not political and religious ideology, it’s important that the board hears from you.

Let TFN know that are you interested in submitting comments. TFN will send you all the information you need to express your concerns to the board.

The Problem with Capitalism – Capitalism does a number of things very well: it helps create an entrepreneurial spirit, it gets people motivated to come up with new ideas and that’s a good thing. But on the other hand, especially since the Reagan era, what we have seen in this country is an unfettered type of cowboy capitalism, and the result of that has been, that the people on top have made out like bandits and many of them are bandits. Today in America we have a situation that is quickly moving out of control. (Now go see Michael Moore’s new movie.)

National Association of Undertakers Backs GOP Health Plan 😉 – Congressional Republicans received key backing today for their health care plan, picking up support from the National Association of Undertakers.

The funeral directors’ group, which represents undertakers, embalmers and hearse drivers across the country, gave the GOP plan a big thumbs up, saying in a press release, “Finally, a health care plan that works for us.”

The endorsement from the undertakers’ association was the second major endorsement in two days for the GOP plan, which yesterday picked up support from the National Association of Viruses and Bacteria.

Regards,

Jim