Bad Deeds for 2-12-2009

 

Creationists Besiege Texas State Board of Education with Calls to Dumb Down Science Education in Texas Public Schools – As we mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the religious right has launched a new and ferocious attack on science education in Texas public schools.

Last month the State Board of Education narrowly voted against a curriculum requirement that students learn phony “weaknesses” of evolution promoted by creationists. Creationist pressure groups have responded with fury in the press. They have even viciously attacked the religious faith of board members who support giving Texas kids a sound science education.

And now the Texas Freedom Network has learned that creationists are flooding board members’ offices with thousands of e-mails and phone calls critical of evolution. They are demanding that the board reverse course in a final vote next month and require that science classes teach anti-evolution arguments that mainstream scientists debunked long ago.

This is outrageous. Texans cannot permit the religious right to bully elected officials into voting against the interests of Texas families and the mainstream values we all support. Supporters of sound science education cannot stand aside while far-right pressure groups try to distort and undermine the education of an entire generation of Texas schoolchildren.

Take Action!

The State Board of Education will meet on March 25-27 to take a final vote on the proposed science curriculum standards. It’s important that you take the following actions to ensure that board members vote for standards that put sound science ahead of ideology in our kids’ public schools:

1. Tell your State Board of Education member that you oppose efforts to water down instruction on evolution in public school science classes.

– Ask you board member to vote to adopt the sound science standards proposed in December by curriculum writing teams made up of teachers and academics.
– Oppose requiring that students learn phony “weaknesses” of evolution.
– Ask your board member to vote to strip out any amendments approved by the board in January that undermine instruction on evolution.

You can find the name of your board member by clicking here . It’s best to write your board member in your own words and send your e-mail to: sboeteks@tea.state.tx.us. However, you can also click here to send your board member a pre-written e-mail.

2. Submit your comments about the proposed standards to the Texas Education Agency. You can read the standards by clicking here . Then scroll down to Proposed Revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 112, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School. Send your comments to TEA to this e-mail address: rules@tea.state.tx.us.

3. Sign up to testify at the State Board of Education’s public hearing on the proposed science standards on March 25. For information about how to testify, click here.

To find out how your SBOE member voted in January, and to stay informed on this issue, please click here .

 

Companies Try to Block Unemployment Benefits for Former Employees
More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers. The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute.

Under state and federal laws, employees who are fired for misbehavior or quit voluntarily are ineligible for unemployment compensation. When jobless claims are blocked, employers save money because their unemployment insurance rates are based on the amount of the benefits their workers collect. As unemployment rolls swell in the recession, many workers seem surprised to find their benefits challenged, their former bosses providing testimony against them.

 

Another Conservative Economics Argument Proven False – Conservatives like to say we can’t go into debt (any more, but it was ok under G. W. Bush) because China will stop buying US Treasuries. But Mr. Luo Ping, a director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said after a speech in New York on Wednesday that China would continue to buy Treasuries in spite of its misgivings about US finances. “Except for US Treasuries, what can you hold?” he asked. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.”

Mr Luo, whose English tends toward the colloquial, added: “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion [$1,000bn-$2,000bn] . . .we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do.”

 

Lost U.S. Weapons May Be Going to Taliban, GAO Says – Tens of thousands of assault rifles and other firearms in Afghanistan are at risk of being stolen because U.S. officials have lost track of them, according to a congressionally ordered audit that warns that some weapons may already be in Taliban hands. The audit by the Government Accountability Office found that inventory controls were lacking for more than a third of the 242,000 light weapons donated to Afghan forces by the United States — a stockpile that includes thousands of AK-47 assault rifles as well as mortars, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

 

Bush Attempted to Destroy the Code of War Built by Abraham Lincoln – One of Abraham Lincoln’s little-noted accomplishments has become his most unlikely legacy. He helped create the modern international rules that protect civilians, prevent torture, and limit the horrors of combat, the body of law known as the laws of war. Indeed, he was probably our most important law-of-war president, having crafted the very rules that George W. Bush and his Justice Department tried to destroy. The code reduced the international laws of war into a simple pamphlet for wide distribution to the amateur soldiers of the Union army. It prohibited torture, poisons, wanton destruction, and cruelty. It protected prisoners and forbade assassinations. It announced a sharp distinction between soldiers and noncombatants. And it forbade attacks motivated by revenge and the infliction of suffering for its own sake. Most significantly, the code sought to protect channels of communication between warring armies and it elevated the truce flag to a level of sacred honor.

 

Senate Republicans Holding Up Confirmation of Secretary of Labor – Almost two months have gone by since President Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor. But some Senate Republicans are playing petty politics, holding up her confirmation. It looks like a cynical and misguided attempt to score points at the expense of the new Democratic President and his cabinet nominee. America desperately needs a Secretary of Labor, with 600,000 workers losing their jobs just last month. Rep. Solis is eminently qualified for the post. Her entire career is a testament to her deep commitment to making sure everyday people have equal access to educational and economic opportunity. Plus she brings a deep commitment to environmental justice and green jobs for all.

But instead of getting to work solving the country’s problems, Rep. Solis has been forced to wait and watch while a few Republican Senators try to make political hay of her husband’s small business tax woes. Her husband, Sam Sayyad, owed a few thousand dollars in back taxes. He paid them. And the county says there is no reason to think he was trying to avoid paying his taxes.

 

Mortgage Fraud Suspect Had $70,000 Stuffed In His Cowboy Boots, $1M In Swiss Bank Certificates – A suspect in a nationwide mortgage fraud scheme who fled the country was caught at the Canadian border with $70,000 stuffed in his cowboy boots and nearly $6,000 worth of platinum, authorities said Wednesday. Christopher J. Warren, 26, was arrested early Wednesday while entering the United States at Buffalo, N.Y. After he disappeared Feb. 3, Warren was charged with conspiracy, fraud and conducting a continuing financial crime. Warren is the second of three fugitives to be caught in the ongoing fraud investigation of Loomis Wealth Solutions, a Roseville, Calif.-based investment company, and several related companies.

Court documents alleged they defrauded investors and mortgage companies of $100 million since 2006. The fraudulent deals involved 500 homes and condominiums in California, Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Colorado and Arizona, according to Internal Revenue Service affidavits.

 

Media Failure: During Stimulus Debate, Only 5 Percent Of Guests Were Economists – During 139-1/2 hours of Sunday talk shows and 12 cable news programs from January 25 through February 8 in which the economic recovery legislation was discussed, economists made 25 guest appearances out of a total of 460 — only 5 percent.

 

Conservative Michelle Malkin Smears and Endangers People That She Doesn’t Agree With – Michelle Malkin has a really bad habit. She’s famous for revealing personal information of innocent people who differ from her extreme right wing views online so that her readers can attack them. She did that to some Santa Cruz students back in 2006 when a group of them didn’t want military recruiters on their campus. She posted the telephone numbers of the students that formed the protest and they received death threats non-stop after that. Then there was the case of Graeme Frost, the twelve year old boy that gave the Democratic radio address about his family’s plight, so Malkin went snooping around his house and father’s business, and posted their home address. Or how about when Malkin endangered Jamil Hussein’s life? Or when she posted Cindy Sheehan’s divorce records to smear her? it’s Henrietta Hughes, the woman who pleaded with President Obama for help Tuesday in Florida. Does Malkin have no shame? (Malkin certainly has no empathy.)

 

And now for the Chicken News … 😉

Roosting Chickens – The first twenty minutes of this evening’s news covered incredibly wealthy investment bankers responsible for costing the American taxpayers a trillion dollars, corporate executives responsible for purposely marketing salmonella-tainted peanut butter that killed children, and Mr. and Mrs. Madoff who cheated investors of $50 billion dollars.

What did this unrelated cast of characters have in common?
They all benefited from the tax cuts and deregulation policies of George W. Bush.
Seldom have chickens come home to roost so quickly after the chicken farmer left for the ranch.

 

Chicken Housing Crisis
A chicken housing crisis has cropped up in the U.S., and it’s producing some of the same bleak results as the human one — foreclosures, lawsuits and devastated homeowners. In the wake of last year’s bankruptcy filing by poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., hundreds of farmers suddenly find themselves unable to make mortgage payments on their pricey chicken coops. To cut costs, Pilgrim’s, the nation’s second-largest chicken company, has terminated contracts with at least 300 farms in Arkansas, Florida and North Carolina.

Regards,

Jim