What the Oklahoma Students Did Not Know

by Pa Rock
Former Educator

Yesterday I noted that high school students in Oklahoma and Arizona had done very poorly on a citizenship test that (one would hope) even their parents could have passed. Today I came across a very good web site that got into the nuts and bolts of exactly what the students did not know.

Jeff Hoard is a freelance writer and researcher who lives in the woods of British Columbia (that's in Canada, kids). He states that in his spare time he searches for signs of "Idiocracy." Not surprisingly his searches led him to the story on the citizenship survey of Oklahoma students. The information that follows was pulled from Jeff's blog, The Idiocracy Index.

The question on the survey that drew the highest percentage of correct answers from the 1,000 students who were polled was this: What ocean is on the east coast of the United States? Sixty-one percent (610 students) were able to correctly answer that it was the Atlantic Ocean. Presumably, some had actually been there.

The question that garnered the least number of correct responses was this: How many justices are on the Supreme Court? Only ten percent (100 students) knew that nine justices sit on the Supreme Court. That was probably the toughest question on the survey, but a new justice was recently appointed to the Court, stirring a lot of news about the Court and its structure and balance, so more students should have gotten that right. (Are we watching too much Survivor and not enough news programs?)

The other questions went like this:

What is the supreme law of the land? Twenty-eight percent (280) knew that it is the Constitution.

What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? Twenty-six percent (260) correctly answered that those amendments are collectively known as the Bill of Rights.

What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? Survey says: The Senate and the House. Twenty-seven percent (270) of the students got that correct.

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? The author of that critical document in our history was Thomas Jefferson. Only 14% (140) of students knew that answer.

There was an upsurge of correct answers on this question: What are the two major political parties in the United States? Yet, even on something that basic and well known, less than half of the students surveyed knew that those two political parties are the Democrats and Republicans. Forty-three percent (430) answered correctly.

We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
Just 11% (110) knew that the correct answer was six.

Who was the first President of the United States? Twenty-three percent (less than one in four) knew that George Washington was our first President. Come on guys, he's on the dollar bill!

Surprisingly, at least to me, more of the students knew who is in charge of the executive branch than knew the father of our country. Twenty-nine percent (290) answered correctly that the head of the executive branch is the President.

Here is another interesting way to look at the results of this survey:

Of the 1,000 students who were polled, 46 got none of the answers correct, 158 got only one answer correct, 246 got two answers right, 265 (the highest concentration) correctly answered three questions, 177 managed to answer four right, 80 got half correct- five out of ten, 22 got six right (the passing point), and six proved to be real scholars by getting seven correct. None of the 1,000 students who took the survey got more than seven out of ten correct.

So what is the problem? Why did a thousand high school students in Oklahoma do so badly on a test covering what should be a very basic part of their political and historical heritage. The answer is complicated. A lot of really talented people can't afford to teach and have to take jobs in industry or other economic sectors to feed their families. Schools are running so scared of test scores that they concentrate heavily on teaching the test, to the detriment of all other knowledge. Parents are working longer and harder, often both parents, leaving children unsupervised and homework unchecked. And the whole world appears to be angry. It is so much easier to stand around and yell than it is to roll up your shirt sleeves and begin to fix problems.

Knowledge itself is also being pushed under the church bus. Sarah Palin tells people that dinosaurs and people walked the earth at the same time - she's seen pictures! Places like Kansas and Texas go crazy trying to push science out of textbooks and replace it with Creationism, whatever the hell that is. (People who want their children to go to competitive universities and become medical doctors want real science taught in classrooms. People with serious illnesses and injuries - even fundamentalist Christians - want to be treated by people who have been educated in real science.)

Education will get back on track in this country when teaching salaries are high enough to attract really good teachers away from business and industry. Education will begin to recover when school districts start putting more books in their school libraries, books open to a wide range of real life, and quit allowing small-minded moralists to roam through the stacks and haul books that offend them off to community bonfires. Education will start to mean something again when we revel in ideas and encourage students to step outside of their comfort zone and see what this big world is all about.

Education will have arrived when the spelling bee attracts the same enthusiasm as homecoming, when the honor roll is as anticipated as the football starting lineup, and when every child is praised by their parents for what they have learned in school - every day. It's within reach and well worth the effort.

John McCain Says Something Smart! (Stop the Presses!)

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

John McCain, the ex-POW and war hero who married his way into money and a political future, can be inspiring. He was a beacon to political outsiders in 2000 when he tried to block the Bush juggernaut with his "straight talk" express. But Karl Rove, who was driving the Bush juggernaut, rammed right into McCain's bus in a place called South Carolina by convincing the Republican primary voters of that state that the Arizona Senator might be just a tad too open minded on the subject of race to carry the GOP's Klan robes, much less its banner.

So McCain lost that nomination and went slinking back to the Senate with his tail tucked militarily between his hind legs - where he licked his wounds and waited for another try when Bush left office. This time Johnny Boy wasn't going to take any chances with the bigots and morons who run the Republican Party machinery. In a bold, though stupid, move, he made a pilgrimage to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he planted a big wet kiss on Jerry Falwell's flabby ass. From there he quickly spiraled downhill until he was left with almost no integrity - which made him a shoe-in for the Republican nomination. He frosted the cake by selecting completely incompetent and vacuous Sarah Palin as his running mate. It was a match made in Heaven - on a day when God was off fishing someplace else!

The principled John McCain of 2000 could have run a tough race against Obama, but that John McCain would have never gotten the nomination from his angry white party. The new McCain was offensive to enough people to secure the Republican nomination, but found it impossible to get enough ordinary Joe's to hold their noses and vote for him. He couldn't get the nomination being a human being, and he couldn't win the election being a moralistic cretin.

What's a John to do?

McCain is too old to run for President again, (Please, Lord, let it be so!), but he still has to pander to the know-nothings who run the Republican Party because he has a Senate primary opponent in 2010 who is well to the right of most of humanity. That is why he came out earlier this week and said that he would vote against confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. (McCain has spoken passionately in the past about the need to incorporate Hispanics into American culture and government.)

But even with McCain's continuous sucking up to people he knows in his heart are illogical and dangerous kooks, he did manage to say something bright today on Twitter. Here is his most recent tweet - I was quite impressed:

"Town hall meetings are an American tradition - we should allow everyone to express their views without disruption - even if we disagree!"

As reported for the past several nights on several television networks, these "spontaneous" crowds showing up to heckle Congressmen and public officials are not spontaneous at all. They are being recruited, provided with scripts of how to disrupt and rattle the speakers, and are even being bussed from event to event. Kudos to Senator McCain for having the cajones to speak out against these mindless agitators!

Senator, I don't know what you put on your Fruit Loops this morning, but whatever it was - keep pouring it on! America is a better place when the real John McCain actually does some straight talking. Please consider doing it more often.

She Wants Her Country Back!

by Pa Rock
Amused Observer

There is a video circulating on the Internet that is as funny as it is scary. It is a clip of Congressman Mike Castle's (R-Del) recent town hall meeting. One very angry (and bizarre) woman gets the floor, begins angrily waving a document that she says is her birth certificate, and explodes that President Obama is refusing to produce his birth certificate (not true) because he was actually born in Kenya (also not true). The elderly Republican congressman appeared to be mortified by the crazy woman, but a group of hillbillies whom she probably collected at the local tavern on her way to the town hall hooted and hollered and cheered her on.

The authenticity of the Presidential birth certificate has been has been verified by several sources - including factcheck.org - which is where I viewed it. The document says quite clearly that he was born at 7:24 p.m. on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. But Nutbag Lady and her Hillbilly chorus were having none of that. She stated adamantly that he was born in Kenya. Where is the proof for that?

The most telling part of the scene occurred as she was winding down. She dropped her head, began rocking sadly from side to side, and said, "I just want my country back!"

Implied, but not stated: She just wants her "white" country back.

Sorry, Honey, but that ain't gonna happen. I spent eight long, miserable years "wanting" my country back from George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their gang of thieves, war mongers, and environmental rapists, but I had to sit politely and wait the bastards out. Many of us had serious doubts about whether Bush was actually elected either time, but we didn't go psycho over the issue because the government had to function.

A major difference between Obama and Bush (and there are many!) is that Obama was clearly and decisively elected.

This noise about the President's birth certificate is very reminiscent of the GOP's campaign against the Clinton's that lasted throughout Bill's eight years in office. It was a cheap and tawdry effort that succeeded only in keeping his popularity ratings unusually high. The Republicans spent eight years slinging crap, and the American people didn't like it. And now it's starting again!

The Republican's did manage to make a comeback, barely, in 2000 with the questionable election of George Bush. But they are so fragmented and self-marginalized now that a comeback in the foreseeable future is unlikely. The most viable Republican presidential candidate at this time is Mitt Romney, a Mormon. How's that gonna play with their hate-riddled Christian fundamentalist base?

The Republican Party appears to be hellbent on self-destruction - from the Palin's, to the Cheney's, to Joe the Plumber, to the religious right, to the loony birthers. I wish them God-speed in their race to become totally irrelevant!

On Religion and Pornography

by Pa Rock
Social Critic

The Gallup organization released a poll last month that revealed a couple of important findings regarding religiosity in the United States. First, the poll demonstrated that we live in a basically religious country where 65% of Americans regard religion as "an important part of their daily lives."

The second significant finding of the poll was that the degree of religiosity varies widely by region. There is, according to the poll by Gallup, a distinct "Bible Belt" where religion plays a very significant aspect in peoples' lives. That belt is a strip across the American South that includes eleven of the most religious states: Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Texas. The least religious states were in New England and the West: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and (are you listening, Sarah?) Alaska.

Political note: Nine of the ten most religious states voted for McCain, and nine of the ten least religious states wound up in the Obama column.

Okay, so let's overlay the results of that poll with a new piece of research on America's interest in Internet pornography. The researcher was Benjamin Edelman, and his work was also published last month.

A major on-line porn provider gave their credit card billing records (anonymized so that porn clients were identified only by their zip codes) to Mr. Edelman. After a statistical analysis of those records the researcher was able to delineate a group of states that were the heaviest subscribers to Internet porn and a list of states that were the lightest subscribers.

The most "porn-a-holic" states were Utah, Alaska, Mississippi, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota, Louisiana, and West Virginia. That list includes the home of the Mormon Church (Utah - which was ranked number one in Internet porn usage), Sarah Palin's Alaska, and four states of the Bible Belt: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

The least porn dependent states were Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Tennessee, Ohio, New Hampshire, Michigan, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Political note: Eight of the top ten pornography consuming states voted for John McCain, and six out of the lowest ten voted for Barack Obama.

What does all of this mean? Does going to church regularly fan the flames of prurient desire? Do stories of all of those lusty babes of the Bible get the blood flowing south? Can the human spirit take only so much sanctimonious blather before it goes looking for something more titillating? Should we keep our kids out of church for the sake of their immortal souls?

It all sounds so hopeless - the higher we set our sights, the further we fall. But there is a glimmer of hope. The research on Internet porn usage showed that people in the most religious areas did cut back on their acquisition of pornography on Sundays!

Can I have an Amen!

National Dialogue Refreshed

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Barack Obama has been our President for less than a month, yet in that brief time the national dialogue has changed dramatically. Suddenly we are talking about closing Gitmo, conducting research with human stem cells, getting serious with alternative energy concepts, and preserving public lands and resources for use by future generations.

NBC News this evening discussed smart grid technology, magnetic-levitation (mag-lev) trains, and the importance of childhood immunizations. A big portion of the program was dedicated to science and energy - and it was real science, without being censored by Bush flunkies - and it was an energy discussion of something other than oil!

This morning the "internets" were ablaze with a statement from Bristol Palin, Sarah's child who recently became a mother. Miss Palin said it was unrealistic to expect young people to abstain from having sex! In just a few simple spoken words, Bristol proved herself to be smarter than her mother, or at least more honest.

It's almost like we have awakened in a parallel universe. For years we have suffered under the yoke of official ignorance, listening to twaddle that even average junior high students recognized as nonsense: creationism, racism, homophobia, and all manner of hate and insult being processed and passed off as our own unique national diatribe. Now the dark ages have been rolled back and we are once again living on the cutting edge of great potential. Thinking is no longer the problem - it has become the expectation!

It is as though the 21st Century has finally arrived!

Take the Money and Run!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston was born this past Saturday to Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson in Palmer, Alaska. The lead-up to Baby Tripp’s birth was the grist of gossip magazines and cable “news” for months, making him one of this year’s most anticipated arrivals.

Tripp was awarded instant celebrity status due to his notorious family connections. (As the old saying goes: you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your family!) His father is a self-described “fuckin’ redneck” who dropped out of high school and likes to party. One of his grandmothers ran for Vice President of the United States on the Neiman Marcus ticket and believes that Africa is a country and that dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time – a couple of thousand years ago! His other granny was recently arrested for drug dealing.

So with all of those cards stacked against him, little Tripp deserves to get a couple of breaks in life. There was a report in the news today that his mother will be offered up to $300,000 for his baby pictures. That’s great. I, for one, hope she gets that much or more. She could use that money to raise her son on her own without feeling forced to marry her “fuckin’ redneck” boyfriend. She could set a good chunk of it aside in order to guarantee a college education for Tripp – and perhaps use some of it for her own college education. She could also use the money to slip from the public eye before the behaviors of either of Tripp’s grandmothers begin to escalate.

Take the money, Bristol. Put it in the bank and spend it judiciously. Don't let the grammies use to it hire campaign help or defense lawyers. Don't let Baby Daddy have it for fast cars or fast living. Use it to build a secure life for yourself and little Tripp, and let his whack-job relatives take care of themselves. Tripp needs you, and you need the security and independence that $300,000 can offer.

Report from the Road

by Pa Rock
Over-the-Road Journalist

Nick and I arrived in San Diego in the early afternoon. It was a good drive. I took the wheel from Goodyear to Yuma, and he brought us the rest of the way.

There still are not many trucks on the road, even with the lower gas prices. We did see several trains carrying truck cargo containers stacked two-high. Putting several hundred containers on a train is undoubtedly much cheaper that putting several hundred trucks on the road. So, long-story-short, the trucking industry may have suffered a permanent blow from the last national gas-gouging.

The trucks may still be scarce on the interstate highways, but the RV's and Fifth Wheels are back clogging the roads and sucking up that cheap gas. Those old farts better enjoy it while they can because the age of affordable gas is almost history!

We drove by numerous snowbird villages, RV parks in some of the most God-awful desert settings. Senior citizens inhabit these sad outposts every winter as they seek refuge from the Midwestern winters. Today we could see them sitting out in their lawn chairs, half-hidden in the mesquite and sage brush, forty miles from the nearest shopping, and looking utterly forlorn. We did see one old fellow walking his dog out along the edge of the highway, and I don't know who appeared to be sadder, the man or his best friend tugging at the end of the leash. The weather was beautiful, but if it were me, I would rather be home in Missouri shovelling snow than trying to relax in the desert while being constantly on the lookout for scorpions, Gila monsters, and rattlesnakes.

Speaking of varmints, a shiny white Lexus passed us today bearing a "Palin" bumper sticker! That's pretty scary - you betcha it is!

Our room at the Navy Lodge is wonderful, lots of space and even has a small kitchen. Nick commented tonight about how polite the gate guards are. I asked one of the ladies at the desk tonight about the best way to visit Tiajuana some evening. Her pained facial expression said it all. "We shouldn't go in the evening?" I surmised. "Oh, please don't!" she said. She advised being very careful even if we went in the daytime. Then she added that passports were now required. I forgot mine, and Nick doesn't have one, so maybe we can make it south of the border on our next trip out here.

And speaking of forgetting things, I forgot the new camera that I bought for Molly's wedding. That's kind of a tradition with me - I always manage to forget something. I guess it's an age thing! I even left the battery for the new camera plugged in at my apartment, and had to call the manager and have her go unplug it. I am going to New York in January with a wonderful lady - the camera will make its traveling debut then! But for now, a couple of disposables will have to do.

Goodnight from San Diego!

The Wasilla Hillbillies

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Normally I would cut a washed-up, political has-been some slack, but recent vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is already making noises about running for President in 2012 - so she is still in the public domain.

I actually was sort of kind to her during the election (check the record), realizing from the start that she was in way over her head. I didn't for instance, write anything about "Troopergate" or her outrageous shopping spree with funds that had been donated to the Republican National Committee for legitimate election expenses. I do remember writing about Bristol's pregnancy and her family's rush to get her married off to her "fuckin' redneck," beer-swilling, hockey-playing, immature boyfriend. I also took some easy shots at her desire to censor books in the local library, and her Christian fundamentalist nonsense that dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time - a few thousand years ago. But basically, I left poor Sarah to her own self-destructive instincts.

But, that was then and this is now.

Now the political operatives in the Palin camp and those in the McCain camp are busy taking pot shots at one another. (Who knew that they each had their own camps?) Yesterday, a highly placed - but anonymous McCain aid - referred to Governor Palin and the First Dude as "Hillbillies from Wasilla who raided Nieman-Marcus stores from coast to coast." Other McCain aides are now apparently saying that Governor Palin spent considerably more than the $150,000 that was initially reported on her fancy pants and dresses. One report said that over $40,000 was spent on outfitting the First Dude. And they also bought clothes for the kids.

Today it was reported that a lawyer from the Republican National Committee has been dispatched to Alaska to try and retrieve the royal wardrobes. What will they do with all of those clothes? Will they go to charity as Governor Palin has suggested? I want to see the look on the poor woman's face who thumbs through the racks at the Good Will Store and comes away with a $14,000 outfit that was worn only once!

I have serious doubts that Republicans will overcome their DNA and suddenly become charitable. Those desiring a piece of wearable election history might do well to start monitoring Ebay!

And as for Sweet Sarah's political future, she needs to get out of Alaska and head to Washington D.C. That's where the real money is!

Racism's Last Hurrah

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

One week from tonight America will experience a watershed event: the election of a black man as the forty-fourth President of the United States. Some worry that the election of Barack Obama will loose a torrent of of racial attacks spurred on by white racists with low IQ's and poor self-concepts. (Indeed, a couple of drunken hillbillies were busted in Tennessee this week for planning to terrorize a predominantly black high school and murder one-hundred-and-two black students before assassinating Obama. These bozos did have a flare for the dramatic - they were going to commit their horrendous crimes wearing white tuxedos and top hats!) Others worry that if the election is derailed at the last minute by some rogue state officials such as the Secretary of State in Florida (2000) or the Secretary of State in Ohio (2004), angry blacks will pour into the streets seeking revenge.

And I confess to being very concerned that something bad could happen either before the election or afterwards. Some of Sarah Palin's speeches have been little more than thinly veiled incitements to riot, and McBush has given up on talking about himself, electing instead to constantly hammer away at the awful things that he thinks his opponent has planned for America.

But I have begun to feel better about the prospects of a fair election and a smooth transition of power. The Obama numbers are up in almost every demographic. He leads among old people, young people, women, and now even among white men. Polls show that he leads among veterans of Bush's Oil War and among service people currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. People are deciding across the board that he is the candidate best able to fix the economy, end the war, and restore America's image as a world leader. It's a tall order, but they recognize that Obama is the candidate with the best chance of bringing about the changes that our country so desperately needs.

National Public Radio has a correspondent on the road talking to people in swing states. Today she was in St. Louis, MO, and interviewed several people who were planning to vote for Obama. Some were older individuals who had never voted before because they felt that their votes wouldn't be counted or make a difference. Now they are all planning to vote, they are all sensing some ownership in America.

One black man who was featured said something very poignant about the long struggle for equality in this country. It follows:

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk;

Martin walked so Obama could run;

And Obama ran so our children could fly!"

Amen, brother. Amen

The Goldwaters of Arizona

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

My daughter, Molly, lived in Arizona for a decade before I moved here. A couple of years ago while she was working in hospice care, Molly asked me if I had ever heard of some guy who ran for President named Barry Goldwater. Molly had learned this antiquarian name while working with an older lady who had been one of the good Senator's last caretakers.

Barry Goldwater was the Republican candidate for President in 1964. He was solidly trounced by the incumbent President, Lyndon Baines Johnson. I remember him well. I was sixteen that summer, and I was a Goldwater supporter. That's right. Liberal old Rock was once an enthusiastic partisan for Barry Goldwater, a.k.a. "Mr. Conservative." I even gave a speech in his behalf at a high school mock political rally. (I'm actually not ashamed of that. Another Goldwater supporter that year was a 17-year-old girl in Chicago by the name of Hillary Rodham.)

Goldwater was a political freak, so outside the mainstream of American politics at the time that those who supported him were routinely were laughed at and ridiculed. A week before the election he was given a modicum of respectability through a thirty-minute television speech by an unemployed actor named Ronald Reagan. Goldwater wound up winning his home state of Arizona and five states in the cracker belt of the American south. Two years later Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California, and went on to an even better job in January of 1981. Barry Goldwater went on to serve a couple of more decades in the United States Senate before returning to Arizona for his final days.

The Goldwater family has been in the news this week talking about politics, and from their public pronouncements, they seem to be divided along generational lines similar to those that affected the Macys and the Rodhams and many other families in 1964. Senator Goldwater's niece, C.C. Goldwater, declared yesterday that she and her siblings, and most of her cousins, were supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama. She said clearly:

"Our generation of Goldwaters expects government to provide for constitutional protections. We reject the constant intrusion into our personal lives, along with other crucial policy issues of the McCain/Palin ticket."

She added:

"My grandfather (Paka) would never suggest denying a woman's right to choose. My grandmother co-founded Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the 1930's, a cause my grandfather supported."

C.C. Goldwater also said, in discussing the current campaign, that

..."the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear."

But no good deed goes unpunished, and today Barry Goldwater's son, Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., took issue with his niece, saying that she should work within the Republican party to promote the values that her grandfather stood for. He went on to declare that he supports McCain.

I'll cast my lot with C.C. Something tells me that the man who authored Conscience of a Conservative would not be pleased with the massive debt incurred by the Bush administration. I doubt that Senator Goldwater would be impressed with our Dear Leader abdicating his duty as Commander in Chief and allowing "yes" men in uniform complete latitude in conducting the abysmal war. And I don't really believe that a man whose central philosophy was that the government should intrude in people's lives as little as possible would give two damns about what people did in the privacy of their own bedrooms!

Barry Goldwater was a giant of the times. Bush, Cheney, McCain and Palin all claim to be conservatives, but they are just bungling dwarfs not fit to stand in his shadow. It is time that they all piled into their clown car and drove off into the sunset - because a new day is fixing to dawn in America!

It's Over!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The last Presidential debate is over. Hallelujah! Listening to McBush rattle on these past couple of months has convinced me that I never want to wind up in a rest home. Old people can be so damned maddening!

McBush kept talking about "Joe the Plumber." I don't personally know Joe, but McBush probably wishes by now that he would have put him on the ticket instead of Golly-gee-whiz-youbetcha Palin.

A couple of things about this debate stuck in my craw. First, McBush blamed his campaign's bad behavior on the fact that Obama wouldn't do a bunch of town hall meetings with him. Really, John? Obama won't march to your tune which is why your idiot followers threaten to kill him. Then McBush said that he was very proud of his followers - the people who come to his and Sarah's rallies. God help us all if one of these crazies responding to the McBush campaign's crap gets pushed over the edge! If that happens, John and Sarah need to be held accountable.

But the most outrageous comment of the evening was when McBush belittled the health of the mother as being a justification for an abortion. He seemed to be saying that the health of the mother was just a political excuse to allow an abortion. Start waving, John, the women's vote has just left the building!

The election is over. After tonight the result is no longer in doubt.

Of Arabs and Muslims and Crackers

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

We are in dangerous times, an era when the frustrated, under-educated, poor of America are being incited to violence by manipulative and devious politicians. I'm talking about the hate rallies featuring John McBush and Sarah Palin where the crowds are whipped into a frenzy by baseless comments indicating that Barack Obama has a history with terrorists. Palin's diatribe has been especially egregious, often stirring members of her crowds to yell things about killing Obama or lopping off his head. And what does Governor Doofus do when people yell those things? She stands there and grins. Youbetcha she does!

All McBush has left are the Crackers, and he and Ms. Palin seem to be doing everything within their power to fire up these beer-guzzling, gun-totting morons short of handing out ammo.

The McBush campaign has sunk so low that once reliably conservative journalists now hold their collective noses when discussing his rolling circus. George Will, a respected columnist and David Brooks, a semi-respected columnist who usually tows the party line - regardless of what it may be attached to, have both spoken out against McBush's degenerating campaign efforts and his ridiculous choice of a running mate who is not ready or fit to serve. Today, Christopher Buckley,another big name among conservatives, openly jumped ship. Buckley, the son of the late right-wing icon and intellectual (no, it's not an oxymoron - but close!) William F. Buckley, announced that he was supporting Obama.

But maybe there is hope that McBush has finally succeeded in shaming himself with his campaign of personal smears. I watched a news clip today where an elderly lady was talking to McBush at a rally, and asked him if it was true that Obama was an Arab. To his credit, the senior senator from Arizona looked truly ashamed, and then said, "No, no he's not. He's a family man. I just don't agree with him on some issues."

Know this: Arab refers to a race, a type of people who originated in Saudi Arabia and now inhabit much of the Middle East. Senator Obama is known by all to be half Black and half Caucasian (Kenyan father and Kansan mother). The woman probably meant to ask if he was a Muslim. A Muslim is a person who is a member of the religion called Islam. Many Arabs are Muslims, many are Christians, and some are even Jews. Many Black and White Americans happen to be Muslims, and many Black and White Americans also happen to be Christians, and and many Americans of various races also happen to be Jews. Most are "family" people, dedicated to making the world a better and more accepting place for their children. Barack Obama had a Muslim father and a Christian mother. He chose his religion as an adult - he is a Christian.

It would be nice if we all had some education in world religions and their histories, instead of relying on demagogue preachers and politicians to make us feel justified in our innate fear of anyone who is different from us. Yes, Virginia, there are good Muslims in this world, millions of them, and millions of good Arabs, and good Christians, and good Jews, and good Black people, and even good White people. Open up your heart and let them in!

And when somebody tries to scare you into voting for a particular candidate, be afraid, be very afraid. But vote with your head and your heart, not with your trigger finger!

Viva Keith!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Okay, I gave up on living without television and had my cable reconnected on Saturday. I immediately experienced a problem, and it only took me thirty-five minutes to get a human being on the telephone at Cox Cable. Some things never change!

Tonight I managed to get my Countdown jones sated! Keith did a "Special Comment" on Sarah Palin, and he was brutal! He was breathing so much fire I was afraid that my sprinklers would go off! I laughed until I hurt!

After Olbermann waxed Palin, I stayed on MSNBC and watched Rachel Maddow kick Pat Buchanan around the studio like he was an over-inflated beach ball.

Gosh, it's good to have my friends back. You betcha it is!

'Splain Yourself, Sarah!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Actor Matt Damon is in a major snit over Sarah Palin's creationist views. Apparently McBush's silly girl holds with some fundamentalist thinking that the Earth is only six thousand and some-odd-years-old (created on a Tuesday, if memory serves), and that humans and dinosaurs co-existed around four thousand years ago - and the fossil record be damned! One version of that report has the Governor of Alaska saying that she knows it's true because she has seen photographs of human footprints intermingled with those of dinosaurs.

I haven't seen any photographs like that, but I must confess to having never encountered a Christian fundamentalist home-schooler's science textbook either. The photos are probably between the chapters detailing how a man can live in the belly of a whale, and the best techniques for walking on water.

The Bush administration has had a great time rewriting science, but something tells me that they are going to be small potatoes compared to the outrages that would be foisted on the scientific community by a McBush-Palin administration.

Hey Sarah, who did Cain and Abel marry? Me and Matt Damon want to know!

More on Pygmies

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I had a comment from "Anonymous" on my blog last night about the shortcomings of G.W. Bush and Sarah Palin. Anonymous is my favorite correspondent, and I want to take some space tonight to reply by to what he (or she) had to say. The comment was:

I do not think it is fair to blame all that is going on in government on George Bush. The stage for what is going on was set way before he came into the presidency.

Anonymous, I agree with your statement entirely. The government is an accumulation of sins and mistakes that goes back over two hundred and thirty years. There have also been some marvelous things to come out of our national government: the emancipation of the slaves and social security are two examples.

One of the biggest problems that I have with our current President is that he has been in snooze mode for most of the past eight years and left governing to his half-wit sycophants. But, on those few occasions when he has actually been the decider, he decided wrong - take for example the Oil War in Iraq and his two choices to sit on the Supreme Court.

In the eight years that George Bush has been in office, the foxes have been given complete and unfettered access to the hen house. Anything that could be deregulated has been (hence our current economic mess for which he does deserve much credit), and our national resources have been drilled, and mined, and cut down like there was no tomorrow. The thieves clamored to get it all carted off before this administration left town. The party, they realized, would one day come to an end.

Well, the party is ending. George Bush is not responsible for everything that has happened in government during the time he was in office. Lots of people had a hand in the carnage. But he did fritter away an amazing gift (or theft, depending on your point of view): the Presidency of the United States of America. How sad for him, and how sad for us. He came in with a robust economy, and promptly sent out rebates as a way of starving social programs. Then he used a national tragedy to start a war with a country that had no involvement with that tragedy. And now four thousand American troops are dead - and many other thousands have suffered wounds, homelessness, and broken families, thousands of Iraqi children are dead or maimed, and our national prestige is in the toilet - all so that George Bush could resolve some teen angst issues that he had with his dad. What a sad waste.

I did not say George Bush was responsible for all of the ills of government. That would have been an irresponsible statement. I said that he had been a national embarrassment - and that statement is easily defensible.

Of Pots and Kettles and Pygmies

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

What really scares me about Sarah Palin being one heartbeat away from the Presidency is that I consider her to be George Bush's equal in the realm of foreign policy. When he was first elected President, Mister Bush had been to three foreign countries and was not overly focused on world events. He didn't have to know where Spain was (incidentally, he still doesn't!) because Cheney and Rummy would be there to handle all of that international stuff anyway.

Today in another stunning Bush foreign policy failure, North Korea announced that it is resuming its nuclear program. There's no reason why we should be surprised by their insolent attitude toward the United States. Why, in a fit of diplomatic buffoonery, our Dear Leader once referred to their Dear Leader as a pygmy! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Mister Bush, himself, is mighty short of stature, whether the focus is on ability, wisdom, conscience, or height!

Ms. Palin, with her saber-rattling and ferocious Christian righteousness, looks and sounds an awfully lot like our last national embarrassment. Surely eight years of a bad joke is enough for anyone!

We are better than that.

Deepak Chopra Reveals Sarah Palin

Physician, author, and New Age philosopher Deepak Chopra wrote an amazing piece recently on why some Americans are so enthralled with Sarah Palin. She is, he argues, the other side of Barack Obama, a vehicle for a certain segment of the population to express their prejudices in a more-or-less positive manner. At least that's the way I interpret his remarks. Judge for yourselves with the following segment taken from Obama and the Palin Effect:

"She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind."

That's powerful truth, Dr. Chopra!

Of Lipstick and Pigs

by Pa Rock

The amoral majority of the Republican Party has worked its way into a major snit over Senator Obama's remark about McBush's policies being like those of Bush - and if you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig! Not fair, they blubber, because Sarah Palin already had associated herself with lipstick, and therefore Obama was calling her a pig. Those gentle Christian souls in the Republican Party are appalled by the blatant sexism.

Republicans appalled by sexism? Well, who'd a thunk it? After all, haven't they prided themselves as being the all-inclusive political organization that valiantly fights to ensure equality for all. Why, they had almost three dozen people of color at their last national convention...and three dozen out of three thousand ain't too shabby! President Lincoln would have been so proud!

The awful truth is, of course, Abraham Lincoln was probably the last Republican leader to give a rat's ass about anyone other than himself, his family, his bank account, or big business. The only thing that the Republican Party maintains from the days of Lincoln is the spelling of its name.

The McBush campaign's "horror" at the sexism supposedly espoused by Senator Obama is as funny as it is sad. The phrase, lipstick on a pig, is older than I am, and it is something that politicians like to throw around every so often because it conjures up such a vivid image. Why, John McBush himself has used that same tired old line on numerous occasions. But he can do that because he's not sexist. Right?

John McBush who publicly referred to his wife as a "cunt" didn't really mean to denigrate women. Why most women enjoy hearing terms of endearment like that, don't they? And then there's the John McBush who has told the "joke" about why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly - because Janet Reno is her father! That's a real knee-slapper, John. You're a funny guy! You ought to capture ninety percent of the women's vote when they consider Obama's sexism and your astounding sense of humor! (Maybe we should update your very funny joke to fit the current political scene. How about changing Chelsea Clinton to Meghan McCain, and Janet Reno could be updated to someone truly hideous, like, say, Ann Coulter!) Wouldn't that be a hoot, John!

Keep talking crap and nonsense, John! If we can all stay focused on silliness like lipstick and pit bulls and pigs and field dressing a moose, maybe no one will bother you with questions about the economy, the Oil War, health care, immigration, and education - the complicated stuff that American's shouldn't worry their pretty heads over anyway. Your crew of lobbyists will take care of those thorny issues when they open their offices in the White House.

And as for you, Caribou Barbie, don't worry about what mean old Barack said. I'm sure he meant no offense. And even if he did, Pork Chop, you're in the big leagues now - so get over it!

Hey, the Crackers Didn't Get the Memo!

by Pa Rock

Republican politicians have soaked the airwaves this year with suggestions that Barack Obama is an elitist, a not-so-subtle code word for the more racially tinged "uppity." It's worked well for them. They have been able to constantly remind their base and other related pond scum that the boy is, after all, a nigra, without saying it out loud. Oh, yes, they are a clever lot!

But somebody must have forgotten to send the memo to their cracker cousins in Dixie. Last Thursday two prominent Republican politicians, both still basking in the post-coital glow of the GOP convention, went off-message and used the "u" word.

Congressman Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia's 3rd District referred referred to Barack and Michelle Obama as "elitist class individuals who think they're uppity." Later he denied any knowledge that the word had racial connotations. Yeah, right! And on that same day, congressional candidate Rick Goddard, also from Georgia and also a Republican, showed his anger at NBC news correspondent Ron Allen for having the balls to ask Sarah Palin a serious question. The black newsman was defined by Mr. Goddard with one word - "uppity!"

And then there's the "b" word. Last April Republican Congressman of Kentucky, Geoff Davis (same pronunciation as the name of the former President of the Confederacy) said this of Barack Obama: "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the (nuclear) button."

Hey, morons! He's not uppity and he's not a boy - he's an elitist! Get with the program! There's no point in having code words if you're too damned dumb to use them!(And don't forget to wear your Klan robes to the church social Saturday night. It's formal!)

Banned Books

by Pa Rock

One of the items buzzing across cyberspace this week was an allegation that Sarah Palin fired the town librarian of Wasilla, AK, because she refused to ban certain books with offensive language from the town's public library. There was a loud outcry from many citizens, and she was forced to withdraw the firing on the following day. (The incident is recounted in Anne Kilkenny's now famous email that has also flown through cyberspace this week. It's a fairly even-handed look at Ms. Palin's political history from someone who knows her well. Just google Kilkenny and Palin.)

Kilkenny and others relate that the firing and rehiring did occur, and that it was due to Palin wanting to put her Pentecostal seal of approval on what the town's citizens could and could not read at the local library. What is unclear, however, is what books were on her list. There are apparently dozens of librarians currently scouring Alaskan archives trying to locate Sarah's hit list.

While looking for that information, I did come across some standard lists of books that have been routinely banned by schools and libraries in the United States. One good list can be found at www.adlerbooks.com/banned.html

I also discovered while in pursuit of Sarah's disappeared list, a notice that the American Library Association's "Banned Books Week" will be September 27-October 4. I think we should all celebrate by reading at least a couple of these dangerous books. Perhaps I will also order one or two from Amazon.com and send them to the Wasilla Library as a gift from Pa Rock.

Who would like to join me in this literary endeavor?

The address for the library is:

Wasilla Public Library
391 N Main St
Wasilla, AK 99654
(907) 376-5913