Bob Herbert: The Mask Slips

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has a great column in yesterday’s Times titled “The Mask Slips”, he makes the point of how important it is for to not abdicate our responsibility and to vote, and vote with our heads, not our guts:

The lesson for Americans suffused with anxiety and dread over the crackup of the financial markets is that the way you vote matters, that there are real-world consequences when you go into a voting booth and cast that ballot.

For the nitwits who vote for the man or woman they’d most like to have over for dinner, or hang out at a barbecue with, I suggest you take a look at how well your 401(k) is doing, or how easy it will be to meet the mortgage this month, or whether the college fund you’ve been trying to build for your kids is as robust as you’d like it to be.

Voters in the George W. Bush era gave the Republican Party nearly complete control of the federal government. Now the financial markets are in turmoil, top government and corporate leaders are on the verge of panic and scholars are dusting off treatises that analyzed the causes of the Great Depression.

Mr. Bush was never viewed as a policy or intellectual heavyweight. But he seemed like a nicer guy to a lot of voters than Al Gore.

Herbert continues his column with a nice summary of all of the wrong headed, egregious decisions taken by a government influenced by partisan, conservative Republicans.

Well, I’ve got my absentee ballot in hand, and this afternoon I will be voting for the Democratic ticket, it’s the least I can do to help my country when we are in such deep shit.

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The Political Voices of Women

The year 2008 has all the potential to be a blowout in the realm of politics. One of the signs in the increase in the involvement of women. Senator Clinton let the way with her very meaningful run for the U.S. presidency. She remains in the news because those in the know do not really understand what to make of her right now. And women are the ones to ask. Here is a good place to start to at least find out what women who write about politics are thinking. It is the “List of 500+ women bloggers, by founder Catherine Morgan. Catherine explains:

When I first published this list back in October, we had links to 100 women blogging about politics. Today, the count is at 500, and still growing. Are you a woman blogging about politics? Are you on the list? If not, please leave me your link in comments, so I can add your blog. And, if you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women with a guest post, please join our community.

Those of us who keep up with such things know that neocons do not make the best friends for women. They are too fond of warring. At Think Progress, on Aug 6th, 2008 Faiz wrote this: “Bolton: Regime Change In Iran ‘Would Lead To Greater Stability In The Region’” My friend, betmo — who sent me this link — has some choice words in her accompanying e-mail:

oh- and it worked so well in iraq? does fuckwad realize that when we took the shah out that the ayatollah took over? i think i may have a stroke.

And far too often, Conservatives do not do well by women. Note the appointments of SCOTUS justices, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito. Just remember what has happened to women under the Bush administration. To find out more check out these links from from my friend Jon:

• The first one is to a dispatch (8/6/08) to AlterNet by celebrated author, Thomas Franks: “How Washington’s Right-Wing Wrecking Crew Robbed Us Blind.” This is a great article about his new book, The Wrecking Crew — How Conservatives Rule.” To quote:
  

  Conservatives have turned a vast government built for our protection into a device for exploiting us.

  . . . So let us begin on the solid ground of these simple facts: this spectacular episode of misrule has coincided with both the political triumph of conservatism and with the rise of the Washington area to the richest rank of American metropolises.

• Second, this great little website is called Unfit McCain. The Home Page is titled, “Seven reasons why you shouldn’t vote for Sen. McCain in 2008.” There are several other pages with a raft of useful “ammunition” for arguments with women who are leaning Republican.

I am currently so discouraged about all the losses that I have been in avoidance mode for a few days. But I take heart from my women (and men) friends have not let their voices be stilled at this crucial time.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics women bloggers republicans mccain 2008 election

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D’Oh! That Smarts! High School Kids Finds Flaws In College Textbook

“I just realized from my own knowledge that some of this stuff in the book is just plain wrong,” said LaClair, who is using the book as part of an AP government class at Kearny High School.

The most glaring thing about the book in question, “American Government”, is not the fact that topics including global warming and the separation of church and state were “skewed”. It’s not even the fact that it turns out that the kid was right about all the “errors” and what amounts to evidence of political bias, in the book (which was written by a couple of conservatives). It’s the fact that one of the book’s illustrious authors, John Dilulio, used to be the Director of Faith-based Initiatives, for the Bush administration.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that occasionally every once in a while rarely a conservative and even a former member of the Bush administration has come out with a book that was worth reading. But, didn’t anyone (namely a grown-up, an actual professor, even) vet this book for errors before passing it off as a book suitable for any educational purposes, much less a college education (or AP education, in this case), especially in light of the fact that Bush has shown a proclivity for cronyism and not so much shown that he honestly knows how to pick smart people to work for him (”Brownie”, anyone)?

crossposted: Hypocrisy.com

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