AngryBlackLady has a few things to say, mostly in response to a fairly clueless and tepid defense of dear Ms. Boyle over at Mediaite:

The obvious problem is separating the kids — obvious problem is obvious.

But there’s another problem — the Charleston Problem, and that is, the narrative regarding the reasons this country fought itself in the Civil War have been coopted by idiots who like to put on their fanciest Confederate gear and pretend shoot one another. They see it as a celebration of history. I see it as a yearning for a Simpler Time, when it was all mint juleps, and seersucker, and field negroes. It makes me exceedingly uncomfortable.

I think AngryBlackLady is putting that mildly. In the ABC interview with the kids, you can almost see them defending their teacher, which is somewhat heartbreaking to me -- that they would be in a position first to be humiliated in that fashion, and then feel as though they needed to gentle-down what was done in that school that day.

And more to the point, it's beyond clueless. It indicates an attitude that doesn't think one is the same flesh and blood as "those people." This isn't political correctness. This is taking a painful episode in history and asking children to re-enact it as a 'learning experience', with skin color determining what place in the re-enactment they will assume. Someone who thinks like that is also separating "those children" from the others in her own mind as a matter of course.

It isn't as though elementary schools in Virginia haven't had similar incidents over the years. There is a pattern here that continues to go unaddressed:

Last year, a Jacox Elementary teacher who anointed students with "holy oil" in the classroom resigned after a parent complained about the teacher's religious actions. The division determined the teacher violated the school system's instructional curriculum as well as policies and laws related to the separation of church and state.

Also last year, two teachers at Norcom High School were placed on leave for using materials in the classroom that were endorsed by an anarchist group and an organization that backs legalized marijuana. Both received letters of reprimand for not receiving permission to use the materials in class and returned to their jobs.

An elementary guidance counselor who distributed 80 to 100 human fetus figurines to students last year at Oakwood Elementary resigned after being put on leave. The school's principal was removed from her post and reassigned elsewhere as an assistant principal.

This didn't just happen in Virginia last week, either. In Ohio last month another teacher decided a "re-enactment" was in order:

Nikko Burton, a 10-year-old student at Chapelfield Elementary in Ohio, says he was humiliated by his teacher when she tried to demonstrate what it was like to be a slave on an auction block. Burton, one of two black students in his class, was chosen to be a slave. Students who were the "masters" inspected the "slaves" to see if they would be able workers.

Meanwhile, confederate themes continue to grow and proliferate more than ever. 150 years later, the Civil War rages on, to all of our detriment.

Perhaps it would help these teachers in Virginia and Ohio to remember better if they were forced to wear a big scarlet "B" (for bigot) instead of just apologizing.

There they go again...

The blog Right Wing News asked "more than a hundred bloggers" who they thought were the worst people in American history. The results may shock you! Or maybe not. [..]

This question was put out to over 100 crazies with internet connections:

Out of all the gangsters, serial killers, mass murderers, incompetent & crooked politicians, spies, traitors, and ultra left-wing kooks in all of American history — have you ever wondered who the worst of the worst was?"

[..]Here are the results, from 43 bloggers who responded:

23) Saul Alinsky (7)
23) Bill Clinton (7)
23) Hillary Clinton (7)
19) Michael Moore (7)
19) George Soros (8)
19) Alger Hiss (8)
19) Al Sharpton (8)
13) Al Gore (9)
13) Noam Chomsky (9)
13) Richard Nixon (9)
13) Jane Fonda (9)
13) Harry Reid (9)
13) Nancy Pelosi (9)
11) John Wilkes Booth (10)
11) Margaret Sanger (10)
9) Aldrich Ames (11)
9) Timothy McVeigh (11)
7) Ted Kennedy (14)
7) Lyndon Johnson (14)
5) Benedict Arnold (17)
5) Woodrow Wilson (17)
4) The Rosenbergs (19)
3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (21)
2) Barack Obama (23)
1) Jimmy Carter (25)

I love the framing of the question: murderers, terrorists and "left-wing kooks". And what did these mental giants come up with? is Osama Bin Laden on the list? No. But FDR is. And he's WORSE than assassin John Wilkes Booth and domestic terrorist Tim McVeigh and traitors Aldrich Ames, Benedict Arnold and the Rosenbergs. And of course, the worst person in the history of the country is Jimmy Carter. Sorry Obama, you just missed the top spot.

Sweet Jesus, do these people have anything but bumper sticker slogans in their heads? The list is replete with such nonsense and brainless smearing (really, Jane Fonda and George Soros? Quick, someone on the right name for us how they have influenced the country. No fair cribbing notes from Glenn Beck).

Consortiumblog: A neocon re-write of American History

Hysterical Raisins: Changing the Rule$

Scholars and Rogues: Israel playing with a fire it expects the U.S. to put out

AlterNet: Why is Simon & Schuster spreading the wild conspiracy theories of an unhinged Islamophobic blogger?

Rants From The Rookery: Social Security myths debunked

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: New Deal 2.0, Jim Lindgren Sucks, WilliWorld

Will Bunch at Attytood brings us a story that's so bizarre, at first I thought it was a joke. It isn't. (The fact that anyone will pay the Beckster $10 a month during a depression to get Double-Secret Indoctrinated? That's a joke.)

I wish I could tell you that this is a clever photoshop on my part -- but sadly, no. This is the actual emblem of something called Beck University that was officially announced today by the king of all distorted right-wing media, although judging from the initial info its formal accreditation as one of America's institutions of higher learning may be a few years away (and there's no truth to the rumor that the Pac-10 immediately asked Beck U. to become a member):

From Beck's web site:This July, while others are relaxing poolside, head back to the classroom - from the comfort of your own home. That may sound like an oxymoron but Glenn’s new academic program is only available online.Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

I guess you could call this "the Harvard of right-wing radio universities," in the sense that, well, to my knowledge there aren't any other right-wing radio universities. Unlike Harvard or Yale, where Beck was a half-term (sound familiar?) student in one theology course after his ex-friend Joe Lieberman pulled some strings, Beck U. is strictly a profit deal. Only by paying Glenn Beck Inc. to become an extreme insider($9.95 a month, or $74.95) can you enroll on Beck's pseudo-cyber-campus. How else do you think Beck expects to sell that $4.25 million manse and move into bigger digs?

In addition to the myriad other reasons, one thing that guarantees that Beck U. won't be showing up in the U.S. News and World Report survey anytime soon is that 33 percent of the faculty is a fraud. That would be the Christian-oriented pseudohistorian and Texas schoolbook perverter David Barton, whose sins against knowledge have been chronicled here in the past. Students at Beck U. can also learn economics from a Beck pal, David Buckner, with a mediocre pedigree (he has been an adjunct associate professor not of economics but of psychology and education at Columbia) and also from an actual professor who somehow sneaked in there, LSU's James Stoner.

The school motto is "To tyrants, uprising -- obedience to God." Or Beck, depending!

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Sean Hannity went out on a long, long limb yesterday on Neil Cavuto's Fox News show -- once again promoting his blueprint for Conservative Victory -- and made a bold prediction:

Hannity: You put all of this in toto, in its entirety, and we are looking at -- not only the socialization, the Europe-ization of -- the Western European socialist model coming to America, we're looking at a -- the end of capitalism in America as we know it.

I want to add a point. He is -- by far, I predict, Neil -- and I say this with all sincerity and passion that I can muster up -- he will go down in American history as the worst president we have ever had.

And I'm talking about national security, and I'm talking about economic issues.

Gee, he's been in office a little over year now and he's already making this prediction?

And won't Obama have a heck of a time doing a worse job than his predecessor, George W. Bush?

After all, as Sean Wilentz predicted in Rolling Stone in 2006:

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

The right-wingers dismissed that because it was Wilentz, a noted liberal. But sure enough, a survey of 80 historians for C-SPAN three years later found:

President George W. Bush is near the bottom of the heap in the latest survey of historians on presidential leadership. Bush received an overall ranking of 36 out of 42 former presidents—in the bottom 10.

Actually, we'd say that there's little doubt he was indeed the worst president in history just on the two counts that Hannity stipulates, namely, national security and the economy:

-- The worst attack ever recorded on American soil occurred on his watch, while he was in fact asleep at the wheel.

-- His subsequent policies, particularly the decision to invade Iraq, made the nation quantifiably less safe for the foreseeable future (see the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate for more on this).

-- Bush and his policies nearly destroyed not just the American economy but drove the entire global economy to the brink of complete meltdown.

Projection. It's not just for theaters anymore.

As we observed at the time of Bush's repudiation:

Continue reading »

Remember this?

Michele Bachmann: Census Data Was Used to Put Japanese in Internment Camps

Bachmann: Take this into consideration. If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up and put the Japanese in internment camps.

It's hard to keep up with republican hypocrisy, but it wasn't long ago that she said she was not going to fill out her own census form on Glen Beck's show and other FOX news programs yet suddenly she votes to pass the census legislation.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who last year said she was not going to fill out her census form, intends to vote for a measure this week that encourages Americans to participate in the 2010 census.

According to an aide in Bachmann’s office, the North Star State lawmaker intends to vote for a “census awareness” measure on Wednesday. The resolution, offered by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), implores “individuals across the United States to participate in the 2010 census to ensure an accurate and complete count beginning April 1, 2010, and expressing support for designation of March 2010 as Census Awareness Month,” according to a description of the measure.

Michele, Michele, Michele. OK, we progressives are not happy about how the Democratic Party has been running things since they took over, but do we really want MB and the rest of the kooks in the GOP to be the heads of committees in Congress?

David Neiwert:

Namely, that the Census was an overly intrusive act by Big Brother to pry into Americans' private lives, etc. etc., as she waved a long, detailed survey she claimed she had an advance copy of. She again charged that Census data was used to round up Japanese Americans during World War II.

Beck, of course, ate it up, and urged his audience to join Bachmann in her crusade. Except, of course, that everything Bachmann said was untrustworthy: wildly inaccurate, grossly distorted, and downright mendacious -- not to mention completely nutty.

UPDATE: Think Progress has more:

As part of her Census fearmongering that began last year, Bachmann said she won’t trust the government with the new Census information because the Bureau was involving ACORN as a national partner. She claimed ACORN would be conducting the Census and that the organization would “assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers” counting residents. PolitiFact dubbed these claims as “pants on fire” lies. Moreover, ACORN has said they “will not have any role in collecting Census responses” and the Census Bureau said ACORN and other partner organizations will “have no role in the terms or conditions of employment beyond promotion of the availability of temporary jobs.”

George Galloway interviews Andy Worthington on UK knowledge of torture on Guantanamo detainees for Digital Radio.

I don't know that there is anyone on this planet who knows more about what went on at Guantanamo than independent journalist Andy Worthington, and that includes those inside the administration. Through incredibly hard work, diligence and a mountain of FOIA information, Andy has been chronicling this deepest, darkest chapter of American history.

Andy has written a book, The Guantanamo Files, that I am reading now and on which I will be hosting a book chat in the very near future. I can't lie, it's taking me longer to read it than it should, because I have to keep putting it down. There's not a chapter I've read that I haven't wanted to scream, "This should never have happened! This is not what a democratic country does! NOT IN MY NAME!" It is a detailed and unblinking look at not only a strange mixture of fear and incompetence, but of real evil as well. Indeed, Andy Worthington has been instrumental in documenting just what a legal black hole Guantanamo is:

My life as a full-time chronicler and analyst of Guantánamo and the “War on Terror” began with the 14 months I spent researching and writing my book The Guantánamo Files, which (with additional chapters published online) tells the stories of the 779 prisoners who have been held at Guantánamo throughout its eight-year history. I then began writing articles following developments at Guantánamo, helping to spread the word through various websites, and am delighted to report that my website now receives an average of 150,000 page views a month.

My thanks to all who have discovered my work, and especially to those who follow it on a regular basis. Three months ago, despite stalling and compromises on the part of the Obama administration, I thought that we were at least still proceeding in the right direction, but the last few months have proved me wrong, and have demonstrated that a huge amount of work still needs to be done. This is where your help — reading my work, helping to get it out to other people and providing financial support to enable me to keep spreading the word — is so important.

The one-year deadline that President Obama set for the closure of Guantánamo has passed, those who oppose the prison’s closure appear to have gained the upper hand in an ongoing propaganda war, and the administration has made numerous fundamental mistakes: failing to provide new homes on the US mainland for cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated because they face the risk of torture, reviving the Bush administration’s reviled Military Commission trial system, and insisting that it has the right to hold some prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial.

With widespread indifference in the mainstream media, my mission — to educate people about the terrible mistakes that have been made, and the human cost of those mistakes — continues, not just with regard to Guantánamo, but also in researching the “ghost prisoners” of the CIA’s secret detention program (whose whereabouts are largely unaccounted for), exposing the baleful history of the prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, calling for accountability for those who made America a “Torture Nation,” and exposing British complicity in torture and the injustice of my home country’s own anti-terror laws.

In the last three months, I have updated my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, produced an annotated version of the first ever Bagram prisoner list, and published five articles listing all my work in chronological order, as well as reporting the stories of the prisoners released from Guantánamo, reporting on their habeas corpus petitions in the US courts, exposing right-wing lies and misinformation, and the spinelessness of many Democrats, and criticizing the administration for its inability to place principles above pragmatism.

Andy is currently seeking donations to help continue his important work. Please donate if you can. But if that's not possible, I urge you to considering purchasing Andy's book, The Guantanamo Files, in advance of our book chat. It's an excellent read, if a bit harrowing and should make for a very lively book chat.

This just cheered me up. Some youthful activists are sitting in at Tom Coburn's office until he allows the Uganda Recovery Act to pass the Senate. (Boy, the Senate really is the place where good ideas go to die - or get obstructed.) Go sign the petition, donate money for coffee, and cheer these guys on!

The momentum is building and more people just keep coming to join dozens of activists refusing to leave Senator Tom Coburn's office in Oklahoma City until he allows the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act to pass the Senate. Click here to help from wherever you are.

Here's the low-down: After impassioned lobbying from tens of thousands of activists, historic legislation aimed at ending Africa’s longest-running war is on the verge of passing the Senate unanimously. In fact, the bill has more bipartisan support in Congress than any bill focused on sub-Saharan Africa in American history. But Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, nicknamed “Dr. No”, is single-handedly blocking this landmark legislation because the bill authorizes new funds to assist victims of the violence (you can read more about why in the Campaign FAQ).

As Senator Coburn prevents this bill from passing, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorizing communities across three countries in central Africa. In the past two months alone, Joseph Kony's rebel army has massacred hundreds of people and abducted hundreds more, including children who are forced to become soldiers.

That's why we are holding the Oklahoma Hold Out, and we're not going home until Senator Coburn agrees to a compromise.

The most committed activists - who know that Senator Coburn's obstructionism is preventing the action needed to end this senseless violence - are "holding out" outside Senator Coburn's office in downtown Oklahoma City until the Senator allows the bill to pass.

People are driving and flying from all corners of the country to join in person.

We invite you to join as well, or if you can't join them in person, we need your support from right where you are.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wants to scare off Justice Dept lawyers from professionally addressing the Gitmo detainee issue. Spencer Ackerman reports:

In the latest bit of brazen slander from the right, Republican Senators are trying to invent a scandal about Justice Department lawyers who — horror — represented Guantanamo detainees. You know, provided the representation that the Rehnquist and Roberts Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled those detainees are entitled? And which even the military commissions provide for? Instead, there’s this McCarthyite tactic of calling Justice Department lawyers the “Gitmo Nine,” a name that oh-so-cleverly suggests that those lawyers were themselves detained at Guantanamo.

To reiterate: Republicans have no actual desire to seriously address national security issues. If the Democrats find their balls, maybe they can take a shot at closing out this shameful chapter of American history.

Chalk up yet another tick on the board of things that Palin doesn't understand:

I hadn’t noticed it until I watched MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Tuesday, but it is a memorial bracelet; something familiar to veterans who have lost friends and family in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wear one commemorating a friend of mine who died in Baghdad in October of 2006, and I know many other veterans — and some still in the armed forces — who wear these bracelets as a reminder of the sacrifices their friends made on behalf of the units in which they served and the country they swore to protect.[..]

This brings me back to my issue with Palin. The name on her black memorial bracelet — one, like the gold star, a demonstration of a friend or associate who was killed in action — is that of her oldest son, Track. Track served honorably in Iraq, and both he and his parents should be thanked for his selfless service to his country. He is also alive.

Commemorating Track’s service by wearing a black memorial bracelet which is reserved for those dead or even a red bracelet for those missing in action, demonstrates a horrifying contempt for those who gave their last full measure of devotion or an almost unbelievable ignorance of the importance of symbols in American history.

Unfortunately, given Palin’s reputation and frequent public statements, I assume it is the latter.

Sarah Palin, please take off the bracelet. Be thankful you have no reason to wear it.

As a mother, I am flabbergasted by the symbolism of this on many levels. I understand wanting to keep something close to me to remind me of my son as he risks his life on the battlefield--a button with his picture, maybe one with the crest of his specific branch of the military or even the ubiquitous yellow ribbon. Remember how Jim Webb wore his active duty son's combat boots while campaigning? But to wear a bracelet that someone had to order that would clearly indicate it's a memorial bracelet for your child that's alive? Horrifying.

UPDATE: Looks like the original writer and I should have fact checked more closely. Per a comment at the original op-ed:

About Ms. Palin's HeroBracelet.

We sent her those bracelets during the last election. When we learned that her son, Track and Senator Biden's son were both being deployed overseas, we sent them both Deployed HeroBracelets with their son's names.

We've been providing Deployed HeroBracelets since 2004 for families to wear while their loved ones were serving. They can be made from sterling, copper, leather or bronze colored anodized aluminum (black is reserved for KIA).[..]

So she isn't out of line for wearing the Deployed HeroBracelet. There are ten's of thousands of families around the country wearing them right now. On the HeroBracelets web site, we've got hundreds of letters from families, many vowing to not take the bracelet off till their loved one comes home.

Chris Greta

Director HeroBracelets.org

www.herobracelets.org