Buck Naked Politics

Hillary Nails it on Education after Speech about Dr. King

by D. Cupples |  I was impressed, not only by Sen. Hillary Clinton's demonstrably solid grasp of our nation's education situation (read, "crisis"), but also by CNN's having stuck with substantive issues when interviewing Hillary.  It's refreshing, given how certain other mainstream media are covering the Democratic primaries. 

Good job, CNN!   And thanks to No Quarter for pointing out the video clip below.  The interview took place after Hillary spoke in Memphis about the fortieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination.

Center for American Progress Shows film "Brick by Brick" (and other screenings)

by  D. Cupples | I've seen director Bill Kavanagh's documentary film Brick by Brick: a Civil Rights Story, and it's definitely a must-see. 

Following three contemporary American families' battle for equal opportunity in Yonkers, the film shows still-existing racial and class divisions -- and the importance of political activism.

The Center for American Progress in Washington, DC and the Tupelo Link Centre will show Brick by Brick this Thursday, February 28 at 7:00 and 6:30 pm, respectively.

The New York County Law Association will show the film Wednesday, February 27 at 6pm.

If you can't make a these screenings (or one listed on the next page), you can order the DVD at http://www.brick-by-brick.com/.  Screenings and directions are below.

Tasered Student Apologizes for Conduct at Kerry Event

Everyone knows the story:  during a John Kerry presentation at the University of Florida, student Andrew Meyer was forcibly removed by University police following what we---not wishing to comment on the conduct of either the police or Meyer---will call "a ruckus."  In the course of removing him, and as a result of his resistance to the removal, the police used a taser, getting themselves and Meyer all over the news in consequence.

According to this article , the University police subsequently recommended that he be charged with resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing the peace and interfering with school administrative functions, a misdemeanor.(My Way News) Though prosecutors wouldn't comment, his attorney says he won't be facing any criminal charges.(My Way News)  Meyer---who has apologized in letters to the University, University police, and  the  University president has apologized.  ""I made the decision to supersede the rules, and for that I apologize," Meyer wrote. "I should have acted calmer and obeyed the directives of the officers. If I had, none of the subsequent issues would ever have arisen….""(My Way News)

Tasers, Truth and Lessons Learned

Unrestrained ego can be an unfortunate character trait. Such was the case for Andrew Meyer, the journalism student tasered by University of Florida police (UPD) at Monday's speech by Senator John Kerry.

This was not a case of his freedom of speech being denied. This was a case of a young man pissed off because he had the misfortune of being at the end of the line waiting to ask a question when time ran out.

This was not a case of UPD acting inappropriately. This was a case of a hot headed college student who refused to follow the rules of civility despite the reasonable and repeated requests for him to do so.

The sad thing is that everyone is talking about how this 21 year old student got tasered, not about all the important, insightful and profound issues Senator Kerry discussed with the audience.

I don't want to take sides but I am concerned that the truth be told. The way the media is portraying this incident is off the mark. I want to provide a critical perspective of the truth and can do so since I was there and was sitting three feet away from where the entire incident erupted.

Achenblog on American Declinism and American Predominance: A Brit Responds.

Posted by Cockney Robin | Like Joel Achenbach, I've heard a lot of embittered Americans from both sides of the political spectrum talking about the end of America's global predominance, as if this were a bad thing.  All of them convey the impression that they view an America no longer dominant---an America that must share power with other countries, cultures, and economies---as America "declined" and fallen.

Yes, speaking as a Brit, I know that feeling.  I just heard Bill Maher, whose show I've much admired, refer to my nation as "second-rate" with a feeling combining indignation, incredulity, sheepishness, and a weary concession that from the viewpoint of an American, this might well appear to be the case.   It doesn't appear that way to me, of course, nor to any of my compatriots  or com-expatriates.   Britannia no longer rules the waves and the British Empire is no more but Britain remains one of the world's great nations simply by being who and what she is (a point on which I am afraid I am not open to debate).

Screw Bill Maher, then (and his personal brand of American 'declinism.')  A nation need not be globally dominant to be great. 

Perhaps the reality is that the age is coming to an end when one nation can claim to be the predominating voice.  The European Union---which Achenbach notes (in a tone suggesting that he believes that this will be news to most Americans) is not a country---is partly the product of Old Europe's recognition that countries which cannot dominate acting alone can have a hell of an impact acting together.  But here's what Achenbach says:

"What Did You Learn in School Today?": The Late, Great Ian Dury's Comment on Education; and some footage of Miss Teen South Carolina and George W. Bush.

Posted by Cockney Robin |  I am posting (again) this song by the late, very great Ian Dury, over which and whom Damozel and I first bonded and whom too few yanks (other than Damozel) seem to know.

To read the lyrics, click here.  (Warning to Americans, who are sometimes disturbed by such things, the song and even the title contain words of four letters derived from the disfavoured language of early Anglo-Saxons). Because, seriously, kids, "What will you be when you're out on your arse?" 

Is Better Education at Home Part of the Solution to Anti-Americanism Abroad?

posted by Damozel | That The Washington Post article, "Why Do they Hate Us?" is one of its most viewed pages  reflects the extent to which the media---through fear, I have to assume---have failed to give prominent space to the answers.  While I realize that many of my fellow Americans prefer to believe "They hate us for our freedom," the real truth is naturally much more complex.  It ought to have been addressed in depth from the moment after the first attempt to bomb the World Trade Center.  But looking at root causes isn't really what our politicians do because it raises questions about American foreign policy decisions that most Americans are unaware of and that the executive branch doesn't particularly want citizens to reflect on and that I imagine that Congress is as generally oblivious to as their constituents.  Or am I being too cynical here? 

Let's assume I'm not.  The executive branch---I don't mean just under W, I mean under any president--- can conduct foreign policy much more efficiently if the average citizen doesn't know (or much care) about those policies or their effects until the point at which they feel the effects themselves.   At which point it's too late (from their point of view) to do anything about it.

Conservative Andrew Sullivan on The Libby Pardon.

Sullivan, an ethical conservative (there used to be a lot more of them, I seem to remember) points out what I only hinted at in my note on the Libby pardon: 

Remember that Mr Bush is notoriously pardon-averse. He has only issued 113 pardons in nearly seven years. In Texas, he sent many, many people to the execution room, even those, like Karla Faye Tucker, who had genuinely expressed remorse and been born again. In fact, he famously mocked her petition for clemency. So she was killed. But Bush finds a way to spare his own apparatchik from mere months in jail for a clear case of perjury.(The Daily Dish)

And Sullivan really is angry now.  In fact, he is way angrier than this liberal, since Bush only did what I expected him to do (and what his father did before him).  Sullivan, though, is shaken.  "I'm surprised by Bush's chutzpah. I retained some minimal respect. No longer. We now know full well what his beliefs are: the law is for other people..." (The Daily Dish) 

The Student Loan Scams that Could've Been Stopped

Bribery? Robbery?  I don't know the appropriate labels, but several financial institutions routinely scammed the U.S. government out of hundreds-of-millions through student loan programs.  And they wonder why funding for student aid is so tight.

Even worse, despite knowledge of problems, key political officials simply failed to stop the scamming:

"From a 2001 internal Education Department memo warning the incoming Bush administration that lenders might be trying to improperly influence college financial aid offices, to a department whistle-blower, to numerous reports outlining a virtual hemorrhaging of the department's money, for nearly six years there have been signs pointing to something rotten in the state of the student loan industry. But time and time again, according to congressional staffers and Washington education experts, the department leadership and key members of Congress looked the other way."

At the risk of sounding like a network news anchor, Salon's Julia Dahl has the story.