ThinkFast: April 7, 2009
ThinkFast: April 7, 2009
Two-thirds of Americans approve of President Obama’s job performance, a New York Times/CBS News poll finds. “By contrast, just 31 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest in the 25 years” of the poll. Sixty-three percent thought President Obama was most likely to make the right decisions for the economy, versus 20 percent who said Congressional Republicans were more likely.
The poll also indicates that “almost three-quarters of Americans think it is a good idea to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year.”
Yesterday evening, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R) “vetoed legislation…to grant marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples.” Democrats, who control both chambers of the legislature, plan to attempt an override of the governor today.
Today, the D.C. Council will consider “whether to recognize domestic partnerships granted in other states and countries — a decision that could serve as a prelude to the city’s own attempt to legalize same-sex marriage.”
An Afghanistan law that effectively legalizes marital rape “is on hold” after “provoking an outcry in the West over concerns about women’s rights.” “The Justice Ministry is working on the law, and on those articles which were problematic, and for the time being the law is not going to be published,” an Afghan spokesman said.
The U.S plans to “step up its use of drones to strike militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas and might extend them to a different sanctuary deeper inside the country.” The Pakistani government has “expressed concerns that the missile strikes from remotely piloted aircraft fuel more violence in the country.”
A long-secret International Committee of the Red Cross report found that medical officials were deeply involved in the torture of terrorist suspects held overseas, constituting a “gross breach of medical ethics.” The report found that the “medical professionals’ role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had ‘condoned and participated in ill treatment.’”
“The traditional teaching career is collapsing at both ends,” a National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future report says. One in three new teachers is leaving the profession within five years and “over the next four years, more than a third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers could retire.”
And finally: Shortly after throwing out the first pitch at the Yankees-Orioles Opening Day game yesterday, Vice President Biden “went up to the announcers booth and brought the house down, poking fun at the anonymity of his office, mocking his own baldness, and making a well-timed joke about former V.P. Dan Quayle’s failures as a speller.” When the announcers told the Vice President that he was handling his job well, Biden jokingly replied, “No one ever remembers your name. It’s okay.” Watch it here.
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“The traditional teaching career is collapsing”
A direct result of NCLB which handcuffs teachers, then blames them for poor student performance, coupled with the long-term bashing of teachers by the anti-intellectualist republicans.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:06 amalmost three-quarters of Americans think it is a good idea to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year.
Silly rabbit, ONLY LITTLE PEOPLE PAY TAXES- the Queen of mean, Leona Helmsley
good morning, campers
April 7th, 2009 at 9:11 amGovernor Douglas vetoed the marriage equality law, and gave two reasons — 1) that the civil union law was good enough, and 2) that “marriage” should be between a man and a woman.
Like so many news articles of this type, no explanation is given as to what rights and benefits a gay couple (or any couple) receive through a state-recognized (but not federally-recognized) marriage that they don’t get through a state-recognized civil union.
Is it just the word “marriage” that has everybody tied up in knots? I’m still waiting for somebody to explain to me what the difference is between a civil union and a marriage, other than the number of syllables. The media could do a better job of this than they’re doing.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:17 amThe poll also indicates that “almost three-quarters of Americans think it is a good idea to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year.”
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And out of the other one-quarter of Americans, a small percentage make more than $250,000 a year and aren’t about to oppose their own interests.
The remaining vast majority of that one-quarter are people who, like Joe-the-Plumber, are convinced they will someday make more than $250,000 a year and if they have to pay 3% more on the amount exceeding a quarter million, their lives will be ruined.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:21 am“By contrast, just 31 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest in the 25 years”
Funny how that range of percentages keeps cropping up, isn’t it?
April 7th, 2009 at 9:22 amThe drone attacks are bound to create more enemies. Regional diplomacy and genuine attempt to win the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan’s FATR will go much further than 500lb bombs from 20,000. President Obama has chosen the former, and hinted at the latter, but the latter is the most important if the US ever expects to leave Afghanistan.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:23 amstill a mystery… and this story confounds it even more:
Pilot of Stolen Cessna Wanted US Fighter Jets to Shoot Him Down
ABC News – ?1 hour ago?
By LISA STARK, PIERRE THOMAS, LUIS MARTINEZ and SARAH NETTER Yavuz Berke, who allegedly stole a Cessna plane from a Canadian flight school and was pursued for hours across the Midwest by fighter jets, was taken into custody after he landed on a …
you’d think 4 airliners making u-turns in the sky, over some hours, would’ve brought out some fighter jets… eh???
April 7th, 2009 at 9:26 ammisscoleopteramolly Says:
I’m still waiting for somebody to explain to me what the difference is between a civil union and a marriage, other than the number of syllables.
A “civil union” compared to a “marriage” is like having the same jigsaw puzzle, only some pieces are missing.
Granting same-sex couples the right to a civil union, but not the right to be married is a gender-based “separate but equal” doctrine.
Any religion which recognizes same-sex marriages is not treated the same as those religions who do not, hence government’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage violates the “separation of church and state” doctrine implicit in the First Amendment.
So, you see, it’s not just a matter of semantics.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:28 am“The traditional teaching career is collapsing at both ends,” a National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future report says. One in three new teachers is leaving the profession within five years and “over the next four years, more than a third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers could retire.”
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There used to be a time when the primary objective of a teacher was to educate. Nowadays, a teacher MUST ensure all of his/her students pass the EOG or else he/she will be out of a job. With that sword hanging over their heads, is it any wonder teachers focus on test prep as if their jobs depended on it?
I wouldn’t want to be a teacher. And it seems that teachers are getting less enamored of the idea as well. Attrition, frustration, and disillusion are going to kill the profession if something isn’t done.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:28 ammisscoleopteramolly Says: I’m still waiting for somebody to explain to me what the difference is between a civil union and a marriage, other than the number of syllables.
Good question and good luck in your waiting for an answer.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:29 amI have had two additional questions I have been waiting to have answered. Churches have ceremonies for “holy matrimony” so doesn’t this imply that the churches have always recognized that there are civil marriages that are not sanctioned by the church? What secular reason can be given for denying civil marriages to gays?
just read a short story in my local paper – “Tax Day Tea Party in Effingham April 15″…
and it’s being organized by a guy who went to school with my son, friends with him then… very disappointing…
time for another letter: where was your outrage the past years when ______…
any ideas would be most helpful! thanks!
April 7th, 2009 at 9:31 ammisscoleopteramolly Says:
Is it just the word “marriage” that has everybody tied up in knots? I’m still waiting for somebody to explain to me what the difference is between a civil union and a marriage, other than the number of syllables. The media could do a better job of this than they’re doing.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:17 a
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It’s allegedly a “separate but equal” arrangement, but the devil is in the details – health insurance, life insurance, tax filing status, hospital visitation, joint property ownership, etc. If the laws governing the two relationships aren’t written exactly the same, or if some loopholes are left in, then “civil union” and “marriage” are not the same – particularly when every state has a slightly different civil union definition.
Legalizing gay marriage solves this whole disparity, conferring an identical legal status on homosexual and heterosexual couples that must be recognized nationwide.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:32 amTeh gays are icky, of course.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:33 ammisscoleopteramolly Says:
I’m still waiting for somebody to explain to me what the difference is between a civil union and a marriage, other than the number of syllables.
From the article “The Difference Between Marriage and Civil Unions”, by Kathy Belge
“Vermont civil unions were created in 2000 to provide legal protections to gays and lesbians in relationships in that state because gay marriage is not an option. The protections do not extend beyond the border of Vermont and no federal protections are included with a Civil Union. Civil Unions offer some of the same rights and responsibilities as marriage, but only on a state level.”
As long as this remains a states issue, how can there ever be any cohesive progress?
April 7th, 2009 at 9:36 amkatydid Says
April 7th, 2009 at 9:31 am
any ideas would be most helpful! thanks!
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In addition to pointing out selective (and hypocritical) outrage, you might also point out the absurdity of why these people are squealing like stuck pigs.
Even if Obama gets the tax hike he wants for those making over $250,000, the tax rates still will be lower than they were during Reagan’s time — or for that matter, ANY president in the past 70 years except for the Bushes. In fact, during the 1950s (the decade all the reactionaries want to go back to), the top tax rate was a whopping 91%. Not on a person’s entire income, mind you — just on the amount over $400,000. And our country wasn’t ruined by that at all. In fact, we prospered quite a bit during that time.
You can point this out to anybody who will listen: http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php
Scroll down to the chart — it communicates more clearly than the table does.
And if you need a laugh — try this: http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/04/07/tomo/index.html
April 7th, 2009 at 9:51 amThere’s far more than just NCLB at work here, folks. The problem is systemic. Kids know they can get rid of teachers by complaining. So do their parents. Teachers with high standards draw more complaints.
Survival in the first 2-3 year probationary period depends not on teaching ability, but in not having any complaints, and in doing whatever it takes to appease those higher up in the educational heirarchy. Failure to accomplish either results in “non-reelection” which equates to being blacklisted.
Those who invest in a 4-year college degree plus 2-3 year Credentialing program are being trained for a job that doesn’t exist. They labor under the illusion that it’s all about educating children.
The system weeds out the best and the brightest. By far and large, those who survive in a teaching career are those who are the most compliant.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:52 amBriseadh na Firefly Says @ 18:
The system weeds out the best and the brightest. By far and large, those who survive in a teaching career are those who are the most compliant.
Well Said. Some of the great teachers in the handful of successful schools here in New Orleans Pre-Katrina found themselves replaced by younger, wildly inexperienced – yet highly compliant – teachers, who are now, sadly, more like babysitters than educators.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:09 amWhat secular reason can be given for denying civil marriages to gays?
None whatsoever. Any of the supposedly secular “tests” (procreation, parenting environment, etc.) that opponents use to deny same-sex marriage would ALSO have to be applied to heterosexual marriages as well – if used as an argument to prevent same-sex marriages.
The tests have to be applied equally and consistently to everyone, not just to same-sex marriages. If same-sex marriage is to be denied on the basis of lack of procreation for example, then infertile heterosexual couples must be banned from marriage as well.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:20 amBiden should cut Quayle some slack on the spelling issue, he had a “Republican” eduction. In his neighborhood Potato is spelled with an “e” at the end. Geez whats wrong with you people, if your rich as Quayle, you certainly can afford an extra letter or two.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:31 ambarracks9 Says
April 7th, 2009 at 9:36 am
As long as this remains a states issue, how can there ever be any cohesive progress?
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I don’t believe it can remain a states issue forever. More and more states will permit same-sex civil unions or marriages (or at least recognize those performed in other states). And with each new state coming aboard come more gay committed couples.
At some point, the fact that these unions can’t cross state lines due to differing civil union laws and/or lack of recognition in some states will push the matter before the Supreme Court. Hopefully by then we will have a court that will vote to protect equal rights instead of voting with their bigotries.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:32 amTo dovetail on KateWords’ comment @ 20, let’s close all the loopholes while we’re at it: no marriage for gays, then no divorces or second marriages for straight folks.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:32 am“two thirds of Americns approve”: I’m part of the one-third that doesn’t. And I don’t approve of the republicans, either. All our New Fearless Leader does is talk. Hell, Bush could almost do that.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:34 amThis is a broken record:
The U.S plans to “step up its use of drones to strike militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas and might extend them to a different sanctuary deeper inside the country.” The Pakistani government has “expressed concerns that the missile strikes from remotely piloted aircraft fuel more violence in the country.”
This is patently bad policy and Pakistan’s denial is repeated fluff. The U.S. should not be summarily executing people in contingency overseas operations. We learned the tactic from Israel.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:45 am75% want the wealthy to pay more taxes. That may happen in 2011. Yes, it’s in this year’s budget, but next year’s budget will set the final rules for 2011.
80% want their employer or the government to pay more of their health insurance coverage. That may or may not happen.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:49 ambarracks9 Says:
To dovetail on KateWords’ comment @ 20, let’s close all the loopholes while we’re at it: no marriage for gays, then no divorces or second marriages for straight folks.
I sure wish someone would’ve banned me from more than one marriage ;)
April 7th, 2009 at 11:02 amIf the Live Blog I’m following is accurate, the Vermont senate and house just voted to override the veto! Same-sex marriage is gonna happen in VT!
April 7th, 2009 at 11:16 amThere was a time, a few centuries ago, that the Church had real societal power. If youu disobeyed the Church’s rules, you could not attend church, you could not get married in the church, your children were considered illegitimate, you could not be buried in the church cemetery, and of course, you would spend eternity in Hell having molten lead poured down your throat.
But even then, the nobility usually had it any way they wanted. Morganatic marriages, concubines, evenhomosexual ‘favorites’–if you had enough power, you could set up marriage arrangements for any arrangement you wished.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, whose assassination triggered World War I, had a morganatic marriage: none of his children by the Countess Sophie Chotek were considered part of the imperial family, nor could they inherit the throne. And yet the marriage was performed in a church. in 1900, not the Middle Ages.
Sanctity of marriage, in short, was for little people. And not alwways then, in mostareas of medieval Europe, marriages odf serfs were not celebrated in church, even though the parties were good Christians. Back then, the only reason for marriage was inheritance. (Peasants also never got the wine at Mass, just the bread. The Blood of Christ was not for peasants.)
And of course that meant that Jews could not inherit property.
But now inAmerica we have a culture in which being thrown out of a church (the Church) has no power, not legally and no longer culturally. Even among devout fundamentalist Christians, people shop around until they find a congregation they like. if the pastor is too harsh or enlightened, *poof* they’re gone. Even the worst fire-breathing librul hating gay smashing creationist fundies refuse to let the Church have power over them.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:51 amAnd that’s why they want the Gummint to do it. It makes no theological sense: the medieval Church knew that marriage between Jews could not be a sanctified thing–the killers of Christ were destined for Hell, as were any and all heretics. But today American fundamentalist Christians are worried about the marriages of atheists, miscegnators, heretics, paynim, and even teh gay. And they want a power other than the church to enforce it. It makes absolutely no sense.
And the real hypocrisy is one that most of them don’t recognize: They want their version of God’s Law to be enforced–on those awful other people. But they’re Americans: they don’t want to have it enforced on them. They consistently refuse to have a church where the man in the pulpit can actually do things to them.
Socialism for the rich capitalism for the poor.
Sanctity for the unbeliever, license for the believer.
Same ol’ same ol’.
“A Colorado Springs man who narrates the Bible in Spanish on CDs and works in the Spanish broadcasting department of Focus on the Family appeared in court Monday in Golden on two felony counts of using the Internet to lure a 15-year-old girl for sex, The Denver Post reports.”
http://coloradoindependent.com/25840/focus-on-the-family-narrator-charged-with-luring-teenage-girl-for-sex-on-net
April 7th, 2009 at 12:13 pmAnd why is CNN giving the pilot’s name as Adam Leon?
April 7th, 2009 at 12:24 pmConcerning the Afghan law, there is an interesting quote in this Newsy clip , cited from a WaPo article, of a young Aghani woman who actually supports the law. Also, the clip contains assertions that Karzai supported the law for political purposes.
April 7th, 2009 at 3:42 pmWhy did AIG pay banks in full? Federal Reserve didn’t use leverage
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Bank of New York in November chose not to pursue tough negotiations with large foreign and domestic banks and instead allowed them to receive 100 cents on the dollar in government funds to settle tens of billions of dollars of exotic financial bets guaranteed by American International Group.
The revelation sheds new light on last month’s disclosure by AIG that it used loans from the New York Fed to pay more than $17 billion to foreign creditors such as France’s Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, and Germany’s Deutsche Bank. U.S. investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, also were paid $10 billion in what amounted to a back-door bailout of the troubled institutions that had financed AIG’s risky investments.
The real reasons behind the decisions weren’t revealed at the time. And like the Obama administration’s decision last month to allow more than $165 million in controversial bonuses to AIG executives, their disclosure is fueling new criticism.
Geithner’s office declined requests to comment.
Add that to the list of unopen and opaque.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090407/NEWS15/90407012
April 7th, 2009 at 4:16 pmLieberman: Peace talks with Palestinians at a ‘dead end’
Peace talks with the Palestinians have reached a “dead end,” Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman said Tuesday evening.
Beiteinu conference in Jerusalem, Lieberman said “there’s a withdrawal from talks, and we have to understand and acknowledge that we’re at a dead end.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562940027&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
April 7th, 2009 at 5:31 pmOK Pat obviously senile dementia has set in. Time to see the nice young men that will need to take care of you soon.burun estetigi rent a car arac kiralama
April 18th, 2009 at 5:57 amsac ekimi
Yes, his likability is akin to Jimmy Carters. Look where he went.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm