Party Before Country

Regardless of party, the reality is that the debt ceiling needs to be raised and it is the responsibility of the Congress, both the House and the Senate, to write and pass a bill both houses can agree upon.  That bill is then sent to the President for his signature, which makes the bill become a law.

The Republican elected officials in the House of Representatives refuse to do their job, instead finger-pointing at the President and telling spurious lies, in the hopes that they will create an atmosphere in which The People blame the President, and make him “a one-term president.”

The plan of the GOP simply refuses to take into account the needs of the American populace. In opposing the President’s stimulus package, they ignored unemployment; in opposing “entitlement programs”, they ignore the elderly and the infirm; in opposing an increase in the debt ceiling, they ignore the full faith and credit of the United States and the economic recession their previous budgets and spending led to.

The more people like Allen West and Joe Walsh bring a number-crunching prioritization to the government of the United States, coupled with an intense partisan loyalty which super-cedes their patriotic, civic and employment responsibilities (since governance is their job), the more we fall into the trap prophesied by President George Washington in his farewell address,

“In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties…”

Senator Mitch McConnell famously said that his number one priority is to make President Barack Obama a “one-term president.”  His number one priority should be, if I may be so bold, helping the 99 other senators and 435 representatives in the House write and pass laws which benefit the country.

The Republican Party, 2011, is simply a self-sustaining organization which happens to participate in politics.  It is no longer a group of people who agree on certain principles about how the government should be run.  It is awash in social and economic theories, many different from each other and all bastardizing the label “conservative.”  And these are the people who have managed to lie their way into office, spouting untruths without responsibility for their words, like Speaker of the House John Boehner did in his response to the President on July 25th.

There has been no “bipartisan support” for the debt-ceiling plan he proposed and passed through the Allen West-infested House, and it is not a serious or good-faith attempt because he knows it will not pass the Senate, let alone be signed by the President.  He has failed to put country before party.  And in telling his lies, he is following Senator McConnell in attempting to place the interests of his party, in demeaning and delegitimizing and defeating the Democrat in the White House, before the fiscal solvency of the nation that he serves, that they all serve.

Loyal opposition is one thing.  It creates the opportunity for the best ideas and values of the participants to be evaluated and included on their merits in a compromise.  Opposition for its own sake, though, is the warning that President Washington spoke of over two-hundred years ago,

 ”However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

The cunning, ambitious, unprincipled men are now in positions of authority in our government, and are attempting “to subvert the power of the people and usurp for themselves the reins of government.”  They must be stopped.

Call Eric Cantor and let them know how you feel – 202-225-2815.

Call Speaker Boehner and tell him to focus on the nation, not his party – 202-225-6205

Related articles

• ‘The Key is McConnell’: White House Looks to GOP Senate Leader for Help (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Obama argues debt case to nation (boston.com)
• Debt ceiling impasse: How we got into this mess (cnn.com)

Clay Tablets and iPads

“if the purpose of education is not what education does for a student, but does to a student, then the goal of education is not simply information, but formation…” – Les Frost, 1999

Necesitamos cambiar como tratamos la educación, y las herramientas que usamos para educar a nuestros hijos.  Technology isn’t a toy.

It is so much more.

We need to understand, both in the larger American community and amongst Latinos, that tablet computing and social media are the next evolution in education, and we need to push our schools and our students to embrace them and prepare for the future that is here.

Technology, by definition, means “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.” The advancement from clay tablets to paper, that was technology. It was a change in the manner of learning, of maintaining the historical record, of passing information, and it shaped the way people interacted. The shift from copying texts by hand to the printing press, that was technology. It changed European society, making literacy a much more common occurrence, because the price of books dropped with mass production, and with books more common, incentive to read and gain knowledge for oneself greater.  It also meant that the elite (read: wealthy) members of society no longer held exclusive sway over religious or political knowledge, because The Holy Bible or books like Machiavelli’s The Prince were readily available.  The pipeline of information was widened so that more people could access it.

Today we have fully entered the digital age.  As a nation, and a human society, we have moved from print to cyberspace.  Pero esta vez, tenemos la oportunidad de hacer este tipo de tecnología accesible a todos, no solo a aquellos con los recursos necesarios.  This technological shift, from iPads (and iPods and Galaxy Tabs) is a sociological and educational earthquake, which will break down the walls of privilege and demolish the foundations of inequality if we change how we conceive tools.

Are iPads cool?  Yes!  Are they expensive? ¡Por supuesto! Are they worth the investment in our children? ¡Solamente si queremos brindarles la oportunidad de ser exitosos! We need to understand that iPads are the next invention to change the world: paper, printing press, iPads.

Technology, in this case the tablet computer, is simply the tool we use to succeed.  The problem with Apple and the iPad is that we continue to see it as a toy, a shiny bauble that wealthy people play with and unwealthy people envy.  We see social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr) as time-wasting nothingness. And there are pieces of that which are true. But they can be so much more.

Facebook can be a means of connecting with students, with teachers, with parents, and school communities, sharing events and information in a central location.  Twitter in the classroom can be the voice of quieter students who are unable or unwilling to shout to be heard. YouTube allows sharing of projects and assessments with parents, grandparents, padrinos, tíos and others, validating student effort and achievements, and allowing students to share what they’ve learned. Flickr is another central location focused on the sharing of photos of class trips, student projects, etc.  All of these are accessible, along with textbooks, notes, recorded lectures, novels, video clips and student essays on the iPad our children should be carrying when they walk into school in September.

We wouldn’t deny our children paper and pens and expect them to succeed in school.

Our children need tablets, computers, iPads. The world is already moving past books and paper. As adults, we use sites like Latinos in Social Media and Latino Rebels to connect with, to encourage, to learn from, to support and to engage with gente who are working with similar goals, with similar aspirations, who have knowledge and skills and desires that complement ours.  Why do we expect our children to be different?

I make this argument not as an expert in education, though I’ve been teaching in public and private schools for sixteen years (and in schools for thirty-four); nor as a science-fiction fan who sees in the tablet the desks on which Ender Wiggin played the fantasy game.

I make this argument as a parent of two middle school-bound students, looking toward their educational future with excitement and their future careers and employment with uncertainty.  The iPad, the tablet computer, the window on the world and the universe that you can hold in your hands, is the vehicle our children will ride into the future.

First posted 6 July 2011 at Latinos in Social Media for Edu-Wednesday.

Related articles

• Computer Tablets and eReader Devices in the Classroom (crenk.com)
• Schools Embrace the iPad – Embracing the Extended Classroom (timesoftexas.com)

Walking On Marbles

President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, one of the United States, in 1961. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was a United States citizen. Both of these facts confer upon Barack Obama natural born citizenship in these United States, as per the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. He is therefore eligible to be President. To quote one of my favorite movies, “these are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed.”

A number of people, though, continue to assert that they “just want to see his birth certificate” to “make sure [Obama]‘s eligible to be President.” These same people conveniently failed to ask for John McCain’s birth certificate, though we know he was born in a foreign country, on land leased by the United States, in the Panama Canal Zone. The immediately racist foundation of this dichotomy, needing to see the brown man’s papers, is fodder for another discussion.

The calculated and coordinated effort by Republican legislators and conservative citizens to write state laws regarding the President’s birth certificate have one purpose only: to keep his reelection campaign legally, politically, and economically distracted as the campaign season begins. They want him walking on marbles. President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, spent half of his second term in court, fighting spurious lawsuits and challenges related to his personal conduct. The coordinated attack based in the special prosecutor’s office took it’s toll on both President Clinton and his effectiveness to affect policy.

Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona vetoed the “birther” bill passed by Arizona’s legislature requiring candidates for the presidency of the United States to submit their birth certificate in order to be listed on the state’s ballot. The key here isn’t that she objected to the merits of the bill itself. She simply decried the proof of a lack of foreskin being codified into law. Either way, that ridiculous farce of a bill failed.

Similar bills are being considered in thirteen other states, and Louisiana’s governor, the former “Republican Barack Obama” (politician of non-anglo ethnicity with ties to an immigrant community) Bobby Jindal, has indicated that when the “birther bill” passes the legislature in his state, he’ll sign it.

From Donald Trump’s whorish attempts to wave the birther flag to revive ratings for his television career to Russell Pearce‘s attempt to treat the President of the United States like the Republicans treated the last Democratic President of the United States (they focused on Clinton’s genitals, too) this coordinated strategy is the GOP’s attempt to secure victory in an election they are unable to win on the merits.

And Democrats, whose faith in the process of democracy and belief that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” need to prepare for the mud slinging, and quick. I’m not arguing that we need to get down and dirty with them. I’m saying that assuming good will of the political opposition in the face of evidence to the contrary is putting a blindfold on while they’re throwing down marbles.

We can’t … the United States can’t afford to be that imbalanced.

Spread the Word.

Related Articles

• “Trump, HI Gov. Spar Over Birth Certificate Issue” and related posts (theyeshivaworld.com)
• Romney: ‘I Believe The President Was Born In The United States’ (VIDEO) (alternet.org)
• Bachmann: Obama’s certification of live birth ‘should settle’ birther issue (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)

The Bottom of the Barrel

The GOP is failing in spectacular fashion lately. Three of its stalwart proponents are attempting to advance their personal agendas on the backs of others by lying with straight faces to anyone with a camera and a microphone.  In no particular order, since their thoughts and words come out that way, are the bottom of the political barrel:

Senator John Kyl.  The mis-titled “junior” senator from Arizona brought some of his state’s hateful deception to the floor of the United States Senate when he asserted that “90% of what Planned Parenthood does is perform abortions.” Beyond demonizing another organization whose services are provided primarily to the economically challenged, Senator Kyl lied into the Congressional Record in order to advance a socially conservative agenda during an economic debate.  Not only is this disingenuous, but his lie, which he said “was not intended to be a factual statement,” was easily proved false and left him looking stupid. UPDATE: Senator Kyl has blamed his ridiculous assertion that his statement was #notintendedtobeafactualstatement on his press secretary.

Representative Paul Ryan.  The Republican Congressman from Wisconsin’s 1st District, is next on the list of ridiculous with his “Path to Prosperity”. A draconian boondoggle which simultaneously 1) plays to the ignorance of the Tea Party movement by simultaneously claiming to address the deficit while maintaining tax breaks for the wealthy which contribute to it, 2) cuts services to the poorest and most economically challenged citizens in the United States, and 3) FORCES SENIOR CITIZENS TO USE INSUFFICIENT VOUCHERS TO PAY FOR HEALTHCARE which means that those with the most limited means and greatest need will be forced to pay the highest costs to stay well.

Last and least on the list. Donald Trump. Should keep his day job. Another example where wealth and excess reflect a poverty of spirit. Used to be the funny, quirky business mogul. Now he’s creating an aura of racial mystification bathed in pseudo-economic savvy in order to promote his reality television show by exploiting the most ignorant example of racial profiling aimed at the President of the United States. There are people ignorant of the constitutional requirements for the presidency, though I don’t believe he is one of them.  He is however playing on their fears by claiming that Barack Obama is not eligible to be President in order to gain viewership and make more money on advertising. Capitalism at its worst – do whatever you can to get paid. I’d call him a prostitute, but I don’t want to insult those men and women who ply the world’s oldest profession.

Amazing that these three are involved in the political conversation of the nation when there is so much work to be done.

Related Articles

• Kyl revises Congressional Record to omit ‘well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does’ is abortion (dailykos.com)
• Best New Party Game 51: #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement (videogum.com)
• What a United States Senator Sounds Like (mydd.com)
• Senator Jon Kyl Purges His Lie About Planned Parenthood From Official Records (slog.thestranger.com)
• Donald Trump? (gesvol.wordpress.com)

Spreading the Word Goes Live!

Image via Wikipedia

Today is the inaugural broadcast of our internet radio show!  To listen in (and call in) click the link below.

Spreading the Word – blogtalkradio

We’ll be going live at 1pm PDT.

Today’s discussion will focus on The Myth of Race in Barack’s First Term.

In the last few weeks, the definition of race and the politics of identity have been sharply brought into focus. From the continued racial attacks on PresidentObama, to the definition of “The Other” in Arizona, to the vibrant community ofLatinos in Social Media and This Week In Blackness, the perception of self and projection of unity continue to weave their way in and out of our political and everyday lives. Does race exist? Or is it a paradigm that the historically disenfranchised have adopted to maintain a semblance of personhood and sanity? Join Reynaldo Macias and Lybroan James as they dive deep to find out.

We’ll be joined by Lybroan James, mathematician, scholar, and author of the blog for the love of math.

Here’s the Call-in number for you to join us: (818) 369-0351

Related Articles

• My Parents Are Teachers (powerfulbeyondmeasure.wordpress.com)
• Let’s uncomplicate the racism issue (mysanantonio.com)
• Who Am I Really?? (openingmymouth.wordpress.com)
• You are what you look like: biracial, multiracial, black, white, well, most of the time (heloise8.wordpress.com)

Why I Unfollowed Bill Maher and Cornel West

There are many people who are unhappy with the President of the United States. There are also many people who are unhappy. When the groaners are standing behind you, it’s hard to tell that the expression on their faces doesn’t change, regardless of what they’re saying. When Bill Maher was howling about President Bush, I was right on his team, tuning in every Friday Night to hear his latest screed. And while I knew his politics were a little more libertarian than mine, it didn’t occur to me that his basic career premise for twenty-plus years has been to gripe at whomsoever is in power.

Then President Obama, after a brief honeymoon, began receiving the same treatment. There was no real acknowledgement of a difference. No space for Obama to begin to fix or address the problems and issues left by the last administration. It was “gimme my pot” and “pull out of Iraq yesterday” and “why aren’t you listening to me?” More crying, whining and demanding without recognition of anything done well. It got boring. If I wanted to listen to that, there’s Fox News.

And Brother West. His “critical friendship” leaves no room for opposition. While I’ve been trying to read Race Matters with the made up words he uses in it (and yes, I know, he’s smart enough to actually make up words when he’s got an idea that hasn’t been languaged yet), his constant drumbeat of “what Brother Barack’s not doing” gives me a headache. It’s unfortunate that these two talented individuals find no space to appreciate what has been accomplished, and instead rely on collecting funds and paychecks by harping on what isn’t happening.

But that’s why I unfollowed (in all senses of the word) both of them. They are a little disingenuous and they made my head hurt.

OBAMA 2012

The President of the United States is only running against one person next year – himself.  And while his leadership has been questioned, by Democrats, Republicans, people in between and people on the extremes, it is ultimately his own record which will determine whether or not he gets reelected in 2012.

Of late, there have been a good number of progressives disappointed in him for not being as progressive as they are: Lt. Dan Choi was irritated with the lack of movement on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; Representative Kucinich is raising the question of impeachment over the United States’ bombardment of Libya; in these very pages, I myself have been disappointed at some of his administration’s actions over the past two years.

And of course, the birthers, the Teahadists, political opponents and haters-at-large who have been calling for his brown head, or his “most liberal” head, or his “fascist communist” head, have been calling for his removal, impeachment, assassination, etc. since before his election.  Unfortunately for them, their most likely candidate is a serial philanderer whose most recent political experience is resigning from Congress to yell from the sidelines instead of doing the work of the nation.

President Barack Obama hasn’t done all the things I wanted him to do when he was elected.  But he has done a lot of them. And he is guiding the country on the best path back from the brink President Bush abandoned us on.  That’s why the campaign begins now.

OBAMA 2012!

Related Articles

• Dennis Kucinich: Obama’s Libya Attack An Impeachable Offense
• A Phone Call from the President
• Trump again questions Obama’s birthplace
• Newt Gingrich Contradicts Self on Libya, Tries to Explain
• Top Dem rejects calls for Obama impeachment over Libya

My Government Works

I opened my email today, and this is what I read:

Dear all,

You will see an increase in your paycheck  starting with the 1/15/2011 check you received last week.

This is due to the tax cut that was part of the 2010 Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act. The new Social Security rate will mean a 2% cut in payroll taxes for employees. This tax cut reduces the percentage the employee contributes to Social Security Tax from 6.2% to 4.2%. The decrease in Social Security tax is effective for two years.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Thank you, Mr. President. As a middle class,working American.  Thank you.

Obama Integrates The Armed Forces

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Thank You, Mr. President, for keeping your promise.

Editor’s Note: I was cleaning out my inbox, and I came across this email from POTUS.  It seems appropo. RM

Reynaldo –

Moments ago, the Senate voted to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

When that bill reaches my desk, I will sign it, and this discriminatory law will be repealed.

Gay and lesbian service members — brave Americans who enable our freedoms — will no longer have to hide who they are.

The fight for civil rights, a struggle that continues, will no longer include this one.

This victory belongs to you. Without your commitment, the promise I made as a candidate would have remained just that.

Instead, you helped prove again that no one should underestimate this movement. Every phone call to a senator on the fence, every letter to the editor in a local paper, and every message in a congressional inbox makes it clear to those who would stand in the way of justice: We will not quit.

This victory also belongs to Senator Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and our many allies in Congress who refused to let politics get in the way of what was right.

Like you, they never gave up, and I want them to know how grateful we are for that commitment.

Will you join me in thanking them by adding your name to Organizing for America’s letter?

I will make sure these messages are delivered — you can also add a comment about what the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” means to you.

As Commander in Chief, I fought to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because it weakens our national security and military readiness. It violates the fundamental American principles of equality and fairness.

But this victory is also personal.

I will never know what it feels like to be discriminated against because of my sexual orientation.

But I know my story would not be possible without the sacrifice and struggle of those who came before me — many I will never meet, and can never thank.

I know this repeal is a crucial step for civil rights, and that it strengthens our military and national security. I know it is the right thing to do.

But the rightness of our cause does not guarantee success, and today, celebration of this historic step forward is tempered by the defeat of another — the DREAM Act. I am incredibly disappointed that a minority of senators refused to move forward on this important, commonsense reform that most Americans understand is the right thing for our country. On this issue, our work must continue.

Today, I’m proud that we took these fights on.

Please join me in thanking those in Congress who helped make “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal possible:

http://my.barackobama.com/Repealed

Thank you,

Barack

No One But the Enemy…

I’m a UCLA football fan.  I’m a registered Democrat.  Both at the moment are painful.

Watching USC and the Gallant Old Party strut around the field, lying, cheating and winning, pisses me off.  It makes me sad.  But both have one similar quality that I do admire, that I think both my alma mater and my political party leadership need to emulate (and which President Obama does well to his immediate political detriment, but hopefully to the long-term benefit of the nation) is this: long-term strategic planning.

USC has a stock of skill-position players (quarterbacks, runningbacks, receivers, etc.) who are in the wings, waiting for their opportunity. learning their positions and responsibilities in order to jump on the field running and achieve their immediate goals of winning games and their long term goals of creating a successful program.  The GOP has been planning since Nixon opened China their uber-capitalist, non-regulated, (apparent) socially conservative, racially segregated Contract On America.  Whether it is called the Moral Majority, the Contract for America, the Bush Presidencies, the Tea Party or Speaker of the House John Boehner, the step by step dismantling of civil rights under a cloak of traditional values and dismemberment of the social safety net for the poor and underemployed while screaming about budget deficits (money before people), the GOP is implementing their soul-crushing, cash-hoarding razing of America with precision.

Meanwhile, my Bruins are scrambling and struggling without a quarterback (haven’t really had one since Cade McNown left), hiring and firing coaches (watch out Coach Neuheisel – there’s a target on your back), changing offenses, defenses and not getting new players enough learning and training time before throwing them out on the field with older, stronger, smarter men to be pummeled into submission.  And my Democrats are cutting each other into ribbons, pointing fingers, eating their young, whining about what they haven’t accomplished, throwing out babies with bathwater (sorry, Governor Dean, your 50-state strategy was awesome but there’s the door), and trying to hang our collective failure to plan and implement on the most successful Democrat in the last fifteen years, Barack Obama.

Do you see the difference?

They’re planning and implementing thirty year plans (how else do you explain the line of qbs, rbs,and receivers in the National Football League?  or the John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas Supreme Court which handed George Bush the presidency in 2000 based on “irreparable harm”?!) to implement their vision of what semi-pro football and the United States should be.

We’re going from year to year, from campaign to campaign, short-sightedly focused on immediate gains for people and failing to implement anything that lasts through the day after the election.  We’re recruiting one or two good players per year, playing them as freshmen, and then wondering why they don’t perform.  It’s painful to watch.  It’s death by a thousand cuts.

While I hate, hate, hate the Crimson and Gold, I grudgingly admire what they have been able to accomplish.  And while I abhor the stated values and goals of the Republican Party for this country, I have to admit that they have been out-strategizing us for at least a generation (really… they had in 2009 the minority in Congress, and they’ve been beating our asses with NO since then!) because they weren’t playing small ball.  They’ve trotted our John McCain as a presidential candidate, and he unleashed She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named – sideshow distractions while they pursued their political and economic agenda that we are dealing with now.

“I am your enemy, the first one you’ve ever had who was smarter than you.  There is no teacher but the enemy.  No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do.  No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer.  Only the enemy shows you where you are weak.  Only the enemy tells you where he is strong.  And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you.  I am your enemy from now on.  From now on I am your teacher.”

-Mazer Rakam to Andrew Wiggin, Ender’s Game