+ The Austinist and the Statesman discuss a report card just released by the United Way Capital Area's group Success by 6 that gives Travis County low marks on child services. Results of the report card include:
•D for "happy," which looked at criteria such as kindergarten retention rates, the number of child abuse victims and children's access to mental health services;
•C for "healthy," which looked at criteria such as the percentage of low birth weight babies, immunization rates and obesity rates in young children;
•D for "smart," which looked at criteria such as the education level of child care workers and the number of licensed, regulated child care facilities.
+ Matt Bors' Idiot Box comic strip on the Campus Progress site pokes fun at the debate over illegal immigration by looking at "Undocumented War Profiteers"
+ The Immigrant Solidarity Network has compiled a list of events taking place across the nation on April 10th. However, the events planned for Austin are noticeably absent, so I'll list them here:
Student Walkout: 11am - 2 PM at the MLK Statue on UT Campus
Citywide Rally and March: Meet at 4 PM at the Capitol, March begins at 5 PM
+ The conservative band The Right Brothers have a new song out entitled "Bush Was Right." You can watch their video here. I couldn't help but laugh. These guys obviously haven't kept up with the news lately.
+ Last but not least, NYT just published an article declaring that, with DeLay's resignation, the "Contract with America" era of Republican rule is officially over. The architects of this decade-long nightmare are finished and the country's better for it. Good riddance!
In some ways, the national political mood is similar to the one in 1994, when voters turned out the Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate. Vin Weber, a former Republican House member and lobbyist, said of Mr. DeLay: "He was the leader of the Republican Party at a time of maximum ideological polarization between the parties, and he was successful in that era. I think that era is coming to an end. What will replace it, I don't know."
I was shocked when my eyes first caught sight of a Daily Kospost reporting that William Dembskit, an advocate of Intelligent Design, allegedly alerted the Department of Homeland Security to the teachings of a UT-Austin professor.
"Here we go again," I thought. "Another attempt by conservative Creationists to bait and discredit evolutionary biologists."
But as I continued reading, I was struck by the sensation that maybe I'd been too hasty in writing-off Dembskit's concerns. Who is this Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professor In Zoology, Dr. Eric R. Pianka? Ultimately, I had no choice but to conclude that Dr. Pianka is insane. No exaggeration. Completely, utterly, maniacally insane.
Pat Robertson declared to New York Magazine in 1986:
The people who have come into (our) institutions (today) are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.
Twenty years later, Pat still hasn't lost his ability to spew venom, but he's starting to sound like a broken record. You know the type - the old man who tells the same stories over and over again til we all eventually just smile and nod, thereafter only paying half-attention.
On Tuesday's episode of the 700 Club, he once again took aim at academic institutions - referring to liberal professors as "termites that have worked into the woodwork of our academic society."
The occasion for his latest attack was a segment dedicated to David Horowitz's new book, The Professors. As many of you UT students may remember, Marxist-turned-rabid-right-winger Horowitz visited the campus last year to speak on his "Academic Bill of Rights" courtesy of the UT Federalist Society.
While Horowitz claims that he merely seeks to rid higher education of one-sided political bias, Pat Robertson feigns no pretense of fairness. Pat demands nothing short of complete "fumagation." Personally, I tend to believe that comparing human beings to insects sounds a bit unchristian, but maybe he just has an unnatural fear of termites.
Gen. Richard Myers, that huggable teddy bear-of-a-general we've all grown to know and love during his tenure as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be speaking tonight at the UT campus. Indeed we were all "Shocked and Awed" by his brilliant execution of the war in Iraq - from the unprecedented bombing campaign in Baghdad, to the systematic torture of prisoners, to the killing of innocent civilians.
Now he rides into Austin wearing his laurels and raking in the speaker circuit cash as part of the annual Student Leadership Conference sponsored by the Center for Ethical Leadership at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Student Events Center Distinguished Speakers Committee. In addition to the anticipated anti-war contingent waving their signs of protest, it now appears that a good number of LBJ School students have taken issue with the event.
Craig Adair, a masters candidate at LBJ, writes in today's Daily Texan:
But I am saying that to practice ethical leadership is to unequivocally condemn - not condone - torture, manipulation and artifice (not to mention wars of aggression), especially when those acts result in or perpetuate the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. Deference to human rights, respect for others and truthfulness are the real marks of ethical leadership.
I would welcome Myers' visit to the University under any number of banners - leadership, public policy or military quagmires, for example. I do not welcome the denigration of academic integrity and the further erosion of our country's moral standing and security that his visit constitutes under the guise of "ethical leadership."
It could be true that the Center for Ethical Leadership may have a different definition of "ethical," but personally I have to side with Adair on this one. To imply that the war in Iraq has been carried out in anything but and unethical manner is either the purvue of Bushite pundits or the mindless ranting of idiot drones. Why don't they just invite Ken Lay and Tom DeLay while they're at it?
Adair's column also coincides with a letter signed by him and 11 other LBJ Schoolers and sent to Dr. Howard Prince, Director of the Center for Ethical Leadership. In their letter, they not only express what they see as an inherent conflict between Gen. Myers and "ethical leadership," but list several demands as well:
As students of public affairs at the LBJ School, we, like you, believe that a commitment to the highest ethical standards is essential if we are to be effective stewards of public trust. Therefore, in light of the contradiction here described, we ask that you:
. State in introductory remarks before General Myers speaks that his visit at the invitation of the Center for Ethical Leadership is meant in no way to imply that his actions and decisions are examples of ethical leadership. At the very least, we ask that you acknowledge the existence of the dissenting members of the LBJ Student Body that disagree with upholding the General as a model of ethical leadership.
. Ask General Myers to address the ways in which his actions and decisions as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been inconsistent with basic principles of ethics.
For those of you who plan to attend Gen. Myers speech tonight, let's see if Dr. Prince decides to carry out the LBJ students' wishes. I wager that he doesn't.
Well folks, it's down to the wire. Here we are on the last day of campus elections, and the suspense is... yawn. Succumbing to my trademark cynicism, I can't help but wonder, "What's the point?" I can understand as much as the next guy the need for these exercises in the democratic process, but, honestly, are we really talking about "student representation," "student power," and the millions of other similar slogans that these elections seem to invoke? "Ignite," "Impact," "Reprezent," "Enough," "Focus," "Students First" - so many catch phrases and my only inclination is "Boredom."
I then turn my thoughts to the Senate of College Councils, that fine UT institution of student reactionaries and resume-padders. The same Senate that opposed the student regent proposal. But I should go easy on them. After all, they're not entrusted with representing student interests. The Senate's officeholders were never voted for by the general student body. Yet, the Senate serves virtually the same function as the Student Government. It does make one wonder.
I'd like to extend a friendly hand to you in congratulations for your recent appointment as the first student member on the UT Board of Regents. As you say "Thanks" and reach out to complete the handshake, I'll quickly withdraw my hand and yell, "Psyche!" For you, Mr. Haley, represent everything but student interests. Your appointment has turned what would otherwise be a shining moment for UT students into something all too bittersweet.
Did you honestly think that we would forget how you sold out students while you were President of Student Government at UT-Austin? Our wallets have not forgotten. In the Spring of 2003, when Texas students were faced with the greatest threat they had ever confronted, you abandoned them. As a result, the legislature no longer has the power to set tuition and costs for UT-Austin students have increased over fifty percent. To think that we were allies once!
You, Sir, are nothing but a two-bit Benedict Arnold. When offered all the wealth and success that being an administrative lackey could bring, you sold your soul. Was it mere coincidence that you received an internship with the Department of Commerce while Don Evans, former UT Regent, was Commerce Secretary? Or how about that stint in China with Dell? And now you've returned to attend UT Law School, where current UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof was once dean. Coincidence indeed!
For you it was not enough to display a mere tacit acceptance of tuition deregulation and UT's Los Alamos bid. You went so far as to display an official endorsement of tuition deregulation on the UT System's own website. And when it came time for UT to consider a bid for Los Alamos National Laboratory, your Op-Ed in the Daily Texan strangely resembled a UT System factsheet released earlier. Pah! You're blind reverence for administrative opinion, not so much your particular stance, is what truly disgusts me.
Now you've been chosen by our fool of a governor to represent students on a board that you've favored for years. How can it be possible for 30 years of student lobbying to secure a student regent end in such travesty? I guess that I shouldn't be surprised. After all, it won't be the first time students have been dealt a bad hand, and I'm sure that it won't be the last. In the slim chance that I'm in any way incorrect on this matter, by all means prove me wrong Mr. Haley.
Like a cancerous growth that continues to reemerge even after a patients body has been ravaged by countless surgical scars and chemical treatments, Tom DeLay simply refuses to throw in the towel. Yet regardless of what one might say about his unbridled tenacity, this particular tumor's facing mounting opposition.
Election reports filed late Tuesday revealed that DeLay and his Democratic challenger, Nick Lampson face a virtual dead heat in available campaign funds. This despite the Houston Chronicle's report that DeLay raised almost double Lampson's total contributions during 2005. Hmm... it seems DeLay has a few added expenses eating away at his war chest. A couple of Republican primary challengers probably won't help much either.
Also, tumors don't seem to be quite as popular among the body politic as they used to be. The latest polls show Lampson with a clear lead over DeLay in his 22nd Congressional District.
However, this thing's only beginning. Money wins elections, and John Q. Public should never turn his back on fierce politicians with corporate backing. Those are the kind of bastards who have a knack for getting their way, and DeLay hasn't become the icon of moneyed politics for nothing. Keep in mind that he was able to raise record-setting campaign funds during the fourth quarter of 2005.
And Mr. Public should not discount the fact that DeLay has backing from the King-of-all-tumors - the Bush Administration. Not only has VP Cheney helped DeLay raise large sums of money, but the White House also stands by DeLay's brainchild. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Bush explained his support for the 2003 Republican redistricting effort in Texas. The Supreme Court is set to hear the case on March 1.
