Happy New Year

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Mother Nature's having the last word on 2010 in prairie country. A good time to stay in, stay warm, stay safe.

May your New Year get better!
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Season of Peace Wishes

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However you celebrate or don't this holiday season, good will wishes to you for peace on earth...and in nations...and in homes...and in hearts.
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Hoary Old Chestnuts Roasting....

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On Hardball Wednesday, the discussion turned to education, and Salon's Joan Walsh pointed out that John Boehner's sad, sad tears about children mean nothing compared to the lack of action and effort by Boehner to actually improve the lives of children. Right on cue, Michelle Bernard trotted out yet again the magic word of conservative ideologues everywhere: vouchers.

Please.

What good's a voucher going to do for a poor kid whose tuition would be thousands of dollars more than the value of a voucher? What good's a voucher going to do when the next nearest school to the rural combined school is twenty miles away on country highways covered with ice and snow this year.

Walsh had it right. Vouchers are a panacea. The typical grab-a-buzz-word tactic of the right. Shallow. Clipped. About as much value as my spaniel's toenails.

So maybe Boehner ought to dry his poor-poor-me-I-have-to-see-what-I-should-be-doing tears. Pack away the golf clubs and the country club memberships. Visit schools every single week.

And Michelle Bernard. Maybe she ought to chip her manicure a bit by going into a DC school with a paintbrush.

Teachers unions aren't the problem, as follow-up guest Michelle Rhee noted. They're doing their job. It's the rest of us that aren't doing ours.

So to Boehner and Bernard and the ideologues on the right, how about taking in a holiday movie this Christmas season. Waiting for Superman.

Education means all the kids...fix the problems. Don't just divide and favor the vouchered few.
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crossposted at firedoglake/MyFDL

RIP Elizabeth Edwards

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Elizabeth Edwards long journey and challenges are now over. May she rest in peace.

If the dogs in the media will let her.

Yes, I'm talking about you, Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd. Your disgusting on-air trashing of this woman when her death was just confirmed is beyond loathesome. And will not be forgotten by this former viewer.
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ISAIAH Summit in Minnesota

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To know just how much Republican Tom Emmer cares about being governor and actually, you know, governing, just one word: ISAIAH.

The recount stall campaign now in progress in Minnesota has absolutely less than zero credibility when you look at Tom Emmer's reaction to ISAIAH.

He and Mark Dayton were both invited to the ISAIAH summit, Shining the Light, a Faith Gathering for Minnesota's Future. Inviting both to the Sunday, December 5 event was covering the bases, as one organizer put it.

Mark Dayton attended.

Tom Emmer never responded.

Meanwhile, the Republican-slanted Minnesota media types are still pretending this is a serious recount, not just more of the same ol' same ol' from the party of craven thuggery.
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h/t MPR news
crossposted at firedoglake/MyFDL

North Dakota: We're Number 1

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For years we've had Congressman Earl Pomeroy [D-ND] working himself to exhaustion to bring home the bacon for our state. Flood mitigation funds, investments in technology and agriculture, highways, you name it, if it was good for North Dakota, Earl worked his ass off for it. Was on the front lines, too. From his multiple trips to visit our troops in Afghanistan to standing on the riverbanks hefting sandbags right along with his neighbors.

Pomeroy’s requests targeted key priorities such as education, research, technology, the state’s Air Force bases in Minot and Grand Forks and flood control projects in the Red River Valley.

Meanwhile, Rick Berg was nowhere to be seen--except hiding out behind closed doors with John Boehner at exclusive fundraisers.

Then came the election.

And the red tide of megaspending against Pomeroy and for his opponent Rick Berg flooded the airwaves. Like the Red River may be flooding Fargo and North Dakota again next spring.

Pomeroy was swept out of office.

And look at what we got ourselves. We're still number 1 -- our newly elected almost Congressman shows up as Number One on the list of wealthiest new Congressmen, according to Politico:

Richard Berg, who unseated North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy, appears to be the wealthiest newly elected Republican, with assets above $20 million.

The Republican freshmen will have plenty of company in the millionaires club in Congress.

While Earl worked for we in ND, Berg was all about "me, me, me..."

Brace yourselves. And stock up on your sandbags.
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h/t Voice of Dakota
crossposted at firedoglake/My FDL