Those poor people

'Too White' Berkeley Science Labs May Be Cut

The Berkeley (CA) Board of Education will consider, at its February 3 meeting, whether or not to cancel before and after school Science Labs for Advanced Placement Science classes at Berkeley High School because the classes are attended largely by white students. The proposal is aimed at addressing "Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap"

Those poor people.   Their public officials are so pathetic.   But, Progressives are as Progressives do.  You'd think the people would vote the rascals out;  yet they don't.

Those poor people.

Insight into Progressivism

Here is a gem from the PBD — Progressive Blog Digest:

View From the Corner: For some, "hope for change" now means "hope Obama will change." But hasn't "hope for change" always really meant "hope that We the People change?"

That last phrase is at the heart of progressivism and most likely is what the Progressives, especially O, had in mind.

Liberals? Conservatives?

Howard Dean, in commenting on the Massachusetts election, claimed the underlying reason for Brown's victory is Obama not being liberal enough. But, is liberalism the root issue?

In the days when monarchical rule was the norm, monarchic governments were strongly centralized and paternalistic to varying degrees. And, it was liberal political thought that ran counter to monarchy; conservative thought was supportive. When you think about it, Progressivism exhibits many of the same characteristics: Strong central government with a paternalistic, socialist bent.

So, it seems to me, the root issue underlying the Massachusetts election was not Obama's per se liberalism because he is not a liberal; he is a Progressive. Rather, by analogy, liberal politics would run counter to what a Progressive stands for.

So, Dean may be right about O's liberalism but not in the way he thinks.

---

Postscript: Historians that concern themselves with politics consider Progressivism to be a branch of historic liberal political thought. The analogy with historic monarchies seems compelling nevertheless.

Reaction to the Supreme Court's First Amendment Decision

Statement from the President on Today's Supreme Court Decision

Now that the Supreme Court has extended first amendment rights to corporations, O is all up in arms. Here is the President's response:

With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.More... This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington--while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That's why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.

Yes, well, up to now, the unions—notably, AFL/CIO and SEIU—have been exercising their political speech rights on an almost monopoly basis. I suspect the fact that this monopoly is now broken is the real issue for Obama.

Progressive media disinformation exposed

From an article on Human Events:

In the shocking new book released this week, Thiessen takes Amanpour and other public figures to task for making false and shameful comparisons between the CIA and the torturers of murderous regimes like the Khmer Rouge. Among those Thiessen exposes for their lies and misstatements are Attorney General Eric Holder, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Christopher Dodd, Dick Durbin, former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis, Atlantic Monthly blogger Andrew Sullivan and others.

Apparently CNN's Amanpour is comfortable playing fast and loose with the truth until confronted with the evidence.

On abortion in America

The current issue of The Weekly Standard has a powerful commentary on abortion. Reading it made my blood run cold.

I am convinced that medical personnel—the doctors and nurses—that persist in doing abortions posses a seriously degraded humanity.

But, I hold the highest condemnation for those that push it, those that coerce hapless women to undergo it, but maintain their distance from it out on the sidewalk with their pro-choice signs or in the administrative offices.

I am of the belief that anyone that holds Roe v. Wade to be settled law ought to be compelled personally to witness an abortion; especially a late-term abortion. That goes for Supreme Court justices, politicians and right-to-choose-ers.

---

Postscript: The Weekly Standard article is entitled Mugged By Ultrasound.

Consumer Union's Political Activism

The following is an example of a Consumer Union issue advocacy email in favor of O's healthcare legislation. It seems the CU, like AARP, has become an advocate for the Progressive agenda.

---

Dear Howard,

This morning things look dire for health reform. But we've come too far to let partisan politics get in the way of reforms that will significantly lower the cost of health coverage for millions of Americans. We will be putting everything we have into the final weeks of this battle, and we want you to join us in Washington for it's historic denouement.

We're going to win this. And when we do, we want you with us, walking the halls of Congress at a truly historic moment in our nation’s history.
More...
Join us for Consumers Union’s Activist Summit in Washington in just three weeks and be there in person for our final push to get affordable health care for all Americans!

Click here to learn about Consumers Union’s Feb. 9-11 activist summit and to register.

Think you can’t possibly make a difference? Consider people like Cindy Shawcross from Fargo, N.D., who we met in 2008 while traveling the country collecting health care stories. Cindy, who had no experience in activism, came to our summit later that year, where she learned tools and skills on lobbying and organizing, as well as blogging, media relations and community outreach.

Today, Cindy is one of our top consumer voices in the halls of Congress on health reform – meeting several times with her Senators and Representatives, getting covered in national media including USA Today, writing her own blog, and serving as a leader in her community.

Our summit is designed to give regular people the tools to make a difference at the city, state or national level – securing more affordable health care, getting dangerous products off store shelves, ending rip-offs by the giant banks and phone companies.

This year’s summit coincides with the final countdown on national health reform! Part of the summit will include you lobbying Congress to pass the best bill possible!

Learn more about the Feb. 9-11 summit here, and how you can join us in Washington!

Please take a moment to look through what’s offered at this year’s activist summit. Or if you have question, please email me, Morgan Jindrich, directly at jindmo at consumer.org.

We look forward to having you be part of our final health care push!

Sincerely,
Morgan Jindrich
Consumers Union
506 W. 14th Street
Austin, TX 78701

On the current Administration's view of the Constitution

I think it would help us to understand where O is coming from—in expanding the scope of the Federal government—by keeping in mind the Progressive's view of the Constitution; that, while the written Constitution was appropriate for the times in which it was drafted, it now is a museum piece of no importance for today because historical circumstances have changed and a fixed interpretation of the founding documents cannot possibly be an appropriate basis for governing.

Therefore, the current Administration feel that what they are doing is perfectly natural. O does not feel constrained by the Constitution's limits on Federal government. Neither did Pelosi when she uttered the famous "Are you kidding? Are you kidding?" in response to a reporter's question about the Constitutional basis for the healthcare bill.

And, that explains O's—along with the Progressives in Congress—lack of reticence about expanding the role of the Federal government.

I believe the thought never crossed their collective, Progressive mind that the people would have a different opinion. So, the results of the upcoming elections should be a shock to them.

We can only hope.

The fix is in

Deal Exempts Unions From 'Cadillac' Health-Plan Tax Till 2018

Unions and Democratic negotiators agreed Thursday to scale back a proposed tax on high-end health-insurance plans in the health bill, in part by adding a provision exempting collectively bargained contracts from the tax through Jan. 1, 2018.

Is this one of the nastiest administrations in history, or what?

On the Progressive agenda--education

From Croly's discussion in Chapter XIII on how education applies to furtherance of the Progressive cause:

The individual can do much to aid national education by the single-minded and intelligent realization of his own specific purposes; but all individual successes will have little more than an individual interest unless they frequently contribute to the work of national construction. The nation can do much to aid individual education; but the best aid within its power is to offer to the individual a really formative and inspiring opportunity for public service.

O's USAservice.org TV ad fits right in.

Understanding the Progressive agenda

The Promise of American Life by Herbert David Croly

Here is a book, written in 1909, that is at the root of modern liberalism. It discusses in some detail how to use the powers of the Federal government to achieve a morally and socially desirable distribution of wealth.

The redemption of the national Promise has become a cause for which the good American must fight, and the cause for which a man fights is a cause which he more than ever values. The American idea is no longer to be propagated merely by multiplying the children of the West and by granting ignorant aliens permission to vote. Like all sacred causes, it must be propagated by the Word and by that right arm of the Word, which is the Sword.

This book is a must read for those that want to understand the agenda and actions of the Democratic Party's Progressive wing. The book may be downloaded from the Project Gutenberg site.

On the current state of affairs

But in a representative republic … where the legislative power is exercised by an assembly, which is inspired by a supposed influence over the people with an intrepid confidence in its own strength; which is sufficiently numerous to feel all the passions which actuate a multitude, yet not so numerous as to be incapable of pursuing the objects of its passions by means which reason prescribes; it is against the enterprising ambition of this department that the people ought to indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their precautions.

~The Federalist Number XLVIII

Madison was warning against repeating the excesses of the state legislative bodies during the Confederation era as justification for the present Federal arrangement.

But, the Pelosi Congress, albeit with their Progressive agenda in lieu of Madison's populist fervor igniting their passions, has demonstrated how this department can still kick over the traces threatening to lead the country down a path to fiscal ruin.

And, what of the Reid Senate, that supposed temperate and respectable body of citizens that is to provide the check until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority? Instead, we have a body similarly inflamed by Progressive idealogy that is barely a speed bump on the road to ruin.

And, must we even mention the Chief Executive has thrown in with them both?

So, what recourse do we have when the Executive and both Houses are in cahoots?

Obama's political guru

Recommended

Excellent pieces over at TOTUS:  You may be Taliban (Jeff Foxworthy) and We The People (Ray Stevens).

The truth about the President

O is truly irritated over the Nigerian bomber episode. Not so much about what the Nigerian tried to do to the passengers of Northwest flight 253 on Christmas day. Not at all, really.

For O, being a progressive in the mold of Woodrow Wilson and a disciple of Saul Alinsky, it is more about the distraction from his progressive agenda; an agenda, the focus of which is, to transform America into a socialist state a la the European Union.

Wilson and Alinsky: The ideologue and the tactician. O, along with the members of his administration, are well versed in both. The near-term focus will be to put on an act to calm everything down. Then, it will be back to business...