Marylee Shrider is enraged that the state Supreme Court shows a “shocking” disregard for the will of the people. Yep, they disregarded, and that’s one of the constitutional prerogatives of the Court, unlike lawmakers who’ve genuflexed to the Will of the Majority with Separate But Equal, Executive Order 9066, and miscegenation laws.  

  If she feels like she was tazered, think about this-- unlike her, minorities have to turn to the courts - especially the Supreme Court - to protect them from the Will of the People.

  Marylee, where was your outrage when otherwise good people advertised, “If you’re not Christian, shut up and sit down”? Don’t worry. You’re going to be warm and safe  in your moral majority.

  The media did its usual venial-non-reporting with those Wright sound bites ["damn America." ] Enough with the words. Only money gets America's attention, and I'm voting for Wright with my wallet. Go to his church's website https://www.tucc.org/home.htm, look around, and if you believe in what he really says, then translate it into a few bucks.

San Francisco. AP.

    This summer the Presidential Memorial Commission will honor George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, when the Northshore Sewage Pumping Station at the Embarcadero is officially renamed the “George W. Bush Sewage and Biogas Transfer Facility." It’s proximity to the popular plaza will memorialize Mr. Bush’s contributions to his country and to the world.

•   BAKERSFIELD MAGAZINE, Spring 2008: Bakersfield’s Premiere, Wealthy-White-Men’s Self-Congratulatory Sycophantic Magazine of Advertising.

•   What a worrysome example of the use of dead trees. Can the Corum Family still make a buck by showing at least a few women; people of color; the fourth of Kern County who are working-poor; those losing their homes and jobs?

•  Fellow sinners, let us pray that Moorhouse’s BAKERSFIELD LIFE MAGAZINE from the Bakersfield Californian doesn’t also sell its integrity to the devil and lubricate the rich with lavish caresses and sweet kisses in perpetuation of institutionalized prejudice.

• The US is Homer Simpson when it comes to  kissing up to corrupt foreign governments --and then looking surprised. Our trusted friend: Pakistan's President Pervez Mascara. And now … well, when you lie down with dogs you get fleas.

• This happened in Pakistan:

At one in the morning, five men burst through the door of the family's mud-brick home in the village of Nizampur in southern Punjab. They identified themselves as police and said they were searching for weapons. One held a pistol to the mother’s chest while another pinned her nine-year-old brother, Rizwan, to the floor. And then two men held 16 year-old Najma down on the bed while a third raped her.

The family recognized the assailants and went to the police the next morning. Najma was examined by a doctor, who submitted a medical report confirming the rape. But the local police, who are of the same clan as the constable, refused to file charges. Incensed, the family hired an attorney who appealed to officials in the nearby town of Khanewal.

Officials there concluded that the police constable was incapable of committing such a crime. The case was closed. What will happen to the family? "If they don't leave immediately, they will be in danger. The constable could send men to rape the other sister, or to rape Najma again. Or he might kill them all, to make an example of them or to punish them for going to the police."

The father speaks. "When government fails them, people get angry. They lose faith in the system and look for alternatives. Think how easy it would be for the Islamists—or Taliban or al Qaeda—to go to the brothers of this girl now and say, 'What happened to your family is not justice. This man dishonored your sister; he dishonored your father and your family name. Join us and we will help you get justice. We will make him pay.' When citizens are denied their basic human rights, they become radicalized. When people are powerless, they are easily manipulated.”

• Struggle for the Soul of Pakistan, (a country where 3% of the country’s wealth goes to the people, and 97% goes into the pockets of the military junta), is online at National Geographic Magazine (9-2007).

http://www7.nationalgeograp...

• It’s time to get a fire started, and soon.
• Next month Chairman Kevin Martin of the Federal Communications Commission plans to let giant corporations gain even more control over what we read, hear, and watch on TV.
• Most US newspapers, TV, and radio stations are owned by six mega-businesses that serve-up massive helpings of spin, which the pubic innocently swallows.
• The Big Six also filters the news.
• Forty years ago, 50,000 demonstrators crowded around the Lincoln Memorial in DC to protest the Vietnam War, and the event made Page One of every newspaper in America.
• On October 27, 2007, 100,000 people in a dozen major US cities protested the Iraq War.
• Didn’t hear about that one? It’s because the Big Guys decided they didn’t want to know it.
• It’s like growing mushrooms: keep the public in the dark and feed them manure.

• China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia buy American bonds and keep us financially afloat, and for the next several generations Federal Income Tax will repay that interest and principal.
• Meanwhile, California’s aging roads, bridges, schools, Veterans’ benefits, etc. etc., go begging at a Federal Government purse that's impoverished by our foreign wars.
•  The added dollars that our children and their children will pay in Federal Taxes will mean a poorer life for them.
• Mr. President, you told us that you attacked Iraq because it supported Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and now you tell us we have to invade Iran.
• Sir, trick me once, shame on you. Trick me twice, shame on me.

Ruben Navarrette’s October 8th column about the “No Child Left Behind” Act suggests that he’s infected with the Liberty Valance Disease. It’s the one that says since GW Bush and his sycophants are still boosting the Act, then it must be a mighty fine one.

Mr. Navarrette implies that some parents (“Republicans”) oppose the testing and test-preparation constraints of the NCLB Act. I see those parents as the ones who want their B students to be A students and their A students to be A+ students, the parents who attend school functions, meet regularly with their children’s teachers, and visit the school from time to time. Yes, we don’t like NCLB, and Yes we want to restore what has been subtracted from the curriculum under the sacred name of NCLB.

I can’t speak for low-performing schools, but I know that the “self-serving” teachers you named are not the entire reason that some pupils don’t progress. What do you do when letters are mailed, phone calls made, notices sent home-- in Spanish and English-- translators sit by, and classrooms are staffed so teachers can have one-on-one meeting time with parents? Who shows up? Less than half the “responsible adults” ever come, and that’s all year.

The reasons for that are very many, but right now I’m talking about the fact that schools have cut back on  art and music and writing and discussions, and replaced those with “test preparation,” testing, more preparation for testing, & etc. 

 “No Child Left Behind” is unnecessary for achieving children, and I wonder if it’s even a good idea for low-achieving ones. I do know what I want for my child’s school. Woe to the children whose parents trust the Government to make good school decisions.

 

Californian: “It is the general impression that in case of a war the National Guards cannot be called upon to leave the State, and such was the case until recently when Congress passed a law enabling the president to order any company to any point. The reason for this power being delegated to the president was to permit the mobilization of troops at the upcoming Omaha exposition where it is expected 250,000 soldiers and militiamen will be assembled. However, while the guards may be ordered into actual service, the chances are that they will be kept in reserve for home protection in case of war and will constitute an army of defense.” --February 21, 1898

If you still think it's no big deal that Bush's Congress gifted  him warrantless spying power, then here's some newly released history about our slippery slide into fascism. After Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, the FBI spied on Coretta Scott King, read her private mail, recorded her phone calls, and tailed her wherever she went, all that without a warrant. Remember, this was illegal. Mrs. King never had committed a crime. So, why did it happen? Dick Nixon and his boys were afraid Mrs. King would stir up the civil rights movement against the Vietnam War. When Nixon was caught red-handed, an indignant Congress passed an act in  1977 requiring  the government to obtain a warrant before spying on its citizens. Fast forward: You already know that GW Bush started spying on American citizens in violation of that law, and he, like Nixon, was caught. Bush then  instructed his majority in Congress to amend the law to allow certain kinds of electronic spying on citizens, note, without warrant or review. In this case, a Pontiff President and his cronies never flinched when they subtracted from our civil rights. Be careful what you say about the government.