MOMocrats™

The Tea Party Coloring Book

Every now and again I like to check up on the activities of my local chapter of proud Gadsden flag wavers, the St. Louis Tea Party. I haven't seen them out protesting in their usual spot in front of my neighborhood Target in a fair while (I suppose Target is no longer an ideal Tea Party protest location in the wake of the whole Citizens United contribution debacle. Heavens forfend the Tea Party be mistaken as gay rights supporters) and I was starting to miss their cheerful yellow rattlesnake flags, and their signs about taking back their country from Nazi communists. So I thought I should see what my patriotic neighbors have been up to.

It turns out that members of the St. Louis Tea Party have recently published a Tea Party Coloring Book for children! A tip from a Very Famous Conservative Blogger led me to the site ColoringBook.com, where I found the following description on the site's home page:

The newest, latest and the greatest on Tea Party info for kids that's collosal fun and informative! This book is a "must have" for children and parents to learn more about The Tea Party. A very pleasant song, coloring and activity book! 

I was pretty sure the publishers meant "colossal" fun. I'd like to snark, but as my readers know, I'm certainly not immune to typos, And anyway, like any overprotective liberal parent, I'm a sucker for scare quotes that tell me my child "must have" something. So I clicked through to the full product description.

Meet Two Democratic Women Candidates for Texas State Board of Education: Rebecca Bell-Metereau and Judy Jennings

There are ideologues front and center in the classroom where instead there should be teachers and students.

Two highly qualified women in Texas have stepped up as State Board of Eduction (SBOE) candidates so they can roll back some of the more outrageous changes to the curriculum that non-educators with a fringe agenda have imposed on Texas schoolbooks.

Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau both believe teachers and educational experts should determine what's taught in classroom.

Does Dana Loesch think or is she just a Luntzian robotron?

I am not a feminist. I am a woman who has assumed I have the same right as anyone else to choose my own course, make my own future, and do so on equal footing with men. I believe the government exists to serve citizens, not to act as an authoritarian axe or discriminate against one class of citizens over another.  I really don't care if moms stay at home or work. I've done both, both have advantages and disadvantages., and I'm not out to overturn patriarchy. I actually like men.(see note below) I'm married to one. I get along well with them. Those who act like idiots don't get any attention from me.

I respect those liberal women who call themselves feminists but personally resist 'isms' in general as a personal matter.

Now that you know a little about my perspective...

I debated about whether to take on the latest turd Dana Loesch dropped on SFExaminer.com in the form of an op-ed column or ignore her. Other than being the latest Ann Coulter wannabe, she hasn't said much original for the past year or so. (Yes, I snark. It serves as a reminder not to take her too seriously.)

The Sarah Palins, Michele Bachmanns, and other members of the "feminist right" can always be counted on to echo the newest Luntz talking points through the echo chamber. Now that Betsy McCaughey, Pamela Geller and Dr. Laura have been thoroughly discredited, they just pick up some other woman looking for her five minutes of fame and hackery. Dana is the newest candidate. Not the first and she won't be the last.

Do conservative women -- especially intelligent ones (yes, they do exist) -- ever wonder why the party faithful finds the dumbest, most extreme groupies to deliver their message? Republican cynicism at its best -- pay lip service to women's equality but find the ones dumber than a rock to deliver it. Bachmann, Foxx, Palin, Angle....need I say more?

At any rate, this little litany of smashes against "liberal women" is classic Luntz/Rove framing, and deserves a thorough debunking.

Let's begin with her assertions about Avastin, a drug originally developed to treat colon cancer.

This past month, liberal feminists made more hay made over Palin's "mama grizzlies" talk than the matter of the Food and Drug Administration jerking Avastin off the market. Avastin is a drug used to treat late-stage breast cancer and has been shown to extend the life of some breast cancer patients by five months, but was deemed "cost-prohibitive" by the government.

Not so much. This is one of the high dangers of fast-tracking cancer drug approvals before the clinical trials really prove their efficacy. (It's a big word, Dana. Look it up.) The FDA didn't "jerk Avastin off the market" in order to leave late-stage breast cancer patients adrift without a lifeline, even if Dana Loesch says so. The FDA pulled Avastin because it was ineffective against late-stage breast cancer. Out of three clinical trials, it was only reported as effective on one patient. One. single. patient. And that was in the first trial.The second trials, conducted with more controls, yielded no positive results.

As a conservative woman, you'd think Dana Loesch would appreciate this: Avastin costs $50,000/year. Is it really conservative to spend $50,000 for an ineffective treatment? Really?

Moving on to her litany of complaints about "liberal feminists"...

Democratic Candidate for Governor of Oklahoma, Jari Askins, Wins Primary to Face a Sarah Palin-Backed GOP Candidate

By SEAN MURPHY (AP) – 6 hours ago

via www.google.com

Oklahoma now has two women vying to fill the seat of governor of the state.

After a come-from-behind victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, current Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins wins to face an anti-choice Sarah Palin-backed GOP candidate, Congresswoman Mary Fallins.

While not full-throatedly pro-choice, Lt. Governor Askins supports women's access to abortions in "hard cases," a more moderate position than avowedly anti-choice Fallin. Oklahoma is among the most anti-choice states in the country, the legislature having earlier this year voted in a "compulsory ultrasound" law for women seeking abortions and approved public posting of information on women who receive abortions. Askins' message of gender equality through pay equity resonated with women voters, so it'll be interesting to see how Fallin responds on that issue.

Askins also benefited from last-minute support from a popular football coach who had also campaigned for sitting Governor Brad Henry previously. She's demonstrated a bipartisan approach so far, emphasizing bread and butter issues like jobs and education.

It's important to note that for all of Palin's vaunted popularity among hard-right Tea Party Republicans, endorsement from the former half-term governor can just as likely be the kiss of electoral death as a boost.

Why? The quitter from Wasilla consistently turns off most moderates and an overwhelming percentage of liberals. One blogger notes that her 29% favorability rating makes her about as popular as George W Bush was--quite a feat when she hasn't yet had an opportunity to launch two costly and unsuccessful wars or tank the economy. That makes it hard for her strident persona to translate into electoral success--she's a hothouse orchid who blooms best in the overheated swamps of Faux News and the fact-free right-wingosphere. We'll see if Oklahoma's moderates outnumber its hard-right ideologues, and if Askins can get Democrats and independents out to vote.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

What a Five-Year-Old Needs to Know About Sex

Last week, after a tempest-in-a-teapot on Twitter that covered birth control, comprehensive sexual education vs. abstinence-only, Title X, CEDAW, and political minorities vis a vis Madison’s Federalist Papers, someone tweeted, “The only thing a 5yrold should need to know about sex is...well...nothing.”

Shortly thereafter, I saw Logan Levkoff debating Peter Sprigg, of the Family Research Council, on Fox News over proposed curriculum changes in Helena, MT.

Did you catch that? Peter Spriggs is all a flutter over the possibility of teaching kindergartners “the names of the male and female sex organs.” In other words, teaching kids the correct names of their own body parts.

Coming this week: The Texas Social Studies Standards Showdown

Image via Wikipedia

On May 19th, the Texas Board of Education will meet to approve the final Social Studies curriculum and textbook changes that caused such a stir back in March. Since that meeting, even more changes have been proposed which, if adopted, promise to rewrite history for Texas schoolchildren to the conservative narrative. Uber-winger Don McLeroy's proposals:

• Undermine the doctrine of separation of church and state. McLeroy wants to substitute an unintelligible standard asking students to "contrast the Founders' intent relative to the wording of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, with the popular term 'Separation of church and state.'"
• Attacking social programs. McLeroy proposes children "discuss alternatives to long-term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare" as a solution to the current ratio of workers to retirees. This is a particularly odious theme, given that the ratio will be entirely different by the time these children are at the peak of their careers.
• Skew focus toward conservatives. McLeroy's logic is this:

  "This is relevant to assessing the policies of the various ideologies that have shaped where we are as Americans," said McLeroy, who has joined with other members of his board bloc to put a more conservative slant on the social studies standards. For example, high school students will have to learn specifically about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s in U.S. history, but not about identified liberal or minority rights groups.

• Removal of all references to the terms "justice" and "equality".

R.I.P. Dorothy I. Height

Civil rights leader Dorothy Heights passed away early this morning at Howard University Hospital. Ms. Heights was 98 and had served as the president and then chair emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women.

She was supposed to go to Barnard but they'd already accepted two African American students, thereby meeting their quota. Yes, really. She came up with some of the most well-known civil rights leaders, from the Revs. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Jr. to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mary McLeod Bethune. A humanitarian and feminist, she was there to see JFK sign the Equal Pay Act in 1963.

I think often of her quote: "If the times aren't ripe, you have to ripen the times."

Please read her amazing obituary.

Happy Tax Day!

 No, really. Happy Tax Day!

We at MOMocrats get as annoyed as any normal person by the tedious piles of tax paperwork we have to fill out each year to do our social duty. (I mean, seriously: we're a bunch of writers. We have to fill out the Schedule C.) And of course, there are some government programs we are disappointed to see our tax dollars going toward.

But as patriotic Americans, we're also genuinely proud to know that we help pay for many of the public sector agencies and government programs that make this country a better place to live, and so we're happy, on this tax day, to reflect on all the good the hard earned cash we're parting with can accomplish.

Here are some of the things MOMocrats writers actually like paying taxes for:

Julie: I am happy to pay taxes because I know it helps fund schools and I do believe that solid, well-rounded education is a cornerstone of a great culture.

I am happy to pay taxes because I know it helps fund CHIP, and knowing that kids get needed health care is crucial to me.

Texas State Board of Education v Race to the Top: Who will win?

Lest you think it gets (politically) boring -- ever -- down in Texas, I'll disabuse you of that notion citing the current battle over the minds of Texas schoolchildren. Like Biblical, Classical and Mythological figures (to be fair to all points of view), the Indoctrinate side has squared off against the Educate side.

Let's consider the context around this curriculum standards debate, first: Texas is 49th in the US for verbal SAT scores, 46th for math SAT scores, 36th in high school graduation rates, only six (2 public and 4 private) of Texas’ 145 higher education institutions are ranked among the nation’s top 100, and from fiscal years 1999 to 2006, average tuition and fees at public universities have increased 95.5% while college degree rates are under 25% (all data public information from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts). And yet, we rank 14th in government expenditures on higher education. (You might also like to review the ratings and rankings of Texas public schools.) Texas is 38th for education expenditures and education. And yet, only 9.5% of our schools are exemplary and we aren't in the top half ranking of states for public school performance...we're in the bottom of the bottom half.

When US public schools were graded, Texas received a low score (below a C). In that, report education expert Christopher B. Swanson, vice president of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit organization that publishes Education Week, said

“A convergence of political and economic factors has generated a great deal of momentum behind the push for common standards right now,” Swanson added. “But the success of this movement will ultimately hinge on follow-through on key issues like aligning curriculum with the common standards, supporting high-quality instruction, and measuring student performance against the new expectations.”

TEXANS! Input Urgently Needed on Textbooks: SBOE works to strike out Hispanic History

School kids across the country urgently need your help to stop the Texas Board of Education from erasing Cesar Chavez and all Hispanic historical figures from public school text books. 

Since Texas is such a major textbook purchaser, such a move could have a nationwide impact. 

This Wednesday, Jan. 13, the state board will take a preliminary vote to adopt new standards for social studies texts. These new standards would eliminate all Hispanics since the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century. Cesar Chavez, arguably the most important Hispanic civil rights leader of the 20th century, is among the historical figures to be eliminated. Also eliminated would be key Texas history makers such as Irma Rangel, the first Hispanic woman elected to the state legislature. 

Board members and their appointees have complained about an "over-representation of minorities" in the current social studies standards. This is ironic as Hispanics will soon comprise the majority of all Texas public school students. 

Please take a few moments right now to send the board chair Gail Lowe an e-mail.

Tell the State Board of Education not to allow a handful of ideological extremists to revise history by eliminating people of color. Please act now. Go to: http://action.ufw.org/page/speakout/cectxjan10. You can also visit the SBOE Web site to see contact information for members and call or fax (or both) the Chair Gail Lowe to express your opinion:

Gail Lowe (R) 

11 Chris Avenue Lampasas, TX 76550 

(512) 556-6262 

(512) 936-4319 FAX 

[email protected]

You can reach TEA at:

William B. Travis Building 

1701 N. Congress Avenue 

Austin, Texas, 78701

Main Switchboard: (512) 463-9734 

Main Fax Number: (512) 463-9838

Si se puede!