republican candidates, stupid cheaters

I love this guy. He's so intelligent and reasonable.

Also he supports legalizing online gambling. I don't gamble at all and think it's silly, but it seems bizarre to make it illegal online, especially when Vegas and Atlantic City and Foxwoods really exist. 

He didn't get invited to the second Republican debate, but answered the questions anyway:




unfortunately, he will be crushed by this lunatic:




There's an amazing piece in Rolling Stone, Michelle Bachmann's Holy War, which begins

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don't laugh.

It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.

Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."


I am generally suspicious of articles written in such an unabashedly mocking tone, but Taibbi seems right on here.

Compare this to the unbelievable sycophantic "email interview" (what??) that Newsweek did with Sarah Palin (or possibly her administrative assistant).
an excerpt:

Palin has also become conversant on the subject of quantitative easing, the inflationary effects of which she illustrated with a personal anecdote. “I was ticked off at Todd yesterday,” she said. “He walks into a gas station as we’re driving over from Minnesota. He buys a Slim Jim—we’re always eating that jerky stuff—for $2.69. I said, ‘Todd, those used to be 99 cents, just recently!’ And he says, ‘Man, the dollar’s worth nothing anymore.' A jug of milk and a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs—every time I walk into that grocery store, a couple of pennies more...”

When did Newsweek stop being a real news organization? It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Marge says "wow, Fox news turned into a hard core sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice."

Finally, I'm amazed by the cheating scandal in the Atlanta public school system.

Systematic Cheating Is Found in Atlanta’s School System
By KIM SEVERSON


Published: July 5, 2011

 ATLANTA — A state investigation released Tuesday showed rampant, systematic cheating on test scores in this city’s long-troubled public schools, ending two years of increasing skepticism over remarkable improvements touted by school leaders.

The administration of former superintendent Beverly L. Hall punished whistle-blowers, hid or manipulated information and altered documents, the investigation found.

The results of the investigation, made public by Gov. Nathan Deal, showed that the cheating occurred at 44 schools and involved at least 178 teachers and principals, almost half of whom have confessed, the governor said.
...
In 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began aggressive reporting that questioned the statistical probability of some test scores and eventually led to a separate state investigation of 2009 tests that showed an unusually high number of erasures."   full article


When all you have to do to not get caught is to tell your students: "If you aren't sure, leave it blank. There's a penalty for guessing." That really occurred to no one?? People that stupid shouldn't be allowed around children.