Utah Sends a Message To The White House

WATCH THIS NOW:

http://www.drivedemocracy.org/breakthesilence/

Posted by: Karen at April 21, 2005 07:20 PM

Do what Karen says. It will not fail to move you.

If you read the NY Times, you're behind what has been reported on LUTD :)

We reported on opposition to NCLB not only in Utah, but also in two other states three days ago!

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=744

Three Illinois school districts are suing over NCLB.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=78047

Here is another story and it is only a couple of hours old.

Suit rips No Child Left Behind funding

The nation's largest teachers union and its Illinois affiliate filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the U.S. secretary of education of failing to fully fund the federal No Child Left Behind law by several billion dollars and forcing states to make up the difference by diverting funds from gifted programs, efforts to cut class size and other initiatives.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-nclb21.html

The John Kerry video is good.

RSVP'd to see John & Teresa when they help Governor Gregoire with her legal defense soon, at Daybreak Star Native American Center, Seattle.

Bolton is Toast. Sounds like Powell is about to Sing. Its unbelievable that Powell has warned Chafee and Hagel about Boton and Chafee still stands by his support of Bolton.

"But associates of Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state, said he had expressed reservations about Mr. Bolton in conversations with at least two wavering Republican senators.

The associates said Mr. Powell, in private telephone conversations, had made clear his concerns about Mr. Bolton on several fronts, including his harsh treatment of subordinates.

The associates said Mr. Powell had also praised Mr. Bolton's performance on some matters during his tenure as under secretary of state, but they said Mr. Powell had stopped well short of the endorsements offered by Mr. Bush and by Mr. Powell's own successor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The accounts of Mr. Powell's private messages about Mr. Bolton suggested a new gulf between the former secretary of state and Mr. Bush. In a speech in Washington on Thursday, Mr. Bush portrayed Democratic opposition to Mr. Bolton as politically driven, and urged the Senate to confirm the nomination.

Mr. Bush's comment and others by a White House spokesman suggested that the administration was determined to defend Mr. Bolton's nomination, despite crumbling support among Senate Republicans that has left the nomination in peril."

Posted by: Ira at April 21, 2005 10:11 PM

Ira, what are you quoting?

Bolton Blocked Info, including from Rice & Powell

Bad Bad Boy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61304-2005Apr17.html

Amy,

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/22/politics/22bolton.html

A phony agent may have kicked activists out of a Bush event in Colorado, says their lawyer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4955372,00.html

10 Seattle schools targeted for closure
Parents gasp, heckle as draft plan is announced; more than 3,500 students would be displaced

By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Faced with multimillion-dollar budget deficits, Seattle Public Schools administrators yesterday outlined a cost-cutting plan that would close 10 schools, eliminate a popular alternative program and create two middle schools.

Under the sweeping restructuring proposal, more than 3,500 students would be displaced -- a sobering fact that outraged many parents last night.

The 46,000-student district would also return to a neighborhood school system and scale back an expensive, citywide busing program.

District-contracted bus service would be eliminated for middle and high school students attending classes outside their neighborhood. Those students would instead be provided with Metro passes

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/221031_school21.html

Mike A Pal to Morning After Pill
By DAVE SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Hoping to reduce unwanted pregnancies yesterday became the first political leader in the nation to dedicate tax dollars to promoting the "morning-after" pill.

The $3 million program, which includes offering advance prescriptions for the drug to women at city hospitals, was immediately blasted by conservatives.

But Bloomberg, a Democrat who turned Republican but has always cast himself as ardently pro-choice, said the program was needed to raise awareness of contraceptive options and, ultimately, reduce abortions.

The mayor said that of the estimated 215,000 pregnancies in the city last year, 130,000 were unintended - and 90,000 of those were terminated.

"I think it's outrageous, frankly, that we haven't done everything we can to reduce unintended pregnancies and the need for abortions," Bloomberg told a meeting of NARAL Pro-Choice New York.

Under the new plan, the city Health Department will reach out to doctors and pharmacists to raise awareness of Plan B - the only government-approved morning-after pill.

Plan B works by preventing a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the uterus.

Doctors will be encouraged to write advance prescriptions for the drug, which is already covered by Medicaid, so that pills are on hand when women need to take them - preferably within three days of unprotected sex.

But the announcement quickly cast the mayor into the volatile debate over abortion rights and questions of when life begins.

Many conservatives believe life starts at conception and regard Plan B as just another form of abortion.

"It would be nice to see the City of New York talk about abstinence," said Conservative Party leader Mike Long, "and not send a signal to all our citizens - especially young people - that you can be irresponsible."

But advocates for women's rights quickly came to the mayor's defense and suggested that the new program could become a national model.

"No mayor or governor, anywhere in America, has invested public dollars into promoting knowledge and use of the morning-after pill," said Kelli Conlin, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice. "Mayor Bloomberg is providing a road map."

Fast Facts

About Emergency Contraception, which is also known as EC or the morning-after pill:

# If taken within three days of intercourse, EC can reduce the risk of unintended pregnancies by up to 89%.

# There is only one FDA-approved EC drug on the market - it's called Plan B. It contains higher levels of the hormone found in regular birth control pills.

# Women take two pills - one within three days, another 12 hours later.

# The pill prevents a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. For this reason, it is not considered an abortion pill, like RU486, which destroys a fetus after it has attached to the uterus.

"Many conservatives believe life starts at conception and regard Plan B as just another form of abortion."

"It would be nice to see the City of New York talk about abstinence," said Conservative Party leader Mike Long, "and not send a signal to all our citizens - especially young people - that you can be irresponsible."

I encourage conservatives to think seriously about abstinence, especially AFTER marriage - when their abstinence will do society the most good.

Regarding the thread topic...I hate No Child Left Behind as much as the next guy, but can Utah legally do that?

I encourage conservatives to think seriously about abstinence, especially AFTER marriage - when their abstinence will do society the most good.

Posted by: Cyrano at April 22, 2005 07:18 AM

What great advice! Let's pass it on and help start a new movement...

Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at April 22, 2005 08:07 AM

I'm not an attorney, but I think it has to do with whether the state wants to accept federal funds for education. If the state can fund it themselves, then maybe they don't have to abide by federal law. It's happening in Illinois too, as Oncall told us in his 09:58 PM above.

Posted by: madame defarge at April 22, 2005 08:15 AM

ah, that would make sense. thanks

Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
By Mark Morford

Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?

I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?

Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.

Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world. ...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/04/22/notes042205.DTL&nl=fix)

Blue state? I wonder .. & our Governor race is still being contested in court

Thursday afternoon, Senate Democrats answered the Republicans’ parliamentary maneuvers and brought HB 1515, the Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill, to the Senate floor for a vote.  In the nearly 30 years this bill has been introduced, it has never been brought to a vote in the Senate before this year. 

Sadly, the bill was defeated by a 25-24 vote – one vote made the difference between preventing discrimination for all Washington’s citizens, and keeping one – only one – class of people vulnerable to the whims of employers, landlords or anyone providing public accommodations.

(the 2nd class citizens are gays & lesbians)
 

5 mins. for democracy before work:

Speaking of the coming filibuster fight, consider this: if a majority of the American people actually supported the radical and dangerous policy changes being pushed by this administration they would not have to break the rules to force them through. Be warned that the other side will be pushing their fringe supporters to write Congress on this. That is why it is critical for each any every one of us make our voices heard on this issue this week

http://www.usalone.com/filibuster.htm

This is another battle we are SUPPOSED to win. The other side has internal polls that show them far behind in public opinion. But our true majority will only continue to prevail if we keep speaking out at every opportunity.

Amy: Its the lead story in the Washington Post.Com.
Its unbelievable that Powell apparently spoke with both Hagel and Chafee earlier in the week and when I called Chafee's Providence office on Tuesday his secretary emfatically stated, I am sorry you are upset, but the Senator intends to vote for Bolton. The evening news last night said Chafee is now, after Voinovich's pronouncement is having second thoughts. What principles. No he's just another hack Republican who needs to be defeated in '06.
Hopefully Powell will now start to sing about other foreign policy screwups in this administration.

emphatically

For those who listen to NPR or watch PBS, be aware of subtle brainwashing... And if you notice it, the best way to let them know is to stop giving them your $$.

PBS Scrutiny Raises Political Antennas

Liberal commentator Bill Moyers is out on PBS stations. Buster the animated rabbit is under a cloud of suspicion. And right-wing yakkers from the Wall Street Journal editorial page have been handed their own public-television chat show.

Some observers, including people inside the Public Broadcasting Service, see these recent developments as troubling. PBS, they say, is being forced to toe a more conservative line in its programming by the Republican-dominated agency that provides about $30 million in federal funds to the Alexandria-based service.

Officials at the agency, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, say they are merely seeking to ensure balance and fairness in the network's presentation of political news and ideas.

Under its mandate from Congress, which created the agency in 1967, CPB is required to act as an independent buffer between lawmakers and public broadcasters, although it can set broad programming goals. Appointees of President Bush currently control the majority of seats on CPB's eight-member board.

Typically one of the quietest bureaucracies in Washington, the quasi-governmental CPB has been unusually active in recent weeks. CPB this month appointed a pair of veteran journalists to review public TV and radio programming for evidence of bias, the first time in CPB's 38-year history that it has established such positions.

--snip--
Late last week, CPB's board declined to renew the contract of its chief executive, Kathleen Cox, a veteran administrator at the agency. She was replaced by Ken Ferree, a Republican who had been a top adviser to Michael Powell, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The Ferree appointment followed the dismissals or departures in recent months of at least three other senior CPB officials, all of whom had Democratic affiliations.

"We don't want to be alarmist, but I would be less than honest if I said there wasn't concern here," said one senior executive at PBS, who insisted on anonymity because CPB provides about 10 percent of its annual budget. "When you put it all together, a pattern starts to emerge."

Read the rest at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8067-2005Apr21.html

On this 35th Earth Day, I offer this inspirational thought...

"We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. Be aware of the contact between your feet and the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Dishing on Arctic Drilling

Now here's a scoop: As part of its "Lick Global Warming" campaign, the gang at Ben & Jerry's is protesting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by whipping up the world's largest Baked Alaska to plop down in front of the U.S. Capitol today. The lovely dessert is anticipated to weigh 1,140 pounds and measure 4 feet tall and 4 feet around, with the help of 3,600 four-ounce scoops of Ben & Jerry's Fossil Fuel ice cream, 90 pounds of cake and 150 pounds of marshmallow cream. (Our stomach hurts just thinking about it.) Don't believe us -- hey, it is hard to believe -- check it out for yourself at the corner of First Street and Independence Avenue SW from 10 to 10:30 a.m. before it gets served, or melts. Whichever comes first.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7948-2005Apr21.html

Posted by: DiAnne at April 22, 2005 09:10 AM

Don't you just love the Republicans and the churches, and their unholy alliance?

I have no qualms about telling everyone that the Republican Party is the worst political entity to disgrace the Western world since the Nazi Party.

And the Californian in me would like to ask how much of the Washingtonian homophobia is home-bred, how much is from more conservative states, and how much is imported from abroad (a big problem here in SoCal).