SBOE To Revisit Evolution Debate Under Gov. Perry's New Appointment

Updated 7/22/2011 @ 5:15pm
Today the State Board of Education voted to adopt the Texas education commissioner’s recommended list of science instructional materials.

Special interest groups and activists on the state board failed in their efforts to force publishers to change their instructional materials to include arguments against evolutionary science.

In addition, the board voted unanimously to reject the adoption of instructional materials from a New Mexico-based vendor that promoted “intelligent design”/creationism. Religious conservatives on the SBOE complained the materials adopted did not adequately address "alternatives to evolution" such as creationism or intelligent design as a theory of how life began.

The vote to adopt the education commissioner’s recommended list of science instructional materials followed several hours of emotional testimony in which science teachers from around the state pleaded with the board not to require them to teach what they saw as non-scientific theories in their classrooms.

The following statement is from the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) President Kathy Miller:

“Today we saw Texas kids and sound science finally win a vote on the State Board of Education. Now our public schools can focus on teaching their students fact-based science that will prepare them for college and a 21st-century economy. And our schoolchildren won’t be held hostage to bad decisions made by a politicized board that adopted flawed science curriculum standards two years ago. Moreover, today we saw that the far right’s stranglehold over the state board is finally loosening after last year’s elections. That’s very good news for public education in Texas.”

The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan education and religious liberties watchdog. The grassroots organization of religious and community leaders support public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.

Additional:

• TFN: Anti-Science Forces Try to Spin Loss
• TFN: Live-Blogging the Final Science Materials Vote

Originally posted 7/17/2011 @ 11:45pm
Gov. Perry's newly appointed chair of the State Board of Education, Barbara Cargill (R-The Woodlands) is already under fire by critics who say she is signaling she intends to push the same religious conservative anti-evolution young earth ideology as her predecessor, chairman Don McLeroy. Cargill, a biology teacher considered to be one of the more conservative board members, disputes the theory of evolution and voted in 2009 to require that the theory of evolution's weaknesses be taught in classrooms.

Annual Gov. Ann Richards Dinner Sponsored By The Democratic Party of Collin Co.

The annual dinner honoring Governor Ann Richards sponsored by the Democratic Party of Collin County is scheduled this year for Saturday August 6, 2011.

Governor Richards is admired as a person who stood up for everyday citizens in Texas throughout her life. A video at the bottom of this article presents Richards speaking at the 1988 Democratic National Convention where, in the first 16 minutes of the speech, she explains why it is important that our elected representatives in government stand up for everyday citizens.

According to Shawn Stevens, Chair of the Democratic Party of Collin County, that is why the 2011 Richards Dinner planning committee selected, "Standing Up for Everyday Citizens," as the theme for this year's fund raising dinner.

In keeping with that theme, the featured speakers for the fund raising dinner this year are Wisconsin Democratic State Senator Jon Erpenbach, better known as one of the "Wisconsin 14," and Texas Democratic State Representative Rafael Anchia. According to Leaca Caspari, Chair of the 2011 Richards Dinner planning committee, the reason both Erpenbach and Anchia were invited to speak at the dinner this year is that they are widely regarded as elected officials who are known for taking a principled stand for everyday citizens.

For Texans who may not be familiar with the story behind the Wisconsin 14, here are some excepts from a NYTimes article published on March 12, 2011:

Rush Limbaugh Says Heat Index Is A Government Plot

Spinning a conspiracy theory that puts his listeners’ lives at risk, Rush Limbaugh argued that government warnings of life-threatening heat are “playing games” with climate change:

Cenk Uygur: I Left MSNBC Because They Don't Challenge Power’

Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) explains why he turned down a new, significantly larger MSNBC contract after hosting a prime-time show on the network that was beating CNN in the key demo ratings.

Obama Endorses Budget Plan That Cuts Soc Sec, Medicare And Corporate Tax Rates

Yesterday, President Obama, ignoring the Congressional Progressive Caucus' proposed budget that balances the budget in just ten years without cutting Social Security and Medicare, all but endorsed the deficit reduction plan outlined by the Gang of Six conservative Republican and Democratic Senators.

President Obama Briefs the Press on the gang of six proposal


Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks breaks it down

The plan recommends “reforming” (i.e. cutting) Social Security in ways that will even affect current retirees. But not a penny of the money saved will go to deficit reduction, which begs the question — why include Social Security at all?

The gang of six plan proposes a chained CPI adjustment to Social Security, which may not be a bad idea when combined with other measures to boost benefits and strengthen the program, but on its own is tantamount to a $1,300 cut each year for recipients over their lifetimes. Strengthen Social Security co-chair and former Obama adviser Nancy Altman has denounced the idea as an overly harsh cut. “The chained-CPI is poor policy, and given that seniors vote in disproportionately high numbers, it is equally poor politics,” she said.

The Gang of Six has said all the changes will go toward securing the long-term financial security of the program, but Social Security is already solvent until 2037 and does not contribute to the deficit.

The plan also lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to between 23 and 29 percent, eliminates the alternative minimum tax, and lowers personal income tax rates, even though the United States is already a low-tax country. That’s true for individuals and for corporations, and it’s true whether you compare us to other countries or the America of the past. No matter how you slice it the conclusion is the same.

Conservatives like to claim that our budget deficits are purely a “spending problem.” Said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “We don’t have this problem because we tax too little. We have it because we spent too much.”

It’s a popular talking point, but it simply isn’t true. Deficits do not stem from spending levels alone. They are the product of a mismatch between spending and revenue. And when revenue is as low as ours is, you end up with big deficits.

Click here to view 10 charts demonstrating the simple, clear truth that federal taxes in the United States are very low.

Nearly 10 Years Ago Today, The U.S. Began Borrowing Billions To Pay For The Bush Tax Cuts

As debates about deficit reduction continued to be heavily tilted toward cutting spending, which threatens to undermine a fragile recovery, rather than raising revenue from those who can afford it, it’s important to remember the budgetary impact of the Bush tax cuts.

ThinkProgress: Nearly 10 years ago today, on August 1, 2001, the Associated Press reported that the Treasury Department was tapping $51 billion of credit in order to pay for the budgetary cost of the first round of Bush tax cuts’ rebate checks. The AP reported at the time that Democratic Party opponents of the tax cuts worried that they’d return government budgets to “red ink“:

The opponents of the tax cut turned out to be right. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts combined have blown a $2.5 trillion hole in America’s budget and created deficits stretching on for years.

President Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Progressives In General

Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks breaks it down

Huffington Post: Obama, while often publicly praising Warren, was never committed to nominating her as head of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, people familiar with the internal decision-making process said.

There were a variety of factors holding her up, from the administration's perception that she was prone to speaking her mind publicly -- even if her position contrasted with that of the administration’s.


The internal debate that led to President Barack Obama passing her over as head of the agency, commonly known as the CFPB, pitted one set of advisers -- longtime confidantes Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod -- against the trio of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and current Chief of Staff William Daley.

Jarrett and Axelrod supported Warren, not least because of the impact she’d have on the Democratic Party’s liberal base, sources said. Geithner, Emanuel and Daley opposed the idea because of a variety of factors, both personal and political.

Ultimately, it was Obama’s call. Sources said an anecdote about a 2010 meeting provides clues to Obama’s thinking.

Last summer, during a White House meeting with first-term Senate Democrats, Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, asked Obama whether he'd nominate Warren for the role.

Obama held up a half-full glass of water and told him: "That's the problem with you progressives. You see this as half-empty."

Meet the Pea Party

It can't be excerpted, go read the entire Salon article. Here's the close:

"Enough with the peas and the tea. What America needs at the present moment is a We the People Party -- a We Party. Instead of trying to dismantle the New Deal, like both the Tea Partyers and the Pea Partyers, the We Party would campaign to modernize and, where necessary, expand the system of middle-class social insurance on which most working families rely.

Instead of further slashing taxes on the rich, as the Tea Party proposes, or cutting benefits for the middle class, as the Pea Party proposes, the We Party would raise taxes on the rich substantially, before raising taxes on working families, if that should be necessary.

Rejecting the characterization of elderly Americans as "greedy geezers" enjoying a "subsidized vacation," the We Party would maintain or even increase Social Security benefit levels and avoid future shortfalls by means of slightly higher payroll taxes or an infusion of other tax revenue.

The We Party would demand that the federal government stand up to the medical-industrial complex and impose fee schedules on doctors, hospitals and drug companies in the U.S., in order to control medical costs the way other democratic nations do -- thereby eliminating the danger that Medicare and Medicaid budgets will wreck the federal budget.

Above all, a We Party that represented Main Street rather than Wall Street would reject the claim, made by Tea Party and Pea Party alike, that the greatest threat facing America is long-term budget deficits, instead of short-term unemployment and lack of growth. The We Party would focus on what should be the real priority of this moment in our national history: putting America back to work.

America doesn't need the Tea Party or the Pea Party. It needs the We Party."

TDWCC July Meeting Speaker – SBOE Rep. Thomas Ratliff

TDWCC general meeting July 25, 2011 6:45 pm to 8:30 pm Collin College

TDWCC: Thomas Ratliff, R-Mt. Pleasant, State Board of Education District 9, will be the speaker at the TDWCC general meeting on Monday, July 25, 6:45 p.m. Collin College – Preston Ridge Campus, Founders Hall, Rm F148.

Mr. Ratliff won the State Board of Education seat for District 9 in 2010. Mr. Ratliff will speak about how the SBOE works, what issues he has faced, the upcoming Science curriculum discussion, and will be open to our questions.

In a recent letter to the Austin American-Statesmen, Ratliff focused on the difficulties schools have faced as the number of students has grown, but the revenue available to schools hasn’t. A few numbers:

Record Heat Wave Gripping Central U.S.

A Record heat wave is gripping the central part of the U.S. From Texas to the Dakotas, and east to Illinois and Indiana, temperatures and humidity levels soared on Monday and were expected to remain high through at least the end of the week, by which time forecasters say the East Coast will get to share the misery. Seventeen states issued excessive-heat watches on Monday, with a number of upper Midwest states expecting temperatures higher than 105 degrees. The heat wave is sending people to the hospital, damaging roads and causing air-conditioning bills to skyrocket.

It felt like 126 degrees in Newton, Iowa, on Monday; 120 degrees in Mitchell, S.D.; and 119 degrees in Madison, Minn., according to The Associated Press.