La Cucaracha: Texas Textbooks edition

By GottaLaff

Thank you, Lalo:

(click on image to enlarge)

H/t: HarborGuy

Videos- President Obama goes book shopping at Iowa City's Prairie Lights

Ethan's a lucky little boy. More here.

Obamistan! Land Without Racism

Obviously satire, but we all know it's only a matter of time until Beck takes it to heart. Via Boing Boing.

An additional "white tax" is charged to people who are descended from or have benefited from the racism that fueled this country for so long. Contrary to what you might think, white people welcome paying the tax. They figure they are getting off easy and recognize that paying a few dollars here and there can't possibly be as painful as laboring for centuries without pay only to be discounted as nonhuman; stricken from voting; held back educationally; forced to live in squalor; assumed to be stupid, lazy, violent, angry, dirty, ignorant, and incompetent; arrested in epidemic proportions; and wrongfully sentenced to death.

It's Happening Here: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff


My impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about something very worrisome (read: scary) that he feels is happening to America before our very eyes. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

It Is Happening Here

Several months ago I wrote a Special Comment (“ It Can’t Happen Here”) about the growing hate I saw emerging at the Town Hall meetings and whether the foundation for a fascist type movement has begun in this country.

I’m sorry to report that the hate and militia groups are in full force and growing. Recently, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published a report (Rage on the Right) that stated there was a 244% increase in the number of active Patriot Groups in 2009. Their numbers grew from 149 groups in 2008 to 512 in 2009, with 363 new groups in the past year.

There are 512 Patriots Groups in the country located in all fifty states and the District of Columbia, with the largest number being in Texas (52) and Michigan (47).

Those organizations in the Patriot Group include, The John Birch Society, Oath Keepers, Constitution Party, We The People, and We Are Change. Besides these groups, we have seen the re-emergence of the KKK, Skin Heads and other white supremacists groups.

We all know what drives the Birchers, KKK and skin heads: their hatred of African Americans, Catholics, Jews, gays, immigrants, and minorities in general.

The Oath Keepers is quite different from the other groups.

According to their internet site, Oath Keepers, consists of those currently serving in the military, reservists, National Guard, veterans and peace officers. Their oath is to defend the constitution, but they will not obey orders they believe are unconstitutional and therefore unlawful.

They have identified 10 orders they have deemed as being unlawful and will not obey, such orders as: (1) to disarm the American people, (2) to conduct wireless searches of the American people, (3) to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty and (4) to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

All of the above, sounds to me as fears of conspiracies and paranoia all rolled into one.

The SPLC states what makes this era different from the 1990s rise of hate groups is “the movements central ideas are being promoted by people with large audiences, such as Fox News Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann. You can also include Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs who have praised the Oath Keepers organization.

In other disturbing news, this week the Texas Board of Education, in their attempt to rewrite history, has endorsed many changes to the states’ school textbooks. Their recommendations will not only affect students in Texas, but students in many other states whose Board of Education use their textbooks.

The lasting effect of the textbook changes will not be felt for many years, until those in first grade being taught under the new curriculum graduate from high school and enter college.

In October, I wrote an article titled "Separation of Church and State", in which I stated that one of the goals of the right wing conservatives was to become heavily involved with school boards. We are now seeing the effect of them controlling educational school boards.

Among the changes recommended by the Texas Board are :

(a) removal of Thomas Jefferson ( author of the Declaration of Independence) from the Texas curriculum on Enlightenment thinking and replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin

(b) that students not be required to learn the Constitution (which prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others) and that the founding fathers had not sought a separation of state and church

( c) a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class

(d) to replace the word “capitalism” (because it has a negative connotation) with “free enterprise system”

When you consider that David Barton of WallBuilders is a Texas Board of Education member, you start to get a sense of what is going on here.

David Barton believes the “separation of church and state is a myth” and that our founding fathers wanted this country to be a theocracy governed by Christian principles.

What we are seeing is the Texas form of book burning, by its rewriting the history of our country in their school textbooks. One has to wonder what will be next: eliminating certain authors from the school libraries, not allowing discussions of contrary points of view, the possible censorship of non-pornography internet sites in school libraries and workshops?

We are in very frightening times, and when you take into consideration the growth of hate groups and the action taken Texas Board of Education and the effect they are having and will have on this country, you begin to see we are heading down a very slippery slope toward a militant theocracy.

It is time for the majority of Americans to wake up and see who is truly stealing the country from us, and I want it back.

Many thanks again for another thorough, relevant piece, 42bkdodgr. You often say what many of us are thinking and feeling, and we thank you for your unique perspective

Texas Approves Curriculum Revised by Conservatives

By GottaLaff

Now children, let's go back and review what we've been missing:

Men rode dinosaurs so that they could hunt better. And besides, they made great companions when the wife was busy birthing cavedwellerettes.

There is no such thing as separation of church and state. That's a crazy myth that some Marxist commie made up.

Always use your position to exploit and indoctrinate children, and then accuse the first African American president of doing the same when he's encouraging good work habits and responsibility:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the role of Christianity in American history and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

The vote was 11 to 4, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat voting for the curriculum, and four Democrats voting against.

And children, above all else, be fair and balanced:

The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest purchasers of textbooks.

Remember children: The whole church and state thing? Pffft!

The conservative members maintain that they are trying to correct what they see as a liberal bias among the teachers who proposed the curriculum. To that end, they made dozens of minor changes aimed at calling into question, among other things, concepts like the separation of church and state and the secular nature of the American Revolution.

“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”

Bias? What bias?

They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schalfly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

To be fair, the Black Panthers and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "nonviolent approach" will get some print space, too. That's some concession, huh?

Today's lesson: Little children asked, and received, their own little raptors for their birthdays. And if they were extra special good, pet nanshiungosauruseseseses... eseses...es.

Sunday's lesson: Jesus had dinosaur stables back when saddling up a brontosaurus was in vogue. He loaned his herd out to anyone who needed a ride to the nearest crucifixion. He was socialistic that way.

"Going Rouge" being "censored by proxy, by a corporation"

By GottaLaff

My pal Micheal Stinson, co-author of Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book has a great post over at The Mudflats. Please read the whole thing, but here's a sample:

So, here’s the skinny. We called the local chain bookstore outlet, offered to do a signing while Sarah would be “YouBetcha-ing” at another corporate chain across town. The manager, a young guy, was totally into it, said it would move a LOT of books, and be a lot of FUN. [...]

A few hours later the manager called back, feeling sheepish, and for good reason. He’d talked to the marketing geniuses and they’d emphatically refused, on the grounds that it would be “too polarizing”! [...]

[I]t’s not his fault that our book at that moment was being censored by proxy, by a corporation. A book that attained Best Seller status on both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble in categories from Humor to Political Biographies. One that is being distributed to bookstores across the nation (and Alaska) by Baker & Taylor. [...]

One thing we we’d like people to know about our book, just to be clear – is that Sarah didn’t write this one either.

A little scary, isn’t it?

I guess selling fancy Palin mockin' directly across town from the real (well, "original"; nobody can call her "real" with a straight face) Barbie McLipSchmutz would have caused a real brouhaha and scared all the kiddies away:

If there's one thing we wouldn't want, it's a snarky, satirical book signing allowing people to recognize another side of Barbie at exactly the same time as she hawks her polarizing, ghostwritten pack of lies.

New rule: It's best to avoid controversy or dissent anywhere near the vicinity of a corporate book store chain. It might be bad for business.

Video- MSNBC Interviews Clueless Sarah Palin Supporters At Book Signing

Man oh man.

50-100 library books censored by curse-cleansing vandal

By GottaLaff

Who the #!$% gives a %@#* if there are words like %#@! and $#%@! badly enough to deface the books themselves:

Maury County Library director Elizabeth Potts said dozens of books have been discovered with blue ink marks where profanities used to be, including what she referred to as an "f-word" in the "9/11 Commission Report," The Daily Herald, Columbia, Tenn., reported Tuesday.

That %@#!# 9/11 Commission. They really need to watch their language.

Employees estimated 50-100 books have been targeted by the language-cleansing vandal.

"It bothers me because nobody is holding a gun to their head making them read these books," Potts said. "If they don't like them, they should just return them."

"This person is evidently offended by these words," she said. "I'm more offended by (the suspect)."

The "suspect" must belong to the same ilk who condemns premarital sex and then realizes their daughter was knocked up by a guy named Levi.

The library is now putting up signs asking people not to cross out words in their books.

I understand the sign says something like, "WTF do you think you're doing? Put the @#$#! pens away or get the %@&*! out.

Video- Real Time: Sarah Palin's Ghost Writer

Vid via Heather.

"Going Rogue"- The Cover

Holy schmoly. Via Ben. Below is my very first thought on seeing this.

Craig Ferguson to be on Countdown Tonight 9/21/09

Looks like it will be the last segment. My evening just got much happier....

Craig has a new book out that looks really neat-

May I just say

Dan Brown's 'Symbol' sells 1M copies in 1 day
That no matter how many damn books it sells in one day, Dan Brown can't write, never could write. I held out reading The DaVinci code forever, and when I finally did I was gobsmacked by what a horrid, dragging, awkwardly worded piece of histrionic dreck it was. Figured I'd try Angels & Demons, and it was craptasticularly worse.

What's on President Obama's night table?

By GottaLaff

Get your minds out of the gutter, we're talkin' books here!

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers. —Politico, May 3

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.
—The New York Times Magazine, May 03, 2009.

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs.
—The New York Times, December 16, 2008.

Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan.
—National Journal, November 26, 2008.

Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Adler.
—The New York Times, November 18, 2008.

FDR by Jean Edward Smith.
—The New York Times, November 18, 2008.

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll.
—The New York Times, November 2, 2008.

Collected Poems, 1948 to 1984 by Derek Walcott.
—The Daily Telegraph, November 7, 2008.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman.
—Washington Independent, September 8, 2008.

Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age by Larry Bartels.
—MSNBC, September 3, 2008.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
—Time, June 18, 2008.

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.
—The New York Times, May 21, 2008.

May I just say

How much I've enjoyed MSNBC's all day shillathon for Scarborough's new book. No really, it's been lovely.

President Barack Obama shortlisted for two British book awards.

At least the Brits will be showing him some love.

Mr Obama could be crowned Borders' author of the year for The Audacity of Hope, which outlines his own deep-felt political and personal values.

Also, his memoir of his early life and African-American heritage Dreams From My Father is a candidate for Tesco biography of the year.

The awards, which cover commercial bestsellers and literary prize-winners, give readers a say, with the winners decided by a mix of industry academy and public voting.

The Galaxy Book of the Year, the ultimate prize for the reading public's very best book of the year, will be selected on the night.

PhotObama: Finding religion edition

By GottaLaff

Finding religion

Obama's Books Top Best Seller List

But of course!! It's hard for me to keep up with all the great books coming out, seemingly every single day a new one. Via Taegan-

President Obama's books "remain at the top of this month's best-selling political books, as they have since the election in November," according to the New York Times.

"And to stay in stride with the gala celebrations surrounding his inauguration, Audacity of Hope still holds at No.1, while Dreams From My Father moved up a notch to the No. 2 position."

Psst! President Obama didn't really write his own books. Ace says so.

By GottaLaff

I don't want to add a word to what David Weigel wrote over at the Washington Independent. The blog title is enough.

Oh, and according to Weigel, "Ace" is Ace of Spades, a top conservative blogger (he won an award for his stuff at last year’s CPAC).

Go read his very short piece over there. Then come back here and have at it.

My cousin-in-law discusses Caroline Kennedy

By GottaLaff

How exactly does one refer to one's husband's cousin, anyway? This is the very same woman (Mr. Laffy's cousin Ellen) who I referred to in a previous post. She has co-authored best-selling books with Caroline Kennedy, and now AP has interviewed her for a piece on "friends discussing Caroline". I'm all a-twitter:

By the time she was in Columbia University Law School more than a decade later, her intellectual curiosity, and her studiousness, still made an impression.

"She's the A-plus student who does 110 percent," said classmate, friend and eventual co-author Ellen Alderman. "We were nerds ... the two Type A personalities who had worked very hard in school."

Inspired by some of their law school case studies, Kennedy and Alderman had a book proposal completed before they graduated. Soon they were traveling the country, interviewing people who had been caught up in civil rights cases for "In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action."

Kennedy was very good at putting their interviewees at ease, Alderman said. There was never any talk then of a political career, she said, but looking back she's unsurprised.

"For me now it seems very natural," she said. "The most important part of the research we did was talking to people and listening to them. And she's terrific on the legal end, on the analysis and the issues, and she's terrific on the people end, on understanding how the law and government affects people every day."

Kennedy had her first daughter, Rose, around the same time she graduated from Columbia in 1988, and her professional life took shape around her children.

When Alderman became pregnant, she recalls, Kennedy became her "mommy mentor," showing her what she needed to pack a diaper bag, and giving her advice on work: "You can still do it, you're just not going to have eight, 10, 12 hours at a time," Alderman recalls her saying. [...]

Kennedy's friends and colleagues talk about what a remarkably "normal" life she lives, but one could argue they're not the best judges. After all, her circle includes famous authors, a co-president of HBO, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, senators and the president-elect.

Kennedy's finances _ estimated by some at more than $400 million _ never came up, Alderman said. The co-authors swapped who paid for dinner, and they flew coach. Kennedy has an assistant but does not use a driver, takes the subway around New York and books her own flights, friends said.

I'm so proud of Ellen. She's as nice and sweet as she can be, and so accomplished. And she pals around with the coolest people.

Best-selling children's book on Obama brings changes for young Texas artist

Great story about a local Texas artist. I added a link to his children's book in the carousel to the right or here. Mr Ford has alot ahead of him.

Few knew his name when he landed in the public eye, having banked on timing, a distinctive style and a staunch work ethic.

No, not the president-elect.

Now, AG Ford, a 23-year-old artist who grew up in Garland, finds himself on The New York Times' best-seller list with the publication of his first full-picture children's book, Barack.

The recent college graduate – whose workspace looks more like a poster-tacked college dorm than a professional designer's office – is adjusting to out-of-state book signings and regular calls from publisher HarperCollins.

(snip)

The 32-page book, written by Jonah Winter, profiles Barack Obama's track to the presidency and came out Sept. 30. It hit No. 6 on The New York Times' best-seller list for children's books the week of Nov. 23. It currently ranks 10th in children's book sales at Target and 50th among all books sold by the chain store.

(snip)

The book's stylized proportions and photo realism typify Mr. Ford's drawings, said Mr. Payne, as does hard work. The young illustrator spent 13 hours a day sketching, smudging and erasing Barack images for 2 1/2 months.