The Texas State Board of Education meets today to continue politicizing, I mean editing our states text book guidelines, which as one of the largest text-book purchasers in the country go on to impact other states curricula.

Since the last meeting, board member and former chair Don McLeroy — the most aggressive amender of curriculum and a self-proclaimed “religious fanatic” who believes education is “too important not to politicize” — narrowly lost the Republican primary to lobbyist Thomas Ratliff, a moderate who campaigned on a platform of depoliticizing the board. But don’t expect McLeroy, who will serve the remainder of this year, to limp out like a lame duck. Asked whether the election results would affect his plans for the social studies curriculum, he said, “Gosh no. I had some tremendous opposition, and a lot of people working against me, and I still almost won. The fact that I would change would be silly.

“The people who write about there being a tilt to the right in the curriculum never write about the tilt to the left, because they just don’t see it,” McLeroy said. “The reason why there’s so many more amendments to the social studies curriculum than to other subjects is because the balance was lacking. The populists, the progressives, the Great Society, all that stuff is from the left. … This country was founded on conservative, limited-government principles.”

The Texas Tribune has a annotated copy of the last round of amendments – including McLeroy’s attempt to replace Hip-hop as a cultural value with country music – viewable in a fancy data application here.

Update: Not surprisingly, things yesterday continued on a predictable path.

Raising our premiums was not something we wanted to do,” Angela F. Braly, president of WellPoint (parent company of Blue Cross Blue Shield), said. “But we believe this was the most prudent choice, given the rising cost of care and the problems caused by many younger and healthier policyholders dropping or reducing their coverage during tough economic times. By law, premiums must be reasonable in relationship to benefits provided, which means they need to reflect the known and anticipated costs they will cover.”

More…

I love the way the frame it as if they’re just barely staying afloat. I’m guessing they also didn’t “want” to make close to $4 billion last year on the backs of these higher premiums.

In a letter to the White House on Monday, the top two House Republicans, Representatives John A. Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia, said members of their party would be “reluctant to participate” in the meeting with Mr. Obama if the bills passed by the House and the Senate were the starting point. The American people have “soundly rejected” those bills, they said.

More…

Really it’s getting to the point where the Republicans sound less like a political party comprising half of the government (for better or worse… you know my take), and more like a two-year-old who refuses to clean up his room.

Also for my part, I don’t recall “soundly rejecting” anything. I know I live in Texas guys, but really I don’t want to be part of your hateful little club. Next time say something along the lines of  the the “The American people, the ones who didn’t loose their jobs last year in the recession and already have decent insurance have soundly rejected the idea of universal health-care (along with other principles of common decency) for their fellow Americans,” it captures your demographic a little better.

If the financial crisis has taught us anything it’s that money and greed are two powerful forces that can blind us to the path’s we’re on as a society. Government’s role here is to help apply the brakes to the invisible hand of the market, to temper it with a smattering of moral framework, with the goal of protecting and supporting those that pure capitalism would ignore (and crush). This framework grows directly from our popular electorate, which acts as an objective force in the  whole government gig, making sure that no one person/citizen becomes to powerful via excessive influence or wealth – the goal being that the common man can always run for office, should he want to effect change in his country.

Sweeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace will corrupt democracy. The 5-to-4 decision represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision, which also applies to labor unions and other organizations, to reshape the way elections are conducted.

Well, fuck.

It’s not that the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess. It’s that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse’s office because once again they glued their balls to their thighs.”

Yup.

I’m suspicious of numbers like this. To quote Twain, There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Peoples values tend get more conservative as they get older (I was once going to tour the country and live out of the back of my Jeep, now you’re hard to pressed to get me to sleep sans-bed for more than a single night). However…

If in addition to Santa bringing me a Karl-Rove-Divorce for Christmas, we could get a Dick-Cheney-really-is-a-CIA-robot story, my holidays would be pretty much perfect. Texas Monthly sums up nicely.

Apparently Karl Rove, the champion of traditional marriage, is getting his second divorce. Yes, not one but TWO women in this world were willing to marry Karl Rove. You have no excuse for being single.

After 24 years of what I can only assume was marital bliss, Rove and his wife Darby were granted a Texas-sized divorce last week. Dana Perino, the family spokesperson, said that the couple “came to the decision mutually and amicably, and they maintain a close relationship and a strong friendship.” Wait. Dana Perino as in former White House press secretary Dana Perino? And now she’s reduced to being a family mouthpiece? Damn. Is no one safe from this shitty job market?

The saddest part here – multiple affairs ending in quickie-no-fault-divorce are fine in this state as long as it’s between a man and a woman. But god forbid we legally allow a loving marriage between two people of the same gender.

Ok, so the amendment blocking abortion funding was stripped out for time being, but….

As written, the Senate health care bill allows taxpayer dollars, directly and indirectly, to pay for insurance plans that cover abortion,” Nelson said in a statement. “Most Nebraskans, and Americans, do not favor using public funds to cover abortion and as a result this bill shouldn’t open the door to do so.”

And…

(Senator) Hatch argued Tuesday that the Senate proposal as originally written provides a loophole for the use of federal money to subsidize health insurance that would cover abortion. “Taxpayers should not be called upon to pay for abortion,” Hatch said.

Cool, so Senators, since you’re for allowing everybody to opt-out of  paying for anything they don’t agree with (like the aforementioned legal medical procedure),  I would like a refund for the portion of my taxes that you you used for that illegal The Iraq war you authorized back in 2002. If you need to wait till after you guys collect taxes in April, that’s cool, I know you’re a little short on cash of late.

While we’re at it, I’d also like a refund for what you spent on FEMA during hurricanes Katrina and Rita, on the Eastern European missile shield program, the secret CIA prisons, Dick Cheney’s man-sized safe and on those fancy presidential helicopters that your party signed off on. I found all these things (just to name a few) morally objectionable, and I really don’t feel comfortable with you using my tax dollars for them. Just shoot me an email and I’ll get you my Paypal info. Appreciate it.