You are here

Home

Government & Politics

Government Logo

The 'Christian' Dogma Pushed by Religious Schools That Are Supported by Your Tax Dollars

Wed, 05/25/2011 - 08:43 — Dave Culver

If you live in a state with a voucher or corporate tax credit program funding "school choice," your state's tax dollars are funding the teaching of religious supremacism.

Rachel Tabachnick, AlterNet

Thanks to Evergreene Digest reader Mike Sodos for this contribution

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

Are your state’s tax dollars funding the teaching of religious supremacism and bigotry? What about creationism? The answer is undoubtedly yes, if you live in a state with a voucher or corporate tax credit program funding “school choice."

Religious schools across the nation are receiving public funds through voucher and corporate tax credit programs. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of these schools use Protestant fundamentalist textbooks that teach not only creationism, but also a religious supremacist worldview. They offer a shocking spin on politics, history and human rights.

More...

Section(s): 
Government & Politics

Win the vote, win the presidency

Mon, 05/23/2011 - 11:34 — Dave Culver

The National Popular Vote bill, which has been enacted in eight states and has passed in more than 30 legislative chambers, would award the state's Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the overall popular vote.

Pat Garofalo and Steve Simon, Minneapolis Star Tribune | MN

Voting and Protest by Paul Lachine/NewsArt

Earlier this year, both of us had the privilege of leading the orientation for first-term House members at the State Capitol. We covered topics ranging from adapting to life as a public official to the nuances of House rules. One thing we could all agree on: Legislators should reach across the partisan divide and work together when legislation is in the best interest of Minnesotans.

An example of that kind of agreement is the National Popular Vote bill, which we introduced earlier this session. The legislation, which has been enacted in eight states and has passed in more than 30 legislative chambers, would award the state's Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the overall popular vote across all 50 states. Under this plan, Minnesota would enter into an interstate compact with other enacting states. It would go into effect only once the number of participating states represented a majority of the Electoral College votes, which is needed to elect a president.

More...

Section(s): 
Government & Politics

Special Project | Bachmann & Kline Watch: May 22

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 11:29 — Dave Culver

3 New Items including:

  • Bachmann to Gun Owners: Be "Locked and Loaded"
  • High schooler challenges Bachmann to debate on U.S. Constitution
  • Bachmann: young workers will ask about loss of economic liberty like she asked about Holocaust

David Culver, ed., Evergreene Digest

Nate Beeler

High schooler challenges Bachmann to debate on U.S. Constitution, Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent | MN
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Jim Fuller

  • A high school sophomore from New Jersey is challenging Rep. Michele Bachmann to a debate on civics and the U.S. Constitution.
  • In an open letter to Bachmann, Amy Myers of Cherry Hill, N.J., said, “I have found quite a few of your statements regarding The Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted.”

Bachmann: young workers will ask about loss of economic liberty like she asked about Holocaust, Minneapolis Star Tribune | MN
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on Saturday (April 30) described the loss of "economic liberty" that young Americans face today as a "flash point of history" in which the younger generation will ask what their elders did to stop it.

Bachmann to Gun Owners: Be "Locked and Loaded" James Hohmann, Politico/Reader Supported News
Excerpt: "'I know that all of you will again be on the front lines of this political battle because that's what we have to do to ensure that our Second Amendment rights survive,' Bachmann said, ... 'I trust that you're locked and loaded, and I'm really sorry that I can't be with you in Pittsburgh to soak up all the energy from you.'"

Section(s): 
Government & Politics

Joe Heller Voter ID / media.caglecartoons.com

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 16:53 — Dave Culver

Section(s): 
Government & Politics

Red State Republicans Policies Suggest They Want More Divorces, STDs and Abortions.

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 16:42 — Dave Culver

At the state level, the GOP's attacks on reproductive rights may widen the already huge gulf between red and blue states in health, family stability, and education.

Amanda Marcotte, AlterNet

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

Republicans lost the first battle in their newly invigorated war on contraception and other health services for sexually active people, such as STD testing and treatment, when the Democrats called their bluff in the federal budget standoff. Planned Parenthood avoided the ax, but that doesn’t mean that Republicans are prepared to give up on doing everything in their power to separate women, especially low-income women, from access to contraception services. In lieu of cutting family planning subsidies on the federal level, Republicans have devised a plan to cut them on the state level, where they face fewer meddling pro-choice Democrats.

The strategy remains the same: Say the word “abortion” a lot, and use it to cut funding for contraception and other reproductive health services that aren’t abortion. Indiana kicked off the state-by-state strategy by banning Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding, using the usual abortion excuse, though none of the funding goes to abortion. Despite knowing that anti-discrimination laws would mean that this bill would end all family planning subsidies to the state, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed it anyway. Even though Republicans pretend to be cutting family planning spending more in sorrow than in joy, they still produce results for a right wing fringe that opposes not just abortion, but contraception, STD treatment, and preventing cervical cancer, all in the service of a religious belief that these are holy punishments for fornication.

More...

Section(s): 
Government & Politics

The Right's Philosophy--callous and cruel towards the vulnerable and the poor--Contagiously Spreading to UK

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 15:50 — Dave Culver

When the Tea Party and like minded groups talk about cutting government spending even further, they are not talking about cuts in spending on wars and its destructive machinery. Oh no, they are talking about cutting it from the meagre amounts given to the disabled, the poor, the unemployed, those most vulnerable in our society. They never talk about priorities in spending; they never talk about the obscene income gap between the ultra rich and the poor.

Adnan Al-Daini, OpedNews

As people in the US start to see the bankruptcy of the ideas and philosophy of the Tea Party, right wingers in the UK are planning the creation of a similar group. The immorality of severe cuts in public spending with its detrimental influence on the poor, disabled and marginalized in our society, is now manifest and being rejected by ordinary citizens represented by trade unions, faith groups, and progressives on both sides of the Atlantic.  

The BBC (14 May 2011) reported that about 350 people demonstrated outside the Houses of Parliament in support of "government spending cuts and want more".   The Guardian (14 May 2011) quotes one of the organizers as saying: "We are into freedom, small government, independence of the individual and low tax and low spending".   Contrast this small number with the half million who demonstrated in March against public spending cuts, organized by Britain's trade unions, demanding the government find another way to deal with the deficit.

More...

Section(s): 
Government & Politics

Pages

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.