Monday, January 31, 2005

One of those days...

Sometimes it seems like all I post is bad news. I hate that. I want there to be good news really badly, but it just doesn't work out that way.

First up - apparently the goodness that we all know as the First Amendment isn't being drilled through teenagers heads.
Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

[snip]

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn’t know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It’s not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can’t.

“Schools don’t do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don’t know the rights it protects,” Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. “This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment.”

[snip]

About nine in 10 principals said it is important for all students to learn some journalism skills, but most administrators say a lack of money limits their media offerings.

More than one in five schools offer no student media opportunities; of the high schools that do not offer student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them in the last five years.
I'm not usually one to point to the vast right-wing conspiracy, but the vast right-wing stupidity says that when you cut funding for education, students just aren't going to be as smart. Oy.

And it doesn't look like the Dems are serious about winning in '06, '08, or ever again for that matter. Donnie Fowler? DNC Chair? Over Dean or Rosenberg? Give me a break! How does this happen?
Fowler, a South Carolinian who lives in California and is the son of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, headed Al Gore's field operation in the 2000 presidential election.
Ah, that's right...son of former DNC Chain fits nicely with the pattern of Washington insiders voting for each other. Oh, and he headed Al Gore's field operation? Remember how successful THAT was? Neither do I, which leads me to believe it wasn't very successful at all. There is a glimmer of hope in this article though:
The race now moves to the house of labor, where a committee of the AFL-CIO could vote to endorse one of the candidates on Tuesday. If there is no endorsement, the individual member unions of the AFL will likely make their own picks.
Oh puhleeze pick Dean or Rosenberg. Pretty please?

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