The Daily Kos poll was supposed to bring greater transparency to the  public opinion game, and it succeeded. Ironically, it was that very transparency that lead to the discovery that the results of the Kos polls appear to have been fatally compromised. The allegation has set off a heated battle between one of the top progressive online communities and the polling company, Research 2000.

Here’s Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas (who’s known just as “Kos” in cyber-world) yesterday:

I have just published a report by three statistics wizards showing, quite convincingly, that the weekly Research 2000 State of the Nation poll we ran the past year and a half was likely bunk. READ FULL POST

The Hill:

The top two House Republicans signed onto two petitions to force votes to repeal Democrats’ healthcare reform law in its entirety. 

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said they had signed onto discharge petitions set to be offered by members of their conference, one of which would seek to repeal health reform in its entirety… READ FULL POST

Running against Democrat Peter DeFazio for a congressional seat in Oregon’s 4th District, Art Robinson is one of the most influential leading Global Warming denialists in America and has proposed dumping radioactive waste and crude oil waste at sea.

But wait! There’s more.

For a the better part of a decade at least Robinson has been reprinting, marketing, and selling a virulently racist 19th Century English boys’ adventure novel that suggests Africans are like retarded children.

“By Sheer Pluck”, by George Alfred Henty, is set in Africa and features a sympathetic character patronizing Africans as “just like children” and declaring, “the intelligence of an average negro is about equal to that of a European child of ten years old… Left alone to their own devices they retrograde into a state little above their native savagery.”

Over the last decade, Art Robinson’s homeschool curriculum business has sold thousands of copies of the book.

Arthur Robinson has carved out a niche selling a Christian home schooling curriculum developed by his late wife, who according to Robinson compiled it curriculum from material culled from Christian homeschooling curricula published from Bob Jones University, the A Beka Book series, and other sources.

The Robinson Self Teaching Curriculum includes, as a reference for students, a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica and a 1611 King James Version of the Bible which “is the foundational book of the Curriculum.” As a 2001 article in The American Spectator described,

[Art Robinson's] family members have developed a home school curriculum consisting of over 250 books-among them the 30,000-page 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica—which the youngsters took turns scanning into computers. The curriculum was transferred to 22 compact discs, which are sold in a box for $195. Over four years, 20,000 sets have been sold. More recently, with typical single-mindedness, Robinson tracked down all 99 historical novels by the Edwardian writer G. A. Henty, and they in turn were optically scanned. Three thousand Henty sets (6 CD’S) were shipped in the first year. They retail for $99.

Here’s what Art Robinson’s Home Schooling Curriculum web site has to say about George Alfred Henty’s books:

Our initial printing emphasizes the wonderful collection of historical novels written by G. A. Henty. While some of these books have been in print, two-thirds of them have been out of print and generally unavailable to home school readers.

G. A. Henty wrote at a time when the teaching of a deep Christian faith, high moral character, sound ethical principles, a strong work ethic, simple personal humility, and self-confidence based on real accomplishments were considered essential to the education of each young person. This is in sharp contrast to today’s tax-financed schools where these values are deliberately excluded. The Henty books provide training in history and in many of the highest aspects of human character, while holding the attention of the reader with tales of adventure written by a master story teller. Not only do Henty’s heroes serve as excellent examples to people of all ages, his own vocabulary, grammar, and literary skills serve as outstanding examples to young writers, readers, and speakers of the English language. In learning to write, as in learning to speak, the examples that children follow are the most important factors in their accomplishments.

American young people should read not a few Henty books, but all 99 of them. Taken together, they constitute a superb course in world history and an education in some of the the highest aspects of human behavior in the heroes – and in some of the lowest aspects in the villains.

According to a PBS description of Henty’s numerous formulaic 19th Century novels geared towards adolescent boys, “Henty’s books are notable for their hearty imperialism, undisguised racism, and jingoistic patriotism.” In his 1884 novel “By Sheer Pluck,” in a chapter titled “The Dark Continent” Alfred George Henty wrote,

“the intelligence of an average negro is about equal to that of a European child of ten years old. A few, a very few, go beyond this, but these are exceptions…

Living among white men, their imitative faculties enable them to acquire a considerable amount of civilization. Left alone to their own devices they retrograde into a state little above their native savagery.”

Signatory to A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism, a 2001 statement, from the creationist Discovery Institute, that challenges the Theory of Evolution, Art Robinson in 1986 co-authored with Dr. Gary North a book on how to survive nuclear war titled, Fighting Chance: Ten Feet To Survival. The book advocated bringing back the so-called “Duck and Cover” civil defense approach promoted by the US government civil defense film “Duck and Cover” shown in US schools to schoolchildren in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Gary North, a leading Christian Reconstructionist theologian, prolific author, and former Congressional staffer for Texas Congressman Ron Paul (who has endorsed Art Robinson’s congressional campaign.) In a November 23, 2002 post at the web site LouRockwell.com, North described how Robinson had purchased an industrial printing press to print hard cover copies of the G. A. Henty boys’ novel series:

My friend Art Robinson, a scientist and the publisher of the Access to Energy newsletter, recently bought a used $3 million printing press and support equipment for about three cents on the dollar at an auction. The owner had gone out of business. There were few bidders for that press in a recession year. Robinson uses it to publish a series of over a hundred boys’ novels, based on world history, written in the 19th century by G. A. Henty. Robinson had assembled a large mailing list of potential customers who had already bought all of Henty’s books on Robinson’s Henty CD-ROM for $99 – a terrific deal.

http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com

Now parents and grandparents can buy the hardbacks.

Gary North is a protege’ of founder of the Christian Reconstructionism movement founder Rousas J. Rushdoony. In 1992 Rushdoony spoke at the inaugural event of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, later re-branded as the Constitution Party. In 2008 Ron Paul endorsed the Constitution Party candidate for president of the United States, and current Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul keynoted a Minnesota Constitution Party rally in April 2009.

Rousas Rushdoony advocated executing by stoning homosexuals, adulterers, and women who have intercourse before marriage, wanted to reimpose slavery, claimed that African-American slaves were lucky, was a Holocaust denier and a creationist, and maintained that the Sun rotates around the Earth.

Arthur Robinson’s homeschooling curriculum, for “parents concerned about socialism in the public schools,” contains several references to R. J. Rushdoony including a 51 minute audio recording of an interview with the now-deceased Christian Reconstructionist titan.

Written by Amanda Marcotte for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Two thoughts went through my head when I read about a study showing that women seeking abortion experience high rates of domestic violence.  The first thought was that this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, both because abused women might have more unintended pregnancies and because pregnancy often is the catalyst for abusers escalating the amount of violence.  And the second is that this really demonstrates how wrong anti-choicers are when they claim that forced childbirth is somehow pro-woman.  To be truly pro-woman, you must give women tools to prevent abusers from strengthening their hold over their victims.  Forcing an abuse victim to have a baby against her will by her abuser is doing the abuser’s work for him.

The findings of the study conducted by University of Iowa professors and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is grim but unsurprising to those of us who know something about the parameters of violence against women.  Fourteen percent of the women coming in for abortions over an eight-and-a-half month period had experienced domestic violence in the past 12 months. There’s reason to suspect that women in abusive relationships are more likely to experience unintended pregnancy. Sabotaging birth control is a common tactic of abusers seeking to increase their power over their victims and reduce their victims’ own sense of control. Preliminary studies have found that it may be that up to three-quarters of women in abusive relationships experience some form of contraception sabotage.    

Once pregnant, women in abusive relationships are quite likely to be more motivated than average to terminate a pregnancy.  Domestic abuse often escalates during pregnancy, probably because abusers feel an even stronger need to control their victims. Read more

A major new nationwide poll conducted by Lake Research Partners for the Center for Community Change and the Ms. Foundation for Women shows that a majority of Americans are less concerned about the federal budget deficit than they are about rising health care costs, the lack of jobs with family-sustaining wages, and the affordability of every day expenses like food and gas.

And, not surprisingly, those hit hardest by the recession are those who believe most strongly that the government needs to play a more prominent role in protecting the economic interests of the many, not the few: 66 percent of African-American women and 68 percent of Latinas want increased government intervention. In April, unemployment reached 13.7 percent among African-American women and 11.1 percent for Latinas. And three out of four people surveyed said they believe policies that would create more jobs with decent wages and benefits for low-income families are important to them personally.

Things, it seems, are getting more personal by the moment: as of July 1, more than a million Americans will find themselves facing the end of their health and unemployment benefits — unless congress takes immediate action to ensure a reprieve.

Legislation put forward by Democratic congressional leaders late last week would have provided more than $35.5 billion in funding to extend unemployment insurance for 1.2 million jobless Americans, as well as an extension of critical COBRA subsidies that have put health insurance within reach for many who have lost their jobs.

But House Republicans have quashed multiple versions of the bill, fearing the impact of its cost on an already ballooning national deficit.

As a result, it now looks as if millions of families that are already struggling to make ends meet will be facing a more difficult future in the days to come. Moreover, the move to cutoff funding flies directly in the face of what our new poll indicates: that the majority of Americans actually want government to take a larger and stronger role in making the economy work for average Americans.

Legislation like the tax-bill currently languishing in congress is but one small step in the direction of helping hard-hit communities meet some portion of their needs; real reform would go further, addressing the deep and systemic inequalities that have left already struggling communities decimated as a result of this recession. But at least it’s a step of some kind. Allowing another 1.2 million Americans to fall between the cracks in our political system is, at best, an illogical approach to stimulating this fragile economy — and, at worst, suicidal. The clock is ticking. Congress must act before it’s too late, and do what Americans want them to do: take a strong hand in building a better economic future for us all.

You can take action too: sign Ms. Foundation grantee The National Women’s Law Center’s petition urging senators to support struggling families by extending unemployment benefits.

In an apparent attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown yesterday expressed his opposition to the Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign to make marijuana legal in the state.

Mr. Brown, who is was in Monterrey for a conference, said legalizing the drug would open the flood gates for the ruthless and deadly Mexican drug cartels.

“Every year we get more and more marijuana and every year we find more guys with AK-47’s coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control,” Mr. Brown said.

For the purpose of this short post, I will not address in full here the idiocy of decrying the involvement of drug cartels in the marijuana trade while opposing a regulated system of distribution. Suffice it to say that burying your head in your ass the sand and hoping the drug war will eliminate drug cartels from the planet hasn’t been the most effective tactic over the past few decades.

But this post is about politics, not policy. The problem for Brown is that he is potentially turning off hundreds of thousands of voters who will be showing up in November simply to vote to make marijuana legal. Many of these “green” voters don’t give a real hoot who the next governor of the state is, as long as they can purchase their recreational drug of choice safely, conveniently and legally.

That said, single-issue marijuana voters tend to lean toward the Democratic side of the spectrum, so their votes would likely benefit Brown overall. The only thing that could reverse that likelihood is Brown dissing Proposition 19, as the initiative is now known. (Brown supporters should hope that the campaign is carefully studying polling data to determine his standing among individuals who will be turning out to vote because of the Tax Cannabis initiative.)

Here is my political advice to Mr. Brown. From now on, if he is asked about Proposition 19, he should say, “I have some concerns about the initiative, which I hope could be addressed by the state legislature if it passes, but if I am elected to be the next governor of the state I certainly plan to respect the will of the people.”

If he chooses to ignore this advice, he may be hearing or seeing – or simply feeling the effects of — the following slogan in the fall: “Vote green, not Brown.”

Tuesday’s Daily Show started out with a mash-up of Republicans trying to exonerate George W. Bush in all ways, shapes and forms. Apparently Dubya can’t be held responsible for any of the problems that Obama inherited — not the wars Bush started, not the environmental agencies he stripped. Nothing.

John McCain has even given criticism of Bush a catchy acronym: BIOB, or “Blame it on Bush.”

Jon Stewart’s rebuttal? HRWTPTRTCIG: “He really was a terrible president that ran the country into the ground.”

Watch it:

At a “for-profit rally,” as the Richmond Times-Dispatch described it, two self-described “conservative” bloggers, J.R. Hoeft and Brian Kirwin of BearingDrift, were kicked out a few minutes into Sarah Palin’s keynote address, despite having all-access passes to the gathering at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday. The non-blogging media were permitted to stay, according to Kirwin. (No First Amendment for bloggers at this Constitution-touting confab.) READ FULL POST

By Deepa Iyer, Executive Director, South Asian Americans Leading Together

Joel Stein’s take on how immigration patterns have changed the landscape of Edison, New Jersey (“My Own Private India”, July 5, 2010) is offensive and misinformed, and definitely not funny. Relying on economic and educational stereotypes, Mr. Stein provides a cursory history of Indian immigration to Edison that neglects to mention how Indian businesses, families, and entrepreneurs have contributed to the revitalization of the economy and the cultural fabric in New Jersey for decades.

Most offensive is Mr. Stein’s flippant characterization of the horrible hate crimes that Indians endured in the 1980s at the hands of the New Jersey Dotbusters in the 1980s. Why is it that Mr. Stein has a bone to pick with Indian immigrants, whose presence, experiences, and contributions mirror those of Irish and Italian immigrants in New Jersey? South Asians have been an integral part of this country’s fabric since the 1800’s, and the vibrant immigrant community that they are part of in Edison should be celebrated rather than derided.

We are also encouraging community members to take a few simple steps to register their concerns with Time magazine:

- Send a comment to Time Magazine’s editors registering your opinions about the piece. Comments can be brief and personal conveying what your own reaction was to the column; be sure to reference the article name and author (“My Own Private India” by Joel Stein). They can be emailed to letters@time.com.

- Sign the petition to Time Magazine’s editors. Community members can join SAALT’s petition expressing concerns about the column and asking the magazine to open a space for a response to the column; convene a dialogue regarding its impact on the South Asian community; and refrain from publishing future pieces that fail to treat immigrant communities with respect. The petition can be found here.

- Forward this email to your friends, family members, and colleagues. The more community members that Time magazine hears from, the more likely they are to respond.

Today, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) brought her bill — the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act — to the Senate floor seeking unanimous consent. Murray said the bill would “expand assistance for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children and would increase funding and extend federal grant programs to address the unique challenges faced by these veterans.” However, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected on behalf of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to this seemingly non-controversial issue:

READ FULL POST