We're in the thick of it, folks. November 6 is around the corner. You would think the Romney campaign would get this, but instead they face the reality of a candidate who is acting like a mark pretty much daily. (Perhaps he learned from "MC Sheriff" in the EPMD video above just how it's done.)
Our own Rachel Maddow last night highlighted comments from the Marriott International chairman thanking Mitt Romney for reeling in his yacht -- just like he'll do for America!
"So I finally found a place to park [the yacht] after about 20 minutes, and I pulled in, I said, 'Who's going to grab the rope?,' and I looked up and there was Mitt Romney. So he pulled me in, he tied up the boat for me. He rescued me just as he's going to rescue this great country."
I totally relate to that whenever I parallel park! Thanks, Mitt Romney!
Oh, and as Jay Smooth noted in his most recent videoblog for Animal New York, even Romney's own family members aren't helping:
Why is it that whenever Mitt Romney's family talks about Mitt Romney, they always tell stories that make him sound like a d*ck?
I mean, I'm not judging; I'm sure he is a loving husband and a father, I'm not judging him as a person. I'm just saying, whenever his family talks about his family life, he ends up sounding like someone you'd never want in your house, much less the White House.
From #47percent and this week's "harvesting" comments (more on that later), to Clint and his chair and all the way back to the high-school gay bashing and putting the dog on the roof, I'm not sure that "messaging discipline" are words familiar to those in Romney's Boston headquarters. Or if they are, they're doing it wrong. It would be one thing if it were just something a quirky candidate does on the way to victory (see: Bush, George W.) The problem for the Romney campaign is that this stuff is hurting them (where it hurts, no less).
President Obama may have him marked for a whooping in a few weeks, and a sound one at that. He's lining up early voters while his opponent is still trying to get America to like him. But today, Melissa will get into a number of big reasons why this is not over.
Samuel L. Jackson made it quite clear in his new, not-so-much-a-children's story for Obama voters this week made it clear that he does not believe this is a game:
One of the biggest reasons this isn't over? Well, a lot of those Obama voters, even if they're jazzed up by Jackson's appeal, won't be able to vote. In particular, we'll dig into the insanity happening in Pennsylvania in today's edition of This Week in Voter Suppression!™ We'll also delve into how the NFL's replacement referee lockout turned some Republicans (even Scott Walker) pro-union; the fees and roadblocks that help form the achievement gap in this country's education system; and a Foot Soldier we got from a Facebook submission by a viewer out there in #nerdland!
Our guests include Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, political sports journalist and author Dave Zirin, MSNBC contributor Ari Melber, and many more!
As always, folks -- be sure to interact with us during the show here in the comments of this post, on Facebook, and on Twitter, using the hashtag #nerdland. We look forward to having you join us at 10am ET on msnbc!
You can see the Jay Smooth video referenced above after the jump.
Leave a Comment:
Thank you for discussing the hypocrisy of the political outrage over the referee lockout vs. the Chicago teachers strike. There was much discussion this week on a few education blogs, namely Diane
Ravitch, which all readers should subscribe to: dianeravitch.net
And this is the sad state of our nation!
Isn't it ironic that the news stations and many fans are more upset about a second-rate referee making a bad call in a football game, but they are not so worried about untrained, novice TFA teachers practicing on our kids for 180+ days and then ditching the profession?
No wonder the teaching profession is doomed.
Will the politicians and corporate reformers be working to dismantle the referees' union as fiercely as they are the teachers' union?
Referees for America?
September 27, 2012
Jersey Jazzman takes note of the media hysteria about those NFL referees who replaced the experienced, unionized referees. Even Governor Scott Walker was upset when the inexperienced referees made a call that led to a loss by the Green Bay Packers.
Do we need "Referees for America" to step in when the unionized referees go on strike? Apparently the football lovers of America say no.
Maybe experience and qualifications matter.
And remember how the media piled on teachers in Chicago for their outrageous salaries? Was it $56,000, $74,000?
Well, a reader sent this important information:
The refs make $150,000 for 6 months of part time work. They want $200,000. I haven't seen those numbers thrown around in the media. Every time they talked about the teachers in Chicago they threw out the bogus $74,000 average salary. Then some pundit would always add they only worked 8 months out of the year as well. Everyone bemoaned the greedy overpaid teachers.
I was watching Morning Joe yesterday and Joe Scarboro, who couldn't get enough of trashing the teachers in Chicago last week, was up in arms over the greedy NFL owners refusal to pay for experienced refs.
Fabulous show. The education of USA students makes me want to cry. Canadians are educated on the same level, from the super rich to the dirt poor communities. Our education is not based on the tax base of a county or city, but the whole of our province,(same thing as your state). Every child can rise above their "raisin" because we actually start off equal in the education department.
We do have "private" schools, but they are rare.
Just watched your Sat. Sept. 29 show and found it to be a great discussion but I do have one question. How can you talk about the root causes of the educational gap without updating us on what Geoffrey Canada is doing with his Harlem Zone? Perhaps it was done in the first half of the show which I missed. I, like many of you, am appalled at the way the disadvantages of young minority kids are treated in our schools but feel the challenge is "how do we overcome those disadvantages as early as possible?" How can a five year gap in being read to, exposed to art, taken to the theater, listening to music and so on be filled in the public sphere? We must find models that can be replicated. I believe they are out there. I am encouraged by the experimentation and the variety of models being employed. We need the will to spread those that are working.
Geoffrey Canada dismissed an entire grade of children because they did not test well. These supposed miracle charters do NOT take or keep all of the children. Their lotteries have a screening process to keep out the lower performers and cream from the top. If a charter requires an application form, an essay, a contract...you are weeding out the more challenging families from the get-go. Ask about their attrition rates amongst students and teachers. Search under Gary Rubenstein, Deborah Kenney and Harlem Village Academies. I have been unable to post links in these dialogue boxes, but I will try. If not search the above words. It is not such a miracle after all. There is no charter school fairy dust. You get rid of the low performers, the ELL, the high needs sped, the behavior problems. Cast them back to the public schools, the ones that have to take everybody...the schools that are not allowed to cream. Yes, they say they take everyone, but that is not true and once you are not a "good fit" (tip of the hat to Dr. Perry for that terminology - CNN's eduexpert) you somehow disappear from their roster. However, they keep the money...the per pupil expenditure does NOT return back to the public schools with the expelled student in many cases. I will try to link Gary's research. Too bad NBC's Brian Williams did not do his homework and ask Ms. Kenney a few follow up questions. Many teachers and informed citizens would have known what to ask.
Melissa, thanks for one of the few shows left that does not spin the corporate reformer nonsense ad nauseum.
I hope the link works. It is titled: It takes a village by Gary Rubenstien posted in his Teach for Us blog. Check out the comments from former HVA teachers....Melissa, maybe Mr. Brian Williams can plan a follow up on the so called miracles. Hopefully, this comment will not disappear...they seem to vanish on CNN.
Comment from former HVA teacher:
I was a former teacher at HVA as well and can say that the experience made me leave NYC and never return to the classroom. Overcrowded classrooms and leadership by a woman with no experience in the classroom (Deborah Kenny) led to a frustration and a complete inability to actually teach. They ignored learning support students and treat the students like they are in a prison. Yes, it is effective for a few, but for most, it is everything we don't want education to be. The teachers come in passionate and enthusiastic, and leave broken. President Bush visited HVA to applaud its work and say it was "no child left behind" in action. The children and teachers were completely left behind…the only ones moving ahead were people like Deborah.
Has Melissa Harris Perry identified herself as a Democrat? Is she a Democrat? Socialist? Communist? Green party member? Independent? Unaffiliated? Has she stated her political party affiliation if she has one and if not, why not?
I have taught English and Social Studies 32 years, most of it in a rural, poor, integrated, very diverse district in the South. We were shut down recently due to low numbers (only charter schools, no matter how good or bad, are allowed under 350 students k-12 in my state). I usually try to steer away from education discussions on television for my sanity's sake, and I've been disappointed in President Obama's education reform program; but I echoed your "amen" today. Thank you and all of your guests for cutting through the noise to get to what the real issues are with high poverty/high minority schools. I've taught in a successful district, but people are too busy arguing past each other to value those districts and truly study why they succeed. When a light is shone on them, it often ignores important factors (Houston, DC, and Chicago spring to mind) and rarely results in any changes.
I've come to look forward to retiring, not because of the kids, but because of the adults. I LOVE teaching, but since even the Clinton administration, the government has been increasingly sucking the enjoyment out of the profession, reducing the role of teachers as professional leaders and stakeholders, and funneling public money to private, unproven programs and charter schools which generally have ZERO accountability. I don't want to be an administrator. I don't want to be any sort of middle management or facilitator. I want to teach. Thanks to the current structure and trends, I won't be doing that many more years.
Government has a role in setting education policy. Common Core is fine. I think standardized benchmark testing is fine. But they are part of the educational process, not the end goal, and teachers must be treated as the professionals they are and allowed to work that process their own best way, with their students in the particular school and community environment in which they find themselves. Federal support is more important than sweeping federal reform. There will never be one approach or one goal of public education. We still have the most egalitarian and open system in the entire world, largely because of our flexibility and diversity. We need to remember why that is still the case, and that it is possible to lose it.
We need the Government to spend more and more taxpayer money to be the Parent? Already Government provides breakfast lunch and dinner to the children of these leeches, provides housing, food stamps and medical cards...has that helped the drop out rate? How about going the other way...cutting government funding completely and make these people either sink or begin to swim of their own accord. The great society has made addicts....now it is time to cut these hand out's off and make people be self reliant. Perhaps they would realize they need to invest in themselves and perhaps even their children as well, because before the invent of "the great society" the family structure was much more intact and families were much stronger and not reliant for Government bread lines.
Two notes on the yacht story:
(1) Perhaps they hope it will resonate with middle-class yacht owners. As one who occasionally works on sailboats, I can say there are plenty of people who aren't Thurston Howell III who own large, seagoing vessels.
(2) Even if point #1 is correct, those yacht owners will recognize that lending a hand to dock a boat is etiquette. In other words, we're supposed to pat Mitt Romney on the back for being the only person in the vicinity and, well, doing what etiquette demands of him. In the end, it's not so much a rich-man-and-yachting story, but a rich-man-gets-pat-on-back-for-doing-what-is-expected-of-him vignette.
Perhaps some of the old retired white male tea party folks view themselves as Frontiersmen. Some of them sure look like they are from the 1800's. They perhaps harken to when the frontier was unconquered. Perhaps they carry powder horns and flintlocks as they head for the hunting grounds in their heads, after they go to the grocery store in their trucks and rv's....or their buckwagons.