Ben Guest’s Blog

Mississippi

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:28:08 -0700

Article in today's New York Times (emphasis is mine):

Still, it would take a shift in the electoral dynamic — a substantial stumble by John McCain, for instance — for Mr. Obama to put in play a state like Mississippi, where whites gave John Kerry only about 15 percent of their vote in 2004 and where voting in presidential elections is perhaps more racially polarized than anywhere else in the nation. Even with a heavy black turnout, Mr. Bositis estimated, Mr. Obama would have to increase his white percentage by at least a third, to about 20 percent, to win the state.

“I don’t anticipate him winning Mississippi,” Mr. Bositis said, even though it has a higher percentage of blacks than any other state, 36 percent.

Many of the votes on Tuesday for Mr. Childers — an anti-abortion, pro-gun-rights Democrat — were from whites who will in all likelihood pull the lever for Mr. McCain in November, analysts and voters themselves say.

“Obama, he’s too off-the-wall,” said Chappell Sides, a white Republican-leaning voter in Yalobusha County who said he was preparing to punch the button for Mr. Childers on Tuesday. “Hillary — I thought I hated her, till Obama came along.”

Bruce Oppenheimer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, said the question was not so much whether Mr. Obama would carry Mississippi as whether he would force Republicans to spend time and money in the state.

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MAEP

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:54:45 -0700

MAEP, the basic funding formula for K-12 education in Mississippi, was fully funded today. Key quote: This is the first time lawmakers have fully funded MAEP, a complex formula that provides money to schools to meet midlevel performance goals, outside of a statewide election year. The program was put into state law in the 1990s.

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Salute

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:26:56 -0700

Does it seem right that we give the Pope a 21 gun salute?

A crowd of up to 12,000 is due at the White House on Wednesday morning for the pope's official, pomp-filled arrival ceremony. It will feature the U.S. and Holy See anthems, a 21-gun salute, and the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

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Links of the Week

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:32:21 -0800

How does Consumer Reports buy all the products they tests? Through secret shoppers...

Exxon still hasn't compensated those damaged by the Valdez spill 19 years ago. Chief Justice John Roberts doesn't see why they should...

How dangerous is the internet for children? It's not.

1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars... On a related note, two Mississippi men on death row are released after "bite-mark testimony" is found to be a sham. How many more innocent people are in jail? On death row? Have been executed?

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Links of the Week

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:42:26 -0800

Give Kucinich his due.

Intense, well-written account of the soldiers of Battle Company, waging a losing fight with insurgents in Afghanistan. And with the pressures of five and six tours in combat:

As Giunta said, “The richest, most-trained army got beat by dudes in manjammies and A.K.’s.” His voice cracked. He was not just hurting, he was in a rage. And there was nothing for him to do with it but hold back his tears, and bark — at the Afghans for betraying them, at the Army for betraying them. He didn’t run to the front because he was a hero. He ran up to get to Brennan, his friend. “But they” — he meant the military — “just keep asking for more from us.” His contract would be up in 18 days but he had been stop-lossed and couldn’t go home. Brennan himself was supposed to have gotten out in September. He’d been planning to go back to Wisconsin where his dad lived, play his guitar and become a cop.

Wonderful defense of the McCain/Iseman, and of good journalism.

Interview with David Simon, creator of The Wire.

Find the annual salary of any Mississippi superintendent.

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Looking at America

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:17:02 -0800

Last links of 2007:

Wow. Devastating NYT editorial that sums up America in the Bush years. This is us. This is who we are...

At the beginning of the War in Iraq, columnist Christopher Hitchens challenged young people to put their ideals forward and fight for the cause of freedom. A 21-year old man from California, inspired by Hitchens writings, did just that. He died in Iraq, the result of an I.E.D. Hitchens reexamines his beliefs.

Dennis Kucinich makes the argument for marijuana decriminalization.

Bob Baer examines the failed Bush doctrine of force-feeding democracy to the Middle East.

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Book Review: The Conscience of a Liberal

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:19:19 -0800

The Conscience of a Liberal

Paul Krugman

I'm a big Paul Krugman fan (he appeals to my rational side because, as an economist at heart, he backs everything up with numbers). Between Krugman, Steven Levitt, David Berri, (as well as Malcolm Gladwell, who has written about all three), and Michael Lewis, economics seems like a fascinating discipline. But onto the book...

Krugman starts with how the policies of President Franklin Roosevelt, primarily the New Deal, led to a "Great Compression" of wealth, and the rise of the middle class, from the 1950's through the 1970's. Starting in 1980 (or, perhaps, 1983) the country went through another, prolonged, separation of wealth, called the "Great Divergence," where the rich got richer and the poor and middle class got increasingly poorer, and the country entered a new "Gilded Age." Key stat from Krugman: "Between 1979 and 2005 the real income of the median household rose only 13 percent, but the income of the richest 0.1% of Americans rose 296 percent." This age of incredible income disparity between rich and poor is tied to what Krugman calls the rise "movement conservatives," who came to power in 1980, with the election of Ronald Reagan. What is a movement conservative? Basically this. Or, to put it more simply, item number 7: "We believe that the future of our country depends upon a strong and vibrant private sector unencumbered by excessive government regulation." Or, to quote, movement conservative hero Grover Norquist: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

How did movement conservatives come to power? The central thesis of Krugman's book is that the shift in political power to movement conservatism is tied to one simple trend: Southern white males started voting republican. And why did this happen? Primarily because of the passing and signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or, as President Johnson put it at the time, "I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come."

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Race, and the politics of race, according to Krugman, trump everything else (including appeals to the issues of gay marriage, abortion, religion, and terrorism) when it comes to the rise of movement conservatism. So that is the book in a nutshell. If you are interested in politics, poverty, and/or race, I suggest picking it up.

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Global Warming

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:12:56 -0700

One of the world's pre-eminent scientists says that Gobal Warming is now irreversible. He expects 6 billion people to die in the next hundred years. "But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting..." Read the article here...

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What I'm Reading Now...

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:51:35 -0700

The Conscience of a Liberal

Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is one of my favorite columnists. This book is his recap of how big business and the ultra-rich have co-opted the Republican Party and, more importantly, this country. Krugman also keeps a blog that he updates frequently.

Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane - An Illustrated Autobiography

Marion Jones is the same age as I am (32) and I remember following her career with the buildup to her five medal performance (now revealed as steroid-aided) in the 2000 Summer Olympics (on a side note, I have to confess that I love the Olympics and have twice visited Olympia).

2000 Olympics

I watched her emotional press conference where she admitted she had used steroids and, furthermore, that she had lied about her steroid use all of these years. I remembered seeing this book in the Jackson Barnes and Noble (where I spent many a Saturday, after having a Bento Box Lunch at Haru). I ordered it online this week, used, for about a dollar. It's an interesting autobiography, especially given that so much of it now needs to be adjusted.

2007 Press Conference

Here is an excellent article on the aftermath of Jones' revelation.

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein

Finally, I ordered this book after watching Naomi Klein's interview on the Real Time with Bill Maher last night.

Naomi Klein on Bill Maher

She was great, and I remembered hearing about this book when it first came out. I'll let you know if I like it. In the meantime, check out the short film Alfonso Cuaron, director of Children of Men (one of my two favorite films from last year, Zodiac being the other), put together for promoting the book:

The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein

As a bonus, check out one of the incredible, single-shot sequences from Children of Men:

Children of Men Six Minute Gun Battle in One Take

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