Jajuna

Just caught this article “Women’s Liberation through Submission” that describes the rise of a new “patriarchy movement” afoot in the United States. Recently, for example, 6,000 women gathered in Chicago for “The True Woman Conference” in order to draft and sign what they are calling the “True Woman Manifesto”. Highlights include a pledge to affirm and submit to “godly masculinity”, to admit that the “selfish insistence on personal rights is contrary to the spirit of christ”, and to honor and submit to the male leadership of their churchs and homes. As one can imagine the group views itself as a counter-cultural movement intent on opposing what they view as the deleterious influence of feminism on American life. They appear ready to reject the right to vote, legal protections for women, anti-sexual harrasment legistlation, not to mention equal rights to education and greater freedom for women to pursue their interests and talents. 

With the economic crisis and Obama’s victory its going to be interesting to observe how the right organizes and mobilizes itself over the next few years. While the “True Woman’s Movement” will hopefully remain a crazy-insano fringe movement it will be important to observe how their ideas become re-packaged and branded at the national level by GOP leaders. Ann Coulter’s new book is a case in point, where practically every economic and social problem on the planet is blamed on single women with children.

I just caught up with two articles on Alternet that offer a pretty compelling argument for why congress should go forward with criminal investigations of the Bush administration.

The first article offers us a short top-ten on the mess Bush created.

They read as follows:

1. The worst recession since the 1930s. The current recession will be the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. And unlike other recessions, this one was directly caused by conservative anti-regulatory policy. In fact, recent evaluations show that Bush policies never created any real growth — the ephemeral financial upswings of the past eight years were based on market bubbles and economic Band-Aids.

2. The worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The Bush administration, flacking an “ownership society,” helped manufacture the housing bubble. When it burst, Americans lost $6 trillion in housing wealth (so far), fueling a market crash that has cost Americans $8 trillion of stock wealth, according to economist Dean Baker. On a grand scale, we’ve been mugged.

3. The worst foreign policy mistake in the history of this country. That’s what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., correctly called the Iraq war. This pre-emptive war — based on phony pretenses — is now the second longest in our nation’s history (after Vietnam). Some 35,000 Americans are dead or wounded, as well as an enormous number of innocent Iraqis. And even today, more than five years later, can anyone explain why Bush marched us into this quagmire?

4. Unprecedented rejection of human rights. Recently, a Bush administration official finally admitted that the U.S. government engaged in torture at Guantanamo Bay detention center. Bush admitted that he personally authorized waterboarding. While these clear violations of the Geneva Conventions would have been unthinkable a few years ago, today we’re not surprised. From Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition, to years-long detention of innocents and the unrestrained killing of civilians by U.S.-paid mercenaries, this administration has systematically squandered our nation’s moral standing in the world, making us less able to protect Americans and American interests worldwide.

5. Watergate-style abuses of power. As the House Judiciary Committee staff has documented, Bush used the politics of fear and division to justify warrantless wiretapping of innocent Americans (including U.S. soldiers fighting overseas), spying on peaceful domestic groups and the use of national security letters to pry into the private records of millions of Americans. He also presided over illegal politicization of the Justice Department and retribution against critics. In fact, Bush claimed the authority to disobey hundreds of laws — as if Richard Nixon were right when he famously said: “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.”

6. Unprecedented increases in inequality. The Economic Policy Institute reports, “For the first time since the Census Bureau began tracking such data back in the mid-1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of this business cycle than they were when it started.” That’s because Bush policy was designed to increase economic inequality. The richest 1 percent of the population received 36 percent of the Bush tax cuts; the least-affluent 40 percent received only 9 percent. While the rich got exponentially richer, the poverty rate and the percentage of uninsured dramatically increased.

7. A culture of sleaze. This was an administration without shame. Kicked off by Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force, the administration fostered a “greed is good” culture. The subsequent conservative money scandals (Jack Abramoff; White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian;  Republicans Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Duke Cunningham of California and Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska) and other lawlessness (Cheney’s Chief of Staff O. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho) have toppled the conservative “moral values” façade into the gutter, where it belongs.

8. Blind rejection of science. The Bush administration thumbed its nose at scientific evidence that contradicted conservative political goals. The resulting lies about global warming, endangered species, toxic chemicals and consumer products threaten the health and safety of every American. And the virtual outlawing of stem cell research has delayed important medical advances by years, causing immeasurable suffering and loss of life.

9. Utter refusal to protect the health, safety and legal rights of Americans. Following the conservative business-is-always-right philosophy, Bush dismantled the agencies and rules designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous businesses, workers from reckless employers and small companies from anti-competitive large companies. If conservatives didn’t like a federal law, they blocked, hindered or defunded agency enforcement.

10. Presiding over our nation’s worst natural disaster, and not caring. Hurricane Katrina was transformed from a calamity into a national disgrace by the sheer incompetence and indifference of the Bush administration. Before the hurricane struck, Bush had downsized the Federal Emergency Management Agency and placed in charge a political crony with no relevant experience. When Katrina ripped through Mississippi and Louisiana and inflicted nearly $100 billion in damages in New Orleans to become the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, FEMA was unprepared to help, and thousands of Americans suffered the consequences. More than three years later, New Orleans still has not recovered.

The second article is an op-ed by Paul Krugman that first appeared in the New York Times on monday. Here Krugman makes the case that Bush and his cronies must be held accountable for their abuses of power and for their violations of U.S. and international law. If the law is to mean anything, he argues, then investigations must go forward in order to hold the Bush administration accountable for their misdeeds. While such investigations may prove divisive and distracting, I agree with Krugman that this should not stand in the way of pursuing justice.

Even up here in the snowy northern climes of Canada the inauguration of Barack Obama is shaping up to be a major cultural event. For the past few days its been wall to wall coverage on Canadian tv and radio. I am sure that today between the times of 11am and 1pm worker productivity will take a significant hit as offices and classrooms tune in to watch the big event.

After witnessing the utterly grotesque spectacle of Bush’s final media outings last week - designed no less to salvage what he could of his ignominious reputation - the contrast in personal style, intellect, and competency with Obama could not be more apparent. There can be no doubt that Obama’s inauguration signals a hopeful break with the Bush years as well as a moment of great significance in the ongoing history of race and civil rights in the United States. Most Canadians certainly recognize this and they appear relieved to have an incomming U.S. president who can a) speak in complete sentences and b) can locate Canada on a map.

While I cannot help feeling hopeful about what Obama’s presidency might mean for the direction of U.S. policy and political culture, these hopes are tempered by the sobering magnitude of the economic, environmental, and social challenges that lie ahead. Moreover, based so far on his cabinet appointments as well as his public rhetoric, Obama does not appear ready to take on the entrenched corporate and right-wing interests standing in the way of real progressive change. As such, I will be feeling a mixture of hope, joy, and apprehension as I watch Obama take his oath today.

In the newest edition of Rethinking Schools Fred McKissack reminds us that while Obama’s election marks an historic moment for racial justice in America it far from signals the achievement of a post-racial society.

From his article:

Exactly how can we be in post-racial America when nearly 40 percent of black children under the age of 5 live at or below the poverty line? How are we in post-racial America when the level of school segregation for Latinos is the highest in 40 years and segregation of blacks is back to levels not seen since the late 1960s? How are we in post-racial America when the gaps in wealth, income, education, and health care have widened over the last eight years? In 2006, 20.3 percent of blacks were not covered by health insurance, compared to only 10.8 percent of whites. For Latinos, a whopping 34.1 percent were not covered. In 2007, the unemployment rate for blacks was twice as high as that for whites. We are all Americans, but the pain of poverty is disproportionately cracking the backs of minorities. There are those who insist that the gap in wealth, income, health care and education is due to an inherent culture of victimization. If people of color only worked harder, they’d be fine, we are told. But it’s a flawed premise. This economy has never provided enough jobs for everyone. The funding of education gives a leg up to those who grow up in wealthy districts. Lack of health insurance is a necessity for those without the means. And institutional racism persists. Now is not the time to avert our eyes from the prize. Indeed, the nation needs to refocus its attention on tearing down the walls that keep us from living in a truly post-racial America.

If we are to “tear down the walls that keep us from living in a truly post-racial America” then we will have to radically recommit to the ideals of public education in a democratic society. This is why Obama’s appointment of Arne Duncan marks such a dangerous moment for the future of race, education, and democracy in America. Which path will the new ed secretary follow? The path of privatization, high-stakes tests, and zero-tolerance instituted in Chicago? Now is not the time for more market driven solutions to social problems. If we are to realize the promise of a more egalitarian multicultural society where all children are afforded the same life chances regardless of race, class, and gender then foremost on the politcal agenda must be to institute broad-based progressive reforms for public education. Its up to us to push Obama and Duncan down this path.

Currently there is  a growing mobilization of corporate interests who view the excessive emphasis on rote-learning and high-stakes testing mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act as harmful to workforce development. Enter the 21st Century Skills coalition whose board of directors is made up of representatives from some of the most powerful corporations in the United States. This network has developed an educational framework which they are pushing on individual states and are agressively lobbying to make official policy under the Obama administration.

At its root the 21st century Skills partnership represents a pro-corporate plan for education which advocates widening curricular mandates in order to produce more entrepreneurial, flexible, and creative workers. On the surface the proposals may strike some as representing much needed progressive reforms, for instance the skills framework calls for media and civic literacy programs. However, when one spends any amount of time reading the policy papers  of 21st Century Skills their agenda appears far from civic oriented. Instead, it promotes the privatization of public education and the commercialization of curriculum. For those concerned with the direction of public education under the Obama adiministration, the 21st Centruy Skills partnership is definitely an entity to start monitoring.