Kind of funny:

It's outrageous that school districts would import teachers from the Philippines rather than paying a sufficient salary to attract American teachers.

[Baldwin County, Alabama] district officials went around the world last year, with expenses paid by a teacher recruiting firm, and brought back Michel Olalo of Manila and 11 other Filipinos to teach along the shores of the Gulf Coast and Mobile Bay and in the communities in between.

The minimum starting salary for an inexperienced teacher in Alabama is $36,144. That's ten times better than a teacher is paid in the Philippines. That's good for Filipinos who may well become excellent teachers, but shouldn't our schools pay enough to make teaching an attractive job for Americans?

Activist, candidate, and Green Party leader Peter Camejo died today at the age of 68.

Camejo ran for [California's] top office in 2002, 2003 and 2006, supporting abortion rights, universal health care and a moratorium on the death penalty. Before joining the Green Party, he also ran for president as the Socialist Workers Party nominee in 1976. In 2004, Camejo was independent Nader's vice presidential pick.

Camejo, a first-generation Venezuelan-American, was also active against the Vietnam War and a vocal advocate for migrant worker rights. He marched in Selma, Ala. with Martin Luther King, Jr.

RIP, Peter Camejo.

If anyone had any doubt, today's college football results prove that the Big Ten stinks.

This is an Open Thread.

Al Giordano discussing an Obama Tier 2 ad (which means it is NOT from Obama):

Obsession with Palin has more often than not, in the past 14 days, said more about the misogynist and sexist culture we live in than about Governor Palin. It doesn't matter if, on the merits, the critique is right or wrong: it's the kind of Palin-hate that drowns out the more necessary fair-game critiques of her, and inoculates her from them. In a way, the obsessions over Palin from parts of the left mirror the act of aerial hunting being described in the ad. (And it's a very eerie coincidence that the McCain campaign's own pre-existing Internet ad that purports to be against "sexism" also uses the image of invading wolves, albeit making the opposite point.)

I wonder if that post makes Giordano a "concern troll?"

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Who'da thunk it, Frank Rich gets one right:

How do you run against that flashy flimflam? You don’t. Karl Rove for once gave the Democrats a real tip rather than a bum steer when he wrote last week that if Obama wants to win, “he needs to remember he’s running against John McCain for president,” not Palin for vice president. Obama should keep stepping up the blitz on McCain’s flip-flops, confusion, ignorance and blurriness on major issues (from education to an exit date from Iraq), rather than her gaffes and résumé. If he focuses voters on the 2008 McCain, the Palin question will take care of itself.

He gets it wrong on invoking Bush (he counsels against it), but Rich getting it half right is a miracle these days.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Paul Rosenberg posts this video:

The idea of linking McCain to Bush is, of course, sound. The execution of this video is poor. This is serious business. Trying to make it funny is not the right approach. Cut out all the attempted humor, stick to the fact that McCain is in fact running for Bush's Third Term, and you have some effective video here.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Via Josh Marshall, the John McCain campaign admits he will lie to the American People as the candidate and if he becomes President:

McCain seems to have made a choice that many politicians succumb to but that he had always promised to avoid — he appears ready to do whatever it takes to win, even it if soils his reputation. . . . McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said . . . "We recognize it’s not going to be 2000 again . . . But he lost then. We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”

George Bush won in 2000 by lying and continued lying to the American People as President. John McCain promises more of the same - the same Bush lies to the American People we have seen for 8 years. As Barack Obama says, it is time to say "enough!" Enough of the Bush policies and the Bush lies. Even if they now come from John McCain.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Maxine Waters is making a second attempt to persuade the Department of Justice to investigate shootings by police officers in Inglewood, California. From her letter:

On Sunday, August 31, 2008 another citizen of Inglewood was shot and killed by an Inglewood Police Officer under questionable circumstances. Press reports described Eddie Felix Franco as a 56-year old homeless man who died a short time after he was shot by Inglewood Police. In addition to Mr. Franco, another bystand­er was injured in this shooting and an accompanying dog was shot and killed at the scene.

It is my understanding that the Department of Justice is inclined to allow a pending local investigation of police misconduct to be concluded before a federal investigation is begun. However, four fatal shootings in four months demonstrate an alarming number of deaths at the hands of a relatively small police force.

We're off to a dinner event at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersberg, FL tonight. The featured exhibit is Dali's View of Women.

More than 100 of Dalí’s works from the permanent collection are on display until September 21. A range of diverse approaches are found in Dalí’s view of women, most evident in his many depictions of his wife, Gala. He painted her as the Sphinx, Gradiva and Leda, infusing in her his interest in the feminine myths of mothers, daughters, muses and predators. ..."

This is an open thread, all topics welcome. Have a great evening.

Alan Greenspan, nobody's idea of a wild-eyed liberal, tells us that the country can't afford John McCain's proposed tax cuts. At least not without significantly slashing federal spending. That's not likely to happen in a McCain administration, given McCain's devotion to an expensive war in Iraq and the need to ramp up military spending even more to cover the other military ventures McCain is likely to authorize.

McCain has said he would balance the cost of most of his tax cuts with budget reductions, while providing few details beyond eliminating earmarks and other pork-barrel spending, which have totaled about $171 billion since 2001.

How those cuts will cover his proposed $3.3 trillion reduction in tax revenues, McCain hasn't explained. Nor is he willing to say which earmarks he'll cut, or what he'll do about the nation's crumbling infrastructure if he intends to slash domestic spending.

The answer is obvious: higher deficits, a continuation of the Republican legacy. McCain = more of the same.

The Left blogs fundamentally misunderstand what they are doing wrong. Markos cites TINS:

The Obama campaign has been successful largely because of its inspiring "new brand of politics". Unfortunately, as Bill Clinton might note, that makes it somewhat difficult for the Obama campaign to get quite as nasty with the opposition as it might need to. But that's OK--because that can be our job.

The problem is not the nasty - hell, Obama has gone full out on offense against McCain - the problem is the target Obama's Tier 2 (blogs and Media (see MSNBC in particular)) is aiming at - Palin. Get tough on McCain. Talk about how McCain is tied to Bush. The Obama Tier 2 (blogs and MSNBC) are doing a lousy job because they are shooting at the wrong person. They are not getting played, they just are doing the wrong thing. More . . .