Chris Tackett
I'm Chris. These are things I find beautiful and interesting.
twitter.com/christackett:
“The share of Louisiana’s population that is locked up in jails or prisons is triple that of Iran and seven times that of China. In last two decades, Lousiana’s incarceration rate has doubled, with one out of 86 Louisians doing time — double the national rate.
How did this happen?
In an in-depth piece in the New Orleans Times-Picayune this weekend, writer Cindy Chang looks at one of the key driving factor behind the world’s lock-up capital: “cold, hard cash.”
Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.
It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.
We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
"Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem. - The Washington Post
Read the whole thing. Smart post and hugely important.
“Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has created or reconfigured at least 263 organizations to tackle some aspect of the war on terror. Thirty-three new building complexes have been built for the intelligence bureaucracies alone, occupying 17 million square feet – the equivalent of 22 U.S. Capitols or three Pentagons. The largest bureaucracy after the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs is now the Department of Homeland Security, which has a workforce of 230,000 people.
…
We don’t look like people who have won a war. We look like scared, fearful losers.”
via Fareed’s Take: U.S. has made war on terror a war without end – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
… I was like:
I certainly understand that this is a big, big deal for a sitting POTUS to announce this belief, but for those of us that were already fighting for this right back in 2003-04, it’s sort of like, “eh, about time. thumbs up, I guess.” But either way, I know it’s a happy day for some of my friends. Congrats! Keep fighting.
“Guaranteeing universal access to preschool would benefit children, of course, but also their parents and the overall economy. First, extending the social contract to 3-and-4-year-olds would acknowledge that our public education system can no longer run on a pre-feminism model that assumes mothers of young children don’t need or want to work. Second, improving lifetime educational achievement by reaching all children as early in their brain development as possible would increase economic mobility. And third, universal preschool would create many new jobs for early education teachers and teachers’ aides.”
Rachel Maddow gives a great overview on the wage gap between men and women and why the Republican party wants to pretend like it doesn’t exist.
This is an long, but important segment. Where is the extremist line for Republicans on the issue of abortion? What position is too extreme to be chosen as Vice President? Rachel Maddow explains how forcing rape and incest victims to carry babies to term is no longer an extremist position among Republicans and what that means for the country.
Obama’s campaign slogan: “Forward.” The president’s campaign announced it in this seven-minute clip above. Unlike MSNBC, it doesn’t lean.
Good video.
Think the postal service is broken? Wasting money? Think again.@EdShow explains how the GOP sabotaged the @USPS (via US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Ed Schultz on the destruction of the U.S. Postal Service)
Why don’t politicians today grow beards?
In 2012, No Religious Center Is Holding
Good post on the current state of Christianity in the US.
