This is what the legacy of ‘white privilege’ looks like in Bill O’Reilly’s hometown – The Washington Post. An excellent piece highlighting how white privilege really works and why it’s very relevant today even though the policies that favored whites may be decades in the past.
via A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning – NYTimes.com. Amid disingenuous representations by Republican leaders that it’s the Democrats who want a government shutdown, it’s very useful to look back at the genesis of this hostage-taking strategy as this article does. In summary, the Republican plan dubbed the “blueprint to defunding Obamacare”, conservatives “articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.” This is … Continue reading this post
Newseum | Today’s Front Pages | Daily News.
Advocates of privatizing education in the US point to the success of Charter schools in improving student performance at acceptable levels of investment. Critics point out that the Charter schools that propoents hold up as models of education reform are in fact skimming the best students from our education system and are thus not really a model for reform. In that context, I found this Washington Post blog article very useful: Low-income students and KIPP charter schools – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post. Low-income students and KIPP charter schools By Valerie Strauss — This was written by Richard D. … Continue reading this post
Did a Spreadsheet Error Cost You Your Job? | Op-Eds & Columns. By Dean Baker Did an Excel error cost you your job? This is what people around the world should be asking after researchers at the University of Massachusetts uncovered a serious calculation mistake. The mistake was in an enormously influential paper by Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, two prominent economists, which purports to show that high levels of government debt lead to slow economic growth. This paper has been widely cited by political figures around the world who have been pushing the case for cutting back government spending and raising … Continue reading this post
Download my top 20 SXSW 2013 picks, the top 20+ schedule, and check out some other suggested artists. Click here or go to the SXSW 2013 Tab Above.
I was recently having a debate with a conservative friend about the efficacy of infrastructure spending by the government vs. private sector. His point was that any dollar spent by the private sector will be more efficient than the same dollar spent by government. I generally agreed, but pointed out that the private sector under-invests in things like infrastructure and R&D as a matter of basic economic theory (to read more on this check out my article about the concept of “market failure” here). Additionally, I made the point that borrowing $1 at near-zero rates and investing in infrastructure & R&D, … Continue reading this post
What Is Driving Growth in Government Spending? – NYTimes.com. Excellent analysis by Nate Silver
Now is the time | The White House. Check out this awesome page the White House has put together on the plan to reform gun laws. Very thorough, inspiring, informative, and touching. Now is the time! Please share.
Editor’s Note: Please sign this important petition here. White House Gun Control Petition Becomes Sites Most Popular Ever. A pro-gun control petition submitted on Friday through the White House’s “We the People” platform has quickly emerged as the most popular cause ever championed on the website. User David G. launched the effort hours after a shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. and gunned down 26 people, including 20 young children. It quickly surged past the 25,000 signatures needed to warrant a White House reaction and has since secured more than 150,000 supporters. The petition, one of a number of similar efforts calling for action … Continue reading this post
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