Possible Third Candidate in IL Senate Race

Crain's reports that mortgage broker Mike Niecestro may enter the Illinois race for the Senate. He's apparently a "disgusted Republican" who sees no difference between Giannoulias and Kirk. I, for one, welcome an ultra-conservative candidate to the race to steal votes from Kirk. Our slightly sleazy candidate might make it after all.

King David

I nominate Dave and Bridget but I'm open to other suggestions.

(Kristof makes some good points -- definitely worth a quick read.)

Medical Experimentation on Detainees?

On Sunday, the NYT reported that Physicians for Human Rights alleges that the CIA not only tortured detainees but also conducted medical experiments on them. Now, thankfully, the alleged experiments come nowhere near the horrific crimes committed by Dr. Mengele in WWII. But, there were still criminally distasteful. CIA doctors attempted to "calibrate the level of pain experienced by detainees during interrogation, ostensibly to keep it from crossing the administration's legal threshold of what it claimed constituted torture." Recall that the Bushies defined that partially as pain commensurate with "serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." Not exactly a humane standard.

The CIA is, of course, denying the report. Given the CIA's long track record of dubious denials, I'm not taking that at face value.

Regardless, this comes on the heels of W. defiantly admitting that we did indeed waterboard (i.e., torture) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and that he'd "do it again to save lives." We spent so much of 2001-2008 outraged at what was being done in our name that it almost seems hard to muster it up again. But, I hope that this report revives talk of investigating the Bush administration's gross abuses of power.

Texas Social Studies Standards

As you know, Texas is conducting a controversial re-write of their social studies standards. This gained notice because a very conservative cluster of school board officials basically hijacked the Board and began pushing through really objectionable stuff. Here's a summary. Because publishers historically have written their high school materials for Texas and then adapted them for other states, this raised concerns that kids nationwide would be using conservatively biased textbooks. This has so alarmed people that legislators in California proposed a bill barring any Texas standards from California schools. Heck, this whole brouhaha even made the Daily Show.

Well, I'm here to offer an publisher industry insider update on this whole mess. The executive summary is: let's all take a deep breath and wait a bit. The TX Board did finally approve amendments to their standards but because they created such a stir they had to roll back some of their more egregious changes. So, while there is a standard calling for a look at the Constitution and Bill of Rights for the lack of the phrase "separation of church and state," Thomas Jefferson wasn't pulled from the standards. Also, they may be re-re-visited. Three of the most conservative members are lame ducks and the incoming folks have pledged to re-open this debate--something they can legally do when they take office in January. And, the state legislature has threatened to refuse funding for the textbook adoption with these standards.

And, as always, it comes down to that funding. Across the country, school districts are facing massive budget crunches and are trying to reallocate money set aside for textbooks and materials, controversial or not, to payroll to keep teachers. Texas has already postponed their science adoption because of budget issues. If science is delayed, you know social studies will be. In the end, it could all be much ado about nothing.

Hopin' for an Implosion

This is probably happening too early to really effect the vote in November but it appears that Mark Kirk has a penchant for lying about his service record. This is the kind of thing that can really pick up steam, although Repugs tend to be able to skate on stuff like this just because they are more hawkish.

But, let's not forget that the true travesty when it comes to our nation's military was Barack Obama not going to Arlington on Memorial Day.