PoliPointPress

Todd Farley: Stop Me Before I Grade Again!

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:21:25 +0000

P3 author Todd Farley has an eloquent op-ed in today’s Christian Science Monitor. As he notes, the for-profit standardized testing racket may not be the best place to put our faith when it comes to President Obama’s “Race to the Top” initiative.

Here’s Todd: “The 15 years I spent scoring student essays and written responses to state K-12 tests revealed a process that was less ’scientifically based research’ (a heady phrase dropped more than 100 times in No Child Left Behind) than a theater of the absurd.”

As the father of two college students (and an educator myself), I thought the standardized testing thing went overboard long ago. Now we have an insider’s account of how the psychometricians have taken over.

The Blue Pages, 2nd Edition

John McAlester - Webmaster — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:19:25 +0000

The Blue Pages, 2nd Edition Feature Image

John McAlester - Webmaster — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:59:05 +0000

Michelle Malkin and the 50 Ways Flap

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:32:58 +0000

Michelle Malkin's favorite targets?

Turns out Michelle Malkin, a right-wing pundit based in Colorado, has gone after p3 authors Michael Huttner as well as President Obama. The flap is tucked neatly into a Colorado Statesman article titled “Local Liberals Score With ‘50 Ways to Help Obama.’”

Q & A with David Neiwert on ReligionDispatches

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:46:04 +0000

Frederick Clarkson has an interesting exchange with David Neiwert about the role of religion in the right-wing tendency to depict ideological adversaries as “beyond the pale, the embodiment of evil itself, unfit for participation in [the right wing's] vision of society, and thus worthy of elimination.”

Eliminationism isn’t restricted to the religious right, of course, but these comments on “imprecatory prayer”–essentially a curse directed at one’s adversaries–brings out an especially potent aspect of Dave’s argument.

Dan Weintraub Leaving Bee, Writing for NYT Bay Area Edition

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:11:55 +0000

P3 author Daniel Weintraub (Party of One) is leaving the Sacramento Bee on Friday. He will write a weekly column on politics for the Bay Area edition of the New York Times, which launches the same day. According to LA Observed, Dan will also start a nonprofit website on California health policy.

Norman & Reese: On the Streets of Kabul

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:09:57 +0000

Marine corporal Rick Reyes listens to Afghans in a refugee camp there.

P3 authors Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich returned from Afghanistan recently and made the media rounds–”Democracy Now!,” C-SPAN, etc. But these guys also make their own media. Check out “American Peace Activists on the Streets of Kabul,” courtesy of “Making Contact.” Reese is the contributing producer.

Dean Baker: It’s All Good (Unless You Need a Job)

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:47:32 +0000

Unemployment line in Charlotte, North Carolina

P3 author Dean Baker makes a good point in his AlterNet piece today. The stock market is up, Alan Greenspan predicts significant growth, the banks are doing fine, etc.

Let’s see, who does that leave out? Oh, right, the nation’s working families, who are facing double-digit unemployment rates. Here in California, that rate is the highest since 1940.

All in the fullness of time, proles. And don’t forget, none of that class-war business. It might disturb the personal equanimity of the prosperous.

Joe Conason: Vast, Right-Wing Conspiracy Is New and Improved

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:04:37 +0000

P3 author Joe Conason has a solid piece in Salon about the sleaze machine targeting President Obama now. Joe’s in a good position to comment; his first bestseller was about what he called “the hunting of the president.” In that case, it was Bill Clinton, but many of the same players are back at it, this time with more resources and reach.

Ocular Proof Department: Curtis White Has Reach

Peter Richardson - Editorial Director — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:12:42 +0000

Curt White's Barbaric Heart: Not just for bedtime reading.

We’ve been saying it for a while; Curt White draws one of the most interesting audiences in publishing today.

My friend Mark Ettlin and I dug The Middle Mind, Curt’s 2003 book with Harper San Francisco. (Actually, I saw the Harper’s Magazine excerpt first.) When Curt wrote about his publishing experiences in Stop Smiling, one of the coolest magazines out there, I thought I might be able to publish his work at p3. That led to two extraordinary books, The Spirit of Disobedience and The Barbaric Heart.

Curt has had a distinguished academic career, but it’s his ability to reach general readers that really distinguishes him from his fellow academics. One of those readers just sent Curt a remarkable photo (above) that we simply had to share.