"...observed one of my students with a group of other children gathered around his laptop. Upon looking at his computer, I saw he was giving a demonstration of some sort. The student was showing the ability of the laptop and handing out Linux disks. After confiscating the disks I called a confrence with the student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization. Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful. These children look up to adults for guidance and discipline. I will research this as time allows and I want to assure you, if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows. Mr. Starks, I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods. I admire your attempts in getting computers in the hands of disadvantaged people but putting linux on these machines is holding our kids back.

This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all. I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older verison of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them..."

Karen xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx Middle School
AISD

Please click through for the delicious smackdown

On Tuesday, Americans chose as their next president an African-American named Barack Obama who campaigned on a near-universal health-care plan, allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, and a move away from the belligerent foreign policy of the past eight years. Republicans, and some journalists, had spent months (falsely) saying Obama is the single most liberal member of the U.S. Senate -- and maybe even a socialist. The American people responded by electing him in a landslide.

This, naturally, is very good news for the Republicans, according to many pundits. It proves once again that America remains a "center-right" nation.

Right about now, you're probably scratching your head, wondering how the election of the "most liberal" member of the Senate, a man who campaigned on a promise of near-universal health care, could possibly be described as evidence of a conservative country.

To be sure, it requires some creative thinking.

NBC's Tom Brokaw, for example, looked at county-by-county election results and concluded that counties carried by John McCain account for greater land mass than those carried by Barack Obama. This would be meaningful, if only fields and streams and rocks and trees were conservative voters. But they aren't: They are fields and streams and rocks and trees. They are neither liberal nor conservative; they tell us nothing about the nation's political leanings. People tell us something about the nation's leanings -- and more people voted for Barack Obama.MORE

For example, on James Dobson's Focus on Family website( who is apparently a huge supporter of Palin's stances of abstinence and pro-life) he says the following about abstinence and purity:

In the Christian worldview, we have no right to sex.....In other words, chastity is a fact of gospel life. The New Testament makes clear that sex beyond the boundaries of marriage--the boundaries of communally granted sanction of sex----is simply off limits. To have sex outside those bounds is to commit an offense against the body. Abstinence before marriage, and fidelity within marriage--refraining from sex with somone other than your husband or wife--is just one of those basic rules that keeps you inside the Christian community. Any other kind of sex is embodied apostasy.

Most important for Palin, an elder statesman of the movement, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, released a statement lauding the Palins for acting in keeping with the group's policies and practices:

"We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I'm sure the Palins have," Dobson said. MORE

So, without further ado, what we know so far (all the information, and much, much more can be found here, here, here, and here):

* As user Liz Arnett first informed us yesterday morning, the AIP is a political party in Alaska whose motto is "Alaska First." It's goal is to have a vote on Alaska's state status so that Alaskans may decide whether the state should secede, become a territory, become a commonwealth, or remain a state.
* The AIP has what most Americans would qualify as radical views on the relationship between the federal government and Alaska, including a belief that the federal government should be dissolved if gun rights are ever abolished or curtailed, a belief that the federal government is in breach of the Constitution, and complete opposition to environmental regulations and public ownership of Alaskan land.
* Yesterday night, it was is confirmed that Sarah Palin and her husband were members of the AIP at least in 1994. Indeed, Palin reportedly attended the AIP convention.
* In 2007, the Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark, not only referenced Palin's membership, but also said that since she joined the GOP, "she is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership." Clark also goes on to discuss the need to "infiltrate" the major parties.
* In 2008, Palin recorded a message for the AIP's annual convention, stating that Alaska has "a great promise to be a self-sufficient state" and encouraging them to "keep up the good work."

jsl

What I want to flush out is the DOUBLE STANDARD in this political campaign.
For the last year, I’ve watched Senator Barack Obama run a campaign equivalent to guarding Fort Knox, and yet, the Mainstream Media would rather continue to pick on him, his friends (face it, he’s losing them because every time the media digs up something stupid or controversial they say, he gets rid of them), his wife and family because of the obvious.

Yet, Senator John McCain; his drug-addict heiress wife, their many homes upon which no taxes were being paid until it was exposed in the media; the hiding out of their Bangladeshi daughter like she was dirty laundry; the demise of McCain’s first family and wife so he could marry the heiress who claims she is an only child - while there are three women who are biologically related to her - ALL OF THIS GETS A FREE PASS IN THE MEDIA.

I am sorry for any child of a politician because they didn’t sign on for their parent’s ambition to run for elected office. Not only does that include Malia and Sasha Obama, but that includes Bristol, Willow, Piper, Track and now, baby Trig Palin; as well as includes Bridget McCain.
But I am compelled to point out that the ReThugs started the mess of bringing children into the mix of political contests, starting with Rush Limbaugh’s attack on a twelve year old Chelsea Clinton.
Follow that up with McCain’s own jokes regarding Chelsea:

John McCain made this odious joke about Chelsea Clinton back in ‘98.

Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

– Sen. John McCain, speaking to a Republican dinner, June 1998.

I will be the first to agree that the children should be off limits on both sides of the aisle. But, My God, I’m fast getting tired of the expectation that the Democrats play by the rules when the ReThugs continue to demonstrate their approach to a political election is worthy of Malcolm X, “By Any Means Necessary.”

I want to discuss the DOUBLE STANDARD - you know; the one where if Bristol Palin was Malia Obama, the media would be all over how Barack and Michelle Obama are incompetent parents who taught Malia loose morals. While I am happy that the Palin family is supporting Bristol, and they should, let’s not allow the waxing poetic of what warm family values this represents. Sarah Palin is a woman added to McCain’s ticket that points to her five children as a virtue of being pro-life; but what gives her the right to tell me what to do with my reproductive organs?

I want to talk about the DOUBLE STANDARD - you know; that one where Mary Cheney, lesbian daughter of Dead-Eye Dick Cheney, is allowed to live freely and openly with her partner, Heather Poe, and even is allowed to procreate; while the administration her father serves in (hell, operates and runs since 2001) is busy outlawing gay marriage and making it illegal for gay people to become parents through adoption or artificial insemination. And the media has gone silent on her, and all the ReThugs outed from their comfortable closets, preaching on the vileness of being gay, and yet engaging in what is considered in many circles, a depraved lifestyle. But with the exception of Mark Foley, many of these SOBs are still holding public office; but $80 million dollars in taxpayer money was spent on publicly humiliating Bill Clinton for a blow job.

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