Think of that: A college education is out of reach for all but the most well-off in 49 of the 5o states. When I went to graduate school at the University of Texas in 1981, tuition costs weren't even a budget item, they were so low. Texas had four year schools in the most remote reaches of the state, and it was a given that anyone who could get into college could go to a state institution because the price was so low. And this had to have held down the cost of Texas private schools as well.
The P-I editorial points out that "...the United States, formerly the leader, ranks behind a half-dozen countries in college participation. Just more than a third of young adults enroll here, far behind the 53 percent who attend college in Korea." Which means that at the same time that blue collar jobs are disappearing, the entry cost -- a college education -- to the white collar world is prohibitive for most American young people.
This is yet another example of the bias against the working class in this country: In the interests of union busting, conservatives begrudge a bailout to the auto industry that is less than 2% of the money used on the Wall Street bailout even though auto making is one of the few industries that pays blue collar workers reasonably well. I yield to no one in holding contempt for top management of the American automotive industry, but arguably millions of jobs -- in the middle of a recession yet -- are at stake here.
Anyway, here's the sum total of the deal offered by conservatives to working people: You can't send your kids to college and you can't make a decent living, but you do get to own as many guns as you want...
Republican National Committee chair Mike Duncan talks about the future of his party here. Listen as he dances around the issue of the religious right's influence and at one point squirms in silence. It's his problem, but just what do you do when your party is identified with a lunatic fringe group?...
The Nation has an informative and positive review of Ned Sublette's terrific book The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver To Congo Square...
Media Matters has compiled a depressingly long list of MSM outlets eager to hitch Barack Obama's wagon to Rod Blagojevich's fallen star, despite a dearth of evidence connecting the two. It's not even as meager as guilt-by-association, as Obama has assiduously kept Blagojevich at arm's length. Personally, I think this whole mess will redound to Obama's favor. The MSM comes across as playing the Same Old Game, except that today there is a blogosphere to call them on it. And they're playing the SOG against someone whom the public wants to succeed...
Chutzpah Dept: You have to see this to believe it...
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