To The Left! To The Left!

According to this Washington Times article Venezuela may be emerging as the leader of a “Bank of the South” and working to provide an alternative or escape for South America to the IMF’s highly string-attached loans. Venezuela has already bailed Argentina out of its loan crisis and future efforts may be made for other such nations. Multi-billion dollar no strings attached loans? Is this (gasp) THE RICH(ER) HELPING THE POOR(ER)?!?

NO! Funnily enough, Argentina is actually a much wealthier nation than Venezuela. Why and how do such things happen? Economically saavy people, please help.

remember the Gulf Coast!

I know I’m posting a lot of videos these days (it’s easier than writing long pieces on the state of American democracy that no one has time to read or respond to, ahem), but this one is important. NBC did a great piece on President Bush’s trip to the region (in which he lectured local leaders: “It may be hard for you to see, but from when I first came here to today, New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit” and told them “it’s a heck of a place”) and the process of rebuilding as it applies to class. Yes, that’s right, the issue of CLASS being dealt with seriously on national television. Watch it, and don’t forget the Gulf Coast!

VIDEO: wmp and quicktime.

a question of school work

Ignorant of yet increasingly interested in the politics of education, I’m more intrigued than ever after reading this conversation published in today’s Washington Post. In it, education columnist Jay Mathews and reader -slash- high-school program coordinator Chris Peters argue over the merits of vocational education in secondary schools. The debate touches on, among other points, the risk of vocational ed becoming a “dumping ground” for minority students due to racist counseling; the hypothetical role and actual effectiveness of community colleges (at least in California); and potential elitism in mandating college prep curricula. I don’t know whose arguments I agree with more, but most of the issues they address certainly resonate with my high school experience: I went to a large, ethnically and socio-economically diverse public school in California, and my school had majorly unsettling segregation of (mostly-minority) regular students and (mostly white and east-asian-american) advanced-placement kids.

Sorry I don’t have time to pull some of the most interesting quotes from the column (2 papers and an exam due tomorrow), but if you have a couple of minutes, I just wanted to share. Thoughts?

lunchtime video!

It’s Friday and I’m taking the weekend off, so today will actually be lunchtime videos. But first, an article appetizer. The most emailed story on YahooNews right now has this headline: Colbert: AP the Biggest Threat to America. Read the story. My favorite line:

“It’s like Shakespeare still being alive and not asking him what `Hamlet’ is about,” he said.

To celebrate Colbert’s campaign against the AssociateD Press, I’ve compiled a few Colbert classics from his days on the Daily Show.

Today’s video: Colbert cracks up when trying to report on a royal scandal “from London.”

Tomorrow’s video: Jon Stewart interviews “Al Sharpton” who looks strangely thin, white and Colbert-esque.

Sunday’s video: In “Even Stevphen”, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert debate Islam v. Christianity and agree!

Have a good weekend!