Monday DL Links

Hi all,

Happy Monday, everybody. Here are some links to start your week, if you’re interested:

Paul Krugman discusses the destructive austerity our lawmakers are imposing. It's not just hurting us now; it's also crippling our future by slashing funding for investment—and education is a key component of investment. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/destructive-austerity-usa/ Maddowblog further illustrates the problem when a stimulus meets a counter-stimulus. The maddening thing is that policymakers can avoid this problem. They just choose not to. http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10271494-when-a-stimulu...

In her Debunktion Junction segment, Rachel Maddow broke the fact that the Oglalla Sioux tribe apparently has only 6 days for early voting in South Dakota, as opposed to the 46 days everyone else has.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/46198182

Soaking the poor: A chart of what the poorest 20% pay in taxes, versus the top 1%, state by state. South Dakota is third worst. As a percentage of their income, the bottom 20% pay 5.8 times as much as the top 1%. That’s not a healthy society—unless you like feudalism. http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/soaking-poor-state-state

One more time: Merit pay for teachers does not work. http://madvilletimes.com/2012/02/ravitch-says-merit-pay-never-works-neve... Keep in mind that South Dakota has the lowest teacher pay in the nation. The next lowest state, North Dakota, pays 25% more than we do. Minnesota pays 50% more. http://madvilletimes.com/2011/06/south-dakota-teacher-pay-last-again-63-... But Daugaard’s bait-and-switch has successfully changed the topic. Instead of discussing why we aren’t funding education, Daugaard has us arguing about which teachers are “bad.”

Who doesn’t want to live in an aristocracy? At this rate, we’ll be there soon. We’re already ahead of the British. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/exceptionalism-whos-your-daddy-ed...

Alicublog savages the conservative hatred for the “unworthy” poor: http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html#760642485954322062...

Rick Santorum’s brilliant health care plan for people who need ridiculously expensive medication so that they don’t, you know, die and stuff: Don’t buy an iPad. http://www.first-draft.com/2012/02/market-price.html

Is pesticide use contributing to mass bee deaths? http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/30-9

Kathleen Parker and Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: Just making stuff up. http://mediamatters.org/blog/201201290004

Finally, from the Historical Department, here’s a letter from a freed slave in 1865, replying to his former master who requested he return: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

That’s all for now. Remember to come join us this Tuesday for Drinking Liberally!

What: Drinking Liberally
When: 7–9pm every Tuesday
Where: Ben's Brewing Company, downtown Yankton

—Chris