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A Louisiana school district suspended a school bus driver after the driver, who is white, ordered nine black kids to sit in the back of the bus so that white students could sit in front. She also forced black kids to stand or sit on the laps of others so that white students could be seated.

Is this the year 2006 or 1966??!

Americans are in more trouble with debt now than ever before. Millions of homeowners who bought into the housing bubble with zero-down and adjustable-rate mortgages are beginning to feel a nasty sting as their mortgages get adjusted upwards. A total of $425 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages and $600 billion in home equity lines of credit are being adjusted upwards this year. The problem will only get worse as time goes on.

This reflects a greater problem, which is that Americans are generally borrowing more than they earn and are borrowing more than ever before. Their problems do not result from buying luxuries they cannot afford, but because they are being afflicted with a quadruple whammy of soaring costs in housing, healthcare, education and energy while incomes continue to stagnate year after year. Sooner or later the piper will have to be paid either through increasing incomes or through bankruptcies.

As the economy continues to whisper intimations of recession, the possibility that this spiraling debt could become a crisis is a real one indeed. Inflation continues to flow through the economy despite the Fed’s repeatedly raising interest rates for over two years, yet the Fed fears raising rates further for fear of accelerating the slowdown already being seen in the numbers.

Sounds like some hard times are ahead.

New welfare rules promulgated by the GOP Congress and the Bush administration threaten to further erode the ability of poor people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps by refusing to count activities like getting a college degree or entering drug rehab as valid for continued eligibility for welfare money.

After the welfare reform rules of 1996 were put into effect, states were given limited block grants that in exchange allowed them to design their own flexible rules for disbursement of funds. That allowed states to design programs that encouraged upward mobility for poor people by allowing things like payment for living and childcare costs if a parent decided to go to college full time.

Now, however, the federal government is intervening and imposing far stricter requirements for what complies with the welfare laws’ requirement that recipients work in exchange for money. Under the new definition, states will be micromanaged by the federal government and will be required to give money to residents seeking McDonalds type jobs over those who seek to pull themselves out of poverty by getting an education.

This is wrong. It is entirely appropriate for welfare laws to require recipients to engage in productive work–but the definition of work should be expanded to include full-time education and drug rehabilitiation. The purpose of welfare as enunciated by the Clinton administration was to provide people with the tools they needed to get themselves out of their dire straits and better contribute to their own lives and the lives of the people around them. Pushing people into menial jobs while they remain drug-addicted or uneducated does nothing but perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

We as a society should encourage the education of as many people as possible. Every mind is creative and can positively contribute if given the proper tools and opportunity. People in poverty who are trying their hardest to elevate themselves should be rewarded, not punished.

A bunch of conservative creationists lost control of the Kansas State Board of Education today in favor of members favoring the teaching of evolution in classrooms. The creationists advocating the theory of “intelligent design” had sought to weaken or eliminate references to evolution in class, with one candidate calling the theory of evolution “an age-old fairy tale” and a “nice bedtime story.” Today’s vote thankfully puts science back in the hands of scientists and out of the hands of theologians.

This “intelligent design” argument is really just a rehash of teleological arguments going back to Thomas Aquinas (who in turn borrowed from Aristotle). The argument is essentially this: that the universe is so vast in its complexity of life and matter that there must have been some Architect or designer behind it all, for only in that way could something so complex and ordered come about.

The argument is specious. It essentially perceives a pattern in the universe’s complexity, and thereby concludes there is a message in that complexity: that God exists.

If you take a bunch of sticks and throw them up in the air, and they come down in such a pattern as to mysteriously form the word “H-E-L-L-O,” it doesn’t mean that aliens from outer space are the “architect” behind the message. As spooky and astonishing as the arrangement of sticks might be, the arrangement was really just a random coincidence. You can discern nothing about any “architect” based on patterns perceived in the physical world. God may or may not exist, but this argument from design is not going to get anyone anywhere.

In the meantime, let’s teach our kids something upon which almost all scientists agree: that life came about as a result of evolution. Whether evolution occurred randomly or as a result of a Creator is really beside the point.

Finally, the Democrats are talking about what they will do if they come to power rather than what they won’t do. Sen. Clinton outlined the Democratic campaign agenda, called the American Dream Initiative, in a keynote speech for the Democratic Leadership Council. The key themes underlying the proposal are:

Every American should have the opportunity and responsibility to go to college and earn a degree, and to get the lifelong training they need.

Every worker should have the opportunity and responsibility to save for a secure retirement.

Every business should have the opportunity to grow and prosper in the strongest private economy on Earth, and the responsibility to equip workers with the same tools of success as management.

Every individual should have the opportunity and responsibility to start building wealth from day one, and the security and community that come from owning a home.

Every family should have the opportunity to afford health insurance for their children, and the responsibility to obtain it.

In order to expand opportunity for all Americans, we must demand a new ethic of responsibility from Washington: to put government’s priorities back in line with our values — and its books back in balance — by getting rid of wasteful corporate subsidies, unchecked bureaucracy, and narrow-interest loopholes; collecting taxes that are owed; clamping down on tens of billions of dollars in improper payments and no bid-contracts; and restoring commonsense budgeting principles like pay-as-you-go.

Proposals for obtaining these goals:

Education:

**Increase the number of college graduates by 1 million a year by 2015. Proposal includes $150 billion in block grants for states to ease sharply rising tuition costs, and will provide roughly $2000 per student.

**Simplify the tax code by consolidating various education tax breaks and credits into a single $3000 college tuition tax credit, which when combined with the state subsidy should make tuition nearly free at most typical four-year colleges.

**Make Pell grants available to part-time and adult education (25+ year old college) students.

Retirement

**Require every employer with more than 5 employees to provide a retirement plan (401k, etc.) that enrolls workers automatically, increases their contributions incrementally over time unless they opt out (many workers today don’t participate simply because they don’t know about the plan, or don’t know how to use it), and provides investment advice. Tax credits would be provided to employers to help them comply.

**Create a 50% match of up to $2000 per year match on retirement savings for working and middle-class families.

Economy/Jobs/Energy

**Create a smart energy policy that sets America on a road to eventual petroleum independence, which will further encourage the development of new jobs in blossoming industries like ethanol and wind power production.

**Create an energy fund that will provide research dollars to develop cutting edge energy efficient technologies, cellulosic ethanol (from plant waste), bio-diesel, plug-in hybrids and other high-mileage vehicles, etc. All of these areas are ripe for growth in the wake of high energy prices, and can create millions of new jobs and billions of dollars in exportable technology and industry.

Home Ownership

**Allow everyone who owns a home to claim the mortgage deduction even if they do not otherwise itemize deductions (as many working- and middle-class families do not).

**Create a $5000 down payment tax credit for families who need it.

**Increase FHA loan limit to 100% of an area’s median home price so that families in high-priced areas are not locked out of affordable FHA loans.

**Provide certain employers such as police, firefighters, teachers, etc. with a 50% tax credit for employee housing assistance programs, to better help these kinds of employees live in high-priced areas (an impossible feat for many of these essential workers in areas like New York and DC).

Healthcare

**Encourage the movement of records from paper to electronic form, with strict provisions in place to protect consumer privacy. This information-sharing would greatly increase efficiency and lower the cost of providing healthcare services.

**Allow small businesses to pool their workforces together to be able to negotiate for better and cheaper health insurance than individual small employers could obtain by themselves.

**Provide universal children’s health care by reauthorizing and increasing funds for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and by providing incentives to employers to cover the dependents of employees in their health plans.

**Promote healthier living (thus preventing expensive future health problems) by taking junk food out of schools, and by providing resources to community-based programs that encourage exercise, nutrition, healthy living, and the like.

**Create a National Center for Cures that targets and coordinates research dollars for finding cures to diseases like cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s.

**Encourage further development of stem cell research.

**Strengthen Medicare by allowing the US Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.

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Overall it is a good and ambitious plan, and focuses on proposals in which both liberals and moderates in the Democratic Party can agree. My only “nitpick” is that I would like to see this plan condensed down to a few essential points that can be used in sound bytes and commercials over and over again to hammer the points home, just like the Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America. Democrats should also be prepared to provide greater detail as to how these provisions will be paid for at the same time that we attempt to return to “pay as you go” budgets.

The president of Gettysburg College is complaining of a new proposal by the US Department of Education to create a tracking database that would hold massive amounts of information about students’ entire collegiate career from kindergarten through PhD’s. Every class taken, every grade earned, every class passed or failed, every grant earned or loan disbursed would be stored in the database, linked to every student by social security number.

Of what possible use is this database except to further invade the privacy of Americans? There is no national security issue here. The alleged justification is to ensure accountability in the education system, but I fail to see how enabling such a massive intrusion into privacy would further that goal.

As the Gettysburg College president points out, this database would remove control of a student’s grades from the student and pass it to the federal government. There are already other ways of collecting whatever educational statistics the government may find useful without such a gross infringement on personal liberties.

The Associated Press is carrying an article on the increasing momentum of the slavery reparations movement. The movement seeks acknowledgement from institutions with historical ties to slavery in addition to providing financial compensation to the descendants of slaves.

After thinking about this issue I’m going to depart from my more liberal brethren and come out against paying a sum of money to specific individuals on some arbitrary basis.

Any effort that exposes just how much of our modern society was built on the backs of slaves is a good thing. There are many companies, organizations, churches and state/local governments that financially benefited in some way or another from slavery, and they would arguably be less powerful today had they not had that free labor.

Although wages not paid to slaves may carry a certain price tag, the biggest tragedy of slavery has been in the legacy left in its wake for generations after emancipation: unequal access to education, limited opportunities, racism, poverty, urban blight and flight, and segregation to name a few.

Would paying some amount of money to descendants of long-dead slaves really provide adequate reparation? Would it really redress the magnitude of wrongs suffered in the wake of slavery? Would African Americans as a group benefit from paying this amount of money, which is likely to be small on an individual basis anyway? I think not.

If we as a society, either collectively or in our individual organizations and churches, decide to provide reparations, then let’s do it in a way that will really make a difference for generations to come–not just to African Americans but to all of society. Of all the problems left by slavery’s legacy, unequal access to education is in my view the most outrageous one. Education is the Great Equalizer. It is that which can pull anyone out of poverty and provide a richer more meaningful life for himself and his descendants. Affirmative action notwithstanding, the plight of many urban African Americans is essentially a guaranteed life of limited educational and work opportunites. That greatest of wrongs, then, is the one that should be addressed.

Let us create a charitable education fund, one that can invest a portion of its resources and thus perpetualize its ability to give into the future. Any organization, church, or government entity who decided it should pay reparations could pay into the fund. As far as reparations from the US government is concerned, we should have a national conversation to determine whether that is warranted, and if it is then that too should go into the fund. The fund could be used in a variety of ways, from providing books to underprivileged schools to providing grants to students in need. Individuals and groups applying for aid from the fund would have to have a demonstrable tie to slavery, either through individual racial descent or because a majority population of a school, neighborhood, or organization is of African American origin.

Paying a sum of money to certain individuals does little or nothing to address the real roots of the slavery problem. Having society invest its resources in educating black kids and securing them a better future does address the problem, not just today but forever. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

If we’re going to pay reparations, let’s do it in a way that makes a difference rather than in a way that may just make us feel better.

President Bush had plenty to say today at a news conference in Chicago.

Negotiations with North Korea: “[I will not] get caught in the trap of sitting alone with North Korea at the table.”

Well, at least he’s learning from the last disaster where he “sat alone” with Iraq.

2006 election: “You win elections by believing something”…You win elections by having a plan to protect the American people from terrorist attack. You win elections by having a philosophy that has actually produced results — economic growth, for example — or kind of changing the school systems for the better, or providing prescription drug coverage for elders.”

Let’s set the record straight, please. While it’s true that strong economic growth was officially recorded by economists for the last quarter, you sure wouldn’t know it if you ask the average person on the street. Sky-high gas prices, higher food prices, cost of housing through the roof, health care cost doubling in the last five years, industrial commodities sharply higher, the list goes on. Unfortunately none or almost none of these items factor into economists’ reading of the consumer price index of inflation. I guess the CPI applies to someone who lives in a cave, but it doesn’t apply to the rest of us. So maybe we had strong economic growth for business, but it certainly hasn’t trickled down to the rest of us. We’re also borrowing from tomorrow’s growth to fund today’s growth with the massive federal and trade deficits the nation is running.

Changing the school system for the better? No Child Left Behind is almost universally panned by teachers for mandating unnecessary federal intrusion at the local level (what happened to being a small-government Republican?) at the same time that only small amounts of federal money are forthcoming to fund the mandates. Schools are subjected to arbitrary standards that may be impossible to meet based on the location, majority ethnicities, and wealth of the school district in question; yet those districts who fail to meet those arbitrary standards are threatened with a cut off of funds when they are likely to need the funds most. NCLB is NOT an improvement to the educational system.

Prescription drugs for elders? Please don’t insult our senior citizens. The tangled maze of bureaucracy presented by the drug program has made it extremely unpopular, especially when you compare the effort involved with the relatively small return. Many seniors who need the help have turned away from the program in favor of state programs and/or just going without prescriptions they need (trust me on this one, my parents are in that group.) On top of all that, a conservative Mr. Bush mandated the federal program without setting aside a dime to pay for it.

Yep, Mr. Bush likes to pretend to be a Democrat in implementing “Great Society” programs, but pays for them like a Republican. Spend and Borrow.

As for making the nation safer: I don’t feel safer yet after three years of this master plan in Iraq to keep us safe from attack. And…this announcement about a New York terrorist plot stopped in its early stages was really just a coincidence with the President making his “case” about national security–right? (In fairness, kudos to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for stopping this plot, but the timing of the announcement seems a little fishy.) By the way, where’s the outrage for the Daily News reporting prematurely on an ongoing investigation?

Missile Defense vs. Korean Missiles: “”Yes, I think we had a reasonable chance of shooting it down. At least that’s what the military commanders told me.”

That sounds SO confident, Mr. Bush…especially when the entire world knows that we can’t shoot down anything worth a damn based on recent tests. It’s the perfect tone for this lame (duck) president and his GOP’s “plans.”