A dumb dunkin'

Wear a scarf at your own risk these days if you’re going to appear in an ad on the internet.

Food Network star Rachael Ray donned one to hawk Dunkin’ Donuts new iced coffee and conservative bloggers screamed jihadist. The ad got dunked, and Ray's image is taking beating as well.

Is Ray pushing terror by wearing something that may or may not look like a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf of Arab men? That’s what blogger Michelle Malkin says.

Or, is the whole thing moronic, as Businessweek.com blogger David Kiley writes.

Is there any doubt?

Beam me up, Scotty

Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary and longtime Bush loyalist, says President Bush used propaganda, not facts, to sell the Iraq war.

In a soon-to-be-released memoir he accuses the president and his top advisers of deceit and secrecy.

McClellan writes:

“I still like and admire President Bush. But he and his advisers confused the
propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally
needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. … In this
regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those
involved directly in national security.”

Really. How about that?

Is anybody surprised?

Why did McClellan, who left the White House in 2006, wait so long to clear the air?

More reading.

SAT: Biased and useless?

Wake Forest University is the first small, private, academically elite university in the nation to not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT (American College Test) scores.

Why? Standardized tests, especially the SAT, are biased. They favor wealthy, white students and tend to keep out lower income and African-American students who perform well academically.

Here’s what Wake Forest associate professor of sociology Joseph Soares said:

“It’s a rotten predictor of college grades. It’s a very reliable predicator
of family income. If you are picking students from the higher end of the SAT
Bell curve you are overwhelmingly picking students from economically
privileged
backgrounds.”

Researchers and advocates such as FairTest have been saying the test is biased and of limited value for years, but for Wake Forest to take this step is big. Dissing the SAT can change the ground rules for who goes to college where.

Will this dumb down higher education? Or should other universities such as UNC Chapel Hill, Duke and UNC Charlotte follow Wake’s lead and toss tests that have been under fire for decades?

The Nightmare Ticket

The Onion, as usual, gets the scoop:

"No other ticket is capable of rallying this nation around a clearer, more unified message of chaos and hopelessness," the candidates said in unison from three separate podiums, each adorned with its own American flag arrangement and personal message. "Together, we will lead this nation into the future—a future where absolute deadlock over even the most minute decisions and total inefficiency on matters of the war, the economy, and the environment will launch a bold new age of confusion and social decay. For America, the only choice is [indecipherable]!"

Got a worse suggestion?

Let police investigate themselves?

Another Charlotte man is dead at the hands of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, and once again the department will investigate its own actions in that shooting. Aaron Quentin Winchester was shot twice in the back Tuesday and died on a residential street north of uptown.

Most police departments in North Carolina ask the State Bureau of Investigation to do an inquiry when that happens. But not Charlotte. Here, CMPD conducts the inquiry into a police shooting.

Winchester's family has asked for an outside investigation, and state law requires one be done if that request is made.

Yet CMPD's inside-only policy raises an obvious question: Can a police department investigate itself objectively? Why would it even want to?

What do you think?

Kathleen Parker's nutty heritage, not hate, column

From Jonathan Chait of The New Republic:

Right-wing syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker got some attention last week for writing a distinctly un-American, and somewhat fascistic, column (which ran in The Observer May 15) describing Barack Obama as not being a "full-blooded American." Parker defined the concept thusly: "It's about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots." This concept is many things, but one of them is a device that's historically been used to deny the possibility that rootless, cosmopolitan Jews can be full members of a society.

Anyway, my friend Paul Campos points out that this column is now running on "Jewish World Review." I wonder how many of the readers count as full-blooded Americans?

McCain's roadmap to beating Obama?

Newsweek’s Michael Scheer recently listed seven key strategies the John McCain campaign seems to be devising to defeat Barack Obama, should he be the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Take a look:

1. Paint Obama as a False Messiah: Republicans have been painting Obama with the “all rhetoric and no substance” brush for a while, and it’s working among some groups. McCain himself has lobbed several grenades, essentially calling Obama an unfulfilled prophet, propped up only by lofty rhetoric and charisma.”

2. Work, Woo and Win the Referees: McCain has been and continues to be a press favorite – he’s accessible - and campaign aides admit they will try to use that to their advantage. Now, his campaign has taken to have a “bad cop” regularly criticize the press, alleging, for instance, that the media has formed a “protective barrier” around Obama.

3. Meet With the People, and Force Obama to Follow: McCain's best moments on the trail come in the uncontrolled give-and-take with a crowd. He likes town hall meetings. McCain's aides even hope to bring Obama out of his stadium events and put him on the same level.

4. Claim the High Road Without Leaving the Low Road: McCain says he wants to run "a respectful campaign." But he hasn’t shown much willingness to lay off hardball politics he played during the GOP primaries.

5. Use A Vice President to Temper: The Age IssuePolls show that McCain’s age — he will be 72 by Election Day — could have an impact at the ballot box. But both McCain and his advisers have a prospect they hope will neutralize the issue: a relatively youthful vice president, who might lessen the fear of McCain's death in office. In 1980, Ronald Reagan was running for President as an older man at 69. The day he picked George Bush to be vice president, the age issue pretty much went away.

6. Make Inroads Among Traditional Democratic Voters: Republicans love to talk about the larger crossover vote that McCain wins in the early and unreliable general matchup polls. In one Pew poll from late February, as many as 14 percent of Democrats say they will vote for McCain, compared to eight percent of Republicans who say they will vote for Obama. McCain's staff see hope in Obama's trouble shoring up the Democratic base of working-class voters.

7. Rely on the Historic RNC Advantage: The McCain campaign hopes to contain the Obama big fund-raising advantage by depending heavily on the Republican Party machinery, which has a historically superior general election get-out-the-vote operation. the campaign has been encouraging wealthy donors to give even after they have reached their $2,300 donation limit for McCain. Under a program called "McCain Victory '08," donors are encouraged to give up to $70,000 to state and national party funds.

Ummm. What do you think?

McCrory's "vanishing" education policy

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory knows urban North Carolina. He knows about transportation issues. But, as Daily Views pointed out during his successful campaign to be the Republican nominee for governor, Mr. McCrory’s vision needs to expand beyond those things.

In particular, he needs a more credible understanding – and a deeper slate of positions – on public education to be a well-rounded governor.

A puzzling vanishing post about charter school policy on his campaign web site suggests ... well, we don’t know what it suggests except perhaps that Mr. McCrory’s vision for education is ah, still emerging.

Jeff Taylor writes on his Meck Deck blog:

“Under a “More Choices” bullet point on the education policy page was this prescription: “Parents know better than the government what is best for their children. We need to lift the cap on charter schools and provide tax incentives for parents who choose to send their children to non-traditional public schools.”

As Hal noted, this seemed to suggest that McCrory was proposing tax credits or some sort of government benefit for parents who opted for a different brand of public schooling. In the case of CMS, for example, that would presumably extent to its crazy quilt of magnet schools and its school-within-a-school offerings, such as the multiple high schools now housed at Olympic High."

Hmmm. Now you see it now you don't. Did McCrory change his
mind? Was this a strategic flip-flop? Did he take off the charter schools
bit in hopes of appealing to Democrats whose votes he needs?

What do you think?

Time for media 'Mac Attack' on McCain?

The Boston Phoenix thinks the media largely has given Sen. John McCain a pass on his stands on issues as he’s campaigned for president. But as the presidential race shifts into high gear for the fall elections, reporter Adam Reilly offers some places to probing:

1) The economy: This past January, the Huffington Post reported that, in a meeting with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, McCain said he “doesn’t really understand economics.” McCain denied the report. But what is McCain’s economic IQ? And what concrete steps, beyond tax cuts, would he take to keep America’s economic woes from worsening?

2) Islam: There’s reason to question McCain’s foreign-policy aptitude, especially regarding things Islamic. He’s confused Sunnis and Shiites on multiple occasions. Understanding Islam and the Middle East is absolutely essential to America’s national security. Does McCain grasp them well enough to be president?

3) Money/politics/ethics: Does McCain’s reputation as a reformer dedicated to reducing the influence of money on politics square with his own actions? Remember the Keating Five savings and loan scandal? What about charges he’s gotten over a million dollars in campaign contributions from lobbyists, who had interests before the Senate Commerce Committee which McCain chaired at the time.

4) Faith: McCain has his own pastor problems. McCain has cozied up to assorted figures on the religious right – including the late Jerry Falwell (McCain spoke at the commencement ceremonies of Liberty University, which Falwell founded, in 2006), Rod Parsley (an Ohio minister who’s urged the eradication of Islam, and whom McCain called a “spiritual guide” this past February), and John Hagee (a televangelist who, among other things, has called the Catholic Church the “Great Whore”). McCain has said that he doesn’t share all his endorsers’ views but hasn’t condemned them emphatically or given up their support.

For the entire list go to http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid61555.aspx. What do you think? Is this a worthy list to explore? Or are these baseless attacks unworthy of even considering digging into? Do you have your own list of stories to pursue?