Beware: Suicide Bombers in the Classroom:
So, like, Rod Paige, the Secretary of Education, "jokingly" called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization," just like Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and the Aryan Nation (but not, you know, the KKK). 'Cause, you know, the 2.7 million teachers who work for shit pay, under conditions that would drive most people screaming into the streets, under bureaucratic pressures and parental pressures and administrative pressures were dissin' the Prez by not worshipping at the altar of "No Child Left Behind," because, you know, they're the ones that actually have to implement the misguided, underfunded attempt to wreck public education as we know it. Under Paige's thinking, that means, even jokingly, they should be equated with car bombers, building bombers, kidnappers, and paid thugs.

Sure, sure, Paige later apologized for his "choice of words," but not, you know, the sentiment (he didn't say that, but it's the implication). It's quite the little picture at the arrogance, anger, and hatred at the core of this administration. Here's the Secretary of Education who, by no large leap of logic, oughta be supporting educators, essentially placing the administration and adherence to its programs above any consideration of criticism, above the average citizen, above all else, like some kind of, let's see, fundamentalist dogma. If Paige was a whore (and who's to say he isn't, although "back door negro" might be better), he'd be the type that rolls her johns because her pimp wants her to bring back the cold, hard cash money.

And let's pause here to remember a not as well-known story as it should be: the "Texas Miracle," which was one of the loudest-brayed successes of Governor Bush's Texas "education" program, in which, seemingly overnight, in the Houston school district, superintended by Rod Paige, the dropout rate seemingly disappeared overnight. However, in a now familiar pattern with the Bush administration, the Texas Miracle was, like most "miracles," a lie. Students who dropped out were essentially disappered from the education system, given statistical codes that indicated they transferred to private schools or took the GED. Or they changed the definitions of what they were or, in one fun case, prevented stupid kids from taking standardized tests so the scores would be higher. Even on a basic statistical level, the "Miracle" was more a lot of spin than anything else. Paige, in 2003, called the charges "inflammatory."

Of course, in 2000, when the "miracle' was being touted as holy beyond holy, there were those, like Linda McNeil of the Rice University Center for Education, who were strenuously waving their arms to say it was a sham, but, alas, once believers see miracles, then, no matter how many times you say, "No, that potato does not look like the Virgin Mary," they will see virgins in their spuds. That's how fundamentalists believer: with dishonest clinging, with hate for those who would say a potato is a potato is a potato.

In terrorist organizations, people who commit violence, or are successful in extorting concessions from those the organization opposes, are rewarded. Sometimes monetarily, sometimes with promises of paradise in the afterlife when the suicide bombing is done. Rod Paige was elevated from district school superintendent to Secretary of Education. Terrorist organizations have, at bottom, a stake in protecting their foundational beliefs, against all those who would threaten them. And they would kill those who try to teach another way.