Disasters all around.

Featuring music of Sub Atomic Nixons and Caitlin Crosby.

The Alameda (CA) School Board wants to require teachers in first through fifth grade to talk for 45 minutes with their students about bullying and stereotyping. The idea is to help kids stop using “gay” as a pejorative on the playground, and to help them understand that stereotyping is hurtful and wrong. Some parents object, though, especially because a joyful book about gay penguin parents is part of the curriculum for second-graders.

Glenn Greenwald followed up, and made a point that I want to echo — the Think Progress folks (the blog of CAP) have been doing an terrific job covering the torture debate, and this does not reflect on their fine work. But even though John Podesta has come out in favor of impeaching Bybee, I’m not aware of any public statement by a CAP representative that opposes the President and calls for criminal investigation into torture. This CNN statement, however, appears to be within the bounds of what CAP finds acceptable. There certainly hasn’t been any retraction.

The American people right now are actually not interested in this sideshow and this discussion.

While the US House of Representatives was voting for another big check for more occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan – and the Senate prepares to do the same, the Afghan parliament is calling for a reconsideration of the US presence.

So, assuming that Obama fails in his oh-so-courageous attempt to suppress the second wave of torture photos, one of the backstage crew made a very interesting pitch for caution regarding which photos we highlight:

The purpose of a military intelligence briefing is to present the best assessment of current threats to and opportunities for the US military as it works to protect the nation. Why did the Rumsfeld DOD feel the need to dress their briefings up in religion for the commander in chief?

Looking at the bookshelves of company and battalion commanders in Baghdad and Mosul during the spring of 2007, I saw about as many copies of Tom Ricks’ Fiasco as I did the Bible. It seemed practically subversive. Fiasco is an account of how thoroughly the U.S. military, enabled by the willful blindness of the Bush administration, misunderstood the nature of the occupation of Iraq.

Already President Obama’s address and acceptance of an honorary degree has sparked the kind of inbred outrage from the right that you might expect of the most ignorant areas of the country. But what about Harvard Law School? Where Learned Hand Professor of Law, and former Bush appointee, Mary Ann Glendon, has castigated Notre Dame for awarding the degree.

Professional Obama stalker and non-Notre Dame alumnus Alan Keyes has gotten acquainted with the South Bend Police Department.