MOMocrats

It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and parent volunteers at schools around the country are knocking themselves out to thank the professionals who educate our children. And while our teachers are pleased to receive Starbucks cards and be feted at school luncheons, nothing beats giving them the respect they deserve.  Teaching in 2012 is a difficult job made more so by candidates and elected officials who score political points by criticizing public education, stripping teachers unions of their rights to negotiate and pushing for privatization schemes with an eye toward dismantling America's public education system. 

National Education Association Vice President Lily Eskelsen is our guest this week.  Lily,  an elementary teacher from Utah, is one of the highest-ranking labor leaders in the country and one of its most influential Hispanic educators (she's an Obama appointee to the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, whose goal is to expand education opportunities and improve education outcomes for Hispanic students.)

Legal expert and court watcher Jessica Pieklo joins Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills for a sobering discussion of last week's hearing on the Arizona Immigration law (aka "Show Me Your Papers"), and the radically conservative bent of the judiciary system after eight years of Bush appointments and three years of Congressional obstruction. As Jessica says, it's an "Ed Meese Revolution" -- and the product of a very specific strategy. Is it any surprise that ALEC is involved?

Legal expert and court watcher Jessica Pieklo joins Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills for a sobering discussion of last week's hearing on the Arizona Immigration law (aka "Show Me Your Papers"), and the radically conservative bent of the judiciary system after eight years of Bush appointments and three years of Congressional obstruction. As Jessica says, it's an "Ed Meese Revolution" -- and the product of a very specific strategy. Is it any surprise that ALEC is involved?

Mitt Romney's victory speech after last night's primaries was a 14-minute image reboot, casting himself as the savior of the economy -- and not the hard-right, anti-woman, anti-middle class warrior he's been for the last 12 months. Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills paid hard attention to the primary campaign, and do not forget easily. Also: after Procter and Gamble's withdrawal from ALEC, we turn our attention to that other major purveyor of home and personal care products, Johnson & Johnson... Mitch McConnell's decision not to fight renewal of the Violence Against Women's Act... and Karoli calls in from Detroit, where she has been covering the protests at the annual shareholders meeting of General Electric.

Mitt Romney's victory speech after last night's primaries was a 14-minute image reboot, casting himself as the savior of the economy -- and not the hard-right, anti-woman, anti-middle class warrior he's been for the last 12 months. Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills paid hard attention to the primary campaign, and do not forget easily. Also: after Procter and Gamble's withdrawal from ALEC, we turn our attention to that other major purveyor of home and personal care products, Johnson & Johnson... Mitch McConnell's decision not to fight renewal of the Violence Against Women's Act... and Karoli calls in from Detroit, where she has been covering the protests at the annual shareholders meeting of General Electric.

ALEC is the corporate-funded organization behind Florida's deadly kill-at-will law (and similar ones in 23 other states) that resulted in the tragic shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Yesterday, ALEC announced that it was suspending its task force on gun laws -- but it is still actively promoting policies that undermine the rights of average American citizens: bills that would repeal minimum wage and paid sick day laws, that would bust unions, privatize public land and gut public education, and more. ALSO: Tuesday was Equal Pay Day - which symbolizes the Wage Gap, demonstrating how far into 2012 women must work to earn what men earned in 2011. Republicans in Wisconsin have revoked their own Equal Pay laws, and one GOP Congressional candidate calls equal pay "a nuisance." MOMocrats Karoli, Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills will have something to say about that.

ALEC is the corporate-funded organization behind Florida's deadly kill-at-will law (and similar ones in 23 other states) that resulted in the tragic shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Yesterday, ALEC announced that it was suspending its task force on gun laws -- but it is still actively promoting policies that undermine the rights of average American citizens: bills that would repeal minimum wage and paid sick day laws, that would bust unions, privatize public land and gut public education, and more. ALSO: Tuesday was Equal Pay Day - which symbolizes the Wage Gap, demonstrating how far into 2012 women must work to earn what men earned in 2011. Republicans in Wisconsin have revoked their own Equal Pay laws, and one GOP Congressional candidate calls equal pay "a nuisance." MOMocrats Karoli, Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills will have something to say about that.

Some of the MOMocrats' Southern California members spent Spring Break touring college campuses and returned home with severe sticker shock at current public university costs... the result of three decades of underfunded government services, thanks to the 1978 enactment of Proposition 13, which pioneered the tsunami of tax-cutting measures that have brought the country to its current fiscal crisis. Now, Governor Jerry Brown is once again facing this issue. He and education activists are seeking opposing ballot measures that aim to raise education dollars by raising taxes on the state's wealthiest residents. Is California once again the harbinger of national policy? Cynematic, Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills discuss.

Some of the MOMocrats' Southern California members spent Spring Break touring college campuses and returned home with severe sticker shock at current public university costs... the result of three decades of underfunded government services, thanks to the 1978 enactment of Proposition 13, which pioneered the tsunami of tax-cutting measures that have brought the country to its current fiscal crisis. Now, Governor Jerry Brown is once again facing this issue. He and education activists are seeking opposing ballot measures that aim to raise education dollars by raising taxes on the state's wealthiest residents. Is California once again the harbinger of national policy? Cynematic, Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills discuss.

The Justice Department presented its case yesterday for the health insurance mandate -- and the mainstream media reports that it did not go well. (In fact, CNN's Jeffrey Toobin called it a "train wreck.")

Karoli has been live blogging the Supreme Court hearing, and offers her take on it with Cynematic and Donna Schwartz Mills.