Deborah Lipp

31%.

Mr. Bush’s overall job approval rating hit another new low, 31 percent, tying the low point of his father in July 1992, four months before the elder Mr. Bush lost his bid for a second term to Bill Clinton. That is the third lowest approval rating of any president in 50 years; only Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter were viewed less favorably.

Mr. Bush is even losing support from what has been his base: 51 percent of conservatives and 69 percent of Republicans approve of the way Mr. Bush is handling his job. In both cases, those figures are a substantial drop in support from four months ago.

Can I hear an Amen?

This story caught my attention (initially because it’s local: I have friends with kids in this school district). In sum, a high school art teacher (and we can pause to be briefly amused at the name of Peter Panse) has been suspended for telling his advanced students that they could further their skills by taking drawing classes that include nude figure studies, and for suggesting he might teach such a class, which chaperoned students could attend. (By the way, I have no idea why this guy was suspended in December, but I heard it on the news today.)

Pete Panse is a talented and popular high school art teacher in Middletown, NY who uses traditional techniques to to train his students. In December 2005 Mr. Panse was suspended from his job for recommending that some of his advanced students consider taking figure drawing courses that included nude figure drawings. Mr. Panse is suspended from his job pending hearings after which he may be permanently fired, ending a 25-year teaching career. In the meantime, his students are sitting in study hall learning nothing and failing to prepare the materials necessary for their receiving scholarships.

This blows my mind. Do people think that high school students don’t understand that beneath our clothing there’s nekkidness? Are they unaware that art education requires teh nekkid? Do they think their art student teens haven’t already drawn teh nudie?

Did you know that “prude” has three letters in common with “stupid”? Coincidence?

Whatever. The current wave of pseudo-religious prudery is perhaps the dumbest and most ignorant in the history of pseudo-religious prudery. It rivals the Scopes trial for sheer dumbass head-up-assity. Meanwhile, a man’s career is at stake and art students ain’t learning art. My high school art classes were the highlight of my day. In fact, I was just reminiscing about them yesterday. The teacher focused his efforts on Art as Meaning, “what is art,” and art’s connection to life. We drew constantly, and we often posed for each other to help capture an angle or a shadow. We often discussed that we would need nude figure study education to further our abilities, and wasn’t it a shame that wasn’t available in high school. But, y’know, we were allowed to discuss that.

There’s a petition you can sign.

I’ve been thinking about Tom’s Hofstadter posts, and I’ve decided they represent cause for optimism. After all, Hofstadter wrote fortysome years ago, and we got out of it that time.

The reactionary 50s brought us the freewheeling 60s and 70s. Then came the backlash. We haven’t lost all the ground we gained (although we’ve lost some previously untouched ground). It’s more a spiral than a circle. Despite the Right’s efforts, we still have legal abortion (in 49 states), and access to birth control. Women can control their own credit, can seek their own medical care, and maternity leave is a matter of law. Evidence of premarital sex will not get you ostracized in most communities. Blacks and whites have managed to eat at the same lunch counters for quite a few years now without deliterious effect.

My point is, we took more steps forward than we are taking back, and the fact that we , as a culture, overcame intense repression in the 50s and found another way means we can do it again in the 21st century.

(Cross-posted at Tom’s place.)

I just went into the lunch room to get a soda. Usually, the TV in there is tuned to CNN Headline News. Just now it is tuned to one of those Abrasive Judge Yells At People shows.

I’m thinking there’s an audience for combining the two. You know, have newsmakers come before the judge and have him yell at them and tell them they’re lying scumbags, and to give the American people back their money and go home. “Mr. Rumsfeld, you know you said you knew where the WMDs were, now don’t try to tell me otherwise!” “This nice lady just wants to know why her son was killed. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” “Stop telling me about your plan for Iraq and answer my question!”

Look, the news media isn’t doing their job. Why not give TV judges a chance?

I’m thinking he’s been thrown under the bus. But why, specifically? This could be fun.

Update: Bloggers speculate this is about Hookergate, and it looks to me like they’re right.

There’s a brilliant diary over at Daily Kos that you should read. Diarist Magorn is talking about Dan Froomkin’s article on the White House Press Corps Dinner and all the tut-tut tsk-tsking about Colbert’s brillaint satire.

Events like the Dinner, and what it reveals about the incestuous, access-driven world of the Washington Media, are EXACTLY what drives us crazy about the mainstream media these days. They have incredible access to the powers that be, supposedly on our behalf. They are in a unique position to confront and challenge the Administration’s lies and law-breaking. They should be our surrogates, demanding answers from our elected leaders. Instead, they do nothing. Why? Because it might jeopardize their access. It has gone from a means to an end , to an end in and of itself. Like cigarettes in prison, it has become the currency of the powerless.

Read the whole thing.

In today’s Op-Ed:

The House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated a good Net-neutrality amendment last week. But the amendment got more votes than many people expected, suggesting that support for Net neutrality is beginning to take hold in Congress. In the Senate, Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, are drafting a strong Net-neutrality bill that would prohibit broadband providers from creating a two-tiered Internet. Senators who care about the Internet and Internet users should get behind it.

As I posted yesterday, my Rep. voted for the Markey amendment. Yay him.

Unfortunately, when the Markey amendment was defeated, Engel then voted for the let’s-kill-the-Internet bill anyway. Boo him.

MoveOn has a petition . Sign it.