INDCJournal: The DNC's Poster-Blogger <i>(Headline Truncated)</i>

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September 30, 2004

The DNC's Poster-Blogger (Headline Truncated)

Posted by Bill

Beautiful Atrocities highlights the latest (indirect) mainstream endorsement for Markos "Screw them" Zuniga: the NEA:

Carrion feeder Markos Zuniga: 'I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.'

In Matthew Klam's good-natured NY Times profile of leftie blogger Markos Screw'em Zuniga, aka the Daily Kos, Zuniga crows that after sponsors (including John Kerry) abandoned him for gloating over the mutilation murders of 4 American workers in Iraq, he easily found new ones. In fact, his most high-profile sponsor is currently the National Mobilization for Great Public Schools, an octopus comprised of 6 partisan political organizations, including MoveOn.org, the NAACP, & - the NEA.

"Teach the children well," I suppose.

UPDATE: This post and the linked post refer(red) to the NEA as a taxpayer supported organization, but I can find no direct financial links to the government; they're a non-profit membership/lobbying organization:

Founded in 1857 "to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of popular education in the United States," the NEA has remained constant in its commitment to its original mission as evidenced by the current mission statement ...

That being said, it's still important to review the nature of their membership:

Anyone who works for a public school district, a college or university, or any other public institution devoted primarily to education is eligible to join NEA.

No word about how they feel about the murder and brutal dismemberment of American defense contractors.

(Thanks to Boyd for fact-checking INDC)

UPDATE: Commenter Laddy elucidates the indirect link:

NEA is comprised of public school employees whose salaries are paid by the taxpayers. The teachers' NEA dues, deducted from their salaries, fund the NEA. I would guess that's what is being referred to.

Posted by Bill at September 30, 2004 11:32 AM | TrackBack (3)

Comments

Oddly, I never knew that my tax dollars supported the NEA. Jeff tells us how they want government to spend tax dollars for their benefit (what's new about that?), but he doesn't detail for us how my tax dollars are supporting the NEA, and by extension, Kos.

Makes no sense to me. I must be missing something.

Posted by: Boyd at September 30, 2004 12:58 PM

The NEA is the biggest impediment to education reform in this country. Nothing would help the education system more in this country than for the NEA to go away.

Posted by: Another Thought at September 30, 2004 01:40 PM

Posted by: Laddy at September 30, 2004 01:41 PM

I agree with Laddy. Furthermore, the members of the teachers union, some of whom are Republicans, have no say in what their union dues fund, which in this case is Kos.

But even if it wasn't a direct line from the taxpayer to the NEA, the scandal remains: the people in charge of educating the vast majority of American children are sponsoring the Screw-Them Kid.

Posted by: Johnny Walker Red at September 30, 2004 02:07 PM

Another outstanding job Bill.

The CBS Moonbat Fever infection continues. Bloggers are the cure!

Posted by: TallDave at September 30, 2004 02:34 PM

I don't think our tax dollars support the National Education Association -- perhaps they are getting it mixed up with the National Endowment for the Arts?

Posted by: Sarah at September 30, 2004 02:49 PM

I think Johnny's point justifies the indignation, Sarah, even if they're just a labor union along the lines of AFSCME, etc. If they fund the poison flowing out of Kos' pen, what are they stuffing in our kids' heads? And even if they're not stuffing it into my kids' heads because we're blessed with one of the better school systems around, they still appear to be doing it elsewhere, and those kids will be Kos' Mini-Me.

Posted by: Boyd at September 30, 2004 03:09 PM

I have tell you as a public school teacher and member of the NEA I am absolutely sick of them. I am a member for one reason: Liability insurance. That is it. The NEA amazes me because they claim to be a union but don't act like one. Last I checked unions were for two things: better wages and better working conditions. Well ...my wages suck. I am lucky that my working conditions are not bad but there are many that are. They spend all there time advocating for everybody but mine. Why they would be sending ANY money to ANY blogsite is beyond me.

Posted by: LoydRight at September 30, 2004 03:20 PM

The NEA gets its revenues from union dues paid by its members, who are paid from the public till. Except in right-to-work states, union dues are deducted automatically.

I was a member of CWA for many years, which makes 100% of its political contributions to Democrats. Taking $$ from AT&T profits & betraying their own members is bad enough, but people could always choose not to do business with AT&T if they didn't want to fund the union's political causes.

Taxpayers have no such choice in their $$ flowing to the NEA, & thence to Markos Zuniga.

Posted by: jeff at September 30, 2004 10:40 PM