A local teacher and loyal reader had the note below sent to us.
It is from the national president of the American federation of teachers.
Friend,
We’re in the middle of the fourth day of the Kavanaugh hearings, and it’s worse than I could have imagined.
At every turn, Republicans have attempted to block the public and Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats viewing essential Kavanaugh records. This is yet another departure from the norms established for reviewing Supreme Court nominations. The lack of disclosure was so bad Sen. Cory Booker took the unprecedented step of releasing some of these records, so we could see that Kavanaugh believes racial profiling might be ok and Roe v. Wade is not settled law. And in response, Republicans threatened to expel Booker from the Senate.
Can you believe that? Booker is working to expose very real threats, but Senate Republicans are so intent on hiding anything damaging to Kavanaugh that they’re willing to try to expel Booker to keep it hidden.
While Senate Democrats are the minority, they rallied to back Booker. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Richard Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Mazie Hirono and Sheldon Whitehouse have all said they’re with Booker and should be expelled too, if the GOP goes that route.
This is a pivotal moment. Everything is on the line, because Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court will be for a lifetime. But despite new, damaging evidence, Republicans are moving forward.
So much has come out in the last few days. First, Kavanaugh refused to say if he had discussed the Mueller investigation with the lawyers involved. We already know he would likely decide to protect Trump if he were on the court, and his non-answers yesterday made that even more clear.
Then there’s news that, even though he’s assured senators he respects settled law, in the past he’s said there’s no such thing. That means he’d be willing to overturn things we take for granted—like marriage equality, Roe v. Wade and our right to join a union.
During the questioning, Kavanaugh also refused to say he would uphold protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
And now, it looks like Kavanaugh misled the Senate while under oath in 2006. He told the late Sen. Ted Kennedy that he had no part in a confirmation hearing, but newly released documents contain emails that show he did. Telling the truth to the Senate while under oath is not optional.
Today, one of our members, Melissa Smith, a teacher from Oklahoma, will testify about our concerns over Kavanaugh’s positions on school vouchers, educational equity and privatization of schools.
This hearing, much like so much in the Trump administration, has butted our democracy. The American people need to have faith in the Supreme Court and our justice system, but the Republican Party is undermining that system by playing games with this nomination.
This is a lifetime appointment. Don’t Americans have a right to know Kavanaugh’s views on protecting healthcare and pre-existing conditions? On whether LGBTQ people will still be able to marry the person they love? On protecting the constitutional right to vote? Will this judge follow the constitution and hold the president of the United States accountable, or will he enable the president to be above the law? These are legitimate, nonpartisan questions we need answers to before any vote.
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
*********************************************
Many of us would have thought that the president of a national teachers union would work on issues related to education.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Whoa !
I listened to the hearings and all of that was either, “Not said” or was never implied.
Booker brought up “removing HIMSELF” and saying what COULD be done, in his own words.
The Republicans never said he would be “removed”.
The letter above is 99% lies.
The letter writer sounds like they were only catching parts of the testimony while talking on the phone or screaming at kids.
Or, worse, 2nd hand verbiage from someone NOT PAYING ATTENTION !
This is how disinformation gets started and then repeated by the press.
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You must have gone to the kitchen to get another beer and missed the part where Cornyn talked about Booker being possibly being expelled and read: “Any Senator . . . who shall disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees and offices of the Senate, shall be liable, if a Senator, to suffer expulsion from the body.”
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Private organization, private money. They can say whatever they want to say. Or have we forgotten the 1st amendment already?
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I’m glad I don’t pay union dues or fees. It’s so 19th century. If I thought my monthly contribution was going toward the debate over abortion, I’d be outraged! It seems there is an elite over at the AFL (her parent organization) that isn’t any better than EPISD when it comes to using money for the specific goal for which it was intended. I guess the union members willingly give their monthly donation because they think someone is actually using it to look after their job related issues. It’s their money. But they have confirmed my fear that unions just take money to feed their leadership and support remote political causes (like Roe v. Wade?).
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Agree. Is this what the dues of teachers in this union pay for? That’s the real disgrace.
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The bigger disgrace is that members of Congress use our tax dollars to cozy up to lobbyists and subsidize corporations, all for the purpose of feathering their own beds.
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Well at least watch the proceedings, be able to understand what Booker, Kamala Harris , all the others were doing. It was a POLITICAL PROTEST by Democrats. Nothing more. The documents he was babbling about had been RELEASED. Just another arrogant, despicable, Socialist-Democrat, protesting, blocking, running for office against President Trump and anything he says or does..
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You wrote: “Many of us would have thought that the president of a national teachers union would work on issues related to education.”
If SCOTUS rules on labor and education related matters, the national teachers union has every right to weigh in on this subject, just like other business organizations mount efforts to try to influence outcomes of political and court appointments for their own benefit.
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Well said…and what is wrong with teachers being concerned about constitutional law?
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All of this is speculative -“He might do such-and-such.” Mostly, SCOTUS just makes up the Constitution as they go along, anyway.
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Every Supreme court rules based on the personal opinions, biases and prejudices of the sitting justices. They play word games and spin the law to justify their opinions and desired outcomes. Otherwise, you wouldn’t see the political parties battling so hard to control the composition of the court. The Senate’s refusal to even consider an up or down vote on an Obama nominee was proof positive that political parties want to control the courts to support their agendas and impose their own ideology.
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Let’s begin a movement to end all this BI-PARTISAN BS and vote independent, green or any thing other than the two current major parties and force coalition governing like in other countries.
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Wow, I amazed at how many new fans Spartacus has!
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Don’t you mean Farticus ? What a joke he has become.
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The ignorance and downright pigheaded stubbornness of some folks is mind boggling.
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And if healthcare providers would just focus on doing their jobs and delivering affordable, quality healthcare instead of spending tons of money to finance political campaigns in an effort to influence legislation, then medical care and prescription drugs might be more affordable. The same goes for insurance companies. Both pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies have paid off members of congress to receive price protections and monopolies.
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If the author is standing behind Spartacus, her judgement is clearly questionable. That was poor theater, at best.
Hope this individual is not teach U.S. Government.
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Hope this individual is not a teacher period!
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Depends on which side of the isle you sit. I personally thought the Democrats embarrased themselves with the protests, yelling, etc., which does not do much to promote civil discourse. The president of the teachers union does not leave much room in her union for conservatives. Does she believe teachers should all march to the same drum? She sets a sorry example of leader who should be bi-partisan. Her attitude, and the attitude of other “leaders” in the teaching field is one reason I quit teaching.
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Exactly right. Many, most of todays students can’t read write or do math when they graduate from high schools, college. No history, no literature, no language abilities. Todays “Teachers”, Professors are “Growing” anarchists, political terrorists, protesters that are PAID to be “Offended” about something. No morality, just society dependent leeches, living off of someone else, will never be able to face REALITY or provide for themselves. This is the “Society” that Obama, Socialist-Democrats have created in America over his 8 years and HE is still pushing that “World” . Protest, burn, loot, destroy, kill Police. Where do WE go from here?
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