A teacher trying to brainwash his class? Nope, just smoke and mirrors.

The right wing talking heads are really chattering about this one. Apparently, a teacher in Colorado had the audacity to express an opinion critical of the Bush administration. Now, I don't agree with what he did, but more on that later.

The real story here is that the conservative base is trying to make a huge story about this. Never mind that the administration botched the response to Katrina. Never mind that our government is illegally wiretapping Americans, and has twisted arms to make sure Congress doesn't do anything about it. Never mind that corruption seems to be rampant in the Republican party, based on the likes of Jack Abramoff, "Duke" Cunningham, Tom Delay, Bob Taft, Bob Ney, I could go on and on. Never mind that we went to war on false pretenses and justified it with intelligence information that the CIA, FBI, and other foreign intelligence agencies considered questionable at best.

No. We have to talk about what a teacher in Colorado said to his Geography class, because a student recorded the class, and ran off to a right wing radio talk show with it to show off his trophy. Incidently, 150 students walked out of that school yesterday because the school suspended the teacher. But this is supposed to be the big story. The only part of this story that is REALLY important is the fact that the teacher's first amendment rights may have been violated.

Former CIA director George Tenet flubs the intelligence on Iraq and George Bush pins a medal on him. Bill Clinton get a blow job and gets impeached. Well, I guess if we use right wing logic, this teacher should be taken out and shot.

Now, regarding what the teacher did...

Well, I'm going to probably get some flak from my liberal brethren on this, but I don't think what the teacher did was appropriate.

Not because of what he said, because I agree with most of what he had to say.

Not because he expressed an opinion, because I feel he has every right to, as do all his students.

My main beef with this is that it was in the context of a Geography class, not a history, poli-sci, or philosophy class. In the context in which it was presented, I feel it was inappropriate.

Now I haven't heard all of the tape, so I don't know how much of this was "discussion" and how much of it was "lecture". However, he was teaching a Geography class, with, in effect, a captive audience, and he decided to deliver an op-ed piece on the State of the Union address. I simply don't think it belongs there.

But that's just my opinion. Class dismissed.