Teachers are sadly underpaid and in every state in the nation, education budgets are being cut under the strain of budget woes. Republicans in Congress are complaining about paying unemployed citizens compensation and helping with their COBRA payments, crying that we don’t have the money to pay for it. But where were their complaints when George W. Bush lied us into Iraq or waged war on Afghanistan?  I haven’t noticed them denying President Obama the funds he’s requesting to keep these wars going either. But helping our fellow citizens get through the toughest economic times in generations? That they have a problem with.

Seriously. Look at the money we’ve spent to kill people and turn a good percentage of the world’s population against us.  At the time I’m writing this blog, the numbers were staggering:  Iraq: $717,084,866,999 (and I say at the time of this writing, because the counter at www.costofwar.com doesn’t stop.. it’s already thousands more!).  In Afghanistan, we’ve already spent $265,105,570,999… and counting. Just think if we could stop the counters cold, and return that money to the people who are paying the bill… us.

Tonight’s show began with a conversation with Karen Aronowitz, president of United Teachers of Dade, the teachers union for Miami-Dade County. The teachers and parents and kids of our state are being screwed by the Republican-dominated Florida legislature, who last week passed a new education bill that would eliminate tenure, tie a teachers’ compensation to standardized test scores, ignore all special degrees and certifications, and other provisions that educators warn could make Florida one of the least friendly states in America for public schools teachers. Florida is already in the bottom half of the nation for teacher salaries, according to NEA’s annual Rankings & Estimates report. This will make it even worse!

I also spoke with Noah Gray, a senior at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, who is already an award-winning documentarian and was out covering a teacher’s rally at Miami’s Tropical Park.

Read up on this legislation.  Governor Charlie Crist (yes, the same guy who’s battling it out with the heinous Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination to run for the US Senate) has until Friday to either veto or sign the bill. Call his office at 850-488-4441 or 850-488-7146 or email him and demand that he do the right thing and veto the bill!

In the second hour, we talked about the sick realities of war. Last week, we spoke extensively about the “Collateral Murder” video that was posted on wikileaks. Tonight, I was joined by Iraq war veteran Josh Stieber, who served in the same company as the ground troops who showed up on the video after the shooting.

And we finished the show with my favorite activist, David Swanson, who’s helping to lead the charge to get our representatives in Washington to deny President Obama the $33 billion he’s asking for to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Click here for the official whip list, and get dialing!