Eric Umansky

Six Harriet Tubman references: The horror!

I missed this, from today's LAT:

The Education Department this summer destroyed more than 300,000 copies of a booklet designed for parents to help their children learn history after the office of Vice President Dick Cheney's wife complained that it mentioned the National Standards for History, which she has long opposed.

[In the mid-1990s], Lynne Cheney, the wife of now-Vice President Cheney, led a vociferous campaign complaining that the standards were not positive enough about America's achievements.

[...]

The standards contained repeated references to the Ku Klux Klan and to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the anti-Communist demagogue of the 1950s, she said. And she noted that Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who helped run the Underground Railroad, was mentioned six times.

But Revere, Lee, the Wright brothers and other prominent figures went unmentioned, she said.

At one point in the initial controversy, Cheney denounced the standards as "politicized history."

Bonus: Not only did she get the booked changed, she (or underlings) shoehorned her name in there:

Cheney is prominently quoted in the booklet as a "noted author and wife of the vice president." Two books on history that she wrote for children are mentioned in the booklet.

The acknowledgments also credit her office for helping with the guide, which cost $110,360 to print, Aspey said.

Quick, call Centcom: Cheney knows where Zarqawi is!

Our Vice Prez, last night:

"Let's look at what we know about Mr. Zarqawi. We know that when we went into Afghanistan that he then migrated to Baghdad. He set up shop in Baghdad, where he oversaw the poisons facility up at Khurmal, where the terrorists were developing ricin and other deadly substances to use.

We know he's still in Baghdad today. He is responsible for most of the major car bombings that have killed or maimed thousands of people. He's the one you will see on the evening news beheading hostages.

He is, without question, a bad guy. He is, without question, a terrorist. He was, in fact, in Baghdad before the war, and he's in Baghdad now after the war."

Now, forget about Cheney's risible ricin comment. The "facility," such as it was, was in the Kurdish-controlled north.

But, Zarqawi is "now in Baghdad"? I thought we were sure he's in Fallujah. Or wait, is it that we have no idea?