The Morning News: Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 | Sojourners

The Morning News: Monday, Dec. 12, 2011

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Class Matters. Why Won’t We Admit It?
No one seriously disputes the fact that students from disadvantaged households perform less well in school, on average, than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. But rather than confront this fact of life head-on, our policy makers mistakenly continue to reason that, since they cannot change the backgrounds of students, they should focus on things they can control.
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HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Perry's Appeal To Evangelicals Catches Flak Over Ad
Gov. Rick Perry, appealing to evangelical voters as he works to recharge his campaign, had the air of a preacher Sunday as he told his life's story at the Point of Grace Church.
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NATIONAL JOURNAL: Obama: 'It Doesn't Really Matter' Who GOP Nominates
Defiantly proclaiming “it doesn’t really matter” who the Republicans nominate against him, President Obama declared that he is ready to take on either Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney and ask voters to contrast his vision with that offered by the GOP nominee. In an at-times feisty interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” the president suggested there is little difference between the two front-runners for the nomination.
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SLATE: Heating Assistance Cut For Poor In Northeast
It’s hard to imagine a worse time to stop helping the poor pay their heating bills. Winter is getting under way in earnest, the economy is somewhere between extremely sluggish positive motion and the brink of global collapse.
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FOX NEWS: Alabama Governor Admits Immigration Law Must Be Retooled
Adding his voice to a growing chorus of political leaders who have supported, but now express concerns about, Alabama's new hard-line immigration law, Gov. Robert Bentley said the measure needs retooling.
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IRISH TIMES: Iowa Evangelicals Play Kingmakers In Crucial Republican Presidential Caucus
Rarely has such a small minority played so important a role in the fate of a nation. Six hundred thousand registered Republicans will be eligible to vote in the January 3rd caucuses where, for the first time, US conservatives will say who they want to represent them in next year’s presidential election.
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IN THESE TIMES: Why Conservatives Can’t Fix Poverty
Newt Gingrich’s recent utterances about poor children–they “have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works”–reflect not only the inability of conservatives to talk seriously about poverty, but a mean-spiritedness that, unfortunately, largely eludes public scrutiny.
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