Bush's education secretary Rod Paige called the NEA, the largest teachers' union in the united states, a "terrorist organization" today in a private meeting with 49 governors (including everybody's favorite pomo suburban Nixon clone, John Rowland.) The NEA isn't particularly happy about this.

"It is morally repugnant to equate those who teach America's children with terrorists. NEA is 2.7 million teachers and educators who are fighting for children and public education. Yet this is the kind of rhetoric we have come to expect from this Administration whenever one challenges its worldview."

Neither is John Sweeney.

The Bush Administration would like to label all those who disagree with it as "terrorists" in order to cover up its policies which are harmful to working families and to divert attention from its inability to create good jobs. The fact is that 11 million American children try to learn each day in crumbling schools. Instead of labeling our teachers as "terrorists," the Bush Administration should get its priorities in order by fully funding its No Child Left Behind Act, investing in schools and infrastructure in this country, and stopping handouts of millionaire tax breaks to the ultra-rich.  ¶ 9:16 PM