Massie Brags About Vote To Make Sure You Die Gruesomely

Because that's what the REINS Act does:  mandates the removal of all federal regulations preventing e coli in hamburgers, and exploding car gas tanks, and collapsing construction equipment, and falling elevators, and typhoid-infused drinking water, and flesh-eating bacteria in hospitals, and electrical fires in office buildings and failing brakes in 18-wheelers barrelling down on school buses and ever other kind of horrific "accident" that repugs don't give a flying fuck that kills or maims you.

“Excessive regulation stifles economic growth, hurts small businesses, and raises consumer prices,” said Congressman Massie. “It is vital that Congress act to reduce our regulatory burden, which raises consumer prices, reduces wages, and costs jobs," Massie was quoted in a press release.

The motherfucking liar is lying about fucking his mother. Again.

Down with Tyranny:

Only two "Democrats"-- both right-wing Blue Dogs, Henry Cuellar and Collin Peterson-- voted for the Republicans' REIN Act (HR 427) Tuesday afternoon. Todd Young (R-IN) was the chief sponsor, but the enthusiasm among Republicans was huge-- 171 cosponsors. It passed 243-165.

Ted Lieu, an active duty Air Force Reserve officer was in California on official business and couldn't vote. But he explained to his constituents why he opposes the bill, which he termed:

a radical, potentially unconstitutional House Republican-authored bill that guts the ability of federal agencies to establish rules protecting food safety, clear air, clean water and other crucial common-sense safeguards. The Reins Act is strongly opposed by a broad range of consumer, health, environmental, labor, scientific, and public interest groups.

 They don't call 'em "e. coli republicans" for nothing.

Why Next Year's Young Voters Will Vote Even Stupider

Conservatives and repugs aren't destroying public education for the hell of it.  They're destroying it specifically to create citizens so stupid they will always vote repug.

Welcome back to the days of "War of Northern Aggression," "happy slaves," "redskin savages," "women's place is in the home," "protesters are traitors," "homos are perverts" and the whole Murka Rulz hit parade.

 

Think Progress: 

After backlash from conservatives that AP guidelines released last year by the College Board were unpatriotic, the new AP standards, which are effective immediately, will use the phrase “American exceptionalism,” and includes the founding fathers, according to Newsweek. The College Board said it “previously assumed it wasn’t something it needed to spell out as part of what would be taught in an American history course.”

Some of the main criticisms of the guidelines, conservatives voiced, were less emphasis on the founding fathers and more emphasis on slavery. The guidelines also included earlier American history that included violence against Native Americans and mentioned the growing influence of social conservatives. There were also complaints that World War II was not emphasized enough, but military victories will be given more attention in the new standards. Mentions of slavery will be “roughly the same” as previous standards, according to Newsweek.

SNIP

The AP standards are just one piece of the debate over how to accurately cover American history, especially if you intend to describe the actual experiences of people other than white, landowning men. Texas also recently changed its state academic guidelines, which means its new textbooks won’t mention the Klu Klux Klan or Jim Crow laws. Texas is a very influential textbook market, and publishers tend to look to Texas when deciding content for the textbooks they publish.

Buy copies of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me quick before they are all burned.

The Kansas Catastrophe Matt Bevin Plans for Kentucky

So, now that Jack Conway has conceded the Kentucky Governor's race by running the same repug-lite campaign that boosted Alison Lundergan Grimes to a 15-point loss against the most hated man in the Commonwealth, what are we likely to suffer under Governor Matt Bevin?

Give the repug piece of shit credit: he hasn't tried to hide it.  He's going to turn Kentucky into Sam Brownback's Kansas.

And what's so bad about that, you say? Just that in four years Sam Brownback managed to turn a functioning U.S. state into fucking Haiti.

From the Atlantic:

Kansas's Failed Experiment

The state's budget problems didn't go away after Governor Sam Brownback's reelection—they got worse. Will the lesson of tax-cuts-gone-awry give Republican candidates pause in 2016?

Russell Berman Apr 9, 2015

Surviving a tough reelection race, as Sam Brownback did in Kansas last year, can often be a cleansing experience for a governor. It should certainly bring relief. After all, Brownback managed to earn a fresh nod of support from voters despite a messy first term marked by a fiscal embarrassment of his own making.

Yet three months later, the humbling in the heartland goes on, much to the frustration of a Republican governor and one-time presidential contender who hoped to make Kansas the national emblem of conservative governance. Brownback's hard-fought victory on election day won him another four years, but it did nothing to fix the problem that nearly cost him his job: the state's finances. Kansas's budget has for months resembled a wallet with a hole in it—every time the state's bookkeepers peek inside, they find less money than the government thought would be there. Just a few days after the November election, the Kansas budget office revealed that revenue projections were off by more than $200 million, bringing the budget gap facing Brownback to $600 million in all.

The yawning deficit is widely blamed on the deep income tax cuts that Brownback, along with a Republican legislature, enacted during his first two years in office. They not only slashed rates, but more importantly, they created a huge exemption for business owners who file their taxes as individuals. By Brownback's own description, the tax plan was a "real live experiment" in supply-side economics, with the idea being that lower taxes would spur investment, create jobs, and refill Kansas's coffers through faster growth. Yet even under the most charitable analysis, revenue has plummeted much faster than the economy has expanded. 

"He’s lived and died by this philosophy, and it’s becoming more and more obvious that it is not going to be successful."

Now, Kansas's red ink has left the governor red- faced. Brownback is asking Republican state lawmakers to slow the income tax cuts over the next few years, raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, overhaul school funding, and divert money from the state's highway fund in order to balance the budget. It's not as if he's abandoning his conservative economic philosophy—he still wants to replace the state's income tax entirely with consumption taxes over time. And like any politician on the ropes, he is preaching patience. "These things take time," he said last month. He also acknowledged the toll his stumbles have taken on his image. "We're in Lent season, so I'm giving up worldly things, like popularity," he joked to a small crowd. Brownback has blamed the budget shortfall in part on automatic increases in education spending (a subject of a long-running court dispute), and he's cited a recent uptick in job growth as evidence that the tax cuts, on the whole, are working. "Kansas is on the rise, and the state of our state is strong," the governor proclaimed in an annual budget address in January.

 Oh, it gets worse. And it's getting even worse than that.

Conway Taking the Grimes Train to Losing the Governor's Race

Yep, trying to appeal to repugs who will NEVER EVER vote for him or any other Democratic candidate while at the same time alienating the very Democratic voters every single one of whose votes he must have in order to win.

The stupidity is Just. Fucking. Blinding.

Zandar:

Meanwhile, AG Jack Conway is trying to turn out Democrats for the Kentucky governor's race in November with this ad.

Yep, that's Jack Conway, bragging about how he sued that there Obama fella and stood up for (white) coal miners.

Sure makes me want to go vote for him in November.

Why, just ask Senator Alison Grimes.

 She lost by 15 points. Jack's gonna lose by 20.

No, Kentucky Is Not Safe From Global Warming

At 700 feet above sea level, Kentucky feels safe from the rising sea levels that global warming will bring to drown coastal cities.

And this year's near-constant rains make the California drought seem remote.

But Kentucky is in for some dangerous and economically disastrous effects.

 

Think Progress:

Climate change is set to hit the Southeast United States and Texas hard.

That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Risky Business Project, a nonprofit that focuses on the economic impacts of climate change. The report, which focused on 12 states — 11 states in the Southeastern United States plus Texas — found that the increased heat and humidity that these states are expected to experience as the climate changes will put the region’s recent manufacturing boom at risk.

“While the Southeast and Texas are generally accustomed to heat and humidity, the scale of increased heat — along with other impacts such as sea level rise and storm surge — will likely cause significant and widespread economic harm, especially to a region so heavily invested in physical manufacturing, agriculture and energy infrastructure,” the report reads. “If we continue on our current greenhouse gas emissions pathway, the southeastern United States and Texas will likely experience significant drops in agricultural yield and labor productivity, along with increased sea level rise, higher energy demand, and rising mortality rates.”

Kentucky information starts on page 44 and boils down to this:  

 

Extreme heat leading to severe drops in corn and soybean yields and poultry and beef output. 

 

Higher energy costs, lower productivity and more human mortality from more days of extreme heat. 

 

And that's not even taking into consideration economic losses from more severe storms, tornadoes, flooding and drought.

 

But let's expand hydraulic fracking that will destroy our drinking water supplies and accelerate global warming.

 

It's the proud coal tradition.

Have You Ordered Your Aborted Baby Parts Yet?

Also, you can't abort a baby. It's not a baby until it's born. Until then, it's tissue invading a woman's body.

QOTD: KY Governor's Race

Zandar:

As I've repeatedly said, the entire point of Republicans killing Medicaid expansion is simple: you either die or move to another state.  Either way, you're no longer that state's problem.

Bevin absolutely is running for governor of the Commonwealth on that platform, and right now he's ahead in the polls because of it.  Meanwhile, Jack Conway is going to learn that as with Alison Lundergan Grimes, if you run away from Obama, you're going to lose.

Jail This KY Freakazoid for Child Abuse Immediately

No, asshole: the First Amendment does not give you the right to abuse children by threatening them with hellfire and damnation.  Even in your own church or living room that is criminal child abuse, but to do it against the rules of your state government workplace should earn you eternity in real prison.

Think Progress:

The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has a policy (Policy 912) that requires that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) juveniles be treated with respect for their identities. A minister who volunteered to work with young people at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center is now challenging that policy after his services were revoked because he refused to comply with it.

Minister David Wells of the Pleasant View Baptist Church in McQuady, KY is represented by the anti-LGBT Liberty Counsel, which sent a letter to the DJJ on his behalf threatening legal action if the policy is not lifted and Wells reinstated. Wells refused to sign a statement promising to refrain from ever telling juvenile inmates that homosexuality was “sinful.” Specifically, the policy requires that volunteers not use “derogatory language in a manner that conveys bias towards or hatred of the LGBTQI community” and that they “shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful, or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Superintendent Gene Wade outlined how Wells could comply with the policy, explaining, “You can give a scripture reference to the kids, and let them look it up, but you can’t read it in their hearing. You can’t say ‘sinful'; you can’t discuss sexual orientation — heterosexual or homosexual — period.” These terms were not satisfactory for Wells to continue his volunteer work at the detention center.

This policy, the Liberty Counsel argues, is viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment. “By restricting speech which volunteers are allowed to use while ministering to youth detainees, the State of Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice have violated the protections given to private speech through the First Amendment and the Kentucky Constitution. Policy 912 requires affirmation of homosexuality as a condition of providing spiritual guidance to troubled youth, and singles out a particular theological viewpoint as expressly disfavored by the State of Kentucky. This the State cannot do.”

Yet still again more than ever before proof that freakazoids are unqualified to drive or vote, much less hold any position of public responsibility.

QOTD

From last week, but still (always) relevant.

Steve M:

The GOP isn't a lovely garden where a hundred reasonable right-centrists can bloom. It's a cesspit of carcinogenic rage.

KY's Congress Repugs Voted to Hide Altered Food From You

The real issue here is not food safety, but food supply.  GMO crops are corporate possessions; farmers cannot save seeds for next year's crop, but must buy new seeds every year from Monsanto.  GMO put one of the planet's most toxic and despicable corporations in control of the entire world's food supply.

Regardless of whether genetically-modified organisms in food are dangerous to human health, they are absolutely lethal to the food supply and the ability of farmers to maintain sustainable crops.

But four of Kentucky's six representatives don't give a flying fuck about that.

Only Democrat John Yarmuth of Louisville and repug/teabagger Thomas Massie of Northern Kentucky voted to prevent Monsanto from sneaking unlabeled GMOs into our food.

Repugs Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, Hal Rogers and Andy Barr all voted to take control of the nation's food supply away from farmers and consumers and give it to giant corporations.

Down with Tyranny:

This is a relatively simple issue. Food activists want to see potentially dangerous GMO food labeled so that consumers can make up their own minds about whether or not to feed it to their families. Monsanto and the GMO-Republicans, led by the Koch brother's Mike Pompeo (R-KS), want to make sure that there is no labeling and that the states that have already passed labeling laws to protect their citizens-- Connecticut, Maine and Vermont-- are over-ruled. I guess the concepts of states' rights and small government are trumped in GOP minds when their Big Business allies squawk loud enough! The bill passed (last week) 275-150. 

How to Ruin Lives and Destroy the Medical Profession With One Idiotic Law

Uh, hello? Anybody remember the heroin epidemic that exploded shortly after KASPER went into effect?  Of COURSE there are fewer pain prescriptions or people doctor-shopping:  all of those people are now buying heroin.

But of course they remember the heroin epidemic and know perfectly well why it is still growing:  the very program they’re promoting here.  They’re just hoping you don’t remember it and make the connection.

But because there are very few people in Kentucky who are not:

• struggling with chronic pain because KASPER prevents them from getting necessary medication, 
• taking heroin because they can’t get needed pain medication, or
• the friend or family of someone who is

There are even fewer people in Kentucky who don’t realize that Governor Cowardly Worm and his pet researchers at UK (Shame on UK!) are motherfucking liars who are lying about fucking their mothers.

Since Kentucky’s landmark prescription drug abuse legislation took effect in 2012, the Commonwealth has seen a significant decline in the number of prescriptions for the most commonly abused medications, doctor shopping has decreased by more than 50 percent, and more Kentuckians are seeking treatment for prescription medication addiction.

These findings, among others, are part of a yearlong study conducted by researchers at the University of Kentucky Institute for Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy and compiled in a report to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).

Gov. Steve Beshear joined Attorney General Jack Conway, lawmakers and health industry officials today to announce the report.

The study specifically researched and analyzed the impact of state law known as House Bill 1, which was passed in a special session by the 2012 General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Beshear.

“House Bill 1 was a bipartisan effort designed to help us fight the epidemic of prescription drug abuse in Kentucky, and it’s doing exactly that,” said Gov. Beshear. “Since the law was enacted, not only have we seen a decline in doctor shopping and prescriptions for heavily abused medications, pill mills have closed and the provider community at large has become more educated and committed to using best practices for prescribing these commonly abused medications.”

But what House Bill 1 really did was criminalize pain relief.  It hit the mosquito of pill mills with a bazooka, taking out the ability of thousands of doctors to prescribe legitimate pain medication at the same time.

Doctors everywhere in Kentucky are refusing to prescribe any pain medication at all for any reason to anyone.  That is how draconian the KASPER regs are.   Write one scrip, and if the KASPER police wake up with a wild hair, they can strip you of your license to practice medicine. Forever.

So now we have thousands of Kentuckians with legitimate chronic pain desperate for relief, turned away by the medical profession and able to survive only by using heroin.

All thanks to the prescription drug law that makes trying to relieve someone's pain a crime.

No Gay Marriage? No Tax Exemption

Enough of this shit. Taxing the monstrous fortunes freakazoids collect in the name of their invisible friend is not a violation of the Establishment Clause, but allowing them in the name of their sky wizards to flaut laws others must obey is.

Freakazoids don't want to obey the Constitution?  Fine.  No government money or authority for you.  Discriminate against LGBT, blacks, hispanics, asians, socialists, atheists all you fucking want. All you have to do is give up your precious tax-exempt status.

You don't get to suck from the government teat and kick the government in the balls at the same time.

Caitlin MacNeal at TPM:

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) on Tuesday issued an executive order to protect religious leaders and groups who do not approve of same-sex marriage in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that gay couples have the right to marry, the Wichita Eagle reported.

The order keeps the government from taking action against officials and organizations "on the basis that such person or organization believes or sincerely acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman."

Brownback's order aims to protect religious leaders who perform marriages and religious groups that provide adoption services, according to the Wichita Eagle.

"We have a duty to govern and to govern in accordance with the Constitution as it has been determined by the Supreme Court decision. We also recognize that religious liberty is at the heart of who we are as Kansans and Americans, and should be protected," Brownback said in a statement. "Today’s Executive Order protects Kansas clergy and religious organizations from being forced to participate in activities that violate their sincerely and deeply held beliefs."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on Tuesday condemned Brownback's religious liberty order, calling it "unnecessary and harmful."

"As a result of Executive Order 15-05, a homeless shelter that received a state contract or grant could refuse family housing to a gay couple with a child, or a foster care agency could refuse to place a child in their custody with the child’s family member just because the family member was in a same-sex relationship – and the state could not require them to treat all families equally," Kansas ACLU Executive Director Micah Kubic said in a statement. "In addition, singling out just one form of religious beliefs about marriage poses serious constitutional concerns."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) also issued a religious liberties directive following the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. The directive states that Texas agencies should prioritize the First Amendment and ensure that nobody "takes any adverse action against" individuals who are "substantially motivated by sincere religious belief."

The trouble, of course, is that much of the party has already rejected the premise behind the pivot. The Hill reported over the weekend:

Congressional Republicans are coming under pressure to respond to the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage when they return to Washington next week.

Religious organizations aligned with the GOP are concerned the government will punish them for opposing same-sex marriage, and want lawmakers to put in place new protections for people with faith-based objections.

The groups are putting their lobbying energy behind the First Amendment Defense Act, a bill that would prohibit the government from retaliating against churches, schools and adoption agencies that only recognize heterosexual marriage.

The "First Amendment Defense Act" -- conservatives really do excel in the bill-naming department -- is not just a hypothetical. The legislation has already been introduced in both the House and Senate -- the lead sponsors are Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), respectively -- and it's actually faring quite well. The House version already has 69 co-sponsors (68 Republicans and one Democrat), while the Senate bill has 21 co-sponsors (all 21 are Republicans).

Note, Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham, each of whom are running for president, are among the bill's champions.

Faith

Divine Irony:



confrontingbabble-on:

My invisible talking unicorn says you're wrong, Ricky.

The "toughest Wall Street reform in history" is nowhere near enough

No, Mr. President: As long as Wall Street exists and its criminals walk free on the earth, "reform" is not working. That's because you can't "reform" a criminal enterprise with no reason for existing except to steal every last penny from the working people of the national and the world.  You have to kill it. Burn it to the ground and salt the earth so nothing rises there again.



Full transcript here.

KY Already Meeting Coal Rules McConnell Claims Will Kills Us All

Both Bevin and Conway are also whiny-ass titty baby liars about this, by the way.  And the fact that Big Coal apologist Len Peters is actually admitting it tells you the new EPA rules are really far weaker than they could have been.

Kevin Drum:

Whenever a new environmental regulation gets proposed, there's one thing you can count on: the affected industry will start cranking out research showing that the cost of compliance is so astronomical that it will put them out of business. It happens every time. Then, when the new regs take effect anyway, guess what? It turns out they aren't really all that expensive after all. The country gets cleaner and the economy keeps humming along normally. Hard to believe, no?

Apologies for the spoiler, but can you guess what's happening now that President Obama's new carbon rules for power plants are about to take effect? Mitch "War on Coal" McConnell has been issuing hysterical warnings about these regulations for years, but the Washington Post reports that—sorry, did you say something? You've already guessed, have you?

More striking is what has happened since: Kentucky’s government and electric utilities have quietly positioned themselves to comply with the rule — something state officials expect to do with relatively little effort....“We can meet it,” Kentucky Energy and Environment Secretary Leonard Peters, speaking at a climate conference, said of the EPA’s mandate.

Seriously, what was the last thing repugs sounded the alarm about that actually happened, or even posed a genuine threat in reality?

Treason Flag Down in KY; White Supremacy Still Reigns

State Fair will be fun this year, with the dead-enders parading around in their Treason Flag gear hoping to make white liberals cry and non-white Kentuckians start a fight.

Be interesting and educational if somebody made a Treason Flag census of the commercial booths to see how many vendors ignore the State Fair Board's "strong discouragement."  Count 'em on opening day, count 'em again on the last day, and keep a list to compare to next year, when they will be banned.

Linda B. Blackford at the Herald:

The Kentucky State Fair Board and Kentucky State Parks will stop selling Confederate flags in gift shops and at future events, officials said Thursday.

The fair board voted Thursday to "strongly discourage" the sale of Confederate flags at this year's State Fair and ban them at future events following a request the board received in June from the Louisville NAACP, fair board spokeswoman Amanda Storment said.

The ban will include the 2016 Kentucky State Fair, the National Farm Machinery Show and the North American International Livestock Exposition, all of which are owned and produced by the fair board.

In addition, future contracts for rental space at the Exposition Center will ban the sales.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/23/3957213/kentucky-state-parks-removing.html#storylink=cpy

But the real issue is what happens after the Treason Flag goes down. Because Kentucky still officially suppresses black voting by demanding ID, eliminating convenient voting locations and refusing to provide a single hour of early voting.  Kentucky schools and neighborhoods are still effectively segregated.  Police still target non-whites for "crimes" that are normal behavior when perpetrated by whites.  Black and Hispanics are still locked out of decent jobs.

 

Rev. Barber: 

The assassinations at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, followed by the public forgiveness from the grieving families, were similarly cited by several South Carolina lawmakers as their reason for voting to remove the flag. What they are really saying is that Black Deaths Matter, not our lives. Black people in the US are only deemed worthy of action in their death, not in their life. In a year that has seen thousands in the streets, young and old, black white and brown, saying to the nation, “Black Lives Matter”, the painful and dangerous message coming from South Carolina this week is: Black Deaths Matter.  That’s the painful and dangerous narrative being developed out of South Carolina; it’s a narrative that the oppressed of this land have known for a long time: Only Black Deaths Matter.  Our nation is capable of doing the right thing – such as taking down the Confederate flag in the year 2015, a flag that represents the racist, immoral, unconstitutional defense of slavery and Jim Crow – but only when Black deaths happen and are met by a response deemed acceptable by those in power. Ever since this flag was raised in 1961, to send the message that South Carolina would not honor equal protection under the law, tens of thousands of small and large protests have not been enough to move the power brokers to take it down.

SNIP

Taking down the flag is a good thing. But when we look at the voting and policy records of most of the political leaders who helped to lower it, we should be careful with equating its removal as a history-altering event.  Systemic racism is alive and well; they show no intention yet of dealing with the fundamental inequalities racism still causes in our society.

But the power of racism has a strange endurance.

SNIP

Let us be clear about what's being said: nine Black deaths may get the flag lowered, but it will not get you one pen to sign Medicaid expansion throughout the South, which would save thousands of Black lives. Black deaths will not get full voting rights, which saves Black political power and produces policies that save black, brown and poor white lives. It will not get criminal justice reform, which liberates Black lives. Nor will it get you full funding for public education, a living wage, or economic empowerment that will lift the lives of black people, minorities, and the poor. It will not get gun reform. Black deaths only get you the lowering of a low-down flag that should have never been up.  It will get you nine pens as memorabilia and a signing ceremony at the Capitol. It will get you one final insult in the promise that an undignified flag, a symbol of hate, will be lowered “with dignity and respect” as Governor Haley promised white people still committed to the Lost Cause.  And you will get this only if Black people die, and the victims’ families and extended family in the human race behave in a manner declared acceptable and ‘Christian’ by people who have supported un-Christian, immoral public policy that continues to institutionalize economic, racial and political inequality.

SNIP

The perpetrator has been caught.  But the killers are still at large.  The deep well of American racism and white supremacy that Dylann Roof drank from remains. The families of the nine martyrs challenged the schizophrenia of American morality that allowed political leaders to condemn the crime and at the same time embrace the policies that are its genesis. Many of South Carolina politicians and others in the nation are examples.  They decry the killings but steadfastly refuse to support efforts to quell their divisive rhetoric and to cease their push for policies that promote race-based voter suppression. They refuse to vote for the Voting Rights Act.  They cut funds for public education in ways that foster, re-segregation. They deny workers living wages.  They refuse Medicaid expansion. They proliferate guns. They use racialized code words to criticize the president, all in the name of taking ‘their’ country back to ‘prevent its destruction.’   When will they own up to the fact that there is a history of racialized political rhetoric and policies that directly spawn the pathology of terroristic assassinations and carnages, and of violent resistance to constitutional decisions.  

If America is serious about this moment we cannot cry ceremonial tears, while refusing to support the martyred Pastor and his Parishioners’ stalwart fight against the racism that gave birth to the crime. Gov. Haley said the people killed in that Charleston church, and the forgiving actions of their families, set the Confederate flag’s removal in motion. If that’s the case, then the actions of Black-led protests don’t matter. Black political power doesn’t matter. Only in the face of nine Black deaths, and a certain acceptable perceived response, will anything be done. If this is the standard, how many Black deaths will it take to secure restoration of the Voting Rights Act, Medicaid expansion, public education funding, living wages or criminal justice reform? I shudder to think. This nation needs counseling and redemption until Black Lives Matters. And when Black Lives Matter, then all lives will matter. The dehumanization of Black Lives dehumanizes all lives.

Beshear: The Constitution Trumps Your Freakazoid Delusions

No, he didn't use those exact words. But that's the meaning, anyway.

From WKYT:

The day after a federal judge heard arguments over a Rowan County clerk refusing to issue marriage licenses, Governor Steve Beshear is standing behind his view on the issue.

Beshear, during a news conference Tuesday for the state budget, was asked about the clerks who claim their religious freedoms are violated by the new laws.

The governor stood by his previous statements, saying the clerks must comply with the Supreme Court's ruling that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states.

"When you voluntarily decide to run for office, and you win, and you raise your hand and you take the oath to uphold the Constitutions of the United States... that oath doesn't say 'I will uphold the parts of the Constitution that I agree with and won't with the parts I don't agree with,'" Beshear said.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who stopped issuing marriage licenses because same-sex marriage violates her religious beliefs.

AynRandy, Tax Deadbeat

Yep, the Tribble-Toupeed One has good reasons to eliminate the tax code.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul paid a delinquent property tax bill in Florida on Tuesday, only hours after the Republican presidential candidate said he wants to use fire, a wood chipper or a chain saw to "kill" the U.S. tax code.

SNIP

In the video, titled "How would you kill the tax code?," Paul says he is "trying to kill the tax code, all 70,000 pages of it."

Meanwhile, records show that Paul, through a company he created, owns a half-interest in a condominium in Destin, Fla., that had $2,489 in delinquent property taxes as of Tuesday morning. The original $2,159.14 tax bill on the condo, which has an assessed value of $161,000, was due March 31.

A few hours after the Herald-Leader asked Paul's presidential campaign about the tax bill, a representative of the Okaloosa County tax collector's office confirmed that the past-due bill had been paid Tuesday afternoon.

But you didn't burn a sacrifice to my invisible talking unicorn, so you lose.

How much more proof do we need that not only can freakazoids not be trusted to do the jobs they have taken an oath and hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars to do, but that they are so divorced from reality that we should not let them drive, much less vote?

Linda B. Blackford at the Herald:

A sometimes-tearful Kim Davis took the stand Monday to say her decision as Rowan County clerk to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples was a heartfelt one based on her religious convictions.

"It was something I had prayed and fasted over. ... It wasn't a spur of the moment decision," Davis told U.S. District Judge David Bunning, her voice breaking.

To authorize licenses means "I'm saying I agree with it, and I can't."

Her choice to also deny licenses to straight couples was because "I didn't want to discriminate against anyone."

Two of those straight couples and two gay couples from Rowan County sued Davis shortly after her office stopped issuing marriage licenses to anyone in the wake of the June 26 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage and declared the practice legal across the country.

Bunning said he probably would issue a decision the week of Aug. 10.

Bunning, by the way, is the son of repug and famously dense former Senator Jim Bunning, who got that judgeship for his son as part of the price he extracted for resigning from the U.S. Senate.*

Don't expect him to rule against a fellow conservatard.

*Mitch McConnell finally got rid of Bunning Sr. in 2010 to clear the way for his pet candidate Trey Grayson, only to watch Grayson humiliated by self-certifier and current presidential candidate Rand Paul.

How Little Has Changed in 167 Years

If you could go back in time and tell Sojourner Truth that in 2015 a black man has been president for six and a half years and that a woman is the odds-on favorite to become the next president, but that men still prevent women from making decisions about their own bodies, something tells me that wise lady would not be surprised.

Crooks and Liars:

Credit: Twitter

Republish Reprint

The Seneca Falls Convention included speeches by Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. 

Nor would she be surprised by this:

Kaili Joy Gray at Wonkette:

Look what we have here. It’s some actual science about abortions! We know how actual science can be hard for boy brains to comprehend, so we’ll try to speak slowly, with itty bitty Jeb Bush-sized words, so you fellas can keep up.

So. Abortion is the worst thing ever, in the whole universe, right? (Wrong, but play along, won’t you?) It causes mental illness and boobies cancer and, even worse — yes, worse than cancer — SO MUCH REGRET. And that is why it should be banned entirely, or at least heavily restricted (and then banned entirely), to protect women from the irreversible tragedy of later realizing they wish they hadn’t terminated that pregnancy after all. Except not exactly. In fact, not at all:

According to a new study that tracked hundreds of women who had abortions, more than 95 percent of participants reported that ending a pregnancy was the right decision for them. Feelings of relief outweighed any negative emotions, even three years after the procedure.

We know what you’re thinking. It is UNPOSSIBLE that almost every single Lady-American who’s had an abortion is like, “Whew, glad I did that,” instead of sobbing into her pillow and begging Jesus to forgive her. Why else would states like Arizona and Arkansas pass laws requiring doctors to advise patients that it “may be possible” to reverse an abortion (even though it’s not)? All those women who regret their abortions five minutes after leaving the clinic need to know they might be able to hop in the Pro-Life Hot Tub Time Machine and put that baby back up in there.

Let us not forget all those states, like North Carolina, just looking out for the silly dumb broads who don’t understand that having an abortion means they will not be pregnant anymore, so they need to wait for 24 hours or 72 hours or nine months, because if they just go home and think about it for a while, they will undoubtedly realize that abortion isn’t right for them after all.

And let us never, EVER forget that time the Supreme Court upheld the “Partial Birth Abortion” Ban because, according to Justice Anthony Kennedy:

While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained.

Hmmm. Looks like we finally have some reliable data, and that data says the Supreme Court was wrong as fuck, just like all the other “pro-life” legislators who insist women should not be allowed to have abortions because of how they will all have the sads about it eventually. (Plus maybe the boobies cancer.) Wrong, false, incorrect, bullshit, and WRONG.

Of course, those legislators and judges and preachy wingnuts would know that chicks are just fine and dandy with their abortions if they’d bother to talk to chicks who’ve had abortions, but why do that when it’s so much easier to conclude, without any reliable data, that abortion hurts men’s feelings right in their penises, so it must MUST!!! do the same to ladies, in their lady penises. Who understands women better than men, right? That, plus the entire 5 percent of women who do have regrets all attend these guys’ churches and say, “Yessir, now that you mention it, I do regret my abortion just like you said,” so what more proof do they need?

We are not A Idiot enough to believe this data will cause anyone who wants to protect the ladies from their own decisions to reconsider the necessity of doing that, on account of how the ladies who make those decisions are perfectly OK with it, thanks. After all, even if women who choose to terminate pregnancies are relieved to have done so, what about all the men who regret their abortions? No reliable data on that yet, so we might as well keep abortion out of reach for men, at least for now. Wouldn’t want them to get the sads or cancer in their boobies, or hurt our lady feelings in our lady penises.

The Racism of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a scam, but not an impartial one. Only black people are required to forgive their white murderers.

 

Steve M:

But let's not pretend, as Americans, that we think forgiveness is the proper, Christian response to murder. We only seemed to think that in one case.

Digby:

If we were to compare our most recent mass murders (we have so many) and the reactions to them, ask yourself whether or not anyone was clamoring to punish Dylan Roof's family. Or round up all the white supremacists and put them in jail. No, there was a clamoring among some Americans to pull down the confederate flag from official buildings. And it's astonishing, when you think about it, that such a flag was even flying or that people were defending it --- the same people, no doubt, who are clamoring for this family to be deported (or worse.)

I noticed that while we don't know at this point the motives of the Chattanooga shooter, it's crystal clear what Dylan Roof's were --- to start a race war. And yet the media is having no trouble calling Chatanooga suspected terrorism. The head of the FBI says he's just not sure about Dylan Roof. It seems tobvious now, if it didn't before, that the term is only applied to Muslims.

Charlie Pierce has it right --- this is about America and our love affair with violence.   I had been under the impression that the right had made its peace with that as the price we pay for the freedom to be armed to the teeth at all times.  But that's not true.  They are very philosophical about the consequence of violence when it's perpetrated by white people, to be sure. It's just a fact of life like summer storms and earthquakes.  But they get very, very angry when a racial or ethnic minority does it. There's some sick white privilege for you.

And again, because it can't be said enough:

If a white American does this it's just a sad fact of life, they have problems and there's nothing we can do except maybe give everybody more guns. If a black person did this it would have been because he was a thug and belonged in jail long ago. If a Latino did it we need to build a wall and deport as many of them as possible. If a Muslim did it, it's an act of war. There's nothing confusing about it.

 

Magic

Divine Irony:



(Source: atheismwethinkmore)

AynRandy Doesn't Want Any Kentucky Votes

He's skipping Fancy Farm!

If you're not a politically aware Kentuckian, you may not have grasped the import of that sentence.  Let me try again:

Rand Paul is skipping Fancy Farm!

While running for re-election statewide.

My dears, it is Just. Not. Done.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

Paul told reporters last week that he is skipping the annual event in far Western Kentucky in favor of campaigning in New Hampshire, a state he has deemed a must-win for his presidential bid.

It's the kind of decision that is causing serious hand-wringing among Republicans as they privately fret that Paul is focusing too much effort and resources on a stalled presidential bid at the expense of his U.S. Senate re-election campaign.

While Paul's aides have long defended the senator's decision to run for both offices in 2016 by boasting of his abilities as a multitasker, there is growing concern that Paul could be caught off-guard in his Senate race, much the way former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was last year.

Paul's recent moves leave little doubt that his re-election is a distant second on his list of priorities.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/17/3949159/analysis-rand-pauls-priorities.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

"This deal will make America and the world safer and more secure."

You know, Mr.President, what the repugs, for all their worship of Churchill will never understand, that Jaw-Jaw is always better than War-War.



Full transcript here.

Flakka Latest War on Drugs Bullshit

"Brain-melting?"  Seriously, Gracie?  Let's see some actual melted brain cells right now, 'cause I'm calling bullshit.

And "excited delirium?"  Where have I heard that before?  Oh, yeah, the same excuse white cops have been using to murder unarmed black and brown people since the first honky asshole realized 40 years ago that the effects of PCP could be easily turned into an excuse for just mowing the ni**ers down.

This isn't about addiction, it isn't about the phony drug war and it sure as fuck ain't about what poor people in Eastern Kentucky really need to get out of endemic poverty.

This is about filling jail cells to terrify the squares into cutting social spending to build more jail cells to hold more people who need social spending.

Katrina Goetz at the Courier:

Alpha-PVP, nicknamed "flakka" — an illegal synthetic drug that has made headlines across southern Florida — has burrowed deep into Lewis County in the past six months. And some experts say it's likely to spread.

It has sheriff's deputies on high alert because it's unlike any drug they've ever seen. Users are trading heroin to get it — a substance that looks like rock salt, reeks of ammonia and sells for $100 to $500 a gram.

On the street, users call it gravel, sometimes magic, because the high lasts so long. But it also makes them paranoid, violent and can give users superhuman strength, a troublesome combination for law enforcement.

"It's kickin' our ass," Lewis County Sheriff Johnny Bivens said.

And making obscene fortunes for Corrections Corporation of America.

Take the trillions of dollars we're wasting on what Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money calls the "War on (some classes of people who use some classes of) Drugs" and spend it on creating real world-class schools and good government jobs and a strong safety net and real substance abuse programs and decent housing and superb health care and everything else actual modern civilized nations have.

Flakka and all the other trumped-up excuses for worthless politicians and the pathetic excuses for "reporters" who believe them will disappear.

You First, Motherfucker

Nice to see Matt Bevin proving his "libertarian" bonafides with a lame repug chestnut like drug-testing welfare moms.

Anybody ask him why test people getting a few hundred bucks a month when you can test the people getting millions of taxpayer dollars a month?  Start with Codell Construction and Peabody Coal.  The rest of the list of big corporations and billionaires getting subsidies and government contracts ought to keep the testing labs busy for years.

Joe Gerth at the Courier:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin called for drug testing of those receiving public assistance at a forum Tuesday organized by the Council of Agency Executives.

SNIP

During the hour-long debate, Bevin gave few specifics on his programs if elected governor, but said that he would push for drug testing of welfare recipients.

"We need random drug testing for the people who are receiving benefits from the state," he said. "I'll tell you, as an employer, one of the first things these people are needing in order to assimilate back into society is to pass a drug test, and they can't."

A: Name three people who were on welfare when you offered them a job, and who subsequently flunked a drug test. Name one. Yeah, thought so.

B. Do you have the slightest idea how much in tax dollars the Commonwealth of Kentucky pays in "benefits from the state," and how much the Commonwealth of Kentucky pays in tax subsidies and sweetheart contracts to corporations, campaign contributors and other repugs sucking off the government teat?  Didn't think so.

C. Who is going to pay for all the negative tests, given that in multiple states, negative tests were 98 percent of the total and ended up costing the states tens of thousands of dollars?

Real libertarians want all drugs legalized, you lying motherfucking moron.

But repug assholes are all about demanding policies that are proven not to work. Especially when all said policies do is shame and demean people who have been impoverished by the austerity policies of the very same said repugs.

Congratulations on the demotion, Matty Boy.

Somebody Ask Matt Bevin If He Thinks This Is Funny

If he says no, he's lying.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money:

This is the text of a Facebook post from the Oklahoma Republican Party:

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us “Please Do Not Feed the Animals.” Their stated reason for the policy is because “The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”

Thus ends today’s lesson in irony ‪#‎OKGOP‬

www.OKGOP.com

Conservatives: Denying the humanity of non-white, non-straight, non-male, non-christian human beings for two thousand years.

Germany: Still Nazis After All These Years

The only way to save Europe is to forgive every penny of Greece's debt and throw Germany out of the European Union before it accomplishes by lethal austerity what Hitler couldn't do with armies.

Being part German I can say this:  Germans have always been Nazis, are Nazis today, always will be Nazis.

Also: deadbeats who still owe WWI and WWII reparations to Greece, and motherfucking liars about it. 

Digby: 

Krugman:

Suppose you consider Tsipras an incompetent twerp. Suppose you dearly want to see Syriza out of power. Suppose, even, that you welcome the prospect of pushing those annoying Greeks out of the euro. 

Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness. The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right. This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief. It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can’t accept; but even so, it’s a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for. 

Can anything pull Europe back from the brink? Word is that Mario Draghi is trying to reintroduce some sanity, that Hollande is finally showing a bit of the pushback against German morality-play economics that he so signally failed to supply in the past. But much of the damage has already been done. Who will ever trust Germany’s good intentions after this? 

In a way, the economics have almost become secondary. But still, let’s be clear: what we’ve learned these past couple of weeks is that being a member of the eurozone means that the creditors can destroy your economy if you step out of line. This has no bearing at all on the underlying economics of austerity. It’s as true as ever that imposing harsh austerity without debt relief is a doomed policy no matter how willing the country is to accept suffering. And this in turn means that even a complete Greek capitulation would be a dead end. 

Can Greece pull off a successful exit? Will Germany try to block a recovery? (Sorry, but that’s the kind of thing we must now ask.) 

The European project — a project I have always praised and supported — has just been dealt a terrible, perhaps fatal blow. And whatever you think of Syriza, or Greece, it wasn’t the Greeks who did it.

It appears that Europe (especially the Germans and the Dutch) will accept nothing but Greeks immolating themselves and them jumping off a cliff en masse to atone for the temerity of failing to be proper working drones. Hopefully this will also prepare all unions and left leaning political parties to follow suit.  They have been very bad, especially the public employees who will be required to flagellate themselves prior to the immolation as lesson to anyone who thinks government employees deserve to live like other human beings. (If you want to live like a human being get rich or STFU.)

Margaret Thatcher is laughing in hell. Along with some other memorable historical figures.

Steve M. points out that it's not just the Germans, but (rich, white, conservative) elites of Northern Europe: 

Yes, conservatives in Europe and America favor economic policies that comfort the comfortable. But, in both cases, the specific means of doing that is afflicting the afflicted -- and the way you get popular buy-in on that is to define the afflicted as people who deserve all the affliction they're already suffering, and more, because they're so shiftless and lazy.

The underdogs are supposed to do all the sacrificing, because the world is divided into the deserving and the undeserving, and the deserving shouldn't really sacrifice at all. The deserving are morally superior. (Middle-class and even lower-class supporters of conservatives, at least here in America, identify with society's winners, even if they don't share in the spoils.)

We're expected to think that the overdogs want to find solutions to economic crises, but, in fact, they don't want to do what's necessary if what's necessary involves serious sacrifice on their part. They think of themselves as the ones who have a genuine work ethic and who are willing to delay gratification, but in reality they insist that their gratification must proceed uninterrupted, because they deserve that. The underdogs don't deserve any gratification, ever, because they don't -- and that's true even if lifting up the underdogs would help bring the economy back to general health. That doesn't matter. What matters is that the underdogs must be punished.

The Socialistic Policies Huge Majorities of Americans Want

It's almost as if a major political party in cahoots with the billionaire class and the Military-Industrial Complex spent last 70 years lying to Americans about what Socialism really is.

Digby:

This is a great piece by Paul Rosenberg at Salon about what really constitutes "mainstream." (Also too about how Sanders agenda exemplifies it.)

Here's just a taste:

You can get a strong sense of this from the results of the “Big Ideas” poll commissioned by the Progressive Change Institute in January, which has thus far gotten far less attention than it deserves. (Full disclosure: I’m a former blogmate with Adam Green, co-founder of PCI’s affiliate, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.) PCI first solicited ideas online through an open submission process (more than 2,600 specific proposals were submitted) and then let people vote on them (more than a million votes were cast). This bottom-up process was then tested out in a national poll. The following all received 70% support or more:

Allow Government to Negotiate Drug Prices (79%)
Give Students the Same Low Interest Rates as Big Banks (78%)
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (77%)
Fair Trade that Protect Workers, the Environment, and Jobs (75%)
End Tax Loopholes for Corporations that Ship Jobs Overseas (74%)
End Gerrymandering (73%)
Let Homeowners Pay Down Mortgage With 401k (72%)
Debt-Free College at All Public Universities (Message A) (71%)
Infrastructure Jobs Program — $400 Billion / Year (71%)
Require NSA to Get Warrants (71%)
Disclose Corporate Spending on Politics/Lobbying (71%)
Medicare Buy-In for All (71%)
Close Offshore Corporate Tax Loopholes (70%)
Green New Deal — Millions Of Clean-Energy Jobs (70%)
Full Employment Act (70%)
Expand Social Security Benefits (70%)

All of the above are in line with Bernie Sanders’ politics and all are extremely popular, with support across the political spectrum. For example, the infrastructure jobs program (a key element of Sanders’ platform) had 91% support from Democrats, 61% from independents and even 55% support from Republicans—compared to only 28% who were opposed. Donald Trump can only dream of being that popular among Republicans.

If people voted strictly on issues, Sanders would be a bipartisan dream. Unfortunately, the calculation that goes into voting is much more complex. But it's always good to know how people look at this stuff in the abstract. All Democrats should pay heed. So should Republicans but they are hamstrung by a base that's driven by the propaganda they've been feeding them for the past 40 years and they no longer have any actual idea of what government policies are or what the government does. But Democrats do ...

Stand on Our Own Two Feet

Divine Irony:

We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world— its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is, and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time towards a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create.

Bertrand Russell. 1927

(Title: Why I am not a Christian)

• ↵ Reblogged from empiricaldaily

When You Don't Know

Divine Irony:

"They will help make our communities stronger and more vibrant."

A noble goal, Mr.President.  But you're putting the burden and onus of doing research and presenting proof on the impoverished communities who need government lawyers to enforce government laws.  You want to help communities develop fair housing?  Sue the asses off of their rich, white, motherfucking officials to force them to follow the goddamn law they've been ignoring for 50 years.



Full transcript here.

Bevin: If I Can't Hate on Gays, Then I Hate on Everybody

So Mattyboy gets all the legal and tax benefits of his long-ago state-licensed marriage, but nobody else does.

Exactly the greed, selfishness and arrogance that he would display as governor.

Adam Beam at the Herald:

Kentucky's Republican nominee for governor says the state should stop issuing marriage licenses following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Matt Bevin said in a news release the government should be out of the marriage business altogether, arguing that the religious covenant of marriage should be separated from the "contractual relationship" recognized by the state.

And yet more national humiliation for Kentucky, thanks to freakazoids elected to public office.  Easy solution here, people:  stop electing freakazoids.  They make us look bad.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/10/3939104/bevin-kentucky-should-stop-issuing.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

What Would $700 Billion a Year Buy?

That's how much you and I - and all American taxpayers - are giving away to fossil-fuel companies making obscene profits even before those subsidies.

How many jobs for teachers and firefighters and public maintenance workers and home care aides for your elderly parents?

How many new - safe! - bridges and highways and railways?

How much higher education for young people and health care for poor people?

How much of everything that the filthy rich don't need but you and I do?

The Nation:

The resulting compliance on the part of Congress and the White House has led the federal government to increase its subsidies for fossil-fuel production—paid for with our tax dollars—to $18.5 billion a year in 2012, according to the NGO Oil Change International, while restricting solar, wind, energy efficiency, and other climate-friendly alternatives to a relative pittance. No less important, Washington has declined to put a price on the fossil-fuel industry’s carbon pollution. Instead, it’s the public that pays the full cost of coal production in the form of at least 13,000 excess deaths and tens of thousands of heart attacks and asthma attacks every year. This additional favor to fossil-fuel production boosts the value of the total public subsidy to a staggering $700 billion a year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Profile in Courage - No Snark

Or maybe not so much courage as the exasperation of a parent who has explained for the umpteenth time to his recalcitrant teenager why said teenager cannot drop out of high school to hitchhike through Afghanistan.

Gov. Beshear Statement on Today’s Meeting with Casey County Clerk

FRANKFORT, Ky. (July 9, 2015) – “This morning, I advised Mr. Davis that I respect his right to his own personal beliefs regarding same-sex marriages. However, when he was elected, he took a constitutional oath to uphold the United States Constitution. According to the United States Supreme Court, the Constitution now requires that governmental officials in Kentucky and elsewhere must recognize same-sex marriages as valid and allow them to take place. One of Mr. Davis’ duties as county court clerk is to issue marriage licenses, and the Supreme Court now says that the United States Constitution requires those marriage licenses to be issued regardless of gender. Mr. Davis’ own county attorney has advised him that his oath requires him to do so.

While there are two or three county court clerks still refusing to perform their duties, the rest of the county court clerks are complying with the law regardless of their personal beliefs. The courts and the voters will deal appropriately with the rest.

I will not be calling any special session on this topic and costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so. Any proposal about the process of issuing marriage licenses that meets the standards of the Supreme Court ruling should be carefully thought out and could be considered in the regular session in 2016.” – Gov. Steve Beshear.

 Speaking of recalcitrant adolescents, Governor, don't give the legislature any ideas.

I'd like to say "We're done here," but I know it's not true.

Kentucky Flunks Democracy

If democracy is government of, by and for the people.

Via Kevin Drum, the Center for American Progress ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia on the state of democracy in each, based on how easy it is for citizens to participate in their own government.

Kentucky ranks 48th, just ahead of Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama. Worse than Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas.  Worse even than voter suppression / election fraud centers Florida and Arizona.

Kentucky gets an F on ballot access, F on political representation in state government and D+ on influence on the political system.  

Hard to argue with that grade once you know the metrics that compose each category.

Accessibility of the ballot:

 

•Availability of preregistration

•Availability of online voter registration

•Availability of portable voter registration

•Availability of in-person early voting

•Availability of no-fault absentee voting

•Voter ID laws

•Voting wait time, 2008 and 2012

•Provisional balloting rate, 2008 and 2012

•Participation in the Interstate Crosscheck system

•Motor Voter implementation performance

Big fat zippo for Kentucky on everyone one of those.

Representation in state government

 

•Felony disenfranchisement laws

•Ballot initiative laws

•District distortion

•Female elected representation

•Communities of color elected representation

Another obese zero.

Influence in the political system

 

•Campaign contribution limits for individual donors

•Availability of public campaign financing

•Campaign disclosure laws

•Revolving door bans

•Open legislative data

•Judicial recusal laws

D+ on this only because Kentucky limits individual donations and bans corporation donations.

Wondering how to judge state senate and house candidates next year?  Ask them what they are going to do specifically to increase actual democracy in Kentucky, based on these metrics.