Happy 154th Louis Brandeis - No Cake for You, Obama Administration

At the "Spaghetti Junction" confluence of Interstates 64, 65 and 71 along the Ohio River at Louisville, several large brick buildings sport huge portraits of famous Louisvillians on the side: Mohammed Ali, Paul Hornung, Tori Murden-McClure ... and Justice Louis Brandeis.

Peterr at Firedoglake:

From 1916 to 1939, Louis Brandeis sat on the United States Supreme Court, and was one of the most powerful voices for freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever to sit on the Court. Today would have been his 154th birthday, and I have no doubts that he would be appalled at some of what is being done by the Department of Justice today, in the name of the United States of America. Indeed, Brandeis seems to have anticipated the confluence of torture, warrantless wiretapping, and a federal government that seeks to defend its conduct merely by shouting “it’s necessary!”

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In a powerful and prescient dissent, Brandeis wrote:

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Moreover, “in the application of a constitution, our contemplation cannot be only of what has, been but of what may be.” The progress of science in furnishing the Government with means of espionage is not likely to stop with wiretapping. Ways may someday be developed by which the Government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home.

Justice Holmes concurred with Brandeis, adding a few brief comments of his own:

Therefore we must consider the two objects of desire, both of which we cannot have, and make up our minds which to choose. It is desirable that criminals should be detected, and, to that end, that all available evidence should be used. It also is desirable that the Government should not itself foster and pay for other crime, when they are the means by which the evidence is to be obtained. . . . We have to choose, and, for my part, I think it a less evil that some criminals should escape than that the Government should play an ignoble part.

It took 39 years, but Brandeis and Holmes were vindicated in their dissents when Katz v. United States overturned Olmstead in a 7-1 ruling.

Wiretapping and torture, all in the same dissent.

That can’t be a good combination for Attorney General Eric Holder to contemplate. He’s dealing with these same issues today, in a series of cases working their way forward, like al-Haramain, the GITMO habeas corpus cases, and others.

It's a continuing wonder to me that Justice Brandeis does not rise up out of his grave to strike corporate shill John Roberts dead.

Forgiving War Criminals and Other Liberal Crimes

If you've been here before, you know I am a Fighting Liberal and vocal advocate of Liberals always Staying on Offense and Fighting Dirty.

It is, in the end, the only way we ever win. (No, the oh-so-polite-dems 2008 election was NOT a liberal victory.)

I have no patience with the being-nice-is-more-important-than-winning crowd, and could not be bothered to address Rachel Maddow's abomination of an interview with the unspeakably appeasing Jon Stewart.

Fortunately for all of us, Digby has more fortitude.

In the wake of Rachel Maddow's interview with Jon Stewart and his explanation as to why he does not think it's right to call President Bush a war criminal, one of her readers sends in a very thoughtful email, explaining and agreeing with that position:

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So, I guess my question is, how do we "learn" from his presidency if in addition to giving him a pass on his crimes, we aren't even willing to have an honest conversation, using real words with real meaning about what happened? If we dance around these things as if it's wrong to call white white and black black and insist that someone who ordered war crimes shouldn't be called a war criminal then I see a very different lesson being taken from that example than the one this commenter anticipates.

Yes, it's pretty to believe that the country will self-evidently come to the right conclusion without any legal or even social condemnation of what went wrong. We'll just "know" going forward that we need our leaders to have more patience, and be more thoughtful and less bellicose in the future. But I think this defies human nature and it certainly defies the reality of the world in which we live.

People are subject to a barrage of information and stimulation and the lessons they take from things are highly manipulable. There's a reason that wealthy, conservative plutocrats (who know just a little bit about PR and marketing) are spending billions to influence elections and create an alternative media to sell their ideology and discredit liebralism. Being passive in the face of that onslaught, pulling our punches, being unwilling to be unpleasant and confrontational in this environment is highly unlikely to even be noticed, much less appreciated. It certainly will not create the space for average people to consider both sides and make a thoughtful, reasonable judgment about their government and their society -- the necessary information simply can't rise above the din to make itself heard.

I understand the impulse. If one believes that people are basically good and that they aren't by nature irrational creatures, it's reasonable to put your faith in their better angels to see them through times like these. But human civilization was created not just to allow our creative and social aspirations to flourish, but also to keep the not-so-better angels from overwhelming the good. And history has shown that there are times when being passive and failing to sound the alarm about those bad angels is a tragic mistake.

We are living in an era in which very powerful people are being allowed to commit crimes with impunity while millions of others are being imprisoned and worse. Regardless of how the people see that (and the plutocrats are working overtime to ensure they see it their way) it's clear that the lesson the powerful are taking from this is not that Bush or any of them are "cautionary tales of poor leadership". They are being perfectly insulated even from harsh words and uncomfortable references to unpleasant historical analogies, so they are being assured every day by well meaning liberals and cynical conservatives alike that they will not even suffer social disapprobation, much less be held personally accountable for what they've done. They have learned that they get away with anything.

And in perhaps the most clever turn of all, these same well meaning, thoughtful liberals are suggesting that their fellows turn the other cheek when they in turn are characterized to many millions of people every day as "vermin" and "infectious diseases" which must be purged from the body politic. It is a perfectly defensible moral position, proposed by a guy named Jesus Christ, so who am I to argue? But I'm not sure that passive resistance works without the resistance part. And in our cacophonous political culture I just don't think you can persuade anyone to moral action without strong and meaningful rhetoric. "Yes we can" is great, but if the whole country is in distress and other side is calling you the "disease" that caused it, I'm not sure it gets the job done.

The conservatives created this hostile and aggressive discourse and now we all have to live in it. I wish I had the faith that others have that "good" will come to the fore without any necessity for liberals to defend themselves, but I don't. I think it's important to be truthful and to try to be fair, but I don't think we'll get anywhere by denying that war criminals are war criminals or covering over the fact that we have people on our airwaves dedicated to the dehumanization of their fellow Americans who call themselves liberal. Unfortunately, I see a strong liberal indication to pull back and rely on simple faith in the truth coming out in the end. I sure hope it works out.

Read the whole brilliant thing.

The Catfood Commission is Dead; Long Live a Real Deficit Debate

In the same sense that the only way to understand why corporations do what they do is to remember that their only goal is "increase profits," the only way to understand the budget/deficit/debt/taxes/entitlements/spending debate is to remember that the only goal of Washington power brokers is:

"take money away from the middle class and give it to the already obscenely wealthy."

Everything else is lies and misdirection.

Krugman:

It’s no mystery what has happened on the deficit commission: as so often happens in modern Washington, a process meant to deal with real problems has been hijacked on behalf of an ideological agenda. Under the guise of facing our fiscal problems, Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson are trying to smuggle in the same old, same old — tax cuts for the rich and erosion of the social safety net.

Can anything be salvaged from this wreck? I doubt it. The deficit commission should be told to fold its tents and go away.

No, the deficit commission should get its own reality TV show, seven nights a week, so we can all get a daily reminder of precisely what is going on here.

The host will be someone deeply familiar with the lies told by the money men, and experienced in launching attacks on the liars. Someone who is leaving a job soon. Someone entertaining. Someone like Alan Grayson.

When the commission's apologists for obscene wealth start bleating about high tax rates and disappearing social security and deficit danger, Grayson will beat them back with giant barbed dildos of Fact:

• Social Security is stable and secure for at least the next century. If you really want to make it more perfect, remove the cap on income, so millionaires have to pay the same social security taxes that real working Americans do.
• Tax rates absolutely are an abomination - the obscenely wealthy pay far, far too little. Let's have another 10-year rate change: we'll add five new brackets to the top, where now everyone who makes more than $250,000 pays the same rate of 36%. For the next decade, $500K to $1 million will pay 40 percent, up to $10 million will pay 50 percent, up to $100 million will pay 60 percent, up to $500 million will pay 70 percent, and those raking in more than $500 million per year will pay 80 percent.*
• The inheritance tax is the only way to prevent obscenely wealthy parasites from over-breeding and replicating themselves. Restore the estate tax of 50 percent on estates larger than $1 million. If your children can't make it on $1 million, they're fucked-up wastes of oxygen anyway and don't deserve more money.
• The most effective and efficent spending in the federal budget - the spending that immediately stimulates the economy, that creates more economic activity than it costs, that benefits families and communities in both the long term and the short-term - is direct payments to struggling individuals: food stamps, unemployment and welfare. This economy needs massive economic stimulus, so: triple food stamps (currently about $10 per person per week), double welfare payments, restore the TANF jobs program and extend unemployment payments until the unemployment rate falls below 5 percent.
• Medicare really is a financial mess, but not for the reasons the deficit vultures claim. The only way to actually fix Medicare - and the broken healthcare system in this country - is to establish single-payer healthcare. The easiest way to do that is extend Medicare to everybody in the country. Premiums paid by younger people will more than cover the high costs of caring for the elderly that are currently breaking the system. Medicare For All. Problem solved.
• Taxes paid by working families struggling to make ends meet - and NOT paid by obscenely wealthy parasites - go to bloat the Defense Budget out of all effectiveness. More than double what the rest of the world budgets for defense - combined? That's crazier than Sharron Angle. So, let's impose a little discipline on the Pentagon (whose leaders, by the way, mostly agree its budget is stupid.) Cut the defense budget in half. Let the Pentagon budget boys decide how to divide it up. If they know for sure they can't get any more through any congressional back door, they'll cut the REAL fat and waste and buy only what's necessary. This will require the same system used to close redundant military bases: Congress gets a straight up-or-down vote on the budget the Pentagon presents. No adding wasteful weapons systems so everybody get a factory in her district. This 50 percent budget or nothing.

There is lots, lots more to talk about: farm subsidies that go to giant agribusiness, fossil fuel subsidies that kill us with terrorism and pollution, outdated transportation systems and electrical grids, needed support for renewable energy and universal broadband - both of which will create hundreds of thousands if not millions of new, highly-paid manufacturing jobs - adding staff and authority and power to regulatory agencies, multiplying Pell Grants by a factor of 10 ...

I'm sure Alan Grayson has many, many more ideas to keep the members of the Catfood Commission sweating under the kleig lights for a long, long time.

This would be fun.


*Everybody understands marginal rates, right? Even if you make $1 billion, you, like everybody else, pay 33 percent on the first $250K, and 36 percent on the next $999,750,000. Under my plan, the billionaire would pay 36 percent on the NEXT $250K, 40 percent on the NEXT $500K, 50 percent on the NEXT $9 million, 60 percent on the NEXT $90 million, 70 percent on the NEXT $400 million, and 80 percent ONLY on what you rake in ABOVE $500 million. If you make $50,000, you are paying the same tax rate on your TOTAL of $50,000 as the billionaire is paying on his FIRST $50,000.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

Earmarks and Exports

This is stupid. This is stupid policy AND stupid politics. President Obama knows as well as anyone that earmarks have nothing to do with total spending.

Earmarks do not - repeat DO NOT - increase the budget.

Earmarks simply designate that a particular portion of a budgeted amount is going to this place rather than that place. A hundred million bucks for national parks improvements? OK, fine, says Rand Paul, but $10 million of that has to go to improve the campgrounds at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

That $10 million for Mammoth Cave is an earmark. It does not increase the total national parks budget one penny. It actually reduces the amount of money available for other parks.

That President Obama is wasting his time and precious bully pulpit on bullshit that actually makes people even stupider about the budget is beyond belief.



Full transcript here.

Sometimes Facts Work

When you start to think that facts are failing, that there is simply no amount of reality that can penetrate the gravity-denying armor of the rethuglicans and their teabagging hordes, read this:

Oliver Willis mustered facts against The Stupid ... and won.

It can be done.

This is What Happens When You Fail to Refute the Lies

It's difficult to remember, but as recently as 2-1/2 years ago, the lies told by republicans were still infrequent enough, and confined mostly to the fringe, that they stood out from the bulk of political discourse, which while banal and misleading was not 100 percent blatantly mendacious.

It was, of course, the election - the historical landslide election - of a black man to the presidency that drove republicans to the desperate measure of inventing baseless, ludicrous, insane lies that defied reason.

But it was 100 percent the fault of President Barack Obama that those lies, instead of exposing their tellers as douchebags unfit for public life, became the common currency of American politics.

Because Barack Obama failed to call out the motherfucking liars for lying about fucking their mothers.

KeninNY at Down With Tyranny:

By now I trust everyone has read our friend Rick Perlstein's screed for the Daily Beast, ("How Obama Enables Rush") in which he proceeds from the painfully obvious but rarely articulated truth: "We live in a mendocracy. As in: rule by liars." But in case anyone missed it, let me suggest that this is one piece you can't afford to miss.

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Not once but twice I quoted this bit from a Frameshop post by Jeffrey Feldman, "What America Needs to Hear About Jerome Corsi" (whose smearbook on Barack Obama had just been published), about the impossibility of "debating" a compulsive liar:

This book and books like it destroy our political culture, undermine fair elections, inhabit the slippery space between politics and slander. . . .

These books destroy civic debate on purpose -- and are fundamentally at odds with democracy. The goal of Corsi's project is not to discuss facts -- it is to destroy the very possibility of discussion by implying that a Presidential candidate is a sleeper-cell terrorist -- and doing so in the context of a huge broadcast media effort to convince the country of the same thing.

That is not just factually wrong. It is wildly immoral. Whether or not Corsi published lies is not even half the discussion we should be having.

Let me repeat that crucial proposition: "These books destroy civic debate on purpose."

Rick Perlstein has his own take on this proposition. I've quoted it at the top of this post, but it's too important not to repeat:

When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes "uncivil" to call out liars, lying becomes free.

SNIP

Republican politicians, and conservative commentators, told them Barack Obama was a tax-mad lunatic. They lied. The mainstream media did not do their job and correct them. The White House was too polite—"civil," just like Obama promised—to say much. So people believed the lie. From this all else follows.

And it was all too predictable.

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The vector worked, and works, like this:

(a) A mountebank teaches his millions of followers that everything the president says is a priori a lie;

(b) The mainstream media that acts as if anything his millions of followers believe is a priori deserving of respect as heartland folk wisdom (note the cover article lionizing Limbaugh in this week's Newsweek);

(c) The president unilaterally renders himself constitutionally incapable of breaking the chain between (a) and (b), such that, (d), the assumption that Obama raised taxes when he really lowered them becomes hegemonic for a majority of the electorate, and even a large plurality of Democrats.

Q.E.D.: Governing has become impossible.

Is governing possible when the opposition stands by while a screeching coalition of loonies and liars pretends that the president isn't really a U.S. citizen? And get indignant when the obvious racist motivation is pointed out?

SNIP

Not to worry, however. Now that public discourse can no longer be measured against standards of truth, it's safe to guess that campaigns of lies as virulent as the racially charged ones told about Barack Obama will be launched on other-than-racial bases. Every manner of prejudice and delusion can be pressed into service. (Did someone say "death panels"?)

Read the whole thing.

Civil discourse is dead. You cannot fight this level of vicious mendacity with polite language, much less reason or logic.

We have to attack the rethuglican lies and liars at every turn. No more polite questions like "Really? Based on what?"

Now it has to be in-your-face "Liar! That's a lie! Stop telling that lie!"

These people are literally tearing this country down with their lies, and every time each of us hears or reads a rethuglican lie without stopping to attack the liar directly we are contributing to the destruction.

Unless you are in or have been in the military, you will never do anything for your country more important right now than every day and in every way:

Calling out the motherfucking liars for lying about fucking their mothers.

Rand Paul: Budget Cuts for Thee, But Not for Me

Another reminder that even the teabaggiest congress critters are rank rethuglicans who want to eliminate federal subsidies to everybody except themselves.



Full transcript here.

Prosecute Bush for War Crimes. Do It Now.

Wanna give your new teabaggy-tastic congress critter heartburn, if only for a minute? Demand that it support Rep. Jerrold Nadler's call for a start to the process that should end with Smirky and Darth rotting in Guantanamo for eternity.

From TPM:

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said Wednesday that President George W. Bush's recent admission that he approved the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was "a smoking gun" and renewed his call for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate torture.

But Nadler, the current chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, doesn't expect Holder to act.

"Judging by the record of this Attorney General, he will not pay attention, he will not respond," Nadler said in an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday. "And that is shameful."

Bush said in an interview that waterboarding is legal because his Justice Department lawyers said it was. The CIA asked Bush if he could use waterboarding. "Damn right," Bush boasted in his memoir that he replied.

That statement "absolutely indicts the president," Nadler said.

"It is a smoking gun, I'm dubious that [Holder] will do it because this administration unfortunately has taken the opinion, taken the attitude that they're not going to look at any criminal actions by, within the prior administration," Nadler said. "They say 'let's look forward, not backward.' By that standard no one would be prosecuted for any crime."

The human rights group Amnesty International has called for Bush to be prosecuted due to his admission.

The One Babs Forgot to Abort thinks he's gotten away with it. What a gift to the nation, the world and our posterity if we can prove him wrong.

Where We Go From Here: Part Eight

Asset:

7. Strong majorities of Americans who hate secret corporate money in elections (even though they were influenced by the campaign ads that money bought.)

Nothing makes civil libertarians like me crazier than when rethuglicans defend unconstitutional police-state tactics with these attacks:

"What are you hiding?" "What are you ashamed of?" "If you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to be afraid of."

But now, I am relishing the chance to use those same attacks against those same rethuglicans who are now trying to defend secret corporate/foreign donations to buy elections.

"Why won't you disclose your donors?" "Real American corporations wouldn't hide behind fake nonprofits - that means your donors must be foreign corporations." "If all your donations are from law-abiding, Real American corporations ... prove it."

Rethuglican obstruction may prevent Senate Democrats from passing the DISCLOSE act forcing Karl Rove and his fellow rethuglicans to reveal their secret corporate/foreign donors, but that is all the more reason to keep pushing the legislation.

Force rethuglicans to vote publicly in favor of corporations/foreigners secretly buying elections. Force them to do it over and over and over again. Accompany each vote with loud choruses of "What are you hiding? If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of."

Shame the front groups like American Crossroads using secret corporate/foreign money to elect rethuglicans.

Shame the corporations making secret donations to elect rethuglicans. (Until all the corporations reveal their donations, assume every corporation is guilty.)

Shame the rethuglican candidates who got elected thanks to the secret corporate/foreign money.

For example: Ron Paul is the rethuglican Senator from China. American Crossroads spent millions on anti-Conway ads to elect Paul. Until Karl Rove releases his full donor list, we'll just assume that Paul is a fully-owned and -operated agent of the People's Republic of China.

On this Veterans Day, remember that America's 25 million living veterans did not sacrifice and fight in order to defend the right of obscenely wealthy corporations and foreigners to buy our elections.

Read Where We Go From Here Part One here. Part Two here. Part Three here. Part Four here. Part Five here. Part Six here. Part Seven here.

Reason and the Constitution Prevail: Mayfield Mosque Approved

Here's your proof that public pressure can overcome even fear-based bigotry and racism. Mayfield Kentucky: I am proud of you.

Courier-Journal:

The Mayfield Board of Zoning Adjustments on Tuesday unanimously approved a Somali man's request for a permit to operate a mosque in the Western Kentucky city — reversing a previous denial that had generated national controversy.

The decision, which came despite board concerns about parking, grants Khadar Ahmed a permit to operate a mosque for fellow Somalis who had recently moved to Graves County to work in a poultry plant.

“Basically the board maintained that parking is an issue, but they conceded that there is enough off-site parking available on a regular basis,” City Planner Brad Rodgers said after the vote.

“We are pleased,” said attorney William Deatherage of Hopkinsville, who represented Ahmed in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. “We think the board observed the constitutional rights of the applicant, and the applicant himself is very pleased because now he gets to make his very small prayer center available for the Muslim citizens in Graves County.”

Tom Waldrop, a former Mayfield city council member, spoke in favor of approving the permit at the hearing. He said opponents of the mosque were in the minority.

“This is a good-hearted town,” he said in a telephone interview after the meeting. “This is not a mean town.”

Where We Go From Here: Part Seven

Asset:

6. Strong majorities of Americans who may have voted for those crazies out of frustration, but who don't trust them to govern effectively.

And the hubristic fuckers in Congress aren't even pretending to try to earn that trust.

Steve Benen:

Let's make this plain: Republicans aren't trying to create jobs or improve the economy. If that happens, I'm sure they'd be pleased, but it's simply not on the list of priorities. When confronted with evidence that their cuts would hurt the middle class, weaken economic demand, and serve as an anti-stimulus in the midst of a weak recovery, GOP officials don't care about any of that, either.

The New York Times noted the other day that "many mainstream economists say such deep cuts could further strain the economy." That's obviously true. It's equally obvious that Republicans couldn't care less.

I think some Americans realize how ugly next year will be, but the scope of this fiasco won't really sink in until the crises begin.

Voters punished the Democratic majority because they were unsatisfied with the state of the economy, but they replaced it with a new House majority that seems painfully anxious to make things worse.

As we've talked about before, we have a certain luxury when it comes to our economic problems. Some societies don't know they have a problem; some know they have a problem but don't know how to fix it. We know we have a problem and we know how to fix it, but we have policymakers in Congress who refuse to even consider what's necessary.

We need to spend more to stimulate the economy, while fighting against deflation. The prevailing wisdom in Congress is that we need to spend less while fighting against inflation.

I want to be optimistic about the near future, and think we'll somehow muddle though, but the rise of reckless, radical Republicans is probably going to be worse than the country realizes.

Read the whole thing.

The rethuglicans aren't just out to destroy the country. They're not even trying to hide that their goal is to destroy the country. They're actually bragging about it.

This is another easy one. Talk this up. Tell everybody you meet about today's latest rethuglican move to destroy the country. All you have to do is open a newspaper or listen to the news for a couple of minutes. They'll be there every time, gas can in one hand and matches in the other.

Read Where We Go From Here Part One here. Part Two here. Part Three here. Part Four here. Part Five here. Part Six here.

Where We Go From Here: Part Six

Asset:

5. Sixty freshman rethuglicans in the House each on the record advocating the most extreme, racist, bigoted, homophobic, unconstitutional, anti-American, vicious, violent and dangerous positions ever articulated in an American political campaign.

Ooh, this one's gonna be fun.

If you have one of these mutant aliens representing you in Congress: sic 'em!

Set Google Alerts to email you every time the media or a blog mentions your mangy congress critter. Then email the idiot's latest call for outlawing public highways or impeaching Michelle Obama to everyone whose email address you have.

Publicize every statement, every interview, every press release, every public belch and fart. Don't let them fly under the radar.

Tar them with facts, but tar them good - with boiling-hot facts that will strip off their skin. And do it over and over and over again.

Remember that people voted these maroons into office because of the jobless economy, so there's really just one relevant question, as Steve Benen points out:

Republicans on the Hill want to scrap existing stimulus, see more public-sector job losses, shut down the government, and push the United States into default.

"How would that help the economy?"

That need not be a rhetorical question.

Ask it. Ask it every day. To every teabagging, rethuglican, no-nothing utterance, ask:

"How would that help the economy?"

Go get 'em.

Read Where We Go From Here Part One here. Part Two here. Part Three here. Part Four here. Part Five here.

Pouring Salt in the Wound

Not all democracies are equally bad.

Brad Friedman:

How terribly quaint. Via Taegan Goddard's Political Wire today...

British Election Overturned Because of "False Statements"

The Independent reports that former British immigration minister Phil Woolas "lost his seat as an MP today after an election court ruled that he knowingly made false statements about an opponent in May's general election."

Bloomberg notes Woolas was guilty of "an illegal practice" by making statements "he had no reasonable grounds for believing were true and did not believe were true."

The Independent reports that Woolas, a Labour MP, "is to be barred from the Commons for three years and the election contest for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat [will be] re-run." His crime:

The specially-convened election court had heard that Mr Woolas stirred up racial tensions in a desperate bid to retain his seat in Oldham East and Saddleworth.

His campaign team was said to have set out to "make the white folk angry" by depicting an alleged campaign by Muslims to "take Phil out".

Thank God we, the people of the United States of America, live in a land where there is no such need for laws to protect the electorate from the sort of dirty, disingenuously-divisive, knowingly-false, racially-based fear-mongering that might otherwise plague our totally free and respectable democratic elections!

Sigh.

The problem with trying to make that work here is that the most outrageous campaign lies are told by "independent expenditure" entities separate from campaigns, so the candidates cannot be held responsible for them.

Impeach the Roberts Court Traitors.

Where We Go From Here: Part Five

Asset:

4. A shaken-up Democratic base suddenly faced with the consequences of its apathy and feeling guilty for not voting.

If every person in this country who is eligible to vote actually votes, republicans will never win another election.

Every single republican victory comes down to this: Democratic voters didn't vote.

Some didn't vote because rethuglicans conned, defrauded and intimidated them out of the polls.

Some didn't vote because our ridiculous voting laws require people to jump through hoops - advance registration, limited voting hours, complex voting machinery and overburdened polling places - that most working people can't negotiate.

Some didn't vote because no one asked them. Democratic candidates didn't seek them out. Their state, local and precinct Democratic officials haven't tracked them down, made sure they're registered and can get to the polls, and cleared the way to make voting Democratic easy.

So yes, this disaster is the fault of Democratic voters who didn't vote. It's also the fault of all of us - their neighbors, their precinct officers, their county and state Democratic party and their Democratic candidates - for not giving them reasons to vote and the tools they need to do so.

So get out there and find them: the Democratic voters who aren't voting. Anytime somebody complains about the economy, the government, the general unfairness of life, ask them "Did you vote?" From there, it's just logistics.

Find out who your precinct officers are, and ask them how you can help get every missing Democratic voter to vote in the next election. If your precinct officers are AWOL (mine are, and I showed up in person on a freezing Saturday in April to vote for the fuckers), start nagging your county and state party to name people who will do the job.

Support state and federal legislation that makes voting easy - same-day registration, early voting, extended hours, etc. Oppose the laws that pretend to "protect" the vote but in fact prevent eligible voters from exercising their Constitutional right: picture ID, advance registration, restricted voting hours, etc.

Your first question to every potential and declared Democratic candidate for any office should be this: What are you doing to get non-voting Democratic voters to actually turn out and vote this time?

Read Where We Go From Here Part One here. Part Two here. Part Three here. Part Four here.

Dems Should Agree With Rethuglicans: No Compromise

A week before the election, that Passionate Man of Reason, Robert Reich, explained why Democrats should be as anti-compromise as the republicans:

Why are Democratic presidents so much more easily intimidated by the "move to the center" rhetoric after midterm losses than Republican presidents?

Because Democrats think in terms of programs, policies, and particular pieces of legislation. It's easy to reverse course by compromising more and giving up on legislative goals. Bill Clinton never mentioned the words "health care reform" after the 1994 midterms.

Republicans think in terms of simple ideas, themes, and movements. It's far harder to reverse course on these (look what happened to the first George Bush when he raised taxes), and easier to keep them alive: Republican presidents just continue looking for opportunities to implement them.

Republicans are also more disciplined (ask yourself which party attracts authoritarian personalities and which attracts anti-authoritarians). This makes it easier for them to stay the course. Their base continues to organize and fulminate even after midterm defeats. Democrats, on the other hand, are less organized. Electoral defeats tend to fracture and dissipate whatever organization they have.

Republicans are cynical about politics from the jump. Political cynicism fuels them. Democrats are idealistic about politics. When they become cynical they tend to drop out.

Message to Obama: Whatever happens November 2, don't move to the center. Push even harder for what you believe in. Message to Democrats: Whatever happens, keep the courage of your conviction and get even more active.

Read the whole thing.

Tour Adventurously in Kentucky This Autumn

Late fall and early winter in Kentucky display a unique charm: the air is cool and clear yet above freezing, and the bare trees reveal vistas hidden the rest of the year.

Adventure tourism is alive and well during the fall and winter months in Kentucky. There are plenty of outdoor opportunities ranging from hunting and fishing to hikes, wildlife viewing and canoeing and kayaking.

“It’s great to get outside during the cooler temperatures during this time of year in Kentucky,” said First Lady Jane Beshear. “There’s plenty of nature to see and experience throughout our state and being outside is a good way to get healthy and stay fit.”

Here is a listing of some adventure tourism events in Kentucky during November and December. To learn about other events, visit www.tourism.ky.gov/outdoors/.

NOV. 13, 2010
THE ART OF OBSERVATION
Location: Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest
2499 Highway 245
Clermont, Ky. 40110
Fee: Bernheim Members $8 ; Non-members: $10
Time: 1-2 p.m.
Details: Increase your nature observation skills with this fun and rewarding program at Bernheim. Discover how your ability to see natural treasure is connected to seeing patterns and details amid a clutter of visual stimuli. With practice, patience and instruction, you will learn basic skills to help you be more aware and attentive to your surroundings. For adults and children over six. Register by calling (502) 955-8512.
Contact: Susan Ritter @ 502-955-8512 or sritter@bernheim.org.

NOV. 13-14, 2010
FALL ELK WATCH
Location: Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park
4441 KY Highway 1833
Buckhorn, Ky. 41721
Fee: Package price of $150 per couple ($110 per single) (see details)
Time: 5:45 a.m.-11 a.m.
Details: Enjoy seeing these majestic animals during their rutting season. Morning tours leave the park at about 5:45 a.m. Package price of $150 per couple ($110 per single)includes one night’s lodging, dinner on night of arrival, bagged breakfast and transportation to and from the elk preserve the following morning. Stay the night before or after with package for an extra $45.
Contact: Sue Thomas @ 606-398-7510 or Sue.Thomas@ky.gov.

NOV. 20, 2010
ECO KIDS ADVENTURES IN NATURE: THE AUTUMN LIFE OF ANIMALS
Location: Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest
2499 Highway 245
Clermont, Ky. 40110
Fee: Free
Time: 1-4 p.m.; On Your Own Challenge
9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Details: The ECO in Bernheim’s ECO Kids programs stands for Every Child Outdoors. Each first and third Saturday at Bernheim, ECO Kids Adventures in Nature provides kids and families with opportunities to get outside for play, fresh air and to learn about nature. ECO Kids programs are free for members and included with admission for non-members. On Saturday, Nov. 20, the focus is “The Autumn Life of Animals.” Autumn is a busy time for nature’s animals, with migration, food storage and hibernation. Discovery Stations at the Visitor Center will be available from 1-4 p.m. There is also an on-your-own challenge: Thinking Like a Critter. Challenge sheets are available in the Visitor Center between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Contact: Susan Ritter @ 502-955-8512 or sritter@bernheim.org.

NOV. 20, 2010
CANOEING FOR BEGINNERS
Location: Natural Bridge State Resort Park
2135 Natural Bridge Rd.
Slade, Ky. 40376
Fee: $30 per person includes instruction, canoe, paddle and life jacket
Time: 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m
Details: Learn the basics of canoeing on Mill Creek Lake at Natural Bridge and then experience river canoeing on the beautiful Red River within the Red River Gorge Geological Area. The river trip is 8 miles on an enjoyable class I section of the Red River. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Registration fee of $30 per person includes instruction, canoe, paddle and life jacket. For more information contact Tyler Morgan at tyler.morgan@ky.gov. Contact: Tyler Morgan @ 606-663-2214 or Tyler.Morgan@ky.gov.

NOV. 21, 2010
FULL “FROST” MOON HIKE
Location: Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest
2499 Highway 245
Clermont, Ky. 40110
Fee: Bernheim members $8; Non-members: $12
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Details: Bernheim night hikes are great opportunities to relax in the beauty of nature bathed in the light of a full moon. Interpretive naturalists will guide you and provide information about night ecology, lunar lore and exciting tales. Each full moon program is timed to begin near sunset and during the rise of a full moon over the tree tops. In order to walk without flashlights, all full moon programs keep to open areas and established trails. While cloud cover doesn’t usually cancel Bernheim night programs, severe weather sometimes does. Please call between 3-5 p.m. on the day of the program to find out about last minute changes due to weather conditions. Dress for the weather and outdoor hiking. Please note that while Bernheim does allow dogs on a leash, we ask that you leave your furry friends at home for group hikes. Registration is required; call (502) 955-8512. Contact: Susan Ritter @ 502-955-8512 or sritter@bernheim.org.

NOV. 27, 2010
NATURALIST WALK
Location: Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest
2499 Highway 245
Clermont, Ky. 40110
Fee: Bernheim members $8; Non-members: $12
Time: 1-2:30 p.m.
Details: Learn how to view nature through the eyes of a naturalist during this walk with Bernheim’s Whitney Wurzel, whose field methods combine wacky science and creative exploration into one adventure. By the end of this walk, naturalists of all ages will discover a world brimming with endless connections, untold stories and fascinating details. Registration is required; call (502) 955-8512. Contact Susan Ritter @ 502-955-8512 or sritter@bernheim.org.

DEC. 3-4, 2010
SUNRISE ELK VIEWING TOUR
Location: Pine Mountain State Resort Park
1050 State Park Rd.
Pineville, Ky. 40977
Fee: $25 per person, $15 (for children 6 & under)
Time: 5:45 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Details: Pine Mountain State Resort Park continues its series of guided fall/winter elk tours in 2010-11. With sightings recorded for every tour over the last three years, guided elk viewing adventures have proven to be the current top-end nature experience available in Kentucky today. Participants must register in advance by contacting the park’s guest services desk at (800) 325.1712. Don’t delay; the tours fill quickly! Overnight accommodations are also available; lodging reservations must be made separately. The tour fee is $25 per persons ($15 children 6 & under) and includes the Kentucky’s Elk Herd presentation on Friday evening, and the continental breakfast and guided tour on Saturday morning. Participation in the Friday evening natural history program about elk is strongly recommended, as it serves as an invaluable enhancement to your enjoyment of the Saturday tour. Additional Sunrise Elk Viewing Tour Dates: Nov. 6, 2010, Dec. 4, 2010, Jan. 8, 2011, Jan. 15, 2011, Jan. 22, 2011, Feb. 5 2011, Feb. 26, 2011 and March 12, 2011. Contact: Dean Henson, Park Naturalist @ 606-337-3066 or Dean.Henson@ky.gov.

DEC. 4-5, 2010
FALL ELK WATCH
Location: Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park
4441 KY Highway 1833
Buckhorn, Ky. 41721
Fee: Package price of $150 per couple ($110 per single) (see details)
Time: 5:45 a.m.-11 a.m.
Details: Enjoy seeing these majestic animals during their rutting season. Morning tours leave the park at about 5:45 a.m. Package price of $150 per couple ($110 per single)includes one night’s lodging, dinner on night of arrival, bagged breakfast and transportation to and from the Elk preserve the following morning. Stay the night before or after with package for an extra $45. Contact: Sue Thomas @ 606-398-7510 or Sue.Thomas@ky.gov.

DEC. 11-12, 2010
HORSE CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTING CLINIC
Location: Hidden Cave Ranch
877 Thrasher Rd.
Burkesville, Ky. 42717
Fee: $450
Time: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Details: TWO DAY HANDS-ON CLINIC INCLUDES: Equine Skeletal Anatomy DVD*; Classroom lectures with real bones;
Equine Chiropractic Adjusting DVD;
Canine Chiropractic Adjusting DVD *; Segment on Dog Adjusting Techniques;
Basic Saddle Fitting Segment;
Anatomy Workbook with picture demonstration;
Equine Chiropractic Technique Workbook with demo pictures; and Hands-on Supervision by Dr. Hampton and State Licensed Veterinarian. Lunch, snacks and drinks included both days.
Contact: Registration and Clinic questions contact Dr. Bill Hampton @ 970-903-8399 or equinechiro@centurytel.net. Contact Hidden Cave Ranch @ 270-433-3225 or marion@hiddencaveranch.com.
DEC. 17-18, 2010
BLACK BEAR WEEKEND
Location: Pine Mountain State Resort Park
1050 State Park Rd.
Pineville, Ky. 40977
Fee: $110 Black Bear Hunter Package includes two night’s accommodations and days-end seminars on black bear habitat and behavior.
Time: Contact Park for exact times
Details: Black bears were nearly absent from Kentucky for about 150 years after intensive logging in the 19th century took away much of their habitat, but today’s healthy population will again support hunting. The hunt is open to any Kentucky resident who purchases a bear hunting permit in addition to an annual hunting license, unless license exempt. Those going afield to hunt black bears in the designated counties nearby are invited to make Pine Mountain their weekend hunting headquarters. Our $110 Black Bear Hunter Package includes two night’s accommodations and days-end seminars on black bear habitat and behavior. Meals are also available on-site in the park’s Mountain View Restaurant. Because of the low package rate, no other discounts will apply. To make a reservation, contact the park’s guest services desk at (606) 337-3066 or (800) 325-1712. * This event is tentatively scheduled in anticipation of formal date selection by the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources. Contact: Dean Henson, Park Naturalist @ 606-337-3066 or Dean.Henson@ky.gov.

DEC. 18-19, 2010
FALL ELK WATCH
Location: Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park
4441 KY Highway 1833
Buckhorn, Ky. 41721
Fee: Package price of $150 per couple ($110 per single) (see details)
Time: 5:45 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Details: Enjoy seeing these majestic animals during their rutting season. Morning tours leave the park at about 5:45 a.m. Package price of $150 per couple ($110 per single)includes one night’s lodging, dinner on night of arrival, bagged breakfast and transportation to and from the elk preserve the following morning. Stay the night before or after with package for an extra $45. Contact: Sue Thomas @ 606-398-7510.

Where We Go From Here: Part Four

Asset:

3. Blue-Dog-loving Democratic campaign committees exposed as worthless, money-wasting losers directly responsible for the biggest rethuglican victory in 72 years.

If you still need an excuse to stop giving money to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, then this election has given you one.

The DNC, the DCCC and the DSCC ignored liberal challengers with legitimate chances of beating rethuglican incumbents and instead wasted tens of millions of dollars on republican-voting DINOs like Blanche Lincoln who lost to republicans by double-digits.

Give only to individual candidates whose voting record and campaign statements reflect your own political priorities. Several independent organizations that support only progressive Democratic candidates have appeared in the last few years, including Blue America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Among blogs, Down With Tyranny stands out for its work researching and identifying truly liberal candidates who deserve your support.

If you've ever given money in the past to the DNC, DCCC or DSCC you know you're on their permanent patsy list because you still get letters from them begging for money that they just waste on Blue Dogs who empower republicans. I always throw them away, but from now on I'm going to take the time to respond - using their postage-paid return envelope, of course - telling them precisely why I will not give them a dime and why I am telling all my friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and strangers on the street to not give them a dime, either.

This is also the perfect time to get involved with/launch a hostile takeover of your local Democratic party. If it is successful and effective, then get involved and help any way you can. It's not too early to start working toward 2012.

If your local or state party is a failure and worthless, like the Kentucky and Missouri state democratic parties, then it's even more important that you start organizing liberal Democrats in your neighborhood, precinct or county to throw out the losers and start working toward winning in 2012.

Read Where We Go From Here Part One here. Part Two here.Part Three here.

Fuck You, Rethuglicans: Obama Doesn't Need You

There's only one response to hubristic rethuglican House members demanding the executive branch stop enforcing the law: fuck you AND the teabaggers you rode in on.

Dan Froomkin:

If President Obama wants to pursue a progressive agenda in the next two years, there are plenty of ways he can do that even without any help from Capitol Hill.

SNIP

"There's tons of things that can be done," said Damon Silvers, policy director of the AFL-CIO. "The administration has a vast capacity to act to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, regardless of what happens in Congress."

The worry, however, is that Obama will be so focused on reaching out to Republican leaders that he will be either uninterested in or afraid of being confrontational in his executive actions.

"The question is not can Obama do things," Silvers told HuffPost. "The question is will he? Will the administration do the things it can do?"

First Thing: Take On the Banks

The president of the United States oversees a massive regulatory apparatus that, when wielded appropriately, can help level the playing field for the middle class.

Read the whole thing.

Financial reform, climate change, even campaign finance reform - all are in President Obama's power to fix.

So go ahead, rethuglicans: dig in your heels, hold your breath until you pass out, don't give that ni**er in the White House one inch.

The sooner you force him to govern without you, the sooner we'll see some real change.

The Racism-Misogyny Double-Whammy

Wouldn't surprise me if the class-act popularity of Michelle Obama got Ginni Thomas's goat. Got to keep those ni**er mammy washerwomen in their place.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell in The Nation:

Ginni Thomas's insistence that Hill apologize is an apt metaphor for the long history of blaming black women for social ills. After the Civil War black women were considered a potential public menace. Social reformers claimed that black women's sexual immorality was the cause of urban disruptions during the 1920s Great Migration. In the 1960s liberal policy-makers worried that black women were matriarchs who undermined family stability. And in the 1980s Ronald Reagan painted black women as welfare queens robbing the public coffers. In our current economic downturn, the explicit and implicit public denigration of African-American women is in vogue across the political spectrum and is supported from within black communities as much as it is imposed from the outside. Once again, black women find themselves blamed as one of the central causes of, rather than one of the primary victims of, American social and economic decline, and many are calling on black women to apologize for their own suffering.

In her new book Democracy Remixed, political scientist Cathy Cohen argues that race leaders, media voices and policy-makers eschew analysis of the structural inequalities—inadequate housing, poor nutrition, unequal schools, limited employment opportunities and racially biased policing—that cause racial inequality. Instead, they blame the sexual practices of young black women. Primed by the centuries-old assumption that black women are sexually lewd, this moral panic suggests that inequality should be addressed not by structural change but by enforcing limitations on black women's sexuality.

This impulse shows up in some surprising places. For example, it's a common theme among Democratic and Republican education reformers, who agree that children are suffering primarily because they are raised in single-parent households headed by poor women in urban areas. "Poor" and "urban" are code words for "black," and many reformers imply that black women are not spending enough hours reading to their kids; not paying enough attention to keep their kids out of trouble after school; and, most important, not providing them with financially stable fathers.

Even President Obama has argued that America's imperial hegemony is threatened by inadequate educational achievement. Beneath that anxiety is the implication that this shortcoming can be traced to failing black mothers and to their public employee counterparts—urban public school teachers, who are disproportionately women. Never mind the high cost of quality daycare, the lack of affordable housing, the challenge of balancing work and parenting, the poor prenatal care and childhood health and dental coverage—black women should be able to raise honor students through sheer force of will!

Not only that; they should apologize for having children at all. In lockstep with the implication that black women's parenting is undermining education, some African-American commentators have aggressively targeted black women with a new No Wedding, No Womb movement. Led by blogger Christelyn Karazin, people in this movement suggest that childbirth outside marriage is a primary cause of the social ills that afflict black communities. In their view, women should marry "strong" men who can provide financial security for themselves and their children. Through its title alone, No Wedding, No Womb explicitly encourages black women to barter their reproductive capacity in exchange for the trappings of patriarchy: a wedding for a womb. The movement shames black women who choose to exercise their reproductive freedom by bearing children they want even when the men in their lives and leaders in their communities disapprove. These women are made to feel they should apologize for choosing to be parents.

Read the whole thing.

And remember that in all ways, black women endure not only the double burden of racism and misogyny, but nastier forms of each than either black men or white women must endure.

Teabaggers Care About One Thing Only - And It's NOT Spending

I love Matt Taibbi - he's the journalist I always wanted to be. He is the antidote to the Village's cowardly bullshit.

But Thursday night on Countdown, his inner idealist got the better of him.

No, Matt, the teabaggers don't give a single flying fuck about the rethuglicans they elected continuing their deficit-exploding ways. All the teabaggers care about is getting That Ni**er Out of the White House.

If you gave the teabaggers the choice between:

A) balancing the budget and eliminating the debt completely in 2011, at the price of Barack Obama's reelection, and

B) forcing Obama out of office in January 2011, at the price of a $10 quadrillion deficit that forces their grandchildren to sell themselves into debt slavery,

do you really think they'd hesitate for a heartbeat?

The only spending they want cut is any and all tax dollars that go to non-white, non-Xian, non-straight non-rethuglicans.

But they'll let even illegal aliens get welfare if it means a public tar-and-feathering then hanging of That Ni**er In The White House.

Democrats will never defeat rethuglicans until we completely internalize that fundamental truth.



Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic.

Kentucky's Congressman Awesome

So Wire Hangar slithered his way back into Congress by 649 votes. Don't celebrate; he's a corporate-owned Blue Dog who'll stab Pelosi and Obama in the back every chance he gets.

Focus instead on the one politician who keeps Kentucky from being Mississippi.

Media Czech on the TIME profile:

John Yarmuth just can't help but be Congressman Awesome:

"One of the problems we had nationally was that we had a lot of members who had been in office a long time and had kind of been cruising," Yarmuth told TIME on late Tuesday over the still raucous cheers of relieved supporters in the background. "So when they found themselves in an environment where people were yelling in their faces, they lacked the skills and the confidence to defend the good things they had just accomplished." Instead, he said, too many congressional Democrats "pandered" to an angry and frustrated electorate, instead of selling them on the benefits of health care reform and the rest.

Yarmuth, easily the most liberal member of Congress from Kentucky in decades, never apologized for any of the legislation he has helped passed since Obama's Inauguration. "I've been outspoken on these issues for a long time," he told TIME. "And when I've been out talking to constituents, I have never wavered on my positions. They know I am someone who will say exactly what I feel."

It was a strategy that proved pivotal compared with those of his compatriots across Kentucky. Much more moderate Democrats fared far less well. Democrat Ben Chandler declared apparent victory but only after he squeaked ahead by a few hundred votes in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District. Paul's opponent in the Senate race, Democratic state attorney general Jack Conway, never seemed to show voters exactly where he stood or find his voice — at least not before giving a passionate and articulate concession speech on Tuesday.

Yarmuth was reluctant to criticize Conway, who is also from Louisville, but he agreed that the Democratic Senate candidate had failed to convince skeptical voters that he stood for something powerful. "I hate to talk about Jack's campaign, because I feel Jack did what he had to do," Yarmuth said, giving a nod to the fact that Kentucky voters as a whole are far more conservative than the ones he faced in Louisville. "But one of the problems Jack had was that he never — well, he tried to kind of guess where most Kentuckians were on the issues. And voters usually can see through that. He didn't stand up for particular values and say, 'This is my position, even if it's unpopular.' He may have believed in every position he took, but he never convinced voters."

Is it possible to overdose on Awesomeness? Yarmy may have to tone it down a bit, for his own health.

SNIP

And if you haven't seen Yarmuth's victory speech yet, please set aside 12 minutes of your time sometime today or this weekend and watch this thing from start to finish. We should all be really grateful to have someone like this in Washington DC representing our state.

Charlie Brown Invites Lucy to Do It to Him Again

Sigh.



Full transcript here.

Where We Go From Here: Part Three

Asset:

2. A far more liberal Democratic caucus in the House. Twenty-eight of the 54 conservadem Blue Dogs lost re-election. Only three of the 79 members of the Progressive Caucus lost re-election. Progressive Democrats now outnumber DINOs by a factor of three.

Today it's actually 30 Blue Dogs flushed down the toilet. And at least three if not four more new members for the Progressives.

David Dayen at Firedoglake:

You may have seen the statistic going around that 47% of Blue Dogs got returned to Congress last night, while 96% of the Progressive Caucus returned. That isn’t a completely fair statistic. For the most part, those progressives are in safer districts. For the ones in less safe districts, they had big problems last night: Alan Grayson, Phil Hare and John Hall got beat. (Grayson should find another seat in Florida and move there). And for the most part, your ideology didn’t matter so much as the D next to your name. Everyone got beat.

But those are just the numbers of candidates who lost. What about the ones who won? Democrats picked up three seats from Republicans, making good on some prior anomalies and realigning correctly. Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01), Cedric Richmond (LA-02) and John Carney (DE-AL) all won. Of those, I would say Hanabusa and Richmond will join the Progressive Caucus. In AL-07, Terri Sewell replaced Artur Davis. She’s a lot more progressive than he ever was, and she will likely join the caucus. David Cicilline (RI-01), the replacement for Patrick Kennedy and another openly gay member of Congress, is likely to join (Patrick Kennedy never did). The race that a progressive lost in a primary, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (MI-13), was over ethical issues, and she’ll be replaced by Hansen Clarke, likely to join the caucus.

What’s likely, then, is an increase in the ranks of the Progressive Caucus numbers. Even if they opened the floodgates on the Blue Dog Caucus, which they limit, they won’t increase their numbers.

Also note that the only Democrat endorsed by the Tea Party Express, Walt Minnick, who used the endorsement to engage in basically racist tactics, lost too. The tea party imprimatur didn’t matter.

A better gauge of all this is how Blue Dog tactics undermine Democrats everywhere. They destroy the Democratic brand and give the impression that Democrats either stand for nothing or deserve scorn. They hurt progressives, moderates and even the Blue Dogs in their own caucus who align with them for various reasons but don’t hurt the party in any major way. A better road would be to stop neglecting the base and lavishing attention on people who are ashamed of you.

What has happened has happened. I’m less interested in talking about the ways the administration screwed up, than in what they’re going to do about it in preparation of 2012. First thing’s first — stop bashing the base, or the professional left, or whatever liberal boogeymen pisses them off. Fact is, people who fall in those disaffected categories — the young, blacks, Latinos — don’t read blogs, or watch Keith Olbermann, or read Firedoglake. But they are losing their jobs and their homes, and they see Wall Street get all manners of bailouts without any of it trickling down to them. That has killed us. Make their lives better, or (since nothing will happen with Boehner in the House) at least fight to make their lives better.

This isn’t about throwing a bone to the base to make them happy, it’s about doing the right thing for America — fight for jobs, fight for opportunity, fight for equality under the law. Democrats believe that government can make people’s lives better, so embrace and fight for that belief. If Democrats are in it to protect Goldman Sachs, they might as well flip to the other team.

Markos calls for the firing of Tim Kaine in that rant. I can’t see how this would hurt.

I think we need Results Democrats willing to put people first. That about sums it up. Those types of people are far more likely to join a progressive caucus than a Blue Dog coalition.

The members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are the people who will enthusiastically support exactly the liberal legislation you want. And now, even though Democrats are in the minority in the House, progessives are almost half of the Democratic total. They have more power than they have ever had. Make them your new best friends.

Find out who is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and how to call or write them, here.

Tomorrow, what to do with our third asset.

Read Where We Go From Here Part One here. Part Two here.

How to Fight the Health Care Repealers

Following our themes of Now We Fight and Taking It To The Enemy, karoli has a great idea:

Here's what I think Democrats should do. Democrats in the Senate should introduce a provision for optional buy-in to Medicare as an alternative to the individual mandate. This won't work either, but it will serve to fire up their base. They should introduce this as an amendment over, and over, and over, early and often. They could even offer two versions: one which is a Medicare buy-in and the other a separate, robust public option. They should keep hammering and hammering and hammering.

The worst case with that strategy is that all of it just becomes noise, while provisions of the health care law begin to take effect. The best thing that happens is Republicans will constantly be forced to defend their attack on pre-existing conditions, parents covering their kids, rescissions, and the other consumer protections. Democrats use that weakness to come around and hammer them about how their obsession with health care repeal is stopping all effort to economic growth.

Win, win. Works for me.

Read the whole thing.

Obstruction and sabotage do not come naturally to Democrats, unfortunately. But this isn't about scoring political points anymore. It isn't even about 2012. It's about preventing rethuglicans from literally destroying the country.

Idiotic tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts to eliminate the middle class are bad enough in a strong economy, like the one Clinton left Smirky/Darth, but survivable.

Today, with the economy collapsing, a rethuglican "budget" will put us beyond the hope of recovering. Ever.

Democrats better learn how to obstruct, and learn it fast.

Where We Go From Here: Part Two

Here's your choice: give up and let the barbarians burn the country to the ground, or double-down on your participation.

Reject the losers' whine that they can't do anything now that the rethuglicans have the House and 47 seats in the Senate. Congressional Democrats and the president pissed away the power they had with super majorities, so now they're just going to have to do the dirty work of beating the rethuglicans the hard way.
"Bipartisanship" means surrendering to the rethuglicans. "Victory" means beating the rethuglicans into whimpering pools of shit.

Asset:

1. The White House and the Senate. Both diminished, neither as strong as we'd like, but both still in Democratic hands.

Yes, it does seem clear that neither President Obama nor Congressional Democrats listen to anything Democrats, much less liberals, have to say. Even, or maybe especially though we have been right about everything from the beginning, and every mistake they have made, every failure, has come because they ignored our advice.

But maybe blogs and internet petitions are the wrong medium. Maybe the personal touch will get through.

Talk directly to President Obama and the Democratic Senators. If your own state's Senators are rethuglicans, talk directly to the Democratic Leadership - Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin. Or the relevant committee chairs. (Full list here. Click on the name to get that Senator's home page with contact info.)

Talk in person, of course, if you get the chance, but talk by whatever means you can - email, phone, letter. Emails and phone calls get handled by staff, but still get counted. If you want to make a big impression, send a letter. If you want to set the office on its ear, send a hand-written letter.

It doesn't have to be an essay - short is actually better. And it doesn't have to be particularly eloquent, although feel free to exercise your inner Hemingway if you're so inclined. Your own words, rather than your electronic signature on a petition, is what makes it stand out.

Just state simply and clearly what you want and what you expect from them. Rant if you must, but plain demands for specific action on a particular issue work best. (Rant right here in comments; wasting handwritten letters on rants just undermines your later demands.)

I plan to add a sentence or two making clear that I know procedural excuses are bullshit - there is always a way to get it done if you're not squeamish about hard-nosed methods. People care about results, not process.

One issue per letter, even if that means sending a letter every single week. If you send the same issue letter to several people, make it businesslike: address it to one of them and at the bottom, list the other people as "cc."

Follow up as frequently as you can, and keep it specific: "On Nov. 4, 2010, I wrote to you requesting .... It is two weeks later and you have not taken the specific action I requested. To repeat, I insist ...." Ignore the response letters you get - they are boilerplate excuses for not doing anything. Respond only to action, or lack of same.

No, maybe it won't work. But if you don't do it, it definitely won't work.

Tomorrow: What to do with our second asset.

Reject the Bullshit Narratives

Don't play their game. Don't accept their premise. Don't cut them an inch of slack. They - and I mean the whole worthless Village, plus the DNC, the DCCC, the DSCC and traitorous apologists like Harold Ford as well as the rethuglicans themselves - are the enemy. They are shameless liars and a clear and present danger to the nation. Don't forget it.

From Blue Texan, who posted this prediction early Tuesday and got it dead right:

No matter how many seats the Republicans win tonight, you will see these three bogus narratives popping up all over the place as soon as the results start rolling in. Chris Matthews will undoubtedly endorse all three. And of course, they’re all wrong.

1) The electorate punished the Democrats for “over-reaching.” Very Serious People like George Will and Jeb Bush are already saying this, and it’s absurd on its face. The simple retort: what did Obama and the Democrats do that they didn’t explicitly campaign on? Health care? Actually more conservative than what Obama promised. The stimulus? An emergency measure that a) staved off an even worse collapse; b) was nearly 40% tax cuts and c) was probably much too modest. TARP? That’s Bush’s baby, and with it, Obama saved a million auto industry jobs. Financial regulation? Perceived by the public as insufficient. There’s no “liberal over-reach” except in the minds of conservatives who think Democrats controlling the White House, Senate and House is ipso facto an over-reach.

2) Obama should move to the middle if he wants to save his presidency. Given that Obama has cut taxes, opened up offshore drilling, passed Mitt Romney’s health care plan, appointed a deficit commission for the purpose of curtailing socialism entitlements, doubled down in Afghanistan, continued and amplified the Bush/Cheney national security policies, expanded the War on Terror(TM) into Pakistan, retained a huge footprint in Iraq and increased the defense budget, where exactly is this “center” he’s supposed to move to? Between Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham, apparently.

3) Republicans will now be more sensible and work with Obama to get things done. David Brooks trotted this one out today and it’s just absolutely hilarious. In the Senate, you’ve got Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying his goal for the next two years is to destroy Obama, while in the House, you’ve got John Boehner (R-OH) saying “we will not compromise.” Very bi-partisany! And these two look like wise elder statesmen next to the mob of deranged Teahadists storming the gates of Congress. Don’t believe it for a second, Charlie Brown.

Take This Fight to the Enemy

The only thing worse than President Obama and Congressional Democrats actually believing that the rethuglicans will do anything that does not lead directly to impeachment and summary execution of all Democrats is President Obama and Congressional Democrats realizing what the rethuglicans have in store for the country ... and letting it happen.

The Rude Pundit puts it on the line:

So it's time to run the table during the lame duck session. Right now, conservatives are shitting themselves over what can happen during the next two months of the Congress-That-Has-Nothing-To-Lose, even making a idiotic video featuring some redneck asshole you might remember from some ad shooting a man in a duck costume, which has more resonances of Dick Cheney than actual hunting. They want the Democrats to pledge to just run out the clock and wait for the new Congress to act on anything. Because, you know, they'd act just as honorably. Oh, wait, that's right. The impeachment of Bill Clinton happened during a lame duck session. So, really, the proper response is, "No, you need to blow us, Boehner and McConnell."

Democrats need to find that backbone that keeps running away and understand that they actually can accomplish a number of things that will shore up the progressive base for the next couple of years. It's so fucking easy. Listen to Nancy Pelosi (no, really - she was on the right track the last two years; Reid and Obama had it wrong), and 2012 will be different. Pass a bunch of those bills that have come out of the House. Fuck some shit up before you're out. The worst thing that Democrats can do is to play nice until 2011, hoping that it will lay some kind of groundwork for cooperation and decency in the future. That's like thinking that if you leave a crack whore alone with your pants, she won't steal your wallet. And your pants.

1. The absolute easiest thing you can do: Get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Do this and all those gay votes that went away will come home, and the non-gay supporters will be able to point to a concrete promise kept.

2. There's gonna be tax cuts of some sort, even though there shouldn't be. Use reconciliation to pass middle class tax cuts. Leave the tax cuts for the wealthy for the new Congress so that the incoming House is put in the position of having to vote for rich people to get more money.

3. And attach everything else you want to the reconciliation tax bill: energy legislation, unemployment benefits extension, whatever. The rules allow it. The Republicans will howl like dogs who got kicked in the anus, but, again, again, again, Democrats need to treat Republicans like the dishonorable fuckers they are.

4. Pass the Disclose Act. The bullshit excuse Republicans used for opposing it was that it was an election year stunt. Okay, it's not an election anymore. Let's get a little of the anonymous corporate money out of the process. If the bill is filibustered, make them own it and answer for it for the next two years. (This is perhaps the most naively optimistic part of a generally naively optimistic post here.)

As the Rude Pundit writes this, Mitch McConnell, who, it should be noted, is the fucking minority leader, is talking as if he is in charge now, as if he runs the Senate. And why the fuck not, since he essentially did for the last couple of years? Use the next couple of months, dear, defeated Democrats, to walk away with some dignity and not allow yourselves to be whipped out of town by the rats and the bullies.

Tomorrow: Defeat their 2012 strategy now.

Where We Go From Here: Part One

Inventory Our Assets:

1. The White House and the Senate. Both diminished, neither as strong as we'd like, but both still in Democratic hands.

2. A far more liberal Democratic caucus in the House. Twenty-eight of the 54 conservadem Blue Dogs lost re-election. Only three of the 79 members of the Progressive Caucus lost re-election. Progressive Democrats now outnumber DINOs by a factor of three.

3. Blue-Dog-loving Democratic campaign committees exposed as worthless, money-wasting losers directly responsible for the biggest rethuglican victory in 72 years.

4. A shaken-up Democratic base suddenly faced with the consequences of its apathy and feeling guilty for not voting.

5. Sixty-five freshman rethuglicans in the House each on the record advocating the most extreme, racist, bigoted, homophobic, unconstitutional, anti-American, vicious, violent and dangerous positions ever articulated in an American political campaign.

6. Strong majorities of Americans who may have voted for those crazies out of frustration, but who don't trust them to govern effectively.

7. Strong majorities of Americans who hate secret corporate money in elections (even though they were influenced by the campaign ads that money bought.)

8. Facts, reality, history and justice.

Next: How to use those assets.

"I do hope to make progress"

And we hope you realize that every inch of that progress is going to have to come over rethuglican dead bodies.



Full transcript here.

Keep Going

I've got lots to say about where we go from here, but to hold you in the meantime, this from Digby:

I suspect we're going to be in for turbulent politics like this for some time. And if we play our cards right, and the Democrats don't completely implode, it's probable that at the end of the day we (or those who come behind us) will look back and see that human rights, economic justice and peace came out the winners more often than not.

I thought that Hillary Clinton had it right when she said at the Democratic Convention in 2008:

My mother was born before women could vote, my daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.

So how do we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker, a woman who risked her lives to bring slaves to freedom along the underground railroad.

On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice:

'If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they’re shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.’

The worm has indeed turned. Now we have the anger. That gives us the power.

Next: What to do with both the anger and the power.

Now We Fight

The DNC doesn't have anything to say about the election results, but I do:

Now. We. Fight.

First, some perspective, which I've posted before:

The repugs picked up far than the 100 Democratic seats in the House and 14 in the Senate that they predicted they would, therefore the entire election is a MASSIVE FAILURE by republicans, a HUGE VICTORY for the Democratic Party, and an ENORMOUS MANDATE for President Obama to jam down Congress' throat every bit of his liberal agenda - repealing DADT and DOMA, passing ENDA, EFCA and a $3 trillion deficit-financed jobs/stimulus/infrastructure bill. And not just cancelling the Bush tax cuts for the rich, but increasing the rate to 75 percent for the duration of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However many seats Democrats lost in the House and the Senate, most losing Democratic incumbents were Blue Dog/DINO/traitors whose departure is good riddance and a terrific boon for the Democratic Party. The more Blue Dog seats the Democratic Party loses, the STRONGER that makes the Democratic Party and President Obama, because the party has shed traitors who voted with repugs anyway. The fewer Blue Dogs, the more Democratic, cohesive, loyal and determined the Democratic Party is.

Many of those losing Blue Dogs are freshmen who beat repug incumbents by riding President Obama's 2008 coattails. President Obama is not on the ballot this year, which lowers turnout among the many new voters who turned out specifically for him in 2008 and will do so again in 2012.

No matter how many seats the Democratic Party loses in the House and the Senate, it is good news for President Obama in 2012.

What now?

Now. We. Fight.

Fuck You, Rand Paul: Out and Proud Jim Gray is Lexington's New Mayor

Live-blogging from Media Czech here.

The coolest aspect of the many cool aspects of Jim Gray's victory is that his homosexuality was never a major issue. Mayor-elect Jim Gray has been vice-mayor for four years since receiving the most votes in the 2006 at-large city council race. He has been a consistent and persistent critic of corrupt Mayor Jim Newberry, especially on the destructive catastrophe of Centrepointe, better known as the Cock-and-Balls Tower.

Gray is no dirty fucking hippie, being the owner of Gray Construction and a strong proponent of economic development.

But he is also a proven voice of reason and a breath of fresh air.

Ya dun good, Lexington.

Sacrificing Politics to Achieve Policy

I still say the policy achievements were unnecessarily watered-down and compromised. I also say it's not an either-or proposition: if you do policy right, you get the politics right, too.

Nevertheless, Rachel has a good point to get you started on this Election Day:

Let Democrats Know What You Expect For Your Vote

If only there were "why" buttons on the ballot tomorrow. Next to the Democratic nominee you could press "Massive Stimulus Spending" or "DISCLOSE Bill" or "Mortgage Cram-Downs" or "Out of Afghanistan NOW."

Until we get those, the next best thing is making sure the Democratic candidates who get your vote know exactly WHY they got your vote.

Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars:

The thing that really depresses me about tomorrow's election is knowing that if the Republicans take control of the House, the Democrats are likely to tie themselves into knots, explaining that the results are a mandate for cutting the deficit -- and a rejection of liberal ideas.

So I emailed this message to my congress critter's office:

"I just wanted you to know that I'm planning to vote for you Tuesday, but not because you've been a centrist. I'm only voting for you because the alternative is even worse. Please don't take this as a validation of your DLC policies.

"You used to have liberal ideas, but as you got more ambitious, it became difficult to tell the difference between your positions and those of Republicans. I voted for President Obama and Democratic control of the House and Senate because I wanted Democratic policies, not corporate-friendly ones.

"I want jobs, an end to these wars, strong government regulation, legal consequences for corporate wrongdoing, and a more liberal health reform plan. Please keep in mind that companies are moving our jobs overseas because they can't afford the high costs of American health care, and if you won't fight to improve things, I hope you face a primary challenge.

"Remember, if I wanted Republican policies, I'd have voted for a Republican. Please keep that in mind."

Send a similiar message to your congress person. (You can find them here.) Don't let them hide more corporate compromise behind Tuesday's election results.

Have you made calls for your Democratic Congressional candidate today?

Look Downticket, Voter

The late, great Molly Ivins cut her reporting teeth covering the Texas state legislature, which is to regularly insane legislatures like Kentucky's as Rand Paul is to Trey Grayson: off the charts crazy.

She had way too much fun writing about it - almost as much fun as we had reading about it - but one aspect she was dead serious about: when it comes to the laws and regulations that make your daily life easier or more difficult, your state legislature has far more power than Washington, D.C.

Peterr at Firedoglake makes the case that this year it's more true than ever:

There’s nothing that the people running campaigns in downticket races fear more than a tidal wave at the top of the ticket. Some voters will be discouraged at being swept away by the wave, and won’t come to the polls. Other voters, excited to be part of the wave, will come and vote in that big race and maybe a couple more, but then leave the booth and neglect the other races entirely.

But next week, which seems destined to turn DC into gridlock once more, may prove the importance of those downticket races.

On foreclosure fraud, health insurance, school standards and much, much more, your local races are where the power is.

But the monster elephant in the room, as karoli at Crooks and Liars puts it, is gerrymandering. Next year states will redraw the congressional and legislative district lines based on the 2010 census. That's your governor and state legislators. The people you will be voting for or against on Tuesday. On this one issue, they matter more than Congress or even the president. On Tuesday, the votes you cast for them matter more than any others.

Here in Kentucky, on Tuesday you'll be voting for your local city council members and mayors, your county magistrates and judge-executive, your district court judge, your county clerk and circuit court clerk, your sheriff and your property valuation administrator. Each one of them has the power to make your life a living hell, so know your candidates and cast an informed vote.

Kentucky is also voting on every one of its 100 members of the state house of representatives, and half the state Senate. That means you're voting for the people who will be choosing which state programs get the budget ax next year. Choose a representative and senator who will act responsibly to balance taxes and spending.

Vote on Tuesday. Vote in every single race. If you don't, we all lose.