Solidarity Forever sung by Pete Seeger & The Weavers, with old photographs of the labor movement in US History.This is a tribute to all the workers who sacrificed to make a better world for their children and grand children.
The really great thing about Mitt Romney is that despite all of his constant, desperate, obvious lying about President Obama, the Democratic Party, the economic crisis, the nature of capitalism, his own history and what he had for breakfast, he just can't hide the truth. The reality of who he is and what he stands for keeps leaking out around the lies.
David Atkins "thereisnospoon" at Hullabaloo:
The key part of what's off-putting about the gaffe isn't the first part about liking to fire people, so much as the second part about "who provide services to me." Liking to fire people is bad enough, but this is the real kicker.
When it comes to basic services like healthcare, almost no one in America sees the relationship that way. Most of us wouldn't speak of "firing" our health insurance company. No matter how much we might detest our insurance company, we probably wouldn't describe the experience of removing ourselves from their rolls an enjoyable one.
But most of all, we don't see the health insurance company as providing us a service. We see ourselves, rather, as indentured supplicants forced to pay exorbitant monthly rates for a basic need that responsible people with means can't get out of paying for if we can help it. We don't see ourselves as in control of the relationship with them. They are in control of us--and no more so than when we get sick and need the insurance most. If the company decides to restrict our coverage or tell us we have a pre-existing condition after all, we're in the position of begging a capricious and heartless corporation to cover costs we assumed we were entitled to based on a contractual obligation. It's precisely when we need insurance most that we're least able to "fire" the insurance company.
The same goes for the rent/mortgage, for the utilities, for the car, for the cell phone bill, for nearly everything. Most of these things are necessary commodities for most Americans. Many are socially expected, even if not technically necessary. They all have (usually far overpriced) unavoidable monthly charges and premiums that fall on overworked and underpaid Americans every month like a load of bricks. We see many of them increase by at least 5-20% year over year even as our wages stay flat. All we can do is struggle to keep up, trying to find the least bad service for the lowest price we can afford, but knowing we're getting gouged every step of the way.
Romney talks about paying for health insurance as if it were the same as getting a pedicure, hiring an escort or getting the fancy wax at a car wash. It's a luxury service being provided to him, and he doesn't like it, he can take his business elsewhere. Romney's is the language of a man who has never wanted for anything, never worried about where his next paycheck would come from, never worried about going bankrupt if he got sick.
It is the language of an entitled empowerment utterly alien to the experience of most Americans, who feel victimized and bled dry without recourse by these rentier corporations. Romney sees himself as in charge of the relationship between himself and these entities. Most Americans don't. That's why the statement rankles and feels so off-putting to us. The mention of enjoying the act of "firing" them is just icing on the cake.
Every county in Kentucky will elect a sheriff this year. Do you know what your local sheriff's policy on tasing is? Your local police department's? How they train their officers and deputies to deal with people who are not suspected of any crime, are not being violent, but just piss the cop off? With people who are mentally ill or have a physical disability that prevents them from obeying orders instantly? What the are rules for using a taser?
Now is the time to ask, when they are running for election.
Digby:
Just another New year's Day in America:The traffic stop began peacefully three hours into New Year's Day 2010, with the woman driving the SUV telling the officer that she hadn't been drinking and her husband merrily exclaiming he was the source of the alcohol smell.
But the situation soured when Steven Kotlinski, 55, stepped out to watch his wife's sobriety test, provoking the Mundelein officers to order him into the SUV. He reluctantly obeyed, but one officer said Kotlinski had obstructed his efforts. He ordered him back out, then tried to pull him out.
Next came the electric crackle of a Taser, a sound heard far more often in Chicago and many suburbs than it was just a few years ago.
A Tribune analysis shows Taser use has jumped fivefold in the city since 2008 and suburban agencies that were surveyed were on pace to double their use, as departments equipped more officers with the devices. Chicago police were deploying Tasers at a rate of more than twice a day in 2011.
And oversight has not kept pace with the explosion in use. Departments are on their own in developing policies on when and how electroshock devices should be deployed, with no state regulation.
In Kotlinski's case, the engineer at Abbott Laboratories was removed from his SUV and pinned in the snow. He lost control of his body as an "intense burning sensation" accompanied the surreal feeling that he was floating over the ground, he said. He roared about his heart condition, then begged in a faint wheeze for someone to call 911.
"Pain. I've never felt that way in my life," Kotlinski said.
Sadly, most people that sort of thing happens to assume it's just the way things are --- that in America it's perfectly normal for police to shoot you with electricity if they feel you aren't cooperating regardless of whether you are suspected of a crime or posing a danger. That's just the way it is.
And it's becoming more and more common:Like almost all states, Illinois does not track the weapons' use by local police, and departments have been left to monitor and govern electroshock devices with a patchwork of policies. In Chicago, the leap in the number of police carrying Tasers coincided with the scaling back of post-shock investigations by the Independent Police Review Authority.
In 2009, officers logged 197 incidents. A year later, after hundreds more weapons were passed out, Chicago police reported 871 incidents. As of fall, the department was on pace for 857 uses in 2011, which works out to 2.3 per day.
The growth in the weapons' use should not come as a surprise, given their rise in popularity.
Several companies make electroshock weapons, which override the target's central nervous system by firing wire-tethered probes that deliver electrical jolts. Arizona-based Taser International makes the most popular models. About 576,000 of the devices are used by more than 16,500 law enforcement and military organizations, nearly all in the United States, said spokesman Steve Tuttle. Only 500 or so agencies used the weapons in 2000, he said.
In Illinois, a little fewer than half of the municipal police agencies that responded to a 2007 survey reported they were using electroshock weapons, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, and more departments have since bought the weapons. Several suburban agencies contacted by the Tribune appear to have started using them in 2008 or 2009.
Taser International and police departments have faced lawsuits over safety. And though many fatalities following electroshock weapon use have been attributed to other causes, human rights group Amnesty International has counted 490 deaths after electroshock device use in the U.S. since 1990, said Debra Erenberg, Midwest regional director for the group. In some 50 cases between 2001 and 2008, coroners listed the weapons as a cause or contributing factor in a death.
You got a problem with that?
This is a short video created by myself using footage I found online of the protests in Madison, Wisconsin. The band Dropkick Murphys dedicated this song to the protesters.
Kentucky's 104th sacrifice to the insatiable maw of Permanent War is a 20-year-old from London, in the eastern mountains. He got married in October.
From the Herald:
Pfc. Dustin P. Napier, 20, died in an exchange of small-arms fire in the city of Qalat, in Afghanistan's Zabul province, according to a release the Army issued Tuesday.
Family members said Napier had wanted to be a soldier since he was a child, said retired Air Force Col. Mark Jones, commander of the Air Force ROTC program at South Laurel High School.
"He was living his dream," Jones said Tuesday.
Napier's father, Darrell Napier, said he served five years in the military. Both his sons, Darrell Jr. and Dustin, followed him into the service.
Napier, who wore his camouflage uniform and boots to school nearly every day, was the cadet commander at South Laurel his senior year, in 2009-10, and was the most-decorated cadet, Jones said.
SNIP
Darrell Napier said an Army official told him his son had been shot in the head. Dustin Napier was born and died in an Army hospital, his father said.
This is what it looks like.
From Pam's House Blend at Firedoglake:
This thunderous letter of support for equality was sent to PHB and BlueNC by Sherre Toler, who, until last week was the director of elections for Harnett County in my state (North Carolina). Toler would rather leave her job than be a party to facilitating a ballot initiative this May that would allow discrimination under the North Carolina Constitution. Notably, she observes that “the Majority” would have voted to keep interracial marriage illegal. The cultural — and shifting — norm should not guide which human beings have civil rights and which should not. My emphasis below.On January 3, 2012 I resigned my position as Director of Elections for Harnett County, NC. I am extremely proud of the progress and accomplishments made to the voting procedures and polling places in Harnett County over the last eleven and a half years. I am especially proud that the Board of Election’s Office has always been operated in a fair, efficient and non-partisan manner during my tenure.
Unfortunately, recent actions of the North Carolina General Assembly made it impossible for me to continue as Director of Elections as speaking publicly about candidates or issues appearing on the ballot is prohibited. In September, the legislature passed a bill requiring a referendum be placed on the May, 2012 primary ballot defining marriage as a “union between a man and a woman”. I cannot and will not be a party to such actions.
If “marriage” were simply a religious institution, this would not be an issue. Different faiths are free to impose whatever moral restrictions they choose on their congregations and they in turn are free to accept or reject those restrictions. From a psychological and emotional perspective, marriage provides the individuals an opportunity to demonstrate their love for each other by committing themselves to this “special” relationship. In addition, marriage provides the participants in the relationship with a myriad of legal rights and special status, including inheritance and property rights as well as insurance and tax benefits. Marriage provides over 1000 legal rights and protections. The so-called “Defense of Marriage” Act seeks to ensure that anyone wishing to marry their partner of the same gender will be DENIED those legal rights. The broad language of the referendum could also impact private contracts between individuals, powers of attorney, and domestic partnerships, including heterosexual ones.
Slavery, discrimination and segregation represent a tremendous blight upon the great history of this country. Not so long ago, “marriage” between those of different races, particularly black and white, was prohibited by law and this ban was supported by the “Majority”. In 2011, Public Policy Polling conducted a poll of Republican voters in Mississippi and a number of them (46%) believe that not only in their opinion is interracial marriage wrong but that it should be ILLEGAL.
Only 40% indicated they believe it should be legal. There can be little doubt that if interracial marriage were put to a majority vote, some jurisdictions would outlaw those marriages as well. It is important to a free society that civil rights not be subject to a popular vote!
As a result, I am opening Lighthouse Strategies and Consulting, LLC, a political consulting business. I plan to work tirelessly over the coming months to educate North Carolina citizens on the impact of this amendment and to defeat the effort to write discrimination into the North Carolina Constitution. I will also be working to help elect progressive candidates to local, county, state and federal offices so that these types of actions by legislatures around the country will not be repeated.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” I simply could not continue in the position of Director of Elections and remain silent on this important issue.
Sherre Toler
In the depths of the Reagan Dark Ages, I was fortunate to hear Pete Seeger live in concert. The place was full of genuine hippies, who were then still in their prime. I can still feel the socio-political despair lift from the crowd as Seeger began to sing, and disappear entirely as the crowd sang along, for joy, for memory and for hope.
Uploaded by Thespadecaller:
In the mountains of Kentucky in 1931, the coal miners of Harlan County went on strike. Officers hired by the mining company roamed the countryside hunting for the union leaders. The independent coal miners fought back gallantly against the hired company deputies and blood was spilled on both sides. "Which Side Are You On," was written by Florence Reece, the wife of Sam Reece, a union leader who had escaped into the Kentucky mountains for safety. Class warfare continues in the United States and in most nations throughout the world. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell of the Almanac Singers made this song famous in 1941.
The repugs aren't satisfied with turning Ronnie Raygun into a saint; they've got to whitewash Malignant Maggie, too.
I was in Ireland during the Thatcher years, and I saw the desperation in Ulster, the concertina wire and British armored personnel carriers topped with machine gun nests in Belfast, the graffiti "Remember Bobby Sands" and "Save the Maze Prisoners." The Iron Cunt was a fucking catastrophe, and the damage she caused lives on beyond Britain.
Laura Flanders on the movie that in true repug fashion turns history on its head:
Thatcher didn’t actually evacuate Liverpool in the aftermath of the 1981 inner-city riots. She led something more insidious. With her professionally crafted “grocer’s daughter” image, Thatcher gave class-conscious Britons permission to dismiss real human difficulties with a blow-dried bourgeois smirk: Unemployed? Get on yer bike! Said her administration. Got a problem? You’re the problem! In Maggie’s world, deprivation is your own damn fault.
Nor did Thatcher give people permission only to look away. Under Thatcher and egged on by her, those who could leave troubled towns and troubled people did, and so did government. We’d “mind the gap” (between the train and the platform) on the London Underground, but we came not to mind the gap between the rich and the rest, the north and the south; the possibilities people had if they needed things to be public and the possibilities they had if they could pay for the private stuff—the private healthcare, the private school, the private house. Today, in a new time of budget wars, The Iron Lady’s depiction of draconian cuts as feminist guts is chilling. What Thatcher called “harsh medicine” meant one thing for the poor and another for the very powerful then, and it still does. In both instances, there is hell to pay in social fabric.
I don’t remember if Lloyd’s Lady quotes the real lady’s most famous phrase: “There is No Alternative.” Certainly TINA deserves star billing. Thatcher’s quip about globalized capitalism has defined our epoch. People can debate the successes and failures of “the Thatcher era” all they like. One thing’s for certain: we don’t need a new one, because the old one’s still here. The consequences of the politicies Thatcher pioneered and made respectable—deregulation, privatization and globalization—can be measured in public costs and private profits on both sides of the Atlantic. More damning, even, is the enduring cultural habit of denial (looking away) and the political practice of silence—shutting the problem people up.
Grow the gap between government and the governed and you get what we have: a burnt-out world driven by the super-super-rich where some are stealing others blind and billions are alienated or angry, sure that government has nothing to offer but a bash on the head.
This is dead wrong and extremely dangerous:
The Chester Upland School District in Delaware County, Pennsylvania suffered a serious setback when Gov. Tom Corbett (R) slashed $900 million in education funds from the state budget. The cuts landed hardest on poorer districts, and Chester Upland, which predominantly serves African-American children and relies on state aid for nearly 70 percent of its funding, expects to fall short this school year by $19 million.
Faced with such a shortage of funds, the school district informed its staff that it will not be able to pay their salaries come Wednesday. So the teachers decided to work for free. As one teacher put it, students “need to be educated, so we intend to be on the job”:At a union meeting at Chester High School on Tuesday night, the employees passed a resolution saying they would stay on “as long as we are individually able.”
Columbus Elementary School math and literacy teacher Sara Ferguson, who has taught in Chester Upland for 21 years, said after the meeting, “It’s alarming. It’s disturbing. But we are adults; we will make a way. The students don’t have any contingency plan. They need to be educated, so we intend to be on the job.”
The school board and the unions separately begged Corbett to provide financial aid for the district, but Corbett turned each request down. Pennsylvania’s Education Secretary Ron Tomalis told the board that it “had failed to properly manage its finances and would not get any additional funds.” Chester Upland was forced to lay off “40 percent of its professional staff and about half of its unionized support staff before school began last fall.” That leaves 200 professionals and 65 support staff to manage a school with class sizes of over 40 students.
Chester Upland is not the only district desperately trying to stay afloat. Corbett’s cuts forced one school district to enforce wage freezes and cut extracurricular activities and another turned to actually using sheep instead of lawnmowers to cut grass at two of its schools. As ThinkProgress’s Travis Waldron pointed out, Corbett could relieve school districts if he let special interest groups like tobacco and the oil and gas industry go without their tax breaks. But he seems to prefer allowing teachers to go without pay.
While looking for something else, I found this chart from Calculated Risk:
It irks me to hear Democratic officials hail “private sector jobs numbers” or the “rebound in the private sector,” as if there are somehow two economies out there, and the amount of jobs up or down in the one where governments happen to sign the paychecks somehow has no bearing on the other. When cops and firefighters and teachers and nurses lose their jobs, they lose purchasing power. They lose the ability to hire private contractors or visit private businesses for the purchase of goods and services. Public employees don’t use a different currency or a different set of businesses. You cannot divorce them from the private sector.
And writing the public sector out of the equation like this really obscures the incredible nature of the depression in public sector jobs over the past few years. That shows up clearly in the graph above from Calculated Risk.
Joe Hill influenced Woody Guthrie, whose son Arlo maintains the tradition of writing and singing songs of the 99 percent. Here he is with "Union Maid."
I wish this behavior were confined to the libertarian hellhole of Florida the way it used to be confined to libertarian hellholes like Chile, but it's not.
Digby:
No this isn't a story from North Korea or Pinochet's Chile. I swear:It has been two and half years since 62-year old Nick Christie was tortured and pepper-sprayed to death by police at the Lee County Jail. Although the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, the law enforcement officers who kept him strapped naked to a chair and then pepper sprayed him until he died have not been charged in his death.
On January 20, 2010, the Injury Board’s National News Desk reported that Nick Christie’s wife, Joyce Christie, and her son, were planning to file a federal lawsuit because the police violated her husband’s constitutional rights. The article describes what allegedly happened when Christie was arrested for trespassing:Christie, 62, was arrested last March after traveling from Ohio to Fort Myers while suffering, what his widow describes as a mental breakdown. Arrested twice for disorderly conduct and trespassing, Nick Christie was pepper sprayed ten times over the course of his 43-hour custody.
Suffering from emphysema, COPD, back and heart problems, the jail staff said his medical files were not available or immediately sought at the time of his arrest. But DiCello says Christie gave his medical history and list of medications to the jail days earlier during his first encounter with law enforcement.
His medication list was found in the back pocket of his pants when Christie’s personal effects were returned to his widow.
Sometime between the time he was arrested on March 27, 2009 around 2:00 p.m., and March 31 at1:23 p.m. when he was pronounced dead, Christie had been sprayed with ten blasts of pepper spray, also known as OC (Oleo-resin Capsicum), which is a derivative of cayenne pepper.
The officers involved in the incident say that Christie was “combative, despite the fact he was restrained in a chair so he allegedly wouldn’t spit at his jailers.” However, other inmates on the cell block tell a different story. They say that there was excessive use of pepper spray, his whole head was turning purple, he was gasping for air and was telling the officers that he couldn’t breathe and that he had a heart condition. (source: Injury Board)
According to the medical examiner, the death was a homicide caused by the stress that the restraints and repeated use of pepper spray placed on his heart. However, the State Attorney’s office decided there was no wrongdoing, therefore the officers involved in the incident were never charged in the homicide.
Clearly they tortured the man to death. I just don't see any other way of looking at this.
But we don't have a problem with that in our country, particularly when the victims refuse to "stop resisting" the robotic mantra used by cops all over the country to excuse beating, spraying with chemicals and electrocuting citizens. The mentally ill, foreigners and inebriated have a particularly hard time since they can't immediately absorb their "orders" to immediately comply from the police. Doing it when they are already in custody is unfortunately not all that unprecedented.
Every American had better hope they never get sick, particularly both mentally and physically, and find themselves in the hands of the authorities. There's a chance they won't come out of it alive. I'd prefer they just shoot me down immediately rather than pepper spray me to death. But that's just me.
And just as misunderstood.
OK, all you Kentucky video wizards: here's the standard you have to beat. Get to it.
Eliminating jobs, poisoning the Plains, increasing oil prices, super-charging and speeding climate change. What else?
How about bad construction leading to massive oil spills?
Think Progress:
Mike Klink: Let’s be clear — I am an engineer; I am not telling you we shouldn’t build pipelines. We just should not build this one.
By forcing the White House to make a decision on the politically and environmentally-toxic Keystone XL pipeline as part of an agreement reached in December to extend the payroll tax cut, Republicans are being lambasted by environmental groups for undercutting the federal environmental review process.
Now a whistleblower is claiming that the company overseeing the development of the proposed project, TransCanada, also has a track record of undercutting quality at the expense of the environment — further calling into question the decision by Congress to prevent a new federal environmental impact study for Keystone XL.
Mike Klink is a former inspector for Bechtel, one of the major contractors working on TransCanada’s original Keystone pipeline, completed in 2010. Klink says he raised numerous concerns about shoddy materials and poor craftsmanship during construction of the pipeline, which brings tar sands crude from Canada to Midwestern refineries in the U.S. Instead of actually addressing the problems, Klink claims he was fired by Bechtel in retaliation. He filed a complaint with the Department of Labor in March of 2010, and made his story public last fall.
Klink, who says he’s speaking as an engineer and not an environmentalist, has just published a scathing op-ed in the Lincoln Journal Star criticizing Keystone XL, a proposed extension of the current tar sands pipeline network that would bring crude down to refineries in the Gulf Coast, crossing a major aquifer along the way:As an inspector, my job was to monitor the construction of the first Keystone pipeline. I oversaw construction at the pump stations that have been such a problem on that line, which has already spilled more than a dozen times. I am coming forward because my kids encouraged me to tell the truth about what was done and covered up.
When I last raised concerns about corners being cut, I lost my job — but people along the Keystone XL pathway have a lot more to lose if this project moves forward with the same shoddy work.
A recent environmental impact statement — outsourced by the State Department to another major TransCanada contractor — found that there would be “limited adverse environmental impacts” associated with the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. Opponents of the pipeline cried foul, saying it was yet another major conflict of interest between the State Department and TransCanada.
Klink’s assertions about poor management of the first Keystone pipeline provide yet more ammunition for critics of the pipeline.
Awesome song by Joe Hill.
Okay, this one isn't actually THAT bad considering I found it today and this is literally the second time I've played it. I was just so excited to put it up, I couldn't wait.
Gatewood Galbraith would, of course, have been a terrible governor. He would have united legislators of both parties in vehement opposition to everything he wanted or tried. He would have vetoed everything they sent him as being wasteful or insufficient, and they would have refused to even consider any legislation he proposed.
But we would have had this: a passionate orator unafraid to use the bully pulpit to rally the people for massive changes in state government.
Gatewood would have given Occupy a run for its money.
Tom Eblen at the Herald:
Gatewood Galbraith, one of Kentucky's most colorful politicians, died Wednesday, just hours before Gov. Steve Beshear delivered his fifth State of the Commonwealth Address.
Many people didn't take Galbraith or his politics very seriously, but they liked him anyway. He was a genuinely nice guy who could poke fun at opponents without leaving scars. Most of all, Kentuckians admired his willingness to point out obvious truths despite the political cost.
As I watched Beshear speak, I could not imagine Galbraith standing there before the General Assembly. There were good reasons he lost five races for governor.
Beshear's speech wasn't bad. He brought up some tough issues, and he avoided the "get off our backs" nonsense from last year that made him look like a coal-industry puppet.
Having just won re-election, Beshear finally admitted the need for state tax reform. Not that he has proposed any real action before the end of the year, when most legislators stand for re-election. But it was a start. Maybe.
Still, with Galbraith on my mind that day, I longed to hear more honesty, more leadership and more political courage from a governor who will not have to face voters again — and who might want a political legacy beyond "caretaker."
I longed to hear something more like this:
I rarely say "I wish I had written this." But I wish I had written this:
The Rude Pundit:
This burnt-out part of a building used to be the American Family Planning Clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Because abortions were performed there, it had been the flashpoint for anti-choice nutzoids for decades, including bombings in 1984 and other violence. Pensacola is also where two doctors who performed abortions were gunned down in the 1990s. In the early hours of 2012, a redneck, criminal homeless puke who should have met the L.A. serial killer tossed a Molotov cocktail at the place and burned it down because he didn't like abortions being done safely.
According to an affidavit in the arrest of Bobby Joe Rogers, the cracker arsonist had been spending time with anti-choice protesters who were regularly chanting, singing, holding signs, and occasionally blocking the way outside the clinic. The actual violence had died down since the shootings. Rogers was influenced by them. By groups devoted to ending a Supreme Court-approved liberty, as allowed by the founding document of our nation. Indeed, one could say of these groups, with little argument, that they hate us for our freedom and wish to impose a radical religious doctrine on the nation.
In other words, Bobby Joe Rogers is as much a terrorist as any mythical al-Qaeda sleeper agent. But because he was deluded by radical Christianity instead of radical Islam, he probably won't be treated as such. The groups that cheer on Rogers won't be investigated. Their assets won't be seized. Their members won't be demonized for the things they wrote and spoke that led directly to violence. They will be treated as anomalies, not the mainstream of a virulent, anti-American ideology. We will be told by anti-choice politicians that they don't advocate violence and that we shouldn't think that all anti-choice protesters are like Rogers. We will be expected to believe them.
There is a war, yes, in this country that has nothing to do with the utterly minor threat of Islamic terrorism occurring here. It is a war on women that is waged by state legislatures, with more restrictions on abortion access passed than ever, and it is a war waged by the very random, violent psychopaths that the government is supposed to have been granted wide power to protect us from.
Now, we can argue about whether or not the government should have those powers. But, surely, more women (and men) in this nation have been intimidated by Christian fundamentalists than have ever even thought they were threatened by Muslims. Imagine if it had been a Muslim man who tossed a bottle bomb at, say, an army recruiting office in a strip mall because he opposes American foreign policy. Imagine the wrath that would have been brought down on him.
How is Rogers any different? Oh, that's right. We're supposed to be furious about the larger implications of fantasy Muslims and we're supposed to ignore the very real implications of the very real Christian terrorists.
This is what it looks like.
Major extra points to the Obama administration for this one. Smart, effective policy that is also smart, effective politics.
See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
Steven Benen:
For thousands of American families, this reform will have a tremendous impact.
Obama administration officials announced on Friday that they will propose a fix to a notorious snag in immigration law that will spare hundreds of thousands of American citizens from prolonged separations from immigrant spouses and children.
The change that immigration officials are offering would benefit United States citizens who are married to or have children who are illegal immigrants. It would correct a bureaucratic Catch-22 that those Americans now confront when their spouses or children apply to become legal permanent residents.
Although the tweak that officials of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services are proposing appears small, immigration lawyers and advocates for immigrants say it will make a great difference for countless Americans. Thousands will no longer be separated from loved ones, they said, and the change could encourage Americans to come forward to apply to bring illegal immigrant family members into the legal system.
As the L.A. Times report explained, under the status quo, those in the country illegally are expected to leave to apply for a green card. “Depending on how long they’ve lived in America, once they leave they are barred from returning for up to 10 years. They can claim that their absence would pose a hardship for their spouse or parent and ask the Department of Homeland Security to waive the re-entry restrictions. But to do that, they must first travel to a consular office abroad and begin a process that can take months or even years, experts say.”
What’s more, those waivers are often extremely difficult to get, leading to mass separations of families for several years.
Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta who is a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the NYT, “This will open up a huge door to bring a large number of people into the light. There are hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States illegally who are married to U.S. citizens who have not taken advantage of the waiver that is currently available. This changes their lives.”
Ideally, this would be part of a larger immigration-reform initiative, but the White House believes — correctly — that such an effort is impossible given Republican extremism and the results of the 2010 midterms.
Obama administration officials are therefore left to use their regulatory powers to take incremental steps.
That isn’t to say this is a small improvement. On the contrary, for those affected, it’s a critical breakthrough.
As for the politics, the White House’s move is likely to win praise from Latino voters — a key 2012 constituency — many of whom are already looking at the Republican alternative with warranted disdain.
Joe Hill wrote this one 100 years ago to remind everyone that scabs get no reward from the bosses.
Uploaded by buckyhalker:
Johnsburg 3: Bucky Halker, "Mandolin Red" Stiernberg, and Pickles Piekarski perform the 100-year old IWW, labor song by Joe Hill entitled "Casey Jones, the Union Scab." Though executed by a firing squad in Utah in 1915, Hill became a legendary labor songwriter and the model for Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and others who followed.
Keep hitting the congressional repugs, Mr. President: there's a long, hard road ahead to rehabilitating this economy.
Full transcript here.
Louisville's prosecutor requested the move from circuit to federal court, which suggests the city wants no part of the opprobrium that has fallen on Oakland, New York and other cities for their stormtrooper tactics in evicting Occupiers.
From the Courier:
A request for an injunction that would prevent the city from evicting Occupy Louisville protesters and their tents from Founder’s Square downtown was moved to U.S. District Court in Louisville from Jefferson Circuit Court on Thursday at the behest of the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office.
The move means a hearing scheduled for Circuit Court on Friday will not happen. It is unclear when there will be a hearing federal court.
Bill Patteson, spokesman for Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell, said the case was moved to federal court because protesters claim that it would be an infringement of their free speech if the city does not allow them, and their tents, to stay around the clock in the small park at Fifth Street and Muhammad Ali Blvd.
Since freedom of speech is protected by the U.S. Constitution, “it’s most appropriate to be heard in federal court,” Patteson said.
This is so fucking cool.
Phoenix Woman at Firedoglake:
While tooling around on the Internet, I ran across the story of Todmorden, the market town in Yorkshire in the UK that, from a modest guerrilla-gardening start less than four years ago is now well on its way to self-sufficiency in foodstuffs. They’ve set a goal of self-sufficiency by 2018, and they’re already well on their way to that goal.
How do they do it? The ringleaders convinced the city authorities to let them set up community gardens anywhere and everywhere in town — abandoned lots, highway medians, ditches, you name it — and encourage the townsfolk to come and take as much as they wanted. For free. Even in front of the police station:Outside the police station in the small Victorian mill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, there are three large raised flower beds.
If you’d visited a few months ago, you’d have found them overflowing with curly kale, carrot plants, lettuces, spring onions — all manner of vegetables and salad leaves.
Today the beds are bare. Why? Because people have been wandering up to the police station forecourt in broad daylight and digging up the vegetables. And what are the cops doing about this brazen theft from right under their noses? Nothing.
Well, that’s not quite correct.
‘I watch ’em on camera as they come up and pick them,’ says desk officer Janet Scott, with a huge grin. It’s the smile that explains everything.
For the vegetable-swipers are not thieves. The police station carrots — and thousands of vegetables in 70 large beds around the town — are there for the taking. Locals are encouraged to help themselves. A few tomatoes here, a handful of broccoli there. If they’re in season, they’re yours. Free.
So there are (or were) raspberries, apricots and apples on the canal towpath; blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries beside the doctor’s surgery; beans and peas outside the college; cherries in the supermarket car park; and mint, rosemary, thyme and fennel by the health centre.
It’s not just veggies and fruits the Tods are raising: They’ve got an egg campaign, other sorts of local livestock, an aquaponic fish-and-veg farm under development, and have inspired several other UK cities and towns to see how much of their own food they can produce.
It's going to be warm and sunny, so don't you dare miss it.
Barefoot and Progressive:
Third in the nation and the longest continuous, uninterrupted Wall Street occupation in the country, Occupy Lexington is celebrating 100 Days and you’re invited:North America’s longest running occupation is holding an open house this Saturday to celebrate its 100th day at the corner of Main and Esplanade in beautiful and historic downtown Lexington, Kentucky. Our camp has prospered at the foot of JP Morgan Chase because of good fortune: we have a mayor who thus far has allowed our presence, a professional police force that recognizes we pose no threat to the public (and that often waves to us when driving by camp on Tuesday mornings near 4:00 AM), and ordinary citizen activists like yourselves who have contributed various types of support.
On our centennial day at JP Morgan Plaza, we invite all you elected officials, neighbors, police, teachers, builders, writers, poets, children and the rest to drop on by our encampment to celebrate this noteworthy community landmark, and to offer ideas on how we can become better area residents. The winter is starting, and we would like our community’s input—political, police, educational, homeless, immigrant, artsy-fartsy, suburban, or any other community—for how our winter camp can more productively run.
Here’s the schedule of events:
12:00: The Speaker’s Corner will begin with a teach-in and continue throughout the day.
12:30: Teach-in on the consensus process with Kate Folsom.
1:00: Teach-in on political theory with Steven Burt.
2:00: Household working group meeting.
3:00: Libertarian Municipalism: Get an update and contribute your thoughts on the community markets that are being developed for Spring/Summer 2012.
4:00: Guerilla Bocce League: Two balls, one game to eleven.
4:30: Pot luck. If you plan to bring food, post on the event’s wall!
5:30: People’s Budget meeting.
6:30: General Assembly.
7:30: March.
8:30: Occu-Party!
A petition from North of Center:I support Creatives for Common Sense in their quest to get Lexington Mayor Jim Gray to print and hang a banner advertising Lexington’s position as the longest running Wall Street occupation in North America. The banner should be placed alongside the other Lexington accomplishments enshrined in banners on the Commerce Lexington building, which faces the all-important Main Street corridor. Banner should read: #1: Best Cities to hold a prolonged Wall Street Occupation.
Click on over to sign.
Yesterday President Obama outlined his plan for a "leaner military."
The Obama administration has said it plans to cut $487 billion from the defense budget over the next decade, but the president, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other officials didn't offer details of where reductions would be made other than to say they'd shrink the size of ground forces. The details, they said, would be outlined during next month's budget session.
Grover Cleveland and Chris Preble point out the nifty DoD budget cost cutting tool at the NYT.
It’s not terribly hard to get to $450 billion, especially if you cut back on ground forces. I managed to get to $459 without cutting much from naval forces (1 carrier down), from benefits, or even from missile defense. I do kill the new stealth bomber and the bomber leg of the nuclear triad. That’s a pretty modest set of cuts; it’s also not terribly difficult to get to $1 trillion, but you have to start cutting back on benefits, and drop the USMC and USA by roughly 35%. I’m not convinced that some of the options would actually save money; replacing military personnel who perform commercial activities and cutting back on the civilian Pentagon work force, for example, would leave many DoD functions at the mercy of private contractors.
One thing to remember; cutting back on the defense budget, especially personnel costs, is anti-stimulus in the short term. Dropping the Army and Marine Corps by 100000 puts that many people back into the civilian workforce, with all the attendant disruptions that would cause.
Yeah, that's you, at the bottom.
From Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money:
Steve M., on Bobo's claim that freakazoid "values" are good for the economy:
Yeah, right -- that's why East Cowflop, Mississippi, with eighty-seven churches per person, is the economic dynamo of the planet, while New York and San Francisco are still struggling to emerge from the Third World.
Uploaded by rocinante2011, who kindly includes the lyrics at the link.
IWW Songs to fan the flames of discontent
All the fun has gone out of Kentucky politics; Gatewood Galbraith has died.
Linda Blackford at the Herald:
Gatewood Galbraith, an iconic Kentucky political figure and perennial candidate who won many hearts but never enough votes, died early Wednesday, just two months after running his fifth campaign for governor. He was 64. Mr. Galbraith died at home in his sleep after developing pneumonia that was complicated by chronic emphysema.
Although widely popular for his wit and unconventional stances, Mr. Galbraith's political life was led outside of Democratic and Republican party machinery, which meant he nearly always trailed in fund-raising totals. In addition to his five unsuccessful runs for governor, Mr. Galbraith also made failed bids for agriculture commissioner, U.S. representative and attorney general.
Between campaigns, Mr. Galbraith worked independently as a criminal defense attorney, and he often quipped that "losing statewide elections doesn't pay worth a damn."
Known universally by his first name, Gatewood was a recognizable figure around Lexington and the state, partly because of his imposing height and signature fedora, and partly because of his outspoken proposals to legalize marijuana and outlaw mountaintop-removal coal mining. For a brief time Wednesday morning, news of his death was one of the top trending topics nationally on Twitter."
He's the most colorful individual I've known in Kentucky politics in my life," said Terry McBrayer, a lawyer, lobbyist and longtime friend of Mr. Galbraith who ate breakfast with him frequently at Hanna's on Lime. "He didn't have a harmful bone in his body. He was a genuinely good person."
There's a stupendously fabulous BEST PART to this, but you don't get it until the very end, so read this whole thing very carefully.
Kirsten Boyd Johnson at Wonkette:
A group of Virginia third graders composed a song about the spiritual emptiness of greed, which they sang for their fellow public school students at an assembly — good on them, right? Except, UH-OH TIMES A HUNDRED, they included the term “99 percent” in the lyrics. Since when are children allowed to use SOCIALIST PROFANITIES in school, Every Conservative Blogger in America now demands to know. Or maybe the real question is, who let these kids pay attention to the world around them like that?
Let’s first enjoy an excerpt from the children’s lyrics, shall we?Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent
I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied
’Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn’t need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don’t need to be first
’Cause I’ve got my friends
Here by my side
Don’t need it all
I’m so happy to be part of the 99
And now here is one randomly-selected outraged dingbat of many (which you can Google search, if are you a masochist, but we won’t link to them all here) from BigGubermint.com, who is FEEUREEUS with this group of intellectually superior nine-year-olds:Remember, these are third graders. The simplistic left wing economic nonsense of this ditty boggles the mind. But to an impressionistic third grader, it plants poisonous seeds at odds with long egalitarian American traditions that disdain class hatred. It mocks American traditions of industry, hard work and accomplishment. It teaches the young to distrust and dislike, which of course is a tactic employed by thug cultures and governments throughout history.
(The literate person’s version of the word is impressionable, by the way.)
Can we at least Blame the Teachers? Not really, says the school board, according to a newz report from some local CBS affiliate:The song was written and performed by third graders on October 21, 2011 at Woodbrook Elementary School during a Kid Pan Alley program.
Kid Pan Alley is an organization that helps kids write and perform their own songs. Their mission is to inspire kids to be creators.
Students write the songs and school officials are standing by the lyrics.
“They don’t censor what the kids write. They don’t shape what the kids write. It all comes out of the kids own mouths and the kids own words,” said Albemarle County School Board Chair, Steve Koleszar.
Oh THERE’S the problem, we spotted it… they’re encouraging creativity. NONE OF THAT NOW.
From The Nation, on President Obama's Richard Cordray slap at congressional repugs:
But Representative Barney Frank, a longtime proponent of the CFPB, dismissed those comments earlier today. “Republican’s complaints about the President’s decision to make this recess appointment are equivalent to objections leveled by arsonists at people who use the fire door to escape a burning building,” he said in a statement. This is an argument Democrats clearly feel poised to win.
The begining of this video, is an audio narrative by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, with images of her, as well as a quote of hers about women in the I.W.W. This Narative is commonly used on recordings to introduce the song "The Rebel Girl" in which Joe Hill dedicated to Elezabeth Guley Flynn. The second part, is the song "The Rebel Girl" Writen by Joe Hill, and performed by Hazel Dickens. I have used images of women who were (or are) members of the IWW. Only two were "supporters" and not members of the I.W.W. (Emma Goldman and Charlotte Anita Whitney)
They haven't been visited by many celebrities, and the police haven't bulldozed or pepper-sprayed them - yet - but Kentucky Occupations in Lexington and Louisville are hunkering down and hanging in.
Laura Ungar at the Courier:
With no sleeping bag and only a thin tent to protect him from the blustery winds, John Masters braved the cold Sunday night and Monday to take a stand against poverty, racism and other social ills through the Occupy Louisville movement.
“My toes about fell off,” said Masters, 29, a political science student at the University of Louisville who slept under several blankets and had to run back to his apartment and get thicker socks.
Masters was one of about 20 Occupy Louisville protesters who stood their ground at Founder’s Square downtown despite the wintry weather, which brought flurries, strong wind gusts and a high temperature of only 34 Monday.
The National Weather service expected temperatures to dip to 19 degrees overnight, with wind chills as low as 8 degrees. And today’s temperatures were only expected to inch up to 26 degrees.
Several protesters said weather is no deterrent. Some were gathering in three tents with heaters, while others remained in unheated tents.
Charles Spray, a 26-year-old construction worker who was recently laid off, stood outside, wearing a coat, gloves and a warm mask that covered his nose and the bottom of his face. He said he has an insulated sleeping bag in his tent.
“The reason why I’m here is corporate greed,” Spray said. “It’s been kind of decent weather until today.”
The city had previously said that all tents must be removed from the park by Monday.
Occupy Louisville had requested a temporary injunction that would prevent the city from evicting the group and seizing its 20 or so tents. But last week, that was rejected as premature by Jefferson Circuit Judge Irv Maze, who denied the request until a full hearing can be held Friday in front of Circuit Judge A.C. McKay Chauvin.
UPDATED Jan. 4, Jan. 9, Jan. 18, Jan. 19, Jan. 21, Jan. 23, Feb. 1, Feb. 10, Feb. 13, Feb. 20, Feb. 21
This year I have neglected to post my occasional lists of activities and events at Kentucky State Parks, which remain - despite severe budget cuts - the finest in the nation.
And winter is perhaps the best season to discover them. Kentucky's State Resort Parks are open and offering discount prices for lodging along with special events.
an old iww song by t-bone slim. played on april 30th 2009 live at the Connetion in Cologne-Ehrenfeld (Germany).
Ron Paul's supposed libertarianism is not what you think it is. But the question for Kentuckians is: with with our own Senator Rand Paul in Des Moines working his father's presidential campaign, how much of Ron's un-libertarian true politics does Rand share?
Digby calls it "Devolution for some of the people."
As always, Adele Stan nails the story when it comes to the connections among the far right fringies. In today's piece she draws together the strands that bring Ron Paul and the lunatic Christian Reconstructionists together. I urge you to read the whole thing -- it's quite illuminating. Here's the conclusion:Ron Paul seeks to shrink the federal government to minimal size not because it intrudes in the lives of individuals, but because it stands in the way of allowing the states and localities to enact laws as they see fit -- even laws that govern people's behavior in their bedrooms.
Here's what Paul published on the Web site of Lew Rockwell -- allegedly one of the authors of his racist, homophobic newsletters -- about the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas that struck down the state's anti-sodomy laws, which prohibited sex between men:The Court determined that Texas had no right to establish its own standards for private sexual conduct, because gay sodomy is somehow protected under the 14th amendment "right to privacy." Ridiculous as sodomy laws may be, there clearly is no right to privacy nor sodomy found anywhere in the Constitution. There are, however, states' rights — rights plainly affirmed in the Ninth and Tenth amendments. Under those amendments, the State of Texas has the right to decide for itself how to regulate social matters like sex, using its own local standards. But rather than applying the real Constitution and declining jurisdiction over a properly state matter, the Court decided to apply the imaginary Constitution and impose its vision on the people of Texas.
This plays neatly into the hands of Paul's Christian Reconstructionist friends, who seek the destruction of the federal government for the opportunity to implement "God's law" on earth. Via Warren Throckmorton's invaluable Web site, comes this quote from the Christian Reconstructionist Bojidar Marinov, who writes of why "theonomists," as Reconstructionists define themselves, should root for Ron Paul:
The theonomic solution to the problems of sodomy and abortion can not be achieved at the Federal level because at that level liberals outnumber conservatives 20 to 1. And theonomic Christians are almost non-existent at that level. It is only when the socialist state is dismantled and power returned back to the states and the counties that we will be able to successfully deal with the other social and moral issues. As long as sin is protected at the Federal level, our political job as Christians is to dismantle the Federal bureaucracy and return all power to the local communities. Therefore, the great battle is against the socialist state.
Given that, Ron Paul is the man with the best position to work for that goal on the national level.
I continue to wonder why Ron Paul is considered a libertarian. He's an isolationist Tenther. If that's your philosophy, then fine. But I think an awful lot of libertarians are missing the bait and switch.
Update: There's a lot of talk about how all this libertarian white supremacy was just a political pact with the devil 30 years ago, along the lines of the Southern Strategy. That may be true. But it seems that Ron Paul has bought his own hype, if that's the case.
He could be crusading to end the drug war, for instance, on a moral or philosophical level. But as with his defense of Lawrence as a states' rights issue, he isn't. He crusading for it to be devolved to a state by state issue. That is not the same thing.
Libertarianism has a real position on this and it's universal:Individuals should be free to make choices for themselves and to accept responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make. No individual, group, or government may initiate force against any other individual, group, or government.
Nothing in that says force is ok as long as its used by the state of Texas instead of the FBI. And yet, that's Ron Paul's position on sodomy laws and drug laws and choice and a whole host of issues pertaining to individual liberties and human rights. So all of you who believe that Ron Paul would release the millions incarcerated for the victimless crime of using drugs should realize that he would only release those held in federal prisons. If you're locked up in the State Penitentiary, he sympathizes, but thinks that States have a perfect right to do it.
In case you were wondering, the total federal prison population in 2010 was around 200,000 people while the state and local prison population was about 1.5 million. Paul says there's nothing he can do about the latter and wouldn't dream of telling those states what they should and shouldn't do. That's his principle, not freeing the victims of the drug war.
An IWW classic, direct from the Little Red Songbook.
Originally titled "Long-Haired Preachers," this is Joe Hill's most famous song. Like many of his songs, it uses the tune of a Salvation Army hymn.
Yes, Joe Hill coined the phrase "pie in the sky." The next time you hear somebody say it, sing this song to them. Or at least the chorus:You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die
The accomodationist concern trolls are so cute; they really really want to help us nasty aggressive atheists become more effective by learning to be all nice and accomodationist. They really, really are missing the point.
PZ Myers, with help from Firefly:
Pigliucci complained about the arrogance of some atheists who think all believers are dumb, which is a common complaint, and one you hear from believers as well. But they’re wrong: I don’t think I’m smarter than everyone else.
I just think I’m right.
That’s important. Atheists should have a feeling of unrepentant confidence — we are on the right side of reason, the right side of history, and the right side of the evidence. It’s not because I think I have some intrinsically greater worth than others at all, but I have shed some delusions and freed myself of traditional dogma, and have also worked most of my life to alleviate my ignorance. Other people could benefit from similar enlightenment.
And anyone who’s bothered by my cockiness should have a little more self-awareness: we all think we’re right, or we wouldn’t be doing what we do.Jayne: Shiny. Let’s be bad guys.
Yeah, the faitheists and believers think I’m a bad guy, for the reasons above (and I’m OK with that). My other sin, though, is that I encourage other atheists to join me, I reinforce my kind of rudeness in a large group of people, and I do that community building stuff. I foster my tribe. We grow stronger and louder and bolder, we are all bad guys together.
Of course, the kind of bad guys we are are the ones encouraged by Carl Sagan: the critics of mysticism and foolishness who do not sit silent when a god-botherer says something stupid. We misbehave because it’s about damn time someone did.“…if we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition ‐ even when it seems to be doing a little good ‐ we abet a general climate in which skepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate. Figuring out a prudent balance takes wisdom.”
Carl Sagan
That’s us. No silence. We fight the idea that skepticism might be impolite by being impolite all the time, making the questioning of dogma commonplace and frequent. After all, why should it be considered so awful for a horde of atheists to point out that Christianity or Islam or Judaism or Hinduism are ridiculous? The are ridiculous and are going to get ridiculed.
Here’s something else I think atheists should be:The Operative: Do you know what your sin is, Mal?
Mal: Aw, hell, I’m a fan of all seven. But right now, I’m gonna have to go with wrath.
I see priests raping children. I see a publicity-seeking nun praising pain and suffering, poverty and sickness. I see politicians pandering for votes by demanding the persecution of gays in the name of Jesus. I see godly men declaring that the role of women is to be silent and subservient…and brood a quiverful of children. I see fanatics strapping explosives to their bodies and killing randomly in the name of their god. I see lobbyists hard at work, trying to dilute science education, and suggesting that we teach the Flintstones as fact in our biology classes. I see a pope in fancy silks and gold-bedecked palace urging people to shun materialism and savor the simple life. I see deluded people opposing work to alleviate climate change because they’re sure God wouldn’t let it happen. I see ordinary people certain that these are the End Times, rejoicing in our imagined imminent apocalypse, and actively working to bring it about.
If you aren’t angry, there’s something wrong with you.
Religion is not some mild happy recreational activity; it is a poison of the brain that taints the vast majority of humanity. It is bad shit. I will not support it in any way, and I resent the complacent schmoes who urge us to close our eyes to it. One the one hand, we’ve got the moderate academic types who like to tell us it’s mostly harmless and we’ll never be able to get rid of it, anyway; to them I’d say that, as people who are supposedly dedicated to learning the truth, you ought to be the first to deny religion because a) it’s wrong, and b) it’s a fallacious way of learning about the world. On the other hand, we’ve got the happy progressives who want us all to do interfaith work, and tell us that the fundies might be bad, but we share common cause with liberal Christians; to them I say that a mind addled by liberal opium is just as faulty as one fired up on conservative crack.
I know that we can never get rid of religion, because there will always be people willing to lie for gain, and there will always be gullible people willing to believe them. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t hate the lie of faith consistently and without apology. There are principles an atheist should stand for, and one should be that god-belief is bullshit.
No compromises on that. Wrath will be my response to those suggesting otherwise.Zoe: Where are we going, sir?
Mal: The same as always. Forward.
No sitting still. Keep going, keep pushing, keep agitating. We may have to change course now and then, but the engines should always be running, we should always be plowing on ahead.
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