Of Horses, Parks, Budgets and Horses' Asses

Taking $50 million away from schools and giving $40 million to a Flintstones Truther Park that will never get built is not the only way un-Democratic Kentucky Governor Steve "Pants on Fire Lyin'" Beshear has totally fucked the state budget.

The cowardly weasel has slashed the state parks budget every year he's been in office, to the point that parks employees are working so few hours that they are losing their benefits and are having to take food stamps and Medicaid.

Kentucky's second-biggest industry - more profitable and employing more people than does Big Coal - is tourism. Kentucky's state parks are the state's crown jewels, and cutting their budget is a knife to the state's economic jugular.

Ironically, the only state park likely to get more money - a bunch more money - from the state is the one state park that declared itself so fucking special a few years ago that it's not even part of the state park system, but has its own fundraising foundation.

Linda B. Blackford and Beth Musgrave at the Herald:

As most state agencies brace for dramatic budget cuts, the Kentucky Horse Park could be getting millions of additional dollars.

In Gov. Steve Beshear’s recommended budget, the Horse Park faces no budget cuts, and instead would receive an additional $3.5 million increase this fiscal year, plus another $1.6 million each year of the next two-year budget.

State officials told lawmakers on Tuesday that the funds are needed to cover operational shortfalls that stem from utility costs for roughly 264,000 square feet of new facilities built at the park in anticipation of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Lawmakers said they want to hear more before agreeing to increase the park’s funding.

The Horse Park is a fabulous place, and I strongly recommend you visit it. But it has a fundraising arm Kentucky's State Parks don't, and giving it money taken from parks that are really hurting is just plain stupid.

Kenin NY at Down with Tyranny nails it:

Here's how Jim Hightower begins this column, happily passed along by the invaluable Nation of Change:

"Sorry, we're closed." In one of the saddest signs of the times, this message is popping up all across the country, as governors and legislators are cutting off funds (and shutting off access) to one of the finest, most popular assets owned by the people of our country: state parks.

The logic is familiar by now: If God had meant for us to have amenities like parks, if he felt we deserved amenities like parks, he would have made us rich enough to afford amenities like parks -- and He would probably have probably come up with one of His famously mysterious ways to scam it so that somebody else paid for them. (Rich people just love it when they can get somebody else to pay for their stuff. And I'm sure they can direct us to any number of bought-and-paid-for clergyfolk who''ll explain that this too is part of God's mysterious plan.)

Jim takes a rather different view, as you might expect from one of those goddamn liberal class warriors. "Parks," he writes, "are a tangible expression of America's democratic ideals,"

literally a common ground for every man, woman and child to enjoy, learn, absorb . . . or just be. Especially for the middle class and the poor -- the great majority of our people who can't jet off to luxury resorts for a getaway for vacation -- these spaces offer a form of real wealth, something of great value that each of us literally "owns," knitting us together as a community and nation.

In the wonderful world of Austerity, however, it's a perfect time to hack away at this blatant waste of what should properly be Rich People's Money, the way most all money should be Rich People's Money, at least in the minds of Rich People, and goodness knows they've gone a long way toward making it so.

"Spiritually shriveled, small-minded and short-sighted" he calls the state officials who "are snuffing out this invaluable, uniting social force." (Come on, Jim, isn't any "uniting social force" by definition class warfare?)

The majority of states have been closing many of their parks, slashing hours and services at others or simply handing the public's asset to profiteering corporations. Idaho's governor has proposed eliminating the entire parks department; California shut the gates of a fourth of the state's parks last year; officials in Arizona and Florida intend to privatize their parks; Washington state has cut off most of its park funding; and Ohio has okayed oil drilling in its parks to replace state financing.

As Woody Guthrie said of outlaws, "Some'll rob you with a six gun/Some with a fountain pen." This is theft by the in-laws, the political insiders who're stealing The People's property -- stealing from America itself.

At least in the case of his home state, Texas, Jim isn't being poetic or metaphorical when he talks about those "spiritually shriveled, small-minded and short-sighted state officials" stealing The People's property." He's here to tell us a tale.

Things tend to be bigger here -- bigger hair and hats, for example, bigger money and egos . . . and bigger thievery by political con men.

Last year, the gang of GOP hucksters who control our state government pulled off a huge heist, covering it up with an equally huge boast: "We balanced our budget. Not by raising taxes but by setting priorities and cutting government spending," bragged the gang leader, Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry. How'd they fill the $27 billion shortfall that they themselves had created by their previous budgetary mismanagement? By stealing money from already poorly funded programs -- from education to parks -- that ordinary Texans count on.

People here are justly proud of their 94 parks, but many of these treasures are now understaffed, open fewer hours and in disrepair because the system's budget was whacked by 21.5 percent in order to spare the wealthiest families and corporations in this enormously rich state from paying a teensy bit more in taxes.

But that was only part of the robbery. A state sales tax on sporting goods, dedicated by law to help finance the people's parks will generate about $236 million this year and next. But the governor and his legislative henchmen raided this pile of revenue, filching two-thirds of it for the state's general fund so they could claim that they "balanced our budget (without) raising taxes."

To replenish some of the tax money taken by The Perry Gang, the head of parks for the Great State of Texas is now engaged in a shocking spectacle: public begging. In a video played at 11 December press conferences in state parks across Texas, the chief of a major state agency is reduced to shaking a tin cup, pleading for $4.6 million in donations. "Please act now to help keep our state parks open for all Texans to enjoy," he beseeches.

These right-wing politicians howl that they want to shrink government -- but they are the shrunken ones, and the narrowness of their vision is diminishing what it means to be American.

Sorry to say, it ain't just Texas.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Alice's Restaurant"

I saw Arlo Guthrie perform this live in concert - the whole thing. It is well worth the time.

Uploaded by shrub555:

The FULL song all in one video...
Arlo Guthrie- Alice's Restaurant
This is on the new album called the massacre revisited.
This was originally released in 1967 off of the album "Alices Restaurant". It was used in the movie "Alices Restaurant" in 1969. This rendition of it was done by Arlo in the 90's.

Lyrics here.

"Rape the Sluts" Bill Back in Kentucky Lege

What is it about "forced penetration of the vagina is rape" that these motherfuckers don't understand?

Never mind; they understand it perfectly. Go watch these perverts debate this thing. The mere thought of forcing uterine cameras deep into crying, protesting women seeking abortions gives them all massive hard-ons.

From the Herald:

A Senate committee approved two bills on Thursday that would place more restrictions on women seeking abortions.

Republican Sen. Jack Westwood of Erlanger, who is chairman of the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee, said he hopes the bills will reduce the number of abortions in Kentucky.

One bill would require women to have ultrasounds prior to abortion. The other would clarify existing law by requiring women to have a face-to-face consultation with a physician, licensed nurse, physician's assistant or physician-delegated social worker prior to having an abortion.

Sen. Perry Clark, a Louisville Democrat, said that similar proposals have been included in a single bill in years past, but the sponsors are politicizing the issue by dividing them into separate measures this year.

Don't be fooled. The "ultrasound" is not an external ultrasound with a goop-covered computer mouse rubbed on the belly. The "ultrasound" this bill requires is internal and beyond merely "invasive:" it's a camera on a probe shoved up the vagina and deep into the uterus. It's painful and horrifically traumatic. It is against her will. It's rape.

(And no, morons, you don't have to use a penis to rape. Anything that forcibly penetrates is an instrument of rape.)

Your tax dollars at work. Forcing doctors to rape their patients. For the sole purpose of shaming women into back-alley, illegal abortions.

Because making abortion illegal - or just expensive, inconvenient, difficult and/or humiliating - doesn't reduce the number of abortions. It only reduces the number of women who survive them.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy by: "Union Label"

Listen up, children: not so long ago the question wasn't "is it made in America;" the question was "is it made by American union members." The competition 30 years ago wasn't between slave labor in Asia and wage-slave labor in America; it was between non-union labor in the Carolinas and Mississippi and union labor in Massachusetts and Michigan.

Uploaded by robatsea2009:

One of the classic television commercials from the early 1980s featuring members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

The ILGWU was once one of the largest and most powerful unions in the country. It earned its radical cred, having been tested literally by fire in the great Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy of 1911.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Little Boxes"

Uploaded by flouridatedwater

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

Words and Music by: Malvina Reynolds; Copyright 1962 Schroder Music Company, Renewed 1990.

Of Course You Can Do Better - So Run for Office

You've got until close of business Tuesday, Jan. 31 here in Kentucky to file for one of the literally thousands of public offices up for election this year. Every county office: constable, magistrate, city council, mayor, judge-executive, sheriff, jailer, commonwealth's attorney, district judge, county clerk, county attorney and circuit clerk. All 100 state representatives, and half of the 39 state senators. Not to mention the white whales of Congress.

Barefoot and Progressive:

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1st DISTRICT
Edward Whitfield (R) is filed for re-election. Currently has no opponents.

2nd DISTRICT
Brett Guthrie (R), incumbent, is filed and so is David Lynn Williams (D). His 2007 race against Richie Farmer brought less-than-rave reviews from Dems.

3rd DISTRICT
John Yarmuth (D) is on file and no one has yet tried to challenge His Awesomeness.

4th DISTRICT
According to the SoS, Gary Moore is the only one filed to take Geofferson Davis’ seat, but there’s a bunch of folks coming there.

6th DISTRICT
We’ve got 8 days to convince Kathy Stein to challenge Ben Chandler. Or for someone else to step forward. Who will it be now? The only candiddate on file in this race is Randolph Vance, write-in candidate. Neither Andy Barr nor Chandler appears to have filed their papers. If Scott Jennings wants to get Karl Rove on the phone, $1 Million from the Crossroads SuperPac would almost assuredly bring Ben a challenger. $1 Million, Karl. Bring it. You’re gonna have to spend way more than that in the general so why not buy the primary.

POTUS

Mitt Romney is the only candidate on file ahead of Kentucky’s May primary that is likely to be the absolute deciding state in the Republican race to take on Barry Hussein. Newt, Rick and Ron have 8 days.

If you want to run for an office, the SoS is a good place to start for qualification information and procedures. For more local offices, check with the County Clerk’s office.

As Kentuckians For the Commonwealth says, if you’ve ever considered running for office, there’s no time like the present.

As I've written before, there is no law or regulation that says you have to spend a single dime on your campaign after you pay your filing fee. You don't have to campaign at all. Just get your name on the ballot, then go about your life as usual. You'll probably lose, but you would have made the point that nobody gets to run for office without a challenger.

And who knows? Anti-incumbent sentiment sent a shitload of newbies to Congress and state legislatures in 2010; you might be the one to benefit this year.

UPDATE II: Gingrich is now on the Kentucky primary ballot. Catch Newtmentum, Kentucky repugs!

Occupy Lexington Raided

No, it wasn't violent, but neither was it necessary. C'mon, Lexington - four solid months of peaceful co-existence and suddenly you go all hick sheriff on them? What, were Oakland cops calling you pussies?

Louisville Courant:

After 118 days of continued protest on the corner of Main St and Esplanade, Lexington, Kentucky police, under the supervision of Mayor Jim Gray, came by Tuesday between 12:30-1 PM and confiscated occupiers' tents and canopies.

The police brought more trailers than they needed. All in all, it only took 5-10 officers to confiscate the property. No arrests were made and they left no officers on the scene.

Protesters were allowed to save what personal items they could quickly grab and throw in the back of Ford Ranger belonging to a huge longtime supporter, the owner of Natasha's Bistro on Esplanade.

According to occupier Steven Burt, the police have been less than cordial over the course of the occupation.

"They've complained about our sidewalk chalk. They've said we were dirty and we looked disgusting," Burt said.

Occupy Lexington is located adjacent to a 14-story Chase JP Morgan bank, on the sidewalk. The rumor is that the raid was justified by Lexington police because the protest was on the sidewalk,but that leaves protesters puzzled since that had been the case for 118 days.

Passing motorists are honking and making eye contact just a few hours later, a show of solidarity that is lacking today from Mayor Gray.

"We're not going anywhere. We're needing solidarity from our supporters tonight though," says Stacie Catlett.

Click here for photos of the so-objectionable sidewalk chalkings.

UPDATE, 6 p.m.

Barefoot and Progressive:

The nation’s longest continuous occupation continued last night after police removed all the tents. Despite earlier reports that the corner of Main and Esplanade had been raided and the Occupation was over, the Occupiers met last night to chart a course for the future.

In fact, this sounded less like a raid and more like a misunderstanding leading to a cleansing. At the time, the camp was not unoccupied but the person on watch had crossed the street to get a coffee from Natasha’s. The police saw it empty and decided it was time to break it down, seeing it as abandoned (H-L).

But that’s all neither here nor there, really, since that part is done. The question quickly became “What Next?”

During a two-hour general assembly meeting last night, that question was discussed at length. The Occupiers were of different mindsets but as always, worked toward consensus. Their quick report:

- We will continue to occupy our location at Main and Esplanade. People have committed to be there for the next 24 hours, so feel free to come by and join them, or bring by some hot drinks!

- There was a great conversation tonight about the nature of our occupation and what our next steps should be. Energy is high and there were a lot of great ideas. If you haven’t been by in some time, please come out tomorrow at 6:30 for our General Assembly!

- Stay tuned to this page for more information as we have it. Again, tomorrow’s GA will be very important, so be sure to show up!

You can join them tonight at 6:30PM. Even if you’ve never been down before — there was one gentleman last night who was attending his first meeting.

What will happen next?

Watch the video.

Elizabeth Warren Does Something Incredibly Stupid

Think Progress:

The 2012 elections will undoubtedly see an unprecedented injection of third-party influence, thanks to the Citizens United ruling and the subsequent advent of super PACs, and now, “super super PACS” — groups that “not only raise mega cash to promote candidates, but give money to candidates’ campaigns” directly. Attempting to stem the tide of undue influence, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) and her opponent Sen. Scott Brown (R) signed a ban on third-party ads. Brown had sent Warren two previous proposals but Warren objected to “some of the loopholes” that remained. Warren sent back a signed proposals with “clarifications to make it stronger.” The ad ban is “designed to control what is already prodigious outside spending on the race. By some projections, the campaign could cost at least $60 million” with at least “$20 million being spent by special interest groups with an interest in the outcome.”

Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie.

What - in the name of every repug motherfucker who publicly attacked you, sabotaged you, stabbed you in the back, tried everything under the sun to literally destroy you as a public servant, as a lawyer, as a person - are you thinking?

The Super Pacs trying to prevent you from restoring Ted Kennedy's senate seat to the party that earned it are laughing their asses off and buying up commercial time as I write this.

The Super Pacs that support you will probably respect your request, even though they know Brown's Super Pacs will not. If they don't know that, then they're even more stupid than whatever insane urge possessed you to do this.

Admit it, Elizabeth: you are too naive to run for the U.S. Senate. You're going to get crushed, and you're going to deserve it.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall"

Uploaded by Librarian1972

Bob Dylan's live-performance of his legendary „A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" at „The Great Music Experience", Nara (Japan) in May 1994. Dylan plays before a massive orchestral scenery, which is the Tokyo New Philharmonic orchestra -- the first time ever he played with an classic orchestra.

Show Your Love for Mountains

Show your sweetheart what kind of lover you really are this Valentine's by taking her/him to the I Love Mountains demonstration at the State Capitol in Frankfort.

From Kentuckians for the Commonwealth:

When Kentucky author Wendell Berry and the 13 other Kentucky Rising leaders emerged from the State Capitol to join the I Love Mountains Day rally last February, he said:

"We do not think of what we have done as in any sense a symbolic gesture. We are humbled, instead, by the realization that our effort cannot be carried to success by us, or by any other few of us. If the adventure of the last few days, by this small company of friends, is to be more than a symbolic gesture, that can be only because all of you who are here, and many of our friends who are not here, will take it up, make it your adventure and your cause, until this great house will become the true home of justice to all the people of this state, and of faithful care for the divine gifts of land and water, and of life itself."

So we'll be back at the State Capitol on February 14 with a powerful and visible presence as KFTC members continue to answer Wendell Berry’s call, You see, right now is our best chance in generations to end mountaintop removal mining and build a clean energy economy that generates good jobs in every Kentucky community. We won't stop until we have: a thriving democracy, clean energy jobs, affordable, renewable energy, and healthy communities.

All over eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia, residents in communities like Eolia, Hueysville, Benham, Lynch and Montgomery Creek are speaking up to protect their health and homeland from the destruction of coal and to create a more sustainable economy.

Will you join us and be one of the more than 1,200 people standing up for clean water, clean energy, and a just economic transition for eastern Kentucky?

And will you volunteer to bring with you at least one other person with you? If each us brings a friend, imagine how much more powerful our voice will be!

More information about the day, including a schedule, and registration information can be found on our website here.

The march around the Capitol starts at 12:30, and the rally at 1 p.m. Come early and buttonhole your state legislators inside.

The Kids Are All Right

We've been wondering for a while what it would take to get the video-glazed-eyed slackers out into the streets; now we know.

Rebecca Leber at Think Progress:

Youth activists interrupted the State of the Energy Industry earlier this week to deliver the 99 percent’s message to polluters’ biggest lobbies, who were all gathered for a conference.

The annual event included addresses by American Petroleum Institute, American Gas Association, and the National Mining Association. During API President Jack Gerard’s speech, the activists yelled “mic check” and fact-checked the oil lobby. “Big Oil’s lies are hurting Americans, our economy, and our environment,” the group shouted. “API spends hundreds of millions of dollars corrupting our democracy. … Big Oil is raking in record profits at the expense of the American people.”

One of the protesters described her experience:

We all stood up. Our voices combined were deafening in that small room. I could see Gerard fuming under his smug grin. We were hurried out by Suits with nervous demeanor, but not before we were able to get a few powerful last words in. This was Big Oil’s crown-jewel forum – they’d been advertising this forum on NPR and even their top PR officials were talking it up online. It was clear they were embarrassed and totally caught off guard.

But this will not be the last one Big Oil hears from us. Oh no. We’ll be visiting them again and again, speaking truth to the lies, corruption, and corporate greed of dirty energy, and replacing it with a vision of transparent democracy and a just, clean energy future.

Watch the video here.

While the protesters promise to return, API is deploying an election-year “Vote 4 Energy” campaign to promote “drill, baby, drill” and deliver on its threat that rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline has “huge political consequences” for the president.

And yet, youth activists have spread the 99 percent’s environmental message across the world, recently. Thousands of protesters fought successfully against the Keystone XL pipeline, and youth voices grabbed attention at the Durban climate conference last month. Now, the 99 percent are taking that message directly to the doorstep of the oil industry.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "I Ain't Marchin' No More"

Uploaded by davedave25

False Dawn, or a New Progressive Revolution?

So, when you heard about this, did you shout and leap for joy, or did you frown and mutter because that's surely the last remotely progressive thing we'll see out of this hippie-bashing administration for a while?

Today, in a huge victory for women’s health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception.

Opponents of contraception had lobbied hard for a broad exemption that would have allowed any religiously-affiliated employer to opt out of providing such coverage. Fortunately, the Obama administration rejected that push and decided to maintain the narrow religious exemption that it initially proposed. Only houses of worship and other religious nonprofits that primarily employ and serve people of the same faith will be exempt. Religiously-affiliated employers who do not qualify for the exemption and are not currently offering contraceptive coverage may apply for transitional relief for a one-year period to give them time to determine how to comply with the rule.

I did both, so there.

Mike Lux is the author of The Progressive Revolution, a book I strongly recommend as both inspiration and cautionary tale. He writes at Crooks and Liars about the meaning of recent progressive victories, including the appointment of Richard Cordray and the at least temporary stoppages of the Keystone XL Pipeline, SOPA and PIPA.

As Bob Dylan would put it, the times they are a-changin'. There's a storm outside and it's raging, baby. We really are shaking their windows and rattling their walls. Done deals are not getting done. Dead appointments are acting like Lazarus and rising from the dead. The establishment is getting very, very nervous. And grassroots activists, from the occupiers to the netroots to those chaining themselves to the White House fence or sitting in at the Wisconsin Capitol last year, are shaking and rattling things all over.

SNIP

Progressive activists should feel incredibly good about all they have accomplished in the last year, and should feel good as well that President Obama -- even if it is sometimes more slowly or reluctantly than we would like -- is understanding that on a range of issues, it is politically smart of him to be aligned with these grassroots movement. But it is also no time to pat ourselves on the back: over the next 72 hours, an enormous issue will probably get resolved that will be the biggest single thing that will determine whether the dead housing market, as well as the broader economy, will get a boost that will bring it to life: the bank settlement deal. How this issue gets resolved not only will have a massive impact on the economy, it will go a very long ways in whether the President can credibly run for re-election as the guy who took on Wall Street and held them accountable when the chips were down.

SNIP

I will close by noting that, as I wrote about in my book The Progressive Revolution, positive change in America happens because of the combination of big progressive movements and Presidents open to that change. The last few victories progressives have won have shown us that formula is starting to work again. Let's hope the next 72 hours show us that the progressive movement can muster its troops to make Wall Street accountability happen, and that the president remains open to change.

Stay on 'em. Join your local occupations. Harass your state legislators. Call and write your congress critters - I thought that hadn't worked since the Reagan administration, but it worked like a charm on SOPA. Remind yourself and your fellow disappointed Democrats that while President Obama may listen to us only occasionally and reluctantly, preznent Romney or Gingrich won't listen at all.

Nine months to election.

Not Dog-Whistle, Not Overt Racism, Just A Desperate Gamble

David Atkins "thereisnospoon" on Newt Gingrich's real message:

What Newt Gingrich is doing here, then, is not making a coded racist argument against Barack Obama and minority communities. He is, rather, presenting himself as the anti-Obama: the Great Conservative Racial Uniter, the man who can walk into minority communities, free them from the tyranny of the welfare state, and win back their love, re-uniting them in harmony with their Southern white brethren in defiance of the liberal media and government elites trying to keep them poor and indebted to government programs.

As with Romney's statement about firing people, the key to understanding conservative statements is often to look past the initial attention-grabbing phrase, and to watch for the context that comes afterward. In this case, the key for Gingrich lies not in his lines about "food stamp" or "pay check" Presidents. The key lies in his confidence that he is the one and only conservative who will be able to make minorities love Republicans again by freeing them from mental slavery.

Republicans are not only sensitive to allegations of racism. They also know in their hearts that in their current incarnation they face demographic extinction. The Fox News demographic is literally dying. They also know that simply putting minority faces like Marco Rubio on the same old policies won't work.

In order to survive without moderating their policies, they must subscribe to the belief that if only they eliminate every program that helps poor people (including minorities), minorities will suddenly wake from a deep sleep and learn to embrace conservatives through the power of tough love.

That's what Newt Gingrich promises them. He is their answer to Barack Obama, their Savior, their Great Racial Uniter. He speaks not ignorantly, schizophrenically nor in code. He and his base have leaped into this ideological gamble with open eyes, and are attempting to take the rest of the country with them.

Read the whole thing.

As always with repugs, it's not about helping others or improving the nation in any concrete way; it's about grabbing and keeping power.

Whatever it takes.

Why Libraries Are Better Than the Internet

There is nothing cooler than a library. And you don't have to go to the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library - or even the Kenton County Public Library in Covington, KY - to find treasures that no one will ever see online. They're waiting for you at your local library.

Cindy Schroeder at the Northern Kentucky Enquirer:

As the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I approaches, historians and genealogists will soon be able to use a rare series of books at the Kenton County Public Library system’s Covington branch.

“The Source Records of the Great War,” a set of seven, gold-leafed volumes on World War I (1914-18) were donated this month by the Sons of The American Legion and the American Legion Moon Brothers Post 275 in Independence.

SNIP

Compiled by Charles F. Horne in 1923, the hard-bound books with the Legion emblem embossed on the cover are known as a definitive collection providing details of the causes and various armed conflicts of World War I, said Dave Schroeder, executive director of the Kenton County Public Library system. Each volume is about 300 pages, and the chapters are written by authoritative sources, such as WWI generals and political leaders of that era.

SNIP

Because of the rarity of “The Source Records of the Great War,” the series won’t be available for general circulation, Schroeder said. However, he sees them being used by local historians and genealogists. The books will be in the history department in the Covington library “in no more than a couple of weeks” for anyone who wants to read them, he said.

“If you know that your great-great grandfather was in a particular WWI battle, this series will give you information about that battle and what led up to it,” Schroeder said.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "What Did You Learn in School Today?"

Uploaded by PopulistParty:

Pete Seeger sings Tom Paxton's song live on the "Tonight In Person" Show (1964).

Here's some of the "best" lyrics:

I learned that Washington never told a lie.
I learned that soldiers seldom die.
I learned that everybody's free.
And that's what the teacher said to me.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Rally for Kathy Stein Sunday - Today - at 4 p.m.

Come to downtown Lexington to show Governor Steve "Cowardly Weasel" Beshear and the un-democratic lack-of-leadership in the General Assembly what you think of them exiling the sole liberal voice in the state senate and disenfranchising the liberal voters of Lexington.

Barefoot and Progressive, which has been all over this from Day One and is not letting up.

The disenfranchised voters of the leaderless republic of Lexington, KY will gather on Sunday, January 22nd, from 4PM to 7PM at 200 East Main Street at the heart of Downtown to rally in support of Kathy Stein and this revolutionary new idea for a political system which we humbly call “democracy.”

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION & TO RSVP

Join us.

Tell your friends.

Share the news.

Bring signs.

Invite the Governor. I’m sure he’ll be interested in your thoughts.

Creating the Next Generation of Protesters

Don't think there aren't school officials in your state who are quietly - or not so quietly - applauding this abomination and plotting to how implement something similar.

Now that it's popular.

In a page right out of Newt Gingrich’s alternate-history science-fiction wingnut-polygamy utopian epic Candyland Space Land, the school district in Tucson has completely banned Mexican-American studies, seized all the textbooks and even wall posters from the classrooms, and punished the students who protested by sentencing them to janitorial duty. The self-hating Latina lady who oversees the now-illegal ethnic studies program even comically told the kids, “Mexico is where Mexican studies is taught, not America!” Why oh why does the Newt have to be in stinky old South Carolina during such a historical moment in stomping the Mexican, for freedom?

The insanely racist Arizona law, HB 2281, specifically targets ethnic studies in the public schools. Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies program was specifically shut down to meet the law’s requirements, although administrator Lupita Garcia — who sure sounds like a Mexican to us — seemed utterly delighted to shut down the district’s program and shout racist idiocy at the students.

The students bravely marched five miles from Cholla High School (better change that name!) to the Mexican-American Studies headquarters … and as punishment for this crime against white society, they were all put on janitorial slave duty. Sounds like Tucson needs to be occupied! (Weather is very nice this time of year. It’s a good season for a Mexican-sounding revolution.)

Somebody give each and every one of those kids a full Mario Savio Free Speech scholarship to Berkeley right now.

h/t Digby.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "If I Had a Hammer"

How much has the Reich Wing ruined this country? This much: in the late 1960's, in conservative Kentucky, at summer camp, I learned this song from camp counselors who taught it and many other popular songs of protest, sex and drugs to hundreds of kids with the full knowledge and approval of our very conventional parents. Nobody blinked an eye.

Try singing this song today within hailing distance of your local elementary school and see how fast you get arrested.

Uploaded by jguth3:

Live at Wolftrap, August 8, 1993. Arlo and Pete and family perform Pete's song with Pete leading the audience in his robust way. What a great concert this was!

Doing More Without Congress

I don't think "extensive background checks" is the best way to attract foreign tourists, but working around congressional obstruction is a good election-year tactic.



Full transcript here.

How a Modern Democracy Regresses to the Dark Ages

By empowering conservatives and freakazoids, of course.

This week, the Republican National Committee rejected 35 years of bipartisan U.S. diplomacy to declare itself in favor of genocide in the Middle East.

The Republican National Committee (RNC), at their winter meeting in New Orleans, unanimously adopted a resolution that appears to support a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"One-state solution" is neo-con for "eliminating all non-Jews from biblical Palestine and annexing the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights - and what the fuck, Jordan and southern Lebanon, too - into Greater Israel."

For more than 50 years, we liberals held up Israel as the epitome of the modern secular democracy. Israel's founders were secular socialists who despised the Orthodox freakazoid minority and worked hard to marginalize it.

That Orthodox freakazoid minority, by the way, vehemently opposed the establishment of the Nation of Israel 64 years ago, and loudly and repeatedly denied its very existence. Their objection was that according to their invisible sky wizard, only the return of the messiah could bring about the rebirth of Israel as a nation. Not even Palestinian terrorists were as shrill in their refusal to acknowledge Israel as were the Orthodox freakazoid minority.

That is the same Orthodox freakazoid minority which is now forcing its insanity on every aspect of Israeli society. Israel today is about half an inch away from being as fanatic and ridiculous a theocracy as Saudi Arabia or Iran.

Digby:

Perhaps we should all stop for a moment and contemplate how an advanced nation can suddenly take this regressive turn:

In the three months since the Israeli Health Ministry awarded a prize to a pediatrics professor for her book on hereditary diseases common to Jews, her experience at the awards ceremony has become a rallying cry.

The professor, Channa Maayan, knew that the acting health minister, who is ultra-Orthodox, and other religious people would be in attendance. So she wore a long-sleeve top and a long skirt. But that was hardly enough.

Not only did Dr. Maayan and her husband have to sit separately, as men and women were segregated at the event, but she was instructed that a male colleague would have to accept the award for her because women were not permitted on stage.

Though shocked that this was happening at a government ceremony, Dr. Maayan bit her tongue. But others have not, and her story is entering the pantheon of secular anger building as a battle rages in Israel for control of the public space between the strictly religious and everyone else.

At a time when there is no progress on the Palestinian dispute, Israelis are turning inward and discovering that an issue they had neglected — the place of the ultra-Orthodox Jews — has erupted into a crisis.

And it is centered on women.

“Just as secular nationalism and socialism posed challenges to the religious establishment a century ago, today the issue is feminism,” said Moshe Halbertal, a professor of Jewish philosophy at Hebrew University. “This is an immense ideological and moral challenge that touches at the core of life, and just as it is affecting the Islamic world, it is the main issue that the rabbis are losing sleep over.”

The list of controversies grows weekly: Organizers of a conference last week on women’s health and Jewish law barred women from speaking from the podium, leading at least eight speakers to cancel; ultra-Orthodox men spit on an 8-year-old girl whom they deemed immodestly dressed; the chief rabbi of the air force resigned his post because the army declined to excuse ultra-Orthodox soldiers from attending events where female singers perform; protesters depicted the Jerusalem police commander as Hitler on posters because he instructed public bus lines with mixed-sex seating to drive through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods; vandals blacked out women’s faces on Jerusalem billboards.

Without wading into Israeli politics, let's just say that this is disturbing on any number of levels. But one thing is clear: fundamentalist religious influence always leads to the repression of women.

And there's nothing that says a Western democracy can't go backwards. It's the whole point of conservatism.

SNIP

Perhaps women, racial minorities and other "traditionally" second class citizens can be forgiven for being somewhat appalled at the idea that these people could be empowered even more than they already are. It's really not all that abstract to them.

SNIP

Devolution means regressing to traditional hierarchies. It's something those who were only recently second class citizens understand in their bones.

And of course that's just the way America's Xian freakazoid minority wants it. If the freakazoids can turn back the clock to the Dark Ages in a modern secular democracy like Israel, they can do it here, too.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Because the Plutocracy feeds on war, and feeds people to the war, and needs war to survive.

Uploaded by Thespadecaller:

On July 26, 1956, the House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 to cite Pete Seeger and seven others (including playwright Arthur Miller) for contempt, as they failed to cooperate with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their attempts to investigate alleged subversives and communists. Pete Seeger testified before the HUAC in 1955.
In one of Pete's darkest moments, when his personal freedom, his career, and his safety were in jeopardy, a flash of inspiration ignited this song. The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quie Flows the Don". Around the world the song traveled and in 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany, Marlene Dietrich, Academy Award-nominated German-born American actress, first performed the song in French, as "Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?" Shortly after she sang it in German. The song's impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. It's universal message, "let there be peace in the world" did not get lost in its translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics has had a profound effect on people all around the world. May it have the same effect today and bring renewed awareness to all that hear it.

The Yankee Bull Connor

Which state is, right now this minute, doing the most to deny voting rights to African-Americans? It's not Mississippi, or Alabama, or even South Carolina.

It's Michigan.

Rachel Maddow Monday night:

Governor Snyder`s administration is currently considering whether or not to use the remarkable unilateral power that the Republican legislature voted to give him last year to essentially abolish the local government of Michigan`s largest city and replace it with someone he puts in charge who has unilateral authority.

In the year of really ambitious, sometimes radical policy-making in red states that has followed the very, very Republican 2010 nomination, my personal nomination for the single most radical thing implemented by any Republican legislature and governor is what happened in Michigan. It`s Michigan`s expanded emergency financial manager law. It allows Rick Snyder, the state`s Republican governor, to essentially, effectively abolish all local voting rights.

You vote for your city council, you vote for your town mayor, but in Michigan, it does not matter who you vote for, because the results of your local election can be overruled if the Snyder administration says so. The state, the governor, will decide who`s going to run your town, no matter who you vote for. He will put in who he wants.

The Snyder administration has already taken over these cities around the great state of Michigan and now, it is considering the largest city in the state. Now, it`s considering whether to take over Detroit.

As noted a couple months ago by the indispensable Michigan politics source, Ecleto blog, as reported by us thereafter, and as noted by three members of Congress, nine state senators and dozens of state representative, as well as eight Detroit City council members in a letter they wrote to Governor Snyder recently, if Governor Rick Snyder decides that in addition to these cities he`s already taken over, he is also going to overrule local decision making, local elections, and take over Detroit,
and Inkster, which are two cities now being reviewed, approximately 50 percent of all African American citizens in the state would then be living under the authority of unelected managers.

Think about that for a second.

Congratulations, Michigan. You elected a Republican legislature and Republican governor last time around. And so now, if you are black and you live in the state of Michigan, you may soon have only a 50-50 chance of your vote counting in Michigan toward who represents you in your city or town.

I like this law. Or rather, I like the idea of President Obama using a national version of this law to strip Rick Scott of all power and give the Emergency Manager of Florida job to Alan Grayson.

Think about it. Arizona in the care of Raul Grijalva. Texas under Jim Hightower. Crit Luallen here in Kentucky. Emmanuel Cleaver in Missouri. South Carolina run by - oooh, Stephen Colbert!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Transcript here. Scroll about 1/3-1/2 way down the full text page.

My favorite part of the segment was her interview with the Rev. David Bullock, Michigan state director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, senior pastor at Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church. Much as I hate giving credit to xians for anything, Rev. Bullock explained the voting rights battle in Michigan as clearly, passionately and eloquently as I've ever heard.

Watch the Bullock interview here.

KY Lege Exiles Liberal Senator; Disenfranchises Second-Largest City

UPDATE, 7 a.m. Jan. 20: Governor Beshear has not yet announced his decision on the bill to exile Kathy Stein and disenfranchise Lexington. Read details and how you can help stop this abomination at Barefoot and Progressive.

You think congressional repugs are vicious thugs and congressional dems are corrupt backstabbers? They are paragons of legislative probity compared to the shitheads of both parties that pass for the "leadership" of the Kentucky General Assembly.

Short version, from the Herald:

Just when we thought the redistricting process couldn’t get any more ridiculous or offensive, the Senate ups and outdoes the House with a plan that would leave the heart of Kentucky’s second-largest city without an elected senator for two years.

Yep, it’s the revenge of Senate President David Williams, who was rejected 3-1 by Lexington voters in his failed bid for governor last year and is now paying them back.

The Republican-controlled Senate State and Local Government Committee has approved a redistricting plan that would move Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein’s District 13, which now includes the University of Kentucky and environs, to Mason and Lewis counties in northeastern Kentucky.

The Lexington district would become Senate District 4, which is now located in western Kentucky, and for the next two years would be represented by Sen. Dorsey Ridley, a Democrat from Henderson.

With all due respect to Ridley, no one in Lexington ever voted for him to represent them. The Senate Republican plan essentially disenfranchises 90,000 residents of Fayette County.

Shrill reaction that puts Markos to shame, from Barefoot and Progressive here, here and here.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years"

Uploaded by solutioncow:

(written by "An Unknown Proletarian,' Music by Von Liebich)
(First Listed Printing, Industrial Union Bulletin, April 18, 1908)

LYRICS:

We have fed you all for a thousand years
And you hail us still unfed,
Though there's never a dollar of all your wealth
But marks the workers' dead.
We have yielded our best to give you rest
And you lie on crimson wool.
Then if blood be the price of all your wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in full!

There is never a mine blown skyward now
But we're buried alive for you.
There's never a wreck drifts shoreward now
But we are its ghastly crew.
Go reckon our dead by the forges red
And the factories where we spin.
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in!

We have fed you all a thousand years-
For that was our doom, you know,
From the days when you chained us in your fields
To the strike a week ago.
You have taken our lives, and our babies and wives,
And we're told it's your legal share,
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth,
Good God! We bought it fair!

Two Years Too Long for Citizens United

Hard to believe it was just a year two years ago, January 21, 2010, that the Reagan/Bush Supreme Court let corporations openly buy American elections.

KeninNY at Down with Tyranny:

It seems overwhelmingly likely to me that anyone who's found his/her way to DWT registers proper horror upon hearing the words "Citizens United." The timing of the dreadful Supreme Court decision that has bid fair to make American elections straight purchase operations by them what's got the most to spend couldn't have been much worse, but then probably wasn't coincidental. The groundwork had been laid; the necessary justices were in place; and the rich were damned tired of having to struggle so mightily to make their clout felt electorally.

At the time, I remember some super-smart progressives pooh-poohing the panic that most of us were feeling, insisting that no, it was hardly going to change things at all. And I suppose if what you mean is that the Money People would have found other ways to make their dollars count, there's a point in there somewhere. Not an important point, but a point.

Of course the people who would have to take action to in some fashion overturn Citizens United -- legislatively, for example -- tend to be people who can see its potential personal benefits to them. Still, with the anniversary of the ruling coming up, a bunch of progressive organizations have banded together (you can see a list on the United for the People webpage, United4thepeople.org.) and will launch a "national week of action" on January 16.

As the webpage says: SPREAD THE WORD!

Protest Citizens United on Its January Anniversary

STATEMENT OF COMMON PURPOSE

The Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC has focused America's attention on the dangerous influence of corporate power in our democracy and the urgency of taking all necessary measures to undo that influence, including amending the Constitution.

Generations of Americans have amended the Constitution over the years to ensure that "We the People" means all the people, not just the privileged few. The Citizens United case, which opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate spending to influence elections at all levels of government, has brought home the importance of amending the Constitution to ensure that "We the People" does not mean we the corporations.

We believe that America works best when our government is of, by and for the people. Although we have differences in scope and tactics, all of us are united in the understanding that the Court's decision in Citizens United must be remedied by amending the Constitution in order to restore the democratic promise of America.

From the man who's been right about this longer than anybody else:

I know that many of you are deeply concerned about the economy, health care, education, global warming and the environment, Social Security and Medicare, civil liberties, war and peace and the national debt. But here's an issue that's even more important because it encompasses all of these issues -- and much more.

Will the United States survive, in any significant way, as a democracy in which ordinary people can control their future? Or, will "democracy" simply become another commodity owned and controlled by billionaires and corporations in order to serve their own purposes?

Today, as a result of the absurd Citizens United Supreme Court decision, corporations and billionaires can spend unlimited sums of money, without disclosure, in political campaigns. And that is exactly what they're doing.

Karl Rove's American Crossroads has already pledged to spend at least $240 million in the elections of 2012. The extreme right-wing billionaire Koch brothers may be spending even more. And then there is Wall Street, the oil and coal corporations, the insurance and drug companies and the military-industrial-complex with all of their money.

The goal of the top 1 percent is simple. They will spend as much as it takes to elect candidates who support a right-wing corporate agenda. They will spend as much as it takes to defeat those candidates who are fighting for working families. And that's about it!

Please join me, Daily Kos and Democracy for America in pledging to fight to overturn Citizens United.

Our strategy must be equally simple. Short-term, we must do everything we can to support those progressive candidates in 2012 who are fighting for the middle class and the values we believe in. Long-term, we must overturn Citizens United and fight for real campaign finance reform which limits the power of big money.

Last month, I introduced a constitutional amendment, the Saving American Democracy bill, to overturn Citizens United. This amendment states that:

• Corporations do not have the same constitutional rights as human beings.
• The people have the right to regulate corporations.
• Corporations are prohibited from making campaign contributions.
• Congress and states shall have the power to set reasonable limits on election spending.
  

As we approach the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision, please join me, Daily Kos and Democracy for America in pledging to fight to overturn Citizens United and to counter the unlimited resources of the right-wing in 2012.

Your pledge of support today will show the Big Money interests that while they may have unlimited sums of money, we have something more important -- the power of the people. Your support could mean volunteering on local, state or national elections, organizing against Citizens United, donating to progressive candidates or running for office yourself.

Please pledge your support today. Please stand with us so that, together, we can transform American politics.

Sincerely,

-Bernie

Sen. Bernie Sanders
U.S. Senator from Vermont

It's growing:

The Communications Workers of America have joined the fight against the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, which allows unlimited corporate donations in electoral campaigns. CWA joins 60 other organizations in the battle to get corporate money out of U.S. elections. The groups, under the United For the People banner, are calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the ruling.

If Citizens United prevails, this nation will truly become a nation of the moneyed, by the moneyed and for the moneyed. Forever.

There will be demonstrations in more than 100 cities to mourn the decision. If you're in Lexington, KY, on Friday, join protesters at the federal courthouse at Limestone and Barr from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

On STRIKE!

If the HTML code works properly, this blog will be blacked out from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, Wednesday, Jan. 18.

The purpose of the Internet-wide strike, led by no less an Internet Essential than Wikipedia itself, is to show the world what the Internet will look like if the fascist censorship bills - PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House - pass into law.

While SOPA has been temporarily derailed, the even-worse PIPA is still alive in the Senate.

While the disappearance of Blue in the Bluegrass would not cause even the tiniest ripple in the space-time continuum, PIPA and SOPA would eliminate vast swaths of the Internet. Look for your favorite sites today, see which is showing solidarity by striking, and ponder life without any of them.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Where the Fraser River Flows"

One of Joe Hill's earliest songs, about an IWW railroad workers strike in British Columbia in 1912.

Uploaded by Idonegotold:



Lyrics here.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Union Thru and Thru"

Uploaded by CMEUNION:

A gutsy, rousing union song!!!! 'Union Thru and Thru' by the Eureka's- Rob Mitchell and Ken Walther (c) Walther Music- downloads available in the links section at www.cfmeuwa.com or email rmitchell@cfmeuwa.com

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "1913 Massacre"

Uploaded by an3yt.

"The Italian Hall disaster (sometimes referred to as the 1913 massacre) is a tragedy which occurred on December 24, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan. Seventy-three men, women, and children, mostly striking mine workers and their families, were crushed to death when someone falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded Christmas party."

When You Let the Freakazoids Control the Conversation

Even non-repug companies think it's OK to let women die. American military women serving overseas.

Tina Dupuy at Crooks and Liars:

For those of you not familiar Women on Waves, it's an international organization based in the Netherlands that helps women in countries where abortion is criminalized. They literally have a ship and dock in countries like Chile where women get unsafe abortions and die on a regular basis.

I first interviewed them about a story I was working on last year. They said they have tons of calls from the U.S. for help - notably many from servicewomen serving overseas who cannot access abortion services at military hospitals. And not at all if they're serving in a country where it's illegal. Yes, under the law we will let women take a bullet - arm them - but won't allow them to control their own reproduction while overseas ... even if they're raped.

The other issue I learned from talking to these women's health advocates is that when you Google "RU486" or "abortion pill" you will not get the actual medication. You will pay for fake pills. Sometimes more than $80 or more for pills that are not as advertized. Women on Waves counters this by providing the real information on how to safely end a pregnancy with medication that is widely available for other medical reasons. This is the image (posted above) that was taken down by Facebook.

Women on Waves sent out a press release:

Date: 30-12-2011
For Immediate release:
Facebook censors safe abortion information

Today, Facebook removed the profile picture of Rebecca Gomperts, which was text with information about how women can do abortions safely by themselves. Dr Gomperts is a well-known abortion rights activist and the Director of Women on Waves. Women on Waves is a charitable organization focused on women's health and human rights. Its mission is to protect maternal health by preventing unsafe abortions. Women on Waves sails a ship to countries where abortion is illegal. On board the ship the medical staff provides sexual education and healthcare services. With the ship, early medical abortions (up to 6 1/2 weeks of pregnancy) can be provided safely, professionally and legally. Applicability of national penal legislation, and thus also of abortion law, extends only to territorial waters; outside that 12-mile radius it is thus Dutch law that applies on board a ship under the Dutch flag, which means that all our activities are legal. Women on Waves' efforts serve to draw much-needed public attention to the consequences of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe, illegal abortion. To date, the ship has sailed to Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Women on Waves also supported the launch of safe abortion hotlines in South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. (for more information see www.womenonwaves.org). In 2005 it founded Women on Web, a telemedicine abortion service that provides medical abortions to women in countries where there is no access to safe abortion (www.womenonweb.org)

By removing the profile picture, Facebook is in gross violation of Article 19 of the Universal declaration of Human rights. Facebook has a social responsibility to guarantee human rights Dr. Gomperts reposted the screenshot of the Facebook censorship message with the picture. She calls upon all Facebook users that support abortion rights to repost the message on their page.

We contacted Facebook for a response. Andrew Noyes Manager, Public Policy Communications at Facebook got back to us: "You can note that, according to a spokesman, Facebook reached out to Dr. Gomperts to explain that the photo that was removed from the profile was not in violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and appears to have been removed in error. We apologize for the removal of this content and the subsequent warning that Dr. Gomperts received."

I emailed with Dr. Gomperts Monday morning. I asked her if the page was back up. She responded, "Yes, after being blocked for two days, I could access my account again today and i received a email from Facebook with their apologies but I believe this is because of the inquiry of journalists and reposting of the image by others during the past days. Thank you very much for your inquiry."

In either case - the press release worked.

Every day, in neighborhoods all over this country, women die because pro-choice, pro-woman, pro-abortion voices are silenced and smothered and ignored.

Stand Up and Speak Out for Choice. Stand Up and Speak Out for Women. Stand Up and Speak Out for Abortion.

Safe. Free. Easy. Accessible. Abortion. Everywhere.

How to Kill Medicare Even Faster Than Repugs Would

Raise the eligibility age, that's how.

Health insurance economics is simple: If you want to make or save money, you want more young, healthy people in your group of customers than old, sick people.

The young, healthy people pay lower premiums, but you still make/save money on them because they use so little medical care and therefore cost much less than they pay in premiums.

The old, sick people pay higher premiums, but they use so much medical care that they cost more than they pay in premiums, and you will lose money on them unless you have enough paying young people to make up the difference.

So, here you have Medicare, which is 100 percent old people and about 90 percent sick people, and as you might guess it's not saving as much money as it should if it had a bunch of young, healthy people in it.

How do you get younger, healthier people into Medicare? Lower the age of eligibility from 65 to, say, 60. Or maybe even 50. Then you get people who aren't as young and healthy as 30-year-olds, but they're younger and healthier than 80-year-olds, and their premium-to-cost ratio is still in Medicare's favor.

Simple, right?

Not if you're blinded by Austerity Hysteria.

Digby:

Just keep working old man

Brad DeLong writes about this dangerous CBO report that indicates that raising the Medicare eligibility age would save money and wouldn't be a big problem for 65 year olds because they could just stay employed or buy their own insurance:

[T]he major problem is with how CBO presents its estimates. It writes:

Director's Blog: Raising the Ages of Eligibility for Medicare and Social Security: If the eligibility age was raised above 65, fewer people would be eligible for Medicare, and outlays for the program would decline relative to those projected under current law. CBO expects that most people affected by the change would obtain health insurance from other sources, primarily employers or other government programs, although some would have no health insurance. Federal spending on those other programs would increase, partially offsetting the Medicare savings. Many of the people who would otherwise have enrolled in Medicare would face higher premiums for health insurance, higher out-of-pocket costs for health care, or both.

CBO estimates that raising the MEA [to 67] would reduce Medicare outlays, net of premiums and other offsetting receipts, by $148 billion from 2012 through 2021…

What is should have written, IMHO:

CBO estimates that raising the MEA [to 67] would reduce net Medicare outlays by $148 billion from 2012 through 2021. It would also reduce tax revenue collections over that time frame by $80 billion as corporations upped their tax-shielded spending on employee health benefits. 65 and 66-year olds and the businesses that employ them would spend an extra $220 billion purchasing Medicare-level health insurance. And 1/4 of 65 and 66-year olds would find themselves uninsured.

Raising the MEA: a really bad idea.

I have a sinking feeling that this one's going to happen. It's backed by all the Republicans and the centrist Democrats and the White house has been eager to sign on. It doesn't have the dedicated funding stream that Social Security has and Democrats won't fight it because the ACA will supposedly make up the difference. Except, of course, it won't, not really. For people over a certain age, the ACA helps mitigate the highest insurances costs, but it's still going to be very, very expensive for people of average to below average means. I have a suspicion that a very large number of the people who fail to buy insurance under the ACA will be in this older age group, and they are among the sickest. Paying the penalty will be far less than their insurance would cost and they'll just try to hang on for two more years until they can get into Medicare --- as they do now. Except they'll be two years older. And sicker.

Here's more from the Incidental Economist on why this is such a destructive, poor idea:

Why it costs two times more to raise the Medicare age from 65 to 67
Why it is bad for health, regressive, and requires the ACA to be fully in effect
Why the liberal case for it is weak
What it means for certain, large unions
Why the federal savings are actually very small
A podcast on this topic

Medicare's overhead is already just one-fifteenth that of private health insurance - 2 percent compared to 30 percent. The dirty-cheap, highly-efficient "government bureaucracy" of this single-payer program is a feature, not a bug. All it needs is a youthening tweak to the group demographics and it's solid forever.

QOTD

Kevin Drum, re the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists:

But it's hardly farfetched to think that the U.S. is involved, one way or another. And if we are, it means we're in the business of deliberately targeting Iranian civilians for death, with the goal of frightening their scientists and thus slowing down Iran's nuclear program. There is, needless to say, a word that describes the act of killing civilians as a way of spreading fear and alarm. We all know what it is, don't we?

How Drug War Hysteria May Save the Affordable Care Act

I just love this. Scalia's freakout over pot may come back to bite him in the ass over the healthcare mandate.

Unfortunately, Scalia is smart enough, corrupt enough and hypocritical enough to pretend his own precedent doesn't exist. Never forget that in Bush v. Gore, he ignored his own claimed federalism, 200-plus years of precedent, and the original, plain-language Constitution to annoint Smirky Dear Leader.

Talking Points Memo:

On first blush, it seems like a no-brainer that Antonin Scalia will vote to overturn the health care reform law’s requirement that Americans buy insurance: the Reagan-appointed justice is a staunch conservative who’s beloved by Republicans; for what possible reason could he deliver such a devastating blow to his own side and boost President Obama?

The answer: judicial precedent. His own. And the Obama administration has noticed.

In its amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court Friday, the Justice Department cited no fewer than 10 times the 2005 Gonzalez v. Raich case, in which Scalia (and Justice Anthony Kennedy) broke with the court’s conservative wing to hand down what scholars viewed as one of the broadest declarations of federal power under the Commerce Clause: a 6-3 ruling decreeing that Congress may ban a medical-marijuana patient from growing cannabis for personal use in California where it’s legal.

Raich was bound to come up either way as it’s seen as the most relevant precedent to the Affordable Care Act case, but the Obama administration is deploying it to box in Scalia specifically and conservatives broadly. Five separate times in the brief, the DOJ noted Scalia’s concurrence in the case.

But like the congressional repugs, the conservatives on the Supreme Court are there not to serve the people, the nation or the constitution; they are there to serve the Koch Brothers, the Reich Wing Freakazoids, and the anti-Obama fanatics.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Better World A' Comin'"

Uploaded by MOTARDkamikaze. That's Woody, of course.

Insourcing American Jobs

President Obama pulls another one out of the Executive Actions to Get Around Congressional Repugs drawer.



Full transcript here.

Foreclosing on the Dream - Literally

I swear, banks have no public relations sense at all.

From Rebuild the Dream:

We’ve seen banks make some pretty audacious moves, but this one takes the cake.

Just days away from the MLK holiday, BB&T bank is attempting to foreclose on one of the oldest churches in Dr. King’s old neighborhood -- Vine City in Atlanta, Georgia.

The church, Higher Ground Empowerment Center, has been a cornerstone of one of Atlanta’s most historic and under-resourced communities for the past 108 years. After a tornado ripped through the property in 2008, the church was forced to take out a loan to cover the repairs. It has managed to pick itself up, rebuild, and continue servicing the community.
But now BB&T wants to foreclose, ignoring the church's attempts to work with the bank to modify the loan.

This church needs your help, so we've started an emergency petition.

Sign the petition and tell BB&T's CEO Kelly King to stop foreclosure on this historic pillar of the community.

BB&T took $3.1 billion in bailout money from the American people in 2008 and used it to eat up hundreds of smaller banks, acquiring another $26 billion in assets the following year.

Higher Ground Empowerment Center is not asking for a bailout. For four years, they’ve simply been asking BB&T to modify their loan to something more reasonable, based on the property's fair value. But the bank has refused.

Sadly, their situation is just like millions of other homes and properties with underwater mortgages -- banks just seem to lack all manners and decency, and often won't even return phone calls.

In this case, the reason is simple -- the church is sitting on a valuable piece of land and the bank stands to make a huge profit.

Since 2004, Vine City has been undergoing “urban renewal” efforts. Through this process, banks have foreclosed on business owners and residents in the short term, while profiting off of inflated property values in the long run.

If this church is foreclosed, it will have a domino effect on the rest of the community.

Occupy Atlanta has jumped in to support the Higher Ground Empowerment Center and the Vine City community. They've brought valuable attention to this situation, and the bank is showing that they're paying attention. Now is a critical moment to add momentum and show the bank that people across the country are watching. BB&T should be helping, not exploiting, the church and the Vine City community.

Click here to sign the petition and tell BB&T CEO Kelly King to negotiate fairly with the church.

Thank you for taking a stand,

Van, Natalie, Billy, Jim, Ian, Somer and the rest of the Rebuild the Dream team

After you sign, wash the taste of BB&T's abomination out of your mouth with the Top Ten Civil Rights Songs from The Nation.

(Note prominent omissions cited in comments, including We Shall Overcome.)

QOTD

Steve M. recommending

BooMan on Ron Paul, Glenn Greenwald, and Matt Stoller. A brief excerpt:

If you look at Ron Paul's political philosophy in toto, you'll realize that Paul basically opposes every progressive accomplishment since about 1913. I've never heard him oppose female suffrage, but he'd like to roll back just about every other thing the federal government has done since the creation of the Federal Reserve. The only way a progressive can reach the point where their beliefs converge with Ron Paul's is if they've basically given up on this country and on progressivism.

Amen.

Ditto.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: All You Fascists Bound to Lose

Uploaded by UnAmericanBandstand:

A short song from one of Woody's radio broadcasts. (1940's?)

Featured in this performance are:

*Woody of course-guitar and voc.
*the great SONNY TERRY on harmonica, "whooops" and voc.

other musicians most likely featured in this performance:
*Pete Seeger - banjo
*Cisco Houston - guitar voc.
(pictured with Woody at :25)

Take a Critical Stand in Indiana

Hard as it is for a Kentuckian to admit that hoosiers do anything worthwhile, what's happening right now in the Indiana legislature is huge - even bigger than what happened in Wisconsin last February.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money:

Maybe we should shift our attention to the Hoosier State, where Governor Mitch Daniels and the Republican legislature is trying to eviscerate Indiana’s unions by passing a right to work for poverty wages law.

To be precise, what a “right to work” law does is makes it legal for individuals in unionized workplaces to choose to opt out of the union, not paying any dues. But the union is still legally required to provide these non-members full representation. It’s a leech law, allowing workers to suck the blood of union members. It also weakens unions by forcing them to provide services without the resources of union dues.

The minority Democrats are doing everything they can to stop this atrocious law from passing. Both sides are using the example of Oklahoma, the last state to pass a right to work law, in 2001. Oklahoma business has talked up how much the law has helped them, but the Oklahoma economy has not exactly boomed. What it has done is undermine unions, which is pretty much all the plutocrats care about here. What about workers? Didn’t making Oklahoma “business-friendly” bring in the jobs?

“There is no doubt that the law has resulted in job loss and lower wages,” said Jesse Isbell, who worked for 36 years at the Bridgestone-Firestone tire plant in Oklahoma City.

That plant closed in 2006, and he and 1,400 others lost their jobs, he said, even though proponents had said the legislation was what was needed to keep jobs from leaving the state.

“Those jobs went to Mexico and they’re not coming back.”

He blamed that in part on the “right to work” law, saying it led to hard feelings and bad morale.

“The instance of free-loaders using union resources to fight discharge and company discipline created a hostile work environment,” Isbell said. “It affected productivity, profitability and the quality of the operations at our plant.”

He and Kitti Asberry, another United Auto Workers member who lost her General Motors job when the Oklahoma plant closed there in 2005, said jobs coming in have not replaced those lost, and that the wages and benefits are lower.

Ah.

Will Democrats succeed in beating back this law? I tend to doubt it, though there is significant pressure on some Republicans in this reasonably strong union state to vote against it. Moreover, the lack of national pressure suggests the long-time Republican strategy of waiting out short-term Democratic protests, as in Wisconsin, will work in Indiana. By this I mean that liberals protest every now and again but don’t have the day-to-day organizing structure to fight these fires wherever they flare up. Let liberals focus on Wisconsin and conservatives will shift to Indiana and New Hampshire, leaving Wisconsin for a later date.

For whatever reason, even Democracy Now is coming up short on this issue. Instead of being a strong advocate for Indiana labor, it hosted a debate on the issue, allowing a Republican representative to give the 1% side of the story. Can you imagine a union newspaper of the 1930s giving a capitalist equal play? A civil rights newspaper of the 60s allowing a racist equal time? I mean, I know it’s hard for capitalists to get their message out in 2011 and all…..

Indiana should be the next Wisconsin, yet it has received almost no attention. I know our political expectations are lower in Indiana than Wisconsin, but this is war on the working-class that needs to be fought on every front. Instead, we have another 2 million tweets about whatever Rick Santorum said in some meaningless primary debate.

Later, he adds this:

By chance, I came across this article in the October 22, 1958 edition of the International Woodworker:

The following item is for the attention of those who claim that organized labor is wrong when it says that so-called “right to work” laws are aimed at weakening unions and destroying labor standards.

It concerns a letter from a housewife to the editor of the Indianapolis Star in the “right-to-work” state of Indiana. The letter was written by Mrs. Patricia Bolen of Nashville, Ind., wife of a carpenter. Mrs. Bolen wrote:

“I pooh-poohed when the right-to-work was first called a mankiiller. But it is. The man I love is being killed by it. He is a carpenter, strong, capable, hard-working, able to do three men’s work, which he does. Thereby, he keeps his job, luckier than most carpenters these days.

“He retains his job by doing man-killing work, but the rest of the crew is fired each Friday. A fresh group is brought in on Monday. There is no longer a union steward whose job it used to be to see that the company provided fresh drinking water, toilet facilities, a place to change and keep dry clothes, safety precautions, etc.

“My man comes home each day thirsty, soaking wet and heartsick because eager, hard-working family men on the job are being laid off when they can’t double or triple their output. This is not an isolated case.

“I am a school teacher. I address this to other teachers, office workers, business people, and others who know first hand what the “Handley law” really is–a right-to-work-a-man-to-death law. I plead for its repeal.”

By Handley, Mrs. Bolen referred to Republican Governor Harold Handley, who, after telling labor leaders he would veto a so-called “right-to-work” law if passed, flipflopped and let it become a law.

Today, Indiana workers are again facing a right-to-work-a-man-to-death law. It’s time we paid more attention to this attack upon working people.

Zucotti Re-Occupied! But No Sitting.

Kevin Gosztola at Firedoglake:

The barricades around Zuccotti Park were finally taken down after NYCLU took issue with how the presence of the barricades were in violation of Brookfield Properties’ zoning permit and wrote a letter. The removal led many Occupy Wall Street protesters to return to the park to “reclaim” it. They ordered free pizza to distribute. They brought the People’s Library back out (which bothered the Brookfield guards on duty immensely). They also sat and lied down on benches in the park and anyone who refused to get off the benches was arrested.

Here is a video that shows occupier Joey Boots being approached in the park. (h/t Gothamist ):

Following the arrest, We Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski shot this interview with Boots, who says he heard on the livestream that a cop said if you sit down in the park you’re going to be arrested. So, he got his ass in a cab and went down to Zuccotti to sit in the park.

He has a bad leg from a torn ACL. Like many Americans, he needs to be able to relax and the Brookfield guards did not want to allow that. And that is the political point here, too. This is something all Americans should be able to do and why are guards and officers empowered to keep a private and public space “secure” wasting energy and resources on people sitting or lying down on park benches?

Below is another video of the re-occupation. This one shows people getting arrested for sitting and lying down too. But, the best part comes at the end when you get to hear what a police officer really think of citizen journalists who carry cameras.

Get the fuck out of our way with that piece of shit you’ve got in your hand. You’re a regular fucking pain in the ass.

Regular Fucking Pains in the Ass Unite!

Click here to see the videos.

Guantanamo Bay By the Numbers

Eli Clifton at Think Progress:

The 10-year anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, offers few opportunities for celebration. The prison has been described as “arguably the most expensive prison on earth” and human rights activists have voiced concerns about detainees’ lack of access to the U.S. court system and a steady stream of reports of abuse and torture. The 10-year history of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp can best be evaluated through the human and economic costs imposed on both the U.S. taxpayers and detainees. Here are some relevant numbers:

10 years since the first 20 detainees arrived at Guantánamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray

1 year, 11 months, 21 days since President Barack Obama’s deadline to close Gitmo

779 detainees incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay since 2002

600 detainees have been released

242 detainees at Gitmo when Obama took office

171 detainees still held at Guantánamo Bay

89 detainees still held after being cleared for release

92 percent of prisoners were never al Qaeda fighters according to the U.S. government

86 percent of detainees were turned over after payment of a bounty

13 years old, the age of the youngest detainee

89 years old, the age of the oldest detainee

8 detainee deaths since 2002

6 detainee deaths by suicide

3 alleged detainee homicides from “dry boarding”

$139 million per year to keep the Guantánamo Bay prison open

$800,000 per year to house each detainee

6 detainees convicted by military commissions

6 detainees currently charged by military commission prosecutor

0 detainees released in the past year

Click here for links to the numbers.