THIS is a Democratic Candidate

I'll call Ted Cruz' 100 Jesse Helms for the Senate and raise him Rich Trumka's 60 or 70 Liz Warrens.

Down with Tyranny:

Although Obama canceled his appearance at the AFL-CIO convention in L.A. (last) week so he could work on strategy for persuading America that war against Syria is the right move, the convention rocked without him-- by what many pray is a future president, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. She urged union activists that they need to strengthen their movement to beat back the enemies of working families. Here's the body of her address:

I love being here with labor. It reminds me of a family reunion. Lots of roughhousing. Occasional arguments. Plenty of food. But ultimately, in a family we know we've got each other's back.

But there's another reason I love being here with labor. When I'm here, I know I'm with people who stand up for working families all across this country.

When important decisions are made in Washington, too often, working families are ignored. From tax policy to retirement security, the voices of hard-working people get drowned out by powerful industries and well-financed front groups. Those with power fight to take care of themselves and to feed at the trough for themselves, even when it comes at the expense of working families getting a fair shot at a better future.

This isn't new. Throughout our history, powerful interests have tried to capture Washington and rig the system in their favor. But we didn't roll over. At every turn, in every time of challenge, organized labor has been there, fighting on behalf of the American people.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, when factories were deathtraps, when owners exploited workers and children, and when robber barons amassed the kind of power and influence that made them think they were modern day kings, the American people came together under the leadership of progressives to bring our nation back from the brink. And labor was there, leading the way.

Labor was on the front lines to take children out of factories and put them in schools. Labor was there to give meaning to the words "consumer protection" by making our food and medicine safe. Labor was there to fight for minimum wages in states across this country.

Powerful interests did everything they could to block reform. But our agenda was America's agenda, and we prevailed.

A generation later, when our country was mired in the Great Depression, when people were on bread lines and looking for work, we fought back. We created jobs by investing in infrastructure and public works. We brought light and power to our poorest and most remote areas. We established federal laws on wages and hours. We enshrined into law the right to organize. We made banking boring and put real cops on the beat on Wall Street. And because we believed those in old age should not be mired in poverty, we created Social Security. And all along that journey, labor was there, leading the way.

Once again, the powerful interests did everything they could to stop it. But our agenda was America's agenda, and we prevailed.

When political injustice threatened to break our democracy, members of the labor movement were there, working for jobs and freedom, marching right alongside the Reverend Dr. King, fighting together for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

When hard working families were getting squeezed, labor was there, fighting alongside our beloved Ted Kennedy, and now we have the Family and Medical Leave Act, we have the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and we have continued to protect Medicare.

And in 2008, when the economy crashed and it was time to reign in financial predators and Wall Street banks, labor was there-you were there-standing shoulder to shoulder with me, standing with President Obama, and fighting for consumer protection. And thanks to those efforts, we now have a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-- with a confirmed Director to lead it. And just so everyone knows, that little agency has already returned half a billion dollars to families who were cheated by big financial institutions and helped tens of thousands of consumers solve their problems with big banks.

In every fight to build opportunity in this country, in every fight to level the playing field, in every fight for working families, we have been on the front lines because our agenda is America's agenda.

But let's be clear, we have always had to run uphill. We have had to fight for what we've achieved. Powerful interests have done everything they can to block reform. They attacked Social Security and Medicare. They attacked pensions and public employees. They attacked bank regulation and consumer protection.

The powerful interests have attacked so many of the basic foundations that built a strong middle class-- and too many times, they have prevailed.

Even today, our work is uphill. The powerful interests fight us on every battlefield they can.

Look at the increasing corporate capture of the federal courts.

According to a recent study, the five conservative justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court are in the top ten most pro-corporate justices in a half century-- and Justices Alito and Roberts are numbers one and two-- the most anti-consumer in this entire time. The Chamber of Commerce is now a major player in the Supreme Court, and its win rate has risen to 70% of all cases it supports.  Follow this pro-corporate trend to its logical conclusion, and sooner or later you'll end up with a Supreme Court that functions as a wholly owned subsidiary of big business.

Look at where we are on the "Too Big to Fail" problem.

Five years ago, experts said the banks had to be bailed out because there was too much concentration in banking and one failure would bring down the entire economy. Now the four biggest banks are 30% larger than they were five years ago. The five largest banks now hold more than half of all banking assets in the country. Because investors know they are too big to fail, those big banks get cheaper borrowing, which, according to one study, adds up to an annual $83 billion subsidy from taxpayers-another benefit of being Too Big to Fail.

What about reform? The Dodd-Frank Act was an incredibly important achievement, but since it passed, the big banks and their army of lobbyists have fought every step of the way to delay, water down, block, or strike down regulations. When a new approach is proposed-- like my bill with John McCain, Angus King, and Maria Cantwell to bring back Glass-Steagall-- you know what happens-- they throw everything they've got against it.

One more: take a look at what's happening with trade deals.

For big corporations, trade agreement time is like Christmas morning. They can get special gifts they could never pass through Congress out in public. Because it's a trade deal, the negotiations are secret and the big corporations can do their work behind closed doors. We've seen what happens here at home when our trading partners around the world are allowed to ignore workers rights, wages, and environmental rules. From what I hear, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, telecom, big polluters, and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the upcoming trade deals in their favor.

Why are trade deals secret? I've heard people actually say that they have to be secret because if the American people knew what was going on, they would be opposed. Think about that. I believe that if people would be opposed to a particular trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not happen.

Finally, look what is happening in our states. Republican governors in Indiana and Michigan push for so-called right to work laws, and in Wisconsin Scott Walker and the legislature he controls have declared war on working families by ripping the guts out of collective bargaining agreements.

The fight continues to rage, and the powerful interests continue to be guided by their age-old principle: "I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own."

But we're guided by principle too. It's a simple idea, and all of you know it as an old labor idea-- we all do better when we work together and invest in our future.

We know that the economy grows when hard working families can improve their lives. We know that the country gets stronger when we invest in helping people succeed. We know that our lives improve when we care for our neighbors.

And we know that even though pundits and big corporate lobbyists in Washington might need to be dragged kicking and screaming-- we know that America agrees with us.

On almost every issue of economic concern, our values are America's values, and our agenda is America's agenda.

We believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement-- and you know what? So do more than 80% of people. Wall Street will fight us, but the American people are on our side.

We believe in raising the minimum wage-- and so do 71% of people. The Republicans will fight us, but the American people are on our side.

We believe in preventing cuts to Social Security benefits-- and so do 87% of Americans. The Washington insiders will fight us, but the American people are on our side.

We believe in rebuilding our infrastructure and in passing legislation to create jobs-- and so do 75% of Americans. The Tea Party will fight us, but the American people are on our side.

And we believe that the sequester is stupid. And, you know what? A majority of Americans-including a majority of Republicans agree with us too. We ought to be making smart choices about where to cut and where to invest. Washington will fight us but the American people are on our side.

It was less than a year ago that the American people overwhelmingly re-elected President Obama and gave us a mandate to fight for middle class families.

We have a mandate-a mandate to build a fair tax code, one that isn't rigged to give breaks to big oil and billionaires while it crushes working families. We have a mandate to invest in the future - in infrastructure, in research and innovation, and in education. And we have a mandate to create jobs-- jobs right here in America, jobs for hard working people!

So here's my message: Our agenda is America's agenda. The American people know that the system is rigged against them and they want us to level the playing field. That's our mandate!

I've already fought and lost my share of battles in Washington, and I've been around long enough to know that Washington is a tough place. Real reform isn't easy. But I also know this: If we don't fight, we can't win.

But if we fight, we win. The Budget. Immigration. Minimum wage.

Uphill battles? You bet.

But however tough the challenge, however steep our climb, I am proud to stand with you, to march with you, and to fight side-by-side with you.

Our agenda is America's agenda and if we fight for it, we win.

The Wall Street Journal reported that "Mr. Trumka knows that not all Democrats-- and even fewer Republicans-- are so firmly aligned with labor’s agenda as Ms. Warren is. When she exited the stage after standing hand-in-hand with Mr. Trumka, he turned to the crowd and said: “If we could only clone her and we had another 60 or 70 like her.”

Here's here full speech:

Bring Out the Tumbrels

Seriously, rich morons: this is exactly the attitude for which the French aristocracy was guillotined.

Steve M:

This is the same sense of entitlement that leads rich people to lash out at President Obama for remarks about themselves that have an inappropriate "tone" -- Obama, they say, is "villainizing success" -- even as success continues to be the default mode for the rich under Obama. They really don't believe anything should ever make them uncomfortable ever again. They really believe being shielded from discomfort is their right.

Anybody remember that old saying "Behind every great fortune is a crime"?  It's always been true. The difference today is that the crime on which the obscene 21st-century fortunes were made is the crime of economic treason against society and democracy itself, the denial of community and even the humanity of others less wealthy.

Allowing the rich to get away with that economic treason is suicide for the rest of us. Eliminating their wealth through confiscatory taxation is nothing but pure self-defense.

Starving People With "Healthy Food"

I suspect this motherfucker knows perfectly well that restricting food stamp purchasing to fresh fruits and vegetables and unprocessed meat without increasing the allowance means that that the current $1.40 per meal will not buy enough food to feed a gerbil.

When you have very little money to spend on food, being poor and having to use food stamps, your goal is to get the maximum number of calories for the least amount of money.

That means you buy a lot of starch and empty calories that make you feel full:  potatoes, white bread, rice, noodles and chips.

Also sugary drinks that give you temporary energy to make up for the lack of protein and good carbohydrates that you can't afford because congressional repugs think poor people deserve to starve.

No, it's not healthy.  But it will keep kids from crying from hunger or falling asleep in class because of empty stomachs.

Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly:

Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday proposed legislation that would require people using federal food stamps to buy only healthy food.

The Healthy Food Choices Act, H.R. 3073, reflects a long-standing criticism that the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allows people to buy billions of dollars worth of junk food.

A 2012 study found that food stamps enable about $2 billion worth of junk food purchases each year, and that more than half of all SNAP benefits are used to buy sugary drinks.

Efforts to curb these purchases have been opposed by anti-hunger groups. But Roe said some states are already exploring ways to curb junk food purchases through the SNAP program, and argued that the federal government needs to take steps as well….

Under Roe’s bill, food purchased under SNAP would have to meet the same guidelines that food purchased under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program already have to meet. The WIC guidelines are strict, and are made up of several different standards for products like breakfast cereal, milk, vegetables, peanut butter and other foods.

I haven’t read Roe’s bill, and don’t know if it does anything to make these “healthy food choices” more available, with, for example, expanded incentives for community food banks and produce markets. But for all the sugary talk from Roe, I suspect the support base for this bill is primarily punitive.

No shit. WIC requirements are stricter because infants and women who are pregnant and nursing have specific nutritional needs. WIC also provides a subsidy sufficient to purchase healthier foods, which SNAP does not.

KY Teabaggers Kill Libraries

Go to Somalia, guys. Somalia has no libraries and no taxes. Just pure, unadulterated, no-gubmit FREEDUMBS everywhere you go.

Doktor Zoom at Wonkette:

Score another WIN for Liberty! Residents of several Kentucky counties have been rescued from the tyranny of public libraries — or more specifically, from the tyranny of library boards being able to levy incremental increases in property taxes without an election being called every year or two. The details are buried in the boring particulars of a state law governing the funding of library districts, but the final score is: Homeowners will save a whopping average of $50 a year in property taxes, for FREEDOM. Oh, and the libraries will have their budgets slashed between 55 and 70 percent, effectively gutting them. But hey, LIBERTY!!!!!

As Alternet’s David Morris reports, it all started in 2012, when the Library Board of Pulaski County, Kentucky, used its taxing authority to add an average of $1 a year to property taxes, to support existing services at five libraries.

SNIP

When state judges ruled that the 1979 law was invalid, and that three county library systems would have to roll back tax rates to 1978 levels (and in one county, 1967 rates), a tea partier who had been one of the plaintiffs announced

“The people of Campbell County won … Our country was founded upon those taking action against tyrannic government.”

Take THAT, Dr. Seuss!

SNIP

But the teabaggers, they do not care for this ridiculous socialist experiment of public libraries, a Marxist invention that has only been around for a couple hundred years and is clearly a tool of oppression. As one tea party blog asks,

“Why should my neighbors be able to rent non-educational DVDs and video games at a cost to the taxpayer when I rent mine at Redbox? Redbox charges a $1.27 per movie including taxes which I think is a steal.”

And there you have the tea party in a nutshell: I got mine, fuck you and your access to things I don’t think are important. If you want videos, pay for them yourself, and if you can’t afford them, get a job. Also, the minimum wage is communist, too.

When the Empry Dress Fits, Stop Demanding Apologies

Jared Smith at the Kentucky Democratic Party is forwarding around a week-old email from Ditch Mitch seeking signatures on a petition asking Mitch McConnell to apologize for calling Alison Lundergan Grimes "an empty dress."

Sigh. Whatever international award for empty campaign gestures that make your candidate look weak and stupid the Kentucky Democratic Party is apparently working toward, KDP's gotta be the front-runner.

Hey, Jared: Instead of demanding a meaningless apology for a standard campaign tactic - making both you and your candidate look pathetic - how about proving the motherfuckers wrong with some campaign substance instead of the empty dress Grimes has presented so far?

Oh and Alison? That advice you're getting from Steve Israel at the DCCC to dodge questions on Syria? It lost you the chance to beat McConnell to the punch and look like a dress that might actually fit Kentucky's Democratic voters.

Yep, Sequester Stupidity Is Now the Budget Baseline

The baseline for getting even more stupid with even more economy-killing cuts.

Steve Bennen at Maddowblog:

Which then leads us to the second problem: under this approach, spending levels are still at sequestration levels. Why is that important? Because the sequester is a painfully stupid and destructive policy that's hurting the country for no reason.

In August, Boehner said "none of us like" the sequestration policy. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the sequester "is not the best way to go about spending reductions." House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said the sequester is "unrealistic," "ill-conceived," and a policy that "must be brought to an end."

And yet, the Speaker's plan is to effectively tell the right, "You're not getting the shutdown you wanted, but at least you're getting the destructive sequestration cuts we pretend not to like."

There's a real chance that rank-and-file Republicans oppose the idea because they want to shut down the government, while rank-and-file Democrats balk because they hate the sequester.

All of this will have to be dealt with fairly soon, since the government runs out of money on Sept. 30. Once that's done, we then get to move on to congressional Republicans threatening to crash the global economy on purpose with another debt-ceiling hostage crisis.

So, Hal: will you vote against the sequester budget? Will you propose restoring the trillions in domestic spending your party has eliminated since 2009? And all you Fifth District Democrats who sit home instead of supporting a Democratic challenger to Rogers, when you are looking for someone to blame for the failing economy, will you look in the mirror?

Beshear Defies Conservatards; Implements Science Standards

Don't panic; Gov. Pendulum is already planning his next move to placate the freakazoids.

Jim Warren at the Herald:

Gov. Steve Beshear plans to implement the new Kentucky Next Generation Science Standards under his own authority, after a legislative review panel rejected them as deficient during a meeting Wednesday.

That would let the standards move forward, but the regulation still could be killed by the full General Assembly when it returns in January.

Terry Sebastian, Beshear's deputy press secretary, said in a statement that the governor "views these standards as a critical component in preparing Kentuckians for college and the work force. Therefore, as provided by law, he will implement the regulations notwithstanding the finding of deficiency."

SNIP

Robert Bevins, president of Kentuckians for Science Education, a group that backs the standards, contended the subcommittee vote resulted from intense lobbying by the Tea Party and the Family Foundation of Kentucky. He also predicted the decision would prove an embarrassment for Kentucky.

"I wouldn't be surprised if this is on The Daily Show tomorrow," Bevins said.

Tune in tonight, 11 p.m., Comedy Channel.

Eat the Rich. Do It Now.

They are parasites, gorging into financial obesity on the economic blood they suck from the workers who create the wealth the rich steal.

Bryce Covert at Think Progress:

The top ten percent of earners in the United States took home more than 50 percent of all income in 2012, the highest amount ever recorded since data was first collected in 1917, according to an updated report from economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty.
While the wealthiest took a big hit during the financial crisis, they’ve almost fully recovered.

Last year, income for the top 1 percent of earners “increased sharply,” the report notes, growing by nearly 20 percent, while the bottom 99 percent only saw money rise by 1 percent. “In sum,” the authors write, “top 1% incomes are close to full recovery while bottom 99% incomes have hardly started to recover.”

This follows a trend since the recovery officially began. From 2009 to 2012, income for the 1 percent grew by 31.4 percent, while everyone else only saw it grow by 0.4 percent. That means the 1 percent “captured 95% of the income gains in the first three years of the recovery,” they write.

SNIP

The U.S. suffers from particularly drastic income inequality. It is worse here than in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan, and Ethiopia.

SNIP

And U.S. policy is mostly to blame. The deregulation of Wall Street meant huge profits in the sector, attracting the 1 percent, whose incomes then took off from everyone else’s. Changes in the tax code for capital gains income, or money made through investment rather than salaries, is one of the largest factors. 

The filthy rich are not just clear and present danger to the economic survival of the nation, they are escaping justice for the crime of causing the 2008 economic meltdown that destroyed 10 million jobs and left millions of formerly middle-class families homeless, unemployed and impoverished.

Alan Pyke at Think Progress:

Five years ago this week, the investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. declared bankruptcy and triggered the financial collapse that brought us the Great Recession. Things have turned out quite well for former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld and four other industry executives whose work contributed substantially to the cycle of subprime lending and financial swindling that caused the crisis. Fuld and his colleagues haven’t just avoided legal repercussions for the crisis. They’re also among the wealthiest people in the country. 

As part of a series commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) published a look at Fuld and executives from Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Bank of America on Tuesday. Here are three infuriating facts CPI unearthed about the masters of the financial universe.

1. Dick Fuld walked away with half a billion dollars and three homes.

SNIP

2. The former Bear Stearns CEO who walked away with over $300 million plays high-stakes bridge in retirement.

SNIP

3. Three bailed out CEOs whose “golden parachutes” were worth a combined $272 million are doing just fine.

SNIP

While these stories of huge personal success in the face of clear business failure are infuriating, they are far from exceptional. Fully one-third of the highest-paid financial industry CEOs of the past two decades have been fired, bailed out, or busted for fraud.

Meanwhile, 11.3 million Americans remain unemployed, with tens of millions more having dropped out of the workforce or struggling to survive on low-wage part-time service industry jobs. Those who do have work are earning less than they did prior to the crisis, and American workers as a whole have experienced a lost decade in wage growth despite boosting their productivity substantially. By contrast, the financial industry that caused the crisis has bounced back rapidly, with record profits and near-record bonuses for its executives.

QOTD

Charles Pierce:

Ultimately, it is cruelty that is the real New Normal. We accept it every time we accept that cops can stop teenagers for "furtive movements," or when they respond to every unusual situation as though it were taking place atop Mount Suribachi. We accept it every time we accept that "the economy" is some faceless force over which we have no control, and that the plight of its victims are somehow the natural result of immutable natural laws, instead of the natural result of thousands of individual decisions, many of which were made down the marble halls not 10 feet from this keyboard, where the Congress is back to discuss, seriously, how a distant government could do such horrible things to its own citizens.

UK Plans to Charge Students for Free Online Classes and Give Big Raise to President

What's wrong with higher education in this country is the same thing that's wrong with the economy as a whole: stealing from the poor to make the rich even more obscenely wealthy.

Linda Blackford at the Herald:

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to extend President Eli Capilouto's contract by two years and to give him a 5 percent raise and a $50,000 performance bonus.

When was the last time workers in Kentucky got a five percent raise, much less a performance bonus?  State law mandates a five percent annual raise for state employees, but the legislature has stolen that from workers every year since 2002. The minimum wage has been stuck below poverty level since 1998.

What percentage of UK's graduates (which of course don't include its athletes) use their degrees to earn even a fraction of the $500,000 per year that is Capilouto's salary? UK won't tell, which means it's probably in single digits.

Meanwhile,  Jon Weiner at the Nation reveals:

The best bet for making a profit—outlined in a new Coursera contract with the University of Kentucky, also obtained by the Chronicle—would be for Coursera to get paid not by students seeking “certificates of completion” but rather by schools offering their courses: for a $3,000 flat fee, plus $25 per student for the first 500 students, $15 for the next 500, and so on. Material that students could get for free on the Internet would be sold to them by their college, in exchange for credit toward a degree. You might call that a rip-off, but it could be the business model for higher education in the future.

Don't get me started on the taxpayer ripoff that is the UK Athletics Department and its milllionaire coaches. No, even national champion college teams most certainly do not subsidize academics. Struggling students and taxpayers subsidize farm teams for the NBA, NFL and MLB.

That UK Blue we all bleed should be green for the greed of the filthy rich bleeding this state dry.

Beshear Shoves Obamacare Down Kentucky's Throat

Yeah, Governor Cowardly Worm is still trying to pretend that the fabulous new health care exchange he's set up in Kentucky has nothing to do with the kenyan kommie katastrophe mandated by that ni**er in the White House.

Beginning Oct. 1, more than four out of every five uninsured Kentuckians seeking health insurance through Kentucky’s health benefits marketplace will qualify for a discount to make insurance more affordable – and for certain plans, the discounts will completely eliminate monthly premiums for some individuals.

Gov. Steve Beshear briefed reporters today on what Kentuckians can expect when they shop for insurance on kynect, the state’s health benefits marketplace. 

“For one out of every six Kentuckians, health insurance has been out of reach – too expensive, too cumbersome, or too confusing.  The good news is that’s changing, thanks to kynect,” said Gov. Beshear.  “Not only will kynect be easy to use, it’s the only place you can go to find out your income-based insurance discount. Through kynect, affordable health insurance is finally a reality.”

No, affordable health insurance is finally a reality because of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare because it was proposed, shepherded through Congress, signed into law and implemented by that ni**er in the White House who is President Barack Hussein Obama and don't you ever forget it, you redneck Dawson Springs cracker.

Kentucky has more than 640,000 uninsured citizens, which is about 15 percent of the state’s population.  Approximately 308,000 will qualify for Medicaid. The remaining 332,000 can choose among state-approved insurance plans, and can compare monthly premiums and other costs like co-pays. Thanks to new requirements through the Affordable Care Act Obamacare, no one can be denied coverage for any reason, even pre-existing conditions.

That's Obamacare saving the ungrateful asses of 640,000 Kentuckians, 56 percent of whom voted for Mitt G.I. LuvMoney last November and who will undoubted re-elect Mitch "Obama is Evil Incarnate" McConnell next November. Obamacare, courtesy of the man Zandar satirically calls President Blackety-Black-Black.

That Kentucky's Democratic Governor, who is never running for office again, thinks he has to deny the very president who is saving the Commonwealth because when it comes to race this fucking state is fucking Mississippi makes me so fucking mad I want to make the one and only qualification for Obamacare be proof that you voted for Barack Hussein Obama for President. Twice.

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Feuding for Fitness in the Mountains

Let's scale this up, boys. Let teams from all over the country compete.  Make it a year-round event. Turn it into the biggest tourist attraction between the Washington Monument and the Kentucky Derby.

Mary Meehan at the Herald:

One of the country's most well-known family conflicts is being used for a positive purpose as residents from Kentucky and West Virginia compete in the Hatfield-McCoy Healthy Feud.

Residents of six West Virginia counties and Pike County in Kentucky are pledging to walk 100 miles in 100 days. The event runs through Dec. 17.

Technically, all the Kentuckians would walk as McCoys and the West Virginians would stroll as Hatfields. The feuding families were generally geographically split by the Tug Fork River, the boundary between the two states, said Adam Flack, executive director of West Virginia on the Move, one of several community groups in both states promoting the challenge.

The story of the long-simmering and often deadly feud has a real resonance with people in the area, Flack said.

"There are a lot of descendants, and they are very proud of it," he said.

Those outside the families apparently find the history of the feud fascinating too. Last year, a History Channel miniseries on the feud, which lasted from 1865 to 1891, was a ratings bonanza and inspired a new wave of tourism and interest in the region related to the conflict.

We Could Use More of This Kind of Corruption

The kind that directly helps the poor, and that local juries dismiss because it, you know, helped the poor.

Mark Hansel at the Kentucky Enquirer:

The criminal investigation of the Boone County Public Works Department has revealed that more than $12,000 of the money in a secret slush fund was spent on holiday turkeys.

The turkeys were distributed to the families of underprivileged children in Boone County Public Schools.

Sheriff’s department spokesman Tom Scheben said investigators did not uncover the level of corruption typically associated with this type of case.

“Investigations like this usually reveal bad people doing bad things,” Scheben said. “That didn’t happen here.”

Last week, a Boone County grand jury declined to indict retired Public Works Director Greg Sketch or any other department employees for abuse of public trust after being presented with the findings from the investigation. The charges against Sketch were related to the alleged improper use of funds from the sale of scrap metal.

Sketch didn't divert tax dollars. He used some of the revenue from scrap metal sales to help feed impoverished families. Everybody who thinks that if that money had been turned over to the county it would have been used for the same or a better cause, stand on your head.


 

Make a Profit By Paying $15 Per Hour

You've heard that McDonald's in Australia and Europe pays workers $15 per hour and survives, but maybe you think that's some kind of furriner cheating.

How about a fast-food chain right here at home that succeeds by paying its workers double the minimum wage?

Bryce Covert at Think Progress:

Michigan’s Moo Cluck Moo currently pays entry-level workers $12 an hour — far above the state floor of $7.40 — but come October 1, that starting wage will rise to $15, co-owner Brian Parker told the Daily Beast’s Daniel Gross.
Asked why the restaurant, which has only been open since the spring, will raise its wages, Parker told Gross, “We always wanted to be at $15 an hour. It just feels human to do it.”

Its previously high wages brought the company better customer service, more skilled employees, less turnover, and free publicity. The time saved from having to hire new workers and train them will save it money. And with five people working at any given time, the increase in wages will mean an increase in hourly costs of $15, the cost of two transactions. The owners are betting that it will be a good investment.

I don't eat fast food, but if a Moo Chuck Moo opened in Kentucky and paid its employees $15 an hour - thus shaming every other restaurant in the state - I'd eat there every day.

Black Helicopters Won't Take Our Freedom, But Corporate Control Will

Firedoglake:

“President Obama reiterated on Tuesday his desire to complete an Asia-Pacific trade deal this year, arguing that it will not only boost economic growth but shore up global security.”

The Trans Pacific Partnership has nothing to do with trade and even less to do with economic growth. And the only entities that will feel more secure are the giant corporations who will own us lock, stock, barrel and meaningless Constitution.

Jim Hightower:

The nullification of our people's right to direct expenditures of our own tax dollars is but one of the horror stories being quietly packed into a political-and-economic bombshell benignly labeled TPP --the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

SNIP

This time we really must pay attention, because TPP is not just another trade deal. First, it is massive and open-ended. It would hitch us immediately to 11 Pacific Rim nations (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam), and its door would remain wide open to lure China, Indonesia, Russia, and other nations to come in. Second, note that many of those countries already have trade agreements with the US. Hence, THIS AMAZING FACT: TPP is a "trade deal" that mostly does not deal with trade. In fact, of the 29 chapters in this document, only five cover traditional trade matters!

The other two dozen chapters amount to a devilish "partnership" for corporate protectionism. They create sweeping new "rights" and escape hatches to protect multinational corporations from accountability to our governments... and to us. Here are a few of TPP's provisos that would make our daily lives riskier, poorer, and less free:

 Read the whole incredible thing.

Meanwhile, we're getting a taste of corporatocracy wherever our elected officials sell off public assets.

Rick Perlstein at The Nation:

And if the city lowered the parking meter rates, the highest in the country? Same problem: that would trigger the “reserve power action” clause too. Chicago, meet your new City Council: the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi.

And that’s just wrong—illegal, says Geoghegan: “You can’t bargain away—you can’t sell off—the police power of the city.”

He thundered: “This is privatization gone nuts. It’s almost a comical form of privatization—privatization at its very, very most toxic. Because here, what is being sold off is not really a city asset. It’s not really like Midway Airport”—a deal that might be just around the corner, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “It’s not like a tollway”—the Chicago Skyway was leased for ninety-nine years to an Australian concern for quick cash in 2005 (“With that kind of money to be made,” The Washington Post said, “Americans are lining up to try their luck at Wall Street’s hottest new game—“investing in infrastructure.”) No, at least in those cases it was just property they were selling off. Here, “they’re selling off the governmental powers of a city. And that’s what’s so disturbing about this. And getting those back is insanely expensive. And the City said, in its brief in the court below, that if the deal were undone they would owe all this money and they can’t pay it back.”

SNIP

As Tom Tresser of Chicago’s CivicLab impressed upon me, they’re coming after your meters—and bridges, and billboards, and who knows what other public assets—next. “We have a massive global movement of capital which, because they’ve burned their own fucking houses down through their own greed, don’t have the gilt returns that they’re used to receiving…. So the new guaranteed annual returns that big business and big capital are looking for is our assets.”

And that’s about all of us.

The AFL-CIO is fighting back.

Bad for labor, the environment, internet freedom, and the democratic process – while good for parasitic corporations and Wall Street. If TPP passes those making the decisions that shape your life will be out of reach and not subject to any democratically accountable authority. Like the feudalism of old, there will be an untouchable elite whose choices dictate the architecture of the world – independent and oblivious to the needs of the 99%.

 

Which Kentucky Colleges Rank as Among the Best?

For years, the Washington Monthly's College Rankings have been putting the U.S. News list to shame. That's because the Monthly ranks colleges according  to how well the colleges educate their students at reasonable cost, and how much the colleges benefit the entire country through research, service, graduating the poor and turning out students who land good, middle-class or better-paid jobs..

Berea College has consistently been the Monthly's number one liberal arts college in the nation, but Kentucky's other private colleges and its state universities have never ranked in the top 100 in their categories.

Until now.

In 2013, for the first time, the Monthly ranked the nation's 1,011 community colleges.  And two in Kentucky - in Eastern Kentucky - ranked in the top 50.

Southeastern Community and Technical College in Cumberland, Kentucky, ranked number 13.  Ashland Community and Technical College ranked number 43. 

Don't ever let anybody tell you Eastern Kentucky is poor soil for good education.

Flagship schools the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville don't even come close, ranking at 190 and 180, respectively, among national universities

Here's the ranking of the top 50 community colleges in the nation.

And here's the full issue.

Boston Commies Giving Free Lunch to Everyone

You really can't start early enough shaming the poor for being poor, and if the public schools are going to start practicing the equality they teach, then all the more reason to segregate poor kids into corporate charter schools where they'll how to be obedient drones.

Wonkette:

Yr Wonkette has made kind of a cottage industry about how terrible school districts and states and lunch ladies and errrebody can be about giving poor kids food because socialism or laziness or awfulness or all of them, Katie. But then Boston stepped up, prolly because we have scheduled an awesome party there, to just say “Fuck it. Let’s give all the kids free lunch all the time, because we are liebruls.”

Boston public schools will begin serving free lunches to all students this school year even if families have the financial means to pay, school officials are expected to announce Tuesday.

The meal program, more than a year in the making, is part of an experimental federal initiative that aims to make it easier for students from low-income families to receive free meals by eliminating the need to fill out paperwork, including potentially invasive questions about income.

Federal initiative, you say? Sounds like more of that patented Bamz socialism doesn’t it? Sure is!

The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees school food programs, started experimenting with universal free breakfasts and lunches three years ago, as part of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act, a centerpiece of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative to end childhood obesity.

You might be thinking “What self-respecting red-blooded ‘Merican wants to live in a world where you can’t shame the ever-living fuck out of poor kids in order to feed them? Let them not eat cake or anything else!” SPOILER ALERT: If you think this you are a dick and should prolly head on over to National Review Online or track down Megan McArdle because one of them will likely write some sort of post about how starving kids straight to death is just the price we would pay to live in a libertarian paradise.

Free From the Slavery of Religion

From Divine Irony:

Black atheists in this country take double the grief the white ones do. Not just because of the strong religious tradition in the black community, but because of the prejudice that tradition arouses in white atheists. "Religion is just too important to African-Americans," they say. "They'll never abandon it."

Bullshit. Also, racism.

In her book Godless Americana, atheist of color Sikivu Hutchinson explains how religion is a rational, logical response to a society that devalues nonwhites and the poor and treats them as less than human.

Contrary to what some atheists believe, the need for religion will not simply evaporate when the masses get a steady diet of reason, science and logic. Religious belief will not recede by lecturing people of color or working-class whites about how ignorant they are to believe. Unless structural inequality is radically redressed, religious belief among disenfranchised people peoples, both globally and within the U.S., will continue to thrive.

The most religion-free societies on earth are also the societies with the least poverty and inequality. That's not a coincidence. 

And the Violent Suppression of Non-Violent Anti-War Dissent Resumes

My guess is that Yates was specifically targeted for physical assault and abuse because she is a veteran - a veteran advocating against war.  Very little enrages the patriarchy as much as one of its trained-to-be-unquestioningly-loyal minions breaks ranks and tells the truth.

That John Kerry - denied the presidency for his truth-telling 40 years earlier - is now shilling for the warmongers tells you how much worse it's gotten..

Dave Lindorff at Nation of Change:

The US has yet to launch President Obama’s latest war crime of massively bombing Syria (a country that does not threaten this nation) and already federal police thugs, in this case National Parks Service Rangers, have violently arrested an Iraq War Veteran who was peacefully playing her banjo in the shade on Independence Mall in Philadelphia following an anti-war protest and march.

Emily Yates, an activist with the group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and a professional folksinger and banjo player, can be seen in this video, peacefully standing plucking her instrument when she is ordered to move by a group of Park Rangers. When she asks them (politely) why she has to move off of federal park property that is open to the public, she is not given any explanation. Then at one point, she is grabbed from behind roughly without warning and slammed, bent over, across the wooden top of a park bench, with several large rangers pinning her down, and with her hands wrenched behind her back, as they try to place metal cuffs on her wrists.

As she struggles to breathe with all that pressure on her forcibly bent-over form, a senior officer can be heard telling her to “relax” and to “stop resisting” -- though with three men piled on top of her, it is clear she is not resisting..

Yates was held in a federal lockup for two days before an arraignment on Monday, at which she was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and, most seriously, “assaulting a federal officer.” The latter charge, absurd when matched up against the video of the arrest, is a felony carrying a heavy jail sentence.

One is reminded of those black jokes about police ramming arrested persons head first into the sides of patrol cars and then charging them with damaging public property, or punching handcuffed victims in the face and then charging them with banging their heads into the officer’s fist. It is impossible to view the above video and see any evidence of “assault.” Nor could Yates have been assaulting the larger scrum of rangers who were all over her prone body later when she can be seen being held on the ground, screaming for help, as angry spectators shouted from the sidelines for the rangers to let her go, to “stop strangling her” and to call for a medic.

Yates’ attorney, Larry Krassner, offered TCBH! a statement on the case saying: “Emily is a six-year military veteran who served honorably for two tours in Iraq. She has PTSD. She was arrested and injured by federal officers for no good reason. The US government owes its veterans better treatment than this, even when they happen to be opposed to further war in Syria.”


I would add it owes its citizens, veterans or not, better treatment than this too, especially in this particular location, of all places.

Independence Mall is a three-block piece of property run by the National Park Service in Philadelphia. A favored spot for tourists from all over the nation and the world, with the restored Independence Hall at one end, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written and where the Bill of Rights was passed into law, protecting freedom of speech and assembly, and the Constitution Center at the other end, where the US Constitution and its guarantees of freedom are celebrated, it is also a favored locale for protest actions, such as the protest and march against a US attack on Syria, which took place just before Yates’ arrest.

The brutal assault on this peaceful folksinger offers a stark view of the reality of America’s burgeoning police state, set as it was against the image of the building where America’s founding documents offered the hope for such a different kind of state. The park's rangers Saturday certainly sent many foreign tourists home with a whole different view of the "Land of the Free" not to mention the "Home of the Brave."

Stop this one before it starts.

 

Stop Beating the Dead Horse of Coal

Kentucky is still denying gravity on the subject of which industries deserve promotion and encouragement.

Janet Patton at the Herald:

Horses drive $3 billion in annual economic impact in Kentucky and create almost 41,000 jobs, according to the first in-depth study in decades of one of the state's signature industries.

The University of Kentucky economic analysis, based on statewide surveys of horses and of the people who enjoy them, shows that the equine industry creates about $1.4 billion in new income paid to workers, profits to businesses and dividends to shareholders and generates about $134 million in tax revenue for the state.

Three billion dollars is almost six times the economic impact of coal, and that's not counting the negative costs of the coal industry that outweigh its benefits and turn coal into a net loser for the state.

41,000 jobs is more than double the 20,000 jobs coal provided seven years ago, before the industry started shedding jobs by the hundreds.

No, you can't raise horses in the mountains. But you can stop pretending that the coal industry benefits Kentucky. You can stop blaming the EPA for an economic crisis in the mountains entirely caused by the exploitation of Big Coal. You can stop fantasizing that fossil fuel boom will save Eastern Kentucky.

You can stop refusing to face facts: saving Kentucky's economy is going to require stopping all coal mining and gas drilling in the state and investing billions in rebuilding the economy and social structure of the eastern and western coal fields from scratch.

It's going to have to happen eventually, The sooner we start, the sooner it will be done and the less it will cost.

Fall at Kentucky State Parks

UPDATED Sept. 18, Sept. 27, Oct. 17, Oct. 27, Nov. 5, Nov. 17

Fall color will be spectacular this year at Kentucky's State Parks - don't miss it.

• Parks Open With Events All Winter The Kentucky State Parks will be open this winter with a busy schedule of outdoor and indoor events. These events include wildlife viewing weekends for elk, eagles, and other birds, the Winter Adventure Weekend Jan. 24-26 at Carter Caves State Resort Park, and 5K races. There are more than 250 miles of hiking trails at Kentucky State Parks. For those who like to stay inside, there are special events planned for a Thanksgiving Day buffet, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, dinner theaters, and two indoor pools at Lake Cumberland and Lake Barkley State Resort Parks. The park’s historic homes will also have special Christmas tours. “We keep busy during winter months with many special events at our parks,” Parks Commissioner Elaine Walker said. “This is also a great time for groups to hold meetings and holiday gatherings at our park facilities.” All 17 resort parks will be open every weekend all winter. All resort parks will be open for Thanksgiving and the following weekend. The winter schedule will take effect the week of Nov. 17. Seven resort parks will remain open seven days a week. They are: Cumberland Falls, General Butler, Jenny Wiley, Kentucky Dam Village, Lake Barkley, Lake Cumberland and Natural Bridge.

• Dulcimer Christmas The Rail City Dulcimer Society presents “A Dulcimer Christmas” on Friday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m. at Greenbo Lake State Resort Park.

• Thanksgiving Buffet Kentucky State Park restaurants are preparing for one of the busiest days of the year – Thanksgiving Day. The Thanksgiving Day buffet will be served Nov. 28, 2013, at all 17 resort park restaurants, a tradition for the parks and many families across Kentucky.

• Military/Veteran Discount The Kentucky State Parks are offering lodging discounts to current and former members of our nation’s armed services with the “USA Military Discount” program from Nov. 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014. The program is available to those on active military duty, retired members of the military, veterans, members of the National Guard and reservists. Proof of military service is required at check-in.

• Eagle Watch Weekends Nature lovers should be making plans for a unique Kentucky State Park tradition – Eagle Watch Weekends in January and February 2014. The park system will sponsor this wildlife-watching opportunity as bald eagles gather around the major lakes of western Kentucky looking for food. The park tours allow you to observe and learn about these beautiful birds of prey.

• Elk Tours Two state parks in eastern Kentucky will offer guests a unique wildlife viewing opportunity this fall and winter – elk viewing tours. Visitors to Jenny Wiley and Buckhorn Lake State Resort Parks can choose a weekend, stay at a state park lodge or cottage and arise early to enjoy one of these unique tours.

• Healthier Options for Kids The 17 restaurants operated by the Kentucky State Parks are now offering healthier options on their kids' menus. The Kentucky State Parks have joined "Better Bites: Restaurant Edition," a project of the Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition in Lexington. The coalition focuses on making healthy eating and regular physical activity popular and accessible for children ages 9-13.

• For Horse Lovers With the opening of the Dawkins Line Rail Trail, horseback riders have another 18 miles of trails to enjoy the beautiful Kentucky scenery. The Kentucky State Parks, which will manage the Dawkins Line that runs through Johnson and Magoffin counties, have several other equine opportunities available to guests. “The Kentucky State Parks have some excellent trails, campgrounds and riding opportunities throughout the state,” First Lady Jane Beshear said. “Even if you don’t own a horse, several state parks have horses available so all visitors have the chance to enjoy a trail ride on a safe and comfortable mount.”

"We cannot turn a blind eye"

There's no such thing as "limited military action" in the Middle East, Mr. President. And the only threat to our "national security" that Syria poses is the billions of dollars needed to rebuild our nation that instead we'll piss into the sand.



Full transcript here.

Charles Pierce takes the president's argument apart here.

The War-Poverty-War Vicious Cycle Continues

It's not just the binary false choice of guns or butter - it's that choosing guns over butter makes both war and poverty more likely because they feed each other.

War takes money away from infrastructure and social services, thus creating poverty and expanding poverty, which creates both civilian unrest and increased military enlistment of the unemployed, which pushes governments to start wars that distract restless civilians and dispose of excess cannon fodder but cost more money that creates more poverty that ... ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Digby:

It's interesting how they can always find the money for this stuff, isn't it?

A limited United States intervention in Syria would not require a supplemental appropriations bill from Congress, an Obama administration official told The Huffington Post on Wednesday.

The official's assessment that a narrowly tailored operation could be paid for with "existing Department of Defense resources" was seconded by two high-ranking aides on Capitol Hill.

However, another Hill staffer argued that without a greater understanding of the operation, it would be impossible to settle on an exact price tag or means of payment.

"Who the f--- knows what it will cost? It depends entirely on what happens," said the staffer.

Meanwhile:

Head Start programs cut staff members and students. Meals on Wheels, a federal program that delivers meals to the homebound elderly, scaled back in some communities. Federal public defenders, already strapped for funding, cut an additional 11 percent out of their budgets and are preparing for more cuts this fall.

It’s been six months since the federal government imposed $85 billion worth of mandatory budget cuts, and among those who have felt the impact most acutely have been the poorest Americans.

“Did the sequester disproportionately hurt the poor?” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. “You bet it did.”

SNIP

Shared sacrifice, dontcha know?

Abortion Makes Life Better

The biggest problem with the campaign to get women to talk about their abortions was the subtext that women needed to be persuaded out of their supposed shame and regret.

There is no shame, no regret. There is relief, pride and love.

Tara Culp-Ressler at Think Progress:

On Friday, the New York Times published a wedding announcement for Udonis Haslem, a basketball player with the Miami Heat, and his partner Faith Rein. The article traces the couple’s 14-year relationship from the time they first met at the University of Florida, to the beginnings of their powerful careers, to the birth of their son, to Haslem’s proposal in Italy.

It also includes several paragraphs about Rein’s decision to have an abortion after the couple had been dating for about a year — an experience which brought them closer:

Their first challenge took place the following spring when she became pregnant. It was her junior and his senior year, and he had begun training for the N.B.A. draft. Despite the pregnancy, she was busy with track meets and helping him complete homework. The timing was bad.

“I am not a huge fan of abortion, but we both had sports careers, plus we could not financially handle a baby,” said Mr. Haslem, noting how he struggled with supporting Kedonis, the son he had in high school, who is now 14 and who lives with his mother.

“Udonis appreciated that I was willing to have an abortion,” Ms. Rein said. “I found him caring, supportive, nurturing and all over me to be sure I was O.K. I saw another side of him during that difficult time and fell deeply in love. He had a big heart and was the whole package.”

The New York Times’ decision to include those details in a column in its prominent wedding section is a small step toward dispelling the persistent abortion stigma that’s deeply ingrained in our society. Despite the fact that terminating a pregnancy is a very common aspect of reproductive health care — one in three U.S. women will have had an abortion by the time she is 45 years old — many of those women feel like they’re not allowed to talk openly about it.

Shame-based messages around abortion care have reinforced the idea that it’s always morally wrong, and the women who opt for having one always end up regretting it later. In fact, research has consistently shown that when women choose to have an abortion, it’s because it’s the right choice for them — just like it was the right choice for Rein and Haslem in the early stages of their relationship — and they don’t actually regret it. When women who have had abortions are asked about their experiences, 90 percent of them say they primarily felt relief.

QOTD

Charles Pierce:

And there you have it. We are going to kill people in Syria out of pure imperial dick-waving. These people will have fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and fifth-cousins-once-removed, and every one of those people will hate us until the day we die, and they will teach their children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and fifth-cousins-once-removed to hate us, too, forever. This is not "therapeutic." This is Vietnam, 1962. And to set such things in motion just to prove we still have sufficient national penis to do it is the dumbest reason for making war since the last one devised by anyone who worked for George W. Bush, the ungelded fool.

Who Are the Farm Subsidy Thieves in Your Neighborhood?

Here's a hint: they're not the ones on food stamps.

DDM at Wonkette:

So our little mommyblog has been harping on the Republicans in Congress because of their strong desire to ensure that poor people don’t eat, because poor people are just wasting taxpayer monies by being frauds. Luckily, the USDA (which administers food stamps) just came out with a big honking report on overpayments, and this is surely gonna be red meat for the Republicans: $20 million in overpayments by the USDA! Hoo boy, libruls are gonna have a tough time with this one… hold on… what’s that, Washington Post:

In a report released this week, the USDA inspector general said the agency spent nearly $15 million on undue payouts through the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation while issuing no major overpayments for nutrition assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — formerly known as food stamps.

Yeah, we bolded that last part because… well, because it’s important, that’s why. Boy, we has a confuze! We were sure that all people on food stamps were just welfare queens who were committing a giant fraud on the American people because we all have that one conservative friend who heard a story from an email from his reliable uncle that there was a guy at a store somewhere who bought a lobster with food stamps, so it’s all a sham because poor people just steal. But it seems that there aren’t poor people who are living the high life on the federal dole… rather, rich agribusinesses are bilking the crop insurance system… with an average excess of $209,000. We here at Wonket are not Mathletes, but we can do basic calculations, provided there is enough alcohol. So if you carry the four, and x equals the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, it would seem that the excesses just from crop insurance equals the amount it would take to provide food stamps for nearly 31,000 families of four for a year. But then some wingnut would just complain about the growing power of the poor-people-eating-food-industrial complex.

Find out who's getting farm subsidies in your state, your congressional district, your back yard here.

State: Pipeline Company Does Not Have Right of Eminent Domain

Not that Len Peters knows his ass from a hole in the ground about pipelines, toxic waste, environmental protection or eminent domain, but a member of Beshear's administration rejecting a corporate argument in front of a legislative committee is a positive sign.

Greg Kocher at the Herald:

The companies that propose to build an underground natural gas liquids pipeline across Kentucky do not have the power to condemn properties to gain easements, State Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters told a legislative committee Thursday.

Peters said he asked the cabinet's legal counsel to investigate whether the power of eminent domain — the authority to condemn private property for public use — extends to the pipeline companies.

"Based on this research relative to federal law and statutes relative to how natural gas liquids pipelines are regulated, they do not see how eminent domain can be invoked," Peters told the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

That declaration was met with applause from landowners who packed the Capitol Annex committee room with a capacity of 250 people. Forty more people were in an overflow room.

Oklahoma-based Williams Co. and Houston-based Boardwalk Pipeline Partners want to transport flammable natural gas liquids from drilling zones in Pennsylvania through West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.

Right through the heart of Bluegrass Country, where the tiniest leak into the karst bedrock can contaminate miles of groundwater in a matter of hours, delivering a killing blow to the Commonwealth's bourbon, horse and tourism industries.


But that didn't stop company officials from repeating the lies about safety and jobs that they have delivered at multiple "open houses" throughout the region, even denying they had begun negotiating with landowners while those very landowners sat behind them booing and hissing.

This battle has just started. It's going to take concerted effort through the General Assembly - the members of which are drooling at the thought of bribes campaign contributions from the pipeline company - and the courts to stop the Bluegrass Pipeline.

On Top of Incompetent and Corrupt, Charter Schools Are Also Racist

Why not just admit the real distraction is the color of her skin content of her character?

TPM:

Oklahoma man Terrance Parker pulled his 7-year-old daughter, Tiana, out of a Tulsa charter school after he said school officials told him Tiana's dreadlocked hair didn't look presentable, local Fox affiliate KOKI reported Wednesday.

The dress code at Deborah Brown Community School states that "hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable." The school feels that could distract from a respectful and serious atmosphere, according to KOKI. School officials declined to speak with reporters.

"She's always presentable. I take pride in my kids looking nice," Parker, who is a barber, told KOKI. He has enrolled Tiana at a new school which does not take issue with her hairstyle, he said.

Watch the video. The child's dreads are so short I had to zoom in to even see them.

Mitch Handing Grimes Huge Opportunity on Syria

Hey Alison: You know what would prove you're not an empty dress, show you hate President Obama and reveal Mitchie-poo to be a cowardly worm - all at the same time? Announce you oppose the attack on Syria.

Chris Hayes gave you your whole argument last night. As usual, MSNBC embed sux, so click the link.

At the end he talks about actual, pragmatic, useful options that would help millions of people and earn us gratitude and friends in the region - pretty much the opposite of what missiles will do.

Scott Lemieux discusses the weakness of the pro-attack case and concludes:

The case for attacking Syria fails on multiple levels. The best-case scenario is pretty much that a limited amount of destruction is inflicted on Syria pointlessly. Congress should say no.

Farmer Plea Deal Opens Door to Widespread Theft from Taxpayers

18 months of likely probation plus restitution and fines amounting to a fraction of what he actually stole? That's an invitation to every half-wit crook in state government to steal everything you can.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has entered into agreements with federal and state prosecutors, and the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, that would resolve all charges against him, his attorney said Thursday in a news release.

If the courts and ethics commission approve, the former University of Kentucky basketball star will plead guilty to two counts and receive a sentence in federal court in the range of 21 to 27 months, Frankfort attorney J. Guthrie True said in the release.

Farmer also will agree to pay restitution and an ethics fine totaling $125,000 and will receive a concurrent one-year sentence in state court, True said.

Farmer treated his elected position like a blank check and the state employees assigned to his department like personal servants. He deserves years in a maximum security prison and millions of dollars in crippling punitive fines.

What he did was just an exaggerated version of what elected officials in Kentucky have been getting away with for two hundred and twenty-one years. Which is exactly why Farmer's punishment must be so terrifyingly severe that it will finally start detering these motherfuckers.

Fighting One Coal Mine at a Time

Through the other end of the telescope from the global -warming effects of burning coal is the local devastation to drinking water by mountaintop removal mines.

That battle in the trenches saw a small victory yesterday.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

A judge has temporarily blocked work at a large, disputed surface mine in Knott and Perry counties.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell issued a temporary injunction directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily suspend the permit it issued to Leeco Inc., a subsidiary of James River Coal, for the 756-acre Stacy Branch mine.

The order also barred Leeco from filling any streams at the site, which is near the Perry County town of Vicco.

The company has not started mining at the site but said it planned to begin work on a valley fill — a place to put blasted rock from the mine — as soon as possible after clearing timber, groups opposing the mine said in a court motion.

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club had sought an emergency order from Russell to block work at the mine.

Forget Global Warming; We're All Gonna Die of Radiation Poisoning

From Firedoglake:

“Japan to fund [$470 million] ice wall to stop reactor leaks.”  Update: apparently, the “No. 4 fuel pool is perhaps the greatest threat humanity has ever faced”.

And:

Near the Black Hills:  America’s Chernobyl, where “radiation levels . . . were higher than those in the evacuated zones around the Fukushima nuclear disaster. . ..”

But nuclear power is gonna save us from the coal.

No place to hide, motherfuckers, not even for the rich.

Judge Upholds Obamacare in Kentucky

But don't worry - the teabaggers will appeal all the way.  They've got Koch Brothers money behind them and a corporatist Supreme Court in front of them, and they can't lose.

Tom Loftus at the Courier:

The Beshear administration’s plans to expand Medicaid and begin enrollment in Kentucky’s new health care exchange survived their first court challenge Tuesday.

In separate rulings, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd upheld both decisions by Gov. Steve Beshear intended to expand access to health care to 640,000 uninsured Kentuckians under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.


The rulings swept aside the legal challenge by Nicholasville Tea Party activist David Adams and others who insisted that Beshear’s actions must be ratified by the legislature.


“The Kentucky Supreme Court has held that this legislative power may be delegated to the executive branch of government in these circumstances, so long as there are standards governing the exercise of discretion, and the legislature retains the authority to withdraw the delegation,” Shepherd wrote in the case upholding the expansion of Medicaid. “Those conditions are clearly met here.”

QOTD

Digby:

Iif it's not obvious that violence is the only answer then it's not the answer. 

Also, the Rude Pundit:

No, sorry, but fuck Syria. When we don't have to tell schoolteachers to take a pay cut and we can assure the children of Chicago they won't get shot, we can talk about being the moral authority in the world.

The Convenient Immorality of Repug Morality

Steve M explains the fundamental hypocrisy behind IOKIYAR:

For all their moralism, I'm not sure American right-wingers actually believe in enforcing behavioral "norms." American right-wingers don't really seem to believe in bad deeds -- deeds that are bad no matter who does them. American right-wingers believe in bad people -- people who deserve severe punishment. Other people don't deserve severe punishment no matter what they do.

Remember torture? I'm sure right-wingers thought it was a bad thing at the beginning of the last decade. Then the Bush administration engaged in torture -- and it turned out that that was OK, because George W. Bush was a good man. We were torturing evildoers. They were bad.

GOP senator David Vitter got into a prostitution scandal, but that was fine, because he's a good, God-fearing Christian. By contrast, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer should be banned from public office for life, and Bill Clinton deserved impeachment.

And, of course, in the 1980s Iraq under Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against Iran, and against Iraqi Kurds. That was fine, because Iraq's mortal enemy was our mortal enemy, Iran. (Iran, of course, had previously been deemed less evil when the U.S. decided that dealing with Iran was useful, in order to do harm to another of our mortal enemies, Nicaragua's Sandinista government.) Subsequently, of course, when Iraq became the U.S.'s mortal enemy, its use of chemical weapons was a pretext for an American invasion ("He gassed his own people!")

So, to the right, behavioral "norms" are, well, relative.

Yes, even when the repugs are accusing the left of "moral relativism," they're projecting.

Syria: The First of the Climate-Chaged-Caused Wars

This is what it's going to be from now on: People desperate for water and food forcing governments that have neither to respond with what they do have: weapons of mass destruction.

Unless Obama is delivering water, food and climate change reversal on those missiles, he's accomplishing nothing.

Digby:

Read the whole thing here. It is the most cogent recitation and analysis of the Syrian crisis that I've seen. While my opposition to this intervention is rooted in global concerns which are unrelated to this set of circumstances, these particulars bolster my instincts and my fundamental skepticism about the wisdom of this action.

Here's just one interesting insight that should make us all step back and ask ourselves whether our long term interest might be better served by concentrating on a different issue that really does require American "intervention":

Syria has been convulsed by civil war since climate change came to Syria with a vengeance. Drought devastated the country from 2006 to 2011. Rainfall in most of the country fell below eight inches (20 cm) a year, the absolute minimum needed to sustain un-irrigated farming. Desperate for water, farmers began to tap aquifers with tens of thousands of new well. But, as they did, the water table quickly dropped to a level below which their pumps could lift it.

In some areas, all agriculture ceased. In others crop failures reached 75%. And generally as much as 85% of livestock died of thirst or hunger. Hundreds of thousands of Syria’s farmers gave up, abandoned their farms and fled to the cities and towns in search of almost non-existent jobs and severely short food supplies. Outside observers including UN experts estimated that between 2 and 3 million of Syria’s 10 million rural inhabitants were reduced to “extreme poverty.”

The domestic Syrian refugees immediately found that they had to compete not only with one another for scarce food, water and jobs, but also with the already existing foreign refugee population. Syria already was a refuge for quarter of a million Palestinians and about a hundred thousand people who had fled the war and occupation of Iraq. Formerly prosperous farmers were lucky to get jobs as hawkers or street sweepers. And in the desperation of the times, hostilities erupted among groups that were competing just to survive.

If that doesn't sound like a premonition of many more crises to come, I don't know what does. Perhaps we should stop blowing things up for a little while and concentrate on being a global leader on the real existential crisis of our time: climate change. Tomahawk missiles aren't going to solve it, that's for sure.

I know it's long but please read this entire article. If you are persuaded, send it to your Representative, particularly if he or she is a progressive Democrat who is likely to be arm twisted by the Syria hawks in the Democratic leadership. It's vitally important that we break this cycle of military intervention to solve problems that can't be solved by military intervention. There are much bigger, long term challenges underlying all of this this that are papered over by America's status as the world's policeman and it's not serving any of us well.

It's not that the US has no leading role to play in the world. It's just that we are playing the wrong one.

Yes, this is exactly what the Pentagon has been war-gaming about for years now: non-stop civil and regional wars over resources destroyed by climate change.

Repug Small Government

Yep, you get all the freedom you can scrounge from the scraps big corporations leave behind.

From Firedoglake:

“North Carolina landowners would be forced to sell the natural gas under their homes and farms . . .  under a fracking recommendation approved Wednesday that’s expected to be enacted by the state legislature this fall.”

Why Repugs Hate and Fear Good Jobs

Because people with good, secure jobs aren't easy to intimidate.

Via under the mountain bunker:

Labor Day

via alternate world comics and under the mountain bunker.



Full-size version here.

American Exceptionalism: Shit Pay

Via underthemountainbunker:

It's Not CEO Day

But maybe it should be, with the way the rich and their congressional lackeys have systematically undone both the workers rights and the middle-class economy fought for by labor unions 80 years ago.

We had to fight for those then, and now we have to fight for them again.

Jim Hightower:

Webster’s dictionary tells us that Labor Day was “set aside for special recognition of working people.”

That's nice, but “set aside” by whom? It certainly wasn’t the Wall Street corporate and political powers that be. They nearly swallowed their cigars when the idea of honoring labor’s importance to America’s economy and social well-being was first proposed in 1882. Rather, this holiday was created by the workers themselves, requiring a 12-year grassroots struggle that finally culminated with an act of Congress in 1894.

The campaign helped coalesce unions into a national movement. And its message of labor's essential role also countered the haughty insistence of the robber barons of that time. The barons insisted they were America's "makers" — the invaluable few whose monopolistic pursuits should be unfettered. For they claimed that they and their corporations were the God-ordained creators of wealth.

Despite their bloated sense of self-importance, notice that the American people do not celebrate a CEO Day.

SNIP

Yet on Labor Day 2013, robber barons are again ascendant, declaring that they owe nothing — not even a shared prosperity — to the workers, consumers, taxpayers, and other American people who sustain them. Quite the opposite, they and their political henchmen are blithely shredding America's social contract and again insisting that the corporate elite must be unfettered, unions eliminated, and middle-class jobs Wal-Marted.

SNIP

This is no way to run a business, an economy, or a society. Fast-food giants are hugely profitable. (Yum! quaffed down $1.3 billion in profits last year alone.) They are more than able to pay living wages and decent benefits, as many local, independently-owned fast-food businesses do. Deliberately and unnecessarily holding down an entire workforce by funneling rightful wages into the coffers of a few ultra-rich executives and big investors is shameful — and dangerous. After all, even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over ... and being kicked.

At last, workers are beginning to kick back. All across the country, broad coalitions of religious leaders, unions, civil rights groups, community supporters, and others are joining thousands of fast-food workers in a rolling series of one-day strikes against particular chains, publicly shaming them for profiting through gross exploitation of employees. As one Baptist church leader said of his presence in these protests, "It's a matter of justice."

Yes — and that's what Labor Day has always been about.

Thanks to the Real Job Creators

Via Crooks and Liars:


credit: The Other 98 Percent

Homeless, Disabled Veterans Don't Make a Profit for VA

That's the real issue in Los Angeles, where a judge just cancelled nine contracts the VA has with private entities paying to rent space that is supposed to be used to house disabled veterans.

The land was donated in 1888 explicitly for housing homeless vets, and for the next eighty years, tens of thousands of vets lived there, at the Pacific Branch soldiers’ home. But for the past several decades, the dormitories have been empty, and over the years the VA has leased parts of the site for other purposes. Meanwhile, homeless veterans have been sleeping on the street outside the locked gates. (Disclosure: I’m on the board of the ACLU-SC Foundation.)

Particularly in need of help are vets with severe mental disabilities and those suffering from PTSD, brain injuries and other disorders. Housing is key to treating their medical problems, and there’s a regional VA medical center across the street from the empty dorms in Brentwood. The VA, however, argues that it has no legal or other obligation to provide housing for mentally disabled vets. It has acknowledged in court that it is required to provide medical services, but it argues that it has no responsibility to provide housing, even though these vets are too disabled to get to the hospital’s outpatient clinic on their own.

Under the order, nine leases are void, including Twentieth Century Fox Television and UCLA and the private Brentwood School, which have sports facilities on VA land. The judge gave the lessees and the VA six months to terminate the leases—or appeal his decision. The ACLU is urging the VA not to appeal: “Every day an appeal is pending the VA is putting the needs of private school students and college students over our veterans,” Rosenbaum said.

I'm actually going to cut the VA some slack on this one, as disgusting as its behavior is here.  And that's because the VA - like all government agencies and institutions federal state and local - is being starved of public funding and forced to grub for money like a corporation.

The problem is corporations are pure profit-making machines that reject all activity that does not make money.

Are you turning a profit, you homeless disabled veterans?  Then fuck you.

That's what austerity and tax cuts for the rich and lying about the deficit and bailouts for Wall Street but foreclosure and bankruptcy for Main Street and "running government like a business" will get you:

Disabled veterans sleeping in the streets.  And the equivalent in every other government service.

If you ran a corporation as if it were a public service, you fail to make a profit. And when you run public services like a corporation, you fail to provide public service.

Businesses aren't public services, and government agencies aren't businesses. Profit-making has no more place in government than a social safety net has in a corporation.

How Charter Schools Really Work

They funnel your tax dollars directly into a rich parasite's thief's pocket.

Coming Soon to a Non-Violent Protest Near You: "Pain Compliance"

The flip side of that old question "what have you got to hide" to defenders of the Fourth Amendment is this one to violators of the First Amendment: "What are you so afraid of?"

Scott Walker is shitting-his-pants terrified of peaceful protesters calling public attention to what an incredible dick he is.

Charlie Pierce:

We have been keeping an eye on what's going on with the Solidarity Singers, the people who gather each day to sing in the rotunda of the capitol building in Madison, thereby inconveniencing Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. Walker very much would like to run for president and, therefore, does not like to be annoyed by people in the course of selling off the state piecemeal to the people who might one day fund his campaign. So his apparatchiks in the state government have sic'ced the capitol cops on the singers, resulting in the arrests of several dangerous grandparents. However, recently, this has ceased to be amusing. The capitol cops -- and tell me again that law-enforcement in this country has not been dangerous militarized at every level -- have taken to use "pain compliance" techniques to affect these arrests, which serves no other function except to scare people into Not Doing It Again. This is the kind of logic common to people nostalgic for the old South Africa,

The National Lawyers Guild has gone up the wall.

Two well publicized arrests of African Americans at the Solidarity Sing Along August 26 in the Wisconsin State Capitol showed Capitol Police officers using excessive force and pain compliance techniques. Christopher (C.J.) Terrell's arms were wrenched behind him and police applied to pressure to the front and side of his neck to immobilize him, after he sat down during his arrest, then he was dragged out with arms pinned behind him. Six officers tackled Damon Terrell, pinned him to the marble rotunda floor, twisted his wrist, and carried him out in a prone position face down; he was later charged with felony assault of an officer although he appears to be the victim. On August 21 a young woman was arrested using pain compliance as well.  

And, of course, there's video. 

This, I should remind you, is the 50th anniversary of what non-violent resistance can accomplish.

Pain compliance is polite torture. It is the infliction of physical pain in order to achieve a political end. Nothing more, nothing less. Oh, he's a nasty piece of work, Scott Walker is. He's the guy who gets e-mail spam from waterboard manufacturers.

Walker's just the vanguard.  If he gets away with it - and it looks like he's going to - in a supposedly liberal state like Wisconsin used to be, there won't be a governor - Democratic, repug, redstate, bluestate - who won't establish "pain compliance" as the default response to every annoying "voter" who doesn't arrive bearing a seven-figure check.