Public Employee AynRandy Hates Public Employees

From Down with Tyranny:



Think Progress: 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — who has relied on taxpayer funded health care since 2011 — plans to offer a constitutional amendment that would prohibit tax dollars from subsidizing the health care of government employees and require all federal workers to purchase insurance through the exchanges included in the Affordable Care Act.

The proposal comes as the senator still appears to be enrolled in government subsidized health care coverage.

“My amendment says basically that everybody including Justice Roberts — who seems to be such a fan of Obamacare — gets it too,” Paul told the Daily Caller. “See, right now, Justice Roberts is still continuing to have federal employee health insurance subsidized by the taxpayer,” Paul said. “And if he likes Obamacare so much, I’m going to give him an amendment that gives Obamacare to Justice Roberts.”

Translation: "Nyah, nyah, nyah, NYAH, nyah."

Wonkette explains:

See, Obamacare allows people who do not have health insurance to acquire health insurance through the magic of legislation that was passed by Congress and thumbs-upped by the Supreme Court. If you already have health insurance through your employer, good for you! Carry on! If you do not have health insurance through your employer, guess what? Now you can get some! That way, if you get sick, you do not have to die penniless from lack of access to health care — like, oh, say, this one dude who worked for Rand Paul’s dad that one time.

Obamacare is not about how much you love it and want to marry it and have all its gaybies. It’s not about the Supreme Court making you do anything. It’s just a way for all those Americans who have no way of getting their hands on health insurance to, you know, do that. Which wasn’t a problem back when it was the Heritage Foundation’s idea. But now that Obama’s name is on it, Republicans hate it and hate anyone who doesn’t hate it, and they think they’ve figured out a really super duper clever way of making some kind of point — we are not sure what kind, but there’s a point in there somewhere maybe. They will try to amend Obamacare SO HARD until it is a plan in which all Americans must participate, which makes them even dumber than they look because that starts to sound little bit like that universal health care some of us bleeding heart fascist marxist commie tree-hugging latte-sippers were arguing for to begin with.

Checkmate, assholes.

Huge Opportunity Now for Senate Dems to Fix the Budget

Now that Ted "I don't understand Senate procedure" Cruz has finished demonstrating his inability to grasp the meaning of Dr. Seuss, Senate Democrats can grab a repug-sent opportunity to cancel sequestration, ban austerity and restore budget sanity.

Steve Benen at Maddowblog:

Senate Democrats are expected to fix the Obamacare provision, leave the rest of the bill intact, and send it back with very little time left on the clock. At that point, House Republicans will either grudgingly pass the Senate version and renew their crusade during a debt-ceiling crisis, or shut down the government.
But Senate Democrats could, if they wanted to, pursue a better deal for themselves -- and for the country.

SNIP

Senate Democrats could, for example, push for a spending measure that scraps the House GOP's Obamacare plan and simultaneously fixes the sequestration policy that's hurting the country. No one can defend the sequester -- it was designed, after all, to impose mindless hardship nationwide -- so some Senate Republicans might even go along.

If the Senate minority balked and mounted a filibuster, they'd be responsible for a government shutdown. If Senate Republicans backed off, Democrats could pass a better bill -- better for economic growth, better for job creation, better for struggling families, better for law enforcement, better for medical research, better for firefighters, etc.

And at that point, House Republicans would face an interesting dilemma.

The House GOP obviously wouldn't be happy, but don't forget, they're not going to like the Senate version anyway since it will fund the Affordable Care Act. So if Republicans are going to be angry no matter what Senate Dems do, shouldn't Democrats pursue a bill they actually like? One that better serves the nation's interests?

SNIP

Indeed, if a significant number of House Republicans are going to reject the Senate version anyway, and support from House Democrats will be necessary to get this bill across the finish line in time, the Senate could make it a whole lot easier to generate support from House Dems if they aimed a little higher in their ambitions.

There are 200 House Democrats. Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown that the GOP would be blamed for, there aren't 18 House Republicans who would vote for the Senate version that scraps a sequestration policy that Republicans say they don't like anyway? Of course there are.

GOP officials would howl, but (a) they're already howling; and (b) do Democrats really care? Should they? Were Republicans concerned about how Dems would react when they passed their ridiculous continuing resolution?

And the idea is catching on among Senate Democrats..

Alison May Be Stupider than AynRandy

Zandar nailed this one:

I'm not sure what Alison Lundergan Grimes is thinking in her lates line of attack against Mitch the Turtle, but not even I buy her argument that Obama administration EPA regulations are somehow McConnell's fault.

SNIP  

This is a nonsense attack coming from McConnell's right when his primary challenger Matt Bevin blames the guy for coal regs, but for Grimes to make the argument is not only disingenuous, it's stupid.  Running away from President Obama isn't going to make Democrats in the state vote for her.

SNIP

Grimes better figure out a smarter position on coal regs in Kentucky than "They're Mitch's fault."  It's insultingly stupid to the people who would want to vote for her.

Could not have said it better myself.

The Future Wall Street Wants is Happening Now in Qatar

Where there is great wealth, there is exploitation of labor.  Where there is extreme, obscene wealth for a tiny minority, there is slavery for everyone else.

Real, vicious, lethal, literal slavery.

Charles Pierce:

The Trade Union Confederation has had to count the corpses the hard way. It found that 83 Indians have died so far this year. The Gulf statelet was also the graveyard for 119 Nepalese construction workers. With 202 migrants from other countries dying over the same nine months, Ms Burrow is able to say with confidence there is at least one death for every day of the year. The body count can only rise now that Qatar has announced that it will take on 500,000 more migrants, mainly from the Indian subcontinent, to build the stadiums, hotels and roads for 2022.

Not all the fatalities are on construction sites. The combination of back-breaking work, nonexistent legal protections, intense heat and labour camps without air conditioning allows death to come in many guises. To give you a taste of its variety, the friends of Chirari Mahato went online to describe how he would work from 6am to 7pm. He would return to a hot, unventilated room he shared with 12 others. Because he died in his sleep, rather than on site, his employers would not accept that they had worked him to death. There are millions of workers like him around the Gulf. When we gawp at the wealth that allows the Qatari royals to buy the Olympic Village and Chelsea Barracks, we miss their plight, and the strangeness of the oil rich states, too.

Strangeness is one way to put it.

"Absolute monarchy" does not begin to capture a society such as Qatar, where migrants make up 99% of the private sector workforce. Apartheid South Africa is a useful point of reference. The 225,000 Qatari citizens can form trade unions and strike. The roughly 1.8 million migrants cannot. Sparta also comes to mind. But instead of a warrior elite living off the labour of helots, we have plutocrats and sybarites sustained by faceless armies of disposable migrants.

Obscene is another way.

SNIP

I don't want to hear anything about cultural imperialism. This is inexcusable in the 21st century. And, in the years since, we've pretty much turned Qatar into an aircraft carrier with luxury hotels. They're our plucky little ally. Sooner or later, the shit will hit the fan and we'll be startled by the ingratitude displayed. We do nothing but wrong over there. It's startling.

No taxes on the rich, of course - no need, what with all the no-cost "jobs" they create. It's the Galtian paradise the teabaggers are working so hard to make happen here, never realizing they'll be the first ones in chains.

What Happens When You Run a Repug-Lite Against a Real Repug

Real Democratic candidates are forced to run as independents.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Owensboro home builder Ed Marksberry has decided to run for the U.S. Senate next year as an independent rather than as a Democrat.

"I want to make sure my platform is not beholden to corporate money and any political party leadership," he said Monday during a telephone interview.

Marksberry has had "some disagreements" with Kentucky Democratic Party leadership, whom he contends ignored his campaign.

"I can now do what I want to," he said. "I may not win, but my voice will be heard."

Marksberry said he must change his party registration by Dec. 31 and get the signatures of 5,000 Kentucky voters by August to be on the November 2014 ballot for U.S. Senate as an independent.

He said he expected that supporters of the late Gatewood Galbraith, a perennial candidate from Lexington, would help him get the necessary signatures because he, like Galbraith, advocates legalization of marijuana.

More importantly, Marksberry is an economic populist, a strong supporter of unions, taxing the wealthy to create good middle-class jobs, expanding Social Security and Medicare, and a social safety net that protects society's vulnerable.

All true Democratic positions that repug-lite Alison Lundergan Grimes is running away from as fast as her DINO legs will carry her.

Yes, a vote in November 2014 for Ed Marksberry is undoubtedly a vote for the real repug - either Mitch McConnell or Matt Bevin.

But widespread support for Marksberry now might possibly force Grimes to at least try to attract Democratic voters who refuse to turn out for Blue Dogs.  Because if she doesn't turn them out, she doesn't have a chance in hell of beating a real repug.

Fairness Brings Economic Benefit to Vicco

It's always been true that extending civil rights brings economic benefits to those who ban discriimination. Gay rights in Vicco is no different.

Bruce Schreiner at AP:

Eight months after this tiny Appalachian town took a stand against gay-based discrimination, it's basking in a flurry of attention and even an infusion of much-needed cash. All that hoopla has its openly gay mayor dreaming of reviving a place that had long seemed past its prime.

Out-of-towners occasionally venture well off the interstate to make the trek to Vicco, a fading coal town of about 330 residents where an aging row of buildings lines one side of the block-long downtown. Railroad tracks run along the other side, though trains rarely pass by anymore.

Visitors pose for pictures in front of the Mayberry-like city hall or shake hands with Mayor Johnny Cummings, 51, a chain-smoking hair salon operator who grew up in the town, spent some time living on both coasts, and then returned home.

"I thought the 15 minutes of fame would have been over a long time ago," Cummings said.

Not even close

Shelbyville, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Berea, Richmond: What are you waiting for?  What the fuck are you afraid of?  Why are you letting Vicco show you up?

Tell your homophobic, hate-mongering freakazoid Baptists that jobs and economic growth come only to those who join the 21st century.

Beshear Still Protecting Poison Pipeline Promoters

Of course he doesn't think anything needs to be done.  Every second he delays legislation to close the eminent domain loophole or establish tough new regulations on natural gas liquids pipeline gets the motherfuckers closer to the point at which it will be too late to stop them from destroying the Bluegrass.

Erika Peterson at WFPL:

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear says he hasn’t made up his mind about whether a proposed natural gas liquids pipeline would benefit Kentucky.

If it’s built, the Bluegrass Pipeline would carry natural gas liquids—like butane and ethane—from drilling operations in the Northeast to processing plants on the Gulf of Mexico. Representatives from pipeline company Williams have been surveying in the state for the past several months, but the pipeline has met opposition from groups and citizens who say current regulations aren’t adequate.

Wrong.  There are NO regulations of natural gas liquids pipelines. Williams has successfully lied and obscured this fact, but Governor Cowardly Worm certainly knows better.

Governor Beshear didn’t heed the calls from environmental groups to put pipeline issues on the agenda for last month’s special session, but says he’d like to see the General Assembly take it up in January. Despite evidence that Williams is hoping to begin negotiating purchase agreements with landowners as soon as this month, Beshear says he doesn’t believe January is too late to resolve these issues, and he hasn’t made up his mind about whether the pipeline would benefit Kentucky.

“You know I’m gathering information on the pros and cons of this particular type of pipeline,” he said. “Obviously there would be construction jobs that would employ Kentuckians, and there would be lease payments that I guess landowners would get. But I’m trying to see if there are any other benefits to Kentucky.”

Lies. The construction jobs would be in the dozens, last just a few months, and be filled by out-of-staters.

Meanwhile, Williams is trespassing on private property to take illegal surveys, trying to intimidate landowners and conducting a mendacious PR campaign that would put even the tobacco industry to shame.

Vigil for Slain Ignores Guns; Pretends Prayer Would Help

I have never read anything more insulting to the memory of murder victims.

Mary Meehan at the Herald:

Heartbreak and hope filled the candlelit courtyard of the Boyle County Courthouse on Sunday as several hundred people celebrated the lives of three people who were shot to death Friday in a pawn shop.

Pastor Jason Kilby, wearing a bright red shirt that read "Live Love Now," urged the crowd to use the deaths as a springboard to making God a priority in the life of the community. Kilby, who leads Centerpoint Church and is a lifelong Danville resident, said the slayings were just the latest example of evil in the form of drugs and violence that seems to be encroaching on the town of 16,000.

But Kilby, and the six other pastors who spoke, each preached on the theme that those who had died too soon were in a better place and that God had the power to heal those left behind. Their message was amplified with inspirational videos shown on an inflatable screen propped against the brick courthouse wall, electric cables snaking through the grass.

Not one mention of what killed Michael and Angela Hockensmith and Daniel Smith: a man with a gun. Not one mention of the guntard culture that floods our society with guns and turns multiple slayings into daily occurences. Not one mention of the desperate need for national guns control that would actually prevent gun violence. 

Danville had a reputation for civilized culture and liberalism. That's as dead as the three people killed by completely preventable gunfire. 

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/09/22/2837859/hundreds-attend-vigil-in-danville.html#storylink=cpy

Let Them Eat Shame

Repugs know damn well their proposed $40 billion in cuts to food stamps will never fly. They don't care.  Because the immediate cuts are not their goal.  Their goal is demonizing people so poor they can't afford to eat. Their goal is shaming people whose two minimum wage jobs do not provide enough income to feed their children.  Their goal is to ensure that the unemployed victims of Wall Street greed get all the blame for the economic devastation caused by rich people.

David Atkins at Hullabaloo:

The next time someone talks about how food stamps create a "culture of dependency", remind them almost half of the people on SNAP, otherwise known as the food stamp program, are children. And nearly half of those kids belong to parents who have jobs, but are in poverty anyway.

SNAP provides families with an estimated 22 million children with resources to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet. This represents close to 1 in 3 children (29 percent) in the United States. Almost half of all SNAP recipients are children (47 percent), and an additional 26 percent are adults living with children. (See Figure 1.) Forty percent of all SNAP recipients live in households with preschool-age children (ages 4 and below). 

Over 70 percent of SNAP benefits go to households with children. In 2011, SNAP provided an estimated $51 billion in benefits to families with children, over half of which went to families with preschool-age children.

SNAP families are low-income. A typical family with children that is enrolled in SNAP has income (not including SNAP) at 57 percent of the poverty line. For a family of three, 57 percent of the poverty line corresponds with an annual income of $10,785 in 2012. A typical family with children on SNAP spends close to three-quarters of its income on housing and/or child care costs. Families with children currently receive an average of $420 a month in SNAP benefits, or about $5,000 a year. 

SNAP benefits help working families support their children. Nearly half (48 percent) of children who receive SNAP live in low-wage working families. A typical working household with children receives an average of $400 a month in SNAP benefits, representing about 30 percent of the family’s average income.

This is not a rational disagreement about public policy. This is a gulf of basic decency, a demand by fearful people for the sacrifice of innocents to sate a perversely sadistic form of cosmic justice.

Interestingly, most people demanding the starvation of children so that billionaires can buy more yachts call themselves Christian. Perhaps they're reading a Biblical translation that calls for blood sacrifice of innocents so that the rich may enjoy more fruits of Mammon. I missed that part in my copy.

 Sorry, David, but the problem is not their failure to read their Bronze Age mythology correctly. The problem is the ubiquity of religions that prevent the poor from killing the rich.

Ellison: "Food assistance for working families fulfills a promise we make to each other: if you fall on hard times, your neighbors, friends and fellow Americans will help you get a meal. Eighteen companies dodged $92 billion in taxes last year, which is more than double the cut passed by Republicans today. Let’s cut corporate waste, not meals for our nation’s children."
- See more at: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/#sthash.IHdWWTJW.dpuf

Is Thomas Massie a Racist Sociopath?

The evidence is hard to deny.

Down with Tyranny:

Some Republicans just want to say NO to everything... even when there's no reason to. Many of them are dangerous anti-government nihilists. Several have unresolved struggles with heavy drugs like Paul Broun (GA) and domestic terrorism suspect Steve Stockman (TX).

Tuesday the House, just back from a long summer vacation, took up Bob Menendez's bill-- which was cosponsored by Bob Corker (R-TN), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tom Udall (D-NM) and passed the Senate without controversy and without even obstructionists like Cruz, Lee, Sessions and the nuts in that chamber objecting-- to tidy up and renew the U.S. participation in the OAS, the Organization of American States. The bill simply states that "it is U.S. policy to: (1) promote democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in the Western Hemisphere; and (2) support the practices and principles expressed in the Charter of the Organization of American States, the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and other fundamental instruments of democracy [and] expresses the sense of Congress that the Organization of American States (OAS) should be the primary multi-lateral diplomatic entity for regional dispute resolution and promotion of democratic governance."

Cantor took one look at it and figured the House could just suspend the rules and pass it without any objections. In this House? With flaming, raving racists like Gohmert? There were no objections from the Democrats. All 181 in attendance voted YES. And so did 202 Republicans. But two dozen nuts-- predominantly the lunatic fringe-- voted NO. Even Bachmann and Steve King voted for this. Below were the NO votes. If you see your congressman's name on this list, there's a good chance you're being represented in Washington by a sociopath:

Justin Amash (R-MI)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
John Duncan (R-SC)
Stephen Fincher (R-TN)
John Fleming (R-LA)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Tom Graves (R-GA)
Richard Hudson (R-NC)
Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)
Walter Jones (R-NC)
Jack Kingston (R-GA)
Raul Labrador (R-ID)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Tom Massie (R-KY)
Scott Perry (R-PA)
Ted Poe (R-TX)
Reid Ribble (R-WI)
Tom Rice (R-SC)
Matt Salmon (R-AZ)
Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Steve Scalise (R-LA)
Steve Stockman (R-TX)
RandyWeber (R-TX)
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)

 Fourth District Democratic voters who sat at home last year and let Massie take that seat: are you proud of yourselves now?

Siegleman, DeLay and Repug Injustice

You can always identify the powerless in society by measuring their treatment by the criminal justice system. Minorities, the poor and the mentally ill are imprisoned far out of line with their population for minor offenses that their white and wealthy counterparts commit with impunity.

To those groups add Democratic politicians who dare to win elections in red states.

Brad Friedman:

Ironically enough, I had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes with former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman in federal prison over the weekend. Siegelman, a Democrat, has so far served nearly two years for a "crime" * that had never before been considered a crime before he was found guilty of it. He is likely to serve many more years in prison for the charges brought by Republicans, including a federal prosecutor whose husband was the Chief of Staff of Siegelman's gubernatorial rival Bob Riley, a team of folks, including the judge, who are all good friends of Karl Rove and who are said to have "coached, cajoled and threatened" the star witness in the case.

Today, in the meantime, Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, who was convicted of money-laundering hundreds of thousands of corporate dollars in Texas to give them to candidates --- something which has been an actual crime for decades in the state --- was acquitted of all charges by a 2 to 1 decision of a Texas appeals court.

DeLay never served a day in prison. Siegelman, on the day he was convicted, before the appeals process could even begin, was shackled and carted away. The basis for Siegelman's conviction has subsequently been challenged in a letter signed by a group of 113 bi-partisan former state attorneys general.

 Where conservatives control the legal system, justice dies.

*That would be the "crime" of doing political favors for campaign contributors. There's not an elected official in the country - state, local or federal - who does not commit this "crime" every single day.  It's how the political system works. Yet of those tens of thousands of elected officials, only one has been prosecuted and imprisoned for it.

Protecting the Ones Who Take Care of Us

Still think there's no difference between Democratic presidents and Republican ones?  Here it is.

Digby:

When I was in college I worked as a staffer for a home health agency for a while. And I learned what a terribly difficult job it is. These people care for the elderly and disabled in their homes often under very difficult conditions and they almost always do it with a generosity of spirit that comes from the heart, not from any pecuniary interest. They are dramatically underpaid and overworked and they care for some of our society's most vulnerable citizens. That's a reflection of America's misplaced priorities.

Anyway, President Obama did something about it (this week) which was long overdue. And good for him:

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it was extending minimum wage and overtime protections to the nation’s nearly two million home care workers.

Advocates for low-wage workers have pushed for this change, asserting that home care workers, who care for elderly and disabled Americans, were wrongly classified into the same “companionship services” category as baby sitters — a group that is exempt from minimum wage and overtime coverage. Under the new rule, home care aides, unlike baby sitters, would be protected under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the nation’s main wage and hour law.

Just goes to show you that the presidency and the executive branch have the juice to make progressive change without GOP nihilists after all.

Congratulations to all the people who worked on this issue for over 30 years to make it happen.

The next step President Obama should take around Congress is raising the minimum wage for all federal employees and employees of federal contractors. Say $1 per hour per year - plus inflation - until it reaches $15 per hour.

That would not only goose the economy and lift millions of workers and their families out of  poverty, but put pressure on state and private employers to match that wage.

Not to mention the repug heads exploding all over Congress and Faux News.

Faith Is A Cop-Out

Divine Irony:



It's the get-out-of-responsibility-free aspect of faith that enrages me.

"Why did you shave off the beard you've worn for 20 years?"  "God told me to do it."

"Why are you making us invade a country that hasn't attacked us?"  "God told me to do it."

No act is too big and horrific or too small and irrelevant to blame on an invisible sky wizard who can't be challenged or questioned.

So fucking convenient.

Shocker: McConnell Makes "Most Corrupt" List

Of course he's corrupt. Of course he's among the most corrupt. The question is whether Kentucky voters care.

Firedoglake:

New CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) report finds the “most corrupt” in Congress. No surprise that Bachmann and McConnell are in the list. Full report here.

 Here's what CREW says:

The report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) names 13 lawmakers in all — six Democrats and 11 Republicans — for allegedly breaking campaign laws or congressional ethics regulations. Six of the people named in the report, including McConnell, have been cited by CREW at least three times for possible violations.

“Why are we still talking about these six? If the Department of Justice (DOJ), the House and Senate ethics committees, and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) were doing their jobs, we wouldn’t be,” CREW said in a statement accompanying the annual report. “The glacial pace of investigations into misconduct means many cases have dragged on for years and some have been dropped entirely with no explanation, despite strong evidence.”

SNIP

McConnell was named in the report for the fourth time following the discovery of secret audio from a February 2013 meeting in which members of his staff used official resources to put together research on prospective political opponents, which would break Senate rules.

 Way past time to send the turtle back to his algae-filled Alabama pond.

The Fight Against Monsanto: Winning Overseas, Losing Here at Home

Remember: the danger of Monsanto's Genetically Modified Organism seeds is less to individual health (which has not been proven) than to the global food supply when expensive, single-season GMO monoculture destroys the diversity of heirloom, self-propagating seeds.

Don't get distracted by the health arguments. Concentrate on protecting the food supply.

In Europe:

Hungary has destroyed 1000+ acres of GMO corn– for the second time.  So far, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Austria and Peru have bans on GMO crops.

And the French president is maintaining the ban on Monstanto's GM Corn.

In India:

As India’s government prepares to make the controversial Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill a law, enhancing the hold that biotech companies like Monsanto have over the nation’s food production, the tiny bee may be emerging as a potential savior by offering ways to increase crop yields naturally.

Thanks to efforts by the Mumbai-based organization Under the Mango Tree, bees have been incorporated into the fields of small farmers and food growers in communities in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Through its Bees for Poverty Reduction program, UTMT is helping farmers increase their incomes and agricultural productivity through India’s indigenous honeybee Apis cerana indica.

But in the U.S., Monsanto's corruption contaminates everything from social media to elections.

Washington state agriculture officials confirmed that a farmer’s alfalfa crop was contaminated with a genetically modified trait, a “low-level” presence that nonetheless has prevented him from exporting it.

SNIP

The “mixup” points to a larger controversy brewing in Washington state over the presence of genetically modified crops, Reuters reports:

USDA and GMO proponents have said biotech and non-biotech crops can co-exist successfully. But opponents said the incident in Washington state shows that non-GMO farmers have to bear the burden and cost of any lost sales if their crops get contaminated, even at low levels.

“Co-existence is a myth,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for the Center for Food Safety, which sued USDA to try to stop its approval of biotech alfalfa. “We don’t know how to control contamination. They say biotech is just another tool in the toolbox. That is not true. It’s a tool that takes over all the other tools and makes them worthless.”

The furor it’s inspired will likely influence an upcoming ballot initiative that would mandate labeling of GMO foods in the state. It’s popularly known as “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.” Monsanto, along with DuPont Pioneer, have dedicated millions of dollars to defeating it.

Big Coal WATB Already Bitching About Future Regs

Seriously, morons: if you're still planning to build new coal plants you are too disconnected from reality to be making any decision more consequential than what to have for breakfast.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Nobody is likely to build more coal-burning power plants in the United States under strict emission limits proposed Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kentucky coal and utility officials predicted.

That could further weaken demand for the coal of Eastern Kentucky, which has seen mines close and thousands of mining jobs disappear over the last few years. Coal counties in the mountains suffered official unemployment rates this summer between 11 and 18 percent.

Coal country unemployment is caused by falling demand, the difficulty and expense of reaching remaining seams, and the lack of non-mine employment in towns wholly owned and operated by Big Coal.

President Obama's long-overdue proposed rules have nothing to do with unemployment and everything to do with reducing the frequency of climate-change catastrophes like last week's drowning of central Colorado.

The Obama administration (pressed) ahead Friday with tough requirements for new coal-fired power plants, moving to impose for the first time strict limits on the pollution blamed for global warming.

The proposal would help reshape where Americans get electricity, away from a coal-dependent past into a future fired by cleaner sources of energy. It's also a key step in President Barack Obama's global warming plans, because it would help end what he called "the limitless dumping of carbon pollution" from power plants.

Although the proposed rule won't immediatedly affect plants already operating, it eventually would force the government to limit emissions from the existing power plant fleet, which accounts for a third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Obama has given the Environmental Protection Agency until next summer to propose those regulations.

"For power producers and coal mining companies that reject these standards, they have no reason to complain, and every excuse to innovate," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the author of a 2009 bill to limit global warming. The legislation, backed by the White House, passed the House, but died in the Senate.

 Coal is dead. Has been for years. But the industry and Big Power refuse to bury it, so the stinking corpse continues to poison the planet with lethal carbon and the political system with stupidity and lies.

"I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States"

You certainly sound like you've learned the lesson of the 2011 debt ceiling fight, Mr. President. You even sound like you finally acknowledge that congressional repugs are not rational beings. I sincerely hope that is enough to make you hold firm.



Full transcript here.

Three Deaths in Danville Because There Was a Gun

Witnessed by the nine-year-old and 14-month-old children of two of the victims, in one of Kentucky's quietest and most civilized small cities.

Greg Kocher and Valerie Honeycutt-Spears at the Herald:

Police learned about a triple homicide Friday morning when a 9-year-old boy called 911 shortly after 9 a.m. from the ABC Gold, Games and More pawn shop, Danville police Chief Tony Gray said.

Gray identified two of the victims as Michael Hockensmith, 35, and his wife Angela Hockensmith, 38, both of Lincoln County. Michael Hockensmith was a co-owner of the pawn shop and ran it on a day-to-day basis, and his wife often helped out, friends said.

Gray identified the third person as Daniel P. Smith, 60, of Richmond, who media reports have described as a customer.

SNIP

Gray said police are looking for a heavyset white man, 40 to 50 years old, with a pot belly. He was wearing a green camouflage jacket. No one was in custody as of Friday night, Gray said.

Danville is the home of Centre College and 16,000 residents.  Friday's three murders equal the total number of homicides in the town in the past 10 years.

Regardless of the motive for the killings, Michael and Angela Hockensmith and Daniel Smith died for one reason: because the killer had a gun.

David Atkins at Hullabaloo:

Gun lovers will say that knives and hammers kill just as effectively as guns do. If someone means to kill someone else, they can and will. While this isn't actually the case, most arguments along this line tend to devolve toward the relative efficiency of guns versus other weapons.

While the efficiency and simplicity of the gun is certainly greater than for other weapons, that's not actually what makes the gun so pernicious and dangerous. What makes it dangerous is the fact that the gun gets in the way of our moral reasoning in a way that the knife does not. For most of us, if we are in a heated argument with a cheating spouse or a friend who betrayed us, there is something deep-seated in our psyches that won't let us actually hurt that person up close with kinetic force, much less strike them repeatedly as it usually requires to kill someone with the first dangerous object we can get our hands on. Our monkey brains say "no, this is bad. No matter how angry you are, this is not acceptable." Even if we want to, most of us can't push that man onto the tracks. Better to let the five on the trolley die through inaction.

But the gun is different. It's easier. The gun is that switch that we pull to intentionally doom the man on the tracks with an action. It bypasses the moral circuitry that usually prevents us from taking the actions it would have required for us to kill another human being through countless generations, giving us a significant remove from the moral consequences of our actions. Rationally it's still the same. Emotionally it isn't.

That's not to say that people don't kill one another by hand all the time. Many people are psychopaths, many become so enraged or greedy that even instinct is overwhelmed, and many people would push the man off the bridge onto the tracks in any case. But it's a numbers game. Statistically speaking, there are a great many people who, even if their chance of killing their victim were 100% with either a knife or a gun and did not fear failing in their attack, would stop short of using the knife for reasons of evolutionary psychology alone. Tens of thousands of victims are dead who should not be, and tens of thousands become murderers when they could have gone to their graves as productive members of society, simply because a gun was available when it should not have been.

In the story of human society and evolution, the gun itself is a villain that robs us of our own finely tuned instinctual morality. A society that makes guns harder to acquire is a society that not only allows more of us to continue to live, but also allows us to be more fully human in those rare moments that threaten to turn fatal.

 

It's Your Money - The Rich Just Stole it

From Firedoglake:

“That’s right, the government is cutting services and laying off hundreds upon hundreds of thousands in the name of cutting deficits, while handing more than $1 trillion a year to the wealthiest. The rest of us pay taxes and suffer cuts in jobs and services to make up this lost money” The government, for some strange reason (i.e. capitalism) hands over $1 trillion to the wealthiest in America.

All Police Who Use Tasers Are Murderous Thugs

Because this shit happens everywhere, all the time.

Digby:

They shot him full of electricity from the back. He couldn't hear them coming.

There have been too many horrible stories of violence lately, but some still have the power to shock. This is one:

The family of a 12-year-old boy known only as “A.M.” in court documents is suing police, the American School for the Deaf and the city of Hartford, CT over allegations that police unnecessarily Tasered the boy after school officials abused him and denied him food. According to the Courthouse News Service, the student ran away from the school to a construction site to escape staffers who had beaten and choked him, and it was there that police Tasered the boy, who is “profoundly deaf,” with no warning.

SNIP 

A.M., frustrated and upset that he was being denied contact with his parents, fled the building. At a construction site on the ASD campus, he came face to face with Hammond and other staffers, who attempted to violently subdue him, according to the complaint.

“Defendant Chris Hammond informed plaintiff that he was going to kill him and push him into an unsafe area of the construction site,” said the suit. “Defendant Chris Hammond proceeded to grab plaintiff and punched plaintiff in the face with closed fists.”

The boy reportedly picked up a stick to defend himself against Hammond and the other adult staffers. They retreated from the scene and left A.M. sitting by himself with his back to the school.

Police arrived at the construction site after dark. Knowing the boy was deaf, they allegedly made no effort to warn or communicate with him, but Tasered him from behind. As A.M. writhed on the ground from the “burns, paralysis and pain” caused by the Taser barbs, the two police officers rushed him and placed him in handcuffs.

He was taken to Connecticut Children’s Hospital and treated for electrical burns.

I've documented many terrible taser stories over the years. But those that horrify me the most are ones that feature deaf people who cannot hear the orders to comply before they are shot through with electricity. This is the worst yet. They hit this kid from the back. He couldn't hear them coming. God.

Update: This is an excellent piece from David M Perry in The Nation about this war on the disabled. Horrifying.

Update II: According to the police report the student was holding a rock. Which, according to certain readers, makes shooting him full of electricity a-ok.

 No doubt the school officials, terrified of their abuse of the boy being exposed, lied to the police about the danger from the boy. But he was still a boy. A deaf boy. Armed with a stock and a rock. Against multiple armed and supposedly trained adults.

I hope both the school is shut down and the city forced to pay a high enough settlement that it eliminates tasers and gets its cops real training in non-violent conflict resolution.

Sometimes Small-Group Harassment Makes a Big Statement

Lowly students vs. The Man Called Petraeus, and the lowly students win.

John Amato at Crooks and Liars:

I doubt Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director, ever got this kind of treatment before.

David Petraeus may be regretting taking a teaching position at the City University of New York system. A video recently posted to YouTube shows the former director of the CIA and retired Army general being followed down the street on his way to his first class by a small, but passionate group of students. It's hard to make out a lot of what they're saying, but there's a lot of "war criminal!" And a general sense that they don't like him very much. This comes after Petraeus' salary was lowered from a controversial $200,000 to just one dollar to teach a course at the honors college this fall titled “Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade?”

[...] The whole experience must be a major culture shock for a retired four-star general. Generals enjoy a tremendous amount of special treatment, including personal chefs and valets, and are revered in the military community. Now, he's being chased down the street and screamed at by a group of young students. One of whom, for some reason, had his belly exposed.

Watch the video.

Sequester Cuts Killing Businesses in Kentucky

Next time a teabagging repug like Mitch McConnell or Thomas Massie defends cuts to domestic programs as hurting only the "takers" (sic), remind them of the 87 job-creating Kentucky small businesses they murdered.

Beth Musgrave at the Herald:

Spending cuts on child care subsidies for poor families have contributed to the closing of more than 80 child care centers in Kentucky, and as many as 25,000 children could be dropped from the program in the next year, advocates said Wednesday.

"We're in a lose, lose, lose, lose situation" said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, a nonprofit group that advocates for children.

Brooks told the state legislature's Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare that child care centers have closed in every region of the state since cuts to the child care assistance program began in April.

"The best estimates that we have is that some 87 centers closed since the initiation of these cuts," Brooks said.

Some new centers have popped up, but those are generally smaller sites that offer lower-quality care, he said. Parents have had to quit jobs because they can no longer afford child care, he said.

Oh, but those 87 small businesses were probably owned and run by blah wimmins, not rich white men who are the real job creators, so who cares, right Mitch?

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Turning the Middle Class Poor to Make the Rich Richer

The rivers of money flowing into the overseas coffers of the filthy rich don't come out of nowhere; they originate in the high productivity, low pay and no benefits of working people. Working people who used to be comfortably middle class, but after being robbed of everything by the one percent, are now poor.

Chris Kenning at the Courier:

Brianna Fletcher thought she was doing everything right. She had a job in hotel housekeeping, was enrolled at Sullivan University and was raising her 2-year-old son, Brandon.

But her low wages couldn’t cover her rent, food, diapers and bus passes. Then she was laid off and lost her apartment, and at age 25, she found herself moving to a homeless shelter.

“It’s really hard to get where you need to be,” Fletcher said.

Despite some economic gains amid a slow recovery, poverty rates increased last year in Kentucky and Louisville, according to new Census Bureau data released Thursday. Incomes in Louisville grew slightly but still trailed pre-recession levels, the data show.

The results highlighted how improvements in jobs, home values and stock prices are largely bypassing the less affluent, who are taking the brunt of continuing wage stagnation and high unemployment, Kentucky state demographer Michael Price said.

“Many of the jobs that were lost for unskilled and uneducated workers have not returned, and may not,” he said.

What happened? Where did all the money go?  Income redistribution is what happened, to the obscenely rich is where it went. Here's how:

Hot Bluegrass Pipeline Debate on KET

I missed seeing this live; if you did too, don't worry!  It's here.

Bill and his guests discuss the Bluegrass Pipeline Project. Scheduled guests: Bill Lawson, director of corporate development for Williams; Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council; Andrew McNeill, executive director of the Kentucky Oil & Gas Association; and Brad Slutskin, a Versailles lawyer.

 Fitzgerald and Slutskin take the pipeline liars apart. Watch and enjoy.

Free Screening of Gasland 2 in Frankfort Sept. 26

Wonder what the fracking fuss is all about? Saw "Gasland" and wonder how it turned out? Come to the Grand Theater on St. Clair Mall in Frankfort next Thursday to see a free screening of Gasland 2.

Gasland 2

Free Film Screening

***

Donations Accepted

***

Grand Theatre, Downtown Frankfort

Thursday, Sept. 26, 7pm

***

Sponsored by

Envision Franklin County

More info: 223-7936

EnvisionFranklinCounty@gmail.com

www.stopbluegrasspipeline.us

QOTD

Charles Pierce:

Happy Constitution Day!

You may remember the Constitution. It consists of this:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

And a whole bunch of other words nobody cares about.

AynRandy Tries to Trade Voting Rights for More Guns

Really? Was he watching the news yesterday?

Joseph Gerth at the Courier:

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told a largely black audience Monday in Louisville that he will push to restore the voting and gun-ownership rights of felons who have completed their sentences — and he will urge state Senate Republicans to follow his lead.

Currently in Kentucky, felons must petition the governor to get their voting rights restored.

“I am in favor of letting people get their rights back, the right to vote ... Second Amendment rights, all your rights to come back,” he said. “I know of one man who 30-some-odd years ago had pot plants in his closet in college, got a felony conviction in college, still can’t vote, and it’s plagued him his whole life trying to get work.”

It's true that Kentucky's draconian and Jim-Crow-era denial of voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences is outrageous and self-defeating.

But the Tribble-Toupeed One doesn't give a shit about that.

On the same day that shooters armed with assault weapons killed 12 and wounded dozens more at the Navy Yard a mile and a half from the U.S. Capitol, Paul tried to hide in voting rights rhetoric that what he really wants is to turn the country into an armed camp.

Steve M explains the real goal behind demands for "gun rights."

In short, gun zealots aren't standing up for freedom -- or at least they're not standing up for your freedom to live in a way they'd prefer not to. The gun-zealot movement is coercive. Gun zealots want to compel all of us to acknowledge, and arm ourselves against, the state of siege they perceive. They prefer to see the actual level of danger increase if it will make us pack heat.

They see themselves as the ones who understood before the rest of us did that society operates according to the law of the jungle -- even if the lawlessness and danger they perceive is something they helped create. They like believing that we live in a state of siege because they see themselves as the heroes in our war of all against all. They're going to save us -- not laws, not the cops. (They may say nice things about the troops or the first responders, but many of them are the same folks who have "Terrorist Hunting License" stickers on their cars. It's all about being a self-appointed hero.)

It's their fantasy. We just die in it.

First Bill on Bluegrass Pipeline Misses Target

Just for shits and giggles, we'll assume for the moment that Rep. John Tilley is just incompetent, rather than deliberately trying to fool the public with a bill that would do nothing to protect Kentucky landowners and Bluegrass industries from the lethal harm of toxic spills from the pipeline.

 
Greg Kocher at the Herald:

A Western Kentucky lawmaker pre-filed a bill Monday to clarify the use of eminent domain in cases such as the Bluegrass Pipeline, but an environmental lawyer expressed reservations about the proposed legislation in a letter to its sponsor.

The Bluegrass Pipeline would ship natural gas liquids from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Texas and Louisiana. The planned route in Kentucky includes 13 counties, from Bracken in the northeast to an existing connection in Breckinridge.

Affected landowners have wondered whether eminent domain, the power to take private property for a public use, applies. This month, State Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters told an interim legislative committee that his staff attorneys think the companies proposing to build the Bluegrass Pipeline cannot invoke eminent domain to gain easements.

State Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, said in a statement his bill specifies that any proposed oil and gas pipelines are available for "public use as a common carrier" for similar products, which is a more stringent guideline when compared to the current law that requires these pipelines only be of a "public service" when it comes to eminent domain.

Under Tilley's bill, the Kentucky Public Service Commission would play a "gatekeeper" role if those constructing pipelines cannot reach agreement with private landowners.

 That would be the same PSC that consistently rolls over for every greedy private utility in the Commonwealth. No thanks, Tilley.

But in a letter to Tilley posted Monday on the website of the Kentucky Resources Council, environmental lawyer Tom FitzGerald noted three problems with the bill as proposed.

First, FitzGerald wrote: "The Public Service Commission jurisdiction extends to regulated public utilities, and these interstate pipelines are not regulated utilities. The commission is being asked to grant or withhold the power of condemnation, which is a legislative and constitutional function and should not be delegated to the executive branch."

Second, he wrote: "The criteria and process for PSC review are much less robust than would be accorded to a natural gas pipeline by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and do not appear to require a full quasi-adjudicative hearing as would be provided in a Certificate of Need and Public Convenience case, including the right of formal intervention, cross-examination of witnesses, and discovery."

Third, "the review criteria are unrelated to the decision to allow or disallow condemnation powers," FitzGerald wrote.

SNIP

"The bill in effect 'trades' some level of review (but no authority to prevent the project even if it isn't found to be in the public interest) for a broad grant of condemnation powers to interstate pipelines carrying natural gas liquids, that they currently do not have under state law." FitzGerald wrote. "I don't believe that the extension of condemnation powers to non-utility, private companies, whether they are common carriers or not, is in the best interests of Kentucky landowners."

Eminent domain and pipeline regulation are complex issues in which special interests like the Bluegrass Pipeline companies can easily hide loopholes and exceptions that give them free rein to steal land for a pipeline that can poison the entire region.

Only a flat ban on the project from the legislature and governor will protect the Commonwealth.

Repug Privatizer Cuts Electricity to Sabotage Detroit

This is the behavior of comic-book villains. And the city-killing un-elected czars repug governors appoint to destroy democracy.

Diane Sweet at Crooks and Liars:

There was a blackout in Detroit, Michigan on September 11th this year, but the reason for it seems to depend on who you ask.

Via Addicting Info:

"If you ever had any doubt that Michigan has been taken over by a group of dangerous, radical extremists, what happened in Detroit on September 11th, 2013 should be enough to wake you up. There were several things significant about September 11th, 2013. Not only was it the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center, but the state of Michigan was also experiencing an unseasonal heat wave. In the city of Detroit, power outages left people stranded in elevators, trapped four hours in the blistering heat. Hundreds were evacuated from buildings in the downtown area, traffic lights did not function, public transportation was disabled and 1,400 sites across the city were without power. Wayne State University and other key buildings still remained closed, the following day. All of this after the city’s power supply supposedly failed.

The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, a twelve story building that conducts the city’s criminal proceedings was shut down and the building was evacuated. Earlier in the week, a prisoner had stabbed a Wayne County Deputy, before fleeing from the building. A manhunt followed, with authorities searching for the escaped prisoner for several long hours, before finally apprehending him as he was trying to flee the city. In light of this, the power outage on September 11th created a tense and dangerous situation for officers, justice workers and visitors to the building. The problem is that the city’s power supply never failed.

On September 12th, 2013, Bill Nowling casually stated that the city’s power outages were intentional. Officials and citizens working in the city were given no warning before the electricity was cut off. Law enforcement officials working in the Hall of Justice had no time to prepare.

Senior citizens and disabled citizens using elevators in the city’s downtown district had no way to know what was coming. The entire criminal justice system was shut down without notice. Wayne State University Campus was just one of many sites evacuated under emergency conditions. Traffic lights across the city stopped working. 1,400 public and private locations were left without power. And the entire thing was intentional, to “send a message” to the people of Detroit. Bill Nowling works in the office of Kevin Orr, Detroit’s Emergency Manager.

Many people believe that the deliberate power outage was carried out because Orr’s office has been pushing for the privatization of the city’s power supply. The video shows Gary Brown laughing about the power outage. After saying that he deliberately took power away from the city, causing chaos in the process, of course, the need for privatization of electricity in the city is stressed. "

The following day, Erika Erickson with Detroit's WJBK followed up with Gary Brown amid outrage over not only his statements, but also his laughter during the interview about the power outage. Brown attempted to defend his actions by saying that if he hadn't made the call to shut down power, that DTE would have.

However when called to verify, DTE offcials say that simply isn't true; they supply the power, they don't choose where the power goes.

As for injuries caused by the power outage, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Sharon Grier said that "Someone was injured. I know of her personally. She was injured, in extreme pain because of this."

Kevin Orr, Detroit’s Emergency Manager, was appointed by GOP Governor Rick Snyder to replace all of the city’s elected officials under the state’s “Emergency Manager Law,” and is the sole authority over the city of Detroit. He answers to no-one except the Governor. He is not elected and cannot be fired, as is also noted by Addicting Info.

SNIP

I don't know if what the emergency manager's office did when they shut down the power was a crime. In a perfect world, it would be a crime, and someone would actually go to jail. Preferably a jail without air conditioning, or cable tv and situated on the banks of the Detroit River, next to the Koch Brother's piles of petcoke.

We need to keep working towards 2014 so that we can send a strong message of our own by taking out the trash on election day, and taking back our state from the dark overlords who seek to destroy it.

Organize.

This is exactly what the Koch Brothers and their Wall Street buddies have planned for the rest of us: total domination by unelected corporate stooges who get to decide when or if we get electricity. Or water. Or food.

And if it hasn't gotten through your thick head yet, it's repugs who are doing this. Repugs and only repugs. Remember that come next election.

It might be your last.

KY Freakazoids Use Fake Issue to Claim Victimhood Again

Nobody is stopping any freakazoid's brainwashed offspring from bringing all the bibbles they want to school, or even from inflicting their lethal mythology on their fellow students.  The Constitution prevents only the government - represented by teachers and school administrators - from forcing students to participate in religious instruction or ceremony.

But the actual facts of religious freedom are irrelevant here; what matters is that freakazoids are crying persecution in order to intimidate others into letting them proselytize.

From the AP:

An eastern Kentucky school board says it won't stand in the way of religious people — particularly Christian students — from brining Bibles on to district campuses.

The Pike County Board of Education last week declined to sanction the use or distribution of religious materials at schools, but also opted not to ban the practice.

SNIP

The issue arose Tuesday after a group of parents, led by Joey Sussan, approached the board with concerns that Bibles weren't allowed in schools.

That was just the first of Sussan's egregious lies, which included his claim that he represented babby jeebus before the board.  Sussan, who may or may not be a lawyer, failed to present any documentation signed by his supposed client.

"Anything to do with our religion, we're going to stand for our rights," he said.

Any students in Pike County will to show up Sussan for the hypocrite he is by bringing Korans and Torahs to school?

How Kentucky Stopped Using Private Prisons

Don't give the Justice Cabinet too much credit for this one; state officials let the horrific abuses at private prisons go on far too long, and still won't release the data showing how much money taxpayers wasted on privatization.

But here's hoping other states learn that you can reverse privatization.

Mike Wynn at the Courier:

For decades, Kentucky officials looked at private prisons as a cost-effective solution to an inmate population that exploded under “tough on crime” policies inthe 1980s and ’90s.

Even some critics of the industry acknowledged a need for private facilities as Kentucky’s incarceration rates soared past most other states’ and consumed an increasingly larger share of the state budget — more than $487 million in 2012.

But this month, as the Department of Corrections cuts ties with the largest prison company in the country and moves all remaining inmates to publicly run institutions, Kentucky’s 28-year venture with for-profit prisons is ending with a mixed legacy.

Officials say recent penal reforms and declining prisoner counts are behind the state’s decision not to renew its contract with Corrections Corp.of America, a Nashville-based firm that has operated three private prisons and held thousands of inmates in Kentucky since 1998, most recently at the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary.

“Our decision wasn’t based on an opinion of private prisons,” said Kentucky Justice Secretary J. Michael Brown. “CCA was a great partner. We could not have operated without that partnership while our (inmate) population was trending up.”

CCA estimates that it has saved the state millions of dollars — 12 percent to 24 percent in corrections costs, according to an industry-backed study — while employing hundreds of workers and boosting local economies.

"CCA estimates that it has saved the state millions of dollars."  No state documentation, of course, because it's not true. And those jobs are minimum wage, no-benefit, high-turnover dead-ends, unlike the good state jobs at public prisons.

Still, critics argue that outsourcing a key function of government to a private company raised significant issues, including criminal charges of sexual misconduct, poor health care and lawsuits at the CCA-run Otter Creek Correctional Center in Eastern Kentucky.

 No, not "sexual misconduct:" rape of inmates. Not "poor health care:" sick and injured inmates ignored to suffer and die.

It's happening in every private prison in the country, because that's how private prisons work.  They cannot make a profit unless they neglect and abuse inmates, under-pay untrained staff and rip off the taxpayers.

If Kentucky can finally throw out the motherfuckers, any state can.

Male Birth Control Drug Too Cheap, Easy and Effective to Allow on Market

Yea, the ways in which corporate greed works hand-in-hand with misogyny and religion to prevent progress are infinite and manifold.

From Feminspire:

25 years of testing and we have not heard about it until now. 25 years of use in India, on humans, where it was said to be 100% effective and we have not jumped on board until now. I understand that the medical standards in India are not as stringent as the FDA’s standards, so we couldn’t just take their word for it, but come on, couldn’t we have at least gotten started on this a little bit sooner? 

I think that the reason it has taken so long for this shot to make real progress in the Western world is the patriarchy and, surprise!, the special interests of the drug companies.

Drug companies want something they can sell repeatedly. This shot is a one stop shop — once the patient gets it they never have to get it again. In theory, if one age group of men all got it, there would be years before there would be another large group of men in need of it. So they continue to push Viagra and focus on women’s birth control, of which there are a dozen varieties all in need of multiple doses. Also, the drug would not make them much money if it costs less than the syringe it’s delivered in. Many experts say that this drug would make a huge difference for young families living in poverty — if they can limit the size of their family, they have a better chance of getting ahead. Drug companies are not interested in selling one-time use drugs for the sake of charity and The Greater Good. Drug companies want to make money.

Read the whole thing.

I'd say the quickest - and probably the only - way to make this thing available everywhere is for women to take a page from Lysistrata and demand proof of the shot before accommodating any penis.

No, Atheists Have No Reason to Like This Or Any Other Pope At All

Sigh. Bless its heart, the very nice people at the American Humanist Association are going to tactfully, diplomatically, let's-all'get-along compromise all of us straight into theocracy.

New Pope Francis' offer of dialogue with atheists is the same our-way-or-the-highway evangelism the freakazoids have been inflicting on the world for millenia. That it comes packaged with a smile instead of torture and burning at the stake makes it more dangerous, not less.

And his assurance that atheists, through good works, can go to heaven is about the most insulting thing I've ever heard. Your heaven doesn't exist, Frankie boy. We reject your mythology - that's what atheism means.

That the leader of the AHA thinks this is a positive sign is depressing.

Joe Keohane at Esquire:

We called up Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of leading atheist group American Humanist Association to see if he saw this as good progress, or maybe akin to being granted admission into a club you never wanted to join in the first place.

SNIP
 

In a column you wrote for the Huffington Post in February, after Benedict resigned, you proposed an ideal pope—one who emphasizes universality and good works—figuring a guy like that would never get the job. But then he sort of did, right?

I continue to be pleased with what Francis is talking about and his openness—despite papal authorities’ attempts to retract his statements [laughs]. He’s offering very universal ideas—not closing the door and saying you have to be a Catholic in order for good things to happen. This is the kind of world leader that we need in a position of power that the pope has if we want hope for a more universal community.

SNIP
 
 But people assume atheists are rooting for the Church to fail. Is there a way for atheism and organized religion to be strengthened simultaneously or is a zero-sum game?

Oh, I definitely see it as an opportunity for both sides to grow in a positive direction. I think atheists are a little naïve if they think that the best solution is to convert everybody to atheisms. That’s not going to happen any time soon. This is the world we live in. But we have to find ways to nurture the more progressive, more open-minded people willing to reason and re-evaluate positions in churches. We should encourage that to happen. Churches do revise their opinions from time to time. Instead of criticizing them for not being true to their faith—which we don’t agree with anyway—we should encourage them.

jesusfuckingchocolatecoveredchristonapogostick! Religion is the source of all anti-human works in the world, Speckhardt, and shame on you for pretending otherwise.

Anti-human works - patriarchy, authoritarianism, misogyny, poverty, fear, shame and hatred - are the whole purpose of religion. All religions. Without them, religion withers and dies. 

Where people are free of myth and all its lethal works, people and society thrive. Where myth reigns, so does violence, poverty and hate.

And where atheists compromise with religion, the freakazoids grow stronger and society suffers.

You know why the repugs and corporatists and Koch-sucking freakazoids so desperate to keep the minimum wage below the minimum necessary to live on?  Because a living wage - and the economic power it gives to everyone who works - is the greatest obstacle to the lords-and-serfs economy the obscenely wealth are so very close to creating in this country.

But they haven't won yet.

David Atkins at Hullabaloo:

Let the sunshine in:

A bill that would boost California's minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016 won approval by the state Legislature on Thursday and was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown, who said he would sign it.

The measure would raise the current $8 minimum wage to $9 an hour next July 1 and to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.

The 25% increase would be the first minimum-wage hike in California in five years and would put extra money in the pockets of an estimated 2.4 million Californians.

"This is the time to raise the minimum wage to provide relief for hard-working families," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville). About 3 of 5 minimum-wage earners are 26 or older, he stressed

Labor unions lobbied heavily for the bill, both in the Legislature and at the governor's office. Business groups opposed it.

The bill won final passage in the Assembly on Thursday evening by a 51-25 vote. Earlier in the day it received a 26-11 vote of approval by the state Senate.

We live in an era when asset holders take all the gains while wage earners get the shaft. We won't fix our problems until that trend is reversed.

Raising the minimum wage slightly isn't a huge fix, but it's a major step in the right direction. All too often liberals focus on government services and the safety net. Those things are crucially important, to be sure, but they're no substitute for changing the skewed rules that allow the asset class to walk away with all the loot.

National Democrats may still be mired in centrist DLC economic politics. But in places like New York, California and Massachusetts, the progressive economic revival is already well underway not just at a grassroots level, but at an institutional one as well.

Everyone who is not a millionaire benefits from a living wage - which today means at least $15 per hour, and $20 per hour if productivity is taken into account. Even small business owners benefit from paying their employees more, if everyone else does so also, because more money in everyone's pocket means more money gets spent which puts more money in everyone's pocket.

It's a virtuous circle that benefits even the disgustingly rich. But because it narrows the gap between the richest and the poorest, the richest would rather a bigger gap between them and us than an equitable economy that benefits all.

In that, they are no different from the racists who reject social programs like food stamps and unemployment compensation and Obamacare that help millions of white people because they also help thousands of black people.

Rich people are absolute poison to the economy, to society and to democracy. Unless we eliminate them through confiscatory taxation, they will kill us all.

"We'll keep working with the international community"

You know what would impress everybody and give the U.S. a real upper hand over both Assad and Putin? Spending a billion dollars to feed and shelter Syrian refugees and resettling the 100,000 most endangered here in the U.S. That would be exceptional.



Full transcript here.