Kentucky the Ninth Most-Corrupt State

OK, I'll buy Louisiana, Tennesse and Illinois higher than us on that list, but South Dakota? I demand a recount.

Crooks and Liars:

A new study by researchers at Indiana University and City University of Hong Kong identifies the most corrupt and least corrupt states in the United States. It also calculates that government corruption costs American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars per year.

The corrupt states are based on the number of convictions of public officials for violations of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008.

The most-corrupt states:

1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. Tennessee
4. Illinois
5. Pennsylvania
6. Alabama
7. Alaska
8. South Dakota
9. Kentucky
10. Florida

In contrast, the least-corrupt states were determined to be Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Vermont, Utah, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Kansas.

The study notes the costs:

In addition to spending more than expected, corrupt states spent more on government activities and services that are susceptible to manipulation for private gain and less on other activities. For example: 

More corrupt states spent more money on construction, capital and highway projects. That type of spending often involves large expenditures, small numbers of contractors and clients and a lack of transparency, making it vulnerable to bribes, kickbacks and extortion. 

More corrupt states spent more on high wages, which benefit government employees. And they were more likely to engage in deficit financing, which tends to conceal the true cost of government spending from the public.

More corrupt states spent more on law enforcement and on prisons, reflecting both the legal costs of corruption and the fact that prison construction and operation are potentially lucrative.

More corrupt states spent less on education at all levels, public welfare, health and hospitals, areas that offer fewer opportunities for public corruption.

Rhetorical questions (sort of): What do most of the corrupt states have in common?

Republican-run government, except for Kentucky.  In Kentucky, corruption is bi-partisan, and fucking over public employees the favorite game.

Morals

ummagumma.co:

 

How AA's Freakazoid Focus Excludes and Abuses Seculars

I hope I never need a 12-step program, partly because as an atheist I can see immediately that they are nothing but god-bothering bullshit.

But mostly because as an atheist with an addiction I would be sentenced to jail for refusing to submit to freakazoid conversion therapy.

Julie M. Rodriguez at Truthout:

An atheist man from California is suing the state after he was jailed for failing to participate in a court-ordered 12-step drug addiction program in 2007. After serving time for methamphetamine possession, Barry A. Hazle, Jr., was told that he would have to attend a local, religiously-oriented organization as a condition of his parole.

Hazle, a lifelong atheist and member of several secular humanist groups, expressed his discomfort to his parole officer. But the answer wasn’t what he was hoping for — he was told there were no alternative groups available. Despite his misgivings, Hazle attended the group as ordered. When he continued to raise objections about the nature of the program, he was arrested for violating his parole and sent back to state prison for another 100 days.

Unfortunately, this is an all too-familiar story for many who are struggling with addiction. If you’ve never been to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, or a similar 12-step recovery program, you may not realize that these organizations are all, at their heart, deeply religious. While they don’t endorse any particular sect or denomination, 5 of the 12 steps explicitly require members to accept and acknowledge the existence of God.

This wouldn’t be a problem if secular alternatives to these programs were available for people struggling with addiction. That leads to another fact that may surprise you: by and large, few non-religious alternatives for drug and alcohol addiction exist. In many parts of the country, they’re not available at all.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media is still promoting AA's freakazoid falsehoods, as in articles like this one.

Striking back are a few brave seculars trying to break the freakazoid death-grip on recovery.

Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist:

G. Jeffrey MacDonald of Religion News Service points out that AA is going through a crisis right now, wondering how flexible they can be with the religion issue:

Has AA become too God-focused and rigid? Or have groups watered down beliefs and methods so much that they’re now ineffective? 

“Some think AA is not strict enough,” said Lee Ann Kaskutas, senior scientist at the Public Health Institute’s Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, Calif. “Others think it’s too strict, so they want to change AA and make it get with the times.” 

With more than 100,000 local meetings and an estimated two million members worldwide, AA is grappling with how much diversity it can handle. Over the past two years, umbrella organizations in Indianapolis and Toronto have delisted groups that replaced AA’s 12 steps to recovery with secular alternatives. More than 90 unofficial, self-described “agnostic AA” groups now meet regularly in the United States.
…
Roger C. brings a different concern. Those who insist on doing the original 12 steps, he says, are apt to alienate nonbelievers, who might never get the help they need. 

Some get turned off “when someone comes up to you as a new member of AA and tells you, ‘if you don’t find God, you’re going to die a drunk,’” Roger C says. “That rigidity is very religious, very intolerant and very hurtful to a number of recovering alcoholics who are looking for an avenue to get sober.”

The fact that Agnostic AA groups (sometimes called “We Agnostics“) exist was a surprise to me when I first heard about them only a few weeks ago.

I contacted Julio, a regional representative for Alcoholics Anonymous, to ask him about these groups a couple of weeks ago — how long they’ve existed, how they’re seen by AA, and whether the groups have AA’s “stamp of approval.”

In essence, he told me AA groups are autonomous so there’s really nothing stopping them from popping up and thriving:

SNIP

In fact, it may even be helping them. In 2009, the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment published a paper showing that a controlled secular group abused fewer substances than a controlled spiritual group:

While both groups eventually benefited relatively equally from their treatment — abusing substances on fewer days — it took longer to see improvement among those in the spiritual group. What’s more, those who received spiritual guidance reported being significantly more anxious and depressed after four months than those who got secular help. Those problems abated at about the eight-month point, but because substance abusers are at high risk for suicide, some worry that it may not be a good idea to put them through demanding spiritual calisthenics in the early months of their recovery.

This isn’t to say AA’s method isn’t effective — it’s worked for a lot of people. But it would be beneficial for everybody if they were more explicit about the fact that God doesn’t need to be a part of everybody’s recovery plan.

Just Across the River From Louisville, This Happened

Don't think this can't and doesn't happen where you live, because it can and it does.

Non-male, non-white, non-straight, non-Xian, and/or non-rich take it in the ass every time.

As Digby says, Just Because They Can.

I suppose if you think that the misdemeanor charge being drunk and mouthing off are crimes that deserve humiliation and abuse at the hands of the police then you'll think this sort of thing is a-ok:

On March 30, Indiana State Police troopers were called after the New Albany woman got into a domestic fight with her estranged husband.

The officers brought the mother of four to the jail on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting an officer.

Tabitha Storms Gentry was pepper-sprayed after she shouted and begged for clothes, her lawyer said.

Tabitha Storms Gentry was pepper-sprayed after she shouted and begged for clothes, her lawyer said.

Inside the jail, Gentry was questioned by four officers. Video showed she was compliant but upset, her lawyer said.

Suddenly, the officers grabbed her, restrained her and forced her out of the room, into a padded cell.

The video doesn't have audio, but Landenwich said her client must have said something that made the officers upset.

Then, the officers removed all of her clothing, leaving her completely naked. Both male and female officers removed her pants, shirt and undergarments.

Gentry was given a smock to gover up with, but her lawyer said it was more like a mat than an article of clothing.

Landenwich said the officers did not perform a cavity search — a common reason an arrestee might be stripped of clothing.

"This was not a strip search," Landenwich told the newspaper. "I think it was outright abuse."

The video showed Gentry banging on the cell door. She was apparently yelling, asking officers for something to wear.

Gentry was forced to walk through open areas of the jail while naked, her lawyer claimed.

Landenwich said police threatened to pepper-spray Gentry if she didn't quiet down.
When she kept shouting, a hand reached into the cell from a slot and sprayed the room, video showed.

Almost 50 minutes later, officers let Gentry out of the cell so she could wash the spray off her body and out of her eyes.

But her smock slipped off when officers handcuffed her, so she walked through the common area of the jail totally exposed, her lawyer said.

The video showed returning to the cell a few minutes later, still naked.

"They leave her in that room — still with no clothes, with a mat that is now soaking wet from the water — for five more hours before they finally give her a jumpsuit and let her make a phone call," her lawyer said.

Officers said Gentry was drunk and violent throughout the arrest.

According to a report, Gentry was warned that "since she had resisted, threatened and attempted to kick an officer, she was being placed in a smock and the females (officers) were going to remove her clothes."

In another report, police said they pepper-sprayed Gentry to subdue her for "the safety of this facility" because her shouting "agitated other inmates."

Because stripping a suspect naked for "threatening to kick an officer" and for "the safety" of the facility is perfectly fine.

 I wonder where they got that idea anyway?

Repug Thinking

ummagumma.co:

Grimes Talks Sense on Iraq

I'll be damned.  Alison passing up the opportunity to bash President Obama on a current event.

Maybe she's seen the graves of some of the 115 Kentuckians who died for Smirky/Darth's Excellent Adventure in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From the AP:

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes says she would not support sending U.S. troops back to Iraq.

Islamic militants once linked to al-Qaida have taken Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and have vowed to advance on Baghdad. In a statement released Friday to The Associated Press, Grimes called the situation very dangerous and concerning. But she said ultimately the fight is up to the people of Iraq. Grimes said the United States should play a supportive role by providing useful intelligence.

"As a country, there are ways we can support Dads"

Full transcript here.

Nobody "Earns" This Much Money; They Steal It

Digby:

EPI has just released a big study on CEO pay as compared to the average worker. As you might imagine it's not exactly uplifting news if you aren't a CEO. 

They also wisely put together a short video showing he highlights of their findings.  

Details at the link.

Persons

I still say the only realistic response to the antis is to demand Abortion on Demand, but here's a logical argument if you insist.

Divine Irony:

Embryos and non-viable fetuses aren’t persons nor do they possess the neurocomplexity to become persons. Abortion is currently a legal option and even if that changes, it will be an option in the mind of any woman who has an unwanted pregnancy. So all you can realistically strive for is the reduction of unwanted pregnancies; that will, in turn, reduce the frequency of abortions. How do you do that? Get behind the problem. Sex education, marriage counseling, counseling for women who are already mothers, more jobs which will get women further from the poverty line, a focus on abuse in relationships and so on. Putting up a quote that has obviously ignored what is meant by person and adding that “abortion is not an option” is useless. As it stands, you’re like 99.9% of prolifers. There’s nothing unique about your approach or your views. However, if you were to choose to get behind the problem by targeting the quality-of-life issues that prompt decisions to get abortions, you’d literally revolutionize what it means to be prolife. Pro-choice, as a label, fits me because I maintain that abortion should be a legal, safe, medical option for women struggling with such decisions. However, I’m not blind to the inherent worth of getting behind the issue and addressing underlying problems. That’s a fresh approach and more importantly, it’s a better way of thinking about this issue.

↵ Originally from hopelessblueeyedromantic

↵ Reblogged from academicatheism

Death Penalty for the Crime of Poverty

It's not enough any more to make the poor poorer by making them pay fines and fees for the crime of being poor.

Now they have to die for it.

Think Progress:

A mother of seven died in a Pennsylvania jail over the weekend while serving a two-day sentence. Eileen DeNino, 55, was put in the cell where she died because she could not pay thousands of dollars in fines relating to her children’s truancy from schools in the Reading, PA area.

The cause of DeNino’s death is not yet known, but investigators “found no evidence that the death was suspicious,” according to the Eagle. She was reportedly on medication for high blood pressure and other health issues. “Prison officials said they issued no medication to DeNino before her death,” however.

SNIP

District Judge Dean R. Patton sentenced DeNino to 48 hours in jail after she failed to produce documentary evidence of her inability to pay the more than $2,000 in accrued fines and fees. The sentence could have been as long as 45 days of jail time. “I bent over backwards for this woman,” Patton told the Eagle, “but I can’t just dismiss her cases without justification.”

Thousands of people have been jailed over truancy fines in the county since 2000, and two in three of those jailed have been women, according to the AP. But the criminalization of poverty is a much broader national phenomenon, with court costs and fees magnifying the statutory penalties for a variety of minor infractions such that the financial penalty snowballs into an unpayable debt for low-income people.

The results, as catalogued in a year-long National Public Radio investigation, are staggering: a 19-year-old jailed for three days after catching a smallmouth bass during rock bass season, because he couldn’t pay the fine; a homeless man sentenced to a year in jail over $2,600 in penalties incurred by shoplifting a $2 can of beer; a recovering drug user sent to jail three times for being unable to make payments on nearly $10,000 in court costs.

Criminal justice reform advocates and civil rights groups say these practices amount to a revival of the sort of “debtor’s prisons” that are supposed to be a relic of Colonial-era history. At the federal level, jailing someone for unpaid debt has been illegal since the 1830s. A Supreme Court decision 30 years ago reaffirmed that judges must determine that an offender is able to pay overdue fines before jailing her, but some states appear to be breaking with that requirement.

No, Support from Elizabeth Warren Does Not Make Alison Lundergan Grimes a Liberal

Nor will it garner Grimes a single real Democratic voter she's already lost by running repug-lite and Mitch Mini-Me.

But it does show that not only do national Democrats think McConnell is vulnerable, but they also are worried about the Democratic base in Kentucky.

Way too fucking late, morons.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes said Thursday that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., will campaign in Kentucky against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Republicans appeared to welcome Warren, noting her rock-star status with liberals and her positions on coal and guns. 

 Warren seemed eager to join Grimes in her mission to unseat McConnell as he goes for a sixth term, in part as a way to exact a measure of political revenge for McConnell's leadership among Republicans on Wednesday in blocking a bill that dealt with refinancing student loan interest rates.

If you go to a Grimes rally to see Warren, be sure to wear the most dirty-fucking-hippie-liberal T-shirt you can find, and make sure Alison sees you. I hear she literally recoils in terror at getting liberal cooties.

Reward This No-Tip Restaurant in Northern KY

Tipping is a remnant of the feudal lords-n-serfs economy and perpetuates the low-wage economy. Long past time to get rid of it.

Think Progress:

Packhouse Meats, a restaurant that opened in Newport, Kentucky in January, doesn’t allow tipping. Instead, it pays its employees a decent wage.

Servers at the restaurant make a minimum wage of $10 an hour. But they can also make 20 percent of their sales in commission — which is based on sales volume, the quality of service, and a few other factors — if it’s higher than that wage. This means that, on average, the servers are making $15 an hour. “Ten dollars an hour becomes a safety net,” explained owner Bob Conway. “When you come in and it’s dead, or you’re working through the middle of the afternoon and we don’t really have any business,” that $10 might kick in.

That’s much higher than the tipped minimum wage, which in Kentucky as well as nationally is just $2.13 an hour. While businesses with tipped employees are required to make up the difference if tips don’t bring that wage up to the $7.25 floor for all other workers, they often shirk that duty.

Conway decided to institute this different model when he opened up his new restaurant. His family owns a restaurant company that runs some TGI Fridays in the area. “I’d just been hearing a number of horror stories from Fridays servers talking about waiting on a table of 30 and getting tipped $5 on a several hundred dollar check, and those stories were happening more and more often,” he said.

While 20 percent is considered a standard tip, three-quarters of customers admit that they leave less and 11 percent don’t leave anything. “We were losing servers because they couldn’t make any money.” He also noted that servers usually have to come in and do work before they start serving customers, often at the $2.13 tipped minimum wage. “I don’t think that’s really fair,” he said.
The new model was “done to protect the servers, and by protecting the servers, reduce turnover,” he said. Since Packhouse opened, there hasn’t been any turnover that wasn’t due to firing someone for failing to meet the requirements of the job. “None of the servers are leaving because they’re not making enough money,” he added. That’s good for the restaurant’s bottom line: turnover can cost as much as 20 percent of a workers’ pay. It has also raised quality. “If we’re paying our servers well, we can get high-quality servers, and if you have high-quality servers then the quality of service is better,” he said. “Generally I think that’s what we’re finding.”

No Master

Divine Irony:

Somebody Ask Alison: What's the Difference Between the Parties?

Offering legislators cushy jobs to quit and open up a winnable seat is a longstanding political tactic. Steve Beshear tried it here in Kentucky to flip the Senate, but his Democratic candidates lost their races.

The difference in the case of Virginia is that the goal of the repugs was not just to flip the chamber to themselves, but by doing so to - wait for it - deny health coverage to 400,000 of their own constituents.

David Atkins at Hullabaloo:

I can't even imagine having the moral bankruptcy required to spend this much time and effort machinating to prevent poor people from getting health insurance. The people of Virginia are literally spending millions of dollars paying supposed public servants to spend their every waking hour trying to figure out how to bribe, cheat and scheme their way into stopping people from getting federally subsidized health insurance. It's plain moral evil on a massive scale.

Let this also be a reminder that there really, really, really is a big difference between the two parties. Even when it comes to an underwhelming Dem like McAuliffe. Yes, it's important to try to get better Democrats than McAuliffe, hopefully through the primary process.

But make no mistake. Terry McAuliffe and most of the Democrats in Virginia are trying to secure Medicaid benefits for hundreds of thousands of Virginians. And the Republican Party is pulling out every single trick in the arsenal to stop it.

At this point I frankly don't care how underwhelming the Democrat in question is. The Republican Party is so totally devoid of basic human decency that there is no excuse whatsoever to do everything we legally can just to prevent their standard-bearers from holding office.

QOTD

Digby:

Basically they're telling a whole lot of people at the beginning and the end of their working lives to get used to being poor. And everyone else should be aware that their hold on any job is precarious and they need to do whatever the boss man tells them --- there are millions of others out there willing to work for less. The new normal.

Evidence

Divine Irony:

March With Pride for Fairness in Kentucky

Pride events are breaking out all over Kentucky in June, so you have no excuse not to join one.

From the Fairness Campaign:

Picture you and your friends marching in a rainbow of solidarity with the Fairness Campaign's "Human Balloon Float" in the Kentuckiana Pride Parade Friday, June 20 in Louisville!

Call 502.893.0788 or e-mail Laura@Fairness.org TODAY to reserve your spot in our float!

KENTUCKIANA PRIDE PARADE
Friday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. (FAIRNESS meets at 6:30 p.m.!)
Tryangles Bar, 209 S. Preston St.
Louisville, KY 40202
SIGN UP to march with Fairness!

KENTUCKIANA PRIDE FESTIVAL
Saturday, June 21, Noon-11 p.m. | $5 Admission
The Belvedere, 5th & Main St.
Louisville, KY 40202
SIGN UP to volunteer at our booth with FREE admission!

LEXINGTON PRIDE FESTIVAL
Saturday, June 28, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza, 120 N. Limestone
Lexington, KY 40507
SIGN UP to volunteer at our booth!

NORTHERN KENTUCKY PRIDE FESTIVAL
Saturday, June 28, Noon-7 p.m.
Goebel Park, Philadelphia St.
Covington, KY 41011
SIGN UP to volunteer at our booth!

OWENSBORO PRIDE PICNIC
Sunday, June 29, Noon-6 p.m. CT
Panther Park, 5160 Wayne Bridge Rd.
Owensboro, KY 42301
SIGN UP to volunteer at our booth!

Vicco, Morehead: Where ya at, y'all?

Jingoism Jumps the Shark

I make a point of ignoring Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods, as Charlie Pierce calls her, but this quote via Ed Kilgore at Political Animal just so perfectly illustrates the fundamental ignorance and stupidity of blind jingoism I have to post it:

* And in know-nothing news, Sarah Palin attacks Bowe Bergdahl for allegedly learning native languages while in captivity, instead of “speaking KickAss against those who would destroy the red, white, and blue.”

The Cold Wind of Science

Divine Irony:

Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.  

A.C. Grayling
(via whats-out-there)

Danville Joins Human Race; Shelbyville, E-town, Berea, Bowling Green Still Prehistoric

Those four cities have heard citizen petitions for fairness ordinances but have ignored or rejected them.  Meanwhile, a court decision this summer will likely force Kentucky to recognize equal marriages performed in the 20 states that now have marriage equality.

You know what's going to happen? A federal judge is going to strike down the gay marriage ban in Kentucky and declare marriage equality before most cities in the state start treating their gay citizens like human beings.

Greg Kocher at the Herald:

Danville on Monday night became the seventh Kentucky city to adopt an ordinance that prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity. 

 With a 4-1 vote, Danville joined Lexington, Louisville, Covington, Frankfort, Morehead and Vicco in Perry County as cities with similar ordinances.

But it's got a nasty little amendment that could undo all the good.

As amended and passed, the ordinance includes an exemption for a "faith-based social services provider."

That exemption was added after an attorney for Sunrise Children's Services had said Sunrise would sue if the ordinance became law. If the ordinance were passed and the lawsuit failed, Sunrise was prepared to leave Danville, he had said.

Sunrise is a psychiatric residential treatment facility for boys ages 6 to 18; it employs 50 people at its Woodlawn campus in Danville. Sunrise is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention but receives about 80 percent of its funding from state and federal governments.

A motion to reinstate language that said an exemption was null "when such institutions and organizations receive the majority of its annual funding from any federal, state or local government body or agency, or any combination thereof" was defeated on a 3-2 vote. Hunstad, Smiley and Caudill voted no; Atkins and Stevens voted yes. 

 Several citizens expressed disappointment that the exemption means Sunrise will face no penalty if it discriminates against a gay employee.

Putting aside for the moment the crime against science of allowing freakazoids to "treat" people with mental illness, giving a dime of taxpayers' money to freakazoids for any reason whatsoever is a crime against democracy.

And the precedent this amendment sets turns the ordinance into a farce.  Sorry, gay citizens of Danville, you still don't have human and civil rights.

Privatization Kills: Veterans Edition

The only solution repugs have for any problem with a government program is to kill it through privatization.

Phillip Longman at Political Animal:

On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, announced that he had reached a compromise with John McCain and other Senate Republicans on how to fix whatever it is that needs fixing at the VA. The legislation contains some good ideas, like providing for the hiring of more doctors and nurses where they are needed. But the bill also contains one provision that is a significant concession to Republican enemies of government. If enacted, it would lower the quality of health care received by veterans while setting back the movement for health care delivery system reform generally.  

This is the provision in the draft legislation that would, according to a Senate Veterans Committee press release, “allow veterans living more than 40 miles from a VA hospital or clinic to access more convenient private care.” Given all the headlines about excessive wait times and backlogs at the VA, that might sound smart at first hearing, but in practice it could well lead to a disaster. 

SNIP 

And superior coordination of care is one main reason why the VA, despite it flaws, continues to outperform most other health care providers in most measures of health care quality. Because the VA truly is a system, it can coordinate among all the different specialists and other health care providers who are necessarily involved in patient care these days. And because it operates as a system, the VA can also make sure that all these medical professionals are working from a common electronic medical record and adhering to established, evidence-based protocols of care—not inadvertently ordering up dangerous combinations of drugs, or performing unnecessary surgeries and tests just to make a buck.


 

In short, as I explain further in my book Best Care Anywhere, the VA can treat the whole patient as opposed to one body part at a time. And due to its near lifelong relationship with its patients, which often extends to long-term nursing home care at the end of life, the VA also has incentives for investing in prevention and patient wellness that are largely absent elsewhere in U.S. medicine.
 

The VA pioneered this model of an integrated, evidence-based, health care delivery system platform that is aligned with the interests of its patients. The last thing we should want to see is more veterans getting treatment in the comparatively more chaotic, fragmented, dangerous, profit-maximizing world of U.S. medicine outside the VA. Instead, the challenge before us is to stop excluding so many vets from VA care with absurd eligibility standards, while giving the VA the capacity it needs to bring its superior model of care to a larger population. Eventually, we need a VA that is open to not only all vets and their family members, but more public health care systems like it that anyone can join.

QOTD

Charlie Pierce on the Georgia courthouse shooting:

Goddammit, enough already. Enough with coddling dangerous people and their dangerous ideas. This isn't about free speech. Marx had every right to stand on the streetcorner and howl at his personal paranoid moon. This is about people who are arming themselves heavily and taking action against enemies that far too many people in this country get rich telling them that they have. Too many guns is only the most obvious symptom. The disease is the industry of making people turn against their country, and their fellow citizens, for profit. In fact, the difference between what those soulless bastards do, and the broadcast that got Anwar al-Awlaki  -- and his teenaged son -- killed in Yemen,  is so slim as to be invisible.

Let's not kid outselves. This guy is a product of more than his own psychoses. He is a product of a conservative movement that has lost its moral bearings, a gun culture than imbibes paranoia the way some people drink iced tea, a media infrastructure -- from Roger Ailes's empire through the poison from which Clear Channel and other media conglomerate profit, all the way down to the guys broadcasting on short-wave from their root cellars in upper Michigan -- that enables and encourages and empowers armed political paranoia and does so for the cheapest possible reasons, for political power and for corporate profit. And, no, Both Sides do not do this. There is nothing comparable on the Left to the vast  ideological bunker of the mind that has been created and sustained by the institutions of modern conservatism within which Dennis Marx found a home. In a week in which Bowe Bergdahl has been slandered for cheap points and cheaper laughs, the emergence (once again) of an actual American terrorist should be a very sobering moment.

Mitch Loses to Dirty Hippie Blogger

Joe Sonka is doing all the heavy lifting for what passes for the Kentucky region of Left Blogsylvania


Lara Conaway at Maddow Blog:

Score one for the blogger from Kentucky. 

Last month, we reported that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell had challenged Joe Sonka’s right to preserve an embarrassing McConnell goof on YouTube. McConnell had released an ad that showed players from arch-rival Duke celebrating a basketball championship, when he meant to show players from Kentucky. 

McConnell quickly pulled that ad, but not before Sonka grabbed a copy and preserved it on YouTube. The McConnell campaign then filed a copyright claim, and for a while, Sonka’s clip looked liked this:






 

Sonka filed a counter-argument for being allowed to keep the clip under the doctrine of fair use, because he had posted it as a matter of news reporting. Last night, he got word back from YouTube that he had won. Just now, the Leo Weekly writer forwarded us the note. “This content has been restored unless you have deleted the video(s),” wrote the YouTube Copyright Team. 

No chance Sonka would do that – the video is below., straight from his YouTube account. The flash of a mistake that McConnell tried to keep you from seeing is less than a second long. As they say in TV land, it hits at 1:09.

First Supper

Divine Irony:

Feeding Students to the Fiery Maw of Charter Baal

Remember this when Kentucky legislators start piously lying about the wonders of charter schools.

It only works because the students and their parents are non-white and poor, meaning they are economically sub-human compared to the rich white charter school executives stuffing their pockets with taxpayer dollars.

The Nation:

Hawthorne could have been a model for urban education. The Newark, New Jersey, K–8 school has raised its test scores in each of the last three years. The hallways that teachers describe as “chaos” four years ago are now quiet, save occasional bursts of laughter. Its performance on last year’s tests, on which it met all state benchmarks, compelled an assistant superintendent to make a personal visit to congratulate the faculty.

So the community was stunned when the district leveled the educational equivalent of a death sentence on the school.

At a public forum last December, the Chris Christie–appointed superintendent Cami Anderson announced that about a quarter of Newark’s schools would be closed, repurposed, consolidated or otherwise transformed. Hawthorne would lose grades 5–8, and two outside operators would assume management of younger grades. Every teacher would have to reapply.

“It won’t be Hawthorne anymore,” says Grace Sergio, a Hawthorne parent association leader whose eighth-grade son plays basketball and often stays at school till well after six. “This is a village.”

Since principal Grady James took the reins in 2010, the school has experienced a renaissance. “It was failing badly when he first started,” says Sergio. “He’s turned the school around.”

QOTD

Digby:

If all these patriots were really concerned about national security they'd be for closing Guantanamo instead of holding on to a rapidly aging group of prisoners, turning them into martyrs, and pretending that it is keeping us safe. It's doing the opposite.

Fear of Death

ummagumma.co:

Oppression

ummagumma.co

The New Underground Railroad

Fighting the new restrictions is not enough. That's going to take years, if not decades, and there are women literally dying for lack of access to an abortion every single day.

Eesha Pandit at In These Times:

The patient arrived in Houston at midnight after a seven-hour Greyhound trip from a small Texas town. With no money for a hotel, she spent the night in the bus station and took a cab to the clinic for her early morning appointment.

Susanna S., a member of the Houston- based Clinic Action Support Network (CASN), met her as she left the building. The patient was distressed, Susanna re- calls; she’d been unaware that she’d have to return two days later for her procedure, due to a mandatory waiting period. She wasn’t prepared for—and couldn’t pay for—the extra nights, nor the three bus tickets needed to get home and then back to the clinic.

The medical procedure was, of course, an abortion. No other healthcare procedure is so heavily regulated and politicized. And a new Texas law—House Bill 2(HB2)—has added a host of mandatory, medically unnecessary steps to the process of obtaining an abortion.

Among other restrictions, HB2 requires patients who undergo a common form of abortion—a “medical abortion,” via pill—to visit the clinic for each of the two doses of medication, rather than taking the second dose at home, as is typical. The law also re- quires a 14-day follow-up visit, in addition to the existing 24-hour waiting period between initial consultation and procedure for women who live within 100 miles of a clinic. That means medical abortions now require a minimum of four visits, if not more.

Angie Hayes, director of CASN, says that women often arrive unprepared for such a lengthy process. “Several times now we’ve had people show up from out of town, taking a bus, planning to sleep in the bus station, with no toiletries or change of clothes,” only to find out they’d have to wait for several days, she says.

SNIP

That’s the impetus behind CASN, which was founded last summer in response to the new law, and aims to help Houston-area women clear the growing hurdles to abortion access.

SNIP

The patient who arrived in Houston at midnight was able to get her abortion. CASN put her up in a hotel for the weekend. A CASN volunteer drove her to her Monday morning appointment, and, after she’d rested, Susanna took her back to the bus station. Susanna (who requested her last name not be used for her safety) recalls, “[The patient] said, ‘If I hadn’t met you at the clinic, I’d have spent the weekend at the bus station.’ She still texts me every week or two to let me know how she is doing, which tells me that the support CASN was able to provide made a real difference.”

Explain to me again why there aren't restrictions like this on Viagara-seeking men hell-bent on murdering billions of life-giving sperm.

Demanding Belief

ummagumma.co:

Don't Blame the VA

Phillip Longman at Political Animal:

But let’s get real. The fundamental reason for the still huge backlog of cases does not lie with inefficiencies of the VA’s bureaucrats, most of whom are vets themselves. Nor does it come from an increase in the numbers of vets because, as explained in my last post, the number of veterans is actually shrinking dramatically. Rather, it fundamentally lies with the American people and their representatives in Congress, who despite all their fine talk about honoring those who have served their country, have tasked the VA with administering laws and regulations that presume most vets don’t deserve VA care unless they can prove otherwise.

It wasn’t always so. As I describe in my book, the Clinton Administration opened the doors to the VA in 1996 to anyone with an honorable discharge, and many folks who got in then remain grandfathered. But the Bush Administration slammed that door shut again in 2003, and while it has reopened a bit under Obama, we are still spending enormous resources enforcing policies designed to exclude most vets from VA care.

If you don’t think most vets deserve any better, then fine. You are hardly alone. But don’t imagine that the VA’s bureaucracy should be blamed for carrying out laws and policies that reflect your views.

Your New Word of the Day: Ammosexuals

Juanita Jean is a genius wordsmith.

"We've got to do more to lift that burden"

Lower interest rates on student loans isn't enough, Mr. President.  Tuition is astronomical because you and Congress have slashed funding for public colleges and universities.  You've slashed funding to state governments, forcing them to cut their share of money supporting public colleges and universities.  College students, like the rest of the economy, is suffering from a $10 trillion investment deficit.  Fix that first.



Full transcript here.

That Old Macho Obsession

Steve M on the criminal waste of time and money that is the NSA:

It's a macho thing. It's analogous to what we did with torture. Obviously, torture had to be the right thing to do, because it was so badass. Never mind assessing whether the torture would be effective (much less whether it would be consistent with our laws and professed values) -- we were cranking it up to eleven, and every real man knows deep in his groin that louder, more, harder, angrier, bigger is always better.

That's what we're doing with surveillance. Who cares if the program isn't actually preventing terrorist attacks? Who cares if we're collecting more data than we can process intelligently? Bigger is better! The amount of information we collect is huge! That complex in Utah we built to store all the data is massive! Isn't that all you need to know?

You Can Still Stop Cable Company Fuckery

In case you missed it, here's John Oliver revving up the trolls to blast the FCC on net neutrality.



If you prefer your encouragement in written form, here it is from The Nation:

Telecommunications conglomerates often prevail in debates about the future of media by pretending that the issues are too complicated for Americans to understand. But there is nothing complicated about the current battle over the future of the Internet. Nor is there anything complicated about the need for citizens to rise up and defend net neutrality—also known as the First Amendment of the Internet, because it provides the guarantee of free speech online for all.

If the FCC allows the “paid prioritization” of some websites and communications over others—as has been proposed under a plan the commissioners recently voted 3 to 2 to consider—the basic premise of a free and open Internet will be undermined. In a digital age, this threatens a lot more than online shopping. “Profits and corporate disfavor of controversial viewpoints or competing services could change both what you can see on the Internet and the quality of your connection,” warns the ACLU. “And the need to monitor what you do online in order to play favorites means even more consumer privacy invasions piled on top of the NSA’s prying eyes.”

The threat is real. Public interest groups warn that under a plan developed by FCC chair Tom Wheeler, cable and telecom companies could shape a pay-to-play Internet, in which they charge cash-rich corporations and special-interest groups to provide high-speed service while consigning websites without billionaire benefactors to a digital dirt road. Wheeler’s plan comes in response to an appeals court ruling that scrapped a previous FCC attempt to preserve net neutrality. A Democrat, albeit one with a background as an industry lobbyist, Wheeler says he wants to maintain an open Internet. But he’s going about it the wrong way. His plan is much like the one the courts rejected: he envisions a complex set of rules that would require the FCC to constantly “scrutinize” these pay-for-priority schemes for certain websites, apps and online services.

That won’t work, legally or practically. “Unless the chairman reverses his fundamentally failed approach, we won’t have real net neutrality—and we will have rampant discrimination online,” explains Matt Wood, a communications policy lawyer who has worked with the Media Access Project and Free Press. “The FCC can’t prevent online discrimination and blocking unless it reclassifies broadband providers as common carriers.” If that happens, broadband providers can be regulated as utilities that must provide equal and affordable access to an essential service.

Consumers Union policy counsel Delara Derakhshani calls reclassification “the best way to ensure an open Internet and to protect consumers.” But getting that protection depends on what the five commissioners hear from the public during the four-month comment period that’s now open. Feeling the heat from Free Press, Common Cause, the Future of Music Coalition, leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Internet firms like Google—and tens of thousands of letters and e-mails from concerned citizens—Wheeler opened up more space for discussion. The two GOP commissioners, who want to hand the debate off to Congress, will resist. But Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn are actively encouraging citizen involvement, with Clyburn urging the public to see the comment period as a “call to action.” Americans must answer that call (to do so, go to FCC.gov). All five commissioners—especially chairman Wheeler—should hear the public demand that net neutrality be saved. Then broadband providers can be reclassified and regulated in the public interest, and the Internet can remain free.

Better Than the Movie

ummagumma.co:

Where Debates Go to Die

Once upon a time, the League of Women Voters operated all political debates, and if you were running for office you showed up and followed the rules whether you like them or not.

Now it's just a waste of time.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Kentucky's U.S. Senate candidates each have accepted an invitation to debate each other — just not the same one.

Senate Minority Leader McConnell accepted an offer last month from Louisville's WDRB-TV, a Fox affiliate, to attend a June 21 debate, but Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes did not mention WDRB in a letter she sent McConnell on Thursday outlining her criteria for debating.

In the letter, Grimes said she had accepted an invitation for an Oct. 13 debate from KET, and she hoped McConnell would join her. 

 Grimes said Kentuckians should "have a full opportunity to hear our viewpoints and understand the real differences in our visions for the future of the state." But, she said, "there are a few criteria for these debates where we disagree."

KET is the Kentucky public television station, and in reality world its political credibility stands light years ahead of the Fox affiliate. Not so many years ago, no commercial television station would even have attempted to organize a debate in competition with KET.

But in reality world, the Democratic nominee would be an actual Democratic candidate.

No Tournament Championship Is Worth This

I bleed as blue as any UK fan who ever lived, but this is an absolute abomination. Shame on the University of Kentucky, and shame on any UK fan who thinks this is a good idea.

More money. More years. More John Calipari.

Kentucky basketball continued to espouse a more-more-more ethos with Thursday's announcement that Calipari had signed a new contract that includes a two-year extension and an average compensation of $7,500,000 per season. 

 Besides giving Lexington Mayor Jim Gray an ever-more-inviting target to seek a donation for the proposed Rupp Arena renovation, the new contract moves Calipari ahead of Louisville's Rick Pitino ($5,758,338 last season) and behind only Duke's Mike Krzyzewski ($9,682,032) on USA Today's list of most richly paid coaches

For the record, UK is a public university, supported by the taxpayers of Kentucky, virtually none of whom makes $8 million per year (the few who make that much money pay little if anything in taxes.)

Yes, of course tuition is going up at UK and financial aid is going down. Why would you ever imagine otherwise?

You Can Still See the Cosmos Episode That Is Turning Deniers Into Believers

Because it's available online for the next 37 days.

Brad Friedman:

It's not really a question of whether one "believes" in man-made global warming or not. As astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host of the fantastic revival of Carl Sagan's COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey on the Fox Network explained recently to Stephen Colbert, science is "true whether or not you believe in it. That's why it works."

Nonetheless, helping to shake those who have been long conned by the fossil fuel industry's extraordinary propaganda effort to hoax the public about the issue can only help to continue moving the needle towards the serious action we must now take to mitigate the worst of the global warming crisis.

To that end, this past Sunday's episode of COSMOS seems to have done the trick, for at least some previous "deniers", at least according to this private note sent to me from a colleague of mine:

You've never heard me talk like this. Last nights cosmos was the most compelling case for #climatechange I've ever seen. I am now more of a believer than I ever was previously. I guess it is fair to say I am no longer a climate denier. We need change, and solar has to be the solution.

High praise. And, now that I've seen the full episode as well, I'd concur that it is one of the clearest, smartest, most-accessible explanations of the undeniable mountains of scientific evidence for the explosion of CO2 emissions --- and the unspeakable dangers it poses to mankind --- that I've seen to date.

If you haven't watched the episode, you should. You should also let your climate denying friends know about it. It just may help to shake them out of their Big Carbon-induced stupor as well.

I'm not able to embed the episode here, unfortunately, but you can watch the entire climate change episode here for the next 38 days. (It's the one called "World Set Free".)

I hope you'll consider doing so, and I hope that Fox, or the individual producers of the series, will make this important episode available to all for much longer than just 38 days! Yes, it's that important.

Relgious Respect

Divine Irony:

Remember This Dumb-Ass Remark When Stumbo Runs for Governor Next Year

That stench rolling off Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Rotting Corpse of Coal, is not going to make him more attractive to donors, volunteers or voters next year.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo called President Barack Obama's plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants "a dumb-ass policy" Wednesday, highlighting the political difficulties the plan has created for Kentucky Democrats.

His comments to reporters came as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes launched a radio ad criticizing the Democratic president's plan as "pie-in-the-sky regulations that are impossible to achieve." Meanwhile, an issues advocacy group run by a former aide to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell began airing a television ad that says Grimes "talks tough now" even though she previously endorsed Obama's re-election bid.

Stumbo, a Democrat from the coalfields of Floyd County, said the U.S. Congress, not the Obama administration, should make major decisions on energy policy.

Uh, Greg?  That's exactly what Congress did when it ordered the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases.  That's what President Obama is doing: announcing the regulations that EPA is proposing on the direct orders of Congress.

The decomp is rotting your brain, boy.

Hold AynRandy Accountable for Embracing Extremists

You can't fuck the poxy whores of right-wing violence and pretend you never got the clap.

Unless you're a teabagger darling.

Washington Monthly:

None of this, of course, was particularly unusual for Jackson. So what on earth was Rand Paul doing on this conference call? And lest anyone of the False Equivalence tribe dismiss the incident as an example of the craziness that can be found in the “extremes” of both parties, let’s remember Jackson was a Republican nominee for statewide office in Virginia just last year. Is there anyone remotely “equivalent” to Jackson among statewide Democratic nominees anywhere? And even if you can scrounge up one, is there anything on the progressive side of the political spectrum remotely like the dozens of Republican pols who sound just like Jackson in their homophobia, Islamophobia, and crazy-talk about Obama every single day? And if there were, would any Democrat running for president do anything other than run away from these people as rapidly as they could, maybe attacking them for good measure?

No, no and no. And the sad thing is that we barely even notice any more that to an alarming extent the GOP is divided between these people and those who curry their favor and hasten to assure them they share their values and goals.

Sacrifice

Divine Irony:

Kentucky's Pension Cesspool Sucks In Another Lawsuit

Anything with the potential to force open that self-dealing pit of vipers is welcome, but the local government angle doesn't touch the state government corruption.

John Cheves at the Herald:

A Northern Kentucky city sued the Kentucky Retirement Systems Monday over what it described as "illegal and imprudent investments" involving hundreds of millions of dollars in public pension money.

In its lawsuit, filed in Kenton Circuit Court, the city of Fort Wright said KRS violates the law with risky investments in hedge funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, leveraged buyout funds and other "alternative investments" that have produced small returns and excessive management fees, possibly in excess of $50 million over the last five years.  

SNIP 

The pension system for local governments is in better shape than the system for state workers because local governments, unlike the state government, have been making their annually required contributions. The largest pension fund for state workers, which covers more than 90,600 current and former state workers, has $2.6 billion in assets and $11.3 billion in assumed liabilities, making it only 23 percent funded. By contrast, the largest fund for local government workers is 60 percent funded. 

As the condition grows more dire for the plan covering state workers, every KRS participant is being forced to contribute more money and watch their investments go into riskier ventures in the hopes of a bigger payoff, Miller said.

"It's a sinking ship over there," Miller said. "My argument is, let's cut our losses and separate CERS from the rest of the system and let CERS be managed more prudently, using plain-vanilla investment techniques instead of these risky equity funds that have enormous fees."

Fort Wright's suit is only the latest blow to KRS.
 On Friday, a federal bankruptcy judge in Louisville cleared the way for a nonprofit mental-health agency, Seven Counties Services, to leave KRS and escape its soaring pension contribution rates. The decision — likely to be appealed — would mark the first time a KRS participant was allowed to quit, and it could set off a rush for the exits by dozens of quasi-governmental groups, potentially leaving KRS with an even worse unfunded liability.

When Candidates Speak Liberal, Even If They Lose, Progressives Win

Digby explains why:

It's nice to see my concerns addressed. Many of the other candidates are also running ads that speak to the issues in a progressive way. And that, in turn, reinforces those ideas. It's a feedback loop. This is why it's important to support candidates who want to speak in these terms even when they are not going to win. Campaigns are educational opportunities as much as anything and if people never hear a candidate express liberal views or espouse a progressive agenda they have much less chance of ever knowing about them or feeling compelled to leave their house and go to the polls. It may not pay off in the short run, but over the long haul some people's minds may even be changed by it.

The Democratic Party's job is to elect Democrats, period. But the progressive movement has a different goal. They often intersect as they will here in California's 33rd. I'm sure the Party will welcome whichever Democrat wins (and if it's Independent marianne Williamson, I'm sure they'll welcome her too.) But where there is a progressive in a race against a party backed centrist or conservative, progressives have no obligation to back them over someone who hews more closely to their beliefs in primaries, even if the centrist or conservative has a better chance of winning, for all the reasons I just set forth. Unfortunately, for some reason, there are a lot of Democrats who become livid at the idea of anyone running for office in a conservative district who they believe is not "serious" because they espouse the very beliefs that virtually every candidate in my district are running on. It's as if such ideas are never even to be spoken of outside liberals enclaves on the coasts.

I feel just terrible that this makes some people uncomfortable (not), but the truth is that progressive ideas deserve a hearing every place in this country. There are people who believe as I believe all across the nation in all 50 states and while they may not be a majority who can win their district, they have a right to have their voices heard and perhaps persuade a few of their neighbors that the centrist, moderate or right wing worldview are not the only ways to look at the world. Who knows, maybe some day one of these liberal cranks will actually win a seat because of the groundwork that was laid by a few people who decided to run for office so they could talk about progressive ideas.

We've got one such courageous candidate right here in Kentucky.

Down With Tyranny:

There's a debate raging among progressives about Bernie Sanders running for president. [Blue America is encouraging him to run.] Most progressives-- or at least the ones I talk to-- think he should run. Some want him to run, as he has for his entire career, as an Independent. He would be on the ballot as an alternative to the two corporate shills the Republicans and the Democrats put up. Others want him to run in the primary as a Democrat-- something he has never done in his entire life-- so that he could debate Hillary Clinton on the issues she would rather not discuss, like economic inequality and corporate trade policies that have devastated the American middle class.

There's a similar dynamic playing out in Kentucky, where independent-minded progressive Democrat, Ed Marksberry has withdrawn from the Democratic primary-- when the Democratic Party elites and their Establishment stacked the deck unfairly against his long-shot bid-- and is now running as an independent against both horrible status quo, corporate-zombie candidates, Mitch McConnell ® and Alison Lundergan Grimes (D).

Ed is looking for some help to accelerate the collection of the 5,000 signatures he needs to get his name on the ballot. McConnell, a reviled underdog, is challenging Alison Lundergan Grimes to 3 debates and if Ed can get the signatures in time, he's likely to be able to join the debate(s). The issues he's talking about are not the issues either of the corporate candidates want to discuss.

"I know a lot of people," he told me this morning, "are asking why I decided to run as an Independent instead of just hanging in there and waiting for a better opportunity. The reason is simple; I found out that the establishment doesn't give a fuck about people like myself and it's not going to change. I'm okay with that and it feels pretty good being an Independent.

But I am worried about Climate Change and how backwards-ass our political leaders in Kentucky are and the strangle-hold King Coal has on them. This is an opportunity in the most the most watched US Senate race to take a chance to expose the truth about Climate Change."

SNIP

I’m not running to win; I’m running to influence the conversation about Climate Change, because if the good folks of Kentucky aren’t exposed to the truth, they will never change their hearts about Coal and Climate Change.

You see, sometimes you have to go right at the root of the problem even if it’s not the most popular thing to do at the time. But time is something we no longer have. And I need your help.

To have my name on the ballot I have to collect 5000 signatures. I’m well on my way but the quicker we get all 5000 signature the faster my voice we be heard in the media.

I’m pleading to you to support my campaign with any donation you can spare. Our goal is just $5000.00 over the next week. These donations will be used only to help collect the 5000 signatures.

You can donate by going to my website or clicking on the following link.

www.Marksberry2014.com

http://marksberry2014.com/donate-3/

As much as  I think Ed Marksberry would make a far, far better U.S. Senator than Alison Lundergan Grimes, I am not going to vote for him in November.  Nor will I encourage anyone else to do so.  But if you care about liberal policy and the future of the country, I urge you to contribute to Ed's campaign so that he can hold Grimes accountable for her repug views and promote progressive values in Kentucky.

 

How Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul Sabotaged the VA

It's a great scam.  Repugs target a government agency that is succeeding in making life better for millions of Americans, starve it of funding until the lack of resources causes failure and scandal, then scream that "government" is the problem and demand the agency be privatized. Their corporate buddies take over, charge 10 times the price for a tenth the services, and reward their repug buddies in Congress with massive campaign donations.

Down with Tyranny:

The Republicans, always eager to sabotage the V.A. and push it towards privatization on behalf of their avaricious, wealthy donors, filibustered S. 1982, the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014 and managed to kill it even though 56 senators voted for it. How obvious is it that the 41 GOP scumbags-- to quote Ken-- should have all resigned along with Shinseki… or maybe instead of Shinseki, since he seems to have at least been trying to ameliorate a bad situation, while they were busy making it worse and making it untenable. None have resigned and no will resign. It's up to the voters. These are the 41 senators who murdered our veterans:

Senator Bernie Sanders will reintroduce his bill to fund the VA; anybody want to bet on how Mitch and AynRandy will vote this time?

Somebody ask Alison how she would vote.

What Do You Say to a Back-Yard Bear?

Kudos to Richmond, Kentucky police for having the right attitude toward a new visitor to town.

Jim Warren at the Herald:

A black bear is playing hide-and-go-seek with Richmond police.

The bear initially was sighted Sunday night wandering through back yards on the north side of Richmond, and residents reported seeing it again around 8 a.m. Monday, Assistant Police Chief Robert Mott said.

SNIP

"You can imagine that when people wake up and see a bear out in the yard, they start calling in," he said. "Everybody thinks it's a big deal, but you have to remember that we have the Daniel Boone National Forest just south of us here."

A search for the bear Sunday night ended when it ran off into some woods. Mott said he hopes that if officers continue to confront the bear, it will move on to less populated areas. 

 "They're not interested in hurting anybody, so once you kind of confront them, they will run off," he said.

No one has shot one of the bears. Yet.

According to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife:

Bears in Town

As bear numbers increase, so may the occurrence of black bears in towns or local municipalities. These situations generate serious public safety concerns, however, when viewers encroach upon bears and leave no obvious path of escape. Help prevent safety concerns by following these guidelines.    

• Do not approach a bear in town.    
• Bears will almost always find an escape route if they are left alone.     
• Shout and throw sticks or rocks in the vicinity of bear to encourage flight once an escape route has been established.     
• Females with cubs will often climb a tree to for escape cover; never surround a tree holding any bear, especially a female with cubs!    
• Locate and remove the lure that caused the bear to come into town.

There is almost always a safe escape route when bears enter towns. Crowd control is the initial concern as the behavior of a cornered bear can be unpredictable. Immediately report to the KDFWR any sightings of bears within areas of human population centers..

An Obvious Choice

Protecting fossil fuels doesn't save a single job, other than the those held by the politicians who do the industry's bidding. It doesn't educate a single child, fill a single pothole or treat a single cancer patient. It does, however, ensure that human civilization will not outlive those already alive today.

Brad Friedman nails it:

The real concern from deniers then (at least those like [House Speaker John] Boehner and the fossil fuel companies, who know there’s no real question about the science — as opposed to their minions that they’ve played for stooges), is only about the economic interests of the fossil fuel industry. It’s not about “the economy,” as you’ll also begin hearing more and more — as Boehner, by way of example, tried to pretend that any proposal to do anything about it “involves hurting our economy and killing American jobs” — because there are plenty of long and short-term economic gains to be had from moving to a world of clean, renewable energy.

The pretend “debate,” in truth, is really only about the handful of folks who profit off of the oil, coal and gas extraction industries, and the personal pain they would like to avoid in cutting into a single cent of the most profitable industry the world has ever known.

It’s not about a “hoax” or “bad science.” It’s not about “lining Al Gore’s pocket.” It’s about a few very very rich men who don’t want to lose any of their future riches.

That’s it. There’s no more to it. It’s action to save humanity versus a loss of profits for a handful of very wealthy people. There’s no real debate about science or the economy or anything else. It’s about the folks who run Big Carbon hoping to remain as absolutely profitable as long as humanly possible, no matter the ultimate cost to our nation, the world, and actual humanity.

Apology

ummagumma.co:

Saving the City From Terrorist Toddlers

My prediction: Not only will none of the attempted murderers in this case be charged, much less prosecuted, but the family will be harassed, persecuted and hounded out of their jobs and their home.

Digby:

From the "if you build it, they will use it" files:

A 19-month-old boy is fighting for his life after a SWAT team threw a stun grenade into his crib during an overnight home raid, the toddler's family says.

Police were looking for Wanis Thometheva, who sold methamphetamine to an undercover officer Tuesday evening, police said.

But when the team raided his Georgia home, the Phonesavanh family was inside — not Thometheva.

The horror of this is almost too much to bear. A poor little 19 year baby may die and will surely be severely impacted if he lives because an explosive device was thrown into his crib, next to his head. It's hard to see how this could be seen as anything less than manslaughter.

But I think we have to ask ourselves why in the world the police felt it necessary to stage a military style raid on any home, much less fail to do the due diligence to find out who lived there, over a sale of illegal drugs. This wasn't terrorism. It wasn't a gang selling automatic weapons out of the back yard. It wasn't the home of a suspected kidnapper holding someone for ransom. It wasn't anything that one could construe as an immediate danger to the public requiring such aggressive military tactics.  And yet, the police do this all over the country and they are constantly making mistakes, misidentifying the occupants or the residence, wounding and sometimes killing people.

Why do they do this?  Because of the militarization of our police forces which are in the business of buying more and more military-style gear and assuming more and more military tactics and strategies. And inevitably, they have also assumed the posture of an occupying army.

I don't suppose that Eisenhower saw this as one of the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex, but it is one. The government spends trillions on combat gear and military training somebody's going to use it. There are only so many land wars they can get away with fighting. So police agencies are fighting the "war on drugs" here at home and the enemy is the American public.

Thometheva, Phonesavanh: Irish, right? 'Cause this shit happens in white neighborhoods all the time.
.

Fear

Divine Irony:

Fear paralyzes the brain. Progress is born of courage, Fear believes — courage doubts. Fear falls upon the earth and prays — courage stands erect and thinks. Fear retreats — courage advances. Fear is barbarism — courage is civilization. Fear believes in witchcraft, in devils and in ghosts. Fear is religion courage is science.

Robert Green Ingersoll
(Source: infidels.org)

History of Religion

ummagumma.co:

Tax-Exempt Terrorism

$71 Billion. That's how much the taxpayers lose every year to freakazoids. $71 Billion spent not on  infrastructure and teachers and health care, but on urging people to kill abortion doctors.

Brett Barroquere at AP:

A federal judge in Kentucky has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an atheist group challenging tax exemptions for churches and religious groups in the federal tax code.

 

U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman ruled Monday that American Atheists Inc. was speculating about being potentially injured by the tax code or treated differently from other organizations.

SNIP

(American Atheist President Dave) Silverman said religious organizations and churches are treated differently from secular organizations. Silverman said the exemptions are applied in a way that discriminates solely on the basis of whether an entity's members express beliefs and practices accepted as religious.

"The IRS treats your organization better if you profess belief in a supernatural deity," Silverman said.

SNIP

Silverman said the organization will likely appeal.

"We're going to keep fighting," Silverman said. "The court has upheld a prejudiced government practice. This isn't just about atheists; this is about blatant discrimination on behalf of all taxpayers and all Americans. Make no mistake. This is not over."

Saving People

ummagumma.co:

(Source: atheistjack)