Kim Davis Is Also In Charge of Elections

As Rowan County Clerk, Kim Davis is responsible for more than marriage licenses.  Her biggest responsibility is actually running elections in her county.

She trains the election judges and workers for each precinct polling place, decides where those polling places will be located and how many voting machines each will get.

She instructs the poll workers on how to enforce Kentucky's extremely voting rules - or how not to enforce them.

Yes, she ran for office as a "Democrat," but she has proven over the last few weeks that she shares few if any Democratic Party values.

Beware of repugs in dem clothing deciding who gets to vote and who doesn't. Because repugs have always opposed voting rights.

Rick Perlstein at TPM:

President Carter, concerned that America ranked 21st in voter participation among the world’s democracies, transmitted a package of proposed electoral reforms to Congress. He had studied the problem. Now he was ready to administer a solution.

Everyone loved to talk about voter apathy, but the real problem, Carter said, was that “millions of Americans are prevented or discouraged from voting in every election by antiquated and overly restricted voter registration laws”—a fact proven, he pointed out, by record rates of participation in 1976 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, where voters were allowed to register on election day. So he proposed that election-day registration be adopted universally, tempering concerns that such measures might increase opportunities for fraud by also proposing five years in prison and a $10,000 fine as penalties for electoral fraud.

He asked Congress to allot up to $25 million in aid to states to help them comply, and for the current system of federal matching funds for presidential candidates to be expanded to congressional elections. He suggested reforming a loophole in the matching-fund law that disadvantaged candidates competing with rich opponents who funded their campaigns themselves, and revising the Hatch Act to allow federal employees “not in sensitive positions,” and when not on the job, the same rights of political participation as everyone else.

Finally, and most radically, he recommended that Congress adopt a constitutional amendment to do away with the Electoral College—under which, three times in our history (four times if you count George W. Bush 33 years later), a candidate who received fewer votes than his opponent went on to become president—in favor of popular election of presidents. It was one of the broadest political reform packages ever proposed.

It was immediately embraced. Legislators from both parties stood together at a news briefing to endorse all or part of it. Two Republican senators and two Republican representatives stepped forward to cosponsor the universal registration bill; William Brock, chairman of the Republican National Committee, called it “a Republican concept.” Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker announced his support, and suggested going even further: making election day a national holiday and keeping polls open 24 hours. House Minority Leader John Rhodes, a conservative disciple of Barry Goldwater, predicted it would pass “in substantially the same form with a lot of Republican support, including my own.”

A more perfect democracy. Who could find this controversial?

You guessed it: movement conservatives, who took their lessons about Democrats and “electoral reform” from Republican allegations that had Kennedy beating Nixon via votes received from the cemeteries of Chicago.

Ronald Reagan had been on this case for years. “Look at the potential for cheating,” he thundered in 1975, when Democrats proposed allowing citizens to register by postcard. “He can be John Doe in Berkeley, and J.F. Doe in the next county, all by saying he intends to live in both places … Yes, it takes a little work to be a voter; it takes some planning to get to the polls or send an absentee ballot … That’s a small price to pay for freedom.” He took up the cudgel again shortly after Carter’s inauguration, after California adopted easier voter registration. Why not a national postcard registration program? “The answer to that is the one the American general gave to the German demand for surrender at the battle of Bastogne in World War II: Nuts.…. Government by the people won’t work if the people won’t work at it.”

He continued. “Why don’t we try reverse psychology and make it harder to vote?”

Then came Carter’s electoral reform package. There had always been a political subtext to such arguments. Now, the subtext came to the fore: “Election ‘Reform’ Package: Euthanasia for the GOP,” blared a banner atop an issue of Human Events. The current system, the conservative newspaper argued, had never disenfranchised a single person—at least “no citizen who cares enough to make the minimal effort.” So why was Carter proposing to change it? Not because he was a reformer, but because he wanted to steal elections. Carter, after all, had won Wisconsin by a tiny margin, defying electoral predictions. So why wouldn’t he want to expand the scam to all 50 states?

There also had always been a racial subtext to such arguments. Now, that subtext, too, came to the fore.

Human Events cited a Berkeley political scientist who said national turnout would go up 10 percent. They observed that it was “widely agreed that the bulk of these extra votes will go to Carter’s Democratic Party”—“with blacks and other traditionally Democratic voter groups accounting for most of the increase.” The Heritage Foundation put out a paper arguing that instant registration would allow the “eight million illegal aliens in the U.S.” to vote. In his newspaper column, Reagan said the increase in voting would come from “the bloc comprised of those who get a whole lot more from the federal government in various kinds of income distribution than they contribute to it.” And if those people prove too dumb to vote themselves a raise, “don’t be surprised if an army of election workers—much of it supplied by labor organizations which have managed to exempt themselves from election law restrictions—sweep through metropolitan areas scooping up otherwise apathetic voters and rushing them to the polls to keep the benefit dispensers in power.”

And Electoral College reform? All but ventriloquizing the argument John C. Calhoun made in the 1840s, Reagan responded: “The very basis for our freedom is that we are a federation of sovereign states. Our Constitution recognizes that certain rights belong to the states and cannot be infringed upon by the national government.”

What followed represented a hinge in the history of the Republican Party akin to one in 1966, which I wrote about in my 2008 book Nixonland. After the Republicans were decimated in 1964 and the pundits predicted they must purge the conservatives to survive, the party instead embraced a key tenet of Barry Goldwater—opposing civil rights—and ended up making an extraordinary comeback, then capturing the presidency in 1968.

In 1977, after Jimmy Carter’s victory saw pundits singing from the old 1964 hymnal—“Just why the Republican Party with its enrollment of 18 percent should be engaged in trying to saw off its left arm is beyond fathoming,” said one—via the issue of electoral reform, Republicans made a similar choice, tacking hard right for cynically political reasons, justice be damned.

SNIP

This spring, when only those closest to him knew of his illness, Jimmy Carter made news on Thom Hartmann’s radio program when he returned to the question of democracy reform. In 1977, he had pledged “to work toward an electoral process which is open to the participation of all our citizens, which meets high ethical standards, and operates in an efficient and responsive manner.” In 2015, he was still at it.

He declared our electoral system a violation of “the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.”

The president who put the solar panels on the White House roof was once again rendered a prophet without honor.

When Jimmy Carter is right he is really, really right. When the right is wrong, they stay wrong as the day is long.

Charter Schools Ruled Unconstitutional

Among the many anti-family, anti-public, un-American bills repugs will file in the Kentucky General Assembly for its January session will be ones authorizing private charter schools in the Commonwealth.

Despite the fact that such schools - specifically, the shoveling of millions of tax dollars to private charter school corporations and freakazoids - have been ruled unconstitutional.

karoli at Crooks and Liars:

This is a huge ruling from the Washington Supreme Court late on a Friday afternoon.

According to the Seattle Times, the Washington State Supreme Court has ruled charter schools to be unconstitutional.

After nearly a year of deliberation, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late Friday afternoon that charter schools are unconstitutional, creating chaos for hundreds of families whose children have already started classes.

The ruling — believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country — overturns the law voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.
...
In the ruling, Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that charter schools aren’t “common schools” because they’re governed by appointed rather than elected boards.

Therefore, “money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools,” Madsen wrote.

SNIP

The ruling is a victory for the coalition that filed the suit in July 2013, asking a judge to declare the law unconstitutional for “improperly diverting public-school funds to private organizations that are not subject to local voter control.”

It seems as though a door may be open for restructuring charters in such a way that they can still operate under the aegis of the public school district with general funds, but the Charter Management Operators and other money-skimmers will definitely have a difficult time with whatever is coming.

I fully expect this won't end with this ruling, because there's simply too much money to be had with charter schools.

For Freakazoid Refuseniks on Labor Day

DDM at Wonkette:

 History.com describes it like this:

“[T]he average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages. People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks.”

Sidenote: If the worst kind of working conditions you face is lifting a pen and signing a piece of paper so that two dudes can be married, maybe you should SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BIGOTED ASSCLOWN WANNABE MARTYR.

Also, the people denying human rights to human beings were, are and always will be the employer bad guys, not the worker good guys.

CA Stops Investing in Rotting Corpse of Big Coal

Divestment is no joke. Divestment brought down South African apartheid.

Not that it's really necessary, given that Big Coal has been walking around dead for a couple of decades now

Think Progress:

The California Assembly passed a bill Wednesday that prompts the state’s public employee pension funds to divest from coal.

The bill passed the Assemby with a vote of 43 to 27, and will require the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) — which combined are responsible for $476 billion in assets — to remove all holdings in companies that get at least half of their revenue from coal mining. The divestment would have to be completed by July 2017. If signed into law, the measure would be the first of its kind in the United States.

“Coal is the fuel of the past and it’s no longer a wise investment for our pensioners,” California assemblyman Rob Bonta, who presented the bill, said in a statement. “I’m pleased that my colleagues agree: it’s time to move on from this dirty energy source.”

California’s Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, who introduced the bill, also praised its passage.

“Coal is losing value quickly and investing in coal is a losing proposition for our retirees; it’s a nuisance to public health; and it’s inconsistent with our values as a state on the forefront of efforts to address global climate change,” de León said. “California’s utilities are phasing out coal, and it’s time our pension funds did the same.”

The bill now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. The governor has been vocal about the need to act on climate change — he said in June that, when talking about climate action, “we are talking about extinction. We are talking about climate regimes that have not been seen for tens of millions of years. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.” The governor is expected to sign the divestment bill.

"Gossip Posing as Moralizing"

Kimmie Davis' play for a Wingnut Welfare retirement has submerged the Ashley Madison hack and the exposure of uber-freakazoid Josh Duggar as a sister-molesting, hooker-beating piece of shit.

But last month Digby and Greenwald put the gleeful scolds in their place.

 I think this Ashley Madison hack is nothing more than sophomoric gossip parading as moralism. I don't even care that Josh Duggar cheated on that poor wife of his --- I assume that all those patriarchal moralists do that. It's one of the perks. I feel sorry for his wife both because of what he did and the fact that she now has to be publicly humiliated all over again. I'm sure he deserves to be held up for ridicule for his hypocrisy, but in the end the whole thing is just a sordid, small town gossip fest.

Anyway, Greenwald's been following the story and wrote this up today and I thought it was very poignant:

Ever since I wrote on Thursday about the Ashley Madison hack and resulting reactions and consequences, I’ve heard from dozens of people who used the site. They offer a remarkably wide range of reasons for having done so. I’m posting below one email I received that I find particularly illuminating, which I very lightly edited to correct a few obvious typographical errors:

Dear Glenn,

Thank you for the kindness and humanity you have manifested to those of us whose data is now a source of public mockery and shame on AM.

I am female, hold a job with a lot of responsibility, have three kids, one with special needs, and a husband with whom I have not been intimate for several years due to his cancer treatments.

I also used to write about marriage law policy, encouraging traditional marriage for the good of children. My institution has a morality clause in all contracts.

Mine is a loveless, sexless, parenting marriage. I will care for my husband if his cancer spreads, we manage good will for the sake of the children, but we cannot talk about my emotional or sexual needs without him fixating on his death and crying.

I went on AM out of loneliness and despair, and found friendship, both male and female, with others trapped in terrible marriages trying to do right by their children.

My experiences have led me to soften my views of marriage as my own marriage is a deeply humbling, painful longterm commitment.

I expect to be ridiculed by colleagues, to lose my job, and to be publicly shamed, especially as a hypocrite. Yes, I used a credit card. In my case, I will get no sympathy from the right or the left as I do not fit into either of their simplistic paradigms.

I have received email from Trustify that I have been searched, and it is soliciting me to purchase its services. And I am receiving lots of spam with racy headings

That is my story. When my outing happens, I suppose I might as well take a stand for those who are trapped in bad marriages. Many of us are doing the best we can, trying in our own imperfect way to cope with alienation, lovelessness, and physical deprivation.

I do not want to hurt my children or husband. I truly wish I had a good one and I want happy marriages for others. I did what I did trying to cope. Maybe it was a bad idea but again, I have met some very decent people on AM, some of whom are now dear friends.

Thank you again.

Anonymous

As I argued last week, even for the most simplistic, worst-case-scenario, cartoon-villain depictions of the Ashley Madison user – a spouse who selfishly seeks hedonistic pleasure with indifference toward his or her own marital vows and by deceiving the spouse – that’s nobody’s business other than those who are parties to that marriage or, perhaps, their family members and close friends. But as the fallout begins from this leak, as people’s careers and reputations begin to be ruined, as unconfirmed reports emerge that some users have committed suicide, it’s worth remembering that the reality is often far more complex than the smug moralizers suggest.

The private lives and sexual choices of fully-formed adults are usually very complicated and thus impossible to understand – and certainly impossible to judge – without wallowing around in the most intimate details, none of which are any of your business. That’s a very good reason not to try to sit in judgment and condemn from afar.

Yup.

Pink Unicorn

Divine Irony:

• ↵ Reblogged from thedragoninmygarage

Marriage is Not Enough

Yes, same-sex couples are getting marriage licenses in Rowan County without having to listen to freakazoid lectures from a hateful, vicious piece of shit.

But in Kentucky, state-sanctioned marriage does not protect them from being fired from their jobs. Or evicted from their homes. Or thrown out of restaurants, hotels or parks. Or denied credit.

Ironically, the city of Morehead, county seat of Rowan County, passed a Fairness Ordinance last year, adding LGBTI to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance. But outside the city, or on county property like the courthouse, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex taxpaying citizens have no protection.

Just like in 117 other counties in Kentucky.  Only Lexington, Louisville, Frankfort, Covington, Vicco, Midway and Danville, in addition to Morehead, have made it illegal to discriminate against LGBTI residents.

In less than four months, the Kentucky General Assembly will convene in regular session.  Its primary purpose will be to pass a raft of bills specifically authorizing hate-driven bigots carrying bibbles to discriminate against anyone they don't like.  That in blatant and knowing violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Opposing them will be a coalition of rights groups demanding a statewide Fairness Law.  Such a statute would do no more than add "sexual orientation and gender identity" to race, religion, sex, age and national identity on the list of unacceptable excuses for denying human rights to human beings.

This is the Civil Rights fight of our generation. Whose side are you on ?

Talking About Budget

Borrow $10 trillion while interest rates are in negative territory, and get this country rebuilt, Mr. President. Diddle-fucking around the edges while austerity is killing us is a crime.



Full transcript here.

18 Days

Just get this tattooed inside your eyelids:  everything the freakazoids say, especially about abortion, is a motherfucking lie.

No, a blastocyst's heart does not start beating 18 days after conception. That's mostly because blatocysts don't have hearts.  They look like this:

Absofuckinglutely not like this:

fight-for-equality:

goandannouce:

https://www.facebook.com/LifeBeginsAtConception

Actually you’re not considered dead when your heart stops beating. This is why many medical professionals still try to revive those whose hearts have stopped. Because medicine and science has found that death is not considered when your heart as stopped, but once all brain activity has ceased. Which is why they usually have around six minutes before there is no chance to revive. Because when the heart has stopped, your brain cells are deprived of oxygen and start to die.

Fetuses do not have regular brain activity until 25 weeks. At this point in gestation the only time an abortion would be performed is out of medical necessity to save the mother’s life, or to spare the fetus from a short and painful life. These only make up 1% of all abortions. And therefore by this argument, but with the knowledge of what is actually classified as death, a fetus isn’t ‘alive’ until roughly 25 weeks. Far after 99% of abortions are performed.

Please do actual research before trying to use emotional manipulative photos of babies that are born and NOT fetusesbefore parading it out and believing it as fact. Because you are only seriously misinforming yourself, and many others and furthering contributing to a movement that tries to control women’s bodies, when what they do with it does not affect you.

If you are so adamant about helping lives, try doing things for those who are in need and are actually sentient beings. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, donate to an organization that helps feed hungry children, support adoption of older children who are in foster care and are more likely to age out. But this? This does nothing.

QOTD: Paying the Bills

S&P just downgraded Kentucky's bonds because we're refusing to tax the filthy rich and use the money to create a working economy instead of a feudal one.

Undercover Blue at Hullabaloo:

We seem prepared to strip America to the walls looking for places to cut pennies before we'll own up to our responsibility and tax ourselves for what we get and to maintain it. Highways, water systems, good schools, endless wars. We expect them. We demand them. We just refuse to pay for them, and then blame the deficits on the poor. Or else on waste, fraud, and abuse, the inexhaustible zero-point energy of conservative pseudo-economics.

Or to clean up after ourselves. Barack Obama is in Alaska this week talking about climate change and the need to do just that:

I have come here today, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second-largest emitter, to say that the United States recognizes our role in creating the problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the personal responsibility crowd to accept any.

Toldja So: Kimmie's in Jail

Yes, the ACLU is right to want to avoid making a martyr, but Judge Bunning is right, too, that no fine could overcome her fundraising.

John Cheves at the Herald:

ASHLAND— A federal judge jailed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis Thursday after finding her in contempt of court for ignoring his order to issue marriage licenses.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to remain in jail until she agrees to comply with his Aug. 12 order. She was led from the courtroom by U.S. marshals just after 1 p.m.

Bunning also told five deputy clerks who work for Davis that they have until 1:45 p.m. to decide whether they will comply with his order to issue marriage licenses or join Davis in jail.

I give the vicious freakazoid cowardly bully 24 hours before she caves.  She's a criminal now and can't profit from her crimes, so no wingnut welfare gravy train for her. 

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/09/03/4018514_federal-judge-jails-rowan-county.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Bevin Hands Gov Race Conway, Who Will Piss It Away

Conway has already come out in favor of the get-out-of-having-to-do-your-job bill for county clerks; no way he'll attack Bevin for supporting one of them, even if it's Conway's only ticket to victory.

Zandar:

With two months to go before the election for governor here in Kentucky, Republican Matt Bevin has just thrown in his lot with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and the wrong side of history.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin rushed to defend Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis after she again refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday morning. 

Bevin also scolded Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, for failing to stand by the religious liberties of county clerks who oppose the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. 

“Jack Conway has failed to do his job as attorney general by refusing to defend Kentucky’s marriage amendment, and he is failing to defend the religious freedom of our Kentucky clerks,” Bevin said in a statement. 

The comments come amid an intense standoff at Davis's office where a gay couple sought to obtain a marriage license after the High Court rejected her last-ditch effort for a stay Monday. After a heated exchange between Davis and the couple, their attorneys filed a motion to find Davis in contempt of court for refusing to issue them a marriage license. 

In response, the Bevin campaign sought to tie Conway — who refused to appeal the initial federal ruling against the state's same-sex marriage ban last year — to the controversy in a series of Tweets. Bevin's campaign said the Democrat is refusing to defend the First Amendment rights of county clerks. 

"As attorney general, it's Jack Conway's job to defend the Constitutional rights of all Kentuckians, including county clerks," Bevin's Twitter account said.

I swear, for a while there I was afraid Matt Bevin wasn't this much of a moron.  He might actually find a way to lose this thing now.  If he had just said that this was a matter "for the courts" or "for the legislature" to deal with he could have gotten away with it.  It wouldn't be up to Bevin anyway to impeach and remove Davis from her office, and he doesn't make federal court decisions.

But by coming out squarely in the defense of an anti-gay bigot, Bevin has nowhere to hide now.  As Governor he'd be a national embarrassment to the Commonwealth, as it is we Kentuckians look like backwater hicks most of the time.

If Jack Conway can't find a way to bloody Bevin's nose over this and severely damage his campaign, then he's too incompetent for the job in Frankfort anyway.

The Tribble-Toupeed "Libertarian" thinks Davis is just the thing, too.

Kim Davis = Sharia Law

Dead. On.

 

Rude Pundit

If you don't get it, let's make it clear: This is an attempt to enact fundamentalist Christianity as law. It is an attempt to make religious doctrine take the place of secular legal decisions. It is, in theory and operation, no different than the Shariah law that cowardly conservatives fear will overtake the nation, with Muslim Obama as chief mullah or some such shit. You can say you prefer your flavor, but it's still motherfuckin' ice cream. (Note: The Rude Pundit really wants some ice cream.)

Oh, we'll have the usual parade of suspects, of craven politicians leaping to Davis's defense, of talk radio dogs woofing away to their anus-sniffing audience. You know, though, the Rude Pundit may not understand the desire to avoid the stink eye of God, but he knows where inspiration for such fuckery comes from.

The Republican Party is made up of fundamentalists of one type or another now. If your only stance on any issue is "My way or not at all," if you're going to threaten to shut down the working of the government because you don't like Planned Parenthood or you need answers on Benghazi or you need to represent for your state's dead president, then why wouldn't someone think it's fine to stop the gears of local government to please their angry gods.

Governor: No Special Session for Davis; Do Your Damn Job

Steve Beshear leaves office on December 14, and Kentuckians will be at the mercy of either repug freakazoid Matt Bevin or DINO Jack Conway.

 

The General Assembly convenes in January and will ignore every pressing issue including the biennial budget until it considers the probable hundreds of bills giving freakazoid, homophobic county clerks get-out-of-doing-your-job-while-still-getting-paid cards.

 

Bills that Bevin will sign out of freakazoid ecstasy and Conway will sign out of DINO fear. 

The Supreme Court and U.S. Constitution be damned.

 

From Governor Beshear:

“There are obviously strong feelings on both sides of this issue, but the United States Supreme Court has spoken and same-sex marriage is now legal in Kentucky and the rest of the United States. Regardless of whatever their personal feelings might be, 117 of our 120 county clerks are following the law and carrying out their duty to issue marriage licenses regardless of gender. Same-sex couples are now being married in Kentucky and such marriages from other states are now being recognized under Kentucky law.

The future of the Rowan County Clerk is now in the hands of the courts. The legislature has placed the authority to issue marriage licenses squarely on county clerks by statute, and I have no legal authority to relieve her of her statutory duty by executive order or to remove her from office.

The General Assembly will convene in four months and can make any statutory changes it deems necessary at that time. I see no need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money calling a special session of the General Assembly when 117 of 120 county clerks are doing their jobs.” – Gov. Steve Beshear

Some Questions Judge Bunning Should Ask Kim Davis

After, of course, he asks her whether she packed a toothbrush for her extended stay in Stripe City.

John Cheves at the Herald:

A federal judge has ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and her deputies to appear in his courtroom Thursday and explain why Davis should not be held in contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage licenses.

Shortly after opening her doors Tuesday, Davis told two same-sex couples who asked for marriage licenses that she would not issue them, despite a federal court injunction ordering her to do so.

[Rowan clerk, once a local fixture, becomes a national symbol]

[Gay activists: Defiance of same-sex court ruling nationwide 'sure ain't much']

In a brief but tense encounter between Davis and a couple dozen marriage-equality demonstrators who crowded into her office, the clerk repeatedly refused to comply with the court order.

She told the couples she was acting under "god's authority."
 "
Really? You got that in writing?  Signed and notorized?

Because exactly what your invisible sky wizard authorizes according to the tenets of  "apostolic christianity" sure ain't exactly clear.

Conveniently, the pentacostalism - a really whacko version of freakazoid xianism - you profess doesn't specify doctrine, allowing each "church" to set its own rules.

We already know that Kimmie's "church" hates the living fuck out of people who don't do straight sex.  Here's what I'd like to know:

• Kimmie's 57 years old.  Is she still menstruating?  If not, is she have sex with her husband? If so, that's as non-procreative as anything gay couples do.   Does her "church" allow non-procreative sex?
• If she claims she fucks her husband because she thinks there's chance her invisible friend could bless her, like Sarah, with a late-life pregnancy, has she ever had sex that was not penis-in-vagina? Oral sex? Manual sex? Anal sex? Non-procreative all.
• What exactly does she buy with the $80,000 in taxpayer money she is getting for not doing her fucking job? How much does she tithe?  Is she on Ashley Madison?

And the one question Judge Bunning will definitely ask, if not in these precise words:

•  Just who the fuck do you think you are?

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/09/01/4014743/rowan-county-clerk-continues-to.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

Kimmie's Going to Jail: Supremes Deny Appeal

Of course she's still refusing to do her job.  As I keep saying, she's a vicious, hateful freakazoid piece of shit.

John Cheves at the Herald:

If anyone asks Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis for a marriage license Tuesday — and a number of couples are expected to, with news cameras following — she must comply or risk fines, or potentially even jail time.

Late Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Davis' request for a stay in the preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge David Bunning handed down two weeks ago, ordering Davis to resume issuing licenses despite her religious opposition to same-sex marriage.

Davis, an Apostolic Christian, has refused to issue any marriage licenses since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June.

A temporary stay in Bunning's order, which the judge agreed to while Davis appealed, expired Monday. Davis' previous request for a delay was denied last week by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Her next request, made Friday, went to Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees Kentucky and the rest of the 6th Circuit. Kagan referred the request to the full court, which denied it Monday.

Having reached the end of the road, legally, Davis could face contempt charges if she disobeys Bunning's order.

Simultaneously, Attorney General Jack Conway is weighing a request from Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins, who wants a special prosecutor appointed to decide if Davis should be charged with official misconduct for failing to perform her public duties. The offense is a misdemeanor that could bring up to a year in jail, apart from any contempt charges.

Some of Davis' supporters, who gathered outside the Rowan County courthouse Monday to sing hymns, said the clerk would neither obey the court order nor resign her job. Davis, a Democrat, began a four-year term in January.

"Kim Davis is not gonna back down. If she has to go to jail, then she will," said Randy Smith, a local minister. "As she has told me, this is about heaven and hell for her. The only thing she knows to do now is follow the word of God."

But she already fucked that up by issuing a marriage license to a couple one of whom is a transgender man.  Any invisible sky wizard who judges people based on how much they deny human rights to human beings has already marked Kimmie for the eternal lake of fire and constant ass-rape by laughing, barbed-dick demons.

Mark my words:  when it gets to the point that she has to resign or pay fines/go to jail, she'll resign.  All freakazoids, like all bullies, are fundamentally cowards.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/31/4014039/decision-day-rowan-clerk-must.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

What Black Lives Matter Wants Would Improve Life for Everyone

And it's no surprise.  The history of America is the history of protesters and dissenters demanding "radical" changes that turn out to be exactly what the nation needed.

Welcome to that club, Black Lives Matter.

Kevin Drum:

A few weeks ago, after the disruption at Netroots Nation, I wondered aloud what the Black Lives Matter movement actually wanted. What were their demands? What did they want from candidates for president? I found a list of items on their website, but they were vague enough and broad enough to keep me a little puzzled. What sort of concrete initiatives were they interested in?

I'm happy to see that they've now come up with exactly what everyone's been asking for. It's called Campaign Zero, and it even comes with its own nifty graphic:

Some of these are easy: police body cams, for example, have become widely supported on both right and left, and by both activists and police. Others are a little harder: independent investigations of police shootings and better representation of minorities on police forces aren't universally supported, but they do have fairly wide backing already. And some are more difficult: it will be tough to wean police forces off their up-armored humvees and challenging to end the vogue for broken-windows policing.

That said, these are all specific and achievable goals. They even have a fact sheet here that tracks some of the presidential candidates and where they stand on each issue. Ironically, Bernie Sanders has positions that at least partly address eight of the ten items—more than anyone else. Martin O'Malley has seven and Hillary Clinton has two so far.

This is good stuff. BLM won't get everything it wants—nobody ever does—but Campaign Zero should allow them to avoid the fate of Occupy Wall Street, which generated a ton of passion but never really offered any place to channel it. BLM has now done both, and has a good shot at making their issues important ones during the upcoming presidential campaign.

QOTD: Evangelicals

Steve M:

But don't evangelicals care about God and faith? I'm not sure white right-wing Evangelicals in America really do care all that much. For many of them, Christianity is mostly a club they use to beat Godless liberals, the less fortunate, and non-Christians. What the faith seems to affirm for them more than anything else is the sense that humanity is divided into the good and the purely evil, and life's main task is to sort everyone into these two categories, and render appropriate punishments on the latter. This worldview isn't limited to God's judgment in the afterlife -- it extends to life on earth, which is why right-wing Evangelicals despise government efforts to aid anyone other than themselves and their kind (the "deserving").

So, in a way, Trump is embodying religion as they understand it when he threatens to round up and wall out immigrants, or bomb Muslims and seize Middle Eastern oil. He's taking things from the undeserving and giving them to the deserving. Isn't that what Christian conservatives think Jesus wants?

Personal Responsibility

Speaking of people who use religion as an excuse to refuse to do their job if it they can't deny human rights to human beings ....

Divine Irony:

atheistcartoons:

When religion occurs in an individual without external ethical and philosophical checks to hold back the darker and more dangerous, more lethal aspects of a religion, it gives them a justification and a reason to indulge every atavistic, harsh, tribal, patronizing, judgmental, hateful, bigoted, self-righteous or murderous impulse they’re carrying around as evolutionary luggage. 

And it gives them a great reason to ignore the consequences: This Is What God Wants. The next life is more important, anyway. This world of dust is mere illusion.

Religion doesn’t necessarily make a good person any more good, but it can make a dangerous person a lot more dangerous, simply by obviating (rather than counteracting) personal responsibility.

Freakazoid Clerk Got Pwnd by Trans Man; Kimmie Going to Hell Now

I wonder why babby jeebus didn't give Davis a heads-up that the man and woman getting a marriage license did not have the proper collection of genitals between them.

From the AP:

A few dozen people showed up on Saturday to protest Davis' ongoing refusal to issue marriage licenses. They included a couple who said they are a woman and transgender man who got their marriage license from Davis in February.

Protester Mary Hargis told the crowd Camryn and Lexie Colen had been reluctant to come forward but decided to do so to help the cause. The couple did not tell Davis that one of them was transgender when they went to request a license, Hargis said.

"She just saw a straight couple in love," Camryn Colen told the crowd, picking up the story. "She should see everybody like that."

No, her job is not to see a straight couple in love.  Her job is to see two adult human beings purchasing a service which she is duty bound and Constitutionally required to provide.

In other news, a jesus Davis obviously doesn't know fires her ass.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/29/4010863/rowan-county-clerk-closes-office.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

An Honest Messenger

Divine Irony:

(Source: fuckyeahreligionpigeon)

Buying Off the Freakazoids

It had nothing to do with public pressure or sudden attacks of conscience.  It had to do with potentially losing a billionaire alum's big annual donations.

Think Progress:

Alumni also spoke out, including Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, who is a “major donor” to St. Mary’s and whose wife is a graduate. Boyle issued a statement on Wednesday saying he was ”extremely disappointed” with the school’s decision to let Brown go.

“The news this week is an example of how to not prepare students,” Boyle told OregonLive. “There is no place in the workplace of today, or of the future, for discriminating against an individual based on sexual orientation.”

But on Wednesday evening, school officials abruptly switched their stance, announcing on Facebook that they had voted unanimously to alter the school’s hiring policies to allow for LGBT employees.

Freakazoids are greedy pieces of shit and always have been.  The only trick is negotiating the price.

I'm gonna guess that trailer-trash county clerk Kim Davis could be persuaded to don rainbow threads for the price of a new double-wide. 

Can't Pay Them Enough

You're old and decrepit, but you're not ready to die.  You can still see and hear and think and enjoy your grandchildren, but you can't walk.  You need help bathing and using the toilet and sometimes someone has to clean you up after an accident.

Just how much money do you think your adult children should have to pay a home health care worker per hour to do that work for you in a way that is compassionate and gentle and caring, instead of painful and disrespectful and humiliating?

Every penny the ungrateful fuckers can scrape up, times 10.

Think Progress:

A federal appeals court has reinstated a rule change that is meant to provide home care workers minimum wage and overtime protections.

In 2013, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it would make changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act so that this workforce, who care for the elderly and disabled in their homes, would be guaranteed the same labor protections as all other workers. But U.S. District Judge Richard Leon issued a decision vacating the change in January, saying the DOL doesn’t have authority to redefine the loophole it was trying to close, known as the companionship exemption.

The court in Washington ruled Friday that the department does in fact have that authority. “The Department’s decision to extend the FLSA’s protections to those employees is grounded in a reasonable interpretation of the statute and is neither arbitrary nor capricious,” Judge Sri Srinivasan wrote on behalf of the court.

While there are still potential legal hurdles that the rule change could face, most will likely take the district court’s decision to mean that home care workers have new rights. “States would be well advised, and employers would be well advised, to take this decision as final and begin acting,” Christine L. Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, told ThinkProgress. While the DOL had originally held off on enforcing the rule for six months while the challenge wound its way through the courts, that time has lapsed. “I can’t speak for the DOL, but my assumption is that it believes it has authority to begin enforcement now that this decision has been reversed in district court.”

This workforce, which is 90 percent female and half people of color, hasn’t been eligible for minimum wage or overtime pay since 1974, when they fell under the companionship exemption given the idea that they merely provided company to their clients. So while their average wages come to $9.61 an hour, nearly a third of those surveyed in New York City made less than $15,000 a year and nearly 40 percent of the entire workforce has to rely on public benefits to get by.

The low pay has prompted these workers to join the fight to be paid at least $15 an hour, and they have already secured the first victory: home care workers in Massachusetts who are members of 1199SEIU reached an agreement with the governor to be paid at least that much.

Home care workers are in a huge and rapidly expanding industry. Nearly 2.5 million people are employed in this line of work, making it one of the largest occupations, and the number of jobs is expected to grow 70 percent by 2020. Even so, demand is expected to outpace supply over the next decade as the country ages, something that could be eased with higher pay and benefits.

Farm Bureau Stormtroopers Arrest, Manhandle Silent Protesters

Well, what else would you expect from the assholes who deny human rights to anyone who is not white, straight, rich, xian, repug and male?

Joe Gerth at the Courier:

In a surprise development this morning, Chris Hartman, of the Fairness Campaign, and two others were arrested at the breakfast for protesting what they consider to be discriminatory policies. Here's a photo from the C-J's Pat McDonogh:

Chris Hartman of the Fairness Campaign was removed by two Kentucky State troopers from the Kentucky Farm Bureau ham breakfast, at the state fair. Hartman and others were there to protest the Kentucky Farm Bureau's practices which the protesters consider to by anti-LGBT, anti-teacher, anti-choice and pro-death penalty. Aug. 27, 2015. (Photo: By Pat McDonogh, The Courier-Jou)

Surprise development, my ass.  The Fairness Campaign sent out a press release yesterday, and the Farm Bureau had its stormtroopers ready.

According to witnesses, all Hartman, Carla Wallace and one other who was arrested did was stand up at their table.  The hateful, vicious motherfuckers of the Farm Bureau had their pet stormtroopers there to abuse and arrest anyone who dared to call out the KFB for its anti-American policies and stealing secret fees from its policyholders.

Shame on Kentucky State Police and shame on Governor Beshear, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jack Conway and every other Democratic politician there who stood by while the KFB and the KSP blatantly violated the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Kentucky citizens and taxpayers.

How bad is the Kentucky Farm Bureau?  This bad:

 KY Farm Bureau Policies & 2015 Policy Book Page Numbers

• The institution of marriage should only be recognized as the legal union of a man and a woman. (p.13)
• We are opposed to any state-supported agency providing benefits to “domestic” partners. (p.14)
• We strongly believe in the value of all individuals both born and unborn. (p.14)
• We strongly oppose teacher strikes. We oppose legislation that mandates collective bargaining for public school employees. (p.61)
• Alternative lifestyles should not be taught in public schools. (p.61)
• We support the enactment of right-to-work legislation. (p. 75)
• We recommend the federal prevailing wage law be repealed when dealing with government contracts. (p.76)
• We oppose an increase in the minimum hourly wage. (p.76)
• We strongly oppose any mandate that would require any government entities to recognize and collectively bargain with employee unions. (p.76)
• Furthermore, we oppose public employees being permitted to strike, organize work stoppage or slow-downs. (p.76)
• We oppose unionization of farmers and farm laborers. (p.76)
• We support capital punishment. (p.88)

What makes it exponentially worse is that Farm Bureau policy holders are charged a fee that goes directly to the Farm Bureau's political arm to lobby for these hateful, inhumane and un-American policies.

And no, you can't just change insurance companies.  If you live in most rural areas in Kentucky, the Farm Bureau is your ONLY insurance company.  No other company will cover your house and farm.  I lived five minutes from an Interstate Highway and 30 minutes from the State Capitol and I had to take the shit the Farm Bureau shoved out because there were no fire hydrants on my road.

$2 Million Taxpayer Bucks and Counting to Defend Criminal Freakazoids

UPDATE, 2:40 p.m.: Of course she's defying the order.  She's a filthy, hate-filled freakazoid bitch, and that's what filthy, hate-filled freakazoid bitches do.

So the Sixth Circuit, having been slapped down on human rights by the Supreme Court, is passing the slapping on down to vicious, hateful freakazoid bigot Kim Davis.

Who will, of course, appeal to the Supreme Court, costing the Kentucky taxpayers yet more millions of dollars.

Because Davis is claiming she is a state official and therefore her legal fees should be paid by the state. That is, me and four million of my fellow victims of this crap xian piece of shit.

Meanwhile, a much better case is being made by the ACLU of Kentucky for the state's taxpayers to cover the legal costs of the ACLU having to fight Governor Beshear through the Supreme Court over his refusal to extend human rights to human beings.  That's $2 million that should have to come out of Beshear's plenty deep personal pockets.

The rumor is that Beshear "fell on his sword" by fighting the gay marriage case in order to protect Attorney General Jack Conway in his race for Governor.  Apparently, some idiot at the Kentucky Democratic Party thought this little ploy would let Conway attract the gay vote (and campaign bucks) and avoid the freakazoid attack.

In 10 weeks, Conway's gonna lose that race by 30 points.  What exactly will this stupid, expensive, counter-productive fight over extending human rights to human beings have accomplished?

KY Clerks Association Caves to the Freakazoid Bullies

A grand total of three - count 'em, three - out of 120 County Clerks in Kentucky are disobeying the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court and Kentucky law by refusing to do their jobs.

And instead of echoing Governor Beshear and telling these criminal morons to do their fucking jobs or resign, the association that represents 117 County Clerks who are doing their jobs without being morons is instead proposing ways that the three criminals can get away with breaking the law without suffering legal consequences.  How about we just throw the motherfuckers in prison, where they belong?

From WFPL:

The Kentucky County Clerks Association is proposing to amend the state’s marriage laws so county clerks don’t have to personally endorse marriage licenses.

The group is crafting legislation it says would ensure clerks who oppose signing off on same-sex marriages wouldn’t have to.

Leslie County Clerk James Lewis, chair of the association’s elections committee, said on Tuesday the organization is confident the bill would be a solution for clerks who have religious objections to same-sex marriage.

“We would just like to — if there are misgivings, it does create a difficult choice for them sometimes — then this change would eliminate the need for that choice,” Lewis said.

A: The criminal morons are not going to fall for it.  They will take this bill as proof they are right and demand that Kentucky outlaw not just same-sex marriage and homosexuality itself, but that the Commonwealth institute Dominionism immediately and make the three of them emperors for life.

B.  The purpose of this legislation is not to "resolve" a question the U.S. Supreme Court has already resolved, or even to make babby jeebus stop crying.  The purpose is to force Democratic members of the state House into a vote that will either rally repug voters for their opponents or disgust dem voters into staying home.  Either way, repugs take back the state House and with the repug Senate and repug guv Matt Bevin turn Kentucky into Kansas on the path to turning it into Haiti.

"Consicence" has nothing to do with it.

C.  Shame on you, Leslie County Clerk James Lewis, shame on you, Kentucky Association of County Clerks, and shame on any and every Democratic state legislator who lets this piece of shit bill even come to a vote.

Only Government Spending Will Save Your Middle-Class Ass

Why can't you live on what you make any more?  Austerity, which transfers trillions of your tax dollars every year up to billionaire motherfuckers like donald trump instead of spending it on teachers and janitors and mental health counselors and firefighters and home health aids.

Kevin Drum:

I don't really have any good hook for posting this chart, but it's one of the most important ones you'll ever see. It's from the Wall Street Journal and it shows total government spending (state + local + federal) during the recession and its aftermath:

For about a year following the Obama stimulus, total spending was a bit higher than average for recession spending. But after that, spending fell steadily rather than rising, as it has after every previous recession. The result: a sluggish recovery, persistent long-term unemployment, and anemic wage growth.

Instead of responding to a historically bad recession with a historically strong stimulus, we responded with the weakest stimulus ever. Government spending is now more than 25 percentage points lower than normal. If you want to know why the recovery has been so feeble and unsteady, this is it. Republican presidential candidates, please take note.

Good Wages Get Good Workers. Stop Pining for Slave Labor.

I am sick and tired of employers whining that there's a labor shortage.  There is no labor shortage.  There IS, however, a shortage of people stupid or desperate enough to accept the slave wages these motherfucking "employers" are offering.

Kevin Drum:

Let's just stop right there. We've seen this movie before. What's really happening, apparently, is that there's a shortage of skilled people willing to work lousy hours and face long commutes in return for $10 to $12 per hour.

Offer them, say, $15 per hour, and who knows? Maybe there are plenty of good entry-level cooks available. This would raise your total cost of running the restaurant by, oh, 2 percent or so,¹ but it's not like restaurants are competing with China. They're competing with other restaurants nearby that have the same problem. If the price of a good cook is going up, it's going to affect everyone.

I tire of reading stories like this. Tell me what happens when employers offer more money. If they still can't find qualified workers, then maybe there's a real problem. If they haven't even tried it, then maybe the problem isn't quite as dire as they're making it out to be.

A Skeptic on god

Michael Schermer:

As I wrote in my book The Believing Brain:

Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does or ever will. Does science and skepticism extirpate all meaning in life? I think not; quite the opposite, in fact. If this is all there is, then how meaningful become our lives, our families, our friends, our communities—and how we treat others—when every day, every moment, every relationship, and every person counts; not as props in a temporary staging before an eternal tomorrow where ultimate purpose will be revealed to us, but as valued essences in the here-and-now where provisional purpose is created by us. Awareness of this reality elevates us all to a higher plane of humanity and humility, as we course through life together in this limited time and space—a momentary proscenium in the drama of the cosmos.

#1. God

According to Oxford University Press’s World Christian Encyclopedia, 84% of the world’s population belongs to some form of organized religion, and a 2007 Pew Forum survey found that 92% of Americans believe in God “or a universal spirit”.

God or a universal spirit  92%
Heaven                                 74%
Hell                                       59%
Miracles                               79%

I realize that calling belief in God a “weird thing” will be offensive to some, but to be intellectually honest and consistent it should be correctly classified as a supernatural belief because by most traditional believers’ accounts God is conceived as all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and all good (omnibenevolent); who created out of nothing the universe and everything in it; who is uncreated and eternal, a noncorporeal spirit who created, loves, and can grant eternal life to humans.

I do not believe in any such god. Further, I believe that there is substantive evidence to show that God and religion are human and social constructions based on research from psychology, anthropology, history, comparative mythology, and sociology. I present this evidence in my book The Believing Brain. As well, the burden of proof is on believers to prove God’s existence—not on nonbelievers to disprove it—and to date theists have failed to prove God’s existence, at least by the high evidentiary standards of science and reason.

I also note a problem we face with the God question: certainty is not possible when we bump up against such ultimate questions as “What was there before time began?” or “If the Big Bang marked the beginning of all time, space, and matter, what triggered this first act of creation?” The fact that science has yet to answer these questions with certainty doesn’t faze scientists because theologians hit the same epistemological wall. You just have to push them one more step. For example, in my debates and dialogues with theologians the exchange usually goes something like this for the question of what triggered the Big Bang:

God did it.

Who created God?

God is He who needs not be created.

Why can’t the universe be “that which needs not be created?”

The universe is a thing or an event, whereas God is an agent or being, and things and events have to be created by something, but an agent or being does not.

Isn’t God a thing if He is part of the universe?

God is not a thing. God is an agent or being.

Don’t agents and beings have to be created as well? We’re an agent, a being—a human being. We agree that human beings need an explanation for our origin. So why does this causal reasoning not apply to God as agent and being?

God is outside of time, space, and matter, and thus needs no explanation.

If that is the case, then it is not possible for any of us to know if there is a God or not because, by definition, as finite beings operating exclusively within the natural world we can only know other natural beings and objects. It is not possible for a natural finite being to know a supernatural infinite being.

Thus it is that skepticism in this realm, as in so many others, is altogether appropriate. As the bumper sticker says:

Militant Agnostic: I Don’t Know and You Don’t Either.

© 2015 Michael Shermer, All rights reserved

The Plan of a Monster

Divine Irony:

Full Story: http://ift.tt/1Cjn3H8

"It's time for Congress to pass a responsible budget"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, Mr. President, you are the funniest! Congress has never, in the history of all the Congresses, passed a "responsible" budget. The next one will be "responsible" only in the sense that it fulfills repug ambitions to poke you in the eye with a stick.



Full transcript here.

Only the Rich Will Get Drinking Water

Maybe you think the rich deserve their exclusive access to the best houses in the best neighborhoods and the best schools for their kids and the best jobs and the best of everything.

Do you think they deserve all the drinking water?

It's already happening, right here in the US of A.

 

Think Progress:

As the commonwealth’s reservoirs drop to their lowest levels in decades, the government has declared a state of emergency, and implemented strict rationing. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans now have had tap water only every third day, and that tightened this past weekend, giving families water only two days a week.

“It’s been water for one day, then no water for two days,” explained Fernandez. “In the one day you have water, you fill your buckets.”

Government officials are telling residents that now is “not the time” to wash their cars, fill private swimming pools, or hose down their sidewalks and patios. Luis F. Cruz Batista, Director of Puerto Rico’s Office of Management and Budget, told local press: “The rationing affects the rich, the middle class and the poor; it affects children, adults and seniors.”

But the rationing has not hit everyone equally. As poor islanders fill up buckets and bathtubs on the few days they have water, the pools, fountains, and showers of the coastline’s hotels and resorts remain untouched.

“The most affected residents have been those with the fewest resources,” San Juan academic and activist Jose Rivera told ThinkProgress. “But in the hotels and the majority of condominiums, like the one I live in, the rationing either isn’t being done at all, or they’re only partially implementing it. So far, the population has remained calm, but I expect this inequality of sacrifices to eventually provoke protests.”

Rivera added that when public schools reconvene this month, the water rationing will disrupt class schedules and the school breakfast and lunch programs. This will especially harm more than half of Puerto Rican children living in poverty.

For Fernandez, the water rationing policy is a symbol of deeper problem. “I see it as such as parallel of government policy in general,” he said. “The government puts more value into those from abroad than they are concerned about the local situation and the well-being of the public.”

KY Signs Death Warrant Of Its Crown Jewel State Park System

For 50 years, Kentucky's State Resort Parks have been its Pride and Joy. More than bourbon distilleries, more than the Derby even, the biggest tourist draw to Kentucky has been its spectacular, publicly-owned and -operated State Resort Parks.

Better than any other state's - even California's - and better than virtually all National Parks, Kentucky's State Parks System has put every other park system to shame.

From Land Between the Lakes in far Western Kentucky to Pine Mountain and Jenny Wiley in the mountains of the East; from General Butler on the Ohio to Barren River on the Tennessee border, there's no place that can compete on the combination of Kentucky State Parks' natural beauty, southern hospitality and affordability. 

And not just every government park system; every private, corporate-owned park, too. No profit-taking motherfuckers could ever compete with Kentucky's parks. 

That's because they are entirely owned by the citizens of the Commonwealth, and operated by those citizens' public servants: state employees.

Until now. 

Bill Estep at the Herald:

Kentucky would get its first two privately operated lodges at state parks if solicitations issued this week work out.

The state issued requests for private developers to make proposals on building a hotel or resort lodge with a restaurant at Burnside Island State Park in Pulaski County and at Pine Mountain State Resort Park in Bell County.

There already is a popular lodge atop Pine Mountain at the Bell County park. The proposed new hotel or lodge would be at Wasioto Winds Golf Course just off U.S. 25E at the bottom of the mountain, which is part of the park.

There are lodges at 17 of the state's 49 parks, not including Breaks Interstate Park, which straddles the Kentucky-Virginia line at Pike County and has a lodge.

Burnside Island and Pine Mountain are the only parks where the state is soliciting private proposals for lodges, said Gil Lawson, spokesman for the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.

Officials in Burnside and Pineville said Thursday that they thought the proposed lodges would boost tourism and help the local economies.

NO! Privatization ruins services and escalates costs.  Always.

SNIP 

Under the proposals, developers would cover the cost to build and operate the lodges, and pay the state rent or a portion of revenues. It's seen as a way to enhance the parks without the state having to bear the cost.

The developer could get back a sizeable piece of the investment through a state tax incentive.

Translation: the developer will strip the park of every fucking dime in revenue, declare bankruptcy and skip the state, leaving the taxpayers with a piece-of-shit lodge and a mountain of debt.

Shame on you, Kentucky!  Shame on you, Tourism Cabinet! This is Matt Bevin-level destruction. Pull that RFP now before somebody takes you up on it.

KY GOP Not Buying AynRandy's Caucus Con

They're stupid, but they're not as stupid as the Tribble-Toupeed One thinks they are.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

Paul, who told callers he was under the weather, called in with nearly 350 members of the Republican Party of Kentucky's state central committee in an effort to persuade them to go ahead with a proposal that would allow him an end-around a state law that prohibits a candidate from appearing on the same ballot twice.

The cost of switching to a caucus, which would allow Paul to run for president and the U.S. Senate at the same time, was a major topic as Republicans wanted to know why Paul had not transferred an initial payment of $250,000 to an RPK account as he said he had in a letter this week.

Republicans wanted to know why Paul was waiting until the proposal passed at the state central committee meeting this Saturday, and Paul responded that there was no need to transfer the money unless Kentucky's Republicans don't trust their junior senator.

Trust emerged as a major theme from Paul, and it appears that will be the crux of his pitch when he tries to convince committee members in person at Saturday's central committee meeting in Frankfort.

They should demand cash on the barrelhead.  He doesn't have $250,000, much less $500,000, and they know it.