Religious Liberty

Digby: 

And Marco Rubio, obviously unschooled in the proper obfuscatory rhetoric, eschews the flowery prose and just blurts out what they really believe. He says on his website:

“Religious liberty is not simply the right to believe anything you want.”

Actually, that’s exactly what it is.

 As Frederick Clarkson explained in this piece, Thomas Jefferson considered his involvement in the drafting of that Virginia statute as important as his authorship of the Declaration of Independence. It was equally revolutionary: It removed the Anglican church as the official church of the state of Virginia and asserted that people were free to believe in any church, or no church, and it “shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” It is considered the basis for the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, which was ratified four years after this was passed.

The Establishment Clause was a radical embrace of the Enlightenment; it was controversial then and it’s controversial now. Jefferson set out to explain his thinking on the matter. He wrote very explicitly that his intention was that the law held “within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohametan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.” And it will come as a surprise to the Christian Right who have been bamboozled by charlatans into believing otherwise, but Jefferson made it clear that the majority voted against adding any references to Christianity.

Not that this has stopped right wing hucksters like pseudo-historian David Barton, who is the CEO of one of Ted Cruz’s Super-PACs, and the looney Glenn Beck from rewriting this history out of whole cloth. It is one of the great cons in American life. Not only wasn’t the U.S. founded as a Christian nation; the founders discussed the subject at great length over many years and made it clear that it was not. What they did say was that individuals would be free to believe, or not believe, anything they want. That secular Enlightenment value is what Religious Freedom Day celebrates.

But as is their wont, the right wing has cleverly decided to use a postmodern approach to reinterpret this constitutional right as a license to impose their own beliefs on others. Just as the Second Amendment is now used to inhibit the exercise of the First Amendment, radical right-wing legal strategists have devised a plan to use the First Amendment to impose their religious beliefs on their fellow Americans. They cleverly call it a crusade for “religious liberty” when it is, in fact, an attempt to deny individuals the right to live their lives free from religious coercion.

Frederick Clarkson is the author of a new comprehensive report on this movement, called “When Exemption is the Rule: The Religious Freedom Strategy of the Christian Right.” Even those who follow this issue must be surprised at the scope of their efforts. In a nutshell, Clarkson reports that the right has created a number of new institutions and initiatives to advance the redefinition of the meaning of religious freedom. There are tens of millions of dollars from various right wing organizations flowing into these institutions to influence legal, political and cultural change. For instance:

The Becket Fund, which has litigated landmark Supreme Court cases like Hobby Lobby and Hosanna-Tabor, grew 86 percent in just four years, from FY2009 to FY2012. The national legal network Alliance Defending Freedom increased its annual revenues by $5 million during the same period (a 21% increase) while also expanding its effort to seek influential legal precedents in international courts.

In an important mainstreaming move, the conservative John Templeton Foundation funneled $1.6 million through the Becket Fund to establish a religious liberty clinic at Stanford University Law School. It opened in January 2013.

The Supreme Court’s 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling was the first high-level, national recognition of this new definition of religious freedom, which is essentially the recognition of an employer’s right to discriminate. (It allowed companies to claim a religious exemption from the Obamacare mandate that requires employers to offer contraception coverage in health insurance plans.) Essentially the court held that the religious beliefs of an employer supersedes the religious beliefs and personal conscience of individuals who work for them.

What Matt Bevin Wants to Replace Kynect

It's saved 400,000 Kentuckians from pain, disability, poverty and death, but it came from That Ni**er in the White House, so it has to go.

Bevin claims he's just going to put everyone back on the national Obamacare, but he won't admit that his fellow repugs in Congress are working hard to kill Obamacare and return all of us to the tender mercies of the unregulated private insurance market.

Down with Tyranny

Regulations

Commenter Robyn Ryan at Wonkette:

Governor Lying Coward Tells More Lies in Cowardly Attack on Planned Parenthood

Really, motherfucker? You really think a baseless lawsuit against Acorn Planned Parenthood is going to vault you into the White House in 2020? 

FRANKFORT, Ky (Feb. 18, 2016) - Governor Matt Bevin today announced that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Inc. for operating a facility in which 23 abortions were performed unlawfully from December 3, 2015 through January 28, 2016.

False. Abortion is legal in this country, and no amount of harassing, unnecessary rules can make it not legal.  Don't libertarians and repugs hate government regulations? Because they interfere with small business?  The almighty Free Market demanded abortion services in Louisville.  How dare Faux-Bro Bevin defy the holy market?

James Bruggers at the Courier on Jan. 31:

Gov. Matt Bevin's heated statement issued Friday evening accused Planned Parenthood of providing "illegal abortions," and accused the health care nonprofit of admitting it had violated state law.

But Planned Parenthood on Saturday countered by adamantly saying it made no such admission.

"We did not perform illegal abortions," said Betty Cockrum, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. "We worked in good faith ... following Kentucky precedent" when it comes to licensing of its new Louisville facility, she said.

The only mistake Planned Parenthood made was suspending its abortion care while Governor Lying Coward finished his hissy fit.  Which isn't over yet.

Matt Bevin Is Killing His Own Children and Yours

Because that's what celebrating the failure of actions to reduce climate warming does: it guarantees that young people are going to be living on a planet that no longer supports human civilization.

From the Herald:

FRANKFORT, Ky (Feb. 9, 2016) - Today, Governor Matt Bevin made the following statement applauding the Supreme Court decision to freeze the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan regulations:

“Today's Supreme Court ruling is a huge win in the fight against Obama's disastrous Clean Power Plan. The Court's decision to freeze these illegal climate regulations is a victory in our efforts to save our coal jobs and protect Kentucky families from skyrocketing energy prices. We will continue to challenge these regulations as the litigations continue in court.”

Kentucky is among a coalition of states challenging the EPA rules. On January 21st, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet joined with other states and stakeholders to submit comments to the EPA regarding the Federal Plan Requirements for Greenhouse Gas Emissions and implementation of the Clean Power Plan. 

Not to mention that Governor Lying Coward is still refusing to establish a working relationship with the truth.  Climate regulations are not illegal, the rotting carcass of Big Coal will never create jobs, conservatards have been predicting skyrocketing energy prices for thirty years and it ain't happened yet.  Bought gas lately?  

Commenter memzilla at Wonkette:

 

 

When middle-class taxpayers bear the cost of public services while the rich profit off the same public services, that's wealth socialism.

 

May the Disrespect Never End

From Wonkette commenter Memzilla:

memzilla 

 

O/T, but Our Grrrl Sara Nails It.

• 

How Did We Do That Without Religion?

Divine Irony:

Free

PZ Myers:

Free speech does not mean there are no limitations on what you can say, it just means the government can’t control the expression of opinions. You still don’t get to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, or commit libel with impunity, or be obnoxious without social repercussions.

You even have the right to use words like ni**er and cunt and spic and raghead.  And when you do, everyone else has the right to call you out for being a  racist, sexist, motherfucking bigot.

Add An Anal Ultrasound and It's Perfect

Mary Lou Marzian's bill, that is.

Digby:

Well, One woman legislator is trying to illustrate the issue for her male colleagues:

Conservative legislators in Kentucky, emboldened by the election of Gov. Matt Bevin (R), are moving swiftly to pass numerous new restrictions on women’s access to abortion. Bevin has already signed into law a stricter “informed consent” bill that requires a face-to-face consultation with a healthcare provider, while a forced ultrasound bill sailed easily through a Senate committee this week. (Jezebel notes that though women would be required to receive an ultrasound before an abortion, the bill does allow them to avert their eyes.)

One lawmaker, however, is trying to turn all of these restrictions on women back on men. Rep. Mary Lou Marzian (D) has filed a new bill (HB 396) creating numerous restrictions for men to access medication for erectile dysfunction, such as Viagra or Cialis. HB 396 adds the following four steps a man would have to undergo:

He must have two office visits on two different calendar days before the health care practitioner prescribes a drug for erectile dysfunction to him. 

He can only be prescribed the drug if he is married. 

He must produce a signed and dated letter from his current spouse providing consent for the prescription. 

He must make a sworn statement on a Bible that he will only use the prescription when having sexual relations with his current spouse.

Marzian, one of only three House members who opposed the informed consent bill, knows that her tongue-in-cheek bill likely won’t go anywhere, but she hopes it will help raise awareness among lawmakers about the way abortion laws intrude on a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.

In an interview with WDRB Friday, she explained her thinking, “How would this body of men feel if the government was injecting into their private medical decisions?” The intent of her legislation is to “have government insert itself into the personal, private decisions of men — since we have already inserted it into our personal, private decisions of women.”

I would add the necessity of an anal ultrasound just because.

This isn't the first time women have brought this up God knows. And it never changes a thing. But it should focus the minds of any progressive types who don't think there's any chance that women will lose their right to self-determination. These extremist wingnuts are relentless and no matter how much time passes these ridiculous proposals keep coming up, unchanged and without any sense that they are antediluvian throwbacks. They're out there and they have political power. If they get the chance to do this, they will.

I don't get what objections there might be to Marzian's bill.  All those forced-birth motherfuckers are jeebus-feerin' kristans, right? Never crossed their minds to fuck anybody outside the fambly. And they're always whipping out the bibble for swearing something or other.

As for the anal ultrasound, give it a try, boys.  You might like it.

Gov. Lying Coward Ensures Watchdogs Can't Watch Him

The Executive Branch Ethics Commission caught and exposed Ernie Fletcher, but Matt Bevin has gutted the agency, leaving his administration free to wreak havoc with no accountability.

Adam Beam at AP:

As part of his proposed budget cuts, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin exempted what he considered to be key government services. Those not protected include agencies charged with holding him and his administration accountable.

Katie Gabhart, the executive director of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, said the proposed 4.5 percent budget cut this year and the 9 percent cut over the next two years will devastate the agency. She said it would force her to lay off the agency's sole investigator and auditor, two employees who already work part time.

"We will be an investigative and auditing agency with no investigator and auditor," Gabhart told House lawmakers this week. "Public servants are going to violate the ethics code ... and if they know we have an ethics commission with so few resources that we can't enforce the code, then what is the point of having one?"

The cuts also include the Registry of Election Finance, the agency that makes sure politicians follow the rules when they raise and spend money for their campaigns. Executive Director John Steffen said the agency could not sustain a 9 percent cut and would not be able to hire an auditor. In response, House lawmakers suggested changing state law so fewer candidates would have to file disclosure reports.

"I don't know what statutory obligations can be changed and not render our entire agency meaningless," Steffen said.

 A single Democratic seat in the state House stands between Kentucky and the kind of all-repug government that has turned Kansas into Haiti.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article60012306.html#storylink=cpy

Matt Bevin Doesn't Know What the Fuck He's Doing, Part 15

As Zandar points out, when Matt Bevin puts the profit-stealing private sector in charge of public services, we get public theft and no services.  And now, in the case of Medicaid patients, probably dead people stacked up like cordwood.

From the press release:

Governor Matt Bevin and Secretary Vickie Yates Glisson today announced the appointment of Stephen P. Miller, CPA, as Department of Medicaid Commissioner.

“As we work to redesign the Medicaid program and transition it to a more affordable, sustainable model tailored to Kentucky’s needs, it is important to have someone with a deep understanding of the healthcare industry leading the Department of Medicaid,” said Gov. Bevin. “The Commonwealth is fortunate to have someone of Stephen Miller’s caliber, financial acumen, and business experience willing to serve in this role.”

“As a CPA with more than two decades of financial management experience in a healthcare environment, I believe Steve is an excellent choice to lead the Department for Medicaid Services,” said CHFS Secretary Vickie Yates Brown Glisson. “Steve will be a tremendous asset to both the Governor and the Cabinet as we seek to address the financial unsustainability of the current Medicaid model in a way that will improve health outcomes for its members and save taxpayer dollars.”

Miller has spent the past 24 years as Vice President of Finance with the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA), where he assisted in the development of KHA’s position on pending legislation and monitoring federal and state reimbursement issues. In his role, Miller interacted with Medicaid and Cabinet leadership on many issues related to hospital reimbursement and regulatory issues.

“I look forward to heading the agency that provides the safety net for the most vulnerable of Kentucky citizens,” said Miller.

Prior to his work with KHA, Miller served as Executive Director of Ten Broeck Hospital in Louisville, Chief Operating Officer of Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Louisville, Chief Financial Officer of Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Louisville, and Regional Controller of American Healthcare Management in Dallas.

Miller is a graduate of the University of Louisville, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in accounting. He and his wife Mary, along with their two married daughters live in Louisville.

Bevin to Sign Anti-Family Bill at Right-to-Kill-Women Rally

UPDATED Below

Yes, the people who are perfectly fine with women dying of sepsis in back alleys and unwanted children starving in the streets are holding a rally at the State Capitol in 90 minutes.

They are celebrating a bill that House Democrats failed to kill.  A bill that declares women nothing but brainless fetus vessels and forces them to give birth against their will.

And Governor Blatocysts-Have-Rights-Adult-Women-Do-Not will be there to ostentatiously sign the unconstitutional kill-women bill into law.

UPDATE, Feb. 13:  Northern KY activists are bombarding Bevin with mocking tweets.

TPP Still Terrible For Everybody But Corporations

I remember when Rich Trumka was just a kid leading the UMW into one of its last great strikes.  He came up the traditional labor way: growing up in a union family in coal country, working in the mines, organizing a few men at a time, working UNION every single day of his life. The MBA smart asses who have been writing labor's obituary for 40 years don't understand and never will understand.  Which is why we have to follow Trumka into the fight yet again.

Erik Loomis at LGM:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership was officially signed by the negotiating countries in Auckland a couple of days ago. This received almost no news coverage, although it will when it goes up for ratification in Congress.AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka reminds us why the TPP is so awful and something that we must demand our politicians vote against:

From the outset, the AFL-CIO provided detailed and substantive suggestions for improving this agreement and evidence to support our positions. On everything from labor enforcement to investment rules, we offered a path forward. Unfortunately, our policy recommendations were ignored, as were those from the environmental, consumer, public health, global development and manufacturing sectors. That’s what you get from secret negotiations driven by corporate and investor interests.

There are countless ways the TPP would be disastrous for working people. Here are a few of the most egregious.

After much talk about labor standards, the TPP falls woefully short. It retains the totally discretionary nature of enforcement and does nothing to streamline the process so labor cases will be addressed without delay, leaving workers with no assurance of improved conditions. The “consistency” agreements negotiated with Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei don’t add any responsibilities beyond the current labor chapter and give Vietnam five years to come fully into compliance, even though it will receive the benefits of the TPP immediately. There is no deal to address longstanding labor problems in Mexico that have not been remedied despite 20 years of efforts to enforce NAFTA.

The TPP would take a sledgehammer to American manufacturing. The auto rules of origin are so weak that a car or truck made primarily in China or another non-TPP country would still qualify for trade benefits. Popular “Buy American” rules are watered down, requiring the U.S. government to treat bidders from every TPP country as if they were American. Finally, the lack of any enforceable currency manipulation rules means foreign nations can continue to cheat U.S. companies and workers. These features make the TPP an outsourcing deal, not a trade deal.

To add insult to injury, more than 9,000 new foreign companies will be empowered to bypass U.S. courts and access a private justice system — investor-state dispute settlement — that allows them to hold U.S. federal, state and local government decisions ransom. Let that soak in for a minute. Wal-Mart’s Japan subsidiary could sue Seattle for denying a building permit. ExxonMobil’s Vietnamese affiliate could come after the United States for rules and regulations that protect our air and water.

The TPP is also a giveaway to Big Pharma, expanding monopoly rights that will allow drug companies to further drive up costs for patients. These rules are far worse than the ones in the Peru, Colombia and Panama deals negotiated by former President George W. Bush. Doctors Without Borders says the TPP would “jeopardize people’s access to affordable medicines.”

We’ve been down this road before. The Wall Street and Washington elite always tell us that this time will be different. The truth is these trade deals have ripped apart the fabric of our nation. We see the shuttered factories. We visit towns that look like they are stuck in the past. We talk to the workers who lost everything, only to be told they should retrain in another field — but Congress has been slow to fund and authorize those programs. From NAFTA to CAFTA to Korea and now the TPP, these agreements have continually put profits over people. By driving down our wages, they make our economy weaker, not stronger.

There is almost nothing good in this agreement for working people. It’s also worth noting that the labor movement in nations like Vietnam oppose the TPP as well, fearing it will make it much harder to improve conditions in their factories and sweatshops. The TPP is great if you are an elite of any of these nations or a corporate head, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. For the rest of us, such as those who want to protect our environment or labor conditions and don’t want those protections thrown away in an extra-legal court system or those of us who think that American workers who don’t have access to college educations should be able to have a good job that allows them to live a decent life or those of us who believe that Vietnamese and Malaysian workers need to have their rights expanded, the TPP is a complete disaster.

Unfortunately, because of President Obama’s support that is combined with key Democrats in west coast states with large ports that send and receive products to Asia, the TPP is almost certain to past. It would be nice if pressure was placed on relevant senators to make them fear for their political lives if they vote for the TPP, but between the 6-year election cycle for them and the lack of primary options from the left, there’s really little hope here. It was fast-track where the real decision was made. We will be living with the consequences for a long time.

Finally, the TPP is another in a seven decade series of defeats on major bills for organized labor. On everything from Taft-Hartley in 1947 to overturning parts of T-H in 1966 to the failure of a meaningful Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill in 1978 to NAFTA to the TPP to many other labor bills, the reality is that organized labor has never had the political power to win or defeat bills that were inimical to its most dear interests. Even when labor had more power than it does today, the combination of Republicans and conservative (or pro-business, which is not always the same thing) Democrats was always enough to beat it, at least since 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act was the last comprehensive labor bill to become law in the United States. That’s a very long time.

The Kansas Plan for Kentucky

Compared to True Randian Believer Matt Bevin, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback is a big-gubmint liberal.  Four years from now, we'll be lucky if at worst we're as bad off as Kansas.

Every time one of Governor Lying Coward's proposals comes up in the Kentucky General Assembly, Democratic members should just stand up and shout "KANSAS!"

By the editors of the Kansas City Star:

If you aren’t worried about the future of Kansas, here are some reasons to start

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article58778733.html#storylink=cpy

Mismanagement and chronic fiscal problems in Kansas are eroding the state’s ability to serve the public.

The situation is no longer one of short-term budget pain, as states typically experience in a recession. The financial problems are severe and deep-seated. They are pushing officials to make decisions that will harm Kansas and its citizens well into the future.

Misplaced priorities and poor leadership make matters worse. Some legislators say they are alarmed by turnover in crucial state agencies. Many capable employees have departed, leaving those in place often unable to deal with the crises that are arising with increasing frequency.

Conservative Republicans in the Legislature, who pushed for the deep income tax cuts at the heart of the dysfunction, are fond of saying that government needs to be run more like a business.

But in fact no business could get away with failing as spectacularly as Kansas has. The management team would be shown the door, something Kansas voters failed to do when they narrowly re-elected Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014.

Voters will have opportunities to turn over many legislative seats in elections later this year. It is crucial to recruit and elect candidates who will help reverse the damage of recent years.

Without a dramatic correction, the state will continue to spiral downward. Here we highlight a few of the areas of concern.

Road to ruin?

The raids on the state’s transportation fund in order to pay other bills are well known. Brownback and the Legislature have plundered $1.4 billion from the Kansas Department of Transportation over six years.

But now the state is engaging in even riskier practices. A little-noticed provision slipped into the budget last year opened a window for unlimited borrowing of highway construction bonds. KDOT quickly issued a record $400 million in bonds in December.

The bond rating agency Fitch reported that highway officials had disclosed that “the increase is partly tied to the state’s plan to transfer additional funds to the state’s General Fund,” meaning the administration is borrowing to funnel money through KDOT for other expenses.

Even more irresponsible is the structure of the bond issue, which requires the state to pay only interest for 10 years and begin paying off the principal after that.

KDOT Secretary Mike King told lawmakers the state will have finished paying on other bonds in 10 years time. But Kansas has rarely taken such risks in the past.

The increased borrowing isn’t reflected in highway work. While its schedule calls for repairing 1,200 miles of roads a year, the state this year is fixing only 200 miles. At that rate it won’t take long for Kansas roads to fall into serious disrepair.

Power outage

In a move that has legislators from both parties seething, Brownback’s administration last month signed a $20 million lease-purchase agreement with Bank of America to construct a new state power plant in Topeka. Never before has Kansas turned to a lease-purchase agreement to finance long-term debt.

Lawmakers weren’t consulted about the deal, which will put the cash-strapped state on the hook for $1.32 million in annual payments through 2031. The arrangement will likely require the state to demolish the aging Docking State Office Building, although not all lawmakers want to do that.

The unilaterally arranged lease agreement is typical of Brownback’s imperious management style and his inclination toward budget denial. The state’s projected revenue shortfall through July 2017 could exceed $200 million. This is hardly the time to take on a new long-term debt payment.

But canceling the lease reportedly would cost more than $400,000. So it appears to be a done deal.

Waiting game

The rollout of a new computer system for processing eligibility for Kansas’ privatized Medicare program, KanCare, has become a nightmare.

The system took years longer to build than anticipated, and costs are running about 25 percent over budget.

About 10,000 applications are pending. Advocates for disabled and elderly Kansans say clients are inexplicably being dropped from coverage. They find out they are uninsured when they visit their doctor or try to fill a prescription.

People are complaining of four-hour waits to get someone on the telephone and often no resolution of their issues once they do.

Other states, including Missouri, have experienced technical difficulties as they have upgraded software to comply with changes brought about by the federal health care law and other developments.

But fixing the problems will require money, manpower and expertise. Right now Kansas is short in all of those areas.

Point of no return?

Low pay for employees and disinvestment have created situations where Kansas is actually paying more than it should to provide minimal services.

Kansas once was heralded for offering treatment and services that helped keep former inmates out of prison. But much of that was stopped by budget cuts even before Brownback took office. Now the state pays more to support increased prison populations.

And because Kansas’ salaries are lower than in neighboring states, its prisons are beset with staff shortages that require corrections officers to work overtime at higher rates.

Staff shortages are most acute at the state’s two hospitals for people with severe psychiatric problems. Nurses and support staff at the state hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie work so many extra hours that concerns for staff and patient safety are well founded.

Because of security breaches at Osawatomie, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cut off Medicare payments for patients. The state must now pick up the cost, about $600,000 a month.

“It is possible to cut past the point of efficiency and create costly problems,” said Kansas Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Republican from Fairway. “It’s my belief that we’re there.”

Indeed, there is no other valid conclusion. Services are breaking down in Kansas, and the longer the financial and management ineptitude continue, the harder it will be to restore them.

Wonkette concludes:

So, you fail to fund services at their most basic levels and that, in turn, leads to more costs down the line. Why, it’s almost as if giving massive tax cuts to the rich and emptying the government’s coffers does not actually work and instead creates a state of constant shortfall and chaos! Naw, that can’t be it. We should probably just let Brownback singlehandedly enact some more tax cuts and then everything will get sorted, right?

Electing Evil

Via Juanita Jean

Austerity Always Fails, But Bevin Still Demands It

Because austerity works great for a handful of billionaires like Governor Lying Coward, who is perfectly fine with austerity destroying the middle class and turning workers into serfs.

Tom Eblen at the Herald:

Any business person knows that when costs are rising faster than revenue, you should raise revenue and not just cut costs.

But year after year, Kentucky governors and legislators think they can slash spending, dole out more tax breaks and keeping putting off overhaul of a tax system that no longer grows with the economy. The math will never work.

Former Gov. Steve Beshear spent eight years cutting more than $1.5 billion in state spending. In 2012, he appointed the bi-partisan Blue Ribbon Commission to again study the often-studied need for tax reform. The commission recommended solutions that would have raised annual revenue by more than $650 million — solutions that have so far been ignored.

Gov. Matt Bevin last month proposed $650 million in additional spending cuts. He included modest increases for some areas hit hard by previous cuts. He also directed money to start fixing pension plans that are in crisis after years of under-funding by lawmakers. But overall, his budget was the latest variation of the same old strategy: rob Peter to pay Paul.

 Conservative economics always fails.

David Atkins at Political Animal

I’ve written frequently about the abject failures of the Brownback administration in Kansas, showcasing not only the immorality but also the practical incompetence of conservative economic theory applied.

Scott Walker has also famously been failing in Wisconsin, where the state’s economy has been in a tailspin as a result of his disastrous policies. 

SNIP

As Paul Krugman would be quick to point out, this deficit is not the result of overspending, but rather economic malaise directly caused by Scott Walker’s doctrinaire economic theories that have weakened job protections, confidence and consumer demand.

But true to form, Wisconsin Republicans are reacting to the situation not by fixing what they broke, but by proposing a balanced budget amendment that would only make the situation much, much worse.

SNIP

 

Balanced budget amendments, of course, are an awful idea that tie governments into straitjackets, preventing them from engaging in deficit spending precisely when it is most needed to offset private sector economic downturns. Conservatives believe in a magic market fairy dust in which government can only distort an economy that would otherwise thrum with perfect efficiency in its absence, and in which the greatest dangers are inflation and deficits, rather than the real threats posed by deflation, high inequality and weak consumer demand.

It’s not just an immoral worldview. It’s a failure at a practical level as well. Kansas and Wisconsin are proving that fact every day.

And Matt Bevin, our only governor, is determined to make Kentucky the next example of repug economics destroying a state.

Bevin Doesn't Know What the Fuck He's Doing, Part 15

Yeah, government bringing basic modern utilities to every home lacking affordable access to that utility never works.  Everybody remembers the utter catastrophe of Rural Electrification. Millions of rural families brought into the 20th century and desperate communities getting a permanent economic boost. What a tragedy.  If only Governor Lying Coward had been there to turn the project over to his corporate buddies so only rich people could have electricity.  Because they earned it.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin said Friday that he wants to scale back an ambitious plan to build a high-speed broadband network around the state to instead focus on Eastern Kentucky.

Bevin said the original idea behind what ultimately became the KentuckyWired project was to provide broadband to Eastern Kentucky, where counties that long relied on the coal industry have been slammed by a sharp drop in coal jobs.

Many leaders in the region see high-speed Internet service as a crucial need in creating opportunities for new jobs in technology, health care and other fields.

However, that idea “morphed” into a plan to install 3,400 miles of fiber-optic cable around the state, which made it “somewhat untenable,” Bevin said after a meeting of the board of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region initiative.

“There weren’t enough dollars nor was there an ability to do that as effectively as anyone would have liked,” Bevin said of the statewide project. “My intent is to see it come back more to its original intent, and let’s start there.”

More lies from the motherfucking liar.  There's plenty of money in Kentucky for public projects - money that has been stolen by rich people and corporations not paying their fair share in taxes and getting even more obscenely rich on state contracts that rip off the taxpayers. 

Bevin said it is his “absolute intention” to make sure broadband comes to Eastern Kentucky.

Yep, lots of very expensive broadband installed at huge public expensive by thieving corporations with state contracts.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article58768608.html#storylink=cpy

And poor people in Kentucky's rural areas will still be shut out.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article58768608.html#storylink=cpy

Biblical Answers

Divine Irony:

Whom We're Deporting

Digby's right; this is a disgrace. 

Private First Class Andres De Leon, 72, signed up for the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam when he turned 18-years-old at a time many were trying to avoid the war. He served for 12 years and spent two full years overseas before being honorably discharged. Like many veterans, he suffers from depression, that spiraled out of control when his mother passed away. But unlike most veterans, his depression led to him being deported.

De Leon may have moved to Madera, California with his family legally when he was 12-years-old but he was deported when he became addicted to heroin to medicate his depression and was eventually arrested for possession. Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (I.N.A.) lists this as a valid reason for deportation and three years into his sentence at Soledad State Prison, ICE came knocking.

By 2009, an immigration judge ordered De Leon back to Mexico where he hasn’t lived for over 50 years. He’s living in Tijuana today in a one room apartment after spending his first few weeks homeless and on the streets. With no friends or family and certainly no veterans benefits, his sister fears that his type-2 diabetes isn’t being taken care of.

“I got no choice,” he told a local TV station Fox40 back home. “I have to stay here but I’m doing the best I can.”

His story is sad enough and you would think that there aren’t many like him, but you’d be wrong. Once back in Mexico he met Hector Barajas, a former paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne who told De Leon there were dozens like them. In 2013, Barajas started a safe house for veterans from the United States that are deported to Mexico.

“We believe none of these men should be left behind,” he said. “We talk about supporting the troops, let’s keep supporting these men. Treat these men with honor.”

One in six veterans who served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from a substance abuse issue. Those veterans who seek treatment for PTSD report alcohol-use disorders to the tune of 60 to 80 percent, according to the National Center for PTSD.

De Leon, Barajas and their friends are victims of cracks in a complicated system. Justice For Vets is an organization that works to help veterans that end up in the courts because of drug and alcohol abuse. They work with veteran treatment courts that require mandatory treatment and court appearances to help incentivize veterans to get clean and sober. But immigrants aren’t eligible if they break the law. They’re simply deported

OK, all you warmongering, military-felating "patriots:" where do you stand on honorable veterans being thrown out of the country like common criminals?  Why do you hate America's veterans?

Gun Privileges

And why not?  Guns kill actual breathing human beings.  Abortions do not.

Via bradblog:

The Real Progressive Who Forced Change on the Democratic Party

Did you see the camera catch him in McArthur Park in Chicago that epic night in 2008?  The tears running down his face.  Tears, I thought, of joy but also regret and also pride.

Because 20 years earlier he had forced on the Democratic party the populist changes - proportional delegates - that made it possible for a black man to become president.

Not himself, though he fought hard and came damn close, but another who owes too much to ever repay.

I voted for Jesse Jackson in the Democratic presidential primaries in 1984 and 1988.  I was fortunate to live in an early primary state where he was still on the ballot. I cherish those votes almost as much as the ones I cast for Barack Hussein Obama.

Jackson got cheers from white people in places that shouldn't have been a surprise: coal country and farm country and cancer-causing factory strips where people felt abandoned by politicians, until Jackson stood up and spoke directly to their fears and their hopes.

PZ Myers remembers:

It’s good to see someone mention that the Democratic party has deep progressive roots. He mentions a lot of names that stirred up sad memories. Jesse Jackson, presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988; I supported him, although his campaign fizzled out in the primaries before I got to have a say out in Oregon (I really detest our system that gives Iowa and New Hampshire an undeserved excess of privilege in electoral politics). Howard Dean in 2004; he was my preferred candidate then, too. I have a long history of support for failed candidacies, I’m afraid.

I keep making these choices, and will keep on doing it, though. He quotes Jackson’s speech before the Democratic Convention, and yeah, it reminds me why.

We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice. We find common ground at the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets. Common ground at the school yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can’t make a loan. Common ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to a bed that’s empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick. We are a better nation than that. We must do better. Common ground. What is leadership if not present help in a time of crisis? So I met you at the point of challenge. In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages; in Greenville, Iowa, where family farmers struggle for a fair price; in Cleveland, Ohio, where working women seek comparable worth; in McFarland, California, where the children of Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with cancer; in an AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by their own parents and friends.

Nothing has changed. It’s gotten worse for people like that, if anything.

It’s worth listening to the whole thing.



(It’s in multiple parts, sorry, but really, worth finding it all.)

I have to include a little more than Pierce did. Note that there’s a fair bit of God and Bible in it; if this militant atheist can forgive it for the greater message, than you can do it too.

Common ground. America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a blanket, she didn’t complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth — patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack — only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn’t stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt.

Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right — but you cannot stand alone. Your patch is not big enough.

Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right — but your patch labor is not big enough.
Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.

Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.

Students, you seek scholarships, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.

Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right — but our patch is not big enough.

Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.

Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing, hawk, dove, you are right from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.

But don’t despair. Be as wise as my grandmamma. Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we’ll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation.

We, the people, can win.

We stand at the end of a long dark night of reaction. We stand tonight united in the commitment to a new direction. For almost eight years we’ve been led by those who view social good coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth. They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few.

We believe in a government that’s a tool of our democracy in service to the public, not an instrument of the aristocracy in search of private wealth. We believe in government with the consent of the governed, “of, for and by the people.” We must now emerge into a new day with a new direction.

Is it too late to vote for Jackson? Remember, he lost to Reagan in 1984 and George HW Bush in 1988. Imagine what a different country we’d be living in if those two establishment conservatives had been defeated.

 Imagine the country we can still live in if we support the progressive movement that is rolling across the country right now.

The Dangerous Idiocy of Repug Control

One seat. Kentucky Democrats lose one seat in the House in special elections this March or the all-House elections this November and the beautiful Bluegrass State will turn into the dystopian hellhole in which Kansans now suffer.

Zandar Versus the Stupid:

I am really, really hoping that the lesson Democrats get from the Obama years is "Not voting in midterm elections and letting Republicans get complete control of a majority of state governments is a bad idea." You keep getting states like Kansas.

Kansas Republicans are pushing for a bill that would allow teachers to face criminal prosecution if they teach students material they consider harmful, the Wichita Eagle reports.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook (R), stems from a controversy over a poster in the Shawnee Mission public school district in which a poster reading, “How do people express their sexual feelings?” The poster listed “oral sex” and other acts, the Eagle reports.

The bill was brought up for consideration at a committee meeting Tuesday.

Pitcher-Cook said “state laws should protect parents’ rights to safeguard our children against harmful materials, especially in schools.”

As of now, teachers are protected from misdemeanor charges associated with giving children sexual content, if the content is part of a lesson. If the bill passes, teachers could be charged and spend up to six months in jail, along with a fine.

Tom Witt spoke out against the bill on behalf of his husband, who is a teacher, and said it would be used to intimidate teachers and create fear. He submitted a list of books from the American Library Association which are the most banned, including Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

“Here’s what my husband wants to know: Which of the books on the list are going to send him to jail?” he demanded. “That’s all we need to know.”

At this point Republicans in 2016 want to criminalize being Muslim, being LGBTQ, being Latino, being black, being a voting Democrat, and now being a sex-ed teacher. These people are crazy, dangerous lunatics.

But you know what they do that liberals, progressives, and Democrats refuse to do?

Vote.

The Last Socialist President

Via Down with Tyranny:

KY Judge Overturns Right-to-Work-Like-A-Serf

Face it, people: the only thing standing between you and serfdom is a union. Only a union protects your actual right to work for a living wage in a safe workplace under decent conditions.

 

Adam Beam at the AP:

Local governments in Kentucky can increase the minimum wage, but a federal judge ruled Wednesday that they can't ban labor unions from requiring employees to join them.

Meanwhile, union members volunteering their time are literally saving lives, which is more than anybody in Matt Bevin's adninistration can say.

Due to the inaction of state and federal officials, thousands of people in Flint have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead in their water. Now a group of union plumber are taking matters into their own hands.

On Saturday, 300 plumbers from unions across the country descended on Flint to install new faucets and water filters for free.

Many Flint residents needed new faucets because their existing faucets were so old they could not accommodate water filters provided by the state.

The effort was coordinated by the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, known as the United Association. The fixtures were donated by the Plumbing Manufacturers International.

If you still don't get it, Charlie Pierce explains:

These are Union folks. You remember, right? These are those people who do nothing but expect to be paid for goofing off, with their silly "benefits" and their ridiculous "pensions." The ones who wear pinky rings and cashmere coats and are just as influential in our politics as the plutocrats are. Even some millennial liberals will tell you that unions are obsolete in our shiny new globalized entrepreneurial economy. Why be a plumber when you can invent the next Uber? This is why. Unions used to be essential part of the community. They threw parades and Christmas parties and sponsored Little League teams. In many places, they were what a town had for a community center. And that's the spirit in which these people did what they did. It used to be important.

KY Repug Senate Votes to Kill Poor Women and Their Children

Because that's what cutting Planned Parenthood funding does.

From the LRC:

The state Senate has passed legislation intended to curb the flow of non-Medicaid, state-administered tax dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics in Kentucky.

Dubbed the “Defunding Planned Parenthood Legislation,” Senate Bill 7 passed by a 33-5 vote on Tuesday. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration. 

 It's the "Killing Poor Women and Their Children Legislation," and here's why:

What terrorists like Dear and Republicans in Congress want is basically the same: to shut down Planned Parenthood and deny women access to abortions. If they got their wish, it would serve only to make poor women poorer and increase the number of unintended pregnancies.

Indeed, unintended pregnancies are already concentrated among low-income women, an imbalance that has been increasing. The rate of such pregnancies among women with incomes below the poverty line jumped 56 percent from 1994 to 2008, while for higher-income women it actually fell by 24 percent. In 2008, the unintended-pregnancy rate for poor women was more than five times that of the most well-off. All of this means that poor women have higher rates of unplanned births as well as abortions—six times and five times higher, respectively—than women at the other end of the income scale. Poor women also have fewer places to turn for affordable contraception and reproductive care—except for organizations like Planned Parenthood.

Taking away the option to seek an abortion would not just infringe on the constitutional rights of poor women; it would almost certainly make them poorer. If Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that made abortion legal throughout the country, were overturned and states were allowed to implement their own bans, poorer nonwhite women would see their abortion rates decline more significantly, according to researchers. In part, this would be due to the simple problem of having to travel long distances just to reach a clinic.

Current research already tells us what happens to women who want an abortion but can’t get one. Women who seek to terminate a pregnancy but are turned away are three times more likely to fall below the poverty line over the following two years than women who successfully get an abortion. They are also more likely to end up unemployed and to rely on government benefits to get by. Women themselves already know this: Among the main reasons they cite for seeking the procedure is that they can’t afford to have a baby, and that doing so would interfere with their ability to work or gain an education.

Shutting down Planned Parenthood wouldn’t just affect access to abortion, of course. The group provides many other services to low-income women. Poor women are more likely to have sex without birth control—and access to affordable contraception would shrink further without the existence of Planned Parenthood. Among 491 counties with Planned Parenthood clinics, 103 have no other place where low-income patients can obtain affordable contraception.

Access to reproductive healthcare is certainly about women’s right to bodily autonomy. But doing away with that right also comes with devastating economic consequences, especially for those already at the bottom. Eliminating Planned Parenthood would create a vicious cycle of impoverishment and unwanted pregnancies for the most vulnerable women among us.

Just one year ago, Kentuckians could count on our Democratic-majority house of representatives to shit-can bills like this before our Democratic governor even got a chance to veto them.  No more.

The Kentucky House now has a bare one-vote majority and has already surrendered to the conservatard freakazoid repugs by passing anti-abortion legislation that for decades it has refused to even let out of committee.

From the LRC:

The first bill the 2016 General Assembly delivered to the governor would require a an in-person or real-time video conference between a woman seeking an abortion and a health care provider at least 24 hours before the procedure.

The state Senate gave final passage of “informed consent” legislation, also known as Senate Bill 4, as amended by the House of Representatives by a 33-5 vote today. On Thursday, the House amended SB 4 to include the video conference option, known as “telehealth.” Backers of the House amendment said the telehealth provision would eliminate the burden of women having to make an extra trip to a clinic that provides abortions.

We. Are. So. Fucked.

  

Now We're Stuck With AynRandy

The Tribble-Toupeed One is "suspending" his presidential campaign and now will have nine months to work on getting re-elected to fail to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senator.

Really, Iowa?  You couldn't give him just enough false hope and momentum to carry him past the point that his senate campaign collapsed?  I am disappointed, Iowa.

Here's the self-aggrandizing lie his campaign released:

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is suspending his 2016 White House bid.

In a release on Wednesday morning, the Kentucky Senator said the following:

"It's been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House. Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty.

Across the country thousands upon thousands of young people flocked to our message of limited government, privacy, criminal justice reform and a reasonable foreign policy. Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I.

Although, today I will suspend my campaign for President, the fight is far from over. I will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term."

Nine people have filed to challenge AynRandy for Senate:  two repugs and seven Democrats, including Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.

The Possible Tomorrow

David Atkins at Political Animal:

Politics isn’t just the art of the possible today. It’s also about shaping the realm of the possible tomorrow. When the opposition is willing to compromise, pushing the envelope might come at the expense of real gains in the moment. But when the opposition is intransigent, advocating for the impossible might just be the most productive thing a president can do to lay the groundwork for gains in the future.

School to Prison to Dead in Kentucky

We may never know exactly what Gynna McMillen did to warrant imprisonment - and make no mistake, juvenile detention centers are prison, as dehumanizing as any adult prison - but we know it wasn't a capital crime warranting execution.

From the AP:

A martial arts hold was used on a teenager hours before she was found dead at a Kentucky detention center, according to the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center officials found 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen of Shelby County unresponsive in her cell at the Elizabethtown facility on Jan. 11, multiple media outlets reported.

Stacy Floden of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice wrote in an email that the Aikido restraint was used because the girl refused to remove her sweatshirt so she could be searched during the booking process. An Aikido restraint typically immobilizes a person's arm.

SNIP

They said she had arrived at the detention center Jan. 10 after allegedly having a domestic dispute with her mother in Shelbyville.

McMillen's family has hired attorney Ron Hillerich to look into the matter.

"We're not exactly sure what happened but I can tell you this. A 16-year-old child should not die in a state run facility," Hillerich told WLKY-TV.

In Kentucky "out of parental control" is an actual crime for which children as young as 11 can be sent to a prison where they are executed for the secondary crime of refusing to submit to a strip search.

This isn't the first time a child in state custody has died from "restraint," and it won't be the last until we stop treating children - and 16-year-olds are children - like criminals.

Oh, yeah - if you click on the link, you'll see a picture of Gynna.  Surprise, surprise: she's not white.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article57700613.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article57700613.html#storylink=cpy

Matt Bevin Doesn't Know What the Fuck He's Doing, Part 14

Here's the thing about engineers: they know fuck-all about anything that is not engineering. Ask them to address a problem like, oh, say, the poisoning by lead of an entire city, and they're helpless.

Here's the thing about French literature majors: they have what we used to call a liberal arts education.  Before they - or anyone studying sociology, or history or medieval art - can get a degree, they have to show a firm grasp of concepts across all topics, from philosophy to, yes, engineering.

Ask a liberal arts major to address a problem like the poisoning of Flint and she will know exactly where to find the information and the experts to put together a plan that will work.

But Governor Know-Nothing has no interest in solving problems, other than the problem of how to strip the last pennies from Kentucky's working families and turn it over to his billionaire buddies.

Adam Beam at AP:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin wants state colleges and universities to produce more electrical engineers and less French literature scholars.

The first-term Republican governor has a workforce shortage on his hands, and he says part of the problem is the public schools are not turning out degrees of the "things people want."

"There will be more incentives to electrical engineers than french literature majors. There just will," Bevin told reporters this week when announcing his two-year state spending proposal. "All the people in the world that want to study French literature can do so, they are just not going to be subsidized by the taxpayer."

Bevin's philosophy is more concerned with the degrees rather than student loan debt, which has been a major issue in the presidential race. Bevin's budget proposal includes moving Kentucky to a performance-based plan, where colleges and universities would get state tax dollars based on criteria such as graduation rates of certain degree programs.

Yep, pure Know-Nothingism. What Bevin's talking about isn't education; it's corporate drone training. We'll know how to put widgets together perfectly, but we won't know jack shit about running a democracy.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article57302713.html#storylink=cpy