Indiana Returns to Dark Ages

Should have known the progress implied by Obama's victory in the proud-to-be-racist-and-stupid state was too good to last. The Hoosiers are pissing on the nation's parade with a court decision that turns the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution into toilet paper.

The Indiana Court of Appeals issued a ruling Monday that affirmed Indiana's "In God We Trust" plates are constitutional.

The appeals court upheld an earlier trial court judgment against the ACLU of Indiana, which claimed that motorists who ask for God plates get special treatment because they don't have to pay a $15 administrative fee charged for specialty plates.

In its decision, the appeals court affirmed that Indiana offers two alternatives to standard license plates and that the fee structure for those plates is "uniformly applicable to all similarly situated license plates."

Indiana also offers specialty license plates for organizations, which requires the $15 administrative fee, under state statute.

The court ruled that the "In God We Trust" plate, along with another, "Lincoln's Boyhood Home," are simply alternatives to the standard plate and that the fact that motorists who choose them aren't subject to the additional fee is not arbitrary.

No, it's not arbitrary. It's un-fucking-constitutional.

I'm not a lawyer, but it's hard not to wonder if the Indiana ACLU screwed the pooch by challenging the fee structure rather than making the straightforward First Amendment case that government agencies cannot promote religion. Period.

As I wrote back in July, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear will push the 2009 General Assembly to approve the same plate for Kentucky.

Yesterday Beshear announced that Kentucky is facing a $456 million deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30. If he actually wastes a single second of the 30-day legislative session trying to use tax dollars to publicize an invisible sky wizard, we should impeach his ass.

If you need more evidence, let's review the stunning ignorance of our only guv - an actual lawyer, by the way - of history, law, and the constitution.

Beshear said vehicle owners could get the plates -- which have been controversial in other states, including Indiana -- as an alternative to the current standard-issue "Unbridled Spirit" plate at no extra cost.

" 'In God We Trust' is essentially our national motto," he said in an interview. "And that national motto belongs to every American and indeed every Kentuckian. In my opinion nobody should have to pay extra to have that national motto reflected on their license plate."

Is it too much to ask that elected officials know a smidgeon of American history? "In God We Trust" did not become the national motto until 1956, when McCarthyist witch hunts intimidated Congress into replacing the 174-year-old motto adopted by the actual Founders in 1782: "E pluribus unum," or for those of you who flunked Latin, "Out of many, one," a reference to the federalism that unites diverse states.

It was during the commie scares of the 1950s that "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance (which, by the way, was written in the 1892 by a Socialist who wanted a secular substitute for the prayers recited by children in Catholic schools), and that "so help me God" was added to the oath to tell the truth in court.

The Founders, who deliberately and decisively kept all mention of god out of the Constitution, would have been horrified.

"In God We Trust" was added to coinage during the Civil War, in a blatant and futile attempt to pacify Southerners who were, at the time, claiming divine christian justification for slavery.

The proper interpretation of the "In God We Trust" phrase on our money is: "God says n*****s aren't human, so we can enslave, starve, beat, rape and murder them all we want."

How about that one, Stevie? How about a license plate that reads: "God says n*****s aren't human, so we can enslave, starve, beat, rape and murder them all we want."

The two million Kentucky racists who voted against our new President-elect should like that one a lot.

The national ACLU needs to step it up and put a stop to this government-promoting-god shit once and for all. It's gone on way too long.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Steve Beshear's Energy WayBack Machine

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has released a state energy plan that is innovative, visionary and brilliant.

For 1978.

For 2008, it's a recipe for disaster and an insult to the intelligence of every Kentuckian who hasn't been on another planet for the last 30 years.

Just one example of the kind of "planning" that should get Beshear committed for terminal insanity: the major goal is to decrease Kentucky's greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by - wait for it - burning more coal.

Reminds me of that '60s antiwar slogan: "Fighting for Peace is like Fucking for Chastity."

Taylor Shelton has a superb analysis. As he concludes:

... this isn't an energy plan - it's a welfare scheme for coal companies who continue to have the upper hand in pushing their pyramid schemes for energy policy.

Read the press release here and the "fact sheet" here.

Lights, Moonbows, Eagles and More

Cold weather has finally arrived in Kentucky, only a month late. But if you think that puts the state parks off-limits until spring, think again. Some of the best park events of the year happen in the winter.

Southern Lights at the Horse Park

Run, walk or stroll your way through thousands of dazzling lights at the 7th annual Southern Lights Stroll Thursday, November 20 at the Kentucky Horse Park. Registration begins at 6 pm. Pre-registration is $15 and walk-up registration $20 plus a non-perishable food item for God’s Pantry.

To download and print a Southern Lights Stroll Registration Form, click here for the PDF.

Stroll proceeds benefit the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation.

Southern Lights will be open nightly November 21 – December 31, 2008 from 5:30 – 10 pm. Indoor attractions are closed November 27 & December 24-31. For more information about Southern Lights, visit www.southernlightsky.org.

Cumberland Falls Astronomy

Cumberland Falls State Park is taking advantage of interest in its famous moonbow to attract stargazers.

Called the Moonbow Astronomy Center-River of Stars, the new program will allow park guests and visitors to view the planets and stars through telescopes from the park near Corbin.

The park will also be announcing events for 2009, including dates for viewing the “moonbow” at Cumberland Falls, special hikes and programming.

Known as the "Niagara of the South," the 125-foot wide curtain of water is dramatic day or night. But it's only at night during a full moon that you can see the moonbow, a phenomenon not found anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere

“It is our continuing goal to provide quality programming while enhancing learning opportunities for youth and adults,” said Park Manager Lisa Davis. “We hope to supplement the state curriculum requirements with this astronomy program. While being educational, this program is also fun and unique.”

The equipment for the program was funded through a $5,000 grant from Tour Southern and Eastern Kentucky, an organization that promotes tourism in the region. The Louisville Astronomical Society is also assisting with expert volunteers.

The park will be hosting “Star Parties” where the public will be invited to view different aspects of the night sky and solar objects. Star packages including lodging will be available and “Star” birthday parties will be offered based upon availability.

Get details here.

Holidays at the Parks

Kentucky State Parks will be hosting a wide range of Christmas and holiday-themed events during November and December. As the season nears, you can plan to attend one or more of these festivities.

State park resorts are still offering a $50 a night lodge room Sundays through Thursdays through Dec. 30 with a coupon. To get a copy of the coupon and for more information about Kentucky State Parks, visit www.parks.ky.gov.

At least 20 different parks in every part of the state offer events to appeal to families, couples and individuals. Get the details here.

Eagle Watch Weekends

If you've never seen America's national symbol soaring through a sharp, clear winter sky, you've missed one of Kentucky's greatest sights.

With January and February approaching, it’s time for nature lovers to make plans for a Kentucky State Park tradition – Eagle Watch Weekends in January and February.

American Bald Eagles will be gathering around the major lakes of Western Kentucky and South-Central Kentucky as they look for food during the winter. Kentucky State Parks will take you there to observe and learn about these beautiful birds of prey.

For 40 years, the Kentucky State Parks have offered Eagle Watch Weekends, a chance to view the eagles from land and water and learn about the national symbol and other wildlife.

“This is a great opportunity for amateurs and experienced bird watchers to see eagles and other animals in their natural habitat,” said State Park Recreation Director and Naturalist Carey Tichenor. “These are some of the most popular wildlife viewing events that our parks sponsor.”

The tours take place at four resort parks during weekends in January and February on an excursion yacht, barges, pontoon boats and by van, depending upon the location and tour. They are led by state park naturalists and Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists.

Ticket prices for the tours range from $20 to $55 a person. Most tours last between two and three and one half hours. The weekends also include an evening program on birds of prey.

Get details here.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Doing FDR One Better - Not for the Last Time

In 1933, FDR became the first president to incorporate a relatively new technology to communicate directly with the American people.

In 75 years, including 60 years of televised speeches, press conferences and photo ops, and even Reagan's 1981 establishment of the weekly radio address, no president has improved on the direct simplicity of FDR's Fireside Chats on the radio.

Until today.

Barack Obama has posted the first of his weekly YouTube addresses to the nation, a modern-day replacement of the old-fashioned weekly radio addresses. In this one, Obama urges immediate Congressional action on the economy:

For us elderly luddites who haven't quite mastered the U-Toobz, Obama's video talks will also be broadcast on radio.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Kentucky Jury Nails Klan for $2.5 million

Ten days after Kentucky voters rejected America's first black president, a jury in rural, white Meade County rejected homegrown racist hatred.

The leader of the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America and a former Klansman must pay $2.5million in damages for the beating of a minority teenager at a county fair that left him with permanent injuries ....

Attorneys for the victim, Jordan Gruver, 19, argued that Ron Edwards, the Klan group's Imperial Wizard, recklessly bred an atmosphere of hate and violence and was liable for Gruver's July 2006 beating at the hands of his Klansmen, even though he didn't order it.

The large judgment, which must be shared by former Klansman Jarred Hensley, who participated in the attack, will cripple the nation's second-largest Klan group and help deter future violence, said Southern Poverty Law Center attorneys who are representing Gruver.

"In America, you have the right to hate, but you don't have the right to hurt," said law center attorney Morris Dees, who notched his latest legal win against hate groups.

As a result of the verdict, the IKA, which has 23 chapters in 17 states, may have to relinquish its 15-acre compound near Dawson Springs, Ky. Both defendants will likely have wages garnished for the next 15 years, Dees said, even though they claim to have no money.

Read the whole thing.

Dawson Springs, by the way, is the hometown of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who loudly proclaimed the small-town values he learned growing up in Dawson Springs in his successful gubernatorial campaign last year.

But he has been conspicuously silent about the hatred that grew up in the same small town, even as the case has drawn national media attention.

A late Friday night verdict fits right into Beshear's avoidance policy. He can hide from the press all weekend, and with luck, by Monday some other story will draw their attention.

So, Governor, let me be the first to call out your cowardly ass. Stand up for once and tell the people of Kentucky that you are proud of this verdict, proud that small-town Kentucky has rejected the politics of hate, proud that real small-town Kentucky values have re-asserted themselves.

Tell us in no uncertain terms that as Governor you reject everything the Klan stands for, that you encourage all Kentuckians to stand tall against racism and hatred, that you will work closely with the Southern Poverty Law Center to eliminate racism and hatred in Kentucky.

If you don't publicly praise this verdict, then you might as well publicly condemn the jury and praise the Klan, because your silence amounts to the same thing.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Race and Obama in Kentucky

Two contradictory and self-destructive myths regarding Barack Obama's 16-point loss in Kentucky are taking hold among political types seeking to avoid responsibility for the catastrophe.

One myth claims Kentucky's millions of racists voted against Obama: "Racism is endemic! Nothing we can do about it! Not our fault!" Never mind that Obama carried racist-infested Ohio and Indiana.

The other myth claims Kentuckians won't vote for anybody they haven't met in person: "Obama never visited the rural counties! He's to blame! Not our fault!" Never mind that McCain visited Kentucky the exact same number of times Obama did - once.

The Courier-Journal has two pieces that, together, refute both of those myths and point the way to preventing this debacle from happening again.

In the first, R.G. Dunlop explores why five white, rural counties went for Obama.

It was no great surprise that Barack Obama, who lost Kentucky by 16 percentage points to Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 election, carried Jefferson and Fayette counties, the state's largest and most urban.

He'd won them in the May primary -- the only two counties he carried -- when Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed a landslide victory.

But in the general election Obama also carried five small, rural counties with relatively few African-American residents: Rowan, Elliott, Wolfe and Menifee in Eastern Kentucky, and Hancock, on the Ohio River in Western Kentucky.

He also won Henderson County, a more populous Western Kentucky county with a significantly larger black population, about 7 percent.

Longtime Morehead State University administrator Keith Kappes explains the vote in his Rowan County simply: "I think people put aside their concerns about race and religion and voted for hope.

"I think a lot of folks were motivated by the national criticism that we (residents of Appalachia) were a bunch of rednecks, that we wouldn't vote for Obama because he was black, or allegedly not a Christian," said Kappes, Morehead State's vice president for university relations. "It was sort of a 'we'll show you' attitude."

Yet while he and more than two dozen others interviewed for this story had theories about how Obama carried those few rural counties, there was no single, definitive answer.

Read the whole thing for details.

In an editorial, the C-J refuses to let the racist-apologists off the hook.

Two things are clear about race and the presidential election results in Kentucky. One is that race was a factor; the other is that it is impossible to say how much of one.

SNIP

Exit polls and follow-up interviews found Kentucky voters who said that race was the principal basis for their vote, and the majority of those votes went Republican.

Moreover, a New York Times study shows that many of Kentucky's rural and Appalachian counties voted more heavily for the GOP ticket this year than in 2004. Given the staggering percentage of voters who believe the country is on the wrong track, it would be hard to explain such an outcome without at least some reference to racial bias.

SNIP

The most important statistic about the racial vote may lie in national polling that showed that white voters who rejected Mr. Obama on grounds of race tended to fall in older, poorer and less educated segments of the electorate.

The concentration of such voters in this state should raise concerns that the gap between the Kentucky of the future and 21st Century America will widen. That would be harmful, and that is what we should be talking about as we parse the election returns.

When Kentuckians vote overwhelmingly to re-elect Barack Obama in 2012, it will prove only that eventually, even Kentuckians can figure out how to vote in their own best interest.

It will not, however, indicate whether we have beaten sense into the concrete skulls of either our antediluvian racists or our incompetent state Democratic Party "leaders."

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

The "Intellectual Violence" of Repug Attacks

Yes, this was an election unlike any other, and not just because it resulted in the first African-American president of the United States.

This election marked the moment when the incumbent political party cut its last tether to reality, abandoned all pretense of interest in facts much less truth and focused on garnering the votes of people who question the existence of gravity.

Since their thumpin' last week, the far-right has pushed the crazy to eleven and snapped the knob clean off -- an opening salvo of twisted hackery portending an insane four-to-eight years of attacks on the Obama administration. If the last seven days have been any indication, the far-right is shaping up to make the 1990s seem quaint -- even erudite by comparison. That which used to be your basic, off-the-shelf intellectual dishonesty has grown into, as Digby pointed out recently, full-on intellectual violence.

Intellectual violence. While not a new term, it perfectly defines what we're seeing now: accusations and smears that so severely confound logic they literally attack -- violate -- reality and the human intellect. It's like a berzerker dervish of argumentative elbows and fists indiscriminately flailing around, thwacking anything in its orbit, so much so that constructing a counterpoint is literally painful, "Why the hell am I trying to debunk this?! Ow! My head. Aw hell, I need a drink."

In 2004 we learned that shaking our heads at such insanity and assuming people competent enough to vote would know better was not the best response. But the Swift Boat Liars were a Harvard debate team compared to the Psychopaths of 2008.

But that's precisely what makes these arguments so violent. They literally crush logical reality, making it almost impossible to ignore.

In a perfect world, we probably shouldn't react or to take these things too seriously, and yet we'd be making a huge mistake to ignore them altogether -- or to underestimate their efficacy. After all, there's Drudge who somehow remains a bridge between the far-right's intellectual violence and the establishment press. As we've learned throughout the last ten years, it only takes some persistent badgering and a series of red "SHOCK!" headlines for the crazy to travel by osmosis into the mainstream.

So we're in for many more years of insanity from the far-right. They're not dead. They're not as irrelevant as they deserve to be. And they certainly don't suffer from writer's block when it comes to outlandish and illogical attacks and smears.

Put it this way, if President-elect Obama so much as takes a long weekend off this August, you can bet that the far-right will crap their cages about Obama being lazy and shiftless.

This year, with a preternaturally gifted candidate, a flawless campaign and a convergence of anti-republican circumstances, Democrats managed to prevail against even that nuclear holocaust of intellectual violence, Sarah Palin.

But make no mistake, this was just the opening salvo of a constant, non-stop, soul-draining, brain-broiling barrage of reality-defying intellectual violence from the repugs.

Don't despair, but don't underestimate the power of insane up-is-downism. Don't get caught flat-footed by intellectual violence the same way Democrats in 1968 were caught flat-footed by Nixon's Southern Strategy.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Rejoice All Ye Humanists: We Are Not Alone

Tired of biting your tongue during the holidays? Resent people assuming you share their superstitions? Wishing you weren't the only one "like that?"

Step out from the shadows, all ye non-theists: The American Humanist Society has your back.

Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.

In lifting lyrics from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.

"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."

To that end, the ads and posters will include a link to a Web site that will seek to connect and organize like-minded thinkers in the D.C. area, Edwords said.

Edwords said the purpose isn't to argue that God doesn't exist or change minds about a deity, although "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."

The group defines humanism as "a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity."

Last month, the British Humanist Association caused a ruckus announcing a similar campaign on London buses with the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Amen.

h/t Nightowl.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Will Repugs Choose Pragmatic or Palin?

Turn your eyes for a moment from the catastrophic wreckage of Democratic Party hopes and dreams here in Kentucky and contemplate the stinking, bloated corpse of the national Republican Party.

Right-wing ideologues are suffering from massive cognitive dissonance (not to mention a healthy helping of denial). They can't grasp why their party imploded because the vast majority of them always supported Bush and his policies and still do. A few conservative critics have blasted him for lacking fiscal discipline, but most right-wing pundits liked Bush's policies just fine -- until the public turned on him and on McCain.

SNIP

When you add all these things up, there is nowhere for the GOP in its current form to go. Any action it takes to shore up one group will hurt it more with another. If the right continues to make the culture war its main strategy, it will shore up its base with working-class white men in rural areas. But this "Deliverance" strategy, in which the GOP lets the Democrats have every part of the country where large numbers of people live together and targets lone white men surrounded by vast open spaces, is only a ticket to dominance in places like Utah, Arkansas, Idaho and Oklahoma, with their rich treasure trove of 22 electoral votes. The post-election map already shows a weird correlation between unpopulated areas and Republican votes -- not a trend the GOP should be encouraging.

In the coming years we will witness a war between conservatism's pragmatists and its true believers. If the pragmatists win, America will have finally arrived at the era of broad political consensus that pundits erroneously forecast after Lyndon Johnson's demolition of Barry Goldwater in 1964. If the true believers win, we may witness a Palin candidacy in 2012 -- and a likely electoral landslide that will bury the GOP so deeply it may never dig out.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

"An Extraordinary Moment for Everyone Who Breathes"

Before the euphoria of this election wears off, before the rush of events subsumes the incredulous joy, let's consider what it means.

"Obama Makes History," said the headline in this newspaper on Wednesday, a statement of the obvious, but no less momentous for that. Everybody knows it's true -- nearly everybody has been saying it since Tuesday night. But what does it mean to make history?

David Blight, a Yale historian, has a useful definition: People feel history is being made by events that they realize at once will alter their own lives. "What an extraordinary moment of collective memory we are having!" he says on the telephone from New Haven, Conn., comparing it to Pearl Harbor, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and 9/11.

"This is a special moment, and there aren't a lot of them," says David Nasaw, a historian at the City University of New York. He recounts an e-mail he sent Wednesday to his two grown children: "Whatever happens, enjoy this day, because a moment like this comes once in a lifetime."

History is made in two ways: By dramatic occurrences, often surprises, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; and by the slow accretion of small changes over long periods. These are harder to notice while they're happening, but often more significant than the isolated, surprising events. The two are usually interrelated.

Says David Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian at Stanford: "The combination of great, inexorable forces on the one hand, and contingency, chance and randomness on the other -- that's what keeps guys like me in business."

SNIP

On Wednesday, President Bush addressed the issue from the Rose Garden: "Many of our citizens thought they would never live to see that day," he said. "This moment is especially uplifting for a generation of Americans who witnessed the struggle for civil rights with their own eyes, and four decades later see a dream fulfilled."

Most of the real history is still to be made, of course. Obama's election may have the biggest impact on children who will grow up taking a black president for granted.

Johnetta Cole, former president of the historically black Spelman College in Atlanta, says she spent part of Friday morning visiting Beverly Hall, the superintendent of schools in Atlanta. "I told Beverly, for every young child in the Atlanta school system, a miraculous thing just happened," Cole says. "Not every black child, every child. . . . This is of course monumental for us as African Americans, but it is extraordinary for anyone who breathes."

.
Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln

Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States three weeks before the 200th anniversary of the birth of the 16th president: Abraham Lincoln.

Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln.

The Kentucky Historical Society has been all over this anniversary for years, not wanting to miss this one-in-a-bicentennial opportunity to remind the nation and the world that throughout his life, Lincoln remained and considered himself a Kentuckian.

KHS has developed several superb exhibits and programs, the latest being the live performance Lincoln's Life Through Kentucky Eyes.

Many people know that Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky and spent the first seven years of his life in the commonwealth. Few, however, realize how connected Lincoln remained to Kentucky throughout his life. Now, during the bicentennial commemoration of Lincoln’s birth, the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) Museum Theatre program explores the complex relationship between Lincoln and his native state in the play Lincoln’s Life Through Kentucky Eyes.

On Monday, October 20, the Museum Theatre program debuted its newest piece, Lincoln’s Life, at the Abraham Lincoln Society gala. The twenty-minute performance was met with great acclaim by audience members.

“Presenting history in a play is a tricky business, but this short play examines the truth—both good and bad—of Abraham Lincoln’s Kentucky connections,” said Greg Hardison, Museum Theatre coordinator. “Our goal is for the audience to experience a flood of emotions and hear direct quotes from Kentuckians who both loved and loathed Abraham Lincoln. The research, writing, direction, projected backdrops, and ensemble cast all work in unison to create a unique and truthful look at Lincoln’s life through Kentucky eyes.”

Actors Laura Blake, Robert O’Bryan Greene, Patti Heying, and Adam Luckey portray the many faces of Lincoln and twelve diverse characters with distinctly different views of the sixteenth president. Together, they narrate the story of Abraham Lincoln, the boy, the man, and the president who led the United States through its most divisive years.

Written by actress and writer Donna E. Ison, of Lexington, Ky., Lincoln’s Life serves as the perfect complement to Beyond the Log Cabin: Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln, a new exhibition at KHS, in telling the story of Lincoln and his native state.

The play will be presented every Saturday in November at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., and then again on Saturdays in February. Make sure to schedule a time to visit the KHS and view this moving performance.

This Saturday, Nov. 15, will be the perfect day to do so, when the Center will also present "A Day with Lincoln."

This event is held in conjunction with the 27th annual Kentucky Book Fair and will feature presentations by authors as well as a noon luncheon with guest James L. Swanson, author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.

All presentations are free and open to the public. The luncheon cost is $32.00, which includes a copy of James L. Swanson’s book Manhunt. Reservations are required and must be purchased in advance by calling Julia Curry at 502-564-1792.

See the schedule of events for Saturday here.

Also this Saturday, the HistoryMobile with its exhibit-on-wheels "Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln" will be located outside the history center Friday and Saturday.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Paul Hackett for DNC Chair

Our good friend Blue Girl has launched a campaign to make Paul Hackett the replacement for outgoing chair of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean.

He is the Marine who almost defeated mean Jeanne Schmitt in a house race in an extremely republican Ohio district. He is the Marine who called George Bush a "sonofabitch" and when outraged people demanded he apologize he said absolutely not. "Nope, I said it, I stand by it, and I would say it again," were his exact words. After that, when Rush "deferred from service for a pimple on his ass" Limbaugh called him a "staff puke" and denigrated his service, Hackett responded by calling Rush a "fatassed drug addict."

These are times that call for a strong leader, not that waste of skin (DNC Chair candidate Missouri Senator Claire) McCaskill, who will not be reelected to her Senate seat after rolling over for Bush immediately upon taking office.

Paul Hackett would bring military credibility to the DNC and a low tolerance for bullshit to the job, and if it was mine to offer, I would have him on the phone right now offering it and begging him to take it.

Kentucky Deaniacs know Paul Hackett well, having walked Cincinnati neighborhoods for him in his close 2004 Congressional race against Schmitt.

Deaniacs remember the ridicule we endured after the 2004 Iowa caucuses "Dean Scream," the abuse we took for supporting Howard for DNC chair, the insults and threats against Howard for "wasting" money on his "50-state strategy."

That would be same "50-state strategy" that snatched Congress away from the repugs in 2006 and carried Barack Obama to the White House last week.

We are not going to let some Smirky-fellating Blue Dog DINO like Claire McCaskell destroy Howard's legacy.

Send the DNC a message: Paul Hackett for DNC Chair!

Since the chair is chosen by state party committees, send the same message to your state Democratic Party. In Kentucky, that's here.

Cross-posted a BlueGrassRoots.

How A Dirty Fucking Hippie Liberal Beat the Entrenched Repug Incumbent in a Deep-Red District

If it could happen in Virgil Goode's better-dead-than-dem district in Virginia, it could happen in Kentucky's First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Districts.

The 5th District spreads from Charlottesville (the Tribeca of the South) down to the border of North Carolina. It's been Virgil Goode country since 1997—Goode being the congressman whose re-election campaign was predicated on insulting immigrants, Muslims, the mentally ill, homosexuals, teenagers, Northerners, and, eventually, pretty much everyone, in as many different ways as possible. In August, polls showed Perriello running 30 points behind Goode, who, right up until the night before the election, refused to learn how to pronounce his opponent's name.

SNIP

With three minutes to go before the announcement of his new gig, it sounds like job security isn't much of a concern to him. Hanging on to a congressional seat is not his first priority. Not at the expense of doing the right thing. Perriello muses that this new generation of leaders seems to feel that if they don't get re-elected, it would be OK. "I love what I did in Afghanistan and Darfur. If I have to go back to that, it wouldn't be the worst thing." That's why he so admires Virginia Sen. Jim Webb. "I think he's a great politician because he's a bad politician in the conventional sense. He says what he believes without any care for polls or messaging. It's about right and wrong."

Heads up, Kentucky Democrats. It's 446 days until the filing deadline for the next elections. In 2010 we'll be electing the entire state House of Representatives, half the state Senate, all six Congressional seats and Jim Bunning's Senate seat.

Start looking and listening carefully now for Real Democrats who speak out proudly about their Democratic values. Proud Real Democrats who view elected office as a public service, a temporary sacrifice, a significant but small part of a much larger life, rather than the end-all, be-all of existence.

Pay attention to those who work quietly and without credit to help others - those soup kitchen volunteers, those community organizers, those Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

The ones who speak softly but with passion, who find solutions despite obstacles, who quote Thomas Paine without effort.

And once you've talked them into running for office, for pity's sake keep them far away from the KDP.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

The Real Thing

Because we've all forgotten how a real president handles a press conference, here's a long overdue reminder:

Number 76

The 76th Kentuckian to die in Smirky's Iraq/Afghanistan Clusterfuck Fiasco is 27-year-old Daniel Wallace of Dry Ridge.

Wallace died on October 31 in Badin Kheyl, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 201st Combat Engineer Battalion, Kentucky Army National Guard in Cynthiana, Ky.

He is the 17th Kentucky National Guard member to die in our War on a Tactic, and the 11th Kentuckian and 3rd KNG member to die in Afghanistan.

Wallace was a 2001 graduate of Grant County High School. He enlisted in the Kentucky Army National Guard in May 2006 and was a member of Company C, of the 201st in Cynthiana. In Afghanistan, he was assigned to the battalion’s Company B, out of Olive Hill.

Wallace was mobilized for Operation Iraqi Freedom in March of 2008 and deployed to Afghanistan in May, where he was part of “Task Force Workhorse”, which is responsible for maintaining hundreds of miles of roads and removing roadside bombs or IEDs.

Wallace was serving as a gunner on an armor-protected vehicle. When a piece of equipment was knocked loose, he stepped outside the vehicle and was killed by a single bullet, (Kentucky Adjutant General Edward) Tonini said.

SNIP

At the time of his death, Wallace held the rank of Specialist (E4), but was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant (E5) and awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Army Good Conduct medal.

SNIP

Survivors include his parents, Karen and Kenneth Wallace, two brothers, Charles and Alex Wallace, a sister, Kim and a 6-year-old son.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

For Those Of Us Not Ready to Forgive

The Rude Pundit, as always, reaches deep into the American id and finds precisely the right words.

Triple-X rated, but ignore your tender sensibilities and read it. You'll be glad you did.

Still afraid? Here are the R-rated closing grafs, to give you a hint of what you're missing.

Finally, for today, let's kick John McCain and Sarah Palin while they're down. Because everything they did made Barack Obama and Joe Biden seem that much more honorable and presidential. Because every misstep they made showed just how incredible and beautiful a machine the Obama campaign was. Because every slime McCain painfully threw ended up coating his face and made Obama seem that much brighter. Because every tinny, awkward, wrong word squeaked out of Palin made Biden appear even more the elder statesman. Because the country said to both of them, "You are full of shit, and we know it. Go the fuck away."

Let us dance, motherfuckers, mad, grotesque, ancient dances that lead us into ripping our clothes off, eating the hearts of our enemies, and fucking like the carnal goddamned human beings we are, all around the burning flames of an ideology that told us we were traitors and un-American. No, we can say now, loudly, this is what America is.

Plenty of time for Obama's inclusiveness come January 20. Until then, let's make sure the losers know what it's like to be on the receiving end of losing.

John Aravosis has a non-sexual rant on the same lines.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Always Remember

h/t Blue Girl.

A Question for Certain Kentucky "Democratic" Candidates and Their Supporters

After the Obama effigy hung from a tree at UK, the most disgusting, depressing and infuriating spectacle in Kentucky this election has been candidates calling themselves Democrats pretending they don't belong to the same party as Barack Obama.

Richly Deserving Loser David Boswell was one of the first to display his racist cowardice by answering a question about endorsing Obama with:

"I am proud to be a Democrat."

As I wrote then:

Kentucky's Second District may poll conservative - although that may also be an artifact of not having a real Democratic choice for the past 15 years - but does Boswell really think rejecting his own party's Presidential Nominee is going to endear him to Second District Democrats?

I don't actually think Boswell thinks much at all, which is only one of many reasons I am not at all upset that he lost.

But Boswell is not the only one. From local candidates who set up tables at county fairs as far as they could get from the Democratic Party booths festooned with those oh-so-dangerous Obama signs, to Governor Beshear, who could not have been less enthusastic about Obama if he'd endorsed McCain, it was endemic.

Could the refusal of the Kentucky Democratic Party to support the only two Democratic candidates challenging repug Congressional incumbents have anything to do with the fact that both of those courageous Real Democrats endorsed Barack Obama? Is the KDP's slobbering all over scumbucket Boswell a clue?

Yes, even Boswell performed better in his district than Barack Obama did, and let's hope that's a comfort to Boswell as he watches Brett Guthrie pack to move to a U.S. Capitol now wholly owned and operated by Barack Obama.

Notice that the two Kentucky Democrats who won their Congressional races are also the only two Democratic candidates who endorsed Barack Obama - and did it before the Kentucky primary. Yes, John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler are strong incumbents who were likely to win re-election regardless of their Obama endorsement, but if they felt so safe, why make an endorsement that in May was significantly risky?

Maybe they're both way smarter than they look. Or maybe they're Real Democrats. Even DINO Extraordinaire Ben Chandler.

So here's my question for Kentucky Democratic Candidates who turned their backs on Barack Obama:

Are you fucking proud of yourselves?

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

Media Czech on Kentucky's winners and losers

Trust Media Czech to brilliantly dissect Election Day in Kentucky while the rest of us are still trying to absorb the results.

I'll have much more to say later, but in the meantime, take what MC says to heart.

Voting Rants and Raves

RAVE: Paper ballots! Major Cool! Hey Diebold: De-program THIS! Kentucky introduced the old lever voting machines just before I turned 18, so I've never voted on a paper ballot before. Wow, they even provide the pens. Optical scan machine reads the filled-in squares (what, no ovals?) This is SO cool. Makes me feel a connection to my grandmother, who turned 21 in 1919, and so was among the first women in the country who voted in the 1920 presidential election after the passage of the 19th Amendment.

RANT: Paper ballots? Hmmm. What if you accidentally fill in the wrong square and want to change your vote? At least with the machines you have a chance to review your votes and change them. And the scanning machine just ate my ballot and then waved a flag at me. How about a receipt?

RAVE: Line moved pretty quick - 15 people in front of me at 11:30 a.m. and I voted in 15 minutes. First time I ever saw a poster of "Voting Rights and Responsibilities." Somebody feeling some heat, maybe?

RANT: I TOLD you last year that if you elected a repug Secretary of State you'd regret it. After Attorney General Jack Conway posted "Election Rumor Control" that specifically said you could vote while wearing campaign clothes and buttons, I wore my Obama shirt and one large and three small buttons. And right on cue the precinct worker showing me the paper ballot took one look at my shirt and froze. I should have waited to hear what kind of racist, ignorant, repug stupidity she was about to spout, but instead I whipped out the copy of Conway's Rumor Control that I had brought with me and pointed to "... the wearing of campaign apparel such as hats, buttons, or shirts will not prevent a voter from voting." She started making excuses and I said it was HER responsibility to know the law, and shame on her for challenging me.

RAVE: I got challenged! Too bad she caved so quick; I had the Obama campaign's fast-response legal team on speed dial.

RANT: Middle-aged guy was there with two kids looking about 12 years old. White boy and biracial girl. Stupid fucker made them stand off to the side while he voted instead of letting them be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime election. PLEASE, if you have access to children, take them with you to vote! Let them push the button or fill in the square. Give them something to tell their great-grandchildren about.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.