26 Senate Dems Announce: "We Want Obama to Fail"

Because make no mistake, that's exactly what these fuckers are saying.

It was probably never gonna happen, but now it's official. Climate change legislation will not be passed through the budget reconciliation process. The Johanns amendment, which explicitly prevents such a move, just passed on a 67-31 vote. We'll get you a roll call when it's available, including the names of the significant number of Democrats who voted with the GOP. Expect to find the usual suspects on that list. And more!

The full list of President Obama-hating, repug-fellating wastes of oxygen is below, but before you read at least one name that will break liberal hearts, consider this: Karl Rove recently accused President Obama of using "Chicago tactics" against members of Congress, including Democrats. Steve M thoroughly nails the idiocy of that accusation, but I think there's untapped potential here.

Let's see some real they-pull-a-knife-we-pull-a-gun tactics against the cowards and obstructionists pretending to be Democrats. If President Obama doesn't start twisting arms and threatening primary challenges and holding legislation hostage, then what the fuck is Rahm Emmanuel there for, anyway?

Meanwhile, here's the list of "Democratic" senators who'd rather sacrifice the last chance we may have to slow runaway global climate change than inconvenience the repug minority.

Max Baucus (D-MT)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Mark Begich (D-AK)
Michael Bennett (D-CO)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Bob Casey (D-PA)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Russell Feingold (D-WI)
Kay Hagan (D-NC)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Blanch Lincoln (D-AR)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Jim Webb (D-VA)

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

Stop Sending Soldiers to Do the Cops' Job

Commenters on my Afghanistan post have asked, if we don't fight terrorists in Af-Pak, then where do we fight them.

I think the question is not where, but how. And the answer is not with civilian-killing, enemy-making bombs, but with the one approach that even the military acknowledges is the only one that works:

Law enforcement. Investigation, arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment.

From a 2005 conference report of the U.S. Army's Strategic Studies Institute:

In the second paper, Mr. Michael German illustrates why he believes the U.S. reaction to terrorism is not just inadequate, but rather, by being incorrect, our strategy compounds the problem. By defining activity as terrorist warfare rather than criminal behavior, we enhance perpetrators’ status and provide them the legitimacy that they seek.

The author’s experience as an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent has given him valuable insights into terrorists’ desire for legitimacy among their supporters, sympathizers, and others who have potential to become part of those two groups. He discusses how these groups develop strategies to create overreaction by authorities and to avoid their most feared outcome, being labeled as mere criminal gangs.

He likewise discusses the patterns of governmental overreaction that must be avoided if the government’s legitimacy is to be preserved; fortunately, the U.S. Constitution provides an effective structure to avoid overreaction by guaranteeing individual rights and requiring open-source and transparent methods for criminal prosecution. Secrecy and increased governmental power is not the solution. He convincingly argues that his conclusions about domestic terrorists are applicable to their international counterparts and that the legalistic approach that has proven effective within the United States would be equally effective internationally.

Finally, Dr. Shawn Boyne discusses Germany’s recognition of the Islamic terrorist threat, but rejection of the metaphor of war in favor of its constitutional law framework. That commitment provides for the same civil liberty protections for all acts, whether or not committed by citizens and without regard for motivation. She convincingly argues that the German approach is a consequence of its relatively long and active history of dealing with domestic terrorism and more recent internal debates. Germany decided, in contrast to the United States, not to view the September 11, 2001, attacks as the beginning of a war, but through the lens of German and international law.

Germany’s response was not to create new law, but to strengthen resources to investigate and enforce existing laws. Logically, its military forces were provided specifically for Afghanistan, mostly in noncombat roles, and not for the general war on terrorism. Germany’s legalistic stance was not sufficient to avoid making difficult choices about the balance between internal security and civil liberties and may mean that democracies must remain vigilant in protecting human rights, no matter which tactics they choose to fight terrorism. At a minimum, the United States should view the German solution as an alternative to its own and compare its relative effectiveness for security and potential costs in civil liberties for its citizens.

Killing people - whether for political, monetary or romantic reasons, and whether by knife, gun or suicide bomb - is a crime. Terrorism is a tactic used by criminals.

And anyone who says the U.S. criminal justice system is not up to the task of finding, capturing, prosecuting and incarcerating a bunch of cave-dwelling medieval freaks is un-American.

(Blue Girl makes excellent points in her comment here.)

Dan Mongiardo: Bad in So Many Ways

There are some Democratic politicans who are great candidates but crummy office-holders. See Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.

There are some Democratic politicians who would be superb in offices they'll never hold because they're crummy candidates. See Kentucky Auditor Crit Luallen, who should be governor.

There are Democratic politicians who are great candidates and superb office-holders, but rotten human beings. See former President Bill Clinton.

And then there are lying, homophobic, coal-industry shilling "Democratic" politicians who are crummy candidates, horrible office-holders and rotten human beings. See Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo.

David Shankula has the details:

Over the past few months, Dan Mongiardo's 2010 Senate Primary campaign has been actively trying to silence several growing problems.

Take, for example, Dan Mongiardo's staggering "Unfavorable" numbers. A recent poll of Kentucky Democratic voters found Mongiardo has a whopping 28% Negative Rating. That's twice the rate of the other likely 2010 Democratic candidates. Mongiardo is so unpopular even some Republicans rated higher than him -- and remember, this is among Democratic voters only.

Read the whole thing.

Then go help Media Czech draft Jack Conway.

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

They Don't Call It "Graveyard of Empires" for Nothing

I'm with publius: the fact that Kagan, Kristol, Krauthammer and the rest of the wingnut warmongers are thrilled with Obama's Afghanistan escalation is more than enough proof that it's an inevitable catastrophe.

But if you need more evidence, here are two superb cases against increasing our involvement in Afghanistan.

In The Nation, Tom Englehardt sees an "Af-Pak Bailout" that will make the AIG giveaway seem like pocket change.

What this all adds up to is an ambitious doubling down on just about every bet already made by Washington in these last years--from the counterinsurgency war against the Taliban and the counter-terrorism war against Al Qaeda to the financial love/hate relationship with the Pakistani military and its intelligence services underway since at least the Nixon years of the early 1970s. (Many of the flattering things now being said by US officials about Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, for instance, were also said about the now fallen autocrat Pervez Musharraf when he held the same position.)

SNIP

Face it, we've entered a new universe. The "homeland" is in turmoil, the planetary frontiers are aboil. Change--even change we don't want to believe in--is in the air.
In the end, as with the Obama economic team, so the foreign policy team may be pushed in new directions sooner than anyone imagines and, willy-nilly, into some genuinely new thinking about a collapsing world. But not now. Not yet. Like our present financial bailouts, like that extra $30 billion that went into AIG recently, the new Obama plan is superannuated on arrival. It represents graveyard thinking.
AIG...
Af-Pak War...
R.I.P.

Read the whole thing.

In Salon, Juan Cole writes that Obama's plan is a warmed-over version of Cold War Domino Theory. For you youngsters, that's the 50's version of "fight them over there" that got us stuck in Vietnam for 20 years.

Obama's dark vision of the overthrow of the Afghanistan government by al-Qaida-linked Taliban or the "killing" of Pakistan by small tribal groups differs little from the equally apocalyptic and implausible warnings issued by John McCain and Dick Cheney about an "al-Qaida" victory in Iraq. Ominously, the president's views are contradicted by those of his own secretary of defense. Pashtun tribes in northwestern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan have a long history of dissidence, feuding and rebellion, which is now being branded Talibanism and configured as a dire menace to the Western way of life. Obama has added yet another domino theory to the history of Washington's justifications for massive military interventions in Asia. When a policymaker gets the rationale for action wrong, he is at particular risk of falling into mission creep and stubborn commitment to a doomed and unnecessary enterprise.

SNIP

This latter-day domino theory of al-Qaida takeovers in South Asia is just as implausible as its earlier iteration in Southeast Asia (ask Thailand or the Philippines). Most of the allegations are not true or are vastly exaggerated.

SNIP

Obama's dark vision of the overthrow of the Afghanistan government by al-Qaida-linked Taliban or the "killing" of Pakistan by small tribal groups differs little from the equally apocalyptic and implausible warnings issued by John McCain and Dick Cheney about an "al-Qaida" victory in Iraq. Ominously, the president's views are contradicted by those of his own secretary of defense. Pashtun tribes in northwestern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan have a long history of dissidence, feuding and rebellion, which is now being branded Talibanism and configured as a dire menace to the Western way of life. Obama has added yet another domino theory to the history of Washington's justifications for massive military interventions in Asia. When a policymaker gets the rationale for action wrong, he is at particular risk of falling into mission creep and stubborn commitment to a doomed and unnecessary enterprise.

Read the whole thing.

Finally, a Sign of Rationality at Homeland Security

dday brings us good news on immigration.

Today's Washington Post reports on a policy shift toward punishing the businesses who hire the undocumented rather than the individual workers themselves.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces in recent weeks, asking agents in her department to apply more scrutiny to the selection and investigation of targets as well as the timing of raids, federal officials said.

A senior department official said the delays signal a pending change in whom agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement choose to prosecute - increasing the focus on businesses and executives instead of ordinary workers.

Worksite raids, particularly as they were used in the Bush Administration, were unnecessarily harsh, separated families and in some cases violated due process and other civil liberties. The employers are just as responsible for breaking the law, yet during the Bush years they were almost never charged. This shift in operations at DHS and ICE not only makes sense on a moral and ethical level, but is likely to be more successful in deterring companies from hiring and exploiting undocumented labor.

I know immigration isn't a front-burner issue right now, but there are better priorities than the government operating like commandos and taking workers away from their families, while recognizing that the only way to truly solve the problem is through comprehensive reform.

Amen, Hallelujah and About Fucking Time. As bad if not worse than middle-class taxpayers funding billion-dollar bonuses to economy-destroying Wall Street gamblers is the way factory owners around the country have gotten away with treating immigrants as slave labor, with immigration officials from Homeland Security acting as whip-wielding overseers.

Janet Napolitano, unlike Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, seems to understand that it's the workers who make this economy run, and the corporations who fuck it up.

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

Adventure at Kentucky State Parks

I admit it: I'm completely in the tank for Kentucky State Parks. I grew up spending family vacations camping in them, I learned how to water-ski at Lake Cumberland and snow-ski at General Butler. I learned spelunking at Carter Caves and day-hiking at Pine Mountain.

For close-to-everybody, inexpensive recreation in spectacular scenery you can't beat it. In the same state park you'll find the golfing, swimming pools, dining room and lodge accommodations citified types demand and the secluded camping, quiet trails and near-wilderness we hippies prefer.

Not to mention the many special events and adventures Kentucky State Parks are now promoting.

As the weather improves, so do the opportunities to get out and find an adventure or two at a Kentucky State Park.

During April and May, many state parks will be holding special events including canoeing, overnight backpacking, hikes, mountain biking and cycling. Campgrounds will also open in April and Camper Appreciation Weekend will be April 24-26 at all state parks.

Here is a listing of some of the state park adventures in April and May. For more details on these and other events, along with online reservations for lodging and camping, visit www.parks.ky.gov.

There's canoeing on the Licking River and at Natural Bridge, overnight backpacking at Lake Barkley, hiking at Greenbo Lake, cross-country hiking at Carter Caves, mountain biking at General Butler, and Pennyrile Forest, geocaching at Lake Cumberland and much more.

Don't miss these:

Family Spring Adventure-Cumberland Falls State Resort Park
4/25/2009 and May 2, 9, 23
Cumberland Falls is a nature-lovers' paradise. Get the family out this spring with these adventurous activities: Canoeing, archery, bird walks, wildflower walks, fire tower tours, astronomy, wildlife programs, and hikes to other waterfalls and arches. Some activities are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Family Adventure Quest
The Kentucky State Parks are again offering the Family Adventure Quest program in 2009. This is a trivia and digital photo scavenger hunt based on visits to state parks. Families can win prizes if they correctly complete challenges. This year’s quest is based on Abraham Lincoln in honor of his birthday bicentennial. For more information, click here.

Nature Weekends at Natural Bridge State Resort Park.If you’re a nature enthusiast, Natural Bridge State Resort Park is offering two nature-filled weekends for all plant and animal lovers.

Wildflower Weekend, April 17-19, is a chance for gardeners, nature lovers and botanists to enjoy the hundreds of species of native plants at Natural Bridge. Field trips and walks will be offered for the beginner and advanced wildflower enthusiast at many different times during the three-day event, starting at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Herpetology Weekend, May 1-2, is a way to learn about nature’s most misunderstood critters. On Saturday, May 2, experienced herpetologists will lead field trips at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. into the Red River Gorge to observe reptiles and amphibians in their native habitat. Collection is prohibited. Children’s activities will be offered at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

There will also be evening speakers at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, as well as various demonstrations that will include live venomous snakes!

Nature Fest at Barren River Lake April 24-25.

Buffalo Dinner and Native American Day at Kentucky Dam Village on April 25.

"Pickin' At the Caves" Carter Caves State Resort Park will begin hosting “Pickin’ at the Caves” on the first and third Monday of every month beginning April 6.

Anyone who plays a musical instrument is invited to come and play between 6 and 10 p.m. at the Lewis Caveland Lodge. And for those who don’t play, come out and listen!

The park will offer a special buffet for $6.95 on these Monday nights at the Tierney’s Cavern Restaurant. The restaurant is open for dinner from 5-8 p.m.

If you can't find a memory-making event, place, weekend, family moment, favorite tree or perfect lake at a Kentucky State Park, you aren't trying.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Via P.Z. Myers, an untouched photo of a real sign on a real church in Arkansas:



This is why saying you don't "believe" in evolution is like saying you don't "believe" in gravity. Facts don't go away no matter how much faith claims otherwise.

This is why facts always trump faith, except in the minds of the faithful.

And this is why any religious believer who claims to be capable of rational thought and basic logical reasoning should be laughed out of the room.

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

Crisis and Service

President Obama's Weekly Address, dedicated to the people working to save their homes from flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota.



Full transcript here.

Stimulus FUBAR in Kentucky

There's something worse than the repug governors trying to refuse federal stimulus money because it will help the unemployed, poor, sick and elderly in their states.

That's a "Democratic" governor who loses $45 million in no-strings-attached federal stimulus money because he failed to make a teeny-tiny change in state law.

Kentucky will miss out on an estimated $45 million in no-strings-attached federal stimulus money -- funds to extend unemployment benefits for thousands of jobless Kentuckians -- because of its failure to make a simple change in state law.

The change would have allowed unemployed workers who exhaust their benefits to receive up to 20 additional weeks at no cost to Kentucky when the state's three-month jobless rate climbs to at least 8 percent. The state's current rate is 8.5 percent.

Beshear not only failed to take the simple, no-cost step to get that additional $45 million in federal stimulus money, when questioned he lied about it.

In an interview, Gov. Steve Beshear downplayed the significance of the state's failure to act. He stressed that jobless Kentuckians will be eligible for the 13 weeks of federal benefits when the 5 percent threshold is met -- which he said will happen soon.

"Under our current law, and under the federal stimulus, we are taking full advantage of all the stimulus has to offer," he said.

Read the whole thing for details.

Adding insult to injury, on Friday Beshear announced a task force to deal with the catastrophe of the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Wonder how much Beshear losing $45 million in free federal money is making that catastrophe worse?

The press release features yet another shameless Beshear lie:

"We will ensure that Kentuckians receive all benefits to which they are entitled under the federal stimulus," said Gov. Beshear.

I call Steve Beshear a DINO and cowardly waste of oxygen because Steve Beshear is a DINO and cowardly waste of oxygen.

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

Caging the Blue Dogs

Between an economic plan designed and run by protect-the-rich jerks Geithner and Summers, the Senate majority leader telling progressives to sit down and shut up and the Democratic margin of majority in the Senate composed of repug-fellating DINOs, liberals today are more under seige than before the election.

Barack Obama may not be the second coming of FDR for which we hoped, but that just makes it more critical that we keep pushing him harder and further left than he would go on his own.

Harry Reid may find our grassroots campaigns for liberal priorities in the budget tacky and inconvenient, but that's all the more incentive for us to keep the pressure on that whiny coward.

Evan Bayh's Wastes of Oxygen Who Are Afraid to Admit They're Really Wingnut Freakazoids may be throwing a "centrist" temper tantrum, but that just forces us to make sure they get a political time-out. Steve Benen gets it:

Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) has noticed some of the progressive pushback to his new working group, compromised of "centrist" Democrats, who want to water down make President Obama's popular domestic policy agenda more palatable to a small Republican minority. Apparently, he's not happy about it.

Bayh announced last week that a group of centrist Democrats had come together to negotiate as a bloc with the White House and party leaders on major legislation. He promptly found himself targeted by an ad accusing him of "standing in the way of President Obama's reforms."

"We literally have no agenda," Bayh shot back. "How can they be threatened by a group that has taken no policy positions?"

The problem, of course, is that people feel "threatened" because Bayh and the Blue Dogs do have an agenda, and we've already seen some of their policy positions. The Wall Street Journal noted this morning that the working group's stated goal is to "protect business interests."

Ryan Powers highlighted some of these Democrats' other recent exploits:

* Shrinking Economic Recovery: The group's first significant "success" was "paring down the more than $900 billion economic stimulus bill to $787 billion," reducing the government's ability to spur economic recovery quickly. [Roll Call, 3/12/2009]

* Preserving The Bush Tax Cuts: Regarding Obama's plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, Bayh said, "I do think that before we raise revenue, we first should look to see if there are ways we can cut back on spending." [Politico, 3/3/2009]

* Delaying Cap-and-Trade: Bayh coalition member, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), explained that the group might "push for a more lenient phase-in period for a cap-and-trade system and revenue-raising offsets to pay for expensive mandates." [CQ Politics, 3/9/2009]

* Weakening Bankruptcy Protection: Centrist Democrats "forced changes to a House bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages, ensuring that the legislation better reflected the concerns of the financial-services industry." [WSJ, 3/25/09]

Americans elected Democrats to hold a 58-seat majority in the Senate, and yet, the majority party will struggle to pass its agenda -- a popular agenda, mind you -- because of Republican obstructionism, and Democrats who prefer to drive with their foot on the brake.

I'd just add that calling Bayh's bunch "Moderate Dems" undermines the liberal position. Call them what they are:

"Insecure Little Pricks Who Crave Attention We Can Only Get By Tearing Down the Most Popular Democratic President of Our Lifetimes."

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

Dan and Steve Against the World

Kentucky's newest political couple is homophobe and coal industry shill Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, and DINO/cowardly waste of oxygen Governor Steve Beshear, who just endorsed Mongiardo for the 2010 U.S. Senate race.

Page One notes this was released at 4 p.m. on a Friday, right in the middle of the firing of UK basketball coach Billy Gillespie and while Louisville is preparing for an NCAA tournament game. That might mean Beshear feels obligated to give Mongiardo superficial lip-service support, but won't go out of his way to raise money or campaign for him.

I hope that's it, because I have a hard time believing that Beshear would stand with Dr. Dan against Attorney General Jack Conway and the entire Democratic political establishment plus every progressive Democratic voter in the state. Or alternatively, that this endorsement would cause Conway to abandon his Senate race plans.

Fortunately, a statement from Democratic political operative Mark Riddle appears to support the damn-with-faint-support theory:

"People will have to decide for themselves whether a tepid statement honoring a long-standing political commitment, done on a Friday afternoon while the Governor is out-of-town is indeed newsworthy,” Riddle said. “Most expected the Governor would have to say something on his running mate’s behalf. However, in a larger sense, many Democratic leaders believe their party should have a choice in selecting the nominee who can best lead our Commonwealth into the future, and Attorney General Conway is seriously considering this race for the U.S. Senate."

But here's some Political Paranoia for your weekend consideration:

What if THIS is the reason repug Senate President David Williams had an inexplicable change of heart and let the state senate approve tax increases on tobacco and alcohol? Beshear helping Mongiardo win the Democratic primary for Senate is how he pays Williams back. Mongiardo is worse than a weak U.S. Senate candidate - he might be the only Democrat in the state who could lose to Jim Bunning next year. And Mongiardo would probably lose to another republican rumored to be interested in the race: one David Williams.

Fasten your seat belts, sports fans. As Media Czech said: IT. IS. ON.

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

John Hope Franklin, R.I.P.

Historian John Hope Franklin died Wednesday at age 94. He had a unique perspective on America in the 20th Century, and the silencing of his voice is a great loss.

See a slide show remembrance at TPM.

And via Wonkette, this lovely Charlie Rose interview from 1995.

Sorry, Dan: Jack's Gonna Take On Jimbo

Roll Call belatedly realizes that there may be more than one Democratic politician in Kentucky interested in kicking Jim Bunning (R-non compos mentis) out of the Senate.

A source close to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said this week that the Democrat will run for Senate in 2010 and that he is expected to announce his candidacy as soon as early April.

-SNIP-

With Conway set to throw his hat in the ring, it appears that the other top Bluegrass Democrats who have considered challenging Bunning will stay on the sidelines. Conway, state Auditor Crit Luallen (D) and Rep. Ben Chandler (D) are all close allies, and party insiders don’t believe any of the three would challenge the others in a primary race.

-SNIP-

“The attorney general is staying in constant communications with Auditor Luallen, Congressman Chandler and [Democratic Rep. John] Yarmuth and they are in the process of sorting out this important election,” Riddle said. “Obviously Jack is very humbled that people are talking about his candidacy and encouraging him to run.”

As Page One notes, this is old news. Not just that Conway will run with Luallen's and Chandler's support, but that homophobic coal industry shill Lt. Governor Dan Mongiardo's campaign is already struggling.

The Roll Call story gets better. We couldn’t agree more with the following excerpt:

Pointing to the hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign debt — much of which he owes to himself — that Mongiardo continues to carry from that 2004 campaign, the Democratic source said, “If he is such a good fundraiser, why hasn’t he cleared that up?”

Attention Mongiardo crew: If you’ve really raised substantial money, send us some some documentation to back it up. We’d love to know where you stand before the reporting deadline.

Read the whole thing.

Here's my 20-months-out prediction based on nothing that anyone who reads Kentucky political blogs doesn't already know:

Jack Conway will take the Democratic Senate primary in a walk. Mongiardo might not even make an embarrassing second place, if the usual unknowns jump into the race. Conway will beat Bunning in a landslide in the general, but lose to Secretary of State Trey Grayson if Bunning drops out.

Grayson is unlikely to challenge Bunning in a primary, although he could beat Jimbo easily, because why should he risk alienating Kentucky republicans in a 2010 primary when he can get them 100 percent behind him in a 2011 general election challenge to Governor Steve Beshear?

Don't be surprised if Mongiardo follows up his losing Senate campaign by challenging his own governor in the 2011 primary. Mongiardo is that delusional, and Beshear is that determined to exceed Dr. Dan's unpopularity with Kentucky progressives.

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

Why Does Governor Beshear Hate Kentuckians?

Kentucky DINO and waste-of-oxygen Governor Steve Beshear dropped trou today and exposed his shortcomings on two issues of critical importance to impoverished and working-class Kentuckians.

First, he responded to President Obama's moratorium on new mountaintop removal coal mining projects by demanding that the feds continue to allow mountain-raping corporations to choke freshwater streams with toxic mining waste.

Then Beshear claimed to be protecting economically distressed families by signing a bill that gives aid and comfort to the very loan sharks who force those families into destitution.

There are wingnut freakazoid republican politicians in this state who in a lifetime of working to make Kentucky comfortable for rich people haven't done as much to fuck over working poor people as Steve Beshear did today.

Mountaintop removal coal mining is to Eastern Kentucky what the crack cocaine epidemic was to inner cities: a way for outsiders to get rich quick off a business that sickens and kills children, ruins homes, tears families apart and destroys communities. Beshear has been hiding behind his Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo, a shameless advocate of the practice that is destroying his own home region, but now Beshear has come out of the closet with his concern for the "404 permit backlog."

404 permits are what the Army Corps of Engineers issues to mining corporations to dump thousands of tons of toxic coal mining waste into the headwaters of freshwater mountain streams, thus cutting off sources of drinking water and causing massive floods.

In other words - words you won't find in Beshear's press release - a 404 permit is a license to kill people. Poor Kentucky mountain people.

After they are flooded or blasted or poisoned out of their homes, Beshear's Eastern Kentucky victims can join their fellow citizens at the quick-cash loan sharks for whom Beshear once lobbied and continues to protect.

Governors who don't give a shit about people who can't afford large campaign contributions are nothing new in Kentucky, but I can't remember one so blatant yet hypocritical in his eagerness to actively hurt them.

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

Montana Plane Crash Reveals Xians' True Colors

To all the "modern" christians who insist that their enlightened, "rational" faith should not be confused with freakazoid insanity, this is the Christian reality that you're going to have to destroy if you expect anyone to believe your claims of humanity.

PZ Myers on "a heartless faith:"

There was an appalling and tragic plane crash in Montana: 14 people were killed, 7 of them children.

SNIP

Nine of them were members of one family. This was a horrifying and genuinely horrible accident; I can't begin to imagine the grief felt by the survivors, who lost children and grandchildren.

I can feel great anger, though. Here is something that will make you furious and outraged, too. Irving Feldkamp is the father of two and grandfather of five who were killed in that accident; he lost a shocking great swath of his family in that one sad afternoon. Irving Feldkamp is also the owner of Family Planning Associates — a chain of clinics that also does abortions.

You can guess what segment of the Christian community I'm about to highlight.

Choke back your gag reflex and read this hideous, evil article on Christian Newswire. Some moral cretin named Gingi Edmonds wrote a wretched story on this tragedy that makes it sound like divine retribution on Mr Feldkamp.

It begins by telling us that the plane crashed in a cemetery — a Catholic cemetery that has a "memorial to the unborn", dedicated to aborted fetuses. We are apparently supposed to feel some sense of irony at this.

All I can feel is horror at the kinds of monsters who would find grim satisfaction in the death of 6 to 10 year old children, as if it were payback for abortion. At amoral pious hypocrites who would regard this as an opportunity to assault human beings broken-hearted by pain and loss, to proselytize for the bloody-handed god of their death cult, to compound agony with accusations of guilt. There is no humanity left in these sanctimonious creatures, it's been bled out and replaced with fanaticism and dogma.

SNIP

Once again, I am confirmed in my opinion that Christianity is a breeder of evil, a cesspit in which the most hateful and inhuman commitment to lies and delusions can ferment. Don't ever preach at me about Christian morality: I've seen it, and it is empty of love for humanity, replaced with sanctimonious idolatry and commitment to dead, dumb superstition.

Again, with enthusiasm:

Christianity is a breeder of evil, a cesspit in which the most hateful and inhuman commitment to lies and delusions can ferment. Don't ever preach at me about Christian morality: I've seen it, and it is empty of love for humanity, replaced with sanctimonious idolatry and commitment to dead, dumb superstition.

And no, the other monotheisms are no better.

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

"This Budget is Inseparable From This Recovery"

UPDATE, 6 a.m.: Click here for the video.

Click here for full transcript.

Excerpts from President Obama's opening remarks for tonight's 8 p.m. EDT press conference:

[W]e’ve put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to attack this crisis on all fronts. It’s a strategy to create jobs, to help responsible homeowners, to re-start lending, and to grow our economy over the long-term. And we are beginning to see signs of progress.

The budget I submitted to Congress will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation, so that we do not face another crisis like this ten or twenty years from now. We invest in the renewable sources of energy that will lead to new jobs, new businesses, and less dependence on foreign oil. We invest in our schools and our teachers so that our children have the skills they need to compete with any workers in the world. We invest in reform that will bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and our government. And in this budget, we have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term – even under the most pessimistic estimates.

At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led to a narrow prosperity and massive debt. It’s with a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest.

That’s what clean energy jobs and businesses will do. That’s what a highly-skilled workforce will do. That’s what an efficient health care system that controls costs and entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid will do. That’s why this budget is inseparable from this recovery – because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity.

We will recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together; when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other – that’s when we succeed. That’s when we prosper. And that’s what is needed right now. So let us look toward the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination, and most importantly, a renewed confidence that a better day will come.

Eating Our Educational Seed Corn

Sometime before Derby, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is going to have to call the General Assembly back into session to deal with a budget deficit that is getting bigger by the day.

This time, they probably won't be able to avoid massive cuts in higher education. They won't even try, because no Kentucky politician ever lost re-election for cutting funding to elitist, ivory-tower eggheads.

PZ Myers brilliantly decries the attitude pervasive in every state that cutting educational budgets is like eliminating dessert, when it's really a starvation diet.

One of the challenges facing the country right now in this time of economic crisis is that we're also about to be confronted by the result of a decade of neglect of the nation's infrastructure, in particular, the chronic starvation of our universities. It's an insidious problem, because as administrations have discovered time and again, you can cut an education budget and nothing bad happens, from their perspective. The faculty get a pay freeze; we tighten our belts. The universities lose public funds; we raise tuition a little bit. A few faculty are lost to attrition, and the state decides to defer their replacement for a year or two or indefinitely; the remaining faculty scramble to cover the manpower loss. We can continue to do our jobs, but behind the scenes, the stresses simply grow and worsen.

SNIP

Since the state is contributing less and less every year, we will soon reach a point where we simply won't be allowed to replace essential personnel, and then the whole system is going to break down.

SNIP

The United States is supposed to take some pride in its educational system — at least, we're accustomed to hearing politicians stand up and brag about how our universities are the envy of the world. It's a lie. We're being steadily eroded away, and all that's holding it up right now is the desperate struggles of the faculty within it. We're at the breaking point, though, where the losses can't be supported much more, and the whole edifice is going to fall apart.

SNIP

The next layer of the problem is the state government. They keep seeing the educational system as a great target for saving money with budget cuts, because the effects will not be manifest for several years — and so they steadily hack and slash and chop, and the universities suffer…and now they're at the point where they begin to break, and they keep cutting. Write to the Florida legislature! Tell them that we need to support higher education, that as a scientific and technological nation, we are dependent on a well-educated citizenry!

SNIP

Another part of the problem is…you. Why do you keep electing cretins to your legislatures who despise the "intellectual elite", who think being smart is a sin, who are so short-sighted that they care nothing for investing in strengthening the country in ways that take ten or more years to pay off? Stop it! Your representatives should be people who value education enough to commit to at least maintaining the current meager level of funding, but instead we get chains of ignoramuses who want to demolish the universities…and simultaneously want to control them to support their favorite ideological nonsense, via "academic freedom" bills. This is also a long-term goal: we have to work to restore our government to some level of sanity. It's been the domain of fools and thieves for far too long.

Read the whole thing.

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

Paging Eliot Spitzer

OK, enough with this amateur shit. You want the bank bailout fiasco handled by somebody who knows that the first step in dealing with Wall Street is to get their attention by smacking them upside the head with a two-by-four?

Then get the guy who used to smack Wall Street around for a living.

We deserve a Treasury Secretary who hasn't been a player in Wall Street's lifestyle of bonuses and legalized corruption. Nobel Prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman would be strong choices; yet they are increasingly valuable as watchdogs and constructive critics working outside the Administration. I've also thought that Obama would be smart to promote former Economic Policy Institute Fellow Jared Bernstein, who is currently serving as Biden's chief economic adviser.

Then there's a novel idea. Why not bring in the man who took on Wall Street and AIG long before it was trendy? Eliot Spitzer. Call me crazy. But he foresaw the bubbles and disasters resulting from deregulatory frenzy and the financial service industry's creation of toxic credit default swaps and derivatives. As the Sherriff of Wall Street, Spitzer launched investigations and lawsuits deploying the creative cudgel of the previously-obscure 1921 Martin Act. Yes, he acted miserably toward his wife and family and he should pay the price for that. But some believe Spitzer was taken down by certain "masters of the universe" seeking vengeance for his aggressive policing of their financial fraud and corruption.

In his first television interview since resigning as Governor, on CNN"s Fareed Zakaria's "GPS" program, Spitzer offered a compelling analysis of how we got into this mess and spoke clearly about the need for new regulations to rein in Wall Street's "recklessness and greed." He criticized Wall Street's former masters for their "hot dog cowboy mentality which leveraged everything up." (And he praised old fashioned Wall Street types like Felix Rohatyn for not falling prey to that mentality.)

While acknowledging the outrage of AIG's bonuses, Spitzer focused on the larger outrage: the use of billions in taxpayer dollars to prop up AIG and various counterparties, including Goldman Sachs (which received $12 billion plus of the government's original infusion). He also castigated the media, including CNBC, for failing to ask the tough questions, and the SEC and other relevant government agencies for lacking the will and creativity to do their job. When asked about how he'd handle the legal issue of retrieving AIG 's bonuses, Spitzer referred to tort law and the theory of unjust enrichment--along with other creative ideas--to get justice for taxpayers.

Spitzer took on Wall Street's metastasizing corruption before the meltdown. He defended consumers' and taxpayers' rights. He speaks with passion and clarity about what went wrong and what needs to be done to restore integrity to our system. He is chastened by personal scandal, yet untouched by complicity in Wall Street's public scandals which have obliterated peoples' savings and devastated our country.

Spitzer for Treasury Secretary?

Read the whole thing.

Actually, fuck the Treasury Secretary. Make Spitzer the Wall Street Czar. Give him the power to match his experience and knowledge, to decide who gets nationalized, who goes bankrupt, who pays back bonuses, who has to disgorge profits hidden overseas and who goes directly to jail.

Who better to sort out whores than somebody who knows from whores?

Add Your Voice to Ask the President

President Obama's calling on Huffington Post online reporter Sam Stein at a press conference in February gave activists hope that the reign of the Beltway Villagers over presidential communication might be ripe for toppling. The Nation has a way we can make that happen.

On his first day in office, President Obama pledged to make his administration "the most open and transparent in history." Americans can already see more of their government--from splashy slide shows of Oval Office meetings to newly declassified memos about the executive's wartime powers. Unlike Obama's dynamically interactive campaign, however, WhiteHouse.gov does not foster much meaningful dialogue with citizens. At least not yet.

Obama can go much further to deliver on his promise. He took a small step in February by fielding a question from a Huffington Post reporter at his first press conference. Yet advancing a connected, engaged citizenry requires more than acknowledging the rise of online media. Here is one tradition that Obama could start: invite new and independent voices into the East Room by pledging to take a citizen-generated question at every prime-time press conference.

To put this idea into action--and give the busy White House something tangible to work with--The Nation is teaming up with a broad coalition of new and traditional media, including the Washington Times and the Personal Democracy Forum, to begin gathering questions from you, the public.

You can suggest questions and vote on the questions you'd like President Obama to answer at Ask the President.

After public voting, the coalition will select and send a credentialed journalist to attend the next presidential press conference, ready to choose from the list of the most popular citizen questions. (This journalist would focus only on these questions from citizens and would not reduce the time available for the standing pool of White House reporters.) The precise question will not be announced in advance, though the choices will obviously be public. At the press conference, the journalist can choose from the top questions, prioritizing a topic that is substantive, factual and that has not already been addressed by the president.

This assumes, of course, that President Obama agrees to participate.

The East Room press conferences are among the most exclusive and least democratic public gatherings in American politics; the White House controls who attends and who gets called on. So the coalition is appealing directly to the Obama administration to admit and call on the journalist armed with citizen questions. Obama has repeatedly pledged a more innovative, interactive government. Wide public engagement in "Ask the President"--and strong political support for Obama's participation--can make that pledge a reality.

Read the whole thing, and post your question/video at Ask the President today.

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

Have a White House Garden at Your Place

You don't need a White House staff, expensive equipment or even weed-pulling kids to grow inexpensive, healthy, too-delicious-to-believe organic vegetables in your yard, on your deck or even on a city balcony.

I learned organic gardening and the importance of always having a Victory Garden of veggies from my parents. Thanks to them, I internalized the Depression/World War II value that an expanse of un-productive lawn was evidence of moral laxity and lack of patriotism.

Organic gardening at home means never having to worry about the safety of the spinach you grow yourself. Organic gardening at home re-defines a vine-ripened tomato as one plucked five minutes ago and five feet from your kitchen door. Organic gardening at home means freedom from the over-priced, pesticide-soaked, weeks-old pathetic produce in the grocery store.

So whether you start with a single cherry tomato plant in a pot on your porch, a row of spinach next to the driveway or a trellis of sugar snap peas to snack on right where you grow them, you'll be emulating the First Family in continuing one of this nation's most productive and rewarding traditions.

Get started today.

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