Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "There But for Fortune"

Something parasites like RMoney and his billionaire buddies never consider.

Uploaded by cschoon1213 on Aug 13, 2009

Show me the prison, show me the jail
Show me the prisoner whose face is growin' pale
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
Show me the alley, show me the train
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
there but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
Show me the famine, show me the frail
Eyes with no future, that show how we've failed
And I'll show you the children with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
Show me the country where bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of buildings once so tall
And I'll show you a young land with many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
You and I.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.

Who Doesn't Want Prosperity For All?

Everybody who doesn't sign on to Rep. Keith Ellison's Inclusive Prosperity Act.

Down with Tyranny:

Instead of waiting for Obama and Boehner to cobble together some "Grand Bargain" on November 7, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison decided to give them a headstart with some commonsense legislation that just about everyone in the country-- other than hedge-fund managers and Rush Limbaugh-- would probably embrace. This week Ellison introduced H.R. 6411, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, "to impose a tax on certain trading transactions to strengthen our financial security, expand opportunity, and stop shrinking the middle class." So far there are 8 co-sponsors, John Conyers (D-MI), Bob Filner (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Pete Stark (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Jim McDermott (D-WA), all House Members who put the interests of working families above the interests of the corporate campaign donors who make the wheels in DC-- both sides of the aisle-- go round and round.

Ellison, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, points out that the bill, if passed without tampering by lobbyists, will "raise billions to invest in our economy by taxing highly speculative financial transactions." It would tax the sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives sold by Wall Street firms. The tax imposed will be 0.5 percent on stocks, 0.1 percent on bonds, and 0.005 percent on derivatives or other investments.

He explained that “the American public provided hundreds of billions to bailout Wall Street during the global fiscal crisis yet bore the brunt of the crisis with lost jobs and reduced household wealth. This is a phenomenally wealthy nation, yet our tax and regulatory system allowed the financial titans to amass great riches while impoverishing the systems that enable inclusive prosperity. A financial transaction tax protects our financial markets from speculation and provides the revenue needed to invest in the education, health and communities of the American people.”

The small tax is meant to discourage unsafe speculation and gambling-- rather than real investing-- by Wall Street firms. It would make high frequency trading less profitable, which could reduce the excess speculation on commodities like food and gasoline that has caused their prices to escalate, sometimes irrationally-- and much to the disadvantage of consumers. Almost 30 nations have some form of a financial transaction tax and the U.S. had a similar tax from 1914 until 1966. The UK has had a tax on stock trades for decades-- the same rate proposed in HR 6411-- and their volume of trading has grown robustly. Supporters of a form of financial transactions tax include business leaders such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban, and Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffet.

There is no need for any budget cuts at all - not in defense, not in social programs, not even in subsidies to Big Ag and Big Oil, and sure as hell not in Social Security and Medicare. All the money we need is sitting in the offshore accounts of the parasitic rich, who have been stealing it from the rest of us for thirty years.

It's our money. They stole it. Let's go get it back. 

Rand Paul's Healthcare Solution: "Pay Me Cash"

Of course he offered discounts for cash - that's what back-alley "doctors" without board certification have to do. But I'm confused exactly what kind of "healthier lifestyle" prevents you from hit by a drunk driver, running up millions of dollars in hospital and rehab care, plus millions more in lifetime disability.  Not sure even RMoney has that kind of cash in his pocket.

Sy Mukherjee at Think Progress:

During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) declared, “capitalism has not been tried yet in health care,” and suggested that enrolling more Americans in high-deductible health plans would lower health care costs. 

While addressing the moral imperative to ensure that low-income Americans can afford health insurance, Paul explained that his experience in his own medical practice highlights the wisdom of high-deductible, “consumer-driven” plans, or forgoing insurance altogether and paying in cash:

Capitalism has not been tried yet in health care. Most of health care is government-fixed prices and there’s very little capitalism. In fact, I’m a physician. In my practice, about 3% of my practice was capitalism. Those are people who came in with high deductibles or paid cash. That marketplace worked because we did bid down prices on things that people came in and paid for.

SNIP

Proponents of high-deductible health plans claim that they curb health care costs by providing consumers a market incentive to lead healthier lifestyles. But this “market-based” approach involves massive cost-shifting from hospitals and providers onto consumers, forcing sick Americans to choose between exorbitant out-of-pocket costs and forgoing treatment. Such plans also disproportionately affect those who require ongoing care or have chronic illnesses. 

Watch the video here.

Your junior U.S. Senator, my fellow Kentuckians, for another four fucking years. I hope every one of you motherfucking disappointed Democrats who sat home instead of voting in 2010 are proud of yourselves.

"Recount": Never Forget

I finally watched "Recount" a few hours ago. I'm still shaking with rage.

I avoided it for years because I could barely think about what happened in November and December 2000 without screaming in fury. Watching a movie about it would kill me for sure.

But now my rage is for what it still happening today, and what will most certainly happen again unless we carve deep in our guts with hot brands the lessons of 2000:

• Politics is a fight to the death. Doubt it? Ask the 3,000 people who died in the towers, the 4,200 American troops who died in Iraq and the 2,000 American troops who died in Afghanistan because Al Gore gave up.

• Repugs will steal every single election we let them steal. They fight dirty, and they cannot be stopped with anything less than all-out war.  

• Everyone who is not fighting like a rabid ferret for every single vote is a liability, if not an outright enemy.

•  The law is not our friend. The courts are not our friend. The Constitution is not our friend. The media is not our friend. We have only one friend: the people who vote Democratic. We must cherish them, cultivate them, grow them, protect them. They are the only thing standing between us and chaos.

Never. Fucking. Forget.

Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul Deny Veterans Thousands of Jobs

We've known for a decade now that repugs don't really give a flying fuck about the troops, except for how they can be used as cannon fodder to enrich oil companies and fiscal excuses to enrich contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater.

But yesterday repugs finally abandoned the last shreds of faux patriotism to sacrifice veterans on the altar of denying President Obama the tiniest victory.

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog:

But because there are also Democrats in Congress, Republicans must sometimes confine themselves -- particularly in the Senate -- to blocking legislation written by grown-ups:

Senate Republicans stopped the veterans jobs bill Wednesday by forcing a budget point of order vote.

... Democrats needed 60 votes, but got only 58.

... The Veterans Jobs Corp Act would have created new job-training programs to help veterans find work in targeted fields such as national park conservation, historic preservation projects, police work and firefighting, among others.

Sens. Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) were the only Republicans who voted for the waiver, in a 58-40 vote....

But it's Obama and his fellow Democrats who are insufficiently patriotic, right?

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Here's to the State of Mississippi"

Uploaded by AnarchistOpposition on Sep 12, 2009:

Here's to the state of Mississippi,
For Underheath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
Whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
The calender is lyin' when it reads the present time.
Whoa here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!

Here's to the people of Mississippi
Who say the folks up north, they just don't understand
And they tremble in their shadows at the thunder of the Klan
The sweating of their souls can't wash the blood from off their hands
They smile and shrug their shoulders at the murder of a man
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the schools of Mississippi
Where they're teaching all the children that they don't have to care
All of rudiments of hatred are present everywhere
And every single classroom is a factory of despair
There's nobody learning such a foreign word as fair
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Here's to the cops of Mississippi
They're chewing their tobacco as they lock the prison door
Their bellies bounce inside them as they knock you to the floor
No they don't like taking prisoners in their private little war
Behind their broken badges there are murderers and more
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And, here's to the judges of Mississippi
Who wear the robe of honor as they crawl into the court
They're guarding all the bastions with their phony legal fort
Oh, justice is a stranger when the prisoners report
When the black man stands accused the trial is always short
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the government of Mississippi
In the swamp of their bureaucracy they're always bogging down
And criminals are posing as the mayors of the towns
They're hoping that no one sees the sights and hears the sounds
And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the laws of Mississippi
Congressmen will gather in a circus of delay
While the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
Unwed mothers should be sterilized, I've even heard them say
Yes, corruption can be classic in the Mississippi way
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the churches of Mississippi
Where the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust
And the Sunday morning sermons pander to their lust
The fallen face of Jesus is choking in the dust
Heaven only knows in which God they can trust
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

More Drug War Stupidity in Lexington

No, there's no pot decriminalization or medical marijuana legalization on Kentucky's November ballot. We're still wasting scarce police and court resources confiscating bongs.

Josh Kegley at the Herald:

One month after narcotics officers raided The Botany Bay, a smoke shop on Winchester Road, police have not filed the search warrant that led them to issue criminal charges and seize thousands of dollars worth of items.

The absence of the warrant, which typically become public record when criminal charges are filed, has fueled statements from friends and colleagues of store owner Ginny Saville that the Aug. 20 search and seizure was unjustified.

For those of you in non-tobacco states, a '"smoke shop" is not what you think it is. It's a store that specializes in tobacco products - cigarettes, cigars, snuff, loose tobacco - and paraphernalia like rolling papers and pipes.

That some tobacco paraphernalia has a coincidental dual use for non-tobacco vegetation is a long-standing burr under police saddles and an unconstitutional excuse to bust dirty fucking hippies for being dirty fucking hippies.

Saville's case could be among the first to test the constitutionality of a new state law banning entire classifications of synthetic drugs. Her attorney said the substance being sold at Botany Bay was not specifically listed in the Kentucky Revised Statutes as a "synthetic cannabinoid," an ingredient which mimics the effects of marijuana.

Instead, the store was busted based on a "catch-all phrase" included in the statute, Richardson said. The phrase bans "any other synthetic cannabinoid or piperazine which is not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration" or sold within the guidelines of federal laws.

Richardson said the addition is unconstitutional because retailers can't always know if a substance they're selling qualifies. He said The Botany Bay independently had the substance tested in a laboratory and deemed it legal.

Funny how the multi-billion-dollar drug war is never on the list of stupid, expensive, counter-productive government programs that should be scrapped to reduce the deficit.

Also, notice the political sign in the Botany Bay's front window in this photo.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/19/2343172/owners-of-store-raided-in-august.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/19/2343172/owners-of-store-raided-in-august.html#storylink=cpy

Big Coal's Leash on Lil' Guv Beshear

Big Coal has owned Kentucky's politicians for more than a century, and everybody knows it. Big Coal doesn't even have to say "jump!" because whoever is governor already knows how high. Hardly anybody even bothers to object, much less fight it.

Except Ron Mills, who is either the bravest man in the Commonwealth, or the dumbest.

John Cheves at the Herald:

A judge on Tuesday postponed, for the third time, a trial that centers on the extent of the coal industry's political influence in Gov. Steve Beshear's administration.

A wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Ron Mills, who was fired in 2009 as Beshear's director of mine permits, was scheduled to start trial Monday in Franklin Circuit Court. 

SNIP

In his suit, Mills says he was fired by Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters because he refused to sign five illegal mine permits sought by Alliance Coal of Tulsa, Okla., covering 55,000 acres in Western Kentucky.

Mills probably is the first state employee to be fired for refusing to break the law at Big Coal's bidding, but not because he's the first to be ordered to do so.  He's just the first to refuse. For decades, everybody else has just swallowed their ethics, signed the papers and cashed their paychecks.

Back in the Brown administration in the early '80s, the state's strip mine inspectors cursed a blue streak when Brown appointees returned six-figure performance bonds to coal operators who claimed to have "reclaimed" mine sites that they had actually left bare and sterile as moonscapes.  Those sites later became "abandoned" mine sites and burdens on the taxpayer while the coal operators skated with their profits.

But those inspectors kept their complaints in house. Ron Mills went public after he was fired. The Beshear administration has been fighting this one tooth and nail for three years, and it will do whatever it takes to stop Ron Mills.

Because Kentucky politicians do what Big Coal orders them to do. Always.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/18/2341822/trial-delayed-again-in-case-that.html#storylink=cpy

The Fault, Dear Repugs, Is Not in Your Candidate, But in Yourselves

Because until the analpundits of the Beltway acknowledge that, and force repugs to face it, every defeat will just further enrage them and fuel their madness.

 

Steve M. at No More Mister Niceblog:

Romney isn't a particularly skilled politician, and his campaign is making a lot of mistakes. But in the event of a Romney loss, I fear we'll forget that he has a lousy message. He wants to cut taxes on the wealthy. He wants to gut programs like Medicare and Social Security. On social issues, he embraces the far right. On foreign policy, he wants to be another Bush. Pundits, please: don't forget that this is an important part of why he's losing. The Obama campaign has framed him as a heartless bastard and another George W. Bush because that's an accurate summation of his own stated stands on issues.

The country may be rejecting Romney personally, and it may be rejecting his campaign, but it's also rejecting Republicanism.

A failure to acknowledge that means the Beltway will be eager to give Republicans another do-over in 2014, just the way they got one in 2010 after Bush crashed and burned, and just the way they got one in 2000 after Newt Gingrich's fall from grace. We can't let that happen again.

How Voter Fraud Works

Dave Brockington at Lawyers, Guns and Money gets to the real question nobody ever asks:

... they never question just why in hell somebody would fraudulently vote.  As a student of voter behavior in general with a sub specialty in turnout, I can list at length how the costs associated with voting far outweigh whatever tangible benefits one might accrue.  One has to navigate registration, polling locations, the hours the poling location is open, let alone being in possession of both the internal and external efficacy such that you’re confident in your decision, and that decision will make one iota of difference.  As one who studies and teaches this, it’s amazing to me that so many do vote to begin with.

Why bother to do it twice?  If one is unemployed and has nothing to do with their day, perhaps $20, $50, $100 will get me onto a bus from Chicago (and we all know what type of person lives in Chicago) for a day out up to Wisconsin.  Then you have to ask, for whom is it worth to spend that much money.  The sheer number of fraudulent votes necessary to tip an election such as the Wisconsin recall is not one here, another there, a busload up yonder.  It would have taken 171,106 votes added to the Democratic tally to swing it — to a recount.  Best add another 50,000 to ensure a recount doesn’t happen, as we wouldn’t want this fraud coming to light.  That’s 220,000 voters.  At $20 per fraudulent voter, “labor” costs alone are $4,400,000.  If it costs $100 for a person to give up their day, break the law, and experience both Wisconsin and the interstates, a cool $22,000,000 is required to replace a Republican with a Democrat in Wisconsin.

Then there’s transport.  It would require 2,445 sorties of a Blue Bird All American school bus to transport our wave of nefarious democracy from Chicago to Wisconsin, if packed to their capacity of 90.  I have no idea what it costs to rent, fuel, and provide a driver for one of these, but this cost is not insubstantial.  And don’t forget lunch; in the classic tradition of GOTV, we should feed our anti-democratic legions.

Let’s review.  We need a population of 220,000 people willing to give up their day, knowingly commit a crime, for some modest financial remuneration.  We require the infrastructure to transport them.  And food.

Basically, we need a hell of a lot of money to pull this off.

 It's not that in-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare; it's that it's Just. Fucking. Impossible.

And yet this utter fantasy, as ridiculous as pigs flying, is the solemnly-accepted excuse for disenfranching millions of American citizens.

And the insidious part is that, as Brockington says, we'll never know what actual effect massive voter suppression has on the election. 

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Killing in the Name"

Uploaded by tachpense on Dec 23, 2009

Kentucky Behind the Curve Still on Energy

For decades, since the advent of nuclear power, Kentucky has outlawed nuclear power generating plants on its soil.

Not because Kentucky was skeptical about the safety of nuclear power. Not because Kentucky foresaw catastrophes like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and Fukushima.

But because Kentucky feared the competition nuclear power would present to the Commonwealth's corporate overlord: Big Coal.

Back in May, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear took a tiny step toward opening the door to nuclear-related industry - 15 months after the Fukushima catastrophe signed nuclear energy's death warrant.

Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars on Monday:

This may not happen, since the country may change political leadership, but it's certainly a milestone:

TOKYO — Japan said Friday that it would seek to phase out nuclear power by 2040 — a historic shift for a country that has long staked its future on such energy, but one that falls far short of the decisive steps the government had promised in the wake of the world’s second-largest nuclear plant disaster last year.

SNIP

The announcement comes after months of increasing anxiety and intense political pressure from those on both sides of the debate who believe Japan’s future is at stake. Many political and business leaders argue that shutting nuclear plants would doom the resource-poor country to high energy costs and a deeper economic malaise. But many Japanese, while acknowledging the economic upheaval it could cause, have expressed hope that the country will phase out nuclear energy within two decades and a nascent, but increasingly vocal antinuclear movement has pressed for even faster action.

From Governor Beshear, in May:

Governor Steve Beshear today held a ceremonial bill signing of House Bill 559, legislation that clarifies the types of nuclear-based technologies that can be developed and used in the Commonwealth.

The legislation, sponsored by House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins, of Sandy Hook, allows nuclear-related industries to exist in Kentucky as long as electricity generation is not the primary output of their processes.

“This legislation is an important step toward developing industries that will give western Kentucky potentially significant employment opportunities,” Gov. Beshear said. “While I have been assured through efforts of our congressional delegation that the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant will continue its work for some time to come, I believe this legislation allows us to plan for the future in such a way to ensure there will not only be job stability at that facility, but also added employment opportunities as well.”

HB 559 allows industry development for such nuclear-based technologies as nuclear-assisted coal or gas conversion where electricity is not the primary output; re-enrichment of depleted nuclear tails; recycling or reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels; and the processing of metals contaminated with radioactive materials.

 Kentucky: Where corrupt, outmoded, lethal, globally-destructive energy technologies will always find a welcome. 

Voter Suppression in Kentucky

Voter suppression in ky has been flying under the radar for several reasons: our voter id law is pretty lax compared to others, the presidential race isn't competitive and we have no senate race.

 

But KY is still disenfranchising 250,000 citizens - more than one in five African-Americans. Twenty percent.

 

Aura Bogado and Meta Mendel-Reyes at The Nation: 

Kentucky is one state that makes it nearly impossible for former felons to vote, and a grassroots group there has been challenging this form of disenfranchisement. If the numbers nationwide are dismal, it’s even worse in Kentucky, where nearly a quarter million people have lost their right to cast a ballot.

Meet Meta Mendel-Reyes. She’s on the Steering Committee of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a statewide, grassroots social justice organization that seeks to restore the right of former felons to vote. She explains that former felons who have already served their time are subjected to an onerous process to attempt to get their voting rights restored—but even that process doesn’t guarantee they’ll be able to cast a ballot.
—Aura Bogado

Go to Jail, Lose Your Vote

Rev. Damon Horton wasn’t always a minister. More than a decade ago, he was a gang member, and a dealer who was arrested in 2003 and 2004 for drug trafficking. He was convicted and sentenced to twelve years in prison. While Horton was incarcerated, he felt the call to the ministry. After completing 20 percent of his sentence, he was released on parole in 2006. Soon after, he married, started a family and became a minister. Yet despite turning his life around, there is one act of citizenship closed to him: he is not allowed to vote. “I can pay taxes again,” Horton says, “but I can’t vote or have a real voice in the government.”

And Horton is not alone. More than one in five African-Americans in Kentucky can’t vote because they have been convicted of a felony. In most states, after people have served their time, they are given their voting rights back. Not in Kentucky, where more than 243,000 residents have lost the right to participate in democracy.

Under the state constitution, former felons have to petition the governor in order to have their rights restored. It’s a tricky process that takes time and doesn’t guarantee a result, partly because each governor sets up his or her own procedure during his or her tenure.

The ridiculous and duplicative paperwork current Governor Beshear requires is bad enough, but the power given to the local Commonwealth Attorney means that getting your rights back takes between 60 days and never.

Making the process even more complicated is the fact that many elections officials and corrections staff don’t know the process themselves. According to Dave Newton, KFTC organizer, “Many former felons don’t even realize that they can get their voting rights back.”
SNIP
Kentucky effectively targets African-Americans, other people of color and low-income folks who will be unable to cast a ballot because of a past conviction for which they have already served their time. With an upcoming election that threatens to disenfranchise people through voter ID laws, let’s not forget the millions of former felons who have already been kept from voting.

At a rally early this year for House Bill 70, which would restore voting rights to felons who have served their time, I heard several people tell of youthful non-violent drug offenses that led to a lifetime as a non-citizen because they were coerced into pleading to a felony, but never told it meant they lost the right to vote forever. Some of them were white, but that doesn't make disenfranchisement any less racist.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Bulls on Parade"

Uploaded by ajw1212 on Nov 5, 2006

Denying Medication = Death by Torture

Denying life-saving medication to jail inmates is a long-standing problem at the Jefferson County jail in Louisville. The lethal policy appears to have spread east to Lexington.

Valerie Honeycutt-Spears at the Herald:

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said on Monday that he has ruled the death of a Fayette County jail inmate an accident.

Jeffrey McKinney, who was serving a 10-day sentence for driving under the influence of alcohol, was pronounced dead about 45 minutes after jail officials tried to subdue him on May 22 for "combative behavior."

Ginn's comments provided more information about McKinney's case. Earlier this month, his family had asked investigators for more information, but said they had been shut out.

McKinney, 37, had a seizure during the struggle with jail staff. He choked on his vomit and died of asphyxiation, Ginn said.

SNIP

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/17/2340652/coroner-says-fayette-inmates-death.html#storylink=cpy

When McKinney first began serving his sentence, he told family members he wasn't being given his antiseizure medication.

McKinney was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 19 and had suffered a head injury in an ATV accident in 2006, family members said.

The family has said McKinney could be disoriented and rebellious following a seizure.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/17/2340652/coroner-says-fayette-inmates-death.html#storylink=cpy

McKinney, who is white, apparently was considered by Lexington jail officials to be a member of the torturable class.

If only there were a way to get the Jaime Dimons and the Dick Cheneys and the David Kochs of this world classified the same way.

Thomas Massie Is A Coward

To be honest, if I were the repug nominee in deep-red Nobama Northern Kentucky with the backing of a teenaged Texan billionaire, I wouldn't risk my likely landslide in a debate, either.

That doesn't mean Thomas Massie isn't a sniveling, weak-ass, limp-dicked coward.

From the campaign of Democratic nominee Bill Adkins:

Massie afraid to debate, hides from local voters

Arrogant and dismissive of Kentucky voters,
Massie visits Washington while refusing 15 traditional
Kentucky debates and public forums

Tom Massie has turned down invitations from twelve organizations that have traditionally held candidate forums and debates for Congressional races, refusing 15 invitations in total, including one from his own Tea Party.

“Tom Massie is doing a great disservice to the voters of Kentucky by refusing to have an open discussion on important issues like jobs and Medicare,” says Adkins. “If he can’t face the people of our district and answer the tough questions, he isn’t fit to serve in Congress.”

Multiple independent civic organizations and insitutions, including Northern Kentucky University, have invited both Bill Adkins and Thomas Massie to participate in candidate forums and debates. Bill Adkins has accepted every invitation and Thomas Massie has turned down every event:

NKY Chamber of Commerce	REFUSED
Oldham County Bipartisan Debate	REFUSED
Kentucky Education Assoc. Candidate Night	REFUSED
Nat’l. Federation of Retired Employees	REFUSED
Northern Kentucky University Forum	REFUSED
Lewis County Chamber of Commerce	REFUSED
CN|2 Politics Televised Debate	WILL CHECK SCHEDULE
Alexandria Town Hall	CANCELLED
Campbell County Congressional Forum	REFUSED
Shelby County Farm Bureau	REFUSED
Kentucky Retired Teachers Association	REFUSED
Harrison County Tea Party Debate	REFUSED
Kentucky Corn Growers Association	NO RESPONSE
NAACP Candidate Forum – Shelby County	NO RESPONSE
Grant County Chamber of Commerce Forum	NO RESPONSE

Leaders of both Democratic and Republican parties have attempted to schedule bipartisan debates, but have been told no by the Massie campaign.

“Mr. Massie is acting like he already has the job,” said Oldham County Democratic Party Chair, John Sutton. “In an open seat, the people living in the district don’t really know much about either candidate. Mr. Massie received less than 50% of the vote within his own party where there was less than 12% turnout in the entire state. We expect at least 300,000 people to vote in this race and the public deserves a chance to get to know these two men, and more importantly, where they stand on the issues,” added Sutton.

“When there is an open seat, there has never been a precedent for refusing to participate in live debates in the largest economic region of the district, Northern Kentucky. Both the Chamber of Commerce and Northern Kentucky University have traditionally held live debates and Mr. Massie has refused to participate in either of these traditions,” says Campbell County Democratic Party Chairman Paul Whalen.

“It is a shame for the voters of the 4th District that one of the candidates in this open seat doesn’t see the importance of involving the voters in this race. Tom Massie’s behavior indicates that the people of the district do not matter to him,” says Whalen.

Find out more about Bill Adkins here.

Occupy Lives

One year, 10 years, 100 years: it changed the conversation forever.

William Rivers Pitt at Truthout:

Because an idea never dies, because this idea is not dead, because Occupy lives on all across America and all across the world. Occupy lives in every American city and in every national capitol on the planet. Occupy continues to fight against the greed and violence of the powerful. Occupy continues to fight against those who are murdering our world with pollution and the profit motive. Occupy continues to fight unfair foreclosures and evictions, to stand with Labor and the rights of workers, to push back against the perpetual wars that suck the life out of everything and everyone. Occupy continues to stand in England, in Canada, in Mexico, in Chile, in Greece, in Spain, in Russia, in India, and in so many other places besides; in every place where there are people, there is Occupy.

Occupy continues.

Read the whole thing.

Happy 225th, U.S. Constitution

It remains what it has always been:  misunderstood, misrepresented, misused - and the only thing standing between us and chaos.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.  

Full original transcript here.

Background here.

Teaching resources here.

And the one book you must read to have any understanding of how our constitution and our nation came to be, the history book that reads like a thriller.

Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Two Good Men"

Jim Hightower:

In these times of tinkle-down economics — with the money powers thinking that they’re the top dogs and that the rest of us are just a bunch of fire hydrants — we need for the hard-hitting (yet uplifting) musical stories, social commentaries and inspired lyrical populism of Woody Guthrie. This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of this legendary grassroots troubadour, who came out of the Oklahoma dust bowl to rally America’s “just plain folks” to fight back against the elites who were knocking them down.

SNIP

Going down those "ribbons of highway" that he extolled in "This Land Is Your Land," Guthrie found that the only real hope of fairness and justice was in the people themselves: "When you bum around for a year or two and look at all the folks that's down and out, busted, disgusted (but can still be trusted), you wish that somehow or other they could ... pitch in and build this country back up again." He concluded, "There is just one way to save yourself, and that's to get together and work and fight for everybody."

And, indeed, that's exactly what grassroots people are doing all across our country today. From Occupy Wall Street to the ongoing Wisconsin uprising, from battles against the Keystone XL Pipeline to the successful local and state campaigns to repeal the Supreme Court's atrocious Citizens United edict, people are adding their own verses to Woody's musical refrain: "I ain't a-gonna be treated this a-way."

Where's Woody when we need him? He's right there, inside each of us.

Uploaded by Thespadecaller on Mar 18, 2008

Throughout his career, Woody Guthrie experimented with various lyrical and musical styles. However, his best work invariably came from writing and singing about the causes and the people that he felt closest to: the workers, the unions, the poor dust bowl farmers, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. The album, Hard Travelin' includes this song, "Two Good Men" --about Sacco and Vanzetti, two immigrants executed for murder after an indictment and a trial that was inspired by politics and greed. The story of Sacco and Vanzetti still carries an ominous message. For those Americans concerned about the erosion of workers rights, the suspension of Habeas Corpus, the abandonment of the Geneva Conventions, unwarranted surveillance, and the imprisonment of alleged criminals without the right to a fair and speedy trial, the story of Sacco and Vanzetti should remain an ever-present reminder of our perilous times.

Reprieve for Old-Growth Forest in Kentucky

You'd think being part of a National Forest automatically protects all parts of that forest from commercial exploitation, but that's not how it works.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

Officials have canceled a proposal for commercial logging in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Rockcastle County that had caused concern about the potential impact on a pristine spring and trees hundreds of years old.

An official with the U.S. Forest Service confirmed the decision to the Herald-Leader and Kentucky Heartwood, a forest education and advocacy group which was against the plan.

The problem is that the U.S. Forest Service's primary official purpose is to "manage" America's forest "resources." If clear-cutting one of the last old-growth stands east of the Mississippi is more cost-effective than leaving it for future generations to enjoy and appreciate, then tough shit, you commie tree-lovers.

Scheff said he has documented trees more than 250 years old in the Little Egypt area. One, a shortleaf pine more than 300 years old, is the second-oldest known tree of its species in the Eastern United States, he said.

There also was particular concern that the logging and herbicide use could damage Climax Spring, one of the state's largest continuously flowing underground springs.

A local company bottles the high-quality water, and hundreds use the spring to get their drinking water.

Ah, that explains it.  Somebody is making money off this "natural resource" in its pristine condition.  Otherwise, that forest would already be sawdust.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/16/2339746/daniel-boone-national-forest-logging.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/16/2339746/daniel-boone-national-forest-logging.html#storylink=cpy