Crossing the Line

by: Yellow Dog

Tue Jan 06, 2009 at 06:07:54 AM EST

For the iron-stomached, Elmo has the horrific details of what white phosphorous does.

Still not sold on the fact that this is an atrocious act?  Well, put your little brain in the grunt's boots who has to walk up on a mother with her three or four children cuddled in a torturous tangle. The Grunt- he has a wife and three kiddos (13,8 and 3) of his own.  Do you know what the first thought that comes into his head is as he looks at their bodies, charred to the bone in spots, with faces frozen in demonic horror?

He pictures that being HIS family.  Congratulations Mr. Grunt and thank you for serving!  You win a mind-fuck for life!!!

There is not a good excuse for decimating a neighborhood with Willie Pete.  And spare me the using it as concealment crap.  Liars.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Rookie Mistake, or Something Much Worse?

by: rkahne

Mon Jan 05, 2009 at 16:10:51 PM EST

It's no secret that Kelly Flood has found herself under a mountain of criticism in the past couple of days.  Over at Page One, Jake lambasted her for her support of Greg Stumbo, Larry Clark, Bob Damron, and Tommy Thompson.

I'm no fan of any of those people, either (although Larry Clark gave me a t-shirt for canvassing for him in 2004, which I still wear to this day).  I think Jake is correct in identifying all those folks as bigots (maybe a bit harsh, but definitely plausible).  However, I've met Kelly Flood a few times, and I'm not sure she is a hypocrite--it's my opinion that she's just a political neophyte.

I met Kelly Flood for the first time at a College Democrats meeting back in October.  She told us then that she never saw herself running for office because she thought she was too liberal for Kentucky.  She further told us that she was only interested in this seat because it meant she didn't have to compromise while campaigning and that she could be who she was while in the General Assembly without facing significant backlash at the polls.  She seemed genuine at the time.  However, when she went on to talk about what she wanted to do while in the General Assembly, she seemed a little naive.

However, I think she knew that she didn't know too much.  She spoke about the importance of learning--quickly--about how things worked in Frankfort.  She talked to us about how she wanted to make effective change without sacrificing who she was--which sounded pretty noble at the time.

However, I think her identity as a neophyte has been revealed in this exchange.  It was stupid of her to think she could support that leadership and still be considered the "conscious of the House."  I don't know why she supported this leadership, but I am not ready to chalk it up to hypocrisy.  What do you guys think?  Is Kelly Flood really a hypocrite?

Furthermore, I don't know what she needs to do in order to make up for this error.  She's obviously in a tough spot right now, and doesn't really have anyway to solve this immediately.  She can cave on this leadership, which would make her look weak, or she can support these guys and look like a hypocrite.  In my opinion, her best option here is to abstain during leadership votes.  I don't know if that's even a legal option, but if it is, that is my suggested course of action.  Honestly, a new legislator from the 75th LD in Kentucky isn't going to get anything done in her first term, no matter who she is.  Sit this vote out, and fight bigger fights.  Do you guys agree?

I don't know what to think about all this.  It's obviously a messy situation, but I hope it can be cleared for the better.

Kaine as DNC Chair: the Second Coming or the Apocalypse?

by: taylorshelton

Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 22:42:43 PM EST

On Sunday, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was tapped by President-elect Obama to head the Democratic National Committee for the coming four years. This isn't too surprising, given the fact that Barry O has already shown a penchant for nepotism  - if you remember correctly, the biggest thing Kaine had going for him in the VP search was that Obama "liked him". But the biggest issue with Dean's relinquishing of the chairmanship has been whether or not his successor would continue his party-building strategy - not ironically, the impetus for this blog's existence. I personally can't see Kaine - himself the impetus for a blog named after him, which has since renounced his governorship as a failure and shut down- being the second coming of Dr. Dean.

For an anti-choice and anti-gay Southern governor who is actively disliked by the progressive constituents who originally supported his candidacy, Kaine definitely makes an interesting pick. Can we really afford the ideological ambiguity within our party about women's rights and gay rights, two of the cornerstones of our platform? Are Rick Warren and Tim Kaine the image of change that we supported Obama for?

Don't get me wrong, things are certainly going to be different in the next four years - but how different may be another matter.

I Pay Taxes So You Can Afford to Farm

by: Yellow Dog

Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 11:48:58 AM EST

"I Farm, You Eat"

Leave aside the outrageous arrogance of the claim, the condescension toward everyone who does not farm, the fallacy that what most Kentucky farmers grow ends up in Kroger's produce department.

Consider instead how deformed and dysfunctional American agriculture has become in the century since the sentiment on that bumper sticker was literally true.

I come from a long line of small farmers, most of whom toiled long before the advent of federal subsidies and perverse incentives forcing farmers to fall hopelessly in debt and poison their own land to compete.

Corporate agri-business and their congressional and DoA lackeys have done a superb job of fucking over family farmers six ways from Sunday.

Those family farmers need legal, regulatory, scientific and marketing help to survive.*

But the best way to get that help is to make a compelling case for rational, economically and environmentally sound farming.

Snide, contemptuous insults don't help.

*And no, ag-giant apologist Tom Vilsack, DoA Secretary-nominee, ain't gonna do it.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Repug Solution to Budget Crisis: Soak the Middle Class

by: Yellow Dog

Sat Jan 03, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM EST

That is, redistribute the last pennies of the poor and middle class from them to the already too rich.

But some Kentucky repug lawmakers are out, loud and proud about their determination to re-create the feudal economy of the 13th century.

Why the Biggest Obstacle to Fixing the Economy is Religion

by: Yellow Dog

Sat Jan 03, 2009 at 09:55:24 AM EST

Order this copy of Free Inquiry and read the print-only article by Gregory Paul: The Big Religion Questions Finally Solved.

In that article, Paul demonstrates why the relgious must oppose social advancements like progressive taxation, universal health care, strong unions and free public education or else face their own extinction.

Because in every industrialized nation on the planet, low levels of economic disparity, high middle-class economic security and a strong social safety net correlate strongly with widespread secularism.

In other words, the more dysfunctional a society is, the more religious it tends to be.

Analyzing numerous large surveys of world populations, Paul finds:

Is Mitch McConnell Joking??

by: RDemocrat

Fri Jan 02, 2009 at 22:39:14 PM EST

Now he seeks to lecture Democrats, and the American people about the huge mess he himself had a hand in creating??

Crony Capitol -ism

by: Yellow Dog

Fri Jan 02, 2009 at 09:21:30 AM EST

Gov. Steve Beshear's chief of staff, Adam Edelen, is a partner in private business deals with top Frankfort lobbyist Bob Babbage, who represents a long list of clients wanting something from state government.

Edelen and Babbage are partners with Ralph Coldiron - a Beshear appointee at the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security - in Chartwell Land Co., which recently developed and sold a $660,000 home in Bourbon County.

Edelen and Babbage also co-own a new condo unit in downtown Lexington, in the Main & Rose building, which they bought a year ago for $257,100.

On Wednesday, Edelen, 34, said his private deals don't influence his work for the governor, and vice versa, so there is no conflict of interest.

Page One has the practicality rationalization:

If we're being up front, here, everyone who works for the governor has some sort of business or relationship that could be considered questionable or a conflict. But that's how people get their jobs. That's how politics work. It's all about who you know, what you do, where you've been. So that in and of itself shouldn't be used to vilify Adam. This situation should, however, serve as a reminder to everyone working in high-level government that they need to be even more transparent than the law requires to avoid headaches and embarrassment.

The 2008 Rooties

by: Yellow Dog

Thu Jan 01, 2009 at 09:30:14 AM EST

I'm too modest to mention a certain runner-up, except to say that you can call me Keymaster.

50 Wasted Years

by: Yellow Dog

Thu Jan 01, 2009 at 08:59:26 AM EST

If instead of isolating Cuba, Dwight Eisenhower had heard echoes of our own revolution in Fidel Castro's overthrow of the despicable dictator Batista.

If he had said, hey, instead of handing a gift to Krushchev, why don't we try to co-opt this Fidel fella for ourselves?

If in April 1961 JFK had told the Bay-of-Pigs CIA to go fuck itself and made lemonade by cancelling the embargo and making Cuba a trading partner.

If instead of ensuring Cuba became the last, humiliating reminder of our idiotic "Commies? Eeek!" policy we had made Cuba the first example of our "we support popular movements" policy.

Yeah, yeah, Cold War, Mafia, Goldwater, blah, blah, blah.

The truth is that for 50 years, the United States' policy toward Cuba has been that of a 14-year-old boy afraid to strip in the locker room.

Barack Obama won Florida, which should be all the evidence anyone needs that the fanatic anti-Castro old-timers in Miami have lost their political clout.

President-elect Obama can drop trou and cancel the embargo sure that it will goose the economy without political harm.

Sure, too, that finally acting rationally toward Cuba will be a quick, easy, cost-free way to show the world that real Change has come to America.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Rebuilding the 'Roots, or BGR v3.1

by: taylorshelton

Wed Dec 31, 2008 at 07:00:00 AM EST

This, then, is the challenge of our organizations: build a constituency large enough to demand our elected officials not only ask hard questions, but act to answer them, as well...Acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of each of our causes will allow us to begin to define a new politics that recognizes the value of life (human, plant, and animal), asserts the sanctity of the given world, and espouses an economics built on the common sense premise that communities and the people in them matter.

Another Failed Bush Legacy: Worker Safety

by: RDemocrat

Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 14:14:46 PM EST

Welcome the New Year at a Kentucky State Resort Park

by: Yellow Dog

Sun Dec 28, 2008 at 09:29:47 AM EST

You can ring in 2009 at a number of Kentucky State Parks with New Year's celebrations and parties.

Twelve state resort parks across Kentucky are having parties, dances and dinners on Dec. 31 to say goodbye to 2008 and welcome in a new year.  The resorts have lodges, cottages, restaurants and other facilities and all will be offering overnight packages that include meals and a party, dance or show.

Not Too Late to Make A Difference This Year

by: Yellow Dog

Fri Dec 26, 2008 at 17:40:07 PM EST

When a supposed liberal like Nick Kristof falls for the lie, it's gotten out of hand.

We liberals are personally stingy.

Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.

Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, "Who Really Cares," cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.

Celebrate 10 Days of Newton

by: Yellow Dog

Thu Dec 25, 2008 at 07:29:53 AM EST

In the New York Times, Olivia Judson explains the calendrical reasons why Newton needs 10 full days of celebration.

Some years ago, the evolutionist and atheist Richard Dawkins pointed out to me that Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of modern physics and mathematics, and arguably the greatest scientist of all time, was born on Christmas Day, and that therefore Newton's Birthday could be an alternative, if somewhat nerdy, excuse for a winter holiday ...

Yet things are not so simple. It turns out that the date of Newton's birthday is a little contentious. Newton was born in England on Christmas Day 1642 according to the Julian calendar - the calendar in use in England at the time. But by the 1640s, much of the rest of Europe was using the Gregorian calendar (the one in general use today); according to this calendar, Newton was born on Jan. 4, 1643.

Rather than bickering about whether Dec. 25 or Jan. 4 is the better date to observe Newton's Birthday, I think we should embrace the discrepancy and have an extended festival. After all, the festival of Christmas properly continues for a further 12 days, until the feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6. So the festival of Newton could begin on Christmas Day and then continue for an extra 10 days, representing the interval between the calendars.

SNIP

Newton does not seem to have been a pleasant man. He feuded with several of his professional colleagues, most famously Robert Hooke and Gottfried Willhelm Leibniz; he was reclusive and secretive and seems to have formed few lasting friendships. But he was also a genius, and his work laid the foundations of our modern understanding of the world. He is a man to celebrate.

In honor of Newton's Birthday festival, I therefore propose the following song, to be sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." For brevity, I include only the final verse. All together now!

On the tenth day of Newton,
My true love gave to me,
Ten drops of genius,
Nine silver co-oins,
Eight circling planets,
Seven shades of li-ight,
Six counterfeiters,
Cal-Cu-Lus!
Four telescopes,
Three Laws of Motion,
Two awful feuds,
And the discovery of gravity!
Happy Newton, everybody!

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Number 77

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Dec 24, 2008 at 23:00:00 PM EST

Marine Lance Corporal Thomas Reilly Jr., 19, of London, Kentucky, died in Anbar province, Iraq, four days before Christmas, and the day before he became an uncle.

Reilly is remembered in his hometown paper:

The 19-year-old lance corporal - who had considered entering culinary school after his military service - was killed in combat Sunday while serving in Iraq.

Mary King, Reilly's former teacher and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America advisor, said she kept in contact with her former student after he had been deployed to Iraq over the summer.

SNIP

King said Reilly's mother, Georgina Bray of London, was given the news of her son's death at the hospital in Harlan, where her daughter Regina had just given birth.

SNIP

"I had talked to him just a few days ago, and I just had mailed a card on Saturday and I got this news Monday," King said. "He was killed Sunday, 10 p.m. our time."

King said Reilly's mother had signed for him to become a recruit at age 17. Reilly graduated from South Laurel High School in May 2007, and from boot camp last October. He had been stationed in Hawaii and was deployed to Iraq in July.

"That's just what he wanted to do," King said. "He saw that (the Marines) as a place he could excel and be a leader and be someone who could be in charge and move on up in the ranks."

At South Laurel High School, Reilly showed his potential to lead as an office holder in both the local and regional chapters of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, a national organization for students in Family and Consumer Sciences education, formerly known as home economics.

"He took the lead in things like that," King said. "His senior year he was a teacher's aide for me. He was very reliable.

"He was very interested and had a talent in culinary," King added. "He could decorate cakes really well... He was interested in maybe doing a culinary school at some point."

Carol Eicher, a former FCCLA advisor at South Laurel, said Reilly was a wonderful student and that club members had continued to write to him after he was stationed in Iraq. Reilly also came by the high school to say goodbye to teachers and friends before his deployment - something Eicher said he was very proud about.

"He had his dress blues on, and I gave him a big hug and I said 'please be safe,'" Eicher recalled. "...He just looked so handsome."

Earthrise: The Picture That Changed the World

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Dec 24, 2008 at 16:25:22 PM EST

Forty years ago tonight, an American serviceman took a photo from the window of his vehicle.

William Anders could not have imagined what that photo, developed from Kodachrome film and reproduced millions of times around the world, would mean to a billion people devastated by the most violent and destructive year in a quarter-century.

After Tet, and Martin, and Bobby, and Chicago, and Tricky Dick winning, it seemed nothing could rescue our spirits from the '68 Slough of Despond.

Then we saw it.  For the first time in a million years of human existence, four billion years of the planet's existence, creatures from the surface of the earth got to see what our home - our only home - really looked like.

"A Season of Giving; A Sense of Common Purpose"

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Dec 24, 2008 at 14:25:10 PM EST

Take that, Rick Warren!

That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans - that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.

That is the spirit that will guide my Administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.

After all, that is what Americans have always done.

Click here for the video and full text.  

Harnessing the Power

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Dec 24, 2008 at 06:35:21 AM EST

Donations to charity.

This holiday season, the grassroots movement you helped build can make a big difference for those in need.

I hope you will join me in supporting your favorite charity or contributing to causes that are especially meaningful to me and my family.

While many of us will spend the holidays counting our blessings and sharing dinner with loved ones, millions of people around the country won't be so fortunate. Donating to your local food bank will help provide a holiday meal to people in your community who can't afford one.

Talking with the families of deployed troops was one of the most rewarding experiences I had during the campaign. Giving to Operation USO Care Package is a great way to send members of our military stationed around the world a reminder that someone back home is thinking of them.

This is a time to celebrate our blessings, the new year, and a new era for our country. But it's also a time to come together on behalf of those who need our help.

Do what you can to help today by locating your local food bank and giving your support:

http://my.barackobama.com/food...

Or send a care package to an American in uniform:

http://my.barackobama.com/care...

Thank you for all that you do and have a very happy holiday season,

Michelle

Eco-Devo Plays While Frankfort Burns

by: Yellow Dog

Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 18:30:21 PM EST

But it's a luxury, like steak dinners at expensive restaurants.  It's the first thing you cut out of the budget in lean times.

So why is Eco-Devo just now launching what is obviously an extremely expensive glossy magazine aimed at CEOs who these days rather than seeking new opportunites are probably perusing the small print of their life insurance politices for suicide exclusions?

The Kentucky Economic Development Guide will be a vibrant, newsstand-quality magazine that showcases the best of Kentucky through its people, places and progressive business climate. With all new, original photography and editorial features, the 2009 edition will focus on specific areas of business and economic development; education; industrial, commercial and land offerings; sports and recreation; healthcare and quality of life.

How many social workers' jobs would $500,000 save?  How many foster care beds? How many mine safety inspections?

I'm not familiar with the details of Eco-Devo's plan to cut its budget by 4 percent to help the state bridge a $456 million revenue gap, but if this magazine is an example of an essential service that must be saved, I can't imagine what kind of ludicrous, horrifically wasteful crap got cut.

Or didn't.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

Stumbo Bill Seeks to Save Kentucky Horse Industry

by: RDemocrat

Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 16:08:25 PM EST

500 Million Gallons of Coal Slurry in Tennessee

by: taylorshelton

Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 13:17:13 PM EST

cross-posted @ GreenKY:

The Martin County Sludge Spill of 2000 just happened again in Tennessee. According to Dave Cooper of the Mountaintop Removal Roadshow:

On Monday morning Dec. 22 around 1:00 am, the earthen retaining wall around this mountain of coal ash failed and approximately 500 million gallons of nasty black coal ash flowed into tributaries of the Tennessee River - the water supply for Chattanooga TN and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

According to the Nashville Tennesseean, the only major news outlet to even cover this story yet, "cleanup will take at least several weeks, or, in a worst-case scenario, years." - or worse yet, some water resources in the immediate vicinity may remain permanently damanged. What a lovely Christmas present! I'll bet residents are so happy about the coal plant they live under. And I'll spare you the rambling on about it, but just take note that wind turbines and solar panels don't have slurry ponds to erupt and cause irreparable damage to the communities that live downstream. Just a thought.

Those Evil Union Workers Weren't the Problem

by: RDemocrat

Mon Dec 22, 2008 at 21:44:55 PM EST

Celebrate HumanLight Day

by: Yellow Dog

Mon Dec 22, 2008 at 18:18:52 PM EST

Human beings naturally feel the urge to celebrate the time when the shortening days finally begin to lengthen and life returns with the sun.

So call it HumanLight Day: Celebrating Humanity, Reason and Hope.

HumanLight illuminates Humanism's positive secular vision in late December.

In Western societies, late December is a season of good cheer and a time for gatherings of friends and families ...  This tradition of celebrations, however, is grounded in supernatural religious beliefs that many people in modern society cannot accept.

HumanLight presents an alternative reason to celebrate: a Humanist's vision of a good future. It is a future in which all people can identify with each other, behave with the highest moral standards, and work together toward a happy, just and peaceful world.

Is Obama Turning Historic Victory Into Disappointment for Progressives??

by: RDemocrat

Sun Dec 21, 2008 at 20:21:58 PM EST

Backwards Priorities

by: Yellow Dog

Sun Dec 21, 2008 at 08:00:54 AM EST

Franklin County is about to destroy a historic building to satisfy a state program to build giant ugly monuments to our lack of justice.

The church and its adjacent Good Shepherd School sit on Wapping Street in historic downtown Frankfort, just around the corner from the county courthouse that judges and officials say they outgrew long ago. The church, with its distinctive steeple, has been a signature of Frankfort's modest skyline and a keystone building in the historic district near the Kentucky River.

The steeple is depicted in several works of 19th-century artist Paul Sawyier, who lived in Frankfort.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services created a $63,000 job earlier this year for a woman who had dated a key lawmaker who helps oversee the cabinet.

The political appointment was made in June, at a time when many front-line positions that serve the state's most vulnerable citizens remained vacant.

But spending a week crying to the press about having to cut services while adding management layers takes arrogant malfeasance to a new level.

And where are all those downtown Frankfort business owners who bitch and whine nonstop about how nobody visits downtown?  Do they really think yet another concrete eyesore full of accused criminals and their lawyers is more business-friendly than a historic church that draws tourists?

This budget crisis is an opportunity to examine our priorities and figure out what's really important to save and what's even more important to destroy.

Keep the church; dump the deputy.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

"The search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us"

by: Yellow Dog

Sat Dec 20, 2008 at 15:34:15 PM EST

Read the transcript here.

Person of the Quadrennium

by: Yellow Dog

Sat Dec 20, 2008 at 08:13:09 AM EST

Howard "The Scream" Dean electrified the crowd that night. With the state and national Democratic parties flat on their backs after the 2004 electoral defeat, the pugnacious ex-governor was rarin' for a fight.

Make me your national chair, he told the crowd, and I'll rebuild the grassroots state parties that made the Democratic Party dominant for 50 years. I'll support candidates who are proud Democrats, and I'll make sure your voice is heard.

It may take a generation, he warned, but we will rebuild a national party.  No one, not even Dean himself, would have bet a nickel he'd do it - albeit with the help of a once-in-a-century candidate - in just four years.

Ari Berman in The Nation tells how he did it, and why we owe Howard everything.

(More after the jump.)

The Real Katrina Criminals: Vigilantes

by: Yellow Dog

Fri Dec 19, 2008 at 17:42:44 PM EST

A.C. Thompson and The Nation document yet another ignored post-Katrina outrage.

There was criminal violence in New Orleans after Katrina, all right, but it wasn't perpetrated by gang members, looters or the black underclass blamed by even Mayor Ray Nagin.

No, the worst violence, including cold-blooded murder, was committed by white vigilantes, who used the evacuation of poor blacks from flooded areas as an opportunity for some ethnic cleansing.

Over the course of an eighteen-month investigation, I tracked down figures on all sides of the gunfire, speaking with the shooters of Algiers Point, gunshot survivors and those who witnessed the bloodshed. I interviewed police officers, forensic pathologists, firefighters, historians, medical doctors and private citizens, and studied more than 800 autopsies and piles of state death records. What emerged was a disturbing picture of New Orleans in the days after the storm, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed.

Herrington, Collins and Alexander's experience fits into a broader pattern of violence in which, evidence indicates, at least eleven people were shot. In each case the targets were African-American men, while the shooters, it appears, were all white.

The new information should reframe our understanding of the catastrophe. Immediately after the storm, the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs--Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of gang members" were marauding through the Superdome. Now it's clear that some of the most serious crimes committed during that time were the work of gun-toting white males.

So far, their crimes have gone unpunished. No one was ever arrested for shooting Herrington, Alexander and Collins--in fact, there was never an investigation. I found this story repeated over and over during my days in New Orleans. As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime, I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.

SNIP

Some of the gunmen prowling Algiers Point were out to wage a race war, says one woman whose uncle and two cousins joined the cause. A former New Orleanian, this source spoke to me anonymously because she fears her relatives could be prosecuted for their crimes. "My uncle was very excited that it was a free-for-all--white against black--that he could participate in," says the woman. "For him, the opportunity to hunt black people was a joy."

"They didn't want any of the 'ghetto niggers' coming over" from the east side of the river, she says, adding that her relatives viewed African-Americans who wandered into Algiers Point as "fair game." One of her cousins, a young man in his 20s, sent an e-mail to her and several other family members describing his adventures with the militia. He had attached a photo in which he posed next to an African-American man who'd been fatally shot. The tone of the e-mail, she says, was "gleeful"--her cousin was happy that "they were shooting niggers."

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Bye-nary Code: Moving In, Moving On

by: Ben Carter

Fri Dec 19, 2008 at 09:00:00 AM EST

Well, I have been toying around with how to say this for the last half an hour, but can't find the right metaphor, so here goes: Taylor Shelton has agreed to take over administering BlueGrassRoots.  RDemocrat will also administer the site, but Taylor is going to be the "point man."

I, as a reader of BlueGrassRoots, am stoked that these two guys are going to lead BlueGrassRoots.  Taylor and Richard are passionate, dedicated, and articulate voices in the Kentucky blogosphere and I'm excited to see what they will do with BlueGrassRoots and the awesome community of voices we have here. 

In theory, handing over the reins is a big deal, but in reality Richard and Taylor (and Sarah and Yellow Dog and David and...) are already administering the site--promoting content, soliciting readers, telling amazing stories.

As my post-Convention absence might have implied, I'm crazy-busy with being a new lawyer and can no longer do the day-to-day work, much less the long-term building, required to run a blog.  The good news is I am loving the work I am doing and feel blessed to have a job in which I can be of some use to people.  But, the BlueGrassRoots deserves people at the helm who can tend it regularly and who can recruit new voices to this page.  Taylor and Richard are those people.  

So, as my nearly half-decade of blogging comes to a close, let me say that it was a thrill to be a part of the very beginnings of the blogosphere in the Bluegrass.  Though I never expected to be blogging for as long as I did, or that I would learn as much as I have through blogging, I have always believed--and still do--that blogging and online organizing will forever tilt the balance of power towards the people.  Indeed, I think we've begun to see tangible evidence of that in recent elections.

I have made a number of friends through BlueGrassRoots--some of whom I have never met anywhere but in these ones and zeros.  Thank you to everyone who contributes to BlueGrassRoots and helps make this space a successful, welcoming, thoughtful, vibrant place to visit. You are doing important work.

Join me in wishing Taylor and Richard the best of luck in their new roles!  I know you'll agree with me when I say that BGR could not be in four better hands.  As for me, I'll see you in the comment box!