This is an update to a previous story I wrote about potential campaign finance violations on the part of Sen. Bunning, Sen. Williams, and the Republican Party of Kentucky.
I wanted to post for you the relevant federal disclosures Citizens for Bunning filed, combined with the finance report filed by the Republican Party of Kentucky. These reports are not the smoking gun, as they provide only circumstantial evidence of Bunning and the RPK's intent to use the RPK as a pass-through vehicle for donating to Jack Westwood's campaign. These documents do not provide definitive evidence of that intent.
Instead, the point of the last post was that Sen. Bunning's own statements can provide that evidence. Again, here's what he said:
Bunning shot back Tuesday, accusing Williams of failing to repay $30,000 that his campaign provided to help state Sens. Ken Winters, R-Murray, and Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs, retain their seats in the fall election.
Williams "owes me $30,000 and he said he'll repay me," Bunning said. "I was short in my FEC money and he asked me if I would help save two state Senate seats. ... I told him if I did it, I would have to have it replaced at the first of the year. So far, he has not."
These documents [click here for the .pdf] show donations totaling $27,500 from Bunning to the RPK on 10/20/08 and an additional $2,500 to the Kentucky Senate Republican Caucus Campaign Committee for a grand total of $30,000.
Scroll down, and you'll find that two days later--10/22/08--the RPK donated $30,000 to Jack Westwood's campaign.
Transferring money from federal accounts to state party accounts is (unfathomably) not illegal. Transferring that money with the intent that it be disbursed to specific candidates--to "save two Senate seats"--is.
Time to start asking questions. When did this conversation with Senator Williams occur? Who was there? What was said? Was Bunning's statement an accurate representation of the understanding between the parties or did he misremember the conversation?
Maybe some of our full-time journalists/bloggers/AGs can pick up the ball on this... I just don't have the time to call Sen. Bunning's office, Sen. Williams' office, the RPK... Issue subpoenas... Take depositions...
One of the trends the fair housing community has been working to publicize recently is the finding that African-Americans in Louisville are twice as likely as their white counterparts to receive high-cost home loan products. This anomaly persists even after adjusting for income and credit-score. In other words, it appears as though being black is a risk factor for some lenders. (Hint: This is illegal.)
The Fair Housing Coalition hosted a forum a couple weeks ago with speakers from the Kentucky Realtors' Association, the Kentucky Attorney General's Office, the Kentucky Mortgage Bankers' Association, and the Legal Aid Society. (C-J article here. LEO covered it, too.) Many of the other speakers believed the root of this problem was a lack of consumer education and, therefore, the solution was more consumer education.
I happen to believe--because the evidence bears it out--that this trend is more simply explained by looking at the huge amounts of risk-free money mortgage brokers could make by originating loans that were more expensive than the borrower's income or credit score justified. Opportunity to make a bunch of money + (at minimum) implicit prejudices that sees minorities as vulnerable = racially-biased lending practices.
Of course, if consumers were savvier then lenders would be less likely to try and "upsell" borrowers. But, I think relying on that as a solution to this problem is unrealistic. Fact: home loans are complicated. Fact: the Feds have tried to make the transaction more transparent and less confusing. Fact: the number of general ways people are hoodwinked in these transactions is at least two dozen. I think beyond class actions initiated by the Kentucky Attorney General's office, the answer rests not with consumer education, but with smart regulation.
Look: we don't ask people who are buying a toaster to educate themselves about how to buy a safe toaster. We don't ask drivers to know how their airbags work. Instead, we've made the decision as a country that the costs of regulation outweigh the risks involved in exploding toasters and unsafe cars.
I think the current financial crisis counsels the same cost-benefit analysis of our mortgage lending industry. The risks of some of these loan products are too great and consumers deserve protection from them--not by education, but by regulation. Will it make individual home loans more expensive? You bet: just the same as the airbag requirement adds to the cost of a new car. But, foreclosure, predatory lending, and a financial system at the precipice are pretty expensive, too.
UPDATE: The person most personally affected by the potentially illegal behavior described below has weighed in. When the RPK transferred $30,000 toJack Westwood, most of the money went to air negative ads against Westwood's opponent, Kathy Groob. Here's what she says from our Facebook thread:
Yes, absolutely they violated campaign finance laws. We have found the Bunning contribution on 10/20 and a RPK contribution to my opponent, Jack Westwood on 10/22. Based on what Jim Bunning said, this is a pass through that is illegal. It violates KRS 121.150 sections 24 & 12. This was the money that was spent in the final five days of the campaign that smeared my character.
Here's the original post:
Remember last week when Jim Bunning said the Republican Party of Kentucky owed him $30,000? If not, here's a quick refresher:
Bunning shot back Tuesday, accusing Williams of failing to repay $30,000 that his campaign provided to help state Sens. Ken Winters, R-Murray, and Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs, retain their seats in the fall election.
Williams "owes me $30,000 and he said he'll repay me," Bunning said. "I was short in my FEC money and he asked me if I would help save two state Senate seats. ... I told him if I did it, I would have to have it replaced at the first of the year. So far, he has not."
It kind of sounds like Jim Bunning and David Williams had a conversation about helping Winters and Westwood get reelected. One which contemplated Bunning giving money to the Republican Party of Kentucky.
A Federal Election Commission report for Bunning's campaign committee, Citizens for Bunning, shows a $25,000 contribution to the Republican Party of Kentucky on Oct. 20, 2008. Bunning said his political action committee donated an additional $5,000.
Federal elected officials routinely donate money to their state party. That's pretty commonplace. What is not commonplace is having an elected official state that the money was specifically for a certain race. This is less common probably because transferring a bunch of federal money to a state campaign, even especially if it's laundered through a party, is a violation of campaign finance laws.
Contributions from federal candidate committees to state or local candidate committees are subject to state law. 300.62.
Now, admittedly, that's not what happened here. Unless it's exactly what happened here.
On Thursday the 16th of October, the Republican Party of Kentucky made a $30,000 donation to northern Kentucky Republican Jack Westwood, who was locked in a dead-heat with challenger Kathy Groob.
Under Kentucky law, candidates can only receive $1000 from individuals and committees, but can receive unlimited amounts from political parties. Thus, the benefit of routing money through the Republican Party.
If Williams and Bunning had a conversation that made explicit who the contribution was going to, then the donation to the party was a mere pretense designed to circumvent state campaign finance restrictions.
KRS 121.056(3) reads, "No person shall give or conspire to contribute money or property to any other person for the purpose of making a campaign contribution, in violation of this section."
Ruh Roh!
The penalty for violations of the contribution limits is spelled out at 121.990 [pdf]: Any person who knowingly violates any of the provisions of KRS 121.035(2), 121.045, 121.055, 121.150 to 121.230, 121.310(1), or 121.320 shall, for each offense, be guilty of a Class D felony.
Of course, conspiring to violate 121.050 would also be a Class D felony.
Additionally, "The nomination for, or election to, an office of any candidate or slate of candidates who knowingly violates any provision of KRS 121.150 to 121.220...shall be void, and, upon a final judicial determination of guilt the office shall be declared vacant."
Man, if I were David Williams and Jack Westwood, I'd be running away from Bunning's statements as fast as possible!
Winters and Westwood said they don't know what Bunning is talking about.
Williams said Bunning "has no authority, nor do I or anyone else, to designate funds to go to a particular race, and he should know that."
Bunning's statement, alleging a specific conversation occurred between him and David Williams in which Bunning agreed to donate money to the Republican Party to help out Winters and Westwood.
My power to prove or disprove that this was the understanding of two of the two men is limited. I am but a lowly blogger.
However, the Attorney General, Jack Conway, and the U.S. Attorney, Jim Zerhusen, armed with subpoena power and the requirement of testifying under oath have the tools they need to get to the bottom of this.
Last week, a monumental event occurred in Washington D.C. which will forever alter the landscape of Kentucky, politically and economically. President Obama’s Administration announced that federal resources will “not be used to circumvent state laws” regarding marijuana.
In essence, the United States government has yielded jurisdiction over marijuana to the individual states. Each state can now adopt whatever laws it wishes regarding marijuana including its regulation and taxation. Legislation has already been introduced in California to do so.
On this very day, Kentucky stands at a crossroads which I predicted 33 years ago. We have the opportunity to finally gain a huge new source of revenue and direct it toward our budget deficits, education, pensions and retirements.
Simultaneously we can stop enriching the criminal Black Market and finally have a chance of keeping marijuana out of the hands of the kids.
We no longer have to wait for permission to do this. We now have it. The question is, does our Legislature have the leadership and intelligence to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lift Kentucky from unnecessary suffering and poverty.
The Governor should call a Special Session this summer to adopt a tax and regulate plan for marijuana (and hemp as a fuel). I predict that Kentucky would realize at least $400 to $600 Million annually in new tax revenues and cut the cost of health care by another $500 Million because of its benefits as a natural medicine. (Please visit k4mm.org )
The time in Now Folks. If Kentucky acts ahead of its sister states, the new revenue could be astounding.
Contact the Governor and your Legislators today and tell them to become educated on this matter immediately. There is no time to waste. Let us act now.
Weeping on my couch at 7:40 in the morning is not exactly what I expected from my Sunday morning.
Yesterday, I went to a gathering of Women of Vision and Purpose. I went because it was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters and because Colmon Elridge was speaking. I hadn't seen him since the Convention, and I wanted to say, "Hi." The theme was advocacy--what does it mean, how does one be an advocate?
Eleanor Jordan, Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Women, also spoke and both Colmon and Eleanor's thoughts on advocacy revolved around Fannie Lou Hamer's declaration that she was "sick and tired of being sick and tired." Colmon, who is an amazing speaker and for whom I have the highest expectations, believes that advocacy arises out of discomfort. Advocacy is what we do to relieve the dissonance in our minds between what is and what should be.
The barriers to advocacy, then, are two-fold. The first is comfort based on distraction, isolation, or laziness. The second is silence. As Colmon was speaking, weaving powerful personal stories into a broader narrative of advocacy and activism, I began thinking about all the various ways I distracted myself from the challenges we face; all the ways I distanced my consciousness from the suffering of others.
You know the ways: I follow sports too closely, as though they mattered; I prefer computer-animated kid's movies over all other genres; I travel narrowly within my own city to the places where people look like me and talk like me. Yesterday, I made a silent vow to become more open to the world, to seek out opportunities for shared action and work that remains undone.
I've had a realization in recent months. All my life, I had this sense that adults are taking care of things, that I didn't need to worry: experts are handling it. Working in foreclosure and seeing the huge mess that banks and brokers have made of things disillusioned me pretty quickly. That realization--that if you don't, no one will--is critical to overcoming silence.
Speaking up is the second part of advocacy, the fruit of discomfort. Colmon said, "When you find your vision and purpose, who else is going to articulate it? And, how dare we keep silent. People before us have marched, bled, and died. We must speak up."
* * * * *
This morning, I watched FLOW: For Love of Water, a documentary produced by Louisville's own Gill Holland about the local communities' struggles worldwide for control over their own water resources. In explaining the effects of the commodification, globalization, and corporatization of water, the film travels from the U.S. to Lesotho to India, Thailand, South Africa, and Bolivia. It is an incredible film.
If you want to take action, you can begin by signing the petition to add access to clean water as a right under the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Near the end of FLOW, a Siddharaj Dhadda, a 100 year-old Ghandian organizer, is seated on the floor of his house says, "The strategy is very simple. We go to the people and talk to them, make them aware of the dangers ahead. Today, we have all these gadgets, but nothing is more powerful than [taps his feet] footmarch." The screen shows a line of Indians marching through a dusty terrain with the old man's voice, "This, they cannot stop."
And that's when the tears came. As with most tears, there were a lot of different emotions: inspiration, gratitude, awe, and joy. But, a good portion was fear. Fear that I may not be equal to the challenge; that the people are already too divided. Fear that too much damage has already been done. I fear that I, that we, may become overwhelmed by the enormity of our problems and insulate ourselves, distract ourselves. We are so good at it.
As humans, we have survived and evolved these many centuries by seeking to avoid pain, by seeking comfort. Like our ancient ability to change the landscape to suit our needs, this asset to human evolution has turned into a liability. Indeed, the time has come in our history where our very survival depends on being and remaining uncomfortable.
We must not seek out easy refuge. Instead, we must strive as though our lives depended on it to see clearly our suffering and the suffering of our brothers and sisters. In fact, they do.
In Kentucky, a huge mistake is on the way. In the Kentucky House, a bill originated in the Senate cleared committee, a bill which will raze a moratorium on the building of Nuclear Power plants in Kentucky until a way can be found to safely dispose of the waste.
Author's note: I originally posted this on my website, which is why it has some local flavor to it. After writing it, I thought that some of the action items would be applicable at dKos -- thus this diary.)
Interesting inbox today -- I subscribe to a number of email alerts (like, a LOT), so I have to pick and choose which things I pay attention to. Well, today I got a bunch of things worth my attention, and they're worth your attention too. Make the jump -- I've got you a short but worthy to-do list for your weekend:
In a way, this post has nothing to do with politics or changing the world. In another way, it has everything to do with both. Either way, this post serves as my official coming out as an uber-nerd.
I don't want to get too purple about all this, but Getting Things Done by David Allen is a book everyone who wants to do anything should read. I read it last summer and it immediately became one of the most important books I've ever read. Sure, the experience of reading Walden as a young man is irreplaceable. Jitterbug Perfume--amazing. But, of all the books that influenced what I want to accomplish and why, Getting Things Done (in tandem with The Tipping Point) managed to teach me more about the how than almost two decades of institutional education.
The general idea of Getting Things Done (definition, wiki) is that your mind is really good at some things (being creative, finding connections) and not so good at others (remembering stuff you need to do). Ergo, each person needs a system to capture their projects and action items. Once you have a system you can trust completely, your mind is released from remembering and free to plan, create, and do. (Getting Started with GTD...)
Related to this, of course is finding a receptacle to put all of your stuff. Some people use paper and pen, others a PDA. I use OmniFocus to store action items and projects and then print my “to dos” on 3x5 index cards organized by the context (calls, errands, computer) in which I can accomplish various tasks. Then, when I’m on the go and think of something else I need to do, I can just record it for later input into the computer.
The one limitation to OmniFocus is that it is not great for mind-mapping, brainstorming, and flow charting. I’m currently working on a foreclosure project that involves community organizers, housing counselors, pro bono attorneys, banks, and the local courts. The task is immense. Tracking and accounting for all the moving parts is critical for planning purposes, sure. But, insofar as the nebulousness of the plan poses a psychological barrier to achieving buy-in by all stakeholders, the lack of an adequate and presentable planning platform poses a great obstacle to implementation.
Enter XMind—an open-source mind-mapping and planning tool I discovered yesterday. Though I am still experimenting with it, XMind promises to be a very powerful, intuitive way to organize and save your brainstorms. Now, I’m not going to use it for everything—pen and paper will work just fine for 95% of what I work on. But, for that 5% that requires more, I’m stoked to have found XMind.
What tools do you use to organize your mind and work? Are any of you all GTDers?
In the two weeks since we started hibernating at BGR, we've received a lot of great feedback from people all across the Commonwealth about what to do with BGR. People have been very kind with their encouragment and generous with their time.
I've talked with folks about de-politicizing it and making it a 401(c)(4) organization devoted to policy. This may be where we go in the future. I've talked with people about finding patrons to fund a full-time blogger. (If you're reading this while swimming in your money vault, drop us a line.) I've talked with potential writers, and talked with friends about shutting things down.
Though people are divided on what direction to take things, the uniting consensus is that BGR provides a valuable space where Kentuckians of all stripes can gather and share ideas and news. As one email said, "I know we don't see eye to eye on most issues but it would be a damn shame to see BGR die." I totally agree. As of now, users can create diaries again.
The tension in my own life is that while I recognize the need for and value of BGR to the liberal community in Kentucky, I no longer have the ability or, honestly, the desire to blog everyday. This is why I've tried to pass BGR on to others who have shown ability and affection for the site.
I've only had the luxury to blog full-time for four days this last summer at the Democratic National Convention. It was glorious. Now, my work in the foreclosure crisis demands that I be fully present for my clients, making hour-to-hour and day-to-day maintenance of the site impossible. I'm going to try and check in most evenings and promote things as I can and where appropriate.
Going forward, I hope we can attract longer, thoughtful pieces on some of the more pressing issues in the Commonwealth. Rather than focus on the horseraces and speculation, I hope BGR can become a place to discover new ideas, share expertise, and engage in civil discourse about the future of Kentucky.
If you're inclined to contribute a post, drop me a line or just create an account and start writing!
Last year, I handed off BGR to Richard and Taylor. Unfortunately but understandably, both have decided to focus their considerable talents and efforts elsewhere.
Without someone looking over the site day to day, I am putting things "on hold" here at BGR for an indefinite period of time, maybe forever. If you have ideas for BGR going forward, please email me at bluegrassroots [at] gmail [dot] com.
The Kentucky Heritage Council / State Historic Preservation Office has announced a series of meetings and an online survey to solicit public input in identifying goals and strategies for guiding Kentucky's historic preservation efforts. The information will be used to compile the 2009-2014 Kentucky State Historic Preservation Plan, updated every five years as required by the National Park Service and provisions of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act.
The first public meeting will be in Frankfort on Wednesday, February 25, from 2-3:30 p.m. at Paul Sawyier Public Library. (A complete list of meetings planned around the state follows.) The brief online survey is posted at the Heritage Council Web site, www.heritage.ky.gov.
An agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Kentucky Heritage Council maintains updated inventories of historic structures and archaeological sites, nominates sites to the National Register of Historic Places and works in partnership with other state and federal agencies, local communities and interested citizens in statewide preservation efforts. As in years past, the new plan will serve as a statement of public policy that guides statewide preservation initiatives including the work of the Heritage Council, addresses critical issues affecting historic and cultural resources and recommends solutions to minimize threats to resources and barriers to preservation planning.
"We want to encourage broad public participation because this plan is for all Kentuckians, and every person and every community has a stake in understanding and defining preservation goals locally as well as those that drive our agency," said Mark Dennen, Acting Heritage Council Director and State Historic Preservation Officer. "Kentucky is blessed to have abundant historic resources, and preserving this heritage for the future depends on how good a job we do now planning for their survival. This means everything from rehabilitating a downtown building to finding new uses for historic farm and industrial buildings - being creative in putting them to work for Kentucky's economy."
Propublica has a fantastic side-by-side comparison of the original House stimulus bill and the abortion produced by the Senate "compromise."
Short version: to give big corporate welfare "tax cut" handouts to Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Pharma, Big Banks, Wall Street and all the other rich people who have been fucking over the middle class for the last thirty years, the Cowardly Democrats in the Senate agreed to make huge cuts in anything and everything that creates jobs by helping working families, including:
aid to states, health care, education grants, repairing and building schools, repairing and building roads, public transportation, renewable energy research, unemployment insurance, repairing the electric grid, improving water and sewer lines, affordable housing, mortgage relief, expanding broadband access, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.
If you're not so rich that a global economic meltdown won't affect you, then you need to email or call your Congressional representatives right now and tell them to support restoring the House stimulus bill.
You all know about the huge firestorm I have created here recently so I will not rehash any of it. However, some misconceptions about me and the work I have done here have come up that I will not allow to be unanswered. So, follow on and I think you will all get what you want.
We're still trying to get used to the idea of Democratic nominee Barack Obama actually being President of the United States.
To help us get acclimated, the wingnut freakazoids have kindly provided criticism that follows the new GOP Rules for Discussing the President. Steve Benen explains.
DEPT. OF POTS AND KETTLES.... Either the president's conservative critics have very short memories, or they assume we do.
SNIP
The irony is almost overwhelming. A loyal Bushie, who heard his boss spend years engaging in shameless demagoguery (see "clouds, mushroom" and "uranium, from Africa") based on nothing but neocon fantasies, believes presidents have to keep their rhetoric in check and never forget to be "truthful." Sure, Blakeman, tell us another one.
Keep in mind, Obama's dire warnings about the economy are well grounded in reality. It's not "insane" to fear an economic collapse given the situation we're in. The president has a choice -- pretend the news isn't scary, or give honest assessments while vowing to act. Bush preferred the prior approach; Obama prefers the latter.
What's more, have you noticed the bizarre double-standards we've seen emerge in recent weeks?
When Bush uses over-the-top language to convince Americans about perceived security threat, he's being "presidential." When Obama issues dire warnings about the economy, he's being "pessimistic."
When Bush ignores the congressional minority, he's being "principled." When Obama engages the congressional minority but declines to give them what they want, he's being "partisan."
When Bush trashes constitutional norms, it's evidence of "seriousness." When Obama is in the Oval Office without a jacket, he's being "disrespectful to the presidency."
When liberals criticize Bush during a crisis, they're traitors who are aiding and abetting the enemy. When conservatives criticize Obama during a crisis, they are doing their patriotic duty.
This will be our largest day in Frankfort of 2009 focusing on restoring voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.
Kentucky is one of just 2 states that take voting rights away from all former felons and this impacts 186,000 Kentuckians, weakening our democracy and our justice system.
We'll have a rally and will form lobby groups early in the day, including a mix of experienced lobbyists and first-time lobbyists to talk to their Representatives and Senators.
There will also be carpools from most KFTC chapter areas including Lexington and Louisville.
Perhaps the justifiable concern over the salmonella contamination in commercial peanut butter makes this a good time to address the wholly unjustified hysteria over faux allergies to peanuts, especially in children.
As someone who grew up on peanut butter and continues to consume it regularly, I am happy to bring you Salon's thorough debunking of the "peanuts will kill your children!" fear campaign.
In 2005, a 15-year old Canadian teenager named Christina Desforges kissed her boyfriend and died. Her death, reported around the world, was initially blamed on peanuts. Desforges was allergic to peanuts and her boyfriend had eaten peanut-butter toast hours before their deadly smooch.
Sudden death due to an allergic reaction to food is known as anaphylaxis. When you eat peanuts (or some offending food), you break out in hives, your face swells and your larynx constricts until you can no longer breathe, all in a matter of minutes.
Shocking. Tragic. Scary.
Desforges' story is the kind that has moved anxious parents, politicians and school board members to join a crusade against peanuts. Several states have passed laws mandating public schools be "peanut-free zones," and parents now hover over food labels with Draconian vigilance, checking and double-checking them for signs of peanuts. Could that knife that just cut the birthday cake have been in the vicinity of peanut butter?
Peanut-allergy panic has spread across the nation. In a recent essay, Harvard physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis relates an incident in which a peanut was spotted on the floor of a school bus, "whereupon the bus was evacuated and cleaned (I am tempted to say decontaminated), even though it was full of 10 year olds who, unlike 2 year olds, could actually be told not to eat off the floor."
SNIP
But on closer examination, food allergies are not the epidemic we've been led to believe. FAAN's advocacy may have helped to create rules and laws that are based less on sound science than on a significant misrepresentation of facts. Ironically, by accepting these facts, we may be increasing our risk of developing food allergies.
SNIP
Facts ought to be stubborn. In the past, Munoz-Furlong has stated that one child dying from an allergic is too many. But Harvard doctor Christakis, again, puts things into perspective. "There are no doubt thousands of parents who rid their cupboards of peanut butter but not of guns," he writes, comparing the alleged 150 children and adults who died from peanut allergies to the 1,300 who die from gun accidents each year. He goes on to note that 2,000 kids drown each year. Indeed, the most common cause of death in kids is accidents. "More children assuredly die walking or being driven to school each year than die from nut allergies," Christakis writes.
SNIP
And what about Christina Desforges, the young girl who received the kiss from the peanut-contaminated lips of her boyfriend? She suffered from asthma and died of a severe asthma attack, likely triggered by smoke. A coroner reported that on the night she collapsed she had smoked marijuana and spent hours at a party where people were smoking pot and tobacco.
Want an easy way to make freakazoid heads explode? Plus support an outrageously courageous woman providing unique health services to women in dangerous territory?
Dr. Susan Wicklund, whose 2008 book This Common Secret, detailed her life as an abortion provider, has just opened a clinic in Livingston, Montana. Even before it opened on February 2nd, the clinic was being picketed by opponents of abortion rights. In the mail below, Wicklund's co-author, Montana writer Alan Kesselheim, explains how you can turn their protests peacefully against them. (I've pledged $1 per picketer. That puts me in a slightly weird position: Do I hope lots show up so the clinic gets plenty of cash, or few show up so that I can save mine?)
If you want to pledge, e mail Martha_Kauffman@msn.com.
Even if the "Socialism" that so terrifies the wingnut freakazoids had no record of accomplishment in the U.S., my guess is that most Americans, staring into the gaping maw of economic catastrophe, are willing to try anything, no matter what it's called.
Socialism is apparently what is created when a president you do not like spends money on things of which you do not approve.
SNIP
Rather than publish another essay, though there have been some fine ones lately, about just what really happened during America's last episode of so-called socialism, we've opted to go to the visual record. As Marshall Auerback noted, in the process of modernizing the rural South and upgrading the infrastructure of America's largest cities, President Roosevelt's New Deal left behind a durable, physical and very visible legacy of schools and hospitals -- even aircraft carriers. (We'll leave discussion of Social Security and unemployment insurance for another time.) The following slide show gives a small sampling of the bricks-and-mortar achievements of red, white and blue "socialism."
I recently wrote an article on this site defending Daniel Mongiardo as a Senate Primary candidate despite the fact that he does not support Gay Marriage. Now myself, I don't believe in persecution of any minority. When Gay Marriage was on the ballot in Kentucky I was one of the paltry minority that voted IN FAVOR of it. However, I do not believe that just because a candidate is opposed to it, that means they are lining up to lynch gays at every possible opportunity.
Want to demand your House representative or Senators take action, but don't know how to get an email address for them quickly? Rejoice! The Nation brings you the one-click Congress.
Just fill in your zip code, and the site immediately reveals your President, Senators and House Representative, with links to each one's email. You can click on one of The Nation's suggested email topics, like Hold War Criminals Responsible, or compose your own.
Use it tonight to tell Congress to pass the stimulus bill President Obama needs to save the country and the world.
If I have to be the last genuine civil rights liberal left on this website then so be it. But I'm not keeping my keyboard shut and I'm not going to be nice about it.
Refusing to vote for someone whose political positions you disagree with is your right.
Using your power as an elected official to originate, support and promote legislation that strips civil and human rights from your fellow citizens is racist, sexist, homophobic, hateful, vicious, inhuman, inexcusable evil.
Therefore Dan Mongiardo is a racist, sexist, homophobic, hateful, vicious, inhuman, inexcusably evil gay-basher.
Civil rights are never popular. That's why they're called civil rights, not civil gifts.
Democratic voters in Kentucky who support a known homophobic hater on the grounds that most of their neighbors agree with the stupid fucker are no better than the "Democratic" voters who supported racist murderers like Bull Connor on the grounds that southerners would never elect anybody who was in favor of niggers voting.
Speaking of niggers, there are a whole bunch of stupid fucking honkys in this state who are going around whispering that the reason a lot of local Democratic candidates lost election last year is because Democratic voters stayed home rather than vote for anyone on a ticket headed by a Black Man.
You can identify these stupid fucking honkys because they will be first in line with their hands out for the federal dollars that very same Black Man has graciously agreed to give Kentucky to help it clean up from the failed-power catastrophe it brought on itself.
I'm going to start a list. A list of all the people who are supporting known homophobic haters on the grounds that Kentuckians will never vote for somebody who supports gay marriage.
And when this nation elects an openly-gay president, which it is likely to do much, much sooner than the homophobic stupid fuckers think, I am going to send that list to the new president with a request that those people never, ever get a single dime of federal money for anything for any reason.
You know, Daniel Mongiardo is coming under a lot of fire for being a supposed "Gay Basher". Now, this stems from the fact that Daniel Mongiardo opposes gay marriage and civil unions. However, to be a real "Gay Basher", would not one have to believe in the persecution of gays without recourse under the law??
Three years ago, in 2006, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher's "Prayer Breakfast" was an orgy of sectarian bigotry, a greasy "fuck you" to everyone who didn't share the speakers' narrow conservative Southern Baptism, an object lesson in why combining religion and government is history's worst idea.
This year, on the same day that invitations to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's "Prayer Breakfast" landed in state employees' email inboxes, The Economist brings us the latest lesson from President Obama, this one on how to do a "Prayer Breakfast" right, if you must do one at all.
I think the final proof that Barack Obama plans once and for all to elevate respect for Americans who don't practice a religion came at this morning's National Prayer Breakfast:
There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we're going next - and some subscribe to no faith at all...
We know too that whatever our differences, there is one law that binds all great religions together. Jesus told us to "love thy neighbor as thyself." The Torah commands, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." In Islam, there is a hadith that reads "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.
Speaking at the Energy Department, Obama made a fresh plea for the stimulus plan that the Senate is debating. He cited the latest bad economic news of jobless claims as another reason for quick action.
He said: "The time for talk is over, the time for action is now."
He also launched a shot at critics while talking about energy, questioning, "are these folks serious?"
Now, I read the other day that critics of this plan ridiculed our notion that we should use part of the money to modernize the entire fleet of federal vehicles to take advantage of state of the art fuel efficiency. This is what they call pork. You know the truth. It will not only save the government significant money over time, it will not only create manufacturing jobs for folks who are making these cars, it will set a standard for private industry to match. And so when you hear these attacks deriding something of such obvious importance as this, you have to ask yourself -- are these folks serious? Is it any wonder that we haven't had a real energy policy in this country?
For the last few years, I've talked about these issues with Americans from one end of this country to another. And Washington may not be ready to get serious about energy independence, but I am. And so are you. And so are the American people.
During his speech Obama also issued a strong critique of the GOP's economic policies, even though he didn't utter the party's name. He told the audience that:
In the last few days, we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read but you'd be very familiar with because you've been hearing them for the last 10 years, maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems; that government doesn't have a role to play; that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough; that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges -- the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed. They've taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars, and they've brought our economy to a halt. And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about. The American people have rendered their judgment. And now is the time to move forward, not back. Now is the time for action.
There is so much fog and uncertainty -- much of it intentionally injected into the debate -- about the different moving parts of the Stimulus Bill. But some of the broad outlines are arresting and straightforward.
We're hearing all this talk about the staggering size of the bill. And it is a staggering amount of money. But according to Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the amount of demand that the financial crisis is pulling out the economy is likely to be between $1.1 and $1.2 trillion this year (and that is not a controversial estimate). The Stimulus Bill (which, remember, is $800+ billion over two years) would try to compensate for that drop off with about $400 billion of spending and tax cuts. How efficiently the money is spent, how quickly and so forth -- all very good questions. But judged in these terms you start to see how the real question is whether any bill of that size is enough.
David Kurtz and Baker discuss the issue in today's episode of TPMtv.
Jim Newebberry is in Washington, DC today where he and 17 other mayors from across the country will "provide input on a plan President Barack Obama is designing to stimulate the economy and create jobs."
In case you've missed it, two weeks ago Newberry submitted to the federal government a $556,000,000.00 "stimulus" request. According to the Hairy-Liberal:
Criteria for the stimulus includes projects that would quickly create jobs, would improve infrastructure the private sector needs to succeed, would produce lasting economic and environmental benefits and could be a completed within two years.
The day after the inauguration, Newberry hit Capitol Hill to lobby our Congressional delegation on the urgent need for this money. Newberry claims Lexington's slice of the stimulus package could create 9,000 jobs, and would get Lexington's economy moving.
