Warning! campaign material from a Democrat--

* I don't often do this, but I really liked this fund-raising letter that I received from the Elizabeth Warren campaign for the US Senate (MA), and I thought it would be a good share on its own:

When I was a little girl, I learned about my family's heritage the same way everyone else does -- from my parents and grandparents. My mother, grandmother, and aunts were open about my family's Native American heritage, and I never had any reason to doubt them. What kid asks their grandparents for legal documentation to go along with their family stories? What kid asks their mother for proof in how she describes herself? My heritage is a part of who I am -- and I am proud of it. But that's not good enough for Scott Brown and the Republican Party. For several weeks now, they have orchestrated an attack against my family, my job qualifications, and my character. Earlier today, Scott Brown even questioned the honesty of my parents -- even though they are not fair game and are not here to defend themselves. Scott Brown wants me to give up my family and forget where I came from. I'm not doing that -- not for politics and not for anything else. I'll hold on to every memory I can. My family is part of who I am, and they will be part of who I am until I die. Despite evidence to the contrary, Scott Brown also claims I got special breaks because of my background. That's not true, and I need your help to fight back: The people involved in recruiting and hiring me for my teaching jobs, including Harvard professor Charles Fried -- the solicitor-general under Ronald Reagan and a Scott Brown voter in 2010 -- have said unequivocally they were not aware of my heritage and that it played no role in my hiring. I did not benefit from my heritage when applying to college or law school, and documents reporters have examined prove it. I let people know about my Native American heritage in a national directory of law school personnel. At some point after they hired me, I also provided that information to the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. I decided to run for the U.S. Senate because the middle class in this country has been hacked at and hammered at and because Washington doesn't get it. Scott Brown has a very different vision about who we are as a people, and he votes to make sure the levers of power in Washington continue to work for the big, the powerful and the wealthy. If everyone in Massachusetts knew where Scott Brown stands on the important issues, voters wouldn't give him a second term in the U.S. Senate. You know that, I know that, and he knows that, too. That's why he has worked so hard to make this campaign about anything else -- even my heritage. It's why his campaign spends so little time on what Massachusetts voters are really concerned about. On Election Day, we will prevail because our vision is clearer and our ideas are stronger. We are focused on the issues important to middle class families, and our grassroots team will make sure everyone knows about those issues. I need your help to keep fighting the smears, spread the truth, and help us organize to win. Thank you for being a part of this, Elizabeth

My Place, My Rules: the Walker Recall in Wisconsin

update: 6/5/12--if you have a Cousin Bob or an Aunt Ethel in Wisconsin, be sure to remind them to vote today in the recall election. Walker leads in polls but Barrett is closing late (w/ a little help from Bill Clinton).

* * * * *

this first quote comes from Brian K, a regular reader and commenter (and a friend of mine, full disclosure), who was responding to my recent post about Patty Duke (not really--but it's the one w/ Cousins in the title).

Brian K May 30, 2012 9:26 PM

Good call, Eric on the lack of tolerance for a dissenting opinion. The 'news' talk shows tend to yell down opinions as part of their format, but the biggest damage done to free speech is the right’s assault on questioning war policy as not patriotic and the left’s stifling charges of racism if someone has a politically incorrect opinion. You scream “racist” or “commie” and you don’t have to win the debate with better ideas, you just shut the debate down with a perceived higher moral ground. We need to stop acknowledging that perception. 

I'm not sure if Brian K would connect his comments to this piece by E.J. Dionne on the Walker recall, but it's what came to mind, as both make the point about a disingenuous approach to discourse and debate in contemporary politics. Dionne, below in an excerpt from the linked piece I've included above from The Washington Post, identifies quite clearly, I believe, how modern conservatism has been bastardized into something else and what these implications are, not just for Wisconsin next Tuesday, but for all of us, esp this November.

Walker is being challenged not because he pursued conservative policies but because Wisconsin has become the most glaring example of a new and genuinely alarming approach to politics on the right. It seeks to use incumbency to alter the rules and tilt the legal and electoral playing field decisively toward the interests of those in power.

The most obvious way of gaming the system is to keep your opponents from voting in the next election. Rigging the electorate is a surefire way of holding on to office. That is exactly what has happened in state after state — Wisconsin is one of them — where GOP legislatures passed new laws on voter identification and registration. They are plainly aimed at making it much more difficult for poorer, younger and minority voters to get or stay on the voter rolls and to cast ballots when Election Day comes. 

Like most things, how we got here has taken time. And we've had contentious, salacious politics since way back when. But it just feels different now; Paul Krugman in his book The Conscience of a Liberal posits that it's during times of extreme income inequality, much like today, that we are our most partisan, citing the relative overlap of Republicans and Democrats in the '50s, which also happens to be the peak of middle-class economic prosperity. Obstructionism is just a way of doing business nowadays and there is very little that either "side" can agree on, and the Scott Walkers and the John Boehners and the whole Grover Norquist crowd are doing something to our democracy that is shameful and yet amazing because work-a-day folks still support them, even as many Republican politics and policies are detrimental to the lives of these same supporters.


Are you a Republican and need a ride to the polls? Hop in, we have room. With many of the far right driving today, not only will they zoom past you, they might just try to run you over.

* * * * *
note that I've taken liberals, Democrats, and President Obama to task many times recently, so I'm not just a cheerleader for my team. But things like voter disenfranchisement does seem particular to today's Republican party.   

Cousins, Identical Cousins--Obama and Romney?!

Only 43% of Dems & 41% GOP believe "anti-American speech" should be protected under free speech laws http://is.gd/cjeX9r (via @MicahZenko)

(from Glenn Greenwald)

 uh, interesting. Less than half of Americans don't believe in one of our First Amendment rights.And not much difference between folks who identify w/ either of the major parties. I need to write more about this but I'm nearly speechless right now . . .

[it's the same mindset as those who are OK w/ illegal search and seizure--"if you're not hiding anything, then why should you care?" Have we had these rights so long that we have gotten complacent? Have we've been indoctrinated by Fox News, et al? At what point did the majority of Americans take a position that dissent was bad? Maybe it's always been that way, but I wonder about the specific numbers--definitely seems like we're trending conservative, yes? Now, having written that--shouldn't conservatives in particular want to protect Free Speech and the like?]

* * * * *

Ezra Klein on dead skunks (not really--it's a piece on the economy since 2008, and both parties get called out--good read):
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-reality-behind-obama-and-bushs-spending-binge/2012/05/25/gJQAK8ItpU_blog.html

* * * * *

"Ignore what the candidates say they'll do differently on foreign policy. They're basically the same man"--caught my attention. A piece by Aaron David Miller on Foreign Policy: "Barack O'Romney."

(the first suggestion by Miller--Obama names Romney his Secretary of State--is not as far-fetched as it sounds).

Say Anything (sorry no Cusack)

I've noticed lately that people say things that they don't really mean or that they say things that don't correspond with the reality of the situation (in days gone by, some would have called these things "lies"); e.g., "glad to meet you"; outside of the venue where Pres. Obama is speaking out for free speech and assembly around the world, Chicago's finest give a beat-down to Occupy Chicago; Gov. Bob McDonald of Virginia, like many conservatives, says he's focusing on job creation, yet his actions say his focus--as it has been for years--is on restricting a woman's right to choose (witness the mandatory vaginal probes for any Virginia woman seeking to terminate her pregnancy); and Ohio State Rep. Christina Hagen, R-Marlboro Township, who was appointed not elected to her position at the age of 21, says ". . . I always lean on the side of transparency, and I recognize the importance of open records in state government," (from The Repository) yet she sponsors legislation that attempts to codify secrecy.

HB 489 "says any market research performed by TourismOhio and any JobsOhio records would not be public records" (also from The Rep). Why on earth would you legislate secrecy unless you're up to no good (?!) Whether you're a Republican, Democrat, or Independent this should raise a red flag.

Full disclosure: I'm no fan of Rep. Hagan's work as a legislator--her first vote was in favor of SB5/Issue 2, which put her on the wrong side of the state-wide 61-39 popular vote on the well-publicized referendum; her next vote was in support of fracking, which put her in line w/ others who just can't make themselves wait for the scientists to finish their study of the controversial drilling process (Renacci followed suit this past week w/ his " community energy development forum" that was stacked w/ industry folks who stand to directly benefit from fracking going forward unimpeded w/ silly regulations. No environmentalists were invited to be on the panel--I wrote more on this last week here). 

And following in the steps of the Gov. Kasich, who also has no problem taking public money and giving it to private entities with little to no oversight, Rep Hagan wants to eliminate public oversight and create crony commissions who also suck money out of the system. I haven't been able to reconcile why the tea party goes nuts if a school teacher makes a decent living yet doesn't say a peep when these crony commissions leech money out of the nearly tapped-out system.

When you're bored or unable to sleep, go back to SB5/Issue 2 and just look at the first few pages of the roughly 300-page bill: crony commission after crony commission, page after page. Yes, we kicked the butt of the union-busting bill that surely would have been one of the nails in the coffin of public education, but the crony commissions contained therein were seldom discussed. Any time we see public offices or departments being replaced by private entities, you can be assured this is the mechanism du jour. Are you OK w/ your tax dollars going into the pocket of some politician's benefactor/beneficiary?

Sorry to bang the familiar drum, but it shouldn't matter your political affiliation when it comes to demanding disclosure, accountability, and transparency of our representatives. Write or call your representatives every single time they support legislation that protects secrecy--it's our tax dollars; they're representing us--we want to know what's going on. Seems like such a simple, reasonable expectation, doesn't it? Then why is Kasich, Renacci, Hagan, et al. still getting away w/ it?

* * * * *
speaking of shiesty politicians, a couple blurbs from The Daily Kos Elections: 

·  OH-Sen: No one ever accused Republican Josh Mandel of being a competent state treasurer—and no one ever will:

During a rare press conference with reporters, Ohio's absentee Treasurer was asked where he stood on pension reform bills that passed the state Senate last week. He declined to take a position (what a surprise), then said, "I will be watching it very closely, obviously, as the custodian of the $100 billion assets under management of the pension funds."

"$165 billion," the reporter quickly corrected. Mandel, channeling a deer in headlights, nodded and smiled sheepishly, then nervously glanced directly into the camera before walking off from the podium.

Yeah, I like to read this stuff about Mandel the week that I get my update regarding the changes in STRS (the retirement system for Ohio educators)--other than the raise in retirement age, reduction in payouts, reduction in cost-of-living adjustments, increased years in order to retire, increase in employee contributions (just to name the highlights), it's not a bad piece of legislation.

also from The Daily Kos Elections:

OH-Sen, OH-16: Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel has decided to return some $105K in questionable campaign donations that came from a handful of employees of the Suarez Corporation—donations which are now under federal investigation. GOP Rep. Jim Renacci, who also was the beneficiary of this mysterious Suarez largesse, isn't following suit, though, and I think is subtly trying to suggest that this is some kind of politically-motivated inquest. From a Renacci spokesman: "When we first learned of the Obama Administration's investigation into this group of Republican donors several months ago, we decided not to rush to judgment." Because the FBI = the Obama administration, right?

for goodness sake, please take at look at their opponents before you vote (I almost included "goofballs" as a term to describe this group of politicians but decided it was a little sophomoric, esp after already using "sheisty" above--so there): Betty Sutton is running against Renacci. Many interesting names being floated about as an opponent of Kasich--Strickland, Cordray, Tim Ryan are some I've heard. Sherrod  Brown, of course, is being challenged by Mandel. Sue Ryan will oppose Christina Hagan. Do some homework--don't just vote the capital letter after the candidate's name--and see who will better represent their constituents, and then vote, please Vote.

The Other Side: Inmates, LGBT, and Community

maybe it was the Steve Earle that came up on my Pandora or maybe it was the story about the three men at Occupy Chicago last weekend being held as terror suspects in what their attorney is calling "sensory deprivation," but thinking about how we treat our prisoners has been on my mind (well, actually all peoples who are least able to defend themselves against oppression and inherent unfairness). And then I came across this piece on The Huffington Post about "101 Death Row Inmates Later Exonerated."

The Earle is worth a listen (he's been a true advocate and activist for a good while, so he walks the walk); be sure to check out the Huffington piece--the numbers there might give death penalty proponents pause.

* * * * *
speaking of the Huffington Post and how we treat Others, Michelangelo Signorile has a good piece on equal rights and why leadership matters:

Obama and Gay Rights: A Lesson for All Progressives and the Obama Campaign

* * * * *
came across E.J. Dionne Jr. on Twitter (thanks to a heads up from Ezra Klein); here is a piece from earlier today that gets at something that I've been writing about for a while. Of course, Dionne gets there much sooner and succinctly than I do: Conservatives used to care about community. What happened?

It's probably just the other side of the axe--but isn't it the same point about the Republican party leaving behind its values (every man for himself!) as the Democrats falling in line behind this Administration while our government haphazardly kills civilians in foreign sovereign states and will now utilize propaganda against its own citizens (just to name a couple abuses that would drive the Left crazy if it wasn't coming from a Democratic President). Where's the outrage? Where's the Mainstream Media? All bought and sold, complacent and complicit. And now back to our regular programming: American Idol/Swamp People/America's Got a Voice or Something . . . we do ourselves no favor by blindly following "our" party. Make them accountable to you. It's Negotiations 101--don't give anything away b/c then you have no leverage.

Why, yes, David Axelrod, I just might vote for somebody other than your guy. Now that we've seen what happens when the President takes a leadership role in Progressive politics (poll numbers favorable for support of Gay Rights), let's see what happens if this President can actually continue to govern like a Progressive, and not pull a Blanche Lincoln and try to out-conservative the Conservatives. Govern like the Democrat we elected you to be.

Action Needed: Ohio Legislature Playing "Beat the Clock" w/ Fracking Bill

The following is from an email I received from Ohio Citizen Action (probably the best in-state environmental group at getting stuff done--they're really good and really persistent; consider making a donation to them). The fracking bill has passed both the House and Senate here in Ohio but still has several more steps before Gov. Kasich can sign it into law. Please contact your legislators, ideally today (Friday 5/25), and let them know what you think of gag orders for doctors and the lack of transparency re the chemicals being used in the fracking process. As I've written before in this blog, I get nervous when politicians are in such a hurry--it almost always means bad things . Stand up!

* * * * * 
from Ohio Citizen Action:

There's still a short window of opportunity to tell the Ohio legislature that we need both the right to know and the right to say "no" to fracking in Ohio.
Here are the latest developments on SB 315’s lickety-split journey through the Ohio legislature:

• Ohioans like Mt. Gilead nurse and mother Donna Carver testified against the bill and the broken process of developing Ohio’s oil and gas regulation in general
• The Ohio Senate passed the bill, including a last minute “gag order” on doctors who treat victims of exposure to fracking fluids and elimination of citizen appeals to fracking permits
• Editorials critical of the bill and specifically calling for the public’s right to know appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Akron Beacon-Journal
• The Ohio House of Representatives passed the bill out of committee with a few changes, but still lacking full, public disclosure of chemicals used in fracking and without returning to communities the power to say no to fracking through local zoning.

We expect the House to vote on the bill today, with a few small changes to the Senate bill  The next step will be a joint Senate/House conference committee, and one more round of voting by both houses.

Please, find your legislators here and make a call right now. Be sure to include your name and address in your message, so they know you are from their district.

Tell them Ohio should require drillers to disclose fracking chemicals before they drill, they should remove the "gag order" on doctors, and they should allow communities to say "no" to fracking through local zoning.. Thanks. Your participation makes the strength-in-numbers strategy work.

Thursday Night Music Club (Sellout Edition)

As most of you know, today is Bob Dylan's 71st birthday, so I wanted to mark the occasion appropriately by linking to a popular singer of today singing Bob (see, that's the sellout portion of the post).

Here's an 18-year-old Adele singing "Make You Feel My Love" (Garth Brooks sang this on a Sandra Bullock movie soundtrack, I believe).

And here's Bob himself singing one of my favorites "Tangled Up in Blue" (pretty sure this is from The Last Waltz--considered by many to be the best concert film ever made, and it's directed by Martin Scorsese).

PS--almost went for a heavy-handed version of "Masters of War" or "Hurricane"--both great songs and would have tied in w/ recent posts. But the idea of the Thursday Night Music Club is to give ourselves a little break from such weightiness. Enjoy. And Happy Birthday, Robert Allen Zimmerman; thanks for all the great music. 

Dirty Tricks?

Things are getting very interesting here in my neck of the woods--I'm sure it can be easily explained; I'm sure there was no wrong-doing, but things are starting to stack up for Renacci and Mandel. Let's see what comes of the investigation . . .

The following comes courtesy of The Daily Kos Elections (which is free and arrives daily in your inbox). 

OH-Sen, OH-16: Buried deep in this new piece from The New Republic's Alec MacGillis is a potentially major detail about donations to two Republican candidates for federal office. MacGillis takes a close look at Ohio as it resumes its quadrennial role as a key presidential battleground state, and among other things, he revisits this Toledo Blade story from last year about workers at Canton-based Suarez Corp. who maxed out to Senate hopeful Josh Mandel and Rep. Jim Renacci. Many of these donors had never made political contributions before, and many also appeared to be of modest means, raising questions as to whether their employer, wealthy Republican donor Benjamin Suarez, had pushed them to donate and then reimbursed them—something which would be illegal.

MacGillis recanvassed the 17 employees on The Blade's list and this time, he found out something completely new: The wife of a Saurez copywriter who, together with her husband, gave $20,000 to Renacci and Mandel, said that the FBI had asked them questions about their donations. Another Suarez employee also said there was "an investigation," and even Renacci's chief-of-staff confirmed that the FBI asked them for their campaign finance records. Of course, the FBI isn't saying anything, and even if there is any wrongdoing here, it would be on Suarez's part, barring a new revelation. Still, it's not a the kind of thing either Mandel or Renacci wants to have to deal with this year.

* * * * *
later Tweet from Occupy Chicago that caught my attention (big fan of WDM's YA Lit):
 

DSFcoach ‏@DSFcoach Can the city of Chicago please sell those riot helmets now and buy a CPS school some Walter Dean Myers books or something? #noNATO #oCHI

* * * * *
this is an excerpt from an Elizabeth Warren campaign piece (I know, I know--but at least it has facts on its side).

trivia: who was in the White House when Glass-Steagall was repealed?  (answer below)

JPMorgan Chase revised its numbers.

Since announcing an incredible $2 billion trading loss 12 days ago, the megabank has now lost another $1 billion, and maybe more, in just a few days.

CEO Jamie Dimon is still claiming that it was just a sloppy mistake -- that JPMorgan doesn't need government oversight and accountability. But what if the next loss is $20 billion? Or more?

[ . . .  ]

For me, the basic idea is simple: banking should be boring.Checking accounts, savings accounts -- the things you and I rely on every day -- should be separated from the kind of risk taking that JPMorgan and the Wall Street traders want to take.

For decades, the Glass-Steagall Act acted as a wall to separate hedge funds and risky investment banking from ordinary commercial banking. But in 1999, Congress repealed Glass-Steagall. This past week has reminded us that Glass-Steagall is as important as ever.

answer: Bill Clinton (yep, a Democrat). 

Drones 'R US

cartoon below from Tom Tomorrow at his website. There you'll find his explanation of what has served as the impetus for his latest work--good, quick read, if not dispiriting to see what our current government is trying to do to its citizens. Get the word out--talk about it, pass info along; get better informed. Whether it's drones or something else, we all need to better informed and more engaged regardless of who is in the WH and whatever party we identify w/ personally--it's the only way to hold our government accountable.

Some good content out there on the US usage of drones, which certainly still feels like an under-covered story by the MSM (mainstream media). I'll be updating this posting throughout the day--feel free to join the conversation in the comments below.

 Tom Tomorrow:

Work in progress

   
* * * * * 
Trevor Timm at The Electronic Frontier Foundation--Defending Your Rights in the Digital World--has an important piece that is definitely worth reading if you're concerned about the use of drones w/in the United States and abroad (and if you're not, you should be). There's even a map to find out if your local police have been keeping their drones on the down-low from you and your neighbors:


Local Governments Have the Power to Restrict Drone Surveillance in the US

 * * * * * 
Release the drones! #NATO signs $1.7 Bill Deal w/Northrup Grumman 4 Global Surveillance. (via Occupy Chicago)


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 Follow @Drones for all news on surveillance & military drones in US & internationally

* * * * *  (from Glenn Greenwald Twitter)
Pakistani filmmaker denied visa to travel to US to accept his film festival award for his short film about drone deaths http://is.gd/Mk9pdj

Occupy Chicago

kbates424: Riot police confront violent protester at the #NATO summit.

"The 1st Amendment really does guarantee 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble' " (from Glenn Greenwald Twitter)

Protestors have gathered in Chicago for the G8/NATO summits this weekend. Surprisingly little (not really) mainstream media coverage; maybe we'll get another update about the Arz official who wants to verify Pres. Obama's birth certificate--so silly, especially when there is so much to going on that matters (and stuff that the WH should be called to answer for--drones, erosion of civil liberties, failure to prosecute anyone for Wall Street collapse or for the disingenuous "enhanced interrogations"--just to name a few).

via Greenwald, here is a link to a piece from digby on the perils of the over-militarization of our police (see excerpt below):

It really doesn't take much imagination to realize that militarizing the police and outfitting them as if they are about to mount an assault on Fallujah when they are really just manning a political protest might lead them to adopt the attitude that they are at war against their fellow citizens.

Sam Inglot ‏@saminglot

@OccupyChicago if the POLICE had dispersed there would have been no violence--I firmly believe that. #Freedom2Assemble

 
(the following via "Occupy Chicago" on Twitter)

We would like to say thank you to all occupiers, comrades, brothers, sisters, activists, & revolutionaries who came out today. #Soldarity  (2:25 am EST)

Chicago unites! @OccupyWallStNYC solidarity! @aaroncynic: #NATO #nonato #m20 make that 1000 now, still growing strong  (9:10 pm EST)

Police on speaker saying we must disperse. http://twitpic.com/9nfvak  (7:08 pm EST)

A sea of blue helmets. Protecting and serving for #NATO not #ThePeople http://twitpic.com/9nfuat

 Chants of "Push back NATO, not us!" while protesters skirmish

Cops w/videocameras up on roof near us, by media

The police have several demonstrators detained behind their lines, calling for medics. Bloodied protesters being dragged out of sight now.

The New Gilded Age

It's one thing for the wealthy to embrace policies that allow for this "unequal distribution of wealth," but it continues to amaze me the number of middle class and working class folks who make it all possible. Take a look at these numbers below (from Bernie Sanders, U.S. Sen. VT) and then tell me again about "trickle down economics" or the job creators. 


Listen, if you don't want to vote for Barack Obama, that's fine--I can understand that. But don't vote for Mitt Romney thinking he's going to implement policy that will be beneficial to anyone other than people like Mitt Romney (I'm referring to his wealth, not the fact that he is white and male).

In the United States today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income since the 1920s.  Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of America -- 150 million people.  Today, the top one percent own forty percent of all wealth, while the bottom sixty percent owns less than two percent.  Incredibly, the bottom forty percent of all Americans own just 3/10 of one percent of the wealth of the country.

The distribution of income is even worse.  If you can believe it, the last study on this subject showed that in 2010, 93 percent of all new income created in the previous year went to the top one percent, while the bottom 99 percent of people had the privilege of enjoying the remaining seven percent.  In other words, the rich are getting much richer while almost everyone else is falling behind.

And this from Ben Eisenberg ("Friends of Bernie Sanders")

Bernie believes that at a time when the six largest financial institutions have assets worth $9 trillion, which is the equivalent of two-thirds of the GDP of the United States, and when the top six banks provide half of the mortgages in America and over two-thirds of the credit cards, it is clearly time to break them up.

* * * * * 

Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, discusses what's behind the failure to address what's really going on w/ the economy (it's 2.5 minutes long):

Public vs Private Morality  

Really Important News

for folks who care about such things (via Brad Evans):

Pliny the Younger (IPA) named best beer in America according to the Beer Advocate. Absolutely shocked it wasn't Keystone Light. Criminal

Thursday Night Music Club

This song got stuck in my head the other day, so now I pass it along to you--the Drive-By Truckers: 

"Putting People on the Moon"

(as they often say, play it loud)

They're Killing Women (and Children)

"I wonder what percentage of Americans know their government is constantly bombing Yemen & killing civilians? #Democracy" (Glenn Greenwald Twitter)

* * * * *  

Glenn Greenwald explains the ramifications of Pres. Obama's recent Executive Order re Yemen (hint: it's not good): http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/obamas_new_free_speech_threat/

Frackin' Renacci

According to The Canton Repository, U.S. Rep. Renacci, R (OH-16), who is running for re-election this fall against Betty Sutton, D, and who happens to represent the district where I live, "will host a community energy development forum" next week. Snappy title there. Nowhere in the two column plus piece is the word "fracking" used (note: you can go to the newspaper's website about "fraciking" but not fracking to learn more).

There are probably a lot of things I could talk about; e.g., Orwellian use of language (again, the title of the forum); the assurances by Rep. Renacci that "improvements in drilling and extracting oil and gas from shale" haven't made Ohioans safer but "turned Ohio into a 'major player in the domestic energy game' "; newspaper ethics and editing; and others. No, the thing that caught my attention was that a university is hosting the event, yet nobody seems to make any pretense that this is a true, open, and honest discussion of multiple viewpoints (I almost said "opposing positions" but that seems limiting in itself).

Here is the list of participants (the word "panelists" is substituted in the online version of the Rep article):

• Rhonda Reda, executive director of Ohio Oil & Gas Energy Education Program;
• Dr. Robert W. Chase,  a professor for Marietta College’s Department of Petroleum Engineering and Geology;
• Dale Arnold, director for energy, utility and local government policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation;
• Jim McKinney, senior vice president and general manager for EnerVest Operating.

What's missing? An environmentalist. These folks are all proponents of fracking (hydraulic fracturing, if you prefer); folks who directly benefit from the drilling for oil and gas in Ohio. I don't see anybody there to speak on behalf of the environmental concerns that many have regarding fracking.

It's like having hearings on women's reproductive rights and not inviting any women to testify. What is that you say? Really? . . . not a one? OK, bad example.

This really isn't that complicated. You have something that is truly controversial w/ at least enough evidence and testimony to warrant an open and honest debate of a process that is going on in the backyards of many families here in Ohio, and our Congressional Representative is concerned enough that he only invites those who will directly benefit from the ongoing drilling and fracking. In many arenas, they would be disqualified based on a conflict of interest.

But because the forum is taking place at a university, it's even more egregious. From Merriam-Webster:

1 a : the marketplace or public place of an ancient Roman city forming the center of judicial and public business b : a public meeting place for open discussion c : a medium (as a newspaper or online service) of open discussion or expression of ideas

Maybe b/c Walsh is a private institution, they're less concerned about public opinion; I don't know. But Renacci was elected to serve the best interests of all his constituents, and whether you agree w/ him on this one or the next one, you don't want the process itself rigged, do you?

Come on, Renacci--if you're going to be taken seriously by anybody other than like-minded tea party folk, you need to honor an honest pursuit of truth; invite at least one environmentalist to this open discussion. Just one--is that too much to ask? Or, do you not even care enough to pretend to be fair and balanced?

* * * * * 

In other environmental news--

From the Ohio Environmental Council:  

  New Great Lakes "Compact" bill stirs up Statehouse again

In March, OH Representative Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon) introduced legislation to implement the Great Lakes Compact (House Bill 416). On April 25, the House of Representatives passed the legislation on a near party-line vote. The new bill (now HB 473), while better than the previous one, has four significant outstanding flaws that lock anglers, boaters, and swimmers out of the courthouse, while risking dried up walleye spawning areas and toxic algae in streams and Lake Erie. Read more about the bill and how you can help stop it.

Out of Right Field

not really, but it's a piece by Republican David Frum on Huffington Post that addresses a point I've been making for a while about "constructed narratives"; definitely worth a read (it's about as fair and balanced analysis that you'll get from the right)--click link below to read: 

Think the U.S. Election Is About the Economy? Not.

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the following comes via the Daily Kos (remember, the guy who beat Dick Lugar last week? Well, this is how his type govern--mindlessly axing the budget): 

Census: I know it's fashionable to decry the GOP as "know-nothings," but that's because they keep doing things which indicate that they truly want to know nothing about the world around them. This time, their target is the American Community Survey, the ongoing sample that supplements the decennial census; House Republicans just passed an amendment that cuts the ACS from the Census Bureau's budget. The ACS is important not only because it provides constant adjustments of population and race numbers, but also because it completely replaced the Census's long form, meaning it's the only source of more detailed demographic information.

Of course, it's worth noting that this attack is unlikely to survive the Senate, not just because it's Dem-controlled but because Republican-leaning lobby groups (such as the National Federation of Independent Business) are likely to step in and disabuse a few Republican congresspersons' notions here. If you're a small businessman getting started and you, say, want to send your direct mail to zip codes in your metropolitan area that are at a particular income level or are populated by a particular kind of worker, and you don't have the tens of thousands of dollars handy to commission your own market research, what do you do? You crack open census data for free, the kind gathered through the ACS. I kinda doubt the Chamber of Commerce or NFIB wants to see its members flying blind without access to useful marketing data. (David Jarman)

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this one is definitely from the Left (field), but in one of those weird things that happens in politics, R's and Conservatives--about the same thing nowadays--aligning w/ some from the Left in their criticisms of this Administration:
Greenwald, Chomsky, and Obama--"progressivism from the heart"

Cut the Tax Cuts

 (from Ezra Klein on Twitter)

 From 95-07, effective tax rates on top 1% fell 6.6%. On the 20th-99th%, they fell by 2.9% http://wapo.st/KVrwng

In other words, it's good to be rich in America. Here are the graphs: http://wapo.st/KVrwng

still waiting on that trickle down . . . or, the tide to lift all the boats . . . or, whatever bumper sticker slogan we use to convince ourselves and others that it's beneficial to the society at large to continue these policies that benefit the uber-rich. Don't care if you want to call it class-warfare or whatever, but you don't have to be Milton Friedman to see that it's not working. Not when 2 of 3 school districts in Ohio are in fiscal distress. Not when we're laying off teachers. Not when nearly 50 million citizens of the United States of America don't have healthcare (they can't all be lazy, can they?).

It's time for the Bush Tax Cuts to go away--for all of us, for good (well, at least for now). And, now if you couple that w/ an end to our wars abroad, half the deficit goes away. Just like that? Yes, just like that. 

A Little Something from the Arts

smart read from Glenn Greenwald before the jump--frames contemporary politics and conjures positive memories of yourself in HS English class reading Shakespeare:

Hail Caesar

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didn't know that Nick Lowe and not Elvis Costello wrote "Peace, Love, and Understanding" (great song--but always think of the scene in Singles. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about).

Anyway, via Keith Law here is Nick Lowe singing his song just after 9/11 on NPR:
click here and start @ 35:00

Walker still alive, HB194 quashing votes, and Josh "don't call me Howie" Mandel gets tricky

the following three blurbs come via the Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest (it's free and you can get it for yourself by simply signing up at the Daily Kos): 

WI-Gov: Joshua Spivak of the Recall Elections blog has some thoughts on voter turnout in Tuesday night's gubernatorial primaries and what it might augur for the June general election. To me, what stands out most is that there were 670,278 total votes in the hotly contested Democratic primary, while an almost equal number, 646,458, were cast in the meaningless GOP primary. The fact that Republican voters decided to show up en masse and vote for Scott Walker anyway, even though there was no reason to, is a troubling sign to me.

OH HB194: Well this is pretty crazy. Last year, Ohio Republicans passed a restrictive election law known as HB194 which, among other things, would reduce the period for early voting and make it harder for voters to obtain absentee ballots. A group called Fair Elections Ohio succeeded in gathering enough signatures to put the measure before voters for a possible repeal this fall... but rather than face defeat, Republicans are instead trying to repeal the law themselves, via the legislature!

Democrats, however, are calling shenanigans, saying that it's a repeal in name only, because some provisions included in HB194 were separately re-passed in other legislation. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted nevertheless says he thinks the "people's veto" measure should not appear on the November ballot, but the Fair Elections folks are vowing to fight to ensure that the repeal vote does take place. It sounds like this will all end up in court soon enough.

OH-Sen: Awesome. Gotta love Republican Josh Mandel's decision to stonewall reporters into eternity... about everything:

Mandel also continued his policy of refusing to weigh in on active congressional legislation. A reporter asked where he stood on a bill from Brown and other Senate Democrats that would keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling and saddling graduates—including young entrepreneurs—with more debt.

Mandel said he was glad "politicians in Washington" were discussing the issue but said he was not involved in the debate and would not "cast imaginary votes."

States' Rights?

Most have heard about President Obama's statement of support of Equal Rights for more American Citizens (esp LGBT). He's been lauded by many, but as this chart shows leaving minority rights to majority vote and the prevailing winds of public opinion may not be the best process to ensure Equal Rights for All American Citizens.

Equal Rights Visual Tool from The Guardian
(via Ezra Klein)

Another Shift Right

As you may have heard, Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana lost his primary last night. While Lugar was rarely viewed as a moderate, he was a usually reasonable Republican who could work across the aisle to get things done, and now we will have another Tea Party-type guy in the Senate who will do nothing, except maybe continue the Conservative's war on women. Lucky us. 

Lugar's concession speech is definitely worth reading: 

Dick Lugar's concession speech
(via Ezra Klein at Wonkblog)

John Boehner's School

Do you know where John Boehner lives? West Chester, Ohio, a quick-growth area just north of Cincinnati. And unlike some of his colleagues in Congress, including his neighbor just to the west, Dick Luger, Boehner actually lives in his district where he was elected to represent. 

Despite Boehner’s presence, things are not all unicorns and lollipops in West Chester. Their school district, Lakota Schools, is one failed levy away from going into emergency management, meaning the state of Ohio will run things for the school district. So, what does an upscale, burgeoning school district, where the median household income is nearly double that of the avg Ohio household, do when faced w/ such a predicament? Austerity, of course, cutting teachers and programs. According to an AP piece (“School District Slashes $10.5M, 141 Jobs” The Canton Repository. by Dan Sewell. 30 April 2012.), Lakota will cut 141 jobs, mostly teachers. This district, however, is not alone in budget problems as two of three districts in Ohio face shortfalls.  And school funding issues aren't a new thing here.

As you may know, Ohio has been funding its schools unconstitutionally for years, even though the DeRolph Decisions of the '90s decreed a more equitable solution be found. The primary problem remains an over-reliance on property tax, forcing citizens to continually renew levies and support new ones with already strained revenues in many communities. But that shouldn't be the problem in West Chester--the money part. It is quite wealthy (it was cited as one of the best places to live as recently as 2005), yet their new teachers, who are paid about 35K/yr to educate the rich kids of West Chester/Liberty Township, couldn't even find a place to rent if he or she wanted to live in the district where he or she taught. This modest starting salary and a failure to support its schools does seem to reveal a real disconnect between philosophy and reality that is so prevalent nowadays.

I'm guessing that the very wealthy families there aren’t terribly worried because their kids are going to private schools; the old-timers who resent the new development have already raised their kids, they reason, and being Ohioans, they’ve undergone that special indoctrination that all taxes are bad, all the time (let’s call it the Grover Norquist Contagion).

So, if there's plenty of money there then what is it? It's really a manifestation of a philosophy or a belief system that seems to say that I'll worry about mine, you worry about yours, which is apparently the dominant theory of Republicans and the adolescent-like Libertarians. Never mind that the majority of West Chester voters probably attended public schools themselves. Probably drive on the public highway system. Maybe have even taken a trip to a National Park--all things that were paid for by the collective good will and hard-earned tax dollars of their fellow Americans over many years, a system that leveled the playing field for the middle class and saw our greatest economic prosperity throughout the middle portions of the 20th century, all of which began to erode about thirty years ago.  

Contemporary Republican philosophy is based on faith and abstraction: the Confidence Fairy, the Invisible Hand of the Free Market; Trickle Down; High Inflation Boogie Man to just name a few. Yet, when talking about things like, say, providing money to states for infrastructure, then suddenly R's become Mr. McGoo, and they can't see anything in front of their faces (Government can't create jobs!).

The current Republican Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, plans to tackle the school-funding issue next year (probably been too busy w/ SB5), but like most Republicans, he offers more of the same; stuff we have seen for at least the last decade--tax cuts and calls for austerity (plus Kasich's special touch--the statewide yard sale that is privatization). Please tell me how these same flawed approaches will rectify things? How will putting more people out of work help the economy? What of the long-term implications for an impaired education? 

In addition to weakening--if not wrecking--public education, current unemployment would be closer to 7.0% instead of being over 8.0% if the government would bring back the workers (government employees, teachers, etc) who were laid off since the Lesser Depression began nearly four years ago. France and Greece are fed up with austerity, and we should be, too. We don't have historical models where austerity has worked here, but we do have evidence that stimulus by the government does work , not as a replacement but simply as its name states--a stimulus--until the private sector can catch up (see The New Deal; see American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, whose introduction directly correlates with a drop in unemployment).

Now, some folks will tell you we don't have an option; we have to cut these teachers in order to balance the books. At what point do we lose sight of the very reason we have governments and public education in the first place?  Seems like right about now. John Boehner, although not quite the idealogue as some of his colleagues in the House, would seem to have as much influence as anyone within the party as the Speaker of the House. When he doesn't intercede on behalf of passing a school levy in his own district, what does this tell you? Quality public education is dead to him and the other Republicans. If a community like West Chester is willing to sacrifice the learning of its children, then the party has left behind its people; it's what's truly is broken. This is politics that has completely forgotten its reason for its very existence.

Saturday Morning Eye Drops

Drones in America
What if? 

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Ezra Klein interview w/ Paul Krugman

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(from Glenn Greenwald)

Hermann Hesse on John Brennan's targeted killing speech:

Your speech was well constructed; otherwise, it was not particularly original, significant, or provocative. Reduced to the essentials, it said roughly what government officials have been saying in their speeches for a long time: that, generally speaking, "we" long for nothing so fervently as peace, as a new understanding among nations and fruitful collaboration in building the future, that we wish neither to enrich ourselves nor to satisfy homicidal lusts -- but that the "time for negotiations" is not yet at hand and that for the present there is therefore no alternative but to go on waging war. Just about every minister of any of the belligerent nations might have made such a speech, and probably will tomorrow or the day after.

(From "To a Cabinet Minister, 1917" in "If the War Goes On...") I don't know if that's a fair characterization of Brennan's speech, but it makes you think, doesn't it (GG).

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-going to be traveling a bit over the weekend; I'll post when I can--EE

sad news

-Adam Yauch, aka MCA, dead at 47 from cancer: 
Beastie Boys member dies

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-this video would be on most anybody's all-time favs:
Beastie Boys having fun--Sabotage 

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-speaking three years before 9/11:
Adam Yauch @ MTV Awards (1998)
(from Charles Davis, via Glenn Greenwald)

-and C. Davis also here: 
Charles Davis on Adam Yauch

Those 70s Presidents

recently, Mitt Romney, in an effort to besmirch Pres. Obama, invoked the name of a renowned "weak" President--

What Would Carter Do?

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I posted this piece earlier but in case you missed it--

Obama & Nixon, together again

Old-School Krugman

While we wait for the destructively high inflation to make its long-promised appearance, here's an oldie from Paul Krugman:

Baby-sitting the economy 

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a newer piece from PK re austerity and the Confidence Fairy . . . 

Krugman spitting into the wind 

(tiny bit of) Eye Candy (w/ addendum)

from Ezra Klein:

Dark Knight movie trailer

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hope you had a chance to mark May Day today in some way (planning your vacation? making plans for this weekend? making a doctor's appt b/c you have healthcare? supper at home w/ your family b/c you only worked 8 hours? the list goes on . . . )



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from Annie Lowrey (via Ezra Klein Twitter)--not sure how many of you watch Fox News (Smith seems to be the only one over there not working for the Republican Party), but worth a look (30 sec.).
Shep Smith's reaction to Newt dropping out