This week in progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching.
Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
At Calitics, Steve Smith writes—What Color is the Sky in Joel Fox's Fantasy World?
There's been a lot of attention lately on California's turnaround. As it turns out, that nonsense about all our jobs moving to Texas was a just Texas-sized whopper. Last year California created about 500,000 jobs to lead the nation in job growth, outpacing the conservative darling Texas.
Basically, the corporate narrative about California has gone up in smoke. In the last several years, California has done a litany of things that the corporate crowd claims kill jobs. We raised the minimum wage. We raised taxes on the rich with Prop 30 to better fund schools and public safety. We guaranteed paid sick days for all workers. We eliminated the wasteful enterprise zone tax credits for big businesses that cost the state nearly $1 billion per year. We got rid of another tax giveaway to business with Prop 39 and instead funneled those funds into clean energy projects that create good jobs. We strengthened regulations that protect workers and the environment. The list goes on and on.
So imagine my surprise when I read Joel Fox's blog on Fox & Hounds claiming that the Chamber of Commerce was actually responsible for the job growth in California. Oh, ok. Sure. That makes total sense, Joel. The Chamber constantly derides California as the most anti-business state in the country and now wants to claim credit for our success? That makes about as much sense as that idiotic scheme you participated in during the 2012 election to help the Koch Brothers and their rich, out-of-state friends funnel millions into California to help pass the anti-worker Prop 32 and defeat Prop 30. But, I digress.
Hidden at the bottom of Fox's inane blog is the one line we should all pay attention to in the context of this argument.
The Chamber's goal is to keep business costs low to improve the economy statewide. |
Please continue reading below the orange gerrymander.
At BlueNC, scharrison writes—GOP poverty solution: Cut programs, then tax charitable non-profits:
The convoy of bad ideas keeps rolling down the road:
Senate Bill 700, which was recently introduced in the General Assembly, threatens nonprofit tax exemption in North Carolina. It would reduce the cap on sales tax refunds to $100,000 per year, down from the current $45 million. If passed, this law would create new taxes for hundreds of nonprofits. They would have to pay a tax on almost everything they buy to support their charitable missions, including food, supplies, construction materials, computers, and utilities. This proposal would create unintended harm for nonprofits in all 100 counties of North Carolina. |
The next time one of your Republican friends throws out the tired old argument, "The government shouldn't be helping poor people, churches and other charitable organizations do a much better job at it," make sure and mention this. Their zest for improving the lives of the 1% eventually places them in conflict with most of their stated positions, and the sooner voters realize they have no solutions the better.
At
Bleeding Heartland of Iowa,
sarased writes—
Fake Iowan for Hillary:
Last Tuesday morning, I woke up a lifelong Iowan, a working mom, a wife, a small business owner. By dinner, I was being portrayed by national - and international - media as a "fake" Iowan.
It has taken nearly a week for the reality of my unexpected cup of coffee with Hillary Clinton to sink in. As soon as she sat down, I realized how privileged I was to have her ear that morning. The experience, from start to now, has been surreal, to say the least.
I walked into that coffee shop in LeClaire last Tuesday a Hillary supporter. I knew I would caucus for Hillary and that I'd vote for her. I left, however, a Hillary advocate. She took her seat at the table with Austin Bird, Carter Bell and me and introduced herself. She asked a little bit about each of us. When she arrived at me, I told her I work for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and told her I had a 15-month-old daughter. [...]
That afternoon, my dad called.
"Hannity is talking about you!" He was concerned Sean Hannity would say my name on the air. He didn't.
However, Rush Limbaugh did say it the next day. With contempt dripping from his lips, my name fell out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth - incorrectly, I might add: "Sara Sed- Sedlahsek, who works for PLANNED PARENTHOOD!"
According to Rush, Hannity and the rest of the right-wing clown show, I am not an "everyday Iowan". I was a plant. I was bused in. I was a prop, a fake.
At
Louisiana Voice,
tomaswell writes—
Higher education budget crisis could be part of deliberate pattern to force privatization of state colleges, universities:
Bobby Jindal has promised to find money to address the funding crisis facing Louisiana’s public colleges and universities but besides the obvious dire financial straits in which the state currently finds itself, two important obstacles must be overcome by our absentee governor: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Grover Norquist.
The odds of appeasing just one in efforts to raise needed funding for higher education will be difficult enough, given Jindal’s allegiance to the two. Obtaining the blessings of both while simultaneously distracted by the siren’s call of the Republican presidential nomination will be virtually impossible.
Higher education, already hit with repeated cuts by the Jindal administration, is facing additional cuts of up to $600 million, or 82 percent of its current budget, according to news coming out of the House Appropriations Committee earlier this month.
Such a fiscal scenario could result in the closure of some schools and across the board discontinuation of programs.
Moody’s, the bond-rating service, has warned that Louisiana higher education cannot absorb any further cuts.
At
Cottonmouth of Mississippi,
Ryan Brown writes—
Senate Conservative Coalition Opposes: Leading By Example:
Earlier today, the Senate Conservative Coalition (or whatever they're called these days) filed paperwork with the Secretary of State to begin collecting signatures to require term limits on officeholders to two terms per office.
Bear in mind that state Sen. Chris McDaniel, the leader of Senate conservatives, is currently running for his third term to the state senate.
Should their efforts to place language on the ballot imposing these term limits fail, will Senate conservatives (assuming they win re-election) abide by a self-imposed two-term rule? If McDaniel's re-election is any indication, this does not seem likely. If the initiative does make it onto the ballot, we should all look forward to the likely debate over alternative ballot language like we saw earlier this year with the Initiative 42 alternative.
At
Left in Alabama,
countrycat writes—
HB-527 Another Attempt To Shut Down Huntsville's Women's Clinic:
In August 2014, anti-choice activists attempted to convince the Huntsville Zoning Board that the Alabama Women's Center presented a danger to the neighborhood. In particular, they cited their own protests as a reason to stop the clinic from opening at its new location.
The "faces of anti-choice Huntsville" swarmed the city zoning board hearing last night in a last ditch attempt to keep North Alabama's lone women's clinic from reopening in a new location. In a breathtaking display of chutzpah, speaker after speaker—some of whom live more than 50 miles from the proposed location—went concern trolling. They cited concerns about "the neighborhood" and "disruptions" caused by protests at the previous clinic location. [...]
How is a clinic a threat to schoolchildren?
Rep. Henry doesn't mention his bill on his Facebook page, so I went to his Twitter feed. Nothing there either: Henry's too busy obsessing about Hillary Clinton. Between 4/17 and 4/21, he tweeted about her 11 times.
But we can turn to street preacher James Henderson for an explanation. He's the guy who told a federal judge to "mind his own business":
Judge Thompson's opinion specifically called out Huntsville clinic protesters for creating a hostile, violent atmosphere outside the clinics, outlined the state's "history of violence & threats against abortion doctors," and noted that the "protests in Huntsville go beyond run-of-the-mill political protests." |
Huntsville's protesters are not strangers to irony. They have regularly appeared at City Council meetings, in court, and in front of the zoning board to complain about the disruptions caused by clinic protests. Except that there wouldn't be any disruptions were it not for their clinic protests.
At
The Seminole Democrat of Florida,
Independent Thinker writes—
Latest Corrections Barometer Reading: Low Pressure on the Wrongdoers:
The Tampa Bay Times has a look at the calculated inaction by the Scott crony network concerning Florida's current prison crisis. The most telling lowlight: There is no plan to rework contracts with corrupt prison health providers until January 2016.
Why are these inept providers being allowed 7 more months of free ride to profit, while Florida's record inmate deaths continue to climb? You need only guess once:
"Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, said she blames Florida's weak contracts with the health care companies on the access their high-profile lobbyists have had to the governor and key lawmakers. Bill Rubin, the lobbyist for Wexford, worked for Scott when he was head of the hospital giant HCA and remains influential, and Brian Ballard, lobbyist for Corizon, was head of Scott's political finance committee."
That wasn't very mysterious, was it? In fact, it's like one of those giant "L" symbols on the weather map!
At
Michigan Liberal,
Eric B. writes—
Freep does an article on water diversions to the desert Southwest:
I'm not sure why we're all of a sudden seeing an uptick in articles about Great Lakes water and diversions and whatever the Hell it was that Jack Spencer was on about the other day. The Freep had another one over the weekend that's kinda, sorta interesting. It seems like the thing, however, once a region of the nation goes into drought the Great Lakes states start to go into a mild panic because we assume that they're coming for our water. Back when there was a drought in Georgia and the deep South a few years back, there was some very loose talk here and there about trying to raid the Great Lakes via the Mississippi, but it wasn't anything terribly strong. In fact, when my friends who live in the deep South taunt us during the winter, I return fire by wishing them luck during their next drought. Like most droughts, it's about 25 percent Mother Nature and 75 percent human use wastage.
Let's all just settle down over this. The most efficient way to move large amounts of water from one region to another is via pipeline. Those bladder ships wouldn't be able to carry enough, fast enough to make any real difference (they'd be enough for the wealthy, however, and since there is no better American than one with ALL THE MONEYS, we might have to reconsider this). And, to pipe all that water to the Southwest would require moving it uphill, and water is heavy, so that would be a hugely energy intensive effort. And, we're talking about how we're already going to be in an energy deficit because our electrical infrastructure is old and wasteful and no one has bothered to invest in new generation a whole lot.
By the way, just to rip off the bandage over a healing wound ... this is why the last governor, to her credit, was none too keen on bottled water. It was about setting a legal precedent about diverting water from the Great Lakes Basin, not a fear that Nestle is going to drain the Great Lakes. You'd have to be a disingenuous person to say that's what they were arguing.
At
TXSharon's Bluedaze of Texas,
TXSharon writes—
Fracking Earthquakes in Azle and Reno Caused by Waste Injection per SMU:
“Industry’s own literature, the US Geological Survey, and now SMU all declare that fracking waste injection causes earthquakes. It is only Texas state regulators and lawmakers who are living in denial.
If HB40 becomes law, the state will make cities’ attempts to protect their residents from fracking-related earthquakes illegal. HB40’s author, Drew Darby, refused an amendment that would allow cities to ban fracking wastewater disposal wells.
Cities across the state should be very very worried for another reason. Hundreds of thousands of concrete oil and gas well casings are what stands between Texas communities and well leaks. Quakes that can crack foundations as they did in Azle can also crack concrete oil and gas well casings, active and abandoned, that go deep into the earth.”
At
Democratic Diva of Arizona,
Donna writes—
Top Two Primary Is Back, with Twice the Magical Thinking:
As promised, the brain trust of Arizona centrist business establishment types (country club Republicans and corporate Dems) that failed to pass Prop 121 in 2012 plan to return with a slightly altered version of it in 2016.
Former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, who led the campaign for Proposition 121 and is spearheading the 2016 measure, said organizers of the proposed Open Nonpartisan Primary Election plan on doing things a bit differently this time around.
“We get we lost last time,” Johnson said. “You don’t have to remind me of that. I get that one. So you have to look at why did I lose and what assets are out there that I can utilize to try to expand it.
Top Two primaries (also known as open or jungle primaries) are based on the surreal premise that having only the top two vote getters in the primary (regardless of party affiliation) advance to the general will improve government by enabling more “moderate” (read: business-friendly) candidates to defeat partisan ideologues. It seems reasonable if you don’t think about it for more than thirty seconds (and proponents are dearly hoping you won’t) but, alas, a cursory examination of the wildly optimistic promises of this scheme reveals its implausibility as a statewide solution for Arizona’s political dysfunction.
At
MN Progressive Project,
Eric Ferguson writes—
Rep. Jim Newberger enters biggest legislative jerk contest:
What, there isn’t a literal “biggest jerk in the legislature contest”? I guess I just assumed there was such a prize from the way some legislators seem to be trying to win it. Here’s a strong entry from Rep. Jim Newberger, R-15B, via The Uptake. Trying to make some point about North Star rail, he mentioned that the prison in St. Cloud is near railroad tracks and said, “Boy, wouldn’t that be convenient, to have that rail line going from the prison to North Minneapolis.” No, North Minneapolis was not part of the discussion. He brought that up all on his own. He excused himself by saying North Minneapolis was just what he happened to think of. Yep, purely at random, he mentioned a prison, and then mentioned a racially mixed area. He said he could have mentioned any part of the state, so I’m sure International Falls had an equal shot at a cheap shot.
Then he decided to dig deeper by saying, “But if you’re going to connect a large metro to a prison there’s going to be some concerns. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t.” Well, who knew the prison at St. Cloud was on an island in the ocean? Sure, a land connection could only be dangerous. I’d be lying if I said Newberger didn’t have concerns, and lying if I said Newberger had any idea what those concerns were. That’s maybe the saddest or funniest thing: you have to listen twice to get past his prejudice and realize there isn’t even a coherent point in there. Please 15B, next election, show that Newberger doesn’t really represent you. Maybe elect a smart person next time.
At
Delaware Liberal,
Delaware Dem writes—
The NRA has Won:
Charles M. Blow asks “Has the N.R.A. Won?” Yes, they have, and it is time we liberals give up on gun control.
It is now fair to ask whether the National Rifle Association is winning—or has in fact won—this era of the gun debate in this country. Gun control advocates have tried to use the horror that exists in the wake of mass shootings to catalyze the public into action around sensible gun restrictions. But rather than these tragedies being a cause for pause in ownership of guns, gun ownership has spiked in the wake of these shootings.
A striking report released Friday by the Pew Research Center revealed that “for the first time, more Americans say that protecting gun rights is more important than controlling gun ownership, 52 percent to 46 percent.”
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Look, it doesn’t matter the reasonableness of gun control measures. It almost always gets painted as some sort of tyranny, as if your Second Amendment rights are violated if you cannot purchase this Class 3 Scud Missile launcher.
I, and most liberals and progressives, including Senator Barack Obama, were of this mindset between 2000 and 2007. I remember very specifically Obama’s answers on gun control during the primary debates. He said, look, there is a constitutional right to gun ownership. Nothing is going to change that short of a constitutional amendment.
It is my opinion that one of the mistakes of his Presidency was the renewed push for gun control after Sandy Hook.