Just as states with progressive lawmakers and activists have themselves initiated innovative programs over a wide range of issues, state-based progressive blogs have helped provide us with a point of view, inside information and often an edgy voice that we just don't get from the traditional media. 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 Blue Virginia, lowkell writes—Video -- Barbara Comstock: The Newest Voice in The War on Women:
By the way, on a related note, since the Barbara Comstock folks have been trying to stir up controversy, let's just be clear that Barbara Comstock has held numerous "real jobs" in her life. And yes, that includes being a mother - a tough job, and certainly a real one - and a job that John Foust would never denigrate in any way (yes, Comstock and her supporters are making s*** up again, psychologically projecting, cynically working to gin up "outrage" to fire up their supporters, etc.). The problem is, other than being a mother, she's overwhelmingly had jobs that while "real," were nothing to be proud of. For instance, how about:
• Lobbyist for the Koch Brothers on "crime and environmental issues" (one can just imagine)
• Political attack dog against the Clintons.
• House Gov. Reform Committee - Investigated the Clintons, played key role in heavily editing Webb Hubbell prison tapes
• Political attack dog against Al Gore.
• Political attack dog defending the Bush administration profiling Muslims and detaining US citizens.
• Lobbied for private prison builder Geo Group and the Entertainment Software Association, which opposes regulation of violent video games.
• Represented Chiquita Brands on asbestos liability and later voted to limit asbestos company liability.
• Political attack dog defending Tom Delay.
• Political attack dog defending pathological liar Willard "Mitt" Romney.
• Lobbyist for Blackwater.
• Scooter Libby defender
• Bush Administration DOJ—ran an "intensely political operation" under John Ashcroft
• Workforce Fairness Institute—employed Swift Boat consultants, refused to disclose companies they worked for, gave $150k to Newt Gingrich's PAC
• Susan B. Anthony List—Comstock helped raise money for this extreme anti-women's-choice group
• Virginia Delegate; voted for trans-vaginal ultrasounds and many other bad things (e.g., to cut $1.5 million from early childhood foundation funding, against the 2013 transportation compromise that's so important to the 10th CD, to allow guns in bars...).
Is this the type of person 10th CD voters want representing them in Congress, especially when she's all but promised to continue doing what she's done for decades now? We can only hope not.
At
Uppity Wisconsin,
Man MKE writes—
WISCONSIN WATER TORTURE: The drip-drip-drip of Walker corruption hurts him, but could turn off voting:
Another day, another round of political water torture for Scott Walker and his questionable campaign activities.
Over the weekend it was the Wisconsin State Journal reporting on how Walker's Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) held essentially secret talks to provide $6 million in tax credits to Ashley Furniture, a large Wisconsin-based company that, in return, promised not to cut about half its state work force. Such a deal.
Today it was the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting that in a newly released court filing, prosecutors allege Walker's campaign "crossed a bright legal line" when it coordinated with a pair of independent conservative groups, both of which advertised in support of specific candidates in the gubernatorial and state Senate recall elections of 2011 and 2012.
Drip, drip, drip. It's no wonder Team Walker has sent in its political plumbers to stem the leak of embarrassing information, or at least try to muddy up the tainted political waters with murky rhetoric.
More excerpts from progressive state blogs are below the orange gerrymander.
At Burnt Orange Report of Texas, Natalie San Luis writes—Lilith Fund 2013 Report: Abortion Access Barriers Met With Generous Donor Support:
Despite the devastating attacks on reproductive justice from the state legislature in 2013, grassroots organizations and their supporters are working harder than ever to ensure that Texans have access to abortion funds.
The Lilith Fund, an organization that provides abortion funds to Texans in need, recently released their annual report for 2013.
"We received an unprecedented outpouring of support in the past year, with donations coming from all over the country as people watched in horror at the cruelty being inflicted on Texans needing abortions," Lilith Fund reported. "Despite the generosity, we watched our clients experience greater hardships as clinics closed and doctors were unable to provide services to those most in need." [...]
Lilith Fund's sister organization, Texas Equal Access, handles abortion funding for North Texas clients. Although TEA has not yet released a 2013 report, in past years they have provided grants for more than 1,000 abortions.
At
MN Progressive Project,
Invenium Viam writes—
MNGOP Commits Suicide with a Chainsaw:
In what may turn out to be the most dramatic act of political suicide ever attempted by a political party, the MNGOP has been caught in the moral equivalent of a clergyman dropping trou on the public thoroughfare to reveal … girly underwear.
It’s common knowledge that the party has been in a major confrontation of late with Minnesota Supreme Court candidate Michelle MacDonald, who was endorsed by the MNGOP and subsequently discovered to have a DUI conviction, or pending charges, I’m unclear which. MacDonald was thereafter “disinvited” to appear at the MNGOP’s booth at the State Fair. When she said she was going to show up anyway, they changed the rules about who among their candidates could appear to kiss babies, press the flesh, and tell shameless lies about what Democrats are like—and who couldn’t—thereby converting their disinvitation into true persona non grata status. [...]
Yesterday, GOP Party Boss Keith Downey sent out an email to delegates stating: “Michelle MacDonald is our endorsed candidate. Period. Irrespective of the legitimate concerns about the Judicial Elections Committee process, barring another state convention to re-consider her endorsement, or a circumstance arising that would render her ineligible to serve in the offce, she is our endorsed candidate through the election.” [...]
And while the MNGOP today denied that Patrick Burns is a spokesman for the party, so we can all rest easy and just ignore what he said, it seems clear that he was speaking on behalf of the party leadership when he told MacDonald the leadership would meet with her after she drafted a letter repudiating her endorsement and dropping out of the race.
That not only looks bad, it is bad. It smacks of coercion including threats and intimidation of a political candidate. In my view, it’s time to stop worrying about the optics, Boss Downey, and time to start worrying about the sanctions of law.
From where things stand at the moment, it looks to me like the MNGOP is about to take a long, slow belly-slide down Hershey Hill that will end in a turnover of leadership, massive lawsuits by everybody against everybody, and possibly even some jail time. This kind of scandal could take the Grand Old a decade or more to recover from.
At
Hillbilly Report of Kentucky,
Berry Craig writes—
Vote, baby, Vote!:
My union buddy W.C. Young would be proud to see the budding voter registration drive in Ferguson, Mo.
I treasure one of his “Vote Baby Vote!” buttons. He had them made as a takeoff on “Burn Baby Burn!” from the Watts riot of 1965.
An African American from Paducah, Ky., Young was a national AFL-CIO and civil rights leader.
Voter participation in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, was just 12 percent in the most recent election, MSNBC’s Steve Benen recently wrote. “We’re trying to make young people understand that [voting]…is how to change things,’” he quoted a voter drive volunteer.
Ferguson is 67 percent African American. The mayor and five of the community’s half dozen city council members are white. The police department is 94 percent white.
Benen also quoted the Rev. Al Sharpton, host of MSNBC’s “Politics Nation With Al Sharpton,” who urged the crowd at a Sunday church service, “You all have got to start voting and showing up. 12% turnout is an insult to your children.”
Cowgirl Blog writes—
Billings Gazette Makes a Surprise Endorsement:
Over the weekend I mentioned how glaringly deficient the Zinke campaign is when it comes to basic campaign strategy, such as dealing with the press, dealing with negative issues, sparring with the Lewis campaign through the daily news cycle, and so on.
Today, it got much worse for Zinke. The Billings Gazette–which announced last year that it would no longer be endorsing candidates for office–effectively endorsed John Lewis via a negative editorial about Zinke.
It’s as bad an editorial as a candidate will ever get, accusing him of essentially being a dishonest person with no political courage at all. It’s about as bad as the editorials that were written about Walsh after his plagiarism was revealed.
A nasty, nasty opinion piece by entire editorial board of the largest paper in Montana. It’s not easy to garner such hatred, especially when one is a Republican.
Here it is.
At
Ohio Daily,
Derek K writes—
Interesting report from Innovation Ohio about Ohio's low-wage recovery - Just wait for Kasich's 2nd term and RTW -...:
Innovation Ohio has an interesting report that shows that many of the new jobs created in Ohio's recovery have been low-wage ones. They write...
"While much has been made of state job gains and reductions in the state’s unemployment rate, Ohio’s economy employs nearly 140,000 workers than it did prior to the 2008 recession. Innovation Ohio sought to explore the jobs that have been created during the state’s recovery and see whether they are comparable to those that were lost.
By reviewing occupational employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2007 to 2013, we found that:
- Prior to the start of the recession in 2007, 33% of Ohioans were employed in occupations that pay, on average, more than $20 per hour, 39% in jobs paying between $13.40 and $19.99, and just 28% in jobs paying $7.00-$13.39 hourly.
- At the end of 2013, low-wage occupations had jumped to 36% of Ohio employment, while medium-paying jobs fell to 34% and high-wage occupations dropped to 31%.
Digging deeper into the numbers, we found that all the job gains in Ohio have come from low-wage occupations. Employment in high and medium wage occupations declined during the recession and continued to fall as the recovery began. Low wage professions now represent 36% of the state’s employment, up from 28% in 2007."
At
The Prairie Blog of North Dakota,
Jim Fuglie writes—
Protecting ALL Public Lands–A Modest Proposal:
I haven’t written much since I got back, but I want to share with you today an article which will appear in the current issue of Dakota Country Magazine, which should be on the news stands about now. Here goes.
Here’s a wild idea: What if a state with nearly unlimited financial resources decided to do everything it could possibly do to protect the wildlife, and its habitat, on all of its public lands?
The key words there are “everything” and “all.” What if we really could do that? Well, guess what. In North Dakota, we can. Here are my thoughts, collected in my head one day on top a Badlands butte (where I tend to think most clearly), and transcribed to paper as best I can recall.
The two largest landowners—and mineral owners—in North Dakota are the state and federal governments. That means they have tremendous power and influence over how our state’s minerals—read oil and gas, for now—are developed.
At
Nevada Progressive,
atdnext writes—
Go Ahead & #GoBigObama:
The devolution is now complete. Republican politicians who once supported [comprehensive immigration reform] are now running away from it as fast as they can. And once respected "conservative think tanks" are now advocating public funding for anti-immigrant/anti-government militia groups.
So why are they doing this? Why are they flip-flopping so wildly? And why are they now embracing the extreme anti-immigrant militia movement?
Simple answer: Short term politics. Longer answer: They're so frightened of their 21st Century Know Nothing base that they're willing to sacrifice sound policy (and smart political strategy) to grovel to G-O-TEA Culture Warriors' darkest desires.
This is why CIR now lies dead in some House committee room. And this is why President Obama must take executive action to address what the lower House of Congress refuses to fix. While DACA does provide some relief for DREAMers, their family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors are still being deported en masse. Even though they committed no crimes and have made many positive contributions to our communities, they're still being deported. In fact, President Obama has presided over more deportations than any other US President.
Since the lower House of Congress refuses to act, President Obama must. Since House Republicans (cough- Joe Heck -cough) insist on playing petty politics with real people's lives, President Obama must look past the petty politics and focus on good policy. Since the lower House of Congress declined to "go big," the President must.
At
R.I. Future.org,
Bob Plain writes—
Lies, truthiness and one-liners: Democrats debate for governor:
After a summer of spending millions to attack and fact check each other in TV commercials, the three leading Democrats running for governor took the opportunity to do so once more at their last debate before the primary.
“My campaign alone has created more jobs in Rhode Island than Narragansett Beer,” Clay Pell quipped of Gina Raimondo’s pseudo-claim in a TV ad that her venture capital investment in Narragansett Brewery helped create more than 1,000 jobs in Rhode Island.
This was the line of the night. But a close second was when moderator Tim White pushed back about Pell’s talking point about not taking any money from lobbyists or PACs. White pointed out that Pell is independently wealthy and that several high level NEARI employees are volunteering their time for him. Rarely does a debate moderator win applause, but this was a question begging to be asked that was unlikely to be addressed by any candidate.
The big lie of the evening came courtesy of Raimondo when she was accused of standing with Wall Street. She replied, “I’m from Smithfield, I’ve never worked on Wall Street.” Wall Street, of course, in this context, is not a physical address.
At
ColoradoPols, writes—
Beauprez says Tea Party “uprising” is “healthiest thing we have seen in very long time in America.”:
Remember this Denver Post headline, after the June 24 Republican primary: "In Bob Beauprez, Colorado GOP goes with mainstream contender."
I rolled my eyes at the time because, I'd been following Beauprez for years and knew him to be far outside the mainstream, as seen in his support for replacing income tax with a "consumption" or sales tax, just to name one Tea Party favorite.
Maybe whoever wrote The Post's June 24 headline knows better now than to characterize Beauprez as a "mainstream contender," as his Tea Party leanings have oozed out in the news over the past few months. (See his comments about Obama pushing America close to "civil war" and about 47 percent of Americans being "perfectly happy" to let someone else pay the bill.)
If not, Beauprez's statement yesterday, in response to a question from KLZ 560-AM guest host Jimmy Sengenberger, should seal the deal:
"I have said for years, Jimmy, that this [the Tea Party] is the healthiest civic movement I have seen in my lifetime, and I'm almost 66 now. I don't think I've ever witnessed a time where people have stood up and said, I want to save this Republic. I want my government back, and focused primarily on constitutional originality and fiscal discipline. It can't get any better than that. The time is absolutely. Are there disagreements among various groups and various individuals. Sure. Or is it always a perfect, clear smooth path. No, of course not. It wasn't in our nation's founding either. But if this nation is going to survive. If we are going to be that greatest nation on god's green Earth, it isn't up to government. It is up to the people. And this uprising that we broadly call the Tea Party movement in my opinion, again, is the healthiest thing we have seen in very long time in America." [BigMedia emphasis]
What kind of mainstream candidate could possibly say this? None. Ask Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin.
At
Green Mountain Daily of Vermont,
Sue Prent writes—
NRC says: "Don't worry; be happy!":
If you assumed that, with the triple meltdown at Fukushima still unresolved, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency would climb out of the pocket of industry and soberly embrace its role as a safety regulator, you were sadly mistaken.
On August 26, the NRC endorsed the safety of long-term onsite storage of nuclear waste, either in dry cask storage, or in spent fuel pools, which were originally designed to store very limited amounts of fuel over just a few years, until they could safely be committed to dry cask storage or a permanent repository. This decision says that it is safe to leave spent fuel in these pools for sixty, a hundred, even 120 years! In so doing, it opens the door to licensing of even more waste generating reactors.
Opponents of the endorsement have raised an outcry because one of the commissioners, William D. Magwood, who was in on the vote is leaving the Agency on August 31, and has already accepted a highly paid position working for an agency which promotes the industry he has been regulating. [...]
The vote was originally scheduled to take place in October, after he had made the move and a new Commissioner had taken his place; but it appears as if the date was moved up in order to take advantage of at least one very captive vote.
To understand how outrageous this vote is, it is only necessary to look at the manner in which a spent fuel pool fire at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 caught fire and exploded after its cooling bath was breached, ejecting highly radioactive materials into the atmosphere and surrounding environment.
The real thermal threat of pool storage might last less than a decade, but that is by no means the only manner in which an extremely over-crowded spent fuel pool represents heightened menace to surrounding communities.