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 Eclectablog of Michigan, LOLGOP writes—Republicans understand consequences better than Democrats—which is why they’re terrified:
In her painfully good new book This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein sums up what she thinks it would take to address the threat of climate change: “In short, it means changing everything about the economy so that our pollution doesn’t change everything about our physical world.”
She argues, alarmingly, that conservatives understand this far more deeply than those on the left. Of course, conservatives not worried about the potential damage to the planet, which they could find some way to monetize. They’re worried about the damage to their worldview and—ultimately—their ability to hold power. [...]
Climate change denial is fed by billionaires, who make billions off carbon-emitting industries, spending millions each year to fund a movement that spreads doubt about science and attacks anyone who takes Global Warming seriously as un-American. But the right also innately recognizes that any change—especially change as radical as what’s needed to address the climate crisis—is the enemy of conservativism.
A reasonable response to a completely avoidable disaster would be to radically reduce emissions by increasing taxes and regulations on polluters. It would require expanding the government’s role in decreasing the chances of disaster and preparing for impending crisis with massive investments in new technologies and public works while considering tactics that would reduce wasteful consumption and give people more time focus on sustainable lifestyles—like basic income.
At
The Seminole Democrat of Florida, writes—
"Ray Rice is the bigger victim here!" - FoxNews:
A.J. Delgado was a guest on Hannity, of course. Delgado has made many horrible statements on FOX in the past, like women aren't really raped, but are brainwashed by liberals into thinking they are. (This also explains why conservative women have never been raped, apparently.)
Naturally, Hannity looked at the Ray Rice video and thought, "I know the perfect person everyone wants to hear from about this issue!"
Seriously, what's next, FOX? Hiring admitted racist Mark Fuhrman to discuss the situation in Ferguson?
(What. Wait. Dammit, really???)
So A.J. Delgado went to discuss the delicate intricacies of domestic violence on Hannity, and did not disappoint.
Below the orange gerrymander you can read some more excerpts.
At Better Georgia, Bryan Long writes—This is how Nathan Deal got rich in public office:
Gov. Deal did what most public officials would never do: he got rich from a business competitor that has a massive tax dispute with the state and then left taxpayers on the hook.
Early in Deal’s administration, the governor’s new appointee at the Georgia Department of Revenue launched an audit of the governor’s biggest competitor in the junkyard business.
The governor’s revenue boss used the power of his public office to open the books on the corporation that would eventually purchase the governor’s struggling and scandal-scarred junkyard.
Big surprise! Deal’s revenue boss found that the auto salvage company, Copart, Inc., owed Georgia $74 million in unpaid sales taxes on auto parts.
This is where being governor really paid off for Nathan Deal. [...]
After being hit with a bill for all those unpaid sales taxes that threatened the company’s operations and financial condition, Copart immediately started the process to buy the governor’s indebted junkyard.
At
HorsesAss.org of Washington,
Goldy writes—
Seattle Times Labels Imaginary Seattle Municipal Broadband Network a “Failure”:
There goes the Seattle Times editorial board just making shit up again:
As efforts to develop publicly owned networks have failed, competition between multiple providers seems the best way to improve service.
Um, what effort to develop publicly owned networks? We’ve had no effort here in Seattle. There was an effort in Tacoma, and that’s been up and running and providing reliable service for years. And recent municipal broadband networks using more advanced technologies have proven even more successful—for example, the affordable gigabit Internet the residents of Chattanooga now enjoy.
But while there has certainly been chatter about developing a municipal broadband network here in Seattle, and there have been a couple of studies over the years, there has been no actual effort to build one. None. Zero. Zilch. So please, stop lying to your readers, Seattle Times, in defense your inflexible pro-corporate/anti-government ideology.
At
Blue Jersey,
Rosi Efthim writes—
Disbarred: The other shoe falls for Pete Cammarano:
The New Jersey Supreme Court rejected a 4-2 recommendation of its Disciplinary Review Board that Cammarano receive only a 3-year suspension of his NJ law license. The Court's Office for Attorney Ethics appealed that decision and the Court agreed. The decision was unanimous. From the decision:
"An elected official who sells his office—who offers favored treatment to a private developer in exchange for money—betrays a solemn public trust. An attorney who engages in this form of public corruption, forsaking his oath of office and the oath taken when admitted to the bar, should expect that he will be disbarred."
Cammarano, the youngest mayor in Hoboken history, spent only 3 weeks in office. The candidate he beat? Dawn Zimmer, now mayor. Her claims that Chris Christie's LG Kim Guadagno tried to extort her using Hurricane Sandy funds are now the subject of a federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office. The same office - when Chris Christie ran it—that brought down Cammarano.
Not too long ago, Cammarano was a rising political star; good-looking, 32, and the newly-elected mayor of Hoboken. Then in the early morning of July 23rd, 2009, federal agents fanned out all across NJ, rounding up politicians, political operatives, a handful of corrupt rabbis. It was a perp walk that stunned the state, made national news, and resulted in dozens of convictions. The Bid Rig was a joint sting of the FBI, IRS and the U.S. Attorney's Office, using the crooked failed real estate agent Solomon Dwek as bait. But it was a Chris Christie operation all the way. And it's the reason he's your governor right now.
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CenLamar of Louisiana,
Lamar White Jr. writes—
Louisiana Family Forum Isn’t A Charity; It’s A Tax Shelter For The State’s Most Powerful Lobbyist:
The Louisiana Family Forum is the most powerful and successful lobbying organization in a state brimming with lobbyists and special interests, and Gene Mills, its President, is arguably Louisiana’s single most powerful registered lobbyist. [...]
Every year, Mills releases a “legislative scorecard,” ranking legislators based on their support for his agenda. Those who support him the most are awarded with trophies at a lavish annual banquet attended by the Governor and members of the media. He published this year’s scorecard a few days ago.
This year, the top prizes went to legislators who voted against taking billions in already available federal funds to expand Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of uninsured Louisiana families; supported a law allowing the “open carry” of guns in bars; opposed protections for gay and lesbian citizens in workplace and housing discrimination cases; rejected the repeal of an unconstitutional, dead letter statute mandating the teaching of creationism in the pubic school (not to be confused with the LSEA, this law was actually already struck down by the United States Supreme Court nearly 30 years ago); and agreed to prohibit the sale of alcoholic ice cream, among other things.
Because that, to Gene Mills and the Louisiana Family Forum, is the proper litmus test for an “outstanding family advocate.” [...]
You see, the Louisiana Family Forum may be led by a lobbyist and it may be commonly thought of as a lobbying organization, but for the purposes of the Internal Revenue Service, it is actually a tax-exempt, tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) “educational” charity. The Louisiana Family Forum doesn’t pay taxes, and if you donate to them, you can take a cut from your taxes as well.
At
BlueNC,
James writes—
The other most important race in North Carolina: Robin Hudson for Supreme Court:
Everyone who's paying attention knows that control of the US Senate rests with the election here in North Carolina. Moderate Kay Hagan has her hands full with extremist Thom Tillis, a race that is being covered to death by media around the world. The stakes couldn't be higher.
And yet they are. Because there's an equally important election for the North Carolina Supreme Court, where Justice Robin Hudson is up against the dark lord, Art Pope. Having already acquired the legislature and the governor's office, Mr. Pope would have absolute control over the future of North Carolina with a hand-picked NC Supreme Court.
The recent retirement of Chief Justice Sarah Parker has left Robin Hudson as the highest-ranking woman in the entire NC court system. In addition, she is the senior Democrat on the NC Supreme Court. With her seat, justice truly hangs in the balance.
There is only one way to combat the millions the right wing is pouring into our state. Word of mouth. And no matter how much money you have or don't have, you do have an email list and a voice you can use.
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Plunderbund,
David DeWitt writes—
The Consequences of Crazy Are Upon Us Again:
This is what happens, America, when one of our two viable political parties makes its raison d’être the abject vandalism of our self-government. This is what happens when the conversation starts at crazy, zooms through madness, and comes screeching in at full-on, batshit insane. This is the game where facts don’t matter, and consequences be damned.
“Cancer survivors, their relatives, physicians and supporters will fan across Capitol Hill today to urge Congress to do something it has no intention of doing right now: Providing substantially more money for cancer research, including clinical trials of promising drugs and treatments,” reports Stephen Koff, Washington bureau chief for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
How long, great Vishnu, how long must we endure? Every year, the hacks strap up in their favorite shitkickin’ boots and stomp manure through the Congressional budget process. Every year, everyday Americans get flicked by the flying feces. It’s a biomedical hazard. I worry over infection.
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Cottonmouth of Mississippi,
Ryan Brown writes—
This Government Brought To You By Rima Industrial and Mississippi Silicon, Part II:
At a January ground-breaking for Mississippi Silicon’s new production facility, Ricardo Vicintin, President and CEO of Rima Industrial, said “Rima considered many locations around the world for the new facility and we greatly appreciate the support and enthusiasm shown by the citizens and government leaders in Mississippi.” In getting $25 million in exchange for creating 200 jobs, perhaps Vicintin should have been appreciative.
We know this to be true: Rima Industrial had already shopped numerous sites across the United States and elsewhere looking for the best deal they could get. Also known to be true is that Vicintin is an indicted felon in Brazil, has a racketeering charge pending in federal court, and has been sued for attempting to evade US anti-dumping laws by importing silicon metal from Brazil to the United States at unfairly low prices.
What was not known previously was that the entire deal seems to have come together all around a secretive junket to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. We cannot confirm whether Governor Phil Bryant enjoyed long strolls along Copacabana beach or with whom he met with on the trip. The Mississippi Development Authority, which paid for the trip with a combination of taxpayer money and corporate cash, refuses to release the details.
Not long after Phil Bryant returned tanned and rested last year, a bevy of corporate filings related to the new Tishomingo County industrial endeavor cropped up. Interestingly, Mississippi Silicon Holdings LLC, which is owned almost entirely by Rima Industrial, didn’t even exist until just weeks before the junket.
In fact, none of the company’s affiliated corporations came into existence until after the Mississippi trade delegation’s September 2013 trip to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. And the primary owner of the project, Rima Industrial S/A of Brazil, wasn’t announced until three months after the trip during a press conference headed by Phil Bryant.
At
Burnt Orange Report,
Katie Singh writes—
Dan Patrick Voted for Massive Cuts to School Funding, Lied About it on Campaign Trail:
Last month, Travis County district judge John Dietz ruled that the Texas Legislature’s $5.4 billion cuts to public education in 2011 were unconstitutional. In response, State Senator and Republican Lieutenant Governor nominee Dan Patrick claimed that he “led the charge” to restore the funding cuts, trying to cast himself as an advocate for Texas students.
The one problem with that claim? It’s completely false.
The Austin American-Statesman‘s Politifact looked into Patrick’s claim that he “led the charge” to restore education funding and found it so egregious that they gave it their worst rating–“pants on fire”.
As the Statesman pointed out, when the Legislature voted to restore $3.4 billion to public school spending in 2013, “Patrick was among four senators who voted against the final version of the budget.” He did speak in favor of a State Senate budget that added some funding to public schools, but the Statesman noted that when doing so Patrick “made no mention of rolling back the 2011 reductions.”
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R.I. Future.org,
Steve Ahlquist writes—
What it means to be progressive?:
A while back, Mark Gray and Bob Plain were discussing the word “progressive” (while discussing Sam Howard’s piece here) and neither seemed sure of how to define the term. (Since then, Andrew Tillett-Saks took a stab at defining the term here.) Bob suggested the term had something to do with supporting “bottom up” Keynesian economics and later suggested that progressives should seek to the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. Mark seemed to indicate that the term was essentially meaningless and suggested the word “liberal” be reclaimed. As a Humanist, I found this exchange interesting, because at its core, Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life based in reason, compassion, optimism, courage and action, so the term “progressive” is at the core of my beliefs in a very basic way.
Simply put, progressives advocate for social reform. Working from the core value of compassion, progressives see the expansion of human and civil rights as important goals and work to advance the well being of all humans. Built into progressive ideals is an optimism about the necessity of human beings coming together to solve the larger issues confronting our world. When done correctly, progressivism is not Utopian fantasy, because progressives should be pragmatists, grounded in the real world.
Mark and Bob indicated in their podcast that being a pragmatic progressive is akin to being a compassionate conservative. They were riffing off statements made by House Speaker Gordon Fox and State Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who both referred to themselves as pragmatists. However, Raimondo and Fox were not talking about pragmatism as an approach to values decisions but as an approach to political realities, akin to Kissinger’s realpolitik. The statements by Fox and Raimondo indicated a willingness to abandon progressive values when politically expedient, rather than adopting a pragmatic approach towards executing progressive values.
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Blue Oregon,
T.A. Barnhart writes—
Wehby: When support for rights is no support at all:
You’ve seen the headline:
New Wehby Ad Touts Her Support For Equality
Except, of course, she didn’t. What Dr Wehby did was distribute a press release that says she supports equality. Clever, huh? At no point in her ad does Monica Wehby explicitly state that she supports marriage equality.
This is why the Koch Brothers spend millions to support campaigns like this: to develop lies that sound like something they are not. Here’s how the money and wordsmithing suckered one notable Beltway media outlet, “The Hill” —
Republican Senate candidate touts support for gay marriage
By Alexandra Jaffe
Oregon Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby is touting her support for gay marriage in a new ad, an unusual move for a Republican and perhaps the only example of such an ad from a GOP Senate candidate this cycle.
But here’s what the Wehby campaign actually says:
I’m proud and humbled to have the endorsement of Ben and Paul. Their courage to stand up for their family, and against inequality is inspiring and embodies the spirit I will serve with as Oregon’s next Senator.
Someone please point out where this is an endorsement of marriage equality. It is not. Wehby does not endorse marriage equality. She does not endorse the rights of Oregon’s GLBTQ community. She does not state that every Oregonian shares the same legal right to create a family via marriage.