This week at 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. Here is the September 10 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents.
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At Montana Cowgirl, the Cowgirl herownself writes—Professor Who Fought College Sex Column is Vying for Supreme Court:
The most important campaign in Montana this year is not the Governor’s race. Rather, it’s a tie between the Governor’s race and the Supreme Court race. The Montana Supreme Court leans liberal but that could change if retiring Judge Pat Cotter, a reliable progressive, is replaced by the wrong person. And the wrong person is Kristen Juras, a right-wing University of Montana law professor who is running for the seat against progressive Dirk Sandefur, a district judge in Great Falls, also a UM Grad.
Juras is a conservative in a liberal town (Missoula) who first made waves in 2009 when she tried to put an end to a sex advice column that ran weekly in the Montana Kaimin, the UM campus newspaper.
The column, tame by today’s standards, was written by a female student and offered candid sexual advice on such topics as vibrators or “kinky gift ideas for Valentine’s day.” The prim Juras apparently got bad vibrations from reading the column, and so she stormed into the President’s office to demand that the column be censored. She felt that at most, a column that addresses sexuality should deal only with sexual health issues, which in her mind meant discussing things like abstinence or the dangers of premarital sex. [...]
Juras is perfectly entitled to hold an old-fashioned viewpoint but as usual with social conservatism it became activism of the kind where a small group tries to impose its antiquated ideas of morality on the majority. Never mind that as a law professor she had no business sticking her nose into any of this. [...] This tells us that as a supreme Court Justice, she will similarly try to impose her views on (for example) abortion, where she is anti-choice. She also has said that her biggest concern as a Supreme Court Justice would be to ensure that pharmacists may refuse to sell contraceptives, something that close to 90% of women use birth control at some point in our lives.
At Blue Oregon, Chuck Sheketoff writes—Oregon health coverage numbers bolster case for Measure 97:
Today we learned from the U.S. Census Bureau that while health insurance coverage markedly improved last year, many Oregonians still lack coverage. Oregonians must take decisive steps if we are to make sure that everyone in our state has the basic protection of health insurance. And one of those steps is the enactment of Measure 97.
The share of Oregonians with health insurance reached 93 percent in 2015, up from 90.3 percent in 2014. Compared to 2013, before the major reforms of the federal Affordable Care Act took effect, Oregon’s uninsured rate has shrunk by more than half.
Without question, credit for this improvement goes to the Affordable Care Act, which has helped Oregon cover nearly 400,000 more adults under the Oregon Health Plan and over 135,000 with private coverage.
As beneficial as the Affordable Care Act is, it doesn’t reach everyone. Large gaps remain. [...]
Measure 97 could go a long way in helping Oregon reach the goal of everyone having the basic protection of health insurance. The measure proposes to raise taxes on C-corporations with more than $25 million in Oregon sales, and direct the revenue to education, senior services and healthcare.
At Blue Virginia, lowkell writes—Rep. Don Beyer Defends State AGs from Unlawful Subpoenas in ExxonMobil Climate Science Denial Case:
Great stuff by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA 8th), pushing back on the House “Science” Committee (“Science” in quotes because this is more accurately described as the Republicans’ science DENIAL committee) and its bought-and-paid-for-by-the-oil-industry Chair, Rep. Lamar Smith. The point of today’s witch hunt…er, “hearing” was to use House subpoenas to intimidate state Attorneys General like Eric Schneiderman of NY from investigating ExxonMobil for lying to its shareholders about climate science — a crime in NY and elsewhere.
Aside from being a disgrace to Congress and America, today’s GOP hearing was utterly hypocritical. Check out the video (see above), in which Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) tells Wolf Blitzer that his committee (House Oversight) doesn’t have the authority to investigate the Donald Trump/Pam Bondi scandal because it (supposedly) lacks jurisdiction. Yet somehow the less-powerful “Science” Committee has the power to investigate state AGs??? Riiiiiight. [...]
Finally, see this HuffPo article, “House Science Hearing On ExxonMobil And Subpoenas: What You Should Know,” for more background, such as that “[t]wo of the three witnesses that Chairman Smith has called for today’s hearing — Professor Ronald Rotunda and Elizabeth Price Foley — have extensive financial ties to the fossil fuel industry and to think tanks that deny the dangers of climate change.
At Blue Jersey, Rosi Efthim writes—Hillary and Pneumonia, Trump and Dr. Oz:
Cute ways to avoid the press: Up to now, as CNN points out, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have provided the public with just 12 paragraphs of doctors’ statements between them, and both of them have not allowed a protective pool of reporters, spending most of their campaigns unwilling to let press travel with them (Clinton finally allowed reporters on her plane her last week, Trump’s gold-plated ride is too good for ink-stained wretches, and only a chosen few get access in the air). Clearly, both have sought to keep reporters’ scrutiny at bay. When politicians do that, they’re attempted to have as much control as they can over public perception, to keep quiet anything embarrassing, to present only what’s flattering. And it raises red flags. It should.
At Blue Oklahoma, DocHoc writes—Consider Three Oklahoma Leaders:
Think about 28 pigeons in varying states of distress, many dying after they’ve been shot for fun, flipping and squirming on the ground in pain all so U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe can raise political money. It just happened here in Oklahoma.This has been widely reported in the news over the past couple of days. [...]
Think about Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who accepted so-called “campaign” money from a right-wing extremist who bizarrely claims animal welfare advocates want to do away with the concept of having pets, an absurd self-interested claim made to obfuscate and hide the truth beyond his pro-corporate vision. Pruitt’s own record on animal, human and environmental rights represents a quintessential, immoral right-wing extremist agenda. Pruitt doesn’t have an office he’s running for, but he’s collecting money, anyway, to advance an extreme political agenda.
One more. Think about Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and his at least implicit support for keeping a distressed elephant, Bamboo, in her tiny OKC Zoo enclosure despite a national outcry. Cornett is on the OKC Zoo Trust. He could speak out. He may well be the “biggest” animal offender here. Sorry for the wordplay, but he could simply insist the zoo place Bamboo in a sanctuary, and it would probably happen or at least it would kickstart a real debate here.
Welcome to Oklahoma, where our leaders are not so nice to animals and not so nice to humans. Animals and teachers and, well, any halfway intelligent people, if you can, need to get out of here as soon as possible. This has become the nation’s cesspool of cruelty and ignorance to animals and humans. We lead the nation in our female incarceration rate on a per capita basis. We’ve cut eduction funding on a per capita basis the most of any state since 2008.
At Democratic Diva of Arizona, Donna writes—Had It Happened on Al Gore’s Watch:
Imagine it, Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. Two planes crash into the World Trade Center. Another crashes into the Pentagon. Still another crashes into a field in Pennsylvania.
Imagine if Al Gore had been President that day.
Do you believe Gore would enjoy a 90% approval rating on September 24, 2001?
I don’t.
I feel it in my bones, this reflexive bias toward Republicans being in charge, leading inexorably to them being held harmless for the most abysmal failures and even incontrovertible evidence of moral depravity when they are in office. I’ve felt it since I was a kid in the late 70s when Jimmy Carter was President, when he and his family were constantly portrayed as hapless goobers with straw in their teeth and everything he did was viewed as a failure, with no consideration for the challenges he faced. When Reagan defeated Carter, the prevailing sentiment (at least from what was apparent to me from TV and print media) was that rightness was restored to the White House. No matter how many people in the Reagan administration were indicted. No matter how bad his economic policies actually were. All was right with the world because the party that best represented the interests of men and white people was in charge. [...]
Basically, since I was 10 years old I have grokked that the party of men and white people is the party that is assumed to be the rightful owners of the White House. Again, I neveragreed with it, but I got it. It meant that I have accepted media people and other opinion shapers being reflexively deferential to Republican candidates, while subjecting Democratic ones to intense and harshly critical scrutiny, as the normal order of things in the election.
At TxSharon’s Blue Daze, Sharon Wilson writes—I’m in the Fracking Crosshairs:
Goodie! I feel like throwing my hat over the windmill.
You see Internet people, the oil and gas industry got caught in their own loop in Texas. When oil and gas loses in the place that knows fracking best, they’ve lost. All they can do is keep marketing the same bullshit in a different package.
This is the classic fracking mafia psyops that I warned you about. It is meant to divide and conquer those who oppose fracking for all the many reason–pollution, private property rights, health impacts, climate change, etc. Whether you agree with me or not, on what I strongly feel is a social justice issue (read on) the fracking mafia has tuned up their psyops machine hoping to divide and conquer Texans fighting for fracking justice.
HERE IS THE LATEST PACKAGE OF BULLSHIT.
The conservative group that started an effort to hold environmentalists to account during the 2016 campaign is branching out into the Texas energy debate.
AR Squared (@ARSquared), the policy arm of America Rising, announced Wednesday it will start Core News Texas after Labor Day. The website will be a branch of the group’s already existing Core News and will aim to influence the daily energy debate in Texas.
This next part is some totally new and original bullshit that we’ve never, ever heard before: We have a radical agenda, we are a well-funded, coordinated bunch of liberuls who aren’t even from Texas!!!
Wait: I’ve heard that somewhere before. Wait part 2: I actually am from Texas. I’m a 5th generation Texan who is not all that coordinated and not at all well-funded.
At Bleeding Heartland of Iowa, desmoinesdem writes—Have the Waterloo Police implemented any recommended reforms?
A series of disturbing incidents involving Waterloo police officers came to light this summer through legal settlements, a pending lawsuit, and a criminal trial. The common thread was white police officers using excessive force or offensive language toward African-Americans in Waterloo, the Iowa city with the largest proportion of black residents.
Waterloo Police Chief Dan Trelka announced an investigation into one officer, who laughed at the scene of an 18-year-old’s fatal shooting, called the victim a "dead mother f—-er" and said "we just need a semi-apocalyptic event to get rid of 90 percent of them."
But Trelka has also accused the media of making too much of the scandals, telling local radio host Bob Bruce last month that negative news coverage obscures great progress being made in the department. Trelka acknowledged "we needed to adjust," adding that "we have adjusted with changes in policy and training."
Last year, external reviewers suggested at least ten reforms for the Waterloo Police Department. I have been unable to find evidence that Trelka and his staff acted on any of those recommendations.
At Uppity Wisconsin, Steve Hanson writes—Because Scott Walker Asked:
We all knew it was going on, and we all knew it was deplorable. But it's always a great day to see the documentation.
Today's lead article on The Guardian's web site is Because Scott Walker Asked,(link is external) an article based on a leak of the John Doe documentation which has been sealed by the courts. It is not clear who leaked these documents to The Guardian, but it's refreshing to see what it is that the donors to conservatives in Wisconsin have been so keen to cover up for years. It's what we all expected, but worse to see all in one lump.
The article is thoughtful, and I think fair. At the beginning of the ill-fated recall election of the governor, he started soliciting money from big donors - but rather than having it sent to his own campaign, he requested money be sent to the Club for Growth, since that allowed untraceable donations of unlimited size. The Club for Growth and other conservative groups have always maintained that this was perfectly legal since they money was not being used in a coordinated campaign to elect someone, but was being used for "educational" advertising.
You've all seen these educational ads along the lines of "Call Joe Schmoe and tell him to stop beating his wife". It often then turns out that Joe isn't even married, but no matter, the damage is done. Anyone who believes these ads are educational just because they do not contain the magic words "Vote for _______" is living in a fool's paradise.
This is an appalling tale of dark money gone wrong. The article documents quite a lot of coordination with the Club for Growth, and a concerted effort on the part of many in the Walker administration to funnel money into campaigns with the intent of keeping Scott Walker in office, and to have State Supreme Court Justice Prosser re-elected. It also tells the well-known story of how the state passed legislation in favor of lead paint manufacturers after a healthy wallop of dark money flowing to support candidates in the state. We knew all of this went on, but we did not know the details and the extent. The leak of the documents makes this clear.
At the Progressive Midwesterner, Aaron Camp writes—Donald Trump implicated in Scott Walker corruption scandal in Wisconsin:
A recent leak of documents from the John Doe II investigation into allegations that Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) illegally coordinated with outside political groups (most notably the Wisconsin chapter of the right-wing group Club for Growth), has, yet again, shown that the Walker Administration in Wisconsin is grotesquely corrupt. You can view the documents here, and the British newspaper The Guardian has a special feature on the document release here.
As evidenced by the leaked documents, the corruption trail is so deep in Wisconsin, it leads right up to the individual that the Republican Party nominated for President of the United States in this year’s presidential election, Donald Trump.
According to a recently leaked email, Walker was scheduled to meet with Donald Trump at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York City on the afternoon of April 3, 2012. 725 Fifth Avenue is the street address of Trump Tower, the headquarters of Donald Trump’s business empire. At the time, Walker was facing a recall attempt against him, with the recall election scheduled for June of that year (Walker went on to survive the recall attempt against him).
On the exact same day that Walker was scheduled to meet with Trump, Trump wrote a check, a photocopy of which was recently leaked, for $15,000. The check was not written either to Scott Walker personally or to Friends of Scott Walker, Walker’s official gubernatorial campaign committee, but instead to “Wisconsin Club for Growth Inc.”. Wisconsin Club for Growth is an outside political group that has spent millions of dollars supporting Republican political efforts in Wisconsin.
At Beach Peanuts of Florida, Martha Jackovics writes—Trump Super PAC Chair Rick Scott Will Pick State Attorney To Investigate Trump-Bondi:
The donation Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi solicited and received from Donald Trump just before she decided not to investigate complaints against Trump University has sparked several calls for investigations and numerous complaints.
Florida Governor Rick Scott, a supporter of Donald Trump, and the chair of a Trump Super PAC, will now be in a position to pick which State Attorney will lead one of those investigations.
Because when it comes to Florida politics, conflict of interest is baked into the cake. Republicans wouldn't have it any other way.
According to The Tampa Bay Times, Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober, the man charged with investigating one of the bribery complaints, has requested that another prosecutor take over because his friendship with Pam Bondi is a conflict of interest. But buried in the Times story is this:
Scott now can choose which of the other 19 state attorneys in Florida should consider an investigation into Bondi.
That would be Rick Scott, YUGE supporter of Donald Trump and Bondi, and the chair of Rebuilding America Now, a Super PAC created to help elect the very man whose apparent pay-to-play action launched the very same investigation, along with several others.
At Colorado Pols, Colorado Pols writes—Tancredo Says Many Venues Refused to Host Gellar Event:
Anti-Islamic pundit Pam Gellar’s visit to Denver last week was greeted with horror by ColoradoPols, who commented that “Gellar’s hatred may be constitutionally protected, but it should not be welcomed.”
It’s no surprise, but thankfully others in Denver concur, to the degree that organizer Tom Tancredo has a tough time finding a venue that would accept Gellar.
“I had Pam Gellar speak at Colorado Christian University because it was about the only institution that would allow us there, by the way,” Tancredo told KCOL host Jimmy Lakey Tuesday. “We tried and tried. Including, I should say, the Jewish Community Center in Denver, turned us down – said it was too controversial.”
In an interview today, Tancredo declined to list the other venues, but he confirmed that the Jewish Community Center was among them.
As Pols pointed out last week, the Southern Povery Law Center tracks Gellar and reports examples of how, as SPLC puts it, “Geller uses her website to publish her most revolting insults of Muslims.”
On air, Tancredo gave CCU credit for hosting the Gellar event, which he described as “wonderful.”
“You just cannot imagine how, I think, thirsty people are for the truth,” Tancredo told Lakey, explaining his belief that the media deliberately hide the identies of the perpetrators of 9/11 as radical Islamic terrorists. “And how appreciative they are. They gave Gellar a two minute standing ovation at the end of the speech. Yeah. It was wonderful.”