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 know about.
Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
At Appalachian Voices of West Virginia, Matt writes—Who Owns West Virginia’s Water? A Cautionary Tale:
It took a few days after a state of emergency was declared across nine West Virginia counties and one-sixth of the state’s population was told not to drink or bathe using their tap water for the national news media to discover a story of national importance occurring in the political backwaters of Appalachia.
But most haven’t yet picked up on what may be the most interesting and important detail: why so many people in this water-rich state depend on a single, privately-owned treatment system and distribution network that sprawls across nine counties for their supply of drinking water.
In many communities, the tale of coal industry activities polluting people’s drinking water supply is anything but new. Places like Prenter in Boone County have seen a lot worse.
The topic of waste from coal preparation plants polluting well water in Prenter was the centerpiece of a blockbuster piece published by The New York Times in 2009 that described the systemic failures of states like West Virginia to enforce the federal Clean Water Act. [...]
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Blue Virginia,
Jeff Barnett writes—
"Booze and food industries' weapon of mass destruction" Attacks Minimum Wage Increase:
In Tuesday night's State of the Union Address, President Obama called to raise the minimum wage. Less than 10 hours after the President's speech, a full page attack ad attack in The Wall Street Journal (page A14) appeared on the Nation's doorsteps and desks.
| "In his State of the Union address President Obama endorsed a nearly 40 percent increase in the minimum wage." |
The ad was paid for by The Employment Policies Institute ("one of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a Washington, DC public affairs firm owned by Rick Berman, who lobbies for the restaurant, hotel, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries"). According to Wikipedia, EPI is led by Richard Berman, who was described by 60 Minutes as "the booze and food industries' weapon of mass destruction." Reportedly, Berman previously fronted for the tobacco and booze industries. His past targets include PETA and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). He has also "run numerous media campaigns on the issues of obesity, soda tax, smoking, cruelty to animals, mad cow disease, taxes, the national debt, drinking and driving, as well as the minimum wage."
The Journal charges somewhere between $150,000 and $250,000 for a black/white full-page ad. To build and contract the ad in a tight time line adds more costs.
This expensive overnight ad highlights the massive power of right-wing money in today's politics. EPI's real message goes far beyond the minimum wage. [...]
Please read below the gerrymandered orange squiggle for a bunch more excerpts from progressive state blogs.
At Uppity Wisconsin, MKE writes—Glenn Grothman's 19th Century-style anti-labor bill is sure to make Wisconsin an even bigger laughing stock under GOP rule:
Oh, the shame. The humiliation. Is this the way to attract the young creative class, draw investment dollars, and build a reputation as a good place to live and work? Don't think so. We're speaking of State Sen. Glenn Grothman's push to take Wisconsin backwards via a bill that would restore the seven day workweek in Wisconsin. No pesky labor unions with all their mewling about employee rights, decent working conditions and a day of rest need get involved. The Retro-publicans are in charge here, now.
How do we know the bill, which is moving quickly through the GOP-dominated legislature, is giving Wisconsin yet another black eye in the national arena of common sense and positive values? That this is just the sort of thing turning us from a thoughtful, progressive state into a regressive, foolish, anti-worker, long-hot-summer backwater of yokelism? Just read this new Associated Press headline on a wire story that's sure to go viral:
Wis. Senate panel sets hearing on 7-day work week
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Burnt Orange Report of Texas,
Omar Araiza writes—
National Council of La Raza Kicks Off $5M Hispanic Voter Register Drive With Eyes On 2014 Elections:
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation's largest Hispanic group, is working with Mi Familia Vota to kick off a huge $5 million dollar voter register drive with a grand goal of registering a quarter of a million new Hispanic voters by the midterm elections.
A larger and stronger Latino voting block could become a nightmare for Republicans opposed to immigration reform. Democrats, who have been pushing for reform since early last year, could potentially reap virtually all the benefits of these new voters and push ahead of Republicans in November.
"The Republicans have a great deal to gain in terms of brand improvement and in terms of essentially demobilizing virulent opposition built around the supposition that they are the impediment to immigration reform," said David Segura, co-founder of the polling firm Latino Decisions. [...]
At the
Mississippi Economic Policy Center blog ,
Jessica Shappley writes—
Scorecard: Financial Security in Mississippi:
Today, the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) released its 2014 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, which comprehensively examines the ability of residents to achieve financial security in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and, for the first time, policies designed to help them get there. The 2014 Scorecard evidences a serious problem for households today—while some progress has been made to ensure financial security, a growing number (43.5 percent) of American families are “liquid asset poor,” meaning they lack the means to meet their expenses for three months should a job loss or other emergency leave them without their primary source of income. In Mississippi, 61.9 percent of residents live in liquid asset poverty. [...]
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The Mudflats of Alaska,
Jeanne Devon writes—
Shell Suspends Arctic Drilling, Begich Responds:
This morning Shell announced that it will not drill offshore in the Alaskan Arctic this year. The announcement comes after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal agency in charge of issuing permits for offshore drilling in the U.S. intentionally downplayed the risks and impacts associated with drilling in the remote and vulnerable Chukchi Sea ecosystem off the northern coast of Alaska. The court ruled that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) failed to conduct adequate impact assessments before issuing permission to drill. According to the findings of the court, the BOEM “based its decision on inadequate information about the amount of oil to be produced pursuant to the lease sale 193.” [...]
U.S. Senator Mark Begich released a statement following the announcement.
| “It is simply unacceptable that judicial overreach is getting in the way of letting Alaskans develop our own natural resources. Development in the Arctic has already been subjected to unprecedented safety standards—far more than domestic production anywhere else. I’ve worked for years to get all the federal agencies working together to permit Arctic projects, now we need to tackle the all too common legal stonewalling by outside groups. That’s why I am re-introducing my legislation to ensure there is a judicial endgame for Arctic developers when they have invested billions of dollars in developing our resources.
“I’ll be talking with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell today and expect her agency to move quickly to address the court’s questions and concerns and do everything possible to get this process back on track. Alaskans know that energy development brings not only our energy security but also our financial security, and no one knows about safe, responsible development like Alaskans do.”
|
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Left in Alabama,
countrycat writes—
State Democratic Party Diversity Amendment Round II On Saturday:
An amendment to insert Democratic National Committee language on diversity into the state Party’s bylaws has been submitted. Proponents of the amendment say it will ensure the Alabama Democratic Party joins the national party and welcomes all Alabamians into its tent.
SDEC member and sponsor of the amendment, Amy Shadoin of Madison County said, “The Alabama Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee is underrepresenting several groups including Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Youth, and other minority communities. It is time for the Alabama Democratic Party to mirror the national party’s stance regarding inclusivity and to give these diverse demographic groups in Alabama a voice in our state Party.”
Advocates for the amendment have started an online petition with several hundred signatures to voice their support of an expanded definition of diversity and to call for the state party to allow debate and a vote. [...]
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California Progress Report,
Gary Cohn & Bill Raden write—
Pension Cutters Bet Against Prosperity:
Last week’s announcements about 2013 earnings by California’s largest public pension funds suggest the agencies may be making significant progress in shaking off the lingering after-effects of the 2008 stock market crash.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) said it rode a 25 percent run-up in stock prices to post a 16.2 percent gain for its 2013 portfolio — its best showing in a decade. For its part, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) reported an impressive 19.1 percent return on its 2013 investments, led by a 28 percent return on its stock holdings.
The announcements undoubtedly came as welcome news to the roughly 1.6 million California government workers and 860,000 public school teachers represented by the systems. Ever since the 2008 global financial meltdown, their pensions have been in the crosshairs of fiscal conservatives and anti-public pension activists who wish to see the employees’ traditional defined benefits plans replaced by 401(k)-type packages.
However, the reports couldn’t come at a worse time for San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and his politically conservative backers, whose statewide retirement-cutting ballot initiative now finds itself undermined by prosperity. Its political momentum had already shown signs of faltering last November, when Reed was forced to tone down some of the measure’s harshest and more constitutionally radical language.
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The Seminole Democrat of Florida,
Independent Thinker writes—
Issues to Waste Your Vote for Rick Scott On:
My list of reasons to dis-elect Rick Scott hasn’t grown much in the last week, mostly because he’s been lying low and saying as little as he can, which under the circumstances is probably the smartest thing Rick Scott can do if he wants to be re-elected. His approval rating seems to go up mostly when he does nothing at all. At least I can say SemDem’s post on Monday upped the number on my list to 158, which means I have two more to go before I officially revise it again. Might be a nice way to celebrate Groundhog Day.
Scratch that: A couple of hours after I first made this post, I checked the archive at Rick Scott Sucks, and dug out two more good ones. So it's now at 160, and newer ones start at 146. Have a look.
In the meantime, I want to discuss something about reasons that some people out there may vote for Rick Scott, in spite of his monstrous performance so far—and why they’d be wasting their time doing it.
If you have friends planning to vote for Rick Scott, there are two partisan issues that are likely to be at the center of their motivation: Same-sex marriage and abortion. The irony is that Rick Scott has 1) done little or nothing on either issue, and 2) really can’t do anything about either one, anyway.
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Blog for Democracy of Georgia,
Juliana writes—
Special Delivery of Eye Roll:
The Netflix movie about Mitt Romney only gets half of an eye roll. I watched it so you don’t have to. [...]
I found it interesting and if the goal was to portray him as a affable smart guy it did the trick. However why wasn’t released in some form before the 2012 Convention? Surely he could have used it.
That said, it was an odd film in the sense that it was filmed during all of the 2008 & 2012 campaigns, but it only superficially touches on the gritty reality surrounding the politics of those years.
I’m a pretty hardcore political nerd, and I gotta think thats who they expect to watch this movie a year and a half after the election. But unlike political candidate-tainment such as the two films about Pres. Obama and Game Change, “Mitt” is edited as if six years and two nasty primaries are happening at arms length. His CM is shown only once, his advisors all appear to be related to him. I didn’t think it was possible to run a Presidential campaign and apparently have no connection with staff, strategy or influential operatives.
People like me are going to notice the events and circumstances that are missing or too breezily touched on while sitting on sofas in hotel rooms with your whole family by your side. In the end it just looked like a Romney family movie. A very attractive family movie, but odd.
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The Plunderbund of Ohio,
Greg writes—
Kasich Insults Schools While Asking For More Snow Days (That Help Nobody):
The state of Ohio has been hit hard this winter, resulting in schools having to cancel a higher-than-usual number of days of instruction. Many districts (about a third according to the Toledo Blade) have already used up the state-allowed number of snow (or calamity) days and have reached the point where they will be required to make up those days at the end of the year.
To that end, Governor Kasich announced yesterday that he was going to instruct the General Assembly to enact a one-time exemption for this school year that would provide schools an extra four calamity days.
Big whoop. Those extra days at the end of the year are, quite frankly, irrelevant anyway.
Said Kasich in his media event, “Giving schools a few extra snow days this year will be helpful and let everyone stay focused on the top priority when weather hits: keeping kids safe.”
Really, John Kasich? He’s doing this so that schools can focus on keeping kids safe? What the heck did he think schools were doing? It is flat-out insulting that Kasich added this little byline to his statement and it completely reveals how his mind works and what he thinks about public education in our state. It is appalling that Kasich expressly believes that schools aren’t already focusing on the safety of students when deciding whether to close schools.
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Keystone Politics of Pennsylvania,
Jon Geeting writes—
#PAGov: Only 15% Think Tom Corbett Has Been Fiscally Responsible:
The other awesome finding from today’s F&M poll is that only 15% of respondents say Tom Corbett has been fiscally responsible.
Fiscal austerity has been the lodestar of Republican governance the past 3 years. It’s what Corbett campaigned on, it’s what the Republicans blew all their political capital on, and they’re not even getting any credit for it.
It isn’t even that voters agree they were fiscally responsible, but are saying they didn’t like the outcomes for education or job growth. Their strong distaste for the outcomes of the Republicans’ austerity program are feeding back into their opinions on whether the Republicans have been fiscally responsible at all.
The lesson here is that nobody gets any political credit for budget cuts or deficit reduction or anything like that, and the sole aim for Democratic politicians should be economic growth. Making “hard choices” sounds like a cool and tough slogan to voters in the abstract, but nobody actually wants to make hard choices.
