West Virginia Blue
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Learned that veteran Villager David Broder passed away today at the age of 81. This was in a Washington Post email received around 1:00pm.
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Breaking News Alert: Pulitzer prize-winning journalist David Broder dies
March 9, 2011 12:56:27 PM
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David S. Broder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and one of the most respected writers on national politics for four decades, dies at age 81.
With their unwillingness to continue funding the federal government at current levels, the House GOP seems intent on shutting down the federal government.
There are many reasons why the cuts that House GOP passed are a bad idea. Broadly speaking, they cut government programs that help people most in need and give yet more breaks for those who have already have theirs.
Just as concerning, the budget the House GOP passed is bad for the economy. Here's an analysis from Goldman Sachs:
Spending cuts approved by House Republicans would act as a drag on the U.S. economy, according to a Wall Street analysis that put new pressure on the political debate in Washington. The report by the investment firm Goldman Sachs said the cuts would reduce the growth in gross domestic product by up to 2 percentage points this year, essentially cutting in half the nation's projected economic growth for 2011.
It's hard to pick just one thing, but I'd say the most dangerous trait of today's Tea Party-infused Republican Party is its complete and total disregard for reason and truth.
How is it that 2% of a population in a democratic nation can wage a successful class war against the other 98%? This should be something of a paradox. Why don't those 98% come together at election time and elect people who will defend their interests? The corporate raiders should get routed every time. It's just simple math.
One reason, of course, is that most Americans don't realize just how unequal things are and how stacked against them the deck really is. That's an information problem. But I think we also have a major imagination problem. Consider the case of Rich Hahan, a Wisconsite and former GM worker who was profiled in the New York Times a few days ago.
Today Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama announced that the Justice Department will not be providing legal assistance for the Defense Of Marriage Act.
In a statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the president has concluded that, given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny."
This 15 year old law does not require states to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in other states. It also defines marriage as between one male and one female.
Although it would take an act of Congress to reverse this bill, I applaud Attorney General Holder and President Obama for their support of Gay Rights!
This is America, land of the FREE, home of EQUAL opportunity.
In Wisconsin our brother and sisters, who are not the union thugs and tools that the right wing is making them out to be, are proving to the world that they are just like regular everyday Americans. Thanks to Nicole at Crooks and Liars for posting this inspiring video for us all to see.
I support and work for unions even though I am not a union member as I attend COPE Meetings and support what the Committee on Public Eduction stands for. COPE is an arm of the AFL-CIO and you can find them in your area. Go to their meetings and join them because our struggle is just starting. As progressives we need to march with these folks because they are the biggest hope we have of proving to our country that unions are still needed and are the front line protecting the American Middle Class.
Thanks to the members of AFSCME and their supporters for standing up for their rights in Wisconsin. Keep up the fight.
On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a historic decision in Citizens United v. FEC that undercut one hundred years of precedent, and declared that corporations have the same political rights as individuals. Progressives United is founded in the wake of that disastrous decision to fight back by empowering Americans to take back their right to free speech and fair elections.
Scott Calvin, Professor of Physics at Sarah Lawrence College has graciously provided permission to reprint this diary that originally appeared at DemConWatchBlog.
By Scott Calvin
With the death of cap and trade, significant climate change is now inevitable. Sooner or later, we will reach a tipping point, at which point climate change is not just a prediction, or a small effect that needs to be teased out by careful statistical analysis. Sooner or later, there will be a year where the cumulative effects of climate change will become undeniable. What would that year look like?
First of all, to be undeniable, we want it to be a year that "should" be cool according to other factors. Solar cycles add some variability to the Earth's temperature, so a year toward the end of a deep solar minimum would be good. El Niño is a natural phenomenon that tends to raise the temperature of the globe, so to be convincing it shouldn't be an El Niño year--ideally, it should be a La Niña year, when the Earth would be expected to be cooler. If the planet still experienced record warmth under those conditions, we'd know it was due to climate change, and not just a perfect storm of natural cycles.
The extreme heat would trigger drought and fire. Picture one of the world's great capitals shrouded in smoke from the country side for a week--that warning would be hard to miss, wouldn't it?
Heat triggers evaporation, and evaporation falls back to earth as rain and snow, so this year would likely also be the wettest on record, generating extreme floods. Imagine a "thousand-year flood" in a US city, submerging the central city. Entire countries would suffer from severe, unprecedented flooding, creating humanitarian catastrophes.
And then there are the inexorable changes--direct manifestations of climate. Island nations would be making plans for the day they need to leave their drowning homeland. Coral reefs would die en masse. And most dramatically, the familiar image of the Earth from space, with its white polar caps, would be forever changed, as the northern cap dwindles away in the summer.
Think this is alarmist? Evidence for this scenario below the jump.
There is one thing that MLK is best known for, his prominent role in the 60's struggle for civil rights for blacks in the US.
There are two other causes that MLK fought equally for: economic justice and peace. He was not just fighting for greater opportunities for blacks, he was fighting for greater economic opportunities for all those who were down-trodden. Also, bucking the advice of his fellow civil rights advocates, MLK was a fierce critic of the Vietnam War.
Today, on the 25th anniversity of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I hope we can remember the entirety of his greatest. His message is as relevant today as the day he died.
Now, let me make it clear in the beginning, that I see this war as an unjust, evil, and futile war. I preach to you today on the war in Vietnam because my conscience leaves me with no other choice. The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves.
Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. "Ye shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth shall set you free."
Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.
Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we're always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on.
Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for in all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war, by the American people.
We are not in a recession. This point bears repeating again and again. We are not in a recession.
When someone tells you that it's crazy to raise taxes during a recession, tell that person what I just told you: "We are not in a recession."
The recession ended in June 2009. The recession ended eighteen months ago. The "recovery" has been underway for a year and a half. I know it certainly doesn't feel that way. It doesn't look that way. At least not from here. But things look a lot different in Omelas, bright-towered by the sea.
I'm 31 years old. I graduated from college magna cum laude. I have a Master's Degree in Religious Studies from the University of California. I have nearly ten years of leadership and education experience. The IQ test says I'm a genius. I'm a very good writer, a wonderful group discussion moderator, a creative problem solver, a talented actor and director, a clear and engaging presenter of information, an accomplished public speaker and an attentive listener.
Right now I am also "underemployed."
I had to move back in with my parents. I work 26 hours per week at a wage of $7.25 per hour. I have no health insurance. Student loans payments are scheduled to start in another few months. I have credit card debt from the two months I spent with ZERO income upon finishing graduate school and being reminded that unemployment benefits are not for people who work in education or for non-profits. I have just had to replace my printer's ink cartridge for the second time in the past four months due to the number of cover letters and resumes I send out on a weekly basis.
I fear our disappointment with President Obama is taking us into dangerous territory. Our anger could, in the end, bring unintended consequences that we may long regret. We should reassess our goal in light of the political reality in our country. A strategic fight is not about what one wants, but rather it's about what's possible. Our plan must head us toward our goals, but with the full understanding that our struggle will be ongoing with predictable setbacks and defeats.
That Obama has not delivered on promises and expectations is a stinging betrayal of our dreams, but, the truth is, all presidents must govern within the brutal reality of politics. It involves chessboard strategy, tradeoffs, kiss-ups, and foxtrots with the foxes. It's true, many Obama decisions are 180 degree turnarounds, others less severe but feel like betrayals nonetheless. But, if we're honest, we'd have to admit that we share responsible for our disappointment. We failed to acknowledge in our more studied moments that reality cannot compete with dreams. No president can deliver dreams in a world such as ours. But that must not change our goal - just our mind-set.
I think we must allow Obama some room because I'm convinced he's our last best hope. I think he's closer to our convictions and goals than any electable candidate in the country. This is a center-right country - like it or not. The Right is employing every scheme and strategy to take out Obama. Do we want to join them? If we primary Obama, it can only weaken him further with absolutely NO hope of getting our candidate elected. We cannot be a party to that!
In his 2009 book Daybreak, David Swanson contends, "if we want to force the sort of changes we need... we are going to have to do a whole lot better, which will have to begin by thinking and acting a whole lot better."
We must organize, get in the trenches and fight. We must make our voices heard. We must convince others to join us because we're right. The President is persuaded by numbers and conviction. We cannot be seen as whining, latte-drinking lefties who, when things don't go their way, get in their Volvos and drive off to another gig.
This should be the story of a win-win situation. In the middle of the Great Recession, a nationally prominent mega-corporation manages to achieve phenomenal profitability and decides to share its good fortune with the wage workers who helped make that profit possible. All of that happens to be true about Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX), the nation's second-largest pharmacy benefits manager--all except for the decision about how to thank its workers. To show their gratitude, Express Scripts managers went in a different direction. First, they publicly lauded union workers at their most efficient processing plant. Then they told them they were losing their jobs. And they're poised to do the same thing to workers at their plants in thirteen other states. Sometimes corporate America's capacity to stick it to the little guy is so astounding, you can't help but feel impressed by the chutzpah.
Hundreds of people will arrive Monday morning at the Charleston Civic Center for a court-ordered mediation of claims they suffered health problems from polluted mine run-off water.
This will make the trolls under the bridge very sad. Evidently mega-doses of some elements are not just like taking vitamin pills.
As West Virginia's number of Marcellus Shale natural gas wells skyrockets, many concerned residents are calling on the state Department of Environmental Protection to increase its oversight of the industry.
And look who else is weighing in. Huffman has such a spotty track record.
If you ask Jeff Kessler, Orphy Klempa, Erikka Storch or Ryan Ferns, they believe the DEP needs to take a stand on regulating Marcellus drilling.
First they came for their overweight drilling rigs, now it's their water. Now we are going to have a chance to talk back.
West Virginia University Extension Service is helping members of the community obtain factual information on issues related to the oil and natural gas industry. The agency is sponsoring education and information sessions around the state regarding the Marcellus Shale - a large natural gas field in the form of shale rock - and the oil and natural gas industry.
Heather, people are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. What factual information are you looking to be presented, and why the differentiation of the words citizen and client?
Except for its elevation - high enough to produce snow this week - a reclaimed surface mine on the upper slopes of Cheat Mountain's 4,429-foot Barton Knob is not much different from scores of other former mine sites scattered across West Virginia.
Remember when we were challenged to believe the flat tops, grassland with good hunting and all, were better than the original?
Hopefully progressives in Congress will also notice. Some of these issues are not just ours alone.
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