Each Saturday, this feature links and excerpts commentary and reporting from a dozen progressive state blogs in the past seven days around the nation. The idea is not only to spotlight specific issues but to give readers who may not know their state has a progressive blog or two a place to become regularly informed about doings in their back yard. 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 and inside information we don't get from the traditional media. Those blogs deserve a larger audience. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite you think I should know about. Standard disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents. |
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Calitics,
Brian Leubitz writes
Steinberg's Prison Plan:
As I mentioned yesterday, the prisons are a mess. However, things can get worse. My friend, and SF School Board member, Matt Haney co-authored an op-ed in the SF Chronicle with Van Jones about the governor's position on the issue:
Gov. Jerry Brown confirmed this week that he is pulling his prison policies out of a 1980s playbook. It is heartbreaking to watch our nation's most famous Democratic governor cling to outdated, lock 'em up notions that even conservatives are abandoning in droves. ...
Tuesday, he made his most shocking step yet by proposing to send inmates to for-profit prisons. This boondoggle will cost an additional $315 million and more than $1 billion over three years to house thousands of people in private prisons leased by the state. Even our most extreme, fear-mongering politicians of decades past would have been reluctant to put forward such a scheme.
Brown appears hell bent on being on the wrong side of history. Across the political spectrum, leaders are beginning to understand that we need to invest in rehabilitation, re-entry programs, and evidence-based alternatives, rather than continuing our failed policies of mass incarceration. (Matt Haney and Van Jones / SF Chronicle)
So, while the Governor is working hard to come to some sort of immediate solution, there is not much optimism for a progressive in the plan. Meanwhile, Sen. Steinberg has a plan, but it relies on one very crucial assumption: he can get the plaintiffs in the suit to settle and have the judges agree to a three year delay on implementation. As I mentioned yesterday, it is a big risk and not entirely clear how the judges would rule even with a settlement.
At The Daily Kingfish, Lamar Parmentel writes Professor Jindal, Dean of Trump University:
Unlike the GOP, the conservative-entertainment complex is a vibrant beast full of colorful characters and possibility.courtesy CNN
You see, instead of creating solutions for governing, conservatives have reached the logical conclusion of their absurdist ideology. When government is the problem, then the only solution is to destroy the government. Hence the ever-more-ridiculous rallying cries (defund Obamacare! Impeach Obama! Self-deportation! Nullify Federal Law! Racism is over! Arm the teachers!)
Simultaneously, while their ability to formulate governing philosophy has crumbled, conservative obsession has a large and growing malignant tumor – the “conservative entertainment complex.” This is not just some vanilla Limbaughism, but rather a full-throated adherence to ideological radicals that pander to extremists. These deluded souls willingly turn over their money to fund increasingly futile political statements. It’s a rather simple mantra:
Say something crazy. Act offended that rational people think it’s offensive in order to agitate the rubes who buy your books. Profit.
You see, Bobby Jindal isn’t running for President of the United States. His “Dear Piyush” advice columns (navel gazing, at that!) for the political elite (or anyone will listen) belie a greater end: He’s positioning himself to be Dean of Trump University.
More links to and excerpts from progressive state blogs can be found below the fold.
At Plunderbund of Ohio, Luke Brockmeier writes PPP poll is worth for Kasich than you think:
PPP released a couple of in-depth polls last week, with quite the topline: FitzGerald is leading 38-35 among registered voters.
As always, the internals are where the action is. This is a very bad poll for John Kasich. I’ll cut to the chase: his support has cratered among women and independents. I wonder why?
Obviously this is only one poll, and PPP is a progressive group. But bear in mind that their final Ohio poll in 2010 was off by 1, and their final poll in 2012 was off by 2. Both were among the most accurate polls of Ohio.
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The Mudflats of Alaska,
Jeanne Devon writes
Inconvenient Private Sector Jobs:
A recent report issued from the McDowell Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute reveals:
The seafood industry directly employs approximately 63,100 people in the state of Alaska. Roughly 1- in-8 workers in Alaska earned at least part of their annual income directly from the seafood industry in 2011. These direct jobs produced $4.6 billion worth of wild, sustainable seafood (in wholesale terms) and resulted in an estimated $1.7 billion in labor income.
So, given that Republicans value, above all, a thriving private sector economy and the jobs it creates – the seafood industry as the state’s largest private sector employer, should be their number one priority.
And if fish is their number one priority, then preserving and protecting the industry all the way from ocean to plate should also be their number one priority.
And if preserving and protecting wild fisheries is their number one priority, then making sure that oceans and rivers remain clean and productive habitats for those fish should be their number one priority.
You see where this is going.
Given all the above, the fact that the Parnell administration (Republicans) are actively pursuing a political agenda which compromises our oceans, our rivers, and our fish leads us to an inescapable conclusion that will shock you. Steel yourself.
They are hypocrites.
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Blog for Arizona,
Pamela Powers Hannley writes
Monthly Progressive Roundtables Give PDA Members a ‘Seat at the Table’:
Deals are made, and bills are negotiated not only in the halls of Congress but in offices and meeting rooms around DC. Since December 2012, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) has been conducting monthly, Educate Congress roundtable meetings with Congressional representatives and key staff.
With a give-and-take format, these meetings allow PDA representatives and allies to discuss proposed legislation and related progressive ideas and allow Congressional representatives and staffers to offer updates, insights, and strategies.
The Progressive Roundtables provide a forum to address a broad range of issues– from Wall Street gambling and hunger in America to voting rights, immigration, fracking, universal healthcare, the living wage, austerity, tax reform, mass incarceration, and more.
“One of the things I love about PDA is you stand up for ‘the little guy,’ and that’s what government’s all about,” Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern told the roundtable audience in July 2013. “Donald Trump doesn’t need us [Congress], but somebody who is unemployed or somebody who is working and making so little that they still qualify for SNAP [food stamps], they need us!”
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Delaware Liberal,
El Sonambulo writes
Carney Misses Chance for Bipartisanship:
When it comes to John Carney’s cherished bipartisanship vs. the obligation to do the job he was elected to do, John Carney has chosen…neither.
According to this article, 162 members of the U. S. House of Representatives have called for a debate in Congress prior to any authorization of attacking Syria. 62 Democrats are among those signing the letters to call for such action. John Carney is not among them.
Is it his signature intellectual incuriosity, or is it his total belief in the assertion of government officials that they have incontrovertible proof that they JUST CAN’T SHARE WITH US? Anybody remember Yellowcake and Niger? Apparently not John.
To me, the assertions from Kerry and Obama have no more credibility than those of Dubya, Condoleeza Rice, and Colin Powell. Not without, you know, real facts.
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Progress Illinois,
La Risa Linch writes
Chicago Protesters Call For A Civilian-Elected Police Accountability Board:
As a former police chief of two south suburban communities, Percy Coleman couldn’t imagine he would be speaking at a rally against police brutality.
But in December 2012 Coleman called police to help with his 38-year-old son who suffered a mental breakdown and got into an altercation at the family’s West Pullman home. Coleman wanted his son taken to a hospital. Instead, police took him to 111th Street lockup.
"Twelve hours later he was tortured, beaten and dead," Coleman said. “I’m still waiting on the video on what happened to my son in that lockup.”
Coleman’s story is not unlike others whose sons, daughters, brothers, and husbands were allegedly killed, beaten or falsely imprisoned by law enforcement. As a result, Coleman marched with 200 protesters Wednesday as they took to the streets and rallied outside Chicago's Federal Plaza, demanding justice for victims of police crimes
“There are two terrorist groups in the city of Chicago – one is the Chicago gangs. The other is the Chicago police,” he said.
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Kansas Free Press,
Vickie Stangl writes
Wichita School District Challenged on Religion:
A funny thing happened on the way to the first day of school at Minneha Core Knowledge Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas.
Minneha fourth graders study the five major religions of the world (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, & Buddhism) focusing on the history and geography of the ancient civilizations that gave birth to these religions. To that end, the school personnel crafted a bulletin board explaining the Five Pillars of Islam. Keeping in mind the bulletin board was not encouraging a belief in this faith but simply educating the students about their beliefs.
The Wichita Eagle reported that a parent took a picture of the bulletin board and posted it on Facebook with the sentence, "Prepare to Take America Back."
Of course, in this viral age, the Facebook posting spread quickly across the conservative blogs with other captions exclaiming, "This is a school that banned all forms of Christian prayer...This cannot stand."
Yes, in Wichita, Kansas-the bible belt of the nation, parents don't cotton to such radical notions as learning about the history of other religions except promoting their own faith at school.
And that is exactly the point. It must have been rather shocking for some parents in the district to face the reality that a school was educating students about other religions when the expectation has been one of promoting and upholding only the Christian faith in USD-259.
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Green Mountain Daily of Vermont,
Sue Prent writes
Please, Sir, I want some more!:
"The audacity of those fast food workers, asking for $15. an hour wages!"
You know they're thinking it, even if that's not exactly what they're saying.
By "they" I do not just mean industry employers. A lot of Americans who make barely more than $15. an hour, or even a lot less, doing jobs outside of food service, are shaking their heads in irritated disbelief at the tremendous crust of those striking workers.
That's because we have so bought into the invisible class system that has been successfully imposed on American labor that we don't even realize we're doing it.
It's a system that's worked like gang-busters for low-wage employers, lowering expectations for the vast underclass of manual and service laborers that now represent the majority of jobs in America. In so doing, it has pitted worker against worker, isolating sectors of employment and effectively disabling efforts to unionize.
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HorsesAss,
Lee writes
Kind of a Big Deal:
The importance of today’s DOJ policy announcement on Washington and Colorado’s marijuana regulations is hard to measure. On one hand, much of what is now stated policy is what we already assumed the DOJ position to be as they remained silent on the topic for so long. If they were planning to sue, they’d have done it already and certainly not given Washington and Colorado to green light to start spending money implementing it.
On the other hand, as Mike Riggs pointed out here, the language about not targeting operations solely because they are large in size is a welcome departure from how US Attorney’s have operated in recent years regarding medical marijuana businesses.
What remains to be seen is whether marijuana businesses in Washington and Colorado will have access to banking services. Inslee indicated that he’d gotten assurances from Holder that the problem will be addressed, but the policy memo was silent on it.
On a larger scale, this announcement makes it very clear to other states and other countries that the U.S. government is not interested in fully backing the federal and international prohibitions on marijuana. It’s a clear signal that the option of moving away from prohibition to a smarter model is a political reality now. And the Obama Administration deserves credit for recognizing the pragmatic response, even though they needed a lot of pushing to get there (that seems to be how they operate on these issues).
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Uppity Wisconsin,
Jud Lounsbury writes
Syria Joins "An Earth Quake! A Terrible Flood! LOCUSTS!" In Long List of Absurd Walker Excuses for Not Creating Jobs:
From the Affordable Care Act , to the recall, to Obama, Governor Scott Walker has come up with every excuse imagineable for why Wisconsin has lagged far behind other states in job growth under his watch.
Now he has a new one... Syria:
"We can do all the good possible, we can get the state back on the right track, but if there's instability around the world it will inevitably have an impact."
Walker is starting to sound a bit like the desperate Jake Elwood in the classic Blues Brothers sewer scene.
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Appalachian Voices,
Nolen Nychay writes
Study Reveals Mountaintop Removal’s Isotopic Fingerprint:
Researchers at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment identified three unique isotopes, or irregularly formed elements, that seem to have a direct correlation with mountaintop removal coal mines. The isotopes identified were sulfate, strontium, and inorganic carbon — all occur naturally but are found in unusually high concentrations adjacent to mountaintop removal sites.
Dr. Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry at Duke and author of the new study, believes that measuring these isotopes can not only help identify the degree of contamination within watersheds, but also determine how much of the contamination is directly affiliated with mountaintop removal.
Water and sediment samples were taken by researchers at 23 separate locations along the Upper Mud River in West Virginia. Over an eight month period, these samples were continuously collected from sites both near and isolated from surface mines.