by Rich Miles
Ah, that famous acronym - It's OK if you're a Republican, not OK if you're a Democrat. The modus operandi of Right-wingnuts for the past at least 12 years, and now in full flower in the indictment of our - no, wait - THEIR governor.
Ernie Fletcher, alleged governor of our fair state of Kentucky, has been indicted for, in essence, being an arrogant jerk, and surrounding himself with MORE arrogant jerks who all seem to think, like our ludicrous excuse for a president, that they are above the law. Of course, that's not the charge shown on the indictments, but to non-lawyers like me, this would be a reasonable layman's interpretation.
So then, what is the first official act of the indicted official and his sub-demons? To accuse the attorney general, who has been on this case for more than two years now, of "political motivation" in bringing the charges, and then file a motion in court to have the attorney general removed from the case.
Now, let's look at that accusation for a minute, because this tale of woe is going to be heard a lot in days to come, and from folks a lot higher up in the political food chain than Ernie Fletcher's puny self and his pals. In fact, I fully expect it to be heard from the White House in not too many more days.
First, is it possible that Atty. Gen. Greg Stumbo has his sights set on a run for the governorship next year? Yes, in fact it's a virtual certainty.
Second, is it also possible that Stumbo has some, shall we say, "personal animosity" toward Fletcher et al.? I would call that too a near certainty, since the Republican administration has called Stumbo and his staff every foul name imaginable over the course of the two-year investigation that has led to these indictments. One does tend to develop a negative opinion of people who do such things.
But third, is it even remotely imaginable that someone who intends to run for the highest office in the state would pose these sorts of accusations against a potential political opponent without rock solid evidence that the charges have some basis in reality?
Do the Fletcher sycophants really think Stumbo is that stupid?
See, this is the biggest mistake the whiny, "I'm the victim of the liberals" Republicans make, over and over - thinking that their opponents are as stupid and venal as they are. Sometimes, I'm sad to say, they're right. But in this case, if Stumbo is indeed that stupid, to bring charges against a sitting governor with only flimsy backup, then it's best we know this now, instead of next year when we might accidentally elect him.
But frankly, I don't think that's the case. And I don't think it's going to be the case when the White House starts saying it either - it's pretty clear that Patrick Fitzgerald is a whole lot better lawyer than Greg Stumbo, and he's not even running for anything.
The "pol-mot" excuse is simply not on any longer. Even the base - Fletcher is, in addition to being a physician, also an ordained wingnut minister - are starting to wake up a little. For the wrong reasons, it's true, but they're still abandoning their godheads left and right: in a recent NY Times-CBS poll the percentage of respondents who think the Dems more accurately represent their moral values is at 50%. Who would ever have imagined that being possible back in November of '04?
And by the way, if I were Fletcher, I would ask myself why
- David Williams, Republican KY State Senate President,
- Darrell Brock, previously-indicted and Fletcher-pardoned chair of the state Republican Party,
- Rep. Anne Northup, (R-KY 3)
- Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY 4) and
- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Fletcher's political mentor and the highest-ranking Republican in the state
were "unavailable for comment" on the day the indictments were handed down.
(Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY 2) and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) said nothing either - they just didn't SAY they were saying nothing, and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY 1) went all wingnutty on us. According to Bluegrass Report, he issued the following statement:
...Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District who served in the U.S. House with Fletcher, said the governor “is a conscientious man of high moral character, and this indictment is nothing more than the continuation of a politically-motivated effort to discredit the governor and to bring down his administration..)
They're hanging you out to dry, Ernie! It couldn't happen to a nicer arrogant jerk.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
KY Governor Indicted
Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher has been indicted on misdemeanor charges in relation to a state merit-system hiring scandal. For more, go to The Bluegrass Report. Mark has better facilities for following a breaking story like this.
Update 610pm: Mark Nickolas is all over this at Bluegrass Report - has much better coverage than the two biggest papers in the state, The Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader (though the Herald is much better than the Courier). Take note of his update - so far, it's a scoop as far as I can find - on Brett Hall sniveling that he's gonna file suit against the state attorney general for "malicious prosecution" - nobody else has that yet.
Update 610pm: Mark Nickolas is all over this at Bluegrass Report - has much better coverage than the two biggest papers in the state, The Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader (though the Herald is much better than the Courier). Take note of his update - so far, it's a scoop as far as I can find - on Brett Hall sniveling that he's gonna file suit against the state attorney general for "malicious prosecution" - nobody else has that yet.
Of Biblical proportions
by Rich Miles
"Every terror that haunted me has caught up with me,
and all that I feared has come upon me."
Book of Job 3:35, New English Bible
And then some....
Back in November of 2004, I wrote a little piece called Memo To: Red States in which I expressed my utter dismay and anger at the Red States, whose votes for the Usurper got him close enough to steal the election a second time. In short, I pointed out my perspective on the mistake they had made by putting their trust in a man who was cynically using them for the enrichment and empowerment of himself and his friends and cronies. I laid out a list of things that it was clear the "faith-based" community (as opposed to the "reality-based" folks) couldn't possibly know about Bush - because if they did, even they wouldn't have voted for him.
And ya know what? An awful lot of the things I said in that piece have turned out to be far too mild. I expected a second Bush term, when he no longer needed fear the electorate, to be a disaster for pretty much all of us. But I never dreamed he'd create a worldwide disaster of Biblical proportions, and rattle his sabre even further by threatening to create an even worse one.
Who ever dreamed that a U.S. president or his administration might:
- Spy on U.S. citizens accused or suspected of no crime?
- not only refuse to prohibit, but actually approve of torturing prisoners of war
- threaten to use nuclear weapons - nuclear weapons - on a country that has not attacked us, and that will not have even the most rudimentary ability to produce a nuke of their own for at least 10 years
- alienate every ally we had on Earth, and do his level best to further antagonize our enemies
- hold suspected criminals for years without trial or legal representation
- lie to us about the offensive capabilities of a country so as to justify a "pre-emptive" war against them
- repeatedly hire unqualified cronies to lead government posts and for judgeships, even after it's shown that such actions lead to disaster
- approve government funding of religious organizations
- deny that global warming exists despite overwhelming scientific evidence
- ignore or discredit scientific research that conflicts with religious dogma or administration policy
- give Presidential Medals to people who have failed miserably to perform their jobs
- allow the energy industry to dictate energy policy, the pharmaceutical industry to dictate government health care policy, and the business community in general to dictate their own laws and regulations
- go from some of the largest surpluses of the past 5 decades to the largest deficits, both in dollars and percentage of GDP, ever
- and all while cutting taxes over and over and over again
- conduct a war whose costs are completely off the books, thus making the deficit even higher than it appears by hundreds of billions of dollars, or
- ignore his own GAO, the American people, the 9/11 Commission, Congress, any judge who hands down a contrary opinion, and anyone else who disagress with his preconceived ideas?
It's exhausting. The list could go on for another 5000 words, and not even get close to being finished.
Never before has America been led by someone who cares less about the wellbeing of our country or the world. Never before have we been led by a greater cabal of sociopaths and screwups.
In my worst nightmares, I never imagined how bad a Bush presidency untethered from any considerations of being re-elected could be.
And you want to know the really scary part? 31% of Americans, according to recent polls, still approve of him.
What is wrong with those people?
"Every terror that haunted me has caught up with me,
and all that I feared has come upon me."
Book of Job 3:35, New English Bible
And then some....
Back in November of 2004, I wrote a little piece called Memo To: Red States in which I expressed my utter dismay and anger at the Red States, whose votes for the Usurper got him close enough to steal the election a second time. In short, I pointed out my perspective on the mistake they had made by putting their trust in a man who was cynically using them for the enrichment and empowerment of himself and his friends and cronies. I laid out a list of things that it was clear the "faith-based" community (as opposed to the "reality-based" folks) couldn't possibly know about Bush - because if they did, even they wouldn't have voted for him.
And ya know what? An awful lot of the things I said in that piece have turned out to be far too mild. I expected a second Bush term, when he no longer needed fear the electorate, to be a disaster for pretty much all of us. But I never dreamed he'd create a worldwide disaster of Biblical proportions, and rattle his sabre even further by threatening to create an even worse one.
Who ever dreamed that a U.S. president or his administration might:
- Spy on U.S. citizens accused or suspected of no crime?
- not only refuse to prohibit, but actually approve of torturing prisoners of war
- threaten to use nuclear weapons - nuclear weapons - on a country that has not attacked us, and that will not have even the most rudimentary ability to produce a nuke of their own for at least 10 years
- alienate every ally we had on Earth, and do his level best to further antagonize our enemies
- hold suspected criminals for years without trial or legal representation
- lie to us about the offensive capabilities of a country so as to justify a "pre-emptive" war against them
- repeatedly hire unqualified cronies to lead government posts and for judgeships, even after it's shown that such actions lead to disaster
- approve government funding of religious organizations
- deny that global warming exists despite overwhelming scientific evidence
- ignore or discredit scientific research that conflicts with religious dogma or administration policy
- give Presidential Medals to people who have failed miserably to perform their jobs
- allow the energy industry to dictate energy policy, the pharmaceutical industry to dictate government health care policy, and the business community in general to dictate their own laws and regulations
- go from some of the largest surpluses of the past 5 decades to the largest deficits, both in dollars and percentage of GDP, ever
- and all while cutting taxes over and over and over again
- conduct a war whose costs are completely off the books, thus making the deficit even higher than it appears by hundreds of billions of dollars, or
- ignore his own GAO, the American people, the 9/11 Commission, Congress, any judge who hands down a contrary opinion, and anyone else who disagress with his preconceived ideas?
It's exhausting. The list could go on for another 5000 words, and not even get close to being finished.
Never before has America been led by someone who cares less about the wellbeing of our country or the world. Never before have we been led by a greater cabal of sociopaths and screwups.
In my worst nightmares, I never imagined how bad a Bush presidency untethered from any considerations of being re-elected could be.
And you want to know the really scary part? 31% of Americans, according to recent polls, still approve of him.
What is wrong with those people?
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Vote the Rascals Out! ALL of them!
by Rich Miles
Here's a suggestion for how we ("the people" - remember us?) can regain some semblance of control over our out-of-control government this November:
Don't vote for your current congressman and/or senator.
I mean it - no matter what party they allegedly represent, if they're currently in office, don't vote for them - vote for the challenger, no matter how incompetent or stupid or underfunded he or she is. If you have an open seat in your district, vote for the candidate from the former opposition party.
Of course, if everyone in the whole country does this (and even I'm not addled enough to believe they will), we'll end up with a Democratic majority in both houses, which is what is needed to have any hope of a little accountability in Congress and the White House. But that's not what I'm talking about here.
Because we've lost control of the "People's House", which hasn't been anything like ours for decades, and we never even sorta had control of the Senate, the patrician wing of the legislature.
We don't just need to be rid of one-party rule of all three branches of government - we need to be rid of career politicians. Anyone who has served a term in Congress, especially the 107th, 108th or 109th Congresses, has had their turn and needs to go back to the home district. ALL of them. Dem or Rep, Blue or Red, gone. This November. No questions.
We need to get a bunch of scared rookies into the Congress - a bunch of men and women who don't know where the toilets are, much less how the corruption works. A bunch of people who rightfully fear for their jobs every two years instead of assuming that, because they managed to weasel in once, they're set for life, or until the K Street benefits make it worth their while to quit and cash in. There will be some holdover Senators who aren't up this year, but in two more election cycles we can even be rid of them! We HAVE to get rid of them, ASAP!
The evidence for this is so voluminous as to daunt even the most dedicated chronicler, but if one, or actually two recent episodes may be used as representative (no pun intended) samples, here they are:
Bush, Hill Republicans Agree To Extend Expiring Tax Cuts: Democrats Point to Deficit and Benefits for the Rich (By Jonathan Weisman)
Senate Defies Bush on Spending: $109 Billion Bill for Wars, Storm Relief Disdained in House (By Shailagh Murray)
I mean, they STILL don't get it. They - and I mean the whole Congress, though primarily the Republican majority - still think that tax cuts and pork barrel spending and more wars to make them look tough are going to pull their cojones out of the fire again.
They're not right, are they?
Are they?
Give my plan a try - hell, nothing else has worked so far.
Here's a suggestion for how we ("the people" - remember us?) can regain some semblance of control over our out-of-control government this November:
Don't vote for your current congressman and/or senator.
I mean it - no matter what party they allegedly represent, if they're currently in office, don't vote for them - vote for the challenger, no matter how incompetent or stupid or underfunded he or she is. If you have an open seat in your district, vote for the candidate from the former opposition party.
Of course, if everyone in the whole country does this (and even I'm not addled enough to believe they will), we'll end up with a Democratic majority in both houses, which is what is needed to have any hope of a little accountability in Congress and the White House. But that's not what I'm talking about here.
Because we've lost control of the "People's House", which hasn't been anything like ours for decades, and we never even sorta had control of the Senate, the patrician wing of the legislature.
We don't just need to be rid of one-party rule of all three branches of government - we need to be rid of career politicians. Anyone who has served a term in Congress, especially the 107th, 108th or 109th Congresses, has had their turn and needs to go back to the home district. ALL of them. Dem or Rep, Blue or Red, gone. This November. No questions.
We need to get a bunch of scared rookies into the Congress - a bunch of men and women who don't know where the toilets are, much less how the corruption works. A bunch of people who rightfully fear for their jobs every two years instead of assuming that, because they managed to weasel in once, they're set for life, or until the K Street benefits make it worth their while to quit and cash in. There will be some holdover Senators who aren't up this year, but in two more election cycles we can even be rid of them! We HAVE to get rid of them, ASAP!
The evidence for this is so voluminous as to daunt even the most dedicated chronicler, but if one, or actually two recent episodes may be used as representative (no pun intended) samples, here they are:
Bush, Hill Republicans Agree To Extend Expiring Tax Cuts: Democrats Point to Deficit and Benefits for the Rich (By Jonathan Weisman)
Senate Defies Bush on Spending: $109 Billion Bill for Wars, Storm Relief Disdained in House (By Shailagh Murray)
I mean, they STILL don't get it. They - and I mean the whole Congress, though primarily the Republican majority - still think that tax cuts and pork barrel spending and more wars to make them look tough are going to pull their cojones out of the fire again.
They're not right, are they?
Are they?
Give my plan a try - hell, nothing else has worked so far.
Monday, May 08, 2006
So now they tell us
by Rich Miles
Been trying to contain my rage at reading, in today's WaPo , that what we knew all along is true: the Bush tax cuts are NOT strengthening the economy, and are in fact leading to INCREASED government spending and impoverishment of the middle class.
So far, in 5+ years, Bush has gotten exactly NOTHING right.
Well, perhaps that's a bit too harsh. He's VERY good at rewarding his campaign contributors and cronies in various ways while screwing the rest of us blue, and he's top-notch at fudging (or if you prefer the more informal term, stealing) close elections. At least, we think they're close - hell, this thing is so big that he may actually have lost by 20 points and we'd never know it.
How bout this: What Part of $2.6 Trillion Don't You Understand?
Or this: Logic 101
Or even this: The Robbery Continues
It ain't like this is NEWS, people! I mean, the guy's been screwing us, and TELLING us he's screwing us, and asking us to LIKE it that he's screwing us, for FIVE FUCKING YEARS!
And now, all of a sudden, the pundits are starting to sit up and take notice?
It's gone way beyond Dem vs. Republican, folks. If you don't see that the issues at hand represent, in total, the question of the continued existence of the Republic, NOT just "as we know it", but the nation's survival AT ALL, then you're too stupid to live.
And that's the truth.
Been trying to contain my rage at reading, in today's WaPo , that what we knew all along is true: the Bush tax cuts are NOT strengthening the economy, and are in fact leading to INCREASED government spending and impoverishment of the middle class.
So far, in 5+ years, Bush has gotten exactly NOTHING right.
Well, perhaps that's a bit too harsh. He's VERY good at rewarding his campaign contributors and cronies in various ways while screwing the rest of us blue, and he's top-notch at fudging (or if you prefer the more informal term, stealing) close elections. At least, we think they're close - hell, this thing is so big that he may actually have lost by 20 points and we'd never know it.
How bout this: What Part of $2.6 Trillion Don't You Understand?
Or this: Logic 101
Or even this: The Robbery Continues
It ain't like this is NEWS, people! I mean, the guy's been screwing us, and TELLING us he's screwing us, and asking us to LIKE it that he's screwing us, for FIVE FUCKING YEARS!
And now, all of a sudden, the pundits are starting to sit up and take notice?
It's gone way beyond Dem vs. Republican, folks. If you don't see that the issues at hand represent, in total, the question of the continued existence of the Republic, NOT just "as we know it", but the nation's survival AT ALL, then you're too stupid to live.
And that's the truth.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Just a quick heads-up
by Rich Miles
Tomorrow's Derby Day here in Red State Hell. So naturally, the CIA director abruptly quit today, because HIS boss would not let him have the day off to go to the races.
But seriously - he quit, as Wonkette kindly points out, for one of two reasons: either he's up against the deadline for filing for the Senate primary in Florida against Katherine Harris (they are SOOOO put out with her, and for good reason), or he's about to get arrested for his part in the Duke Cunningham sordidness. As Cat pointed out tonight, a bit of fun is to be had by googling "Porter Goss gambling prostitutes parties lobbyists" - and you can add "corrupt right-wing bastard" if you like...
Tomorrow's Derby Day here in Red State Hell. So naturally, the CIA director abruptly quit today, because HIS boss would not let him have the day off to go to the races.
But seriously - he quit, as Wonkette kindly points out, for one of two reasons: either he's up against the deadline for filing for the Senate primary in Florida against Katherine Harris (they are SOOOO put out with her, and for good reason), or he's about to get arrested for his part in the Duke Cunningham sordidness. As Cat pointed out tonight, a bit of fun is to be had by googling "Porter Goss gambling prostitutes parties lobbyists" - and you can add "corrupt right-wing bastard" if you like...
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Mayday! Mayday!
by Rich Miles
Oh. My. God.
While everyone in the blogosphere is hailing Stephen Colbert's ass-biting and face-getting-into of the Usurper at the "Press" Dinner the other night, His Self-Righteousness proclaims May 1, 2006 as Loyalty Day across the land.
Loyalty Day! And May 1! If we needed any further proof that a) Bush has no idea what went on in history, even some of the history HE created, and b) he is getting closer and closer to totally insane or at least totally unconscious, it is this prez'denchul proclamation, on this particular day.
For those too young to remember, or too old to likewise, May 1 is the day the Communists used to celebrate their....ummm...communism. They call it May Day, which also happens to be a word used by pilots and other military people to indicate that they're in a world of trouble and are going to bail out. And it also just conveniently happens to be the day when, three years ago, the Bushmaster stood in his khaki clown suit on the deck of the Abe Lincoln and proclaimed an end to "major combat operations" in Iraq.
And just as a point of idle curiosity, loyalty to what or whom? We're already loyal to America - so it's hard to envision him meaning anything else but loyalty to...him!
Do the red-state rubes REALLY still buy this crap - things like "Loyalty Day"? Or is he now totally talking to the hand?
Oh. My. God.
While everyone in the blogosphere is hailing Stephen Colbert's ass-biting and face-getting-into of the Usurper at the "Press" Dinner the other night, His Self-Righteousness proclaims May 1, 2006 as Loyalty Day across the land.
Loyalty Day! And May 1! If we needed any further proof that a) Bush has no idea what went on in history, even some of the history HE created, and b) he is getting closer and closer to totally insane or at least totally unconscious, it is this prez'denchul proclamation, on this particular day.
For those too young to remember, or too old to likewise, May 1 is the day the Communists used to celebrate their....ummm...communism. They call it May Day, which also happens to be a word used by pilots and other military people to indicate that they're in a world of trouble and are going to bail out. And it also just conveniently happens to be the day when, three years ago, the Bushmaster stood in his khaki clown suit on the deck of the Abe Lincoln and proclaimed an end to "major combat operations" in Iraq.
And just as a point of idle curiosity, loyalty to what or whom? We're already loyal to America - so it's hard to envision him meaning anything else but loyalty to...him!
Do the red-state rubes REALLY still buy this crap - things like "Loyalty Day"? Or is he now totally talking to the hand?
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Why Am I Telling You All This?
by Rich Miles
There's a point to all this. The point is that there is almost always a larger point underpinning the news you see every day - or sometimes a smaller point hidden in the weeds of our leaders' rhetoric. I try to establish and expand on these whenever possible. I'm not the only blogger doing this sort of thing, in fact my blog links will connect you to folks who may do it a lot better than I do. But I promise this - no one does it just like you'll see it done here.
And as time goes on, you will I hope see some of my friends and colleagues, and perhaps even you on this blog. Because while I am the lead voice here, I don't even want to be the only one. There are a lot of people who feel their voices aren't heard in the world today. If I can let a few of them speak here on my little corner of the Web, I will do so happily and proudly.
Because we live in a time when, to a greater degree than at any time in America's history, our alleged leaders bank on our not paying very close attention to what they do, and when on rare occasions we call them on their lies, they behave as if it's our fault for being foolish enough to let ourselves be lied to.
Or they tell us that what we see and hear is not reality, that we didn't really hear them tell us one thing and do another, or tell us one thing today and another two weeks later, or any number of other ways our leaders have of treating us like abused spouses who are so addled from the repeated blows that we don't know reality from fiction.
And we keep letting them do it to us - keep letting our leaders lie to us, in fact often seem to INSIST that they lie to us so we needn't face the painful truths, and only once in a while do we get brave enough to say, ya know, that doesn't quite seem true - right before they slap us down again, and tell us that black is white, and up is down.
A lot of people think I'm too old to be this earnest (I'm in my mid-fifties). A lot of them think I should have figured out by this point in life that no one person can really make any difference in what goes on in our country. And I suppose that's true. But I'm not just one person - as you know if you're a frequent web-crawler, there are an awful lot of us out here, and together, maybe we can make some kind of difference, change one mind, debunk one lie, something.
So I and the zillion other bloggers all over the U.S. who take an interest in matters political and social will try to bring some light to the dark experience that is being a liberal and/or progressive in America these days. We'll keep talking till someone listens, I guess.
Rich Miles
April 30, 2006
There's a point to all this. The point is that there is almost always a larger point underpinning the news you see every day - or sometimes a smaller point hidden in the weeds of our leaders' rhetoric. I try to establish and expand on these whenever possible. I'm not the only blogger doing this sort of thing, in fact my blog links will connect you to folks who may do it a lot better than I do. But I promise this - no one does it just like you'll see it done here.
And as time goes on, you will I hope see some of my friends and colleagues, and perhaps even you on this blog. Because while I am the lead voice here, I don't even want to be the only one. There are a lot of people who feel their voices aren't heard in the world today. If I can let a few of them speak here on my little corner of the Web, I will do so happily and proudly.
Because we live in a time when, to a greater degree than at any time in America's history, our alleged leaders bank on our not paying very close attention to what they do, and when on rare occasions we call them on their lies, they behave as if it's our fault for being foolish enough to let ourselves be lied to.
Or they tell us that what we see and hear is not reality, that we didn't really hear them tell us one thing and do another, or tell us one thing today and another two weeks later, or any number of other ways our leaders have of treating us like abused spouses who are so addled from the repeated blows that we don't know reality from fiction.
And we keep letting them do it to us - keep letting our leaders lie to us, in fact often seem to INSIST that they lie to us so we needn't face the painful truths, and only once in a while do we get brave enough to say, ya know, that doesn't quite seem true - right before they slap us down again, and tell us that black is white, and up is down.
A lot of people think I'm too old to be this earnest (I'm in my mid-fifties). A lot of them think I should have figured out by this point in life that no one person can really make any difference in what goes on in our country. And I suppose that's true. But I'm not just one person - as you know if you're a frequent web-crawler, there are an awful lot of us out here, and together, maybe we can make some kind of difference, change one mind, debunk one lie, something.
So I and the zillion other bloggers all over the U.S. who take an interest in matters political and social will try to bring some light to the dark experience that is being a liberal and/or progressive in America these days. We'll keep talking till someone listens, I guess.
Rich Miles
April 30, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Render Unto Caesar
Fletcher Administration Has Its Priorities Set - For An Election Campaign, But Not For The People of Kentucky
by Rich Miles
April 26, 2006
OK, Let me see if I’ve got this right:
The reasons to deny University of the Cumberlands an $11 million state funding package for a new pharmacists’ school are basically these:
1) The giving of state funds (OUR money) to private, faith-based organizations of any kind is expressly forbidden in Section 189 of the Constitution of the State of Kentucky, and in various specific laws as well.
2) If it were a federal matter, it would be against specific federal anti-discrimination law, and in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution of the United States as well. ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.")
3) 80% of people who contacted the Governor’s office with an opinion on this matter (a self-selected sample, it’s true, but it’s self-selected in both directions) opposed the funding
4) University of the Cumberlands cannot get any new pharmacy school they may build accredited nationally because of the very discrimination they practice that brought them to statewide notice in this matter.
5) While Gov. Fletcher refused to line-item veto this $11 million, he DID veto as much as $370 million in other budget appropriations, much of it taken away from our established, open-to-all-KY-residents state universities, as well as social programs for the poor, the elderly, youth programs, and environmental improvements..
The reasons to go ahead with the funding, and not exercise the line-item veto are these:
1) The governor is courting the radical fundamentalist religious right, in the mistaken belief that they will carry him to re-election next year.
2) Senate President David Williams says, in essence, that the will of the people doesn’t make a bit of difference in this matter - that it is not a “pick-a-star” contest. Also see #1 in reference to Williams as well.
3) The governor has decided that the courts must waste an immense amount of time and money answering a question that, in this separation-of-church-and-state republic, should never have been asked, and indeed that no one but him and Sen. Williams have asked now: we must know, once and for all, if it’s unconstitutional for Kentucky to fund faith-based institutions, and the money isn’t going to be released for use till that question is answered.
So is this a real dogfight, or are we, the people of the state of Kentucky, being taken for a ride again, with elected representatives alleging to represent the will of the people, while doing nothing of the sort, and pandering to a small slice of the electorate for what they perceive to be their political gain?
Before I proceed, let me clarify a couple of points here: First, I don’t deny the right of the University of the Cumberlands to refuse access to their educational gifts to anyone they want to - as long as they’re self-supporting through tuition and private, non-governmental donations. I think it’s particularly nasty and un-Christian of them to do so, but they have the right, as long as I and other state residents don’t have to pay for it. But when they take MY money, and yours, then WE get to say how it’s used, and WE get to object if it’s used to promote bigotry and intolerance.
Secondly, the young man, Jason Johnson, who was expelled from U Cumberlands because he’s gay should have known better - if he wasn’t willing to abide by the rules at UC, he should have gone elsewhere to school. He can be gay if he wants, but why deliberately start this kind of fight?
But having said that, I have to ask: how much longer do we have to put up with this?
How much longer will our government, our elected representatives, subvert the expressed - EXPRESSED - wishes of the majority of the people of our state, in order to kowtow to a small but highly vocal minority of radical religious nutjobs, which by the most optimistic estimates represent at most 20% of the electorate, of whom not all even agree with the governor and senator on this issue?
Dump the appropriation for University of Cumberlands, Gov. Fletcher - or I promise you, that 80% who oppose this nonsense are going to remember this ignoring of the will of the people, this perfidy and political posturing in November of ‘07. I for one will do my best to make certain they do.
Render unto Caesar, and all that. And yes, that's from the Bible.
by Rich Miles
April 26, 2006
OK, Let me see if I’ve got this right:
The reasons to deny University of the Cumberlands an $11 million state funding package for a new pharmacists’ school are basically these:
1) The giving of state funds (OUR money) to private, faith-based organizations of any kind is expressly forbidden in Section 189 of the Constitution of the State of Kentucky, and in various specific laws as well.
2) If it were a federal matter, it would be against specific federal anti-discrimination law, and in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution of the United States as well. ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.")
3) 80% of people who contacted the Governor’s office with an opinion on this matter (a self-selected sample, it’s true, but it’s self-selected in both directions) opposed the funding
4) University of the Cumberlands cannot get any new pharmacy school they may build accredited nationally because of the very discrimination they practice that brought them to statewide notice in this matter.
5) While Gov. Fletcher refused to line-item veto this $11 million, he DID veto as much as $370 million in other budget appropriations, much of it taken away from our established, open-to-all-KY-residents state universities, as well as social programs for the poor, the elderly, youth programs, and environmental improvements..
The reasons to go ahead with the funding, and not exercise the line-item veto are these:
1) The governor is courting the radical fundamentalist religious right, in the mistaken belief that they will carry him to re-election next year.
2) Senate President David Williams says, in essence, that the will of the people doesn’t make a bit of difference in this matter - that it is not a “pick-a-star” contest. Also see #1 in reference to Williams as well.
3) The governor has decided that the courts must waste an immense amount of time and money answering a question that, in this separation-of-church-and-state republic, should never have been asked, and indeed that no one but him and Sen. Williams have asked now: we must know, once and for all, if it’s unconstitutional for Kentucky to fund faith-based institutions, and the money isn’t going to be released for use till that question is answered.
So is this a real dogfight, or are we, the people of the state of Kentucky, being taken for a ride again, with elected representatives alleging to represent the will of the people, while doing nothing of the sort, and pandering to a small slice of the electorate for what they perceive to be their political gain?
Before I proceed, let me clarify a couple of points here: First, I don’t deny the right of the University of the Cumberlands to refuse access to their educational gifts to anyone they want to - as long as they’re self-supporting through tuition and private, non-governmental donations. I think it’s particularly nasty and un-Christian of them to do so, but they have the right, as long as I and other state residents don’t have to pay for it. But when they take MY money, and yours, then WE get to say how it’s used, and WE get to object if it’s used to promote bigotry and intolerance.
Secondly, the young man, Jason Johnson, who was expelled from U Cumberlands because he’s gay should have known better - if he wasn’t willing to abide by the rules at UC, he should have gone elsewhere to school. He can be gay if he wants, but why deliberately start this kind of fight?
But having said that, I have to ask: how much longer do we have to put up with this?
How much longer will our government, our elected representatives, subvert the expressed - EXPRESSED - wishes of the majority of the people of our state, in order to kowtow to a small but highly vocal minority of radical religious nutjobs, which by the most optimistic estimates represent at most 20% of the electorate, of whom not all even agree with the governor and senator on this issue?
Dump the appropriation for University of Cumberlands, Gov. Fletcher - or I promise you, that 80% who oppose this nonsense are going to remember this ignoring of the will of the people, this perfidy and political posturing in November of ‘07. I for one will do my best to make certain they do.
Render unto Caesar, and all that. And yes, that's from the Bible.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
A Tribute to Anne Braden
By Rich Miles
Anne Braden passed away last month, on
I’m not going to sit here and give a rundown of the many accomplishments of the life and career of Anne Braden – a career that started in earnest when I was about a year old, and continued unabated until just last month. Pretty much all of it is part of the public record, and I encourage you to seek it out if you haven’t already done so. Her life, her truth, makes a good read.
Instead, I’d like to tell you about what Anne has left us: what she created for us in life, and what she has bequeathed us at her passing.
Anne McCarty Braden was, to all appearances, no one’s idea of a formidable opponent. She stood about 5 feet tall, even a bit shorter in her later years, and was a slim girl of 23 or so when she arrived back in Louisville in 1947, having been born here but raised in Anniston Alabama. But despite her diminutive physical stature, she had something about her that would not be beaten down, not for the entire 52 years during which she worked for civil rights and racial equality - and that something is the real gift she has left us here today, and for years to come.
For if a life such as Anne Braden’s can be summed up in one word, that word would be: courage.
Not the kind of courage that a soldier needs to face battle and possible death, though she received more than her share of death threats. Not the courage of a firefighter or a policeman or woman, to protect us from the accidents and ills of daily life. But courage all the same.
Courage to see wrong, and do all in our power to right it. Courage to see social institutions in need of change, and do what we can to effect those changes. Courage to see that there are people who will never believe what you believe, and yet keep putting out your message of peace and understanding and harmony among all races and nations, knowing that some will hear and scoff, but every once in a while, some will hear and change, some will join your fight, and some will, with luck and God’s help, even surpass you, and make the world a better place to live in for all of us – even the scoffers. Even the threateners. Even the haters.
The things Anne Braden did almost daily, and more importantly the reasons for them, have lost currency in our world today – it’s become almost unbearably “corny” to speak of changing the world, of creating a space where peace may thrive among individuals or among nations. Those who do this work are called hippies, dreamers, idealists, and worse. Anne was often called a Communist back when that term was the bugbear of the day. She was arrested twice on charges of sedition – a word we hardly hear today, whose antiquated roots embrace the very ancient and ongoing practice of governments attempting to silence their opposition. And still she kept at it. Still she saw that, no matter how much we might SAY that racial equality was growing and thriving in America, we did not always, perhaps did not often live up to our own standards. She saw this right up to the day she died, and she never stopped working and fighting for what she believed was simply – right.
And that – more than anything else she could have given us – is what she has left for us to do. We must have the courage to speak truth to power, as she did. We must have the courage to make it clear that war is never the answer, that racism is never acceptable, that hatred is its own reward – all we get from it is more hatred.
This is in large part why I feel the need to write these words. Our issue of the moment is not that of Anne Braden, but we need her courage and dedication to address our issue as well as to continue addressing hers. No one person, not even an Anne Braden, ever solves these problems all by herself, or all at once. It’s a long, hard job, and there’s not likely to be a break or an endpoint, or a place where we can say, the job is done - not in our lifetimes at any rate. But the more of us there are, and the more we can muster the courage of an Anne Braden, the greater the chance that some day, long after we’ve all gone to dust, our children or our children’s children may be able to say “I wonder why those people so long ago thought racism and war were so important? We don’t do that any more.”
It’s a fond dream, and perhaps mankind can never get there – that’s what a lot of so-called experts think, that we as a species can never get beyond hatred. But Anne Braden believed we could. Her whole life was dedicated to the proposition that we could. And the best we can do as her survivors is to do all in our power to prove her right.
If your beliefs include the idea of an afterlife, perhaps we can envision Anne now, finally getting to rest and finally seeing her beloved Carl again after 31 years without him. But Anne is still with us in spirit, in our hearts and minds and actions even now that death has taken her out of our sight. If there’s a better measure of immortality available to any of us, I can’t imagine what it would be.
Rest well, Anne – you’ve earned it.
And to those who read these words, keep the faith – what you do matters. If nothing else, the life of Anne Braden proves that.
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