Giving up is not an option

From a Colorado friend, some thoughts and a link -- not a bad idea to share around, especially here in West River...

More of us should get involved in trying to get these kind of messages across to the misinformed and manipulated Tea Party crowd. See if we can get them to think about the fact that they are acting against the best interests of themselves, their children and their grandchildren by whatever means it takes. Most people really don't want to hurt their children or grandchildren.

I don't know that I agree with the rest of Thom's message I don't think ignorance of the facts is at the core, hate is.

A lot of them are just amusing, confused and misguided. There's a difference between stupidity and ignorance. If we won't talk to them and introduce them to Progressive ideas and persuasion, who will?


If you haven't experienced lively discussions with these sorts of folks, you don't know what you are missing but I am not conflict averse or uncomfortable with who I am and what I believe or afraid to say it.

I was talking with my rightwinger brother this past week. We don't talk often. My approach had always been pretty gentle whenever the conversation got around to politics. I was watching Battle in Seattle at the moment and told him it was probably not the best time to talk but we talked for maybe an hour. I was worked up by the movie and warned him but just told him bluntly all the things I was thinking of. When he talked with my wife, he said some weird things to her that made me think I actually broke through. I could be wrong, we'll see. I know, I am rambling but years of gentle persuasion made practically no difference. Maybe the time was right.

His party has gone batshit crazy after all. Any sane person still a member of that party should be ashamed of themselves.

Anyway, we have to engage people whose opinions differ from ours and we cannot be afraid we will hurt their feelings or be bruised ourselves. Sometimes aggressive approaches break through all the defensive bullshit. I realize there are a lot of people who this won't work with for a variety of reasons. That's ok.

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And, I'd like to add this. Happy Easter all!

Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tomes or tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown.

~Lewiston Tribune

Blue Dogs are all heart (rant, sorry)

From an April 11 press release posted on Rep Herseth Sandlin's website:

Washington, DC – Today, members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, led by Representatives Frank Kratovil of Maryland and Travis Childers of Mississippi, announced their plans to introduce legislation that would require the federal government to cut non-security spending by nearly 6%, saving the American taxpayers over $400 billion.

May we ask the Blue Dogs why we are still be spending massive amounts of money to fight the Cold War?

Sure we need a military, sure we need to be ready. Why all the troops in Germany and South Korea? I mean, we need a strategic presence, but in this day and age we can move around the globe pretty quickly if we need to.

Clearly, everyone else has figured out how wasteful this is -- what's our problem?


Meanwhile, in the reality-based world:

The Working Poor Keep Getting Poorer

The Working Poor Families Project October 2008 study highlighted similar problems from 2002 through 2006. Titled "Still Working Hard, Still Falling Short: New Findings on the Challenges Confronting America's Working Families," it reported:

-- jobs paying poverty-level wages rose by 4.7 million;
-- low-income working families (earning less than double the Census definition of poverty) increased by 350,000;
-- below poverty-level jobs rose to 29.4 million and comprise 22% of all jobs compared to 19% in 2002;
-- most disturbing is that this happened during a period of economic growth, but at the same time wages haven't kept pace with the cost of living;
-- low income family numbers rose to nearly 9.6 million or 28% of the population;
-- children in them number 21 million;
-- 72% of low-income families with working adults in them performed the equivalent of one and one-quarter jobs - a far greater burden than in other OECD countries; and
-- income inequality is highest in New York; California is fourth, but all states are in a race to the bottom as conditions deteriorate everywhere, so all rankings are disturbing compared to the late 1990s.

Note the numbers above come BEFORE Wall Street almost destroyed our financial system, and the resulting waves of unemployment and foreclosures growing the ranks of the poor. (America's Dirty Little Secret, Leo Hindery, HuffPo):

... 100 million people, fully one-third of the entire U.S. population, are at or below "200% of the federal poverty line of $21,834 for a family of four", which is a needs-measure made lame by the fact that no family of four can actually comfortably live on such a low annual income.

Now, THAT's a national security issue. This is not sustainable.

Some shining city on a hill.

Those that loudly assert America's status as a "Christian nation" would do well to ponder why they are more concerned about promoting military might, government control of our private lives, and the death penalty, rather than than the poor and sick.

Speaking of Reagan's "shining city on a hill," the significantly less arrogant real quote is worth reflection as we ponder on how we want to react as a nation to the health care and financial issues of the day:

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses . . .
-—John Winthrop, aboard the Arbella, 1630.

Radical & The Bob on KOTA

KOTA-TV called for an interview the other day and I was happy to chime in.

I thank Katy Urban of KOTA for doing such a great job on this story!



I got to say a few things, but the money quote was from Bob Ellis. He seems to say this whenever he gets interviewed by the press, maybe to keep the show going that he isn't basically just a mouthpiece for the Heritage Foundation:

Ellis says every blogger should strive to meet the highest ethical standards. "We should be held accountable to present as true of information as possible and definitely not making any claims or allegations that are demonstratively false," Ellis said. 

Hm.


Gina Miller, today on Dakota Voice offers a whopper -- I think she shows a lot of chutzpah to lie like this right the middle of West River, one of the most homophobic parts of the country.... Maybe she should go visit BHCFE and get some facts about what it's like for LGBT folk who live here.

[Proposed US House bill H.R. 4530 states] ,“…students and parents have often had limited legal recourse to redress for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” another patently false statement.

And, it seems, every time it snows, Bob misrepresents settled science:

Much of what AGW [Anthropogenic Global Warming -- BTW Bob it's "Climate Change" -- some places get colder, some get wetter)] “shadow boxers” push to convince people (or just themselves, maybe) that AGW is real is what could best be characterized as “junk science.”

And he lies about religion constantly (here's a site to enlighten you, Bob, though I know that you aren't really interested in facts about religion--other than your extremist wing of Christianity):

The doctrine of every major religion teaches that homosexual behavior is immoral and is a contradiction of God’s design for the expression of human sexuality.

Talk about the "pernicious lie" ... Bob's ignorance and defiance of the facts would do a lot of damage -- if anyone really bought it outside his extremely True Christian™ audience.

Is this Heaven?

No, it's Iowa.

Defendant [the State of Iowa] is hereby enjoined from refusing to issue marriage licenses to Plaintiffs or any other same-sex couples who a) are otherwise eligible for said licenses pursuant to Chapter 595 as amendment… and b) who properly apply for such licenses.

You can read all about it at Lambda Legal's website. They've also posted the text of the court's decision.

Marriage equality has come next door to Iowa.

The decision is simply excellent, because it includes many direct arguments aimed at those who, for political reasons, successfully legitimize prejudice and ignorance on a range of social and health issues by discounting or cherry-picking the facts. This decision could be a watershed decision for sanity and truth in the courtroom on marriage equality, not unlike the Dover School Board decision was for those trying change science education into something else. Here's a taste:

[The state's witness opposing same-sex marriage] makes it clear in his deposition that he has not read the vast majority of the studies concerning gay and lesbian parenting, that he has performed no related research himself and that he is unaware of the existence of many recently published studies [that contradict his assertions]....

Because he admittedly is unable to evaluate current social science regarding gay and lesbian parenting generally or critique the methodology upon which that science is based, Dr. Hawkins apparently is not commenting upon the relative frequency of positive outcomes in child-rearing by heterosexual couples nor apparently is he commenting upon how children do by various measure where reared by stably married heterosexual couples as opposed to same-sex couples.

Translation: the State's case holds no water because they ignored the facts of the case and instead clung to prejudices and assumptions that, although they may be politically popular, carry no weight in court because they simply aren't true.

SO, Iowa (pending an expected appeal to their state Supreme Court) is now set to be the eleventh state to implement government recognition of same-sex relationships, and the third to do the right thing and implement marriage equality.

Here's another part of the decision; for South Dakota State legislators take note:

Court costs are hereby taxed to Defendant.

Maybe some Iowan refugees can come home, to the benefit of our great sister state.

And it could happen here too, if we can open our eyes and see the truth--that the campaign against marriage equality has been used as a political tool, and an ugly and unconstitutional one at that.

Iowa.

Could have sworn it was Heaven.