The Smithian

May 20th, 2013

‘…every Republican on the House Agriculture Committee voted to approve an omnibus farm bill containing a $20 billion cut in food stamps over the next decade in the program’s $800 billion or so 10-year budget…’

While less devastating than turning the program into a capped block grant to the states, which the House Republicans have previously endorsed, the cut is nearly five times the reduction approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate Agriculture Committee, which already is too much. The House bill’s cuts would end food-stamp assistance for nearly two million people, with the pain falling mainly on low-income working families with kids and older Americans…

more.

May 19th, 2013

thesmithian

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For a so-called fifty-fifty state, you’d think Democrats would have more luck running for statewide office in Ohio…State Democrats’ electoral troubles are truly biblical…many are called but few chosen…Cleveland State Senator Nina Turner represents one of the Democrats’ best shots at reversing this tradition of futility, as she weighs a presumed run for Secretary of State. She’s already beat the odds once.

more.

May 18th, 2013

thesmithian

…many who would…support more regulations and enforcement in the face of a foreign terrorist threat would suddenly scoff at more regulations and enforcement in the face of unsafe workplaces. Why the double standard? That’s the troubling question raised by the reaction—or, really, lack thereof —to last month’s catastrophic explosion in West, Texas…Texas promotes an “antipathy toward regulations” as “the only state that does not require companies to contribute to workers’ compensation coverage” and a place where many counties “cite the lack of local fire codes as a reason for companies to move there.”

more.

May 12th, 2013

thesmithian

'Here’s a way to attract companies and create jobs. Eliminate as many regulations as possible. The fewer the regulations, the happier are the corporations. Let’s call it the Texas way. But if it’s that easy, why hasn’t every State done it? It’s because the majority of citizens in most other States know that many if not all regulations enacted by the national government, States, and local communities are to protect workers, consumers, and whole communities. And, as West, Texas, recently proved, there are prices to be paid when regulations are eliminated. Fourteen people, twelve of them emergency responders, died at its unregulated fertilizer plant. Property damage and workplace fatalities from such explosions and fires in Texas have exceeded those of all the other 49 States combined for the past five years.'

May 10th, 2013

thesmithian

This milestone shows the power of strong, strategic organizing…It also shows what happens when politicians threaten the rights of current and future African American voters. Across the country, we witnessed a variety of attempts by local, state and federal officials to…make it harder for Black Americans to vote. In response, starting a year before election day, we raised awareness of suppression efforts from the statehouses to the courthouses, organized with other faith and civil rights communities, and turned out at the polls to proclaim victory for our hard-won rights.

Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, director, African American Ministers Leadership Council

yesterday’s Census report confirming that African-Americans turned out to vote at a higher rate than any other ethnic group for the first time last year.

April 20th, 2013

thesmithian

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point well made and well taken.

April 12th, 2013

thesmithian

‘In several men’s prisons across California, colored signs hang above cell doors: blue for black inmates, white for white, red, green or pink for Hispanic, yellow for everyone else.’

…Though it’s not an official policy, at least five California state prisons have a color-coding system.On any given day, the color of a sign could mean the difference between an inmate exercising in the prison yard or being confined to their cell. When prisoners attack guards or other inmates, California allows its corrections officers to restrict all prisoners of that same race or ethnicity to prevent further violence. Prison officials have said such moves can be necessary in a system plagued by some of the worst race-based gang violence in the country…But legal advocates say such practices are…problematic. “I haven’t seen anything like it since the days of segregation, when you had colored drinking fountains,” said Rebekah Evenson, an attorney with the nonprofit Prison Law Office.

more.

April 7th, 2013

thesmithian

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[Bobby] Jindal was re-elected to a second term [as Governor of Louisiana] with two-thirds of the vote in 2011. But his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll…voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials for a possible White House run than tending to local matters. As the Louisiana Legislature prepares to kick off its two-month session on Monday, Jindal’s signature proposal to eliminate the state income tax is facing resistance.

more.

[Bobby] Jindal was re-elected to a second term [as Governor of Louisiana] with two-thirds of the vote in 2011. But his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll…voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials for a possible White House run than tending to local matters. As the Louisiana Legislature prepares to kick off its two-month session on Monday, Jindal’s signature proposal to eliminate the state income tax is facing resistance.

more.

April 5th, 2013

thesmithian

It’s been nearly seven years since the last execution in North Carolina, but that could soon change…the state Senate passed a bill to resume executions…The halt in executions stemmed largely from challenges to the state’s lethal injection protocol and questions about whether medical professionals can participate in a state-sponsored killing. Additionally, the 2009 Racial Justice Act allowed death row inmates to appeal their conviction if racial bias may have played a role in his or her sentence…North Carolina’s move bucks the national trend towards repealing the death penalty. Six states in as many years have eliminated [it]…

more.

It’s been nearly seven years since the last execution in North Carolina, but that could soon change…the state Senate passed a bill to resume executions…The halt in executions stemmed largely from challenges to the state’s lethal injection protocol and questions about whether medical professionals can participate in a state-sponsored killing. Additionally, the 2009 Racial Justice Act allowed death row inmates to appeal their conviction if racial bias may have played a role in his or her sentence…North Carolina’s move bucks the national trend towards repealing the death penalty. Six states in as many years have eliminated [it]…

more.

April 3rd, 2013

thesmithian

‘Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion…’

…in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings. The bill, filed…by two GOP lawmakers…and backed by nine other Republicans, says…courts cannot block a state “from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” The legislation was filed in response to a lawsuit to stop county commissioners in Rowan County from opening meetings with a Christian prayer…

more.

April 2nd, 2013

thesmithian

I am an expatriate Kansan…Since moving away I have been asked to account for the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, the abolition of the Kansas Arts Commission, and the ongoing nastiness of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. The long struggle over the place of evolution in the state education curriculum followed me into my undergraduate years. Recently in the news we have witnessed the political success of the conservative faction of the state Republican Party: a first step toward eliminating the income tax; the privatization of Medicaid; and the introduction of a package of restrictive, even cruel anti-abortion legislation. Meanwhile, the most damaging conservative activity—the gradual dissolution of the state government—has garnered little national attention. The unmaking of the state has accelerated in the two years since Governor Sam Brownback took office, and during this legislative session is being pursued with redoubled fervor. Kansas wasn’t always this way.

Ben Merriman

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April 1st, 2013

thesmithian

'What is certain is that the power of the smaller states is large and growing. Political scientists call it a striking exception to the democratic principle of “one person, one vote.” Indeed, they say, the Senate may be the least democratic legislative chamber in any developed nation.'

March 27th, 2013

thesmithian

…it is chilling to think that for women in America, your rights now depend on your Zip code.

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards

March 20th, 2013

thesmithian

I don’t think the GOP is in that much trouble. (And, twice in 20 years now, we’ve seen how deftly they can disrupt the administrations of the people who beat them.) They’ve locked up the House for the foreseeable future. They’re getting all kinds of laws past in the states that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago. They’ve stacked the courts to the point where the DC circuit can rule against recess appointments, and where it looks like the teeth of the Voting Rights Act are about to be pulled. The entire economic debate is being fought out on ground only a smidge to the left of their own choosing. Sensible gun control turns out to be DOA, at least in part because Democratic politicians are afraid of mighty Republican ad buys in contestable states. Campaign finance is a a dead parrot, and the system in situ is vastly to their advantage. Real action on climate change is utterly stalled. So, with all that, the RNC does a little examination of conscience about why they’ve lost the popular vote in six of the past seven presidential elections, and everybody goes into high-sterics, as my mother used to say.

Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire

March 12th, 2013

thesmithian

The Ryan budget, which will become the official G.O.P. budget just as soon as the Republican majority in the House gets a chance to vote on it, gives nice big tax breaks to the wealthy. At the same time, it would turn Medicare into a voucher system, gut Medicaid by turning it into a block grant to the states, give states the ability to kick people off food stamps and repeal most of health care reform. It would kill funding for high-speed rail, guaranteeing that the United States will never catch up to the rest of the world in public transportation. And it would cap Pell grants, guaranteeing that they will fall behind tuition inflation. The budget is not merely terrible policy, but also bears no resemblance to what Americans want—at least judging from their rejection of the G.O.P. presidential ticket last year as well as more recent public opinion surveys.

Andrew Rosenthal, at the New York Times

and more. and more. and more.