At my work I daily deal with people on the edge: of sanity, of homelessness, of death, of decency.
Did you think this blog was going to be about something else?
In other news, the Supreme Court has ruled the police have the right to kick your door in.
This weekend is filled with sorrow for me as:
- It’s Earth Day. And still we have a political party that wants dissolve the EPA. Why is the EPA even necessary? Protecting our Earth, our home, our mother and father, should be our premise, not our afterthought. I solute the people of Bolivia for legislating the rights of the natural world.
- It is the anniversary of the accidental death, or possible assassination, of Corporal Pat Tillman. Cpl. Tillman, an Afghan militiaman, another American private were on a hillside when they began receive friendly fire from one of their own unit’s humvee’s 100 yards below. The Afghan militiaman took eight bullets. Cpl. Tillman threw a smoke grenade to try to identify himself. The humvee took a better position, 40 yards from Cpl. Tillman, and soldiers dismounted to get a better shot. The Corporal stood and vocally identified himself and was shot three times in the head. Before starting his tour in Afghanistan, Tillman’s family had contacted American academic Noam Chomsky on Pat’s behalf to arrange a speaking tour after his discharge to express his belief in the illegality of the Iraq war.
- Feminist blue grass legend Hazel Dickens has died. Few voices could effect me like hers. This is truly a sad day.
I’m also sad to admit that most this info is reposted from my favorite blog Dangerous Minds.
AND Steve’s sister forgot her inhaler. What the fuck?
Nashville made the South proud on April 5th when Metro Council passed an ordinance banning Metro contracts with businesses that lack anti-discrimination policies against LGBT people. Then the state of Tennessee shamed itself, or I should say the Tennessee House of Representatives shamed our state, by immediately voting for legislation to override all such ordinances throughout the state.
I’m always sickened when conservatives tout the value of local government, until a local government does something they perceive as contrary to their personal morality then it is okay for the state or federal government to supersede. Perhaps the ultimate act hypocrisy are the Republican voices claiming such anti-discrimination ordinances put undue economic burden on businesses. Whoa flashback – is it 1964? To quote House Republican Leader Gerald McCormick, “I don’t think it’s about sexual preference and those things. I think it’s about providing a consistent economic development atmosphere in all 95 counties of the state. It’s about economic development. It’s not about gay people.” CONGRADULATIONS Representative McCormick you’ve just added yourself to the segregationist column scorned by history! And YES a LGBT anti-discrimination bill is about gay people, but NO we are not so stupid as to not see through your coded language. As you are obviously pandering to the most conservative religious / ignoramus hate monger elements of your constituency why not just say “I HATE FAGS AND THEY WILL NEVER HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS IN TENNESSEE!” This would would have the same effect of what you actually said; namely, stoke hate in your voter base and condemn you to the cringe museum of moral history. Does no politician in Tennessee have access to a history book?
To those of you so anxious about Sharia – pass LGBT anti-discrimination laws and TN will never have Sharia law.
There are several bills which are currently under debate:
HB159/SB136: Prohibits public employees from having a payroll deduction to a political action committee or for dues for membership organizations that use funds for political activities.
HB130/SB113: Abolishes teachers’ unions ability to negotiate terms and conditions of professional service with local boards of education.
HB367/SB 0624: Allows the board of education to grant teachers tenure at any time between their third and tenth years of service; eliminates judicial review of decision to suspend or dismiss a teacher for incompetence, inefficiency, neglect of duty, unprofessional conduct or insubordination.
SB102/HB565: changes the method of selection of trustees of TCRS representing teachers and retired teachers from election by the representative assemblies of the Tennessee Education Association and the Tennessee Retired Teachers Association respectively to appointment by the speakers of the senate and the house.
HB160/SB139: Creates Class C misdemeanor for labor organization to contribute to candidates.
HB179/SB294: Prohibits LEAs from denying equal access to LEA employees to all domestic professional employees’ organizations offering membership to all certificated personnel.
Though these all vary in heinousness, HB159/SB136 and HB160/SB139 seem obviously unconstitutional— even to the Roberts’ court! HB130/SB113 should be unconstitutional as labor’s right to collectively bargain is a right not a privilege.
And just to prove I’m not a mindless zealot, I don’t really see what is wrong with HB179/SB294.
HEADLINES 03/10
Frist family ranks as TN’s richest with $3.6 billion
TN Senate advances plan for forever ban on income tax
Nashville’s lack of low-income housing leaves working poor with no permanent place
Thank fucking gods for the real Scott Walker.
About the current union busting efforts, it is clearly a nationwide conservative strategy, a plan to be implemented at all levels after the midterm elections. It is an ideological attack to strip public workers with the right collectively bargain in the states where Republican governors were elected: WI, OH, and TN. Yes, TN which doesn’t get much news coverage because of culture bias in a media which assumes the South is a social hole where workers have no rights anyway. The teachers association here does have the right to collectively bargain, and much like in Wisconsin, they agreed to a number of concessions BEFORE THE ELECTION, yet almost immediately the Republican dominated state legislature still tried to rush a bill through like in WI and OH stripping teachers of that right. And there were massive protests in Nashville on Saturday. This is doubly heinous as TN placed second in Race to the Top program earning the state $500 million from due measurable improvements in education. Hopefully this will get some national coverage. There has been a lot hate towards teacher’s unions thanks to the Waiting for Superman documentary but here is what the National Education Policy Center has to say about that movie and others. The NEPC defines it’s mission as “is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence.”
At the city level, conservative councilmen here in Nashville simultaneously introduced a bill erode civil service pensions. The city though is far more progressive than the rest of the state and this went no where, thanks in part to the efforts of my union.
That’s what happeing here in TN.
If you are interested in the conspiracy aspect you might have missed this story about internet security firm HBGary working with the Chamber of Commerence to undermine unions. This is an amazing story that seriously went under the radar. As of yesterday the wiki about HBGary was surprisingly fair and unhacked. I am communist so for me all this is really not part the new world order, but the old world order: the rich vs. the poor. Consider the Powell Manifesto which many consider the blue print for the corporate dominance of the American body politic. Of course concerns it self with economics (mostly) but adherents of this philosophy can always pair with cultural conservatives and win elections.
I probably shouldn’t write lunatic dream slips if I want be serial on here.
I’m pretty sure my ADD and chronic forgetfulness are due to clinical depression but this new research explains why I feel like I am tripping all the time. SHIT PUDDLE.
It says creative people have easy access to memories, dreams, and things that happen in your mind that ARNTimporTANT. That creative people can switch between ARNTimporTANT and really fuckin portent HBGary shit like real fuckin easy. The krazees can’t turn off the ARNTimporTANT shit. Or to paraphrase Freud to Joyce: “They’re drowning. You dive and come back up for air.” Was he talking about Joyce’s daughter? I can’t remember. Though in some HBGary kind of way this should make me feel better about being awash in a moon-humping LSD sunset tide 36 hours a day, any creative person worth half their salt ALREADY KNOWS THIS and I’m left wondering how much did this asshole get paid to do this research while working people fight with their lives for the smallest crumbs of capitalism right here in the US of A.
“Technically, latent inhibition involves the ability to consider something as relevant even if it was previously tagged as irrelevant. A reduced latent inhibition allows us to treat something as novel, no matter how may times we’ve seen it before.” Bring the drone on!
Pony bones.
Should I be concerned that my ADD is so severe I cannot pay enough attention to play Wii tennis? Like by the time the computer serves I’m gone. I imagine this started when my orgasms started feeling like acid flashbacks. Flesh sea.
Since we now know that nearly half of rural America lacks broadband internet access, I want to personally thank the United States House of Representatives in voting block the FCC from enforcing its (already laughably weak) net neutrality rules. Nothing will help those that lack broadband better than ensuring it will be slower and cost more. Thanks again GOP.
