Sue Sturgis at the Institute for Southern Studies tells us why the West Virginia chemical spill illuminates "another, often-overlooked hazard associated with coal power: the chemical-intensive process used to clean the fuel after it's mined and before it's burned." Meanwhile, Freedom Industries, the corporation responsible for the spill, declared bankruptcy late last week, amid revelations that Freedom owes at least $3.6 million to creditors and $2.4 million in back taxes. I feel compelled to remind everyone that since the bankruptcy law "reform" of 2005, corporations have a much easier time declaring bankruptcy (and getting back to work) than good folks like you and I do.
Zack Kopplin at Slate finds a charter school program currently operating over 60 campuses in Texas teaches bad science and bad history in its textbooks. No, "in the beginning, God created heaven and Earth" is bad science, because we can't test it, and creationism doesn't "compete" with evolution as a scientific theory because creationism is not a scientific theory. And these charter schools waste our tax money, too -- which makes them even worse than the post-Brown v. Board of Education segregation academies in the South, many of which at least put up their own money.
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge strikes down state's "voter ID" law, in a lengthy opinion finding, among other things, that the law doesn't address a palpable problem, that it places an undue burden on elderly and low-income voters, and that the state botched its $5 million voter ID "information" campaign. The state will probably appeal to the state Supreme Court, but the case may never reach the U.S. Supreme Court (since it's being fought in state courts) -- unless Justice Roberts gets it in his head to commit another act of judicial activism like Citizens United v. FEC.
Speaking of IDs, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) would like food stamp recipients to produce a photo ID card every time they buy food. A solution looking for yet another virtually non-existent problem! Guess what many food stamp recipients don't have? That's right, photo IDs! And guess what's not as easy to get as our elites want us to think? That's right, photo IDs! This "solution" would only satisfy people who get angry at all the wrong people to begin with.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) will retire at the end of 2014, two years before his current term ends. He damaged his reputation with his food safety bill hold at the end of 2010, but I still find him vastly preferable to whatever corporate shill (Republican or Democrat) takes his place. And I doubt he's resigning because he's about to be indicted, as some folks are speculating, but his statement announcing his retirement (it's not because of recurring prostate cancer? And leaving two years early fulfills his obligation to serve only two terms better than serving two terms?) doesn't help quash that speculation.
The Salt Lake Tribune finds that 48% of Utahns approve of same-sex marriage, with 48% disapproving. Think about that for a minute: gay marriage gets virtually 50-50 numbers in Utah. Ask if they approve of civil unions or domestic partnerships for same-sex couples, and almost three in four Utahns approve. Breakdowns by age, gender, and political affiliation are more or less what you'd expect -- and nearly a third of Mormons also approve of same-sex marriage. Mind: boggled -- but in a good way.
Finally, the potential Republican candidate for Virginia's 12th U.S. House district said, some 10 years ago, that it's really hard to "validly get a conviction of a husband-wife rape, when they’re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie and so forth." Boy, he's got the George W. Bush gift of gab! If Democrats are smart, which is always an open question, they'll run ads touting Dick Black (no, he's not a character in a Family Guy episode) as the "one true conservative" in the race, just like they did to Todd Akin in Missouri in 2012. As for the rest of us? Let's never speak his name again.
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