Well, this is novel. It seems that Hollywood, Florida had a referendum and not very many people came, which is really too bad since it means firefighters, police, and other city employees may now have their benefits taken after 13 percent of all registered voters in Hollywood voted for deep cuts to them.

Via the Miami-Herald:

With a low voter turnout — about 13 percent of the city’s 84,521 registered voters — residents cast ballots to strip police, firefighters and the city’s general employee’s of their current pension plans, allowing the city to save $8.5 million.

“This isn’t necessarily something where we look at it and say ‘yay’ we won,” said City Spokeswoman Raelin Storey. “This has been a very difficult time for the city.”

Facing a $38 million deficit and unable to come to an agreement with the city’s unions, Hollywood leaders took the risky move of putting the issue to a public referendum. Last year, the city said it had to put $36.6 million into the underfunded pension program.

Several cities throughout South Florida are also struggling with sharply increased pension costs, and have been eyeing the Hollywood case to see how it turned out.

Yeah, I'll just bet they are. Basically, 13 percent of city residents (and you can guess which ones), came out to tell public servants they weren't worth the extra money. Austerity!

What bothers me most about this is that it was a referendum. Basically, the city charter says that if no agreement is reached between the city and collective bargaining units, the city has the right to put a referendum on the ballot and call for a vote. How is this good faith bargaining by any stretch of the imagination?

Continue reading »

From the Democracy for America email:

On Friday, we asked DFA members to vote on which Republican to target next with our new TV ad exposing the Republican attacks on Medicare, Social Security and education.

It was close, but the winner was clear: Republican Eric Cantor.

Now, we'll hit him hard across his Virginia district before he heads back to Washington after Labor Day. You told us what to do. Please help make it possible by contributing $5 to get the ad on the air.

The link goes to ActBlue. It would be fantastic to have this ad flood Cantor's district, reminding voters of the costs of supporting the Republican agenda. In fact, while Labor Day is a great start, I hope DFA runs this ad again and again as we near the election.

[Scarce has much more.]

It's quite the scene in Cairo:

"We have brought down the regime, we have brought down the regime," chanted the hundreds of thousands of people who packed into Tahrir Square for "Farewell Friday."

Egyptians waved flags, cried, cheered and embraced when the news reached them through a public address system. "Finally we are free," said Safwan Abou Stat, a 60-year-old protester.

... The military made clear it also wanted the demonstrators off the streets and for life to return to normal. It was clearly ignored.

Hundreds of thousands of people crammed into the area around Tahrir Square.

Live television pictures from Alexandria also showed massed ranks of people filling a main boulevard in the city and Al-Jazeera reported there were other demonstrations in Suez, Mahala, Tanta and Ismailia.

A group of army officers, including a lieutenant colonel, had also defected to the protesters. "The armed forces' solidarity movement with the people has begun," Major Ahmed Ali Shouman told Reuters by telephone just after dawn prayers, saying he had handed in his weapon. "Some 15 officers ... have joined the people's revolution."

From the Guardian:

he march from the presidential palace back to Tahrir square was a wall of sound. Car horns blared, amateur fireworks exploded centimetres above our heads,onlookers cheered raucously from the balcony above. Some people fainted, others unfurled their Egyptian flags in the middle of the street to pray, and many, many people had tears in their eyes.

Amid the jubilation though, there was a moment of reflection for those who died to make this day possible. 'Be happy martyrs, for today we feast at your victory,' sung the crowds.

On the ground were military police in red berets, all smiles and thumbs-up to demonstrators. Apprehension about what might happen next in an Egypt now under army control was being pushed aside to allow for celebrations, but as the procession reached the high-walled Ministry of Defence, Egyptians could not resist reminding their new overlords of who now held the balance of power in the Arab World's most populous nation. 'Here, here, the Egyptians are here,' they shouted up at darkened windows, pointing down to the street.

"For 18 days we have withstood tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, molotov cocktails, thugs on horseback, the scepticism and fear of our loved ones, and the worst sort of ambivalence from an international community that claims to care about democracy," said Karim Medhat Ennarah, a protester who has provided the Guardian with updates throughout the uprising. "But we held our ground. We did it."

Isn't it funny how those tireless and bellicose defenders of "freedom" on our shores -- the American Right -- are the ones worrying and fearmongering about this outcome?

If CNN did more of this (and fired Erick Erickson) I would have a lot more respect for them. Anderson Cooper is on fire in this segment, calling out the Egyptian government on their lies, their violence, and their patronizing attitude toward the thousands of people in Tahrir Square.

In this segment, Cooper is full of facts and righteous indignation. He's the guy I remember from tsunami coverage, and the Haiti earthquake coverage, but with more of an edge. You can almost feel the anger in his voice as he names the lies, one by one, and then names the liars.

As he moves through the lies and threats of Omar Suleiman, Cooper mentions journalists who have been detained and harassed, protesters who have died at the hands of government thugs, and others who risk their freedom and lives just coming and going through Tahrir Square. ABC is keeping a list of all journalists harassed, detained, intimidated or threatened by the government. Human Rights Watch has published reports of journalists harassed, and also says the death toll is now over 300.

As an aside, this Pew Research poll is really not a positive sign for the health of this nation. According to the poll, 52% -- FIFTY-TWO PERCENT -- of Americans polled have heard little or nothing about the protests. How is that even possible?

Cooper begins with Egyptian Vice President Suleiman's veiled, but crystal-clear threat to the protesters of 'police action', and takes down the rest of the lies from there.

Transcript follows:

Continue reading »

After fifteen years of house arrest, Burma has released Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, an outspoken proponent against the military dictatorship that has subjugated her country.

Appearing outside her home in Rangoon, Ms Suu Kyi told thousands of jubilant supporters they had to "work in unison" to achieve their goals.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years. It is not yet clear if any conditions have been placed on her release.

US President Barack Obama welcomed her release as "long overdue".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Ms Suu Kyi was an "inspiration", and called on Burma to free all its remaining political prisoners.

The decision to free 65-year-old Ms Suu Kyi comes six days after the political party supported by the military government won the country's first election in 20 years. The ballot was widely condemned as a sham.

Suu Kyi has previously said that she would not negotiate for any release that came with conditions, such as preventing her from running for office. However, it is doubtful that the ruling generals would have granted freedom to Suu Kyi unless they felt confident that she posed little to no threat to their position. With the questionable results from the last election, it should be interesting to see how the Burmese now react to the symbol of democratic resistance in their country walking among them.

Why, I wonder what's the matter with Republicans? Aren't they all confident and all, considering the current narrative that they're on track to win back the Congress and shut down the government? I can't imagine why Republican Steve May thinks he has to recruit homeless folks for the Green Party ticket in order to pull Democratic votes away, can you?

That's not all. Last week there was the Houston, Texas voter suppression schemes. This week it turns out True the Vote is building their case with doctored photos.

Compare and contrast:

If Republicans think they are the party with better ideas, why doctor photos to suppress voters? Let their ideas be tested fairly, or not at all. Yes, that was sarcasm. This is classic Republican behavior. Suppress the vote, put up fake candidates to siphon votes, whatever works. They will stop at nothing to subvert and corrupt democracy for their own ends.

Arianna Huffington -- who represents the "professional left" about as well as anyone -- says the president is "not all that into" the middle class. I don't think she's being very original or very funny. Worse, I put that sort of rhetoric in the firebagger category, as it isn't useful. There is nothing anyone can do about the president until 2012 at the earliest -- and as I have said consistently throughout the body of my work, Congress is where most of the blame lies for any progressive disappointment.

Sorry if you're turned off by the music in the video; it's loud and angry because I want the righteous anger of the just focused where it belongs, which is not on the man least responsible for legislative reform. Much more after the jump...

Continue reading »

Back in May, John Amato did a panel with Andrew Breitbart as part of a benefit for the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Foundation. I didn't write much about it at the time because Breitbart was drunk, unruly, and unintelligible. Since he basically spewed what he always spewed, it didn't seem like news you could use. Also, handheld video is less than optimal.

However, in reviewing the video, I feel that I owe it you, our faithful readers, to let Andrew Breitbart summarize his life's motivation in a few seconds. It's basic, simple, and explains why he is such a scourge on the landscape of political discourse.

On the topic of what's good for democracy:

BREITBART: Sex and drugs should be illicit, and when they're legalized there's no shame involved and thus rendering the experience less pleasurable.

I'm certain we could turn up video of Breitbart soliciting on a corner in Hollywood. If you have a clip, please do send it in.

And this:

BREITBART: I just like doing things that are wrong, feeling like I can get in trouble.

I think we should get him in trouble for those wrong things, don't you?

Untidy Lying Media Bastards

Sy Hersh tells us that the Bush administration made plans to covertly influence the outcome of the 2005 Iraqi election, attempting to win votes for specific candidates. Yes, I’m sure you’re all shocked.

Apparently Congress opposed this plan, so the White House had to do this covert action… uh, double ultra secret covertly. This just proves that either the Bush administration has never fucking cared about bringing democracy to Iraq, or that they define “democracy” much differently than the rest of us. Honestly, I think it’s both of the above.

Of course, the US has a long history of secretly supporting one candidate over another in foreign countries. And if that doesn’t work, overthrowing the opponent after he takes power. Or, destablizing the entire country, and then overthrowing the opponent. I once again recommend the book Killing Hope for examples.

Juan Cole reminds us of a long legacy of Western powers interfering in Middle Eastern democracy. To the point that I imagine many in the region think “democracy” means “the white people are gonna fuck with us again.”

Vatican: Catholics Who Back Abortion Shouldn't Take Communion

This is coming from LifeNews.com and I haven't found the story anywhere else:

The Catholic Church has produced a new document for bishops across the world to examine that says Catholics who support legalized abortion should refrain from taking communion because they are out of step with church teachings. The Vatican said pro-abortion Catholics are not taking their faith seriously and those who take communion and support abortion are behaving in a scandalous manner...read on

Couple that story with Michael's article about evolution and you can see where the Catholic Church is headed. The divide is growing wider between democracy and theocracy. If the current Vatican continues on this course, Pat Buchanan may finally have his wish. A small and isolated Church.