iPhone.

It's not entirely accurate to suggest that conservatism has no coherent response to COVID-19. "Death Cult" is coherent. Horrible, but coherent. 

Conservative Incoherence, by Sam Adler-Bell (Dissent)

The conservative response to COVID-19 has been defined by its heterogeneity: a blur of contradictory recriminations, confirmation biases, and conspiracy peddling.

... All told, there has been no coherent response to the COVID crisis from the right. But when it comes to conservative ideology, incoherence is a feature, not a bug. Where liberals fantasize that precedent and logic are binding forces in our political life—that there exists some epistemological authority that will arbitrate facts and fiction, punish those who’ve contradicted themselves, and reward those who have not—conservatives have long since abandoned such notions. Reactionary thought, as Corey Robin has argued, is dynamic and mutable by nature, responsive to minute changes in the political weather, sensitive to every threat to order and hierarchy, primed to spring into action to meet the discursive necessities of the moment.
Like many, I experienced acute frustration at Trump’s tweets in support of protests to “liberate” states from the onerous lockdowns he and his medical advisers have counseled. But it doesn’t matter. Contradiction is no obstacle. There is no New York Times bombshell or Mueller indictment or impeachment article coming to right the wrongs of Trump’s hypocrisy, no scorekeeper, no manager. There is only power, those who wield it, and those who are subject to it. This, at least, our gun-toting libertarian friends in Michigan understand. It will take wielding our own sort of power to escape this crisis with our communities intact and safe. What form that power could take, I don’t yet know ...

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: I suppose even the racists, fascists and bad actors need their own craft brewery.

Among other things, COVID-19 has proven to be the most effective (albeit inadvertent) truth serum of my lifetime.

The virus is especially effective at targeting and exploiting pre-existing conditions -- in the sense of an individual's physical health, but moreover, the mores and "mental" (British usage) condition of our society overall.

Consequently, given that the American brewing business at all levels, whether macro or craft, always has been (shall we say) "diverse" socially and politically, the coronavirus has made it easier than ever before to see whether your personal system of values is compatible with the brewery (or restaurant, cafe, diner, food truck, espresso stall or weenie stand) you patronize.

The equation need not be restricted to COVID, although it exposed more than a few local operators of the narcissistic anti-science persuasion. The truth serum extends to realities like Black Lives Matter, too.

Lots of folks have operated from the assumption that "craft" beer is left/liberal/progressive matter. They've been mistaken. It's never been quite that simple, and nor should we expect it to be. 

The Steam Hollow Brewing situation in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder has been a staple of the Twitter feed these past few days. Rather than attempt a summary in this space, allow me to redirect you to a site called Absolute Beer, where the story is told clearly and comprehensively.

As a side note, the owners having scrubbed their social media presence, it's not possible to check if they were science doubters during the COVID "lockdown" period. 

Steam Hollow Brewing Faces Backlash for Claiming George Floyd Murder was a Hoax

While millions of people around the country continue to mourn and speak out against last week’s police murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, systemic racism, and police brutality, one brewery in Illinois has taken a particularly controversial stance.

Natalie White, the co-owner of Steam Hollow Brewing, based in the small town of Manteno, stated on her Facebook page: “George Floyd isn’t dead, he is a porn star/actor who knows the officer, who isn’t even a real officer. Wake the f up.”

ON THE AVENUES: Mourning (and alcohol) in America, circa 1984.

(On the Avenues has moved back to Thursdays)

If not for Ollie North’s illegally financed Nicaraguan "contra" rebels, U2’s “Bullet the Blue Sky” would not have been written, though there'd have been so many other chances during the decades to come. 

From 2009 through early 2011, I wrote weekly columns for the pre-merger New Albany Tribune. This one was published in the newspaper on October 28, 2010, and for the first time at the blog on February 18, 2016. A few topical modifications have been made.

---

On Election Day in 1984, I was unexpectedly late for work. To this very day, I blame it on the zeitgeist.

It was Tuesday, November 6, 1984. The anti-climactic culmination of a profoundly unbalanced presidential campaign wasn't so much the re-election of the former actor Ronald Reagan. It was a re-enthronement.

Indeed, in my contrarian, left-leaning lifetime, conservatives never have seemed as smugly insufferable, or liberals more depressingly disenfranchised, than at that precise juncture.

Granted, living on the border between Indiana (former governor Mike Pence) and Kentucky (current governor Matt Bevin) in the year 2019 can make life feel like déjà vu all over again, although now we have the inner satisfaction of knowing that demographics are at long last on our side.

In 1984, doomed Democratic challenger Walter Mondale had a few bright moments early in the campaign, much like when the Hazard County Dulcimer Institute sinks a basket or two after the opening tip before succumbing 130-25 to the University of Kentucky in a preseason roundball tune-up.

Alas, although “where’s the beef” was an entertaining sound bite, and despite signs of Reagan’s unfortunate descent into dementia occurring at regular intervals on the coronation trail, Mondale was no Chaminade waiting in ambush.

When the singer Stephen Stills performed during a Mondale appearance on the steps of Louisville’s City Hall just prior to Election Day, he strummed a medley of 1960’s protest songs and spoke of a “surprise” in the offing. The “surprise” turned out to be how very close Mondale actually came to losing his own home state of Minnesota, along with the other 49.

It was one of those years – strike that; it was one of those decades.

Whenever I was in my cups, that comfortably numb region conducive for enduring brain-dead patriotic platitudes and acute disgust with condescending Falwellian theocrats, and while toiling multiple jobs to accumulate enough money to travel somewhere in the world more civilized, I’d grimace, stare balefully at the date, and rationalize: Just four more years.

I’d be only 28 when Raygun performed his long overdue curtain call, except there was the perpetual fear that he would decide to install a chest-thumping, flag-waving, trickle-down dictatorship. In such a case, known heretics like me might have to consider more hospitable climes.

Until then, there’d be hash marks on the wall, calendar sheets torn and wadded, and oceans of alcohol for solace.

---

Not coincidentally, alcohol was the reason why I turned up late to work on November 6. My gang’s preordained eulogies for the electoral right-wing landslide started at least three days earlier, over beer and brats; honestly, the re-elective problem drinking may have commenced as early as the New Hampshire primary.

Accordingly, on the evening of Monday, November 5, I attended a party in New Albany, where the guest of honor was a Missouri-born friend of a friend -- I’ll call her Lorna, not because I care to protect her identity, but because I can’t remember her real name.

She was an attractive, smart and formidable woman who fancied herself the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, and her periodic visits to town inevitably prompted vigorous ideological tussles so agitated that they verged on the erotic … not to posit opportunity, or anything as Hollywood-like.

Lorna was so far to the right that I habitually referred to her as the “St. Louis fascist,” and this verbal shorthand inaugurated a habit that has remained firmly embedded in my derisory repertoire to the present day, hence NABC’s “These Machines Kill Fascists” t-shirts, and occasional rhetorical embellishments like the substitution of “Peronists” and “Falangists,” better to send the Fascists scurrying to their dictionaries for edification.

From late afternoon beers, we quickly progressed to Bloody Marys, and as the evening wore on, the political discussion predictably escalated. Somewhere between the explication of a Marxist dialectic and my standard anti-Apartheid spiel, Lorna appointed herself bartender.

By the time I was advocating a war crimes trial for Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Lorna was mixing triples – just for me, not anyone else. This development was confided to me much later, but just then, all I felt was advancing intoxication, with a concurrent neglect of the clock ticking on the wall, for it was getting late … and 6:30 a.m. would come very early.

Drinkers accept that the fog of war is not restricted to the battlefield, and mercifully, I was driven home by a friend. Once there, the alarm may or may not have been set, although it is irrelevant, because I did not awaken until well past ten.

Charitably speaking, you could say I was suffering from a hangover. Uncharitably, you’d be giving me a breathalyzer to see if Lorna’s straight vodkas had yet been metabolized. Either way, one point was clear amid the painful haze: I was quite late.

---

At this juncture, I must confide to you the nature of my daytime job.

I was a substitute teacher.

My specific assignment that Election Day was to cover senior civics classes at Floyd Central. Luckily, first period was open, and so my own absence only truly began with second period, extending into third, with my panting, belated arrival coming just at the beginning of fourth.

Expecting to be caught dead to rights, I weaved directly to the classroom. To my jaw-dropping amazement, it transpired that not a soul had noticed me missing. My name was there on the morning attendance sheet, standing in for the regular faculty member ... alongside a hundred or more seniors officially excused for the day to “work” the polls, in a now passé custom that truly saved my bacon on November 6, 1984.

The handful of otherwise unexcused students straggling apathetically to civics class during second and third periods merely shrugged, took their proscribed turns with the hall pass, and behaved impeccably.

I was in the clear.

Reagan was duly re-elected, and the drinking continued. Somehow, we survived, and probably will next time, too, whether it's The Donald or one of several hundred Democrats seeing the job. Is it too late to be an expatriate?

---

Recent columns:

June 18: ON THE AVENUES: Let's lift our voices for another verse of "Talking Seventh Inning Blues."

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: Challenges are forever, but downtown New Albany's food and drink purveyors keep on keeping on.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES: "Pints&union, where the classic beer hits keep right on pouring."

May 14: ON THE AVENUES: Where do we go from here?

"I’ll be breaking party lines this Super Bowl Sunday and rooting for (Tom Brady's) defeat."

I seldom watch pro football, because the gladiatorial mythology so enthralling to many football fans sickens me.

Paul Tagliabue Yearns for Hall of Fame, but Concussions Tarnish Legacy, by Michael Powell (New York Times)

We reporters can be disagreeable, and who has not uttered words he comes to regret? Let’s step past words and take a close look at Tagliabue’s role in overseeing a decade-long cover-up of the N.F.L.’s destruction of the brains of its players.

However, I understand that we all must have distractions, so as to avoid contemplating what it really means to concentrate vast sums of a nation's wealth in the hands of the 1%, and so by all means, "watch on."

Here is one Patriots fan who isn't feeling very patriotic this year.

Go Other Guys! (Why I’m Rooting for My Team to Lose this Super Bowl Sunday), by Zach Wyner (Medium)

My dad, my brother and I will watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. I’m sure there will be moments when my body and mind will be in conflict. Like I said, Boston sports fandom is a hereditary trait buried deep within my DNA and there will be plenty of Patriots on that field worth pulling for.

But I know what a Patriots victory will bring: Tom Brady, the trophy toothpaste ad, smiling at the center of the grotesque circus. And I feel that, as a true fan of the Patriots, it’s my job to root for their failure with the hope that it might spare them the fetid stench of fascism — a stench that, unlike moisture in a towel, doesn’t evaporate in the Super Bowl’s bright lights.

Fascist Indiana senator proposes "block traffic and you die bill," this idea being consistent with the broad principles of autocentrism, if not social justice.

Indiana GOP -- group photo.

This is no more than an extreme example of the usual doctrine of cars having all the rights to our streets, and other users none. Jim Tomes merely dispenses with the hypocrisy, because most governmental units in the state feel the same way about their daily pedestrians and bicyclists as Tomes does about protesters.

Am I the only person here who is desperately eager to see this bill advance so Ron Grooms will have to vote on it?

(thanks B)

Indiana bill would allow police to shut down protests 'by any means necessary', by Joanna Walters (The Guardian)

Opponents in Indianapolis argue the proposed law, simply labelled Senate Bill 285, or SB 285, would give police power ‘even to the point of costing lives’

A bill that would require public officials in Indiana to dispatch law enforcement swiftly to remove any protesters blocking traffic by “any means necessary” prompted uproar on Wednesday.

Opponents of the bill, introduced by a Republican state senator, rushed to the general assembly in Indianapolis on Wednesday afternoon to attend a hearing for the legislation, arguing that it could give a green light to the police to shut down protests harshly “even to the point of costing lives”.

1960s activists on modern politics: "I hate cynicism; you have to fight."

You say you want a revolution? If so, it's time to begin defining your terms.

'I hate cynicism; you have to fight': 1960s activists on modern politics, by Sarah Marsh and Guardian readers

From Donald Trump to Brexit, the world is changing rapidly. Here, those who lived through the transformative 1960s give their view on changing times

Since becoming the US president-elect, Donald Trump has left some people worrying about their rights. He has vowed to roll back on abortion freedoms and deport millions of illegal immigrants with criminal records. He has also appointed Steve Bannon, who has been labelled a “white nationalist”, as White House chief strategist.

Many of the liberties being challenged were fought for and won in the 1960s. The women’s liberation movement, for example, battled for abortion to be made legal (it happened in the UK in 1967 and the US in 1973). In America, the civil rights movement, led by Martin Luther King, campaigned for racial equality and against discrimination.

So how do those who stood up for these freedoms feel about Trump? We spoke to activists in the US and the UK about the 1960s and whether they believe what they battled for is now at risk. We also asked their advice on dealing with political uncertainty and standing up for what you believe in.

ON THE AVENUES: Mourning in America, circa 1984.

ON THE AVENUES: Mourning in America, circa 1984.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

If not for Ollie North’s illegally financed Nicaraguan "contra" rebels, U2’s “Bullet the Blue Sky” would not have been written, though there'd have been so many other chances during the decades to come. 

From 2009 through early 2011, I wrote weekly columns for the pre-merger New Albany Tribune. This one was published on October 28, 2010, and has not appeared previously at NA Confidential. A few topical modifications have been made.

---

On Election Day in 1984, I was unexpectedly late for work. To this very day, I blame it on the zeitgeist.

It was Tuesday, November 6, 1984. The anti-climactic culmination of a profoundly unbalanced presidential campaign wasn't so much the re-election of the former actor Ronald Reagan. It was a re-enthronement.

Indeed, in my contrarian, left-leaning lifetime, conservatives never have seemed as smugly insufferable, or liberals more depressingly disenfranchised, than at that precise juncture.

Granted, living on the border between Indiana (Mike Pence) and Kentucky (Matt Bevin) in the year 2016 can make life feel like déjà vu all over again, although now we have the inner satisfaction of knowing that demographics are at long last on our side.

In 1984, doomed Democratic challenger Walter Mondale had a few bright moments early in the campaign, much like when the Hazard County Dulcimer Institute sinks a basket or two after the opening tip before succumbing 130-25 to the University of Kentucky in a preseason roundball tune-up.

Alas, although “where’s the beef” was an entertaining sound bite, and despite signs of Reagan’s unfortunate descent into dementia occurring at regular intervals on the coronation trail, Mondale was no Chaminade waiting in ambush.

When the singer Stephen Stills performed during a Mondale appearance on the steps of Louisville’s City Hall just prior to Election Day, he strummed a medley of 1960’s protest songs and spoke of a “surprise” in the offing. The “surprise” turned out to be how very close Mondale actually came to losing his own home state of Minnesota, along with the other 49.

It was one of those years – strike that; it was one of those decades.

Whenever I was in my cups, that comfortably numb region conducive for enduring brain-dead patriotic platitudes and acute disgust with condescending Falwellian theocrats, and while toiling multiple jobs to accumulate enough money to travel somewhere in the world more civilized, I’d grimace, stare balefully at the date, and rationalize: Just four more years.

I’d be only 28 when Raygun performed his long overdue curtain call, except there was the perpetual fear that he would decide to install a chest-thumping, flag-waving, trickle-down dictatorship. In such a case, known heretics like me might have to consider more hospitable climes.

Until then, there’d be hash marks on the wall, calendar sheets torn and wadded, and oceans of alcohol for solace.

---

Not coincidentally, alcohol was the reason why I turned up late to work on November 6. My gang’s preordained eulogies for the electoral right-wing landslide started at least three days earlier, over beer and brats; honestly, the re-elective problem drinking may have commenced as early as the New Hampshire primary.

Accordingly, on the evening of Monday, November 5, I attended a party in New Albany, where the guest of honor was a Missouri-born friend of a friend -- I’ll call her Lorna, not because I care to protect her identity, but because I can’t remember her real name.

She was an attractive, smart and formidable woman who fancied herself the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, and her periodic visits to town inevitably prompted vigorous ideological tussles so agitated that they verged on the erotic … not to posit opportunity, or anything as Hollywood-like.

Lorna was so far to the right that I habitually referred to her as the “St. Louis fascist,” and this verbal shorthand inaugurated a habit that has remained firmly embedded in my derisory repertoire to the present day, hence NABC’s “These Machines Kill Fascists” t-shirts, and occasional rhetorical embellishments like the substitution of “Peronists” and “Falangists,” better to send the Fascists scurrying to their dictionaries for edification.

From late afternoon beers, we quickly progressed to Bloody Marys, and as the evening wore on, the political discussion predictably escalated. Somewhere between the explication of a Marxist dialectic and my standard anti-Apartheid spiel, Lorna appointed herself bartender.

By the time I was advocating a war crimes trial for Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Lorna was mixing triples – just for me, not anyone else. This development was confided to me much later, but just then, all I felt was advancing intoxication, with a concurrent neglect of the clock ticking on the wall, for it was getting late … and 6:30 a.m. would come very early.

Drinkers accept that the fog of war is not restricted to the battlefield, and mercifully, I was driven home by a friend. Once there, the alarm may or may not have been set, although it is irrelevant, because I did not awaken until well past ten.

Charitably speaking, you could say I was suffering from a hangover. Uncharitably, you’d be giving me a breathalyzer to see if Lorna’s straight vodkas had yet been metabolized. Either way, one point was clear amid the painful haze: I was quite late.

---

At this juncture, I must confide to you the nature of my daytime job.

I was a substitute teacher.

My specific assignment that Election Day was to cover senior civics classes at Floyd Central. Luckily, first period was open, and so my own absence only truly began with second period, extending into third, with my panting, belated arrival coming just at the beginning of fourth.

Expecting to be caught dead to rights, I weaved directly to the classroom. To my jaw-dropping amazement, it transpired that not a soul had noticed me missing. My name was there on the morning attendance sheet, standing in for the regular faculty member ... alongside a hundred or more seniors officially excused for the day to “work” the polls, in a now passé custom that truly saved my bacon on November 6, 1984.

The handful of otherwise unexcused students straggling apathetically to civics class during second and third periods merely shrugged, took their proscribed turns with the hall pass, and behaved impeccably.

I was in the clear.

Reagan was duly re-elected, and the drinking continued. Somehow, we survived, and probably will this time, too, whether The Donald or Hillary.

---

February 11: ON THE AVENUES: James Fallows, New Albany, and the primacy of bricks over string music.

February 8: ON THE AVENUES EXTRA: "No, John Rosenbarger, congestion is our friend. Help us achieve it, or get out of the way."

February 4: ON THE AVENUES: Hello, I must be going.

January 28: ON THE AVENUES: They're surely not ROLL models.

Planned Parenthood, primary endorsements, Ayatollah Coffey, and Feeling the Bern.

Before Christmas, as some new variety of Neanderthal right-wing offensive against Planned Parenthood seemed to be mounting (I tend to lose track of them), a friend announced that she'd match donations to PP up to a maximum amount.

We had skipped a year or two, and so I tithed ... freely and happily.

Then, as so often occurs, New Albany's city council offered black comic relief. With funding for Blessings in a Backback in the fanny pack, and her legislative "legacy" complete, departing at-large council person Shirley Baird seemed ready to insert a benign resolution into the agenda in support of PP.

Dan Coffey, at the time still clinging to a Vietnamese-rice-paper-thin allegiance to the Democratic Party, readied to unleash the legions of the pious.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

Courageous to the last inning, Baird promptly pulled the offensive resolution, perhaps having been told by Adam Disney that keeping Coffey happy would ensure many bountiful returns during the next cemetery registration drive.

Planned Parenthood resolution pulled from Thursday council agenda, so I guess the Coffey spontaneous combustion is off, too.

But there is no rest for progressives in this squalid town. No sooner than we had made our donation to PP, the organization goes and does this.

online-backlash-after-planned-parenthood-endorses-hillary-clinton/">Massive Online Backlash After Planned Parenthood Endorses Hillary Clinton

In a historic move yesterday, Planned Parenthood endorsed Hillary Clinton for President – its first endorsement in a presidential primary in the nonprofit’s 100-year existence.

(Slaps head) ... if we'd wanted to donate to Hillary, it would have been money handed directly to her campaign. This may or may not yet occur, depending on the autumn threat posed by the fascists, with the point being that PP offers this endorsement in the primary, not the general election.

Let there be no misunderstandings about Planned Parenthood. We support it, but the next donation of equal or greater amount is going to Bernie Sanders. As one compelled to suffer through the clownish cerebral decline of the local Democratic Party, I have no desire to finance the ethos of "Let's Out-Republican the GOP."

Fuck a bunch of Dickeyism. Rather, "Feel the Bern."

Meanwhile ... PP reminds us that in One Party Indiana, the spirit of Generalissimo Franco and the Inquisition live on. ‬

Just one week in to Indiana’s legislative session, anti-woman politicians have proposed five bills opposing access to safe, legal abortion – with more likely to follow. It’s time to speak out against extreme restrictions and gross misinformation.

• SB 144 (Sen. Banks)/HB 1122 (Rep. Nisly) would restrict a woman's access to safe, legal abortion on pregnancies as early as 6 weeks - long before most women even know they are pregnant. If enacted, these bills would result in an effective ban on abortion in Indiana.

• SB 374 (Sen. Waltz) more than doubles the waiting period between the time a woman receives counseling and the abortion procedure to 48 hours. It also increases penalties on abortion providers. If enacted, this bill could strain the resources of women who access abortion – many of whom already face significant barriers to high-quality health care.

• SB 313 (Sen. Holdman) distorts the lived experiences of women facing unexpected and difficult decisions during their pregnancy. If enacted, it would force doctors to speculate on a woman’s motives at a time when the urgent need is non-judgmental care and support.

• SB 314 (Sen. Brown) continues the dangerous rhetoric of anti-abortion extremists. In doing so, it contributes to a hostile climate for health care providers and patients.

These bills make clear that some of our legislators have no respect for Hoosier women and their families or privacy for health care decision-making.

Pledge to take action now to stop these dangerous measures in their tracks.

In solidarity,

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky

"Raw abuse of power?" Why, that's the Republican way.

Isn't that right, Commissioners Bush and Seabrook?

I'd ask Keith Henderson what he thinks, except he's amid the cedars of Lebanon, up Boone County way, Groucho mask in hand, preparing to conduct the shadow prosecution in the Third Time Lucky case.

Not really. He's convening a grand jury in pursuit of missing information. It is unclear whether Dan Coffey will accept company in pursuit.

I'm sure powerhouse GOP chairman Dave Matthews much appreciates the Supreme Court's appeasement of Southerners perpetually re-fighting the Civil War a full 150 years after Gettysburg, with the ostensible topic this time being voting rights.

Todays SCOTUS rulings on same sex marriage cases have churchgoers nationwide biting their nails and contemplating flight to human rights sanctuaries like Belarus, where the gays aren't permitted.

Meanwhile, in Texas ...

Texas abortion bill defeated after missing deadline, by Helen Davidson (Guardian)

... Wearing pink trainers, (Senator Wendy) Davis rocked from hip to hip and slowly paced while she read testimony from doctors and women who would be affected by the bill if it were passed. "What purpose does this bill serve? And could it be, might it just be a desire to limit women's access to safe, healthy, legal, constitutionally protected abortions in the state of Texas?" she said.

Hmm, could be. What do you think, Steve? How 'bout you, Mark?

Texas Vote Passing Abortion Bill Is Rendered Moot, by Manny Fernandez and Erik Eckholm (NYT)

... The reversal served as an embarrassing episode for Mr. (David) Dewhurst and Republican senators on a divisive bill that was closely watched around the nation, both by anti-abortion activists and supporters of abortion rights.

“The G.O.P. Senate leadership comes out of this whole process looking somewhat disingenuous, deceptive and disorganized,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.

Perhaps it isn't the appearance at all. That's the way it is here, too. It's what today's Republican reactionaries are, at root ... whether in DC, Texas, or right here at home.

What a novel idea, basing it on actual evidence, as opposed to blackmail.

Social drinkers/drivers with a lower blood alcohol count aren't the ones inflicting mayhem on the streets and roads. Never have been. Chronic violators are the problem, and a .05 BAC standard does nothing to bring them into compliance. Measures like this are thinly veiled prohibitionism in a nation that chronically undervalues public transportation because its libido fixates on the presumed "freedom" of the automobile.

Pfui.

Tighter Indiana drunken driving law seems unlikely (Associated Press)

INDIANAPOLIS — Some key Indiana legislators don’t expect the state to adopt a federal safety board’s recommendation that the threshold for drunken driving be cut nearly in half.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in its proposal last week that drunken-driving deaths could be reduced if states lowered the current 0.08 blood-alcohol level for driving to 0.05 percent ...

... “I think before we go running off and introducing law, because somebody suggested we should be blackmailed, let’s look at the data and see what’s most effective and with what do we get the most reduction in alcohol-related injuries,” (House transportation committee Chairman Ed) Soliday said. “Some of that may not need a law passed.”

For the life of me, I can't explain why every four years around this time ...

... I can't stop thinking about Leni Riefenstahl. Must be a coincidence.

On the street in Madison, Wisconsin.

All You Fascists Bound To Lose.

Benny Breeze proposes a pro-bridges pogram, but at least No2BridgeTolls is still fighting the idiocy.

Before turning to the meeting announcement from No2BridgeTolls, kindly take note of this story, as broken at Curt Morrison's blog, Louisville Courant.

Fictional character, Benny Breeze created with undisclosed funding source, to manipulate public

Curt's post details the Benny Breeze project, a surprisingly semi-literate effort given the artistic qualifications trumpeted by its creators, although as this passage amply illustrates, the theme behind Benny Breeze is just as anti-democratic and strong-armed as one might imagine simplistic propaganda from Stemlerites to be:

Our team respects and appreciates other people's opinion's; however, we believe that the risks given the current condition of the bridges too high at this juncture to discuss and debate alternatives, that cannot be incorporated swiftly and efficiently with the current plans. We believe that as a community we must work collectively and swiftly to eliminate this threat as promptly as possible. Along the way we would hope that other opinions and ideas would be considered so long as the overall process is not delayed by unnecessary debate.

Echoing Curt, clearly note that in this phrasing, opinions are just threats, which not unlike termites, need eliminating. Debate is unnecessary, especially in a state of emergency. Presumably, Constitutions and other restrictions are not relevant at such times.

If this isn't fascism, I don't know what is, and the relative youth of the project's progenitors surely cannot be cited as an excuse for displaying historical ignorance of this magnitude. What's next, Vaughan Scott? Perhaps a nice Kristallnacht for tolling opponents? We do have it coming, right? After all, we keep asking questions, and behaving like vermin.

Meanwhile, and fortunately given the passage above, No2BridgeTolls keeps on trucking.

---

No2BridgeTolls Plans Strategic Public Meeting June 21, 2011

6 PM Buckhead Mountain Grill, Riverside Drive in Jeffersonville

No2bridgetolls.org founders and supporters are hosting a public meeting on June 21st at Buckhead Mountain Grill on Riverside Drive in Jeffersonville to inform supporters of strategic initiatives in advance of the upcoming June 27 and 28th Bridges Authority public meetings. The No2BridgeTolls.org meeting will start with networking at 5:30 and the meeting will begin at 6 p.m.

"We feel that we have made progress in our efforts to stop tolls on the I-65 Kennedy Corridor, but the fight is not over,” said No2BridgeTolls.org co-founder Paul Fetter. The purpose of this meeting is to bring supporters up to date on our efforts and to prepare the public for the Bridges Authority June 27th and 28th meetings which will be held on both sides of the river,” Fetter added.

“Tolls are bad for families and businesses and we are calling on elected and appointed leaders to continue efforts to pare down this project to a reasonable and affordable plan that does not require tolls. Specifically, we are asking Governors Daniels and Beshear, as well as Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer to find additional or alternative funding to take tolls off the table,” said Fetter.

“The logical answer would be to reduce the project cost,” said Co-Founder Wes Johnson, Jr. “We know that the project can be changed based on recent announcements, despite the original Record of Decision, and we urge elected officials to prioritize this issue and take a stand for the working people who have to cross the river daily,” said Johnson. "Our group formed because tolling our existing infrastructure and transportation routes would divide our river city, and we have thousands of people who support our position,” he added.

About No2BridgeTolls.org

We are a broad-based coalition of businesses, organizations and private individuals who are opposed to tolls on the I-65 Corridor/Kennedy Bridges System. We have formed under the entity of “Organization for a Better Southern Indiana, Inc.” (OBSI.) Our purpose is to educate the public of the true impact of the current proposed bridge toll on both sides of the river. We are a 501-C6 non-profit organization that has been formed for the purpose of disseminating information. We are not against the bridges—just tolls or user fees on the I-65 Corridor/Kennedy Bridges System, which will divide our community, be a regressive tax that our citizens and businesses cannot afford, and will adversely affect the local economy, disproportionately affecting Southern Indiana.

For more information, contact Paul Fetter (812) 283-5555, ext. 27 or Chris McCarty (502) 419-3135 ... No2BridgeTolls.org

"Education. Schools. Children. Vouchers. Which word doesn't fit?"

My pen pal D(NM), a native New Albanian now residing elsewhere, sent this note the other day. Shortly after reading it, I saw St. Daniels's self-serving account of vouchers, and it occurred to me that whenever I hear Mitch Daniels say the words "social justice", I reach for my Irony Sickness Bag.

The governor who famously (facetiously?) referred to a "truce" in the culture wars now spends his days signing legislation dedicated to social engineering on a scale seldom glimpsed since the halcyon days of 20th-century "isms", then sells the souvenir pens on Ebay to finance his White House run.

Like my friend D's reaction, it makes me sick. Waiter: One of those irony bags, please. Extra large if you've got it.

Well Roger, whatareyougoingtodoaboutthismess?

Sorry ‘bout that; words spoken in anger tend to rush out without sufficient pause between. Oops, I’m beginning to sound like Yoda.

How can those idiots face their constituents, how can they face their G-d, when they pull off a stunt like “School Vouchers”? Of course, they are fully aware of the damage they’re going to do to the Indiana Public School system. What can they be thinking? If thinking is what they pretend to do?

The unthinking cruelty of these clowns; it goes to prove time after time that they are amoral to the ‘nth degree. I’m done with Indiana. I’ll never return; however this decision of mine won’t amount to a hill of beans in the long run. But, it will give my anger a focus.

I have to ask, where in Indiana is the one person who’ll stand up and speak out to remind their fellow Hoosiers that this is wrong? This is nothing but a sop to the ugliest of the radical right’s ambitions, and that is to reverse the civil rights movement in this country. To take us back to that imagined time in this country when white was right and those who weren’t were outta sight.

When I was in the sixth grade, attending the State Street Elementary School , the principal was Lillian Emery (of hated memory). She had declared, early on when the subject of integration of New Albany’s schools was discussed, that the only way a black child would walk into State Street School was over her dead body. We all, or at least a lot of us, held our collective breath and hoped that soon a new student would appear and grant our most fervent wishes.

So, one day, during recess I spotted that one black child, alone, away from the other students, crying, afraid, scared to death. I think he was a second grader, one little kid; and at that point the cruelty of the New Albany power merchants was out there for all to see. Unfortunately Miss Emery remained, fully ensconced on her throne. They even named the school after her, for a while; at least until her ugly story became public knowledge.

I tried to befriend and reassure that kid, but he was so miserable and afraid, he was literally inconsolable. I don’t remember if he was at school the next day, I don’t remember seeing him again. The school year ended and I was on to New Albany Junior High, on Spring Street, where integration was a reality. Not that everything was peaches and cream, but it worked, for the most part.

Now, the moral descendants of Lillian Emery are out to reverse the wheels of progress. Indiana’s most welcome to them. You’ll need to keep a weather eye out; I hear that Carrie Nation is reforming the W.C.T.U. for a second go around.

Be very watchful!

Groomsian "freedoms" from a Republican Party intent on keeping women barefoot and pregnant.

During the course of my campaign, I've been asked why I seem to prefer denouncing Republicans rather than conducting a polite primary meet 'n' greet.

If the shoe fits ... then Democrats with a conscience need to wear it.

Item: Poor Indiana women might lose access to Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services

Item: Last evening, Vi Simpson tweeted this observation: "Awful day in Senate today. No citizen left unscathed by Repub majority - women, workers, teachers, voters, students. What about tomorrow?"

Item: Whether or not I win my race for city council, and whether or not there is anything specific a council person can do about Indiana's current fascist tilt, I guarantee that the coming year will be spent assisting the grassroots opposition. We can't get to Ron Grooms for a while, and that's too bad. But in 2012, there'll be another chance to retake a House seat. Just let me know how I can help.

Why? "Because they’re standing at an ATM machine that’s spewing out thousand dollar bills."

From FOK News Channel, the official not-for-profit blog of Keith Olbermann, comes an essay that might have been called "Anatomy of the GOP's ATM."

Gov. Scott Walker: Follow The Money

This is, of course, the answer to the most macro of the questions I get asked every day: why are the Republicans trying to do things like what they’re trying to do in Wisconsin? Why do they want to impoverish the middle class, bust unions, cut staples like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, postpone the retirement age, stop government expenditures on everybody except the rich, increase government expenditures on everybody who’s already rich, smother real small business, redefine “small business” by counting not the number of employees but the number of owners, and a thousand other scams worthy of an economic version of the Spanish Inquisition?

Because they’re standing at an ATM machine that’s spewing out thousand dollar bills. They know some day it will stop, or they will be stopped from grabbing them. They know that there is a tipping point coming in this country when – to borrow cartoonist Clay Bennett’s priceless imagery - the mice will realize they are mice and the Republicans are cats. They saw the polling that showed that it took barely six weeks for Scott Walker to lose the state GOP its Republican Union members. They know what the changing demographics of the nation suggest about the extinction of Conservatism.

The gall of Rep. Espich purloining my campaign platform.

Perhaps Espich can orchestrate a GOP walk-out over the party's hurt feelings. Unless our local transpartied Stemler joins them, he could then be the only person left in the House.

Indiana GOP lawmaker calls agenda criticism hurtful

Ways and Means Committee chairman Jeff Espich of Uniondale disputes the descriptions that Republicans are advancing an agenda that is anti-family, anti-middle class and anti-public education.

The guy gets one letter of endorsement from Dalby, and now Bruce Hibbard's acting like he was appointed to the Bridges Authority.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Kerry Stemler should be proud.

New Albany-Floyd County School Board code hits snag, by Harold J. Adams(Courier-Journal).

Several members of the New Albany-Floyd County School Board say they have problems with a proposal by Superintendent Bruce Hibbard asking all board members to pledge they generally “will accept the superintendent's recommendation on all matters that come before the board.”

The provision is part of a proposed Compact & Code of Ethics scheduled for a first reading at Monday night's board meeting.

Another provision says: “The relationship between the superintendent and board members is collegial not hierarchical, based on mutual respect for their complimentary roles.””

Enjoy your Hummer drive to the foot of the driveway to collect your on-demand right wing propaganda.

I love it.

One day it's "Drill Baby Drill," and the next, it becomes "let's not politicize this environmental tragedy."

Yep, the nuances of irony escape the Right (referred to in my household as "the Wrong"), but one thing's for sure: Petroleum addiction crosses all party lines -- right, One Southern Indiana?

I've heard talk of a "Nuke option" for the oil spill. The nuke option would best be directed against both of America's main political parties.

That's insomnia for you ...