Billy Graham Died

Ever watch the Last Kingdom? There's a dramatic scene towards the end of the second episode of the second season where Alexander Dreymon's character, Uhtred, the dashing heathen protagonist, dares the evil Abbot Eadred to "say it one more time and go meet the devil." She he does... and he does. Big deal that he killed a man of God, with big consequences, despite it being the arch-villain of the first couple of episodes of Season Two. I'm guessing that thou shalt not kill abbots was a big megillah back in the 9th Century.

Yesterday Billy Graham, who's been hectoring America for as long as I can recall-- not in the 9th Century, but definitely throughout the 20th-- died. No one killed Graham. Like Eadred, Graham was on the wrong side of history. His legacy is that evangelicals stand by while racial tensions and our planet get hot. "The world’s most famous evangelist let his apocalyptic anticipation of the coming kingdom of God blind him to the realities of living in this world." But my old friend in Asheville, Cecil Bothwell, wrote the obit for us:



Billy Graham And The Gospel Of Fear
by Cecil Bothwell

“We are selling the greatest product on earth. Why shouldn’t we promote it as effectively as we promote a bar of soap?”
- Billy Graham, Saturday Evening Post, 1963

Billy Graham was a preacher man equally intent on saving souls and soliciting financial support for his ministry. His success at the former is not subject to proof and his success at the latter is unrivaled. He preached to millions on every ice-free continent and led many to his chosen messiah.

When Graham succumbed to various ailments this week at the age of 99 he left behind an organization that is said to have touched more people than any other Christian ministry in history, with property, assets and a name-brand worth hundreds of millions. The address lists of contributors alone comprise a mother lode for the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, now headed by his son and namesake, William Franklin Graham, III.

Graham also left behind a United States government in which religion plays a far greater role than before he intruded into politics in the 1950s. The shift from secular governance to “In God We Trust” can be laid squarely at this minister’s feet.

Graham’s message was principally one of fear: fear of a wrathful god; fear of temptation; fear of communists and socialists; fear of unions; fear of Catholics; fear of homosexuals; fear of racial integration and above all, fear of death. But as a balm for such fears, he promised listeners eternal life, which he said was readily claimed through acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s savior.

Furthermore, he assured listeners that God loved us so much that He created governments, the most blessed form being Western capitalist democracy. To make this point, he frequently quoted Romans 13, particularly the first two verses. In the New American Standard Version of the Bible, they read, “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.”

The question of whether this was actually the recorded word of God or a rider inserted into the bill by Roman senators with rather more worldly aims never dimmed Graham’s insistence that all governments are the work of the Almighty. Almost perversely, he even endorsed the arrest of a woman who lofted a Christian banner during his Reagan-era visit to Moscow, opting for the crack-down of “divine” authority over the civil disobedience of a believer.

Governments, he reminded his Moscow listeners, do God’s work.

Based on that Biblical mandate for all governments, Graham stood in solid opposition to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, all but addressed to Graham, King noted, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’ … If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.”

Fear is the stock in trade of most evangelists, of course, comprising the necessary setup before the pitch. As historian William Martin explained in his 1991 account of Graham’s early sermons, “… even those whose personal lives seemed rich and fulfilling must live in a world filled with terror and threat. As a direct result of sinful humanity’s rebellion against God, our streets have become jungles of terror, mugging, rape, and death. Confusion reigns on campuses as never before. Political leaders live in constant fear of the assassin’s bullet. Racial tension seems certain to unleash titanic forces of hatred and violence. Communism threatens to eradicate freedom from the face of the earth. Small nations are getting the bomb, so that global war seems inevitable. High-speed objects, apparently guided by an unknown intelligence, are coming into our atmosphere for reasons no one understands. Clearly, all signs point to the end of the present world order.

“… Graham’s basic mode of preaching in these early years was assault. … Then, when he had his listeners mentally crouching in terror, aware that all the attractively labeled escape routes-- alcohol, sexual indulgence, riches, psychiatry, education, social-welfare programs, increased military might, the United Nations-- led ultimately to dead ends, he held out the only compass that pointed reliably to the straight and narrow path that leads to personal happiness and lasting peace.”

Columnist and former priest James Carroll had much the same take, noting that “Graham had his finger on the pulse of American fear, and in subsequent years, anti communism occupied the nation’s soul as an avowedly religious obsession. The Red scare at home, unabashed moves toward empire abroad, the phrase ‘under God’ inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance, the scapegoating of homosexuals as ‘security risks,’ an insane accumulation of nuclear weapons, suicidal wars against postcolonial insurgencies in Asia—a set of desperate choices indeed. Through it all, Billy Graham was the high priest of the American crusade, which is why U.S. presidents uniformly sought his blessing.”

While Carroll had most of that right, the record suggests that, over and over again, it was Graham who sought presidential blessing, rather than the other way around. Letters enshrined in the presidential and Graham libraries reveal a preacher endlessly seeking official audience. As Truman said, years after his presidency, “Well, I hadn’t ought to say this, but he’s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he’s a friend of all the presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was president.”



Of course, politicians have often brandished fear as well, and the twin streams of fear-based politics and fear-based religion couldn’t have been more confluent. Communist infiltrators, missile gaps and the domino effect each took their turn, as did the Evil Empire and, more recently, Saddam, Osama bin Laden and an amorphous threat of global terrorism.

In light of the Biblical endorsement of rulers, Graham supported police repression of Vietnam war protesters and civil rights marchers, opposed Martin Luther King’s tactic of civil disobedience, supported South American despots, and publicly supported every war or intervention waged by the United States from Korea forward.

Born on a prosperous dairy farm and educated at Wheaton College, Graham first gained national attention in 1949 when the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, searching for a spiritual icon to spread his anti-communist sentiments, discovered the young preacher holding forth at a Los Angeles tent meeting. Hearst wired his editors across the nation, “puff Graham,” and he was an instant sensation.

Hearst next contacted his friend and fellow publisher Henry Luce. Their Wall Street ally, Bernard Baruch, arranged a meeting between Luce and Graham while the preacher was staying with the segregationist Governor Strom Thurmond in the official mansion in Columbia, S.Car. Luce concurred with Hearst about Graham’s marketability and Time and Life were enlisted in the job of selling the soap of salvation to the world. Time, alone, has run more than 600 stories about Graham.

The man who would become known as “the minister to presidents” offered his first military advice in 1950. On June 25, North Korean troops invaded South Korea and Graham sent Truman a telegram. “MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS PRAYING GOD GIVE YOU WISDOM IN THIS CRISIS. STRONGLY URGE SHOWDOWN WITH COMMUNISM NOW. MORE CHRISTIANS IN SOUTHERN KOREA PER CAPITA THAN ANY PART OF WORLD. WE CANNOT LET THEM DOWN.”

It was the first time Graham encouraged a president to go to war, and with characteristic hyperbole: Korea has never topped the list of Christian-leaning nations. Subsequently, Graham gave his blessing to every conflict under every president from Truman to the second Bush, and most of the presidents, pleased to enjoy public assurance of God’s approval, made him welcome in the White House. Graham excoriated Truman for firing General Douglas MacArthur and supported the general’s plan to invade China. He went so far as to urge Nixon to bomb dikes in Vietnam-- knowing that it would kill upward of a million civilians-- and he claimed to have sat on the sofa next to G.H.W. Bush as the bombs began falling in the first Gulf War (though Bush’s diary version of the evening somehow excludes Graham, as does a White House video of Bush during the attack).

According to Bush’s account, in a phone call the preceding week, Graham quoted poetry that compared the President to a messiah destined to save the world, and in the next breath called Saddam the Antichrist. Bush wrote that Graham suggested it was his historical mission to destroy Saddam.

Through the years, Graham’s politics earned him some strange bedfellows. He praised Senator Joseph McCarthy and supported his assault on Constitutional rights, then scolded the Senate for censuring McCarthy for his excesses. He befriended oil men and arms manufacturers. He defended Nixon after Watergate, right up to the disgraced president’s resignation, and faced public scorn when tapes were aired that exposed the foul-mouthed President as a schemer and plotter. Nixon’s chief of staff, Bob Haldeman, reported on Graham’s denigration of Jews in his posthumously published diary-- a claim Graham vehemently denied until released tapes undid him in 2002. Caught with his prejudicial pants down, Graham claimed ignorance of the hour-and-a-half long conversation in which he led the antisemite attack.

As reported by the Associated Press on March 2, 2002:

“Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon . . . some 30 years ago,” Graham said in a statement released by his Texas public relations firm. “They do not reflect my views, and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks.”“Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon . . . some 30 years ago,” Graham said in a statement released by his Texas public relations firm. “They do not reflect my views, and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks.”

Whether or not the comments reflect Graham’s views at the time or thirty years later, it is his defense that bears much closer scrutiny. What were we to make of a preacher who insisted that his words didn’t reflect his beliefs? Were we to believe him then or later, on other matters?

Graham was a political operative, reporting to Kennedy on purported communist insurgencies in Latin America, turning over lists of activist Christians to the Republican party, conferring regularly with J. Edgar Hoover and networking with the CIA in South America and Vietnam. He was even assigned by Nixon’s operatives to talk George Wallace out of a second run for the White House.

To accomplish the latter, he phoned Wallace as he was coming out of an anesthetic stupor after one of his numerous post-assassination-attempt surgeries. While the long suffering gunshot victim asked the minister to pray for him, the minister asked him not to make a third-party bid for the presidency. “I won’t do anything to help McGovern,” Wallace replied.

There are many who would argue that the good that Graham did outweighs whatever political intrigue he embraced, and even the several wars he enthusiastically endorsed. To the extent that bringing people to Christ is of benefit to them, an untestable hypothesis, he was successful with his calls to come forward. He accrued hundreds of millions of dollars which were used to extend his ministry and thereby bring more people to “be saved,” which is self-justifying but fails as evidence of goodness.

If Christian beliefs about the hereafter prove correct, we will all presumably discover what good he accomplished, or what chance for salvation we missed, in the sweet by and by.

In talking to one of his biographers, Graham recalled his mood during his fire and brimstone declamations, “I would feel as though I had a sword, a rapier, in my hand, and I would be slashing deeper and deeper into the consciences of the people before me, cutting away straight to their very souls.”

In that regard, Graham’s largest and most lasting monument is a highway cut through Beaucatcher Mountain, blasted through a majestic land form that once bisected Asheville, N.Car. He helped convince recalcitrant landowners to permit the excavation and construction through the cut of the short stretch of Interstate highway subsequently named the Billy Graham Freeway.

Downwind residents report that the weather has permanently shifted due to the gaping mountain maw and the future of the highway that transects the city continues to be one of the most divisive issues in that southern metropolis.

“Straight to their very souls,” indeed.

In every way, Graham was the spiritual father of today’s right-wing religious leaders who so inhabit the national conversation. If he cloaked his suasion in public neutrality it was the hallmark of an era in which such intrusion was deemed unseemly. If today’s practitioners are less abashed, it is in many ways reflective of the secure foundation Graham built within Republican and conservative circles.

Graham endorsed and courted Eisenhower and compared a militaristic State of the Union speech to the Sermon on the Mount, fanned anti-Catholic flames in the Nixon-Kennedy contest, backed Johnson and then Nixon in Vietnam, lobbied for arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the Reagan years, conveyed foreign threats and entreaties for Clinton and lent his imprimateur to G.W. Bush as he declared war on terrorism from the pulpit of the National Cathedral.

Billy Graham approved of warriors and war, weapons of mass destruction (in white, Christian hands) and covert operations. He publicly declaimed the righteousness of battle with enemies of American capitalism, abetted genocide in oil-rich Ecuador and surrounds and endorsed castration as punishment for rapists. A terrible swift sword for certain, and effective no doubt, but not much there in the way of turning the other cheek.

Graham will be cordially remembered by those who found solace in his golden promises and happy homilies, but the worldly blowback from his ministry is playing out in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chechnya and Korea, the Phillipines and Colombia-- everywhere governments threaten human rights and pie in the sky is offered in lieu of daily bread.

In the words of  Graham’s ministerial and secular adversary, Dr. King, “I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

Farewell Reverend Graham. Let justice roll.

Asheville City Council Unanimously Passes A Civil Liberties Resolution-- How Did That Happen?

Last cycle we saw the DCCC rush into westernmost reaches of North Carolina, the Catawba Valley and everything from Lenoir and Morgantown to the Tennessee border and back to Arden and Hendersonville, bust carefully skirting Asheville-- NC-11. "Ex-Blue Dog Steve Israel was petrified the progressive champion of the region, City Councilman Cecil Bothwell-- who had driven reactionary Blue Dog Heath Shuler out of the race-- would become the Democratic nominee. So the DCCC backed an even worse Blue Dog than Shuler, Hayden Rogers, and got him through the primary with cash and lies. In November, their candidate was handily beaten by teabagger-- and future Tortilla Coast Suicide Caucus activist-- Mark Meadows, 57-43%. Cecil went back to his work on the City Council and is running for reelection now. Last night he sent us this guest post about the very different direction Asheville is taking from the state of North Carolina. With Cecil as their guide, the City Council unanimously passed the kind of resolution much of the rest of the Art Pope-controlled state is fighting against. Cecil:

Earlier this week, the Asheville City Council passed a resolution that I have been working on since I was elected to Council in 2009. This Civil Liberties Resolution calls for protecting civil liberties and strengthening community-police relations by adopting a policy that prohibits discrimination and profiling based on race, immigration status, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, ethnic origin, gender, religious or political affiliation, and homed or homeless status. The resolution passed by a unanimous vote.

When I first began working on drafting a civil liberties resolution for Asheville, I met with homeless advocates, with interfaith discussion groups, with representatives of Asheville's Latino community, and with many other groups and community leaders in the area. As a result, we were able to draft a resolution that has been endorsed by numerous group and that is going to be very beneficial to the city of Asheville as a whole.

In addition to guaranteeing civil liberties and equal protection under the law, the Civil Liberties Resolution also protects residents and businesses who are not under criminal investigation from having information about their social, political, or religious views and activities collected, maintained, or distributed by City officials. Further, the resolution seeks to mend relations between the police force and immigrant community by excusing local police force from the responsibilities of federal immigration officials. I presented the resolution to City Council's Public Safety Committee in April, and it was approved by the committee in June.

Prior to coming to the vote by City Council, the resolution was endorsed by the leaders and representatives of several civil liberties organizations, including leaders of Stand Against Racism; Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality; Sarah Nunez and the Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council; the WNC ACLU; representatives of Coalicion de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas; Rev. Amy Cantrell of the Beloved Community; Rabbi Rob Cabelli, formerly of Beth Israel Synagogue; the Bill of Rights Defense Committee; Occupy Asheville; Executive Director Lael Gray of the Jewish Community Center; Rev. Tyrone Greenlee of Christians for a United Community; and the Asheville Homeless Network.

When I am re-elected you can count on me to work to ensure that the provisions of this resolution are upheld and that every Ashevillian has the rights and liberties they deserve.

The election is November 5th and there is early voting at the Asheville Mall, South Buncombe Library, West Asheville Library and the North Asheville Library starting this Saturday at 10AM (every day tip 6pm next Friday). If you'd like to chip in to Cecil's reelection efforts, you can do that here.

Keeping The Dream Alive... In North Carolina

A few days ago we mentioned a brighter side of what's going on in North Carolina, Cecil Bothwell's reelection campaign. As Reid Wilson pointed out in his Washington Post column yesterday, the fascist-controlled Art Pope legislature really is wrecking the state government.

Even after a legislative session dominated by Republican legislative victories, on issues as diverse as gun control, abortion, taxes and election reforms, deep differences divide [Republican Governor] McCrory and state Senate President Phil Berger (R), who spearheaded the most controversial parts of the conservative agenda that passed the legislature, and won McCrory’s signature, on party-line votes.

In a special session this week, the House and Senate voted by wide margins to override two of McCrory’s vetoes, on measures that would require drug testing for welfare recipients and that would loosen e-Verify requirements for ensuring agricultural workers are legally permitted to work in the United States, even after McCrory and his allies lobbied legislators to sustain the vetoes.

...Conservative initiatives Republicans pushed through this year on abortion, taxes and voting rights earned outraged national headlines from liberal media outlets like MSNBC, The Huffington Post and ThinkProgress. In North Carolina, it inspired a group of Democratic constituencies, led by the NAACP and joined by abortion rights activists and labor unions, to form a weekly protest, dubbed “Moral Mondays.” Several observers on both sides of the aisle likened the protests-- which have sometimes attracted more than 1,000 people to the state capitol-- to the tea party protests that rocked American politics during the health-care debate in 2009 and 2010.

McCrory has not always handled those protests with aplomb. In July, he carried a plate of chocolate chip cookies to activists protesting the abortion bill. The protesters returned the cookies with a note: “We want women’s health care, not cookies.” Several hours later, a staff member came out of the governor’s mansion to hand a 12-year old protester three slices of cake, inviting unflattering comparisons to a certain queen of France during the reign of King Louis XVI. Several McCrory advisers blanched at the gestures.

Needless to say, in the midst of his own reelection campaign in Asheville, clear across the state from far-off Raleigh, Cecil Bothwell has been playing a real role in the Moral Monday movement, even chartering buses from Asheville to Raleigh for demonstrators and going himself. At the end of last month, he spoke in Sylva at one of 13 rallies being held across the state to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The rallies were sponsored by the North Carolina NAACP and were intended to send a message to the state Republican legislature that further attempts to dismantle freedom and equality will not be tolerated by the people of the state. His speech:

Our economy, in Western North Carolina is slowly climbing out of the  Great Recession. Recovery from that economic collapse, which began more  than five years ago, has been far slower than necessary. That slow pace  has been the direct result of misguided government policies.

You’d think our policy-makers didn’t learn anything from our experience of the Great Depression. Then as now, unregulated  banking and lending created a global bubble, then as now when the bubble burst the effect on American workers was devastating, and then as now,  our government’s first reaction was to cut taxes and cut spending. That  was exactly the wrong cure for a depression in the 1930s, and it has  proven to be the wrong cure in our own era.

But some of our  elected representatives are so completely committed to their misguided  ideology that they ignore economic reality.

In North Carolina,  when a sane policy would be to hold taxes steady, or even increase them, particularly on the wealthy, our General Assembly chose to give an  enormous tax break to the rich.

When a sane policy would be to  retain state workers, we see payrolls slashed, particularly in education where the latest cuts will eliminate 4,000 teaching jobs.

When a sane policy would be to expand Medicare by accepting some $9 billion  in federal funds, we see Medicare sharply curtailed.

When a  sane policy would be to maintain unemployment benefits until expansion  of the economy puts people back to work, we see former workers dumped  from benefit rolls, and payments to remaining recipients slashed.

The far right ideology that is controlling North Carolina’s economic  future today takes the position that all social welfare programs are  simply give-aways to the undeserving poor.

It’s as if  legislators imagine that poor folks will stuff all that extra cash in  offshore, tax exempt investment accounts, like the rich plutocrats who  finance their political campaigns.

Nothing could be more shortsighted.

When the unemployed draw benefits, they don’t stuff money in a  mattress, they spend it for the necessities of living. That money flows  into the North Carolina economy and employees people.

Medicare  payments don’t go into a mattress either. The money goes to health care  facilities and health care workers, maintaining essential jobs for the  experts we need in times of personal or societal crisis.

Education cuts are the most shortsighted piece of the austerity budget  approved in Raleigh. Education is the cornerstone of our future  development and of preparing our children for the jobs of that future.

This state succeeded in climbing from the nation’s bottom ranks of K-12 education in recent decades. We built a university system that has  turned out leaders in science and technology, in medicine, in the  humanities and in business, tea-partiers in Raleigh have decided to join a race to the bottom.

It is not the way to rebuild the American Dream. It is, frankly, insane.

We can do better, North Carolina. We know that corporations are not people, and that people matter more than money.

Forward together! Not one step back!

At this dark time in its history, outspoken, values-based progressive leaders like Cecil Bothwell are essential to keep the dream alive. If you can, please consider helping his campaign here. This song always makes me cry:

North Carolina... NOT A Lost Cause

Remember when Wisconsin was the model state for the GOP's jihad against democracy? Things have calmed down there a bit. And North Carolina has taken over the spotlight entirely. But wherever the cloud is darkest, there is always the most room for rays of sunshine. Our old friend Cecil Bothwell is certainly a bright ray of sunshine in the Carolina gloom right now. The Asheville City Councilmember was voted first place “Best Local Politician” by city voters in the annual Mountain Xpress “Best of WNC” poll-- for the fourth year in a row. He's running for reelection now and the special interests and ideological conservatives would love to knock him off. One of his staffers, also an old friend of ours, Bruce Mulkey, put the race into some crystal clear context:

What we’ve been witnessing at the General Assembly in Raleigh the past few months is the futile attempt by fearful, old, white men to hang on to the power and control to which they assume they’re entitled. These extremists imagine that if they can push women, gays, blacks and Latinos back to the status these groups held prior to the mid-20th century, they can hang on to their perch at the top of the pecking order.

Now don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against old white men. In fact, I am one. But I do take issue with any group, regardless of skin color, sex or age, that abuses its power in a deceitful and un-American attempt to keep others from experiencing the fruits of liberty-- equal rights for all, the unfettered opportunity to vote, a quality education for all our children, clean air and water for every citizen... I could go on.

If you look at the data, it’s clear that the demographic shift currently taking place in our nation will be the death knell of this Caucasian paternalism. The Pew Research Center projects that non-Hispanic whites will make up only 47 percent of the U.S. population by 2050, while the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that this change will take place in 2042. Already racial or ethnic minorities make up nearly 30 percent of registered voters in North Carolina, and this trend is expected to continue.

Regardless of what you think about his politics, there’s no denying we have elected our first black president, a president who is currently serving his second term. If the odds-makers are right, we will elect a female president in 2016. And surveys show that the children and certainly the grandchildren of the men who currently inhabit the halls of power differ from them significantly in their acceptance of equal rights, a path to citizenship for immigrants and protection of our environment.

Thus, no matter how forcefully the Tea Party (née GOP) shamefully endeavors to suppress the vote, strip women of their rights, push people of color to the back of the bus and keep our children from developing the skills they need in the 21st century, the appalling efforts of our state legislators are doomed to failure in the long run.

It’s obvious from their strident protestations that most of these right-wing zealots imagine they are doing God’s work (though it’s quite clear they are actually following the marching orders of ALEC, the Koch Brothers and Art Pope). Therefore signing petitions, calling or writing them, attending rallies or submitting letters to the editor will not deter the true believers who seem quite certain that the customs of their tribe are the laws of the universe.

So we North Carolinians who are deeply concerned about our state’s current backward direction have choices to make: We can sit around for a decade or two while the old guys pass from the scene; or we can stand up for our values and vote the instigators of the most abhorrent state legislation in the nation out of office. So if you aren’t registered to vote, be sure to do so. If you don’t have a government-issued ID, get one now. If you don’t know where your polling place is, find out. Regardless of your political affiliation (or lack thereof), let’s stand together to sweep Raleigh clean in 2014.

A Progressive Continuum: Paying it Forward

by Cecil Bothwell

Thanks to support from readers of this blog, and Glen Greenwald's endorsement, I was able to wage a credible primary campaign against our former Blue Dog Rep. Heath Shuler.

Heath dropped out, we think in part because polls suggested we might win. But big money won the primary for Heath's deputy, who then went on to lose the General.

That loss was due in at least some measure to NC redistricting that tilted this district to the right.

Far beyond what that gerrymander did to Tar Heel representation in Washington, it bent the election for our General Assembly. Tea Partiers are now shoving this state back toward the 19th Century as fast as they can cast their "ayes." If I tried to describe all that they have dismantled you would be here all day. But it is breathtaking.

Banning city councils from banning "Big Slurp" drinks is one of the more laughable. Banning metropolitan governments from adopting Sharia law is one of the most outlandish. Stealing airports from Asheville and Charlotte one of the most heinous. Eliminating regulation of private landfills one of the most scary. Shifting the tax burden from the rich to the poor (sharply cutting income taxes and raising sales taxes, including a new tax on food) is GOP-as-usual.

But, here in Asheville we're pushing back. We've filed a lawsuit to prevent theft of the municipal water system and we're taking the fight to Raleigh.

You may have read of the Moral Monday protests that have been staged at the state capital for a couple of months. This week my City Council re-election campaign has hired a bus to take protesters from Asheville to join the demonstration.

Meanwhile, we have a great young campaign intern, a rising high school senior, who needs some help to attend progressive political training sessions in Washington, DC next week.

Any contribution would be welcome. Justin deserves our support!

Hayden Rogers Represents Everything That's Wrong In Washington DC

If you contribute to Cecil Bothwell's campaign today, the money will go right up to expand TV coverage with the ad above. Bothwell's scrappy grassroots campaign is up against the full weight and power of The Machine. After incumbent Heath Shuler saw polling that indicated he couldn't win another term, he announced his retirement and has spent all his time setting himself up as a corporate lobbyist, a practice that should be illegal. Shuler and the Blue Dog Caucus put tens of thousands of dollars into starting a campaign for Shuler's closest crony and chief-of-staff, reactionary insider Hayden Rogers. The Blue Dogs were able to get their corrupt allies inside the DC Democratic Establishment to pony up as well and to signal the K Street corruption community-- i.e., the lobbyists-- that everyone had to chip in for Rogers.

Meanwhile, despite Hayden Rogers' virulently anti-Choice positions-- he promises to be a loyal soldier in the "Republican" War Against Women (for Boehner and Cantor)-- and despite being one of the only Democrats in the state of North Carolina backing the heinous Amendment One that the North Carolina Democratic Party is battling against, Steve Israel, chair of the DCCC, who admires corruption over and above all other qualities, endorsed Rogers. So how corrupt is Hayden Rogers? Tuesday we touched on his relation to the payday loan industry-- which is banned from North Carolina. Today Cecil Bothwell's campaign has a press release explaining it more fully. Bothwell doesn't accept contributions from corporate lobbyists or from PACs. Rogers' entire campaign is practically based on a gusher of cash from these sleazy sources. "The most questionable sources," they assert, "are payday lenders."

Rogers has accepted $17,500 from individuals, lobbyists and special interest groups associated with the Payday Loan Industry. All of these donors are from outside of North Carolina, hailing from places such as Las Vegas, Miami, and South Carolina.

They are all from out-of-state because North Carolina banned the Payday Loan Industry in 2001.

It took until 2006 to fully shut down the industry (which played a cat and mouse game exploiting loopholes, changing names, etc.). In a 2006 press release NC Attorney General Roy Cooper said: “We’ve fought payday lending at every turn and now we’re putting this industry out of business here in North Carolina. These payday lenders thought they’d found a way around North Carolina law. Now we’re showing them the way out of our state.”

With over 23,000 lending stores in the U.S. (more than Starbucks and McDonalds combined), payday loans represent a $59 billion a year industry. Its critics argue that it is a form of predatory lending that targets young and low-income workers. People in need of quick cash-- usually a few hundred dollars-- bring in their pay-stub, fill out paperwork and turn over a personal check post-dated two weeks later and written for the amount plus the "loan fee." What many people don't understand is that the fee is actually the annual interest rate. According to the North Carolina Department of Justice "payday loans may seem like a quick solution to a cash crunch, they’ll cost you a lot more in the long run. A payday loan of $100 to $500 can carry an annual interest rate of 390 to 780 percent. Payday loans are due in full on your next payday, typically in two weeks. If you aren’t able to repay the loan that fast, as most borrowers aren’t, you can get stuck on a debt treadmill. This happens when borrowers, unable to repay the loan, take out new loans or rollover the old one. You pay the fees on your loans over and over again, without ever being able to pay off the loan."

New York, Georgia and 11 other states followed North Carolina and also banned them. Undeterred, the biggest players simply shifted operations and went online. Any attempt at meaningful Federal legislation from Congress was met with fierce lobbying efforts from groups such as the "Community Financial Services Association" and the "Online Lenders Alliance." Both groups represent the payday loan industry.

To date, Rogers has taken corporate/PAC donations (which are reported separately from individual/personal donations) from:

Community Financial Services Association-- Alexandria, VA-- $5,000 Advance America Cash Advance Centers, Inc.-- Spartanburg, SC-- $2,500. Advance America is the largest chain of payday lenders in the U.S.

Rogers also took donations from the following individuals:

Lindsay Webster-- Owner, Advance America, Spartanburg, SC-- $1,250 William Webster IV-- Chairman and Director, Advance America, Spartanburg-- $1,250 Vincent K. Ney-- CEO of GECC, Bergheim, TX-- $2,500...

Mark E. Curry gave $2,500. FEC law requires candidate to report a donor's name, address and occupation for anything above $50. Rogers reports Curry lives in Las Vegas, but for Curry's occupation Roger's states "Information Requested." However, our research has found a Mark E. Curry in Vegas who owns a collection agency (Smith, Haynes and Watson, LLC) that works for several payday loan shops. In 2011 Curry and his collection agency were in litigation with the AG of Maryland.

Tim Rupli-- "Executive" at T.R. Rupli & Associates, McClean VA--$1,000... Rupli runs a boutique lobbying firm that apparently only represents one client: The Community Financial Services Association. According to U.S. Senate records from 2008 Rupli spent $230,000 lobbying on behalf of CFSA.

Joshua S. Landy-- $1,500 -- No employer listed-- Miami FL ... Watchdog groups that track campaign financing show he donates to a lot of campaigns across the country. Some of these candidates' FEC reports list his occupation differently, but include: U.S. Money Shops, National Processing Centers, and "President" of ACA (American Cash Advance).

Why is a candidate from NC attracting and accepting so much money from an industry banned in NC?

Democratic primary voters in westernmost North Carolina need to ask themselves that when they head for the polls on Tuesday. And Democrats across the country should be asking themselves why do Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Crowley and Steny Hoyer encourage, support and reward this kind of behavior? Why have they turned the DCCC into a cesspool of corruption almost as immersed in slime as the NRCC, their Republican counterparts? Last week Democrats put their collective feet down to this and resoundingly defeated corrupt conservative Blue Dog Tim Holden in Pennsylvania and replaced him with Matt Cartwright. Next Tuesday North Carolina Democrats can drive home the message by backing Cecil Bothwell over Hayden Rogers.

A Week From Today...

The big electoral focus and action has moved into North Carolina. Most of the national news, at least on this side of the progressive/reactionary divide, is about the horribly homophobic Amendment One, support for which is suddenly losing steam

Over the last month, there have been indications that the tide is turning-- typified by both a groundswell of opposition toward the amendment and a confluence of events that have stymied its support. The latest proof that the race is tightening came earlier this week, when the Democratic-leaning and Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling (PPP) released the results of a survey showing that 54 percent of likely voters intend to vote for Amendment One, while 40 percent are opposed. That’s still a strong majority to be sure, but it also represents the lowest level of support that PPP has found for Amendment One since it began polling last October. Perhaps most promising for opponents is the shift in opinion among North Carolina Democrats, who were divided over the issue in PPP’s survey a month ago. The latest poll shows only 38 percent of Democratic voters support the amendment, with 56 percent opposed. Additionally, support among African-American voters-- an historically socially conservative voting bloc-- has dropped by ten percent over the last month.

“The against side has an advantage in terms of tv air time and grassroots momentum and for the first time this week I really believe there’s a chance the amendment could fail,” Tom Jensen, director of PPP, told TPM in an email. “I never would have thought that until now.”

He added: “I think opponents of the amendment should be very encouraged and if they do every little thing they can in the final days to make sure voters are informed the potential for a seismic upset is there.”

...The anti-amendment campaign may also be bolstered by reduced interest in North Carolina’s Republican presidential primary, which will be held on the same day. Not only has Mitt Romney sewn up his party’s nomination, but Rick Santorum-- arguably the most passionate culture warrior in the GOP-- ended his presidential bid. After Santorum suspended his campaign earlier this month, Jensen told TPM at the time that the former Pennsylvania senator’s absence in the race would likely have a negligible effect on Amendment One. That was when the amendment appeared to be a lock to pass, which now feels like an eternity ago.

I only know of one "Democrat" backing Amendment One-- super-reactionary and über-bigoted Blue Dog Hayden Rogers, the corrupt DC corporate shill trying to take over for his boss Heath Shuler (who is retiring from Congress to become a lobbyist, a shameful and disgraceful profession that pays better; he could have become a pimp or a drug pusher). In fact there are two congressional primaries on Blue America's list, the one that pits progressive icon Cecil Bothwell against Rogers in NC-11 and the one next door, that pits North Carolina's overall best state Rep, Patsy Keever against a failed conservative tool, Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy. Bellamy and Rogers were both recruited by Steve Israel, not just because he sees them as conservative-- he's an "ex"-Blue Dog who still votes with that dying breed and is desperately trying to recruit more right-wing Democrats, even at the risk of failing to capture the House, his one assignment this year-- but because he and Steny Hoyer-- who is giving generously to corrupt corporate shills like himself-- want more pliable, less idealistic Democrats in the caucus. They don't want independent thinks like Bothwell and Keever. They want zombies, robots and mice who will happily accept corporate bribes and shut up and leave the governing to wheeler dealers like... well, like Hoyer and Israel of course.

Click on this image and compare Keever and Bellamy on the issues and then ask yourself why Party leaders like Hoyer and Israel have gotten behind her and why they're asking Washington's most corrupt criminal lobbyist to flood her campaign with cash.


And speaking about dirty cash payments, every corrupt lobbyist in Washington is funneling money into Hayden Rogers campaign. Lobbyists don't care if someone is Democratic or Republican-- just as long as they're corruptible. And if you look at the pages and pages and pages of Hayden Rogers' lobbyist contributors-- more than almost any non-incumbent running for any office short of Mitt Romney, you have to ask yourself why. Why are these sleazy, slimy lobbyists so determined to elect Hayden Rogers?

And you know who else is ponying up big time to get Hayden Rogers into Congress? Payday lenders who have long been banned from the state of North Carolina. They sense a kindred spirit and they're writing BIG checks for Hayden Rogers:

Advance America Cash Advance Centers... $2,500
Community Financial Services Association... $5,000
Vincent K. Ney of Government Employees Credit Center... $2,500

We don't need another corrupt corporate shill in the pockets of DC lobbyists. We need more leaders... like Patsy Keever and Cecil Bothwell

May 8th In North Carolina-- Patsy Keever (NC-10) And Cecil Bothwell (NC-11)

Rep. Patsy Keever is the first Democrat with a real chance to beat North Carolina's rotten little right-wing hypocrite, Patrick McHenry. But first she has to beat a conservative Democrat, Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy (anti-Choice, anti-gay, etc.) in the primary May 8. A good sign that she's on the way to doing just that came over the weekend at the 10th Congressional District Democratic straw poll in Catawba County and including Democrats from across the district. Patsy, who had just been endorsed by DFA, won.

“I am delighted to have won the 10th District straw poll. This is a clear indication that voters want to work together to resolve the issues that confront us. From early education funding to clean air and water to caring for our neighbors, we must always put people first. When I get to Congress, that will be my guiding principle.”

The most recent polling in the district also shows Patsy winning the race, although most voters are still unfamiliar with the candidates.

While just about half of the voters are undecided in our poll, Keever more than doubles the support of Bellamy (28 percent compared to 12 percent) across the  district. When we include voters who lean toward one candidate over another, Keever increases her level of support by five points while Bellamy’s level of support increases by just one.

Not surprisingly, both candidates are well known in Buncombe  County, where they both hold elected office, and both are relatively unknown in  the other  areas  of  the  district. While this general lack of name recognition for both candidates was to be expected, the big surprise is that Keever is not only leading Bellamy in the areas of Buncombe outside of the City of Asheville (55 percent to 22 percent), Keever has an even bigger lead in the city itself. The fact that Keever is leading 61 percent to 24 percent in the City that Bellamy currently represents as Mayor speaks volumes to the connection voters have with Keever. Given  the low knowledge of both candidates, the majority of voters outside of Buncombe are undecided (56 percent) however, Keever leads in this area of the district as well with 16 percent support versus 6 percent for Bellamy.

Regardless of  where in the district voters reside, it is clear that Patsy Keever enjoys three distinct  advantages  over her opponent: 1) she is leading by a significant margin,  2) as voters get to know both candidates, Keever’s advantage grows. Indeed, 55  percent of voters who are familiar with both candidates support Keever while just 25 percent would support Bellamy; and finally  3) undecided Democratic voters in his district are very much aligned with Patsy Keever’s views on the importance of fixing Washington, standing up for women’s rights and focusing not just on protecting our air and water and bringing jobs t  North Carolina but working to make sure both happen. With the right level of  funding, Keever will be able to continue introducing herself to voters in the eastern part of the district and put herself in a very strong position to win

If you'd like to make sure that voters in NC-10 have a progressive alternative to McHenry in November-- and are not just forced to choose between the lesser of two conservative evils-- you might consider contributing to Patsy Keever's campaign on the Blue America ActBlue page. And on that same page you'll also find the other progressive in North Carolina Blue America is supporting, Cecil Bothwell, who's facing Heath Shuler clone Hayden Rogers, also May 8. Earlier today, as expected, Steve Israel forced the DCCC to endorse Rogers, his fellow Blue Dog and someone who personifies all of the reasons Democratic voters stayed away from the polls in 2010 and allowed the GOP to retake control of the House. Below is a comparison between the two candidates on the issues-- the Blue America type Democrat and the DCCC type "Democrat." As you read Hayden's positions, keep in mind that DCCC Chair and "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel personally recruited him to run against Cecil. First Cecil's positions and then we'll follow with Rogers':

ECONOMY

• Jobs: Believes the federal government can and must put people back to work.
 
• Medicare & Social Security: Must be strengthened
 
• Taxes: Would raise taxes on corporations, capital gains, the rich.
 
• Cost of Living: Knows we need to raise incomes, supports increase in minimum wage, help those in school and those in need.

SOCIAL ISSUES 

• Women: Should control their own bodies, pro-choice, supports Planned Parenthood.

• Health care reform: Would have voted for ACA, but will push for public option.

• Civil Liberties: Opposes Amendment One which is a very bad law
 
THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

• Out of five debates, he participated in every one.
 
• Held Town Hall meetings in 15 counties in the District and will continue to do so.
 
• Tries to personally answer every phone call and e-mail from constituents and reporters

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
 
• Grassroots support from over 1,000 people
 
• Will not accept corporate PAC campaign contributions.

• Average donation is $55.

POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY

• Environmental advocate for more than 30 years.
 
• Created the grassroots Rolling Thunder event in Asheville, 2003
 
• Elected to Asheville City Council, 2009
 
• Represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party

Cecil Bothwell, from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party

Hayden Rogers

THE ECONOMY

• Jobs: Does not believe government should create jobs.
 
• Medicare & Social Security: Told Dems in Haywood they are both "on the table"
 
• Taxes: Would cut taxes on corporations.
 
• Cost of living: Never talks about the rising cost of gas, groceries, college tuition, would cut government spending.

SOCIAL ISSUES
 
• Women: Should not control their own bodies, anti-choice, Blue Dogs voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
 
• Health care reform: Would have voted against Affordable Care Act
 
• Civil Liberties: Supports Amendment One, which is a very bad law
 
THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

• Out of five debates, he participated in only one.
 
• Doesn't return reporters' phone calls.
 
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
 
• Accepts corporate PAC campaign contributions.
 
• Top two dozen donors represent major corporations and lobbyists
 
• Average donation is $848
 
POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY

• A Washington insider
 
• Never elected to public office
 
• Spent five years as Chief of Staff for Congressman Heath Shuler
 
• Represents the Blue Dog faction of the Democratic Party (Republican-lite)

Earth Day-- Mañana

A reaction to fanatics-- both religionist and capitalist-- had a lot to do with the first Earth Day. Extreme capitalists-- predators and sociopaths-- just want to rape and pillage for their own profit and have no concern for their neighbors or our descendants. Religious loons view this planet as a temporary way station on the road to eternal life with harps. The Old Testament verse most frequently sited as proof that rape and pillage was God's plan is Genesis 1:28--

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

That-- having dominion over-- means pillage and plunder in the Republican Brain, but means taking care of God's creation to normal people.

It would be hard to find a less environmentally friendly senator than Ayn Rand devotee Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. His a pillager and plunderer. The irony is that Johnson's seat was once held by a real Senate icon, Gaylord Nelson, the progressive who started Earth Day on April 22, 1970. He inserted this into the Congressional Record at the time:

I am convinced that all we need to do to bring an overwhelming insistence of the new generation that we stem the tide of environmental disaster is to present the facts clearly and dramatically. To marshal such an effort, I am proposing a national teach-in on the crisis of the environment to be held next spring on every university campus across the Nation. The crisis is so imminent, in my opinion, that every university should set aside 1 day in the school year-the same day across the Nation-for the teach-in.

Tomorrow half a billion people will be observing Earth Day in 175 countries around the globe. The The Earth Day Network is helping mobilize and coordinate activities all over the world. To prepare for the festivities tomorrow I spoke with some of the Blue America candidates about what Earth Day means to them. The first to respond was Norman Solomon, who is running for Congress in one of the most beautiful regions of the world-- the Northern California coast-- Redwoods country.

"I remember listening to news of the first Earth Day on the radio in 1970," he told me. "Today, our awareness of ecology is much greater-- but the damage to our planet's environment has been terrible during the last several decades. We must rededicate ourselves to living in harmony with-- and protecting-- nature. And we can only do that with a democratic upsurge that challenges the huge power of Wall Street and mobilizes the potential power of the grassroots."

Within minutes of Norman's response, Cecil Bothwell's was on my desktop. Cecil is also running in an extraordinarily beautiful district, the westernmost region of North Carolina. And he also remembers the first Earth Day:

I started work in the building trades in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, and had the Whole Earth Catalogue in hand as I grew in my knowledge of construction and our ecological footprint. By 1979 I had moved off the grid, powering my life with photovoltaics and low energy technologies. I stayed off the grid until 2001, when other events in my life led me into the city. During the 1990s I began to pursue a career as a writer and lecturer, and offered talks on alternative energy and other impact-reducing techniques, including organic gardening. In the mid-90s I was founding editor of the Warren Wilson College environmental journal, Heartstone, and had the good fortune to publish and meet such movement figures as Bill McKibben (now of 350.org), Jane Goodall, Thomas Berry, Janice Ray, and Edward O. Wilson. I wrote radio essays for a series called Time for the Earth, recorded by Goodall and William Least Heat Moon.
 
Today my work on the Asheville City Council, and as Council liaison to the Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment, and to the Asheville Tree Commission, have permitted me to help implement public policy consistent with the earth ethic I have developed over many years. During my term we have voted to cut Asheville's carbon footprint by 4 percent per year, implemented a single-stream recycling program that has greatly increased participation and diversion from the waste stream, made multi-modal transit a key goal (encouraging walking, biking, and transit use instead of autos), and replacing all of our street lights with LEDs-- a move that will save taxpayers $365,000 dollars per year (and that includes paying for the new lights!). Each Earth Day I look back over my career and can see that the movement shaped me and helped me shape the movement.

This year, despite the best efforts of the fossil fuel industry, more and more people are making the connection between human carbon emissions and climate change. The sweltering summer heat and mid-winter tornadoes are offering a wake-up call that average folks can't ignore. I'm hopeful that this year's celebration will kick off a renewed call for progress to a lower energy future. We can do better. And we must.

The district right next door to Cecil's, NC-10, is now represented by Global Warning Denier and corporate shill Patrick McHenry. The progressive Democrat taking McHenry on is Rep. Patsy Keever who is a commonsense grandmother who would like to make sure her grandchildren get more than a toxic waste dump of a planet as their heritage.

I’m a big supporter of Earth Day as a way to raise our consciousness about the duty we have to nurture and our natural surroundings. I’ve participated in the event almost every year since the beginning, and I look forward to the Asheville Earth Day event over the weekend.

You may not remember this, but when Earth Day began in 1970, it had backing from both Republicans and Democrats, industrialists and labor leaders, city dwellers and farmers. In fact, much of the landmark legislation of the era-- the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act-- came about through the momentum created by thousands of concerned citizens coming together in common cause. On a personal level, I began recycling, composting and taking measures to conserve energy, and I began encouraging others to do the same.

When I get to Congress, I will work to recapture the bipartisanship that fueled the early years of Earth Day as well as the eagerness of citizens to make a difference. We must come together to deal with the causes of climate change-- community wide, nationally and globally. I intend to continue to take a strong stand for a healthy and clean environment, not only for myself, but for my grandchildren and their peers who all deserve a flourishing planet to live on.

Alan Grayson (D-FL) also recalls his first Earth Day, which was the first time people were celebrating it back in 1970: "On the first Earth Day, when I was in junior high school, our Science teacher took us all across the street to the park. We spent the afternoon enjoying the company of the best possible companion on Earth Day: the Earth."

Nick Ruiz is also based in Central Florida and he's from the next generation after Norman's, Alan's and Cecil's. From what I know of him, a lot of his reverence for Earth Day comes from his devotion to surfing and to Florida's beautiful, pristine beaches. "I'm an advocate for biodiversity and the stewardship of our planet Earth," he told me yesterday, "because not to do so, is self-destructive. It's also why I propose to integrate the tasks of federal space, health and environmental agencies, such as NASA, NOAA, EPA, NIH, etc. with our federal educational agencies, and the regulation of K-20 education in all fifty states. There is no better way to educate our people about our planet, and how important health and ecodiversity are to humanity, than right from the beginning of one's education in kindergarten. Citizens then need to proceed through the educational system and grow-up with a rich ecological understanding regarding these basic environmental concepts. In the end, citizens that understand what is at stake in the planet's health and sustainability, will then be better placed to do the right thing. Such a proposal is the path to a sustainable future."

And, still in his 20's, Trevor Thomas is younger yet-- though not less committed to the survival of the planet and his beautiful part of Michigan. "West Michigan has a thousand reasons to celebrate Earth Day. No matter where you go in our region, you’re surrounded by breathtaking forest, farmland, rivers, in lakes, even the Great Lake of Lake Michigan to our west. We’re so fortunate to have these natural resources all around us-- and we should be doing everything we can to preserve them for future generations. But you wouldn’t know how lucky we are by looking at Rep. Justin Amash’s record on the environment. Although Republicans from West Michigan have been more interested in environmental issues than Republicans nationally, Rep. Amash has changed that course and has consistently voted to block the EPA from doing its job. He’s been targeted by the Environmental Defense Action Fund as one of the members of congress who is keeping clean air legislation from moving forward. Even President Gerry Ford, a Republican who represented West Michigan in Congress, supported clean air. Protecting and preserving our land, water, and air shouldn’t be partisan issues, and Earth Day gives our community a chance to come together and really appreciate all that we have."

When I want the perspective of a deep thinker among the Blue America America candidates, I know Franke Wilmer, a state Rep and a professor in Montana, will never fail me. Nor did she when I asked her about Earth Day.

I propose renaming Earth Day “We’re All In This Together Day.” Unfortunately, some of us don’t realize that we’re all in this together. It’s never been about saving the Earth. The Earth will save itself. It’s about securing our own future against the consequences of our ecologically irresponsible behavior in the present.

Today big businesses that profit from our failure to halt CO2 emissions deny the science of climate change the same way that big tobacco challenged science that linked smoking to lung cancer decades ago. But over 90 percent of the world’s scientists agree that we are experiencing effects of human-induced climate change, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences, American Geophysical Union, World Meteorological Organization, American Academy of Pediatrics an 71 other national and international science organization. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists, once the lone dissenting scientific organization, rescinded its dissent in 2007.

Most Montanans wouldn’t mind a slightly warmer climate, but that’s not what the science is about. It’s about the extinction of species that, according to Nobel Laureate Dr. Eric Chivian of the Harvard Medical School, may provide medically valuable knowledge, like treatments for peptic ulcer disease affecting 25 million Americans, end stage renal disease that kills 80,000 Americans a year, osteoporosis that kills 70,000 Americans a year, Type 2 diabetes killing a quarter of a million people each year, and arrhythmias.

It’s about the economic and geo-strategic impact of regional climate change on agriculture and energy. It’s about migrations of species like bark beetles and their impact on forestry and wildfires. In impoverished countries it’s about more death and suffering from increases in malaria and water and air-borne diseases. It’s about increased radiation and corresponding increases in skin cancer and melanoma, particularly in higher altitudes. It’s about understanding that our destiny, our fate is in some critical ways shared. It’s about understanding that we’re all in this together.

More responses from more Blue America candidates tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, think about what Earth Day means to you and your family-- and how much you value clean air and clear water and the beauty that God gave us to enjoy. And think about contributing to the campaigns of our Blue America candidates. They're all on the same page.

Afghanistan And Post-Modern Imperialism

All hell is breaking loose in Afghanistan. I love the place. But the U.S. shouldn't be occupying it. The latest attack on Kabul and in other centers across the country turned into a terrifying day and a half long seige in the capital city which the Afghan Army eventually brought under control.

Politically, however, the attack was suitably laden with symbolism and carried an obvious message to the government of Hamid Karzai and his international supporters, which include India and the West.

The message: the Taliban and its allies are in a position to attack the physical heart of the Karzai government at will. Doubly important because of an expected steady US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan through this year and into the next. It has additional import because of the continuing  and chaotic attempts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and prepare a strong negotiating position if and when the talks actually begin.

So far it seems that the hard core of the Taliban, the Haqqani network included, is simply opposed to any negotiations of any kind. Attacking Kabul would help underline their argument that the US is on its way out, Karzai’s days are, thus, numbered and, therefore, the talks can only be about Kabul’s total capitulation. The Kabul attacks will probably be a precursor to other attempts to violently undermine the credibility of the Karzai government.

Karzai blamed NATO and the U.S. for allowing the attacks. Others blame the ferocity of opposition to Karzai's startlingly corrupt, predatory regime.

[T]he most insidious threat to Afghanistan’s future is not posed by teams of brainwashed young men in search of martyrdom, but by the kleptocratic political order that has sprouted in the decade since the US invasion.

Unless Afghanistan’s allies start to ask harder questions about how the country is governed, then the handover to Afghan forces in 2014 will be the starting gun for another phase of bloodshed.

...The US and its allies have long been guilty of placing far more weight on the military wing of their campaign than on fostering Afghan governance. It is time to reverse the imbalance. Perhaps power needs to be devolved to provinces to foster accountability; certainly more needs to be done to train civil servants and tackle an entrenched culture of bribery and embezzlement. Unless a real attempt is made to shut down the drivers of 30 years of conflict, 2014 may be one more milestone on a path of perpetual war.

Or perhaps, as Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley said last week, it's just time to go. "With thousands of lives lost and hundreds of billions spent pursuing nation-building in Afghanistan, it is long past time to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home with dignity as soon as possible."

Many Republicans agree-- as do 78% of Americans now, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. So why are we still there? A lot of politicians-- but more than anyone else, Armed Services Committee Chair Buck McKeon (R-CA) has a career underwritten by private military contractors and war industries. They want the war to continue... it's how they get richer and richer. And then there are the estimates of a trillion dollars in minerals. None of that would devolve to us but it could make some very wealthy families in America a lot wealthier-- and they have their bought-and-paid for politicians, corrupt conservatives on both sides of the aisle-- in the bag. So the war drags on. Yesterday, in comparing progressive North Carolina congressional candidate, Cecil Bothwell, with the reactionary war-monger holding that seat now, Heath Shuler, we saw the only correct answer to what to do about the occupation Afghanistan: "Out of Afghanistan yesterday." Shuler and his handpicked successor, Hayden Rogers-- Shuler is going to work as a lobbyist-- are big supporters of U.S. imperialism. Over the weekend Mike Miles did an interesting post on The Future of Imperialism at his blog, The Dialectic. He worries that a new post-modern form of AU.S. imperialism is even uglier than it was in the bad old days.

In the past, it meant extracting natural resources from a colony and selling them finished goods, with a little bit of tribute collection thrown in for good measure. More recently-- after enslaving indigenous populations fell out of favor-- imperial countries settled for financial control through loans and free trade agreements. Certainly this form of neocolonialism continues, but new imperial drivers have appeared that are assuming precedence over the old.

After the invasion of Iraq was announced, many people (mostly on the left) claimed that the real motive for war was to control Iraq’s oil reserves. This was a reasonable assertion, given the nature of colonialism and Paul Wolfowitz’s comment that oil revenues would reimburse the cost of the war. But that reasoning dissolved quickly, and was never applicable in Afghanistan. Instead, both conflicts were used to maintain power domestically. A number of imperial behaviors are now exhibited within our own borders by our own government.

The machinery of empire drives the myth of American Exceptionalism, a myth asymmetrically utilized by the right-wing in domestic politics. The myth is the finished good that we are forced to buy after the resource extraction of money and blood to fuel the machine. And, not unlike the Andean peoples forced to work the mines of Potosí, our youth (who are disproportionately underprivileged) are sent to war as tribute. The population at large gives up improvements to domestic infrastructure, a robust social safety net, and future financial security in exchange for funding the business of war (for more on this, consider Andrew Bacevich’s Washington Rules.) Like a colony, this represents a huge transfer of payments to a small group of elites.

Extending this model is even more depressing. The colonial “Other” becomes one’s domestic political adversaries, and their value falls far below that of accomplishing political objectives. This makes it not only easy, but necessary, for the imperial elites to marginalize political opponents. Even the sitting President is treated as Other: he is Kenyan, he is Muslim, he does not believe that America is exceptional. It is not a model for democratic society.

Look no further than the whole drone question. This week Michael Hastings dealt with the military/international aspects at Rolling Stone while Gaius Publius took on the domestic political aspects at AmericaBlog:

Rep. McKeon Praises Drone Manufacturers At Conference After They Lavish His Wife With Donations

Last week, Republic Report’s Lee Fang revealed that leading defense contractors, including the manufacturers of military drones, were lavishing Rep. Buck McKeon’s (R-CA) wife Patricia-- who is running for a state legislature seat in California-- with campaign donations. McKeon is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and received $339,000 from the defense industry himself in 2010, so it’s reasonable to suspect that arms manufacturers and others are donating to his wife’s state race in order to please him.

Now, it appears that these donations are paying off. This morning at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., Rep. McKeon delivered a “Special Address” for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), a drone industry lobbying organization.

Republic Report gained access to the event-- which hosted hundreds of attendees from unmanned systems industry, including military drone manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Blue America is attempting to help progressive Democrat Lee Rogers hold McKeon accountable for his perfidy and corruption. If you'd like to kick in to that effort, you can find Lee on the Blue America ActBlue page. And if you're waiting to hear how Lee Rogers, who is campaigning on ending the occupation of Afghanistan at once, differs from McKeon's endless war agenda, this is what he told us. "McKeon has shown that his constituency is not the people of the 25th district of California, but the war industries. When given the opportunity to help his district, by preventing an unpopular mine or by helping the father of a Army medic killed in Afghanistan, he fails. But at every instance he stands up for the war industries. Before McKeon was chair of the House Armed Services Committee, he voted in agreement with defense industries 25%. In 2011, he became chair and subsequently voted 100% in agreement with them. He was richly rewarded with an increase of contributions by 450%, now taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from defense industries. These contributions support his lifestyle. He has paid his wife over $550,000 to be his campaign treasurer in addition to paying other family members for services. It's time to elect someone whose campaign and personal wealth isn't tied to putting our troops into harms way."

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) Will Vote Against Amendment One, But...

"Our constitution," exhorts North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, "was written to guarantee rights, not to take them away." She urges all North Carolinians to vote against the homophobic travesty known as Amendment One in the video above. Unwilling to just come out and say "don't fuck with our gay citizens," she, like many conservatives of both parties, says "This proposed amendment could harm women, children, families and businesses across North Carolina." Great; we'll take it. Thanks for holding your nose and giving our existence a backhanded ok. Better than nothing-- and better than what Democrats in Asheville are getting from homophobic fanatic running for Congress, Hayden Rogers, who is urging his supporters to vote for Amendment One, one of North Carolina's few Democrats to be doing that. He wants to go to Congress to continue the hateful, bigoted career of his boss, Heath Shuler.

Guided by the hypocrites among DC Dems-- who urge their Blue Dogs candidates to never include policy positions on their website, but just some sappy non-controversial pabulum, Rogers has run a stealth campaign. He refuses to participate in any debates and has been counting on high profile endorsements from conservatives who fear a real populist like Cecil Bothwell. Rogers' anti-gay stance didn't keep Governor Perdue, for example, from headlining a fundraiser for him in Raleigh, which was also attended by Lt. Gov Walter Dalton, who is running for governor, former Congressman Bob Etheridge (also running for governor), state Senator Martin Nesbitt of Asheville, and Rep. Mel Watt, shamefully, a Congressional Progressive Caucus member. Steny Hoyer has given Rogers $5,000 and Heath Shuler's sleazy 3rd and Long PAC has transferred $10,000.


Because Rogers is being cagey about his positions and only brags about being a Blue Dog it's been difficult for NC-11 voters to be able to compare him and Cecil. But it would probably be fair to assume he's a Shuler doppelgänger and that their policy agendas are exactly or almost exactly identical. Here's a convenient comparison between Bothwell and Shuler on the issues:

• Jobs

Bothwell: Fully supports the American Jobs Act. We need to rebuild America and the economy and people need jobs, now.

Shuler: Opposes putting people to work now, instead prefers to cut spending and preserve tax breaks for the rich.

• Education

Bothwell: High quality education is essential for our economic future and for effective civic participation. Informed voters make better decisions. As the richest nation in the world, we can’t afford not to educate every student up to the limits of their ability.

Shuler: Repeated votes to cut federal spending, including education. Says GOP position is too liberal, wants to triple their proposed cuts in federal spending. Prefers tax breaks for the rich.

• Social Safety

Bothwell: We must preserve earned benefit programs including Social Security and Medicare, while providing Medicaid for those in need. Medicare should be available to everyone as the “public option” missing from the Affordable Care Act.

Shuler: Repeated votes for GOP plans which demand steep cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Supported “Cut, Cap and Balance,” which would have drastically reduced such programs, then supported the GOP deficit ceiling deal, which will automatically slash such programs if Congress doesn’t do it first. Voted against the Affordable Care Act.

• Campaign Finance

Bothwell: Will not accept corporate or corporate PAC money. Over 1,000 individual donations as of March 20. Holds $15 and $25 per ticket events.

Shuler: Solicits corporate PAC money. Accepted $24,000 from AT&T, then became congressional cheerleader for job-killing AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Has few, big dollar donors, averaged $714 apiece in 3rd quarter 2011. Holds $2,500 and $5,000 per ticket events.

• Abortion

Bothwell: Abortion should be rare, safe and legal. Federal health care funds should underwrite Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide women’s health care, sex education and abortion services.

Shuler: Abortion should be illegal. Federal funds should not be spent on Planned Parenthood or abortions. Rape should be
redefined to only include forcible rape.

• Afghanistan

Bothwell: Out of Afghanistan yesterday. Opposed wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, starting in the weeks after 911. Wants to end military involvement overseas.

Shuler: Cast one vote to speed exit, but no votes to defund the wars. Voted to extend U.S. military presence in mideast.

• Alternative energy projects

Bothwell: They should receive high priority. We can’t drill our way out of the end of easy oil. We need to address global climate change.

Shuler: Alternative energy takes second seat to more drilling, including the North Carolina coast. Drill baby, drill! No action on climate change.

• Civil liberties

Bothwell: Oppose government surveillance of U.S. citizens not suspected of crimes. Oppose USAPATRIOT Act.

Shuler: voted to permit telecom companies to participate in government surveillance of U.S. citizens. Voted against videotaping of military interrogations. Voted to extend USAPATRIOT Act.

• Faith

Bothwell: Subscribes to Jefferson’s view that ethics are at the core of belief, in particular attempting to live life by the Golden Rule. Active member of his church. “A person’s beliefs ought to be private as an essential part of freedom of religion.”

Shuler: A member of The Family, a group which believes that normal rules don’t apply to “chosen” leaders, co-chair of the National Prayer Breakfast.

• Family Values

Bothwell: Actually valuing families is more important than touting illusory “values,” -- usually a code word for “people like us.”
Universal single payer health insurance, raising the minimum wage, and paid maternal leave all truly value families.

Shuler: “Strong families, blessed with hope and opportunity, filled with ambition and dreams, and guided by faith and principle are the heart of America.” Voted against health care, against Planned Parenthood, against extension of unemployment benefits, against expansion of hate crimes act.

• Free trade

Bothwell: Vocally opposed free trade since 1990. Wants to cancel or substantially revamp NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO and GATT. Level playing field with tariffs.

Shuler: Has offered some support for renegotiation of free trade rules. Voted against Korea, Columbia, Panama deals, but has not pushed for revision of NAFTA or CAFTA.

• Guns

Bothwell: Supports ban on assault weapons, a ban on 30 bullet clips, background checks. Supports the 2nd Amendment and hunters’ rights. Learned gun safety as a child and supports safety education. Will not carry a gun.

Shuler: Supports the NRA, opposed extension of the ban on assault weapons. Carries a concealed weapon.

• Health Care

Bothwell: Supports single-payer, universal health insurance, via extension of Medicare system.

Shuler: Voted against the health care bill, opposes universal single-payer plan. Voted against funding Planned Parenthood, against stem-cell research. Voted for Stupak amendment.

• LGBT

Bothwell: Human rights are human rights regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, gender orientation, religion, or any other qualifier. Marriage should be a religious choice, not a government function. Supports ENDA. Helped institute domestic partner benefitsfor City of Asheville employees.

Shuler: Opposes ENDA. Believes marriage is only between a man and a woman. Hadn’t heard of DOMA before a group of constituents explained it to him during an office visit this year. Stated that gender orientation is like having a favorite sports team.

• National Debt

Bothwell: “There’s no reason to worry about the national debt during a recession. We need to spend federal money to refurbish our infrastructure-- roads, bridges, water systems NOW.” Repayment for those projects will come later, with inflationary dollars, and as in the past, we’ll all be better for that investment. Debt Limit: Supported the 95 Dems who voted against the recent bad bargain.

Shuler: As a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, he is committed to reducing the national deficit. “It is essential to the long-term viability of our economy that we reign in out-of-control spending.” Debt Limit: Voted with the 95 Dems who supported the recent bad bargain.

• Stimulus plan

Bothwell: It should have been bigger.

Shuler: voted against it.

• Taxes

Bothwell: Tax the rich. Tax imports. Tax stock and derivatives transactions.

Shuler: Voted to extend tax cuts for the rich.

If Cecil Bothwell is the kind of man you would like to see serving in Congress instead of another Republican-lite Blue Dog, please consider giving him a hand here at the Blue America page. Please watch his latest video and think about what you can afford to give.