The Keystone XL Pipeline May Be Dead, But Corrupt Democrats Like Patrick Murphy Who Backed It Aren't

Yesterday President Obama succumbed to the same pressure from serious activists that made Hillary Clinton switch positions on the Keystone XL Pipeline a month or so ago. Friday morning he announced that the 7-year "review" of the Keystone XL Pipeline project was over and that the controversial and dangerous Pipeline would not be built.

“The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy,’’ the president said in remarks from the White House.

The move was made ahead of a major United Nations summit meeting on climate change in Paris in December, when Mr. Obama hopes to help broker a historic agreement committing the world’s nations to enacting new policies to counter global warming. While the rejection of the pipeline is largely symbolic, Mr. Obama has sought to telegraph to other world leaders that the United States is serious about acting on climate change.

The once-obscure Keystone project became a political symbol amid broader clashes over energy, climate change and the economy. The rejection of a single oil infrastructure project will have little impact on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, but the pipeline plan gained an outsize profile after environmental activists spent four years marching and rallying against it in front of the White House and across the country.

The rejection of the pipeline is one of several actions Mr. Obama has taken as he intensifies his push on climate change in his last year in office. In August, he announced his most significant climate policy, a set of aggressive new regulations to cut emissions of planet-warming carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants.

Republicans and the oil industry had demanded that the president approve the pipeline, which they said would create jobs and stimulate economic growth. Many Democrats, particularly those in oil-producing states like North Dakota, also supported the project. In February, congressional Democrats joined with Republicans in sending Mr. Obama a bill to speed approval of the project, but the president vetoed the measure.

But there aren't many Democrats in Congress from North Dakota; there's one. The vast majority of Democrats who backed building the Keystone Pipeline are just garden variety corrupt politicians, not a whit better than any garden variety Republican politician. Take Patrick Murphy for example, an ultra-corrupt Florida New Dem who Wall Street is currently trying to buy a Senate seat. Florida has no refining or oil industry and would see no benefits from the Keystone Pipeline. Murphy-- who has been ordered by Chuck Schumer and Jon Tester to do the best he can portraying himself as an environmentalist-- despite having been one of only 28 Democrats to have voted to drill for oil off Florida's coast (170 Democrats voted NO). The only other Florida Democrat to vote for off-shore drilling was corrupt conservative New Dem Joe Garcia, who was promptly defeated for reelection.

Meanwhile Murphy has voted an astounding six times to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. In January, for example, he joined 27 other corrupt conservative Democrats-- many of whom have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in legalized bribes from Big Oil and Gas, like pro-Pipeline Blue Dogs Henry Cuellar (TX-$397,275) and Jim Costa (CA-$317,199). Like Murphy, these are some of the most consistent backers of the GOP agenda of any Democrats in the House-- scum like "ex"-Republican Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE), Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA), Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL), Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL), Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Donald Norcross (from New Jersey's notoriously corrupt Norcross Machine), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX), etc.

In May of 2013, long before either Grayson or Murphy was running for the Florida Senate seat each is now contesting, another Keystone vote-- with Murphy voting with the Republican polluters and Grayson voting with the Democrats and environmentalists-- the actions of both congressmen should help Florida primary voters understand just what they would be getting as a candidate. Grayson offered a resolution challenging the constitutionality of the GOP plan to take the decision-making for Keystone XL pipeline out of President Obama's hands. "The Keystone XL Pipeline deal is an earmark to a foreign corporation, plain and simple," Grayson said. "House Republicans claim to have been incredibly keen on ridding our legislative system of Congressional earmarks-- yet here they are-- hypocritically sneaking one in for a foreign corporation. They seem to believe that the 'no earmarks' rule does not apply to them. That’s just unacceptable." Only 19 Democrats voted with the GOP that day, Murphy, of course being one of them. No other Florida Democrat, neither Gwen Graham nor Joe Garcia, voted to strip President Obama of his decision-making power; just Murphy-- who Chuck Schumer and Wall Street are now determined to reward with a Senate seat!

"Today," said President Obama, "the United States of America is leading on climate change with our investments in clean energy and energy efficiency. America is leading on climate change with new rules on power plants that will protect our air so that our kids can breathe. America is leading on climate change by working with other big emitters like China to encourage and announce new commitments to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. In part because of that American leadership, more than 150 nations representing nearly 90 percent of global emissions have put forward plans to cut pollution.

"America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face-- not acting.

"Today, we’re continuing to lead by example. Because ultimately, if we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky.

"As long as I’m President of the United States, America is going to hold ourselves to the same high standards to which we hold the rest of the world. And three weeks from now, I look forward to joining my fellow world leaders in Paris, where we’ve got to come together around an ambitious framework to protect the one planet that we’ve got while we still can.

"If we want to prevent the worst effects of climate change before it’s too late, the time to act is now. Not later. Not someday. Right here, right now. And I’m optimistic about what we can accomplish together. I’m optimistic because our own country proves, every day-- one step at a time-- that not only do we have the power to combat this threat, we can do it while creating new jobs, while growing our economy, while saving money, while helping consumers, and most of all, leaving our kids a cleaner, safer planet at the same time.

"That’s what our own ingenuity and action can do. That's what we can accomplish. And America is prepared to show the rest of the world the way forward."

Patrick Murphy's response: crickets, of course. [Actually, what he said to a reporter who asked him yesterday was that he spoken "with some of the Canadians about what they were doing and their plans and things..." Apparently the Canadians didn't tell him that their own ports had voted overwhelmingly it not allow the filthy and dangerous sludge to be transported to them. But no one ever accused Murphy of being a smart man or a thorough one.]

Regardless of Murphy's convenient incoherence, this is what Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raúl Grijalva said right after the announcement. "This is a testament to years of public action on a critical issue. After pushing together in the right direction and never losing hope, citizen activists prevented a major source of dirty fossil fuels from being rubber-stamped. Everyone who believes individuals can move mountains when they work together will remember today with pride as long as they live. I know I will, and I know how thankful I am for the work of everyone who made today happen... Nothing is inevitable when enough people stand shoulder to shoulder and never flinch. Now let’s get back to work building a sustainable energy economy that doesn’t even have to debate whether the next Keystone is a good idea."

Grayson was overjoyed when he heard about the president's decision and immediately let Florida Democrats know:

Congratulations, Planet Earth! President Obama has rejected TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline application.

The Keystone Pipeline would have moved oil from one of the dirtiest sources on the planet-- the Alberta tar sands-- directly to Gulf Coast oil refineries owned by... wait for it... the Koch Brothers. And thence out of the country.

Net increase in US oil production: zero. Net increase in gasoline available in the US market: zero.

But if the pipeline had been built, the price of US gasoline would have gone UP, as Canadian oil competed against US oil for limited refinery capacity.

Oh, and the Koch Brothers had made sure that our government couldn’t tax the oil passing through the pipeline, even though just about every other country in the world with a pipeline does.

And one last thing: the pipeline could have destroyed an aquifer that provides drinking water to millions of Americans, and 30% of our irrigation water.

How do I know all this? Because I exposed the Keystone Pipeline as a Koch Brothers pet project years ago. Even though the Koch Brothers had spent more than $4 million to defeat me in 2010. They can’t push me around.

Thank you, President Obama. I thank you, and the environment thanks you.

...Now let’s talk about my Democratic primary opponent, Patrick Murphy. He voted at least six times to take the Keystone Pipeline decision away from President Obama, and force the President to license it.

To heck with the President’s legal authority, says Patrick Murphy. To heck with the environment, says Patrick Murphy. Patrick Murphy wanted those big, fat oil-and-gas PAC checks. You and I think about clean air and clean water. Patrick Murphy thinks about mucho dinero for his campaign.

Even as the evidence against the Keystone Pipeline grew and grew, Patrick Murphy remained dedicated to it. Why? Because as Esquire magazine said, when you buy Patrick Murphy, he stays bought.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) was another staunch opponent of this terrible idea. Murphy should read what she had to say and rethink his dedication to right-wing framing on environmental issues-- not because he's in a tough primary battle, but because he still needs to learn a lot about what it means to be a Democrat. Pingree: "The Keystone pipeline was a bad idea from the beginning. It would have been bad for the environment and bad for the country's long-term energy security. Instead of investing in dirty tar-sands oil that will create massive amounts of greenhouse gas pollution, we should be developing new sources of clean energy that create good paying jobs right here in this country. We can produce a lot more jobs for a much smaller investment by focusing on clean energy projects. Maine is a great example with the wind power industry already supporting over 1,500 jobs a year while at the same time creating a new source of clean energy that we can use right here at home."

Please consider contributing to Alan Grayson's grassroots campaign for the open Florida Senate seat. Polls show him beating whichever Republican is nominated. This is money Grayson's opponents will be able to tap into, not money he'll ever get a dime of.

Was Trumpy Right About Carly Fiorina? Let's Look At That Face From A Planned Parenthood Perspective

Maybe when Trump looked at Fiorina's face and made the infamous and sexist remark, he wasn't talking about her being "ugly" per se, but about the twisted inner ugliness that was on display for the whole country during Wednesday night's CNN debate. DO LOOK AT THAT FACE-- it was twisted, contorted and misshapen in the same way Hitler's was when he was trying to manipulate large audiences.

Fiorina was forcefully asserting that the blatant lies she was spouting were A Truth worth fighting for. And when sociopaths like Fiorina lie, they get intense as a mechanism for persuading lo-info listeners that they are being the soul of integrity. Trump didn't go anywhere near the ugliness that Carly Fiorina really is. She even implied that her 34 year old step-daughter had died of "marijuana addiction," just one of her onslaught of bold-faced lies to prove her narrow partisan points. As Charles Pierce noted in Esquire, She was steely-eyed in her prevarication."

She was relentless in her determination to launch pure crapola into the stratosphere. She smiled rarely. She glowered effectively. The woman stares daggers better than anyone I've ever seen. And, on many occasions, she lied her ass off with a formidable brand of armored certitude. If you eliminate "telling the truth" from the assessment, Carly Fiorina was every bit the winner she is universally acclaimed to be this morning.

Biggest lie-- depending how you're measuring, I guess was the Planned Parenthood tape nonsense she made up. "As regards Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain." That never happened... but it's a Republican primary and the audience isn't about truth or fiction, just about fantasy.

Fiorina might have trouble finding this video to show to Clinton. No such video has surfaced, certainly with no scenes inside a Planned Parenthood facility... [T]he procedure she describes is not shown.

Lying with conviction and aggressiveness does not turn a lie into truth and although that doesn't matter at all to Republican primary voters, it does mater to normal people who Fiorina or Trump or whichever Republican wins the primaries will one day have to persuade they're worthy of the presidency. But, hey, what the hell... anything that distracts from her dismal record as a failed businesswoman has got be viewed as a plus. And it worked-- the media fix was in, as Scott Walker explained to Glenn Beck yesterday (above).

Legislatures and/or governors in Louisiana, Alabama, New Hampshire, Utah and Arkansas have already defunded Planned Parenthood. And today the Republican-controlled House voted to do likewise nationally, despite polling that shows 54% of the American people want finding continued and only 26% want it stopped.

Leading up to today's vote by House Republicans-- joined by Blue Dogs Dan Lipinski (IL) and Collin Peterson (MN)-- to defund Planned Parenthood, Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree defined what the vote was all about: "Women across America are under attack and the battle is being waged in the halls of the U.S. Capitol. That's right, Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government unless Planned Parenthood is defunded. These extremists in Congress have spent the better part of the last century trying to deny women's access to health care, contraception, and their right to make very personal health decisions. Now they want to take away access to family planning for an entire generation of women. They are willing to stop at nothing-- even shut down the government-- to take this away from women... A government shutdown would mean our country's bridges would continue to crumble without repair. Millions of families would be denied at the gates of national parks and monuments. It's even possible seniors would miss their checks and veterans could be denied benefits. All because Republicans want to deny health services to millions of women across the country."

Lipinski, far uglier than Fiorina no matter how you measure it

Well... Republicans and the two "Democrats." The GOP bill to defund Planned Parenthood-- based on doctored videos-- passed 241-187. The two Blue Dogs who crossed the aisle and voted against women were anti-Choice fanatic Blue Dogs Dan Lipinski, who represents a D+5 district in Chicagoland, and Collin Peterson, who represents western Minnesota (R+6). There were 3 Republicans who voted against the bill-- Charlie Dent (PA), Robert Dold (IL) and Richard Hanna (NY). Peterson and Lipinski also voted against the Democrats on the motion to recommit and, yesterday, in the procedural legislation.

Last cycle the DCCC spent $3,611,284 to prop up Peterson's failing career and Pelosi's related House Majority PAC spent another $332,439. As soon as the vote was taken today, the DCCC sent out an urgent e-mail urging its followers to "DENOUNCE REPUBLICANS FOR VOTING YES." The DCCC pulled strings to get Lipinski's district gerrymandered-- in this case to make it much less Hispanic-- so he wouldn't have to fear a primary. It doesn't cost much for him to run in the general and he doesn't need any help from the DCCC. Peterson on the other hand, is on DCCC life-support. If they withdrew their financial support he would retire immediately since he could never win on his own.

Progressive champion Donna Edwards (D-MD) summed up how most Democrats feel about the nonsense the GOP forced them to vote on today:

Once again, House Republicans are ignoring their responsibility to govern in order to appease the most conservative wing of their caucus. Let’s be clear-- women’s reproductive health is a private medical conversation between a woman and her health care provider-- period. It is unacceptable for politicians to impose their personal beliefs on the private medical decisions of millions of women across the country. To make matters worse, this nefarious effort to defund Planned Parenthood would be devastating to women’s health. In Maryland alone, over 33,000 women in 2013 relied on Planned Parenthood centers to receive critical health care services, including medical checkups, contraceptive care, flu vaccines, pap tests, and breast exams. This is about primary healthcare for women-- without access to the basic health care that Planned Parenthood provides many of these women will simply be forced to go without care. It is already federal policy, and has been so for many years, that federal funds cannot be used for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is threatened. This legislation aims to deny women’s reproductive choices and limit critical health care services for millions of women across the country, many from our most vulnerable communities.

With only five legislative days until yet another Republican government shutdown, valuable time was lost today on these purely ideological bills. I hope the Republican leadership will do what’s right for the American people and work with Democrats to fund the federal government. Our nation cannot afford another Republican shutdown like the one in 2013, which closed the government for 16 days and cost the economy $24 billion and 120,000 jobs. Once again, working families deserve better, and the Republican leadership can do better.

The State Of Play-- November's Maine Senate Contest

My two favorite senators are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They both have phenomenal records, not just on voting, but on leading. No one's perfect though. Bernie, for example, endorsed anti-choice Michigan reactionary Jerry Cannon, the former commandante of the Guantánamo gulag. What does that say about Bernie? Not much; just that he's human and makes mistakes. Sherrod Brown would be on that list too-- making it a trio-- if not for a crucial vote he took approving torture… a bridge too far. (He's still my third favorite senator.)

So what about Elizabeth Warren? Not many imperfections I've found, especially after reading A Fighting Chance a couple of times. I do wish she would have endorsed Shenna Bellows and helped her out the way she's been helping conservative Democrats. (Come to think of it, maybe Bernie could have done the same thing instead of digging up the gulag guy in Michigan.) It's disappointing Warren would have decided she doesn't want to piss of Beltway belle Susan Collins-- and "jeopardize" some supposed Maine-Massachusetts fishery pact. I was much more heartened when I noticed that Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree came out swinging on behalf of Shenna this week:

I’ve represented Maine in the U.S House of Representatives since 2009, and believe me, passing good laws is as hard as it’s ever been. That’s why it’s so important that we elect Shenna Bellows to the U.S. Senate this November. Shenna has shown herself to be a proven leader on issues that matter to American families. She’s been at the forefront of the fights for marriage equality, voting rights, and civil liberties here in Maine, and she’ll continue to show that kind of leadership in Washington. I’m standing right beside Shenna in this election… In the last decade, we’ve seen a recession, underwater mortgages, rising student loan debt, and a growing retirement crisis. I’m voting for Shenna because she has what it takes to offer real, urgently-needed solutions to our greatest challenges.

That's not something I'll forget any time soon-- just like Sherrod's torture vote. Please join Pingree (and me) in contributing to Shenna's grassroots campaign for the seat Collins is making a mockery of. In the ad up top, we take a look at the problems people, like Collins, who've lived in DC get into when they start avoiding transparency as though it was their right. She seems to have conveniently forgotten her pivotal role in voting twice with the Republican extremists to shut the government down last year. Collins' purposely misleading new ad, painting her as a heroine in ending the shut down, omits her own record, ignores the shutdown's impact on Maine's economy and glosses over her role in creating the problem she claims to have helped solve.

Last year Collins voted on Sept. 30, and again Oct. 1 in favor of a crackpot House Republican demand to defund the Affordable Care Act as the price of continuing government operations. Polls at the time showed the overwhelming majority of Maine voters opposed this ploy and the government shutdown. An OpEd in the Portland Press Herald noted that Collins "was already on record calling it flawed strategy that endangered the entire U.S. economy [but] fell in line and once again voted to keep those conditions intact."

Meanwhile, the Bellows ad at the bottom of the page features Lillian Lake, a Republican from Wilton and a former Susan Collins campaign volunteer who supports Shenna this year because of Collins' consistent and unpopular rightward turn over the past several years. Like more and more Mainers, she notes that "Collins has been voting with Washington Republicans on issues that matter most to me and my family. Collins voted with Republicans to block the minimum wage increase and against equal pay. These votes matter. Maine needs a senator who will stand with middle class families like mine. This year I'm voting for Shenna Bellows for Senate." The Bellows campaign followed up with the facts that back up what Mainers are feeling in their guts about how Collins has changed, particularly since Olympia Snowe has retired.

Lake's concerns about Collins' consistent votes against public opinion and the interests of Maine families reflect what's being felt across the state.

Paycheck Fairness Act

Collins voted in April and again in September against the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would shield employees who raise legitimate questions about workplace pay equity, among other features. Bellows has consistently called on Collins to support the bill-- which Collins also voted to filibuster in 2010, 2012 and earlier this year-- and has made support for the measure one of the centerpieces of her campaign.

A February national survey found 60 percent of voters are more likely to support a candidate who supports fair pay for women, a higher minimum wage, paid family and medical leave and paid sick days. The survey also found that women are less likely to receive paid extended leave than men.

Republicans have been uncomfortable discussing the issue all year, leading to an MSNBC story on the GOP's shifting explanation for why the bill keeps getting filibustered. Collins said in 2012 without citing evidence that it would lead to "excessive litigation."

Minimum Wage

Collins stood with Washington Republicans in April against increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which translates to $21,008 per year for someone working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. Afterward, Collins put out a statement bemoaning the fact that the proposal "does not have the votes it would need to pass the Senate."

Maine voters support "raising the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour and indexing future increases to inflation" by a 63-36 spread, according to a July poll by the Maine People's Resource Center.

In 2007 the Senate voted 94-3 to increase the federal minimum wage in stages to its current level of $7.25 an hour, a far cry from today's partisanship.

Campaign Finance Reform

Collins is also out of step with public opinion on campaign finance reform. A CBS poll in May found voters support "limiting the amount of money individuals can contribute to political campaigns" over "allowing individuals to contribute as much money to political campaigns as they'd like" by 71-25. Collins has voted in lockstep with Washington Republicans against both the DISCLOSE Act, which would publicize the sources of large political contributions in a timely way, and the Udall Amendment, which would give Congress and state legislatures the power to regulate campaign spending.

Bellows held a press conference before the Senate's recent Udall Amendment vote calling on Collins to support the measure. As of June 30, according to OpenSecrets, Bellows had outraised Collins in small grassroots contributions $357,713 (27 percent of Bellows' total) to $123,536 (2 percent of Collins' total).

With not much over a month to go, how about chipping in whatever you can afford to help Shenna turn out the vote with what we hope will be the biggest and most effective field operation in the history of Maine. You can contribute here. If elected, I have every reason to believe Shenna will be the single best member of the U.S. Senate.

Maine's Tea Party Governor Paul LePage Wants To Abolish Child Labor Laws

Politics isn't something polite people people discuss at dinner, especially not with strangers. Not since high school when the class year book referred to me as gallant, has anyone accused me of being polite. The first day of my Galapagos cruise a few weeks ago, we hadn't even boarded the ship yet when I ferreted out that one of my fellow passengers was not just a Republican from Chicago, but a Republican from Chicago enamored of Rahm Emanuel! I despaired that everyone on the ship was going to be a Republican. But then I met Sheron and Stephanie, a sparkling and delightful mother/daughter team from northeastern Ohio. Sheron never misses a Rachel Maddow or Chris Hayes show. We had every breakfast, lunch and dinner together for the entire cruise.

One day Sheron told me her 92 year old father told her the only thing that never changed about the Republicans in his lifetime is that they are still trying to undo all the accomplishments of the "Old Man." No, not God, FDR. Just this year alone, we watched the Republicans cut the food stamps program to shreds, refuse to extend unemployment insurance, attempt to deprive working families of health insurance 47 times, try to lure Democrats into "compromises" to reduce Social Security benefits and to go along with their mania about cutting back on Medicare, while voting to abolish environmental and Wall Street regulations that protect ordinary Americans from greed-obsessed predators. Sharen's father was correct. The GOP has nothing to offer but destructiveness and an agenda of fluffing the wealthy and super-wealthy.

The latest manifestation came yesterday, not in Texas, Mississippi, Utah or South Carolina but at the 73rd annual Maine Agricultural Trades Show. There, one of the country's most ignorant and backward GOP governors, Paul LePage, told attendees that he thinks 12 year old children should be working-- no not doing their school homework… doing the work his rich donors would like to pay them to do for less than adults would take to work. LIke most Republicans, LePage would like to repeal a piece of New Deal legislation known as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (which established the minimum wage, guaranteed time-and-a-half for overtime and prohibits most employment of minors. This law was the result of progressive activism going back to the beginning of the 1900s but it took the Republican economic excesses of the 1920s and the inevitable Great Depression that followed-- when desperate adults were willing to work for the unfair wages employers offered children-- that Congress finally passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. Finally sick to their stomachs at the Republicans' crusade against working families, the voters defeated even more Republicans in 1936, leaving them with only 88 seats in the House and 16 in the Senate. That year FDR was reelected against Alf Landon, who ran on a ticket to repeal Social Security. Roosevelt won every state but two and Landon managed to win only 36% of the national vote. The law excludes agriculture and to this day as many as half a million children pick almost a quarter of the food currently produced in the U.S.

Maine's own child labor laws, going back to 1847, have always been aimed at keeping children in school. Minors under the age of 16 may not be employed in the following occupations:

1. Any manufacturing occupation;
2. Any mining occupation;
3. Processing occupations (such as filleting fish, dressing poultry, cracking nuts, or laundering by commercial laundries and dry cleaners, etc.) when performed in a processing industry such as a plant;
4. Motor vehicle driving and outside helper on a motor vehicle;
5. Operation or tending of hoisting apparatus or of any power-driven machinery other than nonhazardous office machines or machines in certain retail, food service, and gasoline service establishments;
6. Construction occupations involving:
a. Maintenance and repair of public highways;
b. All roofing occupations;
c. All trenching and excavation operations;
7. (Federal law prohibits minors under 16 from doing any construction work.)
All work in boiler or engine rooms;
8. Outside window washing that involves working from window sills, and all work involving the use of ladders, scaffolds or their substitutes;
9. Cooking (except where visible to the public) and baking;
10. Occupations which involve operating, setting up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling, or repairing power-driven food slicers and grinders, food choppers and cutters, and bakery-type mixers;
11. All work in freezers and meat coolers;
12. Occupations involving the use of power-driven mowers or cutters, including the use of chain saws;
13. All warehousing occupations, including the loading and unloading of trucks and use of conveyors;
14. All welding, brazing, or soldering occupations;
15. Occupations involving the use of toxic chemicals and paints;
16. Selling door-to-door (except when the minor is selling candy or merchandise as a fund-raiser for school or for an organization to which the minor belongs, such as Girl Scouts of America) or work in a traveling youth crew;
17. All occupations on amusement rides, including ticket collection or sales;
18. Any placement at the scene of a fire, explosion or other emergency response situation. (See Section D. Junior Firefighters); and
19. All occupations that are expressly prohibited for 16-and 17-year olds.

Conservatives and reactionaries like LePage have never been happy with the government intervening to prevent exploitation by "the makers." In his speech he said Maine is failing to use one of its most valuable resources-- it's youth.

“We don’t allow children to work until they’re 16, but two years later, when they’re 18, they can go to war and fight for us,” LePage said. “That’s causing damage to our economy. I started working far earlier than that, and it didn’t hurt me at all. There is nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting bottles at 12 years old.”

LePage has said previously he started working when he was 11. Maine law requires students who want to work before they reach the age of 16 to get a work permit from their school superintendent and meet other requirements.

LePage also told show attendees he believes Maine can strike a better balance between conserving its natural resources and developing its economy and that doing so would bring prosperity.

“You’re the folks we want to bring prosperity to,” he told several hundred people at a luncheon at the show, held at the Augusta Civic Center. “If the revenues go up, I can go golfing. If not, I’m going to have to continue working 80 hours a week.”

LePage didn't mention what every conservative harbors in his heart or whatever they have that substitutes for a soul-- the reinstatement of slavery… which would allow "the makers" to play even more golf. Meanwhile, today, on the 50th anniversary of the War Against Poverty, the Republican Party has been amping up its war against the poor. Rubio, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan, who has consistently insisted America replace the safety net with more tax breaks for the rich, are making speeches about how to "fight" poverty. This was President Obama's statement this morning:

As Americans, we believe that everyone who works hard deserves a chance at opportunity, and that all our citizens deserve some basic measure of security. And so, 50 years ago, President Johnson declared a War on Poverty to help each and every American fulfill his or her basic hopes. We created new avenues of opportunity through jobs and education, expanded access to health care for seniors, the poor, and Americans with disabilities, and helped working families make ends meet. Without Social Security, nearly half of seniors would be living in poverty.  Today, fewer than one in seven do. Before Medicare, only half of seniors had some form of health insurance. Today, virtually all do. And because we expanded pro-work and pro-family programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, a recent study found that the poverty rate has fallen by nearly 40% since the 1960s, and kept millions from falling into poverty during the Great Recession.

These endeavors didn’t just make us a better country. They reaffirmed that we are a great country. They lived up to our best hopes as a people who value the dignity and potential of every human being. But as every American knows, our work is far from over. In the richest nation on Earth, far too many children are still born into poverty, far too few have a fair shot to escape it, and Americans of all races and backgrounds experience wages and incomes that aren’t rising, making it harder to share in the opportunities a growing economy provides. That does not mean, as some suggest, abandoning the War on Poverty. In fact, if we hadn’t declared “unconditional war on poverty in America,” millions more Americans would be living in poverty today. Instead, it means we must redouble our efforts to make sure our economy works for every working American. It means helping our businesses create new jobs with stronger wages and benefits, expanding access to education and health care, rebuilding those communities on the outskirts of hope, and constructing new ladders of opportunity for our people to climb.

We are a country that keeps the promises we’ve made.  And in a 21st century economy, we will make sure that as America grows stronger, this recovery leaves no one behind. Because for all that has changed in the 50 years since President Johnson dedicated us to this economic and moral mission, one constant of our character has not: we are one nation and one people, and we rise or fall together.

This morning, Rep. Chellie Pingree, Maine's progressive leader, blasted Republicans in general without singling out LePage or his latest dysfunctional crusade.

Because of heartless Republican obstruction, 3,300 jobless Mainers now have to choose between putting food on the table or heating their homes in this bitter cold.

This should never be a choice anyone has to make… Take a look at this tragic fact: since the expiration of emergency benefits at the end of December, 4 out of every 5 unemployed Mainers have been left out in the cold without benefits. This number ties New Hampshire for the highest in the Northeast and is well above the national average for the number of unemployed not getting benefits.

Not only that, the Maine economy loses $1 million each week that unemployment benefits remain expired. That's $1 million not being pumped in the local economy to help small businesses grow or struggling families make ends meet.

FDR Is Rolling In His Grave Today

Yesterday Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mark Takano (D-CA), and Mark Pocan (D-WI), along with folks from AARP and a broad coalition of progressive organizations, reiterated their NO CUTS to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid stand by presenting petitions with 2.3 million signatures on them to the White House. That didn't stop Obama and Boehner from moving forward with their plans to destroy the idea that Social Security is the third rail of American politics. Their plan to cut benefits to seniors and vets through their Chained CPI scheme was part of Obama's budget today. And it's why Boehner has a twinkle in his eyes. Not only is he going to get the cuts in Social Security the GOP and their corporate backers demand, he's going to get it with mostly Democratic votes because of the inept negotiating skills of the most lightweight president in our lifetimes. And he gets the first breach in the unbreachable: Social Security is forever on the chopping block if this goes through. The head of the NCRR, Greg Walden (R-OR) already attacked Obama for cutting Social Security. This will be the fate of any Democrat in Congress stupid enough to support this. They will lose their base of the left and be attacked from he right. Just say NO.

Mark Pocan, the progressive champion who took Tammy Baldwin's old Madison, Wisconsin seat after voters statewide elevated her to the Senate, explained what the hubbub was all about: "I and many others in Congress, 107 of us, signed a letter that said we do not support cuts to Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid-- and we do not support the Chained CPI. And I am here to say that if we do any chained CPI to Social Security, that we will break our promise that we made to our seniors and others who rely on Social Security. I will not support that. I will not vote for any bill that includes that. And I stand with the 2 million-plus people who say that here today." Bernie-- God bless his soul-- was a little more bellicose, the Green Mountain Boy in him coming out: "Anybody in the Congress who believes in cutting these important benefits, we’re going to give them a political choice they can’t refuse. And that is: If they vote to cut Social Security, they may well not be returning to Washington."

But, in the end, the best response to Obama's decision to break his promise to the American people and cut Social Security benefits to the elderly and to veterans came in the form of the Grayson Takano No Cuts letter. Key phrase: “we will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits-- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.”

Several Members of Congress have released their own statements aligned with the letter. (Be careful of fakes. New Dems and other conservatives have put out statements with plenty of wiggle room to worm out of any commitment if they feel pressure. Ami Bera (New Dem-CA), for example, put out a statement that says he won't vote against benefit cuts but then refuses to say whether or not he considers Chained CPI a benefit cut. Disappointing freshman Annie Kuster (NH) has pulled the same trick. Jared Huffman released a decent statement, but not one that says he will "vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits." Here's what Huffman put out yesterday:

“I am disappointed to hear that the President’s budget will include a chained CPI. Quite simply, chained CPI means reduced benefits for seniors who have paid into the system, earned those benefits, and are counting on them.

My 83-year-old mom is like millions of seniors around the country. She worked hard all her life and paid into the system, and when she retired she counted on the government to honor its end of the bargain. I intend to make sure our government keeps its promise. We can reduce the deficit without forcing extra costs on the middle class, seniors, and the most vulnerable in our society.

While there is much in the President’s budget to admire, I strongly oppose chained CPI, and I will vote against these benefit cuts should they come before the House.”

Not bad... but not quite what Chellie Pingree (D-ME) put out the day before: "No matter what you call it, a chained CPI is a cut to Social Security benefits. For someone who retirees today, that cut would mean they would be getting $650 less a year when they are 75 and over $1,100 less a year when they reach age 85. Seniors shouldn't be facing cuts to the benefits they have earned while millionaires and billionaires are getting a tax break. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are vital to the economic security of Maine people and I will vote against cuts to benefits in these programs." See the crucial difference?

Would Punishment Be Swifter And Surer If It Was American MEN Being Raped On Military Bases Instead Of Women? Male Rape Victims Are Coming Forward

Americans, like people all over the world, were horrified by the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23 year old medical student on a bus in Delhi last month. Americans, as we've explained before, have something to be horrified about closer to home. The cover-up engineered by House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon of a series-- a culture-- of rapes on U.S. military bases, is unraveling. Despite McKeon's strenuous and consistent efforts to prevent light being shed on the scandal, serious hearing are finally beginning, thanks in large part to the efforts of the brave women and men at Protect Our Defenders. Oddly, McKeon is still covering up and has banned all survivors of the current Lackland rape scandal from testifying at the hearings next week. What is wrong with this sick, sick man?

McKeon and other "legitimate rape" Republicans like Todd Akin have poo-poo-ed the rapes of enlisted women and refused to allow public hearings. But now men are also coming forward to talk openly about being raped by savage and deranged primitives on their bases.

The Air Force said Tuesday that two more basic-training instructors are being investigated for misconduct and their alleged victims were men-- a first among dozens of sex-abuse cases at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

...“Right now, the allegation involves abusive sexual contact,” Lt. Col. Mark Hoover, an Air Force training command lawyer, said of the case involving the male instructor.

The number of instructors under investigation has grown to 32, while the Air Force lists 59 victims in a scandal that has drawn national attention to military sexual assaults.

Congress has begun investigating and will hold a hearing on the Lackland situation next week.

Until this week, 30 trainers had been investigated for alleged misconduct with 56 women, most of whom had just joined the Air Force.

...“We're not at all surprised that the investigation has turned up male victims. Sexual assault in the military affects men as well as women,” said Greg Jacob, policy director for Service Women's Action Network. “The VA reports that 40 percent of all veterans seeking care for sexual trauma are men. Because of the hostile climate in the military, sexual assaults are underreported to begin with, and among men under reporting is even more widespread than it is for women.”

...The training command said 29 percent of sexual-assault victims whose reports last year launched investigations later stopped cooperating with prosecutors. The Air Force said that suggests the victims grew weary of the legal process.

Questions were raised last week about a victim's interview by attorneys for a Lake Jackson Air Force recruiter charged with pursing relationships with 18 women.

Attorneys questioned the woman outside the courtroom during a preliminary hearing for Tech. Sgt. Jaime Rodriguez and persuaded her to sign a document stating that Rodriguez did not use violence to have sex with her.

He was accused of rape in the incident-- the most serious crime lodged in the case, carrying a life sentence.

Prosecutors objected, saying the alleged victim didn't understand the military's complex definition of rape or its use-of-force standards in sexual-assault cases.

The woman, in turn, testified that while she gave into Rodriguez's advances when he sought to have oral sex, she initially told him no. She said she firmly rebuffed him when he tried to go further.

“The primary question that always is going to come up in a sexual-assault case is going to come down to force and consent because those are the two elements of rape,” Hoover explained.

Violence doesn't have to be employed for someone to commit rape. The simple act of using force during a sexual encounter is sufficient, he said, noting that rape can occur when “strength, power or restraint” is used.

The hearing officer, Lt. Col. Lynn Schmidt, agreed to consider the memorandum the woman signed as well as other testimony and evidence. Schmidt will issue a recommendation on what charges, if any, the Air Force should bring against Rodriguez.

One advocate, Protect Our Defenders' founder Nancy Parrish, said the victims' counsel program was “needed and long overdue,” but noted other services still opposed establishing it.

The trailer up top is for Kirby Dick's documentary The Invisible War, about the military rapes McKeon is covering up and which has been nominated for an Academy Award this year. The film features one of Congress' most outspoken proponents of the rights of the victims of this tragedy, Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. Unlike McKeon's shady hearings next week, the documentary includes interviews with numerous survivors of sexual assault. A member of McKeon's Armed Services Committee and an effective thorn in his side, Pingree has urged her colleagues-- and her constituents-- to watch the film. "This nomination," she said, "is an honor to the people who made the movie, and that includes the incredible brave veterans who told their stories on camera. It's only because people like them have had the courage to talk about what happened to them that the scandal of sexual assault in the military has been brought to light." McKeon, however, is still trying to shut them up.

Boehner And Cantor Deal With Sequestration By Turning It Into A Right-Wing Talking Point For Their Base

Thursday the House Republican leadership-- Boehner, Cantor, McKeon, Ryan and their cronies-- dealt with the sequestration disaster they've put the country into as though it were just some political talking point they can use to rev up their delusional electoral base with. And speaking of delusional, the bill, H.R 6365 was introduced by Florida war criminal Allen West and co-sponsored by Joe "You Lie!" Wilson (R-SC). It passed 223-196, only one sleazy Blue Dog, Indiana Senate candidate Joe Donnelly, voting with the Republicans-- but a full dozen Republicans abandoning Boehner and Cantor to cross the aisle and vote with the Democrats, including Justin Amash (R-MI), Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Steve LaTourette (R-OH), Johnny Duncan (R-TN) and others who felt this is too important an issue to play narrow partisan politics with.

Before the closer-than-expected vote, the Democrats offered a Motion to Recommit as an alternative, that did try to deal with sequestration in a serious and responsible manner. Their bill would eliminate sequestration by requiring "upper income taxpayers to pay their fair share by instituting a 'Buffett rule' [and extending] "middle class tax cuts while allowing components of the tax extensions that benefit upper income beneficiaries to expire as scheduled under current law and including targeted spending cuts." That failed 170-247, not a single Republican voting for it... and 13 Democrats voting with the GOP against it:

•Justin Altmire (Blue Dog/New Dem-PA)
• John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA)
• Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
• Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY)
• Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
• Larry Kissell (Blue Dog-NC)
• Lipinski, Jr (proto-Blue Dog-IL)
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC)
• Gary Peters (New Dem-MI)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Chellie Pingree (D-ME)*
• Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-K Street)

The bolded names are the Democrats "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel is spending the lion's share of DCCC money on-- so they can be reelected and continue voting with the GOP next year. And as far as non-incumbents, most of Steve Israel's recruits are reactionary Blue Dogs, New Dems and other conservatives who will be part of the anti-family, anti-worker coalition that secretly agrees with Mitt Romney that corporations are people and deserve all of Congress' efforts to make them more profitable and more able to bribe political elites. Steve Israel's worst recruits for 2012:

•Hayden Rogers (Blue Dog-NC)
• David Crooks (Blue Dog-IN)
• Gary McDowell (Blue Dog-MI)
• Pam Gulleson (Blue Dog- ND)
• Nick Lampson (Blue Dog-TX)
• Brendan Mullen (Blue Dog-IN)
• Patrick Murphy (R/New Dem-FL)
• Sal Pace (Blue Dog/New Dem-CO)
• Charlie Wilson (Blue Dog/New Dem-OH)
• Val Demings (New Dem-FL)
• Juan Vargas (New Dem-CA)
• Rob Wallace (Blue Dog-OK)

Watch Israel flush millions of dollars in contributions down the toilet futilely trying to persuade Democrats to vote for these conservatives.

* Chellie Pingree is a stalwart progressive and has been a battle-hardened leader for Maine's working families for many years. She's on this list because of a clerical error. When I called her office to ask why she voted with the GOP, she wasn't aware that she "had." She added that her feeling is that "the sequestration cuts are extreme and don't reflect the values of the American people. I didn't vote for the Budget Control Act in the first place for this very reason. Cutting budgets this way is no way to run the government. Republicans steadfastly refuse to accept a balanced approach that includes higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires and have forced us into these difficult situations."

Peggy Noonan is rarely right about anything, but equating Romney to Nixon was the smartest thing she's said in two decades. “At one point, he had a certain slight grimace on his face when he was taking tough questions from the reporters. And I thought, ‘He looks like Richard Nixon.’... Sometimes when really bad things happen, when hot things happen, cool words or no words is the way to go... I think... that in times of great drama and heightened crisis, and in times when something violent has happened to your people, I always think discretion is the better way to go. When you step forward in the midst of a political environment and start giving statements on something dramatic and violent that has happened, you're always leaving yourself open to accusations that you are trying to exploit things politically."

Maine Hodgepodge-- Good Stuff Between The Lines (I promise)

In 2010-- a year when Republicans surged everywhere-- I think less than 5 Democratic incumbents actually increased their support from the voters. One was Chellie Pingree of Maine, who Rachel Maddow interviewed about the newly opened Maine Senate seat above. In 2008, a year favorable to Democrats, Pingree won her congressional race to replace Tom Allen in the first district with 55%, while in Maine's other congressional district, longtime incumbent Mike Michaud, a Blue Dog, was reelected with 67%. Then came 2008-- the Blue Dog Apocalypse-- and Pingree, a stalwart and outspoken progressive, bucked the trend that swept Paul LePage into the governor's chair and saddled Maine with a teabaggy state legislature. Her percentage of the vote increased from 55% to 57%. Michaud, on the other hand, crashed. He went from 67% down to 55%-- his worst showing since first being elected in 2002. Maine has a funny political culture that isn't easy for an outsider to understand.

The first vote in Congress after the national Blue Dog Apocalypse that handed the House over to the GOP-- and after Maine elected LePage and that teabaggy legislature-- was to elect the new Speaker and the Democratic Leader. That was on January 5, 2011. All 241 Republicans voted for John Boehner to be Speaker. Chellie Pingree and 172 other Democrats voted for Nancy Pelosi to lead the Democratic Party. But the most conservative fringe of the Democratic caucus decided to put up their own candidate, an arch reactionary who lived in the C Street House with Jim DeMint and other right-wing sociopaths. They picked Heath Shuler. Eleven Democrats voted for Shuler against Pelosi. And one of those 11 was Mike Michaud. The other 10, simply put, were the 10 Democrats who went on to vote most frequently with the Republicans on the crucial rollcalls on 2011-12-- far right throwbacks like Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR), Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)... the worst of the worst. That's the pack in which Maine's bachelor congressman runs.


A few weeks ago, we looked at the Democratic primary race to find someone to run against Snowe. That's changed dramatically. Michaud is in. Pingree is in (though she hasn't officially announced) and former Governor John Baldacci, who served from 2003-2011, is in. (Before running for governor, he had served in Congress for 4 terms, where he was a member of the dangerous, right-wing C Street cult.) Independents-- and they make up almost a third of the voter base in Maine-- will probably have a candidate as well, which is how LePage wound up as governor. This time ex-Gov. Angus King and Eliot Cutler (the independent who threw the election to LePage) are both looking at running.

On the Republican side the highly unpopular state Senate president Kevin Raye, as well as former gubernatorial candidate Peter Cianchette and State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin are all making noises about running.

This was Snowe's stated reason to give up the seat:

"After an extraordinary amount of reflection and consideration, I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate.

"After 33 years in the Congress this was not an easy decision. My husband and I are in good health. We have laid an exceptionally strong foundation for the campaign, and I have no doubt I would have won re-election. It has been an indescribable honor and immeasurable privilege to serve the people of Maine, first in both houses of Maine's legislature and later in both houses of Congress. To this day, I remain deeply passionate about public service, and I cherish the opportunity I have been given for nearly four decades to help improve the lives of my fellow Mainers.

"As I have long said, what motivates me is producing results for those who have entrusted me to be their voice and their champion, and I am filled with that same sense of responsibility today as I was on my first day in the Maine House of Representatives. I do find it frustrating, however, that an atmosphere of polarization and 'my way or the highway' ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.

"With my Spartan ancestry I am a fighter at heart; and I am well prepared for the electoral battle, so that is not the issue. However, what I have had to consider is how productive an additional term would be. Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term. So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.

"As I enter a new chapter, I see a vital need for the political center in order for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us. It is time for change in the way we govern, and I believe there are unique opportunities to build support for that change from outside the United States Senate. I intend to help give voice to my fellow citizens who believe, as I do, that we must return to an era of civility in government driven by a common purpose to fulfill the promise that is unique to America.

"In the meantime, as I complete my third term, I look forward to continuing to fight for the people of Maine and the future of our nation. And I will be forever and unyieldingly grateful for the trust that the people of Maine have placed in me, and for the phenomenal friendship and assistance I have received over the years from my colleagues, my supporters, and my staff, both in Maine and in Washington."

And, no doubt, that has a lot to do with why she's retiring. But perhaps a scandal starting to engulf her husband, former Gov. John McKernan, figured into her decision as well.

The U.S. Justice Department, 11 states and the District of Columbia are backing an employee whistleblower lawsuit against Education Management Corp. (EDMC), a company once run by former Maine Governor John McKernan. McKernan continues to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He also is the husband of Senator Olympia Snowe (R - Maine).

The complaint alleges that the for-profit college chain was illegally paying recruiters based on the number of students they could sign up. EDMC allegedly based recruiter salaries on their sales abilities and also gave recruiters prizes, including expensive trips, based on their ability to bring students in. Federal law bans for-profit colleges that accept federal aid from compensating employees based on their ability to recruit students. Harry Litman, an attorney for the two former employees who are serving as whistleblowers in this case, said EDMC's violations were obvious.

"It did it flagrantly," Litman said. "It did it for many years. It lied to the federal government about it. And [employee incentives] fueled their explosive growth to $2.5 billion a year, almost all of which is taxpayer money."

The federal government has been looking into whether for-profit colleges have been defrauding taxpayers by enrolling students who are not qualified, and therefore more likely to default on their student loans.

UPDATE: Michaud's Out

Of the race, I mean. He sent this out:

While I have been humbled by all the support and encouragement I have received in the last few days, I've decided to not run for the U.S. Senate this year. I want to continue to represent the wonderful people of Maine's second district and keep working on the unique issues and challenges we face. I am also very proud of what I have been able to accomplish on behalf of Maine's and America's veterans and that work must continue.

I join many Mainers in being frustrated with how Washington operates and believe that both sides of Capitol Hill have fallen into a partisan rut. However, I am proud of being able to work across the aisle to deliver results and I think, for now, I can best continue those efforts in the House.

Wise decision.