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Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by David Nir Leading Off:

• MA-Sen: PPP warned us that their new Massachusetts poll would depict a close race, and they weren't kidding. Fresh off Tuesday's primary, here's where things stand:

Ed Markey (D): 44
Gabriel Gomez (R): 40
Undecided: 16

Those aren't numbers any Democrat likes to see, but in a way, they aren't terribly surprising. While safely blue on the presidential level, Massachusetts isn't the Democratic lock it's often assumed to be further down the ballot. And it's not just a matter of Scott Brown, either. The state saw an uninterrupted string of Republican governors from 1991 through 2007; the last Democrat to hold the office before Deval Patrick was none other than Michael Dukakis. John Kerry, too, had his share of less-than-blowout victories, winning his first race in 1984 by a 55-45 spread and then holding off Gov. Bill Weld 52-45 in 1996. And in 1994, a number of polls showed a guy named Mitt Romney neck-and-neck with Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Kennedy, though, went on to win that year by 18 points, one of several instances where Bay State Republicans got close (or close-ish) but couldn't seal the deal. Brown, of course, was the huge exception to that, but will businessman Gabriel Gomez be the next Scott Brown, or the next Mitt Romney? That's the number one question on everyone's minds.

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Congress is back in town this week, so look out, world! Rawr!

Doesn't look like much is happening before Wednesday, when the President of South Korea comes to address a Joint Session. And then after that... uh, more nothing, probably.

Among the things I meant to get to last week: the move to replace Ed DeMarco at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and some state-by-state specifics on sequestration. New to the lineup: The Laymans' Case Against Austerity; some total wacko Holocaust denier who reinvented himself as a right-wing Israel booster; and a rather fascinating and weedy accounting from inside the NRA of just why the federal government might need all that ammunition, after all.

All this, plus our regularly-scheduled visit with Greg Dworkin, and the ever-present threat of one from Armando!

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From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

The Week Ahead

Monday The House is back in session. Or maybe it's not. Who the hell can tell these days?

Brits get the day off because of a rare event called a "Bank Holiday." (Please note that the traditional Bank Holiday cheese rolling event on Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire isn't until May 27th). Here in America, meanwhile, the big banks will observe their usual holiday  tradition of worshipping themselves on days that end in "y."

Tuesday
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Tuesday Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day. I'm especially appreciative of my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Wiley (East Elementary in  Mount Vernon, OH), for not hiding her box of "Good Little Boys and Girls" reward candy very well so I could steal some every day.

Wednesday The day after Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch squeaks out a win over Mark Sanford in the South Carolina 1st Congressional District special election, her brother sprains a gloat muscle while taking credit for giving her the "Colbert Bounce."

Thursday The Netroots Nation convention begins a month and a half from today. Repairing the hole in the ceiling from firing the starter bazooka begins a month and  half and a minute from today.

Lint screens fly at half staff for National Lost Sock Memorial Day. They left us too early, darn them.

Friday The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio opens in theatres. It deals with the problems of the super-rich. Or, as the rest of us call it, "problems we'd love to have."

Mother's Day is two days away. That's your reminder. You're welcome.

It's dawn. Saddle up. We ride.

Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

E.J. Dionne at the Washington Post offers some advice to the president in Obama needs to ask himself why even his supporters are growing impatient:

Well, sure. To pretend that the president can magically get an increasingly right-wing Republican House and Senate contingent to do his bidding is either naive or willfully misleading. The GOP really does hope that blocking whatever Obama wants will steadily weaken him.

But the president also needs to ask himself why even his supporters are growing impatient. His whole budget strategy, after all, is directed almost entirely toward gently coaxing Republicans his way, without any concern as to whether what he is doing is demobilizing the very people he needs on his side now.

Doyle MacManus at the Los Angeles Times writes Obama's Gitmo woes—There are steps the president can take to improve a Kafkaesque situation:

President Obama sounded genuinely outraged last week when he talked about the Kafkaesque situation at the Guantanamo prison camp, where the United States has been holding 166 men without trial for terms that are, at this point, officially endless.

"It's not sustainable," the president thundered. "I mean, the notion that we're going to continue to keep over 100 individuals in a no man's land in perpetuity?"

But at least some of Obama's anger should be directed at himself, because his own silence and passivity on Guantanamo are part of the problem.

Robert Parry at Consortium News writes about Howard Kurtz’s Belated Comeuppance: The Media Critic's Firing Comes After a Long History of Journalistic Abuses:

For nearly a quarter century, Howard Kurtz has served as hall monitor for Washington’s conventional wisdom, handing out demerits to independent-minded journalists who don’t abide by the mainstream rules. So, there is some understandable pleasure seeing Kurtz face some accountability in his ouster as bureau chief for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

However, the more salient point is that Kurtz, who continues to host CNN’s “Reliable Sources” show, should never have achieved the level of influence in journalism that he did. Throughout his career, he has consistently—and unfairly—punished journalists who had the courage to ask tough questions and pursue truly important stories.

You can read about what other pundits say below the fold.

Les Leopold writes The Rich Have Gained $5.6 Trillion in the 'Recovery,' While the Rest of Us Have Lost $669 Billion:

Oh, are we getting ripped off. And now we've got the data to prove it. From 2009 to 2011, the richest 8 million families (the top 7%) on average saw their wealth rise from $1.7 million to $2.5 million each. Meanwhile the rest of us —  the bottom 93% (that's 111 million families) — suffered on average a decline of $6,000 each. Do the math and you'll discover that the top 7% gained a whopping $5.6 trillion in net worth (assets minus liabilities) while the rest of lost $669 billion. Their wealth went up by 28% while ours went down by 4 percent. It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident. […] The solutions are simple, but the fight is hard. The Robin Hood Tax The best way to move money from Wall Street to Main street is through a financial transaction tax — a small charge on each and every sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives of all kinds. Consider it a sin tax on Wall Street's many vices. Such a tax could raise enough money so that every student in this country could go to a two- or four-year public college or university, tuition-free Just think what the elimination of increasing student debt would do to the lopsided wealth statistics. Just think of what that would do for jobs as colleges expanded to deal with the demand. It's not a wild-eyed demand: 11 countries are about to adopt such a tax. (See robinhoodtax.org) Public State Banks A second critical strategy to end Wall Street as we know it is to form 50 public state banks on the model of the Bank of North Dakota. These would function as real banks rather than the rigged casinos that pass for banks on Wall Street. State banks are designed to support community banks that, in turn, lend to local businesses. Most importantly, the public bankers would be paid reasonable salaries rather than gouging themselves at the trough. (See "Why is Socialism doing so darn well in Deep Red North Dakota?") The Public Banking Institute is paving the way as its leaders (Ellen Brown and Marc Armstrong) help some 20 states explore the idea. They need and deserve our support. And for all you Fed haters, they also are formulating some very cool ideas about how to dramatically transform our central bank. (More on that in a future piece.) Most importantly, we all need to find a common way to protest Wall Street's rule over the economy and over Washington. This isn't about redistributing their wealth. It's about getting ours back.

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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—Fox Military Propagandist Promotes Terrorist Murder:

‎Does support of terrorists make one a terrorist? Presumably that depends on whether you take Mister Bush’s squint-eyed November 6, 2001, prescription — "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror" — in a blindly nationalistic fashion or in a moral one. Terrorism isn’t an ideology. It’s a technique. Much as sophists and thugs - such as the late Jeane Kirkpatrick — like to twist the definition to fit who is carrying out a policy, terrorism can't be one thing for them and something else for us. Yet one of the most pre-eminent of the Pentagon’s chosen propaganda team of ex-military-cum-television-analysts, retired Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, not only supports but promotes terrorism against Iran. He's still spewing on Fox News despite having been exposed by David Barstow’s revelations three weeks ago.' This isn’t new territory for McInerney. He’s argued for attacks on Iranfor as long as Bill Kristol and other neoconservatives have done. As a member of the Iran Policy Committee, McInerney has long argued that the State Department should take the Mujahideen-e Khalq off its terrorist watch list. The group originated as leftwing opposition to the Shah of Iran in 1963 and was involved in various operations, including the taking of U.S. Embassy hostages in 1979 and the bloody suppression of the Shiite revolt in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Although MEK killed Americans as well as Iranians in the past, it has since adopted a public veneer of being a backer of freedom and democracy as soon as the Iranian mullahs are overturned, the idea being to install one of its founders as Iran’s president.

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High Impact Posts. High Impact Posts for the Past Week.Top Comments.

Reposted from Daily Kos Labor by Laura Clawson In 1938 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law one of the most important pieces of legislation concerning American labor, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This act established the minimum wage, overtime pay, barred children under 18 from doing dangerous work and barred children under 16 from working during school hours. Interestingly enough when the bill was first proposed in 1932 by Senator Hugo Black of Alabama, it contained language that would have provided for a 30-hour week instead of a 40-hour week.

American labor made a great deal of progress during the first 36 years of the FLSA. Then, during the Reagan administration workers started to lose rights (The list of major changes, with links, to the FLSA is below the fold). The last 28 years have not been kind to the American worker, starting in 1985 when state and local governments were allowed to offer comp time instead of overtime to public servants. In 1986 if you worked for a defense contractor you likely lost the right to overtime pay. In 1989 if you were below 20 years of age your labor was deemed as not worth as much as someone over 20, at least for your first 90 days on the job. In 1996 tipped employees were tied to a wage of $2.13 an hour, a minimum that has not increased in 17 years. In 2004 many supervisory positions were reclassified as exempt, taking away overtime pay for thousands.

During this time the only real gains for labor were minor adjustments to the minimum wage and nursing mothers were guaranteed break time to express milk.

Today the very foundation to FLSA is under attack with the introduction of H.R. 1406 – Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013. Many of you may know that this bill would amend the FLSA and would effectively eliminate overtime pay for all non-exempt employees. At first glance this bill may not sound so bad, especially with the family friendly name of, “Working Families Flexibility Act.” What it does though is undermine the ability of an employee to earn overtime pay. If you work 44 hours you should be paid your standard wage for 40 hours and time and a half for four hours. Receiving one and a half hours of compensatory time off for every hour of time worked over 40 does not put food on the table. While this idea sounds good on paper I cannot see it working out well for the worker. The employer can pick and choose, based on the needs of the business, when the worker can take compensatory time. Did you work a couple of extra hours last week so you could go to one of your child’s school functions? Sorry, business needs come first.

While this act stands little chance of being signed into law by President Obama it does show, and quite clearly, how beholden the Republican Party is to business interests. Instead of weakening the FLSA, we should be demanding that it be strengthened. Raise the minimum wage, get rid of the archaic separate tipped minimum wage, strengthen overtime rules, create a maximum wage based on the average employee salary, expand the list of non-exempt employees, and maybe if you really want to help families take a serious look at the 30-hour week as Sen. Black originally wanted in 1932.

The detailed list of changes to the FLSA is below the fold.

Gov. Martin O'Malley literally got everything he wanted in this session. Every bill his administration proposed was passed during the session. Some of the higher profile and controversial measures are bringing this criticism from opponents and even a few supporters that the governor, and in extension the state, is now too liberal.

"I don't care. Call me anything but late for dinner," O'Malley said. "The real test is are we making progress or not making progress. And I consider myself a performance-driven progressive."

The Democratic Party in Maryland under the leadership of Gov. Martin O'Malley has been chalking some impressive wins in policy and politics. A total of 766 bills were enacted into law by the General Assembly and the Governor, and all in a period of about 4 months of straight up regular order. Just look at what the majority party has done this session:

• Gun control. The Democratic legislature passed a sweeping, expansive law that banned a slew of assault weapons, required fingerprinting for purchase of handguns, and limited magazine rounds to 10 bullets.
• Gas taxes. The legislature raised the gas tax and dedicated the funds to infrastructure projects.
• Death penalty. Democrats abolished it.
• Marijuana. The legislature created a process for lowering the criminal penalties for possession and approved it for medicinal use.
• Offshore wind. Governor O'Malley long sought Atlantic wind farm is approved and funded.

This is all after coming off a big statewide victory for Democrats last fall that saw voter approval of marriage equality and the DREAM Act. This session also saw a crackdown on cyberbullying, put an end to "debtors jail," protected foster children from identity theft, a new law to fund skills training for workers, expanded mass transit, approved more funding for research and development, held down tuition costs, eased professional licensing hurdles for veterans, and did it all while reducing the small state deficit.

Democrats have large majorities in both houses in Maryland and a governor who is an experienced chief executive. So one would not be out of order in finding these results somewhat expected in a heavily Democratic state. However, it is notable that many of the initiatives pushed by Maryland progressives faced tough opposition within the Party. For example, the wind farm bill had been stopped in committee by its Democratic chairman for years. But this year Dems had enough and stripped him of his chairmanship and put in somebody willing to play ball.

In the realm of politics, Maryland Dems successfully redrew the district of one of their two Republican Congressmen and last fall he was gone. The new heavily Democratic map was overwhelmingly approved by the voters. All this butt-kicking is leaving Republicans in the state divided and in turmoil. Speculation about Gov. O'Malley's future as a possible presidential contender in 2016 is perculating.

Now certainly it wasn't all roses: an anti-fracking bill died in the House and some other legislative wins passed one House but not the other. However, given the sheer magnitude of problems confronting this country, Maryland isn't sitting on its hands like some Democratically controlled states or sticking its head in the sand like all the Republican ones. The overall good health of Maryland Democrats is something the Washington Democrats could certainly consider a model of winning.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by David Jarman

Gather 'round, children, for some tales of ancient yore—back to the days of legend, when such beasts as Rockefeller Republicans roamed the suburbs of the northeast, or the fabled Blue Dog Democrat, who once stood tall in the rural districts of the south. Yes, once upon a time, you could find moderate Democrats in the House, representing districts that voted mostly for Republican presidential candidates, or similarly, you could find centrist Republicans representing districts that leaned in favor of Democrats at the presidential level.

While these mythical creatures aren't quite entirely extinct, the last decade hasn't been kind to them. Back-to-back-to-back wave elections cleaned many of them out, wiping out many of the swing-district Republicans in 2006 and 2008, then taking out even more Democrats who were in Republican-leaning rural turf in 2010. These were "realigning" elections, as voters increasingly viewed candidates through the prism of a national (and often partisan) media and nationalized parties, rather than judging candidates on their own unique fits to each district's parochial interests.

Subsequent redistricting in 2012 locked down many of the districts picked up by the GOP in the 2010 wave, helped along by increasingly sophisticated gerrymandering techniques. That diminshed the number of swing districts and pushed more districts either into the solidly red or solidly blue columns. That can be quantified: Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman has calculated that in 1998, there were 168 "swing districts" (defined as, at the time, having a Partisan Voting Index between D+5 and R+5, meaning that their presidential-election performance was within a five-point range, either way, of the national average). Following the 2012 elections, only 90 districts fell into that range.

Throw in that shrinking range of competitive districts—on top of the increasing tendency to vote straight-ticket, national-party, instead of according to regional quirks—and you've got a recipe for an ever-dwindling number of "crossover" districts. In other words, the number of House Republicans in Democratic-leaning districts and the number of House Democrats in Republican-leaning districts is near an all-time low, with only 17 Republican in districts that Obama won in 2012 and 9 Democrats in districts that Romney won. According to Kyle Kondik, that's the lowest number of "crossover" districts since 1920.

With the House having seemingly realigned itself thoroughly—bringing ideology and geography into unison with few mismatches on either side presenting opportunities—that tends to point toward something of a wash in the House in the 2014 elections. That's only good news if you particularly enjoy the current status quo; for Democrats to be able to actually move an agenda, though, they'd need to flip 17 more seats for a majority in the House and a mere wash isn't going to do the job. Since we're getting to the point in the cycle where we need to start thinking about recruitment and targeting, though, follow over the fold to take a look at where those remaining mismatches are, and what other swing district opportunities are out there.

• It's happening:
  

  The World Meteorological Organization’s Statement on the Status of the Global Climate says that 2012 joined the ten previous years as one of the warmest — at ninth place — on record despite the cooling influence of a La Niña episode early in the year.

  The 2012 global land and ocean surface temperature during January–December 2012 is estimated to be 0.45°C (±0.11°C) above the 1961–1990 average of 14.0°C. This is the ninth warmest year since records began in 1850 and the 27th consecutive year that the global land and ocean temperatures were above the 1961–1990 average, according to the statement. The years 2001–2012 were all among the top 13 warmest years on record.

• This is good governance:
  

  Mark Udall, who serves on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, urged President Obama today to ensure the administration’s response to the committee's extensive 6,000-page report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program represents an administration-wide effort to begin a constructive dialogue about lessons learned. The letter also highlights concerns about media reports that the CIA will vigorously dispute the study’s findings.

  What Udall highlights isn't:
  

  Meanwhile, there have been media reports that the CIA is planning an "aggressive response" and is objecting to a "majority" of the Committee’s Study. While I find these reports hard to believe, I am concerned that despite my request — and requests from Chairman Feinstein and other colleagues on the Committee — Director Brennan and his staff have shown little to no interest in engaging collaboratively and constructively with the Committee on a path forward on the Committee’s Study. In fact, despite repeated requests by Members, the CIA has declined to meet or discuss the Study with Committee staff.

• John Abraham pens a tribute to James Hansen.
• No one said stopping them would be easy:
  

  As the Republican Party grapples with implications of its historic losses last fall, a similar reckoning is unfolding among the deep-pocketed conservatives whose “super PACs” and other organizations spent heavily to defeat President Obama and the Democrats in 2012. Nowhere is the self-examination more unrelenting than within the constellation of advocacy groups, foundations and research organizations nurtured by the Kochs....

  While awaiting an internal audit headed by a top Koch Industries executive, the brothers have rejected any notion of stepping back from electoral politics. Strikingly, after years of nurturing a political network and donor base largely independent from traditional Republican circles, the Kochs are planning to substantially increase their involvement in party affairs.

• This could be interesting:
  

  The authors examine U.S. public attitudes regarding global climate change, addressing the puzzle of why support for governmental action on this front is tepid relative to what existing theories predict. Introducing the theoretical concept of relative sociotropic time horizons, the authors show that believers in Christian end-times theology are less likely to support policies designed to curb global warming than are other Americans.

• How nice:
  

  In January, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, ascended to the powerful chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Six weeks later, campaign finance filings and interviews show, Hensarling was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fundraiser at a posh Park City, Utah, resort.

  The congressman’s political action committee held the fundraiser at the St. Regis Deer Valley, the “Ritz-Carlton of ski resorts” known for its “white-glove service” and for its restaurant by superstar chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

  And in case you were wondering:
  

  There’s no evidence the fundraiser broke any campaign finance rules.

• Weather whiplash:
  

  The term "weather whiplash" was first invoked to describe this effect by science writer Andrew Freedman in 2009. But now climate scientists are using the term, and pointing to the current floods, in the Midwest as the classic case.

  "I'm using it now to describe the longer term kind of flooding-drying cycles," said meteorologist Jeff Masters, co-founder and director meteorology at the Weather Underground. "It's pretty amazing. It used to be only one in three years were flood years. Now it's almost every year."

  The whiplash has become especially painful in river towns where just a few months ago dredging was needed to keep goods afloat and keep communities alive. Now sandbags are the only thing holding back the rivers from flooding the very same towns.

• I'd like to coin a phrase. Or maybe name a punk band. I give you the Ted Cruz malfunction.
• The Economist recently attempted to downplay climate change. A couple of actual climate scientists respond.
• As well it should:
  

  Obama’s bid to squeeze Social Security enrages his core backers

• Right wing media continue to smear climate scientists.
• Cool:
  

  In February 2012, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek decided to go public with a strange and, he worried, somewhat embarrassing idea. Impossible as it seemed, Wilczek had developed an apparent proof of “time crystals” — physical structures that move in a repeating pattern, like minute hands rounding clocks, without expending energy or ever winding down. Unlike clocks or any other known objects, time crystals derive their movement not from stored energy but from a break in the symmetry of time, enabling a special form of perpetual motion.

• Here are the world's top fifty restaurants. After three years at the top, Copenhagen's Noma drops to second behind Girona, Spain's El Celler de Can Roca. Three of the top ten are in Spain.
• Beware:
  

  More than 5,000 products, including clothing, toys and bedding, contain toxic chemicals that could be dangerous for children’s health, yet stores still stock them and consumers know little about their content, an advocacy group reported this week.

• And you thought political blogs get nasty.
• The Omaha Beef of indoor football has offered Tim Tebow a contract. At $75 a game.

  Omaha Beef?

  The Beef's starting quarterback, James McNear, is taking it in stride.
  

  McNear is anything but insulted by the Beef's wooing of Tebow. McNear said, "I think Tim can learn a lot from me."

• Preview of coming attractions:
  

  A NASA-led modeling study provides new evidence that global warming may increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought.

  The study shows for the first time how rising carbon dioxide concentrations could affect the entire range of rainfall types on Earth.

This week, Joe Klein wrote:

Obama's anger served a larger purpose. It was directed at the plague affecting--no, paralyzing--our public life: the ability of well-funded extremist groups to thwart the will of the overwhelming majority. This is a problem that goes well beyond the gun issue. It has infected liberal and conservative lobbying groups alike. Their constant screeching defiles the mass media and drowns out voices of sanity. Their give-no-quarter politics defines our time. [...] It is well past time for political moderates to speak as forcefully as the snake-oil salesmen who are hijacking our democracy.

I include among the demagogues Democrats like Jim Dean--former governor Howard Dean's brother--who recently sent out a fundraising letter titled "Disgusted," which began with this subtle enjoinder: "President Obama's budget has left me absolutely disgusted." Really? Why? Because the President has called for very modest cuts in old-age entitlements. I also include both sides of the abortion debate, public employees' unions that won't change their work rules, the gun lobby--obviously--and its liberal doppelgänger, the civil-libertarian lobby.

Of course Joe Klein's inability to actually engage the substance of issues has been obvious for some time. His criticism of  "the gun lobby—obviously—and its liberal doppelgänger, the civil-libertarian lobby," is emblematic of his ignorance and pettiness (he's still mad because his stupidity on warrantless wiretapping was widely ridiculed).

And this "angry moderate" act of his is also a rehash. In 2006, he said:

I call myself a moderate — a radical or flaming moderate, take your pick — because in this witlessly overheated political environment, you've got to call yourself something.

I can think of some things to call Joe Klein, but let's leave that for another time. I actually want to equate Klein to a figure in history that will illustrate the noxiousness of his views—and I keep coming back to Stephen Douglas:

Douglas's ideal of American nationality was a powerful and fluid political force. But other, countervailing forces were also at work. In the North, a growing moral abhorrence of human bondage aligned with swelling fears that the territorial domain of slavery would be expanded without limit. In the South, a constitutional interest in protecting states' rights merged with a rising apprehension that northern radicals would constrict the prerogatives of slaveowners. Caught between these colliding passions, Douglas called for a retreat from extremism [...]. [Emphasis supplied.]

That's Joe Klein. His idea of thoughtfulness is to say both sides do it, without a thought for the actual positions he is supporting. There is no doubt that Joe Klein would have equated John C. Calhoun with Frederick Douglass. Back in 2011, I wrote a post titled
Frederick Douglass: The activist who would not 'grow up':

The life of Frederick Douglass is one of the prime examples of American history of why reaching for the impossible, for not "growing up," is essential for the effective activist. Born a slave, Frederick Douglass was the living embodiment of asking for the impossible in order to achieve the good. While the perfect should not be the enemy of the good, asking for the perfect is essential to achieving the good.

Let me be clear, it's not that I think Klein has formed any ideas about the role of activists versus politicians; frankly I'm pretty sure he is not smart enough to think that deeply about the issue. But I do think he is so absorbed in his own inanities that he mimics the type of thinking that lionized Stephen Douglas' "radical moderation" in his time.

More on the flip.  

By now you've all seen the photo above Kos posted last month. A catastrophe waiting to happen, one of many, caused once again by conservative policies. Here's the other shoe dropping:

The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing 14 people, injuring more than 200 others and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding area had only $1 million in liability coverage, lawyers said Saturday.Tyler lawyer Randy C. Roberts said he and other attorneys who have filed lawsuits against West Fertilizer’s owners were told Thursday that the plant carried only $1 million in liability insurance. Brook Laskey, an attorney hired by the plant’s insurer to represent West Fertilizer Co., confirmed the amount Saturday in an email to The Associated Press, after the Dallas Morning News first reported it.

(More at Christian Dem in NC's diary) You better believe who's gonna bear the brunt of this disaster, outside of the people who paid the ultimate price and the many who were injured and lost homes. The same people who bailed out Wall Street, the same people who shoveled trainloads of guts and treasure into a clusterfuck called Iraq, the same people who are now being told they must tighten their belts and make sacrifices. The same middle class taxpayers the same conservative goons always bleed dry like their personal piggy bank to socialize their losses.

Transferring costs from businesses onto individuals has become a cottage industry. It pops up everywhere, ideology always falls by the wayside. From Wall Street picking your pocket to contractors paid to give Iraqi's free healthcare, even smaller concerns are getting in on the con. The apartment complex where I live now require renter's insurance, but not for your stuff. They require coverage up to $250,000 on their stuff, their pipes, their walls. Which means the deduct has to be sky-high, so high it's not gonna cover anything the renter owns. Unless they happen to regularly keep 50k worth of diamonds and gold in their $600 studio apartment ...

The poorer someone is, the easier it is to stick them like that. Republicans are fond of comparing businesses to people. Their SCOTUS stooges wasted no time giving corporations the same rights as a person—when it came to benefits. Just not the responsibilities, just not the social stigma. What we would call a powerful person who takes money from the most vulnerable, desperate people they can shake down for no other reason than no one is around who will stop them?

A million dollars is peanuts compared to the damage this plant caused. But in the great state of Texas, this is one of the few industries that have any requirement at all. If the hair man had his way, there would be no requirement at all. Which most anyone might call unfair, or bullshit. In Texas, anywhere else these ultra goons get behind the wheel, that's just the price of them doing their business in your backyard. Let freedom ring.