Prairie Fire Journal

Connecticut's Zionist senator Joe Liebermann has said that having no health care reform bill is better than having one that contains a government-operated public option. Liebermann says he opposes any health care reform bill that contains a public option because he believes it will add to the national debt.

On the other hand, Liebermann doesn't mind adding to the national debt by supporting billions of dollars in U.S. aid to the nation of Israel. Helping and protecting Israelis, even if it adds to the national debt, is a top priority for Liebermann. But when it comes down to helping and protecting 46 million Americans without health insurance, Liebermann can't find any government money to spare.

For one thing, it's likely that health care reform (even with a public option) will help reduce the federal deficit over the next ten years. Israel receives approximately $3 billion annually in economic and military aid from the United States. Over a ten-year period that's $30 billion. If we have such hard choices to make concerning deficit spending, then it's time we start taking care of our own people first, even if that means ending all foreign aid--including aid to Israel.

Maybe Joe Liebermann should be a member of the Israeli Knesset instead of the U.S. Senate. He obviously has more empathy for Israelis than he does for Americans who can't afford health care.

Senator Joe Liebermann (Z-Conn.)
Friend of Israel. Foe of uninsured Americans.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the sweeping health care reform bill by a vote of 220-218. Only one Republican, Joseph Cao of Louisiana voted for the bill, while 39 Democrats voted against the bill along with 176 Republicans.

President Obama has signed an extension of unemployment benefits. It comes on a day when the nation's unemployment rate climbed to 10.2 percent.

The President signed the jobless bill in a private ceremony. It extends unemployment benefits another 14 weeks in all states. States with three-month average jobless rates of 8.5 percent or above will get an additional 6 weeks of extended benefits for a total extension of 20 weeks.

In addition, the Texas Workforce Commission issued a news release today stating the following:

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is notifying approximately 45,000 Texas unemployment claimants that they may be eligible for an additional seven-week extension of state Extended Benefits. TWC is mailing letters to claimants who have exhausted their benefits instructing them how to apply for the additional extension. The letters direct claimants who have already exhausted their benefits and have not found work to call a special number provided on the letter to apply for the new extension.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) informed TWC that Texas workers will be eligible for additional benefits because the state’s unemployment rate averaged at least 8 percent for three consecutive months. The state’s unemployment rate first hit 8 percent in August, rose to 8.2 percent in September, and has remained above 8 percent. Texas is able to pay state extended benefits through the end of the year.

Claimants who are currently receiving state Extended Benefits will automatically have the additional weeks added to their claim and will receive a letter showing the additional amount of benefits they potentially could receive.

Claimants who currently receive unemployment benefits should continue to request payment as scheduled. Claimants may update their address information online through http://ui.texasworkforce.org or by contacting a UI Tele-Center toll-free at 1-800-939-6631.

Texas workers who have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits and are eligible for the extended benefits should be receiving notification from the Texas Workforce Commission within the next week or so. I'm assuming that the 14-week benefit extension signed today by President Obama will begin to be paid after unemployed Texans exhaust the newly-approved 7-week state extended benefits.

This is good news for the thousands of unemployed Texas workers and their families who are on the verge of financial disaster. If you believe you are eligible for the unemployment benefit extension but don't receive notification from TWC by the end of November, you should contact TWC.

People familiar with the slang term "tea-bagging" know that it involves nuts. And there were about 300 nuts (wingnuts, that is) hanging out on the Lubbock County Courthouse lawn yesterday waiting for the Tea-Bagger Express to dip into town. The knuckle-dragging Neanderthals railed against healthcare reform while parading around with racist banners attacking President Obama. The banners, along with the overwhelmingly white protesters, gave the event the look and feel of a Ku Klux Klan rally similar to psycho wingnut Michele Bachmann's hate rally the same day in front of the nation's capitol.

It's likely that few, if any, of the attendees are among the 20 percent of Lubbock residents who don't have health insurance. The turnout of only 300 people was underwhelming when you consider Lubbock is supposed to be one of the most conservative cities in America. Lubbock is a shining example of what rabid conservatism can do to a city. The majority of workers earn substandard wages, 20 percent of the population lives in poverty, large sections of the city (including downtown) are dilapidated or abandoned, and the city's neighborhoods are some of the most heavily segregated in the nation. A perfect stop for the Tea Bag Express.

Resembling a cross between a Ku Klux Klan rally and an insane asylum picnic, Republican members of the House of Representatives held a public demonstration in front of the U.S. Capitol today protesting healthcare reform. The bizarre event was spearheaded by Minnesota 6th District Republican Representative Michele Bachmann and had an attendance of about 4,000 Tea Baggers. I saw only white faces in video of the protest.

It's a scary thought to know that raving lunatics such as Bachmann hold seats of power in the federal government. But the rally wasn't without its share of comedy and gaffs by the Repug morons who stood at the microphone. Bachmann was in perfect form with her creepy Stepford-wife glassy-eyed stare and fearless desire to publicly display her stupidity. She promptly misquoted Thomas Jefferson, saying "having a revolution now and then is a good thing." Jefferson never said any such thing. What Jefferson did say was "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing ...".

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner stood at the microphone holding up what he called "his copy of the Constitution" and then proceeded to quote the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence (We hold these truths to be self-evident ...), wrongly calling it the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Bachmann stood behind him smiling like an idiot and mouthing the words, oblivious to the fact that they are not part of the Constitution.

Another speaker railed against liberals not knowing the words to the Pledge of Allegiance and then got so emphatical over the words UNDER GOD that he forgot the word that came next (indivisible) and went straight to "with liberty and justice" at which point he realized his gaff and began mumbling incoherent gibberish in a lame attempt to hide his blundering stupidity. When right-wing radio host Mark Levin got up to the microphone, the American flag standing off to the side fell down on to the ground.

The impression I come away with after this protest is that conservatives are really ignorant people who are suffering from severe mental issues. That makes them extremely dangerous.

Republican Rep. John Boehner publicly
exhibiting his ignorance.

The Industrial Workers of the World spent considerable energy on free-speech fights in the early 1910s. After 1915, official organizational policy shifted from "the soapbox to the job," but one of the most important free-speech struggles did not erupt until the spring of 1916. The site was Everett, Washington, a city of some 35,000 inhabitants on Puget Sound. Its port was a strategic center for shipping out lumber, and its hiring halls recruited workers for operations in the interior. On May I some 400 shingle cutters went on strike. When Sheriff McRae began to arrest pickets, the local sent out a national call for assistance. Although the local belonged to the AFL, which did not respond to its appeal, the IWW in Seattle sent James Rowan to organize a solidarity campaign. As soon as Rowan stood up to speak in public, he was arrested and a free-speech fight was on.

Local support was considerable, but several efforts to speak in public met with failure. In an effort to build up the free-speech forces, a contingent of 41 IWWs (known as Wobblies) arrived by ferryboat on October 30. They had not even left the dock area when they were surrounded by a sheriff's posse. Shortly thereafter, they were taken to a park on the edge of town and severely beaten. A week later another 250 Wobblies arrived by ferry to challenge the sheriff's lawlessness with a public meeting. As the boat attempted to dock, a drunken sheriff and deputies began to shoot at the passengers. Some of the Wobblies shot back, and before the ferry could pull away, there were at least 5 dead, 6 missing, and 27 wounded passengers. On shore, a deputy lay mortally wounded, a lumber company official was already dead and 24 other individuals were wounded. The Everett free-speech fight had become the Everett Massacre.

The immediate aftermath was that seventy-four Wobblies, rather than the individuals who had shot at them, were put on trial for murder. This was the typical IWW experience in which the victim of violence was treated as the instigator. The attempt at repression soon backfired when the Wobblies achieved acquittals or dismissal of charges in well-publicized legal proceedings. The IWW victory fueled the determination of timber workers to seek long sought basic reforms under IWW leadership. In the succeeding years, numerous gains were won through strikes and other direct action. As one Wobbly put it, the "timberbeast" became "a lumber worker."

Source: The Lucy Parsons Project

Has the Texas Democratic Party thrown in the towel in Cochran County? It sure looks that way. According to The Morton Tribune, the county's Democrats currently lack having any party members willing to serve on its County Executive Committee. The CEC consists of the county chair and precinct chairs. Without a CEC in place, Cochran County will be unable to hold a Democratic Party primary election next year for the Texas governor's race.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The Democrats ruled the roost in Cochran County for decades up until the late 1980s. From then on, the county's Democratic Party apparatus declined precipitously to the point where it's basically non-existant today. The oldtimers, who had kept the party alive as Republicans came to dominate local politics, have retired from party positions and there doesn't appear to be any young blood willing to take the county Democratic Party forward.

Unless the executive committee of the Texas Democratic Party finds a willing county Democrat and appoints a temporary chair by December 3, 2009, when candidates can begin filing to run, there will be no Democratic Party primary for Cochran County in March 2010. Any potential Democratic candidates for local office will be forced to either file as Republicans or run as independents.

Cochran County voters who might otherwise want to vote in the Democratic primary will have only the choice of not voting at all or else crossing over and voting in the Republican primary. That might help get rid of Rick Perry before the general election if enough Democrats do decide to cross over and vote for Kay Bailey Hutchison. Otherwise, the situation looks bleak for the future of the Cochran County Democratic Party.

November is one of the bloodier months in the struggle of organized labor. In the days ahead, I will highlight the most prominent of these bloody oppressions on their anniversary day. We must never forget the brave men and women who sacrificed their very lives in the struggle to be human.

For the second week in a row, Republican senators successfully continued to stall efforts to get an unemployment benefit extension passed. Republicans are using the misery of the unemployed, who have exhausted all their benefits, as a political football to add immigration- and ACORN-related amendments to the bill. Families are on the brink of total economic collapse and all the Republicans care about is their petty politics. Absolutely shameful behavior.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this afternoon that a procedural vote to invoke cloture and get a vote on the bill is scheduled for next Tuesday. The Democrats don't have much to be proud of, as they have allowed the Republicans to get away with holding unemployed workers hostage. It's about time the Dems stood up. Where the hell have they been the past two weeks? What happened to that 60-vote majority? Absolutely shameful behavior.

Texas Governor Rick Perry opened his mouth on Wednesday to fire back at the mounting criticism over the cover-his-ass stunt he pulled in replacing members of the Forensic Science Commission studying the flawed forensic evidence used to convict and kill Cameron Todd Willingham. What Perry said was nothing but diversionary gibberish to direct attention away from the real issue of whether or not flawed forensic evidence was used to convict someone of a capital crime punishable by death.

The purpose of the commission was to investigate problematic and questionable methods used in formulating forensic evidence. It was not making a determination about Willingham's guilt or innocence, only whether or not the forensic evidence presented at trial was flawed. However, that evidence was a fundamental component used to convict Willingham and was the evidence that all the appeals courts looked at in upholding the conviction. "We have a system in this state that followed procedures," Perry said, as he tap-danced around the issue concerning the commission. If the evidence used to convict Willingham was flawed, then it holds that the appeals court decisions using that same evidence to affirm the conviction were also flawed.

Perry is either unable or unwilling to grasp this simple piece of logic. Most bloggers and commenters agree that Perry is just one cog in the machinery of justice that allowed for the execution of an innocent man. But Perry has put himself in the position of being the primary target by his political shenanigans in removing members of the commission just days before they were to issue their report and replacing them with more-accommodating hacks who promptly cancelled the scheduled hearing. The truth is that Perry is dodging scientific evidence by credible scientists that says the original fire investigators reached a wrong conclusion in claiming arson caused the fire that killed Willingham's three children. Whatever angle you view them from, Perry's actions look like a cover up.

Perry also claimed that Willingham's defense attorney said he has come to clearly believe in Willingham's guilt and that the report blasting the arson investigation, authored by renowned arson expert Craig Beyler, was nothing more than propaganda by the anti-death-penalty people across this country. I haven't been able to substantiate the truth about these remarks, but it's obvious that Perry holds these same beliefs and he has turned his distaste for the forensic investigation into his own personal war against anti-death-penalty groups.

What I have learned is that in January 2009, after eight other arson experts concluded the evidence against Willingham was flawed, it was the Forensic Science Commission who asked Beyler to conduct an independent review of the case's forensic evidence. All the commission members were appointed by Perry. It's disingenuous, deceptive, and an outright detachment from reality for Perry to now claim that the investigation and Beyler's report are nothing more than a propaganda stunt by death penalty opponents. Perry also called Willingham a monster and commented about Willingham abusing his wife, which has nothing to do with the forensic investigation or the charge of capital murder used to send Willingham to the death chamber. The way Perry spins it, even if the forensic evidence against Willingham was flawed, he was a bad person who deserved to be executed anyway.

Rick Perry is being dishonest and deceitful. That's nothing new. He's been doing it for almost ten years now as governor. What's more shameful than Perry's disgusting behavior is the fact that Texas voters put him in the governorship in the first place--twice. That doesn't say much for the judgement of many Texans. It's time to boot this creep out.