Kentucky Birther Didn’t Get the Memo

In it’s-so-embarrassing-it’s-got-to-be-Kentucky news, the Courier-Journal is reporting that this guy (on the right, we think):

(Picture of Dr. Todd House and, apparently, his wife Suzanne, and your jet! from the very dubious http://obamaballotchallenge.com site.)

thinks this guy:

(Picture of President Obama from http://www.whitehouse.gov.)

is, how you say? NO BUENO when it comes to his citizenship, and they’re suing to get Obama off the Presidential ballot in Kentucky:

A Louisville anesthesiologist has asked a Frankfort court to bar President Barack Obama from the November ballot.

Dr. Todd House — who is running for president as a write-in candidate with his wife, Suzanne Dudgeon House as his vice presidential candidate — filed the lawsuit Aug. 10 claiming that Obama is not a “natural born” citizen, which is required of presidential candidates by the U.S. Constitution.

Face, meet palm. But wait, it gets better!

In an interview Wednesday, Todd House, 52, said that he filed to run for president in part to give him standing to file the suit but also because he opposes both Republicans and Democrats and wanted to help get the Libertarian message out.

And he said he wanted to bring suit because the courts are “shirking the issue” by not addressing the merits of similar cases that have come before them. “Really, the judiciary and the Supreme Court needs to hash this out and decide it once and for all for the greater good of the country,” House said.

Read the rest of the article for some good ol’ anti-14th Amendment gobbledygook. And, if you’ve got the stomach for it, you can read a nifty little press release about Dr. House’s suit at a creepy web site called obamaballotchallenge.com here: http://obamaballotchallenge.com/do-it-yourself-obama-ballot-challenge-opens-another-case-in-kentucky. The site offers a Do It Yourself Obama Ballot Challenge Kit!

In case you were wondering, here’s where Dr. House practices (though technically his practice is separate from Calobrace Plastic Surgery Center): http://www.calobrace.com/about/anesthesiology.cfm.

McConnell to Obama: Don’t Buy American

Since Barack Obama was inaugurated at the end of last month, we Kentuckians have been used to seeing our senior Senator, Mitch McConnell, grab lots of media attention as the Senate Minority Leader. (Nevermind our junior Senator, Jim Bunning, whose actions over the past month seem like what could charitably be described as a “senior moment” — link to today’s Joseph Gerth column in the Courier-Journal.)

Unfortunately for Kentucky, not all of McConnell’s time in the spotlight has been positive. Some of Mitch’s actions and comments in the public eye have been downright tone-deaf to the overall mood of the nation. Case in point, today Mitch is calling for a provision in Obama’s stimulus package that would require government to buy American iron and steel to be stripped (from the Associated Press):

The US Senate should strip a “Buy American” clause from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, the chamber’s top Republican said Monday amid anger at the restriction from US allies.

“I don’t think we ought to use a measure that is supposed to be timely, temporary, and targeted to set off trade wars when the entire world is experiencing a downturn in the economy,” said Senator Mitch McConnell.

Asked whether he would support trying to strip the measure from what is now roughly an 888-billion-dollar economic stimulus package, the Republican minority leader told reporters: “I think it’s a bad idea to put it in a bill like this, which is supposed to be about jump starting the economy, yes.”

The House of Representatives last week voted to require that public works projects funded by its 819-billion-dollar stimulus bill to use only US iron and steel. The Senate version extends that restriction to all manufactured goods.

McConnell’s comments came as Canada Trade Minister Stockwell Day warned that US protectionism “can only trigger retaliatory action” as he urged Obama to fight the provision.

The Republican leader also urged Obama to lean on his Democratic allies in the US Congress to accept or at least accommodate Republican ideas for how best to pull the US economy out of a paralyzing recession.

“I hope he can get through to them that the way to build this package is, indeed, to do it on a bipartisan basis, which doesn’t mean just talking to us, but including ideas that we think would work,” said McConnell.

That would include plans for government-backed, four percent fixed mortgages to qualified homebuyers, and cutting the bottom two income tax bracket rates from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to five percent, he said.

McConnell also denounced the amount of social safety net spending in the stimulus plan and indicated Republicans would like to see fewer zeros on the overall price tag.

“We’ve been throwing figures around like it was paper money,” he said. “We all agree that we need to do something, but I don’t think we should just completely act like the amount is irrelevant.”

While Senate procedures give the minority Republicans powers to slow or stall legislation, McConnell made clear his party’s goal is not to stymie passage of a bill that might revive the US economy.

“Nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing. You know, we’re not trying to prevent a package from passing. We’re trying to reform it — reformulate it — put it in a different place,” he said.

Given how the US steel industry has been decimated over the past twenty years, McConnell’s comments seem downright mean. Though to be fair to Mitch and his fellow Republicans, the only thing that kept the industry alive in the past eight years was the weak dollar. Still, we gotta wonder what Mitch is thinking here. Telling American workers that their own government shouldn’t buy their products isn’t exactly a confidence-boosting measure.

Visualize Class Warfare T-Shirts Now Available!

(VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE t-shirt handsomely modeled by Cherry Bomb’s Nathan Erickson.)

So back in the halcyon days of August, when gas prices were higher and there was considerably more angst about which candidate would be our nation’s next President, a bunch of us Louisvillians were sitting around a campfire (out in the country near Bardstown, actually), roastin’ some dogs, singin’ some songs, and talkin’ about what the future had in store for our country. Well, let me tell you, through the course of the evening one thing that made us all laugh was that old chestnut of a slogan that you might still frequently see on some old hippy’s beat-up Volkswagen: VISUALIZE WORLD PEACE. While, sure, one could identify with the optimism of such a statement, the sheer impossibility of the task seemed, well, more than a little quaint for this age of quarrel (as 1980s hardcore band the Cro-Mags might call it). What, we thought, our age needs is a new slogan, one that sums up the difficulties of life in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st Century.

And then it came to us! Three of us present on that sweltering August night — Joe Manning, Nathan Erickson, and Joel Hunt — penned a robust slogan perfect for our “interesting” times: VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE. And what’s more, we’ve even printed that same slogan on a t-shirt, a sweatshop-free American Apparel t-shirt, which those of you who understand the troubled times we live in (which should be, like, all of you) can buy! Tired of hearing about bailouts from the federal government to already-wealthy investment bankers? VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE! Sick to death of social services being cut because of the budget crisis? VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE! Nervous about what may happen if you or someone you love is laid off? VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE! Our sloganized t-shirts may not solve any of your problems, but at least you’ll look good while you’re undergoing them.

VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE t-shirts are available exclusively at Cherry Bomb, 1602 Bardstown Road in the following sizes: men’s small, medium, large, and xl; women’s small, medium, large. $18, while supplies last! Cherry Bomb has VISUALIZE CLASS WARFARE bumper stickers for $2.50 too! And be sure to visit www.myspace.com/cherrybomblouisville. Keep up the struggle, comrades!

You Know What Today Is!

Don’t forget to

Racist Jerks Arrested In Lexington

(mugshots from the Lexington Herald-Leader and kentucky.com)

Remember the other day, how some clowns in Lexington hung an Obama effigy on the University of Kentucky campus? Well, they’ve been arrested (story from the Lexington Herald-Leader):

University of Kentucky police announced the arrest of a UK student and his friend Thursday in connection with the hanging of an effigy of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama from a tree on campus Wednesday.

Interim UK police chief Joe Monroe said police received a series of tips throughout the day Wednesday that eventually led them to the two men. The men told police that the act was a stunt in response to news reports that an effigy of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was hung at a West Hollywood, Calif., home.

Joe Fischer, 22, a UK senior and a former football team walk-on, and a friend, Hunter Bush, 21, of Lexington were charged Thursday with burglary in the second degree, a felony; and theft by unlawful taking and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. The disorderly conduct charge was made for the hanging of the effigy.

According to the 2007-2008 UK football roster, Fischer is from Latonia, outside of Cincinnati. Court documents list a Lexington address for him.

The two were being held at the Fayette County Detention Center Thursday.

Fischer and Bush turned themselves in to university police Thursday afternoon.

Material used to make the effigy, including clothes, was stolen from a fraternity house, and it was through the fraternity that they were able to track down Fischer and Bush, Monroe said.

Both Fischer and Bush gave statements to University of Kentucky Police detectives admitting responsibility, according to Fayette District Court records. Between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Bush and Fischer entered the Farmhouse Fraternity at 420 Hilltop Avenue. Inside, they took a black sports jacket and khaki pants. From a shed on the property, Fischer also took an 8-foot ladder, according to court records. Statements provided by residents of the fraternity house also placed Fischer at the scene, according to a criminal complaint.

Then, the two hung the doll resembling Obama 25 feet in the air with a noose. It was hung from a tree over a walkway, creating a hazardous condition, resulting in the disorderly conduct charge.

Neither Fischer nor Bush was a member of the fraternity, Monroe said.

“They expressed extreme remorse for a prank that they say got out of hand,” Monroe said of the two men. “They meant no harm or disrespect.”

That’s the failure of our educational system in a nutshell. Anyone with any inkling of the history of lynching in the United States would know that the imagery involving a hanged effigy is both harmful and disrespectful. Shameful.

Crestwood Family in Obama Infomercial

One of the big presidential campaign stories from yesterday was the Obama campaign’s 30-minute infomercial which aired simultaneously on three network stations (excluding ABC) in prime-time. While Obama is not expected to win Kentucky’s electoral votes, the infomercial featured the Dowell family of Crestwood, just outside of Louisville. The Courier-Journal tells us a little (but not much) more this morning about Mark Dowell, who works at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in eastern Jefferson County:

Mark Dowell said he never expected the invitation to introduce Barack Obama when the presidential candidate visited Louisville in May, but he was even more surprised when the campaign asked him to share his story for a national audience.

The 35-year-old autoworker from Crestwood was one of several Americans featured last night in a 30-minute prime-time commercial that the Democratic nominee used to present his biography and policies to the public.

“It was a great feeling to see me and to know the nation’s seeing me,” Dowell said in an interview after the commercial aired. “I feel proud.”

In the commercial, Dowell talked about how the instability in the auto industry has made his financial future unclear. His wife was laid off from the Kentucky Truck Plant, where they both work, and he has “down” weeks or weeks where he is temporarily without work.

“Eight years ago we couldn’t build trucks fast enough and now they are slowing us down,” said Dowell, who is the father of two daughters, ages 4 and 14.

Dowell said he thinks that Obama’s economic policies will put more money back in the pockets of the middle class and keep jobs from going overseas. And he said he hopes that will eventually help turn the economy around.

“My grandfather retired from Ford, my father retired from Ford and I hope I can retire from Ford,” he said.

Ronnie Ellis on Coal’s Complications; Where Your Candidates Stand on Mountaintop Removal

(above photo of Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo from www.kydemocrat.com)

The always-excellent blog The Ville Voice hipped us to this excellent piece by Ronnie Ellis in the Glasgow Daily Times on his recent trip to southeastern Kentucky with Lieutenant Governor (and coal supporter) Daniel Mongiardo to observe mountaintop removal operations and reclamation. Here’s a fantastic excerpt:

At one reclaimed site Mongiardo said: “If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were in central Kentucky.” No. More importantly, I asked, if one wants to live in central Kentucky, why wouldn’t one move there instead of trying to turn a awesomely beautiful place into something other than what God created and which shapes the magnificent spirit and character of the equally wonderful people who live there?

At the end of the day, I thanked Mongiardo. I told him I recognized his genuine passion for eastern Kentucky and his understandable desire to pump economic life into the region. But, I concluded, neither the elk, the trails nor the faulty rationale could eradicate the scarred images from my mind nor the sense that we are in the process of destroying something which is sacred to the people of southeastern Kentucky in order to preserve it. You simply can’t preserve something by destroying it, I told him. For what does it profit eastern Kentucky if it sells its soul?

That’s why I was so surprised to learn Mongiardo told a meeting of the Kentucky Coal Association in Lexington a week later that he’d taken a reporter to show him the reality of mining and, “I think he’s got a different attitude now because he saw it first-hand.” He didn’t name me, but there were people in the room who knew Mongiardo spoke of me.

It’s not surprising that Mongiardo, who is from Hazard, would be so pro-coal, but we have to wonder to what extent has Appalachia ever benefited from exploiting the coal under its mountains? Certainly the residents of the region aren’t getting any richer, and if the so-called benefits of mountaintop removal include turning beautiful eastern Kentucky mountains into hills similar to beautiful-but-not-quite-as-beautiful central Kentucky’s, then we really don’t see the point.

However, it’s easy to second guess our dependence on coal from the big city, despite being the beneficiaries of coal-powered electricty. As LEO‘s Fat Lip blog reminds us, here in Louisville the choices we make for our political representation have an impact on eastern Kentucky. FL linked to the Watchdog Earth blog of the Courier-Journal‘s Jim Bruggers, who published two excellent posts comparing the proposed coal policies of US Representative John Yarmuth (D-Louisville) and challnger Anne Northup (R) and Senator Mitch McConnell (R) and challenger Bruce Lunsford (D).

Bush to Appalachia: Get Larger, Stay Fucked

(photo of a horse farm outside of Carlisle, Kentucky from the Associated Press)

We heard a snippet of a strange story on WFPL this afternoon that President George W. Bush had signed into a law a new geographical designation for the Appalachian region. We couldn’t find anything about it on WFPL’s site this evening, but came across this amusing — if slightly depressing — story on the matter from the Associated Press:

CARLISLE, Ky. (AP) — Tabbatha Tubbs laughs at the thought of Washington politicians decreeing her hometown Appalachian. After all, there’s not a mountain in sight from this gently rolling countryside best known for its thoroughbred horse farms.

This is picturesque Bluegrass country: Black wooden fences surround grazing thoroughbreds. Golden stalks of tobacco hang from tiered barns. And herds of fat beef cattle mow their way across fields of green grass.

It’s hardly the heart of Appalachia, the rugged hills where President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty some 44 years ago. But like it or not, Tubbs and her neighbors are now residents of the impoverished region, at least in the eyes of the federal government.

“It’s funny, I think,” Tubbs said last week, glimpsing out at the landscape from the window of her Carlisle beauty salon.

Folks in the heart of Appalachia aren’t amused that President Bush, with the stroke of his pen, has redrawn Appalachia’s geographic boundaries in a way that could take federal money away from some of the poorest communities in the United States.

Bush signed a measure Oct. 9 that gives 10 additional counties in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia a cut of about $87 million in federal money set aside this year for poor mountain communities to pay for economic improvements. The money will be distributed by the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal agency that has been fighting poverty in the mountain region for more than 40 years…

Poverty indicators show the contrast between counties in the heart of Appalachia and the new additions. For example, the federal government sent more than $12 million worth of food stamps in 2006 to Kentucky’s Harlan County, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Nicholas County, where Carlisle is located, received just $1.1 million.

Annual jobless rates in Harlan County ranged from 13 percent in 1997 to 9.1 percent last year. In Nicholas County the range was 4.4 percent to 6.4 percent for the same periods.

The redrawn map upsets Karen Phillips, a teacher in a community where 75 percent of children qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches because their families are considered poor. Other areas of the country face economic hardships, Phillips conceded, but not like central Appalachia.

“The poverty here is so much worse than anywhere else,” Phillips said. “You see that in the housing, in the age of cars people drive, in the clothing that kids wear to school.”

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, defended the expansion, saying each of the additional 10 counties face similar economic problems and therefore “meet the criteria” to receive more financial support….

The legislation signed this month not only expands Appalachia’s boundaries, but also calls for $510 million to be spent in the region over the next five years to build roads, install water lines, fund educational improvement projects, encourage economic development, even purchase computers for poor children. The proposed spending total is a $64 million increase over the last 5-year allotment.

That could have meant more money for core Appalachian counties, Eller said, if politicians hadn’t opted to spread it across a larger area. “When you continue to expand the counties, ultimately it creates a smaller pool of resources for use in the most severely distressed areas of the region,” he said.

Certainly there is no other area in the country that we can even think of that is as desperately poor as Appalachia, which needs this money. However, the continued expansion of ARC — right before a presidential election — seems really desperate. As the mainstream media is constantly reminding us, Appalachia is the home of some of the most ridiculous racist sentiments held by voters during this election. Never mind the fact that poverty in the region hasn’t been solved by either side in Washington.

Some Good Music, Tonight and Tomorrow

We’re not big on hyping anything, especially if it’s something we’re actually doing, but tonight once again we are djing with the lovely and talented Miss Kim Sorise, one of Louisville’s best djs, at the Monkeywrench from 10 PM to 2 AM tonight, September the 25th. Come on out! There will be drink specials and it’s also three days before our birthday (that is, our actual birthday, not the blog’s birthday).

The Monkeywrench didn’t have power for most of last week, so please come on out and support an awesome local business that needs your help! And of course, the Monkeywrench is located at the corner of Winter and Barrett, in that fun little area between the Highlands and Germantown (that really doesn’t have a name).

Tomorrow night, at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge on the corner of Oak & Swan in Germantown, Detroit rockers Tyvek play with Suspected Terrorists and Metal Bubbles. We saw Tyvek back when we lived in New York, and they’re great. They’ve got a new single out called “Sidewalk,” and wouldn’t you know, we’ve got some mp3s of it here for you to download. Suspected Terrorists are a great Louisville combo, and Metal Bubbles are a new band consisting of Tim Ruth (ex-Evergreeen), Dom (Dead Child, Phantom Family Halo, Sapat) and Kris A. and Alan from Sapat. Should be awesome. 10 PM, $3. Sorry, no flier.

Also Friday night, Second Story Man (subject of a nice little write-up in this week’s Velocity) is playing the Pour Haus with Yardsale and Sandpaper Dolls. We’re really excited about the latter, as it’s an all-female a capella trio including Suki Anderson of A.M. Sunday and Amber Estes of Liberation Prophecy. 9 PM, $5. If there’s a debate, we’re gonna watch part of it, DVR the rest, then head over to the show!

Yarmuth Campaign HQ Burglarized

(above photo of Yarmuth Campaign HQ from www.politckerky.com.)

The Courier-Journal reports this morning that the campaign office of U.S. Representative John Yarmuth, Democrat representing Kentucky’s 3rd District (which includes most of Louisville), was broken into Tuesday night:

A computer server was among several items missing from the campaign headquarters of U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, after an overnight break-in, a spokesman said.

Also missing are a jump drive, wireless computer network cards, office supplies and food items, according to campaign spokesman Christopher Hartman, who said a door to the office at 900 E. Market St. was found open yesterday morning.

“We started noticing things progressively and we may notice more,” he said of the missing items.

Hartman said the server was worth up to $2,000 and the other items were worth more than $100.

“There were many valuable things out in the open that weren’t touched,” Hartman said.

Yarmuth is defending his congressional seat against former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, whom he defeated two years ago.

WHAS 11 reports a more colorful aspect of the story about the break-in:

Hartman says what makes the burglary more unusual is that some pens and packets of sugar are also missing.

There’s no indication whatsoever at the moment whether G. Gordon Liddy or any other Republican “plumbers” were involved.