Christy Hardin Smith

On April 29, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a missive to Congress on the importance of curbing corporate monopolies that resonates as much today as it did in the wake of the Great Depression:

…the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.

Boy, does that ever hit home.

In Getting A Grip 2, Frances Moore Lappe takes that lesson and hits hard at its core: to build a stronger more cohesive society with a firm foundation in democracy for all, not just a privileged few, you have to work at it. We all have to work at it. Preferably together.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd passed away last evening at the age of 92. A fellow West Virginian remembers his service.

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road… As you all know, the last year and a half have been tough on the Smith family. It was beyond exhausting. But when you try keeping eighty bazillion balls in the air at one time when you have lupus? Apparently your body decides to get even with you. And, let’s just say, mine is doing so at the moment.

PBS Now recently interviewed Lt. Col. Stuart Couch on our treatment of detainees and the dangers of the slippery slope of torture. Couch is incredibly honest and open in the interview, and it makes for some compelling viewing.

As Couch Says:

We cannot compromise our respect for the dignity of every human being.

Sesame Street has always been out in front of issues that kids want and need to talk about, but that parents might think are above their heads.

I can recall watching the show as a kid and picking up cues about racial tolerance and how bigotry can hurt someone’s feelings. Or giving to others instead of being greedy.

‘Tis the season. No, not that one. The bowl full o’ jelly man isn’t due for a few more months. It’s apple season. That joyous time of year when I start craving spiced cider and apple crisps and spending time with my family at a u-pick-em orchard.

So many lives lost. So many dreams shattered. So many families with empty arms. So many loved ones with aching hearts. Still.

Pillars at SCOTUS via David Paul Ohmer.

The full transcript from yesterday’s Citizens United arguments has been released by SCOTUS. SCOTUSblog has links to both the transcript and the tape of oral argument, made available from PBS Newshour.

Depending on the outcome of the case, there could be a reversal of laws which sought to balance speech rights against a compelling interest to prevent public corruption that go all the

The Citizens United case will be re-argued today before SCOTUS. As Robert Barnes put it, this is yet another test of stare decisis in a period where that hallowed doctrine has been repeatedly tested since Justice Roberts took the helm. And, more precisely, it “raises new ones about the boldness of a court that has moved to the right with the addition of Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.”

Continuing to open yap and insert ass, the random wingnutty Obama school speech idiocy continues: After reading the text on Monday, even Jim Greer, the Florida Republican Party chairman who last week accused the president of seeking to use the speech to foist “socialist ideology” on schoolchildren, said he could find nothing to criticize in its text. “In its current form, it’s fine,” Mr. Greer said in an interview. “But it remains to be seen if it’s the speech he’s going to give.”