This is Exxon’s second spill in a week, highlighting the utter stupidity and horrendous environmental danger of the Keystone XL pipeline project currently under consideration by U.S. State Department. This leakage occurred under a housing subdivision, it has not yet reached the nearby Lake Conway. The earlier spilled happened Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.

I would guess there is no shortage of Massholes in the greater Boston area willing to smile smugly while delivering a tomahawk chop and the kind of war whoops you would hear on Saturday morning cartoons to make a “joke.” My question is why Scott Brown couldn’t find people not on his staff to do it.

Let’s just be very clear right up front, Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco may have both collected their share of mainstream awards, like Pulitzers, American Book Awards, and the like, but with this book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, they remove any doubt about whether they are “celebrity couriers,” as they derisively term a lot of what is left of the mainstream, main street journalists out there today slapping whitewash on poverty and helping spin the machinery that manufactures rose-colored glasses. They have traveled through some of the hellholes on the dark side of the American economic reality and they are angry about the whole damn thing, fired up, fed up, and desperately looking hard for a fight. This book needs to be read, and it needs to sell very well because these guys are pretty much unemployable now. Trust me, I know this!

The renewal of the Violence Against Women Act got caught up earlier this year in a partisan controversy. Republicans objected to provisions that would have expanded the anti-domestic violence protections to tribal land, undocumented immigrants and same-sex couples. Both the House and Senate passed versions of the bill that catered to their respective bases. And there didn’t seem to be much hope for a reconciliation of the various differences. Joe Biden and Dems came out strongly today for their expanded version.

A variety of links to articles/interviews/speeches on current issues that may be of interest.

Today the House votes on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. A version already passed the Senate with 68 votes, but the House version cancelled several protections Senate Democrats added, to apply domestic violence protections to Native Americans, undocumented immigrants and LGBT families. This has drawn a veto threat from the White House. Here’s their statement.

A research document going the rounds in Minnesota summarizes twelve specific actions taken by ALEC darling and voter-ID maven Mary Kiffmeyer during her time as Minnesota’s Secretary of State (1998 to 2006) that put the integrity of voting in Minnesota at risk during that time.

This compelling book traces the history of the assault on democracy and the rise of a police state that reached its zenith in the George W. Bush administration. From the war on communism, to the war on labor, to the war terrorism, our government has used surveillance, preventive detention, torture, and a climate of fear to consolidate its power and neutralize dissent. Under the guise of nurturing democracy at home and abroad, the U.S. government has actually undermined it.

I’m surprised it took three whole days for Senate Republicans to break their earmark pledge.

It’s kind of amusing to hear right wingers insisting that the border just hasn’t been taken care of the way they would take care of it if only they were in charge. Above is one picture taken this last week from a raft on the Rio Grande, the river that separates the two countries. There in the distance where the river disappears in the picture, one side is one country, and the other side is the other. This is what the scene has been since farther back than the ages of time. Also, this is how it was when Republicans controlled the same areas.