My friends in California could very easily save themselves with a single sentence in their state constitution. California has walked a long long road that’s finally ended where people have been warning it would for years: in fiscal chaos. And frankly, it’s not particularly the fault of any one political party: California’s Democrats and Republicans have a long history of being obstinate, unworkable, and in the end doing things that simply aren’t sustainable while crying about how they need to change their behaviors.

But when you look at where we are now in California and ask yourself how we got here, part of the problem is that there’s simply too much red tape for the legislature to go through in order to approve funding or fundraising for any of their projects. Add to this the fact that the state is all about sending every public project or initiative to referendum (direct Democracy as opposed to representative democracy) and you have a situation ripe for issues.

One way to fix some of those problems? Don’t let the government keep passing and the referendums keep approving public spending plans and projects for which the legislature can’t raise funding. George Lakoff, writing for TruthOut, has a solution:

California is in deep trouble because it has a dysfunctional system of government. Much of the problem can be change by one sentence.

I have sent to the attorney general a ballot proposition for the 2010 ballot called The California Democracy Act, the content of which is the following: All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.

It would change two words in the Constitution, turning “two-thirds” to “majority” in two places. It is simple, understandable and it is about democracy.

Craziness! Madness! Insanity!

Wait – this is exactly what a number of observers, Lakoff included, have realized needed to happen for years. Now the time is right for it because without it, the state will remain in financial ruin far longer than it needs to.

Minority rule is closing California. State parks: closed. Schools: closed. Fire departments: closed. Nursing homes: closed. Medical clinics: closed. Libraries: closed.

We do not have to stand for it.

The majority of voters choose the majority of legislators. That’s simple democracy. When the majority of legislators rule, the majority of voters rule.

Can this work? It can, with strong support. What is needed is a serious campaign making the case for democracy, and allowing the voters to see that minority rule is the root of the problem.

Since the minority is a strongly conservative Republican minority, progressive Democrats running for the legislature in 2010 can run on a prodemocracy platform, placing the blame for gridlock where it belongs, on their opponents.

[ Ending Minority Rule in California: One Sentence Can Do It ]
Source: TruthOut

No matter than moments after a pair of ACORN staffers who were later revealed to be part of the set up fell for a set up involving a pair of conservative operatives who had been going from ACORN office to ACORN office looking for someone gullible enough to fall for their ploy, congressional Republicans have launched an all out assault, designed to please their base and earn points with their friends in conservative talk radio and televison – they want to revoke any and all funding from ACORN that may be provided by the federal government.

Now there’s no excusing what happened there unless the staffers were in on the deal, which has been implied here – that the staffers were part of a setup of their employers – but as media outlets have descended on ACORN to talk about the issue, they’re missing several crucial pieces of the puzzle. Not the least of which is one I already wrote about already; Why Are African-Americans So Frequently the Subject of Glenn Beck’s Ridicule?, but one of the bigger missing pieces some people have called out is the fact that Karl Rove himself led a massive five year campaign to smear and defame ACORN because they were simply effective at what they do: advocating for the poor, minorities, and the underprivileged, and then getting them to vote for policies and politicians that were looking out for their best interest.

In recent days, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other major news outlets have recounted the “troubled” history of the poor people’s advocacy group ACORN, but left out the five-year anti-ACORN campaign led by White House adviser Karl Rove and other Republican operatives.

Dropped down the memory hole is the fact that ACORN was at the center of the so-called “prosecutor-gate” scandal, when the Bush administration pressured US attorneys to bring indictments over the grassroots group’s voter-registration drives, then fired some prosecutors who resisted what they viewed as a partisan strategy not supported by solid evidence.

The latest furor over ACORN was touched off by conservative filmmaker James E. O’Keefe III and a right-wing columnist who posed as a couple planning to buy a house for use as a brothel and getting advice from a few ACORN employees, rather than being turned away.

The pair filmed their meetings at ACORN offices with a hidden camera, producing a video that brought to a fever pitch the long-simmering Republican war against ACORN. The video was trumpeted by Fox News and other right-wing news outlets, starting a stampede in the mainstream press and in Congress, where a majority of panicked Democrats joined the herd in approving legislation to strip ACORN of federal funds.

Remember that? When Bush’s Justice Department made a habit of firing people who didn’t share the Predsident and his friends’ political ideology? Yeah – that was part of the ACORN smear campaign. And now this campaign to smear ACORN, weaken that case, and then subsequently rid themselves of a formidible political foe, the far right feels like this is a win-win setup.

And it very well may be, if the truth weren’t crystal clear to people who are able to see enough history to know that there’s more to the story here. Conservatives have a short memory for some reason; and they think people tend to forget these things. While panicked Democrats rush to condemn ACORN along with the Republicans who want to strike while the talk radio iron is hot, time will prove that this is just another attempt to smear an organization that serves the people, instead of their special interests.

Want to know why ACORN is so dangerous to the conservative right-wingers looking to shut it down? And want to know why it’s actually doing America far more good than harm? Check out the whole article, along with the bitter attacks that conservatives have lodged against ACORN in the 5-year smear campaign they’ve waged against the organization. This recent news? This is just another volley in a long long battle.

[ The Republican War Against ACORN ]
Source: TruthOut

I was visiting with my father this weekend and we discussed this story – I had been meaning to write about it since I first heard about it. He made an excellent point: there’s so much anger in this country right now – and it’s not righteous rage like it was during the Bush Presidency; it’s not a scrambling to reclaim the roots or spirit of our American democracy, it’s just pure, unfiltered, illogical, irrational anger.

Whether it’s anger that a Black man could be President of this great nation, or whether it’s rage that someone who doesn’t look and believe the way these people do could lead them and have ideas on how to guide us out of the woods we’ve found ourselves in, whether it’s anger that we’re not out of those woods yet or impatience at how long it takes to get out, whether it’s rage that comes from people who can’t find work, or can’t afford health care, or can’t understand why the world is changing the way it is – it’s all rage. It’s all anger, and it’s all dangerous when it’s left unchecked by information, facts, and education.

Unfortunately we have a number of media outlets, namely the ilk of conservative talk radio and Fox News, that make a trade out of lying and spreading false information, so it makes it even more difficult for the public to separate truth from fiction, appreciate analysis and editorial for what it is (as in, opinions), and realize that when facts are presented they’re nor a matter of question. When you have media outlets that specialize in diluting facts that don’t support their positions in favor of opinions and hypotheses that do, it’s natural you’re going to have a public that doesn’t know who to trust or believe anymore.

And this is the result:

A census worker in Kentucky was found hanged to death with the word “Fed” scrawled on his body, according to unnamed law enforcement officials cited by The Associated Press. Bill Sparkman, age 51, was a part-time census worker and occasional teacher. His body was found September 12 hanged from a tree in a remote section of the Daniel Boone National Forest, located in a rural portion of southeast Kentucky. His truck was parked nearby, and his computer was found inside.

I wish I could write the whole thing off as typical of red-state America, but I can’t completely do that. There’s more to it than that, although I think that’s a major piece of this. In the end, ignorance combined with rage leads to deadly results, and that’s what I fear here.

[ Census Worker Found Hanged With "Fed" Scrawled on Body ]
Source: TruthOut