Just as states with progressive lawmakers and activists have themselves initiated innovative programs over a wide range of issues, state-based progressive blogs have helped provide us with a point of view, inside information and often an edgy voice that we just don’t get from the traditional media. This week in progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching. Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
At Uppity Wisconsin, Jud Lounsbury writes—Ron Johnson: Skills gap? Nah … it’s a “willingness to work gap”:
It’s the classic chicken and the egg question: Did Wisconsin’s job crisis come from lack of good jobs or is the problem that there simply aren’t enough qualified people to fill the jobs?
Governor Scott Walker says “there are plenty of jobs,” but suggests that most job applicants are hopped-up on drugs—a dream job is within their grasp, only to lose it when they fail the drug test.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson chimed in last week and downplayed the notion of a skills gap, saying the problem was that people would rather sit home and collect unemployment: “I think it’s more of a willingness to work gap.”
At Ohio Daily, Anastasia Pantsios writes—Hell Has Frozen Over. Plain Dealer Endorses Nina Turner:
Now obviously Nina Turner is the better person for the job of secretary of state. Jon Husted has spent his four years as secretary of state looking for ways to make things more difficult and confusing for voters, bringing court case after court case trying to limit voting opportunities. From his battle with voting rights champion Ed FitzGerald in 2011 over mailing out absentee ballot applications to voters, to his attempt to shut down voting the three days before the election in 2012, the busiest early voting days, to his successful attempt this year (his first court victory in numerous tries, thanks to the rightwing, voter-hating Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court) to delay early voting and ax the so-called “golden period,” Husted has been a nightmare for voting rights.
But the Plain Dealer did ludicrously endorse feckless and corrupt attorney general Mike DeWine, Husted’s partner in crime in attempting to limit voting.
Nina is a warrior for voting rights. As she has often said, she will fight for your right to vote against her. She has said that as secretary of state, she will use the office in any way she can think of to promote voting everywhere and anywhere, that her goal will be to astronomically increase voter participation. Wouldn’t it be great to see a headline that said “Record Ohio voter turnout” instead of “Ohio voter turnout hits another low”?
This is so out of keeping with what I would expect from the Plain Dealer that I have a theory here, especially after reading the endorsement, which once again drags in the PD’s pet cause, so-called “county government reform.” and praises Nina for having “stood up to Democratic party insiders during the battle for Cuyahoga County reforms.” They always love Democrats standing up to other Democrats, and in the polarized, heavily partisan battle over county “reform,” the PD was beating the bushes for Democratic show ponies it could use to point to and say “See? It’s bipartisan.”
You can find more excerpts from progressive state blogs below the orange gerrymander.
