Does OFA think grassroots works from the top down?

“Volunteers from Credo Action or other organizations may attend your planning session and want to demand that we work on the Keystone XL pipeline.”

That's a snippet from OFA talking points that presume CREDO members are not part of OFA, per Buzzfeed's Ruby Cramer: Obama Group Braces For Progressive Backlash Over Keystone.

As a Tar Sands arrestee, CREDO member, and former CREDO Superpac employee, I am biased.

But I also sponsored an OFA event myself in 2010, Obama's 'birthday party' at DCE. I've been to a couple OFA events since. I saw the president speak at Iowa State, and Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards speak at Iowa State, and both of those events were put on by OFA. (If you did not know, CREDO is Planned Parenthood's largest corporate contributor.)

One thing I can say about being a field organizer for CREDO, is that the overlap between OFA and CREDO volunteers was huge. The idea that CREDO members are fringe and need to be expelled is insane.

I'm thinking OFA needs to not tell so much their own progressive grassroots activists what issues are important to them, and what they should be doing.

Speaking of loving the environment, vs. crafting Keystone XL-friendly talking points, Louisville Loves Mountains is going on right now until 10 pm. The location has been moved to Green Building due to the weather.

Mitch McConnell already has six challengers

Despite talk about how Sen. Mitch McConnell may not face opponents for his bid for a 6th-term in 2014, six candidates have committed to challenging him, two Republicans and four Democrats. Most are being ignored by traditional media.

Mitch McConnell: One reason Indonesian baby had 2-pack per day smoking habit

Smoking toddler of Sumatra

Sen. Mitch McConnell sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in late 2009 warning Kirk of the "dangerous consequences of cutting tobacco from the Pacific Rim agreement." 

Dangerous consequences, indeed.

McConnell's concern was that the American Medical Association had been lobbying to exclude U.S. tobacco from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. 

The AMA was concerned that exporting tobacco into markets with extreme poverty where women and children would be most vulnerable for unregulated exploitation, was not a good idea. (Indonesia Tobacco)

A video published on Youtube in May of 2010 suggests the AMA was right. An Indonesian toddler in Sumatra had developed an addiction to 40 cigarettes per day. That video now has over 20 million views:

How the Boy Scouts of America made me a (wait for it) ...Democrat

Me, as a Webelos.

When I was in Boy Scouts, we had an amazing Scoutmaster who taught us to always leave our campsite better than we found it. In the beginning, I thought this was only the last procedure in breaking down our camp on Sundays. I thought it was a good idea, but I didn't initially understand why.

A few years into scouting, we were canoeing 61 miles of Kentucky’s Green River, when we came across a beach and took a break for lunch.

Unlike University of Louisville, a law school can seek students connected to their community

According to the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, 31% of their incoming 2012 class were non-residents of Kentucky. This is a public school sponsored by the state of Kentucky, which is supposed to be serving Kentuckians.

One law school in New York tries a different approach. The City University of New York School of Law seeks students connected to the city and state the school is located, fostering the development of people who live in their own community.

From their application instructions: 

Mahasen headed for Myanmar, and possibly Mitch McConnell's conscience?

Image: wunderground.com

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is facing a "major threat" in the form of a cyclone named Mahasen. 

Pray to God that Mahasen does no one harm. But if it does, Sen. Mitch McConnell will be in awkward spot, both politically and with his own conscience.

AP's Roger Alford: Cleaning up Mitch McConnell's mess, in wake of secret recording

Roger Alford, the Frankfort, Ky correspondent for the Associated Press, won't return my email sent four days ago.

The inquiry I posed to to Alford that he did not answer, and a look at his reporting of the Kentucky's US Senate race, suggest an ugly possibility.

If Alford is not a shill for Sen. Mitch McConnell himself, he could be acting on behalf of the coal industry to achieve their agenda, which is also re-electing McConnell.

McConnell asks supporters to tweet about his latest tantrum

On Friday, Sen. Mitch McConnell send out an email asking us to tweet for him, because he needed to defend our First Amendment Rights. No doubt shaking his fist like Mr. Burns, McConnell wrote:

"I have spent my entire career standing up for our First Amendment rights, and I am absolutely outraged at today's news."

Kentucky Opportunity Coalition releases pro-'let poor people just die instead of Obamacare' ad for Mitch McConnell

File under 'Republicans terrified Steve Beshear will run':

(Updated) Who are Kentuckians in Kentuckians for Strong Leadership and is McConnell campaign coordinating with them?

(Updated May 10, 2013: Scroll down)

https://twitter.com/phillipmbailey/status/332613587442995200

A local reporter has alleged that a superpac which calling itself Kentuckians for Strong Leadership is coordinating on advertising expenditures with the campaign to re-elect Sen. Mitch McConnell. If that allegation is true, then both would be guilty of violating federal campaign finance law.