Category: Politics

This is the first ever guest voice on ShortWoman. It is a letter which will be going out both to the Clinton campaign and to the Democratic Party. I will let the author introduce himself. Please enjoy.

Dear Senator Clinton:

I have been a lifelong Democrat. I spent my first Presidential election as a voter phoning polling turnout reports back to Dukakis campaign headquarters in Fort Worth, TX, so that we could maximize Democratic turnout in key precincts. I have donated and put my time in for all of my adult life. I have always voted a strict party line and, frankly, watching the lemming-like behavior of the Republicans with regard to the impeachment of President Clinton can say with certainty that I will never vote for a Republican for any office.

Those things said, I cannot and will not vote for Hillary Clinton for the Presidency of the United States. As a child I was promised that anyone could grow up to be President. For the last 20 years only 2 families have controlled the White House and your election would extend that to 24 or 28 years. That is the death of the ultimate promise of American opportunity.

I have been disenfranchised by national politics much of my adult life. I have watched as my party has become preoccupied with rancor and political expediency instead of real, meaningful service to the electorate. Your campaign this year has demonstrated that your concern is limited to only those states that serve your political expediency and have little regard for the electorate as whole. This is a failed strategy. And while it served to elect William Jefferson Clinton, it was unable to deliver despite the fitness of Al Gore or John Kerry for service.

I am a physician. I have watched as my own profession has failed to listen to my needs politically or even serve its own end. I have watched as my professional organizations have failed to lobby for meaningful things like Medicare funding caring instead to focus on distractions like tort reform. The answer, and you know this, is not some slipshod universal healthcare plan that involves mandates of private insurance. The answer here is one of real vision, a vision that you have had almost two decades to formulate and have failed to do so.

I have watched you pander to insurance companies, to big oil interests, to the political right, and to religious groups. In short, everyone except actual people who could actually vote for you.

Enough is enough, Senator Clinton. You refuse to endorse a 50 state strategy for your campaign and I refuse to support your campaign under any circumstances. If by some slim chance you become the nominee, I will not vote for you. I will not vote for your opponent either. Whether I withhold my vote or represent some small number of votes for a third party, I cannot say.

Senator, you have failed me as a Democrat and I will not allow you to continue to do so.

Thank you for your time,

Warren Magnus, DO

Our choices for President of the United States are a woman who makes up stories to show how experienced she is, a white guy who is sufficiently out of touch with reality that it doesn’t matter whether he makes up stories, and a black guy who knows somebody who is a racist.

Which one would you rather answered the Red Phone at 3 AM?

In closing: Japanese school uniforms; you have no rights on an airplane, not even human rights; 4 things we should do to improve American disaster management, 2 of which would cost no taxpayer dollars and 2 of which should not cost any more in taxes than we are now paying; you call that a sex scandal?; and the Solar System’s long lost cousin.

Quite enough has been written about the whole “snipers” thing. Including some political cartoons. That’s only one dumb moment, really.

Let’s not forget about Let’s get Alan Greenspan — whom some people blame the housing mess on in the first place — to head a blue ribbon panel to see if it’s a good idea to shore up housing by having government buy up excess supply and maybe we can rent it out or something. Do you think $30 billion ought to do the trick? It was fine for Bear Stearns…. Oh yeah, and while we’re at it, let’s shield mortgage servicers from liability if they decide to arbitrarily make mortgage terms worse without actually negotiating a new contract with the homeowner! Great idea, there, Hillary.

Let’s not forget that she’s a member of a secretive, ultra-fundamentalist group of Christian nationalists called The Fellowship who want to bring their specific blend of Christianity into mainstream government in violation of the First Amendment. Before you start getting all defensive, do you think your Christianity is good enough for them? If they are really fighting for what is “right”, why do they have to be secretive? The Jesus whose words I’ve read said that you shall know the truth, and it shall set you free.

Fewer people view her positively now. At all. And as for those SuperDelegates we’ve been told are the key to her winning? The ones that she thinks knows better than us (and so uh, that’s why we’re supposed to shut up and voter for her in November)? She’s “turning them off“. Heck, didn’t she see Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Obama as a sign? Maybe they just don’t like being threatened. Way to win friends and influence people, there.

And yet she thinks she has a chance. A fat one maybe. Perhaps the Japanese have the right idea about elections.

In closing: don’t forget Real ID; an interesting way of looking at health insurance; underground candy smugglers; New Scotty played true to Old Scotty; Citizen Carrie on the H-1B mess, which she probably understands better than any layperson; and now I remember why I haven’t deleted BoingBoing from my list of feeds, Now our skies are safe from the scourge of nipple rings. Now really, once you’ve seen her boobs, can’t you just apply your brain and figure out they aren’t gonna blow up? They’re boobs! Much like the screener who noticed them! How would somebody take over an aircraft with a nipple ring? Take me to Cuba or I’ll pierce you! And was it really necessary to remove the things, in the concourse, with the male screeners laughing? And furthermore, if the nipple rings are dangerous, why not the navel ring? Why were hers dangerous, but Nicole Richie’s were ok for flight? What’s going to happen when they encounter some of the more unusual piercings? Pardon me, do you have Prince Albert in a can?? Seriously! America’s Zero Thinking Policies must change or we are doomed.

Take it easy. It’s crazy out there.

Campaign season is too darn long.

It’s too long for a number of reasons, including this modest list:

• “Voter Fatigue” — Joe and Jane Average get so tired of hearing about politics that they lose interest in voting altogether. Particularly since it looks like candidates will be finalized something like 9 months before the elections. That’s an entire human gestation period.
• Circular Firing Squad — Candidates have such a grand time ripping on one another during primary season that they hand the opposing party ammunition for the general election.
• Too expensive — The long campaign season means it costs a lot more money to mount a credible campaign. It’s not possible to really run without being on the hook to special interest groups. That is to say nothing of the insanity of spending millions of dollars to try and get a job that earns $400,000 that you only get to keep 4 years. Sure, there are perks like free housing, security, and riding a private 747 around the world, but you see the point.
• Day jobs — The people trying to become President are almost all current elected officials. They should be doing the job their constituents elected them to do instead of going off on a year long job interview. Seriously, there have been some important votes in the Senate lately.

This year, the Democratic Convention is in late August; the Republican Convention is in early September. That’s fine! It allows a good solid 2 months of plain old campaign afterwards. What really needs to be shortened is primary season. The various states have tried to get their primaries and caucuses earlier and earlier so that they are still relevant. Various states use the process to flex political muscle in a race that would otherwise bypass them. It has gotten to the point that the Democratic Party has told Michigan and Florida that their primary is too darn early and doesn’t count! By the time Super Tuesday has come and gone, the fat lady is singing.

So yes, the Presidential campaign season isn’t just too long, it’s way too long. It was probably too long back before candidates could travel by airplane and have their comments on the TV within minutes, and it’s even worse in the “internet age”. I have an idea to fix that. It will never happen, because the Powers That Be seem to like things the way they are.

So here’s my idea.

Let’s keep the conventions and the general election cycle exactly where it is, but reduce primary season to 12 weeks. This is a full month longer than the period of time between the conventions and Election Day. Furthermore, let’s break this down into six sections, each 2 weeks long.

Let Iowa and New Hampshire continue the traditional kickoff to the season in weeks one and two.

By my count, there are 8 states (including the District of Columbia) that each have 3 electoral votes. They can all do their primaries in week 3. By now, one out of 5 states have done their thing, and several weaker candidates should be seriously considering dropping out of the race.

Another 9 states (excluding New Hampshire) have 4 or 5 electoral votes each. They all go in week 5.

An additional 10 states (excluding Iowa) have between 6 and 9 electoral votes (inclusive) each. They get week 7. In an ideal world, we are down to a half dozen candidates on each side.

The 13 states with 10-15 electoral votes all have their primaries in week 9.

So by week 10, 41 states and the District of Columbia have had primaries, caucuses, straw polls, or whatever else they do. In weeks 10 and 11 the remaining nine states — our nine most populous states — finish out the roster. Ideally, we have three or maybe even 4 candidates for each party still in play, even if some are regarded as longshots. Since at the moment these nine states control 226 electoral votes, they are still very much relevant to the outcome. They can still make or break a candidate’s chances.

Needless to say, after the 2010 Census, the Electoral Votes will be shuffled, and this order will have to be slightly adapted. I consider this a minor tweak. Even we we take a few weeks off before the conventions, we can still start the process in May!

Can anyone tell me why this would be bad for the voting public? Anyone?

Please, do not mistake any of what I am about to say for any sort of endorsement of Hillary Clinton whatsoever. This is not about Hillary. The question of whether Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Dole or Nancy Pelosi is prepared to be our “Iron Lady of Politics” is another issue altogether.

You’ll hear it at parties, you’ll see it alluded to in blog posts and political cartoons. Everybody suspects it is something the political strategists ask themselves behind closed doors. It’s only happened on television. The question is “Is America Ready for a Woman President?”

I don’t like that question. I don’t like it any more than I like the assumption that a woman candidate would automatically get some substantial percentage of women’s votes. It’s shallow, sexist, and insulting.

If America is not ready for a woman to be our head of state, that means we are less modern than Great Britain.

If America is not ready for a woman to be our head of state, we are less progressive than Israel.

If America is not ready for a woman to be our head of state, that means we are more sexist than India, an ancient culture where it is still perfectly acceptable to light your wife or daughter on fire.

If America is not ready for a woman to be our head of state, that puts us behind Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Argentina, Bolivia, Germany, Yugoslavia, Haiti, Ireland, Bangladesh, France, Poland, Canada, Bulgaria, Liberia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Norway, Latvia, Panama, Finland, San Marino, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Serbia, Peru, Austria, the Ukraine, and Mongolia. Among others.

For that matter, if America is not ready for a woman to be our head of state, we are behind ancient Egypt.

Is that the nation I live in? I sure as hell hope not.

Cross-posted at Central Sanity.

Toast! It’s even buttered!

What exactly were you expecting?

Seriously, I wish everyone happy celebrations this evening, and send my thoughts of peace, wellness, and happiness to all my readers and all living things. May 2008 be a year where good things come into your life!

Ok, now then, about John Edwards. I support Mr. Edwards. Well, alright, in a world where Mr. Kucinich is considered “unelectable” I support Mr. Edwards. I think he is the best of the top-line candidates. But nevertheless, I do not agree with every one of his positions — I’m one of those darned “free thinkers” — and that brings me to his commentary the other day entitled “Rallying the middle class“. This piece is timely, since according to polls, Americans consider the economy and health care to be top issues. His first four paragraphs are pretty much right on, revisionist history about the golden age where working hard would magically put your family ahead aside. I especially like when he says “How long will we let big corporations and special interests dictate the direction of our country, while middle-class Americans suffer?” Then we get into the four legs of the table he wants to rebuild the middle class upon. I’ll take them one at a time if you don’t mind.

The first thing we need to do is create more jobs and make sure those jobs pay enough for people to get ahead. As president, I will end the failed NAFTA trade model and pursue a trade policy that ends tax loopholes for companies that send American jobs overseas. I will also invest in renewable sources of energy to create new industries and good-paying jobs. I will make sure work pays by raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, and I will build career ladders to help low-wage workers move into better jobs. I will put the government back on the side of working people by strengthening organized labor. And finally, I will reform our tax code to make sure that the people who need tax breaks – our middle-class families – are the ones getting them.

Ok, I can’t argue with creating more good-paying jobs. Investing in renewable energy is a win-win cause: it reduces our dependency on fossil fuels while creating high-tech development jobs and good wage manufacturing jobs too. Someone’s got to build the solar panels and windmills! Now, although I am an advocate of a higher minimum wage, I am a little nervous about taking it all the way to $9.50. That’s higher than any state’s minimum wage. I hope there is a plan to do it in stages. That would bring the annual pay of a full-time minimum wager to about $19,000. As for tax breaks, I still believe in radical tax simplification that includes making the poverty line the standard deduction and caps itemized non-charitable deductions at three or four times that level.

The second thing we need to do is give families the tools to build a secure financial future. In today’s economy, people cannot rely on their employers for their long-term retirement security, so as president I will create Universal Retirement Accounts that can be taken from job to job. To respond to the mortgage crisis, I will pass a tough new national law to prevent predatory lending abuses, and I will rein in credit card and other abusive lending practices by creating a new consumer watchdog agency.

Again with the “we can fix that with a special account!” business. Is there some reason we can’t simplify the law to get what he wants with the IRA accounts that many people already have? Can’t we make a way for employers to contribute directly to our IRAs instead of a separate 401k program (which is incidentally controlled by that employer)? This would get more retirement funds in place, give Joe and Jane Average fewer accounts to keep up with, which would in turn make them less subject to fees on those accounts, and would even curb the retirement account issues that plagued employees of Enron and WorldCom. Oh, and speaking of reinventing the wheel, I bet there already is a consumer watchdog agency that should have reined in abusive lending and credit practices. And I bet they have been underfunded for the last 7-20 years.

The third thing we need to do is remove the burdens that weigh families down. We need to help people balance their work and home lives by making sure that workplace policies keep up with changes in the economy. As president, I will expand early-education programs, provide paid leave and sick leave to all workers, and expand job protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act. I will also expand opportunities to attend college through my “College for Everyone” program.

Well, workplace policies that are at least not family-hostile seem like a good thing. Got a plan to make large corporations think twice about transferring people across country — making them abandon ties to their communities, straining relationships with extended family, forcing spouses away from jobs, leading to fractured educations in their children, and contributing to the housing bubble? Work on that. As for “College for Everyone”, I think that devalues a High School education. Not everyone needs college! I support a “money should not be a barrier to college” program instead.

The fourth thing we need to do is create universal healthcare in America. Not only are healthcare costs putting a huge strain on American families and our competitiveness in the global economy, but our broken healthcare system that leaves 47 million Americans without healthcare is also a moral disgrace. I have proposed a healthcare plan that calls for shared responsibility among people, businesses, and the government, and will ensure that every man, woman, and child in America has access to affordable, quality coverage.

Alas, when he says “universal healthcare,” he does not mean “Medicare for All”; he means “mandatory health insurance.”

In closing: information overload; more write-downs on the way?; a maternal health issue you need to know about; faith is great, but it takes money to pay the bills; the AeroCivic; and finally Jim Cramer, English Teacher? Happy New Years.

By way of background, the latest version of the FISA overhaul bill — yes the same one Nancy and Harry swore they would fix in September after getting back from being gone all August and caving in to Administration demands before leaving town at the end of July, yes it is now December — includes retroactive immunity for telecom companies who allowed the government to spy on citizens without warrants in violation of not only the law but the Bill of Rights.

Senator Dodd — a member of the majority party, and a current presidential candidate — doesn’t think that’s right.  Do you?   He and a mere handful of allies in the Senate are planning a filibuster.  Give a call.  Tell them to do the right thing.  Then call your own Senators and tell them you expect them to do the right thing.  And then call Harry Reid and ask him why the hell a member of the majority party has to filibuster anything, ever!

The Senate needs to be reminded who sent them to office.

In closing: if JurassicPork is right, we are worse off than we think;  fiscal sanity; one thing free trade zones are really good for is drug smuggling;  another way of looking at the DMV;  so much for manufacturing jobs; oh, and so much for the stable part of Iraq; an increase in inequality; and finally, Cynthia at Shorty Stories alerts us not-so-tall people to a new website for petites.

This morning, the President decided to make some comments during the first half hour of trading on Wall Street, well before the close of trading in Europe. Let’s look at what he said:

I want to thank members of my economic team for coming in the Oval Office this morning to bring some good news here for America’s families and America’s working people. The — last month our economy added 110,000 new jobs. And that’s good news for people here in our country. It’s an indicator that this economy is a vibrant and strong economy.

The folks briefed me on the fact that they are — numbers for July and August were revised — job numbers, job creation numbers. And this economy added 118,000 new jobs in July and August, as well. This means — with these revisions, it means that we’ve had 49 consecutive months of job creation. And that’s the longest uninterrupted job growth on record for our country.

I could go on about this, but the BondDad did such a nice job. We need about 150,000 to absorb new people into the workforce; we failed for the last 3 months. What about the other 46 months of “job creation”? Where are those people who just never got jobs? How interesting that some business schools are specifically designing programs for people who have been out of the workforce for several years.

You know, I am really pleased with the economic news, but I don’t take good news for granted. I understand people are worried about their mortgage payments, or concerned about sending their child to college. I know that people are concerned whether or not they’re going to have enough money to meet their needs. And so my call to the United States Congress is, keep taxes low. If you want this economy continue to grow, and if you want to reinforce the fact that we’ve got — entrepreneurship is strong and people are working, don’t raise taxes.

Entrepreneurship is “strong” because there are not traditional jobs. A few bucks here and there writing code or mowing lawns or selling the multi-level-marketing crap of the month is “entrepreneurship,” but it isn’t necessarily making a living. Oh, and the tax cuts didn’t have much to do with it.

And I’m looking forward to working with the Congress to set priorities on how we spend the people’s money, but I also am going to make it very clear to people in Congress that we’re not going to raise their taxes on the working people.

And so I’m real pleased. I thank you all for coming in to bring this good news to me. It’s — this good news is a real tribute to the hardworking Americans, the people out there working hard to put food on the table. And it’s a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit of the country.

What, he picks now to pretend to be fiscally responsible? Spending hundreds of billions with a b every year for the next who-knows-how-long on war and crony contractors, yet willing to veto a mere tens of billions over 5 years on health care for those very same hardworking Americans that are working hard to put food on the table? Sheesh. And the Republican presidential candidates are following him right off the edge.

I want to say something else. There’s been a lot of talk in the newspapers and on TV about a program that I put in motion to detain and question terrorists and extremists. I have put this program in place for a reason, and that is to better protect the American people. And when we find somebody who may have information regarding an — a potential attack on America, you bet we’re going to detain them, and you bet we’re going to question them — because the American people expect us to find out information — actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That’s our job.

No problem. Take a couple days. Charge them or release them when you are done.

Secondly, this government does not torture people. You know, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations.

That’s not what he said in 2004.

Thirdly, there are highly trained professionals questioning these extremists and terrorists. In other words, we got professionals who are trained in this kind of work to get information that will protect the American people. And by the way, we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you.

Highly trained professionals like Lynndie England. Using methods like this and this and this. Warning: Explicit photos, NSFW, not for those who are easily disgusted!

And finally, the techniques that we use have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress. The American people expect their government to take action to protect them from further attack. And that’s exactly what this government is doing, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do.

Appropriate members? Who would those be? Sen. Vitter? Sen. Craig?

I really ought to stop listening when he does these market-open speeches.

In closing: famous pictures of Tokyo before they started calling it Tokyo; everyone loves the zoo, here’s about 150 years of pictures to prove it; the best health plan proposed by a presidential candidate is the one by Mr. Kucinich; duck-billed dinosaur; yoink! way to turn 2600 soldiers into rabid veteran’s rights advocates (I guess nobody remembers that these guys have been trained to use weapons); why is it that incarceration rates have risen about 600% since the 1970s?; Korea talks “exceed low expectations“; the death of a housewife in TSA custody still makes no sense; and last, Burma-filter — Monks fleeing, military leader may agree to meet with the actual elected and imprisoned leader, but only if she drops her “attitude”, and “Who is left to challenge the junta?“

If you are pressed for time today, the Associated Press has condensed this Washington Post article. For the truly short-of-attention-span (emphasis mine):

The Bush administration’s top intelligence official has acknowledged that a controversial domestic surveillance program was only one part of a much broader spying effort, The Washington Post reported in its Wednesday edition. [snip]

“That is the only aspect of the NSA activities that can be discussed publicly because it is the only aspect of those various activities whose existence has been officially acknowledged,” McConnell wrote, according to the Post. [snip]

The letter was written to defend Attorney General Alberto Gonzales….

So it’s ok for someone to lie to Congress because they’re not in the loop about your illegal spying operation? What?

Just about the only person standing up for Mr. Gonzales at this point is Mr. Cheney, who appeared on Larry King Live to say that since there’s no charges yet, the investigation is a “witch hunt.” Apparently Mr. Cheney is unaware that investigations usually precede charges, not the other way around. If you would like to see Mr. Cheney’s comments analyzed and certain facts disputed, check it out here. One thing that I will point out is in the very last minute or so. Mr Cheney very specifically says something that is supposed to be interpreted as “I don’t recall that I sent [Mr. Gonzales] to the hospital [to see Mr. Ashcroft].” What he in fact says is “I don’t recall I sent him to the hospital.”

The word that does not appear between those phrases. Perhaps he meant a period.

Stop waiting for “the other shoe to drop”, because we clearly have a centipede on our hands.

In closing: researchers come to the conclusion that it’s because it feels good; Brad Plumer tells us how the War on Drugs is the War on the Welfare Rolls, and there is a related commentary here; where business and fashion collide, we find Liz; three items for economics filter, housing prices, “blame the Chinese”, and “5 lies my economist told me”, and last a solution so simple it should already be in place, if classrooms have locks, it’s easier to keep gunmen out. Now of course it is possible for Bad Guys to lock doors too, and I’m sure most Principals are sputtering on about kids locking the door for nefarious purposes. That’s why locks have keys, people. It seems to me the Principal should probably have one.

Today’s Washington Post reports that the White House has announced that the Executive Branch does not need to answer to the Legislative Branch.

Well, that’s the short version. The long version is that Congress won’t be permitted — permitted! — to pursue contempt charges against certain members of the Administration for whom the President has invoked executive privilege. How can they do that? Very simple: under federal law the contempt charges must be run through the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is then legally obligated to convene a grand jury. However, the U.S. Attorneys work for the Justice Department and for Alberto Gonzales. Furthermore, remember that Congress is attempting to investigate how and why 9 U.S. Attorneys were fired.

An anonymous administration official has stated that no U.S. Attorney will be allowed to pursue such charges against the administration, nor “permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided.” He did not need to add that at this point, each and every U.S. Attorney knows what will happen to his or her job should if they do not Follow Orders and Tow The Company Line. This of course includes the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colombia.

How on earth is Congress supposed to get to the bottom of anything when the Administration refuses to give them complete documentation and even refuses to allow key witnesses to appear for questioning? They aren’t, and that’s the point.

What exactly are they trying to hide? Perhaps a High Crime or Misdemeanor?

Several possible options lie before Congress. They can use their “inherent contempt” power, which does not require the cooperation of the Justice Department, but will have the look of an internal witch trial. They can impeach Gonzales — he’s already on record lying to Congress and that’s impeachable all by itself — and the Senate can refuse to confirm a successor until this mess is settled and Harriet Miers appears before them. Perhaps they will talk about using the I Bomb on the President himself. And perhaps there is a path that seems clear to guys like Harry Reid that isn’t obvious to you and me. But this situation cannot be allowed to stand.

In closing: War on Science == War on Women; a follow up on an item from 4 years ago (!), details are finally trickling out about Cheney’s energy task force meetings from 2001; Sure, the President gets to invoke privilege, but he also has the right to say you won’t be needing due process; new study by guys who know what they are talking about says there’s a big energy problem, and we’d better address it starting with better efficiency; and finally “Key to a long life — Less Insulin in the Brain cautions us that the best way to get that “less insulin” is “good, old-fashioned diet and exercise.” But then they never tell you what they mean by a “good old-fashioned diet.” A quarter says they mean a diet low in sugar and moderate in complex carbohydrates, because under normal circumstances our bodies produce insulin after we eat such foods. So a sugar-high might be just as bad for you as illegal drugs?