Category: Politics

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?

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are a citizen of the United States of America (as opposed to the United States of George and Dick) prepare to be outraged. You will be in good company.

Scooter Libby has had his sentence commuted. Hours after a unanimous appeals court said he has to start serving his sentence immediately because they don’t think he has a snowball’s chance of winning an appeal , the President himself swooped in, usurping the authority of the Judiciary, and said Scooter can make do with fines and probation.

Oh but wait there’s more. Just go ahead and try to call the White House to let them know your opinion. They’ve decided not to answer the phones for the rest of the day. Frankly I think they’ll use the holiday — oh the irony — as an excuse not to answer the phone until next week.

So the President can’t afford to let Scooter go to jail? Fascinating! Couldn’t even wait to quietly handle this after the 2008 elections, like most normal Presidents? Sure he has the legal authority to do this, but the jury has yet to convene on the ethical authority. By doing this, the President has said in essence I am above the law, and it’s ok to out a spy as long as you are just following my orders.

Guess what, folks? It’s time for a civil suit. And please remember that it is now a well established legal fact that the President can be forced to testify in a civil suit. Maybe the Clinton-haters cut off their nose to spite their face.

So we can’t call the White House. But we can call Congress. According to these guys you can reach them toll free at 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588, 800-426-8073, 800-828-0498 and 800-SOB-USOB. We can call Harry, and we can call Nancy (Sweetie? You’d better have an inaugural gown in mind), and we can leave irate emails and faxes and voicemails for our Congressmen and Senators.

Well?? Get on it!

By now you have probably heard that Bush will get his money for war without end, even though he may have to put up with some social programs and a higher minimum wage to get it.

If you are outraged, here is what you need to do. Get a recent piece of mail that has your zip+4 on it. Now, clicking here will open the House of Representatives website in a new tab. Use that zip+4 to find your Representative and the link to send him or her email. Be sure you fill out the form completely so they will know you are a real human being. Select the entire text of the next paragraph. Using the command from the “Edit” menu of your browser, copy it then paste it into the text box of the form. Add your own words of wisdom if you like and hit send. When you are done, click here to open the Senate website and repeat the process; you won’t need your zip code, only your state. Our elected officials need to know that this will not do at all.

I am very disappointed in Congress for caving to the Bush Administration demands that the Iraq war be allowed to continue, fully funded, with no time-line for leaving. This nation cannot afford to keep pouring money and troops into Iraq. The majority of American people want our troops to come home, and the majority of Iraqi people want our troops to go home. While it is true that conditions in Iraq are chaotic, that is because our troops are there, because the Administration is actively thwarting attempts to come to an internal peace agreement. In fact, a British newspaper has reported that American forces planned to assassinate a major participant in a peace negotiation. It is time to stop pretending our troops are doing anything but getting in the way, and send them back home where they can have the honorable mission of protecting this country.

Thank you for acting on your outrage, and letting your elected officials know that when all is said and done, they answer to voters, not polls and not party leaders.

In closing: Modern Machiavelli; if Congress needs something to argue about there’s always Health Care Crisis Squeezes Working Families; and Japanfilter, Double Big Mac with a Fried Egg on it is thankfully only available for a limited time, and Japan is paying to send our troops out of Okinawa.

So now we know that yes, Elizabeth Edwards is battling cancer again, but that John Edwards will continue to work and campaign to be our next President. I wish I could find a transcript of the press conference, because he said something to the effect of “If I can’t handle both these things at the same time, then I can’t handle being President.”

Sad but true, this puts Mr. Edwards more in line with Joe Average. Over 240,000 women per year are diagnosed with breast cancer alone in the United States, and it’s a good bet that many of them have husbands or other long-term partners.

Joe Average can’t quit work to take care of a sick wife. If nothing else, he would lose his health insurance benefits, which means paying for all her care out-of-pocket. He can’t get private insurance that will cover the expenses, because her illness will be considered a “pre-existing condition.” In fact, woe to Joe if he is self-employed or an independant contractor, since his insurance rates are about to go through the roof at the very time he can least afford it. It is worth noting that the Edwards health reform plan does very little for Joe unless he has an employer. Which reminds me — Mrs. Edwards’s previous bout with cancer was fairly well publicized; is her current problem covered at all?

Nor can Joe Average afford to take a lot of time off work to accompany his ailing wife to doctor’s appointments and hospital visits. Joe is expected to keep his private life to himself. That means no whining, and getting the job done. If Joe gets an hourly wage, he can’t afford to lose the hours as much as he wants to be there for her; if Joe is salaried, chances are he is expected to give 110% and pitch in with unpaid overtime at the boss’s whim. Mr. Edwards, on the other hand, despite his gruelling schedule can still manage to “be there” for important appointments. He’s clearly a stand-up guy in this respect.

If Joe Average has kids, that throws an additional wrinkle into things. Chances are his wife has been the primary provider for the kids, even if she has been working full time. Her illness makes it unlikely that she can continue to do everything that she has done around the house. Joe’s time is already stretched very thin for the reasons described above. If Joe is very, very lucky, he might have a (female) relative who can come help around the house for a few months. It is worth noting that he would never consider asking a male relative for such assistance. If there are no female relatives, either there’s a lot of pizza and canned soup in the Average Family’s future, or he’s going to need to hire some help he can barely afford to pay. Probably both. By way of contrast, the Edwards Family probably already have household staff on at least a part time basis, and they certainly have the money to hire quality in-home assistance if necessary. They also have a grown daughter who can pitch in if needed.

It will be interesting to see how Mr. Edwards’s political stances evolve with his circumstances.

In closing: “fame, narcissism, and MySpace”; yet another state considering a wait and see stance on Real ID; the Heinlein Society; clearing the way to using (what’s left of) our troops at home; Amnesty International thinks our treatment of certain prisoners leaves a lot to be desired, like say, trials; and finally hmm, yeah conservatism is expensive.

Ok, so in ring one of this circus we have Al Gonzales dancing as fast as he can. He has to put on a good show, lest someone notice that only the President can fire federal attorneys. Which means that either the President knew what was going on, has no clue (maybe he thought he was cancelling a delivery of broccoli to the White House), or that the attorneys were fired illegally. None of these is good. As distasteful as it is that after all the things Mr. Gonzales has said and done, it turns out that 8 politically motivated terminations are the one unnacceptable thing in the bipartisan eyes of the Senate. But wait, it gets better! It turns out that this may be a puppet show, with none other than everyone’s favorite crony, Karl Rove pulling the strings from a remote email account. Why is that important? Because if he’d used a whitehouse.gov email account, it would be archived and available on subpoena. So now, everybody wants to get to the bottom of this situation. And that means somebody *cough cough that would be you, Mr. Rove* has to testify before Congress. Not just the Senate. The House of Representatives too. Needless to say the White House doesn’t like that idea one bit. They may have very little bargaining room, as now it seems Mr. Gonzales may have lied to Congress.

Meanwhile in ring two we have the Iraq War. The darn thing is getting ready to have a 4th anniversary, sad as that is to say, and it’s not quite as popular as it was when it was younger. The President is having to spend time and energy defending it, “plead[ing] for patience” and giving us dire, dire warnings about what might happen if we were to stop pouring money down that bottomless pit and support our troops by bringing them home. Be afraid! Be very afraid! I fear that our capacity for fear was drained by years of Department of Homeland Security look out oh wait it’s nothing warnings. It is no coincidence that suddenly reports are coming out of our professional torture chambers that the enemy combatants we have in custody have confessed to everything short of funding John Wilkes Booth (yes folks, that last link is satire). If this isn’t enough to discredit the practice of torture, what more do we need? War is hell, we have lost a lot of lives on both sides, and we have lost a lot of money.

It’s hard to tell what’s going on in the third ring of this circus. It’s totally dark. And even though it’s hard to tell in the dark, it may be covered by a big tarp. And in fact to be perfectly honest, all the things that we are pretty sure we know happened there happened years ago now. But it sure looks like certain people in the administration are doing everything they can to keep the War on Terra rolling. For example, The Taliban offered to send Osama Bin Laden to a neutral country presumably for trial back in October of 2001. If we really wanted justice, the international courts are the place. Seriously, you won’t find an impartial jury here in the United States. Surely the Hague could have helped us out on this one. And then we have the Vice President. It seems that various parties may have been working out of Mr. Cheney’s office to “us[e] stolen funds from Iraq to arm al Qaeda-tied groups and foment a larger Sunni-Shia war…” It was specifically done this way — the author alleges — to avoid the problems of CIA involvement that brought the Iran-Contra scandal to public attention.

If nothing here rises to the standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, what does it take?

In closing: compare and contrast; credit card tricks; credit card tips (hey, I can be fair and balanced too!); a car that’s supposed to be a little fishy; when it comes to TV, “[T]orture is the new sex”; and finally, a big plane we don’t need.

Or, Bring Me the Head of Alberto Gonzales.
Back in January I said to write your Senators and tell them to demand the resignation of United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Bad enough he has called the Geneva Conventions and their prohibition on torture “quaint.”

Bad enough he authored the opionions that allow terror suspects to be held without charges until the end of the War on Terror — a war which Discovery and Ted Koppel are calling “Our Children’s Children’s War”.

Bad enough he thinks it’s just fine for Vice President Dick Cheney to have secret meetings with energy company executives before coming up with an “energy plan”.

Bad enough he has sat in a Senate hearing and said that the Constitution does not actually give us a right to Habeas Corpus.

Now it is clear that he has been instrumental in getting rid of eight U.S. Attorneys — who had recently gotten “glowing performance reviews” — apparently on grounds of not towing the official administration line. The Christian Science Monitor says “At issue is whether the Justice Department’s decision to replace these top federal prosecutors was a political purge and, if so, what Congress can do about it.” Let me tell you what Congress an do about it: Since even “senior” Senate Republicans think this stinks, this is the time for the Senate to act by demanding Gonzales’s resignation. Now.

In closing, Follow-Up Friday is a little early: Pediatricians warn that the kind of insurance policies President Bush and the “free markets fix everything” crowd favor may make kids sicker; Washington Post tells us the bleeding obvious, Health Care is already a huge issue in the 2008 elections; NYT and IHT tell us even more obvious news, the self employed don’t have employers to provide health insurance, and therefore they often must do without; Arnold and Eliot; NYT/IHT are calling it a “home mortgage crisis”; Al Gore says the EU must lead where the USA doesn’t; big diet study says no sugar low carbohydrate diets help people lose weight; and an item I’ve not covered before, internships are so competitive there are companies to help young adults (whose mommies and daddies have money) get them (thus widening the gap between haves and have-nots by expanding the “experiences” and rolodexes of wealthy young adults).