Politics

Politico is running an interesting piece comparing Rand Paul's positions that are in apparent conflict with some of his father's. Rand is in favor of term limits, for example, but his father has been in office for 11 terms now. But the kicker is this earmarks business: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37467.html Hm, I guess that's the "do as I say, not as I do" approach to politics?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-20005155-504564.html This was a 7-2 decision that, oddly enough, was opposed by conservative hero Antonin Scalia, joined by Clarence Thomas, who (together in dissent) said that this power should be left to the states. Liberal champion Stephen Breyer made this interesting statement in the majority opinion: Interestingly, some of the statements in the majority opinion are being used to suggest some rationales for future decisions regarding the health care reform legislation passed earlier this year. Another (longer) article here: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-17/sex-offender-commitment-law-upheld-by-u…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html#s73765 This scary stuff. Texas puts out a lot of textbooks, so this affects the entire country. The fact that this has already happened and these changes are now a reality is just shocking, and I see little opportunity for recourse.

An open letter from 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel laureates, decries the "recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular." http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/689 While I understand the frustration that critics and "skeptics" of climate science are going through when they find their criticisms perhaps unduly dismissed, it's difficult for legitimate climate science skepticism to exist in the outwardly anti-science environment perpetrated by various unscientific critics. I hope for a future where criticisms are leveled by those who understand what a…

Calling them 'cruel and unusual punishment'. They have to be given some hope of future release *if* they didn't kill their victims. http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-court-offenders-20100518,0,5369429.story I have mixed feelings about this sort of thing, but I think it's probably the right call. And I think it leaves room for appropriate decision-making in extreme situations while generally doing the right thing. What do you all think?

Does anyone really believe in their heart that continuously electing members from the same two parties is ever going to change anything? We have been doing that since Lincoln and it has gotten us this far! How much farther do we need to go before we stop doing the same thing expecting a different outcome?

So, it turns out that the SCOTUS has ruled, in a 5-4 decision in the case of Salazar v. Buono, that the christian cross is not a religious symbol. They say it's secular. What do you think? http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Salazar_v._Buono Issue: Whether an individual has Article III standing to bring an Establishment Clause suit challenging the display of a religious symbol on government land and if an Act of Congress directing the land be transferred to a private entity is a permissible accommodation. http://law.suite101.com/article.cfm/supreme_court_case_salazar_v_buono Sunrise Rock is a large outcropping located in Mojave Natio…

inspired by this thread: thinking about it, does anyone think that the gov's attitude towards cars is overly authoritarian? I mean, we have to register our cars (and ourselves) in a national database, drive around with a serial number on our car, and (in the US) we have to carry ID (drivers licence) and produce it on demand to the authroities! Try taking this attitude towards anything else and you'll get called overly-authoritarian and invasive, and people will start making references to 1984 and the nazi party and talking about how the gov' could abuse the databases, and the need to strike a balance between our government protecting us from ourselves and us b…

That darn ultraconservative Fox News has done it again, elevating the War on Drugs as some sort of noble, effective effort. Or not. Pretty staggering statistics. I don't know that I would ever support a full-blown legalization effort, but I have to say it's pretty compelling, especially in these particular economic times. What do you all think? (Edit: Wups, forgot the link.) http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/13/ap-impact-years-trillion-war-drugs-failed-meet-goals/

More hype than substance at the moment, but perhaps it will develop into something over time. It's just a simple form where you can type in what you'd like to see cut. I think they should at least have it categorized so they can do statistical analysis on the results. They should also have it ID-verified at least to the extent that they do when you submit a request to your Congressperson or Senator (where you have to enter your address and name, etc). http://www.republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/

oIHBUGvAUMo Gordon Brown, texture like sun... Err, sorry, that's not it... That's him, right? Sure. Sorry, ignorant yank here. Gordon Brown has resigned as prime minister of the UK, effective immediately. Does someone on that side of the pond want to let us Yanks know what that feels like? I can't imagine what it would be like if our president resigned.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1965 Long story short, there's a bill before Congress which would kick people out of the country for supporting terrorism. Hillary Clinton is behind it: United States citizenship is a privilege [...] It is not a right. People who are serving foreign powers — or in this case, foreign terrorists — are clearly in violation, in my personal opinion, of that oath which they swore when they became citizens. The White House has not issued a statement on it yet. I can definitely say I'm not a fan of this bill. It reminds me far too much of the Bush era. This was the sort of crap I hoped we had put behind us, but apparently…

http://www.cnbc.com/id/36999483 Yesterday the Dow took a 1,000 point nosedive. The problem was originally blamed on the fallout in Greece, however it seems it may have been initiated by a single trader at Citigroup who accidentally typed "b" for billion instead of "m" for million, apparently when trading Proctor & Gamble stick which is one of the DJIA stocks. Whoops!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/08/AR2010050802495.html While teabaggers bitch and complain about the size of government spending, one area they're probably not thinking of when it comes to saving money is the US military, which spends more than every other military on earth... combined. And yet, Robert Gates is suggesting that perhaps there's money which can be saved within the Pentagon. Tickle me surprised. In fact, he claims to be able to cut up to $15 billion, and has recommended the military prepare for further spending cuts. Amazing!

I think this is really central to the debate surrounding Fox News. Several people are suggesting that there is no need to distinguish Fox News from other TV news organizations like ABC News, MSNBC, CNN, etc. Members of ABC News, for example, have argued that Fox News should be considered a news organization and given the same access to the White House as any other news organization. Others think Fox News cannot be considered a news organization. What do you think?

I thought it might be nice to have a thread about the UK General Election, which will be held on the 6th of May. It seems that this election could bring in some major changes since everyone is so disillusioned with the main parties. Like in the US, UK politics has been stuck in basically a two party system for decades. We have the Labour Party and the Conservatives (sometimes called the Tories) which are roughly comparable to the Democrats and Republicans in the US (though both to the left of their US counterparts). Usually one of these is in power, with the other forming the opposition and only a few seats going to other parties. However, following a live elect…

Apparently you burn. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-dead-as-antiausterity-riots-apf-4019313165.html?x=0 The Canadian European Economic Council says that this problem is based at least in part on "Keynesian profligacy" and "putting ideology over common sense". (source, warning: PDF) The liberal New York Times focuses instead on tax evasion, suggesting that Greeks just need to "grow up": http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/world/europe/02evasion.html But for an organization that adheres to an ideology that ostensibly believes in the root cause theory of responsibility, the Times seems oddly reluctant to seek the root cause of Greek tax-dodging…

There have been numerous threads in Politics where members like myself are castigated for challenging unsupported opinions, and in doing so have been repeatedly told by the Moderator that "All opinions are equal on this forum." I disagree with that. I think opinions which are supported with fact, substance, and logic will nearly ALWAYS be better than those which are simply put forth as opinion alone and left at that. This is not about silencing people who don't support their opinion. This is not about censoring unsupported opinions or saying they have no place here. This is about acknowledging that not all opinions are equal and that it's fair to acknowledge th…

I sometimes wonder if killing the rich is the answer. Sure, people shouldn't support murder because it's illegal, unethical, immoral, against religion, etc... But would it work to help solve economic problems? Would killing certain individuals work to solve economic issues? I like to think back to before World War I and the Black Hand Society. You had a bunch of young people with a hitlist. And this killing the people on the hitlist was suppose to make their living vicinity a better place. For the Black Hand Society, it ended up causing, if I remember correctly, rival countries to feud and create war amongst them. So, it backfired in a sense. The Black Hand Soci…

The question is fairly well captured in the thread title. There is an ever evolving dynamic in our nation, and across the globe. There are subtleties and complexities tied to every decision and action we take, every law we pass, and every debate we have. I fear that some of these subtleties and complexities get missed when we continually try to paint them with the broad brushes of "democrat" and "republican." I would love to hear from both citizens within the US and SFN members from other areas on the globe who may have some insight and perspective on this topic from their own governments. Is the two-party dynamic adequate for dealing with the subtlies and c…

Hey, how come none of our UK members started a thread on this? I saw this on the news last night and was blown away. What a moment! In a nutshell, apparently what happened is that Gordon Brown was talking with a woman when she asked about immigration from Eastern Europe, and when he got back to his car, not realizing his mike was live, he called her a "bigot". I'd love to hear what our UK friends think of this event. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/04/gordon_browns_campaign_disaste.html Here's a YouTube video of the event: jFl_evwML2M

I'm somewhat curious how people's opinions of how the government should manage money compare to their personal lives. How do you stack up? Note that for the purposes of this poll, I'd like the term debt to refer to non-amortized debt without collateral. That means it doesn't apply to mortgages or vehicle loans which amortized and are for a singular, tangible piece of property. These types of "debts" can be thought of more as installment payments. However, it does refer to credit cards, lines-of-credit, etc. Student loans are a bit of a gray area... because a university can't repossess your education I'd say they should be considered a debt. NOTE TO MODS: I…

I am really surprised this story hasn't picked up a lot of steam. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36597290/ns/business-us_business/ http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/sec-charges-goldman-sachs-fraud/?test=latestnews http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/sec.goldman.fortune/index.htm?hpt=T2 I am sure the timing of this is political, as implied by the above articles. This could turn out to be a big deal though. Goldman says they are going to fight the charges. This move by the SEC could turn years of de-regulation on it's head, if done correctly of course. Here are some other links from different sites to the same st…

I would like to propose an informal moratorium on starting threads with News Corp articles. That's not to say that you shouldn't reference a News Corp article in the original post of a thread, but rather that you shouldn't let a News Corp article provide the exclusive content upon which a thread is started. Examples of News Corp sources would include: Fox "News" (cable channel, web site), Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Weekly Standard Is this an ad hominem against News Corp? Just because a News Corp-owned organization authors an article doesn't necessarily make it wrong. I certainly can't defend that position. However, I have noticed many threads which…

I thought I'd share this since I found it a pretty interesting watch: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/money/ The psychological experiments are pretty interesting, and personally I found the explanation for how the housing bubble fueled the derivatives bubble really put it into an interesting perspective. There are some aspects I didn't like: I think they mischaracterize chicago economics and explained those theories in a more cumbersome manner than they needed. I doubt it's so much a political bias as jumping on something new.