Politics

Fox News has been all over this for days if not weeks (I don't really know, but I noticed it the other night when I tuned in for the first time in years), but I think it's pretty clear that no laws were broken. Unfortunately the White House has now acknowledged that Rahm Emanuel asked President Clinton to offer Sestak a job on a Presidential advisory board or some similar role, and they also confirm that this was done in order to get Sestak to withdraw from the race against Alan Specter. (Sestak declined the offer and won the primary.) President Obama did not take part in the offer, but the offer was made and it does involve access to the President. In sh…

So, Rand Paul's is cut in the image of his father, where he favors small government in a big way... So big, in fact, that he thinks the Civil Rights Act did more to restrict liberty than to make liberty universal. He's taking heat from Republican and Democrat leaders alike. I'd like to make clear my own feelings. I am abundantly confident that Rand Paul is NOT a racist. I am, however, not so confident that he's capable of seeing the negative impact the implementation of some of his ideology would have... I am not confident that he's willing to adjust his philosophy due to that negative impact. He has canceled his appearance this Sunday on Meet the Press …

In my opinion, the Democrats are significantly more Internet-savvy than the Republicans. The 2008 election saw massive leveraging of social networks like Facebook and Twitter for campaign purposes. Millions followed Barack Obama on Twitter when McCain could barely drum up tens of thousands. Recently the Republicans tried to launch a site called AmericaSpeakingOut, largely reminiscent of Obama's Open for Questions site, which allowed users to submit questions that the community can vote on in order to weight their importance. Unfortunately, in doing so, the Republicans seem to have forgotten the comparative imbalance of Internet savvy between themselves and Democ…

http://consumerist.com/2010/05/poor-people-spend-9-of-income-on-lottery-tickets.html So... why do we exempt them from paying taxes, exactly?

Not really sure where would be the most appropriate for this thread, but I wanted to open up discussion about it as it something that will affect every single one of us in some way regardless on which country you are from. The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organiza…

The President sent a bill to Congress today that proposes a new procedure that would allow the president in the future to create a package of spending cuts after the budget passes that would then be up-or-down voted on by Congress (no amendments). It's a kind of fallback from the line-item veto concept, and it's considered Court-proof because each package would be voted on by Congress. There's only one hitch: When the idea came up from Republicans during the Bush administration it was roundly chastised by Democrats, who voted overwhelmingly against it. Gee, I wonder why. But early quotes from Democrats this time around (see link below) are supportive, and fr…

Well isn't this strange... jackson33, you have me at an impasse. There's an article I'd like to discuss, but it's only available through News Corp outlets at the moment, specifically the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and FoxNews.com. Also, it's a rumor... The New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/an_antitrust_app_buvCWcJdjFoLD5vBSkguGO The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703612804575222553091495816.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEADTop And FoxNews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/03/apple-adobe-flash-antitrust-investigation/ ...are reporting that Apple is under investigation for anti-tr…

President Obama broke a promise yesterday, asking Congress to authorize emergency spending for the wars outside of the budget. In the process he also circumvents the legal requirement to specify how the spending will be paid for, allowing the spending to go straight into the deficit. Adding fuel to the fire, only a little over half the money in the bill goes to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest goes to various places including aid for Haiti and other recent disasters. Certainly a worthy cause, but shouldn't the government indicate how it's going to PAY for such things? And by the way, this popped up on my Google News page, but I think it's pre…

Pangloss recently started a thread about President Obama asking Congress for another $60 Billion. I'm not going to comment on either the legality or necessity of the request, but it made me wonder, do the numbers mean anything to politicians any more? $60B is equal to 20% of the total Australian Federal budget. I know we are only a small nation, but, jees that's a lot of money. US pollies seem to throw around billions and tens of billions like ours throw around millions and tens of millions. While the scale differs you have to wonder if the pollies are connected to the reality that it's not their money, it belongs to the people. Because it isn't theirs, i…

Arlen Specter down in flames, and Dr. Rand Paul nominated in Kentucky. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/us/politics/19elect.html Yeah the tea party groups are pretty happy, but I think this is really more about anti-incumbency. People are pretty fed up with politicians. What do you all think?

At the Cannes 2010 film festival, a new movie called "Inside Job" about the financial crisis and how it was caused by reckless and often deceptive risk-taking and extortion which took place in the lead up to the financial crisis: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/05/i_am_but_a_naive.html Here is the argument of the film, in four sentences. From Roosevelt until Reagan, the American economy enjoyed 40 years of stability, prosperity and growth. Beginning with Reagan's moves against financial regulation, that sound base has been progressively eroded. The crucial federal error (in administrations of both parties) was to allow financial institutions to trade on th…

Another great Frontline, this time on the war between doctors and some parents on the safety of vaccines. The entire program can be watched online. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=bigimage&utm_source=bigimage One thing that surprised me is that I had been under the impression that this issue was being driven by the religious right, but in fact there wasn't a Bible-thumper anywhere in sight. The Oregon community shown in the opening scenes is full of new age stores, holistic medicine shops and organic foods cooperatives, which actually suggests the opposite, but no specific ideologies were mentioned in …

In politics, we often complain about supreme court decisions and how they've expanded power or restricted progress, depending on which side you populate for a given issue. But there is a methodology employed by the justices that direct how they interpret the Constitution. Needless to say, the depth of jurisprudence creates a wealth of philosophical distinctions and derivatives. If anyone wants to argue or discuss at such depth, that's great and I'm all for it, but I'm thinking it more productive to boil this down to Judicial Conservatism and Judicial Liberalism. Judicial Conservatism is associated with the Textualist (rejecting non-textual sources), Originalist …

According to the Daily Show, some of the TARP receipients (who received funds at 0% interest) are lending the money back to the government, to finance TARP, at interest. Whaaaaaa?

The National Republican Congressional Committee has issued a statement calling Democratic Congressman John Spratt an "amnesiac": http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/sc-dem-nrcc-using-sly-underhanded-references-to-my-parkinsons-disease.php Andy Seré, a regional spokesman for the NRCC, sent out an e-mail statement Monday referring to "amnesiac John Spratt," whose "memory is failing him - and the congressman is failing South Carolinians as a result." The e-mail also said "Spratt can't even recall what Obamacare does," and described how he is "clumsily" attacking State Sen. Mick Mulvaney ®, who's challenging Spratt in his bid for re-election. I…

A couple of weeks ago Los Angeles decided to boycott Arizona. What they apparently forgot is that the city gets 25% of its electricity from Arizona. But Arizona didn't forget. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/19/arizona-official-threatens-cut-los-angeles-power-payback-boycott/ Cute.

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/