Category Archives: Politics

Politics

DC Cab

DC statehood is up again.

My views on this are clear and comport quite well with those expressed here. The district already gets enormous amounts of money from the federal government and that will only get worse if they have three votes in Congress. Indeed, this was precisely the reason that it was not granted statehood in the first place. It also make no sense for DC to have senators since they are supposed to be representatives of the states, not the people.

There’s also the thorny issue of the 22nd amendment, which grants three electoral votes to DC. If we grant them statehood, does that not mean three more?

To be honest, I think people are thinking with their parties. The senators and representative from DC would certainly be Democrats. That potential shift in the balance of power is the primary informer of people’s opinions on the subject — pro or con.

I am, however, uncomfortable with the idea of people not having representation. What I would prefer is a compromise. Have the people of DC declare residency in either Virginia or Maryland. Allow them to vote accordingly. Or split the city geographically. That way they get representation, but not outsized representation.

Of course, that would still mean changing the 22nd amendment. What are the chance of that happening?

Politics

Birthers Reloaded

I’ve discovered a new argument the “birthers” are using to argue that Obama is an illegitimate President. I mean, besides denying the reality of the certified birth certificate that has been released. They’re arguing that Obama is not a “natural born citizen” because his father was not a US citizen.

Problem: Charles Evans Hughes was allowed to run for President, even though his father was a British subject (as Obama’s father was and, in reality, as all our early Presidents were).

Further problem. By this logic my Texas-born daughter can no run because her mother is Australian.

Just a reminder of what these people really believe.

Humor, Politics, The Nanny State

Midweek Linkorama

  • As expected, the “temporary” stimulus spending is becoming permanent as states become dependent on the Feds.
  • The Philly school spying case gets creepier.
  • George Washington — desperado.
  • Probably the most depressing thing about politics is how rapidly people’s attitudes change depending on who is in power. Here’s one example: people who used “regime” to describe the Bush Administration expressing alarm when that word is used for the Obama Administration. I hated the word both times; I can’t listen to Limbaugh because he uses it. But some consistency from anyone but libertarians would be nice.
  • A cosmic thought on free trade.
  • Just when you thought the GOP couldn’t get stupider; the Arizona wing sponsors a birther bill.
  • The food grabbers strike again. And again. And now the military is getting in on the act.
    • 'Culture', Law and Order, Politics, Sports

    Midweek Linkorama

    All politics this week I’m afraid.

  • I’m starting to warm to Marco Rubio. Anyone who takes the Social Security issue seriously has a good mark in my book. And Crist is worthless.
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates destroys the idea that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery while commenting on the worship of Robert E. Lee. In response to his question of whether you can admire someone who fought for a bad cause, I’d say yes. Many of our WW 2 veterans had great admiration for the German and Japanese soldiers.
  • How on Earth is Marc Thiessen taken seriously? His entire existence is based around dishonestly vindicating the shitty record of the Bush Administration.
  • Reason dig in to figure out why Texas was immune from the worst of the housing bubble. My theory? In Texas, houses are for livin’, not money makin’.
  • Is another McMartin case going on in Georgia? As a parent, I want children protected. But sometimes, it seems to go ridiculous extremes. Meanwhile, the Pope is vigorously defended by religion conservatives despite his complicity in serious repeated abuse.
  • Conservatives, once defenders of liberty, are apparently thrilled that Arizona cops can now approach anyone and demand their papers.
  • I’m just so happy that baseball is back.
    • Politics, Science and Edumacation, War on Terror

    Monday Linkorama

  • The Volokh guys have a point. Where should accused criminals live?
  • It’s only one guy claiming that Bush knew hundreds of Gitmo occupants were innocent. But given what we’ve found out in just that last two years, does it really sound implausible? Just one more reason I don’t mind the GOP being out of office.
  • Two more notes from the global warming front. First, a new report on glaciers disappearing from Glacier National Park. And then a nice, if snarky, debunking of Lord Monckton. Monckton is probably the worst of what I call “Bad Skeptics” on AGW. He is not interested in accurately assessing whether AGW is real or dangerous. He’s interested in using whatever tricks he can to claim it’s a hoax. The video mentions a “Good Skeptic” — the team analyzing satellite data at Alabama-Huntsville. They disagree with consensus — but do with real science and real data.
  • Lenore Skenazy has another great idea. Do we really want another generation of kids who need their parents to negotiate job benefits?
  • A wonderful article from Reason disputes the notion — now mantra among supposed conservatives — that we once had a golden age of liberty from which we’ve declined. In the words of Clarence Thomas, it doesn’t seem that way to black people.
    • 'Culture', Culture War, Healthcare, Politics

    Thursday Linkorama

  • Wow. That’s a long way to go for a cup of tea.
  • Well. At least the Boomer are coming clean on how badly they’ve screwed us.
  • Rush Limbaugh: not an elitist. No sir.
  • When Tom Coburn is the voice of reason, we’re in trouble.
  • A preview of what lies ahead for the nation? Massachusetts healthcare plan is producing early fights over insurance rates and people gaming the system.

  • This is just plain mean. Shame on them.
  • Philly takes some smart steps in ramping down the war on drugs.
  • Ten years later, Fidel Casto is still milking Elian Gonzalez for propaganda.
    • Civil Liberties, Politics, Taxes and Spending

    Weekend Linkorama

  • The states, desperate for revenue, now want to tax services. Now there’s a way to stimulate the economy!
  • Let it not be said that only the Right indulges in conspiracy theories on global warming. Greenpeace has listed Reason as a climate “denier” even thought their science correspond, Ronald Bailey, is no such thing. All he does is disagree with how severe AGW is likely to be and how we should solve it. But to Greenpeace, anything but panic-laden submission to grandiose institutional solutions is “denial”.
  • Rubber rooms for everyone! If this keeps up, the taxpayer is going to need a padded room.
  • The Institute for Justice has a great video on asset forfeiture. Hopefully, some big guns are coming onto this issue.
  • On the subject of videos, Reason takes on public employee unions.
  • Fumento on information cascades. I’m reminded of the shark attacks.
  • I’ve beaten the “tea partiers are Nazis” bullshit to death on the other site. Still, it’s worth reading Moynihan’s article. I think the best comparison is to the war protesters of the Bush era. Similar odious comparisons; similar anger; similar mis-spelled signs. It seems like the angry, like the poor, will always be with us.
  • English laws continue to get dumber and dumber. (Caveat: the English press is not the most accurate; I got burned earlier this week by bad reporting on a similar incident.)
    • Politics

    Sometimes I Like Him

    The non-stop poll watching in Washington drives me nuts. We are not a democracy; we are a constitutional republic. The beauty of our Republic is not that the people get what they want; indeed the beauty is that sometimes they don’t get what they want. The beauty is in the accountability that a republic creates. The only time polls matter is in November.

    That having been said, we will be watching this, Mr. President. And if healthcare doesn’t deliver what was promised — and I don’t think it will — it won’t be forgotten.

    Culture War, Healthcare, Humor, Politics, Science and Edumacation

    Midweek Linkorama

  • Chili grenades? Chili grenades.
  • Stripper week continues on the blog with this story about Iceland banning the practice. This is being proclaimed as a great victory for feminism, but I don’t see that taking away women’s freedom — even if it’s the freedom to “degrade” themselves – and probably forcing them into illegal activity, is progress.
  • A fun story about the First Seder in the White House. I wonder how the Demented Right will square this with their vision of Obama as an Israel-hating Muslim.
  • Radley Balko has a point. Why doesn’t the public have a fraction of the outrage over real killings and bloodshed committed in the name of the War on Drug as they do about a brick thrown through a politician’s window?
  • Barack Obama and the Democrats kept abstinence-only education funding in the healthcare bill. Because what this country really needs to bring our healthcare bills down is a bunch of pregnant teenagers. And I thought I was snarked out on that subject.
  • You know the thing I hate about being a libertarian? Being right all the time. For the last decade, we warned that states were spending beyond their limits and creating a fiscal time bomb. We were right. Again.
  • More on the Godwinizing of the Tea Party.
  • Some legal humor from one of my favorite judges.
    • Politics, Science and Edumacation

    Another Climategate Investigation

    The first of the UK investigations of Climategate has cleared the scientists of deliberately tampering with the data. This is only the first investigation and not the most in depth. So we’ll see what other bodies conclude.

    Notably, the report chided the scientists for their stonewalling on FOI requests, noting they could have spared themselves a lot of trouble. I agree with this whole-heartedly. As crazy as the conspiracy theories may be, they are fed by the climate scientists treating their data as though it were the secret to alchemy, not haphazard and sometimes unreliable temperature records.

    Of course, there’s a lose-lose aspect to these investigations. If wrongdoing if found, it will be rightfully denounced. But if it isn’t, will hear cries of “whitewash”. That is, after all, what happened after Penn State concluded their investigation. (And, really, every investigation everywhere that has political overtones).

    Still, it’s good to get sunlight on the matter.

    Culture War, Law and Order, Politics, Science and Edumacation

    Politically Incorrect Linkorama

  • Is diversity training a sham? It wouldn’t surprise me at all. But I’d never admit it in print.
  • OK, I’ll admit it. I read this article because someone linked it up as an article about strippers. But, if you can get by the author’s decolletage, it’s a very fascinating article about how Massachusetts law is making life more difficult for strippers in the name of helping them. (It also confirms that my acquaintance who stripped her way through college and into law school was not unique. And no, she was a friend of a friend. I didn’t meet her in a professional context.)
  • I’m cooking up a post, not sure for which site, that would infuriate my old feminist philosophy professor. It may be a while, but I’ll link up this story, about the myth that sex slaves are pulled in for sporting events. What’s amazing is how many members of the religious right and feminist left will respond to this story with dismay — i.e., they’ll be disappointed that there is not a severe sex slave problem that they need to agitate about.
  • Was our War on Fat misguided? I find this especially interesting given an article I read last week about scientists mis-using statistics. We’ve seen this pattern from the Food Grabbers. Ten years ago, we all had to substitute trans fats into our diet. Now we have to get rid of them. Ten years from now they’ll be back. Personally, I think our evolved bodies are too kludgey for strict dietary rules.
  • Speaking of bad science, this sounds like hand writing analysis for the 21st century.

    • OK, enough political incorrectness. Back to plain old BS.

  • Ireland is cutting bureaucrat pay to balance their budget. There is no chance such a thing could happen in this country.
  • The massive epidemic of bad public defenders seems a case of being penny wise and pound foolish. A competent defenders would keep innocent people out of prison and keep appeals from dragging out, saving money in the long run.
  • Hugo Chavez takes Sean Penn’s advice and arrests the owner of the last free television station in Venezuela.
  • I can’t stand Ann Coulter. But I find the Canadian restrictions on free speech even more offensive.
    • Politics, War on Terror

    Meyer Takes Out Thiessen

    More on Marc Thiessen’s attempts to rewrite history, this time from Jane Meyer, author of the oustanding The Dark Side. Money quote:

    Thiessen presents the C.I.A. interrogation program as an unqualified success. “In the decade before the C.I.A. began interrogating captured terrorists, Al Qaeda launched repeated attacks against America,” he writes. “In the eight years since the C.I.A. began interrogating captured terrorists, Al Qaeda has not succeeded in launching one single attack on the homeland or American interests abroad.” This is not exactly a textbook demonstration of causality. Moreover, the claim that American interests have been invulnerable since the C.I.A. began waterboarding is manifestly untrue. Al Qaeda has launched numerous attacks against U.S. targets abroad since 9/11, including the 2004 attack on the Hilton Hotel in Taba, Egypt; the 2003 and 2009 attacks on hotels in Indonesia; four attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi; and the assassination of Lawrence Foley, a U.S. diplomat, in Jordan. In 2007, Al Qaeda attacked Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan, killing two Americans and twenty-one others, in a failed attempt to assassinate Cheney, who was visiting. Indeed, Al Qaeda’s relentless campaign in Afghanistan has helped bring about the near-collapse of U.S. policy there. In Iraq, the Al Qaeda faction led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers.

    Read the whole thing.

    Thiessen is a perfect representative of the Republican party. He is not an expert in intelligence or terrorism, he’s a speech-writer. His research consists of interviewing people who support his side and never taking counter-arguments seriously. The GOP seems to prefer to live in such alternate realities. They’re welcome to them.

    'Culture', Law and Order, Politics

    Tuesday Linkorama

  • Yep. Erin Brockovich was full of it.
  • The wheels of justice turn slowly in Maricopa County; but they may finally be turning.
  • Moody’s may remove the AAA rating from US bonds if we don’t clean up our act.
  • A lovely little 18 minute film about a plastic bag. Yes, a plastic bag. I disagree with the underlying politics (dust to dust calculations are, at best, ambiguous on whether alternatives to plastic bags are better for the environment).
  • Holy crap!
  • Megan McArdle spanks those who are backing off from their sweetness and light predictions now that healthcare has passed.
  • The latest drug war outrage.
    • Culture War, Healthcare, Politics

    Wednesday Linkorama

  • Why a salad costs more than a Big Mac. Hint: it’s government subsidies.
  • You know, I find it very disturbing when the subject of gay marriage comes up, dingbat “conservatives” immediately start talking about bestiality. There’s something they’re not telling us.
  • I called 2009 the Year in Fantasyland. It’s looking like 2010 may be the year of reality. Certainly the anti-vaccination nonsense is taking body blow after body blow.
  • Paul Krugman gets taken to the woodshed on trade, which is supposed to be his area of expertise.
  • More evidence that defensive medicine is not the myth the lawyers claim it is.
  • Hitch lets loose on the Pope.
  • French TV recreates the Milgram Experiment. News anchors act shocked. Fail to make connection to American embrace of torture.
  • The Social Security “Trust Fund” is now being tapped, a decade ahead of schedule. And we’re supposed to expect healthcare reform to stay within its budget.
  • Horrific story from Ethiopia about how women are raped, abducted and wed, in that order. Fortunately, there’s a rebellion going on among Ethiopian women.