Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Greenwald Nails It

A brilliant post over at Salon.

It would maximize clarity in our political discussions if journalists could just ingest Brooks’ central point: the dominant right-wing political movement in this country that has spawned and driven the Bush presidency has nothing to do with — it is in fact overtly hostile to — the ostensible principles of Goldwater/Reagan small-government conservatism. Though today’s so-called “conservatives” exploit the Goldwater/Reagan mythology as a political prop, they don’t believe in those principles in any way. That movement is the very antithesis of those principles.

Read the whole thing.

Law and Order, Politics

Political Appointees?

Just to deal with one of the meme’s circulating in the Right:

“This US Attorneys scandal is garbage! These are political appointees!”

They seem to be missing a critical point here. The appointments are political but the office is not. Just as the Hatch Act prevents the political appointees who head the Departments of Defense or Labor or Health from using the office to advance political interests; just as it prevents the Drug Czar from his office for political interests (not that this stops him); the President is not supposed to use the US Attorneys for political means.

What we are talking about here is not the firing of eight lawyers but the use of the Department of Justice to advance the political agenda of the Republican party. I’m sorry, Neal Boortz. I’m sorry, Anne Couter. I’m sorry, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. This is not the Soviet Union. We do not have a poltiical office. We do not confound the business of government with the business of politics. And we now have ample evidence that the US Attorneys were being pressured to lay off Republicans and prosecute Democrats.

Suppose the Drug Czar were only prosecuting drug cases against Democrats and letting Republicans go free. Would that be OK? He’s a political appointee after all.

'Culture', Law and Order, Politics

Two Stories

It’s not enought that we’re putting non-violent drug users into prison to be beaten and raped. Now we’re doing it with minors. Wonderful.

On another note, the poor have more free time than the rich. Slate asks why? Um, isn’t it obvious? It’s the public choice theory. People are willing to trade income for leisure time (I myself being a prime example). If you work harder and have less free time, you’ll be less poor!

Politics

1984

So how close was the infamous Hillary 1984 ad to reality? Pretty damned close. Remember. Hillary and Bush are like peas in a pod. There is no aspect of your life they don’t think the Feds shouldn’t be sticking there nose into.

Update: And as if things couldn’t get weirder, the owners of 1984 are bullying the poor sap who made the ad.

We really need to revist copyright law in this country. we really really need to.

Politics

Nixon and Bush

When I was growing up, all my teachers and most of my professors had a reflexive hatred of the Republicans. No matter what the Republicans did, they refused to even considered supporting them. It was amazing to watch otherwise intelligent people switch off their brains. Republicans were racists (after supporting the Civil Rights Act), sexist (fair enough) evil monsters who just wanted to put us under their bootheel (apparently by shrinking government authority).

But when you dug down, you’d find one of the big reasons they really hated Republicans. Richard Nixon. He was the candidate who wouldn’t go away who eventually crushed their bright boy in 1972 and continued a war they hated. He was also a pathological liar who crippled the economy with wage and price controls and thought the President should have the authority to do whatever he wanted. It eventually got to the point where the very sight of him would infuriate people. Read the works of Hunter Thompson or even Dave Barry and you’ll find that intense deep hatred that no amount of time can really take away.

Well, Bush is now doing this all over again. Polls are showing that young people are switching to the Democrat side in droves. The President has been revealed as an incompetent, authoritarian hypocrite. He lust for power and vicious politicization of everything on Earth has made the very sight of him infurating to a generation of Americans. He hasn’t crippled the economy like Nixon did. But the string of disasters — none of which are his fault! — is long and ugly. Iraq, Katrina, the budget, prescription drugs, the justice department, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. And his embracing of a radical religious agenda has made the GOP look stupid. Boortz is right. They are on the brink of permanent minority status.

The only hope of conservatives is that a conservative Democrat emerges to lead the nation. Someone like Bill Richardson out in New Mexico. He hasn’t got a chance once Hillary’s wolves set upon him. But he’s all we’ve got now.

Sigh. You have no idea how hard it is for a Child of Reagan to say this. But I am now a man without a party.

Law and Order, Politics

Breaking the Silence

I haven’t commented much on the US Attorney scandal because I haven’t been quite sure what to make of it. I’m rather annoyed at Boortz and his ilk dismissing this as a “non-scandal”. But the longer this goes, on, the more disturbing it gets.

First, I’m sick to death of hearing that the US Attorneys serve at the “pleasure” of the President. It’s a buzzword that’s driving up the fricking wall. He’s not a monarch, much as he has his supporters — his few remaining supporters — think that he is.

Second, I don’t think anything illegal was done here. But that doesn’t make it right. Lots of things are prefectly legal that ain’t right — American Idol, for example. I think it once again demonstrates the raw political machinations of this loathsome administration.

Third, we’ve found out that the Patriot Act gave the President the authority to appoint USA’s without congressional approval. This needs to be unpassed fast. And the fuck was that for, anyway? Is Al-Quaeda going to strike because Bush couldn’t get his partisan attorneys appointed?

Fourth, we’re getting a nasty nasty look into the Bush justice department at it ain’t pretty. Read the whole thing. One of the fired attorneys was gotten rid of despite an exemplary record because he wouldn’t prosecute pornographers, was saving his ammo in the War on Drugs for big dealers and was concerned about FBI interrogation techniques.

Some interrogation techniques “may be unsettling” for jurors in video or audio form, wrote the BATF, and therefore shouldn’t be recorded. Perfectly “acceptable” techniques may not “come across to lay persons as a proper means of obtaining information,” wrote the FBI, and recording those techniques could sway a jury—to which an unknown official added the handwritten annotation: “So we want to hide the truth? Don’t [sic] want jury to reach its own judgment?”

Apparently not. The Justice Department ultimately sided with the law enforcement agencies, noting that it’s best to hide “unsettling” interrogation techniques from juries, even when it was those techniques that extracted the confession.

As Greenwald explains, this is particularly disturbing, because interrogation techniques would only come up in those cases in which a defendant’s confession was in dispute. And in those cases, the agents would almost certainly already be asked about their techniques at trial. The very purpose of a video, then, would be to determine who’s telling the truth.

You know what? Now that I’ve typed out all my thoughts, I am angry. And I think that if the American people become familiar with this — if our lazy worthless media does their fucking job — Americans will get angry about it. (And despite Boortz’s bitching, 72% of Americans think this should be investigated, according to a poll I can’t find at the moment).

It’s just another example of the incompetence, political viciousness, authoritarianism and deception that has increasingly defined this Administration.

Politics, Science and Edumacation

More of the Same

This won’t work. Various school districts are proposing to lengthen the school day in an effort to get higher test scores.

But the problem is fundamental. It’s qualitative not quantitative. Having the kids in the same shitty schools for thirty more minutes or thirty more years is not going to improve things.

It’s getting back to the fundamental problem of government. Since output can’t be measured, input is. And so we assume that if we’re spending lots of money, hiring lots of teachers and forcing the kids – who are already bored, resentful and negative toward education – to spend more time at it, that must be an improvement.

But it’s not – not for everone anyway. And we could be educating these kids effectively with less money, less time and less homework. We know this, because we did it in this country for decades and see it going on all over the world. If we introduce competition between schools, we would see more effective innovation and improvement.

I have a big post on education in the queue. I’ll post it soon.

There is one bright point in the article. And it emphasizes something I’ve said — education is best run at the level closest to the students. This innovation, whether it works or not, is being driven by the states and is tailored to the schools that need the most help. The “one size fits all” model that Big Education (and our President) have been ramming down our throats is breaking down.

If only we could give them a little more freedom.

Politics

Disclaimer

As the traffic increases, I should make sure that everyone coming here knows that the views expressed here are the author’s private opinion and do not reflect the views of the University of Texas, McDonald Observatory, the National Science Foundation, NASA, STScI, the University of Virginia, Cyberstrux, WordPress or anyone else I have ever been associated with in any professional capacity whatsoever.

Like the sign says, these are the random farts of an undisciplined mind.

Politics

Iran Attacks

Expect a lot of saber-rattling from the Right about Iran taking 15 British sailors into custody. Neal Boortz will be calling for a bombing attack. But I suspect this will work itself out. Iran is trying to provoke an attack to shore up their government and give them an excuse to get into Iraq. Let’s not give them what they want.

Politics, Socialism, Sports

Thursday Linkorama

  • The State Department decides to improve foreign relations by lecturing foreign governments on money laundering. Our stupid War on Drugs will be the death of us all.
  • The NCAA shows its usual aplomb by putting favorite teams in better hotels than Cinderellas — although it’s hilarious to hear a modern hotel with 19-inch TV’s described as a “log cabin”. The NCAA also set up the bracket to ensure that teams from minor conferences faced each other early. Because we don’t want a Boise State or somebody ruining what’s supposed to be a big conference showcase.
  • An analysis of the uninsured. Tell me again why we should be ponying up for these cheapskates?
  • It’s a good thing government is saving us from unprofessional decorating. Seriously, who thinks of this crap? And what nincompoop votes it into law?
    • Politics, Science and Edumacation

    On Cable

    Chris has been bitching about his new cable carrier. I have read similar complaints on a number of blogs.

    The thing is, there is very little choice when it comes to cable. It is not a “free market” in any sense that the followers of Adam Smith would recognize. The nation is divided into fiefdoms that are assigned to various companies. And the cost of cable has risen even as the cost of cell phone, home phones and long distance have plunged.

    Why do I bring this up? Because public schools are the same way. Children have no choice, no competition but are assigned to the school they are nearest to. And our schools are spending twice per pupil what private schools are. But many of the people railing against cable company monopolies would lose it over the idea of introducing competition into the public school system.

    So every time you turn on your cable and find the signal out, or the picture fuzzy; every time you look at a bill that read $150; think to yourself, “Inner city kids are getting in education what I’m getting in cable service.”

    Politics, War on Terror

    Reviewing Boortz, Part Duh

    Having praised Boortz, I want to talk about my biggest point of disagreement – one that is coming more and more to the fore with the so-called conservatives.

    You see, Neal blames the problems in Iraq on the Democrats. Yes, the Democrats.

    Apparently, the negativism and lack of support has encouraged the Islamists to ramp up their guerilla war. While we thought they were building incendiary devices, they were really glued to CNN seeing if the war was popular here so that they knew whether or not to fight us. Never mind that they are primarily fighting each other right now.

    My attitude toward this idea can probably discerned by my tone.

  • The Democrats did not authorize torture at Abu Ghraib. And they certainly never gloated about information obtained under coercion.
  • The Liberal Media did not decide that terror suspects, whether citizens and non-citizens, could be detained indefinitely, interrogated forcefully and never presented with evidence against them. Nor did they decide suspects could be sent to fricking Syria to be tortured.
  • Al Franken did not go into Iraq with 100,000 fewer troops than we needed. Michael Moore didn’t lower the recruitment standards to admit criminal, morons and drugs addicts. Rosie O’Donnel didn’t underfunded our soldiers. Yeah, yeah, Clinton cut military spending blah blah blah. Gee, you’d think having the GOP in power for six years might have changed that. Ronald Reagan, with a Democratic Congress, turned our military around in less time.
  • Tim Robbins didn’t devise this idea of stopping insurgents by driving them out of an area and then leaving them to take it back.
  • Ted Kennedy wasn’t the one who decided to deliberately piss off the rest of the world to score political points at home.
  • It wasn’t Nancy Pelosi who thought Donald Rumsfeld was the greatest Secretary of Defense in American history.
  • It wasn’t Daily Kos who decided to not establish law and order, to de-Bathify, to break up the Iraqi military and to let half a million tons of explosives go loose after the war.
  • And no one at Huffington Post tried to paper over intelligence failures by changing the rationale behind the war.

    • No, it was Bush who did all of these things.

    Has the dissent of the media and the Dems hurt our efforts in Iraq? It probably has (although I don’t recall the conservatives being terribly supportive when Clinton took us into Kosovo). But if you remember the early months of the war, both were highly supportive. Remember the imbeds and the positive reports they made? It was only after Iraq began to spin out of control that the criticism ramped up.

    You know, it’s funny how Bush is the Commander in Chief when it comes to war powers and bending the Constitution. But when it comes to responsibility, nothing is ever laid at his door. It’s the Democrats’ fault for objecting; it’s the media’s fault for portraying failure in Iraq; it’s the Iraqis’ fault for being sectarian; its the American people’s fault for being a bunch of wusses; it’s Hollywood’s fault; it’s Air America’s fault; it’s Andrew Sullivan’s fault. It’s someone’s, anyone‘s fault other than the one person whose job it is to take responsibility for our foreign policy.

    As I said before. Is Bush ever responsible for anything?

    Politics

    Reviewing Boortz – On Optimism

    I recently read Neal Boortz’s “Somebody’s Gotta Say It!” I was actually surprised by the book, which is lucid, thoughtful and entertaining. I expected a lot more diatribes and ranting and raving. I actually expected him to just cut and paste from his Daily Nealz Nuze. But instead Boortz lays out his quasi-Libertarian political philosophy and argues passionately and persuasivley in favor of it.

    One thing that jumped out at me was that Neal’s a lot more pessimistic than I am about this country. There is a tendency among conservatives and libertarians to romanticize the past, to imagine that all the dumb stupid things going on in our society are new. But that is not the case. We are making progress — slow, halting, stupid progress — but progress none the less.

    The ideals this nation and our Constitution have not been betrayed so much as many of them have never been fully realized. Our attempts to get those ideals realized is a perpetual struggle. But this country was in far worse shape in, for example, 1939, when FDR’s packed court was completely re-inventing the Constitution.

    I mean, just think of what has happened in my lifetime. The marginal tax rate has been cute from 70% to its current 36% (although the Dems are trying to raise it to 53). Communism has been defeated. Socialism discredited. Welfare reform has given new life to tens of millions. Tort reform is starting to take effect. Voucher programs are beginning to appear despite the best efforts of Big Education.

    And compare where America is now to where it was when my grandfathers were born in 1902. They grew up in a barely literate America; I’ve grown up when illiteracy is rare. They had famines; I’ve never heard of Americans starving to death. The typical lifespan is now into the late 70’s or 80’s and we can hope to be healthy for most of that. Disease is unheard of — fully 3/4 of us are taken out by accident or old age. I, a middle class person, can wake up the morning in Texas, read anything written around the world on my laptop, get on an airplane and go to bed in Australia. My wife and embryonic daughter have a very good chance of surviving the birth (knock on wood). Americans presently have more disposal income, more free time and more wealth than anyone could have imagined in 1902.

    Politically, lynchings are gone; segregation is gone; I can write whatever comes into my fool head on the internet. Up until recently, Presidents had lost their ability to read our mail, listen to our phones and throw us in prison for no reason. These rights had always existed in principle but only came into practice with mass media watchdogging. The world is more peaceful than it has ever been.

    Bill James once said that progress often comes in the appearance of its opposite. The near race-war we had in the 60’s was not the result of a resurgence of discrimination but by American refusing to put with it any more. The battles we are having over education, gun control, government spending and civil liberties are primarily the result of Americans taking back their freedom, not politicians taking it away.

    That’s my philosophical disagreement with Boortz. Like a lot of conservatives, including me on bad days, he sees only the bad. Government not living up the Constitition; massive spending orgies; a bankrupt future; creeping socialism. But I believe these are setbacks that can be fought. And part of it is books like Boortz’s that lay out the case for freedom.