Category Archives: Politics

An Actual Genuine Fillibuster

God help me, I agree with Rand Paul.  Yesterday, he actually got up to speak for hours against John Brennan’s nomination as CIA head.  His focus was targeted drone strikes which the Obama administration has claimed unlimited authority to do.  I have nothing against John Brennan, but kudos to Rand Paul for actually getting up and doing something about this.  Targeted drone strikes against American citizens is a crime against the Constitution.

I guess I should say I only partly agree with Rand Paul.  He seems to only be worried about the targeted killing of Americans on American soil and doesn’t seem to care at all about targeting them in other countries.  As if your rights as a citizen disappear because you cross a border.  This leads me to believe that he really doesn’t actually care about the targeted drone strikes and that he’s just making political hay out of an incredibly important issue.

I’m glad someone’s taking about this issue, but grow some balls, Rand Paul.  Targeted killings of Americans is either wrong or it isn’t.  It depends not on where the American happens to be standing.

Republicans Don’t Want A Grand Bargain

This Ezra Klein article gets to the heart of the obstructionism that is the meat and potatoes of the Republican party.  Barack Obama is Charlie Brown and the Republican party is Lucy.  Every time Charlie Brown tries to kick that football, Lucy pulls it away.  And no matter how many times this happens, it’s still Obama’s fault that there is no Grand Bargain.  Because, you see, he’s not acting at all leader-y with his compromising.  Or he’s not communicating well with his detailed plan that anyone can read.

There is literally nothing Obama can do to get Republicans on board with any of his ideas.  Obama has presented the Republican party with a deal that includes EVERYTHING that they want and only one thing that they don’t want; a slight raising of taxes.  Bargaining requires two parties that are willing to bargain.  Republicans are not.  And instead of covering this fact, we get a bunch of press articles about how both sides are to blame.  Both sides are very decidedly not to blame in this instance.  It’s all Republicans.

 

AIDS Cured In Newborn

A baby in Mississippi appears to have been cured of AIDS!  As with any extraordinary claim, they’ll need to get some backup to see if it’s actually true or not, but what a breakthrough if it’s true!

If it’s true, this will be only the second human to have successfully been cured of AIDS.  The first was a man in Germany who got a bone marrow transplant in 2007 from another man who had an HIV resistant mutation.  Obviously, that needs to be taken with a grain of salt as well.

Some things that I didn’t know.  The United States has been very successful at limiting the transmission of HIV from mother to child through pregnancy and birth.  Thanks to a wonderful prenatal medicine operation, only 200 children a year are born HIV positive in the U.S.  Compare that to the rest of the world where there are more than 300,000.

Prenatal medicine is vastly important.  Medicaid is a primary source of prenatal medicine funding for poor people.  Think about that if you think we should cut Medicaid.

You Have No Idea How Bad Inequality Has Gotten

Below is a video that really gets to the heart of how unequal society has gotten.  Think about this the next time you complain about Obama wanting to raise taxes on the top 1%.  These people aren’t going to suddenly stop creating jobs because their taxes go up a percentage point or two.  They are amassing wealth because they enjoy the power, not because they enjoy the wealth.  And even if they do like the wealth, do you honestly think that they’re just going to stop accumulating it just because their taxes go up?

One minor quibble about the video.  They get socialism wrong.  Socialism’s goal is not, nor has it ever been, perfect redistribution of wealth.  Although, I guess they do use the definition that everybody seems to think socialism means.

Oh Noes, Sequestration!

It’s Sequestration Day in Washington D.C. and it’s much ado about nothing.  $1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years, half cuts to defense and half to discretionary spending.  The big secret is neither party really cares.  Everything you’re reading trying to blame the other side is just posturing.  Both parties want much more discretionary spending cuts and there are enough Republicans that want defense spending cuts to make this a pretty good deal.  So really, if you don’t work in the areas affected by the sequestration, you won’t even know it has happened.

There is some talk of cutting military salary, but I have to assume that’s just an empty threat.  If it is an empty threat, shame on the Obama administration for making it.  There are so many more ways to cut defense spending like the F-35 Joint Suffocation Fighter.  That doesn’t mean that they will, of course.

The big challenge is the looming governmental shutdown that will occur near the end of March if Congress doesn’t bother passing a budget.  If that happens, we’re likely in for another recession.  The biggest roadblock there is Republicans.  Basically, Obama is willing to give Republicans everything they want and is only asking to return tax rates to Clinton era levels.  You know, when the economy was in the crapper.  Oh, wait, no, that’s not right.

Ah, Those Blacks And Their Racial Entitlement

Really crappy decision week continues at the Supreme Court.  This time, it’s the Voting Rights Act.  During oral arguments, Justice Scalia had the gall to say:

Now, I don’t think that’s attributable to the fact that it is so much clearer now that we need this. I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement. It’s been written about. Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.

Yes, that’s what the Voting Rights Act was designed for, racial entitlement.  You know, being allowed to vote and stuff.  Entitlement.  And once they have that entitlement, it’s so hard to take it away from them later.  Then you get black people being president and stuff.

My favorite part is “It’s been written about.”  So have unicorns.  Doesn’t make it real.  Plus, where has it been written about?  Stormfront?

The writing’s on the wall.  The Voting Rights Act is all but dead.  Post-racial America will soon be getting more post-racialer.

Your Paranoid Delusions Are Well Founded

It’s really crappy decision week at the Supreme Court.

First up on the list, FISA.  FISA stands for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.  It’s the ultra-secret act that our wonderful government uses to spy on Americans suspected of being bad guys.  The Court ruled earlier this week that it is impossible to bring a suit against the Federal Government unless you can prove they are spying on you.

“How are you supposed to prove that a super secret federal program is spying on you”, you ask?  What a great question!  I’m pretty sure the answer is, “you aren’t”.  So with this final hurdle, the Supreme Court has now given the Federal Government carte blanche to spy on its citizens.

The Legislative Branch wiped its ass with the 4th Amendment in 2001, 2007, and 2008 when they passed the bills.  George W. Bush wiped his ass with the 4th Amendment when he signed each bill into law.  Barack Obama wiped his ass with the 4th Amendment when his administration defended the Act in the courts.  And now the Supreme Court has finally wiped its ass with the 4th Amendment and flushed it down the toilet.

God bless America.

The Sunlight Foundation Is Awesome

Presenting Open States!  It’s a website dedicated to aggregating all state level legislative activity in one place.  How cool is that?

It’s always seemed funny to me how more people pay attention to national politics than they do to state politics.  I include myself in that bunch.  Much of it is because national politics gets covered in much greater quantities.  (I was going to say detail, but that is certainly not right.)  State politics just isn’t easy to follow.  This is a perverse reality since your state’s politics is generally much more important to your everyday life than the crap that’s happening in Washington D.C.  Maybe sites like Open States will change that and allow us to keep better tabs on our state legislators.

Don’t Worry, There Is No War Against Women

Republicans like women just fine.  As long as they fit a very specific mold.  First, you have to be attracted to men.  But not too much.  No sleeping around.  Viagra, yes.  Birth control, no.  Second, you have to be attractive to men.  But not too much.  Aim for something sexier than a burqa but not as sexy as yoga pants.  Your sexiness level will be individually judged by every man you meet.  You must please them all.  Third, you really only should get beat up by men who are your significant others.  All that talk about lesbians and transgendered folks really creeps Republicans out so stop being all non-cisgendered.  Fourth, you really should try to be white.  You should especially not be Native American.  Well, no, that’s not quite true.  You can be Native American, but white people can do what they want with you and don’t come running to us when the law doesn’t protect you.

Never say that Republicans aren’t highly principled.  Their principles just happen to be abhorrent and they’re willing to scorch the earth to defend them.  “Only the women that we recognize as real women will be protected from violence or no women will be protected from violence.”  Class acts, all of them.

This Is Not The Budget Deficit You Are Looking For

The United States has a long term budget problem.  That problem has nothing to do with too much spending on defense or building bridges to nowhere.  That problem is almost entirely a healthcare problem.  Medicare and Medicaid are, by far, the largest drivers of our deficits.  If anyone tells you otherwise, they either don’t understand large numbers or they are deliberately trying to mislead you.

As the Baby Boomers get older, the costs of Medicare and Medicaid will increase dramatically.  Or will they?  Yes, yes they will.  But!  But, it’s looking likelier that things are not nearly as bad as everybody predicted they would be.

You see, the problem has been that, for decades now, the cost of healthcare has been growing much faster than everything else in the economy.  So, predictions of future costs has always assumed that Medicare and Medicaid would continue to grow much faster than the economy.  For the last few years, that hasn’t been true. Healthcare appears to have started growing apace with the economy.  This changes everything.  Those massive predicted deficits almost disappear.

Of course, the $500 billion question is if healthcare costs growing apace with the economy is a new normal or a temporary adjustment.  I believe that it is a new normal.  It seems economically dubious that healthcare spending would continue to grow faster than the broader economy forever.  I can’t think of another industry that has had this long of a run rising costs for customers.  Healthcare isn’t like other industries, though, so maybe that thinking is flawed.  With Obamacare and the level of governmental oversight that it brings, I’m guessing that healthcare spending will slow down as a greater emphasis is placed on bring costs down.