Category Archives: Politics

Life As Seen Through A PRISM

By now, you’re probably aware of the super secret PRISM program that collects towering amounts of metadata from phone companies.  Some people are blase about the revelation and some people are apoplectic about it.  Most, it appears, fall into the blase category.

Many people seem to laugh at people being concerned about the government collecting so much data about its citizens when companies like Google and Facebook and every place with a rewards card collects this same data all the time.  Those people are missing the point.  Google has zero authority in limiting your autonomy.  Facebook can’t detain you.  The Federal Government can.  This is the difference.

Another canard that I’ve been reading is that law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from this data collection.  This is true.  But guess how many law-abiding citizens there are?  Zero.  (Well, maybe babies.)  There are so many Federal laws that it guarantees you break unknown laws with some regularity.  Think you haven’t unknowingly cheated on your taxes?

And that’s the problem.  You’re a law abiding citizen until your neighbor who you’ve had over to your house or is in the same dojo as you or has a kid on the same soccer team as your kid commits a Federal crime.  Then, suddenly, you’re being shown in the exact same place as him when he made a phone call to set off a bomb and all those meaningless pieces of data are no longer so meaningless to the FBI as they rip your life apart trying to tie you to the criminal to coerce you to cooperate with them.  This has been a common occurrence in the Muslim community.  But no one cares when it happens to Muslims.

All of that is really besides the point, though.  PRISM is wrong because no matter how minor the violation of our privacy, the raison d’etre for the program is a completely misguided endeavor.

Terrorism.  We spend billions of dollars a month to protect ourselves from terrorism.  Let’s be generous and say that we have lost 4,000 Americans to terrorism since 9/11.  To date, we have lost over 6,000 servicemen to the fight against terror.  This number pales in comparison to the amount of lost limbs and lost minds, not to mention the number of suicides.  And don’t forget the countless and forgotten innocents who were casualties of our wars.  We are spending billions of dollars a month to sacrifice more lives than we would if terrorism just occurred every once in a while as it will no matter how much we spend.  This is an absolutely bizarre state of affairs.

Why do we spend so much money and effort protecting ourselves from death by terrorism when that money could be spent much more wisely against things that cause countless more American deaths?  Over 500,000 people die from cancer every year.  Over 32,000 traffic deaths happen every year.  Both would likely shrink greatly if we were willing to put even a sliver of the billions of dollars a month into basic R&D or even subsidized treatments.  There are plenty of other examples that I can cite as I’m sure you could as well.

We have much less to fear from terrorism than we do from getting in our car every day and yet the former causes us to throw away our soldiers’ lives and our fortunes away while the latter is just accepted as a thing that may happen to us.  Our citizens care so much about freedom until it’s threatened by a terrorist and then they’re willing to throw away the freedom away to protect themselves from terrorists.  Alanis Morrisette would actually be correct about irony if she sung about this.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do anything to protect ourselves from terrorism, but we had a pretty good mechanism in place prior to the Patriot Act and other laws that erode our autonomy.  The only thing that 9/11 actually changed is America’s psyche.  We suffer from a national PTSD as a result.  Instead of the therapy that we so desperately needed, we were fed a constant diet of fear from our President and our Congress and our media and PRISM is the result.

All of this needs to stop.  We need to accept that, sometimes, terrorism will happen just like we accept that a car accident may happen every time we get behind the wheel.  The sole purpose of terrorism is to cause fear, to bypass our logical brains and force us to react emotionally.  In that, the terrorists have succeeded far better than they could possibly have imagined.  We have the ability to change that.  Now, all we need is the will.

Obama Administration Defeated! (That’s A Good Thing)

It’s not often that the Obama administration does something stupid when it comes to women’s rights, but their decision to attempt to put a stay on the ruling by a Federal judge to allow Plan B access over the counter certainly qualifies.  I don’t understand their logic in fighting this.  I can only assume that it’s to gain cred with the Religious Right.  If that is the case, Obama’s like the unpopular guy who keeps doing things he thinks the popular crowd  will like in the hopes that he’ll get invited to their parties.  You’re not going to get invited to their parties, Mr. President.  Please stop trying.

The good news is that another Federal judge has denied the Obama administration’s attempt.  Plan B will soon be available over the counter to women of all ages.  Women are a step closer to actually being able to control what happens with their own bodies.  No babies steps.  Ha!

Bye Bye Bachmann

(Sung to the tune of “Bye Bye Birdie”)

Bye-bye Bachmann. No one's gonna miss you, go.
Bye-bye Bachmann. Your mind is awful slow.
Still more crazies. I hope they'll follow you away.
I'll cry Bachmann, if you decide to stay.
I hate the way you rile,
inflicting religious misery.
Gay marriage gave you a fright,
While the rest of us scream, "Whoopie!"
Bye-bye Bachmann. It's awful nice to hear.
Bye-bye Bachmann. Don't let the door hit your rear!
Don't let it hit your reeeaaaar!
Don't let it hit your rear!


For you uncultured fools who do not get the reference:

Ta-Nehisi Coates Pokes The Obamas With A Stick

I think I have figured out my man-crush on Ta-Nehisi Coates.  He reminds me of Amy Gardner from “The West Wing”.  There is this scene where Josh is complaining to Amy that she’s supposed to be on their side and she responds: “First of all, I’m crazy about the President, Josh. I’ve been crazy about him for longer than you’ve known who he was. And I’ll keep poking him with a stick. That’s how I show my love.” That’s exactly what Coates is doing here where he’s talking about the Obamas and race:

I think the stature of the Obama family — the most visible black family in American history — is a great blow in the war against racism. I am filled with pride whenever I see them: there is simply no other way to say that. I think Barack Obama, specifically, is a remarkable human being — wise, self-aware, genuinely curious and patient. It takes a man of particular vision to know, as Obama did, that the country really was ready to send an African American to the White House.

But I also think that some day historians will pore over his many speeches to black audiences. They will see a president who sought to hold black people accountable for their communities, but was disdainful of those who looked at him and sought the same. They will match his rhetoric of individual responsibility, with the aggression the administration showed to bail out the banks, and the timidity they showed  in addressing a foreclosure crisis which devastated black America (again.)They wil weigh the rhetoric against an administration whose efforts against housing segregation have been run of the mill. And they will match the talk of the importance of black fathers with the paradox of a president who smoked marijuana in his youth but continued a drug-war which daily wrecks the lives of black men and their families. In all of this, those historians will see a discomfiting pattern of convenient race-talk.

I think the president owes black people more than this. In the 2012 election, the black community voted at a higher rate than any other ethnic community in the country. Their vote went almost entirely to Barack Obama. They did this despite of an effort to keep them from voting, and they deserve more than a sermon. Perhaps they cannot  practically receive targeted policy. But surely they have earned something more than targeted scorn.

Read the whole thing.  It’s a wonderful poking of of the stick at someone Ta-Nehisi Coates loves.

Virginia’s Terrible Triumverate

Virginia only has three statewide elected offices; Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General.  I’ve already covered the Republican candidate for Governor, Ken Cuccinelli, and the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor, E. W. Jackson, but I have neglected to cover the Republican candidate for Attorney General.

I present to you current state Senator Mark Obenshain.  As Senator, he sponsored a law that would require women who have miscarriages to report the miscarriage to the police or be guilty of a class one misdemeanor which carries up to a year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine.

Yeesh.  Nothing like treating a woman who just lost her baby like a presumed criminal.  And nothing like a party that decries governmental intrusion and yet somehow manages to nominate these three.  Oh, that’s right, they only care about governmental intrusion that affects them.

Wielding A +5 Sword Of Stupid

(h/t Scott Lemieux)

The Virginia Republican party sure has a knack for trying to appeal to the least common denominator.  First, they nominate Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli as their candidate for Governor.  This kind of makes sense given the direction the Republican party has been going.  Cuccinelli is a Tea Partier’s Tea Partier.  He spouts a whole bunch of nonsense and, unlike most politicians, he seems to believe the nonsense he spouts.  Maybe he’s just a good actor, though.

Now, Virginia Republicans have put chosen their Lieutenant Governor nominee to be on the ticket with Ken Cuccinelli and who is it?  A man named E. W. Jackson.  From the article, here are some of E. W. Jackson’s greatest hits:

He has said gays and lesbians are “very sick people, psychologically and emotionally” whose minds are perverted. He has also said homosexuality “poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies”
He called alleged Democratic Party ties to Planned Parenthood “more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was” and thinks blacks who join the Democratic Party are voluntarily selling themselves into slavery.
He has equated Islam with anti-semitism, and criticized President Obama forhaving “Muslim sensibilities,”
He led an “Exodus Now!” movement encouraging African Americans to leave the Democratic party because opposition to same-sex marriage and government endorsement of religion means “Democrats are engaged in a concerted effort to do away with all symbols of our Judeo-Christian culture.”
He rallied against hate crimes legislation as a “virulent strain of Anti-Christian bigotry and hatred.”

I was a little worried that Ken Cuccinelli would actually have a chance at winning in Virginia.  With the addition of E. W. Jackson to the ticket, I have to wonder if the Virginia Republican party doesn’t secretly hate Ken Cuccinelli and is actively trying to sabotage his candidacy.  Or maybe they’re acting out some sort of Machiavellian play nominating a crazy person and a bat-shit-crazy person to make the crazy person not look so bad.  This would give Republicans a chance to pat themselves on the back by voting for Cuccinelli for Governor and the Democrat for Lieutenant Governor.  “Look at how bipartisan I am!”  I guess time will tell.

Obama Scandal Rehash

It’s scandal season on Capitol Hill.  Time for Republicans to fling as much mud as possible and  hope something sticks.  Let’s see what they’ve got.

Benghazi

Outrage meter:  11

Who’s pissed:  Lots of Sturm und Drang fauxtrage from Republicans in Congress and actual outrage from citizens that are generally already pissed at Obama for one reason or another.

What happened:  Four Americans were killed in an ambush of our consulate in Benghazi, Libya during a much larger demonstration.

Why are people pissed:  It mostly boils down to “Obama is a lying liar who lies and is soft on terrorism.”  Republicans once again are painting Obama as “The Other” and the usual people are listening.  Obama is accused of is saying “act of terror” instead of “terrorist attack” when the attacks happened and not all information is known.  There was also some massaging of talking points between various agencies which happens for EVERY major incident and most minor ones.  There are also many loud calls that “OBAMA SHOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!” with every suggestion of “something” being blowing someone up.  I see prudence where others see a devious plot to defraud Americans.

Should people be pissed:  Nothing to see here, keep moving.

IRS Malfeasance

Outrage meter: 5 and climbing

Who’s pissed: Pretty much everyone that knows about it which still isn’t a lot of people.

What happened:  The IRS was targeting applications of non-profit entities with names that included “Tea Party” and “Patriot” and “Constitution” and “9/12” and various other names for special reviews.

Why are people pissed:  The IRS was targeting applications of non-profit entities with names that included “Tea Party” and “Patriot” and “Constitution” and “9/12” and various other names for special reviews!

Should people be pissed:  Yes and no.  It’s a pretty abhorrent practice on its surface and to not be pissed you need to know “inside baseball” levels of political history so people are rightly pissed if a bit misguided.  This was happening at a time when non-profit 501(c)(4) entities were given much broader fundraising abilities by the Supreme Court and the Tea Party was all the rage and applications for new 501(c)(4) entities skyrocketed and there was an inordinate amount of applications for the above keywords.  501(c)(4)s are not supposed to be political entities and the Tea Party, in general, certainly is so I can see the increased scrutiny in that case, but many of the other keywords are pretty squishy.  This was more of a fraud prevention measure than it was a deliberate targeting of right wing groups.  Right wing rage and 501(c)(4) growth just happened to occur at the same time.  And while the IRS almost certainly overstepped their bounds and they should take measures to fix this, the IRS is supposed to investigate suspicious increases in applications and that’s what they did.  Imagine if there was a marked increase in “John Doe” applications for welfare and the welfare department did nothing to investigate it.

Obamacare Private Fundraising

Outrage meter: 1

Who’s pissed:  Mostly just Republicans in Congress

What happened:  Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is in charge of enacting Obamacare.  One of the things she is charged with doing is setting up the exchanges.  She needed more money to set up the exchanges so she asked Congress for more money.  Republicans said no.  This puts Sebelius in the strange position of being required by law to create the exchanges but not having any money to do so.  Her solution was to ask private companies to help fund the implementation of the exchanges since Congress won’t.

Why are people pissed:  She actually may have broken the law.  There are many rules against an acting Secretary fundraising as Secretary but fundraising as Kathleen Sebelius is ok.  There are obviously conflicts of interest with this arrangement.  In order to whip up this scandal, Republicans are saying that this is worse than the Iran-Contra scandal, which is ridiculous.

Should people be pissed:  I honestly don’t know.  If she actually broke the law, certainly, but that’s not really clear at this point.  What lengths should you go to to enact a justly passed law when half of Congress wants to do anything in their power to stop you from enacting that law because they don’t have the votes to repeal it?

AP Phone Records

Outrage meter:  5

Who’s pissed:  Mostly just the media, but they have a large mouthpiece.

What happened:  The Justice Department secretly obtained the phone records from a bunch of Associated Press reporters.  Why they did this is unclear.  The assumption is that they were investigating a leak regarding a CIA operation to foil an airplane bombing plot.

Why are people pissed:  First Amendment!  Government intrusion!  Freedom of the press!

Should the be pissed:  Yes.  Even if they were investigating a leak of top secret information, the steps that the Justice Department took to find the leak overstepped bounds that shouldn’t be overstepped.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they broke the law.  It is almost trivially easy for the government to obtain information about it’s citizens these days.  Both Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame for this situation which is why they’ve been mostly silent on the issue.  May this scandal grow legs and lead to changing federal eavesdropping laws.

Department Of Completely Missing The Point

Oregon, for the past two years, has massively increased access to Medicaid.  (Correction: It wasn’t a massive increase, it was a drastic reduction and then more money was found to support 10,000 more participants when 90,000 were still eligible.)  Participants in the expansion were chosen by lottery.  This has led to a unique opportunity to study the effects of wider access to healthcare on the poor.  The results of that study were recently released.

The study is seen as a presage of what things will look like for poor people under Obamacare.  And, besides the ridiculous lottery aspect of it, it is.

The study shows that those added to Medicaid have no better medical outcomes than those that weren’t added to Medicaid.  This has led to a large amount of gloating from people who oppose Obamacare.   Oh noes!  Obamacare is a failure!  We told you it was a giant boondoggle!

Not quite.  First and foremost, Obamacare, like Medicaid, is insurance.  Plain and simple.  Insurance protects you financially.  Period.  And the study shows much better financial outcomes for those on Medicaid.  Expecting better health outcomes because you suddenly have health insurance is like expecting not to get into a car accident because you have car insurance.  It’s ridiculous.

There were also many other benefits associated with being on Medicaid.  These include drastically lowered rates of depression, better diagnosis and management of diabetes, and increased use of health services.

The mental health aspect of the study is enormous.  This cannot be understated.  Those in the Medicaid group had a 30% reduction in the rates of depression.  Depression leads to all sorts of other issues that don’t show up on a health screen.  Economic and social outcomes can be greatly affected by depression.  Being poor is bad enough.  Being poor and depressed can be disastrous.  If the only thing that Obamacare succeeds at is reducing depression by 30%, it will be well worth the money spent.

All in all, the Oregon Experiment is a good study for Obamacare.  Opponents, of course, will continue to pick any little nit they can find and there are certainly plenty of nits worth picking.  But, like I’m fond of saying, Obamacare is a bag of doggie poo left on the doorstep of America, but what was there before was a flaming bag of doggie poo.  Baby steps.

We Could have Housed 32,000 People But Instead We Built A Destroyer

I really need to learn more about Dwight D. Eisenhower.  By all accounts, he was a remarkable man. Army General.  Supreme Allied Commander.  President of the United States.

Somehow, though, his words and warnings are lost on the present batch of politicians at a time when they should be most listened to.  For example:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. … We pay for a single fighter plane with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

Beautiful in its simplicity.  That’s from Eisenhower’s “Chance for Peace” speech.  The numbers in the title of this post are the adjusted for 2013 numbers.  It is amazing what this country could do for the advancement of freedom if we just sacrificed a modicum of our security.

Two Terrorist Acts, One Prosecution

Nothing gets to the heart of the huge double standard in U.S. society between labor and business like the events of the past few weeks.  First we had the Boston Marathon bombings where three people were killed and over one hundred were injured.  This is obviously an act of terrorism.  Then we had the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed at least 15 and also injured over one hundred and also leveled a town.  Was this an act of terrorism?  Turns out yes it was.

As Eric Loomis points out, anyone that is stockpiling more than 400 lbs of ammonium nitrate must report the stockpile to the federal government.  To not do so violates federal anti-terrorism laws.  How much was West Fertilizer stockpiling at their plant?  604,000 lbs!  West Fertilizer either willfully or ignorantly violated anti-terrorism laws.  Shouldn’t the owners of the company be charged with acts of terrorism?  They willfully stockpiled an incredibly dangerous component often used in bomb making in the middle of a small town.  They did so without notifying the federal government as required by law.  The ammonium nitrate blew up.  More people were killed and injured than the Boston Marathon bombing.  And nothing.

I guarantee you that if a farmer had 401 lbs of ammonium nitrate stockpiled in a barn for fertilizer and it accidentally blew up causing his cows to be killed, the farmer would be treated like a terrorist.  And if that farmer happened to look non-white, there would be calls by Republican lawmakers to ship him to Guantanamo.  Our society allows businesses to commit grave harm to society and simply pay a fine for the harm caused.  That fine is often less than the profits gained from causing said harm.  This has to stop.

Another lesson we should learn from this disaster is that the federal regulatory process is in complete disarray and needs to be fixed.  The West Fertilizer plant was last inspected in 1985.  In that inspection, many serious violations were found at the plant.  The fine for these violations?  $30 and no followup inspections.  Remember West, Texas the next time you complain about the federal government’s “strict” regulations against business.  Yes, there are regulations that seem ridiculous, but most are there to protect the people of West, Texas from companies like the West Fertilizer Company.