Who's to Blame?

We are now roughly a week away from the day which the U.S. will begin to default on its obligations if the statutory debt ceiling is not raised.  Negotiations between Obama, and Congress resembles a Greek tragedy unfolding.  Each side is trying to blame the other for the situation we face.  I believe it is clear that, while the Republicans and their vow to Grover Norquist, which strangely enough is observed more stringently than some vows of marriage, is causing much of the issues we are seeing unfolding, the President has only himself to blame for even allowing us to get close to this situation.

President Obama is to blame not for his unwillingness to decimate social programs that aren't among the drivers of the debt.  His blame comes from the way he has executed the office of President of the United States.  Time and time again, in an effort to try and appear to be bipartisan, the President negotiated from a position of relative weakness, even when his party controlled both houses of Congress.

It started with the stimulus packages that was pushed for within his first 90 days.  Many people howled over the price tag of roughly $800 billion, and conservatives ultimately called it a failure.  In truth, the package was not too large, but much too stilted toward tax cuts and unemployment benefits, and failed to include enough actual job creating stimulus, that is why it began to loose steam in recent months.  At no time did you hear Barack Obama channel FDR and use his bully pulpit and dare to suggest a massive infrastructure investment that would have been bold and forward thinking.  In truth Barack Obama wasn't audacious in his plans but tried to find out how he could placate Ben Nelson.

During the healthcare reform debate, the President remained silent, never once challenging Congress on the expansion of Medicare as means to insure those who don't have employer provided insurance.  He remained silent while images of death panels were conjured up by his political opponents out of thin air in an effort to scare the electorate.

Over and over again, Barack Obama rewarded the bad behavior of the Republicans who wished to grind Congress to a halt rather than tackle the problems facing our nation during this economic downturn.  His unwillingness to use his bully pulpit and draw lines in the sand on issues such as the spending bills or extension of tax cuts for the top wage earners.  All this has done is shown that as President, he will negotiate with hostage takers, thus inviting more hostage taking.

Barack Obama has one last chance to be a strong leader and take decisive action in this debt ceiling debate, he must call upon the 14th Amendment, which states that the "debt of the government...shall not be questioned" and keep the government operating honor our obligations. This would be a bold move, and the actions of a leader who won't give in to hostage taking.

It is Time for A Little Common Sense

 The Gang of Six, or however many there are part of that cabal at this time, has come to save the day with a package to deal with the budget, deficits and raising the debt limit.  They propose spending cuts, raising revenues and plan on presenting this to Congress to pass and forward to the President for his signature and hope to avert the catastrophe of defaulting on our debt obligations.  This plan contains two huge problems.

First problem, is that it doesn't even come close to getting the budget process for the next fiscal year close to completion.  That is where the discussions of spending priorities should have occurred, but Obama let the Republicans in Congress link spending and the debt ceiling raise as one issue.  Look for all the talk of government shutdowns, and cataclysmic impasses to resume come September when we are facing the start of the new Fiscal year without a budget in place.

Second, their approach to bringing our nation's fiscal state under control fails to account for what has driven our deficits and debt increases over the last decade.  The Center for Budget and Priorities has examined the issues at length and their reports point to two issues that are largely responsible.  The first is the Bush Tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which by most estimates cost our treasury $2.5 trillion. Think Progress, outlined all of the ways which our nation could have spent this money: such as funding education and scholarships, hire millions of teachers, firefighters and policemen across the country.

The second biggest driver of our debt and deficit are the wars in Afghanistan Iraq and now Libya.  The Bush Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, were never included in the Bush budgets, and costs our nation billions per day to keep troops there.  The mission in Afghanistan, i.e. the rooting out of Al-Queda has been largely accomplished, and the handful of operatives still there do not warrant the presence of tens of thousands of American troops.  Operations like the one that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden, do not require that massive presence, since those troops can deploy anywhere in the world within hours and be onsite in a day or less in most cases. Declaring victory, bringing the troops home and remind the leaders of the region that we have the will and capability to deal with terrorists and bring them to justice and will not hesitate to take action in the future. The more these conflicts drag on, the closer we get to the quagmire that was Vietnam.

Before you sit by and meekly accept cuts to programs that benefit the vast majority of our society to protect the wealth of a privileged few, challenge your representatives in no uncertain terms to show where these programs drove the debt.  Challenge them to show how trickle-down, voodoo economics 2.0 fostered a climate of domestic job creation.  Truth is that there is no evidence to support either claim.  If we make our elected representatives accountable to the people rather than corporate interests we can make great strides in reclaiming our nation back from the forces that seek to return us to 1800s.

Rick Perry and the Right's Contention of U.S. Founded as a Christian Nation

Rick Perry, as part of his flirtation with the Republican base in preparation to run for President in 2012, called on leaders to join him in Houston next month for a day of Prayer and Fasting.  In response to this, many on the right point to the U.S. as being founded as a Christian Nation as justification for such a proclamation from a constitutionally bound public servant. In reality, one look at the men we consider our Founding Fathers tells a different story.

This generation of thinkers fed off the energy of enlightenment philosophy, where men such as Locke, Voltaire and Montesquieu wrote about man being able to discern his place in the world around him through the use of critical thought.  For many ages Europe found itself embroiled in wars which centered on which religion one followed.  In England this was no different, Catholic and Anglican factions fought for years as to who would control the fate of the nation.  This is party why the U.S was founded as a secular nation which respected all religions yet would not endorse one or make religious affiliation a test for public office (Yes Herman Cain, you would be constitutionally barred from requiring Muslim-Americans to take a special loyalty oath as test for public trust).  The First Amendment and later through the Fourteenth Amendment, the Federal Government and States were prohibited from establishing official religions.

If you want further proof, look no further then a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Horatio Spafford in March of 1814: " In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose"

The Republicans have fanatically courted the Christians, especially through the Bible Belt, through the use of coded language meant to goad them into voting for the Republican Candidate.  In recent times the same Republicans, elected partially on the strength of the voting in the bible belt have attacked public education and these maps might show why:

The greatest concentration of those with the least education sits in the bible belt, an area that is quite reliably Republican leaning, even thought Republican economic policy ignores the economic circumstances for the vast majority living there.

The Republicans must attack education, because the greater the level of education the less of a chance that they will blindly follow something rather than question and examine the world around themselves. 

This Bud's for you...except if you live in Minnesota that is

Minnesota is as of right now still closed for business.  While their former Governor, Tim Pawlenty,  is out touting his record in Minnesota which created the mess they are trying to clean up. Their government shut-down, which could begin to resemble what the U.S. would look like if the Republicans continue to cling to their blood oath to Grover Norquist and refuse any semblance of common-sense in their approach to raising the debt ceiling.

Now while much of story that has come out of Minnesota has focused upon the closure of highway rest areas and state parks, it is the unintended consequences of the shuttering of government offices that has been featured of late.

Nobody considered all the work that the Minnesota civil servants do on a daily basis, but the fruits of their labor will become clear in the near future, since average Minnesotans will be touched by their absence soon. 


First up: the alcohol tax office.  It seems that many distributors, bar owners and retailers have licenses to buy beer that have lapsed or will soon lapse with no way of renewing them.  Miller Coors' failed to renew their trademark for brand labels and pulled all its products from shelves. If the shutdown goes on much longer, Minnesota will resemble a dry county in the bible belt, and with the state of Minnesota professional sports, that can't be a good thing.

Next in a closely related manner, there is nobody to collect taxes and issues tax stamps on tobacco, so the amount of cigarettes, cigars and the like is rapidly diminishing.  While this might not hurt the profits of big tobacco too terribly, especially since they have shifted focus on peddling their wares without regulation and oversight in the 3rd world especially Indonesia, where even 2yr olds chain smoke (though the child has since quit his 2pk a day habit).

Third is the shuttering of Canterbury Park and their thoroughbred racing season. The government shutdown has closed the Racing Commission offices, so there is no governing body to oversee and officiate the races.  Canterbury Park has cancelled their 9th straight racing card and could rapidly face its horsemen moving operations to other tracks, thus compromising the entire meet if a solution to the track shuttering isn't reached soon. 

All of this courtesy of the mess left by Tim Pawlenty, and he wants to do for America what he did for Minnesota, for the sake of the nation I hope not.

Rick Perry's Real Texas Miracle

Time for another humorous look at the state of Texas politics today.

Rick Perry, when he isn't scheming with his cronies in the Lege, has been flirting with the Republican primary voters hot and heavily.  He has been touting what he and other call the "Texas Miracle" and I am pretty sure that he doesn't mean the precise makeup of his hair care product regimen.

He points out to all the jobs he created in the face the great recession as proof positive that a steady diet of lax regulation, low taxes and fervent pro business environment are the keys for economic prosperity.  But as Tip O'Neill was fond of saying, "You are entitled to a difference of opinion, but not your own set of facts..." and Slick Rick certainly has a problem with the facts.

In a recent article in  Fiscal Times by Merrill Goozner, the truth of the state of the Texas economy becomes clear, it isn't the land of milk and honey.  Beginning with W, or as Molly Ivins christened him, Shrub,(Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush) Texas began a race to the bottom, see how far they could go toward privatizing everything.  Such brilliant ideas as No Child Left Behind, got their start right here in the Lone Star State, and boy have the standardized testing companies showed their appreciation for getting all that extra business.

Sadly today, Texas is slipping in education, and with another $5 billion cut from that budget, maybe they can finally achieve Perry and his cronies goal of finally getting that coveted 50th place ranking in education.  Texas is the only state that ranks in greatest number of citizens among the wealthiest and living in poverty, with more headed to the latter group monthly.

While Rick Perry may boast of all the jobs that have been created here, we are nowhere close to North Dakota in unemployment rate or job creation. Also with a future where the Texas labor pool will gradually become less well educated, companies that came here to tap into a well educated workforce will leave and take their jobs with high salaries to other states who can provide an educated workforce.

When and if Slick Rick announces his intention to run for President in 2012, we should all remember that when he speaks of a Texas Miracle, he is really talking about him still surviving as Governor.....but as Kinky Friedman said, the job of Governor of Texas is so easy, George W Bush could do it.

How Democratic is the Electoral Process

Has anyone ever really sat down and questioned the process we go through to choose our President?  If you take a little bit of time to look at it, it is a process that puts the greatest power in the hands of Iowa and New Hampshire at the expense of giving the majority of Americans to opportunity to have their voice heard in any meaningful way.

If we look at the elections process that much of the nation follows where party primaries are followed by a general election, the Presidency is alone in how little say the vast majority of voters have in the candidates themselves.  In many cities where you have more than two candidates vying for the party nomination, a citywide primary is held and either one candidate wins a clear majority and becomes the nominee or the race moves into a runoff where the two two candidates in vote count face the electorate again.  For President we see primary elections and assorted caucuses spread out over several months, and only one or two many actually have any significant impact on the party's choice of candidates.

There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the residents of Iowa and New Hampshire de facto control of our process for selecting candidates to represent the two major parties in the Presidential election.  What about the states that come toward the middle of end of the electoral process, if the candidates for President are already decided what incentive is there to go to the poll?   This is one of the central arguments made when we discuss the calling of the national elections.  In years where the race for President is decided early and called, there was a significant drop off in voters in the Pacific time Zone and West showing up for the polls, why...because the major race has already been decided.

There is much to be debated when we speak of reforming our electoral process.  Mark Crispin Miller's book Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008 shows us how little transparency we have in our elections, and how widespread fraud regularly occurs.  We can also spend significant time debating a move towards publicly financed elections to insulate the process from monied interests seeking to subvert the system.    The first step we could take as a nation is to move to a national primary day during our Presidential Election Year.  This would give the entire electorate a chance to evaluate the candidates and weigh in on their choice to head their party's ticket in November instead of having a small few voters in Iowa and New Hampshire usurp this responsibility

Austerity equals Jobs?...Fuzzy Math or Voodoo Economics 2.0

Many people remember the 80s when we heard our political leaders speaking about fuzzy math or voodoo economics when it came to describing their opponents economic policies.  In the wake of the great hostage debate, better known as the debt ceiling talks, it would appear that voodoo economics is poised to make a comeback.

In a recent study conducted by the Center for American Progress, a not too surprising correlation has been found between government spending cuts and the job market.  Their study found that the states that cut their budgets lost jobs in proportion to the amount cut from the budget.  Or to put it simply, when states cuts their budgets and reduced spending their unemployment rate increased.   Does this sound familiar?

Paul Krugman thinks this sounds eerily familiar. He likens President Obama's adoption of the rights fiscal mantra to Hoover and his economic policies.  Any economist who studied the Great Depression points to the point in which congress and the President prematurely focus upon the deficit and debt matters as the point in which the second dip in the recession began.  When government stops spending, one doesn't usually see private industry jump in and fill the void, they do the opposite and anticipate reduced demand by shedding jobs and reducing output.

So the Republican Party lead by Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell are pursuing their stated policy agenda, to ensure Barack Obama has the best chance of being a one term president.  Unfortunately this policy is inherently bad for American's struggling in this economy.  They seem to be as Senator Shumer from NY suggested, opening trying to destroy the economy for political ends.

Bill Maher points out the problem in no uncertain terms, that we continually fail act in our own self-interests and propel ourselves closer to the cliff and thus eliminating every societal gain realized during the 20th Century.  When you have Warren Buffett and others point out that they pay less taxes than their secretaries, we might want to listen.  The 8yrs of George W. Bush's economic policies of lower takes on the wealthy resulted in a net job loss, while Clinton's modest tax increase resulted in the greatest economic boom our nation has ever seen, so the choice become clear.   This latest pitch of low taxes and austerity demanded by Grover Norquist is really just some more fuzzy math and voodoo economics that will do nothing but doom American prosperity. 

The Conscience of a Liberal Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back Hopes and Prospects

The Texas Democrats' Circular Firing Squad

There is probably no greater voice describing Texas politics than the late Molly Ivins. Using her sharp wit, she wove tales of just how interesting the Texas political scene and those who represented the people in the lege as she called it. I can only imagine what she would have written in her column about the session of the Texas Legislature that just concluded, but would have been amusing to say the least.

Even if we didn't pay attention to Rick Perry preening for the cameras and flirting with the Republican rank and file about possibly putting his hat in the ring and make a run for President in 2012, Texas politics has been nothing but interesting since the lege closed up shop and headed home for a couple years. Most of the action on the part of the Democratic Party and their propensity to form a circular firing squad.

Since the days where free wheelin' Tom DeLay had been spreading Jack Abramoff's money around, the Republicans in the state of Texas have been trying to get rid of Lloyd Doggett. Lloyd Doggett had been representing the capital city of Austin for many years and was a source of constant irritation to Tom DeLay and the rest of the Texas caucus. His voting record is stellar, getting high marks from NAACP, ACLU, and civil and gay rights organizations. Though probably not on the NRA's Christmas card list, and that might be what irked Tommy DeLay. Doggett Survived the 2003 redistricting that was supposed to oust him, and now it 2011 the lege was going to try and have at it again.

After the district maps came out Lloyd Doggett became resigned to run in, if the plan is approved, in the newly created 35th district, that stretches from San Antonio through southern Austin along the I-35 Corridor. Now the fun begins.

Joaquin Castro, one of the rising stars of the Texas Democratic Party decides he wants to run for Congress. Does he pick, either of the two incumbent Republicans whose districts include parts of San Antonio? Of course not, he declares to run against the most progressive and solid Dem in the Texas Caucus. The fervor that the Texas Republicans have shown in their efforts to oust Doggett from Congress speaks volumes about good of a Democratic soldier he is. To choose to run against him and make his path to re-election that much more difficulty, is in effect doing the bidding of the Republican party. So instead of keeping a good soldier in Congress and targeting one of your own, the Texas Dems opt for the circular firing squad, results be damned.

Doggett Survived the 2003 redistricting that was supposed to oust him, let us hope a rising Democratic star doesn't accomplish what Tom DeLay tried to do 8 years ago. 

The week of injustice....

Today, America seemed transfixed as they sat waiting with bated breath to hear the verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial. When the jury found her not guilty, many feigned shock and outrage at such an injustice. Much like the OJ Simpson case, the prosecution built a case on forensics and circumstantial evidence and when the defense brought that evidence into doubt, the case falls apart. That does not mean that she didn't commit the crime, but that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Casey Anthony's guilt to a jury.

While all of this went on, the Supreme Court committed a real injustice in the case of Connick v. Thompson. In this case the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office headed by Harry Connick Sr. tried John Thompson for murder. A jury found Thompson guilty and sentenced him to death. He spent the next 18 years in prison, including 4 on death row. Shortly before his 1999 execution case, a private investigator uncovered evidence that the DA's office withheld which would have proved Thompson's innocence. He was freed, then sued the DA's office for wrongful imprisonment. A jury found the DA's office liable in that action and awarded him $14 million in damages. Based upon precedent in a 1963 case, Brady v. Maryland, where the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors had the duty to hand over all evidence, including evidence that might prove the defendant's innocence during discovery as part of fulfilling the constitutional requirement of due process. This Supreme Court thought differently.

Our favorite Justice, Clarence Thomas, authored the majority opinion where, in a surprise vote of 5-4, the Court held that the DA's office could not be held liable for the actions of a lone prosecutor. In defense of decency, Justice Ginsburg authored a scathing dissent and opted to read it aloud in open session. She clearly pointed to numerous cases over period of many years where the DA's office under Connick routinely suppressed exculpatory evidence, particularly in capital cases.

When you look at these two cases, while Casey Anthony's case can be labeled tragic, it is the Thompson case which seriously undermines our sense of justice, which is the bedrock our nation and its freedom is built upon.