Gettin' It Done - 25

At the risk of sounding way too "centrist":  I'm not a fan of the Liberal vs Conservative thing, especially where the courts are concerned.  I have to be able to make whatever judgment call I need to make based on what my gut and my brain tell me is the right thing to do without a lot of clutter and noise caused by ideology or party alignment.  I'd like judges to do the same.

I don't like thinking Scalia and Aleto and Roberts are crafting decisions based on what political impact they believe it might have on the the other 2 branches.  If I'm against "conservatives" doing that, then I have to be against "my side" doing it too.

Seems like we're kinda forced into it though; forced into thinking we have to take one side or the other, but if it's just always Us vs Them, how are we supposed to get past the conflict?  How do we move towards compromise and then onto resolution?

25. Protected Two Liberal Seats on the U.S. Supreme Court: Nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve, in 2009; and Elena Kagan, the fourth woman to serve, in 2010. They replaced David Souter and John Paul Stevens, respectively.

A Favorite Trick

From Addicting Info:

While the right-wing blamed the collapse on favoritism, and that the company was doomed from the start, checking on the history of the commodities market reveals another story. In 2006, when Solyndra applied for its loan, the cost of materials for the various types of solar panels was rather stable. What happened next, however, is what caused the whole system to collapse.

Guys with lots of money (and therefore lots to gain or lose depending on how things go) are always looking for ways to game the system.  Nobody doesn't know that.  If you think otherwise, please - having even a shred of decency or regard for humanity left in your being - avoid the use of tools and don't drive.  Stay inside at your computer until you learn enough not to be dangerous to the people around you.

These guys make big contributions to (ie: investments in) Congress Critters, and one of the perks they're paying for is access to inside information regarding markets and opportunities - as well as having a hand in shaping the policies that have huge effects on those markets and opportunities.

BTW - Free Market Competition?  Good for thee but not me, bumpkin.

So, you can stall the movement towards renewable energy and you can score points for the Red Team by making Obama look bad, and you can rake in a big pile of dough doin' it.

There is no soul and no honor in any of this.

A New One For Me

A friend of mine sent me the link to this thing.  I get a real kick outa the pure weirdness of Retro Americana.

(hat tip = JG)

Gettin' It Done - 26

26. Improved Food Safety System: In 2011, signed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which boosts the Food and Drug Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expands its regulatory responsibilities to include increasing number of food inspections, issuing direct food recalls, and reviewing the current food safety practices of countries importing products into America.

Seems like your basic no-brainer, don't it?  Here's the problem with letting a free market take care of these things:  dead people.  

It makes perfect sense that any company is going to do whatever it can do to protect its reputation.  There's a solid incentive to do things right and to try to ensure the safety of your customers - the thinking is that if your product causes harm to your customers, you won't have customers for very long, and so the problem fixes itself.  But every time we've decided it's not necessary to be proactive about these things, we end up with the same result - dead people.

All these smart business guys keep reminding us how smart they are, but they seem totally unaware of one of the absolute rock-hard fundamentals of the production process - no matter what it costs or how long it takes, doing it right the first time is always quicker and cheaper than having to go back and do it again.  And it's no different when you apply it to product safety.  Prevention is far more cost-effective than remedy.

But here's the kicker:  BizGuy knows his math, and he actually is fully aware of the Prevention-vs-Remedy Formula.  He's walked himself thru the exercise and he's decided to attack the problem of Remedial Cost by purchasing a few Coin-Operated Politicians, who'll simply block the consumer's path to the remedy.  PR, De-Regulation and Tort Reform make for a winning combination.

Throw in some Union Busting and we're right back where we started 240 years ago.

Today's Prank

Try leaving this on some windshields at work or at the mall or whatever.

hat tip = Democratic Underground

Colbert

(hat tip = Crooks & Liars)

Hey, Willard

About that tax plan.  If you cut taxes 20% across the board, but you make it not add to the deficit by eliminating loopholes and deductions; uhmm, isn't that the same as saying you're gonna pay for your tax cuts by raising taxes?

And if the whole thing is revenue-neutral anyway, maybe we could just not fuck with it in the first fuckin' place.

Thank you.

Disparity Sucks

The usual way of things is for fewer and fewer people to gather more and more of the available power and wealth; while more and more people have less and less.  Eventually, the "lower classes" are left with nothing more to lose, which is when they turn into the mob and simply show up inside your gated communities to take what they want.

It's the "natural order"; Darwinian principles at work; that's just the way it is.  'Twas ever thus, and ever thus 'twill be.

Everywhere else in the whole world, and for as long as there's been even the barest hint of social structure, we've seen the same pattern play out over and over and over again.

But not here.  We're supposed to be the exception.

From The National Journal, via US Uncut:

Income inequality in America has reached levels not seen since the Gilded Age. As Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, noted in June, “America has the highest level of inequality of any of the advanced countries — and its gap with the rest has been widening.”

Gettin' It Done - 27

Remembering that nothing in Washington happens without the GOP saying OK at some point, Obama managed to get the new START treaty OK'd.  So lemme see if I've got the basic GOP position on armaments right.  We wanna limit the numbers of nuclear weapons and delivery systems - and we wanna commit to these limits as a way to demonstrate to the world that we're peace-loving and law-abiding, and we expect everybody else to do the same; because we believe that when we reduce the number of weapons in the world, the world becomes a safer place.  Is that about it?  You can see where I'm goin' with this cantcha?

The world is safer without so many weapons, but here in the US, we have to make sure that everybody in every saloon, every school, every library, bus station, every church is packin' a gat.  Cuz that's what'll keep us all safe.

They say that shit with a straight face too.

27. Achieved New START Treaty: Signed with Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011) of treaty that limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400), and reestablished and strengthened a monitoring and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can monitor the other.

What Struck Me

I've wondered a long time about the nexus of Genetic Predisposition and a Toxic Environment.  Frontline gave me a nice glimpse at an answer.

"Genetics loads the gun, and environment pulls the trigger."

Watch My Father, My Brother, and Me on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Almost as an aside: When it gets down to taking about Stem Cell Research et al, it's important to maintain our respect for life.  I get it.  I can almost stone cold promise you nobody doesn't get that.  But when way too many people are just trying to find some safe and comfortable position that's easy to defend with a few high-sounding bromides, don't be surprised if I feel the need to get a little testy and terse.

It's a question of balance between respect for what is, respect for what could be, and respect for the greater good for the greater number.  So let's not get so busy respecting the potential life of the embryo that we dismiss the lives of the people who're standing right in front of us, who're just asking us for little help.

Oh, Sweet Jesus

The Agonist has a nice compilation of some of the more egregious examples of American Talibanism today, starting with:

Remember former Republican legislator Charlie Fuqua, running again for legislature with financial support from the Arkansas Republican Party and U.S. Reps. Tim Griffin and Steve Womack, among others? We’ve mentioned some excerpts from his book, “God’s Law: The Only Political Solution.”

I have more for you today. To save space, I’ve omitted the Biblical citation for Fuqua’s endorsement of the death penalty for rebellious children. Fuqua doesn’t think execution would have to be used often on children who defied their parents, but suggests the deterrent effect of its legality would be beneficial. Verbatim, from the writing of Charlie Fuqua, a former lawyer for the Arkansas Department of Human Services:

"The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline. Therefore, a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellious children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given in Deut 21:18-21"...

I'm tryin' pretty hard to resist the overwhelming urge to dismiss all Christians and to declare an Atheist Jihad on these pricks - well, could ya blame me?  Really?

Gettin' It Done - 28

The GOP has tried to blocked everything Obama's tried to do, and they've done it in their typical way.  They vote in favor of the bill, which gives them cover (nobody needs an attack ad saying they voted against trying to give people a good incentive to Serve America), but then when the budget bill comes up, they vote against funding the thing, or they vote for an amendment that cuts the funding (doing all this in committee, of course - again for the purpose of hiding their actions from public view).  Then, if it comes up later, they can point at it and say, "the president has failed to deliver on what he promised" -or- "this represented an unacceptable expansion of the nanny state and we have to make a stand somewhere blah blah blah".

28. Expanded National Service: Signed Serve America Act in 2009, which authorized a tripling of the size of AmeriCorps. Program grew 13 percent to 85,000 members across the country by 2012, when new House GOP majority refused to appropriate more funds for further expansion.

Fact remains, we need to make sure Americans have honorable ways of serving this country that don't have to involve guns and bombs, and making other people bleed and die.

And oh yeah - putting people to work for a year or two at public expense has always been very good for the economy and for neighborhoods and for people.

Today's Pix

Some Toons

Gettin' It Done - 29

Because the planet is a system that needs all of its pieces and parts in good working order.  Because a healthy soul requires a place that seems to have no boundaries.  Because horizons are essential.

29. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection: Signed Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), which designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of rivers.