I've spent a lot of years watching Democrats get rolled on anything remotely resembling the public good and I expect to see quite a few more years of the same thing. That is because I see the public good from somewhere well left of the center. I understand that.Looking at the health care reform actions in the House and the Senate I'm not surprised how things are working out. What I am incensed about is the Caucus' inability to show the recalcitrant members the sticks that are in their hands. ... Read Full Story
At one time the top federal income tax rate was 95%. That immediately strikes people as wrong. It seems the federal government is trying to run solely on the backs of the wealthy and it seems like confiscation. It seems like this because people forget that the tax code is not only about raising revenue, it is also about achieving social and economic ends. This "sin taxes" are all about, the goal of cigarette taxes isn't so much to raise revenue as it is to discourage smoking.If you play along... Read Full Story
This is courtesyThis is obsequiousAnd we live in a nation with a large dumbass quotient. If you were curious about a representative one, Bush flack Andrew Malcolm goes stupid in LA Times. Read Full Story
Sen Kit Bond (R-MO) finds it inappropriate, in fact a disaster for the Federal government to try Khalid Sheikh Mohamad in a NYC court. This on the basis that Mohamad will have the protections of law, in Bond's words - the rights - of criminal defendants. He sees it as an insult to the memories of the victims to try him within blocks of the sites and to give him the opportunity to propagandize Americans. He thinks it is the first time "war captured individuals" have been given such and opportu... Read Full Story
Because the last thing I'd do would be to subscribe to a blog run by idiots of the particularly partisan stripe; I have to bring this to you courtesy of John Cole at Balloon Juice. I don't like to poach wholesale from sites, but this is too ... something:Today Barack Obama is going to announce that the terrorist mastermind of September 11th, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be sent to New York City for a criminal trial in a civilian court.In that trial, the terrorist will get all the rights affor... Read Full Story
George Santayana is credited with the quote, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." This is indeed a pretty astute observation, it is also used in contexts where it is meaningless. History is not a collection of dates and names, battles lost and won; it is really a quite complex exercise. History is the study of entire societies, not narrow aspects of them and understanding outcomes of certain actions takes a lot more depth than simplistic quotes.One that has been gett... Read Full Story
Sen Tom Coburn (R-OK) is a doctor, yes a medical doctor. He also postures as a fiscal conservative. Maybe it is no surprise that he put a personal hold on the Senate bill to increase VA coverage for disabled vets and their care-takers on the basis that how it is paid for isn't demonstrated. A principled stand?The amount of principle involved might have some question when you consider that he voted for the unfunded War supplemental in 2005. He admitted that and stated that he was new and it wa... Read Full Story
I have a pretty strong handle on what I believe and what I think. I have been known to oppose some things pretty vehemently and to propose things. I am a member of the Democratic Party and I have a pretty general idea of what binds us together. Then there is the CPoR.It is apparent what they oppose - The Democrat Party. It would be fair to say I oppose that bunch, but I can't seem to find any ideas to oppose, just a mindless CPoR hate fest. (in the Congress of the US they can't even manage th... Read Full Story
I've avoided this for a long time. This started as a discussion of whether laws were moral. I asserted that they were not and the rejoinder was that all laws flowed out of morality. I insisted that the use of force left that claim out and that what they are is a social contract to allow us to co-exist. To use an extreme example, murder isn't illegal because it is immoral, if that were the case the State wouldn't do it, soldiers wouldn't, there'd be no exceptions. It is illegal because it's da... Read Full Story
