29 Aug 2010
Time zone battle back in spotlight

Backwards Clock

O Tempora! The problem here isn't Eastern vs. Central, the problem is daylights savings time. If we switched to Central Time (and kept DST) the problem would simply shift around the calendar. It might not be quite as obnoxious, but the net effect would be the same. It's simply an accident of geography that Indiana happens to fit in one of those places where fiddling with the clock is going to have weird side effects, which is precisely why we've been wrestling with time zones since the railroads forced them on the country over a century ago.

Eastern or Central - take your pick, it's almost irrelevant. Just stop springing forward and falling back before more fecal matter hits the whirling blades!

The Central Time Coalition favors having Central Standard Time in the winter and Central Daylight Time in the summer. That would put the state on the same time as Chicago.

(link) [Indianapolis Star]

18:49 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Aug 2010
Covert Operations

Truth and Fiction - if the Koch brothers are libertarians, then I'm a woolly mammoth.

I was there in 1980, working on the Ed Clark campaign in Indiana. I met David Koch. Six weeks later I quit the Libertarian Party (of which I was one of the founding members here) and never went back. We called what we encountered the "Kochtopus" (coined by SEK3, IIRC). Sure they believed in property rights - theirs - and they treated the Libertarian Party as if it were their personal property, a mere vehicle for their personal enrichment (and ego).

I had no idea these were the folks behind the Tea Party movement - but with this knowledge I know for certain to stay as far away from from it as I can (as if I needed an extra nudge away from those raving wingnuts).

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests.

(link) [The New Yorker]

06:50 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Aug 2010
The State of the Free Market

These two tales highlight exactly how the State is the real controlling factor in the market, which isn't really free at all ...

Pay Up

Got a blog that makes no money? The city wants $300, thank you very much.

(link) [Philadelphia City paper]

Sour Taste

After a county inspector squeezed out a kid's lemonade business, so many Oregonians puckered up in disgust that the county chairman had to pour on a little sugar.

(link) [MSNBC]

21:34 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

05 Aug 2010
Commodity ETFs: Toxic, deadly, evil

The next meltdown is already on the way ...

The warning screams at you: "Do Not Buy Commodity ETFs!" Yes, this Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover reads like National Enquirer or a flashing neon sign on the Vegas Strip.

(link) [Marketwatch]

20:32 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images

Void Where Prohibited by Law"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Hrumpf. Guess that pesky Fourth Amendment is just one more bit that's void where prohibited by law...

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded."

Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

(link) [CNET]

20:23 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

04 Aug 2010
The Corporate Alarm Clock

Backwards ClockThis isn't my normal style - normally I post some (hopefully) pithy comment on a news article, and a brief snip of the piece, followed by a link. This time, however, I'm posting the entire article by Kevin Carson, sans comment, pithy or otherwise. Because this little rant so succinctly sums up our conundrum that anything I added would be a waste of bits. So without further ado:

The Corporate Alarm Clock

This morning Joe was awakened by his alarm clock. Thanks to patents, which remove incentives to interoperability and modular design, the clock was designed to be thrown away rather than repaired. Thanks to “intellectual property” law, as well, the company was able to outsource actual production and then charge Joe a 1000% brand-name markup while paying the people who made it pennies. The clock was powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy — a regulated monopoly operating on the same cost-plus markup accounting system as most other public utilities, including the military contractors who gave us the $600 toilet seat. Joe then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility; Joe’s water bill reflects a rate structure which provides below-cost water for large-scale industrial use and agribusiness. Joe watched the news on the kind legacy broadcast media described by Edward Herman, which thanks to the FCC licensing monopolies is controlled by a handful of corporate gatekeepers.

He watched it while eating his breakfast of General Mills cereal, which thanks to government subsidies was produced at some giant mill in Minneapolis, despite the fact that cereal grains are most economically milled on a small scale near the point of consumption. Joe has no idea what’s in his bacon, because the FDA (at Monsanto’s behest) prohibits labeling food as GMO-free. Most of what he eats is loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, and what little “fresh” produce he eats is shipped from a giant plantation thousands of miles away, thanks to USDA subsidies

Joe took pills which were declared safe under an inspection regime originally created at the behest of the drug cartel itself, the inflated costs of which serve as a useful entry barrier and thereby benefit incumbent producers. He paid a 2000% markup on the pills thanks to government-granted patent monopolies. Joe’s medical plan stopped paying for prescription drugs because his weak union has been making more concessions at every contract renewal. The Wagner Act criminalized most of the really effective techniques, so unions like Joe’s are forced to fight by the bosses’ rules.

Joe drives to work on a government-subsidized highway system, built under the supervision of former auto exec Charlie “What’s Good for GM” Wilson. Joe’s commute takes almost an hour. Thanks to subsidized freeways and subsidized utilities to outlying developments, it’s artificially cheap to build monoculture bedroom communities far removed from where people work and shop. And thanks to zoning laws and other regulations against mixed use development, it’s extremely costly to live near your employer or be able to walk to a neighborhood grocer.

Joe begins his workday. He’s doing the work of a downsized person in addition to his own, the work environment is becoming increasingly hostile and authoritarian, and the micromanagement increasingly demeaning. He finds his face sore from the fake smile he constantly displays to reassure the bosses he’s got his mind right. He got no COLA raise last time around, and his insurance copay and deductible are higher. (It all gets back to the union thing above). The bosses sometimes drop hints about closing the plant down and moving to China, which is a whole lot more profitable thanks to World Bank subsidies to the road and utility infrastructure the offshore factories need, and thanks to WTO enforcement of “intellectual property” law that corporate headquarters use to maintain control of outsourced production overseas.

Joe pays his bills with legal tender created by banks, under the state-granted power to loan the medium of exchange into existence out of thin air and then charge interest on it.

After work Joe finds his kids back home from the public schools, where they’re being processed into human resources who will cheerfully take direction from some authority figure behind a desk for the rest of their lives — just like Joe does. While they were there, the kids were taught about the wonders of Our Free Enterprise System (suitably adjusted, of course, by government action to protect us from corporate power run amok).

When Joe goes to sleep, if he’s a conservative, he will thank the beneficent Free Market for all the good things he enjoys. If he’s a liberal, he’ll give thanks for the interventionist state as a bulwark against unbridled corporate tyranny. And he’ll get a night’s rest, preparing for another day of serving the unholy corporate-state alliance that rules his life from cradle to grave.

(link) [Center for a Stateless Society]

21:17 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

02 Aug 2010
Senate Aims To Pass Energy Bill Before Recess

Rarely are the machinations of the Corporate State laid so bare as here:

Apparently, it's OK by Republicans - as well as some Democrats - for the little people who took on too much risk (often in the form of subprime loans) in the financial markets to have their liability unlimited, and take it on the chin when things go bad. But it's not OK for a small or medium-sized oil company to face unlimited liability when they take risks that go bad. Then it's OK for the government to bail them out for a potentially unlimited amount. That's called "socialism", isn't it? Or is it only socialist if Obama proposed it?

How many small and medium-sized oil companies are there that could face liability for a spill? Does it matter - isn't that what insurance is for? If I can't get insurance for my car because of my driving record, why should the government for me to effectively insure Big Problems Oil for an unlimited amount over $75 million dollars? Without them even so much as paying a premium?

Fact is, all legal liability limits are direct attacks on the free market - they effectively force risky products and behaviors in the marketplace when they couldn't survive the risk on their own. Nuclear power plants have government imposed liability limits, otherwise there'd be no nuclear power plants. So called "tort reform" is a thinly disguised liability limit. All backed primarily by the Party of Small Government and Freedom™.

It just flabbergasts me still, even though I should know better by now, to see "staunch defenders of the free market" stand up and so blatantly try to squash any free market that dare rear it's ugly head. They're no better than the socialists across the aisle.

Republicans — as well as some Democrats — say it's a bad idea to have unlimited liability for oil disasters. They say only the biggest oil companies have the assets to take on such risk, while small and medium-sized firms would be shut out.

(link) [NPR]

22:25 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

30 Jul 2010
An American Stasi?

Not only are these things obnoxious violations of our rights, they're positively cheap on the employees, too.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.” What is a fusion center?

(link) [The Freeman]

17:19 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

20 Jul 2010
US Senate clears hurdle to extend jobless help

Let's see if I understand this - the Democrats want to pass out money they don't have to the unemployed, saying it'll help keep'em on their feet and make them want to work. The Republicans say that if we keep giving them (the unemployed) any money, they won't want to work at all.

Until we talk about tax cuts - giving money they don't have to the wealthy among us will make them (the wealthy) want to work even harder. And the Democrats are saying that we should tax the shit out of the well-to-do because then they'll want to work harder to make up the difference.

What am I missing here?

The US Senate voted Tuesday to advance legislation restoring unemployment benefits to help some 2.5 million Americans ahead of November mid-term elections shaped by deep voter anger at high joblessness.

(link) [AFP]

20:26 /Politics | 4 comments | permanent link

18 Jul 2010
Insurers Push Plans That Limit Choice of Doctor

And I'm sure the Republicans will paint this as Obama's "fault", while simultaneously praising the "free market" for bringing more "choice" in health plans ...

I guess Ralph Waldo Emerson was right, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.

(link) [New York Times]

21:43 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

10 Jul 2010
How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late: Andy Grove

Written by a giant of tech who not only lived through history, but who remembers it.

Recently an acquaintance at the next table in a Palo Alto, California, restaurant introduced me to his companions: three young venture capitalists from China. They explained, with visible excitement, that they were touring promising companies in Silicon Valley. I’ve lived in the Valley a long time, and usually when I see how the region has become such a draw for global investments, I feel a little proud.

(link) [Bloomberg]

via Marco's Tech World

08:14 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

09 Jul 2010
9th Circuit Declares Actual Innocence Irrelevant

Simply unbelievable.

In one of the most appalling court rulings imaginable, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that the fact that a convicted criminal can now be proven to be innocent does not matter if he filed an appeal in 16 months rather than the 12 months allowed by the statute of limitations. Actual innocence simply does not matter, only technicalities do.

(link) [Dispatches from the Culture Wars]

Update: Simple Justice nails this one:

The public will view this decision, one that demonstrates that innocence comes in a distant second to some grocery clerk's rule, as affirmative proof that the courts are just a part of an omnipotent machine designed to subjugate the public. It's an overwrought characterization, but it's about public perception. Nuanced explanations don't work well with citizens marching with torches and pitchforks. They've usually got their mind made up already.

06:28 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

29 Jun 2010
Insurance Industry Already Finding Ways To Game New System

Betcha they don't try to weasel out of the part that makes us all buy insurance from them at inflated rates...

The insurance industry's attempt to weasel out of one of the few provisions of the new health care reform law that took effect immediately is a harbinger of what's to come.

(link) [Huffington Post]

21:09 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

13 Jun 2010
GOPer Angle Spoke Out Against Fluoride In Water Supply

Paging Dr. Strangelove...

Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle earlier in her career spoke out strongly against fluoride, the substance known alternately for improving dental health and as a Communist plot to undermine Western democracy.

(link) [Talking Points Memo]

via Dispatches from the Culture Wars

08:55 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

07 Jun 2010
A Classical Education: Back to the Future

Latin didn't kill me - nor do I remember any of my classmates dying of it. In fact, a core focus on the humanities serves as the best possible basis of an education. To the authors list I would add music and art, but that's about it - and I would eliminate all "physical education", "industrial education" and other such pap. If kids want to play sports, more power to'em - after school and with their own funds. If factories and offices need trained workers (and they do) methinks they would find a classically educated person a much better trainee than one whose education consists of classes in health, psych, PE and basket weaving ...

Classical High School (in Providence, RI) is the best and most demanding educational institution I have ever been associated with. The name tells the story. When I attended, offerings and requirements included four years of Latin, three years of French, two years of German, physics, chemistry, biology, algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, English, history, civics, in addition to extra-curricular activities...

(link) [New York Times: Opinionator]

21:34 /Politics | 3 comments | permanent link

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