Pending BP Legislation in the United State Senate

From the Office of Senator Al Franken, in response to an inquiry from me:

Thank you for contacting me about the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with me on this critical issue.

As you know, on April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, leaving 11 workers dead. The rig caught fire and sank, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill is a travesty -- it has devastated the environment, the economy, and the way of life for many communities along the Gulf Coast. I was deeply disappointed by BP's neglect of safety and lack of progress in stopping the leak in the Gulf. This accident has also exposed the federal government's woefully inadequate oversight of the drilling industry.

BP must be held responsible for all costs incurred as a result of the oil spill. By all accounts BP had no viable plan in place to deal with an accident of this magnitude. This is unacceptable, and taxpayers must not be left holding the bag. That's why I've cosponsored S. 3472, the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Unlimited Liability Act, which would eliminate the oil spill liability cap that currently limits economic damages paid by oil companies to $75 million. I am also an original cosponsor of S. 3462, which would grant subpoena power to President Obama's Oil Spill Commission that is investigating BP. This will ensure that the bipartisan commission has access to all the evidence it needs to fully investigate the causes of the spill and make meaningful recommendations on how to prevent similar disasters.

This spill is a call to action -- it is time to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation to end our country's dependence on fossil fuels and transition to clean, renewable energy sources like wind, biofuels, and biomass from Minnesota. For this reason, Senate Majority Leader Reid introduced S. 3663, the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act. This bill would eliminate the $75 million liability cap for oil spill damages, improve the claims process for victims of the spill, provide for better regulation of the oil and gas industry, and improve oil spill response and prevention programs. The legislation would also authorize the Home Star energy-efficiency retrofit program, provide tax breaks for natural gas vehicles and infrastructure, and boost funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

I'm glad this legislation would finally hold BP accountable for the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and I support the provisions to provide rebates for Minnesotans to retrofit their homes and to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. While it is an important first step, this bill falls far short of the comprehensive energy bill that I had hoped to see this year. It fails to put a price on carbon and does not include a Renewable Electricity Standard, which is critical for the growth of Minnesota's wind and other renewable energy industries. I am currently reviewing this legislation as well as the various other energy and climate proposals before Congress.

Please be assured that I will continue to closely monitor the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup and will keep your thoughts in mind should legislation regarding offshore drilling come before the Senate for consideration.

Second Round Win for Health Care Reform in the Court Challenges

Virginia's federal judge Norman Moon ruled on Monday that the Health Insurance Reform legislation passed last year is legal under the Commerce Clause of the constitution.

Judge Moon also categorized the fines as “penalties,” stating that they are not intended to raise revenues, but to “enforce the requirement that individuals and employers purchase or provide health insurance.”

That is the second win, out of some twenty challenges to what critics call 'Obamacare', wins that had been predicted.    In the Michigan decision in October,

Judge George C. Steeh of Federal District Court in Detroit ruled that choosing not to obtain insurance qualified as an example of “activities that substantially affect interstate commerce.” That is the standard set by the Supreme Court for Congress’s compliance with the Commerce Clause.

Judge Steeh, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, agreed with the federal government that not obtaining health coverage is effectively an active decision to pay for medical care out of pocket. “These decisions, viewed in the aggregate,” Judge Steeh wrote, “have clear and direct impacts on health care providers, taxpayers and the insured population who ultimately pay for the care provided to those who go without insurance.”

While I am pleased that these decisions have been on the side of health care reform, I'm much more interested in the 'big one', the court challenge filed in Florida by conservative state Attorneys General, where it was anticipated to have the greatest chance of success.  Ultimately, this is an issue that is more likely than not to be decided in front of the SCOTUS, the question remains........when?

Celebrate World AIDS Day Today, December 1, 2010 - Part I

Obviously we do not exactly celebrate the existence of this terrible viral disease.  What we celebrate is an awareness of this pandemic, a pandemic that is our closest modern equivalent to the black death, the bubonic plague of the 14th century in Europe.  Following the premise that when we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it, I would like to share with you a brief overview of other pandemics, (as distinct from epidemics) before focusing on ours. The purpose of the historic overview is to establish common patterns in the past as a foundation, a frame, a focus for looking at our approach to AIDS, in the hope of finding greater insight and understanding for our response to it.

The Minnesota Governor's Election Recount: I Was There!

As of this morning (Tuesday, 11/30) we are beginning the second day of the recount.  The majority of the 87 counties in Minnesota finished yesterday, with only a few of the largest, most populous counties having votes that remain to be recounted.  Those should be concluded in the next couple of days; certainly at the present rate of completion, I would expect them to be concluded by the end of the week at the very latest.

After the completion of the local process, those challenged ballots go 'up the ladder' of the process, for final determination.  But THAT will be a separate post; I don't want to get ahead of myself.

There were significantly fewer votes cast in the 2010 election, compared to the 2010 elections.

Minnesota gained a certain notoriety and became the butt of national jokes for the 2008 recount that resulted in the eventual confirmation of Senator Al Franken, after more than six months.  Most of that time was the result of a lengthy court challenge by bad loser Norm Coleman.  That challenge to Minnesota election findings was lost, by unanimous court decisions, over and over and over.

Condoms and AIDS/HIV, and the Papal position

A seminarian once posed to a group of which I was a part the provocative question, "When is religion good and when is religion bad?"  The resulting discussion looked at both major and minor examples of how we human beings had done great harm, in the name of religion.  In the course of the discussion, contemplating harm from our beliefs was the point.  I believe this is a belief which does harm, tremendous harm. I had that question in mind as I wrote this post.

From a March 2009 article in the Guardian, referring to a meeting in 2005:
"Addressing bishops from South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Lesotho who had travelled to the Vatican for papal audience, he[Pope Benedict] said: "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only fail safe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.

He also warned them that African life was under threat from a number of factors, including condoms"

With all due respect, the traditional teaching of the church of abstinence and fidelity has not prevented the spread of any disease, including HIV and AIDS.  It is not condom use that is the threat to the lives of people in Africa.  Condoms can prevent the transmission of these and other sexually transmitted diseases.

It remains to be seen if the recent discussion about limited condom use will reflect a change in the Roman Catholic church.  In the meantime, we still need to see a similar change in the policies of our government that have been dictated by the religious right.

Bomb Throwing

On November 16th, John Kyl (R-AZ) announced his intent to block ratification of the "New START" treaty. The key provisions of this treaty would limit both the United States and Russia to no more than 1550 strategic nuclear warheads on no more than 700 launch platforms.

I had written a very long post on this subject which frankly provided a lot of background, but in the interest of brevity, I'll try to summarize below:

1. In the 1950's and on into the 1960's, the United States practiced a doctrine called "massive retaliation", we were supreme, and we expected to devastate the Soviets in any nuclear exchange.

2. Sputnik signalled the start of the strategic nuclear arms race. We and the Soviets, over the next 15 or so years, built thousands of launch platforms (ICBM's, submarine launched missiles and bombers).

3. In 1967 the US completed the last of it's "new" launch platforms

4. Four times between 1948 and 1970 the Soviet Union offered to unilaterally disarm if we would also agree to eventually disarm

5. In 1972 we signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (now known as SALT I), this treaty, among other things, limited the number of Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) sites to 2 per country.
ABMs were seen as a massively destabilizing weapon because they might falsely give confidence to one side or another about the ability to attack without much damage in response.

6. From the middle 1960's on, each side began building many more nuclear warheads (in the case of the US - deploying them as MIRV's or Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicles), and launchers, in the case of the Soviets. Both sides topped out around 2400 launchers and 8700 warheads in the late 70's and early 80's. This gave each side the ability to wipe out all life on earth some 40 times over.

7. President Carter was criticized by the right for halting the B1 Bomber program in 1977. At the time, Carter commented the bomber would be obsolete before completion, was needless, and would spend money we didn't have and/or would be better spent on the "next generation" (he knew of the development of the B-2). Carter's observations were dead-on. The B1 is a horrid, useless bomber. Despite being built 30 years after the B-52, it will be retired long-before the B-52 and it cost $250 Million per plane. The money for the B1 program would have bought 12 B-2's, a bomber we are struggling to pay for now.

The Bush Tax Cuts, or...What the Hell is Wrong with Republicans' Math?

The Right is pushing the retention of the Bush Tax Cuts like an evangelical preacher pushes the Gospel, at an old fashioned Bible-thumping tent revival meetin'.

Except that the Bush Tax Cuts, for the wealthy, are anything but an economic gospel.  They are ruinous. While an amazing number of middle and working class seem to have missed the tax cuts they already have received under the Obama administration.

George W. Bush is trying to rewrite the history of his two administrations to make it look like he was not an enormous aching, throbbing, hemorrhaging disaster.  He was.

He WAS a walking, talking disaster, one of the all-time worst presidents in history.  The Bush policies left us with disastrous financial collapse, AND some of the worst unemployment in the history of this country.  An approximate total population of more than 300 million, we have in the vicinity of 25 to 27 million unemployed, which doesn't count the underemployed who are qualified for better jobs, but who instead find themselves among the working poor below the poverty line.  These figures represent FAILED REPUBLICAN POLICIES - FAILED TAX POLICIES, FAILED JOB CREATION POLICIES.

The ONLY people who benefit, and then only short term not long term, are a few of the wealthiest 1% to 2% of the population.  THEY have gotten richer while everyone else suffered and struggled and the economy collapsed under these policies.  THEY pay the Republicans (and occasionally a few conservative democrats too) to parrott these lies, and they pay well.  They STEAL elections by funding of these lies. (more on that in a future post)

These numbers have slowly but steadily improved under Democrats and the Obama Administration.  Too change horses in mid stream NOW is folly, it is self-defeating impatience.  The third quarter results for corporate profits are the highest since records were kept; this administration is not, by any meaningful metric, anti-business, (despite the litany of misinformation and disinformation you hear from the right - especially Faked cable News.

Georgie Porgie is making the rounds of the talking heads circuit, bragging about how his tax cuts created 1.1 million jobs.  Hello? That is NOT a good result in job production over EIGHT years in a nation the size of the USA!

What he leaves out are two important things - the good jobs, the factory and other production jobs, the IT jobs, those were being outsourced at unprecedented rates.  The piddling few jobs that were created were almost entirely low paying jobs.

But worse than that - if you look at the numbers, while Georgie Duh-b'ya may have created those  1.1 million jobs in the private sector.........he lost many millions more of those jobs in the final years of his presidency, resulting in an overall LOSS of jobs to our economy that was devastating; it was outrageously, avoidably catastophic. 

AND  'W' and the Republicans saddled us all with monumental national debt.

Want to SEE how badly those losses hit this country?  Click on this:
 http://computationallegalstudies.com/2009/05/29/visualizing-job-losses-from-2007-2009/

Wishing all of our blog readers a very happy Thanksgiving.

Winning Versus Whining

Update: In keeping with the previous pattern of right wing politically oriented contestants on Dancing with the Stars, it is rumored that one of the contestants for season 12, which will air in early 2011, will be failed Senate candidate for Delaware, "I Am Not a Witch" Christine O'Donnell.  Salary for the 10 week show is reported to be in the vicinity of $200,000.

I guess it's not like she has anything better to do until there is another political race; and no one else is going to pay her that kind of money.  Rumor has it she needs it; she hasn't done any kind of job for a long time, other than living off of political campaign donations, if reports are true..

*************************
No, I'm not writing about the Minnesota governor's election woes this time.

I'm writing about the tea pot tea party tempest around Bristol Palin and the reality television series, Dancing with the Stars that ended Tuesday night with Bristol Palin loosing to Jennifer Gray, star of the 1987 cult classic movie Dirty Dancing. 

Thumbs Down, Tom Emmer

I don't believe that Norm Coleman endeared himself to any but the most die-hard belligerents on the right with the extent to which he dragged out the contested decisions that unanimously over and over came out in favor of Senator Al Franken.

Effectively, Coleman made it clear that his own pursuit of the power of the office of Senator for Minnesota was more important than Minnesota's preference in voting - albeit a narrow one - AND more important than the importance of Minnesota having any second senatorial representation.  It is the same obstructive mind set that would rather shut down government than engage in genuine political compromise.

Then as now, Coleman claimed errors; his supporters continue to claim fraud, despite it being made as painfully clear as clear can be that there was no evidence of fraud, that you need to demonstrate fact, not simply a fictional narrative wishing it were so.  This despite the Supreme Court of Minnesota specifically stating that there was no evidence of fraud.  Coleman had nothing - NOTHING - to sustain such a claim.

And that is because there is no fraud to claim, there is no evidence because fraud is not a systemic problem; fraud has not 'stolen' any elections from a lawfully elected voter.  The real issue is that the republicans are consistently simply incredibly poor, and not very honorable losers.

Laws of Politics

I have been watching politics for rougly 35 years, maybe a little less. I guess I started caring much in 1976 or 77.

In that time there have been some patterns of behavior which seem so inviolate that they can be called axioms or laws. There are more than just these I list below, but I hope I make my point with the list. Similar to the Laws of Thermodynamics (of which there are four), these are observations which seem to be true in all cases.

1. Democrats, specifically liberals, propose governmental regulation or programs as solutions to almost any problem.

2. Republicans will claim to stand for National Security, but will sacrifice that security for extra-military spending, especially on hardware, even if such hardware is unnecessary.

3. Democrats, especially the Green Party wing of the Democratic Party, will reflexively oppose military action, even if justified (to wit, Afghanistan).

4. Republicans will sacrifice anything, including the debt, the deficit, anything to gain tax cuts for the rich. Not the middle-class, the rich.

It's this last one that I think is currently especially appropriate to discuss, though #2 is topical at the moment as it relates to John Kyl's opposition to the "New START" treaty and #3 is topical as it relates to Obama's plans for Afghanistan.

So, as regards #4, I have watched, watched and watched, since 1980 at least, as promises of balanced budgets, of "real" cuts in spending, deficit "hawks", in infinite amounts promised the budget "should be run like you run your own budget at home" and "was the gravest threat to national security out there" and so on. I've also watched as those who repudiated Keynesian economics did an about face, as Dick Cheney did in 2003 when he said that "Deficits don't matter" in response to questions about how Bush was going to pay for the tax cuts enacted in 2002 as the projected surpluses disappeared.

Travel Lightly or Lighten Up

UPDATE, 11/25/'10:  The much ballyhooed protests predicted in the media for Wednesday, November 24th at airports around the nation failed to materialize.  While air travel was up 11% from last year on the same day before Thanksgiving, the actual numbers of protesters of the TSA policy were minute, tiny, nearly non-existent at less than 1%.  The response to that disastisfaction should be proportional, not over-responsive; and it should be constructive, not reactive or appeasing.

A few figures noting scanner opt-outs possibly in protest (although not specifically), in no particular order, listing available data:
Boston: 300 out of 56,000
Los Angeles: 113 out of 50,000
Detroit: 57 out of 25,000
Atlanta: 39, out of 47,000 air travelers
Charlotte: 1, out of 18,000
Cincinnati: 15
St. Louis:  7
New Orleans: 6
Memphis: 5
Dallas/Fort Worth: 1
 

Joe Scarborough: What Is It About Keith Olbermann's Experience You Don't Understand?

Or the discipline for misconduct or lapses from the ethics standards in place in every serious journalistic organization?  That of course, excludes Fox News.

Even Jonathon Berr, of Daily Finance put it, in his article arguing for a lesser enforcement of the MSNBC standard - suggesting a warning would be more appropriate, "The fact that Fox News has no such restrictions in place does not mean they are right."

The False Voter Fraud Accusation in Crow Wing County MN - the NEXT faked ACORN-like story on the right?

I have been following the course in the media set by Montgomery Jensen, and those who seem to be in cooperation with his message.  That media course seems to me to be all about Monty Jensen and promoting the notion of voter fraud, and not really about the supposed merits of his bogus complaint.

I believe that message to be as contrived and false as the version of events concocted by Jame's O'Keefe, the now-discredited right wing's media darling of the last election cycle.  I believe that Montgomery Jensen is being positioned to be the right wing media's darling of this election cycle; the only question remaining in my mind is, will this be just Minnesota state-wide, or is it intended to be part of a larger attempt to shrink the number of people who may vote, and to make it more difficult.  I do not believe from my research into this so far that Montgomery Jensen just happened to be voting, and that he saw something that upset him.  My research suggests he was looking for something to happen, and when it did not, he created a false accusation to fit his agenda - his pre-existing political agenda. 

Thanksgiving Today, not next week

This came into my private email today.

I want to pass it on to our Penigma readers, hoping you will all join me in saying thanks to our service men and women, in time for the official Thanksgiving Holiday next Thursday.  While the email I received was set to help us thank yous from residents of Minnesota, I have reset the link to the national USO Thank You page instead.  So if you are not from Minnesota - this still works for YOU to say thank you!  Wherever you are - please take advantage of this opportunity.  And if you can make a donation in support of our troops, please do that as well.

False Claims of Voter Fraud II

Hard on the publishing of the gutless anonymous email came another claim, a claim of widespread voter fraud in Crow Wing county.  This is another one of those right wing claims that doesn't come out too well upon close scrutiny.  Not that they care.  There are always justifications, rationalizations, and excuses.

But let me provide some context to my anger, anger at what I see as a witch hunt. A witch hunt is where people are agitated to start looking under their beds for commies.  A witch hunt is where people are seeing voter fraud because they have been told to see voter fraud, not because it is really there.  A witch hunt is where it is more important to score a possible 'hit' on the dread much-ballyhooed (mostly hooey) target than it is to look critically or to consider what harm might come from your actions.  In this case, the harm is the embarrassment and added difficulty to people who face tremendous challenges, added difficulty that comes from an apparently (so far) groundless accusation made in the most public way possible. 

Follow with me.

False Claims of Voter Fraud by the GOP, the Tea Party, and other Conservatives, Part I

I sit at the computer writing this post, so angry I have tears in my eyes. 

I have been reading about the claims of voter fraud this election.  They are the same as the unsubstantiated claims of the last election alleging theft of the elections in various races by widespread voter fraud.  These false claims are based on not legitimate, they are not true, they are not accurate, they are not valid.

But they ARE repeated, over and over and over, so as to appear to have substance, so as to persuade they are true.

Last week, I was very angry with a friend of mine, a conservative blogger for writing this. 

"Too Many Laws"

Thanks to the wonderful strip 'Shoe' for having such an 'eagle eye' for appreciation of current events; Shoe was created by the late cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, and continued by Susie MacNelly, Gary Brookins, and Chris Cassatt. 

In an era of disappearing print media to present our cartoons, please take a moment to appreciate the comic format for all the things it does so much better than dry words could ever hope to do.  Murphy's Law perfectly sums up my feelings about the 2010 election (and not in a good way).

(I'm probably the only person looking at this, wondering if Chris Cassatt is any relation to famous American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt....)

Cold Political Calculation

George Bush recently made the rounds promoting his new book, "Decision Points." In this book he (apparently) talks about his second-thoughts and moral tugs-of-war over things like the invasion of Iraq, water-boarding, and the financial collapse of 2007-2008 (and on into 2009).

On water-boarding, he says he approved the decision, responding "Damn right" to the question of whether he approved it directly. Ironically, it's the same line fictional Colonel Nathan R Jessup used in "A Few Good Men." discussing whether he approved a "code red" to beat a soldier (unintionally causing his death).

On the question of the financial collapse, Mr. Bush replied that he was "totally blindsided." He went on to suggest that if Congress had passed his reforms for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the problems might have been avoided.

In both cases, I am reminded why this man was so manifestly and absolutely repudiated in 2006 and 2008. I am also reminded why eight years of colossal mismanagement and political deceit isn't easily undone in twenty months. Bush came across as he always has, saccharin, fake and clearly politically calculated in every reply.

Insight into Language and Thought; Charles Alan Wilson's Sentencing for Threatening Senator Patty Murray, and the Role of Glenn Beck

Updated 11/15/'10

I read something earlier today which impressed me with the quality of insight and observation.

It was this.

It resonated for me particularly, because I had been thinking about how to write about the sentencing of Charles Alan Wilson.  Wilson was sentenced on October 22nd to one year and a day in prison, and three years probation during which he is not allowed to own firearms, amon other provisions and restrictions.

I wrote about Wilson in the Other Charlie Wilson War posts here and  here

Wilson had made daily threats against the life of Senatory Patty Murray of Washington, over his misinformed ideas about the 2010 health care reform legislation.  Those messages included more expletives and slurs than even the threats of violence.  It offers a perfect example of how slurs are intended to intimidate as well as demean.

Friends and family described the chain of events that led to the threats resulting in Wilson going to jail, as a sequence where Wilson had lost his job and become ill.  While homebound, he became convinced that the misinformation regularly disseminated by Glenn Beck on Fox Nuissance represented a legitimate concern. 

Apprently Mr. Wilson was not aware of how to fact check statements made on Fox.

Family and friends directly attribute Wilson's actions to the program content presented by Beck.

'A cousin suspected that Charlie, who became housebound due to his poor health, spent too much time watching TV. Another friend agreed. "His brother got him a computer and he was able to stay connected with family. And he watched television and found Glenn Beck." The friend said he, too, found Beck, a Washington native son, about the same time.



"I understand how [Charlie's] fears were grown and fostered by Mr. Beck's persuasive personality.