Issues, Politics and Everything Else
In other words, “He who has the gold, rules”. Not only do we have a hundred lobbyists for every Congressperson but if a Congressperson doesn’t bend to their will, they can spend unlimited funds for an independent expenditures to influence an election. The Supreme Court on a 5-4 decision has pretty much ended real Democracy. This is a sad day for America.
While air travel goes through yet another tightening of security, while making flying as unpleasant as possible, I started thinking back to the “Shoe Bomber” who is now rotting in a maximum security jail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid_%28shoe_bomber%29 .
In 2002, Richard Reid tried to light his shoes on fire; so now we all have to take our shoes off at the airport. Where does this leave us with”Captain Underpants bomber”? Will we all be asked to disrobe before boarding?
There are those who are flogging machines that will do just that. Electronic disrobing is suppose to protect us. It seems that the ones who are helped the most are those who sell the machines, yes Michael Chertoff, I’m talking about you and your buddies.
Before our government and the airlines go on another very expensive quest for perfect security, by the way there isn’t any, lets see what the shoe bomber and the underpants bomber have in common. No I am not talking about radical Islam, alienation, or dateless Saturday nights.
Both bought their tickets with CASH, about $3,000 to be precise. Both had no luggage for international flights. In the case of Richard Reid this raised enough suspicions that because of scrutiny and questions he missed his first flight and had to take one the following day. But it appears no one followed up their suspicions about him either. When the underpants bomber paid cash and didn’t have any luggage, it appears he didn’t raise any red flags at all.
I am going to make a modest proposal. Nobody can pay cash for international flights. Terrorists are loathe to leave a paper trail of messy credit card applications and receipts, that is why they deal in cash.
Lets try this before we spend untold billions of dollars on electronic disrobing machines. I commend to all the IV Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution . I still believe that we have a right to be secure in our persons as the Bill of Rights claims.
Anyone who has watched a 78 year old cancer patient struggle to put her shoes back on after having be frisked (yeah, my Mom) knows that this system is broken. Behaviors, not shoes or underpants are the “tell” as they say in poker. It is time to focus on this.
First, allow me to wish everyone a happy 2010! It has got to be better than last year.
I have been remiss in timely posting. I will think of something I want to comment on, then life takes over and it is gone. So I will try to do a better job in keeping this blog up and running.
Billy Tauzin
The New York Times has a great story today about how Big Pharma has jacked up its prices over 10 Billion dollars in the last year, in anticipation of health care reform http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/16drugprices.html. This creates a new baseline for the 80 Billion dollars over the next ten years that it will pay back the government under the negotiated deal with the White House.
Anybody who thinks they can depend on Drug Companies to do something altruistic is naive or willfully stupid. Mr. Tauzin is the CEO and President of PHRMA and former Republican Congressman from Louisiana (enough said).
I’m sure much will be written about yesterday’s election by pundits far and near. But why should they have all the fun? So hear goes:
People are generally ticked off. The economy, declining housing prices (the single biggest asset for the middle class), joblessness and the perception that government is more interested in helping Wall St. and the banksters than helping them. Then along comes the big agenda from Obama: climate change, health care and growing deficits to address the aforementioned economy. Average people look at this and say, ” Since I’m the one who always takes it in the neck from the powers that be, I’m sure they will start taxing me to make this work.”
Add to this, the historical fact in Virginia of voters taking out their frustrations in local and state elections against whomever holds power at the national level.
So what do you do if you are a Republican? Why you do your best to to Nationalize the state election, of course. Republicans painted Creigh Deeds as a tax and spend liberal. He was for raising taxes, he was for cap and trade, he wants to nationalize health care.
Now this all puts Deeds in an untenable postion. He can come out against all the Republican induced bogeymen, thereby alienating his base, which is already suspicious of him because of his record on guns, gay rights and his small town background or he could embrace the boogeymen and let it rip with a nationalized election. He did both or neither, depending on how you look at it. Initally the Deeds campaign tried to distance Creigh from National Democrats. That didn’t work. The Democratic base started to slip. Then McDonnell’s “thesisgate” gave Deed’s a bump with the base. The Washington Post’s early endorsement based on who would tax more played right into the Republicans hands. While intellectually people understand that you can’t have road improvements without higher taxes, they just don’t want to hear it in these economically pressed times.
Deeds tried to thread the needle by doing a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” on the Republican bogeymen and came off looking weak. McDonnell set his “jobs and opportunity” agenda with a “transportation plan” which in my humble oppinion is pure baloney. But it looked strong. Weak and right loses to strong and wrong.
In the last weeks of the campaign, Deeds relies on President Obama to provide a boost, further nationalizing his campaign. The Democratic base saw it as a half-hearted effort from Obama, doing his good soldier thing and it added fire to the Republican base.
The bottom line is this: The statewide Democratic campaigns barely got out 50% of it’s base voters. The Republicans over performed in getting their base out. There were lost opportunities to change the outcome like less focus on trying to win over leaning republicans and more focus on getting identified Democratic voters truly excited about the statewide campaigns.Whether this would have been enough to erase historic trends is speculation but it wouldn’t have hurt.
Creigh is someone whom I consider a friend and one of the most decent people I know. I can’t say the better man won but the better campaign did.
H/t Crooks and Liars
The latest Republican inspired kerffufel regarding the awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is rather unbeliveable to watch. These Americans taking shots at an American President for being given this international accolade. These were probably the same Americans who rejoiced when the Olympic committee rewarded Brazil the games instead of the U.S., despite the efforts of the President. Keep it up my friends! You will so marginalize yourselves that no sentient human being will believe anything you have to say.
Congratulations President Obama, I am proud of you.
This was published in today WP. They also had Larry Sabato, Tom Davis and Karl Rove on the same topic. They can post their remarks on their own blog.
LESLIE BYRNE
Former Democratic member of Congress from Virginia
The stakes are high for us Virginians, but they are also high for the White House. President Obama and Vice President Biden have been working in Virginia’s gubernatorial race on behalf of Creigh Deeds. But they must realize that it is time to take it up a notch. It is in their interest to do so. It would be easy to chalk this up to wanting another win in the Democratic column, but there is more at risk.
Governors can be partners in job creation, education, health care and climate change, or they can be obstructionists, undermining everything the Obama administration is working to accomplish. For example, as governor, Bob McDonnell would be in a position to drag his heels in implementing health-care reform, as Gov. Jim Gilmore did with the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. And there is every reason to think he would: As a legislator, McDonnell voted against expanding access to health insurance for pregnant women and opposed coverage for infants and toddlers with disabilities. If Obama wants a partner in a crucial state, he must fully engage.
