A couple of months ago, I retired [after a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill]; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages.

He continues to spell out the morally and ethically corrupt legislative tactics the Republican Party has used over the past 30 or more years and how they’ve diverged from the values of former leaders such as Eisenhower.

These are things that those of us watching closely have suspected and observed for years, but it’s eye-opening to see it outlined so directly by an insider.

(Via Walnut & Carrara)

We researched the 100 U.S. corporations that shelled out the most last year in CEO compensation. At 25 of these corporate giants, we found, the bill for chief executive compensation actually ran higher than the company’s entire federal corporate income tax bill.

(Consumerist summarizes the list of 25 CEOs on their site.)

The argument I’ve seen some people make is that what these companies and CEOs are doing is legal so it shouldn’t be a problem. It may not be against the law, but it’s unfair of the companies who reap massive rewards for the roads, security, stable currency, and hundreds of other services provided by the Federal Government not to pay their part. Instead, these corporations use this capital to lobby for the loopholes that allow them to pay less as well as showering executives in money while not significantly raising base employee compensation.

This doesn’t help reduce the deficit that many Tea-Party members are ostensibly up in arms about. Nor does it create jobs for anyone but leaches: the accountants, lawyers, and lobbyists who specialize in creating and exploiting tax loopholes. These corporations should be paying their fair share of taxes instead of expecting everyone else to carry the slack.

That tax money could and should be used help millions of hard working Americans get jobs instead of lining the pockets of the rich and their leaches.

Can we see more of this from the Republican party nationally instead of so much fear-mongering and tea-party nonsense?

(Via DF)

Private Manning is in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. For one hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room in shackles. He is forced to remove all his clothes every night. And every morning he is required to stand outside his cell, naked, until he passes inspection and is given his clothes back.

I don’t understand why we condone this torture of a person who has not even been tried and convicted.

(Via DF)

Update, May 31, 2011: Manning has since been moved to a less restrictive environment, but has still not been tried of any crimes as far as we know.  Wired has the details.

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained [for seven months] under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

This is a must-read article, and a disturbing look at how the United States is turning its back on The Constitution, justice, and the experiences and promises of our own leaders.

Not even 24 hours after President Obama met with senior Republican Congressional leaders and expressed hopes for a “new dialogue,” renewed partisan fury engulfed the Senate on Wednesday, as Republicans threatened to block any legislation until a deal is reached to extend the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, potentially derailing the Democrats’ busy end-of-year agenda.

(In case you’re not aware, the Republicans are fighting to extend the tax cuts to couples with more than $250,000 in annual income or individuals earning more than $200,000, which is the richest 2% of America.  Democrats and Republicans have already agreed to extend the cuts to everyone else.)

There are a lot of things I could say in response, but it really boils down to this: today I feel that there something really wrong with our country and it’s been getting worse.

(Thanks to Mom for the link.)

With or without WikiLeaks, the technology exists to allow whistleblowers to leak data and documents while maintaining anonymity. With or without WikiLeaks, the personnel, technical know-how, and ideological will exists to enable anonymous leaking and to make this information available to the public.

This is exactly what I’ve been telling people a while before the latest big WikiLeak dump. As someone who knows how to make a website, I could set up, say, ZikiLeaks, on servers anywhere in the developed world tomorrow for an inconsequential sum of money. I can also download and/or upload any of these documents via BitTorrent (which has already been done) and avoid having to rely on servers that governments can take down. Shutting down WikiLeaks or arresting people does nothing to change this.

The best thing those with sensitive information can do to combat leaks today is to increase security around these sensitive files (which the Pentagon is already doing). Second, reduce leaks by keeping information open and honest as much as possible. Finally, keep employes with access to sensitive data happy.

(Link via DF.)

The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it’s doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party’s cooperation — cooperation that won’t be forthcoming.

The whole strategy of ‘no governance but our governance’ (which I’m coining now as NGBOG) is so antithetical to democratic principles it’s unbelievable that it’s become the status quo of the Republican party. However, the GOP has been doing precisely this for a long time, particularly in the last two years since Obama was elected. It’s just that now that they control the House they can really run with NGBOG.

(Link via DF.)

First, Nicholas D. Kristof writes in the NYT Op-Ed questioning if tax cuts for the rich have created our own Banana Republic where “the richest 1% of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income.” In our Banana Republic, where the recently elected Republican majority in the House has made it a top priority to give this richest Americans more tax cuts, is such extreme income disparity is really good for the economy?

Second is a longer article from a German magazine examining the end (?) of the American dream.  This was written before the recent elections but does a great job examining both the international and national problems that America is facing as a result of the recession and political culture of self-interest and inaction.  How can we still belive in the upward mobility that made America great when, “in 1978, the average income for men in the United States was $45,879 [while] in 2007, it was $45,113, adjusted for inflation?”

Thanks to DF and JDD for the links.

Hat tip to James Duncan Davidson.

A new analysis of the carbon and nitrogen cycles suggests that livestock production is on a path to unsustainability, and that it will push us beyond Earth’s safe operating limits by the middle of the century.

PS: Please remember seafood is not vegetarian; see pescetarianism.

Apple is, unsurprisingly, not going to stand still and let Google Android and Palm WebOS get the upper hand on features. They pretty much went down the wish list of features for the update and checked of every one of them: copy/paste, push notifications, better Bluetooth support, and so on. Pretty much the only feature left out is background apps which Apple again dissed as a large source of battery drain.

Flash is also still a no-show, but that’s not a surprise, nor something I think Apple plans on addressing anytime soon. In any case, I still don’t think Flash would be any good on any phone device at this time.

Consumers get it this summer… I can’t wait.

The Big Picture also has two nice photo sets of the occasion, one of the preparations and one of the event.

Color me hopeful (especially about torture & Gitmo and abortion funding).

Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100

Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0

(Via DF.)

The youth of America knows that gays are people with the same rights as everyone else, so know this all you intolerant fucks (of all ages): your time of is drawing to a close. We’ll be back and we’ll get all those happy gay couples married sooner or later.

Yes we can.

BTW, the uncensored version (which I linked to above) is much superior to the normal version because you get to listen to Jonah Hill swear through most of the thing.

Here’s where you can find more information on how and where to vote.

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There… is… no… free… lunch.

A must-read proposal.

For years now, they�ve told us that we can�t afford � that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can�t be done. We don�t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don�t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can�t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street.

(Via DF, via � Slabs, via Democracy Now!)

Barack Obama will cut taxes for over 95% of American families (even though more than half of American think he’ll raise their taxes).

Calculate your tax cut at ObamaTaxCut.com

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the longest-serving Republican senator in United States history and a figure of great influence in Washington as well as in his home state, has been indicted in connection with a federal corruption investigation.

Yes! Lock the man up and get someone non-senile in there instead.

You may remember Stevens from his series of tubes remarks or simply from the fact that he’s the king of pork-barrel politics in the Senate.

Fannie Mae bailout: Taxing America’s poorest citizens to help the richest:

In Roman times the employees of Fannie Mae would be decimated, i.e., they would draw lots and 90 percent of them would beat the unlucky 10 percent to death with clubs. What would be a modern equivalent? At the very least taxpayers should have the satisfaction of seeing the highest paid 100 Fannie Mae employees fired with two weeks of severance pay (it can�t be that hard to find replacements given that the current staff�s primary achievements have been accounting fraud and then insolvency).

It’s like Patton Oswalt’s ‘Dukes of Hazard’ bit: “Ain’t no way they gonna get away with this one! Skup-dup-dubby-doop-do” (Edit: fixed link here, it’s pretty good stuff so take a listen.)

(Via DF)

Then, while walking home home from work today, I witnessed attendants at the Arco station I buy most of my gas changing the price of regular from $3.98 to $4.02.

Draw your own conclusions…

(Via Kottke.)

I must say that I’m loving the Venn diagram illustrative tool as seen here as well.

(Link via DF)

If you visit John McCain’s MySpace page (as of 9am PST Tuesday morning), you will notice an interesting announcement from him. He’s apparently reversed his position on gay marriage as well as revealed a bias towards attractive lesbians.

Why would a presidential candidate make such an important announcement on his MySpace page?

The answer? He wouldn’t.

But I would.

Brilliant!

(Via Kottke.)

The law aims at fighting �happy slapping� only (filming orchestrated violence and sharing the images on the web, the intention being to harm the victim) [�]

Unfortunately the link to that quote (via Daring Fireball.) seems to be down but here is the Google Cache.

The original article mentioned “happy slapping” in this paragraph:

The law [...] is intended to clamp down on a wide range of public order offenses. During parliamentary debate of the law, government representatives said the offense of filming or distributing films of acts of violence targets the practice of “happy slapping,” in which a violent attack is filmed by an accomplice, typically with a camera phone, for the amusement of the attacker’s friends.

However, in the following paragraph, the article also cites Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi, expressing concern that the law “will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet.” The comments on the above linked Google Cache also expressed concern about the scope of the law.

Situation: Unclear.

PS: Isn’t this legislation to combat people filming “happy slapping” akin to using a chain-saw as a fly swatter? Can’t they prosecute the ‘slappers’ for assault?

I didn’t agree with everything in the clip but I’m aligned with the overall message. The damn Military-Industrial Complex has screwed us all (the US and the rest of the world).

Knife Party, the creators, have lots of other cool animations for commercials and the like on their website.

(Via swissmiss via designobserver.)

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

I fail to see how this is anything but an attack on freedom and a means to attempt censorship of damaging information (which, of course, will never work: ‘you can’t stop the signal‘ on the internet).

Citizen journalism has been increasing in importance lately, in fact, I would argue that its rise has been one of the few sources of positive for Democracy (which is otherwise beleaguered by low voter turnout, complacent media hegemonies, and rising corruption from powerful lobbies) in the past decade. Yet, as far as I can tell from a few Google News and BBC searches, this story is only being covered internationally in tech related news venues (which is how I heard about it).

Why is France embracing such anti-democratic laws? What possible benifit will they have? I’m not French so maybe that’s part of the problem, but just don’t understand…

Inviting a creationist and a scientist to discuss evolution isn’t debate – it’s sophistry. There aren’t “two sides” to global warming: scientists agree that it’s a fact. For fun, let’s take a look at what TV would look like if “both sides” of the issues were truly represented.

Enjoy!

(Via DF.)

In some of the critique that follows they address the idea that Rush is providing this alternate version of reality to his listeners so they don’t have to actually think about the real issues. This reminded me of a recent piece by Richard Dawkins where he says:

The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world.

[...]

Ignorant and absolutist attacks on stem cell research are just the tip of an iceberg. What we have here is nothing less than a global assault on rationality, and the Enlightenment values that inspired the founding of this first and greatest of secular republics.

Stuff like this warms the the most hardened cockles of my heart: could things really get better with the coming election?

(Thanks to DF & Kottke.)

This image is proceeded by a fake IM conversation (in iChat, no less) that goes like this:

Student 1: prof. Reid went off on me again
Student 2: what happened?
1: prof. Reid happened
2: you quoted Fox NEWS again?
1: I gave both sides

Yeah, because you know ‘prof. Reid happens’ when you quote Fox News! Disgusting…

Really, I think that’s enough to keep me from ever watching Fox News (not like there was a chance of that before). I guess I just ‘can’t handle the truth.‘

…The political message doesn’t hurt either…

Under the new law, teenagers age 14 to 17 with investment income will now be taxed at the same rate as their parents, not at their own rates. Long-term capital gains and dividends that had been taxed at 5 percent will now be taxed at 15 percent. Interest that had been taxed at 10 percent will now be taxed at as much as 35 percent.

The increases, which are retroactive to the first day of the year, are expected to generate nearly $2.2 billion over 10 years…

I realized a long time ago that politicians are making the youth pay for their pork and tax cuts. This is just one of many examples of that kind of irresponsible lawmaking. What’s particularly interesting is that back in 1999, Bush pledged to veto any bill that raised taxes. I guess he wasn’t making that pledge to anyone under 11 or so…

So I really have to thank you Mr. President, you lying fuck, for continuing to line the pockets of your rich cronies with money from the less fortunate. Lucky for you, you picked the best group: kids who can’t vote. It’s not so bad though, since those kids probably don’t need that money for anything important like college tuition. That money is in much better hands with the nation’s rich so they can do more whatever the fuck they spend all that money on (whatever it is though, it’s not working to help the economy).

Parallels between my living through two years of middle school and the two terms of the Bush presidency

(Via kottke.org.)