Turning outrage into sanity?

This bill seems a great idea to me -- it's a crime that a few small-minded state officials can virtually disenfranchise large swaths of the population on whim or through negligence. Here's hoping that the same energy that drove unexpectedly high turnout this fall will also create pressure to pass this one.

Ensure *your* right to vote

A great page, GottaVote, summarizes the requirements for voting for each state, so you can see whether you will need new ID, what documents are required, and how long you have to get things straightened out. Look it up, be sure you have what you need to have your say in November.

To hell in a handbasket

I apparently just read, seethe, and file the links away for some imaginary future date when I'll have lots of spare time to analyze, ponder, and blog. But that's not happenin'! So here's a record-breaking heap of links from the last three months, that pain me to varying degrees and/or foreshadow the end of the American experiment:

I. Politics

• Oh, What Did You Think Would Happen? -- Governor Christie renegs on a major political deal, unashamedly
  
  
• The First Amendment, Upside Down -- campaign finance *stifles* speech?!?
  
  
• Mysterious Firm Gives $1 Million To Pro-Romney Group, Closes Shop
  
  
• Why the Press Loves Jon Huntsman but Ignores Ron Paul -- The media is fascinated by protest candidates who critique their own parties, but it marginalizes those who attack the establishment [fascinating!!]
  
  
• Conservative pundits grapple with ‘anti-science’ charge, flail
  
  
• Wis. Official To DMV Employees: Don't Offer People Free Voter-ID Cards Unless They Ask (no reason to *encourage* civic participation by the poor!)
  
  
• When Ronald Reagan Was President, There Was A Soviet Union And A Cold War -- but now mindless conformity is all the GOP needs
  
  
• Dennis G. Jacobs: Case study in judicial pathology -- more turning the Constitution inside out in the name of Security...
  

II. Economy

• Social Security provides the majority of income for three-fifths of Americans age 65+, but hey! let's whack at it and keep those old folks scramblin'!
  
  
• Related: We know how to reduce poverty among seniors
  
  
• Bill Gross: Deficit reduction can — and should — wait -- even big Wall Streeters can see the obvious! why not our political leaders?
  
  
• British Economy, After Austerity, at Zero Growth in the Past Nine Months -- more evidence that our approach is a deadly one
  
  
• Public special ed employee has $0 paycheck after health insurance deductions -- ah, but the public sector is pampered!
  
  
• A rising hunger among children -- eventually a lack of money affects nutrition and these children's futures
  
  
• The Embarrassment of the Poverty Rate -- is that it gets higher as we throw up our hands
  
  
• The Price of Rural Life -- disproportionately dependent on national support
  
  
• Big oil companies make huge profits with taxpayer support but cut jobs anyway
  

III. Health Care

• How our two-tiered healthcare system hurts kids -- wait longer for appointments and care than identical symptoms with private insurance
  
  
• Perversity -- public health interests and the financial interest of hospitals are often at odds, showing why capitalism is unlikely to solve this one
  

IV. Other stuff

• All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup -- American workers getting squeezed from both ends
  
  
• Guilt Through Algorithmic Association -- when what people Google starts affecting your life or your safety (really scary!)
  
  
• Even married monogamous women are dirty sluts who deserve cancer now -- when a vaccine becomes a political football
  
  
• Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas -- when you hear that "when 10% hold an unshakeable belief" is the threshold, it makes more sense of the craziness that passes for Conventional Wisdom these days...
  
  
• Return of the Bug-Eyed Bachmann -- not so funny when you clue into the gender politics of such images -- more here.
  
  
• A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not "Crazy" -- more on how women's opinions and feelings get dismissed
  
  
• Finally, really pulling lemons out of the lemonade pitcher: Ugandans say they were beaten and forced from homes to make room for carbon credit forest. Of course...
  
  

The criminalization of caring

You might be a sex offender if you do any of these normal things, including love your kid or be a teenager with a significant other. We really live in ridiculous times in many ways, but the lurid way we now view all contact with children is one of the sickest.

(via FreeRangeKids)

Working blind

I think that the Patriot Act is a pretty grim document, so I'm more than unnerved to hear that the government has a secret interpretation of that legislation that expands its reach beyond what the public realizes. I'm sure that massive data-sifting feeds into how intelligence agencies think they'll foresee terrorist activities, but the dangers it raises for average citizens are not at all trivial...

Poor widdle corporations

Thank goodness our current Supreme Court is there to protect them from any disturbance or unhappiness! Wouldn't want them to have to watch where they're putting their feet down all the time... [head-desk]

(via digby)

Things that surprise me

Two developments in the legal world that ingrigue/perplex/amaze me, in various ways:

• Common Cause asks DOJ to look into Scalia + Thomas misconduct in Citizens United Case -- apparently there's some basis for saying that the two should have recused themselves. No idea whether anything will come of this, but the CU case is so chilling that one looks for any hope of warmth...


• Rahm Emanuel booted off ballot in 2-1 Appellate Court decision -- it's something to do with residency, and whether he's a resident of Chicago just because he didn't sell his house there. Josh Marshall says that usually there's an exception for federal service, but again, no idea whether he'll have luck with an appeal here. Or who else might be running that would make a better next king of Chicago.

So much frustration, so little time

That's right, it's time for a link dump from my Grumpy Tabs file...

• Is science hard to communicate to the public, or does our society devalue intelligence and expertise to the point that people don't even *want* to hear about scientific findings?

  The problem isn't scientists learning how to tell cool stories, which is a skill of great value in any society because humans relate and learn through stories, but that America has raised generations of people to make fun of anyone who cares about shit enough to learn something complicated and be passionately engaged with their work, and marginalize and ignore what they have to say.

• Social contract lying in ashes: what happens when we replace government protection of the common good (funded by -- gasp -- taxes) with privately paid services. Ludicrous versions of justice.
  
  
• Rafe calls this Everything wrong with America in one article -- how, among other things, private prison interests are driving Arizona's draconian immigration policies.
  
  
• Of course, Rafe left out the TSA:
  
  
  1. At increasing numbers of airports, you are now offered the choice between excessively detailed imaging and invasive pat-downs designed to make you stick with the imager, radiation or not. More on this stupidity here.
     
  2. In parallel with the Arizona case above, it turns out that these new machines were brought to bear more due to lobbying by manufacturers than because of any real belief that they'll make anybody safer.
     
  3. Despair, Inc., comes through with some pithy t-shirts to capture your travel experience, if this hasn't driven you from the air entirely.
  
  
• Here's a little bit on military censorship of photos taken in the Mideast and elsewhere.
  
  
• Speaking of the military, looks like the Democrats are throwing them overboard again, planning to abandon DADT in the lame-duck Congressional session.
  
  
• Here's a little reminder that we don't live in a postfeminist era -- the language we use to describe men and women, even when giving a positive review, differs enough to create significantly different outcomes.
  
  
• The Supreme Court may be poised to end class-action lawsuits, which would have a huge impact on the ability of average folks to protect themselves and the rest of us.
  
  
• And finally, from the Department of Brash Hyprocricy, a freshman Republican who railed against healthcare reform complains at a month's delay in getting his own government healthcare. Poooor baby!

Another chink in the wall

It seemed obvious to me that CA Prop. 8 was unconstitutional, but I wasn't sure that a court would be ready to spell that out. Let's hope this doesn't rush ahead to the Supreme Court, given its current creepy level of right-wing agenda. Still, hooray!!

Edit: seems right to add this bit of snark... Yep.

Really, this quote applies to so many parts of government these days

...that I sort of hate to narrow it down:

'While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version' that [Agency] had provided."

heheh...

A small blow for sanity

Well! unexpected good thing of the week: disparity in drug sentencing reduced. Not sure what the rationale is for keeping the remining differential, but every little bit helps...

(via a tweet from FreeRangeKids)

Firing offenses

I'm with Digby on this one: McCrystal needs to go. Somebody who says that their biggest issue is with the "wimp in the Whitehouse" is somebody who can't be trusted to follow the chain of command.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my belief that he should fire McCrystal or at least accept his resignation (which is as far as he should go to appease the military) has nothing to do with any skepticism of the war. It has to do with respect for the constitutional requirement that the military be subordinate to the civilian executive. The military has been acting more and more as a rogue political faction with its own power base for quite some time. No president of either party should allow that (although it must be said that Bush's fetishizing of "the Generals on the ground" and The Man Called Petraeus has contributed greatly to this problem).

This isn't something to play with. Obama should accept his resignation.

The press will spin any decision as some kind of Democratic failing, so he might as well do the thing that is right on principle and shows some self-respect.
(via a Medley tweet)

Update: Well, he did it! That's heartening, although I don't expect things to change much as a result...

Friday link roundup

Infuriating

• British airways screws stranded passengers, offering a choice of nearly a month's delay or stratospheric prices for earlier flights.
  
  
• The Supreme Court is so old that even its youngest members don't really understand current technology, even though they're expected to make rulings about it.

Cheering

• Clever train doesn't stop at stations -- it picks up and leaves attachable subunits with arriving and departing passengers. Neat idea (see the video), and radically improves travel times.
  
  
• Arkansas adoption ban, passed by voters, found unconstitutional. Chip, chip...
  (via Alas, a Blog)
  
  
• The President apparently thinks that people should be able to have their loved ones visit them in the hospital and make their medical decisions. Gotta love a good "crazy socialist" who can put the power of Medicare/Medicaid behind some sane policy!
  

Interesting

• Rafe notes two ways to break news, only one of which actually leads to informing the public.
  
  
• The Civil War can be seen as a battle with three sides, the South, the North, and African-Americans.

  What you see, as the war goes on, is a gradual, and rather amazing, process by which blacks, free and enslaved, force the North to accept the cause of emancipation as their own. The logic of the war makes it unavoidable.

  A good example of a frame that changes the way you see a wide range of events, in illuminating ways. I recommend the whole thing.
  
  
• Washington, D.C., has to balance its desire to be a national monument against the benefits of becoming a modern liveable city...

  The monumentalist vision of Washington has choked nearly all urban life from the Mall and its environs. It has fashioned large sections of our city into pleasing vistas for tourists but has given the rest of us lifeless wastelands ... The monumental core should be the city's heart, not its parasite

  This issue arises in many different contexts, and in other cities as well.
  (via Atrios at Eschaton)
  

Things about healthcare reform

There's been so much grumpy press/discussion about these bills -- crummy provisions of the Senate bill, late starts to various benefits, etc. -- that I'd gotten rather down on them. So was glad to be reminded of all the good things that came out of this battle, including some really substantive reforms that start right away. So here are a few links from recent days:

• A little column from Krugman notes that the anti-fear forces got a win against the propaganda of the right.

  This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out.

  (via Medley's twitter stream)
  
  
• Ten immediate benefits of HCR. Most notable here are the end of "preexisting conditions" for children and of the vile game of recission (dropping folks who get sick). Plus some stop-gap options for other folks until better systems come into existence.
  
  
• Ezra Klein offers Who does health-care reform help? The answer in the long run is probably a lot of us, but most obviously those with suboptimal jobs and those who've had very bad luck.

  Sickness and health might be capricious, but access to health care doesn't have to be.

• Robert Reich: The Final Health Care Vote and What it Really Means:

  We will not return to the New Deal or the Great Society, but nor will we continue to wallow in the increasingly obsolete Reagan view that we don't need a strong and competent government. Today's vote confirms our hope that we can have both strength and competence in Washington. It is an audacious hope, but we have no choice.

  This is certainly not how the GOP thinks things will play out, but I hope he's right.
  
  
• Want to see how these reforms will affect you specifically? Here's a text explanation and a chart, both of which break down the changes by category of individual (employed, covered, uninsured, etc.).
  (via Atrios and Medley, respectively)
  
  
• And finally, for those always looking for a dark cloud, here's some analysis of how the Supreme Court might view this legislation, if/when cases are brought before it, given the law and given the current Justices.

Tuesday link-dump

A bunch of things. What mileage a blogger with time might make of discussing such! You can tell these have been collected for a week or two, so apologies for my lost referrers.

• Wonderful meeting of history and creativity: What Would Martin Luther King Make of Twitter? (captures two sensibilities almost equally well!)
  
  
• An observation from the State of the Union, about the historical anomaly of the President's calling out the Supreme Court Justices in person.

  The Supremes are used to wafting into the House in their black robes, sitting dispassionately through the speech and wafting ethereally out again on a cloud of apolitical rectitude. It's like they forget they're there because they're one of the three branches

  Not this time!
  
  
• Things we're not hearing about Haiti: how aid is getting fumbled by administrative disorganization. A real tragedy, and maybe an explanation for all the scenes of desperation that the media so loves.
  
  
• A bit of optimism in the midst of much criticism of Obama: he's been quietly reviving regulatory agencies that can improve the lives of many if not most Americans. Score one for progressives!
  
  
• On the creepy side: a poll of Republicans reveals the depth of their ignorance and bias. A third think Obama should be impeached? for what?? Many of the results here show the power of high-publicity fringe movements.
  
  
• And finally, just as a poke at my own gizmo-ga-ga reaction, the Onion's version of Apple Finally Unveils iPad.

Occasional reminders never hurt

Sen. Al Franken reads the 4th Amendment of the Constitution to a Justice Department official giving testimony before his committee. Apparently the Constitution is rather passe these days...

(via a Medley tweet)

Some things, what needs linked

• Discussions about penalties for drunk driving need to take into account that bars are largely built into a car culture (like stadiums built in the middle of seas of parking lots) -- perhaps there is more than one way to reduce this problem!
  
  
• In a similar vein (that is, Missing the Point), I hope that civic planners take note that Phoenix's new transit system is being used mostly by non-commuters, even though that's never what they plan around. Everyday life much? (Atrios doesn't even mention such inconceivables as closing down transit service on July 4 when you live in a region whose primary tourist draw is rooted in our national history, not to mention large celebrations thereof.)
  
  
• Our military contractor system is screwed in a number of ways, from financial costs to oversight to moral problems to stealing our best military folk. But, um, what to make of there being more contractors than military personnel in Afghanistan?!?!?
  
  
• Tomorrow night is a big Obama healthcare speech. I understand where this writer is coming from in claiming that Obama needs not just (or even) to win the policy war but to restore the hopes of his many onetime supporters that he can provide Leadership and Big Picture Inspiration to our national discourse.
  
  
• Echidne notes livingroom elephants in our discussions of work and parenting -- note, for example, the lack of the term "working father" in common parlance.
  
  
• Finally, while I'm at it, somebody go read this extensive review of Mac OS snow leopoard and tell me whether I should upgrade. I mean, that's a lot of research for a $29 piece of software that offers no front-end benefits!

So much hatred, so few outlets

I gotta say, the right wing is a really creepy place these days. There are "journalists" and bloggers fretting over what an Obama daughter is wearing (or perhaps her hairstyle), and now a soldier who contests his deployment to Iraq on the basis that Obama wasn't born in the US and thus isn't a legitimate Commander in Chief. Or something -- who really wants to know what's in these people's minds?!

No hope for the hopeless

I'm beyond disappointed in the news from the Obama folks that they appear to be dodging the Gitmo issue -- I'm positively devastated that there appears to be nobody left in a position of power who cares about fundamental human rights and decency. Years of deprivation and torment, without hope of appeal, fairness, the possibility of release... is this what America wants to stand for? Even the right wing used to hold up gulags as a sign of moral bankruptcy! Also chilling is this quote from a guy from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

If the last eight years have taught us anything, it's that executive abuses, left to continue unchecked for many years, have a tendency to congeal into precedent.

I sympathize with the nearly impossible position in which Obama finds himself, with terrible situations not of his creation, and the solution of which involve opposition from many sides. But at some point, he has to provide more than rhetorical leadership on the fundamental issues of our times.

That old double standard

Just a little more chat about how identical behavior is found acceptable in men and offensive in women, documented this time in Judge Sotomayor:

• Somehow it's everyday for a male judge to refer to his own experience in making a judgement, but the idea that a woman might do the same (let alone, that her experience might have led her to a different conclusion) is biased, biased, help and run away!
  
  
• Identical questioning of lawyers appearing before them lead to charges that the female judge is a meanie (while her male colleagues are, I guess, tough but fair). A professor friend of mine ran into almost this exact dichotomy when her tenure case came up -- students expect female professors to be all nurturing and warm, so if they're demanding and intellectually rigorous, they're seen as terrible people. (terrible!)

Sigh.