Random Pieces 7/31/08

I love “regular guy” John McCain. See, he hasn’t shown up to do his job as a Senator since April 9th, 2008. No committee hearings, no votes. No work at all. Ah, what a life! For the perpetually curious, how much salary has Sen. McCain received in that time period? $51,345.08. Just to put that in context, how much is the median household yearly income in America? $48,201.00. Yes, that’s correct: in just under four months’ time, John McCain has taken home more money than the median household does in an entire year. That’s how much of a regular guy John McCain is. It’s also another example of how Republicans throw away taxpayer money that could go to someone who actually wanted to do their job.

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I eagerly await the day when the “land of the free” includes the freedom to enjoy cannabis. Tax and regulate it, just like alcohol and cigarettes.

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States looking to save money in their budgets should be looking to energy efficiency instead of approving any new coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plants.

California has cut annual peak demand by 12 GW — and total demand by about 40,000 GWh — over the past three decades. The cost of efficiency programs has averaged 2-3¢ per kW — which is about one fifth the cost of electricity generated from new nuclear, coal and natural gas-fired plants. And, of course, energy efficiency does not require new power lines and does not generate greenhouse gas emissions or long-lived radioactive waste.

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Memo to Congressional Democrats: when you quit capitulating to Mr. 23% on everything, maybe he’ll start taking you seriously. So the fake cowboy unveiled an overhaul of intelligence powers without consulting you first? Too bad. If only you had figured out how to exercise the oversight you’re obligated to do by that quaint antique, the Constitution, I might find some sympathy for you. I just don’t see the point in complaining about being hit by the stick that you chose to hand to the bully.

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Does White House “Executive Privilege” Extend to Climate Change?

President Bush and his merry band of lawbreakers think so. And the Congressional Cowardly Dems still aren’t doing anything besides issuing statements that do little more than make it sound like they’re upset.

President Bush today exerted executive privilege to block the House Oversight Committee’s subpoenas for EPA documents on global warming, heading off a scheduled contempt vote for EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and White House Office of Management and Budget regulatory administrator Susan Dudley. Committee chairman Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) blistering response to the news:

And then Waxman blathers on about how things haven’t been this bad since Nixon and no instance of valid executive privilege has been brought to his attention.

Let me be unambiguous about my views regarding this development.

I’ll start by noting that I appreciate Rep. Waxman’s overall work and approach to legislating. But these comments to the media and letters that he and other Democrats have written in response to Bush’s tramping of Congressional powers are empty shells of what they could and should be. The time for stern words chastising these clowns is over. Either back up the words with meaningful action or stop issuing them.

Bush has no standing to exert executive privilege with regard to EPA global warming documents. What part of those documents could possibly contain information relevant to our national security? If there is something there, Congress needs to dig it out and do something about it. That’s called doing their jobs.

The climate system is being forced and Democrats in Congress are enjoying playing political theatre with a lawless executive branch too much to actually do something about it. The climate system will not wait, Rep. Waxman. Our window for decisive action to mitigate further effects is rapidly closing, if not already closed. How bad the effects get depend largely on when we act.

Now, with respect to the beginning of his stern response, I have the following to offer. Rep. Waxman is absolutely correct in assessing things haven’t been like this since Nixon. Do any Democrats seriously wonder why? Perhaps all of the lawbreaking clowns that were in power during the Nixon administration were once again put in power once Bush was selected by the Supreme Court to rule over us. Were those clowns punished for their activities back then? Not enough of them in any meaningful way. Do any Democrats seriously wonder why they’re not only doing the same things all over again, in many cases they’re purposefully pushing the envelope, daring someone to do something about it. How many laws can they break? How many powers can they remove from Congress without Congress stopping them? How many years can they set back this country? 50? 100? 800 was deemed too much, even for the right-wing Supreme Court of 2008.

Either Congress starts arresting those who are in contempt of its duly issued subpoenas and investigate the articles of impeachment brought against Dick Cheney and George Bush or they go home until Jan. 20, 2009, let the executive branch do whatever they want and hope the next authoritarian executive that comes to power respects the legislative branch’s powers.

Their inactions during this Congress has only convinced unitary executive advocates that they haven’t gone far enough yet.

Catching up

I’m back from my conference.  I did two presentations – both went very well.  I met some good contacts and was introduced to students at my alma mater.  I’ve never had so much to do outside the conference – restaurants by the hundreds, good music everywhere.  I can’t wait to go back with just friends.  I tried switching which card the room was charged too and they didn’t remove it from the initial card presented.  I have to give the hotel a call and take care of that.

When I got there, I discovered my laptop wasn’t working.  It’s a dinosaur, but up until then had worked just fine.  It acted as though a key was being held down – system beeps during start-up, start menu not staying open.  Pretty frustrating since one of my presentations wasn’t finished at arrival.  I finally fixed it – but I’m not quite sure how.  The hotel wanted to charge $15 per day of internet wifi access.  Yeah right.  With the laptop acting up, I didn’t want to take it to the convention center.

All that to say I didn’t do any blogging while away.  I also didn’t have access to email – yikes!  So I’m catching up on this.  I kept track of national news, but nothing local.  So here’s the first thing I found:

Rep. Udall (CO) has introduced a bill that might do some good things for consumers using credit cards.  He’d like to include H.R. 1461 to the economic stimulus bill (as of the 21st of Jan.).  The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2007 would, among other things, require advance notice of increases in card interest rates, impose a freeze of interest rate terms and fees on canceled cards, prohibit penalties for on-time payments (thank you!!!), prohibit fees for non-use of cards, and prohibit over-the-limit fees for creditor-approved transactions.

While these steps don’t go far enough, in my opinion, they sound like good steps.  I’ve written about this before: the frame that needs to be applied to this situation is one of taxes being applied to consumers that are not directly approved by legislation.  It could be argued that by inaction, Congress approves of banks taking advantage of us, but that’s not how things work at the end of the day.

I think interest rates should be capped at a more realistic level.  I also think that since banks couldn’t do a good enough job discriminating people who posed too high a risk to the products they were seeking, Congress should intervene there too.  It’s not a stretch to argue that its in the interest of the entire economy, and by extension the world economy, that banks shouldn’t be allowed to run around without oversight.  It’s clear to me there hasn’t been enough oversight of banks for some time.  It’s time for Congress to exercise their duly appointed powers.

Errata: 29Dec2007

Some things running around:

The Rocky’s Lynn Bartels put in a sob story about poor, picked on Marilyn Musgrave. It’s all the mean attack ads that were run in 2006 that led to her garnering only 46% of the vote in CO-04. Riiiight. Supporting a U.S. constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and introducing legislation to ban abortion had nothing to do with that. Funny – neither manage to crack the top 10 in voter concerns, even those of Republicans. Anyone want to guess who had more 527 ads run on them in 2006: Marilyn or Angie Paccione? If you can’t take the heat Marilyn, don’t help dish it out. She’s the same politician, folks. She’s just trying to sing a different tune now that she’s in the minority.

King George has taken the next step in changing our country’s government. Apparently, he can “pocket veto” without pocket vetoing. Or something. Congress, if you plan on letting him get away with this nonsense, please don’t go back to work in 2008. The rolling over dog act isn’t getting anything done for the people. Kagro X raises some good questions. I think his last question is a little off, however. I’d rather have it asked, “How much more can the Americans people and our brand of democracy take?”

Heh. This would be interesting.

I have a slightly different take on this situation. How about ‘If you’re willing to do it to your mother, it’s not torture’? Although starting out with yourself would be a decent beginning. Seriously, I cannot for the life of me understand why we’re debating whether it’s torture or not. When it starts happening to American soldiers and citizens, don’t act all surprised, ‘kay?

Sweeny Todd is pretty good. AVPR not so much.

The shuttle Atlantis may not fly in January. Dang it. NASA needs to get the ISS constructed before the fleet is retired. Thought I’ve thought since the 2010 retirement announcement that they’ll likely extend their lifetimes.

250,000 for Wexler’s impeachment call?

Only five days after announcing the site’s existence, over 100,000 (currently 115,099) people have signed up to support impeachment of Dick Cheney – one of the least popular politicians of all time.

I firmly believe evidence exists that would support the theory that Cheney has committed high crimes and misdemeanors against the people of the United States. I think it is incumbent upon the House of Representative’s leadership to stop obstructing the Judiciary Committee from beginning investigative hearings into the conduct of the Vice President’s office.

One of the latest theories out there is that Rep. Pelosi and other officials knew to larger degree the details of the workings within the administration at a far earlier date than most (including myself) have previously believed. If that’s the case, they deserve to be investigated as well. No person or party should be immune to the enforcement of our laws. So if their supposed insight and involvement into the administration’s crimes is what’s holding them back, that should be investigated as well.

But this is really about Cheney for now. Go to Wexler’s site and sign to support impeachment hearings. This country is strong enough to learn what’s been going on. In fact, I believe the existence of our republic in the future depends largely on how much of the Bush administration’s nefarious activities are brought to light and how they’re handled.

Can we get to 250,000 before Congress reconvenes in January?