Rumsfeld give grades to Presidents

Posted on May 24, 2013 by poladmin

Donald Rumsfeld, who brought us the disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan is giving out grades to presidents. The D- to Bush was very much the result of listening to Rumsfeld in the first place, so Rumsfeld essentially gave himself a failing grade.  This makes the F he give Obama look like sour grapes — Obama didn’t continue Rumsfeld’s disasters so he gets a worse grade.

Give me a break. Rumsfeld is one of the last people to be judging the jobs of political figures. This is a lot like asking Madoff to judge investment advisors.

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The weekly scandal from Washington

Posted on May 17, 2013 by poladmin

What is the greatest scandal reported these past few weeks?

Is it the number of organizations that get tax exempt status under 401(c)4 that should not?

How many of the put-upon TeaParty groups are not primarily political in nature? (Not primarily political is the requirement under 401(c)4.)

Is it the, called hacking in any other setting, actions of the Bloomberg reporters to snoop on users of Bloomberg equipment? (Systems that cost thousands a year, these should be at least as secure as a phone.)

Or is it the rampant sexual assaults in the US military?

I’ll vote for the last one.

The response to sexual assault and harassment in the military should be swift and sure — first demotion in rank and immediate discharge. Any hesitation by superior officiers, they should be demoted and discharged. No questions, no delay, no more discussion. Criminal proceedings can come after these actions.

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Privatization of the Post Office?

Posted on May 9, 2013 by poladmin

Congressional action is slow these days since the House and usually the Senate Republicans do not want to allow anything to be accomplished as long as Obama is President. So, something different.

Privatization of the Post Office has been suggested. Unfortunately this would force us to rely on the high prices and poor service of delivery services like USP. A few points to remember — the lowest rates from UPS are for delivery to the local post office with final deliver from the USPS since it is the cheaper alternative. Illustrating once again that privatization is not a means to save money, but a means to pad the paychecks of management.

Second, UPS is generally unreliable and unresponsive to problems. Oh, your signature required package was left on the front porch. Oops. Yeah right. Most likely the front porch of the delivery driver.

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Boston, West, and the danger to Americans

Posted on April 24, 2013 by poladmin

Last week there were two major explosive events — the bombing at the Boston Marathon and the explosion in West, TX. From a personal perspective, both of these hit home since I spent time in Boston and my ancestors lived near West.

The news coverage of Boston was, as expected, heavy. The coverage of West has been very secondary. Partly because it got lost in the shuffle of breaking events in Boston. But, in terms of danger to Americans and in terms of actual actions that will mitigate the danger, the story from West is far more important.

It is becoming clear that part of the cause of the disaster in West is the lax controls put on businesses in anti-government (i.e. anti-OSHA) states such as Texas. No inspections, no concern about quantities of explosive material by the owner or or local fire department (volunteer fire departments do not usually have inspectors or require fire permits). No wonder Texas ranks high on places to do business. But how does it rank on places to actually work?

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Senate Republicans Cowards Kill Gun Control

Posted on April 18, 2013 by poladmin

The story isn’t that the Senate failed, it is that Senate Republicans blocked passage. Don’t blame the institution, blame the individuals responsible.

Senate (and House) Democrats have less to fear from a NRA backlash since the hard core NRA voter would not vote for them no matter how they vote on gun control. But the Republicans have even less to fear from the NRA since very few voters are so tied to that one issue that this will change their vote. Their election is tied more to the unyielding stance on tax increases than to gun control. Voting for controls may generate a lot of noise, but it causes very few voters to change their vote (especially when the opponent agrees with gun control).

It is time for the 80% who claim to want background checks (and other changes) to vote that way, rather than ignoring that stand and only voting for lower taxes for the rich.

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The Second Amendment, The NRA, The Truth

Posted on April 9, 2013 by poladmin

The basic truth is that the NRA is less interested in the full Second Amendment and more interested in imposing its will on the rest of America.

Remember:

Article [II]

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

What do unregulated guns have to do with an amendment designed for regulation and state security?

Nothing.

One point the NRA has been pushing is forbidding those suffering from mental problems from buying guns. Paranoia is a mental illness. So all the paranoid Second Amendment kooks should, by the NRA’s own claims, be forbidden from owning guns.

Better yet, let us actually abide by the Second Amendment and enforce the Regulated Militia that it calls for.

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US Taxes, how bad are they really?

Posted on April 1, 2013 by poladmin

CNN has an interesting graphic on top tax rates and income levels for various countries (Western Europe, Asia, and others). Generally, the US is in the middle (the chart is for combined state and federal, but does not seem to deal with Social Security payroll taxes) for top tax rates, but near the top end for when the top rate starts.

What is the relevance of the top rate?

When the income level for the top rate is far above the median income, the relevance for most is none. Indeed, the real comparison would be to compute the expected tax for a given income level. As an example, a low tax rate state such as Oklahoma reaches the top rate very quickly (essentially a flat tax state) and a high tax rate state such as California reaches it at a much higher income level. Thus for most (90% or more) tax payers, California is a lower tax state than Oklahoma.

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Iraq — 10 years later

Posted on March 20, 2013 by poladmin

About 10 years ago, I asked the question:

  • Are you more worried about Iraq using chemical weapons on US troops or that there are no such weapons?

The actions of the Bush administration indicated they only considered the first part a possibility. But even then it was fairly clear that there were no such weapons. It was apparent from the news reports of the period.

Today the real question is why today we bother listening to the promoters of WMD 10 years ago? They were wrong then and are still wrong today. In political punditry, being wrong does not reduce your audience — it may actually increase it.

 

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The Second Amendment

Posted on March 11, 2013 by poladmin

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State

This is the opening phrase — it is as important as all the other words in the Second Amendment.

On any issue of gun control or no control — ask

  • Where is the regulated militia
  • Is it really helping security of the State

The second is about state security, the fourth about individual privacy and security.

 

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The Sequester approaches

Posted on February 27, 2013 by poladmin

The Sequester (the result of a compromise that was required to raise the budget ceiling) approaches.

The Sequester exposes the Republican economic policy — they are for cuts, just not “those” cuts. This illustrates how easy it is to be for some generic policy (cuts, cutting waste, etc.) but how hard it is to actually implement such a policy. Finally the Republican policy of cuts has arrived and we see that things are really cut, the era of the free lunch is over.

Why isn’t there (yet another) compromise on this issue?

  • Republicans view of compromise is to cut something else — resulting in exactly the same economic impact. Or more likely to cut something 20 years from now and say you have cut the current budget.
  • Democrats view of compromise is to cut and tax. And they feel that if the only solution is cuts, it doesn’t matter all that much if the cuts are general.

Since the only solution (i.e. avoiding the economic impact) is to rescind the cuts, there will be no real solution. It is best to just ignore it and proceed tot he next budget.

 

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