Maximum Security Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:10:00 +0000

A little mini debate about our trade policy between Lou Dobbs and Gary Shapiro. Shapiro argues that our free trade agreements are creating new jobs in this country. Hmmm, I think those new jobs pale to the number of jobs being sucked out of this country. I suppose with the dollar being smacked down flat that we might increase exports for a short time, but that's only because the economics in this country are poor as we slope down toward becoming a third world country.

Contempt for the Law - washingtonpost.com

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 03:51:00 +0000

An article from the Washington Post about the destruction of emails, tapes and anything that might reveal the soil on the White House.

Dan Froomkin - Contempt for the Law - washingtonpost.com

Reshaping the Gay-Marriage Debate | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:49:00 +0000

Stories like the one on the link below are hard to brush off when it comes to the issue of gay rights and marriage. I don't care what people want to call it, marriage or civil union, or legal whatever, two people who have built a life together need to have some protection and rights if something happens to one of them. As it stands the partner left alive has no more rights than some stranger off the street when it comes to any decision making. This has to change.

Reshaping the Gay-Marriage Debate Newsweek Culture Newsweek.com

If We Don't Begin To Solve Debt Problems

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:52:00 +0000

Moody's recently said that the United State's AAA bond rating could be in trouble once Medicare and Social Security costs skyrocket with the retired baby boomers. Moody's rates bonds from nations around the world.

There is still time to fix the issue, or at least start to get things under control if Congress and the President are willing to face the hard truth. But each year gets us closer and closer to the eventual massive shortfalls of social security and medicare we will have to face.

The subprime meltdown is a relatively minor event comparatively and it has Wall Street panicked. Imagine what is in store for us once the social security/ medicare meltdown begins to kick in. If our bond rating gets downgrading the result will be crushing.

I understand Iran is already using the dollar as toilet paper. We might be doing the same if we don't get our house in order and have to start printing lots of money to keep paying our debt.

I used to be optimistic that we could indeed begin to fix the issues especially with a Republican President. Republicans are supposed to be against big government and excessive spending right? Ironically Clinton not Bush did more to balance the books and reduce debt. Bush has only exacerbated the problem. Government has grown at an out of control rate under his presidency and so has the national debt.

It is probably impossible that any President and Congress would be willing to approach the American public and tell them we need to make some sacrifices so our children can enjoy some prosperity. Presidents are elected on their optimism not their pessimism. We need to tighten our belts and nobody wants to hear that in an election year.

I've heard enough talk about rainbows and sunshine. A little pessimism would do this country some good.

Big US Automakers Dropped the Ball, How Much Sympathy Should We Have?

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:11:00 +0000

How much sympathy should we have for the big US automakers when that lack foresight and innovation. Both Ford and Chevy had opportunities to become leaders in hybrid and electric car manufacturing. Instead they scrapped their programs when California changed their environmental laws. Now the jokes on them. Toyota and Honda are leaving them in the dust in a time when fuel efficiency is only going to become increasingly more and more important.

Ford pulls plug on electric car - Aftenposten.no

http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=7885

Homegrown terrorism act = Thought Police = Big Brother | Seven Generational Ruminations

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:03:00 +0000

Homegrown terrorism act = Thought Police = Big Brother Seven Generational Ruminations

I was really surprised to see Senator Collins co-sponsor this bill in the senate. She has leaned toward the side of civil rights in the past. This bill does include some safeguards but judging by the way our federal government acts, often in contempt of the Constitution, I would not bank on those safeguards preventing abuse of this act. I always worry about the rather broad interpretations the federal government comes up with to put someone under the umbrella of promoting dangerous ideas.

The fact the the bill passed the house with an overwhelming majority without debate is a little disturbing.

Conflict of Interest

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:43:00 +0000

Glenn Beck wants to criticize GE and other companies for conflict of interest but his guest turns the table around on his own parent company. I do love it when guests on these propaganda shows turn the tables once in a while.

Court bounces case of Long Island man jailed 17 years for slaying parents

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 02:25:00 +0000

Court bounces case of Long Island man jailed 17 years for slaying parents

It is all too common place to see the police use forceful interrogation tactics to secure confessions or create evidence in cases where they think they know who committed the crime without conducting a full and unbiased investigation.

In this particular case I wonder how the police could not figure out that the man who was murdered's last evening was spend with a man who owed him over 100 grand. Instead they fingered the 17 year old son and extracted a confession from him.

The Duke lacrosse case is another great example of the legal system creating or manipulating evidence to secure their desired verdict. I only wonder what would have happened to those young men if they had not been able to access top notch lawyers. There has to be many other cases that end up with innocents behind bars because they don't have the legal resources.

The police in the confession case above ought to be thrown in jail themselves. It's criminal in my opinion to do what they did. But that won't even come up as a possibility. We need more safeguards against such sloppy police work.

H. Res. 847: Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith (GovTrack.us)

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:47:00 +0000

H. Res. 847: Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith (GovTrack.us)

Do we really need a bill to say this kind of thing? Talk about an absurd waste of time and tax dollars. I think we all know that Christmas is an important event in this country both religious and economic. Of course congress does not find any other religious beliefs as worthy of recognition.

Why Does the Judicial Branch Let the Executive Branch Push It Around?

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:01:00 +0000

It seems like time and time again the federal government has been asked to provide documents in conjunction with torture, surveillance against the American people, and evidence in terrorist cases, most of the time they flat out refuse in the interest of national security or simply destroy the document.

Every time the federal government ends up in court or before a committee it is the same old story. We don't have the document, it never happened take our word for it, or we can't produce it due to ongoing investigations. (Reminds me of Kafka's The Trial where the investigations goes on perpetually with no progress or evidence ever produced.)

When will the judicial branch take some action? They just get slapped around and around. It's an ongoing joke.

How about finding some top CIA and FBI officials in contempt of court and throw them in jail? That is the only way the judicial branch will get some progress in these issues. Even if Bush just pardons them I think the American public might finally wake up to the obstruction of justice that is currently going on right now by the Executive Branch.

Satellite-Surveillance Plan Aims to Mollify Critics - WSJ.com

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:23:00 +0000

Satellite-Surveillance Plan Aims to Mollify Critics - WSJ.com

I figured the federal government would tone back itself in the midst of all of the current criticisms of it's domestic spying programs. Now they want to turn our spy satellites against us. My gut feeling is before we expand any more spy measures we need to get everything that is currently being done out in the open and in front of the American people.

The 10 Worst Presidents

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:42:00 +0000

The 10 Worst Presidents

Take a look at US News and World Report's 10 worst presidents and vote on your favorite, or should I say least favorite.

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:35:00 +0000

village voice > news > This Modern World: by Tom Tomorrow

I got a laugh out of this cartoon. What a different set of issues we are dealing with today. And to think we elected Bush as a vote for integrity.

Americans Are Sheep

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:26:00 +0000

Andrew Napolitano speaks about Americans as sheep on Fox news. You know where I stand on civil rights. I think Americans are sheep as Napolitano suggests. Americans blindly trust the government rhetoric and surrender civil liberties without discussion, a fight, or even a care really.

An Argument For Prudence On Global Warming

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:24:00 +0000

I've always felt that we can't afford to be wrong on the global warming issue. Would it kill us to take the possibility of it seriously even if it turns out to be a "natural cycle"? Though this video takes an extreme stance on both arguments the logic is clear. By taking global warming seriously we are reducing our risk. I understand this because I do the same kind of thing with my investment portfolio. It's called hedging the risk.

Politcal Cartoon About a Virtual Border

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:08:00 +0000

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:30:00 +0000

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

Nobody supports terrorists. But how can we function as a free and democratic society if our government cannot be trusted to produce all evidence it has in it's cases. The CIA and FBI have incredible leeway in dealing with their classified information. They withheld information that would have hurt their case against Moussaoui. They can classify information and hide it under the guise of national security at will and there is little that can be done about it. Even a federal judge has difficulty making the information available to all who should have access to it during a trial.

This may seem justifiable during a terrorist case, but how can we suspend our national values to prosecute those who want to destroy our national values? We will become just another corrupt judicial system run with strings attached by the executive branch. But this can't happen right? This is America.

Feds' budget tricks hide trillions in debt - MSN Money

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:27:00 +0000

Feds' budget tricks hide trillions in debt - MSN Money

It is staggering the sheer amount of money this country overspends and how they play with the numbers to hide billions upon billions in overspending.

With the middle class getting the knock out punch from inflation (food price increases, gas, medical insurance) there isn't a very strong base to pull us out of this when the social security problems begin to hit.

Intelligentguess - Analysis of Market Economics » USA - Relationship between Total Debt ( data from 1929) and External debt as a % of the GDP (data from 1995)

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:35:00 +0000

Intelligentguess - Analysis of Market Economics » USA - Relationship between Total Debt ( data from 1929) and External debt as a % of the GDP (data from 1995)

I've talked a lot about the Republican cut and spend policy and how it is hurting out country. Here is a nice graphic illustration. It's a graph of the national debt as a percentage of GDP. Look at how in recent years what has happened under Republican Presidents. They increase spending but reduce revenue in the form of tax cuts. The size of government has grown incredibly under George W which is normally a trait of the Democrats.

I'd actually support a cut and cut policy if it reduced the national debt. Cut and spend is damaging the future of the country.

Report: Americans getting poorer - MSN Money

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:39:00 +0000

Middle Class Squeeze

I'm a little fearful of the current state of our middle class. Anyone who is middle class like myself has been under a squeeze for the past few years. I know the inflation index is something like 3% per year, but that index doesn't take into account all of the costs the pile up on the middle class. Our tax burdens have increased, health care costs go up 5% on a good year, more on every other year. Gas has taken a heavy toll. Even granny on social security thinks long and hard every time she gets behind the wheel to go to the store. Wages don't seem to be able to go up enough to compensate. Companies are transferring health care insurance increases onto their workers. I can't blame them as they can't absorb the increases either.

My father was a union pipefitter during the booming 80's. Everything was going great as the ecomomy was going gang busters. I remember when the union voted down a $5 pay raise because it wasn't enough. And this was 1980 dollars. Then Reagon ordered them back to work with a pay freeze. Oops.

It was feasible for families to have only one bread winner and a stay at home parent. Our standard of living continued to go up. And it kept going up into the 90's. It wasn't necessarily a gang buster economy that kept the standard on the rise, it was the introduction of the 2 parent income. Mom and dad both worked and their combined income was better than 1 80's income. Our houses got bigger, our cars got bigger.

And so here we are now. We don't have a third worker to give our middle class families that boost in income. In fact, that two parent income under the pressures of inflation is only doing what 1 income did in the 80's.

People have been predicting the death of the consumer for a long time and again and again the consumer has risen on their plastic. I'm afraid this time the consumer is tapped.

This article talks a little bit about the topic. It is inconsistant and shows how difficult it is to track how our wages compare to other places. It is an interesting read though and worth browsing through.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/ReportSaysAmericansGettingPoorer.aspx

Overestimating the cost of Iraq?

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

Republicans Seek Retraction of Report on Wars' 'Hidden Costs'

There are many unrecorded costs of the war in Iraq and it's piling up. The Bush administration grossly underestimated the cost of the war and when some Democrats put in their numbers which could possibly be on the high side (though I think in the end they won't be) the Republicans are all up in arms about it. Your cost of the Iraq war is somewhere around $20,000 per household.

Honestly, I'd rather see estimates on the high side that come in lower, than gross underestimates of the total costs. Those numbers of course don't take into consideration the price the soldiers themselves have paid.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty?

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:20:00 +0000

It all started with Rush Limbaugh saying innocent until proven guilty is for the courts he doesn't have to follow it. Then there were people like Nancy Grace ready to execute anyone in her path before court. In the aftermath of September 11th, the Constitution was somehow buried in the rubble along side the thousands of victims. People used to hold out judgement and carefully listen and weigh out both sides of an argument. Innocent until proven guilty meant something outside of the courtroom. We as Americans viewed ourselves as a superior culture because we had the freest society. We had something to brag about.

But now we have a culture of quick reaction, quick judgement, and even quicker execution. What is the result of our quick action without weighing the consequences? We get poor laws passed like the Patriot Act. We pass laws to take the thinking and thought process out of decision making. We jump gung-ho into a war in Iraq based on fictional accounts rather than factual accounts of the situation. We tolerate the blatant disregard of our Constitution by our intelligence networks. We believe what we want to hear. We see what we want to see, and that is seldom where the truth lies. We pass laws that limit our public discourse and we create a culture where opposing views are seen as impediments rather than pillars.

Take a deep breath America. In your fast paced society where every moment is filled with something, your survival into the next century depends on preserving a few quiet reflective moments. When did we begin looking at the Constitution as if it were a souvenir?

MSNBC Video

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 05:58:00 +0000

O'Reilly can behave like a pervert but nobody else can. Bill criticizes J.K. Rowlings for gay Dumbledore, but can make suggestive menage a trois comments as if that is perfectly okay. Yet again the Republican right wing has a high standard of conduct for everyone but themselves. I have no problem with the menage a trois, but just don't tell me you are on some higher moral ground than the rest of us.

MSNBC Video

Political Cartoon- McCain and Giuliani Walk Through New York

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 03:49:00 +0000

Cable Channel Nods to Ratings and Leans Left - New York Times

noreply@blogger.com (George Blume) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:34:00 +0000

Nice to know someone criticizing Bush rather than kissing his ass is improving in ratings. Take note Republican talk radio.