The Handbasket Chronicles

SCOTUS to End Fairness for Humans

2011-03-28T18:17:00.000-05:00

“Fairness” as an American value is suffering from a terminal illness.

The dictionary defines “fair” as being marked by impartiality and honesty; free from self-interest, prejudice or favoritism.

Americans allowed Ronald Reagan to do away with the fairness doctrine in broadcasting in 1985. Now, corporate America is challenging laws that treat candidates for public office fairly, and the Supreme Court of the United States, those nine judges everyone expects to be fair above all else, is poised to make it absolutely legal for big money interests to buy public offices in the United States.

Citizens United gave corporations the same right of free speech natural people enjoy. This might be acceptable if corporations had the same kind of financial resources as natural people, and if they were held to the same kinds of rules as natural people, but that is not so. Corporations often have vast financial resources, and those resources shield them from the kinds of rules that make natural people cut their grass and refrain from putting toxic waste dumps in their back yards.

Now, thanks to Citizens United, corporations are entitled to spend as much money on getting candidates elected as they please. This fact forces candidates into a kind of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mindset. In order to be competitive, candidates must raise as much money as their opponents do. Candidates’ taking large sums of money from anyone is fraught with ethical peril.

Money buys access and money buys influence. If John Q. Publicservant wants to get elected, he must be able to run as many ads as his opponents. If his opponents have a trillion dollars, so must he.

After 10 per cent of Arizona’s state senate was implicated in a bribery scandal, the state passed a law intended to battle corruption. The law allows candidates for state office to use state money for their campaigns if they forgo private funding. If privately-funded candidates in the race outspend the publicly-financed candidates by a certain amount, the public-money candidates get more money, allowing them to compete.

This arrangement makes it feasible for a candidate to use the public campaign fund. Otherwise, no one would take public funds, since private campaign donations are basically unlimited. The law prevents elections being bought by the best fund-raiser. The best fundraiser is always the guy who makes the best promises to potential donors. All the very best promises can be left unspoken until it’s time to vote on that rule or regulation that requires a big donor to (1) treat employees or customers fairly; (2) clean up after itself; (3) take care of the people it injures; or (4) pay for the infrastructure it uses to make its money.

The Supreme Court heard arguments today about this law. Five of the justices don’t like it. These five justices will rule against the law if it “levels the playing field” for candidates. In other words, if the law has the effect of making elections fair, Justices Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Scalia and Kennedy want it overturned.

There are indications that Justices Thomas and Scalia are partially-owned subsidiaries of Koch Industries—um—good buddies with the people who benefitted from the Citizens United ruling (Common Cause).

Recent trends in policy have been about protecting the so-called “rights” of corporations and businesses. What these policies have done, in effect, was deprive private citizens of their rights. The corporation has the right to spend unlimited sums of money to influence a political campaign to suit its aims. The private citizen is thereby deprived of the right to hear the complete story from the candidates themselves.

Regarding free speech, this one thing is true. Money is a very big amplifier. If one candidate’s speech drowns out everyone else’s, he or she deprives others of their right, since the right to be heard is inherent in free speech. If that happens in politics, the people will be the biggest losers.

Corporate Erosion of Civil Rights

2011-03-21T17:45:00.001-05:00

The following is an unabashed slam of the methods used by big business corporations in this country. These businesses are running the United States of America into the ground without remorse or concern for the people who have produced the extreme wealth which their owners enjoy. That these corporations supply jobs is perfectly well known; however, the cost the American people ultimately pay for these jobs remains undisclosed until something goes terribly wrong. At that point, corporate malfeasance becomes public and unashamed, and the "people" lose, pretty much every time.

Read more »

Crashing the System

2011-03-14T17:49:00.001-05:00

James O’Keefe is a handsome young man who proves looks can be deceiving. In a speech at Mount St. Mary’s University, he quoted G. K. Chesterton, “‘The position we have now reached is this: starting from the state, we try to correct the failures of all the families, all the nurseries, all the schools, all the workshops, all the secondary institutions, that once had some authority of their own; everything is ultimately brought into the courts. It seems like the world has become one giant divorce court. . .’” James O’Keefe has set about to remedy this situation, it seems, by destroying those institutions.

Free Speech Isn't Free

2011-03-07T16:13:00.002-06:00

An interesting confluence of news stories and advertisements this week points up a re-emerging theme recycled from the Bush administration: Free speech is okay if the radical right agrees with what is being said. In their defense, the radical right would have the same complaint were the system to undergo a coup by the radical left tomorrow.

Democrats: False Heroes

2011-02-28T17:43:00.002-06:00

The news from Wisconsin last week was interesting, and the amount of support shown state workers was wonderful. While everyone loves a hero, the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state rather than be forced to allow the GOP-controlled legislature to gut workers’ rights were only playing at being heroes. The entire Democratic Party has been playing at being the hero for quite some time now, and for the most part, has had everyone fooled. Unfortunately, playing the hero and being the hero are not the same.

Human Rights & the TP

2011-02-21T16:01:00.001-06:00

Democratic legislators in Wisconsin are not in Wisconsin this week. They have been on the run from a Republican majority intent on stripping state workers of their right to collective bargaining. Tea-party-fueled Republican majorities in other Midwestern states have similar union-busting bills in the works. It is easy to dismiss the collective bargaining rights of state workers as someone else’s problem, but it is anything but someone else’s problem.

Why the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice Debate Never Ends

2011-02-15T16:34:00.001-06:00

The United States is tremendously rich in resources and short on history. Because parts of it were sparsely populated when the first Europeans arrived and because the indigenous population was susceptible to diseases like smallpox, it was relatively easy to conquer.

God or the Beast

2011-02-07T14:26:00.001-06:00

Imagine, for a minute, the following scenario:

God gets up one morning and decides that good and evil don't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is that people worship God. The more people worship God, the happier God becomes. If God wants to be even happier, what is the logical thing for God to do? God could get people to worship more, but there are only so many hours in the day. The best way for God to get more happiness is to get more people.

Right-Sizing Texas

2011-01-31T17:30:00.001-06:00

Suppose for a minute, that the radical right is correct in assuming that the government needs to be small enough to drown in a bathtub. The state of Texas has taken that leap of faith and is now “right-sizing” government in its current budget. Education took the biggest hit, and Texans are still thanking God for Mississippi, which continues to spend less and get even worse results in education. What else did Texans not need?

Abstinence Ain't All of It

2011-01-27T10:06:00.001-06:00

Bristol Palin came to Bryan, Texas this weekend to help a local charity raise funds. The name of the charity is the Central Texas Orphans' Mission Alliance (CTOMA). It ought to be the Central Texas Orphan Making Alliance, since one of its main tenets is that abstinence works as birth control.
Read more »

Texas Budget: What Shortfall?

2011-01-17T18:00:00.002-06:00

The too-cheap-to-pay-my-fair-share people have gotten to the top of the heap in Texas government. They have decided that a country with 300 million people can get by with a government that apparently does only three things: defends against foreign invasion, locks up criminals, and defends corporations from lawsuits.

As a result, the too-cheap people are telling lawmakers to “examine the basic functions of government.” In case you don’t know the code, I’ll translate: quit educating those peons.

Arizona Shootings Foreseeable

2011-01-10T16:59:00.001-06:00

The shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona on Saturday has energized two interconnected national debates.

The first issue is gun control. Arizona may have the least-restrictive gun ownership laws in the country. This event may be a catalyst for changing that fact, but already the second-amendment camp is setting up a hue and cry that someone is going to take their guns away. Americans love their guns, and few are willing to give up their second amendment right to keep and bear arms. This fact seems not to register on a large segment of society, typically associated with the radical right, which brings up the second debate.

Let's Talk About Government Waste

2011-01-03T18:10:00.001-06:00

There are some new kids in town, and they are all about cleaning up the governmental act. They have positions of power and plan to use them. They cannot wait to show you how much better off you will be when there are beggars on the streets and infrastructure is a mere memory. The big prediction is that the new kids, in the name of “tax relief” will gut Social Security. They have not said it out loud yet, but the operative word is yet. Here is a look at two of the shining stars of the Republican majority, and what they plan to do to (or for) you.

Keeping America Great

2010-12-30T20:47:00.003-06:00

In 1987, a book called The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by historian Paul Kennedy accurately predicted the demise of the Soviet Union and the coming decline of the United States. Kennedy explained very succinctly that the rise of any power depends on the balance between economic and military strength. According to Kennedy, nothing good comes of a country bankrupting itself to finance military adventures.

In a few weeks, a new congress will assemble in Washington DC, and take up the people’s business.

What Peak Oil Means for World Peace

2007-08-29T18:47:00.001-05:00

"Peak Oil" refers to the fact that worldwide, per capita petroleum production peaked in 1979. Owing to population growth, even though we continue to pump more actual barrels of oil per day, the amount of oil pumped per person continues to drop.
Read more »

Why Illegal Immigrants Come

2007-08-23T01:17:00.001-05:00

A great article about the United States' lack of accommodation for new parents and my recent trip to Mexico have given me an insight about why illegal immigrants come here. It just suddenly added up, like a column of numbers. The clouds opened up, and the curtain parted, and I finally understood why all those people come here.
Read more »

The Israeli Irony: Darfur

2007-08-20T08:05:00.001-05:00

Israel says it will no longer accept refugees from the Sudan who sneak across the border into that country from Egypt. The refugees will be returned to Egypt. The Israelis claim that country has agreed not to deport them, but Egypt says it will deport the refugees to the Sudan. The refugees in question are fleeing Darfur, and deporting them to the Sudan is a death sentence.
Read more »

An Eerie Parallel. . .

2007-08-10T11:05:00.001-05:00

Back in 1938, the German people were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They had had their traditional monarchical government forcibly removed and replaced with what appeared to them to be an impractical, inefficient, and cumbersome joke: the Weimar Republic. They had endured the Great Depression and economically stifling war reparations payments. They had also listened for years to the rhetoric of politicians who pledged to end the republic and bring back the glory days of Germany.
Read more »

It's About the Coffins

2007-08-08T09:53:00.001-05:00

I am sick and tired of hearing about illegal immigrants. Not that there is no problem; there are millions of people in this country who don't belong here. Unfortunately, someone has spread the vicious rumor that most of them are of Hispanic extraction. The real problem is not illegal immigrants; it's dead Americans.
Read more »

An Alternate Path for Iraq

2007-06-28T11:23:00.001-05:00

Two recent editorials in the Washington Post explored alternative roles for the United States in Iraq. Both Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Julia Taft made important points in their desire for a change in U.S. policy.
Read more »

Joe Lieberman's Criminal Irresponsibility

2007-06-11T11:49:00.001-05:00

An article in the Jerusalem Post states that U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) is calling for the United States to attack Iran immediately. According to the Post, in an interview with CBS, Lieberman said that "Military action will accomplish two goals: The destruction of Iran's nuclear plans and an end to terror attacks against US soldiers in Iraq."
Read more »

Get Yer Illegal T-shirts Heah!

2007-05-30T17:41:00.000-05:00

CarryaBigSticker.com is selling a shirt that has been outlawed in several states, including Oklahoma and Arizona. The shirt is an anti-war protest that contains the names of over three thousand fallen service men and women who have given their lives in the so-called War on Terror. Such laws are bald-faced attempts to curb the First Amendment right of free speech. Because I believe that obedience to such laws gives the government permission to revoke my right of free speech, I ordered one of these shirts today, and will cheerfully go to jail for wearing it, if need be.

At any rate, for those of you who wish to voice your support of our remaining troops by bringing them home alive, I thought I'd give you a heads-up.

Forgiveness, Fallwell, and Me

2007-05-16T09:43:00.001-05:00

My reading today in A Course in Miracles tells me that I need to understand that forgiveness is not overlooking someone's sin, but rather acknowledging the fact that if God created a world as perfect as He is, nothing in that world is out of place. The reading advises me to try to understand that things that seem to need forgiving are really as they should be, and the problem I'm having with them is mine.
Read more »

Disabled Child has no Right to Life Support

2007-05-11T16:50:00.001-05:00

Here is one of those questions I'll have to put in the "Glad I don't have to answer it" column, but I can't get it off my mind for other reasons.

Emilio Gonzalez is a terminally ill 17-month-old boy who "lives" on a hospital ward in Austin, Texas. There is no chance that Emilio will ever get well. His court appointed attorney/guardian ad litem has filed a legal brief in which he asserts that "there is no constitutional right to medical treatment and Emilio does not have a fundamental right to life-sustaining treatment."
Read more »

Irked by Iraq

2007-05-07T18:44:00.001-05:00

I hate this war.

I thought at first it was a knee-jerk reaction because I was a teenager during the worst of the Viet Nam tragedy. It's not. I hate this war.

I hate it because from the very beginning, I was branded and labeled for opposing it. Before the first soldier set foot in Iraq, people were flipping me the bird because I had an anti-war bumper sticker on my car. Every time I spoke out against the war, I was told that I was unpatriotic, inappropriate, or hateful. My pastor refused to pray for peace during Sunday services, even though there is a perfectly good prayer for peace in our prayerbook. My relationship with the church was the first casualty of the war for me.
Read more »