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

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

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

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

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)

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

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

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)

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon

Want to learn how to become nonaccountable for your actions? Take some lessons from Bush.

Funny Video About Ann Coulter

You should check out the music video below poking some fun at Ann Coulter. Quite funny.

Ann Coulter video

Comparing Clinton Attorney Firings to Gonzales

eA lot of conservatives have brought up the fact that Clinton and Reno fired 93 U.S. attorneys at the beginning of Clinton's Presidency. I'm not sure what this has to do with the Gonzales firings. There is no comparison here what-so-ever.

I'll explain why. It is the President's right to fire attorneys whenever he wants. It is customary to make changes when a President first takes office. When Clinton fired the 93 attorneys it wasn't because he fabricated a lie and said they did a poor job, he wanted to start with a clean slate. That's a far cry from pressuring attorneys to persue cases more aggressively and then fire them when they don't succomb to that pressure. That's unethical tampering.

It is still within the President's rights to fire any attorneys at any time. But please, don't lie about the reasons. It isn't right to soil someone's reputation by saying they didn't preform well when the real reason for the firings were all political. It is also unethical to have someone fired for not persuing the cases you want prosecuted more aggresively. Ethics seems to be something the Bush administration is lacking when it comes to government duties. Clinton lacked ethics in his personal life, but at least he had a higher standard for the way he ran his administration.

The real issue here is the pressure the Bush administration has been putting on their attorneys to persue their political goals.

Electronic Voting Bill Introduced

Rush Hold (D-NJ) introduced a bill meant to deal with the problematic issues having to do with computerized voting. One of the main issues from the last election was a lack of paper trail and printed verification. As it stands, states that have the electronic voting and no paper trail are also states that will no longer have any recounts or challenges to the computer vote. There is no way to isolate the problems because an electronic recount will give the same results as the first count.

The new bill called the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act would ensure that paper trails are mandatory and that PAPER RECORDS become the final decider in any kind of recount. It also requires automatic audits which I think is another welcome check on the voting process.

The fact that there is no paper trail or ability to track back any possible tampering is a blow to democracy. These machines are touted as tamper proof and reliable, which in my opinion is never 100 percent guaranteed. Somebody somewhere will find a way whether it be attaching something to the outside of the machine to throw it off or getting into the hardware itself.

I'd rather rely on a more imperfect system that uses paper with built in checks than a sealed unchallengeable computer system.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070401-congress-finally-considers-aggressive-e-voting-overhaul.html

Political Cartoon - Signing Statement

Evangelical Luxury

Benny Hinn a popular evangelical preacher is asking for your help to spread the word of God around the world. Benny Hinn is asking for you to reach out. No ladies and gentleman, he is not asking you to sponsor a kid in Africa, he's not asking you to bring meals to the needy elderly woman next door, he's asking you to donate toward his new luxury private jet called Dove One so he can bring the word of God around the world. Last time I checked Jesus walked but I guess in this day and age his followers should travel in style.

You too can donate to Benny Hinn's private jet.

Oh, if you donate more than $1,000 you get a free model of Dove One.