Sometimes, There Is No "Right" Answer

Pigford II and the Eternal Problem of How to Prove Discrimination | Mother Jones

There is no perfect answer to questions of policy. This article explores that fact. It gives us a handy way of framing the realistic choices we face in setting the bar for discrimination cases:

You can either set a high bar for evidence of discrimination, knowing that it will unfairly deny compensation to lots of people who were treated wrongly. Or you can set a low bar, knowing that this will unfairly give money to lots of people who don't deserve it.

Very Loud, Very Hot Freedom | You Are Dumb

Very Loud, Very Hot Freedom | You Are Dumb

Deregulation, in contrast to smart regulation (which may include less or different regulation) is sociopathic, insane, and deadly.

If Only He Had Tried Harder!

The BULLY PULPIT Tautology - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money

The post linked above explains, yet again, that the idea that you can fairly blame Obama for the gun legislation failure is not based on any defensible or realistic theory of Presidential power. It disposes of, rather effectively, the "LBJ coulda done it!" myth that pervades many critiques of the President from the Left. If one does not understand the institutional reality of Congress, one might wish to refrain from magical thinking about the Bully Pulpit.

I find this lesson instructive not only as a matter of understanding how Washington actually works, but also as a tangible explanation of why going out to vote for the Dem candidate for President every 4 years is going to get the Left exactly nowhere. If we want a more liberal government, we're going to have to start with City Counsel, County Board of Supervisors, and other local level institutions. That's how the Right took over, and that's the only way I can see that they can be defeated.

Our Crappy Political System Killed Gun Checks -- Daily Intelligencer

Our Crappy Political System Killed Gun Checks -- Daily Intelligencer

It's All About The Benjamins

The "MOAR" in this piece is spot on. Some good comments to the post as well.

A snippet:

The culture has moved and unlike social cons, the Rulers will adapt to that — are adapting. Wars will continue as long as they are profitable, the police state will grow, the poor and middle class robbed and bullied, the crown jewel of social security ripe for the picking. The Rulers got to be Rulers by using and discarding things and people as needed. Red State White Trash Blue Balled morons butthurt about sluts’ abortions and homo-marriage were once useful but are now increasingly a liability and will be treated like it, they just don’t know it yet.

If You Want A Progresive Government

Stop thinking it will happen from the top down, and that a victory every 4 years in the Presidential election is enough.

Why Do They Hate Democracy?

 [via LG&M]
An estimated 200,000 votes were not cast in Florida due to absurdly long wait times.

Even if the estimate is off by a factor of ten, that's 20,000 people who were effectively disenfranchised for no discernible or defensible reason, due at least in part to the Republican state government. But remember, the Republicans love freedom and America, and the Democrats are the Fascist America-haters.

That said, the worst county, per the article, is majority-Republican. Of course, I don't actually care, I just want people to be able to vote easily, regardless of party. Why we do not have a National holiday for voting is incomprehensible to me.

The Lunatics Are In The Hall(s of Congress)

An interesting post on how the few remaining "moderate" Republican pundits, David Brooks among them, are trying to wrap their minds around the fact that their party is nucking futs.

This is all Obama’s fault because it makes Republicans “look like whackos willing to endanger the entire global economy.” Brooks displays an almost surreal lack of interest in the underlying reality that Republicans actually are whackos willing to endanger the entire global economy. It is his responsibility to conceal this reality from America.

One Reason I Don't Publish Original Content Anymore

Because the great bloggers I read always beat me to it.

Republicans And The Latino Vote

The 2012 Presidential election saw a continuance of a demographic trend that doe not bode well for the GOP at the national level. Latino voters went for Obama at a 71-27 clip, per CNN exit polls.

The GOP seems, for now, to be embracing the reality that they cannot win the White House if they don't close this margin. There has been a lot of preemptive mockery from the Left about this potential switch in tone, but I have a different perspective. I see this as democracy working. Latinos are a significant and growing block of voters, and having one of the two major parties move away from policy stances that are alienating (no pun intended) to such a group is a good thing, in my view. I hope our next President can represent as broad a coalition of voters as possible. If either party is forced to change policy based on election results, that isn't pandering, that's elections, in the context of representative government, working.

On another pretty-much unrelated note, there is anecdotal evidence that the Romney campaign really thought it would win, in the face of substantial evidence to the contrary. I just wonder this does to people who believe in magical "The Secret"-type thinking.

Why Reagan Was The Devil Incarnate, Chapter Eleventy Hundred: Destroying Public Higher Education

[via LG&M]

I get frustrated when people can't or won't see that this is not an accident, it is not inevitable, and it is not "just how things are." There is a conscious, coordinated effort to destroy American civil society, in the name of "small government" ideology. This story deals in part with Ronnie Raygun's involvement.

Your Liberal Media

Stick a fork in me. I'm done. 

QOTD: 10/3/12

From a comment to this post at LG&M:

As Jesus taught us:
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day.
But give a small fraction of hungry men a useless voucher for half-assed fishing lessons and you can stop pretending like you give a fuck about poor people.

Amen.

Choot-spuh

Post title in honor of Michelle Bachmann.

The Right is in full swing with voter-supression efforts. To quote this linked post:

I'll "Get Over It" When We Bring Back All The Dead In Iraq

I'm kind of obsessed with the 2000 election. I'm also kind of obsessed with what a humongous asshole Antonin Scalia is. I'm also amazed at how, in just 12 years, the history has been re-written, and not just by right-wing cranks.

Also, too, fuck Ralph Nader.

Mitt Romney and the Infinite Sadness

OK, yeah, you could do this to many people who are filmed all the time. But sweet Jeebus he's bizarre.

Mitt Romney and the Infinite Sadness - YouTube

THIS

Just read the whole thing.

Reproductive Choice: The Right AND Electorally Wise Thing To Support

Pro-choice is a winner, or so argues this post.

They Don't WANT Educated Masses

A point I have raised many times.

Letting The Players Officiate The Game

(Inspired by The Daily Show)

The fact that we have state-level partisan control over national elections is really stupid. As are Birthers. 

I am aware of the history of Democratic shenanigans and out-right cheating. That history is indefensible. That said, the GOP's efforts to rig elections and disenfranchise voters is a national shame, and should, in a functioning democracy, result in prison terms for those who seek to block the most basic right We The People have. They don't even try to hide it.