EFCA

The campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act is now in full swing. The so called Campaign for American Prosperity has enlisted no less than Joe the Plumber to campaign against the bill which would make it easier for workers to form unions. There are a couple ironies here. First, I do not understand how prosperity follows from making it harder for workers to bargain for better wages and benefits. Part of our current economic situation is the fact that workers in the middle of the economy have seen their wages stagnant over the last thirty years while the earnings near the top of the economy have soared. (With a short reprieve from 1992-2000.) This drives down their consumption and creates a downward spiral in wages.

Second, had Joe ever been a union member, he perhaps would have not found himself unemployed, poor and with multiple tax liens. Had he joined the plumbers union, he might actually have been a licensed plumber instead of a $7/hr hack. Maybe Joe would have had a decent job that would have saved him from the embarrassment of his current career as a reality-tv-show-contestant-in-waiting. Of course unions don't solve everything. Joe would still likely be obnoxious and ignorant. That just seems hard wired.

We want less Joes. Not more.

Drug War

Two interesting stories today on the changing face of the the Drug War. First Sec. of State Clinton was in Mexico yesterday to discuss that country's narco violence. She openly acknowledged that Mexico's current fire is fueled by "insatiable" US demand for drugs and the smuggling of weapons into Mexico from the United States where even assault weapons are plentiful and cheap. (The US is the largest importer of illegal narcotics. It is the largest exporter of weapons.)

Second it appears New York's governor has reached some deal whereby that state's draconian "Rockefeller Laws" which created mandatory minimums for drug offenses will be repealed. NY was the first state to apply a "we'll show 'em" approach. Now they are the first to abandon it.

I suspect the SOS will get some heat because she acknowledged the US hand in the drug trade, and hence "blamed America." At least both developments reflect a gasp of the truth rather than a reliance on ideology.

Fetal Personhood

Eetal personhood statutes are now all the rage in the RTL community. They are a menace not only because they are an assualt on the right of any woman not to have a child, they also have some very specious side effects. In the interst of time I am just cutting and pasting Salon's Lynn Harris here:

We all know that establishing the "personhood" of microscopic Americans is a means of characterizing abortion -- legally, and even culturally -- as murder. Though the Supreme Court decision making abortion legal turns largely on the right to privacy, it also notes -- in an aside that has become anything but -- that if fetuses were "people," they would be entitled to protection under the 14th Amendment, ergo entitled to "life." The Center for Women Policy Studies has stated that "legislative efforts to establish fetal patienthood, victimhood and, therefore, personhood represent the primary threat to Roe v. Wade."

But as the National Advocates for Pregnant Women point out in a brand-new video, they also represent a threat to pregnant women -- all pregnant women, including those who plan to carry to term.

One example: Angela Carder, a Clarksville, Md., woman featured in the video, became critically ill at 25 weeks pregnant. Her family and physician all agreed to carry out her wishes and keep her alive as long as possible -- but her hospital called an emergency hearing to determine the rights of the fetus. A court held that the fetus' right to life outweighed its mother's, and ordered a C-section despite the fact that the surgery could kill Carder. The operation was performed, and neither one survived.

Also: A Florida woman wanted to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) for her second child. No hospital would do it. She opted for home birth. While she was in active labor, there came a knock on the door. Nope, not her doula: the state's attorney and sheriff had come to take her into custody -- and to a hospital. Strapped to a gurney, she was forced to undergo a C-section. From the video: "When this woman, who vehemently opposes abortion, argued that her right to informed medical decision-making, bodily integrity, due process, and liberty had been violated, she was told that fetal rights outweigh hers." (She went on to have three more children, all vaginally.) (Note to video scriptwriter: Please use the medically accurate "vaginally" rather than the value-laden "naturally.")

Bonus: A Utah woman who gave birth to twins, one stillborn, was arrested on murder charges based on the claim that she was responsible for the death because she'd refused a C-section two weeks earlier. Cited: Utah's feticide law, designed -- like personhood laws -- to protect the fetus from the moment of conception.

Bottom line: Personhood laws deprive pregnant women of the right to make informed decisions not just about abortion, but also about childbirth (even, irony alert, when those decisions may turn out to be in the best interest of the post-born child). But hey, we knew "personhood" didn't apply to us in the first place.

Six Years On

This week marks the sixth year of the Iraq War. Over 4500 American lives have been lost. At least 100,000 Iraqi lives have been lost. Arab extremists have a bloody shirt to wave and the invasion cost us precious credibility and about $9 billion a month. Every single prediction we were given about the war, its length, outcome and cost, has been wrong

Someday we will be out of Iraq. Someday Iraq may have a working government that at least superficially glosses over the ethnic and religious tensions in the country. At that point, someone will declare victory and try to tell us that it was all worth it. There likely will be flags and soldiers in the background. His or her words will fill us with pride over our tenacity.

At precisley that moment, someone needs to ask this person what defeat would look like. Because if this is a victory, then the bar has been immeasurably lowered.

This Just In

The State of New Jersey is considering a ban on the waxing procedure known (admiringly to most) as the Brazilian.

In othe news, AVN is reporting that the most recent crop of porn videos feature... how to say it .... the opposite of Brazilian.

It really is sort of an end of an era when you think about it. Like the end of disco.

B- School

This weekend the Times reported that many of the nation's MBA programs are rethinking their curriculum. Seems they feel there has been an overemphasis on short term results, or as one professor put it:

A kind of market fundamentalism took hold in business education ... The new logic of shareholder primacy absolved management of any responsibility for anything other than financial results.

Well at least someone finally said it. Of course we are decades away from the time when any manager will consider anything but the bottom line to be his or her responsibility.

AIG Madness

The media is abuzz today with discontent over the fat bonuses paid AIG executives despite the fact that the company was bailed out by the United States government. AIG's answer to the criticism is that the bonuses are a matter of contract and there is no way AIG can avoid them.

Pay and benefits to the members of the United Autoworkers Union were also subject to a contract. A big contract that covered more than a few executives. That contract got modified after two of the Detroit Three took federal dollars to stay afloat. Something tells me AIG had a little more flexibility than it lets on.

UPDATE

Larry Summers and the NYT have both now made the case for allowing AIG to pay and keep its bonuses. Their arguments are two: 1) the sanctity of contracts and 2) employee retention. Poppycock both. As to the contract argument, contracts are indeed sacred... most of the time. Extraordinary circumstances, say a change in ownership (to the US Government) or a financial meltdown may give a clever lawyer some ability to get out from under. It is worth noting that, had AIG declared bankruptcy, the contracts would have been nullified and no bonuses paid. Moreover, there is the re negotiation option outlined above. Bottom line -- if AIG cannot align the interests of their traders with that of the company, they are in bigger trouble than we thought.

The "employee retention" argument relies on the idea that we need to retain those people who built the bomb because only they Know how to defuse it. I suspect this is not the case. If they knew how to defuse it, they likely would have. I am skeptical of the belief that the traders involved here had any idea about the whole of what they were doing. They just made trades. It was the aggregation of their work, and not the individual trades, that created this mess. Perhaps worse, this just seems to be part of a money culture of entitlement that seems to exist in the upper floors of corporate America. Wealth is just assumed and actual performance or value added is a mere detail.

Last point -- it seems like Tim Geitner and the new administration are taking a lot of heat for AIG. Let's remember this deal was done long before those in power were even elected. They are sleeping in a bed they did not make.

"Thank You America"

This weekend I caught Will Ferrell's one man show, "Thank You America - A Final Evening With George W. Bush." Right up front I will admit that Ferrell has W down pat and there were moments when I laughed so hard my stomach hurt (the military unit of monkeys comes to mind).

That said, the rest of the show was disappointing and at times sophomoric. What was lampooned here was the caricature of W from late night TV. We are all familiar with W's odd brand of cluelessness, bravado, and piety. That is nothing new. Unfortunately, that is the only ground Ferrell covers. In one and one half hours, we never get any deeper probing of Bush's worldview or assumptions, no reflection on the calamity of his presidency. Watching Ferrell's show, one could conclude that W's Presidency was funny sliding into incompetent. The show ignores the fact that it was also deadly and harmful. The very real and tragic results of the last eight years beg some serious questions. How does a self described pro life Christian needlessly take so many lives? How does a fiscal conservative turn a surplus into a deficit? How does a man who promised not to engage in "nation building" turn into a globetrotting neocon?

Those are just some of the questions. We'll never get the answers until we get by George W Bush -The Punchline.

How to Explain that One

The New York State Legislature is considering a bill that would lengthen the time in which a victim of childhood sexual abuse can bring a claim. The bill is vehemently opposed by the Catholic Church, which fears that many cases of priest abuse will be revived. The Church has mounted an intense lobbying effort and is urging the faithful to contact the legislature.

The. Catholic. Church. Is. Protecting. Child. Abusers.

No word on whether the Church will provide a stock answer for St. Peter when departed Catholics are asked at the pearly gates why they shielded pedarests from accountability. Perhaps "The Wanton Act of Scurilous Self Interest" will become one of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.

I suppose there is some explanation of how this is somehow Christian, but damned if I can think of it.

One More Order of Apology, With Chagrin on the Side

This is GOP Chairman Michael Steel in a recent interview:

L: Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?

M: Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice.

I think he is going to have to detail Limbaugh's yacht for that one.

Right is Wronged

Last night I watched Alexandra Pelosi's documentary on the McCain campaign. I know what you are saying. You are telling me that Pelosi probably just did a Michael Moore on everyone she interviewed.. liberal bias... blahh blahh. Not so. Pelosi's technique was simply to stick the mike in someone's face and ask them a simple question like "Why are you supporting McCain? or Why don't you want Barack Obama to be President?" she editorialized little and you never even see her face.

Some comments/observations:

McCain won the fat guy vote big time.

Almost all the folks interviewed lived in small towns. Many said they were the "real America/Americans." They seemed to ignore the fact that the vast majority of Americans live in the city or its suburbs. Rural Americans are representative of very little except the country's past.

President Obama's education was viewed as a liability. This may be the only subgroup in America to view education negatively. We talk about education as a silver bullet, but if you get some of it, you're an elitist. We love education and hate the educated.

Almost all the interviewees were white men and women.(they were after all Republicans.) These are folks who have led perhaps the most privileged life in history on a categorical basis. They drove the Indians from their land. Built an economy dependent, in part, upon slavery, and rode an economic wave powered by leveraging the poverty of other nations. They live in a country that has authored its own destiny to an unprecedented extent. Yet they all expressed a feeling of being victimized. They thought something was being taken from them. Nobody could really say what.

Most of the interviewees could not even repeat the GOP talking points from the campaign. It was really astonishing to see people form such strong views and yet have little ability to explain their foundations.

The fetus is huge with these folks. I am not sure what it symbolizes, but its huge. At one point, the filmmakers followed a pro life campaigner to a homeless shelter, where she pointed out John McCain's pro life stand. One of the residents looked at her and said "Pro life? He doesn't care about us." I am not sure she got the irony.

Many of the working class folks expressed strong feelings on their economic plight. They didn't draw any connection between their plight and the economic policies that preceded it. They thought a meteor fell from the sky and killed the middle class.

The "liberal media" is an article of faith. To a person, everyone in the film thought Katie Couris was out to get Sarah Palin. Couric is the cheeze whiz of network news. If you think she is out to get you, you have a problem. Its like going after Minnie Mouse.

Palin is huge with these folks. (She could have only been more popular if she were unborn.) There was no real attempt to explain her popularity, although she seems to have a simple answer for everything. Need oil? Drill. Need money? Lower taxes. Scared of a country? Invade them. America wears a white hat. All others wear a black hat.

Pelosi's film was significant because it let Republicans be Republicans. I suspect that really pissed off Republicans.

Science Overhaul

This morning President Obama overturned former President Bush's ban/restriction on stem cell research. Pundits are terming it part of the White House's 'Science Overhaul." Science... turns out we are for it now.

A Big Weekend for the Catholic Church

Geez -- these guys never get time to play a game of whist.

This weekend, the Vatican affirmed the excommunication of a mother and a doctor in Brazil. The two were in cahoots on an abortion performed on a nine year old who was carrying twins as the result of sexual assualt on the part of her father. The abortion was performed because the doctor was concerned that the girl -- who weighed only 80 pounds -- would be endangered by the pregnancy.

This morning, the Vatican newspaper ran an editorial stating that the washing machine has done more to liberate women than any form of contraception. Don't believe me? Check out Osservatore Romano.


The Vatican denies any plans to distribute washing machines to little girls who are raped.


With a Church like this, who needs the Illuminati?

Rush 2 GOP 0

Yesterday Michael Steele (Chairman of the RNC) had to apologize to Rush Limbuagh (Radio personality) for calling Limbaugh an "entertainer" and not the leader of the GOP.

That is twice now that a GOP official has said something the Corpulent One viewed as insulting and twice an official has then been forced to publicly apologize. The fear here is that the GOP is becoming a hostage to Limbaugh's far right and silly world view. Each time Rush forces an apology he belittles the actual party regulars and hampers their ability to craft an agenda. He also stakes a claim for his views as the unassailable center of GOP thought. Can that ever be a good thing?

I Think We Already Kind of Knew this But

Researchers at Harvard University have just completed a study of online porn consumption in the US. Analyzing redacted credit card receipts, the study concludes:

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption,

Of course if you take out Ted Haggard and Louis Vitter, the average might go down to Blue State levels.

Update -- Status of "The Roper"

This month I had the good fortune to see Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler", which is an outstanding film. Not only was Rourke a standout, the film has an unexpected and totally awesome byproduct: it has brought back "The Roper". As you may recall, The Roper is a dance often favored by White Men, in which one hand is circled above the head as though the dancer were roping a calf. Awkward, minimal foot movements and some head bobbing accompany.

In a bar scene with his fetching co star, Rourke performs The Roper to the tune of an 80s hair metal band. The sight of the chiseled and world weary Rourke performing the dance has saved The Roper for white guys everywhere. Repeat... it is safe to perform The Roper.

You Saw it Here First

A while back I suggested that we could end many of our financial woes if we simply legalized and taxed marijuana. Crazy you said. Well the State of California is considering just such a measure. The State's Comptroller estimates that the proposed tax on grass (which would hit retailers and buyers) would raise $1.4 billion a year.