Not the Crime But the Coverup

There are a lot of folks on the right and the left who will claim their political opponents, if successful, will take us right down the road to a police state. Some claims are more credible than others. But what I don't understand is how so many folks will focus on the erosion of their rights from Washington, but won't demand accountability from government offices down the street.

Because, really, "Isn't the Blue Wall of Silence really just the most successful Stop Snitchin' campaign in history?"

You don't have to live in New Orleans for this issue to be important. It happens everywhere.


HT: Daily Dish

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Tea Party Candidate Hearts US Constitution

But Christine O'Donnell doesn't know what's in it.

I'm sure she likes the Bible a lot, too.

No wonder the preferred campaign strategy is silence.

She also addressed her widely publicized unfamiliarity with the Supreme Court of the United States, and specific decisions made in the past:

O'Donnell began by defending herself for not being able to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees at a debate last week. She said she was stumped because she largely agrees with the court's recent decisions under conservative chief justices John Roberts and William Rehnquist.

One can only hope a sharp moderator then followed up by asking her to name one she agreed with and why.

Updated Summary: Because in a world where Christianity requires no knowledge of the Bible, and being a Constitutional Constructionist requires no knowledge of the Constitution, it stands to reason that you can use politics to convince people that a tax cut was a tax increase.

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Game On

A Federal Judge has rules that the states' healthcare suits can go forward. I don't think anything will come of it, but I really didn't think the state suits would make it this far. If the challenges do go through successfully, I wonder what the outcome would be. Does Congress scrap the plan and start over or do they try to patch over the pieces that would be deemed unconstitutional?

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Budgetary Oversight

Mayor Landrieu unleashes the hounds with the New Orleans City Budget.

My first complaint? Property tax increases. Not that I'm specifically opposed to such increases if you get a return on your investment, even as they drive rents up. But how can you raise the mils when your city does not have an accurate or credible system of assessing property values? There are an awful lot of very valuable properties in this city that are not being assessed at value.

Put a serious penalty on out-of-commerce properties, and actually go after their owners for those tax dollars, and you'll go a long way to close the shortfall. We have too many speculators sitting on land and keeping it bligted to reduce their values artificially. Start assessing the properties as if this were a fully functioning city and watch how fast those parcels get sold to people who give a damn.

Priority, priority, priority.

And considering how much money New Orleans' citizens put into their homes on a yearly basis, there needs to be a robust homestead exemption. Give folks a reason to own homes here, not just rent, not just flip, and you'll see strong neighborhoods become stronger.

Couple that with the way money is usually spent by the city - overpaying private (though often well-connected) contractors. Our service delivery is more often tied to private businesses who suffer zero consequences when they do not deliver.

Next up: you have to make it easier for businesses to open in Orleans Parish. While no one has to go the "big box" route, it might be nice to have shopping options other than CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid in one corner and all those Magazine Street boutiques on the other. We could use some more supermarkets, first of all, and I wouldn't mind being able to purchase video games for my cousins at a Best Buy somewhere the sales tax dollars actually go to the parish I live in. Aesthetics can be addressed by zoning and code enforcement and this will bring new money to the city without one tax percentage raised.

Aside from that, there are a lot of things in the budget that I really like, because the proposed changes to city agencies will help us acheive all of the above initiatives.

That's my take, at least.

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Rescue Chile

Why are so many Americans tuning in to watch Chile rescue the trapped miners? This story has dominated world news, especially once the actual rescue operation was underway. Now, there are celebrations and champagne.

But why this story? Why now? What about it made folks tune in? Especially Americans, who usually don't follow major world events when Lindsey Lohan is in court.

This story is compelling, and it was some rare good news in a world full of bad. We needed to watch something positive outside of sports and fictional television. This was a real life feel-good story, and people want to believe in beating the odds.

And make no mistake, Chile is a developing country, and they just smashed the odds to rescue thirty-three human beings from more than 2000 feet below the surface of the Earth. Frankly, that's an incredible accomplishment. It is being compared to that greatest of human technological accomplishments, launching a man into space.

Not to mention the behavior of the trapped themselves, who told the world they had survived through a love letter sent to the surface, and argued about who would be the last one out of the hole.

It becomes even more incredible when you remember that Chile is still digging out from a massive February earthquake to its second-largest city. How about that for overcoming adversity?

Americans, especially, need this news. We are now living vicariously through a South American nation whose citizens would be ID checked if they lived in Arizona. Here's a few reasons why:

- The last mining disaster in the United States had a far more tragic ending.

- The BP oil spill took lives at the outset, destroyed a coast, is still being cleaned up, and went through numerous well-publicized failures to close the leak. It took months to even get a handle on the situation, it took dozens of false starts and an argumentative leadership to begin addressing the crisis, and it will take decades to completely remediate. Private industry failed to do the job right, government failed to regulate industry effectively, and both had incredible problems coming up with a response.

- After our economy melted down, not even the modest gains from the incredibly expensive TARP, Automaker Bailouts or Stimulus legislation have been able to correct fundamental problems with our nation's economy, and none of that legislation was designed to correct those problems. We read that our own banks may have been screwing up the legal mechanisms of the foreclosure process by cutting corners. Our leaders in government and business seem to have no clue about how to fix what ails us. Our political choice is to continue the current dysfunction or return to the last dysfunction.

- We still have 50,000 troops in Iraq, and have experienced two "Mission Accomplished" moments - one premature, arrogant and celebratory, one humble and realistic if politically motivated - despite the fact that we have not closed a war with a nation charitably considered a fourth rate power for almost 8 years. The last war against this same nation was "won" in 100 hours.

- Our nation, despite spending more than half of all world expenditures on defense, has been unable to eradicate resistance in Afganistan after nearly a decade of fighting alongside our NATO allies.

- In the Fall of 2005, our nation experienced a fairly public rescue failure in the case of the flooding of New Orleans. Compounding the Biblical scale of human misery was the helplessness of our nation to proactively mount a concerted effort at rescue and rebuilding. Frustrations that arose, instead of focusing the nation on the task at hand, led to political infighting amongst our nation's leaders. Blame assignment became the main story in our national news, leading to incredible national misconceptions of the situation on the ground. Even though millions of Americans selflessly volunteered their efforts to assist in both the immediate rescue efforts and the eventual (and ongoing) rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, that story went largely unreported - supplanted by the larger frustrations of no local, state or national rebuilding plan organized by major political leadership.


In short, Chile is getting things done with less resources and more disadvantages, while our own society flails away ineffectively at numerous problems despite massive resources.

They have a reason to celebrate, while we watch their triumph on television wondering when we will again be able to do so.

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OH NOES THEY BE STEALIN OUR SIGNZ

There is some sort of rampant political yardsign stealing epidimic taking place in Georgia. They've set up surveillance. Some places are even offering rewards for information. And at least one enterprising individuals is selling "Sign Thief Repellant", a gooey mixture of bird gel and fox urine.

Because nothing says political involvment like the pee of small woodland creatures.

My first thought questions the deep and disturbing necessary psychoses present in the minds of those individuals who are so offended by your political yard sign that they would creep through the middle of the night to steal it out of your yard.

And while I know that having your yard sign stolen pisses you off something righteous, my second thought concerns those individuals so dedicated to their candidate that they would shell out cash money to make their yards smell like fox urine.

I wonder if the first generation of this product used cat pee and was found to be too offensive.

Though I absolutely understand that the likelihood of sign-stealers only sets up made-for-YouTube moments of pie-in-the-face pranksterism. I cannot wait for the inevitable "Sign Steal Fail" to show up all over the internets.

Someone's celebrity is about to be made, people. Keep your eyes on the signs.

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"Not the State, Not the King"

Your marching towards feudalism link for the day: Foreclosure Fraud Endangers Capitalism & Western Civilization.

As we noted previously, esteemed economists such as Hernando de Soto have identified that the respect for title, proper documentation, contract law and private property rights are the underlying reason capitalism works in Western nations, but seems to flounder elsewhere.

We cannot have free market capitalism without this process. So what does it mean if banks have been systemically, fraudulently and illegally undermining this process?

Of course, questioning the banks might cause trouble for the already troubled economy, which we all know was caused by Democrats, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and not banks at all. Really.

Though it is funny to hear White House staffers balk at a foreclosure moratorium because it may have "unintended consequences." #isntitironic #dontchathink

HT: Jeffrey

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This Year's Playoff Proposal

Talking college football. A book comes out this week. Blutarsky breaks down Barnhart's review.

I never thought hating the BCS would become a bonafide industry, but here it is. One new predictor of business model success is how much money individuals can be made advocating for change in your business model.

This year's critique actually comes in the form of a book, instead of heated message board flame wars and blog posts. I wonder how many people go out and actually buy the book, as so much BCS/Playoff debate has already taken place online (and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon).

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Outside Its America

One interesting theme discussed among those individuals who see the United States descending into a police state is the rumored existence of FEMA re-education camps. (It is one of the reasons used to justify the argument that the US taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for a national emergency response agency...)

But, really, who needs FEMA re-education camps when you already have this kind of thing up and running?

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Most Despicable Political Ad Ever

Set the scene:

A traditional caucasian family in a modest home in Anysuburb, USA. Sweet wife reading to two beautiful kids from the Bible. Then the shot of the back door, and the husband sneaking out, like a thief holding his boots. Close-up of his wedding ring.

He carefully slips out the backyard gate, and then sees a giant, blinking sign that says "Enter Here!" The lights come up, and there are a team of heavily made-up, scantily clad, busty women holding a sign that says:

Your Republican Senator Welcomes You to the Serious Sin Bunny Ranch

The husband, seeing no danger, gleefully motions for some friends to follow him inside. The scene changes, and now there are fat cat oil lobbyists "making it rain" hundred dollar bills on dancing girls in various states of undress. Text appears on screen noting how certain GOP candidates tried to keep oil companies from cleaning up the oil spill.

An Aerosmith look alike band is on stage, playing "Hot For Teacher." Text appears on screen noting how certain GOP candidates want to eliminate the Department of Education.

Cops and prosecutors watch from across the street, arresting what appears to be a news crew.

A well dressed gentleman opens the door to what can only be the Champagne Room, and through the door, there is a man on all fours, in a diaper, being fraternity-pledge paddled like the bad boy he is by a temptress with knee-high leather boots. On her top, she wears only "Hello, My Name Is" stickers.

On it is scrawled the name "Wendy," seductively.

Photomontaged over this is the scene from a Republican office holder's press conference, where he apologises for his "serious sin."

As the commercial fades out, the man in the diaper picks up the paddle and advances on the temptress. Before we can see what happens, our view becomes obscured by the closing door, and all we can see is the man's buddies - cheering and hi-fiving.

It is a disgusting commercial, one that has no place in the rational political discourse of a healthily functioning democracy.

The really bad part is that political types all over the nation are so drawn to this type of campaign ad, that they are planning to run it in several tight races, with only the names and faces of the candidates changed.

Disgusting.

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Guaranteed Retirement Accounts: The Government's Own Little Tea Party?

So when Santelli finally gets around to throwing those junk derivatives in the river, are our 401k's going to be floating right along beside them? About once a month, Neel Boortz froths at the mouth that Democrats in Washington are going to take your 401k's, IRA's, etc and roll them into some new government-controlled pension plan. I don't buy into slippery slopes and crap like that so I've largely ignored him until today. It seems Boortz claims talk has started on just such a seizure.

And I have a hard time believing it. If you think Pat is politically in the tank just wait until a political Party takes the retirement money I spent the last decade of my life saving up and dumps it into Social Security Part Deux. So naturally I don't believe it and I dig deeper. I went to ABC News to get more info. Looks like I was right. Democrats aren't planning further Seppuku. The lady promoting this plan hardest is even backing off the idea of ending private contribution plans. All they really want is another layer of Social Security pension checks disguised as retirement accounts, which is equally stupid but isn't going to lead me becoming Pat(R).

Look, private industries don't do pensions anymore for a reason. You can pretend this is some sort of individual account but as long as your balance depends on "each worker's contributions and income level" (emphasis mine) you're probably using a pretty nonstandard definition of "account." Offering a "guaranteed a fixed rate of return that exceeds inflation by 3 percent?" Hell, Wall Street can't do that. How's the Party that can't find a candidate better than Barney Frank to chair the House Financial Services Committee going to do any better? I'll tell you how: they'll introduce us to yet another ponzi scheme. This is a train wreck waiting to happen, but fortunately not for the big reason Mr. Boortz would like us to think.

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Equivalency Exam

Oh, if only columnists would hold themselves and their industry to the same standard they require of football coaches, we may have an actually informative, investigative, accountable media that is worth reading.

I mean, could you imagine a world where AJC columnists, editors and reporters held the Atlanta Public Schools or candidates for Georgia governor to the same standards they hold Coach Mark Richt? Could you imagine a world where Louisiana and national reporters spent as much time discussing the tomfooleries of Senator David Vitter instead of Coach Les Miles?

< / rolling eyes >

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Compare and Contrast

Private company causes major ecological disaster. Check the response:

four things now needed to happen: Damages must be paid to those affected by the spill; jobs at the plant must be saved; those responsible must be held accountable; and further risks at the company's sites should be identified.

Strong words. How do they get backed up?

"We need to bring the company responsible for the [spill] under state control, and its assets under state closure, until all of these four tasks are handled,"

Then the authorities went out and detained the company's director "on suspicion of public endangerment and environmental damage". They didn't stop there, either, as they seized the company's accounts "to ensure that funds were available to compensate for the damages caused by the disaster."

OMG TEH SOCIALIZMS!!!

He said the spill was "not a natural catastrophe" and so any damages must be paid "first and foremost not by taxpayers but by those who caused the damage."

Oh, the accountability! But wait, levees might be involved?

"In light of what happened, we have good reason to believe that there were people who were aware of the dangerously weakened state of the walls of the reservoirs, but driven by their private interests they believed they were not worth repairing and hoped that the trouble could be avoided," he added.

Wow.

Now, I don't want the United States to become Hungary, but that kind of response cannot be trifled with. Think about that next time something happens in the USA, and some elected official starts up with a song and dance.

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The Orleansification of Atlanta's Schools

And not in a good way. The DeKalb County School Board is about to implode their system, and nobody seems to have any idea how to stop the nosedive.

And, after reading that article, that's a nosedive of spectacular fashion.

Reading about this reminds me that New Orleans isn't the only place where this type of system-wide collapse takes place. (Though the Atlanta article does include a word you aren't likely to hear within 100 feet of any New Orleanian discussion on public education: accreditation.)

I'd bet charter-school and school-choice advocates are licking their chops to get after DeKalb. But that just brings me back to my main complaint about charters, school-choice and privatization-of-public-resources in the first place: If we can't fix problems when our tax dollars pay the bills and officials we elect will not do the people's business, why do you think contracting those services out will bring any better response? If something isn't working, why put another layer of unaccountable individuals between ourselves and successful communities?

All this is further proof, to me at least, that we don't have to go all Tea Party and play revolution in order to "take back our country." We don't have to take every decision out of the "government" hands that we, the people, theoretically control. We just have to reengage and reinvest with local and state decision making processes in the dynamic and progress prone ways that have been essential to every forward step this country has taken.

If we don't, the drama of the DeKalb School Board will only continue to plauge us, no matter where we live or what we do.

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"The Problem With New Orleans' Charter Schools" Continued

Well, not so much "continued" as "redirected."

As you should all click here and read Jeffrey's comprehensive post on this matter. A teaser:

What the charter system does is segregate students according to their families' ability to navigate the application process. More often than not, such divisions occur along the same lines as class, social status, and race. The result is a system where the best performing charters draw the most privileged students while the most needy are shunted off into a separate but equally "public" educational ghetto.

Boom.

On another tangent, this is one hell of a demonstration about how the media can manipulate public opinion. I wonder if the Newsweek article showed up in a print edition? I'll have to go to the store on the way home and find out.

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