Category Archives: Politics

Autumn Update

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Well it is finally autumn down here in New Orleans. Unfortunately, my pumpkin rotted and I had to trash it. As the front sweeps away down here, the drama in the air is palpable. On most every front, there is a lot of heady shit going down. For instance, it appears that Halliburton was indeed the culprit behind the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This is the same corporation that has been defrauding American taxpayers for years. Pause for a moment and consider the recent news that GlaxoSmithKlien had been ordered to pay a $750 M fine for selling tainted drugs. The settlement, negotiated with the DOJ, was for civil and criminal penalties. I begin to wonder whether this is just the “cost of doing business,” at least when you are out to poison people anyway. The fine is a landmark, though, and I’ll take it. My mini-course on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) touched upon many of these themes. Were the DOJ to tackle Halliburton, the Federal Govt. could just possibly recover some of the assets sucked up by the Cheney network.

On top of this (already old) news, we’re also in an election season… yay! Luckily I don’t watch much network TV, so I’m spared most of the local ads. What I do see is that a crazed movement, two parts sheer ignorance and one part racism, is out to wreak great havoc. As a soon to be young lawyer, I’m hoping that things don’t go completely off the rails. Did you know that a question on the Massachusetts ballet would reduce revenue thereby necessitating major service cuts on the T? Whatever. The Taxes are Too Damn High! Last stop, Brighton Beach.

But there are also some signs of hope, particularly in California. Now, California has really become a dysfunctional mess of late; however, it’s importance to America necessitates an optimism about the Golden State. California may legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Given the violence and collateral damage of the “war on drugs,” isn’t it time we re-thought or national policies? Geez. Should this pass, I’d like to see what Justice does about it. Perhaps the deeper question here is whether/how we can transition from a military industrial complex to a R&D industrial complex. The U.S. is lagging way behind its peers on these expenditures. We do, however, get royally ripped off by our B.S. healthcare system and our lousy educational system (at least for the poor).

Federalism, a concept most “tea partiers” do not care to understand, allows the states to serve as laboratories of democracy. It also constructs, or concedes, certain functions to the federal government. I’m not so cynical to say that this system can no longer function, but I’m not so blind to see how it has been severely perverted. America has become somewhat perverted. We can’t even change unconscionable, legally deficient policies? Obama’s got to heat back up, because his bi-partisanship has really slowed things to a glacial crawl. Actually, I’ll take that back; the glaciers are probably chipping away at an increased rate these days… again, whatever. Kick in the crotch!

So, let us celebrate that we may (and really must) vote, get dressed up/down for halloween, and eat one too many tootsie rolls. Toast some apple cider, spiced or otherwise, to the possibility that this may be our last best chance.

~WD

Fools and Flags

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Our media is so pervasive that sometimes I wonder what it would be like to go without it entirely. Even in remote Uzbekistan, I had shortwave radio and satellite TV. I am particularly interested in reading James Howard Kuntsler’s second book in the “World Made By Hand” series titled The Witch of Hebron.

I long for both the here and the distant, bats swooping across the gloriously moonlit hills. I worry that I am too entertained by TV, albeit of my own choosing at my time. I wonder what I could realistically grow to survive.

Don’t worry folks, not going off the deep end here, but certainly treading some intense waters. I think that we all are, but we haven’t yet admitted it collectively. My cause for optimism is that perhaps we’ll rebuild in a more equitable and sustainable manner. My only fear is that it will be so piecemeal, so segmented, individualized, customized, and misincentivized, that the “a-ha” moment will come far too late.

Modern day McCarthyism must not be tolerated in a free, open and democratic society, which we claim to be. I’m hardly throwing in the towel, but if we don’t get this seriously right, it’s gonna go way wrong.

A re-valuation of good will and enchanted spirit would go a long way.

In other news: Pepper is well. That is all.

Driven to Fury

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I watched a clip of Sarah Palin’s address to the tea partiers at Boston Common today and it just pushed me over the top.

SP: Borrowing and spending and inventing these big new government programs with enormous price tags, it makes no sense.

WD: $236B surplus in 2000… $600B deficit in 2008

SP: There is no way to pay for this except to see your taxes rise.

WD: So, cut taxes for the rich, right?

SP: Selfishly sticking our kids and grandkids with the bill.

WD: Iraq and Afghan war costs, since 2001, approaching 1 trillion.

SP: And that is stealing from them, steeling opportunity in this land of opportunity.

WD: Cost-plus contracts / Blackwater / Haliburton / Missing Millions / TARP / etc…

SP: It’s immoral, it’s not right, and we’re not going to stand for it any more.

WD: Wait, the torture, war profiteering, and civil liberties violations were moral and right, but an attempt to insure people isn’t?

SP: All of this makes us more beholden to foreign countries, it makes us less secure, it makes us less free.

WD: Which is what happens when we spend beyond our means and refuse to pay for it. Want war? Sacrifice.

SP: And I’m not calling anyone un-American.

WD: It’s called intimation, honey.

I understand the anger, but it is just simply misdirected. The anger should be at the corporate takeover of government. Sure, most politicians are complicit in this. But the real problem is that our policies have allowed corporations to outsource our jobs with impunity and evade fair taxation. And no, I’m not talking about small businesses. I’m talking about the too big to fail con artists in the financial sector. They have facilitated the decline of American manufacturing, exports, GDP and wages while getting unbelievably rich.

Opportunity means the ability to have a chance and to make a go of things. The current corporate driven system has done almost everything to stack the deck against ordinary “folks.” I still maintain that a lot of this tea party anger is borne out of racism, nativism, and fear. They’re trying to mainstream (and the corporate media is certainly helping them,) but theirs is ultimately a morally and intellectually bankrupt movement. I wish them failure.

We The Bechtel

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The Supreme Court has just released a very important decision which regards corporate financing of political advertising. Below, I’m embedding and attaching a version of the decision which I have hilighted. Given that the actual document is very long, and would take a few hours to read, I have provided this hilighted version so that you may quickly pick up all the salient points. My hilighting is limited to the majority’s opinion, pp. 1 – 57, and then the dissent, pp. 81 – 170 of the document.

Yes, I know I’m a law student, and I read cases all the time, but to those of you who are not law students, I’d like to encourage you to take a look at my hilights of this very important case. When’s the last time you read a Supreme Court opinion anyway?

The majority basically said that the First Amendment prohibits a ban on political advertisements funded by corporate money. The dissent claims that the major corrupting potential of such advertising subverts the very principles which the First Amendment seeks to protect. Make no mistake; this is a case about the very fundamental values of our political system.

I hope you will take a look at what I have hilighted. I’ve attempted to draw your attention to enough background so that you will have a deeper understanding of each side’s best arguments. If you are going to read the document in the embedded Google Docs viewer, I recommend that you click the full screen icon in the top right… the resulting reading experience is much better. You may also download the file and read it in your preferred PDF viewer.

Direct Download – [PDF]