An Open Letter to Conservatives

Dear Pennsylvania Citizen,

Thanks for writing.  We Liberals are stereotyped to be a literate bunch, and we greatly appreciate the time you took to put your thoughts on paper (virtual though it may be). Like you and your friends, we share a concern about how our children will grow up; like you we have favorite sports teams (mine is the LSU Tigers); like you food consumes an inordinate amount of our discussion time with friends.

And we do not hate you.

Let me say that again - we do not hate you, or your  family family, or your  business.  In fact, we'd like to hold companies like the one you describe as a model of what we wish other companies were.  The problem is that, in many cases, companies are NOT as responsible or as employee conscious as your are - and they often seem to have shareholders and corporate boards.  That you pay enough in wages (and I presume in benefits) to keep unions away is a good thing, but many American employers both keep unions away, and pay less then living wages with few or no benefits.  We liberals don't think this purpose-full impoverishment of the labor force is an economically sound approach, and so we ask government to intervene because markets writ large or small do not intervene themselves.

We do not hate you.

I too was raised Presbyterian - my paternal Grandfather and all three of my mother's younger brothers pastor in that Protestant tradition.  I too believe faith in God is a significant help to every one, and I lament the too often human derived and enforced schisms that exist between Christians, to say nothing of the wider schisms between peoples of all faiths.  It is my deep faith, and my strong adherence to God's calling, that propels me to seek societal intervention for all our less fortunate - including those without health insurance.

I am not happy with the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare's" actual name) because I think it leaves too much economic power over healthcare in the hands of for profit insurers, who are in the business of returning profits to shareholders, not delivering healthcare to every American.  Considering that healthcare bills owed are now one of the top factors in personal bankruptcy in the country, I cannot sit idly by while the market solution - which denied insurance to 35 Million fellow citizens - plods on.  In the end, if everyone has insurance, healthcare will be less costly, and less cost means more money for your company to invest in its own growth and security.  That said, let me reiterate that the market solution left 35+ Million Americans out of the system all together - and thus drove up costs significantly because they had to use emergency rooms for normal health services.  The markets wouldn't fix the problem, so the individual mandate (which as a Republican idea a decade ago)  was the solution our nation fashioned.

I do not hate you.

After the Newtown shooting in December 2012 I hoped and prayed - both for the victims, and for the Nation that we would perhaps finally be able to have a rational discussion about gun violence and gun ownership - and responsibility.  Sadly, we aren't doing that, and my side of the aisle is as easy to blame as yours is because we keep trying to ban weapons based on their looks.  As a gun owner and shooting sports enthusiast (and an urban dweller) I had hopes for universal background checks - a sensible solution that is neither liberal or conservative - but saw that too fail in a hail storm of lies about what the legislation actually did.  And yes, they were lies.  The federal legislation did not seize weapons; it didn't prevent or require background checks on family or friend sales or transfers, and it prohibited the development of a national registry or ownership database.  A specific group of people promulgated those lies, and I believe they should be held accountable.

I do not hate you.

I don't hate anyone.  I dislike, disagree with, and often am enraged by those whom you elect in your Party.  I am disgusted at their unwillingness to do any good thing with our current President (you may recall Sen. Mitch McConnell saying in 2011 that the Republican's #1 objective politically was unseating President Obama).  I am saddened that they refuse to listen to their own sensible leaders, like Sen. Marco Rubio, who is tackling undocumented immigration with approaches that can be built upon to bring dignity and consistency to all who come to our shores - but who is seeing his own Party begin to destroy his approach because it doesn't stick it to people and lIberals here first.  I'm angry that federal civil servants - all of whom are dedicated to helping and serving citizens like you and my are constantly derided to score political points.  and I am bewildered at the call for a "return to the Constitution" by a Party that has sough to hamstring it implementation when that implementation applies to people of color, women, and anyone not white, male, or upperclass. 

I do not hate you.

You are a dignified, proud human being.  No one who can claim those adjectives deserves hatred. And everyone ought to claim those adjectives.  But I will not stand for the solutions to today's problems that your purported Republican leaders support because they assault that dignity at every turn.  As a Liberal I do not believe government has every solution, but I do believe that history has shown us many times where government must craft a solution because markets will not.  And I will continue to call you, my fellow American, out for the words and conduct of your Party and your politicians (just as I do my own on this blog), since ultimately they have no power unless you elect them and send them to Washington.

I do not respect your choice to fictionalize your identity in order to create this conversation.  That was trolling of the worst kind, and while I am willing to debate your arguments on the merits, your choice to shield your real experience from me in that debate is a sure sign that you are not sure your argument could prevail.  It's also one of a series of common tactics I see daily from Republican political operatives.  Lying is lying - and it makes it impossible for us to trust or believe that we can have a substantive debate because we can't be sure who we're really debating with.

Picking a leader - How the Obama Administration gets sideways (again) at the Department of Commerce

Various news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and Greenwire are reporting that President Obama intends to nominate Penny Pritzker as the next Secretary of Commerce.  Pritzker, whose family owns and runs the Hyatt Hotel chain (along with a number of affiliated brands) would bring a wealth of corporate management experience to the post, as well as a number of international connections that would no doubt be useful to the President's foreign trade relationship needs.

Unfortunately for Ms. Pritzker, her corporate experience has probably not prepared her for the majority of her day job - namely overseeing the 63% to 65% of her budget that is spent by NOAA.  You see, it's a closely guarded open secret that the largest single part - or Bureau - of Commerce is not really all about commerce per se (certainly not in the same way that the International Trade Administration, the Census, or the Bureau of Industrial Security or the Patent and Trademark Administration are).  Former Secretary Gary Locke (now Ambassador to China) understood this, but he had a head start in his learning curve having worked closely with NOAA on Pacific Northwest Salmon issues during his years in Olympia.

Unfortunately for our rebranded hotel leader, NOAA is all about forecasting the weather, protecting Endangered Species, setting national and regional commercial fishing quotas, understanding the linkages between climate change and drought, and conducting basic ocean and atmospheric research.  Some of those things require telling business sectors "No" rather loudly and often. It may be true that Ms. Pritzker's managerial experience will benefit NOAA - it's an organization of 12,000 or so staff - but that will only occur if she's briefed properly, trusts the civil service career staff to do their jobs, and the White House supports her by nominating a NOAA Administrator and other NOAA political appointees who actually understand what the organization does and how to best run it.  With the departure of Dr. Jane Lubchenko in February as NOAA Administrator, that chair is open.

So we'll see how it goes, particularly if and when there are confirmation hearings.  If Ms. Pritzker can answer ocean and weather questions, and maybe at least get climate terms correct , then there will be hope for her tenure as Secretary of Commerce.  Otherwise, she'll wind up like a long line of Commerce Secretaries before her who, as former Secretary Carlos Gutierrez (he of Kellog CEO fame) once said, had no idea they were coming to Washington to be Secretary of NOAA.

Music to think by

I meant to publish way back when (and I honestly don't remember) but it seems to be a good thought for us today, as we reel from another militarized overreaction to a criminal act on our soil.

http://vimeo.com/17827345

Whining the Sequester - Congress realizes there are consequences when it acts

I have two simple questions for all the Senators and Congressmen - mostly Republicans according to the MSM - who are complaining like little girls about the layoffs of FAA air traffic controllers:

1. Why aren't you whining and blubbering about all the OTHER federal workers (Like DoD Civilians) who are also being laid off?  If you can stand to see fewer staffers in the Pentagon, and Department of Interior offices closed in your Districts, why can't you stand air traffic slowdowns?
2. More importantly - what the hell did you think it meant when you wrote and passed a law that said ALL Program, Project and Activity combinations in the federal government shall be reduced by 5%?  You exempted uniformed service members from the cuts - if air traffic controllers were that important you could have exempted them too ya know since you WROTE THE DAMN BILL.

But that's sort of the point about the Sequester - it was meant to be so ugly no one would actually let it happen.  Only the Republican Party has gotten so doctrinaire, and the Democrats so weak kneed to large corporate donors, that the Sequester did, in fact, become real.   Its one of those unintended consequences my friend and fellow blogger Mike Dwyer is always gigging me about (and in this instance he'd be right).

So, stop your bitchin.  You tugged Sally's hair, got caught, and got put in the Time Out corner.  Grow up, grow a pair, and learn to accept that you too, Mr. & Mrs. Congress-critter - you too can fuck up in ways that have real impacts on your constituents, who may be thinking about replacing you anyway because you keep voting against things they support (like universal background checks).

Oh wait, that's almost what I have to say to  my 4 year old when I discipline her (absent the F bomb) - imagine that.

REBLOG: How Boston exposes America’s dark post-9/11 bargain

Apparently Andrew has not ever read my blog (!) but his point is well made.  He is clearly no Glenn Greenwald, but with Glenn Greenwald doing his own writing,  one need not go to that extreme to make the point.

America is no longer a democracy, and here's a concise, gut wrenching summary of why:
How Boston exposes America’s dark post-9/11 bargain

REBLOG Are Americans too stupid for democracy?

It's an important question in light of the "small government" movement being pushed by most libertairan and ultra-right Republicans these days.  The problem is we don't have enough of the available information going to voters, who in turn are not well equipped with the critical thinking skills to assess what they do receive.  Add to that an electorate that, frankly, takes little responsibility for educating and informing them selves, and you have our now decades long slide into authoritarianism oriented Plutocracy.  Stalin would be proud.

Are Americans too stupid for democracy? 

REBLOG - GOP: We’ve been lying all along

David Sirota is not exactly a died in the wool, screaming from the roof tops Commie pinko liberal.   I'd argue on his best days he's a pragmatic centrist.  he's also a very articulate writer, who is now (finally) as willing to criticize republicans as he has Democrats in the past:

In practice, that means Wall Streeters and conservative ideologues citing the supposedly imminent crisis to successfully nudge the political establishment to endorse cuts to Social Security, even though the program has almost nothing to do with the debt crisis. It also means a GOP budget that targets most of its cuts at the social programs that the poor and middle-class most rely on (This, at the same time most of these same alleged budget hawks supported an extension of most of the deficit-expanding Bush tax cuts; decry any cuts to the defense budget; and either outright oppose a single payer system or support the Obama health care law that while certainly expanding coverage, nonetheless buttresses the private health insurance industry and, thus, arguably makes such a single-payer system more out of reach).

Read more at GOP: We’ve been lying all along