happy end of may/start of summer!

May was a good month for this blog. Actually, 2008 has been a great year for this blog. Much love to the 500 visitors this month, and huge love the 12 or so of you who visited more than once this month, especially Navneet, Lo, Karl, Ev, and Beau. Beau is like my informal copy-editor, and will be getting a beer on me next time I'm in DC.

Half of my very modest traffic comes from two places: Navneet's Eat Pistachios. Now. and the APIA Blog Network. Thanks for pulling me from the ether! As to the latter, APIA Blog Network is a great resource for keeping track of APIA news, culture, and thinking, and I highly recommend it. One of my favorite people there is the author of Power & Politics, who was one of the first folks from the Network that commented on my site. The site is on temporary hiatus, but I hope it's back and running at full soon.

As you can see from the sidebar stats, hsuperpolitical has been around since 2004. It is my first solo-blog, and as such has had growing pains in terms of posting frequency, with a low of only 60 posts in all of 2006, including the very sad month of June that year, when I posted only once.

To the contrary, here we are at the end of only the fifth month of 2008 and already at 118 posts this year, making this already the most prolific posting year I've had (previously 104 in 2005). I've made it a goal to post at least 20 times a month, and at the current pace should end the year with over 250 posts. This month has been particularly awesome; at 30 posts, it's far and away my best month yet, with almost daily posting on average.

I may scale down on posting frequency in order write some big essay-like posts I've had floating around in my head for a while. Or not. We'll see.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and come visit again soon!

two bad health care reform ideas from our republican friends in FL and NJ

Not all health care reform is good. It can be very bad. Here are two examples:

1) Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) signed into law last week a law that allows insurers to sell "bare-bones" health care plans for $150/mo., including one plan that does not include catastrophic health care coverage. These plans would also be exempt from a whole bunch of pesky rules and mandates governing Florida's health industry. In short, Crist has authorized the Florida insurance industry to sell health insurance that is no insurance at all; these may be health "plans" insofar as they provide access to the most basic of preventative care, but if you get really sick, you're S.O.L., as the kids say. That is, by definition, not "insurance."

2) In New Jersey, a Republican state assemblymember has proposed allowing residents to purchase insurance plans outside of state lines. I read this brief quickly at first and though, hey cool, they're growing the collective insurance pool. But I was wrong. This is a move to get around pesky New Jersey regulations and mandates for what counts as good health insurance. You know, like requiring the plans will pay for common, medically-necessary procedures and tests beyond visits to your general practitioner. Ridiculous, "gold-plated" things like that. So if this passes, people in New Jersey can buy those great non-insurance insurance plans they're selling down in Florida, and the state can pick up the insurance industry's bill when, lo and behold, patients get sick and have no actual insurance. That sounds like a great plan. Way to go.

In theory, allowing residents to purchase insurance outside of their home state is a way of creating a greater insurance pool. Larger pools = more efficiency; the basic insurance system works because everyone pays in and when a few people get sick, the pool can support paying for their care because all the healthy people aren't using up their premium contributions. That's the basic theory that everyone gets. Of course, this whole thing is sort of like "free trade"; if everyone played by all the rules, you would maximize efficiency; but in reality, only some people play by some of the rules, and so those with more power can use it to manipulate the system to their advantage.

Guess who has the power in the current system? (hint: not the patients or doctors).

What we really need is a common set of national rules to govern a common national insurance pool. But you already know what I think about what the system should look like.

when robots attack, or "booyah!"

Like most nerds, I'm fascinated by advances in technology that point in the direction of our fantastical expectations that things like flying cars and teleportation should exist. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much movement toward those Year 2000 inventions.

One area where there has been a lot of progress, however, is the area of cybernetics and robotics.

Last July, MIT designed a robotic ankle that was given to an Iraq veteran who had lost his leg below the knee. As reported at Technovelgy.com, the ankle can 'think' in ways that prosthetics have previously not been able to:

"A major goal of the center is to develop artificial limbs that perform like biological ones," said Professor Roy Aaron, M.D., of Brown University, director of the CRRM. "Hugh Herr and his team have met that goal - and done so successfully. This device is a major step forward for Garth Stewart and other amputees."

Joel Kupersmith, M.D., chief research and development officer for VA, said a top priority for the department is providing state-of-the-art prosthetic care for veterans - especially those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. VA research, he said, is integral to this effort.

"The robotic ankle is a sterling example of how our leading-edge research improves veterans' lives," Kupersmith said. "Up to now, prosthetic devices have not been able to duplicate the complex functions of our feet and ankles as we walk and run. The ingenious computerized design of this new prosthesis changes all of this, as it constantly 'thinks' and responds, allowing the person to walk or run in a more natural and comfortable way."

The ability of robots and robotic components to mimic complex human movements is an area garnering a lot of attention; as I talked about earlier this month, a Honda-designed robot conducted the Detroit Philharmonic by mimicking the motions of a human director.

A second strand of cybernetics is looking at ways to use machinery to amplify, rather than mimick, human motions. This is the "space marine" thread of science fiction, where technology, either through robotics or steroid-like chemical enhancements, is used to increase military performance. The main efforts here, led by inventors at places like the top-secret U.S. military DARPA, has been toward robotic suits (a.k.a. exoskeletons or "Mechs"). News on this front, as well; two weeks ago, CNN reported that a U.S. Army contractor has designed the most effective Mech-suit to date since the efforts began in 1995. Salt Lake City-company Sarcos, Inc., which previously designed the robotic dinosaurs for the Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride, has built a 150-lb. suit that recognizes and amplifies almost instantly the wearer's motions, allowing a scrawny engineer to bench-press up to 500 lbs.

But, really, why reduce reaction time by valuable fractions of a second that external sensors require to identify what you want to do and then amplify it? Wouldn't it be better if you could just think it and then make it happen? WaPo reports today that Pittsburgh researchers have successful created a robotic arm that a monkey can control just by thinking:

Using only its brainpower, a monkey can direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and stuff it into its mouth, researchers said on Wednesday.

"They are using a motorized prosthetic arm to reach out, grab and bring the food back to their face," said Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature.

Schwartz said the technology behind this feat may lead to brain-powered prosthetic limbs for people with spinal cord injuries or disabling diseases that make such simple tasks impossible.

Until now, such brain-machine interfaces have been used to control cursor movements on a computer screen. Schwartz and colleagues wanted to apply the technology to real-world tasks.

The monkey guides the robot arm the same way it does its natural limbs, through brain signals.

In other words, think Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man; thought-directed robotic limbs. Going full circle to last year's development of the 'smart' robotic ankle, developments in this area could lead to true mechanical limbs, which amputees could direct through thought with the same ease that we direct our own organic limbs.

Cool stuffs.

clinton is doing what we wish gore would have done, but what we hate bush for having done

Analysis at dKos. Short Version: Hillary is fighting to win, by any means necessary, something that Gore failed/refused to do in 2000 to save the election from being stolen (remember how he presided over the Senate when all we needed was one single Senator to co-sponsor the House effort to reject certification of the stolen votes, and instead of encouraging any Senator to do so, laughed at and mocked the 20 Representatives who were trying to make him President?). Of course, Sen. Clinton is doing this in the primary, rather than the general election, against another Democrat, which makes it much less admirable. This leads to the second point, that Hillary is fighting to win, by any means necessary, which is pretty much everything we've hated about the Bush administration for the last 7 and a half years (the need to constantly question what the rules actually are). Of course, Sen. Clinton is doing this in the primary, rather than as the Executive flaunting and illegally refusing to enforce the actual law, which makes it much less evil.

NY extends CA marriage equality to the empire state; patterson proves he is more progressive than spitzer was

Yesterday, a date was set for marriage equality in California: starting on June 17, anyone can enter into a civil marriage in the Golden State without fear of discrimination based on who they have fallen in love with.

From the AP this morning, news that NY Gov. David Patterson has issues a directive to all state agencies to ensure that same-sex marriages outside of NY are recognized within the state:

Hours after California issued a directive Wednesday authorizing that date, word came that New York Gov. David Paterson instructed state agencies — including those governing insurance and health care — to immediately change policies and regulations to recognize gay marriages.

For years, gay rights advocates have sought recognition for same-sex marriages so couples could share family health care plans, receive tax breaks by filing jointly, enjoy stronger adoption rights and inherit property.

Many or all of those rights would now appear to be available to New Yorkers who legally wed same-sex partners in other states and countries, according to the memo sent earlier this month from the governor's counsel. Agencies have until June 30 to report back to the counsel on how, specifically, the directive will change existing state benefits and services for gay couples.

This is a milestone in more ways than one; it is one of the rare examples of a politician following through with a campaign promise that is seen as risky or sensitive:

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Paterson, his running mate for lieutenant governor, campaigned in 2006 on a platform that included bringing equal rights to gays. Spitzer, however, said the state constitution didn't sanction gay marriage.

Actually fulfilling a campaign promise? Impressive. A far cry from the sad story of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who announced this week that he is abandoning his campaign promise to equal access to state higher ed benefits to all Bay State residents, regardless of citizenship status. What a jerk.

update: Field Poll finds majority Californians oppose anti-equality proposition-- Contrary to the LA Times/KTLA poll reported last week, which found that Californians supported the November anti-equality ballot initiative (54%-35%), yesterday's Field Poll finds that a majority of Californians oppose the attempted constitutional amendment (43%-51%, or 40%-54% when asking generally if they support amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriages).

A pretty dramatic difference. Field Poll is pretty impeccable, so I'm going to be optimistic and go with them on this one. I never found the methodology on the LA Times/KTLA poll, but the Field Poll looks solid: n=1026 registered voters, cell phones & landlines depending on their voter registration info, English and Spanish interviews. There's some concern with the particular questions I cite to; larger margins of error (+/- 5.0% and 4.0%, respectively). 5% MOE is considered pretty bad, while 4% is considered valid; perhaps that's okay, though, considering the the question at 4% MOE actually has better results (54% rejecting marriage inequality).

100th anniversary of mideast oil

May 26, 1908 was when the first discovery of oil in the Middle East was made by British surveyor George Reynolds, founder of British Petroleum. Wired has the scoop (h/t cyn):

Exactly 100 years ago today, the smell of sulfur hovered in the air at Masjid-i-Suleiman. That was a good sign for an experienced oil hand like Reynolds. At 4 in the morning, the drill reached 1,180 feet below the desert and struck oil. A huge gusher shot 75 feet into the air.

The site was so remote that it took five days before [English financier/speculator William] D'Arcy got word by telegram in England. "If this is true," he replied, "all our troubles are over." It was indeed true, and more wells hit oil elsewhere in Persia, including a huge one in September.

D'Arcy and Burmah [Oil Co.] reorganized their holdings in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. (which became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in 1935, British Petroleum in 1954 and BP in 2000.) Its initial public offering of stock shares sold out in 30 minutes in London. People stood five deep around the tellers' cages to buy shares in Glasgow. The race for oil accelerated throughout the Middle East.

At the instigation of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the British government became a majority (and at-first secret) shareholder of Anglo-Persian during World War I. Britain soon became a dominant power in Persian and later Iranian politics. British and American political operations in that nation shaped the developments that led to the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the current Middle Eastern power situation.

And then the world rejoiced. Oh wait, the opposite of that.

happy memorial day

As usual, wikipedia provides the full story on the holiday, but here's the short version:

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, a post-Civil War holiday that occurred on May 30th because it was not the anniversary of a battle. Most former Confederate states refused to celebrate.

The name Memorial Day started being used as early as 1882, but was not popularized until after World War II, and finally became official by federal law in 1967. The Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 moved three holidays--Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Washington's Birthday (now President's Day)--from their traditional date to the specified Mondays to create three-day weekends.

Concerned that the traditional observation of visiting cemeteries and memorials honoring those killed in wars has been almost completely subsumed by BBQs, picnics, and the Indy 500, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, along with WWII veteran Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), advocate a return to the traditional May 30th, non-fixed-Monday holiday. Sen. Inouye has introduced bills to that measure in vain since 1987.

update: As Beau astutely points out, Veterans' Day is, in fact, observed on the traditional November 11th of Armistice Day. The holiday in honor of veterans was subject to the 1968 Uniform Holidays Bill, as stated above, but popular resistance to the switch away from Armistice Day (observed internationally as Nov. 11th) returned the holiday to its historical date by Act of Congress in 1978.

Hope for Sen. Inouye in the form of precedent, perhaps?

presidential candidates as pokemon

Awesome:

apias have fastest growing rate of death due to cancer; cancer leading cause of death among apia women

Smoking is a major cause:

Research has shown that the numbers of deaths due to cancer is rising faster in Asian Americans than in any other ethnic group. In addition, lung cancer rates are 18 percent higher among Southeast Asian men than for Caucasians. And Asian American and Pacific Islander females are actually the only racial, ethnic or gender group in the nation for which cancer is the leading cause of death. In 2005, 1 out of 5 Asian American males smoked. Here in California, 36 percent of Korean American men and 32 percent of Vietnamese American men smoke cigarettes. Among cigarette smokers in California and Hawaii, Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians are more susceptible to and have higher incidence rates of lung cancer (263.9/100,000) than Whites, Japanese Americans, and Latinos.

California Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally takes a step toward reducing these trends:

Assembly Bill 2662, (Dymally, D-Los Angeles) which is supported by the California Medical Association and the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, will increase public awareness of the benefits available for Medi-Cal recipients in order to help smokers quit. It will require Medi-Cal to offer the full range of personal counseling and/or all FDA-approved smoking cessation medications, so that our doctors have the freedom and flexibility to decide – with no bureaucratic strings attached – what is the best way to treat their own patients, whether it is through counseling or medication or both.

shifting trends in the culture war

(h/t FutureMajority.com)

A Gallup Poll on sex-related issues, the perennial obsession of conservatives, shows promising numbers. Apparently, this is the first time ever that an equal number of respondents have said that "homosexual relations" are "morally acceptable" and "morally wrong." The increase in acceptance has to do with the rise of the Millenial Generation (the largest generation in American history); born roughly 1978/80 to 1998/00 (or currently aged 8/10 to 28/30), Millenials are by far the most accepting of America's diversity. As pointed out on FutureMajority, a 2004 CIRCLE poll shows that Millenials (here represented by the 15-25 demographic (b. '79-'89)) are far and away the most accepting of LGBTQI folk, by 2-1 margin:



This is a big deal in California, where anti-equality advocates have already placed a ballot initiative (Prop. 22) on the November 2008 ballot that would amend the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. The L.A. Times reports today that among registered voters, 54% would vote for the anti-equality amendment, while 35% would vote against it. These numbers are at first depressing, but note that California ballot initiatives always tend to lose support over time. More importantly, most pollsters still use a random land-line phone survey methodology, while a 2006 CDC National Health Information Survey shows that between 25-29% of adult Millenials live in "wireless-only" households; that is, households with no land lines. And the overall percentage of "wireless-only" households is only growing.



So I take the LAT Poll with a large grain of salt. Hopefully, new (read: young) voter registration efforts undertaken by the Obama campaign will play a significant role in defeating the anti-equality amendment.

It is, after all, California. I have hope.

bush vetoes farm bill; congress overrides; reform = impossible

As I pointed out last week, it's a sad day when President Bush is right and Congress is wrong. Such is the case with the 5-year Farm Bill, which Bush vetoed today, followed swiftly by Congress overriding the veto, only the second time Bush's veto has been overridden during his presidency. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) shares my sentiments:

While I support the important nutrition and food stamp programs, ... we should not give away billions of dollars to wealthy farmers. This does not need to be an either-or proposition, and I vote to sustain the veto so Congress can pursue reforms for the next farm bill that would protect the environment and help farmers who truly need it.

Not to mention the fact that this Farm Bill also prevents improvements to foreign food aid.

If I were Stephen Colbert, I would say, "Congress: You're on notice."

zelma henderson, last surviving plaintiff of brown v. board, dies at 88

From the NYT:

Zelma Cleota Hurst was born on Feb. 29, 1920, in Colby, a rural community in western Kansas. The Hursts were one of two black families in town; Zelma’s parents raised cattle and wheat. When she was a girl, the family moved to Oakley, Kan., a bigger town with more black people, though still largely white.

At the time, Kansas law provided for the segregation of elementary schools only, and only those in towns of 15,000 or more. (Junior and senior high schools in the state were integrated.)

Colby and Oakley were too small for the law to apply, and Zelma and her siblings were educated alongside all the other children in town. Though the schools they attended were overwhelmingly white, Donald Henderson said in an interview on Wednesday that his mother “never had a problem out there.”

That changed when she moved to Topeka in 1940. There, she studied cosmetology at the Kansas Vocational School, a segregated institution. She was also a skilled typist, but found that whenever she applied for a clerical job, she was offered work as a domestic instead. In 1943, she married Andrew Henderson and opened a beauty salon in her home.

As young children, Donald Henderson and his sister, Vicki, were bused to an all-black school across town. This set Mrs. Henderson’s teeth on edge. As she told The Boston Globe in 2004, “I knew what integration was and how well it worked and couldn’t understand why we were separated here in Topeka.”

In 1950, the Topeka chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People began organizing the class-action suit. They asked 13 local black parents — Mr. Brown and 12 women — to serve as plaintiffs. Mrs. Henderson quickly agreed.

[...]

In an interview with The Dallas Morning News in 1994, Mrs. Henderson reflected on Brown 40 years later. “None of us knew that this case would be so important and come to the magnitude it has,” she said. “What little bit I did, I feel I helped the whole nation.”

You certainly did help us, Mrs. Henderson. Your courage to stand up to what you knew firsthand was wrong and without merit or defense has helped to redefine the way America thinks about race, justice, and education.

Thank you.

primary results today: KY at 7p edt, OR at 11p edt

Kentucky polls close at 6pm local time (again, what the hell with the ridiculously early-closing of polls?!?), but, as with Indiana, Kentucky is one of those states split between two time zones. Unlike Indiana, however, it's not just a few outliers; pretty much split down the middle, Eastern Kentucky is in the Eastern timezone, while Western Kentucky is in the Central timezone. From timetemperature.com:



As such, expect the networks/cable news to announce that Clinton has won a resounding 40 point victory in Kentucky at 7pm EDT.

Oregon, which has an entirely vote-by-mail/drive-through voting system, has been counting ballots for the past three weeks, and counts today's ballot extremely quickly at the close of polls. Polls close in Oregon at 8p PDT/11p EDT; expect networks/cable to announce that Obama has won at that time. The question is whether he'll have a huge victory (10+ points), or whether Clinton has managed to narrow his lead there.

Either way, expect Obama to speak in Iowa sometime around 11p EDT. I'd start watching around 10p if you want to be sure that you don't miss him live.

george takei getting married; starring in movie about ninja cheerleaders?

angry asian man has the scoop. One of the positive effects of California's recent decision to uphold marriage equality, Star Trek and Heroes star George Takei is planning on wedding longtime-partner Brad Altman.

angry asian man also reports that Takei will star in the new teen action comedy Ninja Cheerleaders. Um... okay.

Well, while we're on his page, let's link to angry asian man's post on civil rights activist/pioneer Yuri Kochiyama's Birthday, which is today. aam writes:

Today also happens to be Malcolm X's birthday, and for many, Kochiyama might be most well-known as the woman who cradled Malcolm X in her lap after he was shot, on February 21, 1965, during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.

But I have to disagree; not many know that at all. In fact, not many know who Kochiyama is. It doesn't help that she was not at all present in Spike Lee's Malcolm X, and was definitely not present in that final scene.

reproductive health pioneer harvey karman dies, age 84

Rest in peace, Harvey Karman, inventor of the Karman cannula, used for safer abortions and the diagnosis of uterine cancer. From the L.A. Times:

Harvey Karman, a flamboyant psychologist whose invention made a key contribution to women's reproductive health, particularly by making abortions simpler, cheaper and less painful, died May 6 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. He was 84.

[...]

Activist, inventor, educator and rogue, Karman was drawn to the plight of women facing unwanted pregnancy in the 1950s, when abortion was illegal. While training in psychology at UCLA, he started an underground abortion referral service and eventually performed abortions himself, for which he was convicted and sent to state prison for 2 1/2 years.

In the early 1970s he developed a soft, flexible tube, or cannula, for a device that was widely adopted in the United States and developing countries to perform early abortions. He freely demonstrated its use for doctors and other medical professionals and in 1972 was part of a humanitarian mission to terminate the pregnancies of 1,500 Bangladesh women and girls who had been raped by Pakistani soldiers. His cannula is still widely used today.

"Harvey Karman did more for safe abortion around the world than practically any other person in the world," said Dr. Malcolm Potts, Bixby professor of Population, Family Planning and Maternal Health at UC Berkeley, who accompanied Karman to Bangladesh 35 years ago.

"Karman's name is not known, yet his ingenuity and to some extent his courage has made safe abortion available to literally millions of women around the world."

Doctors later found other applications for the Karman cannula, including using it in the diagnosis of uterine cancer, said Dr. Philip Darney, chief of gynecology and obstetrics at San Francisco General Hospital.

The tube, which Karman never patented, is so inexpensive and easy to sterilize and re-use that it has "dramatically reduced healthcare costs in treating uterine bleeding, one of the most common reasons women come to the emergency room," Darney said.

update: As per my response in comments, here is the critique of Karman's "super coil" experiments (no, sorry, I won't be quoting anti-choice websites). From the same L.A. Times article above:

Karman also had many detractors, particularly because of his attempt to revolutionize second-trimester abortions with a device called the super coil, which was inserted into the uterus and expanded when exposed to moisture, causing a miscarriage. It caused serious complications, including hemorrhaging and infection, when it was used on about a dozen women in Philadelphia on Mother's Day in 1972.

"Harvey engaged in some very irresponsible experimentation on women's bodies," said Carol Downer, who co-founded feminist women's health clinics in Southern California in the 1970s.

The incident was investigated by the national Centers for Disease Control, where Darney worked at the time. Darney called the super coil a "bad idea" but added, "I don't think that offsets the importance" of Karman's other contributions.

Downer agreed, calling Karman "a real change agent" whose invention gave momentum to the abortion rights movement in the period before the procedure was legalized by the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade. "I would never take away from the importance of a lot of the work he did," she said.

This last part I will add in response to the comment that Karman thought of the Bangladeshi women he sought to help as "lab rats":

After the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, when Bangladesh gained independence, he was part of a five-member team of abortion experts invited by the Bangladesh government to perform abortions on rape victims and train native doctors and paramedics in his method. Most of the victims were between the ages of 10 and 16.

"Many victims were actually being driven from their homes and villages by husbands and families who felt disgraced. And many committed suicide," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1972.

He said the team visited outlying villages and taught midwives, village chiefs, young girls, "anybody who wanted to learn," how to use the cannula for an abortion. The method is still used widely there, although it is called menstrual extraction because abortion is banned.

Karman "is responsible for saving the lives of countless women throughout the world through this innovative technology," Vicki Saporta, president and chief executive of the National Abortion Federation, a professional association for abortion providers based in Washington, D.C., said in an interview last week.

Along with advances in local anesthesia and suction equipment, his little tube, she said, was one of three major innovations that dramatically improved abortion care in the 1970s.

Karman spent much of the late 1970s and early '80s in Bangladesh, India and China, where he championed women's rights and safe, easy abortions.

the california yacht party

From Crooks & Liars:

It was only a few years ago that Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled a sitting governor, promising the end of massive budget deficits. Guess what we have in California this year? Oh, just a measly $20 billion deficit.

Our schools are closing and social services have already been slashed to the bone. And it is just the start of budget season in California. Unfortunately, because Democrats do not hold a two-thirds majority in the state legislature, a small minority of Republicans are able to hold Californians hostage, refusing to raise taxes, no matter how ridiculous the loopholes.

Even, get this… a sales tax loophole for purchasers of yachts and private jets. The Republicans have very much earned the moniker bestowed on them by the Calitics crew: The Yacht Party.

farm bill: a sad day when bush is right and congressional democrats are wrong

The Senate passed the five-year, $300 billion farm bill by a veto-proof vote of 85-15, virtually ensuring the pork-laden, regressive, anti-progressive omnibus legislation will become law. The House passed the bill by an equally large, veto-proof margin on Wednesday, 318-106.

"Worst President In History" George W. Bush opposes this bill and is expected to veto it. This may be one of the only times, if not the only time, in the history of his Presidency when Bush is on the side of sanity. Congress, on the other hand, has frequently proven unreliable, but this is nonetheless disappointing from a body nominally controlled by good-government Democrats.

What's the big deal? Mike Lillis at The Washington Independent sums it up:

Millionaire farmers will continue getting taxpayer subsidies, sugar producers will inherit more government protections and foreign food aid will take a whack[...]

Not insignificant, agribusiness has donated roughly $31 million to Washington lawmakers in the 2008 election cycle alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making it one of the most powerful lobbies in the nation.

[...]

Under the bill, for example, individuals earning up to $750,000 in farm income and $500,000 in non-farm income are eligible for taxpayer subsidies. That means a farming couple could feasibly take in $2.5 million a year and still receive federal assistance.

Critics also point out that farm operators -- who number more than 2.1 million -- already earn far more than other Americans, with average household incomes estimated to be roughly $90,000 in 2008, according to the Agriculture Department.

"This bill was well designed to avoid every opportunity for serious reform of wasteful, outdated subsidy programs while actually piling on additional layers of unnecessary spending," Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) said in a statement. "Commodity prices are through the roof and yet we are still funneling billions of dollars to farm households making up to $2.5 million a year in profit."


[...]

One controversial provision creates a new program to have the government buy surplus sugar from the marketplace and put it toward ethanol production. Chris Edwards, director of tax policy at the conservative Cato Institute, said that that provision hurts consumers twice: First, when their taxpayer dollars fund the program; and later, when it reduces market supply, thus keeping sugar prices artificially high on the grocery store shelves.

Democratic support for such provisions is puzzling, Edwards said, for it bucks the party's populist approach. "It's a reverse Robin Hood scenario -- to the Democrats' shame," he said, adding that the overall bill is "an abomination."

The White House agrees, arguing that the proposal is too expensive, too generous to wealthy farmers and relies on budget gimmicks to cover the costs.

"It does not target help for the farmers who really need it," Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said in a statement, "and it increases the size and cost of government while jeopardizing the future of legitimate farm programs by damaging the credibility of farm bills in general."

The administration also blasted the proposal for continuing to prohibit the U.S. foreign food aid program from buying crops overseas. Aid groups have long-argued that allowing those dollars to purchase food abroad would expedite delivery to the people in need -- something the White House supports. Agricultural interests, however, have successfully convinced lawmakers of both parties not to change the rules of the $2.1 billion program.

Another foreign food aid program -- the Dole-McGovern International Food for Education program -- also took a hit under the new farm bill. That initiative, named for former Sens. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and George S. McGovern (D-S.D.), encourages low-income kids overseas to attend school by providing them free lunches. Its current budget is roughly $100 million per year, but the new law slashes that figure to about $60 million.

(emphasis added)

Yes, you read that right; President Bush is arguing for more and better foreign food aid, while Congress maintains the currently inefficient system in order to satisfy the whims of their agribusiness masters, who have generously bestowed $31 million to them in campaign funds this year.

Wonder why we have chronic obesity? Why food prices are skyrocketing? Why healthy fruits and vegetables are more expensive than unhealthy transfats, fast food and corn-based-ethanol-infused gasoline? Why schoolchildren who receive free lunches don't have the choice to eat healthy and nutritious food, but are instead fed things that ensure lifelong chronic health problems? Why our food is made in the least efficient way and by creating the greatest amounts of greenhouse gases possible? It's all because of the farm bill.

Congress just gave us five more years of the same problems.

We need more campaign finance reform. We need more limits on lobbyists' influence over our representatives. We need an environmentally-conscious, internationally-conscious, and health-conscious agricultural policy.

Update: All three remaining presidential candidates, Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama, are cowards for missing the most important vote of the year. Cowards.

Only Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, both from Rhode Island, voted against the farm bill. 13 Republican Senators also opposed it.

Let me be clear: the farm bill does contain a lot of great funding, including the free and subsidized school breakfast and lunch programs, as well as the all-important food stamp nutrition program. Those are great, and there were actually pretty great and beneficial reforms to those programs in this year's bill. But without massive reform to the subsidy program, as well as to the foreign food aid program, this maintains a system of regressive support for millionaire landowners (many of who are not even farmers) and huge agribusiness.

video of edwards' endorsement of obama

california: marriage equality is a go!

Nearly 60 years after the California Supreme Court (Perez v. Sharp, Oct. 1948) ruled that the state could not bar couples from marrying because the couple was of different races, despite the fact that 90% of Californians at the time opposed interracial marriages, and nearly 41 years after the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed California's affirmation of the basic civil right of marriage (Loving v. Virginia, June 12, 1967), the California Supreme Court once again has demonstrated progressive leadership and vision in ruling that it is unconstitutional for the state to establish a civil institution of marriage that excludes couples on the basis of their gender or sexual orientation.

In short, same-sex marriages are now legal in California.

This is why I love California.

Just a couple of hours ago, the California Supreme Court ruled in the consolidated same-sex marriage cases, In re Marriage Cases, that

[O]ur state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.

The court goes on to say that having what are essentially 'separate but equal' institutions of marriage for opposite-sex couples and domestic partnerships for same-sex couples denies some couples equal dignity and respect, and thus violates the state constitution. The state isn't required to call the formal institution "marriage," the court explains, as the civil institution is distinct from any parallel religious institution, but the state must have a single institution for all those couples wishing to share the benefits and responsibilities of this state-acknowledged relationship.

The decision explicitly cites Perez v. Sharp, 32 Cal.2d 711 (1948), the California Supreme Court decision that struck down the state ban on interracial marriages.

Very cool. I'm sure that Mildred Loving would be very proud of California.

Excellent coverage at Pam's House Blend, with full CA press coverage and this statement from Arnold:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released the following statement today regarding the state Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage:

"I respect the Court's decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling."

as much as i love you john, a day late and a dollar short

photo credit New York Times

Edwards Endorses Obama; Everyone Else Made Train Before It Left Station.

robot conducts detroit philharmonic... b/c detroit is a good place to show how robots can replace your job

photo credit Paul Sancya/AP

Honda's ASIMO "conducted" the Detroit Philharmonic in a performance of The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha.

Robots are taking over! Ahhh!

republicans' plan for health care reform, simplified

Sure you can't afford to eat, but we'll give you ten new restaurants to choose from (that you still can't afford)! Oh yeah, and we're going to get rid of the food safety inspectors, too... so ignore if there's a cockroach or five in your Caesar salad:

[Republicans' 2008 election message] lay[s] out the "common-sense conservative principles" Republicans will be pressing this year. They include "affordable, high-quality health care for every American by giving families greater choice and control, not through a massive expansion of government health care controlled by bureaucrats"

happy national train day!

May 10th is National Train Day, celebrating this year the 139th anniversary since the transcontinental railroad was completed with a "golden spike" in Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869. Appropriately, I am riding the train today, the Northeast Regional from D.C.'s Union Station to New York City's Pennsylvania Station.

A bit of history, the first transcontinental railroad was the connection between the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, spanning across 1,756 miles (according to Wikipedia; according to the official National Train Day website, the distance was 1,776 miles. 1776? Independence Day? Coincidence or patriotic propaganda?). The Central Pacific ran from Sacramento, California to Utah, while the Union Pacific, a vast Midwestern railroad network, ran from Utah to Omaha, Nebraska, across the river from the previous end-of-the-line for those Going West, Council Bluffs, Iowa. The first transcontinental railroad, in fact, did not connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans; it was not until November 1869, six months later, that the Central Pacific connected Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay, and not until 1872, a full three years later, that the Union Pacific connected Omaha, Nebraska to Council Bluffs, Iowa via a new Missouri River Bridge.

The construction of the railroads is a story of all the many pieces of America, and in many ways about the value of life in an era of Manifest Destiny and unbridled industrial development. In the West, the Central Pacific employed mainly Chinese immigrants, while on the East, the Union Pacific employed mainly Irish immigrants. Both groups suffered greatly; many died and were injured along the way, being asked to live in deplorable conditions, and constantly surrounded by dangerous and unstable nitro-glycerine explosives, especiall in the West, where accidental explosions killed many of the Chinese laborers. In the East, American Indians, outraged by the blatant and unrepentant treaty violations of the U.S. government in the building of railroad through their land, raided the labor camps and, when the Union Pacific began hiring marksmen slaughter bison indiscriminately in order to deprive the Plains people of their primary source of food, the American Indians began killing laborers.

The famous photo of the "golden spike" and the completion of the railroad does not include any Chinese Americans. Unsurprisingly.


unsurprising.

awareness test: "it's easy to miss something you're not looking for"

h/t to cyn for the head-up on this awesome video.

This ad is obliviously a PSA about looking out for bicyclists while driving, but it also provides us some commentary on race. It also reminds me of implicit association tests, which you can take online, such as from Project Implicit at Harvard.

bigots will always answer to history, and loving will triumph

Almost 41 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was a basic civil right for those in love to marry, a right that racist laws could not hinder. That ruling was the result of the love that a black woman, Mildred Loving, had for a white man, Richard Loving. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). Mildred Loving passed away today at age 68.

As Mildred retells her story:

When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn’t to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married.

[...]

Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the “crime” of marrying the wrong kind of person. Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed. The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile.

What was clear to Mildred, and what is clear to all progressives, is that the breadth of support for bigotry is no excuse for its defense. Last June, on the 40th anniversary of the Court's decision to strike down all laws forbidding the marriage of persons of two different races, Mildred wrote a powerful press statement. It is hosted in full at Positive Liberty (h/t to dKos for the link), but I think this is the key, common sense take away point:

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

Rest in peace, Mildred Loving.

election day info for IN and NC

Polls close in Indiana at 6pm local time (yes, 6pm! I confirmed with two sources... it should be illegal for polls to close so early); however, Indiana is one of four states in more than one time zone (the other three are Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky). Most of Indiana is on EDT. However 12 counties use CDT: Lake, Porter, Laporte, Newton, Jasper, Starke Counties in northwest Indiana and Gibson, Posey, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer and Perry Counties in southwest Indiana. Thus, if networks and cable news follow the rule of not calling a race until all polls in the state have closed, Indiana will be called, at the earliest, at 7pm EDT. Trivia on Indiana's time zone debacle at the bottom.

Polls close in North Carolina at 7:30pm EDT.

Voters in both states who are illegally prevented from voting or have other voting concerns can contact the national Election Protection project's hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, from 9am to 6pm EDT. Election Protection is a legitimate operation; I've volunteered for them in the past, and they're led by prominent progressive advocacy and legal groups such as the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's National Campaign for Fair Elections, the NAACP, the National Bar Association, and People For the American Way Foundation. For more information, visit the National Campaign For Fair Elections website.

Okay, here's the trivia. Indiana has a long history with time zones, dating back to 1942 when Daylight Savings Time was instituted nationwide to conserve energy during World War II. Here's the rundown for why there's controversy at all from Wikipedia:

The Indiana time zone debate remains controversial. Many argue that the entire state should move to Central Time, while many others believe the state should return to the non-observance of DST. This controversy is deeply rooted in Indiana.

With a large agricultural heritage, many farmers oppose DST because their days are controlled by the sun; not the clock. During daylight savings, the sun rises an hour later, costing farmers sixty minutes of valuable morning productivity. Farmers are often dependent on young children whose parents want them home by dinner, and when the sun is up later in the evening, farmers miss out on recreational activities that only happen late. When the sun is still up at 8:30 or 9pm, the farmer is still in the field, while others have been off work for hours.

Opponents of putting the entire state on one time zone often cite out-of-state cities as their reason of opposition. For example, counties in Northwestern Indiana border and commute to and from the metropolis of Chicago, Illinois for business and pleasure. Chicago is on Central Time. Counties in the southeastern corner of the state are suburbs of cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, who both observe Eastern Time. In the southwestern corner of the state, Evansville, Indiana serves as the central hub of a tri-state area that includes southern Illinois and western Kentucky (both on Central Time).

Supporters of daylight saving time (DST) and a common time zone in Indiana often claim Indiana must adopt the time-keeping system of the rest of the nation to preserve business. It is believed that Indiana businesses have lost hours of productive time with out-of-state colleagues because the time quirks are just too confusing to keep track of on a daily basis.

Detractors of daylight saving time point out that scientific studies assessing the impact of the time policy change to DST in Indiana have identified a significant increase in energy usage and spending on electricity by Indiana households. Indiana households paid an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills according to University of California, Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant. While opponents of Daylights Saving Time point to studies such as Professor Kotchen, the Department of Transportation and organizations such as the California Energy Commission claim that the United States saves approximately 1% of energy when Daylight Saving Time is being observed.

West Wing fans will remember that Josh and Toby miss their flight back to D.C. due to confusion over Indiana's time zones in the Season 4 two-part premiere 20 Hours in America.

feliz cinco de mayo

The Fifth of May commemorates the victory of Mexicans over French colonialists at the Battle of Puebla. Few are aware of this fact, but once upon a time, France tried to rule Mexico! Bizarre, right? It was the age of Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had become the first (and only) President of the French Second Republic (following the end of the restored Bourbon Monarchy that was established by foreign powers after the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815). Napoleon III, originally Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, won the popular election to become President, but quickly maneuvered himself, with the support of the army and Bonapartists (guess who they supported?) to seize dictatorial powers and (re)established his uncle's Imperial government as the Second French Empire.

So where does Cinco de Mayo come in? Well, the nascent Mexican Republic had won its independence from Spain after a civil war (1810-1821), which was caused by, surprise, Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon had usurped the Spanish throne, replacing King Charles IV with the Emperor's own brother, Joseph Bonaparte. As an insurgent resistance tied up Joseph's ability to rule French colonies, "New Spain" became more and more distant from its colonial masters, and eventually decided they had enough of this nonsense and declared independence in 1810 (thus, Mexican Independence day is not Cinco de Mayo, as commonly mistaken, but actually Sept. 16, 1810, the day on which the Roman Catholic priest Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla declared war on the colonial government and encouraged the congregation in his small town of Dolores to revolt). Anyway, back to the main story, Mexico had a ton of foreign debt from its civil war, which was apparently enough of an excuse for Napoleon III to attempt to annex the country. Napoleon III, supported by Mexican conservatives and clergy, established a Second Mexican Empire (the First being a constitutional monarchy for a few years following independence from Spain) as a puppet state of France. The Hapsburg Prince (and suspected secret grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte, via Napoleon II) Maximilian was installed as Emperor of Mexico, pushing President Benito Juarez and his Republican (as in, supporters of the Mexican Republic, not the G.O.P.) troops into the countryside.

The war was a long five years, lasting from 1862 to 1867. The combined French and Mexican conservative forces were overwhelming, but in 1865 the U.S. Civil War had ended, and the U.S. was able to support the Mexican liberal and Republican forces by giving them supplies and blockading Mexican ports against French resupply efforts. French troops were withdrawn in 1866 by Napoleon III, facing an increasing Prussian threat following Prussia's victory over Austria in the Prussian-Austrian War (1866). Emperor Maximilian was pretty much doomed at this point, but loyally remained around to support the Mexican conservatives, leading to his defeat and execution in June of 1867.

Okay, so back to Cinco de Mayo. The victory of the Mexican liberal forces over the French at the Battle of Puebla took place on May 5, 1862, at the very beginning of the war. In fact, the victory was only a temporary one in France's invasion and occupation; things went downhill from there for the Mexicans over the next three years. So why celebrate Cinco de Mayo at all?

Well, here's the trick: Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican holiday; rather, it is a Californian holiday! California broke away from Mexico in 1848, but still had strong affinities for the nation; thus, when the French occupied Mexico in 1862, Californians were outraged. In a show of solidarity, they began celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla starting in 1863, and have ever since.

The end.

So enjoy your Californian holiday with appropriately Californian-ized Mexican food and blended margaritas.

review: h&k: efgb

Yes, I saw it, last Sunday.

No, it was not as genius as the original. Which was genius.

In some ways, it was what people who never saw the original imagined that the original was: tons of raunchy humor, lots of nudity (both top and bottom, male and female), and stoner/druggie jokes. It was, as most stoner flicks, somewhat disjointed.

But it had it's moments. There was a clear critique of the ridiculous misuse of resources in the so-called War on Terror, racial profiling, racism, cultural stereotyping, sense of style in the 1980s, etc. So on that end, at least, it was definitely more intelligent than, say, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And I loved Rob Cordry's character and performance; for me it was the highlight of the movie ("Look at this cute little white girl... that's America!"). And the 80s flashback was great, if only for the very end of the scene. You know what I mean; the whole audience was falling over from that image.

All in all, if on a scale of 1 to 10, one being not so extreme and ten being really extreme, I'd give it a 6.5.

Yeah, a bit disappointed, but glad that it wasn't a complete disaster, as most sequels are.

all douglasses look the same to me

Awesome:



To illustrate Sen. Clinton's proposal that she and Sen. Obama engage in some Lincoln-Douglass debates, Fox News used the above picture, apparently unaware that Lincoln's pro-slavery opponent in the original debates was not, in fact, former slave and orator Frederick Douglass, but rather asshole slaveowner and Republican Party presidential candidate Stephen Douglass (who, it is noted, is so much more so the logical ancestor to the modern Republican Party than Lincoln, insofar as Douglass was about protecting moneyed interests above any actual moral code).

Anyway, that's just hilarious. H/t to Pandagon as well, which also has this awesome comment to their story on the same Fox stupidity (sarcasm alert for those lacking a sense of it):

I think Americans need to learn more about the Lincoln-Douglass debates, because it will teach them to be wary of black men who give good speeches. Not enough of my students remember the pivotal moment in the 1860 election when Abraham Lincoln said, “I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. Senator John Breckinridge has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Frederick Douglass has a speech he gave in 1852.”

happy may day!

May 1st is May Day. Originally a pagan holiday in Europe, it marked the first day of summer. It was established as International Workers' Day in 1891 by the socialist Second International to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, an incident where several police officers and civilians were killed when police opened fire on striking workers and supporters after an anarchist threw a bomb which killed one of the officers. The incident took place on May 4th, but was the continuation of a general labor strike in the U.S. and Canada organized in support of the an eight-hour workday.

In the midst of the Cold War, Congress declared May 1st Loyalty Day in 1958, having felt that the Soviet Union had taken control of International Workers' Day.

In the midst of his failing presidency, George W. Bush declared May 1st Law Day in 2008, having felt that he had lost all control over his sense of irony.