February 5, 2010
Lawrence Lessig, in the current issue of The Nation:
Yet a year into the presidency of Barack Obama, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Not because it is too conservative. Not because it is too liberal. But because it is too conventional. Obama has given up the rhetoric of his early campaign–a campaign that promised to “challenge the broken system in Washington” and to “fundamentally change the way Washington works.” Indeed, “fundamental change” is no longer even a hint.
…Whether on the left or the right, there is an endless list of critical problems that each side believes important. The Reagan right wants less government and a simpler tax system. The progressive left wants better healthcare and a stop to global warming. Each side views these issues as critical, either to the nation (the right) or to the globe (the left). But what both sides must come to see is that the reform of neither is possible until we solve our first problem first–the dependency of the Fundraising Congress.
This dependency will perpetually block reform of any kind, since reform is always a change in the status quo, and it is defense of the status quo that the current corruption has perfected. For again, as Obama said:
If we’re not willing to take up that fight, then real change–change that will make a lasting difference in the lives of ordinary Americans–will keep getting blocked by the defenders of the status quo.
“Defenders of the status quo”–now including the souls that hijacked the movement Obama helped inspire.
It is a very important piece, and we urge everyone to read it in full.
February 1, 2010
Reading this blog, it might be easy to forget that the two authors of this blog love Obama. So, it’s only fair that from time to time we point out where he has succeeded. Anil Dash just wrote a post listing out some achievements, and encouraging us to put more effort into pressuring Obama to stick to the agenda he (Obama, not Anil) promised us.
- The last U.S. Marines are leaving Iraq.
- Credit card companies can no longer charge interest on fees, and can’t retroactively raise your interest rate on existing balances.
- We know who visits the White House, and who they’re affiliated with.
- There’s a quarter billion dollars more funding for National Parks, and $50 million more for the National Endowment for the Arts.
- We responded, imperfectly but with heart and sincere effort, to the disaster in Haiti. Just as we wish we had after Katrina. Leadership matters most in emergencies.
- Our current President readily admits when he’s made mistakes, respects the validity of arguments that he disagrees with, and has members of the opposing party in his cabinet.
- The Department of Homeland Security now allocates its security spending according to threats, not by spending the same amount of money on Montana as it does on New York.
- My 401k is up 30% since the current President took office.
- Our President asked both corporations and individuals to reduce their electricity consumption. He asked politely.
- Trains. There’s a plan to build more rails and more trains for transporting actual humans around the country.
- The Matthew Shepard hate crime bill was passed.
It’s a great article, go read the whole thing.
January 22, 2010
One year ago:
President Obama signed executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.
One year later:
…the Obama administration is still struggling to find the political muscle, diplomatic dexterity and cash from Congress to implement those tough, often unpopular decisions about the remaining detainees.
As one of his very first acts as president, Obama signed an executive order to close the military prison for terror suspects within a year. The one-year mark arrives Friday, and he will miss it by a wide margin, likely a year or more.
And no help from fellow Dems:
President Barack Obama’s Republican foes unveiled legislation Thursday aiming to restrict his ability to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees overseas, notably to places like Yemen.
The measure, unveiled on the eve of what was once Obama’s target date for closing the notorious facility, was unlikely to attract enough support from the president’s Democratic allies to become law.
Just another in a series of letdowns.
January 21, 2010
The Obama DOJ has once again sided with the RIAA, the music industry thugs who are bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for technological and cultural progress in the music industry and all media.
The Slashdot article summarizes the situation quite nicely:
Despite having had some time to get their act together, Obama’s Department of Justice has filed yet another brief defending the RIAA’s outlandish statutory damages theory — that someone who downloaded an mp3 with a 99-cent retail value, causing a maximum possible damages of 35 cents, is liable for from $750 to $150,000 for each such file downloaded, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum. The 25- page brief (PDF) continues the DOJ’s practice of (a) ignoring the case law which holds that the Supreme Court’s due process jurisprudence is applicable to statutory damages, (b) ignoring the law review articles to like effect, (c) ignoring the actual holding of the 1919 case they rely upon, (d) ignoring the fact that the RIAA failed to prove ‘distribution’ as defined by the Copyright Act, and (e) ignoring the actual wording and reasoning of the Supreme Court in its leading Gore and Campbell decisions. Jon Newton of p2pnet.net attributes the Justice Department’s ‘oversights’ to the ‘eye-popping number of people [in its employ] who worked for, and/or are directly connected with, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA.’
December 18, 2009
The big debate currently taking place within progressive circles is whether to support the Senate HCR bill, or kill it. I’ve seen no better response to the “support it” crowd than this, via OpenLeft:
1. Over the medium term, how many other opportunities will exist to provide in excess of $100 billion per year in public subsidies to poor and sick people?
Over the medium term, how many other opportunities will exist to force people to spend money they don’t have on insurance that doesn’t have a cap on expenses and in some cases only has a 70% actuarial value? 100 billion in subsidies doesn’t mean squat if they come tied to an expense people can’t afford, making them buy insurance which is not particularly useful.
2. Would a bill that contained $50 billion in additional subsidies for people making less than 250% of poverty be acceptable?
No. Even at 300% or 401% (subsidies cutting off at 400%), there are people who will be forced into bankruptcy by this bill. Repeat after me, no cap on expenses, and inadequate cost controls.
This is not an easy question, and it comes down to whether or not you have faith that the Congress will use what will likely be bad legislation as a stepping-stone to better, or will it just make things worse.
Having faith in Congress is never really recommended…
You can read the whole piece at OpenLeft here.
September 22, 2009
This blog was started because of a concern for our civil liberties, and as a reaction to Barack Obama’s backtracking on wireless wiretaps.
So it’s of particular interest that today, via The Washington Independent, we found out exactly how the PATRIOT was enacted:
“Then Chairman Dreier” — referring to Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), then chairman of the House Rules Committee — “under lord knows whose instructions, substituted that bill for another bill, that we at Judiciary had never seen. So we come here today now to consider what we do with those parts that are expiring.” Conyers proceeded to say that many of the problems being discussed at the hearing with the current law would have been addressed by the original bipartisan one, such as offering an opportunity for people harmed by the Patriot Act’s abuses to seek redress. The original law also “may have eliminated, or simplified, litigation about Patriot Act abuses that continue today,” said Conyers.
Rep. Nadler added:
“We held in this committee five days of markup and achieved unanimity on the Patriot Act. Then the bill just disappeared. And we had a new several-hundred-page bill revealed from the Rules Committee” that had to be voted on the next day, before most members of Congress even had a chance to read it, said Nadler.
This came out in today’s hearings on the JUSTICE Act, which you can find more about at the GetFISARight wiki.
