Is there a difference…

...between the shady, underground, underhand, secretive illegal activities of licit or illicit organizations and those which occur under the aegis of ‘classified’, secret government memos, secret orders by way of secret federal courts, secret (not fully disclosed laws) and other secret government directives? The federal government (regardless of political party or affiliation) has been operating more like an organized crime syndicate than a democracy.

Maybe it’s time for a Constitutional Amendment for Government Transparency… Ban secret laws and government agencies; require that the text of laws be free of obfuscating language and abbreviations (apparently much government pork barrel spending is cloaked in obscure language and difficult to decipher).

My, what big maws you have

There has been an assault on the well being of poor children this year on both local and national levels. (Chicago closes 50 public schools and lays off hundreds of additional teachers; Philadelphia closes 23 schools;  and Head Start programs are cut in multiple states due to sequestration.)

So it shouldn’t be surprising that the House of Representatives passed a farm bill without including funding for food stamps which will increase hunger amongst the most vulnerable in this country, poor children.

It seems that eating the seed corn was not enough to sate the feral appetites of privileged politicians, their crowd psychology further demands the food of poor children.

Competency testing

Michele Bachmann once said a vaccine caused mental retardation. A number of Republican representatives think climate change is a hoax perpetrated by climate scientists. And that doesn’t even touch on the belief in creationist ‘theory’ over the scientific evidence supporting the Theory of Evolution. While much of this misinformation is a calculated politically cynical misrepresentation of the politicians’ true understanding of the science to pander to their constituents, it emphasizes the need for some level of proof of minimal competency for all public officials (elected and non-elected).

This is especially well illustrated by Texas lawmaker, Jodie Laufenberg, who once argued against government funded prenatal care for low income women because “They’re not born yet.” If she were my representative, I would ask for proof of reading comprehension (and ability to use a dictionary)... Does she know what ‘prenatal’ means?

Think of what it would mean to the functioning of government if representatives on the various Senate and U.S. House committees actually understood the financial, cultural, international, trade, health, production, etc. implications of the decisions they make. We might actually get some thoughtful, effective legislation…

Unfortunately, there are moneyed forces with the aim of keeping Americans and our legislators ignorant and uninformed so we are readily manipulated to act not only against our national and human interest but against our personal interests.

It is irrefutable...

Oil is dangerous, be it…

to acquire (Deepwater Horizon)…

to transport: by truck (diesel truck explosion), by train (Quebec oil train explosion), by pipeline (Arkansas and Prudhoe Bay), by sea (Exxon Valdez and others)...

to refine (Texas City refinery disaster)...

to consume (carbon dioxide emission and global warming).

And that doesn’t even include accidents from coal mining, diseases from coal mining (and embedded links) and fracking for oil and gas.

It is long past time to leave the fossil fuels to the paleontologists  and move on to 21st century clean, renewable energy sources (wind, solar, hydroelectric, tidal…).

Having brought up Edward Snowden…

Isn’t it revealing that The Guardian, a newspaper in a country which does not have freedom of speech, exposed the wrongdoings of a government which professes to champion free speech and a free press?

When is spying spying?

The spying programs revealed by Edward Snowden isn’t ‘spying’ because no one's phone calls have been listened to… Does this mean copyright isn’t violated if downloaded material(s) aren’t ‘consumed’? What if the original download was never ‘consumed but copies of the original download was consumed… will the same justification hold?

Rachel Jeantel

All the media attention focused on a prosecution witness in the George Zimmerman trial, Rachel Jeantel (see here and here) reminds me of Mayella Ewell, a character in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Obviously, one is real and one is fictional but their social class may bring more to bear on their credibility than their race.

As to her demeanor, how much responsibility does the prosecution bear in terms of preparing their witness?