Month: July 2016

Clinton to rewrite the first amendment

Hillary said in a taped speech to the Netroots Nation conference, “Today, I’m announcing that in my first 30 days as President, I will propose a constitutional amendment to overturn “Citizens United” and give the American people-all of us-the chance to reclaim our democracy.”

That supreme court decision said it was legal for corporations to spend money on political speech.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a U.S. constitutional law case dealing with the regulation of campaign spending by organizations. The United States Supreme Court held (5–4) that Freedom of Speech prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have also been extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations.

She doesn’t like it because the FEC had ruled that Citizens United could not produce a video opposing her earlier run for the presidency. They sued and won. She doesn’t like it because she can’t control the information like she wants to.  Donald Trump has growled about the same thing, controlling the information.  So has Erdogan after the coup attempt. So do most people in charge of totalitarian states.

Do we spend too much money on political campaigns, without a doubt. Controlling the money ain’t the solution, changing how we elect folks may be the answer.

Politicians, in most cases, want control, power. You know the old saying about power and corruption, reduce the power, reduce the corruption. Information is powerful tool to do so.

 

Biogenic Carbon versus Fossil – Carbon

An editorial in the WSJ by Bruce Dale, July 11, 2016, details the effort of the EPA to regulate the emission of of biogenic carbon.  That is the carbon released when the natural process of growing plants, eating them and releasing the carbon stored in them back into the atmosphere, where plants reacquire the carbon.

The author states the attempt has no scientific basis, zero.

I offer the article as another example of bureaucratic creep, or overreach. Any body of regulators will move to cover more ground, there is no limit to what they want to cover, they cover more because they can, and want to.

Small governments is the only way to keep these folks from adding costs to everything thus reducing the ability of the economy to produce economic growth and thus providing more people with wealth so to manage their own lives.  The EPA produces nothing, not that we should do away with it. Otherwise we will have Birmingham, Alabama in the 1970’s with horrendous air pollution.

The key is to limit an organization to its’ mission, and only Congress can change it, and the economic costs must be calculated and published.

Those laws are mostly on the books, just not enforced. Like a lot of other issues like immigration.

 

Three Good Men Talk About Race

The title of an editorial by Peggy Noonan in the July 16-17 WSJ.   Worth the read.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown. “I am running on fumes…we are asking the police to do too much…take care of mentally ill folks..run down loose dogs…take care of over indulging drug users……..”

He goes on to say, “We’re hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. We’ll put you in your neighborhood and we’ll help you resolve some the the problems your’re protesting about.”

But griping, pointing fingers, blaming is much more fun. The other two men, both with African heritage, talked about their experiences and without a doubt there is prejudice in our country, along with all countries, from the beginning of time. The action is what we do about it.

Police Officers’ Lives Matter. Civilians Lives Matter. All Lives Matter.

Can we come together and talk about how to make it a bit better rather than pointing fingers? My mom always said, “When you point your finger, four are pointing back at you.”  It still applies.