Come Hither

Sometimes you have to find out the truth, get past the perception, the expectations.  And all this time I thought Arizona's SB 1070 was about targeting suspected immigrants so they could be locked up and deported. 

The reality is more complex than that, from what I can glean by listening to the Supreme Court's oral arguments this week.  Joint enforcement is not easy.

The way it works is - someone is arrested for some garden-variety infraction - like speeding.  An officer of the law asks that person if they can prove they are here legally.  If not, then they place a phone call to a federal support center.  The support center searches through 8 databases looking for the person.

If they had a legal visa, or green card, or State-Department issued passport, they would be found.  If they are not found, then this call is a notification to the feds.  Hey, we found an illegal, come do something!  Come hither!

If the feds don't do anything, then the state can lock up someone and take action.  The same action the feds would take.

But what if they don't find someone in a federal database, and that person isn't carrying anything to prove they are a citizen?  OK so I have a passport, I'm sure I am in a database someplace.  Also a social security number.  But what if I didn't have a passport.  Or didn't have proof that the SSN number I claim is mine is really mine.

Ah, that becomes, as the Supreme Court justices say, "the citizen problem".  There is no way to prove that the average person is a citizen.  No citizen database.  Just a way to suspect that you aren't one.

So of course the logical solution is to have a citizen database.  For every individual born in this country, and hence a citizen, to be tagged (like my cat, so in case I go off wandering one day due to Alzheimer's, that they can scan my embedded microchip and figure out who I am, and where to return me).  Then every citizen is accountable.  Non-citizens would not have this tag.  That is, until they develop fake microchips..

Bake Sales for Bombers

Its real, the day is upon us.
Remember, back in the day, the t-shirt that said "It will be a fine day when schools have all the money they need, and the Military has to hold a bake sale to build a bomber".  And kids were climbing in sillouette on a jungle gym?

Yep, got one of those t-shirts, yellow-beige with green text.  Stored away someplace, awaiting moving to a new house.  If I had a dollar for every t-shirt I've saved, I could probably have a nice down payment.

So this week, the U.S. House passed a FY 2013 budget template, handing certain $dollar amounts to the 12 different subcommittees responsible for appropriation.  The meta picture is that they are working with a budget amount $1.028 trillion, that is less than that agreed to in last year's summer budget drama.  Just like an ongoing mystery saga that is so horrible you cannot avert your eyes, I do wonder what new drama this coming summer will bring - or more likely they will keep me hanging, cspan episode by cspan episode, till the fall.  And force me to squander early morning and late nights trying to see how it all ends - does he get the girl?  Do we fall into the ocean, with or without global warming?  Or do we elect some savior who brings our economy back to the exceptional place it once was?

The President has already said the budget figure is $1.047 trillion.  Honestly, these numbers don't mean anything to me - they sound pretty close.  I mean we're not building a rocket to Mars or anything, what is .019 trillion between friends?  Except of course no one is friendly in Congress, its all out war.

So the line items for the various appropriation bills show:  $573 billion, as an outlay for Defense.  Sounds like a lot.  Another category that I am obligated to follow is Labor/HHS/Education - and, while the discretionary portion is small, the 'mandatory' amount is $593 billion.  This covers mandatory spending (which is not discretionary, so not subject to slashes unless they take dramatic and revolutionary action) - includes unemployment insurance, Medicaid, Medicare.

So we are paying out more in entitlement programs than we are spending on the military.  Of course this is all projected for Fiscal Year 2013.  Which starts in October. 

Lets see, if I wanted to bake something for my favorite missle sysetm - I liked the ones they used in Libya.  We were the only country armed and ready to step in, at a moment's notice.  War Powers Act?  Hmm, well the President can engage in war for up to 60 days without Congressional approval.  And he did so.

People like those chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They even sound healthy!  So if everyone in the country made a batch of cookies - sold them for $10, that is $10 * 300 million = $3 billion.  Sounds like enough for an arsenal of bombers.

Celebrity in Chief

Have been getting texts from my main man from November 4, 2008 this week.  He never calls, just texts.  Today he is trying insistently to get me to donate so I can win a dinner with not just him, but George Clooney too.  As if.  Yesterday it was just the Pres, so I suppose he felt that was not sufficient.

Now this is the 21st century, do you get it?  If you text me with some line like, "hey girl, what do you think about single sales factor today"?  Now that would hook me!

Time Theft

Who was it who coined the term "time theft" - it was in one of those books where a white chick goes slumming, investigative journalist style, and works at Walmart or something.  The employees are prevented from fraternized, it even has a name - not yakking or talking but "time theft".

Anything can sound like a legitimate crime if you chose the right words.  No one wants to be labeled a thief.  Or a racketeer.  Or a thug.

So who are the real thugs?  If you spend 10 years giving tax breaks to rich political benefactors, is this economic stimulus?  But if you funneled this money to terrorists it would be criminal.  Funneling it to financial institutions that plunder the poor, well that is just capitalism.  Let the buyer beware.

Or if you sign legislation that satisfies the pharmaceutical companies that advertise late night on cable, oh and every other time of the day too.  It is very obnoxious.  Legislation that benefits them, picks up the tab for seniors' medicine cost through Medicare.  While marketing day and night and creating needs you didn't even know you had.  If my cat is restless at night, perhaps there is a medicine for "restless cat leg syndrome".  But even he's too smart for that.

If you are now a defender of the status quo, does that make you stable and righteous?  Or complicit.

Who Are You?

For awhile there it was an initiative every day.
From health care reform to equal pay for women to clean energy investment to doubling exports. Yes our federal government has many domains.

Fundamentally, its domain is national security. The Rs will say, in their sing song political rhetoric, Obama is about "big government".

To which I generally think - big country - big government - FDR saved us from The Great Depression...

And yet - we have more warrantless wiretaps than ever before. Larger deficits than ever recorded. A larger debt burden, and growing.

National security. Am I safer than I was on November 19, 2009 (pre Obaama inauguration)?

Economically, we are all stuck feeling shattered. Maybe just maybe, Obama could ponder "less is more". If the federal government did less activist legislation - which only results in confrontation with opposing forces - maybe everyone could calm down a bit. Calm, less shattered. Is that a way forward?

Warren Buffet in Context

ok the Buffet Rule, our President's solution to fairness, tax policy reform, and deficit spending all wrapped up in a neat little package. Who could argue with that?

Except its none of these things.
Fairness - if our system was so broken, why after 5 years are we finally hearing about this? The facts (if anyone cares to listen to actual facts, instead of the lovely political rhetoric) are that the well off pay 60-80% of all tax revenue. So lets get past the percent paid and brackets on the brain, shall we? The road you travel down, the B-1 bomber in its silo, yep those wealthy ones with lots of capital gains - paying for most of it.

Tax policy reform - ha. At 70,000 pages of tax policy, lets add more!

Deficit spending. The real truth, as it came out today, is that implementing the Buffet rule would bring $46 billion to the Treasury over a 10 year period. Some context. That is $4.6 billion per year. Well remember that Stimulus, and all the unemployment benefits bequeathed on states to keep social order and protect the peace (and pay for food and rent)? Oregon netted over $2 billion in federal benefits. In context, $4.6 billion sounds like chump change.

Puzzle Pieces

I wanted to have a party, and invite my red and my blue friends (and my white ones too). Each was to bring something of an opposite color.

Now, I'm not a color artist.. nor a sandwich artist, nor any other kind of artist. If you saw my attempt at drawing rabbits, or cats, or probably trees, you might think they all look the same. Ah, but add some color and its plain - green leaves, see! Black cat, see!

So the blue friends would bring something non-blue. Get them to think outside the box. Maybe they would bring large red steaks. And my red friends would bring something non-red, like maybe a vegan casserole made with endive topping. And the white friends - well they could bring something black I suppose - blackened tilapia. Something farmed and sustainable, but chemically changed.

All assembled, it would be a chance to trade recipes, trade ideas. Only instead of food, I will have them bring political philosophies (or both, wrapped up, like fortune cookies, or baked inside like a tur-duck-hen). Only you'd have to bring a policy option that didn't belong to you, and it had to be convincing.

Then, we save the world. Or couldn't do any worse than the current political deadlock in Congress. I used to think about Canada, only now I want to be optimistic. I like red, white, blue, and I like this country! So make it happen. Maybe I should send my members of Congress one of those mystery games so they can get used to the role-playing concept. Or maybe, as the Gen X and Gen Y types grow up and take congressional seats, all their pokemon role-playing will come in handy for solving the nation's policy problems. Where is Ash, the fate of the world is at stake..

Sustainable Minions

There is no rest for the weary..
At home sick for a few days, so subject to the calls of those recruiting "volunteers". Like the caller from my town yesterday, looking for volunteers for the Organizing for American campaign, aka President Obama's re-election.

Well he didn't know that I was home and could still speak (till my voice wore out later) so I hammered him as best as I was able. What was really telling was asking him "So, is the federal budget sustainable?"

His response "It is very sustainable". He started to go on about % of GDP as compared with other countries, blah blah.

Well, if that is the view of a rather intelligent Obama supporter, then all hope is lost. If mortgaging our kids future to Chinese borrowers isn't a national security issue, isn't generational theft, if this is all seen as perfectly fine and sustainable..

Then we are truly sunk. But I do not believe that. Our President speaks the party line. Hell, he creates the party line. The minions just echo it, and he echos them, and its all a big echo chamber.

sustainable - able to be sustained. Hopefully better tomorrow than today.

One Size Fits All is not a 21st Century Strategy

You can tell the players by their keywords. A "balanced" tax plan - ok, Obama and the Democrats.

Today's NY Times had a play by play of the budget deal that fell through this summer. Since I am sick I took the liberty of pouring through this. I was reminded of how frustrating it was, being the designated cspan watcher at work, to not find any actual legislation or text about the various plans that were being talked about. Well thats cause there weren't any. That's a relief!

At one time, I recall the ad, senior citizens didn't have enough money to live a decent life. One lived in a chicken coop. Enter social security. Later one, enter Medicare. Retirement accounts and full medical care for all seniors.

And yet, this is still called a "safety net". Now it is a safety net if you are on the verge of living in a chicken coop and eating dog food. It is not a safety net if you have $millions in the bank, eat caviar in Switzerland, and can get cat-scans whenever you feel the need.

At one point, like in 1935 when the Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the average lifespan was age 65. So most people would not see any of these benefits, or maybe a day or two of this money.

In the 21st century, everything is customized. There are no more black rotary dial phones from Ma Bell. There is no large telecommunications firm where everyone's dad works, and the moms all stay home and bake cookies.

I have a smartphone and can pick any plan or color I want. Or I can not have one and therefore no GPS so the feds won't know my whereabouts. And people have to piece together jobs that satisfy them and pay their bills - most switch about 7 careers in their lives.

So why do we still have a one-size-fits-all social security plan, and Medicare plan. The easy term for this is "means testing". If by the time you are a senior, and have an elevated standard of living, then maybe just maybe, it is Your Turn to give back something to society.