Wampum

Thursday I spoke with Chris Miller, who is gathering signatures to mount a primary challenge to John Baldacci. I explained Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 15, and we walked through some of the issues -- the "what could happen if" -- a State Executive, or a State Legislature, made a finding that the specific conditions of Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 15 were not present in George Bush's War in Iraq, and ordered the return of that State's Guard from Iraq.

At the Winter's meeting of the Governors yesterday, Mr. Bush said he would ignore political pressure, and do whatever he pleased with the States' Guards. So the under-train, under-equip, and above all, deploy under circumstances which do not rise to the specific level authorized by the Constitution, situation is not going to change simply because all 50 Governors signed a letter asking for more money in the federal budget for the States' Guards. The only way this situation can change, the only way it must change, is if one Governor invokes Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 15.

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions

There is little point to a letter from fifty Governors requesting more funding for natural disaster preparedness, replacement of antiquated equipment, and so on, with most of the Guard left in Iraq for as long as it takes to elect an anti-war majority in both houses of Congress and win the White House, at least two more election cycles. Perhaps even longer.

My suggestion to Chris is direct:

Message that if elected his first official act will be to issue that finding and order the Maine Guard home.

Can the Federal Executive ignore the order of a State Executive to the officers and enlisted personnel of the Guard of that State to return to that State? It can, but the officers and enlisted personnel cannot. Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 16 is beyond nuance. Any officer from Maine who elects to remain in Mr. Bush's war must resign his or her commission as an officer in the Maine Guard.

To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress

My suggestion to Chris is direct:

Message that if elected he will use all the powers of Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 16, to enforce the order to return the Maine Guard to Maine, and an end to Maine's participation in war crimes and prisioner abuse.

Important political issues are not decided by idle words. To make an Article 1 case, to politically make an Article 1 case, to effectively make an Article 1 case, we need to put money on the table. This issue needs to suck up money. If there is an anti-war movement, in needs to disrupt the comfortable re-election dreams of moderate Democrat incumbant and a complacent state Democratic party that thinks this is someone else's issue, on someone else's watch.

The Bush War in Iraq can continue without the National Guard units from Maine. But if we Mainers can get rid of George Bush's albatros, others can follow.

Dirigo (I lead) is the Maine State motto.

Posted by EBW at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I didn't vote for Maine Governor John Baldacci (I was angry with how his campaign actively sought to undermine Democratic Senate candidate Chellie Pingree), but after he was elected, I was willing to give him a chance. I was even mildly flattered when, on a number of occasions, he openly endorsed my candidacy for Maine House. But that honeymoon is now over.

Yesterday, Baldacci put forth his property tax "relief" proposal. For non-Maine readers of Wampum, property taxes have been the number one issue for Maine voters this year, culminating in a referendum on Draconian California-style 1% cap on property taxes which would have spelled disaster for most of the cities and towns in Maine, although the wealthy summer people would have liked it well enough.

Fortunately, the referendum was defeated in November, and Governor Baldacci promised to put forth a plan to aid the 15% of Maine households who have found their property taxes skyrocketing due to rising property values (over 20% annually in some areas.) The plan is meant to look overtly like the Maine Chamber of Commerce plan, which combines the Trojan Horse of the MCLF's excellent Homestead Plus! program, which caps property taxes at 5% of income, and the Greek guts of a TaBoR, capping spending at 2.75%. Problem is, while the TaBoR takes effect immediately, property tax relief, in the form of an expanded Circuit Break refund program, is phased in, with rebates of $1000 in 2005, $2000 in 2009 and the maximum $3000 in 2011. Yes, Maine retirees who bought their comfy shack with ocean views in Cumberland Foreside 20 years ago and now pay $10,000 a year in property tax, have to wait 7 years for even minimal relief.

But Baldacci has thought of that. Instituting a plan heralded by my very own opponent in the primary, Mainers who still can't pay their property taxes with the $1000 rebate can reverse mortgage their properties, with the state as Bank. When the owners dies and/or the property is sold, the state will take it's portion, with interest, of course. (I'll have to leave the dissecting of this inordinately flawed concept to a later post, as I could go on for pages.)

Chances are, the Maine Legislature, particularly the House Democrats, will fall in line behind Baldacci. Because they lack will.

This plan benefits John Baldacci more than it does anyone in Maine. See, the Governor is up for re-election in 2006, and unlike the majority of his party in the Legislature, will not be running as a publicly funded, or "Clean Elections" candidate. He, like his currently unnamed (Snowe?) Republican opponent, will be filling up his campaign chest to the tune of a million or more for his run to remain in the Blaine House.

During the last legislative session, the Republicans, angry over the majority Democrats pushing through their budget with little bipartisan haggling, decided to boycott any tax reform unless it was accompanied by a constitutional spending cap at all levels of government, a la Colorado's TaBoR.

But when Baldacci pushes "spending caps", he's not addressing the real problem facing the Maine budget, and he's probably signing the death warrant for Maine's first in the nation universal health care plan, DirigoChoice.

When DirigoChoice, which originally was entitled DirigoHealth, was hammered out, Baldacci and his crew buckled on the cost controls which advocates like the Maine Peoples Alliance felt were necessary for the program to survive. Heck, it's not even that difficult to call for such controls, as Maine does not have a "malpractice crisis" due to screening panels, and most hospitals in Maine are operating at a profit (including the supposed "non-profit" ones.) However, the healthcare lobby is an extremely powerful one for Democrats (sidenote: I attended a House Dems campaign party just prior to the primary, and 90% of the lobbyists there were from healthcare.) The Legislature (meaning majority Dems) were incapable of fending off the healthcare lobby. Ironically, this is an artifact of Maine term limits law; since legislators are elected for a maximum of eight years, lobbyists become the real "constant" in Augusta. They know the ropes and issues, and have an amplified image in the eyes of green (not "G") legislators.

Other lobbying groups have greater influence in a term-limited legislature. Unions, which have no problem skirting Clean Elections laws with "independent expenditures" are also a credible force. The Maine Chamber of Commerce as well. However, none are a powerful as...

The Tourism Lobby. Maine used to be the "Paper Colony". Now we're "Vacationland".

It's not every business which engages in tourism, to be honest. But 40% of Maine goods and services are exempt from the 5% sales tax, and the vast majority of them are tourism industries. Yacht storage. Seasonal house rentals. Limousines.

Maine could pay for the Homestead Plus! plan of a 5% cap on property taxes (based on income) and 55% funding level for schools if it removed all exemptions for the sales tax. In fact, if it removed exemptions for food, it could be reduced to 3-4%, with rebates to low-income families. Even the rabidly rightwing (HA!) Maine Citizen Leadership Fund supports such a move.

Problem is, Maine's tourism lobby is too powerful. And John Baldacci needs them to win re-election. So, just like we'll see no attempt to cut medical costs (the largest driver of increases in the Maine budget), we'll see no move to expand the sales tax base. So who is to suffer?

Well, if we see "spending cuts", it will be in those areas not protected by unions. Home health aides. Early intervention teachers. Day laborers. Maine's minimum wage jobs. And who pays the price? Families who rely on those services. (Namely, we here at Wampum.) Families too exhausted from dealing with the challenges of daily life to complain too much to Augusta.

I awoke this morning, it was with a heavy heart, as I knew I would not have accepted this plan. Maine needs real property tax reform, not a hedge fund for the Governor-elect. Thing is, after knocking on many, many doors in my district, I believe Maine voters are too smart to accept such a cynical plan. My only hope is that they don't actually believe the Republicans offer anything better.

It's time for a new option here in Maine. It's time for Maine Dems to find, or write, their will.

Originally posted by MB Williams on December 2, 2004. A TABOR will be on the November ballot, and folks need to think seriously about John and John's core values, by the second Tuesday in June.

Posted by EBW at 08:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There are seven words that I never imagined would ever appear in the same article:
"Anna Nicole Smith" and "United States Supreme Court".

USAToday reports:

The decade-long saga of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, her late tycoon husband, his adult son and a multimillion-dollar inheritance will be argued at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

What otherwise would be a dreary probate dispute testing federal and state court jurisdiction has drawn international tabloid interest because of Smith, an exotic dancer turned 1993 Playmate of the Year and reality-TV star.

The issue is one of jurisdiction:

Despite the natural fodder for comedians, the case offers the justices a chance to resolve a difficult question of the scope of federal judges' authority in certain probate cases.

Typically, state courts have jurisdiction over probate matters, but federal courts can have authority when a dispute involves large sums of money and parties from different states. Over the decades, federal judges have ceded some of that authority to local courts for matters involving wills and estates. The question for the Supreme Court is when federal judges can intervene in such disputes.

She is planning to attend.

I, for one, could not make that up. No doubt it represents a failure of iimagination on my part. I guess "Paris Hilton" and "Federal Reserve" is still possible.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Below are the nominations for Best Commenter. Some have suggested that the award go to groups of commenters at specific sites. For instance, Kristjan Wager (one of my favorite commenters), writes:

Best Commenter should be given collectively to the regular commenters at Making Light. The quality of their discussion is what all other commenters should aspire to.

Perhaps that would be the manly thing to do but the conditions of contest require that the award go to a specific individual. The nominated commenters are:

Amish Lovelock

AP, commenting at Booman Tribune

Avedis

Ann Bartow

beagleandtabby at My Left Wing

bluebird of happiness at My Left Wing

Caliliberal

cathy at My Left Wing

CharleyCarp

Chris Clarke

Comandante Agi T. Prop

Danger Seeker at SPURIOUS GEORGE

The Dark Wraith at Shakespeare's Sister and T. Rex's Guide to Life

DeAnander at Moon of Alabama and European Tribune

D Sidhe at Bats Left Throws Right

Dan Dupont at DefenseTech.org

Tom Engelhardt at TomDispatch

eugene at My Left Wing

Eric Gordy

Elizabeth D at Street Prophets

Eternal Hope at My Left Wing

The Fat Lady Sings for work at DKos such as On the Relative Death of a Child

Floyd Alvis Cooper at the ThePoorman

Georgia10 at Daily Kos

Gottlieb on My Left Wing

JAG (Jen) at 12th Harmonic

Robert M. Jeffers at Eschaton

jerome a paris at DKos

Joan reports at DKos

Johnnybutter at various blogs

Rex Kramer at SPURIOUS GEORGE

Lawrence Krubner at various places

LizardBreath for comments at Obsidian Wings

LowerManhattanite at Steve Gilliard's blog

Paul Lukasiak, who comments on Steve Clemons's Washington Note, TPM Cafe, and IIRC, at the Washington Post blogs.

John Mackay

Madman in the Marketplace

Marisac

Eric Martin

mcjoan at Daily Kos

Me4President2008

Media Girl

MERKIN PATRIOT at Atrios

Meteor Blades (Congratulations to The Next Hurrah on its First Birthday)

Mimikatz (ditto)

mirrim at My Left Wing

Moiv

Mythago at Hugo Schwyzer, Pandagon, and Feministe

nadezhda

Jeff Noble

Norbizness

NTodd at Atrios

NTodd's Pa

NYMary

Oddjob at Shakespeare's Sister, Pam's House Blend, The Dark Wraith Forums, and BlondeSense

paul in sanfransico at My Left Wing

Philatheles

pluto at My Left Wing

praktike at a number of places

Raybin at My Left Wing

Will Raymond

RMJ at Atrios and First Draft

Mrs. Robinson at Orcinus

Roger

Paul Rosenberg at My Left Wing

sassy texan at My Left Wing

ScottinSoCal at My Left Wing

Sean in Dallas

Shanikka @ MLW

somewaterytart

SusanG

SusanHu at Booman Tribune

Susie Shedd on Tattered Coat

Sylamore

Teh L4m3 at Sadly, No! and other places

Theher

Thers at Eschaton

THYCWOTI

weeping for brunnhilde at My Left Wing

Ben Wolfson

wu ming

That is quite a list. If I have left anyone out or made other errors (and I am sure that I have), please let me know and I will try to correct them.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (296) | TrackBacks (1)

I began reading blogs in 2002. There were few lefty bloggers at that time. One voice from the left stood out. It was a voice of compassion. It was a voice of humanity. It was a voice that, as Lincoln put it, appealed to the "better angels of our nature." It still is.

I am thankful every day to be allowed to read the thoughts of that one person. I bring this up just to be able to say:

Happy Birthday, Jeanne.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is the Democratic Party Caucuses in all the cities and towns of Maine. There are two things that are important:

1. progressives need to be present to seek election as delegates to the convention in June, and it is the delegates to the State convention who write the Party platform, on issues like single payer, tax reform, ecology, and so on.

2. signing and circulating nominating petitions for Chris Miller of Gray, who is mounting a primary challenge to John Baldacci.
   

Go to your town caucus. Sign the nominating petition for Chris Miller, see the KuDem-on-duty, or if there is none, ask the caucus conveener for the Miller petition, and become the KuDem-on-duty.

Chris was a Kucinich delegate in the last cycle, as was I, and MB was the co-conveener, along with Dory Waxman, of the Portland caucus, and an Edwards delegate. This is how real things get done, and there are wicked important things to get done.

The DNC wants to raise the bar to 15% of the vote for seating delegates -- which will eliminate delegates, such as Kucinich and Edwards, in the '04 cycle -- who were seated at the national convention because they were elected under the rules of the Democratic Party of Maine. This is wicked important, like the delegation challenges of the National Conventions of the 60s and 70s over reform, race, and gender.

Click here for the Town caucus list.

The first draft of the 2006 Maine Democratic Party Platform link is now available for review.

Posted by MB Williams at 09:08 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

With April 15th fast approaching, this story should inspire confidence in H&R Block's customer base:

Shares of H&R Block Inc., the company that helps millions of Americans complete tax returns, fell 8% Friday after it said that it got its own taxes wrong in recent years.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based company said it will restate results for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, plus previous 2006 quarters, mainly because of errors in calculating its state effective income tax rate. The mistakes resulted in H&R Block understating its state income tax liability by about $32 million as of the end of April, 2005, the company added.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Jason McElwain is a seventeen year old high school senior. He is also autistic. McElwain did not talk until he was five. He lacked social skills. Many of his classes were very small (about six students) so that he could have more individualized attention. For one four minute period, Jason McElwain was a star. It is a story to warm one's heart.

McElwain loves basketball. Given that he is five foot six, his ability to play at the high school level seemed limited. He opted to become the team manager so as to stay involved in the sport.

McElwain, 5-foot-6, was considered too small to make the junior varsity, so he signed on as team manager. He took up the same role with the varsity, doing anything to stay near the sport he loves... On the varsity, he never misses practice and is a jack-of-al--trades...

McElwain had done everything he was asked to do for the Greece Athena High School basketball team - keep the stats, run the clock, hand out water bottles... (he) usually sits on the bench in a white shirt and black tie.

"And he is happy to do it," Johnson (the high school coach) said. "He is such a great help and is well-liked by everyone on the team."

Coach Jim Johnson was impressed with his dedication, and thought about suiting up McElwain for the home finale... Even though McElwain was in uniform for the Feb. 15 game, there was no guarantee he would play - Athena was battling for a division title.

The fans, however, came prepared. One section of students held up signs bearing his nickname "J-MAC" and cutouts of his face placed on Popsicle sticks.

With four minutes left, McElwain took the court to deafening cheers.

The ball came to him almost right away. His 3-point shot sailed completely off course, and the coach wondered if he made the wrong move. McElwain then missed a layup. Yet his father, David, was unruffled.

"The thing about Jason is he isn't afraid of anything," he told the newspaper. "He doesn't care what people think about him. He is his own person."

On the next trip down the floor, McElwain got the ball again. This time he stroked a 3, all net.

He was just warming up.

"As soon as the first shot went in that's when I started to get going," he said.

On the next attempt, he got another 3-pointer. Then another, and another. In fact, he would have made one more 3, but his foot was on the line, so he had to settle for 2 points.

All in all, he hit six three and finished with 20 points in four minutes.

Greece Athena won 79-43, and pandemonium reigned. McElwain signed autographs, posed for pictures and was hoisted by his teammates..."I ended my career on the right note," he told The Associated Press by phone Thursday. "I was really hotter than a pistol!"

Autistic kids rarely get to be in the spotlight. Their hard work and accomplishments are not often noticed by people outside of their immediate circles. Special Olympians are often mocked. It is nice to see one such kid receive some acclaim and have his moment in the sun. Even more impressive is that the coach would think to do something nice for an autistic kid, that the fans would come prepared to cheer for him, and that his teammates would carry him off like a hero. Any movie producers out there looking for a heartwarming story should take note.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

You say Dubai and I say hell no.
I don't know why you say Dubai I say hell no.
Hell No, hell no.
I say wait, you say go.
I ask why and you say you didn't know.
I don't know why you say Dubai I say hell no.
Hell no, hell no.

Inspired by Olbermann.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 08:10 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This category is open to bloggers who are professional journalists or blogs sponsored by larger media entities.

The Al Franken Show

Altercation

AmericaBlog

Attytood

Bloggermann

Chris Nolan

Cursor.org

The Daou Report

Dent

Hotline on Call

The Intersection

James Wolcott

Joe Conason

Joe Trippi

John Conyers Blog

Kicking Ass

The Loom

Margaret Cho

Matthew Yglesias

Media Matters

Mother Jones Blog

Orcinus

Political Animal/Washington Monthly

The Raw Story

Sirotablog

Talking Points Memo

ThinkProgress

TomDispatch

War and Piece

The Washington Note

White House Briefing

Wonkette

Posted by MB Williams at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (294) | TrackBacks (0)

Approximately the size of Maine (19,75 million acres). That's the size of the land "appropriated" and put into trust for four Indian tribes, a trust a federal judge has now ruled is in fact a trust, and will allow the tribes to sue to its mismanagement by the Interior Department.

Judge advances Chippewa trust mismanagement case
Thursday, February 23, 2006

Four Chippewa tribes who were awarded $52 million for the loss of their lands can challenge the United States for allegedly mismanaging those funds, a federal judge ruled last month.

In a 55-page opinion that the Native American Rights Fund is calling a "stunning victory," Judge Emily C. Hewitt of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said Congress created a fiduciary responsibility when it appropriated money to pay the tribes for the loss of 20 million acres. She rejected the Bush administration's attempt to deny the existence of a trust relationship and avoid an historical accounting of the funds.

In two separate proceedings, the Indian Claims Commission had awarded the tribes $52 million, money which was sent to the Treasury Department for the intended beneficiaries. So there can be no dispute that such funds are "trust" funds even if the word "trust" is not mentioned in the acts of Congress that authorized the award, Hewitt concluded.

"Both the intent of Congress," Hewitt wrote and long executive branch practice support the conclusion that 'funds appropriated to Indians to satisfy judgments of the Indian Claims Commission or of this court' ... are, when kept in the Treasury, held in trust for the Indians."

I'm swamped, but saw this as the headliner on Indianz.com and couldn't resist. This case is not dissimilar to the larger Indian Trust Fund class action suit (Cobell v. Norton) and the fact that Indians keep achieving such stunning victories in federal courts (even the US Supreme Court) must have the Bushies and their corporate overlords quaking in their boots.

Update: I spoke too soon when I included the Supreme Court in the "pro-Trust" camp. That was the pre-Roberts court, otherwise known as the Rehnquist Court, headed up by one of the most greatest Indian-haters of the 20th Century. Now, for the 21st Century, we have Chief Justice John Roberts to take up that mantle:

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a small religious group from using a hallucinogenic tea in a unanimous decision on Tuesday that included some potentially hostile language about the trust relationship.

By an 8-0 vote, with new Justice Samuel Alito not participating, the court said the Bush administration failed to demonstrate why the sect cannot use the leaves of the hoasca plant in ceremonies. The tea leaves contain an illegal drug known as DMT, a substance that is listed under the same federal law as peyote.

As part of the case, the Department of Justice argued that the federal Indian trust relationship provided a basis to allow members of the Native American Church to use peyote, a hallucinogenic plant, in ceremonies without violating the law. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts, another new arrival on the court, wrote that the political status of tribes can't be used to justify why non-Indians should be excluded from the same religious protections.

"If such use is permitted ... for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans exercising their faith, it is difficult to see how those same findings alone can preclude any consideration of a similar exception for the 130 or so American members of the UDV who want to practice theirs," Roberts wrote in reference to the members of the O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, or UDV.

Roberts said the government "never explains what about that 'unique' relationship" gives the U.S. the right to carve out an exception for Native American Church practitioners. Both peyote and hoasca, listed under Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act, pose the same health and safety risks, the court reasoned.

Posted by MB Williams at 11:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

link.

Mandatory reading.

Posted by EBW at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, the laptop is finally in the shop and will hopefully be ready Friday. Thanks to everyone who has generously contributed to its repair.

Only four categories left to compile. I've got three, Dwight has one, and hopefully they'll be done within the next 24 - 48 hours, and first round voting will begin. In the meantime, please use this thread for discussion, comments, omissions, etc., regarding the Sandies.

Posted by MB Williams at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBacks (0)

This category is for blogs that focus exclusively or almost exclusively on a single specific area such as politics, economics, law, science, etc. Many of the nominees overlap with Best Expert, as often, but not always, experts write on a single issue.

Alas, a Blog

Armchair Generalist

Arms Control Wonk

Bag News Notes

Baghdad Burning

Blanton's and Ashton's - Article. II. Section. 4.

Blog Active

Blogging of the President

Brad Delong

Brand Avenue

Chris Mooney

Coalition for Da;rfur

Confined Space

The Countess

Daily Delay

Deltoid

The Dark Wraith

Drug War Rant

Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

East Ethnia

Effect Measure

Evolutionblog

Evolving Thoughts

Ex-Gay Watch

Feministe

Feministing

Good As You

Grits for Breakfast

Greener Side

Hugo Schwyzer

I Hate Pat Robertson

Informed Comment

In the Hoop

Malkin(s)Watch

MattHillNC

Media Matters

Metacomments

National Parks Traveler

Newshounds

News Corpse

NC Conservation Network Blog

Operation Yellow Elephant

Orcinus

Pam's House Blend

The Panda's Thumb

Peking Duck

Pharyngula

Rummy's Diaries

Russian Forces

Science and Politics

SCOTUSblog

So What Can I Do?

SpeakSpeakNews

The Stakeholder

Street Prophets

Swing State Project

Sufficient Scruples

Sullywatch

Talk Left

Today In Iraq

Total Information Awareness

The Truth Will Set You Free

The Uncapitalist Journal

Unscrewing The Inscrutable

Writing on the Wal

Posted by MB Williams at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (456) | TrackBacks (7)

Last night I sat down to pay the household bills. As usual during such times, I was not in a good mood. Thank heaven we drive old cars and do not have to make car payments. There was $83 to Time Warner for the package of cable plus internet. Fifty-something went for school lunches for Bobby and the light bill was a little over $89. Local phone service was $33 (we do not usecell phones). I was dreading even looking at the natural gas bill.

There was one monthly bill that was not in my stack. Nonetheless, we have to pay it. It is a bill for $51 for Medicare Part D (the prescription drug plan). Now, no one in this house is even within a decade of being eligible for Medicare and none of our prescription drug costs are covered by any government program.

There are lots of government programs that we help pay for with our tax dollars that we do not personally use. If the $50 a month bill for Medicare Part D allows older Americans to fill their prescriptions without choosing between food and medicine, I would not complain.

What was the bill for? A little Googling turned up this TMP Café post by Jeff Cruz, which, in turn, led me to this report (pdf) by Dean Baker.

Baker's study found that the Medicare Part D plan enacted into law costs $800 billion more over a decade than a prescription drug benefit administered through Medicare (as opposed to insurance companies) that was permitted to negotiate discounts from the pharmaceutical companies for bulk purchases.

As the press release about the study says:

Specific provisions of the Medicare prescription drug program inserted at the request of pharmaceutical and HMO interests will cost taxpayers and seniors more than $80 billion a year, according to a report released today by the Institute for America's Future and the Center for Economic and Policy Research...

Dr. Dean Baker, author of the report, said that the primary source of the waste is the Bush administration's decision to provide coverage through private providers and to prohibit -- at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry -- Medicare from using its leverage as a bulk buyer to negotiate lower prices. Baker compared the current program with the most simple and efficient way to cover the cost of prescription drugs: a simple add-on to the basic Medicare program, comparable to the prescription drug benefit provided by most private health insurers.

Please note that the $50 per month per taxpayer does not actually buy any medicine for Granny. That charge is just to allow Republicans to pay off their interest groups so as to keep the money flowing into their campaigns from the big drug companies and HMOs.

It actually makes my natural gas bill look reasonable by comparison.

Note: Edited for clarity.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I just got off the phone with Hewlett Packard (for the fourth time in a week) and they are just not going to get my broken, under warranty laptop picked up and back to me in time for voting to begin by the end of this week. I've been trying to get this machine fixed by HP for over two months now, and each and every time they fail to even send Fedex to fetch it, and won't give me an addy where I can send it and keep it insured for delivery.

So I'm going to have it fixed by a local HP repair shop here in Pittsburgh. The laptop on which I'm typing right now is borrowed and has started routinely overheating and suddenly shutting down, losing large files, including nominations posts (or the unsaved portion thereof.) But I'll have to pay out of pocket according to HP.

However, since I've been spending my time on Koufaxes and not taking freelance work, I can't justify to our family budget putting out $$$s when I'm already costing us a paycheck.

So the next 36 hours, as I try to finish up the Best Group, Best Series and Best Single Issue nominations (am 3/4th done with each), I'll be asking Koufax Awards supporters to please donate so I can have my own working, generally quiet and dependable machine (this one is also making nasty grinding noises - eek!) I don't know the exact cost, but the last time the same problem occured (failure of the power point on the motherboard,) the whole board had to be replaced, so I figure at least a couple hundred dollars. If by luck and generosity I raise extra, Eric and I will put it towards replacing the failing hard drives on the Koufax servers.

I feel particularly bad, as it is on that machine where I keep my email via Eudora, so I haven't been able to send out my usually prompt thank yous for recent contributions. But I promise, once it's fixed and nominations posts are complete, I'll get down to it.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

Posted by MB Williams at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday in the early evening Jonah injured his head. A "no more monkies jumping on the bed" kind of injury, and the impact was on the strongest part of the skull. It was a half quail egg. That wasn't all, he also was running a fever. Flushed and possibly concussed, he slept, and we watched over him. A few minutes before John Stewart's 11pm show he woke up, and as the night turned to early morning, got happier and more active. From 3am on he'd burrow into the couch with me, then bolt out. In Portland we'd watch bull riding, which for some reason or another Jonah decided was funny enough to watch. Here in Pitt we've PBS Kids SPROUT at all hours of the day, and night. I am very gratetful for the children's programming between 1am and 5am, those are the darkest hours of the sleep disordered night.

Jonah finally fell asleep at 6am, nestled up against me, as usual. I actually managed to write the Belgium Bans Cluster Munitions piece while Jonah bounced off the walls in his post-fever phase during the wee hours.

I was a wreck at work, but I managed to put together a mesh of 80 x 50 nodes (reasonably fast computers) and start a series of performance tests, making only about twice the possible number of pilot errors and pratfalls building the system software and configuring them into the final whole. Tomorrow I'll have another 60 nodes and the test runs will be for real. Between now and then I'll add round-robin load balancing across a dozen nfs servers for the nfs portion of the tests... and get some sleep.

Periodically I check mail. This piece of garbage popped up. The happy idiot who sent it is "J.B. Poersch, DSCC", who uses the we-never-read-the-replies "info@dscc.org" spam-source, and it is addressed "Dear Friend"

I suppose this could mean he thinks he knows more about every Senate race than the entire blogosphere (y!sctp!) concatenated, and he's about to tell me, his friend, something ... friendly. When Jack Reed (D-RI) decided to retire Chuck Schumer (D-NY) decided to tell him he'd a job reinventing political garbage like Bob Casey in Pennsylvania. For six figures, that's wicked friendly.

Apparently the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania has cancelled the primary and has already ... elected (in the sense of the Florida '00 and Ohio '04 "elections" of George W. Bush) ... Bob Casey, Jr. That much good news simply isn't enough, the electrifying issue of the cycle is ... a home loan.

So that means we're now free, now that the Primary has been cancelled, to start thinking creatively about the general.

Senator Duncan "Atrios" Black sounds fine.

Posted by EBW at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

... how the sale of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to Persons of an Oriental pursuasion triggers a review by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) as it relates to homeland security, and the sale of Westinghouse Electric to Toshiba does not. The P&O's corporate assets include tips on POSH seating¹, where as Westinghouse's include the engineering histories of half of all the nuclear power facilities constructed in the United States. Does anyone actually want Haliburton in the loop?

¹ Port Out, so your cabin is on the shady side of the boat between London, Gibraltar, Algiers, Marseilles, Malta, Port Said, Aden, and Bombay. Starboard Home so your cabin is on the shady side of the boat between Bombay, Aden, Port Said, Malta, Marseilles, Algiers, Gibralter and London.

Posted by EBW at 12:50 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The cover of Barry Commoner's 1979 work The Politics of Energy summarizes the work's argument as Why President Carter's Energy Plan is

• Falsely reasond
• Economially distructive
• Dangerously dependent on Nuclear Energy
• Repressing the true potential of Solar Energy

On April 18th, 1977, then-President (elected) Jimmy Carter presented his National Energy Plan. He warned that the country was "running out of gas and oil," so that forced to depend increasingly on oil imports, "we will live in fear of embargoes" that would threaten "an economic, social and political crisis." He called for a campaign to solve the energy crisis that would amount to the "moral equivalent of war."

Now that the US is neck deep in its 3rd Gulf War (the 1st being the proxied Iran-Iraq War with George HW Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and so many happy others working happily with the Iraqi Baath political and military leaderships that George W Bush is working so happily to hang, with or without a legally constituted court hearing the cases), we know a lot about the immoral reality of war. But do we know as much as "we" did in the late 70's and early 80's, when we got arrested by the thousands at Seabrook and Diablo Canyon, and ended the easy access of the Nuclear Nutmen to private finance capital and public assumption of risk.

Everyone should be clear on the concept that prior to "Hostage Crisis", the US was assisting government of Iran to construct nuclear facilities, even though the Pahlavi Regime was at least as regionally dangerous as its successor, the Islamic Republic. Everyone should also be clear on the concept that the US assisted Israel obtain its initial stock of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium (Pu) fissiles and construct its nuclear facilities, and sat on its hands while Pakistan, and India, fabricated their stocks of HEU and Pu fissiles and weaponized those inventories.

The "red line" is wicked recent, and wicked specific. Its another George Bush and Tony Blair theatrical production. It exists in a different international law universe than North Korea.

But the real problem isn't LEU, or even HEU, in Iran. It isn't weaponized HEU and Pu in Israel, weaponized HEU in Pakistan, weaponized HEU in India. The real problem is LEU in the US. George Bush, like Jimmy Carter before him, has embarked on a sales campaign for LEU consumers. For Bechtel and Westinghouse Electric and ..., which is a wicked far cry from conservation, cleaning up coal, going after greenhouse gas emissions, conversion, and wind and solar. The KWh price of wind is pretty close to competitive with steam.

Nuclear Power? No Thanks!

John Stewart worked some of the Carter-to-Bush material in his show of 2/21. Unfortunately he stopped at the low hanging fruit and didn't go for the glowing gold.

Posted by EBW at 09:38 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Belgium was the first European state to address the issue of anti-personnel mines, and drove the Mine Ban Treaty. This week I was pleased to see, both in Le Soir (Bruxelles) and Le Monde (Paris), that Belgium has decided to destroy its stocks of US made cluster munitions. Here's why, and why its EU news.

Four types of US made cluster munitions have a history of producing high numbers of hazardous submunition duds. High dud rates have been documented in testing for Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) M77 submunitions and 155mm artillery projectiles with M42 and M46 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) submunitions. Two types of air-dropped cluster munitions--older Rockeye (CBU99/CBU-100) bombs and newer Combined Effects Munitions (CBU-87)--have produced high numbers of hazardous duds in combat operations in Iraq, Kuwait, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan.

The United States stockpiles over one billion submunitions in weapons currently in service. Nearly three-quarters of this stockpile of submunitions are contained in MLRS rockets and 155mm artillery projectiles. Given reported failure rates, a stockpile of that size creates the specter of well over 100 million explosive duds, each posing a danger to civilians similar to antipersonnel landmines.

The four cluster munitions of concern and their reported failure rates include:

1. MLRS with M26 warhead: 16 percent dud rate for the M77 submunition.1 Some lots were reported to have dud rates as high as 23 percent, based on testing done to accept newly produced batches.2 Each M26 warhead contains 644 submunitions. Thus, the standard volley of twelve MLRS rockets would likely result in more than 1,200 dud submunitions scattered randomly in a 120,000 to 240,000 square meter impact area. The U.S. stockpile of MLRS rockets contains over 309 million submunitions.3 This could equate to more than 49.4 million explosive duds.

2. 155mm DPICM M483A1 & M864 artillery projectiles: 14 percent dud rate for the M42 and M46 DPICM submunitions.4 The M483A1 artillery projectile contains sixty-four M42 and twenty-four M46 DPICM submunitions. The M864 projectile contains forty-eight M42 and twenty-four M46 DPICM submunitions. Based on the dud rate established by testing existing stocks of these projectiles, each M483A1 round fired would result in twelve dud submunitions and each M864 round would result in ten dud submunitions. The U.S. stockpile of 155mm projectiles contains over 434 million submunitions.5 This could equate to more than 60.7 million hazardous duds.

3. Rockeye CBU-99/CBU-100: Each Rockeye bomb contains 247 Mk 118 submunitions. These cluster bombs were used extensively in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. While no reliable estimate of the failure rate is available, clearance agencies in Kuwait encountered a very large number of dud Rockeye submunitions in their operations.6 One U.S. company reported clearing 95,799 M118 Rockeye submunitions in their sector of Kuwait, which constituted 18% of the total area cleared.7 In 2002, 451 Rockeye submunitions were detected and destroyed by mine clearance and explosive ordnance disposal teams in Kuwait.8 Rockeyes, which were developed in the 1950s, were also used in great numbers in the Vietnam War. The number of Rockeye bombs currently in the U.S. arsenal is unknown, but is still believed to be high.

4. Combined Effects Munition CBU-87: dud rates of at least 5 to 7 percent for the BLU-97 submunition in operations in Yugoslavia/Kosovo and Afghanistan.9 The CBU-87 is an air-dropped bomb that contains 202 BLU-97 submunitions. Using the 7 percent submunition failure rate documented in Kosovo, each bomb dropped would result in fourteen explosive dud submunitions over an area about the size of a U.S. football field. The U.S. used a total of 10,035 CBU-87s, with more than 2 million submunitions, during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The size of the U.S. stockpile of this older version of the Combined Effects Munition (CBU-87), which was first produced in 1984, is not known. But large numbers are believed to be held, even though newer models (CBU-103) are being fielded with improved accuracy, due to the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser, and fuze modifications.
   

In a nutshell, cluster munitions are anti-personnel mine delivery systems. Anti-personnel mines are no longer legitimate weapons, so cluster munitions are also no longer legitimate weapons. That won't slow supermen like the current SecDef, but command level officers have to plan for manuver and tempo in an UneXploded Ordinance (UXO) environment, and some even think about the field after the battle moves on, or ends, and year after year, UXOs lop the limbs off of civilians.

Even the writers for The West Wing have worked the military value of landmines into their material. But what is the real value of an area denial munition? Does anyone think that US national policy is made, or unmade, but the presence or absence, of systems designed to scatter 3lb bomblets over 40 acres, leaving on the order of 1,000 unexploded bomblets per 40 acres of "area denied"? How many times are US or allied forces going to face the threat of hostile marching bands unsupported by armor, artillery, air assets, choreographers and a tolerable score?

40 acres, a mule, and 1,000 banana peels that go "bang". Now there's a deal that hard to resist.

Prior posts on mines: 802.11x. Don't miss the comments. Links: SUBMUNITION UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE (UXO) HAZARDS at John Pike's GS.O. Cluster Munitions a Foreseeable Hazard in Iraq at the Human Rights Watch site.

Posted by EBW at 04:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This is a new category this year. As I mentioned in the Best Group Blog post, the increase in Scoop- and Drupal-based community sites, as well as mega-contributor blogs and even sub-blog sites under one roof call for a distinction between "community" and "group".

Voting opens at the end of this week.

The Agonist

American Footprints

The American Street

Big Brass Blog

Blogsisters

BlueJersey

Booman Tribune

Bring it On!

Catch

Daily Kos

The Democracy Cell Project

ePluribus Media

European Tribune

Fired Up America

The Gadflyer

Greensboro 101

The Huffington Post

Liberal Coalition

Media Girl

My DD

My Left Wing

One America Blog

Orange Politics

Our Congress

Panda's Thumb

Personal Democracy Forum

Political Cortex

The Reality Based Community

The Smirking Chimp

Street Prophets

Talk to Action

Tapped

TPMCafe

The Uncapitalist Journal

The Valve

World Changing

Yearly Kos

Young Philly Politics

Posted by MB Williams at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (361) | TrackBacks (0)

Today's New York Times article on warrant-less domestic spying includes the following:

The latest Republican to join the growing chorus of those seeking oversight is Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Graham, a former military prosecutor whose opinion on national security commands respect in the Senate, said he believed there was now a "bipartisan consensus" to have broader Congressional and judicial review of the program.

"I do believe we can provide oversight in a meaningful way without compromising the program," he said, "and I am adamant that the courts have some role when it comes to warrants. If you're going to follow an American citizen around for an extended period of time believing they're collaborating with the enemy, at some point in time, you need to get some judicial review, because mistakes can be made."

As for congressional oversight, perhaps a statute that says that
all members of the Congressional Intelligence Committees have to be briefed on any domestic spying would be appropriate. We could call that the National Security Act. Once again, the Congress would have to add the section saying that this time, they really mean it.

At the core of the problem with the Graham idea is that the White House is asserting that it has the right to conduct warrant-less domestic spying regardless of what the Congress says. That makes Congress an inappropriate forum to correct the problem.

The White House claims that it is vested with the exclusive power over the subject matter by the Constitution. It claims the power to simply ignoreany legislation Congress may pass and do what it wants. Short of impeachment, Congress simply is not equipped to limit executive action.

Thus, we have a potential issue of the meaning of the Constitution. The proper forum for resolution of such issues is the Court system. Arlen Specter is urging the administration to submit the issue to the FISA court to find out what the law is. The administration has no interest in doing so as the Courts are the only branch with the power to declare what the law is, and, therefore, to limit executive action. In order to get a resolution of the proper constitutional role of the Congress and the Executive branches in this area, a way needs to be found to force the administration into court.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at 01:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This year, we split Best Group and Best Blog Community, as it was clear that there is a big distinction between a site with hundreds of diaries and one with a set group of bloggers. In addition, the trend of mega-group blogs grew significantly, which also lend themselves more to the "community" designation than the traditional "group" one. Thus, some of the blogs which were finalists (and even the one which won) last year are no longer in this category, but now in the Best Blog Community, which I should be ready to post in a couple of hours, as I was compiling the two, for the most part, simultaneously.

Once again, voting will open later this week. Any comments/omissions, please put in the latest Koufax Open Thread.

3 Quarks Daily

Alas, A Blog

The All Spin Zone

AmericaBlog

Angry Bear

Blah3

Blondesense

Bookslut

BradBlog

Burnt Orange Report

Coming Anarchy

Corrente

Cosmic Variance

Crooked Timber

DefCon Blog

The Defeatists

The Duck of Minerva

Feministe

Feministing

Firedoglake

First Draft

Larvatus Prodeo

Lawyers, Guns and Money

The Left Coaster

Left Handed Compliment

Lenin's Tomb

The Liberal Avenger

Liberal Street Fighter

Liquid List

Loaded Mouth

Long Sunday

Making Light

Main and Central

Martini Republic

Media Girl

The Moderate Voice

Needlenose

The Next Hurrah

News Hounds

Night Birds Fountain

Obsidian Wings

Pacific Views

Pandagon

Philosophy of Biology

Positive Liberty

Prawfsblawg

Preemptive Karma

Printculture

Progressive Gold

Pulse

Real Climate

Rising Hegemon

Sadly, no!

Science Gate

Scrutiny Hooligans

Seeing The Forest

Shakespeare's Sister

skippy the bush kangaroo

Tennessee Guerilla Women

Think Progress

The Two Percent Company

Unbossed

Unscrewing the inscrutable

WhirledView

Posted by MB Williams at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (355) | TrackBacks (9)

Google's response to the Department of Justice subpoena is here (pdf).

We no longer allow search engines which complied with the DOJ's request for data to index wampum. We will extend that policy to queries originating from search engines which complied with the USG's request for data.

See Inktomi (Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, etc.) banned and Inktomi (Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, etc.) banned (part 2).

The case will be heard by the 9^th Circuit on March 13th.

Posted by EBW at 07:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This open thread will stay up top for a few days, as I'm embarking upon a "compile-a-thon", determined to get the remainder of the Koufax nominations threads up by the middle of next week. In order to do this, I'll probably be compiling, fixing and researching missing URLs (a problem which for some reason seems to get worse as the categories get less specific, go figure) all day, every day, until I finish. Eric will be handling any fixes which need to get done, but only in the evenings. If you put a request for a fix in previously and it hasn't been done, please put a (polite) reminder in this Open Thread.

Since I won't be leaving the house for the next week and will be neglecting all of my paying work, please consider hitting the Donate Jar on the sidebar. We're still down to one working laptop (even a 45 minute call to HP the other day couldn't speed up getting mine, fully under warranty, fixed any faster) and our router is on the fritz as well. Plus, kids need to eat, babysitters, for some unknown reason, require payment.

Please Note: Nominations are closed and have been for 5 weeks. Please do not use this thread to nominate blogs - if you nominated someone previously and I left the nomination off the appropriate post, then do indeed include the omission here. If not, nominations for next year's Koufax Awards start in mid-December.

Posted by MB Williams at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBacks (0)

My friend, and otherwise drooling Republican, Vint Cerf, formerly at a wicked failed ISP¹, and now at a wicked inverse-of-failed SE play² wrote something on "network neutrality" last November. I've been trying to ignore it, for reasons I'd tried to convey to Howard Dean way back in the '04 primary cycle when he tried (and failed to get) the blog thing on Larry Lessig's blog. Ho Ho's "digital divide" non-plank was "broadband via wifi for everyone". Vint's is, not unsurprisingly, "Google is the Net".

I really tried to ... um ... communicate. July 18, 2003:

Jonah, now six, is sleeping next to me, and now Kezzie is three and proudly pottied. Back then it was five nights in seven up at all hours for Jonah and I. Gad was I haggard. POTS is Plain Old Telephone Service, and CATV is Community Access TeleVision. Cable, before FOX.