Policy and Politics

Lotsa people are pretty pissed right now. The President and Republicans in Congress cut a deal that will extend Bush-era tax cuts â taxes opposed vigorously by Democrats and fiscally sane Republicans at the time. In exchange for giving in to Republican demands on the tax cuts, the President got a payroll tax holiday (which benefits lower income workers), an extension of unemployment benefits, and tax credits to encourage business investment. Nothing huge, but those are policies which will be at least modestly stimulative, moreso than tax cuts for the super-rich. So the President got a…
Michael Egnor is trying to pick a fight over abortion with P.Z. Myers. Egnor is building a bog-standard argument that every human zygote has an inherent right to life, therefore abortion is immoral (the unargued assumption being that a woman's right to life doesn't really matter). It's a reminder why the Discovery Institute, whose website Egnor clutters up with his occasional screeds, has been overtaken in media attention by old-school young earth creationism: Disco. and ID creationism are static, while young earth creationism always finds new ways to surprise you. Anyway, in reiterating…
Dave Bruggeman, whose blog on science policy I find generally indispensable, has an odd distaste for the idea of a Republican war on science. Most recently, this emerged in response to a review by the Department of Interior's Inspector General into a report on the post-BPocalypse oil drilling moratorium. The original report was found to have implied inaccurately that scientists reviewing the moratorium itself, rather than that they had simply reviewed specific scientific claims in the report. The IG concluded that this was not an intentional misrepresentation, and that the inaccurate…
Steve Benen and Andrew Sullivan are discussing the dickishness of Republicans, and the value in calling out 'dickishness'. Sullivan notes: What we've observed these past two years is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party's arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency. I see no other coherent message or strategy since 2008. Just opposition to everything, zero support for a president grappling with a recession their own…
Eric Cantor, Republican whip and soon-to-be Majority Leader has a horrible idea. He wants to cut government spending (which is not necessarily the best choice right now), and he thinks the place to start is the NSF. To top it off, he's too lazy to do his own research. So he put up a website where teabaggers can search NSF grants and report the ones that make them feel stupid. Here's the guidance he gave on finding wasteful grants: In the "Search Award For" field, try some keywords, such as: success, culture, media, games, social norm, lawyers, museum, leisure, stimulus, etc. to bring up…
Bruce Chapman, whose Disco. institute is still playing the greatest hits of the 1880s, writes that San Francisco is New Capital of California: as a result of the recent election the state electorate apparently decided to be governed in its top leadership almost exclusively by San Franciscans. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to decipher that sentence's syntax. I think he means "in the recent electionsâ¦," but you never know. The elections were 4 weeks ago, which is stretching the normal usage of "recent." He continues with this trip down memory lane: The newly recycled governor,…
In my most recent post on the TSA backlash, I suggested that part of the benefit of National Opt-Out Day was that it would put pressure on TSA staff to push for internal changes. Commenters objected that this probably overestimated the power of individual screeners. Today at Reddit, a TSA screener describes what happens when he opted out of grabbing passengers crotches: Upon arriving at my duty station this afternoon, I will refuse to perform male assists. (now popularly and accurately known as 'touching their junk') They are illegal under the 4th amendment of the US Constitution, and any…
Via Ophelia, we get this comment by Christopher Hitchens, addressing the Catholic Church in his debate about religion with Tony Blair: if I was a member of a church that had preached that AIDS was not as bad as condoms, I would be putting some conscience money into Africa too, I must say. Iâm not trying to be funny. If I was trying to be funny, you mistook me. It wonât bring back the millions of people who have died wretched deaths because of that teaching, that still goes on. What strikes me about this, aside from a deepening of my hatred for debates as means of addressing interesting…
Turns out slacktivist and I share a pet peeve: I want to mention a pet peeve of mine -- a phrase frequently employed by Al Mohler and other proponents of creation-ism. It's a phrase that bothers me as a lover of the Bible and of stories and of words. That phrase is "the creation account" or "the creation account in Genesis." The book of Genesis offers no such account. It provides a creation story -- more than one, in fact, the first 11 chapters are nothing but origin stories. But it most decidedly does not provide an account of creation. An account is testimony, witnesses telling what they…
There's been a running discussion among a group of journalists about what to call folks who do not accept the scientific finding that the earth's climate is changing and has already changed because of human activities. "Skeptic," "denier," "denialist," and other contenders are all considered, and generally rejected by the journalists. "Skeptic" is the preferred self-identification, while those who accept the scientific finding tend to prefer calling their opponents "deniers." I favor "denier." I think they fall into a broad trend of science denial which encompasses creationism and anti-…
James Grimmelmann writes an important essay on The Power of the Selectee. He put it under Creative Commons, so here's the whole thing: If you wish to fly in the United States, you will be scanned by a machine that produces a picture of your naked body. You may ask not to be scanned, but if you do, you will be groped by a TSA screener. This choice has been criticized as no choice at all, since both alternatives are degrading invasions of your privacy. But I disagree. There is a choice, and in that choice there is meaning. Start again. If you wish to fly in the United States, you will be…
Via Cogitamus: A surprising 70 percent of air travelers support National Opt-Out Day: Asked whether they supported National Opt-Out Day, on which air travelers plan to call attention to what they say are overly invasive TSA screening techniques by intentionally refusing the full-body scans at the airport, a surprising 70 percent answered âyes.â The poll of more than 1,000 travelers suggests that air travel could be slowed significantly or even grind to a halt on one of the busiest travel days of the year. The details of how this question was asked matter a lot, but that 70% offers a useful…
Lex Luthor is incredibly evil, and incredibly powerful. He's a technological genius, and from his research he created an astonishing pile of wealth. He's so rich, and so powerful, that he can divert resources from his research labs to produce weapons with which to wage war on Superman. Luthor's labs produce technologies beyond that available to militaries, technology that makes weapons capable of destroying or disabling the unstoppable, unkillable man. Absent superpowers, nothing short of Luthor's research labs and financial power could conceivably match an entity like Superman. Many…
Techdirt explains "Why Congress Isn't So Concerned With TSA Nude Scans & Gropes: They Get To Skip Them": Earlier this week, in holding a hearing with the head of the TSA, our congressional representatives didn't seem too concerned about the public complaints about TSA security procedures: the naked scans and the gropings. Want to know why? Perhaps it's because, on the rare occasions that they fly commercial, they get to skip security. The NY Times notes that Speaker of the House John Boehner (who does regularly fly commercial) got to walk right by security and go directly to the gate. In…
At The American Prospet, staff writer Adam Serwer ponders Why We Are Angry at the TSA: The amount of freedom Americans have handed over to their government in the years since the 9/11 attacks is difficult to convey. We've simply accepted the idea of the government secretly listening in on our phone calls and demanding private records from companies without warrants. Many shiver at the notion of trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts, and even at the idea of granting the accused legal representation. The last president of the United States brags openly about ordering people to be…
At Wednesday's TSA oversight hearing, chief administrator John Pistole did not break down and reverse the "gate rape" patdown policy. But he did make a generous offer: The head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) offered on Wednesday to have airport screeners come to Capitol Hill to give senators a pat-down so they could fully understand the mechanics of the newly deployed, controversial technique. No word on which Senators took him up on it. Senator Vitter is reported to have wondered whether wearing diapers interfered with the search. The good news is that there are a lot…
Via BoingBoing, hero of the Hudson Captain Sully Sullenberger expresses his disapproval of TSA's insistence on photographing or groping the genitals of airline passengers and staff: I donât want anybody but my wife and maybe my doctor touching me in the places these people are touching me. Exactly.
Nate Silver of 538 finds that votes for healthcare and TARP had a major effect on the election results, but votes for the climate bill and the stimulus didn't have much impact, if any. Nate used another methodology than what others have used, and got the same basic result.
Left at her online comment form: I fly regularly, both for work and to visit my family in New Jersey. I have probably taken at least one round trip flight every year of my life, and lately I fly several times a year. I am not a threat to aviation. Why does the TSA treat me and every other traveler as if we were criminal suspects, then? The new x-ray scanners are profoundly invasive, and potentially threaten travelers' health. They would also be easy for terrorists to evade. The alternative to this dangerous and invasive x-ray is an invasive search that I would consider sexual harassment…
Via Cogitamus: The Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security will hold a Transportation Security Administration Oversight Hearing tomorrow. For more info: Jena Longo - Democratic Deputy Communications Director, (202) 224-8374 Nov 17 2010 - 10 AM Russell Senate Office Building - 253 The committee chair is Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) phone (202) 224-6472. The ranking member is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 202-224-5922. The subcommittee chair is Sen Byron L. Dorgon (D-ND) phone (202) 224-2551. The ranking member is Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) phone (202) 224-6121. Regardless of…