The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Category: Health of the Republic

  • The debt ceiling and the 14th Amendment

    The 14th Amendment is more-or-less the Swiss Army knife of the US Constitution.  It defines citizenship, extends constitutional protections to state constitutions, and so on.  Lately, it’s become popular to posit that it also holds the key to avoiding a default of US credit.  Specifically, Section 4 reads

    4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

    That last bit is not particularly relevant right now.  But the first part (in bold) — it is said — could be.  President Obama could cite that portion of the 14th Amendment and direct the agencies of the United States Government to issue debt pursuant to the existing budget, regardless of whether that debt exceeds the amount authorized under the debt ceiling.  Voila! Crisis averted!  (See, for example, this piece by Jonathan Zasloff in the Washington Monthly.)

    This 14th Amendment option is decisive, elegant — and completely irrelevant.

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  • National Constitution Center endorses torture

    Well, by extension.  They’ve invited John Yoo to participate in a forum on “A Conversation on Civility and Democracy in America” — apparently without a blink of irony, too.  Yoo, you might recall, is the author of the infamous Torture Memos, that said the United Stated could and would abandon its obligations under the Geneva Conventions because, well, President Bush wanted to.  He also said that the President could order warrantless surveillance on, well, anybody, ’cause you know, the terror and all.

    I knew that UC Berkeley had somehow decided to allow this lowlife to sit on its faculty, but somehow, the fact that the National Constitution Center is loaning him its gravitas really struck home for me.  And while I have no connection, even remote, to Berkeley, I do have one small lever with the NCC: I am a member.  Now, I have to decide if I’ll continue to be one.

    My note of outrage to the NCC is posted below the fold.

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  • Quote of the Day

    From a post by Steve Benen over at Political Animal:

    In human history, it’s never been easier to get — and stay — well informed. Folks just have to take some responsibility. If they don’t, the result can be a dysfunctional democracy.

    It’s impolitic to say this but not all pastimes and passions are equal. And the next time you bemoan the state of the economy or your due taxes or your summons to jury duty or the latest idiocy out of Washington — just pause for a moment and think about how much time you spend reading gossip columns, or devouring “reality” TV, or watching one overgrown overdosed tribe of jocks beat up on a different overgrown overdosed tribe of jocks. Is it really true that you don’t have the time to keep informed?  Or is it that you just don’t want to invest that time?

    And if it’s the latter, do you really deserve the vote you’re accorded by virtue of your citizenship in an advanced democracy?

  • Wow. Just… wow.

    http://www.marktalk.com/blog/?p=10387

    (Also hosted at Political Correction, in case the original gets “disappeared”, and reproduced below the fold here — although apparently it’s already been edited.)

    I don’t really know really even to begin to comment on this “letter” from Tea Party Express chairman Mark Williams.  It takes something really, um, special to answer charges of racism by claiming that the N.A.A.C.P. is the one who’s racist. But the real kicker is the letter per se — a mock letter from N.A.A.C.P. president Benjamin Jealous, in which the mock-Jealous writes to Abraham Lincoln to request the repeal of the 13th and 14th amendments.  (Aside: What is it with these Tea Party fanatics and amendment repeal?)

    Now, the truly Crowning Moment of Jerkitude comes in signing the letter with “Tom’s nephew”.  It takes a certain gumption — but not the good kind — to label a civil rights leader with “Uncle Tom”.

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  • Excellent headline explaining why we’re headed for the next Great Depression

    Bravo, Paul Krugman!

    “The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack”

    Could we call this the phantom menace?  🙂

    The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack

  • The President and the Ring

    I hate to turn into just a site that reposts The Daily Show but sometimes they’re spot on.  The continued failure of President Obama to live up to his pre-election rhetoric on the rule of law is the most galling development of his administration.

    The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
    Respect My Authoritah
    www.thedailyshow.com
    Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

  • Seconded…

    This piece from the Atlantic captures my feeling pretty close to exactly, re: the recent Rand Paul flap on the Civil Rights Act and his alleged “courage”.  In particular, the conclusion:

    Now, after the police dogs, night-sticks and fire-hoses have been beaten back, Rand Paul wants to reopen the question, while, to be sure, claiming that he would have had the “courage to march with Martin Luther King.” This is a common strain of courage. It chiefly shines through in men born 50 years too late. Presently among the crowd, they are distinguished at that decisive moment when queried about wars they won’t have to fight, in times they will never live. These men populate our history books. They are all on the wrong side.

    Devastating.

  • A fantastic visual response to “Show us your papers” in AZ…

    An editorial cartoon responding to the Arizona immigration law
    An editorial cartoon responding to the Arizona immigration law

    From the cartoonist Lee Judge ( http://media.kansascity.com/images/cartoons/judge/04-2010/judge_04272010_700.jpg)

  • 16,500 : a “mistake” so egregious as to be a lie

    Where did the rabid right get the figure of 16,500 new “IRS agents” that (they claim) will be required to enforce the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act?

    They made it up.

    Really.  It came from nowhere.  In fact, the IRS will add few or no agents, and perhaps hardly any staff at all.  There’s a really nice dissection of this ludicrous claim over at factcheck.org.  Basically, the number was invented based on a bad estimate, inflated through dubious assumptions, and then just hand-waved into fact.

    Just remember, the next time someone quotes to you some scary scary provision of the ACA: There’s a non-negligible chance that they are lying or repeating a lie.

  • Quote of the Day

    From a comment on Political Animal, in a thread about a brick-thrower who wants to “end socialism and the government takeover”, and has time to do so because he’s receiving disability checks from the government.  In describing the futility of explaining this contradiction to the brick-thrower, a commenter pointed out,

    You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.

    And that is the actual greatest threat to the Republic today: The noisy whiners who don’t know anything factual and are proud of it.  How does an Enlightenment democracy function, when one side denies the value of both logic and evidence?