John Oliver points out the lack of justice in one important aspect of our justice system – paying bail – which makes a mockery of “innocent until proven guilty”:
And not only is this putting quite a few innocent people in jail, it is costing taxpayers a ton of money.
“During a speech in Iowa this weekend, Bernie Sanders criticized the billionaire class and said they ‘can’t have it all’. Billionaires would’ve responded but they were busy this weekend literally having it all.” – Jimmy Fallon
“There’s massive corruption, a massive scandal, in international soccer. The first clue was when a soccer team scored a suspiciously high three goals in one game.” – Conan O’Brien
“Officials from the soccer organization FIFA, which decides which cities get to host the World Cup, are accused of accepting bribes when making their decision. Of course the toughest part for the soccer officials was taking bribes without using their hands.” – Jimmy Fallon
“A lawyer from Africa wants to marry Malia Obama in exchange for goats, sheep, and cows. In response, President Obama said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. My daughter isn’t marrying a lawyer.'” – Conan O’Brien
“In Michigan, the world’s oldest person recently turned 116. When the president called to congratulate her, she said, ‘Tell McKinley I’m busy.'” – Conan O’Brien
A few weeks ago, the PBS program “Frontline” broadcast “Secrets, Politics and Turture”, which they describe as “The secret history of the CIA’s controversial ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods”. You can watch this program online, and you really should.
Why am I saying this to you? Because there was a small amount of publicity after it was shown, but there was no major outcry. I think the media is afraid to make a big story out of this. And even worse, many Americans do not want to admit that we violated international law, our constitution, every reasonable moral code, and deliberately tortured people.
What’s worse to me are the people who claim torture was necessary to obtain important information in the fight against terrorism, when there is no evidence to support that claim. In fact, the program provides strong evidence that our rush to use torture actually prevented us from obtaining important information.
Not only are they lying about the use of torture, the CIA illegally destroyed evidence of it. The CIA’s chief operations officer destroyed hundreds of hours of videotape even though they were ordered not to by Congress and the courts. A reporter for The New Yorker was told “if those videotapes had ever been seen, the reaction around the world would not have been survivable.”
This is a big deal, and it shouldn’t just go away in a puff of abject denial. If we do not take strong steps now, we will torture again. We are better than that as a country. We have to be.
Same as the old boss! [sometimes I wonder if anyone else is old enough to get these references. –iron]
Don’t you feel so much better now that instead of the NSA spying on you, they changed the law so that now the telcos will be doing the spying?
So much for not getting fooled again.
Yesterday I posted about how Americans almost unanimously say that our system for funding elections is broken and needs to be dramatically changed. Here’s a good example of why they feel that way, and an organization that is doing something about it.
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has announced that they are suing the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the government entity responsible for enforcing election laws. Why?
First, because Republican FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman publicly admitted that he is deliberately holding up election complaints against Republican and conservative groups. What’s amazing is he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he is doing. His logic? He said that he is merely exercising his discretion as a commissioner to solve a problem. The problem, he argued, is that the number of complaints filed against Republican and conservative groups outweighs the number of complaints filed against Democratic and liberal groups, so investigating all complaints equally would unfairly impact Republicans.
Maybe we should apply that excellent argument in other important areas. Like, blacks are proportionately more likely to be arrested for violating drug laws, so we should stop prosecuting blacks. And immigration laws unfairly target Mexicans and other Hispanics, so we should stop prosecuting them. Am I right? Unfortunately, I don’t think Republicans would go for this, because they claim to be against affirmative action. Or are they against it only when it benefits someone else?
Secondly, Goodman’s admission came while the FEC was discussing whether to implement a policy requiring action on complaints within six months (in most cases). The CLC notes that of the 19 complaints they have filed with the FEC since 2011, only four of them have been resolved. Six of them have been pending (in limbo) over four years. That means it is easily possible for a politician to have their campaign law violation ignored for longer than they serve in office.
A rule requiring faster action on election complaints seems sorely needed, but here’s the truly crazy part. It isn’t. The Federal Election Campaign Act already requires the FEC to act on complaints within 120 days of the complaint being filed (that’s 4 months, not 6). So the commission that is supposed to enforce the law is actually violating it.
You would think that since the Citizens United decision it would be even more important to prosecute violations of what few election laws we have left. And the CLC is trying to do that. But Commissioner Goodman even took a swipe at organizations like the CLC in his comments, implying partisan bias. However, the CLC is non-partisan, and files complaints against both Democrats and Republicans. In fact, the founder and (still) president of the CLC is Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the FEC who served as a lawyer for three Republican presidential candidates.
A recent poll performed by the NY Times and CBS News confirms that Americans believe that money is causing major problems with our politics.
A stunning 84% say that money has too much influence on political campaigns, and 85% say that candidates who win public office then promote policies that favor people and groups who donated money to their campaigns (55% say “most of the time” and another 30% say “sometimes”). And 66% say that the wealthy have more of a chance to influence elections than other Americans.
But the interesting result is that Americans are virtually unanimous in saying that our campaign finance system needs changes. 13% says that only minor changes are needed, 39% (3 times more) say that fundamental changes are needed, and a whopping 46% wants to throw our current system away and completely rebuild it. Absolutely nobody answered that no changes were needed.
The poll goes on in the same way about what to do. 78% say that spending on advertising should be limited. 75% say that donors should be publicly disclosed. And 54% say that donating money to political candidates is not free speech (Citizens United notwithstanding).
There’s just one big fat ironic problem with this poll. They clearly only polled the 99%. If the 1% has as much power as this poll suggests, then everyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter.
“This week presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced a new bill that would make four-year college tuition free. Which was great news, unless you were the student who was just walking out of your graduation.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Bernie Sanders made around $2,000 last year for two speeches and a TV appearance, compared to the $25 million the Clintons made. Making him the first person in history to run for president just because he really needs the money.” – Jimmy Fallon
“I was surprised to hear this. Hillary Clinton’s Super PAC has reportedly been struggling to raise money. It’s gotten so bad, they may have to start reaching out to Americans.” – Seth Meyers
“Chelsea Clinton has written a children’s book titled “It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going.” It’s a great book to read to your workaholic toddler.” – Seth Meyers
“President Obama, by the way, has set a Guinness World Record as the fastest person to get a million Twitter followers. Obama now has as many followers as the Republicans have presidential candidates.” – Conan O’Brien
“First Lady Michelle Obama has posted an exercise video of her beating up a punching bag. But don’t worry, Vice President Biden is going to be OK.” – Conan O’Brien
“The government released hundreds of documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound. Among the items is a job application for al-Qaida. It’s like a regular job application except it asks questions like, ‘Where do you see yourself exploding in the next five years?'” – Jimmy Kimmel
One advantage that people of faith enjoy is that they are not limited to being consistent. A good example is presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Santorum has long been a proponent of “intelligent design”, which is a fancy term for requiring public schools to “teach about the role of God or a Creator” as part of their science curriculum.
So it is ironic that Santorum recently chastised the Pope for talking about climate change, saying “the church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we’re really good at, which is… theology and morality. When we get involved with political and controversial scientific theories, I think the church is probably not as forceful and credible.”
Pope Francis (who has a degree in Chemistry) has said that causing climate change is a sin because the Earth is God’s creation and should be protected. And in a speech last month, he said “if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us. Never forget this!” An encyclical about the environment will be published on June 18, ahead of the climate talks in Paris.
If, as Santorum claims, religion has “gotten it wrong a few times on science” then why is it a good idea to teach religion as part of science in the classroom? Does Santorum use his faith to decide which science is right and which is wrong? Shouldn’t he take his own advice and leave science to the scientists?
UPDATE: On Fox News Sunday, Santorum was asked why he is more qualified that the Pope to discuss climate change. Santorum responded that his job as a politician was to make decisions about public policy, and that he felt that there are more pressing problems confronting the earth than climate change and questioned the Pope’s use of his moral authority to combat the issue of climate change.
Fair enough that Santorum disagrees with the Pope, but aren’t “devout Catholics” supposed to believe in Papal infallibility?
Jon Stewart points out the underlying hypocrisy of the media reaction to Bruce Jenner becoming Caitlyn Jenner:
“We are now 11 weeks away from the first Republican presidential debate. The debate will be held in a 300-seat theater, so there’ll be almost enough seats for all the candidates.” – Seth Meyers
“President Obama broke a world record after he reached a million followers on Twitter in just five hours. The only guys not following Obama? His Secret Service agents. They lost track months ago.” – Jimmy Fallon
“In about 34 minutes David Letterman is going to air his last episode. In 1993, I took over his iconic late-night show. I was a complete unknown with no experience performing on TV. I was totally unprepared for that enormous job. I don’t think that could happen today. I don’t think the government would allow it.” – Conan O’Brien
“I was in way over my head, and with my hair that’s saying something.” – Conan O’Brien
“After four dreary months, out of the blue we got a message that David Letterman wanted to come on as a guest. Dave was the biggest thing on TV. He didn’t go on other people’s shows. It was like The Beatles asking Maury Povich if they could stop by and sing a couple of tunes.” – Conan O’Brien
“I’ll be honest with you. It’s beginning to look like I’m not going to get ‘The Tonight Show’.” – David Letterman
“I’m your host, Jimmy Fallon, and I want to thank you for watching this on your DVR after you watched Letterman.” – Jimmy Fallon
“This morning my dad called me up and said, ‘So, tonight’s your last show, huh.’ And I said, ‘No, Dad, that’s someone else.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Do you know what I’m going to do when I retire? I hope to become the new face of Scientology.” – David Letterman
“Earlier today, we got a call from Stephen Hawking. He’s a genius, and after 6,028 shows he ran the numbers and he said it works out to about eight minutes of laughter.” – David Letterman
“When we started the show, there were mixed responses. Half of the people said, ‘That show doesn’t have a chance.’ The other half said, ‘That show doesn’t have a prayer.'” – David Letterman
“Back when we started this show, the hottest program on television was ‘Keeping Up With the Gabors.'” – David Letterman
“My good friend Paul Shaffer and I are going to continue in show business. Next month Paul and I will debut our new act at Caesar’s Palace with our white tigers.” – David Letterman
“I have no illusions anyone is watching me this evening. But if there happen to be a few of you out there, I’m going to let you know the exact moment when Dave’s show is starting, and I’d like you to switch over. I may be talking to seven viewers at that time, but I really think you should do it.” – Conan O’Brien
Why is it that many people who participate in discussions on the internet totally lose it? The same people likely would be much more reasonable if they were talking face-to-face. Some people think it is the lack of feedback, but there certainly is feedback on the internet. Others say that it is just people who need to get attention in an increasingly disconnected world. Or that you need to be shrill in order to be heard. I dunno. I think almost all of us, even the most reasonable, have said something on the internet that was a bit overboard.
I’m just happy that my readers have supported me in creating a little outpost where we can have reasonable discussions. Oh, and speaking of this blog, it recently turned seven years old!
“President Obama finally has his own personal Twitter account. Even John McCain said, ‘Welcome to the Internet, grandpa.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Hillary Clinton is trying to get the young vote. She’s doing her best to win over millennials. Hillary’s telling millennials if all goes well, she too plans to move back into the home where she lived in the 1990s.” – Conan O’Brien
“A new poll found that almost 70 percent of voters say that whoever our next president is, they must have political experience. You know, because it would be rude to say ‘anyone but Donald Trump.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Former Texas Governor Rick Perry said yesterday that knowing what we know now, he would not have invaded Iraq. Mostly because ‘what we know now’ is that Rick Perry will never be president.” – Seth Meyers
“A new survey came out and Washington, D.C., has been named the fittest city in the country. And it makes sense. Just think of all of the exercise they get running for re-election, walking back statements, dodging questions, and jumping to conclusions. That’s all cardio.” – Seth Meyers
“Tomorrow is our final show. That is unless it rains, and then there will be a rain delay. We’ll probably make it up in a doubleheader around Labor Day.” – David Letterman
“A lot of people think I’m retiring, but I’ve been telling a fib. I’ve been forced to leave this job because I gave $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. ” – David Letterman
“Bill Murray is on the show tonight. Next week I’ll be Goggling ‘foods that improve prostate health’.” – David Letterman
[This is a guest post from Marc S. Berman, who has written numerous articles and opinion pieces on politics, law, and current events.]
America’s political divide now envelops the United States Supreme Court. For example, when the Court decides that the billionaire Koch brothers can buy elections, its ruling is perceived as conservative. Democrats stop smoking weed long enough to get furious. MSNBC’s ratings even crack the top 300 for a day.
But when the Court, say, rules that “required health insurance” is just another name for “tax”, and therefore Obamacare is legal, its decision is viewed as liberal. Republicans smash their martini glasses with five-irons. On the radio, Rush spends an entire show mocking the judiciary. (Interestingly, judge-bashing really sells the virility treatments advertised on Limbaugh’s program. Otherwise, that stuff only moves when Rush lambastes Hillary, which is the conventional way of arousing a dittohead.)
Some of the Supreme Court’s upcoming decisions will be controversial. Now’s a good time to remind ourselves that, in reality, judges are impartial. They decide cases solely based on the law. Their political views play no part in how they rule.
So what has caused Americans’ mistaken belief that Supreme Court decisions are political? It all comes down to vocabulary.
Unlike the decisions of Judge Milian on the People’s Court, high court rulings are written. And they are full of obscure legal verbiage.
Americans don’t understand judicial gobbledygook. Consequently, we don’t read Supreme Court decisions. Instead, we rely on experts to interpret the rulings for us. Because these “experts” have political agendas, they try to convince us that the Court takes sides in political controversies. In the trade, this is known as “freaking the freaking lazy base out so they’ll freaking show up at the freaking polls.”
Americans need to learn the truth about our judiciary. This means that we need to start reading Supreme Court decisions for ourselves. I am providing definitions for all key legal terms below. Know these words, and you’ll be able to understand any ruling:
Now that you know the lingo, find a Court ruling you hate, and read it. It will be obvious that politics played no part. And the next time you hear some party operative whining that the Court is too political, you’ll know who not to freaking vote for.
Under the “leadership” of conservative governor Sam “trickle down economics” Brownback – who instituted massive tax and spending cuts and promised “enormous prosperity” – Kansas has instead gone to hell in a handbasket.
Now, things are getting even worse there. The state is completely controlled by Republicans, but they don’t seem to be able to govern themselves out of a paper bag (even one filled with money supplied by the billionaire Koch brothers, whose headquarters is in Topeka).
Facing a huge $400 million budget deficit that they have to fix (states cannot run a deficit as they don’t print money), the legislature is in their ninth day of overtime trying to fix the problem without raising taxes. For his part, Brownback announced he would unveil a tax plan that does the unthinkable and raises taxes, but a half hour later canceled those plans amid chaos and infighting in the legislature. After that, the best the legislature could do was a band-aid; a bill that raises a paltry $30 million in revenue by granting amnesty to people who owe back taxes (was their slogan “amnesty for tax scofflaws, but none for illegal immigrants”?).
After that, the Republican chairman of the Senate taxation committee offered to resign, saying “Nobody has an idea of what the heck they want to do this year.”
This is what happens when ideologues come up against the real world. Trickle-down economics (now called “austerity”) doesn’t work and never will. At the other end of the spectrum, pure socialism didn’t work either and has largely collapsed. When will we figure out how to travel in the middle of the road, without wild swings to the right or left?
“George W. Bush gave a commencement speech at Southern Methodist University this weekend. It was pretty inspirational. He said, ‘As I like to tell the ‘C’ students, you too can be president.’ Even George W. Bush has George W. Bush comedy material in his act.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Lindsey Graham is now the seventh Republican running for president. If you’re keeping score, that’s basically one Republican candidate for every two Republican voters.” – Conan O’Brien
“Jeb Bush said recently that he believes apps on the Apple Watch could help Americans better manage their healthcare than Obamacare. So there you go. If you can’t afford healthcare, just buy yourself an Apple Watch.” – Seth Meyers
“I can’t wait for the Republican debates to start and there’s literally 65 guys on one stage.” – Conan O’Brien
“Mitt Romney, two-time Republican presidential hopeful, boxed former heavyweight champion of the world Evander Holyfield for charity. It was a horrible moment when Romney bit off Holyfield’s other ear. ” – David Letterman
“During a charity boxing match on Friday, Mitt Romney lasted two rounds against Evander Holyfield and raised a million dollars. It was just like Holyfield’s fight with Mike Tyson, except Romney chewed off his other ear talking about his 18 grandchildren.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Holyfield won the fight. It’s not the first time Romney has been knocked out by a black guy.” – David Letterman
“That’s right, Mitt Romney took on Evander Holyfield in a boxing match for charity, and it was a pretty one-sided fight. But it was still not the worst boxing match we’ve seen this month. … This weekend Vladimir Putin played in an exhibition hockey game with some former NHL players and scored eight goals. Even Evander Holyfield and Mitt Romney said, ‘That looks fake.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Vladimir Putin reportedly scored eight goals during a hockey game in Sochi this weekend. And the goalie only had one save: his own life.” – Seth Meyers
“Over the weekend, Vladimir Putin scored eight goals during a hockey game. It happened just after he had the goalie executed.” – Conan O’Brien
“President Obama joined Twitter today with a tweet that began ‘Hello, Twitter!’ His bio says, ‘Dad, husband, and president of the United States.’ He didn’t have to say ‘Dad’. We got that when he tweeted ‘Hello, Twitter!'” – Seth Meyers
“Unusual weather for New York City. Today it was 68 and foggy. No, wait a minute, that’s me. I’m sorry, that’s me.” – David Letterman
“Tonight I will be talking with Tom Hanks. Next week I’ll be at the post office talking with the clerk.” – David Letterman
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