Category: Politics As Usual

Lesson learned in Texas?

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Don’t be silly, this is Texas! Where men are men and business goes unregulated, no matter what:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Five facilities in Texas with large quantities of the same fertilizer chemical that fueled the deadly plant explosion in West have turned away state fire marshal inspectors since the blast, investigators said Monday.

A railway operator that hauls hazardous materials across Texas was also said to have rebuffed a state request to share data since the April explosion at West Fertilizer Co. that killed 15 people and injured 200 others.

Regulators and state lawmakers at a hearing about the still-unsolved explosion were intrigued by the lack of cooperation. State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said “well, sure” when asked whether those facilities refusing to admit inspectors raised concern.

“In their defense, they may have a very good reason,” Connealy said.

There is no state fire code in Texas. The state fire marshal’s office lacks the power to make unannounced inspections of local businesses, nor does the office have the authority to compel local facilities to open its doors.
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Wow

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

A semi-normal Republican…. in North Carolina?

Republican congressional candidate Jason Thigpen is speaking out against North Carolina’s new voter identification law, characterizing the measure passed by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature as a “turd.”

Thigpen, who will challenge Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) in next year’s primary to represent North Carolina’s 3rd District, said the measure signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) earlier this month is “discriminatory.”

“You can paint a turd and sell it as art, but it’s still a turd,” Thigpen said in an article posted to his Facebook page on Monday. “This is 2013 and any legislator that puts forth such a discriminatory bill should be laughed out of office. This is America, not Russia.”

He continued, “You have those that honestly believe our country would be better off turning back the clock to years ago, also known as the ‘good-old days,’ which weren’t all that good for everyone. After suppressing the right to vote, what’s next? Are these so-called Representatives going to push for preventing our military, veterans, and women from voting?”

Gun control

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Not so much, but better than nothing! I don’t suppose he has many options:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Striving to take action where Congress would not, the Obama administration announced new steps Thursday on gun control, curbing the import of military surplus weapons and proposing to close a little-known loophole that lets felons and others circumvent background checks by registering guns to corporations.

Four months after a gun control drive collapsed spectacularly in the Senate, President Barack Obama added two more executive actions to a list of 23 steps the White House determined Obama could take on his own to reduce gun violence. With the political world focused on Mideast tensions and looming fiscal battles, the move signaled Obama’s intent to show he hasn’t lost sight of a cause he took up after 20 first graders and six adults were gunned down last year in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

One new policy will end a government practice that lets military weapons, sold or donated by the U.S. to allies, be reimported into the U.S. by private entities, where some may end up on the streets. The White House said the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to be reimported since 2005; under the new policy, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.

The Obama administration is also proposing a federal rule to stop those who would be ineligible to pass a background check from skirting the law by registering a gun to a corporation or trust. The new rule would require people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo the same type of fingerprint-based background checks as individuals if they want to register guns.

Cory Booker is tired of cynics

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

And bloggers. People who say stuff about him, like Salon’s Alex Pareene:

Booker, a husky vegetarian who would be the only black Democrat in the Senate, is draining Splenda-sweetened coffee at a Greek diner in Union, just outside of Newark. He talks a lot about cynicism, calling it, “the most cognitively debilitating state of being” and declaring that “my whole life has been about confronting cynicism.” The point is that in a cynical world and a paralyzed Washington, Cory Booker is going to be different. He is going to change things.

Cory Booker’s whole life has been about confronting cynics. The cynics who said the son of an IBM executive would never amount to anything. The ones who said a guy with degrees from Stanford, Oxford, and Yale Law couldn’t ever make it in politics. The ones who said that one very gifted and incredibly ambitious politician with a lot of wealthy friends wouldn’t be able to overcome the fundamental structural and economic issues that caused Newark’s decline through sheer force of personality. He proved them all wrong, except those last ones. They were sort of right.

The “cynics” in this case are people who believe Booker is part of an American elite class devoted to enriching itself at the expense of everyone else, and who point out that most members of this privileged class have deluded themselves into believing that they deserve or earned their incredible wealth with brilliance or hard work, when in fact a guy with the right background and connections can just start a fake internet company with Jeff Zucker’s kid and get a bunch of other guys with the right background and connections to throw disgusting amounts of money at him.

The question of “why liberals hate Cory Booker” is not very useful and certainly not hard to answer: Based on his personal and professional associations, and some of his stated policy positions, like his dedication to corporate education reform, liberals think he will be an advocate for the interests of the very wealthy and that he will not support economic policies, like strong financial reform, designed to change the conditions that perpetuate economic inequity. He silence or obfuscation on most economic policy issues make it seem like he is purposefully not expressing his true beliefs in order to maintain his reputation for progressiveness. Here’s an example: “He is less interested in talking about his positions on overhauling Wall Street or tax policy, except to say, ‘I fall in a very pragmatic way.’”

A better question is, why do super-rich guys love Cory Booker? There’s just something about Booker that makes rich people want to give him lots and lots of money. And because Booker has no stated set of beliefs beyond vague do-gooderism, rich people with fairly disparate policy preferences all feel comfortable giving him money. (Here’s an examplefrom this morning: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will be co-hosting a fundraiser for Cory Booker, despite the fact that Damon is a noted defender of public schools and Booker is a proud advocate of asking billionaires to fund charter schools. The fundraiser will be held at the Hollywood home of billionaire investor Ron Burkle. You can read more about Burkle inthis 2006 profile written by Jason Horowitz, author of the Washington Post profile of Booker currently under discussion. Burkle is best-known for formerly being Bill Clinton’s best friend and maybe owing him money.)

The simple answer is that Booker is “one of them.” He’s got the cultural and educational background of a finance guy or a successful attorney. But he also attracts the do-gooder liberal types, like Damon and Oprah. And I think it’s because Booker is essentially a motivational speaker disguised as a politician. He speaks like a high-priced management consultant, or a guy leading an expensive corporate retreat. Horowitz refers to him as a living TED Talk, and that about sums it up: He’s a vague speech about “innovation” in a suit. He will be very successful in politics.