Update no.502

Update from the Heartland

No.502

25.7.11 – 31.7.11

Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

To all,
I know I am more than a few pence short of the full quid. I acknowledge that fact up front. It only took me 40 years to figure out a life-truth. Y’all have endured my periodic rants about discourteous American drivers. I finally figured out how to keep what is left of my feeble pea-brain safe from the stress of tolerating the oblivion of some drivers who apparently believe the entire highway belongs to them personally, and there is no need or reason for order, discipline, respect or reason. Here is my epiphany. If I drive 20mph below the speed limit in the far right lane (or left for our British cousins), then I will never have a slower driver block the road. I will just stay in the lorry lane, and enjoy that I am avoiding the frustration of disrespectful drivers. I wish those drivers, who are the object of my scorn, could learn to drive properly in England, Italy, Japan, Germany, and so many other countries. Alas, I would not wish them on any decent citizens of other friendly nations, who know how to drive with respect for others on the road.

Sensing my frustration with the daily commute, Jeanne took charge (not that she ever lost it), gathered me up, and off to the local Harley-Davidson dealership we went. We are now the proud owners of a 2011 Silver Road King motorcycle. I gave up my Honda 350 Scrambler when the kids were born. They are grown. My Mom has passed. Jeanne knew it was time. So, there you have it – my mid-life crisis realized.

Monday night, President Obama and Speaker Boehner took to the airways to pitch their case in the continuing debacle over the U.S. debt. They both played to their political supporters, but I must say, of the two messages and positions, I believe the President more. He said, “[The American people are] fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word.” Spot on, Mr. President! Boehner’s notion of a small six-month extension, pushing this very same debate into an election year, will NOT encourage compromise; as such, I cannot support the Boehner approach. The last few months of this debate have occurred in the precise time of the fiscal year that Congress should be passing appropriations for governmental operations, including for an army in the field engaged in harm’s way. Economic growth depends directly upon confidence. When that confidence is shaken for whatever reason (war, disaster, instability, et cetera), markets become progressively more conservative and wait-n-see-ish. Congress is not playing with matches; they are playing with thermonuclear bonfires.
The debt limit of the United States is a self-imposed, artificial boundary. Congress created the debt limit with passage of the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 [40 Stat. 288; 31 USC 3101] that imposed a not-to-exceed limit of US$7.539B on Federal debt. I have not taken the time to count how many times Congress has raised the debt limit since 1917; let it suffice to say . . . a lot. The U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8 (1788) authorizes Congress to raise revenues and allocate funds. In essence, Congress passed a law to limit itself . . . except Congress just moves the limit so it can disperse more money. . [NOTE: I used the word ‘disperse’ rather than the normal ‘disburse’ intentionally.] The 14th Amendment, Section 4 (1868) acknowledges and reinforces the sovereign debt of this Grand Republic. No President has had a “blank check” as some of the political drivel has claimed. While the President has some discretion in spending money, just as he does with enforcement of other laws, it is Congress that authorizes expenditures – telling the Executive on what and how much to spend the public treasury. So, all the mindless, parochial, political yammering, trying to point the accusatory finger at President Obama, serves only one purpose – political division and adherence to political ideology. This is Congress’s mess lock, stock & barrel.
The so-called Boehner Plan barely passed the House of Representatives Friday afternoon. Actually, the bill used for that purpose was S.627, titled: Faster FOIA Act of 2011. The text presented by the Library of Congress addresses the original purpose, rather than whatever the new purpose happens to be; I have no idea what the “Boehner Plan” entails, other than what the Press has reflected. The House passed S.627: 218-208-0-5(4). Less than two hours later, the Senate passed a motion to table the House S.627 bill: 59-41-0-0(0). Congress has been working through the weekend. Late Sunday, the President and the Press suggested a 23rd hour deal may have been struck. We shall see if they pass something the President can sign by Tuesday.
Some additional thoughts. The most we can accuse at least the previous three presidents of is not having the cohones to veto the constant flood of obscene, earmark-laden, spending bills coming from Congress; and frankly, the worst of the three has been George W. Bush. So, let’s call a spade a spade. For Republicans to stand on some faux-sanctimonious ground of fiscal responsibility is so far down the hypocritical scale, it is beyond the boundaries of the solar system. On one hand, I laud the Tea Party freshmen for their resolve and courage to stand up to the mark and be counted as trying to get our governmental, fiscal house in order. However, holding the government hostage, after a serious recession, shaking the entire world financial system, threatening to send the nation into a second dip recession or even a major depression is NOT the way to accomplish the objective. I want to see if any of these Tea Party guys who seek to bring down the government will avail themselves of earmarks to disperse their particular largesse. I do not have evidence, yet, but I strongly suspect we shall see more of the hypocrisy that contaminates our political system. After doing all this damage and adding whatever lies ahead, if one of those Tea Party guys tries to attach just one, little, tiny, teeny-weeny earmark, he should be nailed to a cross, upside-down, as Peter was in 67AD and ignominiously erected on the lawn of the Capitol Building to remind everyone that hypocrisy will not be tolerated.

I sent an eMail message to Congress and our local newspaper:
Sent to U.S. Senators Roberts & Moran, and U.S. Representative Pompeo:
You are a representative of We, the People, in Congress. By the Constitution, Congress determines what, when and how to spend the public treasury. Congress must stand up to reality. The continuing impasse regarding the Federal debt has already caused a substantial reduction of confidence in this Grand Republic. We strongly urge you to find a mutually acceptable, compromise solution, NOW! Pushing this debate into an election year will not make the process of compromise and moderation easier. You must abandon the rigid political ideology that places political party over the general welfare of We, the People. This is NOT a game. We do not want to find out if Lord Woodhouselee was prophetic.
Sent to Congress and the Wichita Eagle, Thursday, 28.July.2011.

The Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile (BEA) issued its second interim report on the Air France Flight 447 (AF447) crash.
It appears the investigation is narrowing down to the root cause. The BEA notes "likely" ice crystal impaction compromising all three pitot tubes, yet they do not acknowledge that as the precipitating event, or even mention the phenomenon and susceptibility in their recommendations. They hit the pilots' actions rather strongly. It was like the pilots got mentally locked into a presumed "solution" and held it to impact. They apparently aggravated the stall and entered a deep stall, which in turn was probably not recoverable. However, they made no mention of "out of the box" efforts to extricate themselves. Before we go too far down that road on words alone, I would really like to see the FDR traces and a full-up animation to correlate the instrumentation, controls, and communications. Hopefully, they will release that processed data soon. It was good to see their recommendation that direct Angle of Attack (AOA) indications should be available to the crew; that one piece of data might have saved their lives (if they knew how to use it).

“Warren Buffett Is Wrong On Taxes – Millionaires and billionaires pay a higher share of their income in taxes than the middle class”
by Stephen Moore
OPINION
Wall Street Journal
Published: July 28, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576466541882356616.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
Holy jumpin’ jehosafats, Batman! These are the games we are destined to play . . . very supportive of the Republican mantra, “No new taxes.” It is intriguing to see how Moore rationalizes his presumption. But, oh what the heck, he has impressive numbers, so he must be correct, and Warren Buffet must be delusional.

News from the economic front:
-- Moody's Investors Service reduced Greece's foreign- and local-currency bond ratings from Caa1 to Ca – three notches further into junk bond status – citing the likelihood that private creditors will suffer “substantial” losses on their holdings of government debt. Moody's said that even with the European Union rescue plan, the Greek government was “virtually 100%” likely to default on its bonds.
-- Moody's also announced with was reviewing Spain's Aa2 ratings for possible downgrade, citing the increased vulnerability of the government's finances to market stress, and greater risk to bondholders due to the precedent set by euro-zone action to support Greece. Moody’s did give the Spanish government positive recognition for its efforts to meet near-term fiscal consolidation targets, but highlighted the challenges posed by weak economic growth and fiscal slippage within parts of its regional and local-government sectors.
-- The U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose at an annualized seasonally adjusted rate of 1.3% in the second-quarter against an expected GDP increase of 1.8%. Consumer spending edged up by an annualized rate of only 0.1%, the weakest it has been in two years. The first-quarter growth was revised down sharply from the earlier estimate of a 1.9% to a 0.4% gain.

Comments and contributions from Update no.501:
Comment from the Blog:
“In regard to polygamous families (they do not claim to be ‘married’ in a legal sense), I have watched that show. As far as I know, no party claims any form of abuse or coercion in that particular family. That leaves only the likes of Justice Scalia to harass and annoy the people in this case, Kody Brown and his large family. Justice Scalia’s extensive list of his fears concerns me less than his precedent for “validation of laws based on moral choices.” If Justice Scalia disapproves of ‘bigamy, same-sex marriage . . .’ etc., he should avoid participating in those activities. If Kody Brown’s wives knowingly agree to plural marriage and remain in that marriage voluntarily, that’s not Scalia’s or any moral arbiter's business. I have watched at least a season of their reality TV show; they and their children appear to be about as happy, unhappy, confused, certain, loving, indifferent and all the rest as more ordinary families I know. While I am not a polygamist by nature, other forms of “alternative” relationships might appeal to me. I will remember not to ask Justice Scalia to participate in them.
“In re: Supreme Court. Some of the justices have other issues at present. A CNN story at http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-20/politics/scotus.conflict.allegation_1_justice-department-scalia-political-strategy?_s=PM:POLITICS details Common Cause allegations against Justices Thomas and Scalia concerning their involvement with the Koch brothers, who operate an energy company based in Wichita and who are deeply involved in political activities. Thomas has other allegations against him as well.
“We have argued the torture/interrogation issue at enough length, but I want to point out that your statement that “wars need to be fought by professional warriors” runs counter to history. Beginning in 1783, when the best professional military of its time was defeated by those amateur American colonists, professionalism in the military has declined. A likely final blow has been dealt by Afghanistan, where a truly unprofessional collection of true believers and others has defeated the mighty USSR and brought the USA to a lengthy stalemate, thus humbling what had been the two superpowers. “Irregulars” might very well be the wave of the future.
“I will answer your rhetorical question. ‘I ask, have we traded the oppression of the ‘divine right of kings’ as royal birthright, for the tyranny of the royalty of money?’ Yep. The only power left to the People is the only power that matters—the power of the ballot box. In order to use that, we must overcome the power of money to buy media and other influence.
“Finally, to respond to one of your responses, our “social and political hypocrisies” mark the places where our society is dysfunctional.”
My reply to the Blog:
Re: polygamy. Well said! I think that should be the mantra against most, if not all, of the morality laws. “If you don’t like something, don’t do it.” That said, I must add concomitantly that some regulation is required in place of any of the morality laws. For example, I can accept non-traditional marriage arrangements defined by the individuals involved, as long as all participants freely choose the arrangement and do not pass communicable diseases unknowingly (full disclosure). The same would be true for the other “sins”: prostitution, gambling, consumption of intoxicants, et al. Scalia & Thomas casually wave away the freedom of choice for We, the People; I’m obviously not a supporter of their political beliefs.
Re: Kody Brown. We’ve watched the program as well. While I generally laud their conduct and dedication to family, his paternalism (founded in his religious beliefs) is just as wrong as racism, sexism, homophobia, et cetera. My bottom line: we can object or even be offended by the choices of others, but that does not give us the right to impose our beliefs and values on others.
Re: Scalia / Thomas ethics. We must remain vigilant.
Re: military. By professional, I mean trained, not simply lifers. We had trained soldiers in 1776, as we have had them in every war since. My point was, we do not watch over the shoulder and critique the doctor, or the artist, or the lawyer for that matter. Average citizens should not be looking over the soldier’s shoulder either. War is a nasty, disgusting business, best left to those trained to perform those duties.
Re: money royalty. You are of course quite correct, but that does not diminish my disdain for those who consider themselves better than us common folk.
Re: dysfunctional society. Probably so, but I suspect we have endured the phenomenon since the founding of this Grand Republic.
. . . a follow-up comment:
“The only thing I can add is that dysfunctional societies probably go back before written history; hypocrisy is, however, a marker we could use to locate the problems.”
. . . and my follow-up reply:
Well said and spot on!

My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)