Useful Reminders

Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold, known for their effort at campaign finance reform are once more making a point about campaign finance. They have put a hold on President Obama’s nominee to the Federal Election Commission. Two other seats will come to be vacant and they want to know who will be on them since the nature of the FEC is at stake and they still believe in the need for election reform. The current FEC they say is “mired in enforcement gridlock.”
As a candidate Obama opted out of the public financing system which freed him to end up raising almost a billion dollars. But he did promise to overhaul election financing and the commission that is supposed to enforce campaign law. So far—and let’s cut him some slack—he has yet to address it. Cutting him slack, however, doesn’t mean this is not an important issue. Not only is it important to anyone who believes billion dollar campaigns are ultimately not in the public good, it is also one that fits into the reevaluation of the private and public spending the economic crisis is eliciting–for it would seem likely that public financing of political campaign would help us in the needed reordering of our priorities. Senators McCain and Feingold are right to make a point and continue their involvement. They also serve as reminders that we too mustn’t forget the issue.

Being in Opposition

Like many I search for solid information to better understand whether the economic stimulus is working. Warren Buffet thinks it is and also thinks we need another. Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman thinks that too. The Republicans in Congress, however, have decided it is not and no second stimulus is necessary. As I keep researching this, I read that it is the first time the Republicans are united against Obama, that they have been looking for an issue to show they are against his policies. Does being the party in opposition mean being against something? Just like, I say white, you say black and so forth. That’s a game, not a position. Being in opposition means offering another idea, another solution, another way to reach the goal or at the very least having a thoughtful reason as to why the issue in question would not be helpful. If the Republicans’ stance on the stimulus continues it will give many cause to think that the party is coming before the country. That’s doesn’t seem what the Founding Fathers intended when they institutionalized opposition. I still don’t have the answers I’d like about the economic stimulus, but I know that opposing an issue by being against it is not one.

Flagrant Stupidity?

Stupidity ought to be labeled for what it is, lest we not learn to leave it behind.
Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence for having joined Al Qaeda and plotted to assassinate George W. Bush and is currently an inmate at a federal supermax prison in Florence, CO. Last year he requested President Obama’s two books. The answer has now come denying the request. The prison’s officials, citing FBI guidance, said that one page from “Dreams From My Father” and 22 from “The Audacity of Hope” could harm national security. They gave no specifics, but the passages are from chapters on foreign affairs.
The books, written before Mr. Obama ran for president and before he had access to the intelligence given the Chief of State, have been best sellers for many months. What they say is not only a matter of public record, but also, give or take a few people, public knowledge. Given the length of Omar Abu Ali’s sentence and the restrictions of a supermax prison, it is difficult to see how these pages could really harm national security.
Not many details are known about this denial. Were they, it is conceivable they could be mitigating . If they were, would they mitigate an instance of stupidity?

The Price of Free Speech

It’s hard not to bear in mind that hundreds, probably more, were jailed in Teheran merely for protesting. In Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi is still jailed. In North Korea, two American journalists were tried and convicted for trying to obtain information about the reclusive country. The list of people in prison, house arrest or whatever detention who are tortured, harassed and or condemned for their political views, for what ought to be their right to exercise free speech, is very long indeed.
And then there are the excesses we engage in in the U.S. CNN has become too gossipy, Fox News too one sided, MSNBC is cultivating a liberal audience and talk radio is not only proliferating, it is also reaching for the sensational, the emotional, the superficial, the knee jerkings and all the opinionated rants time allows. Like many, I’ve decried them all. Suddenly after Iran, China et al, I remember anew that excesses are preferable to repression. If that’s the price of free speech, let’s all gladly pay it—but let’s all still work for a better way too.