Clarity from Scalia

Just in case there was any remaining doubt, in the dissent to the SCOTUS support for Oregon's assisted suicide law Scalia makes the purpose of government clear.

"' However, the government has long been able to use its powers 'for the purpose of protecting public morality,' he said."

If you can't legislate morality what makes him think you can dictate it from the bench?

Drink Liberally

This evening, 5:30 at the Tuscany Lounge in the Richland Clarion Hotel, just north of Uptown. Munchies are on the house.

50 knots, no wake

A new M-shaped hull design captures the bow wave and turns into lift and trapped air allowing for much higher speeds, greater stability, and wake-less performance. Some pictures here, here, and here.

Giving Them Hell

Harry Reid. Ya gotta love him.

Alito Assessment

I like this assessment of Alito.

"He doesn't have a screw loose; what he has is a piece missing, conspicuously, radiantly, displaying the absence of any sense of, well, justice. Not a case came up for discussion in which he registered that one or another outcome was just wrong, outrageous to a sense of decency, or to him. He's on record in a memo as believing that to shoot an eighth grader, known not to be armed, who was trying to climb over a fence in escape, is a proper use of deadly force by a policeman. In a discussion of immigration cases that have been regularly occasioning inexcusable, vile, un-American heartbreak on people who missed obscure deadlines or violated arcane requirements, all he could say was that the courts get bad transcripts and it was hard to find translators for some of the plaintiffs, but that was a problem for Congress. It wasn't exactly Pilate washing his hands, but the man appears to be completely comfortable dealing with frightful social wrongs by moving the issue down the hall to another office. Sometimes the Court has to do this, but to Alito it's an especially good day's work, not a disappointment.

A smart, decent, small man. If the US Supreme Court is a good place for a man whose ability to prove 'not my job' is unparalleled, Alito should be confirmed. He will focus enormous rational power on issues not central to the cases before him, and solve problems peripheral to the work we need the court to do."

Toward a More Rational Drug Law

Top-flight economists show why the War on Drugs isn't working. In fact, it tends to make the problem worse.

"in the case of illegal goods like drugs -- where demand seems inelastic -- higher prices lead not to less use, but to an increase in total spending.

In the case of drugs, then, the authors argue that excise taxes and persuasive techniques -- such as advertising -- are far more effective uses of enforcement expenditures.

'This analysis ... helps us understand why the War on Drugs has been so difficult to win ... why efforts to reduce the supply of drugs leads to violence and greater power to street gangs and drug cartels,' conclude the authors. 'The answer lies in the basic theory of enforcement developed in this paper.'"

Aggressive enforcement simply increases the negative economic effect of drugs when it does not reduce demand. The moral to the story may be to keep the price low on addicting drugs and use other methods to reduce consumption. A low price would also put many criminal enterprises out of business.

Liberals are Drinking in the Tri-Cities

Three people attended the inaugural Drinking Liberally session at the Tuscany Lounge in the Richland Clarion Hotel last night. We had enough fun to try it again next Wednesday at 5:30. Barkeep says he will be serving free munchies.

Party Chair Candidate Forum

Saturday at the Carpenter's Hall in Pasco.

Hastings, Marianas, Abramoff refresher

From the June Tri-City Herald.

A hat tip to the Washblog. (need to get that one on my blogroll)

On the Proper Role of Government Lawyers

Well, Mr Bush? Which is it? Do administration lawyers advocate their clients case? This is Alito's story. Or do they provide unbiased legal direction? This is the White House story about the NSA warrantless spying. You can have one or the other but not both.

Amerika, Land of Equality

Of course the rich are just a wee bit more equal.

Doc Hastings visits Framatome.

He still doesn't understand that Social Security is more solvent than the rest of our government.

On inheritance tax he thinks that the big money should remain in the family. Those children were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and no one has the right to take it away.

Any questions about Congressional ethics are dealt with in secret. The public does not have a right to know.

The American healthcare system is the best thing since sliced bread. If people would just go ahead and die younger everyone's insurance costs would be much less. On the positive side he floated the idea that individuals should be entitled to the same tax break for insurance premiums that employers get. If you really want to save money on healthcare keep your foreign citizenship handy.

Prescription benefit is not really all that complicated. Just go to the various providers with your list of prescriptions and see who gives you the best deal. Now how many providers are there? God help you if you sign a contract and your health situation changes and you need different drugs. Tried to blame the complexity on government when the complexity is due to the drug companies who wrote the bill.

Legal immigration is so difficult it's no wonder we have so many illegals. Major sections of agriculture have always depended on migrant workers. In early days the migrant workers were citizens, now they are almost all aliens. Any immigration reform must have a workable guest worker provision because alien workers are an important part of our economy.

Yucca Mountain will be built eventually regardless of what Nevadans think.

He would like to replace the progressive income tax with an (un)FAIR tax. Essentially a sales tax at the national level. The only problem is the 16th amendment to the constitution.

No Alito please

From Robert Gordon:

"The argument that he was just saying whatever it was convenient for him to say in order to get a job doesn't sound too good coming from somebody who is now trying to get another job. There is something really slippery, or at least less than forthright, about his approach to his own record of actions and opinions."

If he was lying about being a mossback conservative why should we believe anything he says now? Simply he just seems to be too ethically challenged to serve on the any bench must less the nation's highest bench.

Who's in charge here?

Yet another administration failure: the SBA and the special 9/11 loans. Is there anyone competent in the WH at all?

Not Hunter-Gatherers After All

Humans are, in fact, a domesticated breed.

"This analysis suggested that around 1800 genes, or roughly 7% of the total in the human genome, have changed under the influence of natural selection within the past 50,000 years. A second analysis using a second SNP database gave similar results. That is roughly the same proportion of genes that were altered in maize when humans domesticated it from its wild ancestors."

Kelly's Rules

What makes the Skunk Works work.

How Many?

If Abramoff lestifies, how many congressmen is he going to take down? And who are they?

"Abramoff would provide testimony about numerous members of Congress and their staffs if he and the Justice Department reach an agreement, the sources said. Negotiations have been ongoing for several months, people knowledgeable about the discussions said, but pressure is mounting because of the pending trial."

Max doesn't get it

Max Boot in the LAT:

"I suspect it'll be a long wait because the rule of thumb seems to be that although it's treasonous for pro-Bush partisans to spill secrets that might embarrass an administration critic, it's a public service for anti-Bush partisans to spill secrets that might embarrass the administration. The determination of which secrets are OK to reveal is, of course, to be made not by officials charged with protecting our nation but by journalists charged with selling newspapers."

Max, you dolt, if you have a security clearance you aren't allowed to leak secrets. If, on the other hand, you are a reporter and you piece together the secrets from the mistakes made by the agents it's fair game. Of course if we had a president and an administration that was worthy of respect they might be able command some respect with the media. Unfortunately this has none and deserves none.

Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest

While Bush's (hswib) defenders put forth all sorts of rationalizations of domestic spying, this judget considers it serious enough to tender his resignation as a spy court judge.

"A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.

Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work."

Gentle Senator, Presidential Hopeful

We sure could use a few more Eugene McCarthy's these days.