OK, Free Willie, But Free The Rest Of Them Too

It is amazing how many clamor for the release of some famous individual when they get popped for violating a stupid law while doing something negligent. Maybe some of those people should be making noise all the time for others breaking the same ridiculous laws. Many of the not-so-privileged have families who suffer, and our resources are much more strained by spending money to imprison the "offenders" and provide social benefits for the surrounding casualties.

Regarding Willie Nelson: First of all, it's not the smartest thing to go through the checkpoint at Sierra Blanca holding. Most would not cross the border with drugs, and this is about the same thing. This is not to justify the repressive action of having a police checkpoint on the road, but if you know it's there, you are pretty much asking for it if you are going to carry with you one of the main things they are looking for. Of course, if you are doing it to protest, get some mileage out of it, and speak courageously about your action. That doesn't seem to be happening in this case.

Many of us have no love for laws against substances. But the rich should not get special privileges.

The point here is not to rag on Willie, but to call attention to the many others who are less fortunate who don't have the resources to hire a good lawyer after getting caught for some ridiculous possession. Also, possession laws are perfect for a society that is looking to become more and more authoritarian, because they require no component of intent. Such laws makes it easy to plant illegal objects on people, and convict them on circumstantial evidence that is indistinguishable from direct evidence in the eyes of many onlookers. Nobody deserves that. And possession laws also can lead to potential corruption due to authorities stealing the valuable contraband...how much of it never makes it back to the evidence room? It's often impossible to say.

So if you're going to make noise about freeing Willie, please don't stop making that noise until all in similar positions with not as many resources are free too. Because Willie will be free; indeed, he probably already is. He even made it out from under the highly oppressive IRS debacle relatively intact (OK, he's probably got some wounds from that, and who would wish that on anyone, but on the whole, he's in good shape due to being able to marshal a heck of a lotta resources). Can the same be said about your average working-class pot criminal?

The Limits of Compromise

If Obama is going to compromise with Republicans, rewarding them for having acted like toddlers with tantrums throughout his whole presidency, in the same spirit, should he make Kansas a Taliban state to mollify more unreasonable people?

Billing The Real Deadbeats

If you can send a political candidate a donation, it stands to reason that you should also be able to send a candidate a bill.

If you can say that you support someone so much that you are willing to back them financially, well, it stands to reason that you can also say that you oppose someone so virulently that they should pay you. If you think someone is committing malfeasance against the American people, why shouldn't they pay you for the privilege of their corruption?

It can even vary with the degree of numbskullery that the person exhibits. Maybe you just lightly oppose someone. If you supported someone to that degree, you might send them twenty bucks. So you would bill the offender twenty bucks.

So how much is Abu Ghraib worth? Homelessness and hunger? Bank corruption? Someone owes us all a pile of money in contributions.

If the candidate doesn't pay the bill, it would seem that makes that person an irresponsible deadbeat, right? Shouldn't they be reported to the credit bureaus?

Cuts You Can Believe In

The Republicans are talking about "across-the-board cuts." But none of 'em will say what they will cut. Why don't we cut the salaries of the House and Senate, and turn Congress into a homeless shelter? There's a start.

And who knows, if you pack enough people into triple bunks throughout the halls of Congress, it might save us some benefits money at least in the DC area, and it could be a pilot program for government buildings all over the country. Not to mention the organic gardens that could grow once we plow up all the cement on the grounds. It might invigorate Congress with some new energy once it has the vibe of a youth hostel in Copenhagen.

Now, some will say that this can't possibly be a serious proposal, and that we can't squeeze enough savings out of it to make a dent in the deficit. But symbolism matters, otherwise President Obama would not have finally pinned that American flag onto his lapel. And once the ball gets rolling, with real pain coming to the ones who, after all, caused it for the American people, maybe real fiscal responsibility will be around the corner.

False Choices

The Deficit Commission has been focusing on Social Security as one of the major means to lower the deficit and the national debt. But Social Security is really not as much of a problem as other areas of the government. Social Security is solvent for years to come, and one of the only reasons that it is not in better shape is that the Social Security Trust Fund has been repeatedly raided for years.

One of the biggest problems going forward into the future is the cost of providing health care. This is an elephant that threatens to engulf huge amounts of money going into the next few decades. With workers everywhere being asked to downsize, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and providers continue to expand their profits.

One of the reasons that single-payer was allegedly rejected is the amount that it would add to the deficit. But that money is circulating in the economy anyway, and to bring it under the federal government would be eliminating most of the profit that adds to the cost, and much of the waste. Also, providers and pharmaceutical companies would be held to reasonable profits that would be more in line with what people are experiencing and able to pay in this diminished economy.

And let's not forget military spending. Is it really necessary for the US to spend more than most of the other countries of the world combined? And why are do we still have bases in Germany, Japan, and other countries around the world? Military spending threatens to overwhelm us, and no other country spends anywhere near as much as we do.

Cutting education would be a huge mistake when the US is falling so far behind in its ability to innovate. And with the economy in a shambles, unemployment and food stamps provide an important (but inadequate, given the increase in hunger and homelessness within our borders over the last 30 years) safety net.

Maybe we should heed the old truism and not "bite off our nose to spite our face."

Propaganda Factories

Why is it that the corporate-owned half-hour news shows all cover the same eight stories night after night, with all the things that are going on with six billion people around the world?

Just try watching more than one national news broadcast at any given time (or recording news broadcasts) on major broadcast or cable networks, and it is often obvious that sometimes they are even covering stories in the same order at the same time, with very close to the same slant. There is something seriously wrong with that.

It probably has something to do with news pools, embedded reporters, "pack journalism" and editors that don't want to run things that other organizations are not confirming. But when a virtual corporate news cartel fulfills a propaganda function that is not all that dissimilar to what the Communist Party did in Eastern Europe, maybe that is a problem.

Repeal Health Care? Good Luck With That...

Just how exactly are the Republicans going to repeal health care?

Dry up funding for it? That will just bring in less revenue and bust the budget, making them look like bad guys. Defund the IRS' ability to monitor taxes? Obama has already said he is open to changing the 1099 provision. What else can they do? Tell the country that their children under 26 have to come off their insurance? Re-impose discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions? Take insurance away from those who couldn't get it before? Put the doughnut hole for seniors back?

Good luck with all that, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner.

Homophobia and Hypocrisy

The Pope went to Spain and blasted same-sex marriage. Funny he didn't have anything to say about same-sex priests (or pedophile priests).

Seriously, many of the people who are against same-sex marriage say they don't have anything against gays, it's just that the institution of marriage is "sacred." But often it is the only way for people to get insurance, to inherit, to get tax breaks that others can get, and obtain many other benefits that others see as a basic right. To deny these economic and political benefits to an entire class of people is nothing short of bigotry.

And it is certainly not compatible with the Catholic Church's lip service to tolerance.