Political Heat

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been highly critical as of late of Barack Obama's foreign policy, namely the opinions he (Obama) expressed on torture during the Bush administration. Cheney asserts that torture has worked, and that unreleased memos detail how we thwarted terrorist plots through such extreme interrogations. There is, however, a hitch in the former vice president's assertions. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, has called out Cheney's bluff, stating that his comments are blatant lies . Mr. Cheney claimed last week that President Obama’s decisions have made us less secure and that abusive interrogation techniques worked. Mr. Cheney has said that the use of abusive techniques “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent lives.” Mr. Cheney’s claims are directly contrary to the judgment of our FBI Director, Robert Mueller, that no attacks on America were disrupted due to intellig...

President Barack Obama recently announced that the stimulus package that was passed just over 100 days ago has already shown some results: it has created or saved over 150,000 jobs in the short time and amount of money that has been used thus far. If the current rate continues, we could see that number go up to half a million by the year's end. There's reason to expect more than that, however, in the future of the spending bill: the funds used thus far represent but a small fraction of what ultimately will become the bulk of the stimulus package. In other words, you can expect the rate at which jobs are saved or created to be even higher than it is today in a year's time.

(I know the story is a week old, but I wanted to write something on this...) I'm a liberal; this you should already know, if you read this blog regularly. The point is, many conservatives will probably assume that I don't support religious rights all that much. Truth be told, I'm a strong proponent of religious rights. I believe in public prayer in public places. I'm not all that opposed to religious symbols being placed on government property -- so long as all religions that want to be present there are allowed to be as well. When it comes to religion, I'm under the belief that whatever you want to believe, believe it, so long as it doesn't cause harm to anyone else. That last caveat is especially important; just as government can become oppressive towards religion, so, too, can religion become oppressive. It seems like something that doesn't have to be said -- there are literally centuries of evidence to confirm it -- but sometimes, it's worth remindin...

This morning I read Jonah Goldberg's column in the Wisconsin State Journal regarding President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. Needless to say, I was a bit outraged by what I read. Essentially, Goldberg wrote that there is no place for "empathy" on the Court, a trait that he called the "key qualification" for Obama's pick. (It wasn't the key qualification by any means -- Obama laid out a laundry list of items needed for anyone he was going to nominate, and empathy was among them.) Justices have to apply the rule of law to each case equally, and any opinion reached through empathetic emotions would be derived through dubious means. Goldberg acts as though Sotomayor is an ignoramus, as though she is not aware of her constitutional rights and duties as a judge (or justice). She ought to know better, for, if confirmed, she would have more federal experience than anyone else confirmed to the Court in the past 100 years . Yes, if a justice...

Earlier this week, the California state Supreme Court voted to uphold Proposition 8, a voter-based constitutional amendment that passed by a majority vote during the 2008 general election. Despite my opposition to the ban (and I'm sure I'll get some flak for writing this), I do feel the court made the right decision: there wasn't a legal basis available to overturn the ban, and doing so would have set terrible precedent. Having said that, I remain committed to writing on and continuing the push for alternative avenues for restoring marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in California as well as nation-wide. Overturning the ban through another voter-based referendum, for example, should be first priority for the gay marriage movement in California. Following such a vote, California voters should also fix their flawed constitutional amending process, of which only a simple majority is allowed to destroy the rights and protections afforded to the minority within the state...

Barack Obama, in his duties as president, has nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace current Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who announced his plans to step down a few weeks ago. Sotomayor, if confirmed, would become the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Court. Many conservative commentators are huffing and puffing over the nomination, especially over Obama's earlier remarks about adding a justice with "empathy" to the Court. The word is, to conservatives, code for judicial activism, which is a cardinal sin to anyone on the right. Except, of course, when it benefits their cause. As Thom Hartmann pointed out on his radio program today, if you define activism the way that conservatives do -- as "legislating from the bench" -- then it is the conservative justices on the Court, not the liberal ones, who are the real activists. According to a study from the American Prospect , from 1989 to 2005 the justices who were least likely to rule f...

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This weekend, you won't be seeing much of me posting. I will be up north (about an hour north of Appleton, Wisconsin) with the future in-laws celebrating the weekend. I figured I'd better let everyone know (all two of you, yuk yuk yuk!) that they shouldn't expect too many blogs from me during this Memorial Day. Do me a favor, though: find the time to reflect on a veteran who affected your life in some way. It's not just a holiday for the sake of having a day off; this holiday means something more than that. Take care, until Monday or so... Chris

Higher fuel standards and lower emissions are needed for our nation's cars, President Barack Obama said today, in order to curtail the effects of global climate change. Such standards are welcome signs for anyone who cares about the environment, as well as those who are concerned over our dependence on foreign oil and who want lower gas prices. Conservative commentators and lawmakers, of course, will deride the plan as anti-business, bad for the already fledgling auto industry and an unnecessary regulation to stop global climate change, a phenomenon many on the far right continue to deny is real. But climate change is very real, its effects already evident in melting glaciers, disappearing ice caps, and several species being driven from their habitat due to changing conditions. Glenn Beck and other talking heads like him can "huff-and-puff" all they want, but they're wrong to assume CO2 from humans is anything like CO2 from industry. When lawmakers like Rep. Joe Barto...

I recently have been engaging in a discussion online with someone about gay marriage. They had said that they wanted two wives; after all, we should only do what's fair. In reality, this person believed gay marriage to be wrong, to be an unfair advantage to gay and lesbian couples, a special right conferred on them. I responded with a parable on fairness, which takes place in a fictional country called "Fairland." Let’s consider the fairness of denying gay couples marriage rights in the state sense. How about a little game of make-believe? We’re starting a new country today! This country is called Fairland, where we’re going to treat everyone fair – whether that benefits them or not. Invariably, there will be many debates about what is fair or not, and many subjects worth discussing. But let’s remain focused on the topic of marriage for a moment. Many members of the new country have emigrated from foreign lands where marriage had been recognized by the government, which a...

President Barack Obama delivered the commencement speech at Notre Dame this weekend despite the controversy over his views on abortion that led some to protest his appearance. Obama stressed to the crowd that we should have an open debate on abortion, but that we could do " without reducing those with differing views to caricature ." Obama is taking the high road in defending his opinion while simultaneously showing respect to the opposition. It's characteristic of what this president is trying to accomplish on a bipartisan level: working to find common ground, giving attention to our agreements rather than our differences. Which is precisely what we should do on the abortion debate. While conservatives like to harp on about how liberals are "baby killers," and liberals consider conservatives anti-choice and disregarding women's health issues, the noble road is to seek out what both sides can do to eliminate abortion in this country. You heard me: we should...

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has been nominated to be the U.S. envoy to China within the Obama administration. Hunstman, a Republican governor and co-chair of John McCain's failed presidential campaign, is a moderate Republican in one of the most conservative states in the union, and considered a top contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Now that he's working for Obama, it seems less likely that he'll run against him, though it is not unprecedented. With another Republican joining the Obama administration, it's clear that the president is still looking to bridge gaps between the two parties. Moderate Republicans, especially, have been receptive to Obama's call for bipartisanship, while the extremely conservative members of the party have pushed aside the notion. Undoubtedly, Huntsman will be derided by those conservative elements of his party. But as the Republican Party shirks its members for wanting to cooperate, the party itself will begin to s...

Though it won't legalize gay marriage in the state, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court will review the legality of the gay marriage ban, passed in 2006 by a statewide referendum vote. Under state constitutional law, a constitutional amendment must be passed by two consecutive sessions of the state legislature, after which the measure must be approved by a majority of the citizenry. As an added requirement, the amendment in question must only contain one provision to be decided upon. The state ban on gay marriage had two provisions: first, it asked whether gay marriage should be banned; second, it asked whether government-endorsed unions between same-sex couples should also be banned, effectively making civil unions a non-option as well. The Supreme Court must overturn the ban on gay marriage for two reasons: first, the ban was passed with two provisions placed before the people, and failed to take into account those who supported one provision but not the other. And second, the ban ...

Does the public's right to know something override the government's argument that such knowledge could cause harm? The Obama administration's decision to reverse course and hold back pictures of abuse of detainees continues the Bush policy of supposedly protecting those in harms way -- mainly the US troops overseas -- as a result of releasing such evidence, in the form of terrorist attacks upon our troops. But is such a fear rational? Consider the last time such photographs were released to the public. When the Abu Ghraib photos came out, the same retaliation was expected: we feared that the insurgency and terrorists in Iraq would attack our soldiers. In fact, according to iCasualties.org , deaths among troops went down in the months following the April release of the photos. It went down two straight months, and casualties overall went down three straight months. The age of transparency was supposed to be ushered in under this administration. Critics of Obama contended the...

Carrie Prejean was reassured today by Donald Trump that she would keep her crown as Miss California despite breaking key provisions of her contract, including not disclosing the fact that nude and semi-nude photos existed of her. Prejean lost the Miss USA competition in large part due to her response to a question regarding gay marriage, in which she answered that she believed marriage should remain between one man and one woman. In a previous post , I defended Prejean and argued it was wrong for the judges to fault her for stating her opinion. When I think about it now, perhaps I was wrong. I still believe that Prejean and other finalists should, for the most part, not be "punished" for their opinions. But consider this extreme: if she had been asked about her opinion on stealing candy from children, and had answered that she was all for it, would it be wrong for the Miss USA judges to hold her opinion against her? Ultimately, the judges make decisions on finalists based on...

Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida is planning a run for the Senate in his home state. Crist, a moderate Republican, will opt out of running for re-election to the governorship and instead throw his hat in the Senate race. If Crist wins -- and he has a good chance of doing so -- it could signal to other Republican candidates that moderation is the way to go. Should he lose, however, the GOP may take it as a sign that moderate candidates cannot win, thus enabling them to run as idealists rather than pragmatists (because what else would they have to lose?). For Democrats, this situation is not necessarily a "win-lose" -- should Crist win, we won't get that Senate seat we want, which ordinarily would be a losing situation. However, if Crist's victory tells Republicans that moderation is the way to go, it could lead to a less-hostile party for Democrats to work with. Ultimately, our goal is to win Florida in 2010. But failing that, a Crist victory will move the Republicans to ...

Just to show how desperate the Republican Party really is, consider this little tidbit... From CNN's Political Ticker : Nicolle Wallace, a top adviser to George W. Bush and John McCain’s presidential campaign, is adding a few names to the list of Republicans who might lead the GOP out of the wilderness. Top among them? Actor Gary Sinise. "The natural strengths that an actor brings to politics would come in handy to anyone going up against Obama in 2012," she wrote. "We will need an effective communicator who can stand toe to toe with Obama’s eloquence." Apparently, the GOP has forgotten that Americans hate political celebrities, which is why their commercial comparing Obama's popularity to Paris Hilton's was such a success . All humor aside, it's really interesting to me that the Republicans have no problem with actors who come to their side, but when celebs champion liberal causes, they're suddenly "elitists." Talk about hypocrisy. I p...

At the White House Correspondents's dinner last night, President Barack Obama told many jokes. But he did take a moment to comment on the status of newspapers in the country today. Per CNN.com : "Across the country, there are extraordinary, hardworking journalists who have lost their jobs in recent days, recent weeks, recent months," he said. "I know each newspaper and media outlet is wrestling with how to respond with these changes. ... Not every ending will be a happy one." Obama is right to worry; the newspaper industry has often been the sole voice of accountability when it comes to the government (think Woodward and Bernstein with Watergate). With its disappearance, there may be a void in whom would be able to access government records, meetings, etc. and reporting the information to the people. Bloggers like to argue that they could fill that void. However, many bloggers get their information from -- you guessed it -- online editions of newspapers. Cable n...

The recent streak of bad luck that the GOP has had is causing some to question: is the Republican Party dead? TIME magazine calls them an endangered species; Democratic strategist James Carville claims that there will be forty years of Democratic rule. Long-time Republican Sen. Arlen Specter is now a Democrat, and less than a quarter of all Americans consider themselves Republican or Republican-aligned. The party of the elephant is having an identity crisis, struggling between becoming a right-of-center party or adhering to strict, ideological beliefs. The former pushes aside the die-hards; the latter, moderates and independents. But is the party really that close to extinction? All signs point to...no. The reasonably-sized Tea Party protests indicate that there is a sizable number of Americans who still aren't sold on the Obama strategy of spending our way out of the economic crisis. It should also be noted that just four years ago the media was painting a similar portrait for the...

I write a column for a local blog called Dane101 , which focuses on issues pertaining to Dane County, Wisconsin. I will be posting my columns periodically on this blog as well, but do check out their site too. It's chock-full of goodies for Dane County residents. Smoking ban justifiable It seems, for now, that a compromise has been reached between opposing factions of the statewide smoking ban debate: Such a ban is set to be signed into law sometime next week, but wouldn’t take effect until July 2010. But is such a ban justifiable? In the past, I’ve been known to take a conservative view of this issue (which may be surprising to some of you reading this). I sided with the rights of tavern owners, whom I believed possessed the sole judgment in deciding whether they’d allow smoking on their premises. The laws of capitalism would dictate whether or not patrons would come into these establishments – in other words, if smoking was such a problem for customers, the “invisible hand” of th...

The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy within our military is ridiculously outdated. Gay and lesbian soldiers who wish to be open with their sexuality should be able to do so without repercussions of any kind, just as soldiers who are openly "straight" aren't. As it stands today, the United States is one of two NATO member countries who disallow open homosexuals from serving their country militarily; the other member country is Turkey. The main fear, I suppose, is that straight soldiers will feel uncomfortable being gawked at by gay soldiers in the showers or barracks. But that's an irrational fear; if it were rational, wouldn't female soldiers have the same fear of straight men in the field? Gay soldiers in our military aren't likely to cause much trouble; under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" there hasn't been much of a problem, and the only difference between keeping the policy and getting rid of it would mean being able to be ho...

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently suggested that his state should have an honest dialogue about legalizing marijuana for recreational use . Currently, marijuana in California is legal for those whose doctor prescribes it to them for medical conditions that they have. Schwarzenegger, who once used the drug himself, sees the benefits of legalizing pot from the state's point of view: tax revenue. If we legalize pot, California (or any state for that matter) can place a tax on it to gain more dollars for the state's budget. Currently, California faces a $42 billion deficit . Could legalizing marijuana help California's budget woes? It couldn't hurt. Aside from the expected tax revenue from pot, however, is the argument of whether or not drugs should be made illegal to begin with. What a person does with their own body should be their own business, so long as it doesn't cause any harm to anyone else. This includes what they do for a living, what they do ...

So I got flu-like symptoms, and like the hypochondriac that I secretly am, I had to be sure -- I had to go to the doctor's and make sure that it wasn't the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu. I arrived at the urgent care clinic and signed in. I was informed it would be a two hour wait...but in reality, I waited for about 45 minutes, tops. They handed me a mask and I read my book in the waiting room. I was called back, blood pressure taken, temperature measured, so on and so forth, and eventually the nurse practitioner came in. She told me she didn't think what I had was anything serious; it was either the swine flu, strep throat, or the regular flu. So I had my throat swabbed and they inserted a strange tube in my nose. Not pleasant, but a small price to pay for piece of mind. Speaking of small prices to pay, I should mention that I am a recipient of Badgercare Plus, the statewide program in Wisconsin that provides lower income families with health care coverage. I pai...

Indecent photos of Ms. California , aka Carrie Prejean, the famed campaigner of straight marriage, have surfaced on the internet, leading some to question the validity of her argument against gay marriage rights. But are the pictures relevant to the debate on gay marriage? There are two sides to this: first, consider what mocking and degrading Prejean would entail. Any criticism of her may be taken as criticism of her choice to do with her body whatever she wants. That's a personal freedom that every American should have a right to, and is ironically partially the basis on which we can argue FOR same-sex marriage. At the same time, we can look at Ms. Prejean's words and her actions and note a clear double-standard: while she holds no qualms over what she does with her body, what gay and lesbian couples do in the privacy of their own homes is not OK, which justifies her belief that gay marriage is wrong. Ms. Prejean, being a public figure, is privy to such criticism and should, ...

So the Republican Party is planning on rebranding itself in an effort to gain more members or supporters towards its goals. Currently, only 21 percent of Americans consider themselves Republicans or supporters of the GOP today, compared with 35 percent who call themselves Democrats. Recently, the Republican Party has taken a swift turn to the left, causing some (like Sen. Arlen Specter) to jump ship to the more-inclusive Democratic Party. Moderate Republicans (what little remain) have been threatened by GOP Chairman Michael Steele who said he may withhold funds for these Republicans for supporting some of Barack Obama's economic policies. If this situation is any indicator, as well as the various Tea Party/Tax Day protests held by conservative activists across the country last month, the rebranding effort may cause the GOP to turn even sharper right. If that happens, you can expect even more independents and moderates to go blue in 2010 and 2012. However, there is the possibility ...

I will be gone over the weekend, into Monday evening. I'll be visiting family up in the Fox River Valley area. So no, I didn't disappear into oblivion, in case you start to worry. I'll be back on here soon...until then, feel free to peruse the previous posts for something you might like/dislike.