Archive for February 13, 2012
New Mexico: Corporations Are Not People
I’m about to crawl in bed because I have The Cold That Won’t Quit that everyone seems to have these days, but I want to put this up first:
New Mexico calls on Congress to overturn Citizens United ruling
The New Mexico state legislature has approved a resolution that urges the U.S. Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.
“This marks a major victory for the constitutional amendment movement to reclaim our democracy,” said John Bonifaz, director of Free Speech for People, a coalition of groups that oppose the controversial ruling.
“The Citizens United ruling presents a direct and serious threat to the integrity of our elections, unleashing a torrent of corporate money into our political process,” he added. “The ruling is also the most extreme extension yet of a corporate rights doctrine which has been eroding our First Amendment and our US Constitution for the past 30 years. As with prior egregious Supreme Court rulings which threatened our democracy, we the people must exercise our power under Article V of the Constitution to enact a constitutional amendment which will preserve the promise of American self-government: of, for, and by the people.”
If my memory serves, I think this is the first time a state legislature has passed a resolution opposing Citizens United. A number of city and county councils have passed amendments and/or resolutions but I think this is first state-wide resolution ever.
Bravo New Mexico.
Let’s keep this ball rollin’ people!
Little Monsters
OK folks, it’s break time and if you’re a dog lover like me you’re going to crack up at these photos of dogs underwater by Seth Casteel, the proprietor of Little Friends, Lifestyle Pet Photography.
From the dogs’ perspective, of course, the main thing isn’t how you look for the camera, it’s getting that freakin’ ball!
Photo: LittleFriendsPhoto.com
Photo: LittleFriendsPhoto.com
Are these hilarious or what? I love them. What a great idea.
See more at the link above.
Everyone Should Have Their Very Own Drone
Stanford University professor Francis Fukuyama built his very own drone, and not just because it would be a cool, guy-thing to do:
It is extremely easy to build a drone now that can do not just surveillance but can carry rather large payloads. If you want to see how large some of these planes get, check out this video of a model Airbus A380. I don’t have to spell out the implications of this. I want to have my drone before the government makes them illegal. The US has been fighting such low-tech enemies lately that we haven’t thought through the nature of a world in which lots of people have sophisticated drones, not just other countries but private individuals.
Here’s video of a test flight:
I like the way Fukuyama thinks. Since “police departments across the country are marshaling a new generation of remote-controlled airborne surveillance devices to be their eyes in the sky,” maybe we should all have our very own drone to keep an eye on police drones. At some point, with potentially thousands of drones flying around, it’s going to get silly. Drones watching drones watching drones.
Want the Rich to Pay More Taxes? Go With Obama
Here is a chart comparing taxes under Obama’s budget and Romney’s budget. Obama is blue, Romney is red.
Notice how, under Obama’s tax proposal, taxes go up dramatically for the top 90% income earners and then then very dramatically for the 95%-ers and higher. Romney on the other hand much nicer to the “job creators” his buddies.
See a larger version of the chart and get the details here.
Question for Conservatives: Who Is Going to Pay For a War On Iran?
Steve Clemons asks a good (and obvious) question:
While GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is doing all he can in this election cycle to gin up a debate about U.S. foreign policy and a measure of the costs and benefits involved, the debate about Iran, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel’s security has been taking place in a gravityless environment.
Mitt Romney’s opening foreign-policy opus at the Citadel criticized President Obama for defense cuts and promised to boost America’s defense commitments abroad, to boost military spending on hardware and ships in the Pacific–to do everything we have been doing but more.
Where are the dollars going to come from?
I am one who thinks that war with Iran is far off and in the near term unlikely–unless Israel makes a tremendous mistake by triggering and forcing a geostrategic move by the United States, a choice that could very well ultimately dismantle the close U.S.-Israel relationship (another alternative: Forces inside Iran that would benefit from a war cause an escalation that produces a potential nightmare in the Persian Gulf and region).
That said, fewer and fewer people agree with me–and various of the GOP presidential candidates seem to be competing with each other to tell U.S. citizens how quickly they would deploy American military and intelligence assets to undermine Iran’s supreme leader and his government.
[...]
Wars cost lots and lots of money– and if a substantial chunk of the GOP crowd wants these wars and feels that it is in our national interest to have them, then by all means they should start lining up some of the wealthiest in the country who are helping to agitate for these conflicts to pay more in taxes for them.
Memo to the “liberal media:” The next time you’re in front of Romney, Santorum, Gingrich or any of the other conservatives who are advocating for aggression against Iran, ask them how they plan on paying for it. Hello!
Earthquake Activity — 2011
Did you know there were 9,323 earthquakes worldwide in 2011? Me either.
Here’s a fascinating video depicting 2011 in earthquake activity. It’s stunning how much activity centers around the western edge of what I believe is called the Pacific plate, i.e., the area immediately to the east of Japan, Indonesia and down to Australia.
Another thing that struck me are the aftershocks continuing to this day off the coast of Japan, triggered by that huge 9.0 earthquake there on March 11, 2011.
This is truly profound to see — the year of 2011 earthquakes plotted out on a orthographic (globe) map — ANIMATED WITH SOUND INTENSITY for each earthquake!!
(Via.)
