That’s an old and annoying Democrat talking point: Rich boss pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Indeed, raising the cap gains tax would reduce investment, which is the opposite of what we need. Besides that, Buffet’s tax rate is only lower because he isn’t counting the corporate tax which is paid on that money too.

It’s annoying that our ‘leadership’ is unwilling to fix things. Here’s a campaign slogan: Don’t fix it, tax’n patch it. Our debt is racing toward $20 Trillion, and the best idea they have is a runt version of the trickle-style stimulus we’ve been using. We’re going to trickle ourselves to death.

We need serious reform! What about reforming Medicare? Use means testing or raise the age. Because if we can get the deficit under control, the debt won’t matter. YES – our $15 trillion debt is offensive. But with the size of our GDP, it’s manageable. What makes it not manageable is the deficit and the lack of willingness to balance the damn budget.

If we could get the deficit under control, then we could do something serious, like drop $4-5 trillion on infrastructure updates. Maybe we could set up a smart-grid, something that could actually handle and distribute all this electricity the Liberals are demanding to magically appear from wind and solar. Maybe we could set up a super-broadband, and bring it to every town. Maybe we could update some water and sanitation.

What about reforming the tax system? You want to increase exports? How about taxing all the shit we buy, which includes all the imports we buy, and stop taxing the American work that goes into making our exports? Something like Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. That kind of change would be profoundly good for both business and government efficiency.

What about zeroing the cap gains tax??? Yeah, it would hurt Warren Buffet’s feelings… But all the non-deranged people and businesses would have to let go of their money. They’re hanging onto it out of uncertainty: Risk. The way you overcome risk is with reward. Lower taxes on investment means higher reward, resulting in higher tolerated risk, and thus investment.

What about all these rich people who aren’t struggling? We could just tax them more to pay for bills labeled according to the electorate’s biggest current concern. Then we wouldn’t have to do any actual reform right now that could frighten old people and threaten Obama’s reelection. Even if we can’t force it through, we’ll be able to vilify the Republicans and set them up as the “Party of No,” or the “Anti-Jobs Party.” We’re already trying to get, “The Tea Party Recession” out there in preparation. Yes We Can! Yes We Can!

I’ve been thinking about this, and I think both American approaches to trade with china and other Asian countries is misguided.

There are the free-trade folks who want to keep trade opened so we can sell goods and purchase inexpensive goods. After all, this is exactly why we have the high standard of living we currently do. The trouble though is, the developing countries are developing, and are now able to do the high level stuff they once relied on us for.

Then we have the Liberal/union folks who want to put up barriers with most every country, in an effort to bottle up the good stuff here – ignoring the facts about where our high standard of living comes from, and the fact that other countries will respond to hostile trade law with their own hostile trade laws.

With regard to Asia, we tend to treat them like special needs children, because to us, they seem irrational and crazy. I think they seem that way because we assume they start with the same assumptions as we do.

For example, in the US or Europe, you make a deal with someone, and that’s that. You wrote the contract, now both side fulfill their portions. In Asia (including the Middle East) and especially China, that’s never that. Every time you talk to the turkey’s they’re trying to get a discount, weasel out of something, or assuming you into doing loads of extra. They’ll pull tricks, like have you over to negotiate a price, and have your competition in the next room doing the same. There’s no honor or kindness. And – our tendencies toward honor and kindness are seen as weaknesses to exploit.

I think Trump’s focus on China is because of their currency, and the fact that many factories in all the other developing nations are more and more often owned by China. Trump also does business with the Chinese and knows what I’m talking about here.

I’m thinking the Chinese might respect some hostile measures in response to their artificial currency. They have a shit more to lose than we do anyway. Let them adjust their currency to the dollar. We’ll adjust a tax to their currency. (Seriously, the US could collapse China just by writing a law that made it illegal to buy superfluous consumer garbage.)

If we combine that with some type of long term relief here for business, I think we could see some move back. Our corporate taxes are unreasonable. We don’t need more taxes we need more payer.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4404107/navigating-new-political-landscape/?playlist_id=87937#/v/4405075/obamacare-repeal-coming/?playlist_id=87937

–Better arguments for Professor Dove’s article, “Buy Ameri-mexi-nadian”–

1. The best thing to do for the economy is to buy what you think is the best value. If an American company isn’t building the car you want, or if the American car of your type – say a Focus – costs $50 more a month than its foreign competition, what else will you do? Lower your personal standard of living in an effort to ‘patriotically’ support a corporation? Ford doesn’t do that. Neither does GM or Chrysler. They buy their shit where ever it’s cheapest – usually foreign. And they move production to where ever it’s cheapest whenever they have the chance. Do you think a new factory will ever be built in UAW territory again???

2. Foreign companies have low labor costs, resulting in higher value cars. American companies have some of the highest labor costs. Although the American workers are more productive than their foreign competition – those gains are nullified by their incredibly high – low skill wage. Unions in the US have functioned like a power syndicate taxing the auto companies – resulting in far-above market wages for their members. An auto worker is doing basic manual labor for what is equivalent to $50 an hour while his non-union neighbor is willing to do the job for $15 or $20, even less in this economy. If the auto companies can get a reasonable hold on their labor costs – they’ll add more value tot heir cars and be more competitive.

3. Besides the history of bad quality, US car companies also have a history of bad service – and that’s a recent history. It’s been over a decade since most foreign car companies have offered the 100,000 mile power train warranty.  Domestic manufacturers still only offer the 30,000 mile with an expensive extension – and often don’t cover problems when they do occur during the 30k miles. That kind of thing really sticks in a person’s craw.

4. US companies have unappealing entry-level options - still. Each US manufacturer has it’s small economy car, the type first-time car buyers often get. But they don’t offer the value of other models – like the Honda Civic. And how could they offer value? US auto companies loose money on the little cars, and only keep them so they can compete in the first-time buyer market. That reason for having a first-rate high-value first-time-buyer car is to start a tradition with young people. If a person buys a Honda and has a great experience, they are likely to buy a Honda the next time around. And foreign manufacturers like Honda excel in this market because all they make are small cars and they do it profitably – that’s where their energy is focused.

5. We no longer need large scale manufacturing for national security. The Great War was certainly the war to end all wars. Who, after enduring the destruction and loss of life of that great global conflict, could ever wage large-scale war again? Our modern weapons simply make it too horrific.

[edit: 1948] Now that we have the bomb, large scale war is something we’ll only experience in history books. No one will wage large scale war because it would eventually end in nuclear warfare, which would be catastrophic and in no one’s interest.

[edit: 1953] Oh shit, we might need that heavy production, or some counter to the Soviet mechanized forces, which are growing at a rate that will soon threaten all of Western Europe with an unstoppable swooping invasion.

[edit: 2003] Large scale warfare is a thing of the past. Modern wars are small, requiring light and fast military forces and air power. Heavy equipment is obsolete when a hand full of Ranger teams with eye’s in the sky and bombs from heaven can do in a month what the Soviet Army couldn’t accomplish in 7 years – or when such a modest force can topple a military regime over night, such as Sadam’s.

[edit: 2009] Modern wars require many troops, but only a fraction of them are combat focused, because the main goal is protecting and appeasing the civilians of the area. Domestic production of military equipment can be small because we don’t loose it – we just wear it out. Sudden large-scale war production is as unnecessary as fighter planes and manned air power.:-)

Growing up in Dearborn, MI, aka Ford Country, and having had family, friends, and friends’ family that worked for Ford, Chrysler, and GM, I may be a little biased when it comes to buying and owning American-made vehicles. But I am quite tired of the lousy reasons people give me to justify their purchase of a foreign-made car.
So occasionally, to give people a hard time, or to be serious, depending on who it is, I ask “why did you buy a Toyota/Honda/Hyundaii/Kia/BMW/VW/etc.?” I typically get one to three of the same answers every time.
“They are better quality cars.”
This is the most popular response for Japanese and Korean car owners. Especially in the DC area, there seems to be this unsupported belief that American cars are low quality and that Toyota is far superior to any Ford. Now if this were the 1990′s, or even the early 2000′s, the data show this is probably true. But if you have looked at a Car and Driver Report over the last 5 years or more, you will see that American cars are equal or greater to Japanese-made cars in nearly every category of quality and safety. So whatever 20th century misconception you are still carrying about a Ford car, do some research.
“They get better gas mileage.”
In most cases, especially for cars more than 5 years old, foreign cars were smaller and of course, got better gas mileage. Thankfully Detroit (what!) has stepped up to the fuel efficiency challenge and matches or exceeds that of foreign cars in many vehicle categories (here’s looking at you, Fusion Hybrid).
“This car was made in the US, right in Kentucky and most American cars aren’t even made in the US. Their made in Mexico.”
Wow, aren’t you a smart one. On the surface this sounds like a great argument and could justify buying that Corolla for years to come. However, the argument is garbage when you ask some questions. If factory workers in Kentucky or Ohio were not building a Honda or Toyota, what would they be doing? It is tough to say what they would be doing exactly, because who knows what else they can choose from. But if people aren’t buying foreign cars, what are they buying? American cars. So someone would be building those cars. Maybe in Kentucky, maybe in Michigan, or even Alabama. But American workers would be assembling these cars in some form or another. Most car parts for a Toyota are still built in Japan, even if they are assembled here. And yes, many things such as engines for Fords and GMs are built somewhere else, but this leads to the main point on this topic. Where do the profits go?
The answer is easy. If it is a Toyota, the profits go to Japan. If it is a Ford, profits go to Dearborn. Profits are taxed, which help build and support the local and federal government (and trust me, Michigan needs company profits). Profits support business expansion and growth, which creates more jobs. Would you like to create more jobs in Flint, MI or Seoul?
So tell me the US doesn’t have a roadster like the Z4 or Audi TT. Tell me that you like the look of the Cooper Mini. Tell me Toyota makes cloth seats that don’t give you a rash. Tell me you hate America and want all of its factories capable of full-scale war production to close down and be disassembled (and get a swift kick in the junk from me). But stop feeding me the BS you have convinced yourself is sufficient reason not to support an American company and the strength of the United States economy.

I usually have to keep a bag of salt handy when I watch Hannity. But this segment was good. He had Oliver North on and they were discussing what a former ‘associate’ of Bin Laden said recently about Al Qaeda’s assumptions about American reaction to the attacks they were planning for 9-11.

According to the associate they figured it would be a Clinton response but, “maybe 200 cruise missiles.” And apparently they were shocked as shit when Bush appeared in their back yard and started blasting them out of their caves. lol

In case you are losing a sense of the American Spirit, lest you forget, here is a reminder.

General George S. Patton’s Speach, Somewhere in England, 5 June 1944

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle.

You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, every one of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.

You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he’s not, he’s a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen.

All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call “chicken shit drilling.” That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don’t give a fuck for a man who’s not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn’t be here. You are ready for what’s to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you’re not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit! There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did.

An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking! We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we’re going up against. By God, I do.

My men don’t surrender, and I don’t want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That’s not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!

All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don’t ever let up. Don’t ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn’t like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, ‘Hell, they won’t miss me, just one man in thousands.’ But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don’t think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn’t a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the ‘G.I. Shits.’

Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don’t want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, ‘Fixing the wire, Sir.’ I asked, ‘Isn’t that a little unhealthy right about now?’ He answered, ‘Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed.’ I asked, ‘Don’t those planes strafing the road bother you?’ And he answered, ‘No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!’ Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds.

And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts.

Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren’t combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable.

Don’t forget, you men don’t know that I’m here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I’m not supposed to be commanding this Army. I’m not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Someday I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, ‘Jesus Christ, it’s the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton.’ We want to get the hell over there.” The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit.

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I’d shoot a snake!

When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don’t dig foxholes. I don’t want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don’t give the enemy time to dig one either. We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We’re not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we’re going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cock suckers by the bushel-fucking-basket.

War is a bloody, killing business. You’ve got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it’s the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you’ll know what to do!

I don’t want to get any messages saying, ‘I am holding my position.’ We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!

From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don’t give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.

There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON’T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, ‘Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.’ No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, ‘Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a- Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!’

“That is all.”

Ever wonder why the US was so successful in kicking Mexico’s ass during the Mexican-American war? Or why we gave so much land back to them after our marines occupied the Halls of Montezuma in the capital of Mexico City?

In short, the northen congressmen did not want more pro-slavery land belonging to the US, so we stopped at California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico (Oregon Territory too, but that was anti-slavery).

As to the success, just look at the junior officer’s names. You might recognize some of them as the Who’s Who of the Civil War: Ulysses Grant, Robert E Lee, McClellan, Sherman, and others. Yeah, no surprise we kicked serious ass. With those men we could have taken Europe had we not fought each other.

Yahoo Finance Article:  U.S. Economy “De-evolving”: An Industrialist’s Plan to Revive American Manufacturing

I think her conclusion is correct, but the argument she reaches that conclusion with is full of falsities – like sighting American jobs as a reason we need manufacturing due to services not producing enough ‘jobs’ for everyone.

The reason we need manufacturing and other non-services making up a good percentage of our economy is because it creates real value. We often tie manufacturing to jobs because traditionally manufacturing uses a lot of people. But outsourcing, automation, and ‘green’ energy all have the same affect on jobs: They turn a building full of laborers into a room full of technicians.

In other words, manufacturing != jobs. (does not equal) If the US increases manufacturing it might (should) heavily include automation and might not produce one extra job or might even reduce overall manufacturing jobs.

The reason we need manufacturing is to maintain a solid value-creating infrastructure. It’s convenient – and good – to import goods and outsource labor. That’s how we’ve raised our standard of living from shoveling coal every morning to taking a hot shower and jumping online.

Heavy imports only work when we have a strong dollar and lots of technology and other non-thing things to export – and you can’t export services. Standard of living in China and other places is growing. The dollar is weakening. And the rest of the world is more-or-less catching up technologically.

What if we developed some magic device that would make anything we wanted? We could just dump raw material in one end and cars, computers, and bottles of shampoo came out the other? Would that be bad? Of course not! Everything would be so cheep! But the magic machine would “kill” jobs – meaning the laborers would have to find other work.

But actually, the magic machine would increase jobs. How??? Well, all the money consumers save they could use for services and other things – increasing those jobs. And the money the owners and operators of the magic machine – they would have money to spend and invest too – which comes out to more value for less effort: Increased efficiency. Indeed, for a while – as the economy made the transition – those former laborers would be spending less money. But once they found a job, or made a job, they would again start spending on the same things – plus extra stuff they can now afford thanks to the magic machine = more overall jobs.

But in reality, our magic consumer-goods machine is China and other developing nations. They won’t always be developing, and our dollar won’t always buy a whole day’s worth of a China man’s labor though.

Scott Brown elected Massachusetts State Senator

Do you think a woman who had posed nude could ever achieve national political office?

Disaster in Haiti

The only hope long term for Haiti is a deadly disease that only affects jerks. That’s the only hope for a lot of developing nations criminally ruled by jerks. The CIA got close with AIDS, but they didn’t realize back then that butt-sex and being a jerk were not mutually inclusive. Ah well, dreams for the next conservative administration.

‘We are the world’ Haiti relief recording session begins

These people need to be stopped. Send your money to Red Cross.

State of the Union address

I don’t know why people take Obama’s speeches to seriously. I mean, they were never meant to be taken literally. His message is one of hope and change. We can all learn valuable lessons from his speeches but – lol – you can’t apply those ideas directly to policy – that was never the intended purpose of his message.

Toyota Recall

Yeah! Another fat-cat scapegoat! Yeah, let’s get’m! Whoohoo!

Obama getting tough on China for trade agreement infractions

I’m getting tough on my credit cards too. I’m taking a different approach though. I’m paying off the debt – or at least trying.

Underpants bomber now talking, encouraged by parents

Wow Obama administration! Way to go getting the kid to ignore his lawyer’s advice. If only all terrorists had responsible parents. And thanks for telling us about it too. Now all of America knows how great of a job you’re doing protecting us. Hey, so have you gone ahead and put Al Qaeda on the list to receive your FUCKING news letter yet?

Sarah Palin to receive $100k speaking fee for Tea Party Convention

Only a Liberal would find this controversial. She’s a Conservative from Alaska. What do you think she’s going to do with the cash? Buy something with it? You give those people a rifle and a pair of boots – a few years later they’ve got a city with a shipping port. Watch, she’ll invest in some unknown little jackass somewhere and turn another baby-blue state red. Astroturf my ass… U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A

Healthcare reform bill stalled

Ok guys, I get it. You got caught up in all the inaugural excitement. We elected Obama assuming “change” meant a thoughtful approach, but you thought we gave you a mandate to turn the country on its keel. So you went after you’re dreams: single payer, sky-rocketing business costs, and reduced carbon output. I can’t blame anyone for going after their dreams. And hey, at least you go that juicy stimulus!

But those darn Democrats, they got in your way. Single payer was compromised into single payer under a different name – then into a public option. Then even that was compromised – first into some fancy long winded name coined by Pelosi that essentially meant public option, and finally, a year later, into nothing more than a list new regulations – more similar to the Republican alternative to Hillary Care than the brilliant progressive stride we were all assuming would slide through. (Eh, regardless of the naïve math and unfunded state Medicaid mandates) And to add insult to injury, you have to buy some of those Dem votes too.

And darn-it – you could have passed it. Hell, you could have passed a bill covering sea lions FFS. I know you’d like to blame the Republicans, but shit man – you knew you had all the power and that’s how you wrote the bill. No Republican could have voted for that thing any more than you guys could all climb on board with invading Iraq! Or – wait. You got tricked on that one – hu? Well, you know what I mean. You can’t blame the dog you’re walking when you walk into a pole – even if he was enthusiastic about it.

So the question is: What now. Indeed, this bill is shot to shit. Stack that monstrosity on the back of the toilet in the staff bathroom. But what now? Should you pole-vault over the wall with Pelosi? Should you try to come to some reasonable consensus with a few reasonable Republicans? Should you keep this unorganized circus with your ring leader off in his own ring singing his poems?

I’m not sure what you should do. I’d like to see some actual reform though.

Congress to cut funding for KSM trial in NY

Every time anyone asks Obama or anyone in his admin a question about trying KSM in civilian court, they duck the question and assure us he’ll be convicted and executed. So if this is just going to be a $1 billion show trial – why not just “have the trial” (wink-wink)? You know – take a few days off, “have the trial,” print up some transcripts and stuff, execute the bastard, and use the $1 billion on some new Predator drones or something.

Don’t ask don’t tell – once again up for debate

What part of “don’t ask don’t tell” is so hard to understand?

Short answer:

The passenger is not being treated as a POW because he is not being tried for a war crime.  The Bill of Rights applies to the whole of the American system of government and justice.  Whether he is a citizen or not, he is being tried under American law, which means that he is entitled to certain protections including a presumption of innocence.  Anytime that you start willy-nilly doing away with core principles of the United States justice system just because you don’t like the accused criminal or the alleged crime is a huge problem in my opinion.  I applaud the treatment of this case thus far.