NEWS FLASH

Super Committee Members’ Staffers-Turned-Defense Lobbyists Fighting Against Military Spending Cuts | The service chiefs were on Capitol Hill today scaring members of Congress about the (baseless) dangers of further reducing America’s bloated military spending budget. But lawmakers, particularly on the Republican side, and their allies in the Obama administration, have already been campaigning against further cuts. But the real lobbying is coming from the defense industry. The National Journal reports that 22 of the super committee members’ former staffers are now defense industry lobbyists. And according to a new report, they “are using their clout to derail Pentagon cuts just weeks before the panel’s deadline to make its deficit-reduction suggestions to Congress.” The defense industry gave more than $1 million to the 12 members of the super committee over the last two election cycles, while “the industry as a whole spent $144 million on lobbying in 2010 and now employs 1,000 lobbyists.”

NEWS FLASH

FRC Prays For Gays To No Longer ‘Possess Our Nation’s Children’ | In its latest prayer targets, the Family Research Council responds to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) bill to end discrimination against same-sex parents by calling on God to prohibit the “radical homosexual agenda” from “possessing” children: “May God intervene and stir Americans to resist and stop this effort to advance the radical homosexual agenda and literally to possess our nation’s children. May God open our eyes!” (HT: Joe.My.God.)

Alyssa

You’re Invited: A Special Pop Culture And The Death Penalty Project Event

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Nov 2, 2011 at 5:21 pm

I got behind today, and I’m not finished with The Confession. So we’ll discuss it next week. I’m so sorry. But, I have something to make up for it instead!

I’d like to invite all of you in the area to a screening of Werner Herzog’s new documentary on the death penalty, Into the Abyss, on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. at Gallery Place. I’ll be there, and if enough folks can make it, we can turn this into a Cavalcade of the Nerds discussion over beers afterwards. If you can come, RSVP to intotheabyssdc@gmail.com to get on the list, and comment here if you’re up for post-movie drinks. The movie is fascinating and powerful, and I can’t wait to discuss it with all of you in person and online.

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Economy

40 House Republicans Sign Letter Saying They’re Open To Tax Increases

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:45 pm

Forty House Republicans joined 60 Democrats today in a letter calling on the congressional super committee to consider “all options” in crafting a deficit reduction package, including increasing revenues. As the AP notes, the “letter puts about one-sixth of House GOP lawmakers on record as saying the supercommittee should consider collecting more taxes.” From the letter:

We write to you as a bipartisan group of representatives from across the political spectrum in the belief that the success of your committee is vital to our country’s future. We know that many in Washington and around the country do not believe we in the Congress and those within your committee can successfully meet this challenge. We believe that we can and we must.

To succeed, all options for mandatory and discretionary spending and revenues must be on the table. In addition, we know from other bipartisan frameworks that a target of some $4 trillion in deficit reduction is necessary to stabilize our debt as a share of the economy and assure America’s fiscal well-being.

Republican Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) organized the letter, which included conservative signatories like Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and some freshmen Tea Party lawmakers like Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY).

So far, the Republican leadership has shown little interest in even discussing the revenue side of the balance sheet, let alone raising the necessary tax revenue, even though experts agree that reducing the deficit will require both spending cuts and more money coming in.

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LGBT

Akin Would Compromise Defense Budget To Discriminate Against Same-Sex Couples

By Zack Ford on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:31 pm

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) continues his quest to impose discrimination upon same-sex couples in the military through the Defense Authorization Act. He and 85 of his House colleagues have called upon the Senate to maintain the amendments he and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) added, which extend the Defense of Marriage Act to prohibit same-sex marriages from being performed by military chaplains or on military bases:

We recognize that the national Defense Authorization Act is well underway and needed funds for our troops should be expedited without delay. However, we respectfully request that an amendment similar to that passed by the House be included to ensure that this administration follow the law as written and comply with DOMA. It is not the place of any citizen of this country to pick and choose which laws will be obeyed. We expect citizens sworn to defend those laws to set the example in their application.

Akin’s request is an overreach that directly targets servicemembers’ religious liberty. The Defense of Marriage Act defines what is recognized by the government as marriage, but in no way prohibits same-sex marriages from being performed.

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Special Topic

Occupy Philly Protesters Arrested During Sit-In At Comcast Headquarters

By Zaid Jilani on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:20 pm

As thousands of Oakland residents join a general strike called by Occupy Oakland today, Occupy Philly engaged in its own action, targeting corporate telecom giant Comcast.

Hundreds of Occupy Philly protesters marched through Dilworth Plaza in downtown Philadelphia and many lodged themselves in the lobby of the Comcast Center. The protesters sought to call attention to the company’s corporate tax dodging and the fact that it escapes paying property taxes in the city due to tax breaks.

Nine demonstrators were arrested by police after the city moved in to dislodge them. Here are a few pictures from the sit-in and arrests, uploaded by Dustin M. Slaughter:

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Justice

Legal Pain Killers Killed 15,000 People In 2008, Marijuana Likely Killed Zero

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:20 pm

Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of deaths from overdoses of legal prescription painkillers had more than tripled over a decade, killing a shocking 15,000 people in 2008 — more than died from heroin and cocaine overdoses combined. This “epidemic” of pain killer abuse is troubling in its own right and demands public policy answers, but it also helps to underscore the incongruity of the current drug policy.

The report comes as a growing number of states and the federal government debate the prohibition of marijuana. Just this week, the White House rejected several marijuana legalization petitions.

Marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance, giving the highest level of restriction possible. Painkillers like OxyCotin are Schedule II, while others like Vicodin are Schedule III. Yet while these less restricted drugs killed 15,000 people last year alone, “There are virtually no reports of fatal cannabis overdose in humans,” a widely-cited study from the National Institute of Mental Health found. Studies on animals have found lethal doses practically impossible to achieve, as a human physically could not consume the required volume.

As spelled out in the Controlled Substance Act, there are three requirements for Schedule I classifications, according to the DEA:

Substances in this schedule have a high potential for abuse, have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Of course, 16 states and the District of Columbia now recognize medicinal benefits of marijuana and have established safety standards. And while there is no doubt that marijuana has the potential for abuse, advocates say it is not high enough — on par with cocaine and heroin — to merit Schedule I status, and no higher than prescription drugs, the danger of which the CDC report clearly demonstrates.

In fact, when marijuana was initially classified as a Schedule I drug in 1970, its placement was intended to be only provisional pending the findings of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, also known as the Shafer Commission, as it was led by then-Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond Shafer (R). Two years later, the commission released its findings, concluding: “Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety.” Nonetheless, the Nixon administration did nothing and let the drug remain classified as Schedule I.

In a letter sent just last week, nine congressmen, including Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA) — called on President Obama to reschedule marijuana as either a Schedule II or III drug — the same status as Vicodin or Oxycontin. Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) have also introduced a bill to do just that.

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Health

Herman Cain’s Plan For Medicare: Turn It Over To The States

By Igor Volsky on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:19 pm

Herman Cain laid out his health care vision during an address to the Congressional Health Caucus this afternoon, and it boiled down to this: in order to protect the best health care system in the world, we must repeal the Affordable Care Act, deregulate the insurance industry, and let the free market find insurance coverage for everyone. During a question an answer session with members of Congress, Cain applied his easy-to-understand health care solution to Medicare and suggested that that he would lower spending in the federal program by shifting the responsibility of providing health care to seniors to the states — which are already struggling with growing health care costs in the Medicaid program:

CAIN: Much of the over-regulatory burden that’s imposed by Medicare is driven by the fact that the bureaucrats don’t trust states and hospitals, I do. I would rather error on the side of trusting the states, and maybe five of them won’t get it right, but that the other 45 are going to get it right and we all will benefit. So we have to restructure how Medicare is administered, how the dollars are spent.

Watch it:

It’s unclear if Cain is referring to any specific proposal, although several states have passed “compacts” that would theoretically exempt them from the federal eligibility and benefit rules in the Medicare program and allow them to join other states in establishing their own Medicare rules. Congress would be required to approve these arrangements.

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Yglesias

Left And Right At Versailles

By Matthew Yglesias on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:15 pm

I went to see Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles today. I believe the saying is that it’s good to be the king:

Excellent palace. And today it’s a museum and public garden available for the public to enjoy, as well as a key pillar of the extensive tourist infrastructure that makes Paris the most visited city in the world. But it’s also a powerful reminder that for the vast majority of human history, the primary use of the state has been to create monuments and pleasures for the ruling class. See not only the great palaces of Europe, but the grand cathedrals as well. The idea that public expenditure could be used for the purposes of social welfare provision is a relative novelty. And even after its arrival we still have many cases of regimes where this continues to be the case. Certainly the Communist dictatorships of the Cold War era seem to fit the bill. Progressive politics at its best has always been equally about the idea that public funds shouldn’t be misused for the private interests of the rulers as it has been about the positive agenda of using public funds for public purposes.

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Alyssa

Financial Regulation On The Silver Screen

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Nov 2, 2011 at 4:06 pm

I saw Tower Heist, Brett Rattner’s financial-scam thriller, last night, which was both better than I expected and confirmed a definitive trend: our movies are moving away form narratives of individual or localized hardship, like the foreclosure in Drag Me To Hell or the layoffs in The Company Men and Up in the Air, and towards identifying individuals and institutions responsible for the downturn and making them pay. So I was interested to read a bibliography put together by Loren E. Miller, a PhD Candidate at American University, and forwarded to me by a generous reader, tracing the evolution of financial regulation in Hollywood movies from 1914 on. Miller writes about the evolution from a moral and individual perspective from an institutional one:

The earliest silent films, created during the 1910s, depicted financial misdeeds as stock speculation and manipulation, as well as embezzlement…However, there is no real institutional punishment for financial misdeeds. Characters are punished by fate and misfortune, but there are few government repercussions…

During the 1920s, many of the same types of misdeeds are depicted in films; however the reasons behind the crimes and the punishments shift. Characters often have good intentions and noble reasons for committing misdeeds, such as helping an impoverished family member. These characters are often redeemed in the end of the film, perhaps because of the good intent behind their actions…

The 1930s is by far the decade with the largest number of films focusing on financial regulation. The increase in movies on this topic provides insight into the historical moment; the country faced the Great Depression after the stock market crash of 1929, and at the same time film technology grew. The motion pictures of the 1930s reflect the country’s preoccupation with the stock market crash, and the influence money can have on people. Many movies in 1930s include crimes such as embezzlement. There are also a fair number of films that survey past financial panics. During the 1930’s, characters that perform these misdeeds are subject to governmental punishments instead of moral ones. For example, The Gorilla mentions an SEC agent investigating a financial crime.

It’s not surprising that we’ve been here before. The question is whether a public passion for some sort of reform, or at least, for making the bastards pay — I haven’t heard a crowd cheer as loudly as the one did at the end of Tower Heist in quite some time — will actually translate into enforced regulation. Dodd-Frank’s still tied down in all sorts of missed deadlines and Republican obstructionism. Richard Cordray still hasn’t made it to his office at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And we’re not getting New Deal levels of public investment. Obviously robbing Bernie Madoff isn’t a possible solution or a systemic one. But I sort of see how it would resonate when institutional change doesn’t seem like an available option.

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