Questioning Patriotism For Fun and Profit

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Wednesday February 09, 2011 · 1:44 PM PST

2011/02/09 · 13:44

Michael Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan, professional pundit, and newspaper columnist warns us in his syndicated column that "people who use e-mail or other services from companies such as Google, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple are unwittingly helping . . . those who are damaging our country."

He also informs us that the pro-democracy uprising in Egypt is a liberal, Internet facilitated plot to clog traffic in major international cities and establish an "Iranian-style, Islamic theocracy" in Egypt.

Therefore, all good patriots should pay money to buy e-mail accounts from him. His father expressed somewhat different opinions on the subject.

Michael Reagan explains himself, and Ronald Reagan replies, below the fold.

Poll

28 votes Show Results

Are The Egyptian Pro-Democracy Protests A Liberal Plot?

28 votes Vote Now!

Are The Egyptian Pro-Democracy Protests A Liberal Plot?

Yes, damn right. And, a good thing too!

4 votes

Yes, and this is a threat to our country's values.

2 votes

No, you don't have to be brainwashed by outsiders to want democracy.

18 votes

No, liberals are good patriots who believe that only Christians should vote.

3 votes

Pie.

1 vote

Is Taxing Corporate Campaign Spending Constitutional?

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 22, 2010 · 2:32 PM PST

2010/01/22 · 14:32

The U.S. Supreme Court's held yesterday in the Citizens United case that it is unconstitutional to ban independent corporate campaign spending. This raises serious doubts about the constitutionality of Internal Revenue Code Section 162(e), which in its current form denies businesses a tax deduction for any spending in connection with political campaigns and lobbying. For a large profitable publicly held corporation operating exclusively in Colorado (which has a flat 4.63% income tax rate), Section 162(e) is a de facto 65% surtax on political advertising, relative to advertising related to the business or in furtherance of a charitable cause. Your mileage may vary.

The activities denied a deduction by Internal Revenue Code Section 162(e) include the very poltical speech that the U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that corporations have a constitutional right to engage in under the First Amendment. In the wake of Citizens United, can it be constitutional to impose a 65% surtax on an expenditure for a an independently produced, funded and aired television spot urging viewers to vote for John Doe, when no tax would be imposed on an otherwise identical television spot asking people to buy widgets or give to the United Way?

Poll

34 votes Show Results

Is It Constitutional To Tax Corporate Campaign Spending

34 votes Vote Now!

Is It Constitutional To Tax Corporate Campaign Spending

Yes

20 votes

14 votes

Other (Please Explain)

0 votes

They're all wrong about North Dakota's health care

ohwilleke

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Tuesday September 08, 2009 · 6:23 PM PDT

2009/09/08 · 18:23

As noted in a recommended diary today, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota has a 90% market share in that state and is organized as a non-profit mutual company, in theory owned by customers. Allegedly, BCBSND has a poor record of cost control. Both Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein think a public option would help solve the serious problem is high insurance rates in non-competitive markets, and few are less competitive than North Dakota's. North Dakota's dominant health insurance company is also in the midst of some executive compensation scandals.

But, if this near monopoly is so bad, why isn't health care in North Dakota more expensive? It has the fifth lowest private health insurance rates, and the second lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the country.

ohwilleke

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Wednesday April 22, 2009 · 3:02 PM PDT

2009/04/22 · 15:02

Eighteen year old transgender woman Angie Zapata (born Justin) was murdered because of her transgender status last year in Greeley, Colorado on July 17. This afternoon, her confessed murderer, Allen Andrade, was convicted after two hours of jury deliberations, and sentenced to life in prison without parole an hour later, for this first degree murder, and was also convicted of a hate crime count and property crimes involving thefts made after the murder. The death penalty was not sought by prosecutors in the case.

This same city elected one of Colorado's most fervantly anti-gay Republican state legislators, Scott Renfroe, who earlier this year said gays deserved death in accordance with the bible in a debate on same sex couple rights, in a legislative debate.

9th Circuit Holds 2nd Amendment Applies To States

ohwilleke

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Monday April 20, 2009 · 4:43 PM PDT

2009/04/20 · 16:43

The 9th Circuit (Pacific states plus) held today that the right to bear arms for self-defense applies to the states. The 2nd Circuit (New York State plus) has held that states are not bound by the federal second amendment right to bear arms for self-defense established in the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Heller cases (which didn't resolve the issue since it involved the District of Columbia).

The resolution of this constitutional issue, called selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights, will dramatically impact state and local gun control laws in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. (The 9th Circuit case has no immediate impact because it held that the ordinance challenged, which was inspired by the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado whose 10th anniversary today, was valid despite the fact that the 2nd Amendment applied to the county government in question.)

Poll

121 votes Show Results

Should The Second Amendment Apply To The States?

121 votes Vote Now!

Should The Second Amendment Apply To The States?

Yes

67 votes

33 votes

Don't Know/Not Sure

21 votes

Obama's DOD Program Kills Announced

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday April 06, 2009 · 12:00 PM PDT

2009/04/06 · 12:00

The Obama administration's first major policy making defense budget was rolled out today by Secretary of Defense Gates this afternoon and live blogged here.

Further purchases of the F-22 fighter and C-17 long range transport have been discontinued and 250 old tactical fighters will be phased out. Programs for a new Presidential helicopter, a next generation Air Force bomber program, a next generation search and rescue helicopter for the Air Force, and a new generation of eight Army vehicles that are part of the "Future Combat System" are all dead. A program for a next generation navy cruiser is delayed, the aircraft carrier force will fall to ten ships, and missile defense will be scaled back, as will surface ship contruction.

The big winners are the F-35 fighter program, drone aircraft, the Littoral Combat Ship, and a next generation of nuclear missile submarines.

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 20, 2008 · 11:21 AM PST

2008/11/20 · 11:21

November 20 is a Day of Remembrance, when the nation and the world recall those who have been killed as a result of their transgender status.

Two transgender women residing in Colorado were murdered this year: Angie Zapata and Aimee Wilcoxson.

Please take a moment to mourn these young lives cut short and to consider how to make this repeated horror end.

If you are wondering what the heck a transgender identity is all about, as many decent people don't understand it and have never encounted (or realized that they have encounted) someone who is transgendered, an introduction with a Colorado focus can be found here.

Poll

49 votes Show Results

Do you personally know a transgender person?

49 votes Vote Now!

Do you personally know a transgender person?

Yes, me.

13 votes

Yes

15 votes

19 votes

Don't know

2 votes

A New McCain Dirty Trick In Denver

ohwilleke

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Thursday October 23, 2008 · 5:02 PM PDT

2008/10/23 · 17:02

The McCain campaign (or its allies) have stooped to posting fake employment ads on Craig's List in Denver in an effort to get phone numbers and e-mail addresses from potential swing voters.

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 30, 2008 · 2:01 PM PDT

2008/09/30 · 14:01

Should bankruptcy judges be allowed to modify mortgages on primary residences?

Yes.

The power of a bankruptcy judge to do so is called a cramdown. To understand the pros and cons of allowing cramdowns on personal residences (and personal automobiles), you need to understand a little bankruptcy law and a little economics.

You also need to understand why your house and your car are like a cat, and why this similarity is important to banks. Because, it is this similarity that makes a ban on cramdowns of your personal residence and your car so valueable to them.

Once the motives of the parties, and the winners and losers in the deal are understood, it is clear that cramdowns of home mortgages should be allowed, at least in some circumstances.

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 29, 2008 · 2:53 PM PDT

2008/09/29 · 14:53

While a proposal to authorize the Treasury to buy $700 billion in mortgage backed securities failed today, the FDIC guaranteed a $312 billion Wachovia portfolio with a healthy share of mortgage backed securities, in connection with a Citigoup purchase of Wachovia's banking business.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has agreed to provide loss protection in connection with approximately $312 billion of mortgage-related and other Wachovia assets. Citi is responsible for the first $30 billion of losses on this portfolio, and expects to record these expected losses under purchase accounting upon closing of the transaction. Citi is also responsible for the next $12 billion in losses up to a maximum of $4 billion per year for the next three years. Citi has also agreed to issue to the FDIC preferred stock and warrants with a combined value of approximately $12 billion. The FDIC has agreed to be responsible for any further losses on this portfolio.

In its role as a "loss protector," the FDIC would have no assets to sell to cover a loan from the Treasury, so this could turn into a tax funded bailout if the portfolio goes very badly.

Poll

67 votes Show Results

Will the FDIC be left holding the bag?

67 votes Vote Now!

Will the FDIC be left holding the bag?

No. Citigroup will end up bearing all the losses.

5 votes

Yes. The FDIC will take a small (under $40 billion) loss on the deal.

7 votes

Yes. The FDIC will take a large loan paid off with FDIC insurance premiums.

5 votes

Yes. The public will have to bail out the FDIC with tax dollars.

30 votes

Pie.

2 votes

Don't have any idea.

18 votes

Blame The Bloggers

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 15, 2008 · 2:43 AM PDT

2008/09/15 · 02:43

Troy Eid, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, husband of one of Colorado's most conservative state supreme court justices, and a high level GOP political operative ranted in Sunday's Denver Post on the evils of blogging. An examination of his arguments show them to be more hysterical than historically accurate.

ohwilleke

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 12, 2008 · 11:52 AM PDT

2008/09/12 · 11:52

Denver Post columnist Ed Quillen, of Salida, Colorado, coined (or at least popularized) the term Stupid Zones, and has had a long running discussion about them.

The idea is that some places, while they are wonderful places to live most of the time, are in places where there is a high risk of natural disasters. In Colorado, this mostly consists of places where there are high fire, landslide and avalanche risks. But, flood plains, coastal areas subject to hurricanes or tsunamis, active volcanos, and ring of fire earthquake zones also fit the profile.

Quillen has argued that while development should be permitted in those places, that public resources, including fire control, disaster relief funds and subsidized insurance arrangements should not be used to support this development. Today, I revisit the idea in a larger and less abrasive context. I suggest that we need to, in addition to recognizing the predictable inevitability of natural disasters, to think in terms of living in harmony with elements of nature that we cannot overcome in how we use land and how we live, rather than purely trying to conquer nature.

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Questioning Patriotism For Fun and Profit

Is Taxing Corporate Campaign Spending Constitutional?

They're all wrong about North Dakota's health care

Angie Zapata Murderer Gets LWOP

9th Circuit Holds 2nd Amendment Applies To States

Obama's DOD Program Kills Announced

A Day Of Remembrance

A New McCain Dirty Trick In Denver

Your House Is Like A Cat: Cramdowns Explained

FDIC Backs $312B in Wachovia MBS, etc.

Blame The Bloggers

Stupid Zones Revisited