Vote for the Millionaires of Your Choice

“If millionaires were a political party, that party would make up roughly 3 percent of American families, but it would have a super-majority in the Senate, a majority in the House, a majority on the Supreme Court and a man in the White House. If working-class Americans were a political party, that party would have made up more than half the country since the start of the 20th century. But legislators from that party (those who last worked in blue-collar jobs before entering politics) would never have held more than 2 percent of the seats in Congress.”

– “Which Millionaire Are You Voting For?” Nicholas Carnes, New York Times

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Driver’s License: No Smiling!

“In January, New Jersey launched new face-recognition software that forbids license applicants from smiling widely or making other exaggerated facial expressions that might confuse the computer.”

“Pennsylvania and Delaware use the software, too. But ‘smile/no-smile is not a problem,’ said Jan McKnight, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokeswoman. ‘You can smile in Pennsylvania.’”

– “Why you can’t smile for your N.J. driver’s license,” Dana DiFillippo, Philadelphia Daily News

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Happy Fiscal New Year

May old encumbrance be forgot, and never brought to mind . . . .”
– Singer and retired Federal employee Joe Hickerson.

WASHINGTON, DC, October 1 — Today Federal employees throughout the Washington region and across the country observe their traditional holiday, the Fiscal New Year. Fiscal 2012 ended at midnight last night; today is the start of Fiscal Year 2013 (FY 2013 for short).

Seats of Government

Kenya’s parliament is in the hot seat for excessive expenses for interior decorating. The legislative chamber’s $11 million re-furb includes new chairs for MPs at $3,000 each. The government maintains the fancy furnishings actually represent civil service savings, since the chairs would have cost $5,000 each if they hadn’t been made in prison workshops.

Kenya’s government says the make-over was needed so Parliament could enter the digital age. Technologists are eager to examine the posterior-controlled computer interface provided by the plushy red chairs.

More:

“Kenyan MPs get new $3,000 seats,” BBC News
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Congress & the Post Office

“In the 18 months the 112^th Congress has been sworn in, the House has introduced 60 bills to rename post offices.  Thirty-eight have passed the House and 26 have become law. During those 18 months, the House has produced 151 laws, 17 percent of which have been to rename post offices, according to Congressional Democrats.

Not a single bill has come to the House floor aimed at reforming a Postal Service, which is bleeding billions of dollars because of Congressional mandates.”

– “60 House Bills to Name Post Offices, Zero To Fix Mail Service,” Amy Bingham, ABC News

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Adam Smith: ‘You Didn’t Build That!’

“… the sovereign has only three duties to attend to . . . First, the duty of protecting the society from violence and invasion . . . secondly, the duty of protecting, as far as possible, every member of society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it . . . and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions, which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain; because the profit would never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society.” — Adam Smith, 1776

“Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.” — Barack Obama, 2012

So Adam Smith is a success-hater and Socialist too, right?

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Leave Congress, Cash In

It’s a sad day when our public servants leave the halls of Congress. They cry all the way to the bank. An analysis by Lee Fang finds that when congressmen become lobbyists, their income increases astronomically:

“When a Congressman Becomes a Lobbyist, He Gets a 1,452% Raise (on Average),” Lee Fang, Republic Report

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Unborn Virginians, Rejoice!

On Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates sent a Valentine to the Commonwealth’s fertilized human ova by granting them “Personhood.” If the bill passes the Upper House, perhaps impregnated women will be allowed to drive solo in the HOV+2 lanes.

The bill also neglects to state if the 80 percent of Virginia zygotes that do not result in human births will still remain “Persons.” Virginia is for Lovers, but apparently not for physicians, women, or rational human beings.

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10 Years of No Child Left Behind

Ten years ago, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act into law. Mr. Bush, a legacy student at Yale, the Harvard MBA who crashed the world economy, is a great belever in education.

NCLB has been one of the most effective “blame-the-victim” excercises in the history of federal intervention. Schools that face the biggest challenges are wiped off the face of the earth, as if this eliminates their problems. States compete with each other to lower standards so more schools can be judged “adequate.”  At ten years old, NCLB enters the 5th Grade. Almost anything is smarter than this 5th grader.

President Obama is allowing some states the chance to get out from under NCLB, but that won’t help. What’s really needed: government coordination at all levels to advance the education of America’s children.

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Is The Post Office Really Broke?

The U.S. Postal Service is broke, right?

No.

John Nichols explains:

“At the behest of the Republican-controlled Congress of the Bush-Cheney era, the USPS has been forced since 2006 to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As the American Postal Workers Union notes, ‘This mandate is the primary cause of the agency’s financial crisis. No other government agency or private company bears this burden, which costs the USPS approximately $5.5 billion annually.’”

–John Nichols, “The Post Office is Not Broke,” The Nation

USPS is legally obligated to serve every location in the United States at the same uniform rate. That requires the Post Office to hire so many workers that, with 574,000 full-time employees,  it is the second largest civilian employer in the nation.  That’s the size of the insurance pool USPS must pre-fund every year.

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