U2

This interesting column in catapult magazine talks about the "bawdiness" of U2's lead singer, Bono. It's great stuff!

Narnia art!

Here is some of the production art from the upcoming movie. It looks great!

God's Politics by Jim Wallis

I am about 1/3 of the way through Jim Wallis' latest book, God's Politics. It is a good place to start thinking about what a biblical approach to the government would look like. Here is an excerpt.

David Kuo criticizes Administration hypocrisy

David Kuo was a Special Assistant to the president and eventually the Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative. He published an essay today on beliefnet.com on the shortcoming of Administrative support for the Office of Faith-Based Initiative. His conclusion is that establishing the office garnered Bush the political support of evangelicals. Those evangelicals were happy that Bush proved that his faith would influence his presidency, so they were not worried that the office did not come close to fulfilling Bush's "compassion conservative" promises. In his first major policy speech of the Presidential campaign, Bush said "it is not enough for conservatives like me to praise [compassionate] efforts. It is not enough to call for volunteerism. Without more support and resources, both private and public, we are asking them to make bricks without straw."

Kuo concludes, however, that the initiative has been left "at precisely the place Gov. Bush pledged it would not go; it has done the work of praising and informing but it has not been given 'the resources to change lives.' In short, like the hurting charities it is trying to help, the Initiative has been forced to make bricks without straw."

In June 2001, the promised tax incentives for charitable giving were stripped at the last minute from the $1.6 trillion tax cut legislation to make room for the estate-tax repeal that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy. The Compassion Capital Fund has received a cumulative total of $100 million during the past four years. And new programs including those for children of prisoners, at-risk youth, and prisoners reentering society have received a little more than $500 million over four years--or approximately $6.3 billion less than the promised $6.8 billion.

Unfortunately, sometimes even the grandly-announced "new" programs aren't what they appear. Nowhere is this clearer than in the recently-announced "gang prevention initiative" totaling $50 million a year for three years. The obvious inference is that the money is new spending on an important initiative. Not quite. The money is being taken out of the already meager $100 million request for the Compassion Capital Fund. If granted, it would actually mean a $5 million reduction in the Fund from last year.

This isn't what was promised.

Kuo spreads the blame around to both Republicans and Democrats in Congress and to a lack of commitment on the part of the White House. Most damming is the following story.

In December 2001, for instance, Sen. Daschle approached the Domestic Policy Council with an offer to pass a charity relief bill that contained many of the president's campaign tax incentive policies plus new money for the widely-popular and faith-based-friendly Social Services Block Grant. The White House legislative affairs office rolled their eyes while others on senior staff yawned. We had to leave the offer on the table.

It is hard not to draw the conclusion that the Office of Faith-Based Initiative real purpose is political rather than to help those whom Bush calls "the least, the last, and the lost." Those Christians who believe that the use of religious language by the President indicates some level of theological reflection on governing are sorely mistaken. In his first presidential campaign, Bush was asked to name his favorite political philosopher and he answered "Jesus." How I wish that the reporter had been willing, or able, to follow that question up. Christian political philosophy does not simply mean being pro-life and anti-gay marriage and anti-terrorist, but it is hard to see too many other areas where Bush's understanding of his faith impacts his policies.

Social Security

Social Security seems to be the most important domestic issue for President Bush. I certainly hope the discussion about Social Security is honest. I don't see any connection between the "crisis" (at some point in the future more money will be paid out than will come in) and private accounts. Private accounts may or may not be a good idea in and of itself, but it would actually speed up the crisis rather than fix it. Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly has some good thoughts about the issue.

Friedman on the Iraqi Elections

This is why Friedman is my favorite columnist.

[T]he Iraqi people have now made it clear that they are the authentic carriers of their national aspirations, and while, yes, they want an end to the U.S. presence, they want that end to happen in an orderly manner and in tandem with an Iraqi constitutional process.

In other words, this election has made it crystal clear that the Iraq war is not between fascist insurgents and America, but between the fascist insurgents and the Iraqi people. One hopes the French and Germans, whose newspapers often sound more like Al Jazeera than Al Jazeera, will wake up to this fact and throw their weight onto the right side of history.

It's about time, because whatever you thought about this war, it's not about Mr. Bush any more. It's about the aspirations of the Iraqi majority to build an alternative to Saddamism. By voting the way they did, in the face of real danger, Iraqis have earned the right to ask everyone now to put aside their squabbles and focus on what is no longer just a pipe dream but a real opportunity to implant decent, consensual government in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world.

States See Growing Campaign to Change Redistricting Laws

This seems to me to be good news. Of the problems with current redistricting laws in most states, here are two of the most significant:

In the 2004 Congressional elections, only 13 seats in the House changed hands, and four incumbents were defeated in the general election. In 2002, 82 percent of the races were decided by a margin of 20 percent or more, Common Cause said....
The second problem is the extent to which redistricting contributes to polarization, as map-drawers cluster like-minded voters into the same districts. That makes it less likely that a candidate will work to appeal to swing voters. In those districts, the main worry for incumbents is often not a general election but a primary, because Republicans are more likely to move to the right, and Democrats to the left, to protect themselves.

The Washington Post has a story today about how Bush is going to cut the budget. One key will be to use language "creatively."

The deep cuts to community development, for example, have been titled the 'Strengthening America's Communities Initiative.'

Is telling the truth a moral value?

Watch What Bush Does, Not What He Says

One of the frustrating parts of listening to the State of the Union address was how his words seem disconnected from his actions.

"And we will make it easier for Americans to afford a college education, by increasing the size of Pell Grants." In 2003, he imposed eligibility changes that would eliminate 84,000 students from the program and reduce the number receiving awards by one and a half million. I suppose if you reduce the number of students receiving Pell Grants that much, it is easier for each grant to be larger.

"America's prosperity requires restraining the spending appetite of the federal government. I welcome the bipartisan enthusiasm for spending discipline." This president is talking about spending discipline? The Cato Institute has a nickname for him that expresses some doubts.

The Bush administration's newly released budget projections [July 2003] reveal an anticipated budget deficit of $455 billion for the current fiscal year, up another $151 billion since February. Supporters and critics of the administration are tripping over themselves to blame the deficit on tax cuts, the war, and a slow economy. But the fact is we have mounting deficits because George W. Bush is the most gratuitous big spender to occupy the White House since Jimmy Carter. One could say that he has become the "Mother of All Big Spenders."

"To make our economy stronger and more productive, we must make health care more affordable, and give families greater access to good coverage, and more control over their health decisions." Then why is the Michael Leavitt, the new secretary of health and human resources doing this?

the nation's top health official fleshed out proposals to cut $60 billion from the projected growth of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people, in the next decade.

"My Clear Skies legislation will cut power plant pollution and improve the health of our citizens. " The
National academy of Sciences is not so sure.

"The Bush administration's bill to curb air pollution from power plants would reduce air pollution less than the current Clean Air Act rules, according to a preliminary report by the National Academy of Sciences released yesterday."

"Personal retirement accounts should be familiar to federal employees, because you already have something similar, called the Thrift Savings Plan, which lets workers deposit a portion of their paychecks into any of five different broadly based investment funds. It is time to extend the same security, and choice, and ownership to young Americans." Thrift Savings Plans sound great to me. Those federal employees that use them, however, are not reducing their Social Security benefits by participating in them. Offering such plans, or increasing the amount an employee can contribute to their 401K seems like a good idea. Americans don't save enough, and it seems like a good idea to encourage more savings.

But what does that have to do with the problems facing Social Security? The problem is that down the road there will be more money being paid out than is being paid in. Dealing with that means either bringing in more money or paying out less. The president's plan would immediately reduce the amount of money that comes in (since cash that is diverted into the private accounts is not available to be paid to out) while he also promises that there will be no changes to the amount that is paid out to those who are over 55. So the crisis is not averted, it is hastened. The LA Times reports "A Bush aide, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, was more explicit, saying that the individual accounts would do nothing to solve the system's long-term financial problems."

"Because courts must always deliver impartial justice, judges have a duty to faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench." Unless I need help to be elected, then the Supreme Court can change the way they have always interpreted the equal protection clause while claiming their decision only effects my case and does not set a precedent for any future cases.

"Because one of the deepest values of our country is compassion, we must never turn away from any citizen who feels isolated from the opportunities of America." Then yesterday...

Facing the prospect of record deficits, Bush administration officials laid out proposals on Thursday for deep cuts in spending on housing and community development.

"Tonight I propose a three-year initiative to help organizations keep young people out of gangs, and show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence." Maybe he changed his approach since last June.

Washington, June 1 – National law enforcement leaders today urged a full assault on rising gang violence with a proven strategic plan to cut crime and keep more kids from joining gangs. The leaders also said the 40 percent cut proposed by the White House to federal juvenile crime prevention funds would pull the plug on effective local programs to reduce gang and youth violence.

"I propose increasing our support for America's fine community colleges, so they can train workers for the industries that are creating the most new jobs." How does he explain this?

His 2003 budget proposal cut out $476 million from the job training programs. His 2004 budget contained a proposed 25 percent cut ($300 million) to federal funding for vocational education. In addition he proposed consolidating job training grants to states for adult services into a single grant program, thus reducing by $60 million the amount of grants given a year ago. In the 2004 budget he presented in 2003, he proposed eliminating all funding for Youth Opportunity Grants, a program that gives job training to young people. In 2002 that program was funded at $225 million, in 2003 he proposed funding only $45 million ($43.5 million was actually funded) and in the 2004 budget, he proposed its elimination. Congress accepted his recommendation and funding has been eliminated.

"Soon I will send to Congress a proposal to fund special training for defense counsel in capital cases, because people on trial for their lives must have competent lawyers by their side." He sure was not concerned about this when he was Governor. One of the problems with the new Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (of the torture memo fame) was how he failed in his duty as Gov. Bush's legal counsel to thoroughly brief Bush on the 152 death warrants he signed.

The reports Gonzales presented could not be more cursory. Take, for example, the case of Terry Washington, a mentally retarded man of thirty-three with the communication skills of a seven-year-old. Washington's plea for clemency came before Governor Bush on the morning of May 6, 1997. After a thirty-minute briefing by Gonzales, Bush checked "Deny"— just as he had denied twenty-nine other pleas for clemency in his first twenty-eight months as governor.

But Washington's plea for clemency raised substantial issues, which called for thoughtful, fair-minded consideration, not the least of which was the fact that Washington's mental handicap had never been presented to the jury that condemned him to death. Gonzales' legal summary, however, omitted any mention of Washington's mental limitations as well as the fact that his trial lawyer had failed to enlist the help of a mental health expert to testify on his client's behalf. When Washington's postconviction lawyers took on his defense, they researched deeply into his childhood and came up with horrifying evidence of abuse. Terry Washington, along with his ten siblings, had been beaten regularly with whips, water hoses, extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts. This was mitigation of the strongest kind, but Washington's jury never heard it. Nor is there any evidence that Gonzales told Bush about it.

Maybe some of the money for training lawyers should be spent on our new Attorney General.