http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=5730&name=Murray-Energy-Corp

Meanwhile, I’m waiting for Halliburton Corp. to announce that it’s in the business of inspecting bridges….

I’ve written about that extensively in the past, such as here.

However, I think it’s too early to say that the GOP will benefit from this long term. Short term, yeah, probably, in Louisiana state and local elections. But long term I think it’s going to come back and bite them.. .

Is the NYT advocating a severe recession to cure the trade deficit? It seems that they are, because the other mechanism through which increased saving can be expected to reduce the trade deficit is by (drum roll please ……..) yes, A LOWER DOLLAR!

Interesting. I think consumption should be taxed and saving rewarded, and so some sort of national sales tax, versus the income tax, appeals to me. Of course in its raw form this penalizes the poor the worst, which I’m against.

Gravel’s endorsement of a national initiative and referendum process is what makes me leery of his platform. We have this in California, and it’s basically a back door for special interests (including our own Governator) to bypass the legislature. CA’s initiative and referendum process originated back in the well-intentioned progressive era, before the telephone was widespread, and before it was practical to simply hire enough people to gather the required quantity of signatures to put a motion on the ballot.

CA is incredibly hobbled by poorly thought out referendums that passed and became law. I want the legislature to work harder at doing its job, instead of having special interests manipulate the public into stupid, short-sighted legislation at the ballot box.

It hasn’t all been bad - prop 215 passed which legalized medical marijuana - but in many cases it hamstrings the legislature, eg requiring them to spend x % of tax receipts on pet concern y. Forever and ever, regardless of real world conditions. This is multiplied when you have n such referendums, each requiring their own cut of the tax receipts.

Another terrible example is Prop 13, which rolled back property taxes, and which has had a powerful and systemic effect on how municipalities fund themselves and on who controls what happens in a municipality, as well on the very physical landscape - it favors the construction of retail over all other kinds of zoning, because retail generates revenue for the municipality. And, munipalities find themselve ceding control of their school district(s) to the state, simply because they lack the revenue to run them properly.

And of course there are the wingnut initiatives that reliably appear, such as parental notification of teen pregnancy/abortion, or the Sanctity of Marriage proposals which declare the only valid marriages to be those between 1 man and 1 woman. These are really only used to bring out the wingnut vote, to get their numbers behind the more serious stuff or candidates the wingnuts really want to pass. It’s become a well recognized chess move here - to spike the ballot with these far right morality issues in order to draw out the winguts for the serious stuff.

Sigh. IMO, initiative and referendum - at least as implemented in CA - is well intentioned but practically a disaster. Gravel should know better.

So what’s wrong with Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama? They were against it before the invasion. All of the Dems say they are opposed to it now, although they aren’t always clear about what they would do to end it.

Anyway, there’s a site called On the Issues that can give you a quick run down on candidates’ records on the issues. Paul has taken some really bad stands. He voted no on net neutrality, he is opposed to reproductive rights and embryonic stem cell research, and he wants to abolish Medicare. He’s not a serious candidate, in other words. We need this guy as President like we need a boil on our butts.

I like Gravel’s ideas on most issues, but he wants to eliminate the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax, which I think is absurd.