The Permanent War Economy

[UPDATE]: Via ACK, my Congress Critter Jim Cooper's statement on the Pentagon budget:

“Congress will surely debate these recommendations, but let us debate them on their merits. America is fighting two wars and a recession; we no longer have the luxury of running the Defense Department as a hometown jobs program. That’s why, in the words of Secretary Gates, we must rise above parochial interests and do what’s in the best interest of the nation as a whole. I hope my colleagues will join me in accepting his challenge.”

Wow, it's nice to see someone in Congress admit that we've been operating the Pentagon this way. The "permanent war economy" has not been a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory of the progressive left after all. This is certainly encouraging.

Maintaining the F-22 purely as an economic stimulus exercise is immoral, and it doesn't make fiscal sense, either. At some point we will see the folly of waging war to create jobs. Could that time be now?

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File this one under it’s about damn time:

In a blow to Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon has decided to end funding of the F-22 fighter jet. 

The decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates will rouse widespread opposition in Congress and is likely to bog down the 2010 budget approval process, with F-22 supporters maneuvering to secure more money.

The Pentagon will fund four of the radar-evading stealth fighters in the upcoming 2009 emergency war-spending request, but those additional aircraft will do little to keep the production line in Marietta, Ga., open beyond 2011. Each F-22 costs about $140 million.

Gates announced the decision at a press conference on the Defense budget on Monday afternoon. He said the recommendations were his own and that he received no guidance from outside the Pentagon. But he did confer with military and civilian leaders at the Defense Department, he said.

Gates said he consulted closely with the president, but that he "received no direction or guidance from outside this department on individual program decisions."

The planes are outmoded; designed to fight Soviet jets, they’ve been useless in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

But Lockheed Martin argues that production of the F-22 employs 25,000 people (here they claim it’s 95,000, which may include Lockheed Martin’s suppliers). If the economic argument is the only one they’ve got, then by all rights they should lose this one hands down. For years we progressives have bemoaned the permanent war economy, which conservatives have pooh-poohed as a lefty tin-foil hat theory. But if you’re going to argue for keeping an outdated military fighter jet in production simply because it employs a bunch of people, what the hell do YOU call that, if not a war economy?

The Christian Science Monitor summed it up well back in March:

As a Democrat more interested in spending money on butter than guns, Mr. Obama does not see guns as butter. His priorities are healthcare, energy, and education. Some Democrats even want a 25 percent cut in defense spending.

But Obama may not win the coming political dogfight with Congress over reducing production of the F-22, which the Air Force sees as its crown jewel in commanding the skies in a conflict. The plane is manufactured by some 1,000 companies in 44 states. That's created a powerful lobby.

One thing to watch for in the coming weeks are some of these retired military "analysts" in the media. These are the folks who it was later discovered worked for lobbyists and military contractors. If retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales hits Fox News to warn about the surrender monkeys and liberal defeatocrats in Congress, I want to know about it.

If we do lose this battle and the military continues to manufacture the outdated F-22 purely to keep people employed, I will know that any hope we had of transitioning away from a war economy would be lost. And that would make me very sad, indeed.

And to the folks in Marietta who are worried about losing their jobs, you have my condolences. It would be nice if your Republican governor would not talk about turning down federal stimulus funds with a major employer losing a big government contract. Maybe you folks could follow Tennessee's lead and make, I dunno, solar panels or something.

Swords into plowshares, people.

Life In Post-Christian America

I’ve enjoyed reading Newsweek’s article, “End of Christian America,” which looks at what folks in the religion business call the “post-Christian era.”

The “post-Christian” world is something we’ve talked a good bit about at my own church, not in the “ZOMG we’re all dooooooooomed” sense, but rather as a simple acknowledgment that church is no longer a defining cultural force in America. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing (and I dare say many of my readers view this as a good thing), it’s simple reality. If you don’t believe me, go to Cracker Barrel at 9 am on Sunday morning and you’ll find the place packed with folks eating breakfast, not attending worship.

Not surprisingly, as the country has steered in an increasingly secular direction, the volume on the conservative megaphone has grown louder. People like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson and James Dobson would never have been treated as legitimate opinion makers 30 years ago, trotted out on national news programs and regarded as “serious.” They’d be relegated to the loony corner of the AM radio dial and public-access TV. I see these two trends as related: post-Christian America is not necessarily post-conservative America.

Threatened by emerging secularization, the religious hierarchy has responded by turning even harder right. It’s a typical fear response which rejects change, and it worked sufficiently to bring George W. Bush to power for two terms.

Here’s Alfred Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, from the Newsweek article:

"The moral teachings of Christianity have exerted an incalculable influence on Western civilization," Mohler says. "As those moral teachings fade into cultural memory, a secularized morality takes their place. Once Christianity is abandoned by a significant portion of the population, the moral landscape necessarily changes. For the better part of the 20th century, the nations of Western Europe led the way in the abandonment of Christian commitments. Christian moral reflexes and moral principles gave way to the loosening grip of a Christian memory. Now even that Christian memory is absent from the lives of millions."

That message resonates with a lot of conservative, evangelical Christians, though it’s 100% wrong. For one thing, it’s incredibly arrogant to assume that Christianity is the sole source of morality in society, or that “Christian morality” is somehow better than secular morality. They fail to recognize that post-Christendom could actually signal a fulfillment of Christian morality’s influence over our culture. Everyone already knows “thou shalt not steal” and “thou shalt not kill,” you don’t need to go to church to learn that lesson, and you sure as hell don’t need to post it on the courthouse walls.

Mohler and his kind are most ignorant in their favorite tactic of using Western European countries as their warning of what’s in store for America if we don’t DO something, quick, like stop teaching evolution in public schools and outlaw abortion. These folks like to talk about how secular Western Europe is, all the tolerance for nasty things like teh gaii, but they fail to mention that many of their worst secular offenders (Scandinavian countries, for example) have a state religion!

This astonished me when I was in “secular, liberal” Norway last spring. In fact, it was just one year ago next week that the Norwegian government changed its constitution, so that the Lutheran Church is no longer the state religion.

Yes, that’s right, up until last year, every person born in “secular, liberal” Norway was automatically born a Lutheran. If you wanted to raise your kids Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Baptist or atheist, you had to petition the government. Can you believe that?

The Norwegian government still finances the Lutheran Church, and until last year appointed church bishops. In other words, the government had authority over the church. Can you imagine? Can you imagine your tax dollars funding church salaries?

We Americans have been spoiled by our religious freedom. We have no concept of what it means to have a “state religion” or even a “state church.” People like Mohler and the wackadoodles at Renew America who keep arguing America is a “Christian nation” have no clue what that means, either, or how separation of church and state protects religion from government influence. Can you imagine the Obama Administration deciding who would run the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary? Or Bob Jones University?

Look at “secular, liberal” Norway. They’ve got gay marriage, socialized healthcare, abortion and a state religion. Of course they do. “Liberal, secular” Sweden, which last week allowed gay marriage, had a state religion until their constitution was changed in 1999.

The last thing religious leaders worried about increasing secularism in America should be doing is working to remove that wall of separation between church and state.

I think technology and increasing communication has advanced secularism more than anything else, and that bell won’t be unrung. I don’t consider it a bad thing, but then I’m not a church leader attached a denominational hierarchy whose influence has slipped away. I’m someone who grew up going to Mass with my Catholic friends, Temple with my Jewish friends, sang in the Episcopal church choir as a kid, and as an adult joined the Presbyterian (USA) church while continuing to practice the Eastern-style meditation I’d learned. This is “post-Christian” America, not devoid of religion or “godless” but in which religious authority has taken a back seat to individual liberty.

Conservative religious leaders have waged "culture wars" to fight that which they cannot stop. In so doing they've hastened their demise by representing the worst of religion: the fear, the authoritarianism, the anti-intellectualism. The quickest road to irrelevance is down this path.

Baby Pictures

Going through some old photos this weekend we found one of Quinn's baby pictures. He's adorable, isn't he?

Quinnie is our kitty who now has a nasty skin rash and must wear baby clothes. This picture was taken right when we got him from the shelter.

Some babies never grow up!

Palin Family Follies Part 1,309

Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps on giving. Please, conservatives, I beg of you: make this woman your presidential candidate!

If you haven't heard, First Dude Todd Palin’s sister has been arrested for burglary--with her daughter in tow:

Police arrested 35-year-old Diana Palin at a house on West Mill Site Circle near Wasilla's Multi-Use Sports Complex.

Homeowner Theodore Turcott told police an unfamiliar gray 1993 Toyota Camry pulled into his driveway Thursday morning, according to a affidavit filed Friday at Palmer courthouse. Turcott told police he'd been burglarized twice in the last week: Someone stole $2,200 on March 26, leaving $400 behind; after another apparent break-in Tuesday all but $9 was gone.

Excuse me, what kind of idiot leaves a big wad of cash lying around their house--after they’ve already been burglarized? Don’t y’all have any banks left in Alaska?

Here’s the best part, and by best I do mean tragic:

So, Turcott told police, when he didn't recognize the woman getting out of the Camry, he grabbed a gun and hid in the bathroom to see what happened, said Wasilla police Deputy Chief Greg Wood.

Palin made straight for the bedroom cabinet where Turcott kept his cash, Wood said.

Turcott confronted her, detaining her until police arrived, he said.

But before officers got there, Palin's 4-year-old daughter came in the house, the prosecutor handling the case said during a Palmer District Court hearing Friday afternoon.

They may all be a bunch of mavericks up there in Wasilla, Alaska, but they’re also some really lousy parents.

So let’s look at the Palin Family Follies count so far: we have the pregnant teenage daughter, the daughter’s fiance’s mother busted for dealing drugs, and now the sister-in-law busted for burglary. Cue conservative talking point that this just proves how "ordinary" the Palins are “dealing with the same struggles American families face every day.”

Um, no. My family members do not deal drugs, burglarize houses or have kids who got knocked up while still in high school. Maybe my family is extraordinary. I really don’t think so.

But by all means, let’s focus attention on Michelle Obama’s arms and President Obama’s gift to the Queen. Those are some serious outrages!

Reefer Madness

Good news, and just in time for the weekend, peeps! THC kills brain cancer cells:

April 1, 2009 -- The active chemical in marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells by essentially helping them feed upon themselves, researchers in Spain report.

Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at Complutense University in Spain have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown of a cell that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.

The team discovered that cannabinoids such as THC had anticancer effects in mice with human brain cancer cells and people with brain tumors. When mice with the human brain cancer cells received the THC, the tumor growth shrank.

Two patients enrolled in a clinical trial received THC directly to the brain as an experimental treatment for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive brain tumor.  Biopsies taken before and after treatment helped track their progress.  After receiving the THC, there was evidence of increased autophagy activity.

The findings appear in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Yet another reason why decriminalization of marijuana might be a good idea. Of course, if they legalize pot, then commercial hemp production would take off. And that might not set right with the folks at Dow Chemical and all of the paper mills.

Just a thought.

Do-Overs

This is great. The Alaska Republican Party is calling for Democratic Sen. Mark Begich to resign now that the Justice Dept. has dropped its charges against Ted Stevens.

Reports CNN:

"The Alaska Republican Party…believes that current Senator Mark Begich should resign his position to allow for a new, special election, so Alaskans may have the chance to vote for a senator without the improper influence of the corrupt Department of Justice," the Alaska Republican Party's Web site states.

Stevens lost his bid for a seventh Senate term against Begich in November following a conviction of seven counts of lying on Senate ethics reforms.

The Alaska GOP mantains a special election "will allow Alaskans to have a real, non-biased, credible process where the most qualified person could win, without the manipulation of the Department of Justice."

Super. While we’re at it, I’d like a do-over of the 2000 election, please. I kinda missed that real, unbiased, credible process where the most qualified person could win, without the manipulation of Karl Rove. And I’m sure John McCain would like a do-over of the 2000 South Carolina Primary for the same reason.

Let's ask California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger what he thinks about this idea, too. Since, you know, it has become apparent that the power outages that sank Gov. Gray Davis' time in office were completely manufactured.

Meanwhile, I love Balloon Juice:

Gary Condit called. He said to SUCK. ON. THIS.

Ow!!!!!! That smackdown HURT!

Any other election do-overs you'd like to suggest?

Don’t Google Rick Scott

Aw heck, go ahead and give it a try.

In the battle over healthcare, Rick Scott is doing the rounds in his position as chairman of Conservatives for Patients Rights. He’s spreading scary “Obama will socialize healthcare” lies, pushed by the same flacks who gave us the Swift Boat Veterans Against John Kerry.

This statement is especially ironic. I'll tell you why in a sec:

“After the embarrassment of the AIG bonus scandal, these same people are now talking about ramming a $634 billion health care plan through Congress, and we still don't have any details," Scott said in a statement.

I dunno, seems to me associating yourself with a firm tainted by the Swift Boat smearmongers is like showing up at a company picnic with a basketful of turd sandwiches. There’s that whiff of illegitimacy that attaches to your message, which I’d think conservatives would have figured out by now. Guess not.

Anyway, the PR firm Scott hired is the least of his worries. Scott himself comes with a strong stench of merde attached to his name, by virtue of his tenure at the tainted Columbia/HCA. And yes, the news media has noticed:

Once lauded for building Columbia/HCA into the largest health care company in the world, Mr. Scott was ousted by his own board of directors in 1997 amid the nation’s biggest health care fraud scandal. The company’s guilty plea and payment of $1.7 billion to settle charges including the overbilling of state and federal health programs was taken as a repudiation of Mr. Scott’s relentless bottom-line approach.

For those who don’t remember, Columbia/HCA defrauded Medicare and other government programs in a huge scandal that forced the hospital chain to rename itself TriStar, a la AIG and Enron. After an investigation that lasted over 7 years, Columbia/HCA entered a guilty plea and paid the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history:

The company admitted to systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about how hospital space was being used.

The company increased Medicare billings by exaggerating the seriousness of the illnesses they were treating. It also granted doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. In addition, it gave doctors "loans" that were never expected to be paid back, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.

The investigation and the plea is an obvious blow to a company that became a Wall Street darling by promising to bring first-class business practices to the hospital sector, still dominated by not-for-profits. Under former Chief Executive Richard Scott, it bought hospitals by the bucketful and promised to squeeze blood from each one.

Healthcare for profit! Double-bill the government! Kickbacks! Excuse me, Mr. Scott, if your pearl-clutching over “the AIG bonus scandal” rings a little hollow. Especially when you left Columbia/HCA with your own golden parachute:

Scott received a lump sum payment of $5.1 million when he resigned July 25 under pressure from Columbia's board as a federal fraud investigation began engulfing the nation's largest hospital company, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Over the next five years he'll collect another $4.8 million through annual consulting fees of $950,000. Scott, who co-founded the $20 billion company a decade ago with two Texas hospitals, was making a base salary of $900,000 a year.

Oh, sweet!

You’ve really gotta wonder how strong the message is when Rick Scott is the best messenger the anti-healthcare overhaul folks could find. Indeed, corporate crooks like Scott notwithstanding, it appears other healthcare stakeholders are ready to back reform.

Looks like this is yet another issue in which conservatives are on the wrong side. And finding a corporate weasel like Rick Scott to be your messenger doesn't sound like a winning strategy.

Ann Coulter Gets Punk’d

Ann Coulter fell for a Car & Driver April Fool’s prank in which a bogus online article stated that President Obama had ordered Chrysler and GM to cease their participation in NASCAR as a cost-savings measure. The article was later pulled and identified as an April Fool’s joke, but not before Coulter published her column, in which she wrote:

If Obama can tell GM and Chrysler that their participation in NASCAR is an "unnecessary expenditure," isn't having public schools force students to follow Muslim rituals, recite Islamic prayers and plan "jihads" also an "unnecessary expenditure"? Are all those school condom purchases considered "necessary expenditures"?

I dunno, why don’t we ask a parent whose teen daughter just got pregnant or contracted an STD because she didn’t know where (or was too embarrassed) to buy condoms. Heck, I was too shy to buy the things until I graduated from college.

In other April Fool’s news, ABC’s Jake Tapper Twittered yesterday that a

liberal activist just "april fools"ed me w/bogus Reuters report on John Yoo getting arrested in Italy. War crimes + torture=comedy (?)

Nice little sprinkling of moral outrage there, Jake. Imagine anyone not giving the topic of torture, terror and war crimes the solemnity it deserves.

Well, I’m glad Tapper didn’t get punk’d like Ann did. I’m actually not going to make fun of Ann for falling for that Car & Driver piece because, a) I was once a huge sucker too, and actually fell for the Bonsai Kitten hoax before I wised up; and b) radical wingnuts like Ann Coulter are usually completely devoid of humor. It’s a recessive genetic trait, like the rest of Republicanism. (Hoax alert! Hoax alert!)

Come on, did Ann really forget to look at the calendar yesterday?

Populist Rage

Hey, Amy Sullivan and Joe Klein! I think I found that "populist rage” you were looking for:

Among the ruins: Stair railings, built-in cabinets, shower doors, double doors to the master bedroom and other doors are gone, a fireplace was yanked out, the hardwood floors are torn up, carpeting was taken, the toilet was removed from a bathroom. There’s nasty mold. There are no appliances in the kitchen. Even the sinks and garbage disposal are missing.

“The hot water heater was also removed from the house. One entire bathroom and the kitchen was stripped from floor to ceiling, including all drawers, cabinets and even the counter tops,” Moon adds.

[...]

“Some misguided home owners, angry at the bank for foreclosing, think it’s somehow permissible to turn the home into a total nightmare,” writes California broker associate Elizabeth Weintraub on about.com.

“I’ve seen homes where every window looked like it had been whopped by a baseball bat,” she writes. “Some previous occupants deposited feces on counter tops or in the middle of the living room floor … Sometimes home owners turn on all the water faucets and plug up the drains before departing.”

Also, for “populist rage” of another stripe, you might turn your eyes to London today.

Just sayin’.

(h/t, Atrios)

Kentucky Fried Potholes With A Side Of Extra Crispy Hypocrisy

Good grief. I had a hard enough time handling the Home Depot-sponsored Corporaquarium. But this is taking things too far:

KFC, the fried chicken franchise, is offering itself as a corporate sponsor for pothole repair. An actor dressed as KFC founder Colonel Sanders and a road repair group got started this week in the franchise’s hometown of Louisville, Ky., filling up hundreds of holes.

Many of the repairs are decorated with a white stencil saying the spot was “Re-freshed by KFC” — a play on KFC’s ad campaign stressing the freshness of their chickens. KFC spokesman Russell Dyer said the crew is using “regular asphalt,” not day-old biscuits.

The franchise has issued an offer to mayors of cities nationwide, asking them to describe their street’s state of disrepair, with the intent of doing repairs in five cities.

Good lord. Remember when Neil Young and Eric Clapton traded barbs over use of their music in beer commercials? Amateurs!

Here’s a thought: maybe if Yum Brands, KFC’s corporate parent (as well as owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s) paid their corporate taxes, cities like Louisville wouldn’t be so far behind in their pothole repair.

Let’s dig into the memory hole, shall we? Oh, here’s a juicy one:

In the Yum case, first outlined in a lawsuit against a senior Yum executive in May 2004, federal investigators contend that when the company, with the help of KPMG as its auditor and tax adviser, set up a private insurer as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1998 to handle all of its insurance needs, it was effectively buying an Insureco shelter.

Specifically, the government has questioned a transaction undertaken in late 1999 by Yum's wholly owned insurer, Glenharney. In that deal, Yum, then known as Tricon Global Restaurants, sold a small equity stake in Glenharney to Credit Suisse First Boston for $8 million, including fees.

Because Glenharney held offsetting liabilities, in the form of unpaid claims, the sale resulted in a $112.5 million tax loss to Yum.

The I.R.S. contends that the sale served no legitimate business purpose and functioned solely to generate tax losses for Yum, to offset legitimate capital gains. Yum paid $750,000 in fees to KPMG for advice on Glenharney, according to court papers.

The I.R.S., which is auditing Yum for 1997, 1998 and 1999, intends to disallow the $112.5 million tax loss, according to court papers.

WTF? Insurance companies and private banking transactions acting as tax shelters?

Good lord. No wonder this country’s economy is in a mess. Corporations behaving badly, who'd have thought it.

So no, you don’t get to trash our cities and then slap a freaking logo on the repair job. Stick to making fried chicken, assholes.