At War With The Surveillance State: Electronic Frontier Foundation

At War With The Surveillance State: Electronic Frontier Foundation

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NSA overreach revelations just keep coming and yet Sen. Feinstein's Intelligence Committee, created to provide oversight to protect our privacy rights are trying to expand the reach of surveillance and data collection by our government. Google's CEO's critique in the last days is an example, as the surveillance net entraps our data held by his company.
Monday Open Thread [11.4.13]

Monday Open Thread [11.4.13]

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Rand Paul has a Joe Biden problem. Last week, he was busted by Rachel Maddow for plagiarizing a Wikipedia entry for the movie Gattaca, then busted by BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski both for plagiarizing a Wikipedia entry for the movie Stand and Deliver and for plagiarizing a Heritage Foundation study in his book Government Bullies. The man is a serial plagiarizer. Instead of being concrite and apologetic, Paul on Sunday threatened to murder any one who dared question or criticize him. Seriously.
“I take it as an insult, and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting,” he said, dismissing his critics as “hacks and haters.” Presumably in jest, Mr. Paul added: “If dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, it’d be a duel challenge.”
I do not give Mr. Paul the benefit of the doubt, so I am not going to presume he was kidding. I am going to presume that Mr. Paul would challenge Mr. Kaczynski and Ms. Maddow to a duel, if such were legal, where he would attempt to shoot both of them before they shot him. That is his response to being caught in the act. He wants to murder them.
Sunday Open Thread [11.3.13]

Sunday Open Thread [11.3.13]

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Jonathan Cohn finds the Republian criticism this week about the 3% of health insurance policies being cancelled (so that the insured could be enrolled in better policies that comply with the law) very disingenuous, and hypocritical.
With Obamacare, a small number of people lose their current insurance but they end up with alternative, typically stronger coverage. Under the plans Republicans have endorsed, a larger number of people would lose their current insurance, as people migrated to a more volatile and less secure marketplace. Under Obamacare, the number of Americans without health insurance at all will come down, eventually by 30 or 40 million. Under most of the Republican plans, the number of Americans without insurance would rise. Honest Republicans would justify their policies by arguing that Medicaid is a wasteful, inefficient program not worth keeping—and their changes, overall, would reduce health care spending while maximizing liberty. In other words, forcing people to give up their coverage is worth it. I don’t agree with those arguments, but they are honest. But they should stop pretending that it’s possible to address the problems of American health care without disrupting at least some people’s insurance arrangements—because, after all, they want to do the very same thing.
Jonathan Chait agrees, and thinks this is why there never was any "Replace" bill in the Republicans' "Repeal and Replace" strategy over the last three years.
What does 3rd party status actual mean for the DEGOP?

What does 3rd party status actual mean for the DEGOP?

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Perhaps is was Christine O'Donnell, or it might have been the government shutdown.  But a recent The University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication poll shows that the two largest parties in the State of Delaware are the Democrats (40%) and Independents (34%), with the GOP bringing up the rear at 22%. Independents, Other Party, Don't Know Party lean Democratic 33%, Republican 30% - so even among the I's the Democratic Party is the party of choice. That is polling data. In other words, a mere 22% percent of Delaware voters admit to being republicans.   The actual voter registration numbers are lagging behind voter sentiment, but are nearly as bad: 303,157 Delaware voters are Dems (48%),  180,041 are Republicans (28%)  A den margin of  123,116. In 2002 the margin was 48,800. Basically, the GOP in Delaware is hemorrhaging members. If another 6,000 people make their preference official, the GOP will be a third party. Can anyone help me out with this? Will the GOP be handicapped if they lose another 6,000 defectors?
Friday Open Thread [11.1.13]

Friday Open Thread [11.1.13]

9 Comments
Connor Simpson has some bad news for Fox News and Rupert Murdoch:
Fox News has fallen out of favor with Republicans after two years of untouched supremacy as the party’s brand of choice across any and every medium, according to a recent YouGov survey. YouGov measures which brands are preferred by each party (Republicans, Democrats, Independents) by adding and subtracting negative feedback on a 100 to -100 scale. In 2011, Fox News led all brands [among Republicans] with 68 support points, a full 5 points ahead of the rest. In 2012, Fox News led with 64.5 support points, 1.7 points above the rest. This year? In 2013, Fox News didn’t even make the top 10. [...] A Public Policy Poll released in January showed a serious decline in trust during the months after the election. Only 52 percent of those who identify as “somewhat conservative,” said they trust Fox News, down from 65 percent last year. Hardline conservatives trust Fox News less, too: 13 percent said they don’t trust Fox News anymore, compared to 6 percent last year.
LOL. You know what happened, right? Fox News dared to inform its viewers that President Obama won the election. THAT FACT IS CLEARLY UNTRUE!!!!! By reporting the President was reelected, Fox News revealed its horrible evil liberal bias, and no true conservative can watch it anymore.
John Bleeping Carney

John Bleeping Carney

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John Bleeping Carney. One of 30 'Democrats' to vote to enable 'financial advisors' to continue to rip you off. Worse than useless. Check out this article from Daily Kos:
The Labor Department proposal, known as the “fiduciary rule,” would change the ethical standards by which employer-based retirement products like 401(k)’s and IRAs are marketed and sold. The rule has not been updated since 1975, before 401(k)’s and IRAs even existed. The Labor Department wants to broaden the definition of a “fiduciary” to cover all financial advisers who offer individual investment advice for a fee. Under the rule, they would be legally required to work in the best interest of their clients. For example, a fiduciary would not be able to push investment products on customers in which they have a financial stake.
Delaware ranked 5th best state for women

Delaware ranked 5th best state for women

22 Comments
The Center for American Progress (CAP) report, “The State of Women in America,” uses 36 different health, economic, and leadership factors to measure disparities between states and rank the best and worst states for women." Delaware women don't have it so bad (relatively speaking). We are fifth overall and our gals make $0.81 for every dollar men make for the same job. The national average is $0.77 - so not too shabby ladies. Maryland is number 1 by that measure. They pay their daughters $0.85 for every dollar their sons make doing the same job. The worst states in which to be a non-man are predictably, more often than not, in the south. Louisiana's Mesdames et Mesdemoiselles take down a measly $0.67 compared to their Messieurs. [...]
The myth of “shareholder primacy” continues to crumble; employers, employees and shareholders win

The myth of “shareholder primacy” continues to crumble; employers, employees and shareholders win

24 Comments
When I was getting my MBA 10 years ago, the manifold virtues of shareholder primacy were so ingrained in the culture of business academics that, while they informed every bit of the curriculum, they were only discussed in passing. There was no more attention paid this foundational concept than you would pay attention to the concept of addition in a calculus class. Fortunately that is changing. Lynn Stout, the Distinguished Professor of Corporate and Business Law at Cornell Law School, helps move shareholder primacy into a coffin and provides some coffin nails for the myth that has wrecked our economy in her most recent book, The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations and the Public. This abstract of the book explores the logical connections between the 40 year rise of shareholder value thinking and subsequent declines in investor returns, numbers of public companies, and corporate life expectancy. It also shows that shareholder primacy is an bullshit economic theory, completely lacking in support from history, law, or empirical evidence. [Set aside a few minutes to read the whole thing.]