September 2003

One of the Better takes on the Patriot Act

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

Slate did an excellent four part analysis of the Patriot Act and reached a conclusion that the biggest problem centers on the lack of accountability and openness.

The best check on such encroachments should be a free and objective judiciary. But as we have noted several times in this series, many of the most disturbing Patriot provisions do away with judicial oversight altogether, while others permit judges to act as rubber stamps in ex parte proceedings?that is, hearings where only the government side is represented.

The next best check on such encroachments is public scrutiny, and, as we’ve suggested, that scrutiny is only beginning to be as demanding and impatient as it ought. But most Americans still do not believe that Patriot has in any way affected them. So it’s worth noting that many of these provisions are used frequently?even if details are blacked out. Go back and look at the sections that ask whether you’d know if Patriot has been used against you. In most cases the answer is no.

When government is given broad power to act in secrecy, it always, always goes to far. The only ways to check those abuses is to tailor necessary security laws to be as narrow as possible when public scrutiny or judicial oversight is limited. The current version doesn’t do that. It isn’t hysterical to warn of future abuses when we have a long history of abuses when government acts in secret.

Rebels and Indians

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

Eric Zorn addresses the Confederate Flag and Mascot being used by a high school in Southern Illinois. I agree with Zorn and Temkin, but the obvious point is that the University of Illinois still has a cartoon caricature of a mascot. It isn’t that the Illini use a Native American name, it is that the mascot acts like a fool in a costume. If we want to get school districts to see the importance of evaluating their mascots, shouldn’t our flagship educational institution do the same?

Architecture Criticism for the Masses

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

And a good point about the renovations of Soldier Field

It has been said that the result looks like a spaceship landed on the stadium, a charge I will not endorse for fear of being sued for libel by extraterrestrials. But it is safe to say that the project is the most jarring union of youth and age since Anna Nicole Smith married an 89-year-old billionaire.

Key quote,

"If we started out to build the ugliest stadium in the country for the most money with the fewest alternative uses in the worst possible location, we’re pretty much there."

Dandy.

Bears President Ted Phillips says the new model also has an intimate feel–which is true, and which comes from the fact that seating capacity is nearly 5,500 less than before. With 61,500 seats, it’s the second smallest stadium in the league after the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

In other ways, though, it’s inferior to that facility, which cost just $77 million to erect back in 1984. The price tag on the new Soldier Field is a staggering $632 million, of which $432 million will come from tax revenues. Unlike the RCA Dome, which has been used for everything from the NCAA Final Four to the World Indoor Track and Field championships, this facility is open to the elements, which will limit its uses in a Chicago winter.

Nor does the Soldier Field deal look like a bargain next to other renovations. Green Bay’s recent overhaul of Lambeau Field not only cost less than half as much, but added 11,000 seats. Lambeau offers more luxury boxes and a lot more toilets than Soldier Field. Lambeau also has something that the Bears’ arena traditionally and currently lacks: a winning team.

But the Packers’ lair doesn’t have the distinctions that make the new Soldier Field a true marvel. As University of Chicago sports economist Allen Sanderson puts it, "If we started out to build the ugliest stadium in the country for the most money with the fewest alternative uses in the worst possible location, we’re pretty much there."

Oh, and Bears lose.

Dennis Byrne Rages

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

And it is a pretty good column on the problem with farm subsidies.

It’s quite disappointing when Dennis makes a good point. Doing so reduces the amount of snarky material available.

Not long ago, the massive charitable dispensations for farmers were supposed to end with the passage of the Freedom to Farm Act. Something odd happened, though; the subsidies became more generous. So American farmers, driven by subsidies, plant more crops than they can sell on the domestic or foreign market. Not to worry, the U.S. government arrives with what is, in effect, a double subsidy, buying up the surplus and giving it away to hungry or impoverished countries. Humanitarian? Possibly. Crass? Certainly. Counterproductive? Absolutely. It undercuts those countries’ own farmers’ ability to sell their crops, weakens their infrastructure and makes them ever more dependent on food handouts.

Clinton Joins the Save the Jackass Campaign

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

I believe the Democrats in California are pursuing the anti-recall strategy all wrong. Just admit that Gray is an jackass and then embrace him as the duly elected jackass.

What is telling is that in Clinton’s remarks he focuses on teh process and challenges instead of upon Davis

Yeah, Gray Davis and I have been friends a long time, and I don’t want this to happen to him," Clinton said in the church, amid a chorus of affirmation from about 1,000 congregants and the purple-robed choir. "But this is way bigger than him."

"It’s you I worry about," he continued. "It’s California I worry about. I don’t want you to become a laughingstock, a carnival or the beginning of a circus in America where we just throw people out, soon as they make a tough decision. Don’t do this. Don’t do this."

"Don’t shred your Constitution," he said. "Don’t shred the fabric of government. Don’t tell people Californians are so impatient that they give somebody an employment contract and then tear it up in the middle because times are tough. This is the right thing to do, to beat this recall."

Obama’s Finances Are Up

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

Obama would seem to be primarily dependent upon his base when one looks at traditional African-American candidates who raise reasonable sums in Illinois, but often work towards turnout more than big money. Obama seems to be overcoming that with some impressive fundraising numbers (Registration required).

Two interesting things stand out. I didn’t realize the ceiling was that high–$12,000 per individual given Hull is self-financing. That is huge. Second, Obama is having success reaching out of state for cash and that significantly helps him in taking on Hynes who is trying to dry up the local pool of cash for this election.

While I doubt Obama could do as well as Dean on the internet, I’m noticing a lot of crossover appeal to their supporters. Such a strategy might help Obama as well, though certainly at a different scale.

Because Mr. Hull has signaled his intention of putting as much as $20 million of his own money into winning the primary, the recently enacted campaign finance reform law allows individuals to give up to $12,000, six times the normal legal limit, to his opponents.

"I find it easy" to raise money for the Obama campaign, says Bettylu Saltzman, a veteran North Shore Democratic fund-raiser and a member of Mr. Obama’s finance committee. "You say, ‘You can give $12,000’ and you might get $2,000, where otherwise you’d get $500."

Another factor is that Mr. Obama has tapped into a growing number of young, affluent African-American professionals, not only in Chicago but also in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., major cities that have hosted Obama fund-raisers in recent months.

A basic part of the appeal is that Sen. Obama has the potential to be both the sole African-American U.S. senator at this point in time, as well as the first black Democratic male senator. In addition, this group of potential contributors grew considerably as the economy boomed during the 1990s.

"The pool is definitely larger," says Valerie Jarrett, who is chairing Sen. Obama’s 52-person finance committee, comparing this race with that in 1992, when the executive vice-president of Habitat Co. and prominent civic leader was a major fund-raiser for Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley Braun in her first U.S. Senate race.

While more than two-thirds of Mr. Obama’s 3,000-plus donors have given less than $25, he’s also picking up major financial support from traditional Democratic contributors, sometimes referred to as "lakefront liberals." His finance committee includes party stalwarts such as Marjorie Benton, Irving Harris, Martin Koldyke, Daniel Levin, Abner Mikva, Newton Minow, Penny Pritzker and John Schmidt.

Introducing Deanasms

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

One of the better aspects of last nights episode of K Street, was when Begala and Carville told Dean not to answer hypotheticals and used Bush’s insistence as an example of political discpline–he’s learning, well sort of.

Slate’s Editor Jacob Weisberg runs a hysterical bit on Bushisms finding the best of the President’s malapropisms. Some, such as Eugene Volokh get a bit huffy about them, while they are generally harmless fun. In that spirit is seems to me that Dean is good at having verbal spasms that lend themselves to poking fun as well–let’s call them Deanasms.

Here’s the first.

"One thing about being a doctor is that I don’t often speculate about something I don’t know," Dean, a physician, said in an interview with the Tribune earlier this month. "That’s a very dangerous thing to do . . . so I basically trained myself not to do it. If you have no decent evidence, I don’t think you should talk about it."

Earlier in the same day, though, Dean pointedly accused the White House of having its hand in the effort to recall California Gov. Gray Davis. When pressed, he acknowledged he had no evidence to support his claim.

Jeff Zeleney has a dry sense of humor.

Spending W/out Legislative Authorization?

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

It appears to be shifting around revenue, but it still isn’t comforting to know that the G-Rod administration is going to spend the $775 million from the feds without running it by the Lege.

In a related story Stateline covers the accounting gimmicks that various states, including Illinois used, to balance their budgets. Accelerating revenues doesn’t increase revenue, it only shifts it around.

Karl Rove Hispanic Effort Or Just Damn Funny

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

Via Atrios

The Karl Rove Hispanic Effort Continues in Earnest

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) The Maryland Republican Party moved Saturday to sever its ties with the Maryland Hispanic Republican Caucus after the caucus chairman criticized Gov. Robert Ehrlich for not appointing Hispanics to high-level jobs.

The party’s executive committee voted 20-1 with two abstentions to recommend that the state central committee rescind a resolution recognizing the caucus as an affiliate of the state party. It also voted to create a new organization to reach out to Hispanic voters.

Senate Resources

ArchPundit September 15, 2003 No Comments

A few great resources for the 2004 Illinois Senate Race are linked at the Senate site, but I wanted to point out some in particular

Modern Vertebrate
Great guide to the Senate and House races

Illinois Senate seems to be the central site for quality information on the 2004 Race.

Eric Zorn’s Senate Page including Interviews with several of the contenders.