There is an earmark in the appropriation bill that provides for a contract with Infinia, a Kennewick manufacturer, for millions of dollars of portable solar power generators. Hastings is named a co-sponsor on the earmark. What gives here? Yes is yes, no, he means no.

Did Hastings think about the deaths of soldiers who transport fuel, not to mention the loss of their equipment in fiery fireballs? And why doesn’t the Yakima Herald publish the week’s votes in Congress so that we can keep track of our vacillating voter?

This is a funny musical derision of GOP candidates. It was produced late in 2010 or, I suppose, it would have had a larger cast of characters.

Yakima’s Police Chief, County Sheriff and the Head of the County Department of Corrections, although invited, did not attend the forum. They should have been there to explain Secure Communities and to answer questions. They should have been there to hear the stories of those who want justice.

With apologies to the lawyers out there, my interpretation of how our system of criminal law works is that the arrest is made by one branch of the public safety system, the prosecution is done by another and the final ruling is made by a third branch. This handing over from branch to branch provides for review and prevents abuse. ICE operates differently, pretty much handling all of the steps within one office. ICE was created after 9/11 and charged with the task of interdicting terrorists, human traffickers and gun smugglers. That is why it has extraordinary power.

Unless a person has been previously deported, undocumented immigration is a civil matter and civil authority should have full charge of the process.

Each year the IRS publishes a summary gleaned from the tax returns of those 400 with the highest income. The data lag by a couple of years, so the latest one is for 2008. In that year, the 400 richest households in America paid an average federal income tax of 18.11 percent. It used to be that short-term capital gains, dividends and interest were taxed as ordinary income. There really is no good reason why the sources of income that most redound to the wealthy are treated differently than other kinds of income, but it sure does keep down their taxes.

The argument that higher taxes “kill jobs” is based on a theoretical construct called the Laffer curve. The Laffer curve shows a “job-killing” effect when taxes are somewhere well above a 40 % statutory tax rate. It just means that productive effort declines beyond some point. Politicians who argue against a tax increase by saying “job-killing” over and over are misleading us intentionally. They probably can’t tell you what a Laffer curve is and they plainly don’t care if it applies to our situation. Their purpose is to starve government of revenue so as to force us into breaking our social compact with seniors and others. Which explains why the economic policies of the Republican Party make absolutely no sense economically.

I have a new online subscription. It is called the Weekly Wastebasket and is posted by Taxpayers for Common Sense. You can signup at www.taxpayer.net

This is a clip from today’s message about how the Defense Appropriations Bill got stuffed with earmarks:

“First off, the amendments were adopted “en bloc” — in packages of dozens –rather than individually. In addition they were passed on voice vote, so we don’t know exactly which lawmaker was for or against each package of amendments…. [T]here was $1 billion left over that got dumped into a vague slush fund entitled Mission Force Enhancement Transfer Fund. Well, transfer they did, cracking that piggy bank open and sending $700 million to their pet projects. We don’t think it enhanced the bill one bit. But at least Rep. Flake’s (R-AZ) amendment getting rid of the $300 million still in the pot was adopted on the House floor….To be sure, we aren’t yet back in the bad old go-go years of earmarking. But instead of moving the country to a system where every dollar spending decision is based on merit, we are seeing some of Congress’ bad habits creeping back. We hope House leadership squashes that once and for all before our hard-earned reforms all unravel.”

According to the 2010 Census, 34.9% of the Hispanic and Latino population of Washington State live in Yakima County. The Redistricting Commission is supposed to ensure that the civic participation of this large group is in no way discouraged by distance, time and expense due to the redrawing of boundaries. I think that it is just not acceptable to draw a line through Yakima County and reassign our least politically active population to a CD based in the far southwest corner of the state. Certainly not when it is possible to drive from Ellensburg to Bellevue in a little over an hour, almost all of it on cruise control.

Think about this and also about how you would redraw the boundaries for the legislative districts so that you can speak out on June 8.

In the statement issued last week by Senator Cantwell and 16 other Senators they propose limiting any single energy trader to holding 10% or less of the market. I believe the rule-of-thumb that when as few as four traders control half of a market, implicit price collusion results. So I think that the Senator’ proposed limitation makes a good deal of sense.

As you may know, Koch Industries ships crude oil, refines it and distributes refined products to retail. What unnerves me is that the commodities trading arm, Koch Supply and Trading, bets on the price of oil by trading in derivatives and is one of the five dominant traders in the market. Also, in 2008, the last time the price of oil spiked, Koch Industries leased and filled four supertankers with low priced crude and held them offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. They were able to short the supply and drive up the price by 20 to 40 cents per gallon.

Given the fact that futures trading is not well regulated and given the extreme political activism of the Koch brothers, manipulation of the price of gas for political ends is conceivable.

We call on all people and nations to recognise the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses. We appeal to all nations to develop and implement, without delay, effective and fair policies to reduce the causes and impacts of climate change on communities and ecosystems, including mountain glaciers and their watersheds, aware that we all live in the same home. By acting now, in the spirit of common but differentiated responsibility, we accept our duty to one another and to the stewardship of a planet
blessed with the gift of life. We are committed to ensuring that all inhabitants of this planet receive their daily bread, fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink, as we are aware that, if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us.