Lubbock Left

The right-wing mantra of “deregulate, deregulate, deregulate” is costing America one of our most important technological and cultural advantages: ubiquitous, affordable broadband internet access.

Ars Technica has an article about how we are being left behind:

Despite the repeated claims of the current administration that our “broadband policy” is working, the US actually has no broadband policy and no aggressive and inspiring goals (think “moon shot”).

Simply put: Japan, France, Sweden, Canada, and most of Asia are out-interneting us. The main reason that they have surpassed us is because their governments view fiber optics as core infrastructure issues worthy of government investment.

Meanwhile, our government is too busy selling out the public trust to the biggest corporations it can find, all in the name of “deregulation” and “smaller government.”

My view is that regulation does not stifle competition; instead, it prevents people from hurting other people. A good business can survive in nearly any regulatory climate. In general, we only hurt ourselves when we remove regulations from industry.

Furthermore, we have seen that the politicians who ran on “small government” don’t really believe in small government. What they believe in is a very large government that benefits only them and their friends, while the majority of citizens suffer from a lack of services and public resources. (Picture Hurricane Katrina alongside record profits for military contractors and oil companies and you’ve got a snapshot of the Bush legacy.)

“Small government” plus “deregulation” equals the perfect atmosphere for corruption.

Winning the fight against this type of corruption is how we will catch up with broadband access. (Support of Net Neutrality is an enormous part of this struggle, and it ranks pretty high on my list of reasons for supporting Obama.)

If we keep the internet open — both the physical medium and the data — then we can catch up and once again become the world’s internet access leader.

The wunderkinds over at Brave New Films have produced a delightful animated short film about the tax loopholes used by the 21st Century robber barons out there:

Spread this video around!

warongreed.org

The etymology of the word mortgage is a fascinating one:

The great jurist Sir Edward Coke, who lived from 1552 to 1634, has explained why the term mortgage comes from the Old French words mort, “dead,” and gage, “pledge.” It seemed to him that it had to do with the doubtfulness of whether or not the mortgagor will pay the debt. If the mortgagor does not, then the land pledged to the mortgagee as security for the debt “is taken from him for ever, and so dead to him upon condition, &c. And if he doth pay the money, then the pledge is dead as to the [mortgagee].”

Our contemporary adjustable rate / subprime mortgage crisis is a little bit more complicated than a simple matter of a debt that may or may not be repaid and a house that may or may not be seized. That’s why I was delighted to find this stick figure cartoon explanation called “The Subprime Primer.” It’s hilarious, educational, and worth the five minutes it takes to read.

Lastly, what happens when someone who is foreclosed on decides that they aren’t giving up without a fight?

Joe Lents hasn’t made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002.

That’s when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents’ mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork.

“If you’re going to take my house away from me, you better own the note,” said Lents, 63, the former chief executive officer of a now-defunct voice recognition software company.

Judges in at least five states have stopped foreclosure proceedings because the banks that pool mortgages into securities and the companies that collect monthly payments haven’t been able to prove they own the mortgages.

These ripoff securities were in such a hurry to rip people off that they may not have done the appropriate paperwork to transfer ownership of the mortgages they are selling to investors! The amount of deceit and dumbassedness at every stage of our modern mortgage crisis is simply staggering.

The lesson that I am learning from the mortgage crisis is this: in a culture where regulation is frowned upon, crooks will thrive.

The House committee on Oversight and Government Reform raises the issue of how Blackwater pays its employees. Currently, Blackwater is the only contractor in Iraq that pays its armed guards as private contractors, not as employees (with income tax and social security withholding).

There’s nothing wrong with this arrangement by itself, but one of the guards working for Blackwater seemed to think it was unfair. He questioned his status as an independent contractor, and the IRS agreed with him. Now the speculation is whether the ruling applies to all of Blackwater’s contractors in Iraq and Afgahnistan as well:

Since the hearing, I have learned that the IRS determined in March — six months prior to your testimony — that your classification of a security guard working in Afghanistan as an independent contractor was “without merit.” The IRS advised that “[y]ou are responsible for satisfying the employment tax reporting, filing, and payment obligations that result from this determination.” By its terms, the IRS ruling applied only to the individual security guard who protested his classification, but the IRS warned that its ruling “may be applicable to any other individuals engaged by the firm.” The logic of the ruling would appear to apply to your entire workforce in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is also evidence that Blackwater has tried to conceal the IRS ruling and the evasion of taxes from Congress and law enforcement officials. The IRS determination was issued in response to an inquiry by an individual security guard who questioned his classification as an independent contractor. In June, Blackwater required this employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement before it agreed to pay the back pay and other compensation that he was owed. The terms of this agreement explicitly prohibited the guard from disclosing any information about Blackwater to “any politician” or “public official.” The agreement further provided: “THE UTMOST PROTECTION AND NONDISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION IS OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE AND IS THE ESSENCE OF THIS AGREEMENT.”

That last bit about nondisclosure is pretty scary, eh? Good thing that the Committee accepts anonymous whistleblower tips.

It’s a fact that our society’s workforce is moving to a more independent, less hierarchical form. Contractors and subcontractors are more and more common while pensioned, insured, “job-secure” employees are fewer and far between. The jury is still out on whether this will benefit society as a whole — I can see sound arguments on both sides of that issue. But again, the question of the day is: do we want our military to be contracted and subcontracted and sub-sub-contracted out? Where does the buck stop when, say, a bunch of subcontracted mercenaries open fire on a crowd of civilizans?

Truman had the correct answer to that question. Too bad our current President likes to be the decider and the buck-passer at the same time. Too bad everyone in his administration is part of the same culture of irresponsibility. Too bad that private military contractors can drop the buck anywhere they like… at least, until we get some laws passed that bring some legal accountability somewhere in this process.

The Shock Doctrine has been buzzing around the net all week, but a clip of Naomi Klein interviewed by Bill Maher up on rawstory really condenses the main point nicely: politicians are using shocks to our national psyche (e.g. 9/11, Katrina, Iraq) to advance a corporatist agenda, and it’s working.

I believe we have to watch out for this kind of shock corporatism at the State level as well as at the national level. CHIP not working well? Privatize! Schools not “performing?” Privatize! Prisons getting out of hand? Privatize!

And watch out for the new lie that privatized government is good because it’s a “free market system.” Whether or not you believe that a free market system is the best way to accomplish the goals of society, corporations and government working together very rarely do so in a free market manner. The Halliburtons of the world will always have the hook-up with those in power.

Corporatism is a form of fascism, and that’s exactly what’s shock-and-awe-ing America today.

See also: shockdoctrine.com and the video by Alfonso Cuaron below.

The Texas Youth Commission (TYC) is ordering all of its juvenile inmates removed from the privately run Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in West Texas. The A-J covered the story today. “Unsanitary and unsafe conditions” were the reasons cited for the removal of juveniles. The private facility was run by the GEO Group, which appears to be a multinational corporation. From their website (emphasis mine):

We are a world leader in the privatized development and/or management of correctional facilities. The North American market is growing rapidly, and we are focused on expanding Federal procurement opportunities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is operating over capacity and Federal law now authorizes longer term contracts than ever before, resulting in more favorable financing alternatives for new privatized development.

We are an industry leader in the international privatized corrections market. We expect substantial growth in Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and other areas in Europe for corrections and immigration services.

Our diversified services include health care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, home detention/electronic monitoring and secure prisoner escort/transportation and court custody services. Our success in delivering some of our industry’s finest diversified services is evidenced by our numerous contracts in the United States and around the world. We are intently focused on extending that success in privatized health care, mental health care and other diversified services to government agencies around the globe.

Does anyone else find the fact that the private prison industry wants to “branch out” into the private health care industry a little creepy? I’m glad these guys are no longer operating anywhere near me… oh, except for Littlefield and Spur (not to mention Santa Rosa, Hobbs, Pecos, Bridgeport, and Fort Worth). Crap.

Also in the news today: Blackwater is defending the actions of their contractors in Iraq. This is fine, and it’s expected as the FBI begins investigating the company. Did you know:

Blackwater bills the U.S. government $1,222 per day for a single “protective security specialist,” the report says. That works out to $445,891 on an annual basis, far higher than it would cost the military to provide the same service.

Now I can list TWO functions of government that I definitely do not want to be privatized, backed up by terrible examples of same: Military operations and Prison/Correctional operations.

Six years and a day after 9/11, my mind is drawn once again to the advice our crappy president gave us in the days following the collapse of the twin towers: go shopping.

I think our country took him too literally and followed his advice too enthusiastically. Now we are a nation of debtors and over-spenders. Not only is this debt situation very un-conservative (now it’s no surprise to see that the Bush administration is not really conservative, but, in 2001, I’m sure some people still bought the neocons’ “compassionate conservative” line), it’s very un-American also. Before Reagan/Bush, our national pursestrings were very tight indeed. Clinton restored budgetary sanity, but now our national debt is in the tens of trillions of dollars. To me, that looks like two things: (1) a rejection of 200 years of American budgetary morality, and (2) a very bad example set by our leaders that is being followed by our citizens.

Here’s a short list of things that could help our national spending problem:

• Don’t allow predatory lending companies to exist. Period. Stop loaning money to people that can’t pay it back. Usury is a sin for a reason.
• Implement a single-payer national health care system so that ordinary people — even people that are “well off” — don’t go broke from illness.
• Start enforcing the trust-busting laws again. Anti-competitive mergers and monopolies allow corporate conglomerates to fix prices beyond the reach of consumer budgets. The petroleum and telecom industries are great places to start.
• Make net neutrality a firm and well-written law.
• Regulate college tuition and improve federal student loan assistance programs.

The above list is all over the place, but it pretty much has to be, since our national financial situation is screwed up all over the place.

I also stop to think today about what Bush could have said to the American people after 9/11 — what he could have suggested we do instead of goddamn go shopping. Here’s a short list of the infinite possibilities:

• Today, right now, go outside and meet your neighbors. Knock on their doors and tell them you’re glad to know them and that you’ll be there to help in a time of need.
• Make a commitment to train yourself in one aspect of disaster recovery — first aid, food bank work, search&rescue, construction/rebuilding, crisis counseling, or any such skill — and then share it with your family. Volunteer to help when that skill is needed in your community.
• Set up a regular monthly contribution to your favorite charity — as little as $5 a month will still go a long way.
• Join the Peace Corps or a similar program for six months to a year (assuming such programs weren’t scaled back or eliminated).
• Contact your friends and family that you haven’t heard from in a while and catch up, tell them you love them, etc.
• We still have “nothing to fear except fear itself.”
• Anything!

Picture an America where service, rather than spending — community over consumerism — was encouraged in the wake of 9/11. I believe we wouldn’t have individual or national debt to the degree that we have today, and we would be a proud nation working together to better ourselves and our neighbors. Instead, we are an international baby, screaming and kicking because we’re angry and scared.

And broke.

Why did ListenLubbock blame the people’s poor opinion of the bond package on the Mayor and “current” City Council? (It’s unclear if the “current” City Council in this description includes Todd Klein, who has served on the council for just two months.) I believe that they wanted to distract the public from the fact that this bond package was strongly supported by the Chamber of Commerce.

Look at who is a part of ListenLubbock, a PAC formed specifically to support the bond election. (Has anyone gone through the FEC to see who was funding ListenLubbock?) Their listening report (pdf) includes a member list with big names from the Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, UMC, etc. Their listening sessions were staffed by Chamber members.

People join the Chamber of Commerce for specific benefit to their business, not to their community. To be fair, those are occasionally the same thing, but not generally.

My conclusion is that the Chamber was very much in favor of this bond issue, and when they found out that the public was very much against this bond issue, they pinned it on the already unpopular Mayor, City Council, and City staff — those who actually decided not to have the bond election. Worse, it’s not clear from their “listening report” whether they are basing their blame on an actual polling statistic or on an unscientific general feeling. The public needs access to the full crosstab of their scientific poll.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Tonight I participated in the mad rush that is a liquidation sale at the 50th St. Hastings. It has been one of my favorite stores to shop at because of its late hours and wide range of products. Throughout the years several of my friends have worked there. I can honestly say I will miss it when it closes.

Rumor has it that the building owner wanted Hastings to sign another 10-year lease, which the company did not want to do because the margin of profit at the store was not high enough for that long of a commitment. I respect the choices of the businesses, even though I am sad to see the store go.

I have a hunch that we will see a new Hastings store in Southwest Lubbock soon…

The store closing got me thinking: this sort of thing is exactly why I don’t want to see our public education system privatized. Picture a low-performing school with declining attendance. The responsible, public system of education would try to find and fix the problems at the school and correct them for the good of the community. A private system of education would likely close the school and seek out better, more profitable schools — undoubtedly in Southwest Lubbock! After all, competition between schools will send the students to the best schools, right? Never mind the gaping holes in our community that business will judge “not worth the risk,” right?

It makes me sick to my stomach to think about an education system with no accountability to the community.