I. Violence in a Jail Cell
Another Chicago law enforcement violence video has surfaced, making it the third in a week. The video shows a cell full of officers beating up an inmate. The inmate later dies and an examination of his body finds a total of fifty bruises and Taser burns.
When Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held his televised press conference, the main reason he gave for his refusal to leave office, as is being demanded by many of his constituents, is he has learned of the problems existing in law enforcement and is the one best positioned to fix them. Emanuel, though, is part of the problem, as he had to know of the existence of the videos, at least of the shootings of the two young African-Americans males. How confident can Chicago residents be that Emanuel won't engage in cover-up again when information about excessive use of force employed by Chicago police becomes available to him and release of it would cause him a major political problem?
What is needed is a root-and-branch investigation of the Chicago Police Department by a body that has no ties to the CPD or the Emanuel administration.
II. Banning Fetal Tissue Research Is Bad Policy
The use of fetal tissue by three researchers working on a polio vaccine in 1954, paved the way for the Salk and Sabin vaccines. When Congress lifted President Reagan's ban on federal funding for the use of fetal tissue for research in 1973, a number of Republican lawmakers, including heavy political hitters, Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell, voted for it. Now, fetal tissue research has become collateral damage in the war against Planned Parenthood; also, six states have already banned it, or severely restricted it. [1]
In Wisconsin, the state that seems to be vying for the title of enacting the most socially destructive legislation, the Wisconsin legislature has been debating a bill to not just ban the sale of fetal tissue, but making research using fetal tissue a felony after January 1, 2016..
Banning fetal tissue will not prevent a single abortion. These actions against fetal tissue research will put the United States behind those nations that do the science, patent the cures and lead the world in biotech. A research path to find remedies for major diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's will be blocked.
III. The Bad Numbers on the Paul Ryan Budget
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found that Rep. Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal would likely have produced the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top than any other budget in recent times (and possibility in the nation's history).The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center calculated that people earning over $1 million a year could expect, on average, $265,000 above the $129,000 tax break they would have gotten from Ryan's proposed extension of the Bush II tax cuts.
Meanwhile, middle-class and poor Americans would likely have seen their income decline due to Ryan's proposals to slash, to the point of destruction, Medicare and other support programs. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
* A Pew survey done in December 2014 found a majority putting gun rights as more important than gun control.
* A Marine Corps study which found that women in combat performed less well than men was labeled "inherently flawed" by Megan Mae Kenzie, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia and the author of two books on women in combat, and Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel and senior fellow at Women in International Security in Washington. The two say the study didn't establish an ":occupational relevant standard": for Marine combat positions.
* The U.S. has spent $4,75 billion on 6,059 airstrikes on ISIS as of the end of October 2015. There is no relevant evidence that the bombing has weakened ISIS.
* A deal reached in late October 2015 gives the Pentagon an additional $59 billion, raising the Pentagon budget over $600 billion for FY 2016. The spending cap will be raised for the nest two years -- $50 billion for FY 2016 and $30 billion for FY 2017, The increased spending will be split between defense programs and everything else, which overlooks the fact that defense programs are now more generously funded than everything else.
* During the 2013 fight over spending cuts, Senator Marco Rubio advocated for government-spending reform. He has since become less cautionary, arguing for an increase in military spending and calling it "the most important obligation of the federal government."
Rubio has called for a no-fly zone over Syria and would help a Sunni-led army fight a two-front war against Assad and ISIS.
* Forty-two percent of Americans make less than $15 an hour. (Source: "Dem Debate Leans Left," The Nation, November 2, 2015.)
Footnotes
[1] Katha Pollitt, "Fetal Subtraction," The Nation, October 26, 2015.
[2] Eric Alterman, "Meet Paul Ryan, Media Darling," The Nation, October 26, 2015.
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