Eye on the Right

Less than twenty-four hours before progressives from across New England converged in Concord, New Hampshire to find strategies for cleaning up government, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher was indicted for conspiracy, official misconduct, and political discrimination. Although the Governor maintains his innocence, public frustration with corruption is clear: a majority of voters want Fletcher's resignation.

The American rightwing is a fascinating mixture of bottom-line driven corporations and fierce ideologues interested in advancing their single issues. We single out the pharmaceutical and oil and gas industries, as well as the anti-immigration movement, for this Dispatch, but we could have just as easily highlighted the libertarian gang wreaking havoc with ballot initiatives this year, the corporate-backed front groups assailing hard-working Americans, the contractors seeking to profit from privatization, or any of a host of other groups engaged in the public debate out of a weird mix of rightwing principles and deeply vested personal interests.

Those who have followed the growing controversy over electronic voting machines are well aware that, as we have highlighted, these machines are a direct threat to our elections for multiple reasons.  First, all machines and source codes that have been examined by computer scientists have proven to be highly insecure.  Second, these machines have broken down and lost votes in every national election in which they have been used.  And third, Premier Election Systems (formerly “Dieboldâ€?) has recently admitted that in fact there is a “critical programming errorâ€? in their machines that can affect vote totals.  Critics have charged that at least two statewide races have been stolen and even Robert Kennedy Jr. has laid out the case for computer fraud in the 2004 presidential election.

Nothing quite infuriates the right like the occasions when govermnent works properly. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' chief information officer opened the city's wireless network to the general public, creating an economic lifeline. Now that rebuilding is starting, Google and other companies are offering to expand the network. The telecommunications companies are fighting hard to block the move, even going so far as to push to make it illegal to make such networks available in emergencies.

The anti-immigrant "movement" has been flailing recently.  With donor fraud and embezzlement fueling the splintering of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, and dysfunction and check-bouncing at their previous partner organization, the Minutemen Project, anti-immigrant organizations are seeing dissent and confusion rule their ranks.

The Trailhead isn't just starting to attract notice. They caught the attention of government watchdogs a while ago, when a simple Freedom of Information inquiry into whether Bill Owen was using his office to help donors to his 527 resulted in a threatening letter from Trailhead's own attorney. Needless to say, it is highly unusual for questions to the Governor's office to be handled by corrupt political committees. It brings a whole new meaning to the word outsourcing.

If you think Wal-Mart wages are bad in the US, try working for their stores in Mexico. Child grocery baggers at their supermarkets throughout Mexico are paid exactly... nothing. That's right; they receive no pay despite Wal-Mart de Mexico's $1.1 billion in profits last year. Wal-Mart refers to these workers as "volunteer packers" and encourages gratuity from customers. Aside from being a heinous practice, what does this have to do with labor in the U.S.?

With Congress loathe to mandate higher fuel efficiency in cars, the Pew Charitable Trusts have begun a campaign to increase mileage per gallon. But some groups don't seem to think fuel efficiency is a problem, arguing that a car's size, comfort, and style all impact efficiency.

 

One of the lesser mentioned consequences of last month's meltdown in the Montana legislature is its waste of tax dollars. As mentioned earlier, the right-wing leadership in the House was unable to pass a budget, and instead wasted their time threatening to de-fund, completely, the state's Department of Health and Human Services. While no legislative body should rubber stamp legislation just to get it out the door, one also expects the legislature to confront Montana's problems in meaningful ways, not with tantrums and absurd threats. Certainly a session without a budget is a dismal failure, and some stopgap such as a special session must occur. Legislator pay is not great, but the cost of running a session is substantial, as will be a special session. Where's the respect for those tax dollars? The state needs a solution, not more costly grandstanding.

Oregon made significant progress this year cracking down on predatory lending. But it's important to look back at the opposition these measures ran into. The Chair of the Commerce Committee, through which the bills passed said lobbyists and those within the industry pushed him to drop the bill, unsurprisingly. However, in an unexpected twist, he also received opposition from payday loan customers. It turns out some customers were pressured to voice opposition to the bill, or were lead to believe their loan applications wouldn't be approved if they did not participate. Sadly, we shouldn't be surprised considering the tactics of payday lenders. Hopefully, similar pushes in other states will be watched more closely for undue influence.