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Checks and balances

• 07.02.08
  Mugabe favors unity
  Checks and balances (0)

  Isn't that nice? No more partisan rancor for Zimbabwe. There will be a spirit of bipartisan cooperation under the president who is bringing people together to solve the nation's problems. He's a uniter, not a divider. A spokesman for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has welcomed a call by African Union leaders for Zimbabwe to form a unity government. URL
  
  
• 06.08.08
  Autocrats vs local government
  Checks and balances (0)

  After putting down the Pugachev rebellion in 1774, Catherine decided to decentralize administration of the Russian government. But she didn't set up a federated government with separate powers; rather, she set up a system of administrative units that were altogether creatures of the central government. They served to strengthen her system of centralized control. "Historical and regional considerations were completely disregarded in the drawing of the boundaries." (I'm just now reading this in A History of Russia, 4th ed., by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, 1984, pp 261-262.) Autocrats do not like local government that has any separate authority. ...
  
  
• 04.21.08
  Boundaries
  Checks and balances (0)

  I've been reading Peter S. Onuf's, "Statehood and Union : a history of the northwest ordinance" (1987). I've also been listening to Andro Linklater's, "The Fabric of America : how our borders and boundaries shaped the country and forged our national identity" (2007). The latter is a good listen, but I'm somewhat disappointed that it isn't living up to its title. The first part of the book does, e.g. the part about settling the boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania. But boundaries and borders lose their central position (ha!) in the telling of much of the ...
  
  
• 02.13.08
  Barak Obama opposed lawsuit immunity
  Checks and balances, civil liberties (0)

  I'm glad Barak Obama opposed lawsuit immunity for telecoms who help the government with its spying.   Obama hasn't made himself out to be a big civil liberties guy, AFAIK, but if his opposition is rooted in the same source that would oppose re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine, I think we may have found a genuine liberal in the Democratic Party.
  
  
• 01.14.08
  William Hogeland and The Whiskey Rebellion
  Checks and balances, Limits on government power, Tax policy (0)

  (Also posted to my Spokesrider blog). I've been reading a remarkable little book: "The Whiskey Rebellion" by William Hogeland (2006). The reading is in preparation for a bicycle tour this summer to some of the sites of the Whiskey Rebellion in southwestern Pennsylvania. What got me into this topic was the Hezekiah Wells family. Wells Hall on the campus of Michigan State University is named for him. Hezekiah Wells was important in MSU's early history, in part for keeping MSU from being merely an adjunct of the University of Michigan. He was also a big supporter of Abraham Lincoln's candidacy for the presidency ...
  
  
• 12.21.07
  But I was just following orders
  Checks and balances (0)

  This is the old courthouse in Centreville, Michigan, the seat of St. Joseph County. I often use this area, or the sandwich shop across the street, as a place to take a break on my rides through the county. Kitty-corner across the street, to the northwest, is the location of the very first courthouse, so to speak. It was a multi-purpose building, and was the scene of the court where a judgment against Patrick Marantette had been appealed back in the early 1830s. On the order of territorial Governor George Porter, Marantette had destroyed the whiskey ...
  
  
• 11.18.07
  How to select judges
  Checks and balances (0)

  I must have missed something. I don't know what inspired the recent spate of articles about the selection of judges, but there are a couple of new articles, both informative and insightful. It started with Sandra Day O'Conner's article in the WSJ, which I blogged about here. Paul Jacobs has an article about the judicial selection process in Missouri: Where do judges come from? He points out how it's a conflict of interest to have judges and trial lawyers (especially trial lawers) appoint the judges. He proposes letting the people back into the process by letting the voters ...
  
  
• 11.16.07
  Judicial independence
  Checks and balances (1)

  Sandra Day O'Conner thinks it threatens judicial independence to have special interest groups pouring money into judicial campaigns. (WSJ: Justice for Sale : How special-interest money threatens the integrity of our courts.) She says, "Whether or not they succeed in their attempts to sway the voters, these efforts threaten the integrity of judicial selection and compromise public perception of judicial decisions." It's good that somebody understands that our judicial system rests in large part on the willingness of the public to accept its decisions. That's a point I was trying to make during the Clinton scandals. ...
  
  
• 10.02.07
  A Percent for the Favored Few
  Checks and balances (0)

  A Percent for Art? How come governments are now treating artists (narrowly defined) as a privileged aristocracy? From the WSJ: When Yahoo moved into its Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters six years ago, it kept peace with local authorities by buying and installing $500,000 worth of public artworks. Now Yahoo says it is suffering for its art. On its front lawn, the technology giant installed a work by New York artist Sharon Louden that paired real wetlands grass with artificial cattail-like reeds. The grass grew. The city complained. Last year, to rein in its overgrown yard, Yahoo dispatched a grounds crew with weed whackers. Artificial reeds ...
  
  
• 09.22.07
  One-handed fight against terrorism
  Checks and balances, Welfare-police state (0)

  From The Economist: To eschew such tools is to fight terrorism with one hand tied behind your back. But that—with one hand tied behind their back—is precisely how democracies ought to fight terrorism. Exactly so.  But we've spent many decades getting used to the idea that there really are no limits on what government can do.    The General Welfare clause tells us that anything goes, they say, no matter that the Constitution says no.   Interstate Commerce is defined to include much more than interstate commerce.   So how are we going to all of a sudden ask our government accept the ...
  
  

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