OBAMA ALLOWS ACTUAL SCIENCE BACK INTO MANAGEMENT OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
On the 160th anniversary of the Department of the Interior, President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum reversing one of the worst of the ten-minutes-before-midnight regulatory changes that the Bush administration slipped past us as he skedaddled back to Texas. This particular bit of 11th-hour Bush fiddling sought to cripple the Endangered Species Act by cutting scientists out of the review process, allowing federal agencies to decide on their own whether federal projects did or did not pose a threat to imperiled wildlife—without any pesky input from….you know….biologists.
Obama’s announcement is in the video above.
And here’s the LA Times story on Obama’s refreshingly sane move.
(The Times also wins the award for the best use of a photo printed along with it’s story in order to emotionally blackmail its readers. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.)
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DO WE REALLY WANT TO SPEND THIS MUCH OF OUR MONEY ON PRISONS? REALLY? I MEAN, REALLY???
In our crash-and-burn economy, how much does it cost us to lock up our fellow citizens? Turns out, the only cost growing faster than corrections in the U.S., is Medicaid.
That is because we lock up so damn many of ourselves.
Right now, 1 in 31 U.S. adults are under correctional control. “Correctional control” meaning they are either in prison, in jail, or on probation or parole.
These figures are from a new study released on Monday by the Pew Center on the States. Pew has been on a roll with its studies in the last few years, bringing to our attention how much money and human potential we are wasting with our 25-year-long case of incarceration fever.
In California, by the way, the state that has the nation’s largest state prison system, that ratio is 1 in 36.
In Georgia, it is 1 in 13.
Georgia leads the top five states, which include Idaho, Texas, Massachusetts, Ohio and the District of Columbia.
The Pew folks note that, in the past two decades, state general fund spending on corrections increased by more than 300 percent, outpacing other essential government services from education, to transportation and public assistance. “Today, corrections imposes a national taxpayer burden of $68 billion a year,” the Pew study said. Yet despite all the money states are pouring into corrections, recidivism rates have remained largely unchanged. People get out of prison and then, in very high numbers, they go back.
The Pew group has some suggestions about how we might slow the prison merry-go-round.
“Most states are facing serious budget deficits,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of The Pew Center on the States. “Every single one of them should be making smart investments in community corrections that will help them cut costs and improve outcomes.”
I’ve only begun to read the study. Have a look. Tell me what you find.
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JERRY BROWN IN HUFFINGTON POST: PROP 8 IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, PERIOD
California Attorney General Jerry Brown is taking his case against Prop 8 to the public with a new column in the Huffington Post.
A SIDE NOTE: In his quest to get back into the Governor’s mansion, Jerry has been aggressively courting every police and prosecutor group in the state with his conspicuously law-and-order stance on a whole host of criminal justice topics [BAD], while doing equally aggressive work on important environmental issues [GOOD] combined with his defense of certain social issues [GOOD TOO], his opposition to Prop 8, the most high-profile example. I’m not saying he’s doing all this entirely cynically. But it all looks mighty strategic.
Will it work? Hard to say.
In any case, here’s the opening to the column:
The California Supreme Court finds itself center stage this Thursday when it will hear oral arguments on whether it should uphold Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The case touches the heart of our democracy and poses a profound question: can a bare majority of voters strip away an inalienable right through the initiative process? If so, what possible meaning does the word inalienable have?
The state faced a dilemma like this before. In 1964, 65 percent of California voters approved Proposition 14, which would have legalized racial discrimination in the selling or renting of housing. Both the California and U.S. Supreme Courts struck down this proposition, concluding that it amounted to an unconstitutional denial of rights.
As California’s Attorney General, I believe the Court should strike down Proposition 8 for remarkably similar reasons — because it unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex couples and deprives them of the fundamental right to marry.
Some vigorously disagree. That’s the position of Ken Starr and those who argue that a simple majority can eliminate the right to marry. But such a claim completely ignores California’s history and the nature of our constitution.
Read the rest. As mentioned earlier, the case tees up before the California Supremes Thursday. And we’ll all be paying very close attention.
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When analyzing prison data by state, wouldn’t it be prudent to consider and discuss demographics? Otherwise, one could be misled by the Georgia statistics.
Celeste: Right now, 1 in 31 U.S. adults are under correctional control. “Correctional control†meaning they are either in prison, in jail, or on probation or parole.Nearly one in three African American males in the age group 20-29 is under criminal justice supervision on any given day — in prison or jail, on probation or parole.
And, don’t give me excuses that it’s because of profiling or social injustice. Somewhere there has to be individual responsibility and there should be people who care enough about a culture to hold criminals accountable for their actions rather than protest for them.
Hmmm… Something got cut in that comment. Here’s a do-over.
When analyzing prison data by state, wouldn’t it be prudent to consider and discuss demographics? Otherwise, one could be misled by the Georgia statistics.
Celeste: Right now, 1 in 31 U.S. adults are under correctional control. “Correctional control†meaning they are either in prison, in jail, or on probation or parole..
A refined study: Nearly one in three African American males in the age group 20-29 is under criminal justice supervision on any given day — in prison or jail, on probation or parole.
And, don’t give me excuses that it’s because of profiling or social injustice. Somewhere there has to be individual responsibility and there should be people who care enough about a culture to hold criminals accountable for their actions rather than protest for them.
Crazy Environmentalists – Block Solar
We all want to appropriately protect the pristine polar bears and other mammals, but the environmental studies and reports are now mostly used as delaying tactics NOT SCIENCE.
Not wanting to get into a debate with a racist, but if demographics are the key to those “correctional control” stats, one wonders why Idaho – with a black population of less than 1% – is in the top five states.
Gee whiz, Woody breaks it down for us! Georgia and other states have such a large percentage of their population locked up because of the African Americans. And we better not make excuses for the high percentage of minorities locked up; it’s all about individual responsibility!
Thanks for the insightful opinions Woody.
Mark Twain might have had a slightly more balanced opinion of the lucrative prison industry though. After visiting prisons in Europe and Africa over one hundred years ago he stated, “One can visit prisons anywhere in the world and discover whom the exploited population consists of, those are the same people populating the prisons there.â€Â
And, “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.â€Â
In the last twenty years California has constructed almost thirty prisons, during the same period one State College was built.
Seems Twain was onto something.
That’s a lot to chew on, Celeste. The incarceration rates, and the monies spent on ‘corrections’ versus essential services have arrived at an ill-balanced subversion point upon public welfare much like the ‘upside-down mortgage’ phenomenon. Hardly sustainable and utterly counterproductive. The solution is…???
And how does one truly factor in the extended misery of the ‘Drug Wars?’ It’s obvious in the studies shown above for the US. But what about effect beyond our boarders? The US drug consumption propels the cartels throughout Latin America — 6,000 Mexicans slain in the last 14 months.
A little further example:
http://tinyurl.com/bexakb
reg: if demographics are the key
From Celeste’s linked article: Correctional control rates are highly concentrated by race and geography: 1 in 11 black adults (9.2 percent) versus 1 in 27 Hispanic adults (3.7 percent) and 1 in 45 white adults (2.2 percent); 1 in 18 men (5.5 percent) versus 1 in 89 women (1.1 percent). The rates can be extremely high in certain neighborhoods. In one block-group of Detroit’s East Side, for example, 1 in 7 adult men (14.3 percent) is under correctional control.
It doesn’t look like an “if” to me.
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reg: one wonders why Idaho – with a black population of less than 1% – is in the top five states.
I’m snake-bit today on posting my comments. Here’s the corrected coding and words.
reg: if demographics are the key
From Celeste’s linked article: Correctional control rates are highly concentrated by race and geography: 1 in 11 black adults (9.2 percent) versus 1 in 27 Hispanic adults (3.7 percent) and 1 in 45 white adults (2.2 percent); 1 in 18 men (5.5 percent) versus 1 in 89 women (1.1 percent). The rates can be extremely high in certain neighborhoods. In one block-group of Detroit’s East Side, for example, 1 in 7 adult men (14.3 percent) is under correctional control.
It doesn’t look like an “if” to me.
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reg: one wonders why Idaho – with a black population of less than 1% – is in the top five states.
Besides having a small population which makes statistical analysis misleading for Idaho, the main problems come from those illegal Canadians crossing over the border and drunk Indians.
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I’m hardly a racist. In fact, after fighting the crazy drivers, a stalled car, and a driver going the wrong way during today’s drive home from downtown, I remarked how much better things would be if blacks had their own lanes. I think that’s pretty generous.
(sigh.)
I have posted the racial break downs of incarceration figures in the past. Several times. (From the previous Pew studies, I might add.) Here’s one of the instances.
http://tinyurl.com/cdnln6
I do believe in individual responsibility and culture to hold criminals responsible for their crimes. The great irony about USA is this seems to only apply to the poor. What about all the white collar criminals, who get off with only a slap on the wrist, or fine (that is usually used as a tax write off). White collar crime causes way more monetary damage & kill more people, than a street thug, or psychopath could ever dream of.
When drug corporations (Forest) fail to report negative findings about antidepressants (Lexapro), knowingly marketing a drug that leads to suicides, the company should be tried for manslaughter, not merely fined.
I agree that we put too many people in prison for too long.
However, we need to give the ESA a death sentence. It has done almost nothing for endangered species. I has created an industry of consultants (mostly biologists) who make their money off of it. THESE are the ‘scientists’ that will go back into the process – the very people who lose money if endangered species are taken opff the list. It is used by activist groups to stop construction where there is no valid environmental reason – but they are able to impose high costs and long delays before the courts finally rule against them.
Just look at the Mount Graham, AZ Red Squirrel controversy, and how the enviros prevented for many years a new telescope from being built on an already developed mountaintop.
Environmentalism today is not conservationism – it is obstructionism. It is the new secular religion, and its adherents make fundies look normal.
John, I too have seen close-up some irritating abuses caused by wrong-headed environmental policy and tunnel-visioned activists. But there’s no area of life where you don’t find such idiocy at times.
As for the ESA, some of the big predators of North America simply would not have survived in the lower 48 had it not been for the act. Period. Ditto a lot of smaller keystone species. So don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The Prison Problem
From 1920 until 1975 the prison population stayed about 100 prisoners or less per 100,000 residents, after which the prison population per capita has skyrocketed more than 8 fold and the ratio of minorities in prisons has increased dramatically. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/incrate19252001.html (see graph)
If we look at our society to try to understand what happened, we can identify several key areas which dramatically changed in our culture.
1) Welfare was enacted by Johnson’s great society 1965 inadvertently promoted fatherless homes.
2) No Fault divorce originated in California January 1, 1970 and was adopted by every state except two by 1983 made fatherless homes the norm in black communities.
3) Roe V. Wade was decided January 22, 1973 and made each child a Woman’s choice; the father had no say except to pay. The idea of doing the right thing became a choice instead of Man’s obligation.
4) Shame of having a bastard child became a thing of the past and marriage and children became un-linked in minority homes.
These four factors coupled together created the perfect storm that destroyed the black family which had been intact up to 1970. The black population became the early adopters of welfare, which rewarded un-married women who had babies. Their babies are filling our prisons. White and Latino women are following close behind.
If we correlate the populations with bastard children and prisoners, we find that these are the populations that fill our prisons (per capita). Think about it – have you ever heard of an East Indian or Pakistani person going to jail or having a child out of wed-lock? Cultures which have strong morals and marriages do not fill the jails.
Don’t jump to conclusions about who I am blaming! — I am not blaming blacks or Hispanics or women – I am blaming our liberal judges, legislators and leaders that have brought this upon us through short sighted programs that made them feel good, but have resulted in this prison nightmare.
Pokey has it right. Liberals say that they have good intentions, but their inability to think beyond the next meal results in problems that they never tried to anticipate. Remember the saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” Soooo…
Almost none of the listed species have been removed as a result of the act. None of the big predators have, AFAIK.
So are they actually surviving?
My other gripe with ESA is that it arbitrarily assesses the costs of species preservation – randomly hitting some people very hard for something that presumably benefits all. The result is the western motto: “shoot, shovel, shut up“.
If it is worth it to society to preserve the habitats, it should be worth it to society to compensate those harmed by that preservation.
Why bother…