I'm busy with work and will be until Thursday.

Of interest: Oral arguments today in the Supreme Court over the 10th Amendment.

The Sentencing Project has released a report on the state of sentencing in 2010. It begins with some sobering facts:

Today, 7.2 million men and women are under correctional supervision. Of this total, five million are monitored in the community on probation or parole and 2.3 million are incarcerated in prisons or jails. As a result the nation maintains the highest rate of incarceration in the world at 743 per 100,000 population.

NACDL and the Brennan Center for Justice have submitted an FOIA request for secret documents pertaining to changes in the Justice Department's policy on Miranda Warnings. Are the feds creating a terrorism exception to Miranda?

Looks like Rahm Emanuel is the next Mayor of Chicago. While I feel for Chicago, I'm glad he's off the national radar for a while.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

In the wake of a USA Today/Gallup Poll showing that Americans strongly oppose union busting bills such as the one proposed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, two GOP governors have come out against such bills. In Indiana, Mitch Daniels advised his party to abandon its "right to work" bill. And in Florida, Rick Scott, perhaps smarting from following the Tea Party's bad advice on HSR funding, supports collective bargaining for public sector employees:

My belief is as long as people know what they're doing, collective bargaining is fine," Scott said in an interview with Tallahassee's WFLA FM radio station.

Overreach by Walker? Can he extricate himself now?

Update: Also Michigan's GOP Governor.

Speaking for me only

Kevin Drum has been writing some great stuff on unions, Wisconsin, the Democratic Party and income inequality. You should check it out.

Open Thread.

This headline, Under Obama, Taxes Are Lower Than Ever, made me wonder if President Obama has plans to be more progressive on tax policy after the 2012 election. Defenders of The Deal have argued that President Obama's motivation for agreeing to The Deal was political, which means to me concerns about getting reelected in 2012. Let's concede the point for a moment, and even pretend that that easily predictable dire consequences (slashing of government spending for the next 2 years) are a fair cost for Obama's reelection, the question for me is will Obama, even if he is willing and determined, be able to raise taxes after 2012?

Strictly speaking, if Obama wins, he will have the clear power to raise taxes - by letting the current tax cuts expire. Moreover, Obama will not be facing any more elections after 2012,so he should be able to make a non-political decision. Will he? I'd like to think yes, but I can't say I am convinced. Time will tell.

Speaking for me only

I pause now to assert my bona fides. I got my first union card while still in college and remained a member of the Newspaper Guild throughout my career, paying dues even when I no longer had to. I can whistle union ditties, and I swell with pride at the ancient picture of my grandfather, posed with his good friend, the union organizer.

Some of his best friends are in unions. Sheesh.

Speaking for me only

Sad news from the Indian Ocean. The pirates that seized the Quest on Friday and took four Americans hostage, owners Scott and Jean Adams and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, have shot and killed all four.

The US central command said that negotiations were under way with the pirates when the US forces heard gunfire, boarded the yacht and found the four American bodies.

"As they responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors," general James Mattis of US central command said in a statement.

The U.S. had sent four navy warships, including an aircraft carrier, to the scene. After boarding the ship, two pirates were killed and 15 have been detained. The Adams had been sailing around the world on the ship since 2004. What a tragic way for their journey to end.

The New York Times has more details here, and says 13 pirates have been detained. Some background on Somali pirates is here and here.

James Joyner reports on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's explanation for exempting police and firefighters from his assault on collective bargaining rights makes sense. Joyner wrties:

On NPR this morning, Walker answered that he couldn’t take the risk of cops and firefighters going out on strike and allow mayhem to ensue. But that’s an appeal to consequences — and a very dangerous one — rather than a principled reason.

How does this explain why Walker is exempting police and firefighters from his assault on collective bargaining rights? Indeed, unless police and firefighters are not prohibited from striking by law (think PATCO), permitting them collective bargaining rights makes the use of a strike more likely, not less. Indeed, Walker's argument provides stronger support for limiting the collective bargaining rights of police and firefighters than for other state employees. After all, if state employees who are not police and firefighters can strike without causing mayhem, then there is less risk in permitting them collective bargaining rights. But of course nothing Walker has said on the subject has made any sense at face value.

Speaking for me only

David Brooks writes:

Most important, public sector unions help choose those they negotiate with. Through gigantic campaign contributions and overall clout, they have enormous influence over who gets elected to bargain with them, especially in state and local races.

(Emphasis supplied.) With regard to corporations that do business with governments, David Brooks has not only not expressed similar concern, he has shown disdain for such concerns.

Indeed, if Brooks REALLY believed what he wrote, he would be a staunch opponent of privatization. Privatization creates even greater risks of creating situations where entities are "choosing those they negotiate with." More . . .

Is the time right to legalize marijuana? Should it be legalized? The Seattle Times makes a powerful argument for legalization now and passage of Washington state's HB 1550. Can Washington succeed where California failed? An analysis of the bill is here. The Times says,

Pass HB 1550. Legalize cannabis, regulate it, tax it. It is radical, yet commonsensical.

Its reasons: The cost of marijuana prohibition: [More...]

How are you spending the holiday? Michelle Obama and the First Daughters are skiing in Vail. Michelle ate at Kelly Liken's restaurant last night (remember Kelly from Top Chef? She made it pretty far.)

The first lady went to Restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail Village on Saturday night, dining on a pickled pumpkin salad with arugula and a braised ancho-chile short rib with hominy wild mushrooms and sauteed kale.

Check out Sasha's cool boots.

Al Gore spent the weekend addressing global warming in Aspen. Veep Joe Biden spent it in Key Largo.

And the President? He was at home, and coached Sasha's basketball team in Maryland, even though she was skiing in Vail.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

(photo from Rocky Mountain Diner website)

If you've spent any time in downtown Denver, you've probably eaten at the Rocky Mountain Diner. At 18th and Stout Streets, it's one block from the old federal courthouse and the federal court of appeals, three blocks from the new federal courthouse. The Diner is housed in the historic Ghost Building, designed by architect William Lang in the 1800's for a man name A.M. Ghost.

The seats start filling up at 11:30 am, by noon, there's a wait. The food is terrific and plentiful (lunch menu here, dinner menu here, dessert menu here) and the atmosphere inviting and familial. To call it a Denver institution is not an overstatement. [More...]

One of the unexplored issues (at least in my internet travels) regarding the importance of public sector unions is the issue of whether federal labor laws can be applied to States and their subdivisions. One of the principal arguments, I would posit, for the critical importance of public sector unions is the strong possibility that federal labor laws do not apply to States (and their subdivisions) as States. That is, to States as employers. Absent federal standards, public sector employees, more so than even private sector employees, strongly rely on their unions to guarantee their rights. In order to flesh out this proposition, a review of the pertinent case law is in order.

In 1976, relying on principles of federalism, the Supreme Court, in National League of Cities v. Usery, declared that federal labor laws can not apply to the States as employers: