Happy Sequester Day!
- SCOTUS is hotly engaged in issues involving a suit brought by Shelby County, Alabama regarding the designation of particular jurisdictions in the United States as past and present sinners in the matter of voting discrimination directed at African-Americans. The crux of the matter is the ability of the Congress to imply by designation that some Americans are more racist than others and that this proclivity is a feature of geographical and cultural concentration mainly in the South. This is a notion dear to the hearts of many in the North who continue to think of the South as a conquered land that is inhabited by primitives who must be firmly "guided" towards virtue. I think of this as the Thaddeus Stevens theory of American Salvation. Not surprisingly many Southerners resent this paradigm. SCOTUS may well overturn part of the law. I actually think that would be unfortunate. There HAS been widespread voter dicrimination in parts of the US. Indeed, there are places in the North that are covered by the strictures of the present act. IMO, the best remedy for the problem of differential application of the law would be to make the law applicable to all jurisdictions within the US. "What is good for the goose is good for the gander."
- In the context of the sequester DoD needs to have authority to transfer funds from one designated appropriation account to another as needed to make sure that DoD has the ability to make rational reductions of expenditures rather than blindly applying funds to categories that Congress happened to put money in during more hopeful times. pl
