Politics

Watching the developing political situation surrounding the economic stimulus package seems to be providing a unique insight into the difficulties that pervade the current US Congress. Bipartisan agreement that the package is needed, combined with the always-present need amongst politicians to be seen as "doing something", produced an agreement in the House in near-record time. But now the bill has reached the Senate, and the brakes have been applied. At a superficial glance this may seem odd, because even in the Senate there seems to be bipartisan support. Both the Democraitc majority leader and the Republican minority leader spoke in favor of the bill being pas…

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/wireStory?id=4952742 The definition of "recession" is two straight quarters of negative economic growth. That still hasn't happened, in spite of poor NBC News' desire to call it one. (Kinda funny how when they decide to call things "what they really are", they oddly turn out not to be those things! The "civil war" in Iraq comes to mind.) Perhaps new definitions are needed. I get annoyed at our media-driven sensitivity to the plight of the single-working-mother-of-three, but the economy has grown so large that problems like the housing market collapse can have far-reaching impact even if they don't produce an outright rec…

Many people do not realize that our total number of congressional districts (and therefore our total number of Representatives in the U.S. House) has been limited to 435 ever since 1913 (except for a four-year period when it was temporarily increased to 437). In 1929, this number (435) was made permanent by an act of Congress. During the debates preceding that act, Missouri Representative Ralph Lozier stated: “I am unalterably opposed to limiting the membership of the House to the arbitrary number of 435. Why 435? Why not 400? Why not 300? Why not 250, 450, 535, or 600? Why is this number 435 sacred? What merit is there in having a membership of 435 that we would …

Interesting op/ed in the Wall Street Journal today by Timothy Lynch and Robert Singh, authors of a new book called "After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy". The basic point is that our foreign policy is not likely to change dramatically after the election. - Neither candidate has disavowed the war on terror - In fact they all claim they would do a better job fighting it - Administrations historically inherit foreign policy and situations - Bill Clinton committed more troops to foreign conflicts than any previous president since WW2 - European complaints are unlikely to have a dramatic impact, since they need us as much as we need them -…

What could Sen. Clinton possibly have been thinking when she remarked that Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June while running for the Presidential nomination?? imp

I think it's interesting and I don't buy the right wing's "explanation" that George Soros is behind it. McClellan didn't have to do this -- nobody forced him. I don't object to the idea of economic incentive (the book is more attractive to buyers this way), but the personal cost is rather extreme for that kind of gain. This is the main point that I think the right has going for it in this area. The quote below is from today's editorial position in the conservative Wall Street Journal. (source) I think that's a valid point, and that renders McClellan's book to the level of simple opinion rather than anything that adds major substance to the center a…

For those of you not so remotely located as to be unaware of the recent government raid on the "polygamist compound" in Texas, here are a few thoughts. Of 400+ minors (children) removed to "protective custody", one can assume many were not very young, but rather young adults still technically minors. These young people grew up in an out-of-societal existence, probably were free to roam the 1700 acre compound at will, go fishing or biking, swim, play games, and generally be a part of a family, whether that family be considered "normal" by traditional definition. These children now will experience, no matter how carefully and orchestrated their "captors" are, being …

You almost have to admire the sheer gall of such a thing. From an AP wire story: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iy-MfhLN9Q7MwtQ1VlrvexLjr2dAD90VDF3G1 As a practical matter, this appears to be mostly about internal propaganda, but there's also an international aspect to it. The World Bank refuses to give them any new loans because they haven't paid their debts in many years. So now they're using this as an excuse to demand more money, which of course they will use to finish up their new showpiece capital city. Pretty sad.

Well that won't be much of a conversation starter, since I don't think there really are any Hillary supporters left here. But there was a pretty good column in the Wall Street Journal today by Donald Boudreax, an economics professor at George Mason, who analyzes whether Hillary has been descriminated against in this race due to her gender. The crux of the article is where he amusingly points out that if Hillary is correct that Democrats are misogynists, and if she's also correct in her statements that she's more able to beat McCain in the fall, then logically that suggests that Republicans are less sexist than Democrats. (grin) Anyway, I thought you guys m…

When was the last time you knew of a shipment of medicines, food, aid of any kind sent to any country in distress by natural, or political, or starvation, or whatever reason... originated from any of the superrich OPEC countries?

What is it with our focus on mis-steps and erroneous campaign statements these days? Whether it's Bush being declared an "idiot" or Hillary mental slip in bringing up Kennedy's assassination instead of his campaigning into June, it just seems to have gotten out of hand. Obama's Auschwitz gaff is the current ridiculous example. For Pete's sake, the guy says Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald and you'd think NASA had just lost another shuttle or something. According to this article, the right-wing blogosphere latched on and went nuts over the thing: I'd scream "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" but perhaps a better choice here would be "Abraham, Ruth and David!" But …

The House passed a 300 billion dollar farm bill today, to help out farmers who are in the midst of the biggest boom in half a century. So much for Democratic reforms -- this is just as bad as the oil company subsidy. What are these idiots thinking? Bush would've veto'd it, wanting to cut the subsidy far more. (Actually he'll veto it anyway and let them do the override thing.) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/washington/15farm.html?hp I was surprised to find in that article that Nancy Pelosi is one of the biggest supporters of the ethanol subsidy. It's interesting how with one hand they cheer about a few extra food stamps for the poor and with the other…

I recognise that this a complex topic, and forms part, philosphically of the discussion on whether government intervention in regulating business should be there at all. The topic of this discussion is on the media, but almost primarily, the attention is on the role of the news media. I think people may recognise that news agencies are becoming increasingly "slanted", one could say in propmoting political views. I guess, it is rather obvious, that they often "spin" the news to protect their owners, and their investors' interests. This makes sense, as in any enviroment the only role of a business is to make profit, it is the yardstick of success. My first question…

Apparently, ~75 000 oregonians wanted to see Obama. Nearly every single time I listen to CNN, they're talking about how Obama is having difficulties with 'whites'. I'm not an expert in U.S demographics, but I would tend to rank Oregon among the states with the smallest African-American population. ...of course Obama is popular among African-Americans, but I think the medias tend to put too much emphasis on this issue.

I think we've debated climate change per se to death now, so how about the proper government response to climate change (or the lack there-of, or the lack there-of of it being human induced, stipulating the existence or non-existence of various uncertainties as to the two aforementioned.) I've previously stated that I prefer solutions that use the free market. It's a powerful tool and one that shouldn't be neglected. I've become pretty disillusioned with carbon markets, though. They fluctuate so much that it's difficult to for businesses to make long term plans based on the cost of carbon emissions, on the purely economic side. There is also now the much publicized pr…

California Supreme Court is ruling tomorrow morning on whether Gavin Newsom's small string of allowed gay marriages can stand and whether or not the dissolutions were unconstitutional. My question is this. If civil unions carry all of the rights and "benefits" of a true marriage, then why does the homosexual community insist on encroaching on the bastion of marriage? They want to be different, but they want to be the same. It's apples and oranges. You can't buy an apple and get orange juice. It just doesn't work that way.

This unusual and interesting concept has been floating around since Myanmar (Burma) got smacked by a hurricane about a week ago. Aid agencies have been struggling to get permission to enter the country, with only a trickle of aid being allowed in thus far. The suggestion that's been made is that relief be provided to the country's people whether the regime in power wants it or not. The effort would be international in scope, and France is leading the charge with the US in support. The French want the UN Security Council to debate the issue immediately. Russia and China, however, are opposed to the idea. I think it's interesting but I am more than a little bi…

Culture warrior Bill O is at it again. This time, he's up in arms about one Miley Cyrus: http://www.usmagazine.com/bill-oreilly-dad-turned-miley-cyrus-into-a-sex-symbol-at-fifteen MIDDLE AMERICA DOES NOT APPROVE! Since when is "Middle America" code for uptight prudish assholes? Yes, the 15 year old star of Disney's Hannah Montana will be appearing in a provocative photo in a magazine nobody gives a crap about. Here it is for the curious: http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_01/MileycyrusVF_468x613.jpg OH NO! You can see her... back! Is this indicative of America's growing cultural debauchery, or do child stars just naturally grow up and tur…

As anyone around here knows I've been pretty much a pro-Obama anti-Hillary guy since the two of them emerged as the Democratic frontrunners some two years ago. Well, time has marched on, and primaries have revealed that others feel the same way. It's practically impossible for Hillary to win at this point... BUT SHE'S NOT GOING TO LET THAT STOP HER! urgh...

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/saddam-hussein.html From Saddam's diary: "The spread of the Persians... is more dangerous for Iraq than the Zionist entity, now and in the future," he wrote. "The Persians are similarly dangerous to the Arab nation, especially the Arab countries of the Gulf." The more friendly Iraq is with Iran, the better the Middle East situation will be. This won't happen with US presence in Iraq. Better to leave soon and let them have diplomacy. If Iran invades, it will be much easier to take them out than to sit in Iraq currently. Evidence the Iraq wars - the military is much more adept at killing and destroying than m…

The show originally ran about a year ago, and was repeated last week. The entire episode may be viewed online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/ I'm a huge fan of Frontline, so I was sorry to see this. There were some parts of it that were interesting and well done, but the episode centered around an approach that ALL sides of the GW debate here at SFN have agreed are flawed. They tout Kyoto, for example, completely ignoring its flaws (but the points about how it was like "flipping a bird at our allies" is one that most here have agreed on at various times). The real problem is that numerous examples of current events are touted as examples…

I have mixed feelings about the Jeremiah Wright situation, but I think more questions need to be asked. For those who haven't heard, he's Obama's pastor, who was jettisoned from the campaign last week after some of his more insensitive (but apparently quite common) America-bashing remarks became public. Here are some examples: Source here. Wright has also said that the US is responsible for 9/11 through its acts of "terrorism" against black people. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I guess he's entitled to his opinion. Wright helped organize the "Million Man March", and once visited Libyan president Qadafi with Louis Farrakhan, w…

Okay, so i was reading the newspaper and seen that gordon brown has decided to reclass cannabis as a class B drug again. He did this against the advice of his scientific advisors. I want to make one point very clear here before people respond: I do NOT care whether you think cannabis should be class A/B/C/legal or whatever, this is about ignoring scientific advisors. now, i thought the whole point of advisors was to tell you how it is. It is obviously impossible for the government leaders(or anybody) to be experts in every field they are likely to make desicions in, so they hire real experts to tell them what should be done and if they are about to make a stupid m…

As I look at (particularly American) society today, I see science under siege. Abuse and manipulation are rampant. The Bush administration has been doing like crazy, and it goes back further. Tobacco companies did it, Gingrich did it, Creationists do it, whole segments of society seem to be systematically distorting and misusing science in myriad and insidious ways. And it works. Why? I would suggest primarily the nature of its complexity and its "ivory tower" reputation, as well as how how poorly most of the public understand it or its methods. There are certainly other factors that I'm missing. In any event, science seems particularly and perhaps fatally vulner…

As you may have heard, the Kentucky Derby ended in tragedy yesterday when the second-place horse, a female named Eight Belles, possibly overburdened by an extremly fast pace set by a male who won by over 4 lengths, collapsed on two broken ankles and was immediately euthanized. Animal rights activists promptly leapt on the issue, bringing up the usual litany of concerns (many of which are valid, IMO), and pressed the current presidential candidates to speak out on the issue. At which point somebody remembered that two days earlier Hillary Clinton, in one of those standard publicity moves on the campaign trail, had stated that she was going to place a bet on Eight…