Politics

Well here's an Obama decision I disagree with. I understand its source and these things tend to be very complex, though, so I'm trying to keep a fairly open mind about it. Currently student loans are, in the main, privately funded but federally backed, which means that if the student is unable to pay it back the government steps in and covers the loan. Since this is a 100% guarantee of repayment, investment was a no-brainer and that meant that plenty of money was available for lending to students (in fact this change, stemming from the Clinton administration, is generally attributed as the source of the great educational explosion of the late 1990s and early 2000s).…

While some members of this forum insist an investigation of the Bush administration is little more than petty, partistan revenge, 71% of Americans wish to see Bush investigated. 41% want a criminal investigation, while 30% want investigation by an independent panel. Just to toss some more statistics at you, 63% want an investigation into Bush's illegal wiretapping, and 62% want an investigation into the use of torture. As you may have guessed, or read from my previous posts, I count myself among those who wish to see Bush investigated for wiretapping, torture, and I would like to see him criminally investigated. My belief is that Bush has violated the Fourth …

The Secretary of Defense has lifted the ban on press coverage of coffins returning to Dover AFB from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6965734&page=1 I think this is the right move because it's more open and above-board, and it also allows for families to continue to opt for privacy if that is their preference. Apparently this is still somewhat controversial and in transition -- some question what would happen if a family is split over the issue, for example. But presumably this could be worked out on a case-by-case basis. Apparently the decision was widely supported by veterans groups. What do you all th…

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE51G5X720090222 It is audacious, especially when you look at a key statistic that the reporters haven't calculated yet (more no that below). But I think it's what has to be done. First, a key quote from the article above: Very clever of the president to phrase his statement around values based on "the economy" rather than the budget. The budget is only 3 trillion versus 14 trillion for the economy, so the figures look very small, when in fact they're quite large. A cut from 26 to 22% of "the economy" represents 4% of $14 trillion. That's $560 billion. In other words, he's saying that he's going to c…

http://www.recovery.gov/ More of Obama's fresh approach to transparency. You think any spending bill more than say, $10 billion would come with a web site. Glad to see this stuff. (and for those of you who weren't aware, Obama signed the stimulus bill into law yesterday)

The whole program is available for viewing at the following: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/ This was an amazingly well told story, and was doubly dramatic because it was all real and being experienced by all of us right now. We've all been hearing about the economic issues in sound byte fashion... little piece-meal nuggets of information here and there, but nothing cohesive or anything which threaded it all together. Well, in classic Frontline fashion, the history of the situation is brought together with interviews and insights few have heard. They focused heavily on the battle between systemic risk and moral hazard... how Paulson was …

Couple interesting polls out, showing mixed results for the new administration. In general his approval rating remains very high, as is perhaps to be expected given the short time frame, but he's clearly having difficulty conveying certain aspects of "change". Republicans are being hammered over the issue of who's compromising and who is not. This is not surprising, though, and actually more or less part of the Republican game plan at the moment -- taking an obvious hit now, while they're already down, in exchange for a potential payoff down the road if Obama's economic plan fails. One interesting thing that's come up is a sharp contrast between the resul…

In the light of the stimulus bill, what are your thoughts in regard to Obama and the Democratic Party's attempts at bipartisanship? I've left this poll publicly viewable, but if you're too lazy to see what I voted and am curious what I think, I think Obama has given the Republicans a fair shake and they are simply being stubborn and hypocritical. What do you think? (Note: This poll pertains primarily to the stimulus as it's the most significant piece of legislation since Obama took office)

...Still? If not, which nation is the freest on Earth today? I don't mean in respect to businesses having freedoms equal to those of citizens.....the U.S. Declaration of Independence says "pursuit of happiness" -- yet I'm fairly certain most here can agree that's a little broad for our purpose here, compared to if they had written "and the pursuit of riches/wealth/power". So we're going only by Freedom of the Press, and of citizens. The less the press is owned by conglomerates, the more journalists can really print the truth in the widest-reaching media (i.e. internet) -- even if it's ugly -- and so the more free the media is. Rules Choose one nati…

I'm not sure I get this thing. Take a look at this cartoon: Yes, it's clearly a reference to the recent news story about the Connecticut woman who was attacked by a chimpanzee and was subsequently shot by police, but the thing I don't understand is why the cartoonist thought that the reader would be able to make a humorous connection with the president and his stimulus bill. Why would the police shoot the president? I don't get it. Can someone explain the joke to me? I don't see how I can figure out whether or not it's racist if I don't understand it. But if the only connection between the chimpanzee and the president is the comparison of African Amer…

Then don't get one. /me hides from the flame war. But, on a serious note, I don't understand the big deal.

Did you know that Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have constitutions that explicitly forbid atheists from holding state office? Well, they do. http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Laws_and_other_rules_against_atheists_and_agnostics I must say, it sure is a good thing we have that intelligent piece of writing we like to call the Establishment Clause. Maybe if we pretend it doesn't exist then people can just keep pushing their religion throughout our society until they're forcibly stopped from doing so, and forced to abide by our constitution (or, instead ). Speaking of legality, all laws against ath…

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDYQRfop9MWc&refer=us Yeah, what can I say. This sucks. This is the one criminal act Bush perpetrated which I really can't see anyone defending. Bush knew what the law was, and so did the people involved. The people involved sought a presidential signature to cover their asses. And not just one signature, instead Bush signed off on the program dozens of times. Our precious personal info was diverted into the NSA without warrant. Telcos, featuring potential litigation, pressured Bush and Congress to cover their asses, because they had done something illegal. A federal judge ruled it was illegal. …

Here is a nice (where is that tongue-in-cheek smiley?) piece of bipartisan legislation: The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act. It would remove restrictions on federally-funded research that requires researchers to make their publications publicly available (e.g. PubMed, arXiv). The galling title of the thread is a statement by Allan Adler, Association of American Publishers VP for government and legal affairs to the House Judiciary Committee last week. Some reading: http://paulcourant.net/2008/09/17/fair-copyright-in-research-works/ http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6595774.html http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/open_access_the_time_to_act_is.php?u…

This poll is only for countries such as the US that have the first past the post (aka winner take all) system of voting. In the last election, did you vote for the person you most wanted to win? Or perhaps the lesser of two evils?

Alan "Ayn Rand is Rolling in Her Grave" Greenspan said today that he made a mistake in trusting the real estate mortgage market to police itself, and that it should have been more tightly regulated. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?bl&ex=1224993600&en=da694ed4921c5e8b&ei=5087%0A IMO this is a staggering blow for the Austrian/Libertarian crowd. I'd love to find out what my Austrian economist-professor cousin thinks of this, but he's not on speaking terms with me since I told him I'm voting for Obama, whom he thinks is an actual communist. (lol)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bailout_oversight Not sure how I missed this one (ten days old at this point) but a Congressional oversight panel's study shows that Paulson overvalued the stocks of ailing financial companies by tens of billions. Paulson is gone, but Neel Kashkari, a holdover from the Bush Administration, remains in charge of the program, and has defended the Treasury Department's valuation of the stocks. Neel Kashkari heads the "Office of Financial Stability." I wonder why this guy still has his job. Shouldn't Obama fire him for such a gross oversight?

So, the hot topic in American politics and economy this week is whether or not the big 3 automakers in Detriot should receive a bailout to help them through this difficult time. Good ideas on both sides have been raised. Powerful men who made a name for themselves, such as Ted Turner and T.Boone Pickens, tend to ask, "Where will they stop?" or "Who gets a bailout next?" and comment "I never got a bailout." I can't help but appreciate the underlying sentiment. When do we let people pay for their mistakes, and take the medicine for a sickness they contracted due to their own poor decisions? However, I'm becoming more convinced by arguments made in key economic…

Ok, our union here is posting up bulletins making a stink about our CEO capping his pay but not his 394,000 shares of stock. I guess I'm confused, what exactly could the problem be here? I don't see how his shares of stock hurt the company, nor how selling them would somehow be a good signal to investors in a troubled economy. What is it that I don't understand about this?

This is prompted by a comment in a thread about the stimulus package. I'll paraphrase rather than quote, because I think a direct quote would be out of context, but basically the implication was that there is pork in the stimulus package (and would be worse if it wasn't being opposed by the Republicans) The recent discussions about cutting the NSF out of the package really irked me (not sure how it's playing out), because investing in science research is just that: an investment. It will pay dividends down the road. So I ask, where's the pork? i.e. what's in the stimulus package that won't generate economic growth and/or jobs? (not to imply that I think there'…

I thought the question itself could use a thread, since a lot of posts right now sort of go around this question. After seeing some of the "pork" highlighted by republicans that is just "flagrant spending" and not economic stimulus really made me wonder about what exactly is good economic stimulus. There are some ideological differences in approach, but from what I can tell: 1) Job Creation. Spend money putting people to work. Most easily done from the public center (parks, roads, etc) but perhaps increases in grants could help businesses higher more employees, if the grants had stipulations regarding use for hiring US citizens. The private sector job cr…

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pay-impact-2009feb05,0,4979583.story I don't know why they would do that (restructure their pay packages). Isn't that just begging for trouble that isn't really there? Why would a company "rethink" its entire compensation structure just because of the possibility that they might be bailed out at some point in time? And maybe more to the point, why would we care if they did? So what? It's not as if they lack incentive to become CEOs -- it's only in the event of a bailout that they would be capped. Doesn't this just give them more incentive to AVOID a bailout by doing better business? It seems that way to me. I li…

Yeah, that headline grabbed me. When I first read this I thought it was fairly open and shut: blogging insults about your teacher, especially off school grounds, is entirely protected free speech. Any punishment should be fought tooth and nail. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/05/lawmakers-press-free-speech-foul-mouth-blog-case/ But then I got to wondering how it is school authorities achieve the power to restrict freedom of movement, behaviors and etc constitutionally, let alone speech, in the first place. Is it rights that we, the parents, grant the school upon enrollment and admittance? Something I was supposed to have read before I signed? At …

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/06/italy.euthanasia.berlusconi/ Eluana Englaro has been in a vegetative state with irreversible brain damage for 17 years after a car accident. The parallels with the Schiavo case are legion -- family split over whether to end her life, a prior statement from the victim asking not to have this done, and the government intervening on moral grounds. Gee. I guess it wasn't just a Bush thing. How 'bout that? What a moron. Somebody wanna feed this guy a decent science adviser? I guess my feelings on this are obvious -- what do you all think?

Or maybe a cool thou? What is the lesson here? Maybe they'll know better from now on. And be glad they're not in China. *ouch* The scenarios beg a question. And I'll put it to you, the science forumer. Were these problems uncovered because the market corrected things (with its nifty invisible hand), or because of government regulations? Don't forget about lead in toys and so many other joys we get from unregulated nations. My answer is below. Don't peek until you've answered. (the winky face is keeping an eye out) [hide]In this case.....government regulation. However, it's often both the market and the government combined who provide t…