|
 
July 18, 2008
 Having granted corporations legal personhood, thereby fuzzing up our notions of accountability, we seem to have trouble talking sensibly about rich people's influence on politics. It's "money in politics," a generic notion, that everybody agrees needs to be controlled. Nobody, or almost nobody, talks about controlling the rich. But money doesn't have a mind of its own. If you think about it carefully, it's rich people who need to be controlled and — if you're willing to suspend certain of the most common assumptions of our culture — the problem in its simplest form is whether it makes sense for society to permit an effectively unlimited acquisition of wealth or instead to impose boundaries.
Continue reading "Poverty, Wealth, Power"...
July 15, 2008
 Proving that American politics is broken Democrats in Congress wish to take advantage of high gasoline prices to strike back at... oil futures traders. Only the Democrats' bumbling over detail prevents them from drawing up a bill for debate. Had they one to vote on they would. Instead, the intelligent thing to do would be to propose a new (potential) tax on oil: if prices go below where they are now the tax kicks in. Even if prices don't fall, and they probably won't, such a tax would help foster investments in alternatives. If proposing such a tax were politically impossible, and it is, the next best thing would be to put together a sensible package of incentives for alternatives, including revised and much higher CAFE standards. Beyond such constructive actions there's a very easy thing that Congress could do but which by not doing tells us their intentions are not serious. They could demand to know how much oil is left in Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading "Energy Canoodlers"...
July 14, 2008
 Those ads may have more truth to them than anybody thought. In a fine argument several paleoanthropologists suggest that some form of speech in early humans may have developed half a million years ago — in contrast to conventional wisdom which has speech emerging suddenly only about fifty thousand years ago, more or less contemporaneously with the development of modern man. The more ancient date intuitively makes more sense if one is willing to ascribe communication skills to other animals, leaving, indeed, quite lengthy evolutionary branches.
July 6, 2008
 Sometimes living in the U.S. feels like living in the third world. Take, for example, this statistic: 20% of adult Americans think the sun rotates around the earth. When I first saw this mentioned (but not sourced) in a NYT op-ed recently I couldn't believe it. I mean, I know they have fact-checkers at the Times and all, but still, how could it be?? So I looked around and found two sources. One, reported a couple years ago in the Times finds the errant crowd more numerous; another, reported recently in a National Science Foundation survey, confirms the 20% figure. And according to that survey only 55% know how long it takes for the earth to orbit the sun. C'mon now. I want to feel sorry for these people but, to be honest, I have trouble imagining myself talking to them.
Continue reading "The Ugly American"...
 Two essays on FISA are worth a look. Glenn Greenwald has one of his typically well-argued, somewhat wordy dissections of how administration practice is illegal. (Parenthetically, I would suggest — from my experience dealing with her — that his criticism of Nancy Soderberg does not unfairly single her out: when Soderberg takes time to argue for trashing the law she reflects at least one strain of high level Democratic establishment thinking.) Greenwald briefly mentions the real problem in passing, but Julian Sanchez hits the nail on the head. We don't want FISA loosening because we don't want government's broad surveillance powers used for political reasons. As it has been, always, in the past. Taking a page from Sanchez it makes much more sense to argue the pragmatical problem than the ethereal Constitutional limits, particularly in a de facto post-Constitutional era.
July 3, 2008
 Last year I felt worried that something might be in the works re Iran. This year things feel to me very much off the hair trigger. The most recent slew of rumors seems unfounded. Public advocates of an attack on Iran can indulge their psychotic ravings but what all that amounts to, it seems to me, is the laying down of markers for whoever gets elected in November, not some call to arms for an imminent new war.
Continue reading "Is It Clobberin' Time Yet?"...
July 1, 2008
 First up in July, on the fourth, is Philippe Sands, talking about his new book Torture Team and where he thinks America stands in terms of international criminal law. Following Philippe, a double bill on the environment. July eleventh with Dr. Dennis Meadows, co-author of the classic Limits To Growth. For a more optimistic view, July eighteenth with Terry Tamminen, formerly California's Secretary of the EPA and then Cabinet Secretary to Governor Schwarzenegger. And finally on July twenty-fifth I'll talk with Dr. Bud McClure, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, about politics generally. Have a great summer!
June 26, 2008
 When I lived in Chicago I owned several handguns, including the model shown here. I loaded my own wad cutters for target practice, and much enjoyed shooting at the range. Also, although the apartment building I lived in was pretty safe, the neighborhood was not, so owning handguns provided a very real sense of security. When I moved from Chicago to DC, because of DC's ban on handgun ownership, I sold my guns. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the DC law I may buy some more. Supporting gun ownership is not a conventionally liberal position — on this one I agree, however, with the indisputably progressive Sam Smith (here and here). To what Sam argues I would add just one thing: if we should suffer a catastrophic collapse of society then those with guns will be a heck of a lot better off than those without.
June 25, 2008
By Chuck Spinney
 Aboard S/V ChaliVentures, lying Finike, Turkey — Here we have another stellar example of the New York Times' uncritical reportage on national defense. Such stories help sustain a failing status quo by appealing to establishment apparatchiks of an earlier era who are probably trying to worm their way back into the game, perhaps in an Obama Administration.
Cries about defense brain drain and calls for better systems management have been heard since at least the 1960s, yet Kaminski and others interviewed by the New York Times talk about loss of expertise and the Pentagon's grotesque acquisition management problems as if they are recent developments. Looking back, did not the F-111 and C-5 cost overrun scandals occur in the 1960s, even though both programs were sold at that time as examples of better systems management, and in just the same way that in the early 1990s Mr. Kaminski and his cohorts sold the problem plagued, cost overrun infected $200+ billion Joint Strike Fighter program to the President and Congress? All that is new in 2008 is that Pentagon excess occurs without a superpower adversary that would justify bloated budgets, an adversary comparable to the Soviet Union... yet the Pentagon still spends more than the rest of the world's military spending combined.
Continue reading "Pentagon Apparatchiks Setting a "Reform" Trap for Obama?"...
June 23, 2008
 This business about the Democrats passing funding legislation for Iraq and wiretapping approval should worry us. Fortunately, there's something we can do. ActBlue targets Democrats who vote Republican (not the same thing as conservative Democrats), with some success. At the moment, among others, ActBlue is after John Barrow (GA12), who has a primary challenge on July 15, just a few weeks from now. His opponent, State Senator Regina Thomas, has a good record on both Iraq and Fisa, and also has a good chance to unseat Barrow. I sent ActBlue $25 specifically marked for Regina Thomas — ActBlue doesn't take any percentage but you can add a 'tip,' which I also did — and I encourage you too to support the ActBlue project.
June 22, 2008
 Four of five stars. In the good old days of Siskel and Ebert you knew Siskel was the brainy one. When you agreed with one of Siskel's reviews you felt smarter for it, whereas Ebert could be counted on to routinely get things wrong. Except when they strongly disagreed. For me, at least, Ebert in strenuous opposition was almost always right because of the visceral appreciation he brings to a film. Siskel had ideas about what he was supposed to like; Ebert just lets his bourgeois sensibilities run loose. If Siskel were still around he probably wouldn't have liked Get Smart. Most other reviewers didn't. Ebert gives it three and half out of his four stars — according to metacritic.com the most favorable review out there. Heck, I don't care, I agree with Ebert: I laughed through the whole thing, rollicking laughter, with tears leaking out my eyes. And I thought it was a pretty smart, well acted, finely executed film. Even though it's getting panned I predict it'll become a cult classic. You can read Ebert's review, here.
June 14, 2008
 The encomia for Timothy John Russert, Jr. take one's breath away. They astound even the sympathetic critic. For in reality, Russert practiced evasion and obfuscation, replacing real news with pap. He was no teller of great truths, no champion of the powerless, no voice of conscience. To the contrary, he diligently enforced the status quo. Sure, he was a nice guy. And he had a gift for handicapping political races. But the agitation surrounding his passing marks less his admirable qualities than his failings: without his happy face the establishment media may now more easily be seen for the toxic parasites that they are. Their exaggerated grieving serves the grievers, not the man. It would be better to remember Tim Russert without memorializing the system.
June 11, 2008
 The author Patrick O'Brian passed away in 2000 at the age of 85, leaving a wide-ranging legacy — most notably his unfinished twenty volume series of historical fiction chronicling the adventures at sea (and on land) during the early nineteenth century of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. According to the BBC, O'Brian sold over two million books. Brought to an even wider public with Peter Weir's 2003 film Master and Commander, starring Russell Crowe (grossing over $200 million worldwide), nevertheless O'Brian remains outside the canon of great works in English literature.
Continue reading "The Genius of Patrick O'Brian"...
June 9, 2008
 It's educational to look back at the British experience in Mesopotamia. Following an initially successful invasion (yes, oil was a factor), then a rout (surrender to the Turks at Kut) in 1916, British forces — mostly Indian troops — reached a maximum strength of about 400,000 [PDF] a few years later. Which made me wonder about numbers. In 1920 the population of Iraq was about three million. Today it's about thirty million. Relative to today's population the Brits would have had about four million soldiers! US troop strength today is roughly 150,000 (mercenaries vaguely add something). The British, of course, lost Iraq. So, then, what makes us think that with more than twenty times fewer people things will turn out differently for us? (Related to all this, the story of Gertrude Bell, btw, is quite interesting.)
June 8, 2008
 The Millennial generation is critically important in 2008 and will become increasingly central to American politics for the next several decades (for some reasons why, see Friday's podcast). It should be a scandal, then, that the mainstream press not only doesn't recognize the Millennial factor but manages to ignore it when it's the central aspect of a story they report. Case in point: today's NYT piece by Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny on Obama's 50 state strategy. If it weren't for Millennials Obama's effort is merely a curiosity — pretty much as this piece reports — but taking Millennials into account one sees what the story really means: Obama is building a base of Democratic Party participation that goes well past this election cycle. Is the mainstream blind, hopelessly stupid, or what?
June 4, 2008
 A normal, decent person, faced with the situation Hillary Clinton faced yesterday evening, would have conceded defeat. Hillary seems to think she has other options, prompting CNN's Jeffrey Toobin to call her refusal to concede "deranged narcissism." Perhaps. Lots of others speculate that she's bargaining for the Vice Presidency, but the chances of Obama picking her as a running mate are about the same that John McCain will. Negligible. Nor does she ensure a seat at the table on her signature issues — if she won't close Democratic ranks, why include her in much of anything, anymore? Assuming she's not deranged that leaves an intriguing possibility: she's contemplating running as an independent. Nobody that I've seen has speculated along these lines, but it's worth taking a moment to consider what might happen.
Continue reading "What Does She Want??"...
June 3, 2008
 Obama gave a great speech tonight in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wow! Well constructed, emotional, plenty of content. I notice that a lot of commentators don't get it — I sort of wish they did but, really, I don't care. It's as if they live in another world. As does John "Wetstart" McCain, recycling a dreary 1980s speech. What a cardboard figure. Or Hillary, practicing her occult art of political division. Obama's tapped into something else altogether. And it's amazing, thinking about it, that he's kept this fire under wraps for so long, figuring, one supposes, that it's meant for a general campaign. Republicans, watch out!
June 2, 2008
 What a privilege and honor it was to know William Eldridge Odom. After I'd resigned from the State Department we often found ourselves — for whatever reason, I don't know why — booked onto the same television shows to talk about the crisis in Yugoslavia. Usually to argue with each other but also sometimes to argue the same side. We respected each other. And we got to know each other outside the studio, mostly on a professional basis: he invited me a few times to luncheon discussions over at his Washington base at the Hudson Institute. Always subjects I knew nothing about, but interesting. And I can't remember now, but he may have come around to some of my events at the Carnegie Endowment (often very well attended). Though we were not especially close, I certainly thought of him as a friend.
Continue reading "General William E. Odom, RIP"...
May 25, 2008
 People often forget nowadays that that much vaunted politician of lore, Bill Clinton, won in 1992 thanks to Ross Perot. Probably. Clinton got 43% of the vote. George Herbert Walker Bush 37.4%. Perot 18.9%. Arguably, the largest share of Perot's vote came out of Bush senior's hide, though Perot's exact effect on the outcome remains controversial thanks to Clinton apologists. Florida was very close, as usual (it went Republican), but so were Georgia and Ohio (for Clinton). North Carolina and Arizona (for Bush) were close, too, tying up precious Republican resources in the process. The point is, a strong conservative third party candidate is guaranteed a non-trivial share of hard right votes in important states. Perhaps a winning share. Enter the 2008 Libertarians.
Continue reading "Barr the Spoiler"...
May 21, 2008
 If the Democratic Party establishment hasn't got the wherewithal to pull the plug on Clinton's campaign well before the convention, then the Democrats deserve to lose the election. And lose they will. Taking the fight to seat Florida and Michigan and the fight over superdelegates into August will do two things: it deprives Obama of rest, recuperation, and an opportunity to plan the general campaign that he needs (and deserves), and it ensures bitter, lasting division between the demographic groups that have broken consistently along sharp lines between the candidates. Given the arcane challenges of the electoral college map, putting a winning coalition back together would become almost impossible. Our political system would be well and truly broken, obviously so, for everybody to see. In a non-trivial sense that would be the historic failure of the Democrats: shirking their responsibility to try to make the system work.
Continue reading "The Nightmare"...
|
 
July 18, 2008
 With a will, we can manage our environmental and energy crises. But it's policy that's too important to leave to politicians, policy-makers, and the market: a large part of the intelligent public must demand that the right things be done. To get a sense of what's possible here in the U.S. I turned to Terry Tamminen, formerly the Secretary of California's EPA and a top adviser to Governor Schwarzenegger. Terry provides a splendid, thoughtful and surprisingly optimistic tour d'horizon. The voice of experience in making things happen. Total runtime an hour and fourteen minutes. Take heart!
July 11, 2008
 One could attach different numbers to the curves in Limits To Growth, maybe push the timeline back several decades, but one can't argue much with the heuristic conclusion that unrestricted exponential growth results in sudden collapse. If we won't make the hard choices to control growth (e.g., population and industrialization), nature will. To get a better sense of how planetary dynamics works and what policy changes might be available I turned to the very distinguished scholar Dr. Dennis Meadows, who has been working all his professional life to advance the cause of sustainability. It was kind of Dennis to take time to talk with me and I learned a great deal. Total runtime an hour and eighteen minutes. Think wisely!
July 4, 2008
 For over two hundred years any notion that the United States government might officially practice torture was unthinkable, ridiculous. Under George Bush's tyranny, what have we become? Even if Congress has no stomach for a serious investigation, the thinking public must never let culpable officials off the hook. Zero tolerance for torture: it's the only civilized approach. For a sense of how a seasoned British lawyer sees the situation I turned to Philippe Sands, author of the superb, recently published case study Torture Team. Under international criminal law, Philippe explains, the arrest and prosecution of Bush officials when they travel overseas remains a very real possibility, but should shame Americans into taking remedial action for ourselves. I value Philippe's insights tremendously and thank him for talking with me. Total runtime, forty four minutes. Keep fighting!
June 27, 2008
 Politicians practically worship the Pentagon because it carefully, cleverly directs its gargantuan spending across almost every congressional district. And because contractors kick back a hefty tranche to politicians' bank accounts. Not so much of this supports the public good or authentic "defense." Call it the dark side of Keynesianism. Our ruinous military money conveyor can't go on indefinitely but most politicians won't discuss it or give reform the priority it deserves. And the mainstream media won't report the facts. Ordinary people are left to struggle on their own to make sense out of what's happening. So when a former top civilian official at the Pentagon declares that the weapons procurement system is completely broken, that overall spending is out of control, that we should "scrap the whole process," and who agrees an intellectually respectable argument can be made for cutting military spending by half — well, we should pay attention! Formerly the director of weapons testing, Tom Christie was extraordinarily kind to talk with me and explain things. I thank him for his candor. Total runtime an hour and ten minutes. Pass the word.
June 20, 2008
 One fact should be tacked on to all discussions of policy priorities: the U.S. spends over half a trillion dollars on its military, more than the rest of the world's military spending combined. To be blunt, that's insane. And it explains why the U.S. lags so far behind other advanced countries when it comes to social programs, public infrastructure, and generally every progressive metric that can be measured. There's no money left. To get at the cultural history behind our prohibitively expensive military fantasies — fantasies that go all too easily unchallenged — I turned to Dr. H. Bruce Franklin, the eminent cultural historian and author of War Stars (recently republished in a revised and expanded second edition after twenty years). It was great to talk again with Bruce, who has clearly found critical pieces of the puzzle regarding where and how American ideas about war went wrong. Total runtime an hour and twenty three minutes. Remember, it's not "Defense," it's military racketeering.
June 13, 2008
 The U.S. pays for and protects a system of Apartheid in Israel. The U.S. government routinely lies about this, describing Israel as a "Democracy." Worse, the U.S. encourages Israeli Jews to keep those Palestinians who live in Gaza and the West Bank in a sort of outdoor prison-cum-shooting gallery. Absolutely contrary to what many of the Left have argued, seemingly forever, Jews are the ones calling the shots. It's the most odious, obscene abuse of human beings in the world — precisely because its necessary enabler is a leader among nations but also the greatest hypocrite regarding human rights. To hear further from the Palestinian side I turned to Dr. Saree Makdisi, author of Palestine Inside Out, who seems to be picking up where his late uncle, Edward Said, left off. It was very kind of Saree to talk with me, I learned a lot, and I hope we can do it again. Total runtime an hour and four minutes. Help educate your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and friendly strangers.
June 6, 2008
 Nobody knows for sure, but it looks like a very strong turn out in 2008 by the young and by African-Americans may well be what puts the Democrats over the top. The young — the Millennial generation — in particular are something of a mystery. Larger than the Baby Boom generation, ethnically much more mixed, and (unlike generation "X") politically active, for a variety of reasons the Millennials strongly tend towards progressive policy solutions. Will this last? For some answers I turn to Dr. David Madland from the Center for American Progress, who is co-author of a recent, fascinating paper (PDF) on the Millennials. It was kind of David to talk with me and I much appreciate his insight. Total runtime forty four minutes. Enjoy!
May 30, 2008
 It's a pity when domestic politics trumps rational foreign policy in the national interest. Should we talk with Hamas, even Hezbollah? Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, says yes. Should we talk with Cuba? Emphatically yes, says Larry. And why? Because the fact is, most of the time we get more of what we want by talking with people than by periodically bashing them with military power, or by ignoring them while the rest of the world maintains normal relations. Here's a startlingly intelligent tour d'horizon, starting with the issue of torture, from a guy who — in his words — was in the ether. Total runtime an hour and seven minutes. Enjoy!
May 23, 2008
 "...or war will put an end to mankind." (JFK in a September 25, 1961 speech to the UN General Assembly.) A lot of people, these days, understand that the risks of nuclear war are too great. But what are those risks, exactly? As it turns out, nobody knows, and until now nobody's tried to figure them out. Dr. Martin E. Hellman — not for the first time — spotted the obvious that everybody else missed. His new project, Defusing the Nuclear Threat, starts by proposing a serious, urgent study of the existing threat. Of course, it's common sense. It was kind of Martin to talk with me and I am amazed at his insight. Total runtime an hour and one minute. Please join the nuclear risk project! [Graphic credit Mark Vallen, for fair use.]
May 16, 2008
 Follow what you know how to do well. Frank Schaeffer's memoir, Crazy for God, offers an unexpected mirror into the American experience. From being one of the brains behind the founding of the evangelical political right, to his stalwart, enthusiastic support for Obama today (we talk about Obama a lot), Frank's trajectory has taken him through various stations of faith. Strong character having been bred into him, he's managed eventually to come to terms with it all. A great example of personal resiliency. And he's a spectacularly brilliant writer to boot. It was kind of Frank to take time to talk with me and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Total runtime one hour. Have Faith → find Grace.
May 9, 2008
 Horses have always been with us. At Lascaux. On the Ural steppes. Among the Sumerians, the Scythians, the Chinese… It's not much of an exaggeration to say that the domestication of the horse made civilization possible. And here's a little known fact: horses evolved in North America, were wiped out by the ice age about 8,000 years ago, but not before they crossed the Bering land bridge and spread throughout the rest of the world. When the Spanish reintroduced horses to the New World, they were an indigenous species belatedly coming home. Horses, wild horses, are woven into the texture of the American character. Yet they are terribly endangered, by us. To hear more about this amazing and troubling story I turned to Deanne Stillman, author of Mustang, The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West. It's a powerfully written, very moving book. Deanne was one of the very first guests on EP and it was a great pleasure to talk with her again. Total runtime an hour and seventeen minutes. Tears allowed.
May 2, 2008
 Governments always insist on keeping their practice of torture secret — as well they should, because torture almost never works. And, in fact, it generally has profoundly negative, unintended, practical consequences. While we intuit that torture is wrong, we only know of its futility thanks to a few intrepid researchers who patiently sift the archives. For a sample of what can be known I turned to Dr. Darius Rejali, author most recently of the encyclopedic (and aptly titled) Torture and Democracy. It was kind of Darius to take time to talk with me and I appreciate his wisdom and insight. Total runtime an hour and three minutes. Be educated!
|
