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August 19, 2008
 The U.S. announces it intends to leave troops "permanently" in Georgia. The Russians talk about leaving Georgia, but don't. Nose to nose, that's good. Not. After several days we've had time to look around the arena, so what do we see — or, I should say, what don't we see? For all the buzzing in American media about Russia's 'invasion' of Georgia, I'd like to see estimates of how many Russians may, in fact, be in Georgia at this moment. If large estimates of a reliable nature existed I have no doubt they'd have long since been leaked to the media. So where are they, then? To be realistic about it, with a guess off the top of my head, there might be 15-25,000 Russian troops in Georgia. Serious, but not anywhere near an 'invasion.' Actually, if I'm right, that's about what the Russians need to secure the two autonomous regions in dispute. The thing now is to avoid having an escalation of rhetoric metastasize into an escalation of a tangible, deadly nature.
August 15, 2008
By Werther*
 The first crisis over North Korea's nuclear program arose in late 1994. It was obvious there was not much the United States could do to step in unilaterally and disarm the North Korean regime. Sanctions, the normally inevitable option short of war, had no meaning — the United States had no trade with the North in the first place and the regime followed a policy of economic autarky (Juche) in any case. There was really only one feasible course of action: gather as many regional allies as possible, agree to a process of inducing North Korea to freeze its nuclear program, and tender an offer to the North Koreans on the basis of a quid pro quo.
Continue reading "The Most Dangerous Man in America"...
August 14, 2008
 For a couple days now street hoodlums have been demonstrating outside the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. One wonders, indeed, whether the Georgians might have rented a chapter of Hells Angels. Meanwhile, American media continues its supine meltdown. Only in Europe can one find such clear, sensible commentary as this essay by Seamus Milne, columnist and associate editor at The Guardian. Things have a way of unraveling: Now Ukraine says it will block ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from their home port of Sevastopol if they participate in actions against Georgia. The Russians, who lease Sevastopol's port until 2017 (a carry-over from the former Soviet Union), and who clearly wish to stay longer despite Ukrainian talk of throwing them out when the lease is up, are most unlikely to bend before Ukrainian threats. Talk coming from the Bush administration has been uniformly provocative, a mix of calculated insults and challenges. And Bush started "humanitarian aid" missions to Georgia. It's risky, because "humanitarian aid" is so frequently used as the thin edge of the wedge for military intervention in the post-Cold War world — all the players involved know that well and one thing easily leads to another. Anything might happen, for example, to an American "humanitarian" flight. A proxy mini-war with Russia over Georgia is bad enough. Getting directly involved is insane.
August 9, 2008
 Now that Russian troops are actually fighting in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia they probably won't leave anytime soon. Not after NATO gave Russia a prime example of how this sort of operation works, in Kosovo. And, to be blunt, nothing brings greater joy to the collective heart of Washington's defense establishment than a new rationalization for more military spending. So don't believe what Condi says about peace: Washington has lots of ways to goose the Georgian government into further provocations of Moscow — one must read the reporting carefully to realize that it was a Georgian attempt to seize Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, that sparked the fighting — and even a lame duck Bush administration may well shuffle into a proxy mini-war in the Caucasus region.
August 5, 2008
By Werther*
 Hannah Arendt's analysis of totalitarianism had several flaws, but one of her observations has lodged itself permanently in the national psyche as a handy cliché whenever some human monster is found to have a taste for the art of Walter Keane or, like Kim Jong Il, for pornographic movies: The Banality of Evil.
Continue reading "Torture, TV, and the Banality of Tony Scalia"...
August 2, 2008
 The FBI got lucky. They found an anthrax suspect willing to commit suicide, then gave him enough opportunity to actually do so. Case closed. But even if Dr. Bruce E. Ivins really was a lone, crazy microbiologist there remain a lot of critical, unanswered questions about how advocates of totalitarian rule used the hysteria of the moment to ram the so-called Patriot Act through Congress — questions detailed in an excellent essay by Glenn Greenwald. The bentonite angle in particular must be explained. And I would add to Greenwald's eminently correct observation that ABC News has an obligation to account for its reporting with my own question whether the FBI ever interviewed ABC News about their sources, and if so whether the FBI then interviewed those individuals and, again, if so, whether there appeared to be any collusion among them to point the finger of blame at Iraq?
Continue reading "To Catch A Killer (or Killers)"...
July 26, 2008
 There must be a lot of farm trucks coming into DC. One I like, and which sets up only a few blocks away so extremely convenient for me, is New Morning Farm, from south-central Pennsylvania. If you're in DC but don't know of them I highly recommend them — their prices are slightly higher than Whole Foods, but the produce is much, much better quality. At the moment peaches and tomatoes are particularly good, as are melons. Nothing like a sweet, juicy, flavorful musk melon with a little salt! Also tomato, cucumber and fresh onions (can't have too many onions) chopped up with some chunks of turkey, with blue cheese dressing, makes a wonderful salad.
July 23, 2008
 You won't see this in the NYT but occasionally the National Enquirer gets the story. It's not a "the friend of so-and-so's housekeeper says," it's "our reporters were on the scene and this is what they saw." And what they saw was Edwards sneaking late at night into a hotel where he wasn't registered and sneaking out early the next morning. Otherwise, the Enquirer's account about Edwards meeting his mistress and love-child seem based on supposition. Interesting supposition, but still. Whatever the truth about this — and I have no doubt that Edwards was observed by reporters entering and leaving the hotel — it completely blows Edwards' chances of being VP out of the water. (Also picked up by Wonkette and Gawker.)
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.
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August 15, 2008
 In the spirit of summertime and for 'something a little different' here's a conversation with Jos Houben, an internationally acclaimed performance artist, writer, director, producer, and teacher at the Jacques Lecoq theater school in Paris. Laughter is a gift, really, and we should share it more often. Even, perhaps especially, in politics. Many thanks to Jos for taking time to talk with me — he's an absolutely delightful person. Total runtime an hour and three minutes. Enjoy!
August 8, 2008
 According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, of funds disbursed by the U.S. government for intelligence work about 70% go to private contractors. The overall budget, of course, remains classified. Money details aside, the process of turning intelligence into a business inexorably leads to rotten results. And combined with questions as to the overall level of government surveillance of ordinary Americans' everyday lives, it adds up to a big problem. To get at what's happening and what it all means I turned to Tim Shorrock, an independent investigative journalist and author of the recent and highly praised Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. It was gracious of Tim to take time to talk with me, I much appreciate it, and I hope we can talk again. Total runtime an hour and ten minutes. Be aware!
August 1, 2008
 The late Deng Xiaoping had it about right — many years ago he said he didn't care if a cat were white or black, so long as it caught mice (actually, a Sichuan proverb). I feel that way about international criminal justice: in many instances it hasn't worked out, in some, regardless how contrary to legal norms, it has; and I don't preclude the possibility it may work quite satisfactorily in certain cases in the future. Indeed, I look forward to it. The key word being justice, not consistency. John Laughland, however, disagrees. His latest book, A History of Political Trials from Charles I to Saddam Hussein, explains that political legitimacy resides chiefly or only at the national level and that legitimacy, indeed, always and everywhere must precede the success of legal order. Because international authorities lack true political legitimacy their observance of international laws must therefore always be unfair, in practice a farce. It was kind of John to return as a guest to EP and I very much appreciate his good nature. Total runtime an hour and twenty eight minutes. We argue, you decide.
July 25, 2008
 From time immemorial politicians have promised the moon. Some delivered. My natural inclination regarding Barack Obama is to be skeptical and cautious because he hasn't yet really been tested. On the other hand, he's shown a remarkable ability to bring people together and he tends to say the right thing in the right way at the right time. See, for example, his great speech yesterday in Berlin. Moreover, people whose judgment about people is better than mine tend to trust him. To kick around some perceptions of Obama and talk politics generally I went Midwest, in a conversation with Dr. Bud McClure, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. This one is quite unstructured and laid back, and I much enjoyed it. Thanks, Bud! Total runtime an hour and seven minutes.
July 21, 2008
 For your summertime listening edification, here's a quick interview with former U.S. Senator James G. Abourezk, recorded yesterday. An "in-between" podcast, between EP's regular Friday shows. Please note, in particular, the Senator's experience in trying to organize progressives and his observations regarding current efforts — or the lack thereof. It was very kind of Senator Abourezk to take time to talk with me and I'm grateful to him for his honest answers. Total runtime twenty three minutes. Enjoy!
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!
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