June 30, 2010
Standing Up to the Unholy Alliance Between Washington and Wall Street
Statement by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)
WASHINGTON — Wall Street and its allies have been calling the shots in Congress for decades, so they must be glad to see how things are shaping up on financial regulatory reform. Congress is about to vote on a final bill that fails to fix the key flaws in the bills passed by both the House and Senate. At the start of this process I made clear that I had a simple test for financial reform — will it stop another financial meltdown? This bill fails that test, and I won't support legislation that fails to protect the people of Wisconsin from the pain of another economic disaster. And I don't need to be lectured about this issue by people who supported the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which paved the way for this terrible recession.
Continue reading "Standing Up to the Unholy Alliance Between Washington and Wall Street"...
June 29, 2010
Plato's Time Capsule
Here's a fascinating bit of science news, as yet completely unreported, that should work its way into the mainstream media fairly quickly: Plato left coded messages in his books. Academics have always dismissed such a possibility as fantasy, but now Dr. Jay Kennedy of the University of Manchester has proven that Plato's coded messages exist. What appropriate timing! Plato hid his messages about the supremacy of science for fear of being put to death for heresy. Over two thousand years later, in an age of science, we find them just when radical western clerics have begun their counter-attack on empirical truth.
June 28, 2010
Spy Stories
On Monday, FBI agents arrested ten individuals (an eleventh remains at large), alleging that they were part of a Russian spy ring. But here's the catch: they were not charged with espionage or the acquisition of classified information, but rather with such things as conspiracy to commit money laundering and failure to register as the agents of a foreign government. Hunh?! So long as they did not, in fact, commit espionage, the FBI should have continued to watch them, should not have arrested them, and had they become overtly aware of FBI surveillance and attempted to flee, should have let them go. They were little fish, not worth having.
June 25, 2010
Tails, You Lose
The Senate can't pass much needed social safety net legislation, legislation that the Democratic Party says it favors, when the Democratic leadership has a fifty seven vote majority. Let me tell you what's wrong with this picture: It's not democracy. Sure, you can vote for a Democrat or a Republican but, guess what? Either way you'll get a Republican. For a while the reasonable question has been, 'why can't the Senate change its rules?' But I think it's becoming reasonable to ask, 'why do we have a Senate?' and also, 'why don't we get rid of it?'
June 23, 2010
Doubling Down
President Twinkie did the right thing and deserves credit for getting rid of General McChrystal. (Though I still think he should've been reduced a grade in rank.) BUT — instead of drawing any lesson about how the impossibility of our war in Afghanistan might account for McChrystal's insubordination, Mr. Obama reaffirmed the entire litany of our mistaken objectives. "Bringing democracy to Afghanistan." Well, no, we won't. And, anyway, who cares? The President should have other priorities. To be cynical — and I've said this plenty of times — the war is only really intended to maintain bloated military spending, a giant pig trough at the center of our dysfunctional political system.
June 22, 2010
The Trouble With Stanley
General Stanley McChrystal didn't just put his foot in his mouth, he committed gross insubordination. So what to do with a four star who flips the bird to the White House? One thing you don't do is play three dimensional chess, call him back to Washington for a good reaming out, and quietly move him to pasture later. The reason you don't is because every other ambitious three and four star general is watching and you don't want to give any of them the idea that they should control military policy.
June 18, 2010
A Solar Breakthrough
Speaking of science, here's an important piece of news: researchers at the University of Minnesota, on government funding, have found a way to double the efficiency of solar cells. Hallelujah! And, note, one of the big benefits of using solar cells instead of other solar technologies is that they don't require water (I brought the Glennon piece to the magazine). It's obvious that if the government poured additional funding, say, several tens of billions of dollars, into further alternative energy research — instead of, for example, raping Afghanistan — it would pay off in spades. Oh, and by the way, that newly discovered 'mineral wealth' of Afghanistan that's got everybody so excited? It's arguably a non-story...
June 16, 2010
Podcast Schedule Late June/Early July
Catching up with the catastrophe in the Gulf, this Friday my guest is Dr. Jeff Short, one of the top experts in the world on the environmental effects of oil. It's a shorter podcast, Jeff being in an airport on his cell phone. But it's state of the art, sensible science. The week following, Friday, June 25th, my guest will be Dr. Charles Derber, of Boston College, talking about progressive politics. Charlie is a genius. Don't miss it. The Friday after that, July 2d, my guest will be Dr. Tom Fingar, one of the current generation's top intelligence professionals and, until December 2008, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and, concurrently, the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council. A very nice guy with great judgment. Fun to talk with. In the weeks following I'm hoping to have conversations with a senior UN official, a blogger in Spain, an author, and assorted others. Please stay tuned.
President Twinkie
The middle of last month, All Souls College at the University of Oxford, in England, decided to drop the most famous part of its entrance exam: the one-word essay question. Candidates were given one word in an envelope, and three hours, to write an intelligent essay. But eventually, essentially, the All Souls dons decided that the parameters of the exam produced more fluff than substance. Perhaps, indeed, that had been its original but forgotten purpose. Who knows?
June 12, 2010
Obama Brittle
For quite a while, everybody wanted to believe the BP/White House spin that the Gulf oil tragedy was relatively small and under control. After weeks went by, complaints mounted that maybe, since the leak wasn't actually so small, the White House should be doing more. The White House's response has been, and remains, that BP, and the oil industry generally, has the best expertise in the world and, therefore, while government should provide any requested assistance it should otherwise stay out of the way. A lot of people think this makes sense. OK, leave BP in charge. But even under casual examination the White House argument appears less a thoughtful, substantive response than a further rationalization for continuing to downplay the seriousness of the situation.
June 11, 2010
The Virtues of Being Sick
Occasionally I mention the fact that I have inherited iron overload, or hemochromatosis. After being misdiagnosed and undiagnosed for several years I was eventually correctly diagnosed in 2000, at a point when my episodes of being sick had become extremely severe. (If left untreated, hemochromatosis is 100% fatal.) Since then I've kept things more or less under control by having phlebotomies every month — about a pint of blood taken out, with nothing put back in — which keeps my iron levels tolerable. Nevertheless, every so often I'll have an episode, like I had this morning. A moderately severe one. But I try to look on the bright side: being susceptible to being knocked out, at almost any time for no apparent reason, makes me much more appreciative of what I've got. And perhaps a tad less patient with greedy people who want to wreck the planet. I figure, if I'm difficult, I've earned it!
June 8, 2010
The Ballad of BP
I wonder whether the Brown Pelican will return? I wonder when Mr. Obama will next invite music headliners to the White House to play for him? I wonder what Mr. Obama would say to BP's CEO if he ever talks with him? I wonder whether the relief wells being drilled might fail to plug the leak? I wonder how much oil is actually leaking? I wonder why the White House is so nonchalant about accepting BP estimates regarding the scale of the leakage? I wonder what the oil eventually will do to the East Coast? I wonder where the Obama administration wants to drill with new offshore oil and gas exploration? I wonder why the Obama administration hasn't asked Congress for money to hire a few million clean-up workers? I wonder whether, when Mr. Obama acts angry, very many people think he really is? I wonder who among congressional Democrats might complain about the Obama administration's unresponsiveness? I wonder how much pain it takes before politicians feel it? I wonder what the Gulf's Least Terns are saying?
June 1, 2010
Aliens Like Us
From the start of the EP podcast in 2006, the magazine In These Times occasionally has published edited transcripts of my podcast interviews. If they're controversial, that's only in the conventional sense of things. Not this time. Joel Bleifuss, editor and publisher of the magazine, like me, believes UFOs are a serious subject. After listening to this recent podcast on UFOs Joel asked to publish a transcript. I said sure. But the idea of publishing a discussion about UFOs caused an in-house brouhaha among editors. (I'd love to quote some comments for their gag quotient but out of respect for privacy and fair play I can't.) Joel didn't decide until the last moment whether he'd print the piece, though he did an outstanding job editing it and had showed it to me just so "someone else got a chance to see it." He made a highly courageous decision to go ahead and publish — I think he deserves a lot of credit. Hopefully it may mean a net gain for In These Times subscriptions! The article is here. Trust me, UFOs are not a bourgeois plot...
Google Switches
I don't make a big deal out of it, but I'm a huge Apple fan. I switched from Microsoft Windows to Mac OSX about six years ago, mainly for better security. After I switched, however, I discovered that OSX actually works, it's a joy to use, and that my machines only very, very rarely crash. Almost never. A totally different experience than with Windows. Occasionally there's some software that you might want that you can't use with OSX but, for me anyhow, that's not an important issue. Apple is light-years ahead of Microsoft. If you're still using Windows, I unreservedly recommend switching. And here's one more solid reason to consider in deciding whether you should: According to the Financial Times, Google is ditching Windows over security concerns. That's news!
The Gaza Flotilla
A few weeks back retired Ambassador Ed Peck sent an email to a couple people, including me. "Friends, I have just been invited to take part in this noble effort," Ed wrote, "a different kind of cruise." Ed likes cruises. Indeed, he takes quite a few of them. Nevertheless, this was different. The last time I saw Ed in person — I'd sat down next to him by accident about ten months ago — he looked in good health and his mind (and humor) were certainly as sharp (and funny) as ever. But I worried. "I hope you've got a life jacket and that you're a good swimmer," I emailed in reply, and said that, if he wanted, I'd be honored to interview him once he got back. Well, news crossed the wires yesterday that Ed, age 81, survived Israel's murderous assault on the flotilla and that Israel is sending him home.
Let me make one other connection than the usual here, a more general observation I haven't seen anybody else make but one which Gen. Colin Powell hinted at ever so subtly the other day.
