Electric Politics

Citizen Know-Nothings

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:08:33 -0500

So researchers in Arizona thought to poll Arizona High School students on questions from a U.S. citizenship test. Six out of ten is passing. But only 3.5% of the students got six or more right — how disturbing is that? To me, anybody over sixteen who couldn't get ten out of ten has something wrong with them. John Stuart Mill used to argue that people with college educations should get an extra vote, or two, or more, depending on the eminence of their education. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm inclined to agree with Robert A. Heinlein, as in Starship Troopers, who argued that not everybody should be allowed a vote. Why not have tests to qualify, just like a driver test? Minimum competency in political/general knowledge required.

Partial July Schedule

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:44:51 -0500

Coming up Friday my guest is James K. Galbraith, this time speaking to me from Switzerland. A shorter show than usual, just checking in on the economic headlines. The week following, Friday July 10th, my guest will be Niels Harrit, the lead author of a recent peer-reviewed scientific paper (.pdf) that analyzes trace nano-thermite residue in dust samples collected in lower Manhattan immediately after 9/11 — I'm very curious to see, and have not yet seen, how 9/11 "debunkers" will try to explain the presence of an exotic explosive compound found at the scene of the crime. On Friday, July 17th, my guest will be the absolutely brilliant French intellectual Dr. Jacques Sapir, director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, which so far as I know is the top research establishment in France for the social sciences. Jacques knows a thing or two that the American left might well learn from; without any hesitation I strongly commend this podcast to you. As a footnote, and I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, about 35% of the EP podcast audience is now from outside the U.S. Thanks, you all, old and new listeners alike!

Everybody's A Critic

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:27:11 -0500

I just don't get it. I've never gotten it. The only thing I found mildly interesting about Michael Jackson was his moonwalk, but that moonwalk shouldn't, for example, merit any of the all-too-common comparisons between him and Fred Astaire. Whereas Fred Astaire could dance divinely and was sensible to an astonishing range of fine emotions, Michael Jackson was typically limited to spastic gestures and he had no couth. None. Whatever talent Jackson may have had when he was young long ago became overshadowed by his perverted, erratic behavior and his self-maiming by repeat plastic surgery. He'd become nothing but an American freak show. What I really don't get is why so many people still fawn over his memory and why so few people are willing to point out that being a mega-famous child molester does not make being a child molester OK. Surely better role models exist? I'm sadly disappointed by all of the bathos.

Fake Environmentalism

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:49:25 -0500

If you think it's important to cut carbon emissions then you tax carbon. But blackboard "free market" ideologues have come up with an ingenious system of cap and trade that, if implemented, will create a multi-trillion dollar market for non-transparent carbonized financial products. To understand just how unworkable such a scheme is, it's only necessary to know that the Democrats rammed a 1,300 page bill through the U.S. House of Representatives (sic) in the dead of night, with little debate. Not one single member of Congress — I guarantee you — can explain how cap and trade will work in practice. But if you think credit default swaps are a good idea then you're going to love cap and trade.

Actions Count

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:54:14 -0500

Over at CounterPunch today, Jeffrey St. Clair has an outstanding essay on Mr. Obama's anti-environmental helpers. Which raises the question: Is Mr. Obama basically a decent, intelligent, well-intended person who's inclined to make too many compromises with himself in the face of political pressure, or something else? A preponderance of prima facie evidence — not least from environmental policy — now strongly suggests the latter, that Mr. Obama acts from more malign motives, that he is a consummate double-crosser who's honed his public patter to a perfect pitch, and that he can be counted on to attempt to do the wrong thing. If there's a silver lining here it's that he's also repeatedly demonstrated weakness in the face of determined criticism. To put it bluntly: he's gutless. Progressives will have to take advantage of that whenever the opportunity arises.

He May Be Toast

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:41:31 -0500

Let me make a flat, unambiguous prediction: If Mr. Obama does not produce a health care reform plan with a true public option, he's toast. He may well be toast in any case, on account of his escalations in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq, and an ever-lengthening list of "Bush-like" and "Bush-plus" policies. But health care is the deal-breaker. It seems to be obvious now to most Americans that the reason we don't have a sensible national health care system is because the monopolistic U.S. health care lobby doesn't want it; less obvious is what the large majority of Americans who favor a public option will do if betrayed by their elected representatives. We're being treated as if we're just plain stupid — maybe we are, but maybe we're not, not yet... the next step being for a lot of people to say that our government is illegitimate. My guess is that that's coming regardless, sooner rather than later if health care isn't fixed.

Iran's Gen X

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:54:06 -0500

According to the CIA factbook, the median age in Iran is 27, which is relatively young (in the U.S. the median is 36.7, in the UK 40.2, Russia 38.4, China 34.1, and France 39.4). Young, and evidently willing to die in order for their votes to be counted. That's quite a stark contrast with the U.S., where in 2000 the presidential election was clearly stolen and, notwithstanding a few scattered murmurs of disapproval, nobody actually did anything about it.

Ug99

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:55:52 -0500

Stem Rust has always been a problem for domesticated wheat crops. Over time, by and large, it had been brought under control. Until now. Ug99, named for Uganda 1999 — where and when this particular strain of Rust was discovered — has the potential to devastate world wide wheat production: perhaps by as much as an 80% reduction. Ug99's natural diffusion already puts Africa and Asia at imminent risk. And sooner or later the rest of the world's wheat crops will become exposed. (One might even suppose that a bio-terrorist could try to bring a container full of Ug99 into the U.S.) So there's a race against time to develop new, resistant varieties of wheat. Hopefully, Washington will spend enough on research to avert a catastrophe.

"Chrysler Makes Them, We Just Sell Them"

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:27:04 -0500

Back in late January I bought a new 2009 Jeep Wrangler. It has problems. From the get-go the roof — a three piece hard-top with two removable panels that's supposed to emulate a convertible — leaked. I didn't get around to taking it back for repairs until mid-May (somehow, every year from Christmas to Easter I always have way too much to do), and by then I'd discovered a second problem. When warm weather appeared and I first turned on the air conditioning I just got hot air. Thus the saga of my experience with the underbelly of the U.S. automobile industry began...

Kippers

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:21:43 -0500

In the mid-sixties my Dad worked at the U.S. mission to the common market, in Brussels. So the family did lots of traveling around Europe, including a fair number of trips to England. There, I discovered kippers. In later years, however, whenever I would buy a can of kippers, or order kippers in a restaurant, I got something other than the delicacy of memory. Something usually kind of tough, overly salted, maybe even with too many bones. In short, Yuck!

The Coming GM Debacle

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:54:54 -0500

It pains me more than I can say to agree with David Brooks. Nor is it a question of the stopped clock being right twice a day. No, this time he's got a genuine, giant nugget of insight: In his Monday column he argues that the GM bailout won't work because it doesn't change — indeed it reinforces — GM's bureaucratic culture of failure.

Mr. Coal

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:31:02 -0500

OK, no more "benefit of the doubt." Wall Street bailouts get complicated, perhaps it's not reasonable to expect people to understand them. Give health insurers escape hatches from a national program, who'll even notice? Mountaintop removal for coal mining, that's a different story. The world tends to automatically classify people into two groups: those who wish to follow a lofty purpose in life, however imperfectly, and those who grub around in the dirt for advantage. At this point I really don't care what Mr. Obama's speeches sound like: his actions speak louder than his words.

The Wages of Falsity

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:57:19 -0500

With his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court at least one thing has become clear: Mr. Obama is not now by any stretch of the imagination a liberal, but someone of the conservative leaning center-right. That's better than having an ultra-rightwing ideologue as President, but by how much? It's also worth noting that of the Catholics now on the Court, four — Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito — are ultra-rightwingers, and the fifth, Kennedy (who, let's not forget, was Reagan's back-up for Bork), as a sometimes swing vote obviously disappoints his original constituency. Setting aside the, to me, tremendously interesting question why in theory Catholic jurists would tend to be conservatives, in practice the Catholic Supremes have repeatedly demonstrated that they are mainly interested in two things: "how do we figure out what the rule is?" and "how do we get around the rule?" They have little to no interest in using notions about justice to determine what the rule of law should be.

Pneumonia

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:20:12 -0500

I'm just back from the Sibley Hospital emergency room. Seems I've got pneumonia. I knew something wasn't right. In fact, yesterday I had a couple serious scares that I was about to suffocate when I couldn't draw a breath. After X-rays and blood work (the latter was fine, the former showed fluid in my right lung) Sibley wanted to admit me but I promised to take it easy and rest so they just gave me some prescriptions and sent me home. Haven't had pneumonia before. Most unpleasant.

Ray's Hell Burger

Mon, 25 May 2009 18:28:16 -0500

A couple weeks ago Barack Obama and Joe Biden dropped in at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington to get lunch. Which automatically made the place super famous. In the current issue of Washingtonian magazine, cover story top cheap eats in the area, Ray's shows up again, though the magazine says explicitly it's not because of the presidential visit. I figured I should give Ray's a try. I went Saturday, with Sharon, and it's damn good. The owner has put all the money into the food and the staff. There's not even a sign outside, the tables are cheap, covered by even cheaper plastic film, and it's definitely not a place to loiter with company. It's a place to eat. The ten ounce burgers, from hand-trimmed aged prime beef, are simply outstanding. As are the toppings. (You would not believe the toppings.) Figure $10-20 per person, a real deal. You can spend more if you want to splurge. The only better burger I know of in the area is from Palena's, at about $15 (though you'd be lucky to get out of Palena, for two, under a hundred bucks, including salad, french fries, drinks and dessert). If you're in or around DC, and like burgers, go to Ray's. You can thank me later.