Policy and Politics
tfk | February 12, 2007Discovery Institute - Upcoming Event:
Discovery Institute is pleased to co-present with CityClub of Seattle and the Seattle World Affairs Council a luncheon featuring U.S. Senator John McCain.
As I've said before, "Like all great indie acts, his early work was better." There are lots of places McCain could have taken his show, but he picked the DI. It doesn't matter what his speech is about, this is his attempt to pander to the creationist fringe.
tfk | February 10, 2007During debate on a measure in the state legislature that would oppose the escalation of war in Iraq, new state GOP chairman Kris Kobach and a state senator both misrepresented Nancy Boyda's vote on a spending measure, a resolution setting 2007 appropriations based on the 2006 funding levels.
Normally, appropriations measures are supposed to be passed before the fiscal year begins, but the last Congress was so incompetent, they didn't manage to pass all of the necessary legislation, punting the sole annual obligation of the House of Representatives to the next Congress.
While the GOP is…
tfk | February 8, 2007The Wall Street Journal polled 60 economists, and a big majority backed a carbon tax:
Forty of 47 economists who answered the question said the government should help champion alternative fuels. "Economists generally are in favor of free-market solutions, but there are times when you need to intervene," said David Wyss at Standard & Poor's Corp. "We're already in the danger zone" because of the outlook for oil supplies and concerns about climate change, he said.
A majority of the economists said a tax on fossil fuels would be the most economically sound way to encourage alternatives. A…
tfk | February 8, 2007John Edwards writes:
The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take…
tfk | February 8, 2007The bald eagle will remain listed as endangered for a little longer:
With a court-ordered deadline looming for removal of the bald eagle from the endangered species list, the Interior Department, rejecting the advice of its staff wildlife biologists, tried to limit a separate set of protections for the majestic bird that has served as a national symbol for centuries.
Not surprisingly, the public didn't like the idea of requiring actual dead eagles before action could be taken. The Interior Department got an extension from the court until June 29 to come up with a new plan. Even with the…
tfk | February 7, 2007When John Edwards hired the bloggers who wrote at Pandagon and Shakespeare's Sister, I thought it was a great move. Both are excellent writers, and it's always nice to see great writers and great bloggers moving into paid political positions. Hiring them suggested that Edwards groks the blogosphere in a way that few of the other candidates do.
Of course, the two bloggers have, in their years of blogging, produced some incendiary comments which, taken into the context of professional campaign communications, would be inappropriate. Various professional bigots, people like Michelle "…
tfk | February 7, 2007The ADL reports that the recent focus on immigration has revived many local KKK organizations. Modern Klan members don't wear bedsheets, but dress like skinheads. The ADL's slideshow suggests that the sheets are reserved for special occasions.
The KKK, though famous for its hatred of African-Americans, has always been anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. Lynchings of Mexicans in the US were common throughout the 19th and early 20th century, occurring at rates only slightly lower than the rate of lynching among African-Americans. It's small wonder, then that lynched Mexican immigrants have been…
tfk | February 7, 2007TPMCafe summarizes yesterday in the discussosphere, focusing on a point Mark Schmitt made, that proposing detailed healthcare plans is pointless. Kevin Drum, Steve Benen, Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein all weighed in for or against laying out detailed policy plans in the campaign, and I think Ezra's point is dead-on.
What's important is not that you present a legislative proposal, or some irreducibly complex policy that would have to be implemented exactly as you propose it. A dozen people in the wonkosphere will care, and everyone else will have changed the channel before you tell the…
tfk | February 7, 2007Pew put together an interesting review of polling in biracial elections, and the results are interesting. Through the '80s and '90s, polls tended to underestimate the ultimate vote for white candidates opposing black candidates. This suggests that poll respondents may have been acting more egalitarian than they really were. This wouldn't be unheard of in polls; more people tend to claim they voted in previous elections than actually did.
What Pew found in 2006 is that polls in biracial campaigns tended to be much more accurate, that the hidden vote for the white candidate seems to have…
tfk | February 6, 2007The Bill Richardson staff pass along video of the Governor's speech to the DNC's winter meeting. I don't know that he's an orator on the scale of John Edwards or Barack Obama, but he definitely has a record of accomplishments and knows how to talk to Democrats. Coturnix thinks he's merely the best vice-presidential candidate, but I think it's still too early to say.
I've seen Barack Obama and John Edwards speak in person, and they have a level of charisma that I don't feel in this video, and didn't see in Richardson's announcement on ABC's This Week. I don't know if that makes Richardson…
tfk | February 6, 2007The House will create a select committee on climate change:
Ending a three-week long turf war, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) have reached an agreement on the parameters of the select committee on global warming.
In a new letter to Pelosi, Dingell wrote that the select committee has no legislative authority and that the panel will expire on Oct. 30, 2008. Dingell also wrote that he has “assurances” from Pelosi that his committee will get first dibs to call witnesses where there could be potential conflict and that Pelosi…
tfk | February 6, 2007The KC Star confirms that Bill Clinton will be addressing the Kansas Democratic Party at its annual spring meeting:
Clinton will speak at the Topeka event March 2, the same day he'll deliver the Landon Lecture at Kansas State University.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius released a statement saying she is "delighted" Clinton accepted the party's invitation.
Barack Obama addressed the meeting last year.
tfk | February 6, 2007Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both of whom have expressed concerns about the future of George and Dick's excellent adventure in Iraq, voted against debate on a non-binding resolution opposing the escalation of that conflict. This, despite Brownback's opposition to that escalation, and his belief that it will have disastrous consequences.
Similarly, Pat Roberts has expressed support for escalation right now, but declared that things would have to turn around by August 2 or he would begin to question our occupation of Iraq. Indeed, I seem to recall him already saying that he would not have…
tfk | February 4, 2007Knight-Ridder's Washington Bureau, now owned by McClatchy, was long-regarded as the most reliable source of information about the invasion of Iraq both during the run-up to the invasion and throughout the occupation. I mention this because I think it gives useful context to their report that soldiers in Iraq view troop surge as a lost cause:
Soldiers interviewed across east Baghdad, home to more than half the city's 8 million people, said the violence is so out of control that while a surge of 21,500 more American troops may momentarily suppress it, the notion that U.S. forces can bring…
tfk | February 2, 2007Via Obsidian Wings, Obama's plan for Iraq:
It caps troops in Iraq at their Jan. 10 levels, requires the re-deployment of combat troops out of Iraq starting on May 1 and ending on March 31, 2008 (though "a residual U.S. presence may remain in Iraq for force protection, training of Iraqi security forces, and pursuit of international terrorists"), allows Congress to suspend these deadlines if certain benchmarks have been met, requires Congressional oversight, recommends diplomacy, and "mandates that the President submit a plan to prevent the war in Iraq from becoming a wider regional conflict."…
tfk | February 2, 2007According SurveyUSA, when 500 Kansans were asked:
When a United States Senator runs for President of the United States, the Senator often misses votes. Other times, the Senator needs to leave the campaign trail and return to Washington to make a vote. Do you think it's possible? Or impossible? For someone to be both an effective US Senator and an effective candidate for President at the same time?
Less than half thought it was possible, 50% thought it was impossible.
When voters were told:
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who is running for President, missed more than half the votes in the…
tfk | February 1, 2007The DI spends millions on PR for their absurd nonscience. The Bush administration pays "journalists" to pimp their policy proposals. And as ThinkProgress points out, oil companies have offered $10,000 to scientists who will go against the new IPCC report:
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the…
tfk | February 1, 2007Retrospectacle asks Is a Species' Survival Inherently Valuable?
My answer is "yes," but I agree with Shelley that the question is tricky. If someone found a way to make chiggers go extinct, would I really mind that much? Do I really care that this or that dam would make some guppy go extinct?
Much as I want to believe that a world without chiggers would be a better place, I ultimately have to conclude that it wouldn't be.
There are two books that I think are essential to understanding where I'm coming from. The End of Nature by Bill Mckibben lays out one important part of the argument.…
tfk | February 1, 2007Knowledgeable observers have long suggested that this was the case, but an official Congressional Budget Office analysis agrees that the escalation in Iraq will be larger than officials have claimed. The issue is that when the President talks about 21,500 extra combat troops, you have to send additional support units. Those extra combat units need truck drivers, military police, headquarters staff, communications experts, engineers, intelligence officers, and medical assistance. To support the combat units being deployed, you have to send additional non-combat units (which will still…
tfk | January 31, 2007According to The New Yorker of 10/31/1994, Ivins made a promise to her mentor, John Henry Faulk: "I don't want you to worry about the First Amendment. I'm gonna take care of it."
As Lawrence Wright observed, "Ivins finds that humor is the best weapon in the war against intolerance." And for decades she's been at the forefront of that battle, a forceful voice for a set of values too rarely represented in the media.
The Texas Observer has a great remembrance of her life and work. All we can do is take on the charge she accepted those many years ago, and take the same care for the First…