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8.Feb.2010
The wrong way to reform Congress (and the federal budget)
The disingenuous debates about deficit spending and the national
debt have many recurrent themes (and players).
Robert Kuttner describes one of them, the
billion-dollar Peter G. Peterson
Foundation, which, as he puts it, "has been exaggerating long-term
costs of Social Security and Medicare" for a quarter century. The
"fast-track commission with extraordinary powers to cap federal
spending" is said to be a "long-standing Peterson project," now being
forcefully promoted by Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg
(R-NH).
"The commission would make recommendations that Congress must vote up or
down with little debate or opportunity to amend. The flaws in this idea
are both procedural and substantive. The Constitution vests the power of
the purse in a democratically elected Congress, not in an elite body
insulated from public deliberation and debate. Substantively, the
commission's sponsors want it to recommend the sort of cuts in Social
Security and Medicare that would never be approved through the normal
legislative process. Some say new taxes could be on the table, but the
commission's Republican backers insist tax increases would be dead on
arrival. So the lowest common denominator would be deep cuts in social
insurance."
Given the fact that Republicans were not concerned about deficit
spending when they were in charge of Congress and George W. Bush was
President, it's reasonable to assume their current protestations are
based on political rather than economic calculations. They had no
problem with borrowing from China when they wanted to finance tax cuts.
We already have Herbert Hoover's object economic lesson of what happens
when you try to balance the federal budget as a response to a collapsing
economy. Do they really want to re-enact the Great Depression for a
mid-term campaign strategy? Apparently there is no cost too high to
enlist the burgeoning Know-Nothing Party and its Trinity of Sarah Palin,
Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
One analysis estimates that more than a third of the 2009-2012
deficit (37%) stems from the Great Recession itself, in reduced taxes
being paid, and increases in relief payments. Another third comes from
the Bush-era tax cuts and the Medicare Part D subsidy for drug
companies. 20% for the military build-up, and there's just 10% to divide
between the stimulus (7%) and other new domestic spending.
"Do we need bigger economic stimulus now to promote a faster recovery?
(Yes.) Should we reduce deficits and the ratio of debt to GDP once a
strong recovery comes? (Yes.) Does this require an extra-legislative
commission? (No.) Do we need to slash social insurance in order to
achieve fiscal balance? (No.) Are there other ways to get to a
sustainable budget? (Most definitely.)...
"More investment in children, workers, and public infrastructure can
increase productivity, growth, and fairness. As a nation, we can afford
those outlays without shortchanging the elderly. That's a much better
road to recovery than using an extra-democratic commission to shackle
social outlay that the county needs."
7.Feb.2010
Super Bowl highlights
Looks like another one of those no-defense games coming at us.
Clock's running, 6 minutes and counting gone by, and no ads yet? Sheesh.
Finally, the Colts' drive stalls, they'll kick a field goal and FINALLY
WE'LL GET TO SEE SOME ADS! Nice kick by the 42-year-old guy.
Betty White mixin' it up, she's down in the mud! What's funnier than an
old lady getting tackled? An old lady morphing into a metrosexual
football player? I guess this is to make up for the guilt they're
feeling about not running that gay ad. (Or is this the gay
ad?)
Oh, oh, and here's Pam & Tim Tebow shilling for Focus on the Family,
working the same "tackling old lady" angle. (Just like Betty, Pam's good
to shake it off.) The "full Tebow story"? Ah, no, thanks. Not really
interested.
Movie ad. Old-timey mayhem. Another "Robin Hood"? Seems so
unnecessary.
Slapstick! Hey, that never gets old. Almost as funny as tackling women
in the mud. Lot of slapping and punching this year. Only one crotch
shot, though, progress?
Seymour Burns, saved by a Coke, and see more babes! At GoDaddy.com.
Entertaining. (But seriously, would you buy a domain name from these
people?)
Brett Favre debating retirement in 2020, that's funny. Way funnier than
two ads with unattractive guys in briefs. (Please, wear boxers.
And pants.) What were they selling? I have no idea, but I don't want
any. Man, they're feeling seriously guilty about not running that
gay ad, but this does not make up for it.
Special soap for men? Fail.
The Who at halftime!
They'll be selling tires! W00t.
Disney's doing Alice in Wonderland? Directed by Tim Burton? Starring
Johnny Depp?! Ok, that could be interesting.
The Saints blew their 4th and goal, couldn't get the 1 yard. they did
get a consolation field goal before the end of the half, though.
Halftime "report" seems unnecessary, but I guess they needed some cover
to set up the stage.
The Who! Just like the last 40 years never happened, sort of.
"Pinball Wizard," "Baba O'Riley," great light show, singing, well, it's
a tough venue, but at least you know they're not just lip-synching.
"Who Are You," Snippet of "See Me, Feel Me," and "Won't Get Fooled
Again" for the finale. Great show boys. And awesome technical work
making that stage disappear in a hurry.
The Saints make their contribution to the half-time show:
awesome scrum on the ONSIDE KICK BY THE SAINTS AND THEY GET THE
BALL! Ok, that was exciting, and the Saints are marching in again.
Screen pass, and he. could. go. all. the. waaaaaaay! Touchdown Saints!
13-10, that's better! Then the long-awaited NFL disclaimer:
"This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our
audience. Any other use of this telecast, or of any pictures,
descriptions or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is
prohibited."
You think? Come and get me, big boys. I hear the Supreme Court is big on
free speech these days. (Or is that just for corporations?)
It's been more than an HOUR since the Colts' offense has done anything,
running short of inanities, as they drive it in for the TD.
Lance Armstrong, selling beer? Ugh.
Much later... the 2-pt. conversion's good (after review), and a whole lot
more ads, past attention saturation, and talk of how the Saints said
they'd save something for late in the game, but it hasn't showed up, and
nothing's stopping either side's passing game, and Tracy Porter
INTERCEPTION! And he. could. go. all. the. waaaaay! The Saints by 14
with 3:12 to go. And the defense stops the Colts from getting even one
TD back let alone two.
Nice game. Congratulations to New Orleans and the Saints. And all the
companies making money from the advertising.
High Holy Day of the Advertisement
Tom Englehardt hosts
Robert
Lipsyte's take on today's extravaganza, titled
"30-Second Warnings," in which Chips, Beer, Voyeuristic Horndogs, Hot
Babes, Flatulent Slackers, and God's Quarterback Star in the Big
Game (as the subhead has it).
I'm old enough to remember the very first Super Bowl, which seemed
salutary to all of us in Wisconsin, providing as it did one more week
in the schedule and the opportunity for the Green Bay Packers to show
that yes, they were better than the best team in that other
league, too.
That was pretty much forever ago; it's hard to see much connection
between the life and times of Vince Lombardi and the show that's being
put on these days.
"Super Bowl Sunday is America's holiest day, our all-inclusive campfire,
and with 100 million viewers, almost half of them women, about as close
as we get, without a presidential election, to taking the national
pulse. The ads tell us who we are and where we are going. They are also
Madison Avenue's best chance—at a reported $3 million or more a
minute—to create a buzz. In fact, in a world in which TiVo-ing is
spreading like wildfire, they may be Madison Avenue's last chance to
actually get watched on TV."
6.Feb.2010
Time to do the right thing
Don't even need a lot of political courage with an Admiral, a General
(and former Secretary of State), the Secretary of Defense, and a
supermajority of public opinion running ahead of you. Frank Rich:
Smoke
the bigots out of the closet.
Free market principles
Gotta hand it to the Nashville Tea Party Con organizers: they get
Palin to give a speech for $100,000 (or so, shh, it's
secret), and get 600 "delegates" to buy into the package, and another
500 for the speech only at $349 a pop. Do the math: they might have most
of a $quarter million after expenses.
Woo hoo.
Not exactly "fiscal conservatism," but given their investment, I'm
guessing most of the paying customers will convince themselves "it was
worth it." Maybe down the road there will actually be a "convention,"
and people elected as delegates to it. As opposed to a pricey night out
at the political theater.
Are they really this far off the deep end?
Daily Kos reports
a Research
2000 poll from end of last month, 2,003 self-identified Republicans
interviewed by telephone.
More than three-quarters said public school students should be taught
that the book of Genesis in the Bible explains how God created the
world.
More than half said they believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be
President than Barack Obama, and aren't sure whether or not ACORN stole
the 2008 election.
Well more than a third think Obama wasn't born in the U.S., and should
be impeached. (Too bad they didn't ask, for what?)
More than a third said birth control is "abortion"; almost that
many said yes, contraceptives should be outlawed.
23% said they thought their state should secede from the Union, and
slightly more than that said they believe Barack Obama wants the
terrorists to win.
5.Feb.2010
California Demon Sheep's got nothing on Georgia's Roy the Rat
Political Hotsheet reports on
"day three of the Demon Sheep saga", brought to us by Carly
Fiorina's unquenchable ambition, now barking at a Senate seat from
California. Take a trip down memory lane with Fred Davis III's "masterpiece"
for the 2002 Governor's race in Georgia.
"Georgia is more than a state, it's an icon. Larger than life. Land more
grand and gorgeous than any state should possess. People bigger, more
industrious and successful than any other place in the world."
Alabama takes U.S. hostage
Not sure who elected this guy to be the boss of us but Richard Shelby has
decreed
that a couple earmarks for his state are more important than 70 of the
President's nominees awaiting Senate confirmation. He's
got his reasons for hijacking the political process, but it seems
more likely to spur the development of anti-hijacking measures than
to get him his way.
"We don't negotiate with terrorists," right?
4.Feb.2010
Thinking in paragraphs
We watched the Frontline episode
Digital
Nation: life on the virtual frontier last night. (You can watch it
online, too. Ha! Of course.) The narrator recounted
conversation/perspectives from 1995 at one point, and I was reminded of
that moment when the web took off, and I was there, and not everyone
around me had caught on, and I was trying to tell family members about
how astounding it all was... what I wrote in our 1994 Christmas
letter:
cruising the globe via the Internet (often but not exclusively in
the HP-only News groups, asking questions, answering questions, being
sparked to research botanical defense mechanisms,
hydrodynamics of fins and
sails, crime statistics, distribution of income, the Contract with
America, history of religion, the Big Bang
and bicycle mechanics. In the last year our access to the "outside
world" became significantly greater, with
Mosaic
and Socks providing a
gateway to the "World Wide Web." I can get today's weather report for
the Gorge, the hour's satellite photo of North America, or the best
pictures and simulations of the
Jupiter impact without leaving my cube. I can get the answer to a
customer inquiry from Germany as easily as Florida or Singapore. It is
amazing, and the degree to which it's amazing keeps increasing)
(When's the last time you saw "World Wide Web" in quotation marks?)
Now, 15 years on, we're raising crops of digital kids with
hyperfractured attention spans, half in this world and half in five
different kinds of Second Life, thinking they're really good at
"multitasking" when no, actually, they're not, and no one is.
Anyway, to GET TO THE POINT WOULD YOU, teachers, and MIT students were
observing that kids these days think in "paragraphs" and are
hard-pressed to string those together into a coherent work of essay
length.
"I know the feeling."
Update: speaking of Jupiter, it got a
15-year anniversary whack too, and one lucky amateur got the scoop
last summer. You haven't forgotten about that already, have you?
3.Feb.2010
Tea Party Con
Dan Popkey provided
a charming portrait of the couple that was 2/3rds of the first Tea
Party demonstration in Boise. (The other third was her brother-in-law.)
How wonderful to drop down out of the sky and proclaim all that's wrong
with politics, and plan on setting it right.
It's just utterly incomprehensible how they're going to do that,
but that's OK! More political activists are a fine thing. I can't wait
to hear how they all get along at their upcoming "Convention" in
Nashville, with the now Reaganesque Sarah Palin as featured speaker.
With their
unified support for the U.S. Constitution and teaching history in
school, and unified opposition to anyone who acts like s/he's in charge,
all that remains to be seen is how they will achieve the political power
long enjoyed by the Libertarian and Natural Law Parties.
Maybe they'll be able to run the kind of experiments
like Colorado
Springs is doing: stop wasting money on parks! pools! streetlights!
police! firemen!
Groundhog Day
Things could be worse
In the closing-in-on 3 decades we've lived in the Treasure Valley, the
place has apparently become much more hospitable to geese,
whether from warmer weather, more growing of things they like to eat,
whatever. Our grass playing fields and ponds and river greenbelt are
lovely places to spend the summer... and winter, as well, when you're a
Canada goose.
We'll know when times are really hard when the local bird
population turns into tasty evening meals instead.
Since we're not there yet, and since they're protected against being
hunted, we have a considerable nuisance factor from the volume of their
leavings when they gaggle around the parks.
Turns out there's a rather simple solution to keeping some of the
greenspace clear: coyote silhouettes, acting as "scare geese." The BSU
soccer pitch (next to the Boas Tennis facility) has three of these
planted here and there, and they work like champs. Before installation,
more than a hundred geese hanging out, eating and pooping all over the
field. After installation, no geese.
1.Feb.2010
Not gonna happen
Mae and Ira Freeman had me pretty well convinced that a personal trip to
the moon was in my future, with the first edition of
You Will Go to the Moon
.
The cover with the boy looking through a telescope at a rocketship and
the full moon in a night sky is an iconic touchstone of my childhood,
and even though I can't remember the specifics of what's inside, I
remember that promise, in big, white letters.
It's been clear enough for some time that my chances weren't nearly as
good as they seemed in the early '60s, whether or not NASA's 2020 plan
came to fruition. But now,
Obama has come out with a "bold new initiative" that "offers, at
least initially, nothing in terms of human exploration of the solar
system."
With the end of the Space Shuttle, and the Constellation program axed,
we'd be left with $6 billion for "financing space taxi services from
commercial companies." I guess we'll be testing out the theory that
private enterprise always does stuff better than the government can,
but remember... this is rocket science we're talking about.
raveling
Tom von Alten
tva_∂t_fortboise_⋅_org
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Monday, 08-Feb-2010 10:30:47 MST
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