Posts filed under 'White Papers'
To hear some pundits tell it, millions of voters switched their allegiance to Ronald Reagan right after he uttered the words “There you go again.” These debates are important in part, simply because we say they are. As I’ve said, I don’t think they tell us much about any of the players and issues involved (I already knew Brokaw was a blowhard, already pretty sure I liked Obama’s health plan better than McCain’s, etc).
Some people mentioned the visual juxtaposition of a young, energetic candidate standing next to an old man. I thought it was even more disturbing to listen to to McCain’s labored breathing into the mic (Tony Soprano, anyone?), and he also sounded scatterbrained on a number of answers. Obama was pretty strong for the first few minutes — when the most people are watching — and they both seemed to get lost in uninteresting, meandering answers during the middle innings.
I still worry about all the Americans who think Obama is Muslim, or unpatriotic, or who just don’t want to vote for the black fella. I think the polls are likely to tighten before November. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to win, and he’s going to have close to a 60-seat majority in the senate as well.
With the markets in free-fall, home foreclosures continuing to cripple the economy, and more and more Americans fearing for their futures, a lot of other things just seem really unimportant. I think McCain and Palin are disrespectful and dishonest, but I only take that seriously because they are the second-most likely duo to waltz into the Oval Office in January. But McPalin isn’t really a serious ticket; it doesn’t discuss serious issues, and it doesn’t offer serious solutions.
What matters now is how forceful Obama and the Democrats are willing to be in taking the necessary measures to address the economic woes of the country and the world, and then working to create more efficient and sustainable ways of doing things. That is going to mean putting a lot of the cleanup cost for this on the backs of the rich. It’s going to mean offering real relief to a lot of home owners with unmanageable mortgages — because the economy is not going to recover without a less toxic housing market. It’s going to mean reforming health care so it isn’t nearly as big a drain on the average paycheck.
And it’s going to require serious investment in alternative energy, infrastructure rebuilding, job creation, effective regulations on financial institutions, and almost assuredly, it’s going to require temporary nationalization of the banks.
You may disagree with the solutions I propose, but most of you will probably agree with the diagnosis; we’re in deep shit. Even a more damning juxtaposition than McCain’s age and Obama’s youth, is McCain’s petulance and selfishness contrasted with the serious times we’re living in.
October 8th, 2008
I know as much about the economy as Sam Cooke knows about history, but there seems to be a remarkable consensus among economists that that the bailout, as currently proposed by Paulson, is a bad idea. Congress needs to attach at least three things to any huge financial commitment such as this: significant safeguards to allow the government to recoup its investment, stricter regulations on how these institutions operate in the future, and additional stimulus and economic relief for the people about to lose their homes and/or jobs.
Obviously, the devil is in the details, and opinions vary on how to structure each provision, and whether there should be other goodies included, like a CEO salary cap. This bailout could very likely hamstring the domestic agenda of the next administration, so Dems need to make it worth the public’s while. The two keys are explaining to the public why just throwing money at the problem won’t solve it, and keeping skiddish Dems in Congress from letting the urgency of the situation scare them into signing some few-strings attached bailout that contains only token provisions of regulation and investment guarantees.
While there are factors that could screw things up for Obie, I think the election is his to lose at this point. Obviously, there is a real temptation to just go with the flow on this bailout (some people see his opposition to the Paulson plan as weak, some see it as “yay Obama!”). But this is a critical issue that will have repercussions for a long time to come. Now is the time to demonstrate real leadership.
There are some aspects of the Obama campaign that I really admire. I think their organizational muscle has been impressive. David Plouffe is a badass. A lot of Obama’s responses to the McCain attacks have been excellent. But sometimes I have doubts about the leadership issue.
But it seems entirely possible that Obama will win this election much in the way that McCain won the primary; by being the last man standing after everyone else proves themselves irredeemably flawed. If you give Steve Schmidt a more charismatic and effective candidate, I think Obama loses this election. Hell, if you give Schmidt the McCain of 2000, Obama probably loses this election.
And that is despite all of Obama’s charisma, character, and massive appeal to younger generations. You can blame some of the closeness of the race on fears about color and “otherness”, and ignorance, and all the rest. But I also question the decision to stop talking about foreign policy simply because McCain said, “I see your opposition to this disastrous war and raise you a measly surge.” Or being afraid to discuss climate change because “drill, baby, drill” was the biggest applause line at the RNC.
So in sum, I’m doubtful that Obama and Congress are up to the bailout challenge. I think the most likely outcome is a quick “carte blanche for Hank” type bill, and I actually expect Pelosi to mount tougher opposition to such a bill than Obama. But if he proves me wrong, what a wonderful presidency this would be.
September 22nd, 2008
You can find the answers to many of life’s persistent questions simply by typing them into google or yahoo. For instance, my pa wanted to know how long to barbecue a london broil flank steak. I typed "grilling london broil" into yahoo and quickly found several sites that had temperature suggestions and cook times. A search engine should be your first stop on the magical online journey for information (All advice in this beginner’s pamphlet will be delivered with unbridled condescension because it is no less than what you deserve).
For a quick overview of a geographical location, historical event or figure, Congressional scandal, try wikipedia. It’s like a more comprehensive Britannica. If a particular article isn’t referenced well or is found to have bias, it will say as much. Such honest folk over at wiki. We love em. We really do.
If you are writing an English paper and want to learn more about your book/essay/poem, try going to sparknotes.com. It’s like cliffnotes but it’s free, so it’s not cheating. You can also go to a search engine and enter the name of the piece you are writing about followed by something like "essay" or "discussion" to find little posted essays and online discussions about the work in question.
If you are trying to write an English paper and you don’t know how to write, go here: http://www.askoxford.com. Good for word usage, common grammar mistakes, all that. There are also online dictionaries (with sound clips for pronunciation even!), slang dictionaries and thesauri. You can search for others, but dictionary.com and thesaurus.com will probably have what you want.
One more word on search engines: Put a minus before any words you don’t want searched. For instance, "Trojans -condoms". Also, if you are getting too many results, surround your query in quotes to search for pages that have the exact
phrase and not just all the words scattered somewhere on the page.
June 14th, 2006
Five useful websites:
del.icio.us - Create and store bookmarks at this site. Great for whenever you’re on another computer and can’t remember a url. You can also browse through the bookmarks of other people and check out all the interesting stuff you’re missing.
bloglines.com - Keep track of new posts and entries for your favorite blogs and news sites all in one place. A big time saver. If you get a lot of your news online, just subscribe to all the sites you frequent and check here for when they’ve updated. If you don’t check on that kind of thing so often, only subscribe to blogs that aren’t constantly adding new posts.
soyouwanna.com - A wide-ranging list of heavily condensed Idiot’s Guide type essays for topics like converting to Buddhism and faking indie rock knowledge. Humorous and informative. So basically, the two failed goals of this blog. Screw those guys.
mininova.org and isohunt.com - The two best bittorrent search sites. Good for: TV shows, movies, software, radio broadcasts, new albums, old concerts. Not good for: specific songs, obscure or older movies and TV shows.
howstuffworks.com - They actually have a pretty extensive list of stuff here. Check it out, mang.
Soon to come: Five political blogs, five fun websites and probably not much much more!
May 24th, 2006