Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Ukraine and Georgia to Nato?
Not only does this alienate our European allies, who view us as crazy, but it also alienates (further) Russia--all the while knowing full well that Russia has Germany and Poland, amongst others, by the balls due to their gas and oil reserves. Then, in slightly different foreign policy contexts, we expect our European allies and the Russians to back us when negotiating sanctions against Iran and we expect NATO allies to put in more troops into Afghanistan. We can't even get our NATO allies to commit troops under fully NATO leadership without any conditions as to where they'll go and we expect to have their help if Georgia and Ukraine are invaded?
I agree that this is an absolutely terrible plan. There's no legitimate strategic reason to give a military guarantee to Georgia, particularly after the revelations that the events this summer were started by Georgia, and not by Russian aggression. They aren't strategically located, don't have any kind of natural resources, don't provide us with much in the way of military help, there's no significant ethnic Georgian population in the U.S., etc. Yes it's generally good to aid smallish, somewhat democratic countries against larger, somewhat-less-democratic neighbors... but let's look at the overall situation here. By far, it would be a greater moral tragedy for the U.S. to become embroiled in a war with Russia - in which hundreds of thousands could die, and the possibility of nuclear holocaust would be very real - than it would to allow Georgia to lose some chunk of its territory (largely filled with ethnic Russians) to Russia.
Not every land-grab by a larger country of a smaller country's territory is Munich all over again. Russia has no designs on world domination- they are simply looking to exert influence in their historic sphere of influence in the same manner that we've done in the Western hemisphere for hundreds of years and have continued to do in the recent past (see Panama and Grenada). I'm not saying I approve of Russia's actions, but that we need to think of them in a larger context.
I can see more reason for bringing Ukraine in- it's a more clearly "European" country and is accessible through Poland, an ally and a country supporting bringing Ukraine in. It also is a much more likely candidate for EU membership somewhere down the line. Georgia on the other hand is essentially down in the Middle East, and never has been traditionally part of cultural Europe. This is more an argument for slowly bringing Ukraine in, along perhaps with EU membership, over maybe a 10 or 15 year time-frame. No need to rush it.
Granted, Russia is going to be weakened in the forseeable future because of the declining prices for oil and gas, which should decrease its appetite for foreign adventurism. That's still not a good reason for pushing this issue now.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
More Pirates
An interesting pirate-related point from my brother, who is currently on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea: although the Navy has a couple destroyers off the coast of Somalia, its official policy is that it is the responsibility of the country under whose flag a seized ship is sailing to deal with the pirates. Since no American ships have been hijacked, the US Navy is staying out of it.
Hillary
At the end of the rough primary season, after Obama backed his way into the nomination while losing Kentucky and WV spectacularly to Hillary, making her the VP would have been perceived as a move made out of weakness, i.e. Hillary forced Obama into making the pick. Here, after a dominating general election win, Obama is adding Hillary to his team from a position of strength. He could have had anybody he wanted, and he chose her.
Once she's in place down in Foggy Bottom, Hillary loses much of her political punch. She has limited ability to raise money for other candidates (and thus earn favors), and she'll be out of the country much of the time and won't be out giving speeches around the country.
She'll also be doing some heavy lifting getting us out of Iraq, and can be expected to shoulder some of the blame when that process becomes difficult, as it almost certainly will. Because of her reputation for hawkishness, she'll effectively shield Obama from some criticism from liberal hawks as well.
My gut feeling is that she'll be cooperative in the position, and will not undermine Obama. Hillary seems to have an innate sense of the importance of chains of command (which is partially why she seemed to take the candidacy of a 1st term senator so personally) and will I think be a pretty good team player. She also has a pretty big incentive to do so- if she causes problems at State, she will almost certainly be the one blamed by the press, and Obama can also always route around her by leaning on his NSA and Sec Defense (the way that Bush worked around Powell using Rice and Rumsfeld). As a very high-profile figure, Hillary is going to shoulder a lot of blame if Obama's foreign policy isn't successful, which puts a lot of pressure on her to work well with the Whitehouse.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Pirates
At the end of the day it’s not easy to fight pirates at sea. The ocean is extremely large, boats move around, and circumstances are generally unfavorable to law enforcement. You need to fight the piracy on land. If you tried to run a pirate ring out of San Diego, you wouldn’t get very far — there are police in southern California. But Somalia has, obviously, been in a state of political chaos for a long time now. And when the country looked like it was heading for a measure of political stability under the Islamic Courts Movement, the US decided it would be smart to back an Ethiopian invasion-and-occupation of the country that ultimate wound up resulting in more chaos than ever. But whatever you think of the past, going forward you would ultimately want to solve this issue on land. In other words, by creating some kind of political stability in Somalia.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Shays for Sec. Transportation
As a member of Congress, Shays has also been a transportation generalist, comfortable dealing with airlines, roads and mass transit, and would be skilled in working with both parties to implement an ambitious transportation infrastructure agenda.
It would be a great way to demonstrate bi-partisanship in the cabinet while getting a highly competent Secretary with lots of experience in the relevant issues.
"Obama's election has taken the wind out of al Qaeda's sails in much of the Islamic world because it demonstrates America's renewed commitment to multiculturalism, human rights, and international law. It also proves to many that democracy can work and overcome ethnic, sectarian, or racial barriers.
"Obama's commitment to withdraw from Iraq also takes away an al Qaeda propaganda tenet: that the U.S. seeks to occupy oil rich Arab lands. His commitment to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan also challenges their plans. Most of all, by returning to American values the world admires, Obama sets al Qaeda back enormously in the battle of ideas, the ideological struggle which determines whether al Qaeda will continue to have significant support in the Islamic world."
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Megan McCardle on the bailout
Bailout, cndt.
What do you do about the all the lost revenue for the gov't if these companies actually collapse? It may be worth saving these companies for $25B if the option is losing significantly more in lost tax revenue.
Second, what do you do with all of the lost jobs? It is quite a leap of faith to assume that Asian car manufacturers will increase their manufacturing capabilities in the US; they still produce millions of cars in Asia and will likely continue to do so.
In response to the first issue (and part of the second), this could be an argument for government intervention to save any business- from auto makers down to local governments bailing out restaurants or other small businesses. The reason that the government typically does not spend money to bail out companies in order to keep those companies paying taxes is because, in the long term, the failing companies will be replaced by something else that will make up the tax loss. In the case of the auto companies, unless we're positing that this is a case of irreversible American decline, the assumption is that in a few years, new companies will emerge that will employ people who were working in the auto industry or who otherwise would go into the auto industry will wind involved in some other enterprise, which will pay them and which will pay taxes. We may not be able to envision that enterprise right now, the same way that we didn't know 20 years ago that tax revenues disrupted when the last American television manufacturer closed shop would be replaced by those from Dell or Apple or Corning (makers of the glass panels used in flat screen TVs). This is the basic creative destruction of capitalism, and while it may be painful and disruptive in the short term, it's the driving force of our economy.
I agree that it's unlikely that Asian car makers will use US plants to replace all of the cars taken off the market of the Big Three are liquidated. However, cars are bulky and heavy, and labor is a relatively small cost of production (this MIT study places labor at only 6.5% of MSRP for a car- although it does not break out health and retirement benefits). Transportation from Asia is costly, particularly to inland parts of the US where cars have to go by ship and then by inefficient overland transport in car carrier trucks. I have to imagine that building more plants in the US would be a more efficient strategy for Asian automakers. Granted, these jobs are not going to be as good as the UAW jobs in Detroit, because they're largely situated in the South, in right-to-work states where workers aren't unionized. Still, those jobs aren't paying peanuts- the average worker at a Toyota plant in Kentucky made $25/hour, which is $45k/year if those workers are getting 48 weeks of 7.5 hr/day shifts. It probably won't be the ticket to one-income family, middle-class bliss that UAW jobs were in their heyday, but it's more than many teachers, cops, etc. make.
The other point to note is that, even in the unlikely event that all three American automakers are liquidated in bankruptcy, there are still going to be a bunch of car factories sitting in cities that are filled with skilled car manufacturing employees. This is a situation ripe for some enterprising group of people to buy the plants, rehire the people and try their hand at succeeding where Detroit is currently failing.
I understand that this winds up being very painful and disruptive in the short to medium term for auto workers and the towns and cities where they live. That disruption and pain an be ameliorated by an influx of federal dollars- $25 billion buys a lot of generous unemployment benefits and subsidies to state and local governments- without keeping in business companies who make generally lousy products that don't make money.
Lieberman
One issue that the left keeps bringing up is the fear that Lieberman will use the subpoena powers of his commission to probe into the administration and intentionally undermine Obama. First, I think that any attempt to do this would be incredibly unpopular- as Obama has reached in to spare Lieberman, and the press would harp incessantly on the disloyalty. The other point to note is that the committee as a whole, of which Lieberman is the chair, has delegated its authority to a permanent committee on investigations headed by Carl Levin.
I don't know a ton about how delegations of authority work in Senate committees, but it seems that Levin's subcommittee would get first crack at any kind of investigation, and that it might make it more difficult for Lieberman to run investigations into the administration on his own.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Teachers & Tenure
I think she's right on about the need to remove tenure. It's really only there to protect bad teachers- not kids. When I was teaching, the loudest backers of the union and defenders of tenure were the terrible teachers. If principals try to fire good teachers for arbitrary reasons, they still have the union grievance process, and more importantly they'll be backed by other teachers and the parents of their students, who particularly in smaller districts with elected boards of education can bring enormous pressure to bear on a principal or board. Good teachers are also going to be in high demand, so even if some good teachers are fired for arbitrary reasons, they'll be able to get work elsewhere.
Moreover, plenty of other government employees are subject to arbitrary firings and make do- I don't see why we should have special protections for teachers, particularly when it's at the expense of large numbers of students.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Anti-Family in Arkansas
Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, approved by nearly 57 percent of voters last week, bans people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from serving as foster parents or adopting children. While the measure bans both gay and straight members of cohabitating couples as foster or adoptive parents, the Arkansas Family Council wrote it expressly to thwart “the gay agenda.” Right now, there are 3,700 other children across Arkansas in state custody; 1,000 of them are available for adoption. The overwhelming majority of these children have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their heterosexual parents.
Even before the law passed, the state estimated that it had only about a quarter of the foster parents it needed. Beginning on Jan. 1, a grandmother in Arkansas cohabitating with her opposite-sex partner because marrying might reduce their pension benefits is barred from taking in her own grandchild; a gay man living with his male partner cannot adopt his deceased sister’s children.
Friedman on the Auto Bailout
"In return for any direct government aid," he wrote, "the board and the management [of GM] should go. Shareholders should lose their paltry remaining equity. And a government-appointed receiver - someone hard-nosed and nonpolitical - should have broad power to revamp GM with a viable business plan and return it to a private operation as soon as possible. That will mean tearing up existing contracts with unions, dealers and suppliers, closing some operations and selling others and downsizing the company. ... Giving GM a blank check - which the company and the United Auto Workers union badly want, and which Washington will be tempted to grant - would be an enormous mistake."
I would add other conditions: Any car company that gets taxpayer money must demonstrate a plan for transforming every vehicle in its fleet to a hybrid-electric engine with flex-fuel capability, so its entire fleet can also run on next generation cellulosic ethanol.
Lastly, somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn't need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he'd like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I'd bet it wouldn't take him much longer than that to come up with the GM iCar.
We should definitely not be bailing out the American auto companies. When gas prices went up and people wanted to buy more small cars, they couldn't even convert their SUV and pickup factories to make smaller cars (like Honda/Toyota could with their factories in Georgia and Kentucky), because of ridiculous union work rules and outdated equipment. The Japanese companies will continue to make cars in the US (and thus employ Americans, albeit at lower wages than they'd get as UAW members working in Detroit) because it's cheaper to make cars to sell to Americans over here than it is to make them in Japan and ship them. If the American companies fold, Americans will continue to buy cars, and probably will do so from Japanese/Korean companies making them in the US- so their factories will have to expand and hire more American workers (at least in the short term until Chinese and Indian manufacturers start cranking them out cheap enough to ship them here en masse). End result- not a big net loss to American workers if they car company they work for is owned in Japan or in Michigan.
I also think that the market can handle moving automakers to more energy-efficient means without doing it by government fiat. In fact, the market has been doing that- when oil prices went up, people started buying hybrid and fuel-efficient cars. GM/Ford/Chrysler didn't have those cars, or very many of them, so folks went instead and bought cars from companies who did. Propping up the very companies that have proved that, even with profit motive, they cannot competently convert to fuel-efficient or hybrid vehicles, is a bad move.
Also- Steve Jobs would probably be terrible at running the auto companies, unless people want to drive the Mac version of cars… something that would cost twice as much as a regular car and be incompatible with the roads that 90% of people drive on.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Veterans Day
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly S
carce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw The torch;
be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Advanced Citizenship
Fred Phelps (of "God Hates Fags" fame) is back spewing hate- protesting at the Kansas funeral of Obama's grandmother, ostensibly because she raised him to be a baby-killer.
Maybe a bit cliche, this calls to mind the great lines from the end of "American President"-
America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours."
Back
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Poor W.
The president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there.
It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.
Well, you get blamed for the things that you do that are stupid. Miers was a terrible and unqualified choice for Supreme Court, and Alito was an intemperate, right-wing extremist. When you pick bad people and make bad decisions, you tend to be despised by your opponents and disappoint your friends.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
African-Americans made up 30 percent of voters in Georgia. In 2004, they represented 25 percent.
UPDATE: On the other hand, black voters make up 21 percent of the turnout in Virginia, unchanged from four years ago.
I've checked in with the boiler rooms in both campaigns; they're doing they're own very sophisticated exit polls... Here's what I'm hearing: FL -- both sides say they're hitting their turnout goals...Obama may be exceeding his... in North Carolina, Republicans concede that Democratic turnout appears very high.... the same goes for Virginia.... in Pennsylvania, Democrats are confident that they're meeting their goals...Republicans are waiting for data.
Remember, Obama's state turnout targets are generally thought to be higher than McCain's....
he states looking good for Obama:
Florida: 52 percent to 44 percent
Iowa: 52 percent to 48 percent
Missouri: 52 percent to 48 percent
North Carolina: 52 percent to 48 percent
New Hampshire: 57 percent to 43 percent
Nevada: 55 percent to 45 percent
Pennsylvania: 57 percent to 42 percent
Ohio: 54 percent to 45 percent
Wisconsin: 58 percent to 42 percent
Indiana: 52 percent to 48 percent
New Mexico: 56 percent to 43 percent
Minnesota: 60 percent to 39 percent
Michigan: 60 percent to 39 percent
The states where McCain is leading in exit polls:
Georgia: 51 percent to 47 percent
West Virginia: 45 percent to 55 percent
Call of the day
PA update
Voting the slate
Monday, November 03, 2008
Home Stretch: Ohio update
Today as of 3 pm, the Obama Campaign gotv operation in Ohio knocked on 1 million doors, with another shift still to go.
That means that they probably had at least 20,000 to 40,000 volunteers out knocking on doors today.
One day short...
Word comes that Barack Obama's grandmother has died. The timing is ridiculous. But think, for a moment, if you will of Madelyn Dunham, a white woman from Kansas, strolling the aisle of a supermarket, or having lunch in a coffee shop, with her grandson--way back at the turn of the 1970s, when such sights were uncommon, even in Hawaii. Think about what her friends might have thought, or said, about her...situation. Think about what she poured into the child during the years when her daughter was in Indonesia and she was the closest thing to a mother that Obama had; think about the impact that she and her husband had on creating the man we've come to know, and the satisfaction she must have felt in her dying days.
Some politicians simply are larger than life. Their stories are the stuff of high drama. Over the past few days, I've been hearing about the high emotions out in the field, as volunteers flood Obama offices to help canvass--and, in some places, find they have to wait on line for a spot on a phone bank. It is almost banal at this point to say that this has been the most remarkable election I've ever seen. It's been a privilege to be a small part of it, to have had a ringside seat. And now, there is a sense that tomorrow will be the sort of day none of us ever forgets, one way or another--a day of reckoning, in the purest sense, when we will suddenly see ourselves and our country differently, for good or ill.
It will also be the first day that Barack Obama lives without the presence of the woman who was his surrogate mother. How sad for him, how remarkable that it would happen this way.
Home Stretch: Iowa update
from the home stretch in iowa are looking positive. I think the promotion of absentee voting has been critical, and I have been chasing in ballots for the last two days.
Fivethirtyeight.com has Iowa polling at a composite 54-43, so it should be good to go, but it's definitely a good idea to chase down absentee ballots (as I know from experience in the 2000 Florida race). We're down to the wire, so anything we can do to lock down the states leaning Obama is time well spent.
Having Iowa solidly in Obama's column has been a big advantage over last cycle. Having the Kerry states plus Iowa puts Obama at 259, which means that to win we only need Virginia, Ohio, Florida or North Carolina (or gets a tie in CO), without having to rely on winning two of those states.
Don't panic
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Dems run nasty ads too...
One good thing about the McCain campaign is that they have largely resisted the GOP's worst instincts to gay-bait- there could have been a lot of nasty ads about prop 8, nationalizing the California gay marriage issue. It's to McCain's credit that this hasn't happened, and to the discredit of Dems in Kentucky that they're running this nonsense.
Obama talks about his aunt
Obama with Katie Couric on his aunt, who is allegedly an undocumented immigrant (via Ambinder):
Couric: YOU HAVE AN AUNT WHO'S BEEN LIVING IN THIS COUNTRY APPARENTLY ILLEGALLY, AND YOUR CAMPAIGN SAYS ANY AND ALL APPROPRIATE LAWS SHOULD BE FOLLOWED. SO WOULD YOU SUPPORT HER BEING DEPORTED TO KENYA?
Sen. Obama: If she is violating laws those laws have to be obeyed. We're a nation of laws. Obviously that doesn't lessen my concern for her, I haven't been able to be in touch with her. But I'm a strong believer you have to obey the law.
There's some evidence that the leak of the immigration status of Obama's aunt came from somebody in the Bush administration:But note the way in which AP seems to have obtained the information. High up in the story, it reports:
Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.In other words, it looks like someone in the Bush administration leaked the information, with the goal of throwing a last-minute wrench into Obama's campaign. And someone else confirmed it, with similar motives.
Home Stretch: Ohio update
On the GOTV front, I have a friend who's doing voter protection in Ohio, and he tells me that things look good around Kent and Toledo, but there are some reports of voter suppression efforts in Cleveland.
Dedication 2
I'd be interested to see whether similar calls are coming into the McCain phones.
Dedication
Her sister called the voter hotline hoping to be able to help her sister vote. Three calls later, and after talking to about 10 different lawyers here, the sister is going to print out an absentee ballot form with an attached section for voters who can't sign their own names, and a designation form that would allow her sister to designate her as an agent for election purposes. The sister is going to get these forms signed, have a doctor or nurse write a note attesting to the illness, and take them tomorrow to court in Philadelphia to try to get an absenteen ballot so her sister can vote for Obama.
Home Stretch- Scranton, PA
The Obama folks helped the woman put together a flier in English and Spanish reminding people that everyone votes on Tues, and urging them to call the Obama office and the police if they see the people who have been spreading the false information about voting.
Home Stretch: PA update
In better news, Philly seems much more pumped about Obama than the city was about Kerry four years ago. Many more people seem to be wearing Obama buttons and stickers, and there are more signs in store windows.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Palin fooled by wily French Canadians
Early in the conversation, the fake Sarkozy tells Palin one of his favourite pastimes is hunting.
"We should go hunting together," she offers. "We can have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone."
Audette then jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot-and-injured a friend while hunting quail.
"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin, who praises Sarkozy throughout the call.
"I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally, and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness," she says.
The faux Sarkozy also left some clues that he was not to be taken seriously-
He identifies French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the U.S., singer Stef Carse as Canada's prime minister and Quebec comedian and radio host Richard Z. Sirois as the provincial premier.
PA update
I'm doing mobile updating from Philly. We're in the voter protection call center, fielding calls from around the state from voters on questions ranging from "where do I vote" to "I'm a prerelease convicted felon in a halfway house, am I allowed to vote?". A bit slow now, but this weekend the campaign is dropping 5.6 million pieces of lit with the hotline number, so we'll be hopping tomorrow. Pretty good way to make sure you get out your new voters.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
Home Stretch: Virginia Update
That's my take.