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Category: Politics Page 22 of 73

State of the Union Liveblogging . . . in 1999

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On January 29, 2009

In Personal, Policy, Politics

Ten years to the day, my live blog of the 1999 State of the Union speech by President Clinton, here.  Putting aside some truly cringe-worthy language, it’s an interesting read for me.  I’d say that some of politics have changed somewhat since then – I’m more skeptical about “free trade”, I’m less skeptical about Social Security.  My values have remained pretty much the same, though there’s some development there, too (I now care deeply about universal healthcare).   Looking at the issue list, though, it’s surprising how little has changed, even when so much has.

(As the “archive” column on the right indicates, I’ve been at this for a while.  When I started off, it was about 75% (too) personal, and the remainder was about the sort of stuff you’d imagine interested a law student in DC in the late 90s ( Clinton’s impeachment, the death of Jordan’s King Hussein, etc.).  Around 2002/3, I  joined up with a couple of other people on a site that focused entirely on policy and politics.  That lasted for a bit, and then I turned back to writing mostly on my own.   My long term ambition is to restore most of the writing from those years to this site, filtering for the personal.   You know, right after I get my files organized.)

Reminder for Geithner: You Work for the *Public Interest*

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On January 29, 2009

In Policy, Politics

TPM pointed me to this excellent short piece from Barry Ritholtz, wherein he notes that new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner doesn’t seem to understand that he’s no longer working for private interests:

Consider this statement from Geithner, who said that Treasury  is considering a “range of options” for its financial rescue plan, with the goal of preserving the private banking system.  “We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system.”

No! Defending these idiots was your old gig. In the new job, you no longer work for the cretins responsible for bringing down the global economy. Please stop rationalizing their behavior, and preserving the status quo!

I’ve got a longer post on financial issues percolating, but I think that Josh Marshall might have cut to the quick of my questions earlier today, when he wrote:

The core problem is that many, perhaps most of our major financial institutions are insolvent. They have more liabilities than assets. A functioning financial system requires solvent banks. And only the government has the resources to manage the massive recapitalization to get the key institutions back on their feet. At that level of generality, the issue assumes a degree of clarity.

All the different fix permutations are just different ways of accounting for the transfer of cash. You can take the banks over and assume their debts. Or just give them tons of money to make them whole. Or you can buy their bad investments at the price the banks wish they were worth and thus get the banks out of under the consequences of the financial collapse they helped create.

It’s not clear to me why the dollar amounts spent would really be different in the various permutations. It’s all a question of who owns what when it’s all said and done and who runs the institutions.

The who ought to own it part is pretty clear for me, though I have to admit to being stumped about who ought to run them.  Even if you make the very big assumption of competence on the part of the current crop of folks in there, there is such an extreme amount of demonstrated bad faith that I wouldn’t hire them to run a 7-Eleven.   However, I suspect if the right tone were clearly set at the top – that we’re done fucking around, and that it’s time to grow up and realize there’s a world outside of your own, to which you have some responsibility – we could find some talent in the financial ranks.  But that tone setting?  Well, that gets us back to the failure pointed out in the beginning of this post.

Get Up, Stand Up

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On January 27, 2009

In Distribution, Politics

TPM and its readers are wondering the same thing I am – where are the Democrats on TV talking about the stimulus bill?  If their absence is a function of being denied by the same DC show bookers, despite their best efforts, I – as a Democrat- need to hear that.

Democrats Still Acting Like Losers

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On January 27, 2009

In Policy, Politics

This is bang-my-head-against-the-wall frustrating:

House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.

[ . . . ]

Under the provision, states no longer would be required to obtain federal permission to offer family planning services — including contraceptives — under Medicaid, the health program for the low-income.

Yes, that’s right, the Democrats will be caving to the Taliban-aping GOP.  The “controversial” idea here is that states could automatically elect to use their federal Medicaid funding to cover services that they’re presently providing with state funds.   In other words, states would no longer be the ones paying for condoms and such for low-income Medicaid recipients, thus freeing up the state to use its tax revenues to meet other needs while ensuring that contraception is still available.   Seems pretty straightforward, no?  And since it’s up to each state to make this election, it should appeal to those conservatives who are always claiming that issues like this should be decided at the state level (in theory, anyway – I’ve found that that’s more often than not still as much a cover as “states’ rights” used to be).   And yet here Democrats are, allowing something as simple as plain contraception to be treated as some divisive issue?  I’m sorry, didn’t the American public just spend two years throwing out the theocracy supporters?  And Democrats react like this?  Pathetic.

What’s the Point of the Lobbyist Ban, Then?

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On January 24, 2009

In Policy, Politics

I’ve never been a fan of holding up lobbyists as some inherently evil group.  I think running against them is mostly a stunt, and I think broad prohibitions against them entering government is a bad idea.  That said, if you’re going to make a point of adopting rules against lobbyists, you really should stick to them.

Update: While I’m not a fan of the rhetorical device of slamming lobbyists, I’m absolutely appalled by the revolving door. As such, I’m completely okay with fairly severe post-employment bans on lobbying agencies of which you were previously a part. Not a perfect solution, but it’s better than nothing. (Thought I’d made this part of my original post, but somehow bungled it.)

Take Dominion’s Money . . . and Run

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On January 23, 2009

In Politics, Virginia

I think I understand where this is coming from:

Dominion Power is a big-time corporate bad actor (with big-time money to burn) influencing government policy to its own benefit, but NOT to everyone else’s (certainly not to the environment’s benefit, that’s for sure).  [ . . .  ] Dominion Power is pretty much the worst of the worst.

[ . . . ]

That’s why I’m challenging all Virginia 2009 candidates to “just say no” to Dominion’s dirty money. Refuse it. Reject it. Return it. Just don’t take any money from Dominion Power.

Sure, except it’s completely counter-productive to the end of putting better candidates in office.  Okay, Dominion’s a bad actor that spreads lots of money around Virginia politics.   It’s also one of, if not the, biggest company in Virginia outside of the DC area.  That, right there, is the reason that you can be sure that it will always be a force in Virginia politics.   Fine, it’s nice to imagine a public sphere in which every local candidate is funded solely by thousands of small dollar donors, but when you have more people voting on American Idol than contributing to local races, I think that’s safely labeled a fantasy.    So, starting from that (rather safe) premise, my advice to candidates is to take Dominion’s money and run.  Run for office on their dime, and vote in favor of your constituent’s interests anyway.   It’s just silly for a candidate to disadvantage themselves (because Dominion money will end up in any race) by refusing contributions from Dominion.  If a candidate has the strength of conviction enough to refuse Dominion contributions, then he or she has enough strength of conviction to take the contribution and do the right thing anyway.

Go on, take the money and run.

Friday Notes: Breaking the Ice Edition

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On January 23, 2009

In DC, Law, Policy, Politics, Society, Tech

Frozen Potomac

I understand that we’re getting alll the way into the 40s today, before plunging back into the frozen winter.  Sounds like a good time for my annual solicitation for employment near the Equator.  I mix an excellent martini.

~

Matt Cooper thinks that if we really want to change government, we should get serious about improving defense procurement.  I think that the public appetite for this is fairly thin, but if it were done right, it could bring massive returns.

~

Getty Images goes looking for content at Flickr.  Interesting.   There are loads and loads of phenomenally skilled photographers on Flickr, but I can’t help but feel like this is just one more step in the direction of making it harder to make a living as a professional photographer.

~

Apple, making sure your kids sell candy instead of dope.  Or something like that.  (DopeWars has been on every handheld I’ve had since 1998).

~

Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell ofter some branding help to the GOP.  Some of them are actually quite thoughtful.

~

I’d really like to see some follow-up on, and independent confirmation of, NSA whistleblower Russell Tice’s claims aired on Wednesday night:

TICE: Well, I don’t know what our former president knew or didn’t know. I’m sort of down in the weeds. But the National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications, faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. And that doesn’t — it didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, you know, in the middle of the country, and you never made a communication — foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications. (emphasis supplied)

He goes on to explain how the NSA, under the guise of trying to ensure that they weren’t reaching into communications they shouldn’t, were doing exactly that.   Now, I do tend to believe that the NSA has done that (see, e.g., statements that some NSA employees were listening in on intimate conversations between deployed soldiers and their wives).  A systematic wholesale monitoring on the scale of what Tice is talking about, however, goes well beyond my original suspicions.  But not beyond possibility.  I’d like to see his claims taken seriously and investigated.

On Geithner and His Taxes

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On January 23, 2009

In DC, Policy, Politics

The moment I heard the nature of Timothy Geithner’s tax issue explained, I felt like I knew something about the man.  James Fallows explains:

I do not believe, and will never believe, that his failure to pay his own self-employment tax while at the IMF was an “oversight” or a “mistake.” I have many many friends who have worked for this and similar organizations.

[ . . . ]

I could go on with details but I’ll just say: if this were a situation more average Americans had experienced personally, he would not dare make his “mistake” excuse because everyone would say, “Are you kidding me???”

This tracks perfectly with my own reaction, based on my experience in a town full of people who have similar employment.   It seems clear that this issue isn’t going to derail him, and maybe that’s okay:

I accept the argument that he is a necessary part of what has to be the best possible team America can assemble at this moment. But I don’t like the fact that he is obviously dissembling on this point, and that he obviously was not playing it straight over a long period of years.

Keep that in mind, in the coming years.

Del. Al Eisenberg’s Retiring

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On January 22, 2009

In Politics, Virginia

Code at BC brings us word that Del. Al Eisenberg had decided that he won’t be running for re-election this fall.  Del. Eisenberg has certainly earned the right to take a break.  He’s been in elected public service to Arlington over 25 years.

While I’m somewhat disappointed in that this means there will be no Ashton Heights Smackdown in the primary, a wide open primary sounds like a lot of fun.

An Inaugural View from the Mall

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On January 22, 2009

In DC, Personal, Politics, Society, Virginia

Roughly two million people showed up to see the inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday, and there are almost as many stories out there about that.  My own is of an easy and wonderful day – we biked down around 8:30, huddled like penguins trying to stay warm for a few hours, experienced the joy of turning the page on a dark chapter of American history with a couple million people, and rode home after.   Pictures here, if you like.

I also want to share the story of a friend who traveled in from out in Loudoun County, Virginia.  While she had to go through a lot more trouble than me to join everyone on the Mall, it sounds like she had a fantastic time, too:

The MARC train experience was excellent-  we left my house at 7:30 and drove to the bridge over the Potomac at Point of Rocks station- parked the car in a near empty parking lot and got aboard the train.  While on the train waiting on the car with the bathroom,  I met people from Ohio, Washington state, Massachusetts, and Atlanta. Everyone was so excited. There was a man with his 10 month old daughter heading down.  I hope she was warm enough.  We met a man, Doug from Frederick, traveling alone and George and I adopted him to walk with us to the Mall.

We got into Union Station right before 10 AM and it took us 1.5 hours to walk (slog) over and finally find a place to enter the Mall at the Washington Monument. We had to navigate the street closings near the Capital and try to get from D and other streets back to Independence Ave.  I have never seen so many people in my life on the streets to “Mecca” but everyone was very polite and cooperative.  We lost our new friend Doug in the massive crowd.  I held George’s hand the whole time so we would not be separated, it was that crowded around us.

On the way over, we saw the lines of people with orange tickets snaking for blocks and wondered how many of them actually got through in time to get on the Mall.  I heard stories about many blue and purple ticket holders not getting in.  Honestly, I never thought we would make it in time but we finally got on the Mall at 11:30.  There were still so many people on the street trying to get to the Mall on time.  Just amazing.

The jumbotron was not that close, but we could still see it and just decided to stay put as the ceremony was about to start.  When Bush was shown on the screen there was massive booing all over the Mall – that many people booing was truly amazing. (I was one of them).  There were some kids by us who got separated from their dad and a woman was going to help take them to the “lost and found”.  There was no clapping nor booing for Rick Warren where I was  – just indifference.

I loved being on the Mall when Obama was sworn in. I will never forget it and the crowd going nuts. Even with all those people, It was very quiet during his speech – all listened intently.  After his speech many people left. The wind started to pick up after that and it got really cold by the Washington Monument. Massive amounts of newspaper pieces were blowing everywhere.  (Obama should have ordered everyone on the Mall to pick up the trash next to them as part of their first assignment to support the country)  We had no problem finding an empty porta-potty.  Due to the fact it took us so long to get to the Mall, we decided to start heading back to Union Station even though our train was not until 5:30.

Again the crowds heading back were just astonishing.  The line to get to the L’Enfant Metro station was blocks long.  There were an amazing amount of lost gloves and scarves on the street along with a child’s boot that must have slipped off.  Parked tour buses lined the streets everywhere.  Pedestrians ruled - Metro buses trying to get around were trapped at intersections with no cops to help them.  What was most inspiring to me were all the elderly black women who were bound to make it to the Mall to witness history and now were slowly heading back.  We saw some of them sitting on small chairs in the 395 tunnels taking a rest before moving on again.

All was well until we got to Union Station.  What is it with Union Station and security? We thought we would get something warm to drink and sit in there before we got our train. Come to find out all shops had been shut down there.  Earlier on the morning train we had been told there would be restricted access to the station in the afternoon (I guess due to a ball being held there in the evening and security.)  It was very confusing where to go to get in. We were sent around to an entry along the left side of the station which was fenced off.  Either they were sweeping the station or there was a security issue, because suddenly all people were being sent back out of the station and I think they closed the Metro for a time.  We were not allowed to enter and many people were backed up all over the streets, some with rolling luggage, who wanted to get in and not miss their train. So masses were sent out into a crowd who all wanted to go in.

No one was saying what was going on and people were getting angry. There was a policeman on top of a porta-potty gesturing to people , but you could not hear him. It was comical.  All it would have taken was a person in charge with a bull horn to say we have temporarily closed the station and just hold on a few more minutes, but no – nothing.  Finally, they were allowing people in and it got scary when all throngs of  people behind us were pushing forward. I was pushed into an orange barrel that I was lucky to get around.  Here is a quote from the Post and I think this happened when we were there. “”Firefighters were called for people who had fallen down among a crush of people at a security checkpoint near Union Station. “   There was no excuse for that. Again, a person with a bullhorn would have calmed the crowd and explained the situation.

Once we got inside the fence, there were about 15 Homeland security guys on each side of us and we had to run the gauntlet to get into the station. I wished I had taken pictures of that. No one checked our bags. Once inside there were great signs leading us to the MARC train and we were able to actually get on an earlier train and get home and see some of the parade. Other than almost getting trampled, it was a great day!!!!   MARC train did an excellent job!!!!!

You know things are special when you can get trampled and still call it a great day.

Related: Pictures from the We Are One concert, note about Pete Seeger’s This Land performance, and new link to the Seeger video in comments here.

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