Comment from Robert Pozen, the Democrat cited by President Bush last night, in today's WSJ - OpinionJournal: "Ever since President Bush first floated the idea of personal retirement accounts as part of Social Security reform, fiscal hawks have been going berserk: 'This will only increase future government borrowing when the federal deficit is already sky high!,' they say. Well, they're wrong. There is a way to have personal retirement accounts, or PRAs, and actually decrease the government debt. If PRAs of modest size are combined with something called the 'progressive indexing' of benefits, the government borrowing needed to finance Social Security would be dramatically reduced.
What is progressive indexing and how does it work?"
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Read it all to see the basics of the social security reform plan from the source.
UPDATE: From Saturday an article with more about Mr. Pozen himself-
The New York Times > Washington > A Democrat on Bush's Social Security Team: "A registered Democrat, Mr. Pozen donated money to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry last year and voted for him on Nov. 2. He was a classmate of Hillary Rodham Clinton at Yale Law School.
But all that has not stopped President Bush from embracing Mr. Pozen's main idea to bring the nation's public pension regime into financial balance: a plan called "progressive indexing" because it would protect the lowest-wage workers from benefit reductions while progressively cutting benefits of higher-earning workers.
Mr. Pozen, who served on Mr. Bush's commission in 2001 that developed initial plans for carving private accounts out of Social Security, has been thrust into the spotlight by Mr. Bush's embrace of his proposal. But Mr. Pozen says his ideas on public pensions are free of politics.
"I consider myself a middle-of-the-road guy who tries to be carefully nonpartisan on this issue," he said. "I believe passionately in Social Security reform."
Friday, April 29, 2005
Rich Lowry back in March: The Progressive GOP
A correct early call this March from Rich Lowry on Social Security on National Review Online:
"The Social Security debate is headed toward a monumental political irony: It might well be that Republicans offer creative ideas to make the system more 'progressive' - i.e., more favorable to people lower down on the income scale - and Democrats resolutely refuse to adopt them. What happened to the Democrats we used to know, who made progressivity the highest test of any public policy and leapt at any opportunity to 'soak the rich'?
Of course, this trend is partly the result of political desperation, as the GOP seeks ideas to make reform that includes personal accounts more appealing to Democrats. But that doesn't detract from the merit of the proposals. Some Republicans are now suggesting not just modernizing and putting what Democrats like to call the world's most effective government program on a sounder financial footing, but doing it in ways that are in keeping with that old Democratic value: fairness.
Democratic opposition to personal accounts could prevent it, as well as the parties' contrasting theories of the welfare state. Liberals generally want it to cover as many non-poor people as possible, so that there is a big, powerful political constituency for government. Republicans should want to limit governmental dependence to those who can't fend for themselves. GOP proposals on Social Security are drifting in the right direction — toward maintaining the program as social insurance for the poor, offering uplift in the form of personal accounts and squeezing the governmental dependence of the fat and happy.
So, stick it to Ken Lay. Pursue economic justice. Level the playing field. Stiff George W. Bush's rich friends. Apply any demagogic slogan you like. And do it all while making Social Security better and stronger."
"The Social Security debate is headed toward a monumental political irony: It might well be that Republicans offer creative ideas to make the system more 'progressive' - i.e., more favorable to people lower down on the income scale - and Democrats resolutely refuse to adopt them. What happened to the Democrats we used to know, who made progressivity the highest test of any public policy and leapt at any opportunity to 'soak the rich'?
Of course, this trend is partly the result of political desperation, as the GOP seeks ideas to make reform that includes personal accounts more appealing to Democrats. But that doesn't detract from the merit of the proposals. Some Republicans are now suggesting not just modernizing and putting what Democrats like to call the world's most effective government program on a sounder financial footing, but doing it in ways that are in keeping with that old Democratic value: fairness.
Democratic opposition to personal accounts could prevent it, as well as the parties' contrasting theories of the welfare state. Liberals generally want it to cover as many non-poor people as possible, so that there is a big, powerful political constituency for government. Republicans should want to limit governmental dependence to those who can't fend for themselves. GOP proposals on Social Security are drifting in the right direction — toward maintaining the program as social insurance for the poor, offering uplift in the form of personal accounts and squeezing the governmental dependence of the fat and happy.
So, stick it to Ken Lay. Pursue economic justice. Level the playing field. Stiff George W. Bush's rich friends. Apply any demagogic slogan you like. And do it all while making Social Security better and stronger."
President Bush's Strategy on Social Security Reform
Kevin A. Hassett on Social Security Reform, the New England Patriots, the NFL Draft, and George W. Bush on NRO Financial:
[President Bush's] "...approach is tactically quite inspired. Since Social Security is in big trouble, it is not hard to convince folks that some kind of fix is in order. Once voters are convinced, then a politician has put a tremendous amount of pressure on his opponents. If the president is conciliatory and reasonable, then perhaps the policymakers in Washington are obstructionists if nothing happens. The president wants to work with Democrats and get something done. He has his principles, but he wants to hear theirs.
So the Democrats have two choices. They can oppose any compromise, in which case they may pay a politically price because they are the ones who are unwilling to be flexible. Or they can compromise and fix Social Security. If the president put forward a plan, the Democrats could claim that the fix did not occur because of the weakness of the plan. Without a plan, they see pressure to go to the table and work one out with their Republican colleagues. If they do not, perhaps there will be many more Tom Daschles in the next election, and then Social Security can be reformed.
By managing the politics in this way, President Bush has reduced the political risk associated with Social Security reform, and probably maximized the chance that something positive can happen."
[President Bush's] "...approach is tactically quite inspired. Since Social Security is in big trouble, it is not hard to convince folks that some kind of fix is in order. Once voters are convinced, then a politician has put a tremendous amount of pressure on his opponents. If the president is conciliatory and reasonable, then perhaps the policymakers in Washington are obstructionists if nothing happens. The president wants to work with Democrats and get something done. He has his principles, but he wants to hear theirs.
So the Democrats have two choices. They can oppose any compromise, in which case they may pay a politically price because they are the ones who are unwilling to be flexible. Or they can compromise and fix Social Security. If the president put forward a plan, the Democrats could claim that the fix did not occur because of the weakness of the plan. Without a plan, they see pressure to go to the table and work one out with their Republican colleagues. If they do not, perhaps there will be many more Tom Daschles in the next election, and then Social Security can be reformed.
By managing the politics in this way, President Bush has reduced the political risk associated with Social Security reform, and probably maximized the chance that something positive can happen."
AFL-CIO Has Money Problems
"AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, who is facing challenges from some of the labor federation's largest member unions, yesterday acknowledged that the organization is financially squeezed and may have to lay off a quarter of its workforce....
In the nearly 50 years since the AFL-CIO was created by a merger of two labor federations, union membership fell from about 33 percent of the workforce to 12.5 percent...
From 1995, when Sweeney took office, to the present, the AFL-CIO's reserve fund has dropped from $61 million to $31 million.
Sweeney became increasingly testy during the question-and-answer period of the teleconference, dismissing warnings of deteriorating finances that have begun to appear on union Web sites as "rumors . . . ridiculous and irresponsible."
Sweeney said reluctantly that he will meet with unions representing AFL-CIO staff members to discuss layoffs. "We are looking at every department and every program of the AFL-CIO," he said.
"I really can't be too specific about reorganization plans," he said, and when pressed further, he declared: "The bottom line is I will not give you any more information...
Denise Mitchell, AFL-CIO communications director, said the federation "is not in bad shape at all." She said the reserve fund is smaller than it was a decade ago....She noted that the reserve fund is to be used when labor faces difficulties, and "George Bush is a rainy day."
In the nearly 50 years since the AFL-CIO was created by a merger of two labor federations, union membership fell from about 33 percent of the workforce to 12.5 percent...
From 1995, when Sweeney took office, to the present, the AFL-CIO's reserve fund has dropped from $61 million to $31 million.
Sweeney became increasingly testy during the question-and-answer period of the teleconference, dismissing warnings of deteriorating finances that have begun to appear on union Web sites as "rumors . . . ridiculous and irresponsible."
Sweeney said reluctantly that he will meet with unions representing AFL-CIO staff members to discuss layoffs. "We are looking at every department and every program of the AFL-CIO," he said.
"I really can't be too specific about reorganization plans," he said, and when pressed further, he declared: "The bottom line is I will not give you any more information...
Denise Mitchell, AFL-CIO communications director, said the federation "is not in bad shape at all." She said the reserve fund is smaller than it was a decade ago....She noted that the reserve fund is to be used when labor faces difficulties, and "George Bush is a rainy day."
Catholicism in China
Up From the Underground: "About 5 million Chinese Catholics belong to government-approved 'patriotic' churches that reject the Vatican's full authority, according to the Chinese government. The Vatican estimates that 8 million others worship in illegal underground churches that have defied the Communist Party by remaining loyal to the pope. And yet the church's position here is probably stronger than at any time since the 1949 Communist revolution, when Beijing broke ties with the Vatican. Though police continue to harass and imprison priests and bishops in the underground church, several have been allowed to operate openly. At the same time, the Vatican has slowly infiltrated the government's official church, winning over many of its clergymen and exerting unprecedented influence over its operations...
Chinese leadership's [has a] traditional suspicion of the church as a hostile force that helped subvert Communist rule in Eastern Europe and is determined to do the same in China...
All but nine of the 70 bishops in the government's official church have secretly declared their loyalty to Rome and are now recognized by the Vatican, according to Ren Yanli, China's leading scholar of the church. And almost all of the new bishops approved by the government in the past five years were secretly named in advance by John Paul, said one of the bishops, who spoke on condition of anonymity...
Liu Bainan, vice chairman of the body that runs the official church, said the government remained wary. "We remember what happened in Poland and the former Soviet Union," he said. "No one can deny the pope and the Vatican played an important role there, and those who promoted the great changes in Eastern Europe want it to happen in China as well."
Chinese leadership's [has a] traditional suspicion of the church as a hostile force that helped subvert Communist rule in Eastern Europe and is determined to do the same in China...
All but nine of the 70 bishops in the government's official church have secretly declared their loyalty to Rome and are now recognized by the Vatican, according to Ren Yanli, China's leading scholar of the church. And almost all of the new bishops approved by the government in the past five years were secretly named in advance by John Paul, said one of the bishops, who spoke on condition of anonymity...
Liu Bainan, vice chairman of the body that runs the official church, said the government remained wary. "We remember what happened in Poland and the former Soviet Union," he said. "No one can deny the pope and the Vatican played an important role there, and those who promoted the great changes in Eastern Europe want it to happen in China as well."
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Jay Nordlinger on Bill Frist
These remarks are really about Sen. Bill Frist speaking to the religious "right-wing evangelics" a few days ago although Mr. Nordlinger never comes out and says it. Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus on National Review Online:
"How often do you read a statement from a politician and think, "That speaks for me"? That seldom, huh? Anyway, I felt this way when reading an excerpt from a letter sent by Sen. Mitch McConnell to the Louisville Courier-Journal:
"Why is it that whenever a Democrat speaks before a religious audience, he is ‘reaching out,’ but when a Republican does it, he is ‘divisive’? . . . I can recall many instances of Democrats visiting churches over the years, not just to speak on a policy matter but even to outright plea for votes. Either I’ve missed the angry editorials in this paper and others over those events, or there’s an astonishing double standard afoot here.”
I know which option I vote for.
Do you recall when Jesse Jackson equated Dan Quayle with Herod, at the 1992 convention? Most Democrats thought that was sort of cool, I believe.
Remember the rule: Black people are allowed to mix religion and politics, because, why, it’s just their way, and they’ve got those cute lil’ spirituals and so on. (I am expressing what I consider to be the liberal-Democratic mindset.) And the religious Left, such as it is, can participate in politics, because that is a matter of conscience. But everybody else: Butt out."
************
Nordlinger speaks without fear.
"How often do you read a statement from a politician and think, "That speaks for me"? That seldom, huh? Anyway, I felt this way when reading an excerpt from a letter sent by Sen. Mitch McConnell to the Louisville Courier-Journal:
"Why is it that whenever a Democrat speaks before a religious audience, he is ‘reaching out,’ but when a Republican does it, he is ‘divisive’? . . . I can recall many instances of Democrats visiting churches over the years, not just to speak on a policy matter but even to outright plea for votes. Either I’ve missed the angry editorials in this paper and others over those events, or there’s an astonishing double standard afoot here.”
I know which option I vote for.
Do you recall when Jesse Jackson equated Dan Quayle with Herod, at the 1992 convention? Most Democrats thought that was sort of cool, I believe.
Remember the rule: Black people are allowed to mix religion and politics, because, why, it’s just their way, and they’ve got those cute lil’ spirituals and so on. (I am expressing what I consider to be the liberal-Democratic mindset.) And the religious Left, such as it is, can participate in politics, because that is a matter of conscience. But everybody else: Butt out."
************
Nordlinger speaks without fear.
Ruscoe on Asheville Citizen-Times' Crazy People
Notes From The Culture Wasteland:
"Here's the letter of the day from the crazy page at the AC-T...:
[Asheville Citizen-Times letter to the editor] 'Sees administration as having two priorities:
It should be obvious now to all but the most deeply propagandized minds that this Bush administration came into office with a two-pronged agenda:
1) Destabilize the world militarily for bigger profits for their buddies in the military/industrial complex, and
2) Loot the country - national treasury and all - to give to its political base, the super-rich...'
[Ruscoe:]...it seems the more they keep losing at the polls and in real-world events, the "crazier" (or more "deeply propagandized") the rest of us become. I'm fully prepared to admit the possibility that it may be me; or it may be [the letter writer] and MoveOn's of the world. But one of us has a real problem. "
*************
I suppose I too am a deeply proprogandized mind. I just thought I was part of the VRWC. Anyway, the AC-T is my daily local paper too so I get a kick out of Ruscoe's blog.
"Here's the letter of the day from the crazy page at the AC-T...:
[Asheville Citizen-Times letter to the editor] 'Sees administration as having two priorities:
It should be obvious now to all but the most deeply propagandized minds that this Bush administration came into office with a two-pronged agenda:
1) Destabilize the world militarily for bigger profits for their buddies in the military/industrial complex, and
2) Loot the country - national treasury and all - to give to its political base, the super-rich...'
[Ruscoe:]...it seems the more they keep losing at the polls and in real-world events, the "crazier" (or more "deeply propagandized") the rest of us become. I'm fully prepared to admit the possibility that it may be me; or it may be [the letter writer] and MoveOn's of the world. But one of us has a real problem. "
*************
I suppose I too am a deeply proprogandized mind. I just thought I was part of the VRWC. Anyway, the AC-T is my daily local paper too so I get a kick out of Ruscoe's blog.
Syria Departs Lebanon
Syria Marks End of Lebanon Presence: "The last Syrian soldiers slipped out of Lebanon Tuesday in a convoy of flatbed trucks, buses and jeeps, ending a 29-year deployment that began amid civil war and ended with only scant notice from many Lebanese who have rallied in recent months against the long military presence."
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Although apparently never to be connected by the MSM, there is no doubt this historic event is a direct result of the Iraq War.
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Although apparently never to be connected by the MSM, there is no doubt this historic event is a direct result of the Iraq War.
John Tierney in NYT with Fantastic Column: "The Proof's in the Pension"
"SANTIAGO, Chile- I made a pilgrimage to Santiago seeking to resolve the Social Security debate with a simple question: What would Pablo Serra do? "
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I usually quote so much there is no need to read the whole thing. This time the whole thing is so good you have to read it all. Grasp a straight forward example of the power of the time value of money - if of course it is indeed your money.
READ IT!
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I usually quote so much there is no need to read the whole thing. This time the whole thing is so good you have to read it all. Grasp a straight forward example of the power of the time value of money - if of course it is indeed your money.
READ IT!
NC Wesleyan's Ward Churchill
"The classroom where North Carolina Wesleyan College's only political science professor is teaching a course titled '9-11; The Road to Tyranny' has become the latest battlefront in the ongoing campus culture war...
One text required in Christensen's 9/11 course holds that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States were orchestrated and carried out by U.S. government elites. The course teaches that the official story about Sept. 11 is the result of "government involvement in the coverup."
The attacks were used by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, acting on behalf of pro-Israel Zionists, as "a catalyst for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the attack on civil liberties in the United States," according to the course's syllabus.
"I teach the truth about 9/11 in all of my courses," said Christensen, who also teaches classes on research methods and the American political system.
In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Christensen -- a tenured professor with 15 years at N.C. Wesleyan -- defended her course.
"This is a war by the extreme right wing motivated by the Zionists to quash academic freedom on campus," she said.
Students will "never find anything that resembles the truth about 9/11 or the war in Iraq from the mainstream media," she added.
Christensen urged an interviewer to investigate how many Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion two years ago, whether several of the suicide hijackers on 9/11 have since been spotted alive, and whether Israel is planning targeted killings of opponents in the United States.
"That's a hell of a lot more interesting than my (expletive) Web site," she said.
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unbelievable. Google it if you want her web site, no help from me for another wacko "educator." NC Wesleyan is near Raleigh, NC, a United Methodist school I think and until now I thought was a decent small school.
One text required in Christensen's 9/11 course holds that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States were orchestrated and carried out by U.S. government elites. The course teaches that the official story about Sept. 11 is the result of "government involvement in the coverup."
The attacks were used by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, acting on behalf of pro-Israel Zionists, as "a catalyst for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the attack on civil liberties in the United States," according to the course's syllabus.
"I teach the truth about 9/11 in all of my courses," said Christensen, who also teaches classes on research methods and the American political system.
In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Christensen -- a tenured professor with 15 years at N.C. Wesleyan -- defended her course.
"This is a war by the extreme right wing motivated by the Zionists to quash academic freedom on campus," she said.
Students will "never find anything that resembles the truth about 9/11 or the war in Iraq from the mainstream media," she added.
Christensen urged an interviewer to investigate how many Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion two years ago, whether several of the suicide hijackers on 9/11 have since been spotted alive, and whether Israel is planning targeted killings of opponents in the United States.
"That's a hell of a lot more interesting than my (expletive) Web site," she said.
***************
unbelievable. Google it if you want her web site, no help from me for another wacko "educator." NC Wesleyan is near Raleigh, NC, a United Methodist school I think and until now I thought was a decent small school.
On Tom Delay Situation
USATODAY.com - Travel by Congress often paid privately: "Members of Congress have taken $16 million in privately financed trips since 2000, and more than half were sponsored by non-profit groups that don't have to disclose who is providing the money, a study out today says...
The issue of who pays for lawmakers' travel is under increased scrutiny because of an ethics controversy involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who took trips that may have been paid for by prohibited sources. Privately paid travel is permitted under the rules, but expenses cannot be paid for by a lobbyist or by a representative of a foreign interest...
It found that $8.8 million of the travel expenses were paid for by tax-exempt and other groups whose funding sources aren't public. DeLay is under fire in part because one such group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, paid for a trip to Britain in 2000 that may have been at least partly paid for by a lobbyist, which is against House rules...the rules don't allow lobbyists to pay for trips but permit their employers to do so. "The fiction is that the same conflict doesn't exist when the lobbyist's employer, a corporation or a trade association, pays for the travel and the lobbyist goes along," ...
• DeLay took 14 trips valued at $94,568. He ranked 28th for value of trips, and 114th in the number taken.
• Democrats took 3,025 trips; Republicans, 2,375; independents, 10.
****************
I am assuming all of this will come to light when the House finally changes the rules so that hearings will be held by the Ethics Comm. I haven't bothered to post but I think Drudge reported this week that all of Congress was frantically getting records in order to comply with the rules. It is mostly all to me unethical but allowed by rule. In my mind we, the people, should just pay for all the trips and get it over with and avoid any tint of influence - admit if you are in Congress you have an unlimited expense account if you can explain your time to the people voting for you next time and withstand the scruntity of the press.
The issue of who pays for lawmakers' travel is under increased scrutiny because of an ethics controversy involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who took trips that may have been paid for by prohibited sources. Privately paid travel is permitted under the rules, but expenses cannot be paid for by a lobbyist or by a representative of a foreign interest...
It found that $8.8 million of the travel expenses were paid for by tax-exempt and other groups whose funding sources aren't public. DeLay is under fire in part because one such group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, paid for a trip to Britain in 2000 that may have been at least partly paid for by a lobbyist, which is against House rules...the rules don't allow lobbyists to pay for trips but permit their employers to do so. "The fiction is that the same conflict doesn't exist when the lobbyist's employer, a corporation or a trade association, pays for the travel and the lobbyist goes along," ...
• DeLay took 14 trips valued at $94,568. He ranked 28th for value of trips, and 114th in the number taken.
• Democrats took 3,025 trips; Republicans, 2,375; independents, 10.
****************
I am assuming all of this will come to light when the House finally changes the rules so that hearings will be held by the Ethics Comm. I haven't bothered to post but I think Drudge reported this week that all of Congress was frantically getting records in order to comply with the rules. It is mostly all to me unethical but allowed by rule. In my mind we, the people, should just pay for all the trips and get it over with and avoid any tint of influence - admit if you are in Congress you have an unlimited expense account if you can explain your time to the people voting for you next time and withstand the scruntity of the press.
Miami Herald Editorial for CAFTA
Voting for free trade instead of isolation: "CAFTA would liberalize trade among the United States and six nations close to Florida: The Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. It would put an end to the other nations' import taxes, which could boost sales on a broad range of U.S. products, everything from candy bars to cars. CAFTA would eliminate the few remaining U.S. duties on imports from the six countries. It also puts the United States closer to the prized goal: a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
It's absurd to suggest that CAFTA poses a threat to U.S. workers. Their combined economies, including that of the Dominican Republic, are smaller than that of Connecticut. Even so, these countries buy more U.S. goods than India, Russia and Indonesia combined. This alone merits creating a closer bond to give U.S. exporters greater access to a ready market...
Nor should disagreements over sugar be allowed to hold CAFTA hostage. It allows 109,000 metric tons of sugar to be imported into the United States the first year after CAFTA goes into effect, gradually increasing after that. U.S. officials estimate this amounts to only 1 ½ teaspoons per week per U.S. citizen. Sugar is a substantial cash crop in Florida, but this hardly amounts to a deal-breaker...
For the Bush administration, it's a test of the president's professed support for free trade. With Congress under siege from special interests opposed to free trade, Mr. Bush needs to spend some of his political capital in pursuit of this good cause. In 2000, he promised to make this the Century of the Americas. CAFTA is probably his last and best chance as president to turn that splendid vision into a welcome reality. "
It's absurd to suggest that CAFTA poses a threat to U.S. workers. Their combined economies, including that of the Dominican Republic, are smaller than that of Connecticut. Even so, these countries buy more U.S. goods than India, Russia and Indonesia combined. This alone merits creating a closer bond to give U.S. exporters greater access to a ready market...
Nor should disagreements over sugar be allowed to hold CAFTA hostage. It allows 109,000 metric tons of sugar to be imported into the United States the first year after CAFTA goes into effect, gradually increasing after that. U.S. officials estimate this amounts to only 1 ½ teaspoons per week per U.S. citizen. Sugar is a substantial cash crop in Florida, but this hardly amounts to a deal-breaker...
For the Bush administration, it's a test of the president's professed support for free trade. With Congress under siege from special interests opposed to free trade, Mr. Bush needs to spend some of his political capital in pursuit of this good cause. In 2000, he promised to make this the Century of the Americas. CAFTA is probably his last and best chance as president to turn that splendid vision into a welcome reality. "
"Wary Democrats Discover a Parents Gap"
The Washington Times INSIDER: "An analysis by a Democratic think tank argues that Democrats are suffering from a severe 'parent gap' among married people with children, who say the entertainment industry is lowering the moral standards of the country.
The study, published last week by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), the policy arm of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, admonishes Democrats to pay more attention to parental concerns about 'morally corrosive forces in the culture,' and warns that the party will not fare better with this pivotal voting bloc until they do.
In the 2004 election, married parents supported President Bush over Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts by nearly 20 percentage points...
"Democrats will not do better with married parents until they recognize one simple truth: Parents have a beef with popular culture. As they see it, the culture is getting ever more violent, materialistic, and misogynistic, and they are losing their ability to protect their kids from morally corrosive images and messages," said the study's author, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University and a senior fellow at PPI. "
The study, published last week by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), the policy arm of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, admonishes Democrats to pay more attention to parental concerns about 'morally corrosive forces in the culture,' and warns that the party will not fare better with this pivotal voting bloc until they do.
In the 2004 election, married parents supported President Bush over Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts by nearly 20 percentage points...
"Democrats will not do better with married parents until they recognize one simple truth: Parents have a beef with popular culture. As they see it, the culture is getting ever more violent, materialistic, and misogynistic, and they are losing their ability to protect their kids from morally corrosive images and messages," said the study's author, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University and a senior fellow at PPI. "
Castro Doubles Minimum Wage to $10
Great news from Cuba! All the supporters of a US minimum wage increase should be jubilant. One downer from Castro's announcement is in the fine print in the News: "Cuban President Fidel Castro announced on [last] Thursday the minimum wage would be more than doubled to 225 pesos ($10) a month from 100 pesos ($4.50), effective on May 1.... Castro made the announcement in the latest of his three-hour speeches addressing economic problems endured by Cubans since the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged Cuba into deep crisis.
Castro's drive to improve the lot of deprived Cubans began on March 8, when he announced the distribution of cheap pressure cookers and electric rice steamers for every household. On Thursday, the 78-year-old Cuban leader called on Cubans to save electricity to help the energy-deficient Caribbean island overcome chronic power outages.Castro promised the population new and more efficient household appliances, such as electric fans and refrigerators."
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For the math impaired the minimum wage in Cuba based on a 40 hour work week is up to US$ 0.25 - a quarter an hour. Socialism may be great science as a perfectly failed experiment time after time. Lousy economics but repeatable results.
So to everyone that admires Castro and Cuba (Hollywood, various members of Congress particularly Sen. Chris Dodd) you are so wrong. We Americans have to be tough for Cuba to become what the people of Cuba deserve.
My understanding of Cuba came when I, through business, got to know Cuban-Americans in Florida or as I know them: great Americans that came from Cuba. Only through personal relationships did I begin to understand their passion and commitment to this country and to the sincerity and heart they showed me for this country and for the people of Cuba.
I strongly hope that one day, Cuba, (if the people of Cuba wish), becomes a State in this United States.
(Even if if DC becomes a State to balance the politics...)
Castro's drive to improve the lot of deprived Cubans began on March 8, when he announced the distribution of cheap pressure cookers and electric rice steamers for every household. On Thursday, the 78-year-old Cuban leader called on Cubans to save electricity to help the energy-deficient Caribbean island overcome chronic power outages.Castro promised the population new and more efficient household appliances, such as electric fans and refrigerators."
**********************
For the math impaired the minimum wage in Cuba based on a 40 hour work week is up to US$ 0.25 - a quarter an hour. Socialism may be great science as a perfectly failed experiment time after time. Lousy economics but repeatable results.
So to everyone that admires Castro and Cuba (Hollywood, various members of Congress particularly Sen. Chris Dodd) you are so wrong. We Americans have to be tough for Cuba to become what the people of Cuba deserve.
My understanding of Cuba came when I, through business, got to know Cuban-Americans in Florida or as I know them: great Americans that came from Cuba. Only through personal relationships did I begin to understand their passion and commitment to this country and to the sincerity and heart they showed me for this country and for the people of Cuba.
I strongly hope that one day, Cuba, (if the people of Cuba wish), becomes a State in this United States.
(Even if if DC becomes a State to balance the politics...)
Cynical Idealism in Social Security Debate
This is a rather long piece for the Wall Street Journal but is a must read if you are interested in the strong philosophical opinions held by democrats and republicans over the future of entitlement programs in America.
OpinionJournal: "President Bush is now endeavoring to redress the looming embarrassment of Social Security's obligation to pay more than it will take in. The semantic argument about whether this shortfall constitutes a crisis, a problem, or a banana daiquiri is pointless. The gap must be closed, either by reducing the program's obligations or increasing its revenues. The president's approach calls for restraining the growth of Social Security benefits, while compensating for that reduction by letting younger workers divert a portion of their taxes to build up their retirement savings. The logic is that while blackening the skies with criss-crossing dollars is a zero-sum game, participating in capital formation through investments is not. Wealth can be multiplied, not just divided.
Few Democrats or leftists of any stripe have come forward to applaud Bush's pragmatic, experimental social policy. Yet, they can't confess that their "principle," that government must always grow and never shrink, is something they pulled out of the air. Nor can they draw on the credibility they built up the last time a welfare state program was scaled back. In the Clinton-era debate over welfare reform, we were told (in The Nation) that Aid to Families with Dependent Children was crucial to "the fragile state of grace that suggests we are our sisters' and brothers' keepers. That is what community is fundamentally about." And we were warned that ending AFDC "will destroy that state of grace. In its place will come massive and deadly poverty, sickness, and all manner of violence. People will die, businesses will close, infant mortality will soar, everyone who can will move. Working- and middle-class communities all over America will become scary, violent wastelands."
Show us, please, all those hellish wastelands that have sprung up in the last nine years--and then tell us why we must not make any changes to Social Security."
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I try to rarely say must read but this is a must read. Excellent writing, clear, truthful, not zing nor zen but insightful.
OpinionJournal: "President Bush is now endeavoring to redress the looming embarrassment of Social Security's obligation to pay more than it will take in. The semantic argument about whether this shortfall constitutes a crisis, a problem, or a banana daiquiri is pointless. The gap must be closed, either by reducing the program's obligations or increasing its revenues. The president's approach calls for restraining the growth of Social Security benefits, while compensating for that reduction by letting younger workers divert a portion of their taxes to build up their retirement savings. The logic is that while blackening the skies with criss-crossing dollars is a zero-sum game, participating in capital formation through investments is not. Wealth can be multiplied, not just divided.
Few Democrats or leftists of any stripe have come forward to applaud Bush's pragmatic, experimental social policy. Yet, they can't confess that their "principle," that government must always grow and never shrink, is something they pulled out of the air. Nor can they draw on the credibility they built up the last time a welfare state program was scaled back. In the Clinton-era debate over welfare reform, we were told (in The Nation) that Aid to Families with Dependent Children was crucial to "the fragile state of grace that suggests we are our sisters' and brothers' keepers. That is what community is fundamentally about." And we were warned that ending AFDC "will destroy that state of grace. In its place will come massive and deadly poverty, sickness, and all manner of violence. People will die, businesses will close, infant mortality will soar, everyone who can will move. Working- and middle-class communities all over America will become scary, violent wastelands."
Show us, please, all those hellish wastelands that have sprung up in the last nine years--and then tell us why we must not make any changes to Social Security."
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I try to rarely say must read but this is a must read. Excellent writing, clear, truthful, not zing nor zen but insightful.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Developing Democracies Need Strong Judiciary and Media to Balance New Elected Governments
The Democracy Trap: "Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, two economists at Oxford University...[contend]... that the tendency to focus on elections is correct in most societies but misguided in oil states. In a country such as Iraq, the United States and its allies should care at least as much about the quality of Iraq's judiciary and media as about the quality of its voting...
This conclusion needs to register with the Bush administration. It's natural to defer to Iraqi leaders as they write their constitution this year; after all, it's their country. But the political class in any nation has few incentives to create checks on its own freedom to govern, and elections, which take place only occasionally and attract lots of healthy international attention, are easier to get right than the boring details of competitive tendering. Left to its own devices, Iraq is likely to fall into the trap that Collier and Hoeffler describe -- a constitution that focuses adequately on how power is achieved but too little on how it is exercised."
This conclusion needs to register with the Bush administration. It's natural to defer to Iraqi leaders as they write their constitution this year; after all, it's their country. But the political class in any nation has few incentives to create checks on its own freedom to govern, and elections, which take place only occasionally and attract lots of healthy international attention, are easier to get right than the boring details of competitive tendering. Left to its own devices, Iraq is likely to fall into the trap that Collier and Hoeffler describe -- a constitution that focuses adequately on how power is achieved but too little on how it is exercised."
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Today's Snow In Bakersville, NC
Across the Bridge-042405
Dad Clearing Snow-042405
The Field with Snow-042405
House in Snow-042405
Brooks On Body Weight and Lifestyle
Living Longer Is the Best Revenge: "The release of a report in The Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that overweight people actually live longer than normal-weight people represents an important moment in the history of world civilization...
The chief moral lesson I take away from this report is that Mother Nature is happy to tolerate marginally irresponsible misbehavior. She doesn't want you to go completely to seed. If you're truly obese and arouse hippos when you visit the zoo, you could still punch your ticket at any moment.
But she does want you to eat the occasional Cinnabon, so long as it isn't bigger than Delaware. She wants you to have that fourth glass of wine, and lecture the dinner table on the future of the papacy based on your extensive reading of "The Da Vinci Code." She wants a little socially productive mediocrity.
Darwin was wrong when he talked about the survival of the fittest: it's really the survival of the healthy enough to get by. As it says in the Good Book, the last shall sometimes be first, the meek shall inherit the earth, and the chubby will get extra biscuits at the breakfast buffet. "
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I hate to skeptical but I take all scientific reports especially anything medical or any sponsored by the government with a grain of salt. (Bad pun...)
UPDATE: I got a kick out of the anonymous comment on this post I received - click on it and read it too. -WAA, 4:15pm, 042405.
The chief moral lesson I take away from this report is that Mother Nature is happy to tolerate marginally irresponsible misbehavior. She doesn't want you to go completely to seed. If you're truly obese and arouse hippos when you visit the zoo, you could still punch your ticket at any moment.
But she does want you to eat the occasional Cinnabon, so long as it isn't bigger than Delaware. She wants you to have that fourth glass of wine, and lecture the dinner table on the future of the papacy based on your extensive reading of "The Da Vinci Code." She wants a little socially productive mediocrity.
Darwin was wrong when he talked about the survival of the fittest: it's really the survival of the healthy enough to get by. As it says in the Good Book, the last shall sometimes be first, the meek shall inherit the earth, and the chubby will get extra biscuits at the breakfast buffet. "
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I hate to skeptical but I take all scientific reports especially anything medical or any sponsored by the government with a grain of salt. (Bad pun...)
UPDATE: I got a kick out of the anonymous comment on this post I received - click on it and read it too. -WAA, 4:15pm, 042405.
The Economist: "Is America Turning Protectionist?"
As you recall The Economist is a well-respected and widely read UK business publication, in China-bashing and trade: "America's Congress is taking a harsher line on trade, particularly with China. The Bush administration is also getting into the act, with the treasury secretary and even the newly nominated trade representative talking tough. Is America turning protectionist?...
These are not happy times for the dwindling band of free-traders in Washington, DC. Trade skeptics are on the move on two fronts: raising the barricades against the Chinese and refusing to lower them for the Central Americans...
The betting is that, with enough presidential involvement and vote-buying, Mr Bush may get CAFTA through in the next couple of months. Until he does, there will be little appetite in the White House to give the China-bashing in Congress the cold shoulder that it deserves."
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As you know from prior posts, I am an un-abashed free-trader. The textile industry is turning on its opinion of CAFTA to "in favor" and as the article points out the Big Sugar lobby wants trade barriers to keep prices high at the detriment of US jobs and US consumers. Dealing with China through trade and economics is better than ineffectual diplomats and military threats. (Do a search within my blog for more articles on CAFTA, Big Sugar, and free trade.) I sincerely hope that America does not turn protectionist which will cost us jobs and higher taxes in the guise of high priced goods.
These are not happy times for the dwindling band of free-traders in Washington, DC. Trade skeptics are on the move on two fronts: raising the barricades against the Chinese and refusing to lower them for the Central Americans...
The betting is that, with enough presidential involvement and vote-buying, Mr Bush may get CAFTA through in the next couple of months. Until he does, there will be little appetite in the White House to give the China-bashing in Congress the cold shoulder that it deserves."
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As you know from prior posts, I am an un-abashed free-trader. The textile industry is turning on its opinion of CAFTA to "in favor" and as the article points out the Big Sugar lobby wants trade barriers to keep prices high at the detriment of US jobs and US consumers. Dealing with China through trade and economics is better than ineffectual diplomats and military threats. (Do a search within my blog for more articles on CAFTA, Big Sugar, and free trade.) I sincerely hope that America does not turn protectionist which will cost us jobs and higher taxes in the guise of high priced goods.
Broder Proposes a Filibuster Compromise
The Washington Post's David Broder suggests A Judicious Compromise: "The Democratic Senate leadership should agree voluntarily to set aside the continued threat of filibustering the seven Bush appointees to the federal appeals courts who were blocked in the last Congress and whose names have been resubmitted. In return, they should get a renewed promise from the president that he will not bypass the Senate by offering any more recess appointments to the bench and a pledge from Republican Senate leaders to consider each such nominee individually, carefully and with a guarantee of extensive debate in coming months. "
George Will on Media
Unread and Unsubscribing : "Consumers of news now understand that... 'news is a thing made, a product, and that media with certain beliefs and values once made the news and then presented it in authoritative terms, as though beyond criticism. Thus did Walter Cronkite famously end his newscasts, 'And that's the way it is.' That way, period.'
When, after the misreported Tet offensive of 1968 (a U.S. military victory described as a crushing defeat), Cronkite declared Vietnam a "stalemate," he spoke, as Mindich says, to "a captive audience." Nearly 80 percent of television sets in use at the dinner hour were tuned to one of the three network newscasts, and Cronkite had the largest share.
If that had been the broadcast marketplace in 2004, John Kerry would be president...
The future of the big media that the young have abandoned is not certain. But do you remember when an automobile manufacturer, desperately seeking young customers, plaintively promised that its cars were "not your father's Oldsmobile"? Do you remember Oldsmobiles? "
When, after the misreported Tet offensive of 1968 (a U.S. military victory described as a crushing defeat), Cronkite declared Vietnam a "stalemate," he spoke, as Mindich says, to "a captive audience." Nearly 80 percent of television sets in use at the dinner hour were tuned to one of the three network newscasts, and Cronkite had the largest share.
If that had been the broadcast marketplace in 2004, John Kerry would be president...
The future of the big media that the young have abandoned is not certain. But do you remember when an automobile manufacturer, desperately seeking young customers, plaintively promised that its cars were "not your father's Oldsmobile"? Do you remember Oldsmobiles? "
Sunday's Online WSJ: Social Security is about Liberty and Ownership
OpinionJournal: "You want to get people excited about personal accounts? Tell them about the 1960 Supreme Court case Flemming v. Nestor, which explicitly says Americans have no ownership rights to the money they pay into Social Security. It is, the court ruled, a social program of Congress with absolutely no contractual obligations. What you get back at retirement is entirely up to the 535 members of Congress. Where's the dignity in that?... Seriously, this should be an emotional issue about liberty and opportunity, not solvency dates...
Personal accounts are the right thing to do whether Social Security is solvent or not. Solvency discussions are boring, not to say uninspiring. Ownership and inheritability are inspiring. The fact that personal accounts help traditional Democratic constituents even more than Republicans should be another opportunity to turn debate around. Sending people out with charts and figures will achieve little. Returning to the first principles of liberty and opportunity--the true reasons to support personal accounts--will work."
Personal accounts are the right thing to do whether Social Security is solvent or not. Solvency discussions are boring, not to say uninspiring. Ownership and inheritability are inspiring. The fact that personal accounts help traditional Democratic constituents even more than Republicans should be another opportunity to turn debate around. Sending people out with charts and figures will achieve little. Returning to the first principles of liberty and opportunity--the true reasons to support personal accounts--will work."
Eagleburger on Bolton
Lawrence Eagleburger who was Secretary of State in 1992-1993 and spent twenty-seven years in the foreign service speaking up for John Bolton in today's Washington Post: "The real reasons Bolton's opponents want to derail his nomination are his oft-repeated criticism of the United Nations and other international organizations, his rejection of the arguments of those who ignore or excuse the inexcusable (i.e., the election of Sudan to the U.N. Human Rights Commission) and his willingness to express himself with the bark off...
Given what we all know about the current state of the United Nations, it's time we were represented by someone with the guts to demand reform and to see that whatever changes result are more than window dressing.
It is clear that the future of the United Nations and the U.S. role within that organization are uncertain. Who better to demonstrate to the member states that the United States is serious about reform? Who better to speak for all Americans who are dedicated to a healthy United Nations that will fulfill the dreams of its founders? "
Given what we all know about the current state of the United Nations, it's time we were represented by someone with the guts to demand reform and to see that whatever changes result are more than window dressing.
It is clear that the future of the United Nations and the U.S. role within that organization are uncertain. Who better to demonstrate to the member states that the United States is serious about reform? Who better to speak for all Americans who are dedicated to a healthy United Nations that will fulfill the dreams of its founders? "
Tomorrow in Investor's Business Daily - Demographics
IBD Editorial : "new data from the Census Bureau underline a harsh reality, especially for Social Security: America's getting older, fast... By 2030, according to the latest Census report, 87 million Americans will be over 64 years of age. Today, there are just 35 million.
Ten states by that date will have more elderly people than kids, the report adds. Today, no state — not even retirement haven Florida — has reached that status. And in 26 states, the retirement age population will double, putting massive strains on everything from pension plans to hospitals.
This, of course, has major implications for Social Security — not just for the number of retirees who must be cared for, but also for the health of the economy that must support the system... That's where personal accounts come in. As now structured, Social Security is a massive disincentive for Americans to save. It's one of the reasons the U.S. personal savings rate has been hovering around a measly 1% the past couple of years...
We now pay about $700 billion a year to support Social Security. Much of that simply goes to the government, which borrows it, spends it and replaces it with an IOU. Imagine the broad economic benefits if a third to a half of that amount were going into the economy...those participating in Social Security will see average returns of just 1.8% or so. If you got a return that low on your portfolio in the private sector, you'd fire your broker, no questions asked. After all, the stock market's average annual return over the last century has been 7%. As Bush pointed out, the difference between the two rates of return isn't trivial. At 1.8%, you double your money in 40 years; at 7%, you double it in 10. Pretty easy choice, it seems to us.
The real power from personal accounts will come down the road — not just for individuals, but also for the overall economy. All that new saving channeled into productive investment means a bigger economy — one better able to keep its promises to our senior citizens without bankrupting our youth."
Ten states by that date will have more elderly people than kids, the report adds. Today, no state — not even retirement haven Florida — has reached that status. And in 26 states, the retirement age population will double, putting massive strains on everything from pension plans to hospitals.
This, of course, has major implications for Social Security — not just for the number of retirees who must be cared for, but also for the health of the economy that must support the system... That's where personal accounts come in. As now structured, Social Security is a massive disincentive for Americans to save. It's one of the reasons the U.S. personal savings rate has been hovering around a measly 1% the past couple of years...
We now pay about $700 billion a year to support Social Security. Much of that simply goes to the government, which borrows it, spends it and replaces it with an IOU. Imagine the broad economic benefits if a third to a half of that amount were going into the economy...those participating in Social Security will see average returns of just 1.8% or so. If you got a return that low on your portfolio in the private sector, you'd fire your broker, no questions asked. After all, the stock market's average annual return over the last century has been 7%. As Bush pointed out, the difference between the two rates of return isn't trivial. At 1.8%, you double your money in 40 years; at 7%, you double it in 10. Pretty easy choice, it seems to us.
The real power from personal accounts will come down the road — not just for individuals, but also for the overall economy. All that new saving channeled into productive investment means a bigger economy — one better able to keep its promises to our senior citizens without bankrupting our youth."
Saturday, April 23, 2005
"To Dems, It's 1974 Forever"
"If you agree that President Bush has no automatic right to call himself Lincoln's successor just because they are both 'Republicans,' then Democrats have no automatic right to FDR's mantle either. The Democrats and Republicans switched roles while no one was looking...
The filibuster scheme perfectly epitomizes modern Democrats. Republicans want to move forward, confirm some judges. The Democrats' response: Freeze! Or we talk you to death. Democrats are the Stand Still party. They adore the status quo.
Conservatives won't settle for the status quo. They want this nation to champion justice, humanity, democracy. Democrats want America to tip-toe around the globe minding its own business, upsetting no one, venerating the Earth, etc. Why did Democrats leap to label Afghanistan and Iraq "new Vietnams"? Vietnam was 30-plus years ago! But for Democrats it is always 1974. Things change — but Democrats don't...
Many people have noticed that today's political scene is confusing, hard to read — Republicans wanting to save the world, Dems shouting "mind your own business." Republicans worrying about poor people's stake in society, Dems muttering "wake me up when it's over." Republicans sticking up for Israel, left-wing anti-Bush rallies toying with anti-Semitism. It's all terribly confusing, until you notice that you are looking at the picture upside down. Once you understand the Big Switch, everything starts to make sense. "
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Interesting editorial in yesterday's LA Times.
The filibuster scheme perfectly epitomizes modern Democrats. Republicans want to move forward, confirm some judges. The Democrats' response: Freeze! Or we talk you to death. Democrats are the Stand Still party. They adore the status quo.
Conservatives won't settle for the status quo. They want this nation to champion justice, humanity, democracy. Democrats want America to tip-toe around the globe minding its own business, upsetting no one, venerating the Earth, etc. Why did Democrats leap to label Afghanistan and Iraq "new Vietnams"? Vietnam was 30-plus years ago! But for Democrats it is always 1974. Things change — but Democrats don't...
Many people have noticed that today's political scene is confusing, hard to read — Republicans wanting to save the world, Dems shouting "mind your own business." Republicans worrying about poor people's stake in society, Dems muttering "wake me up when it's over." Republicans sticking up for Israel, left-wing anti-Bush rallies toying with anti-Semitism. It's all terribly confusing, until you notice that you are looking at the picture upside down. Once you understand the Big Switch, everything starts to make sense. "
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Interesting editorial in yesterday's LA Times.
NRO Editors on Bolton
The Editors on the John Bolton & Colin Powell on National Review Online: "John Bolton is being attacked precisely because he is a Bush loyalist. The battle over his nomination is a proxy for what has been the essential nugget of so many of the internal fights over Bush foreign policy - whether the president gets to set its direction or not. It is time for Bush to stop making general complaints about "politics" playing a role in the nomination fight and instead call Democrats on what is their real objection to Bolton: that he will be too aggressive in representing the U.S. at the United Nations and in challenging the corrupt and ineffectual status quo at the world body. That will create a debate that Bolton's defenders can win. Bolton was a Bush loyalist; now Bush must be a Bolton loyalist."
Friday, April 22, 2005
Own Any Google?
Google's Earnings Jump 477% : "Google Inc. yesterday reported that its first-quarter profit more than quadrupled and revenue nearly doubled because of surging online ad sales. The news, disclosed after the close of the regular trading day, sparked a rally in the search engine giant's stock price.
For the three months ended March 31, Google reported profit of $369.2 million ($1.29 a share), up from $64 million (24 cents) in the first quarter last year. Revenue, almost entirely from online advertising on Google and its partner Web sites, increased 93 percent, from $651.6 million to $1.3 billion this year.
Google stock shot up nearly $20 in after-hours trading as share prices pushed above $220. Google shares, which started the week trading at about $185, started rising earlier this week following rival Yahoo Inc.'s positive earnings report, which was released late Tuesday. Google went public in August at a price of $85 a share. "
For the three months ended March 31, Google reported profit of $369.2 million ($1.29 a share), up from $64 million (24 cents) in the first quarter last year. Revenue, almost entirely from online advertising on Google and its partner Web sites, increased 93 percent, from $651.6 million to $1.3 billion this year.
Google stock shot up nearly $20 in after-hours trading as share prices pushed above $220. Google shares, which started the week trading at about $185, started rising earlier this week following rival Yahoo Inc.'s positive earnings report, which was released late Tuesday. Google went public in August at a price of $85 a share. "
Private Schools Closing Achievement Gap
The Heartland Institute - by Andrew J. Coulson: "A recent analysis of national test score data suggests private schools do a better job than public schools of closing the achievement gap between black and white students as they progress from fourth to 12th grades.
That was true despite the fact that the disproportionately higher dropout rate among African Americans in public schools tends to remove poor performers from the test-taking population of public school seniors.
Closing the achievement gap between black and white students has been one of our nation's overarching goals for half a century. However, there remains a gulf of more than 200 points between the SAT scores of white students and black students, and black children trail their white peers by significant margins on every subject tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)."
Similarly, in a study comparing graduation rates of all Milwaukee public school students (of all income levels) with those of the low-income participants in the city's private school voucher program, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Jay Greene found the voucher students were more than one-and-a-half-times as likely to graduate as public school students.
More remarkable still, Greene found this to be true even when he compared the voucher students with those attending Milwaukee's elite group of academically selective public schools.
This higher graduation rate in private schools is not only a boon in itself; it also casts the private sector achievement gap reductions in an even more favorable light. Dropouts tend to be poor performers academically, so when they leave the test-taking population, the average test scores of the remaining students usually rises.
This dynamic should generally improve the test scores of public high school seniors, which means public schools have an even worse impact on the test score gap than the statistics show."
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Read it all for actual statistics and more analysis.
That was true despite the fact that the disproportionately higher dropout rate among African Americans in public schools tends to remove poor performers from the test-taking population of public school seniors.
Closing the achievement gap between black and white students has been one of our nation's overarching goals for half a century. However, there remains a gulf of more than 200 points between the SAT scores of white students and black students, and black children trail their white peers by significant margins on every subject tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)."
Similarly, in a study comparing graduation rates of all Milwaukee public school students (of all income levels) with those of the low-income participants in the city's private school voucher program, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Jay Greene found the voucher students were more than one-and-a-half-times as likely to graduate as public school students.
More remarkable still, Greene found this to be true even when he compared the voucher students with those attending Milwaukee's elite group of academically selective public schools.
This higher graduation rate in private schools is not only a boon in itself; it also casts the private sector achievement gap reductions in an even more favorable light. Dropouts tend to be poor performers academically, so when they leave the test-taking population, the average test scores of the remaining students usually rises.
This dynamic should generally improve the test scores of public high school seniors, which means public schools have an even worse impact on the test score gap than the statistics show."
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Read it all for actual statistics and more analysis.
Businesses Need Blog Strategies
Blogs Will Change Your Business: "monitor the blogs to see what people are saying about your company. (An entire industry is growing to sell that service. Even IBM's (IBM ) banging at the door.) Next step: Damage-control strategies. How to respond when blogs attack. He says companies have to learn to track what blogs are talking about, pinpoint influential bloggers, and figure out how to buttonhole them, privately and publicly."
He gives the example of Netflix (NFLX ). When a fan blog called Hacking Netflix asked the company for info and interviews last year, Netflix turned it down. How could they make time for all the bloggers? Predictably, the blogger, Mike Kaltschnee, aired the exchange, and Netflix faced a storm of public criticism. Now Netflix feeds info to Kaltschnee, and he passes along what he's hearing from the fans. Sounds like he's half journalist, half consultant -- though he insists Netflix doesn't pay him."
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This is an excerpt from the current issue of Business Week out today that has a major (long) story on blogs and the importance of the new medium for business. Read it all on line or pick up a copy.
He gives the example of Netflix (NFLX ). When a fan blog called Hacking Netflix asked the company for info and interviews last year, Netflix turned it down. How could they make time for all the bloggers? Predictably, the blogger, Mike Kaltschnee, aired the exchange, and Netflix faced a storm of public criticism. Now Netflix feeds info to Kaltschnee, and he passes along what he's hearing from the fans. Sounds like he's half journalist, half consultant -- though he insists Netflix doesn't pay him."
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This is an excerpt from the current issue of Business Week out today that has a major (long) story on blogs and the importance of the new medium for business. Read it all on line or pick up a copy.
Benedict XVI Loves Cats, Conversation
In German town, Benedict XVI known for love of cats, conversation - Yahoo! News: "The pope loves cats, can't resist Christmas cookies and, three months ago, waxed on about how he dreamed of retiring...
Agnes Heindl has been Georg Ratzinger's housekeeper for 10 years, and she's come to know the new pope well.
She said she often drove then-Cardinal Ratzinger to his house after the brothers had shared Sunday dinner. His favorite foods were Weisswurst - the traditional white Bavarian sausage - and anything sweet. She said he's known for trying every type of Christmas cookie at a party.
She spoke with him again this week. He called on Wednesday morning, after getting busy signals at his brother's house Tuesday night. When she answered, a well-known voice said: "Can I please speak to my brother."
"The Holy Father called, and all I could do was stammer, `So how do I address you now?' He laughed," she said.
She said she's glad she heard him laugh. His new job isn't easy, and he'll need to laugh. She said that when he was relaxing, there was never a mystery about what would make him laugh.
"Oh, cats," she said. " He loves them."
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The story is worth a quick read to see the human side of Ratzinger.
Agnes Heindl has been Georg Ratzinger's housekeeper for 10 years, and she's come to know the new pope well.
She said she often drove then-Cardinal Ratzinger to his house after the brothers had shared Sunday dinner. His favorite foods were Weisswurst - the traditional white Bavarian sausage - and anything sweet. She said he's known for trying every type of Christmas cookie at a party.
She spoke with him again this week. He called on Wednesday morning, after getting busy signals at his brother's house Tuesday night. When she answered, a well-known voice said: "Can I please speak to my brother."
"The Holy Father called, and all I could do was stammer, `So how do I address you now?' He laughed," she said.
She said she's glad she heard him laugh. His new job isn't easy, and he'll need to laugh. She said that when he was relaxing, there was never a mystery about what would make him laugh.
"Oh, cats," she said. " He loves them."
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The story is worth a quick read to see the human side of Ratzinger.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Michael Novak on the New Pope
Pope Benedict XVI
Rome's Radical Conservative: "One of Cardinal Ratzinger's central, and most misunderstood, notions is his conception of liberty, and he is very jealous in thinking deeply about it, pointing often to Tocqueville. He is a strong foe of socialism, statism and authoritarianism, but he also worries that democracy, despite its great promise, is exceedingly vulnerable to the tyranny of the majority, to 'the new soft despotism' of the all-mothering state, and to the common belief that liberty means doing whatever you please. Following Lord Acton and James Madison, Cardinal Ratzinger has written of the need of humans to practice self-government over their passions in private life.
He also fears that Europe, especially, is abandoning the search for objective truth and sliding into pure subjectivism. That is how the Nazis arose, he believes, and the Leninists. When all opinions are considered subjective, no moral ground remains for protesting against lies and injustices.
Pope John Paul II thought the first issue of his time was the murderous politics that resulted from the separation of Europe into two by the Soviet Union. He saw it as chiefly a political issue, to be defeated by moral means.
Pope Benedict XVI, like several of his namesakes back to St. Benedict himself (the founder of Western monasticism and patron saint of Europe), is more likely to take culture as the central issue of the new millennium: What is the culture necessary to preserve free societies from their own internal dangers - and to make them worthy of the sacrifices that brought them into being? "
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Senator Jeffords Will Retire!
Senator Jeffords Says He Will Retire Next Year: "Senator James M. Jeffords, the independent Vermonter whose defection from the Republican Party in the spring of 2001 gave control of the Senate to the Democrats for 18 months, said today he would not run for re-election next year because of his and his wife's health...
...CNN reported this afternoon that an apparently confused Mr. Jeffords had recently appeared in the House of Representatives, where he served earlier, and been told that he was in the wrong chamber...
...Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor whose presidential campaign soared early and flamed out almost as suddenly, had also been rumored to be contemplating a Senate run. But he told reporters today he would stay in his current post, chairman of the Democratic National Committee."
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Best wishes to the Sen. and his wife...and with respect I am glad he will be gone.
...CNN reported this afternoon that an apparently confused Mr. Jeffords had recently appeared in the House of Representatives, where he served earlier, and been told that he was in the wrong chamber...
...Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor whose presidential campaign soared early and flamed out almost as suddenly, had also been rumored to be contemplating a Senate run. But he told reporters today he would stay in his current post, chairman of the Democratic National Committee."
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Best wishes to the Sen. and his wife...and with respect I am glad he will be gone.
NYT Editorial: The New Pope
"The new pope is, at 78, not likely to serve long enough to have the kind of impact his predecessor had. But the church has seen men elected as supposedly transitional figures in the past turn into agents for sweeping change. The beloved Pope John XXIII was a recent example. And in an era as fraught with peril as today's, anyone who occupies the throne of St. Peter is given overwhelming power to do good and responsibility to prevent harm. Today, the world can only wish Pope Benedict XVI strength and inspiration as he takes on this extraordinary burden of spiritual, moral and political leadership."
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
My Mom the Lobbyist
Mom and Dad in Action
A personal note: My Mom is in Raleigh for a couple of days representing the library system of Western North Carolina and my Dad is out playing golf today. My Mom is 75 and my Dad is 86. I have indeed been blessed.
Ratzinger on Faith
Quotes by Cardinal Ratzinger, the New Pope: "''Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism... Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.
''We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.''
-- from a homily Ratzinger delivered at Mass hours before the beginning of the conclave that would elect him pope, April 18, 2005."
''We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.''
-- from a homily Ratzinger delivered at Mass hours before the beginning of the conclave that would elect him pope, April 18, 2005."
Ratzinger on Homosexuality
Quotes by Cardinal Ratzinger, the New Pope: "''It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church's pastors wherever it occurs... The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in work, in action and in law.''
-- from Ratzinger's ''Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,'' 1986, as reported by National Catholic Reporter."
-- from Ratzinger's ''Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,'' 1986, as reported by National Catholic Reporter."
Old and Dying In Prison
As inmates age, cost of health care climbs: "Tougher sentencing laws are keeping criminals in prison longer -- often into their 70s and 80s. As medical costs rise, states are struggling to control their prison health care budgets...
...At the state prison in Asheboro, Thomas Taylor walks gingerly with a cane and takes five pills a day. He's had two heart attacks and prostate cancer and now suffers from arthritis and occasionally gout.
Taylor, a convicted rapist serving a life sentence, is at least 88, the oldest inmate in North Carolina's prison system.
The white-haired inmate is among more than 2,950 convicts locked up in the state's prisons who are 50 and over. More than 100 are in their 70s and 80s...
Across the country, state prisons held more than 39,000 inmates age 56 and over in 2002. Two years earlier, there were about 33,000 inmates that age.
The nation's state prisons spent $2.5 billion on inmate medical care in 1996. The price tag in 2001 was $3.3 billion. That's about 12 percent of the prison systems' total operating expenditures.
State prison systems across the country have had to take measures to care for their older inmates. They've set up infirmaries, nursing homes and handicapped-accessible accommodations."
...At the state prison in Asheboro, Thomas Taylor walks gingerly with a cane and takes five pills a day. He's had two heart attacks and prostate cancer and now suffers from arthritis and occasionally gout.
Taylor, a convicted rapist serving a life sentence, is at least 88, the oldest inmate in North Carolina's prison system.
The white-haired inmate is among more than 2,950 convicts locked up in the state's prisons who are 50 and over. More than 100 are in their 70s and 80s...
Across the country, state prisons held more than 39,000 inmates age 56 and over in 2002. Two years earlier, there were about 33,000 inmates that age.
The nation's state prisons spent $2.5 billion on inmate medical care in 1996. The price tag in 2001 was $3.3 billion. That's about 12 percent of the prison systems' total operating expenditures.
State prison systems across the country have had to take measures to care for their older inmates. They've set up infirmaries, nursing homes and handicapped-accessible accommodations."
Monday, April 18, 2005
John Edwards the UNC Sponsored Politician
Recall my previous posts questioning Edwards travel and speeches sponsored by UNC. Here's more remarks:
"The person who used to be U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., is now Professor John Edwards, UNC Chapel Hill. The guy who narrowly missed out on being the nation's vice president is now the first director of the UNC School of Law's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, an initiative created to fit his interests...
...When Ferrell Blount looks at John Edwards, he sees a man running for president.
"John Edwards is not subtle. If he has announced for president in '08, I haven't heard it," said Blount, chairman of the N.C. Republican Party. "But all of his actions indicated that he's running for president again."
Blount is bothered by Edwards' new post at UNC, which he views as nothing more than a vehicle for the former senator to operate his next campaign.
"The poverty center has been set up as a re-launching platform for an '08 bid at the taxpayers' expense," he said. "The state of North Carolina can't afford to be setting up political organizations for Johnny Edwards."
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If you're interested in Southern politics a must read.
"The person who used to be U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., is now Professor John Edwards, UNC Chapel Hill. The guy who narrowly missed out on being the nation's vice president is now the first director of the UNC School of Law's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, an initiative created to fit his interests...
...When Ferrell Blount looks at John Edwards, he sees a man running for president.
"John Edwards is not subtle. If he has announced for president in '08, I haven't heard it," said Blount, chairman of the N.C. Republican Party. "But all of his actions indicated that he's running for president again."
Blount is bothered by Edwards' new post at UNC, which he views as nothing more than a vehicle for the former senator to operate his next campaign.
"The poverty center has been set up as a re-launching platform for an '08 bid at the taxpayers' expense," he said. "The state of North Carolina can't afford to be setting up political organizations for Johnny Edwards."
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If you're interested in Southern politics a must read.
Hillary
WSJ: "The plain fact is that Hillary Clinton is actually one of the worst politicians in national politics today. She is feared as a brilliant politician only because she is such an obvious politician, which is actually the key mark of a bad politician. "
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Worth a read.
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Worth a read.
Faith-Based Charity
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail: "It's now time to take the next step and rethink the wisdom of having so much of the responsibility for aiding the poor fall to government bureaucracies rather than private groups. In our daily lives and choices most of us already have done some of that rethinking. Ask yourself: If you had a financial windfall and decided to tithe a portion of it in a way that would best help the less fortunate, would you even think about giving a check or donating time to the government? "
WSJ on AARP
"Whatever the outcome of President Bush's push for personal accounts in Social Security, one of its effects deserves to be damage to whatever credibility AARP had left as a pragmatic and non-partisan organization..."
AARP "...sit[s] across the table from its interlocutors at the White House and pretend[s] to be sincere about its desire for compromise. And it's almost enough to make us long for an intrepid antitrust lawyer to take on the senior lobby. One thing's for sure: We're never going to have a reasonable debate about policies for an aging society as long as AARP has an effective monopoly on that role."
AARP "...sit[s] across the table from its interlocutors at the White House and pretend[s] to be sincere about its desire for compromise. And it's almost enough to make us long for an intrepid antitrust lawyer to take on the senior lobby. One thing's for sure: We're never going to have a reasonable debate about policies for an aging society as long as AARP has an effective monopoly on that role."
Sunday, April 17, 2005
I Oppose Nukes in the Senate
I oppose the nuclear option. First read Geo.Will from last month - Why Filibusters Should Be Allowed : "Exempting judicial nominations from filibusters would enlarge presidential power. There has been much enlargement related to national security -- presidential war-making power is now unfettered, Congress's responsibility to declare war having become a nullity. Are conservatives, who once had a healthy wariness of presidential power, sure they want to further expand that power in domestic affairs?
The Senate's institutional paralysis over judicial confirmations is a political problem for which there is a political solution: 60 Republican senators...The president believes that Democratic obstruction of judicial nominees contributed to Republican gains in 2002 and 2004. In 2006, 17 of the Democrats' seats and that of Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, their collaborator, are up, five of them in states the president carried in 2004....
No Democratic filibuster can stop the 2006 elections. Those elections, however, might stop the Democrats' filibusters. "
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Judicial appointments are very important - my understatement of the day. I respect opinions of the minority as typically I tend to disagree with any majority. I am a believer in republics perhaps more than pure democracies yet believe the opinion of the "common man" is most often better than the opinion of an out of touch professional politician. If we agree the judicial branch is very important, requiring 60 votes to move an appointment forward is not unreasonable. I long for the day America returns to real Senators as our founders envisioned rather than pontificating media hounds determined to be re-elected or become President.-WAA
The Senate's institutional paralysis over judicial confirmations is a political problem for which there is a political solution: 60 Republican senators...The president believes that Democratic obstruction of judicial nominees contributed to Republican gains in 2002 and 2004. In 2006, 17 of the Democrats' seats and that of Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, their collaborator, are up, five of them in states the president carried in 2004....
No Democratic filibuster can stop the 2006 elections. Those elections, however, might stop the Democrats' filibusters. "
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Judicial appointments are very important - my understatement of the day. I respect opinions of the minority as typically I tend to disagree with any majority. I am a believer in republics perhaps more than pure democracies yet believe the opinion of the "common man" is most often better than the opinion of an out of touch professional politician. If we agree the judicial branch is very important, requiring 60 votes to move an appointment forward is not unreasonable. I long for the day America returns to real Senators as our founders envisioned rather than pontificating media hounds determined to be re-elected or become President.-WAA
Darfur Genocide
Kristof in The New York Times: "If the Bush administration has been quiet on Darfur, other countries have been even more passive. Europe, aside from Britain, has been blind. Islamic Relief, the aid group, has done a wonderful job in Darfur, but in general the world's Muslims should be mortified that they haven't helped the Muslim victims in Darfur nearly as much as American Jews have. And China, while screaming about Japanese atrocities 70 years ago, is underwriting Sudan's atrocities in 2005.
On each of my three visits to Darfur, the dispossessed victims showed me immense kindness, guiding me to safe places and offering me water when I was hot and exhausted. They had lost their homes and often their children, and they seemed to have nothing - yet in their compassion to me they showed that they had retained their humanity. So it appalls me that we who have everything can't muster the simple humanity to try to save their lives. "
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Kristof has done an admirable job pointing out our (US) and the world's (UN) failure on this horrible tradgedy.
On each of my three visits to Darfur, the dispossessed victims showed me immense kindness, guiding me to safe places and offering me water when I was hot and exhausted. They had lost their homes and often their children, and they seemed to have nothing - yet in their compassion to me they showed that they had retained their humanity. So it appalls me that we who have everything can't muster the simple humanity to try to save their lives. "
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Kristof has done an admirable job pointing out our (US) and the world's (UN) failure on this horrible tradgedy.
Taxes by Snail-Mail Down 84% since 2001
"...[S]lightly more than half of individual taxpayers will file online, the largest number yet. US Postal Service spokeswoman Joanne Veto said that Post Office branches probably will handle about 6.5 million pieces of tax-related mail today. That compares to 40 million pieces on April 15, 2001. It's important to note that the Internet doesn't account for all of that dramatic shift. Many people take their returns to professional services, which then file them electronically. And to give some idea of relativity to these numbers, the Postal Service handles approximately 100 million letters, cards, packages and other material every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. "
Contra View to Santorum Below: 'Don't Alter The Filibuster'
From Steve Moore, et. al., Don't Alter The Filibuster: "...we are deeply troubled by the talk in the Senate of overriding the rule that requires 60 votes to close off debate. This rule has been a critical protection of the minority against simple majority rule in the Senate.
Senate Republicans, who are in the majority today with 55 votes, seem to forget that throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s, it was they who were in the minority and who used the filibuster to great effect against a tide of Democratic initiatives. When the political winds shift, Republicans will be back out of power in the Senate and will be reminded of the virtues of the filibuster in protecting their minority positions.
Some critics say that it is illegitimate to use the filibuster against judicial nominees when the Senate is performing its "advise and consent" function. But in the past, filibusters have been used to block judicial appointments.
What troubles us most is that the "nuclear option" could become a routine tactic for the majority party in the Senate to push legislation through with only a 51-vote requirement for passage. The Senate was always envisioned by the Founders to be the deliberative body in Congress, in which the heated emotions of the moment's debate could cool before new laws or judges were approved. The filibuster and the 60-vote cloture rule are nearly indispensable in facilitating full debate and strong consensus for legislative action. "
Senate Republicans, who are in the majority today with 55 votes, seem to forget that throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s, it was they who were in the minority and who used the filibuster to great effect against a tide of Democratic initiatives. When the political winds shift, Republicans will be back out of power in the Senate and will be reminded of the virtues of the filibuster in protecting their minority positions.
Some critics say that it is illegitimate to use the filibuster against judicial nominees when the Senate is performing its "advise and consent" function. But in the past, filibusters have been used to block judicial appointments.
What troubles us most is that the "nuclear option" could become a routine tactic for the majority party in the Senate to push legislation through with only a 51-vote requirement for passage. The Senate was always envisioned by the Founders to be the deliberative body in Congress, in which the heated emotions of the moment's debate could cool before new laws or judges were approved. The filibuster and the 60-vote cloture rule are nearly indispensable in facilitating full debate and strong consensus for legislative action. "
Sen. Santorum on Judicial Nominations
Majority Vote Should Trump Minority Rule : "the Democratic leadership has written the American people out of the Constitution's system for appointing judges. The people have only two methods for influencing the selection of federal judges: their votes for president and their votes for senator. In November they rejected the presidential candidate who vowed to impose an ideological litmus test on all judicial nominees, and they chose the one who promised to appoint men and women who would uphold the law. They voted out the Senate minority leader who devised these destructive judicial filibusters and returned a Republican Senate with an enlarged majority. Senate Democrats, however, have opted to disrespect the people's voice and continue their audacious and constitutionally groundless claims for minority rule.
If a senator opposes a nominee, that senator should go to the Senate floor and explain why -- to the American people and the Senate. The senator should try to convince 50 colleagues that they ought to vote against the nominee. And when the nomination comes to a vote, the senator should vote no.
For over 200 years, that was how senators opposed nominees. The time has come for the Senate to reestablish that tradition, to end these destructive judicial filibusters and to give all judicial nominees the up-or-down vote they deserve. "
If a senator opposes a nominee, that senator should go to the Senate floor and explain why -- to the American people and the Senate. The senator should try to convince 50 colleagues that they ought to vote against the nominee. And when the nomination comes to a vote, the senator should vote no.
For over 200 years, that was how senators opposed nominees. The time has come for the Senate to reestablish that tradition, to end these destructive judicial filibusters and to give all judicial nominees the up-or-down vote they deserve. "
George Will: 'Suicide by Secularism?'
George Will: "Europe itself is withering. On the day of John Paul II's funeral, the European Union's statistics agency reported that the decline of birthrates means that within five years deaths will exceed births in the European Union. By 2013 Italy's population will begin to decline; the next year Germany's will begin to drop. After 2010 Europe's population growth will be entirely from immigration. By 2025 not even immigration will prevent declining fertility from accelerating what one historian calls the largest 'sustained reduction in European population since the Black Death of the 14th century.'
In his new book "The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God," George Weigel, biographer of John Paul II, argues that Europe's "demographic suicide" will cause its welfare states to buckle and is creating a "vacuum into which Islamic immigrants are flowing." Since 1970 the 20 million legal Islamic immigrants equal the combined populations of Ireland, Denmark and Belgium.
"What," Weigel asks, "is happening when an entire continent, wealthier and healthier than ever before, declines to create the human future in the most elemental sense, by creating a next generation?" His diagnosis is that Europe's deepening anemia is a consequence of living on what he considers the thin gruel of secular humanism that excludes transcendent reference points for cultural and political life."
In his new book "The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God," George Weigel, biographer of John Paul II, argues that Europe's "demographic suicide" will cause its welfare states to buckle and is creating a "vacuum into which Islamic immigrants are flowing." Since 1970 the 20 million legal Islamic immigrants equal the combined populations of Ireland, Denmark and Belgium.
"What," Weigel asks, "is happening when an entire continent, wealthier and healthier than ever before, declines to create the human future in the most elemental sense, by creating a next generation?" His diagnosis is that Europe's deepening anemia is a consequence of living on what he considers the thin gruel of secular humanism that excludes transcendent reference points for cultural and political life."
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Mickey Kaus on Kerry's Vietnam Forms
Mickey Kaus: "Kerry's Secret Weapon: Polipundit notes the latest development in the agonizingly suspenseful wait for Sen. Kerry to sign the 3-page form releasing his military records. John Hurley, National Director of Vietnam Veterans for John Kerry, was asked... when Kerry would make good on his televised January 30 promise (to NBC's Tim Russert) to sign the form ('I will'): 'I don`t know. I`m sure its soon. He said he would sign it. He is going to sign it, Joe, and I am sure it won`t take that long.' I think I've figured it out: There is so much positive, helpful information for Kerry in those military records that he's waiting until January, 2008 to sign the form! Hillary won't know what hit her. "
The Media Really Dislikes Bolton
Bolton's Hair: No Brush With Greatness : "John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, desperately needs a haircut. It does not have to be a $600 Sally Hershberger cut. Bolton simply needs the basics. Tidy the curling, unruly locks at the nape of his neck, tame the volume at the crown, reel in the wings flapping above his ears, and broker a compromise between his sand-colored mop and his snow-colored mustache.
He needs to do this, not because he should be minding the recommendations of men's fashion magazines or grooming experts but because when he settled in before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week to answer questions about his record, his philosophy and his intentions at the U.N., he looked as though he did not even have enough respect for the proceedings to bother combing his hair -- or, for that matter, straightening his tie, or wearing a shirt that did not put his neck in a chokehold. Bolton was one wrinkled suit away from being an insolent mess. "
He needs to do this, not because he should be minding the recommendations of men's fashion magazines or grooming experts but because when he settled in before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week to answer questions about his record, his philosophy and his intentions at the U.N., he looked as though he did not even have enough respect for the proceedings to bother combing his hair -- or, for that matter, straightening his tie, or wearing a shirt that did not put his neck in a chokehold. Bolton was one wrinkled suit away from being an insolent mess. "
10,000 Fugitives Are Captured
10,000 Fugitives Are Captured In Huge Dragnet : "The U.S. Marshals Service and local police agencies arrested more than 10,000 fugitives last week in an aggressive nationwide sweep that ranks as the largest single dragnet in U.S. history, the Justice Department announced yesterday.
The campaign -- dubbed Operation Falcon and timed to coincide with National Crime Victims' Rights Week -- included the arrests of more than 160 murder suspects, 550 sexual assault suspects, and more than 150 alleged gang members, officials said...
Criminal-justice experts said that by apprehending thousands of fugitives in a matter of days, the operation underscored the low priority that law enforcement agencies often give to locating people who have jumped bail, violated parole or otherwise evaded state and federal courts.
"The dirty little secret is that there usually is not enough effort and manpower put into apprehension of fugitives," said David A. Harris, a law professor at the University of Toledo who studies criminal-justice issues. "Most fugitives are aware of this, and it makes the system a joke. . . . It's never been a top priority."
The campaign -- dubbed Operation Falcon and timed to coincide with National Crime Victims' Rights Week -- included the arrests of more than 160 murder suspects, 550 sexual assault suspects, and more than 150 alleged gang members, officials said...
Criminal-justice experts said that by apprehending thousands of fugitives in a matter of days, the operation underscored the low priority that law enforcement agencies often give to locating people who have jumped bail, violated parole or otherwise evaded state and federal courts.
"The dirty little secret is that there usually is not enough effort and manpower put into apprehension of fugitives," said David A. Harris, a law professor at the University of Toledo who studies criminal-justice issues. "Most fugitives are aware of this, and it makes the system a joke. . . . It's never been a top priority."
Lethal Injections Called Flawed
"Some prisoners executed by lethal injection might be so inadequately sedated that they are awake enough to suffer agonizingly painful deaths, according to a study.
Researchers who studied blood samples of inmates after executions found that more than 40 percent contained levels of anesthesia so low that the prisoners might have been conscious during their executions. They also found that executioners in Virginia and Texas, homes to the nation's busiest death chambers, were not trained to administer anesthesia. The authors of the study, published this week in the British medical journal the Lancet, called for a moratorium on lethal injections.
"There seems to be a significant fraction of the condemned who are aware" when injected, said Leonidas G. Koniaris, associate professor of surgery at the University of Miami and the study's lead author. "Very few were actually at a sufficient level to qualify as a properly done animal euthanization."
Researchers who studied blood samples of inmates after executions found that more than 40 percent contained levels of anesthesia so low that the prisoners might have been conscious during their executions. They also found that executioners in Virginia and Texas, homes to the nation's busiest death chambers, were not trained to administer anesthesia. The authors of the study, published this week in the British medical journal the Lancet, called for a moratorium on lethal injections.
"There seems to be a significant fraction of the condemned who are aware" when injected, said Leonidas G. Koniaris, associate professor of surgery at the University of Miami and the study's lead author. "Very few were actually at a sufficient level to qualify as a properly done animal euthanization."
Congress Moving to Tackle Spyware
"An anti-spyware bill could clear the U.S. House of Representatives as early as next week, but final legislation is not expected to be sent to the White House until disagreements about what qualifies as 'spyware' are ironed out by key technology interest groups and lawmakers...
Three separate proposals have been introduced in Congress so far this year -- two in the House and one in the Senate. A bill sponsored by Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) appears to have the most momentum, earning the backing of Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the influential Energy and Commerce Committee.
"The consumer should have the right to know what's going on with their computer. It's their property and they should know what's happening. The bottom line is that people cannot install something on your computer and track you and eat up all the processing power on your computer without your consent," Bono said. "
Three separate proposals have been introduced in Congress so far this year -- two in the House and one in the Senate. A bill sponsored by Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) appears to have the most momentum, earning the backing of Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the influential Energy and Commerce Committee.
"The consumer should have the right to know what's going on with their computer. It's their property and they should know what's happening. The bottom line is that people cannot install something on your computer and track you and eat up all the processing power on your computer without your consent," Bono said. "
The Australian: Left on the wrong side of history
The Australian: Left on the wrong side of history : "A foreign policy without principle will fail because it is fundamentally sterile. That is why unadorned so-called 'realism' in foreign policy, with its emphasis on stability and the status quo, can sound clever and sophisticated but in the end implodes under its own emptiness. But principle must be pursued with pragmatism and with patience if it is not to end in recklessness and aggression.
The key thing for those on the Left to understand is that intense dislike of Bush and echoes of Vietnam do not make a foreign policy. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Bolton - they too will pass. What will go on is the great human desire to be free, which should be at the core of our foreign policy. The great danger for the Left is that its Vietnam and Bush obsessions may mean that it will end up on the wrong side of history. "
The key thing for those on the Left to understand is that intense dislike of Bush and echoes of Vietnam do not make a foreign policy. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Bolton - they too will pass. What will go on is the great human desire to be free, which should be at the core of our foreign policy. The great danger for the Left is that its Vietnam and Bush obsessions may mean that it will end up on the wrong side of history. "
Big Sugar
Stephen Moore and Phil Kerpen: "Americans spend about $2.5 billion more a year in higher prices for sugar and food items that contain sugar than if this country enjoyed a free market in sugar...
...One impact of the artificially high price of sugar is that candy makers and other domestic food producers that use sugar as an ingredient have started to export their production facilities in order to get lower cost sugar to keep their prices competitive. A few years ago, Life Savers, the producer of hard candy, moved its operations to Canada to have access to lower-priced sugar. Thousands of jobs are lost in just this way...
...Consumers should be king in cases like this, not the deep-pocketed lobbyists who are employed by Big Sugar. This industry has enjoyed nearly two centuries of protection and has never been competitive. It’s time to put the interests of millions of consumers ahead of the handful of influential sugar producers.
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"Big Sugar" is firmly against CAFTA. Again, CAFTA is good for America unless you are in the sugar business or have some other special interests.
...One impact of the artificially high price of sugar is that candy makers and other domestic food producers that use sugar as an ingredient have started to export their production facilities in order to get lower cost sugar to keep their prices competitive. A few years ago, Life Savers, the producer of hard candy, moved its operations to Canada to have access to lower-priced sugar. Thousands of jobs are lost in just this way...
...Consumers should be king in cases like this, not the deep-pocketed lobbyists who are employed by Big Sugar. This industry has enjoyed nearly two centuries of protection and has never been competitive. It’s time to put the interests of millions of consumers ahead of the handful of influential sugar producers.
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"Big Sugar" is firmly against CAFTA. Again, CAFTA is good for America unless you are in the sugar business or have some other special interests.
Victor Davis Hanson: 'Our Not-So-Wise Experts'
Victor Davis Hanson: "We've seen some very strange things since this war started on September 11. But nothing is quite as odd as the past architects of failure weighing in on the dangers of "neoWilsonianism," "neoconservative ideologues," and veiled references to Israeli machinations, as the Bush administration finally sets right three decades these people's flawed policies and tries to promote a new Americanism based on our own universal values and aspirations...
The past ostracism of Arafat and the removal of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, followed by democratic engagement, will bring eventual stability to the Middle East and enhance the security of the United States. After the failures of all our present critics, this new policy of promoting American values is our last, best hope. And the president will be rewarded long after he leaves office by the verdict of history for nobly sticking to it when few others, friend or foe, would. "
The past ostracism of Arafat and the removal of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, followed by democratic engagement, will bring eventual stability to the Middle East and enhance the security of the United States. After the failures of all our present critics, this new policy of promoting American values is our last, best hope. And the president will be rewarded long after he leaves office by the verdict of history for nobly sticking to it when few others, friend or foe, would. "
Friday, April 15, 2005
Edwards Still Campaigning with Public Money
From the Raleigh NC newsobserver.com: "Edwards, a former Democratic vice presidential candidate and North Carolina senator, believes Americans should be alarmed by the current tax trends in Washington, according to the text of a speech he was to deliver Thursday evening in New York.
While Edwards has deflected questions about his own presidential ambitions in 2008, he has been moving around the country, speaking in 15 states since January, excluding North Carolina.
He is also planning to enhance his foreign policy credentials by visiting the United Arab Emirates and England next month, and India in the fall, according to Kim Rubey, his spokeswoman. He is also scheduled to speak next month to the national Teamsters convention in Las Vegas.
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I am sure someone can explain how Edwards' schedule supports his role for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which is a public, state run and funded school. I can't explain how this works or even legal let alone ethical.
Let's speculate that if Sen. Elizabeth Dole retired from the Senate that UNC-CH would create a position for her to travel around the country and the world to "fight poverty" - I can hear the screams now from the media but for Edwards the media apparently believes this is a fine role for a state employee.
While Edwards has deflected questions about his own presidential ambitions in 2008, he has been moving around the country, speaking in 15 states since January, excluding North Carolina.
He is also planning to enhance his foreign policy credentials by visiting the United Arab Emirates and England next month, and India in the fall, according to Kim Rubey, his spokeswoman. He is also scheduled to speak next month to the national Teamsters convention in Las Vegas.
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I am sure someone can explain how Edwards' schedule supports his role for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which is a public, state run and funded school. I can't explain how this works or even legal let alone ethical.
Let's speculate that if Sen. Elizabeth Dole retired from the Senate that UNC-CH would create a position for her to travel around the country and the world to "fight poverty" - I can hear the screams now from the media but for Edwards the media apparently believes this is a fine role for a state employee.
Catholic Schools On a Roll in Raleigh NC Diocese
Carolina Journal Catholic Schools On a Roll in Triangle: "Like all private and parochial schools in North Carolina, the schools of the Raleigh Diocese are required by state law to administer "nationally standardized" tests to students in third, sixth and ninth grade. The diocese has chosen the Iowa Test of Basic Skills as the benchmark test through eighth grade, and administers the test for each grade. Students' percentile rankings among other students nationwide taking the test are in the eighties. The schools' percentile rankings among other schools nationwide taking the test are in the nineties.
Fedewa says the tests are given in the fall, so that teachers can see the results and diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of their students. Instruction does not center around the tests, Fedawa said: There is "no high-stakes testing."
Tuition at the Catholic schools varies from $3,000 to $5,000 per year, Fedewa said. According to Immaculate Conception's Web site, tuition in the K-8 program (and in a pre-kindergarten program) varies according to various factors: from $5,294 for families unaffiliated with a Roman Catholic parish, to $4,015 for families affiliated specifically with Immaculate Conception parish (families who enrolled multiple children before 1999 get tuition discounts, but large families whose children enroll later than 1999 no longer get discounts). Financial aid is sometimes offered for poor families."
************
A nice example of school success. So why don't we have a voucher program and allow the market to improve public schools?
Fedewa says the tests are given in the fall, so that teachers can see the results and diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of their students. Instruction does not center around the tests, Fedawa said: There is "no high-stakes testing."
Tuition at the Catholic schools varies from $3,000 to $5,000 per year, Fedewa said. According to Immaculate Conception's Web site, tuition in the K-8 program (and in a pre-kindergarten program) varies according to various factors: from $5,294 for families unaffiliated with a Roman Catholic parish, to $4,015 for families affiliated specifically with Immaculate Conception parish (families who enrolled multiple children before 1999 get tuition discounts, but large families whose children enroll later than 1999 no longer get discounts). Financial aid is sometimes offered for poor families."
************
A nice example of school success. So why don't we have a voucher program and allow the market to improve public schools?
The AMT this Tax Day
WSJ's lead editorial this morning - OpinionJournal : "the silver lining of the AMT is that it will drive blue-state Democrats into the tax reform debate later this year. Their own constituents will be demanding some relief. So far this year, Republicans are again proposing a temporary AMT fix that would spare some taxpayers from its clutches for another year or two. But maybe they should instead let this class-war Frankenstein continue to terrorize the liberal countryside until Democrats have no choice but to support major change when the President's Tax Reform Commission reports in July.
Who knows, this entire AMT experience might even induce liberals to reconsider the wisdom of soak-the-rich tax policy. At least we can dream. Happy April 15th. "
Who knows, this entire AMT experience might even induce liberals to reconsider the wisdom of soak-the-rich tax policy. At least we can dream. Happy April 15th. "
Tax Watch: Use Children to Shelter Income
TaxWatch: Making wise tax choices as a family is not child's play - : "they started eldest daughter Gracie out with $12,000 at birth, adding no more than $13,000 until college graduation. By investing well, that account produced enough money to pay for 13 years of private school and 4 years of college -- about $300,000 in total. "
********
Maybe I'll be a tax lawyer...
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Maybe I'll be a tax lawyer...
Economist Looks at US Open in Pinehurst
The Price is Right:Three Years in Advance: "How much are you willing to pay for U.S. Open golf championship tickets to Pinehurst this June, plus a place to stay during the event? Some tournament patrons have paid up to $50,000 for a one-week rental house in past years. In the rental housing market, prices for the week are determined strictly by 'what the traffic will bear' -clearly a hefty amount for a premium rental location. Private homeowners can offer rentals for up to two weeks, if they wish, without having to pay tax on rental income they receive during the Open....
...But there's more to price than meets the eye in this case. Local accommodations for the U.S. Open in Pinehurst required as much as three years of advance planning, booking, and waiting time. If reports are correct, 2,700 rooms in Moore County were booked solidly for the 2005 U.S. Open back in 2002. Would-be renters for the event have incurred costs in the form of advance reservations, deposits, and payments in ways that raise price beyond the number of dollars alone involved in the process."
Does waiting really add to the "cost" of an item for the consumer? Yes, though the added costs are mostly opportunity costs, options and opportunities that we miss while we spend time and other resources during the waiting period. Of course, all of the vendors could have eliminated the wait by simply hiking the dollar price of their product. That would eliminate rationing by patience, forethought, or luck, none of which offer a manifestly "better" or more "fair" outcome than simple, efficient money prices.
In markets, those that want the goods immediately can get them, if they offer a price attractive to sellers. And that amounts to plan coordination without the three-year time horizon."
...But there's more to price than meets the eye in this case. Local accommodations for the U.S. Open in Pinehurst required as much as three years of advance planning, booking, and waiting time. If reports are correct, 2,700 rooms in Moore County were booked solidly for the 2005 U.S. Open back in 2002. Would-be renters for the event have incurred costs in the form of advance reservations, deposits, and payments in ways that raise price beyond the number of dollars alone involved in the process."
Does waiting really add to the "cost" of an item for the consumer? Yes, though the added costs are mostly opportunity costs, options and opportunities that we miss while we spend time and other resources during the waiting period. Of course, all of the vendors could have eliminated the wait by simply hiking the dollar price of their product. That would eliminate rationing by patience, forethought, or luck, none of which offer a manifestly "better" or more "fair" outcome than simple, efficient money prices.
In markets, those that want the goods immediately can get them, if they offer a price attractive to sellers. And that amounts to plan coordination without the three-year time horizon."
Thursday, April 14, 2005
A Very Personal Column from George Will: 'Eugenics By Abortion'
Eugenics By Abortion: "In America, more than 80 percent of the babies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome are aborted. This is dismaying to, among others, the American Association of People with Disabilities, whose premise is that 'disability is a natural part of the human experience.'
...One mother who participated in a study of 3,000 members of five state associations of parents of Down syndrome children reported that when, in 1999, she was told that the baby she was expecting had Down syndrome, a geneticist showed her "a really pitiful video first of people with Down syndrome who were very low tone and lethargic-looking and then proceeded to tell us that our child would never be able to read, write or count change." Try telling that to Jon Will as he navigates Washington's subway system to use his season tickets to the Wizards basketball games and (soon) Nationals baseball games.
When he was born in 1972 -- a time when an episode on a network television hospital drama asserted that people with Down syndrome could not be toilet-trained -- the hospital geneticist asked Jon's parents if they intended to take him home. That question is, surely, no longer asked when Down syndrome babies are born. But there are modern pressures to prevent such babies from being born, pressures that include the perfection-is-an-entitlement attitude of some expecting parents...."
****
Such a sad serious issue, pour out your heart and read this and think about the implications. My parents have a dear neighbor with a Down's son who is the most remarkable precious person you will ever meet who has more smiles and laughs in a day than most of us have in a week...
...One mother who participated in a study of 3,000 members of five state associations of parents of Down syndrome children reported that when, in 1999, she was told that the baby she was expecting had Down syndrome, a geneticist showed her "a really pitiful video first of people with Down syndrome who were very low tone and lethargic-looking and then proceeded to tell us that our child would never be able to read, write or count change." Try telling that to Jon Will as he navigates Washington's subway system to use his season tickets to the Wizards basketball games and (soon) Nationals baseball games.
When he was born in 1972 -- a time when an episode on a network television hospital drama asserted that people with Down syndrome could not be toilet-trained -- the hospital geneticist asked Jon's parents if they intended to take him home. That question is, surely, no longer asked when Down syndrome babies are born. But there are modern pressures to prevent such babies from being born, pressures that include the perfection-is-an-entitlement attitude of some expecting parents...."
****
Such a sad serious issue, pour out your heart and read this and think about the implications. My parents have a dear neighbor with a Down's son who is the most remarkable precious person you will ever meet who has more smiles and laughs in a day than most of us have in a week...
Yes, I Support CAFTA
newsobserver.com: "State textile leaders descended Wednesday on Washington, arguing that the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement would bolster -- and perhaps grow -- their faltering business.
Former U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger also returned to testify at a House hearing on the trade agreement. Ballenger, a Republican from High Point, formerly chaired the International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
He downplayed Democratic concerns about whether labor laws in Central America are strong enough to protect workers. Ballenger said that without the agreement, even more business would go to China.
'Then we won't have to worry whether they're enforcing labor laws,' Ballenger said. 'There won't be any jobs down there.'
...Also Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee held its first CAFTA hearing, marked by vehement protests from the sugar industry about what imported sugar would do to the U.S. market.
Many members of the state's delegation are undecided on the agreement, one of President Bush's top trade priorities. They say they worry about further job losses and unintended consequences."
***
I believe in free trade. I also believe in government support for workers who lose jobs due to the short-sightedness of owners who have failed to plan and manage for the future. Free trade helps everybody both in jobs and cost of products and is an economic law that is immutable.
Former U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger also returned to testify at a House hearing on the trade agreement. Ballenger, a Republican from High Point, formerly chaired the International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
He downplayed Democratic concerns about whether labor laws in Central America are strong enough to protect workers. Ballenger said that without the agreement, even more business would go to China.
'Then we won't have to worry whether they're enforcing labor laws,' Ballenger said. 'There won't be any jobs down there.'
...Also Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee held its first CAFTA hearing, marked by vehement protests from the sugar industry about what imported sugar would do to the U.S. market.
Many members of the state's delegation are undecided on the agreement, one of President Bush's top trade priorities. They say they worry about further job losses and unintended consequences."
***
I believe in free trade. I also believe in government support for workers who lose jobs due to the short-sightedness of owners who have failed to plan and manage for the future. Free trade helps everybody both in jobs and cost of products and is an economic law that is immutable.
The CIA Operative Kerry Outed Speaks Today in WSJ on John Bolton and the US Senate
OpinionJournal - Featured Article: "John Bolton has served our nation well in many posts under three presidents. He deserves to be confirmed. But regardless of the outcome of the hearings, he has provided another valuable service: he has revealed Senate hearings to be the weapon of choice of vicious and anonymous staffers and their narcissistic bosses to engage in character assassination and ideological vendettas. But more important to our national security in this time of war, he has uncovered a dangerous willingness by some senior intelligence officers to protect underlings who have been promoted to their highest level of incompetence. The intelligence community is our first line of defense against today's enemies. In seven different government positions, I have worked with hundreds of these skilled and brave officers and have witnessed their unselfish dedication to our nation. Practically any of them could make much more money working for a private consulting firm and thus provide a more comfortable life for his family than the inadequate government salary allows. When a bad apple is allowed to spoil the barrel of intelligence information, then not only does the reputation of good officers suffer; so, too, does the security of our nation.
Mr. Reich, formerly President Bush's special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, is a consultant in Washington. "
Mr. Reich, formerly President Bush's special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, is a consultant in Washington. "
Christianity in Europe
WSJ again: "Practicing Christianity in Europe today enjoys a status not dissimilar to smoking marijuana or engaging in unorthodox sexual activities--few people mind if you do so in private, but you are expected not to talk about it or ask others whether they do it too. Christianity is considered retrograde and atavistic in a 'progressive' society devoted to the good life--long holidays, short work hours and generous government benefits....
...Europe's atheistic humanism. Without a religious dimension, Mr. Weigel notes, a commitment to human freedom is likely to be attenuated, too weak to make sacrifices in its name. Europe's political elites especially, but its citizens as well, believe in freedom and democracy of course, but they are reluctant to put the "good life" on hold and put lives on the line when freedom is in need of a champion--say, in the Balkans or, especially, in Iraq."
***
Is this what is going to happen to America?
...Europe's atheistic humanism. Without a religious dimension, Mr. Weigel notes, a commitment to human freedom is likely to be attenuated, too weak to make sacrifices in its name. Europe's political elites especially, but its citizens as well, believe in freedom and democracy of course, but they are reluctant to put the "good life" on hold and put lives on the line when freedom is in need of a champion--say, in the Balkans or, especially, in Iraq."
***
Is this what is going to happen to America?
Peggy Noonan: A Story About Selecting the Pope
OpinionJournal: "The Cardinal -A story about selecting the new pope.
...In the polls on churchgoing and belief it's always Catholics on the street in Europe and America who say they want change and reform. They'd been saying it for years! And yet it was Catholics on the street from Europe and America--real nobodies, not to be impolite but just regular Catholics--who engulfed Rome to weep and yell Santo, Santo! ...
...You sit and think: We have to consider what the crowds signified, what the outpouring meant. Maybe God was telling us something. "
****
A wonderful, thoughtful column thats says so much so well.
...In the polls on churchgoing and belief it's always Catholics on the street in Europe and America who say they want change and reform. They'd been saying it for years! And yet it was Catholics on the street from Europe and America--real nobodies, not to be impolite but just regular Catholics--who engulfed Rome to weep and yell Santo, Santo! ...
...You sit and think: We have to consider what the crowds signified, what the outpouring meant. Maybe God was telling us something. "
****
A wonderful, thoughtful column thats says so much so well.
SC Gov Sanford - A Man to Watch
Today is a great WSJ day - OpinionJournal: "Last year, Republican Gov. Mark Sanford carried two squealing piglets into the Statehouse to make a point against pork. This year, he brought a horse and buggy to the Statehouse entrance to argue against South Carolina's outmoded system of governance.
The common themes in Mr. Sanford's broad reform agenda include market competition, fiscal conservatism and government accountability.
As governor, he has encountered strong opposition from legislative Democrats who continue to fight his efforts to create private school competition to public education and to sharply cut the rate of individual income taxes. Senate Democrats, in particular, remain a force....
...the governor is being mentioned as a national political candidate because of his consistent conservatism, engaging "aw shucks" manner and winning campaign record. Recently, the Cato Institute rated him fifth on its Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors. (The folks at Cato will be pleased to know that he has informally indicated his intention to run for a second term.)
Though idiosyncratic in his approach to the Legislature, Mr. Sanford enjoys a level of popularity that even his detractors acknowledge. Last year, a poll done on behalf of the governor's office showed popular support for his legislative agenda--and displeasure with legislators who oppose it."
The common themes in Mr. Sanford's broad reform agenda include market competition, fiscal conservatism and government accountability.
As governor, he has encountered strong opposition from legislative Democrats who continue to fight his efforts to create private school competition to public education and to sharply cut the rate of individual income taxes. Senate Democrats, in particular, remain a force....
...the governor is being mentioned as a national political candidate because of his consistent conservatism, engaging "aw shucks" manner and winning campaign record. Recently, the Cato Institute rated him fifth on its Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors. (The folks at Cato will be pleased to know that he has informally indicated his intention to run for a second term.)
Though idiosyncratic in his approach to the Legislature, Mr. Sanford enjoys a level of popularity that even his detractors acknowledge. Last year, a poll done on behalf of the governor's office showed popular support for his legislative agenda--and displeasure with legislators who oppose it."
The Economist: After John Paul II
Who's Next? Theirs to Decide
Economist.com: "A NEW global togetherness flashed into being, and immediately began to disintegrate. That is how future historians may record the funeral of John Paul II on Friday April 8th, which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people and watched on television by perhaps as many as 2 billion, one-third of the human race.
Thanks mainly to the electronic possibilities which the pope used so well, his passing has generated, at least for a fleeting moment, an intense feeling of fraternity, and common destiny, among people in most corners of the earth. Of these, about 1.1 billion, or roughly 17% of mankind, are adherents of his faith; a huge number of others admired him from a greater distance.
For the pope’s keenest admirers, the two most striking features of the Catholic church in the years to come—whatever decisions are taken now—will be the lack of John Paul’s physical presence, and his influence as a source of inspiration. There is probably no other leader in the world whose funeral would be attended by both America’s George Bush and Iran’s Muhammad Khatami, and inspire fulsome tributes from them and from Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Nor, in the history of Christendom, has there been a prelate whose willingness to build bridges, and acknowledge past misdeeds, has drawn so many tributes from observant Jews, pious Muslims and non-Catholic Christians who are instinctively suspicious of Rome.
He assumed the papacy at a time when its importance in global affairs, along with that of most other religious institutions, seemed set to decline. He bequeaths a church which shows no sign of bowing out or running out of steam. Yet underneath the fanfare and the outpouring of grief, there is an uneasy feeling that the church faces not one but a series of overlapping existential challenges which no individual, however gifted or charismatic, can cope with alone.
Saintly pastor or able executive?
The next pope will need the votes of two-thirds of the 116 cardinal-electors. So a candidate can be blocked by the votes of 39. The Latin American cardinals alone can muster 21, and could probably count on the support of many of the other voters from the developing world. Intriguingly, under rules brought in by John Paul in 1996, in the event of a deadlock the two-thirds threshold can be dropped to a simple majority—if more than half the cardinals agree that this should happen.
Should a deadlock occur, it has always been assumed that the conclave could turn to someone of great spirituality.
Others, however, still feel that running a global organisation with 4,700 senior executives (bishops) and 400,000 line managers (priests) requires a capable executive rather than a saintly pastor. "
PJPII Funeral Mass
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Abortion Lowers the Crime Rate
In WSJ's Leisure & Arts:
"Back in 1999, Mr. Levitt was trying to figure out why crime rates had fallen so dramatically in the previous decade. He was struck by the fact that crime began falling nationwide just 18 years after the Supreme Court effectively legalized abortion. He was struck harder by the fact that in five states crime began falling three years earlier than it did everywhere else. These were exactly the five states that had legalized abortion three years before Roe v. Wade.
Did crime fall because hundreds of thousands of prospective criminals had been aborted? Once again, the pattern by itself is not conclusive, but once again Mr. Levitt piles pattern on pattern until the evidence overwhelms you. The bottom line? Legalized abortion was the single biggest factor in bringing the crime wave of the 1980s to a screeching halt.
Mr. Levitt repeatedly reminds us that economics is about what is true, not what ought to be true. To this reviewer's considerable delight, he cheerfully violates this principle at the end of the abortion discussion by daring to address the question of whether abortion ought to be legal or, more precisely, whether the effect on crime rates is a sufficient reason to legalize abortion. "
****
Mr. Landsburg, an economics professor at the University of Rochester, is the author of this book review of "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt. Dr. Levitt is the most recent winner of the John Bates Clark award for the best economist under the age of 40.
"Back in 1999, Mr. Levitt was trying to figure out why crime rates had fallen so dramatically in the previous decade. He was struck by the fact that crime began falling nationwide just 18 years after the Supreme Court effectively legalized abortion. He was struck harder by the fact that in five states crime began falling three years earlier than it did everywhere else. These were exactly the five states that had legalized abortion three years before Roe v. Wade.
Did crime fall because hundreds of thousands of prospective criminals had been aborted? Once again, the pattern by itself is not conclusive, but once again Mr. Levitt piles pattern on pattern until the evidence overwhelms you. The bottom line? Legalized abortion was the single biggest factor in bringing the crime wave of the 1980s to a screeching halt.
Mr. Levitt repeatedly reminds us that economics is about what is true, not what ought to be true. To this reviewer's considerable delight, he cheerfully violates this principle at the end of the abortion discussion by daring to address the question of whether abortion ought to be legal or, more precisely, whether the effect on crime rates is a sufficient reason to legalize abortion. "
****
Mr. Landsburg, an economics professor at the University of Rochester, is the author of this book review of "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt. Dr. Levitt is the most recent winner of the John Bates Clark award for the best economist under the age of 40.
Miniter on the Tax Code
WSJ - The Western Front: "The tax cuts Congress enacted during the president's first term are set to expire in 2010, and the commission is starting with the assumption that those cuts are made permanent. It's almost as if President Bush has been fitting the puzzle pieces together from the beginning of his presidency knowing that one day, this is where he would be. Congress now has to act or in just a few years a massive tax increase--including steep death tax rates and an income tax rate approaching 40%--will fall on the nation.
That brings us back to the question many Americans are asking as they try to make sense of the part of the tax code that applies to them: Is this all really necessary? Thankfully Congress may finally get around to asking that question itself."
That brings us back to the question many Americans are asking as they try to make sense of the part of the tax code that applies to them: Is this all really necessary? Thankfully Congress may finally get around to asking that question itself."
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Kerry Names CIA Operative
Senators May Have Named CIA Operative : "Senators may have blown the cover of a covert CIA officer yesterday...
the committee chairman, Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) mentioned a name that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.
In questioning Bolton, Kerry read from a transcript of closed-door interviews that committee staffers conducted with State Department officials before yesterday's hearing.
"Did Otto Reich share his belief that [the person in question] should be removed from his position? The answer is yes," Kerry said, characterizing one interview. "Did John Bolton share that view?" Kerry asked. Again, he said the answer was yes.
"As I said, I had lost confidence in Mr. Smith, and I conveyed that," Bolton replied. "I thought that was the honest thing to do."
the committee chairman, Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) mentioned a name that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.
In questioning Bolton, Kerry read from a transcript of closed-door interviews that committee staffers conducted with State Department officials before yesterday's hearing.
"Did Otto Reich share his belief that [the person in question] should be removed from his position? The answer is yes," Kerry said, characterizing one interview. "Did John Bolton share that view?" Kerry asked. Again, he said the answer was yes.
"As I said, I had lost confidence in Mr. Smith, and I conveyed that," Bolton replied. "I thought that was the honest thing to do."
What a Soldier Learned in Iraq
A personal story from a soldier returned from Iraq in WSJ's OpinionJournal : "There are no longer generators running, or armored vehicles rumbling, or mortars exploding, and the roar of the silence is deafening to me. What I hear at night now is the gentle breaths released from the perfect lips of my sons. The same lips that I cannot kiss enough. The lips that make my eyes fill with tears every time they touch my cheeks.
My release from Fort Drum came earlier than expected, so when I pulled into my driveway at noon the house was empty. I dropped my bags inside and walked alone through the rooms, soaking in the images and smells that had been only a memory during ten months in Iraq.
My older son's first-grade teacher had been wonderful to me while I was away. She sent school updates and pictures via e-mail almost weekly. So when I popped my head into her classroom she came running and gave me a 'welcome home' hug.
'Easton is practicing a song. Why don't you surprise him?'"
***********
Read it all and pass it on.
My release from Fort Drum came earlier than expected, so when I pulled into my driveway at noon the house was empty. I dropped my bags inside and walked alone through the rooms, soaking in the images and smells that had been only a memory during ten months in Iraq.
My older son's first-grade teacher had been wonderful to me while I was away. She sent school updates and pictures via e-mail almost weekly. So when I popped my head into her classroom she came running and gave me a 'welcome home' hug.
'Easton is practicing a song. Why don't you surprise him?'"
***********
Read it all and pass it on.
Watergate in Canada
Scandal Threatens Canadian Government (washingtonpost.com): "Canadians call it their Watergate -- a kickback scandal that has badly damaged the Liberal Party and now threatens to bring down the government of Paul Martin...
The scandal, based on a secret program that dates back to the 1990s and the Liberal Party leadership of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, erupted anew last Thursday when a judge probing the alleged misuse of public funds lifted a publication ban on testimony by a Montreal ad executive.
The executive, Jean Brault, who faces fraud charges stemming from the now-defunct program, told the federal inquiry that senior Liberals forced him to secretly divert more than $818,000 to the party's Quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts. During his six days of testimony, Brault spoke of hushed-up payments to Liberals in restaurants, money being given to a brother of Chretien, and reluctant contributions strong-armed out of employees.
Brault said he got $141 million in government business for his firm.
Chretien and Martin have vehemently denied any personal knowledge of wrongdoing.
"The problem with corruption, when it occurs -- and Watergate was a good example of this in the United States -- it undermines confidence in not just the people who are involved, but in the institution that they represent. That's the real worry," said Wesley Cragg, head of Transparency International Canada, a global anti-corruption coalition. "
The scandal, based on a secret program that dates back to the 1990s and the Liberal Party leadership of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, erupted anew last Thursday when a judge probing the alleged misuse of public funds lifted a publication ban on testimony by a Montreal ad executive.
The executive, Jean Brault, who faces fraud charges stemming from the now-defunct program, told the federal inquiry that senior Liberals forced him to secretly divert more than $818,000 to the party's Quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts. During his six days of testimony, Brault spoke of hushed-up payments to Liberals in restaurants, money being given to a brother of Chretien, and reluctant contributions strong-armed out of employees.
Brault said he got $141 million in government business for his firm.
Chretien and Martin have vehemently denied any personal knowledge of wrongdoing.
"The problem with corruption, when it occurs -- and Watergate was a good example of this in the United States -- it undermines confidence in not just the people who are involved, but in the institution that they represent. That's the real worry," said Wesley Cragg, head of Transparency International Canada, a global anti-corruption coalition. "
Monday, April 11, 2005
Clinton and Bowles at the UN
Clinton To Serve 2 Years as U.N. Envoy (washingtonpost.com): "Former president Bill Clinton will spend at least two years in his new role as the top U.N. envoy promoting recovery in tsunami-hit countries and demanding accountability for the unprecedented billions of dollars donated by countries and individuals, his deputy said.
Erskine B. Bowles said Clinton will also push for the construction of better homes, schools and hospitals in areas devastated by the killer waves and the adoption of new measures to warn against disasters and ensure quick action by governments when they occur. "
***
Read this all; especially the role of Erskine Bowles, a candidate for the US Senate who lost to Richard Burr (R-NC) last November, is fascinating to Southern political junkies.
Erskine B. Bowles said Clinton will also push for the construction of better homes, schools and hospitals in areas devastated by the killer waves and the adoption of new measures to warn against disasters and ensure quick action by governments when they occur. "
***
Read this all; especially the role of Erskine Bowles, a candidate for the US Senate who lost to Richard Burr (R-NC) last November, is fascinating to Southern political junkies.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Kristof Predicts Married Priests
Let Fathers Be Fathers: "Here's my prophecy about the next pope: He will allow married men to become priests...
No one understands the desperate need for clergy more than the cardinals themselves. In fact, John Paul II himself laid the groundwork for an end to the celibacy requirement...
Polls show that 70 percent of American Catholics believe priests should be able to marry. David Gibson, author of "The Coming Catholic Church," quotes Cardinal Roger Mahony as telling him that it's reasonable to raise the issue and adding: "We've had a married clergy since Day 1, since St. Peter."
As my Times colleague Peter Steinfels writes in "A People Adrift," his book about Catholics: "Today the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is on the verge of either an irreversible decline or a thoroughgoing transformation." Faced with that choice worldwide, losing ground to Pentecostals, the next pope will be forced to choose transformation.
***
Read it all. I think this will happen and personally I believe it is right...
No one understands the desperate need for clergy more than the cardinals themselves. In fact, John Paul II himself laid the groundwork for an end to the celibacy requirement...
Polls show that 70 percent of American Catholics believe priests should be able to marry. David Gibson, author of "The Coming Catholic Church," quotes Cardinal Roger Mahony as telling him that it's reasonable to raise the issue and adding: "We've had a married clergy since Day 1, since St. Peter."
As my Times colleague Peter Steinfels writes in "A People Adrift," his book about Catholics: "Today the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is on the verge of either an irreversible decline or a thoroughgoing transformation." Faced with that choice worldwide, losing ground to Pentecostals, the next pope will be forced to choose transformation.
***
Read it all. I think this will happen and personally I believe it is right...
Bush, Clinton, Bush
Bush picks brains of Clinton, father - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - April 09, 2005: "President Bush solicited foreign policy advice from former President Bill Clinton at CIA briefings this week and even told Mr. Clinton that he liked his approach to reforming Social Security.
'It was really a lot of fun, Mr. Bush told reporters yesterday after spending three days with Mr. Clinton and former President George Bush in Rome. 'These CIA briefings a lot of time prompt policy discussions,' he added. 'It's interesting to get their points of view about their experiences in particular countries.'
The president also praised one of Mr. Clinton's domestic policies -- trying to reform Social Security. Both men have proposed personal savings accounts as part of the solution, an idea that is vociferously opposed by congressional Democrats. 'I was telling President Clinton I remember watching one of his town hall meetings in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on this very subject,' Mr. Bush said just hours after bidding farewell to his predecessor at the Rome airport. 'And I thought it was a very impressive presentation,' he added. 'By the way, a lot of the language happens to be pretty close to some of the town hall meetings we've had.'"
'It was really a lot of fun, Mr. Bush told reporters yesterday after spending three days with Mr. Clinton and former President George Bush in Rome. 'These CIA briefings a lot of time prompt policy discussions,' he added. 'It's interesting to get their points of view about their experiences in particular countries.'
The president also praised one of Mr. Clinton's domestic policies -- trying to reform Social Security. Both men have proposed personal savings accounts as part of the solution, an idea that is vociferously opposed by congressional Democrats. 'I was telling President Clinton I remember watching one of his town hall meetings in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on this very subject,' Mr. Bush said just hours after bidding farewell to his predecessor at the Rome airport. 'And I thought it was a very impressive presentation,' he added. 'By the way, a lot of the language happens to be pretty close to some of the town hall meetings we've had.'"
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