/ambivalence

Turn On The Stimulus, Mr President

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:41:49 -0700

Op-Ed Columnist - The Stimulus Trap by Paul Krugman]

”[…]

As soon as the Obama administration-in-waiting announced its stimulus plan — this was before Inauguration Day — some of us worried that the plan would prove inadequate. And we also worried that it might be hard, as a political matter, to come back for another round.

Unfortunately, those worries have proved justified. The bad employment report for June made it clear that the stimulus was, indeed, too small. But it also damaged the credibility of the administration’s economic stewardship. There’s now a real risk that President Obama will find himself caught in a political-economic trap.

[…]

Unfortunately, the politics of fiscal policy are very different from the politics of monetary policy. For the past 30 years, we’ve been told that government spending is bad, and conservative opposition to fiscal stimulus (which might make people think better of government) has been bitter and unrelenting even in the face of the worst slump since the Great Depression. Predictably, then, Republicans — and some Democrats — have treated any bad news as evidence of failure, rather than as a reason to make the policy stronger.

Hence the danger that the Obama administration will find itself caught in a political-economic trap, in which the very weakness of the economy undermines the administration’s ability to respond effectively.

As I said, I was afraid this would happen. But that’s water under the bridge. The question is what the president and his economic team should do now.

It’s perfectly O.K. for the administration to defend what it’s done so far. It’s fine to have Vice President Joseph Biden touring the country, highlighting the many good things the stimulus money is doing.

It’s also reasonable for administration economists to call for patience, and point out, correctly, that the stimulus was never expected to have its full impact this summer, or even this year.

But there’s a difference between defending what you’ve done so far and being defensive. It was disturbing when President Obama walked back Mr. Biden’s admission that the administration “misread” the economy, declaring that “there’s nothing we would have done differently.” There was a whiff of the Bush infallibility complex in that remark, a hint that the current administration might share some of its predecessor’s inability to admit mistakes. And that’s an attitude neither Mr. Obama nor the country can afford.

What Mr. Obama needs to do is level with the American people. He needs to admit that he may not have done enough on the first try. He needs to remind the country that he’s trying to steer the country through a severe economic storm, and that some course adjustments — including, quite possibly, another round of stimulus — may be necessary.”

The stimulus is obviously inadequate when various US states are talking about laying off teachers, administrators and other workers, and cutting aid to poor children. Fund the programs and keep these people employed. Pour serious money into the transportation infrastructure, which is an investment we will benefit from for decades.

Kurds Start The Breakup

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:28:49 -0700

[via Kurds Defy Baghdad, Laying Claim to Land and Oil by Sam Dahger]

“With little notice and almost no public debate, Iraq’s Kurdish leaders are pushing ahead with a new constitution for their semiautonomous region, a step that has alarmed Iraqi and American officials who fear that the move poses a new threat to the country’s unity.

The new constitution, approved by Kurdistan’s parliament two weeks ago and scheduled for a referendum this year, underscores the level of mistrust and bad faith between the region and the central government in Baghdad. And it raises the question of whether a peaceful resolution of disputes between the two is possible, despite intensive cajoling by the United States.

The proposed constitution enshrines Kurdish claims to territories and the oil and gas beneath them. But these claims are disputed by both the federal government in Baghdad and ethnic groups on the ground, and were supposed to be resolved in talks begun quietly last month between the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, sponsored by the United Nations and backed by the United States. Instead, the Kurdish parliament pushed ahead and passed the constitution, partly as a message that it would resist pressure from the American and Iraqi governments to make concessions.

The disputed areas, in northern Iraq, are already volatile: There have been several tense confrontations between Kurdish and federal security forces, as well as frequent attacks aimed at inflaming sectarian and ethnic passions there.

The Obama administration, which is gradually withdrawing American troops from Iraq, was surprised and troubled by the Kurdish move. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., sent to Iraq on July 2 for three days, criticized it in diplomatic and indirect, though unmistakably strong, language as “not helpful” to the administration’s goal of reconciling Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds, in an interview with ABC News.”

The inevitable dissolution of the Iraq state has begun. All the kings horses can’t keep the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites together. Iraq is a remnant of old failed empires - Persian, Ottoman, British - and there is absolutely no trust between the Kurds and anyone else in the region, nor is it clear that there should or could be.

The oddest note is that Biden was the one US leader who openly called for trifurcation of the country as a resolution of the conflict there, and now he is point man for the US policy, which is keeping Iraq in one piece. Good luck, Joe.

scifiblue: Peru209 (via maron68)

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:48:54 -0700

scifiblue:

Peru209 (via maron68)

Yet Another Waffle

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:41:55 -0700

[via brigno]

The Obama Administration went back on Candidate Obama’s pledge to end a ban on needle-exchange funding, with a spokesperson saying, “We have not removed the ban in our budget proposal because we want to work with Congress and the American public to build support for this change.” In protest, 26 AIDS activists chained themselves together in the Capitol Rotunda this morning, causing quite a scene. All were arrested and booked on charges including disorderly conduct, loud and boisterous behavior and unlawful assembly. As AmericaBlog points out, the scenario of a campaign pledge put off for an indeterminate time while garnering support (with no signs of action) might ring a few bells.”

—

26 AIDS Activists Arrested Protesting Needle-Exchange Waffling

Obama. Lots of “words” and full of “promises” with little or no action. Typical politician. | We are watching you, Mr President.

thedailywhat: Wall Clock Design Concept of the Day: “Black...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:39:26 -0700

thedailywhat:

Wall Clock Design Concept of the Day: “Black & White Clock” by Vadim Kibardin.

Four self-contained OLEDs that can be fixed to any surface. Best part? A light sensor embedded in each one switches the figures’ color from black during the daytime to white when it gets dark.

[via.]

-clu-: booby4649: benjaminhilts: 1947 | Billie Holiday;...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:36:44 -0700

-clu-:

booby4649:

benjaminhilts:

1947 | Billie Holiday; Downbeat (Jazz Club); West 52nd Street (William P. Gottlieb) (via straatis)

The Cleaner - Sam Jackson, Eva Mendes, Ed Harris, Luis Guzman,...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:32:18 -0700

The Cleaner - Sam Jackson, Eva Mendes, Ed Harris, Luis Guzman, Keke Palmer

(via zerokelvin)

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:25:30 -0700

(via zerokelvin)

"The noblest dog of all is the hot dog, for it feeds the hand that bites it."

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:51:31 -0700

“The noblest dog of all is the hot dog, for it feeds the hand that bites it.”

- David Addington

edward burtynsky - mammoth // building nothing out of something

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:06:08 -0700

edward burtynsky - mammoth // building nothing out of something

import.export ARCHITECTURE (Oscar Rommens en Joris Van Reusel,...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:04:27 -0700

import.export ARCHITECTURE (Oscar Rommens en Joris Van Reusel, architecten) designed a new type of ‘small scale’ urban camping. The mobile UC can be implanted in any city centre that likes to experiment with this new type of camping. UC is a place where adventurous city wanderers can stay overnight, meet other campers and find a safe shelter with basic designed practical facilities. From 24th April until 24th May 2009, UC was constructed for the first time on the Antwerp shores of the Scheldt, for the Kaailand Festival exhibition on mobile architecture. This summer, UC will have a temporary resurrection by the Antwerp tourist service in Copenhagen, for the occasion of the project OUTCITIES from 25th July until 1st August, to promote the city of Antwerp and its innovative policy in terms of tourism. (via Dezeen » Blog Archive » Urban Camping by import.export)

‘Vegetated States: Growth Between Booms’ An empty...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:01:49 -0700

‘Vegetated States: Growth Between Booms’
An empty development site on Rincon Hill’s Fremont Street becomes a sculptured habitat in the conceptual design

“Vegetated States” by Sarah Kuehl, Owen Kennerly, Adam Greenspan and Sarina Bowen.

(via SF Gate: An empty development site on Rincon Hill’s Fremont Street… Multimedia (image))

[via Survey Shows Gap Between Scientists and the Public - NYTimes.com] “When it comes to...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:46:22 -0700

[via Survey Shows Gap Between Scientists and the Public - NYTimes.com]

“When it comes to climate change, the teaching of evolution and the state of the nation’s research enterprise, there is a large gap between what scientists think and the views of ordinary Americans, a new survey has found.

On the whole, scientists believe American research leads the world. But only 17 percent of the public agree — and the proportion who name scientific advances as among the nation’s most important achievements has fallen to 27 percent from nearly 50 percent in 1999, the survey found.

And while almost all of the scientists surveyed accept that human beings evolved by natural processes and that human activity, chiefly the burning of fossil fuels, is causing global warming, members of the general public are far less sure.

Almost a third say human beings have existed in their current form since the beginning of time, a view held by only 2 percent of the scientists. Only about half agree that people are behind climate change, and 11 percent do not believe there is any warming at all.

According to the survey, about a third of Americans think there is lively scientific debate on both topics; in fact, there is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution and there is little doubt that human activity is altering the chemistry of the atmosphere in ways that threaten global climate.”

News like this makes me despair.

How can people get such wrong-headed notions, founded on total malarky?

I was talking with a friend last night, bemoaning the fact that peopl don’t seem to know where electricity comes from, and don’t seem to care.How could you live in a world and not want to know its major rivers, or the migrations of language groups across the Earth, or what porcupines eat?

But to deny evolution seems to me to be iconic, a statuary sort of ignorance, based on religiousity and denial.

via Ithaca Bucks

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:07:13 -0700

via Ithaca Bucks

via Time Is Money

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:05:38 -0700

via Time Is Money

G-8 Nations On Climate Change: Fail!

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:42:00 -0700

[via G-8 Nations Fail to Agree on Plan to Fight Climate Change]

“The world’s major industrial nations and newly emerging powers failed to agree Wednesday on specific cuts in heat-trapping gases by 2050, undercutting an effort to build a global consensus to fight climate change, according to people following the talks.

As President Obama arrived for three days of meetings, negotiators for the world’s 17 leading polluters dropped a proposal to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by midcentury, and emissions from the most advanced economies by 80 percent. But both the G-8 and the developing countries agreed to set a goal of stopping world temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels.

[…]

The failure to establish specific targets on climate change underscored the difficulty in bridging longstanding divisions between the most developed countries like the United States and developing nations like China and India. In the end, people close to the talks said, the emerging powers refused to agree to the specific emissions limits because they wanted industrial countries to commit to midterm goals in 2020, and to follow through on promises of financial and technological help.

“They’re saying, ‘We just don’t trust you guys,’ ” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group based in the United States. “It’s the same gridlock we had last year when Bush was president.”

American officials said they still had made an important breakthrough because the G-8 countries within the negotiations agreed to adopt the 2050 reduction goals, even though the developing countries would not.

And they said a final agreement with developing countries, including China and India, to be sealed on Thursday would include important conceptual commitments by the emerging powers to begin reducing emissions and to set a target date. Now negotiators will have to try to quantifying those commitments in coming months.

While the nations mapped out a general agreement to limit global temperature change, there remained differences between the level of commitment from developed and developing nations. The G-8 draft statement would have the major industrial powers “recognize that global emissions should peak by 2020 and then be substantially reduced to limit the average increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.” The statement by the developing countries would be less definitive, however, saying that scientific consensus supports such a goal.

Mr. Meyer said temperatures have already risen by 0.8 degrees and will likely rise by another 0.6 degrees just based on pollution already in the air, meaning that embracing the 2-degree goal would require major steps starting almost immediately.”

The likelihood is that we will be hard pressed to avoid a 4ºC increase in global temperatures, which will be devastating: it will lead to the extinction of more that half the world’s species of animals, for example.

But the world, and it’s ersatz leaders, continue on in a la-ti-da fashion, as if this is some bad dream that we are going to wake up from.

Obama and these other guys are smart enough to know that this is the greatest issue of our times, but they continue to treat it as a secondary issue, while they fool around with regulating banks and propping up icons of industrial rapine like GM and Chrystler.

I have no hope that we can meet the 2ºC goal, whatsoever. We should all start to prepare for 3ºC or worse climate change by 2020. It’s already speeding up faster than any scientist’s predictions.

This Is No Easter Egg Hunt:130,000 In US Sickened By Eggs Each Year

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:08:50 -0700

[Administration Issues New Rules on Egg Safety by Gardiner Harris]

“In 1988, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that thousands of people were being sickened after eating raw eggs that appeared clean and undamaged. Researchers discovered that chickens that are chronically infected with salmonella laid eggs laced with the bacteria, which can sicken and kill humans.

Officials at the Agriculture Department and the F.D.A. bickered for years over who should oversee regulatory efforts.

Agriculture officials set up a pilot program in Pennsylvania in 1992 to test regulatory efforts and found that one source of contamination was mouse and rat feces in chicken feed. Another problem was infected breeder hens. Pest controls, certified breeders, regular manure testing and other measures helped reduce the share of infected henhouses in the state to 7 percent from 39 percent, said Paul H. Patterson, a professor of poultry science at Pennsylvania State University.

More than a dozen other states copied Pennsylvania’s program while federal regulators bickered. In 1999, President Bill Clinton announced that the F.D.A. would issue an egg rule. Nothing happened. In 2004, the agency issued a proposed egg rule. Nothing happened. The egg rule released Tuesday largely copied Pennsylvania’s voluntary program but made it mandatory.

Howard Magwire, vice president of the United Egg Producers, said his industry supported the new rule. About 250 major egg producers in the United States account for 99 percent of fresh egg production, Mr. Magwire said, and most already abide by the rule. Since the rule applies only to producers with 3,000 or more laying hens, thousands of small producers are exempt.

Federal researchers estimated that more than 130,000 people are sickened every year and 30 die as a result of contaminated eggs, and the government estimated that the new rule would cut illnesses by 60 percent and save $1.4 billion in health costs.

The odyssey of the egg rule shows just how dysfunctional the government’s oversight of food safety has become, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. “Even when everyone agrees on the policy direction, it takes forever,” she said. “

If we needed proof that bureaucracies go slow, even when there is an obvious social need and all parties agree, this is it. And this I lay at the feet of Bill Clinton, and a nod to Obama’s people for finally threading the needle.

[via NASA Confirms Dramatic Thinning of Arctic Sea Ice -...

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:39:10 -0700

[via NASA Confirms Dramatic Thinning of Arctic Sea Ice - Multi-Year Ice Area the Size of Alaska Lost : TreeHugger]

“New satellite data from NASA confirms what research released a couple months of go said regarding the thinning of Arctic sea ice. Namely that it has thinned dramatically in the past four years and that for the first time in recorded history seasonal sea ice cover has replaced multi-year ice as the dominant ice type. In fact, multi-year ice cover the size of the Alaska has been lost just between 2004-2008:

NASA says that by using ICESat measurements they have determined that overall Arctic sea ice thinned by about 7” per year, resulting in a total loss over the past four winters of 22.2”. Additionally, the total area of multi-year ice cover has shrunk by 42%.

Multi-year sea ice is on average 9’ thick, while seasonal ice cover is on average 6’ thick.”

Meanwhile, everyone is talking about MJ, Wimbledon, and the week’s casualties in Iraq.

microwalrus: j-p-g: G_DSC_0097.jpg (via robgo76)

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:55:26 -0700

microwalrus:

j-p-g:

G_DSC_0097.jpg (via robgo76)

thedailywhat: Wall Clock Design Concept of the Day: “Trace of...

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:54:00 -0700

thedailywhat:

Wall Clock Design Concept of the Day: “Trace of Time” by Il-Gu Cha.

Appointments written on the glass and steel clock face get wiped away by the timepiece’s eraser-hand as it passes over them, symbolizing the transience of urgency or whatever.

[via.]

See Also: A Clock A Day. (via.)

| Perhaps for a family kitchen.