hsuperpolitical

progress lies in the hands of representative legislatures

2009-10-22T06:04:00.003-04:00

I've been only somewhat following the California governor's race, but I kept asking myself the same question: where's the progressive alternative here? It seems, superficially, that leading-contender Attorney General Jerry Brown would be rather conservative in a lot of his policy-making; for example, rather than strongly supporting restoration of majority-rule in budget and revenue decisions, he's implied that he'd much rather continue the current Schwarzenegger policy of cutting state programs and services until we have no infrastructure left. The other major Democratic Party contender, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, has come out strongly for budget and revenue reform, and is known (deservedly or not) as one of the greatest allies of the LGBTQ movement in the state, but as Calitics has reported, Newsom for whatever reason enjoys throwing due process out the window, at least when it comes to the right of immigrant children. Again, I haven't been following the race very closely, so I'm not sure whether there are more factors here, but it seems at a glance that neither candidate is a particularly appealing option for progressives. So what are progressives to do?

I think the answer is clear: the progressive alternative is a representative legislature. Just yesterday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors restored civil liberties by passing a veto-proof bill overturning Newsom's executive action. There is, of course, also the example of the ongoing health reform debate in Congress. The expected leadership from the White House has been absent (as it has been, unfortunately, on other issues of major concern). It has been Speaker Pelosi, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Tri-Caucus (CBC, CHC, and CAPAC), and generally the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives that have been pushing the frontier on the legislation and trying to make some meaningful health reform happen.

Progress in the country requires not only the will of the people to aspire to a better deal, but elected representatives who are actually accountable to that will. The design of the Senate, and the inherent nature of executives elected by millions upon millions of people, render these branches rather immune to the popular cause. It is representative legislatures, such as the House and state and local legislatures, that can and will be the driving force of progressive change. FDR, after all, would not have had the success he did without the strong majorities making up the New Deal Coalition in Congress.

What this means practically is that concerned citizens need to shift their resources and focus--as voters, donors, and volunteers--away from imperial executives and onto representative legislators. Individuals and groups inevitably will have more influence, given the smaller constituency size, but perhaps more importantly, the regularity of elections allows for continuous accountability.

feminism can feed the world

2009-10-21T16:41:00.003-04:00

Natasha Chart at Open Left writes on how feminism can fight global warming; her hypothesis, writ short, is that increasing educational and economic opportunities for women reduces the birthrate, and thus reduces the number of people who are creating CO2 (not to mention also reducing maternal mortality rates and a host of other bad things).

It would seem to follow as well, with regard to my last post, that this would likewise be an effective way of reducing the number of malnourished persons around the world. Even more effective, perhaps.

the world is getting hungrier

2009-10-21T12:30:00.004-04:00

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reports that over 1 billion people are malnourished around the world, and that the problem is likely getting worse:

After gains in the fight against hunger in the 1980s and early 1990s, the number of undernourished people started climbing in 1995, reaching 1.02 billion this year under the combined effect of high food prices and the global financial meltdown, the agency said. The figure topped the 1 billion mark in June, and was 963 million a year ago.

The blame for the long-term trend rests largely on the reduced share of aid and private investments earmarked for agriculture over recent years, the Rome-based agency said in its State of Food Insecurity report for 2009.

"In the fight against hunger the focus should be on increasing food production," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said. "It's common sense ... that agriculture would be given the priority, but the opposite has happened."

In 1980, 17% of aid contributed by donor countries went to agriculture. That share was down to 3.8% in 2006 and only slightly improved in the last three years, Diouf said in an interview with AP Television News.

[...]

Thirty countries now require emergency food assistance, including 20 in Africa. FAO announced in June that the number of hungry people had reached 1 billion, or one in six of the world's population. The world's most populous region, Asia and the Pacific, has the largest number of hungry people — 642 million — followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 265 million.

"The current crisis is historically unprecedented" said the new report. "With developing countries today more financially and commercially integrated into the world economy than they were 20 years ago, they are far more exposed to shocks in international markets."

[...][M]ore investments will be needed to fulfill pledges like the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve of the number of those living in hunger and poverty by 2015, the report said.

"an organization's whose sole desire, and drive, is the pursuit and seduction of goats"

2009-10-14T11:59:00.001-04:00

Jon Stewart (and John Oliver) on the stunning lack of fact-checking at CNN:

CNN Leaves It There

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Ron Paul Interview

nobel prize week, day 5: well, that was unexpected

2009-10-09T08:51:00.003-04:00

Pres. Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009?!

Nobelprize.org is down for the moment, I assume overrun by the unexpected increase in interest.

update: Ah, there we go: The Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009 goes to President Barack Obama, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

From the press release:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

nobel prize week, day 4

2009-10-08T22:12:00.004-04:00

Day 4 is the Prize for Literature, but as always, we wait in anticipation for Day 5, the Peace Prize. Last year, there was a lot of build-up, with predictions that Human Rights Watch or Chinese dissidents would win the award, but alas, a career diplomat won the prize. Undeterred, would-be soothsayers claim (yet again) that the Nobel Prize committee is seeking to "return to activist roots," with top odds on former hostage Ingrid Betancourt (France), PM Morgan Tsvangirai (Zimbabwe), peace mediator Sen. Piedad Cordoba (Colombia), and human rights activist Dr. Sima Samar (Afghanistan). Given how far off mark the predictions were last year, I won't put too much credence on this list (which also mentions President Obama and French President Sarkozy), but if I had to guess, I'd guess PM Tsvangirai as a relatively safe pick for the Committee that will still make them feel like they're "boosting" the position of a peace maker.

But on to Literature! The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2009 is awarded to Herta Müller (Germany), "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

From her bio:

Herta Müller was born on August 17, 1953 in the German-speaking town Nitzkydorf in Banat, Romania. Her parents were members of the German-speaking minority in Romania. Her father had served in the Waffen SS during World War II. Many German Romanians were deported to the Soviet Union in 1945, including Müller's mother who spent five years in a work camp in present-day Ukraine. Many years later, in Atemschaukel (2009), Müller was to depict the exile of the German Romanians in the Soviet Union. From 1973 to 1976, Müller studied German and Romanian literature at the university in Timişoara (Temeswar). During this period, she was associated with Aktionsgruppe Banat, a circle of young German-speaking authors who, in opposition to Ceauşescu’s dictatorship, sought freedom of speech. After completing her studies, she worked as a translator at a machine factory from 1977 to 1979. She was dismissed when she refused to be an informant for the secret police. After her dismissal, she was harassed by Securitate.

Müller made her debut with the collection of short stories Niederungen (1982), which was censored in Romania. Two years later, she published the uncensored version in Germany and, in the same year, Drückender Tango in Romania. In these two works, Müller depicts life in a small, German-speaking village and the corruption, intolerance and repression to be found there. The Romanian national press was very critical of these works while, outside of Romania, the German press received them very positively. Because Müller had publicly criticized the dictatorship in Romania, she was prohibited from publishing in her own country. In 1987, Müller emigrated together with her husband, author Richard Wagner.

The novels Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger (1992), Herztier (1994; The Land of Green Plums, 1996) and Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet (1997; The Appointment, 2001) give, with chiselled details, a portrait of daily life in a stagnated dictatorship. Müller has given guest lectures at universities, colleges and other venues in Paderborn, Warwick, Hamburg, Swansea, Gainsville (Florida), Kassel, Göttingen, Tübingen and Zürich among other places. She lives in Berlin. Since 1995 she has served as a member of Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, in Darmstadt.

And her listed works (1982-present) (works noted by the bibliography in bold):

Niederungen. – 1982
Drückender Tango : Erzählungen. – 1984
Der Mensch ist ein groβer Fasan auf der Welt : Roman. – 1986
Barfüβiger Februar : Prosa. – 1987
Reisende auf einem Bein. – 1989
Der Teufel sitzt im Spiegel. – 1991
Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger : Roman. – 1992
Eine warme Kartoffel ist ein warmes Bett. – 1992
Der Wächter nimmt seinen Kamm : vom Weggehen und Ausscheren. – 1993
Herztier : Roman. – 1994 (The Land of Green Plums. - 1996)
Hunger und Seide : Essays. – 1995
In der Falle. – 1996
Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet. – 1997 (The Appointment. - 2001)
Der fremde Blick oder Das Leben ist ein Furz in der Laterne. – 1999
Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame. – 2000
Heimat ist das, was gesprochen wird. – 2001
Der König verneigt sich und tötet. – 2003
Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen. – 2005
Atemschaukel : Roman. – 2009

Selected Criticism
Die erfundene Wahrnehmung : Annäherung an Herta Müller / Norbert Otto Eke (Hg.). – 1991
Der Druck der Erfahrung treibt die Sprache in die Dichtung : Bildlichkeit in Texten Herta Müllers / Ralph Köhnen (Hrsg.). – 1997
Herta Müller / edited by Brigid Haines. – 1998
Predoiu, Grazziella, Faszination und Provokation bei Herta Müller : eine thematische und motivische Auseinandersetzung. – 2000
Dascalu, Bogdan Mihai, Held und Welt in Herta Müllers Erzählungen. – 2004
Bozzi, Paola, Der fremde Blick : zum Werk Herta Müllers. – 2005
Patrut, Iulia-Karin, Schwarze Schwester - Teufelsjunge : Ethnizität und Geschlecht bei Paul Celan und Herta Müller. – 2006

pres. obama nominates judge denny chin, other apias to federal judgeships

2009-10-07T17:34:00.001-04:00

Remember how during the Democratic presidential primaries, 80-20 called for then-Sen. Obama's defeat because he refused to fill out their questionnaire? Many folks then, including me, were baffled, since the questions seemed like softballs.

Well, there are recent signs of hope that while Candidate Obama didn't make the pledges at that time we hoped for, he's going to actually carry them out anyway. Pledges #4 asked then-Sen. Obama to nominate more APIAs to become Article III life-tenured judges (at the time APIAs comprised only 0.6% of all federal judges, despite comprising 4.5% of the population and 5.3% of all attorneys at top 100 law firms), and Pledge #4 asked for him to nominate an APIA to a Circuit Court of Appeal during his first term (there are no APIAs sitting on federal Courts of Appeal).

As the saying goes, talk is cheap, and Pres. Obama is walking the walk. Yesterday, Pres. Obama nominated federal district court Judge Denny Chin (SDNY) to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. If confirmed, he would be the sole active-status APIA Circuit Court judge (Judge A. Wallace Tashima of the Ninth Circuit is a Senior Judge, which means he does not have a full caseload--h/t angry).

But wait, there's more! The President has also nominated three APIAs to federal district courts in California: Jacqueline H. Nguyen to the Central District of California, Edward Milton Chen to the Northern District of California, and Dolly M. Gee to the Central District of California. From the Alliance for Justice blog:

If confirmed, Edward Milton Chen would be the first Asian Pacific American district court judge in the history of the NDCA, (this is especially significant given that approximately 35% of the population in San Francisco is Asian Pacific American). Dolly M. Gee would be the first Chinese American female district court judge in the history of the United States, and Jacqueline H. Nguyen would be the first Vietnamese American district court judge in he history of the United States and the first Asian Pacific American female district court judge in California history.

In American history, there have been only four Asian American federal circuit court judges and 14 Asian American federal district court judges. Asian Americans are still significantly underrepresented on the federal bench.

AFJ has an interesting fact sheet as well.

nobel prize week, day 3

2009-10-07T12:33:00.003-04:00

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 is jointly awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (UK), Thomas A. Steitz (USA), and Ada E. Yonath (Israel) "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."

From the press release, these breakthroughs may lead to better antibiotics:

Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.

[...]

An understanding of the ribosome's innermost workings is important for a scientific understanding of life. This knowledge can be put to a practical and immediate use; many of today's antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes. Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics.

Go Science!

nobel prize week, days 1&2: medicine and physics

2009-10-06T23:09:00.002-04:00

Oh my, I seemed to have almost missed Nobel Prize week, one of my favorite weeks of the year! Monday was day one... I'm so behind.

As always, the primer: The Nobel Prize series is named after Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and entrepreneur living at the dawn of the 20th century who bequeathed much of his fortune to the Nobel Foundation. The prizes, awarded since 1901, and including awards of $1.5 million for innovation in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Economics, are given annually by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2009 is jointly awarded to Elizabeth H. Blackburn (USA), Carol W. Greider (USA), and Jack W. Szostak (USA) "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase." From the press release, on Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak's discovery of "how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation":

The long, thread-like DNA molecules that carry our genes are packed into chromosomes, the telomeres being the caps on their ends. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation. Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes telomere DNA. These discoveries explained how the ends of the chromosomes are protected by the telomeres and that they are built by telomerase.

If the telomeres are shortened, cells age. Conversely, if telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained, and cellular senescence is delayed. This is the case in cancer cells, which can be considered to have eternal life. Certain inherited diseases, in contrast, are characterized by a defective telomerase, resulting in damaged cells. The award of the Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies.

[...]

These discoveries had a major impact within the scientific community. Many scientists speculated that telomere shortening could be the reason for ageing, not only in the individual cells but also in the organism as a whole. But the ageing process has turned out to be complex and it is now thought to depend on several different factors, the telomere being one of them. Research in this area remains intense.

Most normal cells do not divide frequently, therefore their chromosomes are not at risk of shortening and they do not require high telomerase activity. In contrast, cancer cells have the ability to divide infinitely and yet preserve their telomeres. How do they escape cellular senescence? One explanation became apparent with the finding that cancer cells often have increased telomerase activity. It was therefore proposed that cancer might be treated by eradicating telomerase. Several studies are underway in this area, including clinical trials evaluating vaccines directed against cells with elevated telomerase activity.

[...]

In conclusion, the discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies.

Yay telomerase!

On to Day 2. The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 is half-awarded to Charles K. Kao (China) "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication"" and jointly half-awarded to Willard S. Boyle (USA) and George E. Smith (USA) "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor."

From the press release on Kao's breakthrough on fiber optics:

In 1966, Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. With a fiber of purest glass it would be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilometers, compared to only 20 meters for the fibers available in the 1960s. Kao's enthusiasm inspired other researchers to share his vision of the future potential of fiber optics. The first ultrapure fiber was successfully fabricated just four years later, in 1970.

Today optical fibers make up the circulatory system that nourishes our communication society. These low-loss glass fibers facilitate global broadband communication such as the Internet. Light flows in thin threads of glass, and it carries almost all of the telephony and data traffic in each and every direction. Text, music, images and video can be transferred around the globe in a split second.

If we were to unravel all of the glass fibers that wind around the globe, we would get a single thread over one billion kilometers long – which is enough to encircle the globe more than 25 000 times – and is increasing by thousands of kilometers every hour.

And from the press release on Boyle and Smith's contribution to the revolution that is digital photography:

In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). The CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect, as theorized by Albert Einstein and for which he was awarded the 1921 year's Nobel Prize. By this effect, light is transformed into electric signals. The challenge when designing an image sensor was to gather and read out the signals in a large number of image points, pixels, in a short time.

The CCD is the digital camera's electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. The digital form facilitates the processing and distribution of these images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.

Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in many fields of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visualize the previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of distant places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans.

That was much, more more comprehensible than last year's award ""for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."

Internet and digital cameras for everyone! And then some anti-aging telomerase, on the rocks, please.

one application process closer to high speed rail in ca

2009-09-25T17:02:00.000-04:00

Fresno Bee reports:

California's bullet train planners are going after $4.6 billion in federal stimulus money, including nearly $1.3 billion to begin work on the route from Merced to Bakersfield through Fresno.

The state High Speed Rail Authority unanimously approved the application at a hearing Wednesday, along with plans to match the funding with state and local money.

[...]

California's application seeks more than half of the $8 billion in federal stimulus money dedicated to high-speed rail construction.
Quantcast

Regions expected to compete for the money include Florida, the Northeast and the Midwest. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must formally submit California's bid by Oct. 2.

The rail line, estimated to cost about $40 billion, is planned to eventually run from Sacramento and San Francisco to San Diego, with trains hitting top speeds of 220 mph.

We'll see how this turns out; California will be competing with a lot of other folks for these funds. Notably, California's HSR proposal seems to be the only one that envisions 220mph trains, though it is unlikely these speeds would be reached outside of the Central Valley stretch of the line. I imagine the remainder would resemble Amtrak's current Northeast Corridor Acela service, traveling at about a third of that speed.

The Northeast should have a strong application, given the existing high rail ridership and experience from medium-speed Amtrak Acela service (79 mph). None of these funds could go to pushing Acela up to its supposed max speed of 150, but additional branches to Pittsburgh, Albany and Buffalo, and even possibly Montreal would see trains traveling up to 125mph.

The Midwest proposal involves eight states (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri) centering around Chicago as the hub city; their proposal is tied into the effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. A couple of downsides of the Midwest proposal: 1) the trains wouldn't be true high speed, with maximum speeds of 110mph, the minimum required for ARRA high-speed rail funds, and; 2) one of the most useful routes, St. Louis to Chicago, may not happen anytime soon, given that it would require an additional $1.9 billion or so just to build new track for that already busy corridor.

Florida is seeking $2.5 billion to link Tampa and Orlando, a rail network that would eventually also link Orlando and Miami.

medicare is populare; compare public health option to medicare

2009-09-25T06:54:00.000-04:00

DUH:

"Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?"

Favor 65%
Oppose 26%

is getting your seasonal (regular) flu shot more important than getting h1n1 vaccinated?

2009-09-24T21:25:00.005-04:00

Allow David McCandless at InformationisBeautiful.net to illustrate:

The light blue circle is seasonal flu (9.4%), and the tiny pink one (second from the bottom) is H1N1 (0.5%), a.k.a. "swine flu." The numbers listed are

Note: The latest figures for swine flu put the fatality rate at more like 1.1%. There is no question that swine flu is going to hit much harder this winter than it did last, and these numbers may change completely by the end of the flu season. The CDC is already reporting that most cases of flu this year are the H1N1 strain.

Additional Caveat: I believe that the seasonal flu number is from those who were hospitalized for the disease, though the same holds true for H1N1 (swine flu), so the relative comparison should still be accurate. So there isn't a 9% fatality rate for everyone who gets the seasonal flu, just those hospitalized. Still, there are, worldwide, annually 250,000 to 500,000 deaths from seasonal flu, as opposed to currently under 3,500 H1N1 fatalities. Again, those numbers are subject to dramatic change as flu season continues.

Regardless of which is worse, get your seasonal flu shot. H1N1 vaccinations are likely to be limited to high-risk populations.

friendly reminders

2009-09-19T06:02:00.000-04:00

...that Pres. Obama is one of us:

This follow's "PC Guy's" (John Hodgman of The Daily Show) roast of the President at the Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner early this year, calling Pres. Obama "the first Nerd President of the modern era":

health inequality costs $310 billion a year

2009-09-18T06:58:00.000-04:00

Since D.C. can't seem to break out of the "cost" framework and seize this moment for a broader dialogue about real health system reform, let's discuss this "cost" tidbit from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies: The economic toll of health inequality for the nation from 2003-2006 was $1.24 trillion, or about $310 billion each year. That includes about $230 billion in direct medical care costs and the rest from indirect costs to the economy in lost work days due to illness, disability costs, and lost productivity due to premature death.

These calculations may be new, but many health advocates have long recognized that failure to address racial and ethnic health inequities, both in terms of health status and access to quality care, is a failure to truly reform our system. There is pending legislation that would begin to address many of these inequities: H.R. 3090, co-sponsored by the TriCaucus (Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus). It was introduced in late-June and is sitting in 10 different committees.

Somme clever Congressperson might offer the key pieces of it as an amendment as the three House Committee bills get consolidated.

happy constitution day!

2009-09-17T22:21:00.001-04:00

I love the Constitution!

h/t dKos for the reminder & Schoolhouse Rock link!

doctors support the public option

2009-09-17T15:39:00.002-04:00

A New England Journal of Medicine poll shows that 73% of physicians support a Medicare-like public insurance plan (10% support a single-payer public option only, and 63% support a mix of public and private options) (h/t dKos).

The American Medical Association currently opposes a public insurance option, meaning that they are out of touch with a majority of their own members:

[T]here was also majority support for a public option among AMA members (62.2%).

back to 46

2009-09-10T16:27:00.003-04:00

The Census Bureau reported today that the number of uninsured Americans increased to 46.3 million in 2008, 600,000 more than in 2007, when the number dropped to 45.7 million after the 2006 peak of 47 million. Undoubtedly, when the Census Bureau releases new numbers next year for 2009, they will be even higher, due to the fact that the only drop in uninsurance rates has been coming from children, and S-CHIP programs were slashed in states across the country this year. If uninsurance increases among the young, the overall rate of uninsurance will increase even more rapidly.

This is why, as fantastic as President Obama's speech was on Wednesday, I am quibbling over his statement targeting progressives in Congress that implies that a public insurance option is only one possible means to the end of reforming the health care system. It is, in fact, THE means, the only means on the table that has any chance of reigning in insurance companies, making health care affordable both to families and the nation as a whole, and providing a real choice in the health care insurance market. It is currently THE BEST means we have at improving the health care system, given that a single-payer Medicare-like proposal is off the table.

Had he instead phrased his statement as, "let's not forget that, despite the centrality of the public option, we need to push through additional reforms that will better the system as well," I wouldn't be quibbling. But alas, he didn't, and despite the overall greatness and beauty of his speech, he left open room to sell-out on the public option in the final bill, a move that would strip health care reform of its meaningfulness.

Not surprised, but not 100% sold yet. 89% sold; that's why he gets a B+.

Transcript and video clips at HuffPo.

good news for food eaters

2009-09-08T18:54:00.002-04:00

That is, for everyone: FDA announced today a new electronic database that will require food processors to notify the agency of food contamination within 24 hours. From USA Today:

Food makers must alert government officials of potentially contaminated products within 24 hours under a new rule designed to help federal regulators spot food safety issues sooner.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government if they believe one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals.

Regulators said the database will help the FDA prevent widespread illness from contaminated products and direct inspectors to plants that pose a high safety concern.

[...]

The law creating the database was passed in 2007, after Congress criticized the FDA for its handling of safety problems with a range of foods and drugs.

The FDA has struggled since then to manage a spate of food-safety recalls, including national outbreaks of salmonella linked to peppers and peanut butter. President Obama earlier this year pledged to improve the safety of the nation's food supply, after tainted peanut butter from a Georgia plant sickened hundreds of Americans, causing one of the largest food recalls in recent history.

The last two paragraphs are telling; although the law was passed in 2007, it has not been implemented until now. Although such a database undoubtedly takes time to create, test, and implement, this is nonetheless a reflection of the new Administration's priorities. Despite the initial excitement over the First 100 Days, it really is just getting to the point now that President Obama is really filling up his high-level appointments, and as we see more dedicated civil servants taking over the reigns, we'll likely see more small victories like this one.

In related news, Attorney General Eric Holder announced early this month efforts to restore the role of the Civil Rights Division, with an increase of $22 million to their budget and the hiring of up to 50 new attorneys.

equality, 89 years later

2009-08-18T06:10:00.002-04:00

Photo from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Library of Congress

The United States recognized gender equality this day, August 18, 1920, in passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, in which women won the right to vote in all elections, state and federal.

From the August issue of the ABA Journal, this great note:

In the decades that followed the first women’s rights convention in the U.S., held in July 1848 at Seneca Falls, N.Y., two divergent strategies were pursued to secure women’s suffrage.

One group, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, brought test cases arguing that the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, conferred upon women the right to vote. When that failed, they proposed their own constitutional amendment. A rival group, led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, focused on amending state constitutions.

In 1890, the two joined forces and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Spurred in part by the National Woman’s Party, a more militant group headed by Alice Paul (shown above), the campaign gained momentum and, eventually, President Woodrow Wilson’s support.

In January 1918, Rep. Jeannette Rankin, R-Mont., the first woman elected to Congress, reintroduced the amendment—four decades after it had first been proposed—that would specifically enfranchise women. The 19th Amendment was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.

r.i.p. judge robert takasugi

2009-08-07T06:46:00.000-04:00

Judge Robert Mitsuhiro Takasugi, of the federal Central District of California, passed away earlier this week, at the age of 79, survived by his wife and two children. He was the first Japanese American appointed to the federal bench, and a lifelong advocate for justice, especially for those who face the greatest barriers to a fair day in court.

I saw the judge speak once. It must have been 2005, at the annual APA Law & Policy Conference at Harvard, co-hosted by APIA groups from HLS and the Kennedy School. There are, it seems, some people that were built to be judges. They simply have a demeanor about them that says, "that woman/man is someone who will dispense justice fairly." It might be called 'regal,' but it is more connected with a sense of goodness for all people. Judge Takasugi was such a person, striking as a brilliant mind coupled with an unfaltering dedication to the core values of America.

His history reflects as much. He was always focused on what the law meant in the context of not only individuals, but American values, as reflected in many of his most courageous (and thus controversial) rulings (h/t angry):

Judge Takasugi was a truly extraordinary person who was, as the Los Angeles Times described him, a jurist who "swims against the national tide."

In 2002, he gained national media attention for his dismissal of several indictments against Iranian and Iranian American defendants, alleged to be members of a terrorist cell attempting to overthrow the Iranian government. The defendants challenged the government’s unilateral characterization of the group as a terrorist organization.

In the face of post-9/11 public sentiment, Judge Takasugi ruled that the government’s procedure for classifying the group as a terrorist organization was unconstitutional because the classification was made without due process of law. Judge Takasugi opined, "When weighed against a fundamental constitutional right which defines our very existence, the argument for national security should not serve as an excuse for obliterating the Constitution."

Takasugi lived government discrimination early on when he and his family were incarcerated in an internment camp during World War II, a result of popular and government paranoia and an abandonment of core values in the face of fear.

A twelve-year old Robert M. Takasugi and his family were uprooted from their home in Tacoma, Washington, relocated, and interned along with 130,000 other Japanese Americans pursuant to President Order 9066. Describing the ordeal as "an education to be fair" and one of many challenges he faced, Takasugi went on to receive degrees from UCLA and USC Law School. Thereafter, his commitment to equal justice took him to the streets of East Los Angeles, where he represented many indigent arrestees of the Watts Riots, East Los Angeles Riots, and other civil rights protestors in the 1960s before being appointed to the bench.

Judge Takasugi's dedication to fairness and justice included teaching students, but also supporting students who work to continue his legacy. The Robert M. Takasugi Fellowship annually supports law students practicing public interest law during the summer. More information on the Fellowship is here.

pictures from hiroshima

2009-08-06T06:31:00.004-04:00

August 1928: Hiroshima celebrates the triumphant return of its high school baseball team, which has just won its second national championship. - photographed by Wakaji Matsumoto

The U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an 8,900 pound uranium bomb on the city of Hiroshima this day, August 6, 1945. The bomb killed 70,000 human beings instantly, and up to another 70,000 died of injuries and radiation poisoning over the next five years.

But Hiroshima did not begin and end on that day and in that moment. The city lived long before, and lives again today.

There are many pictures of the devastation after that first atomic bomb attack in human history, including these at the Boston Globe's The Big Picture blog, but until recently not many of the city before the bomb, as most of the pictures of the city had been destroyed in the blast, and as few as 200 photographs of the city were thought to exist. This past year, however, over 2,000 images from Hiroshima-area photographer Wakaji Matsumoto, taken between 1927 and March 1945, were donated to the city's municipal archives. Some of the images are available online at the Hiroshima Peace Media Center.

The pictures are particularly powerful because they tell the story of a vibrant city that shared very much in common with the cities in the United States. From the large parade for the victorious hometown high school baseball team to the streetcars outside of the city center, this was a place where people lived and thrived, suffered setback and won triumphs. It was, in short, a city.

How such great photos were taken in the first place is also particularly powerful, because it speaks to the connection between the city which was eventually targeted by the U.S. military as a way to quickly end the war and the United States itself. From the Hiroshima Peace Media Center:

According to The History of Japanese Photography by Kotaro Iizawa, the first commercial photography studio in Japan opened in Tokyo in 1926. Why was Mr. Matsumoto, who worked in an outlying area, able to take not only panoramic photos, which required advanced technology, but also photos that incorporated the geometrical composition and style of close-ups that were popular in the West? The answer is tied to the history of Hiroshima.

Prior to World War II more people emigrated from Hiroshima than from any other prefecture in Japan. In fact, Mr. Matsumoto’s birthplace in Jigozen, a part of Hatsukaichi, was known as “Amerikamura” (“America Village”). In 1906, Mr. Matsumoto moved to the U.S. where his father had immigrated. In a register of Japanese living in the U.S. published in 1922, Wakaji is listed as a farmer living in Los Angeles and the owner of an automobile.

Mr. Matsumoto’s second daughter, Shizue Kawamoto, 83, a resident of Hatsukaichi, said, “I was told he learned about photography in the U.S.” His panoramic photos include shots of immigrant families working in the fields. In 1927 he returned to Japan with his wife and seven children, including the 2-year-old Shizue. He brought with him a high-priced camera, a model that was almost impossible to buy in Japan at the time and which he had purchased with his earnings.

The bomb that destroyed the city was not the only thing that tied Hiroshima and its people to the United States. As is usually the case, there are many things that tie us all together, though these connections are often easy to miss when we allow hatred and fear to focus us only on divisions and differences.

Thanks to Dawn and Karl for telling me about these photos, and the extraordinary stories surrounding them.

apias now 14.2% of ca's pop; 8.2% of voters

2009-08-04T19:32:00.005-04:00

Well, Asian Americans and "Others." Why the generally laudable Field Poll can't bring itself to create a separate category for APIAs when there are twice as many of them in California than African Americans, who do have their own category, I can't understand.

Anyway, the point is that the Californian Asian American population has increased by over 8% in the last three decades, and increased its voting power by over 5%. Take heed, Californian politicians!

Latinos are the fastest growing population in the state, increasing by almost 19% in the last thirty years, and increasing their share of voters by over 13%. The future Democratic leaders of the state are going to be the ones who recognize the growing Latino/APIA populations and can bridge the two communities, people like Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-32).

Republicans, on the other hand, with their immigrant-bashing and generally poor long-term planning, will continue to find themselves further and further marginalized in the state.

h/t Calitics.

happy birthday mr. president

2009-08-04T06:06:00.000-04:00

Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States of America, was born this day, August 4, 1961, at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States of America.

He is 48-years-old today.

Happy birthday!

follow-up on "eating better": cooking and time

2009-08-03T19:14:00.002-04:00

Amanda Marcotte at pandagon has a critique of Michael Pollan's latest NYT Magazine article, which is in turn a reflection on the new Julie & Julia movie, based on a book. Marcotte's critique is from a feminist perspective (namely, that Pollan seems to be guilt-tripping women who don't cook more, while letting men off the hook for it. But in follow-up to my weekend post on how Americans simply have less time to cook, here's a double quote from Pollan and Marcotte, respectively:

If cooking really offers all these satisfactions, then why don’t we do more of it? Well, ask Julie Powell: for most of us it doesn’t pay the rent, and very often our work doesn’t leave us the time; during the year of Julia, dinner at the Powell apartment seldom arrived at the table before 10 p.m. For many years now, Americans have been putting in longer hours at work and enjoying less time at home. Since 1967, we’ve added 167 hours — the equivalent of a month’s full-time labor — to the total amount of time we spend at work each year, and in households where both parents work, the figure is more like 400 hours. Americans today spend more time working than people in any other industrialized nation — an extra two weeks or more a year. Not surprisingly, in those countries where people still take cooking seriously, they also have more time to devote to it.

And that doesn’t take the daily commute into the equation. I blame the daily commute more than any other factor for why Americans will watch cooking shows, but won’t actually get up and cook very much. Americans spend an hour and a half a day driving. They drive 16 miles on average to and from work. Those are miles driven, for most commuters, in thick, snarled, energy-draining traffic. The last thing Americans want to do when they get home, after that, is cook. Most of them think of cooking as something you do starting with a recipe, which inevitably means that you don’t have all the ingredients, and that means adding more driving time going to the grocery store even more, and who wants that? Pollan wants to put about 90% of the blame on the nationwide embrace of food in freezers and cans and boxes or out of drive-thrus---which is why he’s interested in the fact that even housewives eat about the same as everyone else---but I’m not so sure. I think a culture of processed food took advantage of people’s limited mental space for cooking, and became the norm.

Very good points, all. Pollan's seem to reflect my earlier notes regarding the need to reform how we think about work in order to improve our eating habits, but I will amend my list and add Marcotte's comments regarding our need to reform how we get to and from work. While we might not being to change travel time or distance for everyone, certainly public transportation can be much less stressful than commuting by car, trading traffic for the ability to catch up on your reading.

go soccer!

2009-08-03T06:20:00.002-04:00

The LA Times has a piece on Major League Soccer, the hook being FC Barcelona's 2-1 victory over the LA Galaxy on Saturday. On the mostly pro-Barca crowd's booing of international soccer star and Galaxy captain David Beckham:

But soon enough the crowd reverted to booing him, a sound that was sweet music to the ears of MLS Commissioner Don Garber.

"The opposite of love isn't hate. It's indifference," Garber said. "We have people now that care about what goes on on our field. I'd rather deal with people having challenges and issues with some of the things that take place on the field than not care at all.

"The amount of awareness for this story has been one of the biggest stories in professional sports anywhere around the world, and that's a good thing for Major League Soccer."

I've been a fan of MLS from near the beginning. It was founded in 1993, right before the U.S. hosted the World Cup the following year, and in response to criticism of the lack of a professional U.S. league when the World Cup was awarded to us as the host country in 1989. I remember being in summer camp that year and the excitement of professional and international soccer really coming to the U.S. (I seem to remember "pogs" being big around the same time, and some fast food franchise giving out country team pogs as part of the promotion of the World Cup). It turned out that it was a momentum changing year for the sport here in America, with the U.S. Men's National Team making it to the knockout round (round of 16) for the first time since World War II. The U.S. Men's National Team has qualified for the World Cup in every tournament since, with disappointing finishes in 1998 and 2006, but a quarterfinalist performance in 2002. Team USA has also placed in the top three in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Gold Cup 8 of the 9 tournaments since 1993, including three champioinships. Most recently, Team USA made a lot of noise with a huge 2-0 win over Spain, ranked overall number 2 in FIFA, in the Confederations Cup.

The U.S. Men's National Team is currently ranked overall 12 in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), among 208 teams.

MLS has been a boon for soccer fans in the United States; as the LA Times article notes, large international games have drawn capacity crows of 90,000 to 100,000 throughout the history of American soccer. The article, however, makes an unfair comparison to the average MLS game audience:

There is an audience for soccer, for the big occasions when remarkable club teams such as Barcelona visit. Yet, Saturday's crowd was about six times bigger than the average MLS crowd, which was about 15,515 through mid-July.

The disconnect remains between fans who will come out in happy droves to see Barcelona or AC Milan play the Galaxy and the smaller crowds that file into MLS stadiums.

But as the article notes not two paragraphs later, "MLS has smartly avoided that with a business plan that makes it more sensible for teams to invest in soccer-specific stadiums that seat 20,000 to 25,000." It should be no surprise that a game featuring former Real Madrid teammate Beckham against FC Barcelona--currently the best Spanish and European Team (2008-09 La Liga, Copa del Rey, and UEFA Champions League champions, as well as Madrid's La Liga rival--would draw fans of all stripes to such a momentous occasion. But 15,515 on average per match is nothing to scoff at, especially considering there are 6 or 7 matches a week, with teams across the country, from L.A. to Boston to New York to Columbus, Ohio to Dallas and Houston and Seattle, etc, etc, etc. There are currently 15 MLS clubs, with expansions planned in Philly for the 2010 season, and Portland, Oregon and Vancouver in 2011. The concern for MLS right now is smart growth, building the infrastructure for a sustainable league with soccer-specific stadiums, and a loyal fanbase around clubs. Commissioner Don Garber, who has led the league's resurgence since 1998, has a clear, and so far successful plan for expanding the league, both in terms of number of teams but also in terms of the fans. I look forward to much more great U.S. soccer in years to come.