What Climate Change?!

I'm sure many Californians right now are saying, 'where is global warming?' I have an answer: it's already here. And although you may not feel it in the temperatures and general conditions as of late, look up the definition of 'weather' and 'climate' and reconsider.

For those in the rest of the United States, the case for global warming might be easier to make. As the country swelters, and as crops dry up from the Great Plains to the steppes of Asia, people are coming to terms with the reality of higher temperatures worldwide and their immediate consequences. While many lobbyists and the politicians they have in their pocket will tell you otherwise, stop and think for a moment. 2010 has been, on average, the hottest year on record, second only to 2005, third to 1998. Notice a trend?

In spite of this and regardless of his promise to act on this ever-threatening problem, Obama's White House has given in to pressure and opted for a better score in the popularity contest rather than the right choice on the issue. As the planet cooks—to borrow Paul Krugman's phrase—the Obama administration falters on its promise to deliver what it had pledged to pursue during the campaign. And, although a lot of good legislation has passed in the past year and a half—despite Republican obstructionism might I add—it is worth reminding everyone that it was not as strong as it could have been or need have been.

Unfortunately for us and our posterity, the climate bill will not even get the luxury of a dilution in the Senate. Obama needs to think this through again, unless he wants to alienate Democratic and progressive voters in the upcoming and in the 2012 elections.

Trimming the Bush

The younger Bush is well on his way to becoming a hallowed figure in conservative circles, much like Reagan—the president who expanded government more than anybody since FDR and more than his three predecessors combined—is today. It is the purpose of the well-oiled (double entendre is quite intentional) to portray him as a true conservative who improved everything from taxes and the budget to international relations. Everyone with an ounce of functioning brain knows he did nothing of the sort. On the contrary, his tax cuts were detrimental to the economy itself and, of course, the budget; and the international relations can be summarized in one word: Iraq.

Paul Krugman's latest op-ed in The New York Times says this much better, but is worth reiterating how, time after time, Republicans and conservatives in general come back with a rewriting history or a re-polishing of figures in order to, then, shape the future of politics and return to power and keep doing just the same thing that required the polishing in the first place.

Of Fear

Fear has become the motivating force behind Republican talking points and, to my chagrin, it is quite effective. People are more prone to succumbing to fear-driven rhetoric than any other and of course it's going to work!

Paul Krugman puts it into the context of the calvary that was the passing of this healthcare reform bill.

Machiavellian Machinations

Paul Krugman had an editorial in today's New York Times that, in a few words, summarized and articulated what I have always known about post-Reagan Republicans and their willingness to bring the country to the verge of total collapse. Not to mention their hypocrisy of speaking against government expansion and expanding it since Reagan.

Brown v. Himself?

This is the candidate that the GOP has chosen in Massachusetts. Massachusetts people need to know that he is no small-government Republican or conservative in the classical sense (whom even I would support in the right circumstances or against a worthless opponent); he is a bigot, a Palinite, Limbaughesque figure with nothing to say except the most caricaturized and tired outcries that crumble over their own weight before he is done talking.

Listen as he cries out 'Sexism!' in support of Palin, only to say later that she won't be a lone woman in that position; her hubby will be with her. Like having a secessionist next to an idiot is a big comfort!

Oh, and Obama may be a bastard, too. His implication, not mine....

(Found in Krugman's blog)

On Cap-and-Trade

Though a bit late, I have to share an op-ed by Paul Krugman from the 24 September edition of The New York Times. According to him, the next fight after healthcare will be climate change and the government's (that is, our collective) efforts to curb and possibly reverse it.

He warns that there will be those who will argue outright that global warming is a myth, but the most poignant of his points is that, despite what we will be told and led to believe, the cost of the cap-and-trade bill will be minimal.

Econ 101

Paul Krugman educates on why the GDP can rise while unemployment also rises. Graphs within.

More here on what he terms an economic 'purgatory.'

On Public Option

First, what is the public option? It's an insurance policy funded and managed by the government. That is all... nothing more, nothing less. Here's an article describing how it came about. Chris Hayes of The Nation does a good job of explaining it for the lay man in the video below. Keep reading for more on the controversy started last weekend over it.

Second, why has it been in the news so much?

A week ago, both Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and president Barack Obama stated in different places and times that the public option was not essential to the healthcare reform bill, that it was not an integral part of it, thus signaling their willingness to drop it from the proposal.

Outrage and speculation ensued, and rightfully so, over the importance of the so-called public option and the futility of a healthcare reform bill without it. Howard Dean was one of the first and most vocal supporters of the public option, claiming that a healthcare reform bill without it was no reform at all. At the same time, the Obama White House started to juggle with the idea of non-profit co-ops, which would bring the government and private insurance companies together in providing healthcare subsidized by the government and with no profit for the partaking private insurance. Needless to say, people discussed that option, as well, with some experts saying that the measure has a 'checkered history.'

The administration's statements on dropping the public option from the healthcare reform bill drew ire from the more liberal factions of the political spectrum: The Nation had an article calling a healthcare reform bill without a public option 'a squandered opportunity,' and another article analyzing the public option more in depth, while many progressive groups made it clear they would not give up on it. The more liberal Democrats in Congress, for their part, vowed the same, as the NPR report below shows, though Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com added that they might 'cave' and vote for a bill that has other perks, if not public option.

As the week progressed, Democrats seemed more supportive of public option and more united behind it. And, as of late this week, both Sebelius and Obama had all but recanted their statements. In the immediate aftermath of their announcement last weekend, White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, dismissed rumors that the public option was dead, prompting Paul Krugman to write an op-ed in The New York Times restating the importance of the public option from an economic perspective. Most recently at Ohio State University, Sebelius stated she supported a state-run health insurance.

Fear and Loathing in Bushland

Tom Ridge, Homeland Security secretary during the George W. Bush administration, has given more credence to the mounting allegations that Bush and his officials attempted and successfully managed to sway public political opinion through the use of pollitically motivated fear tactics on the nation.

According to The New York Times and other sources in the media, Ridge claims in his upcoming book that, shortly before the 2004 presidential election, he was asked by the administration to raise the threat level because of a newly emerged video of Osama Bin Laden. What is unusual about this? Two things: (1) the fact that videos had not necessarily constituted grounds for an increase in the threat level until then; and (2) the strong coincidence of this increased threat level with the imminent presidential elections at the time, and the breaking of the virtual tie between Bush and Kerry that had existed in the polls up to that time.

Paul Krugmans thinks this should not come as a surprise to any of us.

Two Op-Eds

Two op-eds in The New York Times discuss the issue of healthcare with two different goals in mind.

The first op-ed analyzes the reaction that the elderly across the country have shown in response to the fear-mongering about cuts in Medicare that have been propagated by Republican leaders and representatives, as well as the right-wing media. The op-ed also addresses the hypocrisy in the politics that Republicans are following, choosing to incite the elderly to defend something that they, the Republicans, would normally oppose and advocate against.

The second op-ed is written by Paul Krugman and describes the proposed American healthcare plan with other healthcare systems around the world in perspective. He concludes that it is more similar to the existing Swiss system, but that there are better plans out there, such as the French and the Canadian ones.

Unemployment Figures

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a chart outlining unemployment rates for all fifty states for the month of June 2009.

On two different columns, they also publish the historic highs and lows of unemployment for each state, accompanied by the month and year of their occurrence.

Sobering to think that thirty-four of the highs in unemployment (that's low employment for the duller among you) occurred during the Reagan years (1981-1989), the president so many today claim to revere as a beacon conservative.

And here's a color-coded map of the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rates in all states. Paul Krugman interprets the numbers and explains that the most affected areas show that manufacturing jobs are the hardest-hit.