“If Mr. Obama hopes to create a regulatory environment that stands for another six decades, he is going to have to do what Roosevelt did once upon a time. He is going to have make some bankers mad.”
Category: Issues of the Day
Most mind-boggling line of the day
“Considering that today’s protest was supposedly called off, and resulted in a crowd in Tehran five miles long, you have to wonder what tomorrow will bring, when a general strike is in the cards.”
The internet changes everything
All over the world people are monitoring unfolding events in Iran via the internet, where an apparently decisive election victory by the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being challenged on the streets.
Although there are signs the Iranian government is trying to cut some communications with the outside world, citizen journalism appears to be thriving on the web.
Here is a selection of popular links, many of which have been written from a particular point of view but – when taken together – provide a wide range of perspectives.
BBC NEWS has the links — blogs, flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook.
As Tom Johnson, the blogger formerly known as FunctionalAmbivalent, posted on Facebook this morning, he:
feels like he’s watching a revolution on Twitter and Facebook. Iran is erupting, and unlike Tienanmen Square, the authorities can’t hold the information in. Too many cell phones with video; too much redundant web access. Who knows what’s going to happen? No one. But we’re going to see it live, unfiltered by the media. This is amazing!
Best line of the day, so far
“It is not about us.”
Senior Administration Official referring to the Iranian election.
Magazine article shout-out of the day
A recent article in the New Yorker, for example, showed how McAllen, Texas is spending twice as much as El Paso County—not because people in McAllen are sicker and not because they are getting better care. They are simply using more treatments—treatments they don’t really need; treatments that, in some cases, can actually do people harm by raising the risk of infection or medical error. And the problem is, this pattern is repeating itself across America.
President Obama referring today to this article, which you should read.
Iran’s Disputed Election
Visual evidence from The Big Picture.
Cities Downsize to Survive
Via Calculated Risk:
Most are former industrial cities in the “rust belt” of America’s Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.
In Detroit … there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.
Plans for Flint, Michigan, include a reduction of the city (converted to vacant, natural land) by 40%.
Excusable absence
Obama writes a note. [1:43 minute video]
Most on target line of the day
“Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic. Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril.”
Richness of Experience
During David Souter’s confirmation hearings, in 1990, there were concerns about his reputation as a recluse; his views about abortion rights were also a mystery. Senator Howard Metzenbaum got at both when he asked Souter whether he could really imagine what a woman faced when she had an unwanted pregnancy.
Worst line ever
“Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.”
How the U.S. decides if you’re Hispanic
It doesn’t. It’s strictly up to you.
Here’s a quick primer on how the Census Bureau approach works.
Q. I immigrated to Phoenix from Mexico. Am I Hispanic?
A. You are if you say so.
Q. My parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico. Am I Hispanic?
A. You are if you say so.
Q. My grandparents were born in Spain but I grew up in California. Am I Hispanic?
A. You are if you say so.
Q. I was born in Maryland and married an immigrant from El Salvador. Am I Hispanic?
A. You are if you say so.
Q. My mom is from Chile and my dad is from Iowa. I was born in Des Moines. Am I Hispanic?
A. You are if you say so.
Q. I was born in Argentina but grew up in Texas. I don’t consider myself Hispanic. Does the Census count me as an Hispanic?
A. Not if you say you aren’t.
Source: Pew Research Center
Under federal law Hispanics are “Americans who identify themselves as being of Spanish-speaking background and trace their origin or descent from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America and other Spanish-speaking countries.”
Pew also reports:
A 2006 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found that 48% of Latino adults generally describe themselves by their country of origin first; 26% generally use the terms Latino or Hispanic first; and 24% generally call themselves American on first reference. As for a preference between “Hispanic” and “Latino”, a 2008 Center survey found that 36% of respondents prefer the term “Hispanic,” 21% prefer the term “Latino” and the rest have no preference.
This is it, this is the best line of the day
“Instead of wading into a bruising identity politics war they cannot possibly win, conservatives—even the angriest conservatives—should wade into Sotomayor’s vast legal writings. There are hundreds of cases for them to read and parse and quote out of context.”
Is this a great country, or what?
Best line of the day, so far
“She’s a prudent, careful liberal, respectful of Supreme Court precedent, but willing to push its limits to defend the rights of the individual. Sort of like another kid who grew up in a single-parent home and received an Ivy League education—the President who nominated her.”
How to pronounce Sotomayor
State of Paralysis
“California, it has long been claimed, is where the future happens first. But is that still true? If it is, God help America.”
Paul Krugman is worth the time today of those who don’t usually read Krugman.
C’mon, go read it.
Blue Double Cross
Krugman’s column today is about how the health care industry is already undermining health care reform.
“We can do a lot better than a government-run health care system,” says a voice-over in one of the ads. To which the obvious response is, if that’s true, why don’t you?
To which I will add — I’ve had “government” health care insurance since 1973. The rest of the country should be so lucky.
Morons. We’re surrounded by morons.
Example 1:
“The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday threatened to sue a San Diego County school that refused to let a student present a report on slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk until her classmates got permission from their parents.”
Via Atrios.
Example 2:
Republican National Committee: “as he prepares to deliver remarks in hall that holds the constitution, flashback obama: “constitution flawed” http://bit.ly/tFL7O #RNC [Twitter, 5/21/09]”
The flaw that Obama was referring to was slavery.
Dispelling myths on credit card legislation
The credit card reform bill just passed by Congress includes tough new provisions that will legally ban some of the most egregious behavior by banks. But as in all such laws, the devil is in the details.
There’s already some confusion about what the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act does and doesn’t require.
The Red Tape Chronicles has the essential facts.
Best line of the day
“All morning, [Senator Lindsey] Graham clings to the argument that he believes in the rule of law. And as he does so, he explains that the lawbreaking that happened with respect to torture: a) wasn’t lawbreaking, b) was justifiable lawbreaking, c) was lawbreaking done with the complicity of congressional Democrats, d) doesn’t matter because al-Qaida is terrible, or e) wouldn’t be lawbreaking if the Spanish police were doing it.”
A room of one’s own
Good take at Balloon Juice on the Stanford co-ed dorm room story that’s making the rounds — A room of one’s own.
Different
Core Value IV
Another post in response to Ephraim’s question, “What is the basic principle behind your ‘liberalness’.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — Thomas Jefferson, assisted by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin
Core Value III
Continuing again in response to Ephraim’s question, “What is the basic principle behind your ‘liberalness’.”
In his comment, Ephraim tells of a niece and her partner who are using the welfare system to support an irresponsible lifestyle. Taking the story at face value, which assumes two able-bodied adults, I agree that their choices deserve censure.
What I’m not sure about is your purpose in telling the story, Ephraim. Is dismay or anger about welfare cheats a “basic principle” of your political beliefs? I have already agreed that their behavior offends me too, but I really don’t have a core value problem. Are your niece and her boyfriend any worse than a butcher with his thumb on the scale, a used car dealer who turns back the odometer, the financier cheating on his income taxes, the office worker surfing Craigslist at work? That is, aren’t they all just petty thieves working the system — and aren’t those kind of people always going to be with us?
I don’t like any of those behaviors, but addressing them is not by itself important enough to me to be a basic principle.