Wikileaks Yet Again, Again

Megan McArdle has a post up on the Wikileaks bank dealio in which she argues that damaging info is unlikely. Well depends on what you think is damaging. Her standard is criminal behavior.  Mine is Fabulous Fab. Given the egomaniacs in finance, lots of Fabulousity would be one more nail in the coffin of public support for the pirates of high finance, one would hope.

What's Wrong With Technocrats

I found this discussion of the road building stupidity via a listserve.  The point the guy, a trained civil engineer, is making is that road building ought to be about folks and not cars. Or

An engineer designing a street or road prioritizes the world in this way, no matter how they are instructed:

1. Traffic speed
2. Traffic volume
3. Safety
4. Cost

The rest of the world generally would prioritize things differently, as follows:

1. Safety
2. Cost
3. Traffic volume
4. Traffic speed

Anyone who has ridden their bike from here to there on a daily basis recognizes this kind of a roadway in which motorists' ease is privileged.  It's sort of proof of the death of humanism.

Huh.

So Sen. Micheal Bennet (D-CO) said this into a mike he thought was off:

"It's all rigged," Bennet said (clip below). "I mean the whole conversation is rigged. The conversation, the fact that we don't get a discussion before the break about what we're going to do in the lame duck. It's just rigged. This stuff's rigged."

He was referring to the current legislative agenda.  What does he mean?

I'll Be Danged

Matt Yglesias makes a reasonable point.

If everyone in Yuma, Arizona is unemployed then even a very competent proprietor of a dry cleaning establishment is going to have a hard time expanding his business. He won’t take out a loan to expand, he won’t get an equity investment to expand, and he won’t invest his own money in an expansion. You can give the guy all the money you want, and he won’t invest in expanding his business. That’s because unemployed people don’t need much dry cleaning and also don’t have much money to spend on dry cleaning.

And

More government spending and more money-creation will lead to more purchases, more customers, more business expansion, and more hiring. Then people with good ideas will make a lot of money and complain about their high taxes.

Wikileaks Once More

George Packer embarassess himself:

The question is, does that interest outweigh the right of U.S. officials to carry out their work with a degree of confidentiality?

Yes—the right. Lawyers, judges, doctors, shrinks, accountants, investigators, and—not least—journalists could not do the most basic tasks without a veil of secrecy. Why shouldn’t the same be true of those professionals who happen to be government officials?

Yes why shouldn't one of the basic rules of a democracy, the right and need of the people to know what their representatives and appointed officials are up to, be gutted?  And as by the way, what right of secrecy do judges have?

Libertarianism Explained

Over to NRO we learn that today John Miller and Larry Nivens, whose Mote in God's Eye I really liked lo these many years ago,

discuss the art and craft of writing short stories, Niven’s belief in libertarianism and why there’s such a strong libertarian streak in science fiction, and Niven’s involvement in the early days of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.

The answer is, of course, that like Libertarians and Reagan sci-fi authors get to make stuff up.

Again With Neo-Liberal Kvetching

Matt Yglesias:

Complaining about barber licensing is fun, but the real damage of bad occupational licensing policies is done in the health and education sectors.

The rest of the post concerns the damage done because trained dentists are required to oversee teeth cleaning.  First, not one word about the damage done to education by requiring educators to be educated. Second, did you know that dentists can perform biopsies and minor surgery for oral cancer? They can. Do you think  that having a trained medical professional on hand during routine teeth cleaning might lead to the early discovery and treatment of oral cancer? My guess is yes.  Easy is it to complain about regulation from a position of vast ignorance and ideological opposition to state intervention for reasonable reasons.

Sort of like arguing that  protecting puppies is really  corruptly seeking to

 raise the cost of breeding dogs, making it ever-more difficult for middle-class American families to be dog-owners.

Do I think Yglesias wants to hurt puppies?  Not really. But his lazy ideologically driven opposition to sensible regulation authorizes puppy-haters who are fellow neo-Liberal, Reganite, Thatcherite, Glibertarians to make the same lazy argument.

Wikileaks Once More

How can it be wrong to release documents that show what is really going on in international affairs and not be wrong to leak documents that show how few of our troops care if DADT is repealed? The more we know the better we can give our consent to state and administration policies, no?

Will it be a bad thing when:

Early next year, Julian Assange says, a major American bank will suddenly find itself turned inside out. Tens of thousands of its internal documents will be exposed on Wikileaks.org with no polite requests for executives’ response or other forewarnings. The data dump will lay bare the finance firm’s secrets on the Web for every customer, every competitor, every regulator to examine and pass judgment on.

I think not.

WTF is David Brooks on About?

As near as I can figure in his column today David Brooks thinks that the less people know about what their representatives think and do the better are the chances that their representatives can continue to lie about what is really going on and, therefore, the better the quality of the conversation between and among the people's representatives. After all if the average citizen of wherever the heck found out that Wikileaks shows

Israeli and Arab diplomats . . . reacting sympathetically and realistically toward one another. The Americans in the cables are generally savvy and honest. Iran’s neighbors are properly alarmed and reaching out.

Nothing good could come of that, now could it.

Crime of the Century or Everybody Already Knows That.

So the new Wikileaks documents are out and the usual suspects are insisting that the details concerning Arab desire fr the US to destroy Iran, routine lying by diplomats, and other state sponsored mendacity are nothing new. While the Obama administration and others complain of the laws broken and damage done. They can't both be right, can they?


What is especially odd about all this "everybody knows that" cant is statements like

I think that this is primarily going to be of interest to diplomatic historians, who normally don’t get this kind of stuff for years and years and years and years.

Followed by

 For my own part, I was mildly surprised by the directness of Saudi entreaties to the US to attack Iran, and also by the degree of contempt that the US diplomats seemed to hold for the current Turkish government.

So there is nothing new here except the kind of evidence needed to write in-depth histories of the events described in the cables and the news concerning the what is actually going on and how this Administration and the State view the world. Gotcha. 

Managerialism and Its Discontents

What on earth can it mean when the mayor of NYC appoints someone with no experience in education to be manager, as it were, of the largest public school system in America?  It means, at the very least, that the newly created position of deputy who knows something about education would be unnecessary absent America's elites adoration of managerialism.

If you think about it for a moment, Blumburg had to hire Cathleen Black as chancellor because of her record as a publishing dynamo. The fact that being a publishing dynamo has no relationship whatsoever with education is a real problem, papered over by the hiring of an education policy expert who -- no doubt -- Black can ignore.  So, what does Black stand for?  Layoffs and maximizing profits. It's not a recipe for educational reform as much as it is a continuation of 30 odd years of neo-Liberalism trashing of the American economy.

Why Conservatives Have Problems With Fanatics

Those of us on the left-hand side of the political spectrum think that it might be in bad taste to muck up someone's religious icon or text but on the whole we don't particularly care. Those of them on the right-hand side of the political spectrum get enraged when some one mucks about with the bible or Jesus.  Unfortunately for them, complaining about it makes them look like religious fanatics in an increasingly secular world.  What can they do? What can they do?  Bitch about people taking offense at the "desecration" of Islamic texts and icons because no one takes offense at the desecration of Christian texts and icons, which is -- in case you weren't paying attention -- to complain that no one but them and the rest of the professional Christian victims out there is complaining about etc.

Relatedly, the same NRO hero reads of a maniac from the UK in the EU Parliament calling another parliamentarian a Nazi and, while he tut tuts over the unfortunate language, he understands the sentiment and, in general, he is supportive of the maniac from the UK. 

What is it going to take before the professional victims of the right-hand of the political spectrum give over and begin to act like adults?

An Answer to the Question of Why So Few Women are Conservative

K-lo passes on the well wishes of a real he-man conservative:

Preparing to leave for the three hour drive to my in-laws in Chico while my wife continues packing…and packing…and as I wait in the kitchen, reading NRO, it seems a perfect moment to express my appreciation for the consistently fine work your writers and editors deliver.  Thank you.

Ah, how dull life would be without the foibles of the little women and their comedic packing for the holidays while the man o' the house harrumphs his way through a semi-literate vanity project disguised as a serious intellectual endeavor.

WTF is David Brooks on About?

Is there a point to David Brooks' column today? Does he have a copy editor? Is this the loopiest sentence ever written:

There were many consistencies running through Tolstoy’s life, but there were also two phases: first, the novelist; then, the crusader. And each of these activities called forth its own way of seeing.

It couldn't be that Tolstoy changed his "way of seeing," whatever that might be, and consequently adjusted his activity, could it?

And what are we to make of this conclusion:

But public spirited, he also wanted to heal the world directly. Tolstoy devoted himself to activism and spiritual improvement — and paid the mental price. After all, most historical leaders write pallid memoirs not because they are hiding the truth but because they’ve been engaged in an activity that makes it impossible for them to see it clearly. Activism is admirable, necessary and self-undermining — the more passionate, the more self-blinding.

Tolstoy, it would seem, lobotomized himself when he tried to fix the world through spiritual renewal and George Bush wrote a mendacious book on non-existent "Decision Points" because his desire to rescue his reputation from the gutter led him to lie repeatedly about his own and others' actions. Consequently, working to improve the world as it is is proof of blindness and stupidity.

Hear that boys and girls if you are trying to make things better you have blinded yourself to the reality that the world as it is is the best of all possible worlds particularly if you're David Brooks, a man with no discernible skills, and people pay you ridiculous sums of money to make "arguments" both convoluted and empty of content.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Recently some guy at Salon took it upon himself to list the 30 greatest, in the negative sense, hack journalists in America. It's a fine list and, although I might disagree with the ranking -- Brooks is worse than he is being given credit for, and want to see others included, no Clive Crook?  No Megan McArdle? Still.

So what do we make of a serious journalist who engages no less than three of the the Thirty on the same day without once pointing out that they are pathetic chumps?  Perhaps he, for it is a he, is trying his darnedest to get into the pantheon?  In which case, I say, done and done.

Food For Thought

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as I did.  Alan Simpson, as most of you know, was the head of the the debt commission and he concluded that the best way forward was to slash poor and middle class folks with a riding crop while lavishing more czar-era goodies on the rich and super-rich.  Recently, he sat down and explained himself to the Wyoming Tribune.

Why are people opposed to the riding crop slashing?  Because, he says, "We had the greatest generation -- I think this is the greediest generation[.]"

Who should be not listen to?

You don't want to listen to the right and the left -- the extremes," he said. "You don't want to listen to Keith Olbermann and Rush Babe [Limbaugh] and Rachel Minnow [sic] or whatever that is, and Glenn Beck. They're entertainers. They couldn't govern their way out of a paper sack -- from the right or the left. But they get paid a lot of money from you and advertisers -- thirty, fifty million a year -- to work you over and get you juiced up with emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. Emotion, fear, guilt, and racism.

I am particularly fond of Rush Babe.

What do we need more of in our crazy world of teat sucking greedheads?

There are 18 of us on the commission, and it took us four months to establish trust," he said. "That's how bad things are in Washington. Four, five months before we could trust somebody not to leak what we said or go out and crater it.

Trustiness and riding crop slashing is the clear way forward.

All the same he

really believe[s] that there are more patriots in America than selfish, selfish people.

 So, ultimately, the patriotic riding crop slashers will overcome the Rachel Minnows of the world and all will be safe for czardom.

via

Keith Moon and Financial Reform

This essay on Keith Moon's drumming and Keith more generally is just really good.  I've always, since 1972 anyway, thought that The Who was rock's greatest band. The essay helps to explain why.

This essay is particularly good on the social uselessness of most of the financial market.  Remember, as an example, this guy who got rich off the housing market failure whose only useful contribution was his and his fellow investors getting rich off the housing market failure.

Also, next year when the Republicans drag Elizabeth Warren in front of the Congress every time she tries to stop more socially useless financial shenanigans let's see who the Tea Party Patriots stand up for the shenaniganers or the folks.

Progress and Republican Obstructionism

In this morning's Wisconsin State Journal there was a report on Middleton looking into one of those bike share dealies.  I predict that tomorrow if not sooner, some Republican/Tea Party Patriot will explode with rage about the wasted spending.  Why?  Because they hate America.  Seriously.

Consider, Scott Walker has foolishly halted the train, despite the fact that everybody thinks we need to do more to prepare for the future and create jobs today.  The train would do both. And what's more it is a clear attempt to do something, which drive Repbulicans/Tea Party Patriots mad. They don't want to do anything; they want to sit around and carp about all the things that have bee done successfully.

The bike share deally actually ties into the train because both are sensible attempts to increase transportation choice at low cost and high benefit for all. Imagine if small outlying communities came to Madison and Middleton for the fun that both offer and were able to ride bikes around for yet even more fun.  Why, it would make the world funner and, more importantly, it would be doing something.

Republicans and Tea Party Patriots would rather sit in a mud puddle that lift a finger to make the world a better organized, more pleasant, and funner place.

MSNBC is Silly

So now it is Joe Scarborough, a one-time Republican congressman, who is suspended for making political campaign contributions without asking permission.  This is beyond silly.  Lean forward indeed.

Dogs in Bloggs

Is your day a bit gray?  Well, go and read this cartoon and text story of two dogs and a move cross country.

Some Things

The Obama administration's decision to try Ahmed Ghailana led to a 20 yr minimum with a maximum of life in a "Supermax" prison, where he would in isolation for nearly all the time. A success, one might think.

The GM IPO is going like gangbusters.  A success, one might think.

The FDIC is probing, in a non-alien abduction way, 50 bankers. A success, one might think.

Tom Delay shoots himself in the foot, evidence wise.  A failure one, might think.

House Republicans stall an extension of jobless benefits.  Given the anemic growth in jobs, a failure, one might think.

Leading Republican senator Kyl threatens to stop the Start Treaty, leading to nearly everyone to call him nutzo. A failure, one might think.

Meanwhile a third Palin endorsed candidate loses in her home state, no less.  A failure one, one might think.

Think about it.  On the basis of the available evidence, Obama is moving forward making sane, if centrist, policies which actually accomplish what they are supposed to do; while the Republicans run round and about making fools of themselves and are riven with internal dissent between their Tea Party and the saner, if still crazyish, wings.  Who, one wonders, will win in the long run?

He Walks on Water

Uff Da

Sarah Palin makes up a word and is roundly mocked for making up a word. It was soon clear that she made up the word out of ignorance. Colbert's Truthiness, on the other hand, mocked the rising tendency of folks who preferred a world in which that which they wished was the fact of the matter was treated as the facts of the matter even if the facts of the matter were the opposite of that which they wished. This act of creation was both funny and intentional  Yesterday, the OED declared Refudiate the word of the year. The OUP Blog, on which the announcement was announced, makes a weak argument in favor refudiate..  One, which is to say I, hopes or hope that the elevation from scattered-brained to dictionary is withdrawn due to popular refudiation.

On Firing Bad Teachers

Lots of people, serious people yet, insist that the first step to improved education, given the crises of the American educational system, is to remove teacher protections because "bad" teachers cause the crises.  Obviously, this is false and obviously this is a continuation of the neo-Liberal attack on workers.  Why are teachers protected from firing?  Well, here's an example of a "bad" teacher:

Jay McDowell, a teacher in Howell, Michigan, was temporarily suspended without pay earlier this month after telling a student wearing a Confederate flag and a student making anti-gay remarks to get out of his class. At a school-board meeting on Friday, openly gay 14-year-old high-school student Graeme Taylor came to McDowell's defense, thanking the teacher for doing "an amazing thing" in a town home to the KKK, and urging the school board to give McDowell his pay and reverse the disciplinary actions. The inspiring video has made its way around the Internet, because how cool is this kid?

What, I wonder, would have happened to a teacher who had the audacity to behave like a decent human being absent union protection?  Are all the teachers in the various or alleged "rubber rooms" across this great land of ours -- long may she wave, similarly situated?  Obviously not.  Are some of them, yes, yes they are.  Is it the case that making it easier to fire folks makes the easier-to-fire folks less likely to take some decent and honorable stance if that stance is going to irritate the powerful?  Well, you tell me, although for what it's worth I think the answer is yes.

See also.

Three Things

I solved the budget "crisis."

George Bush allowed an innocent man to be executed:

But DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project show the hair didn’t belong to Jones after all. The day before his death in December 2000, Jones asked for a stay of execution so the strand of hair could be submitted for DNA testing. He was denied by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

The TSA security regime is crazy and not in a good way. One guy tells of how

before I could go through the metal detector, I was pulled out of line to go through the backscatter machine. When asked, I half-chuckled and said, "I don't think so." At this point, I was informed that I would be subject to a pat down, and I waited for another agent.

A male agent (it was a female who had directed me to the backscatter machine in the first place), came and waited for me to get my bags and then directed me over to the far corner of the area for screening. After setting my things on a table, he turned to me and began to explain that he was going to do a "standard" pat down. (I thought to myself, "great, not one of those gropings like I've been reading about".) After he described, the pat down, I realized that he intended to touch my groin. After he finished his description but before he started the pat down, I looked him straight in the eye and said, "if you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested." He, a bit taken aback, informed me that he would have to involve his supervisor because of my comment.

When he

began to make my way to the stairs to exit the airport, when I was approached by another man in slacks and a sport coat. He was accompanied by the officer that had escorted me to the ticketing area and Mr. Silva. He informed me that I could not leave the airport. He said that once I start the screening in the secure area, I could not leave until it was completed. Having left the area, he stated, I would be subject to a civil suit and a $10,000 fine.

What a great country indeed.  America is exceptional.