Category: government

United States of Obama

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

I watched the entire Obama speech at the Democratic Convention.

Though the audience was rapt, it wasn’t the most inspiring performance I’ve seen. Seems he’s decided to mute his “usual high-level rhetoric in favour of a more down-to-earth approach”.

Alex Brandon / AP
Photo: Alex Brandon / AP

Senator Obama directly confronted the charge that his popularity is merely that of an insubstantial celebrity. He reminded his audience of his early life, of being raised by a single mother who once resorted to food stamps, and by a grandmother who scrimped on clothes to support him and added: “I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead but this has been mine.”

I’m not sure he can “change” the USA. I hope so.

I’d love to see him try. He’s certainly the most exciting statesman I’ve seen in my lifetime. Better than a young Trudeau. Better than a young Bill Clinton.

While Senator Obama made few references to the historic nature of the night, it was underscored by other speakers, including the son and daughter of Martin Luther King who celebrated the nomination on the 45th anniversary of King’s “I have a dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Monument in 1963 before 250,000 people.

the great American consumer crash

On By Rick McIn economics, governmentLeave a comment

James Quinn is senior director of strategic planning, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He posted a very gloomy projection on Prudent Bear:

The 6,000 sq ft McMansion buying, BMW leasing, $5 Starbucks latte drinking, granite countertop upgrading, home equity borrowing days are coming to an end. …

… the tremendous prosperity that began during the Reagan years of the early 1980’s has been a false prosperity built upon easy credit. …

I have been accused by many of my friends and family as someone who sees the glass as half empty. I disagree with their assessment. I see the glass as it is. I find myself scratching my head trying to figure out why a society that always saved for a rainy day, consistently saving between 8% and 11% of their disposable income, now has a negative savings rate. …

In the past, the USA could have grown economically out of this kind of debt. That time is over.

… the gathering storm has arrived. It will be long, painful and destructive. Those who prepared for the storm by not taking on excessive debt and living above their means, will ride it out unscathed. Those who built their house on sand by leveraging up and living the “good” life, will see their house swept out to sea. The storm will pass and we will rebuild. Our country is resilient. …

There has been and will be resistance to the inevitable deep recession that is coming. The American consumer is not cutting back willingly. They are being dragged kicking and screaming towards the joys of frugality. The “material generation” needs to dematerialize. My biggest concern is that our politician leaders and their cronies running our government will continue to try and reverse the normal capitalistic course of recession and expansion. Companies need to fail, housing needs to find its bottom based on supply, demand and price. Those who gambled must be allowed to lose and suffer the consequences. …

It’s worth reading the entire impassioned post: The Great Consumer Crash of 2009

The USA must leave Iraq as soon as possible, whether they want to or not. The war has already cost each household about $20,000. From the graph above, it’s obvious families cannot afford this war.

Why anyone would want to vote for McCain — who wants to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes — is beyond me.

Obama may also be unable to soften the economic blow, but at least there is a chance with him.

war on Iraq costs $3 trillion

On By Rick McIn economics, government1 Comment

Let’s say you believe the War on Iraq was justified. And that U.S. security has been improved by the occupation.

How much are you willing to pay to secure your safety?

… Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, has stated the total costs of the Iraq War on the US economy will be three trillion dollars in a moderate scenario, and possibly more in the most recent published study, published in March 2008. Stiglitz has stated: “The figure we arrive at is more than $3 trillion. Our calculations are based on conservative assumptions. They are conceptually simple, even if occasionally technically complicated. A $3 trillion figure for the total cost strikes us as judicious, and probably errs on the low side. Needless to say, this number represents the cost only to the United States. It does not reflect the enormous cost to the rest of the world, or to Iraq.” …

Wikipedia

Via an excellent 60 Minutes TV investigative report.

related – The cold price of hot blood – Salon

I’m not a goofy enough peacenik to believe that the USA should have done nothing after 9-11. Sadam Hussein was a modest threat. I’m not 100% against the invasion, even.

But it should have been a one-time military strike. Disabling the Iraqui airforce. Removing Sadam from power.

Perhaps 3-4wks tops. A fixed budget.

… However, the real reason for the Iraq invasion was for the USA oil industry to gain more control over the second largest proven reserves in the World. That hasn’t really worked out for them.

McCain – I hate the gooks

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

Presidential nominee John McCain openly admits that he has “anger management issues”, confessing that it’s a problem he’s had to work on for many years.

From the year 2000:

… “I hate the gooks,” McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. “I will hate them as long as I live.”

McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.

…

“I was referring to my prison guards,” McCain said, “and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend some people because of the beating and torture of my friends.”

McCain made it clear that his anger extends only toward his captors. As a senator, he was one of the leaders of the postwar effort to normalize U.S. relations with Vietnam. …

McCain Criticized for Slur
He says he’ll keep using term for ex-captors in Vietnam – SF Gate

popeye-yam-spin.png

This troubles me.

I don’t want an “angry” old man with his finger on Nuclear annihilation.

who to believe about oil prices

On By Rick McIn economics, government, product complaintsLeave a comment

A superb audiocast called Supply and Command by On The Media is essential listening for anyone angered.

It explains why and how the media has been duped by Big Oil.

portfolio-oil.jpg

Also recommended is this article by Howell Raines. (He’s on the Big Oil hit list, for sure.)

When it comes to the cost of gasoline, who should we believe? Here are some nominees and their viewpoints:

1. The oil companies: It’s supply and demand at its most basic, just like your professor outlined in your freshman economics course.
2. The petro-toadies in Congress: All we have to do is open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the waters off Florida and California.
3. The Department of Energy: OPEC has to pump more, and we’ve got to allow more refineries by rolling back environmental restrictions.
4. King Abdullah: OPEC pumps plenty of crude but “despicable” oil-futures speculators in the West are driving up the prices due to their “selfishness.”
5. Senator John McCain: Exxon Mobil has done such a good job of demonstrating the magic of the marketplace that it deserves another $1.2 billion in tax breaks.
6. Senator Barack Obama: Impose a windfall-profits tax to remind American oil executives that price gouging can backfire politically.
7. About 90 percent of the print and TV reporters in America: See No. 1. It really is that ol’ devil supply and demand.
8. The White House: Never mind. Nobody’s home.

For my money, a sounder answer as to whom to believe is Don Barlett and Jim Steele, the investigative reporting team that has won two Pulitzers and two National Magazine Awards for exposing government theft and corporate greed. Their 2003 series for Time magazine on oil economics remains required reading for anyone who wants a better understanding of how gas at $4 to $5 a gallon represents a carefully arranged screwing of consumers. “The bottom line for the oil people is, How much can I make while spending the least I can get by with on refineries, synthetic fuels, and for exploration and drilling on the vast, unused acreage in existing oil leases?” Barlett says. He notes that Canada has become the United States’ No. 1 oil supplier by funding joint government-industry exploration of the tar-sand fields of Alberta. “The most chilling statistic is Exxon Mobil’s. It spent twice as much last year to buy back stock as it did on exploration.”

As journalism has passed from a hungry to an elite profession, there’s no shock value in the fact that Exxon Mobil paid only $5 billion in U.S. income taxes last year while it paid $25 billion to foreign governments. …

Portfolio magazine – Crude Reporting

Click through. You are getting screwed.

gaspriceseb1.jpg

how good is your internet?

On By Rick McIn government, internetLeave a comment

Ten years ago, the United States had the fastest and cheapest residential Internet service in the world. Today U.S. residential Internet service, especially broadband, is among the slowest and most expensive. Fortunately, this is likely to change as U.S. broadband Internet services become decidedly more competitive, both in terms of cost and available bandwidth. …

Japan went from being among the most expensive countries for residential Internet bandwidth a decade ago to absolutely the cheapest today. While some of this change can be attributed to technology improvements, most of the change can be attributed to competition, specifically the entry of Softbank BB into the Japanese broadband market. Softbank BB entered the Japanese market early this decade with loss-leader pricing that forced all the incumbent broadband suppliers to respond in kind, leading to a dramatic expansion of the Japanese broadband market where today residential 100-megabit-per-second service costs less than $20 per month. …

Korea, as it is often wont to do, followed Japan in terms of bandwidth pricing. More importantly the government of Korea made it a national priority to build out the residential Internet infrastructure at government expense. This was, ironically, in part inspired by the U.S. National Information Infrastructure plan, which was intended to accomplish the same end but failed miserably. Though they took full advantage of $150 billion in tax credits, the U.S. telcos simply did not build the network they had agreed to build, yet their model inspired more successful efforts in Korea, Singapore and other Asian markets.

Of the 30+ nations that can be judged to have residential Internet service superior to the U.S., in case after case that superiority can be attributed to government funding of infrastructure, to largely urban (short-distance) topologies, or to aggressive competition. …

I, Cringely

If you want improvements in your internet, likely you need increased competition or government support.

Personally, I’d prefer increased competition.

Yet the ISPs do everything they can to stifle competition. Lobbyists buy off politicians.

What we really need is governments to encourage competition. Free enterprise governments.

Let’s check the speed of my current wireless connection using internetfrog.com

speed-www.jpg

Not bad!

stand down Minister Jim Prentice, bill C-61 sucks

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

I just complained to my MP through this convenient link:

After months of hesitation, Industry Minister Jim Prentice has finally revealed his re-write of Canada’s rules of copyright, Bill C-61. As expected, the bill contains major concessions to the American entertainment industry. Prentice’s bill forbids Canadians from engaging in ordinary practices such as ripping DVDs onto video iPods, unlocking digital phones for use with a competitor’s services, and paves the road for US-style consumer lawsuits for file-sharing. Tell your MP to represent you in the forthcoming copyright debate, and stop Prentice from steamrolling a bill that’s worse than America’s DMCA through Parliament without listening to Canadian voices.

Copyright for Canadians

copyright-for-canadians.jpg

Canada has been reasonably intelligent in the transition from analog to digital media. Until now.

Somehow the Canadian Conservative government has been bought off by the old big media. (Movie industry, record industry, etc.) Though almost anyone who looks at the issue objectively would tell Prentice his pandering to special corporate interests is bass ackwards, he’s still chugging ahead with this bad bill.

Canadians don’t want it.

Why is Prentice persisting?

I don’t know.

I wrote him personally and threatened to egg his garage if he doesn’t back down. As he did last Fall.

Read Michael Geist’s Blog if you want to know more about this issue.

Event: Jim Prentice – 2008 Stampede Breakfast

What: Rally
Host: Fair Copyright for Canada – Calgary Chapter
When: Saturday, July 5 at 8:50am
Where: Osteria de Medici parking lot

voted myself a 40% raise

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

I’ll be more motivated. More likely to stay in my current position. More likely to do a good job.

I’m worth it.

If you can’t vote yourself a raise, that’s your problem.

A spending watchdog blasted my decision, however.

Scott Hennig, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said said this:

“You should take this to the people. Have them make a decision on this. Have a independent citizens commission review this stuff,” he said.

eddies.jpgYa right, Scott. Like the taxpayers are going to approve a 40% raise! I’ll make decisions like this in future behind closed doors. As I did this time.

Related:

  • Alberta’s premier gives himself $54,000 raise – National Post
  • Taxpayers jam Alberta premier’s phone over raises – Calgary Herald

    • tell Ed what you think: Premier Ed Stelmach

    Charlie Wilson’s War – XLNT

    On By Rick McIn government, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

    Watched this terrific and informative “entertainment” with Dave and Lisa Adlard. For a Hollywood movie, I think it captures the flavour of how things get really done in politics.

    Charlie Wilson’s War is a 2007 biographical drama film based on the true story of Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who conspired with a “bare knuckle attitude” CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos to launch an operation to help the Afghan mujahideen resist and ultimately defeat the Soviet Union’s military occupation of the nation.

    The film is adapted from George Crile’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.

    It is directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Ned Beatty. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, including “Best Motion Picture”, but did not win in any category. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actor,” but did not win.

    Hoffman was fantastic, as usual.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    To oversimplify the plot, it’s the story of how the USA eventually and reluctantly delivered Stinger missiles into the hands of illiterate tribesmen. That weapon turned the tide in the campaign against the brutal invading Soviet Army.

    George Crile, author of … the book on which the film is based, wrote that the mujahideen’s victory in Afghanistan ultimately opened a power vacuum for bin Laden: “By the end of 1993, in Afghanistan itself there were no roads, no schools, just a destroyed country — and the United States was washing its hands of any responsibility. It was in this vacuum that the Taliban and Osama bin Laden would emerge as the dominant players. It is ironic that a man who had almost nothing to do with the victory over the Red Army, Osama bin Laden, would come to personify the power of the jihad.” …

    Wikipedia