God gets called on to do a lot of stuff about wars. But Dick Cheney's Arlington speech includes an especially unusual request --
May God keep us truly grateful for everything that you've [veterans] done.
The risk apparently is that other priorities might distract the rest of us not just from serving in wartime, but from remembering, without God's help, that other people were willing to do it.
UPDATE: God is helping Cheney with apostrophes --
Remarks by the Vice President on Veteran's Day
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Nobody could have foreseen ....
On her way out to the "western white house" for her boss's summit with Angela Merkel, Condi Rice did an interview with the Dallas Morning News. To its credit, the paper came armed with serious and sustained questions. Perhaps the most interesting concerns the period immediately after the overthrow of Saddam when the occupation of Iraq was put in the charge of the Pentagon and not, contrary to the earlier practice, the State Department. Condi is in an especially awkward position on that one, having advised the decision at the time but now in charge of the department that she then thought wasn't up to the job that she wants it to do now. So let the spinning begin --
So the truth of the matter is this country, the United States, really did not have a structure that worked particularly well for the transition from war to peace, the kind of -- we tended to think of things, there's war and there's peace. The military does war and the civilians do peace. And that's not the case. Many, many, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, but Haiti and Sudan and Liberia are all places where you find that this is more of a continuum. And so we tried in Bosnia and the Balkans to do it kind of with an international presence. Well, that worked variably. Kosovo still doesn't essentially have an economy. Bosnia-Herzegovina still isn't a real state in the way that it functions. It has three presidents. Three presidents! It has three police forces and three armies. (Laughter.) But you know, but this idea that somehow the Balkans -- we stopped the war, but the transition hasn't worked all that well ...
Now, what I think we've come to now is a recognition that you need structures that better integrate military and civilian capability. You need structures that permit large-scale civilian deployment, and we don't really have them ... And so the new structure that the President proposed in his State of the Union is something called a Civilian Response Corps, which is a civilian capability to sort of look like the National Guard capability so that you could actually sign up Americans. Let's say there's a former prosecutor or former assistant DA here in Dallas who would like to spend a year serving in Afghanistan or Iraq or Haiti or someplace doing rule of law and justice training.
The obvious problem with this is the fact that in countries like Iraq, they don't speak English, and the idea that some dude sitting around in the US with spare time on his hands can just head over there and start training people in Arabic is preposterous. There is a particular part of the US government that has people with technical specialties and language skills: the, er, State Department! So here's how Condi deals with that one --
QUESTION: One of the things that the State Department -- one of the assets that the State Department did have in 2003 was a very capable Foreign Service -- Arabic-speaking, very knowledgeable about Iraq as well as the rest of the region. They were swept aside in this decision to hand over those responsibilities to DOD.
SECRETARY RICE: That's not true.
QUESTION: Well, we've reviewed quite a few interviews on this and --
SECRETARY RICE: You know, people -- it's very interesting because that was not the assessment at the time, that State Department could somehow do this. It just wasn't the case. And yes, there were people -- I would, by the way -- who knew Iraq? Well, I planned with a lot of those people and it turns out we actually didn't know Iraq very well -- the Iraq that had existed from '91, after the first Gulf War, until 2003. I don't remember anybody knowing the degree to which the Oil-for-Food program had completely made dysfunctional agriculture in Iraq. Because if you have a food basket and you're giving people food through the Oil-for-Food program, then there isn't an agricultural market for goods. So agriculture had completely collapsed. I don't remember anybody knowing that.
Condi therefore claims that neither she or anyone around her knew that giving out free food tends to be bad for local farm producers -- a recurring theme of the food aid debate for about the last 30 years. Indeed, the concern that free food destroys local production was one of the (misguided) rationales for Britain's botched famine relief policies in Ireland in the 1840s. The depth of Condi's ability to be shocked by well known issues never ceases to amaze.
So the truth of the matter is this country, the United States, really did not have a structure that worked particularly well for the transition from war to peace, the kind of -- we tended to think of things, there's war and there's peace. The military does war and the civilians do peace. And that's not the case. Many, many, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, but Haiti and Sudan and Liberia are all places where you find that this is more of a continuum. And so we tried in Bosnia and the Balkans to do it kind of with an international presence. Well, that worked variably. Kosovo still doesn't essentially have an economy. Bosnia-Herzegovina still isn't a real state in the way that it functions. It has three presidents. Three presidents! It has three police forces and three armies. (Laughter.) But you know, but this idea that somehow the Balkans -- we stopped the war, but the transition hasn't worked all that well ...
Now, what I think we've come to now is a recognition that you need structures that better integrate military and civilian capability. You need structures that permit large-scale civilian deployment, and we don't really have them ... And so the new structure that the President proposed in his State of the Union is something called a Civilian Response Corps, which is a civilian capability to sort of look like the National Guard capability so that you could actually sign up Americans. Let's say there's a former prosecutor or former assistant DA here in Dallas who would like to spend a year serving in Afghanistan or Iraq or Haiti or someplace doing rule of law and justice training.
The obvious problem with this is the fact that in countries like Iraq, they don't speak English, and the idea that some dude sitting around in the US with spare time on his hands can just head over there and start training people in Arabic is preposterous. There is a particular part of the US government that has people with technical specialties and language skills: the, er, State Department! So here's how Condi deals with that one --
QUESTION: One of the things that the State Department -- one of the assets that the State Department did have in 2003 was a very capable Foreign Service -- Arabic-speaking, very knowledgeable about Iraq as well as the rest of the region. They were swept aside in this decision to hand over those responsibilities to DOD.
SECRETARY RICE: That's not true.
QUESTION: Well, we've reviewed quite a few interviews on this and --
SECRETARY RICE: You know, people -- it's very interesting because that was not the assessment at the time, that State Department could somehow do this. It just wasn't the case. And yes, there were people -- I would, by the way -- who knew Iraq? Well, I planned with a lot of those people and it turns out we actually didn't know Iraq very well -- the Iraq that had existed from '91, after the first Gulf War, until 2003. I don't remember anybody knowing the degree to which the Oil-for-Food program had completely made dysfunctional agriculture in Iraq. Because if you have a food basket and you're giving people food through the Oil-for-Food program, then there isn't an agricultural market for goods. So agriculture had completely collapsed. I don't remember anybody knowing that.
Condi therefore claims that neither she or anyone around her knew that giving out free food tends to be bad for local farm producers -- a recurring theme of the food aid debate for about the last 30 years. Indeed, the concern that free food destroys local production was one of the (misguided) rationales for Britain's botched famine relief policies in Ireland in the 1840s. The depth of Condi's ability to be shocked by well known issues never ceases to amaze.
Culture of death
Carefully dumped into the weekend news cycle by the US military in Iraq --
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley was found not guilty Nov. 8 on three specifications of premeditated murder during a general court martial at the Camp Victory court house.
Hensley, a sniper and the scout platoon sergeant for 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne, was on trial for the deaths of three Iraqis during missions that took place April 14 and May 11 in Jurf as Sakhr, and April 27 in Abu Shemsi.
Hensley was found guilty under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for wrongfully placing an AK-47 rifle with the remains of the Iraqi man who died during the May 11 mission. He was also found guilty under UCMJ Article 89 for disrespect to a superior commissioned officer.
Hensley was sentenced to 135 days, a reduction in rank to sergeant and received a letter of reprimand.
These are incidents in which unarmed Iraqis were shot dead even as the US troops apparently had time to determine who they were. And in which weapons were planted on them to make them look like insurgents -- whether the weapons were in fact "bait" remains a matter of dispute.
One hopes that letter of reprimand doesn't dog Hensley's future career.
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley was found not guilty Nov. 8 on three specifications of premeditated murder during a general court martial at the Camp Victory court house.
Hensley, a sniper and the scout platoon sergeant for 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne, was on trial for the deaths of three Iraqis during missions that took place April 14 and May 11 in Jurf as Sakhr, and April 27 in Abu Shemsi.
Hensley was found guilty under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for wrongfully placing an AK-47 rifle with the remains of the Iraqi man who died during the May 11 mission. He was also found guilty under UCMJ Article 89 for disrespect to a superior commissioned officer.
Hensley was sentenced to 135 days, a reduction in rank to sergeant and received a letter of reprimand.
These are incidents in which unarmed Iraqis were shot dead even as the US troops apparently had time to determine who they were. And in which weapons were planted on them to make them look like insurgents -- whether the weapons were in fact "bait" remains a matter of dispute.
One hopes that letter of reprimand doesn't dog Hensley's future career.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Planned Spontaneity
Paul Quinn from south Armagh was beaten to death across the border in Monaghan, apparently after falling out with local goons whose exact relationship to the IRA is not clear. Baron John Laird has announced that on Monday, he will use parliamentary privilege in the House of Lords to name those believed responsible. The names have already allegedly appeared in graffiti around Quinn's home town and on social networking websites.
Now the Houses of Lords and Commons can make pretty much any rules they want for what is said in the houses, but announcing ahead of time that you intend to use the special privilege to skirt around a legal investigation is a dodgy move. For one thing, one could argue that the purpose of the privilege is to allow free debate in the strict sense of the word, meaning that as an issue is being discussed, no one should feel constrained for being in the moment and letting the debate flow. But in this case there's no debate. He's just going to do it, regardless of what is actually said on Monday.
An added problem is that the crime occurred outside the UK, with the possibility that any prosecution could be in the Republic of Ireland. It's not clear how an Irish court would handle a defence claim of prejudicial information that originated in another country.
Needless to say, despite the above reservations, we'll be Hansarding away on Monday to see what happens!
UPDATE: See here.
Now the Houses of Lords and Commons can make pretty much any rules they want for what is said in the houses, but announcing ahead of time that you intend to use the special privilege to skirt around a legal investigation is a dodgy move. For one thing, one could argue that the purpose of the privilege is to allow free debate in the strict sense of the word, meaning that as an issue is being discussed, no one should feel constrained for being in the moment and letting the debate flow. But in this case there's no debate. He's just going to do it, regardless of what is actually said on Monday.
An added problem is that the crime occurred outside the UK, with the possibility that any prosecution could be in the Republic of Ireland. It's not clear how an Irish court would handle a defence claim of prejudicial information that originated in another country.
Needless to say, despite the above reservations, we'll be Hansarding away on Monday to see what happens!
UPDATE: See here.
A light bulb flickers
George Bush, with Angela Merkel in Texas --
PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm now going to go feed the Chancellor a hamburger. (Laughter.) Right here, Crawford, Texas. No, well, I mean back over there. Thank you all.
CHANCELLOR MERKEL: Obviously, for me, as a person who originally came from Hamburg --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes.
CHANCELLOR MERKEL: -- it's even more important.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Hamburger.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm now going to go feed the Chancellor a hamburger. (Laughter.) Right here, Crawford, Texas. No, well, I mean back over there. Thank you all.
CHANCELLOR MERKEL: Obviously, for me, as a person who originally came from Hamburg --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes.
CHANCELLOR MERKEL: -- it's even more important.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Hamburger.
What oil crisis?
REUTERS/Jim Young; caption
One might have thought that a Merkel-Bush summit taking place on a weekend of essentially $100/barrel oil might make a nod at fuel efficiency. One would be wrong.
Mos Espa aids the insurgency
Image from Star Wars official site
Now that it's apparently officially acknowledged that Iraqi insurgents are not getting Explosively Formed Penetrators from Iran, a new and more dastardly possibility beckons. That they are getting them from a galaxy a long time ago and far far away. Compare Watto's hat with the deadly weapon.
Friday, November 09, 2007
As stuff happened
White House photo by Eric Draper
Former commissioner of the New York Police Department, Bernie Kerik, will be indicted for corruption today. It's important to remember that Kerik did stuff after leaving the NYPD and before being nominated to head the federal department of homeland security. Like being put in charge of training the Iraqi National Police, in the fateful year of 2003. Here's a little from the event associated with the picture above, where Kerik reports back to his boss --
THE PRESIDENT: .... First, I want to welcome Bernie Kerik to the South Lawn, and to the Oval Office. We just had a fascinating discussion about what he did in Iraq, what he saw in Iraq. He can speak for himself. But let me characterize it this way, that he went to help the Iraqis organize a police force. He showed up at times of chaos and confusion. Because of his leadership, his knowledge and his experience, he was able to stand up a police force in Baghdad in a very quick period of time. I think he told me opened up 37 different precinct stations -- 35 different precinct stations. They activated and trained 35,000 Iraqi police force. And that's important because the ultimate solution to the security issues in Iraq is for the Iraqi citizens to manage their own affairs.
Bernie went there and made a big difference. And for that our nation is very grateful. We appreciate it a lot.
Kerik showed himself to be a loyal Bushie, because this event came right after the administration was forced to fall back on the construction "weapons of mass destruction related program activities" given the absence of any actual WMD in Iraq. Kerik had his answer
And I read some of the articles about this, about Dr. Kay's report today, in my opinion, there was one weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, and it was Saddam Hussein
Kerik's remarks are worth reading in full, since they reveal a 9/11 endowment of self-righteousness that probably had him convinced he was doing nothing wrong in the activities that got him indicted. But when people look back trying to figure out how Iraq went so wrong, having a cult-of-9/11 crony like Kerik in charge of building up the police force will be part of the answer.
This part is right
The part where Karl Rove, writing in today's Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd; alt. free link) as a former (sic) adviser to George Bush --
A party that wins control by that narrow margin can quickly see its fortunes reversed when it fails to act responsibly, fails to fulfill its promises, and fails to lead.
But since it's Rove peddling White House talking points, what he means is not George Bush's 540 vote victory in winning the presidency in 2000, (or 1 vote, if you count the Supreme Court margin), but --
The Democratic victory in 2006 was narrow. They won the House by 85,961 votes out of over 80 million cast and the Senate by a mere 3,562 out of over 62 million cast.
The main obstacle to the Democrats achieving anything since 2006 has been a constitutional system that leaves Rove's boss in the chief executive position long after his public support has collapsed.
A party that wins control by that narrow margin can quickly see its fortunes reversed when it fails to act responsibly, fails to fulfill its promises, and fails to lead.
But since it's Rove peddling White House talking points, what he means is not George Bush's 540 vote victory in winning the presidency in 2000, (or 1 vote, if you count the Supreme Court margin), but --
The Democratic victory in 2006 was narrow. They won the House by 85,961 votes out of over 80 million cast and the Senate by a mere 3,562 out of over 62 million cast.
The main obstacle to the Democrats achieving anything since 2006 has been a constitutional system that leaves Rove's boss in the chief executive position long after his public support has collapsed.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
He's a commander guy
George Bush (to Pervez Musharraf) --
You can't be President and head of the military at the same time.
This is an easy for one Musharraf. He doesn't even have to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln. He can compare himself to the Commander-in-Chief, George Bush.
UPDATE: Jack Cafferty raised Bush's remark with Wolf Blitzer on CNN this evening. Blitzer tried to make the best of Bush's gaffe, arguing that he was referring to the Pakistani analog of the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rather than Commander-in-Chief. But as Cafferty pointed out, in the US system, the Joint Chiefs chairman takes his orders from the President. If Bush has a complaint about the US constitutional system, which puts an executive president as commander-in-chief of the military, he should say so.
You can't be President and head of the military at the same time.
This is an easy for one Musharraf. He doesn't even have to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln. He can compare himself to the Commander-in-Chief, George Bush.
UPDATE: Jack Cafferty raised Bush's remark with Wolf Blitzer on CNN this evening. Blitzer tried to make the best of Bush's gaffe, arguing that he was referring to the Pakistani analog of the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rather than Commander-in-Chief. But as Cafferty pointed out, in the US system, the Joint Chiefs chairman takes his orders from the President. If Bush has a complaint about the US constitutional system, which puts an executive president as commander-in-chief of the military, he should say so.
Chicken, meet roost
White House photo by Kimberlee Hewitt
When you endorse "pro-democracy" street protests as a legitimate way of changing a government, you can't then be surprised when there's a round 2 of these things where you might be in a more awkward position. Whether it's Benazir (in a typical stunt) promising to lead a march from Lahore to Islamabad, or Georgians fed up with what their Rose Revolution brought them (in the form of Mikhail Saakashvili, above), or Hezbollah in Lebanon. There's more to democracy than opportunistic branding and support of one particular faction that at a point in time look like the right people to be in charge.
UPDATE: An almost parody of the above line of protestor-choosing by Powerline's Hindrocket --
Georgia is a very different case. That country's government is pro-western and progressive; it accuses Russian intelligence agencies of coordinating the protests in an effort to destabilize, and re-assert control over, Georgia. My guess is that's probably true, and the protesters are, essentially, the bad guys.
Fear the grape
White House photo by Chris Greenberg
When is the last time that two teetotalers, or at least two soi-disant teetotalers, did a White House toast?
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
He mentioned the bisque
At the White House, Nicolas Sarkozy is at last getting the lobster that he didn't get in Maine, while reading the guest list requires seeing a lot of "honorables" before people like Dick Cheney and Ed Gillespie. The protocol people forgot that Rachida Dati's exact title includes Guardian of the Seals, and it's an interesting choice of Sarko to have her there along with Rama Yade (above). Condi might have some competitition in the dress sweepstakes.
We'll have to figure out how (possibly former) Mets pitcher Tom Glavine made the cut. The future Bush in-laws, via Jenna (the Hagers) will be there too, although the father-in-law's surname is currently mis-spelled ("Spouse of Mr. John Hagar")1.
UPDATE: watertiger works through the pictures.
1Since corrected
Not enough troops
What's wrong with this statement from Multinational Force-Iraq? --
TIKRIT, Iraq – A U.S. Sailor was killed as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Province Monday.
The Navy fighting land wars. Incidentally, here's an interesting line from the Financial Times explaining one of the many sources of disenchantment in the Pakistani army --
US officials say it is making senior officers reluctant to pursue actionable intelligence if there is a high risk of failure. "The image of the military as a professional force, capable of confronting India, is very important to them and this affects their willingness to take risks in the tribal areas," says one.
An army intended for use in wars against countries being bogged down in a war on terrorists. It's the same for Israel -- and the US. It's not just that the GWOT is stupidly named. Its underlying activities are stupid, not least when one's vaunted military ends up looking like the "weak horse", if you will.
UPDATE: A little more on the dead sailor -- Bewley was permanently assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11, Oak Harbor, Wash.
TIKRIT, Iraq – A U.S. Sailor was killed as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Province Monday.
The Navy fighting land wars. Incidentally, here's an interesting line from the Financial Times explaining one of the many sources of disenchantment in the Pakistani army --
US officials say it is making senior officers reluctant to pursue actionable intelligence if there is a high risk of failure. "The image of the military as a professional force, capable of confronting India, is very important to them and this affects their willingness to take risks in the tribal areas," says one.
An army intended for use in wars against countries being bogged down in a war on terrorists. It's the same for Israel -- and the US. It's not just that the GWOT is stupidly named. Its underlying activities are stupid, not least when one's vaunted military ends up looking like the "weak horse", if you will.
UPDATE: A little more on the dead sailor -- Bewley was permanently assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11, Oak Harbor, Wash.
Bomber Harris, all is forgiven
The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens (subs. req'd; alt. free link) has a defence for George Bush's desire to torture terrorist detainees -- that it's not as bad as the firebombing of German cities or the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II. Leave aside all the other problems with this argument. If George W. Bush is, like Churchill and FDR, engaged in all-out war against totalitarian enemies and he thinks he needs to torture a few people to advance the greater good, why doesn't he come out and say so? The torture debate is of course driven by moral questions. But it's fueled by Bush's word games, a fuel he could remove by simply saying in plain English what he wants to do.
Don't tell the CPVPV*
New York Times processology on the resignation of Citibank CEO Charles Prince, a move that required winning over key Citibank shareholder Prince al-Waleed and his Kingdom Holdings company --
A week ago yesterday, Mr. Weill, Citigroup’s former chairman and chief executive, took the Citigroup jet to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to meet with Prince Walid. He flew there, according to a banking industry official briefed on the situation, to persuade the Saudi prince that it was time for Citi’s chief executive, Mr. Prince, to leave. Prince Walid called up Mr. Prince and told him about the conversation, this person said.
Michael S. Klein, the co-head of Citigroup’s investment bank, also headed to Riyadh on another Citigroup jet early last week with other bankers to celebrate the successful introduction of Kingdom Holdings, the prince’s publicly traded company.
At the home of Kingdom’s finance chief, a dozen or so bankers and Kingdom Holdings’ executives and directors sipped cocktails and enjoyed Middle Eastern foods while informally discussing the issue of Mr. Prince’s performance, according to people briefed on the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it.
*Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
A week ago yesterday, Mr. Weill, Citigroup’s former chairman and chief executive, took the Citigroup jet to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to meet with Prince Walid. He flew there, according to a banking industry official briefed on the situation, to persuade the Saudi prince that it was time for Citi’s chief executive, Mr. Prince, to leave. Prince Walid called up Mr. Prince and told him about the conversation, this person said.
Michael S. Klein, the co-head of Citigroup’s investment bank, also headed to Riyadh on another Citigroup jet early last week with other bankers to celebrate the successful introduction of Kingdom Holdings, the prince’s publicly traded company.
At the home of Kingdom’s finance chief, a dozen or so bankers and Kingdom Holdings’ executives and directors sipped cocktails and enjoyed Middle Eastern foods while informally discussing the issue of Mr. Prince’s performance, according to people briefed on the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it.
*Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
Monday, November 05, 2007
Where does he find these people?
Out with Karen Hughes, and now, in with Torie Clark --
The President intends to nominate the following individuals to be Members of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy ... Victoria Clarke, of Maryland, for the remainder of a three-year term expiring 07/01/09.
Source for photos of Hughes and Clark
So complicated only the Iranians can make it
The above shaped copper plate is an Explosively-Formed Projectile, a key ingredient of armor-piercing improvised explosive devices in Iraq. When George Bush discerns that his ranting about Iran's nuclear capability has no credibility, his PR team pivots and brings up Iran's supposed dominance in the supply of EFPs to Iraq. The story from Multinational Force Iraq accompanying the above picture concerns the manufacture of EFPs and other lethal devices in Iraq. Iran is never mentioned.
It gets repetitous saying it, but the other ingredient of IEDs is just all the Saddam-era conventional weapons that George Bush's war plan failed to secure after the invasion.
UPDATE: A rapprochement of the US military in Baghdad towards Iran is in evidence: the 9 Iranian detainees have been released, reflecting a broader determination that Iran has clamped down on supplies to the Shiite militias.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
One person to watch the bill
Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw doing some interpretation in the New York Times of various accepted talking points about the American healthcare system:
STATEMENT 1 The United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, which has national health insurance.
So he sets out to show that it doesn't mean what it appears to mean. Part of the explanation is higher murder and accident rates in the US. But then --
Americans are also more likely to be obese, leading to heart disease and other medical problems ... The causes of American obesity are not fully understood, but they involve lifestyle choices we make every day, as well as our system of food delivery ... Infant mortality rates also reflect broader social trends, including the prevalence of infants with low birth weight ... The rate of teenage motherhood, according to the [Baruch college economists] study ($), is almost three times higher in the United States than it is in Canada ... The bottom line is that many statistics on health outcomes say little about our system of health care.
So note the trickery. In assessing the contribution of the different healthcare systems to overall health, he's excluding the contribution of the public health system to the different outcomes.
Americans have worse health because some are fatter and some are born with low weight at birth. Why might that be? How about poorer maternal health, more pregnant women with bad health insurance coverage, and -- together with the issue of obesity -- worse diets for parents and children. And that gets into the even bigger problem. Private incentives leading to bad public outcomes. Surely Mankiw knows what that is.
Who's telling Americans to eat healthier diets? A marginalised Surgeon-General and a Food and Drug Administration that has to fend off the lobbyists with every move. And who bears the costs of bad diets? Lots of people, but in a dispersed and not easily organised way. And who's telling Americans to eat less healthy diets? Turn on the TV or open a magazine. It's big money.
With national healthcare, there is one single entity that sees all the cost: the government, because it's paying for it. Then the playing field between public health and the food industry is a bit more level and the levers for reaching some of the people on the fringes on the system are wider than they are now.
For one thing, countries with single payer health systems seem to understand that contraception in secondary schools is not just grist for the mill for talk radio ranters, but something that actually improves public health. Saving everyone in the country a little bit of money. It's called a "collective action problem". It might even be on the syllabus at Harvard.
UPDATE: Additional links on the Mankiw piece (after the self-reference, go to the economistsview one).
STATEMENT 1 The United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, which has national health insurance.
So he sets out to show that it doesn't mean what it appears to mean. Part of the explanation is higher murder and accident rates in the US. But then --
Americans are also more likely to be obese, leading to heart disease and other medical problems ... The causes of American obesity are not fully understood, but they involve lifestyle choices we make every day, as well as our system of food delivery ... Infant mortality rates also reflect broader social trends, including the prevalence of infants with low birth weight ... The rate of teenage motherhood, according to the [Baruch college economists] study ($), is almost three times higher in the United States than it is in Canada ... The bottom line is that many statistics on health outcomes say little about our system of health care.
So note the trickery. In assessing the contribution of the different healthcare systems to overall health, he's excluding the contribution of the public health system to the different outcomes.
Americans have worse health because some are fatter and some are born with low weight at birth. Why might that be? How about poorer maternal health, more pregnant women with bad health insurance coverage, and -- together with the issue of obesity -- worse diets for parents and children. And that gets into the even bigger problem. Private incentives leading to bad public outcomes. Surely Mankiw knows what that is.
Who's telling Americans to eat healthier diets? A marginalised Surgeon-General and a Food and Drug Administration that has to fend off the lobbyists with every move. And who bears the costs of bad diets? Lots of people, but in a dispersed and not easily organised way. And who's telling Americans to eat less healthy diets? Turn on the TV or open a magazine. It's big money.
With national healthcare, there is one single entity that sees all the cost: the government, because it's paying for it. Then the playing field between public health and the food industry is a bit more level and the levers for reaching some of the people on the fringes on the system are wider than they are now.
For one thing, countries with single payer health systems seem to understand that contraception in secondary schools is not just grist for the mill for talk radio ranters, but something that actually improves public health. Saving everyone in the country a little bit of money. It's called a "collective action problem". It might even be on the syllabus at Harvard.
UPDATE: Additional links on the Mankiw piece (after the self-reference, go to the economistsview one).
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Birds of a feather
It might be hard to tell who wrote these words --
WHEREAS some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism thereby weakening the Government and the nation’s resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace;
It's not a Bush speech. It's General Musharraf's proclamation of emergency rule.
WHEREAS some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism thereby weakening the Government and the nation’s resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace;
It's not a Bush speech. It's General Musharraf's proclamation of emergency rule.
Heckuva job
White House photo by Tina Hager
So now Pakistan, the place that actually had nuclear weapons when George Bush invaded Iraq, is under emergency rule.
More images of George Bush's emphasis on personalised diplomacy here.
Friday, November 02, 2007
How little we know
A truly cryptic press release via Multinational Force Iraq --
SOUTHWEST ASIA - Three Airmen were killed Nov. 1 while performing combat operations in the vicinity of Balad Air Base, Iraq.
All three were assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Balad AB.
Not a hint of an explanation as to what US Air Force investigative personnel were doing in what sounds like ground operations near their base. Even stranger is their affiliation within the USAF. Here's more about that Office of Special Investigations --
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has been the Air Force's major investigative service since Aug.1, 1948. The agency reports to the Inspector General, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.
OSI provides professional investigative service to commanders of all Air Force activities. Its primary responsibilities are criminal investigations and counterintelligence services.
And OSI's own press release on the 3 deaths is a little bit different --
11/2/2007 - SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Three Airmen were killed Nov. 1 while performing federal law enforcement operations in the vicinity of Balad Air Base, Iraq.
Very odd to specify that it was a law enforcement and not simply a military operation, in which they do occasionally find themselves. Something about this is very fishy.
UPDATE: There is now a more extensive news release giving the names of the deceased and includes the details that one was a civilian and they were killed by an IED.
SOUTHWEST ASIA - Three Airmen were killed Nov. 1 while performing combat operations in the vicinity of Balad Air Base, Iraq.
All three were assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Balad AB.
Not a hint of an explanation as to what US Air Force investigative personnel were doing in what sounds like ground operations near their base. Even stranger is their affiliation within the USAF. Here's more about that Office of Special Investigations --
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has been the Air Force's major investigative service since Aug.1, 1948. The agency reports to the Inspector General, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.
OSI provides professional investigative service to commanders of all Air Force activities. Its primary responsibilities are criminal investigations and counterintelligence services.
And OSI's own press release on the 3 deaths is a little bit different --
11/2/2007 - SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Three Airmen were killed Nov. 1 while performing federal law enforcement operations in the vicinity of Balad Air Base, Iraq.
Very odd to specify that it was a law enforcement and not simply a military operation, in which they do occasionally find themselves. Something about this is very fishy.
UPDATE: There is now a more extensive news release giving the names of the deceased and includes the details that one was a civilian and they were killed by an IED.
The real sacrifice
No more words from Bush or Cheney for this week -- it's too painful -- but take a look at this transcript of a Dick Cheney interview with a sycophantic right-wing radio host in Dallas, Mike Gallagher. The first half of the interview is focused on Gallagher's view of who has a tough job. It's not the soldiers fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. It's Bush, Cheney and Condi Rice, who have to tolerate people saying mean things about them. And it's Dick Cheney, who has to contemplate a world where he won't have limousines and advance preparatory teams when he's no longer VP. Gallagher really thinks that's a sacrifice.
Gallagher has sacrificed himself, though not by going to fight in Iraq --
Q As I was being frisked today, I thought, boy, there is hoorah. There is. (Laughter.)
So Cheney's security detail frisked his biggest fan in Dallas. That's trust.
Gallagher has sacrificed himself, though not by going to fight in Iraq --
Q As I was being frisked today, I thought, boy, there is hoorah. There is. (Laughter.)
So Cheney's security detail frisked his biggest fan in Dallas. That's trust.
Cave man
George Bush, with his favourite backdrop (troops) --
Our enemies see the changes underway, and they increasingly fear they're on the wrong side of events. Osama bin Laden -- who has to hide in caves because the United States is on his tail -- understands, has said publicly that al Qaeda's recent setbacks are mistakes -- the result of mistakes that al Qaeda has made. In other words, he recognizes the inevitable -- that the United States of America and those who long for peace in Iraq, the Iraqi citizens, will not tolerate thugs and killers in their midst. (Applause.)
He doesn't see the irony in quoting Osama's admission of mistakes, an admission that Bush would never make himself. And being "in caves" has not stopped Osama from issuing his messages -- one reason being that he's probably not actually in a cave --
Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), said news of outsiders' presence travels fast in the tribal areas and it would be hard to keep it secret for years.
"In the countryside or in tribal areas ... it's difficult to hide yourself because there people live ... and operate in a manner in which finding out about unusual presence is very important," Durrani told Reuters in an interview in London ... Durrani said an urban centre could provide a better refuge.
"Why not a big city? Anywhere in Pakistan, Afghanistan. Anywhere outside the region where it is easier to keep cover," he said. "These are the places where you can hide yourself much better."
It's easier for Osama to hide when the Commander-in-Chief of the people chasing him is fixated on his alleged location as of December 2001. The guy who never makes mistakes.
Our enemies see the changes underway, and they increasingly fear they're on the wrong side of events. Osama bin Laden -- who has to hide in caves because the United States is on his tail -- understands, has said publicly that al Qaeda's recent setbacks are mistakes -- the result of mistakes that al Qaeda has made. In other words, he recognizes the inevitable -- that the United States of America and those who long for peace in Iraq, the Iraqi citizens, will not tolerate thugs and killers in their midst. (Applause.)
He doesn't see the irony in quoting Osama's admission of mistakes, an admission that Bush would never make himself. And being "in caves" has not stopped Osama from issuing his messages -- one reason being that he's probably not actually in a cave --
Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), said news of outsiders' presence travels fast in the tribal areas and it would be hard to keep it secret for years.
"In the countryside or in tribal areas ... it's difficult to hide yourself because there people live ... and operate in a manner in which finding out about unusual presence is very important," Durrani told Reuters in an interview in London ... Durrani said an urban centre could provide a better refuge.
"Why not a big city? Anywhere in Pakistan, Afghanistan. Anywhere outside the region where it is easier to keep cover," he said. "These are the places where you can hide yourself much better."
It's easier for Osama to hide when the Commander-in-Chief of the people chasing him is fixated on his alleged location as of December 2001. The guy who never makes mistakes.
Convergence
Here's a really bizarre column from Charles Krauthammer. It's propagating the talking point that Argentina electing its first lady as president is a harbinger of Hillary Clinton's political future. The issue for Krauthammer is the return of Bill Clinton to the White House. But this leads him to sloppy phrasing --
We have never had an ex-president move back into the White House.
which needs the qualifier "as an ex-president" added to it, since Grover Cleveland served non-consecutive terms as president. Then there's the insistent spelling of Juan Peren. Did no one check the font in Perón?1 There's the mischievous word-dropping --
The cloud hovering over a Hillary presidency is not Bill padding around the White House in robe and slippers flipping thongs.
Has to get a Monica mention in there somewhere. But mostly it's just Krauthammer's blindness to the fact that the US is becoming more like Latin America -- in rising inequality, militarist populism, and the view of constitutions as subservient to the whims of the president.
1The Post finally corrected the spelling, which was noticed elsewhere.
We have never had an ex-president move back into the White House.
which needs the qualifier "as an ex-president" added to it, since Grover Cleveland served non-consecutive terms as president. Then there's the insistent spelling of Juan Peren. Did no one check the font in Perón?1 There's the mischievous word-dropping --
The cloud hovering over a Hillary presidency is not Bill padding around the White House in robe and slippers flipping thongs.
Has to get a Monica mention in there somewhere. But mostly it's just Krauthammer's blindness to the fact that the US is becoming more like Latin America -- in rising inequality, militarist populism, and the view of constitutions as subservient to the whims of the president.
1The Post finally corrected the spelling, which was noticed elsewhere.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Projection
Does George Bush really think it's a good speech line (at the Heritage Foundation) to tell Congress to be more responsive to Osama bin Laden than MoveOn.Org or Code Pink?
Bush also seemed to be claiming that the US should have invaded eastern Europe after the Budapest, Prague, or Gdansk uprisings.
UPDATE: More on Bush's speech. It's strange that he thinks one of his recycled election rally speeches from 2006 is still good material.
Bush also seemed to be claiming that the US should have invaded eastern Europe after the Budapest, Prague, or Gdansk uprisings.
UPDATE: More on Bush's speech. It's strange that he thinks one of his recycled election rally speeches from 2006 is still good material.
Michael Flatley eat your heart out
No one seems to have a perfect quality video of the event, but this one gets the essence: Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon doing an Irish jig by way of Riverdance at the celebration of the team's World Series victory. Music from the Dropkick Murphys.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Put it on the couch
George Bush --
Here's my philosophy -- that government ought to trust private medicine; that we've got a fabulous health care system. Does it have issues? Sure, it's got issues.
At least he didn't do finger quotes around the word issues. However, he never explained what those issues might be. He did on the other hand claim --
Our system is so good that many people from around the world like to come here to get treatment.
The point being of course that they come here to get treatment by paying loads of money. But that's not one of the issues that he has in mind.
Here's my philosophy -- that government ought to trust private medicine; that we've got a fabulous health care system. Does it have issues? Sure, it's got issues.
At least he didn't do finger quotes around the word issues. However, he never explained what those issues might be. He did on the other hand claim --
Our system is so good that many people from around the world like to come here to get treatment.
The point being of course that they come here to get treatment by paying loads of money. But that's not one of the issues that he has in mind.
Fake but accurate
At National Review's The Corner, Iain Murray exults--
Readers might remember that after 9/11, the military band at Buckingham Palace broke with tradition and played the Stars and Stripes. Yesterday, as King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia arrived to meet Her Majesty the Queen, they played a somewhat different tune to greet the visiting monarch's arrival: Darth Vader's theme music. The video has to be seen to be believed ... More on the report at ConservativeHome
The video seems to come fromNewsnight Channel 4 News. The band did play the Star Wars theme1. They also played the Indiana Jones theme. But more importantly, this was their warm-up-the-crowd music before the King arrived. When the King arrived, they played, as one would expect, the Saudi national anthem.
Yet theBBC Channel 4 report appears to have been spliced to have the Darth Vader music playing as he steps out of the car. Watch a different BBC report, where admittedly it's hard to hear the background music with the reporter yakking, but it's not Star Wars. Furthermore, the account from The Times, while revelling in the buffoonery of the ceremony, is quite clear on the sequence --
As the King stepped out of his car they switched to the – mercifully short – Saudi national anthem as the green and white Saudi flag was unfurled atop Horse Guards alongside the Royal Standard.
However since no expensive phone-ins were involved, it's not clear that there's any scandal.
UPDATE: With Andrew Sullivan having linked to the Channel 4 report, titling it "Darth Abdullah", this manufactured sequence seems set for another round of popularity.
1 To be technically correct, they played the Imperial March ("Darth Vader's theme").
Readers might remember that after 9/11, the military band at Buckingham Palace broke with tradition and played the Stars and Stripes. Yesterday, as King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia arrived to meet Her Majesty the Queen, they played a somewhat different tune to greet the visiting monarch's arrival: Darth Vader's theme music. The video has to be seen to be believed ... More on the report at ConservativeHome
The video seems to come from
Yet the
As the King stepped out of his car they switched to the – mercifully short – Saudi national anthem as the green and white Saudi flag was unfurled atop Horse Guards alongside the Royal Standard.
However since no expensive phone-ins were involved, it's not clear that there's any scandal.
UPDATE: With Andrew Sullivan having linked to the Channel 4 report, titling it "Darth Abdullah", this manufactured sequence seems set for another round of popularity.
1 To be technically correct, they played the Imperial March ("Darth Vader's theme").
FINAL UPDATE: To guard against linkrot, here's an alternative link to the doctored Channel 4 audio and here's a direct link to the BBC video which includes the King walking up the steps with different music, 1m15s in.
How many non-union workers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Zero. If it's the Celtic Tiger, where all the wealth is just a veneer over a parody of 1970s industrial relations in the public sector:
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has suspended a number of electricians without pay in the south of the country in a long-running dispute over who should be allowed to change light bulbs in hospitals.
The electricians, members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), were suspended yesterday evening from their jobs at Cork University Hospital, St Finbarr's Hospital, Kerry General Hospital and Mallow Hospital in Cork.
TEEU members are refusing to implement a labour court recommendation that permits workers other than electricians to change light bulbs.
On the other hand, with Bertie making himself one of the highest paid leaders in the world, perhaps the electricians can't be blamed for holding out for a little extra cash.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has suspended a number of electricians without pay in the south of the country in a long-running dispute over who should be allowed to change light bulbs in hospitals.
The electricians, members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), were suspended yesterday evening from their jobs at Cork University Hospital, St Finbarr's Hospital, Kerry General Hospital and Mallow Hospital in Cork.
TEEU members are refusing to implement a labour court recommendation that permits workers other than electricians to change light bulbs.
On the other hand, with Bertie making himself one of the highest paid leaders in the world, perhaps the electricians can't be blamed for holding out for a little extra cash.
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