Politics

Things Younger Than John McCain

Not that I endorse such sordid political tactics, but this is pretty damn funny.

Prediction

If John McCain is elected President, we will be no closer to addressing global warming than we are today. For all his talk, his proposals are empty and won't move us much beyond the status quo.

A Free Lunch, Literally

Via this gas tax calculator, I discovered that I can expect to save a whopping $8.80 if the summer gas tax holiday is enacted. "Celebrate good times, come on!"

Now, Mary and I are aren't typical in this respect, averaging only about 4500 miles per year in a compact sedan. But in order to make that happen, we live in the middle of downtown Charlotte, and we pay a premium for doing so. That's our choice, and it's worth it to us — almost everything we need is within walking distance, usually just a couple of blocks. But I figure as long as presidential candidates like Clinton and McCain are willing to pander on this issue, why not pander to us, too? Where's our free money?

I mean, if you make it a centerpiece of your energy policy to reward many people whose chosen lifestyle tends to make them large consumers of gas, the least you can do to balance that out is to give a few bucks to people who are taking a hit to live greener to begin with. In fact — and here's a completely unnovel idea — why not skip the gas tax holiday altogether and subsidize green alternatives like public transport, the purchase fuel-efficient vehicles, working remotely, etc. It might not be popular with some parts of the SUV crowd, but at least it has the virtue of providing the right incentives.

And yes, there are many people who are legitimately hurting because of higher energy prices. But instead of subsidizing behavior — more driving — that will just make the long-term problem worse, why not try to come up some targeted assistance that actually rewards good behavior to an extent.

Update 5/10: Missed a decimal point, so I adjusted the savings and title appropriately.

Inspirational

Just 20 minutes ago, I got to watch the most misnamed vehicle ever — the "Straight Talk Express" — rumble down Tryon Street. It reminded me again of just how much of a disaster a McCain presidency would be. I'm going to take an extra measure of satisfaction voting in the Democratic primary tomorrow.

Early Voting in NC

Today was the last day for early voting in the May 6 primary, so Mary and I walked a whole block and a half to the library in the hopes of fulfilling our civic duty. Deterred by the long line, however, we grabbed lunch first and checked back later. The line was even longer, so we gave up and went home. We'll just vote on Tuesday, but it was kind of exciting seeing all those folks today so eager to cast their ballots.

Bush Hates My Vacation

Clearly, because the euro is now worth $1.60 as I write this. Mary and I are going to Italy this fall, as we did two years ago when the euro was worth approximately $1.30, so this hurts.

Not that this price increase is a deal-breaker, but really, it's almost like the powers that be want to keep us Americans locked up inside our own borders. Maybe it's because Bush knows how hated we are abroad, but I really wish that he could find a way to be hated without increasing the price of my pasta (and hotel and airfare and everything else) by 20%.

Why Am I Not Surprised?

When I heard a few weeks ago that Charlotte might be hosting a Democratic Presidential debate, I was excited. When I heard last week that the state Democratic Party was involved and that Raleigh was now in contention to host, I just knew Charlotte would be passed over. And I was right.

The state party's longstanding pattern of excluding Charlotte is getting more than a little annoying. I'm enough of a yellow dog that it won't affect my vote, but I can't say this won't effect my donations. I'll give money, but I would be more likely to be more generous if I got more out of it than a thank-you page on a website.

Making a 5 hour round trip to Raleigh doesn't make for a fun day, and springing for an overnight hotel stay is just money that the party is missing out on. But these would be things I would consider more seriously if I didn't have the distinct impression that the state party isn't willing to hit the road and visit the largest, richest city in the state from time to time. There are supporters with money here — don't ignore that.

The Current Crisis

Every time the call comes to withdraw from Iraq, we're told by the administration and its supporters that such a move will surely lead to a humanitarian disaster. Of course, many disasters have already occurred during our time in Iraq — the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad neighborhoods; 2 million refugees; hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths — all despite the assurances of these same infallible prognosticators back in the day. So we have good reason to be skeptical that they know what they are talking about now.

The one thing we do know, however, is that people are suffering now, and that this administration hasn't really done much to alleviate that suffering. Part of it has to do, I think, with an unwillingness to admit publicly that anything has really gone so terribly wrong. There's a reason why the US don't officially track civilian deaths — so we can argue that any large number reported by anyone else isn't plausible. Another factor is the unreasonable optimism displayed by war supporters that a stable, peaceful, pro-Western Iraq is just around the corner. ("Success is within reach", says John McCain.) Since we're apparently about to turn the corner and transform Iraq into the kind of place where such bad things don't happen, we can ignore the current crises as transient events that will soon be forgiven and forgotten in the new Bablyon.

Do we have a humanitarian duty to reduce the suffering of Iraqis? Of course. But it would be easier to believe that war supporters took this duty seriously if they weren't so good at turning a blind eye to the current crises. For the cost of a month of war, we could make life much easier for refugees abroad. And for a follow-up, we might decide to make it a priority to admit more refugees than a small town in Sweden. As long as Bush or McCain is in the White House, however, talk about making the lives of Iraqis better will just be empty rhetoric deployed for domestic political gain.

Stuck

So, after listening to a bit of Petraeus and Crocker's traveling roadshow, and reading some of the after-action reports, it really does appear that we lack any kind of coherent plan for staying in Iraq. Without such a plan, any talk from the administration about staying or leaving quickly devolves to tautology: we have to stay just because. Yglesias sums it up this way:

We need to stay because of these various problems … and what we're doing is working, and yet somehow there's no path from Point A to Point B — no way to connect the dots between what's happening now, and a situation where the problems have actually been solved.

More than that, even — Petraeus seems to say that we can't know where "Point B" might actually be. If we can't know what conditions are required for us to leave, we can't make any plans for that contingency, or even know what to do in the meantime to hasten our way to that magic end-point. In all practical respects, then, it's a recipe for staying forever. Which is what Bush has wanted all along. Big surprise, eh?

So That's Where It Came From

The release two weeks ago of a Pentagon report confirming, yet again, that there were no direct links between Iraq and Al Qaeda (before our invasion, that is) reminded me that I was never really clear about where this alleged link came from. Now I know: we had the Egyptians torture it out of some guy.. And now we know: torture makes people make shit up, and that made-up shit helped materially lead to one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in our history.

Maybe this is why, after all this time, the Administration continues to push for the ability to torture prisoners. After all, sometimes the lies can be so much more politically useful to your agenda than the truth.