MeRead.txt
things recently in my browser or otherwise consumed
Politics archive
Sunday, November 26, 2006
NYT: In Cincinnati, Life Breathes Anew in Riot-Scarred Area
The magic of Over-the-Rhine is in its compact brick buildings. Mostly two- to four-story walkups, few are significant individually. But together they create a historic district with a scale and grace reminiscent of Greenwich Village in New York. … But unlike the last boom, where small developers rehabilitated buildings one at a time, Over-the-Rhine’s current wave of gentrification is driven by Cincinnati’s corporate and philanthropic elite, whose strategy is to buy entire blocks. “This is a race,” said Bill Donabedian, a director at 3CDC. “If we don’t move quickly, we will lose these buildings forever.”
Posted by Jon, 11:54 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Sunday, October 15, 2006
NYT: It’s Official: To Be Married Means to Be Outnumbered
The American Community Survey, released recently by the Census Bureau, found that 49.7 percent, or 55.2 million, of the nation’s 111.1 million households in 2005 were made up of married couples — with and without children — just shy of a majority and down from more than 52 percent five years earlier. … “It’s partially fueled by women in the work force; they don’t necessarily have to marry to be economically secure,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College of the City University of New York. “You used to get married to have sex. Now one of the major reasons to get married is to have children, and the attractiveness of having children has declined for many people because of the cost.”
Posted by Jon, 12:05 pm :: More :: Comments (0) :: #
Friday, October 6, 2006
NYT: Smoking No Longer Très Chic in France
There is something about smoking that seems very French. But as in other European countries, smoking in public increasingly has fallen out of favor here. This week, after a five-month governmental inquiry, a parliamentary committee approved a proposal to ban smoking in public areas
Posted by Jon, 5:52 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
WSJ: The Disaster That Has Followed the Tragedy | A bad plan for Ground Zero
“The first and most obvious comment to be made about these buildings is that whatever the pious rhetoric, their proximity to sacred ground, and the care with which the reality is skirted, they are machines for making money, just as the Twin Towers were, with only some rearrangement of the square footage. Wringing every possible dollar from a piece of property is a traditional New York practice celebrated in the oft-repeated real-estate mantra, offered with a straight face and impressive hubris, as “the highest and best use of the land.” Say it often enough and no one will question the absence of any need or purpose other than profit in the calculations. … The balance of commercial and cultural facilities meant to be the basis of the area’s rebirth and regeneration is also gone, sabotaged by the supine political response to the escalating demands of those bereaved families whose inconsolable grief required the elimination of the plan’s cultural components on the disturbing and specious grounds that the arts and liberties that mark a free society equaled disrespect, or less honor to the dead.” (via the new Morning News and it’s headlines)
Posted by Jon, 10:50 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
CSM: Are we rich if we don’t feed the poor?
Travis Hale, coauthor of a study on US income distribution and a doctoral student in economics at the University of Texas at Austin, dislikes the attitude that, “I’ve got mine, and I deserve it - and good luck to the rest of you.” Reducing inequality of incomes is “not a matter of just growing the pie. It is a matter of splitting it up more equally,” he adds. “If the economic growth of the last 40 years had been shared more equitably, we could now have a country where very few persons are poor.” … One in 4 children live in families with incomes below the official poverty level.
Posted by Jon, 10:46 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Thursday, August 17, 2006
NYT: Into Africa
And much as it may strain the limits of good taste to say it, Africa — rife with disease, famine, poverty and civil war — is suddenly “hot.” “We had this sudden awareness that there were all these people out there who hated us, and we needed people who, as far as we know, don’t hate us, and are in great need and we can help,” Professor Easterly said. “It’s the perfect meeting of needs — an intersection where we need Africa and Africa needs us.”
Posted by Jon, 10:50 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
WaPo: Increasingly, Bush Escapes the Media Pack
The idea that Bush could travel across the country without a full contingent of reporters, especially in the middle of a war, highlights a major cultural shift in the presidency and the news media. In the four decades since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, presidents traditionally have taken journalists with them wherever they traveled on the theory that when it comes to the most powerful leader on the planet, anything can happen at any time. But increasingly in recent months, Bush has left town without a chartered press plane, often to receptions where he talks to donors chipping in hundreds of thousands of dollars with no cameras or tapes to record his words for the public. Barred from such events, most news organizations will not pay to travel with him. And so a White House policy inclined to secrecy has combined with escalating costs for the strapped news media to let Bush fly under the radar in a way his predecessors could not. … Lanny J. Davis, who was White House special counsel during the Clinton fundraising scandals, expressed surprise that the change (closing some fundraisers to the media) has not generated more criticism. “I marvel at their ability to get away with it,” he said. “I have to grudgingly admit to some envy. I admire their chutzpah.”
Posted by Jon, 9:28 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Friday, July 28, 2006
IHT: France’s mysterious embrace of blogs
“With so many blogs, I’m hoping for fewer protests and strikes in Paris this fall,” said Loïc Le Meur, a pioneer French blogger and European managing director of the blog-hosting company Six Apart. “If people can express themselves online, then maybe they don’t need to block the streets.”
Posted by Jon, 12:34 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
NPR: Public vs. Private School Report Spurs Controversy
A follow-up to this post since the Secretary of Education had a press conference or something, expressing the belief that parents should have choices. Or, you could just give them good schools, since the choice between two mediocre options isn’t really going to get the children learning.
Posted by Jon, 9:01 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Sects’ Strife Takes a Toll on Baghdad’s Daily Bread
“Their main task, their whole reason for being here, is to prevent exactly this, but they do nothing,” said an Iraqi mother who lives near Sadr City and strongly supported the Americans as recently as last year. “They just let it go, my God, so easily.”
Posted by Jon, 9:42 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Monday, July 24, 2006
Bellwethers: Key Races in the Battle for Congress
This sounds fascinating: “Between now and Nov. 7, The Post and washingtonpost.com will be returning regularly to these questions and the specific races that illustrate them. The list is not exhaustive, and it is not static. Some contests that look close in July might be all but settled by October. Other contests may get more exciting as Election Day nears. The Bellwether project is a way of making sense of the chaos and the drama — for political junkies and ordinary voters alike.”
Posted by Jon, 11:21 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Saturday, July 22, 2006
NYT: New House Majority Leader Keeps Old Ties to Lobbyists
“Mr. Boehner’s biggest donors include the political action committees of lobbying firms, drug and cigarette makers, banks, health insurers, oil companies and military contractors. Seven American Indian tribes with casinos have contributed $32,000.” Not that he needs any of this money to get re-elected to his seat. No, it’s all about influence within the hallowed halls.
Posted by Jon, 9:56 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
NYT: Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study
Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the union for millions of teachers, said the findings showed that public schools were “doing an outstanding job” and that if the results had been favorable to private schools, “there would have been press conferences and glowing statements about private schools.” And just a few days later comes this headline from WaPo: GOP Unveils School Voucher Plan, which spends more time on this same study than it does on the $100 million proposal. On the other hand, it does seem like no amount of empirical data will convince Republicans that public schools are good things. Oh, and I must point out, from the original story: “The report separated private schools by type and found that among private school students, those in Lutheran schools performed best, while those in conservative Christian schools did worst.”
Posted by Jon, 9:34 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Friday, July 7, 2006
NYT: Roberts Is at Court’s Helm, but He Isn’t Yet in Control
“In the court’s most significant nonunanimous cases, Chief Justice Roberts was in dissent almost as often as he was in the majority. His goal of inspiring the court to speak softly and unanimously seemed a distant aspiration as important cases failed to produce majority opinions and members of the court, including occasionally the chief justice himself, gave voice to their frustration and pique with colleagues who did not see things their way.”
Posted by Jon, 10:15 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Sunday, June 25, 2006
DMN: Study: Pro games depress tax revenue
NFL, NBA cited, but hockey, baseball said to boost economic activity slightly: A new statewide study co-written by a University of Texas at Arlington economist found that sales tax revenue drops by more than $560,000 every time a city hosts a regular-season NFL game. Large traffic jams that accompany Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans games also lead to what Dr. Depken calls the “hunker-down” and “skedaddle” factors. Fans might spend money in Irving during a Cowboys game, but more residents are likely to avoid gridlock by staying home or driving to a neighboring city to shop or dine.
Posted by Jon, 11:22 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
NYT: Personality, Ideology and Bush’s Terror Wars
“The One Percent Doctrine” amplifies an emerging portrait of the administration (depicted in a flurry of recent books by authors as disparate as the Reagan administration economist Bruce Bartlett and the former Coalition Provisional Authority adviser Larry Diamond) as one eager to circumvent traditional processes of policy development and policy review, and determined to use experts (whether in the C.I.A., the Treasury Department or the military) not to help formulate policy, but simply to sell predetermined initiatives to the American public.
Posted by Jon, 11:19 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Saturday, June 17, 2006
DFP: Demolition set for fall: Tiger Stadium: It’s history
“After years of debate and false hopes, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has decided to raze Tiger Stadium, the historic but decaying home of Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg and the 1984 World Series champion Tigers.” Bummer. But it’s been time for some time now.
Posted by Jon, 12:03 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
AP: World Cup Host Won’t Tolerate Extremism
This is the more ominous side of world sport. Actually, anytime sports and politics collides, you’re probably going to have problems. This is also where the ideals of free speech run smack into the realities of hatred. Cross your fingers.
Posted by Jon, 9:27 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Sunday, May 21, 2006
NPR: From the Start, Bush White House Kept Secrets
This just in: The people in power don’t want The People to know what’s going on. Consent of the governed? Nonsense. Sept. 11? Just an excuse to intensify things they already wanted to do, and were already doing. But if the public doesn’t stand up and demand access to the information gathered on its behalf, with its money, pretty soon all government activities will be secret. Which doesn’t sound much like democracy.
Posted by Jon, 5:22 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
GUC: The Age War is here - and the young are losing it to the old
“Brian’s age group have had it good like no generation before them - and perhaps like no generation that will follow them. Unlike their fathers, they never had to fight in a war. Unlike their sons, they can be sure of an affluent retirement in a home of their own.” While this piece uses British society as the example, a great many of the examples seem to translate across the pond. The Post-War generation is leaving all sorts of bills unpaid (Medicare, Social Security, et al.) hoping their children will make up the difference. Thanks.
Posted by Jon, 1:04 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Sunday, May 7, 2006
NYT: Things I’d like to read, but don’t have time to:
- Someone Has to Pay for TV. But Who? And How?
- Early Intensity Underlines Role of Races in Ohio
- For Bush, the Economy Is a Glass Half Empty
- Contra-Contraception: A growing number of conservatives see birth control as part of an ailing culture that overemphasizes sex and devalues human life. Is this the beginning of the next culture war?
- Oh, My: Now That Was Italian
- Five ‘Don’t Miss’ Exhibitions This Summer
Posted by Jon, 11:20 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
WaPo: Bush’s Thousand Days:
“In 2003, owing to the collapse of the Democratic opposition, Bush shifted the base of American foreign policy from containment-deterrence to presidential preventive war: Be silent; I see it, if you don’t. Observers describe Bush as ‘messianic’ in his conviction that he is fulfilling the divine purpose. But, as Lincoln observed in his second inaugural address, ‘The Almighty has His own purposes.’”
Posted by Jon, 9:39 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
blog: Nebraska Gov: Will a Titan Be Rebuffed?
If God ran for governor, he’d have a tough time in this race. But here’s a politician running a quality race against a football coach everyone loves. Who says elections are just popularity contests? (Oh right, we’d still rather have a beer with Bush over Gore/Kerry.)
Posted by Jon, 9:15 am :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Ohio Churches’ Political Activities Challenged: Clergy Members Are Pressing the IRS to Investigate Whether Partisan Support Violated Tax-Exempt Status
God in the Public Square: Welcome to the thorniest debate going. And why is oppositions immediately assumed to be persecution?
Posted by Jon, 9:07 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Friday, April 21, 2006
blog: The Jerk at the Podium: Scott McClellan Steps Away
It’s long, but Jay Rosen’s commentary on the public relations strategy of the Bush Administration is quite fascinating, full of supporting links and documentation I don’t have time to read. In summary: “The era of news management lasted 40 years— from 1963, when the networks first began their 30-minute nightly broadcasts, to 2003, when McClellan, Bush, Cheney, and Rove proved there were other ways. Replace news management with press nullification. Drop the persuasion model, in favor of the politics of assent. Choose non-communication to demonstrate that you ought not to be questioned (it only helps our enemies.)”
Posted by Jon, 11:21 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
WaPo: Archives Pledges to End Secret Agreements
“For the National Archives to go into cahoots with the CIA and Air Force to mislead researchers about what was going on was over the top, and a strong signal of a secrecy system that is genuinely broken,” said Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research library in Washington.
Posted by Jon, 4:24 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
blog: France and Sanity
“Is work-life insanity a global imperative?” Only when you’re looking at the world through the prism of the business press or middle management. :)
Posted by Jon, 3:53 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Monday, April 17, 2006
WaPo: Senator Cites Drilling Battle As Source of Interstate Rift: Alaska’s Stevens Says Ties With Washington State Are Eroding
The anger of the curmudgeon from Alaska is turning into a political windfall for Democrat Maria Cantwell. Her knack for getting his goat has won her widespread attention, even drowning out her Republican challenger. This has to fall under several “don’ts” in the election playbook.
Posted by Jon, 10:05 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Anger at Bush May Hurt GOP At Polls
“Angry voters turn out and vote their anger,” said Glen Bolger, a pollster for several Republican congressional candidates. “Democrats will have an easier time of getting out their vote because of their intense disapproval of the president.” (And yes, this is a lot of Post stuff — good day for them.)
Posted by Jon, 9:48 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Parks Feel ‘80 Percent’ Squeeze: Visitor Services Getting Pinched in Move to Cut Costs
“The Bush administration has ordered America’s national parks to show that they can function at 80 percent or less of their operating budgets, which is forcing some parks to cut services for visitors as summer approaches. … Bush is proposing to cut an additional $100.5 million from the parks’ $2.1 billion budget next year.”
Posted by Jon, 6:31 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Sunday, April 16, 2006
NYT: Law to Segregate Omaha Schools Divides Nebraska
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If all lawmakers were as dedicated to their constituencies and principles as Ernie Chambers, democracy would be a lot better off. You might think he’s wrong, but you’d better be to able to out-manuever him on the floor and out-vote him or you’re not going to beat him.
Posted by Jon, 8:00 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Redefining Property Values: By Design, Status Seekers and Tree-Huggers Don’t Have to Commune
“As the largest building boom since the 1950s continues across the suburban frontier, the story of Ladera Ranch offers an extreme example of how developers are using the kind of sophisticated market research more commonly used to sell Hummers or Cornflakes to build the very places people live, and in a sense, to try to socially engineer community.”
Posted by Jon, 7:16 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Friday, April 14, 2006
WaPo: Whites Take Flight on Election Day
Yes, it seems race-based voting is alive and well. “White Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black, says economist Ebonya Washington of Yale University… In House races, white Democrats are 38 percentage points less likely to vote Democratic if their candidate is black.”
Posted by Jon, 9:38 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
SPI: From Brazil: A different kind of bus system
Says a former mayor of the Brazilian city of Curitiba: “Can you imagine how much better the city could become with 30 percent less of the cars running in the street?”
Posted by Jon, 9:23 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
AP: Overseas Vote Proves Critical in Italy
In case you were worried that democracy works better in the rest of the world, Italy’s election should eliminate that: “[T]he center-left won the coveted Senate seat for the (North and Central America) district because Berlusconi’s allies chose to run separately rather than as a coalition. Since their tallies couldn’t be combined, Prodi’s Union captured the North American seat, with 37 percent of the vote.”
Posted by Jon, 10:04 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Thursday, April 6, 2006
WaPo: Yo-Yo Ma Says Visa Precautions Stifle Cultural Exchanges
“Encouraging artists and institutions to foster these artistic exchanges — bringing foreign musicians to this country and sending our performers to visit them — is crucial,” he said. “But the high financial cost and the lengthy timeline make these programs difficult to execute and to maintain.”
Posted by Jon, 9:50 am :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Rumsfeld Challenges Rice on ‘Tactical Errors’ in Iraq
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of “tactical errors” in handling the war in Iraq, a statement she later said was meant figuratively. — Does Rummy know what anyone’s talking about? Conversely, does anyone listen to Rummy’s war “expertise” anymore? Oh, and a guy I used to know wrote the story.
Posted by Jon, 9:44 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Macworld: Podcasts to be banned during Singapore election
“In a free-for-all Internet environment, where there are no rules, political debates could easily degenerate into an unhealthy, unreliable and dangerous discourse flush with rumors and distortions to mislead and confuse the public,” said the country’s senior minister of state for information, communications and the arts. See, the United States is an example of democracy for the world. Our elections degenerate all the time.
Posted by Jon, 9:46 am :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Smart Talk and Girly Talk on the Campaign Trail
According to Univeristy of Texas researchers, President Bush and Vice President Cheney sounded more presidential than their Democratic counterparts. Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) seemed the most depressed or suicidal. And Kerry’s running mate, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), sounded the most like a “girly man.”
Posted by Jon, 9:40 am :: Comments (0) :: #
WaPo: Saving Millions for Just a Few Dollars
What’s the cheapest way to save lives and prevent a disability? A once-a-year treatment to rid rual African children of intestinal worms averages out to $3 per year saved. More numbers from the Disease Control Priorities Project.
Posted by Jon, 9:30 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
NYT: An Immigration Debate Framed by Family Ties
“Among the most passionate Republican voices in this debate are lawmakers with strong immigrant ties, who have woven the strands of family history into an outlook that has helped shape their legislative positions.” Yes, a little personal experience goes a long way. Especially when people who know little of the struggle try to demonize those on a road you’ve traveled.
Posted by Jon, 9:27 am :: Comments (0) :: #
Saturday, April 1, 2006
WaPo: A Rebuke Rarely Exercised
An interesting history of censure, sort of “impeachment lite.” The last quote sums it up: “.. blame it on politics.”
Posted by Jon, 11:22 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
Thursday, March 30, 2006
WaPo: Harbinger In Ohio?
George Will takes a look at the Ohio Senate race and wonders if Republicans are sunk.
Posted by Jon, 11:30 pm :: Comments (0) :: #
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