Friday, January 31, 2003
HELLO!
No sooner do I get through ripping the Register op-ed page (see post below) than I read this editorial about the Iowa ban on meatpackers owning livestock production. I agree with everything except for perhaps the last two paragraphs. I’m not a big believer in the theory of predatory pricing, although admittedly I haven’t done enough reading on the subject to have a well-informed opinion.
Anyway, the rest of the editorial is spot on.
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DO YOUR HOMEWORK
The Des Moines Register editorial writers were not too thrilled with the domestic policy portion of President Bush’s State of the Union Address. What did they like the least? Guess:
The other half of the balanced-budget formula: Grow the economy. He would do that by giving the bulk of tax breaks to those at the top of the income pyramid instead of putting money in the pockets of middle Americans more likely to go out and spend it.
The Register editorialists really need to do some homework. A tax cut designed to put more money in the pockets of consumers assumes that the problem with this economy is consumer spending. But a look at the Economic Indicators shows that consumer spending continued to grow even during the recession. What’s fallen is private domestic investment: It’s down almost $200 billion from its high in the second quarter of 2000. In other words, the problem with the economy is investment, not consumption. Tax cuts aimed at the top income-tax bracket and the double taxation of dividends are exactly the type of cuts that will spur investment.
The Register gives Bush a grade of C for the content of the domestic portion of the speech. The Register gets an F for not knowing what’s ailing this economy.
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Thursday, January 30, 2003
JUST A REMINDER
I'll be on WSUI this morning debating David Osterberg of the Iowa Policy Project. The station is 910 AM, and the time is 10-11 am.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2003
NO BLOGGING UNTIL TOMORROW EVENING
Sorry friends, but blogger was acting up this morning, and I've been busy all day. And I won't be back to it until tomorrow evening at the soonest. Tomorrow I'm doing a radio debate on the state budget with David Osterberg of the Iowa Policy Project. It will be on WSUI 910 AM out of Iowa City. The time will be 10-11am. Tune in if you can.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
POLITICAL STATE REPORT
Here's my first post at the Political State Report. See what you think.
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HESTON 'FIRES' BACK
According to James Hirsen at the Left Coast Report, Charlton Heston isn't taking George Clooney's recent cheap shot at him lying down. Hirsen reports:
According to the New York Post's Liz Smith, while accepting an award from the National Board of Review, Clooney wisecracked, "Charlton Heston announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's."
When asked about the statement, Clooney told Smith, "I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association. He deserves whatever anyone says about him."
Heston's response:
Charlton Heston wasn't about to let the indignity go unchallenged. According to the World Entertainment News Network, Heston walloped Clooney by contrasting the actor's demeanor with that of his late aunt, Rosemary Clooney.
"It just goes to show that sometimes class does skip a generation," Heston shot back.
You tell him, Moses!
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GRAND SLAM!
Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen parks it with this piece urging Bush to get on with the War. Money quote:
Some opponents of a war seem paralyzed by the ghost of Vietnam, just as earlier generations of Europeans were paralyzed by the horrors of World War I. After World War I, when a budding German dictator named Adolf Hitler marched his troops into the Rhineland, the French had no stomach to push him out with their superior army. He was emboldened and continued to expand his military while the civilized world cowered. What did European delay and appeasement get the world then? World War II.
That's why it's especially difficult to sit and listen to lectures from the French about the need for restraint. Americans have died in two conflicts to keep them free, largely because they were incapable of doing so themselves. The lesson of the Rhineland is that you stand up to tyrants, not try to appease them. Today, only the United States is capable of making that stand. Let's remember, too, the terrorists ran those planes into a couple of U.S. towers, not the Eiffel Tower. So step aside, Monsieur.
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AN EDITORIAL I AGREE WITH!
I must be in a really good mood after reading David Yepsen's column. I'm going to say that I'm in full agreement with this editorial in the Register that makes clergy mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse. Works for me.
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SURPRISE! REGISTER WANTS TO NATIONALIZE HEALTH CARE
Okay, now I'm back to my usual grouchy self.
Sometimes the breakdowns in logic in the Register’s editorials is quite remarkable. In this one the Register states that part of the reason for rising health-care costs is
consumers overuse and misuse health care. They demand an MRI for a headache. They ask for brand-name drugs when a cheaper generic would work just as well. They rush to the clinic for sniffles and demand unnecessary antibiotics.
The Register’s solution to this dilemma?
Rather than getting the blame for something that isn't their fault, employers might want to consider whether a national system of health insurance would be better than the present patchwork of employer-based insurance.
Consumers overuse health care because they do not directly pay for it. A third-party payer, namely an insurance company, picks up the bill. If consumers had to spend their own money, they would have much more incentive to hold down costs. How will handing over the health-care system to the government solve that? Government will act as an enormous third-party payer. If anything, it will exacerbate the problem of consumer overuse.
As usual, the Register editorialists let their ideological wish list get in the way of sound thinking.
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THIS IS A GEM!
Take a look at this article in the Des Moines Register. Compare the thoughts on a war with Iraq of Tarik Ahmad with those of Marian Solomon. Ahmad, now living in Des Moines, grew up in Baghdad and still has family in Iraq. Solomon, on the other hand, recently went to Baghdad as part of a “fact-finding” mission.
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Monday, January 27, 2003
ISU’S USEFUL IDIOTS
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to find that a college newspaper somewhere serves as a propaganda arm of International ANSWER. But this instance is just so blatant that even someone given to great bouts of cynicism like myself is left shaking his head. The example comes from Iowa State University located in Ames, Iowa. The student paper is called the Iowa State Daily.
Start by looking at the heading bar at the top of the Iowa State Daily’s web page. This is usually reserved for general topics like News, Sports, Classifieds, etc. The protest march in Washington, D.C. was of such earth-shattering significance that it merits its own space in that bar. What is contained in that section has to be the biggest affront to objective journalism in recent memory.
The articles are written by Ms. Michaela Saunders with accompanying photographs by Ms. Shauna Stephenson and Mr. Eric Rowley. This has to win the prize for the most flattering, soft-headed look at the weekend protests.
Saunders begins her set of articles with a bit of the touchy-feely:
Beverly Reddick, an Ames resident, was one of the supporters. Because she was unable to travel to Washington, she sent cookies along with bus riders and said "my spirit is on the bus." Many others who were unable to travel sent buttons or necklaces so their spirits could be present at the rally and march.
Oooooommmm,,,,,,,,
There is this informative bit:
As the Ames buses pulled into an Iowa City parking lot to join another bus, the voice of a female ISU student chirped, "Are we going to have a rally here too?"
"Well, we can," piped back Cary Vigneri, a saleswoman and one of five bus riders from Omaha. That was the shared attitude of young and old as the three full buses left Iowa City for the peace rally and march that awaited 15 hours away.
You mean all the people on a bus heading for a protest want to have a rally? You don’t say!
Then there is this passage with irony so thick you can choke on it:
As busloads of peace supporters arrived in front of the Capitol, one of the International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism organizers told the crowd, "They said it was going to be cold, but I can't see the end of this crowd. This is what democracy looks like."
More wide-eyed adoration in this article. It includes this memorable passage:
As speakers made them think, Ramsey Tesdell, freshman in technical communication, and Matt Denner, junior in political science, did their part to do the same for the half-million people present at the rally and march. Tesdell held a nearly two-foot tall stuffed chicken on his shoulders during the rally. Denner purchased the chicken for under a dollar at Goodwill, with the intent of sending a message to political leaders. The chicken held a sign that read "Don't be a chicken, choose nonviolence."
"I wanted to recycle [the chicken] to encourage our legislative leaders and challenge them to choose nonviolence," Denner said.
The funny thing is those guys thought they were clever.
You’ll also notice from that passage that Saunders uncritically repeats International ANSWER’s claim that 500,000 people attended the rally. It’s not the last time that is repeated in this series of articles.
Saunders next gives fawning treatment to likes of Al Sharpton and Jessica Lange:
Rev. Al Sharpton linked the importance of the rally to the weekend on which it was held by reminding the crowd of the message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Dr. King was not for blacks only -- he was for those that love peace," Sharpton said.
Actress Jessica Lange said she was speaking to the crowd as a mother and an American woman. "I don't want to pass on the legacy of shame, greed and bloodshed. We don't want these sins visited on the heads of our children."
And she does a marvelous job of describing the protestors:
There were union members, teachers' organizations, veterans groups and others advocating the need for peace in other parts of the world. There were families marching together. The Nelson family from Olney, Md. marched together, mother, father, son and daughter. "They wouldn't have it any other way," said Anita Nelson of her children. "It feels great doing something for what I stand for," said Rachel Nelson, 13.
Oh, so diverse, so wholesome. Never mind the communist groups that form ANSWER. Saunders ignores that. I think it’s fair to say she has a promising career ahead of her in the mainstream media. Someone fax her resume to Howell Raines!
Oh, and don’t overlook the fact that at the beginning of the story she again repeats the claim of 500,000 marchers
In this article, Saunders casts her credulous eye toward this gent:
It was the support of others that kept Jon Meier going.
The senior in religious studies completed a 24-day walk of more than 800 miles after being called by God to walk from just outside Ames to a peace rally and march in Washington, D.C.
Meier walked through three pairs of shoes and battled the weather, more than 14 blisters and close calls with passing cars.
Let’s see here, using non-New Age math, 800 miles in 24 days is an average of over 33 miles per day. Wow, Mr. Meier must move pretty quickly—and with a backpack no less! The other remarkable thing is that from Ames to Washington, D.C. is actually over 1,000 miles, about 1,042 according to Mapquest. I’m not saying that it couldn’t be done. I am saying there is ample reason for Ms. Saunders to have been a bit more skeptical of Mr. Meier’s story.
But skepticism clearly was not the order of the day. Rather it was paeans like this photo essay by Ms. Stephenson and Mr. Rowley. It shows lots of respectable people out marching. Noticeably absent are the placards displaying Bush or Cheney as Hitler. This attempt at a whitewash doesn’t fully succeed, however. There is one picture with some clown holding an Iraqi flag.
The 500,000 protestors claim is repeated another three times in the photo essay, for a total of five times in this entire series. Not once is it noted that the Associated Press count was only 30,000 or that estimates varied widely. Why didn’t the editor rein these kids in? Well, the web editor is this guy. That probably explains it.
Some final thoughts: Sorry to belabor the obvious, but this is clearly an activist posing as a journalist. Ms. Saunders is almost certainly one those students who went into journalism thinking that it is a way “to make a difference in the world.” I always thought that the purpose of a college newspaper was to at least try to instill some basic journalistic standards and practices in budding reporters. Yet here we have an example of such standards being unabashedly flaunted. I wonder, how many other college newspapers permit their student reporters this sort of indulgence? And how many of those reporters go onto big-time newspapers? I suspect that Bernard Goldberg won’t be the last one to write a book….
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OVERDRAWING YOUR ACCOUNT? BLAME YOUR BANK
According to this editorial in the Des Moines Register, some banks are “encouraging” customers to overdraw on their accounts. And guess who the Register thinks is to blame?
It is reported that more than 1,000 banks have been encouraging customers to overdraw their accounts. New ATM and debit cards allow people to withdraw more money than is available for them. And the people might not even realize they're overdrawing, because they were automatically enrolled in the option that allows this to happen.
Then they're charged as much as $35 for each overdraft, and the money has to be paid back right away. That translates into about 1,000 percent annual rate of interest for the banks. Millions of dollars in fees. Those banks, once trusted institutions, are encouraging customers to be fiscally irresponsible.
I particularly like the part about how “people might not even realize they're overdrawing.” How would they not realize that unless they’re not keeping track of the balance in their checking accounts? And if they’re not doing that, then isn’t it a matter of personal responsibility? In other words, it is their fault and not the banks.
Oh well, never mind. A few customers are steamed at the banks, they’re griping about how unfair it is, and the Register is swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. Why do I think a call for more government regulation is right around the corner?
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GAROFALO THE MARGINALIZED
There are numerous things that could be said about Janeane Garofalo’s interview with Howard Kurtz on yesterday’s Reliable Sources, none of them kind.
I’ll just note one. Garofalo complains that the medias uses “actors to marginalize the anti-war movement” She thinks that the media should instead “talk to Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.” Someone tell Garofalo that the likes of Chomsky and Zinn will do more to marginalize the antiwar movement than all the names on the Walk of Hollywood combined.
On second thought, no, don’t tell her.
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HOW TO REFORM TAXES WITHOUT REDUCING THEM
Something funny happened on the way to tax reform in Iowa. Somehow we started thinking that it is enough to simplify the tax code without actually decreasing the tax burden. According to this pro-simplification editorial in the Des Moines Register:
The price for this simplicity would be to give up the deductions and credits that are allowed for state income tax but not for the federal tax.
One of the biggest allows Iowans to reduce their Iowa taxable income by deducting the amount they pay in federal income taxes. Eliminating this deduction would tend to increase the tax paid by upper-income Iowans who pay a lot of federal taxes and hence get a big deduction.
It’s not entirely clear whether the Register favors this or it is just a point of information. Although given the editorial page’s leftist bent, I’d bet the former.
If anyone thinks that simplifying the tax code while increasing taxes on the upper-income folks at the same time will attract the entrepreneurs to Iowa, here is a test for you:
Upon hearing that Iowa has simplified its income tax structure, and entrepreneur will say:
A. That’s great! When do we go?
B. That’s great! Where’s my Porterhouse?
C. That’s great! How much would I pay in taxes?
If you answered “C”, go to the front of the class. If you think that when they hear that they’ll pay more they won’t bother coming here, stay at the front of the class.
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