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Voters July 1, 2008

Posted by ocmpoma in : politics , add a comment

Bryan Caplan also* blames the voters:

“1. Politicians predictably lie to get elected…

2. Politicians habitually accuse each other of something they virtually all do.

3. Voters largely ignore #1, but respond positively to #2.

{snip}

Just to be clear, I commend Westen for his candor about the political process. What’s hard for me to understand on an emotional level is how Westen - or anyone - can recognize the above and remain an enthusiastic partisan.”

* As do I.

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listing politics June 23, 2008

Posted by ocmpoma in : politics , add a comment

Just about everything here seems good to me… the second item does seem a bit circular, but I really shouldn’t nit-pick, especially as I can’t seem to come up with something even as succinct as that. I think, in fact, that the best I can do is…

*everything in society is political

*political positions are subjective

…which may seem great, except that it’s so vague as to be pretty much useless.

addendum: one important thing I think a lot of us (including myself) need re-iterated is that politicians are people, too — that is, someone doesn’t undergo some sort of magical transformation when they start working for the government or take up a public office: people respond to the same kind of incentives, think the same way, have the same biases and beliefs, regardless of whether they’re a businessman or a congressman.

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I blame the voters July 3, 2007

Posted by ocmpoma in : politics , 1 comment so far

They, after all, provide politicians with the incentives to behave in a manner not which provides the best policy, but which provides the best chance of re-election.

Exhibit: in the latest issue of The Economist, there is a letter to the editor from one Michael Moore (no, not that one, but rather the Senior VP (Commercial) of DP World), about the uproar last year over DP World’s involvement in US ports… and its current involvement:

“As any astute observer of inside Washington’s Beltway would know, the uproar was more to do with the political dynamics of an election year. As proof, consider the Secure Freight Initiative, the American programme launched in direct response to our crisis: DP World is the central partner in the private sector. In other words, we are building a programme to protect America from the very same threat that Congress said we posed to America in the first place. No one on Capitol Hill has uttered a word of protest.”

Me? I blame the voters.

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paging Dr Freud April 27, 2007

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So, the US and Russia are in an ongoing tiff over plans to set up a US anti-missile defense in Eastern Europe. Putin is now saying that Russia will cease to comply with the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which exists to control and reduce tensions stemming from, well, from conventional forces in Europe.

Of course, our diplomats aren’t really helping the situation…

“The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in Eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet strategic deterrent is purely ludicrous…
[snip]
The idea that you can somehow stop the Soviet strategic nuclear deterrent with a few interceptors just doesn’t make sense.”
(emphasis mine -oc)

That’s US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Keep in mind that those quotes are from 26 April 2007, not 26 April 1987.

(hat tip to MTMB)

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food bill April 27, 2007

Posted by ocmpoma in : economics, politics , add a comment

Michael Pollan argues in an article at the New York Times that a fairly large number of the hot-botton topics in the US today are linked to one (rather unwieldly large) piece of legislation. The topics include:

-Immigration
-Environment
-Globalization
-Obesity

The legislation? The Farm Bill (2002 Bill — 421 glorious pdf pages).

“The devil is in the details, no doubt. Simply eliminating support for farmers won’t solve these problems; overproduction has afflicted agriculture since long before modern subsidies. It will take some imaginative policy making to figure out how to encourage farmers to focus on taking care of the land rather than all-out production, on growing real food for eaters rather than industrial raw materials for food processors and on rebuilding local food economies, which the current farm bill hobbles. But the guiding principle behind an eater’s farm bill could not be more straightforward: it’s one that changes the rules of the game so as to promote the quality of our food (and farming) over and above its quantity.”

(via Marginal Revolution)

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Do svidaniya, Mr Yeltsin April 23, 2007

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Defiant

At the BBC, CFR, and The Economist. The Wikipedia article.

My short, pithy take: Yeltsin was willing and able to seize the moment in 1991; but he was far from capable enough to handle the aftermath. His failures were all the greater given the hopes that were riding on him. The idealist in me, however, will always remember the man who stood on that tank on a summer day.

(photo from here)

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NaCl April 10, 2007

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salt shaker sold separatelyRecent news has featured the story that Iran has announced that it now has the capacity to produce highly enriched uranium, which is the main ingredient in nuclear weapons, on an “industrial scale”.

Certain people who know better, such as the good folks at Arms Control Wonk and Total WonKerr, seem to disagree. I think this pretty much sums it up:

(original cite at Total WonKerr:)

When questioned about number of centrifuges Iran used in the pilot stage, Saiedi said, “Our pilot stage included two cascades of 164 centrifuges; we passed the stage and entered the industrial level.” In response to a reporter who said installation and operation of more than 3,000 centrifuges meant entry to the industrial level from the IAEA viewpoint, Saiedi said, “That’s the view of you reporters.”

So get out your salt shakers, everyone.

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Boomers April 4, 2007

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Boomers

I don’t write much about arms control here, but in one of my classes I recently talked a bit about the Russian North Fleet. I had the pleasure (and it was, really, a great time) to be at several North Fleet installations for some START inspections.

Thanks to that, I know where to look on Google Earth or Google Maps to find such nifty images as the one above. At any rate, two things besides that nifty image prompted me to write this post.

First, over at Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces, there’s some interesting information about Russia’s latest sub-launched missile, the Bulava, being ready in the (relatively) near future. And second, like I said, I talked a bit about the North Fleet the other day:

(more…)

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Cold Snap February 22, 2007

Posted by ocmpoma in : politics , add a comment

I know that Iran and the DPRK are the big headline-makers nowadays, but Russia is still worth paying attention to. So, as yet another ‘worth a look’, last week’s Economist had a nice piece about Russia in its “International” section.

By the way, the speech at Munich is available at the Kremlin’s site in English and Russian.

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