getting paid

Back in March 2009, I wrote a brief 'just wondering' blog item about the misdirected furor regarding executive pay—misdirected not because such furor is not justified but because it seemed to me to misunderstand the nature of the problem. In my latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily, I take on the problem of executive pay at greater length and what we might do about it now that we are turning into a shareholder nation. Do we have more power than we realize? Is there a way to activate the latent political power of our 401(k) plans and other investment vehicles? Let's get paid, yo.

shhhhhhhhhh!

Don't tell the Republican governors, but the opt-out provision in the Senate's health insurance reform bill is going to turn red statehouses blue. Any governor who opts out will be thrown out of office. It may take a few years to see it happen, but you heard it here first. Opt-out indeed. Obama, you rascal!

rebranding

'Public option' or 'Medicare Part E'? What member of Congress wants to be known for voting against Medicare?

it takes one to know one

On today's New York Times op-ed page, 'contributing columnist' Bono explains why President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

nothing but flowers

David Byrne is featured in a short bicycling video at the New York Times's website. It's always comforting, although not necessary, when one's favourite artists share one's politics. I am proud to say that I have never operated a motor vehicle in my life, and I intend to keep it that way, even in Tampa where I am teaching this year. I'm also proud to have voted for more bike lanes (in surprisingly close votes) when I served on Community Board 6 in Brooklyn.

My students here in Tampa have noticed me biking around campus. Let's hope that some of them get the message and say no to the madness of enclosing themselves in those poison-emitting, muscle-wasting, anti-social pods known as cars. Better yet, let's hope that those of them staying in Tampa longer than I am will organize to demand more bicycle infrastructure from local government. The future is in their hands, or, in this case, their feet.

not responsible for the ads

Just a reminder: I do not choose the ads that appear at my blog. They are chosen by robots at Google. The one that I see right now is especially heinous. (I don't want to refer to it by name lest I cause it to stay longer.) The ads are based in large part on the words that appear at my blog. I am now going to try to influence the adbots to go in a different direction:

peace, love, understanding, funk, art, beauty, sex, painting, music, literature, comic books, compassion, intellect, carnality, friendship, karaoke, humour, wit.

That should do it.

stuck in a moment you can't get out of

I love President Obama. Last year I volunteered for him in Pennsylvania, I took on extra work so that I could contribute more to his campaign, and, as we all know, I took the middle name Hussein for nine months. I would even take the assassin's bullet for him if it came down to it. That is how strongly I believe that the world needs his unique talents. But even I have to admit that he does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, not yet anyway.

Now that he has won, what are we to think? Others have won the prize without deserving it, chief among them the unconvicted American war criminal Henry Kissinger (1973). Such comparisons are preposterous and insulting. Nothing that Kissinger could ever do could wash the blood from his hands. (I can think of a few others in that category.)

The better comparison is to Oscar Arias (1987), president of Costa Rica. Arias, who again became president in 2006, is probably the greatest statesman that Central America has produced in our lifetime, although I admit the competition is not great. In the 1990s I heard him speak very astutely at Dartmouth about international development and the neo-colonial wealth transfers caused by Third World debt, an issue later popularised by Bono of U2. In 1987 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering a multi-nation peace plan for Central America. The only problem was that the plan never went into effect. Arias essentially won the prize for something that might have been.

The Nobel committee does that sometimes: they will use the award in order to help push something into being. Thorbjorn Jagland, the Nobel committee chairman, said as much in today's New York Times:

"It's important for the committee to recognize people who are struggling and idealistic," Mr. Jagland said in an interview after the prize was announced, "but we cannot do that every year. We must from time to time go into the realm of realpolitik. It is always a mix of idealism and realpolitik that can change the world."

I'm assuming that Obama was an instance of 'realpolitik', not someone 'struggling and idealistic', but who knows?

Whatever the case, the Nobel committee's statement on this year's peace prize does make some cogent points. Here it is in part:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Premature or not, the committee is factually correct—Obama has done what they say—yet I can't help but read the invisible words 'Unlike Bush' at the start of the second paragraph.

Obama's public statement about winning the prize reminded me of the title of a U2 song, 'Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of'. Saying he was 'both surprised and deeply humbled' and that he did not deserve the honour, Obama looked genuinely uncomfortable. Tonight, the homepage of the White House's website almost wholly ignores the award. I had to use my web browser's Find command to locate the word 'Nobel' on the page. Here it is, in the sub-headline to a story about the Obamas' dog.



Many American conservatives are griping about Obama's Nobel, just as they cheered last week when the International Olympic Committee chose not to award the 2016 summer Olympics to the U.S. Wingnuts aside, who in the world has reason to regret Obama's award? The three governments most at odds with Obama's diplomatic goals: Iran, Israel, and Russia. If the award strengthens Obama's hand on the world stage, the Israeli government will have a harder time resisting Obama's calls to end settlements in the West Bank and to achieve a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Perhaps that was the 'realpolitik' on the committee's minds.

Who then does deserve the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009? By coincidence, I was in the presence, albeit at great distance, of a leading candidate just a few hours ago at a rock concert by the band U2. Yes, Bono deserves the peace prize. He has involved and educated people around the world in movements for human rights and debt reduction; he has raised money for antiretrovirals in Africa; he has added the relief of suffering to the agendas of international meetings of the world's most powerful governments; and his work as a singer and songwriter imbues millions with the spirit of peace and love that we all want to believe is the foundation of rock and roll. Their music makes me feel the spirit, and I don't even believe in spirits. The prize has been issued at least once before to someone whose main achievements were in the arts and humanities: Elie Wiesel (1986). The only problem with giving it to Bono would be that his ego would grow so large that it would block out the sun and cause worldwide destruction.



I can't say I mind that Obama won the prize. I just think the Nobel committee did him no favour by giving it to him before the great achievements that may or may not lie ahead. Those who believe that Obama won the presidency on the flimsy basis of a few eloquent speeches will seize the award as Exhibit A.

Filmmaker Michael Moore released a clever statement at his website today: Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize—Now Please Earn It! For everyone's sake, I hope he does. In the meanwhile, the Nobel committee should avoid premature salutations. I don't like being stuck with having to admit that the conservatives are right.

the book I read

I am such a bad blogger. I keep promising to do a certain thing, yet it remains to be done. In the meanwhile, David Byrne has a new book out called Bicycle Diaries. That should focus the mind. Let's all read it together. (No, I have not read it yet. I just couldn't resist using another DB song title as a headline.)

'You lie'? Bye-bye!

As Republican scare tactics against health insurance reform have reached new extremes of disgrace, I have taken comfort in the hope that such outrageous behavior would only sully the fearmongers and make President Obama shine all the more by comparison. Nothing they have done so far, from the lies about 'death panels' to the parade of forged foreign birth certificates, has surprised me. Tonight, during Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, I was finally surprised. In the midst of refuting a lie that his reform would insure undocumented aliens, Obama was interrupted by Rep. Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, falsely shouting 'You lie!' See the picture above for a mid-outburst shot of Wilson's angry snarl. For proof of Obama's statement, see the bill, H.R. 3200. Here is the relevant section in its entirety:

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Someone definitely lied during the speech, but it was not President Obama.

Besides Wilson's lie about lying, what kind of savage shouts at a president speaking before Congress? The incident reminds me of the despicable conduct of another South Carolinian, Senator Preston Brooks. On May 22, 1856 on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts nearly to death, trapping him under his Senate desk and bashing his head with a cane. Sumner was unable to return to the Senate for three years. Brooks's constituents back home saluted his crime by sending him new canes to replace the one he had broken on Sumner's head.

How will South Carolinians respond to Wilson's disgrace? Will they applaud the shame brought on their state, or will they reply to Wilson's 'You lie!' with a resounding 'Bye-bye!' come the next election? I say, let's help them restore their state's good name.

Rob Miller is a Democrat and an Iraq war veteran running against Wilson for the U.S. House seat in the Second Congressional District. I just contributed money to Miller's campaign, and I urge you to do the same by clicking this link. Miller's campaign website provides more information on his positions and his career. NPR fans may want to listen to him in the January 7, 2005 episode of This American Life.

Whether you are from South Carolina or, like me, not, we all have a stake in restoring civility and respect to public dialogue. Please join me in ejecting a caveman from the halls of Congress and replacing him with a distinguished veteran of the U.S. Marines who served in Iraq and Liberia.

what kind of space is cyberspace?

In episode 160 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise discover that warp engines, the sine qua non of twenty-fourth-century exploration, are stressing the fabric of space. The problem has advanced to the point of threatening the safety of the Hekaran homeworld.

What would the cultures of the United Federation of Planets be without the ability to travel at warp speed? Science and trade and cultural exchange would all but cease. The vision of the galactic village would come to an end.

In my latest contribution to 3 Quarks Daily, I confront a similar problem in cyberspace, the problem of the ever-worsening carbon dioxide emissions due to internet server farms. What is to be done? Click the link to see my suggestions.

works every time

How long before Congressional Republicans catch on to President Obama's favourite tactic? My guess is never. Today's New York Times headline says it all: 'Democrats Seem Set to Go It Alone on a Health Bill', the implication being that they had no choice. Here's how Obama's brand of rope-a-dope works:

-First, he goes out of his way to appear bipartisan.

-In response, the Republicans, being Republicans, don't give an inch and in fact trip over themselves sprinting further rightward.

-Finally, Obama gives up on working with the other side and does what he has to do: he goes it alone, like the headline says.

Now that there are reports of self-appointed militiamen carrying assault weapons to the president's public events, can you blame him?

I know that many on the left are concerned that the Democrats will be sold out by their conservative wing, the so-called 'Blue Dogs'. Given the public stage for a couple of weeks, they, too, have shot their load and come up empty. Witness the other heavy-saturation news angle of the week, from yesterday's Times:

Headline: 'Alternate Plan as Health Option Muddies Debate'

First paragraph: 'WASHINGTON — The White House has indicated that it could accept a nonprofit health care cooperative as an alternative to a new government insurance plan, originally favored by President Obama. But the co-op idea is so ill defined that no one knows exactly what it would look like or how effectively it would compete with commercial insurers.'

Indeed.

Even if the Blue Dogs persist in opposing the 'public option', i.e. a proposed system of government-provided health insurance to those who want it, the numbers are irrefutable: the Democrats have sixty seats in the Senate and, most importantly, although the five or six Blue Dogs in the Senate may vote against the legislation, they would not dare vote against cloture. How could they? Congressional Democrats will never be as disciplined or uni-minded as their Republican counterparts, but not a one of them would dare support a Republican filibuster. For those Blue Dogs who fear that a vote in favour of the public option would hurt them in their home states, the chance to vote No is exactly what they need to prove their conservative bona fides to both their supporters back home and the insurance-company overlords who bankroll their re-election campaigns.

President Obama is the Iceman. No one in American government has more sangfroid. He lets a few weeks go by, acts like he's willing to compromise, allows people to think he's being indecisive; then when it's all over, his enemies have slain themselves, he gets to do what he wants legislatively, and he ends up looking like Mr. Nice Guy. That is tactical genius. After Obama's inauguration, people were quick to compare him to FDR. Time may prove that the better comparison is to the great political tactician of the twentieth century, LBJ.

I need a ticket to see the Arctic Monkeys on August 3

The title pretty much says it: I need a ticket to see the Arctic Monkeys on August 3. Even Stub Hub is sold out. If you have a spare ticket, please contact me.