Henry Dems blog post...

I work my ass off debating conservatives... some times I think its pointless... I hope people learn something from it... (see main post for links)

This liberal lacks a retort? McCain, Obama, and the economy

I'm glad to see we are getting a more active blog. The more we debate... the more we discuss... the more we have dialouge. The less the right wing swift boat attacks and urban ledgends that Republicans have used time and time again will work.

The discussion is on McCain and his 8 houses... or however many.

Henry Libertarian commented:

That shows how "out of touch" and "privileged" Obama is, which Liberals like to ignore. Sure it is fun to point across the isle and snicker, but when you are guilt of the same thing suddenly you get defensive and don't see the humor anymore. If you want to call McCain rich then show me a politician at the federal levels that isn't. You obviously don't have a retort or you would have said something better. Obama wants to tax businesses that make goods and provide services which will make goods and services more expensive. With Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan, who do you think is going to pay for it?

First... "when you are guilty of the same thing? How so? The Rezko smear has been shown to be a complete fabrication for more see Factcheck.org which is a nonpartisan group that I highly recommend to those like myself who want to deal in policy and not whitewash the issues. Read the Rezko Reality to see that Henry Libertarian like many Republicans is misinformed on the issue.

If you want to call McCain rich then show me a politician at the federal levels that isn't.

That is known as a straw man in logic. I'm not arguing that Obama has note earned an impressive income. Or that middle class and working class americans are seldom representative of elected officials.

But here is the deal. Obama understand that Americans deserve to be empowered... he wants to help middle class Americans get a higher quality of life. John McCain wants to cut taxes on the rich... which has harmed our economic health over the past 30 years of supply side reganomics.

I mean there are reasons why European nations--and Canada too!--have more economic mobility than we do in America. These are all repurcussion of conservative economics--a less equitable outcome for hard working americans.

So saying I want to have it both ways because "Obama is rich too" is either a misunderstanding or clever rhetorical trick which won't work. I'll assume its a misunderstanding.

Obama wants to tax businesses that make goods and provide services which will make goods and services more expensive. With Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan, who do you think is going to pay for it?

First... lets go back to the core questions. Obama wants to bring back the strong economic growth that was seen before the conservative revolution of tax cuts at the cost of quality of life.

The impacts of the Bush tax cuts have been huge. And it has hurt our business competativeness around the globe. That is reason--as the book, "the politics of Bad Ideas" points out--that the World Economic Forum the deterioration of the US public finances has begun to damage US competitiveness. This is a business research institute in Switzerland. The US expereienced the most dramatic drop in rankings of ALL nations.

Also there is a myth that American businesses are being strangled by taxation at the expense of competativeness. I'll outsource to Economist Mark Thoma at U. Oregon "The Greek Menace" who brings together some stuff around the web... I'll quote the larger point--aside from conservatives once again manipluating with hyperbole rather than data...

Economist Dean Baker:

Washington Post Misleads Readers to Push for Lower Corporate Tax Rates

Today, the preferred policy is further reductions in corporate income taxes. To advance this agenda the Post tells readers that, "U.S. companies operating abroad already labor under a bigger tax burden than most foreign competitors."

That's not what the OECD says. Data from the OECD show that in the average member country corporate taxes are equal to about 3.5 percent of GDP. In the United States, corporate taxes have generally been between and 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent of GDP over the last two decades, according to the Congressional Budget Office (Table F-4).

Also here is the tax policy center on Obama's "business tax increases" that you claim will destroy our economy (pg 22)

Obama’s proposal to make permanent the Research and Development (R&D) credit and the renewable energy production credit would make it easier for firms to make investment decisions because they would no longer have to worry each time the credits approached their expiration. Both credits encourage particular behavior that Congress has deemed worthwhile and the change would likely increase both the amount of business investment in R&D and the development of more renewable energy sources. Most economists believe, however, that credits for selected investments in renewable energy are a less cost-effective way of reducing global warming and dependence on imported oil than approaches that raise the price of fossil fuels (including the cap-and-trade proposals advanced by both Obama and McCain) and allow private markets to select the least costly ways of reducing fossil fuel use.

The two sets of revenue-raisers that Obama has proposed would raise taxes on corporations and individuals engaging in particular activities and thus might cause them to change their behavior. To the extent that the provisions close loopholes in the current tax system, they could lead to more efficient use of resources, in terms of both how firms invest their funds and the use of financial strategies to exploit loopholes. The Obama campaign is probably overstating how much revenue additional loophole-closing proposals can raise, however, particularly with regard to proposals to reduce revenue lost from taxpayers who conceal offshore income and exploit international differences in tax rates to shift income to low-tax jurisdictions. There is little hard knowledge about how much revenue is lost to these transactions and administrative efforts to control them are ongoing.

These are equitable and smart chagnes in the tax code. Not perfect for my market theory wonkish Jim Nichols world... but politics is about compromise and consensus and this is a great step towards creating a more equitable economy that not only empowers middle class america but increases all our prosperity through economic revival and a move away from supply side economic nonsense.

Your concern about goods and services is moot since the incomes and savings of middle class and working class americans will rise... which will happen since ending the Bush economic fiasco will improve our longterm economic forcast. WHy do you think the Bush tax cuts created a recession recovery that faired so poorly compared to other post war recorvies?

With Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan, who do you think is going to pay for it?

Trillion dollar spending worries you? Obama would boost the debt by $3.5 trillion but at the same time increase spending and tax cuts that help middle class Americans. McCain would increase the debt by $5 trillion and all we get is more of the Bush economy stagnation and tax cuts for people who will just by bigger houses and nice boats.

Remeber a tax cut is government spending... like it or not.. So McCain is definately not your guy--why defend the worse of two evils by your own parameters.

I'll conclude with the Tax Policy Center again...(Intro)

The two candidates’ tax plans would have sharply different distributional effects. Senator McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts and those tax cuts would be small as a share of after-tax income. In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income

This Liberal lacks a retort? Mama said wonk you out...

We understand economics... and we will bring policies that protect and empower Americans. The every man for themselves mentality Republicans promote not only hurts our citizens, our economic competativeness... but its just plain old bad economics and ways of treating our fellow man...



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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

blog post from the Henry Dems site...

I must be crazy... trying to run two blogs... that have political slants.. durning an election year. While you are chairman of one county, campaign manager in a state senate race, are in school, and work part-time...

Here is my most recent post on the Henry Dem's website. Please go sign up on the site to have new blog posts emailed directly to you.

from the comments page...

TO catch people up there has been a health debate going on in the comments page. I want to pull it to the front and hopefully entice others to comment as well. The more people dig into the numbers, and talk about their own opinions and feelings on these important issues... the more people will feel inspired to once again participate in the process.

Think about that for a second. By taking some time out of your day to think about and participate in dialogue you are helping empower someone else to want to join to political process. For too long people have been turned away from politics by attack ads and corruption. Well the only way to fight back and stop those things is through MORE participation not less.

Here was the thread so far... and then I’ll responded at bottom. Remember I represent Jim Nichols ideas... you should participate so that you can advocate for your ideas and views...

Henry Libertarian commented:
What we need is REAL change not tax and over spend Liberals. You only want to redistribute waelth not create any new income or jobs. Obama isn't the answer to ANYTHING except "Who is the worse choice for President in '08?"

On 08/21/08 04:37 PM

On 08/21/08 04:51 PM

On 08/22/08 08:26 AM

Henry Libertarian commented:
Clinton didn't "create" all of those jobs, he benefited from the .com boom and no one credits him with the .com bust either. Obama's plans will cost $200 billon a year. Ranking Democrats vowed in December to put a moratorium on earmarks; instead, a record number infect legislation pending in Congress, with 32,000 requests this year, compared with about 13,000 in 2006 . In 2007 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slipped in a $25 million provision for San Francisco's waterfront on a $15 billion federal water bill at the last minute. Cutting individual taxes increases spending wich creates more tax money. Fixing health care does not mean going the Hillary Clinton way of demanding that everyone buy health care or an employer does not have to hire you. Fixing health care starts with tort reform in keeping health provider costs down. I am not sure what school your child goes to but my child has books and supplies. The school is responsible for teaching your child not for buying them paper, pencils, pens, glue, etc. The Federal Government should not have ANYTHIG to do with local school systems. You say that you are not for too much government but you want them to control everything and provide it for you. Be responsible for yourself and stop looking for handouts.

Jim Nichols commented:
Also what do you mean by overspend? Our classroom sizes are far too big and lack basic things like supplies and books. Our health care crisis--we rank 37th in the world, and pay 2 to 3 times as much as other industrialized nations--is harming our global competitiveness and litterally killing americans... or at least making them file bankruptcy. Our transportation infrastructure is massively underfunded. Our mental health systems... underfunded. I'm not for too much government... but we aren't investing in our long-term economic sustainability.. and it shows. People pay the price of the Regan economic revolution of cut taxes worry not about the consequences...

Jim Nichols commented:

Well actually the Republican record on the economy and economic growth speak for themselves. George Bush is about to end his 8 years in office having created fewer jobs than Clinton averaged each year of his term. Ever since Regan we've run deficits except during the Clinton years... data speaks louder than words!

My response:

"Clinton didn't "create" all of those jobs, he benefitted from the .com boom and no one credits him with the .com bust either. "

My claim wasn’t to imply Clinton "created" those jobs as if by magic. That not how an economy works. But my claim was intended to point out that every time they open their mouths Bush/McCain/and Company like to say that their economic policies will create jobs... or that they are pro-growth. The question should at least be asked of them... why do you think so?



The paternalistic: "Father says so" [or Bush... or McCain...] is not an economic argument.

And just a question because it seems to be begged...So the Republicans think you have to wait for a dot-com, or real-estate bubble... to create economic growth? Keynes would smile at that one.

Obama's plans will cost $200 billion a year.

true... for those of you who don’t know $200 billion is–if memory serves me–how much Obama’s health care plan costs. For context 200 billion is $645.58 per-capita. 645.58 in my tax dollars going to get millions of people who lack health insurance–such as myself–the ability to get needed medical care and not harm our economy since early treatment rather than last minute care is by far cheaper–more efficient to use an economists term.

And just to give you an idea of how much conservatives end up sounding like they are on mars when talking policy. I spend between 800-1400 dollars a month on health care treatment since I lack health insurance. Its condescending to hardworking Americans who get up each day and try to pay the rules to be told "tough cookies"

Its time for democrats to tell Republicans to cut the crap when it comes to pubic policy.


He then moves onto ear marks...

Ranking Democrats vowed in December to put a moratorium on earmarks; instead, a record number infect legislation pending in Congress, with 32,000 requests this year, compared with about 13,000 in 2006 . In 2007 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slipped in a $25 million provision for San Francisco's waterfront on a $15 billion federal water bill at the last minute

First a question why do "earmarks" always come up when talking to a conservative? The Economist magazine pointed out that all earmarks add up to less than $20 billion a year. That for fiscal year 2008 is $64.56. Since that is a very small chunk of my tax dollars and its part of the push and pull of a federal system. I have faith in our processes of checks and balances... and faith that corruption can be founded and dealt with... the sky isn’t falling.

$25 million for the San Fran waterfront.

For those that don’t know... for fiscal year 2008 that would be 8 cents of my tax dollars. 8 cents? 8 cents? Do we really need to deal with 8 cents? Millions without health care, Bin Ladin still on the loose, terrorist recrutiments UP after the Iraq war... and conservatives want to talk about 8 cents????

Since you brought it up I’ll answer it. San Francisco is a major tourist hub. It brings in tourists from all over the world–myself included. Ask an economist... Adam Smith... Joseph Stiglitz... anyone outside of the Heritage institute really and they will point out the importance of investment in vital infrastructure. Tourism brings a lot of money to the state of California and the United States as a whole. Next time I go to San Fran and enjoy a stroll through one of the tourist district I will feel pleased to know my 8 cents helped me have an enjoyable visit.

Cutting individual taxes increases spending which creates more tax money. ...

Yeah point blank not true... was never thought to be true in theory by a large chunk of economist... and since the Regan revolution has still not proven true in the real world.

You often hear this argument... "the tax cuts pay for themselves." Its either someone misinformed or trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Don’t let them do it. For more on this read "The Politics of Bad Ideas–the Great Tax Cut Delusion and the Decline of Good Government in America" by Bryan D. Jones and Walter Williams both of whom are at the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at University of Washington.

Then we move back to health care...

Fixing health care does not mean going the Hillary Clinton way of demanding that everyone buy health care or an employer does not have to hire you. Fixing health care starts with tort reform in keeping health provider costs down.

We rank 37th in the world for quality of health care. We rank 37th!!!

WE SPEND 2 to 3 times as much as other industrialized nations who already have universal coverage. We are creating huge profits for a small group of people, causing hard working Americans to go bankrupt from illnesses they have no control over, and we are killing people every day because they lack needed treatment. Our businesses put at a competitive disadvantage because they are paying the price....

The idea that tort reform and health care provider costs is going to fix the market failure we are currently dealing with is a bit of a stretch. Private insurance companies and the bureaucracy they bring into the health care system IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. Insurance companies pay people a lot of money to go through peoples files to try to keep people from getting insurance or certain treatments.

I am not sure what school your child goes to but my child has books and supplies. The school is responsible for teaching your child not for buying them paper, pencils, pens, glue, etc

Our schools are underfunded.... class sizes too large... teacher pay too low.

As someone who dropped out of high school... I can tell you how passionate I am on making sure that our kids stay competitive in a global economy.

If we don’t invest in our kids... and create and educated work force we will continue to fall far behind Japan, Europe and the other industrialized nations in the world As someone who wants to know my economy is going to be strong and stronger... over the long run I can tell you how passionate I am at making sure the needed investment in our infrastructure is spent NOW.

Instead of seeing a hand-out... see it as a hand-up which helps empower other people to rise up and helps protect your own economic security at the same time

You say that you are not for too much government but you want them to control everything and provide it for you. Be responsible for yourself and stop looking for handouts.

When did I say that??? I don’t know how to respond to that one since I never said I want them to control everything and provide it for you. Republicans always try this trick. If it isn't a trick then its a manipulation. I never said any such thing so I can't respond to the attack.

Be responsible for yourself and stop looking for handouts

That about as condescending as it gets... and you see it from conservatives all the time.

You don’t know me... but it doesn’t matter... you shouldn’t need to. The presumption should always be that people are trying to play by the rules and work hard. Plus I'm demanding better schools, better health care system, better foriegn policy. What do those things have to do with not being responsible for myself... what about that is look for a handout. I'm demanding Government actually do its job. It is there to protect and empower people. Plus personally I believe that which we do to the least of these is very telling about ourselves.

Every time someone tells me to stop whining and work hard I think of my grandfather who got up everyday before the sun to go work on his farm, would then go work at the factory for 8 to 10 hours, to come home and raise a family. He died with less than $200 to his name and never lived very far above the poverty line. You can call me every name in the book... but you I won’t let you call my grandfather lazy.

Imagine if Democrats finally told Republicans.. .cut the crap. The attacks, the personal a fronts, the swift boat ads... and urban legends speak to how little Republicans how when it comes to policy. But they win if Democrats don’t fight back. Knock on doors, make phone calls.... help bring our country back to the entrepreneurial machine it once was. Government is in the business of empowering its citizens. Its time to say no to another Republican who won’t do the job.




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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Why I'll never get elected to office...

If my writings weren't bad enough... if my artistic need to shock and inspire through dramatic black and white distinctions... if my unfortunate turns towards invective... if my tattoos which will certainly continue to expand... if if if...

to add fuel to the fire... or amunition for conservatives I... the blogger that I am... post things like this....


Which side are you on?

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Everyone stop what you are doing...

Stop... and go to Citizen Jay

I'm going to be updating my blogroll... might as well give a hat-tip before I do so...

Bloggers can change the world if they take there words, and effort, and turn into action--door to door, on the streets when necessary.. a struggle that will never end and therefore cannot be hopeless...

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Blog stats for the site...

Here are the stats for my blog.



Green: Page Loads
Blue: Unique Visitors
Orange: return visitors

There is a definite trend which is great... thanks to all who are showing up. I'm still not bringing in the number of return visitors I'd like. But also these are based on cookies and I bet others are like me and clear out the cookies every now and then when they clean up their computer.

Help me grow... send an email to friends and family and let them know about my blog. I work really hard to bring a pretty good resource of news, analysis, and some random strange cultural items--with my own little twist to it.

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

yeah! an active comments page...

I love seeing an active comments page on my blog. Thats what its there for... and getting the ideas flowing is why I do this! But to interject on Yardman's criticism of being on "the dole"

I read it as being a negative, or pejorative in some way. I couldn't disagree more...

I don't want to get the thread off track because its interesting and could be very fruitful for myself as well as others but... i'm not opposed to "the dole," government subsidies, incentives, and other infrastructure programs.

These are investments in our economy, our government, our communities, and our people. One of my core beliefs is that no one gets left behind. High up on my list of things that are good is the market system. A market economy is an amazing thing, its existence in the world--a priori, I would even say--is an amazing thing. As nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has pointed out... a rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats. Growth for growths sake won't solve anything which has been my fundamental contention with conservatives of both parties.

Those kinds of policies have devistated economies all across the globe including our own--since 1980--aside from some of clintons economic moves, and Bush 1 rasing taxes-- we've been in self-destruct mode when it comes to economic policy. Economic inequality has reached a level we haven't seen since the 1920's. The wealthy are now reaping all of the rewards of the American economy

The dole and other ways of protecting the market are the things that enhance the market and protect it by focusing on sustainability over short-term perks. Over the long run these kinds of plans, programs, and efforts help raise the quality of life for all. Now don't get me wrong, the corruption, red-tape, and inefficiencies need to be addressed, avoided when possible, and always kept close to the publics magnifying glass. But you don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

If government tax dollars are good enough to keep the rich on a sustainable path... I don't think its too much to ask for the poor, working class, and middle class in this country to enjoy some of the fruits of our collective effort.

digression concluded... keep the thread going though...

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

seems to be useful for others academics as well.... (turned into a blogging ethics post)

Collected Advice for the Young Economists

update: I just wondered to myself if I need to hat-tip to the big boys... every time I pick up a good link from a Dean Baker or Brad Delong do I need to tell you? I tend to link/quote from their site... but everyonce in a while I get sent to another site (3rd site) and you don't know how I found it.

In this situation it came from Delong. Is hat-tip needed in inverse outsourcing? If I did would my readers stay away from my blog once they learn they can go to the direct source. Is this like illegal copies of a movie or new cd?

I want people to use my blog as a tool to save them time. If I hat tip to the bloggers that I use and learn from. I might lose what little audience I have. Do market principles say I don't need to hat-tip? I'm not claiming I wrote it... and if asked I'd tell you where I found--academic and intellectual honesty is not what I'm about.

But I don't know...

Any thoughts???

Contending Conservatives the right way....

In my recent post DFA Training Works I said something that still sits with me as not quite accurate and fair.

Conservatives don’t care if the lady down the street has health care or not. Conservatives don’t care if our economy doesn’t work for working people. Conservatives want us to stay demoralized, sitting all alone in our houses, angry at the world. Conservatives want to tell people it’s a dog eat dog world, that people can’t trust the government. Every time we show up we challenge those conceptions to the very core of its vacuousness.

I can't really decide if I said it wrong, should have used other words, or kept it out all together. I know a number of Conservatives who do care about health care, about poverty, about all the things I speak about. They just disagree with me on the methods and approaches. I feel that they haven't looked very closely at the evidence and policy ideas surrounding those issues. And I feel they do not put up a great deal of effort in responding to my questions and challenges, aside from putting trust in Conservative leaders on TV and the radio.

I quite often feel angry at the lack of personal effort to back up ideas they passionately hold; past the creative talking points coming out of the media. But still I do meet conservatives who do care. I know they care because I see them worry how they are going to pay their bills, afford health care, save for retirement. And it probably offends them when I go strutting around my Liberal Friends saying they don't.

This morning on my walk, with the dog wandering back and forth and the moon hanging just above the trees I was thinking about something I saw at the King Center yesterday.

It was a quote from one of the video's on the civil rights protesters rules of behavior. It said you must always be respectful, stay calm, look forward, do not respond, do as directed by the group leader. He then went on to say the reason... "we aren't fighting our neighbors... we're fighting for equal rights..."

That kept sticking with me all day yesterday and this morning. As Chairman of the Henry County Democrats I have to focus a lot of economic and social frustration. I know personally as a human rights activist it is mind-boggling that my country and my president is now the focus of much of my human rights focus. It is almost unreal. So many times people want to vent... I do it myself.

The question is what are we fighting for?

I'm fighting for everyone in this country to have health care. I'm fighting for decent wages, education, and opportunity for all Americans. I'm not fighting my neighbor. And it would be wise on my part not to waste time using words and condescending phrases that might not allow them to hear the issues, statistics, and arguments I use to address and change those problems.

I think if I could go back I might say something to the effect of: Conservatives put a higher priority on personal choices than on making sure we all have health care. Personally I'm will to sacrifice a little so that others won't have to suffer. Conservatives put a greater value on personal wealth, and personal hard work paying off, over the strength and welfare of our economy as a whole. They see us as individuals, Liberals see us a complex social group.

That might help me not make it "me against my neighbor" and turn it into "me advocating for my neighbor. All of them to be exact."

I feel sometimes at a loss on how to navigate...

Sometimes I ramble poetical. Sometimes I speak and point more towards the data and empirical side of things. But I often wonder if I travel between the two ways of communicating--the artistic world, and the policy/philosophical world--in an effective manner. Or do I end up creating two many distractions. Some times I feel my artistic/poetic way of just saying what i'm feeling is petty and childish.

On the way out the door my gut fell out from under me and I felt guilty for posting this. It can be read as childish and petty... while it was intended as an attempt to speak of an emotion inside me that I want to be able to express with others who may feel the same way from time to time.

I want people to respect my views, I want to build a network of people with whom I can trust and who can trust me. To navigate this complex world. I don't want people to jump on my blog and have a bad first impression which makes them think I don't have anything productive to say or share.

Even if all I bring is an extra eye keeping up with the Josh Marshall's, Dean Baker's, and Brad Delong's of the world--who are every day teaching me via this wonderous tool--and pass them on to others who may not have the time, inclination, or ability to focus on such things. Then at least that is something.

I guess the question is how do I be true to myself, respectful of others, and coherent in my thinking? How do I build bridges and alliances with many different people from many different perspectives. I think this world is too complex for me to say that there are many important insights to take from people across the spectrum and across human history.

How do I do that, without being a pedantic, verbally assaulting, close minded, and divisive. That kind of crap goes on in politics, and especially prone to go on in the blog world.

I dunno, but I want to get better about being open/receptive/accessible in everything I do--more specifically on this blog.

Does the new media have to stay in the gutter? Or is this one more tool towards a more reflective and wise society?

I hope its the latter--from time to time I feel like I tend to jump the gun and do the former.

Sigh... I guess this is something I grow into learning how to accomplish.

Congrats...

Well done goes out to blogger Josh Marshall over at TPM. He has hit the big-time--for the mainstream media at least. It was great to be reading the NYT's and see an article about a blogger doing well and being appreciated for it.

Of the many landmarks along a journalist’s career, two are among those that stand out: winning an award and making the government back down. Last week, Joshua Micah Marshall achieved both.

On Tuesday, it was announced that he had won a George Polk Award for legal reporting for coverage of the firing of eight United States attorneys, critics charged under political circumstances. The “tenacious investigative reporting sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,” the citation read.

Also last week, the Justice Department put him back on its mailing list for reporters with credentials after removing him last year.

Mr. Marshall does not belong to any traditional news organization. Instead, he is creating his own. His Web site, Talking Points Memo (www.talkingpointsmemo.com), is the first Internet-only news operation to receive the Polk (though in 2003, an award for Internet reporting was given to the Center for Public Integrity), and certainly one of the most influential political blogs in the country.

I've been reading TPM for a while now... and hit it more often than the NYT's website in fact! Good for Josh, good for blogs, good for increasing information in our society, and good for old fashion business model:

he seems to have followed a business model unlike the founders of many of the dot-coms: Begin as a tiny operation. Manage to gain a following. As the audience grows, ask readers for donations and accept advertising. As the advertising and donations grow, add reporters and features. Repeat as often as needed.

Ahhh dear god what have they done!!

I don't know who I fooled. (Actually I know exactly who I fooled: Tim Cairl Executive Director of the Georgia Young Democrats, pictured below)

But I will be a guest blogger for the GA Young Democrats during my time this Legislative Session working as an Aide to Rep. Buckner and Rep. Crawford. So go over and check out my first post and then check out some of the great work the GA Young Dems are doing to get Young People involved in help our communities get Health Care and our schools get Books. There is a lot of important work to be done and the GA Young Dems are on the front lines of doing it.

So I am really exicited about this upcoming session and hope I can keep Young Dem's across the state informed about whats going on this session at the Capital. I'll be sending you guys over there for my posts so please check out the other stuff the GA Young Dems are doing and think about getting innvolved in some manner (hint: if you are over 40... money is okay in their book!)

Okay so go check out my first post as a guest blogger...

I need to find new sources...

I post Krugman, Krugman, throw in a Delong... maybe a Baker. I need to exand my horizons. They just happen to be on my radar right now coming up with good stuff I want to share. Which is why I blog...

I'm still trying to share more of me.

When are humans going to catch up to technology

I sometimes get the feeling my Dad and I are trying to do the same thing in different forums. He's working the energy market in the Philippines, i'm working the political scene and social justice movement in Georgia.

I just titled this post... When are people going to catch up to technology. But then I rewrote it. When are humans... human beings. The people that care, feel, hurt, and love. People... randomized automatons. They already plug into tv, vapid consumerism, and such. They are already on board with technology, but like technology they don't care...

I'm weary of leaning on carelessness as a solution. Vain narcissistic randomness and careless revelry is not going to fix anything, only be a release. My dad works in the energy Field. His business, is something I know next to nothing about. But he's in it for the right reasons. He wants markets to work FOR people, not just blind profit. Blind profit hurts human beings. He wants to use technology to make his little detailed sector of expertise work for humans.

I want to use technology to make my little sector of expertise policy wonkishness and political theory work for humans.

We're both trying hard to use technology to help. I struggle to make it work. I think he goes through the same struggles. I look to his recent post Journalist Interviews and Blogs and think if we keep at this it might just work!

We might just be the generation that helps human beings use technology. Not to eradicate cultures, bomb a city, or suck another dollar out of labor. But break free information, giving the informed and wise a way to network, communicate, and the tools to make those ventures beneficial to everyone in society.

I think my Dad may take it too far...

I may begin declining phone interviews much more frequently. I prefer to be in the open, on the record, and unfiltered - although I realize there will be need for exceptions at times. The on-line conversations are much more robust.

Technology, is a tool for humans. And human beings deal in and thrive off of personal relationships. Insider games, and elitism, are the things that are eradicated by the openness of the internet. But that doesn't replace personal relationships. Relationships with neighbors, economists, reporters. Whatever your goal is, people are that which stands in your way. The questions is how to make people humans. And you do that by talking, listening, and having a cup of coffee. Blog posts, online comments, social networks. For all of their perks, will never sit across from another person, look them in the eye and say "yeah, I give a shit too....."

Highly complex society's suck the life out of humans. They lose attachment to what counts. THe soul I guess is what poets would call it. And you don't relate to people, teach people, lead people.... if you negate that which we are trying to save. At least we that get it. And know they may be few and far between. But many times I think thats an illusion too... But forget that for a moment. How does one live? Together or alone?

I vote for together.

update with a quote from "No Paradise" by Anti-Flag that I was listening to as I wrote without realizing it speaks to what i'm talking about....

We want the truth
It isn't going to be no paradise
Forget the claims
Oh no
We need to take the world back now
We need to take control right now

Promises of a better tomorrow
Promises bought on borrowed dollars
No disaster ever looked so great
So while I say
As old men delivered that league of terror; war
We ask ourselves what are we dying for?

So all the kids are sick and tired of the news today
Sick and tired of all your lies
We want the truth
It isn't going to be no paradise
Forget the claims
Oh no
We need to take the world back now
We need to take control right now

There is some blue haired 15 teen year old singing those words today. But there is also a political activist in his late 20's and a energy consultant in the Philippines living those same words today as well.

Bloggers, not an alien race after all

Over at Daily Kos, Kagro X takes on an LA Times op-ed on bloggers chanllenging the assumption that bloggers didn't exist at some point.

But there never was a time when bloggers did not exist. Because -- again -- bloggers are not an alien race who fell from the heavens on a meteorite. They are people. And in fact, they are the very people for whom journalists have always been writing, and for whom they always will write. We have always been here, and we have always been a vital part -- perhaps the most vital part -- of the journalistic equation. You just didn't count us because you couldn't hear us.

Can you hear us now?

Good.

We were always talking to you. Always talking about you. Always had the exact same things to say about you and your reporting that we're saying now. We just lacked the technology to make you aware of it. Maybe you liked it that way. Maybe you'd rather it had stayed that way. But it didn't, and no amount of elitist scorn is going to change that, just as it was never able to contain it in the past. The "blogger's" disdain for shoddy reporting (and truthfully, sometimes even for quality reporting -- I have to acknowledge that) has always existed and likely always will. Blogs are just the most effective tool we've yet found to plug that disdain into.

No journalist who fails to grasp this will ever be able to write insightfully about blogs, bloggers or the blogosphere. It can't be done. You can write, of course. No one can stop you. But you can't be right. You can't be right about bloggers until you acknowledge who they actually are.

Not sure how to link this...

Just go read these three posts... outside the issues within them the posts make me smile for the internet/blogosphere and how it helps issues and ideas spread. And there is no news reporter intermediary!

Here is the opening by Jared Bernstein


The follow up by Greg Mankiw who is an economist at Harvard who was in the Bush Administration for a while...

And finally a third party jumps into the mix, that being the Berkeley Economist Brad Delong....

Then I come along and get to watch these minds work. Which is a pleasure on my Saturday off from work....

news update...

The AP has picked up on the story about the farmers in Iowa the Giuliani campaign snubbed. To this point it had pretty much been blog's and a minor newspaper reporting this one.

Anybody can say anything!

Blogging, and the world wide web in general makes reality so much more real. It takes away legitimacy where none is deserved and it brings out actual thoughts from behind the shadows and into the light...



Makes people question the legitimacy of sources and the sources of legitimacy.

Kevin Drum on blogging

A couple of years ago I was at a small panel discussion in Los Angeles on the subject of blogging. My most vivid memory of the event — aside from the fact that Eugene Volokh actually had a bullet-pointed handout for the group — came about halfway through when a lady stood up and said, in a querulous tone, "The thing I don't like about blogging is that it allows anybody to say anything."

It's the kind of remark that pretty much leaves you speechless.