My goal here is different. It's to point out the importance of what Krugman leaves out - because as any good academic knows, what you leave out is just as important as what you put in.
I like to say that our generation - we who are under 35 - are the Johnny Rotten generation. Not in the sense that we all like punk, but instead in the sense that we all can sympathize with his famous statement. We all have the feeling we've been cheated.
Cheated out of our futures, really. For most of this decade I felt that something wasn't quite right. My friends and I worked hard, studied hard, kept out of trouble. We played by the rules. We did what we were supposed to do. And yet we find ourselves struggling to stay afloat.
Whenever I've mentioned this before, I've had some older Kossacks dismiss my claims, saying that every young generations feels they have it hard, that things are unfair. Perhaps. But last summer the California Budget Project came out with a comprehensive study that suggests, in fact, things really are different today. A Generation of Inequality: The State of Working California, 1979-2006 is the title of their study. And I would like to discuss it with you tonight.
The California primary is not yet over. Even though the media has moved on, 94,000 voters in Los Angeles County have not. Their votes remain uncounted, victims of the so-called "double bubble trouble."
The Courage Campaign has been working overtime all week long to ensure that all these votes are counted. Dean Logan, Registrar of Voters for LA County, has offered to only count a 5% sample of the votes, instead of ensuring that all 94,000 voters have their rights respected, their votes counted. Those 94,000 votes are roughly HALF of all ballots cast by Decline to State voters in LA County on Tuesday.
To ensure that these votes get counted, Courage Campaign has launched an online petition with a simple message: Count. Every. Vote. In 24 hours we have received 15,000 signatures. Won't you add yours?
Note: The text of this diary was originally posted by dday at his site. He has already used his allotted diary here at dKos today, and allowed me to post this so that it can get a wider audience. Also, I work for the Courage Campaign.
In Barack Obama's final email to supporters, this little reminder kind of jumped out at me:
If you declined to select a political party when you registered to vote, you can still vote for Barack Obama if you request a Democratic ballot from the poll worker. Make sure you mark "Democratic" in the appropriate space or the vote might not be counted.
Vote might not be counted, ay? What's this all about?
If you're planning to vote in California's primary on Tuesday (and I hope you are!), and you're registered as "Decline to State" - DTS - then you need to know something about how the process actually works so that you can actually vote for a Democratic presidential candidate.
As the FISA debate unfolds today one of California's senators finds herself at its center. Dianne Feinstein has offered two amendments to the odious Senate Intelligence Committee bill, one of which would have the FISA court itself determine whether telecoms are eligible for immunity. Over at the Courage Campaign I have explained why her approach is so deeply flawed.
It's bad enough that she wants a secret court, which average Americans like you and I don't have the right to access, to determine whether our basic legal rights and privacy protections are valid. What's worse is the underlying reasoning she is using. Feinstein believes that all the telecoms and the Bush administration have to show the FISA court would be that they acted in "good faith" - and voila, the telecoms are immune.
While other states kick around abstract ideas, California has had since 2002 a complete plan for high speed rail - with the all important EIR/EIS finalized - to link the state's major metro areas - San Francisco, Oakland, San José, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, OC, Riverside, and San Diego - with a true high-speed system. This November, after two postponements, the $10 billion bond plan is scheduled to go before voters.
It is my ardent belief that this plan must pass. California's future depends on it. We will not be able to use oil-based methods of transportation to crisscross the state for long. Our economy will require sustainable, green, and rapid alternative to get people between Northern and Southern California. Only high speed rail offers that.
It works in Europe, it works in Asia, and it can work here. But not without your help.
This is exactly the wrong approach to economic stimulus. It will not only do nothing to arrest our slide into recession, it will cripple our government's ability to provide useful relief and recovery projects. It's a huge waste of money that will fail catastrophically.
The "mandate model" for reform rests on impeccable political logic: avoid challenging insurance firms’ stranglehold on health care. But it is economic nonsense. The reliance on private insurers makes universal coverage unaffordable.
Bet you never thought you'd see those words headlining a diary at Daily Kos, did you? Since Bush's election, Paul Krugman has been one of our best allies and spokespersons opposing the economic and political recklessness of this administration. He spoke up for our causes when nobody else would, and his books, from The Great Unraveling to The Conscience of a Liberal have been hailed as defining statements of our movement.
Which makes today's column all the more stunning. It's as if we got the anti-Krugman, the bizarro Krugman - one who is advancing a neoliberal economic agenda, trying to undermine progressive causes by swiftboating us as using "right wing frames." Those are strong accusations to level at someone most folks here would see as a hero, but they're also accurate. In fact, there is nothing bizarro about this - Krugman has a long history of supporting neoliberal policies, such as free trade. His column on mandated insurance is an example of this.
As you may have noticed from recentposts at Calitics, I'm a big fan of Naomi Klein's new book The Shock Doctrine. It's one of the best books published this decade, and provides perhaps the best overview of the last 30 years yet offered. Her argument is essentially this:
America's 21st century has two distinct political futures. This election is already seeing their emergence.
The first is embodied by Ron Paul. It is a future where government is dramatically scaled back as a presence in our lives, and people are left to fend for themselves. It is a future where inequality is embraced, where those with less are given no aid whatsoever and blamed for their condition. It is a future where America tries to maintain the fiction that it is a white nation, of, by, and for white people. It is a nation racked by crisis, where survival is conditioned on how much money you make.
The second is embodied by us. It is a democratic future, where instead of abolishing government, we both expand and reform it. Where we work to end inequality, address the multiple crises of climate and economy. Where we embrace a pluralist, diverse, international future. It is a nation that has learned to do more with less, and where basic human needs are met, not left to the market.
Update [2007-11-29 12:34:31 by eugene]: Crap. Looks like it may indeed be too good to be true. The initiative withdrawn is one version of the "steal the state" plan. The one promoted by Thomas Hiltachk, the main GOP effort to steal our electoral votes, is still be circulating.
See comments from Kat Hart and Hermit9 below for more explanation. This is why I usually don't do "breaking" news diaries...sorry...
We will need to continue fighting this. Visit No Dirty Tricks to find out more about what you can do to help.
Last fall, after my fiancee moved to Monterey for her new job, I had to find a new place to live for nine months in Seattle until I could move down to join her. With craigslist as my trusty guide I went to look at countless apartments, and particularly, open rooms in houses. Rents were rising rapidly, and without a car I was limited in where I could go. At each open house, I found myself standing around with 15-20 other young people, all of us hoping for one open spot. After a couple of weeks I finally found a great place, but there were moments where I seriously thought I'd be couch surfing until June.
My experience is not unique. Instead it's just one anecdote illustrating a deeper problem. In many North American cities, as rents rise, and as the housing market got hot, young people in particular bore the brunt of the crisis - finding affordable housing became very difficult. And while the housing bust might lead us to think the problem will resolve itself, it might actually worsen the situation dramatically.
It's understandable that conservatives bristle at being called to account for the catastrophic outcomes of their ideological agenda. The devastation wreaked on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina irreparably damaged the Bush Administration and set the Republicans on the long road to losing the Congress. Millions of Americans saw the effects of Grover Norquist's "drown government in a bathtub" strategy. The Register's editorial pages, long devoted to a similar anti-government, anti-tax, anti-union agenda, have a clear interest in distancing themselves from last week's disaster.
Unsurprisingly, this has happened elsewhere. As firefighters battle to save Silverado Canyon and prevent the Santiago Fire from reaching Riverside County homes, we are now learning that Orange County firefighters faced similar crippling shortages of equipment and personnel - shortages that prevented them from being able to quickly extinguish the Santiago blaze.
There were hurricanes before Katrina, and Southern California wildfires before Witch Creek, Santiago Canyon, and Running Springs. As those of us who have ever lived in SoCal know, the fall winds can easily turn the brown hillsides into menacing flame.
But like the hurricanes spawned by the Atlantic Ocean, the fires spawned by the Santa Ana winds are growing worse. Even though the current danger has not yet passed in SoCal, it is worth examining the links between global warming and wildfire. We've known for some time that the two were linked. Perhaps now it is time to finally get serious and do something about it.
The key isn't merely higher temperatures. At the center of the problem is moisture. California is at the opening stages of the worst water crisis in its modern history. Without enough rainfall, plants and trees will dry out more quickly and more thoroughly, leaving more fuel for fires.
