Kony 2012

Holy Thursday morning distraction! I must blog!

The buzz around Kony 2012 reached my inbox early, encouraging me to drink even before lunch. I watched the film -- I cried a bit, rolled my eyes a lot and felt old for not being able to socially network like my younger socializing friends. Mixed emotions.

I've got no major problem with the filmmakers. I think it's naive. But I value and respect what it takes to organize. I also value the tone of their responses to the criticism. Dialogue is good and they are responding in detail to their weaknesses and inviting you/me to ask harder questions.

At the end of the day, I really value the push of encouragement at the end of this post -- go and read the Crisis Group analysis from November about this problem! If 1% of the 26,684,765 people who see the film on youtube do that (and go further still), that's a lot of better informed people on a really complex issue.

If some naive guy wants to push for the urgency of now, it may make me cringe on many, many levels, but I was "there" once too and I did far less than him to try and raise awareness. More power to him. Maybe in the buzz of outcry against and outcry to support, we'll all get a bit more creative about how to deal with the complexity. The the fatigue that comes with dealing with complexity is real, it's not going away, so I appreciate the kick in the pants. In fact, all this stuff is even making me re-think Bono, who I have long criticised for his shallow and over-simplistic approach to social change. But Bono is making a case that often leads to better, more specific critiques of aid and development. So, well done, Bono (even if I think your music is still shit).

Here's to all the over-simplifies, even you Bono! And to everyone who knows it's more complex, use your disgust at the over-simplification as a new push to get more creative at making your solutions heard.

Learning More About Hospice

I learned about a new film via Help the Hospices. Check out the trailer of Life Before Death, which I hope to see in a few weeks in London.

The bigger website seems a bit odd, but I support all efforts to talk more comfortably about the issues.

Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Beyond

This is a good article on the rise of Elizabeth Warren in politics and thinking about ideals in the Obama and post-Obama world: "Heaven Is a Place Called Elizabeth Warren".

But many of the people looking to Warren, as they did to Obama before her, are expecting material things — like readable credit-card pitches or safe bridges or jobs or a vote on a bill to create jobs — that are, at the moment, figments as imaginative as dragons and their slayers. And that’s dangerous, because when the person we decided was going to fix it all isn’t able to change much, it’s not just that we get blue but also that we give up. We mistake the errors of our own overblown estimations for broken promises. And instead of learning, reasonably, that one person can’t do everything, we persuade ourselves that no person can do anything.

Conflicted...

Read this article on money flowing to people who voted for same sex marriage in New York.

I am both elated by the vote, as it turned out, but highly suspicious of the "flow of money". How can anyone be for getting money out of politics, but also donate to causes or politicians who are making social change happen? Flip the issue to cash flowing to Democrats getting money for voting on limits to abortion and I'd be...well, conflicted. Until all the money is out of politics, you gotta play the game, which makes me almost agree with Newt Gingrich's current strategy, something I haven't done before.

By the way, I want to start having dinner parties where we watch one Super PAC ad and discuss...best thing to happen to democracy.

Vote Herman Cain!

You Won't Miss It!

This is power (this is the link you click on when you see this on wikipedia today).

Our purpose here isn't to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it's okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.

I saw it! Not only do I feel impelled to read more about this, my mind realizes the power of a site like wikipedia to funnel our attention on a whole number of issues.

Super PAC Survey

Who named these things? And, more importantly, if you had to vote just based on the name, which one would get your money?

Red, White and Blue Fund.
Our Destiny.
Make Us Great Again.
Restore Our Future.
Winning Our Future.

I really like the Definitely Not Coordinated with Stephen Colbert Super PAC, now run by Jon Stewart.

"I am excited to take the reins of this completely independent organization, and begin to air ads in South Carolina," said New President and Noncommunication Director Jon Stewart. "But I want to be clear: Stephen and I have in no way have worked out a series of morse-code blinks to convey information with each other on our respective shows."

You can read the serious overview of how these things are keeping some candidates in the race...

“I’m not going to back down or be afraid to say, ‘We, the American people, have the right to know, and any candidate for president has an obligation to tell us,’ ” Mr. Gingrich said at a convention of the elderly in Columbia.

Asked if Winning Our Future was keeping him in the race, Mr. Gingrich said that “it just offsets the other PACs.”

...or you can watch the Colbert Report. The Guardian found it worthy to report.

If you really are interested in feeling depressed, I highly recommend watching a few of the commercials on the "real" super PAC sites. It's insane... especially the disclaimer on the bottom of the page: "Paid for by Winning Our Future. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee."

Yes, Mr. Colbert, god bless Citizens United!

Marry Gay People; Or How I Almost Topped 2011 Blog Posts!

Wow, five days into 2012 and I have almost surpassed my blog post total for 2011!

With all the Santorum quotes giving you a very bad stomach ache, listen to the governor of Washington, Christine Gregoire, who has just disclosed her intention to marry the gays! She said it very, very well.

I can't believe we are still having this debate, let alone voting for people who connect homosexuality with some sort of moral decay that is hurting the economy and country, Rick. Don't support his Super PAC!

One more post to go for a tie with 2011. What a year already!

Hello 2012! The Year of "Truthiness" (For Me)

I am old, so if it takes me six or so years to recognize the importance of truthiness, I just put it down to being a slow reader.

The NYT review of Stephen Colbert is further evidence to convince me that I have a new favorite person. He was also on NPR's Fresh Air doing broadway musical song and expanding on my favorite of his three personalities.

How many times have I heard about Super PACs and their corrosive role in politics? But the indignation only really bubbles up when I see the Buddy Roemer clip. Will Gingrich start teaming up with the Colbert Report now that Romney has torpedoed his campaign?

Donate to the Colbert Super PAC with me. Or maybe you'd prefer Sarah Palin's? Why donate to candidates when the real stuff we love, like unicorns, comes from Super PACs?

Buffett On Taxing the "Super-Rich"

It will be hard to call Warren Buffett a Socialist, but given what I've seen over the weekend, there is sure to be some who will figure out how to discredit a very interesting opinion among the polarized political climate in the US.

Here's his OpEd from the NYT: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.

Poor Economics - Amazing Website!

Via IIED I came across the Poor Economics website today. Poor Economics is a also a book, full title Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty.

Shouldn't all thinking and learning be done this way?! The website is amazing -- overviews of each chapter in a slide-show format, information on the researchers that for the basis of each chapter, researchers' actual papers and the slides used by the authors to teach the book. Buying the book myself just to support the amazing effort! What a great way to get thinking.

Unfit for Democracy?

This column, Unfit for Democracy? by Mr. Kristof was open on my browser for several days. I have nothing to add, but just wanted to link it to my blog since I hear the claim that some countries are "not ready" for democracy all the time in places I work. Maybe people aren't used to participatory decision making, but I don't think you can go along and keep people from trying. Everyone is working to figure out how to do it better so I'll adopt the William Easterly standard of reciprocity noted at the end: "I don’t support autocracy in your society if I don’t want it in my society."

I Have A New Crush

Wow, I have not heard of her before, but this Molly Webb lady has got all the right ideas in why smart cities will help save the world.

I did a quick image search on her there are a lot of pictures of her. Is that stalking?

The (Sad) State of Socializing

It is pretty sad how rarely I have put thoughts up here. Also pretty sad to see the aftermath of the US election. My despondency is not so much about the size of the swing to Republications, but the growth moronic truisms that pass as debate these days.

Generally I love NPR, but they have been irritating me this week. This whole Tea Party thing is just plain anti-thinking and even NPR has been giving them a platform without challenging them sufficiently. For example, Tea Party Leaders Go Over Election Wins, Losses, we get the excellent commentary from Matt Kibbe, CEO of FreedomWorks, whose motto is "Lower Taxes, Less Government, More Freedom".

I really think that even before November 2nd, the Tea Party had defined this election by driving the issues that mattered in this debate. And virtually every Republican and most Democrats - certainly, the Democrats that won in battlegrounds like West Virginia - literally ran on the Tea Party agenda.

Ran on the Tea Party agenda? How about a question like, "Where can I find the Tea Party agenda?" Maybe www.freedomwork.org, where I can buy "Partner With Beck" and get my free copy of Rules for Patriots Handbook.

Another comment by Kibbe, this time in relation to Republicans willingness to "compromise".

If the question is government-run health care, I don't understand what the compromise would be between a bad idea and half a bad idea.

And the interviewer, Steve Inskeep, ignores the quip on "government-run health care" and just goes right to the next question.

Look, I got no problem with people like Kibbe being on NPR. In fact, let them on all the time, but please make them defend their moronic statements. Ask a follow on question. It's your job.

Sadly, also, is the fact the person most actively doing the job of the journalist is a comedian. It still is Jon Stewart who highlights the absurdity of our declining debate. Watch his interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News. Wallace doesn't even understand the point Stewart is making - that he too criticizes MSNBC, which he says is a pathetic attempt to fight Fox by being "double AA ball" partisan next to major league Fox when what is should do is get some "earned credibility" by becoming a "brand new journalistic organization".

Listen, Mr. Wallace, did you get it? Think...think...oh, no, right over your head and on to your talking points about the latest poll.

Where have all the good journalists gone?

"Mosque" Maddness

I have gasped at the quotes I have read over recent weeks from the opposition to the Islamic community center in New York. One thought such overt statements of bigotry were long gone, but sadly, that is not true.

Thank Goodness, God and Allah (I am being secular here on purpose) for Jon Stewart.

Part one.

Part two.

Part three.

Certainly to be continued...

What's the point of Fox News?

I Had A Farm In Africa

Social change, for sure, but to what end? I just watched When China Met Africa, a short film with no commentary. Just images and exchanges. Very intense images.

A historic gathering of over fifty African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold.

Mr Liu is one of thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have settled across the continent in search of new opportunities. He has just bought his fourth farm and business is booming.

In northern Zambia, Mr Li, a project manager for a multinational Chinese company, is upgrading the country's longest road. Pressure to complete the job on time intensifies when funds from the Zambian government start running out. Meanwhile, Zambia's trade minister is en route to China to secure millions of dollars of investment.

Through the intimate portrayal of these three characters, the expanding footprint of a rising global power is laid bare - pointing to a radically different future not just for Africa but also for the world.

Available until July 22, 2010.

Randomizing Hits The New Yorker

"The Poverty Lab" in the May 17 New Yorker brings aid effectiveness further to the public discussion. It is a profile of Ester Duflo, who is one of the co-founders of the Poverty Action Lab.

TED presentation on social experiments too. Largely an intro into randomized trials.

I don't think the article's selected metaphor from Angus Deaton is really substantial. It recalls his powerpoint presentation with two people jumping out of an airplane, one with a parachute and one without - Do we need to test the idea that parachutes are useful to people who jump out of planes?

Over simplistic. I like Duflo's response to Deaton's criticism of randomized trials tendency to generalize.

"We are not just evaluating a program and attaching some larger thoughts at the end, but finding ways to use evaluation to explore theories."

By explore theories, I understand this to mean "challenge assumptions", which is really useful, albeit not as prone to silver bullet solutions and sexy campaigns that make rock stars out of economists and vice versa.

A Little More Milage...

...from will.i.am.

Hell, Yes we can!

The Promise

The New Yorker's photo essay, The Promise, is fantastic. "An interactive portfolio about the civil-rights era, with contemporary portraits by Platon, historical photographs, interviews, and audio commentary by David Remnick."

The online version with interviews is a great way to spend a cold February hour and particularly helpful in gaining perspective after saturating your brain with Tea Party sound bites and contemplation of the problems facing the US today.

Palin-omics

I enjoyed this review of Going Rogue: An American Life in The New York Review of Books.

In our present neo-Keynesian moment, economics has never seemed more bewildering and arcane, or more the exclusive preserve of hated "experts" from the "East Coast elites." Most people I know, myself included, can't readily follow the algebraic equations that explain the "Keynesian multiplier," which, in its turn, is needed to explain TARP and the stimulus package. Belonging to a tribe different from Palin's, I simply take it on trust as a matter of faith that Paul Krugman, in his columns for The New York Times, is more likely to be right about such things than, say, Lou Dobbs or Senator John Thune, but I share in the general apprehensive fogginess about what's happening.

For Palin, it's simple. The national economy is a straightforward macrocosm of the domestic economy of the average god-fearing family of four. What's good for the family is good for the nation, and vice versa; and the idea that the family should spend its way out of recession is an affront to common sense, conservative or otherwise. On December 3, she tweeted: "Baffling/nonsensical: Obama's talk of yet another debt-ridden 'stimulus' pkg. Fight this 1, America, bc after last 1 unemployment rose, debt grew." Five days later, while Obama was speaking at the Brookings Institution about the economy, Palin wrote, "Quik msg b4 book event: Prez pls pay down massive, obscene U.S debt &/or give 'stimulus' $ back to Americans b4 propose spending more of our $."

Fiscal Conservative In Name Only - FCINO

I gasp at Carly for California. Please, keep making shit like this so we can identify those who want to have an adult conversation and those who want to make a complete mockery of the challenges facing California and the world. Lions and tigers and bears and wolves increasing taxes! Oh, my!

Wonkette (thanks Tom) had the appropriate response, but please...that's a Kiwi film, I believe. Get the Flock Out of Here, indeed.

Mr. Krugman had some words about the impending doom of wolves earlier in the week - Fiscal Scare Tactics:

...there’s no reason to panic about budget prospects for the next few years, or even for the next decade. Consider, for example, what the latest budget proposal from the Obama administration says about interest payments on federal debt; according to the projections, a decade from now they’ll have risen to 3.5 percent of G.D.P. How scary is that? It’s about the same as interest costs under the first President Bush.

Why, then, all the hysteria? The answer is politics.

The main difference between last summer, when we were mostly (and appropriately) taking deficits in stride, and the current sense of panic is that deficit fear-mongering has become a key part of Republican political strategy, doing double duty: it damages President Obama’s image even as it cripples his policy agenda. And if the hypocrisy is breathtaking — politicians who voted for budget-busting tax cuts posing as apostles of fiscal rectitude, politicians demonizing attempts to rein in Medicare costs one day (death panels!), then denouncing excessive government spending the next — well, what else is new?

I know, I know...he's a wolf in bears clothing, right?

Getting A Rise Out Of People

This Tea Party thing is just moronic. I fear it has to be covered, sadly taking time from the pressing and complex issues of the world, and I certainly welcome any and all supporters to make their case, debate and put forward their "solutions". Good article on the New Yorker that helps explain it a bit - The Movement. The Ask the Author chat session is illuminating as well.

Keli Carender, someone often mentioned as a agitator, is quoted on NPR as saying, "I tried to boil down in essence what makes me so angry about [the health care plan]. And it was this idea that he [the leader of the US, I think] and other people decide what the needs are in society. They get to decide. But in order to fund those things, they have to take from some people in order to give to the other people."

First, "he and other people" were elected by we, the people who vote in the US, to serve in the function of deciding what the needs are in society. By another name, I call that "democracy". I kindly invite Keli and her supporters to live in countries where elected leaders do not get together and decide how to tax and spend money on public goods and services. Or, share with me which US president and congress hasn't taxed and spent people's money in US history?

Yes, this woman does "appear to like getting a rise out of people". Well, done, your famous; famous for leading the rebels to revolution. "Knowledge is the only commodity that needs redistributing"? Yes, how dare you people...who won the last election...how dare to do your best to maintain a civil service, laws, public goods or help/health care for the needy!

Everyone should read the call for a Solution Revolution, Carender's first post. We should also refresh our memories about the definition of the word socialism. I can't seem to find the word "tax" in the definitions I found.

Charge, Tea Party rebels!

NYT 2009 Year In Ideas

I like reading the NYT Year in Ideas, even if I am slow and only get to it in 2010. I've taken the liberty to copy all the topics in the annual review for my blog, which still needs a boost to get back in gear.

There were some interesting ideas. Forensic Polling Analysis reminded me of the www.fivethirtyeight.com blog, whose missing is to "to accumulate and analyze polling and political data in way that is informed, accurate and attractive. Most narrowly, to give you the best possible objective assessment of the likely outcome of upcoming elections". Why I forgot that I needed that is a mystery that I hope I can answer by reading more objective poll data. (Or for the subjective and non-quantitative thinkers among us, another good way to make objective assessments these days is to watch Obama field questions from House Republicans at their own meeting on Friday. Well worth 90 of anyone's time! This articulate, respectful and well-informed exchange is exactly what I dreamed of when I first heard President Obama's announcement of running for office. Fox "news" would do well to play some extended clips of this video.)

In other thought-provoking ideas, I think my colleagues in environmental assessment may soon be studying the Google Algorithm as Extinction Model. Yikes, what if you can start using these models and they indicate people are soon going to be extinct?

Always a sucker for a story on ICT, I believe in Social Networks as Foreign Policy. I'd go a step further than Robert Gates when he says "The freedom of communication and the nature of it, is a huge strategic asset for the United States" and add that it's an asset for social change, even in Karakalpakstan.

Has anyone read an Undead-Austen Mash-Up? I thought you could only do that with Queen vs. Fela. If Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is that good, I might be re-reading my Austen.

An illustration by Roberto Parada from the deluxe gift edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train

Howard Zinn died yesterday. He was a man I had never heard of when I heard him speak at University of Oregon in 1994. His lecture that day was an eye-opener as much as A People's History of the United States was a page-turner for me. I have been flipping through my old copy tonight and recall that I had been pretty moved by this:

Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take over land, profits, and political power from favorites of the British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership.

When we look at the American Revolution this way, it was a work of genius, and the Founding Fathers deserve the awed tribute they have received over the centuries. They created the most effective system of national control devised in modern times, and showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combining paternalism with command.

While I can now say I moved away from some of Zinn's ideas, I will always appreciate the way he made me consider another side starting with Columbus and the native Americans through all the US wars and within the struggles for racial, gender and class justice. His writing made me more critical and empathetic.

Living and Loving Out Loud

Always nice to see Dr. West on the NYT homepage to re-activate the more radically democratic corners of the mind.

Animated as always on the Today show...

And in the New Yorker...

And on new website, with new book to get...

Vote No on 1 in Maine!!!

OK, so I suck at blogging, but what better way to start again than with something as important as this for my beloved state.

Must request my absentee ballot immediately. What could be LESS about positive social change than this shit. Lies about what it means to have equal rights for all people!

I don't know Bill Nemitz, but I will vote with him!

To Maine for being so forward thinking and well done Protect Maine Equality for fighting the good fight!

Yunus on the Financial Crisis

The year started so OK for blogging...alas, I need to re-group, start again and remind myself why I (try to) blog. I will still give it a go, if only for the effort to share topics and ideas that keep me thinking.

I have reorganized the RSS feeds I follow. One of the better ones is the news feed on the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (British spelling!) site. I don't usually think through social change from a human rights angle, but really appreciate the collection of resources on this. I found several interesting leads in the past few days.

One was an article highlighting recent comments on the financial crisis by Muhammad Yunus, who was speaking at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture (and Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday). His comments realign my thoughts to some of the reasons I started this blog.

...Yunus noted that even if the problems springing from the global financial crisis were overcome, the world would still be left with some fundamental questions about the effectiveness of capitalism in tackling many other unresolved issues.

"There is only one concept of business in the whole world and that is the purpose of business is to make money."

He said the interpretation of the human being in this theory treated people as one dimensional human beings.

"Capitalism and the marketplace that has grown up around the theory make no room for the selfless dimensions of people ... what about starting a business on the base of selflessness?" he asked.

Yunus proposed a second type of business alongside the existing one, calling it "social business."

...

"Whenever I see a problem I start a company to solve that problem," Yunus said.

Brother, Can You Spare (half) a Dime?

Always with a soft spot for something that pokes the inspir(red) campaign, I was pleased to find a new blog (thanks Melindochka!) While there is no "about blog" link, it appears Mr. Easterly and others at NYU are now blogging about international aid on "Aid Watch". One for the blog roll.

I didn't do my own search of Starbuck's web page for results of their (RED) efforts, but am pleased Easterly is pointing out that companies need to go a bit farther than just the marketing ploy. Anyone with more energy than I have is welcome to pass along results.

"If it's not social, then it's bad business."

Global X, blogging on Social Edge has some good videos. Whenever I am feeling like nothing really matters, this is a good place to go.

I like that quote - the title of this post - from this inverview with Laila Iskandar, especially since she is running a "for-profit/non-profit hybrid organization".

CID is a recognized pioneer in approaches which integrate private, public and civil society interests to create new and sustainable opportunities for growth. We take a holistic approach to business development and are committed to helping build healthy organizations that contribute to Egypt's development.

Let's MicroFranchise it!

Change Has Come To www.whitehouse.gov!

I knew there would be a gestures of good will. I didn't realize you would be able to stream Nowruz greetings with Persian subtitles from the www.whitehouse.gov site.

While I get that words alone, don't matter, Mr. Javanfekr, at least we have a leader invoking and teaching us about Saadi Shirazi. Peace in the Middle East, it is not. But it is a step in the right direction.

Happy Nowruz, everyone!

Cramer v. Stewart

I debated putting this on my less-serious blog, but think it belongs here as John Stewart has crossed over the line from comedian to more serious stuff, as evidenced by clips on PBSs Frontline (an old Frontline about Cramer 10 or so years ago) and NPR and here. Even the non-profit media is covering the story! The full March 12, 2009 interview is certainly worth seeing if you missed it.

Even if the tactics were somewhat unfair in this unconventional style of "journalism", I think the Daily Show continues to do an exceptional job reminding the media that their jobs are not only to sell advertising, but that there must be some principles in there as well. Late for work again, I will leave it at that very undeveloped thought.

Microfranchising - Building on Good Ideas

It is certainly not new (I learned that I should have been reading Nextbillion.net more carefully three years ago... their new look is great!), but diving into the topic of MicroFranchises today, I found some new ideas.

First, the BYU Economic Self-Reliance Center "broadly define MicroFranchises as small businesses that can easily be replicated by following proven marketing and operational concepts. The overall objective of MicroFranchising is to promote economic development by developing sound business models that can be replicated by entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid; therefore, the start-up costs of MicroFranchises will be minimal. The key principle is replication, replicating success to scale."

This led me to another article I missed in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This article, as an online PBS report on health care solutions, focuses on CFW Shops in Kenya.

I am still thinking through my reaction to this idea. It stirs up my interest in social marketing and social enterprise. I am very attracted to the idea that, at least in the CFW Shops, franchise owners are vetted, supported and trained. It seems to address the frequent criticism of Microfiance that its loans remain too small to really have an impact that money alone doesn't make an entrepreneur. On the other hand, the challenge of quality control seems to linger. Can you really take away a franchise in Kenya if the owner cuts corners in a time of crisis? (This is discussed in the PBS video.)

One graduate of BYU has set up a blog on microfranchising and the head of the Economic Self-Reliance Center, Jason Fairbourne, has written a book on the topic (cover above) and runs the university's wiki, which explains their MicroFranchise Toolkit.

Everything Online (...but I still want my books!)

Continuing with a topic that interests me - all information, all the time - Brewster Kahle's efforts to take on Google in the area of making the online collection of human knowledge is a thought-provoking read. A lot of challenging ideas related to open source development, copyright and who should control that big internet library.

I also found this video of Kahle on Nerd TV. My wife is bound to like that, even if it appears not to be running any more.

An Open Book Blog...on Microfinance

Via Global Development: Views from the Center blog, I learned of this project by David Roodman, who is writing his next book with an eye on getting feedback along the way through a blog, his Microfinance Open Book Blog. An experiment worth watching in all my "free" time.

Philanthropically Speaking

The good thing about delicious tags are that you have less of a chance of forgetting something you glanced at and closed before considering further...

...for example, "The Sin in Doing Good Deeds", and op-ed by Nicholas Kristof just before the New Year holidays, that wrestles with a recent book called Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential.

I like the feature on the NYT website that gives selected reader comments. There are some good ones and they point to a lot of the issues related to social enterprise, which I find terribly interesting.

Oh, and Uncharitable has a website...no time to look now as I am late to work! I shall tag if for later...

Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours

"Fears of a Clown" was not to be missed. Tim Egan, NYT writer, highlights the wave that is Rush Limbaugh in the Republican party.

Once upon a time, you could drive to the most remote reaches of the United States and escape Rush Limbaugh. But from the Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico to the Badlands of South Dakota, where only the delicious twang of a country tune or the high-pitched pleadings of a lone lunatic came over the AM dial, there is now the Mighty El Rushbo.

As someone who spends a lot of time on the road, I used to find Limbaugh to be an obnoxious but entertaining companion, his eruptions more reliable than Old Faithful. But now that Limbaugh has become something else — the face of the Republican Party, by a White House that has played him brilliantly — he has been transformed into car-wreck-quality spectacle, at once scary and sad.

My cynical side likes Rahm Emanuel's tactic of saying Rush Limbaugh was the "voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party." But this is akin to wishing a curse upon your neighbor. I am waiting patiently for the "have you no shame" moment when someone tells Limbaugh that change has come to Washington, or so we maintain hope.

Am I a "Desk Killer" Too?

Back on March 06, 2006, when this blog started, I started with an idea of complexity. While researching Kashagan and other really, really ridiculously interesting off shore oil platforms with questioned performance on environmental and social responsibility, I came across an organization in London called Platform, "promoting creative processes of democratic engagement to advance social and ecological justice". All good...

...and they I read a bit from their project "Desk Killer":

In post-war Germany’s attempt to come to a reckoning with the Holocaust, particularly after the trial and conviction of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 the term 'schreibtischtaeter' was coined. This can be translated as 'desk-murderer'. Strangely this term has hardly ever been used outside Germany, despite its clear relevence [sic] to much 20th century and contemporary capitalism.

This concept is at the heart of the desk killer's argument. International trade has never been less personal. The vast majority of BP's or Shell's workforce in London will never see the oil pipeline in Colombia or Nigeria that they work on daily from their desks, let alone meet the villagers intimidated, displaced or killed in order to enable those valuable pipelines to operate. This distancing creates the greatest imaginative challenge - how is it possible to link the BP head office at Finsbury Circus to Casanare? How is it possible to enable human beings in London to feel linked on a personal basis with human beings in Colombia? Or to link the people at the Shell Centre with people in Southern Nigeria?

It sounds a bit like Lev..."The main reason for the terrible cruelty between men today, apart from the absence of religion, is still the refined complexity of life which shields people from the consequences of their action."

But the reason I like Tolstoy and squirm at something like Desk Killer is that when I read Tolstoy, I see myself in the text, whereas Platform makes me think I am somehow disconnected from BP and Shell, which I don't think I am, even if I ride a bike instead of own a car. Still, the concept the "refined complexity of life" is an idea that has intrigued me for years. I hope they publish it soon.

Dambisa Moyo and "Dead Aid"

Yes, not secret that I am not a fan of Bono (neither his music nor work on aid effectiveness). But I fear the arrival of "Dead Aid" isn't going to help stimulate the debate in a good way.

The author, Dambisa Moyo, makes some good points in the interviews I have read and heard. And she's right to call on African countries to innovate during the financial crisis. But it isn't so black and white and while her critique needs to be considered very carefully in any effort to improve aid effectiveness, calling for an end to aid in Africa in "five years" is just irresponsible. Some aid keeps people alive. That doesn't mean the points are not valid, but I worry that Moyo's conclusions will only polarize.

While I appreciate her plug for www.kiva.org, that's only one solution that needs to be used and it isn't enough, which I trust even Kiva would admit (though I do hope they get more donations as a result of her work!). Kiva cannot reach some of the poorest people as a result of poor infrastructure and bad or non-existent governance. So, we have to demand that aid changes, not demand that it stops completely. Even Moyo admits, "it is not to say there are not some good aid projects on the ground", in this interview.

And she's wrong when she claims there is "nobody" who feels sorry the poor in China. I feel sorry for the 300 million Chinese people who live in substandard conditions and a lot of others do as well. We just don't here about them as much due to many factors beyond the topic of this post.

More and more, I find myself agreeing with Paul Collier. Here's his review of Moyo's book.

I think that African societies need international help to overcome these problems; it is just that the help they need is not predominantly money. Aid is not a very potent instrument for enhancing either security or accountability. Our obsession with it has detracted from the more important ways in which we can promote development: peacekeeping, security guarantees, trade privileges, and governance.

Anastasia Baburova

The Economist has long fought with Russia and its politicians. But this Why did Anastasia Baburova die? caught my eye today. As one who adores Russia, this alarmed and chilled me. I have seen the fascism in Russia during my two years in Vladimir and Astrakhan. While young thugs are chilling in any country, the complicity of authorities is different in Russia's case.

Russia's 'Open Season' of Murder Continues.

This doesn't happen in the same way in the rest of Europe.

Political Implications of the Cognitive Surplus

Via Zopa, where I think the old lady and I will invest, I realized I have a cognitive surplus.

Yikes! A Whole New Internet?

From Do We Need a New Internet? This sounds like a movie plot. Wake up Neo!

Conficker remains a ticking time bomb. It now has the power to lash together those infected computers into a vast supercomputer called a botnet that can be controlled clandestinely by its creators. What comes next remains a puzzle. Conficker could be used as the world’s most powerful spam engine, perhaps to distribute software programs to trick computer users into purchasing fake antivirus protection. Or much worse. It might also be used to shut off entire sections of the Internet. But whatever happens, Conficker has demonstrated that the Internet remains highly vulnerable to a concerted attack.

“If you’re looking for a digital Pearl Harbor, we now have the Japanese ships streaming toward us on the horizon,” Rick Wesson, the chief executive of Support Intelligence, a computer consulting firm, said recently.

I think anonymity on the Internet has a purpose, so I can't say the total loss of anonymity comes free of costs. But on the whole, I think most are willing to give up the right to hide for the peace of mind that comes not working about conficker and Mr. Smith.

"...first environmental activist group that 'the capitalists' DO like"

I am not ashamed to say I got there via The Economist. Carrotmob is thought-inducing and entertaining, somewhat cheeky, which always helps when pondering new ideas. Not sure what will induce all the other liquor stores in the video to change their light bulbs now, but know that I am thinking of it in a slightly different way, even if I don't find this anything like being INSPIR(RED) by Bono.

"Army Worms" Sounded Bad Enough

As if this story couldn't get any more horror movie-ish..."Pests that have ravaged crops in Liberia and sparked a national emergency, while threatening other countries in West Africa, are not army worms and remain unidentified, the ministry of agriculture said on Monday."

2009 House Cleaning

God, blogging is hard. I could have added it in my new year's resolutions, but I am tired of always have the same new year's resolutions. "Blog more", one says on January 30. Anyway, have gotten in at least one January post. Have updated all my blog roll with things that I hope will inspire me at a time needy for inspiration! Nice to have a good blog from the White House!

What I was hoping for!

Kazakh former Prime Minister, Akezhan Kazhegeldin, writing in for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty explains why he is Welcoming America Back.

Belonging to a clan makes being principled impossible as clans esteem loyalty more highly than convictions, sometimes even more than common sense. And what U.S. politics has lacked in recent years on the international arena is principles. The peoples of Central Asia have felt this especially strongly because they had expected concrete actions to follow President Bush's declarations of support for democracy and human rights.

...we can now expect there to be less national self-interest in international politics, less of a split between "old" and "new" democracies, and less willingness to turn a blind eye to violations of democratic standards for short-term gain.

(The key word there being "less", since there will never be politics without self-interest.)

Mr. Kazhegledin has very high expectations of the US now, and he may be disappointed. But he's got better ground to stand on in making his case of less clan-based politics in Central Asia. He's an idealist, but I cannot see why a shot of idealism can be bad for his region and beyond.

And for another reaction on RFE/RL related to Central Asia, Obama Victory Sparks Hopes For Change In U.S. Policy In Central Asia.

Haven't we had enough?

Yes, just cafe press being entrepreneurial, but this is rather unsportsmanlike, I have to say.

My President Obama

This is what it means to me.

It unleashes immeasurable amounts of creativity. Whether you liked will.i.am's Yes, we can! as a musical composition or not, that video (made in a few days) was an indication of creativity to come throughout the election. I don't think this will be limited to music. I think we are entering a period of people opening up their minds to possibility. No speech changes the world, but if words move and inspire, new stuff, for lack of a better word, is going to come out of us all.

It is creating new energy!

It turns the cynicism about America on it's head. When Obama sits down with a Medvedev, Chavez, Ahmadinejad (without or without conditions), Hu or Bozize, it will be a completely different conversation than if it had been any other candidate. You cannot have watched that campaign and come away saying American is under the thumb of the nameless powers that be. I believe Obama's conversations will be more about the issues than about outrageous conspiracy theories simply because of what he is and because of what his campaign has accomplished.

It begins - and it is only a start - to restore some integrity of to the ideals that are woven through American history.

It is a very welcome challenge to realize that we will confront race, which remains an elephant in the room in American and around the world. And it isn't only black and white. We still live in a world where the shade of your skin, the nationality of your passport and your ethnicity in that passport matter far too much. It's not going to be an easy conversation, but we are going to make it more explicit.

To those who say, "unproven", "inexperienced" and that we should get ready for disappointment, I say give it a chance. I have risked to be inspired and I cannot tell if it will last, but the injection of inspiration has and will change my life. Of that, I am sure.

Yes, we can.

It's been a long time coming!

The Economist for...Obama!

Yes! It's Time. While not entirely unexpected, I had been waiting to read the rationale from The Economist, which again debunks this absurd soundbite about Obama being a "socialist" because some plumber in Ohio was concerned about his business when his profits might quadruple at some undisclosed future date.

There is certainly praise for McCain's past leadership and early primary victory, but that went downhill.

...the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated.

And crucially:

The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. It is not just that she is an unconvincing stand-in, nor even that she seems to have been chosen partly for her views on divisive social issues, notably abortion. Mr McCain made his most important appointment having met her just twice.

In contrast:

Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.

"Power From the People"

Just had a conversation with my wife about the potential for connecting energy producers, so as I troll through my backlog of nextbillion.net, I was excited to see this post on the potential to have kinetic energy production in the less developed world. Maybe she'd already read this. Ah, the trials of keeping up with the blogoshpere...a topic for another post.

Thank you, Colin Powell!

Photograph by Platon from The New Yorker

Since it was said, I only read or saw the Daily Show take this on, albeit in its own sarcastic way. But they took it on...until Colin Powell, who cut through this humiliating issue and spoke to the absurdity of it all.

A column in the Times summed it up perfectly. "It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo."

But it hasn't only been the McCain campaign. It was shameful that two young women in headscarves were asked not to stand behind Obama at a speech in Detroit. I don't like that this happened, but can almost empathize with people who asked them to move. It appears to be that bad and it has to stop. All I know is that it will require leadership to address it and so far the only person I have seen to demonstrate that kind of leadership is Monsieur Obama.

"These are the kinds of images going out on Al Jazeera that are killing us around the world," Mr. Powell said. "And we have got to say to the world it doesn't make any difference who you are and what you are. If you're an American you're an American."

Thank you, Colin Powell. The whole slide show is excellent.

"A Conservative for Obama"

Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

Thank you, Wick Allison.

Help us, please!

What times! SNL merges with CBS news and Jon Stewart's life has never been easier.

When John McCain won the Republican primary, I was genuinely proud. His integrity showed that something can defeat cash in an election. But what a difference a few months can make. The bile coming out of the election, especially since the selection of Sarah Palin, has thrown us back into politics being no more than a screaming match at a football game. How dismal.

Is Sarah Palin that important? You betcha! Cynical. Divisive. Condescending. I wouldn't mind so much if she ever made a point that was of policy substance. And seeing her with McCain, hearing his approval of her and watching Fox News applaud her reminds me how far away we are from having serious discussions about economics, the environment, terrorism, much less places like Russia. The ultimate insult was this clip, when asked about Hamas. Oh, yes, the issue of democracy in the Middle East is absolutely a superficial question - sorry, she was impatient! Good thing the question didn't register in her brain due to it being so superficial, also, you know.

But it's between McCain and Obama. When I ask myself why, the answer is that Obama isn't being controlled by this perverse force of Fox/Rove that celebrates ignorance, American exceptionalism and Us(a) versus Them. We are digging a deep grave for ourselves if this wins the day again. What a contrast to listen to the mad rantings of McCain and Palin this week and then hear Michelle Obama today.

Obama isn't going to fix it all overnight and maybe we are too far gone. But he represents such a refreshing breathe of air that the thought of losing it makes me feel like choking already.

The New Yorker lays it out for us. The choice, this time, on every issue is very, very simple.

The Wisdom of Whores

Always wise to flip back through recent shows on Fresh Air!

I have been taken by the challenge the solving the HIV/AIDS epidemic and enjoyed the interview with the author of The Wisdom of Whores, Elizabeth Pisani. The book floats the idea that we might try "making fun things (sex, drugs) safe, instead of trying to make safe things (abstinence, monogamy) fun". The book Excerpt on the Fresh Air page has some great insight into the UN system.

Also related was a BBC Today debate about methadone (Harm Reduction) and whether it really got addicts off drugs. In grad school, I was very much interested in the concept of harm reduction, also praised in the interview with Pisani. What I thought was amazing is the need for societies to care for those people that are often most looked down upon, not only as an act of charity, but as an act of pragmatism and self-preservation. If Russians, want to stop HIV, it means rethinking the modern "gulag" and helping their drug addicts, who spread HIV; in India, it means caring for the commercial sex workers. I guess with methadone, it isn't a black and white decision, but it is so hard to tell as an outsider. I think, on a basic level, I believe it is better to get issues out in the open so they can be solved, rather than pretending that human can select absolutes (like the Bush administration's use of abstinence programs in trying to stop HIV). On the other hand, the gent criticizing methadone on the BBC had some good points about making sure methadone isn't used as a crutch.

By the way, have also discovered the BBC not uses tags and URL links, rather than just putting up entire shows! My, it is all getting easier!

Ugly still, but proud American

Yes, all of this Obama-mania is excessive and will inevitably be punctured should he win the presidency and start making tough calls or big mistakes. For now, though, what it reveals is how much many foreigners, after all the acrimony of the Bush years, still hunger for the "idea of America" — this open, optimistic, and, indeed, revolutionary, place so radically different from their own societies.

So said Mr. Friedman today. I had to lay off my own Obama-mania, but, you know, it really is exciting.

What I like about Friedman's column today, Obama on the Nile is that he captures what I have been seeing for awhile. In the Central African Republic, people I met were watching (with amazement!) as America has wrestled with and actually come to terms with nominating a person of color to potentiall be president. They are inspired not out os some naive hope, but that things can change. Here in the UK, it was total disbelief among the Euro trash that the same country that re-elected W. after a fear mongering campaign in 2004 could actually elect the son of a Kenyan. The disbelief echoed Roger Cohen's column, The Good American and Monsieur Obama, as he described the French reaction:

Out in the troubled suburbs, with their large African and Arab populations and broad mistrust of a political system that has produced one black parliamentarian among the 555 representing mainland France, Obama is an urban legend.

America needs this. Even if Obama is flawed (he is) and even if politics will be politics (it will), I can't let this moment pass without savoring a little social change.

I think Clinton's campaign also was great for the US this year. People got involved. But, I stick by my inital fears about a Clinton presidency - the "dynastification" mattered. And no matter how clever and skilled she was, her campaign was always going to have too much baggage. Not her fault, but it mattered a lot. I greatly appreciated her speech on Saturday and truly hope her supporters will take her words to heart.

I want to take all our energy and all our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president of the United States.

Not "intentional or deliberate"

Does even matter if Bush et al were intentional or deliberate?

Scott McClellan seems to be everywhere selling his book. I guess one should appreciate the courage of a whistle blower, even it he certainly has some financial incentives that must be driving him. And since he won't be working in republican politics anytime soon, he better do well with book sales.

Jon Stewart, in my opinion, is doing an brilliant public service as a comedian who cuts through the political smokescreens we keep choking on. His interview (and part 2) of McClellan comes across as funny, obviously, but I see this kind of political interview like a joust with his guest. I was amazed he got the word "criminal" out of his mouth. Genius interviewer!

Terry Gross has some interesting questions about the effectiveness of these shows. Very interesting to hear McClellan's response. Yes, Terry, it would be great if we could talk and not just about talking points! Also, excellent interview.

Bob Herbert, who I have come to appreciate recently, hit a tone that most expresses my feelings about the book (which I won't read, by the way). Aside from US lives Herbert describes...

The war in Iraq, which has taken 100,000 or more Iraqi lives, and which will cost the U.S. upwards of $3 trillion, and which continues indefinitely, is a scandal and a crime. Scott McClellan is a little late to be blowing the whistle on this outrage.

The Footprint Chronicles

Patagonia, in a what I think is a sign of things to come, now has something called The Footprint Chronicles, which allow you to see four indicators for a selection of products: distance traveled, CO2 emissions, waste generated and energy consumption.

Obviously, there is no way to compare with similar products or really look behind the calculations, but it seems like it will only be a matter of time.

They issue their own caveat:

These examinations are partial and preliminary. Each season we'll examine a few new products. As we learn more, our examinations will gain more focus, and we’ll work to change our harmful practices with all the speed we can muster.

Very exciting and hope to see how others develop this idea.

"I know he's not John Wayne"

Regardless of who we vote for or where we vote, this is an amazing NPR story about the waves the US election is making in Kenya. It reveals the hope and the scars of racism and sexism that extend far outside the US. On a joyous note, Coco Tea's song made me smile as much as the comment about a "woman's place" made me cringe. Women politicians being physically beaten in Kenya highlights how far there is to go.

Also interesting that wikipedia is a battle ground for the election. It is simply amazing that you have a living and breathing (computer monitored) entry on Clinton and Obama.

Helpful Reminder!

It never gets old. Never.

Online Philanthropy Markets

Interesting post via PSD blog about a publication by Keystone: Online philanthropy markets: From 'Feel-Good' giving to effective social investing?.

The call for a reliable framework to guide social investment seems like a common challenge.

Review to follow...

Clinton Rules

OK, I will stop soon...but it will be hard for me.

This image worries me. I trusted in something different. Now I see inspired people beginning to dislike each other over the democratic primaries. Meanwhile, Bush and McCain head into the white house.



Two points today:

Obama is still winning and seems to have won Texas. Is this reflected in the headlines? What's going on?

Second, I don't like Clinton Rules, which are the general rules. I didn't like that 3 a.m. commercial and I don't like Canadian "leaked" memos affecting elections. I appreciate the Brooks column. I yearn deeply for something different. But I don't think he should hit her in the kneecap.

Is that Nancy Kerrigan reference? That really takes it back to the 90s.

Stop, Mr. Krugman!

Why don't you re-read your column on February 11. You told us that you would like to see moments with more "strong assurances from both Democratic candidates that they respect their opponents and would support them in the general election." You implied the supporters of each should do the same.

But today's column is all about scaring "progressive activists" with a handful of rhetorical questions that frame the likely nominee as all superficial personality and likely to lose to McCain's personality in the general election.

All in all, the Democrats are in a place few expected a year ago. The 2008 campaign, it seems, will be waged on the basis of personality, not political philosophy. If the magic works, all will be forgiven. But if it doesn't, the recriminations could tear the party apart.

No, that isn't what happened and it won't tear the party apart. We read your very pro-Clinton pieces and considered them very carefully. Thank you for your insight, as always. But this hasn't been all about personality - and I am tired of this being seen as a pejorative term - over political philosophy. It is about leadership, which I think is a lot more than just personality, and it seems a lot of people support Obama's leadership over Clinton's. Either one of them have the political points that can win in November.

You, like all of us, are welcome to make another plug for the policy issues you think are important, but stop implying that the progressive activists of Obama have been duped into supporting an articulate Bloomberg, as you did today.

Go Obama or Clinton. Let's just get it over with.

Obama!

I hate the politics of fear.

Senator Obama responds: "I will never see the threat of terrorism as a way to scare up votes, because it's a threat that should rally this country around our common enemies. That is the judgment we need at 3 a.m."

Worth thinking about again...from NPR

Building on that last post about Obama's positive message...check out this NPR story about a guy named Mark McKinnon, senior adviser to McCain and former adviser to W who helped defeat McCain in 2000. Listen to the end of the interview about how he'd be "uncomfortable" being McCain's adviser if its an Obama vs. McCain race. Not sure if it is praise for Obama, but points to what will likely be a different type of race if he is the democratic pick.

And, while cheeky, I love Daniel Schorr's imaginary letter from Senator McCain to W.

"The cynics can no longer say our hope is false."

I would like to remind anyone on the democratic side that Mr. Krugman is right about one thing - it is important that those supporting Clinton and Obama need to re-assure each other than they would support either candidate in the election.

Senator Clinton, I will support you if you are the democratic nominee.

But I really disagree with with Krugman's comment that "most of the venom" is coming from supporters of Obama. That comes from immature politics and it is gushing from immature supporters for all candidates. It makes me cringe to read the comments on the NYT website (and it makes me want to run and hide when I listen to Fox News). But it is exactly the rhetoric of Obama that most counteracts the venom of poisonous politics. Since when is the ability to speak, inspire and generate positive energy a weakness? It isn't a "cult of personality"; it definitely isn't a "platitude", Senator McCain; it is a rare, rare quality called leadership, finally.

I am inspired! (and well done Missouri...)

via Dowd column today...

"I think we should never be derisive about somebody who has the ability to inspire," Senator [Claire] McCaskill told David Gregory on MSNBC on Tuesday. "You know, we've had some dark days in this democracy over the last seven years, and today the sun is out. It is shining brightly. I watch these kids, these old and young, these black and white, 20,000 of them, pour into our dome in St. Louis Saturday night, and they feel good about being an American right now. And I think that's something that we have to capture."

Inspiration matters! It is scary to be inspired. I am inspired! Run, Obama, run!

On to Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and even the Virgin Islands!

"Malaria and How to Beat It"

The debate on giving away free malaria nets (and other health interventions) continues in The Economist. Now the WHO is backing the drive to kill the notion that paying a small amount makes a greater impact.

I am a bit confused in my own logic on this one. The Economist saying give it away, while I am intuitively feeling like "free is more effective" still ignores a few key points. Maybe the simple lesson is summed up best by hwig, a commenter on the article...

Giving out free nets is fine but it should be accompanied by a strong program of education otherwise they will be misused in exactly the way described at the beginning of the article.

Is that right?

Update March 24, 2008: A few more comments on the matter from the PSD blog, which has a link to the WRI post that has commentary on the issue.

Jenna Bush in 2049!

Very well put, Mr. Kristof!

Mrs. Clinton has proven herself an excellent senator, and presumably would make a superior president. Yet...28 years...two families! That needn’t be decisive, but it’s too important to be ignored.

Nobody loves Kazakhstan more than me, but...

But I got to say, Bill Clinton is trying to make me really dislike him.

Read: An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor.

Is Clinton doing it for the good of his foundation? For the good of Kazakhstan? Sorry, this sounds very, very fishy.

And what is with the timing of this story? I saw nothing related to current events and actually caught the story when it popped up on my Google mail news feed.

Tuesday is a HUGE day!

I can't recall being excited about a politician, until May. I was disappointed to read the NYT endorsement of Clinton, but was far from convinced.

Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton would both help restore America's global image, to which President Bush has done so much grievous harm. They are committed to changing America's role in the world, not just its image.
...
On the major issues, there is no real gulf separating the two.

It goes on to say how they are impressed with Clinton's experience and concludes that she's more qualified/best choice.

OK. That's one opinion, but no policy differences of note and generally an acceptance that "experience" wins the day.

I will let three people express the way I would respond...

Bryant Jones, a 25-year-old, white, normally Republican voter, quoted today in Roger Cohen's column:

I'm 25 and for my entire life a Bush or a Clinton has been in the executive office, either as vice-president or president. The United States is not about dynasties.

Not a usual for me, but William Kristol on today's op-ed page:

Right now, Hillary Clinton is ahead in the polls in almost all the big states voting. She is a tough and capable campaigner, and she may be able to hold on to those leads. But it is now clear that putting her in the White House brings a hyperactive Bill back in with her. Who needs it? Liberals and Democrats can get basically the same policies without the Clinton baggage, and in choosing Obama, they can nominate a more electable candidate.

Most importantly, Toni Morrison, as quoted from a letter printed in the NYT:

In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.

Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace -- that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

And I was not convinced by Mr. Krugman comparing Obama to Clinton in 1992. Huge difference.

I'm daring to be excited!

Not Enough Innocents Abroad

Last week's opinion on Peace Corps, Too Many Innocents Abroad brings up some old questions about the value of the organization.

I don't think that the article was as anti-Peace Corps as many responses I read seemed to imply. It was asking for some self-evaluation, which can't be bad.

Peace Corps isn't a development organization (and shouldn't be compared to one). What kind of organization it is...up for debate. I love it and sometimes hate it (for many of the reasons mentioned in the article). But I think its best strength is as cultural exchange organization. (Well covered in the letters that followed and the response from Senator Chris Dodd.) It will keep getting support because a lot of people, especially me, know that this is valuable. Impossilbe to measure, but also impossible to deny for anyone who had gone through it. I was so humbled by what I learned about being an "outsider" from my two years in Russia as a volunteer. It was invaluable for me, even though there are a lot of things I might want to change about the old PC. I considered leaving after a year and would have, but really thought the people I worked with valued my contribution.

As a policy suggestion, rather than just recruit more older PCVs, we need Peace Corps in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, if we could convince those governments of the value of exchange and solicit the invitations needed. Nothing would be better for "peace" than dumping some snot-nosed 25-year-olds (like I was) into a really odd situation. It would be tough to find valuable, semi-structured, sites, but I am sure there is something Americans could be good for in these well-educated countries. I still maintain that cultural exchange and cooperation on "soft" issues like the environment was key to thawing relations with the Soviets. I can't imagine it was less scary to visit Russia in early 1980s than it would be to visit Tehran today.

Merry Green Shopping!

A NYT story dear to my confused and complex heart - A World Consumed by Guilt - it's complicated this holiday season...

So what can an unreformed consumer do in the face of green fashion that doesn’t always fit?

“Perfect doesn’t exist and we’re probably never going to get there,” said Leslie Hoffman, the executive director of Earth Pledge, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable development and technologies. “We all make compromises every day. Making them with your eyes open instead of arbitrarily is the best piece of advice I could give.”