Archive - Feb 2008

The March 2008 Playboy has a 20Q with Charles Barkley - a man who has always fascinated me. In it, he claims he was never a Republican but I seem to remember him saying he was a Republican many times ... especially when he recounted arguments with his mom.

At any rate, he appears to be planning a run for the Governor of Alabama, which is good because Frank Caliendo will be able to keep making fun of him as long as he stays in the public eye.

What I found interesting was his reason for supporting Obama for Prez.

The reason I'm voting for him is he's a friend of mine. But I have to look at the big picture. We are so lost and confused in the black community right now. All our kids want to be rappers or entertainers. We need to let them know they can be intelligent and articulate. It's a bigger picture than him running for president, to be honest with you.

I don't know if anyone reading this blog has not yet made up their mind between Obama and Hillary (assuming you are going Dem, that is) so I wanted to point out this deep post looking at their Senate record over the last year.

Grassroots Mom wrote "I Refuse to Buy into the Obama Hype (now a supporter)". It is an interesting read - and ends with this gem:

I remember Bill Clinton's endless laundry lists of small, focus group approved initiatives. For those who say Hillary will not govern like Bill did, I respond that the people who were doing the market testing of his proposed policies were Dick Morris, of course, and Mark Penn, who is now running Hillary's campaign.

Call me urban-oriented. I'm frustrated by cuts in state funding to Minneapolis and St. Paul. I see some arguing that the cities still getting too much aid. They don't. We need to get more money to large cities.

Let's look at transportation - The Atlantic recently ran a short piece examining transportation in large cities.

The nation’s 100 largest metropolitan regions generate 75 percent of its economic output. They also handle 75 percent of its foreign sea cargo, 79 percent of its air cargo, and 92 percent of its air-passenger traffic. Yet of the 6,373 earmarked projects that dominate the current federal transportation law, only half are targeted at these metro areas.

You want this country to prosper? We need to solve the metro transportation problem. People are starting to move back into the core of cities (as prices in the suburbs rise and high gas prices make commuting even less desirable) which is only going to make this problem worse.

The United States has been dropping in terms of high speed network availability compared to Japan, South Korea, and other industrialized countries. Our transportation systems suck. If you are an innovative, growing business, where will you locate in the next 10 years?

America’s biggest and most productive metro regions gather and strengthen the assets that drive the country’s prosperity—innovative firms, highly productive and creative workers, institutions of advanced research. And the attributes of some cities are not easily replicated elsewhere in the U.S. The most highly skilled financial professionals, for instance, do not choose between New York and Phoenix. They choose between New York and London—or Shanghai. While many factors affect that choice, over time, the accretion of delays and travel hassles can sap cities of their vigor and appeal. Arriving at Shanghai’s modern Pudong airport, you can hop aboard a maglev train that gets you downtown in eight minutes, at speeds approaching 300 miles an hour. When you land at JFK, on the other hand, you’ll have to take a train to Queens, walk over an indoor bridge, and then transfer to the antiquated Long Island Rail Road; from there, downtown Manhattan is another 35 minutes away.

Here in the Twin Cities metro, we are about to build a $1 billion train connecting the two downtowns. It will run at grade and end up taking the same amount of time as the limited stop bus that currently only runs during rush times. It will be an improvement - higher capacity, more comfort, that sort of thing. But for $1 billion, it would be nice if it didn't run at grade through the Snelling/University intersection - which is already far too crowded.

And it would make a lot more sense to find a solution for commuters. The existing light rail line has brought many commuters to park and ride lots, but none are planned for the central corridor. We should build a large park and ride lot somewhere near 280 - which is pretty close to the center of the line. Charge a few bucks for parking and you'll still save commuters time, money, and hassle.

Of course, the private sector is investing in rail in a big way right now. The Wall Street Journal actually has a great piece on modern rail investments.

The upgrade is part of a railroad renaissance under way across much of the U.S. For the first time in nearly a century, railroads are making large investments in their networks -- adding sets of tracks, straightening curves that force engines to slow and expanding tunnels for bigger trains. Their campaign is altering the corridors of American commerce, more so than any other development since interstate highways spread to the interior.

Unfortunately, these trains are being built for goods, not people. We need to build faster lines to move people. Wasting oil to fly people from Rochester to the Twin Cities or from Allentown to New York, is foolish.

Hey Hillary, if experience is so important and Obama is not prepared (a charge you only make when he is not sitting next to you ... when he is, you cannot defend your words) then we should be supporting the following people over you because your experience in government pales compared to...

• John McCain
• Joe Biden
• Robert Byrd
• Bob Dole
• Dick (head) Cheney

The problem with experience is that it reveals who you are and why we do not support you to run this country.

Now, please continue your stupid attacks because I can put up with them for one more week as long as you knock it off after you lose the next two primaries.

Wow. I did not expect the MN House to override Pawlenty's veto of the transportation bill.

The House voted 91-41, one more than it needed to hand Pawlenty a stinging defeat. For years, the governor has fought any sort of tax increase to pay for road improvements, arguing instead to borrow for most of that work.

The bill would increase gas taxes, metro sales taxes and vehicle license tab fees to pay for $6.6 billion in road, bridge and transit construction projects over the next 10 years. The House and Senate passed it Thursday, only to watch Pawlenty follow up on a promise to veto it Friday.

This is huge and will help the metro area expand mass transit - something we MUST do as RAPIDLY as possible as gas prices continue to increase.

Look ma, I'm famous!

Ugh. The recent developments in Ohio are annoying. Clinton is blasting Obama for doing the stuff she has been all along - misleading literature.

I fully agree with Obama's decision to call Clinton on NAFTA - if she is going to take credit for her experience in the White House, she should not be able to run away from a signature Clinton achievement (for good or bad ... or good and bad, depending on your point of view). But I think his attacks on her health care plan are too similar to her previous attacks on his record on abortion.

I hope we do not see more of this from Obama - he does not need to tear apart the Dems (like Hillary does) to win and he should not continue down that route.

The reputable FactCheck.org has a post about these mailings.

Previously, I noted a crass Sarah Silverman video. Well, her boyfriend, Jimmy Kimmel, has responded. And most of Hollywood appears to have joined him. It's dirty.

During President's Day weekend, Michelle and I headed up North to spend a few days with her parents. We took up some boards to cut into DVD and book shelves. I spent a little time trying to take some decent bird photos. Photos are available here.

Jim spent a lot of time cutting the boards - I learned a lot about how to build stuff properly.

Below - the finished product:

Jeffrey Rosen writes about Obama's potential to be our first civil libertarian president in the 27 Feb, 2008, issue of The New Republic (subscription required for this one).

The more I learn about this man, the more I am happy I made a small donation to his campaign. This might be the only campaign I ever give money to. Snippet from the Rosen piece:

But Obama's approach to civil liberties debates is not only based on his skills as a conciliator. He combines a pragmatic willingness to build coalitions with a precise understanding of what existing constitutional doctrine allows. Cass Sunstein, an Obama adviser and TNR contributor, recalls a phone call with Obama after Sunstein suggested that President Bush's warrantless wiretapping might possibly be legal. The two discussed whether the president had this authority. Sunstein said it might come from Congress's authorization to use force after September 11; Obama suggested that this authorization was barred by the earlier and more specific Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Sunstein noted that some lower courts had suggested that the president might have inherent authority to act, and Obama retorted that the Supreme Court had never endorsed that view and, in any case, there was a possible Fourth Amendment issue on the other side. At that point, Sunstein recalls, "I said, 'Yes, sir.'" In Obama's view, says Sunstein, there is no overriding tension between liberty and security; instead, each value strengthens the other.