Blogging My Life

Bravo, Colonel Beebe!

Op-ed in Friday’s L.A. Times: article

Excerpt: “This new century is teaching us that traditional security tools are far from the only weapons we have to confront today’s challenges. Our nation’s efforts to safeguard the environment around the world also play a critical role in protecting our security and reducing future burdens on our military. If we are to stop future environmental problems from evolving into full-blown national security problems, we must find ways to better leverage all of our foreign policy tools.”

A little reality check on the Wisconsin State Senate: I love the drama and the crowds that the fourteen Democratic senators have helped along by fleeing the state to avoid a vote. And if the aim of this move is just to slow the rush to union-busting and allow for more debate, ok. But as an opponent of super-majority requirements like the cloture rule in US Senate and its de facto 60% super-majority, I have to point out that the denial-of-quorum strategy is analogous. If the Wisconsin electorate is going to elect a Republican majority in the Legislature and a Republican Governor, ultimately they should be allowed to vote/sign and then feel the heat unless what they’re doing is patently illegal or unconstitutional.

I just heard Robert Scheer give a talk to Media Studies at Pomona College today. He discussed this Obama move, which was the subject of his column this week:

“Home Sweet Wall Street”

He is right both about how terrible and radical this is, and how meekly covered it was in the media. The federal government, whose deregulation and poor enforcement set the stage for the speculation binge that killed the housing market, now no longer wants to do anything to help lower-income Americans become homeowners?!