Twenty-thousand grocery store workers in Puget Sound, Washington are struggling to negotiate a better contract with their employers. It is reported that 40% of these workers earn less than $10/hour and the average wage at the stores is only $13/hour. Moreover, the stores limit the number of hours that each employee can work (the average work week is only 26 hours), presumably to avoid providing health care coverage and other benefits. Workers are only given three day’s notice of their work schedule for the upcoming week, but will lose a whole day’s pay if they call in sick. But these workers are now fighting back; and they are using a thought-provoking video and message to do so.

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This is an interesting piece from the Weekly Standard in which Bill Kristol points out that people like Cindy Sheehan don't care about the troops in Iraq, even if they have family members serving. The people who do care are people like Kristol who come from families where no one serves.

This is standard neocon stuff. For the ideological architects of the war, the 3700 dead Americans are collateral damage in pursuit of a grand idea. It helps that they don't know people who actually have family members serving. (The Manhattan and DC neighborhoods where neocons live are not hotbeds of service volunteers).

The other interesting thing in this piece is that Kristol argues pretty persuasively that the New Republic is again publishing fake stories. Of course, Kristol only cares about this because the story in question questions the war. But it is sweet seeing the New Republic caught plagiarizing again.

The Weekly Standard, New Republic and the now forgotten Commentary are the three neocon rags. All of them lie but I get particular pleasure in seeing the magazine that Marty Peretz destroyed brought down again.

Franklin Foer, TNR's editor, is very good.  But so long as Peretz remains associated with the magazine, it will continue its descent.

Kristol himself is now a joke. Last week's op-ed in the WP arguing that Bush will go down in history as a great President because of the successful Iraq war demonstrated that senescence has set in.  Big surprise! We only know who he is because he was the brains behind....Dan Quayle.  

 

I don't think I've come across a single person in Washington who believes that the plan President Bush outlined in his speech on the Palestinians Monday will work. Some say it won't work because the Palestinians won't play ball. Others say the Israelis won't. And pretty much everyone says "too little, too late."

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Over at the Altantic online yesterday, Ross Douthat posted an interesting piece about the future and general webbiness of blogs. The flip side to their dazzling speed, he argues, is "that blogging is the enemy of literary craft and intellectual depth."

Arguments over tax policy and the proper interpretation of Knocked Up find a natural home in the blogosphere; attempts write a great novel or compose a paradigm-shifting philosophical treatise do not. If you want to be the next George Will or Paul Krugman, you'd be well-served to take up blogging now, because it'll make you a better pundit. If you want to be the next Ian McEwan or Philip Roth, or the next Alastair McIntyre or Richard Rorty, I'd advise you to rip your internet cable out of the wall now, before it's too late.

Sullivan and Reihan agree, but in defense of their chosen medium point us to Hayekian collaboration and aggregate knowledge. For me, such market analysis of the blogosphere and, in particular, blogging communities, misses the point.

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Corporations are some of the most powerful entities in the world. They shape economies, produce consumer goods, provide jobs, impact political decisions, and influence whether economic development is sustainable and whether the planet will remain habitable. How can progressives help shape what corporations do? Lee Drutman has an answer.

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Discussions of the American healthcare system should all include the following six points to prevent distortion and misunderstanding. First, these discussions should consider socialized systems (i.e., everywhere but the U.S. and the third world) not as they are, but as they would be if they spent per capita what the U.S. spends. So, what would healthcare in Canada or France be like if they spent twice as much per capita? Or if Britain spent two-and-a-half times as much? Or if Cuba—that poor, depressed dictatorship—spent 21 times as much? 

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When you study families in financial trouble, you get to see hurt from a lot of different directions. Monday I spent all day at FDIC hearings on sub-prime mortgages, and Tuesday I spent four hours in House Judiciary hearings on medical debt and bankruptcy.

One sub-theme united the two hearings. Defenders of the status quo claimed that there is plenty of protection under the current law and that any efforts to change the law would impair the free market, making things worse for everyone. No need to change the law to deal with subprime mortgages, national healthcare or bankruptcy. Defenders of families said the experience on the ground is very different, and that hard-working people are getting pummeled.

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This week, homeowners across the country received notice if they are eligible for a piece of a $325 million nationwide settlement with Ameriquest. In exchange for some quick cash, borrowers need to promise only that they won't sue Ameriquest for a whole bunch of predatory lending practices it committed between 1999 and 2005. Among those practices? Not adequately disclosing whether a loan carried a fixed or adjustable rate. As you may recall, this was a major cause behind the subprime mortgage meltdown. It's lucky for Ameriquest it settled before the meltdown; it may not have gotten off so easily if it didn't.

A quick Google search shows the enormous nationwide impact of the settlement and the specific numbers in a whole bunch of states, including: California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

From the Preface:

Rarely have more profound changes in American foreign policy been called for than today. Democratization as the rallying cry of America's mission in the world has essentially failed, and global respect for American power has dwindled. This book, however, is not one more lengthy criticism of past policies--whether those of the Bush administration or of its predecessors, or of the conflicting Democratic agendas. I file here a brief for the future, about that which must next be done on the international front.

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Alright compatriots, I'm pulling an Iraqi Parliament and heading out for a week of vacation tomorrow.  Off to California to enjoy some sun and some family.

In my absence TPM intern Evann Smith will be watching all the action, trying to make sure fights don't get too bloody on MJ's threads, etc. If you need to contact her, her profile is here.  Be nice.

President Bush in his Palestinian announcement today pushed down softly on the accelerator of a failed Middle East policy. The President continued to base his policy on deepening the division among Palestinians, on pre-conditions to a two-state solution, and on an unwillingness to outline his own parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian endgame deal. Even the $190 million dollars of money pledged to the new PA government is mostly a repackaging of old commitments.

In most respects today was a rehash of his speech five years ago, albeit under less propitious circumstances. That speech encouraged a regime change that eventually (and one imagines inadvertently) brought Hamas to power – the new speech may well drive Palestinian politics towards a period of even greater chaos that could create a space for al-Qaeda look-a-likes to gain a foothold.

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To support the AIDs Foundation, purchase this handbag!

This blurb, along with a glossy picture of a Gucci bag (or some such garnish of cool), accompanied this article about a doctor in Africa in the latest Marie Claire. Another part of the page screamed "look good while doing good!" It's just one example of the new trend of materialism-as-activism.

The Bono-endorsed "(PRODUCT) RED" campaign is another. If you buy this iPod or this razor phone, a portion of your money will go to buying anti-retrovirals to send to Africa. "At no cost to you" the (RED) Manifesto reads, you can help save lives.

At no cost to you!

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It sure hasn't taken long for the Christian Right to go after the first Muslim Congressman.

First, they went crazy because he intended to take his oath of office on the Koran.

Now the Drudge report cites the right-wing Telegraph (UK) as reporting that Ellison has compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler.

The amazing thing is that Drudge posts the video of Ellison's speech and he NEVER SAID IT.

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There is a conventional way of framing policy debates in which conservatives want to leave things to the market while liberals/progressives want to have the government intervene to have better outcomes. This framing has the right arguing for the seemingly natural outcomes of market interaction and the virtue of the rugged individual. It puts the left on the side of meddling government bureaucrats.

 

Needless to say, most people tend to prefer to leave things alone than to trust the competence and goodwill of the government, so this framing works hugely to the advantage of the right. However this framing also has nothing to do with reality. The right has every bit as much interest in government intervention as the left. The difference is that the right wants the government to intervene to redistribute income upward. And of course the right is smart enough to try to hide their role for government as just the natural working of the market.

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1. I wasn't invited again this year to the Allen & Co. media mogul bash at Sun Valley, but I was in 1997 and then I predicted, while sitting next to David Geffen, that the Internet would overthrow the structure of the music business. Still another prediction from which I personally made no profit and yet which proved completely true.
2. The music touring business is showing record profits. Only the intermediaries, who package and yet neither sing nor play, have suffered from the overthrow.
3. The Wizards really have to trade Etan Thomas along with Spanish star Navarro in return for some relatively low paid but very tall man who blocks shots. Unless this happens, Agent Zero will leave the team at the end of the coming year.
4. There doesn't seem to be an antitrust policy

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