Category: Politics

Stunning piece on 60 Minutes last weekend about David Walker, the comptroller general of the United States (Walker runs the Government Accountability Office, “which audits the government’s books and serves as the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress.”) He’s a prudent guy with a frightening message: The U.S. is radically over-promised, fiscally speaking. The numbers just don’t add up, and we’re heading for a fall – possibly financial collapse – if dramatic changes aren’t made, and fast.

Example: The first wave of Baby Boomers will hit the Medicare system in early 2008, and soon that system will be 5 times more overburdened than Social Security is now. He calls Bush’s prescription drug plan “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s” — with one stroke of the pen, Medicare’s obligations were stretched by 40-75% over the next 75 years. We’d have to have $8 trillion invested in treasury bills today to begin to cover the bill. The reality: We’ve got zip. A pile of promises backed by thin air.

His message isn’t new – he’s been trying to get the word into the ears of politicians for years, but they don’t want to hear it. So he’s taking it to the streets, on an extended “wake up” tour of the U.S., talking to people and the media – whoever will listen.

What would happen in 2040 if nothing changes? “If nothing changes, the federal government’s not gonna be able to do much more than pay interest on the mounting debt and some entitlement benefits. It won’t have money left for anything else – national defense, homeland security, education, you name it.”

Our children’s future has been mortgaged over a barrel so many times over, it’ll be a wonder if there’s even such a thing as public schools in 20 years. Thinking about this kind of thing is like thinking about what life will be like when “the big one” hits California – so hard to contemplate the reality of it that, for the most part, we don’t.

Heartbreaking photo. “Wounded US Marine returns home from Iraq to marry.”

Dave Winer, on how to buy Bush out of office early:

I just got off the phone with Sylvia, who passed on a great idea that just might work, to help George Bush leave office early. Here’s how it goes. We all contribute to a fund, that hopefully would contain a lot of money, say $150 million. If Bush resigns on the first day, he gets the whole $150 million. Every day he waits, the fund goes down by 10 percent, so there’s a real incentive for him to act quickly. On Day 2 it’s worth only $135 million. On Day 3, $121.5 million. And so on. It’s kind of a simplified version of Deal or No Deal.

I love the idea! I’d kick in $5K.

Back when I worked at Ziff-Davis in Boston, a multimedia developer named David Drucker provided my first introduction to the Macintosh (an introduction I resisted, though his predictions that I would someday become a Mac-head ultimately proved true).

When Bush won re-election in 2004, Drucker and his wife did something many liberals talked about doing, but that few actually followed through on – they up and moved to Canada. Today, the LA Times has published a brief piece by Drucker on whether their commitment to Canada has changed now that Democrats are back: Dems in control? We’re still staying in Canada, wherein he marvels at the fact that Canada’s “conservative” prime minister Steven Harper recently referred to a new “holistic” approach to environmental policy. Imagine anyone from the Bush administration using the term “holistic” with anything but sarcasm.

We’ve come to the conclusion that the United States has drifted so far to the right that any self-respecting Canadian Conservative would be considered a raving liberal in Washington.

Fun fact, from the Wikipedia entry for Gerrymander:

The word “gerrymander” is named for the American politician Elbridge Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814), and is a combination of his name and the word “salamander,” which was used to describe the appearance of a tortuous electoral district Gerry created in order to disadvantage his electoral opponents.

So… when is redistricting going to be put into the hands of an independent body, rather than incumbent legislators? Why is it even legal?

J-School students are reporting on local and national contests, with full Election Day coverage planned for today and tonight. “Currently featuring advance election stories and Special Projects examining the strange life and colorful times of Bonds and Propositions, and the changing look of California’s voters.”

It’s going to be another late night — I’ll be here long after the polls close, helping to get emerging coverage onto the web. I remember going home at midnight two years ago after our coverage ran down. Bush had just been re-elected, and I was so depressed I got drunk and bought Emerson Lake and Palmer albums at iTMS to drown the sorrow. No idea what compelled me to do that, since I don’t really like ELP much. Probably just punishing myself. Happy to say I don’t expect tonight to end the same way.