A progressive income tax? Hmm...

Robert Reich has a simple suggestion as regards high and unjustified CEO pay: why not just restore real progressivity to the income tax? Sounds like a no-brainer to me, if it weren't for those "politics"...

Schoolyard penis seen from space

Despite being busy, I fulfill my obligation to post the most important news I can.

It took me a while to find it in the picture, but hey, it's there. That's an accomplishment to tell your kids about. Or maybe they'll find out on the Internet...

The opinion poll roundup

So, lately I have been feeling like there are not a whole lot of new developments. Maybe this is a dead period or maybe I just feel like it is. I am increasingly outraged by the behavior of the administration and in particular the wonderful Attorney General we have. (Who needs habeas corpus, and who needs to allow U.S. attorneys to complete their terms, anyway?) I am probably also dampened by the fact that I am just so ridiculously busy.

One of the things I did the other night, though, was surf through the polls at Angus Reid Global Monitor, basically a collection of opinion polls from around the world. It is interesting that some countries are quite well covered while for others no data is really available. However, the following came out:

• Despite the bombing at Barajas Airport and Zapatero's termination of the peace process, the PSOE appears to remain marginally ahead in Spain; elections are not due until next year.
  
• In Scotland, the pro-independence Scottish National Party maintains a small lead, 33-31% over Scottish Labour, but will anyone form a coalition with SNP? It probably depends on SNP's attitude toward the independence question--the party still claims it will hold a referendum at some point after taking power.
  
• With elections approaching soon (March) in Finland, almost 50 percent of Finns see incumbent PM Matti Vanhanen (Center) as the best candidate, with all other choices under 20 percent. Despite that, the Social Democrats, the current junior coalition partner, marginally lead the polls with around 25 percent, trailed by the Center and the conservative National Coalition. It looks like the current SDP-Center-Swedish People's Party coalition may be renewed, albeit with question about who the PM would be.
• In another Nordic country, Norway, the right-wing Progress Party, which has never served in government (having been blocked out even by the "mainstream right"), is in second in all polls--and a very close second, at that, to the ruling Labor Party. Were elections today, the Progress Party would take 25-28 percent of votes.
  
• To wrap it up for today, in Slovakia, the ruling Direction party (ostensibly social-democratic, but in partnership with right-wing nationalists and formerly ruling authoritarians) is hitting almost 50 percent by itself in the polls; the former center-right coalition that implemented economic reform is together under 30 percent. The top three parties are the three parties of the questionable ruling coalition.
  

Some Barack links

I know I haven't really been present lately, but things have been busy... check out the other home for details.

I'm just gonna come in here with a couple of links. First, The New York Times has an article on Barack's law-school days, detailing his rise from unknown to first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was respected, the article says, and well-known for his ability to compromise and to not exactly let you know what his own opinions were.

Another of Mr. Obama’s techniques relied on his seemingly limitless appetite for hearing the opinions of others, no matter how redundant or extreme. That could lead to endless debates — a mouse infestation at the review office provoked a long exchange about rodent rights — as well as some uncertainty about what Mr. Obama himself thought about the issue at hand.

I don't think it's a drawback that Obama can be coy about his own opinions. Just because he can be doesn't mean that he always will be, all the time, or that he can't commit to opinions that he has.

Meanwhile, Barack has called for universal health care by 2013. No details yet, of course, but good to see that he is a part of this positive trend. I'm sure he will be able to find a way to nestle it into a dialogue-friendly approach.

Finally, while tooling around on YouTube I found this video of Barack on the Daily Show a year after his election as Senator, in November 2005. It's worth a watch--he's a funny man.

Update: Yeah, yeah, I can post the streaming video... I'm still not used to this whole thing. See below:

Serbian returns come in

As I noted in a post a couple weeks back, Serbian parliamentary elections took place today. I'm checking out the latest announcements of the Electoral Commission and it appears that the following is taking shape:

With 62% of ballots counted,

Serbian Radical Party (SRS) [nationalists] 28.32%
Democratic Party (DS) [Tadic's party] 22.67%
Democratic Party of Serbia--New Serbia (DSS-NS) [Kostunica] 16.38%
G17+ [conservative liberals] 6.79%
Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) [Milosevic's party] 5.64%
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition allies 5.33%

This is basically as the polls suggested. Vuk Draskovic's SPO is shut out with under 4%; SPS and LDP will scrape in.

DS and DSS will have to come to some sort of agreement to form the next government, along with at least one of the smaller liberal parties. Together, the Radicals and Socialists (the two hardline nationalist parties) will take about 40 percent of the seats.

UPDATE: The Economist has a piece. Point: there are three diverging views on Kosovo (the recommendations will be released at the beginning of February). The Radicals will raise hell no matter what, Kostunica is opposed and might support parallel actions toward secession by Bosnian Serbs, and Tadic and the DS would pay lip service to retaining Kosovo while seeking to maintain stability.

Two of these opinions will have to be accommodated in any new government.

Health care: now on everyone's agenda?

It's encouraging that Bush wants to make expanding health coverage a significant part of his State of the Union, and plans to introduce a new plan.

Not that his proposal is good; the reviews I read seem quite negative, as do the (smarter) observers in the NYT article, and suggest that the main burden of this would fall on the middle class. Of all the issues in politics today, I probably know the least of the intricacies of health care, and I can't claim to know whether or not this will affect the disproportionately large expenses of our country on health care, or the inefficiencies, duplications and price-gouging that plague our private sector. But it's good to see that (thanks in large part to state plans like in Massachusetts and California) the issue is now on everyone's national agenda as an action item of perceived importance to voters.

Now, if we could just achieve that for the environment, like they've done in Canada...

Venezuela careens faster toward disaster

And now, who will step up for Chavez? Democracy in Venezuela is about to die, officially, by act of the National Assembly. A moment of silence, please.

I don't think economic ruin is on the horizon--Chavez's policies might not be sound, but oil is still doing well. Unrest will develop when: (1) oil stops doing quite so well, and/or (2) the social tensions finally boil over.

I actually couldn't find many opinion pieces from Venezuelan papers either way on the new legislation, but I found a couple in El Universal of which I translated parts. I will be looking around in the next few days for more:

In fact, it is the world of diverse thought and the world of free social organization that are in the most danger, more even than the political opposition in the strict sense. For a regime of total control, more fearsome than some political parties in opposition, in the end few, identifiable and predictable enough, is the free and vibrant activity of individual people, thinking things and organizing themselves in an unpredictable manner. …

We must formulate a proposal that unites, embraces, and coordinates this diversity of interests [of opposition] and democratic and pluralistic values. The personalities and organizations most emblematic are known, with their own relationships and possibilities of calling for action, to which we must direct ourselves soon. Contacts must be made, conversations maintained, agreements and compromises reached, that will allow the net to be cast the most broadly and widely possible. They must be made at all social levels, above all, in everything possible, at the lower levels, from below.

--Diego Bautista Urbaneja, in El Universal

I do not want dispersion. Disrespect, insult, and intolerance are not what make a better country. It requires the contributions of all. The extant capacity of professionals, businessmen, artists, creators in many fields cannot be rejected and devalued, for not sharing the vision of the “new socialism."

I want to continue being a part of the Venezuela that has made possible the most important system of youth orchestras in the world. From where Santana and Cabrera came. Of the country where every day, very early, thousands and thousands of women and men begin the day with the idea of achieving good things for themselves and their own.

I do not want anguish and uncertainty. I want those close to me dedicated to what they know, with seriousness, but here. That the terrible corruption end, that we return to being a land of inclusion.

We are at the hour. We are capable of defending our ideals, our way of life, the possibility of harmonious coexistence. It is the epoch of necessary, consistent, brave leadership.

It is not time to give up.

--Manuel Guzmán Blanco, in El Universal

Which Gulf is that again?

The New York Times published an editorial on the progress of rebuilding in New Orleans (not much) and how many people may get evicted from temporary housing because 18 months have elapsed.

The last sentence:

"Our grand plans were never laid, our brightest minds were never assembled, our nation’s muscle and ingenuity were never brought to bear in any concerted way to overcome the crisis of the Gulf."

Targeting democracy education

Last spring I was in D.C. for some discussion on what I would be doing, post-college, and I was privileged to speak to some people at a few democratization places about what, exactly, their organizations do. One of them is the National Democratic Institute. It's a group funded by donors and (in large part) by the National Endowment for Democracy. Essentially, their job is to advise national political players on how democracy functions, educate citizens on democracy if called for, help establish strong political parties, etc., etc.

Don't take my word for it; from their website:

NDI provides practical assistance to civic and political leaders advancing democratic values, practices and institutions. NDI works with democrats in every region of the world to build political and civic organizations, safeguard elections, and to promote citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

I believe in this mission; I believe in democracy. The far left would accuse them of imperialism, or whatever tired old phrase they can bring out. I don't believe the NDI people are guilty of any sort of hubris or inflation of self-importance. This is not forcing democracy; this is education in creating institutions.

One of the conversation topics when I was there was the cost and danger of working in Iraq. Security consumes a huge part of the budget of any organization in Iraq because they are, of course, all targets. One unfortunate young woman has lost her life in a pretty brutal attack (possibly with rocket-propelled grenades) that also killed three bodyguards. She'd been in Baghdad longer than she'd been with NDI, according to the NYT article, so she was certainly accustomed to the dangers. Apparently she'd just left the headquarters of a Sunni party a few minutes earlier (the article seems to imply it was the Iraqi Islamic Party). Obviously (why do I say it?) this was deliberate.

This may be just another "drop in the bucket," considering 34,000 civilian deaths last year. But it's a death that resonates in a way with me personally, and my condolences go to the family of Ms. Parhamovich.

Bush on 60 Minutes

Good questions.

My favorite quotes:
"I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude. That's the problem, here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq."
"I think I'm a flexible, open-minded person, I really do. Take this policy. I spent a lot of time listening to a lot of people."
"[Saddam] was a significant source of instability."
"A unified Iraq, a young democracy will provide the stability we are looking for."
"Sometimes you're the commander-in-chief, sometimes you're the educator-in-chief, and sometimes you're both when it comes to war."