Archive - Mar 21, 2007

Date
Type

Video: Free Eric Volz

Posted March 21, 2007 - 11:17pm by Will Hinton

Please share this with everyone you know.

Businesses call for environmental regulation

Posted March 21, 2007 - 10:52pm by Expat Teacher

One of the most common critiques of raw capitalism is that it doesn't adequate deal with some of the environmental externalities from products and services. For example, you are not charged the cost of disposing of your Coke bottle or your blue jeans when you purchase them. Often times, when these items are produced in 3rd world countries, the producer didn't have to pay for disposing any of the products required to make them because he could just dump them back onto the land, river, air, etc. Therefore the producer can provide a product/service to you cheaper than the actual cost of producing it.

Lights...Camera....Fascism

Posted March 21, 2007 - 8:15pm by Will Hinton

Here is a great example of citizen advocacy journalism:

Politicking from the Pulpit

Posted March 21, 2007 - 7:45pm by Will Hinton

John Armstrong has an excellent piece this week about politics and the church.

What interested me about the Sunday of March 4 was the way in which Senator Obama and Senator Clinton both used this special occasion to promote their presidential campaigns. I suppose this is only right given that their party and their views are involved deeply in this history. (It was the Democratic Party, by the way, that stood against integration in the mid-1960s in the South, which should never be forgotten!) What I found so odd this past Sunday, and I have found this odd for decades now, is that both senators appeared in church services, as preachers of sort, and on a Sunday morning during the sacred worship time.

John Edward's Plan To Eliminate Poverty

Posted March 21, 2007 - 7:11pm by Will Hinton

Today I was listening to an NPR piece on All Things Considered with Robert Siegel interviewing E.J. Dionne and David Brooks discussing the presidential candidates for 2008 and whether they each had a big idea or consistant message that they were campaigning on. Both Dionne and Brooks agreed that John Edwards has the most coherent campaign message.

However, one audio clip from Edwards almost caused me to drive off the road in laughter.

Who is your top pick for the Republican nominee in 2008?

Posted March 21, 2007 - 12:43pm by Will Hinton
Sam Brownback
5% (7 votes)
Newt Gingrich
13% (20 votes)
Rudy Giuliani
25% (37 votes)
Chuck Hagel
3% (5 votes)
Mike Huckabee
5% (7 votes)
Duncan Hunter
1% (2 votes)
John McCain
20% (30 votes)
George Pataki
1% (1 vote)
Mitt Romney
13% (19 votes)
Tom Tancredo
3% (5 votes)
Tommy Thompson
3% (4 votes)
Ron Paul
3% (5 votes)
Other
6% (9 votes)
Total votes: 151

Barack Obama: Does He or Doesn't He Want to Pull the Troops Out of Iraq?

Posted March 21, 2007 - 11:21am by Will Hinton

Barack Obama was on Larry King Live on Monday and here was an interesting exchange:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: And if George Bush doesn't listen, then we're going to make him listen because it's time for us to bring our young people home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Senator Obama, you disagree with that. He says it would be devastating to leave now. You say no.

Why not?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don't know anybody who's been talking about packing up and going home.

Question for my readers: why the vascillation? It seems clear that Obama is trying to separate himself from Hilary Clinton by calling for an end to the Iraq War. So why is he backing away from his earlier statements about pulling out the troops?

(HT: The Economist's Democracy in America blog)