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Recent Movies

Some recent movies I've seen and enjoyed: Eastern Promises; Gone Baby Gone; Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; PU-239 (HBO Production); You Kill Me; Mississippi Masala (I love Mira Nair); Breaker Morant.

One to skip: Bee Movie!

Faith and Truth

I was pondering earlier today the necessity of a ruthless dedication to the pursuit of truth -- my truth. How often have I lived in self-delusion, kidding myself about my search for the facts in the newspapers, magazines, on the Internet, when it is quite possible, nay probable, that I am merely looking for affirmation, for justification of my existing and well-entrenched biases and judgments. The problem with the person with good judgment and the one with bad judgment: He is still a Judge.

So what about examples. I am inclined to consign all those who espouse a brutal, no-holds-barred immigration policy to the Ninth Circle of Hell, either for their unthinking nativism or their blindness to current reality. Well, the "Immigration Issue" is not one that admits of easy answers. We have a social environment that is perpetuating poverty, poor education and a permanent underclass. Is the answer to shut off the tap? Send back all who are here? Mass round-ups, internment camps, suspension of civil rights? Maybe something has to give.

I view the Darfur genocide with open-mouthed horror. But have I made any effort to examine the issues, the political, ethnic, cultural backdrop? Can I put myself in the place of the Janjaweed? My God, should I? Thank PBS for telecasts of the BBC World News, or we might not even know of the existence of the Darfur genocide, religious and tribal warfare in Nigeria, the endless bloodletting in Sri Lanka.

Or another example: I tend to side with those policy-makers and pundits, on the left and the right, who view Hugo Chavez' efforts to wrest the wealth of Venezuela from the hands of the multinational oil companies. Yes, he appears to be an egomaniacal strongman bent on totalitarian dictatorship. Yet why is he so popular with the Venezuelan people? Is it only because he gives them what they want, without consideration of their needs? Maybe I should make that difficult effort to try to see the reality that Chavez sees. That may be asking too much, since I can never put myself in the shoes of such an alien being. But I should at east accept that there is another world out there beyond my experience.

Maybe this is all obvious, but I include in my "experience" the fact that I am immersed in the history of this country America, in its traditions and values, and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness does not only imply that you should be just like me. And in the final analysis I accept, or try to accept with Julian of Norwich that "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well...." And rather than complain about the level of taxes today, I can be grateful that I have income on which to pay tax.

In sum I am grateful that some wise men and women who went before me taught me the habit of self-examination and skepticism. I doubt, therefore I exist -- in pain, but I exist.

Arachnophobia

Is this the end of the world?

Agribusiness and Unintended Consequences

I commend Tim Egan's Op-ed piece in the NYT today, "Red State Welfare," which I am setting out in full:
~~~~

"Drive across the empty reaches of the Great Plains, from the lost promise of Valentine, Neb., to the shadowless side roads into Sunray, Tex., and what you see is a land that has lost its purpose. Many of the towns set in this infinity of flat have a listless look, with shuttered main streets and schools given over to the grave.

"With upwards of $20 billion a year in federal payments going to a select few in farm country, you would think that these troubled counties would have a more vigorous pulse. After all, corn and wheat prices are at record highs, and big manses here and there, with Hummers in limestone driveways, indicate that somebody is doing well.

"It would be one thing if the despair and disparity in farm country were the sole products of history, if time had simply passed it all by. But it comes as a jolt to realize that government policy is much to blame.

"The Red State welfare program, also known as the farm subsidy system, showers most of its tax dollars on the richest farmers, often people with no dirt under their fingernails, at the expense of everybody else trying to work the land. Like urban welfare before reform, agriculture subsidies reward those who can work the system — farming the government, as they call it around the diner.

"And when you dare ask about the farmer in Colorado who received more than $2 million in handouts, or all those absentee landowners collecting their $150,000 government checks in gilded urban ZIP codes, the reaction is: it’s none of your business.

"Thus, the American Farm Bureau, which represents some of the biggest corporate welfare recipients, is terrified that a motley mix of peasants are now at the door with pitchforks. On their Web page, the bureau warns members that “forces outside of agriculture” are demanding change. The audacity! The farm bureau’s attitude to the taxpayer is: just write the check and shut up.

"Every five years or so Congress drafts a farm bill. The last farm bill was a masterpiece of Soviet-style goals and giveaways signed by that faux-rancher who likes to show off his cowboy boots, President Bush.

"This massive piece of legislation could be a blueprint for rural America. But it has become a spoils system where the congressmen-turned-lobbyists make sure that their clients get triple-figure checks for growing things that the nation already has in surplus.

"This year, things are different. It’s not their farm bill anymore. It is quickly becoming a food bill, a design for the American diet, possibly the worst in the industrial world. Budget hawks, nutritionists, small farmers and big farmers who grow fruits and vegetables without subsidies, alternative energy advocates and rural renaissance types — all are ready to do battle over the new plan.

"The farm bill sets the rules for the American food system and helps to subsidize obesity. It rewards growers of big commodity crops like corn, soybeans and wheat — the foundation of our junk food nation. So, a bag of highly processed orange puff balls with no nutritional value is cheaper than a tomato or a peach. Wonder why.

"The reformists, by and large, are not trying to get in on the gravy train. They want to revitalize rural America, to encourage farmers’ markets, contribute to environmental health and to make it easier for poor people to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

"In Congress, Jeff Flake, a maverick Republican from Arizona who angered party leaders by taking on earmarks, and Ron Kind, a Democrat who represents dairy country in Wisconsin, are leading the charge. There is likely to be a huge fight later this summer, because the old guard who protect the farm lobby are embedded deep in the early-stage committees.

"Once you step into this stuff, it’s hard to pull away. I worked a summer on a dairy farm, hauling hay, shoveling manure and taking the occasional dead calf out for burial. The farmer lady offered to pay me with a cow or a check; I took the money.

"Thanks to the Environmental Working Group, we know exactly how much money every subsidized farmer is getting in every county. The group’s database shows that just 1 percent of all farmers receive about 17 percent of the payments — averaging $377,484 per person, over three years.

"That’s a nice handout for these stalwarts of Red State values, prompting two conclusions: the system is broken, and I should have held onto my cow."

~~~~
It reminds me that the power of the agribusiness lobby, led by Archer-Daniels-Midland and Conagra -- not exactly household names -- by making an unprecedented push for corn ethanol, are skewing the food industry and resulting in price increases in milk, meat, eggs and poultry, which are likely to infuriate an already angry electorate. Maybe that's good. After all, the corn going into gas tanks won't go into soft drinks and junk foods in the form of corn syrup, stoking America's growing crisis of obesity. When the ethanol bubble bursts (as it must: it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than the gallon itself contains), will the corn producers be able to reestablish their position in the junk food industry? Who knows.

Wake up, America. Write your Congressman.

"Vice" President Cheney

I particularly recommend the detailed profile of Dick Cheney that commenced Sunday June 24 in the Washington Post. Here's the link: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/
The series will continue through Wednesday. We need to know the lion if we are to beard him.

I was especially struck by the sentence: "{Cheney's] controlled demeanor, ranging mainly from a tight-lipped gaze to the trademark half-smile, conceals what associates call an impish sense of humor and unusual kindness to subordinates." I wonder what Scooter thinks of that "unusual kindness" now.

Dick Cheney represents a cautionary example to any (like me) who may be fiercely anti-bureaucratic. It seems that, in a complex and pluralistic society, bureaucracy is one of the essential bulwarks against disaster -- or at the least foolishness.

Energy Policy

Tom Friedman doesn't get it right that often, but I like his prescription for a sensible U.S. energy policy:

"Get Washington to signal that gasoline is never going to retreat from a level of $3.50 or $4 a gallon — and that wind and solar subsidies will be there for a decade, not stop and start as they always have before; get Washington to commit to buying a fixed volume of solar and wind power for government buildings and Army bases for 10 years, with only U.S.-based manufacturers able to compete for contracts; get Washington to set a new fleet average of 35 miles per gallon for Detroit within 10 years — with no loopholes; establish government loan guarantees for any company that wants to build a nuclear power plant; and, finally, build a national transmission grid — a green power superhighway — so that solar energy from Arizona or wind from Wyoming can power homes in Chicago." (NYT 6/3/07)

I suppose Friedman's fixation with energy led to his shortsighted support for the War in Iraq, but his insistence is welcome in this corner. I particularly resonate to the notion of current energy policy gruntings in Washington as the "sum of all lobbies." Together with health care and immigration, it tends to define the sort of future we wish to have for this country. Maybe that's why I get so worked up.

John Masefield and Progress

The following poem by John Masefield, once upon a time Britain's poet laureate, seems for me to catch the paradox of so-called progress in the miodern world. This a world that since World War I has almost a single tone -- that of irony. What will the keynote be for the 21st Century?

Cargoes

QUINQUIREME of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

Immigration Reform

I don't know what so many Americans seem to have against immigrants, but I for one cannot abide this know-nothing nativism that much of the "older generation" is indulging in. I am frankly sickened at the self-righteousness of those who, themselves obviously descended from relatively recent immigrants, posture and preen, scorning the aspirations of our unfortunate neighbors to the South of the Rio Grande River aas somehow less deserving of teh American Dream than their own forbears from the Mezzogiorno, the Backa Banat, Silesia or the Ukraine.
ICE raids a Georgia chicken processing plant, and the Latino workforce is dispersed, presumably deported. (See the story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10461104) In order to replace these workers, the company embarks on an intensive recruiting program, including “hiring” inmates of the Georgia penal system. Ultimately, to fill the ranks the company goes to the Hmong community of Minnesota, a number of whom uproot themselves to migrate to an isolated part of Georgia, where Asian food is virtually unknown. Meanwhile, the Hmong communities in Minnesota and California are disrupted.
There are those who rail against Latin American workers, comparing them with their own ancestors who immigrated “legally” through Ellis Island. For these critics, the notional issue is the illegality of the migration, not the desirability of the immigrant himself. Yet, consider the state of American immigration policy at the moment, Iraqis acting as translators and guides to American occupational troops in Iraq, whose lives and whose families’ lives are at acute risk, are denied any opportunity to take sanctuary in the very country for which they are fighting. It is notable that the Hmong, were used (exploited?) by the CIA during the Vietnam War to stage raids against the NVA, were granted refugee status in 1979. (How many were executed by the North Vietnamese before they were given sanctuary.) The fact of the matter is that America has become a whole lot more hostile to immigration in the last twenty-five years. Fear of “The Other” has overcome the open arms of Lady Liberty.
I know a lot of Latino immigrants, legal and illegal, and 99% of them are the hardest working people on the planet -- particularly doing jobs that you and I and Tom Tancredo will no longer do. Let 'em in, the more the merrier. After all, we're all immigrants -- that is, unless we're native Americans.

The Fort Dix Six

Credit it perhaps to seven years of lies and half-truths from this White House and a DOJ presided over by Pastor Ashcroft and Fredo Ganzales, but I think there is less than meets the eye in the recent "exposure"of the plot to kill hundreds of soldiers and create chaos at Fort Dix by a group of non-Arab "jihadists." The NYT today carries a story (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/nyregion/10informer.html) that to me implies that this may be another case of FBI entrapment of a group of naive, shiftless young men looking for a bit of excitement. According to the NYT, the CI (confidential informant) who infiltrated the group not only suggested Fort Dix as the target, but also told the group that he would obtain the RPG's that were central to the supposed deadliness of the plot.

Frankly, I've gotten to the point where I no longer believe anything "these people" say. And I find that a very sad state of affairs.

Am I the naive one?

Money and Family

My friend Phil made me think of this. I had always felt that my family had all the money needed to live "the good life," and I harbored resentments that certain things that I got into my head were necessary for my own happiness were denied to me, ostensibly through lack of money.

Therefore, it was one of the biggest shocks of my life to learn, on the death of my father (at age 50), that this titan of Wall Street legal practice wasn't earning the princely sums that I had imagined. Indeed, his partner's share was quite modest, at least to my way of thinking.

That had a profound effect on me, but it was not to launch me on a chase of the almighty dollar. I guess I saw that, although he and his family never lacked for material well-being, at the end he found fulfillment in his life through service. And this was interesting because he was not a religious man, nor even very spiritual, to the extent that I understood that concept at the time.

While I followed a very different path from my father, I hope I have absorbed a little of the spirit of service that he has come to embody for me.

Wolfie's Secret Memo

For those of you who missed it, here's the "secret" memo that appeared in Foreign Policy Magazine:
MEMORANDUM:
TO: World Bank Staff
FROM: Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank
RE: Insider trading in “Paul Wolfowitz resignation” contracts
Dear Staff:

As long as I remain Bank President, I intend to continue enforcing my signature anti-corruption initiative at the world’s most important international development agency. My past life as Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld has taught me the importance of carrying out a plan with unwavering certainty.

In that regard, I am writing to you with a stern warning. It has come to my attention that many of you are turning your internet browsers to TradeSports.com, where there is an active market in “Paul Wolfowitz resignation” contracts for 2007. (For those of you who don’t know, this is a website where you can take bets on a variety of political events.)

I hope you understand that any attempt by World Bank Staff to buy or sell these contracts will be considered insider trading in clear violation of my anti-corruption guidelines. Your knowledge of normal World Bank personnel procedures gives you a clear information advantage in predicting whether I will be forced to resign. You must not abuse it. Please note: the Bank’s prohibition on insider trading applies not only to immediate family but also to significant others (e.g., girlfriends).

Some of you have already queried my office about whether it would still be insider trading if, when you buy “Paul Wolfowitz resignation” contracts (betting that I will leave before 2008), you also sell short “Alberto Gonzalez resignation” contracts. (This is a bet that my friend, the U.S. Attorney General, will hang on through end 2007.) My emphatic answer is no! Long Wolfowitz, short Gonzalez is only a “relative value play” that hedges out the value of loyalty to President Bush. You would still be guilty of insider trading on your Bank-specific knowledge. (And who says I don’t know enough about finance for this job!)

I hope that by now, most of you have accepted my sincere apology for the unusual pay and promotion package given two years ago to your colleague, Ms. Shaha Riza. That is, when I arrived here from my position helping to plan and manage the Iraq war for the Bush administration. I have acknowledged my mistakes (at my present job, that is), and asked for your understanding. As staff, you understand how difficult it can be to navigate the Bank’s complex rules and procedures. Please do NOT regard my small slip as providing moral cover for poor developing-country client states that are not able to meet the good governance conditions we ask before disbursing aid.

I trust you have not been unduly influenced by the recent letter calling for my immediate resignation, signed by forty-two former World Bank managing directors, senior vice-presidents, vice-presidents, and directors. You and I can surely see through this thinly-veiled attempt to manipulate the value of “Paul Wolfowitz resignation” claims. I want to assure you that the World Bank Internal Investigations Unit will look into this matter. If any of the letter’s signatories are found guilty of price manipulation, they will be dealt with harshly. Let’s not forget who is paying their pensions …

Some of you may wonder how I can remain at the Bank when so many staff are openly seeking my dismissal. (Thank goodness most of you have tired of wearing those silly blue protest ribbons.) And what about the claim that my deputy, New Zealander Graeme Wheeler, told me I should resign at a supposedly-closed senior staff meeting last week?

Let me fill you in on the facts of life. Ever since the World Bank was founded shortly after World War II, the President of the United States has always hand-picked the President of the World Bank. That’s life; stop whining. We Americans may hold only 16 percent of the shares at the World Bank, but we insist on keeping its presidency as our birthright. So what if there might be better qualified candidates from the developing world or Asia? I am tired of hearing people say that South African finance minister Trevor Manuel would be far more effective in my job than I am. (Trevor is a good guy, but dream on. He has neither the right passport nor the right friends.)

Speaking of which: Some of you may also wonder whether World Bank staff, directors, or presidents are permitted to buy “George W. Bush Impeachment” contracts, which are also presently listed on TradeSports.com. Tricky question, but the bottom line is that your employment generally precludes political activity of this type. You will be relieved to know, however, that I have already instructed the Bank legal staff to allow exceptions to the insider trading rules for anyone who can demonstrate a truly compelling need to hedge against a change at the White House.

Thank you for your kind attention, and I appreciate your continuing to focus on your important work in relieving poverty during this unfortunate episode.

Goodling Goodies

From the National Journal, May 7:

"Psst! Sources tell us that none other than Monica Goodling, former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was responsible for draping over the ample bosoms of the Art Deco statues in the Justice Department's Great Hall during the reign of the prim John Ashcroft. The coverings were removed, accompanied by a sigh from an appreciative public, in 2005 ..."

Thanks be to God!

Tom Paine

From his first Crisis Paper:

These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Powell and Tenet

Speaking of Powell, I have been thinking lately of the comparison of the General's role in the run-up to Iraq with that of Tenet. And also comparing CP to Cyrus Vance. Vance, when faced with a decision he thought was a disaster -- namely, Jimmy Carter's decision to send the Delta Force to Iran to rescue the Embassy hostages -- quietly resigned. CP, ever the good soldier, did not seem to be able to see this as the honorable course.

Meanwhile, Lonesome George Tenet flails around to try to salvage a place in history by rewriting it. I can never forget the picture of Tenet forced to sit at Powell's shoulder throughout his shameful performance at the Security Council.

At least GWB displayed some candor in thumbing his nose at history's judgment for the benefit of Bob Woodward. Reminds me of Keynes' comment that "in the long run, we are all dead."

More Gonzales

More thoughts. I didn't hear James Comey's testimony, but from reports he pretty much destroys Gonzales' protests that the DOJ is truly doing "justice." Indeed, this executive department in many other less "democratic" countries would be named the Mionistry of the Interior, with a rather sinister mission. It sometimes seems to be following a fascist course -- torture, eavesdropping, etc.

Heard on NPR this morning that Colin Powell refused to deal with Gonzales when the latter was in the WH. He detailed Richard Armitage to that unpleasant task. He allegedly found Fredo to be totally incompetent.

Gonzales

Is the DOJ setting up a defense to Monica Goodling testifying beforre Congress?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050201569.html?hpid=topnews