BenBlog

Dick Cheney is ready for the next 9/11

2009-05-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else get the impression that Dick Cheney's warnings that Obama is making us more vulnerable to terrorism is really part of a sleazy plan to score political points if a terror attack actually happens? I suspect he thinks that if an attack happens, it would strengthen the notion that Democrats are too soft on terror, but, more importantly, that it would redeem his legacy as an effective terror-fighting VP.

If anything, it's clear that he isn't earnestly pleading for a policy change to save thousands of lives. He's waiting so he can say "I told you so."

Government borrowing

2008-12-05T04:39:00.001-08:00

We have so many developed economies considering stimulus packages, which means more borrowing. But if government's massively increases their spending, won't that mean they have less money they're willing to invest in each other's foreign Treasury bonds?

Honest Obama?

2008-11-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

It would be nice to see Obama acclimate the public to an open, candid, and self-aware administration. We’ve endured 8 years of a Bush White House, in which statements from the campaign and from the office of the President have been indistinguishable—from the blind, calculated optimism (“the Surge is working” or the infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner) to the absurd nomenclature (PATRIOT Act, the "Axis of Evil" and No Child Left Behind), to the incessant stonewalling and equivocations that have followed every public query to the Administration. I, and I’m sure most people, instinctively ignore whatever comes from Bush or the White House— because I know it is carefully messaged spin.

So it will be interesting to see if Obama’s popularity will be enough for him to be frank with the public. Perhaps, after 8 years of platitudes and prevarication, the public will be refreshed by a President whom they know is working for them, and is willing to be brutally honest. I guess you could call it Straight Talk. Perhaps I’m just drunk with the thrill of Obama’s victory, but I do think he is driven by conscience and a cerebral sense of duty. That’s what makes him so remarkable. So I would not be surprised if he saw honesty, candour, and transparency in his administration as one of those duties.

Missile Defense "Shield"

2008-11-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama delighted many, including myself, when he told the Polish president that he made “no commitment” to the anti-missile shield. And the reason he cited for opposing it is the reason it is such a detestable project: it will almost certainly never will work.

Though costing taxpayers over a trillion, and being in development for decades, you could count the number of times it’s been tested on two hands, and the number of times its worked on two fingers. And it’s only worked when it knew the destination of the missile. So if it can’t reliably intercept one missile, it’s certainly not going to be able to reliably intercept one with an identical decoy deployed at the same time. Or thirty decoys. Or a thousand. Quite simply, it is infinitely easier to fool the system than it is to make it fool-proof. Swarms of decoy missiles, with the same infrared signature, would render the system would be helpless- and a huge waste of money.

Frankly, I’m not even sure why the Russians are so angry. They need only spend a few million on decoy technology, and we’d have to spend a few hundred billion (and several years) in research to counter it. Or, they could just use a cruise missile, against which the system is powerless. Hell, making the missile shiny (ordinary white paint, for example) reduces effectiveness by 90%. So President-elect Obama questioning the plan was the first breath of fresh air in 8 years for foreign policy progressives.

What's more, offering to scrap the project, in addition to saving us trillions, could be used as a bargaining chip to lure Russia into a more cooperative stance. Perhaps removing it could be framed as an olive branch extended to Russia- at no expense to ourselves. But Russia has a severe inferiority complex, so I’m more expecting a nationalist message from Medvedev. Don’t be surprised if you hear about an “American surrender” if we drop the plans. But in the end we’ll be safer for having spent the money on something that actually works.

The Age of Obama: a preview

2008-11-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

I am starting to sense that Barack Obama is going to turn into a fabulous president. If there’s one quality of his that excites me, it’s his insistence on developing practical, ideology-independent solutions intended to ease the suffering of the masses. He doesn't believe in trickle-down economics because there is no empirical evidence that it works.

It’s true that he has occasionally taken mild deference to public opinion on politically charged issues, like medical marijuana, universal healthcare, offshore drilling, etc. But if you want to look at it that way, it means he’s taken a practical, ideology-independent approach to getting elected — without sacrificing more than a shred of his integrity. No matter how you look at it, his campaign was much more honest than McCain's, and played to the electorate’s good qualities (hope and unity) rather than fear and division. It will become evident over the coming weeks that Obama is a benevolent, rational leader who has is deeply aware of when and why presidents before him have erred.

First post

2008-11-10T15:01:00.001-08:00

Well, here goes. The purpose of this blog will be to get you, and I thinking about what I consider to be important issues that affect the most people. Politics. Policy. Religion. Poverty. Science and technology. I welcome your comments and your criticisms, and I hope I tell you something you didn't already know!