Obama Health Care Plan

Sen. Barack Obama spelled out his plan to provide all Americans with health insurance at the U of I Hospitals and Clinics (the largest teaching hospital in the Western Hemiphere! -- John Deeth)this week. Plan is here:

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/HealthPlanOverview.pdf
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/HealthPlanFull.pdf

I've got and looked at John Edwards' DVD. (What, you didn't get one? You're the only Iowan who didn't.) It's okay. In a perfect world where scrapping the current private system and starting from scratch would be politically possible short of bloody revolution, I'd be all for it.

The thing that strikes me about Obama's plan is that it seems doable, politically and economically. A reform here, a new program there and pretty soon you are looking at universal coverage. And that has to be the first goal of health care reform, to get everyone insurance. That one step will reduce everyone's costs substantially (even those who remain in private plans) because it will take billions of dollars of costs in uncompensated care for the uninsured off the backs of everyone else.

Once we get that stabilized a bit, then we can tackle the really thorny issues of allocation of resources, who gets what level of care, and how soon, etc. But Job One has to be getting everyone covered in a meaningful way.

Monday Post-And-Run: LA Times Carbon Tax Editorial

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times has a long, cogent editorial in favor of serious carbon taxes. Make no mistake, after health care policy, this is the number one issue that will affect the American economy, and global economic and environmental health.

Time to Tax Carbon:

IF YOU HAVE KIDS, take them to the beach. They should enjoy it while it lasts, because there's a chance that within their lifetimes California's beaches will vanish under the waves.

Global warming will redraw the maps of the world. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels will rise 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century; as the water gets higher, the sandy beaches that make California a tourist magnet will be washed away. Beachfront real estate will end up underwater, cliffs will erode faster, sea walls will buckle and inlets will become bays. The water supply will be threatened as mountain snowfall turns to rain and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faces contamination with saltwater. Droughts will likely become more common, as will the wildfires they breed.

Californians are serious about this because they know that without their glorious beaches (and beach culture), a hotter, drier California is nothing but 34 million people living in the desert. Bummer, man.

And yet for all its benefits, cap-and-trade still isn't the most effective or efficient approach. That distinction goes to Method No. 3: a carbon tax. While cap-and-trade creates opportunities for cheating, leads to unpredictable fluctuations in energy prices and does nothing to offset high power costs for consumers, carbon taxes can be structured to sidestep all those problems while providing a more reliable market incentive to produce clean-energy technology.

Californians are also a bit edgy regarding fluctuating energy prices. All those Google servers don't run on positive vibrations.

Carbon taxes avoid all that. A carbon tax simply imposes a tax for polluting based on the amount emitted, thus encouraging polluters to clean up and entrepreneurs to come up with alternatives. The tax is constant and predictable. It doesn't require the creation of a new energy trading market, and it can be collected by existing state and federal agencies. It's straightforward and much harder to manipulate by special interests than the politicized process of allocating carbon credits.

Make the invisible visible. Finally put a (state-imposed, yes) cost on those negative externalities and let the market decide. No new trading scheme to be gamed, no regulatory authority to look over their shoulders. Just annual inspections and a bill.

End of the Music Business As We Know It, Part XVI

One of the themes of this blog is how technology is changing our society. Unbeknownst to most people, a life-and-death struggle for the future of an industry is occurring in the area of the audio-visual arts businesses. The ability to digitize their products changed forever the face of the huge book, music, television and movie industries. The conglomerates who largely run those industries are having some very difficult times coming to grips with the changed realities of their circumstances.

Last week came two new benchmarks in their changing worlds. One, Country Star and former American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood, became the first artist to debut a song in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 with no physical CD sales. Her cover of the Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You," is an Apple iTunes exclusive download and hit the chart at number 6 last week.

Secondly, Warner Music, one of the "Big Four" studios, announced losses of $27M last quarter. The company announced a restructuring plan that includes the layoffs of over 400 employees, mostly in the... music sales and distribution area.

All of this comes as retail brick-and-mortar CD sales are down up to 25% in the industry, (Source: Sound Opinions) but while single-song music sales overall (that includes retail downloads, such as iTunes) are UP. But, there is no way the single-song 99¢ sale price of "I'll Stand By You," can ever make up for potential loss of the the $17.00 or more for a physical copy of Underwood's CD, "Before He Cheats."

None of this is going to bottom out for the music industry until they learn that they are no longer in the business of:

1. Physically making things that are cheap to manufacture but which produce large margins at retail, e.g. compact disk recordings.


2. Controlling the agenda with regards to being able to definitvely pick hits (through control and manipulation of Radio-the traditional music taste-making medium) and thus justify their multi-million dollar investments in such artists as Ms. Underwood and her recordings.

They need to come to grips with the fact that they are in the business of distributing bits (not atoms) with (fortunately) very low production costs and (unfortunately) very low margins -- which can be readily copied by people who don't want to actually pay for their product.

Sadly, this leaves very little room for middlemen in the music business, which is being taken back over by... musicians.

Last summer's End of the Music Business As We Know It benchmarks were the debut of the Gnarls Barkley song, "Crazy" as the number one song on the U.K. Charts without a CD released and (now) star Lilly Allen's songs charting without a recording contract.

What this means is that for the first time in a long time, music fans and consumers are making markets in music based on perceived merit as opposed to the dictates of studio execs. Exciting times for music lovers and music makers. Exciting times too for music executives, but only in the Chinese sense.

Video of my Ignite IT Talk

The video of a very impromptu, very truncated version of my presentation to small businesses, Small Business in the Networked Age, is up. I gave this at the Ignite IT conference in Ames in April.

Link to largish Windows Media File.

Memorial Day: The Myth of Media-Driven War Fatigue.

It's Memorial Day weekend. It is dreary and raining and I can't get out and work on the pond like I wanted to. So, I'm catching up on my reading.

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall recently published a letter from a reader that, I think sums up very well the feelings and opinions of the small number of Americans who either still support the war outright or support it in concept. TPM reader JDG writes:

Yes, our war in Iraq is very much like the one in Viet Nam, but not the way its opponents mean the comparison. What's similar is this: Both of these war efforts by the United States have been sabotaged, probably on purpose, and we will probably lose this one as we lost Viet Nam, by the media's practice of showing us the daily body count in color on the nightly news every single day, again and again and again and again!

It is simply impossible for a democratic country to pursue any war, no matter how justified, to a successful conclusion under those conditions.

No matter what you think of the merits of the present war, it's obvious that two choices lie before America: either we go back to our pre-1950 policy (which most countries in the world still follow) of wartime censorship -- not just of information that would help enemy commanders, but also of information that would undermine our own public's morale -- or we may as well pack it in and invite China to rule our country, since we can never possibly win another war.

As I said, I think it is important to confront this idea head on. It is, among a class of mostly male mostly conservative individuals a very popular and persuasive notion and it goes like this: The media prevents us from winning because the American people cannot stand to see their boys and girls bleeding and dying on a daily basis. It undercuts morale over the long haul and makes victory impossible by undermining the support for the war at home.

This is wrong and here is why. War is, for at least one of the participants, an existential threat to the nation. In other words, loose and your country -- at least as far as you currently know (and possibly love it) ceases to exist. That existential threat tends to bring everyone together not just in spite of the constant parade of death and destruction, but because of it.

America never faced an existential threat in Viet Nam or in Iraq. They were and are optional wars fought on vague principles of national security policy. The American nation has not been forced and hasn't even been asked to sacrifice in any way for the support of these wars. On the contrary, the Bush Administration has encouraged Americans to go on about their normal daily lives. In the words of the Vice President, "the American way of life is non-negotiable."

So, it is of very little shock then that the vast majority of the American people, who do not serve and who increasingly do not even know people who serve in the military have no stake in the war. It is an abstract thing, thousands of miles away. Their only connection to it is through the media. And the media shows it for what it is, a disaster. A disaster for the Iraqi people, a disaster for American standing in the world, and a disaster for those brave men and women who march off to war in our names.

But do think back to the times where America DID face existential threat. Think back to World War II. Did the media show such graphic scenes of American casualties? Not as much, no. But did every American know a Gold Star Mother? Did every American have a close family member serving in the military? Did every American participate in rationing, in scrap drives, in victory gardens, buy war bonds? The answer to all those questions is, Yes.

Think back to the Civil and Revolutionary wars. Those wars were fought on our own soil. For many, the battles and the marshaling of forces occurred literally in their back-yards. Did a large majority of Americans personally witness the carnage that results from combat? Was there TV in 1862? No. Was there Matthew Brady and other photographers using that new technology to bring the carnage of the war into people's homes? Yes. Photo of African American voulunteers collecting the bones of the dead following the Battle of Cold Harbor. John Reekie, July 1865. Library of Congress.

In all those cases America and American's stayed in for the long haul, against the odds (1941, 1863) and ground out the inevitable victory. In all those cases, the difference between victory and defeat was strong leadership and a strong national sense of purpose. THAT is what we lack in America today. The media is merely a long-focus lens that lets us see events ocurring a long way away. But without the leadership to give us confidence that our men and women are there for a good purpose, those images from abroad will eat away at the conscience of America. Without the leadership to give all of us at home a shared vision, shared purpose that can help us set aside the ugly images abroad and see a brighter future, the names of the dead will haunt us. Eventually, the will to fight will flag and fail.

No, it is not the media's fault for showing us what IS. It is the Administration's fault for lying to us about what Iraq WAS and for not providing America with a compelling sense of mission in Iraq. Lord knows they tried. But you can't just fake this shit. People know, instinctively whether something is right or wrong. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and you can't make 2003 into 1941. People know the difference.

And THAT is why the vast middle of America has turned its back on the war and on the administration. America can fight and win any war that has the backing of the American people. But war has changed. There probably (God willing) will never be another large, conventional war fought. The wars of the future will be guerrilla, open-source wars. It will require very good reasons and very compelling arguments for Americans to get behind those sorts of bloody, drawn-out affairs.

It requires a sense of noble purpose, an inspiring call to arms by our leaders and probably a burden shared with other nations. It requires that we feel morally and legally justified in doing what we have to do, ideally with international institutions behind us. It requires some sort of sense that not only is progress towards the final goal possible, but evidence that it is occurring.

All of those things are missing in America's endeavors in 2007. So, on this Memorial Day, 2007 I, along with so many parents across the country simply ask myself the same question that was asked in 1970, "who will be the last child to die for a mistake?"

CBC: Demand for plant-based ethanol driving food prices up.

A quick link-and-run. Saw this Canadian Broadcasting Corp. article today. Rising corn prices hit grocery shoppers' pocketbooks:

The rising demand for corn as a source of ethanol-blended fuel is largely to blame for increasing food costs around the world, and Canada is not immune, say industry experts.

Food prices rose 10 per cent in 2006, "driven mainly by surging prices of corn, wheat and soybean oil in the second part of the year," the International Monetary Fund said in a report.
...
A study released in May from Iowa State University shows increased prices for ethanol have already led to bigger grocery bills for the average American — an increase of $47 US compared to July 2006.

In the United States, as elsewhere, ethanol is made from corn. But corn is also used to feed chickens, hogs and cattle, which means a rise in prices for meat, eggs and dairy.

In Mexico last year, corn tortillas, a crucial source of calories for 50 million poor people, doubled in price. The increase forced the government to introduce price controls.

NYT Gas Price Inforporn

Last week I was looking for a way to get inflation adjusted current gas price data. The NYT gives me what I need. Click image for link to NYT graphic.

Sane Republicans Scared S***less of Obama

Andrew Sullivan is a conservative whose ideals I admire even if I don't always agree with. Clearly against the extreme lunatic wing of the Republican party, his libertarian streak keeps him from thoroughly embracing the Democrats, who if one looks only at his biography, one could be excused for thinking are his natural affinity group. But no, Sullivan is pretty clear-headed, cold-eyed traditional conservative in the best, pre-1968 sense of that word.

So, when he attends an Obama event in DC and comes away saying the man is the Reagan of the Left, it is time to take notice.

From the content and structure of Obama's pitch to the base, it's also clear to me that whatever illusions I had about his small-c conservatism, he's a big government liberal with - for a liberal - the most attractive persona and best-developed arguments since JFK.

I fear he could do to conservatism what Reagan did to liberalism. And just as liberals deserved a shellacking in 1980, so do "conservatives" today. In the Bush era, they have shown their own contempt for their own tradition. Who can blame Obama for exploiting the big government arguments Bush has already conceded?

...

Obama's speech began and continued with domestic policy. War? What war? There was one tiny, fleeting mention of the terror threat. Yes, this is the base. Yes, the base's fixation is ending the war in Iraq. Yes, you can make an argument that withdrawal there now is a boon to the terror war. But Obama didn't make that argument. And it seems to me that the two biggest obstacles Obama will have next year are residual racism and concern that he doesn't fully grasp the seriousness of the Islamist terror threat. He's been proved right on Iraq - I'm sorry to say. And that good call - and the reasons he gave for it in 2003 - will surely undermine the case against his "inexperience". Inexperienced? he'll rightly scoff. If "experience" means backing the Iraq war, I'm glad I don't have as much of it as Clinton and McCain and Giuliani. But he must tell us how we are to stay on offense in this war if he is to win over worriers like me. To listen to a stump speech five or so years after 9/11 and wait for almost half a speech until he mentions it is disconcerting. And yet, it is also bound up, surely, with his appeal. That appeal is partly to take us past the 9/11 moment, and describe a journey forward that isn't obviously into darkness.

Full disclosure. I am -- at this time -- supporting Obama. However, I am simply offering this as an excercise in how others see us. Until after February of next year, it is going to be all pandering to the base, all the time on both sides. So, I think it is useful to see how a potential swing voter, and an influential one at that sees things. That Sullivan should take such a bold stand at this time -- certainly not uncharacteristic of him-- is nonetheless pretty interesting. The Reagan of the Left. That's a pretty bold statement considering what the old fart meant to the nation and to conservatives of almost every stripe.

The Undoing of American Conservatism.

The operation of the Bush administration and its executive branch appointees is now presenting the Republican party with an existential threat. Conservatism is largely about maximizing liberty through the idea that government should remain small and as far removed from people's daily lives as possible.

Yet their "unitary executive" theory and their electoral and governing policies of promoting fear of -- and attacking both real and imaginary -- threats while striving to push a moral agenda have given the ruling class of the Republicans one thing no one ever could have imagined of the party of Lincoln: The cloak of authoritarianism. This stands in utter opposition to everything conservatism stands for.

And the people the party is offering us as replacements to Bush show no signs of bringing the party back to its real conservative roots. Example one could be Mitt Romney's chest-pounding offer to "double the size of Guantanimo," at the last debate. I'm sorry, double how? Start rounding people up? Disappearing undesirables off the streets?

It says a lot about the current state of the Republican party as it is in power that John Ashcroft... yes, John Ashcroft looms as a paragon of both small "r" and big "R" republican ideals: maintaining from his sickbed his opposition to the administration's attempt to extend the illegal spying activities.

I've said it before, the real political struggle of the 21st Century is as old as time itself. It has nothing to do with right versus left -- that poor distinction which is a relic of the French Revolution. No, the struggle for the future of humanity is stark and simple, the struggle between those who treasure and work towards maximizing human freedom and those who would bind us in chains of authoritarianism. And beware, the strongest chains are those we forge ourselves out of fear.

Al Gore Has Big Plans

I haven't had time to read the entire thing yet but, the NY Times has a big article today on Al Gore and the future of his global warming bandwagon. Al Gore Has Big Plans.

But the core of everything is the three-year program of mass persuasion to be conducted under the aegis of the Alliance for Climate Protection. The alliance will not lobby or even propose specific solutions to global warming; rather, it will seek to break the climate crisis out of the crunchy confines of environmentalism. Global warming is going to have a giant product rollout. Gore talks constantly about the need to move public opinion; he is convinced that what now seem like forbidding political and technical obstacles to drastically reducing carbon emissions will give way once we marshal the will to act. And Gore says he believes that once people understand the science, they’ll share his sense of urgency. Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, and balmy winters, and animals evacuating their habitats, and all those terrifying pictures of melting glaciers, that sense may already be taking hold. According to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 78 percent of Americans believe that global warming requires action “right away.

I've said it before, love him or hate him "Ozone Al" is still going to be a major player on the world's stage.

Gas Price Watch

A healthy discussion on gas and energy going on over on the Clinton Herald board. This graph is the price of regular gas formulations from August 1990 to last week.



The raw data in Excel format is available here at the Department of Energy. If anyone can tell me how do do inflation, adjusted numbers, that would be great. All the inflation-adjusted graphs I can find date from early to mid last year. Such as the one below which I used in an April, '06 post in which I wrongly predicted that the Long Emergency Begins Now.

Gas Pump Prices: Spring 2007 Edition

Yesterday, I was in Cedar Rapids running errands for Mom. I did some shopping at the HyVee on N. Edgewood and then thought to make good on the 3¢/gal. discount at the HyVee gas station. I didn't even look at the pump price before plugging in the nozzle and starting to fill with the 87 octane low-grade gas. Price at the pump: $3.39.9! The manager happened to be on duty so I asked him what was up? Was HyVee gouging to make up the discount? No, he said. His usual terminal in Iowa City was out of gas, so was the terminal in Dubuque and Davenport. He had to take delivery from W. Des Moines. Longer distance, higher price.

Which brings me to the following via The Oil Drum. In senate testimony last week, Paul Sankey of Deutchbank (PDF) said the following:

Anybody who blames record high US gasoline prices on "gouging" at the pump simply reveals their total ignorance of global oil supply and demand fundamentals. The real reason for high pump prices is the lack of global gasoline supply relative to demand. Just in the US, overall US refining capacity, at 17 million barrels per day (mb/d), is far below demand at 22 mb/d. In turn, pump prices are effectively set by import prices. With strong demand outside the US on the back of global economic growth and a weak dollar, the era of abundant US oil supply augmented by willing international sellers is dead.

Read that again. US daily gasoline demand is 22 mb/d. US production capacity is 17mb/d. That's a 5 mb/d shortfall that has to be made up by importing finished gasoline products or out of stockpiles. As the stockpiles get drawn down, spot shortages are going to occur. Spot shortages means, sometimes there will be no gas to be had from the distributors. That will drive prices at the pump wild.

The only way this situation gets fixed is a) to build new refining capacity -- there has not been a new refinery built in the continental US in nearly two decades, or b) lower demand.

How do I handle this in my personal life? We do almost all our shopping for the week in one "mega-shop," usually on Sundays. Trips for incidentals during the week are done during the evening commute home or by bike to the Jewel just five blocks away.

I'm in a line of work where I have to drive quite a bit. Although we use remote access to PC's and servers as much as possible, there are lots of times where face-time with the client is a business imperative or physical interaction with hardware is technically required.

I drive a car that is pretty near the top of the fuel-efficiency stats for piston-engined vehicles, an '05 Toyota Matrix. Lastly, we pass on to the customer full mileage costs for all trips over 5 miles. That doesn't do anything on the demand side, but at least we recover our costs and the transportation costs are not "hidden." Having the cost of energy out in the open is an important first step to dealing with the demand issue.

21st Century Campaigns - Polling and Cell Phones

Over at MyDD.com, Matt Stoller has been picking apart how polls work, or don't work in the 21st Century. In his latest installment he looks at how traditional land-line telephone polls are becoming more and more unreliable because of the increasing size of the wireless-only household. This goes back to my post last month on Technology and the 21st Century Political Campaign.



In the MyDD article, Matt references a couple of close congressional elections last cycle:

Candidates like Eric Massa and Larry Kissell came very close, and with DCCC support, could have won their districts. In the case of Kissell, I've talked to two people in high level party positions - one local to North Carolina and one in DC - who told me the same thing about why they didn't put more into that race. Polling. They did polls one or more weeks before the election, and it just looked out of reach by six or more points. In a case where you are moving resources around the country, it's hard to make a call to support someone like Kissell when your data says otherwise.

Eric Massa ran in New York's 29th CD against freshman Republican, Randy Kuhl and lost 48-52. Kissell ran in North Carolina's 8th DC against three-term Republican,Robin Hayes, loosing by only 329 votes.


The takeaway fro this then is twofold: One, traditional telephone polls are becoming less and less accurate. This is because of overall declining response rates -- people refusing to participate -- and because of the decreasing pool of voters with plain-old-telephone-service (POTS). Second, the decision-making of the national parties, which depend heavily on polling data will probably miss a lot of pick-up opportunities in grassroots-heavy congressional elections.

Now, more than ever the oft-uttered plea of the insurgent candidate to ignore the polls actually has merit.

Results of School Board Action re: Arts Program at CHS

CHS currently has a staff of 3 art instructors. One has been let go already this year. The Budget Committee proposed axing a second position and leaving one instructor in place. There are currently (I forget the exact number) but it is in the neighborhood of the mid 500's students signed up for art classes.

The argument was made in a very dispassionate manner that the numbers don't add up. Dr. Clegg said that 300 students was the break-even point for a full-time staff person. 550 < 600, ergo only one full time staff person needed.

Students who wish to take more advanced art classes can and should take advantage of the classes offered at Ashford or CCC.

All of this completely misses the point of course. That art students are more often than not kids having a hard time finding their place in the high school hierarchy, and in life in general and who truly NEED the art program as a lifeline. That a vital art program is just, plain and simple part of a well-rounded educational system. That modern education without the arts, music, drama, etc. is just a testing mill cranking out book smart cultural illiterates.

Running an public education system is not like running a manufacturing operation. You can't just shutter an assembly line because demand tails off for a few quarters. Education is an investment. Arts programs are not glamor programs but they are needed. If the program is cut, demand will fall off even more as students are crowded out of what little exists or walk away because what little is offered doesn't meet their needs -- commercial art, photography, painting and print making are among the classes axed tonight.

Even if the lean times pass, starting the program up again once it has degenerated into a mere trifle will require making an investment that is not necessarily justified by the numbers. I don't see this board ever making that sort of commitment of resources.

The final motion was to only cut a half a position leaving 1.5 full-time positions at the high school. It passed 5-1 (Dave Frett was not present) with only Wendy Krajnovich voting against. This was certainly a victory of expediency over vision.

This will only get worse. Last year was the struggle to save the music and band programs in the middle school. Also this year the computer courses at Washington were cut. What next year?

As I said at the meeting, the district is building palaces for education with one hand and hollowing them out with the other.

There were probably 20-25 students there turned out in black T-shirts printed, Save The Arts. Some very passionate and tearful speeches made by these young people, some of whom made the same points that I did -- that this was a lifeline for them.

Also, although my statement was a bit long winded, Debra Olsen shut me down the moment any mention of Dr. Clegg's salary left my mouth. I did not mention any number, I merely said, "the very generous salary that the Citizens of Clinton pay you," and that was it, she cut in and asked me to allow others to have their say. I was mostly done anyway, but I found it pretty amusing. For the record, I had the someone dig into the Herald Archives for me today. Dr. Clegg's current pay package is $112,500 in salary and benefits. In addition this year he was awarded an $11,900 "annuity."

Remarks to School Board on Art Faculty Cuts

Members of the Board. I am here tonight wearing three hats. I am the parent of three children, the youngest of which begins kindergarden at Eagle Heights Elementary in the fall. I am also a member of the Clinton Iowa Great Places Steering Committee. Lastly, I am also a member of the Board of Directors of the Gateway Area Coalition for the Arts. A number of members of both organizations have requested that I address you on these matters this evening.

The great leaders of this nation… Heck even I, grew up going to school in tumbledown old buildings; one room school houses and dilapidated old WPA era buildings that were cold in winter and boiling in spring. But somehow, with the care, commitment and passion of our teachers we managed to get a world-class education; an education good enough to make the state of Iowa synonymous with smart, ethical, hard working people. An education that allowed me to go to Washington, D.C. and tread the halls of power and engage with the people of privilege, the graduates of Harvard, and Yale and have them stop and ask, “Where are you from?”

“Iowa.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“Rockwell-Swaledale Community High School and University of Iowa, what’s your point?”

That is what our public schools are there for; they are the great levelers; the first, most important rung on the ladder of mobility in our society. This fine public education system is worth more to Iowa than all the money spent on all schools and all the teachers since the settlement of the state. Many of you may be familiar with the famous lament of Iowa governors and economic development people that they go to either coast and hobnob with the corporate elite and those powerful captains of industry always say, “Iowa… all our best employees are from Iowa.” And why don’t they stay here?

Well there are a few of us who return like salmon to the fresh, fertile waters of our birth to raise our own children. And what do we find? State and local school officials unable to simply maintain the status quo. Our legacy of academic and civic excellence is being squandered

Today we are talking about trying to save the art programs at Clinton High? What will we be trying to bail out next year? Drama? Music in the middle schools? Too late for some. Debate? Technology?

How about sports? No, not ever that! That would be politically untenable!

I’m telling you here and now that cutting the art program at Clinton High School is politically untenable. Not two years ago, this City received the designation of one of Iowa’s Great Places largely on the premise that Clinton was a town that appreciated the arts, that wanted to grow and embrace the arts. Now we are talking about cutting the art staff at the high school by two-thirds. Nice work. As someone who labored long an hard for that Great Places designation, who takes it to heart and continues to work to make it a reality, I take this move by the school district as a slap in the face.

I’m not the only one either. Neither the oldest, and certainly not the youngest.

Adolesence is tough stuff. Humans are genetically programmed to go through this change in life from youth to adult in a traumatic way. Fortunately we are no longer the primitive, East African Plains Apes of so long ago who send our 13 year-olds out, pointed stick in hand and say, “Here kid, bring me a mastodon pelt and you’ll be a man. If you don’t make it, hey, it wasn’t meant to be.” No, we are enlightened citizens of the 21st Century. We send our kids to high school.

Perhaps I’m facing a panel of former high school football-baseball-basketball stars, cheerleaders and prom courtesans and courtiers. But, I’m here to tell you, even at 42 I remember high school quite well, thank you. One does not graduate from high school, one SURVIVES high school. High school is the crucible… the forge from which we shape the metal of the future of our nation… of our community.

As a young man with no visible place to fit in, it was my teachers, all of my teachers but most of all my art teachers that nurtured my talents, that made me feel valuable, that gave me a vision of something worthwhile that I could do, that made me fell special. Aside from merely educating our youth this is the secondary but no less important function of high school. It is this time of life in which we begin to find our place in the world; a place where we can lend meaning to our lives; more than anything a place where we FIT IN.

It is this secondary role that the arts fit into as part of the whole. While the high school can still be realistically said to be operating “normally” without a well found arts program, it can no longer be considered complete; a fully functional system for generating well-rounded young people.

It must seem like it is all about No Child Left Behind but what about the children who get left behind because the sliver of an art program that is left behind has no room for them, or cannot offer them what they need. This is the destruction of the art program in all but name, let us make no mistake. Only a fool or a liar could face the citizens of Clinton and claim that one teacher can provide a decent high school art program in a town of 27,000.

Today the school district is with one hand putting the citizens of this city in hock for the next two decades for new palaces of education, while the other hollows them out. What good does it do us to have children who can do their sums and construct a proper sentence in accordance with the standards of the Iowa Test of Basic skills if they come out of the system as cultural illiterates? What good does it do us to have our children chasing the tails of federal mandates if they no longer reflect the nature, the expectations and the culture of the place they grew up in? What good does that do our city, our state, our nation in these times of crisis, when more than ever we need creative, enthusiastic citizens to help us cover the bets of our generations of folly?

Do not think Councilmen and -women that I and my fellow citizens here tonight do not appreciate the difficulties facing school boards across the state. I am completely cognizant of the pressures you are under. And I sympathize. But I will not accept excuses. Yours is the responsibility entrusted by this community to build coalitions, think creatively, find new solutions to make this work.

But because these decisions are diffucult and gut-wrenching we cannot accept attempts to deflect blame for the descisons upon the teachers’ union as was insinuated by board members in the Clinton Herald. Ah, the greedy, grasping unions. The root cause of all evil in our republic. Shame on them. All they do is hold our futures in the palm of their hands. All they ask is a living wage. How dare they?! What sort of purely political animal blames the TEACHERS for their own inability to deliver a competitive, living wage that will attract the sort of educators that Iowa expects for her children? What sort of person, just a WEEK after the governor signs a bill raising teacher pay, blames the TEACHERS for his or her inability to balance the school districts books and retain staff?

And while we are addressing the ever increasing salaries of teachers, let me just address my fellow citizens in the crowd tonight. Think upon this, if thes ever-increasing rise in salaries disturbs you, if you are tired of more taxes going into the system just to maintain as is, perhaps you might consider voting for those people who want to put a proper health care system in place in this country. Because THAT, my friends is what is behind this debate here today, make no error. Health care will be behind all the Faustian bargains that the school board makes with itself in the coming years. Fix health care and we fix many problems like the one we face here today.

But that’s not going to help us here tonight. I for one am have no problem with my taxes going to teachers’ salaries. It is in fact the one thing I relish paying my taxes for. I am willing to pay higher taxes to pay the teachers more. Heck, pay ‘em like flippin’ CEO’s for all I care. If it means my children can get the same education, the same OPPORTUNITIES that I got, you’ll not hear a peep from me about the cost. Whatever it costs it’s still cheaper than sending them to Prince of Peace.

I’m with Horace Mann: public education is the foundation stone of our democracy. Iowa’s foundation is granite. THAT is what I left Chicago to come home for. THAT is the legacy came here to give my children, THAT is the legacy I DEMMAND for my children. I don’t care what the rest of the town thinks, tax me to the eyeballs for teacher’s pay. But if you can’t do that, don’t ask me for another cent for your facilities boondoggles.

We’re Iowans. We expect better. Tonight you must find a way to pay for a decent arts program in the high school. Going forward you and all of us must find a sustainable way to maintain the standards we Iowans expect in our educational system. Kick it upstairs to the legislature, march on Des Moines, I’ll be with you. Kick it upstairs to the voters, I’ll be with you. But find a way. That’s why you were elected, that’s why you get paid six figures. Find a way… Or find new jobs.

Clinton School Staff Cuts

Watch this space for remarks by me to School Board later tonight re: staff cuts. Specifically, cuts to the art faculty at the High School. Bad.

What is Turkey?

The Answer: Name a democratic, secular country that is majority muslim? There shouldn't be any question that the most important ally the United States has in the middle east (or anywhere at this moment) is Turkey. Turkey will play a critical role in deciding whether Iraqi Kurdistan remains a quasi-independent entity; Turkey will play a crucial role in stemming the tide of extremist muslim ideologies; Turkey will play a role in helping western democracies, especially European ones to integrate new muslim immigrants.



Just look at these freedom loving Turks, peacefully demonstrating in favor of maintaining their secular democracy. Sorry this blog doesn't have the $90.00 per image to clear them for use without the watermarks. I'm sure you um, get the picture though. All photos, Burak Kara, Getty (natch).

Greatest Music Video Ever Made

I knew this was true when it came out c. 1986 and I've seen nothing in the ensuing 21 years to change my mind.

And if you are utterly ignorant -- not in the "stupid" sense, but in the "young and/or not widely musically literate" sense -- this is "Bastards of Young" by The Replacements

Technology Transfer of Clean Technology

The NYT today has an article on the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, part of the Kyoto Protocol that helps developed countries offset their carbon emissions by paying for non-polluting projects in developing countries. Clean Power That Reaps a Whirlwind.

Although the article focuses largely on the dispute about the funding priorities of the project. More than two-thirds of the CDM projects go to China -- which will this year or next surpass the US as the world's leading carbon emitter -- with most of the rest going to Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, even South Korea. Less than $150m out of the $4.8b transferred in 2002 went to Africa.

I think that many of the deciding factors of not investing in Africa are valid -- higher capital risk, poor infrastructure and capital management systems that can actually DO anything with the money. That said, Africa must receive development aid and the UN should focus on those pockets where the necessary conditions do exist, Southern Africa, Mali, etc.

Complaints that sophisticated Chinese are probably gaming the system are also probably valid. But when you are the world's biggest coal user, you deserve the extra attention.

In the main, this program has to be considered a big step in the right direction. Technology transfer and direct subsidy of leapfrog technologies by the industrial north are going to be crucial to helping the developing world avoid the pitfalls and dead-ends that we have gone through. It will also prevent global carbon emissions from climbing even as the North decreases its own carbon footprint.

Carbon Footprint of a Cheeseburger

Ever wonder how those carbon footprint calculations get made? You know, "I saved ten pounds of carbon by washing my car with cold water." Jamais Cascio, father of uber-Viridian site, worldchanging, opens the hood and shows the work on calculating the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger.

Burgers are common food items for most people in the US -- surprisingly common. Estimates for the average American diet range from an average of about one per week, or about 50/year (Fast Food Nation) to as many as three burgers per week, or roughly 150/year (the Economist, among other sources). So what's the global warming impact of all those cheeseburgers? I don't just mean cooking the burger; I mean the gamut of energy costs associated with a hamburger -- including growing the feed for the cattle for beef and cheese, growing the produce, storing and transporting the components, as well as cooking.

The first step in answering this question requires figuring out the life cycle energy of a cheeseburger, and it turns out we're in luck. Energy Use in the Food Sector (PDF), a 2000 report from Stockholm University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, does just that. This highly-detailed report covers the myriad elements going into the production of the components of a burger, from growing and milling the wheat to make bread, to feeding, slaughtering and freezing the cattle for meat -- even the energy costs of pickling cucumbers. The report is fascinating in its own right, but it also gives us exactly what we need to make a relatively decent estimation of the carbon footprint of a burger.

The researchers break this down by process, but not by energy type. Here, then, is a first approximation: we can split the food production and transportation uses into a diesel category, and the food processing (milling, cooking, storage) uses into an electricity category. Split this way, the totals add up thusly:

Diesel -- 4.7 to 10.8 MJ per burger
Electricity -- 2.6 to 8.4 MJ per burger

With these ranges in hand, we can then convert the energy use into carbon dioxide emissions, based on fuel. Diesel is straightforward. For electricity, we should calculate the footprint using both natural gas and coal, as their carbon emissions vary considerably. (If you're lucky enough to have your local cattle ranches, farms and burger joints powered by wind farm, you can drop that part of the footprint entirely.) The results:

Diesel -- 350 to 800 grams of carbon dioxide per burger
Gas -- 416 to 1340 grams of carbon dioxide per burger
Coal -- 676 to 2200 grams of carbon dioxide per burger

...for a combined carbon dioxide footprint of a cheeseburger of 766 grams of CO2 (at the low end, with gas) to 3000 grams of CO2 (at the high end, with coal). Adding in the carbon from operating the restaurant (and driving to the burger shop in the first place), we can reasonably call it somewhere between 1 kilogram and 3.5 kilograms of energy-based carbon dioxide emissions per cheeseburger.

Renewable is Not a Synonym for Sustainable

Keep reciting it to yourself... Renewable is not a synonym for sustainable

One of my dad's maxims was "never buy or sell hay." Buying hay might bring in the seeds of weeds we had spent years trying to control; selling hay removed tons of nutrients without replacing it with commensurate manure.Thousands of years of unharvested prairie had built the rich silt loam. The first 75 years of diversified, value-added farming saw mainly livestock and livestock products leave a nearly-level farm, using no commercial fertilizer, yet with ever-increasing yields.

We began raising soybeans during World War II, rotating and covering about one-fifth of the acreage each year. By 1954, soil tests showed a need for phosphate fertilizer. (The southwest Iowa soils were high in potassium and we inoculated the beans for nitrogen fixation.)

A farmer may be able to sell some switchgrass grown from the nutrients in the soil, but over time will have to replace a lot of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and eventually some micro-nutrients.

Maintenance rates would cost around $30, at 2007 prices, per ton of dried switchgrass sold. For biofuels to be sustainable, fertilizer sources would have to be limitless and economical.

Some in the biofuels industry say farmers will need a $50-per-ton subsidy to make switchgrass work for them.

Letter to the Editor of the Des Moines Register from Dale Shires of Iowa City.

The Ethanol Bubble -- prices to $4.50 per bushel in February, I think we can begin to call it a Bubble -- is on the rise. Even at the $3.70 or so price of last week, farmers willl sorely tempted to plant every last acre in corn. Never mind the fences or the marginal land, or the "green strips" or the CRP fields.

America and America's farmers seem perfectly willing to sacrifice the last few inches of world-class topsoil in order to extend the Age of Easy Motoring just a couple more years.

Also, check out The Exchange, (MP3 file) from Iowa Public Radio last week as Dennis Keeney, Senior Fellow at Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, cautions against irrational exuberance in renewables.

We need a sustainable, future-proof energy policy. Renewables and ethanol (from whatever source) are just a small part of the eventual solution.

How's that $3.00 a gallon gas treating you?

Drive less.

Still Sick.

Worst. Stomach. Flu. EVAR.
On the plus side, I've had the chance to watch most of the first season of 30 Rock. Funny stuff. Bless iTunes.

Bloggus Interruptus

It runs down like this. Left power cord behind on way to theEmerging Technology Conference in Ames last week. Got back, enjoyed being outdoors in lovely weather. Returned to work, completely swamped of course. Acquired intestinal complaint that knocked me on my butt and introduced me to whole new worlds of pain.

I have lots of neat notes from Emerging Tech. At some point my speech there should be online as well.

Stand by, normal service to resume shortly.