Rational Review

“Wall Street’s wild ride over the last few weeks has many critics of President Bush’s 2000 campaign promise to create personal Social Security accounts dredging up the issue to score points with justifiably frightened voters. Barack Obama’s campaign has used the issue as a cudgel to whack John McCain, who supported President Bush’s plan. Embattled GOP senators such as New Hampshire’s John Sununu are also finding themselves on the defensive as the issue of private accounts is resurfacing in campaign attack ads. resident Bush deserves criticism for the way he pushed private accounts, but not for the idea itself. … Private accounts made sense in 2001, and they still make sense today, even after the calamitous last month in America’s capital markets.” (10/06/08)

“Just a couple of weeks ago, a lot of Democrats were mad at Barack Obama. John McCain had crept ahead in some tracking polls, and Obama’s supporters were pleading with him to get tough and hit McCain where it hurts. … Now that Obama has moved into a lead of about six to eight points, Democrats have stopped getting mad and started getting anxious. Surely, the GOP has an October surprise up its sleeve. Or despite what they’re saying to pollsters, Americans just won’t elect a black man to the White House. Or Democrats will find a way, just as they have so often before, to screw things up. I hate to contribute to this anxiety, but there is one thing people haven’t been worried enough about: whether everyone who wants to vote will be able to, and whether everyone’s vote will actually be counted.” (10/07/08)

“When it comes to stopping Question 1 — the ballot initiative to abolish the Massachusetts income tax — the defenders of the status quo will spare no rhetorical expense. Months ago, Governor Deval Patrick called the prospect of Massachusetts without an income tax ‘a dumb idea’ reminiscent of Darfur. The National Education Association, one of the public-employee unions bankrolling the Vote No campaign, condemns Question 1 as ‘reckless.’ Michael Widmer, head of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, labels it ‘a calamity.’ To the Globe’s editorial board, it’s ‘a blunt budget ax.’” (10/06/08)

“Conning voters has always been a part of Arizona’s initiative process. But that could end in November. If the folks behind Proposition 105 have their way, this could be the last election in which special interests use the initiative process to fool voters. … Proposition 105 says that if a ballot initiative ‘establishes, imposes or raises a tax, fee, or other revenue, or mandates a spending obligation …’ that it must be approved by a ‘majority of qualified electors registered to vote.’ Not a majority of people who actually vote, but a majority of those who are registered to vote. In other words, all of those men and women who don’t show up to the polls or don’t file early ballots will be counted as ‘no’ votes.” [editor’s note: The purpose of this issue is to provide SOME safety against a mere plurality of the electorate being able to foist tax increases on their neighbors. Based on some of his previous columns, Montini should be cheering this, not condemning its clever approach - SAT] (10/07/08)

“There is now more disappointing news for survivors who for years have clung to the hope that cold cases from the civil rights era would be solved and assailants brought to justice. Last year, in a much-ballyhooed news conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller promised to make these unsolved murder cases a major priority. That has turned out to be nothing but a public relations gimmick. Gonzales made the commitment in the midst of the furor over his management of the Bush Justice Department that ultimately led to his resignation. The department has just admitted that there are no cold-case prosecutions under way and little, if any, work has been done at all. One lesson here is to be suspicious of the promises to act made by embattled government officials, particularly when they have previously ignored the problem.” [editor’s note: Funny, the title could have been used for pretty much ANY subject! - SAT] (10/07/08)

“The world’s finance officials will huddle this weekend in Washington to deal with the worst financial crisis since the Depression. Many leaders have already decided that the source of global fears lies in the US economic model. But which part of that ‘model’ really needs fixing? The German finance minister predicts the US will no longer be the ’superpower’ in global finance. The French president said the model of ‘laissez-faire economics is finished.’ Russia’s president said the dominance of the US economy ‘has been consigned to the past.’ Indeed, this crisis can be traced to US financial institutions taking on borrowers who signed mortgage contracts they could not afford. Those loans were then passed up the food chain to investors worldwide with little oversight over whether the home buyers might default if prices fell.” (10/08/08)

“My own life and hardships speak for themselves about the obstacles Afghan women face today. I’ve been threatened with death; I’ve survived a number of assassination attempts; and every effort is made by the fundamentalists to silence me. But I am happy to enjoy support of the peace-loving people of the world. I am especially grateful to Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR) for considering me for the Anna Politkovskaya Award of 2008. I am deeply honored to receive this award, which links me to the memory of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her life for telling the truth and fighting for justice. Her perseverance, bravery and dedication to justice inspire me. By receiving this award, I once again vow not to stop for a moment from telling the truth in the face of death threats and intimidation.” (10/07/08)

“The rallying cry heard all over the Hill the past two weeks was that Congress must act. Our economy is facing a meltdown. Would this bill fix it? Nobody could really explain how it would. In fact, few demonstrated any real understanding of credit markets, of derivatives, of credit default swaps or mortgage-backed securities. If they did, they would have known better than to vote for this bill. All they knew was that this administration was saying some frightening things, and asking for a lot of money. And when has Congress ever been able to come up with a better solution to a problem than to throw more of your money at it? So that is what Congress did, enacting a financial PATRIOT Act in the process. In its embarrassment at being called a ‘Do-Nothing Congress’ the 110th Congress took decisive action and did SOMETHING. No matter that it was the wrong thing.” (10/07/08)

“With almost a trillion dollars picked from their pockets to reimburse reckless Wall Street gamblers, many Americans righteously feel betrayed. A majority will elect a new president next month, and most will wait to see who it will be, and what if anything he can or will do to alleviate their suffering.There are others, undoubtedly, who agree with the Supreme Court’s recent decision that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is individually held, and who believe that the use of their personal weapons is justified to overthrow a government that betrays them and which destroys their very means of existence. The right of legitimate self-defense is recognized by every criminal law in America.” (10/06/08)

“What kind of president will the winner of November’s national popularity contest be? If history is any judge, the nation’s next chief executive, whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, will be something of a monster. It’s not because either of these men are overtly evil. I very much doubt that Obama or McCain is secretly plotting to create the American Reich after Inauguration Day, no matter what dire warnings are floating around the Internet about the supposed dictatorship to come. But both men are likely to leave the government more powerful and intrusive than they found it, and to do some measure of damage to our liberty.” (10/06/08)

“On the night of July 4, 1776, in London, England, King George III made the following entry in his diary: ‘Nothing important happened today.’ Telecommunications would not come into existence until 1836 and no trans-Atlantic cables would be laid until 1866. Hence, he had no way of knowing what had transpired that day in Philadelphia. On that day 56 courageous men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to support a declaration that read, in part, as follows: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” (10/06/08)

“I have had to listen to the presidential and vice presidential debates and comment on them, often enough in real time, as part of my job, but sometimes it feels as if it’s a form of penance for my sins. To keep this as understated as possible, these are not outstanding people. They are seeking to occupy (or be a heartbeat away from) an office that for the past seven-plus years has been held by a not unintelligent but certainly uninquisitive man who, with that special kind of arrogance born of unapologetic ignorance and a fixation on a few dubious verities, has plunged the country into a disastrous war and now into an eminently avoidable financial crisis that almost all the politicians and talking heads have diagnosed incorrectly. Can there be much doubt that this is an empire in steep decline? People of real quality not only do not gravitate toward political leadership, they scurry away from it.” (10/06/08)

“The End of Days is approaching for John McCain and Sarah Palin, and at least one member of the ticket is not likely to greet this development with religious rapture. Their numbers are tanking. Their campaign has had to pull out of Michigan, and they are trailing in most of the battleground states they must hold onto. Even Karl Rove has predicted an Obama win if the election were held today. McCain’s hotheaded behavior during the Wall Street crisis and his numerous other erratic tactical swerves have backfired. And his biggest gamble, choosing Sarah Palin as vice president, is increasingly looking like a disaster. McCain’s all-too-predictable response: get ugly, as he did on Monday is his disturbing rant against Obama in New Mexico. The man who incessantly talks about ‘honor’ has checked his own at the door.” (10/07/08)

“Both candidates are wrong on many counts, not the least is their belief that global warming is either man-made or actually happening. It is not. Ironically, the wailing about man-made greenhouse gas emissions completely ignores the fact that ethanol actually contributes more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere while, at the same time, decreasing the mileage per gallon of gasoline.” (10/06/08)

“Mr. Toben lives in Australia where freedom of speech still prevails on the matters he harps about. And he recently was flying through London. But his opinions are not illegal there either. And he never committed the offence of expressing an illegal opinion within Germany itself. But the EU issued an arrest warrant anyway. And the British government, under that warrant, arrested Toben on behalf of the German authorities. Germany asserts that Toben expressed his opinions on the internet and since Germans can read the internet they have the right to put Toben on trial in Germany. Note that Germany is claiming world-wide jurisdiction over what opinions one may express on the internet. And it appears the Labour government in the UK is willing to arrest people on behalf of Germany even if the offence is not a offence in England, or in the jurisdiction where the person physically resided when he expressed this opinion.” (10/06/08)

“There is no universal goal. It is not satisfactory to include what one ought to do in your definition of what one is. Ayn Rand tried to do this with her concept of a ‘proper man.’ There is no goal prescribed by properties of the universe. No scientist will ever deduce what one should do from discovering the properties of elemental components of the universe. Nor will a religious person ever satisfactorily discover a worthwhile goal from some proposed God. Lacking evidence, a religious person accepts a proposed God’s moral commands. They then frequently claim that a non-believer lacks morality. But their reason for acceptance of the moral commands are baseless: still the same problem. How do we come about acquiring a goal, one’s first goal, one’s primary goal, and have a satisfactory logically valid reason for having it? It is impossible, unless you finally accept that your first goal is baseless. The meaning of life only exists as chosen by the individual.” (10/06/08)

“When Congress began meddling in interstate commerce, using the most generous criteria to justify federal interference in private business and state powers, critics with common sense argued that the ultimate result would be absurdity. If Congress wasn’t made to stick to the powers Constitutionally enumerated, then there would be nothing Congress wouldn’t do! The proponents of big government said, in effect, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Yet the ridiculous is now the normal business of Congress.” (10/06/08)

“With the world’s leading scientists in agreement on the science behind global warming, how are multinational corporations preparing for climate change? Some, like Exxon Mobile, continue to squeeze the last drops of profit out of any oil field they get their hands on while paying scientists to deny climate change. Some see profitability in adapting to a more energy-efficient world. And then there’s the third group: the greenwashers — those hoping to come off as enviro-friendly while they make a buck (or a few million) off our global crisis. Greenwashing is nothing new, but there’s a huge difference between covering up environmentally damaging activities with an eco-friendly gesture or two and touting your pollution-based business as the solution to the climate crisis.” (10/07/08)

“On Feb. 13, 2003, a few weeks before the invasion, I was working as a cameraman for a network news bureau in Kuwait. Our fixer told us that his cousin, a florist, planned to donate 10,000 flowers to children’s charities for the youngsters to give to American soldiers to show gratitude for saving them from Saddam. It was a perfect scene: friendly Arabs, cute kids, our brave men about to go into battle. We pitched the story to our bosses in New York. The boys at the morning show loved it — light and happy, a Valentine’s Day bonbon that could still pretend to be a serious look at the impending war. The next morning, we drove to the flower shop and soon realized that we had been duped. No children’s charities were involved; the florist had just mobilized his relatives’ kids. Had we not agreed to film, he probably would have called the whole thing off. But we didn’t care. We had promised New York this story.” (10/06/08)

“At the beginning of 2006, the Department of Homeland Security offered New Hampshire and Tennessee $3 million each for a test of Real ID. New Hampshire was exactly the wrong place to begin. The Live Free or Die state, home to the libertarian Free State Project, was rife with anti-Real ID activists. The Granite State ID Coalition, a grab bag of groups ranging from the state Libertarian Party to the liberal Democracy for New Hampshire (founded by the remnants of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign), had launched a word-of-mouth effort against the law. Among the gaggle of local libertarian-leaning politicians, it seemed likely that one would arise to carry the anti-Real ID standard.” (10/08)