Interesting Stuff # 45

Political Psychology: The Bush Bubble Myth

No, Mr. Bush is a clear-eyed realist when it comes to his circumstances, and ours. He is not in political trouble because he inhabits a bubble. He is on trouble because he has undertaken a difficult war against a relentless enemy and is determined to see it though despite the public's fatigue and doubt. He is in trouble because from the start of his administration he has faced relentless domestic political enemies who are determined to cripple and, if possible, ruin his presidency. And he is in trouble because some allies he should be able to count upon appear to have adopted the fallacious arguments of his enemies or in the case of Congress are afraid to directly address them.

A Reporter’s Confession

Regular readers of Maggie's Farm know that I am a newspaper reporter by profession…
Thus when I see the big city reporters publishing pieces on classified material, and the like, I understand it completely. Reporters, in moments of weakness, will sell their souls, or their country, to try to redeem the sense of purposelessness of their lives. They want to be engaged, and not objective observers. In my opinion, that is reporting in bad faith.
In our newsroom, in our medium-sized city, we sometimes amuse ourselves with the New York Times, which many newsmen view as a political tool. We figure out what they leave out, what they bury on page 21, how they spin stories, and what they decide to cover. We howl over their lame corrections. They have become highly agenda-driven, with a socialist, multi-cultural, anti-Israel, anti-American bent, but will not admit it. And I am telling you why that happens - it's not just that they have a leftist mission: it's about ego. They want to "make a difference" and they want to "feel virtuous" with other people's money - but without doing anything real other than typing on a keyboard. In other words, the NYT reporters are nothing more than full-time bloggers, who get paid and who kill trees.

Media Again Ignore Consumer Confidence Highs (which correlates with incumbency at election-time)

On April 25, The Conference Board reported that it found consumer confidence at a four-year high. The network evening newscasts all ignored the news, focusing instead on their continuing drumbeat about high gas prices.

India Gets Expansionist

Now, with India joining in the effort, the republics of Central Asia will come under even more democratic influence. India's new economic growth requires dependable sources of energy, and the region has the reserves and the capacity to deliver. The military bases will provide India the necessary security for their pipelines, but it will also serve to strengthen the independence of Tajikistan from the increasingly autocratic domination of Moscow.

Sinai Under Siege

What really needs to happen is Mubarak needs to liberalize the economy and bring in more investment as quickly as possible while relaxing the security regime. He also needs to stop mindlessly cracking down on liberal forces in the country. If he actually did this, then he’d be worth supporting.

The cold war for energy heats up

When Presdient went on a gas price political offensive – anticipating November mid-term elections – his tactics also reflected heating up of the energy issue worldwide. Whatever the rhetoric, ultimately competition for international energy dictates rising prices….
Arrival in Washington in late April of a relatively obscure Central Asian chief, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, is another piece moving in this giant chess….he owes his continuing patrimony to U.S. strategy linking Caspian oilfields to Western markets by skirting Russian infrastructure….In addition to oil, Azerbaijan lies next to Iran with twice more Azeris than Aliyev’s domain..Basses there could be critical if and when the Iranian WMD crisis explodes.
Alliyev’s oil-related travels aren’t unique. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting President Valdimir Putin in Tomsk, western Siberia, a petroleum treasure trove. Merkel will be walking a fine line; she won’t be lecturing Putin on human rights as at their first meeting. She will be coaxing Russian’s oil tsar [Moscow is now No. 2 exporter] toward a new European Community energy agreement, seeking to level the playing field between Russia and its biggest customers. But oil is a weapon Putin hopes to use to recover superpower status. Unfortunately Merkel had the rug pulled from under her when her predecessor – in a scandalous abuse of power as he left office – signed a huge new gas pipeline deal. Gerhard Shroeder got plushy retirement as chairman of the new enterprise. But since it runs through the Baltic skirting Poland and the Baltic states, it gives Putin additional leverage over his EU customers. Merkel’s calls for diversification of EU’s energy sources, however grim the prospects, rings very true.
Although China’s mushrooming imports have tapered off a bit, President Hu Jintao made a beeline for Saudi Arabia after departing a somewhat cool Washington visit. Never mind the Saudis abetting Moslem Uighur rebels in China’s westernmost province of Singkiang where Beijing’s own relatively minor new oil and gas is found and where they will soon connect with Kazahstan, and perhaps, even Caspian oil. Nor is it the only place where Beijing’s supposed alliance with the U.S. in the war on terror collides with oil hunger. In Sudan, Osama Ben Ladin has just declared war on American-backed peacekeeping forces before they arrive to halt genocide on fellow Moslems in Dafur. But his murdering Khartoum allies are selling China oil after Canadians retreated in the face of human rights activists.
Hu’s trip to the Big Pump [Saudi is the largest exporter and has the largest reserves] was preceded only a few weeks with agreement on proposed Chinese purchases of Australian uranium. Down Under has 40 percent of world uranium reserves. That deal came after offshore Australian gas was sold to a Chinese government oil firm, according to Ozzie commercial media, at disadvantaged prices in the heady Antipodean “China boom” atmosphere..
The competition’s intensity has sworn enemies, India and Pakistan, talking up energy collaboration to pipe Iranian gas to the Subcontinent….
But in a globalized world economy, the intensity of the interplay has probably never seen its equal.

Medicare Rule Guarantees Continuity of Drugs

The Bush administration issued a new policy on Wednesday that protects Medicare beneficiaries against the sudden loss of coverage for drugs they are taking under the prescription drug program.
Under the policy, insurers can still change their lists of covered drugs, known as formularies. But if they drop any drugs or impose new restrictions, they must exempt beneficiaries who are now taking those drugs. …
The policy addresses one of the chief criticisms of the Medicare drug benefit. Democrats and a few Republicans in Congress had said it was unfair that drug plans could change their formularies at will while most beneficiaries were locked into a drug plan for the full year. This disparity was a major concern for many consumer advocates and for some beneficiaries….
In most states, 40 or more drug plans are available. They differ in premiums, co-payments, deductibles and other details. Some plans cover fewer than 800 drugs. Some cover more than 1,800….
Dr. McClellan, the Medicare administrator, said his agency had received 4,600 requests from drug plans that wanted to change their formularies. About 3,100, he said, involve the addition of drugs or relatively minor changes. About 1,500 requests involve more significant changes that will be covered by the new requirement, he said.

Teachers' Unions are Cheating Their Members

Tom Elia has a link and analysis to a story in the LA Times about how the NEA recommends certain retirement funds to their members. They then receive premiums from the insurance companies totally millions of dollars. It is just unfortunate that the policies they recommend are bad deals financially for the teachers making the investments.