South of the Border Tortilla Crisis!

It just goes to show you: it's always something.  Professor Schaff comments below on the recently falling price of gasoline.  Good news, you say.  Well, yeah.  Unless your livelihood depends on corn tortillas.  The Washington Post reports that as the price of gasoline heads south, taco shells are headed in the opposite direction.

Mexico is in the grip of the worst tortilla crisis in its modern history. Dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the grain-based fuel ethanol, have led to expensive tortillas. That, in turn, has led to lower sales for vendors such as Rosales and angry protests by consumers.

The uproar is exposing this country's outsize dependence on tortillas in its diet -- especially among the poor -- and testing the acumen of the new president, Felipe Calderón. It is also raising questions about the powerful businesses that dominate the Mexican corn market and are suspected by some lawmakers and regulators of unfair speculation and monopoly practices.

Tortilla prices have tripled or quadrupled in some parts of Mexico since last summer. On Jan. 18, Calderón announced an agreement with business leaders capping tortilla prices at 78 cents per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, less than half the highest reported prices. The president's move was a throwback to a previous era when Mexico controlled prices -- the government subsidized tortillas until 1999, at which point cheap corn imports were rising under the NAFTA trade agreement. It was also a surprise given his carefully crafted image as an avowed supporter of free trade.

Consider the awesome force of those words: "the worst tortilla crisis in modern history."  Drum roll, please.  I am curious now, for the first time I assure you, about what the second greatest tortilla crisis  in modern history looked like, and how your typical pre-modern tortilla crisis differed from the modern version.  Surely there is a Ph.D. dissertation in this. 

Shrewd historians and political scientists will recognize that this crisis has serious implications for the freedom of the press in Mexico. 

Kerry Slams U.S.--Again

Captain Ed:  "Kerry Slams US In Davos Summit."  Glenn Reynolds sums Kerry up nicely:  "Like Jimmy Carter, he'll never forgive America for rejecting him, and he'll console himself with the approval of America's enemies."

Iowa

The Washington Post:

DES MOINES, Jan. 26 -- When New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives here for her first presidential campaign events this weekend, she will encounter unfamiliar terrain -- a landscape where she is not the perceived front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

Although Clinton appears formidable at the national level, she has not built up a lead in Iowa, home of the first caucuses of the 2008 campaign next January. Most recent polls of Iowa Democrats have shown former senator John Edwards of North Carolina in the lead, with Clinton in a pack that includes Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack.

"This is anyone's race to win, including obviously Governor Vilsack, who is very familiar with the landscape here," said newly elected Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D), who met with Clinton shortly after she arrived Friday afternoon but who is remaining neutral. "That's the wonderful thing about the caucus process. The winner will have to earn it."

That puts Clinton in the unusual position of having to prove herself against other Democrats, and having to build up a political infrastructure in Iowa at a time when many rivals already have a head start. Her appearances here -- her first in more than three years -- are certain to start a media frenzy, potentially intruding on the direct access to candidates that caucus-goers have come to expect.

There are many reasons why Clinton may meet resistance in Iowa. An obvious one is her vote for the 2002 congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to go to war in Iraq. Although she has increasingly become a harsh critic of the administration, her long support for the conflict -- and her refusal to renounce her vote -- has left a sour taste among some liberal Democrats.

She also has opposed subsidies for ethanol, a politically incorrect position for any presidential candidate seeking support in an agricultural state such as Iowa.

But, more fundamentally, her challenge may be finding ways to show Iowa Democrats that she is a more personable and accessible figure.

"Her history is eight years at the White House and six years as a U.S. senator -- all of it with Secret Service -- and there's many obstacles that go along with it, many of which Vice President Gore faced in 2000," said Steve Hildebrand, a senior Obama adviser who ran the Clinton-Gore reelection effort in the 1996 race and managed Gore's victory over Bill Bradley in Iowa in 2000.

"She's going to have to figure out how to get outside of that circle, in order to have the same kinds of dialogues with Iowa voters that all the other candidates are going to have," Hildebrand said. "It's expected in these early states, and she's going to have to figure out how to get that done."

Rep. Hunt Defiant

Rep. Roger Hunt continues to withhold the name of the anonymous donor who contributed $750,000 in last November's abortion fight.  Argus Leader excerpt:

State Rep. Roger Hunt on Friday rejected Attorney General Larry Long's attempt to force him to reveal the name of a major campaign contributor in the 2006 state vote on an abortion ban.

South Dakota's campaign finance law violates Hunt's free speech rights, Hunt argues in court papers filed Friday. The law also is vague, he maintains.

Long subpoenaed Hunt in December in an attempt to force him to reveal the source of $750,000 in contributions to the Vote Yes for Life organization. The contributions were made through Hunt's corporation by someone he says is a South Dakota resident.

Long has said Hunt violated campaign finance laws by not disclosing the donor's name.

Gas Prices Down

Some time ago I opined that the days of sub-$2.00 a gallon gas are probably over.  Well, I am happy to report I was wrong, at least in Aberdeen. State and national price still averages over $2.00.  I hope to be further proven wrong. 

Censure It Is

The Senate panel votes 6-3 to censure, but not expel, Dan Sutton. The three members who voted against the resolution favored expulsion. 

Two Americas

Perhaps the story of John Edwards's new house will take on the same dimension as Tom Daschle's Washington DC home in the 2004 Senate race, although don't expect the multi-millionaire Clinton's to bring it up.  Still, average guys don't build $6 million homes with 28,200 square feet and their own "basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room designated 'John's Lounge.'"

Note: apparently getting listed on Drudge has collapsed the Carolina Journal website.  The link above may or may not take you to the news story.  Here's the picture of Edwards's new estate:

The Biology of the Soul

Time.com has a very interesting article by Steven Pinker.  It presents a summary of what is going on in the science of consciousness.  Here is an excerpt. 

We all feel we are conscious of a rich and detailed world in front of our eyes. Yet outside the dead center of our gaze, vision is amazingly coarse. Just try holding your hand a few inches from your line of sight and counting your fingers. And if someone removed and reinserted an object every time you blinked (which experimenters can simulate by flashing two pictures in rapid sequence), you would be hard pressed to notice the change. Ordinarily, our eyes flit from place to place, alighting on whichever object needs our attention on a need-to-know basis. This fools us into thinking that wall-to-wall detail was there all along--an example of how we overestimate the scope and power of our own consciousness.

Our authorship of voluntary actions can also be an illusion, the result of noticing a correlation between what we decide and how our bodies move. The psychologist Dan Wegner studied the party game in which a subject is seated in front of a mirror while someone behind him extends his arms under the subject's armpits and moves his arms around, making it look as if the subject is moving his own arms. If the subject hears a tape telling the person behind him how to move (wave, touch the subject's nose and so on), he feels as if he is actually in command of the arms.

More Incoherent Drivel on Iraq

I admit I did have some expectation that my post on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Non-binding resolution on the President's "surge" policy might attract a barb or two from my friend Chad at CCK.  I was not disappointed.  Chad's post was full of the nastiness and careless reading that has become his blog's M.O., but I will reply to his musings about responsibility. 

He attributes to me the proposition that the Democrats want to bring our troops home.  Yes.  That was expressed in the non-binding resolution.  But "wanting" is not a position or a policy.  What are they prepared to do about it?  The answer is nothing, just yet.  Why not?  If they think the President's policy is a terrible mistake, why not act to stop it?  Why not use their powers to force an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq?  The answer to that is that they do not want to take responsibility for what would then happen.  So long as they express "wants" without actually doing anything, the President will be held responsible for the eventual outcome.  That was the point of my words about responsibility.

I will now go further.  The Democratic majority in Congress has the power to stop the President from putting more troops into the Fertile Crescent.  They are responsible as much for what they don't do as for what they do.  Passing cowardly non-binding resolutions may well allow them to escape responsibility, but that is just weasel talk.  If the Democrats allow the President to pursue his policy, when they could have blocked it, they are in fact responsible for it as he is. 

Iraq

Glenn Reynolds:

DONALD SENSING LOOKS AT THE NEW IRAQ STRATEGY, and likes what he sees.

Meanwhile, a question for Chuck Hagel, et al.: "Rather than back a non-binding resolution of disaproval, why didn't the gutsy Senators, like Chuck Hagel, who are riding the surf of public opinion opposed to the troop surge and taking on a president with approval ratings at the freezing level vote aginst General Petraeus' confirmation? Their convictions hold that he has endorsed a wholly unjustified escalation and will be leading troops on a futile mission. They want a role in the conduct of the war and with the need to win Senate confirmation of Gen. Petraeus the Constitution has given them one, but they have taken a pass. " If Petraeus succeeds, they'll be bragging that they voted for him. If he fails, they'll note that they opposed the surge. As John F. Kennedy noted, political courage is scarcer than physical courage . . . .

Yes.  Instead of drafting a pointless resolution, why doesn't Congress help figure out a way to assist the President in winning this war?

Getting Serious about Iran

The Bush administration has authorized the military to pursue Iranian infiltration in Iraq, including the use of lethal force and may even label the Iranian Army a terrorist organization for its connections to Hamas and Hezbollah:

The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. The "catch and release" policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before letting them go.

Last summer, however, senior administration officials decided that a more confrontational approach was necessary, as Iran's regional influence grew and U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran appeared to be failing. The country's nuclear work was advancing, U.S. allies were resisting robust sanctions against the Tehran government, and Iran was aggravating sectarian violence in Iraq.

"There were no costs for the Iranians," said one senior administration official. "They are hurting our mission in Iraq, and we were bending over backwards not to fight back."

More analysis of the situation by The Captain.

The Unbearable Lightness of the Congressional Majority

Since John Kerry voted for the war before voting against it, we have been waiting for the Democracy Party to tell us what it really thinks about the war in Iraq.  It appears we have longer to wait.  From the Washington Post:

A day after President Bush pleaded with Congress to give his Iraq policy one last chance, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rebuffed him by approving a nonbinding resolution declaring his troop increase in Iraq to be against "the national interest."The committee voted 12 to 9 to send a resolution of disapproval of the president's Iraq policy to the Senate floor next week, setting up what could be the most dramatic confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration since the war was launched four years ago.

A "non-binding" resolution.  That'll teach that rascal in the White House!  This strikes me as about the worst thing that the new Congressional majority could do.  They could have acted to stop the President from putting more troops in Iraq and pursuing a new, more aggressive policy.  That might or might not have been the thing to do, but at least it would have been something.  But of course it would have meant taking responsibility. 

The enemy in Iraq cannot hope to defeat the American forces on the ground.  Their sole strategy has been to convince Americans that the situation in Iraq is hopeless, and to make our tenure there as costly as possible.  The Senate's non-binding resolution sends the message that the strategy is working without removing a single soldier from harm's way.  That is a curious way of supporting our troops. 

SDP Jazz Note: The House that Trane Built

Jeffrey Siegel's extraordinary jazz site, Straight No Chaser, has a podcast on a recent book about Impulse Records. 

I’ve been engrossed in reading Ashley Kahn’s history of Impulse Records, The House That Trane Built for the past few days. There is a Four CD set that goes with the book (thanks for the Chanukah present, Nancy!) and assists greatly in matching Kahn’s descriptive prose to the sometimes wild sounds of the label’s avant-garde recordings.

The book sounds very interesting; the CD collection less so.  I am not much interested in anthologies, as I would rather have the original recordings as the artists themselves put them together.  Recently I acquired the Miles Davis Quintet recordings Cookin, and Workin'.  Both of them are essential pieces in a good jazz library. 

But an anthology provided for free is something I can't resist.  Siegel offers a number of cuts from the above mentioned collection, punctuated by reading from the book.  As I loaded the dishwasher tonight I listened to the podcast.  Rapture would be the word.  If you like jazz or are curious about jazz, check out Siegel's podcast.  You can download it for free, and listen to it on your computer or on your MP3 player. 

I am sure that record company executives are worried about this free distribution of music.  They shouldn't be.  People who listen to the podcasts and don't buy the music weren't going to buy it anyway.  I, on the other hand, have been spending all the money I make writing for the Aberdeen American News buying music I first heard on Straight No Chaser, or my other favorite podcast In the Groove: Jazz and Beyond. 

Historical Irony

Eric Rauchway of Open University:

I couldn't resist this item from Prague:

The Museum of Communism is currently located ... above the McDonalds and next to the Casino....

via The News Quiz.

I'm Just Askin'

PP asks why legislators would propose a repeal of the death penalty even though most South Dakotans favor capital punishment.  Is it possible that the legislators advocate the repeal because they think the death penalty is wrong?  Henry Hyde once said that every legislator should have at least one issue that he'd be willing to lose his seat over.  Perhaps this is it for this group. 

Eleanor McGovern

Argus Leader:

Funeral services for Eleanor McGovern will be 2 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 310 N. Rowley St. in Mitchell.

Public viewing and visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the church.

Refreshments will be served at the church following a private committal service on Saturday. She will be buried a Graceland Cemetery in Mitchell.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the McGovern family.

This Is What It Has Come To, Part II

Yale Daily News:  "Events set to observe Roe"

On Thursday, the Yale Medical Students for Choice will host workshop on manual vacuum aspiration for medical students, using a papaya as a uterine model. Manual vacuum aspiration is a surgical abortion method that uses a syringe to remove the fetus from a woman’s uterus. Merritt Evans MED ’09 said she thought it was important to have the workshop because the procedure can be used for a variety of different purposes — including miscarriage management and the treatment of a failed medical abortion or ectopic pregnancy — and is inconsistently taught in medical school.

While the workshop is targeted towards medical students, undergraduates are also invited to attend.

“The reason I wanted to include other people is that it is such a simple procedure, but the media attention around it … makes this an emotionally traumatic and a complicated thing,” Evans said. “It’s just to be like, ‘Here is what actually happens, here is what the medical procedure is like, this is what an aborted yolk sac looks like.’ It looks like a piece of cotton.”

Epp on Sutton

Our blogosphere colleague Todd Epp doesn't buy Dan Sutton's argument:

But I’m also a father and I’ve also taught and coached young people.  I cannot for the life of me think that Dennis Wiese would put any of his kids up to charging a family friend—Dan Sutton—with these horrible accusations just to get a little pay back for the Flandreau Development Corporation (which Sutton is president of) suing or threatening to sue Ridgefield Farms for the money it invested.

Would you put your 18 year old kid through this?  And your other kids?  And their friends? 

I don’t think Dennis Wiese would do such a thing.  I think he has acted like a parent who beleives his kid has been harmed.

And do you honestly believe that Austin Wiese concocted this whole story just to help his dad out?

Don’t you think with all these moving parts, it would have fallen apart—particularly if you are depending upon a bunch of kids to pull off the knee-capping of a sitting state senator?

And don’t you think it would have fallen apart after two days of hearings in Pierre?  It hasn’t.

And what about Attorney General Larry Long and the DCI?  They obviously thought there was some fire with the smoke, that something indeed untoward happened to Austin Wiese by Dan Sutton?  They just don’t investigate to investigate because they have nothing better to do.  And when Democrats are involved?  Come on.  Give Larry and the cops some credit.  These are hard nosed people.

I’m sitting in Augusta, Kansas, six or seven hundred miles away from Pierre.  I have no inside information about what might happen.  But here’s my guess what the Senate will do.  Dan is at the least going to be censured. Cripes, don’t sleep in the same bed as a page! And I think, based on what has transpired, that Dan is in real danger of losing his seat.

After that, it will be up to the lawyers, the courts, Dan Sutton, and public opinion.  But I don’t think it looks too good for Dan Sutton right now.

You can catch the trial later today at:

Sutton Hearing

KELOLand will be streaming the proceedings live.  The Argus Leader blog has been extensively covering the hearing, and so has Denise Ross.

Minimum Wage Setback

The New York Times:

Prospects for an increase in the minimum wage suffered a setback today in the Senate, where a move fell short, at least for now, to raise the minimum by $2.10 an hour without tax breaks for small businesses

The 54 “yes” votes were six short of the number needed to shut off debate and move on to consideration of the bill, which easily passed in the House two week ago. That bill would increase the wage to $7.25 from the current $5.15 in three steps, but without tax breaks. Today’s vote, while disappointing to those who want to raise the minimum wage at once and with no accompanying tax provisions, was hardly a surprise. A substantial number of senators had indicated they wanted to tie a wage increase to tax breaks for small businesses, to help offset the costs of the increase.

Next, the Senate will debate what kind of tax breaks to attach to a wage increase. Then, the Senate will have to agree with the House. President Bush has signaled that he would sign a bill providing for a wage increase with related tax breaks.

All 43 “no” votes on the motion to end debate were cast by Republicans. Five Republicans joined 47 Democrats and two independents in voting “yes.” They were Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John W. Warner of Virginia and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine. (Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, and Senators Tom Carper of Delaware and Tim Johnson of South Dakota, both Democrats, did not vote.)

I expect that eventually the minimum wage bill will pass both chambers with some sort of tax relief offered to small businesses to accommodate the additional cost of higher wages they're unprepared to offer.  Each party will claim some degree of victory and bipartisanship while inflation rises and lower-wage jobs are lost.  The result of that?  It'll be President Bush's fault, obviously.  Plus, the Washington economic meddlers will ask for another minimum wage increase in the next few years.

The Master Of The Inane

Yes, I did well on the State Of The Union guessing game.  Aced out Knippenberg.  I am listed 35th, but only finished 3 points behind the winner.  When it comes to understanding meaningless political rhetoric and command of empty political gestures and cliches, I am a master.

There is nothing in the Constitution that says the president must make an annual address to Congress.  It just says "from time to time" he should report on "the State of the Union."  And he certainly does not have to appear in person.  Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of personally delivering a speech.  He and his successors simply delivered an "annual message" in paper form to Congress.  Woodrow Wilson re-inaugurated the practice of giving a big speech to a joint session of Congress.  One more reason to dislike Wilson.

"I Didn't Do Anything"

One consolation: At least Dan Sutton is taking on the charges against him rather than play legal games through his lawyers.  He should have done this months ago.

Update: We've finally made national news. This just hit Drudge.
 

Sutton Hearings

From Todd Epp:

Here's a Sentence You Don't Read Every Day in the Argus Leader

From this evening’s Argus Leader coverage of S.D.’s favorite soap opera, “As the Dan Turns”:

According to Olson’s testimony and his notes he made that day, Austin described the act as “hand on weiner.”

UPDATE:  Greg Belfrage has more coverage of the Sutton investigation, including these odd quotes.

UPDATE II:  Remember that you can listen to the trial online:

Sutton Hearing

UPDATE III:  You can access the archived hearings via this site provided by the legislature.  I listened to parts of the hearing tonight, but have yet to listen to yesterday's.  Also, be sure to check out Denise Ross's blog for more thoughts on the hearing.

This Is What It Has Come To

I have defended child pornography in class on the following grounds: if kids can get permission from their parents to engage in other activities for money, why not let parents attest to the emotion maturity of their children so the children can perform sex for money in front of a camera.  Surely some children have the maturity to make this decision freely (much as some are mature enough to commit adult crimes) and who is better to judge their maturity than their parents?  I hope you can see the problem with this logic, namely, there are somethings that are wrong in and of themselves, and thus cannot be justly consented to (slavery is another example).  But apparently depicting 12-year-olds getting raped is now "edgy" and "art."  And the 12-year-old swears her sexuality was not exploited. 

Janklow v. Argus

From the Argus Leader blog:

We said yesterday that former Gov. and Rep. Bill Janklow arrived in Pierre driving a new Escalade.

He corrected that today - in the lengthiest conversation he’s had with Argus Leader reporters in years.

He said he’s had the Escalade for several years and that it was a 1973. Did they make Escalades in 1973? He showed an unsigned vehicle registration form as proof.

“Look at it,” he said. “But I might have faked it.”

Janklow said it was important to correct the misinformation.

“The public hangs on every word the Argus Leader says, and when you get it wrong, you just screw them up,” he said.

He added that it was common for the Argus Leader to get it wrong.

It wasn’t a pleasant conversation, but it was a conversation - without profanity. That’s progress.

Prepare yourself for bad news

John Kerry is going to announce today that he is not running for President.  There, there, the pain will pass.  From the Boston Globe, ht to Michelle Malkin:

His decision to stay out of the presidential race reflects a realization that he would have had an uphill climb in capturing the Democratic nomination, given the other party heavyweights who are already in the race, according to the officials, who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity.

Well, I had noticed that polls tracking potential Democratic nominees don't usually even include Kerry.  But that hasn't stopped him from dancing the dance.

Kerry, the party's 2004 presidential nominee, has been acting like a 2008 candidate virtually since he lost to President Bush -- traveling the country, spreading money to other Democratic candidates, and keeping in place a campaign infrastructure that was ready for another presidential bid.

But according to Kerry associates, the senator's plans changed dramatically in the fallout of his election-eve ``botched joke" about the education levels of US troops. The harsh reaction to that incident -- from many Democrats as well as Republicans -- displayed to Kerry the extreme skepticism within his own party about whether he should mount another run.

That is an interesting, but not particularly plausible story.  Kerry must have known long before the "botched joke" that he had a snowball's chance in Florida of winning the Democratic nomination a second time.  Kerry is in the same predicament as Al Gore: Democrats will never forgive either of them for losing to Dubya.  The reason that both have been pretending to run is simply that one gets more attention that way.  At least Kerry has more time for leisure activities.

Obama Faces Prejudice. From Black Democrats!

Mickey Kaus has this story on his Slate blog, so I will just steal it from him.  He cites a Newsday Article. 

Clinton now holds a commanding 41-17 percent lead over the Illinois senator among Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken before her announcement, and after Obama's Jan. 16 campaign kickoff.

Strikingly, Clinton did even better among black Democratic voters, amassing a 26-point lead over Obama. "Hillary's Democratic primary support is climbing, while others are stalled or falling," crowed Penn.

That is indeed striking.  Kaus, again, refers us to this article by one of my favorite jazz writers, Stanley Crouch, in the New York Daily. 

When black Americans refer to Obama as "one of us," I do not know what they are talking about. In his new book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama makes it clear that, while he has experienced some light versions of typical racial stereotypes, he cannot claim those problems as his own - nor has he lived the life of a black American.

CBS has this poll, also cited by Kaus. 

Sutton Hearing

The AP on the Sutton hearings yesterday.   

Wiese, the first witness at the hearing, said he agreed to stay in Sutton's motel room before he realized it had only one king-size bed. He said that after he went to sleep the first night, he was awakened by Sutton covering him up and touching him. He said he woke up numerous times and felt Sutton touching him on his side, back and hip.

Minimum Wage and Unemployment

My friend Chad at CCK poses this provocative question:

Does anyone know a person who was fired from their job because the minimum wage was raised?

Conservatives like this strawman, but I've yet to see a real-life example of it.

I am not exactly sure what would satisfy Chad.  Someone whose boss let him go and actually said: "Hey, I have to. It's that damn minimum wage increase."?  The real question is whether raising the minimum wage decreases employment across the board among the most vulnerable segments of jobseekers.  In fact, most economists believe that significant increases in the minimum wage have precisely that effect.  They believe this because standard economic theory predicts it, and because it is in fact what happens. 

Here are some figures from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

In a new study, economists Richard Burkhauser, Kenneth Couch and David Wittenburg review the evidence from the latest minimum wage increase and find that the 1996-97 minimum wage rise led to a decline in teenage employment in the range of one to three percent.

In a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Kenneth Couch translated these conclusions into raw numbers. 

• At the low end of the range, at least 90,000 teenage jobs        were lost in 1996 and another 63,000 jobs lost in 1997        (see figure).
• At the higher end, job losses may have equaled 268,000 in        1996 and 189,000 in 1997. 
• He estimates that a $1 rise in the minimum wage will        further reduce teenage employment by between 145,000 and        436,000 jobs. 

The CATO Institute has a more careful study of the effects of the 1990-1991 increase in the minimum wage, written by three economists from Texas A&M and the University of Chicago.  They observe that employment declined among all age groups after the wage hike.  It declined most steeply among younger workers, whose labor is less valuable.  Male workers between the ages of 20 and 24 saw a 4.4% decline.  Males in their teenage years saw a decline of almost 7%.  Women suffered only slightly less severe declines. 

Contrary to what Chad says, the idea that hikes in the national minimum wage hurt the most vulnerable workers is no "straw man."  It is based on overwhelming evidence, as well as common sense.  When you artificially increase the price  for some category of goods or services, you will decrease the demand.  When employing people becomes more expensive, employers choose the more valuable employees and hire fewer of the least valuable employees.  What is wrong with Chad's question is that it asks the wrong thing.  What matters is not who is fired, but who is not hired in the first place.

The President, Tim Johnson, and Thomas Jefferson

In the third paragraph of his State of the Union Address, as it is found online at the White House site, the President pays homage to our recovering Senator. 

Two members of the House and Senate are not with us tonight, and we pray for the recovery and speedy return of Senator Tim Johnson and Congressman Charlie Norwood.  (Applause.)

This South Dakotan gratefully acknowledges the President's words. 

The President's speech, as has become the custom, was so thoroughly vetted in advance that there are no surprises.  I will only note something formal, which is evident in this striking picture.

Behind the President are two persons, and it is important who they are and why they are there.  The State of the Union Address is a duty imposed on the President by the Constitution.  I reproduce here the first clause of Article II, Section 3, from ePublius!, a site constructed by Professor Schaff and myself. 

[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;

Nancy Pelosi is behind the President because she is the constitutional leader of the House of Representatives.  Dick Chaney is there not because he is Vice President, but because he is the Constitutional Leader (de jure, not de facto), of the Senate.  Together they represent the presence of Congress, and that is a visible sign that the Constitution is in charge. 

Many of Bush's critics believe that his national security policy is a threat to constitutional liberties.  I believe this charge is hysterical, but it is not at all unusual.  I am currently teaching a course on judicial politics, and we are covering the famous case of Marbury v. Madison.  At that time both major parties, the Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, and the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, accused the other of aiming at tyranny.  Both were wrong.  The Constitution has proved stronger than the partisan forces that make it work.  But perhaps it is not a bad idea that we should always be hyper-sensitive to any threat against our fundamental principles. 

It is also a good idea to treat each other with common decency.  The President's kind mention of Tim Johnson did that. 

Ellsworth Receives Grant

From the Rapid City Journal:

A $500,000 federal grant will be used to hire a planning consultant to work with developers and communities around Ellsworth Air Force Base and fund efforts to develop technology-based economic development in the Black Hills.

Gov. Mike Rounds and the Moving Forward With Ellsworth Steering Committee on Monday announced receipt of the community economic diversification grant from the Office of Economic Adjustment, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The grant is available to economies that are "defense dependent" and to communities experiencing growth of missions at their military installations. Ellsworth will become the new home of the Air Force Financial Services center, adding to challenges for community growth, according to a news release from the governor's office.

Are You Ready For Some Product Placement!

This is what I gather from this past weekend's CBS coverage of the AFC Championship game.  On Sunday, February 4, CBS will televise a concert by Prince (aka, The Artist Formerly Known As Popular).  Before and after the concert there will be many amusing commercials designed just for that special day.  In between the commercials they will show some meaningless athletic competition matching teams from Chicago and Indianapolis.  I think I speak for the rest of America when I say I can't wait to see one of those Mac commercials with that kid from Dodgeball.  Oh, and I hope Prince plays "When Doves Cry."  They better not waste too much time showing that stupid football game. 

Every day it gets harder and harder to enjoy professional sports.

Sutton Witnesses Announced

Argus Leader:

Officials with the South Dakota Senate moments ago released the names of more than a dozen people who have been subpoenaed by both sides to appear in the disciplinary hearing for Sen. Dan Sutton.

They are expected to testify during the hearing, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow afternoon and last through most of the week.

The witnesses include Austin Wiese, the former high school page from Flandreau who says Sutton groped him at a Fort Pierre motel room last year.

The Argus Leader generally does not name people who might be victims of sex crimes, and in previous coverage of this case, the newspaper had not identified Sutton's accuser for that reason.

However, since no charges have been filed in the case, and Austin Wiese is scheduled to testify in public at a legislative hearing this week, the newspaper decided to use his name.

The witness list also includes a staffer for U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-South Dakota. That person, Steven Dahlmeier, was subpoenaed by the Senate. He declined to comment this afternoon when contacted at Herseth's Sioux Falls office.

Other witnesses expected to be called by the Senate include Chelsey Gassman and Brady Olson.

Gassman was a legislative page in the House of Representatives last year, according to the House Journal.

Also expected to testify are three members of Wiese's family, all of whom were subpoenaed by the Senate: Anna Wiese, Owen Wiese and Kyle Wiese.

Lawyers for Sutton subpoenaed their own witnesses. They include: Michael Mohr, Mitch Fargen, Rick Weber, Brett Doyle, Rod Clark, Janna Ellingson, Shawn Powers and Noah Johnson.

Both sides subpoenaed Brandon Carr to testify.

Jim McMahon, a Sioux Falls attorney who has been hired to represent the Senate, said last week that he may call one or two other people as witnesses, including an investigator with the state Division of Criminal Investigation.

Blue Dog Lobbyists

From today's edition of Roll Call:

When lobbyist Jeff Murray and his firm, the C2 Group, held a reception earlier this month to honor Members of the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition on the occasion of their swearing-in for the new Congress, the event drew a crowd of 300.

That’s six times the number it was two years ago, Murray said.

The increase is a clear sign of the business community’s redoubled affection for the Blue Dogs, a group that lobbyists for corporate America view as a natural ally in the Democratic-controlled Congress. The Blue Dog Coalition is best known for its fiscal conservatism, though its members also have bucked the Democratic Party on business and social issues.

The network of former Blue Dogs and their one-time aides now working on K Street, such as Murray, is relatively small. But those lobbyists say that their clients are seeking closer ties to the Blue Dogs, hoping that the conservative Democrats will influence how their party oversees business policy, ranging from an upcoming farm bill to energy policy.

...

The business community sees in the Blue Dogs an opportunity to pick off majority votes, but lobbyists closest to the coalition say that today’s breed of Blue Dog is more loyal to their party and more likely to influence the debate from the inside.

“The business community sees the Blue Dogs as having an open-door policy -- open minds and open ears to their proposals,” said former Blue Dog and Rep. Max Sandlin (D-Texas), who’s now a lobbyist with Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations. “At the same time, the Blue Dogs are a part of the Democratic Caucus and certainly are going to work in the confines of the Democratic majority and try to work from within to try to influence legislation.”

...

Stenholm, a former co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, now represents a number of clients in the agriculture sector. He said that since so many Blue Dogs are on the House Agriculture Committee, it bodes well for his lobbying business as Congress negotiates a farm bill reauthorization this year.

“The Blue Dog clout has been increased dramatically because many of the freshman Democrats are Blue Dogs,” Stenholm said. (There are now 43 Blue Dogs.) “Therefore the agenda for the 110th Congress is going to naturally go toward the center.”

Blue Dogs also serve on the House’s most powerful committees, including Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce. And one former Blue Dog staffer, Ed Lorenzen, now is an aide in the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Creationism, Bushism, and Liars

My friend Chad at CCK kindly acknowledges that one of his earlier posts was based not on accurate information, but on a hoax.  Here is the gist of the original story:

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.

In other words, the Bush administration is siding with the most extreme creationists, the Young-Earthers, who believe that the world is only a few thousand years old.  There are indeed such people, and they base their crypto-geology on the Old Testament.  From the original story, one would guess that the Bush Administration agrees, and has pressured the National Park Service to go along. 

The only trouble with this story is that it is a lie.  The quote above is from a PEER press release, PEER being the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.  The press release was at first reported uncritically by Skeptic magazine (which I happen to admire: Long Live the De-bunkers!),   but Skeptic failed to do the simple fact check and did not call the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon.  Skeptic now acknowledges that it has egg on its face. 

In our eagerness to find additional examples of the inappropriate intrusion of religion in American public life (as if we actually needed more), we accepted this claim by PEER without calling the National Park Service (NPS) or the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) to check it. As a testimony to the quality of our readers, however, dozens immediately phoned both NPS and GCNP, only to discover that the claim is absolutely false. Callers were told that the Grand Canyon is millions of years old, that no one is being pressured from Bush administration appointees — or by anyone else — to withhold scientific information. 

I was skeptical about this story from the start.  Bush is a Christian, to be sure, and so no doubt are many powerful members of his administration.  But I never saw any sign that the Bushies were Creationists, let alone Young Earthers.  This looked like a smear, which it was.  Chad has only a little to apologize for.  He relied on a journal with a reputation for getting the facts right.  Skeptic is properly embarrassed, but it has now come clean. 

I blog on this in part because it reminds me of a visit several years ago to Blanchard Springs Caverns (no relation).  These marvelous caves in the Ozark National Forest in North Central Arkansas are a pretty good testament to the age of the Earth.  When I was there with my family I asked the Park Service guide about a huge pile of Bat guano, about the size of a small submarine.  "How long did it take for that to be deposited?", I asked.  The guide was very cautious in answering.  At first I could not understand her hesitance, but after a little conversation I learned that she was frequently attacked by creationists.  Park Service personnel aren't paid enough to have to do battle with these gopher heads on a daily basis.  If there is any pressure on them to be quiet about the scientific age estimates, it doesn't come from George W.  It comes from the Young Earthers who probably plan their vacations precisely for this purpose. 

Chad and I have a lot of things to disagree about. The age of the Grand Canyon isn't one of them. 

Interesting: Country For Sale

Its official, Sealand is for sale.  Check out this rather interesting article from National Geographic News.

Blogs and Politics

New York Daily News:

Kissing babies? Old hat. Shaking hands? How very 20th century. The 2008 campaign is going to be all about blogging, podcasts and YouTube.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton announced they were running on the Internet, following the lead of ex-Sen. John Edwards and ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

The road to the White House goes through Cyberspace now.

A recent Pew report found that nearly 20% of voters in the 2004 election relied primarily on the Internet to get their political news. That's going to soar.

Sutton Hearings Taking Place

From today's Argus Leader:

The state Capitol will be thick with lawyers this week, a sure sign that tumultuous events are unfolding inside.

Lawyer-lobbyists typically ply the halls during legislative sessions, but the disciplinary hearing to investigate Sen. Dan Sutton is sure to draw more barristers than usual.

Sutton, a Democrat from Flandreau, is represented by two of the top defense lawyers in South Dakota. The Senate, which is holding the hearing, is represented by former U.S. Attorney Jim McMahon. Attorney General Larry Long and others from his office also are expected to be on hand.

Then there's former governor and congressman Bill Janklow, who recently got his law license back. Janklow represents the high school page who accused Sutton last year of sexual misconduct.

...

Once you count 35 senators and the people associated with the hearing, there's room for only a couple dozen spectators. Throw in some curious House members, and there won't be much room for anybody else.

The hearing should be available to anyone with an Internet connection.

The state plans to broadcast the proceedings live on its Web site, Fry said.

Good Grief, Not The Laptops Again

Remember the story last year of Gov. Rounds proposing that every student have a laptop?  Now some schools are thinking about going to a four day week and using part of that extra day for teachers to figure out how to incorporate laptops into their lesson plans. 

Laptop learning: The laptop revolution supplies one reason for districts to at least think about it. Teachers would likely continue to work five days a week, using the fifth day for staff development, the leaders said.

Learning more about how to incorporate laptop computers into curricula would likely be one use of the fifth day for Groton Area teachers, Schuster said.

"A four-day week would definitely be an advantage to any school looking at participating in the laptop initiative," she said. "It is important to have staff development built into the calendar, and we would not have enough if we went with the laptop initiative. Staff development and a four-day week go hand in hand."

The state is promoting its program where schools buy laptops for secondary students, with the state sharing the cost. Warner and Groton are both looking at the possibility of participating in the laptop program beginning with the 2008-09 school year, their superintendents said.

I have posts on this matter from last year, here and here.  In the second link I summed up the findings on laptops in the classroom thusly: "The evidence is clear.  A pervasive use of laptops in education at best has no effect, and in fact there is some evidence that significant use of computers in the classroom actually leads to lower educational achievement." 

I urge those school districts looking to expand the use of laptops in schools to reconsider.  I beg the legislature to kill any state program funding such initiatives.  Let us devote more money to teacher pay rather than technological gimmicks, and more time on fundamentals. 

If we wish to produce "trousered apes" and "urban blockheads" (see this essay by C.S. Lewis) then by all means let us run to technology to solve our educational needs.  I will end on that note before I start pontificating on what a liberal education means to a citizen living in a free society.