Quote of the Day
Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow.
Bill Moyers
The Tea Party: Michele Bachmann Is NOT My Spokesman
I consider myself part of the Tea Party; I've participated in various online activities, e.g., rating issues (the subject of a past post or two) and a fairly innovative pairwise propagating President race poll. I do think most people think their views are representative of the silent majority. I don't think necessarily that most people agree with my positions, but I think they would prefer my approach. I have a strong philosophic standpoint that appears in the description of my blog. If you understand my principles, what I'm advocating goes far beyond the Tea Party.
At the same time, I have publicly distanced myself with the Tea Party Express. I speak as someone whom has been very successful in turning around operations and projects but has faced resistance to change every step of the way. I've paid some personal prices along the way for doing the right thing. But the point is that I never went into these engagements with line authority over others. I had to lead by persuasion, and I had to sacrifice some pawns along the way. There are a number of things I've had to do like establish my credibility, and I've had to listen and be patient and flexible.
I strongly disagreed with what the Tea Party Express did last year, picking more ideological US Senate candidates in Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, and Delaware; Kentucky almost blew up in their faces. In these cases, there were less vetted candidates, with little appeal to independent and moderate voters. In large part, I agreed with these candidates on matters of principle, but I was very concerned about the approach and priorities: it's penny-wise, pound-foolish. Keep in mind part of the reason that the electorate handed the ball to the Republicans last November was not ideological; it reflected the economy and an out-of-control budget. No matter what, President Obama wields the power of the veto, and at minimum, the Dems would be able to filibuster legislation in the Senate. The Republicans had been complaining that they were marginalized and had no real input in legislation during the last Congress. The public was/is tired of partisan bickering--they didn't want to simply change the direction of partisanship.
The Governor Walker (R-WI) collective bargaining kerfuffle largely parallels George W. Bush's post-reelection gambit on social security reform. First, it took on a sacred cow; second, it's extremely risky. For example, if Governor Walker lost, he would be viewed as a weak leader. I would have focused on closing the current budget repair first and maybe locating some other bipartisan wins before testing collective bargaining reform. And if I was going to tackle collective bargaining, I would have made the process more transparent and inclusive with the opposition. Does this mean I disagree with Walker's basic position from the standpoint of principle? No. It is more a question of process and timing.
I think the Tea Party has to rely less on polarizing rhetoric and austerity and more on a positive, proactive, accountable, transparent, streamlined, essential government, with responsive, effective government services. I think Michele Bachmann in terms of lecturing on massive deficits is pushing on a string; she is being largely repetitive, and the proof is in the pudding. The devil is in the detail: how do you handle the situation where Democrats control the other two branches of government?
Ironically, as I was writing this commentary, Congresswoman Bachmann (R-MN) coincidentally was Bill O'Reilly's guest interviewee, and she described herself as pragmatic and solution-oriented (it's almost as if she was reading my blog description as her inspiration).
Budget Deal? A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Months Late and Billions of Dollars Short....
I would have handled this a lot differently than the Republicans have. I might have started with a challenge for the Senate Democrats to find $100B in savings, across the entire federal budget. I don't think it was a good idea to focus on eliminating or deeply cutting Democratic-preferred programs, at least in the short term.
It's ludicrous to pretend a $61B cut given a $1.6T budget deficit is serious debt reduction. The fact is that the Dems could and should have passed a budget last summer/fall while they still had massive majorities. The GOP faces a Senate and White House controlled by Democrats. Most likely, if I was Speaker Boehner, I would probably show I can work with Democrats, arbitrate the difference with Majority Leader Reid (D-NV), claim credit and declare victory for budget cuts not made by the previous Congress, and blame the Dems for being tone-deaf about the nation's concern about ongoing unsustainable deficits. I don't want to see a government shutdown on narrow partisan issues. Show the American people the GOP can work with the Democrats, and save your fire for next year's (Paul Ryan (R-WI)) budget.
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
Atomic Power Review notes:
- morning: The marker dye for the cable pit so far has not been detected at sea. There is now discussion of trying to inject sodium silicate (liquid glass) under the sand/gravel base underneath the pipe and cable tunnels to absorb/buffer any water leakage. Iodine readings near the plant continue to decline and further out (15 kilometers) are just slightly above safety benchmarks. There has been some connection made between reactor 4 watering (i.e., spent fuel pool) and water level in the reactor 3 pipe tunnel. Part of the concern over water leakage into the plants includes key equipment or components (e.g., cooling pumps) being submerged. There is additional discussion about getting rid of another 60,000 tons of contaminated water to make storage available, hence a discussion of the ROSATOM barge.
- cable pit sealed: the liquid glass approach has worked in sealing the cable pit. NOTE: there may be undiagnosed cracks or leaks elsewhere, and the search remains in-process.
NEI notes:
- the latest scaremongering: tellurium readings released by TEPCO have led some anti-nukes to theorize recriticality (i.e., new nuclear fissioning relevant to alleged ongoing meltdown activities). A couple of relevant points discussed here: first, TEPCO is now suggesting its released numbers are wrong (AGAIN?); second, the tellurium reading is likely relevant to PAST criticality of the reactor, i.e., at the time of the earthquake.
- daily: There is discussion of a marker dye test indicating that some coolant may be leaking from a (earthquake-damage) cracked pipe. Some small fish caught south of Fukushima have tested just above cesium safety limits.
IAEA notes:
- the latest food samples are within published safety limits for iodine and cesium
- discharge of the 11,500 tons of low contaminated waters has begun
The Hiroshima Syndrome blogger reviews statuses, including TEPCO's planned barricade to their off-shore dike to limit contaminated water flow. Critical path issues have stalled dewatering of the turbine basements for reactors 3 and 4 pending displacement by the already discussed controversial (anti-nuke hysteria) dumping of 11,500 tons of low contaminated waters into the sea; dewatering of rooms and basements is absolutely critical to continuing the rollout of repairs or replacements of equipment or components to achieve cold shutdown of the first 3 reactors.
He also discusses some of the more transparent tactics that the anti-nukes use to spread their misinformation. If you remember the financial reform debate, one of the typical tactics the fearmongers used was to mention the total amount of assets represented by the volume of swaps; the number meant absolutely nothing except to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the minds of less-informed laymen. The same thing holds true in terms of "hundreds of millions of electron volts of electricity" or "hundreds of becquerels per milliliter"... South Korea has filed a complaint with Japan over the (little real risk) planned release of contaminated water (see above), particularly given the much larger concentrations already released.
Political Humor
President Obama announced that he will run for re-election in 2012. Unfortunately, his popularity is so low that he’s running on the slogan, “I’m Michelle Obama’s husband.” - Conan O'Brien
[The marryers are demanding a copy of his marriage certificate... They don't believe those newspaper announcements.]
President Obama said he plans on running for re-election against the Republicans. After the tax cuts for the rich, the bailouts for Wall Street, and the bombing in Libya, I already thought he was the Republican candidate. - Jay Leno
[... After the surge in Afghanistan, multi-million dollar executive compensation packages for bailout companies, massive corporate subsidies for ethanol producers, healthcare deals with the pharmaceuticals, no business taxes for GE (whose CEO is on Obama's job council), and the decision to try KSM in a military tribunal, I already thought he was the GOP candidate...]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Beach Boys, "Little Deuce Coupe"
