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Harman: ‘I am not one who is enthusiastic’ about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

By Matt Duss on Oct 27, 2009 at 8:00 pm

Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) recently made news when she told an audience at the Brookings Institution that any further troop increases in Afghanistan “wouldn’t be well received” on Capitol Hill. During an interview with Harman earlier today, ThinkProgress asked her to elaborate on her views:

I have been focused on this issue, and I am not one who is enthusiastic about adding U.S. troops. I don’t think that is going to fix the problem. I think what’s going to fix the problem is a massive effort by us, when we have leverage, which is right now, to fix the corruption problem in the government. It’s the corruption, stupid. If we just let Karzai operate going forward with a system of cronies I think that is a guarantee that the population of Afghanistan won’t support its own government and will move increasingly to the Taliban. So, that’s against our interest. So, we ought to eliminate the corruption there and set up a system where Afghans want to fight for their own country over time.

Watch it:

Economy

University Of Kentucky Approves New $7 Million Industry-Funded Dorm Named After ‘Coal’

By Amanda Terkel on Oct 27, 2009 at 6:30 pm

A group led by Alliance Coal CEO Joseph Craft recently proposed donating $7 million to the University of Kentucky for a new dorm for the men’s basketball team. The catch, however, is that the dorm would have to be named after Craft’s true love: coal. The proposed change sparked intense protests from local environmentalists and students. One professor said that as universities become “models for new energy sources,” putting “coal” on a prominent building could “make it difficult to attract top students and faculty members to the university.” Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, discussed the controversy. Watch it:

This afternoon, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees voted 16-3 to approve the proposal for the new dorm, which will be named the “Wildcat Coal Lodge.” Significantly, two of the “no” votes were from faculty representative Ernie Yanarella and Student Government President Ryan Smith, who said he opposed the motion “as a voice for the student body.”

Students in the audience were reportedly not allowed to speak at the meeting. After the vote, people began chanting, “Move forward, not backward,” forcing the trustees to temporarily recess. More on the events at the meeting:

The vote set off shouts from about 30 protesters, mostly students, who attended the meeting.

“Big Coal is about to go down, and the university’s going down with them,” said Cor de Jong, who described himself as “a Lexingtonian and a basketball fan.”

A statement from students was passed out to board members moments before the vote. “They did not read our statement,” said Katie Goldey, a senior majoring in international studies. “They weren’t even given a chance to read it.”

Ironically, because the building costs more than $5 million, it is required to “meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.”

The coal industry has been taking a greater “public role” in the University of Kentucky lately. While Craft has already donated millions of dollars and has a basketball practice facility named in his honor, this is the first time that coal is being specifically recognized. Last weekend, however, there was a “students only” basketball practice “sponsored by Joe Craft and the Friends of Coal.”

The battle over America’s clean energy future is increasingly being fought on college campuses. As Greenwire reported recently, environmentalists are turning to student activists to get the word out about dirty coal, while American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — the coal industry’s biggest lobbying group — “spent the summer sending activists to 264 cities in eight states, where they attended community events and visited college campuses.” More here and here on efforts to get dirty coal off U.S. campuses.

Yglesias

Endgame

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 27, 2009 at 6:15 pm

Well I done mine:

— Zooborns is very cute.

— Costume idea for all the Lichtenstein haters.

— DC is the living alone capital of the USA.

— “Last week, I left my Washington home, walked to the nearby Metro station, rode a train downtown, walked to the National Press Club, and settled in to hear Steven Rattner, former head of the Obama administration’s auto task force, declare that ‘no one has yet invented a substitute for the automobile.’”

— Federal government spends more on electric cars in six months than transit gets in a year.

Song of the day “You Can’t Hurry Love” by The Concretes.

Security

Report Says Immigration Enforcement Creates ‘Perverse Economic Incentive’ To Hire Undocumented Immigrants

By Andrea Nill Sanchez on Oct 27, 2009 at 5:57 pm

6a00d83451c3cb69e2011168474784970c-500wiThe AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a joint paper today which shows that Bush-era immigration enforcement tactics created a “perverse economic incentive for employers to employ undocumented workers.” In other words, employers systematically deny undocumented workers “the most basic workplace protections” and escape responsibility “by simply calling for an immigration inspection.” While clueless anti-immigrant groups like the Center for Immigration Studies ignorantly claim that disruptive immigration raids actually help native-born workers, the report, “Iced Out: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers’ Rights,” affirms that “threats to call immigration authorities deprive workers in nearly every industry of their right to a voice at work.”

In 1998, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) forged between the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS, now ICE) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sought to create a balance between immigration and labor law enforcement. The MOU established that the two agencies would work together to increase employers’ compliance with minimum labor standards and clearly stated that immigration enforcement would not trump labor law enforcement. Ten years later, ICE’s preoccupation with immigration enforcement was blatantly undermining the work of those trying to enforce labor laws. The report lists several examples of disruptive ICE actions, including massive immigration raids conducted in the middle of major labor disputes and organizing campaigns, stating:

“ICE actions have created incentives for shady employers to continue hiring and abusing undocumented workers, since the deportation of their employees may excuse those employers from complying with labor laws…ICE has been too quick to embrace workplace enforcement actions at the behest of employers and other individuals, including law enforcement, acting directly and transparently on behalf of employers, where a labor dispute was in progress or where some level of due diligence would have uncovered the pending dispute. When enforcement is focused on immigration status without regard to the implications for upholding workplace standards, our country’s workers — immigrant and non-immigrant alike — are trapped in abusive jobs at the mercy of abusive employers.“

Two GAO reports released over the past couple years found that the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division hasn’t been doing its job either. The most recent, released this past March, showed that five of ten labor complaints reported by undercover agents were neither recorded in its database or investigated. Meanwhile, immigration prosecutions have risen 110% since 2004.

Ana Avendaño, assistant to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and a report co-author, points out that “the ultimate solution” is immigration reform which creates a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants and strips employers of their power to exploit and threaten workers who stand up for their rights. Earlier this year, the AFL-CIO, along with Change to Win, “agreed for the first time to join forces” and support comprehensive immigration reform based on a “joint framework.”

Yglesias

Joe Lieberman’s Bogus Public Option Reasoning

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 27, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Joe Lieberman proposes:

“We’re trying to do too much at once,” Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.”

Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line.”

Jon Chait disposes:

It literally makes no sense whatsoever. A public plan does not provide a new entitlement. It just doesn’t. It’s a different form of providing an entitlement. Nor is it more expensive. In fact, the stronger versions of the public plan would cost less money. Lieberman is just babbling nonsense here.

It’s also worth emphasizing that while only the House-style public option will save a lot of money, even the relatively weak public option from the Reid draft would save money relative to doing what Lieberman wants. He’s talking about filibustering a deficit-reducing bill in order to try to remove a cost-reducing provision, and doing so on grounds of fiscal probity. It’s ludicrous, and the political reporters covering him need to point this out.

Politics

Gingrich Strikes Back At Beck: His Agenda Is A ‘Very Destructive Model For The Republican Party’

By Ben Armbruster on Oct 27, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been taking fire from conservative activists and far-right Republican leaders for endorsing Dede Scozzafava, the moderate GOP candidate running in the special election in New York’s 23rd district. These “purists” — including Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Dick Armey, and Bill Kristol — are backing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, revealing a wider rift within the conservative movement: the tea-party activist base versus “Big Tent” Republicans.

Gingrich explained his support for Scozzafava at a book signing event yesterday: “She is the nominee of the local party, my bias is to be for the nominee of the local party, and I don’t second guess the local party.” On his Fox News program yesterday, Glenn Beck attacked Gingrich. “I couldn’t disagree more with you on this one,” Beck said, arguing, “You vote with a person you agree with most…and it doesn’t matter what party they’re in.”

Last night on Fox News’ On the Record, host Greta Van Susteren asked Gingrich about the “heat” he’s been getting for endorsing Scozzafava, especially from Beck. Gingrich fired back, saying the right-wing support for Hoffman is based on “misinformation” and an abandonment of conservative values:

GINGRICH: I just find it fascinating that my many friends who claim to be against Washington having too much power, they claim to be in favor of the 10th Amendment giving states back their rights, they claim to favor local control and local authority, now they suddenly get local control and local authority in upstate New York, they don’t like the outcome. [...]

So I say to my many conservative friends who suddenly decided that whether they’re from Minnesota or Alaska or Texas, they know more than the upstate New York Republicans? I don’t think so. And I don’t think it’s a good precedent. [...]

And so this idea that we’re suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we’re going to purge the party of anybody who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent — that guarantees Obama’s reelection. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party.

Watch it:

Conservative bloggers are now going after Gingrich for lashing out at his critics, with the Other McCain writing, “I was disgusted just now to see Newt Gingrich’s appearance on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show tonight.” “Newt Gingrich disappointed national conservatives again tonight,” Gateway Pundit added.

Related Posts

Yglesias

2009-2010 NBA Predictions Thread

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 27, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Tonight is the first night of thrilling professional basketball action; a welcome pick me up for put-upon Redskins fans eager to embrace the warm mediocrity the Wizards are likely to deliver. Time for some regular season predictions!

In the West, I think the Lakers will have the best record followed by (in order) Portland, San Antonio, Dallas, Denver, Utah, and Houston as the remaining playoff teams. In the East, it’s Cleveland then Orlando, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Washington, and Philadelphia. Lakers will almost certainly come out of the West and Cleveland will likely bring home LeBron’s first championship ring.

Looking at the ESPN “expert” predictions it strikes me as slightly insane that people are underestimating a team that features LeBron James and Shaq—these aren’t obscure, neglected, underrated guys. Last years Cavs had the best record in the league and they substantially upgraded their personnel during the offseason.

Update

Forgot about New Orleans!

Politics

Inhofe: ‘Natural warming cycle’ ended ‘about nine years ago.’

By Brad Johnson on Oct 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm

At the outset of Senate hearings on clean energy and climate legislation today, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Commitee, mockingly praised chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for mentioning “global warming” in a YouTube video about the bill. Inhofe claimed that people “have been running from that term” once “that natural warming cycle” ended “nine years ago”:

I do want to congratulate you on your Youtube, the fact you’re using the term global warming again, I appreciate that. People have been running from that term ever since we went out of that natural warming cycle about nine years ago.

Watch it:

Inhofe’s dangerous nonsense has been debunked repeatedly by scientists, from the UK Met Office and NOAA to independent statisticians. 2005 is the hottest year on record, and the last ten years have been the hottest decade on record. Furthermore, it is clear that fossil fuel emissions are responsible.

Climate Progress

The weak El Ni±o appears to be strengthening, as expected, so record temperatures will continue.

By Joe Romm on Oct 27, 2009 at 4:04 pm

Two weeks ago I blogged that NASA reports hottest June to September on record; NOAA says “weak” El Ni±o “expected to strengthen and last through” winter.

NOAA’s National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center (and most other models) have been predicting for a couple of months that the weak El Ni±o would strengthen, but it hasn’t.  Until now, that is.

This sea surface temperature (SST) data is from the NOAA’s October 26 weekly update on the El Ni±o/Southern oscillation, “ENSO Cycle: Recent Evolution, Current Status and Predictions“:

SST 10-09

It is the warming in the Nino 3.4 region of the Pacific that is typically used to define an El Ni±o.  The region can be seen in this figure:

Read more

Yglesias

McDonald’s Withdraws from Iceland

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 27, 2009 at 3:59 pm

The three McDonald’s outlets operating in Iceland are going to close shop, victims of the collapse in the value of Iceland’s currency.

Subway, Reykjavik, Iceland (my photo, available under cc license)

Subway, Reykjavik, Iceland (my photo, available under cc license)

When I was in Nizhny Novgorod in 1998 when Russia defaulted on its debt, I remember a McDonald’s guy explaining to me that the company tried, when feasible, to make sure that expenses and purchases were happening in the same country. So you buy Russian potatoes with rubles and sell french fries in Russian cities for rubles. Icelandic agriculture isn’t going to be able to work as a McDonald’s supplier (great butter, though) so presumably they were importing tons of stuff and thus exposed to a great deal of currency risk. Perhaps if Iceland joins the EU and adopts the Euro, they’ll get their McDonald’s back.

Meanwhile, I wonder about other fast food outlets. The American fast food chain I went to in Iceland was Subway. Are they still there?

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