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Culture

Where to Find Qualified Women

By ThinkProgress on Oct 28, 2007 at 12:05 pm

Surely you’ve heard dozens of times of the progressive — or even non-ideological — organization whose leadership professes to wish to have more women in high-level roles, but just can’t seem to find qualified candidates for openings when they arise. Something to keep in mind next time you hear something like that would be GFR’s take on how Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff came to have so many women in senior positions:

After all, it’s not like there was some huge population of female strategists out there the various campaigns were competing for and Clinton just happened to snap them all up. Clinton created, on her own, a cadre of female strategists to serve her political needs, by spotting talent in the women around her and promoting them up the political food chain. No other candidate can say, for example, that their campaign is being managed by their former female scheduler.

It also might be worth noting in this regard that I think almost everyone would agree that Clinton’s had the best-run campaign — free of mistakes, and seemingly drawing blood on those occasions when they’ve felt the need to attack.

Yglesias

A Trap

By ThinkProgress on Oct 28, 2007 at 11:49 am

David Ignatius: “Military action would be irrational for both sides. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I wish the Bush administration could see that with each step it takes closer to conflict, it is walking toward a well-planned trap.” The thing is that the planning behind this trap isn’t really all that impressive and it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. The scary thing is that even though the trap’s not particularly clever, it’s very plausible that we’ll stumble into it anyway.

Security

McCain On Opposing Mukasey: ‘I Can’t Be That Absolute’

By Faiz Shakir on Oct 28, 2007 at 11:19 am

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, has spoken out forcefully against the practice of waterboarding. He said waterboarding is “a horrible torture technique” that “should never be condoned in the U.S.”

Last week, ThinkProgress questioned whether McCain would be willing to hold up Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey’s confirmation until he provides a clear-cut answer on whether he believes waterboarding is illegal.

On ABC’s This Week, McCain said, “Anybody who does not know if waterboarding is torture or not has no experience in the conduct warfare and national security.” The comments were a direct criticism against Rudy Giuliani and Mukasey, both of whom have refused to clearly condemn the practice.

Host George Stephanopoulos said, “You obviously feel strongly about this. Will Mr. Mukasey have to say clearly that waterboarding is torture to get your vote for attorney general?” McCain visibly stammered, hedged, and then refused to take a bold stance against Mukasey:

I can’t be that absolute. But I want to know his answer. I want to know his answer. Obviously, you judge a candidate for office or nominee for office on the entire record. But this is a very important issue to me.

Watch it:

McCain’s answer did not preclude him from holding up Mukasey’s confirmation. But, he did not lend his support to efforts by a number of Senators to refuse to confirm Mukasey if he does not come out firmly against waterboarding.

If McCain isn’t willing to stand up to Mukasey, he will have to explain why someone who “has no experience” in national security and condones a “horrible torture technique” deserves to be Attorney General.

UPDATE: Conservatives aren’t happy.

Yglesias

Calorie Count

By ThinkProgress on Oct 28, 2007 at 10:48 am

If you’d just told me in the abstract about a proposal to force chain restaurants “to prominently display calorie information” I would have been skeptical, but the vigor with which the affected businesses are fighting back makes me think this may well be a good idea after all since most of the non-Subway firms involved appear to think that keeping this information secret is vital to their business models.

After all, this won’t prevent anyone from buying a Big Mac or some KFC — the only reason for thinking it would be bad for business is that these businesses believe that consumers wouldn’t want to eat their products if they were better-informed about them. That, in and of itself, seems like a compelling reason to think the information should be provided. It’s worth endlessly repeating that policies aimed at improving America’s diet and exercise habits are likely to do more for public health than are reforms to the health care finance system.

Photo by Flickr user drewzhrodague used under a Creative Commons license

Politics

Fox heralds Bush as a World Series ‘hero.’

By Faiz Shakir on Oct 28, 2007 at 10:27 am

Last night, Fox aired a montage prior its airing of the Red Sox/Rockies game that celebrated great moments in World Series history. “The story of the World Series is told in seven chapters,” the narrator said, “each with their old tale, each with their own hero. These stories take us back in time to the place where we witnessed greatness.” Fox highlighted famous individual accomplishments by baseball icons in World Series history — such as Kirk Gibson’s game-winnning homerun in 1988 and Babe Ruth’s “called shot” in the 1932 World Series. Fox also deemed President Bush’s first pitch in Game 3 of the 2001 World Series worthy of inclusion. Watch it:

In the segment, actors playing firemen gather around the television to laud Bush for “wearing our uniform” and watch in awe as Bush throws “a strike.”

Digg It!

Climate Progress

Why I don’t agree with James Kunstler about peak oil and the “end of suburbia”

By Joe Romm on Oct 28, 2007 at 8:26 am

The remarkably low fueling cost of the best current hybrids (like the Toyota Prius) and future plug-in hybrids are a major reason why I don’t worry as much about peak oil as some do.

kunstler.jpgJames Kunstler, for instance, argues in his 2005 book The Long Emergency (see Rolling Stone excerpt here), that, after oil production peaks, suburbia “will become untenable” and “we will have to say farewell to easy motoring.” In Rolling Stone, Kunstler writes “Suburbia will come to be regarded as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world” [No -- that distinction probably belongs to China's torrid love-affair with coal power].

But suppose Kunstler is right about peak oil. Suppose oil hits $160 a barrel and gasoline goes to $5 dollars a gallon in, say, 2015. That price would still be lower than many Europeans pay today. You could just go out and buy the best hybrid and cut your fuel bill in half, back to current levels. Hardly the end of suburbia.

And suppose oil hit $280 a barrel and gasoline rose to $8 dollars a gallon in 2025. You would replace your hybrid with a plug-in hybrid, and those trips less than 30 miles that have made suburbia what it is today would actually cut your fuel bill by a factor of more than 10–even if all the electricity were from zero-carbon sources like wind power–to far below what you are paying today. The extra cost of the vehicle would be paid for in fuel savings in well under five years.

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