A Green Deal?

UCB economist Robert B. Reich on the state of the American economy: "The top 1 percent now takes home about 20 percent of total national income. As recently as 1980, it took home 8 percent."

He calls for a massive investment in a public works/ job-creation program on the model of FDRs New Deal. In this vein, Google CEO Eric Schmidt "calls for a bold move into solar and wind power. It would cost $2.7 trillion through 2030. However, Schmidt says it would generate $2.1 trillion in energy savings. It would also create hundreds of thousands of jobs. And help fight global warming."

He points outs out that many of these jobs would be produced in rural areas where unemployment is highest, and would be in sectors like construction and engineering that are hard hit by the current situation. I personally wouldn't mind a high-speed rail link connecting Medocino County with the Bay Area. Why we don't already have a high-speed rail line running from San Diego to Seattle is beyond me.

Now is as good a time as any to re-engineer our energy systems and redistribute wealth and income in America (and globaly), but the brilliant Mike Davis points to three key reasons why the FDR's New Deal model is not relevant to the current situation: this is not your grand pappy's industrial capitalism - financial captialism is a whole new, and even more predatory (and volitile) beast. More on Davis' analysis to follow.

A View from a Front Line in the Drug War

This new movie looks very interesting: Humboldt County. A review to follow... (as soon as I can get to a theater showing it... funny how much trouble movies lacking a talking Chuwawa have with distribution...)

Let them eat cake?

Here's a blast from the past:

Barbara Bush on Katrina, 5 September 2005 (CNN):

"But I really didn't hear that [criticism of the President] at all today. People came up to me all day long and said 'God bless your son,' people of different races and it was very, very moving and touching and they felt like when he flew over that it made all the difference in their lives so I just don't hear that."

It must have felt so touching to see the Presidents jet soaring overhead...