Does Nader Want Bush for President?
Ralph Nader is doing it again, entering the presidential race and improving Bush's chances of reelection. Will the disaffected and undecided be pragmatic enough to refrain from casting a "protest" vote for Nader this time around? Or, since he's running as an independent, will they vote for the Green Party candidate? We'll just have to wait and see what has happened when the chads have settled.

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The Price of Loyalty
Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty, an insider's view of the workings of the Bush White House, is first on The New York Times nonfiction hardcover bestseller list again. A review by Fritz Lanham, published by the Houston Chronicle Jan. 16, and others indicate that reading the book won't add much to reading a review.

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Benjamin Franklin on Political Corruption
As quoted by Walter Isaacson in his biography Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Franklin had the following to say at the Constitutional Convention on the corrupting influence of money in government.

There are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but, when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects ... And of what kind are the men that will strive for this profitable preeminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits.

He was arguing for volunteer representatives, i.e., government service without pay, but sounds to my ear as though he is speaking of practically all politicians of our day.

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Bush Gave Al-Qaida What It Wants
When Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq I said that this accomplished nothing so much as increasing Arab enmity towards the U.S. In today's column in The Salt Lake Tribune, Gwynne Dyer has this to say about the rationale of Islamist terrorists:

If the real goal is still revolutions that bring Islamist radicals to power, then how does attacking the West help? Well, the U.S. in particular may be goaded into retaliating by bombing or even invading various Muslim countries -- and in doing so, may drive enough aggrieved Muslims into the arms of the Islamist radicals that their long-stalled revolutions against local regimes finally get off the ground.

(So I'm on a Gwynne Dyer kick, sue me.)

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Men On Mars, Good Thing?
As I feared, Bush's empty electioneering has reignited the hopes of science fiction dupes. It's more than a little disconcerting that one so seemingly hardheaded as Gwynne Dyer would fall into that trap. In a column in The Salt Lake Tribune he says

It really is a good idea to go back to the moon and onward to Mars, for reasons so long-term that they barely get mentioned in the usual debates: the survival of the human race and contact with extraterrestrial life. The payoff on these two issues, if it ever comes, is probably at least several centuries in the future -- but they are still important issues.

Since there are no short-term payoffs to manned space exploration and settlement that are likely to repay the huge investments that are required, and since the political process does not favor really long-term investment, the only incentive that will actually get governments to spend this kind of money on space is a "space race" that involves national pride and prestige.

Will that be enough?

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Bush's Policy Methodology Is Archetype Of Hidden Agenda
In September's Washington Monthly, Joshua Micah Marshall, does a nice job of summarizing the Bush administration's maneuvers to advance a radical conservative agenda while publicly claiming that its policies are designed to solve pressing problems. Most of the same points were made over the past few years in Paul Krugman's Times columns, which are collected in The Great Unraveling.

Thanks to a certain Rollins College economics professor for pointing out Marshall's essay to me.

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Heal Health Care System? Start Anew
In yet another article on the the health care system, The New York Times reports on the proposal by Steffie Woolhandler and others to do away with private insurance. Woolhandler answers the reporter's question of what is driving up health care costs with:

Administrative costs. As of 1999, these accounted for 31 percent of U.S. health care expenditures, compared to 16.7 percent in Canada. In fact, we spent $1,059 per person on administrative costs, compared to $307 in Canada. With a single-payer system, we could save $209 billion a year by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private insurance industry. Administrative costs may even be higher with the new Medicare bill.

Here are an overview of the single-payer system proposed by The Physician's Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance of the PNHP, and the whole article.

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