Economics and law
I've mentioned to friends I've known before law studies the plethora of suits involving electric space heaters -- apparently a sort of a chew-toy for tort lawyers. There is an implied (depends how you read it) acceptable death rates formula in tort. That Learned Hand Formula? Anyone read about that, other than Andy Nachos (to whom this will be elementary)? An AP story crossed the wires of late (attached at bottom) that made me think again about this nexus of social utility and economic fairness. Hand's Formula is more formally known as the aggregate-risk-utility test and seeks to establish when a manufacturer is negligent in product (or service or whatever). Works like this: If P = Probability of injurious event L = Gravity of the resulting injury B = Burden, or cost, of adequate precautions Then Injurer is negligent only if B P x L Biz (ostensibly) should show that B PL - in other words, minimizing P or L, or both -- to avoid losing tort claims of product negligence. Another, more heartless, way of expressing this would be allowable losses through manufacturer negligence. (In pop culture, we saw this sarcastically referred to in the movie Fight Club, where the narrator is talking about his job with a black woman sitting beside him on a air flight and explaining why he, as a claims investigator, helps car companies decide if they should settle death suits or make a general recall.) Calculate the number of deaths resulting from, say, a space heater (P) and multiply that by the average out of court settlement (P). If those estimated losses from defective products are less than the cost of removing those deaths through product improvement (B), then do not make those improvements. Simple math and business measurement of costs of human death. With a product like a space heater, the consumers are usually not wealthy, lacking resources to fight a large suit and lacking the sort of serious earning power that would increase the L (and a death is usually measured in lost earning power). In the case of space heaters, the drastic reduction in the L (lower income demographic, etc.) means there can be an increase in P (number of deaths) without disturbing the balance of B. * * * Seems the most famous judicial exposition on this was by Yanqui Second Circuit Judge Learned Hand in a series of opinions that began in 1938. The concept first appeared in 1934 in the first Restatement of Tort Law. Hand helped draft the first Restatement. His follow-up decisions were perhaps an attempt to popularize the test. It appears to have not been used. Hand himself, in service as a federal judge until 1961, mentioned it in 11 opinions. After 1949 (last reference), it seems to have died. It was resurrected by a series of publications by Richard Posner. Posner contends the test is imbedded in decisions on economic efficiency interpretation of negligence. Critics have said Posner's arguments are composed of speculative and implausible assumptions, overbroad generalizations, and superficial descriptions of and quotations from cases that misstate or ignore facts, language, rationales, and holdings that are inconsistent with his argument. None of the cases discussed by Posner support his thesis. Instead, the reasoning and results in these cases employ varying standards of care, depending on the rights and relationships among the parties, that are inconsistent with the aggregate-risk-utility test but consistent with the principles of justice. See: Wright, Richard W., Hand, Posner, and the Myth of the 'Hand Formula'. Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Vol. 4, 2003 http://ssrn.com/abstract=362800 Once made a federal judge, Posner began applying the Hand formula. Frank Easterbrook, a like-minded former professor who joined Posner on the Seventh Circuit, has also endorsed the Hand formula. However, neither of them has been able to employ the Hand formula to resolve the negligence issue in any case, and none of their fellow circuit judges has attempted to do so. * * * Thought I'd pass along this news item below. Yet another space heater problem. The manufacturer would likely not have issued the recall, regardless of what the B PL calculation yielded. It needed a government agency to force it. Ken. --- cut here --- One Million Electric Heaters Recalled WASHINGTON (AP) - A Kansas company is recalling 1 million electric heaters after receiving two dozen reports of fires caused by overheating. Vornado Air Circulation Systems Inc. of Andover, Kan., is not aware of any injuries caused by the portable electric room heaters, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday. A faulty electrical connection can make the indoor heater overheat and stop working, posing a fire hazard, the commission said. Standing about a foot tall and weighing about 6 pounds, the recalled product bears model numbers 180VH, VH, Intellitemp, EVH or DVH, located on the bottom of
Economics and law
by Kenneth Campbell -clip- Calculate the number of deaths resulting from, say, a space heater (P) and multiply that by the average out of court settlement (P). If those estimated losses from defective products are less than the cost of removing those deaths through product improvement (B), then do not make those improvements ^^ CB: Another infamous case of this was the exploding Pinto of Ford.
Poletown decision overturned - Brush Park residents elated
The Michigan Supreme Court is dominated by Federalist Society members, i.e. rightwingers. However, here we have their conservatism/libertarianism turning into its opposite, in defense of small private property against monopolies. Charles http://www.michigancitizen.com/images/ptrans.gif http://www.michigancitizen.com/images/ptrans.gif By Diane Bukowski The Michigan Citizen DETROIT - Saying its landmark 1981 Poletown decision was a violation of the State Constitution and a contradiction of a century of previous case law, the Michigan Supreme Court on July 31 largely barred local governments from seizing land for private use. The unanimous ruling, in Wayne County v. Hathcock, was authored by the court's four most conservative justices. It prevents Wayne County from seizing 40 parcels of private land interspersed in a 1,300-acre tract the county wants to use to build the private $2 billion Pinnacle Aeropark. The project includes plans for hotels, factories, offices, and a golf course adjacent to Metropolitan Airport. The court said its decision is retroactive, meaning that it will affect pending cases that specifically challenged the Poletown decision, including a lawsuit filed by residents of Brush Park against the City of Detroit. In the Poletown case, the court allowed the City of Detroit to seize and bulldoze hundreds of private homes, businesses and churches on the near east side so that General Motors could build an auto plant that replaced its Cadillac and Fleetwood facilities, actually cutting its total workforce. The company had threatened to move that production out of Detroit if it was not allowed to build at the Poletown site. The Poletown ruling was the first of its kind in the country, and has been used since as precedent to seize private property in eminent domain cases nationwide. Because Poletown . . . was such a radical departure from fundamental constitutional principles and over a century of this Court's eminent domain jurisprudence . . . we must overrule Poletown in order to vindicate our Constitution, protect the people's property rights, and preserve the legitimacy of the judicial branch as the expositor - not creator - of fundamental law, said Justices Robert Young Jr., Maura Corrigan, Clifford Taylor and Stephen Markman. Noting that Article 10, Section 2 of the state constitution requires that government seizures be performed for public use, not just a public purpose, the Court went on, Before Poletown, we had never held that a private entity's pursuit of profit was a 'public use' . simply because one entity's profit maximization contributed to the health of the general economy. Alan Ackerman, attorney for the plaintiffs in Hathcock, said, This ruling means our government was meant to have limited powers, unlike in England, where private property could be taken for any use the king wanted. It will change the law of the land. It protects people's individual rights. Ackerman said those signing amicus briefs in support of his clients included a broad political spectrum, ranging from libertarian right wing organizations like the Civic Legal Foundation and the Institute for Justice to the American Civil Liberties Union and Ralph Nader. He said the decision should favorably impact residents of Brush Park, but that plaintiffs in the Graimark case, which involved land seizures on the city's far east side, had already signed off their property rights. Attorneys in that case failed to challenge the Poletown decision. Ackerman's clients included private home, business and farmland owners. Lead plaintiff Edward Hathcock, who owns Gem Products and Supply, a kitchenware and millwork plant in the path of the Pinnacle project, was exultant at the court's decision. This shows what can happen if you stand up and fight, when enough's enough, said Hathcock. This puts the county on notice that they can't just acquire our property. Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano issued a written statement in reaction, saying, The court ruling impacts economic development for the entire state. All municipalities and government entities are affected and must explore how they will be competitively leveraged to attract investments that result in jobs that improve the quality of life for those who live, work and raise their families in Wayne County. Gwen Mingo is lead plaintiff in the Brush Park suit against the City of Detroit, which has seized the majority of the land there. A good deal of the remaining buildings in this historic district located off Woodward and I-75, have been destroyed in unsolved arson cases. This is wonderful news, Mingo said. This shows that God works in high places and the victory is his. We give him the glory. Ours has been a horrendous ordeal for hundreds of people. Many have died or become very old, feeble and sick working to bring this to fruition. Many times I have driven burned up people to the hospital, and had to help those who were thrown out on the street and lost
Arguments for progressive taxation
I'm trying to formulate arguments for progressive taxation. Does anyone have good references to share? My take is that the wealthy benefit disproportionately from society. Michael Dell gains much more from roads and educated workers than does an elementary school teacher, it seems to me, but has anyone undertaken a simple accounting of the things that go into this? For example, I rather naively point out that were Michael Dell trying to run his business in an underdeveloped country, he would have to shoulder a tremendous burden --- for educating his workforce, providing roads, housing, etc., etc. --- that he does not have to bear here in the United States. If you account for this burden, it is a tremendous subsidy to him, for which he should pay, and the larger his business is, the more the subsidy. But, I'm having trouble making the argument from larger business to progressive taxation. I can see a conservative argument --- limiting social power --- but I'm wondering what a simple accounting of subsidies would yield along a curve of size of entity. Any help appreciated. Bill
Whither the Fed?
Whither the Fed? (Doug Henwood comments on US economy: just 32,000 new jobs, way way below both recent trend and expectations -- and earlier months were revised down. Is the Fed still committed to a series of quarter-point hikes -- including one in September -- over the next 18 months? Then, Alan Greenspan may accomplish what the anti-war movement and the Green Party failed to do: deliver the coup de grace to George W. Bush and make the next POTUS John Kerry a weak president without a big mandate at the same time.): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/08/whither-fed.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Whither the Fed?
I would guess that the Fed -- led by Dubya's close friend Alan, who visits the White House more than weekly-- is going to surprise the financial markets by standing pat on August 10th. (I'll be out of the country, so I won't be able to stop them.) This policy will be justified by something international, so that it won't look like the slowth of the US economy -- and thus Dubya -- is to blame... On a strict interpretation, the framework yields the implausible prediction that if the Fed keeps the federal funds rate below the natural rate forever the economy will grow above its potential rate forever, and that this will generate inflation that accelerates forever."There is no logical or empirical basis for such a line of reasoning," says James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas at Austin. I think that this scenario is crazy, even from the Fed's perspective. The Taylor rule says that if either the inflation rate goes up or GDP rises above the "potential" (corresponding to the NAIRU or natural rate of unemployment, whatever it is), then the Fed will hikethe Fed Funds rate, squelching the boom. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Whither the Fed?
I would guess that the Fed -- led by Dubya's close friend Alan, who visits the White House more than weekly -- is going to surprise the financial markets by standing pat on August 10th. (I'll be out of the country, so I won't be able to stop them.) blockquoteThe Fed holds its next interest rate policy meeting on Tuesday, and many economists, though disappointed by the employment report, said they still expect a quarter percentage point increase to 1.50 percent from 1.25 percent. The Fed still raises by 25 basis points on Tuesday; it's too soon to change course, said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida, referring to the Fed's just-started tightening cycle. So far the Fed has raised rates only once, in June, and has pledged a slow and steady series of rate hikes to return borrowing costs from rock-bottom lows to more normal levels provided there is no spike in inflation, which hurts growth. Other analysts were less sure about Tuesday's outcome, saying the payrolls report cast doubt on the Fed's mantra that the weakness in the economy in June would prove short-lived. It certainly will give the Fed cause to think about whether they are going to raise next week or not, and how they are going to approach the course of tightening this year, said Rick Egelton, deputy chief economist at the Bank of Montreal in Toronto. Futures markets reacted swiftly to remove the chance of one rate hike in either September, November or December, and economists said that both employment and consumer spending numbers would have to bounce back to justify the steady path of measured rate rises the Fed has said it plans. The implied fed funds rate for December was 1.87 percent, which assumes two more quarter-point hikes and a 50-50 chance of a third. Complicating the markets' reaction to Friday's unambiguously weak data was a report in the Wall Street Journal by Fed-watcher Greg Ip that said the Fed was unlikely to pull back from its tightening campaign despite signs of a slowdown. The timing of its publication just before the weak jobs report raised suspicions among bond traders. It's hard to believe the Ip article was accidental; in which case the Fed is telling us to ignore this data point. It's going to hike next week and probably in September as well, said Drew Matus, economist at Lehman Brothers in New York. (Victoria Thieberger, Wall St. Less Sure of Fed Hikes After Weak Job Data, a href=http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdgestoryID=5898547;August 6, 2004/a)/blockquote -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
China's migrant refuseniks
Drought of Migrant Labor Beijing Review | 5 aug by Fan Ren http://www.bjreview.com.cn/200431/Nation-200431(A).htm This year has seen the flood of migrant laborers, who traditionally travel to thriving coastal provinces in search of work, reduced to a trickle. As a result, many private companies have been adversely affected by this shortfall in labor, with some even having to downsize production or temporarily close their plants. What are the reasons behind this phenomenon? Shishi, a coastal city in Fujian Province, nicknamed City of Casual Clothing, has a population of 300,000, including 200,000 migrant workers. Its 5,000 companies employ migrant workers as their predominant source of labor. This year, however, the city has been hit by a severe shortage of laborers. Scarcely one year ago it was a totally different picture. It was common to see several migrant workers compete for one job opportunity. Now to recruit enough workers, the personnel department of many companies have promised to pay a bounty of 100 yuan ($12.1, or around 12 percent of a laborers monthly wage) to anyone who can poach staff for them. According to a report in Xinhua News Agency, since February, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Fujian Provinces coastal cities, like Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Putian and Jinjiang, have been facing a similar shortage of workers. Both skilled and ordinary workers are in great demand, with a combined shortage of 200,000 for the region. A survey conducted by the enterprise research agency affiliated to the Fujian Provincial Bureau of Statistics reveals that since the 2004 Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), the shortage of workers, especially skilled ones, has adversely affected the normal operation of enterprises based in Jinjiang. Only 80 to 85 percent of industrial enterprises and less than 50 percent of ceramic factories have been operating due to the labor shortage. Fujian Provinces coastal cities, a gold mine for the private economy, used to absorb over 1 million migrant workers every year, 80 percent of whom were from inland provinces. Since the 2004 Spring Festival, Zhejiang, another coastal province famous for its thriving private economy, has also been hit by a shortage of migrant workers. Data shows that this year the number of migrant workers in the province has experienced a year-on-year decrease of 10 to 20 percent. Demand of migrant laborers in Zhejiang has for the first time exceeded supply in the last 20 years. Whats more, the Pearl River Delta, which in the past was inundated with migrant workers, is also experiencing a severe shortage. According to a survey, there is a shortfall of 2 million workers in the central cities on the Pearl River Delta, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan. Recruiting new workers has now become the top priority of many local enterprises. The prosperity of the private economy in Chinas eastern and southern coastal cities is for most part attributed to the cheap migrant labor, and the expansion of the manufacturing-based economy has provided more job opportunities for millions of surplus rural laborers. Currently, over one-third of Chinas rural laborers are working in non-agriculture industries. According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the countrys total number of migrant workers had reached 99 million by the end of 2003. Undoubtedly, rural laborers have become the main body of manufacturing workers. Since the early 1990s, every Spring Festival has seen the seasonal flow of migrant workers between their working cities and their hometowns, which is described as the tide of migrant workers. Why a Shortage of Workers? Since migrant workers have become an indispensable part of Chinese cities, what has caused the current shortage of migrant workers in coastal cities? First, as major exporters of migrant workers, two central provincesAnhui and Jiangxiused to export over 90 percent of their rural laborers during the peak of the migrant worker tide. But the importance the Chinese Government now attaches to issues concerning the countryside, agriculture and farmers, plus the rise in the price of agricultural products from September 2003 have made farmers think twice before they go to work in cities. As a result, a large number of rural laborers have changed their plans, with many taking back their contracted land (in China, every farmer receives a piece of contracted land to farm. When farmers do not want to farm their land, they usually transfer the land to other farmers), or swapping their single crop rice for double crop rice. This is a major reason behind the dwindling of migrant workers moving to cities after the 2004 Spring Festival. Second, an unfavorable ratio between salary and expense is another reason for the drop in migrant workers. With economic development, the cost of living in coastal cities has kept going up, but migrant workers continue to earn relatively low wages. According to rough estimation, the monthly expense
New way to escape the draft
NewsScan Daily, 6 August 2004 (Above The Fold) FINLAND DISMISSING 'NET-ADDICTED' CONSCRIPTS A growing number of conscripts have to be dismissed from Finland's armed forces every year due to an Internet addiction that makes them unsuited for service. A Finnish official says: It's an increasing problem. More and more young people are always on the Internet day and night. They get up around noon and have neither friends nor hobbies. When they get into the army, it's a shock to them. There are no specific figures and the military has yet to give the condition a proper dismissal code in its health records. (The Age, 4 Aug 2004) Rec'd from J Lamp http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557883381.html Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Middle East Economic Survey?
Yet another oil question. Does anyone know anything about the Middle East Economic Survey? Is it considered a standard source? I ask because: in Peter Millard's Dow Jones article Venezuela 's PdVSA Ramps Up Publicity Ahead Of Recall (July 30), the second-to-last paragraph reads: The government claims the new PdVSA has brought oil production back to the 3.1 million barrels a day Venezuela was producing before the strike, but independent analysts put the figure closer to 2.6 million b/d. Whereas today's Dow Jones article OPEC Pumps 30 Mln B/D In July, 25-Yr Record - MEES, filed by Shai Oster from London, gives 2.69 million b/d for July and 2.68 million b/d for June, i.e. 2.7 million b/d, based on the Middle East Economic Survey. So my question: is there a reason to report 2.6 million b/d as the independent analysts figure, rather than 2.7 million b/d? (other than liking truncation better than rounding...) -- Robert Naiman Senior Policy Analyst Venezuela Information Office 733 15th Street, NW Suite 932 Washington, DC 20005 t. 202-347-8081 x. 605 f. 202-347-8091 www.veninfo.org ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: The Venezuela Information Office is dedicated to informing the American public about contemporary Venezuela. More information is available from the FARA office of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
Re: China's migrant refuseniks
This is a very fascinating article, displaying the contradictions in Chinese development on a far deeper level than the loud discussion that followed the mention of the article by Marty Paul. At first it did not make sense at all. How could China have great unemployment a shortage of workers? Then we see that the public sector has fallen down on the job of educating the workforce. And to give a fair deal to farmers upsets the applecart. Some time ago, Johnathan posted an article about the 10 contradictions in Chinese development. I think that it might be time to look at the sort of contradictions that could have been avoided under socialism and how they might play out under capitalism. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Remembering the Korean Atom Bomb Victims
Remembering the Korean Atom Bomb Victims (Among the 350,000 to 400,000 who were attacked by the atom bomb and/or exposed to the lethal post-explosion radiation, at least 50,000 were people from the Korean peninsula who had been forcibly sent to Japan as mobilized workers and soldiers, or who had left their villages following the devastation of Japan's colonial takeover of Korea in 1910. . . . ): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/08/remembering-korean-atom-bomb-victims.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Whither the Fed?
... and make the next POTUS John Kerry a weak president without a big mandate at the same time.) Is there a subtle flaw here? If either Kerry or Bush is elected they will have a big mandate. It just won't be from the people, but the corporate purchasers. I fear the people's mandate can no longer be given through the present electoral process. Dan Scanlan -- --- Don't Kerry Bush for the corporate facists! VOTE NADER! -- END OF THE TRAIL SALOON Alternate Sundays 6-8am GMT (10pm-midnight PDT) http://www.kvmr.org I uke, therefore I am. -- Cool Hand Uke I log on, therefore I seem to be. -- Rodd Gnawkin I claim, therefore you believe. -- Dan Ratherthan Visit Cool Hand Uke's Lava Tube: http://www.coolhanduke.com
questions for Leno to ask
http://ArnoldWatch.org Weblog August 6, 2004 2:00 pm Questions Jay Leno Should Ask Arnold Tonight Jay Leno has a tradition of using viewer-contributed material on the air. In honor of Governor Schwarzenegger's return to Leno tonight to mark the one year anniversary of his historic announcement that he would run for Governor, Arnoldwatch.org has sent in these questions for Leno to ask Arnold: 1. Arnold, last year you said that you're rich enough that you don't need anyone else's money. Now that you are raising campaign cash twice as fast as Gray Davis, does that mean youíre not as rich as you thought? 2. You said you would be the sunshine governor and we all thought that meant you would open up government records. But you made 250 state employees sign secrecy agreements when they met with lobbyists to revamp government, and you created a charity, which does not disclose its donors that campaign finance experts recently called a political slush fund. Why didn't you just tell the public what you really meant by sunshine governor -- that you'd always have a tan. 3. You said youíd sweep special interests out of Sacramento. But youíve taken more than one million dollars each from the auto industry, insurers, and HMOs, and $5 million from real estate and investment king pins. How do they define special interests in Austrian dictionaries? Anyone without campaign cash? 4. You're supposedly holding a big fundraising party in Napa this weekend...any chance you'll tell us where it is? 5. You call legislators girlie men. Donít you wear more make up than all the female politicians in Sacramento combined? Read More at http://www.ArnoldWatch.org -- --- Don't Kerry Bush for the corporate facists! VOTE NADER! -- END OF THE TRAIL SALOON Alternate Sundays 6-8am GMT (10pm-midnight PDT) http://www.kvmr.org I uke, therefore I am. -- Cool Hand Uke I log on, therefore I seem to be. -- Rodd Gnawkin I claim, therefore you believe. -- Dan Ratherthan Visit Cool Hand Uke's Lava Tube: http://www.coolhanduke.com
Let The Voter Beware
Title: Let The Voter Beware Los Angeles Times August 6, 2004 COMMENTARY Democratic Party Should Live Up to Its Name Nader deplores political skulduggery aimed at keeping him off the ballot. By Ralph Nader Though the Democrats have the right to robustly oppose my independent presidential campaign, they don't have the right to engage in dirty tricks designed to deny millions of voters the opportunity to choose who should be the next president. But that's what is happening. Across the country, the Democratic Party, state Democratic partisans, corporate lobbyists and law firms are making an unprecedented effort to keep the Nader-Camejo ticket off the ballot. It's a sordid, undemocratic tactic, an affront to voters and a threat to electoral choice. We are the only serious candidates calling for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq. We're the only ones highlighting how corporate control of the federal government has prevented healthcare for all Americans and how it has stymied passage of a wage that full-time workers can live on, as well as focusing on a host of other crucial but ignored issues. The so-called pro-choice Democrats do not want voters to have a political choice; they want them stuck with only two candidates. Democrats and corporate lobbyists conducted training sessions during the Democratic convention to plan a national campaign to keep Nader-Camejo off the ballot in as many states as possible. Participants were told that the most effective way to discourage people from signing our ballot-access petitions was to spread the rumor that the GOP supports our campaign in hopes of diverting Democratic voters. That's untrue. We estimate that less than 10% of the individuals contributing $1,000 or more are Republicans, while exit polls from 2000 show that nearly 25% of Nader voters were registered Republicans. The real meddling in our campaign has come not from Republicans but from Democrats, with, as a Democratic National Committee official told me, the DNC's approval. This includes: * Spoiling our ballot access convention in Oregon by filling the auditorium with Democrats to undermine the convention by swelling the numbers and then not signing the petitions. * Hiring corporate law firms to block our ballot efforts with litigation on frivolous technical grounds. In Arizona, 1,400 signatures were challenged because the signatories, although giving their complete address, did not include the name of their county. We could not afford to pay defense counsel and incur delays. * Trying to exclude thousands of signatures in Illinois because the signatories had moved since registering to vote - even though they still lived in Illinois and even though they were still registered voters. * Inappropriately using state employees, contractors and interns who work for Illinois' Democratic speaker of the state House to review and challenge signatures on our ballot access petitions. Not only are these efforts an attempt to deprive voters of choices in 2004 but, unless repulsed, they will set a precedent for undermining future third-party and independent candidates. Historically, non-major party campaigns have brought major paradigm shifts in the United States. For example, it was the Abolitionist Party that challenged the pro-slavery Whig and Democratic parties in the 1840s. Abraham Lincoln was the most successful third-party candidate, winning election when he criticized slavery. Other third-party candidates brought the issues of women's right to vote, trade unions, ending child labor, the 40-hour workweek, Social Security, Medicaid and Progressive-era reforms into the electoral arena. Since the 19th century, barriers to getting on the ballot have actually increased, with candidates given less time to collect the tens of thousands of verified signatures required in state after state. And apparently, even these statutory barriers are not enough for the Democratic Party operatives. It is incumbent on Democratic nominee John Kerry to put a stop to it. He should realize that obstructing ballot access in this manner is a violation of civil liberties. -- --- Don't Kerry Bush for the corporate facists! VOTE NADER! -- END OF THE TRAIL SALOON Alternate Sundays 6-8am GMT (10pm-midnight PDT) http://www.kvmr.org I uke, therefore I am. -- Cool Hand Uke I log on, therefore I seem to be. -- Rodd Gnawkin I claim, therefore you believe. -- Dan Ratherthan Visit Cool Hand Uke's Lava Tube: http://www.coolhanduke.com
Tariq Ali on the US election
(The following is from Doug Henwood's LBO-list. I may have missed Doug also posting it here. If so, my apologies for duplicating it. But a case can be made for reading Tariq Ali's comments twice. Ali, the radical British political commentator and playwright, has IMO succinctly grasped what is essential from the POV of the left in this particular US election -- what the so-called Anybody but Bush sentiment represents in the popular consciousness. Ali describes it as positive -- a point of some contention on this and other left lists -- and that it offers the potential for further advance if it is embraced. Note too his understanding that despite Kerry's electoral opportunism on Iraq, a Democratic administration would not have invaded Iraq. TA was interviewed on Doug's radio show.) Marv Gandall DH: You've said that a defeat of Bush would be regarded globally as a victory. What did you mean? TA: As you know, I travel a great deal, and everywhere I go there is growing anger and if one can be totally blunt real hatred of this administration because of what it did in Iraq - the war it waged, the civilians it killed, the mess it's made, and its inability to understand the scale of what it's done. And from that point of view, if the American population were to vote Bush out of office, the impact globally would be tremendous. People would say this guy took his country to war, surrounded by neocons who developed bogus arguments and lies, he lied to his people, he misused intelilgence information, and the American people have voted him out. That in itself could have a tremendous impact on world public opinion A defeat for a warmonger regime in Washington would be seen as a step forward. I don't go beyond that, but it would have an impact globally. DH: A lot of people on the American left are saying Kerry's not much better, and that Bush not all that much out of the ordinary. Kerry opened his acceptance speech with a military salute. He'd be pretty much more of the same. What do you say to that? TA: We're talking about the government which took the United States to war. Had Gore been elected, he would have gone to war in Afghanistan, but I doubt he would have gone to war in Iraq. This is very much a neocon agenda, dominated by the need to get the oil and appease the Israelis. This war in Iraq is very much something this administration went for. The defeat of this administration would be a defeat of the war party. What would Kerry do? He wouldn't do good things immediately, but everything is to be gained from changing the regime, and then putting massive pressure on Kerry to pull the troops out. It's not going to be easy, but it would be a much better relationship of forces if Bush is voted out. Let's assume that Kerry is the most opportunistic, foolish, weak, etc., then he will know that the reason Bush was voted out was because of this war. There is an argument doing the rounds on the American left that says that Bush has united the world against the American empire, but I do not like arguments like that. This is an argument you can have from the luxury from your sitting room or kitchen in the United States, but this particular regime has taken the lives of at least 37,000 civilians in Iraq, not counting the old army. For them it's not an abstract question. So a defeat of Bush would be regarded in many parts of the world as a small victory. This doesn't mean one has any illusions about Kerry. I certainly don't. I'm pretty disgusted by the militarism at the Democratic convention But despite all that - and we know what the Democrats are, we know the wars they've waged - our options at the moment are limited. Do we try to defeat a warmonger government or not? Do we do our best to do it? If Kerry goes on in the same way, we just have to fight him. So what? We've been doing this for a long time. DH: There are a lot of people who argue that personnel don't matter - that the war emerged from the inner needs of American capitalism, American imperialism. That it was the rate of profit, the oil price, that forced the hand, and whoever is sitting in the Oval Office is just a pawn of larger forces. Do you buy that? TA: I don't buy that. If you believe that's all there is to it, then you can give up politics. Just wait at home for the big catastrophe. This is not the way you mobilize public opinion, or engage in debates to win people over. For me, that's a dead argument, because it means you don't have to win people over. The only way you win people to your side is to go out in the streets, you argue, you talk. There is a lot to be done at the present time. A defeat for Bush would create a different atmosphere in American political culture, to show it can be done. It will make people much more critical. The honeymoon period with Kerry would be much shorter than with Clinton. Whatever Kerry says, most people who vote for him, will do so because they don't like what Bush
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
Marvin Gandall wrote: (The following is from Doug Henwood's LBO-list. I may have missed Doug also posting it here. If so, my apologies for duplicating it. But a case can be made for reading Tariq Ali's comments twice. Ali, the radical British political commentator and playwright, has IMO succinctly grasped what is essential from the POV of the left in this particular US election -- what the so-called Anybody but Bush sentiment represents in the popular consciousness. Ali describes it as positive -- a point of some contention on this and other left lists -- and that it offers the potential for further advance if it is embraced. Note too his understanding that despite Kerry's electoral opportunism on Iraq, a Democratic administration would not have invaded Iraq. TA was interviewed on Doug's radio show.) That's entirely possible. The Democrats were satisfied to keep Iraq bleeding through a combination of sanctions and highly focused military strikes from the air. That's the basic difference between the two parties: Madeline Albright, with her disgusting rhinestone American flag pin, telling an interviewer that it was worth the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children to secure freedom in Iraq; and Condoleeza Rice telling the same interviewer that freedom must be secured through occupation. Frankly, I consider the ABB phenomenon to be almost unparalleled on the left. To have ostensibly radical personalities like Tariq Ali implicitly urging a vote for Kerry (he seems to have mastered the Earl Browder art of obfuscation in not actually saying as much) tells me that we have reached a turning-point in US politics. I am ready to build a new movement that uses ABB as a litmus test. Despite my problems with State Capitalist ideology, I feel much more of an affinity for Todd Chretien--the California petition coordinator for Nader-Camejo and ISO member--than I do for Bob McChesney, the long time MR figure. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass what McChesney thinks about Cuba if he can't get this Kerry thing right. -- Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
I don't see any more reason to demonize ABB people than to demonize Nader people. Both sides see themselves as promoting the left albeit by different routes. On Fri, Aug 06, 2004 at 09:05:05PM -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: Despite my problems with State Capitalist ideology, I feel much more of an affinity for Todd Chretien--the California petition coordinator for Nader-Camejo and ISO member--than I do for Bob McChesney, the long time MR figure. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass what McChesney thinks about Cuba if he can't get this Kerry thing right. -- Marxism list: www.marxmail.org -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
Michael Perelman wrote: I don't see any more reason to demonize ABB people than to demonize Nader people. Both sides see themselves as promoting the left albeit by different routes. I am sorry, Michael. This is not demonizing: Frankly, I consider the ABB phenomenon to be almost unparalleled on the left. To have ostensibly radical personalities like Tariq Ali implicitly urging a vote for Kerry (he seems to have mastered the Earl Browder art of obfuscation in not actually saying as much) tells me that we have reached a turning-point in US politics. When Tariq Ali was reported to be a Dean supporter, I wrote him an email trying to pin him down. He said that he didn't actually call for a vote for Dean but thought that it would inspire people to see Bush voted out of office. In my view, this is Browderism raised to the level of art. I guess being a novelist (even a modestly successful one) prepares you for this kind of dexterity with language. I prefer straight-shooting myself. -- Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
Good people disagree on the Nader/Kerry decision. I think that we all know the rationale for each choice. I don't think that either side comes out well, if you only look at what some of their supporters have done -- denying Nader his right to run through dirty tricks or cavorting with the right. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
Marvin Gandall wrote: (The following is from Doug Henwood's LBO-list. I may have missed Doug also posting it here. If so, my apologies for duplicating it. But a case can be made for reading Tariq Ali's comments twice. Ali, the radical British political commentator and playwright, has IMO succinctly grasped what is essential from the POV of the left in this particular US election -- what the so-called Anybody but Bush sentiment represents in the popular consciousness. Ali describes it as positive -- a point of some contention on this and other left lists -- and that it offers the potential for further advance if it is embraced. Note too his understanding that despite Kerry's electoral opportunism on Iraq, a Democratic administration would not have invaded Iraq. TA was interviewed on Doug's radio show.) First, I agree with Michael Perelman. I think the ABB people are terribly wrong, but I also think that most of them will be with us in the long-run struggle against US intervention around the world. Earlier I came to detest John Lacny for his letter to Counterpunch in which he termed those who rejected ABB traitors. (A letter to Counterpunch is public domain as it were and disqualifies him for even the minimal courtesy one might extend to a poster on a maillist.) Michael Perelman wrote: I don't see any more reason to demonize ABB people than to demonize Nader people. Both sides see themselves as promoting the left albeit by different routes. I have already posted briefly in response to Tariq on lbo-talk: Dwayne Monroe wrote: Doug (quoting Tariq Aziz): A defeat for Bush would create a different atmosphere in American political culture, to show it can be done. It will make people much more critical. I hope (assuming Kerry wins) that Tariq is correct. I don't think he is. Lincoln's election created a different atmosphere. I don't know of any other presidential election that has. We shall see. Carrol Marvin's final point: Note too his understanding that despite Kerry's electoral opportunism on Iraq, a Democratic administration would not have invaded Iraq. That is disingenuous. A Democratic Administration (Clinton's) had _already_ invaded Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And without that assault underway Bush's invasion would not have been likely. Leftists have not in 68 years gained by tying themselves to the DP. That tie must be broken, unambiguously. Carrol
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
Louis Proyect on Tariq Ali: this is Browderism raised to the level of art. No, its garden-variety Pabloism. war in Iraq...is very much a neocon agenda, dominated by the need to get the oil and appease the Israelis. (as if Kerry wasn't gung-ho to appease the Isrealis!)
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
TA: We're talking about the government which took the United States to war. Had Gore been elected, he would have gone to war in Afghanistan, but I doubt he would have gone to war in Iraq. This is very much a neocon agenda, dominated by the need to get the oil and appease the Israelis. Washington went to war mainly because the sanction on Iraq was unraveling, so I think that the Democratic White House would have been as belligerent toward Iraq as the Republican one has been, except a Democratic president would have given a bigger piece of action to the European power elites than the Republican one has. A Democratic president would have been more aggressive toward Russia and North Korea than the Republican one has been. DH: There are a lot of people who argue that personnel don't matter - that the war emerged from the inner needs of American capitalism, American imperialism. That it was the rate of profit, the oil price, that forced the hand, and whoever is sitting in the Oval Office is just a pawn of larger forces. Do you buy that? TA: I don't buy that. If you believe that's all there is to it, then you can give up politics. Just wait at home for the big catastrophe. The question doesn't make political sense, so the answer doesn't either. Before getting to the point of actually being able to split the Democratic and Republican Parties, we need an intermediate goal: do what we can to make the next POTUS a weak president, rather than a strong one. To do so, we need to decrease the shares of popular votes that go to the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
