US politics - Mr Obama goes to Israel

[IheartTesla]

I think its a pretty low key trip at a fairly low key time in that particular area. But the last time he went was as a candidate.

The Prez will also not be addressing the Knesset, but the public directly. I happen to think he's a better friend of Israel than Bibi thinks, but hey.

Hey, I cant find anything domestic that is interesting beyond the sequester and the usual gridlock.

[Saci Targaryen]

I'm done with trying to understand the Middle East. God knows I tried, but I guess I'm just not intelligent enough to figure out what goes on there.

[Fez]

See, I would've gone for a CPAC-related headline. This is one of the worst times of the year to be in DC, right about with the Roe v. Ward anniversary (I got swallowed up by the pro-life march one year, had to wave down a capital police officer to get me out of there).

Anyway, the White House put out some very encouraging charts today. First, from the latest Economic Report to the President, are some charts on global warming. The data in the charts is hugely worrying of course, but what's encouraging is the White House acknowledging the problem. They've obviously always accepted the science, but have never done much about it before; I'm hoping that changes. It's already started actually, with Obama announcing today that he wants to take $2 billion from the oil and gas lease revenues that the government gets and use to research alternative energies.

Second, is this chart on Medicare, also from the Economic Report. It backs up what I've been saying for over a year now, that health care cost growth has (at least temporarily) been arrested. Its nice to see the White House finally run with the narrative.

[Inigima]

I read today that Obama is reassuring Israel that Iran is at least a year away from the bomb.

This is not reassuring to me personally. I thought they were much farther from it. I don't think stopping it is possible at this point, and trying will leave us worse off after we fail. Hopefully Iran isn't crazy, because I'm pretty sure we are going to have to learn how to live in a nuclear Iran.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

Iran with the bomb might make for a much more polite Middle-East. A little MAD in the region might be good?

[lokisnow]

interesting tidbit about the forest fires in the west, particularly that all of the plants are fire adapted and most need regular low grade fires to spread their seed. That sort of adaptation is entirely human originated, because regular low grade fires don't happen on their own, naturally occurring forest fires are fairly rare occurrences. Pretty much the only way for that sort of adaptation to have occurred is for Native populations to have had a regular policy of setting low grade fires all across the west. Native oral history confirms that they had this policy, including dire warnings at the turn of the century, which were naturally ignored. For quite some time this was dismissed because it would have been impossible given the estimates of Native populations, for this to be true, there would have had to have been tens of millions of natives populating the west for centuries to effect such a complete adaptation across the region, and whites for a long time "knew" there weren't that many natives. However we now know that the population of the americas was massively higher pre contact and the fire adaptation of plants in the west is yet one more instance of proof indicating that European disease caused the greatest mass genocide in history.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

lockesnow,

That's an interesting argument in favor of the "high count" pre-contact native population.

[Fez]

I read today that Obama is reassuring Israel that Iran is at least a year away from the bomb.

This is not reassuring to me personally. I thought they were much farther from it. I don't think stopping it is possible at this point, and trying will leave us worse off after we fail. Hopefully Iran isn't crazy, because I'm pretty sure we are going to have to learn how to live in a nuclear Iran.

I feel though like we've been told for at least the past five or six years now that Iran is "at least a year away." And Iran "being close" to a nuclear weapon has been in the public discourse for well over a decade now, hell there were early season West Wing episodes about it.

Almost makes one wonder just how close Iran actually is, and whether maybe some people here in the West have motivation for making Iran seem like they're closer than they actually are.

[Jaxom 1974]

I feel though like we've been told for at least the past five or six years now that Iran is "at least a year away." And Iran "being close" to a nuclear weapon has been in the public discourse for well over a decade now, hell there were early season West Wing episodes about it.

Almost makes one wonder just how close Iran actually is, and whether maybe some people here in the West have motivation for making Iran seem like they're closer than they actually are.

I interpreted the quote as being, "Even when they're going to be ready, it'll still take them a year at least". That might very well be an incorrect interpretation. Though it kinds goes along with what you're saying I think.

[Shryke]

Raidne,

As a sort of tangent to your last post in the other thread, I'm just curious, does the US have any explicit transfer payment setup?

Like, I know you guys have specific programs (highway funds or medicaid or the like) and that those are used as cudgels to ensure state compliance with ... whatever, but is there any just general "Here's some money you filthy bastards, try to stay solvent" system in place?

[Fez]

Like, I know you guys have specific programs (highway funds or medicaid or the like) and that those are used as cudgels to ensure state compliance with ... whatever, but is there any just general "Here's some money you filthy bastards, try to stay solvent" system in place?

Not really. The federal government is loath to just give out funds without at least some directions attached to it.

The only real example I can think is the estate tax. The federal government will collect it anyway, but if a state creates an estate tax, it gets first dibs on the estate and any money paid to the estate can be used as an exemption at the federal level. So the federal government is in essence ceding revenue to the states if they want it, and the IRS will even do all the actual bureaucratic legwork for states.

[TrueMetis]

interesting tidbit about the forest fires in the west, particularly that all of the plants are fire adapted and most need regular low grade fires to spread their seed. That sort of adaptation is entirely human originated, because regular low grade fires don't happen on their own, naturally occurring forest fires are fairly rare occurrences. Pretty much the only way for that sort of adaptation to have occurred is for Native populations to have had a regular policy of setting low grade fires all across the west. Native oral history confirms that they had this policy, including dire warnings at the turn of the century, which were naturally ignored. For quite some time this was dismissed because it would have been impossible given the estimates of Native populations, for this to be true, there would have had to have been tens of millions of natives populating the west for centuries to effect such a complete adaptation across the region, and whites for a long time "knew" there weren't that many natives. However we now know that the population of the americas was massively higher pre contact and the fire adaptation of plants in the west is yet one more instance of proof indicating that European disease caused the greatest mass genocide in history.

While there is absolutely evidence that Natives practised controlled burning to increase hunting grounds it is unlikely that natives were in the Americas long enough to create fire ecologies out of non-fire ecologies. It's much more likely that natives influenced the frequency of already established fire ecologies. Fire ecologies in North America have a burn frequency of 10-500 years depending on the place and nature of the flora.

[Merentha]

Did...CPAC really play "What Do I Stand For?" before introducing Mitt Romney?

[TerraPrime]

Re: Ser Scot

How often does the federal government give money to localities without strings? What works in Wenatchee Washington may not work so well in Darien, Georgia. If the Feds were only being used as a raineu day fund I'd be more comfortable.

Did I read this correctly? You want to reduce the accountability of fund recipients? You want monies given out without clear guidelines and definitions on how it can be used, by design? Really?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

TP,

Presumably if the funds received were not used to aid disaster relief there would be political consequences for the government so misusing those funds.

[Fez]

TP,

Presumably if the funds received were not used to aid disaster relief there would be political consequences for the government so misusing those funds.

That's a horrible idea. What about quality control? The federal government doesn't just earmark funds for specific uses, it also requires recipients to explain exactly how they will use the funds and what evaluation criteria they'll be using to gauge success. Its one of the chief ways the feds have clamped down on wasteful spending. And you want to throw that away and just have the feds giving money out like a drunken sailor to state and local government?

[Guest RK Unsmoteable]

Not really. The federal government is loath to just give out funds without at least some directions attached to it.

This. And, well, the funds paid out in direct Sandy relief, but between Barack and Christie...well, you can make your decisions about what kind of mutual agreement was reached there. ;)

But for the most part, if your Supreme Court has revived an interpretation of the Commerce Clause that seriously limits your ability to do anything, effective governance mandates that you not - ever - give away anything for nothing, because it's all you've got.

[jarl the climber]

Reading through this thread I can see that there is little intersest or importance attached to Obamas trip to Israel. Considering all the troubles its neighbors are having Israel should probaly seize on the Obama visit to jumpstart something with the Palestinians. I have to agree that this seems unlikely to happen.

[Guest RK Unsmoteable]

Jarl, you motivated me to look at some news stories. They were all about how nothing will be proposed and there's nothing to report on. I did read that we will pressure the Israelis to not air strike Iran for another year. Somehow I don't think the Israelis see the problems their neighbors are having as a net negative.

[Oblique]

6 weeks?? The red states seem like they're in a race......

North Dakota Poised To Enact Six-Week Abortion Ban, The Most Stringent Restriction In The Nation

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/15/1724911/north-dakota-six-week-heartbeat-ban/

Quote:

House Bill 1456 would make it a felony for a doctor to perform a nonemergency abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as five or six weeks. House Bill 1305 would prohibit abortions sought because a fetus has been or could be diagnosed with any genetically inherited defect, disease or disorder.

Quote:

North Dakota’s heartbeat measure will also have the unintended consequence of mandating transvaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, since there’s no other way to detect a fetal heartbeat at such an early stage of pregnancy.