Archive for November, 2008
Hunting Down the Deadbeat Parents
The following is a guest post by longtime Urbanagora reader Amanda. Amanda is commenting on this Press Release by the Blagojevich Administration.
As a student of economics, I think of policy as a way to “get the incentives right.” An argument could be made that parents not paying child support is a market failure, where the market for raising children would normally operate with parents meeting the finanical needs of their children. In an attempt to correct this market failure, Illinois Human and Family Services and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources created a program to withhold hunting and fishing licenses to child support deliquent parents. I’m not going to go into whether or not hunting is a “right” or a ”privilege” to be “granted” by the state, but that is also an interesting question. Illinois found a way to track down a certain subset of delinquent parents and gave them the choice to either pay their child support payments and get their license or not pay and not have the right to hunt (legally). The fact that the program contributed to the greatest collection of child support payments on record suggests that the policy is working. Could there be other ways to find delinquent parents and get them to cough up the money to make their kids’ lives better off? Suspending driving privileges is another step, though if the Illinois driver never gets pulled over, he/she would only face “payment or suspension” every 4 years (renewal requirements for 21-80 year olds) rather than the yearly renewal of hunting and fishing permits.
Hillary for Sec of State?
What do you all think of the buzz about Pres-Elect Obama offering the Sec. of State position to Hillary Clinton? Here are some pros by Chris at the Outside Report (here too). And here are 5 cons from Ken Silverstein.
Sober Man’s View of Barackracy
Obama gives me hope and he gives me fright.
Over the past few years, I have endured the common process of maturing from a naive, excessively optimistic youth into a more realistic, but still confidently optimistic young adult. Obama must now endure the same metamorphosis. He must convert his naive, excessively optimistic rhetoric into real, politically muddy pragmatism and results. An unfortunate reality of human nature is that politicians cannot obtain results without muddy pragmatism.
I find it difficult to recall a time in Obama’s career when he has used muddy pragmatism to push the world toward his idealized vision of it. This does not mean that he lacks the ability to do so, but knowing that he has little or no experience doing so disturbs and disquiets me. His optimism for a post-partisan world will be counteracted by the reality of his personal views being far to the left of what most Americans, even most Democrats, want their policies to look like. If he does not adopt a Bill Clintonesque moderate liberal approach, his bedtime fantasies of being the savior who leads us into a beautiful post-partisan world will transform into nightmares of Congressional gridlock. He made many promises to many constituencies, now he needs the courage and the maturity to tell some of those groups, “No, I Can’t. Sorry, but I cannot do it all. I must govern and prioritize as a pragmatist.” Read more…
A study in self-funding
Today Rich Miller at Capitol Fax referenced a study that illustrates the folly of self-financed campaigns, and observes that the Illinois GOP should take a lesson from this recent history.
* And a study of the 2008 election results shows that self-funding candidates don’t do well at all…
49 Congressional candidates spend $500,000 of their own money, and of them, only 6 House candidates and 1 Senate candidate won.
Perhaps the saddest case of this was Sandy Treadwell, who ran against Kirsten Gillibrand in NY-20. Treadwell poured in at least $5.9 million of his own money. (Gillibrand spent $3.6 million, but only $250 of that was her own money.) The return on Treadwell’s investment: priceless. If by ‘priceless,’ you mean losing to Gillibrand by a 23-point margin.
The Illinois GOP might take that as a broad hint to stop recruiting those self-funders.
As usual Miller is spot on. If you can’t convince your people and your party to support your campaign, it’s a good hint that you’re not a viable candidate.
Too often wealthy candidates are surrounded with people afraid to tell them bad news, or the egos of the wealthy are spurred on by staffers who want to keep getting a check. And when you’re many months, hundreds of hours, and tens of thousands of dollars in to a campaign, its hard to recognize sunk costs, and hard to tell when to stop.
This is also a good sign for our democracy. Folk’s don’t like it when it looks like you’re just buyin’ it. An interesting question, would more aggressive federal campaign finance reform reverse this trend? It’s really hard concoct campaign finance legislation that could constitutionally limit the ability of a candidate to spend their own money on their campaign. Does limiting PACs, lobbyists, and contribution amounts give self-financed candidates an unfair advantage?
Cubs Update – 11/14/08
Well folks, I think i’ve finally come to grips with the fact that the Cubs were unable to win a single playoff game for the second year in a row (not to mention we were above and beyond the rest of the field in the national league…). So, without further delay, I figured we should see how our beloved Cubbies are doing this offseason:
- Well I’ll start out with the big news. This is sort of a “Good News, Sad News” situation. The good news is we get a great reliever in Kevin Gregg, but we have to give up an excellent prospect (and 99 mph fastball) in Jose Ceda. The Sad news is that this almost assures that Kerry Wood will not be returning to the Cubbies this year. I can’t really blame Jim Hendry on this one though. Kerry would undoubtedly command a hefty salary now that he’s shown he can withstand the rigors of a season as closer, and he did give us a bit of a home-town discount last year. So, Kerry, I wish you the best with wherever you land…I just hope it isn’t in the NL Central. Read more…
In Their Honor
In honor of those from my home town, Tonica, who served in all of our wars, since and including the Civil War, I’d like to publish a link to my article from last year, Farmboys on the Wall. I will be attending a SF convention this weekend with a military theme where I will, given half a chance, be reading it aloud. Looking it over now, my eyes filled with tears, just as they did when I penned it, originally.
My father, my brother, and my son all served in the United States Army. While I often disagree with the internal affairs of our nation, I understand that a government and its military are essential to the continued survival of any people. Those who believe that violence never solved anything should, as Robert Heinlein said in Starship Troopers, “ask a Carthaginian.” Violence has solved too many things over the history of humanity, in most cases in ways unpleasant for the less-prepared.
There is no person greater than one who is willing to place their body, mind, and life in front of those who would harm another. We must never forget that–nations who do, do not last very long afterwards.
To the living veterans of our nation, thank you. To those who have given their lives and cannot read this, you are in my prayers, always.
I miss you, Mike, every day.
Got to Beg Louder
Ya Got to Beg Louder Boy (In Chicago)
The City passes you by without saying hi
The City doesn’t care if you’re lonely or high
The City breathes with metallic lungs
And speaks in a rambling tongue
And coughs on the beat of his makeshift drum Read more…
The Limiting of American Power
The New York Times reported today that the Bush administration has since 2004 secretly given broad authority to the military to carry out attacks on al-Qaeda in 15 to 20 countries including Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and others. Some thoughts on the implications on American foreign policy follow.
Goode Riddance in VA-5
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the 2008 election is the overdue retirement of Virgil Goode, from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. Goode will be replaced by Tom Perriello, assuming his current lead of 750 votes holds. For updates on that race, check out Raising Kaine. For more on Perriello, check out this write up at Slate. Read more…
Beyond Prop 8
Most of the results were in. With all but a few House and Senate seats nailed down, my attention turned to collecting the scattered results of all the ballot measures I was following this year. By and large, it’s your standard culture war stuff: abortion, affirmative action, gay marriage. Read more…