Twilight of the Bombs

Richard Rhodes last book is out. Here is a review in the LA Times by Tim Rutten. Here is one in the NY Times. Here is the conclusion from the Rutten review:

"...In the end, Rhodes' conclusion is that the only safety in a nuclear age is an age without nuclear weapons. How that entirely unreasonable aim can be achieved in an unreasonable world is a difficult proposition. Rhodes speaks to it with great eloquence in his conclusion, which is essentially that of W.H. Auden: "We must love one another or die."

I wish I were an optimist on this one.

What is Afghan for Ap Bac?

Sigh....why do I think I am reading Neal Sheehan's book all over again?

Then.
"...On January 3,1963, several American war correspondents approached General Paul D. Harkins to ask what he thought about the battle the 7th Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Division had just fought at a village named Bac...They learned that the fighting had ended the day before, and that it had not been a success. 'It was a miserable…performance,' said the American adviser to the 7th Division, Lt. Col. John Paul Vann..."

Now.
KABUL, Afghanistan — "...An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams..."

Los Alamos County Views: Fool Us Once, Shame On You...

Los Alamos County Views: Fool Us Once, Shame On You...

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse

By David Stockman*, in the New York Times

"IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation’s public debt — if honestly reckoned to include municipal bonds and the $7 trillion of new deficits baked into the cake through 2015 — will soon reach $18 trillion. That’s a Greece-scale 120 percent of gross domestic product, and fairly screams out for austerity and sacrifice. It is therefore unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase..."

For a local version of this disaster that is unfolding, see Greg Kendall's latest op ed, posted in the Monitor and on the Los Alamos County Views.

* David Stockman, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, is working on a book about the financial crisis.

While the Senat dithers, the algae burn...

This just in from VOA and Dalhousie University. Global warming now blamed for a precipitous drop in oceanic algae. And while the algae burn, the U.S. Senate dithers.

Rather than repeat a rant here, I'll direct you to the LA Bikes site for some comments.

If we wanted more Cheney, we would have voted for more Cheney

From the Washington Post:

White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity

"...The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication...To critics, the move is another example of an administration retreating from campaign pledges to enhance civil liberties in relation to national security. The proposal is "incredibly bold, given the amount of electronic data the government is already getting," said Michelle Richardson, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel. "

As Kevin Drum said in Mother Jones, "...You know, if I'd wanted Dick Cheney as president I would have just voted for him...."

With a tip of the hat to Patrick O'Grady, who posted the picture above earlier today.

When will we stop getting fooled again?

Film credits: Economic gain or corporate welfare?

Today's Monitor has a glowing story about the film industry bringing money into Bombtown and frankly, it made a good case for us locals seeing some ca-ching land in our cash registers. But what is the balance sheet in the give and take between film industry money spent here vs. tax credits given away to the film industry? I Googled to find out, and found this:

from The New Mexico Independent:
"...Citing a 2008 study of New Mexico’s film industry subsidies, Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik Friday questioned California’s own $100 million-a-year tax credits for Hollywood film productions, calling them “corporate welfare.” The study showed that New Mexico saw only 14 cents in returns for every dollar it spent on film production tax credits...A competing report commissioned by the NM film industry in January 2009 by the New Mexico Film Office found a much more positive economic impact than the report cited by Hiltzik. Conducted by Ernst & Young, the study concluded that the program had earned $0.94 in additional tax revenue for each $1.00 paid out in incentives based on the 2007 value of present and future year tax receipts and the 2007 value of state film production tax credits..."

But with each state competing to provide more lavish tax breaks to the film industry than the next, one has to ask if this is a race to the taxation bottom. Neale Peirce says this in Citiwire: "...The raw bottom line is this: Subsidy-induced film activity may have glitz and surface appeal. But nationally, it’s a washout — film production lured from one place to another is classic “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” At the end of the day the country’s no less prosperous. The net economic impact is simply to enrich the filmmakers at the expense of state taxpayers. Even a Cecil B. DeMille would blush."

Or, I would add, the country's no more prosperous, and the state that "wins" is getting the least return for its efforts. Like most free lunches, this one is probably too good to be true. If New Mexico is such a great place to film, we shouldn't have to give away the store.