Polling place problems

When something goes wrong on Election Day, a lot of people start screaming "conspiracy," particularly those whose candidate just lost. The reality is often more disturbing:

While folks in Washington were waiting hours to vote under record turnout Feb. 12, poll workers hid electronic voting machines because they didn't like the touch-screen devices. On Super Tuesday in Chicago, poll workers passed out pens meant for e-voting machines. When those instruments made no mark on paper ballots, election workers said they were full of invisible ink — an explanation that was upheld by onsite precinct judges.

Invisible ink, folks.

The fact is, our polling places are run by older people without a ton of training or compensation. That's not likely to change any time soon. We might consider this as we think about the kinds of voting machines that work best. Even the best electronic voting machine will break occasionally and will be distrusted by a sizable chunk of voters. Old fashioned lever machines, or even paper and pencil, actually work, and poll workers can deal with problems related to them.

The cost of war

Joseph Stiglitz has a new book out suggesting that we grossly under-estimate the true costs of war by just focusing on operational costs. When you factor in things like medical care and disability benefits for combat veterans, who may live another six or seven decades, you get up into the trillions of dollars. Interestingly, he claims that our peak expenditures on veterans of World War II was in 1993. His analysis suggests that the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the U.S. around $3 trillion.

This is a sobering reminder of the costs of war, which are often hidden from us. I wonder how the Bush administration will greet this information?

“People like Joe Stiglitz lack the courage to consider the cost of doing nothing and the cost of failure. One can’t even begin to put a price tag on the cost to this nation of the attacks of 9/11,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, conceding that the costs of the war on terrorism are high while questioning the premise of Stiglitz’s research.

“It is also an investment in the future safety and security of Americans and our vital national interests. Three trillion dollars? What price does Joe Stiglitz put on attacks on the homeland that have already been prevented? Or doesn’t his slide rule work that way?”

You'd think that after seven years, I'd be used to the Bush administration's arrogance, belligerence, and anti-intellectualism. Yet somehow, they always manage to surprise me. Let's break Fratto's statement down:

1. Stiglitz is a coward. I'd guess that's par for the course. After all, the Nobel prize winning economist did offer a critique of the administration's policies, which is tantamount to an attack on the homeland.
2. "The cost of failure." Tony, you guys might have considered the cost of failure when you botched this war. Losing a war has got to be costlier than not having started it.
   
3. We can't put a price tag on 9/11. Let's for a moment set aside the conflation of the Iraq War with 9/11. As it turns out, several people have attempted to put a price tag on 9/11. It's difficult to know where to draw the line, though. Do you include the costs of the economic slowdown after the attacks? The costs of increased airline security? Do you put a price on the loss of human lives? It's fuzzy and unpleasant. But here's one study by the Center for Contemporary Conflict that puts the immediate, short-term economic impact of 9/11 at $27.2 billion. That's not chump change. The report talks about the difficulty of gaging the longer term, less direct costs of the attacks. Let's just throw the number $100 billion out there. If that's the cost, then we'll have spent 30 times that figure on this war. So our economy could have sustained 30 9/11 attacks before it will have spent this kind of money. Okay, this sort of math is morbid. How about spending a few hundred billion implementing the security reforms recommended by the 9/11 commission? You know, safer ports and airports, that kind of stuff. It would have been a bargain.
4. "What price does Joe Stiglitz put on attacks on the homeland that have already been prevented?" Hard to say, Tony. What attacks have been prevented? Can you show us evidence of any attacks that have been prevented by the war in Iraq? That would certainly help your case.
5. "Or doesn’t his slide rule work that way?” Man, do these guys hate scientists.

Obama and the Jews

If you were bothered at all by Tim Russert's shameless baiting of Obama at last night's debate, I'd like to recommend this post by Ari Kelman. Ari looks at a recent speech by Obama to members of Cleveland's Jewish community on the subject of Israel. The speech contains a number of the traditional "I'm a huge friend of Israel" panders that one would expect from any politician worth his or her Kosher salt these days. But it also shows some real sensitivities and nuances that I think border on politically courageous. Case in point, Obama's description of his pastor, the one who said nice things about Farrakhan:

It is true that my Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who will be retiring this month, is somebody who on occasion can say controversial things…He was very active in the South Africa divestment movement and you will recall that there was a tension that arose between the African American and the Jewish communities during that period when we were dealing with apartheid in South Africa, because Israel and South Africa had a relationship at that time…

But I have never heard an anti-Semitic [remark] made inside of our church. I have never heard anything that would suggest anti-Semitism on part of the Pastor. He is like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don’t agree with. And I suspect there are some of the people in this room who have heard relatives say some things that they don’t agree with. Including, on occasion directed at African Americans.

So the point I make is this that I understand the concerns and the sensitivities and one of my goals constantly in my public career has been to try to bridge what was a historically powerful bond between the African American and Jewish communities that has been frayed in recent years.

He hasn't been at my house during Passover, but he may as well have been.

Reinstated, and it feels so good

The Denver Democratic Party reinstated me as a county convention delegate last night after I proved I'd been registered with them for over a year. I was not alone:

Ten of the 172 delegates and alternates suspected of crashing Feb. 5 party caucuses persuaded a credentials committee Monday that they are, indeed, Denver Democrats.

The story last week was that high turnout brought in a lot of idiots who didn't know that they weren't registered Democrats or didn't know what precinct they were in. In short, it was the voters' fault. But as ten of us proved last night, voters sometimes get it right, while local parties sometimes fail to keep accurate records. I wonder how many other people are still going to be disqualified just because they couldn't get to a meeting on Monday night.

Way to go, Ohio

It really feels like the next eight years will be determined by how close these two lines get in the next seven days.No pressure.

Climate data

Has it been a cold winter where you are? Do we think the global warming scare is over? Well, the National Climatic Data Center helpfully provides data on temperatures in the U.S. since 1895. Their chart output is a bit messy -- I prefer exporting the table into a program like Stata that can do nice graphs with smoother lines, like this one:Isn't that pretty? Oh, wait, we're gonna die.

The kids are alright

There's been plenty of criticism out there about Obamania. You know, all the young, adoring fans who worship the ground on which Obama walks even if they don't know his policy positions and then go to Starbucks and sip soy lattes while blogging about "The Wire" on their MacBooks. And we've all seen the starry-eyed college students who fit this stereotype pretty closely. And God knows I've engaged in some of this bashing myself.

But I think it's getting a bit old, a bit mean, and a bit silly. For an example of all three, see Kathleen Parker's recent column at Townhall.com:

[Obama] is a perfect storm of the culture of narcissism, the cult of celebrity, and a secular society in which fathers (both the holy and the secular) have been increasingly marginalized from the lives of a generation of young Americans.

Please. Ever since I was a starry-eyed college student, torn between casting my primary vote for Mike Dukakis or Jesse Jackson (they seemed more inspirational at the time), I can remember reading articles about how apathetic and disappointing young voters were. Either they believed in the wrong things or they didn't believe in anything at all. Well, suddenly a lot of young liberals are finding something to believe in again. They're organizing, they're paying attention to politics, and they're voting. No, they're not all as articulate as Mario Savio was in 1964, but they're actually in the fray doing what we say we want good citizens to be doing. So let's give them a little credit.