Author: Aaron Weber

Mouth-breathers

Strangely, it’s the right wing that uses the word “idiotarian” more than the left. Because the right wing genuinely seems to be the faction of stupid people promoting stupid policies. People who believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. That “9/11 changed everything” and use that as an excuse to suspend all civil liberties. People who use the words “taxachussets” unironically (note that MA is dead center in tax burden among the states, the word, like “partial-birth abortion” and “death tax” is basically bullshit). People who believe that Kerry never went to war or that he evaded service or that he helped the Viet Cong, and who laud Bush’s military service in the same breath.

Our Leader is daring North Korea to nuke us. The designated “liberals” in the “liberal” media are unable to point out the lies Bush told during the debate.

At least there are some smart people out there. For example, John Eisenhower, son of Gen. Eisenhower, is endorsing Kerry. And Rita Hauser, former vice-chairman of Bush’s foreign intelligence advisory board, has endorsed Kerry. And Joseph Stiglitz, former world bank chief economist, has endorsed Kerry. He says

Bush supporters rightly ask: is Bush really to blame for this? Wasn’t the recession already beginning when he took office?

The resounding answer is that Bush is to blame. Every president inherits a legacy. The economy was entering a downturn when Bush took office, but Clinton also left a huge budget surplus—2 percent of GDP—a pot of money with which to finance a robust recovery. But Bush squandered that surplus, converting it into a deficit of 5 percent of GDP through tax cuts for the rich.

The productivity growth that was sustained through the downturn presented both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity: If the economy was well managed, the incomes of Americans could continue to rise as they had done in the 1990s. The challenge: to manage the economy so that growth would be robust enough to create the new jobs required by new entrants to the labor force. Bush failed the challenge, and America lost the opportunity because of his wrong choices.

Stupid people, stupid policies, stupid results.

Good Advice

Found a new advice column: Embarrassing Problems. It’s good, sincere advice about icky medical problems. Being based in the UK means that US readers won’t be put off by it: a British accent, as I have observed before, makes it ok to talk about things like “faeces” and “loo,” Contrast with Savage Love which is funnier advice about embarrassing sex problems, and Ask Kitty Winn, which basically makes askers feel ashamed of themselves, anonymously.

At what point do you give up?

For crying out loud, even their database administrators are corrupt. Come November third, lawsuits are going to fly, just like last time, and it’s pretty likely we’ll see a 5-4 vote for President again, and the US losing status as a country where free and fair elections are held. How about some international election observers, please? Check the Independent’s coverage of race-biased voter purges in Florida.

Also, Billionaires for Bush are back at it, send them some props for style. Or cash to help pay for hosting, since they’re not actually rich, they just play rich on the Internet.

Correction

Vomitola points out that Billerica is not actually where I thought it was– it’s near Lowell, and is served by commuter rail. When I said “Billerica” I should have said generally anywhere out past Revere, which is not at all where Billerica is.

Plus, I totally forgot about commuter rail. It’s good. We need more.

I went to Beverley once on the commuter rail. Trains run too infrequently for my taste except during rush hours… hence the name “commuter.” It is good though, and it is useful. It’s better maintained than the regular subway, too, which makes regular-subway riders kind of jealous– newer trains. Functioning air conditioning. Bigger trains, since it’s a full-on railroad. Anyway, it would be cool, in my fantasy world, not to have to switch trains, and for trains to go really far. The DC Metro is basically my vision of a proper subway system– I know it has flaws, but it’s got a lot of advantages.

Government

The City of Boston has an organization called One in 3, dedicated to reaching out to the third of the city’s population between the ages of twenty and thirty-four. (Trivia: Ten percent of the city’s population, and 30% of the 20-34 age group, lives in Allston/Brighton). I get their newsletter.

As you might guess, the primary issue for people this age is the primary issue for most of the city: housing. After getting an email newsletter from One in 3, I wrote to the Boston Redevelopment Authority asking how I could get involved in the housing development process. They said I could join an Impact Assessment Group– provided that I lived in Boston in the neighborhood impacted by a particular development.

Fair enough, except that everything they do is geared strictly to people living strictly within the city limits of Boston, rather than people living within spitting distance of Boston. This too is obvious, but it’s also obvioiusly stupid.

Why should Boston have different laws from Cambridge, West Roxbury, and Arlington? It makes little or no sense. We need consistency within the greater Boston metro area. It would help a hell of a lot.

You want to solve the housing problem in this area? Not badly enough, obviously. Here’s my simple plan:

  • The City of Boston should annex all land inside Route 128, or state should impose mandatory zoning reconciliation for the entire area. No matter how it is achieved, the permitting and building process should be identical for the entire area.
  • All universities should be required to provide a bed for all students who don’t already live in the area.
  • All new residential construction greater than, say, 3000 square feet should be required to have a rentable apartment as part of it.
  • Currently, simpler regulations apply to 3-family and fewer buildings than to larger apartment or condo complexes. This should be expanded to four or five.
  • Most new residential development should be encouraged to be at least one story higher. Most height restrictions on residential construction should be eased.
  • Subsidies for reuse of historic or industrial buildings should be increased, especially for environmental remediation. They can pay for this by increasing the cost of parking permits.
  • The subway should be extended: Red line should run out through Arlington, Blue line to Billerica, Green line E train out to the blue line somewhere, Green line Lechmere should be extended to Davis square, with a free transfer at Davis. The “Indigo” or “Circle” line should be constructed, even if it’s just with buses and a dedicated lane. They can pay for this by doubling fares. Double fare will also pay for extra subsidies on discounted T passes for the poor.
  • All independent for-pay surface-level parking lots in the city should be fined or taxed out of existence. Turn that land into a (min. 4 story) parking garage or develop it in some sane way. Don’t waste it like that. Municipal parking lots should be converted to municipal parking garages where possible. Ideally, two lots could be replaced by a garage over the location of one, and then the other could be sold to housing developers. Money for the city, housing for the people.

Any of these would help. All of them would be political suicide. What we need is a supervillan or someone with mind control rays. That’ll solve the problem!