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Saturday, August 14, 2004
Following Up
Posted by DavidNYCTwo stories in the NYT caught my eye today, because they both relate to issues that we discussed here in the past week or so. The first is this piece on how various state-level anti-gay marriage amendments might increase the pro-Bush turnout. The state most likely to be affect by this is - sigh - Ohio.
The other is a long-ish feature piece on how the Bush administration has quietly used its regulatory rule-making powers to reward its corporate friends. Due to the national focus on Iraq & terrorism, nearly all of these changes in adminstrative law have happened outside of the public view. The director of the Sierra Club says that when people are told about these changes in focus groups - which include things like allowing already-fatigued truckers to drive even longer shifts - they can scarcely believe them. I'm not surprised.
Also, the NYT continues its series on the swing states - they are now up to Wisconsin. I particularly love the county vote maps.
UPDATE: David Sirota has more on the issue of big business & regulation in a new piece in The Prospect.
Posted at 03:59 PM in General | Technorati
Comments
Is this an accusation of corruption or is it a general complaint against "pro-business" policies? After all, it is fairly vulgar to oppose something simply on the grounds of it being pro-business. Of course, the line between corruption and public-choice is rather thin, but I'd be interested to see some evidence of genuine quid pro quo corruption.
And I'm not sure about the Iraq-blindfold argument. It forces us to assume that American citizens must choose between focusing on foreign policy and focusing on environmental regulations. I have trouble thinking that if it weren't for Bush's foreign policy America would be up in arms about his environmental regulations.
I'm not sure about the effects of increased driving coupled with more sleep requirements. I suppose only the social scientists can help us with this one. But the NY Times made the rather unexamined factual comment that 1997 had more truck-related deaths than ever before. I think they should compare this number to the amount of total trucking. Considering the massive rise in trucking transport since its deregulation, a percentage of deaths per truck might be more important than total deaths/accidents. We would also have to consider the predicted deaths of alternate transportation (I'm assuming this would be by trains). In other words, this is a complicated issue, and I'm not particularly comfortable with how the NY Times journalist has handled it.
Posted by: grant at August 17, 2004 06:41 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
Putting gay marriage on the Ohio ballot on Election Day will no doubt raise voter turn out in the Buckeye State. The Republican-controlled government of Ohio expects it to bring out voters who may not have come to the polls otherwise. These voters are likely to vote for Bush. If this issue galvanizes voters the way it did in Missouri, it will make Ohio that much more difficult for Kerry to win .
Posted by: Pepe at August 19, 2004 12:03 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment