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A still from a video from the Molecular Biology Laboratory, Cambridge, England. Download from here (it´s too big to upload to the RBC website).
The movie illustrates what looks like a fundamental discovery in viral immunology.
November 6th, 2010
November 5th, 2010
Category: HIV/AIDS
I identify more closely with Russian alcoholics and Thai sex workers than I do with Republican Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA). For their sake, among others, I’m dismayed by the Republican’s recent victory.
That seems like a stretch. Bear with me.
Last spring, I visited Russia to deliver some HIV prevention lectures and to learn about some of the related risks confronting injection drug users, sex workers, and others. One morning, after enjoying a sumptuous salmon buffet breakfast at my fancy tourist hotel, I visited one of the few residential treatment centers available to the large population of Russians suffering from drug or alcohol disorders….. Read the rest of this entry »
November 5th, 2010
Category: Campaign 2010, Corruption in Washington, Democrats in Congress, The Dysfunctional Senate, Uncategorized
When Empty Suit Evan Bayh announced his retirment from the Senate a few months ago, I called him an empty suit, although of course it would be better had he stayed and kept the seat for the Dems. Now, the New York Times has seen fit to give him some of the most valuable space in US journalism to lecture us on why the Democrats took heavy losses in the midterms, and we can see that he’s a not-very-bright empty suit.
His piece was a typical collection of inane Bayh-bromides. But one thing stood out to me. Among his suggestions for a Democratic program going forward are:
Democrats should support a freeze on federal hiring and pay increases. Government isn’t a privileged class and cannot be immune to the times.
Now, it’s bad enough that this is absolutely 100% backwards on policy grounds: we’re at double-digit unemployment, so the government shouldn’t hire people? The cure for a recession is…deflation?
But if that were all, it would be standard inside-the-Beltway idiocy. The worst thing is his pompous second clause, about the government not being a privileged class.
This is coming from Evan Bayh. Son of former Senator Birch Bayh (whose record towers over his son’s). Who went to the St. Albans’ Prep School in Washington DC while his Dad was a Senator. Who I’m sure had all kinds of problems connecting with powerful people and large campaign contributors when he decided to begin a political career.
We’ve heard idiotic lectures from Bayh before: usually pieces in which he castigates the Dems for not being serious about the deficit and also demands the abolition of the estate tax. But this is really too much to bear. At least we won’t have to hear them as much now that he is leaving the Senate. This pretty much sums up his legacy. Buh-Bayh, moron.
November 5th, 2010
Category: 2011 Democratic Agenda, Affordable Care Act
McConnell’s speech at the Heritage Foundation yesterday has gotten a lot of attention. The New York Times’ reading is Broderist: alas, McConnell didn’t promise bipartisan cooperation and said the key to his agenda is defeating Obama. (I’m shocked.) Talking Points Memo’s “Shellacked and the Furious” video suggests the same thing in more partisan form: here Obama is sounding all conciliatory* while McConnell is declaring political warfare.
But there’s a totally different way to look at McConnell’s admission that his agenda requires defeating Obama: with Obama in the White House, the Republican agenda will fail and McConnell knows it. And in a speech to his strongest supporters, he’s trying, a bit desperately, to avoid blame when it does fail.
McConnell says:
“if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill; to end the bailouts; cut spending; and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things”
Translation: Obama will veto attempts to overturn his policy victories (even if they pass the Senate) and his vetoes will be sustained.
McConnell:
“By their own admission, leaders of the Republican Revolution of 1994 think their greatest mistake was overlooking the power of the veto. They gave the impression they were somehow in charge when they weren’t. And after President Clinton vetoed their bills, making it impossible for them to accomplish all their goals, they ended up being viewed as failures, sellouts, or both. Today, Democrats not only have the White House. They have the Senate too. So we have to be realistic about what we can and cannot achieve, while at the same recognizing that realism should never be confused with capitulation.
Translation: Due to the veto power, Republicans didn’t accomplish what they wanted to in 1994—while suffering with their base in saying they could—and they are in a much weaker position now.
McConnell:
“On health care, that means we can — and should — propose and vote on straight repeal, repeatedly. But we can’t expect the president to sign it. So we’ll also have to work, in the House, on denying funds for implementation, and, in the Senate, on votes against its most egregious provisions. At the same time, we’ll need to continue educating the public about the ill-effects of this bill on individuals young and old, families, and small businesses.
“And this is why oversight will play a crucial role in Republican efforts going forward.
Translation: defunding won’t work either since it would require shutting down the government—which is why all I can promise is to hold some biased hearings.
People: the modern Presidency has enormous powers. We will preserve the great gains of the last two years as long as Obama is in the White House, and will be in a position to expand them when he wins re-election. Our position can’t be taken by storm—only by surrender.
______________
*I’m not saying that the President has any intention of meeting the Republicans halfway on policy. His press conference on Wednesday made that very clear. But his rhetoric has been conciliatory—and as I’ve said before, while that might frustrate progressives eager for a donnybrook, it’s outstanding politics in a country where everyone is raised on civics-book bipartisanship and a huge majority of voters wish Washington politicians would “stop bickering” and “get things done.”
November 4th, 2010
Category: Uncategorized
Mihály from Budapest visited his friend Jan in Prague, and they went together to the Prague Zoo. As they were observing the pair of lions from above, Jan had the misfortune to fall, and was promptly devoured.
Both the lion and the lioness were marked with poor Jan’s blood, but the zookeepers asked Mihály if he could identify which of the pair had actually swallowed Jan, because the law of the Czech Republic requires that, in such circumstances, the remains be removed for burial, killing the animal in the process.
Mihály averred that it was the lion, and not its mate, that had eaten his friend; he clearly recalled seeing the lion’s mane as Jan disappeared down the creature’s maw.
But, having cut open the lion, the zookeepers were dismayed to find neither hide nor hair of Jan. As a result, they had to kill the lioness as well, and the remains were indeed found in her belly.
And the moral of the story is …
Read the rest of this entry »
November 4th, 2010
A pair of amateur Greek terrorists were arrested on Monday after mailing a round of small, primitive and easily detected letter bombs. The only professional touch to their groupuscule was the terrific name (above). The bad-taste video game is no doubt in the works, but I doubt if the inventors can claim the rights from prison.
Messrs. Tsakalos and Argyrou are understandably upset about the brutal austerity programme imposed by the EU and the bond market as a condition for bailing out Greece (or more accurately, Greece´s bondholders). So they, less understandably, mailed bombs to:
- Angela Merkel
- Nicolas Sarkozy
- ¨the embassies of Bulgaria, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile, the Netherlands and Belgium.¨
Merkel was the bad cop on the Greek bailout, so you can follow the thinking. Sarkozy played good cop, but with his usual shallow opportunism, and joined Merkel in the end. Belgium supports everything the EU does and Zurich banks are, as is well known, staffed by evil gnomes. But what have Bulgaria, Mexico and Chile done recently to the hapless Greeks?
The mailboxes of the following appear to have been left undisturbed:
- the previous Greek Prime Minister, Finance Minister, head of the Central Bank, and head of the tax collection service,
- the national statistical office of Greece, who cooked the books to order, and Eurostat, who failed to notice for years;
- the ECB and the inventors of the Euro and Stability Pact;
- Moody´s, S &P, and Fitch – the corrupt and/or incompetent rating agencies;
- Goldman Sachs and other investment banks who advised Greece on how to game the system.
In other words, the poor saps had no idea who was really responsible for the mess their country is in and just lashed out blindly at friends, foes and innocent bystanders.
Just like American electors.
November 3rd, 2010
Category: 2011 Democratic Agenda, The Dysfunctional Senate
Now that the Democrats have held the Senate, they need to get their own house in order, and that means filibuster reform. This time is now: the Senate can change its rules by simple majority at the beginning of a Congressional session, i.e. this coming January.
I’m assuming that Bennet wins in Colorado, as the Denver Post has already called it, and that Murray wins in Washington, since most the outstanding ballots are in Democratic King County (which includes Seattle). That leaves the Dems with 53, including Holy Joe. (Whoever wins in Alaska — either completely crazy Joe Miller or basically crazy Lisa Murkowski — will caucus with the Reps).
Is this majority enough to transform the filibuster? No. But it could be able to do one big thing, and maybe another.
First, end the filibuster for executive branch appointments. It is simply unconscionable for the minority to prevent the President from filling his or her administration — regardless of which party is in power. You don’t like Obama’s Czars? Fine. Give him up-or-down votes. This really is a good government thing: the government has to run, and it has to be staffed. No danger here of locking in political appointees past their time.
Will these 53 Dems do it? I hope so. You can always count on them to cave, and people like Mary Landrieu have tried to use these holds over appointees in order to extract concessions. But this is so basic that it is really a requirement.
Second, make them actually filibuster. Many — including myself — were initially furious with Harry Reid for not making the Republicans actually filibuster, but there was a reason he didn’t: he couldn’t. Under current rules, silent filibusters rule: all the minority needs is one Senator in the chamber to “note the absence of a quorum” to bring up a quorum call, and prevent cloture.
Now, most Senators might reject general abolition because they don’t want to give up that weapon if it’s really important. Fair enough, I suppose — if it’s really important. Put another way, making them actually filibuster could force them to disclose what some economists call their “reservation price” for something. Right now, filibustering is costless. It shouldn’t be.
The question is whether the Democratic caucus actually cares about helping their country (and their party), or whether they are more interested in their personal perks. Heretofore, it has been the latter. But they need to know that if they maintain the current system, they will lose the majority in 2012 — the 2012 Democratic Senate map is pretty ugly (defending Tester, Webb, MacCaskill, Cantwell, Stabenow, both Nelsons, and steaming pile of Kent Conrad). They have to show that they can govern their own institution.
November 3rd, 2010
Category: California Politics, Campaign 2010, Energy and Environment, Handbasket, world going to hell in
The initial results in California last night make my state seem like a sane drop of blue in the country. Jerry Brown won for Governor; Barbara Boxer was re-elected; and Proposition 23, which would have reversed the state’s landmark climate change law, was resoundingly defeated. Voters also approved Proposition 25, which allows the state budget to be approved by a simple majority — although retains the 2/3 requirement for tax increases.
But look closer.
Voters rejected Proposition 21, which would have raised the state’s vehicle license fee by a mere $18 to support California’s beleaguered state park system (which currently has a maintenance backlog of more than $1 billion); they approved Proposition 22, which prevents the state taking transportation monies from local governments and whole bunch of other stealth things to tighten the state’s budget; and most importantly, they approved Proposition 26, another stealth initiative sponsored by Chevron, Philip Morris, and Anheuser-Busch, which erases the distinction between “fees” and “taxes”, might undo this year’s budget deal, further restricts the state’s ability to raise revenue, and probably emasculates the state’s environmental agencies (potentially making the victory in Prop 23 meaningless).
Essentially, then, the voters have given formal political power to the Democrats, and told them to fix the state’s problems. They then have tied the Democrats in a series of straitjackets and thrown them into the Pacific Ocean.
Good luck, Jerry; you’re going to need it.
November 2nd, 2010
Category: Uncategorized
Admittedly, good news is scarce tonight, but it’s delightful to see the voters of Rhode Island tell Frank Caprio to take his rudeness toward the President and really shove it. Better yet, Republican-turned-independent Lincoln Chafee, the most liberal candidate in the race, is – just barely – beating the Republican, and will apparently be the next governor.
November 2nd, 2010
Category: Uncategorized
Just watched Eric Cantor filibustering as Wolf Blitzer tried to get him to say what big-ticket items he’d cut from the budget. Cantor refused to name any.
