The (legislative) Stars, Sure Ain't Bright, Deep in the Heart of Texas

Every so often I'll see a picture of Austin, hear about a big event in the lives of one of my friends in Austin or see Austin City Limits on TV and I'll begin to miss my former home.

And then the Texas Legislature convenes and someone asks them about global warming and I remember why I had to get out.

Integration on MLK day

Earlier today, I heard an interview on NPR with Rob McCord, a Philadelphia resident who wrote an op/ed in today's Inquirer about integration. The thesis of the interview was that American's have self-segregated and that we now largely stick to our own ethnic groups. McCord wrote the opinion piece to encourage white (all?) Americans to conciously integrate their lives and activities in 2007.

My initial repsonse was that McCord is probably right and we are self-segregating ourselves. But then I began thinking about my own experience. And it just doesn't hold true.

When we moved to Colorado, one of my concerns was that our upper-middle class neighborhood would end up being as white as the snow that now covers our yards. Instead, our neighborhood, with Asian Americans, African Americans and Middle Eastern Americans is so diverse that even the white guy across the street is named Miguel.

I agree with McCord's conclusion that we all need to do more to expose ourselves to different cultures, ideas and ethnic experiences. But since sixth grade, my world has consistently, slowly become more and more integrated.

Raise the minimum wage

As the Senate considers legislation to raise the minimum wage we can expect to hear business groups moaning and complaining that any increase in the minimum wage will shutter businesses and destroy our economy.

The New York Times, however, took an interesting look at what is happening between Washington state and Idaho. Washington not only has the highest minimum wage in the nation at $7.93 per hour but they indexed that wage to inflation so that the minimum wage in that state goes up every year. Idaho, meanwhile, has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country at $5.15 per hour.

So what has happened? The Times reports,

"Business owners say they have had to increase prices somewhat to keep up. But both states are among the nation’s leaders in the growth of jobs and personal income, suggesting that an increase in the minimum wage has not hurt the overall economy.

“We’re paying the highest wage we’ve ever had to pay, and our business is still up more than 11 percent over last year,” said Tom Singleton, who manages a Papa Murphy’s takeout pizza store here, with 13 employees.

His store is flooded with job applicants from Idaho, Mr. Singleton said. Like other business managers in Washington, he said he had less turnover because the jobs paid more.

By contrast, an Idaho restaurant owner, Rob Elder, said he paid more than the minimum wage because he could not find anyone to work for the Idaho minimum at his Post Falls restaurant, the Hot Rod Cafe.

“At $5.15 an hour, I get zero applicants — or maybe a guy with one leg who wouldn’t pass a drug test and wouldn’t show up on Saturday night because he wants to get drunk with his buddies,” Mr. Elder said."

Businesses have not fled from Washington to Idaho. As a matter of fact, Washington business groups that opposed the increase in the minimum wage years ago now say that the Federal government ought to raise the wage nationally.

For all the bravado one hears from the business lobby about capitalism and competition, I've found that frequently business groups base their policy positions on fear of change -- even when there is solid evidence that their fear is unfounded. That's too bad. Imagine how strong our country would be if the business community embraced comptetition and change instead of trying to hide from it.

A surge in Iraq

President Bush says he wants to send more troops to Iraq. He says it is the only way we will win.

I wonder why we should trust him.

This President has consistently short-changed our troops, the American people and the Iraqi people. He sold us all a bill of goods. He told us it is possible to win a war in which sacrifice was only required if you or a family member are in the military. There is no requirement for anyone else to sacrifice. He told us we could throw out the Powell doctrine of overwhelming force and instead place all of the burden on a relatively small number of troops. As a result, his Presidency is and forever will be a failure.

The legacy of George Bush is ineptitude in wartime leadership and ineptitude in managing our federal budget. As a result of his leadership thousands of kids will grow up without their parent. Millions of their friends will be saddled with trying to pay of the massive federal debt left to them by George W. Bush.

But the President asks for our trust and our faith. After four years of failure, somehow, he finally has figured it all out. I don't believe him. Because once again there is no call for common sacrifice. If the President had it figured out he would understand that the way to beat the terrorists is to take away their money and their money comes from oil. So what should the President do?

1. Set a floor for the price of oil. How's $60 a barrel sound? Why is this important? Because we need to make the price of oil stable at a high enough price that the private sector will be willing to invest in alternative energy development. Right now, the private sector fears losing a ton of money in alternative energy because OPEC can simply drop the price of oil and undercut the pricing on alternatives.

2. Raise taxes on all Americans making more than $100,000 (individually) per year. Divide that money between paying off the debt and alternative energy development.

3. Set a date to get out of Iraq. My vote? January 12, 2008. One year seems like fair warning for the Iraqi people.

I originally supported the Iraq invasion because I think we have an obligation to get rid of those leaders who commit genocide. But the effort has been bumbled and pathetic. Mistakes were made and those mistakes have cost thousands of lives.