The Political Universe 06.23.06
Posted by Jason Easley on 06.23.2006
North Korea is threatening to test a long range nuclear missile, while at home the US Senate still refuses to increase the minimum wage. I have a new reader poll question for you, and the political quote of the week, too, so come on in and join the Friday fun.
Dr. Strangelove, or how I leaned to stop worrying and love N. Korea
It seems that Iran isn't the only nation with nuclear ambitions that the US has to worry about. N. Korea is threatening to test fire its new Taepodong-2 missile, which experts say could have a range of up to 9,000 miles. This range would put the far western United States within reach. However, on Wednesday the US rejected a N. Korean proposal for direct talks about the long range missile test.
"You don't normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles," he said. "And it's not a way to produce a conversation because if you acquiesce in aberrant behavior you simply encourage the repetition of it, which we're obviously not going to do," US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said.
However the deputy chief of N. Korea's mission to the UN Han Song Ryol, said that his nation was looking to defuse tensions over the potential missile test through direct talks. "Some say our missile test launch is a violation of the moratorium, but this is not the case," Mr. Han said. "North Korea as a sovereign state has the right to develop, deploy, test fire and export a missile. The United States says it is concerned about our missile test launch. Our position is, 'OK then, let's talk about it.'
N. Korea has not test fired a missile since 1998. After the last test fire they agreed to a self imposed moratorium as long as they were involved in direct dialogue with Washington. The N. Koreans feel that they are no longer in direct dialogue with the US, therefore they are free to test launch whatever they want. I personally don't think the N. Koreans want to test this missile. What they are angling for is more aid and dialogue from the US, Japan, and S. Korea. The US and Japan have already threatened that any testing could result in sanctions on the North.
North Korea is an impoverished nation and has relied on outside aid to feed its 23 million people for the last 10 years. The biggest source of outside aid is S. Korea. S. Korea sent 350,000 tons of fertilizer and also 500,000 tons of rice to the North last year. As a S. Korean spokesperson said, "If North Korea test-fires a missile, it will have an impact on rice and fertilizer aid." The US will only participate in talks with N. Korea through the regional six nation nuclear talks. N. Korea has refused to return to the talks since November, because they are angry over a US crackdown on illicit financial dealings by the regime.
In a commentary in Thursday's Washington Post former Clinton defense secretary William Perry and undersecretary Ashton Carter argued that the Bush first strike doctrine should be expanded to include destroying the N. Koreans missile before they can launch it. You know, he thinks we should use our multi-billion dollar missile defense system to knock the N. Korean missile out.
Here is what Bush National Security Advisor Steven Hadley said about our missile defense system. "We have a missile defense system ... what we call a long-range missile defense system that is basically a research, development, training, test kind of system," Hadley said. "It does ... have some limited operational capability. And the purpose, of course, of a missile defense system is to defend.... the territory of the United States from attack."
Let me put his comments into plain English for you. Our missile defense system is a barely operational piece of crap. It could not defend America from a water balloon much less a nuclear attack. To put it another way, we have wasted 43 billion tax payer dollars in the last 5 years on a system that is inaccurate, unreliable, and most of the time ineffective. The best result the military has achieved was a 50% success rate under the most controlled of conditions. In other non controlled tests, the success rate has been 0-10%
"We think diplomacy is the right answer and that is what we are pursuing. The way out of this is for North Korea to decide not to test this missile," Hadley said. I'll translate this comment for you too. There is no way we are going to screw with N. Korea. We are trapped in Iraq and the last thing we need is a sequel to the Korean War. In case you have not been paying attention, Gulf War 2 isn't going so great. The last thing we want to do is fight the Chinese again. We learned that lesson 50 years ago. Our only choice is to talk N. Korea out of testing it.
Isn't it ironic that the Bush first strike doctrine, which was supposed to protect America, has resulted in the nation possibility being more vulnerable to nuclear attack from either terrorists who could get their weapons from Iran, or a rogue state like N. Korea? Where is all of Bush's tough talk when he is faced with a real threat to America? Apparently, the Bush doctrine only applies to nations who we know we can overwhelm with military force. I think the N. Koreans are very shrewdly taking advantage of the current US global weakness to negotiate a better deal.
The administration should not engage in direct talks with N. Korea. That would set a bad precedent of nations being able to threaten the US into talks, but if Bush would not have bungled his foreign policy so badly, than we probably would not be in this situation today. The real crime in all this would be if the N. Koreans go ahead with the test, then sanctions are imposed, and the end result is famine and starvation for the N. Korean people. This would be a true crime for which both sides would be to blame.
Senate rejects minimum wage increase
For the ninth time since 1997, Senate Democrats proposed a minimum wage increase, and Senate Republicans blocked it. The latest proposal by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) would have raised the minimum wage to $5.85 beginning 60 days after the legislation was enacted; to $6.55 one year later; and to $7.25 a year after that. Kennedy also pointed out inflation has eroded the value of the current $5.15 minimum wage by 20 percent.
Senate Republicans claimed that an increase in the minimum wage would end up hurting the same low wage workers the Democrats which the Democrats say that they are trying to help. "For every increase you make in the minimum wage, you will cost some of them their jobs," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, (R-GA). Let me stop right here for a second and allow me to point out that there is no evidence that a minimum wage increase causes anyone to lose their jobs.
There is also no evidence that a minimum wage increase causes prices to increase. These are all myths of the conservative philosophy. People who advocate this belief can provide no evidence that a minimum wage increase is bad for the economy, or that a minimum wage increase causes prices to go up. What a minimum wage increase does do is eat into profit margins, and that is the real reason business hates to increase the minimum wage.
The minimum wage bill was passed by a 52-46. The vote was eight votes short of the needed 60. Instead of a standard majority, 60 votes are required to pass a budgetary item. "Americans believe that no one who works hard for a living should have to live in poverty. A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it," said Sen. Kennedy. Kennedy also pointed out that a person working a minimum wage job makes $10,700 a year, which is $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.
Kennedy's numbers assume that a minimum wage worker works 40 hours a week. I don't know a single minimum wage worker who gets more than 34-38 hours a week. Employers keep the hours worked under 40 for employees so that they do not have to pay benefits or overtime to these employees. "When the Democrats control the Senate, one of the first pieces of legislation we'll see is an increase in the minimum wage," said Kennedy.
What you have to be aware of is that Democrats knew that their bill would never pass. While in the House, Republican leaders are refusing to let the bill to come to the floor for a vote because they are very concerned that their body will pass it. The House is much more sensitive to election year pressures than the Senate. Therefore, even though it is more solidly controlled by the Republicans, it was looking likely that many GOP incumbents in tough races this year were willing to vote for an increase in the minimum wage.
Only 19 states and the District of Columbia have set minimum wages at higher levels than the federal minimum. This number will soon change to 20 as my home state of Pennsylvania recently passed a law that is going to phase in an increase in the state's minimum wage over the next two years. The current minimum wage once adjusted for inflation is now worth $4.23 an hour.
Republicans are always complaining about family values being on the decline in the nation, but one of the main reasons that the family unit is not as strong as it used to be is because in most households both parents have to work just to feed the family. In fact, a household is lucky if both Mom and Dad only work one job each. In many families one or both parents have to work two jobs. $4.23 an hour doesn't go very far, when one is trying to raise a family.
If Republicans really wanted to do something to help families, they would increase the minimum wage, which would mean that parents could work less and be at home more. But every time the GOP is offered a choice between business values and family values, you can be certain that they will do what is right for business. This topic leads us right into this week's poll question.
This week's poll question
First, I have a few comments about last week's poll. I know that 411mania leans left, but I really did expect the result of our fantasy election to be closer than what it was. The F.D.R./Truman ticket trounced the Reagan/Bush team by a margin of 69%-28% with the rest undecided. I thought Reagan would do much better than this. The reason why Reagan lost so badly I think goes a bit deeper than the political leanings of those casting ballots. I think this is just not a good time to be a Republican. If I would have asked this question in 2002 or 2003, I think the final result would have been much closer.
This week's question is an easy one. Do you think the minimum wage should be increased to $7.00 an hour? By the way a friend of mine told me that he is having trouble accessing the poll. Is anyone else having this problem? In case you are, I have also included a link to the poll.
"If you want your taxes low, keep Denny Hastert and Bill Frist as leaders of the House and the Senate."
-- President Bush during a speech Monday night, the only problem is that Frist isn't running for reelection.
Be sure to check out….
As I was about to post my column, Josh White's appeared on the politics page. I am allergic to smoke, and I agree with Josh that smokers are persecuted.
Crow is still on vacation, but Krystal Hernandez fills in and writes about Bush and Christianity.
Steady Joe Rivett gives you 8 reasons why there were no WMD's in Iraq.
Ray Church's Ugly American so full of content that I can't pick out one just one element to refer you to, so just read it all. It is really good.
I know, we don't have many pimps, but we have quite a few writers delayed or on vacation. There will be lots more stuff to pimp on Tuesday.
A pimp in advance
Be sure to check out our first readers' only edition of Fact or Fiction on Monday. If anyone wants to be in a future edition of Fact or Fiction, all you have to do is e-mail me. I am scheduling Week 11 right now, (just so you know, Monday is Week7).
I am sorry, but once again, we have reached the end of the column. As usual, you did a great job hanging in there and making the whole way to the end. I was wondering if I was even going to make past the poll question this week myself. See you Tuesday.
"This is a little frightening. The White House says North Korea has missiles with the capability ... of being launched in North Korea and landing on the west coast of the United States. ... I was thinking about this and was like, 'Oh hell, that's Leno's problem.'" --David Letterman
"In a recent speech, former President Bill Clinton said that if Hillary runs for president, he'll do whatever is asked of him. Hillary says the first thing she's going to ask Bill to do is to stop winking when he says that." --Conan O'Brien
"Dick Cheney spoke at the National Press Club yesterday. Cheney pointed out that because of tough anti-terror policies, the last five years have been virtually free of terrorist incidents on our soil. In fact, during that time Cheney, himself, has shot more Americans in this country than any terrorists." --Jay Leno
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