TheState.com: Saturday Opinion Extra

The Brandenburg Gate is something you earn

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:32 EDT

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast — a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins — would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final “tear down this wall” liquidation. When President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush 41 — who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap — called “a Europe whole and free”?

Does Obama not see the incongruity? It’s as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)

Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?

Saturday Letters to the Editor

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:32 EDT

• Even driving 60 saves a lot on gas

I was glad to see your article about the savings incurred by driving 55 mph. I drive a 2000 Olds minivan and have tested the savings by driving 60 mph versus 73 mph on several trips. I use the instant miles per gallon feature on the car and reset it after attaining cruising speed. The results average 26 mpg at 73 mph and 31.9 mpg at 60 mph — a savings of 23 percent.

I was shocked by the difference and have been driving at 60 mph ever since and have found that the time difference is minimal. Last week, I drove to Myrtle Beach and estimate the trip took an additional 28 minutes driving the slower speed.

Your internet survey shows the majority of respondents say they do not intend to drive 55. Apparently the general public does not realize how much they could save by cutting speed.

If the speed limit were lowered, and enforced, we would save 20 percent to 25 percent in fuel costs, which would then lower the price of gasoline and create an even greater savings because everything we buy moves on oil. Have you noticed how much milk and bread have gone up?

America’s energy future

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14 EDT

America's energy policy can be either reactive and arcane, or proactive and visionary. I support the latter, and am an unabashed advocate for policies that will end our dependence on foreign oil, enhance our national security, protect our environment and create new economies.

I have heard the arguments of my Republican colleagues and the recent flip-flop made by Sen. John McCain demanding more off-shore drilling. This position is shared by a Daniel Island constituent who recently chided me to get out a “box of crayons and draw a picture of an oil derrick. There are a lot of people who want this country to start drilling for the oil we own. Draw oil coming out of the top of the derrick.” I believe this gentleman would be run off of that island if his neighbors were aware that he is advocating marring their beautiful ocean views with oil rigs and making South Carolina’s beaches and coastline susceptible to massive oil spills.

Democrats want to take immediate steps to increase American oil production. That’s why we are pushing oil companies to start drilling on the more than 80 million acres of American land that is available to them right now, 68 million in the lower 48 states and another 15 million to 23 million acres in Alaska. The oil companies have the potential to produce from those acres an additional 7.8 million barrels of oil and more than 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. I can think of only one reason the oil companies aren't drilling on that land — they want demand and prices to remain high.

But increased domestic drilling provides a temporary Band-Aid. We must look at long term solutions. I am an ardent supporter of expanding our country's nuclear capacity. Here in South Carolina, more than 50 percent of our electricity is produced by nuclear power. New technology makes nuclear a very safe and viable energy alternative.

If you don't believe me, just ask Patrick Moore, founding member and former director of Greenpeace. This once-staunch opponent of nuclear energy is now one of its biggest supporters. "I find it logically inconsistent for people in the environmental movement who say that climate change threatens the very existence of our civilization, and then they are opposed to one of the most important technologies that could bring about a resolution to that problem — replacing fossil fuels with nuclear energy."

Sheraton, Art Museum part of renaissance

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14 EDT

This month there will be two major events that show the progress that downtown Columbia has made over the past 10 years. First, the ribbon-cutting for the new Sheraton Downtown Hotel will mark the restoration of the old Palmetto Building, the second-oldest skyscraper in Columbia, into a 135-room, world-class hotel built by Rick Patel and his family. Secondly, we will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Columbia Museum of Art being on Main Street. On July 18, 1998, the museum building opened in the former Macy’s department store building at Main and Hampton.

The museum brings many visitors to downtown, with an attendance last year of 127,000. Exhibitions create a tremendous economic benefit to Columbia. Early next year, the museum will host the AFA show “Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales.” Some of the most successful exhibitions at the museum have been “Excavating Egypt” and “Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautiful.”

Columbia’s downtown has seen many changes in the 10 years between the opening of the museum and the opening of the Sheraton. Main Street is part of a downtown that now includes the Vista, the riverfront, Innovista and soon the Bull Street neighborhood. Downtown’s renaissance includes the Columbia Convention Center and Hilton Hotel, the Colonial Center, the Discovery and Horizon buildings in Innovista, the Three Rivers Greenway, EdVenture and now the University of South Carolina baseball stadium on the Congaree River. Gervais and Lady streets have been transformed with restaurants and shops. CanalSide will soon have residents, and Canal Front will be under construction this year.

Main Street has seen significant improvements over the past 10 years. Residential development is bringing people back to live. The oldest skyscraper in Columbia, the Barringer Building, and the former Tapps building have gone through adaptive reuse and been converted into apartments. Tom Prioreshi and his family have been pioneers in our residential revitalization. Main Street’s office market continues to be strong. Downtown class A office space occupancy rose in the first half of 2008 to 90 percent.

New office towers, the Meridian Building and the First Citizens Building are complete, and now Main and Gervais is under construction. Wachovia announced in April the renovation of 1441 Main St. for its headquarters; the first phase of streetscaping is complete and the second phase is underway; and the Marriott has been renovated. None of this progress would have been possible without the hard work of the City Center Partners, under the leadership of Matt Kennell.

May we mock, Barack?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14 EDT

When I interviewed Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for Rolling Stone a couple years ago, I wondered what Barack Obama would mean for them.

“It seems like a President Obama would be harder to make fun of than these guys,” I said.

“Are you kidding me?” Stewart scoffed.

Then he and Colbert both said at the same time: “His dad was a goat-herder!”

When I noted that Obama, in his memoir, had revealed that he had done some pot, booze and “maybe a little blow,” the two comedians began riffing about the dapper senator’s familiarity with drug slang.

The coming activist age

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14 EDT

We’re entering an era of epic legislation. There are at least five large problems that will compel the federal government to act in gigantic ways over the next few years.

First, there is the erosion of the social contract. Private-sector firms are less likely to provide health benefits, producing a desperate need for health-care reform.

Second, there is the energy shortage. Rising Asian demand strains worldwide supply, threatening industry and consumers, and producing calls for a bold energy initiative.

Third, there is the stagnation in human capital. During the 20th century, Americans were better educated than the citizens of any other power. Since 1970, that lead has been forfeited, producing inequality and wage stagnation. To compete, the United States will require a series of human capital initiatives.

Fourth, there’s financial market reform. In an intricately connected world, even Republican administrations cannot allow big institutions to fail. If government is going to guarantee against failure, then it is inevitably going to get more involved in regulating how businesses are run.

Subsidized gasoline keeps dictators in power

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:19 EDT

When leaders from the Group of Eight nations agreed last week to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050, all the commentary debated their failure to set shorter-term goals.

But all of that chatter ignores the iceberg in the room: How on earth will those nations or any others meet even that relatively modest goal? The scientific community argues that by 2050, carbon emissions must be reduced 80 percent below the level in the year 2000, if serious global warming is to be averted. I would argue that the political reality of today makes either of those goals impossible to reach. To succeed, many of the world’s dictators and despots would have to agree to give up their holds on power.

About 80 percent of the world’s human-generated carbon emissions result from burning fossil fuels — petroleum, natural gas, coal. More than half of that is fuel for cars. With gasoline prices at record levels, oil consumption in the United States and many other industrialized nations has actually fallen by about 4 percent this year. Still, the world’s overall consumption of gasoline is increasing.

How can that be? Well, more than half of the world’s people live in countries that subsidize gasoline — by as much as 97 percent. In those places, there’s no incentive to conserve. Quite the opposite, in fact. And yet, no one can debate that it will be impossible to address the climate-change problem effectively without dramatically reducing gasoline consumption.

Working in Egypt last month, I hired a driver to take me north to the Nile River Delta. When he stopped for gas, I reached for my wallet to pay, not sure I had enough cash. But then I saw the gas price: the equivalent of $1.29 a gallon.

L-ish economic prospects

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14 EDT

Home prices are in free fall. Unemployment is rising. Consumer confidence is plumbing depths not seen since 1980. When will it all end?

The answer is, probably not until 2010 or later. Barack Obama, take notice.

It’s true that some prognosticators still expect a “V-shaped” recovery in which the economy springs back rapidly from its slump. On this view, any day now it will be morning in America.

But if the experience of the last 20 years is any guide, the prospect for the economy isn’t V-shaped, it’s L-ish: rather than springing back, we’ll have a prolonged period of flat or at best slowly improving performance.

Let’s start with housing.

Laugh, Obama, laugh

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14 EDT

Oh, for a good riposte.

Barack Obama’s levity-free reaction to the now-famous New Yorker cartoon leaves one reluctantly wondering: Is he humor-challenged? Perchance, does he take himself too seriously for a nation of wits and wags?

So soaring has been Obama’s rhetoric and so dazzling his smile that we’ve missed the possibility that the Illinois senator is less the lanky rock star and more the purse-lipped church lady, clucking his tongue in disapproval of the chuckling masses.

His campaign’s angry reaction to the magazine cover shows a stunning lack of political dexterity. It wasn’t always so.

In earlier days, Obama was self-deprecating and light of touch. But something happens as people get closer to Washington, as Obama himself has pointed out in other contexts. A popular story that Obama tells concerns a Las Vegas debate during which he was asked about his weaknesses.

El Panderosa

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:45 EDT

La cucaracha, la cucaracha, ya no puede caminar. La cucaracha, la cuca ....

Oh, perdon. I was just tuning up for an interview with Baracko Obama and Juan McCain.

Juan y Baracko have been busy lately wooing los que hablan espanol. That is, people who speak Spanish. With an estimated 9.2 million Hispanic votes in play this November, the stakes are high. And the pandering is in high gear.

Both men have put out Spanish-language ads, and both made appearances Tuesday at the national convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Obama, however, seems to know something about the Hispanic soul that McCain doesn’t.

Anyone familiar with Hispanic art and literature knows that poetry isn’t only a genre. Poetry is in the DNA of this romantic, passionate people. Obama knows this language without speaking Spanish.

Saturday Letters to the Editor

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:45 EDT

• Leaders need to bone up on Constitution

Rep. Jim Clyburn’s recent essay defending earmark spending was one of the most shameless excuses for poor leadership I have seen in a long time.

It amazes me that after all the bad publicity that earmarks have received in recent years, someone in Congress would actually defend them in The State with such enthusiasm. I guess I may have been naive to think that negative press would finally discourage politicians from wasting taxpayer dollars.

It would be a great service to our nation if our leaders would study the Constitution and the debates leading to its adoption in 1787. The federal, state and local governments have their own spheres of responsibilities, but this thinking has long since been abandoned.

I realize that programs that educate the public on the dangers of obesity can be very helpful, but I cannot find in the Constitution any provision stating that this is a task for the federal government.

Ban on offshore drilling nonsensical

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

The United States is on track to import more than $500 billion in oil this year, up from $300 billion last year. High oil prices are inflicting economic pain across the country. Yet incredibly, some of the most promising potential oil and natural gas fields in the world lie untested and untapped right here in the United States. As a petroleum geologist, I believe that any credible plan to ensure U.S. energy security and protect consumers from price volatility must rely on a variety of technologies and approaches. Domestic oil and gas production is indispensable in that effort.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, a branch of the Interior Department, estimates that 116 billion barrels of oil lie beneath federal lands and coastal waters — enough oil to power more than 65 million cars for 60 years. These areas also hold an estimated 651 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Now, consider that 85 percent of the coastal waters adjacent to the lower 48 states and parts of the mountain West and Alaska are off-limits to oil and gas exploration by congressional decree. Consider also that there is estimated 1.5 trillion barrels of oil locked in shale formations in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. That’s immense — more than Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves. Oil companies are engaged in intensive research to develop ways to recover the oil shale without mining it or polluting groundwater. In December, Congress passed a measure that bans spending to establish a program to lease oil shale on federal lands.

No longer can Congress blithely ignore the costs of not using U.S. energy resources. Failure to make use of our domestic oil and natural gas means everyone will have to pay for more imports from unstable sources overseas. Our country’s demand for oil and gas is projected to increase by more than 20 percent over the next 20 years. The problem will grow and the impact on consumers will multiply unless corrective action is taken. Other growing economies in China, India and the Middle East expect higher increases in their demand as well.

There are currently bills in Congress that would allow additional drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States. Critics claim that oil drilling harms the marine environment and produces oil spills that foul beaches. That’s not true.

Creating jobs in the new economy

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

Next week, the Board of the National Hydrogen Association will meet in Columbia in preparation for its convention in March. This convention will be the largest ever held at our convention center and will attract the international hydrogen and fuel cell industry’s largest companies.

Becoming part of the knowledge and hydrogen economy is an important economic strategy for Columbia and South Carolina. In 2008, we will build the first public hydrogen fueling station in the Southeast. Millennium Cell, a world leader in hydrogen battery technology, is moving a subsidiary company, Gecko Technologies, to Columbia. USC has the nation’s only National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells. The Savannah River National Lab and Clemson’s International Center for Automotive Research are centers for hydrogen research.

Every facet of society stands to be impacted by the dawning of efficient hydrogen-generated energy. A major source of global warming could disappear, as well as America’s reliance on foreign oil. Our strategy is to see that Columbia is the site for much of the commercialization of the hydrogen economy.

Columbia started on our strategy to enter the knowledge economy in February 2003, when we adopted our regional technology plan and created Engenuity to implement the plan.

USC President Andrew Sorensen announced his vision to build a research campus in downtown Columbia in late 2003. In April of 2006, USC, the Guignard family and the city unveiled a master plan for the 500 acres from Innovista to the waterfront. The first phase of Innovista, with two buildings at the Horizon Center and the Discovery Center, is nearly complete, as are the two parking garages financed by the city of Columbia and Richland County, representing an investment of more than $140 million.

Evading the big issues

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

It is one of our fondest political myths that elections allow us collectively to settle the “big issues.” The truth is that there’s often a bipartisan consensus to avoid the big issues, because they involve unpopular choices and conflicts. Elections become exercises in mass evasion; that certainly applies so far to the 2008 campaign. A case in point is America’s population transformation. Few issues matter more for the country’s future — and yet, it’s mostly ignored.

Two changes dominate — aging and immigration — and they intersect. In 2005, 12 percent of the population was over 65; by 2050, that will be almost 20 percent. Meanwhile, immigration is driving population growth. By 2050, the population may exceed 430 million, up from about 300 million now. About four-fifths of the increase will reflect immigrants and their children and grandchildren, estimates the Pew Hispanic Center. The potential for conflict is obvious. Older retirees and younger and poorer immigrants — heavily Hispanic — will compete for government social services and benefits. Squeezed in between will be middle-class and middle-aged workers, facing higher taxes.

What do John McCain and Barack Obama say about these looming problems? Well, not much. Of course, they’re against poverty and fiscal irresponsibility. They oppose illegal immigration and favor “reform.” But beyond these platitudes, they’re mostly mute. It’s not that the problems are secret. Dozens of reports have warned of population aging, which affects most wealthy societies. Global aging is “a demographic shift with no parallel in the history of humanity,” argue Richard Jackson and Neil Howe in their recent “The Graying of the Great Powers.”

By their estimates, U.S. government benefits for retirees (mainly Social Security and Medicare) will rise from 9 percent of national income in 2005 to 21 percent by 2050. The outlook is worse for many other rich nations, some of which face shrinking populations. In Germany, retirement spending is projected at 29 percent of national income in 2050; in Italy, it’s 34 percent.

Similarly, immigration is widely studied. Pew projects that immigrants will constitute 19 percent of Americans in 2050, up from 12 percent in 2005. The Hispanic share of the population will double, from 14 percent to 29 percent. If most immigrants assimilated rapidly, this wouldn’t be worrisome. But many, especially Hispanics, don’t.

A smart new plan for making war

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

Just shy of eight years after they squared off in the Florida recount battle, James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher have joined forces to clean up one of the ugly legacies of Vietnam — the misguided piece of legislation called the War Powers Act.

Passed in 1973 when Congress was mightily frustrated with the undeclared war in Southeast Asia, that statute is proof of the adage that hard cases make bad law. Cases don’t come any harder than Vietnam, and the War Powers Act has turned out to be one of the worst bills ever to reach the president’s desk and be signed into law.

Its constitutionality is suspect, but no one has ever found a way to test it in court. Now Baker and Christopher, both former secretaries of state before they became lawyers for George W. Bush and Al Gore, respectively, in the 2000 struggle over Florida’s decisive electoral votes, have found common cause as co-chairmen of a National War Powers Commission created by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

When I went to see the two men during their visit to Washington this week, I found no lingering sense of the partisan animosities that marked their Florida encounter. Instead, they communicated a shared passion to help the next president and Congress find a way to solve a problem that has vexed the capital since the early days of the Republic.

The Founders left a ton of confusion about a pretty important question: Who has the authority to make war? Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the exclusive right to declare war, but Article II makes the president the commander in chief. Nowhere does it say where the authority of one stops and the other begins.

Genocide and the G-8

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

As President Bush and the Group of 8 leaders who are meeting in Japan again shun their responsibilities in Darfur, there is a serious argument to be made that genocide is overrated as an international concern. The G-8 leaders implicitly accept that argument, which goes like this:

Genocide is regrettable, but don’t lose perspective. It is simply one of many tragedies in the world today — and a fairly modest one in terms of lives lost.

All the genocides of the last 100 years have cost only 10 million to 12 million lives. In contrast, every year we lose almost 10 million children under the age of 5 from diseases and malnutrition attributable to poverty. Make that the priority, not Darfur.

Civil conflict in Congo has claimed more than 5.4 million lives over the last decade, according to careful mortality surveys by the International Rescue Committee. That’s at least 10 times the toll in Darfur, but because Congo doesn’t count as genocide — just as murderous chaos — no one has paid much attention to it.

Does a mother whose child dies from banditry, malaria or AIDS grieve any less than a mother whose child was killed by the janjaweed?

Kennedy’s big day

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

It was the worst of days, it was the best of days. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats capitulated to the Bush administration on wiretapping — with Barack Obama joining the coalition of the craven.

Later that day, however, those same Senate Democrats won a huge victory on Medicare.

News reports stressed the cinematic quality of the event: Ted Kennedy, who is fighting a brain tumor, made a dramatic appearance on the Senate floor, casting the decisive vote amid cheers from his colleagues. (Only one senator was absent: John McCain.)

But the vote was bigger than the theatrics. It was the first major health care victory that Democrats have won in a long time. And it was enormously encouraging for advocates of universal health care.

Ostensibly, Wednesday’s vote was about restoring cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. What it was really about, however, was the fight against creeping privatization. Democrats finally took a stand — and, thanks to Kennedy, seem to have prevailed.

Why reelect this Congress?

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

It is understandable that those who think President Bush has done a poor job want to replace him with a Democrat they think might do a better one. What is not understandable is why voters, who think Congress has performed poorly, would vote to keep the Democratic majority in place and, according to many polls, expand it.

The latest Rasmussen tracking poll finds that a pathetic 9 percent of the public think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, a record. A majority of voters — 52 percent — think Congress is doing a poor job, which ties a record.

Even Democrats disapprove of the performance of the Congress led by their party. Among Democratic voters, approval of Congress fell from 17 percent to 13 percent in the poll. Unaffiliated voters are the most critical of Congress with just 3 percent giving it a positive rating and 63 percent of these independents saying Congress is performing poorly.

Given these astounding figures, why do polls show that as of now a majority of voters intend to vote for the Democratic candidate in House and Senate races? In a recent McLaughlin and Associates poll, 43 percent said they would vote for the Democrat and just 34 percent would vote for the Republican. Twenty-three percent were unsure.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll taken in mid-June found that 52 percent favored Democratic candidates and 42 percent favored Republicans. That's down from 55 percent for Democrats and slightly up from 41 percent for Republicans in a February poll.

The earlier declaration of independence

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:37 EDT

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — The impatient patriots here had splendidly short fuses in 1775. Those who tilled the startlingly red clay or who lived in the town named for George III’s wife Charlotte might have been bemused had they foreseen the annual hoopla that commemorates July 4, 1776.

What occurred that day in Philadelphia might have been a Declaration of Independence, but the first such was enacted here on May 20, 1775. Presbyterians, meaning most Mecklenburgers, were incensed by Anglican meddling from London, such as the Vestry and Marriage Acts of 1769, which imposed fines on Presbyterian ministers who conducted marriage ceremonies. Marriage as a political issue is not just a recent phenomenon.

On May 19, 1775, the day before the Mecklenburg convention met to act on such grievances, a rider arrived with news from Massachusetts about the April bloodshed at Lexington and Concord. The next day, Mecklenburg’s convention declared:

“We the citizens of Mecklenburg County do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother country.... We do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people... to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.”

Thus did a settlement on the fringe of the British Empire declare war on that empire. It used language — note, especially, the last nine words — that is echoed in the 1776 declaration, for reasons explained in a new book, The 4th of July and the Founding of America, by Peter de Bolla of King’s College, Cambridge. He is fascinated by Americans’ fascination with the fact, such as it is, that their country had, as few nations can claim, an “originative moment.” But what, and when, was it?

Saturday Letters to the Editor

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:37 EDT

• Metts needs increase to keep growing county safe

I read with interest David Whetsell’s June 18 letter, “Metts’ tantrum shows costly to taxpayers.”

While his Stoptax.org may be a taxpayer’s watchdog, his “old dog” needs to widen his perspective or it may wind up bitten itself!

Sheriff James Metts did and always will show “his true colors” to all us citizens. I recently retired from 30 years of law enforcement in Charleston. The reason my family now resides in Sheriff Metts’ county is the high quality of public safety his department consistently provides.

As Lexington County continues to expand and stretch his department’s resources, the sheriff wishes to not simply maintain our safety but proactively improve it.