Rhinocrisy

I am starting to have the sneaking suspicion that we have been sold a lemon.

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Better step it up, Internet. Your vaunted utility is on shaky foundations with only Wikipedia to buttress it.

Obama, this morning:

And so the question then is, are we going to be able to put together a package that includes safe, secure nuclear power; that includes new technologies so that we can use coal — which we have in abundance and is very cheap, but often is adding to our greenhouse gases — can we find sequestration technologies that clean that up; can we identify opportunities to increase our oil and natural gas production in a way that is environmentally sustainable? And that should be part of a package with our development of clean energy.

Answer: no. We’ve talked about clean coal here before, and how it’s at best on a twenty-year time horizon before it becomes viable technology. “Twenty years” basically means “never going to happen”, or “this is science fiction”, so whenever you hear someone talking about “clean coal”, understand that they’re talking through their hat. Oil and gas are tapped out domestically; that is simple geological fact against which there is no argument. The only sources left are offshore, which are expensive and environmentally problematic.

Nuclear power has been a mess for many years; some people are now discussing thorium as a safer, cleaner, cheaper, and all-around better alternative to uranium. India is really into it. Maybe that’s a reasonable plan; I don’t know enough to comment.

But I’d like to take issue with Obama saying this:

I am very firm in my conviction that the country that leads the way in clean energy — solar, wind, biodiesel, geothermal — that country is going to win the race in the 21st century global economy. … [W]e can’t overnight convert to an all-solar or an all-wind economy. That just can’t happen.

Here’s an idea: stop funding that unwinnable war in Iraq. Just end it. Then, use that money to spark research on clean energy. If you’re really very firm in your convictions, put some money where your mouth is.

Rahm Emanuel is being forced to apologize for saying something was “fucking retarded” because the use of the word “retarded” is unconscionable in modern America. Savvy commentators are pointing out that the lede is being viciously dumped here; what Emanuel thought was “retarded” was that some liberal advocacy groups are considering running ads against conservative Democrats whose stance on health care they disagree with.

Fair enough; let’s use this incident to exemplify a key principle of American politics: holding office is paramount, and representation of the public interest is only important insofar as it aids that end.

Utopianists might wish for something close to the inverse: where the office and the office-holder mean almost nothing, but public participation is 100%. A ‘representative’ should be little more than a delegate, a mouthpiece, a channel. The wonderful news is that nowadays it’s actually feasible to involve large numbers of people in the political process through “technology”. Unfortunately, we’re still saddled with a political edifice as recalcitrant as bone. This arrangement, where lordly Senators cling desperately to their thrones and curry favor with whatever seedy pimp will allow them to stay there, seems ready to topple. Time for something else.