On the Court and on the Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama – NYTimes.com
A cool story about the guy behind the guy.
White collar crime
// May 21st, 2008Crimes committed by the wealthy kill more people than crimes committed by gangbangers and drug dealers. According to congress, white collar crime causes $11 billion in losses, whereas street crime causes only $1.5 billion. Yes, but street crime is more dangerous, right? Wrong! White collar causes 10 times the injuries and death of street crime. Think about it: violations of occupational safety and health administration laws kill more people than street crime. Ford motor company allowed gas tanks explode in the Pinto for years because it was cheaper than retooling the car. We’ve allowed ourselves to think that these things aren’t crimes, but if they aren’t crimes, what are they?
The wealthy do more damage to our society than do the poor.
The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow
// May 17th, 2008This article was written by Dr. Michael Maccoby and published in the Harvard Business School Press on November 6, 2007. My dad sent it to me on January 7 2008. Iam just finally reading it today. It’s just as timely now as then:
Candidates in the primaries argue about whether experience or leadership for change is more important for a president. What I learned when I spoke at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California last month is that the young professionals there recognize that profound social change is already taking place. They want leaders at work and in Washington who understand the evolving world and make them collaborators in creating a better future. Experience without foresight and purpose is a drag, not a value.
Starting in the 1970s, people like the Googlers have been growing up in a world that has shaped them differently from their parents who were raised in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, most families were headed by a sole male wage earner. Today, typically both parents work, and more families are headed by a single woman than there are traditional families. Then, large national corporations promised lifetime employment. Now, global companies can’t promise employment and employees are no longer loyal. Then, managers were almost all white men and the leadership model was paternalistic. Now, young professionals reject autocratic leaders and have worked for all types of bosses. Then, only researchers and financial companies used computers. Now, computers and the internet have transformed work, products, personal interactions, access to information, and knowledge creation. Then managers knew subordinates’ jobs better than they did. Now, with the rapid advance of knowledge, subordinates often know more. What they seek in a leader is authenticity and a clear sense of purpose that is meaningful to them…so much for experience.
The result has been the emergence of a new social character which I call interactive in contrast to the bureaucratic social character that dominated the last century. When I described interactives, my listeners at Google recognized themselves. All the presidential candidates had visited Google, and almost all said they most liked Barack Obama. I asked why, and the answer was that he understood the challenges of the global economy. Obama emphasized America’s need to provide opportunity, not by walling off the country, but by supporting education and innovation. They agreed with him that government had a role in funding scientific research, especially to protect the environment and gain energy independence. They saw Obama as inviting them to be collaborators, not followers. Their views reminded me of an American president, also from Illinois, whose limited government experience was a brief time in the state legislature and one term in Congress. As president, he grew in office and had the foresight that the growing industry of America needed government to support railroads and technical colleges. And he inspired people with a vision of realizing the promise of the Declaration of Independence. Of course, I was thinking of Abraham Lincoln.
random thoughts
// May 6th, 2008the old guard is seeing its armies diminish. By that, I mean to say that the activists, evangelicals and others who were the Republicans’ great machine in 2004 now find themselves split over moral issues such as immigration and the war. abortion will still be effective in rallying them, but to nowhere near the same extent. Also, Obama is bringing a lot of newcomers into a party with an incredible mobilized base, which is having a telling effect among independents. If he names Richardson as his veep (my supreme hope), the dems could be looking to lock in the heartland, latinos, and indies, and win it BIG, and in a way that is sustaining through the midterm and 2012. And that’s how a party goes from chump to champ in a decade.
Missouri congressman backs bill to decriminalize marijuana
// May 5th, 2008Missouri congressman backs bill to decriminalize marijuana
Clay is obviously very comfortable in his seat. This, coupled with what he said last week about Hillary, makes him a pimp on stilts in my eyes.