Trent Reznor Get Out the Vote Campaign

I bought a Nine Inch Nails CD off of the band's website some time ago, and am now fortunate enough to be on their mailing list and get a sporadic email from Trent Reznor himself. Usually it's an advertisement for a concert or some such. This email was a bit different...

Next Tuesday we will elect the next President of the United States. The result will have great consequences for the nation.

This election offers a choice is between two men with dramatically different visions of the future. We have strong feelings about this choice. But we feel even more strongly that all Americans, regardless of political preference, have a stake in the outcome and should vote in this critical election.

This is likely to be a close election. Your vote matters. Please use it and make a difference.

Sincerely,
Trent Reznor

I find it ironic that someone known for his dark, cynical lyrics can be so confident that one vote in 130 million matters. And more so, that it will actually make a difference. I can see him writing lyrics now...

I, made a difference today
punching out a chad
Focus on the ballot
hangers and dimples don't count

Lance Armstrong Under Kazak Gypsy Spell!

Proof positive! Either he or the Kazak Cycling Federation has been put under some sort of psychotropic trance, because this is just too amazing to be true...without the aid of some black magic.

Lance Armstrong to Race for Kazakhstan!?!

Bush's Book Shelf

A lot of the problems of the last eight years in this country and the world are not the direct fault of Prez Bush. A lot of the failures are systemic, although Bush being at the helm of this system certainly did not help. And it is possible that many of the issues we face today coincidentally happened to fall during Bush's tenure. Economic downturns are cyclical, as is destruction of the constitution, the use of state sponsored violence to further power and money hungry interests, etc. etc. And even though the following comment may too be coincidental, it was still brilliant to point out. One of my favorite columnists, former LA Times columnist and now editor-in-chief of TruthDig.com, notes,

"The bookends of the Bush years are the Enron debacle and the federal bailout of bankers drunk on their own greed."

If those are the bookends, its even more frightening to think of what lies between those place holders...

Blog Roll - Bertha and Brazilian Girls

Its been a while, so I am going to write what is known in the blogosphere as the blog roll. Technically, the Blog Roll is one's list of blogs that they read through, usually filtered to one place through an RSS feed. Instead of directing many blogs to one place, this is many topics, mostly updates, in one blog.

Some time around 4th of July weekend, I happened to be watching the weather channel on TV, and in hindsight, I remember hearing something about the 2nd tropical storm of the season. It appears as though Bertha was gesticulating somewhere over the West Coast of Africa, contemplating at what speed she would travel to the East Coast of the United States and just how much shit she should fuck up. Little did I know, or could I have predicted at the time, but the bitch decided to just chill over the Atlantic Ocean for a week and brew some fine long period ground swell. And because of that righteous woman, who I think I may name my first born after, I would have my first ever East Coast surf sessions. It is no small task to go surfing from DC. Waking up at 4:30, 3 hours in the car, multiple meeting spots for six people to cram into a pick up truck, stops at WaWa market for gas and coffee, borrowing someone's girlfriend's sister's husband's 7'6" fun board (and rash guard), an voi la - you are at the beach. But to say the least, it was worth every second of effort and by any standards that I have ever set, that was one hell of a fine day of surfing. Head high or plus, glassy, not much of a crowd to speak of, sun. It was pretty ideal. Really as good a day as I have ever had at the Cali beach breaks (the point breaks are another story).

That very same Saturday night I went to see Brazilian Girls at the 9:30 club. In hindsight, I am extremely glad that the tickets were free, because I would have been pissed! I should have known that because it was a late night show starting at midnight, I should have been much more drunk. But I was so damned tired from surfing and being awake all day, I just couldn't pull. The show from the start was uninspiring. The lead singer is talented - the whole band is talented in some respects - but she can't carry the show. She is backed by a steady rhythm section, but the only melody is a key board. Not much substance or depth. It sounded a bit like someone singing "Girl From Iponema" on karaoke with some house beats mixed in here and there. And I think the lighting tech was more intoxicated than the musicians or the crowd. He/She kept shining the flood lights on the inebriated crowd, causing on multiple occassions some drunken revelers to believe that the show was over and it was time to vomit on the bar. But no...the show continued. And just when the whole situation couldn't get much more annoying, enter audience girl taking her top off and dancing on stage. Only to be followed by about 50 more of Washington's socialite power-crowd dancing on stage topless. During the last two songs I couldn't even see the band. But not because the 3 band members were blocked by the Dance Dance Revolution practice session, but because I couldn't take my eyes off the 200 pounder swinging her bare utters in a demonstration of what could only be described as self confidence and swagger. Truly hypnotizing. I have been searching the web for a picture, but no luck.

Cocaine Cowboys - Mexico Edition

I recently watched a documentary film called "Cocaine Cowboys." It chronicles the rise of the cocaine trade in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s. Fascinating film that I highly recommend. It interviews a few of the key players, some - two American transporters - who where released from long prison sentences in 2004, another - a Columbian hit-man - who is still serving a life sentence. The most fascinating part to me was that through the 70s and earliest part of the 80s, these people - mostly Columbians and Cubans, with some American help - were importing billions of dollars of cocaine a month almost unstopped and undetected. The high-rise, high-class Miami you see today was funded almost entirely by this drug money of the 1970s. The trade could have continued unabated today if it wasn't for the murders that started to happen in the 80s. Turns out the Columbians went crazy and ruined it for themselves. They just started killing each other...in public, in night clubs, in late night raids, en masse sparing no woman or child. The feds didn't really show up until the murders started occuring.

Which brings me to present day Northern Mexico. I was forwarded another article about the drug wars going on in Northern Baja and some of the fallout on American tourists. The article reports on an uncovered DEA document that states,

"since 2005, one-thousand people have been kidnapped in Mexico, while 43 are known to have died and many have disappeared. In Tijuana alone, in just the first half of last year, 91 kidnappings were reported -- roughly one victim every other day, according to the report."

The article concludes that the violent inter-gang killings has resulted in a violent fight for power, the robbing of tourists and the emergence of kidnapping as a lucrative alternative to drug running. The kidnappers are earning an estimated $6 million per month and have made Mexico home to the most number of kidnappings in Latin America - recently surpassing Columbia.

If we are witnessing a rerun of the Cocaine Cowboys, it seems to have regenerated in a more violent, and more destructive form. In the Miami wars, drug cartels targeted each other for control over the drug trade, and bystanders were often caught in the middle. Now, the bystanders - the tourists, surfers, lobster seekers, retired folks buying cheap prescription drugs, underage drinkers - are the targets.

The movie ends with most of the old cartel people dying or getting arrested. The corrupt and complicit Dade county police department was cleaned out. How this one will end I have no idea. To be sure, the Mexican tourist industry will suffer severely. This could be the only thing to motivate Mexican authorities to get their act together and clean out their own corrupt and complicit security agencies. Or, a more likely scenario is that this will blow over. The kidnappings and drug killings will calm down after a dominant cartel wins out, the drug trade will continue, and the tourists will return.

Peter Hansen Smear Campaign

I hate Peter Hansen. Who is PeterHansen? Someone that I dearly hate.

This Paranoid Android...

...just about lost his marbles at Radiohead on Sunday. Instead of getting it all off my chest here, someone else pretty much summed it up for me. This Brightest Young Things blog just about nails it (the pics are pretty good, but they don't really capture the awe-inspiring stage set-up or the catastrpohic weather around us). I would only add a couple of notes. My drive was more like 12 hours from North Carolina, not a measely 3 hours from DC. I had no rain gear to speak of to deal with the torrential down pour. Thanks to my friend Liz's parents, I procured a bright yellow rain jacket that kept the top half of my body completely dry. The bottom half — in board shorts and rainbow sandals — was a different story. My rainbows will take a few weeks to dry out I think. Last, I was dissappointed when Thom Yorke's shot at Capital Hill (something to the effect of "Whats up with those people on Capital Hill? They really fucked it all up, didn't they?) evoked near silence from the crowd. I could only imagine what the response would have been in a place like Seattle or San Fran — or the entire West Coast.

So begins the week of concerts and graduation:
Sunday - Radiohead
Tuesday - Black Keys
Wednesday - Once OK Twice
Thursday - Cut Copy
Friday -Graduation

War on Drugs Update - SoCal Up to no Good

Silly frat kids - This is a fascinating tale of idiocy coming out of San Diego State University. 96 people were arrested, $100,000 worth of drugs were seized, as well as 4 guns, from the Theta Chi fraternity after an undercover drug bust. Best line of the article, "They weren't picky about who they sold to," he said, alleging that undercover officers would simply call them and say, " 'Hey, I heard you deal. Will you sell to me?' "And they did." Frat nerds + drug dealing = extraordinary studity every time. I remember a story from when I was at UCLA that some kid in a fraternity was dealing drugs when no one in his house even knew. That is, until 2 guys showed up at his door with sawed-off shot guns, tied him up and robbed him blind in the light of day.

And a few more stories from south of the border. It appears that the hit-squad division of one of the largest drug cartels in the Gulf region, Los Zetas, is recruiting new employees (might not be a bad place to start looking for us job seeking graduates). And they are doing it in a particularly brazen way...by hanging huge banners and posting signs around border towns that they are hiring. The signs offer food, training, health care and education for families, and good pay (up to $5,000 per week). Unfortunately, it seems that they are looking for ex-military and military deserters, so I may not qualify. They even list phone numbers for interested parties to contact, which the authorities believe are legit.

And about 2 weeks ago, a shootout between rival drug gangs left 15 people dead in the streets of Tijuana(the article says 13, but 2 more have since died). The article can't actually pinpoint exactly who was involved, but speculations range from gang vs. gang, gang vs. informants, and gang vs. undercover police.

What both articles point to is that the surging brazenness and violence coming from the Mexican drug industry is a direct response to increased efforts on the part of the Mexican military (with U.S. money and advice) to fight back against the drug cartels. In times of extreme irony I like to invoke song lyrics. Wilco's song War on War goes...

Its a War on War
Its a War on War
Its a War on War
Its a War on War

Your gonna lose
You have to loo-oo-oo-oose
You have to learn how to die-ie-ie
If you wanna-wanna stay alive

No Calls Please

Job hunting sucks. It is especially dauting at the moment when it seems like every company in the world is in a holding pattern, waiting for the tides to change; winds to change direction; economic funk to blow over...Take it from my friend Orion who has been looking for a job since January.

After months of fruitless efforts, I sympathize with the May 08 graduates. Here I thought I would have a leg up on the competition, graduating in December, but I find myself in the rat race with the rest of you all.

Network, network, network…you won’t find your job on Monster.com. Well I have to say, I have exhausted all of my networking connections, made some new acquaintances, ye they see to have expired as well. No luck there.

I searched through a list of over 3,000 non-profits in DC Metro area of which I found about a dozen with posting openings I felt to be qualified for. This is of course, after going through my short list of ‘dream’ organizations I want to work for. Yet as you may have guessed, no of them have offered me a job let alone want to interview me. What do I do next when they all explicitly state: “no phone calls, we will contact qualified candidates for interviews”…so much for the idea of follow ups and persistence.

The problem is I can’t find anyone one to pay me part time while I wait for the big offer. I am listed with 3 temp agencies, and I have received 4, one day assignments in 2 months. I am overqualified to work in retail or my other dream job, at a beer distributor; and the banks don’t want me to be a teller either because a Masters in International Relations doesn’t prove I can add or it’s because I don’t speak Spanish.

I think once I get a job, I am going to go around to a bunch of the places that would rather employ high school that won’t show up for work and ask for my resume back.

-Orion Wenczel


Some research published in Businessweek says that not only are this years grads screwed this year, but if we take lesser jobs now, we will have lesser jobs and make less money for the rest of our lives.

I'm thinking its time to travel.

Watching...for Pigs on the Wing

I will be posting much more on Coachella in the coming weeks, but to start it off this is an interesting story. Someone offered a $10,000 reward for the inflatable pig that floated off during Roger Water's set. And someone found it!!!

Note, the pig had a ringing Obama endorsement on it. Pics to follow in a few days.

U.S. Diplomacy and Global Energy Policy

Energy policy has been prioritized by the U.S. diplomatic bureaucracy. This much is clear after a dinner I attended last night with Kurt Volker, deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs and soon to be U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Mr. Volker is a well spoken man who seems to have the ability to articulate any topic related to U.S. foreign policy, whether he has any expertise on the subject or not. His capacity to finesse any topic to the point where you want to buy whatever he is selling is uncanny — and admirable. I guess 20 years in the foreign service allows one to make bull shit seem like an infomercial product that you just can't help but buy.

But I didn't buy it all. Ok, just one set of brick slicing knives, but not two. The director of IERES at GW, Hope Harrison, asked him to speak specifically on energy security and Russia. He spoke eloquently on a variety of topics initially — the Bucharest NATO summit, missile defence, relations with Russia, relations with the EU, foreign policy formation in general, President Bush — and I found myself thoroughly convinced that Mr. Volker is brilliant, even though I was cognisant of the fact that he most likely comes from a slightly neo-conservative but definately conservative perspective. He phrased the issues in such a way so that one could not help but agree, and substantiated his views with very pointed, however unverifiable, evidence. And then when it came time to address Russia and energy security, he instead spoke at length on U.S. energy and climate change policy. And this is where I refused to drink the government sponsored kool-aid.

I am not sure how or why he veered the conversation in this direction. Maybe he was testing out his smooth talking abilities. Seeing if he could convince a crowd on an issue in which he has very little, if any, expertise. He started off by defining energy security as one of the two major issues that will remain unresolved for the next few decades (extremism and terrorism being the other). It then turned into somewhat of a rant on the naivety of the European attempts at a carbon emissions trading mechanisms. He seemed to think it useless to set caps for carbon emissions, put a monetary value on emissions, and then trade excess credits to firms that cannot reduce their carbon output. He furthermore ridiculed the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the EU trading scheme. The basis of the CDM is that Western countries can sponsor/fund emissions reduction programs in developing countries and count those reductions towards reducing their own country's emissions. The logic behind it is that it provides a way for developing countries to reduce their CO2 emissions while providing incentive for wealthy countries to fund such projects — and the logic seems sound to me (and every other scientist on the UN IPCC). Mr. Volker did not see it this way. The way he phrased it (and I paraphrase) was that it allows European countries to claim emissions reductions while providing money to countries like China to build more coal-fired, carbon producing power plant.

The whole discussion was a true exercize in bureaucratic diplomacy. His comments, instead of being informed by fact or expertise, were formed by towing the party line (or perhaps by himself who creates the party line). The EU CO2 trading system is a mess, and just short of a total failure up to this point. But this is not what Mr. Volker was saying. He was saying that cap-and-trade systems are inherently a failure. This is a strange position to take seeing as most scientists and inform environmental activists support the use of cap-and-trade schemes. Two other topics lead me to believe that his views are more informed by the administration hierarchy rather than the scientific community or any other legitimate source. First, he touted the contemporary nuclear power revival. I am not opposed to nuclear energy being part of the mix of energy supply, but there are some significant problems with nuclear energy that he somehow failed to address. The second was the complete lack of discussion on international cooperation on climate change, the Kyoto treaty, or a post-Kyoto global agreement. The reason is that the Bush administration, and hence Mr. Volker, have ZERO interest in international cooperation on climate change, unless it is entirely on U.S. terms. The reasoning is becoming increasingly flimsy in the face of international pressure, and came to a head when members of the U.S. delegation to the Bali Climate Change Summit were laughed and booed at.

Let me make my stance on the issue clear. The world needs an international agreement to stem the negative effects of climate change and environmental degradation, and the world needs the United States to lead on this issue. It is a question of who jumps first (because everyone will eventually jump). Europe has jumped, but their global efforts are useless without U.S. support. China and India will not jump first. For both of these reasons, the U.S. must be the first to act radically. For a more elaborate explanation of my opinion, read this article. Cap-and-trade systems and the CDM, if done properly, can be very useful tools for stopping climate change.

By veering too far from his areas of expertise, Mr. Volker exposed himself more than he should have. My respect for him did not turn to contempt, but rather to the sad realization that dogmatism, rather than dynamism, plagues the foreign policy bureaucracy. In the case of Mr. Volker, being as high on the totem pole as he is, it may not be that he is towing the party line, but that he is informing (or misinforming) and creating it.

Summiting NATO and the NATO Summit

Security treaties are not my cup o' tea. They have their purpose and their function, I guess, but I am just not interested in them. Why?

Security policy is a response to a perceived threat. There is no way of creating policy for a threat that is occuring, so one has to make assessments of the surrounding environment and determine what is the best course of action to make the situation as safe as possible. The assessment is not of threats per se, but the calculation, rational or otherwise, that there is something threatening. Those who are looking for threats to security are always going to find them, creating a cycle of threat perception, fear, and more threat perception. I simply choose not to live my life in fear, therefore I do not perceive many threats. My use for a transnational security organization to protect me from threats that I don't believe exist is minimal at best, fear mongering at worst.

But I found reports from the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest rather interesting. The whole thing played out like a game of chess. Or, maybe more like Chutes N' Ladders. Pick your own analogy. Each sound byte, meeting, appearance by a particular president or minister (or lack of appearance), public press conference, and back room deal was a tactical maneuver to gain some leverage or extract some concession from the other country. Favors were bought and sold, political margins were called in, alliances were forged and broken, and feelings were surely hurt (Most of all, probably President Saakashvili of Georgia).

It was realpolitik at its finest. An exercize in realist international relations theory in all its glory. I don't need to summarize the horse-trading and bargaining here. The Wiki article has a pretty good summary of what occured.

My description here seems more appropriate for a gathering of political foes. The forging of the Treaty of Versaille, or the Yalta Summit, would seem to be described here. But this was a meeting of supposed allies who have the same strategic and normative outlook on transnational security (again, supposed).

So if this was a chess match, who check-mated whom? Its hard to say if one country won out. Russia accomplished its goals of keeping Georgia and Ukraine out of NATO for the time being, and it doesn't appear that it had to give up much. If there was one NATO member loser, it seems to be the USA. Not the current administration, but American foreign policy clout in general, and the American people. To get Ukraine and Georgia to send troops to Afghanistan, President Bush essentially promised the leaders of those countries that he and the U.S. would sponsor, if not guarantee, their entrance into NATO. Unfortunately for those two countries, Bush's political capital is spent and he wrote another check that he can't cash. It will be interesting to see if there is any popular backlash in Ukraine and Georgia (the former which is slightly pro-US although anti-NATO, the latter which is a majority pro-US) for not being able to make due with its promises. The summit all but consolidate Bush's lame-duck administration.

The American people lost out because concessions were made to the U.S. by many European countries to support missile defense in the Czech Republic and Poland. Billions more dollars will be spent protecting the American people from a perceived threat that, in this case, most certainly does not exist.

Job Searching in DC

I won't even go there. Too distressing.

A follow up on my After the Gold Rush post. Gold has gone down. It seems poised to stagnate for the near future. All commodities, except for oil, seem to have hit their max price and have sunk back a little. This will continue, unless of course, the Fed cuts the prime interest rate again.

Why am I writing about this? Because I live in DC and work for the government with not much else to do. Day trading, here I come!

What the EU has done right

It was a redeeming week for me as a student of European studies and follower of the European Union. I was presented with two rather compelling examples of how the Europeans are not only doing things right, but should be emulated. And they didn't come from Europeans. The EU is not without its downfalls and failures, but it is also not without its enourmous successes in the face of interminable challenges. The Union is in all senses radical and revolutionary. Nothing like it existed in the world prior to its formation, and nothing has yet to come close to resembling its supranational structure. And as it gains influence it will gain an ability to shape the world in such ways as presented here.

So what has me so giddy about Europe?

John Judis wrote a brilliant article in this past issue of The New Republic on NAFTA. The genesis of the article was the scapegoating of the trade agreement by the Democratic presidential candidates when campaigning in Texas and Ohio. In pandering for votes, both Clinton and Obama were rather quick to blame NAFTA for the current economic woes and more specifically for the death of the manufacturing industry in Ohio. But the real trouble with NAFTA is that it has hurt Mexico WAY more than it hurt the U.S. or Canada, particularly Mexico's agricultural sector (the U.S. and Canada have actually done just fine under the agreement). And the real threat to the U.S. economy is not from Mexico, but from Southeast Asia and China. I wholeheartedly thank Mr. Judis for injecting some truth into the misinformed debate that goes on in the U.S. about NAFTA.

But NAFTA does in fact need improvement and renegotiation, just not on the terms suggested by either candidate (this is where I get excited). Instead of using the free trade model, the U.S. and Canada should do what the early EU did for Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Namely, employ a more developmental model that provides structural funds to Mexico and temporarily protects Mexican industry to upgrade its economy and infrastructure. After that, you can consider full liberalization. But as of now, the playing field is so incredibly uneven that any free trade agreement is inherently unfree. Judis quotes Princeton sociologist Doug Massey, which I will reiterate because the implication are so profound - "If the money devoted to U.S. border enforcement were instead channeled into structural adjustment in Mexico, as was done by the EU for Spain, unauthorized migration would likely disappear as a significant demographic and political issue in North America."

It should also be pointed out that this is the model that the EU is using for North Africa and the Middle East to decrease illegal immigration. The MENA presents a whole other dynamic of issues, so the jury is still out on whether this will work for the source of almost all of the EU's immigrants, legal and illegal.

The other source of praise for the EU came from former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. He was the chair of a high level panel commissioned by the African Development Bank to set a strategic vision for the bank's future. I saw him present the findings of his report at a conference sponsored by the Center for Global Development . Amongst his findings, he spoke of the need for Africa to integrate in the same way that Europe integrated after WWII. The EU is a unique creature born out of a specific time, place, and set of circumstances. So in a policy sense, there have always been questions of transferability of the EU model. But PM Martin was correct to point out that the EU started with an economic union between France and Germany, which was later turned into an economic union, and much later still a political and social union. The foundation was economic interdependence, which Africa can and should emulate.

After the Gold Rush

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst through the sky.

Clearly Neil Young was not thinking about investing in gold when he wrote these lyrics. The next line goes,

There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high

But his words are no less fitting for a time when financial markets are at best volatile, and at worst going down the proverbial shitter and commodities such as gold are a last vestige of hope for the speculator.

We are in the midst of a modern day gold rush. Obviously, no one is fleeing to Northern California and setting off into the wilderness panning streams for gold nuggets. You don't even have to purchase actual gold these days to participate in the gold rush. There are a handful of derivatives and futures trading markets to enable us to never have to wield a pick axe or climb down a mine. You can even buy gold on the U.S. stock market (ticker symbol - GLD). But the profits to be made are no less significant. In January 1980, gold hit the record price of $850 and ounce. It again hit that price again 28 years later in January 2008. It has continued to sore and reached over $1,000 and ounce in March 2008, before just last week falling below the $1,000 mark. You may think this is crazy and due for a crash.

But consider the evidence to the contrary. As James Turk blogged on goldprice.org, the inflation adjusted price for $850 of gold in 1980 is $6,255 in 2008 prices! Just let that one sink in for a minute...

Now you can understand why everyone, including myself, is investing in gold. Gold hitting $1,000 is rather miniscule to the potential price it could garner. But this begs the question, why is the price of gold rising so rapidly? There are several answers to this question. The demand for gold based jewelry in emerging markets is skyrocketing. You can hardly find a man Moscow that doesn't have several ounces, or kilos, hanging around his neck. According to the World Gold Council, the people who keep track of this stuff, gold demand in 2007 rose 37% from the previous year. Supply is decreasing at the same time. South Africa, which only 40 years ago produced about 80% of the world's gold, only produces 11% now.

But the real reason for surging gold prices is the floundering of the American economy. Gold prices are denominated in dollars so as the dollar continually loses value, the price of gold has to go up because it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of gold. This is essentially true of other precious metals, oil, and to a certain extent agricultural commodities such as wheat. As U.S. financial markets continue to have liquidity problems and the Fed keeps cutting interest rates, the dollar's prospects continue to look grim. The only movement in the near future is down or sideways, so the only way for gold to go is up up up! Unless of course, the world decides to denominate gold in another currency. In which case, I am screwed. The ironic part about all of this is that as I, or any other American, invests in gold, we are essentially betting against the American economy, or at least against the dollar. Seems like a pretty smart bet at this point.

So grab a pan, or an Etrade account, and git yerself some gold. More demand will drive the prices higher even still.

What does this have to do with DC? I first starting investigating gold when I was working at The Globalist. As with most things I did there, I did the research and wrote the column and it sat around in a pile of paper for several months. I don't think it has been published yet, 9 months later. The incompetency of the editor-in-cheif, Stephan Richter, is in the end, my gain.

As Neil Young later sings,

I was thinking about what a Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.

My First Food Blog: A DC Downer

I love food. I have a self-described discerning – some would say snobby – opinion of the foods I put in my mouth. So it seems only right that I rant on the subject as it presents itself in Washington, DC.

Tom Seitsma, food columnist for the Washington Post, has an unenviable job. You may ask, how can a food critic have an unenviable job? He gets to eat the best foods for free at any restaurant in the city, which is obviously better than having to pay for it. Certainly the position itself is not the bad part - it’s the fact that he has to do it in DC. For someone with as discriminating of taste buds as himself, it must be extraordinarily frustrating to be in one of the most disappointing food cities I have ever been to – let alone lived in.

I should be forthcoming in saying that a recent trip to Chicago spawned this blog. The trip wasn’t the genesis of this opinion – I have had my doubts since the first day I moved here – but Chicago certainly crystallized my opinion. Chicago is an amazing food city, which made me realize how uninspiring an eating experience DC really is.

I think at the core of this opinion is the fact that DC doesn’t do ONE thing the best. There is always another city can do better than DC does it. This greatly hurts the average value of DC food as a whole. There is not one genre of food that everyone in DC can do better than other cities – a category that can carry a city to the upper echelon of food cities. I have heard the argument that DC has more diversity in choice than anyone else in the United States. Even if this is true (which I don’t think it is), a diverse array of crappy food doesn’t help the cause. It only makes it worse. One could also make the argument that DC has exceptional Mediterranean region inspired fusion cuisine. The sheer number of restaurants that can qualify as “Mediterranean-esque” would give credence to this argument. The problem with that is that so many things qualify as Mediterranean that the term has become meaningless. Is it Italian? Spanish? North African? A specific Middle Eastern country? Or even the Middle East as a whole? It doesn’t seem that DC has a culture of producing numbers of high quality restaurants in any of these categories. How could it be possible, then, that DC could organically create a genre based on all of these without having each individually? It can’t…and it hasn’t. The term Mediterranean has become so convoluted with associations to sub-standard eateries and foods spanning more than a dozen countries that the term is useless.

Take two restaurants for example. Tabaq Bistro on U Street serves up “Mediterranean tapas.” Some of the dishes are decent, although severely overpriced, but the average tapas plate is unedible. Or take Rosemary Thyme Bistro on 18^th street for another example. Their dinner menu ranges from lamb shish to seafood ravioli to chicken alfredo (which is neither Italian nor Mediterranean). I prefer to eat their omelets for brunch. The amalgamated Mediterranean genre that encompasses these two restaurants is an exercise in the 80/20 principle – a guarantee of mediocrity (80/20 can be interpreted many ways, but for purposes here, it means that 20% of the menu yields 80% of the profits).

Or take, for example, the ubiquitous market-cafes that riddle the mid-town to downtown zone. What is a market cafe? There is no specific definition, it is more of a know-it-when-you-see-it kind of thing. But they do have two common traits to help you identify them. It will have a buffet where you pay for food by weight. And they have a griddle where you order burders and sandwiches. Any other city, or college campus, might call it a cafeteria. DC has gone out of its way to change the name, but not the concept, in order to glorify it for the pant-suited lunch crowd.

Breadline on Pennsylvania Ave. aside (ok, Marvelous Market too), none of them are worth their weight in the subsequent excrement they produce. Yes, they can make a burger, or turkey sandwich. But the point is that not a one of them goes out of their way to produce something exceptional. A dish that would make one return there for the food, not for the convenience of it being right outside the office. Again, Breadline is an exception to this, but the exception that proves the rule.

In comparison, I went to a place in Chicago called Milk and Honey Cafe. It is a small, unassuming cafe on Division between Buck Town and Wicker Park. The menu features less than 20 items - about 6 sandwiches, a few salads, maybe 8 breakfast items, and a variety of fresh baked goods - and they all looked amazing. The baked juevos rancheros and the walnut and banana pancakes stole the show. By focusing on a few dishes - by removing the market and focusing on the cafe aspect - they make all of them exceptionally well. Spreading resources too thin on an overabundance of variety pretty much guarantees that all of them will be mediocre. Not a market-cafe, but Dickey's on Eye Street takes this approach with their sandwiches, and it works well.

I refuse to eat sushi or Mexican food here, so I won't even pursue those lines of reasoning. Lets just say I don't trust either here. It needs to be pointed out, though, that Central American food posing as Mexican food does not count as Mexican food. Even though I have had some pretty good pollo saltado in DC, it is only Mexican by some overstretched and irrelevant definition.

I will also admit that most of my experience is in the actual district, not in the surrounding provinces. But since I don't plan on going to Silver Spring or Fairfax, I don't really care.

I will give credit where I believe credit is due. In any city as large as DC, there are bound to be some gems. The city's two Belgian restuarants - Belga Cafe and Brasserie Beck - are both phenomenal. Casa Oaxaca does an admirable job of serving traditional Oaxacan and Southern Mexican cuisine. The various sandwiches, snacks, cheeses, and breakfasts inside Eastern Market are of varying quality, but I do love the deli case at the end of the row with pulled meat sandwiches, homemade tortillas, salsas, and empanadas. Casa Blanca on 15th and K Street serves excellent traditional Salvadorean dishes (although they completely miss on their attempts at "Mexican" food). El Khartoum, La Fourchette, and Mandu get honorable mentions.

These spots do help me at least survive. But the point here is the average restaurant, not the few and far between. Its about what I can expect from walking into any given eatery, and about what restauranteers believe they can get away with when they sacrifice quality for variety and quantity.

Before this article turns too whiny, it will wrap it up. My intent is not to complain, but to spark a debate. I truly hope there are people out there that disagree and can prove me wrong with some great suggestions. You can start with telling me where I can find a Thai restaurant that serves pad thai for less than $10. I had never paid more than $10 before I moved here, now about $12 seems to be the norm. Seriously, what the fuck...

Democracy and Sovereignty in Kosovo

Last week in my comparative democracies class we discussed the different conceptions of constitutionalism, how constitutions develop, and what they mean for democracy. Basically, people typically confuse the two terms democracy and constitutionalism. But they are not they same and in an academic context, are actually polar opposites. Democracy is rule by popular sovereignty, consent of the governed, and implies majoritarian politics. Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th and 19th century were actually not to keen on the idea of democracy - it implied instability and tyranny of the majority over individual rights. Constitutionalism, then, is the institutionalized limits to pure democracy. It basically guarantees civil rights and protects individuals from majority mobs, irrational sways in public opinion, and arbitrary government action. The term consitutional democracy is somewhat of a contradiction, but it actually enables democracy to function better.

All of this got me thinking about the situation in Kosovo. As a newly independent state, they surely must have a constitution. And they do. You can read the highlights here. After reading through it, the things reeks to high heaven of the omniscient hand of international advisers. It starts, "we the people" as do almost all constitutions. Funny, I didn't know that Bruce Hitchner of Tufts University, who helped write the constitution, is Kosovar. For an independent country, Kosovo seems awfully dependent on their Western backers for just about everything. Consider the entrenchment of Camp Bondsteel, the U.S. military base in Kosovo. It houses about 7,000 U.S. troops, many NATO forces and just happens to sit next to an oil pipeline pumping Caspian Sea oil to the Mediterranean. I also heard, but have not been able to confirm, that the U.S. military is the single largest employer in Kosovo. It makes one wonder how sovereign Kosovo really is, and ever will be. Especially without the assistance of their nearest neighbor and dearest enemy, Serbia.

Mexico Pictures

I was able to salvage some pictures from Mexico and put them up, along with an essay that I wrote for The Globalist that never saw the light of day.

War on Drugs - Is that still going on?

A bout of drug related violence in Baja California was reported on in late December 2007, so this is not a breaking story really. I am only writing on it now because I was going to write a feature on it for my former employer, The Globalist, but it died on the vine because my boss is an ass and opted for some interviews conducted by his 16 year old son. Also because I am considering going down there again during my spring break.

To sum it up, there have been a few cases of surfing going down there and getting violently assaulted and robbed. On top of that, some gangsters wielding assault rifles shot up the Rosarito Beach police station and killed a police officer when they were trying to kill a town's top security official. Read Strategic Forecasting's Mexico security analysis for a rather exhaustive, and chilling, recap of some recent violence in Mexico in general (You have to register, but I recommend giving up your email address for their free content). But in my experience. Baja's coast is a relatively peaceful place, believe it or not. I have gone down there countless times and never encountered so much as a pick pocket. This includes Tijuana.

To say the least I am reconsidering Baja for my vacation. Aside from holiday considerations, the increase in both incidences and the fire power wielded by the drug gangs is concerning because it falls on the heels of the so called "Plan Mexico," a drug enforcement plan akin to the abysmal failure "Plan Columbia." The lengths that drug cartels are willing to go to protect their supply chain and markets is much more than any government agency is capable of preventing.

Drug policy seems to be off the radar for the upcoming presidential elections. It is possible that this will provide the next president to have more room to maneuver and will result in a less draconian approach to narcotics. Most likely, not a lot will change however. We will continue to incarcerate countless non-violent offenders and waste countless dollars because even if the next president has the balls to bring it up on the national agenda, he (or she) will be fighting against 35 years of an entrenched institution. Since Nixon's launched his war on drugs in 1971, no president has attempted to change course and bring reason to the issue, and I don't expect that the next one will.

Population and Climate Change

I attended a conference yesterday on the relationship between population growth and climate change. Sounds interesting, I know.

The conclusions were entirely anti-climactic. More people, more carbon emissions, faster climate change. Less population growth, less emissions...you get the point. The correllation is actually pretty close to 1:1 (A 1% increase in population will lead to a 1% increase in green house gas emissions). There are variations between socioeconomic groups, age groups, and urban vs. rural dwellers, but the results held nonetheless overall. Policy makers argue that population control policies like family planning (condoms and abortions) and the likes of China's one child policy are thus environmentally friendly policies. I guess I don't see why not.

One member of the audience made the interesting comment that levels of carbon emissions are correlated to the standard of living. That is, industrial countries emit more pollution and have a higher quality of life. I don't remember what the comment was made in relation to. The guy was going on forever, clearly enamoured by the sound of his own voice. But that little nugget stuck with me. He didn't just say higher CO2 emissions means more wealth or affluence, but "quality of life." So does it then follow that one cannot have a high quality of life without creating green house gases? And the more I pollute, the better off I am?

Harder Better Faster Stronger

Washington DC is none of these things compared to most cities in the world. And it is not harder, better, faster, or stronger than my home city, Los Angeles. Nonetheless, I find myself in our nation's capital. So this blog is dedicated all things that interest me about Washington, DC. It is not necessarily about politics, but it is most likely daft. I really just like the name Daft Politic.