final post for the week!

1. obama pushes for immigration reform - more pro-activeness from the president. Not that it will be an easy sell:

Opponents, mainly Republicans, say they will seek to mobilize popular outrage against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers while so many Americans are out of jobs.

this argument leaves me a little cold, though. I mean, the jobs currently being done by illegals still need to be done (and are being done as part of an underground economy). So doesn't legalizing these immigrants force the underground economy above ground, which also forces the newly legal immigrants to pay taxes and contribute more directly to the GDP? PLUS, increasing free exchange will prevent a legitimate problem - the 'brain drain' of talented foreign students in America who can't get an H1 visa or permanent resident status to countries where residency is easier to obtain. It's hard to imagine how having more talented people in the country would hurt the economy. the economist warns about this.

2. trouble in mexico - the trouble is that mexico is basically fucked. read this rolling stone piece if you're not convinced. Plus, there is increasing evidence that the US is encouraging Mexico to pursue its domestic drug war militarily, despite the fact that there's almost no evidence that this type of strategy is at all effective. From the Atlantic:

“If you go after Cartel X, you just make life easier for Cartel Y.”

Doesn't that pretty much summarize the problem? Of course, there's one possible way the US can help things - by decreasing the demand for illegal goods domestically:

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard suggested that marijuana’s illicit status is responsible for some of the cartel-related violence seeping into his state. His logic was simple: according to his office, 65 percent of the cartels’ revenue comes from smuggling marijuana, a business that’s only profitable because it’s illegal.

Draw the obvious conclusion yourself, but sadly, Obama was asked about this, and its not going to happen.

3. don't make me fight you, george will. - Seriously. climate change is real. So, please stop, now. You're supposed to still be a marginally credible journalist.

Will's denialism tarnishes the conservative brand. It also makes it hard to take lectures about "liberal alarmism" on climate change seriously. There's a basic credibility problem. Any argument that sees Al Gore and George Will as two sides of the same problem isn't serious.

4. oh the onion, how i love you, for this, and this as well.

5. and finally, happy passover! - Take a look at the hilarious Facebook Haggadah (thanks, Todd!) and read this lovely reminiscence from the New York Times:

The wine was decanted into carafes, the salt served in filigreed silver wells. We were not fancy people, CorningWare white the rest of the year. But these two nights, remembering slavery, were to be celebrated as if we were kings, the poor seated with princes, all meant to recline.

4 great articles!!

1. doctors opting out of medicare - initially i assumed this would just be a populist-type piece on how, in response to the recession, doctors are prioritizing patients who will net them larger profits vs. patients who are on medicare (who offers lower reimbursement rates). and to some extent, it is. but what is much more interesting is how health care providers are using various methods to try and treat as many people as possible. Some doctors are tailoring prices to what their patients can afford. Others are providing "boutique" care, in which, in return for a yearly retainer, a doctor will both accept Medicare and provide services not covered by medicare. Another option is "concierge" medicine, in which, for a larger retainer, the doctor will coordinate a patient's health care in a more detailed fashion. And finally, there are urgent care clinics, which have a lot of potential upside (acting as triage for less complex cases) but with accompanying downsides (quality of care).

2. the recession's impact on libraries - just one of those phenomenal pieces that makes you think about all the subtle effects of the recession:

"Librarians here and elsewhere say they are seeing new challenges. They find people asleep more often at cubicles. Patrons who cannot read or write ask for help filling out job applications. Some people sit at computers trying to use the Internet, even though they have no idea what the Internet is."

3. The Atlantic meets Netanyahu - I believe this was an exclusive interview that The Atlantic had with the new Israeli PM. I won't pretend to understand 0.1% of the complexity surrounding the Middle East situation, but what this interview does is make the perspective of the incoming Israeli administration clearer. The question now is, how do Obama and the Middle East trifecta of kickassness (Mitchell, Holbrooke, and Clinton) find common ground with both Iran and a Netanyahu-led Israel?

4. Vanity Fair on Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
- Like most great pieces, this piece on the man at the helm of the (sadly sinking) New York Times does a great job of being informative, yet even-handed. It's clear by the end that the newest Sulzberger operates out of a reverence for journalism (a good thing) and the Times in its current format (probably bad, given the fact that the paper is hemorrhaging money). What is unclear is the likelihood that he, or anyone, can steer the Times out of this mess. Which sucks, because I fall squarely on the side of the Times in its battle with the Wall Street Journal. But that's just because one of my rules in life is to figure out what Karl Rove is doing, and make a beeline for the other side.

israel-gaza tension

a great op-ed piece in the new york times reminds us of the constant threat forcing the hand of the Israeli government in launching what would be more accurately called a counter-offensive:

To the south, Israel faces the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip and whose charter promises to destroy Israel and bring every inch of Palestine under Islamic rule and law. Hamas today has an army of thousands. It also has a large arsenal of rockets — home-made Qassams and Russian-made, Iranian-financed Katyushas and Grads smuggled, with the Egyptians largely turning a blind eye, through tunnels from Sinai. Last June, Israel and Hamas agreed to a six-month truce. This unsteady calm was periodically violated by armed factions in Gaza that lobbed rockets into Israel’s border settlements. Israel responded by periodically suspending shipments of supplies into Gaza. In November and early December, Hamas stepped up the rocket attacks and then, unilaterally, formally announced the end of the truce.

There's nothing nice about civilian casualties, but Israeli sovereignty is infringed upon from all sides, and even within (the portion of the article about the growing Arab minority within Israel is telling). There are plenty of instances in which Zionism seems overwrought, overblown, or unnecessary, but this is absolutely not one of them.