1) Japan Throws the Bums Out: But does the new crowd have better ideas?

Japan’s Electoral Tsunami

By Mary Kissel, The Wall Street Journal

By Jeff Kingston, Foreign Policy

This was a change election in Japan just as the United States chose to go the new direction of Barack Obama after eight relatively unsuccessful years under George Bush. The type of change that Japan chose, however, is quite different and will most certainly severely impact the US’s interests in Asia. The new Foreign Policy (it fairly recently transitioned from a bi-monthly publication to a leading web magazine) has been getting a fair bit of much deserved love from us recently, thus I also chose a shorter article from the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal to compare and contrast. Despite slight differences in perception, they both agree that the Democratic Party of Japan’s new leader Yukio Hatoyama seeks to embrace China and it’s rise to prominence, while distancing himself from the United States. Economically, Hatoyama is a devout follower of Keynes and will push for higher taxes, a higher minimum wage and more handouts to the elderly. It will be interesting to see what both his foreign and domestic strategies do for a nation with the world’s second largest economy.

http://sbk.online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574381700306393382.html?mod=asia_opinion

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/30/japans_electoral_tsunami?page=0,1

2) Ducking the Deficit Issue

By Robert Samuelson, Newsweek

Newsweek gets it right in pointing out that 1) the problem of government debt is mainly a political one right now (regardless of the billions of dollars we spend each on interest payments) and 2) someday there will be economic consequences to our deficit spending. The problem is we don’t know what those consequences may be and when they will occur. Without some impending calamity, politicians have very little incentive to address the issue. Sure, adding more debt is great in that it allows both parties to advance self-serving positions, but it is akin to throwing my generation under the bus in that we will, somehow, have to discover a way to pay for the current irresponsibility. I can’t stress how glad I am that reputable sources such as Paul Krugman and Newsweek are running with this issue right now.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214487?from=rss

3) Something New On Health Care: Deal-Breakers From The President

By Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic

I may not be the most enthusiastic fan of President Obama, but I don’t doubt for one second that he’s quite the intellectual heavy-weight. It has been pretty widely accepted that Bill Clinton failed by crafting a complex and complicated bill and then handing it to Congress with the hope that it would survive. It didn’t. Barack Obama initially took the complete opposite approach by giving little to no direction in order to avoid mistakes of the past. The result has been this fierce and vigorous public debate with each committee committee assigned to the bill coming up with its own plan except for the Senate Finance Committee, which hasn’t been able to agree on much of anything. Finally, Barack Obama has intuited that he needs to be somewhere in the middle of those two approaches if he wants to prevent Health Care from becoming his “Waterloo.” Marc Ambinder gives us a preview of what we might see when Obama releases his “deal-breakers” next week. Will the public option be one of them?

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/09/something_new_on_health_care_ultimatums_from_the_president.hp

4) New Presidential Study Directive an Unprecedented Step Forward on Development

By David Beckmann and George Ingram, Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network

This is really exciting. Barack Obama signed a landmark Presidential Study Directive on Global Development Policy.  The directive establishes clear White House leadership on modernizing our country’s approach to global development, adding to the tremendous momentum generated by actions taken by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the State Department. This administration has taken the first step towards making elevating development a core pillar of U.S. foreign policy and make our approaches to alleviating poverty and hunger, fighting disease, and creating economic opportunity more effective. Bravo!

http://www.modernizingforeignassistance.org/blog/2009/08/31/mfan-new-presidential-study-directive-on-global-development-an-unprecedented-step-forward-on-development/

5) The Coming War Over Climate

By Kevin Drum, Mother Jones

A controversial piece in the Washington Post worries about the fear tactics that will begin next month when the Senate takes up cap-and-trade legislation. Kevin Drum responds and adds some additional insights. The take home point is this: according to polling data, 60% of Americans will support the bill if it adds an additional $10 to their electric bill. If the added cost is $25, 60% oppose. Will it be hard for the right win propaganda machine that was so successful in manufacturing lies in the health care debate to convince people that their bill will actually go up by $25 and not $10? Or even that it will go up by $100? Watch out and be ready to fight. This will be a truly trying battle when the bill finally comes to the fore. Best of luck to Babs Boxer and the Senior Senator from Massachusetts.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/08/coming-war-over-climate