I’ve canceled tonight’s installment of of OTB Radio, our weekly BlogTalkRadio program.

My co-host Dave Schuler is understandably unable to participate after the recent loss of his mother, who will be laid to rest Saturday, and I’m in no mood to go on without him.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, December 2nd.

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

Dave Schuler and I will talk about Sarah Palin’s comeback tour and ensuing controversies and President Obama’s Asia trip.  Alex Knapp will join us to provide his legal expertise on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial and Steve Verdon will stop by to discuss the latest national debt milestone. Other topics will likely come up as well.

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

Owing to scheduling conflicts, this week’s episode of OTB Radio will air tomorrow night from 5:30-6:30 Eastern and next week’s episode will air on Tuesday night at the same time.   Subsequent episodes will mostly air on Wednesdays.

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

Dave Schuler will cost-host and we’ll be talking about the news of the day. And probably the news of other days, too.

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

Obama administration officials are now admitting what has been apparent for weeks: that they are giving serious consideration to radically downsizing the Afghanistan mission.  Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller break the story in this morning’s NYT, noting that a combination of factors have President Obama strongly reconsidering the Biden Plan, which he rejected as recently as March, which calls for a narrow counter-terrorism strategy combined with accelerated handoff to Afghan security forces.

I assess this at some length in my New Atlanticist piece, “Obama Having Buyer’s Remorse in Afghanistan?”

Given that I both anticipated this policy change and that it largely accords with my own instincts on the matter, I’m inclined to give Obama a great deal of slack here.

While I agree with CNAS scholar Andrew Exum that me must consider the costs of withdrawing from Afghanistan along with the advantages and that there are indeed American interests that merit risking American lives in that theater, I also agree with Dr. Henry Kissinger that we must consider our capacity and staying power as well as our desires when deciding what to do next.  Given that the American public will not put up with heavy casualties in Afghanistan for decades on end, especially given a corrupt host government and the lack of progress in building infrastructure or training Afghan security forces, it’s incumbent upon the president to steer the course of our policy accordingly.

Much more at the link.  I’ll also be discussing this tonight on OTB Radio with Dave Schuler and special guest Joshua Foust of Registan.net.

Photo: Getty Images.

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

VodkaPundit’s Stephen Green is tentatively scheduled to join Dave Schuler and me to talk about the Tea Party protests, Joe Wilson’s outburst, the ACORN scandal, and various other items in the news.  If Steve can’t make it, blame it on Jimmy Carter.  [UPDATE:  No Steve. Blame Roger Simon.]

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

Dave Schuler and I will talk about President Obama’s education speech and related topics.

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

Ezra Klein details why it’s so hard to get a comprehensive reform of our healthcare system passed.

There are three primary difficulties in finding the money for health-care reform. The first is that costs inside the system grow more quickly than incomes outside of the system. Imagine if your mortgage grew by 10 percent a year and your income grew by 3 percent a year. You might be able to handle that for a while, but eventually it would overwhelm you. That’s the problem for the House bill, too. The surtax on the rich raises enough money to balance out the first 10 years, but after that, health-care spending accelerates beyond it. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the cost of the coverage expansion is increasing by 9 percent a year at the end of the first 10 years, while the revenues are only increasing by 5 percent a year. Thus, deficit explodes outside of the first 10 years.

Luckily, there is one thing that grows as fast as health-care spending: health-care spending. If you raise money inside the system, then the revenues keep pace with the costs. Which gets us to the second problem: Liberals (particularly unions) have taken the major pot of money — the employer tax exclusion — off of the table. If you can’t touch that, then you can’t do very much: You don’t want to take all that money from Medicare, and you can only get so much from an excise tax.

The third problem is that the health-care reforms being considered simply don’t save that much money. Just as the system is unaffordable now, it is unaffordable six years after reform. So the final possible solution would be a more radical transformation of the system that actually saved money. The Wyden-Bennett Healthy Americans Act fits the bill. But few senators (or representatives) support it, as the plan is too ambitious, and entails too much disruption of existing insurance arrangements, for their tastes. Single-payer is rejected for similar reasons.

The problem, in the end, is simple enough: The easy revenue options — a small tax on the rich, or cuts in waste and abuse — don’t raise enough money. The hard revenue options don’t have any support. And the solutions that would save you money are ruled too radical.

Dave Schuler could have written that two years ago.  Indeed, he probably did. That’s not  an insinuation either that Ezra is cribbing from Dave or slow on the uptake; just that there’s pretty widespread agreement as to what the obstacles are among those who’ve been paying much attention.

Ezra’s conclusion, though, is tautological:

The problem is not insufficient money, or the relative growth in costs, or the savings. The problem is insufficient political will.

Well, yes.  That’s pretty much the obstacle to getting any policy option enacted in a democracy. In this case, a goodly number of us think the proposed cure is worse than the disease. Or will make the disease worse.

In hashing this out with Dave over the past several months, mostly on OTB radio, he’s convinced me that 1) there is a legitimate crisis in our healthcare delivery system and 2) that the medical licensing cartel is a major component of the cost issue.  There are some relatively non-controversial and non-painful ways to address this problem that aren’t even on the table.   But aside from massively opening up our medical schools to qualified applicants and allowing nurses and PAs to do jobs they’re fully qualified but not allowed to do without physician supervision,   most of the other changes necessary are sufficiently unpopular that they’re not going to happen until we’re closer to crisis.

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

Dave Schuler and I will talk about the latest developments in the health care debate, the evolving situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, furloughing government workers, and whatever else we meander into.

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Dave Dilegge of Small Wars Journal fame to talk about the renewed debate on Afghanistan.  See “Afghanistan Debate Intensifies,” “Back Off Jack Keane Wannabees,” and “What Are Our Strategic Objectives in Afghanistan?” for background.

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

The theme of Wednesday’s edition of OTB Radio was “Crazy Politics.” Spurred by the bitterness of recent discussion threads on seemingly innocuous topics, Dave Schuler and I wondered where it was all headed.

Well, we got a pretty good clue last night.

Six people were arrested last night in St. Louis  after one of the many town hall meetings going on between Members of Congress and their constituents on the attempt to reform our health care delivery and payment system.

St. Louis County police on Thursday arrested at least four people, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, outside a town hall forum held by Rep. Russ Carnahan, said Dawn Majors, a Post-Dispatch photojournalist who witnessed everything unfold.

It happened about 8:30 p.m at Bernard Middle School on Forder Road in Mehlville. Carnahan, D-St. Louis, had drawn a rowdy crowd that overflowed the school gym and left dozens of people outside. Many of those who showed up at what had been billed as a forum on aging carried signs about the national health-care debate.

Dozens of people were kept out because there was no room for them inside. Members of the local Tea Party Coalition, a movement that has emerged to counter President Barack Obama’s policies, had urged their members to attend, which in turn spurred Democrats to establish a strong presence.

The event was winding down when Majors said she saw a police squad car turn its lights on and went to see what was happening. As she approached it, her eyes started to burn. “And that’s when I realized I’d walked through remnants of pepper spray,” Majors said. She turned her attention to taking pictures. She said she saw a woman in handcuffs who was complaining about the pain of the spray and asking to wash her face and eyes. The response of the officer who was arresting her was, “I warned you,” Majors said.

[...]

Two of those were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances. Carnahan was gone when the ruckus started.

Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started. “It just seems there’s no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.

Jim Hoft reports on the incident firsthand and claims that Carnahan’s folks were trying to sneak a thousand “union thugs” from the SEIU into the meeting as a counterweight to the Tea Party Taxpayers.  Of course, this meeting wasn’t supposed to be an open forum about health care but rather a meeting with seniors; thus, neither the protestors nor the union activists should have been there.

Meanwhile, in Florida,

Bitter divisions over reforming America’s health care system exploded Thursday night in Tampa amid cat calls, jeering and shoving at a town hall meeting.

“Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!” dozens of people shouted as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, struggled to talk about health insurance reforms under consideration in Washington, D.C.

“There is more consensus than there is disagreement when you get right down to it,” Castor offered, immediately drowned out by groans and boos.

She pressed on, mostly unheard among screams from the audience estimated by Tampa police to be about 1,500.

“Tell the truth! Tell the truth!” “Read the bill!” “Forty-million illegals! Forty million illegals!”

[...]

Thursday’s forum/near riot was sponsored by state Rep. Betty Reed, D-Tampa, and the Service Employees International Union, who apparently had hoped to hold something of a pep rally for President Barack Obama’s health care reform proposal.

Instead, hundreds of vocal critics turned out, many of them saying they had been spurred on through the Tampa 912 activist group promoted by conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Others had received e-mails from the Hillsborough Republican Party that urged people to speak out against the plan and offered talking points.

An overflow crowd of critics was left waiting outside the building — and in some cases pounding on the meeting room doors — while health care reform activists complained that Democrats and union members were guided into the room for prime seats. Tampa police officers maintained control the entire night.

Let’s just say that this is no way for a civilized Republic to conduct its business.  And there’s no small irony that the protestor in St. Louis is carrying a sign mocking the fact that Paul Krugman and others have dubbed these people an angry mob.  What the hell else would you call them?

On the merits, I share my colleague Alex Knapp’s sense that “On the one hand, the system we have sucks and there’s really no defending it. On the other hand, most of the reform proposals also suck.”  I come down on the side that the crappy status quo is better than the crappy alternatives and Alex sides with the crappy alternatives to the crappy status quo.

Regardless, however, we should be able to agree that shutting down public debate on the matter in the guise of “being heard” is not only unproductive but un-American.

I’ve refrained from rapid reaction to the controversy over Bill Clinton’s trip to North Korea to secure the release of two American journalists because I’ve been torn between competing maxims.  I agree with the critics who say rewarding despots who have seized American citizens is bad precedent, incentivizing illegal behavior.  Yet, Bob Manning is right, too:  our leaders have no good alternative to talking with our adversaries.

Dave Schuler and I discussed the topic at some length toward the end of last night’s edition of OTB Radio and I’ve written an extensive essay on the matter at New Atlanticist entitled “Bill Clinton’s North Korea Gambit.”

The short version is that:

• We don’t know what, if anything we gave in exchange for the hostages, making it difficult to assess the deal

• Bill Clinton was clearly just a high profile courier in this mission, there to take pictures and bring back the hostages according to a pre-arranged deal

• While I’m not terribly hopeful it will bear fruit, this opens a window to improved bilateral relations

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern.

Dave Schuler and I will be talk about the Cash for Clunkers program, the Birthers, Bill Clinton’s North Korea trip, and other topics in the news.

We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat feature to screen for legit calls.

You can play the show, subscribe to its feed, or share it with your friends via the widget below:

(Note: The playback automatically updates to the most recent show available. Older shows can be accessed at the show archives.)

Tonight’s episode of OTB Radio has been canceled owing to scheduling conflicts.  We’ll get back into the swing of things next Wednesday at 5:30 Eastern.

In last night’s press conference, President Obama weighed in on the disorderly conduct arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates.

“The police are doing what they should,” he said. “There’s a call. They go investigate. What happens?

“My understanding is that Professor Gates then shows his I.D. to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct.”

“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that,” Mr. Obama continued. “But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”

I’m surprised and a bit disappointed that the president would weigh in so strongly against a local police officer on such sketchy evidence.  He concedes that Gates is a friend but, still, president’s traditionally stay out of such matters until they develop.  This isn’t a Rodney King situation where we have video.  Further, Obama is eliding some steps in the incident; I guarantee Gates wasn’t charged with disorderly conduct for simply showing ID.

Dave Schuler and I discussed the incident toward the end of last night’s episode of OTB Radio.  We agreed that 1)  the specific facts of the case are fuzzy, with Gates and the arresting officer releasing accounts that put themselves in the best light and 2) Cambridge is a small community and police should know who its most prominent citizens are.

I think it’s probable that Gates went into outrage mode quickly and that the officer felt disrespected and wanted to assert his authority and basically goaded Gates into a situation where an arrest was possible.  Henry Farrell’s explanation on that score strikes me as quite plausible.

As I’ve written numerous times before, police, especially in urban areas, have adopted a militaristic attitude toward their jobs, viewing the citizenry as hostiles to be pacified rather than as the community they’ve pledged to serve.   It’s a dangerous and lamentable development.

This is by no means universal.  Dave, who lives in a suburban-style community within the city limits of Chicago, has a much more pleasant experience with the police.  The police and citizens have a cordial, cooperative relationship.

UPDATE:  Jules Crittenden has some interesting background on Officer James Crowley that will likely reinforce whatever view you already have on the matter.

AP Photo