daflipod.

Agricultrual subsidies distort trade and hurt farmers in less developed countries who want to export their cotton, corn, wheat, or catfish to the rest of the world. This is a clear problem with a clear solution, but no political will here to really do anything about it (oddly enough, Bush seems earnest in his pursuit of reducing these subsidies, though). But it gets worse: not only are we hurting the little guy, we're getting obese in the process (from IHT):

"The trade policies that are currently in play are those which subsidize and distort the market to make fats and sugars cheaper and fruits and vegetables more expensive," James said during a break in the 10th International Obesity Congress in Sydney, Australia.

As a result, many developing countries are now seeing dramatic increases in their rates of obesity, thanks to an influx of subsidized sugar and fat-based products from the United States and Europe.

Great. See Kick All Agricultural Subsidies (Kick-ASS) for ideas about what to do about this.

I think the pressures of constant publication are catching up to Frank Rich. I rarely disagree with his larger point, but sometimes his means don't serve his ends very well.

Some choice quotes from today's op-ed:

Americans don’t like to lose, whatever the season. They know defeat when they see it, no matter how many new plans for victory are trotted out to obscure that reality.

Which do you want -- defeat, or at least some plans for victory? He is writing that defeat is inevitable, or already at hand. I'm as sick of unnecessary war & death as the next liberal, but declaring defeat and going home would be foolish at this point.

About Moqtada al-Sadr:

He commands more than 30 seats in Mr. Maliki’s governing coalition in Parliament and 5 cabinet positions. He is also linked to death squads that have slaughtered Iraqis and Americans with impunity since the April 2004 uprising that killed, among others, Cindy Sheehan’s son, Casey. Since then, Mr. Sadr’s power has only grown, enabled by Iraqi “democracy.”

Here's the punchline: it isn't "democracy", it's democracy. Or even Democracy. Just because we don't like the results (Exhibit B+C: Hezbollah and Hamas) doesn't change the essential nature of the participatory electoral process. Maybe we should have stuck with the whole dictatorship thing? Mubarak and Musharaff don't look so bad, after all...