Author: michelle

Dad had his first race this weekend in lucky #07 and finished 12 out of 19. I’m just glad he finished.

And second his request to his party to finish the candidate lists for the July election already.

I’ve got a research assistant waiting in the wings to compile the data.

But the race is still too close to call.

Turn it off.

Two weeks ago, I whittled it down to less than 10 messages, and today it is back up to 59, of which 30 require either an answer or some action on my part. Of the 30, 3 are personal emails from long-lost colleagues or friends who have written in the last 2 weeks. Those should be happy emails to answer, but somehow, since I don’t have time, they lay there, marked “unread” and give me fits.

The Georgia Tech car show.

My visit in January to Monterrey Tec was covered in the paper there. We met with the student reporter for about 20 minutes, and this was the result. Luckily, I was sitting just to the right of the Dean and didn’t make it into the photo.

Goooooooooooooooool!.

Last week, I was in San Juan for LASA. Despite the photo of the beach, I only suited up for two hours total. The rest of the time I went to panels or worked (defined loosely, to include meetings with friends and colleagues).

This week, I’m back in ATL working.

Maybe international pressure will encourage the Mexican government to step up efforts to police discriminatory policies by the private sector. Maybe then Wal-Mart owned Superama wouldn’t make folks wait in line to spend money in their stores.

And anti-immigrant legislation.

Trying to enforce border security to stop immigration while not enforcing domestic labor laws makes little sense.

Trying to “seal” the border will only make coyotes and smugglers take more risk with immigrant lives. It also reduces the likelihood that undocumented workers will return to their home countries because it raises the stakes to get back in.

In contrast, employers have fixed places of business, taxpayer id numbers, and should be easier to police. However, doing so would require the Bush administration to crack down on key constituents, including many small-business owners.

So, instead, the administration has taken a contradictory stance in order to placate anti-immigrant voters under the guise of homeland security while quietly ignoring illegal behavior by employers.

And not just a reform of ISSSTE. At a recent public event, he spoke of the need to reform the entire Mexican social security system (IMSS, ISSSTE, and by extension FFAA, etc.). This is not a new idea–the Deputy who sits at the head of the Social Security Commission in the Chamber of Deputies mentioned the same thing to me in an interview and in formal press announcements.

Unfortunately, systematic reform is unlikely. Those with better benefits and access to services are unlikely to give them up to be joined with other workers and it would be too expensive to give the top benefits to all workers. Piecemeal and fragmented reforms are more likely.

I’ll be at this pension conference.

I promise I didn’t cheat.

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You’re totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in… in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

In political science, there’s a lot of debate regarding the ways in which “the market” (or globalization) affects policy outcomes, not only in developing but also developed nations. There’s some general sense that the market potentially constrains policy options, though there’s a lot of debate regarding the extent of those constraints. At least one political scientist has asked “the market” (or one segment of it) what it considers when evaluating investment opportunities in foreign markets.

Somehow, the policy preferences of the market get transmitted back to voters, politicians, or policy-makers. Maybe they see the market punish bad policy in other countries. Maybe they are warned by international financial institutions. Maybe the market warns them directly. This part of the causal chain is studied less often.

However, here’s at least one example of how the market makes its policy preferences known in Mexico.

For a comprehensive follow-up to my earlier post regarding the on-going political controvery in Puebla, go to the special page at La Jornada, with links to all the articles published in the last two weeks and transcripts of the phone tapes. The paper has titled the page “Power and Pederasty.”

The Fox administration had commissioned a special report on the abuses of the PRI regime, but the official report has not yet been released. A copy of it was leaked, however, to the National Security Archive at GW (which has posted the entire report online), Eme Equis (which focuses on acts in Guerrero), and the New York Times (which erroneously implies that there is only one “Libro Blanco,” when the term refers to any general accountability report–rendicion de cuentas–of the government to the people). Prominent Mexicans also have copies of the report apparently.

Thanks, Anonymous, for the links.

Added 2/28: NPR has a short story on the report as well. Also, stories from today’s La Jornada.

According to MexiCronicas, polls from late January indicate a tight 2-way race between Lopez Obrador (PRD) and Calderon (PAN), with Madrazo not far behind. Among those that say they will definitely vote, Calderon has a slight edge.

From the Harvard website. From Reuters. AP.

In a little candy bar.