Archive for 2008
September 28, 2008
WHERE JIM TREACHER LEADS, Saturday Night Live follows.
EUGENE VOLOKH ON THE “OBAMA TRUTH SQUAD” IN MISSOURI: It’s certainly possible that the KMOV report wasn’t accurate — and now that there’s a stink, the prosecutors are backpedaling, but that hardly means that the chilling effect wasn’t intended, particularly when placed in context with other threatening tactics we’ve seen.
An earlier post from Eugene is here.
And, for a bit of levity, here’s your official Missouri Truth Squad Incident Report.
A FIRST LOOK AT THE BAILOUT BILL, from David Zaring at The Conglomerate.
JERRY POURNELLE ON THE BAILOUT DEAL:
Off the top of my head observations:
Golden parachutes: we may detest them, but they are not the cause of the problem. And every one of the Democrats involved in this bailout benefited from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and every one of them was in favor of the CRA provisions requiring more and more sub-prime loans in order to increase home ownership.
And listening to Pelosi and Reid’s press conference, I am guessing that their provisions for helping keep people in their homes probably means that those who should not have been buying houses in the first place will be protected in one way or another. People who made horrible decisions and bought houses without down payment and interest only loans will be bailed out by those who put up a down payment and took out a normal 30 year amortization loan and have made their payments all along. Perhaps this is a good thing. Ownership promotes a certain independence. But I suspect that things will be gimmicked so that in order to keep the house you should never been able to buy, you will have to continue to support the Democrats. But then I have a nasty suspicions mind.
On protecting Wall Street:
Of course when government forces banks to make bad loans, is there then a moral obligation from all of us to make the banks whole again? They were only doing what we told them they must do. I know, I know, we the people didn’t vote to force the banks to make bad loans; but our government did, and the Congress did, and we continued to elect those who did that, and we are now to cheer them as heroes for rescuing us from the financial collapse. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Pelosi, Reid — they were all for regulations requiring more sub-prime loans. Banks that didn’t comply were in a world of hurt.Biden is asking where McCain was! Well, Biden, McCain was in 2003 trying to curb Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and cut back the pressure from the CRA, that’s where he was. Where were you? And where was Obama?
Well, in 2003 Obama was an Illinois State Senator. But look who abandoned the no-earmark condition to support money for ACORN.
A SOLID LEAD FOR OBAMA IN POLLS.
QUESTIONS ON POLLING: Forget Red or Blue State: Are You Wireless or Wireline? Plus, a look at cellphone-only households by state. Do pollsters really have a handle on this, or are their polls becoming more divorced from reality? I’m really not sure on this, but I suppose we’ll get some more data in a little over a month . . . .
Here’s more on the subject from Mark Blumenthal.
LIBEL TOURISM, American Style.
GOOD NEWS: SpaceX Successfully Launches Fourth Falcon 1 Rocket. “Definitely one of the best days of my life,” says Elon Musk.
CAN CONGRESS appoint members of the bailout oversight committee?
MACSMIND BLOG shut down by hackers.
TOM BROKAW CAN’T SAY IT ALL: So I read the writing on the wall: “My guess? Inside NBC, they are fretting about criticism that they show favoritism toward Obama, so Brokaw thought it might help to lob out a glaring hunk of McCain favoritism. Sorry! That just looked really weird. Consequently, it reinforced the perception that NBC favors Obama.”
THE INSTAWIFE on Alec Baldwin’s new book on fatherhood and divorce. Bottom line: “if Baldwin had such problems with the system with all his fame and money, what chance does the average joe have?”
MORE ON OBAMA’S BRACELET: “Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son’s name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.”
If that’s true, I’m surprised the McCain folks haven’t made something of it.
UPDATE: I guess this is why the McCain campaign hasn’t jumped on it. The parents, who are divorced, disagree. On the other hand, there’s this: “She acknowledges e-mailing the campaign in February asking that Obama not mention her son in speeches or debates.”
WAS STONEHENGE A health spa? I’ve heard of hot-stone massages, but this is ridiculous. . . .
ROCKING THE HOUSE with Wii Music.
I THOUGHT IT WAS WRONG to question people’s patriotism.
CHARLIE RANGEL and the Keystone Ethics Cops.
You know, someone should write a book on this phenomenon.
I AGREE: Rep. Mark Udall says Rangel should step down. “Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said Sunday that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) should step down from his chairmanship while an ethics investigation takes place.” I suspect, though, that the Republicans would rather Rangel stayed in the public eye until November.
PROBABLY JUST SCURVY. Or radiation poisoning. You know, nothing to worry about.
OKAY, NOW IT REALLY IS A FINANCIAL CRISIS: Playboy bunnies have become the latest victim of the credit crunch.
HOW DIFFERENTLY PEOPLE SEE THINGS: I thought McCain’s debate performance was at best only okay, but I just noticed this post from Obama supporter Katie Granju, who wrote: “Mid-debate, I have to say that John McCain is sort of kicking Obama to the curb.” You should never trust my judgment of these things, as I remember thinking that Carter won the Carter-Reagan debates. But Obama clearly won the post-debate spin, anyway.