Archive for 2008
October 7, 2008
WILL WILKINSON takes the long-term view. Related thoughts here. (Via Ross Douthat). Of course, some short terms can seem pretty long while you’re living through them.
DAVE HARDY on Obama and the Second Amendment: “As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama must demonstrate executive experience, but he remains strangely silent about his eight years (1994-2002) as a director of the Joyce Foundation, a billion dollar tax-exempt organization. He has one obvious reason: during his time as director, Joyce Foundation spent millions creating and supporting anti-gun organizations.” But there’s more.
WHATEVER HAPPENS TO THE ECONOMY, NEW-DEAL TALK IS PROBABLY A BAD IDEA: FDR’s Policies Prolonged Depression by 7 Years, UCLA Economists Calculate.
Plus, this book should be required reading.
THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, skits from Saturday Night Live that offended the powers that be would be airbrushed out of existence. And they were right!
JENNIFER RUBIN: Since Palin was asked about creationism, Obama should be asked about Marxism.
SHOOTING DOWN MISSILES FROM AIRPLANES: “Ballistic missile defense via airplanes mounted with lasers may seem straight out of science fiction, but add a fleet of UAVs with mirrors to increase the laser’s range, and military insiders say the system might just work.”
LIKE A STOPPED CLOCK? A moment of honesty from Ted Stevens.
AS PALIN BRINGS UP AYERS, OBAMA BRINGS UP KEATING. But McCain’s role in the Keating Five affair is a bit overstated. Here’s what we wrote about it in The Appearance of Impropriety, back in 1997 when thoughts of the current election were rather far away:
The televised “Keating Five” senate ethics hearings focused on the substantial contributions S&L high-roller Charles Keating had arranged for five senators’ reelection campaigns, and the pressures the senators had exerted on federal regulators on behalf of Keating’s Lincoln Savings & Loan. Special Counsel Robert S. Bennett argued in his opening statement that the committee should judge the senators’ conduct under the “appearance standard.”
Bennett was sensitive to the criticism that improper appearances are uniquely in the eye of the beholder. So he articulated the following “appearance” principle: “A senator should not engage in conduct that would appear to be improper to a reasonable nonpartisan, fully informed person.” This was an artful formulation. Yet, by design, the majority and minority members of the Senate Ethics Committee are partisans — a truth they confirmed by including Senators John Glenn and John McCain in their public hearings despite Special Counsel Bennett’s contrary recommendation. The two senators had played relatively minor roles in the Keating affair. Senator McCain was a Republican, however, and without him the televised hearing would have given the appearance that Democrats were responsible for the S&L crisis. Senator Glenn’s presence, in turn, was necessary to provide the appearance of evenhandedness in reaching out for Senator McCain.
I eagerly await the hearings on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s influence on current members of Congress. . . .
STEVE STURM IS CONFIDENT that the economy will improve after the election. Well, that will be a relief to a lot of people.
As European stock markets tank, the Irish government guarantees bank deposits, the Benelux countries nationalize Fortis bank, Germany bails out Hypo Real Estate Holdings, and Denmark also guarantees bank deposits and dismally so forth, the question arises: Who knew that Europe, of all places, was so under-regulated? Or maybe de-regulation is not the chief cause for the outbreak of financial chaos? Just wondering.
When the answer to “what to do?” is always “regulate more,” the answer to “what went wrong?” must always be “not enough regulation.”
Megan McArdle has related thoughts: “Europe’s ongoing disaster is starting to match ours. This not only seriously challenges the idea that the main problem is American bank regulation–everyone is having the same problem, despite different regulatory regimes–but also puts us in much deeper jeopardy.” Yes, just over a week ago, Europeans were gloating at American problems. We shouldn’t return the favor, because, alas, the problems are all connected.
October 6, 2008
WHO ARE THE RUBES? You get the sense that he believes everyone can be played. It’s worked for him so far.
NOW IT’S BARNEY FRANK playing the race card? Yeah, that’ll work.
UPDATE: Jon Henke: “No, it’s not at all hypocritical for Barney Frank to say it’s racist to point out the problems with loans made to poor/underqualified people just weeks after he had said we need regulation that says ‘Do not lend money to people who can’t pay it back.'” Yes, this is pathetic even by the usual standards of this debate.
CBS: More Bogus Obama Donors Surface. “CBS News has learned that two donors to the Obama campaign that gave a total of $7,722 appear to have made their contributions under fake names that look like they were written by a mouse running across a keyboard: Dahsudhu Hdusahfd of Df, Hawaii with the following employer CZXVC/ZXVZXV and Uadhshgu Hduadh listed as living in Dhff, Florida listed their employer as DASADA/SAFASF.”
Since it’s CBS, though, should I ask for a second opinion?
THE CREDIT CRUNCH HITS ICELAND: “Iceland built its extraordinary wealth on the crest of the worldwide credit boom and now the crunch is sweeping it away, bankrupting a people for whom the past eight years have been, for most of them and by their own admission, one long party.”
JUSTIN KATZ WONDERS IF, AND HOW, HE SHOULD prepare for an Obama presidency.
RADLEY BALKO LOOKS AT OBAMA ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE, and is disappointed.
Obama’s line on criminal justice has been a lot less encouraging. His running mate selection of Joe Biden, long one of the Senate’s most strident crime hawks and staunchest drug warriors, was telling. Since the vice-presidential pick, Obama and Biden have embraced criminal justice policies geared toward a larger federal presence in law enforcement, a trend that started in the Nixon administration and that has skewed local police priorities toward the slogan-based crime policies of Congress, like “more arrests” and “stop coddling criminals.”
I don’t think either ticket has a lot to offer us on crime policy, though I confess a particular hostility to Biden’s sponsorship of the dumb RAVE Act.
JOHN HINDERAKER: So much for Europe: “I’m not being critical here; Germany is a country and Europe isn’t. It’s one thing to sacrifice for one’s countrymen, something else to sacrifice for those who share your continent, however friendly those other nations may be. That is as it should be. But it must be admitted that Germany’s action today mocks the pretensions of the Eurocrats who have been engaged in a slow-motion coup for quite a few years now.”
UPDATE: I should note that Germany is going it alone on other fronts as well. This may or may not turn out as desired.
FINANCES: MEGAN MCARDLE on what went wrong.
SO I WATCHED THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES tonight, and it turns out a Barrett .50 is nearly as effective against a Terminator as some had hoped. But nobody’s tried the Taser trick yet.
MICKEY KAUS: “Federal prosecutors have moved to delay sentencing of former Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko, the Chicago Tribune reports. … The obvious suspicion is that he’s talking. Or at least talking about talking.”
MORE ON THE SHORTAGE OF female law bloggers, from Ilya Somin and Ann Althouse.
Related thoughts here.
FROM “FAKE BUT ACCURATE,” to “false but justified.”
ARNOLD KLING AND NICK SCHULZ: Inequality and the Sergey Brin Effect.
ELITE VS. ELITE? “The big message of our Red State, Blue State book is that the ‘culture war’ between red and blue America is real, but it is concentrated among upper-income voters. Richer Americans tend to be more politically involved and more ideological in their voting patterns.”
In that case, the current economic situation should be bringing us all together.