DID ARLEN SPECTER MEAN TO SAY that Clarence Thomas doesn’t count as a black person? Well, he wouldn’t be the first, if so.
Archive for 2009
May 3, 2009
FEDS ARE investigating the John Edwards campaign. (Via JWF).
SWINE FLU UPDATE: Flu, Mostly Mild, Has Spread Across U.S., Officials Say.
Plus, No Signs of Sustained Global Spread of Swine Flu. Let’s hope it’s a fizzle. But beware of flu-drug “hoarders.” See, this is why you want to stockpile emergency supplies well in advance. When you really need them, sales may be restricted.
YOUR HARD-HITTING, DEEP-DIGGING, WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS: Obamas take a walk, holding hands in the evening. Keep the revelations coming!
MICKEY KAUS: Obama’s First Debacle? “Maybe Steve Rattner has saved Chrysler the way he saved Blender.”
GENERAL MOTORS CREDITORS: You’re next! Plus: “Is it just me or does it seem like the Times gets off on the White House’s strong arm tactics?”
RAY NAGIN, MISERABLE FAILURE. And another chance to play Name That Party!
WASHINGTON POST: McAuliffe’s Background Could Prove A Liability: Va. Foes Capitalize On History of Mixing Politics and Business. “McAuliffe’s business pedigree is not so simple. He is a dealmaker who made millions from investments. And many of his biggest deals came in partnership with prominent donors and politicians, creating a portrait over the years of a Washington insider who got rich as he rose to power within the Democratic Party. ” There seem to be a lot of those about, lately. Hope and change!
SHOULD THE COURTS BE “where policy is made?”
ROGER KIMBALL: The White House Needs a Court Jester. I thought that was why we had Joe Biden.
WHAT WOULD an activist do?
SWINE FLU UPDATE: New swine flu cases in Europe, US, Latin America. It’s looking like a pretty ordinary flu, though, so far.
HOW TO BUILD A FLAGSTONE PATIO in a weekend.
REPORT ON THE EDGAR AWARDS: The Edgar Winner Group. Great headline.
A CLARION CALL: Bill Whittle for President! Hey, we could do worse — and almost certainly will!
PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Cost of retired state worker health, dental care puts California at risk.
And, in West Virginia:
FOR a quarter of a century, state and public school employees in West Virginia were told that they could trade unused sick leave for health insurance premiums once they retired. Legislators past didn’t bother to calculate what that would cost.
Now a change in federal accounting rules is forcing state agencies and the 55 county school boards to face up to the expense of what are called Other Post-Employment Benefits.
Wood County School Superintendent Bill Niday said his county will have to set aside $12 million for these benefits by the end of 2010.
“What you have is a bare-bones, no-frills budget as a result of the OPEB issue,” Niday told the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “Next year will be at a deficit. There is no question. There is no way out.”
This problem is popping up everywhere.
JOURNALISTIC ETHICS: It doesn’t mean giving subscribers what they want. Concerns about the marketing department driving news stories may be justified. On the other hand, the hauteur displayed here seems inappropriate to a failing industry. Actually, letting subscribers vote on stories might be a good way to encourage people to subscribe — and since recent evidence suggests that news coverage isn’t driven by a disinterested concern for the facts anyway, why not let the consumers have a voice in what they’re consuming?
A contrary argument, of course, might be that “shaping the news” is one of the perks of being a journalist — hence the hauteur — and that letting other people have a hand in doing that is tantamount to a pay cut of sorts. But, in a failing industry, you’ve got to expect some of the perks to disappear.
VIDEO: Virgin Galactic Test Flight.
THOUGHTS ON THE IMPACT OF more and more computing every year. In more and more places. “What took 500 hours of median wages to purchase in 2002 now takes just 40 hours of median wages in 2009. Pessimists counter that computing is too small a part of the economy for this to be a significant prosperity elevator. But let’s see how much of the global economy is devoted to computing relative to oil (let alone gold).”
ALEX BEAM: Blogging For Dollars.
SWINE FLU IDENTIFIED IN KNOXVILLE.
UPDATE: Why close schools? A very useful analysis, and consistent with what I know about the subject. (Via Aetiology.) And here are some thoughts of mine on neglecting public health. Plus, some related thoughts of mine here. And why you shouldn’t trust case counts.
BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple Empire. A MacBook Touch sounds kinda neat to me . . . .
SMALL NUCLEAR PLANTS to dot the Arctic Circle.