HURRAY! Today marks the first day of the 2012 Presidential campaign!
Oh, who am I kidding? It started back in November . . . . .
Archive for 2009
January 21, 2009
CHANGES AT NASA: A new beginning, or déjà vu?
Mike Griffin isn’t a bad guy, but he hasn’t been a good Administrator. Rumors are that Lori Garver has the inside track for the job; I think she’d be a good choice.
MORE COMPLAINTS about Sidney Wolfe’s appointment to an FDA drug-safety committee. “Wolfe and Public Citizen have the unique distinction of being primary instigators of (at least–these are the ones I’m familiar with) two of the worst junk science episodes in American legal history, the Bendectin and silicone breast implant litigation.”
Anyone feeling unhappy about Obama’s election will be — well, not relieved, exactly, but something — to know that this appointment was made under Bush . . . .
ZOE LOFGREN WILL HEAD THE HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE AND INVESTIGATE CHARLIE RANGEL:
Reporting from Washington — Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) has been named chairwoman of the House Ethics Committee, taking over at a crucial time for the nation and further increasing California’s clout in Washington.
A pledge by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to “drain the swamp” — referring to a culture of corruption that many said had permeated Republican-controlled Washington — helped Democrats win control of the House in 2006. But at the top of the committee’s current agenda is an investigation of a powerful Democrat, Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Don’t get rid of him — he’s leading the tax revolt!
January 20, 2009
WELL, THIS IS CHEERFUL: “Unemployment could be worse than now by the time President-elect Barack Obama’s first term ends.”
MICKEY KAUS: “Conservatives I’ve met in D.C. so far have been near-ebullient, not downcast or bitter. Why? a) They know how unhappy they’d be now if McCain had won; b) Obama has not fulfilled their worst fears, or even second-to-worst fears; c) now they can be an honest, straight-up opposition.” Plus, an analysis of Obama’s speech.
POWER LINE: Celebration today, vigilance tomorrow.
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
SCIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: “People say, oh, we shouldn’t have quotas, but diversity is a form of excellence.”
FIREDOGLAKE: Worst. Inauguration. Ever. “I don’t think I even begin to capture the chaos and lack of organization–and, of course, the frustration and anger that this caused in all of us out there.” Boy, there’s no pleasing some people. Watching it with a bunch of students from the comfort of my office it was pretty nice. Well, the turkey sandwich in my box lunch was a little dry. Hey, wait: The turkey was a little dry? “Oh, foul, accursed thing! What demon from the depths of hell created thee?”
SOUNDS LIKE BUSH: “Those who’ve feared that President Obama will be a soft touch for tyrants and terrorists can take comfort in his Inaugural Address.”
Plus, a cautionary word for critics: “President Bush’s opponents on the Angry Left often succumbed to a blind hatred for the man and ended up mocking America’s ideals because they loathed the man who was speaking up for them. The Angry Right is susceptible to the same error now. An inauguration is a good opportunity to remember that those ideals belong to all of us, and that they endure regardless of party and personnel.”
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Despite voting for Obama, “I want to say why I still do not wish that Al Gore had beaten George W. Bush in 2000 or that John Kerry had emerged the victor in 2004. . . . It’s just that there’s an element of hubris in all this current hope-mongering and that I am beginning to be a little bit afraid to think of what Wednesday morning will feel like.”
HOPE, CHANGE, and bacon!
NO OBAMA RALLY? Drudge is running this at the moment:
And he links a story saying that today saw the worst Inauguration Day market drop in history. This is kinda unfair — I don’t think it was Obama’s swearing-in, which the market surely discounted ages ago, that affected today’s prices. (See, e.g., this.) I did, however, expect some kind of a hope-and-change rally for a little while after the Obama Administration started, though. Maybe tomorrow. On the other hand, a friend said there were a lot of people at Scottrade today, and she was the only one putting money in.
WALTER SHAPIRO: Barack Obama wrote his way into the job.
PLAYING WITH HISTORY: A bunch of Presidential toys. Plus, an Obama reading list.
Personally, I wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to offer Obama an entire reading list. But I would recommend he read James Scott’s Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Seems like it might provide a useful antidote to any hubristic tendencies.
AT OPINIONJOURNAL, A READER HAS THOUGHTS ON FIXING THE ECONOMY:
How about creating jobs? Isn’t that a great way to serve our country? How about the government letting me keep my profits so I can reinvest them in my company and hire more people? Why is it that job creation is only good when the government does it? And why is it when the private sector creates jobs it is a capitalist evil? So, sir, we are giving. Now, please tell Mr. Obama to get out of our way and let us create some jobs.”
— Aaron Margulies, responding to “Let’s Renew America Together.”
Indeed.
STRATEGYPAGE on what’s happening in Mexico.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Obama Inaugurated, Ex-Klansman Collapses.
HEH: “In the mind of the anti-free-marketeer, the government occupies the same kind of intellectual territory as the divine designer in the mind of an anti-Darwinian.”
“EMPTY NEST SYNDROME” can actually be pretty nice. “While most parents clearly miss children who have left home for college, jobs or marriage, they also enjoy the greater freedom and relaxed responsibility.”
TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Notes on the Inauguration, Written on a Blackberry.
ANOTHER EDITORIAL ON ethics problems in the new Congress and administration.
THE HEAD OF TENNESSEE’S HOWARD BAKER CENTER will be moving to run the George W. Bush Library.