Archive for 2009
February 24, 2009
GEORGE W. BUSH is in Rehab. Heh.
LORD, GIVE ME BALANCED BUDGETS — BUT NOT YET: Obama pledges to slash deficit — after increase.
Meanwhile, Gregory Clark observes: “President Obama is holding a ‘fiscal responsibility summit’ today to call a halt to the madness. But evidence from the thousand-year history of public debt in England suggests one thing — the madness will only stop when creditors get worried enough about the solvency of the government to stop lending.”
February 23, 2009
GEORGE SOROS PREDICTS APOCALYPSE, has dinner.
DON SURBER ON BILL AYERS: “Palin was right.”
SAMIZDATA: Kinsella Sues Levant But Levant Is Not Bothered. “What is Adscam, I wonder? Something that makes Kinsella look bad, presumably. I ask this to show how right Levant is about how this bizarre and way-over-the-top lawsuit causes faraway people like me with no direct interest in any of this to get drawn into the story. Levant is asking for donations. Defending against lawsuits like this, thanks to the internet, can now be paid for by sympathisers.” From what I know, Kinsella is something of a bully, but I think he’ll regret tangling with Levant. Everyone else has. Here’s Levant’s entry on the subject, with this prediction: “It’s going to fail spectacularly, and hurt the Liberal Party.” If you’re curious about AdScam, here’s the Wikipedia entry.
More background here and here. As I say, Kinsella seems a bit of a bully, but a rather ineffectual one.
THE SPACE RACE BROADENS: India approves £1.7bn plan to launch astronauts as Asian space race hots up. As I mentioned before, I think a space race is a good thing. But will we see an Orion revival?
DUCK HUNTER: “Instead of taking a great game and making it digital, they took a great computer game and made it live action.” Video at the link.
GOODBYE LEG TINGLE? “I can hardly believe what I’m watching on MSNBC right now. Chris Matthews is almost critical — no, not even almost, he’s flat-out critical of President Obama on the economic front.” With reason, I’d say.
UPDATE: Reader M.A. Lamascolo writes: “Matthews has himself to blame. I want Obama to succeed. I want our country to succeed. I disagree with 85% of Obama’s positions, but I want him and our country to succeed. He can’t do that if he hasn’t been tested. One of the best tests is a campaign. But he didn’t have one of those, he had a coronation. Matthews and his colleagues across the media let our country down. They gave Obama no vetting whatsoever. Now Matthews wants to complain? It’s a little late for that.” Yes, they did let the country down.
MORE: Reader Timothy Gehris emails: “Lamascolo is holding two contradictory propositions. The country can’t succeed if Obama does. Until that is widely and deeply recognized, no adequate solution will present itself.” Uh oh.
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Obama’s Deficit Goals Count On Rosy Assumptions.
HARTFORD COURANT: Questions Raised About Dodd’s Cottage in Ireland.
HOPE AND CHANGE: Poll: 3 out of 4 Americans are scared about state of the country. Well, change, anyway.
Plus, “Yep, I miss Bush.”
NOW THEY’RE ORGANIZING AN Orlando Tea Party for March.
MARC AMBINDER: Will Obama veto 5000 earmarks?
CALLING FOR AN iPhone-based netbook.
WHAT HAPPENED to barbers.
IN DENVER: Conservatives plan stimulus ‘tea party’ protest at state Capitol. Actually, I think there are quite a few libertarians involved, too.
“TEA PARTY” UPDATE: Taxpayers coming together.
BOB KRUMM ON the true meaning of “the stimulus.” “It’s not about fixing the economy; it’s about proving Reagan wrong. It’s about proving that an enlightened government is superior to a country led by tens of millions of individual sovereign decision makers.” The Dow says it’s not proving out so far . . . .
Judged by his own standards, President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus program is deeply disappointing. For weeks, Obama has described the economy in grim terms. “This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill recession,” he said at his Feb. 9 news conference. It’s “the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” Given these dire warnings, you’d expect the stimulus package to focus almost exclusively on reviving the economy. It doesn’t, and for that, Obama bears much of the blame. . . . His politics compromise the program’s economics. Look at the numbers.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: Charles Krauthammer: “The markets are responding remarkably, exquisitely, sensitively to political events, much more in than in the past. And the reason is for the last year we have had huge intervention of the government in the markets and the banks, in autos. So it is not just a reaction to economic news, but to what’s happening in Washington.”
Stocks have now fallen to 1997 levels. Not much of a confidence vote from the markets.
ANOTHER UPDATE: “Is it any wonder the markets continue to sink?”
MORE: Dan Riehl: “It’s impossible to watch Obama maneuver since taking the WH without characterizing his behavior as divisive and dishonest. Unfortunately, taking it all in, it’s clear that one of two things must be true. The Obama administration along with key Democrat players in Congress are either incompetent, or willing to risk a genuine Depression for political gain.”
I’m going with incompetent — though putting Joe Biden in charge of the stimulus does suggest actual malice . . . .
WHAT TO DO ABOUT America’s plumber shortage. How about letting them keep more of their money?
UNUSUAL SUSPECTS in the obesity epidemic.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Capturing molecular building blocks.