JACOB SULLUM: Stimulus Spending: So Effective That It Works Before It Happens. “One problem with attributing America’s slightly less bad economic news to the Obama-backed $787 billion stimulus package is that very little of the money actually has been spent. As of a month ago, less than 6 percent of the stimulus money had gone out, and only 25 percent is expected to make its way into the economy by the end of the year.”
Archive for 2009
June 16, 2009
POLITICO: As Robert Byrd Improves, Democrats Fret.
GOING AFTER LETTERMAN’S MEDIA ENABLERS? “Letterman has apologized. Will we see the same from others like, say, Campbell Brown and Jeffery Toobin of CNN or Arianna Huffington? Letterman was shamed into making amends. Let’s hope our friends in the media are not immune from such stimuli.” A sense of shame is not something they’re well-endowed with.
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Moe Lane. But Cynthia Yockey is still calling for Letterman to be fired. Plus, three words missing from Letterman’s second apology.
UH OH: Rich Gov, Poor Gov: Why Obama can’t Fix the Economy. “Last night, as I reread Robert Kiyosaki’s 1997 Bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad, I realized why Barack Obama will be unable to do what is necessary to fix America’s economy. It’s not just that he believes in government intervention in business, although that’s a big part of it. But what makes it even worse is that President Obama is Poor Dad.”
CHARLES RANGEL UPDATE: Sunlight Foundation: Rangel Specifics Come Out. A quid pro quo with an oil executive? Stay tuned. Some background here.
LIBBY PROSECUTOR THREATENS CRITIC. A story that’s getting play both at Worldnetdaily and AlterNet?
CBO AND THE KENNEDY-DODD BILL: “Last evening, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its first cost-estimate for one of the emerging Democratic bills — the Kennedy-Dodd bill that the Senate HELP Committee is planning to take up this week. . . . CBO finds that the bill, in its incomplete draft form, would cost a lot — more than $1 trillion — and cover a relatively small portion of the uninsured (about one-third).”
MICHAEL TOTTEN: “A refreshing bipartisan consensus is emerging in the liberal and conservative halves of the blogosphere and the media in general. Visceral detestation of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran is all but universal.” Well, really, what’s to like?
HMM: Tea Party organizer launches Senate bid. There’ll be more of these, and most of ’em will lose. But they’ll have an impact anyway. And some of ’em will win.
OBAMA ON the Iranian elections: “When I got to the language quoted above, especially when Obama seems to have confidence that the Iranian government is really looking into irregularities, and points out our lack of international observers, I swear I thought Jim was going to reveal at the end that this was an exceedingly clever parody of President Obama. Sadly, no. The special irony is the widespread reports that the Obama Administration would like to bring down Netanyahu’s government in Israel. I suppose we can’t expect Obama to say ‘that we in the United States do not want to make any decisions for the [Israelis], but we do believe that the [Israeli] people and their voices should be heard and respected.'”
ANOTHER “TEA PARTY” PROTEST in Albany today. “Those behind the ‘March on Albany’ — the theme: ‘Liberty Starts Here Again’ — have not missed the chance to evoke the current free-for-all in the state Senate in their invitation.” Yeah, if New York state politicians aren’t an advertisement for limited government, I don’t know what would be . . . .
HEALTHCARE UPDATE: Doctors Boo Obama.
FROM GUN CONTROL TO KNIFE CONTROL? Obama administration moves to ban 80% of knives. Reportedly, even “multitool” gadgets would be treated as equivalent to switchblades. Does this look like a switchblade to you?
Coming soon: The Nanny Knife. Can’t these people just butt out?
THE EXAMINER: Don’t Let A Good Iranian Crisis Go To Waste: “Seeds of democracy planted in the Middle East are starting to bloom. Tens of thousands of Iranians demonstrated in Tehran in support of opposition candidate and former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi. He has appealed the results of Friday’s presidential election allegedly won by Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in a landslide. The post-election protests are being called by some observers the most violent upheaval since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. . . . Iran is already diplomatically isolated. Obama should lead an international effort to impose harsh economic sanctions against Iran for its nuclear proliferation activities while strongly signaling support for pro-democracy elements in Iran. Obama should also demand that basic human rights such as freedom of speech and assembly be recognized for all Iranians, including members of the banned opposition Freedom Movement, before any sanctions are lifted.”
IF STEVE RATTNER CAN GET TO HENRY BLODGET, WHO’S SAFE? I guess those of us who aren’t worth “getting to!”
June 15, 2009
FROM POPULAR SCIENCE: Your guide to following Iranian election protests online.
A BUNCH OF MARKDOWNS on Men’s Clothing.
AMERICORPS FIRING UPDATE: The curious firing of Gerald Walpin gets … curiouser. “It looks very suspicious. The administration has overtly interfered with the IG in his investigation, and now has tried to fire him, apparently for reporting to Congress. If so, then the White House has abused its power on behalf of a campaign contributor and political ally — an act that would make Richard Nixon blush. I doubt this Congress will hold Obama accountable for it, but kudos to Senator Grassley for not letting it go.” (Bumped).
Plus, more from TPM Muckraker.
LIKE CRAIGSLIST, ONLY WITH REAGAN: Gipperslist. Thanks to reader Jonathan Roscoe for the link.
MICHAEL LEDEEN: So How’s It Going In Iran? “To start with, the BBC, long considered a shill for the regime by most Iranian dissidents, estimates between one and two million Tehranis demonstrated against the regime on Monday. That’s a big number. So we can say that, at least for the moment, there is a revolutionary mass in the streets of Tehran. There are similar reports from places like Tabriz and Isfahan, so it’s nationwide. . . . What’s going to happen?, you ask. Nobody knows, even the major actors. The regime has the guns, and the opposition has the numbers. The question is whether the numbers can be successfully organized into a disciplined force that demands the downfall of the regime.” But read the whole thing. And note this: “We are still quite early in this process.”
UPDATE: Don’t Iranians Deserve “Hope and Change” Too? “The post-election options couldn’t be any more clear-cut: fight for democracy and human rights — or cut a deal with a thuggish despot at any price. What will Obama choose?”
SPENSER comes of age.