Archive for 2009
April 12, 2009
THE BRITISH BLOGOSPHERE lands a punch.
UPDATE: I didn’t say it was the first one.
HAPPY EASTER: A bunch of interesting food links. Losing 70 pounds by eating at McDonald’s? “Take that, Morgan Spurlock!”
MORE ON THE MURTHA/PMA EARMARK SCANDAL:
U.S. Reps. Patrick Murphy and Allyson Schwartz were among the first lawmakers in the country to say they would donate to charity $60,000 in campaign contributions related to the now defunct lobbying firm The PMA Group.
There are no plans however, to return $6.6 million in earmarks the two Democrats secured over two years for the companies who hired PMA, or whose corporate parents did. Murphy also requested $5 million for one of the companies in next year’s round of earmarks, which are government grants intended to benefit lawmakers’ home districts.
No lawmakers have been accused of wrongdoing. Yet federal agents raided PMA’s offices as part of an investigation into whether founder Paul Magliocchetti, who has close ties to Johnstown Democratic Rep. John Murtha, arranged illegal straw donations, the Associated Press reported.
Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flake has repeatedly called for an ethics investigation into the relationship between earmarks requests and campaign contributions, to no avail.
Too much attention to this stuff might threaten the whole feedlot.
I made a similar point, less pithily, here.
PIRATE UPDATE: Official: US sea captain freed in swift firefight. About time. But though this may take the current story off the news, it doesn’t really solve the underlying problem.
UPDATE: Related: “Great news, and — yes, I’ll say it — tip o’ the hat to President Obama for signing off on the mission. Now I have two questions. What will we do with the prisoner? Do we believe that this action is sufficient to restore deterrence against piracy?” Indeed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Dave Kopel congratulates President Obama and the military.
WILL TWITTER REPLACE INSTAPUNDIT? Or is it just a tool to let everyone else catch up? Well, I was hoping to be replaced by a robot, but whatever works.
UPDATE: A comment: “You really can’t mob on twitter.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon weighs in.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN from Japanese education?
IN THE MAIL: Contact With Chaos, from Michael Z. Williamson.
HARTFORD COURANT: Cloud Follows Dodd Into Months Ahead. “Dodd has lost his touch. For three decades he’s held the affection of Connecticut voters. . . . Today, routine questions cause Dodd to stagger and stumble into breathtaking blunders, all his own creations. It began in June when Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine broke the story of the two favorable mortgages Dodd received from Countrywide Financial. On that Friday afternoon, Dodd’s office issued an angry written denial that he’d ever used his position for personal gain. Dodd, his office said, was traveling and unavailable. . . . That day began the damaging pattern of denial, contradiction and preposterous clarification. The cost of a charmed career in politics may be not knowing how to fight. The whiff of decay fills the air around Dodd.” Ouch.
Plus, Does Dodd look old? Blame it on Hi-def TV. The guy can’t catch a break.
SCOTT KESTERSON is back in Afghanistan.
RAND SIMBERG on attempted sanity regarding guns on campus. And resistance thereto from universities.
MARK STEYN ON THE SOMALI PIRATES: Our Reprimitivized Future. “As it happens, Somali piracy is not a distraction, but a glimpse of the world the day after tomorrow. . . . Half a century back, Somaliland was a couple of sleepy colonies, British and Italian, poor but functioning. Then it became a state, and then a failed state, and now the husk of a nation is a convenient squat from which to make mischief. . . . It’s also a low-risk one. Once upon a time we killed and captured pirates. Today, it’s all more complicated. The attorney general, Eric Holder, has declined to say whether the kidnappers of the American captain will be ‘brought to justice’ by the U.S. ‘I’m not sure exactly what would happen next,’ declares the chief law-enforcement official of the world’s superpower. . . . Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, which over the centuries did more than anyone to rid the civilized world of the menace of piracy, now declines even to risk capturing their Somali successors, having been advised by Her Majesty’s Government that, under the European Human Rights Act, any pirate taken into custody would be entitled to claim refugee status in the United Kingdom and live on welfare for the rest of his life.”
Related: “Ron Howard Yearns for Less Powerful America Not ‘Driven by Militarism’.” I think we’re there.
VIDEO FROM THE “A NEW WAY FORWARD” RALLY IN CHICAGO. Earlier coverage here. Meanwhile, here’s a report from San Francisco. They could only get a hundred people to turn out in San Francisco?
UPDATE: Low turnout explained. “Those on the Left who pay attention to these sorts of things have been instructed not to pay attention – and they’re following their instructions.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: A video report from Austin. Plus reader Neal Atkins reports: “Here’s a video of the Austin ‘protest’. I guess the camera man didn’t have a lens wide enough to get the whole group. There were 4 people speaking and it looks like there might have been about 10 people standing around. Don’t know how many of those were tourists there to see the Capital.” Bonus points to these protesters for complaining about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonuses, and Obama’s Wall Street donations, though.
MORE: Another report from Austin. There may have been as many as two or three dozen people there according to this report, though it’s hard to know if they were all demonstrators. Video here: “These are good people. They’re not crazy. They’re misguided, but not crazy.”
SURPRISE: Crisis Altering Wall Street as Big Banks Lose Top Talent. “According to the banks and executive recruiters, hundreds of bankers have been jumping to Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, neither of which took a government bailout. They see a rare chance to upgrade talent and standing on Wall Street — and globally — by luring top minds who would not have considered moving from a Goldman Sachs or a Morgan Stanley in flush times. Now that their rivals must accept compensation limits and other restrictions that come with the use of taxpayer support, the foreign banks are finding more eager takers.”
UPDATE: Exodus of Top Bankers Bad News for the Taxpayer.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Stuart Wagner writes:
As someone who left a major Wall Street IB (First Boston) to start a private boutique, I believe you will see a larger exodus towards that model rather than for other large investment banks. Small, privately-owned advisory firms that can earn large fees with little capital and far less oversight. We became a major force in M&A and public equity underwritings in our sector with only $8 MM in capital (we sold out to Merrill Lynch in 2006).
We’re going back to the 1920s and the era of partnerships and private capital. Pubic capital markets are over-regulated now and it will get worse. Restricting access to capital is bad for growth, but good for those who are already wealthy because they will get their pick of the best opportunities and earn higher returns.
A lot of “reform” seems to be mostly good for those who are already wealthy.
MORE: Barney Frankonomics.
VOTING MACHINES and “calibration drift.”
JONATHAN TURLEY: The Free World Bars Free Speech. “For years, the Western world has listened aghast to stories out of Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations of citizens being imprisoned or executed for questioning or offending Islam. Even the most seemingly minor infractions elicit draconian punishments. . . . But now an equally troubling trend is developing in the West. Ever since 2006, when Muslims worldwide rioted over newspaper cartoons picturing the prophet Muhammad, Western countries, too, have been prosecuting more individuals for criticizing religion. The ‘Free World,’ it appears, may be losing faith in free speech.” Politicians were never such big fans of free speech anyway, and they’re cowards besides. Goodies go to those they’re afraid of, and right now they’re more afraid of angry Muslims than of free-speech believers.
TOP TEN REASONS TO scrap the tax code in favor of something much simpler. On the other hand, here’s why there’s pressure to keep it: “The Congressmen on the House Ways and Means Committee Received $55,157,458 in the 2008 Election Cycle. . . . If we scrapped the code, the committee members would lose their power to manipulate the code in order to pay off their campaign contributors.” Unless, you know, they worry about losing their seats more than losing the donations.
A TEA PARTY PROTEST IN YAKIMA, WASHINGTON: “Over 500 people rallied in downtown Yakima, all frustrated with the U.S. Government’s spending and budgeting. This tea party rally attracted people from all walks of life, from kids to old veterans, many holding signs and banners. Most of them wanted to reduce government spending and are disappointed with U.S. lawmakers.”
More here.
UPDATE: More San Diego Tea Party reporting.
FOUND PHOTOS: “The pages below show prints I made from processing film I found in old cameras. You are seeing them for the first time as they were lost by the photographers that took these images.”
April 11, 2009
MORE ON TODAY’S PITTSBURGH TEA PARTY PROTEST:
Several thousand people jammed into Allegheny Landing on the North Shore Saturday afternoon for an event dubbed as a “Tea Party” to protest what they believe is excessive government spending to bail out faltering corporations and the economic stimulus package.
Meanwhile, another “A New Way Forward” flop in St. Louis. “The crowd?… 13, maybe 14 people. It was a bust.” Meanwhile, compare the photos. Here’s the St. Louis Tea Party protest from February, which drew 1,200-1,500 people.
And here’s today’s “A New Way Forward” bank protest in St. Louis:
Hey, no mocking these people, who did show up. And protest, remember, is patriotic. But it does seem that the energy is on the anti-big-government side these days, doesn’t it? Note that this is how Obama’s pro-stimulus “house parties” worked out, too: “Few supporters are answering President Barack Obama’s call for nationwide house-party gatherings this weekend to build grass-roots support for his economic stimulus plan.”
Is Obama’s popularity a paper tiger? It certainly seems that he no longer inspires grassroots energy the way he did as a candidate. He can summon people with pitchforks — but the question is . . . will they come?
More contrast. Plus, much more on Tea Party protests in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, plus various ANWF events, in this post.
UPDATE: From the ANWF site: “Looking for protestors . . . “
ANOTHER UPDATE: Dan Riehl on Jane Hamsher: “If serious people on the Left weren’t concerned over the Tea Party movement, their new media apparatchiks wouldn’t be trying to dismiss, or marginalize it by falsely claiming it’s being sponsored by Fox News, or some dangerous Right Wing fringe. If there’s any culprit in a media sense here, it’s the mainstream media for failing to report a serious and growing grassroots American movement that is truly ground up and not beholden to one Party or some few special interest groups. . . . The Left can’t quite figure out the script for the Tea Party movement because there isn’t one beyond what is being written as it grows. But it is being written. And at this rate, a good number of politicians from both parties are going to have to start reading from it eventually because enough American voters are going to demand it.”
Plus, “pretend fear/outrage.” Hey, wait, I thought dissent was the highest form of patriotism! What happened to all that talk?
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: More on the Pittsburgh protest here:
“Hello, Boston!” Robert Baehr shouted from the podium before a crowd of about 1,500 gathered in the noon sunshine yesterday at Allegheny Landing, on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. . . .”This is not an anti-Obama rally, this is an anti-government rally,” he told his audience, many of whom had tea bags dangling from their baseball caps and purses.
Still, there were plenty of signs displaying antipathy to President Barack Obama.
“Feminist Nation Against Obama Nation Tax and Spend,” read one poster carried by Jeamour Matthews, 49, of North Braddock. The president’s economic policies “will take us into bankruptcy,” Ms. Matthews said, adding that she actually blames both Republicans and Democrats for the country’s financial woes.
“They’re both different wings on the same vulture,” she said.
Ouch. Plus, another Tea Party protest in Williamsburg, Virginia:
The posters said it all.
“I am not your ATM.” “No More Bailouts.” “Fair Tax Not Slave Tax.”
And that’s just what the protesters meant.
About 300 people attended the Colonial Area Tea Party at the College of William and Mary on Saturday to rally against taxation and government spending. . . . “We are protesting what we believe is irresponsible and awful …,” rally organizer Michael Young told the crowd. “If Democrats claim to love the poor, why are they taxing the poor?”
Williamsburg resident Bob Warren said government officials need to follow the Constitution to get things back on track.
“This is the silent majority taking to the streets,” he said. “If the politicians don’t understand the significance of the silent majority protest, they are going to find themselves on the streets working like the rest of us.”
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, who spoke during the rally, said his office received thousands of tea bag tags.
Stay tuned. And here’s a blog report from Pasadena, where hundreds showed up.
DAN RIEHL: Why is “Tea Party” sentiment exploding? Because the deficit is exploding, too.
The US budget deficit accelerated in March to hit a record nearly one trillion dollars just halfway through the current fiscal year, as the government moved to bail out troubled institutions, government data has shown.
The deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year which began on October 1 was 956.80 billion dollars, according to the Treasury’s monthly statement of receipts and outlays.
Receipts during the six-month period to March 2009 were 989.83 billion dollars while outlays amounted to nearly 1.95 trillion dollars, the data showed.
The March deficit of 192.27 billion dollars was higher than the 160 billion dollars expected by most analysts, coming on the back of money poured by President Barack Obama’s administration to rescue financial institutions. . . . The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast last month the budget deficit could hit 1.845 trillion dollars for the whole year based on Obama’s 3.5-trillion-dollar budget plan approved by Congress early this month.
The CBO said its budget deficit estimate for fiscal 2009, which ends on September 30, would be four times the 2008 record shortfall and amount to 13.1 percent of the country’s total economic output.
You can talk about Bush’s profligate spending all you want — but, as noted earlier, this is a whole different magnitude. And to make that clear, here’s the graphic again:
UPDATE: Hundreds gather for “Tax Day Tea Party” in Goshen: “Tax Day is less than a week away, and thousands of people across the country and right here at home are marking the deadline by protesting what they call wasteful spending in Washington. On Saturday, hundreds gathered in Goshen for a ‘Tax Day Tea Party.'”
Plus, Taxpayers Hold “Boston Tea Party” Revolt in Marysville: “A revolution is brewing in Marysville. Hundreds of taxpayers held their own ‘Boston Tea Party’ at Washington Park. . . . ‘This event is for everyone because taxes are affecting everyone, not just republicans, democrats, independents,’ said Terry Rutherford. Local politicians were on hand for the revolt.”
It’s happening all over. Much more here.
JOURNALISM: MSNBC devotes 13 minutes to “teabagging” puns.
PJM POLITICAL: The Pros and Cons of Tea Parties.