A SALE ON GROCERIES.
Archive for 2009
September 5, 2009
DOES MASTICATION LEAD TO BLINDNESS? And other topics, on the latest PJM Political.
Mr. Walker’s own speeches are vivid and clear. “We have four deficits: a budget deficit, a savings deficit, a value-of-the-dollar deficit and a leadership deficit,” he tells one group. “We are treating the symptoms of those deficits, but not the disease.”
Mr. Walker identifies the disease as having a basic cause: “Washington is totally out of touch and out of control,” he sighs. “There is political courage there, but there is far more political careerism and people dodging real solutions.” He identifies entrenched incumbency as a real obstacle to change. “Members of Congress ensure they have gerrymandered seats where they pick the voters rather than the voters picking them and then they pass out money to special interests who then make sure they have so much money that no one can easily challenge them,” he laments. He believes gerrymandering should be curbed and term limits imposed if for no other reason than to inject some new blood into the system. On campaign finance, he supports a narrow constitutional amendment that would bar congressional candidates from accepting contributions from people who can’t vote for them: “If people can’t vote in a district not their own, should we allow them to spend unlimited money on behalf of someone across the country?”
Read the whole thing.
HONDURAN headache.
A PATTERN OF INCOMPETENCE? “Who could have warned us that a man who served seven years in the state legislature and three years in the Senate would not have been prepared for the toughest executive position in the Free World? We did. Repeatedly. So did John McCain, and for that matter, so did Hillary Clinton.” Expect this to play out in thumbsucker columns on whether America is “ungovernable.”
Maybe the advice he’s getting from Jack Webb will help. “Don’t try to build a new country. Make the old one work.”
And this is just fun. Which led me to this.
UPDATE: Reader Michael Harlow writes: “If America is ungovernable, then that would be a reason to have less of government, right?”
You’d think, but I can pretty much promise that it won’t be spun that way.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Charles Austin emails:
Reading the post on incompetence, I began to wonder if part of the problem is that the political class believes it can do absolutely anything because America is just too big to fail. Republican, Democrat, doesn’t matter. They seem to think they can spend, tax, regulate, and social engineer to their hearts content because their actions can’t bring us down, no matter what. Gee, I find myself in the unenviable position of hoping they are right.
FWIW, the last several administrations and Congresses have been nothing more than walking, talking, spending advertisements for smaller, limited government. Oh well.
Nothing is too big to fail.
A LOOK AT THE AUGUST UNEMPLOYMENT DATA. Note how badly wrong the White House’s pre-stimulus projections were. Remember this when you hear their healthcare projections . . . .
Related: Why there are no new jobs. “If the president and his advisers think we can have a recovery while they attack the private sector and seek a vast expansion of government, they are in for a rude awakening. It turns out we need those private-sector employers. Who knew?” Well, some of us did. . .
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PROFESSORS threatening a walkout. “Meanwhile, UCLA law prof Steve Bainbridge is not planning to walk out, but he is miffed. Professors are not allowed to cancel any classes, and the furloughs do not reduce committee, service, or research obligations. ‘So where exactly is my furlough time off?'”
GO AHEAD, Make My High Holy Day.
AN ARCTIC PASSAGE FOR COMMERCIAL SHIPPING looks more feasible.
UPDATE: Related item here.
INTERVIEW: Mark Knopfler Getting Lucky.
UH OH: Ready for the Mother Of All Bailouts? “The FHA is on the hook for lots of “underwater” loans, taken out by low-income homeowners who got special low down-payment deals and — in case you didn’t notice — unemployment hit a 26-year high in August, with no prospect the 9.7% jobless rate will go down any time this year.”
JUSTIN BINIK-THOMAS sends this cellphone picture from today’s Cincinnati Tea Party rally and reports over 7,000 already there with more arriving.
UPDATE: Another pic a couple of hours later, and this: “18,000 and counting per Butler County Sheriff Jones.”
JIM LINDGREN: Obama’s school speech is no big deal.
UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg: “Just for the record, I do think the reaction to Obama’s school address has gotten out of hand. As I indicated in my original post, I thought the speech itself was probably ok. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s fine. What I objected to, and what I think hurt Obama badly here, were the suggested class lessons the DOE put out to accompany the talk. They’ve been modified or rescinded. If Obama wants to send a treacly message to grade school kids to do their homework and stay in school, that’s not a big deal. That said, I do welcome the peaceful anti-statist animal spirits loose upon the land.”
PROFESSIONAL ISSUES: “AP’s dead Marine photo violates its own embed agreement and the wishes of a dead Marine’s family.”
BLACK SCHOOL SHOOTERS: Contra Van Jones, not actually nonexistent. Kind of sad to see a guy who went to Yale Law School and got a big White House job trafficking in crude racial stereotypes for political gain. If the racial angles were reversed there would be a firestorm. Then, of course, we’ve got the D.C. snipers — not exactly school shooters, but not so different that I’d try to draw a big racial lesson . . . .
UPDATE: Dave Ivers writes: “Evidently Van Jones has never heard of Detroit, MI. They have at least a couple of shootings inside (or on the grounds of) schools every year. They also have a small number of shooting near schools, specifically aimed at students.”
And Clayton Cramer has much more. Van Jones knows as much about school shootings as Barack Obama knows about heart problems or tonsillectomies.
Related: Imagine a Van Jones in a Republican administration.
GET READY FOR EcoCosmology.
FROM ALAN BOYLE: Some cool space pictures.
1980S HAIR returns with a twist. (Via Liketotally80s.com).
IN THE MAIL: From Spider Robinson, Very Hard Choices.
T. CODDINGTON VAN VOORHEES VII: An Ill Wind is Breaking For Our President.
HERE’S MORE ON INTERNATIONAL BACON DAY. I think I’ll celebrate — with bacon!
UPDATE: Here’s a cellphone pic of my celebratory lunch at the Northshore Brasserie — that’s a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, made with locally produced “artisanal” bacon, but only $5.50 with fries. Happy bacon day!
NETWORKS NOT EXCITED ABOUT CARRYING OBAMA HEALTH SPEECH. “After a brief honeymoon after Obama’s January inauguration, the broadcast networks have become increasingly frustrated by the frequency of his requests for primetime coverage. The pre-emptions wreak havoc on the networks’ schedules and cost millions of dollars in lost ad revenue.”
UPDATE: Has Obama Run Out of Gas on Health Care?
ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s all about racism! [Later: Sorry, I meant raaaaacism.]
MORE: Charles Krauthammer: “What happened to President Obama? His wax wings having melted, he is the man who fell to earth. . . . For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment. Obama has become a politician like others. And like other flailing presidents, he will try to salvage a cherished reform — and his own standing — with yet another prime-time speech.”
ECOTERRORISM? 2 radio towers in Washington state toppled “Two radio station towers were toppled early Friday, and the station’s manager said an ecoterrorist group’s initials were left at the scene.” (Via Holy Coast).
GUERRILLA JOURNALISM: Three Ohio Democrats asked about paying for Obamacare, all walk away.