IN THE MAIL: A Poul Anderson collection, To Outlive Eternity.
Archive for 2009
May 21, 2009
MORE FROM RANDY BARNETT on his Bill of Federalism proposal. I think it’s got legs.
POLIWOOD: Lionel and Roger Duke It Out.
TRANSPARENCY! Tracking Stimulus Spending May Not Be as Easy as Promised. “To build support for the stimulus package, President Obama vowed unprecedented transparency, a big part of which, he said, would be allowing taxpayers to track money to the street level on Recovery.gov. Together with a spruced-up WhiteHouse.gov, the site would inject the stodgy federal bureaucracy with the same Webby accessibility and Facebook-generation flair that defined the Obama campaign. But three months after the bill was signed, Recovery.gov offers little beyond news releases, general breakdowns of spending, and acronym-laden spreadsheets and timelines.”
RASMUSSEN: “Thirty-eight percent (38%) of U.S. likely voters believe the nation is now moving in the right direction, down slightly from a week ago and the first drop since March. It’s too early, however, to say if it’s a trend in the making. . . . Women remain more optimistic than men this week. While 41% of women say the nation is heading in the right direction, just 34% of men agree. Sixty-one percent of men say the country is heading down the wrong track, compared to 51% of women. Optimism among black voters jumped four points to 70% this week, which is over twice the number of white voters who say the nation is heading in the right direction.”
A “SERIOUS CASE OF DOLLAR DAMAGE?” “Concern has been mounting that the increasing U.S. debt load, as well as a potential inflation time bomb in the form of the quantitative easing, could drag down the greenback. Garnering attention is the risk the United States could lose its triple-A sovereign credit rating, which reflects the chance of the borrower defaulting on its debt.” Given the disrespect shown to the rights of Chrysler and GM bondholders, it’s easy to see why people are worried, entirely aside from the reckless spending.
WORDS AND DEEDS: A light bulb goes off.
UPDATE: More on the fierce moral urgency of change:
As a candidate, Barack Obama promised to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As President, he has not lifted a finger to overturn the ban. This is disappointing. As Hughes notes, public opinion is strongly against the policy, and there is real reason to believe that, if anything, maintaining the exclusion on openly gay servicemen and women compromises our security and defense.
“Just words?” Looks like it.
L.A. TIMES: Crisis 18% salary slash for California officials isn’t 100% what it seems. “The pay cuts for officials to share the hard times with voters don’t take effect for seven months. Not until 2010. Commission members said their lawyer said the reductions would be impossible to implement during this calendar year. That’s how serious and urgent this state budget crunch really is.”
SHOCKER: Sexual-Harassment Cases Plague U.N.
IN CALIFORNIA, BLAMING THE VOTERS. Stupid voters. Can’t we import better ones from Mexico or something?
HOPE AND CHANGE! Fewer Than 20% of Grads Land Job Offers. (Via NewsAlert).
Possibly related: AP poll: Many students stressed, some depressed.
UPDATE: Reader Jeff Johnson writes:
The funny thing about the article you linked is that they don’t mention any of the graduating students majors. Usually that’s the first thing you list when quoting them. So they’re graduating with a 3.8 GPA – if it’s not a marketable field then no company really cares. “I’m an honors grad in Western Lit, I deserve a good job!” Doing what?
I graduated in ’84 from a college in the Pacific NW where the recession had hit especially hard. I had a 3.5 GPA in mathematics with a double minor in computer science and statistics. I started interviewing the first week of school my senior and continually throughout that year, including several site visits where I was flown in to interview. I didn’t get my first job offer until after I had graduated and I didn’t accept/start my first “real” job until September. Today’s grads are experiencing what I went through and if they don’t have a marketable skill they need to think about learning something that is.
Yes. That’s always good advice, really.
HEALTH CARE AND COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS STUDIES: “The FDA used the lightest possible statistical test on a pretty important medication for millions of asthmatics. Do you want Medicare denying your mother a possibly effective treatment for her otherwise terminal cancer with the same kind of test?”
My prediction: Soon it won’t be the same kind of test. It’ll be one that’s deliberately cooked to produce the results that save money. Though there’s some suggestion that in this case, the test was deliberately cooked to produce the result the EPA wanted.
PRAISE FOR OBAMA FROM KARL ROVE: “Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face.”
CHANGE: Jobless number hits record high. Plus, a creepy number: “The total number of people collecting benefits rose to 6.66 million, a record reading for a 16th straight week, and a sign companies are still not hiring.” 6.66 million? That’s like the number of 10,000 beasts or something. Oh nooo. . . . .
PARKING-TICKET FRAUD IN WASHINGTON, D.C. If there’s really a pattern of writing fraudulent tickets in order to raise money — and I’m pretty sure that there is, as I recall watching a D.C. meter maid ticket legally parked cars back in the 1980s, hitting only the ones with non-DC plates — would a civil RICO suit be appropriate?
I once got a ticket in D.C. for “driving through a flashing yellow light.” I won in court with the novel argument that doing that isn’t against the law. But I had to go, and I’m guessing a quota-driven officer was just hoping I’d pay the fine and not show up. The judge did fuss at him some, which was something.
ROGER KIMBALL: Social Security: A Refresher Course.
NO FAVORITISM HERE: Democrats seek financial rescue of minority-owned broadcasters.
FROM GOLDEN STATE to Gitmo State?
CHANGE! Coming to Your Garage: Le Car.
It’s the 1970s all over again! At best . . . .
IS THIS WHERE THE U.S. IS HEADING? S&P Downgrade Sinks U.K. Pound. “Buyers of the pound faced an unexpected reversal of fortunes Thursday, after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s Corp. downgraded its credit-rating outlook for the U.K. to “negative” from ‘stable.'” Upside for Britain — other countries are likely to be downgraded, too. We’ll all fall together, which means none of us will be falling at all! Er, kind of.
DAVID KIRKHAM SENDS THESE PICTURES from yesterday’s Salt Lake City Tea Party. This stuff is already having an effect on the Senate race in Utah.
SHOCKING NEWS: This Just In: U.S. Obesity “Epidemic” Due Solely to Overeating! “So the implied solution seems to be that food industry must be forced to make their products tasteless and unattractive.”
HUFFINGTON POST: Dodd Dinner With Online Payday Lenders Transforms Into Fundraiser. Doesn’t everything, with this guy?