HOPE AND CHANGE SAME! Detainees, Even if Acquitted, Might Not Go Free: Obama administration said Tuesday it could continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely. Gosh, remember the fierce moral urgency of getting Obama in to end all those awful Bush policies? I do . . . .
Archive for 2009
July 8, 2009
IN THE MAIL: From Glen Cook, An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat.
MICHAEL YON POSTS another report from the Philippines.
“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Reminding the Russians about Alaska.
UPDATE: Setting off the “Quayle-o-Meter.” “That’s the way to ‘hit the Reset button’, Mr. President. Remind the Russians of perhaps the stupidest thing they ever did.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Maybe Obama’s just covering for Joe Biden.
VOTING ON A BILL THAT’S too long to read.
MICHAEL BARONE: Americans are getting cold feet over Democratic proposals. “The $787 billion stimulus package, the cap-and-trade bill’s utility rate increases, the public health insurance package — all these seem to generate more apprehension than enthusiasm. So does the prospect of doubling the national debt, as the Congressional Budget Office estimates, from about 40 percent of gross domestic product to about 80 percent. That’s about where it ended up after World War II. Americans evidently regard our current economic situation, though negative, as not enough to justify the magnitude of deficit spending that was appropriate in an all-out world war.”
TAXPROF: Judge Sotomayor’s Law Practice: A Tax Dodge? Always happy when one of my tax thoughts makes TaxProf. But I was just following Ralph Winter’s advice from my Business Associations class in law school: When you see a business arrangement that doesn’t seem to make any sense, just say “it’s probably for tax reasons,” and you’ll be right nine times out of ten.
WILLIAM JEFFERSON UPDATE:
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal jury has seen video of a former Louisiana congressman accepting a suitcase filled with $100,000 in cash outside a northern Virginia hotel.
The videos played Tuesday are a key piece of evidence in the bribery trial of William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans. He’s accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes to broker business deals in Africa.
No word on whether there was a camera in his freezer.
ERIC SCHEIE: Michael Jackson Still Dead!
MATT WELCH: California Screaming: The Golden State’s political class comes unglued in the face of a citizens’ revolt. “Rarely has the chasm between elite political discourse and grubby popular opinion been displayed in such sharp relief. The implications of this citizen revolt—and the hostile reactions to it—stretch far beyond Nevada’s western border. California is the Ghost of Federal Government Future. . . . Faced with a political class that ignored bureaucratic inefficiency, that demanded higher taxes, that filled the newspapers with scare stories about people who will literally die as a result of budget cuts, the citizens of one of the bluest states in the nation collectively said we just don’t believe you anymore. If even California’s famous fruits and nuts can call the statists’ bluff, there may be hope for the rest of the country. “
PROLONGED SUNSPOT DROUGHT coming to an end?
HOMELAND SECURITY REMAINS A JOKE — A SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SERIES: Security at Federal Buildings Fails to Catch Bomb Materials in Undercover Tests, Report Says.
Related: U.S. Government’s Cyberdefense System Doesn’t Work.
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Welcome to government for the benefit of government officials and their hangers-on.
MEGAN MCARDLE: Medicare’s Mythical Administrative Cost Savings.
HOW TO cut up a whole chicken. You’d think everybody knew this already, but you’d be wrong.
UPDATE: Deboning video, thanks to reader Mark Mecca.
WASHINGTON POST: Power of Stimulus Slow to Take Hold: Rising Joblessness Blunts President’s Plan for Recovery. Well, at least it demonstrates that shoveling cash out to your political supporters doesn’t do much to boost employment. But here’s the pro-stimulus spin:
The measures we have taken have certainly prevented things from getting much worse.
That’s inspired Scott Ott to produce this stirring Democratic bumper sticker for 2010:
With a slogan like that, how can they lose?
UPDATE: Reader Tom Baker writes:
Glenn,
“The measures we have taken have certainly prevented things from getting much worse.”
I have been hearing this a lot lately from Obama voters. They assert, without any support whatsoever, that the “Stimulus” Bill is still a success because things would be much, much worse had it not been passed.
So, I guess they would agree that the invasion of Iraq was a success because it prevented another terrorist attack in the U.S.? They wouldn’t agree with that? BIG surprise….
Heh.
ANN ALTHOUSE: Look How Silly The Russians Made Obama Look.
July 7, 2009
THE COST OF controlling the press.
JON HENKE: The End of the Libertarian Democrats.
DEPARTMENT OF I-TOLD-YOU-SO, economics division.
THE DIGNITY CODE.