Archive for 2010

ANOTHER SALAZAR SCREWUP:

The administration has decreed a six-month moratorium on exploratory drilling in the Gulf, based on a report that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wrote for President Obama. Salazar claimed that a panel of seven experts selected by the National Academy of Engineering had peer reviewed his report. It turns out, though, that the seven experts never saw the recommendation for a moratorium, and in fact oppose it.

I’m beginning to lose confidence in these people.

BOTTLES OF HOPE.

WALTER SHAPIRO: Nikki Haley and Rand Paul Races: Where Have All the Reporters Gone? “What we are witnessing in this election cycle is the slow death of traditional statewide campaign journalism.” Not so slow. As I’ve said before, hard-news reporting is the killer app for news media, but they don’t seem to want to do it.

THE DAILY CALLER LOOKS AT who’s behind Obama’s “Media Reform” Policy. These efforts are unAmerican. They should be stopped, and those behind them punished to the point that no politician dares go there again.

A PENSION SHELL GAME: “Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders have tentatively agreed to allow the state and municipalities to borrow nearly $6 billion to help them make their required annual payments to the state pension fund. And, in classic budgetary sleight-of-hand, they will borrow the money to make the payments to the pension fund — from the same pension fund.”

LIVEBLOGGING THE HUMANITY+ CONFERENCE, at The Speculist.

ROGER KIMBALL: The age of the IOU, or chickens/roost, and “anarchy literally.” “And here’s a policy suggestion that I offer free and for nothing. If New York offers its citizens IOUs instead cash, citizens should do the same come April. After wading through the pages of gibberish that our legislators have thoughtfully provided under the rubric of your tax returns, they should enter the amount owed, sign on the dotted line, and enclose an IOU instead of a check. If an irresponsible and fiscally incontinent state can hold on to your money (and you should never forget that it is your money), then you are justified in practicing a little self-defense and treating the state with a little of the contempt with which it treats you. If five or ten or a hundred people did it, it wouldn’t make much difference. What if five or ten thousand people did?”

THE HARVARD H+ SUMMIT will be streaming at this link starting right about now.

Meanwhile, some thoughts on the conference here.