FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS: Michael Oren at UC Irvine.
Archive for 2010
February 12, 2010
CREATING A “Tea Party Caucus.”
MORE “UNEXPECTED” ECONOMIC NEWS. This time it’s a drop in consumer confidence.
SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION: The Legacy of Billy Tauzin: The White House-PhRMA Deal.
A LAWRENCE O’DONNELL video meltdown. Reader C.J. Burch comments: “Every centrist Democrat aids and abets this stuff. Then pretends they don’t. Every single one of them.” If so, they might want to reconsider, as it doesn’t seem to be working out so well.
Related: We watch Keith Olbermann because we’re paid to. I used to appear on Olbermann’s show occasionally, back when he was sane. But of course, back then I worked for MSNBC, too, so in a way I was paid to, I guess . . .
CLIMATEGATE, U.K. EDITION: Following the Money, All €4 Trillion of It.
I THINK WE’LL SEE MORE OF THIS: Cincinnati Democrat Jumps On Tea Party Bandwagon.
ICELAND AIMS TO BECOME an offshore haven for journalists and leakers. “On Tuesday, the Icelandic parliament is expected to introduce a measure aimed at making the country an international center for investigative journalism publishing, by passing the strongest combination of source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws in the world. Supporters of the proposal say the move would make Iceland an ‘offshore publishing center’ for free speech, analogous to the offshore financial havens that allow corporations to hide capital from authorities. Could global news organizations with a home office in Reykjavík soon be as common as Delaware corporations or Cayman Islands assets?”
I think that’s a good thing, though Michael Silence is put in mind of Alcatraz. Hey, Alcatraz was never like this.
NIKON P90 FALLS IN OCEAN; recovered 18 months later, the pictures are fine. That’s pretty cool.
UPDATE: Said D90 before; sorry. Misread the article.
RECORD SNOW in Dallas? I’m ready for spring. . . .
Related: James Taranto: Hot Enough For You? Plus some video climate / weather fun.
RICHARD BROOKHISER ON Tea Parties and the American Political Tradition. “The tea-party movement has made a mark on the politics of the Obama era, and it has historical parallels—less in this country’s founding era than in two great ‘anti’ movements of the last two centuries: the resistance to Thomas Jefferson’s embargo (1807-09) and to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s plan to pack the Supreme Court (1937).”
MEXICAN “METEORITE” was falling Russian satellite.
CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: Pachauri cornered by Spanish TV reporter. Funny how much less aggressive U.S. media have been . . . .
HOPE: Few Americans Want Members of Congress Re-Elected, Poll Finds. “Just 8 percent of Americans want the members of Congress re-elected, according to a CBS News-New York Times poll taken nine months before roughly one-third of the Senate and the entire House face voters.”
MICHAEL BARONE: Is Patrick Kennedy’s seat a possible pickup for Republicans?
IN THE MAIL: From Wesley J. Smith: A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement.
INTRODUCING TEA PARTY TV:
NEW YORK POST: The Revenge Of Joe The Plumber.
Remember Joe the Plumber?
He was the blue-collar dude who confronted Barack Obama late in the 2008 campaign with this challenge: “Your new tax plan’s going to tax me more, isn’t it?”
Nonsense, replied the candidate: “From 250 [thousand dollars a year] down, your taxes are going to stay the same.”
Indeed, he insisted, 95 percent of “working people” would see their taxes go down in his administration.
Well, think again.
A year into his presidency, Obama now says he’s “agnostic” on what was the principal plank in his economic platform: No tax hikes for individuals making $200,000 a year or less — or for households with a combined annual income under $250,000.
Every promise comes with an expiration date. Every single one.
IRAN LOADS UP ON High-Tech Chinese Riot Trucks. These won’t help if people start burning down mullahs’ houses. . . .
YOU KNEW IT HAD TO HAPPEN: “Retracto” Robot Theater.
THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, they’d be trying to license bloggers to end Web anonymity. And they were right!
PALIN-HATRED as bonding tool.
THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE on Biden’s Iraq Victory Claim: “There’s an odd thing about this administration claiming credit for victory in Iraq – half the country knows Biden and Obama had nothing to do with it, and the other half will never admit there is a victory to claim. However, since they think we’re all stupid, I guess the White House wants to give it a shot.”