IN THE MAIL: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition.
Archive for 2011
August 3, 2011
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Progressive Crisis: Why Can’t Democrats Connect With The Voters? Especially when they so clearly know more than the voters about, well, everything . . . .
Mead: “The ‘transformational President’ failed to bring about the Great Realignment Democrats thought they saw. Healthcare was a poisoned chalice; the debt ceiling bill was a disaster. The electorate keeps trending right and the Democratic establishment, more than thirty years after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, is no closer to solving the problem of the New Right than it was when Jimmy Carter turned the White House over to the Gipper. . . . The problem goes even deeper than hostility toward perceived featherbedding and life tenure for government workers. The professionals and administrators who make up the progressive state are seen as a hostile power with an agenda of their own that they seek to impose on the nation. This perception, also, is rooted in truth.”
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Shrugging off unfavorable polls and harsh criticism from Biden and other Democrats, the tea party faithful take stock of their influence on Capitol Hill’s debt deal and look ahead to the next battle. “Barraged from its early days with invectives from the left, the tea party movement has steadily marched on, helping Republicans retake the House in 2010, and, this weekend, forcing the Republican leadership into a game of chicken with the White House – where President Obama blinked first, backing off his vow that increased tax revenues must be part of the debt deal. . . . But potentially most worrisome for Democrats is evidence that Americans are increasingly concerned about the debt and back efforts to cut federal spending to bring the deficit under control.”
SUSAN FERRECCHIO: Tea Party The Ultimate Winner In Debt Deal.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University Denies Ousted Dean’s Claim That It Milks Law School Cash Cow.
PAUL RYAN: Where’s Your Budget, Mr. President?
Related: “Obamacare has completely trapped the Democrats on fiscal policy. In order to pay for Obamacare’s trillions of dollars in new spending, they had to raise taxes by $500 and raid Medicare by another $500 billion. As a result, all the low-hanging revenue and spending fruit are already gone. As even The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein admits, the Democrats must now argue for higher taxes, and not just on the wealthy. In order to pay for all their entitlement programs, the middle class is going to have to pay more, too. But Ezra can admit this because he doesn’t have to win elections; Democrats in public offices do. That is the reason you haven’t seen a Democratic budget since Obamacare became law and it is the reason you will not see another one till at least 2013.”
SPACE STATION IMAGERY: Familiar Sights From Alien Heights.
MARKDOWNS ON bestselling digital cameras.
THIS’LL BE A GOOD YEAR TO BE ON THE JOB MARKET IF YOU’RE AN OLDER CANDIDATE: Court Denies Summary Judgment in Iowa Law Faculty Age Discrimination Suit.
CHANGE: Great American Stores Starving For Customers.
This iconic photo from the early days of hope-and-change now seems prophetic.
NICK GILLESPIE: Is Matt Damon Right That Teachers Make a “Shitty” Salary?
“The short answer is no. The longer answer? Also no.”
ROLL CALL: Udall Expects Senate Vote on His Poison-Pill Balanced Budget Amendment.
Sen. Mark Udall predicted Tuesday that his proposed balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which contains a poison pill for the GOP, would get a vote in the Senate by the end of the year.
The vote would fulfill a requirement created by the deficit reduction and debt ceiling package that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday. Both chambers must vote on a Constitutional balanced budget amendment by the end of the year under the law, but they don’t have to be able to pass it. Udall’s amendment is unlikely to attract the two-thirds majority necessary to advance because of a provision that would outlaw tax cuts for people making more than $1 million a year unless the country has a budget surplus.
They’d rather tax rich people than balance the budget, obviously. Well, you can start with my revenue-enhancement proposals.
UPDATE: Reader Steve Conklin writes: “The smartest play for the Republicans would be to give them exactly what they want. How many people actually earn a million dollar salary? Throw us in that briar patch!”
Most of those people probably voted for Obama, so yeah.
DATECHGUY: Just A Reminder For Tea Party Types Feeling Blue. “Neo Confederate Sex Panic? Those are the cards the left is playing and you want me to be depressed?”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loan Subsidy Cut: “President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 today, which eliminates the in-school interest subsidy for law students and other graduate students, effective July 1, 2012. As a result, student loans will begin accruing interest during law school.”
THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT: Anime production software.
MEGAN MCARDLE: EuroContagion Spreads.
FROMA HARROP: Obama Needs Primary Opposition. “Ed Rendell, do you have plans for 2012? Hillary Clinton? If you, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, or you, the secretary of state, are free next year and wouldn’t mind, would you please launch a primary challenge against President Obama?”
MICHAEL BARONE: Chasing Votes By Promising To Do Impossible Things.
“Leading from behind.” That’s what an unnamed White House aide told the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza that Barack Obama was doing on Libya.
It’s an apt description of Obama’s feckless handling of the debt ceiling debate. He kept calling for a tax increase even though there was never a majority in either house of Congress for one and even after Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid dropped any such demand.
But leading from behind is also a description of what most of the declared and all-but-declared Republican presidential candidates were doing on the debt limit issue.
Indeed.
L.A. TIMES’ ANDREW MALCOLM: Vice president’s reference to opponents as ‘terrorists’ deserves condemnation. (Updated with attribution).
JAMES TARANTO ON THE NEW “TERRORISM” TALK: ‘Civility’: The Denouement — The liberal elite grows even angrier and more desperate.
“Terrorist,” “racist,” “uncivil,” “insane,” the list goes on–in this context, these words have no real meaning. They are mere epithets. The Obama presidency has reduced the liberal left to an apoplectic rage. His Ivy League credentials, superior attitude, pseudointellectual mien and facile adherence to lefty ideology make him the perfect personification of the liberal elite. Thus far at least, he has been an utter failure both at winning public support and at managing the affairs of the nation.
Obama’s failure is the failure of the liberal elite, and that is why their ressentiment has reached such intensity. Their ideas, such as they are, are being put to a real-world test and found severely wanting. As a result, their authority is collapsing. And if there is one thing they know deep in their bones, it is that they are entitled to that authority. They lash out, desperately and pathetically, because they have nothing to offer but fear and anger.
Meanwhile, some wonderful news: Thanks to America’s superlative medical system, Rep. Giffords has recovered sufficiently that she returned to Congress last night to cast a vote on the debt deal. She looked frail and shaky as she exchanged greetings with colleagues from both sides of the aisle, but she also talked and waved and seemed completely alert. Even watching at home on C-Span, it was hard not to be moved. “The #Capitol looks beautiful and I am honored to be at work tonight,” Giffords tweeted last night.
Giffords voted “yes” on the bill–the one to which the Tea Party “terrorists” had forced the president to agree.
Read the whole thing.
LAHOOD’S EFFORT TO END FAA FURLOUGHS fails.