Archive for 2011
November 17, 2011
COMING FROM INFINITI: A mid-engine rear-wheel-drive sports car?
LEASE AN ELECTRIC HONDA FIT for $399/month.
IN THE MAIL: From David Acord, Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes: Life Lessons from the Master Detective.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: ObamaCare, We Hardly Knew Ye. “Today, not even the White House seems sure that its healthcare reform bill is constitutional. . . . President Obama campaigned against the individual mandate at the heart of the controversy over constitutionality, and the decision to embrace it was not a natural one for him. The second guessing is well under way. . . . An inescapable question unavoidably follows. If the authors of this historic reform were that careless and clueless about the central pillar of their plan, what else did they get wrong?”
DAN MITCHELL: FIVE LESSONS FOR AMERICA FROM THE EUROPEAN FISCAL CRISIS. Here’s a key one: Nations reach a point of no return when the number of people mooching off government exceeds the number of people producing.
Plus: “If nations want a return to fiscal sanity, they need to follow ‘Mitchell’s Golden Rule,’ which simply states that the private sector should grow faster than the government.”
UPDATE: Reader Bart Hall writes: “Lesson #6 — Immigration will not solve a demographic problem unless those immigrants become well-assimilated and productive citizens.”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): CBO on the Stimulus: “A net negative effect on the growth of GDP over 10 years.”
FRANK J. FLEMING’S NEW POLITICAL HUMOR BOOK is reviewed by one of our nation’s foremost political humorists — none other than Frank J. Fleming.
The book’s currently #1 in Political Humor, beating out Bill Maher who, at #2, is sandwiched between Frank J. at #1 and Scott Ott at #3.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): U.S. boosts estimate of auto bailout losses to $23.6B. “In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.”
OBAMA LOVES THE BIG GUYS: Big government, big labor, and big business in bed together.
OBAMA’S OZONE DECISION shows the clout of Cass Sunstein.
ASIA REDISCOVERS ITS LOVE FOR AMERICA. “The real story is Asia’s unease with China’s expansionism. It wants America back. . . . Beijing’s discomfort is irrelevant — it’s a tyranny and Asia’s neighborhood bully. It’s not the model of economic development many believe, as its growing imbalances show. Nor is it a particularly peaceful presence.”
FOUR REASONS to carry a Glock.
BUT DOESN’T RESIGN: Energy secretary Chu Takes Full Responsibility For Solyndra. He’s accepting “responsibility,” but not the blame.
TODAY ONLY: Christmas classics on Blu-Ray and DVD.
INSTAVISION: I talk with Mickey Kaus about the Occupy movement, the unions’ Wisconsin recall campaign, and efforts to prop up GM and the Volt. (Bumped, in case you missed it last night).
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D RETURN TO THE DAYS OF “COLORED ONLY” DRINKING FOUNTAINS. And they were right! “A sign reading ‘Colored only” was found posted over a drinking fountain in the Humanities Building at the State University of New York at New Paltz, 65 miles south of Albany, reports The Times Herald-Record of Middletown.”
#OCCUPYFAIL: A list of Occupy crimes sorted by type.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Congress wants to turn GAO watchdog into a lapdog.
Has somebody dumped gallons of hallucinogens into the drinking water on Capitol Hill? How else can we explain why Congress is slashing the operational budget of its most effective weapon against wasteful federal spending? That weapon, of course, is the Government Accountability Office, the green-eyeshade agency that for decades has been the bane of every wasteful bureaucrat in Washington.
Maybe it’s just massive corruption.
THE HILL: GOP lawmakers say nation not safer after decade with TSA.
They’re right. The whole Homeland Security thing has been a bureaucratic crock. It’s turned out exactly as I predicted.
THE REAL SOLYNDRA SCANDAL TURNS OUT TO BE THE SOLYNDRA SCANDAL:
Contrary to earlier White House denials, we recently found out that major Obama fundraiser George Kaiser does indeed seem to have discussed Solyndra with members of the administration (In fairness, it was after the loan had closed. However, given that there were ongoing approvals required for disbursements, and later, for modifications in the loan, this is not very comforting.)
Meanwhile, Hoover’s Peter Schweizer’s new book claims that 80% of the loans in the DOE program that Solyndra tapped went to companies owned or run by Obama backers. Of course, one would expect that most “green energy” types would be enthusiastic Democrats. Still, the thing has a certain whiff about it.
Then today we learn that Solyndra, which was originally going to announce layoffs in late October 2010, held off on the announcement until November 3rd (aka election day). And they seem to have done so at the behest of the White House.
I think the very least you can say is that the political side became inappropriately entangled with the technocratic side of this loan. It undermines one’s faith in both the program, and the administration.
Indeed. Though I’m not sure I ever had much faith to undermine. But even I am surprised at just how blatant a scam this has turned out to be.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: The New Wealth Of Nations: Stockpiles Of Strategic Metals.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Obama Decries the ‘Connected’ While His Government Hands Robert Kennedy Jr’s Company $1.4 Billion.