JOHN FUND: Three Cups of Tea: The Tea Party still holds the high ground this year for its third national election. “The Tea Party turns five years old this week, and the mainstream media are filled with stories saying it has lost clout and influence. Certainly the unfair assaults on it as racist and extremist have taken a toll, but in terms of where the political landscape is right now, I’d easily take the Tea Party’s tactical position over that of its liberal critics. . . . In politics it helps to be right, and most of the warnings tea-party advocates issued about the Obama administration have been validated by events.”
Archive for 2014
February 28, 2014
IT’S ONLY EVIDENCE OF BIAS IF THEY DONATE TO REPUBLICANS: Byron York: Four of five FCC study authors gave to Obama.
A significant problem with the now-suspended Federal Communications Commission plan to have government contractors question journalists about editorial decisions and practices was that it was a partisan exercise. The plan originated among Democrats on the FCC; the commission’s two Republican members didn’t even learn about it until it was well under way.
There was also a one-sidedness in the research behind the project. The FCC enlisted scholars from two big journalism schools, the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Communication and Democracy, to determine the “critical information needs” about which journalists would be questioned. The study, delivered in July 2012, listed five authors: Ernest J. Wilson III, Carola Weil, and Katya Ognyanova from USC, Lewis Friedland from Wisconsin, and Philip Napoli from Fordham University. (Weil is now with American University.) Four of the five, it turns out, contributed to President Obama’s campaigns.
It’s partisan Potemkin villages all the way down.
BUT PLEASE DON’T TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF, HARRY: Roll Call: Corker Compares Reid’s Reign to Putin’s.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Minimum Wage Hike Support Falls On CBO Jobs Warning. “Less than half the public support a sharp boost in the minimum wage when told that it could cost the economy half a million jobs, according to the latest IBD/TIPP Poll out Thursday. That comes amid reports that some Senate Democrats are backing away from President Obama’s push to boost the minimum wage by 39% over the next two years, to $10.10 an hour, after the Congressional Budget Office found that it would kill 500,000 jobs.”
MAJOR MALFUNCTION: Georgia Tech student burned by Molotov cocktail.
The FBI says a Georgia Tech graduate student was burned by a Molotov cocktail at his apartment in the 200 block of 10th Street, not far from Piedmont Park.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said Saamer Akhshabi suffered third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body. Lighter fluid and a charred pillow and mattress were found inside the apartment, along with the Molotov cocktail and several plastic bottles filled with gasoline and kerosene.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, along with the Atlanta Police Department and Atlanta Fire-Rescue are working to investigate the circumstances behind the incident. Homeland Security was also notified of the explosion.
Akhshabi was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital. His biography on Georgia Tech’s website says he’s a PhD student in the school’s College of Computing and attended the University of Tehran in his native Iran before coming to Georgia.
Sounds suspicious.
ANNALS OF THE .0001 PERCENT: Do we deserve to know how much Citigroup is paying Obama alumnus Peter Orszag? “When President Obama’s budget chief Peter Orszag left for Citigroup, it was one of the highest profile revolving-door cash-outs of the Obama administration. Now Orszag is fighting in court for special protection against standard public records laws, which would ordinarily make public how much Citigroup is paying him.”
Whatever it is, I’ll bet it’s enough to support my revolving-door surtax.
WELL, THIS IS GOOD NEWS, IF TRUE: The Hill: Feds take step toward Atlantic offshore drilling. “The Interior Department is laying the ground for possible oil-and-gas development in the Atlantic. The department released its environment review on Thursday, detailing safeguards contractors that conduct seismic surveying — which includes air gun tests — would need to follow. If the process continues without delay, the release of the environmental review would set Interior on a five-year planning process that would open up the Atlantic to development for 2017 and 2022.”
PHILIP KLEIN: It’s Time For Republicans To Attack Payroll Taxes.
Obama and his fellow Democrats already went a long way toward breaking down the psychological barrier when they aggressively pushed for a temporary payroll tax holiday for 2011 and 2012.
There’s no reason why Republicans should play the tax policy game between the hash marks when there’s an entire field open to them.
Hmm.
FOR LEFTIES, THE ARC OF THE UNIVERSE TENDS TOWARD DETROIT: Police Probe Threatening ’1 Percent’ Graffiti Left On Atherton Homes.
February 27, 2014
GOOD THING HE’S A PROFESSOR AND NOT A PRIEST, OR THIS WOULD BE A NATIONAL SCANDAL: Abuse Ignored. “By 2003, the report said, there were numerous rumors among music faculty members and administrators about Miller’s alleged inappropriate conduct. Further, there were rumors about Miller’s conduct as a camp counselor and allegations that he inappropriately touched boys there.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Honest University Commercial.
HMM: Sex in prison is commonplace, the male inmates just hide it more than girls.
Apparently, women lack moral agency:
In fact many females are often in prison because of men. . . . Many female prisoners have been coerced into committing crimes for their partners and when they end up behind bars they find themselves abandoned and they have to survive. And sexism doesn’t stop at the prison walls. Females are still at risk of abuse and rape and unfortunately because they are inmates there is often no legal remedy available for them to seek justice. The word of a prisoner is hardly ever believed. I have sat in on adjudications where to me it was clear that the prison officer is lying but the governor will always rule in their favour. So keeping on the right side of officers is paramount for survival. Many of these women have been abused or have mental health issues and they are vulnerable.
Male prisoners, of course, have none of these problems, and are never in jail because of women.
NOW THAT’S PURTY GOOD SHOOTIN’: 215 yard shot with GLOCK 41 .45 ACP.
“YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS:” Video Shows Officer Confronting Man Filming Arrests In Towson. At this point — as the First Circuit has already held — the right of citizens to film police is clear enough that “good faith” immunity should not apply. Sue.
A GOOD TITLE FOR A DOCUMENTARY ON THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: Broke, Busted & Disgusted.
THOUGHT: How many laws would be left, if we really scrutinized them all to see if they had a rational relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose?
21ST CENTURY AUTOMOTIVE PROBLEMS: Computer Virus Stalls Formula One Team’s Car Testing.
BECAUSE THEY’RE MORE FUN TO GROPE? Why The TSA Targets Women. Plus, this advice: “There’s no telling what goes on behind closed doors. It’s better to have the whole world watching your “enhanced” pat-down. At least you’ll have witnesses if something goes wrong.”
In my experience, they’re extremely non-gropey. But that’s just me.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Not safe to display American flag in American high school. “Today’s Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist. (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2014) upholds a California high school’s decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. (See here and here for more on this case.) The court points out that the rights of students in public high schools are limited — under the Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. School Dist. (1969), student speech could be restricted if “school authorities [can reasonably] forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities” stemming from the speech. And on the facts of this case, the court concludes, there was reason to think that the wearing of the T-shirts would lead to disruption. There had been threats of racial violence aimed at students who wore such shirts the year before. . . . This is a classic ‘heckler’s veto’ — thugs threatening to attack the speaker, and government officials suppressing the speech to prevent such violence.” Leaving aside the First Amendment aspects, this says terrible things about immigration and the state of our public schools.
WELL, THERE IS A CERTAIN IRONY IN GLENN GREENWALD BEING SHUT DOWN BY . . . AN ARMY OF SOCK PUPPETS: Reddit Mods Bury Glenn Greenwald’s Story On GCHQ/NSA Use Of Internet To ‘Destroy Reputations.’ And, also ironically, that it happened supports his claim. . . .
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ER, OKAY, BUT MIGHT THIS HAVE LESS DESIRABLE EFFECTS ON WEATHER, TOO? Massive offshore wind farms’ unexpected benefit: Hurricane protection; Wind speed, storm surge slashed when there are 10,000 turbines in storms’ path.
BRANNON DENNING & MICHAEL KENT: Judicial Doctrine as Risk Regulation.