G.O.P. ESTABLISHMENT VS. TEA PARTY: Just remember, it was the Tea Party movement — not the establishment — that got Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio elected. If the establishment had had its way, neither would be there.
Karl Rove hasn’t had a good election since 2004. Big GOP donors would be better advised to follow this advice.
CONN CARROLL: America’s Governing Party.
DEMOCRATS NO LONGER SO HOT on party founder Andrew Jackson.
Jackson’s election ushered America into the age of participatory politics: Before him, only 20 to 30 percent of the eligible population voted; after him — and for the next 70 years — 70 to 80 percent of the electorate often turned out, Nichols explained.
In fact, the Democratic Party was created to help Jackson gain the presidency.
With Jackson in the White House, politics would never be the same in America, much to the chagrin of his well-bred opponents.
Jackson brought to the presidency the fierce, liberty-loving values of those who settled Appalachia. He preferred to allow state governments to handle many public affairs, rather than expanding the size and scope of the federal government.
Now the bitter clingers are out of style.
MORE CRITICISM OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ ADHD PIECE at SmarterTimes.
GOOD QUESTION: “Who Are The Police At War With?”
DOES ROBERT MENENDEZ HAVE A VALU-CARD? In Dominican Republic seaside village, a virtual supermarket of sex.
Politico: Can Robert Menendez survive?
JUDGING BY MY FACEBOOK AND TWITTER FEEDS, this is the winning Super Bowl commercial.
AN AMERICA CRAMPED BY DEFENSIVENESS:
Since I returned home, a darkness has grown in me as both I and our nation have failed to live up to the sacrifices of these young men and women. I had no expectation of “victory” in Afghanistan or Iraq, whatever that would mean. Nor did I expect some epiphany of strategic insight or remorse from the nation’s brain trust.
I just found that I could not square the negativity, pettiness and paranoia in the discourse of our country’s elders with the nobility and dedication of the men and women I had seen and served with in Afghanistan.
Over time, as I listened to the squabbling, I realized that about the only thing Americans agree on these days is gratitude bordering on reverence for our military.
We have the worst political class ever, and our most respected institution is the military. That’s not a good set of circumstances.
UPDATE: Michael Walsh — no slouch at writing himself — emails: “Look how beautifully this is written. Can you imagine a college professor or some other state apparatchik doing as well? The fact is the officer corps – and in particular the Marines – is far better educated and more sophisticated than their civilian counterparts.”
Also not a good sign.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY: Super Bowl City Leads on Energy Efficient Forefront. “To make this the greenest Super Bowl, the New Orleans Host Committee has partnered with fans and the community to offset energy use across the major Super Bowl venues.” Everything went according to plan!
PROF. BAINBRIDGE: Instead of cutting law school to two years, why not up it to four undergraduate years?
The problem is, law faculty would see a shift to teaching undergraduates as a loss of status, I believe.
ADVICE FOR A DIRECTIONLESS PARTY: 13 Ideas For The 2013 GOP.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on knives and multitools.
SO NOW IT’S THE ACLU touting my Due Process When Everything Is A Crime piece.
TREATING ADHD BY ADDICTING KIDS TO AMPHETAMINES?
Medications like Adderall can markedly improve the lives of children and others with the disorder. But the tunnel-like focus the medicines provide has led growing numbers of teenagers and young adults to fake symptoms to obtain steady prescriptions for highly addictive medications that carry serious psychological dangers. These efforts are facilitated by a segment of doctors who skip established diagnostic procedures, renew prescriptions reflexively and spend too little time with patients to accurately monitor side effects.
Richard Fee’s experience included it all. Conversations with friends and family members and a review of detailed medical records depict an intelligent and articulate young man lying to doctor after doctor, physicians issuing hasty diagnoses, and psychiatrists continuing to prescribe medication — even increasing dosages — despite evidence of his growing addiction and psychiatric breakdown.
All too often, boys are medicated for acting like . . . boys.
On the other hand: “Blowing through a month’s worth of Adderall in a few weeks” is hyperbole. “A few weeks” not much less than “a month.” Math is not the Times’ strong suit.
The government wiped out AIG shareholders while using AIG to bail out other companies whose shareholders were not wiped out. Why?
AIG’s owners perhaps deserved their fate due to AIG’s reckless reliance on rating agencies and bond insurers. But other companies (including many foreign banks) were excused from suffering for their own reckless reliance on AIG. Why?
All the more so because government’s profit on the bailout ($22.7 billion) so clearly accrued because taxpayers acquired AIG’s assets at fire-sale prices even while sparing other companies similar embarrassment. . . .
If the nuances here sound familiar, they should. In the Chrysler and General Motors bankruptcies, government played the role of “debtor-in-possession” financier, then behaved as no DIP financier would, using its leverage to do favors for an important Democratic constituency group, the United Auto Workers, at the expense of debt holders.
The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac trumpeted them as solvent and well-capitalized amid the crisis, then gave their boards immunity from shareholder lawsuit in the government takeover that followed a short time later, wiping out their shareholders.
Not directly related to the financial crisis but coming in the same moment of untrammeled government discretion was the BP oil spill. The White House dictated a $20 billion compensation program, funded by BP shareholders, without benefit of any legal process at all.
Some call this “gangster government.”
READER BOOK PLUG: From reader Bradley Convissar, Blood, Smoke and Ashes. 99 cents on Kindle.
A FUNERAL DIRECTOR’S NIGHTMARE: ‘Dead’ woman, 101, wakes up in coffin. “I am a lucky woman. Not only did I get to see how many people care for me, but I also woke up before they took me to the crematorium.”