The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Ruh-Roh: Fed to End QE2?

Posted on | February 8, 2011 | 13 Comments

How will markets react to the end of “quantitative easing”?

Today, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher . . . said that he will not support any further QE expansion beyond the current $600 Billion Treasury buying program which is set to expire in June.

The era of fiscal stimulus is over and now, if the end of monetary stimulus is truly in sight, then we’ve finally reached the end of the neo-Keynesian route. And it’s about damned time, as Daniel Indiviglio says:

If the labor market is still failing to add enough jobs to bring down the unemployment rate, then that’s a pretty clear verdict that the second round of quantitative easing didn’t do the trick. If that’s the case, then you have to ask when the Fed would admit that its efforts to expand credit again and again are failing to create jobs.

What has been proven in the past two years is something we ought to have learned from the “stagflation” of the 1970s: Keynes was wrong!

Category: Economics

Spotted Owls and Moderate Democrats

Posted on | February 8, 2011 | 10 Comments

Both of them are endangered species:

The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.
The DLC, a network of Democratic elected officials and policy intellectuals had long been fading from its mid-’90s political relevance . . .

(Via Memeorandum.) Now, if only we can hunt the RINOs into extinction, maybe we can finally have an honest debate that presents Americans with a straight-up choice between liberalism and conservatism. Good-bye, backstabbing crapweasels!

Category: Democrats

Because MSNBC Wasn’t Obscure Enough

Posted on | February 8, 2011 | 20 Comments

Keith Olbermann has reportedly been hired by some left-wing cable network you never even heard of before.

If his career keeps going in this direction, Olbermann will eventually end up hawking cubic zirconia jewelry on Home Shopping Network.

Category: Liberals

LIVE AT FIVE – 2.8.11

Posted on | February 8, 2011 | 5 Comments

TOP NEWS
Gibbs: Egypt Faces Bumpy Process Of Transition To Democracy

Soon to be ex-Press Secretary Gibbs

Administration finally gets that Mubarak will leave when he’s ready

President Says Businesses Must Invest, Hire To Grow Economy
No, really?



Uneasy Peace Holds After Thailand/Cambodia Clash
Intense regional pressure to stop the fighting



POLITICS
Jane Harman Resigns, Thinning Already Depleted Ranks Of Democrats’ Blue Dogs

Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) at the 50th anniversary of JFK's inaugural

Will become president of Woodrow Wilson Center

Florida’s Governor Scott Seeks Budget Cuts

Democratic Leadership Council Could Shut Down Next Week

Feds Expediting Mid-Atlantic Wind Farm Project Approval

Obamacare Faces New Challenge From States; Mitch Daniels Takes Point



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Power Outage At Newark Airport Delays Flights
Offshore Driller Stocks Rise In Wake Of Ensco Deal
Crude Futures Slip On Dollar, Inventories
Sprint Unveils Dual-Screen Android Smartphone
Attack Of Tablet Clones May Spell End Of IPad’s Dominance (Features Xoom Video)
Anonymous Hacks Firm Investigating It



SPORTS
The NFL In LA Might Just Ruin Some Good Television

Chief Schmuck of the NFL, Roger Goodell

When going to the game costs so much and is a pain besides, why shell out for tickets?

League’s Greed Left No Room For The Fans

Wings Edge Rangers 3-2


Bryant, Lakers Hold Off Grizzlies 93-84

Mike Munchak Named Titans Head Coach



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Tony Hawk Files For Divorce – Again

Tony and Lhotse Hawk in happier days

World-famous sk8tr boi ending third marriage

Joan Rivers Reams Christina Aguilera Over Super Bowl Anthem Flub

Kelsey & Camille Cut A Deal

The Apostate: Paul Haggis Vs. The Church Of $cientology

Lindsay Lohan Won’t Be Charged With Theft – Today

Harry’s Back With Boot-iful Chelsy

Fox Sets “Mr. Men” Animated Feature With Producer Shawn Levy

Who Lost The Super Bowl? The Black Eyed Peas

Michael Moore Sues Harvey Weinstein Over “Fahrenheit 9/11” Profits



FOREIGNERS
President Hints He’ll Take Sudan Off Terrorism Sponsor List
Assange Would Face Bias In Sweden, Says Retired Judge
Nork, ROK Colonels Meet For Talks To Ease Tensions
Report: Afghan Taliban Might Be Open To Talks, Split With Al Qaeda
Spanish Government Reacts Cautiously To New, Peaceful Basque Separatist Group (Video)



BLOGS & STUFF
Yid With Lid: Olbermann Headed For Algore’s Current TV
Jim Geraghty: The DLC Meets Its Match, Five Years Later
Weasel Zippers: Shuler Says No Communication Between Blue Dogs, Minority Leader Pelosi
iOwnTheWorld.com: Palin Warms To Idea Of GOProud
Michelle Malkin: Obama And The Chamber – Bad Romance
Kim Strassel: Rumsfeld’s “Slice Of History”
Don Surber: Fixing Oversight
POWIP: Boomer Retirement Watch
Goldfish & Clowns: Ariana Huffington And The Illusion Of Inclusion

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

HuffPo/AOL Deal: On Second Thought … Hell, No, It Still Doesn’t Make Any Sense

Posted on | February 7, 2011 | 34 Comments

After this morning’s stunning news that AOL had agreed to pay more than $300 million to buy the Huffington Post, I tried to find some argument to justify the deal.

Honest, I did. I even read Felix Salmon’s analysis at Reuters:

The $315 million that AOL is paying for the Huffington Post is roughly 3X the valuation seen at its last capital raise two years ago, is 10X its 2010 revenues and is roughly 5X estimated forward 2011 revenues. Those are all big numbers, but not insanely so, for what is clearly a big strategic move on the part of AOL. After all, AOL has a market cap of $2.3 billion: right now it still dwarfs HuffPo. That might not be true in a few years’ time, if HuffPo continues growing at its current rate and AOL continues to lose subscribers and revenues.
My feeling, then, is that this deal is a good one for both sides.

Yeah, tell me another one, pal. HuffPo extimates its 2011 revenue at $50-odd million, but what about its net profit?

What’s that Felix? I can’t hear you for all these crickets chirping.

Jerry at Goldfish and Clowns is also wrestling with the finances of the deal: 

The only semi-rational logic behind AOL shelling out serious coin for HuffPo is the belief Huffington’s lightworker abilities will somehow draw ten bajillion visitors per nanosecond to AOL . . .

The market isn’t buying that argument and AOL stock, which was trading at $24 a share a week ago, is now down to $21 and change. The Wall Street Journal‘s Shira Ovide has a good analysis of this floptastic deal while my friend Donald Douglas examines, “What Huffington Post Means for Journalism’s Future.”

What it means, I suspect, is that the Left is willing to “invest” in liberal media ventures that are supposedly for-profit but which, in fact, lose money. Because, after all, whose money is being invested? Not theirs.

Five words: Government employee union pension funds.

That, I suggest, explains this whole deal. Private investors are now selling their AOL shares, while managers of pension funds for AFSCME, SEIU and other unions are buying AOL stock, thus providing the investment capital necessary to fund expansion of the Left’s online media presence in advance of Obama’s re-election campaign.

Yeah, and maybe George Soros is buying AOL stock, too, for all we know.

Call me a kooky conspiracy theorist, if you like, but when a business deal doesn’t add up as dollars-and-cents capitalism, there must be some other explanation. And if ever you see a turtle sitting on top a fence post, you know it didn’t crawl up there by itself.


Category: Blogging, Media Bias

Because I’m Stupid, You See

Posted on | February 7, 2011 | 31 Comments

At what point did youngsters decide that their elders needed history lectures? This is not a moot question, for I find myself being lectured by Conor Friedersdorf:

What’s actually gone on in the United States since the year 2000? For almost eight years, the Bush Administration managed to keep the support of its base, despite pursuing all manner of idiotic policies. And they did so in large part by relying on sycophantic propagandists. Rush Limbaugh himself admitted to carrying water for Republicans during that era despite thinking they were taking the country in the wrong direction. And many pundits, especially on Fox News, behaved even worse. . . .

Friedersdorf then goes on to talk about how “Bill Buckley and George Will helped Ronald Reagan win the presidency” at a time when “The New York Times and the network news ruled the media, and Rush Limbaugh was working as director of promotions for the Kansas City Royals.”

Right. And all this time, Conor Friedersdorf was actively engaged in advancing the conservative cause. He has spent his entire life with his finger on the pulse of the body politic, and is thereby qualified to lecture us about What It Really Means.

Perhaps, as he makes reference to the year 2000, Friedersdorf would care to know what I was doing that year. Read more

Category: Conservatism 101, History

Don’t Worry, Egypt: He’ll Pull Out

Posted on | February 7, 2011 | 14 Comments

Obama sending “multiple platoons” of Marines to Egypt “to assist in the evacuation of US citizens”?

Why would the administration make a panic gesture like that? Let’s see: Arbitrary detentions of foreigners. Yeah, that’s not a good sign. Muslim Brotherhood negotiating with Mubarak regime? Also not a good sign.

If the administration is gearing up for a full-on freakout in Egypt, why should anyone else be optimistic?

Category: Barack Obama, Egypt, Military

Yeah, About the Super Bowl

Posted on | February 7, 2011 | 15 Comments

You will recall that I predicted the Obama Jinx would doom the Steelers. So all you Steelers fans who scoffed at my prophecy, suck it.

Speaking of sucking, did that halftime show suck or what?

The Black-Eyed Peas were exposed as the Milli Vanilli of the 21st century. Take away their studio effects, and what are you left with? A rap group with a white chick dancing around, pretending she can sing. I’ve seen better acts at a karaoke bar.

Also, Christine Aguilera screwed up the national anthem. The NFL should have a policy: If you’re hired to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and you screw it up, you don’t get paid.

The game itself was similarly plagued by screw-ups. I counted at least four dropped passes by Green Bay receivers, and I didn’t even watch the whole game. When I play catch with my sons, I tell them: “See the ball, catch the ball. Look the ball into your hands.”

If you can reach it, you can catch it.

Catching a football is about concentration — a matter of mind-power — and while it may be difficult to concentrate when a cornerback is chasing you, there was simply no valid excuse for professional players on a championship team to drop passes like that.

They ought to be running wind sprints this morning, as punishment. Dropped passes, fumbles, missed tackles, penalties — stuff like that, you make ’em show up at the field the next morning to run a certain number of wind sprints per punishment. I don’t care if you just won the Super Bowl, team discipline permits of no such exceptions.

Don’t like it? Find another line of work.

Category: Celebrities, Football
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin