The Other McCain

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

Alyssa Milano Loves Her Dodgers

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 27 Comments

They’re having tough luck this season, playing .500 ball but still nine-and-a-half games behind the Padres in the NL West. Win or lose, our Alyssa remains loyal to Dodger Blue:

(Hat-tip: Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress.)

Category: Alyssa Milano Should Re-Tweet Me, Celebrities

Economics, Politics and Propaganda

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 12 Comments

If the New York Times is going to add an economist as a columnist, who do you think they’re going to pick? Perhaps someone like Thomas Sowell, whose free-market arguments could balance the neo-Keynesianism of Paul Krugman?

Of course not. They bring aboard Peter Orszag, who until recently was Obama’s director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and a former Clinton administration economic adviser. His track record? In a classic of shortsightedness, Orzag co-authored a 2002 policy paper that asserted “the risk to the government from a potential default on [Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac] debt is effectively zero.”

Orzag’s Monday column urged Congress to “continue the [Bush] tax cuts for two years but end them for good in 2013.” Francis Cianfrocca responds at the New Ledger:

For some reason, I had thought Peter Orszag was an economist. But his arguments in today’s New York Times at every turn are based only on political calculations, particularly as regards the difficulty of getting Dems and Reps to agree on anything. His plan (extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone for two years) is attractive not for any economic sense it might make, but because it’s possible. Serendipitously, the tax cuts will end automatically, while every other outcome requires a vote in Congress.
And there’s not a nod given to the raging policy debate, which is: why isn’t the economy actually recovering, despite a huge stimulus and zero interest rates? His plan simply assumes a strong traditional recovery will be underway by 2013. If you can’t raise taxes now because of the hurt you’re putting on consumption, then on what basis do you think you’ll be able to in two years? Things might not be much better by then. Just like the “Summer of Recovery” marketing plan, this is based on assuming that a recovery will simply materialize. . . .

Please read the whole thing. Orzag assumes as a premise of his syllogism what is, in fact, a dubious thesis: That Keynesian stimulus actually works. Orzag further seems to assume that “tax cuts for the rich” cause deficits when, in fact, the federal deficit is caused by overspending, rather than by undertaxation.

By offering political assertions under the guise of economic “expertise,” Orzag is engaged in propaganda. Glad somebody called him out on it.

Category: Economics

Because It’s Awesome, That’s Why

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | Comments Off on Because It’s Awesome, That’s Why

OK, I don’t have to give you a reason why I’m posting this video, but if you insist on asking . . .

(Hat-tip: Quincy City Desk.)

Category: Alabama, Football, Video

Weigel on Delaware

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 17 Comments

Dave Weigel is a native of Delaware and has a feature at Slate about the Senate campaign between Mike Castle and Christine O’Donnell. He explains last week’s onslaught of negative attacks on O’Donnell:

When she declined to stand aside for Castle, who’s been eying an open Senate seat for years, the party ignored her.
It stopped ignoring her last month. In Alaska, Joe Miller . . . defied predictions and polls in order to beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary. The Tea Party Express, the political arm of the movement that had spent $550,000 on ads to help Miller, declared victory and planted a new flag in Delaware. O’Donnell, the group announced, would be the movement’s new cause, with ads and fundraising drives that would push her over the top.
The Republican establishment woke up and turned the cannons.

And that’s the story in a nutshell. Everyone who has been participating in the oppo-research dump on O’Donnell is doing the bidding of the same GOP Establishment that tried to foist Charlie Crist on an unwilling electorate.

Some people have accused O’Donnell of paranoia for complaining about being followed by video “trackers.” But from Weigel’s story, here’s the kick in the head:

She happily points out the tracker that Republicans have sent to follow her.

Yeah, that’s right: Republicans are paying these people to stalk her. It’s outrageous, and anyone who supports Mike Castle is endorsing that kind of tactic in what is — I feel obliged to point out — a GOP primary for an open seat. This is what the Not One Red Cent rebellion is about: The party establishment need to stop meddling in contested primaries.

Let me repeat the question I asked over the weekend: How many pro-life voters in Delaware? Castle’s pro-choice, O’Connell’s pro-life, and that life-or-death issue ought to be decisive in a GOP primary.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

Category: Christine O'Donnell, Delaware, Election, Republicans, Senate

Expect A Typically Torpid Tea Party Take On That

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Uncoverage has an important post concerning our Progressive Overlords and the shiny new ways they will offer for us all to help with the financial crisis: “Obama Administration Begins the “Grab” for Private Retirement Accounts“.

That is an unfortunate title, no? I mean, given the amazingly high trust levels built up by the administration (if it looks non-triumphant, rotate the data 180 degrees about the X axis) we can place total confidence in the Administration to do the Fair Thing, ensuring only Bad People feel the pain. After all, Bad People caused all of this angst.

Let us consult again the Alinsky Book of Truth:

  1. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
  2. If you can’t have it, Bad People can’t have it.
  3. Bad People have because they stole.
  4. Having identified Bad People as thieves, it is only fitting and moral that the Administration relieve them of their ill-gotten gains and Fairly distribute them.

Bad People engage in Capitalism. We must thank our Progressive Overlords for saving us from Bad People.

Snark aside, the threat of Nationalizing 401(k) and IRA money underscores the need to repeal the 16th Amendment and ensure that the 9th and 10th Amendments undergo a strong revival.

RTWT

Category: Barack Obama, Progressivism

The Delivery, With Claire Berlinski

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Jimmie Bise’s The Sundries Shack gives us The Delivery, featuring Margaret Thatcher biographer Claire Berlinski. There Is No Alternative sounds like a great read (I wish list everything, then go on a spree later).
The chat interface for the podcast probably makes sense to whoever wrote it. I waded through the login and spent several minutes randomly Tweeting prior to realizing that the widget is tabbed, and the proper chat was on the other tab. The crowd was most lively.
Since Jimmie was so cool as to lift my question from the chat (could he recover the transcript for The Sundries Shack?) I should do the honor of linking him and mentioning it.
The question was the obvious Iron Lady / Sarah Palin comparison. I thought Claire articulated her answer quite well, to the point I had to agree.
Maybe Jimmie can excerpt that little bit, or at least mention an offset time for the harried.

Category: Blogging

Clueless Klein, Or, Why Congress Recalls A Toilet

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

Reboot Congress points to a particularly ignorant 17th Amendment outing by Ezra Klein, who either cannot or will not explore the reasons why giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys (O’Rourke).

Congress these days recalls a toilet. Not the bowl full of the unmentionable, but rather the tank. Specifically, the float and fill valve. Any useful system is stable. That is, some ‘negative feedback loop’ lets it know when enough is enough. The increasing height of the float closes the fill valve. Otherwise, that valve would effectively be a leak, overflowing the tank and flooding the bathroom.

When we look at What Went Wrong with the US Government, we should ask: where is that negative feedback loop? How does the Federal Government know when enough is enough? This was the whole point of delegating a few powers to, and ensuring separation of those powers within, that Federal government by those savvy gents a couple hundred years back.

The 17th Amendment was like yanking the float out of the tank. The size, scope, debt, and incumbency rate of the Federal government have increased, while the approval rating has decreased. Why? Combined with Amendment 16 and the Federal Reserve Act (also born in 1913), the District of Columbia is become the Distributor of Cash. Economic vitality which should bubble up from a private sector economy instead trickles down from an opaque, unaccountable Federal Reserve bank, propping up State and local governments that need to face their corruption.

This is not to argue that a repeal of the 17th Amendment would result in a less corrupt Senate. Rather, the problem would move back to the State houses. However, if a Mitt Romney is Governor of Massachusetts when a Ted Kennedy is up for renewal, there may be greater likelihood of a different flavor of corruption going to Washington, rather than something as atrocious as “Kennedy seat” ever escaping an American lip.

On its own, repealing the 17th Amendment and removing this short-circuit around the States is insufficient, in my view. The States are now dependent upon the Distributor of Cash for day-to-day function. This is why, during the 2008 Presidential debate, when asked about the housing crisis, noted visionary Senator John McCain said he’d have the Treasury work with lenders on the housing crisis. Knob.

The Administration’s non-approach to leadership, in unholy matrimony with the an infamous Congress, results in planning consisting of borrowing unrepayable amounts of money to keep a dead system alive as long as possible. What happens when countries ‘unexpectedly’ balk and buying US debt, and taxpayers balk at paying more taxes is unclear, though the blame will obviously be laid at the feet of Bush.

Putting Senators back under control of States, removing the 16th Amendment and doing major surgery on the Federal Reserve will allow for the restoration of the feedback loop. We can put the float back on the fill valve. As the tank gets full, or budget outlays approach the revenue limit, a Senate representing the interests of the several States, instead of this perverse Distributor of Cash, would be more likely to tell DC to lay by its dish.

The admittedly simple example of the toilet tank is only meant to communicate the notion of a negative feedback loop. The Federal government, and the wreckage of the last century, are going to require massive effort at every level to recover. We The People have to demonstrate commitment to entering a post-Progressive era, or the powers that be will simply await for the storm to blow over. Folks, the work is still in the beginning stages.

Giving historical decisions like the 17th Amendment a cold, hard look is crucial. In the Smith dictatorship, the Ezra Kleins will be forced to undertake some engineering education. I feel that the practical, tangible, physical discipline of making something work would be a desperately needed intellectual laxative for this sort. That, or the recorded wailings would sell well.

Category: Education, Progressivism

Labor Day Is Over . . .

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 6 Comments

. . . marking the official end of “Recovery Summer”:

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll.) Meanwhile, there’s good news and bad news: The good news is, the media have identified three endangered Democrat incumbents in Virginia.

The bad news: Jim Moran isn’t one of them.

Don’t be dismayed, however. Smitty keeps pounding hard for Patrick Murray, whose shocking upset of the obnoxious Moran will restore dignity to VA-8.

Also: A trio of political scientists predict a 79% likelihood of Republicans recapturing the House, with an estimated gain of 50 seats.

Update (Smitty): VA-8 residents are encouraged to spread this post around like Presidential chew toys.

Category: Congress, Election, Jim Moran, Patrick Murray, Virginia
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