Ten thoughts on last night’s de facto State of the Union speech; I’ll stick for now to the domestic-policy parts, as Obama had little enough newsworthy to say about national security and foreign policy (sample of Obama’s fresh thinking: “To seek progress towards a secure and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbors, we have appointed an envoy to sustain our effort.” Hey, nobody ever | Read More »
Uh-oh: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoids mention of terrorism or 9/11 in remarks prepared for her first congressional testimony since taking office, signaling a sharp change in tone from her predecessors. Napolitano is the first homeland security secretary to drop the term “terror” and “vulnerability” from remarks prepared for delivery to the House Homeland Security Committee, according to a copy obtained by The Associated | Read More »
Jake Tapper notices that Obama’s nominee for US Trade Representative, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, worked as a state and local lobbyist in Dallas; Tapper notes that he’s at least the fifth lobbyist picked for a significant position in the Obama Administration (and that’s before we consider family members like Joe Biden’s son or Tom Daschle’s wife). Here’s the Administration’s defense: “Ron Kirk has never | Read More »
Given the battery of problems President Obama’s Cabinet nominees and prominent Democrats have had paying their taxes, Democrats are undoubtedly relieved to see that a review by the State of Alaska has concluded that one very prominent Republican – Governor Sarah Palin – also owes the IRS money (H/T). The facts about Palin’s taxes, however, are dramatically different from those of Democrats like Tim Geithner, | Read More »
President Obama, like many presidents before him, would like to have it both ways: get broad bipartisan support for his domestic agenda without compromising it. Of course, in the real world, politics doesn’t work that way – you can charm, cajole, browbeat, bribe and blackmail your way to a handful of votes here and there, but unless (like Reagan) you have a substantial faction of | Read More »
A perfect display of what liberal “tolerance” means these days: apparently it’s now “intolerant” to put a crucifix in the classroom of a Catholic college. This comment is priceless: But sophomore Alex LoVerde, 20, believes a crucifix “pushes the Catholic religion” and does not belong in a classroom. “I think the Jesuit tradition is more of openness and tolerance,” LoVerde said. “I think that an | Read More »
If President Obama wants to do bipartisan legislation in the Senate, his best bet may be the co-sponsor of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman, etc. If he wants sole Democratic ownership of the colossal stimulus bill, he can just say “I won” and leave ready-to-make-a-deal Republicans without a reason to make a deal. Looks like Senator McCain has figured out that the President has chosen Door #2: | Read More »
The nature of the Supreme Court – life tenure, the fact that most Justices tend to live long and step down only when illness or death forces the issue, and the enormous stakes in each new Justice’s selection – tends unavoidably to set political commentators into full circling-buzzard mode at the first word that a Justice might be ill enough (or, in Justice Stevens’ case, | Read More »
The great baseball writer Bill James once opined, only partly tongue in cheek, that the one among the Lord’s divine duties that He really seemed to enjoy was punishing arrogance and hubris. Certainly history tells us that the Oval Office has served up a steaming plate of humble pie to many better men than Barack Obama over the years, and now it’s his turn. Recall | Read More »
The state of Kentucky has, for the past six days, been under a state of emergency declared by Gov. Steve Beshear last Tuesday in the aftermath of heavy winter storms that knocked out power lines and is being followed by flooding as the snow melts. * On Saturday, the state finally called up the entire Kentucky National Guard, its largest mobilization in its history, and | Read More »
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the federal appeals court sitting in Manhattan, rejected this morning a legal challenge by an attorney convicted on Long Island of possession of nunchaku, or chuka sticks, who argued that the Second Amendment protects his right to bear these traditional Okinawan weapons. The court’s decision, however, did not address whether the Second Amendment protects a | Read More »
There’s a long tradition of your basic ceremonial honors between the White House and the National Pastime, all of which is well and good even during times when you may not like the current occupant of the Oval Office. But really, does the game need to do this? The Chicago White Sox are aiming to release a President Barack Obama-themed version of their cap in | Read More »
There are many things – good and bad alike – to look back on from the Bush Administration, as befits only the 12th man in our history, and only the 7th since 1837, to serve a full 8 years in the Oval Office. Whether we like the task or not, conservatives need to continue defending the successes and good decisions of the Bush years, as | Read More »
UDATE: Since some people may not have gotten the shtick of this video, it’s supposed to be a military history of the US from about 1941-2006 or so, with the Americans being the hamburgers, and other nationalities similarly represented. We recognize that some people may not be ready for the use of tongue-in-cheek portrayals of more recent events, I just thought it was a very | Read More »
Dr. Manhattan is back blogging at The Atlantic’s Business section, and his first entry cautions against oversimplifying the argument, now in vogue, that the root of Wall Street’s downfall was public ownership (i.e., firms capitalized with shareholder money rather than owner-operated), noting that closely held hedge funds have also fallen prey at times to excessive and imprudent risk-taking:
The peace we seek in the world is not the flimsy peace which is merely an interlude between wars, but a peace which can endure for generations to come. It is important that we understand both the necessity and the limitations of America’s role in maintaining that peace. Unless we in America work to preserve the peace, there will be no peace. Unless we in | Read More »
I spoke too soon below in saying Kirsten Gillibrand was the non-nepotism choice for the NY Senate seat: Gillibrand’s father, Doug Rutnik, is an Albany insider and lobbyist whose ties to former GOP powerhouses Joe Bruno, George Pataki and Al D’Amato are legendary. In fact, Gillibrand won her seat when a state police domestic violence report about the GOP incumbent, John Sweeney, was mysteriously leaked, | Read More »
The New York Senate selection process, while not as big a disaster for the Democrats as in Illinois, has looked at times like a family soap opera, as Basil Paterson’s son had to decide who should replace Bill Clinton’s wife in the Senate: John F. Kennedy’s daughter? Mario Cuomo’s son, who was once married to Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter? We also had the amusing spectacle | Read More »
Riddle me this. One argument you hear tossed around these days is that Bush’s tax cuts somehow had something to do with the currently poor state of the economy. The argument is almost never backed by any serious attempt to explain how this is, simply that because the Bush critics don’t like his tax policy it must be to blame. More to the point, the | Read More »
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