Meet Susan Crawford, the co-chair for the Federal Communications Commission transition team for Barack Obama, and special assistant to the President in the Obama Administration (she has a blog here). A former law professor at the University of Michigan–one presumes that she has either departed permanently, or is on leave–Professor Crawford has some interesting ideas concerning the Internet. Namely, she wants it treated like a | Read More »
Really, I do. It’s a wonderful country, with a great many historic attractions, and the people are much nicer than myth would suggest. I just don’t want to conduct domestic and economic policy in the United States in the same way that the French conduct domestic and economic policy in France. Neither does Veronique de Rugy:
The tea parties that went on to commemorate Genuflection To The IRS Day have been a smashing success. A whole host of demonstrations popped up throughout the country and attracted large crowds. Public dissatisfaction with the bailout culture, massive deficit spending, and the general assault against free market capitalism manifested itself and made its presence felt in the national media. Try as some of the | Read More »
Seeking to convince us that “Speaking Freely, Biden Finds Influential Role,” the New York Times, instead, makes clear that the Vice President’s role is anything but influential. Consider: Top aides say it has become customary for Mr. Obama to solicit Mr. Biden’s opinion at the end of meetings. But his views by no means always carry the day. At one January meeting to discuss the | Read More »
One may well think so after having read this: Just as the economic news was relentlessly negative until the last few days, poll numbers for Republicans were horrific for months. So the GOP should be heartened by the first encouraging polling news it has received perhaps since Lehman Brothers defaulted in mid-September: Republicans have pulled even with Democrats on the generic congressional ballot test, according | Read More »
That–as I have argued in the past–is what the Obama Administration is doing. And yes, I am pretty sure that the Administration knows that the more it augments the sense of economic crisis, the more it improves its chances of passing its economic program. This, of course, makes the Administration’s public relations efforts deeply cynical. Is it too much to hope that it gets called | Read More »
While some may have thought that the Obama tax plan would sail through Congress relatively unopposed, the reality is turning out to be somewhat different: President Barack Obama’s call to raise taxes on high earners and greenhouse gas polluters met fierce opposition Tuesday from congressional Republicans and also a few Democrats. “I would never want to adversely affect anything that is charitable or good,” Rep. | Read More »
“The Audacity of Hype.” An excerpt: Continuing the tradition he established back when he was Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget has started a blog. I applaud this move if — if — it is meant to promote transparency. But while Orszag is a smart man and a formidable policy player, his blog appears | Read More »
High earners are planning to reduce their incomes so that they will not have to pay as much in taxes. This, of course, not only means that some people will take an income hit. It also means that an important segment of the population will be less productive economically. Cumulatively, this could have a very bad effect on the economy–especially when one considers its current | Read More »
So sayeth Mickey Kaus, who points out that the legislation appears to allow federal arbitrators to impose a two-year contract in the event that a newly unionized employer cannot come to an agreement with a new union. This will include “freezing in place hierarchies and job categories both across industries and within individual firms.” How anyone expects the economy to thrive and prosper when government | Read More »
You wonder if Maureen Dowd reads her own paper when she writes things like this: “Mr. Obama called W. on Friday to give him a heads-up about the repudiation on Iraq. Robert Gibbs said the call was not at all contentious.” Should someone tell her it wasn’t contentious because it marked the fulfillment not the repudiation of Bush’s Iraq policy? (Hence, the decision to leave | Read More »
“Bush probably would have given a very similar speech.” Do read the whole thing, of course, but that line was worth highlighting. As is the following: At the risk of heading into la-la land, I think Obama should have tipped his hat ever so slightly today to President Bush, Sen. McCain, and other Republicans who had supported the surge strategy, naming them and thanking them. | Read More »
The awful Obama Administration budget and its promises of deficit reduction are premised on the Administration’s belief that we will have robust growth in the economy within relatively short order. Trouble is that said assumption has no basis in reality: A sense of disconnect between the projections by the White House and the grim realities of everyday American life was enhanced on Friday, as the | Read More »
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I think not: In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Since then, the stock markethas fallen roughly 3,000 points, millions of jobs have been lost, | Read More »
Her dig at George W. Bush notwithstanding, it is clear that Nancy Pelosi’s veto of any prospect of reviving the assault weapons ban that Eric Holder and the Obama Administration want, demonstrates that despite the election, Second Amendment rights are still very much on the march. This little incident shows a great deal; we see that Congressional Democrats are very much aware of lines that | Read More »
They really don’t come as blunt as this: “The taxing aspect of this is worse than Robin Hood,” said economist Peter Morici, a University of Maryland professor. “He’s resurrecting class warfare for political gain.” Oh, and say hello once again to Ms. Rosy Scenario. She is a lovely lady, to be sure, but quite often, she promises far, far, far more than she delivers.
My response. A taste: Let it never be said that Barack Obama is not a very good communicator. While he has rightly been critiqued as being far better in front of a teleprompter than he is as an extemporaneous speaker, the fact remains that he is an exceedingly good orator when in front of a teleprompter. And since most people don’t bother to make a | Read More »
I missed this when it first got posted but Eric Posner has a very informative post on the origins of the acquiescence shown by the Office of Legal Counsel to the Office of the Presidency when it came to national security and the prosecution of war. The OLC’s stance on these issues was pretty well established in the Clinton Administration. When you read the following | Read More »
It is kicking the stock market while it is down: Stocks fell on Wednesday after President Barack Obama warned of stricter oversight for Wall Street, raising the specter of greater regulation that investors fear could sap profits. Obama’s comments near the market close rattled investors when he said financial institutions that pose a serious risk to markets should be subject to serious government supervision. “Whenever | Read More »
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