As readers here may be aware, I have transferred the bulk of my blogging and writing energies over to the New Ledger, which was founded by RedState alumni and which features a number of us there. I had sought, initially, to continue to post activist pieces here, while at the same time, blogging about politics, policy, and various other eclectic issues over at A Chequer-Board | Read More »
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:
Everyone complains about corruption, but . . . well . . . it’s not that no one does anything about it. Rather, it’s more that traditional anti-corruption efforts are so ineffective. We can pass laws until the cows come home, but all the laws in the world have done nothing to curb corruption. Dan Mitchell makes these points and then offers an alternative anti-corruption plan–shrink | Read More »
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 »
While I will continue to write at RedState concerning activism issues, the bulk of my blogging is going to be done over at A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days, which is lodged as part of The New Ledger. I would be delighted to see old RedState friends there.
I have no problem using taxes as a way to get rid of certain, discrete negative externalities, but anything beyond that is asking for trouble. So it is more than a little bizarre to find out that there are Florida Republicans behind a $1 per pack increase in cigarette taxes. Cigarettes are nasty things, but if you are trying–as these Florida Republicans are–to raise revenues | Read More »
Let’s have Congress investigate itself: While Congress has been flaying companies for giving out bonuses while on the government dole, lawmakers have a longstanding tradition of rewarding their own employees with extra cash — also courtesy of taxpayers. Capitol Hill bonuses in 2008 were among the highest in years, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks payroll data. The average House aide earned 17% more | 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 »
Harry Reid thinks that it is perfectly fine to filibuster judges appointed by Republican Presidents, but that it would be a sin against the Lord to filibuster Democratic health care reform plans. The fact that Reid is a Democrat probably has something to do with this, though you will never catch Reid admitting that. Not only is the Senate Majority Leader a hypocrite, he also | Read More »
Peter Wallison doesn’t toe the line of conventional wisdom when it comes to discussing the cause of the financial crisis. That’s a roundabout way of saying that he speaks truth:
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 »
Just an FYI for longtime readers: I am going to tend to my own blog for a while. It may not be all that long in the grand scheme of things before I get back to the RedState front page, but those who are interested in following my writing can find me at my personal site. We now return you to your regularly scheduled RedState.
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 »
My thoughts on the shape and nature of such an opposition can be found at the Arena. The joy of writing at a place like the Arena is that one has the opportunity to learn a great deal from smart and talented writers. Of course, from time to time, you get . . . well . . . people like Maggie Mahar, whose strawman arguments | 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 »
Detailed here. Note the reason why Pelosi dislikes House Republican Whip Eric Cantor: Pelosi has good personal relationship with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). But members of her leadership cadre are starting to really dislike Cantor, despite their public pose of studied indifference. Part of the reason: Cantor is employing many of the same techniques Pelosi used so successfully to torture former House | Read More »
House Democrats have killed off the school choice program currently going on in DC. If Senate Democrats and the White House–headed by a President who gets to send his kids to private school while poorer families in DC have to depend on the tender mercies of Congress and the White House to do the same–follow suit, the program will end. The Washington Post puts matters | Read More »
A good compendium of counterattack links is found here. But if that isn’t enough, we also have Warner Todd Huston explaining why Jindal is so important and why the other side feels so compelled to take him down. One can also watch the 60 Minutes piece on the Governor to realize the significance of Bobby Jindal. His political opponents realize that whatever the effect of | 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 »
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