Saturday, March 04, 2006
State Populations
After reading this article about Vermont's population issues I was curious to see what the population projections were for the various states. This excel file provides Census's Bureaus current projections. A few things struck me as odd. Will Idaho really be the 6th fastest growing state, increasing its population by about 50%? I also can't imagine DC losing a quarter of its population.
Golden Boy
During the early-mid 90s there probably wasn't any political figure who got more media fluffing than Ralph Reed. The universe probably does not like me this much, but dare to dream.
Messiah Revisited
I updated this Blair post because I had a bit of early morning reading comprehension problem.
Busby
Francine Busby gave the Democrats' radio address today. She's running in a special election for the Dukestir's seat. If you're in or near CA-50 (roughly the northern bits of San Diego county) you can find what you can to do help out here.
Or you can throw a couple Hamiltons down here.
Or you can throw a couple Hamiltons down here.
Fristed
Cheater and a hypocrite. From Firedoglake.
Frist then:
Frist now:
Frist then:
The [Intelligence] Committee’s nonpartisan tradition has been carefully cultivated over the years by its members. The tradition is part and parcel of the Committee’s rules, which extend prerogatives to the Minority that are not found in other committee rule books.
For a quarter century, there has been a consensus in the Senate that the Committee’s nonpartisan tradition must be carefully safeguarded. Nothing less is acceptable, given the dangerous and sensitive nature of the subject matter for which it has oversight responsibility
Frist now:
The Committee was established and structured to reflect the Senate’s desire for bipartisanship, and to the maximum extent possible, nonpartisan oversight of our nation’s intelligence activities. If attempts to use the committee’s charter for political purposes exist, we may have to simply acknowledge that nonpartisan oversight, while a worthy aspiration, is simply not possible. If we are unable to reach agreement, I believe we must consider other options to improve the Committee’s oversight capabilities, to include restructuring the Committee so that it is organized and operated like most Senate Committees.
Rehabbing Brownie
I think it's very simple. There have been a parade of former Bushies who, long after they have an ability to make a difference, tepidly criticize the administration to the applause of "sensible" liberals everywhere. Not one of them came forward when it mattered. Brownie could've gotten on TV and said "I'm trying to help the people of New Orleans and all President Bush wants to do is schedule a photo op." He didn't. Not one of these people have had the courage to do the right thing when it mattered.
Messiah
I understand that religious people can look to their God and their religion for guidance in their lives, and believe that their decisions are in fact informed by both, but that's something entirely different from believing that their decisions are in fact, by definition, God's Will Made Manifest. Such people are dangerous luantics with Messiah complexes and are unfit to be anywhere near the levers of power.
Blair's role in publc life should be limited to ranting away on a stool at Speakers' Corner if this he how he views himself.
UPDATE: This post is totally unwarranted. Blair's a wanker but I had a wee bit of a reading comprehension when I read this earlier. Blair's comments were in the spirit of "I'll do whatever I want and then let God sort its rightness out" and not as I first read meaning "I'm god's right hand man." I had read the bit about God's judgment as being the judgment to go to war, and not judgment of Blair's decision to do so.
Details emerged Friday of Blair's interview on an ITV1 television talk show where he said God and history would judge his action in joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
"That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with, and in the end there is a judgment that -- well, I think if you have faith about these things then you realise that judgment is made by other people," Blair said in the interview with host Michael Parkinson which will air Saturday night.
Pressed to clarify what he meant, Blair, a devout Christian, replied: "If you believe in God, it's made by God as well."
Blair's role in publc life should be limited to ranting away on a stool at Speakers' Corner if this he how he views himself.
UPDATE: This post is totally unwarranted. Blair's a wanker but I had a wee bit of a reading comprehension when I read this earlier. Blair's comments were in the spirit of "I'll do whatever I want and then let God sort its rightness out" and not as I first read meaning "I'm god's right hand man." I had read the bit about God's judgment as being the judgment to go to war, and not judgment of Blair's decision to do so.
Health Care
Krugman and Wells have a good NYRB on health care on what to do about it. It's long so there isn't that much point in excerpting much overall, but I thought this was a nice clear explanation of the problem of adverse selection in insurance markets:
Here's how it works: imagine an insurer who offered policies to anyone, with the annual premium set to cover the average person's health care expenses, plus the administrative costs of running the insurance company. Who would sign up? The answer, unfortunately, is that the insurer's customers wouldn't be a representative sample of the population. Healthy people, with little reason to expect high medical bills, would probably shun policies priced to reflect the average person's health costs. On the other hand, unhealthy people would find the policies very attractive.
You can see where this is going. The insurance company would quickly find that because its clientele was tilted toward those with high medical costs, its actual costs per customer were much higher than those of the average member of the population. So it would have to raise premiums to cover those higher costs. However, this would disproportionately drive off its healthier customers, leaving it with an even less healthy customer base, requiring a further rise in premiums, and so on.
Fristed
The cowardly Frist is planning to do the only thing Republicans know how to do well - cheat.
Shorter John Tierney
Please overlook the fact that journalists at prominent papers have union contracts and the protections that go with them.
Friday, March 03, 2006
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