Sunday, September 02, 2007
More And Better Libertarians
Economic freedom depriving laws and regulations largely do originate in state and local governments, so one would find it a bit easier to cheer on libertarians who focused on such things. They aren't as sexy, but they're sometimes the kind of things even this big gov't loving liberal can love to hate.
Solved?
As any regular viewer of TV cop shows knows, homicide investigators are obsessed with some version of "the board" which contains the color-coded names of open and closed cases. Failure to close cases is very bad.
Many people get killed in Philadelphia. It's very bad. I've noticed recently that the press doesn't really have a version of "the board," or at least one that I can find. That is, while there's a regular tally of deaths, there isn't a regular tally of how many of these cases have been solved.
Many people get killed in Philadelphia. It's very bad. I've noticed recently that the press doesn't really have a version of "the board," or at least one that I can find. That is, while there's a regular tally of deaths, there isn't a regular tally of how many of these cases have been solved.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Document the atrocities.
Awesome.
NBC’s “Meet the Press,” — Guests: James Carville and Bob Shrum, Democratic strategists; Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy, Republican strategists.
•“Fox News Sunday,” — Guests: Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat; Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican; Ed Gillespie, White House counselor and former Republican National Committee chairman.
•ABC’s “This Week,” — Guests: Sen. Charles Schumer, New York Democrat; Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican.
•CBS’ “Face the Nation,” — Guests: Sen. Joe Biden, Delaware Democrat; Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican.
•CNN’s “Late Edition,” — Guests: Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Republican; Rep. Kendrick Meek, Florida Democrat; Laith Kubba, former Iraqi government spokesman; Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton; Ben Ginsberg, former counsel to the Republican National Committee.
Awesome.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
While We're On My Genius Predictions
March, 2004:
And, no, I had no idea that lending standards would get so lax and that rating agencies would looking the other way, but...
- Has the entire country gone insane?
Now I'm starting to get a little scared. More than a little scared, actually. First we have this little tidbit about Alan Greenspan recommending that consumers replace their fixed rate mortages with variable rate ones.
Then I look around and discover that quite a few people have been getting variable rate mortgages.
This is really scary. A lot of people have been concerned about a bursting housing bubble happening once interest rates start to rise. Even if that happens it wouldn't necessarily be such a big deal. But, if a large chunk of our population got suckered into getting variable rate mortgages so they could go from buying a house the couldn't afford to buying a house they REALLY REALLY couldn't afford, the impact of an interest rate rise could be, uh, bad.
Here's the deal. Interest rates go up. Your housing price falls. Your mortgage payment goes up substantially. You can no longer afford to make your mortgage payment. And, since the market value of your house is now less than the value of your outstanding loan, you can't just sell and trade down. Default. Foreclosure. Cardboard box.
As long as most consumers have fixed rate loans, the consequences of increased interest rates and a sudden housing price downturn wouldn't necessarily be so great. But, if people are drinking Greenspan's kool-aid...
And, no, I had no idea that lending standards would get so lax and that rating agencies would looking the other way, but...
Grim Panel
Indeed, it is very grim.
And while the Senate Leader is technically Harry Reid, the real leaders of the Democratic party at the moment are Senators Obama and Clinton. They can get press (if not always fair and accurate press) any time they want. They have a prominent platform and a large megaphone which they could use not simply to inspire voters but to browbeat their colleagues, plot a course of action, enlist their supporters into helping push through a legislative agenda, etc.
They could, you know, lead instead of campaign. The former might even help the latter.
That's assuming they want to.
I'm not all that much into the predictions game, but we're only a couple of month away from the due date for my prediction last Nov. 29 that two Friedmans from then we'd still have 120,000+ troops in Iraq. That will undoubtedly come true, and it will almost certainly be true on Nov. 29, 2008.
As for amateurs not getting what was going on, don't sell yourself short Kevin, you knew what was going on all along as did the rest of us. The fact that our elected leaders have chosen to play along is perhaps something we should have predicted, though I don't know what we could have done about it.
And while the Senate Leader is technically Harry Reid, the real leaders of the Democratic party at the moment are Senators Obama and Clinton. They can get press (if not always fair and accurate press) any time they want. They have a prominent platform and a large megaphone which they could use not simply to inspire voters but to browbeat their colleagues, plot a course of action, enlist their supporters into helping push through a legislative agenda, etc.
They could, you know, lead instead of campaign. The former might even help the latter.
That's assuming they want to.
I'm not all that much into the predictions game, but we're only a couple of month away from the due date for my prediction last Nov. 29 that two Friedmans from then we'd still have 120,000+ troops in Iraq. That will undoubtedly come true, and it will almost certainly be true on Nov. 29, 2008.
As for amateurs not getting what was going on, don't sell yourself short Kevin, you knew what was going on all along as did the rest of us. The fact that our elected leaders have chosen to play along is perhaps something we should have predicted, though I don't know what we could have done about it.
Not Just ETA
While ETA gets a wee bit of attention due to the semi-regular tendency to blow stuff up, Spain's multicultural problems are a bit more complex than one ethnic/regional independence movement. It is a "nation of nations" or "nation of nationalities," and the cultural-linguistic differences, along with independence movements of varying degrees of popularity and intensity, aren't limited to the Basque region.
Catalunya lliure!
Catalunya lliure!
September
Chris Matthews show, May 6:
Ms. PARKER: Well, we have to stay the course, give it a shot. I don't think they're behind the surge, but I think everybody here is right in saying that, come September, by the end of the summer, if they don't see something, then they can say, `Look, we gave it our best shot, now we need to do something different.'
...
Mr. IGNATIUS: More than anything else, he can say, `I called for more troops three years ago. I called for support of the president's surge. It isn't working. This is not a policy that's going to succeed.' And he has the credibility to do that without appearing to crack under pressure. And we've talked on your show, Chris, about the Baghdad primary. And that's coming up in September. And in September we're going to know, is this policy failing, is it succeeding in any measure...
...
Mr. IGNATIUS: Chris, you know, we're now in the season of benchmarks. And I think that, you know, I think there's going to be a bipartisan agreement on benchmarks that will apply this fall. And there'll be a series of indices about, you know, what has the government done? Has it passed this law? Has it done this reconciliation thing?
Ms. BORGER: Mm-hmm.
Mr. IGNATIUS: If those things haven't happened, I think everybody's going to
jump ship.
...
Mr. DUFFY: I would not wait for the presidential candidates to take the lead here. You know, if leadership is going to come from Republicans on the war at--for a change of course, it's going to come from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who Democrats are going to force to vote on this three, four, five times between now and September. And they're already getting tired of voting `I'm with the president.'
Come September
Broder, last May:
Of course, that was back when "surge success" was defined as "making political progress" rather than "if we count arbitrary numbers of bodies and measure that number against arbitrary dates then we can pretend WE'RE WINNING."
But it is only for now. Come September, when Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, says that he will be able to judge whether the new tactics and the nearly 30,000 additional troops have turned the tide in the effort to reduce the carnage in Baghdad, different political forces will prevail.
If he is successful and if the Iraqis begin to make the political accommodations needed to form a stable government, the president will be in a far better position to rally domestic support for the cause. If not, you can expect to see many congressional Republicans joining the Democrats in a demand for a "Plan B" that would probably lead to an early exit by a substantial portion of American troops.
Of course, that was back when "surge success" was defined as "making political progress" rather than "if we count arbitrary numbers of bodies and measure that number against arbitrary dates then we can pretend WE'RE WINNING."
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