Wednesday, August 3, 2011
She has a way with words
Sarah Palin: "If we were really domestic terrorists, shoot, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us wouldn’t he? I mean he didn’t have a problem with paling around with Bill Ayers back in the day when he kicked off his political career in Bill Ayers apartment, and shaking hands with Chavez and saying he doesn’t need any preconditions with meeting dictators or wanting to read US Miranda rights to alleged suspected foreign terrorists. No if we were real domestic terrorists I think President Obama wouldn’t have a problem with us."
This is a response to Biden and others calling the Tea Party terrorists during the debt crisis.
This is a response to Biden and others calling the Tea Party terrorists during the debt crisis.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
DOW falls below 12,000. Why?
The debt ceiling bill passed today and the DOW plunged 265 points and closed below 12,000. What does this mean?
This can only mean one of two things (or both): either 1) there never was any economic calamity to be feared if the debt limit was not raised, or 2) essentially zero investors thought there was any chance the ceiling would not be increased. On any interpretation, key aspects of the media narrative of the last month or more were wrong.Or maybe they just don't believe the deal went far enough.
So extraordinary
Peter Wehner, in a post entitled "The Rapid Collapse of Liberal Presidents," recalls the cult of Obama in 2008. He notes that Obama's declining popularity is similar to that of Johnson and Carter. The best part of this post is the quote from historian Alan Brinkley: “The extraordinary outpouring of celebration, joy, and hope all over the world at this election is something I could never have imagined in my lifetime,” according to Professor Brinkley.”There’s a discipline to Obama that is so extraordinary,” he raved. And then he added: “I don’t think we’ve had a president since Lincoln who has the oratorical skills that Obama has. Obama has that quality that Lincoln had.” LOL. Can you believe it?
Save our credit rating?
The debt deal won't save our credit rating. Why should it? It was not good enough.
UPDATE: See here.
UPDATE: See here.
The latest oxymoron
Trying to learn clear writing in college is like trying to learn sobriety in a bar. It's the latest oxymoron: College English.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Guns to their heads
Joe Biden calls Tea Parties terrorists. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said the same. For example, "Earlier in the day, Biden told Senate Democrats that Republican leaders have “guns to their heads” in trying to negotiate deals."
Tea Party wins
The Washington Post claims that the Tea Party won the debt fight. When Obama took office, he became the big spender in the Stimulus bill and Obamacare, but no one is even talking about doing that again.
The WSJ takes the same view. "The big picture is that the deal is a victory for the cause of smaller government, arguably the biggest since welfare reform in 1996. Most bipartisan budget deals trade tax increases that are immediate for spending cuts that turn out to be fictional. This one includes no immediate tax increases, despite President Obama's demand as recently as last Monday. The immediate spending cuts are real, if smaller than we'd prefer, and the longer-term cuts could be real if Republicans hold Congress and continue to enforce the deal's spending caps." ...
The tea partiers pride themselves on adhering to the Constitution, which was intended to make political change difficult. Yet in this deal they've forced both parties to make the biggest spending cuts in 15 years, with more cuts likely next year. The U.S. is engaged in an epic debate over the size and scope of government that will play out over several years, and the most important battle comes in the election of 2012.
Tea partiers will do more for their cause by applauding this victory and working toward the next, rather than diminishing what they've accomplished because it didn't solve every fiscal problem in one impossible swoop.
The WSJ takes the same view. "The big picture is that the deal is a victory for the cause of smaller government, arguably the biggest since welfare reform in 1996. Most bipartisan budget deals trade tax increases that are immediate for spending cuts that turn out to be fictional. This one includes no immediate tax increases, despite President Obama's demand as recently as last Monday. The immediate spending cuts are real, if smaller than we'd prefer, and the longer-term cuts could be real if Republicans hold Congress and continue to enforce the deal's spending caps." ...
The tea partiers pride themselves on adhering to the Constitution, which was intended to make political change difficult. Yet in this deal they've forced both parties to make the biggest spending cuts in 15 years, with more cuts likely next year. The U.S. is engaged in an epic debate over the size and scope of government that will play out over several years, and the most important battle comes in the election of 2012.
Tea partiers will do more for their cause by applauding this victory and working toward the next, rather than diminishing what they've accomplished because it didn't solve every fiscal problem in one impossible swoop.
Death of Keynesian economics
Dick Durbin (D-Ill) says that the debt deal ends Keynesian economics. I hope so. John Maynard Keynes was a British economist whose ideas were employed in the New Deal of the 1930s. Keynesian economics totally failed to end the Depression and in fact continued it for 10 years.
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