Month: November 2008

Shifting Resources

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room. Yet all three of his choices … Read more

Auto Industry Bleg

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by hilzoy I’ve been trying to understand the problems of the auto industry, and on a couple of points I can’t quite seem to figure out what’s going on. So I thought: why not ask? (1) A quote from Business Week: “Everyone knows that GM is over-branded. (…) At the core of GM’s problems is … Read more

Workplace Safety

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job.” “The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says … Read more

Krauthammer Annoys My Inner Pedant

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by hilzoy I don’t normally read Charles Krauthammer, but Heather Hurlburt at Democracy Arsenal does, and she flagged this startling paragraph: “In the old days — from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue — if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance … Read more

Who’s In Charge Here?

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by hilzoy From the WSJ: “Under fire for his role in the near-collapse of Citigroup Inc., Robert Rubin said its problems were due to the buckling financial system, not its own mistakes, and that his role was peripheral to the bank’s main operations even though he was one of its highest-paid officials.” “”Nobody was prepared … Read more

Annals Of Self-Deception

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “In an interview conducted earlier this month by his sister, Doro Bush Koch, Mr. Bush said he wanted to be remembered “as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process.”” “”I came to Washington with a set of values, and … Read more

Mortgages And Bankruptcy

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by hilzoy A bankruptcy judge in the Washington Post: “Homeowners are the only ones who cannot modify the terms of their secured debts in bankruptcy. Corporate America flocks to bankruptcy courts to do precisely this — to restructure and reamortize loans whose conditions they find onerous or can no longer meet. Airlines are still flying … Read more

I Wanna be Your Backdoor Plan

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by Eric Martin Some interesting SOFA related goings-on in the past twenty-four hours.  A parliamentary vote on the SOFA scheduled for today was postponed until Thursday after Sunni lawmakers witheld their support pending concessions a number of issues.  The demands put forth by the Sunni bloc (acting in tandem with smaller Shiite parties) include progress … Read more

The 4% Doctrine

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by Eric Martin As discussed in a prior post, there is a showdown looming on the horizon between an Obama administration that will be faced with the stark fiscal realities of the post-Bush era, and a Pentagon maneuvering to ensure that its outsized share of the federal budget remains intact and untouched – expanded even.  … Read more

Hunger

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by hilzoy From the Washington Post: “Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on … Read more

Throw The Bums Out

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by hilzoy In a sign that the End Times are upon us, I actually agree with a WSJ Opinion column: “Another Sunday night, another ad hoc bank rescue rooted in no discernible principle. U.S. taxpayers, who invested $25 billion in Citigroup last month, will now pour in another $20 billion in exchange for preferred shares … Read more

Brennan Is Out

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by hilzoy Tonight was the night that I had set aside to go over John Brennan’s record in detail and post on it. But lo! I don’t have to: “John Brennan, President-elect Barack Obama’s top adviser on intelligence, took his name out of the running Tuesday for any intelligence position in the new administration. Brennan … Read more

Reality Bites

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by Eric Martin Despite efforts by the likes of Fred Kagan to portray the potential ratification of the SOFA as a great defeat for Iran (it isn’t), reality is stubborn, uncoopearative and has a liberal bias: Was he an Iranian arms smuggler or did he restore religious sites? Was that white powder he had on … Read more

The Political Isn’t Personal

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by publius Poor poor Susan Collins – she might have considered voting with Dems if only they hadn’t been such meanies: Collins told colleagues . . . she still felt lingering resentment toward Democratic senators who campaigned against her in Maine. She confessed that she had “trouble forgiving colleagues” who traveled to Maine and told … Read more

Supporting Our Troops Yet Again

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by hilzoy From the LATimes, another story about the Bush administration deciding to nickel-and-dime wounded veterans: “Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq — by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. … Read more

Poverty

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by hilzoy The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has a new report on the likely effects of the recession on poverty. As you might expect, they aren’t pretty: “Goldman Sachs projects that the unemployment rate will rise to 9 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009 (the firm has increased its forecast for the … Read more

New Assignments

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by hilzoy Note to Barack Obama: there are ways to deal with all those unqualified appointees that Bush has smuggled into the civil service: “A MAVERICK Thai general who has threatened to bomb anti-government protesters and drop snakes on them from helicopters has been reassigned as an aerobics teacher, the Bangkok Post said on Friday. … Read more

Citi

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by hilzoy From the WSJ: “Citigroup Inc. is nearing agreement with U.S. government officials to create a structure that would house some of the financial giant’s risky assets, according to people familiar with the situation. While the discussions remain fluid and might not result in an agreement, talks were progressing Sunday toward creation of what … Read more

Shopping For Regulators

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by hilzoy Last March, Barack Obama gave a good speech on the subprime crisis in which he made a very important point: “We need to regulate institutions for what they do, not what they are. Over the last few years, commercial banks and thrift institutions were subject to guidelines on subprime mortgages that did not … Read more

Desolation

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by hilzoy One of the odder things about me is that I’m almost an animist when it comes to houses. It’s not that I actually believe they are alive, but I think things like: every house deserves to have someone who loves it. They can’t maintain themselves, after all, and if they’re doing their best … Read more

Seeking the Wisdom of the Crowd

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by publius Megan McArdle takes a stab at justifying the proposition that GM workers make $70/hour (contra Cohn and Salmon, who say $28). Basically, to get to $70, you have to add in retiree health care. And so here’s the part I don’t understand: So from the worker’s point of view, it is true, they … Read more

Making It Explicit

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by hilzoy James Pethokoukis in US News (h/t Sullivan): “Recently, I stumbled across this analysis of how nationalized healthcare in Great Britain affected the political environment there. As Norman Markowitz in Political Affairs, a journal of “Marxist thought,” puts it: “After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative … Read more

The Cabinet Comes Into View

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by hilzoy I’m quite impressed by the way Barack Obama’s cabinet is shaking out. Eric Holder seems to be a superb choice for Attorney General, as is Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security. I’m really happy about Daschle at HHS — both because I think it raises the chances that we’ll actually get a serious health … Read more

Open Thread: Brit Pop Variety

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by Eric Housemartin An open thread to offer the unruly mob a location to shout at each other in wicked ALL CAPS all weekend long.  Some incontrovertible truths to get the nastiness started: 1. Blur is better than Oasis. 2. Parklife is Blur’s best record, and one of the best records of that decade. 3. … Read more

Who Decides?

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by publius One last point on the Christian Right. In Orin Kerr’s admittedly insightful post, he views the culture wars through a “political process” lens. That is, he argues that social conservatives’ preferred constitutional positions (e.g., abortion, school prayer, gay rights) simply preserve the political process. Liberal positions, by contrast, remove those issues from the … Read more

Mukasey Collapses

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by hilzoy From TPM: “Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed this evening while giving a speech to Federalist Society in Washington, DC. (…) As best we can tell no news service has any new substantive information about the AG’s health, other than the initial news that he began slurring his speech and then shaking and then … Read more

Day Of Remembrance

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by hilzoy Today is the Transgender Day Of Remembrance, on which we remember those who were murdered because they were transmen or transwomen. Last year there were thirty such murders that we know of; there were surely many that happened unrecorded. It’s worth reading this list, and thinking of them. Donna Rose: “These things are … Read more

Essence Of Oogedy-Boogedy

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by hilzoy Steve Benen flagged an op-ed in the WSJ that has to be in the running for Dumbest Column Ever. It starts with fairly conventional War on Christmas stuff: “Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.” Right. But then it launches itself off into the great empyrean of stupid: “This year we … Read more

Say They Want You Successful, but That ain’t the Case, You Livin Large, Your Skin Is Dark, They Flash a Light In Your Face*

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by Eric Martin Evan Kohlmann offers some further insight into the issue of al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri’s racially charged critique of President-elect Obama: Clearly, Al-Qaida is seeking to undermine the surge of popularity and enthusiasm for the Obama victory that has spread throughout the developing world, and particularly in Africa — where Al-Qaida has strong … Read more

Waxin’ and Milkin’

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by Eric Martin Yet one more cause for election-related celebrations: Rep. Henry Waxman unseated fellow veteran Democratic lawmaker John Dingell on Thursday to become chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. The 255-House Democratic conference voted 137 to 122 to accept the recommendation of its steering committee and agreed to … Read more

The Psychology of Oogedy-Boogedyism

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by publius

Kathleen Parker’s column has stirred up a lot of debate about what exactly is so “oogedy-boogedy” about the “Christian Right.” (Jonah Goldberg thinks not much; Kevin Drum disagrees). It’s true that many liberals and secularish conservatives are a bit freaked out by that particular wing of the party – but why exactly?

It’s certainly not because of religion alone. And it’s not simply because liberals strongly disagree with social conservatives’ political views. I mean, I happen to think that strong versions of economic libertarianism are pretty silly – if not downright pernicious (though I do consider myself a hard core social libertarian). But I don’t have the visceral loathing toward economic libertarians that I have toward, say, James Dobson or Sarah Palin. Why is that?

Personally, I think the oogedy-boogedyness stems from fear – on some level, liberals are simply afraid of social conservatives. Fairly or no, liberals perceive them as a direct and credible threat to their own personal liberties.

Interestingly, this same fear is precisely why social conservatives loathe liberals – on some level, they are afraid of us. Orin Kerr had a very insightful post on this issue a few months back. His question was simple – why do conservatives care so much about the courts? In particular, why do average conservatives obsess about courts more than average liberals do?

His answer was that conservatives tend to perceive courts as direct threats to their personal lives. He writes:

For conservatives — especially social conservatives, and especially religious conservatives — the question has been whether the courts will allow their views, not whether the courts will mandate them.

For liberals, by contrast, the question has merely been whether the court will mandate their preferred views on “hot button” cultural issues such as abortion and school prayer. I’d quibble with parts of his post, but I think he’s right at least in terms of perceptions. Conservatives hate courts because they view them as direct and tangible attacks on their liberties. That’s the same reason why social conservatives hate liberals.

I think a similar dynamic, however, exists with liberal perceptions of social conservatives.

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Don’t Throw Me In That Briar Patch!

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by hilzoy Well, this is interesting: “The health insurance industry said Wednesday that it would support a health care overhaul requiring insurers to accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability. But in return, the industry said, Congress should require all Americans to have coverage. (…) The industry’s position differs from that of Mr. Obama … Read more

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

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by Eric Martin Dean Baker on the real-time revisionist™* hagiography of Henry Paulson put forth by the Washington Post: The first part of a two-part profile of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s actions in the crisis is headlined "A Conversion in ‘This Storm.’" The headline implies that the economic crisis is something that came out of … Read more