"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
hilzoy by publius From TPM: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just told reporters that she does not believe she has enough votes in the House to pass the Senate health care reform bill as-is — at least not yet. Here's my proposed response: Not one dollar. Not one ounce of effort. Not one word of support. The … Read more
by publius (coming briefly out of retirement) Ezra Klein writes: If Democrats let go of health care, there is no doubt that a demoralized Democratic base will stay home in November. And that's as it should be. If the Democratic Party won't uphold its end of the bargain, there's no reason its base should pretend … Read more
by publius I've been going back and forth on this for some time. But I've decided it's time to take a break from blogging for a while, maybe longer. I'm not quitting for good — I consider it more like taking "senior status." I'll continue to post now and then (Sebastian-style), but not that frequently. … Read more
by publius The League of Ordinary Gentleman is a good blog — one you should be reading. However, one of the writers there, Mark Thompson, has recently shown some questionable judgment by deciding to interview me about admin law and FCC stuff. But you should overlook that. Seriously, the interview is here if you're interested. … Read more
by publius Via Ta-Nehisi, I saw this amazing Anderson Cooper interview of Todd Willingham's defense attorney, David Martin. It's enough to make you literally nauseous. Remember that Martin's zealous defense consisted of getting the babysitter to testify: The defense had tried to find a fire expert to counter Vasquez and Fogg’s testimony, but the one … Read more
by publius You'll be shocked to learn that Fred Hiatt opposes the public option. You'll be further shocked that his argument doesn't make much sense. Hiatt's main concern is cost control. He thinks (maybe correctly) that Congress is punting on controlling costs. Instead, Hiatt wants Congress (1) to impose taxes on employer-provided health care benefits; … Read more
by publius Despite its new momentum, the public option has a powerful new opponent — the White House. It's incredibly frustrating. Although Reid is close to getting 60 votes on cloture, Obama and Rahm (who, for all his bluster, is politically timid) are pushing for the "trigger," which is the same as nothing. The question, … Read more
by publius Works calls today. Have at it. To start — why does everyone seem to think Kings of Leon is good?
by publius I have to admit that I don't like the idea of the government stepping in to dictate compensation levels, TARP funds or no TARP funds. I'm certainly not morally opposed to it — heck, many of these people deserve far worse. The problem, though, is that I don't think the government is institutionally … Read more
by publius I wasn't expecting the good folks at RedState to endorse open networks. But RedState's Neil Stevens threw me for a loop with this one: [Open network regulations are bad because] [w]ealth will be redistributed, as cash-rich, massive market valued Internet firms will bully and get a free ride on capital-intensive, smaller market valued … Read more