Sebastian

Stimulus Polling

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by publius A new Post/ABC poll shows strong public support for the stimulus plan, and for Obama more generally.  The same poll also shows that Democrats are retaining large advantages over congressional Republicans. It's easy to look at these numbers and think, "Wow, the GOP blew it on the stimulus.  The public doesn't support them."  … Read more

The Ideology of Stimulus Refusal

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by publius A classic debate over the years has been whether materialism or ideology provides a more accurate explanation of historical events.  For instance, was the Cold War about imperialist conquest for resources?  Or did the revolutionary ideology of both the US and Soviet Union play a more important role in describing events?  Did the … Read more

Repeal the 17th Amendment?

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by publius If I were the snarking type, I might respond to George Will’s latest by saying something like “Shorter George Will – directly electing Senators harms America.”  But that’s not my style, so I’ll try to address the merits. In criticizing Feingold’s proposed amendment to require special elections for Senate vacancies, Will argues that … Read more

Even More Filibusters

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by publius Everyone else is talking about the filibuster, so I should add my two cents as well.  With one exception, I’m anti-filibuster on the merits (and have been for some time).  It’s antidemocratic, too-easily invoked, and … well, you know all this. All that said, I think it would be hypocritical for the Democrats … Read more

The Ghost of Mr. Toomey

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by publius Arlen Specter claims that several Congressional Republicans are secret stimulus supporters.  It’s all so very tragic – the stimulus support that dare not speak its name.  Who knows if he’s correct, but it sounds very plausible to me.  Especially this part: "When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the … Read more

Charming Company You’ve Got There

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by publius Even for the most cynical, this one was hard to believe.  The Post ran a story today about how more employers are challenging the unemployment benefits claims filed by their former employees.  Generally speaking, employees are entitled to these benefits unless they were "fired for misbehavior" or quit.  The ultimate benefit to the … Read more

The Debate Is Joined

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by publius Obama is starting to get his second wind – for the first time, he’s making aggressive and even openly partisan attacks against the stimulus opponents.  To which I say – it’s about time.  The Obama team has a tendency to be a few days late on tactics, but they’re pretty good when they … Read more

Priorities

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by publius The Post reports that unemployment offices are being overwhelmed by the number of claims they're receiving: Thousands of people in the Washington area and hundreds of thousands more across the country are waiting longer than they should for unemployment benefits at a time when they need the money the most because rising joblessness … Read more

The State of the Stimulus

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by publius I’m sensing a bit of Democratic anxiety – maybe even panic – about the stimulus bill.  And while I’m not exactly thrilled with how things are going, I think everyone needs to step back, chill, and look at the bigger picture. First, the stimulus bill remains one of the most aggressively progressive efforts … Read more

Obama Brings the Pitchfork

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by publius This image from tomorrow’s NYT made me so happy, I had to cut and paste it.  Quoting wasn’t enough – you have to see it in its natural splendor for the full effect. __________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ This is very good news – and surprisingly aggressive, frankly (assuming there aren’t loopholes).  And while I agree … Read more

More Pitchforks Please

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by publius A few days ago, a commenter argued that I should stop accusing Republicans of acting in bad faith on economic matters.  Instead, I should realize that most conservatives sincerely prefer these policies because they think the policies will ultimately help the country.  I’ve been thinking more about it, so here are some additional … Read more

Souring on Gregg

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by publius Via Ambinder, I see that New Hampshire's Governor Lynch has promised to appoint a Republican to replace Gregg.  To me, this promise makes the Gregg appointment seem a lot more risky.  In fact, a placeholder Republican could be far worse than Gregg himself. Here's why — Gregg was facing a very tough re-election … Read more

Help The Starving Rich People First

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by publius Shorter Amity Shlaes:  The history of the New Deal shows that Obama should give rich people a lot more money. For a slighter longer take, see Dean Baker: [Shlaes's] discussion is contradicted by the known facts of the era. Roosevelt's New Deal Agenda lowered the unemployment rate from 25 percent in 1933 to … Read more

Gregg at Commerce?

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by publius Let me say that I think Senator Gregg would be an outstanding Commerce Secretary.  There are few people in the entire history of mankind I admire more — and I think he'd do an excellent job. Needless to say, I'm thinking only — only — about the welfare of the Commerce Department.

They Just Don’t Work

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by publius A common critique I get in the comments (h/t Brett) is that I ascribe bad faith to Republicans too often.  That is, I should acknowledge that most Republicans favor policies because they think those policies will ultimately help people (regardless of their redistributive effects).   And that’s a fair critique – the Bush years … Read more

I’m OK, You’re OK

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by publius It’s easy – very easy – to ascribe bad motives to the House GOP’s united opposition to stimulus.  And bad motives are certainly part of the picture – but not all of it.  It’s just implausible to think that the entire caucus is voting in bad faith. That's why we should also see … Read more

The House GOP Goes All In

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by publius When you start losing in Texas Hold ‘Em, you eventually face a difficult choice – a crossroads if you will.  The problem is that your chip stack is getting smaller and smaller while the blinds take bigger and bigger chunks of your money each turn.  The choice then is whether to go down … Read more

Make It Bigger

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by publius Tomorrow’s Post article (via TPM) usefully outlines some criticisms of the current stimulus plan from Democrats – namely, too many tax cuts and too little public infrastructure investment.  This is a good development – the pressure on the bill shouldn’t be coming solely from the Eric Cantors of the world.  There needs to … Read more

The Costs of Hawkishness

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by publius One of my frustrations with debates about "hawkishness" is that the abstract arguments and imagery are wholly divorced from the reality that hawkishness creates.  In making arguments intended to make themselves feel serious and strong and morally clear, the hawks ignore the ultimate fruits of their labors — rubble, displacement, death, etc. And … Read more

Balance

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—by Sebastian   Now there is a mode of thinking I can get behind.  I don’t know if Obama’s speech will reflect the next four years, but if it does I can get behind it.  The speech was characterized by an attempt to move beyond the more rigid frames of ideologies, into what is Obama’s … Read more

The Magical Mystery Tour

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by publius I'm not entirely sure how to describe Bush's farewell address.  It was less a coherent description of the last eight years, and more like a hallucinogenic ride through some imaginary world in Bush's head. Although there was a lot of competition, this was probably my personal favorite: So around the world, America is … Read more

Comment Trolling on the GM Bailout

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—by Sebastian I figure comment trolling is ok when the comments are your own. In response to this, I wrote: "I thought I was just making the point that most people who favor things like the bailout do so not because they are unaware of the virtues of markets, but because they think that there … Read more

What Should You Do for Gay Rights

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–by Sebastian Now that Prop 8 has provided a temporary setback to marriage rights in California, I was thinking about what the best positive step next would look like.  Eventually there will probably have to be another vote, and the best thing I can think of for that is rather mundane.  In the next weeks … Read more

Prop 8 and the Black Vote

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–by Sebastian

I saw this interesting post from Ta-Nehisi Coates on California’s Prop 8 (the amendment reversing the CA Supreme Court allowing gay marriage).  I was going to leave this response to the post and comments, but he closed the comments because they were getting ugly. 

I found Prop 8 very annoying.  Its existence was in response to what I thought was a poor strategic decision on the part of gay rights advocates—to take the faster court route rather than plodding through the legislature for a few more years.  I thought that going through the courts was likely to produce a backlash that would make gay marriage ultimately take longer to get than if we stuck to the California legislature and governor.  But, once it was before the people, I of course supported voting against the initiative.  Allowing gay marriage is the right thing to do.  In any case, the comment I tried to post is quite a bit more limited in scope and is based on the statistical information available as of Wednesday morning November 5, 2008:

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Right 16 out of the last 17

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link When the Redskins win their final home game before the presidential election, the incumbent party stays in office. When the Redskins lose their final home game before the election the incumbent party loses, except in 2004. Pretty simple, right? Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau discovered it’s happened precisely that way 16 of … Read more

The Main Principle for a Market Intervention

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I’m a bailout skeptic.  Not because I think that nothing should be done, but because the tendency of government in crisis is to overreact in ways that cause long term problems (think WPA and price controls in the Depression, or at least 80% of the reaction to 9/11).  But on the other hand, if a … Read more

Bed for the scraping

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by von Hilzoy has written a number of times about how Maliki’s various (and varying) statements are a big problem for McCain.  Maybe she’s right, but, to me, that’s not the real story. The real story is simpler but less evident.  The real story is that viewpoints on Iraq are converging.  Obama and McCain have … Read more

Don’t Get Stuck: Ledbetter and Congressional Choice

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–Sebastian For some reason I was reading about the Ledbetter case, and recent Congressional attempts to reverse the Supreme Court ruling.  The thing the struck me most, was how odd it was that Congress was letting itself get stuck in the narrow role of directly addressing the Supreme Court’s ruling in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ … Read more

McCain goes Racist?

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"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," he said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, McCain cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were … Read more

Is the Clinton Campaign Crazy?

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The associated press quite a story on the Michigan/Florida delgates here.  Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign who voted for Democratic Party rules that stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass. In a conference call Saturday, the longtime Democratic Party … Read more

I object to this headline

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"Female Suicide Bombers kill 72 people at Baghdad Markets" Remote-controlled explosives were strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome and detonated in coordinated attacks on two Friday morning markets in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 72 people and wounding nearly 150. … The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed … Read more

The good news

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I’ve haven’t been a big fan of McCain since his atrocious anti-First Amendment campaign finance law.  But the good news about his win in Florida, and the almost certainty of his nomination for Republican candidate, is that the Republican candidate is decidedly anti-torture.  Yikes, I wish that had never even been a question.  Otherwise, open … Read more