Archive for 'Domestic Affairs'

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

The Shame Of The Ignorance Peddlers

Frequent readers know that I am an unapologetic 100% free-trader. I’ve made the case elsewhere, so here I will simply state that no movement in human history has improved the lot of so many as the development of trade, particularly in the modern democratic, capitalist sense. And yet America, a country that has […]

9 Comments » - Posted in Elephants, Domestic Affairs, Donkeys, Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Democratic Candidates by Mark

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Thursday, April 10th, 2008

More On The PPA

That’s the Protectionist Party of America, formerly known as the Democratic Party. From the Washington Post editorial board (titled Drop Dead, Columbia):
THE YEAR 2008 may enter history as the time when the Democratic Party lost its way on trade. Already, the party’s presidential candidates have engaged in an unseemly contest to adopt the […]

15 Comments » - Posted in Barack Obama, Domestic Affairs, Donkeys, Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Democratic Candidates by Mark

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Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

How Craven Are The Democrats In Their Know-Nothing Appeasement of Economic Illiteracy?

So craven that Nancy Pelosi will rewrite the rules in the middle of the game to prevent consideration of a free-trade pact she helped craft in a blatantly obvious attempt to curry favor with protectionist progressives:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said today that Democrats will seek to delay consideration of a trade agreement with […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Barack Obama, Domestic Affairs, Donkeys, Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Democratic Candidates by Mark

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Thursday, March 27th, 2008

As Promised, Bear Sterns

It’s hard to take a consistent stand on principle when things are going badly…and this economy of ours faces some real big-time challenges of a sort that could quickly tip into ‘major disaster’ area. So while I oppose government intervention in private markets in principle, what is one to make of the Fed’s unprecedented […]

6 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs by Mark

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Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

On Bailouts, In General and Particular

It is, quite simply, wrong for government to bail out homeowners who are facing foreclosure in the tough credit markets that have followed the subprime meltdown. Inhumane? Perhaps…it’s gut-wrenching to watch people lose their homes. But if the market for mortgages is to have any meaning, the notion of ‘risk’ must be matched […]

15 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs by Mark

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Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

No Crisis In Social Security? Tell That To The Trustees

One of the odder political transformations of recent times has been the newfound disdain the American left has for the notion that Social Security is in trouble. One needn’t look far for the reason - as Paul Krugman neatly explains here, it’s because the notion of privatization had gained traction, so the natural response […]

32 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, NY Times/Media Watch by Mark

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Monday, November 26th, 2007

Did The President Cause The Subprime Meltdown?

If you are a person with a lick of economic sense, you realize immediately that the answer is an unequivocal no.  Paul Krugman, however, has the least economic sense of any economist I’ve every had the dissatisfaction of reading:
“Americans’ Economic Pessimism Reaches Record High.” That’s the headline on a recent Gallup report, which shows a […]

51 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS, NY Times/Media Watch by Mark

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Monday, November 12th, 2007

George Will On ‘Progressive’ Economic Foolishness

My friends, on both the right and the left, I ask you a question, in all earnestness: how can you vote Democratic if you understand the slightest thing about economics?  If for no other reason (and there are plenty of other reasons, but we’ll let that slide for the moment), I could never support a party that […]

29 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, John Edwards, Donkeys, Foreign Affairs, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Democratic Candidates by Mark

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Friday, October 19th, 2007

My Friends On The Left Will Surely Disagree…

…but the last couple of months have been pretty good for George W. Bush: a seeming turnaround both on the ground and in public opinion on Iraq, a line in the sand on expanded entitlements (albeit with some PR scars from ‘not caring about children’ rhetoric), and relative ease in swiping away ill-considered Democratic initiatives […]

21 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS, Elephants, Donkeys, Iraq by Mark

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Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Two Years On…

Well, of course you realize that two years ago today Hurricane Katrina hit.  This particular disaster has resonated longer than most: besides the death and destruction, it had two unusual factors, both only evident in retrospect: it nearly destroyed a city and a presidency.
Now, I scoffed at the criticism of Bush in the aftermath of […]

8 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS by Mark

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Monday, August 27th, 2007

So Gonzales Is Out…

…and good riddance, I might say. A flurry of second-term departures have come too late for my taste: Rumsfeld, Rove, and now Gonzales. In truth, Cheney should have joined them, and it should have been a coordinated changing of the guards prior to the 2006 election when it might have made a difference.
Why? […]

45 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS, Donkeys by Mark

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Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

The Summertime Blues

Ain’t no cure for what ails the Dow, apparently, as the DJIA closes below 13,000 in the midst of continued fears of a credit meltdown sparked by subprime mortgages.  And from Iraq, truly appalling news, as the death toll from yesterday’s bombings may have reached 500 or more.  A major catastrophe, by any standards…I’m never […]

8 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Radical Islam / GWOT, Iraq by Mark

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Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

New Day, Same As The Old Day

It’s Tuesday, but it feels like Monday - it’s still hot, the stock market is still in a tailspin, and the #1 topic is still Karl Rove. You could spend a decade just reading the Rove articles that have appeared over the last 24 hours, but perhaps the one closest to my own thoughts […]

6 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS by Mark

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Monday, August 13th, 2007

So, Anything Newsworthy Happen Today?

Oh, yeah, that:

Karl Rove, President Bush’s longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, marking a turning point for the Bush presidency.

Mr. Rove’s departure removes one of the White House’s most polarizing figures, and perhaps signals the effective end of the lame duck administration’s […]

31 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS, Elephants by Mark

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Friday, August 10th, 2007

An Even More Inconvenient Truth

We all know that 1998 was the warmest year on record, and that 5 of the warmest years ever occurred in the last ten years.
We all know this, and we’re all wrong.
An intrepid gentleman by the name of Steve McIntyre investigated some anomalies with the official NASA weather records, and discovered a mistake…a big mistake. […]

7 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

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Saturday, August 4th, 2007

I Was Right…

…but oh, how I wish I was wrong.  My fears about the subprime meltdown are starting to come to pass, as you know if you have been watching the stock market swoon lately (one of my IRAs is down nearly 10% in the last two weeks alone).  I freely admit to being wrong in many […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs by Mark

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Sunday, July 15th, 2007

Bush Successful? Believe It…

George W. Bush, a successful president? So says William Kristol, and he’s right, in at least one area:
Let’s step back from the unnecessary mistakes and the self-inflicted wounds that have characterized the Bush administration. Let’s look at the broad forest rather than the often unlovely trees. What do we see? First, no second terrorist attack […]

16 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS, Donkeys, Foreign Affairs by Mark

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Thursday, June 28th, 2007

The Need To Call Out The Lunatics Has Never Been Stronger…

…and that’s a bipartisan statement.  In the wake of the second and probably final defeat of the immigration bill, it’s worth reflecting on the shameful tactics used, mostly by opponents of the bill, including ludicrous assertions that Bush was trying to give up sovereignty of this country to Mexico, and the tried and true “I […]

20 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Elephants, Donkeys, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

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Thursday, June 21st, 2007

America - The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Discontented

Ever since Katrina, President Bush has been a bottom-dweller, popularity-wise, and a Newsweek poll out today confirms he is outperforming of late:
In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd […]

50 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, POTUS, Elephants, Donkeys by Mark

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Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

We’ll Mark You Down As “Not A Fan”

George Will on Harry Reid’s transparently phony excuse for pulling the immigration bill:
Harry Reid, the Senate’s majority leader and resident Uriah Heep, affected ‘umble and syrupy sadness about the Senate’s inability to pass the immigration bill that he pulled from the floor last Thursday evening for a transparently meretricious reason. Saying the Senate’s time was […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Harry Reid, Donkeys, Iraq, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

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