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I’m with Al Hunt: The Americans Elect third party plan is a quixotic way to make the two major political parties hew more closely to the sensible middle. More importantly, it’s completely unecessary. Creating a national third party is a Brobdingnagian task. If one had the millions of motivated moderate voters and millions of dollars [...]
Archive for July, 2011
July 30th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
The United States does have a product that the rest of the world wants. It is called a “U.S Passport”. What if the United States auctions off 2 million passports this year? I would guess that the price will be $250,000 each. If this experiment works, we can do it again in the near future. [...]
July 30th, 2011
How I envy those who get to attend what sounds like a treat for British film buffs, or for that matter anyone who enjoys a good laugh. British film was at its zenith of quality and influence in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Ealing Studio comedies were a big part of that. The writing [...]
July 30th, 2011
Category: Politics and Leadership
Guest post by colleague A. Pond: Having seen the debt ceiling turned into political tool, why should we expect any political leverage to be left on the table?
July 29th, 2011
Category: Debt ceiling, Politics and Leadership
During the February budget standoff, I quoted a Capitol Hill veteran noting that House Republican freshman had scuttled a pork barrel project in their leader’s district, which would have been unthinkable in prior eras. At the time I predicted that because Boehner clearly couldn’t control his own troops, we would have no fiscal year budget [...]
July 29th, 2011
One persistent meme about U.S. and European politics maintains that all parties are in the grip of plutocrats and that’s why very little substantive reform happens no matter who is in power. Peter Oborne offers a different and intriguing perspective focusing on the role of the media and those politicians who are servants to it: [...]
July 29th, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
After a brief flirtation with decency on the gay-marriage issue, Perry comes to heel when called by his master, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
July 28th, 2011
Category: Debt ceiling, Watching Conservatives
Weepin’ John Boehner can’t get his own members to vote for his debt-ceiling plan.
Amateur hour.
July 28th, 2011
One can argue, of course, that the President does not have the power under the 14th Amendment to unilaterally lift the debt ceiling. But recently I’ve been seeing an argument to this effect that really makes no sense. Section 5 of the 14th Amendment says that “The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate [...]
July 28th, 2011
Category: Israel
Thousands of Israelis are camping out on the nation’s streets, protesting over the country’s acute shortage of affordable housing. Reading through a useful story from JTA, I was struck by this comment: “What is very troubling for Netanyahu is that this is not a left wing versus right wing protest. It’s one of the few [...]