Month: April 2005

The slow path

Please forgive me for quoting myself, but on March 23rd I said this: One fallout of the President’s new dismal approval rating is the certain death of this Social Security reform proposals. But what’s more important, retirement security for all Americans, or a few more gallons of liquid for one person in a persistent vegetative … Continue reading “The slow path”

Please forgive me for quoting myself, but on March 23rd I said this:

One fallout of the President’s new dismal approval rating is the certain death of this Social Security reform proposals. But what’s more important, retirement security for all Americans, or a few more gallons of liquid for one person in a persistent vegetative state?

Today a law professor in Tennessee says this:

Perhaps the Republicans think this will all be forgotten by 2006, or at least by 2008. And perhaps they’re counting on the Democrats to remain so feckless on national security that it won’t matter. Perhaps they’ll be right, but they’re certainly suffering short-term declines in the polls that hurt the President’s ability to act right now. I think that if he had a 60% approval rating, or even a 53% approval rating, he’d be making more progress on Social Security reform and on his various nominations. Was it worth this damage to solidify the social-conservative base? They seem to think so, but I’m not so sure.

It takes 18 days for Mossback’s observations to hit the New York Times, but 35 days for them to hit Instapundit. That’s not so “instant”, is it? But I digress. Jeff Jarvis is on the story as well. This being a hot topic, perhaps I should clarify it.

Bush is basically a moderate, centrist politician who attracts votes from the religious right by paying lip-service to their values issues without doing anything substantial for them. So he wins elections by combining the right’s votes with those of the moderate majority who actually like his policy positions. So moderates support Bush on a policy basis knowing the courts will prevent the religious right from getting anything. With his outrageous pandering on Schiavo and the pending nuclear option on judges, Bush support doesn’t look risk-free to moderates any more, and the religious right are waking up to the fact that they haven’t really got anything out of his presidency. So the carefully cobbled-together coalition of different interests can just as easily go against him as for him, and right now they’re against him. This is the problem with having it both ways – you can lose it both ways too.

So all that leaves for Bush is the people who support him because he’s a likable guy, even if he does hold hands with autocrats. Not a large group.

There’s no going back for Bush, because he can only win the moderates back by alienating the religious people, and vice versa. So we’re going to see a caretaker presidency for the next three years, nothing more.

It’s over for the Bush coalition.

UPDATE: Young Andy Sullivan notes the professor’s concerns, and muddles them up with his own issues. Sullivan has been a real piece of work lately, bashing the Catholic Church for its opposition to homosexual sodomy, but also bashing it for its coverup of, well, homosexual sodomy between priests and altar boys. He doesn’t see the connection, of course.

My secret politics

The New York Times should read Mossback Culture more often. This blogger did a study of the dissemination of the Huffington Gas-Bag Report and found it here 18 days before it got to the Paper of Record: The earliest blog posts I find about it is April 3 on the left-wing Mossback Culture, April 4 … Continue reading “My secret politics”

The New York Times should read Mossback Culture more often. This blogger did a study of the dissemination of the Huffington Gas-Bag Report and found it here 18 days before it got to the Paper of Record:

The earliest blog posts I find about it is April 3 on the left-wing Mossback Culture, April 4 on the Right Wing Death Beast and April 4th on Uncorrelated.

Aren’t y’all glad to know you’re reading the left-wing blog with all the newest news?

The incompetence of Tom Potter

What kind of a mayor would include the ACLU in discussions of terrorism but exclude his chief of police? Why Portland mayor Tom Potter, of course: When Portland Mayor Tom Potter, federal law enforcement leaders and representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union sat down earlier this month to try to find a way to … Continue reading “The incompetence of Tom Potter”

What kind of a mayor would include the ACLU in discussions of terrorism but exclude his chief of police? Why Portland mayor Tom Potter, of course:

When Portland Mayor Tom Potter, federal law enforcement leaders and representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union sat down earlier this month to try to find a way to keep Portland in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, one person was noticeably absent: Police Chief Derrick Foxworth.

He wasn’t invited.

Even for a haven of silliness like Portland this is too much. Some folks need to give this fool a piece of their minds at the council meeting Thursday night.

Two views of Iraq

In the interest of enlightened discourse, we offer two views of the war in Iraq. First, a letter of gratitude from Iraqi president Jalal Talibani to prime minister Tony Blair: Let nobody mislead you, the Iraq that we inherited in April 2003, following the British and American-led liberation, was a tragedy. The Ba’athist criminals had … Continue reading “Two views of Iraq”

In the interest of enlightened discourse, we offer two views of the war in Iraq. First, a letter of gratitude from Iraqi president Jalal Talibani to prime minister Tony Blair:

Let nobody mislead you, the Iraq that we inherited in April 2003, following the British and American-led liberation, was a tragedy.

The Ba’athist criminals had starved the country of an infrastructure and the people of their freedom.

Apart from the Kurdish safe haven, Iraq was a playground for thugs and a prison for the innocent.

Saddam’s war against the Iraqi people was on-going; we have evidence which demonstrates that the regime was executing its challengers until the last days of its rule.

It was that war, lasting almost forty years, which was the true war of Iraq.

We have all heard of the genocide, gassing, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and the environmental vandalism of the territory of Iraq’s historic Marsh Arabs.

We understand that there is no turning the clock back. Instead, we press ahead with democratisation and justice.

And counter-point, an article by Brown University student Liz Sperber supporting the resistance:

Rather, if we support the Iraqis right to self-determination, it must be because we identify a common, equal humanity between us; because we recognize that US occupation of Iraqi land and the US-sanctioned torture, rape, murder, and theft are unjust. That, in addition to the plight of our soldiers, which many of them argue is worsening every day, is why we must demand troops out now. For no other reason. Accordingly, since the Iraqi resistance is the force working to regain Iraqi sovereignty, we support them-unconditionally.

We must bring American troops home simply because it is not their place to stop the insurgents. Granted, even the most inspiring national liberation movements had their crimes and their tragedies. Many liberation struggles, fought under the watchful eyes of the Cold War superpowers, even failed, in the end, to achieve their objectives (Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Algeria, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, the list goes on). Yet, suffice it to say here that the limits or failures of a movement do not nullify its purpose, although they may hamper it. Past failures cannot justify the abandonment of our commitment to the right of people everywhere to self-determination.

Just to make things a little easier, we’ll note that Talibani fought and struggled against Saddam for forty years, and Ms. Sperber criticizes the US from within its circle of protection. Why isn’t she putting her life where her mouth is instead of opining from an enclave of progressive thought in Rhode Island?

Good Young

The evil Instapundit notes a Cathy Young/Prof. Bainbridge set-to: CATHY YOUNG dismissed conservative claims of religious bigotry yesterday, producing this response from Stephen Bainbridge, which produced this reply from Young. I agree with Eugene Volokh that Young gets the better of the exchange. Bainbridge doesn’t seem to realize that by invoking disparate impact he proves … Continue reading “Good Young”

The evil Instapundit notes a Cathy Young/Prof. Bainbridge set-to:

CATHY YOUNG dismissed conservative claims of religious bigotry yesterday, producing this response from Stephen Bainbridge, which produced this reply from Young. I agree with Eugene Volokh that Young gets the better of the exchange.

Bainbridge doesn’t seem to realize that by invoking disparate impact he proves Young’s point that the right is aping the victim politics of the left.

Private Accounts

Chile has private retirement accounts. New York times columnist John Tierney compared their performance against American Social Security and found it pretty excellent: After comparing our relative payments to our pension systems (since salaries are higher in America, I had contributed more), we extrapolated what would have happened if I’d put my money into Pablo’s … Continue reading “Private Accounts”

Chile has private retirement accounts. New York times columnist John Tierney compared their performance against American Social Security and found it pretty excellent:

After comparing our relative payments to our pension systems (since salaries are higher in America, I had contributed more), we extrapolated what would have happened if I’d put my money into Pablo’s mutual fund instead of the Social Security trust fund. We came up with three projections for my old age, each one offering a pension that, like Social Security’s, would be indexed to compensate for inflation:

(1) Retire in 10 years, at age 62, with an annual pension of $55,000. That would be more than triple the $18,000 I can expect from Social Security at that age.

(2) Retire at age 65 with an annual pension of $70,000. That would be almost triple the $25,000 pension promised by Social Security starting a year later, at age 66.

(3)Retire at age 65 with an annual pension of $53,000 and a one-time cash payment of $223,000.

American Democrats don’t want us to have this much money when we retire – prosperous people vote Republican.

Vacancy

The resignation of San Diego mayor Dick Murphy opens up a slot on the list of the three worst big-city mayors in the US. I nominate Portland’s Tom Potter, the terrorism-friendly mayor who doesn’t want the FBI looking for bad guys in his town. Here’s what the local paper said about his hissy-fit against the … Continue reading “Vacancy”

The resignation of San Diego mayor Dick Murphy opens up a slot on the list of the three worst big-city mayors in the US.

I nominate Portland’s Tom Potter, the terrorism-friendly mayor who doesn’t want the FBI looking for bad guys in his town. Here’s what the local paper said about his hissy-fit against the FBI:

“We have a population of extremists who engage in criminal behavior in our community,” Foxworth wrote the mayor. “Nonsupport of the JTTF would cause long-term damage to our reputation and credibility within the law enforcement community. This will likely weaken our relationships with remaining law-enforcement partners and break down lines of communication.”

Translation: Portland’s withdrawal from the task force would only help to disconnect the dots. And that’s chilling. As we all remember, the intelligence failure that enabled the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to succeed was a failure to share and synthesize information.

Portland, as a crucial member of the FBI task force, second only to the FBI, is a key dot. Its withdrawal would only diminish the effectiveness of FBI anti-terrorism investigations. The mayor and the Portland City Council should do everything in their power to keep those dots tightly connected.

And they endorsed him.

Portland officially haven for terrorists

It’s official: Portland, Oregon is the best city in America for terrorists: The city of Portland is pulling its police officers from an FBI-led anti-terrorism team, after federal law enforcement leaders said they couldn’t go along with a suggested compromise that would have given the mayor more oversight over the kinds of cases Portland officers … Continue reading “Portland officially haven for terrorists”

It’s official: Portland, Oregon is the best city in America for terrorists:

The city of Portland is pulling its police officers from an FBI-led anti-terrorism team, after federal law enforcement leaders said they couldn’t go along with a suggested compromise that would have given the mayor more oversight over the kinds of cases Portland officers investigate.

This makes Portland the very first American city to withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and will allow it to continue nurturing such folks as the Portland Seven, lead by convicted terrorist Maher Hawash.

Such a fine legacy would make this city attractive to, I don’t know, Ward Churchill maybe. Aha, guess where he was this Sunday?

Portland: the city that parodies itself.