The White House told the chief of counterterrorism to not interrupt his skiing vacation for a terrorism attack.
So, no problem. He was just following orders…
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Taking The Modern Age
The engineers, the people who actually make this stuff work (not to denigrate the financiers, marketers, etc. whose efforts are also necessary to fund the engineers) are underappreciated in society. As is technology in general. As he points out, people are complaining about having twenty-minute delays on a trip that would have taken their ancestors (and not distant ancestors — great-great-grandparents) months.
If They Wanted Your Opinion…
From town halls last summer at which tough questions got lawmakers’ backs up right through the middle-of-the-night votes on thousand-page excrescences largely unread and scarcely comprehended, the directive from congressional leaders has been to ignore voters, ignore polls, ignore qualms and questions: Just pass something.
The House passed one version of Obamacare and the Senate a markedly different one. That usually means a conference committee. This time, the Democratic leaders who own Congress are skipping the usual open process and embracing a so-called “ping pong” of closed-door bargaining designed to cut out not merely Republicans but even Democrats who worry too much about what’s in the sausage.
This has the political left simmering: Liberals fear that their dearest wish, a government-run option, won’t survive. But the doors are closed precisely to enable unsavory compromises that preserve the scant margins by which the bill can pass. They’re closed to keep the priorities of passionate voters from coming into play. We out here are distractions.
This is happening on legislation that will profoundly, permanently change our relationship to government. It’s reasonable to ask that a vast expansion of Washington’s power be based on more than one-vote margins and secret deals, just as it would be reasonable for a senator to, sometime in three months, talk to a concerned citizen as promised.
This is not the season for reason, however. These are the days of political will. Democracy, constituents – all that just gets in the way.
The Founders spin in their graves.
What A Bargain
The New York terror trials will only cost $400M.
Money means absolutely nothing to these people. And why should it? After all, it’s other peoples’ money…
[Thursday morning update]
You can’t bargain with terrorists. Thoughts from a (sensible) liberal defense lawyer.
A Depressing Milestone
There are now more government jobs than jobs that produce real wealth.
And we wonder why the country’s going broke.
How Likely Is It…?
…that a Napolitano replacement would be an improvement? Not much, at least from this administration. Of course, I don’t think that the department should have been created in the first place. Whoever runs it has a pretty impossible job.
Dogs And Cats
Tim Robbins gave money to Michele Bachmann?
I wonder it there’s a relationship between this and his breakup with Susan Sarandon? Perhaps he had his own road to Damascus experience?
As Instapundit notes, we’ll know this is for real if he gives money to Scott Brown.
Real Hope, And Change
Freeman Hunt offers some:
Ten years ago I was a very far left liberal. Probably more of a communist. And an atheist. And wanted to work for the government.
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with atheism. As long as you don’t proselytize…
Anyway, maybe there’s even hope for some of my commenters.
Obnoxious Quotes Of 2009
Forty of them.
They are pretty bad.
Complexity And Danger
Bob Clarebrough has some useful thoughts on the risk of space flight, for NASA and private enterprise, over at The Space Review. This is a very important topic, and one that I want to write a long post on, when I get unburied from current activities.