[Update a few minutes later]
Would Big Bird be a small-government Romney voter? This puts the episode in a whole new light.
I Missed This Part Of The Debate
The Libertarian Democrat And Fifties Radios
Some thoughts from Lileks.
I was struck by the prices of those old AM radios. I hadn’t realized how expensive they were back then. In today’s dollars, you’d be paying two or three hundred for an AM radio, though it would probably have much better sound quality than a modern one. The tubes have their own audio quality that remains hard (and expensive) to replicate with solid state. Of course, they were also built to last, and unlike a modern device, repairable.
Wake Up, America
The Real WARN Act
An employer tells his employees what will happen to them if Barack Obama is re-elected.
The Big Bird Ad
This is something we see very rarely in our corrupt media, a backlash against an obvious attempt by the Obama campaign to create a distraction away from the big issues of the day. Obviously, in the face of falling poll numbers and Romney’s well-received foreign policy speech yesterday, Obama’s Media Palace Guards just don’t see “absurd” distractions as good strategy at the exact time Romney is looking more and more presidential.
Meanwhile, the people who run Sesame Street have demanded that the ad come down.
The Obama campaign seems to be in meltdown mode.
[Update a few minutes later]
[Update mid afternoon]
Those who point out that eliminating mere small-fry outlays like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting won’t balance the budget are undeniably correct — but it is also undeniably correct that we will not balance the budget without eliminating a lot of small-fry outlays like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We have to do the big-ticket items and the little ones as well, lest we spare the taxpayer the guillotine only to abandon him to a death by a thousand forgone cuts. While Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are rolling out big ideas on taxes, entitlements, and deficits, Barack Obama is clinging to his toys like a frightened child, which very well may be what he is feeling like after his recent trip to the woodshed.
And Obama had it right four years ago:
“…if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.”
It’s hard to get much smaller than this.
[Bumped]
Pawn In Game Of Life
…is about to be taken off the board:
Alex Karras, who later became a TV star, is reportedly near death, following recent kidney failure.
The 77-year-old former defensive tackle has been given only a few days to live, the Detroit Free Press reports.
He was a great player.
For Fools Who Think Cutting Government Spending Hurts Economies
Here’s an old, but still valid post:
Lots and lots of papers* have now studied this question and the evidence is rather clear: the types of austerity that are most-likely to a) cut the debt and b) not kill the economy are those that are heavily weighted toward spending reductions and not tax increases. I am aware of not one study that found the opposite. In fact, we know more. The most successful reforms are those that go after the most politically sensitive items: government employment and entitlement programs. Lastly, there is evidence that markets react positively when politicians signal their seriousness by going against their partisan inclinations. In other words, the most credible spending reductions are those that are undertaken by left-of-center governments. So slash away, Mr. Obama!
My emphasis. But don’t hold your breath on that one.
Veep Debate Prep
“Right now Paul Ryan is going over CBO deficit projections. Right now Joe Biden is stuck in a tube slide at McDonalds Playland.”
If you don’t follow @iowahawkblog on Twitter, you’re missing out.
[Update a while later]
Another: “Right now Paul Ryan is playing around with budget simulations. Right now Joe Biden is playing around with Thomas the Tank Engine.”
A Pithy Description Of Benghazi
The administration stripped our diplomats of effective security, kept stripping their security in spite of our diplomats’ pleas and warnings, watched helplessly as they died, isolated, thousands of miles from home, then proceeded to lie loudly and shamelessly before the smoke had even cleared from the burning consulate. Words fail as I think of the fear and panic of our public servants’ last moments — effectively abandoned by the country they loved and served.
If the rest of the MSM can’t investigate this story — and hold public officials accountable for their grotesque and obvious failures — then they truly are beyond redemption.
Fortunately, it looks like they finally are. At least Jake Tapper is, and I think that the media is going to have to throw Obama under the bus, as it becomes more and more clear that he can’t hope to win. Particularly after Romney brings this up in the last two, and especially final, debates.