Category Archives: Domestic Politics

Through a Kristol, Darkly

Roland has some commentary on Bill Kristol‘s recent return to advocacy for “national greatness conservatism.” You have to love Matt Welch‘s assessment of this event in title: “Big-Government Conservative, After Helping Big-Government Conservatism Fail, Advocates Big-Government Conservatism.” Roland is more … Continue reading

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Leader of the Opposition

Whilst most elected Republicans are still preoccupied in pledging to work with (or for) the Obama administration, Sarah Palin isn’t having any of it. This is significant criticism, because it is vitally important that a Republican leader emerges who can … Continue reading

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Deep Political Time

When James Hutton, the father of modern geology, took his friend John Playfair to look at some stratified sedimentary rock, and Playfair realized that he was gazing into a chemical abyss recording the passage of hundreds of millions of years, … Continue reading

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Resignations for Radicals

Sadly, it seems Angela Keaton has finally resigned from the Libertarian National Committee. If you haven’t been following this little bit of salacious Libertarian Party drama, here’s the “Resolution of Discipline” against her from December 1st, which details many of … Continue reading

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Sullivan: Unhinged as a Truther

Andrew Sullivan, who’s never met a Sarah Palin rumor or slander he didn’t like, continues his transformation into an irrelevant and deranged Palin truther. It’s sad to see a once respectable voice in the blogosphere come unraveled, but Sullivan has … Continue reading

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The Third Party Personality Disorder

I found myself complaining to a Libertarian colleague of mine today (note the capital ‘L’), about the deplorable political consensus that has emerged on the bailout strategy for economic resuscitation. The bipartisan policy is a ghastly trifecta of the ineffective, … Continue reading

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Shouting at Six Feet of Dirt

(image: Planetsave) Apparently PETA’s taste for misanthropy has motivated them to enter a new promotional market: the manufacture of human coffins. As you can see above, the result is a kind of bumpersticker for a corpse. A note of caution. … Continue reading

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Step Right Up! It’s Your Bailout Too!

I hear repeatedly from our fellow citizens “where is my bailout?” For those who have been wondering the fine journalists at Vanity Fair have found the paperwork so you can begin applying now for, as the application says, “free government … Continue reading

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Our Government’s Economic Policy Explained

By Fred Thompson. With only the most minor quibbles I not only laughed, but cried. Pretty much dead on: The sad thing is that it isn’t only “liberal” economists, it is the meat of the profession and plenty of so … Continue reading

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Athens into Persepolis

Rasmussen has polled the public on whether they agreed with President Bush’s characterization of capitalism as the “highway to the American Dream.” Only 44% voiced support for capitalism, 33% were undecided and 22% expressed opposition. A grim finding. Only Republicans … Continue reading

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Huckabee: Enemy of Libertarian Republicans Everywhere

Mike Huckabee’s new book is coming out, and in it he takes some pretty heavy shots at libertarian and economic conservatives who don’t share his populist big government views. The real threat to the Republican Party is something we saw … Continue reading

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Is it the Means or the End that Matters?

Michele Catalano writing at Pajamas Media yesterday, defending Obama’s call for (at one point) mandatory community service,  gets it completely wrong. To backtrack a little bit for those who haven’t been paying attention the last week or so, at President … Continue reading

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Post Election Polling?

I’m signed up to recieve emails for Zogby Polls so I too noticed the strange questions a reader at Clayton Cramer’s blog did. If you knew Barack Obama supported a plan to place a 75% excise tax on the sale … Continue reading

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California on the Drina

You may have noticed there’s an ugly and unfortunate current developing in some of the protests against Proposition 8 in California. Namely white gays, blaming blacks for its passage. Even Andrew Sullivan, who has been blaming blacks for a couple … Continue reading

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Animal Sacrifice and Sacrificial Punditry

Delighted with the American election result for whatever reason, Kurdish villagers in Cavustepe, Turkey have sacrificed 44 sheep to honor Barack Obama. They also smeared the blood of the offering on Obama campaign posters, purportedly for good luck. Now there’s … Continue reading

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Blaming Obama for the Market

Ben Armbruster at ThinkProgress is upset Fred Barnes and Dick Morris are blaming Obama for the post-election declines in the stock market. Armbruster’s case is a little defensive and misjudged (he cites the New York Times’ opinion, as if that … Continue reading

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Sarah Palin in 2012

Rasmussen reports today that Sarah Palin is the choice of 64% of Republicans for the 2012 Republican nomination, and that a staggering 91% of Republicans have a favorable impression of her (equally remarkable, 65% rate their view as ‘highly favorable’). … Continue reading

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The 2048 Election

Barack Obama has been president-elect for exactly one day and James Carville is already arguing for an inevitable Democratic majority for the next 40 years. Imagine predicting Jim’s claim to fame, the 1992 election, from the vantage of 1952, and … Continue reading

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Blaming the Social Conservatives

As readers will know, I’m certainly no apologist for the social conservative movement in either its style or purposes. But it seems to me to be an awful injustice to lay at their feet the defeat of John McCain, in … Continue reading

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An Immunity to Ecstasy

So we had an election. For those in the new opposition the outcome was variously enviable, troubling, or contemptible. For the victors it was…what else, an occasion for gathering an enormous outdoor rally at an urban theatrical stage to chant. … Continue reading

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1948 After All

Interesting: [W]e are on pace for the worst reaction to an election since Truman won in 1948.  Interestingly, the only times the DJIA has ever declined by more than 1% [are] the day after a presidential election when the Democratic Party won complete control. (Bespoke)

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Our President

Yes, Obama has made history and been elected president. I didn’t vote for him nor support him, but I have supported every US president in my lifetime and President Obama will be no different. I am going to disagree with … Continue reading

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Cocktail Politics, Rio Rancho Office Space and Truman Republicans

It occurs to me that the sequence of cocktails is the best political indicator I know of on election night. In 2004 I was attending a Democratic election party and early on everyone was drinking wine and martinis in stemware, … Continue reading

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A Trinity of Republican Decline

Could a liberal lesbian rights activist actually win South Carolina’s 1st congressional district? Sure looks possible, as Linda Ketner has closed to within 5 in her aggressive challenge to incumbent Rep. Henry Brown. Of interest, Ketner is also a member … Continue reading

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Going John Galt… quietly.

The idea of “Going John Galt” makes me a little bit uncomfortable, to tell the truth.    John Galt essentially said screw them all, and shut down knowing that a whole lot of people would be hurt.    It was about the … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Hugo Chavez, Libertarianism, Synova's Page | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

The Philippines as Red State

Filipino writer Benjamin Pimentel is surprised to discover that his countrymen were among the very few foreign populations to prefer John McCain to Barack Obama in a Gallup international survey. A happy place for Republicans in a lonely world apparently, as … Continue reading

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Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtains

Alan Reynolds at Cato asks “How’s Obama Going to Raise $4.3 Trillion?” Altogether, Mr. Obama is promising at least $4.3 trillion of increased spending and reduced tax revenue from 2009 to 2018 — roughly an extra $430 billion a year … Continue reading

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Is Income Tax Becoming Too Progressive?

Fewer and fewer people are paying income tax and even less will be with either candidates tax plan. I don’t think this would be such a problem if we didn’t have such high spending, growing entitlements, and if so many … Continue reading

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Socialism, Polls, Matt Drudge

You’ve probably heard that John McCain has denounced Barack Obama’s ‘spread the wealth’ formulation for tax policy as socialism. It’s an inflammatory but not unjustified charge, as a good definition for socialism is the equitable distribution of wealth to the … Continue reading

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Not Sure if You’ve Voted?

I’ve been seeing this amusing banner ad for Obama popping up all over the web. Given the behavior of some of ACORN’s representatives, it might not be an illegitimate question.

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Christopher Hitchens & Political Irresponsibility

Video of Laura Ingraham interrogating Christopher Hitchens over his rather weakly supported endorsement of Barack Obama for president. Hitch’s primary position in this chat is that Obama should be supported because he is “evolving” toward support of a more aggressive … Continue reading

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Joe the Plumber is Evil

I’m experiencing a little déjà vu over the invective that’s starting to pour out of the left against “Joe the Plumber.” It has a decidedly reminiscent over-reactive, hysterical feel to it of the anti-Palin crusade. Here’s a typical example of … Continue reading

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The Folly of Heroes

What a day for indignity. Just when I’d stopped shaking my head at the image of Paul Krugman accepting the Nobel Prize, I read two of my most cherished heroes offering rather embarrassing endorsements for bad things. Christopher Hitchens, always … Continue reading

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FDR Prolonged the Great Depression

New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years. Continue reading

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In Summary

Tyler Cowen states his basic views on the crisis. My response in italics:

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How to help loose the election, in 10 easy steps…

I was commenting to my wife the other night when we saw the trailer for “Religulous,” just what the Obama camp needs at the moment, something to remind the right, and especially the religious right, why they hate liberals. Bill … Continue reading

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When are we being Chicken Littles?

Let us look at one of the ways that we are being panicked unnecessarily, and why incidentally we can help many of these financial institutions in the fashion I discussed in my post on a potential alternative plan. In my … Continue reading

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My favorite proposal for helping financial institutions

I do believe we should be doing something as a nation, through our government, to avoid the not insignificant chance of a total financial meltdown. I have seen several things proposed that I find interesting, and I will get into … Continue reading

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Hooray for Mental Health!

If you support the Paulson bailout plan that is. The New York Times has coverage. The Senate proposal would cost more than $100 billion and extend and expand many individual and business tax breaks, including tax credits for the production … Continue reading

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We are led by little men and women

I was not in favor of the Paulson plan if you haven’t caught that yet. Still, the pitiful display from our congress today set a recent low. First, faced with an unpopular and contentious bill which she feels for the … Continue reading

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The Bailout…

doesn’t look like it’s going to pass the House floor. Update: It failed. The vote was 207-226 against the measure, with one member not voting, half an hour after voting began. Voting remains open even though the “official” time has … Continue reading

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Remember The Last Dire Warning?

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Glass-Steagall : RIP

Continuing the discussion on tonight’s podcast, one of the recurring themes of much of the commentary on our current financial crisis is that the cause is too much deregulation. Possibly there is some truth to this, though the evidence is … Continue reading

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Short of Wisdom, Common Sense and a Grasp of Reality

The hedge fund industry is feeling gloomy, and so is Mayfair. Meanwhile our government is considering following London’s lead and making their lives even more difficult, by banning short selling for a while. Yep, Fannie would have been just fine … Continue reading

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McCain and the Electoral College

For two weeks, as John McCain’s national polls first rose above Obama and then solidified there, Democrats protested that the popular vote was irrelevant. Look to the state polls said they, in a sensible but amusingly opportunistic argument for the … Continue reading

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The Palin Democrats

Tim Reid travels to Mount Clemens, Macomb County Michigan, to talk to white working class female voters. Macomb County should be core Democratic blue country, but it was here that Stanley Greenberg first identified the “Reagan Democrats” of the 1980s, … Continue reading

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Mark Penn on the Press & Palin

Boy, this was an awfully interesting exchange. Democratic strategist Mark Penn, absurdly invited by Brian Goldsmith to argue the press has been soft on Sarah Palin, instead slams the media for counterproductively biased and vindictive coverage:

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The Error of Inexperience

According to a new Associated Press poll 46% of the public thinks Barack Obama is too inexperienced for the presidency, and only 36% say the same of Governor Palin. So much for that line of attack. In contrast with both, … Continue reading

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Palinmania and the Stature Gap

Toby Harnden weighs in with his thoughts on the Palin effect. All interesting, all very astute IMO. Of particular interest is Toby’s argument that McCain commands enough public respect for his experience and expertise, that he has no concerns about … Continue reading

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Sarah Palin: FlightSim Gamer

Playing a demo for Aviation Day, at the STARBASE Alaska Military Youth Academy in Fort Richardson. Nice rig. Photo: Capt. Guy Hayes

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