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Source: Orange County Register Author: Jay Ambrose Posted on 12.16.10 by Steve Trinward “It’s possible that Judge Henry Hudson has done something big to help save the day from a destructively overreaching government. Maybe, possibly, conceivably, the age’s new absolutism had a setback with a judge’s ruling. He saw the absurdity of thinking the Commerce Clause somehow lets the government tell you what private products you have to buy. Open that door and ‘unbridled police powers’ rush in. The judge is right, of course.” (12/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/36jvfe3 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Joshua Green Posted on 12.16.10 by Steve Trinward “Use of the filibuster — debating indefinitely as a means of preventing a vote or other action — has skyrocketed, slowing business to a crawl. Were it not for the Democrats’ decisive majorities in both houses, it’s hard to see how anything would have been accomplished. That advantage will disappear when Republicans take over the House in January. A trio of young Democratic senators is hoping to limit this chronic power to obstruct by reforming Senate rules.” (12/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2wq4u8l Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 12.15.10 by Steve Trinward “The Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, has just been to the White House, where she implores President Nixon to press the Soviet Union to allow the emigration of Jews who wish to leave. In the Oval Office after she leaves, the president and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, are discussing her request. ‘The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy,’ Kissinger tells Nixon, tapping the table for emphasis. ‘And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. It may be a humanitarian concern …’ ‘Well, we can’t blow up the world because of it,’ Nixon responds. That conversation, secretly recorded on March 1, 1973, is included in the latest batch of White House tapes released by the Nixon Library.” (12/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/363bty6 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: John Stossel Posted on 12.15.10 by Steve Trinward “Politicians like Bernie Sanders promise that they will ’save family farming’ and ’strengthen family-based agriculture.’ The result: lots of special tax exemptions for farmers. Livestock owners don’t have to pay any taxes on income that they then spend on their business. They can write off property taxes. For breeding animals, they can pay capital gains tax (15%) instead of income tax, which may be 30%. Most people don’t want to run, say, a cattle farm. But there is an animal that qualifies for all the tax breaks — but acts more like a pet. It’s called the alpaca. Alpaca breeding has boomed since people found out about the tax benefits.” (12/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/349ro8g Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: John Hughes Posted on 12.14.10 by Steve Trinward “The WikiLeaks dump of US embassy cables last month was a reckless act. It is a far cry from the responsible reporting on foreign affairs with which I am familiar. When I was the State Department spokesman in the Reagan administration, Bernard Kalb, then diplomatic correspondent for NBC, called me about a tip that the bad guys in Beirut, Lebanon, had captured and were holding an American CIA officer. ‘Bernie,’ I said, ‘I’ll only talk off the record about that.’ ‘No way,’ Bernie replied, ‘If it’s off the record I can’t use it.’ ‘Well, that’s the deal,’ I said. ‘See what your network says.’ The network agreed to the deal.” (12/14/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2wvafna Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 12.14.10 by Steve Trinward “‘There’s no point in being Irish if you don’t know the world is going to break your heart eventually,’ Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed at the assassination of President Kennedy. He added, ‘I guess we thought we had a little more time.’ Moynihan’s remark might have seemed even then like an overindulgence of melancholy, yet it now captures the Irish mood as the island nation faces near-insolvency. How could we Irish ever have imagined that we were free of the doom of our fate-laden history? Loving our ride on the back of the Celtic Tiger, we just didn’t expect to be thrown off so soon.” (12/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/28s3gbn Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Walt Minnick Posted on 12.13.10 by Steve Trinward “Every business person, and anyone who has ever managed a checkbook, knows you can’t survive by borrowing 40 cents of every dollar you spend. Yet this is what our federal government is doing — with no real improvement projected even after the economy recovers. Tax cuts, trillion-dollar wars, deep recession, and the spending binge of the past 10 years have boosted our national debt to $13.8 trillion, over 90 percent of our total national output (GDP). This is two and a half times what it was 10 short years ago.” (12/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/27bh3sn Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: NobelPrize.org Author: Liu Xiaobo Posted on 12.12.10 by Steve Trinward “In the course of my life, for more than half a century, June 1989 was the major turning point. … because I had returned from the U.S. to take part in the 1989 Movement, I was thrown into prison for ‘the crime of counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement.’ I also lost my beloved lectern and could no longer publish essays or give talks in China. Merely for publishing different political views and taking part in a peaceful democracy movement, a teacher lost his lectern, a writer lost his right to publish, and a public intellectual lost the opportunity to give talks publicly.” (12/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bnaqv4 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Robert Pape Posted on 12.12.10 by Steve Trinward “From the 9/11 hijackers to the double agent whose suicide attack in Afghanistan killed seven CIA employees last December, many people want to know what drives some Muslims — many of whom are middle class and well educated — to kill themselves in attacks on Americans and others in the West. After examining 2,200 suicide attacks around the world since 1980 … I’ve concluded that the answer is both simple and disturbing. What drives them is deep anger at the presence of Western combat forces in the Persian Gulf region and other predominately Muslim lands.” (12/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/37q4m2b Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 12.12.10 by Steve Trinward “I realize, of course, that liberals were against the Bush tax cuts from the start. I know that Obama vowed time and again to let those tax cuts expire for households earning more than $250,000 a year. … But Obama swore to end plenty of other Bush policies that nevertheless remain intact. Why aren’t Democrats in a blind rage over the tens of thousands of US troops still deployed in Iraq? Or his extension of the Patriot Act? Or the ongoing rendition of terror suspects to third countries for interrogation?” [editor’s note: I’ve been asking these questions of my “progressive” friends for months now (if not years) - SAT] (12/12/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2agbbho Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Eileen Boylen Posted on 12.09.10 by Steve Trinward “When Fox News reported the link between depression and chocolate consumption, I knew medical research had finally jumped the shark. Apparently, having more than 8.5 servings of chocolate a month indicates profound depression. Huh? By that definition, my husband and I should be on suicide watch. Color me psychic, but soon Cambridge will be wresting Kit Kats from vending machines and moving chocolate behind the pharmacy counter. Can a ballot question be far behind …? In recent years, Reservatrol has been labeled ‘the fountain of youth.’ And, according to Dr. Oz, you can get it from red wine. Wrong. Turns out wine hasn’t enough Reservatrol to matter, and I only look younger if my husband drinks it.” [editor’s note: This is not only well-written and -considered, but sorta Bombeck-funny as well - SAT] (12/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23tvf8j Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Kathleen Pender Posted on 12.09.10 by Steve Trinward “President Obama’s proposed tax plan will help wealthy Americans in more ways than one. The obvious way is by extending the Bush-era tax cuts on income, capital gains and dividends for everyone in 2011 and 2012. Previously, Obama wanted these tax cuts to expire for couples with more than $250,000 in income and individuals with more than $200,000. The plan introduced this week also calls for a more lenient estate tax than Obama’s previous proposal. But the plan also helps high earners in a more subtle way: by replacing the Making Work Pay credit — which had income limits — with a reduction in Social Security taxes that would be available to all workers. This substitution would leave some low-income workers worse off. High-income workers would be substantially better off.” (12/09/10) Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/08/BUN91GNN32.DTl Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Greg Thielmann & Peter Crail Posted on 12.09.10 by Steve Trinward “Long before the mysterious Stuxnet computer virus struck an apparent blow at Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran’s nuclear effort was being delayed by a far more mundane problem: bad technology. … The most fundamental problem with Iran’s enrichment program appears to be its own centrifuge design. Called the P-1 after a Pakistani mock-up of a Dutch design pilfered in the 1970s, the centrifuge that Iran has been attempting to operate is known to be temperamental and fault-prone.” [editor’s note: This should be fairly obvious by now: Iran is NOT a threat, even for creating nuclear weapons - SAT] Link: http://tinyurl.com/23gqtvw Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Freedom Politics Author: Michelle Malkin Posted on 12.09.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Open-borders radicalism means never having to apologize for absurd self-contradiction. The way illegal alien students on college campuses across the country tell it, America is a cruel, selfish and racist nation that has never given them or their families a break. Yet despite their bottomless grievances, they’re not going anywhere.” (12/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/25tgrn5 Filed under: CANDi Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Jack Hunter Posted on 12.09.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “[T]he worst hypocrisy throughout this controversy has been in conservatives reflexively defending the government and attacking WikiLeaks. Since when have conservatives believed that Washington should be able to shroud any action it likes in secrecy and that revealing government’s nefarious deeds is tantamount to treason? Isn’t it government officials who might secretly work for corporate, ideological or transnational interests — and against the national interest — who are betraying their country?” (12/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3yrelnz Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: EconLog Author: Arnold Kling Posted on 12.08.10 by Steve Trinward “The book is Why Liberty, compiled by Marc Guttman. The 54th chapter comes from Vince Miller, a Canadian, who writes, ‘My own experience suggests maybe an innate sense of justice is required. What makes some people take action when they see an act of injustice while others stand idly by and watch — seemingly disconnected?’ Sounds like what a progressive might say. In fact, my chapter in the book is entitled ‘From Far Left to Libertarian.’ Like a number of others in the book, I started on the left, and my chapter briefly explains my journey. … I think that the most common trait is a willingness to go one’s own way politically.” (12/08/10) Link: http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/12/54_libertarians.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Raul A. Reyes Posted on 12.08.10 by Steve Trinward “Recently, the Pew Hispanic Center released the results of a nationwide bilingual survey of Latinos. Asked whom they considered the most important Latino leader today, 64 percent said they didn’t know; 10 percent said ‘no one.’ … Pew noted that Hispanics do not have a unifying figure comparable to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, or Chavez in his heyday. This led many in the media to speculate that the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group is suffering from a lack of leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth.” [editor’s note: You mean people of Hispanic descent have not bought into a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, telling them that only “one of their people” can “lift them from poverty?” Too busy starting their own businesses, I guess - SAT] (12/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2a9pzqh Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 12.08.10 by Steve Trinward “‘Is America Islamophobic?’ When that provocative question appeared on the cover of Time in August, the accompanying story strained to imply, on the basis of some anecdotal evidence, that the answer might be yes. The FBI’s latest compendium of US hate-crimes data suggests far more plausibly that the answer is no. … America is many things, but ‘Islamophobic’ plainly isn’t one of them.” [editor’s note: OK, but now can we also bury that other destructive myth, that “they hate us for our freedom?” - SAT] (12/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2eyuc4c Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: HDS Greenway Posted on 12.07.10 by Steve Trinward “Unlike other wars this country has fought, there is no commonly held agreement among friends or foes on what the war in Afghanistan is all about. Even among Americans there is confusion. President Obama, who will soon conduct yet another Afghan review, once called it a war to ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat’ Al Qaeda. But with Al Qaeda to be found more in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia these days, and with terrorists to be found in the Connecticut suburbs, as in the case of the failed New York City car bombing, Obama told American troops last week that the purpose was not to allow Afghanistan ‘to become a safe haven for terrorists’ again.” (12/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2akdncr Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Deepak Chopra Posted on 12.06.10 by Steve Trinward “Sometimes it helps to step back and view a whole nation as if it were a person. Right now we are told that America is in crisis, and solutions are being offered from every quarter. When a person is in crisis, the search for a solution runs into conflict and confusion. The worst scenarios run through one’s imagination. Reason wars with emotion. We see the same in America today…. Congress… expresses the country’s refusal to accept that a crisis exists, since for all its hot air, Congress is dedicated to doing the same thing it has always done. Yet people do get out of crises and so do countries. They do so by discovering that they are stronger, better, and more resilient than they ever thought they were. The first rule is that when they fall, souls bounce, they don’t break.” [editor’s note: As usual, Deepak has some sage advice - SAT] (12/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2e3an8f Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 12.06.10 by Steve Trinward “I’m not a regular reader of The New York Review of Books, but I wasn’t going to miss newly-retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’s essay on capital punishment in the latest issue. Last Sunday, The New York Times spotlighted the Stevens article as a ‘remarkable’ piece of writing that finally settled a ‘legal mystery’ — namely, why Stevens had changed his original view on the death penalty, and announced in 2008 that he now considered it to be unconstitutional. Whether Stevens’s metamorphosis was really such a ‘mystery’ is debatable.” (12/05/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24fb5qk Filed under: CANDi Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Steven Greenhut Posted on 12.05.10 by Steve Trinward “Clearly, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has done our nation a service by publishing at-times embarrassing accounts of how the U.S. government conducts its foreign policy. This is a government that claims to be of the people, by the people and for the people, and which has grand pretenses about projecting freedom worldwide, yet it wants to be able to keep most of the details of its actions away from the prying eyes of the public. There’s no evidence that any information released will endanger anyone, and the U.S. government reportedly refused Assange’s request to work with him to scrub any names that could be compromised.” (12/03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24tu8mk Filed under: CANDi Commentary and LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Joshua Green Posted on 12.02.10 by Steve Trinward “[T]he Federal Reserve announced last month that it would purchase $600 billion of long-term government debt … an emergency measure known as quantitative easing. Because it did something similar to halt last year’s financial crisis, this latest round is being called QE2. Mere anticipation of it produced exactly the intended effect: Mortgage interest rates hit record lows in October, once it became clear that the Fed was going to act. But two weeks ago, a group of Republican economists, lawmakers, and political operatives launched a coordinated attack on the Fed’s chairman, Ben Bernanke, for pursuing QE2.” [editor’s note: My guess is no, even with Ron Paul leading the way, as his own fellow GOPers in bo0th houses drag their feet - SAT] (12/02/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/242rx4c Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Sheldon Richman Posted on 12.01.10 by Steve Trinward “First it was a video of a helicopter gunship killing and injuring unarmed Iraqi civilians, including two children, and two newsmen as they walked down a street in Baghdad. Then in two separate document dumps, hundreds of thousands of classified military field reports from Iraq and Afghanistan were released to the public. Now more than a quarter-million State Department cables … have been released without authorization. The US government’s problems with WikiLeaks continues, and the Obama administration ‘condemn[ed] in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.’” (11/29/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/39bwtxv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 11.30.10 by Steve Trinward “Fail to forcefully confront a thug and you generally guarantee that his thuggish behavior will continue. … Yet when it comes to the pathological regime in North Korea, the conventional wisdom throws up its hands and laments that there are no good options for confronting Kim Jong-il over his aggressive provocations. North Korea’s attack on a South Korean island last week — a 50-minute barrage that left four people dead and reduced dozens of homes to smoking ruins — was an act of war.” [editor’s note: Mr. Jacoby’s “conservative” side shows here in bright lights; that act of war was NOT engaged against America, but between rival factions within the Korean landscape - SAT] (12/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3yfay8d Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Steve Greenhut Posted on 11.29.10 by Steve Trinward “Anyone who has dealt with a loved one deeply involved in some destructive behavior understands that there’s only so much you can do until the person hits whatever low point is necessary to spark a commitment to turn things around. I think of my beloved California in the same light. What a great state, but it remains on a collision course with reality. We can’t keep spending money we don’t have, punishing those who pay the bills and ignoring the advice of truth tellers. Californians are known for crafting new realities, but the financial markets are immune to Disney-like fantasies. Eventually, the fiscal self-destruction has to stop — and adults have to step in with an intervention to divert our state from its dangerous path.” (11/26/10) Link: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/state-277726-california-san.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Rodney P. Mock Posted on 11.29.10 by Steve Trinward “The first President Bush, in that time-honored tradition dating back to the beginning of time, or at least to the very first political campaign, told us quite emphatically to ‘read my lips: no new taxes.’ Well, we didn’t need to take any special course in lip reading to know that his promise was an empty one. Then along came his son George W. Bush, who did indeed reduce taxes for some people. But even those reductions came with a price …. President Obama vowed in his campaign not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 annually. Yet, we are already starting to see this promise fall by the wayside. … the promises made of no new taxes — or tax increases — by any individual running for office are as naked as we are during a Transportation Security Administration body scan at our local airport.” [editor’s note: A non-partisan column? On the Fox News site? And NOT written by Stossel? Are we in BizarroWorld? - SAT] (11/29/10) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/11/29/pound-wild-gorilla/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Michael Laser Posted on 11.29.10 by Steve Trinward “Without intending to, I’ve indoctrinated my kids. I first realized it a few years ago. Seeing a bumper sticker that read ‘No Hope in Dope,’ my then-8-year-old asked, ‘Is that about Bush?’ It happened in the most natural way. They heard me groaning at every word and deed of that ‘misunderestimated’ president, and absorbed my attitude until they could mimic it perfectly. I’m glad my children share my political orientation, but it bothers me when I hear them unthinkingly mock and dismiss the other side — as when my son recently said, ‘If Republicans want smaller government, they should quit their jobs in Congress.’” (11/29/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/28nghc5 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Nat Hentoff Posted on 11.28.10 by Steve Trinward “The premier historian of the Bill of Rights, professor Leonard Levy, explained why our Constitution was not fully operative until the first 10 amendments became part of it: ‘We have a Bill of Rights because the state, even the democratic state, cannot be trusted. A Bill of Rights is a bill of restraint against the state.’ A consensus of polls — and the daily news — reveal a deep distrust of Congress and of this president, as was also true of his predecessor. Accordingly, the state of health of the First Amendment, from which all our individual liberties against the state flow — freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and persistent petition of government for redress of grievances — is vital to all of us. Our voices need to be heard.” (11/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/26qwae9 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The Guardian [UK] Author: Simon Jenkins Posted on 11.28.10 by Steve Trinward “Is it justified? Should a newspaper disclose virtually all a nation’s secret diplomatic communication, illegally downloaded by one of its citizens? The reporting in the Guardian of the first of a selection of 250,000 US state department cables marks a recasting of modern diplomacy. Clearly, there is no longer such a thing as a safe electronic archive, whatever computing’s snake-oil salesmen claim. No organization can treat digitized communication as confidential. An electronic secret is a contradiction in terms. Anything said or done in the name of a democracy is, prima facie, of public interest. When that democracy purports to be ‘world policeman’ — an assumption that runs ghostlike through these cables — that interest is global.” (11/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/37yal4l Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Debra J. Saunders Posted on 11.28.10 by Steve Trinward “In 2005, after Canada legalized same-sex marriage, then-Prime Minister Paul Martin commissioned a $150,000 study by three law professors to debunk any notion that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy. Big mistake. The study recommended that Canada repeal its anti-polygamy law. While they recognized ‘the strong association between polygamy and gender inequality,’ the authors determined it wasn’t fair to discriminate, for example, against a Kuwaiti second wife who would be barred from immigrating to Canada with their husband and another wife.” (11/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/29tcmn2 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Patrick J. Buchanan Posted on 11.28.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “We will stand by our Korean allies, says President Obama. And with our security treaty and 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, many on the DMZ, we can do no other. But why, 60 years after the first Korean War, should Americans be the first to die in a second Korean War?” (11/26/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/11/26/why-are-we-still-in-korea/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Mark Hyman Posted on 11.23.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “In nearly a decade there is not a single report of a terrorist having been caught during the TSA screening process. No bombs have been discovered. No hijackings have been thwarted. For the TSA to claim it has made the nation’s skies safer is as absurd as the rooster taking credit for the sun rising each morning.” (11/23/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/23/disband-the-tsa Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Deepak Chopra Posted on 11.22.10 by Steve Trinward “When the rich man’s club of nations expanded from the G7 to the G20, a new element was added. Instead of being about money and trade, the G20 is about something else. I don’t mean that overused word ‘globalization.’ Rather, the G20 is about aspiration. The issue facing the West, and America in particular, is how much of the world’s aspirations we are willing to nurture. Seen in economic terms, globalization was the rich nation’s friend for a long time, and America was at the head of the table.” [editor’s note: As usual, Deepak Chopra sees this issue from a more elevated level than most, but one quibble … substitute “USA, Inc.” for “America” in the last sentence; the concept of “America” has never had anything to do with “globalization” as it currently practiced (except for the belief that free and open societies don’t start wars, only empires DO!) - SAT] (11/22/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23bvkp7 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 11.22.10 by Steve Trinward “My charming wife hit me with this zinger: ‘Doesn’t GM’s stock sale show that you were wrong to complain about the bailout?’ Yikes. People just don’t get it. As one big investor (who prefers to remain anonymous because he fears government retaliation) wrote me: ‘Government bought 914 million shares at 43.71. Sold half at 33, own 500 million or so at 35. Taxpayers down about 9 billion. Why is there such celebration today about this ‘great government success?’ Not to mention the fact we don’t know what else might have been done with the bailout money. Had it been left in private hands, maybe someone would have invented a much better car, or airport security device, or Alzheimer’s cure.” (11/22/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/232m8hd Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Steven Greenhut Posted on 11.21.10 by Steve Trinward “The Transportation Security Administration knows with 100 percent certainty that John Tyner, the 31-year-old Oceanside man who refused to submit to one of those embarrassing body scans or be searched by TSA groin-grabbers during his recent attempt to fly from San Diego to South Dakota, poses no security threat to the United States or anywhere else. He is not a terrorist, just a citizen frustrated by the growing intrusiveness of TSA screening procedures. Nevertheless, after Tyner refused to complete his screening process, a TSA official told him that the agency is likely to sue him. If it did, Tyner could face $11,000 in fines and a possible ban from air travel – not because he did anything wrong, but because he refused to submit to the authorities, which used to be a proud tradition in our society.” (11/21/10) Link: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/government-276918-security-tsa.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 11.21.10 by Steve Trinward “Not everyone has reacted the same way to the Transportation Security Administration’s aggressively intimate new frisking technique. Air traveler John Tyner created a minor sensation when he recorded himself warning a TSA screener in San Diego: ‘If you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested.’ Journalist Emmett Tyrrell, on the other hand, says he would ‘welcome a soothing pat-down — especially if the patter-downer is a cute little number on the order of, say, Sarah Palin.’ It takes all types to fill a passenger plane.” (11/21/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2ujpcx5 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Philip Giraldi Posted on 11.21.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Driving into Washington yesterday I listened to a succession of NPR news broadcasts. All reported Wednesday’s acquittal of Tanzanian Ahmed Ghailani on 284 of 285 counts relating to the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Dar es Saalam. The coverage suggested that the trial was a failure from the point of view of the Obama Administration in that it did not obtain a complete conviction. The Washington Post went ever further, reporting that the outcome supported the validity of ‘concerns that it would be harder to win convictions in civilian court.’ … Nowhere was it suggested that the acquittal just might have meant that the government case against Ghailani was not very good, at least not compelling enough to convince the six men and six women that constituted the Federal court’s jury in New York City.” (11/19/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/11/19/guilty-until-proven-guilty/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Chicago Tribune Author: Steve Chapman Posted on 11.18.10 by Steve Trinward “When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself. The federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility. And we all tamely accept the new intrusions, like sheep being shorn. Maybe not this time. The war on terrorism is going to get personal. Very personal.” (11/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24lmoz2 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: John Stossel Posted on 11.18.10 by Steve Trinward “What are some of the things we know that aren’t so? Here’s one: Grass-fed ‘free-range’ beef cattle are better for the environment — and for you — than factory-farmed corn-fed cattle. It does seem to make sense that the steer raised in the more ‘natural’ environment would be better for the world. … Farmers burn fossil fuels to ship corn to feed cows instead of letting them eat what’s naturally under their feet. … It’s logical to think that grass-fed steers might be better for the environment, but so often, what sounds logical is just wrong. Don’t believe me? Dr. Jude Capper, an assistant professor of dairy sciences at Washington State University, has studied the data.” (11/18/10) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/11/18/john-stossel-natural/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Thomas Sowell Posted on 11.18.10 by Steve Trinward “Another deficit reduction commission has now made its recommendations. My own recommendation for dealing with deficits would include stopping the appointment of deficit reduction commissions. It is not the amount of money that these commissions cost that is the issue. It is the escape hatch that they provide for big-spending politicians. Do you go ahead and spend the rent money and the food money — and then ask somebody else to tell you how to escape the consequences? If President Obama or the Congress were serious about keeping the deficit down, they could have had this commission’s recommendations before they spent hundreds of billions of dollars, handing out goodies hither and yon to their pet constituencies.” (11/18/10) Link: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/tax-276257-deficit-money.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Intellectual Conservative Author: Selwyn Duke Posted on 11.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “During the past couple of weeks, I wrote two articles on libertarianism and made the point that for a law to be just, it must have a basis in morality. These commentaries evoked quite a response, ranging from lauding me as brilliant to lambasting me for not having two brain cells to rub together. And the negative responses were most notable.” (11/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2vul9n9 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 11.17.10 by Steve Trinward “The government says it may fine one young man $11,000 for leaving the airport without ‘permission.’ He didn’t want to be scanned by the invasive new scanners, and he didn’t want the TSA touching his ‘junk.’ When they’re not touching your junk, the TSA makes children cry. Now Bill O’Reilly demands that I provide my ’solution,’ or endorse his. I admit, I don’t know the best solution. But if there is competition, entrepreneurs will come up with solutions I’d never have thought of.” [editor’s note: Hey, I’ve got an idea; how about “celebrity gropers?” - SAT] (11/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23j4l48 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Andress Appolon Posted on 11.17.10 by Steve Trinward “I learned to ride my bike in the endless loop of tricycles, bicycles, and motorcycles that used to surround Place Boyer — a popular square in Petion Ville, Haiti. Nearly every Sunday during those long, hot summers, my cousin Sebastien and I would eat a quick breakfast of cassava and peanut butter and race down his long driveway to join the crowds of Haitians — young and old — in the square. When I returned to Place Boyer several months ago, the crowds of cyclists had been replaced by mounds of tents. … Mimicking the anarchic design of the hillside slums that have since collapsed, Haitians have arranged these tents into the seemingly impenetrable and ironically permanent tent cities that have now consumed landmarks like Place Boyer.” (11/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2wz6flv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 11.16.10 by Steve Trinward “Cigarettes have been nicknamed ‘coffin nails’ since at least the 1880s, and more than two centuries earlier King James I was railing against smoking as ‘a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, [and] dangerous to the lungs.’ In the United States, federal law has required warnings on cigarette packages since 1966, and in the decades since then, smoking rates have been sliced in half. … Cigarettes have never been as highly taxed as they are now, as widely banned, or as deeply stigmatized. Plainly, the last thing the federal government needs to be doing now is rolling out new rules for alerting consumers to the hazards of smoking. That, of course, is just what the feds are doing.” (11/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/39p6d7u Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Aaron Kesselheim & Kevin Outterson Posted on 11.16.10 by Steve Trinward “As experts in the economics of antibiotic resistance, we’ve crafted an innovative solution to this public health crisis: developers of new antibiotics should be compensated for the true value that antibiotics bring to society, but such payments should be conditioned on doing everything we can to avoid wasting antibiotics through overuse and overselling. This will preserve the power of antibiotics so that these drugs will still work in the future. In addition, we must increase funding for research that can lead to the development of new antibiotics.” (11/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/37wm5l3 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 11.15.10 by Steve Trinward “Liberal pundits called Republicans the ‘party of no’ for their opposition to Obamacare, Cap and Trade, etc. I think it’s good to say ‘no’ to bad ideas. Congressman Ron Paul has been right to make a career of that. I wish Republicans supported him years ago. Now that Obama’s fiscal commission has come up with some reasonably good ideas, Ross Douthat points out that the Dems have become the ‘Party of No,’ even to the point of defending corporate welfare …” (11/15/10) Link: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/11/15/the-party-of-no Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 11.15.10 by Steve Trinward “So a socialite media mogul is now set to run the New York City public schools. When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg named Cathleen P. Black to be the schools chancellor last week, he outdid his earlier appointment of Joel I. Klein, a lawyer, to the post. The idea seems to be that the only disqualification for the top job in education is a background in education. What gives? Black is an accomplished woman. … A seasoned manager, she is no doubt up to the management challenges of the massive public school system. But is educational leadership only a matter of management?” (11/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/279vpzh Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Steven Greenhut Posted on 11.14.10 by Steve Trinward “As government costs soar, and revenue remains low because of the poor economy, some politicians and academics are trotting out an old idea that promises to increase efficiency and save money. It’s called municipal consolidation. In their view, combining multiple cities or agencies into a smaller number of bigger entities provides improved economies of scale that will squander less money on multiple city managers and other redundant staff.” (11/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2caf9ch Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Stephen Kinzer Posted on 11.14.10 by Steve Trinward “This week in New Delhi, President Obama went further than any of his predecessors toward embracing India as an ally, and most Indians are thrilled by this warm treatment. This does not mean, however, that the two countries will align all of their foreign policies. In some areas, India would like the United States to change its approach. One key difference is over Iran. India has the wiser policy, and Obama should consider emulating it.” (11/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/26plnxx Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Alan Bock Posted on 11.11.10 by Steve Trinward “President Obama’s fiscal commission — or more specifically the co-chairman, Republican former Sen. Alan Simpson and Democrat former Clinton chief-of-staff Erskine Bowles — have put forward a surprisingly bold proposal on cutting federal debt and deficits. … the release of this version of the proposals this week amounts to a decision by the co-chairmen to go for publicity over consensus. 14 of the 18 commission members must approve the final recommendation, and almost everybody believes this bolder version won’t get 14 votes, so the final product will be rather pale by comparison. … Significantly, about half the cuts come from the ‘defense’ budget.” (11/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2emwscv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Bob Kinder Posted on 11.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Men and women, having seen years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, are killing themselves in record numbers. Many are divorcing. Some are addicted. Scores are angry and violent, unable to process their wartime experiences. Yet, routinely, these same brave veterans are kicked out of the service and denied benefits or hope of getting well. The problem isn’t new. … In 2007, under intense congressional pressure to improve mental-health care for combat veterans, the Department of Defense acknowledged it was unfairly discharging combat troops by erroneously claiming a service member had a personality disorder rather than post-traumatic stress disorder.” (11/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/26ty47s Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 11.10.10 by Steve Trinward “A draft from the Congressional Deficit Commission that Obama appointed came out today, and it actually has a lot to like. For instance: — Raising the retirement age …. reducing foreign aid by $4.6 billion — freezing federal salaries for three years — eliminating popular tax breaks, such as mortgage interest deduction — cuts in farm subsidies — cuts in the Pentagon’s budget … That sounds like a lot of spending cuts — and it would be a good start — but it’s still not nearly enough to get around Medicare’s $38 trillion unfunded liability. So the Deficit Commission also proposes tax increases.” (11/10/10) Link: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/11/10/cut-more-spending Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Iain Murray and Rand Simberg Posted on 11.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “It is time for conservatives to recognize that Apollo is over. We must recognize that Apollo was a centrally planned monopolistic government program for a few government employees, in the service of Cold War propaganda and was therefore itself an affront to American values. If we want to seriously explore, and potentially exploit space, we need to harness private enterprise, and push the technologies really needed to do so.” (11/10/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/10/big-governments-final-frontier Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Donald J. Boudreaux Posted on 11.09.10 by Steve Trinward “[F]or progressives, progress is believed always to involve a larger role for the state, the hallmark of progressive thinking is the outpouring of ideas about what government can do. Anyone objecting to the implementation of these ideas is, therefore, a nonprogressive — someone content to allow past habits and irrational notions to interfere with big, bold, collectively imposed ideas for improving society. Trouble is, progressives’ understanding of the source of progress is regressive.” [editor’s note: This one goes without saying, but he says it very well - SAT] (11/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3ydouth Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: staff Posted on 11.09.10 by Steve Trinward “A GlaxoSmithKline employee who blew the whistle on shoddy manufacturing at a plant in Puerto Rico walked off last month with $96 million from the federal government. … It’s a great payday for the employee. But the public shouldn’t have to rely on whistle-blowers like Cheryl D. Eckard — Congress should give more muscle to the Food and Drug Administration to ride herd on drug manufacturers. It should also put a cap on the amount whistle-blowers can collect. Tipsters will drop a dime on company fraud for a lot less than $96 million. As things now stand, the FDA still cannot require pharmaceutical companies to recall drugs that are contaminated.” (11/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23vnqck Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Markos Moulitsas Zúniga Posted on 11.08.10 by Steve Trinward “The 2010 elections have come and gone, and Democrats found out what happens when they neglect their base and fail to deliver jobs for the American people. First things first, the exit polls tell us what this election was not. It was not an embrace of the Republican Party. As counterintuitive as it sounds, the voter opinion of the Republican Party (42 percent favorable) was less favorable than that of the Democratic Party (43 percent favorable). Yet 23 percent of those who viewed the GOP unfavorably still voted for them anyway. While 35 percent of voters believed that Wall Street was to blame for the terrible economy, that cohort still voted for Republicans by a 56 to 42 margin. It’s a GOP con of masterful proportions — embrace Wall Street and its money, yet still win the votes of the financial industry’s biggest critics.” (11/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2chu4b9 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 11.08.10 by Steve Trinward “Will the fiscal collapse that has laid bare gross inequalities in the US economic system lead to meaningful reforms toward a more just society? One answer is suggested by the bursting of what might be called the ‘other housing bubble,’ for these two years have also brought to crisis the three-decade-long frenzy of mass imprisonment. If there was a bailout for bankers, can there be one for inmates?” (11/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/25qmhxd Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: National Review Author: Andrew C. McCarthy Posted on 11.08.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “[L]et’s pretend that the debt is really only $14 trillion. Two-thirds of that staggering sum has been run up since 1991, when Boehner was first elected to the House. About half of it has been added since 2006, when Mr. Boehner became GOP leader. Obviously, Democrats have been running the show in Congress throughout Boehner’s leadership years, and they’ve controlled both political branches for the last two. The congressman doesn’t come close to making the Most Wanted list when it comes to assessing blame for our sorry condition. But neither do earmarks.” (11/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/35kl6r3 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: AntiWar.Com Author: Justin Raimondo Posted on 11.07.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Just in terms of style, has there ever been a more obsequious opportunist than Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina? Here is somebody who voted for the bank bailouts, the confirmation of two liberal Supreme Court nominees, national ID cards, amnesty for illegals [sic], and is known and loved by the liberal media for his penchant for ‘reaching across the aisle’ — in short, a RINO — now trying to save his own neck in the midst of a conservative upsurge. How is he doing it? By warmongering, of course.” (11/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/33c73xp Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 11.07.10 by Steve Trinward “The most encouraging thing about the Republican triumph in last week’s midterm elections is that so many Republicans acknowledge that it wasn’t a Republican triumph. ‘We make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party,’ Florida’s impressive senator-elect, Marco Rubio, said in his victory speech Tuesday night. ‘What they are is a second chance, a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago.’ The same sentiment was expressed by the likely next House majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia.” (11/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24dd4hx Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Tibor Machan Posted on 11.07.10 by Steve Trinward “On one of those few occasions that I have managed to rub elbows with the late Milton Friedman, a hero of mine, I caught the Nobel Prize-winning economist on a TV program endorsing the gridlock in Washington during President Bill Clinton’s second term. One point he made was that gridlock in Washington or elsewhere in government is a good thing. I have been writing for some time in favor of gridlock, as at least a second-best option to having a government fully committed to limited powers…. Although I wasn’t thrilled that Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer, among others, will be headed back to the Senate to try to continue to shore up the government’s powers, at least this election had the favorable result of producing a gridlocked regime for a while since the Republicans won control of the House. I say, let them be bogged own in their partisan bickering. This may have the unintended consequence of making life less regimented for most Americans, even freeing up our productive energies somewhat.” (11/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/27z295a Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Joshua Green Posted on 11.07.10 by Steve Trinward “The full measure of the Tea Party’s electoral triumph won’t become clear until Alaska tallies its write-in ballots, which could take several weeks. But the movement’s impact on Tuesday’s elections has been unmistakable. Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and a host of other insurgents stormed to victory on the strength of their denunciations of a government they insist has grown dangerously large and spendthrift. Although a few Tea Party stars such as Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle lost, the movement itself proved broadly appealing: Exit polls showed that four in 10 voters considered themselves supporters of the Tea Party, and, according to NBC, 113 of the 129 candidates for the House of Representatives who associated themselves with it won.” [editor’s note: This is rather reminiscent of how the media “covered” the Reform Party after it shed Perot; they really don’t know what to write yet! - SAT] (11/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2645xbp Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Austin Bramwell Posted on 11.07.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “In fact, the actual evidence if anything cuts against the thesis that voters punished Democrats for their leftwing policies. As Ilya Somin points out, exit polls found that only 18% of voters cited health care as the most important issue, and of these more than half actually voted Democrat. Consistent with the view that voters were naively punishly the Democrats for the nature of the (bad) times, regardless of actual policy, most voters cited the economy. Opposition to Democrats’ actual policies accounts for very little, if any, of the Republican surge.” (11/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bqeuhh Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: John Stossel Posted on 11.04.10 by Steve Trinward “As a libertarian, I so want to believe that the Tea Party marks the beginning a comeback for small government. But I’m probably deluding myself. I know that big government usually wins. Remember the last time the Republicans took power? They promised fiscal responsibility, and for six of George W. Bush’s eight years, his party controlled Congress. What did we have to show for it? Federal spending increased by 54 percent. That’s more than any president in the last 50 years. Much more than the 12 percent increase under Bill Clinton, and it even beat the 36 percent increase under big spender Lyndon Johnson.” [editor’s note: If you get Fox Business Channel on your cable, this is a MUST SEE show! - SAT] (11/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bs6dqv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 11.04.10 by Steve Trinward “More stimulus, anyone? Should Washington order another hefty round of Keynesian deficit spending in order to spur the limping US economy? Absolutely, say many prominent economists. Peter Diamond, a 2010 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, argues in favor of ‘pursuing valuable expenditures now,’ by subsidizing state and local government payrolls and pouring money into ‘a vast amount’ of construction projects. … Joseph Stiglitz, another economics laureate, agrees: ‘We will see in the next two years the real cost of there not being a second round of stimulus,’ he told the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. … So a big new stimulus package is the way to go? Absolutely not, say many prominent economists.” (11/03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2dr9lrz Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: William Voegeli Posted on 11.04.10 by Steve Trinward “Oscar Wilde said that there are two kinds of tragic stories. One is about people who don’t get what they want, and the other is about people who do. In November 2008 liberals got what they wanted, the clearest signal since 1964 that the nation’s voters were prepared to offer reliable, durable majorities to the advocates and practitioners of activist government. In his post-election cover story for Time magazine, titled ‘The New Liberal Order,’ Peter Beinart argued that Barack Obama had ‘an excellent chance’ to establish ‘an era of liberal hegemony’ because ‘taking aggressive action to stimulate the economy, regulate the financial industry and shore up the American welfare state won’t divide his political coalition; it will divide the other side.’” (11/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2ao6ho2 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Steven Greenhut Posted on 11.03.10 by Steve Trinward “President Barack Obama saved the Republican Party from itself. In a two-party system, when one party makes a mess of things, the only choice is to reward the other party and hope that, eventually, one of the parties learns the right lessons. The Democrats received a well-deserved comeuppance, although the populist tide fizzled at the California state line. Our voters apparently are bigger gluttons for punishment than those in the rest of the country. The GOP should thank its lucky stars that John McCain was not in the White House, or else it would be the Democrats who would be celebrating an Election Day rout.” (11/03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/22mckcf Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: HDS Greenway Posted on 11.03.10 by Steve Trinward “General David Petraeus is fighting a war here for time, not space. As one of the new breed of soldier-scholars, with a degree from Princeton, he knows that Americans get tired of long wars, and that at the end of this month, the US Army will have been here longer than were the Russians. Having once told me he had read the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, a general before he was president, and applied some principles to Iraq, I put in a request for Petraeus’s reading list for this war.” (11/03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bbhdal Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Sean Scallon Posted on 11.03.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The vote on the nation’s debt ceiling next year will be the first sign the ‘tea’ in the Tea Party will go down the drain. Having been in Congress since 1985, Boehner will huff and puff about fiscal responsibility and will also provide the GOP votes necessary to raise the debt ceiling so along with the Democrats. He’s been in the Beltway long enough to know how the game works. The Tea Partiers no doubt shook up the Republican establishment over the past year but the establishment is now back in control because their people won and the Tea Partiers didn’t.” (11/03/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/11/03/tea-party-overturned/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Michael Goodwin Posted on 11.02.10 by Steve Trinward “Across the land, the cry is heard: Throw the bums out! The people are prepared to do exactly that on Tuesday, but there’s a catch. There’s little to stop today’s insurgent from becoming tomorrow’s bum. Or, as a pessimist once said, many reformers take office to do good and stay to do well. Take heart, optimists, for there is an antidote to the corrupting disease of permanent poweritis. Term limits. They are a blunt instrument and they work.” (11/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2737x6c Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Danny Heitman Posted on 11.02.10 by Steve Trinward “No matter how Democrats and Republicans fare in today’s voting, leaders in both major political parties will get lots of advice on how to handle the results. Most of it will promote a flurry of activity over the next few months to ‘control the message’ until the next Congress begins. But the best advice of all may be the opposite: Once the campaign is finished, high-ranking Republicans and Democrats should do nothing. I don’t mean that the movers and shakers of the political establishment should be inactive indefinitely. But after a year-long campaign, voters seem exhausted, and the politicians who have tried to get their votes must surely be tired, too.” (11/02/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3a2t3ca Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Alan Bock Posted on 11.01.10 by Steve Trinward “Apparently the process of taking tomorrow’s results into account and trying to capitalize on them has already begun, which is hardly surprising. Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei of Politico have a piece based on talking to top operatives in the organizations of various potential GOP presidential contenders. All of these bravely anonymous people apparently think that Task No. 1 is making sure Sarah Palin doesn’t get the nomination. It’s not necessarily a coordinated effort, say the writers, but stopping Sarah seems to be a universal establishment preference.” (11/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2ddlgoc Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 11.01.10 by Steve Trinward “As a college boy, I worked summers at the FBI. … The work involved mind-numbing calculations of digits on an endless supply of encrypted intercepts, the FBI’s attempt to read the diplomatic traffic that came and went from Washington embassies. The job was my initiation into the inner sanctum of the Cold War. The lesson I learned is that the real work of government — for better and, as I would soon grasp, for worse — takes place in the chamber of secrets to which almost on one is admitted. Secrets are essential to statecraft. And then came WikiLeaks.” (11/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/28du87y Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.31.10 by Steve Trinward “What special interest is spending the most money to influence the 2010 election? The answer isn’t the US Chamber of Commerce, notwithstanding President Obama’s recent attacks on the Chamber’s campaign contributions. Nor is it the Karl Rove-backed network of pro-Republican campaign organizations, including American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, that have also been assailed by the White House and the focus of critical media attention. In reality, the biggest outside spender is the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which is pumping almost $88 million into TV commercials, phone banks, and mailings to promote Democratic candidates.” [editor’s note: Not just a union, but the one representing the frickin’ GUMMINT itself, seeking to keep its power growing! - SAT] (10/31/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2a2txec Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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