Russian PM Putin (yes, that one) pans the stimulus bill – “”There is a temptation to expand direct interference of state in economy. In the Soviet Union that became an absolute. We paid a very dear price for that.
Posted without further comment…
Random Musings
conflicted
Republican Rep. Tom Davis makes a few suggestions:
So what do we do? First, we eliminate checklists and litmus tests and focus on broad principles, not heavy-handed prescriptions. Free trade. Strong defense at home and abroad. Government as small as is practicable in these times. Economic, education and energy policies that promote growth, energy independence and a competitive agenda that will allow businesses to grow and compete, not be protected by artificial barriers.
Thats it. Believe anything else you want, but advocate for those things outside the structure of the party.
I’m all for broad principles, and creating a basic framework of beliefs for the Republican Party — a party that should always support a strong national defense, free trade, pro-growth economic policy, etc. But denying that there is a strong bloc of grassroots support for our party that comes from people who care about issues like abortion, the 2nd amendment, and gay marriage is a mistake. We seem to believe that we will become a more popular party by nominating more candidates like John McCain, who don’t threaten the less religious and all those independents and “centrists”. Wow. That worked out brilliantly , didn’t it?
The current batch of Republican leaders haven’t followed the principles articulated by Rep. Davis, especially those who decided to vote for the stupid bailout. In this rebuilding process, that’s a good place to start. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to de-emphasize social issues, since there are much bigger fish to fry and problems to confront, as long as social conservatives know that they always have a home in the Republican Party.
my next phone
Since it seems to be pointless to explain to the president-elect the importance of reducing government spending during tough economic times for those of us who can’t simply print more money for ourselves, behold — shiny new technology from Palm. It’s the new Palm Pre, coming soon (and exclusively for Sprint). It’s my understanding that one of their developers used to work at some well-known company in Cupertino. Well done, dude. It’s got everything, including a full-featured web browser, GPS, and Wi-Fi. Palm finally developed a great-looking OS to go along with their phones, and I am very impressed.
When I have more to say on the so-called stimulus, I will write a post about it. Right now, I’m just too discouraged with the willingness of both parties to accept this profligate new spending to attempt a stirring counter-argument. Republicans are too interested in getting along with Dems even if it means they support bad policy — and there’s nothing I can do about that. If we don’t start injecting some common-sense into this process soon, all of us are hosed. On that cheery note, hope you have a happy Friday.
now that’s funny
I found this at Fark. About 200 Illinois state workers are going to be attending a seminar on ethics…the speakers include some from the Governor’s office. There really is no hope for this state.
awesome
I just can’t understand why Anchorage, Alaska wants to ban such an awesome creature as Snowzilla. It’s holiday fun for all. Put some restrictions and regulations on it if you must, but banning giant snowmen is just un-American.
(Credit: Say No to Crack)
update
Sorry for the light posting…think I might have caught the annual office cold. Posting will resume after I get rid of it. 🙂
more fun cartoons
Another new project for the original Mac genius? Why not? Let the Big 3 fail.
golden boy
Congrats to Michael Phelps, who now has 8 Olympic gold medals in the 2008 Games. He had a tremendous run in Beijing, and the rest of the US men’s swim team deserves a lot of credit for that — Jason Lezak kept the dream alive for Phelps in an earlier relay, and he finished off the last race strong. It is a shame that all of the press will continue to focus on Michael Phelps (even though he is the popular story), because he has quite a few talented teammates including Aaron Peirsol, Ryan Lochte, and Lezak who deserve more attention for their own achievements in Beijing.
Even though we cannot deny the flawed nature of our Olympic hosts in Beijing, nothing can take away from the human stories we hear every year about our athletes and how much they have overcome to have a chance to compete in the Olympics. Sure the sentimentality of the whole deal is overdone at times — but we are suckers for this stuff. The coolest thing about this group of medal-winning athletes for the United States is that they are not only great athletes, but also great people. That’s true not only in swimming, but in other Olympic sports as well. I’m proud to support these men and women and I couldn’t be happier than they are representing my country — because they are doing it with class this time around.
republican socialism?
Bet you haven’t heard that term before.
Why does it seem to me that all Washington ever seems to talk about these days is bailouts? Bailout Freddie Mac. Bailout Fannie Mae. Bailout Wall Street. Bailout homeowners. Is it possible in America today that no one is allowed to fail?
You know, Phil Gramm was right. We are a nation of whiners. No one wants to believe that failure is an option anymore. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Or learning from your mistakes? Or going through transformative difficulties that just might change your life and your behavior? But it seems like failure is off the board nowadays and that its governments job to rescue everybody.
Whatever happened to the philosophy of Friedrich Hayek, the great free-market economist and Nobel Prize winner, who said the great thing about capitalism is the freedom to succeed beyond your wildest dreams, but that there is also the freedom to fail? I believe Hayek once argued that if he had to choose between success and failure, failure is more important in terms of preserving the free-market system.
Of course, the great thing about America is that you can fail many times, pick yourself up, keep on trying, and then succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But this whole process is being subverted by the political attitude that no one must ever be allowed to fail. I dont like it. Its socialism, isnt it? Perhaps its big-government socialism. Or maybe its corporate socialism. Or maybe (with Fan and Fred) its Republican socialism.
No, I guess its really bipartisan socialism.
Larry Kudlow
I’m with him. Failure’s a part of the process — for the free market and for all of us as individuals. We learn from setbacks, and so does private industry. Businesses like Radio Shack that were originally computer and electronic parts stores have now become places where you can buy cell phones and iPod accessories. They adapted and changed their product lineup to respond to the demands of the free market. When government interferes in this adjustment process by subsidizing or bailing out private industry, there’s less incentive to adjust and change what’s not working.
In the case of Fannie and Freddie, the government must step in here, because the results of letting it fail would be disastrous for the economy. But this is a bad precedent to set, and I hope that this is where the federal government finally draws the line.
misdirection
We all want to believe in something greater than ourselves. That’s a natural human desire. When we see the imperfect world around us, and the struggles we face as Americans, we want to believe that it can be resolved in the striving of mere human effort — by electing politicians who share our desire to improve this country. This is where the myth of Barack Obama started — that he wasn’t just any other politician. We were asked to believe that Barack Obama, in addition to being a historical transformative figure as the Democratic nominee, was some kind of savior. Who could forget Michelle Obama’s comment about our souls being broken, and her solution to those broken souls being her husband Barack? Senator Clinton was right to mock this kind of talk. No elected official will ever be a saint, much less a savior of all of us. It’s interesting that so many people believe that this kind of spiritual void can be filled by a politician.
In the process of a campaign, we put our faith in a human being, who is just as imperfect as the rest of us (although possibly more photogenic). Idealism gets shattered once in a while. That’s just the nature of the game. It’s unfortunate, but we all need a little bit of healthy skepticism when it comes to politicians, because even the good ones disappoint us on one issue or another. If you want someone who can represent you well on policy matters, do your homework and vote for the best candidate. If you want someone to fix your soul, that’s beyond the ability of human politics.